Terminally Ill and Eternally Full of Life

Posted on by

Gods-Not-Dead-ALS

Russell Wolfe is a producer for the recent hit GOD’S NOT DEAD and many other Christian movies. Recently diagnosed with ALS, Russell took to Facebook to contribute to spreading awareness and raising money for scientific research of this incurable disease – ALS also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease,

Regarding the Ice Bucket Challenge, Russell told Movieguide®, “So few people even know of the disease or even know what it is. I think it’s done a great job at raising awareness for that, but I felt that it was particularly good to link it to the fact that God’s not dead, mainly because I have faith that I’m healed, and I’ll receive that manifestation of that healing. Maybe there are some people I can encourage along the way.”

Encourage people he did. Within a week, his Ice Bucket Challenge had been shared over 34,000 times and over 3,000 comments flooded in with encouragement, prayers and others with ALS stories.

Moved by the huge response to the video, Russell said, “One thing that speaks specifically to me is the outpouring of people and their prayers. I’m so grateful for that. I’m actually taken back by how much it was shared, and how many people have included me in their prayers.”

When the news of his terminal diagnosis was revealed to him, Russell said his doctor was more surprised than he was because of Russell’s demeanor.

“I was so calm in reaction to the news,” Russell explained. “I’ve been through a lot of storms in my life, and God has certainly delivered me from each one. When I’ve had things that have happened that are bad, at the time, they might have seemed disastrous, but God has turned each and every one of them around so that in retrospect, I can look back at those, and I’m thankful that they happened, and I don’t feel any different about this. So when he gave me the news, I just looked at it as an opportunity to stand in my faith, and now we’ll just see how God uses this for his Glory.”

Romans 8:28 is a special encouragement to Russell, because God’s work and plan for his life is already so apparent.

“A part of the movie [GOD’S NOT DEAD] is sort of ironic, not only that I play the doctor that was delivering terminal news, and then I received that [same news] thereafter, but the letter that was in the movie that Kevin Sorbo read.

When we had the script, I felt that there needed to be a bridge between him being a solid atheist, and then converting to a Christian on the screen. So, I felt that while he was sitting in his office, he could pull out a letter from his mother. So, I wrote that letter. The idea behind that was, what would I tell my kids if I knew I was going to die at a young age? That letter that’s in the movie, I wrote it in that perspective. Again, the irony of writing that letter, and then getting a terminal diagnosis expresses the way I felt at that time and feel now knowing that I have this diagnosis.”

With his health deteriorating, Russell is still full of encouragement, faith and hope.

As he says, his message “is that God didn’t give this [ALS] to us. God didn’t give me ALS. I believe we live in a fallen world, and as such, bad things happen to good people. . . . What I do believe is that God can take any of those bad things and turn them into good. My message is to keep your faith. God is good all the time. He will turn things that are bad to the good. So, look for the hope in that.”

Pray for Russell Wolfe, his family and the thousands of others that suffer from ALS. Pray for physical healing through miracles and scientific advances through medicine, but especially, pray for a spiritual healing for all those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

edited article  by Ben Kayser Managing Editor, Movie Guide

 

 

TIME: YOUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE

Posted on by

On Time

Contrast this pivotal resource of life with others, such as energy and finances, and a sharp distinction becomes obvious. While these other assets fluctuate, time constantly diminishes. No matter what one possesses, no matter the financial resources at your disposal, time cannot be purchased or stockpiled. One cannot gain access to additional time; you merely have the amount given to you.

So, if time is the most precious resource life offers, the question then becomes how do we use it wisely?

    1. Spend time in prayer. For contemporary believers this seems to be one of the more taxing tasks the Christian life demands. For, prayer takes time, and time is short and the day is long but how else do you build a relationship with your Creator other than spend time in prayer and in HIS WORD. Moreover HE said, “And ALL THINGS, whatever you ask in prayer, believing you will receive” Matthew 21:22. If you want to be a person who changes the course of history, you will pray and seek God’s will for your life. He has a plan for your life don’t miss it.
    2. Invest in building relationships. This certainly has the potential to multiply time. Think of a Christian parent’s relationship with their child, and the ripple effect this relationship can have for decades, if not centuries of time and on numerous other relationships. Their actions will not only have the potential to impact society for good but above all can have eternal significance.

