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A ministry in Brooklyn is teaching and proving that Jesus is stronger than addiction

NEW YORK — Though he died in April 2011, the voice of Christian evangelist David Wilkerson still echoes loudly inside a well-kept neo-Federal style home at 416 Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill Historic District.
City records show the home was first designed in 1919 by R.I. Markwith for Miss Clara Van Vleck at a time when the wealthiest people in town built their stately homes along the tree-lined boulevard.
By December 1960, however, Wilkerson, who would later author the bestselling book, The Cross and the Switchblade, and start Times Square Church in Manhattan, purchased the house designed for Ms. Van Vleck and made it the home of a now international addiction recovery program called Teen Challenge.
In early 1958, Wilkerson said he felt called by God to come to New York City to minister to gangs after seeing a photograph of seven teenage gang members in Life magazine. The teenagers were being prosecuted for the murder of a crippled boy named Michael Farmer. All but one of the teenagers were convicted.
Before their convictions, Wilkerson, who was then a small-town preacher from Pennsylvania, traveled to the courthouse where the teenagers were being tried and asked the judge for permission to talk with them. The judge responded by throwing him out. A photo of Wilkerson at the courthouse would eventually get published in newspapers and he became known as the “Bible preacher who interrupted the gang trial.”
Wilkerson left the city embarrassed, but that encounter would ultimately lead him, with the help of his younger brother, Don Wilkerson, to start a street ministry in 1958 targeting young drug addicts and gang members in New York City, which became Teen Challenge.
Nearly 70 years later, there are now 1,400 Teen Challenge centers around the world with more than 35,000 beds for individuals seeking “freedom from addiction and other life controlling issues” through the power of faith in Jesus Christ.
And inside the building where the first one was started, Wilkerson’s vision to save addicts with the Gospel is still thriving as the Brooklyn Adult & Teen Challenge with a graduate of the ministry at its helm.
It was a wet and overcast spring morning when the ministry’s executive director, Paul Burke, who has been running the Brooklyn operation since 2020, gave The Christian Post a tour of the house at 416 Clinton Street. Burke is charismatic and passionate about the ministry and his faith.
He explained that the home, which has 58 beds, dedicates more than half of them to men who commit to the one-year addiction recovery program free of charge. It’s a regimented deal in which participants learn how to do life better with regular prayer, Bible study, and church attendance. Some 60% of participants fail to complete the program but those who do, said Burke, usually find success in overcoming their addiction.
“We’ve kept the mission and the focus the same with being a Christian discipleship program,” Burke told CP. “We focus more on the discipleship part, less on the addiction part. We believe the addiction part takes care of itself when somebody fully embraces their walk with the Lord. I always say sobriety is a byproduct of a healthy spiritual person.”
Burke also noticed that the students who succeed in the program usually have no other options available for help.
And 19-year-old Noel Casillas, who works as an intern guiding students at the ministry, agrees.
Prior to joining the ministry as a 17-year-old, he had been grappling with serious “family issues” which led to him being placed in a mental institution. He declined going into the details behind the issues he faced but told CP that his family “felt like that was the best thing to do for me.”
He said an aunt connected him with Teen Challenge and the program quickly became a lifeline for him despite it being challenging at first. During the program, he said he had a “breakthrough moment.”
“I cried out to God. I just said, ‘I need you, if you’re there, just help me. I can’t do this. I’m weak,’” he said. “I felt like I had nobody.”
He admits that if he had failed to complete the program he wouldn’t have had anywhere to go.
“I was not able to go back to my mother’s, my uncles, if I had left the program, nor to my dad’s,” he said. “I would have been homeless, sleeping in abandoned apartments. … So I took this and I rode with it because it was my best option.”
Despite being forced to finish the program due to his lack of options, Casillas believes it was God’s design.
“God used my circumstances to keep me here,” he said.
Pastor Michael La Pietra, a graduate from the 2016 class of New York Teen Challenge, who now working as the Brooklyn center’s public relations and advancement coordinator, said before he agreed to try the Christian program to help with his addiction struggles, he had gone “through the trap door at the rock bottom to the very rock bottom.”
“I was going through secular programs over and over and they weren’t working for substance abuse,” he told CP. “I was using prescription pills, drinking, smoking pot, the whole nine yards, it wasn’t having much success with my life.”
La Pietra is now a married licensed minister and father thanks to the stabilizing effect of Teen Challenge.
Everything inside and outside the building at 416 Clinton Avenue looks refreshed. The more than 100-year-old building recently completed a multi-year renovation process Burke said. The ministry only resumed operations at the location in February after a number of relocations while the work was being done.
