Showing posts with label charisma Magazine. Show all posts

Saturday, October 6, 2018

Why Kavanaugh Could Lead to the Biggest Red Wave America Has Ever Seen - STEVE STRANG CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Why Kavanaugh Could Lead to the Biggest Red Wave America Has Ever Seen

This morning, the Senate voted to advance Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination. It's likely the final vote will happen during the weekend. Like many Americans, I've been glued to the television the past couple weeks, watching the hearings and waiting to see what will happen next.

From what I've observed, Kavanaugh is not only a strong conservative but also a qualified jurist. In his 12 years as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, he's written more than 300 opinions. He underwent many hours of examination, and the FBI conducted six background checks on him.

And yet, before Donald Trump even announced his nomination, the Democrats declared they would do everything to oppose his choice. It's become clear that the left's goal is now simply to oppose anything Trump does and resist what is important to Bible-believing Christians.

I believe Kavanaugh is a good man who loves God. In fact, the Democrats had to go all the way back to his high school years to find an accuser. Kavanaugh's character aside, though, nobody should have to go through what he and his family have.

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I should clarify that when I watched Christine Blasey-Ford testify, I believed she was sincere, and it was clear she had been traumatized. But Kavanaugh insists he wasn't the man who attacked her. Much of the matter is his word against hers, and I think Ford's memory tends to be faulty. You can watch her testimony for yourself on YouTube and see how she remembers some details (like only having one beer) but not others (such as how she arrived at the party where she was assaulted).

Because of this, I find that her testimony lacks credibility. No one would have taken Ford's case to court under normal circumstances, but the Democrats used it merely so they could attack Kavanaugh's character and oppose his nomination. The left's tactics are to destroy and to put question marks in people's minds.

I write about this in my new book, Trump Aftershock. In my first political book, God and Donald Trump, I discuss how the left was certain Hillary Clinton would win the presidency. When she didn't, the left became enraged and since then has opposed Trump at every turn.

In Trump Aftershock, I flesh out the idea that if Trump's election was an earthquake, all that has happened since then are the aftershocks. These aftershocks don't just include the negative issues, such as the left's resistance, but also Trump's accomplishments, such as our booming economy and his muscular diplomacy. This year, for the first time in my life, I watched a president bring a North Korean dictator to the negotiating table.

Despite these accomplishments, the Democrats have made it clear that their main objective is to oppose anyone Trump nominates. But—although I believe Kavanaugh will be confirmed—if for some reason he loses, the left's plan will likely backfire. A number of Christian prophets believe these attacks will come back and boomerang on the Democratic Party.

One of the pundits said the other day that Kavanaugh is more popular than any senator, and I think he's right. Even one of my liberal friends announced that the despicable way the Democrats have treated Kavanaugh has made him decide he's never going to vote Democrat again.

Sen. Lindsey Graham suggests that if Kavanaugh loses the nomination, Trump should nominate him again after the midterm elections. In doing so, Trump would make the midterms a referendum, which I believe could become the greatest red wave we have ever seen in this country's history.

To make that happen, though, believers across the nation need to pray and vote. Yesterday, I wrote about how my 90-year-old mother, despite the difficulties, still goes to the polls and votes in every election. If she can vote, so can you! Nov. 6 is fast approaching, so make sure you're registered to vote and, if you'll be out of town that day, use an absentee ballot.

Nov. 6 also happens to be the day Trump Aftershock releases. I encourage you to pre-order the book on Amazon or at trumpaftershock.com. Until the release date, I plan to write a newsletter and record a podcast every day about some aspect of what's happening in our culture that relates to my book. Listen to my latest podcast below!

