For the past 25 years, the number of Americans claiming no religion has steadily ballooned as more and more people quit church, synagogue or mosque and openly acknowledged being a “none.”

The reality is particularly stark when looked at from a generational perspective. If 10% of people from the silent generation (born 1928-1945) consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, a whopping 40% of Millennials (born 1981-1996) say they have no religion, according to Pew Research.

But this week, three political scientists who study religion have raised the possibility that the number of nones may be leveling off. Looking at a set of recent surveys, they suggest Generation Z, broadly defined as the 68 million Americans born after 1996, don’t look any less religious than the Millennial generation that came before.

“I was just shocked to see it,” said Paul Djupe, a professor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. “Everything led me to expect that (the number of nones) would keep increasing for a while.”

The initial suggestion that the decline of religious affiliation seems to be slowing came from political scientist Melissa Deckman of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. Deckman interviewed 2,200 Americans ages 18-23 this past summer, asking them a host of questions, including whether they have a religious affiliation and how often they attend religious services.

When she compared those numbers to a 2016 Public Religion Research Institute survey, she found striking similarities between those in her study of Generation Z and older Millennials. In both generational cohorts, 38% said they consider themselves to have no religion.

“Up to this point there’s been a very fast drop-off, especially among younger people,” Deckman said. “It seems to have slowed somewhat.”

Two other political scientists—Djupe and Ryan Burge—then looked at other data sets, including the 2018 General Social Survey, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and a Voter Study Group. They found those surveys confirmed Deckman’s thesis about slowing rates of religious disaffiliation among Gen Z.

There are a couple of possible explanations for the slowing of religious decline:

The Country’s Growing Racial Diversity

The United States will soon be a minority-majority country. Scholars project that might happen between 2041 and 2046, depending on the amount of net immigration into the U.S.

That’s important in terms of religion because minority groups such as African Americans, Hispanics and immigrants from Africa and Asia tend to be more religious than American whites. Deckman, for example, found that 67% of Gen Z Hispanics and 66% of Gen Z African Americans have a religious affiliation, compared with only 58% of Gen Z whites. As the pool of whites shrinks, other groups—particularly immigrants—may be growing and they tend to be more religiously attached and attend services more often.

The Culture War Sorting Is Mostly Over

The past few decades have been marked by a host of divisive social and political issues, including abortion, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage. Many religious congregations used to be a lot more diverse on a range of issues. But they have become less so, as both liberals and conservatives have joined up with like-minded congregants or dropped out of religion altogether. While the United Methodist Church is still in the midst of that kind of sorting—the denomination is expected to split on the issue of LGBTQ inclusion—many other denominations have already completed that process.

A Changing Social Desirability Bias

This is a related phenomenon. Americans once embraced their religious identities. They are now more willing to admit they don’t have one because it’s no longer socially desirable to declare an affiliation.

“A lot of marginally attached Protestants and Catholics who went once a year used to say they were Catholic or Protestant,” said Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. “But now it’s easier to say you’re a ‘none.’ So they say, ‘I’m not religious at all.’”

Because this social desirability bias waned considerably over the past decade, it became more acceptable for those marginally religious to report being unaffiliated, which likely contributed to the sharp uptick in nones over such a short time. Now, that group has largely already claimed that status, and those who remain affiliated are committed to their faiths and likely to remain more stable.

(One of the last barriers may be identifying as atheists. Deckman found that among Gen Z, 12% were comfortable calling themselves atheists. Among American adults as a whole, there’s still some social desirability in not identifying as atheist; only about 4% identity that way.)

Admittedly, the data sets are limited. They include surveys from 2018 and 2019. And there isn’t a lot of data on Gen Z because the oldest among them are 23 and pollsters generally don’t poll people younger than 18.

But they do suggest at least a momentary pause in the secularization march.

Not everyone is convinced.

Joseph Baker, a sociologist of religion at East Tennessee State University and editor of the academic journal Sociology of Religion, said it’s too early to know if the unaffiliated have leveled off.

“Those kids are barely out of college,” said Baker. “If you think of people dropping out of religion, it usually tends to come about by their mid- to late 20s. It’s possible it could go up.”

He also suggested that generational replacement may continue to drive up the share of the population that’s religiously unaffiliated.

“We need to be cautious,” he warned.

