Smoke Machines and Coolness Have Replaced Prayers in Churches

Bible teacher Christine Caine condemned the modern Church for placing its focus on being “cool” instead of holiness and warned that unless the Body of Christ returns to a focus on “righteousness, joy, and peace,” revival will never happen.

Caine, bestselling author and founder of The A21 Campaign, on Wednesday participated in a 2020 Q&A: A Virtual Townhall event focused on the topics of prayer and revival alongside Pastor Jon Tyson and author Corey Russell.

Opening the session, the Australian speaker and author lamented that because the Church has gotten “so scared of emotionalism,” prayer has gone to the “basement with the grandmothers.”

“That's where we've put it, and I’m on a campaign to pull prayer out of the basement and put it on the pulpit and put it front and center,” she declared.

“We got a bit embarrassed because in our coolness, in between our skinny jeans and tattoos, beautiful light section and camera, we thought, ‘prayer is not cool, prayer is embarrassing. A smoke machine will do the job.’ And what we've discovered is smoke machines haven't saved anyone. Look at the mess that the world's in.”

“Instead of being in the world, not of it, we became of it and we're no longer in it. And so the challenge is then you've got no power, and power comes through intercessory prayer,” she said.

Caine urged churches to take “prayer out of the basement” and put it “front and center,” adding: “Show a lost and dying world and a religious world, ‘I don't care if you don't think I'm cool. I am utterly dependent on God.’”

The problem with the modern Church is that it isn’t “desperate” enough to return to prayer, Caine said.

“Look at 2020,” she stressed. “Politics hasn't saved us, the medical profession hasn't saved us, science hasn't saved us. ... I love all of those things, but we need some old school desperation.”

“Desperation will get you travailing in a way that you never even existed. I think we need to get desperate again."

The Church is so busy “centering people” instead of the Holy Spirit that it can’t focus on prayer and repentance. Whenever the Lord moves, it’s “prefaced by prayer and repentance,” which only comes out of desperation, the evangelist explained.

“Cancel culture is trying to cancel the Church,” she said. “You don’t cancel the Church or guilt the Church or shame the Church into repentance. The Holy Spirit convicts us. What we need to do is recenter the Holy Ghost so He could do what only He can do, which is bring conviction.”

“It’s God's kindness that leads us to repentance,” Caine emphasized. “Once we get to that place of repentance, we will see. I believe signs, wonders, miracles, and revival will break out, but it's got to happen that way.”

Prayer is like a “muscle” that needs to be continually used to grow stronger, the evangelist contended. Yet, many Christians simply don’t pray.

“We got a whole generation that knows how to market themselves, but they’re not marked,” she said. “If you are not marked by God in the prayer closet, you are never going to see God open doors. ... God opens doors that no man can shut, and you’ll get that in the prayer room with the Holy Ghost.”

When asked what is “hindering” an outpouring of the Holy Spirit right now, Caine said many Christian leaders are “so obsessed” with “getting likes and getting clicks” that they no longer want to become Christ.

“We’ve forgotten things like sanctification, we suddenly de-value things that are central to the Christian faith like holiness, sanctification, being filled with the Holy Spirit,” she said. “Christ-likeness is what I need to be pursuing more than how many are liking whatever I post.”

“I need to be leading people to Jesus Christ. That is what I am here on this planet to do. I need to fall in love with Him. If you are not with Him, you cannot fall in love with Him.”

Christian leaders “need to get over being slick career-builders” and remember they are called to “drop our nets, follow Him, die daily, take up our cross, and crucify our flesh,” she declared.

If the Church wants to see revival, it’s got to display “righteousness, joy and peace,” Caine said.

“If we want to see revival, we’ve got to care about righteousness; we’ve got to care about joy; we’ve got to care about peace,” she said. “Jesus actually cares about personal righteousness and holiness. ... If we want to see revival break forth, it's got to matter to us, like it matters to God.”

https://www.dailydevotionalsonline.com/churches-have-replaced-prayer-with-smoke-machines-coolness.html

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Oxford Changes Definition of 'Man' and 'Woman' to Accommodate LGBT

The Oxford English Dictionary has changed its definitions of “man” and “woman,” and one prominent theologian says some of the tweaks aren’t for the better.

Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), made the changes recently, one year after a petition called on the publisher to make revisions so that “b--ch” is no longer listed as an alternative word for woman. The dictionary now notes that “b--ch” and other words like it are offensive – tweaks that were applauded by all sides.

