Please visit the following link for a true fascinating journey of an atheistic filmmaker who finally finds salvation in Jesus Christ. God bless you and yours. Carl
www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2026/january/atheist-filmmaker-abandons-unbelief-for-jesus
Tag: word of God
Why are 64% of American churchgoers wrong about Heaven?
Recent survey shows 64% of churchgoers do not understand the biblical way of salvation.
Only 36% correctly affirm: “You will go to Heaven if you repent of sin and accept Christ.” The rest of American churchgoers are completely misguided regarding who goes to Heaven.
The Family Research Council released the study a few months ago. And here is what people in the pew actually think:
- “Everyone goes to Heaven” (14%).
- “Everyone is purified, then goes to Heaven” (12%).
- “Don’t know” (12%).
- “You go to Heaven if you did good deeds” (11%).
- “You cease to exist” (7%).
- “You are reincarnated” (7%).
- “You go to Hell” (2%).
Why are two-thirds of churchgoers wrong about something so foundational to Christianity? If your pastor is not preaching the Gospel, you should switch to a church where the truth of Scripture is being taught.
Half of American churchgoers (49%) either do not know who goes to Heaven, or believe that everyone goes to Heaven, or think that everyone is purified and then goes to Heaven. These statistics are shocking! And remember, these are people who actually attend church!
The biggest problem is that many pastors are not firmly rooting believers in the Gospel and the truth of Scripture. How else can you account for this sorry state of affairs among American churchgoers?
Southern Baptist professor Dr. Dustin Benge said, “You don’t need massive platforms, radical ideas, and revolutionary fervor to accomplish great things for God. Do the ordinary things: Serve in a local church, Stand on the truth, Share the Gospel, Love people. God uses ‘ordinary’ people to turn the world upside down.”
The Apostle Paul would have never made an impact if it were not for the power of the Gospel. And the same is true for all of the apostles, as well as anyone who has ever been called by the Holy Spirit to preach God’s Word.
— Read on www.christianpost.com/voices/why-are-64-of-american-churchgoers-wrong-about-heaven.html
I hope you are spreading the biblical gospel in your sphere of influence and beyond. Blessings to you!
Carl
God’s Change Agents
“God works in the lives of his people using two agents, his Holy Spirit and his Word. He controls his Holy Spirit, but we are responsible to appropriate his Word in our lives.”
The apostle Paul described it as follows:
“…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure….” Philippians 2:12-13
We are to “work out our salvation” which means to bring our salvation by grace through faith to it’s ultimate conclusion, to become more like Christ and less like the devil.
How are we to do that? We are to cooperate with God’s Spirit “who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
And how do we cooperate? Paul says in Philippians 2: 16 “holding fast the word of life.” We read His words recorded in the Bible and we hold fast to them and let the Holy Spirit use them to change us.
As one brother said “As we read our Bible, it is reading us.”
We should approach reading the Bible with awe because it will reveal “us” in ways we never thought possible. Not only sins like unforgiveness, pride, arrogance, perverse morals but also the staggering truths of who we are in Christ and all the marvelous things God has done in us and for us and is going to do in the future for His children.
In closing, I benefited from the following reality check on my relationship with God. I recommend it to you.
If you want to know what your attitude toward God is, check what your attitude to His Word is; that is your attitude toward God.
You do not love God more than you love His Word.
You do not obey God more than you obey His Word.
You do not have room for God in your life than you have room for His Word in your life.
If you want to find out how much God means to you, see how much His Word means to you.
If you want revival and spiritual growth in your life, prayerfully read your Bible, obey it’s truths and let the Holy Spirit do His work in you.
When we are reading our Bible and cooperating with the Holy Spirit, ALL of God’s creative power is working in us…His Word and His Spirit. The same creative agents that created the world.
A staggering thought.
Blessings on your journey with God.
