This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Whyte House Daily Devotional Bible Reading Episode #132. Where I read three chapters of the Holy Bible in the King James Version each day with my family as a part of our family devotions, to encourage you to read the Holy Bible in a year’s time. Today we are reading Deuteronomy 10, Psalm 53 and 1 Timothy 6.

Woodrow Wilson said, “I am sorry for men who do not read the Bible every day. I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and pleasure.”

John Stott said, “Christians who neglect the Bible simply do not mature.”

Deuteronomy 10
1 At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood.

2 And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.

3 And I made an ark of shit’-tim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand.

4 And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me.

5 And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.

6 And the children of Is’-ra-el took their journey from Beer’-oth of the children of Ja’-a-kan to Mo’-se-ra: there Aa’-ron died, and there he was buried; and El-e-a’-zar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead.

7 From thence they journeyed unto Gud-go’-dah; and from Gud-go’-dah to Jot’-bath, a land of rivers of waters.

8 At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Le’-vi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.

9 Wherefore Le’-vi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him.

10 And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also, and the Lord would not destroy thee.

11 And the Lord said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.

12 And now, Is’-ra-el, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.

15 Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of E’-gypt.

20 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.

21 He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.

22 Thy fathers went down into E’-gypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

Psalm 53
To the chief Musician upon Ma’-ha-lath, Mas’-chil, A Psalm of Da’-vid.
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.

2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.

5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.

6 Oh that the salvation of Is’-ra-el were come out of Zi’-on! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Ja’-cob shall rejoice, and Is’-ra-el shall be glad.

1 Timothy 6
1 Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.

2 And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.

3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Je’-sus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;

4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,

5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

13 I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Je’-sus, who before Pon’-tius Pi’-late witnessed a good confession;

14 That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Je’-sus Christ:

15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. A’-men.

17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;

19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

20 O Tim’-o-thy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. A’-men.

________

PRAY
________

When I was a teenager I wanted to get wisdom and knowledge, so I set out to read the big family Bible that many families had in those days. But I couldn’t get past Genesis 2 before I got bored with reading the Bible. I found out later in life that you have to believe on Christ and get saved before you can understand the Bible. So here is how I became a Christian and how you can too:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18:8: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now that is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and today I choose to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and I choose to follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

If you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior today, please email me at [email protected] and let us know. There is some free material that we want to send you. If you have a prayer request, please e-mail that to us as well, and we will pray for you until you tell us to stop.

God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.

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A team from CBN’s Operation Blessing (OB) just traveled to Vietnam to help an area under a 14-day quarantine. It includes a dorm that currently houses more than 4,000 people.  

Local officials told members of the OB team they expect another 5,000 people will have to move into the same dorm. 

OB is providing masks, hand gels, gloves, soaps, milk, instant noodle soup, and medical suits for the frontline team helping others through the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Vietnam is now encouraging its citizens to shelter in place and not travel to other villages, towns or cities.  The communist country has said it wants to stop the spread of the coronavirus by April 15. 

FOR CBN NEWS CONTINUING COVERAGE ON COVID-19, CLICK HERE. 

COVID-19 has swept the globe with sickness, fear, and economic fallout. Many healthcare workers, first responders, and ordinary families are left susceptible to infection from the coronavirus pandemic. But thanks to YOU, Operation Blessing is able to protect the most vulnerable all over the world.

In Vietnam, you are providing gallons of chlorine, N95 masks, and other critical resources to health workers in their desperate time of need.

To learn more about how you can bless those fighting for their health, visit www.ob.org/covid19.

Do You Know About Blessings Magazine? 

Blessings is a monthly publication sharing timely, inspiring stories of Operation Blessing’s humanitarian relief efforts for families in the United States and around the globe. These stories share the hope families receive thanks to the compassion and generosity of Operation Blessing partners.

Operation Blessing provides strategic relief in dozens of countries around the world. Through core programs of disaster relief, medical care, hunger relief, and clean water, OB is dedicated to demonstrating God’s love by alleviating human need and suffering in the United States and around the world.

Read how your gift helps others in the US and around the world.  Read past issues from the Blessings Magazine archives here. 

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World Vision U.S. President Edgar Sandoval Sr., like many Americans, has been working from home in recent weeks. But he continues his mission to help vulnerable children and families across the globe during the coronavirus epidemic.

