This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Whyte House Daily Devotional Bible Reading Episode #92. Where I read three chapters of the Holy Bible in the King James Version a day with my family as a part of our family devotions, to encourage you to read the Holy Bible in a year’s time. We are using a modified version of the Five Day Bible Reading Plan. It is modified because we read the Bible everyday and not just five days a week. The benefit of using the Five Day Bible Reading Plan is: you can read the entire Bible in a chronological reading plan that helps the Bible make sense. Today we are reading Numbers 6, Psalm 25 and Acts 18.

Charles Spurgeon said, “If you wish to know God, you must know His Word. If you wish to perceive His power, you must see how He works by His Word. If you wish to know His purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by His Word.”

Lee Roberson said, “If you are a child of God, know that every promise in the Bible is yours. The Bible is a gold mine, waiting for someone to take out its riches.”

Numbers 6
1 And the Lord spake unto Mo’-ses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Is’-ra-el, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Naz’-a-rite, to separate themselves unto the Lord:

3 He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.

4 All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.

5 All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.

6 All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body.

7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head.

8 All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord.

9 And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.

10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:

11 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day.

12 And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.

13 And this is the law of the Naz’-a-rite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:

14 And he shall offer his offering unto the Lord, one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings,

15 And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings.

16 And the priest shall bring them before the Lord, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt offering:

17 And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also his meat offering, and his drink offering.

18 And the Naz’-a-rite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.

19 And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Naz’-a-rite, after the hair of his separation is shaven:

20 And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord: this is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder: and after that the Naz’-a-rite may drink wine.

21 This is the law of the Naz’-a-rite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation.

22 And the Lord spake unto Mo’-ses, saying,

23 Speak unto Aa’-ron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Is’-ra-el, saying unto them,

24 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:

25 The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

27 And they shall put my name upon the children of Is’-ra-el, and I will bless them.

Psalm 25
A Psalm of Da’-vid.
1 Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.

5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

6 Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.

8 Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11 For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

12 What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

15 Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

22 Redeem Is’-ra-el, O God, out of all his troubles.

Acts 18
1 After these things Paul departed from Ath’-ens, and came to Cor’-inth;

2 And found a certain Jew named A-quil’-a, born in Pon’-tus, lately come from It’-a-ly, with his wife Pris-cil-la ; (because that Clau’-di-us had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.

3 And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

5 And when Si’-las and Ti-moth’-e-us were come from Mac-e-do’-ni-a, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

6 And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gen’-tiles.

7 And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Jus’-tus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

8 And Cris’-pus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Co-rin’-thi-ans hearing believed, and were baptized.

9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.

11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

12 And when Gal-li-o was the deputy of A-chai’-a, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,

13 Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.

14 And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gal-li-o said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:

15 But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.

16 And he drave them from the judgment seat.

17 Then all the Greeks took Sos’-the-nes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gal-li-o cared for none of those things.

18 And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syr’-i-a, and with him Pris-cil’-la and A-quil-a; having shorn his head in Cen-chre’-a: for he had a vow.

19 And he came to Eph’-e-sus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

20 When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not;

21 But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Je-ru’-sa-lem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Eph’-e-sus.

22 And when he had landed at Cae-sa-re’-a, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to An’-ti-och.

23 And after he had spent some time there, he departed, and went over all the country of Ga-la’-tia and Phryg’-i-a in order, strengthening all the disciples.

24 And a certain Jew named A-pol’-los, born at Al-ex-an’-dri-a, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Eph’-e-sus.

25 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.

26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when A-quil-a and Pris-cil’-la had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

27 And when he was disposed to pass into A’-chai-a, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:

28 For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.

________

PRAY
________

When I was a teenager I wanted to get wisdom and knowledge, so I set out the 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 Pakistani Christian mother who spent almost a decade on death row before finally being released in October of 2018 has asked the government of France for political asylum. 

As CBN News has reported, Asia Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010. A coworker accused her of insulting Islam after a dispute. Blasphemy is a crime punishable by death in Pakistan. 

She was ultimately acquitted of the crime by the Pakistan Supreme Court but then was kept from leaving the country by officials even after a final bid from hardline Islamists to have her acquittal overturned was rejected. 

