Why no Christian can get through their painful season without the cross

When going through hard experiences, we often wonder how we're ever going to get through. Whether it's experiencing a loss of a loved one, a career failure or a tragic incident, painful experiences can be difficult or even seemingly impossible to get over.

Think of a painful experience that you went through in the past. What was it that brought you through? Yes will power helps, the love and support of loved ones does great good and time does allow for some level of healing. But it's hard to deny that all three things even when amply provided still fall short to provide us with complete and full healing.

The Bible provides us with the best solution to overcoming the trauma of painful experiences. Our answer is found on Calvary- a cross carrying a sinless man who took our pain and gave us His life.

Isaiah 53:5 says this: "But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray."

It's tough, even at one point absurd, to think that an event in history can echo across millennia bringing healing to the whole world, but that's exactly what happened. How does the cross allow God's healing to penetrate into the hurts of the heart?

The gospel heals us by giving the Holy Spirit access to work in our hearts. When we surrender to Christ and put our faith in the cross, the Holy Spirit is given a bridge into our very being, exposing us to the regenerative and restoring work of God's presence. Just as the Holy Spirit allows for the resurrection of our dead spirits, He can also bring life back into our dead souls.

Moreover, we also experience healing through the cross of Christ because it reveals to us the love of the father. John 3:16 tells us, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." We have eternal life in heaven and even here on earth primarily through the love of the Father displayed through Christ. The work on the cross points us to the love of the Father that drives out all fear. (1 John 4:18)

The devil's plan to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) is overcome by Christ's desire to give life more abundantly not just for the spirit or the natural body, but also the broken soul. We all know what it's like to have our souls maimed and murdered by the painful experiences of the world, but in the midst of deepest pain, Christ shows to be all sufficient in bringing his healing upon us all.

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Preaching, not worship, takes priority for US churchgoers – but why?

Surveys suggest that the sermon is the key factor affecting US church attendance.

Recent surveys suggest that the sermon – not the musical worship – is the main factor affecting the church attendance of US Christians.

The preaching, in both its application of Scripture and relevance to life, takes ultimate priority for both Protestant and Catholic worshippers, according to a Gallup poll released last week.

In contrast, the quality or style of church music was comparatively unimportant. Forty-four per cent of Protestants called it a major factor, and just 29 per cent of Catholics said the same.

In a more general survey of Muslims, Jews and Christians, three in four of those polled said that the sermon was a major factor in their religious attendance. The least significant 'major factor' was quality worship music (38 per cent), 36 per cent of those polled said it was a minor factor.

So why is this the case? It's an assumption of many that, in an age where Christian music has expanded into a vast, hugely popular and prolific enterprise, the kind of worship music in church might be a key consideration for worshippers. But it isn't, and it's the sermon (often joked about as the most boring part of church) that holds the most importance for the average worshipper. Here are three reasons the sermon reigns supreme on Sunday.

1. Mixed messages

Contemporary culture is awash with preachers – they just don't all wear clerical robes. Watch any TV ad break, scroll the internet for a minute, read a magazine – everyone's selling something and promoting their vision of the world. Like any good sermon, their messages invite and aim to attract. They assume values about the world, usually some vision of the 'good life'. They may insist you need a sleek new vehicle to drive, or that you need to change your diet, your fashion or your friends to be happy. Hollywood offers idyllic visions of romance and fulfilment, and politicians too promote their vision of a better world.

It can all be too much. For the religious in particular, they want to know what God has to say about it all. The Sunday service may be one of the only chances God's word gets to be heard. For 10, 20 or 40 minutes, congregations hear a different vision of the world and the 'good life'.

Sermons provide a rare chance for a community to gather and listen together - and could be the key to reversing waning church attendance.

2. The rare fruit of wisdom

Preachers will tend to spend hours preparing their words, studying ancient texts and ideas in advance of their address. When you hear it, you only have to sit back and receive the gift they have prepared. Admittedly some sermons may not feel like a gift. But the best are like fresh air, a rare opportunity to hear someone's considered, prayerful reflections on God and human existence. There's really no other context in life in which that happens, which makes sermons rather special.

