California pastor Greg Laurie told the thousands at Harvest Church and the millions around the world watching online that America needs Israel more than the other way around in a lesson on the end times.
Laurie said that Israel is at the eye of the hurricane when it comes to the great events of the end times and Jesus made it very clear that Israel is beloved of God. He added those who bless Israel will be looked upon favorably by the Lord.
“One of the reasons God has blessed the United States is because of our support to Israel. … America needs Israel more than Israel needs America … because we need the blessing of God,” the pastor said.
Laurie reminded the parishioners that the Bible is the only book that clearly outlines what is going to happen in the end times.
“The Bible is the one book that dares to predict the future … with 100 percent accuracy,” he said, adding that about 30 percent of the Bible is prophecy, and that God wants us to know these prophecies. “The more we know about the next world, the better we’ll live in this one.”
The faith of a child was on clear display at an Alabama Waffle House when a five-year-old boy made sure a hungry man could eat.
Josiah Duncan was eating the Waffle House in Prattville, Alabama with his mother Ava Faulk when he noticed a homeless man outside the restaurant. He asked his mom about the man.
“He’s homeless,” the little boy’s mother explained. “What does that mean?” he responded. “And I said, “”Well, that means he doesn’t have a home,”” Mom continued. And apparently, the unnamed man didn’t have any friends to lean on, either.
“He came in and sat down, and nobody really waited on him,” Faulk explained. “So Josiah jumped up and asked him if he needed a menu because you can’t order without one.”
The restaurant brought the man a full meal. However, before he could eat, Josiah made sure something happened.
“I wanted to say the blessing with him,” Duncan said.
And he did in front of the other customers and the Waffle House staff.
“God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessings, Amen, Amen.”
A church that gave each member $500 with orders to bless their community are reporting a big difference in the lives of thousands.
LaSalle Church had made a real estate deal that provided significant funding. The church gave $500 to each member in September and pastor Laura Truax says the ways God has used the money is amazing.
One couple, Janet & Jim MIlkovich, donated their money to a program called Breakthrough Urban Food Ministries that provide healthy meals to seniors.
“It was wonderful,” Janet Milkovich told Christian Post. “The manager of the Fresh Market Pantry said that there are a lot of senior citizens on the west side of Chicago that depend on the fresh market and are so appreciative of produce and they were going to make sure that they were able to get healthy food.”
One member contributed his money to a missionary in Ivory Coast who was helping a woman that was cast out by her family. The woman had lost a leg due to an infection.
“What he was struck by was the amount that was needed which was exactly $500,” Pastor Truax said. “So Eric’s money went to this woman in the Ivory Coast who needed a prosthetic leg. This is just the way God does it though, right?”
“That’s the economy of God, we weren’t created to be tight fisted people, we were created to be open handed people,” she said. “To move past our fear. That’s what’s going on.”
A Christian woman who gave birth to a child born without eyes says that she is very thankful that she chose to give her child life.
Lacey and Chris Buchanan were thrilled in 2010 when they discovered God has blessed them with a child. As Lacey went through her medical checkups, it was discovered that the baby boy would have a cleft palate and lip.
“Our little boy was diagnosed with a bilateral cleft palate and lip,” she told reporters. “We were crushed. How could this happen to us? Why did this happen to us?”
When the child was born via C-section in February 2011, there was a discovery that even the doctors had not seen ahead of time: the baby was born without eyes.
“Any time we took Christian out in public, people would stare,” Buchanan remembered. “They would whisper behind my back, ‘Look at that baby!’ I even had one girl telling me I was a horrible person for not aborting Christian.”
“I have literally had strangers see a single picture of Christian on Facebook and say ‘If i saw that kid walking down the street, I would murder him.’ They judge that Christian’s life isn’t worth living based on one single picture,” Buchanan writes on her website. “But most of you who know him know how awesome he is and how loved he is and how great his quality of life is.”
Lacey says that God has really used Christian to touch the lives of others and that she knows “I did the right thing by not aborting Christian.”