Radical Hindu nationalists run rampant across India, damaging churches at an alarming rate…by Worthy News
But one church has recently risen from its ashes.
Back in February, Hyderabad’s Hindus had set fire to the thatched roof of Bethel Gospel Church; the church and everything inside was set ablaze.
“We are living in fear,” Pastor Christopher told International Christian Concern. “There have been continuous threats from the Hindu radicals. We Christians are treated as second-class citizens in this country.”
But with donations from ICC’s Community Rebuild Fund, the congregation of Bethel Gospel repaired the roof and walls damaged in the arson attack; ICC also helped replace carpets, the church PA system and the musical instruments that were also lost in the fire.
“ICC has come and rescued us,” Christopher said. “They also took an interest in visiting the church that was burnt to ashes. We are very encouraged knowing that ICC helped undo the damage caused by the Hindu radicals.”
Bethel Gospel Church again meets for Sunday worship and midweek services; the repairs have again made the church a more comfortable refuge for Christians who must daily endure persecution at the hands of Hindus.
A town in the north east of Nigeria is under an ‘Islamic caliphate’, according to Boko Haram’s leader which the Nigerian military denies…report by worthynews
Boko Haram’s leader said a town in the north east of Nigeria seized by the insurgents earlier this month has been placed under an Islamic caliphate, in a video obtained by AFP on Sunday.
“Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in (the town of) Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,” Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video.
The military however rejected the claim, saying in a statement the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact”.
In a July video, Shekau voiced support for the leader of the Islamic State and the Levant (Isil) militants Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in late June declared himself “the caliph” and “leader of Muslims everywhere”.
But there was no indication from Shekau in the latest video that he was associating himself with Baghdadi, whose Sunni Muslim fighters have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria.
As such, it was not clear if Shekau was declaring himself to be a part of Baghdadi’s call or if he was referring to a separate Nigerian caliphate.
In the 19th century, a Sokoto caliphate was proclaimed across most of modern-day northern Nigeria and was considered separate from other Islamic kingdoms, such as the Ottoman Empire.
Shekau – who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States – is shown in the video wearing military fatigues, with a Kalashnikov rifle strapped to his body.
He alternates between Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in the region.
He is pictured standing in front of three SUVs and flanked by four fighters, who are masked and armed. It is not clear when or where the video was filmed.
There was no indication that Shekau was actually in Gwoza for the filming and his whereabouts remain unknown but another unidentified fighter who speaks later in the video vowed that Boko Haram would keep control of the area.
“By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay,” said the militant wearing a green shirt and a white cap.
The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.
Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighbouring Yobe state.
Mapping the precise areas which have fallen into Islamist hands is nearly impossible.
There are few humanitarian workers on the ground in the northeast, travel is dangerous and the region, which has been under a state of emergency since May of last year, has poor mobile phone coverage.
Experts have described Boko Haram’s gains in recent weeks as unprecedented, saying the group was closer than ever to achieving its goal of carving out a strict Islamic state across northern Nigeria.
But many analysts believe the military still has the capacity to reverse the insurgents’ advance.
A major offensive launched when emergency rule was declared in May last year appeared to put the militants on the defensive.
Critics say top brass failed to sustain the pressure and allowed the Islamists to retake some of the areas they had abandoned.
A lack of adequate weapons for troops sent to fight the well-armed rebels has hampered the counter-insurgency and some soldiers this week refused to deploy to Gwoza without better gear in an apparent mutiny.
Reacting to Shekau’s video, defence spokesman Chris Olukolade assured that the military would secure Gwoza.
“Any group of terrorists laying claim to any portion of the country will not be allowed to get away with that expression of delusion and crime,” he said. “Operations to secure that area from the activities of the bandits (are) still ongoing,” he added.
After Shekau’s 25-minute speech, the video shows militant fighters on pick-up trucks firing rocket-propelled grenades and other heavily armed insurgents firing weapons as they walk calmly along the road.
The footage appears to show them taking over a military base, stealing weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition as well as fuel cans.
In one frame, a fighter stands on top of a tank, waving the Islamists’ black flag.
The end of the video apparently depicts scenes of grisly executions, similar to those released by Isil in recent weeks. Boko Haram have used similar tactics before, however.
In one scene, about 20 men in civilian clothing are shown with their hands tied behind their backs and lying by the roadside before they are shot at close range.
