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Michael Franzese went from stealing $8 million a week to reading the Bible and giving his life to Jesus Christ. He ran an operation for eight years in which he defrauded the U.S. government of tax on gallons of gasoline. But he has his own ministry now, whose goal is to “help proclaim the transformational power of Jesus Christ to at-risk and often unchurched audiences.”

He says the transition to following Jesus started with meeting a girl for whom faith was very important. Out of love for her, he left the Mafia, went to prison and then got married and had kids. He ended up back in prison, however; and that’s when he truly decided he wanted to follow God.

“I did 28 months and seven days in the hole—24 hours a day, seven days a week, I was in lockdown,” Franzese says. “It was during that time that I became a person of faith, studied my Bible very much and decided that I was going to really try to make a transition in my life. For the last 23 years, I’ve been a very prolific speaker, both on a faith-based side and secular side. …

“To say that I’m a fortunate, blessed guy is really an understatement. I attribute that to God having a different plan and purpose for my life. … You’ve got to surround yourself with the right people, because in this life, you are who you hang out with. And I have a wife who holds me accountable. I have children who hold me accountable. I have a church that holds me accountable. And this is the way I stay on the right track.”

SOURCE: Charisma News

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Thousands of Christians – including President Jair Bolsonaro – gathered in three stadiums in Brazil Saturday to turn to Jesus and send out missionaries to the world.

Bolsonaro wasn’t invited by the event organizer, The Send Brazil, but he showed up at the stadium in Brasilia, the nation’s capital, because he wanted to be there for the historic event, which local news outlets called the “largest Christian simultaneous event in Brazil’s history.”

The leader nicknamed the “Trump of the Tropics” was met with thunderous applause when he declared that he is a believer in Jesus and that Brazil belongs to God.

More than 140,000 people attended the 12-hour event at three different stadiums – Brasilia Nacional Stadium, and Morumbi Stadium and Allianz Parque Stadium in Sao Paulo – with 1.7 million watching on the Portuguese livestream and more than 560,000 on the English one.

Andy Byrd and Teo Hayashi, co-organizers of The Send Brazil, told Fox News it took “unparalleled unity” to put together the massive three-stadium event, in which thousands made decisions for Jesus, committed to fasting, Bible reading plans and missions to the nations, colleges and high schools. The Send Brazil was brought together by seven ministries collectively called “The Send,” which first launched last year in Orlando.

“The outpouring of healing, miracles, signs and wonders was mindblowing, the display of God’s power in all three stadiums,” Byrd, leader of Youth With a Mission (YWAM), said. “This whole event was about the exultation of Jesus and the empowerment of the 24-year-old, equipping the next generation to change the world.”

Hayashi, founder of the Dunamis Movement (a university ministry) and pastor of Zion Church in Sao Paulo, said the strong emphasis on social justice – reaching college campuses and high schools, as well as adoption of vulnerable children and teenagers – struck a chord with the nation.

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William B. Bynum Jr., the president of Jackson State University in Mississippi, resigned effective immediately Monday after his arrest over the weekend at a Clinton hotel on charges of procuring the services of a prostitute, giving a false statement of identity, and possession of marijuana.

The 57-year-old was arrested in a sting along with 16 others, according to police sources cited by the Clarion Ledger.

Mark Jones, spokesman for the city of Clinton, told the Ledger that the two-day sting operation led to eight felony charges and explained that the alleged offenders were contacted through online “dark web” sites, where services were discussed and a local chain hotel was the agreed meeting place.

Shonda McCarthy, director of Jackson State University Art Galleries, was also charged with procuring the services of a prostitute and possession of marijuana while operating a motor vehicle.

Bynum was released from custody Sunday after posting a $3,000 bond, while McCarthy was released the same day after posting a $2,000 bond, police records show.

“I wish we hadn’t arrested anyone, but we’re going to do all we can do to ensure that criminal activity is not going to transpire in the city of Clinton,” Clinton Police Chief Ford Hayman told CBS News’ Clinton affiliate WJTV.

Quiana James, a Jackson State University student, said she always felt proud to have Bynum as her school’s president but said she was embarrassed by the arrest.