Steve Strang is the founder of Charisma Media and president of Christian Life Missions. He is also the author of the best-seller God and Donald Trump. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Click here to subscribe to the Strang Report podcast, and here to sign up for the Strang Report newsletter.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

RT Kendall: Kavanaugh Attack Is From Satanic World - STEVE STRANG CHARISMA MAGAZINE

RT Kendall: Kavanaugh Attack Is From Satanic World

As controversy continues to swirl around Brett Kavanaugh since his hearing, several prominent charismatic leaders have spoken up in his defense, including Tim Hill, Samuel Rodriguez and Paula White-Cain. They see the sexual-assault accusations against Kavanaugh as fierce spiritual warfare that Christians must combat with intercession.

"We need to remember that we are battling the powers of wickedness that are the same as the ones that fed off of the shedding of innocent blood during the days of Jezebel," prophetic voice Cindy Jacobs says. "Spirits such as Molech and Jezebel are still at work to influence the political process."

Best-selling author and well-respected theologian R.T. Kendall shared with me in an interview his spiritual insight into the situation.

"I just pray that Judge Kavanaugh does get endorsed," Kendall told me. "I think he's a brilliant choice by President Trump. And what is going on at the moment to derail him, to me, is from the satanic world. Satan doesn't want anybody like that in the Supreme Court. And it would give a great advantage to the views that are most closely akin to Scripture."

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I find Kendall's insight compelling, especially since he is not only a good friend but also perhaps my favorite Bible teacher. He received his doctorate at Oxford University. And although that was his primary reason for moving to London many years ago, God opened up a surprise opportunity for him there to pastor Westminster Chapel for 25 years. I've been blessed to attend several services there.

But Kendall is not only a phenomenal preacher; he's a prolific writer as well. When I asked him how many books he's written, he wouldn't answer but said instead, "That's like the sin of David numbering the people." Suffice it to say, he's written many books, though I think the one that has impacted me the most is Total Forgiveness. Many have read that book and seen their lives transformed by Kendall's teaching.

I'm pleased to say Charisma House has published several of his books, including The Presence of God, Whatever Happened to the Gospel and his latest, Popular in Heaven, Famous in Hell.

Kendall says the idea for his latest book started several years ago when he was invited to preach in a particular church. He crafted a sermon he felt the congregation needed to hear, but he was concerned the congregation would not appreciate it. He called one of his friends, John Paul Jackson—who is now in heaven—and expressed his concern.

"And John Paul said, 'I always ask, "Will it be popular in heaven?"'" Kendall says. "... And I was gripped by that phrase: 'Will it be popular in heaven?' And I realized we should make decisions that make the angels smile, the sainted dead rejoice."

The second half of his book title came years before when one of his mentors, Rolfe Barnard, preached a sermon called "A Man Who Was Known in Hell." The sermon comes from Acts 19, when the sons of Sceva started casting out demons as if it were a game. When they rebuked one particular demon in the name of Jesus, that evil spirit replied, "Jesus I know, and I know Paul, but who are you?" and proceeded to beat the men.

"We're not known in hell because we don't disturb the devil," Kendall says. "We don't do anything that terrifies Satan. ... I cannot think of anything more wonderful than to be a threat to the devil and that I would be famous in hell. And that has been my goal. I would rather be famous in hell than famous on the earth."

If more believers had that mindset, imagine how much more God's kingdom would expand! We don't have to sit back and watch the news unfold, including the Kavanaugh hearing.

Unfortunately, many Christians refuse to get involved in politics and instead hide within their prayer groups, waiting for Jesus to return. But, in my opinion, that worldview is completely unbiblical. In fact, that's one of the reasons I wrote God and Donald Trump and now its sequel, Trump Aftershock. I wanted to share the untold story of God's hand in Trump's election and what our president has accomplished since then.

My main point in Trump Aftershock is that if Trump's election was an earthquake, then all his pro-Christian decisions since then are the aftershocks. The book releases Nov. 6, but you can click here to pre-order it now on Amazon. In the meantime, visit trumpaftershock.com to read sample of the book free!

