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Massacre in a Nigerian Catholic church, kills 50 people

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Massacre in a Nigerian Catholic church, kills 50 people

Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in southwest Nigeria during mass on Sunday, killing at least 50 people including women and children, according to a hospital doctor and media reports.

The gunmen shot at people outside and inside the church building, killing and injuries worshippers, said Funmilayo Ibukun Odunlami, police spokesperson for Ondo state.

She did not say how many people were killed or injured at St. Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo, but added that police were investigating the cause of the attack.

Ondo state Governor Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who visited the scene of the attack and injured persons in hospital, described Sunday’s incident as “a great massacre” that should not be allowed to happen again.

“It is so sad that while the Holy Mass was going on, unknown gunmen attacked St Francis Catholic Church…leaving many feared dead and many others injured and the Church violated,” said Catholic Church spokesman in Nigeria, Reverend Augustine Ikwu.

Ikwu said the bishop and priests from the parish had survived the attack unharmed.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT / AFP/

A doctor at a hospital in Owo told Reuters that at least 50 bodies had been brought into two hospitals in the town from the attack. The doctor, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the press, also said there was a need for blood donations to treat the injured.

“Immediately they entered and started firing everywhere, so many people,” said Alex Michael, who was shot in the leg while protecting his children by hiding them under chairs. He appeared dazed as he sat on his hospital bed.

Around him were other survivors, many with limbs wrapped in bloodstained bandages. One man writhed and moaned on his bed, while a woman wept as she embraced her brother. A 15-year-old victim lay silently with a drip in his hand.

Dr Samuel Aluko, a registrar at the hospital, said 27 adult victims were receiving treatment in his department for a wide range of injuries, some of which were life-threatening. He said one woman had lost both legs.

Medical director Dr Ahmed Lasu said 13 children had been rushed to the hospital, of whom two were dead on arrival.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT / AFP/

Speaking to Premier Christian News,CEO of Humanitarian Relief Aid Trust, Baroness Cox said the attack is part of Islamists trying to “eradicate Christianity” from Nigeria.

“Islamists, Boko Haram and Islamist Fulani, they are quite explicit that they want Christians out of Nigeria. ISIS is there in Nigeria, and they are wanting to eliminate Christianity from Nigeria.”

She also said Christians worldwide have a responsibility to pray and help those persecuted for their faith. 

” As far as Christians concerned, as St Paul said at the church in Corinth, when one part of the body of Christ suffers, we all suffer. But many Christians just don’t know what’s going on in Nigeria, so do not suffer with the Nigerians and they [Nigerians] do not receive the help that they desperately need: prayer support and practical support aid” 

The Catholic bishop of the diocese of Ondo, Jude Ayodeji Arogundade, said he had rushed to the church just after the attack.

“It was beyond what I ever imagined. A lot of bodies right there in the church, blood-soaked bodies,” he told AIT television channel.

Pope Francis and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari were among those who expressed horror on Sunday.

Ondo State Governor Arakunrin Akeredolu on Monday directed that flags in the state should be flown at half-mast for seven days.

Both Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu, the frontrunners in the ruling party’s primaries to select its presidential candidate for next year, headed to Owo to offer their condolences.

SOURCE: PREMIER CHRISTIAN NEWS

To Put on the Armor of God, We Have to Take Off the ‘Armor of Me’

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To Put on the Armor of God, We Have to Take Off the ‘Armor of Me’

I have a Bible from my youth, one I purchased for myself when I was in middle school.

I underlined a number of verses during those formative years of adolescence. Flipping through the pages now, I see a common thread in the passages I singled out. They are predominantly calls to action, the instructional sections that mapped out an identifiable way for me to feel I was doing enough to satisfy God.

One of my greatest recurring anxieties is the possibility that I might in some way not be taking my sin seriously enough. That sounds ultraspiritual, but it is more fear-driven than pious. I review not just my actions but every internal agenda, and I come to the same conclusion as Jeremiah: The heart is a convoluted mess (Jer. 17:9). I scrape my mind for any residue of wrong that might need to be confessed and eradicated, only to discover new twisted layers underneath. Pulling the lid off of my soul felt like staring into a bottomless cauldron of horrors.

It never occurs to me in the midst of all the soul-scrubbing that perhaps part of what God desires for me is freedom from the self-loathing and cruel harshness that tries to pass itself off as making me more like him. The very self-admonishment I equate with holiness is in fact distorting my perception of God.