A second shows two men, whom Shekau said disguised themselves as women to escape the town, beaten to death with shovels. Two others similarly dressed are shot beside what appears to be a trench full of bodies.
America’s military and intelligence officers are pledging an even greater commitment to striking down the radical Islamic terrorist group ISIS…report by CBN News
This follows an international effort to track down those who killed American journalist James Foley and new threats to kill Steven Sotloff, the second American journalist being held hostage.
“We’re pursuing a long-term strategy against ISIL (ISIS) because ISIL clearly poses a long-term threat,” Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said.
“We’ll work with our law enforcement, our intelligence and our military, partners, to try to bring justice to the Foley family and bring the full force of the United States to bear on these savages,” FBI Direct James Comey said
The White House also released and defended details of an unsuccessful mission to rescue several Americans in Syria last month.
ISIS had demanded $130 million ransom for Foley, but the United States refused to consider it.
Meanwhile, the terrorist army has not only been trying to fill Americans with fear by killing Foley, they’ve also been doing it from inside U.S. borders.
In the last few weeks a photo tweet from an ISIS supporter in front of the White House was posted and a pro-ISIS banner surfaced at the Ferguson riots in Missouri.
But the danger may be more than just about a public relations war.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is just one of many who fear ISIS terrorists could have already entered the United States through the porous southern border.
“There is, I think, great concern, that the border between the United States and Mexico is unsecured and we don’t know who is using that,” Perry said.
“What I will share with you is that we’ve seen historic high levels of individuals from countries with terrorist ties over the course of the last four months,” he continued. “Individuals from ISIS and other terrorist states could be, and I think it is a very real possibility, that they may have already used that.”
The San Francisco Bay Area’s strongest earthquake in 25 years struck the heart of California’s wine country early Sunday, igniting gas-fed fires, damaging some of the region’s famed wineries and historic buildings, and sending dozens of people to hospitals…report by AP
The magnitude-6.0 quake, centered near the city of Napa, an oasis of Victorian-era buildings nestled in the vineyard-studded hills of northern California, ruptured water mains and gas lines, hampering firefighters’ efforts to extinguish the blazes that broke out after the temblor struck at 3:20 a.m.
Dazed residents who had run out of their homes in the dark and were too fearful of aftershocks to go back to bed wandered through Napa’s historic downtown, where boulder-sized chunks of rubble and broken glass littered the streets. Dozens of homes and buildings across the Napa Valley were left unsafe to occupy, including an old county courthouse, where a 10-foot wide hole opened a view of the offices inside.
College student Eduardo Rivera said the home he shares with six relatives shook so violently that he kept getting knocked back into his bed as he tried to flee.
“When I woke up, my mom was screaming, and the sound from the earthquake was greater than my mom’s screams,” the 20-year-old Rivera said.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for southern Napa County, directing state agencies to respond with equipment and personnel. President Barack Obama was briefed on the earthquake, the White House said, and federal officials were in touch with state and local emergency responders.
The temblor struck about six miles south of Napa and lasted 10 to 20 seconds, according to the United States Geological Survey. It was the largest to shake the San Francisco Bay Area since the magnitude-6.9 Loma Prieta quake struck in 1989, collapsing part of the Bay Bridge roadway and killing more than 60 people, most when an Oakland freeway collapsed.
Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, where an outdoor triage tent was set up to handle the influx, reported treating 172 people in the emergency room, although hospital officials could not say how many of them were there for bruises and cuts suffered in the quake and how many for more routine injuries and illnesses.
Twelve people were admitted for broken bones, heart attacks and other problems directly related to the earthquake, including an adult who remained in critical condition on Sunday night and a 13-year-old boy.
The teen was hit by flying debris from a collapsed fireplace and had to be airlifted to the children’s hospital at the University of California Davis hospital for a neurological evaluation. He condition was listed as serious, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Brown said.
Napa Fire Department Operations Chief John Callanan said the city had exhausted its own resources trying to extinguish at least six fires after 60 water mains ruptured, as well as transporting injured residents, searching homes and collapsed carports for anyone trapped and responding to 100 reports of leaking gas.
Two of the fires happened at mobile home parks, including the one where four homes were destroyed and two others damaged, Callanan said. A ruptured water main there delayed efforts to fight the blaze until pumper trucks could be brought in, he said.
Nola Rawlins, 83, was one of the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park residents left homeless by the fire. No one was injured in the blaze, but Rawlins said she lost all her jewelry, papers and other belongings.
