Christian News:

We have attempted to post news stories 
of interest to those seeking to see if Christ works in today's world. 
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There is a lot here, just click on the colored and underlined titles to explore.

Can Fasting Improve Your Health? You'll Be Surprised

YottaFire - ‎34 minutes ago‎
A reduction in calories may have a big impact on immune system and it may be possible to repair a damaged stem cell, new study shows.
Dan Wooding @ Breaking Christian News (June 6, 2014)

"They told me that he would not live through the night, but... I had a strong impression that God was saying, 'He will live and not die.' We found out later that this was from Psalm 118, which says that 'he will live and not die and declare the glory of God' and that's what he's doing right now. The thing is, that I had no fear; no anxiety. I had this peace come over me and I just knew that word from the Lord was truth." -Shirley Boone

ANS photo (Beverly Hills, CA)-Tuesday, June 19, 2001, was the worst day in the lives of veteran American entertainer Pat Boone and his wife, Shirley, for it was then that they received the shocking news that their eldest grandson, Ryan Corbin, then 25 years old, had fallen through a skylight on the roof of the condo where he was living in Southern California, and came extremely close to losing his life. (Photo by: Dan Wooding/ANS)

His skull was crushed as he fell three floors to a cement floor below. Many thought Ryan would never awaken from the deep coma of his mind. Then, if he did, there was the dreaded fear that he would survive at best in a vegetative state.

But then, the Assist News Service, and many other media outlets and individuals, including veteran TV host, Larry King, launched prayer campaigns for Ryan, whose mother is Lindy Boone Michaels, one of the four Boone daughters, and slowly but surely he has been making an astonishing recovery, and on Sunday, June 1, 2014, he was able to join his famous grandparents at a special event in Beverly Hills, California, to celebrate Pat Boone's 80th birthday.

In fact Larry King was on hand to be one of the main "hosters and roasters" for the "Pat Boone 80th Birthday Celebrity Roast" at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in honor of Ryan's Reach, named after Ryan Corbin, who was in attendance.

The proceeds from the evening's celebration will enable Ryan's Reach to continue caring for those they serve, as well as addressing long term goals of establishing a group home for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivors.

"He's living proof that miracles do occur," said Pat during our chat on the Red Carpet. "Now this is a progressive miracle especially as on the night he was wounded, the doctors didn't think he would live."

I asked Pat why he agreed to be "roasted" by so many of his Hollywood friends, and he replied, "The family wanted to do this to raise money for Ryan's Reach. We have already had a golf tournament [for which he wore a kilt], a 5k to 10k run, but still I told them they didn't understand that I was not anxious to advertise the fact that I'm 80, saying, 'Why would I do that?'

Dan Wooding and Bob Yerkes "Secondly I was aware that experts, professionals, would have trouble pulling something like this together. So I questioned why they thought they could do something like this. I was afraid that it would be a disaster and they would spin their wheels. I know a lot of entertainers, and they know me, and we have a good repartee, but the family pressed on and thought they'd all come running. In fact it just occurred to me that I need to make up a lot of excuses for those who are not here, such as Jay Leno, Don Rickles, Jamie Foxx, Billy Crystal, and all of them. But there are a number of great people who are here who are going to roast me so I'm ready." (Photo via ANS)

The guests included Jon Voight, Shirley Jones, Rich Little, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., Lou Ferrigno, Rosey Grier, Peter Marshall, Susan Stafford, and double Oscar winner and composer, Al Kasha and his wife, Ceil.

I pointed out, however, that their most important guest was Ryan Corbin himself, and I asked Pat and Shirley Boone, who was wearing a large badge with Ryan's picture on it, what it meant to them that their grandson had come to the event.

"Gratitude to God," said Shirley.

Then Pat went on to say, "It means everything to us and it gives us the hope and the courage to do something like this for other people because the Bible says 'comfort one another with the comfort with which you have been comforted in your affliction.' We have been afflicted through Ryan's injury, but God has comforted us. He is bringing Ryan back. We know he can now do it for others and that's the purpose."