SOURCE: Religion News Service, AP

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A church’s financial manager stole more than $500,000 to pay for her wedding and many other personal expenses, authorities said.

Taisha Smith-DeJoseph, 43, of Willingboro faces numerous charges including theft, misapplication of entrusted property and failure to file personal income tax returns, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s office announced Tuesday.

The charges stem from an investigation that began when officials with St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Florence reported their suspicions to authorities.

The subsequent investigation determined that from 2014 to March 2019, Smith-DeJoseph opened bank accounts on behalf of the church and used that money for personal purposes. She also allegedly wrote checks to herself from the church and fabricated the church’s monthly financial statements.

Smith-DeJoseph allegedly spent the money on rent, car loan payments, credit card bills, hundreds of online purchases and her wedding at a venue in Burlington County. She stole $561,777 overall, authorities said.

It wasn’t known Wednesday if Smith-DeJoseph has retained an attorney. A telephone number for her could not be located.

SOURCE: Associated Press

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A foundation for the Saints ownership has given at least $62 million to the Archdiocese of New Orleans and other Catholic causes over the past dozen years, including gifts to schools, universities, charities and individual parishes, according to an Associated Press review of public tax documents.

Along the way, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who knew Tom Benson and his now-widow Gayle separately before they married in 2004, became almost a part of the team, thought by some to bring the beloved Saints help from a higher power.

Aymond has been spotted on the field at Saints games and inside the team’s Superdome box and has flown on the owner’s private jet. He is known for celebrating stirring pregame Masses, including one before the team’s lone Super Bowl appearance in 2010, when he correctly predicted victory and joined in a rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

The archbishop arranged a 2011 meeting of the Bensons with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, where Tom Benson kissed the pontiff’s ring and flashed his own Super Bowl ring. A few years later, Aymond served as a witness to the signing of the will that cut out Tom Benson’s estranged daughter and grandchildren and gave third wife Gayle control of a business empire that included ownership of both the Saints and the NBA’s Pelicans.

And Aymond was there in 2018 after Tom Benson’s death at age 90 to eulogize him as a “New Orleans saint on Earth” and walk side by side with Gayle in the funeral procession. In an honor typically reserved for clerics, Benson was given a two-day public visitation at Notre Dame Seminary, a chateau-style institution renovated with one of the couple’s multimillion-dollar donations.

“Our relationship with past Archbishops and the archdiocese dates back 50 years plus,” Gayle Benson said in a statement this week in response to the AP’s request for comment. “Our faith is the core foundation from which we live our daily lives. Unifying, helping and giving back is not something we do when asked; we do it every day. It defined how Tom Benson ran his organization and how I ardently continue his legacy.”

That bond has received renewed scrutiny after the AP reported last month that hundreds of confidential Saints emails allegedly show that some of the team’s top executives did public relations damage control for the archdiocese in the midst of its clergy abuse crisis.

It’s a controversy that has led fans in New Orleans and beyond to question what exactly the Saints did for the church and whether it was appropriate.

Those answers are not yet clear because the team has gone to court to block — or at least delay — the public release of those emails, which emerged as part of the discovery process in a clergy abuse lawsuit. A court hearing is scheduled next week in New Orleans to determine whether the 276 documents may be made public. The AP has filed a motion in support of their release.

Attorneys for about two dozen men bringing clergy sex-abuse claims against the church allege in court filings that the emails show the team joined in the church’s “pattern and practice of concealing its crimes.” The attorneys contend that included taking an active role in helping to shape the archdiocese’s 2018 release of its list of 57 credibly accused clergy, a roster an AP analysis found had omitted at least 20 names.

In her statement, Gayle Benson denied the Saints had any role in selecting the names, saying the team’s senior vice president of communications, Greg Bensel, was asked only to help prepare church officials for the release of the list.

“His recommendations were consistent with the Archdiocese which included: be honest, complete and transparent,” her statement said. “We are proud of the role we played and yes, in hindsight, we would help again to assist the Archdiocese in its ability to publish the list with the hope of taking this step to heal the community.”

Gayle Benson, a 73-year-old former interior designer and devout Catholic with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $3.1 billion, also said that neither she nor her late husband ever contributed to paying settlements or legal awards in the church’s clergy abuse crisis.

