Do you believe in destiny? I do. I have often marveled at the fact that God chose you and me to live in this specific time in the history of the world. We could have been born in any century or any millennium, but He chose this amazing time; what we now know is the last of the last days before He returns, for you and me to be alive. It is not happenstance. It is not coincidence. We are here right now because we are destined to be.
How do I know that? Because the God I serve is the Alpha and the Omega – the God who knows the beginning and the end. He knew Adam and Abraham and Moses and David. He knew Eve and Deborah and Ruth and Esther. Each had a time and a purpose for their lives, and so do you and I. He knew you would read this very blog, and He came via Lori today to tell you that you are born with a purpose and a destiny unto Him! Continue reading →
Pastor Emery White says in his new book “The Rise of the Nones” that secular thinking is driving more Christians to saying they are not affiliated with any Christian church or denomination.
Pastor White said in an interview with Ed Stetzer that America has definitively moved into a “post-Christian” era.
“We are living in a decisively post-Christian culture and I think it’s taking its toll on existing evangelicals and the church in a way that is creating more and more nominal Christians on the way to ‘nones’ who self-described themselves as evangelicals earlier,” White said.
Research conducted by Stetzer showed that over 30 percent of college age Americans who claim to be Christians say they have no affiliation with church or denomination.
White attributed the problem to not only youth but church culture at large where secular thought has become commonplace. White says that because Christians are thinking the way the world thinks, the values of Christ are washed away and that leads to the rise of behaviors and actions that were considered unthinkable just 20 years ago.
“We only care about our own needs being met because a spiritual narcissism has invaded the church,” White said. “There is a consumer mindset that has crept into the church and it’s not megachurches selling out the culture. The consumer mindset, the narcissism is within the believer, so you hear things like, ‘I need to go where I am being fed’ as opposed to feeding ourselves or maybe feeding someone else. We talk about ‘I need to go where I am ministered to’ as if that’s the goal of the church instead of you being the minister. We talk about, ‘Well, I just walked out of a worship service and I didn’t get anything out of it,’ which is heresy because the worship service has nothing to do with what you get out of it, the question is did God get anything out of it?”
White said anyone who refuses to die to themselves on these consumer ways would never be able to change the church, society or truly reach someone with the gospel of Christ.
“Until we get closer to the heart of the issue, which is the heart of the believer,” White said, “I think we are just going to be just putting band aids on a terminal disease.”
A pair of alumni from Purdue University will now be able to have the inscription on a plaque include the name of their Lord.
Purdue University has backtracked on the prohibition of God’s name being placed on a plaque in memorial to the parents of an alumni who made a $12,500 donation to the School of Mechanical Engineering in 2012.
The inscription requested by Michael and Cindy McCracken was to read “to those who seek to better the world through the understanding of God’s physical laws and innovation of practical solutions. In honor of Dr. William “Ed” and Glenda McCracken.” The school initially refused to post the quote and without telling the donors posted a plaque with only the name of the parents.
On Wednesday the school backed off their claim that putting God in the plaque was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by a public university.
Amy Noah, Purdue Vice President for Development, said in a statement they never intended to get into a disagreement with a valued donor or inadvertently expose Purdue to a potential legal crossfire.
Purdue University has banned God.
The University, which in the past has defended the rights of a speaker to blaspheme Jesus on their campus, told a donor they cannot put God’s name on a plaque because it could be offensive.
Dr. Michael McCracken made a pledge to the university’s school of mechanical engineering and Purdue offered the McCrackens a can to name a small conference room in the building according to Fox News.
Dr. McCracken wanted to name it after his father, a Purdue graduate. The plaque would have read:
“To those who seek to better the world through the understanding of God’s physical laws and innovation of practical solutions. In honor of Dr. William ‘Ed’ and Glenda McCracken.”
The University instead installed a God-free plaque without telling the family that only mentioned McCracken’s parents.
Fox News’ Todd Starnes has tried to get University officials to explain why they defended blasphemy of Christ on their campus but deny Christians the right to mention God but officials will not return calls.
A Hollywood actress says that God has always honored her following the Holy Spirit when He led her to turn down certain movie roles.
Meagan Good said that her Christian beliefs have led her to turn down some major movie roles but that God has always delivered.
“I have my parameters of what I feel in my spirit is appropriate,” Good told the LA Times. “There have been times where it’s been tough because it’s something I really wanted, but the nudity would be exploitative and I’d lose the opportunity, but what I’ve found is that the more I stick to my convictions, the more God sticks to his promises. When I would lose something, something better would come up than what I turned down. And I’ve been able to pay my bills doing nothing else since I was 13.”
Good is married to Preacher DeVon Franklin and strongly believes that you can maintain your Christian faith and be successful in Hollywood.
“We believe that both can come together and one can be used to promote the other, using what we do in the business to promote the kingdom,” Good said.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin said in an interview with “The Brody File” that kicking God out of any society would eventually lead to its ruin.
Palin said the war on Christmas was just the tip of the battle because people who are offended by the term Christmas aren’t upset with that word but that Christ is part of the word. They’re really offended by the truth of Jesus Christ.
Palin was speaking about her new book “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.”
“People who would be offended that we celebrate the Prince of Peace because it is called Christmas, it’s because the name Christ is in the title that they would be offended,” Palin told David Brody. “Any country, any government society that has kicked God out of the public square completely, it leads to ruin. Why would we go down that path when we know what would happen?”
