WASHINGTON (RNS) — Some people looked straight up, watching the lights and shadows crossing Washington National Cathedral’s neo-Gothic arches. Others stared directly ahead, listening intently to meditative world music emanating from a trio playing instruments from across the globe.

A child rocked to the gentle music and a man nodded to the beat as the altar was bathed in a background of purplish fog.

Over three 45-minute immersive sessions, “Space, Light and Sound,” part of the cathedral’s “Seeing Deeper Week” (Feb. 10-14), drew more than 2,000 people of several faiths, as well as the nonreligious and unaffiliated, including many grandchildren and grandparents of both groups.

With the cathedral’s nave emptied of the 1,400 chairs normally arranged in neat rows facing the altar, the crowd sat, stood or stretched out on the floor in the center of the nearly 500-foot-long space.

“A lot of people who would never come here for church come here for this, which is part of the point,” said Kevin Eckstrom, chief communications officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington’s cathedral, often the setting for funerals of state and rites for other national figures. After offering the show for free for three years, for the past two the cathedral has charged $10 per person to control the size of the crowds and help defray the cost of the event.

Attendees of the Washington National Cathedral’s “Space, Light and Sound” show sit around Earth Music Effects musicians, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, for part of the Seeing Deeper Week at the cathedral in Washington. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

Nina Goodwine, 33, who describes herself as spiritual but not religious, said she normally wouldn’t darken the door of a cathedral but said that as a fan of art installations she decided to attend the first of the light- and sound-filled events on a rainy Monday night.

“I meditated for, like, two minutes while I was here when the music was playing, so for me there was a spiritual aspect to it,” said Goodwine, who learned about the event on Instagram and traveled half an hour from Takoma Park, Maryland. “I think just being in here, just the scale of everything with the color, it’s a spiritual experience, just looking at it.”

Jaiden Patel, a 9-year-old Hindu boy who attended the second session with his mother and grandmother, described it as the “best 30 bucks spent ever.”

“I thought I was just in a new world,” he marveled.

Source: Religion News Service

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

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — A former member of La Luz Del Mundo, a Mexico-based Pentecostal movement that claims 5 million members, is suing the church and more than a dozen of its leaders, alleging decades of abuse at the hands of the group’s leaders.

In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday (Feb. 12) in U.S. District Court in California, Sochil Martin alleges that her aunt and a foster mother “groomed her to serve as an erotic dancer and sexual servant” first to Samuel Joaquín Flores, the church apostle and leader, who died in 2014, and later to Flores’ successor, Naasón Joaquín García, the church’s current apostle.

“This case is about a lifetime of manipulation and abuse of a young woman perpetrated by sexual predators and the global institution built around and for the protection of those predators,” the lawsuit states.

At a news conference in downtown Los Angeles, Martin, 33, detailed the sexual abuse she says she endured within the church. Her husband and former La Luz Del Mundo members were at the news conference, which was held on the same day the church was hosting its Holy Supper ceremony at the Fairplex in Pomona about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. In a statement Thursday evening, the church said it will continue to celebrate the third and final day of the Holy Supper on Friday despite the lawsuit.

“By the age of 9, I was taught by my own family and community that my eternal soul depended on me sexually pleasing La Luz Del Mundo apostles,” said Martin, who grew up attending a La Luz Del Mundo church in Los Angeles.

“For nearly 22 years, I was made to work for, travel for, lie for and give my body to an organization that saw me as nothing more than a source of profit,” she said.

Martin related how parents and the church community taught young girls that “God wants them to please their apostles.”

Greenberg Gross, LLP, and Jeff Anderson & Associates are representing Martin.

García was arrested in June and charged with sex crimes involving minors. He has denied the charges against him and is awaiting trial in California.

The new lawsuit alleges that over a period of 22 years, Martin was “raped dozens of times, and endured numerous severe beatings, causing physical, emotional, and mental injuries that afflict her still today.”

“Throughout, she was taught by LDM’s leaders that her only value and chance at salvation lay in serving the sexual whims of the two Apostles, which at times included forcing others to have sex with children,” the suit claims.

The suit also alleges that Martin was forced to spend at least 30,000 hours working for the church, without pay, to promote its activities.

“La Luz del Mundo temples in your own town, those were built by forced unpaid La Luz Del Mundo members,” Martin said at the news conference. “The propaganda La Luz Del Mundo spreads online, that was created by forced unpaid La Luz Del Mundo members.”

Martin said the food the pastors eat and the celebrations the church hosts “come from the hard work of La Luz Del Mundo members that have no choice” but to do whatever the church asks of them.

