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When stars align it's hard not to see God's hand in it. For world class percussionist, Zoro, it's hard not to see his mother as the gift that kept on giving. How does a young boy of a single mother of seven children go from abject poverty to the highest ranks of musicians, performing with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Earth, Wind and Fire, and hob-knobbing with the Jackson Five? It's a faith that moved mountains. It was also a mother's love that believed in her children's dreams. Like the unknown author said, "Mothers hold their children's hands for a while... their hearts forever." On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Zoro talks about his rise in the music world, his faith, and his new book, "Maria's Scarf: a Memoir of a Mother's Love, a Son's Perseverance, and Dreaming Big." Christian minister, pastor, evangelist, and now author Zoro seems to have no limits to what is possible to achieve. With faith and his mother's orange scarf, Zoro lived out her prophecy of doing something fantazmical!
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Bible verses like Romans 12, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" and 2 Corinthinians 10, "Take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ", turn out to have real scientific structural foundations. How do you 'renew your mind'? How do you 'take every thought captive'? Those directives wouldn't be possible unless the brain was pliable. Unless the gray matter between our ears, instead of being fixed through its DNA, possesses a plasticity, able to be molded by it's environment, by what we do and say to it constantly. Dr. Alan Weissenbacher and his new book, "The Brain Change Program: 6 Steps to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life," takes to a spiritual level, Dr. Norman Doidge's best-selling book, "The Brain That Changes Itself". Weissenbacher is a counselor to drug addicts and is the managing editor of academic journal "Theology and Science". On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Weissenbacher explains how the Bible always understood our biology better than we did. And while it may speak in poetic terms, there's real science underneath the prose.
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For three decades, Tom and JoAnn Doyle's ministry has focused on the Middle East. The two affable and faith-filled Americans have smuggled in Bibles and helped locals organize Christian house churches in places where it could bring a death sentence for converting from Islam. And yet, even under threat of death, there's been a massive conversion there, particularly in Iran, the country that just launched hundreds of missiles on Israel. What's the real take of how Iranians feel about their country's regime and its attack on the Jewish state? Is the missile strike fulfilling an ancient biblical prophecy in Ezekiel of Gog and Magog? And why are so many Muslims having dreams of a mysterious man in white? On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, the Doyle's talk about what's happening spiritually in the Islamic Republic, and how the Word of God is making miraculous changes in a people hungry for the truth.
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The Bible's words saying "God made them male and female" for centuries had been upheld by the scientific community, that is up until just a few years ago. In today's woke culture, gender dysphoria, a mental health problem, has spurred many young people into surgeries that they later regret. Once celebrated for expressing their "true self" as transgender male or female, they are often attacked when they realize they made the wrong decision and begin the arduous journey of de-transitioning. Jennifer Lahl is telling their stories. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Lahl talks about her new book, "The Detransition Diaries", the saga of eight men and women who once felt they were born in the wrong body, and then realized the solution to their struggles were more spiritual than physical. Lahl is the founder and former President of The Center For Bioethics And Culture as well as an award-winning documentary maker producing several films, including the one the book is based on: "The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters".
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The old adage that 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' was never truer than when faithful Christians told stories of injustices, not with words, but through photos. At a time when photography was new technology used more for entertainment, Alice Seeley Harris, an English missionary, documented the horrors of human rights abuses in the Congo under the regime of King Leopold II of the Belgians. Children and adults with limbs cut off as punishment. Thousands of miles away, Jacob August Riis, a Denmark native, was exposing the squalid conditions of New York City neighborhoods. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, best-selling author Christina Stanton delves deeper into their stories that she first told in an article published last year, "Capture This: How Christians Used Cameras To Expose Injustice." What's disheartening about Riis and Harris' stories is how over the years secular media has ignored their Christian faith, even while honoring their work. Yet, it was their faith that compelled them to expose grave injustices at the turn of the century in parts of the globe that had been forgotten by Western culture, even when it was in their own backyards.