Theologian Albert Mohler, though, says other changes are problematic.

Although “woman” is still defined as an “adult female human being,” an additional definition now says a woman can be a “person's wife, girlfriend, or female lover” – rather than a “man’s wife, girlfriend, or female lover.”

Similarly, an additional definition of man has been tweaked to read, “a person's husband, boyfriend, or male lover” (rather than a “woman’s husband, boyfriend, or male lover”).

Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said Oxford “has surrendered to the moral revolutionaries.”

“One of the big agendas here was the LGBTQ revolution,” Mohler said in the Wednesday edition of The Briefing.

He pointed to comments by Maria Beatrice Giovanardi, who launched the 2019 petition that sparked Oxford to change the dictionary. The petition criticized Oxford not only for including the word “b--ch” but also asked it to include “examples representative of minorities, for example, a transgender woman, a lesbian woman, etc.”

Giovanardi told The Guardian she was “very happy” with the changes and called them “a huge step forward for the LGBTQI people.”

The Oxford dictionary, Mohler said, has become “an engine itself for changing the culture because anyone looking” to the dictionary “for a definition of woman is now going to find out that the LGBTQ definitions are just fine.”

“A change in the dictionary surrendering to this kind of agenda means,” Mohler said, that words can be transformed in the “blink of an eye” from “how they had functioned in the English language to how they will now function in the service of the moral revolutionaries.”

https://www.dailydevotionalsonline.com/oxford-redefines-man-and-woman-to-accommodate-lgbt.html

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US Divorce Rate Down to 50-year-low as Marriage Rate also Continues to Fall

The United States experienced its lowest rate of divorce in about 50 years in 2019, according to a new report by the Institute for Family Studies.

The Charlottesville, Virginia-based research organization released the report on Tuesday, drawing data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

In 2019, the data showed that for every 1,000 marriages, 14.9 ended in divorce. The figure is lower than it was in 1970, which had a rate of 15 divorces per 1,000 marriages.

The 2019 divorce rate is much lower than the 1980 divorce rate when the National Vital Statistics reported a divorce rate of 22.6 divorces per 1,000 marriages.

Still, though, the 2019 divorce rate was higher than that of 1960, when there was a recorded divorce rate of 9.2 per 1,000 marriages.

The 2019 data also shows an increase in the median duration for marriages — raising from a median duration of 19 years in 2010 to 19.8 years in 2019.

IFS Director of Research Dr. Wendy Wang, the author of the report, told The Christian Post that while the divorce rate has been declining since the 1980s, the new development is that the “rate has been falling much faster in the past decade.”

“People are getting married later in life these days, and they are less likely to rush into a marriage which they may regret later on. On the other hand, we've seen the record low marriage rate happening in the U.S.,” explained Wang.

“College-educated adults are more likely than those without a college degree to get married, and their divorce rate is lower.”

IFS also found that the U.S. marriage rate in 2019 hit an unprecedented low.

Data found that in 2019, 33 out of 1,000 unmarried adults got married. This is slightly below 35 per 1,000 in 2010 and 86 per 1,000 in 1970.

In July, the group Legal Template reported that there was a 34% increase in the sale of their divorce agreement paperwork compared to the same period in 2019.

“According to a survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on relationships, 31% of couples say the quarantine has been damaging. With so many couples struggling, lawyers across the US are predicting record numbers of divorce filings once quarantine restrictions are lifted,” reported the group.

“Many couples are spending 24/7 together and confronting major COVID-19 related stressors that are spilling over into their marriages, such as quarantine conditions, unemployment, financial strain, death of loved ones, illness, homeschooling children, mental illnesses and more.”

Wang told CP that she does not believe that the coronavirus pandemic “will have a lasting effect.”

“In fact, recent survey data shows the pandemic has actually brought more couples closer to each other,” Wang stated. “Also, initial data from some states suggests that divorce filings have declined.”

“A majority of married Americans say that the pandemic has made them appreciate their spouse more. And half agree that their commitment to marriage has deepened,” she continued.

https://www.dailydevotionalsonline.com/us-divorce-rate-hits-50-year-low-as-marriage-rates-continue-to-fall.html

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Living Past Age 75 Has Little Value and 'Robs' Society

One of Joe Biden’s selections for his own coronavirus advisory board is a doctor who has questioned the value of living past the age of 75 and who has implied society’s resources would better be used for those who are younger.

