I Predict that We Will See Turkey Become a Dictatorship (and Possibly the Revival of the Ottoman Empire) in Our Lifetime

This is completely unrelated to the theme of my blog and my website, but after the horrific events in Turkey today, I have to speak out. The West needs to have a greater awareness of the drama unfolding in Turkey presently. It will have far-reaching consequences. (And if you didn’t know this about me already, I am a total geopolitical nut. I spend as much time if not more reading news headlines from foreign papers than I do reading domestic news. We live in very critical times.)

Today’s tragedy in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is shocking and deeply saddening. If you haven’t heard, two bombs went off this morning during a Pro-Kurdish peace rally in the nation’s capital. It killed 86 people and wounded 186. The MIT (Turkey’s version of Homeland Security and the CIA, and very loyal to President Erdogan) has, shockingly, said that is has no intelligence on what is the deadliest act of terrorism in Turkey’s history. The Turkish people are outraged at the MIT, to put it mildly. Why does the MIT even exist? they’re asking. And there are signs of something very fishy because the timing of the attacks and the nature of the attacks stand to greatly benefit President Erdogan’s AK Party in the November 1 elections. (And these Nov. 1 snap elections themselves are historically unprecedented for Turkey because President Erdogan and the AK Party refused to broker a unified parliament government after the June elections, which were not in his favor).

In fact, a very detailed article came out today showing how many of Turkey’s intellectuals suspect that there is something extremely devious behind these deplorable attacks.

If you pay attention to geopolitics, you really don’t have to be a prophet to know what’s coming in Turkey. You just have to read the news – or at least what’s left of it in Turkey. Their government just arrested another editor-in-chief of one of the few remaining free papers. Why? Because he Tweeted something critical of the president.

The fact that President Erdogan of Turkey is rounding up all dissenting voices and throwing them in prison is just the tip of the iceberg of what his party (the AK Party) has been up to in recent years. (And when I say ALL dissenting voices, I mean ALL dissenting voices. His government arrested a 16-year-old for criticizing Erdogan on Facebook.)

Tragically, Turkey is headed straight toward a dictatorship.

And a Turkey dictatorship under Erdogan – a man who was known to carry a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf with him and who has a very Anti-Semitic history – would be horrifying on many levels. Turkey’s impossible-to-get-rid-of but extremely charismatic and eloquent president, whose power becomes more entrenched every year, is the strongest candidate for becoming the 21st Century’s Most Charismatic Dictator – which, as history has shown, is usually a deadly combination for that dictator’s country and for the world.

As the Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Erdogan and the AKP are hollowing out the institutions of Turkish democracy. The Turkish government has in recent months attempted to ban YouTube and Twitter ; dealt brutally with peaceful protesters; fired or reassigned thousands of judges, prosecutors and law enforcers deemed insufficiently loyal; and earned the dubious honor of being the world’s top jailor of journalists in 2012 and 2013, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And that was back in 2012. Things are much worse now. Erdogan has fired thousands of police chiefs across Turkey and likely replacing them with local law enforcement officials who are loyal to him. In the WSJ above it countered its criticisms of the AK Party by citing Erdogan’s then-much-publicized attempts to bring a peace deal with the Kurds in Turkey. Well, now someone has bombed a pro-Kurdish peace rally and the government mysteriously has no leads on who or why. In addition, since Erdogan’s party lost the June election, a mysterious spike in violence and conflict with the Kurds has been erupting.

Many of Turkey’s journalists are connecting the dots and wondering aloud if Erdogan is trying to create chaos before the Nov. 1 election. Those journalists, unfortunately, are going to prison.

So what is Erdogan’s intentions behind all of this? Many believe he wants to revive the Islamist Ottoman Empire in all its glory, and that, ultimately, he wants to become the Sultan over the Middle East and the Sultan of Islam itself. As wild as it sounds, I believe that Erdogan sees himself as the Mahdi, the prophesied unifier and “messiah” of Islam. There is indeed a dangerous Cult of Erdogan in Turkey. Erdogan has been depicted healing the sick, and those who adore him describe the simple act of touching Erdogan as a form of worship, as chronicled in this extensive news report on the Cult of Erdogan. Based on the evidence, I think that all of these claims are not as far-fetched as you might think.