Pursuing the path of taking “full responsibility” for my sin only pushes me toward despair, because I find that the problem is deeper and more pervasive in me than I can begin to address (“Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me”—Romans 7:21). I am unable to discern my true motivations with certainty. The more I dissect my confessions, the less adequate they seem, pulling me further down the rabbit hole of introspection.

My attempts to fully own my sin end up competing with my ability to accept what Christ did on my behalf. He went to the cross precisely because we are all incapable of taking full responsibility for our own sin.

Martin Luther addressed the fallacy of such thinking: “This attitude springs from a false conception of sin, the conception that sin is a small matter, easily taken care of by good works; that we must present ourselves unto God with a good conscience; that we must feel no sin before we may feel that Christ was given for our sins.”

The alternative to being responsible is not being irresponsible—it is trusting God with the responsibility, the way a child trusts a parent with their care.

In his book exploring OCD and faith, Ian Osborn shares the story of Thérèse of Lisieux. Thérèse was born in the late 19th century. She was about as thoroughly religious as someone can be. She received her education in a Benedictine school, then went on to become a Carmelite nun. Carmelites maintain a very strict lifestyle, praying for long hours every day, enduring very ascetic conditions, and observing complete silence for extended periods. If anybody exemplified diligently working to put on their own armor, it was Thérèse.

Despite her devotion, uncontrollable doubts and fears haunted her. She tried performing severe acts of self-punishment to counter what was happening in her mind, but the effort provided no comfort to her conscience.

Unable to find any method of alleviating her mental distress, Thérèse concluded she needed a fundamentally different approach to God. After much prayer and reflection on Scripture, she developed what she came to call “the Little Way.”

It was a radical departure from the rigid moralism of her time. She focused on all the verses that portray God caring for the small and humble—like Matthew 18:3: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN TODAY

God is the underpinning for a growing and prosperous economy

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God is the underpinning for a growing and prosperous economy

Stability is the underpinning of a free and prosperous society. This stability, in turn, is the underpinning of a growing and prosperous economy. But in order to develop and maintain stability, a society must also understand what has led to this circumstance—one must know its history and scripture. Here is a look at some of this crucial American history.

John Locke, in his treatises The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures and A Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity, declared God as King, Jesus as King, and that the law of nature parallels in both reason (law revealed in Scripture) and revelation (law revealed in nature). Locke wrote:

As men, we have God for our King, and are under the law of reason: as christians, we have Jesus the Messiah for our King, and are under the law revealed by him in the gospel…be obliged to study both the law of nature and the revealed law, that in them he may know the will of God, and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.

…it being a part of the law of nature, that man ought to obey every positive law of God.

Gary Amos also concluded from Locke’s treatise that “Locke declares that once God establishes a law of nature, or moral law, in creation and Scripture, it is not subject to change by man.”

The great British jurist William Blackstone, shared the same theory on revealed law; writing in Commentaries on the Law of England that “when [God] created man, and endued him with free will to conduct himself in all parts of life, He laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that free will is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport of those laws. Considering the Creator only a Being of infinite power, He was able to unquestionably to have prescribed whatever laws He pleased to His creature, man.” Blackstone, along with Locke, had direct influence on the philosophy, jurisprudence, and political structure of America.

Blackstone, arguably the most influential jurist in Western civilization, took his jurisprudence philosophy from the belief “that the English common law could be reduced to a clear system, that the English common law was based on the law of nature and nature’s God, that there were objective answers to legal questions.” Blackstone’s judicial belief was the essence of the American jurisprudence.  Northwestern University legal scholar Stephen Presser notes that “Blackstone meant that it would be better for society to live by fixed and predictable rules than to be governed by the idiosyncratic concepts of justice of individual judges.” Presser further discloses that Blackstone’s philosophy of law created “the systematic nature of law, its divine origin, its moral superiority and moral clarity, and its notion that precedent should govern – were adapted early into American law.”

God as the governmental King had been part of the rhetoric from the pulpit for many years in the American colonies. It was an accepted understanding of Colonial America. In his 1710 election sermon Pastor Ebenezer Pemberton orated:

The Power of the greatest Potentate on Earth is not Inherent in him, but is a Derivative…For God is the Source and Original of all Power; there is no Power but what is derived from him, depends on him, is limited by him, and is subordinate to him, and accountable…Rulers are to be the Guardians of their Peoples’ Religion and Property, their Liberties, Civil & Sacred…

Hence Rulers of all Orders, ought to conform to and regulate themselves in all their Administrations, by this Divine Standard…by unalterable principles and fixed Rules, and not by unaccountable humours, or arbitrary will…It is a Statute of the Great Law-giver of the World, that they which Rule over men be Just…Rulers have Power, but it is a limited Authority; limited by the Will of God…

“Rulers as God’s delegates,” writes Dr. Alice Baldwin. Not only did the Founding Fathers insert these principles into the founding compact, they literally inserted the exact same language. Our Founding Fathers only did what had already been established in America. It was new to history, but not new to the colonies.

