Home Blog Page 54

Christian Pastor Paraded, Injured, Forced into Hindu Ritual

Admin
-
0
Christian Pastor Paraded, Injured, Forced into Hindu Ritual

NEW DELHI – Pastor Sanjay Bhandari had taken his wife for a medical check-up earlier this month when they decided to visit her sister in the same area in Karnataka state, southwest India – only to be attacked as they were drinking tea.

“While we were still having tea, a few men barged inside the house and, grabbing me by my shirt collar, they dragged me outside, accusing me of carrying out conversions,” Pastor Bhandari told Morning Star News. “I tried very hard to explain that it was my relatives’ house, and that we were only paying them a casual visit, but the men refused to listen.”

The Hindu extremists in Halaga village, near Belgaum city, Belgaum District also ignored the pleas of his wife’s family that day, April 5. The men took Pastor Bhandari outside, where 50 to 60 Hindu extremists were waiting, he said.

The mob paraded him a mile to the rented worship hall where he has led Sunday services for five years, hitting and kicking him along the way, he said.

“They continued to hit me as they dragged me,” said Pastor Bhandari, a resident of Belgaum city. “They abused me and Jesus Christ in filthy language and pressured me to hail, ‘Jai Sri Ram [Hail lord Ram],’ as they beat me.”

The mob accused him of converting their community to Christianity and trying to convert the family he was visiting – though they are already Christian, he said.

“They hit me on my private parts, my face, chest and all over my body, accusing me of trying to convert my sister-in-law,” Pastor Bhandari told Morning Star News. “I tried telling them that the home belongs to my sister-in-law, and that they are already Christians and members of my church.”

The beating and slapping damaged one of his eardrums, he said, causing loss of hearing in that ear.

Shouting Hindu slogans, the mob accused the pastor of converting Santosh Satpute, formerly a Hindu. Satpute told Morning Star News he went before the mob and told them he believed in Christ of his own free will, and that nobody had forced him to change his religion.

Satpute said the mob assaulted him as he tried to help Pastor Bhandari.

“When we tried to rescue Pastor Sanjay, the mob assaulted me along with Pastor Sanjay, his wife, and his brother Bhimshen,” Satpute said. “I was hurt on my chest and my ear.”

The pastor’s wife was manhandled as she tried to shield her husband from the assault, he said. The 42-year-old Bhimshen Bhandari was also injured in the attack.

Upon arriving at the building, the assailants pushed their way in to climb the staircase to the worship hall, but the owner of the building, a Hindu, sternly warned them that if they continued he would call police. The mob desisted from entering the worship hall but began to perform Hindu rituals on Pastor Bhandari, he said.

“They applied Kumkum [vermillion] and haldi [turmeric] and dusted it on my head and made marks on my forehead,” Pastor Bhandari said.

Kumkum is a red powder, 95 percent turmeric and 5 percent limestone, used to make the distinctive Hindu mark on the forehead. Hindu husbands usually apply it on their wives where their hair is parted, and the mob tried to force Pastor Bhandari to do so.

When he refused, they told him that if he persisted, then one of them would do it, he said.

“When they threatened to apply the Kumkum, I applied it on her forehead but did not fill it in the partition of her hair,” Pastor Bhandari said.

Satpute said he was a distraught eyewitness to the ordeal.

“They tortured Pastor Sanjay physically and mentally,” he told Morning Star News. “He was forced to perform Hindu rituals against his free will. The harassment and torture he went through is beyond description.”

The pastor insisted that they go to police to discuss the matter, and the mob left after warning him not to be seen in the area again.

“They warned that they would chop me to pieces if I conduct church again,” Pastor Bhandari said. “Saying that, they dispersed and disappeared.”

Area Christian leaders strongly condemned the attack.

“Initially churches and Christian gatherings were attacked – it is extremely shocking that now a personal visit to your own relative’s house is also objectionable, and you can face the brutality of the Hindu goons,” the Rev. T. Thomas, president of the Belgaum Karnataka Pastors Association, told Morning Star News. “We will not keep silent. We will take this up with the authorities.”