“To suggest that I would offer money to the Catholic Church for anything related to the clergy molestation issue sickens me,” she wrote.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys Richard Trahant and John Denenea recently subpoenaed Benson’s charitable foundation for any records relating to “settlements of claims for clergy abuse” over the past decade.

“Archbishop Gregory Aymond stated that he could turn to ‘benefactors’ to help him pay sexual abuse claims,” they said, referring to an interview Aymond gave last year. “We are simply following the legal process to see if he has turned to his biggest benefactor, Gayle Marie Benson.”

The NFL has yet to weigh in on the Saints’ actions. The league has a policy barring “conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the National Football League.”

Saints fans who have spoken out on the controversy on social media — with some even calling on Benson to sell the team — have acknowledged the complexity of an issue in a metropolitan area of 1.5 million people that is steeped in Catholic history, 36% Catholic and wild about the Saints.

When members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a protest outside the Saints’ suburban practice facility last month to urge the team to release the emails, some of them wore black and gold Saints jerseys and acknowledged being season-ticket holders.

Overall, the Bensons’ namesake foundation has donated nearly $100 million since 2007, helping fund a cancer center in metro New Orleans and upgrades at the stadium in Ohio where the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game is played. Most of their giving has gone to Catholic organizations, AP’s review of public tax documents found.

At least $11 million has gone toward projects at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, where both Bensons were raised. In addition to Notre Dame Seminary’s renovations, the couple has supported a health and wellness program for senior citizens at a former church.

The couple has also given at least $7 million to Tom Benson’s Catholic high school and at least $8 million to Loyola University in New Orleans, the Catholic school where he studied accounting.

The Bensons were also major donors in San Antonio, where Tom’s career in the car business broadened into banking. They donated at least $10 million to a theology school and $6 million to the Catholic university where they were married.

For their contributions to Catholic causes, the Bensons in 2012 received the highest papal honor bestowed on lay members, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.

Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, a Catholic who is now president of the National Urban League, said he was “horrified and dismayed” by the sexual abuse inside the archdiocese and added: “I would urge the Archdiocese and any organization that has aligned itself with the institution to adopt a policy of complete transparency, with a goal of helping victims to heal and preventing further trauma.”

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It’s hard to tell who has a gun at Fellowship of Wildwood church.

The men stand silently at the edge of the crowd, as worshippers shrug off their heavy winter coats and sip from paper coffee cups before the Sunday service.

Nicknamed the “sheepdog ministry,” the group of about a dozen volunteers provide armed protection for congregants at the Baptist church west of St. Louis.

Attacks on houses of worship in recent years have left congregations grappling with how to respond. Some have hired armed guards or trained members to carry weapons, but others have resisted the idea of allowing guns inside houses of worship.

In the past two years, gunmen have attacked worshippers in cities across the country, including Pittsburgh, where a man stormed a synagogue and killed 11 people, and Sutherland Springs, Texas, where 26 people were killed during services at a Baptist church.

“From a theological standpoint, we’re trying to understand why these things are happening,” said Ryan Bowman, a pastor at Fellowship of Wildwood. “But on a very practical level, what would we do? How would we respond? Are we prepared and ready?”

Leaders at Fellowship of Wildwood would prefer not to have guns in the sanctuary, said Bowman, but they felt they had no other option. Per Missouri law, only congregants with explicit permission from the church can carry concealed weapons.

Fellowship of Wildwood member Tara Jones said she feels safer knowing that the church has a security plan in place — and added that having a physical place to worship is important to her.

“God put me here to live my life abundantly,” Jones said. “I’m not going to stay home and watch TV evangelists.”

Preparing congregants

For some faiths, preparing for the possibility of a violent attack is nothing new.

Rabbi Ze’ev Smason, who leads Nusach Hari B’nai Zion synagogue in Olivette, Mo., calls anti-Semitism “one of the oldest hatreds.”

“We have a collective institutional memory going back 3,000 years when we have suffered terribly,” said Smason.

Still, he considers the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018 a turning point for his congregation, which dates back to the early 1900s.

Members went through active shooter training and worked with the local police department to assess their facility for possible security risks. They also hired armed guards, which Smason compared to “having a lock on your front door.”

“A gun is only as good or as evil as the person who uses it,” he said. “We have a primary obligation to create a safe space for the people who come to our synagogue.”

Safety is also a key concern for leaders at the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis.