World Vision staff are working with church volunteers — responding simultaneously for the first time in this country and globally — to provide needed food and supplies and help faith leaders train local communities on ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The evangelical Christian humanitarian organization estimated it has helped about 4.3 million people worldwide with coronavirus preparations. It plans to reach 5 times that number in the next six months.

In the U.S., staff and volunteers have helped more than 2,700 children and adults with emergency aid since March 20. They’ve also provided much-in-demand health supplies — tens of thousands of masks, gloves and gowns — to U.S. health care workers.

Sandoval, who describes himself as a “Bible-based Christian” who attends nondenominational churches, spoke with Religion News Service on Wednesday (April 1) about the challenges ahead.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This is probably the most uncertain and concerning situation that World Vision has faced in our 70-year history. But just like other challenging emergencies of the past, in these uncertain times, World Vision is bringing prayer, kindness and action to combat fear, aimlessness, loneliness.

We believe that every small act of courage and love does more than just stop the spread of fear. We actually replace it with hope, and that’s why, from the onset, we have been responding across the world and right here in the U.S.

Internationally, we started responding from the outset in China. We declared — the very first time in our history — the first global emergency response. We’re responding in every region that we operate at the same time. We are scaling our response to 17 priority countries.

Day-to-day life in the Ebola-affected community of
Moyamba, Sierra Leone, in 2014. Photo courtesy of
World Vision

We are particularly concerned about vulnerable children, such as refugees, displaced children and those living in communities where infrastructure and access to health systems are weak.

We’re aiming to reach 22.5 million people in the next six months, and, while that’s a huge challenge, what I can tell you emphatically is our long history has prepared us for such a time as this. We’re drawing on the lessons that we’ve learned in responses to things like HIV pandemics, Zika, Ebola outbreaks.

And one of the core learnings is that vulnerable communities need to be mobilized and the faith leaders, they make all the difference. They can be a powerful force in stopping the spread of COVID-19, just like they were in previous pandemics.

In Sierra Leone in 2014, World Vision worked with faith leaders to help with things like how to bury people the appropriate way — safe burial practices and other ways to protect the family. They helped to mobilize entire communities.

Despite being in the epicenter of the outbreak, not one, not one of 59,000 World Vision-supported children and their families died during that outbreak. And today those same faith leaders that we trained back in 2014, they’re already mobilizing on their own, and we continue to train more to be prepared for the crisis.

I tell you what’s on my mind: the tightly built, overcrowded and sanitarily weak places like refugee settlements, slums, shantytowns, barrios.

And here’s the thing: While you and I can choose not to travel or go to music recitals or sporting events, those ultra-vulnerable folks are being asked to go home to those overcrowded sanitarily weak places. I think they’re much more at risk than we are.

Source: Religion News Service

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The FBI released a warning last week about a potential surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Michelle Ami Reyes was not surprised.

Reyes told Religion News Service that she knows people from her church in Austin, Texas, who have been spit on. She also knows people who have been chased down the street to shouts of “coronavirus.”

“A lot of what ministry on the ground lately has looked like is caring for people who are experiencing racism and the grief and the pain and the trauma that comes from that,” said Reyes, who planted Hope Community Church in Austin with her husband.

Reyes, who is Indian American, said she’s experienced that kind of racism herself.

Jeff M. Liou has experienced it, too.

Liou, national director of theological formation for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said racist graffiti recently was painted near the church he attends.

“We know it’s affecting the people that we care about, and it’s affecting us directly,” Liou said.

“Many of us have been speaking out against this kind of stuff for a long time and have felt the need to call our leaders to account and invite them to join us. The way things are going right now just reached a breaking point for some of us.”

That’s why Reyes, Liou and other Asian American Christian leaders recently published the “Statement on Anti-Asian Racism in the Time of COVID-19.”

The statement already had gathered about 6,800 signatures online as of Thursday (April 2) morning.

Raymond Chang, a campus minister at Wheaton College outside Chicago, said he began messaging with Liou and Pastor Gabriel J. Catanus late last week, sharing instances of anti-Asian racism they’d seen and experienced in recent weeks.

After the campus minister added Reyes and others to his group chat with Catanus and Liou, it blew up, Chang said. In a matter of days, they had a statement, something Chang suggested they write because, he said, “the church has been silent on this.”

“As Christians, we felt like it was kind of like our duty to stand in the gap for other people and to intercede and to advocate as Christ advocated for us,” he said.