“I see him around campus all the time. I’ve held conversations with him and he just seemed like a nice guy, like a family guy,” she said. “I was proud to have him as my president and so to see this, it’s kind of like, ‘Wow I’m embarrassed.’”

At his formal installation ceremony at Jackson State University in October 2018, Bynum’s daughter, Chelsea Bynum-Grant, praised her father for his faith, according to a release from the school.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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What’s on pastors’ minds? It may not be what you think, according to a report released last week by Barna Group.

A new survey by the California-based Christian research firm found that Protestant pastors are worried less about hot topics like religious liberty than they are about the decline of religion in America.

The report is the first of a series of monthly releases from Barna Group’s State of the Church 2020 that will analyze how Christianity in the United States has changed and where it is headed, President David Kinnaman said.

It’s the first time in 10 years that the research firm has publicly released the data from its annual State of the Church survey.

I felt like we’d been learning a lot over the past 10 years that allows us to more clearly communicate the big cultural trends that are taking place and what they mean for the church,” Kinnaman said.

According to the report, three-quarters (72%) of Protestant pastors identify the impact of “watered down gospel teachings” on Christianity in the U.S. as a major concern. That’s especially true for pastors in non-mainline denominations (78%). Mainline pastors (59%) are less concerned.

About two-thirds (66%) of pastors say a major concern for Christianity is “culture’s shift to a secular age,” followed by 63% who identified “poor discipleship models” as a major concern and 58% who named “addressing complex social issues with biblical integrity,” the survey says.

In their own churches, most pastors reported that the major concerns they face are “reaching a younger audience” (51%) and “declining or inconsistent outreach and evangelism” (50%), according to the report.

What doesn’t worry pastors very much: religious liberty — the stuff of Supreme Court cases, executive orders, campaign promises and a recent task force and summit. Only 23% of Protestant pastors identify it as a major concern or issue facing the Christian church today in the U.S., and 32% said it was not a concern or issue at all, according to Barna Group data.

Other issues low on pastors’ list of major concerns include keeping up with technology and digital trends (7%), online churches and other challenges to the traditional church model (11%), “celebrity pastors pulling people away from the local church” (19%), the declining influence pastors have in their communities (20%) and the role of women in the church (23%).

Barna Group’s survey also includes a small group of Catholic priests—not enough to be nationally representative, according to the research firm—who also place increasing secularism at the top of their concerns for the church nationally (along with addressing scandals and the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and reaching a younger audience) and reaching a younger audience for their parishes.

The research firm also is launching tools that allow churches to survey their own members. Kinnaman said it felt “more important than ever to give churches the opportunity to see the state of their church —not just of the church, or Christianity, in general.

“There’s so much information about big, broad trends. In order for trends to be relevant, they have to be contextual,” he said.

Data in the first report of the State of the Church 2020 is based on 547 interviews with Protestant senior pastors on Barna’s PastorPanel conducted online between November and December 2019. The sample error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, according to Barna Group.

SOURCE: AP, Religion News Service

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Not all sins are the same — and some sinners will end up in “Hell’s lowest levels” if they fail to repent, a DesiringGod author has warned.

In an op-ed, DesiringGod.com editor Scott Hubbard writes that among today’s evangelicals, it has become “virtually commonplace for us to talk as if all sins render us equally guilty before God.”

But in Scripture, Jesus “turns over our assumptions,” Hubbard says, noting that while “Jesus warns us not to make hasty, simplistic conclusions about who the ‘worse sinners’ are,” He also warns us that “some sinners, if they do not repent, will face ‘the greater condemnation.’”

“He teaches that some will receive a comparatively ‘light beating’ on the last day while others will receive a ‘severe beating’ (Luke 12:47–48),” he continues. “He speaks of the final judgment being ‘more tolerable’ for some groups than for others, though both are heading to Hell. In short, He tells us that not all sins are the same, and that Hell will be worse for some.”

Hubbard contends that “greater knowledge brings greater accountability,” adding that “the more truth we have, the more damnable is our preference for lies.”

Thus, according to Scripture, the worst sinners in this world are not necessarily those who live in “rank debauchery, but those who go on sinning when they have every reason and opportunity to repent,” he explains.

