The Old Testament is full of prophecies that detail everything from warnings to the coming Messiah to the end of the world. But do you know the very first one? Carl Gallups explains it all in this video. Check it out.
The National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 3, 2018, will focus on prayer for unity in America, announced Dr. Ronnie Floyd, the organization’s president.
In a leadership summit with regional coordinators and leaders of the prayer movement, Dr. Floyd announced the theme for next year’s National Day of Prayer: “Pray for America – Unity.” The theme is anchored around Ephesians 4:3, which says, “Be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
“The mass shootings that have rocked Las Vegas and recently Sutherland Springs, Texas; the terrorist attack that killed eight people in Manhattan; the natural disasters that have swept from the East to the West Coasts; the escalating racial tensions and confrontations in our cities and the political division and polarization that has divided the nation beyond anything any of us has ever seen all tell us that America is yearning for peace and unity,” said Dr. Floyd.
“The spirit of the age appears to be ruling in this hour. America needs God now more than any time in our history,” Dr. Floyd said. “And there’s no higher calling for the church in America than to be the unifying force our fractured society so desperately needs.”
Leading up to the National Day of Prayer, Dr. Floyd, who was appointed as the organization’s president in August, is calling Christians of all stripes to pray for the next Great Awakening in America.
“The National Day of Prayer must become a multi-church, multi-denominational, multi-ministry, multi-generational, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual movement of prayer for America,” said Dr. Floyd. “I believe deeply that as the church goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the rest of the world. If the church does not see revival, the country will never see it either.”
“In our generation, there has never been a time more than today when the National Day of Prayer has been needed more,” Dr. Floyd added.
This past September, when President Trump declared a National Day of Prayer for the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and the Southeast, Dr. Floyd prayed on national television. Dr. Floyd’s prayer was watched live on TV and online by millions of people in America. Recently, Dr. Floyd also traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met and prayed with Congressional leaders, including Speaker Paul Ryan.
Under Dr. Floyd’s leadership, the National Day of Prayer is growing into a prayer movement that mobilizes millions of Americans to unified public prayer for the United States.
“Government cannot fix us. Politics will not heal us. The hope for America is to experience the next Great Spiritual Awakening,” Dr. Floyd said. “Only God can heal America and mend our fault lines, and the church must lead with fervent and faithful prayer.”
The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, the law was unanimously amended by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on Thursday, May 5, 1988, designating the first Thursday of May as a day of national prayer. Every president since 1952 has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation.
Next year’s National Day of Prayer, May 3, 2018, will mark the 30th anniversary of President Reagan signing the amended law into effect.
In 2017, an estimated 2 million Americans observed the National Day of Prayer in over 30,000 events, organized by 40,000 volunteers in all 50 states. Additionally, the National Day of Prayer was also observed in some way in over 80 countries.
A graphic for the 2018 National Day of Prayer theme and photographs of Dr. Floyd are available here.
This week marks one year since President Donald Trump was elected in a shocking, historical contest that is still making headlines today.
And although the election astounded many, New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Cahn says the outcome could be found in an ancient Middle-Eastern paradigm from nearly 3,000 years ago.
In his new book, The Paradigm: The Ancient Blueprint That Holds the Mystery of Our Times (),
In The Paradigm, out for just over a month but debuting in the top five of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal book charts, Cahn makes ties between President Trump and the ancient king of Israel Jehu, a reformer of sorts who sought to right the wrongs of those before him.
“[Jehu’s] championing the cause of nationalism will at times compete with his intentions to carry out God’s will,” Cahn writes in The Paradigm. “As with Jehu, Trump’s cause was also one of nationalism. At times, that cause could be consistent with Scripture but not always. Thus it would at times compete with his ability and intentions to fulfill the will of God.” The hope for Trump years, Cahn writes, is that they “will not only slow the nation’s descent but also that they will provide the chance for a massive spiritual and cultural returning to God. Apart from such a return the nation’s overall course of apostasy and descent will continue.”
Trump’s victory in the presidential election represented a profound change, Cahn says. It averted the sealing of America’s apostasy. And it provided a wide-open door for evangelical leaders and believers to impact the nation. Conversely, the weight and inertia of America’s moral and spiritual descent would mean that for such a return to take place would be nothing short of miraculous and that apart from such a return there would be nothing but descent.
“America was at a critical juncture in the election of 2016,” Cahn continues. “And then, as with Jehu’s surprise ascendancy, everything was turned on its head. What does it mean for America? What did it mean for ancient Israel? There are patterns in Scripture concerning a nation’s progression to judgment: The nation in apostasy from God is given warning, even shaking, but also reprieves.
