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Want to see America change for the better?

One of the greatest lessons we learned was that blessings bring change.

Just as God sent Jesus as a blessing, which caused us to change, so we should be a blessing to be agents of change. The Apostle Paul said, “Bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14), and the Apostle Peter said “Repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9).

There has never been a better time to pray blessings over America for a change of heart, and to pray blessings and not curse the darkness.

So join us to pray blessings over America:

I Bless America & all its citizens with Eyes to See, Ears to Hear and a Heart to know the Truth of the Gospel.
I Bless America with a spirit of receptivity to the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
I Bless America with SALVATIONS unlimited. Every man, woman and child to receive Eternal Salvation.
I Bless America with MORE of God’s Holy Spirit to be evident in their lives.
I Bless America with all the Gifts of the Spirit of God resident in their lives.
I Bless America with a heart after God.
I Bless America with a hunger after God’s Holy Word and the ability to read and recall the Word as needed.
I Bless America with The Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole Nation.
I Bless America with an abundance of Evangelists in their midst.
I Bless America with cutting edge Evangelism to take place in our media and communications outlets.
I Bless America with creative and witty inventions of updated presentations of the Gospel.
I Bless America to be Truth Seekers with hearts after the One, True God, the Lord God Jehovah.
I Bless America with Dreams and Visions of Jesus Christ.
I Bless America with discovering the Legacy of Faith in its history.
I Bless America with Bible studies taking place at work, in neighborhoods and schools.
I Bless America with unity in Christ.
I Bless America with Healing of the land.
I Bless America to receive back to its shores the numbers of Missionaries sent in the last 100 years for God’s work.
I Bless America with Bible believing Christian leaders be voted into office at every local, state & federal office.
I Bless America with Judges in Courts that will uphold God’s law and not man’s laws.
I Bless America to fulfill its Godly destiny.
I Bless America with a new found heart for prayer to God.
I Bless America to see its prayers answered by God.
I Bless America with testimonies untold of God’s hearing and answering their prayers that change men’s hearts.
I Bless America with a Spiritual Awakening across the entirety of the nation.
I Bless America with a new found trust in God their Creator just as it states on its dollar bills.
I Bless America with a renewing of their minds to be the minds of Christ thru God’s word.
I Bless America with a gift of giving to supply the needs that will open hearts to the gospel.
I Bless America with favor with the nations of the earth and God.
I Bless America with experiencing God as Father that repairs and replaces the Orphan Spirit.
I Bless America with God’s Restoration to their Souls thru Jesus Christ.
I Bless America with HOPE.
I Bless America with Signs and Wonders from the Father’s Hand.
I Bless America with Biblical Values to live by that produce much fruit in the lives of our people.
I Bless America with a rain of the Spirit of God the likes of which has never been seen before.
I Bless America with a new generation of Emerging Leaders whose lives are based on God and His Principles.
I Bless America with a Spirit of Hospitality to host Bible Studies and Home meetings for Worship & Prayer.
I Bless America with a New Song from the Lord. A Song in their hearts for LIFE and LIFE more abundantly.

Amen!

Just ten days after the Americans celebrate their Revolution, the French celebrate theirs this week, on Bastille Day, July 14.

The two revolutions could not have been more different. The Americans honored God in their Declaration of independence. The French, on the other hand, adopted the atheistic, anti-Christian values of the French Enlightenment and set out to eradicate God from public life. Churches were closed, priests were persecuted, and the calendar was remade without any Christian holidays. To replace the Virgin Mary, the revolutionary leaders invented the atheistic “Goddess of Liberty”, which became the emblem of Godless Liberty.

The fruit of the revolutions was also very different. America became a beacon of hope for the world as it worked to make its dream of equality and God given rights become a reality. In France, the godless foundation of the revolution meant that all moral restraint on power evaporated, and the infamous Reign of Terror began. Neither life no liberty were safe, and even the revolutionary leaders were carried off one by one to the Terror. Finally order was restored but all hope of liberty vanished under the iron fisted rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. It turns out that Godless Liberty is no liberty at all.

Sad to say, the lesson of the French Revolution has been repeated over and over since then. The Communist revolutions in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, and elsewhere produced massive death and eliminated freedom. The same holds true for the Nazis in Germany and the Fascists in Italy who, like Napoleon, led the whole world into war. The post colonial socialists in Africa grabbed power after elections, giving rise to the famous statement of “One man, one vote, one time”. The same process has also occurred in countries like Venezuela, Argentina and Nicaragua where authoritarians have used the promise of Godless Liberty to subvert Democratic intuitions.