Radical Muslims in Pakistan were outraged by the decision and threatened to murder her. Tens of thousands rallied in the streets and called for her death. 

Bibi finally was allowed to leave Pakistan in May of 2019 and was finally reunited with her daughters in Canada. 

Her visit to France this week coincided with the release of her new book titled Finally Free in French last month. The English version will be released in September. 

“My great desire is to live in France,” Bibi said in an interview with RTL radio, her first trip to France since fleeing with her family to Canada in 2018, according to France24.com.

“France is the country from where I received my new life… Anne-Isabelle is an angel for me,” she said referring to Anne-Isabelle Tollet, the French journalist who campaigned for her release and co-wrote her first book, Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death Over a Cup of Water. 

On Tuesday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo gave Bibi her honorary citizenship certificate that was bestowed by the city five years ago while she was still in prison. 

Bibi said she did not have a meeting scheduled with French President Emmanuel Macron, but obviously I would like the president to hear my request.”

In her new book, she writes about the daily persecution suffered by Pakistan’s Christian minority and gives an account of the demeaning and appalling conditions in the prison where she was confined. 

Bibi also tells of the struggle of adjusting to her new life and how she had to leave the country without seeing any members of her family. 

“Pakistan is my country. I love my country but I am in exile forever,” she writes. 

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NASHVILLE (BP) — When traveling to church, most people have company, but a significant number say they make the trip alone.

A new study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found 1 in 5 Protestant churchgoers (19 percent) say they typically travel to church alone.

Most travel to church with their spouse (54 percent), while close to a third say their child or children ride with them (31 percent).
Fewer say they typically travel to church with another family member besides their parent or grandparent (18 percent) or a friend or acquaintance (11 percent).

A small percentage say they travel with a grandchild (4 percent) or someone from their church who lacks transportation (3 percent).

“Many weeks, it’s hard enough for attendees to get themselves to church, so it’s not surprising few are stopping to pick up a neighbor,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

“The reality is, if every Christian driving or riding to church this week used the extra vehicle seats around them to bring other people, churches would likely not be able to contain the crowds.”

Men (64 percent) are more likely than women (46 percent) to say they travel to church with their spouse, which indicates wives are more likely to go to church without their husbands than vice versa.

Women (36 percent) are also more likely than men (24 percent) to say their children travel with them to church.

African American churchgoers are the least likely to say they travel to church with their spouse (31 percent) but are more likely than white churchgoers to say they go to church with their children (40 percent to 24 percent).

African Americans (16 percent) are also twice as likely as white churchgoers (8 percent) to say they travel to church with a friend.

Younger churchgoers (22 percent) are the most likely to say they typically go to church with a friend.

Protestant churchgoers 50 and older (23 percent) are more likely than those 18 to 34 (13 percent) to say they attend church alone.

Source: Baptist Press

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NEW DELHI (BP) — As religious liberty advocates point out India’s religious persecution, U.S. President Trump praised India and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday (Feb. 25) ending a two-day visit there.

“We did talk about religious freedom, and I will say that the prime minister was incredible on what he told me. He wants people to have religious freedom, and very strongly,” Trump said Tuesday while announcing a $3 billion trade deal with India at a press conference in New Delhi. “And he (Modi) said that in India they have worked very hard to have great and open religious freedom.”
India is listed as 10th on persecution watchdog Open Doors 2020 Watch List of the 50 countries where Christians suffer the most severe persecution, having risen from a 2013 ranking of 31 after Modi gained power in 2014 with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Open Doors CEO David Curry told Baptist Press he questions whether the U.S. could have any reputable trade alliance with India.

“When you have a country that has significant human rights issues — not allowing their people to worship freely, is trying to force people into a Hindu system — I think that’s a significant problem and makes me question whether they’ll be the partner we hope they’ll be,” Curry told BP Tuesday. “I think we have to understand that for us to have a friendly relationship, friends don’t let friends commit human rights abuses, and this administration in India has a very serious track record of abuse against Christians.”

India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has drawn concern from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, USCIRF wrote in a February 2020 legislation factsheet on India. The law has sparked violent protests and is widely viewed as a tool to exclude Muslims from citizenship. USCIRF lists India as a Tier 2 country of particular concern in its 2019 annual report.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Trump declined to discuss the CAA, saying it was an item for India to handle. Trump described Modi as a “very religious man” whom he admires tremendously, and described India as “an incredible country with unbelievable energy.”

