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Worship Pastor’s Personal Suffering, Battle Against Unbelief Births New Music
It was 2014. They had just purchased a home. Then their world was turned upside down when an unexpected change pulled them out of a community they loved.
Justin Kintzel wrote the first line of his new song — “In all this we know that you are good” — right after he and his wife, Ashley, were pushed out of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. At that time, Justin said he “didn’t really believe it.”
The Kintzels spent years in Lynchburg, where Justin served as the worship pastor for Liberty, one of the largest Christian colleges in the world. But when staff changes were made, their home began to fall apart.
That sent the Kintzels on quite the journey, complete with a series of moves, major financial concerns, a life-altering health scare with their daughter Nora, and a crazy spiritual battle that upended their entire world.
They say hindsight is 20/20, and that’s definitely the case with the Kintzels, who now live in Arvada, Colorado, where Justin serves as the communications and worship pastor for Applewood Baptist Church. Having survived the trials they faced, Justin told Faithwire he can now see how their struggle to handle suffering well caused him and Ashley to “turn on each other.”
At the same time Justin left Liberty, he and Ashley found themselves seriously cash strapped and at the precipice of what could have been a devastating loss: their little daughter Nora — who is now much healthier — was diagnosed with a handful of health complications.
And in the midst of all they were experiencing, Justin was losing his faith. Standing on the stage as he led congregations in worship, he was becoming an agnostic.
“I was really dejected,” Justin said of his season battling unbelief. “But there was one thing that really sort of kept me in.”
Even as he was struggling to keep the faith, Justin found himself deeply bothered by opportunistic religious leaders and prosperity gospel preachers who are “teaching false theology on purpose for gain.”
Justin was intrigued by the fact Scripture predicted there would be false teachers who claim to preach the Gospel but whose words don’t line up with the Bible.
“To me, if there was nothing to it, I could see how it would’ve just fizzled out a long time ago,” he said of Christianity. “Israel wouldn’t even be a place anymore. All of these things that are foundational to the Christian faith probably would’ve dissolved over time, and they haven’t.”
It all came to a head for Justin when, while he was serving as a worship pastor for a large church in Oklahoma, he found himself rushing out of an all-staff event and onto a hill, where he started shouting at God, challenging him to give him a sign in that moment.
Nothing happened. Justin was disappointed, but not surprised.
Then he went back inside, where the lead pastor moments later announced the church would be hosting a popular prosperity-style preacher for the next couple weeks — that, Justin recalled, was his sign.
“In one moment,” he said, “everything slid into place.”
As his faith was restored and he and Ashley’s struggles redeemed, Justin said he began to realize God, “in his love, brings hard things into our lives to wean us off of the world.”
“I had lived a very charmed life,” Ashley agreed. “There are three reasons why we suffer: it’s either our sin, it’s somebody else’s sin, or it is an attack of Satan that is permitted by the sovereign hand of God.”
Their experiences over the last several years, she said, have revealed to her God has purposes for the suffering he allows in our lives.
“We live in a culture that’s all about Christian maximizing,” Ashley added. “And Jesus is actually the de-maximizer. He sees the crowds following him and he turns around and says, ‘If you can’t pick up your own cross and follow me and die to yourself, you can’t be my disciple.’”
In a world that tells us everything is about us and crowns us authors of our own destinies, Justin and Ashley have learned together that just isn’t the case. One of the lines in Justin’s new single, “In All This We Know,” is, “When it all falls apart, we trust your heart, because you are God, and we are not.”
Their journey has, in part, made clear to Justin “the most offensive message in the universe is ‘die to yourself,’” he said, a reference to passages like Galatians 2:20, which reads, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Now, five years after leaving Lynchburg, Justin and Ashley are sharing a part of themselves — and how God has restored their lives — with a brand new single, the first song Justin has released in as much time.
That short lyric — “In all this we know that you are good” — had been tucked away for years in a file folder on his computer, Justin recalled, when a few months ago Ashley told him it was time to share his journey out of unbelief.
“So I did,” Justin said. “It’s been a vulnerable thing over time, but I think the confirmation has been that people have responded with, ‘Me too.’”
world news
Northeast Syrian Minorities Seeking to Preserve Free Enclave, Ask for Western Help against Turkey, and for Christians’ Prayers
Just days after the fall of the Assad Government in Syria, the region is adjusting to the new realities on the ground.
One area inside Syria could be ground zero for another battle between Western values and Islamic ambitions.
While the leader of the main faction of Syria’s rebel forces is pledging no new war, a democratic enclave in northeast Syria that is home to Kurds, Yazidis, and Christians is being attacked by a proxy army of Turkey.
CBN News spoke with a Christian from northeast Syria by phone. To protect his identity, we’ve disguised his voice and can’t show his face. We’re calling him “Gabriel.”
Gabriel told us, “So, yeah, we are under attack, and we don’t think that (Turkish President) Erdogan and his proxies are going to stop (attacking) in this place in the north.”
The Autonomous Administration in Northeast Syria is unique in all of the Middle East. CBN News reported on the then-fledgling government in a 2019 report.
In that report, freelance journalist Karlos Zurutuza told us, “It’s completely new—completely new in the Middle East, and I’d say it’s completely new in the whole world.”
