Chris Pratt Shares How He Stays Grounded While Being in the Spotlight
Chris Pratt joined Stephen Colbert on Thursday and shared his secret to surviving in Hollywood.
Relevant Magazine reports that the outspoken Christian sat down with The Late Show host to promote his new movie, Lego Movie 2, but he also talked about the pressures surrounding having celebrity status.
“Do you ever feel like you’re in a lion’s den by being a celebrity in the public eye with, you know, people always trying to figure out what’s going on with Chris Pratt and the cameras pointing at you,” Colbert asked the Jurassic World Star. This came after Colbert asked the actor about the Daniel Fast – a Biblical prayer and dieting fast – which Pratt recently completed.
The Guardians of the Galaxy star responded to Colbert’s question saying, “Yeah, yes, I suppose I do.”
But Pratt did not leave it there, he shared a quote from Pastor Christine Caine that has helped him to stay grounded in Hollywood. He said, “But, there’s this great quote I actually heard in church and it felt really appropriate which was, ‘if the spotlight that’s shining on you is brighter than the light that comes from within you, it’ll kill you.’”
“And you see it all the time,” Pratt added.
Pratt then shared that this quote cautioned him not to give too much of himself away – a trap many young celebrities fall into – because doing that could kill him,…
Lauren Daigle won the award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance with her song You Say (written by her, Jason Ingram and Paul Mabury). She also won best album with Look Up Child – for which she beat Elevation Worship, Jesus Culture, Michael W. Smith and Zach Williams.
Daigle has risen in popularity hugely in the last year after appearing on American chat show Ellen De Generes, reaching the top place in Christian charts in America (and remaining there for the last 28 weeks) but also finding her way into the secular chart as well, with ‘You Say’ reaching number 34 in the Hot 100 in January.
Tori Kelly, an American singer whose fan-base has grown up from a faithful cohort of Youtube subscribers, won the award for Best Gospel Song for ‘Never Alone featuring gospel artist Kirk Franklin.
Kelly also won Best Gospel Album for ‘Hiding Place’.
i don’t think i fully even know what happened i just know that i’m so incredibly grateful & will never forget this feeling. all glory to God. (@kirkfranklin YOU’RE MY HERO)
The Best Roots Gospel Album went to Jason Crabb for his album Unexpected.
Soweto Gospel Choir won the Best World Music Album.
Congrats to @Lauren_Daigle on her TWO Grammy wins last night for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song AND Best Contemporary Christian Music Album!
Doctors Could Be Forced to Perform Abortions Under ‘Extreme’ N.M. Bill
The New Mexico House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would legalize unrestricted abortion up to the day of birth and would remove “conscience” protections for doctors and hospitals who don’t want to perform abortions.
The bill, HB 51, would repeal a 50-year-old law that predates Roe v. Wade and prohibited abortion except in cases of rape, incest, “grave” mental or physical or mental defects, and to save the mother’s life.
The bill passed the Democrat-controlled House, 40-29, and now heads to the Senate, also controlled by Democrats. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham supports it.
Pro-lifers say the bill has two problems: 1) It mirrors bills in New York and Virginia by removing all restrictions on abortion, and, 2) It rolls back a section of New Mexico law that protected doctors and hospitals. That section of New Mexico law reads: “This article does not require a hospital to admit any patient for the purposes of performing an abortion. … A person who is a member of, or associated with, the staff of a hospital, or any employee of a hospital … and who objects to the justified medical termination on moral or religious grounds shall not be required to participate.”
House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, a Republicans, criticized supporters of the bill.
“You are perfectly willing to allow hospitals and medical…
According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the planned ambush took place last Thursday (8th February) in Chapar village in the Sultanpur District of Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest province.
About 40 Christians were attending the prayer meeting at a pastor’s home when it was interrupted by 25 Hindu militants, who subjected the Christians to verbal abuse and physical assault, resulting in six people requiring urgent medical attention.
Bibles and other church property were also damaged in the onslaught.
Efforts are being made by a local monitoring group to assist the victims in registering a First Information Report (FIR), which the police require in order to open an investigation.
However, the police are said to have demanded medical assessments of those injured before registering FIRs.
A source close to CSW has reported that the perpetrators had threatened to kill the Christians if they continued to gather for prayer meetings.
A similar incident occurred in Chapar village in November 2018.
