Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom actor Chris Pratt took to the Teen Choice Award stage on August 12^th to accept the award of Choice Movie Actor. While receiving his award Pratt lovingly joked with his fans saying, “I’m so thrilled to be here. I have not been a teen for quite some time.” 

Then shifting gears to embark on his speech Pratt said, “I want to thank God. I always do that when I am up on a big platform in front of a bunch of young faces.”  

Then, as Pratt stood on the “Teen Choice” stage holding his surfboard, he offered a challenge to the crowd saying, “I love God, that’s my thing I love Him! And you should too!” 

Pratt is open about his Christianity and seemingly does not have any inhibitions when it comes to sharing it or when it comes to encouraging others to love God too. 

CBN reports that back in June when he received the Generation Award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards Pratt started the conversation about Christianity and God during his acceptance speech. The listicle speech, which Pratt called “9 Rules from Christ Pratt, Generation Award Winner,” started off with a quick quip, the actor mixing an air of seriousness and humor, all the while giving glory to God.

 1. Breathe. If you don’t, you will suffocate.

2. “You have a soul. Be careful with it.”

3. “Don’t be a turd. If you are strong, be a protector. If you are…

According to Fox News, a source close to Aretha Franklin, has reported that the singer is ‘gravely ill.’ 

The 76-year-old “Respect” singer reportedly fell dangerously ill earlier this week. Sadly, this is not Franklin’s first health scare. According to CBS, in 2011, it was reported that Franklin was battling pancreatic cancer. In 2012, she told Anthony Mason of “CBS Sunday Morning,” that her health was “wonderful.” 

Unfortunately, that cannot be said for Franklin’s health now and many are reporting that she is now at home in hospice care. 

In the wake of this news, celebrities like Mariah Carey, Paula Abdul, and Ciara are rallying behind her and offering prayers to the sensational soul singer.

This news has also rallied some other important people in Franklin’s life. Franklin, who is heavily influenced and inspired by gospel music, grew up in church. Franklin’s father was the minster at New Bethel Baptist Church earlier in her life. New Bethel Baptist Church, CBS reports, was where Franklin found her God given gift of singing. This was very important to Franklin so even as she began to develop as an artist, she maintained her gospel roots and influence.

The current pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church, Pastor Robert Smith Jr., opened up about Franklin, saying that the church is praying for her. 

Pastor Smith got candid about Franklin…

According to The Jerusalem Post the Heritage House hostel has created a blacklist of Jewish celebrities and journalists whom they are calling ‘haters of Israel.’

“Sonei Yisrael,” or “haters of Israel,” as The Jerusalem Post reported, are “Jews who are banned from the Jerusalem Heritage House and all activities, because of crimes committed against the Jewish People.”

Attention was first brought to this list when journalist Jacob Kornblush tweeted a photo of the list captioning it, “Apparently there’s a Sonei Yisrael (haters of Israel) list #smh.”

The list is comprised of celebrities like Natalie Portman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, and former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, but celebrities are not the only ones on the list. Other names appearing are Senators Bernie Sanders and Dianne Feinstein, and former US Ambassadors to Israel Daniel Shapiro and Daniel Kurtzer. 

The list did not discriminate to just people, however, it also includes entire organizations. A few organizations mentioned are news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, and the Times of Israel. In addition, several individual journalists are mentioned including The Jerusalem Post Editor-In-Chief Yaakov Katz and the Atlantic’s Contributing Editor Peter Beinart. Interestingly, according to The Jerusalem Post, Beinart was detained earlier this week at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv…

Methodist experts say John Piper’s additions to the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” are theologically sound based on the “criteria of adherence to Wesleyan theology, appropriate use of language for God and humanity and singability.”

Piper added two verses to the song for the worship team to sing at The Gospel Coalition’s women’s conference.

I could not love Thee, so blind and unfeeling;

Covenant promises fell not to me.

Then without warning, desire, or deserving,

I found my Treasure, my pleasure, in Thee.

I have no merit to woo or delight Thee,

I have no wisdom or pow’rs to employ;

Yet in thy mercy, how pleasing thou find’st me,

This is Thy pleasure: that Thou art my joy.

The author of the original hymn, Thomas Chisholm, was Methodist. Experts, who are part of the United Methodist Church, reviewed the additions to the hymn. The team also reviews the CCLI Top 100 songs.

Meanwhile, church leaders and other experts are questioning if additions should be made to hymns.

In a 1780 hymnal preface, John Wesley himself wrote that people are “perfectly welcome” to reprint hymns “just as they are.”