“Likewise, the rise of Jehu provided a reprieve for Israel. But what was the purpose of that reprieve? It was to give the nation a chance to turn back from its course, to avert judgment and to return to the God of its foundation. It was to give God’s people a period of time in which to call to the Lord as many as would come. … A political answer cannot solve a spiritual problem. But it can open a window through which that answer can come. On the other hand, a political turning without a corresponding spiritual turning will end up in failure or calamity. As for the desire to make America great again, the only way America can be great again is for America to return to the God who made America great in the first place. The answer is in repentance, return and revival.”
The Paradigm, which topped all the major best-seller lists, reveals a newly uncovered master blueprint and ancient template that foretells many events of modern history. The Paradigm also removes the veil behind the leaders, governments, events and scandals of modern times. Its disclosures are so detailed and its revelations so precise that it even speaks of events before they happen.
Cahn, who caused a stir throughout America and the globe with the release of his instant New York Times best-seller The Harbinger, which sold over 2 million copies, followed that earth-shattering work with The Mystery of the Shemitah and The Book of Mysteries, also New York Times best-sellers. In fact, the mysteries of the immensely popular The Harbinger continue and are intertwined with the mysteries of The Paradigm.
The Paradigm is published by Frontline, an imprint of Charisma House.
Frank Pomeroy and his wife, Sherri, were out of town on Sunday when a gunman took their little church by storm, opened fire and killed 26 people, including their 14-year-old daughter.
“We had a long night with our children and grandbabies we have left,” Frank said, tears choking his voice.
Watch the video to see their full remarks.
Steve Strang, founder and publisher of Charisma Magazine, tells CBN News the attack on a Texas church “just shows we’re in a spiritual war.”
Twenty-six people were killed Sunday morning at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs after a gunman walked into the church and opened fire.
Authorities say Devin Patrick Kelley of New Braunfels, Texas was dressed in black combat gear and was carrying a Ruger AR assault-type rifle during the attack.
“There’s such things as demons, and nobody ever wants to talk about it except when it’s somebody like him; maybe he was demon-possessed. We can only speculate what might have been done. But there are people like that in our country that are just out of control,” explained Strang.
“The Las Vegas shooter was the same thing,” said Strang, referring to Stephen Paddock who killed 58 people and wounded more than 500 in an attack on a concert in Las Vegas last month.
While evil may seem to rule the day, Strang said Christians have spiritual power to counter it.
“The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers,” he said.
Strang went on to say, “We know that when people pray, I mean going all the way back to the Scriptures, things happen. Now it doesn’t always happen the way that we want it or in the way that we think that God should do it. But we believe that God answers prayer.”
Meanwhile, he is hopeful that God will use the tragedy for good: “All we have to do is be firm in our faith,” he said.
“I hope the fact that it was a Baptist church, and they’re talking to Christian people who are telling them about their faith and quoting Scriptures and so forth, hopefully something good can come out of this,” Strang said.
Click here to watch the interview. {eoa}
Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., All rights reserved.
The nudist movement has been preaching social nudity for ages and has made headway in beaches, campsites and pools. Now, nudists are invading local restaurants.
Paris just opened its first-ever naked restaurant. Named O’nature. The restaurant is publicly open to the publicly nude. The rule is to drop your clothes at the door before you’re seated in one of the 40 chairs.
This news didn’t surprise me, but what did was my subsequent research on Christian nudists. Yes, they exist. In fact, there is a Christian nudist movement called Naturist Christians. I won’t link to the website due to its graphic nature.
“When seeking to educate and promote our values, we have found that sometimes seeing examples means more than anything else. Here we present photos of people living their lives naturally, without clothes, without shame, and as God created it,” the site reads.
Christian nudists theologies are another perversion of God’s Word. God may have created man naked, but He Himself created clothes of animal skin for mankind after the fall (Gen. 3).
After that moment, nakedness largely carried a shameful connotation. When Noah got drunk and lay uncovered in his tent, for example, his sons Shem and Japheth walked into the tent backwards to cover him rather than looking upon his nudity (Gen. 9). Ham, by contrast, looked upon his father’s nakedness and did nothing. That resulted in Noah cursing him.
Nakedness is also mentioned in a negative context in Exodus 20:26, Isaiah 47:3, Ezekiel 16:35-36, Luke 8:27, Revelation 3:17, Revelation 16:15 and several other Scriptures. The pattern is clear: Nudity outside the marriage bed is a disgrace.
Indeed, there’s a demonic influence to the nudist movement, and it’s especially troubling to see Christians embracing it. Luke 8:27-31 makes the connection to an unclean spirit evident:
When He stepped out on land, a man from the city who had demons for a long time met Him. He wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I plead with You, do not torment me.” For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. It often had seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles. But he broke the shackles and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.
Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him not to command them to go out into the abyss.
How did Jesus address this nudist? By casting the devil out of him!
This is all part of the tsunami of perversion I wrote about in 2015. Let’s pray that those who are walking in deception will break free, and those who are free now will not fall into deception.