One of the first rooms you encounter as you enter the building is the Wilkerson Memorial Library, which is still under construction. In honor of Wilkerson, the ministry is replicating the courtroom scene from the time the late evangelist founder tried to engage the teenagers who were tried for murder.
Down the hallway opposite the entrance is the Nicky Cruz Assembly Room where students of the program gather for meals and other activities. A sober quote from Wilkerson summarizing what they do at Brooklyn Adult & Teen Challenge is mounted on a wall inside.
“Certainly we cannot claim a magical cure for addiction. The devil which hides in the needle, the pills and the powder is so deadly strong that any such claim would be foolish,” the quote says. “All we can say is that we have found a power that captures a person more strongly than narcotics but he captures only to liberate!”
As a 2009 graduate of the program who struggled with 18 years of addiction before getting his life together, Burke is a poster child for the program’s success, but he embraces it with grace and temperance. He is also extremely grateful for the life God has given him. He is a married father whose wife is also a graduate of Teen Challenge.
“I always tell people that I’m still in the program,” he said when asked how he managed to stay grounded as a former addict inside his office that used to be Wilkerson’s apartment.
Although there is no cure for drug addiction, according to the Mayo Clinic, Wilkerson has always argued that faith in Jesus is an effective option for people looking to be free. Burke understands this and explained that working in the ministry helps to keep him humble about his 17 years of sobriety
“Working in this environment keeps me grounded because, number one, I don’t forget where I came from and how deadly addiction is and how lost I was and how empty life was walking through those doors,” he said.
“I struggled for 18 years on and off. Now, I’m at 17 years of sobriety. So, 35 years around addiction, I know how deadly it is. I’m not fearful of addiction, but I respect that if I don’t stay committed to my devotional life with the Lord, if I don’t stay committed to growing and learning and still being teachable, there’s nobody that is beyond falling or failure again,” he insisted.
“I have to be as intentional about my own spiritual life and recovery as I was while I was a student in the program. And seeing these guys and the brokenness that they come in with, it keeps me broken before the Lord, knowing that that would have been me if it was not for the Lord.”
Sources:Christian Post
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The Bible reading plan that changed my spiritual life

If you’re like most Christians, you’ve probably tried to read through the Bible at some point — and maybe you’ve fallen off track.
Maybe you started strong but got bogged down in Leviticus. Or perhaps you’re in that frustrating cycle where you keep restarting Genesis every few months.
What if I told you I’ve discovered a Bible reading approach that’s not just sustainable, but actually addictive? One that will transform your daily Scripture time from a duty into something you genuinely look forward to?
Why most Bible reading plans fail
A quick search reveals countless different varieties of Bible-in-a-year reading plans. Some offer printable worksheets, others provide audiobook companions, and all promise to guide you through Scripture systematically.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m sure those are all great. Truth be told, ANY Bible reading plan that you make and stick to is a fantastic plan, at least for you.
But there’s a reason so many well-intentioned Bible reading journeys fizzle out by February:
Cold starts are difficult: Diving straight into complex passages like Leviticus or Hebrews first thing in the morning can be jarring.
Linear reading lacks variety: Reading straight through can mean weeks in challenging sections with no relief.
Missing the big picture: Reading isolated sections makes it harder to see connections across Scripture.
Duty without delight: Reading becomes a checkbox rather than a relationship.
Because it’s important, as Protestants, that we truly be Sola Scriptura. And to do that, we can’t be “Some o’ Scriptura” or “None o’ Scriptura.”
If we believe this book truly IS the Word of God, we should be reading it, ALL of it, regularly — including the parts we’re less familiar with.
Enter the 5122 Bible reading plan
I want to share the Scripture reading plan that helped me work through the Bible for the first time as a new believer — a plan that fundamentally changed my relationship with God’s Word.
Warning: This plan is intensive. It involves reading 10 chapters of Scripture PER DAY. Depending on the section you’re in, that can be a lot.
But if you want to engage with the text and drink deeply from it, experiencing Scripture from different angles each day as one comprehensive multi-millennial story, I think you’re going to love it.
Think of it like spiritual leg day. Except every day is leg day.
And the weights you’re lifting are God’s Word.
And God is your trainer.
The 5122 Plan Explained
The plan is called 5122 (five-one-two-two), which helps you remember its structure. Every day you read:
5 Psalms.
1 chapter of Proverbs.
2 chapters of the Old Testament.
2 chapters of the New Testament.
You read straight through each section in linear fashion. When you reach the end of a book (like Psalms), you start over from the beginning.
I didn’t invent this plan. It was taught to me by my friend Garrett, a husband, father, and former Air Force B2 bomber test pilot — one of the handful of men who has blessed me most on my Christian walk.