Pastor Bhandari said he has pastored the independent church for seven years without any opposition. He said he was shocked to see two people with whom he had enjoyed good relations among the assailants.

“I have been to their homes and have sat and had meals at their homes,” Pastor Bhandari said. “I was very shocked to see them among my assaulters.”

CHARGES FILED

When Pastor Bhandari initially went to the Shahapura police station, he was instructed to first go to a government hospital, and that police would then take action based on his medical report, he said.

He was hospitalized at the Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS) for treatment of his ear, private parts and injuries to his left shoulder and chest. Discharged on April 10, he continues treatment and medical examinations.

After initial hesitancy by police, Christian leaders on April 6 persuaded officers at the Shahapura police station to file charges against seven assailants for unlawful assembly, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, provocation and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code (First Information Report No. 0020/2021).

Pastor Bhandari’s attorney, M. Ramesh, told Morning Star News that only after giving a memorandum to higher officials did police register the pastor’s complaint.

“On the evening of the incident, we gave a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Belgaum,” Ramesh said. “I spoke to the media directly, and it was only then that the FIR was registered.”

No arrests have been made, according to the investigating officer at the Shahapura station. No action has been taken at this writing.

Though there have been no arrests, the investigating officer, identified only as Raghvendra, said the station has issued notice to the seven suspects to appear before police. He said the investigation was complete.

“We have done all the investigation proceedings. We are waiting for the wound certificate from the hospital, and then we will immediately send the charge sheet to the court,” Raghvendra told Morning Star News. “We have given requisition to the hospital in writing and are waiting to hear from them; only then we can proceed.”

A staff member at the BIMS hospital declined to give information about Pastor Bhandari, citing confidentiality.

The pastor’s attorney repudiated the police delays.

“We will have to fight on higher levels to be heard,” Ramesh told Morning Star News. “They are intentionally targeting the Christian community, pastors and followers of the faith. They are working under a well-planned strategy.”

Pastor Thomas added that Christians have been targeted in eight incidents in the district, though police have filed FIRs in only two of them.

The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.

India ranked 10th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, as it was in 2020. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Modi came to power.

SOURCE: CHRISTIAN HEADLINES

ISIS Executes Christian Businessman Kidnapped in Egypt’s Sinai

Admin
-
0
ISIS Executes Christian Businessman Kidnapped in Egypt’s Sinai

Family mourn yet celebrate martyrdom of Coptic grandfather who financed the only church in his city, so as to build “a home in heaven.”

The Islamic State has claimed another Christian victim.

And Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church has won another martyr.

“We are telling our kids that their grandfather is now a saint in the highest places of heaven,” stated Peter Salama of his 62-year-old father, Nabil Habashi Salama, executed by the ISIS affiliate in north Sinai.

“We are so joyful for him.”

The Salamas are known as one of the oldest Coptic families in Bir al-Abd on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Nabil was a jeweler, owning also mobile phone and clothing shops in the area.

Peter said ISIS targeted his father for his share in building the city’s St. Mary Church.

In a newly released 13-minute propaganda video entitled The Makers of Slaughter (or Epic Battles), a militant quotes the Quran to demand the humiliation of Christians and their willing payment of jizya—a tax to ensure their protection.

Nabil Habashi Salama at his Coptic Orthodox church, The Church of St. Mary, St. Abanoub, and St. Karas, in Bir al-Abd, North Sinai, Egypt.
Image: Wilayat Sinai / Telegram screenshot by Christianity Today

Nabil Habashi Salama at his Coptic Orthodox church, The Church of St. Mary, St. Abanoub, and St. Karas, in Bir al-Abd, North Sinai, Egypt.

Nabil was kidnapped five months ago in front of his home. Eyewitnesses said during his resistance he was beaten badly before being thrown into a stolen car. It may be that these were separate kidnappers, because in the video that shows Nabil’s execution, he said he was held captive by ISIS for 3 months and 11 days.