Shirley recounted the time when she first learned of Ryan's shocking injuries. "They told me that that he would not live through the night, but I heard this, I had a strong impression that God was saying, 'He will live and not die.' We found out later that this was from Psalm 118, which says that 'he will live and not die and declare the glory of God' and that's what he's doing right now.

"The thing is that I had no fear; no anxiety. I had this peace come over me and I just knew that word from the Lord was truth."

FWD
Teresa Neumann @ Breaking Christian News (June 6, 2014)

Jon Meis was well known for being a very devout Christian; a quiet, gentle young man of "deep faith." Now, he's known as a hero as well.

Jon Meis (Seattle, WA)-Numerous stories surfacing about Jon Meis-the 22-year-old student from Seattle Pacific University who had volunteered to monitor the lobby of Otto Miller Hall today, the very day a gunman opened fire, killing one and injuring several others-agree that his heroism saved untold lives at the school. (Photo by: Dean Rutz/The Seattle Times)

Across the board, they also report that Meis is a "devout" Christian-a quiet, gentle young man of "deep faith."

According to the Seattle Times, shortly after gunman Aaron R. Ybarra shot several students, Meis "made a split-second decision," and as the gunman paused to reload his gun, Meis pepper-sprayed the assailant and tackled him to the ground, moments before police arrived.

A friend, Andrew Engstrom, called Meis "physically and spiritually strong."

Andrew's wife, Melissa, was quoted as saying Meis-an engineering student-comes from a close-knit family of deep faith and that if anything "foreshadowed his heroic actions," it would be the example Jesus made of sacrificing His life for mankind.

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Mark Ellis @ Breaking Christian News (June 6, 2014)

"I prayed as if everything depended on the Lord, and I dug as if everything depended on me. The Lord and [I] got that foxhole pretty deep." -Lt. Col. George Russell Barber

BNPS photo He was the only man on his landing craft to come ashore at Omaha Beach with no "visible" weapons to protect himself. But that didn't stop this chaplain from being the first man out of his boat. (Photo via God Reports)

"I had the sword of the Spirit," said Lt. Col. George Russell Barber, USAF (Ret.), who started his career with the horse cavalry along the Mexican border before World War II."We were all afraid," said Col. Barber, as the men came ashore June 6, 1944, amidst a hail of bullets and fiery explosions."If a man says he's not afraid, he's lying-but we had our faith."

BNPS photo My last visit with Colonel Barber was six months before his passing on December 17, 2004 at age 90. He wanted to attend the dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington DC, on May 29, 2004, but health concerns kept him away. Although the strength in his legs was failing, his mind was sharp and his grip still strong.

He served his country in four wars, and one of his most powerful memories was the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach. "On the Sunday before D-Day I held services on 11 different ships in Weymouth Harbor for thousands and thousands of soldiers," he said. "I gave away a lot of pocket Gideon's Bibles-there are no atheists in foxholes."

BNPS photo On the fateful morning of the invasion, he went over the side of his ship on a rope ladder into a flat-bottomed landing craft that held 30 soldiers.

"When we hit the shore they let down the ramp I stood in front and led my men off," Chaplain Barber recalled. "They were shooting at us all around."

To the right, Barber witnessed a horrible sight. "Just before we landed I saw a landing ship hit a mine," he said. "It blew up and killed all 30 men. They were floating in the water and on the beach."

Without hesitation, Barber rushed to the sides of the wounded."I talked to as many as I could and prayed with them. I said, 'Trust in God.'" As men died in his arms he recited John 14: "Do not let your hearts be troubled.Trust in God; trust also in Me.In My Father's house are many mansions..."

"Men were being killed all around me," Barber said."We were all trying to dodge the bullets. Thank God I wasn't hit."Miraculously, none of the four chaplains landing on the Normandy Beaches that day were killed, according to Barber.

BNPS photo If they survived the barrage of hostile fire, the next challenge for Barber and his men was to climb over steep cliffs just beyond the shore."I couldn't get over the 100 foot cliff so I had to dig my own foxhole that night on the beach," he noted."I prayed as if everything depended on the Lord, and I dug as if everything depended on me."

"The Lord and [I] got that foxhole pretty deep."