University of Wisconsin professor Stephen Lucas, in his discussion on the stylistic nature of our Founders and their rhetorical authorship, notes in regards to the Declaration of Independence, that “the preamble is a paradigm of eighteenth-century Enlightenment prose style, in which purity, simplicity, directness, precision, and, above all, perspicuity were the highest rhetorical and literary virtues.” In scholar Pauline Maier’s American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, she notes the same pattern of our Founders following the common rhetorical practice of the 18th century–in writing style, structure, language, and content.  In fact Lucas also notes that the Declaration’s preamble is an eloquent “five sentence – 202 words” version of John Locke’s Second Treatise which is thousands of words of explanation.  Experience, ample ability, and a very tight timeline pushed the Founding Fathers to this historical achievement.

As the Revolution was about to break Reverend Elisha Fish delivered much the same vision–sixty-five years after Pastor Pemberton–of the American government. The only proper, civil government working as God’s proxy:

The covenant between prince and people most naturally represents the covenant between God and his creatures.  God creates his people, therefore they are bound to a sacred regard of the covenant of their creator: But the people in a political sense create the prince; therefore this covenant should be maintained with the greatest regard of any social covenant of a civil nature on earth, and the breach of this covenant is greater on the side of the Prince than the people, for it is against the whole body…If the prince sin against the subjects, it is against his political creators, and in that view aggrivated.

This station of the people serving as God’s proxies in civil government obligates them to serve the people by being obedient to God and His truth, justice, and righteousness. Serving the people in only this manner is serving God and an obligation to God’s Laws – thus the oath of office. It is, as had begun with Moses, whether individuals in civil service or the civil government, that they act, legislate or adjudicate, as conduits of God’s Law to the best of their ability. In Exodus Moses gives this statement to Jethro, his father-in-law, “’Well, because the people come to me with their disputes, to ask for God’s decisions,’ Moses told him. ‘I am their judge, deciding who is right and who is wrong, and instructing them in God’s ways. I apply the laws of God to their particular disputes.” Moses is acting as a conduit for God’s Laws, not as the source of the laws.

In 1742 Reverend Nathaniel Appleton of Massachusetts clearly spelled out this obligation of civil service.  “If [those serving in civil government] do not have a principle of righteousness and holiness ruling in their hearts, they will deviate from the rule and neglect the pattern – even though it is of God Himself.  But a habit of righteousness, a principle of true justice and goodness, will help them not only to understand the rules of justice in the Word of God, and to see the wisdom and justice of the divine conduct.” As Reverend Charles Chauncy declared in 1747, “there cannot be government without a right of legislation, so neither can there be this right but in conjunction with righteousness.”

Also, people as proxies of God are positioned directly to judge those whom they selected to govern them since we are all equal under God – as His creation made in His image. The people, as God’s proxies, judge others on His behalf by judging against His Law.  Author Eric Metaxas summarizes this eloquently:

…the idea that everyone could have a direct relationship with God led to the idea that earthly authorities could be judged and should be judged.  If God was the ultimate judge and the Judge above all other judges, then surely each person could consider whether those in authority over him were exercising that authority in accordance with God’s principles – or not in accordance with God’s principles, which is to say, in a way that could be considered tyrannous…By making each person see that God wished to have a direct relationship with every one of his children, no matter their cut out of the equation…The Gospel of Christ was the most powerful sociological leveler in history, and although the message had existed for seventeen centuries, it would burst into full bloom only now?

The application of God’s Law in the application of the law, the application of good government, and the application of one’s personal or organizational ethics, is the underpinning of a stable and prosperous society and economy.

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN POST

Country Star Jimmie Allen: Christian Music ‘Saved My Life’ – ‘I Was in a Rough Place’

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Country Star Jimmie Allen: Christian Music ‘Saved My Life’ – ‘I Was in a Rough Place’

Country music star Jimmie Allen doesn’t hold back when talking about his love for contemporary Christian music. Country music star Jimmie Allen doesn’t hold back when talking about his love for contemporary Christian music.