“There were some explosions, and it was burning. Everybody was out in the street,” she said. “I couldn’t get back in the house because they told everybody to go down to the clubhouse, so I didn’t get anything out of the house.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Napa, said federal and state officials had conducted an aerial survey of the area, but they wouldn’t have a cost estimate for the damage until they can get on the ground and into buildings. He said that while Napa suffered the worst of it, there also was significant damage about 17 miles south on Mare Island in Vallejo, a former naval shipyard where a museum and historic homes were declared uninhabitable.
(Photo: AP/Ben Margot)
“It’s bad any way you calculate it. But it could have been a heck of a lot worse,” Thompson said.
While inspecting the shattered glass at her husband’s storefront office in downtown Napa, Chris Malloy described calling for her two children in the dark as the quake rumbled under the family’s home, tossing heavy pieces of furniture for several feet.
“It was shaking, and I was crawling on my hands and knees in the dark, looking for them,” the 45-year-old woman said, wearing flip flops on feet left bloodied from crawling through broken glass.
Sunday’s quake was felt widely throughout the region, with people reporting its effects more than 200 miles south of Napa and as far east as the Nevada border. Amtrak suspended service through the Bay area so tracks could be inspected.
Vintner Richard Ward of Saintsbury Winery south of Napa watched Sunday afternoon as workers righted toppled barrels and rescued a 500-pound grape de-stemmer that the quake had thrown to the ground.
“That’s what happens when you’re a mile from the epicenter,” said Ward, who lost 300 to 400 bottles in the winery’s basement.
The grape harvest was supposed to start overnight Monday, but it would now be pushed off a few days, he said. Had the harvest started a day earlier, the quake would have caught the workers among the heavy barrels when it struck, Ward said.
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, told an afternoon news conference some 90 to 100 homes and buildings were deemed not habitable.
A Red Cross evacuation center was set up at a church, and crews were assessing damage to homes, bridges and roadways. The Napa Unified School District said classes were canceled for students Monday and that students would not be allowed to return to schools until they were checked.
“There’s collapses, fires,” said Napa Fire Capt. Doug Bridewell, standing in front of large pieces of masonry that broke loose from an early 20th-century office building where a fire had just been extinguished. “That’s the worst shaking I’ve ever been in.”
Bridewell said he had to climb over fallen furniture in his own home to check on his family before reporting to duty.
Pacific Gas and Electric spokesman Jeff Smith said an assessment found that about 70,000 customers lost power after the quake hit, but that number was down to around 2,200 by 11 p.m.
The depth of the earthquake was just under seven miles, and it was followed by numerous small aftershocks, the USGS said.
On Sunday night in Southern California, a small, magnitude-3.3 earthquake hit off the region’s coast.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the temblor struck at 7:50 p.m. and was centered about 5 miles southwest of San Pedro and 6 miles southeast of Rancho Palos Verdes. There were no initial reports of damages, police said.
Bragging of sexual conquests, suggestive jokes and innuendo, and sexual one-upmanship all can be a part of demonstrating one’s manhood—especially for young men eager to exert their masculinity.
But how does masculinity manifest itself among young men who have pledged sexual abstinence before marriage? How do they handle sexual temptation, and what sorts of challenges crop up once they’re married?
“Sexual purity and pledging abstinence are most commonly thought of as feminine, something girls and young women promise before marriage,” said Sarah Diefendorf, a sociology graduate student at the University of Washington. “But I wanted to look at this from the men’s point of view.”
Studying a group of 15 young evangelical Christian men, Diefendorf learned that support groups and open discussions about sex with trusted companions were key in helping the men during their pre-marital years. But once married, they faced trouble.
Instructed by the church to keep problems “in the dark” after marriage, the men reported feeling that they couldn’t discuss sex with their friends and didn’t know how to comfortably broach the subject with their wives. The newly wedded men also expressed surprise that sexual temptations continued to taunt them.
Diefendorf presented her findings Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco.
At the start of her study, in 2008, the men were in their late teens and early 20s and part of a support group for young men who had pledged to remain virgins until marriage. The group was affiliated with a nondenominational evangelical megachurch in the southwestern United States that had about 14,000 attendees at Sunday services.
Over the course of a year, Diefendorf attended their meetings and conducted one-on-one interviews and focus-group meetings with the men.
