… Read More

Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

قالب وردپرس

… Read More

Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

قالب وردپرس

President Trump signed a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada on Wednesday. The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) replaces the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

This is no doubt a big victory for the president. It’s being hailed as a win for the American worker and is projected to create 600,000 jobs. 

“I keep my promises and I’m fighting for the American worker,” Trump said.

Surrounded by American workers on the south lawn of the White House, President Trump signed the largest trade deal in American history.

“NAFTA ends today and a new era of job and growth begins under the USMCA,” Vice President Mike Pence said. 

It replaces the 25-year-old trade agreement with provisions aimed to strengthen the manufacturing industry, improve labor standard enforcement and increasing market access for American dairy farmers. 

“This is something we really put our heart into,” the President said. “It’s probably the number one reason I decided to lead this crazy life that I’m leading right now as opposed to that beautiful simple life of luxury that I’d led before this happened. But I love doing it.” 

“This is quite a victory and I was one who was skeptical as you know that Trump could pull this off. I thought it was a risky strategy,” remarked The Heritage Foundation’s Stephen Moore. 

But Moore says that strategy paid off and calls it Trump’s biggest bi-partisan victory since taking office, adding the deal comes on the heels of Trump signing the “phase one” trade agreement with China. 

“I guess what this means is Trump is on a roll here and they just announced a few days ago they are looking to finalize a trade deal with Britain. So Trump is really redesigning how we do trade deals,”  Moore said. 

President Trump will tour a manufacturing facility in Michigan on Thursday. There he’ll see first hand the impact the USMCA will have. 

Mexico has already ratified the agreement. Canada is expected to follow suit in the coming weeks. 

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

After more than a decade of cultivating a relationship with one of our neighbors, I finally got around to having a conversation with him about spiritual matters.  I’ve been thinking, “why didn’t I do this sooner?”  It’s so easy to get in to a perpetual cultivation strategy and procrastinate about addressing spiritual issues.  Sometimes the timing is just not right, but when we pray and trust the Holy Spirit’s leadership, the time will come.  When we pray and trust Him, He often gives us unique and creative ways we might not think about.

Finding Common Ground

These particular neighbors (a couple from a Middle Eastern country) recently received a diagnosis that the wife had terminal cancer.  When my wife and I learned of the cancer, we started praying for them.  However, it was just this past week that I took the opportunity to pray with the husband.  He was very open as I shared with him the power of praying in Jesus’ name. I asked him if there were any of his family members who were followers of Jesus.  He said, “No they are all Muslim.” Then I was able to share how many people throughout the Middle East and North Africa were experiencing healing, deliverance and salvation through a relationship with Jesus of Nazareth.  The door was then open to share about what the Quran says about Isa Al-Misah and about the Injil.  Of course, that led to sharing more about what the Injil says about Isa.  Finding common ground is so important to gaining trust and building relationships.

Reaching out in Difficult Times

So often it’s the difficult times or crisis situations that provide the most fruitful witness and ministry opportunities.  However, we don’t have to wait until bad things happen to find common ground and bring Jesus into our conversations.  The Lord is faithful to do so as we pray and trust Him for wisdom and direction.  If we consistently sow the Seed of His Word and share our God stories and testimonies, we can have confidence that occasionally we’ll connect with fertile soil.  It’s really about the spontaneous outworking of the indwelling Christ.

Relational Disciple Making

It is encouraging to receive feedback and reports of the work of God in people’s lives we’ve shared with.  I recently reconnected with a man I lead to the Lord more than 30 years ago.  He was a next door neighbor for only one year.  During that time we had multiple conversations about the Lord and spiritual matters.  You could call it a mentoring or discipling relationship.  Since those days, this former neighbor has been instrumental in many family members and friends coming to the Lord.  In fact, some became actively involved in ministry.  It is an example of the reproducing life of the Lord Jesus in and through each of us who follow and trust Him.

SOURCE: Assist News

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

… Read More

Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

قالب وردپرس

Emmy Award-winning TV host Kathie Lee Gifford attended the 28th annual Movieguide Awards Friday where she shared a message of “truth” for Christians entering a new decade.

While walking the red carpet of the popular awards show that celebrates faith and family content, Gifford spoke about her book, The Rock, The Road, and The Rabbi and the importance of Christians knowing the truth of God’s word.

“We have not been taught the truth. And we wonder why we have no power in our lives. We’re quoting scripture that isn’t true,” she passionately declared.

“If we’re not quoting what it actually says in the Greek, actually says in the Hebrew, then we’re not speaking the word and the word is everything,” she stressed.

In her book, Gifford details what she discovered about the Bible after learning what it says by studying the original Greek and Hebrew translations combined with having the opportunity to tour biblical sites in Israel which she describes as “life-changing.”

While on the red carpet at the historic Avalon Theater she shared the Hebrew word for this decade and what it means.

“This decade in the Hebrew is the decade of the pay, the mouth, it’s a breakthrough decade,” Gifford declared.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

Some years ago, TobyMac very kindly embraced my idea to hold youth crusades in San Diego and came alongside me to offer his talent, grace and prayers. He worked tirelessly, was great at what he did, and reached thousands of kids for Christ. When one enters into the trenches with you to support your idea, it is very easy to feel a certain amount of fondness and affection for them, and that is certainly how I felt and feel about Toby. I am eternally grateful to him.