Peter Kreeft, a Christian philosopher, offers an important understanding of time and prayer. He notes, “We have time and prayer backwards. We think time determines prayer, but prayer determines time. We think our lack of time is the cause of our lack of prayer, but our lack of prayer is the cause of our lack of time.” This understanding of the relationship of time to prayer is not a pithy saying to be taken lightly, but biblical insight into the significance of both. For the One who listens to the prayer knows about multiplication.

Matthew chapter 14 speaks to the ability of Christ to multiply scarce resources in order to maximize their potential. Yet, consider if the child had never offered his five loves and two fish. Christ’s ability to multiply would, at least in this instance, never been engaged.

Succinctly put, life in modern society is belligerently backwards. Modern life is arranged around tasks and duties which consume a large portion of the time given us each day. This utilitarian view of time has riddled modern society, families, and individuals with discontent, loneliness, and want of purpose.

How now should we live?

Remember The Lord’s Prayer – “Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Invest your time in building God’s Kingdom on earth and you also build treasure in heaven which has ETERNAL value and significance. Don’t waste your time on building your Kingdom on earth, it is fleeting and ultimately brings no peace or joy.

Time is precious and limited, yet of eternal value. What makes it so is how you use it and whom you give it to. Begin now to start living eternally.

DEMONIC POSSESSION is REAL & DEADLY

Posted on by

robin williamsBrian Wilson Beach Boys

 

Robin Williams is interviewed by James Kaplan for the US Weekly, January, 1999, p. 53

“Yeah! Literally, it’s like possession ‑ all of a sudden you’re in, and because it’s in front of a live audience, you just get this energy that just starts going…But there’s also that thing ‑ it is possession. In the old days you’d be burned for it…But there is something empowering about it. I mean, it is a place where you are totally ‑ it is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where you really can become this other force. Maybe that’s why I don’t need to play evil characters [in movies], ’cause sometimes onstage you can cross that line and come back. Clubs are a weird kind of Petri dish environment. I mean, that’s where people can get as dark as they can in comedy ‑ in the name of comedy, be talking about outrageous stuff and somehow come out the other side. I mean, that’s one place where you really want to push it”

Robin Williams acknowledged that he had opened himself up to transformative demonic powers that aided him on stage. Without the aid of such demonic powers, it is likely that you would have never have heard of Robin Williams and many other celebrities.

Williams also recognized that these powers had manifested a very evil influence on stage and that there could be a hefty price to pay for their assistance. Williams told James Kaplan of US Weekly. This last statement answers the question as to why the demonic powers use entertainers. Their goal is to promote evil and darkness and increase mankind’s rebellion against God.

It was in Williams’ stand-up where he would go into his manic, stream-of-consciousness rants filled with vulgar language, perverse sexuality and the glorification of illicit drugs and drunkenness. Many people express shock after seeing Williams’ stand-up, not knowing his act was so perverse.

Brian Wilson, considered the musical genius of the Beach Boys, claimed that he had been harassed by several different demonic spirit entities that so tormented him that he was bed ridden for years.

Extract from Rolling Stone, August, 1988, p. 51-52

“Brian Wilson hears voices. They talk to him. They frighten him, distract him, confuse him…the voices are calling. His eyes roll toward the ceiling; they’ve gone blank. His brow is furrowed with thick worry lines. He is silent. Gone. He looks up, jerks his head back and forth for a few seconds, as if physically shaking away the voices”

Former Warner Brother Records President, Larry Waronker, claims to have met at least five different entities possessing Brian Wilson’s body.

Most people are blind to this diabolical pattern of celebrities giving themselves over to satanic power for fame and fortune, only to be exploited, used and abused, and then spit out after Satan is done with them.

The truth is that only the Lord Jesus Christ has the power and authority to deliver humans from satanic powers. The scriptures reveal that the demonic powers tremble before God’s mighty power (James 2:19). It is in Jesus’ name that believers have victory over the demonic realm. God’s Word declares:

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

().

Universities breeding atheists

Posted on by

Since its initial release Ray Comfort’s video “Evolution vs God” has garnered thousands of hateful, demeaning and even violent comments from evolutionists. After watching this video you will understand why people who attend universities come out believing that science has proved God does not exist certainly not the God of the Bible.

Ray Comfort was criticized relentlessly for his use of “kind” and not “species”. However the observations of the living world are highly consistent with the Biblical described concept of original created kinds, and inconsistent with the idea of evolution. From Genesis 1, the ability to produce offspring, i.e. to breed with one another, defines the original created kinds. We can cross-breed a zebra and a horse (to produce a ‘zorse’), a lion and a tiger (a liger or tigon), or a false killer whale and a dolphin (a wholphin) so these are the same kind.