Even in America our God given liberties have been eroded by the proponents of Godless Liberty. Beginning in the 1960’s, the Government has banned God from our public schools, allowed the murder of unborn, worked against Christian morality, and mandated same sex “marriage.” At the same time, Big Government has increasingly limited the rights of Americans to exercise freedoms of religion, speech, and property. The fruit of the Godless Liberty in America has been fatherlessness, poverty, crime, and a Government which grows larger while the people grow poorer and smaller.

Now the Godless Liberty movement has been emboldened to openly attack American freedoms and values using violence in the streets without moral restraint, following in the footsteps of the French Revolution. They want to bring the Reign of Terror to America to stamp out our Godly Liberty.
The inroads of Godless Liberty have come about because of a failure by the Church to preach the gospel of love and truth. Misguided pastors confuse love with exploitation to condone sexual sin, even gay marriage, when they should be setting people free in the name of Christ. Churches have substituted failed social programs for the life changing gospel of Christ. And the love of Christ is often hidden behind condemnation, political agendas, and Church division. The Church must remain true to its calling if it is to avoid the fate of the French Church during the French Revolution.

Let us pray that the Church will repent of its sins and return to the lifesaving work of spreading the gospel and the love of Christ. We must humble ourselves, come together, and repent if our land is to be healed.

Let us also pray that the precious gift of Godly Liberty, and especially religious liberty, can overcome the evil of Godless Liberty.

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-3

Yes, there really is a Saint Nicholas. He was a fourth century Bishop in Myra, in Asia
Minor. And he really was famous for his gift giving and his concern for the poor and for children. His feast day is Friday, December 6.

In the Middle Ages some enterprising citizens of the Italian city of Bari stole his remains and built a cathedral in his honor in Bari. Because of the importance of Saint Nicholas to both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the cathedral is one of the few places in the world where Catholic and Orthodox minister under the same roof. Pilgrims of both denominations are welcome there.

When the Charismatic renewal swept through the Catholic Church, one of the leaders in Bari, Matteo Calisi, wondered if the tolerance expressed at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral could grow into real reconciliation. He and Italian Evangelical pastor Giovanni Traettino reached across the divide and began a movement which has brought Catholics and Protestants together throughout Italy. Over the years the reconciliation movement has reached out from Bari to Protestants in North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. In addition, the Orthodox and Messianic Jewish churches have also become involved.

One of Calisi’s major impacts was in Buenos Aires, where Cardinal Bergoglio opened the Catholic Church there to reconciliation with the Protestant leaders. We now know Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope Francis, and he has continued his historic outreach to other Christian traditions. In 2014 the Pope sent a historic video to Kenneth Copeland at a Pastor’s meeting which can be seen on Youtube under: https://youtu.be/b5TwrG8B3ME Since then many Church leaders have met with the Pope to heal the divisions between Christians.

During 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, many meetings were held around the world to promote the reconciliation of Christians. In October of 2017 Matteo Calisi organized a meeting with Kenneth Copeland and Cardinal DiNardo, President of U.S. Bishops, and about 40 other Christian leaders including Lou Engle, Mike Bickle, and John Arnott in a visible show of unity at the Kairos 2017 conference in Kansas City. A similar meeting was held in Dallas, Texas on October 3-5, 2019. During the 2019 meeting Lou Engle prophesied that the reconciliation movement would lead to worldwide revival.

The reconciliation movement born in Bari seeks to bring Christians into genuine unity in our diversity. God realizes that we have different practices and beliefs, and we’re told to tolerate our brothers (see Ro14:1-4 and Ro 15:1-7). Our real unity is through Christ, for if we are each in Christ then we are also united in Christ. (see John 17:20-23).

So let us all join Christ in His prayer that we may be brought into complete unity (John
17:23).

And we need to thank Him for the gift of the reconciliation movement which was started in the Spirit of Saint Nicholas.

Today, October 31, is the anniversary date of Martin Luther’s nailing of his Ninety Five Theses on the Church door at Wittenberg, Germany. It is also the 20th anniversary of the agreement ending the division between Lutherans and Catholics which began in Wittenberg.