That is why Toby’s nightmare, the loss of his son, Truett, hits particularly hard. Toby loved his boy and was a family man. It is my hope and prayer that in this long night of the soul, the one he is suffering through at this very moment, that he finds hope and healing in the arms of our heavenly Father who knows what is like to lose a son.

Truett died of an accidental drug overdose and fentanyl was involved. Opioids are an American tragedy that, I’m afraid, may get lost in these tumultuous, news-heavy times. I’m also concerned that people may feel that the opioid crisis is just an extension of the drug scene that started has been a part of our national conversation since the late 1960s. It is not. This is different.

The opioid crisis is rolling through American communities like a fast-moving plague. More than 47,000 Americans died in 2017 alone. Multiply that by the number of each victim’s family members and it is easy to see the wake of destruction is historic. But it doesn’t stop there. Millions of people are battling crushing opioid addictions right now. In 2015, 1.2 million women and nearly 1 million men addicted. The numbers are likely greater today. The crisis is one of the worst drug crisis in American history, causing more deaths annually than car crashes or guns, and making orphans of thousands of children. The incidents of running into someone who has been affected is growing. A woman who worked at my church’s K-12 academy just recently lost a family member to opioid overdose. It’s everywhere. America is losing nearly 200 people every day.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Mile McPherson

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

Christians across China are prohibited from holding religious funerals for their deceased loved ones as the Communist Party continues to tighten its grip on the regulation of religion and religious activity.

Bitter Winter, a magazine documenting human rights and religious freedom abuses in China, reported that authorities throughout the country are enforcing policies that prohibit religious customs and rituals to be used during funerals.

In December, the government of Wenzhou city’s Pingyang county in the eastern province of Zhejiang adopted the Regulations on Centralized Funeral Arrangement.

Under the new rules, “clerical personnel are not allowed to participate in funerals,” and “no more than ten family members of the deceased are allowed to read scriptures or sing hymns in a low voice.”

The new rules aim to “get rid of bad funeral customs and establish a scientific, civilized, and economical way of funerals.”

Similarly, a village official from the central province of Henan told Bitter Winter that the local government convened a meeting for religious work assistants in April, informing them that all religious funerals are restricted.

Soon after, officials issued a document stipulating that clerical personnel should be “timely stopped from using religion to intervene in citizens’ weddings and funerals or other activities in their lives.”

In Wuhan, police stormed the funeral of a Christian member of a government-regulated Three-Self Church and arrested her daughter, who was praying for her mother at the time. The daughter was only released after the deceased was buried without Christian rituals two days later.

Last April, officials broke up an 11-person Christian funeral in the province of Henan that was honoring a deceased member of the congregation. Officials accused attendees of “hiding” their actions in the countryside and threatened them with jail time. The police registered the personal contact information of the attendees and told them that they could be investigated at any time.

“When my father died, village officials threatened to arrest us if we didn’t conduct a secular funeral. We did not dare to go against them,” a villager from Gucheng town in Henan’s county-level city of Yuzhou told Bitter Winter.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Morning and Evening podcast, Episode #12, where I read Charles Spurgeon’s classic devotional. Charles Spurgeon was a prominent English Particular Baptist preacher. He was very influential among the Christians of various denominations during his age and even today, and is commonly called the “Prince of Preachers”. After some time of alternately searching for God and running from God, he had a powerful encounter which led him to give his life to Christ. Spurgeon was only 16 when he preached his first sermon and he began publishing books shortly afterward. At the time of his death, he had preached nearly 3,600 sermons and published 49 volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations and devotions. Spurgeon said, “encouraging thoughts are like honey to the heart”, and wrote this devotional in hopes that its uplifting messages for each day of the year would bring comfort and refreshment to our walk with God. He was inspired by Isaiah 50:4 which reads, “He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” and Psalm 63:5-6 which says, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.”

Ezekiel 33:22 reads: “Now the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.”

In the way of judgment this may be the case, and, if so, be it mine to consider the reason of such a visitation, and bear the rod and him that hath appointed it. I am not the only one who is chastened in the night season; let me cheerfully submit to the affliction, and carefully endeavour to be profited thereby. But the hand of the Lord may also be felt in another manner, strengthening the soul and lifting the spirit upward towards eternal things. O that I may in this sense feel the Lord dealing with me! A sense of the divine presence and indwelling bears the soul towards heaven as upon the wings of eagles. At such times we are full to the brim with spiritual joy, and forget the cares and sorrows of earth; the invisible is near, and the visible loses its power over us; servant-body waits at the foot of the hill, and the master-spirit worships upon the summit in the presence of the Lord. O that a hallowed season of divine communion may be vouchsafed to me this evening! The Lord knows that I need it very greatly. My graces languish, my corruptions rage, my faith is weak, my devotion is cold; all these are reasons why his healing hand should be laid upon me. His hand can cool the heat of my burning brow, and stay the tumult of my palpitating heart. That glorious right hand which moulded the world can new-create my mind; the unwearied hand which bears the earth’s huge pillars up can sustain my spirit; the loving hand which incloses all the saints can cherish me; and the mighty hand which breaketh in pieces the enemy can subdue my sins. Why should I not feel that hand touching me this evening? Come, my soul, address thy God with the potent plea, that Jesus’ hands were pierced for thy redemption, and thou shalt surely feel that same hand upon thee which once touched Daniel and set him upon his knees that he might see visions of God.

PRAY.

Thank you for listening to the Morning and Evening podcast. If you do not know the Lord as your Savior, here is how you can be saved from Hell and walk with the Lord morning and evening until you go to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die:

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.

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source