“I listen to K-Love and Air1 all the time,” Allen told Christian Headlines this week before the K-Love Fan Awards, which will be broadcast on Friday, June 3, at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern on TBN. Allen was an on-stage presenter.

“It grounds you,” he said of Christian music.

Allen’s name is well-known among country fans. He was the 2021 CMA New Artist of the Year and the 2021 ACM Awards New Male Artist of the Year. He was nominated for a Grammy. He even sang at last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This fall, he will embark on the 43-city “Denim and Rhinestones” tour with Carrie Underwood.

Allen, though, hasn’t strayed from his Christian music roots. When he first moved to Nashville more than a decade ago, he led worship at The People’s Church in Franklin (now Church of the City).

In recent months he has collaborated with CCM artists Chris Tomlin and Tauren Wells.

“I love Christian music,” Allen said. “… I grew up Christian – and still am. But I’ve always wanted to do country music. But I’m a huge Christian music fan, and I’ve always wanted to do songs with Christian artists. I’ve actually been to the K-Love Awards before as a fan.”

Allen listed several Christian artists who influenced him when he was young: Mike Purkey, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Fred Hammond, Bee Bee and Ce Ce Wynans, DC Talk and Andrae Crouch.

“Mike Purkey was my mom’s favorite singer,” he said.

He even credits Christian music with saving his life during a season of darkness. Country music star Jimmie Allen doesn’t hold back when talking about his love for contemporary Christian music.

“About a year ago, I was in a rough place. And Maverick City Music’s music saved my life – literally,” he told Christian Headlines, referencing the Grammy-winning Christian group. “And I got to meet Chandler [Moore] from Maverick City Music, and I told him that. … Every genre is important, but for, personally, there’s something special about Christian music that grounds me and takes me back to my roots, and kind of re-focuses me on where I need to be and what I need to do.”

Allen’s Christian faith, he said, has played a major role in his music career. His faith gives him patience, he said.

“It took me 10 and a half years to get a record deal in Nashville. And without patience, it wouldn’t have happened,” he said, adding that he lets “God fight the battle.”

“Because a lot of times, we want to step in there and help Him,” he said, “and the only thing we’re doing is getting in His way.”

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN HEADLINES

700 People Give Their Lives to Christ during Franklin Graham’s ‘God Loves You’ U.K. Tour

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700 People Give Their Lives to Christ during Franklin Graham’s ‘God Loves You’ U.K. Tour

Around 700 people surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ during evangelist Franklin Graham’s 4-city “God Loves You” tour in the United Kingdom.

As reported by CBN News, the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham traveled to Liverpool, Newport and Sheffield last month to preach the Gospel. Graham, the CEO and president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), worked with Christians from over 2,000 churches to make the tour a reality in the U.K.

About 11,000 people were reportedly in attendance during the tour, and at least 700 made professions of faith.

“There is a real sense that we’re here for this time and what Franklin was talking about, we feel very similarly that God has stepped in, and this is a key time for the proclamation of the Gospel, especially emerging out of the pandemic and the results of the pandemic,” BGEA’s U.K. Director Robert Chilvers told Global News Alliance (GNA).

“Emerging from that, we feel very much not only that we have the opportunity, but we can encourage other churches to take the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel boldly and clearly,” he added.

Chilvers noted that BGEA is thankful for the churches who collaborated with them on the U.K. tour.

“We’ve been training people in the local churches to lead small groups, we call discovery groups, to which inquiries are referred. It’s encouraging to hear that many churches are establishing these groups especially to care for those who are making a response to the Gospel,” he said.

Before going on the tour, Graham faced some backlash from LGBT activists due to his biblical convictions on marriage and sexuality. The pushback included protests against ads promoting the “God Loves You” tour that were set to be placed on buses across the city.

In July, Graham will travel overseas once again to continue the tour in ExCel London. Last year, he launched the tour across eight cities in the United States. In July, Graham will travel overseas once again to continue the tour in ExCel London. Last year, he launched the tour across eight cities in the United States.

Maverick City Music’s Naomi Raine is gearing up for release of non-worship solo album

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Maverick City Music’s Naomi Raine is gearing up for release of non-worship solo album

Grammy Award-winning worship leader Naomi Raine of Maverick City Music is gearing up for the release of her solo album, Journey, and wants listeners to know that her faith-filled music goes beyond the worship songs they’re accustomed to.

Raine released her first single “Not Ready” last week, and it’s been a long time coming for the native of Queens, New York, who’s been writing her own songs since she was a child. Raine recalled the moment she dedicated her life to Jesus. 

