In my years of knowing the Lord, it has always amazed me how much God loves us. It’s something that, as humans, we can have a hard time understanding. No matter a person’s lifestyle, beliefs, or faults, we are all loved by God equally. So much so, that He gave the whole world His only Son in order to give us all a chance at eternal life! (John 3:16)
But for those who don’t understand God’s ability to love, I always find that one of the best examples of His love for us in dogs. To me, they are truly God’s Little Helpers. I believe when He created these wonderful creatures, He did so with the purpose of reflecting His eternal love for us within each and every one. Continue reading →
Kirk Cameron is well known today as a Christian actor but many people do not know that he did not accept Christ until he was 18.
What may be surprising is that he found God on a soundstage in Hollywood while filming the show that made him a star, “Growing Pains.”
“I think eventually if people are thoughtful you start asking grown up questions like, ‘How did the world get started? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here?’ and I guess when I, as a child, I just sort of had blind faith in the fairytale that they way we got here was from goo to the zoo to you,” he told FOX411. “I finally said that doesn’t sound right and someone took me to church and kind of opened my eyes to what I believe is the truth about who we are and why we’re here and so when I was about 18 years old I wanted to start living my life in a way that said thank you to the way God made me.”
Cameron said that once he accepted Christ he quickly became more passionate for a relationship with Jesus. He would study the Bible and strive to do all he could to learn the Word of God and apply it to his life. However, that devotion to Christ and his teachings has led to many conflicts with Hollywood.
“I think that when anyone is in the spotlight…you’re always going to be held to a higher standard and we should be held to a higher standard because we’re influencing more people than others might be,” Cameron said. “With the privilege of a platform comes great responsibility….[We’ve] got to be careful with what we say and how we say it and everything should be seasoned with grace and while I certainly I don’t do that perfectly, I strive to do it increasingly.”
Cameron said that one of the things driving him now is to make movies that a Christian family can sit down and enjoy together.
“My wife and I are always looking for a great new movie to watch on movie night and it’s hard to find films that are fun and inspiring and that are going to build up our faith in God and our strength as a family. So we decided we would make one and we made it right here in our own backyard with a local little league team and it’s a movie where family learn the lessons of mercy, patience, sacrifice and trusting God,” Cameron said, referring to his new film “Mercy Rule.”
David was well aware of his own failures and he grieved over them! He hated the weaknesses of his own flesh and despised himself for giving in to them. But one thing he could not and would not do is to deny who he was in God. If there was one thing he was sure about – it was his identity and the anointing that was on his life. God had ordained him in his youth to be a king and a king he would be! Though the world, the flesh, the devil and all of hell had tried to remove David’s God-given purpose, they could not!
Saints of God, the enemy of your soul is after your very identity in these last days! Do you remember when Jesus asked the disciples, “who do you say I am”? Every single religious authority had challenged Jesus’ very identity. In fact, they crucified Him for telling the truth of Who He really was! If those who said they loved him didn’t know who He was, then how could the world be expected to? Only by divine revelation of LOVE can any of us love the other as Jesus commanded. Continue reading →
Pastor Greg Laurie hosted “2014 SoCal Harvest” at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California and over 4,000 people came forward to accept Christ as savior.
The organizers say that over 41,000 people attended the worship event’s last night. Almost 70,000 attended over the three day event.
“I know that there is emptiness deep inside you … you were born with it,” Laurie said as part of his message. “Right now, Jesus sees you; He doesn’t see a crowd. And He cares about you, and He loves you.”
The three-day event focused on Jesus within the lives of the believer and how someone who doesn’t know Christ and hasn’t accepted them as Savior has a void within them that they can’t fill no matter what the world may offer them.
The outreach was part of Greg Laurie’s 25th consecutive year of large-scale outreach events. The theme that Laurie has focused on this year is hope that can be found only in the personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
“This is something really amazing that God has done,” Laurie said. “I don’t know of another ongoing evangelistic event like this anywhere in the world that’s happened for 25 years – a large scale overt evangelistic event. I would say don’t take this for granted.”
Meriam Ibrahim’s long journey to freedom has finally ended.
Ibrahim, her husband Daniel Wani and their children arrived in New Hampshire Thursday. The family arrived at the airport in Manchester to a huge, cheering crowd consisting of many of the Sudanese-American population of the city.
The family is going to be living in Wani’s home in the city near his brother and family.