Unable to sleep, Barber crouched in his crude shelter amidst the storm of battle. Through the night, he stared up at a frightening display. "I watched the sky lit up by tracer bullets. Every fifth bullet is a tracer bullet, so you can see it go up and come down."

"The next morning I got over that cliff and I met Ernie Pyle, the famous war correspondent for Stars and Stripes," Barber recalled. "We split a can of Spam together." Later that day, the two men walked Omaha Beach together, past the bodies of over 1500 who had fallen in battle."We saw all the carnage and death and destruction."

Pyle wrote his own account of their walk together."The wreckage was vast and startling," he wrote."In the water floated empty life rafts and soldiers' packs and ration boxes...But there is another and more human litter.Itextends in a thin little line, just like a high water mark, for miles along the beach."

"Here are socks and shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, Bibles and hand grenades.Here are toothbrushes and razors, and snapshots of families back home staring up at you from the sand."

Continue reading by clicking here.

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Ben Johnson @ Breaking Christian News (June 5, 2014)

"Considering those areas are already serviced by crisis pregnancy centers, we are confident that life will be chosen by Oregon women even more than ever!"

PP (Clackamas, OR)-A Planned Parenthood affiliate has announced that, in order to remain financially viable, it is closing three offices in the Pacific Northwest and laying off employees at its remaining locations.

Stacy Cross, CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, which covers Oregon and part of Washington State, said in a press release that the action is "necessary in order to maintain a fiscally solvent operation that continues to keep our doors open to patients in our region for the long-term."

The organization has closed its centers in Clackamas and Gresham, Oregon, as well as its office in Salmon Creek, Washington.

Dan Kennedy of Human Life of Washington told LifeSiteNews, "Human Life is delighted that the killing business is losing 'customers.'"

"As the nation becomes more pro-life, we anticipate seeing more of this," he said. "This is good news for women, men, and children in the womb."

Oregon Right to Life said on its Facebook page that the closures would save babies' lives. "Considering those areas are already serviced by crisis pregnancy centers, we are confident that life will be chosen by Oregon women even more than ever!"

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Aimee Herd @ Breaking Christian News (June 5, 2014)

"I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead." -President Reagan

ReaganUSA Today is sharing some of President Ronald Reagan's most memorable quotes in light of the anniversary of his death on June 5th, 2004. (Photo via USA Today)

Some of those quotes include:

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Probably Reagan's most famous quote, as he challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Brandenburg Gate, during the Cold War.

"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," from Reagan's first inaugural address.

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God,'" following the Challenger disaster of 1986, which killed all 7 crew members.

"Honey, I forgot to duck," said to First Lady, Nancy, following the assassination attempt that left him injured and his Press Secretary, James Brady, paralyzed.

Click Here to read some of Reagan's other shareable quotes.

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Spouses From This Religion Are More Likely To Cheat

NewsOK.com - ‎2 hours ago‎
A new survey conducted by Ashley Madison -- a dating website for people already in relationships -- sought to discover the link between religion and infidelity by asking 105,000 of its members about their religious affiliation. Photo - Photo via The ...
Teresa Neumann @ Breaking Christian News (June 4, 2014)

"I feel like God tapped us for a reason and we have a great responsibility in that and whatever our course is, I feel like we'll get through it." -Amy Baier

Baier family(Washington, DC)—Paul, the 6-year-old son of Fox News anchor Bret Baier and his wife Amy, was born with multiple heart defects.(Photo via CBN News)

The Baiers were, of course, devastated when they first learned of their son's condition, but in his new book, "Special Heart, A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love," Bret details their journey of loving and caring for their son and how it has brought their family closer together.

The couple also credit God and prayer for their son's current good health.

According to a report in CBN News, the first time the Baiers said they truly experienced the power of prayer was when they had a breakthrough in their son's treatment and found out that a church in Colorado had been praying for them.

Baier familyRecalled Amy, "The day of Paul's heart surgery, we had a local priest come and pray with us in the little hospital chapel. And as we were praying, we were all kind of holding hands and I saw this vision of these beams of light all around Paul's surgical bed and I just knew in my head he was going to be okay." (Photo via CBN News)

As for Paul—who has had three open heart surgeries, seven angioplasties and one stomach surgery already—today he is doing so well, "you'd never know he has a defective heart."