On April 18, he was shot in the back of the head, kneeling.

“As you kill, you will be killed,” states the video, directed to “all the crusaders in the world.”

It addresses all of Egypt’s Christians, warning them to put no faith in the army. And Muslims which support the Egyptian state are called “apostates.” Two other Sinai residents—tribesmen who cooperated with the military—are also executed in the video.

Peter Salama said that in the effort to drive Nabil from his faith, his teeth were broken.

Nabil’s daughter Marina joined in the tribute.

“I will miss you, my father,” she wrote on Facebook. “You made us proud during your life with your virtues, and in your martyrdom with your strong faith.”

The Coptic Orthodox Church issued an official statement, calling Nabil “a faithful son and servant” who “adhered to his religion until death.”

It then reiterated support for the Egyptian army and state. Such acts, it stated, will “only raise our determination … to preserve our precious national unity.”

Earlier this month Egypt announced an additional 82 churches had been legalized, increasing the total to 1,882 since a corrective law was passed in 2016.

Three militants have been killed, with three others being pursued, stated the Ministry of Interior today, which referred to Nabil as a “citizen.”

But the video and execution raise fears of renewed ISIS activity after a relatively long period of quiet. In 2017, the affiliate opened fire on Muslims praying in a Bir al-Abd mosque, killing over 300 in the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Egyptian history.

That same year, they also targeted Christians living in nearby Arish, driving over 100 families from their homes.

Since then, the Egyptian army launched a massive campaign to defeat the local ISIS branch, which has never managed to seize and hold territory. In 2018, state security announced that over 900 militants were killed.

In 2019, Christian families slowly began to return, though no hard numbers were available at the time of publishing. In 2012, Coptic Orthodox Bishop Cosman stated there were 740 Christian families in his North Sinai diocese. But prior to the exodus, church officials stated the total was down to only 160.

Today, the women wear head coverings so as not to stand out as Christians. After informing authorities of a ransom demand of $318,000 (the Associated Press reports $127,000), Peter said, state security told him and his family to relocate for safety.

“We live in ruins after closing our means of subsistence,” he told the Coptic publication Watani.

Two other Copts, kidnapped in Sinai last year, were recently released after the payment of ransom.

“President Sisi has been personally committed to promoting peaceful co-existence between Christians and Muslims in Egypt, and his government has taken some encouraging steps,” stated Mervyn Thomas, president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, offering his condolences to the Salama family.

“[But] abductions … highlight that far more must be done to uproot sectarianism, protect vulnerable communities, promote social cohesion, and uphold fundamental human rights for all Egyptians.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt echoed the sentiments of the Coptic Orthodox.

“Together with the Egyptian state, we face all challenges and evils with zeal,” Andrea Zaki told CT, “and we always and forever affirm our authentic Egyptian unity.”

Peter Salama, however, focused on eternity.

“Do not think that I am building this church for here,” he recalled his father Nabil saying. “I am building for myself a home in heaven.”

And it was this peace that allowed Nabil to tell his son prior to his execution, while under the duress of his captors:

“All is fine, thank God.”

SOURCE: CHRISTIANITY TODAY

Guvna B and Rev Richard Coles win evangelism awards from Archbishop of Canterbury

Admin
-
0
Guvna B and Rev Richard Coles win evangelism awards from Archbishop of Canterbury

Justin Welby has announced the winners of the Lambeth awards, which recognise contributions to the Church and wider society, with Christian rapper Guvna B winning one for evangelism and witness. 

Awards have been given to over 30 people, including scientists, musicians, academics, activists, doctors and clergy. There are a number of reasons for awards, such as for ecumenism, for services to the Church of England, for contributions to the Anglican Communion, for prayer and the religious life, for reconciliation and interfaith co-operation, for evangelism and witness, for education, for community service and for worship.

The recipients are not just form the UK but from the whole Anglican Communion. 