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While Easter, as it is celebrated in America, has morphed into bunnies, bonnets, baskets, and egg coloring... the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is in fact a 'revolution'. So says Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of Word On Fire Catholic ministries, and the bishop of the Rochester-Winona diocese in Minnesota. On this special Easter episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast recorded at his studios in Rochester, Minnesota, Barron, who's also a best-selling author and former auxiliary bishop of the Los Angeles diocese, explains why Christians should not 'domesticate' Easter. Instead, we should spend this day meditating on the 'subversive' nature of what Christianity unleashed more than two-thousand years ago. Says Barron, "It turns everything upside down, and there's nothing more subversive, literally subversive, than the resurrection of Jesus from the dead." It's that Divine power of love in raising Jesus from the dead, that is now available to humanity today. It proves that that Love is in fact the foundation of all creation.
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It may be a surprise to some folks, but the Easter Bunny has nothing to do with the true meaning of Easter. Neither do Easter baskets, bonnets, spring flowers or any of the plethora of secular imagery that have taken center stage during the Lent and Easter season, pushing the Resurrection of Jesus, the cornerstone of Christianity, to the side or dismissed entirely. But best-selling author Anthony DeStefano is fighting back. He's embraced the Easter Bunny for a children's book about Jesus, His life, crucifixion and resurrection. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, DeStefano talks about his new book, "The Story of the First Easter Bunny", and about the culture wars all parents of faith are battling in trying to teach their children the true foundations of their beliefs. DeStefano is the author of more than 25 books for children and adults; some of which delve into the headier issues of Christianity like heaven and hell.
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Twenty years ago, Mexican actor Eduardo Verastegui made a promise
to God that he would not do any work that offended his Catholic faith, his
family or his culture. The vow meant he didn't work for four years as he had to
constantly turn down offers. Then he started a production company with two
friends and together produced "Sound of Freedom," about child
trafficking and sexual exploitation that starred Jim Caviezel as the agent who
hunts down traffickers. And now Verastegui's new film, "CABRINI."
On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Verastegui talks about Cabrini,
which tells the saga of Mother Cabrini, Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian
immigrant Catholic nun whose feistiness defied her frail health. She fought the
power structure of the Catholic Church and the city of New York, to build
orphanages, hospitals and schools, relieving the poverty of Italian immigrant
children. Verastegui says 100% of the film's profits will go to charity, continuing
the work of Mother Cabrini.
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Former GOP consultant Bunni Pounds may have lost an election for U.S. Congress, but she gained valuable experience. And she's using that experience to mobilize Christians to come out and vote. In 2020, some 25 million sat on the sidelines and didn't cast their ballots. Now Pounds, from the great state of Texas, is pulling out all the political stops to make a serious dent in that number. She's created an organization that shows churches how to get their congregations involved in praying, engaging, registering, and researching candidates and issues. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, recorded at the NRB Convention in Nashville, Pounds talks about her book "Jesus and Politics: One Woman's Walk With God in a Mudslinging Profession." The bottom line is, if Christians want to live out a biblical worldview, then they must lobby government; because government has the power to subvert and control their lives. Pounds says the problem has been that "We keep this separation between what we think is secular and sacred, and not see that God should encompass every part of our life, even our civic duties."
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Who knew prayer could be so offensive to so many? But that's exactly the
reaction Pastor Jack Hibbs received from several members of Congress after he
gave a prayer on January 30th to open their session. Hibbs is the pastor of
mega church Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California. House Speaker Mike
Johnson invited him to deliver the invocation. In his prayer, Hibbs called for
"humility and repentance of national sins in a time of great need." In a letter that
was sent to the Speaker of the House, 26 Democrats accused Hibbs of being "an
ill-qualified hate preacher" who was pushing a "Christian Nationalist
agenda", according to Roll Call. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith
podcast, recorded from the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in
Nashville, TN, Pastor Hibbs answers the Democrats' accusations, talks about
what he prayed for, and why he believes it rankled the nerves of those on the
left. He also discusses his new book, "Daze of Deception: How to Discern
Truth from Culture's Lies."
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There's a hunger in this world for God. You may not know it; you may not feel it. But the insatiable need for a transcendent love that surpasses all understanding, is at the root of all our angst and anguish. Just think about this year's Grammy Song of the Year, "What Was I Made For?" It may be the Billie Eilish tune for the movie Barbie, but it may as well be the soundtrack of this generation's burning question: What's the purpose of my life? Why am I here? With mounting levels of despair, depression and suicide, the secular world in all its technology, A.I. and social media, needs answers. And I know that the Word of God is what they're looking for. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, theologian, author and Christian defender Dr. Alex McFarland, joins me to talk about my new book, "Light For Today: A 365 Day Devotional from the Lighthouse." I've rarely inserted myself as the subject of these podcasts, but I wanted to let listeners know that God is Love. And whatever needs we have He can meet. It takes a daily walk with Him. Reading His word and listening to His voice. God works in the natural everyday existence; in the simple, even in seemingly mundane. God is with us. He is a our refuge and strength.