“But I desire they would not attempt to mend them; for they really are not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse,” he said. “Therefore, I must beg of them one of these two favors:…

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland says God once told him to lay hands on a corroded private jet and that He would heal the plane when he did.

In a message delivered last week titled “Faith for Healing Comes by Hearing,” the Texas-based minister, who aligned with the Word of Faith movement, recounted that a member of his board had an older plane that had been parked for a few years and that a team of people did several X-rays on the fuselage and other spots on the aircraft and found some corrosion.

“I was praying over it,” Copeland said. “And just as plain, the Lord said to me: ‘Lay hands on it. I’ll heal it.'”

“He said: Kenneth … corrosion comes from the curse. He said, ‘I provided an airplane for you, didn’t I?’ I said: Yes, sir. He said: ‘Lay hands on it.'”

He started praying and began putting his hands on the body the aircraft.

“I laid hands on it all over and it’s a big ol’ airplane and it took a while to do,” he said, commanding the corrosion to leave in the name of Jesus.

X-rays were subsequently performed on the aircraft after his prayers and only one small spot of corrosion remained, he said.

When Copeland prayed about that small corroded spot, he said, the…

Evangelist Franklin Graham recently asked Oregonians to pray for the salvation of Governor Kate Brown. She responded with a vague statement about her spiritual beliefs.

Preaching at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby, OR, Graham told the crowd of more than 12,000, “Let’s pray for your governor, Gov. Brown.” Then he queried, “Wouldn’t it be something if she got saved?” Graham then prayed, “that she would come to know your son Jesus Christ as her lord and savior one day.” 

His comments about and prayer for Governor Brown came during his third sermon in a seven-city trip through Oregon and Washington.

Graham preached, but also had plenty to say about this year’s mid-term elections. Graham said Christians could swing the balance of power in the state. He said, “If the church went to the polls and voted, you could turn this state around. The enemy out there thinks the church is asleep.” 

Graham refused to tell people how to vote but told them during his sermon on Sodom and Gomorrah that, “We need to vote for candidates who are going to defend not only our Constitution but who are going to defend our religious freedoms.”

Brown responded to Graham’s comments during a phone call with reporters later in the week. “I believe that each one of us has a spirit living within us and we have to acknowledge the spirits within all of our human…

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 14, 2018​—Daniel Darling, vice-president of communications for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, released his newest book today titled, “The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity.”

This book, with a foreword by World Vision President, Richard Stearnes, urges Christians to reclaim, in their public witness and their activism, a vision of human dignity that motivates them to speak up on behalf of the most vulnerable.

“Human dignity is at the heart of Christian gospel,” Darling says. “I wrote this book to help ordinary Christians understand and live out the radical implications of being created in the image of God.”

Russell Moore, president of the ERLC, comments on Darling’s newest work.

A national atheist organization is urging an Ohio sheriff’s office to remove “For God and Country” patches from officer uniforms, asserting they are unconstitutional.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter Aug. 8 to the Shelby County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Office after it received a complaint about the patches.

“It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to promote or endorse religion,” the letter from FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor reads. “Anyone viewing these patches would understand the Sheriff’s Office to be endorsing religion and belief in a god. We request that these patches be removed.”

The patches display an American flag with the words “For God” at the top and “And Country” at the bottom.

A FFRF press release said “government employees can worship, pray, or read any religious text they wish when acting in their personal capacities”

“But they are not permitted to provide prestige to their personal religion through the machinery of a government office,” the press release added. “Sheriffs and deputies take an oath to uphold our godless and entirely secular constitution and must keep their personal religious views out of law enforcement.”

Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com.

Publication Date: August 14, 2018

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Texas megachurch Pastor Robert Morris gave his first sermon since a near death experience earlier this year, receiving a strong applause from the Gateway Church community.

On Saturday, Morris returned to preach his first sermon, a three-part series, titled “Eternity: Your Choice,” after suffering complications from hernia surgery in April that led to severe internal bleeding.

“I’m glad to be back,” said Morris to the Gateway congregation, joking that despite being away for months “the pulpit still fits.”

Before beginning his sermon, Morris reported that he was “fully recovered” from his illness and that Gateway Pastor Jimmy Evans, who filled in for Morris while he was ill, was going to continue to help with leadership as a senior pastor.

“Pastor Jimmy is going to help me a little more in leading the staff on a day-to-day basis,” said Morris, who noted that he remains lead senior pastor and will be able to preach more often as a result.

Morris’ first sermon back was titled “Whosoever Will,” in which he expressed his opposition to Calvinism, or the belief that God alone chooses who is saved and who is damned.

“I really believe you determine…