TEXT: 1 Timothy 4:1-6

1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:

5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

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The Westminster Shorter Catechism reads, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.”

One day when Martin Luther’s puppy happened to be at the table, he looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes; Martin Luther said, ‘Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish or hope.”

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Now, if you are with us today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your first prayer needs to be what we call the Sinner’s Prayer. First, please understand that you are a sinner, just as I am, and that you have broken God’s laws. 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 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” 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 this 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. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, I declare to you that based upon the Word of God, you are now saved from Hell and you are on your way to Heaven. Welcome to the family of God! Congratulations on trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. You have done the most important thing in life. 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.”

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

Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books including the Essence Magazine, Dallas Morning News, and Amazon.com national bestseller, Letters to Young Black Men. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry.

He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts/podcasts, which include: The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update and the Soul-Winning Motivator, among others.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary). He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree.

He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that a Trump administration immigration rule that has been criticized by some evangelical leaders who say it could prevent poor immigrant families from being reunited can go into effect, pending an appeal.

The court voted on ideological lines Monday in favor of the Department of Homeland Security, staying two lower court rulings that blocked the department’s “public charge” rule from going into effect until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit can rule on the case.

The agency, through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2018, introduced a rule that alters the way the federal government implements “the public charge ground of inadmissibility” for immigrants applying for visas and green cards who use taxpayer-funded government assistance such as food stamps, housing benefits of Medicaid.

The rule defines “public charge” as a person who “receives one or more public benefits.” The rule was approved after a 10-month public comment period that resulted in over 266,000 public comments.

Critics of the rule contend that it could give the DHS more discretion to deny visas and green cards to immigrants who rely too heavily on taxpayer-funded public assistance.

According to SCOTUS Blog’s Amy Howe, the government argued that it would suffer “effectively irreparable harm” if it is prevented from implementing the new rule until the Second Circuit can rule on the case.

“But, in light of all that’s come before, it would be delusional to think that one stay today suffices to remedy the problem,” wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch in a concurring opinion.  “The real problem here is the increasingly common practice of trial courts ordering relief that transcends the concurring cases before them. Whether framed as injunctions of ‘nationwide,’ ‘universal,’ or ‘cosmic’ scope, these orders share the same basic flaw — they direct how the defendant must act toward persons who are not parties to the case.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith

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Pro-life group, Faces of Choice, has claimed that Fox News is censoring their Super Bowl ad featuring abortion survivors.

Lyric Gillett, founder of the nonprofit, told Faithwire that she had been working with Fox News since last July to meet all requirements to air her commercial during the Feb. 2 Super Bowl.

“Every time we would send them something, they would ask for something else,” she said. “It was as if they were continuously moving the bench post of what we had to hop over. Every time we gave them what they said was needed to satisfy, they would push it further and further and further down.”

After nearly four months of working with Fox, Gillett received word that all of the advertising spots had been purchased and hers was not to be included. She said she was “furious,” but agreed to wait should any future spots opened up. Her ad buyer told her that this can sometimes happen.

“So that’s what we did,” she said. “We emailed Fox and told them, ‘Look, y’all have strung us along for a very long period of time. We are asking that you do us the dignity and the professional response of giving us an answer for clearance so that, should a spot open up, we can fall right into it.”

Fox eventually told Gillette that the ad would not receive clearance unless ad spots were made available. Though spots did eventually open up, Gillette believes her ad was at a disadvantage since it had not yet been cleared.

Source: Christian Headlines

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Dr. Paul Osteen, brother of megachurch pastor Joel Osteen, is hoping to inspire medical missionaries during Lakewood Church’s upcoming Global Medical Missions Conference (also known as the M3 Conference).

“You don’t have to look far to see that there are people in need all over the world,” Dr. Paul Osteen, a surgeon who spends about four months a year serving in missions hospitals across the globe, told The Christian Post.

“Because of the overwhelming needs around us, one can easily wonder how they can make a real difference. I urge people to pray about how God can use them to be a part of the solution to help these people.”

He and his wife, Jennifer, will be bringing together doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to Houston on Feb. 21-22 for their fifth annual M3 conference. They are opening the doors to anyone who has an interest in learning more about global healthcare needs.

When discussing his intent for the conference, Osteen said he “hopes attendees will learn how much of a difference they can truly make when they see the need and choose to help in some way.”

