Amy Schneider—a biological male who identifies as female—has usurped a biological female to become the “woman with the highest overall earnings” in the history of Jeopardy!

Larissa Kelly, the biological female who previously held the title, congratulated Schneider on the accomplishment.

Well, it was fun to hold a Jeopardy record for a few it’s been even more fun to watch @Jeopardamy set new standards for excellence, on the show and off. Congratulations to Amy on becoming the woman with the highest overall earnings in the show’s history!

— Larissa Kelly (@Larissa_K_Kelly) December 24, 2021

Schneider gladly accepted the accolades and the title as the highest-earning “woman.”

Thanks so much, I’m honored to be in your company, and I look forward to some day watching the woman who beats us both!

— Amy Schneider (@Jeopardamy) December 24, 2021

The transgender contestant has won 20 games, raking in $768,600 in earnings—outstripping the $655,930 previously earned by Kelly.

Schneider addressed being transgender on “Jeopardy!” in a Twitter thread posted in late November.

To read the rest of this story, please visit our content partners at Faithwire. {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2021 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

A Texas couple is lucky to be alive after an early-morning house fire on Christmas took all of their belongings—except the family Bible.

WOAI-TV reports that Robert and Darla Voigt’s mobile home in San Antonio is a total loss after flames tore through it Saturday.

“I always thought this will never happen to me… that’s a lie,” said Robert.

They said it’s a blessing that everyone is OK, and what was left behind in the rubble, some might even call miraculous.

Reporter Amanda Henderson from News 4/Fox San Antonio tweeted images of the devastation and what remains of the family’s home. Fighting back the tears, Darla holds up their Bible.

“Not one page is burnt in the Bible. Not one page,” Robert told the news outlet.

To read the rest of this story, please visit our content partners at CBN News. {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2021 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

When making a New Year’s resolution, Americans take a bit of advice from the beloved 1987 film The Princess Bride.

“If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.”

Just under half of Americans (44%) said they have made resolutions in the past to address their health, according to a new survey from Lifeway Research, an evangelical group based in Nashville, Tennessee, that studies matters of faith and culture.

Fewer Americans say they have resolved at past New Year’s to address their finances (29%) or their relationship to God (29%). Other topics for resolutions have included a relationship with a family member (26%), time usage (22%), work (18%) or a relationship with a friend (15%).

But while they are less religious than older Americans, younger Americans were more likely to have made resolutions about God, according to Lifeway. A third of those 34 and under (35%) or 35 to 49 (35%) said they made such resolutions. Those from 50 to 64 (25%) or those 65 and older (17%) were less likely to do so.

Frequent churchgoers also are more likely to make a resolution about God, while Black Americans (41%) are more likely to have made a resolution about God than white Americans (27%).

The unaffiliated—also known as “nones”—were much more likely to have made a resolution about money (36%), time (29%) or work (22%) than about God (14%).

“The COVID-19 pandemic may have forced or encouraged more people to make changes outside of the annual reminder a new year brings,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “But a New Year’s resolution is still something most Americans have made at some point in their lives.”

Resolutions about health also topped a recent Economist/YouGov survey of 1,500 Americans, which asked about resolutions for the year 2022. In that survey, about a quarter of Americans who plan to make 2022 resolutions said they will resolve to live healthier (23%), followed by those who want to improve their happiness (21%), lose weight (20%) or work on career goals (16%) or finances (13%). Fewer plan to make resolutions about issues such as improving relationships (11%) or exercising (7%).

Almost no one (2%) resolved to drink less.

The Economist/YouGov survey also found that just over a third of Americans (38%) believe life will be better in 2022 than in 2021, while 14% said it will be worse. The Economist/YouGov survey did not ask about God.

In the 2021 Lifeway survey, based on interviews with 1,005 Americans, and which had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points, young adults—those under 35—were more likely to make resolutions. Americans over 65 were less likely—with 54% saying they’d not made a resolution about any topic Lifeway asked about.

Among self-identified Christians, those who go to church less than once a month were less likely to make a resolution (44%) than those who go more frequently. Protestants (33%) were more likely to have made no resolutions than those who are religiously unaffiliated (24%) or those from non-Christian religions (22%). {eoa}

© 2021 Religion News Service. All rights reserved.

Follow breaking news like this on our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

Walking along Paris’ famed Champs-Élysées this week, actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the television series The Chosen, tells CBN News that he’s humbled by how God is using the show to touch millions of people around the world.

“Do you often pinch yourself realizing the magnitude of the role that you are playing and how well the show has done?” CBN News asked.

“I don’t know if I pinch myself, I’m more ‘bow my head to the ground’ because I never feel that I’m worthy of the things that are happening as a result,” Roumie replied.

Three years after its premiere episode, the series now hits television screens for the first time across France airing on one of this country’s top TV channels.

“To be on a major network is a first,” said Katherine Warnock, one of the show’s producers. “We love our platform; we love having a free app that’s available to the whole world, but to be embraced by Canal + has been such an honor.”