They also had launched the Asian American Christian Collaborative, which organizers hope will be a home for Asian American Christians and continue to equip the church long after the statement makes its impact.

“There hasn’t been a home for a biblically informed and grounded space for Asian American Christians,” Chang said. “It’s been something that’s on my heart for a couple of years, and so this just seemed to be a galvanizing point for something like that to take shape.”

Source: Religion News Service

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It was a culture clash waiting to happen.

Almost as soon as Samaritan’s Purse assembled a 68-bed field hospital in Central Park’s famed East Meadow,  New Yorkers sounded the alarm about the evangelical humanitarian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham.

Pointing to the conservative Christian organization’s statement of faith, which all its health care specialists are expected to sign, they wondered if LGBTQ patients would be treated equally.

The 11-point statement of faith declares, “we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.”

Many New Yorkers were outraged. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said he found it “extremely troubling” that Graham’s organization was involved in the city’s relief effort, and Mayor Bill De Blasio, a champion of LGBTQ rights, was immediately pressed to ensure the relief organization was “truly consistent with the values and the laws in New York City.”

Franklin Graham has a long history of spewing anti-LGBTQ hate speech and I find it extremely troubling that he and his organization are involved in our relief efforts in any way. I will be monitoring this situation closely.

My full statement: pic.twitter.com/2cg6dHYHwA

— NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) April 1, 2020

Graham, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and a fierce supporter of President Donald Trump, immediately set out to clarify the matter. Although all Samaritan’s Purse heath care workers (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians) must sign the statement, he told Religion News Service: “We don’t discriminate against anybody we help.”

“We provide our services to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation. We don’t discriminate. Period.”

The field hospital housed in a series of white tents is intended as a Christian mission. The idea is to treat overflow patients from Mount Sinai Hospital as it grapples with a surge of coronavirus cases. The prestigious medical center on Fifth Avenue and 98th Street does not have oversight over the field hospital.

Some 391 people in New York state died of the coronavirus Tuesday (March 31) alone. That brings the total number of people in the state infected with the virus to 47,349, with about 12,226 hospitalized.

De Blasio said he would send people over from the mayor’s office to monitor the Central Park hospital. New York Attorney General Letitia James added in a statement, “We will remain vigilant to ensure discrimination does not occur at this — or any other — facility.”

New York City is regarded as one of the most LGBTQ-friendly cities in the United States. Last year, the city passed an ordinance that allows a third gender option, “X,” on birth certificates, giving transgender and gender-nonconforming city residents new recognition.

Samaritan’s Purse, the 50-year-old organization founded by Graham, who is also the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is used to working in more socially conservative developing countries. It is based in Boone, North Carolina, and hews to conservative evangelical beliefs.

The organization may best be known for its “shoebox ministry” that sends Christmastime packages filled with personal care items and small toys to needy children all over the world. But Samaritan’s Purse is equally as active in its disaster relief efforts.

Source: Religion News Service

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Hobby Lobby says it does allow employees to take paid time off if sick amid the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, despite criticism to the contrary, and will offer some pay to employees in the event of a store closure.

However, it remains to be seen whether the company will amend its policies to provide additional relief for workers who contract COVID-19, as some other companies have done.

The retail giant told Religion New Service in a statement that it provides both “vacation benefits and personal paid time off benefits to employees.”

“Personal paid time off benefits can generally be used for sick leave or other needs,” a statement from the company said.

Claims that the company was denying employees sick leave sparked frustration among some religious communities. The advocacy group Faithful America launched an online petition criticizing Hobby Lobby CEO David Green for “refusing to show the same decency” as other companies that have offered “employees enough paid sick leave for coronavirus treatment.”

As of Tuesday afternoon (March 31), the petition had accrued more than 15,000 signatures.

On March 23, Randy Betts, Hobby Lobby’s vice president of store operations, reportedly wrote an internal memo in which he stated that the company “is going to make every effort to continue working the employees” and that sick workers would either need to exhaust all paid time off and vacation time, or take an “unpaid leave of absence until further notice.”

The memo, which was first reported by Business Insider, followed a separate letter addressed to employees by Green, who founded the company.

In the letter, Green, who is an evangelical Christian, reportedly stated that God offered guidance to his wife during prayer and that while Hobby Lobby employees may need to “tighten our belts” in the near future, “God is in control” and “will guide us through this storm.”

Source: Religion News Service

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