CSW says Uttar Pradesh has witnessed a rise in targeted attacks against Christians in the past 24 months as a result of the false narrative about Christians forcefully converting people, which has been created by groups aligned to the Hindutva campaign of intolerance.
Local sources report that the District of Janupur experienced 12 incidents of violence in September 2018, with…
380 Southern Baptist Leaders Sexually Abused 700 People over 20 Years
After reviewing thousands of pages of legal documents over six months, the Houston Chronicle found that 380 Southern Baptist pastors and church officials were accused of a myriad of sexual assault charges including everything from groping to rape.
The Houston Chronicle published a more than 5,000-word article on Sunday – the first of three installments – detailing the acts of sexual abuse by several prominent Southern Baptist Convention pastors and leaders on more than 700 victims over 20-years.
The outlet notes that they took on this project in order to create a comprehensive list that details sexual abuse, assault and misconduct by SBC Church leaders after abuse victims demanded a list in 2007 and never got one.
According to the Houston Chronicle, since 1998, approximately 380 SBC leaders and volunteers “have faced allegations of sexual misconduct.” Of the 380 SBC leaders accused, 220 have been convicted, nearly 100 are still in prison and more than 100 are now registered sex offenders. While some leaders did serve jail time, the Houston Chronicle reports that others of them – some registered sex offenders – are still working in SBC churches today.
The newspaper found that “at least 35 church pastors, employees and volunteers who exhibited predatory behavior were still able to find jobs at churches during the past two decades.” Additionally, the…
Rhapsody of Realities 12 February 2019 By Pastor Chris Oyakhilome – You’re Sealed With The Holy Ghost
Topic: You’re Sealed With The Holy Ghost
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13).
Years ago, there were those who preached and taught that having been born again, you needed to be “sealed with the Holy Ghost.” Then they’d call people out in church, lay hands on them and say, “Be sealed in the Name of Jesus.” In their minds, they were “sealing” those Christians. One can’t but wonder where they got that from, because the Christian was already “sealed with the Holy Ghost” at the New Birth.
The underlined portion of our opening verse says, “…ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” When you received the Holy Ghost, you were sealed; it was done by the Holy Ghost; it’s not a special, or typical experience. What does it mean to be sealed, especially in the context of Scripture?
When a document is sealed, it means a mark or something is attached to it as a guarantee of authenticity and ownership. When you see the seal of the President on a document, for example, that means the document came from the President, and has the president’s authority. A seal also means that a particular transaction has been completed or consummated.
There’re three things that the sealing of the Holy Ghost is for: ownership, security, and authenticity. Now that you’re born again, and have been sealed with the Holy Ghost, Satan can’t touch you, because the mark of God is on you. The hand of God is resting upon you. Psalm 91:7 says, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.” And the tenth verse says, “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” Why? It’s because God’s seal is on you! That seal — that mark — separates you from danger.
As a child of God, you’re protected and preserved by the power of the Holy Spirit. His glory covers you. When you understand this, the devil will have no place in your life. Fear will have no place in you. If you’re attacked by sickness, disease or infirmity, you’ll command it to leave your body. You’ll live every day with the confident assurance that no plan of the adversary can work against you, because the seal of God is on you. Praise God!
CONFESSION I’ve got the seal of the Holy Ghost! I’m protected and preserved from harm, for as the mountains surround Jerusalem, even so am I immersed in the Lord’s protection. His divine power has granted me all that I require for life and godliness, and no weapon fashioned against me can ever prosper, because I dwell in Christ. Blessed be God forever!
FURTHER STUDY: Psalm 125:1-3; Psalm 91:1-10
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 27:45-66 & Leviticus 1-3
2 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Matthew 13:53-58 & Genesis 43
Rhapsody of Realities 12th February 2019 Devotional was written by Pastor Pastor Chris Oyakhilome (D.Sc., D.D.). President of Loveworld Inc. aka Christ Embassy Int’l.
Ricardo Godinho is charged with murdering Aliny Mendes, 39, who was attacked in Ewell, Surrey, on Friday.
It’s thought she attended the local Catholic church, St George’s in Epsom, and was actively involved in raising money for them.
Godinho, 41, from Epsom, appeared at Staines Magistrates’ Court on Monday after he was charged with murder on Sunday night.
He is also charged with one count of possession of a bladed article.
A police statement after the incident said Ms Mendes was knifed to death on London Road at about 3pm.
A different church near the incident was also affected on Friday night as roads were closed and parents struggled to collect their children from youth group.