Source: Baptist Press

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PETOSKEY, Mich. (BP) — Children’s Missions Day, an annual missions emphasis promoted by Woman’s Missionary Union, has the potential to generate missions projects that reach far beyond a single day.

Such projects can be as practical as assembling and distributing fruit baskets to show appreciation to military veterans, firefighters, law enforcement officers and others in a local community. At least that’s the case for True North Community Church in Petoskey, Mich.

Children’s Missions Day (CMD), held this year on Saturday, Feb. 15, is designed to prepare the next generation to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ — both today and in the future.

For Rick Bristol, a North American Mission Board (NAMB) church planter at True North Community Church, participating in a partner church’s Children’s Missions Day project led him to launch an ongoing community outreach program through his own congregation. A WMU leader at Orchard Church invited Bristol to speak at Orchard’s CMD because he is a military veteran, and their project focused on honoring vets for their military service.

In addition to speaking at the event where the children assembled fruit baskets for veterans, Bristol was asked to find an appropriate location to distribute the baskets. He contacted his county’s Veterans Affairs office and offered to deliver the gift baskets. He later recalled the reply was something like: “Absolutely, the vets need all the Jesus they can get!”

Based on the success of that experience, Bristol approached his True North congregation about continuing the fruit basket ministry on a weekly basis. “I said, ‘Hey listen, church, this is something we did for the Orchard. …

“‘I think we could do it here. I think it’s something we could do fairly often. I want to try it once a week. Can we make seven baskets a week?’” he recalled asking. The church was up for the challenge.

Jeff Urban, a service officer for Emmett County Veterans Affairs, said the recipients are grateful.

“We definitely respect and honor our veterans,” Urban said, “but to actually have something given to our veterans like a fruit basket, it’s not very common so they’re delighted and surprised all at the same time. It definitely gives them a little warm fuzzy there when they get it.”

Sharing fruit baskets is one of several ministry projects that Bristol and his wife Katie have launched over the past couple of years. Their primary ministry efforts are aimed at replanting True North Church after the previous congregation gradually had declined to only six active members.

As a former Navy chaplain who also worked with the Marines, Coast Guard and Army National Guard, Bristol has a heart for fellow veterans. Katie, who grew up in northern Michigan, realized from phone conversations with family and friends back home that there was an urgent need for a strong Christian witness in the region.

Spiritual surveys in northern Michigan that Bristol reviewed showed about 50 percent of residents in 2000 had no religious affiliation. That number had jumped to 75 percent by 2010. Another decade later, “the trend lines are not going in the right direction,” he acknowledged.

“Pretty much when you keep hearing, ‘I wish God would send somebody to them,’ there’s that point where you have to realize that’s God telling you to go there,” he said.

In response, he concluded his military career and they partnered with NAMB as church replanters. They changed the tiny congregation’s name from Agape Baptist Church to True North Community Church and have been gradually engaging the community and nurturing new growth, including a thriving children’s program coordinated by Katie.

“I am definitely called to work with children. It is a natural thing for me,” she said. “Probably my God-given talent is to work with kids so that’s how I can share the Gospel.”

Source: Baptist Press

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Pastor Telley Gadson was the calm center of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Taylors, South Carolina, as the congregation prepared for a visit from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and a North Carolina congressman who would speak on Biden’s behalf. The historic black church is known as the 9-1-1 because of its street address. And the church did seem like it was responding to a minor emergency Sunday morning as people rushed around to get ready.

An usher burst into Gadson’s office to announce a reporter from Christianity Today just as two deacons hurried out to make sure good seats had been saved for the Biden campaign staff. But Gadson was calm. “It’s just another Sunday at the 9-1-1,” she said.

The service kicked off with an organ trio, an amplified Hammond backed by thumping bass and drums. As the music started, about 100 people found their places in the purple upholstered pews and another 25 or 26 got up on stage. Everyone started praising Jesus.

A minister stood up and said the thing black Christians say across the South when they gather to worship: “I want to thank the Lord who woke me up this morning.” And the people sang more.