Roumie and cast members joined 500 people for a showing of The Chosen at a Paris movie theater ahead of next week’s broadcast, many watching it for the first time.

“It was different from other films about Jesus, it was just fantastic, I can say,” said another.

To read the rest of this article, please visit our content partners at CBN News. {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2021 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

The Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority discovered ancient treasures from two shipwrecks off the coast of Caesarea in Israel. According to Jacob Sharvit and Dror Planer of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Marine Archaeology Unit, “The ships were probably anchored nearby and were wrecked by a storm.”

The artifacts included a special gold ring engraved with the figure of the good Shepherd. The theme of the good Shepherd is throughout the Bible; in the Old Testament, Isaiah 40:11 (NIV) says, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.”

The image is also one of the earliest and oldest images used in Christianity for symbolizing Jesus as humanity’s compassionate shepherd. Jesus even called himself a shepherd, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

The ring was discovered near the port of Caesarea, a site of great significance in Christian tradition as it was one of the earliest centers of Christianity and housed one of the first Christian communities. At first, only Jews belonged to this community, and it was here that the apostle Peter baptized the Roman centurion Cornelius in Caesarea Acts 10.

To read the rest of this story, please visit our content partners at CBN News. {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2021 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Follow breaking news like this on our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

Thursday night, right before Christmas, set your eyes on the skies to see something that astronomers say will never pass this way again.

Comet C/2021 A1, better known as Comet Leonard, will make a close approach to Venus after passing by the Earth just a few days ago.

According to Arizona University’s A News, the comet can be seen low in the southwestern sky just around sunset.

But the comet will come so close to Venus Thursday night that its discoverer likened it to a “cosmic close call.”

“There is a small chance Venus will pass close enough to the comet’s path where it may pick up some dust grains in its atmosphere, producing a meteor shower on our neighboring planet,” Gregory Leonard, a senior research specialist at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and the discoverer for whom the comet is named.

While scanning the night sky last January, Leonard discovered the comet while looking for near-Earth asteroids.

The tail of the comet was a dead giveaway, he said. Another incredible feature is how fast it’s moving. According to Star Walk, the comet is traveling at the speed of 43 miles per second. Due to its speed, the comet’s position will change every day when observers view it from the Earth.

Leonard told A News he encourages anyone who’s interested to try to view the comet in order to see an effect called forward scattering. He explained that as the comet comes closer to the sun, the comet’s tail and “coma”—a cloud of dust and gas—may scatter the sunlight from behind, potentially dramatically enhancing the comet’s brightness.

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2021 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

For anyone who might doubt or underestimate the power of annual church Christmas shows to transform hearts and minds, look no further than Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, where 1,114 people recently came to faith.

The church, led by Pastor Jarrett Stephens, saw a remarkable outpouring of faith commitments while running its annual Christmas Spectacular show from Dec. 8-12, the Baptist Press reported.

Something incredible happened each night during the show—a powerful spectacle with music, lights and awe-inspiring performances—when Stephens shared the gospel and asked people to hold up the flashlight on their cell phones if they had, indeed, decided to accept Jesus.

In the end, more than 1,100 lights shined bright, symbolizing these stunning personal commitments to allow God to transform individual hearts and minds.

“God is moving, and to Him be the glory. It is all about Him,” Stephens told Baptist Press. ‘I’m amazed, and our team is blown away by the response.”

Champion Forest Baptist Church also posted a statement on YouTube noting how church members are “still picking [their] jaws up off of the floor after seeing God move like never before” inside the church.

To read the rest of this article, please visit our content partners at . {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2021 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

Who know that grammar could bring you into deeper relationship with Holy Spirit? After preparing to write her most recent book, Your Friendship With Holy Spirit, Sarah Bowling does. As a part of her study, she went through Romans 8, which mentions the Holy Spirit more than 20 times.

“And what I did was I looked at each of the verbs associated with each mention,” the Bible teacher and daughter of Marilyn Hickey tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast network. “What does Holy Spirit do? And how do we participate in that?” Her goal, she says, was to help people—no matter where they are in their relationship with Him—move into deeper intimacy and connection with this often-neglected member of the Trinity.

“We have the idea of having a relationship with a father; we think of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit,” Bowling says. “And we think of relationship with Father—that’s not hard to get our head around somewhat. At least we have the theory of it. And then Jesus is good, because we have the Gospels, and that’s helpful … When you start talking about a relationship with the Holy Spirit, it gets misty, kind of cloudy.”

Bowling explains that all the verbs In Romans 8 that describe the Holy Spirit’s work are present tense, which in the Greek means they stand for an ongoing activity.

“The first verb is ‘to walk,’ and it’s the Greek word parapeteo,” Bowling says. She says she appreciates Paul’s use of a verb that describes such a common activity because “that brings the Holy Spirit out of the mystical—’Hey, let’s just take a walk. We’re just going to walk today.'”

