In a strict Muslim nation? No worries. If you are a Christian player in the World Cup in Qatar, you can raise your hands and praise Jesus, despite the host nation’s law punishing evangelism with five years in prison.
This is what Ecuadorians did when they defeated the Qatari team in the opening match. They formed a circle and lifted up praises to God, an offense that would have landed them in a cold jail cell had they not been the country’s special guests.
“Today begins a new story and who guides our steps is God, without you nothing we can do, we give you all the glory and honor,” wrote Ecuadorian midfielder Carlos Gruezo in the Instagram post before the inaugural game.
When sports figures acclaim Jesus in the United States, T.V. cameras cut away and pundits frown. Muslim nations could potentially unleash a more severe crackdown. But because these “closed” nations are projecting a more welcoming and open image, they are likely to cast a blind eye.
That’s good news for the U.S. team. Two players flaunt their faith, midfielder Christian Pulisic and central defender Walker Zimmerman.
Pulisic is the driving force behind the U.S. attack. He’s the most dangerous and most defended player. The 24-year-old Pennsylvania native plays on club for Chelsea, a prominent English outfit. But on that high-profile team, he’s struggled for goals and playing time, and the struggle has brought him closer to God.
“I’ve had to continue to prove myself over and over again,” Pulisic told CBS in 2021. “But, as always, I reach out to God to give me strength. With that behind me, nothing can stop me, really.”
“[With God] I feel like I always have someone who’s with me,” Pulisic added to GQ. “I don’t know how I’d do any of this without feeling that He’s watching over me and there’s a reason why I’m here.”
While Pulisic commands the attack, fellow Christian Walker Zimmer leads the defense. The son of a pastor, Zimmerman has put in a solid performance shutting down some of the world’s most elite attackers. He was part of the force limiting soccer powerhouse England to a tie in the U.S.’s most recent group matchup.
He dressed in all black, wore long dark hair, and had one blue contact lens – 90s Goth style. So when a church-goer saw him at the store, he freaked and thought: This guy will never get saved.
So when Genaro Nava showed up at church the following Sunday, the Christian guy felt rebuked internally for judging people: “It was like God just slapped me across the face. It blew my mind.”
Today Genaro is not just rescued from the darkness of underage clubbing across the border in Mexico, he’s a pastor in Brownsville, Texas, his third pastoral assignment.
Genaro came with his family to America to start the 1st grade. When his mom got divorced, she fell into a deep depression. Genaro and his sisters fell into drugs and partying in high school. Genaro’s room was painted black, covered with worldly posters.
One night he left a club, and there were Christian street preachers from the Door Church declaring the love of Jesus. Genaro joked to his girlfriend: “One day, I’m going to do that.”
The next night after a movie, there were the street evangelists again, passing out flyers. Genaro said he wasn’t interested but accepted the flier and pinned it to his wall (where there was a clutter of things on display).
The street evangelist said: “You can’t go to Heaven if you don’t have Jesus in your heart.” Those words haunted Genaro.
Years later, his sister got saved and invited him to church. It was, startlingly, the same Door Church whose flier was still on his wall. It seemed more than coincidental, so Genaro, then 19, agreed to go.
Bit by bit, he began attending church more and leaving his sin behind. At one point, he had to break up with his girlfriend of the time because she vowed to continue using drugs while he wanted to get clean. He left his old friends for the same reason.
“We would do drugs there in my house,” he says. “They would be there drinking and say, ‘Hey come on, join us.’ I had to make a stand.”
Eventually, he needed to read them the riot act: either come to church or stop coming over.
“I invited my friends to church,” he says. “They all went once and never came back. It’s not like you’re cutting them off; you’re just choosing different paths.”
People at church were really nice, and they threw him a small birthday party just a month after showing up at church. That made quite an impression.
“I was asking myself, how could you have a good time without drugs?… Read the rest: Goth gets saved
After days of thanking the medical clinic doctors with canoes full of flowers or fish, the Manaos tribal leaders dressed in white sang praises to God in their native tongue to celebrate Sean Feucht’s baptism in the Amazon River.
