Several people were killed and numerous others injured in New York City on Tuesday afternoon after a vehicle drove down a bike path that runs alongside the Hudson River in Manhattan, police said.

The striking of pedestrians by a vehicle in lower Manhattan on Tuesday was being treated as a terrorist attack, two U.S. government sources said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the New York City police department in investigating the incident, the sources said.

The New York City Police Department, in a post on Twitter, said that one vehicle struck another, then the driver of one of the vehicles “got out displaying imitation firearms and was shot by police.”

Police said the suspect was taken into custody.

A police spokesman posted a photo showing a white pickup truck on the bike path with its front end smashed. The truck had the logo of the Home Depot hardware store chain on its door.

An witness told ABC Channel 7 that he saw a white pick-up truck drive south down the bike path alongside the West Side Highway at full speed and hit several people. The witness, who was identified only as Eugene, said bodies were lying outside Stuyvesant High School, one of the city’s elite public schools.

He also reported hearing about nine or 10 shots, but was not sure where they came from.

A video apparently filmed at the scene and circulated online showed scattered bikes on the bike path and two people lying on the ground.

City Hall said Mayor Bill de Blasio had been briefed about the incident. The office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the governor was heading to the scene. {eoa}

© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.

“We hear them speaking in our own languages the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11b).

We charismatics tend to focus on the upper-room experience of Pentecost, where they spoke in tongues as evidence of the infilling with the power of the Holy Spirit. But when they went out into the streets the other miracle of Pentecost was the ability to be heard and understood by the people. It took both the power of the Holy Spirit and the ability to be heard and understood to give birth to the church at Pentecost. Now, after centuries of division, the church needs a new Pentecost of hearing and understanding to come together to reach the world as Jesus prayed in John 17:23.

This new Pentecost of hearing and understanding was poured out last week as many leaders of the church gathered in Kansas City at the Kairos 2017 conference to dialogue, worship and pray together. They heard and understood charismatic tongues, Catholic tongues, Eastern Orthodox tongues, evangelical tongues, Messianic tongues and Protestant tongues. There were black tongues, white tongues, Asian tongues, Spanish tongues and English tongues celebrating the diversity of the church. Many were healed of diseases as the power of the Holy Spirit followed the miracle of hearing and understanding.

Kenneth Copeland exposed Satan’s plan to turn diversity of tradition, race, gender and age into division and hatred. Catholic Cardinal Di Nardo likened church division to the wounds of Christ, and urged Christians to abide in unity with each other and with Christ. One by one, the 40 leaders gathered at Mike Bickle’s Forerunner Church urged Christians to repent of division, reconcile, unite and bring healing to the nation. As Lou Engle, one of the participants, has said “Only a united church can heal a divided nation. “You can view the entire meeting at k.

Forty years ago, the largest ecumenical meeting in history was held in Kansas City. It culminated in the prophecy that the body of Christ was broken because of our divisions. Many believe that God is sending an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a new generation picks up the mantle to bring the broken body of Christ together.

Join us as we pray for a new Pentecost of hearing and understanding to bring unity to the Body of Christ and revival to the nation. {eoa}

Ron Allen is a Christian businessman, CPA and author who serves in local, national and international ministries, spreading a message of reconciliation to God, to men and between believers. He is founder of the International Star Bible Society, telling how the heavens declare the glory of God; the Emancipation Network, which helps people escape from financial bondage; and co-founder with his wife, Pat, of Corporate Prayer Resources, dedicated to helping intercessors.

Faith alone will get you eternal life—but discipleship requires an additional step. That’s what Pastor Tony Evans says in this guest sermon at Gateway Church. In this short clip, Evans outlines what it means to draw power from God and why discipleship requires more than just getting saved.

Christian comedian Tim Hawkins thinks it’s funny that Christians ask God to bless all food—even ridiculously unhealthy food. This short video will have you laughing at the absurdity of this common Christian practice.

Once again, the government has treated Christians praying as if it were some kind of radioactive contaminant.