The members of Sudanese Evangelical Covenant Church held signs saying “God Bless You” and cheering the family all the way to a waiting car. The church has been preparing Wani’s home for the family and providing all the necessary items for the family to start a new life.
Rev. Joel Kruggel, pastor of Bethany Covenant Church which sponsors the Sudanese church, says he wants the family to “absorb the fact that they are safe in New Hampshire, where life can be closer to normal.”
Pastor Mark Biltz brought a lesson to Grace Street Wednesday night that brought mountains of knowledge and wisdom to all who heard the teaching.
Pastor broke down the gospel into the original Hebrew and showed everyone how from the very beginning God described Jesus and the redemption for all of us through His son. He gently rebuked everyone who sought identity in anything other than God and showed how God repeatedly has wanted to show our identity is in Him.
The spent the first part of his talk sharing the different ways that people found their identity in other things. He referenced people who said they wanted to follow the Lord but put identity first such as the rich young ruler who walked away because his identity was in his wealth.
He shared how the story of blind Bartimaeus and how despite being blind, could see that Jesus was the Son of God. He pointed out a part of Scripture that many Christians never realize as they study it. Bartimaeus called Jesus “son of David”…not the son of Joesph…meaning he realized Jesus’ divinity when even the disciples didn’t realize it.
Then it was a breakdown of Hebrew to show that Eve was created to be a valiant protector of Adam. Pastor Mark outlined how Eve was created because God wanted to create someone to watch Adam’s back and be a support and protector. God created a woman because all of the animals in creation couldn’t protect Adam from Satan: they could only protect against Earthly enemies.
He then used the description of a marriage to show how God has from the beginning built a home for the ultimate family…Jesus and his bride, God’s church.
The evening was filled with powerful wisdom that left no one on Grace Street walking away without a deeper appreciation for God’s creation.
After you walk through some hardship, you’re almost a different person. You can then say to those who are going through the same thing, “Boy, I understand what you’re going through!” You have so much more empathy for people that are going through hard times, like those who have cancer who have to endure treatments… their radiation and chemotherapy.
But it’s in the journey; we are walking through this journey called life. We are living in the most amazing time ever in the history of mankind. I mean He chose you, He chose me, He chose Kevin, Zach, Tammy Sue, Sasha, Mondo, and all of us – our whole team here… and He chose you to do something for the Kingdom of God. Continue reading →
Fifty-two teenage girls were celebrated in a mass baby shower for their decisions to have their children instead of killing them through abortion.
Texas-based Embrace Grace held the event last month after the girls attended a series of classes by the group that provides emotional, practical and spiritual support for girls experiencing unplanned pregnancies.
“Several of the girls in all of our classes are sometimes on the fence regarding abortion, but once they come to one of our classes and see the support that there is, that their immediate needs for the baby are covered and that they don’t have to walk this road alone, they usually change their mind and keep their baby,” Embrace Grace founder Amy Ford told the Christian Post.
Ford said that many of the girls who enter the Embrace Grace program are not church goers but give their lives to Christ after experiencing the blessings of strangers showing them unconditional love and support.
“We provide a curriculum and resources for the church to implement the program as well as offer sponsorship for the churches that may not be able to afford the expenses involved with helping young women with crisis pregnancies,” said Ford. “If the church, the body of Christ, would join together to support these girls that choose life, young moms will be more open to not abort their baby.”
“Oh, God, by your name, save me. … The Lord sustains my life.”
Harrison Odjegba Okene repeated those words as he spent three days trapped under a capsized boat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A video of the man’s dramatic rescue went viral this week showing his amazing rescue.
A dive team working out of Lagos, Nigeria had been working to salvage a tugboat that capsized and sank. They had already pulled four bodies from the vessel when a diver noticed another hand on his video monitor. When he went to grab it, the hand grabbed him back.
“He was incredibly lucky. He was in an air pocket, but he would have had a limited time (before) … he wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore,” Tony Walker of Dutch company DCN Diving told the Washington Post.
Okene says his life was saved only by divine intervention. He told reporters that he kept repeating a psalm that his wife had sent him via text message earlier in the day.
“I started calling on the name of God,” Okene said. “I started reminiscing on the verses I read before I slept. I read the Bible from Psalms 54 to 92. My wife had sent me the verses to read that night when she called me before I went to bed.”