Martin was not alone, the lawsuit alleges.

Source: Religion News Service

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

Welcome to Episode #33 of the Theology of Eternal Damnation in Hell. I am your host, Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International. This podcast is about the negative side of eternal life. When it comes to what happens after death, people love to talk about Heaven and the wonderful benefits of eternity with God. However, there is less talk about the negative side of eternal life. This podcast will explore what the Bible says about Hell and the eternal damnation of those who die without Christ.

Erwin Lutzer said, “In hell perpetually burning lusts never subside, and the tortured conscience aches but is never sedated. There will be increased desire with decreased satisfaction.”

The Bible says in Isaiah 66:22-24: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, Shall remain before me, saith the Lord, So shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, And from one sabbath to another, Shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look Upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: For their worm shall not die, Neither shall their fire be quenched; And they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”

Allow me to share with you some important points on this passage from The Bible Knowledge Commentary:

Israel will be as enduring as the new heavens and the new earth. All mankind (i.e., people from all nations) will worship the Lord, bowing down before Him. As Isaiah had frequently written, these righteous ones will contrast greatly with those who rebelled against the Lord. They will suffer eternal torment. This awesome way in which the majestic Book of Isaiah concludes points to the need for unrepentant people to turn to the Lord, the only God, the Holy One of Israel.

Our topic is “Deductions Drawn from the Divine Perfections, Part 1” from Eternal Punishment by A.W. Pink:

1. God is love.
From this scriptural premise the conclusion is drawn that He will never cast any of His creatures into endless woe. But we must remember that the Bible also tells us that “God is light,” and between light and darkness there can be no fellowship. Divine love is not a sentimental passion that overrides moral distinctions. God’s love is a holy love, and because it is such He hates all evil; yea, it is written, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity”. Startling as it may sound, it is nevertheless a fact that the Scriptures speak much more frequently of God’s anger and wrath, than they do of His love and compassion. Let anyone consult Young’s or Strong’s Concordance and they may verify this for themselves. To argue, then, that because God is love He will not inflict eternal torment on the wicked, is to ignore the fact that God is light, and is to asperse His holiness.

2. God is merciful.
Man may be a sinner, and holiness may require that he should be punished, but it is argued that divine mercy will intervene, and if the punishment be not entirely revoked, it is [nevertheless] imagined that the sentence will be modified and the term of punishment be shortened. We are told that the eternal torment of the lost cannot be harmonized with a God of mercy. But if by the mercy of God be meant that He is too tenderhearted to apportion such miseries to His creatures, then we might as logically reason that, seeing God’s mercy, like all His attributes, is infinite, therefore none of His creatures will be permitted to suffer at all.

Yet this is manifestly erroneous. Facts deny it. His creatures do suffer, oft times excruciatingly, even in this life. Look out on the world today and mark the untold misery that abounds on every hand, and then remember that, however mysterious all this may be to us, nevertheless, it is all permitted by a merciful God. So, too, read in the Old Testament the accounts of the deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone from heaven, the plagues upon Egypt, the judgments that were visited upon Israel, and then bear in mind that these were not prevented by the mercy of God! To reason, then, that because God is merciful He will not cast into the Lake of Fire everyone whose name is not found written in the book of life, is to fly in the face of all God’s judgments in the past.

Let’s Pray —

Dear friend, please understand that after you die, you will be ushered into one of two places to spend eternity, Heaven or Hell.

Here’s how you can be sure that you will not go to hell and suffer eternal damnation forever and rather have a home in Heaven when you die. The Bible says, ”Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Here’s how you can be saved from sin and hell and have a home in Heaven when you die in more detail.

1. Accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Romans 3:23 reads: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” In fact, I am the chief of sinners, so don’t think that you’re alone.

2. Accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

3. 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.” The Bible says 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.”

4. Accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself! The Bible states in Ephesians 2: 8, 9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

5. Accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. 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.”

6. With these facts in mind, please repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pray and ask Him to come into your heart and save you this very moment. The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9, 13: “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.”

Dear friend, if you are willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation, please pray with me this simple prayer: Heavenly Father, 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 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.”

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

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 #35.

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.”

