Barbara Smith, a fashion model who created a business empire by catering to the tastes of aspiring black professionals with her restaurants, television shows, bedding and furniture collections and books on entertaining, died on Saturday at her home on Long Island. She was 70.

The cause was early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, her family said. Ms. Smith had waged a long and public battle with the disease, which was diagnosed when she was in her 50s.

Ms. Smith was best known for her popular Manhattan restaurant, B. Smith. Located at the edge of the theater district, it opened in 1986 and almost immediately attracted a following among affluent black New Yorkers, who welcomed it as a stylish gathering spot. Essence magazine, in 1995, described it as the place “where the who’s who of black Manhattan meet, greet and eat regularly.”

Ms. Smith opened a successful offshoot in Union Station in Washington, D.C., in 1994 and four years later in Sag Harbor, N.Y., where she and her second husband and business partner, Dan Gasby, maintained a summer house.

Often called the black Martha Stewart, Ms. Smith translated her sense of style into a series of books on cooking and entertaining; a syndicated weekly television show on NBC, “B. Smith with Style”; a bedding, tableware and bath products collection for Bed Bath & Beyond; and a furniture line for the La-Z-Boy company that mingled African and Asian elements.

Her ventures achieved crossover success, attracting customers beyond her core black clientele. The Washington Post wrote that her restaurant in Washington “manages to transcend racial lines,” adding that “like a well-whisked beurre blanc, the races here mingle without separating.”

In an interview with National Public Radio in 2007, Ms. Smith said: “What B. Smith’s brand is about is bringing people together. I think that if Martha Stewart and Oprah had a daughter, it would be B. Smith.”

Barbara Elaine Smith was born on Aug. 24, 1949, in Everson, Pa. Her father, William, was a steelworker. Her mother, Florence (Claybrook) Smith, was a part-time maid with a flair for interior decorating that she had once hoped to make her career.

From early childhood, Barbara was a whirlwind. “I inherited a paper route, I sold magazines, had lemonade stands, I was a candy striper and into fund-raising,” she told The New York Times in 2011. “I’ve always enjoyed being busy.”

SOURCE: The New York Times, William Grimes

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The next time you’re standing in your kitchen, bedroom, or at your desk, I want you to look at drawers. Yes, drawers. The place where you store cutlery, clothes, or staplers and pens.

Sadly, many people who call themselves Christians live functionally compartmentalized lives. Whether they realize it or not, they have divided their lives neatly into two drawers: real life and spiritual life.

The real-life drawer is the one they dig into frequently and are most comfortable with. It contains all the stuff of everyday life, like their job, physical health, friends and family, leisure, money, possessions, and daily routine.

This drawer dominates their thinking and their doing. It’s where they expend most of their emotional and physical energy, and where most dreams will be realized or dashed. The contents of this drawer are the location of their highs and lows, their joys and sorrows.

Then they have a second drawer—the spiritual life drawer. All the “God” stuff goes here. It’s the drawer for Sunday worship, small group, tithes and offerings, short-term missions trips, and the evangelistic conversations with neighbors or extended family members.

Yes, they believe in Jesus, his forgiveness, and the eternity to come, but these beliefs don’t have a radical impact on the way they think about themselves and life in general. Their faith is an aspect of their life, but not something that shapes everything in their life

I think I am describing many Christians. Could I potentially be representing you?

I wish Paul Tripp could claim innocence from this two-drawer verdict, but I can’t.

Ask yourself: on any given day, what most influences the way that I think about myself and my life? What is the driving factor for the majority of what I think, say, and do?

The biblical narrative and worldview only has one drawer—it’s called the gospel in everyday life. Everything goes in that drawer! Scripture asserts that you were bought with a price (the life and death of Jesus), so you don’t belong to you anymore. (Actually, because of creation, you never did belong to you!)

God has a radical, single-drawer purpose for your life. The best word for that purpose is ambassador (see 2 Corinthians 5:20). The only thing an ambassador does is represent the ruler who sent them—every day, all the time, in everything you do.