Two private high school Christian football teams planned to pray before a championship game and wanted to use the public-address system to do so, but the state athletic association said no. Their reason: transmitting a Christian prayer would violate the “separation of church and state.”

Worse still, a federal trial judge agreed with the state. Enough is enough. Stop treating prayer like asbestos.

In 2015, Cambridge Christian School of Tampa and University Christian School of Jacksonville, both Christian private high schools, were poised to face off in the 2A state championship football game held at the famous Citrus Bowl. Cambridge Christian School had a tradition of saying a prayer before the game. Both schools agreed to hold the traditional pre-game prayer and broadcast it over the loudspeaker.

This is when the government stepped in to mute their religious speech. The Florida State High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) denied their request to use the loudspeaker. They did not say it was based on a neutral policy that no non-state official could use the sound system.

Instead, they denied the student’s right because they claimed it would violate the “separation of church and state.” They even claim that broadcasting the team’s prayer would mean the state was itself doing the praying.

They are wrong. And we’re taking action. We have just filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in support of the schools before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. We make three straight forward common-sense constitutional arguments.

First, it is simply not true that every message the government allows becomes “government speech.” Obviously, a message from the coaches urging sportsmanship, like a graduation speech from a guest honoree, would not be the government itself speaking.

Second, the Supreme Court has never held that private persons speaking on their own behalf constitutes government endorsement of religion. In fact, the Supreme Court has repeatedly distinguished between government speech endorsing religion, which is an Establishment Clause problem, and private speech endorsing religion, which is constitutionally protected.

Third, the state’s actions actually violate the free speech rights of the students. By denying private Christian prayer solely because it would be religious, FHSAA has engaged in outright “viewpoint discrimination” in violation of the First Amendment.

It is time to stand up and fight back against the blatant attack on prayer. This anti-Christian bigotry has spread like a virus across campuses and school systems throughout our country.

At the ACLJ, we are fighting in defense of the freedom of religion every day. We are defending the rights of Christians to pray and Christian judges to be confirmed to the bench. We continue our fight to defend the rights of a Christian student denied college admissions solely based on his Christian faith, now heading to the Supreme Court.

Enough is enough. Let Christians pray. With your continued support, we at the ACLJ can continue our fight to defend our first freedom. {eoa}

For the original article, visit .

VidAngel (), the market-leading entertainment platform empowering users to filter language, nudity, violence and other content from movies and TV series on Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO—using modern streaming platforms such as iOS, Android and ROKU—launched a new platform in June 2017 that continues to grow in popularity. VidAngel also launched VidAngel Studios this year, its original series, Dry Bar Comedy, is a huge hit on the platform, consistently ranking among the most viewed and most popular content among users.

Today, VidAngel is releasing new data—based on its exclusive filtering technology—revealing that Netflix’s Stranger Things, Season 2, contains a significant increase in mature content over Season 1.

“A landmark Parents Television Council study revealed that the popular streaming services contain heavy amounts of content that are not safe for kids and lack adequate parental controls, concluding that providers should more closely partner with VidAngel. This data demonstrates one reason why so many families are using VidAngel to filter their Netflix account,” said Neal Harmon, VidAngel CEO, “VidAngel users are absolutely watching Stranger Things, Season 2, and are filtering out the elements they don’t want their kids to see or hear. Without these filters, many parents would choose not to watch, so VidAngel’s technology is a win for parents, a win for kids, and a win—in this specific case—for Netflix, who now has more people viewing its content.”

The Parents Television Council found that “children have easy access to adult content, in part, because the parental controls are lax or non-existent” on the leading streaming video platforms. Over-the-Top or a Race to the Bottom: A Parent’s Guide to Streaming Video assessed and graded the robustness of the parental controls and the availability of child- or family-appropriate programming on the most popular Over-the-Top (OTT) streaming devices including Apple TV, Amazon FireTV, Google Chromecast and Roku, and the most popular Streaming Video On Demand (SVOD) services: Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix.