When we met in mid-2023, he asked if I was reading Scripture daily. When I said no, he explained why that was a problem and taught me this reading plan.
From Tarot Cards to 10 chapters a day
As a relatively new Christian, I initially thought reading ten chapters daily would be overwhelming. So I shelved Garrett’s suggestion.
But a couple months later, I had a convicting realization: I used to spend up to an hour daily on New Age practices like studying tarot cards—something I did religiously for two years.
Why wasn’t I devoting at least that much time to my Christian faith?
Without a good answer, I committed to the 5-1-2-2 plan. And you know what? I loved it. No one was more surprised than me, which is why I’m thrilled to share it with you today.
The daily warm-up: Psalms and Proverbs
Starting with Psalms and Proverbs is like warming up before hitting the heavy weights. Here’s why this sequence is brilliant:
Psalms engage your heart first. The Bible isn’t as immediately readable as a modern novel — that’s not its purpose. Even faithful modern translations reflect thought patterns and language that’s 2,000 years old or more.
Starting in Psalms connects you emotionally before tackling more complex texts. These poetic outpourings of joy, sorrow, triumph, anguish, grief and praise are immediately relatable. Reading five Psalms daily connects you to your own human experience of suffering and longing for God in a visceral way.
Proverbs engages your mind next. Moving into Proverbs shifts from emotion to intellect. Rather than extended theological discourse, Proverbs offers practical wisdom in digestible portions. Most are straightforward, and you’ll likely find at least one daily proverb that relates to something you’re currently facing.
As a man, reading the words of the father-son duo of King David and King Solomon nearly every day became a special treat — learning wisdom from two of history’s greatest leaders.
This Psalms-to-Proverbs progression engages both your emotional and intellectual faculties, preparing you to read the rest of Scripture. My friend Garrett described it as “tilling the soil of our minds and hearts so the Word can be planted in us.”
The main workout: Old and New Testament in parallel
With heart and mind prepared, you’ll find it easier to engage with the language of Scripture in the Old and New Testament readings.
Starting at Genesis 1 and Matthew 1, you read forward linearly through both testaments. This creates a powerful experience as you watch both narratives unfold in parallel.
Day 1, you’ll read about both the creation of the cosmos and the birth of Christ. Creation and redemption side by side! And as I progressed, I discovered other remarkable parallels:
Reading about building the Tabernacle in Leviticus alongside John 3.
Encountering the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53, the same day as Hebrews 11 and the “cloud of witnesses.”
These connections blew my mind. It was like walking through a gallery of the Bible’s great heroes and seeing Christ as their inheritor and fulfillment. All while continuing to sing songs and learn godly wisdom through daily Psalms and Proverbs.
And the best part, these are just the connections that I remember! You’ll undoubtedly find your own.
The practical details
When you reach the end of a book, simply start over. With 150 Psalms at 5 per day, you’ll restart Psalms monthly. Proverbs has 31 chapters, perfect for a chapter a day. (Pro tip: Give Psalm 119 its own day due to length, and both books will align to a 31-day cycle.)
With the New Testament’s 260 chapters and the Old Testament’s 748 chapters (minus Psalms and Proverbs), you’ll complete the New Testament about three times before finishing the Old Testament once.
In just over a year, you’ll have read:
Psalms and Proverbs 12x each.
The New Testament 2x.
The Old Testament 1x.
This creates a richer, more nourishing experience than a straight linear reading.
My personal Bible study setup
A few practical notes that might help you:
Highlighting: I highlight as I read, which helps me find passages later when I return to them.
Flag bookmarks: I use small adhesive flags to mark my place in each section. Each day after reading, I advance the flag two chapters to mark the next day’s stopping point.
Bible translation: My daily reader is the NASB1995, which balances modern language with a formal, biblical feel. Dr. James White suggests the Legacy Standard Bible as the perfected NASB, which might be my next one.
Avoid study Bibles initially: For my first 5122 read-through, I specifically chose a Bible without study notes to focus on God’s Word itself before diving deeper with commentaries.
The challenge: Start your spiritual leg day
So there it is: 5122 in all its glory. Five Psalms, one Proverb, two Old Testament chapters, and two New Testament chapters daily — 10 chapters total.
This isn’t about checking boxes or following rules. It’s about immersing yourself in God’s Word from multiple angles simultaneously, allowing His truth to wash over you day after day.
The best Bible reading plan is the one YOU stick with. Whether that’s 5122 or something else entirely, the important thing is consistency and commitment.
If you’ve struggled to maintain a regular Bible reading habit, I encourage you to try this approach. It transformed my relationship with Scripture, and I believe it could do the same for you.