Ezekiel Emanuel, the chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and a former Obama administration official, wrote in a 2014 issue of The Atlantic that “living too long” has a negative impact on society and an individual’s family. He stood by his controversial comments during a 2019 interview.

Emanuel, an oncologist and bioethicist, wants to live to 75, he wrote in The Atlantic.

“Doubtless, death is a loss. It deprives us of experiences and milestones, of time spent with our spouse and children. In short, it deprives us of all the things we value,” he wrote. “But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.”

Further, there is the “very real and oppressive financial and caregiving burdens that many, if not most” middle-age adults are “now experiencing, caught between the care of children and parents.”

Emanuel said in the same story he opposes “legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.” But he said Americans’ desire to live long lives is unwise.

“I think this manic desperation to endlessly extend life is misguided and potentially destructive,” he wrote. “For many reasons, 75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop. … We are growing old, and our older years are not of high quality.”

In a 2019 interview with MIT Technology Review, Emanuel said his views about old age had not changed, even though he was approaching 75. He’s 63.

Asked “what’s wrong with simply enjoying an extended life,” he answered in 2019: “These people who live a vigorous life to 70, 80, 90 years of age – when I look at what those people ‘do,’ almost all of it is what I classify as play. It’s not meaningful work. They’re riding motorcycles; they’re hiking. Which can all have value – don’t get me wrong. But if it’s the main thing in your life? Ummm, that’s not probably a meaningful life.”

Emanuel bemoaned the amount of money society spends on health care for the elderly compared to the money spent on the young.

“Lots of presidents and lots of politicians say, ‘Children are our most valuable resource.’ But we as a country don’t behave like that,” he said. “We don’t invest in children the way we invest in adults, especially older adults. One of the statistics I like to point out is if you look at the federal budget, $7 goes to people over 65 for every dollar for people under 18.”

Emanuel’s positions sparked pushback on social media this week when it was revealed he was on Biden’s coronavirus advisory board. Biden is 77.

Claire Lehmann of Quillette noted Emanuel did not mention the enjoyment of “grandchildren or great-grandchildren” during his 2019 interview.

“My great-grandad – born in 1889 – waited for his 100th birthday party where his entire family came to celebrate then quietly passed in his sleep, at home,” Emanuel wrote. “Am glad I got to meet him! And am so grateful my son got to meet his great-grandparents too. If this isn’t ‘meaning,’ what is?”

Elizabeth Land Quant, a writer and an advocate for disabled people, called Emanuel’s views “troubling.”

“We need a Covid task force that will advocate for all of us,” Quant tweeted. “Ezekiel Emanuel, a member, has written about how a person's value and a meaningful life are tied to their physical & mental abilities, & how disabled people are burdens to their families. … I'm so sad to see him on the task force.”

https://www.dailydevotionalsonline.com/living-past-age-75-has-little-value-and-robs-society.html

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Titanic: Letter Written by Pastor Who Drowned While Preaching On Sinking Ship to be Auctioned

A letter written by a Baptist pastor from Scotland who drowned when the RMS Titanic ship sank in the northern Atlantic Ocean in 1912 is expected to fetch as much as $67,000 at auction this weekend.

John Harper, who wrote the letter, was a 39-year-old minister at the time and was on his way from London to Chicago to visit his sister and niece when the oceanliner descended to the bottom of the ocean after it struck an iceberg. Harper was writing to another minister, Pastor Young, who led Paisley Road Baptist Church, thanking him for his help before Harper departed London.

Harper pastored Walworth Road Baptist Church in London and was reportedly going to be preaching at Moody Church.

“My dear brother Young, I am penning you this line just before we get to Queenstown to assure you that I have not forgotten you and especially all your kindness while we were north,' the letter reads.

“I intended sending on Mrs Pratt's train fares just before I left but, in the rush, which was exceptional having had 11 or 12 services for the weekend, I was unable to get it done. I will send it on from Chicago.

The letter was written on Titanic stationery and is dated April 11th, 1912, three days before the famous ship sank. It was sent from Queenstown, Ireland.

The letter will be sold at an auction on Saturday by a private collector through Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd, an auction house. The starting pre-sale price between $39,487.05 and $65,811.75 (£30,000 and £50,000).

The young minister reportedly preached the Gospel message even as the Titanic sank and testified in the water as he drowned, contemporary accounts say.