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The data doesn't lie. Getting married and staying married benefits
women, children... and men. Social scientist, Professor Brad Wilcox, gives
convincing proof that marriage, despite being much maligned today, is actually
a better way to live, well, happily ever after. But there are some caveats.
First, the myth of the soul mate. No human is perfect and so no potential
spouse, no matter how much he or she makes your heart flutter, is capable of
fulfilling your every desire. Sooner or later the butterflies go free and what
remains is the reality of a relationship that takes work. But it's well worth
it.
On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Wilcox, Professor of
sociology at the University of Virginia and a "Future of Freedom" Fellow
at the Institute for Family Studies, breaks down the evidence he found while
researching his new book, "GET MARRIED: Why Americans must Defy the
Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization." It's a tall order,
but the data shows that coming from a two-parent household is a better
reassurance that a child will do well in school, be happier and have a better
chance of achieving the American dream. Case in point, Ivy League colleges and
universities have an overabundance of overachievers with one common
denominator, the majority come from stable, two parent households. Wilcox
points out, this is actually odd since many professors at these liberal
establishments tout diversity of family types--single parent, parents never
married --but in their own lives represent the more traditional, married
parents with children.
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In the more than 25 years since Promise Keepers began, the culture
has shifted tremendously. And it's not been a positive move for men.
Masculinity is called "toxic", and "straight white male" has
become a euphemism for "devil incarnate". But Promise Keepers
president Ken Harris and Dr. A.R. Bernard, the Senior pastor of New York mega
church, Christian Cultural Center, are undaunted, and fearless in beckoning men
to biblical manhood, and understand and live out what God has called them to
be. It is not the secular culture or social media that defines a man, or the
purpose for which he was born, it is God. Later this month Promise Keepers will
meet in Florida, where thousands of men will step out in a move of "Daring
Faith" hoping to build men of God. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith
podcast, Harris and Bernard speak about the problems men face in the world today,
the messages they get wrong, and spiritual solutions to both.
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While technology moves ahead with seemingly lightning speed, it's sad to say that in the realm of religious freedom, we as a culture are moving backwards. This week, the Religious Freedom Summit wrapped up in Washington, DC. One of lead participant was Eric Patterson, president of the Religious Freedom Institute in the nation's capital. He spoke to Lighthouse Faith podcast just before the summit began, but already knew what the pressing issues would be. The basic human right to worship how you want, to live out your faith is under assault. In fact, worldwide we are worse off than we were 15 years ago. In Nigeria, Christians are being slaughtered. In China, the Communist regime is trying to mold faith in Jesus into a subservient of the party line. Even in Muslim majority countries, if you don't practice the type of Islam that's acceptable, you could be ostracized, or even killed. What's at stake here is what it means to be human. No one can take that away, but the evil in this world is trying its best.
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The destruction of the biblical sister towns of Sodom and Gomorrah is one of the most well-known and controversial stories in the Bible's Old Testament. God's reasons for obliterating this thriving metropolis have had incredible consequences for us today and hence the subject of intense debate. But for centuries, many secular, and some Christian scientists, believed Sodom was just a mythical town meant to support an allegorical telling of God's wrath against sin. But in 2001 archeologists began researching a site around the Dead Sea that matched the Bible's geographical description of where Sodom was located. A few years later a dig began, and a few years after that, archeologists confirmed that a city matching the description of Sodom had been located. But more interestingly still, recently they found evidence of it being destroyed by a cataclysmic event, like an asteroid burst similar to the one, but larger, than the one of Tunguska, Russia in 1908. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, chief archeologist of the site, Dr. Steven Collins, explains how they know this recently unearthed site has all the markings of one of the most notorious stories in the Bible.