Sources:Christian Post
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New Discoveries in Last Supper Room: Inscriptions Hidden in Walls of Biblical Site on Mount Zion

A team of researchers and archaeologists have uncovered a series of centuries-old inscriptions within the Cenacle in Jerusalem—a site long believed to be the location of the Last Supper which Jesus Christ ate with his disciples before his Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) found nearly 40 elements of what could be labeled as ancient graffiti located in The Room of the Last Supper, which is located on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
The findings, which were recently published in Liber Annuus, are categorized as 30 inscriptions and nine drawings on the walls of the room.
As CBN News reported, The Cenaculum’s ancient walls, worn-down surfaces, and poor illumination have previously made it hard for researchers to study its history.
But that has changed with recent technological advancements.
“Using ground-penetrating radar, laser measurement, laser scanning, and an advanced photography technique, we managed to reach every corner of the Last Supper room. We managed to create an accurate 3-D model of the place. We even managed to penetrate inside the ancient stones,” archaeologist Amit Re’em told CBN News.
Previously, the technology helped uncover old artwork on the walls and decipher religious symbols. Re’em said they found symbols of the “Lion of Judah” and “Agnus Dei,” a lamb that represents Jesus.
Now the latest discovery of inscriptions, which date from the Middle Ages, are giving scientists a deeper understanding of the visitors that frequented the historical site.
Researchers documented the newest inscriptions, which were very detailed, by using multispectral photography and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). The images were then analyzed in a lab to create a readable inscription, Fox News reports.
“These graffiti shed new light on the geographical diversity and the international pilgrimage movement to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages,” said Ilya Berkovich, co-author from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, according to Scinexx.
The discoveries reveal that Christians appear to have trekked to the site between the 14th and 16th centuries. Several of the pilgrims left messages in their native language.
Scholars believe that one of the inscriptions was written by a Christian woman from Aleppo.
Another inscription bears the name of Johannes Poloner from Regensburg in Germany. According to Archeology News, he traveled to Jerusalem in AD 1421–22 and later wrote a book about his pilgrimage.
Several nobleman and knights left inscriptions throughout the site. There is a coat of arms from Tristram von Teuffenbach, a Styrian nobleman, who traveled with Archduke Frederick of Habsburg in 1436. And Swiss knight Adrian I von Bubenberg, who is remembered for defending Bern, also left an inscription.
Researchers also found an Armenian inscription reading “Christmas 1300.” They believe that the location of the inscription plus its markings are tied to Armenian nobles which adds credibility to the theory that King Het’um II of Armenia and his troops reached Jerusalem after the victory at the Battle of Wādī al-Khaznadār in Syria on December 22, 1299, the Jerusalem Post reports.
A drawing of a scorpion was also found which is presumably when the Muslim military leader Suleiman “the Magnificent” took over the Cenacle in 1523 and turned it into a mosque.
Berkovich says the discovery is shifting the narrative about the types of visitors to the Cenacle.
“When put together, the inscriptions provide a unique insight into the geographical origins of the pilgrims,” said Berkovich in a press release. “This was far more diverse than current Western-dominated research perspective led us to believe.”
Sources:CBN News
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‘I Went to Heaven’: Little Girl Claims She Met Jesus, He Miraculously Healed Her

Annabelle Beam’s story has long captivated audiences, as she fell into a hollowed-out tree in 2011, plummeted 30 feet, and hit her head at the bottom — a situation that could have been deadly.
Annabelle, who suffered from a rare and debilitating digestive disorder before this incident, was already weak and struggling. And the fall left her in need of an hours-long rescue.
It was something that left her parents panicked.
But while Annabelle was eventually recovered from inside the tree, it’s what she claims happened while trapped inside that left her family — and the public — absolutely stunned. After getting out, Annabelle told her mom and dad she had visited heaven, met Jesus and was supernaturally healed.
“She just plainly said to me the next day, ‘You know, mommy, I went to heaven when I was in that tree,’” her mom, Christy Beam, told CBN News. “And, so, she told me that she sat on Jesus’s lap, and she said, ‘I want to stay with you,’ and he said, ‘I know you do, but I have plans for you on earth that you cannot fulfill in heaven.’”
And that’s not all. She said Jesus continued, “But when the firefighters get you out, Annabelle, there will be nothing wrong with you.”
This is notable for two reasons: Annabelle already suffered from a serious condition going into the incident, and paramedics had also given her family a dire warning about the fall.
“All the firefighters, paramedics, everybody … they were saying, ‘Mom, we just want to prepare you. We’ve never had a child fall 30 feet and not suffer paralysis or broken bones,’” Beam said.
Not only was Annabelle physically fine from the fall, but her mother said her digestive condition was gone afterward and has never returned.
Sources:faithwire
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