Zurutuza added, “So literally from day one, since 2012—since they liberated their territories—they are in the process of reconstructing civil society, integrated their components in the region; not just Kurds. It’s Arabs, Armenians, Syriacs.”
During the war to defeat ISIS, the Autonomous Administration partnered with the US and allied forces.
Charmaine Hedding, founder of the Shai Fund, an organization that helps people groups in volatile situations, explained, “They are most similar in human rights to what we believe in the West. And critically, they have freedom of religion and belief, and an overrepresentation of religious minorities. So, what’s happened is they stand in direct opposition to these jihadi, Islamist groups. And so today, we are seeing the Sunni is being used as the militia to break down and attack northeast Syria.”
The Autonomous Administration fears the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has stated his intention to defeat the Kurds of northeast Syria.
Given the attacks by Turkish-backed forces and Erdogan’s threats, the people of northeast Syria are calling out to the US and the West, and the Christian world for help.
“We call on all the Christians in the world to call their nations and brothers and sisters in their administration to make the Christians, the Kurds and Druze, and all minorities to be able to protect themselves from these kinds of atrocities,” Gabriel told us.
He claims Northeast Syria is not asking for foreign troops, but for the resources to defend themselves.
“Especially [for the] Trump administration and the Israeli government to make this happen because, Christians all over Syria, Christians all over Lebanon, all over Iraq, they want to survive,” he declared.
Gabriel continued, “We are demanding to survive in our fatherland, to speak to our family, our language, and to be able to represent our religion, which is the ancient Christian, really ancient Christian religion, and speak freely our Aramaic language, which was the language of Jesus. We call especially America to stop Turkey from invading the project of Northeast Syria.”
Hedding believes it’s important to pray for this emerging Middle East democracy.
“Because in this area you have people who can believe whatever they want. Christians, Yazidis, [and] even Muslim background Believers who have come to faith in Jesus are able to practice their religion in this area. So, pray for northeast Syria that it will remain stable and that the international community would stand and back northeast Syria against these Islamist jihadis.”
Sources:BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS
നൈജീരിയയിലെ പ്ലാറ്റോ സ്റ്റേറ്റിൽ ഫുലാനി തീവ്രവാദികൾ 19 പേരെ കൊലപ്പെടുത്തി. മുൻപ് തീവ്രവാദികൾ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോയ വ്യക്തിയും അതിൽ ഉൾപ്പെടുന്നു. ഡിസംബർ ഒന്നിനാണ് ആക്രമണങ്ങൾ നടന്നത്.
ഫുലാനി തീവ്രവാദികളെന്നു കരുതുന്ന ആറ് തോക്കുധാരികൾ ഡിസംബർ ഒന്നിന് റിയോം കൗണ്ടിയിലെ ക്വി ഏരിയയിലെ ദുവാങ് ഗ്രാമത്തിൽ മോട്ടോർ സൈക്കിളിൽ സഞ്ചരിക്കുകയായിരുന്ന രണ്ട് ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികളെ പതിയിരുന്ന് ആക്രമിച്ച് കൊലപ്പെടുത്തിയതായി മനുഷ്യാവകാശ അഭിഭാഷകൻ അറ്റോർണി ഡാലിയോപ് സോളമൻ മവന്തിരിയുടെ പത്രക്കുറിപ്പിൽ പറയുന്നു.
അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ മൃതദേഹം കണ്ടെത്തിയത് ഒരു മണിക്കൂറിലധികം നടത്തിയ തിരച്ചിലിനുശേഷമാണ്. പ്രദേശത്ത് നിലയുറപ്പിച്ച സൈനിക ഉദ്യോഗസ്ഥർ പ്രദേശം സന്ദർശിച്ച് മൃതദേഹങ്ങൾ മോർച്ചറിയിലേക്കു കൊണ്ടുവന്നതായി മവന്തിരി പറഞ്ഞു.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
Nigeria — A pastor and Christian businesswoman were killed in two separate attacks on Dec. 6 in Taraba state, Nigeria.
The first attack occurred at midnight in the Mayo Dasa area of Jalingo, the state capital. Reports from the Taraba State Police Command spokesperson, Abdullahi Usman, reveal that assailants entered the home of a young businesswoman and shot her to death. In a separate attack in the Jerbanbur area, a clergyman was murdered in his home.
Residents have expressed concerns regarding the attacks, and some have identified the attackers as Muslim extremists, with accusations pointing to more than 100 deaths of Christians since January. However, authorities have only categorized the attackers as unidentified gunmen.
The latest attacks reflect a broader trend of violence against Christians in Taraba and surrounding states. Notably, in November 2023, Oluwakemi Moses Konye, a pastor’s wife, was killed while traveling with her infant child. Such incidents, despite the presence of the military and police, highlight the ongoing security challenges that Christians face in Nigeria.
Advocates for Christian rights are calling for increased accountability and a more responsive approach from authorities regarding the plight of persecuted communities. Many believe that these targeted attacks indicate a concerning trend aimed at destabilizing Christian populations in Nigeria’s Northern and Central regions.
Sources:persecution
Northeast Syrian Minorities Seeking to Preserve Free Enclave, Ask for Western Help against Turkey, and for Christians’ Prayers
Just days after the fall of the Assad Government in Syria, the region is adjusting to the new realities on...
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