“Dad put me under the water, and when I surfaced, I felt a profound sense of destiny and calling on my life,” Sean writes in the autobiographical Brazen: Be a Voice, not an Echo. “The presence of God fell heavily upon me in that moment. I had become new and everything changed.”
Worship has marked Sean’s life, ever since that moment at age 10 when he dedicated his life to Christ’s service deep in the Amazon jungle, in the hinterlands of Jim Elliot. He’s played his guitar to bring healing around the world and in the Oval Office.
Sean Feucht loved the outdoors in his birth state of Montana. His dad, a doctor, accepted a 75% reduction of salary to lead missions with Christian Broadcasting Network and the family moved to Virginia. Sean despised the balmy suburbia of his new town and felt disillusioned with the loss of the Rockies until he was taken to the rainforests.
Sean Feucht with Mike Pence (Facebook)
It was Sean’s job to fish for the medical team’s meals as the boat tooled up and down the Amazon River. They ate rainbow bass and large black piranhas. His dad and the medical professionals applied the science of medicine to heal natives, and when science came up short, they prayed and witnessed miraculous healings.
His father’s “brazen” faith became a legacy for Sean.
At first, Sean’s heart was to be a quarterback in football and a guard in basketball. Being a worship leader was not on his radar. But when a worship leader cancelled for his dad’s home Bible study, Sean was called upon to fill the gap after only owning a guitar for three weeks and knowing only three chords and three songs.
“The night was an absolute train wreck. I continually broke out in a nervous sweat, strained my voice and broke not just one but two guitar strings,” he complains. “I was embarrassed and ashamed in front of 15 of my peers. I remember running to my room afterward, vowing that I would never lead worship in public again.”
Oh, the irony.
He got called on again and again to direct praise in front of people as the Bible study grew to 70 people. Fairly rapidly, he moved into leading youth group worship and then took over church worship. He led youth group and challenged his peers to pray for people in the local hospital’s ICU.
Also in high school, he met Kate, who became his wife. He attended a worship rally in Washington D.C. and won a state football championship.
Despite sport successes, what really pulsed through his heart was the lost. He compiled a list of the least-reached peoples on the globe: Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The opportunity to visit Afghanistan came first. It was right after the terrorists had downed the Twin Towers in New York City, and Americans were fighting the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan, right where Sean, just out of high school, wanted to go with his father’s trusted missionary associate.
The U.S. State Department warned Americans not to go there. And the Afghan Embassy refused to grant him — or any American — a visa, “under any circumstances,” Sean writes.
But the team leader was used to obstacles and encouraged Sean to believe more in God than the gloom and doom of so many detractors. “God will make a way, brother!” he told Sean confidently.
Sean was learning to not be deterred. He visited the Afghan Embassy in person and got an interview.
What could go wrong with a blond-haired, blue-eyed 18-year-old leading worships in the mountains owned by the America-kidnapping Taliban? he asked.
The Afghan official couldn’t disguise his astonishment at the visa request.
“Are you truly willing to give your life right now because there’s a high chance of that if you go?” the official said.
Astonishingly, Sean declared he would not leave the embassy until the visa was granted.
Flouting conventional wisdom and doing the contrary of what everyone expects has been Sean’s trademark ever since.
In the isolated mountain villages, the team ministered to peaceful people in the Farsi dialect. Sean discovered that music was a universal language to bridge divides. “My guitar broke down all our walls and misconceptions about one another,” he writes.
The team had been sternly warned: Don’t spend a night in the village. Stay on the move. The Taliban would love to abduct an American and demand a ransom from the American government.
“But after spending all day building relationship, sharing stories, laughing and eating together, it was so hard for us to leave,” he writes. “Many nights, we were invited to stay at the home of tribal leaders.”
Sleeping on the roof to beat the heat, Sean would look at the stars and think of Abraham, to whom God promised to multiply his descendants to be as countless as the stars overhead.
God had done amazing things, and Sean expected to continue with God’s blessing as he carted off to Oral Roberts University. He had seen God move through his guitar in Virginia and Afghanistan, so he offered his services to the worship team at college.
No, was the reply.