Carl
Persecuted Christians are starving for Bibles
Source: Christian Post (See note at end of article)
What would you do if you had no access to Scripture? Most Americans have multiple Bibles at home, dozens of translations at our fingertips, and devotional apps on every device. Yet for believers living in hostile areas and restricted nations, a single torn page of the New Testament is a treasure worth suffering for.
For many Christians around the world, owning a Bible is illegal. It can cost a believer their freedom or even their life. Yet, in the darkest prison cells and most hostile corners of the world, the Word of God remains the most desired possession.
During 25+ years serving at The Voice of the Martyrs, I’ve had the honor to meet with persecuted Christians living and serving in the most dangerous and difficult places to follow Christ. Often, they share their inspiring testimonies.
Recently I came across five powerful stories about what having access to Scripture meant to imprisoned Christians.
1. Brother Joe
Brother Joe, a former prisoner in North Africa, received a smuggled portion of the Bible — just Psalms and part of the Gospel of John. For him, those verses were life itself.
“I would cry over the words,” he said. “Not because I was sad, but because it was like Jesus Himself was sitting in my cell with me.”
Even as Brother Joe endured torture, he began copying verses by hand to share with other prisoners. The guards tried to stop him, but the Word kept spreading. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “The word of our God shall stand forever.”
2. Helen Berhane
Helen Berhane, an Eritrean gospel singer who was imprisoned in a metal shipping container for over two years, had no Bible at all — but she had memorized verses before her arrest.
“The Word became my song, my food, my comfort,” she shared. “I had no book, but I had Him.”
Even today, years later, those memorized verses continue to sustain her.
3. Aaron
Aaron, a front-line worker, told me about a woman jailed for leading Bible studies in China, where the underground church is heavily persecuted. Fellow inmates, recalling verses they had memorized, pieced together entire chapters from memory. When a contraband Bible finally arrived, they tore it apart — not to destroy it, but to share it.
“In that cell,” Aaron said, “the Bible wasn’t just a book — it was their breath.”
4. Ali
Perhaps the most startling transformation came in the life of Ali, a former jihadist who encountered the Gospel of Luke in prison. The Bible turned his world upside down.
“I had studied violence all my life,” he said. “Then I met Jesus in a jail cell in the pages of that book. That Bible broke me.”
Ali found, for the first time, a God who loves His enemies and sent His Son to die for them.
The Bible is more than print on paper — it’s living and active. The Word of God has the power to sustain people’s faith under the most intense persecution. For the millions of Christians in hostile nations, a Bible is not just a comfort. It is what carries them through their torture and suffering.
5. Iranian prisoner
Hormoz Shariat, the founder of Iran Alive Ministries known as “the Billy Graham of Iran,” shared how one Iranian prisoner risked his life to possess a single page of Scripture. That page became a spark. He memorized it and passed it to another inmate, who did the same.
“They shared one torn page like it was gold,” Shariat said. “It was enough to bring light into total darkness.”
In Iran, where printing or importing Farsi Bibles is illegal, believers face prison or death for sharing God’s Word. And yet, they do it anyway. The hunger for the Bible is so deep that even a fragment — one Psalm, one parable — is worth everything.
Every April, VOM focuses on getting Bibles to persecuted Christians. This year, our ministry has identified 458,000 Christians, by name, who are waiting for a Bible in hostile areas and restricted nations.
Through front-line workers, the ministry is positioned to deliver these Bibles directly into the hands of those who need them most. Imagine being the reason a believer in prison experiences the presence of Christ in their darkest hour!
There are many lessons to learn from others who have suffered for their faith. The stories here are just a small example of the power of God’s Word to bring hope and strength to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Maybe our first lesson is not to take for granted what others are risking everything to hold.
Todd Nettleton is Vice President for Message at The Voice of the Martyrs and host of The Voice of the Martyrs Radio. He is the author of When Faith Is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians.
READER NOTE: Voice of The Martyrs charges $10 per Bible per their donation page. Asia Harvest charges $3 to print and deliver a Bible per their donation page. Asia Harvest and the underground church in China estimate that for every Bible given to a believer in China, at least one other individual comes to Christ. Not a bad $3 investment in the Kingdom of God!