2021 winners include the late Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya, from the Diocese of Swaziland – the first woman to be an Anglican bishop in Africa, who died from Covid this January. 

Isaac Borquaye, the MOBO award-winning rapper and author, better known as Guvna B won an award for “being an outstanding, faithful and vibrant witness to Jesus Christ using his gifts and the medium of recording, performance and video to proclaim the good news”

The Revd Richard Coles won an Alphege Award for evangelism and witness, “or outstanding witness as an admired and popular Christian presence in the public arena.”

IMAGE COPYRIGHT/ AFP/

Other winners include: Elizabeth Harris-Sawczenko, former director of the Council of Christians and Jews and the UK’s former deputy chief medical officer, the Revd Prof Gina Radford – who is now a vicar in Devon – for providing medical advice for churches during the Covid-19 pandemic. 
 
Archbishop Justin Welby said: “This year’s Lambeth Awards recipients, not all of whom are Christians, embody this spirit of service – not just during the pandemic but, for many of them, through decades of faithful work. I commend them and their efforts, and look forward to the time when we meet to celebrate their contributions to society.”

SOURCE: PREMIER CHRISTIAN NEWS

Jesus Was Confident AND Humble: It’s Not a Contradiction

Admin
-
0
Jesus Was Confident AND Humble: It’s Not a Contradiction

By Leon Fontaine

Humility is another aspect of Jesus’s character that is often misunderstood.

We often assume that to have humility, we have to think very little of ourselves. We’ve picked up the idea that thinking we’re worthless to God and others is the Christian thing to do, so we duck compliments and say things like, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.”

The problem is we misunderstand Romans 12:3. Although it does warn us to “not think of [ourselves] more highly than [we] ought,” it’s speaking about our ability, not our worth.

In fact, God wants you to think you’re awesome! After all, he created you! If you’re worried about becoming prideful or arrogant, there are just two things you have to remember. First, give God all the credit. Second, make sure you always think of others as even greater than yourself. When you do these two things, there will be no room for arrogance or pride in you.

God doesn’t want us to think we’re worthless. That doesn’t please him. God wants you to realize that with him, you have tremendous potential. You can learn, grow and become the very best you can be!

Believing you are capable of anything God asks you to do is not pride; it’s faith. And the truth is that this confidence, which stems from who you are in Christ, is incredibly attractive to others. Jesus had this confidence. He was full of power and wisdom, and he taught profound spiritual truths. Yet Jesus did all this in a way that was contemporary in regard to the culture and times in which he lived. He was culturally relevant and filled with Holy Spirit’s power, and people flocked to him.

When we act more like this Jesus—the strong, confident, fully-reliant-on-God Jesus—it has a profound effect on the people around us. We start speaking and acting in a way that reveals the heart of Jesus, and people fall in love with the Jesus they see in us.

Live this Jesus life

Some people have a false notion of the Christian life based on misbeliefs about the character of Jesus. The truth is Jesus’s life was anything but boring and safe. He was a strong, courageous, confident leader who followed his Father’s will instantly and completely. In the same way, this edgy, relevant, Spirit Contemporary, favor-with-God-and-favor-with-man life he’s calling us to live is filled with adrenaline and adventure.

It’s also filled with significance. Fulfilling Jesus’s purpose for our lives is the most important thing we can do on this planet. It’s absolutely incredible to think that our actions actually help to determine how many people make heaven their home for eternity.

Don’t ever forget that you are included in this mission. This grand, phenomenal purpose for your life is real, and when it comes to the big picture, you play a vital role!

God’s plans for you are absolutely huge—greater than you can imagine. According to Psalm 139:13, God formed every aspect of your being. He placed gifts and abilities inside you so you could achieve amazing things in this lifetime. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, nlt) and God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20)!

Jesus wants you to live a big life!

Be bold and be yourself, like Jesus. Live an amazingly huge life, filled with adventure and significance. After all, Jesus came to give you this kind of life. He said, “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)” (John 10:10, amp).