3. Back to school

Hearing a sermon is a little like going back to school. Human beings are intellectual creatures, which means that we thrive on understanding new ideas. Some (especially preachers) are particularly geared toward this kind of thinking, but we all have brains, and we all want to learn and understand. The sermon gives a rare opportunity for an articulated, intellectual expression of reality and our place in it. The messages of popular culture and advertising are consumed more unthinkingly – they come with assumptions, but they don't stop to explain them. A good sermon can be profound because it enlightens, it explains our purpose in life, and gives us a story whereby we can understand the world. Like school or university, in church we learn together. We listen to God's word as a community and discuss it together, a radical rarity in our individualised society.

None of this undoes the profound value of music, children's work or different rituals and traditions in churches. Each plays a vital role in making the Church the Church. We're not just brains in a box, and so merely preaching alone wouldn't be right. Nonetheless, it's interesting that preaching seems to have such an obvious, and perhaps surprising, appeal in the lives of churchgoers. It may be an encouragement for some churches to reconsider their approach to preaching, especially if they're struggling with attendance.

As an ancient prophet once said: 'How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news' (Isaiah 52:7).

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Church congregation's prayer leads to miracles that save life of baby needing heart transplant

Ella Kate giggles as she is tickled by her mom at the Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina while recovering from her heart surgery.

Prayer has a way of turning the impossible into something amazingly and miraculously real.

This was proven once again recently when prayers sparked a series of miracles that resulted in saving the life of a baby girl who urgently needed a heart transplant to survive.

Late last year, doctors at the Levine Children's Hospital told parents Melanie Hillman Leitner and Mike Leitner from Charlotte, North Carolina that their baby, Ella Kate, was "in a race against time" after they found a large mass in the left ventricle of her heart that was killing her, WBTV-TV reported. The doctors said Ella might not make it to her first birthday, unless she received a heart transplant.

In November, her name was placed on the transplant list.

The couple's church, the Abundant Life Foursquare Church in Mooresville, found out about their baby's condition, and on Jan. 29, the pastor stopped the service, asking the congregation to pray over Ella and her family as well.

And then the first miracle manifested. "On our way home from church we got the call that changed our world," Melanie said. The caller said they have "the perfect heart for Ella."

"If this wasn't a God moment, I don't know what could be," Melanie said.

Unknown to her at that time, as the congregants were praying over Ella, another prayer was being said for her baby in the hospital in Charlotte where she was being treated. The prayer was said on the occasion of the dedication of the hospital's new MedCenter aircraft—the same plane that would later pick up Ella's new heart, another miraculous coincidence.

The Leitner couple then learned that the heart to be transplanted to Ella was not her blood type. Nevertheless, the surgeons performed the transplant—the first ABO incompatible heart transplant done at the hospital, and it was a success.That was the third miracle.

Ella Kate celebrated her first birthday recently—with a brand-new heart and a new lease on life.

The Leitners said they are "eternally grateful" to the family of a little girl who agreed to have the heart of their little one who died to be transplanted to Ella.

Just days ago, in an earlier report, another child was also miraculously saved from death after prayers were said for the 22-month-old toddler.

Matty Cunningham was found "blue and dead" floating in a neighbour's pond.

Family members "prayed and prayed and prayed" and "begged God for a miracle," Elsa, the boy's mom.

Later at the hospital where they took him, doctors at first thought the boy was already dead. But when they performed an MRI on his brain, the test result showed no brain damage at all.


Hours later, Matty miraculously came back to life to the utter delight of his family.

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Justin Bieber shares Christian message with fans at concert: 'Mark my words Jesus loves you'

Justin Bieber kneels down and brings his hands together for prayer during his 'Purpose' concert in Sydney.

The Word of God has truly touched the heart of Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber, so much so that he makes it a point to spread His message of goodwill every chance he gets.

On Wednesday, the singer, who is a proud attendee of Hillsong Church, shared his faith to over 70,000 people during his "Purpose" concert in ANZ Stadium, Sydney, according to The Daily Mail.