It was not the only discouragement. He tried to get involved in missions. No was the answer.
In the dorm, his roommate, despite being at a Christian college, mocked Christianity and blasted explicit hip hop to drown out any praises Sean tried to strum.
“Nothing seemed to work out,” Sean says, and he mothballed his guitar under his bed. Read the rest: Sean Feucht Burn 24/7
Of the 18 or so tattoos scattered all over Stephen Baldwin’s body representing different stages of his life, one is a scripture: 3:30. It’s on the back of his neck and stands for John 3.30. “I must decrease so that he may increase.”
The youngest sibling of the Baldwin acting clan accepted Jesus in the aftermath of 9/11. But the wake-up call only came after a Brazilian nanny was singing about Jesus in Portuguese to the Baldwin’s baby in front of Stephen’s Brazilian wife, Kennya.
“So, we hired this lady from Brazil named Augusta, and the whole first week she’s working for us she’s singing in Portuguese, which she only spoke that language with my wife,” said Stevie B., as he calls himself.
Kennya suddenly realized whom the nanny was singing about. She went to Stephen and said, “Do you hear what she’s singing about? She’s singing about Jesus.”
After overhearing the singing a few more days, her curiosity could not be contained and she approached the nanny directly. “I noticed your singing, and I’m wondering why every song is about Jesus?”
Kennya was taken aback when Augusta burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Quite frankly, I think it’s a little bit funny that you think I’m here to clean your house.”
To Kennya’s amazement, she explained that through a prophetic word, she was told that if she went to live with the Baldwins, Stephen and Kenya would one day come to faith in Jesus Christ and be involved in ministry.
“She goes on to tell my wife that, before she had accepted the job, she prayed with her pastor and some church members in Brazil. I haven’t told this part of the story a lot. She had a dream and saw me, saw my wife and saw my first daughter Aliya.”
But Baldwin was not impressed or moved about what appeared to him at the time to be religious gibberish.
“Didn’t faze me for a second,” he said. “Raised Roman Catholic up until 11 or 12. Didn’t stick. Went out into the world and did my own thing.”
Among his “own things” were roles in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Posse (1993), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Threesome (1994), The Usual Suspects (1995), Bio-Dome (1996), Fled (1996), The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000), Fred Claus (2007) and The Flyboys (2008). In addition to being an award-winning actor, he became a producer and an author.
Kennya was first one in the family to receive Jesus. After spending much time talking about Jesus with Augusta, Kenya attended a Brazilian church in New York City, seeking answers and learning more about Him.
As time went on, Stephen became curious and felt drawn to God and began asking questions. Then 9/11 struck.
A full-scale replica of Noah’s ark will voyage from the Netherlands to Brazil to be seen by tourists at the Summer Olympics.
The ark, a 3,000-ton vessel covered with wood planks, was finished in 2012 and floats at a dock in the Netherlands. The 450-foot long ark was the brainchild of millionaire contractor Johan Huibers, a Christian who has received 3,000 visitors a day to see and hear the story of the flood.
It is similar to an ark built by the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, KY. But that vessel, a project of noted creationist Ken Ham, rests on dry land.
By contrast, the Dutch exhibit floats at sea and is sea-worthy enough to make a 5,000-mile trip, assisted by tugboats, across the Atlantic Ocean. After making port at various cities in Brazil for two years, the ark will sail around the world and spread the gospel message everywhere it docks, Huibers said.
The Ark of Noah Foundation in Pasadena, California is organizing fund-raising for the initial sea journey.
Huibers caught his vision for building the ark after he dreamed that his native Netherlands was overwhelmed by flooding from the sea. A strong believer, he decided that building the ark would be a powerful witness to the public.
The boat is as tall as a five-story building and longer than a football field. It could hold 5,000 people at one time and cost Huibers $1.0 million to build.
According to the Foundation, Huibers will eventually make four stops along the U.S. coast at San Diego, Long Beach, San Francisco and Seattle. Prior to those four ports, it will visit Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Havana, Panama and Colombia.
“Johan overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieve his ultimate goal of building a replica of Noah’s Ark,” the foundation’s website says.