“I just pretty much grew up in rehearsal and in church for my whole life, groomed in music, groomed to go after the presence of the Lord,” she said in an interview with The Christian Post. “When I was 11, I got filled with the Holy Spirit and that started my relationship with the Lord. It was just a time of devotion.”

Before lending her signature vocals to Maverick City Music’s No. 1 singles “Jireh” and “Promises,” as a young girl she’d sit in her closet “praying in the Spirit, listening to music and singing to God.”

“I spent probably four or five years doing that. As I got older, I then got interested in boys and got a little distracted,” Raine revealed.  

She ended up meeting the man who is now her husband and became “pregnant out of wedlock.”

“At that point, I was leading worship and got sat down,” she explained. “The Lord used that time to really deal with me and actually teach me not just about His presence, but about who He is.”

“I was a church girl and so I knew all the right things to do,” she added. “I wasn’t always doing them of course, but I just thought if I was good then God will be good with me. Well, that’s not the case, as we all know, that’s not the grace and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But the Lord really taught me about grace. And He taught me about how He makes all things new and makes it beautiful, that my righteousness is as filthy rags.”

It was in that season that Raine discovered God’s grace and His true Gospel which is what solidified the call on her life.

“‘I want you to tell everybody about my goodness, and my grace, and this Gospel that’s bigger than you and it’s bigger than our works and what we try to do. Tell people that I came to save them,'” she recalled God saying to her.

Her revelations of who God is are what she shares with the world today in song. Maverick City Music has been widely received by both Christian contemporary and gospel music as well as some in the secular music industry. 

“I have never experienced anything like this in my life,” Raine said of all their success. “We all have personal stuff that we go through mentally and some of the lies that the enemy told me is that ‘Nobody cares about what you have to say. Nobody cares about your voice. Just be quiet; just sit in the back.’ And so a lot of my devotion and worship to Jesus was super personal and private, and I was good there. Then I realized the Lord wanted me to come out. 

When I’m out there worshiping, I’m not worshiping y’all. I’m not worshiping for y’all and to y’all, I’m worshiping God, and hopefully, somebody decides to worship Him too. It’s really about Him. So just to see that people are actually responding to that, and they want it, and they’re going deeper in their relationship with the Lord, people are getting saved, people are getting healed. Getting delivered like that is just mind-blowing because He said He would do it, but it’s amazing. It’s like the miracle of childbirth. We know it happens every single day, but it doesn’t cease to be amazing. ” 

Raines’ new album Journey isn’t considered worship music that will be sung by congregations on Sunday mornings. However, the message is from a Christian woman and her relationship with Jesus. In the songs, she touches on mental illness but says the album is not solely about that.

“Journey is not just about mental illness, it’s about facing the truth. It’s about facing yourself,” she told CP. 

“What I realized is that when you face the truth, and when you tell the truth, tell yourself the truth, and tell others the truth: you are going to go through difficulty. And if you can’t handle that you can slip into depression, you can slip into some of these places because it’s difficult to tell the truth and change your life,” she maintained. 

Raine stressed that just because she sings confidently about God and who she is in God, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t had her own battles. 

“I know people look and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, the girl that sings ‘Jireh’ and she’s like, ‘I’m already loved. I’m already chosen.’ The only reason I can say that is because I went through a season where I was reminded of the Father’s love, of His promises over my life,” Raine said. “And the words that He’s spoken over me when I sing, I’m not pretending, we wrote that from a real place. I can only sing that because I’ve gone through that with Him.” 

Maverick City Music was officially launched in 2018 by Jonathan Jay, CEO of Tribl Records, who, along with Tony Brown, spent several years hosting songwriting camps with people from across the United States. Over the years, Jay and his team brought together over 100 Christian artists and songwriters, including Raine, and that effort birthed hundreds of songs. 

In an earlier interview with CP, Jay described Tribl — the force behind Maverick City Music — as a “gathering place,” a “microphone” and an “amplifier for all the people who feel like they have the maverick spirit.”

Maverick City Music has been around for three years, but Raine has been leading worship for over 15 years and has been releasing music since 2015. She’s comfortable standing on her own with this solo project but worries about how it’ll be received because it’s not the worship style that they’re used to hearing from her. 

“It is a little bit daunting to release this type of music after now so many people know me for Maverick City and for just worship music because this is not worship music in the genre sense,” Raine explained. “It’s more life music. It’s real stuff. It’s the stuff that I talk to Jesus about from Monday to Saturday. I think what most people have heard is what I’m talking to Jesus about on a Sunday.” 