Click here to read more about the Baiers and why Bret is donating 100% of his book sales to groups working on pediatric heart disease.

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Aimee Herd @ Breaking Christian News  (June 3, 2014)

"She was a very faithful Christian person."

Ann B DavisOn Sunday, June 1st, actress Ann B. Davis reportedly hit her head in a fall, and later died at a San Antonio, Texas hospital. (Photo via CNN)

America fell in love with Davis, in her Emmy Award-winning role of housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs. Brady on TV's "The Brady Bunch," but there was a lot more to Davis that may not have been common knowledge.

Following the end of the show, Davis retired (mostly) from acting in the late 1970s, and reportedly "settled down in an Episopal community."

Ann B DavisA close friend of Davis', according to a CNN report was, Bishop William Frey. "What you see on 'The Brady Bunch' was who she was," he said. "She was a very faithful Christian person." (Photo via CNN)

"I'm convinced we all have a God-shaped space in us, and until we fill that space with God, we'll never know what it is to be whole," the actress said in an interview with People magazine.

Davis did volunteer work, and in 1994, she wrote "Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook," which featured recipes from the show and Davis' anecdotes from her time "on the set."

Frey noted that fans often told Davis that they "felt like they'd been raised by the character of 'Alice.'"

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Dustin Siggins @ Breaking Christian News (June 5, 2014)

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit me together in my mother's womb." -Psalm 139:13 NLT 

Fetal models (LANSING, MI)-A late-term baby was saved from abortion earlier this week thanks to fetal models used by 40 Days for Life Lansing.

On its Facebook page, the pro-life group says that an organizer "showed the 30-week model to a late-term mom who left the clinic and DID NOT have an abortion. Praise God!" (Photo: 40 Days for Life Lansing)

The prayer vigil and activism take place in front of what 40 Days for Life Lansing calls "the last, free-standing surgical clinic" in Michigan.

Fetal models have long been an effective pro-life strategy.

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Teresa Neumann @ Breaking Christian News (June 3, 2014)

"This is the first in the history of Turkey. This is wonderful! Pray that they will accept it and print the books." -Behnan Konutgan

BNPS photo (Turkey)—In a country of 76 million where 99.9 percent of the population is Muslim, positive pro-Christian news is rare. (Photo via MNN)

But, as noted in a recent Mission Network News report, in a rare move, Turkey's ministry of education has requested that Behnan Konutgan, director for International Needs Network, to lead a group of Christians to create a Christian curriculum for a religion class for the public schools.

"Because Turkey is on its way to joining the European Union, they have created a new thing for next year," said Konutgan. "They will have an elective course for the schools for 5, 6, 10, and 11 grades. They promised to print it. This is the first in the history of Turkey. This is wonderful!"

According to the report, Christian students in the past were required to take Islamic education classes. [Now] any Christian student in a public school can request the alternate religion class.

"Pray that this project will be done," added Konutgan. "Pray that there would be no people against this project in the ministry of education and that they will accept it and print the books."

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Dan Wooding @ Breaking Christian News (June 2, 2014)

"Peter is to me, the most interesting of the apostles, because he's so human. He regularly fails, yet he's got incredible heart. It's not like playing Jesus, who is the perfect individual." -Darwin Shaw

Darwin Shaw(Los Angeles, CA)—British-born actor, Darwin Shaw, has revealed that he gave up a promising medical career as a surgeon in London, England, to become an actor, and recently starred as the Apostle Peter in "The Bible" mini-series and the subsequent "Son of God" movie.

During a visit to Los Angeles recently, I was able to talk with Shaw, the eldest of two boys, who was born in Brampton, Cumbria, England, where his grandfather was the local vicar, and a relation of Major-General Orde Charles Wingate, a legendary British Army officer known for creating special military units in Palestine in the 1930s, and in Abyssinia, Sudan and Burma during World War II.