Hebrews 4:9 reads: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”

How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here! Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness, but in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his Master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal: his constant cry is, “Help me to serve thee, O my God.” If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labour; not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, “I am not wearied of the labour, but I am wearied in it.” Ah! Christian, the hot day of weariness lasts not forever; the sun is nearing the horizon; it shall rise again with a brighter day than thou hast ever seen upon a land where they serve God day and night, and yet rest from their labours. Here, rest is but partial, there, it is perfect. Here, the Christian is always unsettled; he feels that he has not yet attained. There, all are at rest; they have attained the summit of the mountain; they have ascended to the bosom of their God. Higher they cannot go. Ah, toil-worn labourer, only think when thou shalt rest forever! Canst thou conceive it? It is a rest eternal; a rest that “remaineth.” Here, my best joys bear “mortal” on their brow; my fair flowers fade; my dainty cups are drained to dregs; my sweetest birds fall before Death’s arrows; my most pleasant days are shadowed into nights; and the flood-tides of my bliss subside into ebbs of sorrow; but there, everything is immortal; the harp abides unrusted, the crown unwithered, the eye undimmed, the voice unfaltering, the heart unwavering, and the immortal being is wholly absorbed in infinite delight. Happy day! happy! when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and the Eternal Sabbath shall begin.

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

… Read More

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

قالب وردپرس

More than one million men in Indonesia have been discipled in the Christian faith over the past 20 years through a curriculum taught in churches, small groups and retreats.

The Christian Men’s Network (CMN), founded by Dr. Edwin Louis Cole, celebrated 20 years of ministry in Indonesia on Feb. 20. The global movement of pastors and leaders is dedicated to helping families and changing the hearts of men.

Leaders from dozens of denominations in more than 100 regions of Indonesia attended events in Jakarta hosted by national CMN leaders and the ministry’s international president, Dr. Paul Louis Cole.

“My father, Dr. Edwin Louis Cole, who founded Christian Men’s Network, first visited Indonesia in 1997 and met with local church leaders,” Paul Cole said. “Those leaders started a CMN movement and pledged to Ed Cole that they were committed to discipling one million men. This movement has swept across Indonesia, and this week’s events are the continuing fulfillment of those two decades of ministry.” 

A former drug dealer who was facing divorce said the ministry’s “Maximized Manhood” curriculum changed his life.

“A friend invited me to this group. I don’t know why, but I went,” said Armon Limbong, who is now a successful businessman. “After that meeting, I went again and again. Then, my life was changed. My wife said, ‘You are so different, maybe I will stay.’ That was twelve years ago, and we are so happy. We have a 21-year-old daughter and two young children.”

“Maximized Manhood” teaches men to take responsibility for their homes and their nation and to live by biblical principles. The book and teaching materials are taught in more than 100 men’s centers throughout Indonesia in partnership with local churches and, in some cases, local governments. 

The curriculum was created to be adapted to other cultures and the work in Indonesia has spilled over to surrounding nations. 

“Edwin Louis Cole is the greatest man I’ve ever met. Although I was building a business, I jumped at his invitation to join him in 26 different nations, including Indonesia in August 1997,” states Dallas businessman John Binkley. “Dr. Cole always told leaders to conduct ministry according to their own culture, rather than trying to copy what was done in the States or elsewhere. The leaders in Indonesia caught the message and have accomplished what they set out to do, which is remarkable, and is one more extension of Dr. Cole’s legacy around the world.”

One million disciples is just the beginning of CMN’s ministry, Paul Cole declares.

“The Indonesia leadership intends to reach the next million men within 10 years this time, instead of 20. We are looking forward to partnering with them here,” he said.

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

This is Daniel Whyte III president of Gospel Light Society International with The Scripture & the Sense Podcast #420, where I read the Word of God and give the sense of it based on an authoritative commentary source such as the Bible Knowledge Commentary or Matthew Henry Commentary. This podcast is based upon Nehemiah 8:8 where it says Ezra and the Levites “read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” The aim of this podcast is that through the simple reading of the Word of God and the giving of the sense of it, the church would be revived and the world would be awakened.

Today we are reading Amos 2:5.

5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

________

That was Amos 2:5. Now here is the sense of it.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary reads:

The punishment for this faithlessness would be the destruction of the nation, fulfilled in 586 b.c. when Ne-bu-chad-nez-zar, after a lengthy siege, broke through Jerusalem’s defenses, slaughtered the royal family, burned the temple, the palace, and all houses in the city, and deported almost the entire population to Babylon.

____________

Thank you for listening to the Scripture & The Sense Podcast. Remember to read the Word of God each and every day and pray without ceasing to God for wisdom to understand it and apply it to your life. Most importantly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Please stay tuned for a complete presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can get your soul saved from Hell to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die. May God bless you and keep you is my prayer.

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source