 

Creation is FOUNDATIONAL to knowledge of GOD

Posted on by

Prof Bernard Brandstater

So says, medical pioneer Professor Bernard Brandstater. He is in his eighties and still doing part-time operating theatre work at Loma Linda University, California. He has many firsts in his distinguished medical career. He introduced prolonged intubation to assist infant breathing. This landmark technology spread rapidly. It triggered the quick appearance of neonatal intensive care units around the world.

“God made us”, says Professor Brandstater. “That’s His identity: the Creator, the sovereign Lord of the Universe. God as Creator is foundational to our understanding of anything”. According to Professor Brandstater, a Creation that deserves a central place in our worldview cannot include a long process that is abhorrent to us with millions of years of pain, suffering and death. The process of Creation must fit the character and purposes of God who does all things well, who is generous and merciful and delights in beauty. This is the God we can trust, seek to know and love. The Creation is clearly described in God’s Word as a brief time-limited event with a clean ending on Day Six and a celebration the following day. Moreover God tells us why he made the universe in six days, it is a pattern for mankind, six days we will work and rest the seventh day and it’s significant we still have a seven-day week. Dare we add a drawn out process that distorts this picture. Sadly most people do, adding long ages of evolutionary time. As Darwin’s Theory of Evolution does not make sense under the scrutiny of the latest scientific findings so why should we bow to such conjectures? God’s mode of creating tells us about His mind, His heart. In the Bible there is no indication of a long incubation. “He spoke and it was done.” Psalm 33:9. Evil and death certainly exist in the world today but they came later, not as part of God’s original Creation. They were a tragic result of the FALL; mankind’s disobedience. For the full article by Don Batten on Professor Bernard Brandsater, Medical Pioneer: Creation Foundational go to http://www.creation.com

Love your enemies versus be ruthless to unbelievers

Posted on by

gabriel-wani-meriam-yehya-ibrahim (1) Meriam Yehya Ibrahim and her husband Daniel Wani

The following two recent stories of women, one under sentence of death and the second stoned to death reveals something devilish about the religion that claims its God demands their death in stark contrast to the Christian God of love who commands us to love our enemies. 

1. Meriam Ibrahim (pictured at her wedding), 27, who has been shackled in jail for the last four months, gave birth five days early in the hospital wing at the Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison in North, Khartoum, according to a Daily Mail report.

An Islamic Sharia Judge says Ibrahim can be spared the gallows if she publicly renounces her faith and become a Muslim once again. Despite the grim reality facing her, however, Ibrahim has remained steadfast in her faith, telling her husband in a recent conversation during a prison visit that she would rather die than renounce Christ.

  2. A pregnant Pakistani woman was stoned to death by nearly 20 members of her family on Tuesday, allegedly for marrying a man out of love and going against her family’s wishes. The 25-year-old woman, Farzana Parveen, is said to have been three months pregnant when her father, brothers, and other family members attacked her and her husband, Mohammad Iqbal, with batons and bricks in broad daylight before the high court of Lahore. Police investigator Rana Mujahid confirmed that Parveen’s father, Mohammad Azeem, has been arrested. The father had apparently filed abduction charges against Iqbal, which the couple was contesting. Parveen and Iqbal had been engaged for years and married against her family’s wishes. “I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it,” Mujahid quoted the father as saying. Sadly many people in Pakistan who commit violence against women are often acquitted or handed light sentences.

A MAN WHO LIVED ETERNAL NOW

Posted on by

John Wesley statue
Statue of John Wesley outside Wesley Church in Melbourne, Australia.

John Wesley considered every thought word and deed in light of eternity.
Wesley preached with unceasing zeal that complete holiness was the primary fruit of a vibrant faith in Christ and of course the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. Wesley wrote “until you press believers to expect full salvation from sin, you won’t see revival. Before I preach love and grace I must preach sin, law and judgment.”
Consumed by the thought of the shortness of time, the great work to be done and the need for haste in doing it, on he marched, preaching, pleading, warning and guiding.
Wesley pleaded with men and women to repent and by faith make peace with God or suffer an everlasting hell. He was determined to declare the whole counsel of God in Christ and give warning of the dreadful consequences of rejecting the Gospel.
When he was 83 he made a note in his diary that he was regretful that he could not write more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes. He preached almost up to the day he died. truly his vigour and zeal in old age were the reward of his faithful stewardship of time.
He did indeed consider every thought word and deed in light of eternity.