The men talked about sex as both “sacred”—a gift from God meant for the marriage bed—and “beastly” if it occurs outside of marriage.
“To maintain this gift from God, they believe that they must control sex before marriage,” Diefendorf said. The support group is one way for the young men to explore their sexual urges, she said. Many of them opened up to struggles with pornography and masturbation, which some considered as “destructive” and a threat to their commitment to abstinence.
“People think that evangelical support groups are just about suppressing men’s natural urges, but really they are caring, supportive and safe space that allow men to have a remarkably open and frank discussion about sexual desire,” Diefendorf said.
Besides the support group, the men sought out accountability partners to help control their behavior. One of them, for instance, had an accountability partner who would text-message him each night, “Are you behaving?” Some of them used software to track which websites they visited and shared the results with the partner.
A few years later, in 2011 and 2012, Diefendorf followed up with the men. Fourteen of them were married, and she wanted to find out how the men’s views of sex and masculinity had changed since marriage.
During a focus-group meeting in one of their homes, it soon became clear that as taboo as sexual activity had been before marriage, it was now taboo to talk about sex, because it was seen as disrespecting their wives.
“After marriage, the church culture assumes that couples become each other’s support, regardless of the issue at hand,” Diefendorf said. “There’s little support in figuring out sexuality in married life, and these men don’t know how to talk to their wives about it.”
As one of the men put it: “For me to come home from work and say, ‘Hey, did you like it last time?’ I mean that would be—that would be such a weird question for me to ask.”
The newlyweds also revealed they continue to think of sex in terms of control, and how the so-called beastly elements of sex—temptations by pornography and of extramarital affairs—do not disappear with the transition to married life.
“Before you get married, the biggest thing you struggle with, usually, is premarital sex,” one of the men told Diefendorf. “But once you are married, you can’t be tempted by that anymore, so you get attacked by completely different things. …Essentially Satan has to find a new angle to attack on.”
They wished for more guidance from the church, and someone in the group said he’d cheer if his pastor decided to talk more about sex.
Support for the Islamic State is growing from groups outside the Middle East as a large number of Western Muslims reportedly have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq…report by CBN News
What does this mean for the United States and other Western countries?
The ISIS terrorist shown beheading American journalist James Foley speaks English with a British accent.
That fact raised so much concern in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron cut his vacation short to address the issue.
“From what we’ve seen it looks increasingly likely that is a British citizen. Now this is deeply shocking,” Cameron said.
How likely is it that ISIS will strike America at home?
British authorities believe several hundred of their citizens could be fighting with ISIS. But that’s just a fraction.
Some estimates put the number of Western Muslims joining ISIS in Syria and Iraq up to 3,000.
In addition to Britain, they come from France, Denmark, and the United States, creating a serious danger for the West.
The concern is these jihadists will use their Western passports and terrorist training to return to their country and carry out attacks at home.
“Some of those foreign nationals… may at some stage seek to return to their countries of origin and carry out attacks in them,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.
“We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done,” President Barack Obama said Wednesday. “There has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so that it does not spread.”
Yet CBN News Terrorism Analyst Erick Stakelbeck said the president is not doing enough to eliminate the threat to America.
“Right now I’m not seeing the U.S. government under the Obama administration taking the kind of action needed to crush ISIS,” Stakelbeck said. “We need to crush this group — stamp them out before they pose a direct threat to the U.S. mainland.”
Other Islamic terrorist groups, not just from the West, are now supporting ISIS, including from the Philippines and Yemen.
The Obama administration announced Wednesday that the president sent Special Ops forces to Syria this summer on a secret mission to rescue American hostages, including Foley, but they did not find them.
Obama has stepped up airstrikes against ISIS, but to wipe out that terrorist group, a lot more military action may be required.
A New York couple faces thousands of dollars in fines for declining to rent out their family farm for a same-sex wedding celebration…report by CBN News
The New York State Division of Human Rights fined Cynthia and Robert Gifford $13,000 for declining a request from a lesbian couple to rent the family barn for their ceremony.
The Giffords have owned and operated Liberty Ridge Farm in for over 25 years. They believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
Like many small farm families, they often open up their home to host public events, including weddings.
In addition to the fines, the family has been told to implement “re-education” classes for their staff.
Should the government be in the business of “re-educating” citizens to change their moral beliefs?