I hope that as believers read Trump Aftershock, they see just how important it is to intercede for our nation and vote for biblical values. If every Christian did that, just think what we could accomplish in the spiritual realm. Listen to my interview with R.T. Kendall below and learn how you can live a life that makes heaven applaud and the devil tremble.

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Thursday, September 27, 2018

Let's Be Honest—Christian Women Have Been Hurt in Church - J. LEE GRADY CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Let's Be Honest—Christian Women Have Been Hurt in Church

(iStock/Getty Images Plus/AntonioGuillem)

Comedian Bill Cosby wasn't laughing yesterday when he was led out of a Pennsylvania courtroom in handcuffs. He was sentenced to prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman 14 years ago. The judge in the case labeled Cosby "a sexually violent predator"—a statement that brought tears of relief to dozens of Cosby's other alleged victims.

Welcome to the uncomfortable #MeToo era. Ever since Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was accused almost a year ago of forcing actresses to trade sex for acting jobs, sexual harassment has become the dominant headline in America. Everyone is staring at this elephant in the room—especially women, who once were too afraid to talk about it.

Yet I have found that we really aren't talking enough in the church about the obvious tension between the genders. Christian women are deeply wounded—not just because of sexual abuse but also because of blatant gender prejudice and insensitive comments from their brothers in Christ.

I decided to do an informal poll on social media yesterday. I asked my female friends on Facebook and Twitter to share what they considered the rudest comments or behavior they had endured from men in a church setting. Reading their answers (some were posted publicly, and many privately) was overwhelming. I divided their responses into categories:

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1. Blatant sexual abuse. Many of the women I polled were victims of abuse that happened on church property. One woman from Alabama said she was groped and fondled by a church leader when she was a teenager—and she never went back to church until she gave her heart to Christ at age 30. Another woman was raped in the church parking lot, and no one on the church staff intervened or offered pastoral care.

2. Come-ons and inappropriate touching. Numerous women I contacted experienced this. One said that two married men reached over and kissed her, but she refused their unwanted advances. Another woman said a pastor looked down her shirt while standing over her. A female missionary said she was terrified after an ordained minister groped and fondled her. Several women said they felt uncomfortable when men from the church ogled them, stalked them, made sexual comments or tried to hug them too closely.

3. Bizarre gender bias. A woman was counseled by a man in her church that she should not have an epidural during childbirth "because pain is part of a woman's punishment for sin." Another woman was told that she was in sinful violation of 1 Timothy 2:15 if she did not immediately start having babies regularly after getting married.

4. Demands for "submission." One woman from Texas was told by a pastor that she must stay in her marriage regardless of her husband's physical and verbal violence. "I stayed in a very abusive marriage for 20 years," she said. By the time she did divorce, her children had grown up. "Unfortunately, the abuse had ruined their chances of a healthy home life by that time," she added.

5. Insensitivity to single women. Several single women told me they were shamed publicly by men in the church with comments like "Why aren't you married yet?" or "What's wrong with you? Why are you still single?"

6. Comments implying that women are always to blame for sexual sin. One woman from Georgia needed a ride to the airport during a Christian conference, and she asked a male minister for help. He refused because he said he was not allowed to be in a car alone with another woman. "This wasn't harassment, but it was sexist in that I am a sister in Christ, a fellow minister," she said. Other women recalled being told in church that the reason men struggle with pornography is because women don't dress modestly. "I grew up feeling that I was to blame for men's porn addiction," one woman said.

7. Blatant condescension. A 30-year-old ordained woman from Georgia said she encounters subtle sexism when male ministers call her a "girl" after she preaches. "Men who are my age are not spoken to that way. They are treated as peers," she said. "Some people may not think twice about, and I know it's never meant in a bad way, but I feel it reveals how some people view a 30-something woman in ministry vs. how they view a 30-something man in ministry." Other women said they felt invisible because church leaders regularly referred to them as "John's wife" or "Bill's wife" rather than by their own first name.