Billy Graham turns 99 on Tuesday, having spent over three-quarters of his life preaching the gospel. He begins his 100th year as one of the most admired men in America.
“As a family, we are just so very grateful that he is still with us,” Franklin Graham said. “His mind is good, but he’s quieter these days. He can’t see or hear well, but his health is stable. … I know my father is grateful for all the prayers for him and birthday wishes on this special occasion.”
Family will be with Mr. Graham as they celebrate with his favorite cake—a lemon cake with lard icing—and the Billy Graham Library will have cake for everyone who visits on Tuesday.
“Also as my father enters his 100th year, for the year leading up to his 100th birthday, we are going to honor what God has done through him by highlighting significant moments of his life and some eight decades of ministry,” Franklin said.
“The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is moving strong into the future, but it’s also important to celebrate the past.”
Each month leading up to Mr. Graham’s centennial birthday will highlight significant points in his ministry, with special content featured on and in Decision magazine.
“My father always wants the focus to be on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on him; and so we will point to the amazing ways God has worked in lives around the world, through the ministry of Billy Graham,” Franklin said.
On Mr. Graham’s birthday, the BGEA is taking a moment to remember his humble beginnings and celebrate where God has taken him.
When Billy Graham was 15, his father and other businessmen in their hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, gathered on the Grahams’ dairy farm to pray for revival in their city—specifically that God would raise up someone from Charlotte to spread the gospel worldwide.
It wasn’t until later that year, 1934, that Billy Graham dedicated his life to Jesus Christ after hearing traveling evangelist Mordecai Ham.
By the time he graduated high school, the young Billy Graham wrote in his yearbook, “My hopes and plans for the future is to serve God and do His will as a minister of the gospel.”
Decades later, Mr. Graham has preached that gospel to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history—nearly 215 million people in over 185 countries and territories. He spends most of his days now at his quiet home in the mountains of Montreat, North Carolina, yet the influence of his ministry continues to impact millions through the ongoing outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
“I am not a great preacher, and I don’t claim to be a great preacher,” he once said. “I’m an ordinary preacher, just communicating the gospel in the best way I know how.”
It was the 1949 Los Angeles Crusade that brought this farm-boy-turned-evangelist into the public eye at age 30. Those tent meetings scheduled for three weeks lasted for more than eight weeks as crowds continued filling a gigantic canvas tent downtown night after night. By the end, Mr. Graham had preached to over 400,000 people.
Over the years, God has allowed Mr. Graham to be part of some incredible moments in history. He visited soldiers in Vietnam at Christmastime, was invited behind the Iron Curtain before the fall of Communism, became pastor to the presidents and in 1973, held his largest crusade in Seoul, South Korea, which drew over 3 million people.
1973 was also a notable year for Mr. Graham in South Africa, where he refused to hold crusades until those meetings could be integrated—and finally were in Durban and Johannesburg. Two decades earlier, he personally removed the ropes that segregated the crusade audience in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In the past 60-plus years, BGEA has heard from thousands of people across the globe who have been touched by Mr. Graham’s ministry. People who were saved at his crusades, people whose parents deepened their relationship with Christ through hearing him on the radio, people who watched him on TV with their grandparents. They send letters, leave comments online and share their stories with BGEA staff.
But Billy Graham is quick to divert attention away from himself.
“If anything has been accomplished through my life, it has been solely God’s doing, not mine, and He—not I—must get the credit,” he has said.
In 1950, BGEA was founded to support and extend the evangelistic calling of Mr. Graham. What began in a one-room office building in Minneapolis is now a global organization based in his hometown of Charlotte.
Today, BGEA uses every effective means available to tell others about Jesus. That happens through live events, like Franklin Graham Festivals and Will Graham Celebrations; through the ministry of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains who deploy to disasters; through My Hope films; and through TV, radio and social media. BGEA’s internet evangelism ministry, Search for Jesus, reaches millions and gives online visitors an opportunity for discipleship.
We thank God for all the ways he has guided Mr. Graham over the past 99 years and pray for His guidance in this ministry in the years to come.
As Mr. Graham once said, “I am just a spectator watching what God is doing.” {eoa}
© 2017 BGEA
Twenty-six shot to death by a deranged gunman whose in-laws attended the church. It’s more than half the congregation wiped out in mere minutes. Among the victims were children, elderly and a pastor’s daughter.
Fellow Texas Baptist pastor Jack Graham’s heart broke for the wound in the body of Christ.
“When you face such evil and tragedy as we are facing once again in our country, this extreme kind of violence, things that cannot be explained, things that certainly break our hearts, there’s only one thing to do,” the Prestonwood Baptist Church pastor says. “And that is to cry out to God, run to Jesus. It is Jesus who said, ‘In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.'”