Inside the ark are full-scale animal reproductions dispersed in cages and corrals on three decks. There are replica giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras and bison, among other animals. Museum displays tell the story of the Genesis Flood, the promise of the rainbow, the problem of sin and the hope of the gospel. There’s even a movie-theater inside this ark. Read the rest of the article.
This article, originally published on God Reports, was written by my English student at the Lighthouse Christian Academy.
Nobody expected the embarrassing 7-1 loss of Brazil to Germany World Cup semi finals. But as critics groaned and Brazilians cried, another unexpected event transpired. Brazilian defender David Luiz dropped to his knees and prayed.
Amid a gaggle of self-lovers, braggarts and primadonnas who make up soccer’s elite, it’s refreshing to see genuine Christians.
To thank God publicly for a victory is admirable. To thank God for a defeat is maturity.
After all, it’s only a game, though the way people follow it — and the way money is thrown at it — you’d think it was god.
And God is not a game. If we lose, let us remember that God doesn’t favor any team. He wants people to get in relationship with Him, starting now and continuing on into Heaven.
“My faith in Jesus gives me strength to keep on going out onto the field and to do my best, but I also want to inspire others – that is what God inspires me to do,” Luiz gold Christian Today. “For me, true life is found in the relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe that everything in life belongs to God and he has a clear plan for us if we follow him.”
I like that more than seeing Argentina win tomorrow.
Brazil lost, as expected, to Netherlands today. Defense was shoddy. But Luiz is winning at a game that is much more important than soccer.
I don’t own the rights to this photo, and I’m not making any money on it.
Brazil was supposed to crown itself king in its own country. Its brand of soccer an irresistible wave of yellow. Eleven players who dominate possession, who dance past defenders, who weave intricate webs of passing, who strike with precision from close range or with power from distance.
But Brazil was eliminated from the 2014 World Cup by the Germans, who have reduced soccer to a science. Brazil played its usual, open soccer. Defenders were free to making bombing runs forward in attempts to overrun opponents with sheer numbers of quality players. But Germany foiled their plan, finding more holes in their defense than a net designed to hold water. At the end, the greatest humiliation in soccer had been done: 7-1.
I don’t own the rights to this photo, and I’m not making any money on it.
Now more than before, criticism leveled against the U.S. coach should be silenced. The U.S. lost to Germany, but only by 1-0. Jurgen Klinsmann played a tight defense and achieved a respectable result.
Brazil’s trademark of open soccer got repudiated. If you want to win, you had better defend. If you don’t defend all your lanes, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable to attack.
If we want to execute an attack against the devil, then we had better defend. Defend our marriage and our children. Defend our heart with a guard against worldly entertainment. Defend our soul with persistent prayer, Bible study and church attendance.
Instead of raising the trophy, Brazil crashed and burned in ignominy.
To say Brazil was HEAVILY favored to win Olympic gold is an understatement. Mexico had never won a major soccer tournament. Never.
And Brazil? The five-time World Cup champions only lacked this one accolade. So Brazil was playing to pick up its only missing piece of silverware while Mexico was playing to get its only trophy of significance.
But Mexico played hungry. The under-23 squad played with heart. The underdogs were sharper, quicker, more self-demanding than their overlords. So on Sunday, Mexico shocked the world with a 2-1 win. I’m not surprised.
Hunger outweighs raw talent, speed and tactics. Hunger drives you. It compensates for everything.
When you pray, pray with hunger. Don’t worry about fine-sounding words. Fret not about theological correctness. Don’t waste your time with grammar and syntax. What counts is that you pray with hunger!
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions WITH LOUD CRIES AND TEARS to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. — Heb. 5:7 NIV (caps mine).
Of the 18 or so tattoos scattered all over Stephen Baldwin’s body representing different stages of his life, one is a scripture: 3:30. It’s on the back of his neck and stands for John 3.30. “I must decrease so that he may increase.”
Kennya suddenly realized whom the nanny was singing about. She went to Stephen and said, “Do you hear what she’s singing about? She’s singing about Jesus.”
Mustard Seed Budget 