As you keep listening to him and serving others with the gifts and abilities he has placed in you, you can discover this life—what I like to call the Spirit Contemporary life—the life he died to give you.

SOURCE: CBN

Remains of Swiss missionary found in Mali

Admin
-
0
Remains of Swiss missionary found in Mali

The Swiss Government has confirmed that the body of evangelical missionary Béatrice Stöckli has been found and identified and will be repatriated as soon as possible.

The Malian authorities provided a forensic sample which was sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich. The results of the DNA test confirmed that the body was that of the Christian woman.

Stöckli had initially been held hostage in 2012 but was released ten days later with the help of mediators from Burkina Faso. She was then abducted again in 2016 by Jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wa’l-Muslimin (JNIM) while in Mali teaching children how to read and write using passages of the Koran that reference Jesus.

In a statement, the Swiss Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis said: “Sadly, we now have definitive evidence that the woman who was held hostage is dead.

“But I am also relieved that we can return the woman’s remains to her family and I would like to pass on my deepest condolences to them. I also wish to thank the Malian authorities for their assistance in helping to identify the body.”

Last October, the Swiss government said that the evangelical missionary had been killed after a French charity worker, who had also been held hostage in 2016 but was released in 2020, provided inside information.

Sophie Petronin, 75, said that Stöckli had been shot dead about a month before her release, after she refused to cooperate with her kidnappers who were travelling through the Sahara in order to avoid the authorities.

The Swiss government has said it will continue to work with the Malian authorities to clarify the circumstances of Stöckli’s death.

SOURCE: PREMIER CHRISTIAN NEWS

Christian Student Group Cannot Be Punished for Requiring Its Leaders to Be Christians, Judge Rules

Admin
-
0
Christian Student Group Cannot Be Punished for Requiring Its Leaders to Be Christians, Judge Rules

A Christian student group at a college in Michigan will not be punished for requiring leaders in the group to agree to a statement of faith, a judge ruled Monday.

Christian Student Group Cannot Be Punished for Requiring Its Leaders to Be Christians, Judge Rules

The group, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Wayne State University, had initially had their official student club status revoked in October 2017 because of the requirement, The Christian Post reports. The college called the group’s policy for leadership positions “discriminatory.”

Without official club recognition status, InterVarsity could not reserve meeting rooms for free or apply for certain campus funding.

The group filed a lawsuit in March 2018 against WSU’s board of governors, board members and administrators. The school then temporarily reinstated the student group but said it still had the right to remove it.

This week, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Judge Robert H. Cleland ruled that the actions of the university “strike at the heart” of the First Amendment and are “obviously odious to the Constitution.”

“The uncontested facts demonstrate that Defendants violated Plaintiffs’ rights to internal management, free speech, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and free exercise as a matter of law,” Cleland wrote in his decision. “Defendants also violated the Establishment Clause as a matter of law.”

“No religious group can constitutionally be made an outsider, excluded from equal access to public or university life, simply because it insists on religious leaders who believe in its cause,” the ruling stated.

In the lawsuit, InterVarsity claimed that other student groups are allowed specific requirements for members.

“Wayne State rightly allows fraternities to have only male leaders, female athletic clubs to have only female leaders, and African-American clubs to have only African-American leaders,” the lawsuit stated. “But Wayne State cannot then say it is wrong for a Christian club to have only Christian leaders.”

The fellowship group has been part of the college for more than 75 years.

Amanda Casanova | ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | Tuesday, April 6, 2021

William McDowell declares, “The Only Answer is Prayer”

Admin
-
0
William McDowell declares, “The Only Answer is Prayer”

Prayer

For 21 weeks, the Lord wouldn’t let Pastor William McDowell and the people of Deeper Fellowship Church leave the subject of prayer. He explains, “We had been experiencing a move of God, and we sensed that He wanted to prepare our fellowship to see it spread…But there has never been a move of God without prayer, and we knew that healings and miracles had occurred not only because God had chosen for us to see revival but also because of our prayers. God began to tell us that there is more—more miracles, more of His presence—and at the same time, He began to awaken us to another dimension of prayer.”