The theme of this year’s conference is centered on the question “Can you see it?” which is inspired by the scripture John 4. In that verse, Jesus said, “Open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you…”

Lamenting the state of poverty and conflict across the globe, Osteen noted, “Every day, 830 mothers in low-resource communities die of childbirth-related issues. Right now, 74 million people are displaced or refugees. There are 420 million children living in war zones. Half of the world’s population lacks access to basic medical care.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

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

Perhaps no other topic tends to be more polarizing or politicized in America than healthcare. Here at Medi-Share, one of the nation’s leading nonprofit Health Care Sharing Ministries, we often find ourselves in the middle of conversations or news articles regarding our unique approach to meeting the healthcare needs of Christians. 

One such article was recently published in The New York Times under the headline, “It Looks Like Health Insurance, but It’s Not. ‘Just Trust God,’ Buyers Are Told.” We appreciate the interest in the unique and growing alternative of health care sharing, but we believe the article left readers with misleading conclusions. Though other ministries will want to speak for themselves, I’d at least like to set the record straight regarding Medi-Share.

Significant Facts Omitted or Misrepresented

The article described an unfavorable experience of a handful of members across several ministries and then implied that these experiences are the norm for members of health care sharing ministries. I don’t believe that’s true, and I can affirm that’s definitely not true at Medi-Share. We have a 26-year history of faithfully sharing among our members, an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and consistently high member satisfaction scores (which we monitor continuously). That’s real proof that the great majority of our members like the experience and value they and their families receive by participating in Medi-Share. Since 1993, every eligible bill submitted through the Medi-Share program has been paid by our membership. During 2019, more than $50 million in medical bills were shared each month by the faithful members of Medi-Share.

I was particularly concerned that the one example The New York Times article cited about a Medi-Share member’s experience left out a key part of the story. Yes, it’s true that our member had a medical event that was initially determined not eligible for sharing under the program guidelines. But what the article failed to mention was that the member followed our member appeal process and the initial decision was reversed by our community. Ultimately, this member’s bills were taken care of — that too was omitted. We’ve since learned that an example cited about a Samaritan Ministries’ member was also inaccurately reported.

I wish the article had sought and offered examples I hear every day from members. They are compelling and would more accurately depict the experiences most typical of our community. Let me offer two.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Scott Reddig

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Since Donald Trump burst onto the political scene in 2016, there is one group among which he has maintained consistent and unwavering support – white evangelicals. While votes from the faith community have been invaluable to Trump’s political goals, some have also lamented the subsequent effect politics have had on distorting the true meaning of the term “evangelical.” Indeed, in our divisive political times, evangelicals are seen – at least in the mainstream media – as being almost synonymous with President Trump.

“Evangelicalism went from being America’s most controversial religious movement to its most reviled one,” writes the Vardaman Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University, Thomas S. Kidd, in a feature piece at Desiring God. Trump’s election, Kidd said, has “generated an often-acrimonious debate among scholars about whether embracing “Trumpism” was an aberration for white evangelicals, or instead, a natural outgrowth of what the movement always has represented.”

As ever, the media has happily labeled all evangelicals as Trump supporters. This, along with an inability to define what being an “evangelical” truly means in the context of our current cultural climate, has caused a “crisis with acute political ramifications,” according to Kidd.

The problem, Kidd argues, goes far beyond political jostling. Rather, there is “widespread confusion about the meaning of the term itself,” he writes.

The word “evangelical” actually finds its origins in the Greek word “euangelion,” which simply means “good news.”

So why has the term become so political? Well, it could be something to do with the fact that in the 1980s, the influential Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell, Sr., once told fellow believers that to be evangelical was to “get saved, baptized, and registered to vote.”

The reality, Kidd argues, is that by this particular decade, many Republican evangelical insiders “were conveying to their followers that to be evangelical was to vote, and to vote Republican.”

In addition, choosing not to vote or casting a vote for a Democrat candidate, was viewed as a grave sin by some prominent evangelical leaders.

Soon, conservatives realized that the so-called “evangelicals” were becoming less picky about the particular virtues or religious traits exhibited by the party’s nominee – they would simply cast their vote for the GOP regardless.

Source: Christian Headlines

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

Even when I was young, I felt the presence of Jesus in my life.  I guess it started when my mom sent me to Sunday school.  I felt a stirring inside of something I can’t fully  explain.  All those songs about Jesus loving the little children… I knew he loved me.