Graham isn’t the only one clinging to the Lord during this hardship. Here’s what some other people are saying:
Michael Brown, radio personality and cultural commentator
This is a time to mourn and weep, not to get into political debates. Let’s focus first and foremost on the agony of this small community, going to God on their behalf. And then let’s intercede for our nation. We are very sick and in desperate need of the Lord.
Daniel Norris, traveling evangelist
From the massacre in Las Vegas, to the terror attack New York, and now to assault in the small town of Southerland Springs we see that evil knows no bounds and we are all at risk. Our nation descends deeper by the day.
This was not my reality as I grew up, yet I find myself raising kids for which it is. I’m saddened. I am angry. I grieve. I hurt.
Today I see shouts from many that say, “Enough with your thoughts and prayers. Obviously, your prayers are not enough!”
No, prayer alone is not enough. Prayer is where we must all begin. And we have yet to do that. We must fall to our knees in true prayer and then we need much action from the pew. Our world hurts around us, because it remains a unhealed. It remains unhealed because we have withheld its healing. No more!
Today is not the day to secure ourselves within the church house, but to secure our cities through much prayer and a true display of the gospel. It remains our only hope!
Pat and Karen Schatzline, authors of Rebuilding the Altar
Our hearts were so deeply broken by the horrific shooting that took place at First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas. The lives that were lost at the hands of a demon-possessed man gained a greater reward called heaven, and we know according to Romans 8:28 that only Jesus can turn this horrible tragedy into “good.” Satan foolishly thinks he won a victory, but we know that Jesus reigns (1 Tim. 1:17). We know that God is our strong tower (Prov. 18:10), and that God will bring perfect peace to the precious families (Is. 26:3). Now is time for the church to be the church. Let us not allow this terrible tragedy to just become a part of the 24-hour news cycle. Instead, the bride of Christ must cry aloud and spare not (Is. 58:1). We must come together and lock arms for a spiritual awakening in our nation. We must draw near to God and He will draw near to us (James 4:8). In these last days the vigilance of the church will be that we must keep our light shining and the gospel message ablaze. Our prayer is that souls will be saved in the coming day. Lastly, let us not forget as we hold our families close each day that through Jesus we have won the victory! Fear has no hold on the children of God!
Gary G. Dull, executive director of the PA Pastors Network
As a pastor, my heart goes out to pastor Frank Pomeroy, who has a very heavy burden in trying to support, strengthen and rebuild his broken congregation. We must all pray for him, as well as for the rest of his congregation, the church leadership, family members of the victims, the entire Sutherland Springs community and churches across America. In time, God will heal the broken hearts of those involved as Psalm 34:18 teaches: “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.”
I offer the following suggestions in light of the shooting in Texas:
- Christians across America must pray earnestly for the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas and their leadership as they work to recover from this tragedy and endeavor to strengthen the congregation.
- Every church must make efforts to have qualified security teams prepared to protect the congregation that gathers to worship, no matter the size of the congregation.
- We all must recognize we are in a spiritual battle and are not just facing flesh and blood but the evil forces of Satan that desire to bring fear and destruction into the hearts of all people.
- We must remember that God is in control and will always work to perform His perfect will and purpose in our lives as we trust Him to provide for us.
- We should acknowledge that Christians will suffer persecution, which will become even more intense as we draw closer to the return of Christ, according to 2 Timothy 3:12.
- We must all be vigilant and alert as to what is going on around us and be prepared for anything that may come our way, according to 1 Peter 5:8.
Pray for pastor Frank Pomeroy and the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Doug Grane, co founder of Serviam
Evil is evil. Whenever. Wherever. For a mass shooting to occur in a house of worship is beyond words. Prayers for the victims, their families and the community. The culture in our nation must improve. Life is sacred.
Frank Amedia gave Donald Trump a prophetic word that may have sealed the presidency, according to Charisma Founder and CEO Steve Strang.
Amedia told Strang he gave Trump the prophetic word in an envelope that Trump was to read on the plane trip to Florida. While the information was previously off the record, Amedia agreed to let Strang report it in his book, God and Donald Trump, due out Nov. 7.
“The prophetic word is in the book, but I can summarize it by saying, ‘If you humble yourself before the Lord, you will be the next president of the United States,’ along with some Scriptures.”
Watch the video to see more.
Now in their 32nd year, Good News Communications, Inc. and Movieguide® are the largest, longest-running international, non-profit ministry dedicated to “redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and by informing and equipping the public about the influence of the entertainment media.”
Movieguide®’s Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala honors the best, most family-friendly movies and television programs honoring God and inspiring audiences with messages of faith, hope, goodness, justice, redemption, forgiveness and true divine love. At the Awards, Dr. Baehr presents highlights from Movieguide®’s Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry, a comprehensive financial analysis of the movie business showing what kinds of movies and what kinds of movie content moviegoers favor the most with their hard-earned money.