Asia Harvest’s ministry is limited to Asia. They print Bibles in 163 different Asian languages. Our family has supported this effort for about three years.
Voice of the Martyrs ministry is worldwide evidently.
May you do your part to spread His Word in this dark world.
Blessings to all,
Carl
The Degenerating Influence of Ritualism.
The tendency of all ecclesiastical ritualism is to produce a spirit of superstition to the subversion of faith, of mere formality to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and resting in our own good works to the rejection of the finished work of Christ. The Word of God is practically set aside, the Holy Spirit grieved, and the heart laid open to the inroads of Satan. When faith is in lively exercise, The Word of God strictly followed, and the promised guidance of the Comforter relied upon, the soul is strong and vigorous in the divine life, and suggestions of the enemy are unheeded. Satan is a keen observer of the different states of the believer's soul, and of the professing Church. He knows when he will be successful in his attempt against the individual believer or the Church: he waits his time -- he watches for opportunity. When he sees the mind taking a wrong direction, he soothes, flatters, stimulates -- solemn thought for us all! Andrew Miller, Miller's Church History (Pickering and Inglis, LTD, London), p. 237
Eats
“As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time unless he eats, so it is with the inner man. What is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God—not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe. No, we must consider what we read, ponder over it, and apply it to our hearts.” —George Müller
Source: Berean Call
I Will Seek….
I will seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them. —George Müller
Food For Your Inner Man
“As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time unless he eats, so is with the inner man. What is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God-not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe. No, we must consider what we read, ponder over it, and apply it to our hearts.” ― George Muller (The Autobiography of George Muller). From Berean Call
Christians and Christ’s Intention
“The true Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God: all churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. These are his marching orders. Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away. This is the flag which he nailed to the mast. May it never be lowered!”
—John Wycliffe (c. 1320s – 31 December 1384),
He was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, minister, and professor at the University of Oxford. He was an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. Wycliffe attacked the privileged status of the clergy, which had bolstered their powerful role in England. He then attacked the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies. Wycliffe also advocated translation of the Bible into the common language.
From The Berean Call
THE IMPERSONATOR
At this moment I am sitting in my yard listening to a flock of blue jays squawking in the woods. They discovered a four or five foot pine snake in a tree and, surrounding him, are making a terrible racket to scare him off. In the photograph above, the snake is impersonating a tree limb by stretching himself between the two small, limbless tree trunks. He is lying still, patiently waiting for a bird to land so he can inject his poison.
This scene calls to remembrance another snake that uses deception. The Apostle John described him like this:
“… the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world…. ” Revelation 12:9
This snake disguises himself as “truth” through various false religions. Since he deceives the whole world, he is a pro at “blending in the surroundings” and mixing his lies with the “truth”, in order to ensnare the unwise and unsuspecting.
But, no fear disciples of the Lord Jesus, the word of God and the Holy Spirit will guide you through his “garden”, that is, this world. Therefore:
“Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.” I Peter 5: 8-9
Carl
Real Evidence That You Love Lord Jesus
“…, that one is he who is loving me…”
If you ask people if they love Jesus and what is the evidence of their love, you would get a variety of answers. Some would say that they go to church frequently or are church members. Others would say that they love their fellow man and do no harm to others; maybe some would say they fast certain things during the year or that they pray. Some would say they go on pilgrimages to holy sites, give of their money or keep their denominational traditions.
In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus told us how He determines if we really love Him or we are just honoring Him with our words, but our hearts (who we really are) are far from Him. Listen to what He said in John 14: 21 (Wuest Expanded Translation):
“He who has my commandments and habitually keeps them, that one is he who is loving me with a divine and self-sacrificial love.”
On this blog we have quoted the Apostle John in I John numerous times writing about habitually practicing righteousness. John was at the last supper when Jesus said this. That is where he received this truth.