Then it was the congressman’s turn. G. K. Butterfield, a former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, got up in the pulpit to deliver his message, and the church got quiet. Butterfield said, “I’m here to ask you to support my friend Joe Biden. And it’s easy to do, because I’ve known Joe Biden for a long time.”

Democratic candidates are doing an unprecedented amount of faith outreach this presidential primary campaign. Some Democrats in the past have talked about their faith, like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. But now, almost every candidate is making a point of it.

This is more familiar territory for Republicans. The GOP has done extensive faith outreach since the 1950s, when Dwight D. Eisenhower promised church leaders that spiritual renewal would be part of the nation’s defense against communism. Opposition to abortion—a non-negotiable issue for many Christian voters—and support for public religious expression have long attracted many Christians to the GOP. President Donald Trump hopes to continue that alliance, solidifying his support from white evangelicals and expanding it among Latino evangelicals. Today, Christians are more than three times as likely to see the Republican Party as “friendly to religion.”

But about a third of all Democrats go to church every week. Nearly half say faith is very important in their lives, and polls show that 28 percent of evangelicals identify with the Democratic Party, along with 80 percent of black Protestants, 44 percent of Catholics, and 40 percent of mainline Protestants. And a lot of Christians are Independents, curious if a Democratic candidate might appeal to their faith values.

Two Democrats—Biden and Pete Buttigieg—have hired religious-outreach coordinators, who help their campaigns connect to pastors and articulate the moral visions undergirding their political plans. Elizabeth Warren set up an interfaith advisory council. Eight candidates have cited Scripture on the stump. Warren regularly quotes Matthew 25 at election events, giving a campaign speech/sermon about the sheep and the goats. Even Bernie Sanders, a non-practicing Jew, refers to the Golden Rule again and again.

For Christians, though, these efforts raise questions about when a candidate is using faith as a political prop. What’s the difference between appealing to the Bible and exploiting it? How can Christians discern when a politician doesn’t have a genuine commitment to shared values, but is just using the right words to get their votes?

ichael Wear worried about this when he was Obama’s faith outreach coordinator, working to get the president re-elected in 2012. Just as Wear got started, the president changed his position on same-sex marriage, saying he had “evolved” on the issue. During the 2008 campaign, Obama told religious voters he believed marriage was only between a man and a woman. “For me as a Christian,” he had said, “it’s . . . a sacred union. You know, God’s in the mix.”

“I was forced to ask myself,” Wear writes in his memoir, “would he really have used religious language to convince voters of something he did not believe?”

Wear doesn’t definitively answer the question in the book and still doesn’t seem to know for sure. But he does think Christians have reason to be cautious about being manipulated by religion in politics. Wear worries that some faithful voters just want to be “tickled in the right places.”

“It turns into a form of identity politics,” said Wear, chief strategist for the AND Campaign, a nonpartisan effort encouraging Christian political involvement. “It’s not good when we’re so easily appeased. We can easily fall into looking to politics for self-affirmation, instead of trying to use politics to advance human dignity and advance justice.”

These concerns come up for candidates as well. How can they be honest about their faith without turning it into a strategy to win over fellow believers? Tom Steyer—the former hedge fund manager and now philanthropist running a long-shot campaign for the presidency—fears bringing his Christian beliefs into the primary race could be a kind of betrayal, according to his campaign manager, Alberto Lammers.

At the beginning of 2020, Steyer was pulling about 2 percent support in national polls and a bit higher in some of the early primary states. His campaign was trying to help him make a personal connection with the electorate, but the candidate wasn’t comfortable using his religion to do it.

“He goes to church every week—usually Episcopalian or Methodist,” Lammers told CT. “He really listens, and he loves singing. He loves those churches. But he just goes. He sits wherever there’s space, and we don’t make any sort of arrangements for media coverage.”

Raised by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, Steyer believes his religious upbringing has shaped his political vision for the country—but he doesn’t want to pander to get religious votes.

“He doesn’t go into a Bible verse just because the TV camera is on. He knows the Bible very well, but that’s not who he is and he’s not going to change who he is just to attract voters,” Lammers said. It’s a bit of a quandary, politically. Lammers hasn’t figured out how to solve it yet. But the candidate is insistent: “That’s not how he’s going to talk about his faith.”