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As China’s Communist Party rolls out even more restrictions for religious organizations, a Catholic leader is accusing the Vatican of complicity in the “killing” of underground churches.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, the Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, has been an outspoken critic of what he considers dangerous compromise with communists. On a recent visit to the United States, the 88-year-old led high mass in New York, accepted a pro-democracy award in Washington, and spoke passionately about his fears for the safety of Chinese Christians.

Though Cardinal Zen faults Pope Francis for silence and inaction, he says he’s mainly criticizing “the Holy See”—specifically the “bad people” who advise the pope. He singles out Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin for not being “a man of faith because he despises the heroes of faith.’

In September 2018, Cardinal Parolin helped arrange a pact with Beijing that was supposed to help unify the underground church and the communist-run Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA). The deal, most of which still remains secret, requires underground (or “home”) churches to register with the government, thus accepting the rule of state authority. It also apparently lets the CPCA select bishop nominees to present to the pope for his final selection. Cardinal Zen compares the arrangement to a 1933 negotiation between Germany and the Vatican, which the Nazis immediately violated.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, William McGurn notes that China, under President Xi Jinping, “has only stepped up persecution” in wake of the 2018 deal. “Meanwhile, the price extracted has been high: the pope’s silence,” McGurn adds. “This silence comes at a particularly terrible moment, when Mr. Xi is busy persecuting everyone from Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs to house church Christians and Falun Gong practitioners.”

By endorsing the agreement, says Cardinal Zen, the pope is “encouraging a schism.” Registering with the communists goes “against our orthodoxy” and is “cheating the faithful,” the cardinal adds. He tells McGurn: “You can never compromise with a totalitarian regime because they want everything. Would you have encouraged St. Joseph to negotiate with Herod?”

Worshipers who attended high mass last week at New York’s Church of St. Vincent Ferrer called Cardinal Zen reverent, serious, and a “great example” of adhering to the truth. One woman referred to his message that day as “not a mourning cry but a war cry.”

Cardinal Zen is critical of communist-approved bishops in China who prioritize country over faith. For example, Bishop John Fang Xingyao, leader of the CPCA, recently said, “Love for the homeland must be greater than the love for the Church, and the law of the country is above Canon law.” Another Catholic leader, Bishop Peter Fang Jianping, justifies sinicization efforts by saying Chinese people “should first be a citizen and then have religion and beliefs.”

In his book For Love of My People I Will Not Remain Silent, Cardinal Zen details his concern for Chinese Catholics. He contends that Pope Francis is “shutting down” the progress made by John Paul II and Benedict. “Obviously they always give lip service,” he says of Vatican officials. “They always say, ‘In the continuity…’ but that’s an insult.”

La Civilta Cattolica, a pro-Francis Jesuit journal, is attempting to discredit Cardinal Zen, McGurn alleges. It is engaging in “missionary romanticism,” he says, by highlighting the work of Matteo Riccis, a 16^th-century Jesuit “who sought to incorporate aspects of Chinese culture into Catholic worship.” The problem with that comparison, McGurn says, is that the 2018 deal was brokered mostly by European Catholics, not by Chinese church leaders who are intimately familiar with communist oppression.

That point is key, according to David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China. “The Sino-Vatican agreement was negotiated not by Chinese Catholics,” he says, “but by Vatican officials who appear susceptible to the same delusions about China and its intentions that infect many Western politicians.”

Source: Church Leaders

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Ash Wednesday will be upon us soon. Like all elements of the Christian Church liturgical calendar, Ash Wednesday is an effective way to preach the gospel and “walk through” the gospel story. At our church, Sojourn, we always observe Ash Wednesday with an early morning service.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent. The Church set this date in the fourth century by counting back 40 days from Easter (excluding Sundays). This brings us to the Wednesday seven weeks before Easter. Each of the 40 days represents one of the 40 days when Christ fasted in the wilderness, before Satan tempted Him (Mark 4:2).

On this day, we:

So Where Do the Ashes Come In?