After nearly three weeks of intense treatment, testing and isolation, American Ebola patients Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly are back with their families…report by CBN News
Speaking at a conference after his release Wednesday, Brantly, 33, called it a “miraculous day.”
“I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary I never imagined myself in this position,” Brantly said.
Writebol, 59, was released Tuesday. Her husband said in statement that she is free of the virus but was recuperating at an undisclosed location.
“During the course of her fight, Nancy recalled the dark hours of fear and loneliness, but also a sense of the deep abiding peace and presence of God, giving her comfort,” her husband said.
Both Writebol and Brantly say they’re thankful for the prayers on their behalf.
“I cannot thank you enough for your prayers and your support,” Brantly said. “But what I can tell you is that I serve a faithful God who answers prayers.”
Brantly was working with Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia, treating Ebola patients. Writebol, a nurse with the missions organization SIM, also contracted the disease while working alongside Brantly. Both were flown to Emory University Hospital earlier this month.
“I join all of our Samaritan’s Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr. Kent Brantly’s recovery,” ministry leader Franklin Graham said in a statement. “His faithfulness to God and compassion to the people of Africa have been an example to us all,” he said.
Doctors say after three weeks, Ebola patients who beat the disease can’t spread the virus because it’s no longer in their blood or saliva.
“The medical staff here at Emory is confident that the discharge from the hospital of both of these patients poses no public health threat,” Dr. Bruce Ribner at Emory said.
Experts say both patients still have some healing ahead of them as its common for fatigue and aches and pains to linger.
But while their treatment was a success, the outbreak in West Africa is far from contained. According to the World Health Organization, the death toll is now at more than 1,300 people.
Local governments have put in place a “no touching” rule and are going to great lengths to encourage the public to wash their hands with chlorinated water.
“They’re saying don’t hug your wife, don’t hold hands with your friend, don’t even shake hands with a colleague,” Operation Blessings David Darg said.
But many of the areas being hit the hardest by Ebola have run out of chlorine. Operation Blessing is on the scene and heard of this need.
“I met with the minister of the interior of Liberia and asked him what his priority needs were,” Darg told CBN News. “He’s heading up the anti-Ebola task force for the nation. He said his number one need right now was body bags, which was an eye opening need of course. His number two need was chlorine.”
Operation Blessing is sending five chlorine generating units from its Chesapeake, Virginia, warehouse.
They will be able to produce a total of 550 gallons of chlorine per day, a major step toward reducing the threat of spreading the virus.
Yolanda Adams has already tackled the gospel music industry, but now she is gearing up to make her mark on the world of skin care, television, books and movies…report by CP
Adams, 52, is well known in the gospel music industry for a powerhouse voice that has earned her a number of accolades including four Grammy Awards, sixteen Stellar Gospel Music Awards, four Dove Awards, and a host of others that include an American Music Award, NAACP Image Awards and BET Awards. While the singer has not released an album in three years, her work schedule has done anything but slow down.
She has returned to BET’s “Sunday Best” gospel music competition where she currently serves as a judge each Sunday and let The Christian Post know why the role is important to her after joining the show in 2010.
“I get the chance to pour back into some young people who think they know what this business is all about, to help them understand that it’s more than just the presentation on the stage,” Adams told The Christian Post. “It really is about honing your craft and doing something away from the cameras and just being happy that you’re a part of something that’s this huge.”
Aside from starring on the popular television program, Adams also hosts a syndicated radio show, “The Yolanda Adams Morning Show,” where she is heard in at least 39 markets. While her voice has been heard on many radio stations throughout the years, the veteran singer has managed to make history as a radio broadcaster.
Although Adams is happy to be the first woman in gospel music to have a morning radio show in a market dominated by men, she realizes that there was a bigger purpose for her taking over the platform each morning.
“I really love helping people and that is my job with this morning show. My job is to let everyone know that they can make it, they don’t have to live their lives in defeat,” Adams told CP. “..Whatever they speak out of their mouth they get, whether it’s good or whether it’s bad. Now we’re coming up on 10 years and it was an answer to a prayer because as a single mother I wanted to be home most of the week so I could give my full attention to my daughter.”
The singer shares her 13-year-old daughter with her ex-husband Tim Crawford, and despite their divorce insists that she and her ex-husband are the best of friends, who have a mutually pleasant co-parenting experience.