VidAngel’s filtering data indicates that the new season of the Netflix original series, Stranger Things, contains the following increases in mature content:

●        43 percent more sexual content

●        43 percent more alcohol and drug use

●        40 percent more language (curse words, blasphemy, crude language)

●        28 percent more violence and gore

VidAngel is an independent service and is not affiliated with or sponsored by Netflix.

Have you ever tried sharing the gospel with someone—only to be stymied by their objections to the book of Genesis? Don’t lose heart; there’s good news for evangelism-minded believers. Though Darwin’s ideas still reverberate through our culture, the progress of science has identified fresh challenges to Darwin’s theses. And these challenges are straightforward enough that anyone can understand them.

Analogies are the key. Let’s say we’re discussing a different historical question—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that JFK died because of a single shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald. How might I challenge the evidence for this claim? If I told you that, in retrospect, we now know that this 50-year-old study had access to only 15 percent of its subject matter, you might reconsider the 1964 claims. Let’s say that they were unaware of 85 percent of the suspects we recognize today. Should we still trust their conclusions?

Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not advocating for a conspiracy theory. I’m testing you to see what it would take to change your view of an established narrative.

The parallels between JFK and Darwin might not be obvious at first glance. So let’s dig a little deeper. Darwin’s question was not one of killers or of political intrigue. Darwin wanted to understand biology. Specifically, Darwin wanted to find the answer to the question of the origin of species. Though professional biologists still debate the precise definition of the term, the concept is intuitively obvious. Even children know the difference between camels and giraffes, between horses and cows, and between moose and tigers. Each of these six animals represents a species. Darwin claimed to have discovered the key clues to how they arose.

How could anyone challenge his conclusions? The same way I just challenged the narrative on JFK. With respect to Oswald, I invented the percentages of suspects, for purposes of illustration. With respect to Darwin, we know with confidence what Darwin knew and what he didn’t. While we don’t have access to his inner thoughts, we know precisely the state of scientific knowledge in the late 1800s. In short, in 1859, the scientific community knew of only 15 percent of the species that we know today. In other words, Darwin wrote a thesis on a topic where 85 percent of the subject matter was unknown. If Darwin was aware of so few of his subjects, how could he hope to access the evidence on their origins?

A second analogy reveals another fatal handicap for Darwinian evolution. Let’s say you and I have a strong interest in medicine. We both want to cure diseases and improve human health. Let’s further say that we live in an era when no one has yet examined a cadaver. Could we intelligently discuss the human muscular system? The nervous system? The digestive system? Would we have any hope of understanding why cancer occurs and why it can cause death?

When Darwin tried to penetrate the question of species, he tried to answer a fundamentally genetic question. Let’s dig deeper again to see why this is true. Today, we recognize species by their traits—tigers by their stripes, giraffes by their necks, camels by their humps. But these traits are passed on to each subsequent generation. In other words, species are defined by traits, but traits are defined by inheritance. If you want to know the origin of species, you need to know the origin of the traits that define them. To know the origin of traits, you must know the rules of inheritance that define these traits.

In 1859, the scientific community knew virtually nothing about inheritance. DNA was not recognized as the substance of heredity until 1953—nearly 100 years after Darwin wrote the Origin. The DNA code for various species was not cracked until very recently. Darwin tried to answer a question long before its time.

The next time you share the gospel with someone who brings up Darwin, ask them two questions. Ask the person if they know that Darwin had access to only 15 percent of the species we recognize today. Then ask them why Darwin would write a book on a genetic topic long before anyone had access to genetic data. I think your listener will have to stop and reconsider his views. If they’re willing to dig deeper, apologetics resources abound. {eoa}

Nathaniel Jeanson has a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University and is the author of Replacing Darwin: The New ‘Origin of Species.’

I heard the Lord say: “I am raising up a Jephthah generation of men to be pillars in the next great awakening. These men will be full of valor and be the complete personification of masculinity. They will be men after My own heart and they will be fully confident in who they are in Me and they will have a heart for the children, and the children will have a heart for them. They will instruct sons in how to be men, and the sons will take over where the Jephthahs left off.”