In the Bible, ashes help us remember our mortality and frailty resulting from the Fall (Genesis 3:19; 18:27). When we put ashes on our foreheads in the sign of the cross, we participate in a visible reminder of our condition—and the power of the cross to change that condition forever.

Source: Church Leaders

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This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Whyte House Family Devotional Reading of Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening podcast. This is Episode #37.

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.”

Song of Solomon 3:1 reads: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.”

Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place to find him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by restraining prayer? Then it is there you must seek and find him. Did you lose Christ by sin? You will find Christ in no other way but by the giving up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in which the lust doth dwell. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? You must find Christ in the Scriptures. It is a true proverb, “Look for a thing where you dropped it, it is there.” So look for Christ where you lost him, for he has not gone away. But it is hard work to go back for Christ. Bunyan tells us, the pilgrim found the piece of the road back to the Arbour of Ease, where he lost his roll, the hardest he had ever travelled. Twenty miles onward is easier than to go one mile back for the lost evidence.

Take care, then, when you find your Master, to cling close to him. But how is it you have lost him? One would have thought you would never have parted with such a precious friend, whose presence is so sweet, whose words are so comforting, and whose company is so dear to you! How is it that you did not watch him every moment for fear of losing sight of him? Yet, since you have let him go, what a mercy that you are seeking him, even though you mournfully groan, “O that I knew where I might find him!” Go on seeking, for it is dangerous to be without thy Lord. Without Christ you are like a sheep without its shepherd; like a tree without water at its roots; like a sere leaf in the tempest—not bound to the tree of life. With thine whole heart seek him, and he will be found of thee: only give thyself thoroughly up to the search, and verily, thou shalt yet discover him to thy joy and gladness.

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.

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Eight people were killed in Turkey in a magnitude 5.7 earthquake that struck western Iran early Sunday morning, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu said.

The quake centeredwest of the Iranian city of Khoy and affected villages in the Turkish province of Van.

Soylu told a news conference that three children and four adults were killed in Turkey’s Baskule district. He later said another person had died.

No one remained trapped under fallen buildings, Van Governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez said.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at least 21 people had been injured, including eight who are in a critical condition.

Emergency teams have been sent to the remote mountainous region.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the earthquake affected 43 villages in the mountainous Qotour area. It reported some residents were injured but didn’t say any were in critical condition.

According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC), the quake, which happened at 9:22am local time (0552GMT), had a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles).

The region has a history of powerful earthquakes. Last month a quake centered on the eastern Turkish city of Elazig killed more than 40 people.

Turkish broadcaster NTV showed images of locals and soldiers digging through the rubble of collapsed buildings as families fearing further tremors sat in snowy streets. The EMSC reported several further quakes that measured up to magnitude 3.9.

The effects of the quake hit four villages in Van.Sevenof the fatalities occurred in Ozpinar village, where Soylu said search and rescue teams had arrived.He added that the quake caused 1,066 buildings to collapse while the Education Ministry said a number of schools were damaged.

Koca said 25 ambulances, a medical helicopter and 13 emergency teams had been sent to the region. The Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) said 144 tents for families had been dispatched.

Copyright 2020. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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It is hardly a matter of wonder that the country that gave the world instant tea and instant coffee should be the one to give it instant Christianity. Ignoring for the moment Romanism, and Liberalism in its various disguises, and focusing our attention upon the great body of evangelical believers, we see at once how deeply the religion of Christ has suffered in the house of its friends. The American genius for getting things done quickly and easily with little concern for quality or permanence has bred a virus that has infected the whole evangelical church in the United States and, through our literature, our evangelists, and our missionaries, has spread all over the world.

Instant Christianity came in with the machine age. Men invented machines for two purposes. They wanted to get important work done more quickly and easily than they could do it by hand, and they wanted to get the work over with so they could give their time to pursuits more to their liking, such as loafing or enjoying the pleasures of the world. Instant Christianity now serves the same purposes in religion. It disposes of the past, guarantees the future and sets the Christian free to follow the more refined lusts of the flesh in all good conscience and with a minimum of restraint.

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