“Well one of the myths about divorce, is that somebody did something…There are just times when it just doesn’t fit anymore, for whatever reason,” Adams told CP. “When people tell you ‘hey I just can’t do this anymore, you’ve got to respect that.’ So what you do is you respect that person’s feelings, you respect that person’s space.”
While countless people deal with divorce, broken and blended families Adams does not subscribe to the notion of only leaning on God when those situations occur. The singer is passionate about being a Christian whose faith is always a vital part of her life, both in good times and bad.
“Your faith is who you are. Your faith is not something you pick up during hard times,” she told CP. “This is what I’ve tried to tell people with my life and my ministry in so many ways. Hey listen, you don’t just pick up your faith when you feel like it, faith is you every day.”
Adams seems perplexed by the questions that some people have for Christians about their faith, when Buddhists and Muslim believers are not questioned in the same way.
“It’s so interesting that we never asks Buddhists ‘well how has your faith helped you?’ You know with buddhists you automatically think, they meditate in the morning and they have a calm spirit during the day,” she told CP. “We never ask a Muslim, ‘how does your faith do so and so?’ Nobody ever asks them that question, it’s always asked of Christians. And it’s like, wouldn’t it be the same?”
She elaborated further by asking, “Aren’t you supposed to be a God fearing person every single day of your life?”
While leaning on her faith each day, Adams has not slowed down from adding to her workload which means her fans will not hear new music until 2015. But it may all be well worth it when fans
“I know I said 2014 we would have (music) but I’ve been so busy. I’ve been on movie sets, on television, I’m finishing my book ‘Points of Power 2,'” Adams told CP. “I have two books that I’m in the process of writing because it’s just like ‘whoah this is crazy.’ And I bless God for that because (being busy) is like my best friend I love it.”
Adams will also appear in the movie “Ride Along 2” alongside Kevin Hart and has released her own line of skin care products, called Simply Yolanda that she formulated with the help of chemists and doctors.
Although she has not released new music lately, Adams says she is happy with the state of gospel music.
“I think gospel music is in a prime place for exactly what God is doing with it. He’s taking it out of the four walls of confinement and he’s placing it everywhere,” she told CP. “So God’s message gets out no matter what anybody tries to do. I just believe the music that we honor God and prepare to help the people with, it’s going to always be well.”
Justin Bieber has embraced his on and off again Christian faith recently as he was seen attending Pastor Judah Smith’s Bible study at the City Church in Los Angeles with former girlfriend Selena Gomez on Wednesday night…by CP
The 20-year-old pop star has also taken to his social media accounts lately to post faith-inspired tweets and Bible verses on Instagram. According to U.K.-based The Mirror, Bieber is reportedly slowing down his party lifestyle after being involved in an altercation with actor Orlando Bloom following a night of partying in Ibiza, Spain last month.
“Every day we wake God blesses us with new opportunities. Be better. Be great,” tweeted Bieber on August 12. Two days later he wrote, “God is good” and “Who is your anchor? God is good @judahsmith.”
Over the last year, Bieber has surrounded himself with spiritual mentors including Pastor Carl Lentz of Hillsong New York City, where the singer was baptized.
Earlier this year, Lentz noted that he has been helping Bieber get through his behavior, which he is known to constantly struggle with.
“I love Justin, he’s a good kid. He’s trying to figure this out,” Lentz told CBN. “His behavior … you know, he’s figuring it out. What should we do? … People who are like, ‘Is he even a Christian?’ With Justin, I tell people grace and acceptance does not mean approval. I can accept you as a human being and not approve of your actions. That’s how we’ve been loved. We love because we were first loved.”
He added, “With Justin, it’s not my job to be his police officer. It’s my job to be a friend to him, and that’s all I am.”
Smith has also defended Bieber’s character in the past. At one point, the Seattle-based megachurch pastor made it clear that he was counseling the singer after allegations surfaced that Bieber had allegedly slept with a Brazilian prostitute, disrespected the Argentine flag, and illegally tagged a hotel wall, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I don’t envy the scrutiny that he carries,” Smith said. “He lives a very blessed life, but with those blessings comes a lot of responsibility and expectations from people. Justin is digging deep and discovering. … But he’s an extraordinarily compassionate, considerate, loving person who’s very loyal and committed to the people in his world. I wish more people saw that side of him.”
Smith’s Los Angeles Bible studies also attract Hollywood notables like actress Vanessa Hudgens, E! News anchor Jason Kennedy and Bieber’s mother, Pattie Mallette.
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