Martin Luther had hoped that he would be able to reform and purify the Church. Instead, the Church split into a Catholic branch and a Protestant branch. Then came religious wars, with millions of Catholic and Protestant martyrs. Peace and some level of tolerance finally prevailed, but the division continued.

Nor was it the first such division. The Jewish Church was driven out at the Council of Nicea, the Nestorian Church at the Council of Ephesus, and the Copic Church at the Council of Chalcedon. The Orthodox East and the Roman Catholic West formally split in 1054. And throughout Church history, beginning with Frankish King Clovis, Kings were sent to destroy heretical groups. The Scandal of Division has stalked the Church from the beginning.

Today there are thousands of Christian denominations, each with its own unique set of beliefs and practices. All of them know that Christ prayed “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me” (John 17:23), but they do not know how to get past their doctrinal and governmental differences. So the Scandal has been allowed to continue, even at the cost of casting doubt on Jesus and the Church.

Then, on this date in 1999, Catholics and Lutherans came together in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, agreeing that “Persons are Justified by faith in the Gospel, apart from works prescribed by law“ and that we are accepted ”By grace alone.” The agreement ends one of the greatest controversies of the Protestant Reformation, and indeed it has truly been said that “the Protest is over.” For more information see the unitedinchristinternational.com website.

In the 21st century Christians began to move toward spiritual unity. Things began to change when Christians took a fresh look at Christ’s prayer for unity. Jesus prayed that, just as He was in the Father and the Father was in Him, the believers would be in Christ and thus be brought to complete unity so that world would know him (John 17:20-23). Our unity is in Christ, not in our doctrines, traditions, or Church government. The Apostle Paul also recognized this, and urged the believers not to look down on their “weaker” brothers who had different practices (Ro 14:1-23).

Unity is not uniformity. Rather, it is unity in diversity, where the special giftings of other Christian traditions add to the richness of our Christian heritage.

Let no one be judged for their doctrines so long as they are in Christ. Rather let us become friends of God by keeping Christ’s command to love each other (John 15:12-14) and focus on God’s business (John 15:15).

Let us end the Scandal of Division so the world will know that God sent Christ to save us.

As we remember the Day of the Dead with our Latino neighbors, this is a good time to think about the unthinkable.

Sure, you are going to heaven, but what about those you leave behind? If you want to be fondly remembered here are some things you can do before the unthinkable happens.

If something happens to you, your family will need money to help replace your income. Most young families can easily afford $250,000 to $500,000 of term life insurance. As you grow older, you may need more insurance. But it gets more expensive as you age. Hopefully you will accumulate some savings over time, but if you haven’t, remember that life insurance not a substitute for savings. It only provides in emergencies.

If you should die without a will, your titled property, such as your house and cars, cannot be transferred to your heirs without an expensive legal process. If you have children, your spouse may have to make intrusive reports to a court before funds can be spent for your children. And, without a will, your property may not go where you would like it to go. Be smart, get a will, and save your family from lots of misery.

Another good thing to do is educate yourself about trusts. For example, if your mother leaves you her estate and you have problem debts, your creditors will gobble it up. If, on the other hand, the money had been left in trust for you, it would be beyond the reach of your creditors. Trusts can also be used to protect your insurance proceeds and for establishing funds for your kids to manage their inheritance until they are mature enough to handle their own finances. You’ll need a lawyer to help you, but the cost will be well worth it.

Unless you are very rich your family won’t need to worry about estate taxes and there is no income tax on the value inherited property. If property is sold the tax basis is equal to the value on date of death, so even then there may be little or no tax. And make sure your spouse knows where your important papers are. Educate your family about your plans, know a good lawyer, and the financial trauma of you demise can be minimized.

Unthinkable yes. But also certain to happen someday.

So be ready to be fondly remembered.

The week we are in the midst of praying through the 40 day Jewish season of repentance, Teshuvah.

The word Teshuvah literally means to return to the presence of God. It is a season of introspection and repentance for Christians to come into unity with God, as Jesus prayed in John 17:21. However, as Jesus prayed, unity with God also requires unity with each other in Christ. (John 17:20-23).

Yet, almost since the beginning of Christianity, believers have quarreled about Christian doctrine and church government. The first Jerusalem Council served as an example of a favorably resolved dispute (Acts 15). However, other disputes resulted in division and treatment of opponents as non-Christians. As Ralph Martin famously said, “The Body of Christ is broken.”