Shaw, I discovered, grew up in the Yorkshire city of Leeds, where his mother was a social worker and nurse and his father worked as a special needs teacher and race relations advisor for the BBC.

He attended King's College, London, where he graduated as a medical doctor, and worked as a surgeon and for a time as an emergency room doctor. He got a degree in tropical medicine, which was hardly surprising as he is of mixed parentage, and spent times in the tropics. His father was born in Amritsar, a city in north-western part in India, which is the spiritual center for the Sikh religion, and his father's parents were from Kashmir and Afghanistan. His mother, however, is British.

Dawin's interest in tropical medicine developed when he decided to explore India in 1998 while still a medical student, and he rode across India on an Enfield Bullet bike. He pedaled on his three-month-long adventure, from Delhi through Rajasthan and then, down to Karnataka.

But then, as he medical career began to blossom, he suddenly gave it all up to start a new career as an actor. Why?

"Because of the experience of growing up in my twenties in London, I was around a lot of musicians and realized that my creative side wasn't being totally fulfilled," Shaw told me. "So I was torn really between this feeling of doing something worthwhile, and also between being creative at the same time.

"I got my surgical job, but then had a six month career break away from London and during that time, a friend gave me a book on creativity and while I was there I started reading it and then following some of the exercises in it. I ended up in an acting class, and I was on stage for the first time and I just knew pretty much immediately there was no going back now it was something beyond my conscious control. Obviously, logic and sense would say 'you're crazy', but I knew in my heart this was a journey I wanted to explore."

"I managed to get an audition to play Adam in the story of creation and the guy there basically thought I was perfect for the role and I flew straight to Cape Town, South Africa, to be in the film. It was very fulfilling and an incredible first experience of suddenly being in front of a camera with a proper film crew."

"Now, after the doctor/surgeon-turned actor, had made a whole succession of movies and appeared on stage in many plays, he got the role of the Apostle Peter in the "Bible" miniseries produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, which became a huge hit on The History Channel, and which continued in the hit, "Son of God" movie.

What was it about Peter that attracted him, because he always sort of seemed to be in trouble?

"Peter is, to me, the most interesting of the apostles, because he's so human," said Darwin Shaw. "This simple fisherman had an incredible journey. You read in the Book of Acts, that he's doing miracles himself, and beyond the Bible, you discover that he ends up fighting Nero and a great Basilica is built in honor of him in Rome. He regularly fails, yet he's got incredible heart.

"It's not like playing Jesus, who is the perfect individual. It is seeing Peter's vulnerability and then overcoming his weaknesses and learning from them is what attracted me to him."

Darwin ShawDarwin then spoke about the time when he was playing opposite Portuguese actor, Diogo Morgado, who starred as Jesus in the miniseries and the movie, and it came time to shoot a scene with Nicodemus and suddenly something rather interesting happened.

"We were in an olive grove [in Morocco] which we used to get the Gethsemane scenes, and also this particular scene where the disciples were camping outside of Jerusalem and Nicodemus comes to see Jesus to find out more about Him. He had obviously heard Jesus preaching and he had seen something very special in Him, but he's a Pharisee and he doesn't want to be seen in public, so he comes secretly," he said.

"It was one of those mornings and we'd been up since 4:30 am, already on set to prepare for the sunrise and it was one of those beautiful still nights on the edge of the desert and you could just hear the sounds of little insects and there was not a breeze in the air, and it was dark but the sun was just starting to come up.

"In the scene, Nicodemus asks Jesus [Diogo] about being born again and the line comes about 'the wind blows where it will' and as Diogo says this line, suddenly we just all hear this the breeze picking up and the trees, the leaves in the trees start fluttering and you can actually see on the clip of the actual scene Jesus' hair, the wind starting to blow through it and you just stop and breathe in this fresh air and Jesus looks at Nicodemus and he just smiles and says 'the wind blows where it will.'

"It was a beautiful moment. Probably, [most] people wouldn't notice it and they probably assumed that it was like a wind machine, but it was one of these lovely things that happens on a set sometimes that's quite magical. Everyone just looked at each other and smiled knowing we had captured something very special there."