Other candidates aren’t afraid to talk about faith. They talk about immigration, economic inequality, climate change, LGBT rights, and war as religious issues. The candidates haven’t tried to shift the party’s position on abortion to appeal to religious voters. Most of the campaigns leave little to no space for opposition to abortion, or even ambiguity, conflicted feelings, or compromise on the subject. Abortion is a major barrier for some who might otherwise side with the Democratic party on a slew of issues. This campaign, cycle only Amy Klobuchar has been willing to even say the party has room for pro-life Democrats.

The candidates have, however, talked about a lot of other issues in religious terms, and it seems to be working. Campaign fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that more than 200 Christian ministers donated to Democratic campaigns over a six-month period in 2019.

Julián Castro, who emphasized his commitment as a Catholic to caring for the poor, received 53 donations from 13 ministers before he dropped out of the race in early January. Cory Booker, a Baptist who said he had also been deeply influenced by Buddhism, received $13,000 from 19 Christian clergy before he dropped out. Warren, a Methodist who can quote the King James Version of the Bible from memory, has received 250 donations from 51 ministers. Buttigieg, an openly gay Episcopalian who has made his faith a key piece of his campaign, received more support from clergy than any other candidate, with $36,000 in contributions from nearly 100 ministers over the course of six months.

Buttigieg got his first blast of national attention in the 2020 campaign by bringing up religion. In a CNN town hall last year, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, contrasted himself with his state’s former governor, Vice President Mike Pence. He said Pence had compromised his morality by supporting Trump for president and had misconstrued the Bible with his conservative politics.

Source: Christianity Today

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On February 22, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute (CBCI) announced a scholarship to honor Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney, former State Senator and senior pastor at Mother Emanuel AME Church who was killed with eight others in a racially motivated massacre in 2015. The CBCI seeks to continue his legacy of excitement and enthusiasm for political activism and empowerment by funding a scholarship to our political boot camp training for future leaders in his honor.

The official announcement was made at a press conference at Mother Emanuel AME Church where the CBCI is also conducting an Advocacy and Campaign Training (ACT) workshop. The scholarship announcement and the ACT workshop come ahead of the Democratic Presidential Debate (CBCI is a co-host) and Primary in South Carolina.

“We are proud to be in Charleston, SC, as a co-host of the SC Presidential Debate while also conducting a campaign training as part of our “First in the South Presidential Debate Summit” weekend. We thank the City of Charleston and the Pastor and congregation of Mother Emanuel AME Church for welcoming us so enthusiastically,” said Vanessa Griddine-Jones, Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. “More than 20 years ago, I had the pleasure of serving with the late Reverend Clementa Pinckney as a page and legislative aide in the South Carolina General Assembly. I felt that I had to find a way to honor his passion for public service. Being able to conduct this training in his home church is the CBCI’s way of continuing his legacy of excitement and enthusiasm for this work in a place that he loved and served. The scholarship announced today will fund future participants from the Charleston area to attend our annual Boot Camp in Washington, DC,” she added.

“Today, more than ever, we must all be active participants in the political process because every voice deserves to be heard and those we elect must truly and faithfully represent us. But political leaders, campaign workers, and effective advocates just don’t appear out of nowhere – they must be recruited and trained. The late Reverend Clementa Pinckney understood that and lived by it. That’s why the announcement of the scholarship and our partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute is so important and timely,” said Reverend Eric S.C. Manning, Pastor, Mother Emanuel AME Church. “Mother Emanuel Church is both an historic and present-day example of people of faith who worship in service. The scholarship announcement today is a reminder to our community, state, and nation that, at Mother Emanuel, we do our best work outside our sanctuary’s walls,” he stated.

The scholarship will fully fund the costs for an aspiring future political leader from the Charleston area to attend the CBCI’s annual “Boot Camp,” an intensive week-long political training held in Washington, DC each summer. The selected scholarship recipient will go through a rigorous application review process to demonstrate the passion, energy, and commitment that will be required to be an effective future leader. The scholarship recipient will become one of more than 600 CBCI political training alumni who’ve gone on to serve their communities in diverse capacities – from a local school board to the US President’s Cabinet.

Source: Charleston Chronicle

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Listening to the voices of those not always heard through the exposition of the timeless Word of God is the heart behind editor Kristie Anyabwile’s book “His Testimonies, My Heritage.”