When I went to camp as a young girl, I’d walk along the beach alone.  Lost in my thoughts.  I’d pretend that I was beautiful like the teenagers I saw.   I was beautiful, I just didn’t see myself like that.  While I was walking on the beach, I remember feeling like I was being watched.  At the time I didn’t know who it was.  As I got older, I’d wiggle because I felt I was being watched.  When I was an adult I put it together and realized Jesus was watching me grow.

It was a love affair from the beginning between the Lord and I.  With all passionate loves there is heartbreak.  My mother died of cancer when I was ten years old.  It was a long drawn out illness that lasted about five years. I think I saw my mother suffer too much.   It’s hard for a child to watch your mother die of cancer.  The intense pain and grief lasted years. I didn’t know but I was depressed.  All I knew was that I was very angry with the Lord.  I know now that he has a plan for each of us.  I only understood this as l got older.

My dreams were dark and I stayed away from church in my late teens.  Jesus did not abandon me.  He had never left my side.   As time passed, I went to Mass by myself.  I prayed for my mother and for my own health. Other than that, I did not know what to ask Jesus for.  It was only later in life that I began to understand all my blessings come from the Lord.  I could ask him for financial assistance, protection, guidance and much more.

My 30s were not peaceful.  My marriage was stable but I was not.  My work life was lacking, so I quit my job.  What happened is difficult to explain.   I started not feeling well and I was becoming increasingly paranoid.  My obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms came back.  In my 20s, I had the classic hand washing compulsion and the obsession with germs.  It was bad for a while but I learned a remedy on my own.  That if I don’t give in to the compulsion, it slowly goes away.   Years later I took a course on OCD.  The instructor said you have to at first live with the anxiety.  Stop yourself from checking or washing and live with the anxiety.  Then slowly the anxiety begins to lessen.  Does it go away?  Everyone is different but mine although it did not go away, it is considerably better.  I am able to function quite well now.

Dealing with all these mental health issues was not easy.  I began to pray in a way I never did before.  I would just speak to the Lord and tell him my problems.  I’d pray every day that He would alleviate my illness.  It did not happen overnight but I could see that things were changing.  My relationship with the Lord grew and I could tell He was listening to my prayers.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Ann Layne

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Greg Laurie is the pastor and founder of the Harvest churches in California and Hawaii and of Harvest Crusades. He is an evangelist and a best-selling author. His books include Hope for Hurting Hearts and Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of BCNN1.

I could hardly believe the news this weekend: Kobe Bryant, the LA Lakers basketball superstar, had died in a helicopter accident near Los Angeles. Eight other people, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, also perished in the crash.

How could a champion like Kobe, so vibrant and full of life, suddenly leave us?

Kobe Bryant was among the very best to play in the NBA. He played 20 seasons with the LA Lakers, won 5 championship rings and finished with 33,643 career points. At 41 years old, he was a living and breathing legend that even other NBA stars were star-struck by.

He even picked his own nickname, “Black Mamba,” after the fastest lethal snake in the world—and passed it on to his daughter Gianna, a budding basketball star, whom he called “Mambacita.”

The truth is, the vast majority of us didn’t know Kobe personally. Maybe we went to one of his games, but that was the extent of our relationship with him. Yet his death somehow has touched millions of Americans deeply. I believe it’s because it suddenly jolted us to the reality that life is not fair.

Why are people like Kobe and his daughter and the other passengers aboard that fateful flight taken while others will wake up tomorrow to face a new day?

There are no easy explanations, but here are three things we should keep in mind as we reflect on Kobe’s passing:

I have a smartwatch. Periodically, I will get a message on it that simply says, “Breathe.” Funny thing is, I was breathing already, but it’s reminding me of something that I should never take for granted.

Every day is a gift. Every single heartbeat and every breath you take is a blessing. Don’t take it for granted. And don’t take your health or your family for granted either.

The Bible reminds us, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (Psalm 90:12 NLT).

Kobe was a very successful man with many beautiful things, but I am certain he would have traded it all for one more precious day of life. He was not given that choice.

I remember the day 11 years ago when my wife and I heard the devastating news that our son Christopher had died in an automobile accident on his way to work. It was as if all the air was sucked out of the room and time stood still. I felt as though if words could kill you, I could have died on the spot that day.

In my time of pain and darkness, I called out to God, and He was there for me. The Bible says He is “the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3).

Sometimes things happen in life that are unfair, and we will never get a satisfying answer for why they happened. At times such as these, I have learned that the right question to ask is not “Why?” but “Who?” Who do you turn to at a time like this?

Source: Christian Headlines

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