What do you hope people will take away from your particular role in the film?

"I think Peter, as I said before, was very much the most human of all the disciples. Even though, the story is set 2,000 years ago, I think everybody can understand his journey because we all have made mistakes, and we've all fallen. I think culturally, Peter was in some ways old fashioned for the time. Here was Jesus who was a revolutionary bringing new ideas and Peter was very much a man of his time from a small village probably never went more than ten miles from where he was born. Yes, I think we can all be very stuck in our ways and closed minded. To find something which you believe is the truth and to follow it and risk your life as Peter did, because he knew that Jesus was 'the truth.'"

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Mark Ellis @ Breaking Christian News  (June 2, 2014)

"I still can't believe it and call her each morning asking, 'Mom, do you still walk'? I'm skeptical of these things. But it happened to my very own mom, on May the 4th. Praise the Lord for using Pastor Paul Ai [former witchdoctor and now "the Apostle of Vietnam"] for this miracle." -Lolly, daughter of miraculously healed Marie Cribbs

Marie Cribbs(Port Neches, TX)—It was a small miracle that Marie Cribbs made it to the evening service on May 4th at Magnolia Church in Port Neches, Texas. But that night God did an even greater miracle that will leave her a "walking witness" for Jesus the rest of her life. (Photo via God Reports)

She had been confined to a wheelchair for four years—unable to walk—due to complications of diabetes, two bouts of breast cancer, and psoriatic arthritis. "She had chemotherapy and whenever the chemo left her system her arthritis came back in a fury and left every one of her joints inflamed," says husband Bill.

"It made it very hard for her to move and because of that her whole body degenerated and it was impossible for her to walk," he says.

Bill became her caregiver, helping her with basic needs for the last four years. "My whole body was almost shut down," Marie says. "I couldn't lift my arms or my legs or do anything. My husband had to take care of everything. I was in extreme pain."

On May 4th, Magnolia Church had a special guest speaker for their evening service, Paul Ai, who founded Vision Outreach International. Paul, known as "the Apostle Paul of Vietnam," is a former witchcraft doctor who came to Christ during the Vietnam War through the influence of American missionaries.

Marie CribbsDue to her illness and disability, Marie had only been to church 10 times in the last four years. "I love to go, but I hadn't been to church in a long time," she admits. (Photo via God Reports)

But something compelled her to go that day, even though she didn't know anything about Paul Ai. "I'm going to go," she told Bill. "I feel like something is going to happen."

Still, she had to overcome her own body to get there. "I was hurting," she recounts. "Bill had to put me in the car as always and get me in and out of the wheelchair."

After they arrived at the service, her husband rolled her wheelchair past Paul. Marie felt something very strange as the chair passed Paul and his wife. "I felt an intense burning in my back when we rolled by," she says.

Paul taught about prayer that night in a message that went on for two hours. At the end of his talk, he called up Vietnam veterans to receive prayer. Then he called up anyone who needed prayer for healing.

Bill wheeled Marie up to get prayer. Both Paul and his wife Ruth prayed for her. "Pastor Paul commanded all my cells and my legs to align with the Holy Spirit," Marie says. "Then Ruth extended her hand to me," beckoning her to stand up.

Marie Cribbs"Immediately, I stood up and started walking!" recounts Marie, her voice breaking. (Photo via God Reports)

The entire church erupted in applause and shouts of praise to God—Hallelujahs—as Marie began to walk around the perimeter of the room.

When Bill and Marie called their daughter Lolly to tell her, she refused to believe them until she saw it with her own eyes. She sped over the next day and like doubting Thomas, she saw and believed. "Right from that moment my mom got back to walking and jumping and running as if she was a teenager," Lolly says.

"I still can't believe it and call her each morning asking, 'Mom, do you still walk'? I'm skeptical of these things. But it happened to my very own mom, on May the 4th. Praise the Lord for using Pastor Paul Ai for this miracle."

Bill has noticed other changes in wife Marie since the miracle happened. "She used to wake up in the morning with pain in her face and her brow furrowed," he says. "Every night she's had a visitation by the Holy Spirit in her sleep. She wakes up and her face is glowing."