8. Refusal to affirm a woman's spiritual gifts or callings. The majority of responses to my question related to this topic. Women have been told they should never preach or lead in the church, and some who did step out in their leadership gifts were called "Jezebel" or worse. Others were installed in pastoral roles but not allowed to use the title "pastor." Others were told that the only time God uses women in leadership "is when a man refuses to step into his rightful place." (Almost all women called to full-time ministry shared stories of an uphill battle.)

I don't believe the women I heard from this week are resentful. They are not grinding an axe or looking for ways to punish men. I know many of these women personally. Some of them hesitated to share their pain because they don't want to be perceived as whiners or complainers. They have tended to be quiet about these injustices, and they only talked about them because I asked. They are godly women who simply want dignity and a seat at the table.

I believe it's time for godly men to offer sincere apologies and genuine sensitivity. The devil wants to divide men and women, and he can manipulate the #MeToo movement to trigger a nasty gender war. We can diffuse that tension by changing our macho attitudes. It's time for us to listen to each other and value each other. It's time to stop abusing, muzzling and minimizing the spiritual gifts of our sisters in Christ.

J. Lee Grady was editor of Charisma for 11 years before he launched into full-time ministry in 2010. Today he directs The Mordecai Project, a Christian charitable organization that is taking the healing of Jesus to women and girls who suffer abuse and cultural oppression. Author of several books including 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, he has just released his newest book, Set My Heart on Fire, from Charisma House. You can follow him on Twitter at @LeeGrady or go to his website, themordecaiproject.org.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Is the Left's Attack on Kavanaugh a Last-Ditch Effort to Derail a Conservative Supreme Court? - STEVE STRANG CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Is the Left's Attack on Kavanaugh a Last-Ditch Effort to Derail a Conservative Supreme Court?

With the controversy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh—and the hatred coming against him from the left—it's hard to ignore the problems in our political and cultural system today.

In case you're not familiar with the situation, a woman named Christine Blasey Ford has come forward accusing Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers at a party in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the accusation, and 65 women have come to his defense since Ford voiced her accusation.

Many Christians are speaking up in his defense too. In fact, MSNBC has invited me to appear on their channel Friday to talk with journalist Craig Melvin about evangelicals' response to the accusations. Tune in to MSNBC at 1-2 p.m. EST to hear why I believe so many evangelicals are still standing with Trump's SCOTUS pick.

It's hard to imagine why people would attack the character of someone like Kavanaugh, who has a splendid reputation and has been vetted by the FBI six times. He's stood before the Judiciary Committee and answered question after question, and yet the left is making it sound like something that may or may not have happened 30 years ago may derail his nomination. This charge can't even be proved, and legally speaking, the statute of limitations has already run. In a way, this maneuver seems like a last-ditch effort to disrupt Trump's attempt to give the Supreme Court another conservative voice.

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But I have a feeling that nothing the left can do can stop the chain of events Trump has put into motion. In my new book, Trump Aftershock—which releases on Nov. 6—I share my view: Trump's election was like an earthquake that nobody saw coming. And if Trump's election was an earthquake, all these decisions he has made and events he has caused since then are the aftershocks.

Think of what Trump has done since his election. He nominated Neil Gorsuch, a strong conservative judge, to the Supreme Court. And look at the way he's exposing the deep state. If Hillary Clinton had won the presidency, we would never have found out about Lisa Page and Peter Strzok's secret text messages. Clinton's administration would have covered the situation up, and Page and Strzok probably would have been promoted!

I thoroughly document all these aftershocks and more in my book—and I have 36 pages of end notes to back up what I report.

I just recently reserved my own copy of Trump Aftershock, and I encourage you to do the same today. Click here to pre-order the book on Amazon, and they'll ship it to you as soon as it comes out on Nov. 6.

If you want to learn more about the book, visit trumpaftershock.com. On that website, you'll find a great trailer that I believe will excite and inspire you. You'll also find a couple of chapters from my book that you can download free.