The 23-year-old singer descended onto the stage while inside a transparent box, and in it, he wrote the message: "Mark my words Jesus loves you!!!!"

This was not the first time Bieber turned his concert stage as a platform for the Lord. During a concert in Paris recently, he even sang an impromptu rendition of the Christian song, "I Could Sing Your Love Forever."

Back in 2015, Bieber surprised a reviewer from the Los Angeles Times, who attended his "Purpose" concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Bieber started the show by riding his skateboard to the centre of the arena, then began singing acoustic versions of old and new songs. He then shared a film highlighting each song from his new album "Purpose."

Bieber then shared with his audience the deep love he has for God. "Between the skateboarding and the singing, though, Bieber sat on a stool next to Judah Smith, the man described as his pastor, and more or less preached," the L.A. Times said in its review of the concert.


"He talked about the importance of maintaining a positive spirit and surrounding himself with encouraging people," the review said. "He credited his connection with God for helping him to get back on his feet after a string of widely publicized tabloid troubles. And when a fan in the audience — one of a dozen or so selected by the singer's team for a question-and-answer session — asked if he had any advice on how to get through a romantic breakup, he demurred, flashing a bit of the humility that every religious leader knows is crucial in establishing a bond with one's flock."

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Christian Gospel Star Travis Greene To Perform At Donald Trump Inauguration

                                                                    Travis Greene

Black gospel singer Travis Greene has revealed that he has accepted an invitation to perform at the inauguration of Donald Trump.

He tweeted and instagrammed it with the words: "Family, I have something very special to share – and I wanted you to hear directly from me."

In his post on Instagram, he said: "Man, I'm overwhelmed by the favour and the love of our Jesus Christ." He said the past couple of years, the doors Jesus had opened for him had blown his mind.

"One of those doors was an invitation next week to the inaugural ball to Washington DC. "After much prayer, deliberation and soul searching - I literally spoke to most of my spiritual advisers thoguhtout the country - it was an overwhelming  'go'. Tht's what they told me, that they believed this was the will of God."

This was because in the Bible, God gave His servants access to power, so they could speak to Kings they agreed and disagreed with. He did not want to sit back and complain, but to take the "light of Jesus" into the culture where it belongs.

So far Jackie Evancho, who came second in America's Got Talent six years ago when she was 10, is the headline act at the inauguration. Other singers such as Charlotte Church have declined.

Sources also told Page Six that Jonathan McReynolds and R&B singer Chrisette Michele have been asked to perform on 20 January.

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Mark Burnett, Ben Hur producer, at the LA premiere with his wife Roma Downey (left), who is also a producer on the film, and also the chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Gary Barber and his wife Nadine Barber.

The Christian producer of the historical epic Ben Hur has described how the Crufixion of Jesus inspired the classic tale of tragedy and forgiveness.

"Ben Hur is a completely unique story and the you have a emotional gut wrenching adventure epic with an underlying story of Jesus and forgiveness," said Mark Burnett, who has worked on other religious titles including Son of God.

The story of Ben Hur and his brother Messala is set historically at the same time as the Crucifixion.

Burnett, British-born head of MGM Television and Digital Group, said: "And Ben Hur witnessing the crucifixion and hearing Jesus forgive those who crucified him. It made him realize, what am I doing?

"What is Messala doing, my own brother? My adopted brother but my own brother? And he goes and they forgive each other as a result of that. It's completely unique."

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The film, released in cinemas last year and out today on DVD and for digital download, is the fifth film adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ  by Lew Wallace. Burnett said it is arguably the most Christian novel ever written. "It so seamlessly weaves a story of Jesus into this adventure. It's great storytelling, great, inspired storytelling."

The film tells the story of Judah Ben Hur and his brother. One brother ends up being sent to the slave galleys and returning for revenge on the other brother, who was instrumental in him being sent away. He finds out that his mother and sister were sent to a leper colony and had caught leprosy.

"The worst of the worst," said Burnett. "The chariot race is a combination of this but at the end it becomes a story of forgiveness because it coincides with the crucifixion of Jesus.