And Erdogan’s apparent ambitions to revive an Islamist Ottoman Empire have been noted and analyzed by many mainstream publications, such as The Telegraph, The Guardian, and The World Post – just to name a few.

The bottom-line is this: more difficult days are likely ahead of Turkey. The West needs to pay closer attention to what’s happening in Turkey because it could have massive ripple effects in the world. And we need to keep the Turkish people in prayer.

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I Predict that We Will See Turkey Become a Dictatorship (and Possibly the Revival of the Ottoman Empire) in Our Lifetime

This is completely unrelated to the theme of my blog and my website, but after the horrific events in Turkey today, I have to speak out. The West needs to have a greater awareness of the drama unfolding in Turkey presently. It will have far-reaching consequences. (And if you didn’t know this about me already, I am a total geopolitical nut. I spend as much time if not more reading news headlines from foreign papers than I do reading domestic news. We live in very critical times.)

Today’s tragedy in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is shocking and deeply saddening. If you haven’t heard, two bombs went off this morning during a Pro-Kurdish peace rally in the nation’s capital. It killed 86 people and wounded 186. The MIT (Turkey’s version of Homeland Security and the CIA, and very loyal to President Erdogan) has, shockingly, said that is has no intelligence on what is the deadliest act of terrorism in Turkey’s history. The Turkish people are outraged at the MIT, to put it mildly. Why does the MIT even exist? they’re asking. And there are signs of something very fishy because the timing of the attacks and the nature of the attacks stand to greatly benefit President Erdogan’s AK Party in the November 1 elections. (And these Nov. 1 snap elections themselves are historically unprecedented for Turkey because President Erdogan and the AK Party refused to broker a unified parliament government after the June elections, which were not in his favor).

In fact, a very detailed article came out today showing how many of Turkey’s intellectuals suspect that there is something extremely devious behind these deplorable attacks.

If you pay attention to geopolitics, you really don’t have to be a prophet to know what’s coming in Turkey. You just have to read the news – or at least what’s left of it in Turkey. Their government just arrested another editor-in-chief of one of the few remaining free papers. Why? Because he Tweeted something critical of the president.

The fact that President Erdogan of Turkey is rounding up all dissenting voices and throwing them in prison is just the tip of the iceberg of what his party (the AK Party) has been up to in recent years. (And when I say ALL dissenting voices, I mean ALL dissenting voices. His government arrested a 16-year-old for criticizing Erdogan on Facebook.)

Tragically, Turkey is headed straight toward a dictatorship.

And a Turkey dictatorship under Erdogan – a man who was known to carry a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf with him and who has a very Anti-Semitic history – would be horrifying on many levels. Turkey’s impossible-to-get-rid-of but extremely charismatic and eloquent president, whose power becomes more entrenched every year, is the strongest candidate for becoming the 21st Century’s Most Charismatic Dictator – which, as history has shown, is usually a deadly combination for that dictator’s country and for the world.

As the Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Erdogan and the AKP are hollowing out the institutions of Turkish democracy. The Turkish government has in recent months attempted to ban YouTube and Twitter ; dealt brutally with peaceful protesters; fired or reassigned thousands of judges, prosecutors and law enforcers deemed insufficiently loyal; and earned the dubious honor of being the world’s top jailor of journalists in 2012 and 2013, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And that was back in 2012. Things are much worse now. Erdogan has fired thousands of police chiefs across Turkey and likely replacing them with local law enforcement officials who are loyal to him. In the WSJ above it countered its criticisms of the AK Party by citing Erdogan’s then-much-publicized attempts to bring a peace deal with the Kurds in Turkey. Well, now someone has bombed a pro-Kurdish peace rally and the government mysteriously has no leads on who or why. In addition, since Erdogan’s party lost the June election, a mysterious spike in violence and conflict with the Kurds has been erupting.

Many of Turkey’s journalists are connecting the dots and wondering aloud if Erdogan is trying to create chaos before the Nov. 1 election. Those journalists, unfortunately, are going to prison.

So what is Erdogan’s intentions behind all of this? Many believe he wants to revive the Islamist Ottoman Empire in all its glory, and that, ultimately, he wants to become the Sultan over the Middle East and the Sultan of Islam itself. As wild as it sounds, I believe that Erdogan sees himself as the Mahdi, the prophesied unifier and “messiah” of Islam. There is indeed a dangerous Cult of Erdogan in Turkey. Erdogan has been depicted healing the sick, and those who adore him describe the simple act of touching Erdogan as a form of worship, as chronicled in this extensive news report on the Cult of Erdogan. Based on the evidence, I think that all of these claims are not as far-fetched as you might think.