The Spirit spoke clearly to me that “In the beginning. I made man in My image and likeness. and I took Eve out of Adam. Male is fully to be male and female is to be fully female. I am releasing the call to awaken the men of God in My house!

“There has been a falling away of masculinity in My house. and I am raising up a new breed of Spirit-filled masculine saints of God who will step up to the plate and lead their homes and be a rock for their communities.

“I am bringing forth a revival of manliness back into My house. Men will act like men and will not be overtaken by Ahab any longer. These men will love their families with their full heart. They will honor their wives and be chivalrous once more. These men will lead Bible studies and be the first to volunteer in their churches. Oh, I am calling forth the real men to stand up and see My goodness!

“An awakening of masculinity will take place in My house, and these men will come alongside My intercessors. No more will it be only those who are female that war in intercession for Me. I am releasing the Jephthah generation on men.

“Just as Jephtha’s very name means ‘to open,’ I will use these men to help open the next move of My Spirit.

“The men I am raising up will not consult their pasts to decide their futures. These men will have a confidence in themselves that only comes from Me. I will magnify My anointing on their lives so that all of those who are ’empty’ with no purpose or goals in life will be drawn to these Jephthahs. They will become transformed in their heart and in their purpose. When people see the once-’empty’ men who were with no vision and no ambition changed into leaders and pillars in their society, they will seek out answers from them. These men will share their faith in Me with a boldness like a lion, and they will once again steer head a local church evangelism movement that will produce disciples of valor.

The Spirit said, “The men who walk in My strength will be slow to speak and quick to hear. These men will not be social media gossips or cause confusion with My people. My heart will be clear through them. The Jephthah anointing will cause men to mean what they say and say what they mean. These men will be leaders, and kindness will be at the forefront. Yes, masculinity will once more be celebrated in America. The warriors are rising. … the Jephthah generation is waking up; Men who are men and men who are after My own heart. These men will see My goodness and will lead from that vantage point. The awakening of the Jephthah generation in men will start as men see my goodness. As they truly behold how much I love them and love others, they will arise to being valiant and bold. Just as Jephthah lived in Tob (Good) These men will see that I am good in all things, and their hearts will be smitten and transformed to be strong in Me and the power of My might. The men are rising up. … pillars in My house.”

Jephtha was a mighty man of valor, and he also had the honor of being listed in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11.

Jephtha was used by God in spite of his background, for he was born from a harlot. In Judges chapter 11:1-8, the story unfolds…

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. Gilead’s wife also bore him sons. His wife’s sons grew up and drove Jephthah away. They said to him, “You will not inherit anything from our father’s house because you are the son of another woman.” So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Men of ill repute gathered around Jephthah and went out with him.

Some time passed, then the Ammonites waged war with Israel. When the Ammonites waged war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob. They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader so that we may fight the Ammonites.”

Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now that you are in trouble?”

The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Even so, we have turned to you. Come with us and fight the Ammonites. You will be ruler over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

This story shows that Jephtha was the born in the midst of abandonment. He was the son of a harlot, and Gilead was his father. As Jephtha grew, his half-brothers literally pushed him out of his home and out of his inheritance.

Jephthah was known as a mighty man of valor, but he didn’t become that way until he faced persecution and the left foot of fellowship and was rejected by his peers. He went to a land called Tob, and men whom the Bible denotes as “worthless” came unto him to be part of his raiding band of misfits.

What is amazing in all of this is that he went to a land called Tob which literally means “good.” The “worthless” fellows who came to him literally mean “empty.” 

There is no doubt that Jephthah walked out his life as a masculine man of valor, and what is masculinity?

Many have differing opinions of what “masculinity” means, but true masculinity is found in King Jesus.

King Jesus is the masculine gospel. “Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Johnny Cash described manliness this way: “Being a Christian is not for sissies. It takes a real man to live for God—a lot more man than to live for the devil.” Manliness takes a stand even when the stand isn’t popular. The Jephthas are rising up to live without shame or fear for King Jesus.