“It’s more of this kind of, ‘Hey, Jesus, we got to talk,’” she said.

The first line of her single “Not Ready” says, “Let’s just be honest, Jesus, I’m a mess.”

“I hope that people don’t get stuck in worship mode and feel like, ‘Oh man, I can’t listen to this music because it’s not worship,’” she noted. “I pray that they can hear the songs for what they are. It is art. I think it’s really good and I’m hoping that they can hear it for what it is.”

Maverick City Music is now on the road with Kirk Franklin for the Kingdom tour. Raine concluded her interview by asking music lovers to give her music a listen. 

”Give it three listens and then decide because the music is more than just a bop. It has a message and hopefully, it will make you think and it will push you to have a conversation, not only with the Lord but with others and start these conversations like, ‘Hey, where are you right now? Are you good?’”

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN POST

CeCe Winans, Lauren Daigle urge Christians to answer God’s call: ‘He sends the ones who are available’

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CeCe Winans, Lauren Daigle urge Christians to answer God’s call: ‘He sends the ones who are available’

Christian music superstars including CeCe Winans, Lauren Daigle, Michael W. Smith, Danny Gokey, and Third Day’s Mac Powell shared wisdom for the next generation of CCM artists, highlighting the importance of following God’s lead and remaining scripturally sound in a rapidly changing culture.

Christian music veterans and newcomers alike gathered at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House Sunday for the K-LOVE Fan Awards, a night defined by hope, inspiration and comradery.

Ahead of the show, nominees, performers and guests spoke with The Christian Post on the red carpet about their hope for the future of Christian music and the next generation of believers.

Matthew West, who hosted the night’s show alongside Tauren Wells and was also nominated for Male Artist of the Year, walked the red carpet with two of his daughters. The 45-year-old Dove Award-winner told CP that the best advice he can offer up-and-coming artists is to “stay humble, stay focused on the lane that God has put you in, and you’re going to have a major impact on society and culture.”

“I hope I’ve been a positive role model for other young artists who come in,” he said. “And I’d say the biggest encouragement I can give is always put God first in your life. And don’t worry about comparing yourself to others. You know, artists can be just like everybody else on social media, where you’re comparing, ‘What does this artist have going on? How high is this song on the charts?’ And you can let that stuff rule you. And when it rules you, it robs you of the true understanding of how God is using you in life.”

Winans and Daigle, who performed together at Tuesday’s show and have countless awards and chart-topping singles between them, both encouraged younger believers to “just be who God has called you to be.”

“God has empowered them to be more than enough for this generation,” Winans said. “I think, God is so amazing that every generation, He gives the talents, the gifts, exactly what they need. I just want the young people to be who they are, and take all the limits off. … God will take you further than what you could ever imagine.”

Daigle added that God has “wired each person so creatively,” adding: “There’s a thing called a ‘zeitgeist,’ which is where time and culture intersect. And it’s when God … decides to say, ‘This is the one I have appointed. This is the one I’m calling out. Let’s go; come on. This is how we get the people ready for what’s to come.’ He sends the ones that are uniquely available, I think.”

“If you feel like God is calling you to this or that, He’s touched your life in some sort of way. Ask Him to open doors and see the places that He’ll take you,” she added. 

Winans said she hopes CCM “keeps growing” and “covers the world,” stressing that “the world needs to hear” the Good News of the Gospel.

“That’s what it’s all about,” she said.

What started as a niche genre in the 1960s at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, CCM is today a multibillion-dollar industry, with many artists finding huge crossover success. According to the Berklee School of Music, the fastest-growing radio market in the United States today is Christian music.

Smith, of the most recognizable names in CCM for the last four decades, told CP he believes humility is the key to truly honoring God. The artist, who’s won three Grammy Awards, 45 Dove Awards, one American Music Award and was recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, was nominated in the Book Impact category for his book, The Way of the Father.

“Stay humble. It’s not about you. And that’s the key. … I’d rather humble myself; being humbled by God is not a lot of fun. So I just think that’s the key. And I think God will exalt you and I think He’ll give you a favor and I think He’ll do extraordinary things if you stay humble,” the 64-year-old artist said.

Mac Powell, the former frontman of Third Day who is now a solo artist, encouraged artists to remain biblically sound, stressing the importance of not watering down the message of the Gospel.