Today there are many denominations and doctrines which create a great diversity within the body of Christ. Yet, we can still be United in Christ. Lutheran theologian Oscar Cullmann said, “Unity in the church . . . is unity in diversity . . . recognizing others in all their variety as true Christians.” Pope Francis has said, “Unity brought by the Spirit can harmonize every diversity.” Unity in diversity recognizes the contributions of other streams of Christianity and blends them together in a symphony of harmony. It is a unity of the Spirit, not in doctrine or church government.

During the second ten days of Teshuvah, from September 9 to September 18, we will be praying for God’s people and the healing of the broken Body of Christ as God’s people come together, united in Christ.

• September 9: The blessings of unity (Ps. 133)
• September 10: Unity in Christ (John 17:20–22)
• September 11: Accepting our brothers (Rom. 15:5–7)
• September 12: Do not judge (Rom. 14:13; Luke 6:37–38)
• September 13: Divisions (1 Cor. 3:1–9)
• September 14: Evangelism through unity (John 17:23)
• September 15: Watchmen warnings (Ezek. 33)
• September 16: Appealing to all (1 Cor. 9:27)
• September 17: Salvation for Israel (Rom. 11:11–32)
• September 18: Messianic Jews and the Toward
Jerusalem Council II movement (Acts 15)

The Unity Revival has already begun. In 2014 the Pope sent a historic video to Kenneth Copeland which you can view on the UnitedinChristInternational.com website. The Pope’s outreach to Kenneth Copeland produced a flood of Christian leaders who traveled to Rome for international reconciliation meetings. There has also been a strong movement for unity among American church leaders. However, the unity movement has not yet reached many of our cities and local churches.

The urgent need to heal the Body of Christ must be communicated from the national leadership of movements and denominations to the local churches. The city fathers must become champions of unity, bringing the Body of Christ together to impact their communities. The prayer of Jesus in John 17 is not only about unity. It is for unity with a purpose, “So that the world may believe” (John 17:21). Unity is the key to transformation.

We invite you to join with Kenneth Copeland, Lou Engle, and Christians of many traditions as we fellowship, worship, pray, and work together to transform our communities at the Kairos 2019 conference to be held at Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas on October 3-5, 2019. For more information check out the attached short video https://youtu.be/pw-bR54E1iQ and visit the Kairos2019.com website.

The Body of Christ must be healed to do its work for Christ.

This week marks the anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, when Germany declared war on France.

Before the war, the ten European colonial powers effectively ruled the world. They stood at the pinnacle of an era of incredible technological innovation. Trains, autos, steamships, radio, gasoline, steel, electricity, and many other inventions of the industrial revolution transformed the lives of First World citizens. Trade and prosperity reached record highs and most imagined that the human progress would climb ever upward. It all came crashing down in August of 1914.

This week also marks the anniversary of the final stage of the two world wars which began in 1914, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. The short span of 31 years from 1914 to 1945 had seen the overthrow of the European hegemony and the emergence of only two powers, the U.S. and Russia. Third world colonies of the great powers gained independence, and the nation of Israel was reborn. After 1945 prosperity finally returned to the First World and those new nations which had avoided the traps of socialism and communism. We have seen great technological advances and now, as in 1914, most imagine that human progress will continue its upward climb.

The Bible speaks of a time when the world would be ruled by “Ten Kings” (Revelation 17:12) “who would hate the prostitute” (The pagan religion born in Babylon) and “bring her to ruin”(Revelation 17:16) Those ten nations, the European Colonial Powers, were used by God to break up the dominance of Pagan religions in the world and create an opening for the Gospel to be preached. From this opening has come the powerful revivals we see in Africa, Asia, and South America today.

Sadly, the ten nations have not participated in the modern Christian revival. Instead, most embraced secularism and attacked or marginalized Christianity. Believing themselves to be wise, they left their Christian belief and values behind. The result was a descent into brutality, atrocity, genocide, and destruction in the two world wars. Because they lost their faith, the Ten Kings also lost their place.

Worse, the end of the Ten Kings will ultimately lead to an “Eighth King” (Revelation 17:11), popularly known as the Anti-Christ.

The message for America today is to be on watch lest we lose our way and lose our place. Our faith is the foundation of our place, and without our faith we can fall backwards into depravation as the Ten Kings did.

Let us pray for Christian awakening and a realization that our Christian foundations must be restored if our nation is to survive.