King Jesus proved that true masculinity is seen in laying down your life for someone other than yourself. True masculinity is being courageous in the midst of adversity. Masculinity is what makes a man a man and there has been an attack on manliness in the modern church.

In the modern church, the ladies are the ones who volunteer the most. They serve as the main intercessors, and the males shy away from prayer. The ladies are even the first ones many pastors call on to volunteer, because they know that they will step up to the plate and help lead the church, because many of the men aren’t committed to serving.

This goes on while many men sit in the church pew not feeling confident to step up and serve or in all actuality have no desire to lead because they would rather be on the golf course, at the football game or behind a video game controller wasting time while their wives serve in a leadership capacity at the local church. This grieves the Father! 

Many young men in church are less motivated to move out of their homes, and many lack the confidence or ambition to dream big. It has been said that the greatest generation as we know it was the generation that fought during World War II. These men and women knew what it meant to be masculine and feminine and in doing so, they rallied our great country to victory.

It seems that today in the modern church, many young men have succumbed to Ahab, and they lie around feeling sorry for themselves and have the entitlement mentality that they deserve something for which they did not work. These same young and even older males want everyone to pursue them instead of them pursuing others. In relationships these males want the female to come after them, and even in job-hunting, many expect the jobs to just pop right out of thin air.

Many women are frustrated today because they all are looking for real men and haven’t been able to find them. That is all about to change. God is restoring men to His original intent: to be leaders and providers in their communities, representing God’s heart to their families and sphere of influence.

Men of God are rising up and not shying away from embracing their masculinity. Men will be men once again in the body of Christ. The Jephtha awakening has begun. {eoa}

Scott Nary was born the son of a coal miner in West Virginia. He has worked in the NFL, NBA, NHL and NASCAR as a trainer and chaplain. Scott travels throughout the world activating the body of Christ in New Testament Christianity and has seen many salvations, deliverances and miracles through his ministry. Through his ministry, 420 Fire, he is establishing apostolic groups throughout the world for the purpose of training in spiritual gifts, discipleship and kingdom reigning in all spheres of influence, which are available to every believer. Crossing denominational lines, his mandate is true unity in the body of Christ through the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. Through practical teaching, demonstration and application, thousands of believers have been activated in the gifts of the Spirit.

Scott is a graduate of the Reinhard Bonnke School of Evangelism and resides in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Visit .

“We hear them speaking in our own languages the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11b).

We charismatics tend to focus on the upper-room experience of Pentecost, where they spoke in tongues as evidence of the infilling with the power of the Holy Spirit. But when they went out into the streets the other miracle of Pentecost was the ability to be heard and understood by the people. It took both the power of the Holy Spirit and the ability to be heard and understood to give birth to the church at Pentecost. Now, after centuries of division, the church needs a new Pentecost of hearing and understanding to come together to reach the world as Jesus prayed in John 17:23.

This new Pentecost of hearing and understanding was poured out last week as many leaders of the church gathered in Kansas City at the Kairos 2017 conference to dialogue, worship and pray together. They heard and understood charismatic tongues, Catholic tongues, Eastern Orthodox tongues, evangelical tongues, Messianic tongues and Protestant tongues. There were black tongues, white tongues, Asian tongues, Spanish tongues and English tongues celebrating the diversity of the church. Many were healed of diseases as the power of the Holy Spirit followed the miracle of hearing and understanding.

Kenneth Copeland exposed Satan’s plan to turn diversity of tradition, race, gender and age into division and hatred. Catholic Cardinal Di Nardo likened church division to the wounds of Christ, and urged Christians to abide in unity with each other and with Christ. One by one, the 40 leaders gathered at Mike Bickle’s Forerunner Church urged Christians to repent of division, reconcile, unite and bring healing to the nation. As Lou Engle, one of the participants, has said “Only a united church can heal a divided nation. “You can view the entire meeting at k.