The book brings together a historic collaboration of women of color expositing the Word of God while sharing their personal experiences and how the Bible shapes their stories, past and future.

Contributors include spoken word artists Jackie Hill Perry and Quina Aragon, authors and speakers Trillia Newbell, Elicia Horton, Danielle Anderson, K.A. Ellis and others.

Each chapter explores themes ranging from personal hurt, pain and fear to rejoicing and hope paired with expositional devotional teachings through Psalm 119.

Taking the Psalm stanza by stanza, the authors tell their stories through the lens of God’s story seen in the words of David.

Anyabwile said the motivation for the book’s examination of Psalm 119 was the passage’s focus on the actual Word of God.

“It’s [Psalm 119] so multi-faceted,” she said. “It offers blessing for people who walk according to The Word, it comforts those who suffer, it’s our refuge in times of trial, it gives us cause to praise God for the nature of His Word and it just speaks to every person in any circumstance so it’s needed now because the Word of God is always needed.

Voice for the unheard

Contributor Elicia Horton emphasized the need of a book that specifically highlights the voices of women of color.

Conference speaking slots and awards given for writing and publishing do not leave a large space for women of color — a fact that makes His Testimonies, My Heritage a vitally important work, Horton said.

“We’re all expositing Psalm 119, we’re all highlighting the Word of God and its authority and its power,” Horton said, “but we are also actually being able to share our narrative, what it means to us, why as women of color we’re coming from this vantage point and being able to share with so many people that would never hear from a woman of color had they not picked up this book.”

Quina Aragon echoed Horton’s sentiment regarding the presence of women of color in publishing contracts and at conferences.

“There tends to be that disparity, so for there to be a book that highlights women that a lot of people don’t know about, allows for them — the writers themselves — and the audience to really receive from the people that are maybe outside the typical authors they listen to,” Aragon said.

Contributor Danielle Anderson said the book gave the authors an opportunity to share their stories freely, for their own benefit and that of others.

It’s hard to grow in ethnic unity, Anderson said, without actually listening to those with a differing voice.

“The voices that can often dominate spaces in our culture, are those of white males,” Anderson said. “But how beautiful to give ear to the truths of those often marginalized, women of color.”

When one portion of the body of Christ is suffering, the whole body suffers, Anyabwile said, adding that many women of color suffer as their voice is not heard and as they see no one in communication channels that they can relate to who are identifying similar experiences.

Horton agreed, saying “We’ve had to fight for not only ourselves but for people like us to be seen and to be heard. We’ve been in these spaces where we’ve been overlooked and looked down upon. To feel that even within the evangelical world has been very hard.”

But this book is part of the steps to open doors and march onward in the work God has laid out, Horton said.

“This type of project can be a part of the small steps that God will continue to use to open ears, open hearts, open eyes and help people to understand others from different upbringings and backgrounds,” Horton said. “We have a unique story — we all have a story — because it’s part of God’s bigger story, and we can continue to work together to bring about His good on this side of eternity.”

Diversity of perspectives

Anyabwile noted that many times Christians may not even realize the diverse individuals who are available to be heard.

Majority culture can risk becoming so accustomed to a singular perspective being ingrained into society that many times it goes unnoticed causing the same anecdotes and perspectives to be constantly put forth, creating a narrow viewpoint, she explained.

“The book is needed now just to broaden our perspective and to give us an opportunity to learn from people who are not like us,” Anyabwile said. “The church needs to see that there are women of diverse backgrounds sitting right next to us in the pews every week and that we need to be seeking them out and learning from them.”

Aragon said the global body of Christ always benefits from a diversity of voices, but historically many voices have come from one cultural perspective and background.

“We tend to miss out on a lot of wider diverse, range of voices within the body of Christ,” Aragon said. “At any time when there’s an opportunity for us to listen to someone with a different background, a different heritage, a different culture, coming to the same Word of God that we love and helping us by giving illustrations that come from their background, there’s such a benefit to see beauty of diversity that God has given His multicultural bride, the church.”

Understanding others enables believers to understand the vastness of God and how He providentially works in individuals lives, Anyabwile added.

“We’re always learning from people who are not like us in some way — and that is an enriching experience.” Anyabwile said.

Source: Baptist Press

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