Understanding who we are as his sons and daughters gives us authority as His children. Intimacy is the key to that authority. The closer we are to God, the more we understand what pleases Him. In turn, when we pray, we know what we should ask for. 

Pastor McDowell shares a story of his mother going to China when he was 20 years old. Since she was so far away, she gave William a blank check with her signature on it, in the event he would need anything. He shares, “What she gave me with that check was her authority and because of our relationship she knew she could trust me not to do something crazy with that authority while she was gone.” Just like his relationship with his mother, we can have that same intimate relationship with God. “The fact is that it is possible to become closer and closer to God. Once you learn the desires of His heart, then you can ask for anything and expect it to be done,” McDowell continues. 

Abiding in Christ 

All the distractions of social media and the busyness of life can hinder our ability to stay in the position of abiding in Christ. McDowell gives us the following tips to help:  

  • Be satisfied with Him —Many Christians spend so much time on social media because they are seeking gratification from others. They get a dopamine high every time somebody likes their posts. You know you are slipping away from abiding in Him when you find yourself seeking approval and applause from others. 
  • Recognize your need for Him — Being dependent on God is not weakness; it’s maturity. 
  • Cherish His words — You can reach a level of intimacy where the words you pray are His words.

He shares, “This puts us in a place of authority. It is as if we have been given a blank check (signed by Jesus) for things that can be drawn from His account to bring glory to the Father.”

Deeper Worship Intensive 

McDowell is also launching a new digital version of the Deeper Worship Intensive (DWI) to equip Christian worship and ministry leaders with hands-on training for Revival in light of the Covid-19 pandemic beginning April 12, 2021. 

Comprised of senior leaders, ministry heads, recording artists, songwriters, and more for the annual event, the Deeper Worship Intensive will be delivered completely online and features a special “Team Edition” for organizations with multiple staff members attending. 

Not just another worship gathering, DWI is partnered with North Central University to provide training that is both motivative and rigorous. Attendees will be inspired, informed as well as equipped with strategies to spread Revival from the likes of Kirk Franklin, Matt Chandler, Darlene Zschech, Eric Mason, R.T Kendall, A.R. Bernard, Tasha Cobb-Leonard, Scott Hagan, Don Moen, and more.

Deeper Fellowship 

In 1998, William began to experience a hunger for revival after his pastor at the time suggested that he read Tommy Tenney’s book, The God Chasers. After reading the first chapter or two, he put the book down, went to his room, and began to cry out to God to have an encounter with Him. He earnestly cried out to God from that moment on for revival to break out. William also had an open vision about a place where people were discipled and trained in life, worship, and the arts. However, at the time he did not know what it meant.

He asked the Lord, “Where is this place to be?” and God clearly said, “Orlando, Florida – and I’m going to use you to build it!” William moved to Florida in 1999 and attended Full Sail University. During the next several years, he led worship and had the privilege of serving as keyboardist and music director for internationally renowned worship leader, Ron Kenoly. He then accepted a position as worship pastor at a local church. “During that season, this vision that had always seemed foggy to me began to clear up a bit,” shares William.

One day, William attended a church planters conference. While Pastor Rick Warren was speaking, the Holy Spirit quietly spoke to him and said “You are here to learn how to plant the church I placed in your heart in 1998!” “I promptly ignored that, since a church isn’t what I saw in 1998, was it?” says Williams. “I was so uncomfortable with what I heard that I stopped attending the conference and skipped all the remaining sessions!” 

Later William and a friend attended another church planting conference. Together they were sitting in a session when the Lord spoke to William again and said, “You are here to plant.” He once again ignored that voice. William was a worship pastor that just recorded a new CD with songs being sung around the world. Then, the Lord spoke to him a second time, but this time He said, “Why are you ignoring me?” William said, “I’m not!” Then, the Lord spoke to him a third time, and asked again, “Why are you ignoring me?” Once again, William responded, “I’m not!” Then in a moment of divine providence, his friend leaned over to him and said, “God just told me to ask you why you’re ignoring Him?”