And Erdogan’s apparent ambitions to revive an Islamist Ottoman Empire have been noted and analyzed by many mainstream publications, such as The Telegraph, The Guardian, and The World Post – just to name a few.

The bottom-line is this: more difficult days are likely ahead of Turkey. The West needs to pay closer attention to what’s happening in Turkey because it could have massive ripple effects in the world. And we need to keep the Turkish people in prayer.

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I Predict that We Will See Turkey Become a Dictatorship (and Possibly the Revival of the Ottoman Empire) in Our Lifetime

This is completely unrelated to the theme of my blog and my website, but after the horrific events in Turkey today, I have to speak out. The West needs to have a greater awareness of the drama unfolding in Turkey presently. It will have far-reaching consequences. (And if you didn’t know this about me already, I am a total geopolitical nut. I spend as much time if not more reading news headlines from foreign papers than I do reading domestic news. We live in very critical times.)

Today’s tragedy in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is shocking and deeply saddening. If you haven’t heard, two bombs went off this morning during a Pro-Kurdish peace rally in the nation’s capital. It killed 86 people and wounded 186. The MIT (Turkey’s version of Homeland Security and the CIA, and very loyal to President Erdogan) has, shockingly, said that is has no intelligence on what is the deadliest act of terrorism in Turkey’s history. The Turkish people are outraged at the MIT, to put it mildly. Why does the MIT even exist? they’re asking. And there are signs of something very fishy because the timing of the attacks and the nature of the attacks stand to greatly benefit President Erdogan’s AK Party in the November 1 elections. (And these Nov. 1 snap elections themselves are historically unprecedented for Turkey because President Erdogan and the AK Party refused to broker a unified parliament government after the June elections, which were not in his favor).

In fact, a very detailed article came out today showing how many of Turkey’s intellectuals suspect that there is something extremely devious behind these deplorable attacks.

If you pay attention to geopolitics, you really don’t have to be a prophet to know what’s coming in Turkey. You just have to read the news – or at least what’s left of it in Turkey. Their government just arrested another editor-in-chief of one of the few remaining free papers. Why? Because he Tweeted something critical of the president.

The fact that President Erdogan of Turkey is rounding up all dissenting voices and throwing them in prison is just the tip of the iceberg of what his party (the AK Party) has been up to in recent years. (And when I say ALL dissenting voices, I mean ALL dissenting voices. His government arrested a 16-year-old for criticizing Erdogan on Facebook.)

Tragically, Turkey is headed straight toward a dictatorship.

And a Turkey dictatorship under Erdogan – a man who was known to carry a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf with him and who has a very Anti-Semitic history – would be horrifying on many levels. Turkey’s impossible-to-get-rid-of but extremely charismatic and eloquent president, whose power becomes more entrenched every year, is the strongest candidate for becoming the 21st Century’s Most Charismatic Dictator – which, as history has shown, is usually a deadly combination for that dictator’s country and for the world.

As the Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Erdogan and the AKP are hollowing out the institutions of Turkish democracy. The Turkish government has in recent months attempted to ban YouTube and Twitter ; dealt brutally with peaceful protesters; fired or reassigned thousands of judges, prosecutors and law enforcers deemed insufficiently loyal; and earned the dubious honor of being the world’s top jailor of journalists in 2012 and 2013, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And that was back in 2012. Things are much worse now. Erdogan has fired thousands of police chiefs across Turkey and likely replacing them with local law enforcement officials who are loyal to him. In the WSJ above it countered its criticisms of the AK Party by citing Erdogan’s then-much-publicized attempts to bring a peace deal with the Kurds in Turkey. Well, now someone has bombed a pro-Kurdish peace rally and the government mysteriously has no leads on who or why. In addition, since Erdogan’s party lost the June election, a mysterious spike in violence and conflict with the Kurds has been erupting.

Many of Turkey’s journalists are connecting the dots and wondering aloud if Erdogan is trying to create chaos before the Nov. 1 election. Those journalists, unfortunately, are going to prison.