Forty years ago, the largest ecumenical meeting in history was held in Kansas City. It culminated in the prophecy that the body of Christ was broken because of our divisions. Many believe that God is sending an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a new generation picks up the mantle to bring the broken body of Christ together.

Join us as we pray for a new Pentecost of hearing and understanding to bring unity to the Body of Christ and revival to the nation. {eoa}

Ron Allen is a Christian businessman, CPA and author who serves in local, national and international ministries, spreading a message of reconciliation to God, to men and between believers. He is founder of the International Star Bible Society, telling how the heavens declare the glory of God; the Emancipation Network, which helps people escape from financial bondage; and co-founder with his wife, Pat, of Corporate Prayer Resources, dedicated to helping intercessors.

Embraced – Official Trailer from Eyes of the Heart Films on Vimeo.

America doesn’t have orphanages; it has foster homes. And there is something that broke open in me when we became foster parents. When I would pray about the things I wanted to do for Jesus, this verse has meant so much to me: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27).

But somehow, I didn’t really know its depth until we stepped out in faith to become an open home to children in distress. For the most part, children in the foster care system have some existing family. Some are not orphans and we work very hard to help reunify them with their families who are going through crisis and who need loving support while they get back on their feet.

But within those “for the most part” children, they are so many that are emotionally left as orphans. Feeling rejected by their own or not valued enough by their own is as damaging and heartbreaking as not having living relatives at all. And then there are currently more than 100,000 children awaiting adoption within the United States foster care system who have been waiting to be adopted for years, with no one to permanently give them a family.

The magnitude of this great need in our nation’s own backyard has gripped our hearts. What would it look like if everyone in the church adopted or supported the orphans in their own neighborhoods? My husband, Matthew, and I asked ourselves this same question before we were married.

We knew we wanted to live out what God the Father had done for us. God chose us, loved us and adopted us into His family through the gift of Jesus. He redeemed our past and showed us that we were created for His great purposes on this earth.

These children, in most cases, are lost and have no hope. They don’t have an invested parent to show them their identity and they don’t know what their place is in this world. Before Christ, we were all these children. And while we were lost in that place, God chose us—not because we were good or because He needed us. But He chose us because He loved us.

In the same way, we choose these children not because they are good or because we need another child. We choose them because we are called to love them and adopt them while they are in their struggle. Because Christ did the same for us.

We believe the body of Christ was meant to live out the gospel in this way for the orphan. It’s this simple: we get the honor of doing what we have seen God the Father already do for us. Adoption is the fullness of the gospel.

Having adopted three kids so far after fostering, my husband and I carry this enormous, sacred dream to bring the entire church along with us in caring for the orphan. In January of this year, we were approached by our dear friends, Cara and Matt Hunter of Eyes of the Heart Films, about making a film on the spirit of adoption. We said yes.

Our prayer is that the church will see the children Jesus has blessed us with and be moved by God to realize that they can foster, support or adopt, too. If we can do it, then you can do it. We are ordinary people who want to live out the gospel—nothing more.

Eyes of the Heart Films describes its newest release by saying, “Embraced is a documentary film that declares God’s heart for the orphan and His desire for the church to live out the gospel through the gift of adoption.”

They say further: “Through this powerful story of a child longing for a family and a mother aching for a child, it declares the beauty of the gospel message through adoption and foster care and presents the question: ‘What would it look like for the church to embrace adoption?'”

For both the filmmakers and our family, our desire is that this film will awaken the church to embrace the spirit of adoption as a biblical way to live out the gospel message.

Later this year, the entire Embraced film will be released free online. Please watch the new trailer and pray about answering the cry of the orphan in your own city. {eoa}

Since 2008, Natalie Brumfield has served as Birmingham chapter leader for Bound4LIFE, a grassroots movement to pray for the ending of abortion and for revival worldwide. She often volunteers at a local pregnancy care center and is actively involved at Church of the Highlands. Natalie and her husband, Matthew, live in Birmingham, Alabama; they love being adoptive and foster parents.