God was calling William to plant a church, which happened to be one month before his wedding. When he shared what God called him to do, his bride-to-be willingly and immediately embraced the call, and it became their call together. On their honeymoon, through prayer and dialogue, God birthed the vision and the name, Deeper Fellowship Church, in their hearts. The one major issue upon returning was that William loved his church and his pastor, and he didn’t want to leave. After receiving ten prophetic words of confirmations in five months William finally said, “Yes Lord, I’ll go.” With the direction of the Lord, William and his wife opened their home to a small core group of people once a month to worship, pray, fellowship, and study the Word. A little over a year later, the core team began meeting weekly outside of their home. Their first act as a group was to take a map of the City of Orlando and put their tears on it. Together they wept over their city and asked God for revival. God heard their prayers.

91 Percent Of Churchgoers Say They’ll Return To Services After COVID-19, Poll Says

William Wagner
-
0
91 Percent Of Churchgoers Say They’ll Return To Services After COVID-19, Poll Says

More than 90 percent of Protestant churchgoers say they plan on attending their house of worship after the pandemic is over at least as frequently as they did pre-pandemic, according to a new Lifeway Research survey that also found that a majority of churchgoers say they grew closer to God during the past year.

The poll of 1,000 American Protestant churchgoers, released Tuesday, found that 68 percent say they’ll attend in-person with the same frequency as they did before Covid-19, while 23 percent say they’ll attend more often.

All total, 91 percent of churchgoers plan on either attending at the same rate or more often. Only 6 percent say they’ll go to church less often.

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said the survey’s results are good news for pastors and churches who experienced lower-than-normal attendance in January.

“Two-thirds of pastors whose churches were open for in-person worship in January saw attendance of less than 70 percent of their January 2020 attendance,” McConnell said in a Lifeway analysis of the data. “Many of these pastors are wondering if those who haven’t returned ever will. Nine in 10 churchgoers plan to when it is safe to do so.”

Among young adults ages 18 to 29, 43 percent say they’ll attend church more often than they did prior to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, 54 percent of all churchgoers say they’ve grown “closer to God” during the pandemic. Twenty-seven percent say they’ve become “much” closer to God.

Among other findings:

  • 87 percent of churchgoers attend the same church as they did in January 2021.
  • 5 percent have switched to a new church in their area.
  • 83 percent watched at least one streamed service in place of an in-person service during the past year.
  • 32 percent watched at least 18 streamed services in the past year – an eight-fold increase from similar data in 2019.

“The faith of most churchgoers remains resilient despite a year filled with much uncertainty and fewer options for meeting in person with others from church,” McConnell said.

Michael Foust | ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor

THIS IS WHY YOU MUST NOT JOKE WITH HAVING A SECRET PLACE – Apostle Joshua Selman Nimmak

Admin
-
0
THIS IS WHY YOU MUST NOT JOKE WITH HAVING A SECRET PLACE – Apostle Joshua Selman Nimmak

To have a secret place, that’s where God comes to meet with you. That’s where he tells you things he cannot tell any other person. The reason why you don’t hear God is because you are not used to his voice in the secret place. He has not trained you to hear him. So you hear everything and you call it him(God).

I was counseling a couple,… last week and, the mother was outside and the father came in with the daughters, they were listening to me and they held their little baby. As soon as the baby shouted from outside the mother identified the voice and came to check what was happening with the baby.

And I said, koinonia that’s intimacy because there is a union, that baby is sucking from the same mother there is interaction. The mother did not train herself to hear the voice. She was implicated by that koinonia. So anywhere, that day there were many people, even families with their children, but when she heard her own(child) she came for the child. He(Jesus) said my sheep, hear my voice, my sheep, hear my voice.