On a recent afternoon, security guards stood watch, as worshippers hurried into the mosque for their daily prayers. Mufti Asif Umar said they’ve strengthened their security in recent years, though he declined to give specific details, citing safety concerns.

Umar called God the “ultimate protector,” but said they still have to be prepared. He compared it to a passage from the Koran, in which the Prophet Muhammad sees his companion leaving a camel without tying it up.

“The Prophet Mohammed said, tie your camel first and then trust in God,” Umar said. “If you just leave it there and you go, there’s a good chance the camel can run away. It’s like that.”

SOURCE: NPR, Shahla Farzan

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Pope Francis has sidestepped a request for married men to be ordained as priests and women to be ordained as deacons, saying the Roman Catholic Church should find other ways to address a dire shortage of clergy in South America’s Amazon region. Bishops in that part of the world had asked for fundamental shifts in Roman Catholic policy last autumn.

The bishops’ plan was widely seen as another potential rift between Francis and his conservative critics within the church — some of whom have already accused the pope of heresy because of his stances on issues such as homosexuality and divorce.

“Ultra-conservatives in the church in Europe and the U.S. have warned allowing married priests in the Amazon could trigger total abolition of the clerical celibacy requirement,” NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome.

Speculation has swirled for months about how the pope would respond to requests to allow married male deacons and women to take on new roles. The proposals came out of a special three-week Synod of Bishops last October that included countries from the Amazon region, from Brazil and Bolivia to Colombia and Venezuela. Deacons are allowed to oversee weddings and baptisms but are not permitted to consecrate the Communion wafer and wine.

A critical shortage of priests has hobbled Catholics’ ability to celebrate sacraments in that area of South America.

“They can’t have a priest for weeks or months, which, if they can’t have a priest, that means they can’t have Mass,” Rocco Palmo, editor of the website Whispers in the Loggia, told NPR last year. “If they can’t have Mass, they can’t have the Eucharist, Holy Communion, the thing that Catholics consider to be the bread of life, the thing that keeps us alive spiritually.”

Pope Francis’ response came Wednesday in the form of a document titled Querida Amazonia — or “Dear Amazon.” In it, he deflected many of the core issues about ordaining married men as priests and women as deacons.

SOURCE: NPR, Bill Chappell

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This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Whyte House Daily Devotional Bible Reading Episode #76. Where I read three chapters of the Holy Bible in the King James Version a day with my family as a part of our family devotions, to encourage you to read the Holy Bible in a year’s time. We are using a modified version of the Five Day Bible Reading Plan. It is modified because we read the Bible everyday and not just five days a week. The benefit of using the Five Day Bible Reading Plan is: you can read the entire Bible in a chronological reading plan that helps the Bible make sense. Today we are reading Leviticus 18, Psalm 23 and Acts 3.

Soren Kierkegaard said, “When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, “It is talking to me, and about me.”

Oswald Chambers said, “Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His Word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples.”

Leviticus 18
1 And the Lord spake unto Mo’-ses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Is’-ra-el, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God.

3 After the doings of the land of E’-gypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Ca’-na-an, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.

5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.

6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.

7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

8 The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.

9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.

10 The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness.

11 The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman.

13 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman.

14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.

15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.

17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.

19 Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.

20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her.

21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Mo’-lech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.

22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.

Psalm 23
A Psalm of Da’-vid.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Acts 3
1 Now Pe’-ter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

3 Who seeing Pe’-ter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

4 And Pe’-ter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

6 Then Pe’-ter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Naz’-a-reth rise up and walk.

7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God:

10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

11 And as the lame man which was healed held Pe’-ter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Sol’-o-mon’s, greatly wondering.

12 And when Pe’-ter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Is’-ra-el, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

13 The God of A’-bra-ham, and of I’-saac, and of Ja’-cob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pi’-late, when he was determined to let him go.

14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.

18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.

19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

22 For Mo’-ses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

24 Yea, and all the prophets from Sam’-u-el and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto A’-bra-ham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

________

PRAY
________

When I was a teenager I wanted to get wisdom and knowledge, so I set out the read the big family Bible that many families had in those days. But I couldn’t get past Genesis 2 before I got bored with reading the Bible. I found out later in life that you have to believe on Christ and get saved before you can understand the Bible. So here is how I became a Christian and how you can too:

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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