So what is Erdogan’s intentions behind all of this? Many believe he wants to revive the Islamist Ottoman Empire in all its glory, and that, ultimately, he wants to become the Sultan over the Middle East and the Sultan of Islam itself. As wild as it sounds, I believe that Erdogan sees himself as the Mahdi, the prophesied unifier and “messiah” of Islam. There is indeed a dangerous Cult of Erdogan in Turkey. Erdogan has been depicted healing the sick, and those who adore him describe the simple act of touching Erdogan as a form of worship, as chronicled in this extensive news report on the Cult of Erdogan. Based on the evidence, I think that all of these claims are not as far-fetched as you might think.

And Erdogan’s apparent ambitions to revive an Islamist Ottoman Empire have been noted and analyzed by many mainstream publications, such as The Telegraph, The Guardian, and The World Post – just to name a few.

The bottom-line is this: more difficult days are likely ahead of Turkey. The West needs to pay closer attention to what’s happening in Turkey because it could have massive ripple effects in the world. And we need to keep the Turkish people in prayer.

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Strength Comes When I Love You For Your Sake (Not Because There’s Something In It For Me)

I almost started that title with the word “happiness” instead of “strength,” but an example in real life immediately came to mind that ruled “happiness” out. That’s right, when we love others for their sake and not our own, it gives us strength – powerful, enduring, marvelous strength that we didn’t know was possible.

But it doesn’t always give us happiness – at least not in the normal, self-satisfied, earthly sense. (Though it can certainly give us deep spiritual joy – i.e. the “blessed are you” that Jesus described in the Beautitudes).

But sometimes it’s downright miserable.

This “example in real life” that proved this to me is that precarious situation when the deepest romantic love – the most intense form of “Eros” in all its glory – is denied access and expression toward the beloved. It is denied not because the beloved, the object of your affection, has rejected you, but because circumstances of life – war, famine, family/cultural strife (i.e. the Capulet family vs. the Montague family in Romeo and Juliet) or other unforeseen disasters/problems – cause long-term or permanent separation.

What Does It Mean to Love Someone For Their Sake (and Not Our Own)?

It’s a simple truth really: we can choose to love someone out of self-centered motives – sort of the way we love a really good product as long as it gives us some kind of benefit – or we can choose to love someone for their sake alone, whether or not we get anything out of it.

Modern vernacular sometimes calls this “unconditional love.” Ancient thinkers called it “agape” love. Not long ago they called it “charity.”

It’s a kind of love that is wholly focused on the well-being of the recipient, and it is forgetful of self – sort of like an absent-minded professor who forgets to eat dinner, tie his shoes, and check for traffic before crossing the street because his mind is so preoccupied with the well-being of someone else who happens to be in the hospital. He’s wondering how she is doing, is checking his messages, and is generally just contemplating her so thoroughly that any practical concerns for himself fade into the background. And that kind of love isn’t just limited to romantic love. We can do it when we’re concerned about our parents or caring for a sick child or helping a homeless person at a shelter – the list goes on and on. The common thread through all of them is simple: unconditional love is, in a way, always self-destructive and always self-forgetful.

Yet, if you can believe it, it’s a good kind of self-destructive.

To be clear, other loves – especially romantic love – can also be self-destructive (i.e. when Romeo and Juliet commit suicide), but agape love is the only “self-destruction” that actually improves the state of your soul.

The Bad Kind of Self-Destructive Love (Because It’s Self-Obsessed)

Let’s look at a specific example of the bad kind of self-destruction.

For example, the much-romanticized “love suicide” in Romeo and Juliet is, at its core, self-centered and self-obsessed, not altruistically others-focused. Because Romeo and Juliet couldn’t be together, they chose to end their lives. They chose to deprive the world of the gifts, talents, and acts of goodwill and service they had to offer. When Juliet, for example, woke from her sleeping potion and found Romeo dead (because he killed himself after mistakenly thinking that she had died), she stabbed herself to death. But what if she had chosen to live? She could’ve mourned Romeo for the rest of her life, but (as cheesy as it sounds) instead of killing herself she could have re-purposed her pain into a life of helping others.

Sure that would have diminished the power of the story and fought against Shakespeare’s theme of tragedy that he was working hard to paint, but, I have to say, G.K. Chesterton was right when he said that killing yourself is like killing the whole world.