Click here to read Marie's healing testimony in its entirety.

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News Release @ Breaking Christian News (June 2, 2014)

"I am calling on all of us to recognize and affirm that there will be no liberty without religious liberty, there will be no constitutional government unless we remain—proudly—a moral and religious people." –Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

Tony Perkins(New Orleans, LA)—Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins addressed the Republican Leadership Conference today in New Orleans, Louisiana. He focused his remarks on increasing attacks on religious liberty in the U.S. and abroad, and called out the Obama administration for its silence in the case of Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian who awaits execution because she converted from Islam. (Photo via Charisma News)

Meriam languishes in a notoriously rank Sudanese prison with her 20-month-old son and her almost one-week-old daughter where she has been shackled awaiting execution for four months. Nearly 20,000 people have signed a WhiteHouse.gov petition asking the president to grant her expedited safe haven in the United States.

At the conference, Perkins made the following remarks:

FRC"Religious freedom is essential to who we are as Americans, and we can no longer assume that all our fellow Americans share that conviction. Therefore we must now wage the fight of our lives to keep that essential freedom.

"In just a few weeks, the Supreme Court of the United States will hand down the most significant religious freedom decisions of modern times in the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties cases. These cases are not about contraception or even about drugs or devices that can cause abortions. These cases represent a clash over conscience that implicates the liberty of every American – all of us here today and generations yet unborn.

"The Founders did not believe our form of government could long endure absent the moral compass set by religious conviction. As John Adams wrote in October 1798 to the Officers in the Massachusetts Militia, 'Our constitution is made for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'

"I am calling on all of us to recognize and affirm that there will be no liberty without religious liberty, there will be no constitutional government unless we remain—proudly—a moral and religious people.

"Let me close by putting our challenge in some perspective. …Today as we sit in this beautiful ballroom, the wife of an American citizen, Meriam Ibrahim, languishes in a… jail cell with her 20-month-old son and her almost one-week-old daughter where she has been shackled awaiting execution for four months. Her 'crime?' She has allegedly committed both apostasy and adultery by virtue of being a Muslim by birth and marrying a Christian man. The judge who sentenced her to death under his interpretation of Sharia law had generously ruled that she would not be executed until her baby was born. The clock is now ticking, and the Obama administration remains silent.

"This is a price that none of us yet faces for the exercise of our religious freedom. …We must pray and work for the freedom of all of the world's Meriams, but to do so, we must rededicate ourselves to a vision of religious liberty that affirms our natural rights here at home. We must do this while there is still time for the America we love to reclaim its fundamental character," Perkins concluded.

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Dustin Siggins @ Breaking Christian News  (June 2, 2014)

"I pray for the patients. I pray so hard for the patients." -Terri

worker left(Orlando, FL)—A woman who says she directed the All Women's Health Center in Orlando for ten-and-a-half years has publicly explained how God got her out of the abortion industry.

Identified by her first name, Terri, who spoke to pro-life activist John Barros while pro-life prayers are heard in the background of Barros' camera, said that she "thank[s] Him every day that I am no longer affiliated with a clinic. I thank God every day."

While she didn't go into details, Terri told Barros that while things are tough in a material sense—she says she "now [has] no job"—she is not alone. "Things are working out. God has helped me. God has rewarded me."

"I now go to Real Life Church," says Terri, who describes having dreams about her past work. "Two weeks ago, probably three nights in a row—I dreamt about that clinic."

Now that she is no longer in the business of killing the unborn, Terri says that she "pray[s] for the workers. They sometimes feel they have no other place to go and work, and they don't make much money for what they have to do and put up with. So I just pray for them that they can find the encouragement to leave these places."

"I pray for the patients. I pray so hard for the patients," says Terri. She also praised the prayerful activists in the area, saying that "the people that are out here singing now are doing such a good job. They may not realize it, but they are."

Watch Terri's video testimony by clicking here.

FWD

The second-largest religion in each state

Washington Post (blog)
1 hour ago
Written by
Reid Wilson
Christianity is by far the largest religion in the United States; more than three-quarters of Americans identify as Christians.