“It won’t matter on the last day if we have lived near Jesus all our life,” he warns. “But if we have not repented, we will hear the same response: ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ (Luke 13:26–27).”

In these verses, Jesus is addressing those who, “though familiar with Christ and his Gospel, have not yet followed Jesus wholeheartedly, have not yet turned to hate their wickedness, have not yet forsaken their secret sins,” Hubbard emphasizes.

“Lukewarm, half-measure responses to Jesus will aggravate, not ease, the wrath of God on the last day,” he writes. “Better to have been lost in the fires of Sodom than to have heard, and watched, and repeated, and partaken of Christian things all your life, yet without repentance.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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Jentezen Franklin is no stranger to the hardships of life. 

The senior pastor of Free Chapel, a multi-campus church with a global reach, shared with The Christian Post how he clearly felt God’s call on his life as a teenager.

“At 16 years old, I heard a preacher preach and it moved me to my core,” he recalled. “I was fighting back to tears. I went to the altar and whispered a prayer: ‘God, if you want me to preach, I want to be able to touch people.’ And I felt like God had heard my prayer and that all would be well moving forward.”

But within six months of his conversion, Franklin experienced what he referred to as the “trial of a lifetime.” After developing a deficiency in his blood, boils broke out all over Franklin’s face and body, severely impacting his quality of life.

“I went to doctor after doctor and I ended up having to drop out of school,” he said. “Teachers were kind enough to let me do my assignments from home, but I lived an isolated life for a full year. It was depressing. It became the worst nightmare of my life. I looked like a freak. Kids would laugh at me at school. I felt like a monster.”

In the midst of his pain, Franklin cried out to God and asked, “Why me, Lord?”

In that moment, he was faced with a decision: “I could either let roots of bitterness grow or choose to produce the fruits of the Spirit,” he said. “So I began truly reading the Bible for myself and pray and listening to cassette tapes of the preacher. I was getting the Word in me and developing a relationship with God like never before.”

Today, The New York Times best-selling author said he still draws on those times of solace with God when preparing for sermons: “The Holy Spirit will take me back to that year of life when I was totally isolated, cut off, and lonely,” he said. “I wouldn’t change that year for anything.”

“Sometimes,” he added, “we ask God for something, and He sends it in strangely-wrapped packages we don’t recognize. When I asked God for the ministry, I thought it would come with a pulpit and microphone. I never dreamed the package would come in suffering and boils and through questioning God.”

According to Franklin, abundant life can be found in every setback: “If we don’t give up, God will prove Himself faithful,” the pastor said. “When you get there, it won’t be about the reward. It will be about God and the process He took you through. You’ll give Him the glory. It’s the process of sanctifying the dream, purpose, and mission.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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“The Bachelor” contestant Madison Prewett boldly professed her Christian faith during the latest episode of the ABC show, referring to her relationship with Jesus as her “whole life.”

On Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor,” Madison goes on a date with bachelor Peter Weber, where she brings up her Christianity and how it influences every aspect of her life. She reveals that her father, Chad Prewett, who is director of operations for the Auburn University’s basketball team, has demonstrated biblical leadership throughout her life.

“I look up to my dad so much, and I’ve said I wanted someone who will remind me of my dad, somebody who embodies the same qualities and characteristics,” the 23-year-old begins. “I’ve watched the way my dad has loved my mom and loved my family and the way that he has such a strong relationship with the Lord is the way he’s able to love our family so well.”

“Faith is more just this passed-down thing to me, it’s literally my whole life and all of who I am,” Prewett continues. “I want, in a marriage, someone who also has that relationship with the Lord and loves that about me and wants to raise a family in that way. And I do want to know that we’re able to be on the same page with that and push each other in that way and grow in that way together.”

In response, Weber says that he, too, was raised in a Christian home and assures Prewett his faith is “important” to him. However, he admits his faith could be stronger.

In a teaser for next week’s episode, Prewett reveals she’s saving herself for marriage due to her Christian faith. She says Weber is unaware of this and adds, “If he sleeps with anyone else, it’s going to be hard for me to continue to move forward.”

Cosmopolitan notes that Prewett went to seminary school at Highlands College and talked a little bit about the experience in a since-deleted YouTube video:

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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