A Strength That Can Be Priceless

I’m not really wagging my finger at people who have Romeo and Juliet tendencies. Why? Because this is coming from one of those people – someone who has bowed at the altar of Eros. Many years ago, as early as high school, I used to think that the romantic love found in stories like Romeo and Juliet was the ideal – the highest, holiest love. I was (and still am, to a more restrained degree) a hopeless romantic.

But I’ve stumbled upon something profound. When we genuinely love someone for their sake – without a shred of a thought about what we could get out of it – the ceilings vanishes and the whole sky opens above you.

There is a larger-than-life liberation that happens.

It may not be the “happily ever after” kind of liberation where we go skipping away into the sunset because we got everything we wanted in a neat Hollywood ending. It is the kind of liberation that breathes a second wind into your stride just when you think you’ve run out of all energy to run the race.

It’s not rocket science either. It works very simply: you’re so invested in their happiness (not obsessed with your own) that the mere thought of their well-being is enough to change your attitude. Their well-being becomes an Absolute Idea that exists whether or not you benefit from it. It exists independently from your mind just as the mountain on the horizon or the ocean that roars night and day whether you hear it or not. And the mere knowledge of their well-being – especially if your suffering/sacrifices/hardship, etc. somehow contributes to it – may not fill you with some magical fairy tale happiness that safeguards you from heartbreak.

But it will fill you with new strength.

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Announcing New Podcast Aslan's Paws

Just launched my official podcast (sponsored by RockinGodsHouse.com) called Aslan’s Paw. My first interview features the audio of my interview with actor David Oyelowo. Why bother yourself with reading when you can just listen to the conversation?

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My Interview with David Oyelowo about His New Film 'Captive'

Life, sometimes, can feel stranger than fiction. One never knows what God will do. And when we truly surrender the course of our lives into the hands of Christ, He opens some wildly unexpected doors.

For example, in 2012 I went to Ghana – to its capital Accra – to do some ministry with my friend Dr. Kodjoe Sumney, a native Ghanian who had established powerful humanitarian work in Ghana. I will never forget how, in the course of 48 hours, how God opened doors. One day we were in the capital building meeting with Ghana’s secretary of state. The next day we were in the bush meeting with villagers who had never seen a white person. Both meetings were critically important, and both changed my life.

Recently, a similar thing happened. Over the course of a mere 24-48 hours, God opened unexpected doors. One day I was speaking with actor David Oyelowo. He played Martin Luther King, Jr. in the much acclaimed film “Selma.” He also had significant roles in other films like “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Interstellar,” and many others. (My personal favorite being the Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare film “As You Like It.”) He’s a wildly successful, internationally celebrated actor at the pinnacle of his career. But more than that, he is a devoted, sincere saved-by-faith-not-by-works Christian who loves Jesus with all of his heart.

The next day, after the interview, I found myself in a prison visiting room, sitting across from an inmate who is (maybe, in a worst case scenario) looking at over 20 years in prison. He became a Christian after going to prison, and, like David, he is also a devoted, sincere saved-by-faith-not-by-works Christian who loves Jesus with all of his heart.

Both conversations – one with an A-list actor, the other with an inmate – were equally life-changing and inspirational. In both cases, I felt as if I were talking to a long lost cousin – a family member related by the blood of Jesus – and the barriers between us, whether it was a protective glass barrier or a protective movie studio rep carefully guarding the actor’s time in the interview, faded into the background.

In both cases, it was Jesus that mattered the most, and it was Jesus who was present the most. Everything else of this world – the great successes and the great tragedies – grow dim in the magnificent light of the King.

Although I can’t share the entire interview with Mr. Oyelowo here because it was given exclusively to Rocking God’s House, I can quote an excerpt of it. Below is my favorite part of the interview. After I ask him about the verse Phil. 4:8-9, David shares how God opened some wild doors for his new faith-themed movie ‘Captive:’

Philippians 4:8-9 tells us to always focus on the good that God is doing. I’d like to end our interview by following that advice and just asking this question: what good things has God been doing in your life recently that have been encouraging, that you wouldn’t mind sharing?

This film seeing the light of day is an incredible encouragement. I actually made this film before “Selma,” and I had always felt — as a producer anyway — I wanted to wait for it to have the right platform. I went on to do “Selma,” that film did very well, gained me a notoriety that I didn’t have before, and “Selma” was distributed by Paramount. I know it was the success of “Selma” that enabled a studio of Paramount’s stature to be the one to now bring “Captive” to the world.