“The second verb that Paul talks about is ‘to dwell’ and letting Holy Spirit dwell in us. That’s the word oikeo in Greek, and that has a rich context. It’s not the same as ‘abide,’ but it means ‘to make a home together,’ and so letting Holy Spirit make His home in us. I think that’s a rich, rich thing to pray and consider.

Another of the verbs Bowling discovered in the Romans 8 passage is “to lead. “Those who are the sons of God are led by Holy Spirit, Romans 14, and that’s the Greek word augo,” she says. “And that’s a really powerful word … it’s real simple in the sense that when I’m walking with Holy Spirit, when I let Holy Spirit lead me from identity. It’s a lot more powerful than insecurity. Because I don’t think a lot of times we walk and we let Holy Spirit lead us … out of insecurity, out of fear, out of uncertainty, out of desperation. But I think Holy Spirit says, ‘I want to ground you in who you are. And you are My son; you are My daughter. And because of that, that’s why I can lead you—not for any other reason.”

For much more from Sarah Bowling on how to grow in true intimacy with the Holy Spirit, listen to the entire episode of Greenelines at this link, and subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform. Find Bowling’s book, Your Friendship With Holy Spirit: An Interactive Guide to Growing Your Relationship With God, wherever fine books are sold, and listen to her podcast, Sarah Bowling: Living Genuine Love, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

Many people start off their marriages living in a fantasy world. But it doesn’t take long for those fantasies to come crashing down.

“These fantasies that we had were actually expectations for our marriage,” Phillip Fields tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. He says fear, which he calls “the No. 1 enemy in marriage,” must be addressed for a marriage to thrive—but it’s not the ultimate key. Phillip and his wife, Darlena, tell Greene that true marital success only happens through personal transformation.

“You get into these moments where stress increases and conflict erupts,” Phillip says. “What’s happening is that our fear buttons are being pushed. … They’re things that we believe that our spouse is not fulfilling.”

He adds that although it’s our responsibility to find the origin of those fears and the beliefs that fuel them, once that is accomplished, “It’s more about personal transformation than it is working on the mechanics of marriage. And so the place that all of us have to start is that if we want a better marriage, then we have to look at what we’re contributing and how we’re showing up.”

“Statistics have shown that during the pandemic, divorce has risen, and spouse abuse has risen,” Darlena adds. “When we’re working and we’re busy and doing all the things in our busy American lives, we can stay hidden behind the busyness. When we’re stuck at home alone, the masks come down. …. And we have to deal with who we really are and see our spouses for who they really are.”

The Fieldses’ book, The Unperfect Marriage, and podcast, The Unperfect Podcast, both deal with the type of personal revival and transformation they say couples need to thrive today. After all, Darlena says, you don’t get to change your spouse. “It doesn’t work that way,” she says. “And so what we have to do is we have to start within, and that’s where the growth takes place. … We model what it looks like to step into hard things and do hard things, have courage and take risks.

“On the other side of the risk is always a great reward,” Darlena says. “The dream marriage is waiting on the other side of your risk.”

For much more from Phillip and Darlena Fields on how God can bring you through a personal revival that will transform your marriage, listen to the entire episode of Greenelines here, and subscribe to Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network for more inspiring stories like this one. Find The Unperfect Marriage wherever fine books are sold, and check out the Fieldses’ The Unperfect Podcast, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

What do you do when your 4-year-old develops a life-threatening illness?

If you’re a believer, you pray. And that’s what Tom Clark’s mother did—to a miraculous result, he tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network.

“When my mother first realized I had something wrong, she brought a doctor; the doctor just didn’t diagnose it properly,” Clark says. We’ll just give him some aspirin and put him to bed; he’ll be fine,” the doctor told the family. “And the next day, I had turned purple and stiff.”

At that point, his mother brought in another doctor, who diagnosed him with spinal meningitis and took him to the hospital. Back in the 1950s, there was little they could do for this disease, especially since it had been developing for a few days. But they gave Clark sulfa drugs, and he broke out in hives.

“There’s nothing we can do,” doctors told his mother. So she got down on her knees. And God responded with a miracle.

Clark knew of his recovery, but he didn’t learn about his mother’s prayer until he was an adult and hosted eight prophets, all speakers at a prophetic conference, in his home. “They asked my mother all these detailed questions about why, what happened,” he says. “It turns out that she prayed the prayer of Hannah. She was raised Catholic, and she said, ‘I don’t care, whatever you do to me or anything else, I commit his life to you.’ And I was the firstborn son of her family. And that was like a tithe in a sense.

“And she, in her Catholic sort of understanding of things, she was praying to God, and just committed my life to Him, as Hannah prayed for Samuel,” Clark says. “And the next day, I was completely healed.”

To hear more of Tom Clark’s story of miraculous healing—and the vision God gave him of that powerful moment—listen to the entire episode of Greenelines at this link, and subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring stories like this one. Make sure to listen to Clark’s own podcast, The Father’s Heart, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.