Sean Skinner, the youth pastor at St Paul’s Howell Hill in Cheam told Premier the incident was: “about a mile away, just the opposite side of a local park an just down the main road, so really local and where quite a few of our congregation live”.
“It is quite unusual and quite shocking, the area isn’t really known for violent crime or anything like that. Even the recent spate of violent crime in London hasn’t really affected this area so, I don’t know, maybe it’s a bit of a wake-up call for our area that violence can exist even in seemingly peaceful commuities.
“We certainly as a church have been praying about it over the weekend, we inlcuded it in our intercessions on Sunday and it’s…
Most famous for playing Shuri in Black Panther, Wright has also appeared in the Black Mirror episode ‘Black Museum’ and the Doctor Who episode ‘Face the Raven’.
On Sunday night, the 25 year-old won the EE Rising Star Award, the only category voted for by the public.
She started her speech saying: “I identity myself as a child of God and I can’t get up here without thanking God.
“A few years ago I saw myself in a deep state of depression and I literally wanted to quit acting.The only thing that pretty much pulled me out of that was God, my belief, my faith and my family – and an email from BAFTA saying that they want me to be part of the Breakthrough Brits and I was like ‘let me try again'”.
In 2015, Wright was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, making her one of 18 newcomers selected by a panel of leading film figures to receive a year’s worth of mentoring and career development support from BAFTA.
She continued: “So this wasn’t an overnight thing, this wasn’t a click of the finger success, and it’s still a work of progress, I’m still a work in progress, but I want to just thank God.
“I want to thank my family, I want to thank my team…I want to thank everybody that said yes to me, I want to say thank you to everybody that gave me a chance and just saw my talent, saw what God placed in me, and said yes.
“I want to encourage young people – matter of fact you don’t even…
I am writing this morning’s Daily Article with a grieving heart.
I became a Christian in a Southern Baptist Sunday school class and was baptized in a Southern Baptist church. I was licensed and ordained as a vocational minister in that church. I attended college at a Texas Baptist university and graduate school at a Southern Baptist seminary. I taught on that seminary’s faculty and pastored four churches affiliated in various ways with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Southern Baptists support nearly nine thousand missionaries around the world, are training more than 22,000 seminary students, served more than 2.9 million meals last year to those in need, and assist those in crisis with practical compassion. God has used Southern Baptists to share the gospel with multiplied millions of people around the world.
And so, this story in yesterday’s Houston Chronicle pains me deeply: “20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms.” Reporters at the Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News began an investigation last year “to compile an archive of allegations of sexual abuse, sexual assault and other serious misconduct involving Southern Baptist pastors and other church officials.”
What they discovered is tragic.
380 credibly accused leaders
The reporters “found complaints made against hundreds of pastors, church officials and volunteers at Southern Baptist churches nationwide.” They focused their search on the last twenty years, concentrating on individuals who had a documented connection to a church listed in an SBC directory published by a state or national association.
They spent more than six months reviewing thousands of pages of court, prison, and police records from more than twenty states and conducting hundreds of interviews. They also searched sex offender registries nationwide.
Ultimately, the reporters compiled information on 380 credibly accused officials in Southern Baptist…
When I converse with church members who have responsibility for overseeing pastoral compensation, I can expect a few typical reactions. First, the members speak in hushed tones, as if the subject of compensation is a forbidden public topic, only to be mentioned in the confines of need-to-know and confidentiality. Second, I will run into one or more misconceptions about pastor’s pay. Third, I often hear from at least one person who has a very unreasonable attitude about the topic.
In that context, I hear six very common negative themes about pastoral compensation. I wish they were not repeated, but they are. See if you have heard any of them. Let’s look at the six ways not to compensate your pastor.
Don’t use “pay” and “package” synonymously. A pastor’s pay is salary plus housing allowance. That’s it. Nothing else. The pay is not health benefits or retirement benefits; those are, obviously, benefits. The pay is not automobile expenses reimbursed. That is an expense reimbursement. Let me give you an example in the secular world. An employee gets a paycheck of $50,000 a year. The same employee gets $4,000 in medical benefits and $3,000 in retirement benefits. And the employee was reimbursed $4,000 for a conference in California. How much does the employee make? $50,000 of course. You don’t add benefits and expenses and call it pay. That’s the total package, but not the paycheck. Articulate your pastor’s pay with that same vernacular.
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