"And Jesus's words of forgiving those who are crucifying, father, forgive them they know not what they do."

The film stars Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Haluk Bilginer and Rodrigo Santoro.

In making the film, he was inspired by the knowledge that his own teenage children had never heard of Ben Hur and its famous chariot race.

"Ben Hur at its essence is a story of pain, of emotional pain. And very cleverly written handwoven and exhibited in the film is physical pain representing emotional pain. There's the physical pain of the aftermath of the chariot race. There is the physical pain seen on the leper that Jesus saves or the leprosy that his mother and sister have.

"And the healing that comes about physically and emotionally as a result of the crucifixion of Jesus. This is astounding. It's hard to know that someone created the story inspired creation through General Lew Wallace his own pain of his life's journey. And probably some of the greatest art in the history of the world comes from a deep place of pain turning the darkness into light.

"And Ben Hur is a movie which has bright lights, very, very dark times and back at the end to light which is what we are all looking for. It comes in one word, hope."

In his 1959 film, William Wyler decided that Christ would be neither heard nor seen.

Burnett said: "On Ben Hur 2016, we have chosen to show Jesus and have the emotional connection between Ben Hur and Jesus. We've chosen Rodrigo Santoro to play Jesus.

"A fantastic Brazilian actor to portray Jesus. And it really works. You so feel the connection between Jesus and Judah Ben Hur. When they first meet it's when Jesus is doing carpentry. He's working and making some comments to Judah about life, about slavery.

"The next time they meet is when Judah is carrying a wooden cross bar on his way to the slave galleys. So there's a mirror of what's going to happen later because Jesus it's water. The next time you meet the roles are reversed. Jesus is carrying his cross and falls. And Judah tries to give Jesus water. And they end up the final scene is at the crucifixion.

"So the stories are interwoven so well. And Rodrigo Santoro portrays Jesus Christ so beautifully in such a deep, gritty organic way, it just makes a real connection. I watched yesterday a 15 minute segment of this from the movie, already. And it made me cry. It made me cry."

More than 2.5 billion humans on the planet live for Jesus, he said.

"Yet millions died for his message and billions live for his message. It is critical to treat it with reverence, with accuracy and the correct content and emotional outcome. Ben Hur achieves all of those things."

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Billy Graham Tells Christians How to Fight Temptation

Famed evangelist Billy Graham says that individuals who give their lives to Christ are not immune to the temptations of life, and may face even greater temptation from Satan. But God will provide a way out.

                                                                                        (PHOTO: REUTERS/ROBERT PADGETT)

Evangelist Billy Graham speaks at the dedication of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, May 31, 2007.

In his syndicated advice column published Wednesday in The Kansas City Star, Graham reminds his readers that no one has been tempted more than Jesus, who endured 40 days and nights of enticements from the devil, and that they are not exempt.

"If Jesus faced temptation," says Graham, "won't we face temptation also? Jesus, the Bible says, 'Has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin' (Hebrews 4:15)."

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association founder says that believers should combat this temptation with the Word of God. They should get clear about God's will, and ask Him to provide strength to resist Satan and his lies. "You aren't the same person you once were; God now lives within you by his Holy Spirit. Turn, therefore, to him for the help you need to fight temptation."

Last week, the influential evangelist spoke to his readers about the wiles and motives of the devil. The Christian Post previously reported that the 98-year-old reminded his readers, "He (Satan) tempts, he deceives, he destroys and he even kills when it suits his purpose. The Bible says, 'Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him.'"

When it comes to temptation, there is nothing new under the sun but God helps believers to resist it all. Graham points to 1 Corinthians 10:13, "The Bible says, 'No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. ... He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.'"

In a previous Q&A on the website of the BGEA, Graham told readers that living a pure life should be a Christian's goal. "He (God) wants to guide us and help us live pure lives, and He also wants to use us to help others and point them to Jesus. Jesus said, 'You are the light of the world. ... Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.'"

With a bit of humor, Graham says about temptation, "A friend told me once, 'When temptation knocks, I just send Jesus to the door!' That's good advice."

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