An unnamed survivor of the Titanic accident who was rescued by a lifeboat claimed to be "the last convert" from Harper's preaching at a gathering for survivors four years following the tragedy.

In 2017, a letter that was recovered from a Titanic victim's body sold at an auction for $166,000.

The RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, and 1,523 people died in the accident.

In 1997 movie "Titanic" — directed, written, and co-produced by James Cameron — became one of the highest-grossing movies at the box office. Starring actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, the motion picture was the first in history to hit the $1 billion mark and was nominated for 14 Oscars, winning 11 of them.

https://www.dailydevotionalsonline.com/letter-from-pastor-who-drowned-while-preaching-gospel-on-titanic-to-be-auctioned.html

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Chinese Evangelist Stopped from Evangelizing and Detained

Just mere moments before Chinese evangelist Ran Yunfei could begin an online seminar on Christianity and Chinese culture, the Chinese Communist Party's police station forced him to come to a police station for interrogation, The Christian Post reports.

The webinar was forced to play a recorded video as police detained Yunfei until 11PM. "If you understand that being in chains is sharing the Gospel (not only with the people who talk to you, but also the many who watch you), then we should feel joyful for entering the police station multiple times," Yunfei reportedly said in a Whatsapp message.

According to International Christian Concern, Yunfei is a democracy activist in addition to an evangelist. He was summoned on November 4th, 2020, right before he was about to give a live online seminar that was titled "Christianity and Chinese Culture." He was set to teach as part of an online series titled "Gospel During the Pandemic."

Yunfei became a Christian in 2015 and following his conversion he began sharing the gospel publicly.

Yunfei said the Chinese Communist Party kept him from teaching the next day, saying "I am thankful that I have returned. I cannot share tomorrow as well."

This isn't the first time the Chinese Communist Party has given him trouble. Last April, the Chinese Communist Party police dragged him in right before a webinar to hold him. They also banned him from speaking that time as well. Yunfei says this is a normal part of his life, calling it "drinking tea" with the police.

Speaking to The Christian Post, Gina Goh, International Christian Concern’s regional manager for Southeast Asia, stated that "The Chinese government is increasing the crackdown on house churches to threaten and disrupt them, in hopes that it will be too much for them. If police sense the preacher is spreading anti-government thoughts, they revoke his preaching certificate. They have basically no right for Christians who speak up."

https://www.dailydevotionalsonline.com/chinese-evangelist-locked-up-stopped-from-sharing-the-gospel.html

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Muslims Extremists in Uganda Waylay and Kill Pastor after Radio Broadcast

Muslim extremists killed a pastor in northern Uganda on Saturday (Oct. 31) after he compared Christianity and Islam in a radio broadcast, sources said.

David Omara, 64-year-old pastor of Christian Church Center and a well-known radio preacher in the area, was beaten and strangled after finishing his broadcast in Aduku, Kwania District at about 9 p.m., according to his son, Simon Okut.

“Immediately after his preaching, someone telephoned my father appreciating his presentation,” Okut told Morning Star News by phone. “He then requested him to meet somewhere with some of his friends. We left the radio station. As we arrived at the said place, there came out of the bush six people dressed in Islamic attire, and they started strangling and beating my father with blunt objects.”

As they beat him, one of the assailants said, “This man ought to die for using the Koran and saying Allah is not God but an evil god collaborating with satanic powers,” Okut said. “As they were hitting my father with blunt objects and strangling him, I fled to save my life. Two attackers ran after me but could not get hold of me.”

Area residents were shocked and saddened by the murder, and church members were both fearful of further Islamist violence and sorrowful as they mourned at a tearful burial on Wednesday (Nov. 4).

“My mother wept and fainted and collapsed with deep groaning and is admitted in the hospital,” Okut said.

She was treated for shock that rendered her unconscious, he said. After Electroconvulsive therapy involving stimulation of the brain, she still did not recognize people, he added.

Associates lauded the many fruits of Pastor Omara’s ministry.

“He worked tirelessly for the kingdom of God to the day he breathed his last breath,” said one colleague.

Pastor Omara is survived by his wife and eight children ages 30, 26, 22, 20, 18, 15, 13 and 10. “We need prayers and financial support for the Omara family at this trying moment, and the quick recovery for his widow,” a church leader told Morning Star News.

The killing was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.

https://www.dailydevotionalsonline.com/muslims-ambush-kill-pastor-after-radio-broadcast-in-uganda.html

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