World Impact Ministries / Peter Youngren

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

While pondering the question in the headline, a story from a few years ago came to mind. The Niagara Freethinkers Association had invited me to debate Dan Barker from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, on the topic, “Is there a God?” During the question and answer segment a woman, rather upset, turned to me, “Why do you keep saying that God will send me to hell?” I reminded the lady that in our three-hour debate, I had not made a single reference to hell. I assured her that such matters belonged to God alone. She responded, “I’ve lived in this region for most of my life, and the born-again Christians I meet tell me that I am going to hell, and I assumed that’s what you were thinking”.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

The 34 year old pastor, Yousef Nadarkhani, father of two, sits waiting in an Iranian prison. His execution could be at any moment. His crime? Apostasy against Islam.

Last Thursday, in what some are calling a miracle, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a resolution calling for Pastor Nadarkhani’s release. Both the White House and the State Department made statements earlier in the week. The World Evangelical Alliance and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada have called on the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take action. Whatever is going to be done must be done now.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

Chances are you’ve already heard about the four minute video “Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus”, produced by 22 year old Jefferson Bethke from Tacoma, Washington. It has gone viral, approaching 18 million views on Youtube in just over three weeks. Last month I wrote about Justin Bieber’s tattoo depicting Jesus, Tim Tebow’s prayers on the football field, and Hollywood actor Gary Busey beating an Indian drum, invoking the name of Jesus during a guest appearance on ‘Celebrity Wife Swap’. My point was that Jesus keeps showing up in unlikely places, and now here we go again.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

Jesus seems to be popping up in the most unusual news stories. I was scrolling the television listings the other day and came by ‘Celebrity Wife Swap’, a show I’ve never watched, but the names Ted and Gayle Haggard caught my attention. Ted and Gayle are acquaintances of mine. After their ‘scandal’ broke (if you haven’t heard about it, I won’ bore you with the sordid details), when most of the church would have nothing to do with them, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours encouraging them, that God is gracious and He gives people a second chance.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

It’s time for the annual Christmas discussions. Is Christmas too commercialized? The obvious answer is “yes”, but does it matter? Aren’t we all free to decide to make this season all about shopping, or to take a more balanced approach?

Another typical question: How do we know Jesus was really born on December 25th? We don’t, and in fact there is good reason to think He wasn’t, but does that change anything?

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

Recently, I was told by a critic that I am a “Chrislamist”. Not sure exactly what the term meant, I did a little research. First I discovered that I am not the only one so accused. Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church in Orange County, California, recently responded to similar accusations. He pointed to Proverbs 14:15, which states, “Only a fool believes all that he hears.” Amen, to that.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

Until just a few days ago, Iranian Christian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was languishing in jail, expecting his imminent execution, having been found guilty of apostasy and numerous other crimes. This week’s stunning reversal in Iran’s Supreme Court is fresh evidence of the power of activism. For several months thousands of Christians and non-Christians have made their voices heard to their political representatives and Iranian embassies around the world, until Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini became involved, and now the Supreme Court has granted a new trial for Nadarkhani.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

For decades the “prosperity gospel” has been a hot topic of debate within the evangelical movement. Lately it has caught the attention of the secular media, including the Guardian in the UK and ABC News. As far back as 2006 Time magazine featured the, so called, Prosperity Movement in a piece entitled “Does God want you to be rich?” Lately it is the indictment on fraud charges by Brazilian prosecutors against prosperity preacher Bishop Edir Macedor has caught the attention of the news media.

GraceTV has met its Victory Goal of $325,000 to pay for cable and satellite distribution. Thank You, Lord! Thank You, Partners!

By Aug 28th we had received $102,000 on top of regular giving, so we really needed a miracle, going in to the final week. Hundreds of you gave, and one person particularly gave a very large gift. We thank God that He is working through willing people. The total received is $345,267.62.