“I think as an artist, you’re always wanting to make music that will reach people outside of the walls of the church, but at the same time, we all often think about that term, “we’re preaching to the choir,” “he said. I’ve gotten criticized in the past for making very Gospel-forward music because you go, ‘Well, you’re just preaching to the choir. ’ Well, I know I was in the choir, and I needed to be preached to. So… artists can do both. We can do music and art that reaches outside of our walls, but at the same time, encourage our brothers and sisters that are within the Church. ”

“American Idol” alum Danny Gokey, who was nominated for Male Artist of the Year and was also a presenter, encouraged the next generation to “seek first the Kingdom,” adding: “A lot of us, we want to be famous for Jesus, but He doesn’t need our fame, He needs our hearts and our obedience. And He needs us to speak what he’s saying, because the words that we put in music speak to people who are in basements, in hospitals, ready to take their lives. I’m telling you, the uniqueness of His voice inside of us and displayed through us is a big deal. And we must be tuned in.”

He stressed that regardless of what happens in culture, “God’s message never changes.”

“God’s Word is the most stable foundation to build on,” the artist said. “For me, it’s taking God’s Word and formulating it in such a way that it’s fresh. … When I write, I go to the Lord and say, ‘What do you want to say?’ And then the packaging is the producing the sound, and we try to get it out there. A lot of times God uses prophetic moments in my life that I write into songs.”

The K-LOVE Fan Awards will air on TBN June 3, airing back to back at both 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET.

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN POST

‘Jesus Is Real’: Musician M.I.A. Says She Converted to Christianity after Seeing a Vision of Christ

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‘Jesus Is Real’: Musician M.I.A. Says She Converted to Christianity after Seeing a Vision of Christ

British artist M.I.A. has revealed that she has converted to Christianity after having a vision of Jesus Christ back in 2017.

M.I.A., whose birth name is Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, spoke about her conversion on Apple Music’s The Zane Lowe Show.

“Since then, my head has been in a totally different place. Being a Tamil and being a Hindu, I was very comfortable that I’d arrived finding myself. Which is, I think, going to be weird for America to process,” she explained. “But I had a vision, and I saw the vision of Jesus Christ,” she added.

“It’s very creatively a crazy thing because it turned my world upside down,” M.I.A. noted. “Because everything I thought and believed was no longer the case. And I think that was maybe a sign that something major was going to happen in the world and that people were needing to be introduced to this concept.”

M.I.A., who was born in London to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, shared that before having the vision, she found the concept of Christianity “basic.”

Lowe then interrupted and asked if she is a “born-again Christian now.”

“Yes, I am,” she replied.

“I’m not going to lie. Then when I had this vision, it turned my world upside down. I kind of couldn’t let go of the Tamil side,” the “Paper Planes” singer noted.

As The Christian Post reported, while half of M.I.A.’s upcoming album, MATA, is influenced by her upbringing, much of it is also informed by her newfound Christian faith. She has currently released one single titled “The One.”

I’m still me. That’s still my language. And those are still my tools to be able to create beats like that or sounds like that, “she told Lowe. But I think the message was just to get to a peaceful place. Watch this space. The reason is, even if it costs me my career, I won’t lie. I will tell the truth, and I will tell you what’s on my mind and my heart. “

“If I’m coming back now saying ‘Jesus is real,’ there’s a point,” she asserted.

“Basically, all of my fans might turn against me because they are all progressives who hate people that believe in Jesus Christ in this country,” she added.

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN HEADLINES

Steph Curry’s mom reveals she nearly aborted him, but God intervened

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Steph Curry’s mom reveals she nearly aborted him, but God intervened

Sonja Curry, the mother of NBA superstar Stephen Curry, revealed that she aborted her first child and nearly chose the same fate for the famous Golden State Warriors all-star when she learned she was pregnant with him. But she listened to the Holy Spirit and decided not to abort him too.

The author of Fierce Love: A Memoir of Family, Faith, and Purpose opened up about her experience during a podcast interview with Pastor Luke Norsworthy, host of the “Newsworthy with Norsworthy Podcast.” 

Sonja Curry, 56, said she “almost” decided not to share her experience in the book, but felt strongly that God wanted her to share it. 

“Like the Spirit was guiding this book of what was going to go into it, how it was going to come together,” she told the podcaster, who’s also the senior pastor of Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin, Texas. 

The mother of three opened up about how she got to the point where she contemplated aborting her second child, Stephen Curry.

