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Worthy Brief - 2/24/2023

Friend, don't worry ... the ground is just being broken up!

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Much of the world is dealing with the greatest disruption of their lives… probably in their lifetimes, particularly in the West, and what is known as the "First World". Here's a helpful perspective toward understanding what is taking place.

Imagine for a moment that your life is a farm… a plot of land set aside to produce a crop. The Farmer knows what He needs to do to prepare an abundant harvest. Your soil is fallow, hardened, full of weeds. The seeds are dry and must absorb water to initiate respiration and begin to digest their stored food, and respiration requires sufficient oxygen in soil that is moist and broken up. Your field must be turned over and plowed.

Plowing seems to do violence to soil in its fallow state. Yet nothing will grow or can even be planted in hard unplowed soil. The plow turns the soil upside down and inside out, looks like a disaster zone, as thousands of weeds and chunks of earth fly apart. Insects in the soil endure an apocalyptic experience, and some of them are killed by the metal blades and crashing mounds of earth. The farmer is simply doing his job, what he must do to prepare an abundant harvest.

Friend, now that the Farmer is preparing His field, and the mounds of earth and weeds are flying everywhere, step back if you can and observe what is taking place. The world is His field, not ours. and His crop is righteousness and steadfast love in a fruitful crop of human souls. Fallow ground full of weeds will not do for a good harvest. Take the Farmer's perspective, endure the plow, and you will rejoice with him in the harvest to follow.

Be blessed and have a wonderful weekend! Shabbat Shalom!

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Baht Rivka, Obadiah and Elianna (Going to Christian College in Dallas, Texas)
Tampa Bay, Florida

Around the World
Russia Boosts Nuclear Forces After Talks With China
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday that Russia would boost its nuclear weapons after withdrawing from a key nuclear treaty and deepening ties with China.
Turkey: Three broadcasters fined for criticizing government response to earthquake
In a move described as a “crime” and a “disgrace,” Turkey’s media regulator fined three broadcasters for reports containing criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s response to the February 6 earthquake, which killed 42,000 people, the Guardian UK reports. The Reporters Without Borders NGO ranked Turkey ranked 149 out of 180 for freedom of the press in 2022.
UN Assembly Condemns Russia’s Invasion Ahead Of Anniversary
The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning Russia's invasion and calling for the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine and a halt to the fighting.
Slovakia Remembers Killing Journalist Amid Calls For Reforms
Five years after the assassination of Já​​n Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová in Slovakia, local judges are nearing their judgment in the retrial of the alleged mastermind of the murder of website Aktuality.sk’s journalist and his fiancée.
‘Hungary Abusing Spyware Against Opponents’
Leaders of the European Union’s parliament committee investigating espionage accused Hungary’s government of targeting hundreds of perceived opponents with Israeli spyware technology.

Israel-Palestinian Conflict
Israeli scientists cure Alzheimer’s disease in mice, “optimistic” about future cure for humans
In ground-breaking research that may prove vital to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s in humans, Israeli neuroscientists have been able to completely cure 30 mice with the disease by giving them a synthetic molecule that might eventually be developed into a drug for people, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.
Israel Destroys Hamas Site After Rocket Attacks
Israel’s military said Thursday it struck a “weapons manufacturing site” after Palestinian Islamist “terrorists” hit southern Israel with rockets.
Israel bombs Hamas sites in Gaza, hours after rockets shot toward Ashkelon, Sderot
Israeli warplanes carried out bombing raids against the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip early Thursday morning, the military said, hours after Palestinians fired six rockets into southern Israel in an apparent revenge attack for a deadly Israeli incursion into Nablus a day earlier.
Israeli strike on Damascus targeted Iranian and Syrian drone experts — report
An airstrike in Damascus over the weekend that was attributed to Israel targeted a meeting of Syrian and Iranian experts in producing drones, according to a report Wednesday.

Inside the United States
House GOP announces bills to guard against government censorship
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Thursday announced a markup of legislation to protect free speech from government censorship.
U.S. government got $400 million in vaccine royalties from Moderna, company says
Pharmaceutical company Moderna indicated this week that it had sent the U.S. government a "catch-up" payment of $400 million in connection with a patent dispute.
U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘major questions’ test may doom Biden student debt plan
Millions of Americans are in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court as it hears arguments next Tuesday in appeals by President Joe Biden's administration of lower court rulings blocking his plan announced last August to cancel $430 billion in student debt.
DOJ indicts 8 pro-life activists for obstructing Michigan abortion clinic
A federal grand jury indicted eight people accused of blocking access to an abortion clinic in Michigan. Two defendants were indicted for allegedly doing the same to a second facility elsewhere in Michigan.

Christian News
US Christian University Ending 24/7 ‘Revival Worship’ On Campus As ‘Fire’ Spreads (Worthy News In-Depth)
A Christian university in the U.S. state of Kentucky says it is ending around-the-clock worship services on campus that spontaneously began over two weeks ago and spread across the nation.
Mozambique: Christians increasingly vulnerable to Islamic State terror
Christians in Mozambique are in increased mortal danger as the ISIS-Mozambique (IS-M) Islamic terror group wreaks extreme violence and havoc in the troubled country, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Iran: Two Christians pardoned and released from prison
In a rare act of goodwill toward Iran’s Christian community, the Iranian Islamic regime pardoned and released two Christians imprisoned for “acting against national security by organizing house churches and promoting ‘Zionist’ Christianity,” International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. The Christians’ release was part of the government’s annual tradition of pardoning prisoners commemorating Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.