Meaning if you cannot hear his voice, find out whether you are his sheep or not. Don’t assume you are his sheep. Assumption is costly in the school of intimacy. You must verify that there is contact between you and God.

There are Pastors that don’t pray, so they get angry. They think the manifestation of the power of God is magic. There are dimensions impartation will not give you. You must dig your well by yourself. You must create an altar, a system. You must gain mastery in the realm of the spirit. You must be used to the spiritual communication that has been activated, it’s like a tailor-made system of God reaching you.

Franklin Graham: The Voice Of God Can Never Be Canceled – Part 2

God must know how to reach you on serious information. God must know how to reach you on trivial information. He must train your organs of interaction with the realm of the spirit. That place of training is the secret place. I will never trade anything for my time with him(God). That’s where men are built.

That’s where there is an exchange.

Nabal Died Because He Did Not Remember “OTHERS”

Admin
-
0
Nabal Died Because He Did Not Remember “OTHERS”

And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.

And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, WHO IS DAVID? AND WHO IS THE SON OF JESSE? THERE BE MANY SERVANTS NOW A DAYS THAT BREAK AWAY EVERY MAN FROM HIS MASTER. SHALL I THEN TAKE MY BREAD, AND MY WATER, AND MY FLESH THAT I HAVE KILLED FOR MY SHEARERS, AND GIVE IT UNTO MEN, WHOM I KNOW NOT WHENCE THEY BE? So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.

1 Samuel 25:4-12

Some people have a proud attitude towards “others”. It is important not to look down on anyone. Prisoners, handicapped people, the blind, the deaf, the maimed, the sick, the homeless, the hungry, foreigners, widows, orphans and the unfortunate are all precious to God.

The church, God’s people, Christians, pastors and God’s servants are also precious to God. You must be careful when dealing with these groups of people.

Nabal’s attitude towards David’s servants reveals an unfortunate attitude towards “others”.

David simply asked Nabal to remember him and his men in the day of his prosperity. He reminded Nabal that he had come in a time when everything was wonderful and working well. “Please give us a very small percentage of your wealth so that the men who have helped you so much over the last few months can have a little meal.”

But Nabal’s answer was laced with a harsh, unfeeling and arrogant attitude.

“Who is David?” he asked.

There are many rebellious and worthless fellows out there!

How can I take my bread, water and meat and give it to a group of stupid and irrelevant people.

To Nabal, “others” were stupid and unimportant people. But Nabal was wrong! Nabal was the fool! Nabal was the worthless and rebellious man of Belial. That was his wife’s testimony about him. His wife called him a fool. It is important for wives to make an accurate diagnosis about the man they are married to. Indeed, it is important for all spouses to come to a proper and accurate assessment of the person they are married to. This will help you to deal wisely and appropriately with the person you are married to.

And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, REGARD THIS MAN OF BELIAL, EVEN NABAL: FOR AS HIS NAME IS, SO IS HE; NABAL IS HIS NAME, AND FOLLY IS WITH HIM: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

1 Samuel 25:23-25

Nabal died because he failed to help “others”. God struck him down and gave his wife to someone else. It is important not to see others as worthless and stupid people.

It is important to see others as important people God has sent you to. It was Nabal who was a drunkard and who destroyed his life through drinking. He had the arrogance to call others worthless and rebellious people. Nabal was shocked when he discovered that he was the big fool.

And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that HIS HEART DIED WITHIN HIM, and he became as a stone.

1 Samuel 25:36-37

There is no need to die because you forget “others”! “Others” are important to God. You will live because you honour others. You will be blessed because you remember “others”. You will prosper because you remember “others”. You will become a “darling boy” because you remember “others”. You will become a national hero because you remember “others”.

This book is God’s revelation to you about “others”. God is showing you what is important to Him! God is showing you how your life will be transformed just by thinking about “others”. God is showing you that the way to greatness, fame and honour is by remembering, helping and caring for “others”!

by Dag Heward-Mills

1...535455...157Page 54 of 157