“But when it got to really the nuts and bolts of making certain decisions like I was faced with, there could be no Stephan,” Curry continued. “If I would have gone through that, there would have been no Wardell Stephen Curry II. And you know, God had a plan for that child.”

“And just the Spirit interceding at that moment, in a way that I didn’t even know at the moment as happening, just spoke to again the purpose of faith,” she said.

Curry said she didn’t know how to describe what it was like being led by the Spirit. “How might I best describe it? It’s faith that, ‘OK, I don’t want to make this decision, because that would have been the second time. I don’t want to make that decision again, and now I’ve just got to trust God to move forward with me having this child.’” 

Although she didn’t know how Stephen’s father, Dell, would react, she stuck to her decision to keep her son and knew it was the “right decision.”

In the podcast, Sonja Curry, who is the president of the Christian Montessori School in North Carolina, emotionally said she believes her first child “is in Heaven,” revealing that abortion is on her mind “all the time.” She wants other women to know they’re not alone.

Stephen Curry, who’s a Golden State Warriors champion a few times over, has said his life verse is Philippians 4:13. The verse says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” 

In a 2015 interview with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Stephen Curry spoke about his faith saying, “I love that basketball gives me the opportunities to do good things for people and to point them toward the Man who died for our sins on the cross.” I know I have a place in Heaven waiting for me because of Him, and that’s something no earthly prize or trophy could ever top.

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN POST

Former Muslim Woman Turns to Christ after Jesus Came to Her in a Vision

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Former Muslim Woman Turns to Christ after Jesus Came to Her in a Vision

In a recent interview with The Christian Post, a former Muslim woman detailed her conversion to Christianity after she had a vision of Jesus Christ who told her, “follow me.”

Nikta, who moved to California from Tehran, Iran, at an early age, explained that she became rebellious despite growing up in a strict Muslim household. At age seven, she began smoking cigarettes. By eighth grade, she was also drinking alcohol with the encouragement of her older sister.

As a teen, her drinking problem became worse following a traumatic experience with one of her sister’s friends. Nikta also became interested in new-age teachings when she was in high school and began collecting crystals.

Then in college, Nikta began struggling with suicidal thoughts and social anxiety, making it difficult for her to continue her studies. This prompted her mother to suggest she take a trip to Iran.

“And I was like, ‘Mom, I’m having such bad stomach aches, I really don’t want to leave the house,'” she recalled. “‘I don’t want to go. I really didn’t want to go.'”

Despite her resistance, Nikta did end up traveling to Iran. It was during this trip that her life would change forever. While in Iran, Nikta recalls that Jesus Christ came to her in a vision and encouraged her to follow him.

“And He looked at me, and He communicated to me, ‘Follow me,'” she said. “I couldn’t audibly hear Him say ‘Follow me,’ but I know He said that.”

Nikta then took to Google to try to identify the man she saw in the vision, and what she found was that the long dark-haired man dawning a robe matched the iconography of Jesus.

“And so I immediately started thinking, ‘I have to become a Christian because I just saw Jesus,'” she said. “‘OK, what is Christianity?'”

Upon returning to California, Nikta started attending church with her then-boyfriend, a professing Christian. She was eventually baptized, after which she recalled everything feeling “alive.” She also shared that the Lord continued to speak to her the more she prayed.

“I believe it was a sign that God was taking me into this new life where I could just see into the Spirit,” Nikta told The Christian Post.

Nikta’s family members, however, responded negatively to her conversion to Christianity. She even recalled her father screaming at her, shoving her and stomping on her head.

“And he was saying, ‘You’re worthless. Who do you think you are? Because you follow Jesus, you think you’re so special,'” she recalled.

The hostility from her family led Nikta to move out of her house and into her boyfriend’s family home. Nikta and her then-boyfriend would later marry and have a child together. She also later reconciled with her family, who even attended her wedding despite their opposition to her conversion.

“They kept finding ways to reach out to me. I remember God speaking to me the day after the whole abuse happened, and He told me to forgive them,” Nikta said.

She also shared that her family sometimes attends church with her, adding that her father is not as “resistant” to Christianity as he once was. While Nikta’s father is open to her praying for him, he has yet to dedicate his life to Christ.

“They may not fully understand, but they don’t try to stop me,” she said. “And it’s just a miracle that my dad’s heart has gotten so much softer.”

Nikta and her husband moved out of California to another state, which remains unspecified due to privacy concerns.

She also connected with the organization Uncharted Ministries and the website I Found The Truth, where she and other former Muslims who became Christians can support each other.

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN HEADLINES

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