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Nearly every poll shows Donald Trump the likely GOP 2024 Presidential nominee, which is why the vitriol against one of his largest group of supporters has risen to near derangement levels. One MSNBC anchor accused White Christian Iowans of wanting to have people of color bow down to them, while another said White Evangelical Christians are worshipping Trump as the Second Coming. But California Pastor Shane Idleman is pushing back, saying this battle is not about Trump, but about spiritual Kingdoms colliding. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Idleman, lead pastor of Westside Christian Fellowship in Southern California, talks about why Evangelicals are such strong supporters of Trump, and about how he believes this country, spiritually, is headed in the wrong direction. Although he is not an ardent Trump fan, he understands that "We're not looking for pastor in chief. It's Commander in Chief." He also points out that throughout the Bible, God has used men of questionable character to bring about his plans.
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The 9th Commandment against bearing false witness seems straight forward as a directive against lying. But what happens if you tell a lie unknowingly because you're trusting nature is being abused and used for evil? That is the message of Mitch Albom's novel, "The Little Liar." Set during the Holocaust, the story revolves around a lie that a Jewish boy in Greece tells the people in his community a lie he doesn't know is untrue. "The trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All the boy has to do is convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading to “new homes” where they are promised jobs and safety." In fact, they are trains headed for concentration camps. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Albom, best-selling author of "Tuesday's With Morrie," and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," explains what happens long-term when a deadly lie is perpetrated against a young boy's trusting nature, and how the lie kills more than just trust, but people, relationships and even the soul. Albom's gift is in letting fiction tell the truths about reality. Communities can't survive without truth.
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Hollywood rarely makes a positive film about priests. You have to go back a few decades to 1945 to find Bing Crosby in his role as the respected Father O'Malley in "The Bells of St. Mary's." That was way before the decline in reverence for not only faith, but also for the men and women of the cloth. But Fr. Stephen Fichter, a New Jersey priest, wanted to be a part of changing people's attitudes about the priesthood. The feature length film, "Trinity's Triumph," is his offering. It was a 25-year journey, with some notable encouragement along the way from people like Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, and some mentoring from best-selling novelist, Mary Higgins Clark. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Fr. Fichter talks about why he wrote the screenplay, and how it shows the real struggles and triumphs of the men who enter seminary. The film is about three seminarians but only one of them is based on Fr. Fichter's life. The other two are based on composites of his fellow travelers. The film pulls no punches, talking about sexual abuse in the priesthood as well as challenging the tradition of why priests are not allowed to marry. But the key line from the movie is said by the film's Monsignor Heck, played by A-list actor Joe Morton (Speed, Terminator 2: Judgment Day). He tells the first-year seminarians, "You are setting out on an extraordinary odyssey to answer the highest of all calls." And that is the film's most positive message about the priesthood. It is a Divine calling of both sacrifices, and the highest of commitment.
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As we say goodbye to 2023 and reflect on this past year, Cal Thomas has some observations about the last fifty years! He says, "One thing that always amazes me is how things never really change. You can change hairstyles, clothes, styles, modes of transportation. You can even change politicians. But nothing really seems to change. A lot of that has to do with human nature." On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Thomas, best-selling author, syndicated columnist and political commentator, talks about his book, "A Watchman in the Night." It explores what he's witnessed over the past 50 years of journalism and the thousands of columns he's written commenting on world events, cultural movements, politics and all things involving human existence. But there is one mandate that separates Thomas from the herd; his standard of truth is based on Scripture. All his commentaries have as their guide the light of God's Word. Yes, Thomas has met and interviewed world leaders, American presidents and Hollywood and Broadway stars; but also, just plain folk whose names no one will remember. All the while, his keen observances have made him a 'Watchman'; a custodian of a culture that has separated itself from God. And as we say hello to 2024, Thomas will continue to do the same, but with a hope that his words will help people find their way back to the truth that made America the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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If the Bible had never been written, America probably wouldn't exist. Our founding documents and beliefs about law, justice and grace come directly from the pages of Scripture. It also means that it is so much more vital for Christians to not only celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus, but to live out its core tenets by engaging a culture that continues to grow more secular. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Dr. Robert Pacienza, Senior Pastor Of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, talks about the many ways Christians can bring Christmas into their everyday lives, but also, how they can live out its directive of truth and love. Pacienza, who's also the President and CEO of D. James Kennedy Ministries, also gives some very simple suggestions to how Christians can be a light in darkness, and to point the way to true light of Christmas, Jesus, born to be the Light of the world.
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