I believe this book can have a strong impact on our nation. We're already seeing some encouraging early indications. The orders we're receiving from big retailers like Walmart, Sam's and Barnes & Noble show that these companies see real potential in this book. I believe that's because Trump Aftershock is timely and objective—not a puff piece in any way. I look at events from the perspective of a Christian journalist, not sugarcoating anything but also not overlooking the clear way the hand of God is moving.

The left is quick to rant against Trump and his decisions and, as a result, the aftershocks of good he's caused get ignored. That's why I hope you will not only pre-order my book but also share it with your friends and family. The more traction we get early on, the stronger impact this book can make on our culture.

Visit trumpaftershock.com to order the book and get access to free resources, and listen to my podcast below to learn more!

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Hang On! Don't Let Delays Weaken Your Faith - J. LEE GRADY CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Hang On! Don't Let Delays Weaken Your Faith

Here's a trivia question: Which building project took the longest to complete? 1) The construction of the Pentagon, 2) the carving of Mount Rushmore, 3) the digging of the Panama Canal, 4) the building of the Empire State Building or 5) the carving and assembling of the Statue of Liberty.

The answer is No. 3. It took 31 years to dig the Panama Canal, mainly because that superhuman task was started and stopped several times due to floods, mudslides, unexpected costs (the total bill for the United States was $375 million in 1914) and a horrific death toll (20,000 French workers and 6,000 Americans died on the job site.) The moral of that story: Expect delays when you cut a 50-mile-long canal to connect two oceans.

I'm not attempting to move millions of tons of earth to make room for cargo ships. My ministry assignment is different. But I still feel overwhelmed at times by the task.

God calls each of us to join Him in His work, but accomplishing anything spiritual—such as building a church, engaging in missions work or influencing secular culture for Christ—is impossible in human terms. We can't accomplish anything for God without faith.

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God gives us a promise—that's the easy part. Then He reveals His strategies, works miracles and sends provision. Working with God is exhilarating when these things happen.

But faith is also warfare. The devil hurls doubts and obstacles in our direction. There are battles and, sometimes, casualties. And there are always, always delays. And it is in those painful times of waiting when we are most tempted to quit.

The Bible is full of stories of men and women who waited and waited for God's promises to be fulfilled. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for Isaac's birth. Hannah endured years of barrenness waiting for her baby. David spent years in the wilderness before he became king.

Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two men commissioned to rebuild Solomon's temple, struggled with intense discouragement as they looked at Jerusalem's ruins. The task was overwhelming, the cost was prohibitive, the workers were dismayed and their enemies were fierce.

They started the work in earnest, but they heard a familiar voice that whispered: "You'll never finish this. God is going to abandon you in the middle of this project."

Fortunately, just when Zerubbabel and Joshua were about to throw in the towel, the prophet Haggai showed up with a refreshing announcement. He told them: "'But now take courage ... and work; for I am with you,' declares the Lord" (Hag. 2:4, NASB).

The Lord also promised He would see the building project to completion. He said: "The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former ... and in this place I will give peace" (v. 9).

Those prophetic promises propelled Zerubbabel and Joshua forward. The words invigorated their weary faith and steeled their determination. Their passion was refueled. Their hands grew strong again and they returned to the work. God's glorious house arose from an ash heap.

This is God's promise to all who are called to labor with Him. He doesn't tell you to begin something and then leave you halfway through it. God is a wise builder and an expert craftsman. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He finishes what He starts.

The apostle Paul knew this when he wrote: "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6, MEV). The Message Bible says it this way: "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears."

Many of God's servants today are weary. Budgets are tight, resistance is strong and people seem distracted and disunified. The devil is busy trying to abort God's promises. You may have been tempted even this week to resign from your assignment. But I want to encourage you with the words of Haggai: "Take courage! The Lord is with you!"

Regardless of what you lack, the Lord's mighty presence is all you need to finish the task. Hang on to Him and keep believing.

Contents List

Saturday, October 6, 2018