Lord Jesus goes on to describe what happens when we habitually keep His commandments:
“And he who is loving me thus, shall be loved with this same kind of love by my Father, and I shall love him with a divine and self-sacrifical love, and I shall disclose myself to him.” (22)
God the Father poured out this kind of love on the world (John 3:16) when He sent His Son to the cross to bear the guilt and penalty of our sins. And He continues to do so when we are obedient to the gospel and are born again.
But there is more. His disciples thought that Jesus was about to “disclose” Himself as the conquering Messiah to the nation of Israel. The mother of James and John had already approached Jesus about her two sons being seated in places of honor in His messianic court. So one of the disciples asked Him why He was going to disclose Himself to them and not the whole world. Here is His reply:
“Answered Jesus and said to him, If anyone as a habit of life loves me with a divine and self-sacrificial love, my word he will keep, and my Father will love him, and to him we shall come, and an abiding place with him we shall make for ourselves. He who is not habitually loving me with a divine and self-sacrificial love, my words he is not keeping. And the word which you are hearing is not mine but belongs to Him who sent me, the Father.” (23-24)
Now this is very amazing! The God of the universe is going to come and abide in us. How does this happen?
“This things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. And the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, that One will teach you all things and recall to your mind all things which I spoke to you.” (25-26)
In Acts 2: 38 the people cried out , “What shall we do”, after hearing the first gospel message. Peter told the Passover crowd to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. These people were obedient to the gospel message and the Holy Spirit set them apart (i.e. sanctified them) to the Lord Jesus and they were sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Ephesians 1). In other words, the Lord Jesus and The Father came and made their abode with these converts through the Holy Spirit. And God does the same for us when we are obedient to the gospel message.
This is what the Apostle John is telling us in I John 1: 3-4 when he writes:
“…what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. (NASB)
Amazing! We born again believers in Jesus Christ have the privilege of fellowshipping with God Almighty today and everyday. John goes on to tell us how our behavior affects this fellowship. I John 1: 5-10 says the following:
“And it is the message which we have heard from Him and at present is ringing in our ears and we are bringing back tidings to you, that God as to His nature is light, and darkness in Him does not exist, not even one particle. If we say that things in common we are having with Him, and thus fellowship, and in the sphere of the aforementioned darkness are habitually ordering our behavior, we are lying, and we are not doing the truth. But if within the sphere of the light we are habitually ordering our behavior as Himself is in the light, things in common and thus fellowship we [the believer and God] are having with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son keeps continually cleansing us from every sin.”
“If we say that [indwelling ] sin we are not having, ourselves we are leading astray [nobody else], and the truth is not in us. If we continue to confess our sins, faithful is He and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from every unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned and are now in a state where we do not sin, a liar we are making Him, and His word is not in us.” (Wuest Expanded Translation)
The reason John is telling us this he states next in I John 2: 1:
“My little children … these things I am writing to you in order that you may not commit an act of sin. And if anyone commits an act of sin, One who pleads our cause we constantly have facing the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One. ” (Wuest Expanded Translation)
In closing, two things.
First, is there enough evidence in my life to convict me of really being in love with Jesus, per His definition, or am I a hypocrite like the people in Mark 7:6 to which the Lord said:
“And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
In Luke 6:46 Jesus asked the question “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?
Secondly, the Apostle John is telling the born again believer that our indwelling sinful nature, though we are dead to it, has not been eradicated from our being. Therefore, we will occasionally sin and, when we do, we need to confess that sin to maintain fellowship with our Father. (Notice I said fellowship and not relationship. Because of our faith in the work of Christ on the Cross, our relationship is secure with the Father.)
He not only immediately forgives us but the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness, i.e. habitual sins of ignorance that we are walking in but are not aware of yet. What a merciful God!!!
My friends, it all boils down to a simple question for everyone: Is Christ Lord of your life?
I hope you enjoy the fellowship with your heavenly Father and His Holy Son today. Walk in the light as He is in the light.
Carl
Psalm 119: 38 