And, you know, a film like “Captive” is really my heart. This is the kind of movie I want to see out in the world because it’s not — what we tried to do — is not make a film that’s preachy but a film that’s real. Not shy away from the darkness but show that the light can overwhelm the darkness, and to reveal that in a true story, especially with someone like Ashley Smith whose life has gone on to be filled with purpose; and she attributes her salvation to God and her faith in Christ.

It’s incredible to me to see God blessing the work of my hands and the people around me by giving [Captive] a platform and amplification that it otherwise might not have had. That’s encouraging to me. That, to me, is what the Bible means when it says we go from faith to faith; God coming along and putting in rocket fuel like “Captive,” or even “Selma,” is what encourages you to keep going. And it goes back to the Parable of the Talents: when God has given you something, go and multiply it, invest in it. Don’t bring back the thing that He has given you. Bring back more. And He’s the one who grows it as you combine faith with hard work. So that’s what I see playing out in my life. It’s hugely encouraging, and it’s what inspires me to keep going.

To read the full interview – and it really is worth the read because David describes his experience playing and preparing for the role of Brian Nichols – check out the article here at Rocking God’s House.

***

Image of David Oyelowo taken from Wikicommons with the following author information:

Author: Mingle Media TV

Source: http://ift.tt/1iQAvz0

Info: Actor David Oyelowo at the 3rd Annual ICON MANN POWER 50 event on February 18, 2015

License granted: Creative Commons Share Alike

All other images taken from promotional materials for the film, including screenshots from the trailer and the movie poster.

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Is God Sending a Message to America Through These Two Movies?

You may have heard about the Christian movie “War Room” which is shocking Hollywood by making gabillions of dollars and far exceeding expectations. It’s about the power of intercessory prayer and spiritual warfare done in Jesus’ name.

Well, there are two other extremely powerful faith-themed movies coming out, and I noticed something curiously interesting in both of them – a very interesting coincidence.

In fact, and this might sound crazy to some people, this coincidence has convinced me that God is using these two movies to send a message of grace to America – a call to turn our hearts to Him.

Let me explain.

Last night I watched the new faith-themed movie “90 Minutes in Heaven,” starring two very talented actors (who did an incredible job in this movie): Hayden Christensen (Star Wars prequels) and Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush, Superman Returns, Still Alice). Before the movie begins, a verse appears on-screen, a verse from Romans. It is Rom. 12:12: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.“

Earlier this week, on Wednesday night, I screened the faith-themed film “Captive,” which comes out next weekend (Sept 18). It stars David Oyelowo (who played MLK, Jr. in “Selma” and who is a devout Christian) and Kate Mara. (In fact, I interviewed Mr. Oyelowo this morning and had a truly amazing and inspirational conversation about faith and God’s grace. Look for my interview to post Sunday night.)

That movie – “Captivity” – ALSO has a verse from Romans appear on-screen before the movie starts: “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Rom. 5:20).

Two completely separate movies, filmmakers, and studios, and they both have a verse from Romans on the title screen before the movie begins. And the two verses go hand-in-hand. They are perfectly complementary. Together they could form a complete sentence: Where sin abounded, grace abounded more, so be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.

There are other similarities between the films: both are based on true stories about stories of God’s power and grace:

• “Captive” is based on the true story of an incident from 2005. A woman named Ashley Smith was taken hostage by an escaped prisoner who had killed four people the day of his escape. She reads a Christian book to him while she is held hostage, and the situation takes an unexpected and remarkable turn.
• “90 Minutes in Heaven” tells the true story of a Baptist preacher named Don Piper who died in a car accident, spent 90 minutes in Heaven, and then came back to life miraculously after a passerby saw the accident and prayed for him.

And the movies are releasing back-to-back, the first one, “90 Minutes in Heaven,” releasing today (which, by the way, is on the 14th anniversary of 9/11). The second one (Captive) next week.

All of that, to me, is profoundly encouraging. I can’t help but wonder if God is sending a message of His grace to America, and He is artfully using two movies to say one thing: “where sin abounds, grace abounds more” so, because of that grace, “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.”

What a powerful and timely message for America.

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