Actor Denzel Washington took a major step in his walk with the Lord over the weekend, getting baptized and receiving his minister’s license.

The “Gladiator II” star participated in a water baptism at the Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem, NY on Saturday, conducted by Archbishop Christopher Bryant.

Bryant shared that Washington attended the church as a young child and was “filled with the Holy Spirit after visiting another church with actor Robert Townsend in the 80’s.”

The First Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ Eastern New York livestreamed the special moment on Facebook.

The Academy Award-winning actor received a certificate of baptism and his minister’s license, which will allow him to become ordained in the future, TODAY reports.

“We celebrate the addition of Minister Denzel Washington into the clergy, having received his minister’s license in the Church of God in Christ today, in a truly uplifting moment,” read a Facebook post by Bryant.

Washington took a moment during the service to reflect on the milestone.

“In one week I turn 70,” he said. “It took a while, but I’m here.”

Washington later shared how his baptism fulfilled a “prophecy.” He recalled the words of a woman named Ruth Green, whom he met at his mom’s beauty parlor when he was 20 years old.

“She said, ‘Boy, you are going to travel the world and preach to millions of people,'” he said. “She wouldn’t even spell the word prophecy. My mother wrote the word prophecy…50 years later, look at God. If He can do this for me, there’s nothing He can’t do for you. The sky literally is the limit and there’s no limit to the sky.”

He also thanked his “loving, faithful wife” of 41 years, Pauletta Washington, who was in the congregation supporting him.

“To God be the glory. Hallelujah!” he told the congregation. “Anything I can do, I will do for this Church, the Almighty. I just want to be in that number when the saints go marching in.”

As CBN News has reported, Washington has become outspoken about his Christian faith over the last several years.

He previously shared that he gave his life to God several times early in life. He even had a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit, but it took a while before he understood the weight of his decision.

“Three times…I think we all go through that,” he said. “I was filled with the Holy Ghost and it scared me. I didn’t want to go this deep…I wanted to party. It was a supernatural, once-in-a-lifetime experience that I couldn’t completely understand at the time.”

As CBN News recently reported, the 69-year-old recently shared a supernatural story with reporters during a press tour for the “Gladiator II” film.

He recalled a divine encounter he had one day during his devotional time.

“I was sitting on a yacht listening to a song called ‘The Face of God.’ And nobody was up. I was in my prayer and meditation, reading my Bible. And I’m like ‘Lord, everybody can see Your face, I wanna see it…’ And while I said it, when I said, ‘I wanna see your face,’ I heard, ‘Look to your left.'”

“So I look to my left, and I look and I picked up my phone and I went {makes clicking sound}. And this is what I saw,” he said while handing his phone to the interviewer.

The photo on the phone showed a face in the sky. The shape of a mouth, a nose, and eyes are visible among the clouds.

Washington reiterated to the interviewer his purpose in life has little to do with making movies, but rather “to be an example, of the power, and wisdom, and grace, and mercy of God in my life.”
Sources:BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS

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The Christmas season is always busy for Candace Cameron Bure, an actress who regularly churns out holiday films among other popular projects.

And 2024 is no exception, with Bure entertaining the masses. She has two new holiday films — “Christmas Less Traveled” and “Home Sweet Christmas — and, this year, there’s an added element to her on-screen work.

Bure’s network Great American Family is hosting an in-person Christmas festival, complete with weekly tree lighting ceremonies, ice skating, hot chocolate — and more.

“It’s just a great way to spend a couple of hours with your family at the park,” Bure said. “And then also be able to meet some of your favorite talent from the movies at Great American Family.”

Find out more about The Great American Family Christmas Festival, which going through Dec. 22 at The Northwell Park at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York.

Bure frequently discusses her Christian faith, sharing with fans how reading through the entirety of the Bible each year has helped inspire and grow her faith. “The Bible Recap,” a book by Tara Leigh Cobble that takes Christians through daily explanations of chapters, has been a key tool she’s used.

“‘The Bible Recap’ really changed my whole world when it comes to reading the Bible,” she said. “And so I’d never read the Bible chronologically. I actually didn’t even know before I started the Bible recap that the Bible isn’t put in chronological order. You kind of bounce around to different books, but then to actually read it through in terms of … the historical line is incredible.”

Seeing the entire story arc has given Bure a deeper appreciation of God’s love for mankind.

“And you see how patient God is with all of us, because we are a people that have continually rejected Him,” she said. “And He just keeps coming back to us — just keeps coming back and bringing opportunity to just receive Him.”

Bure continued, “It’s a gift given by grace and it’s not of any works that we do, and, so, you see this time and time again in the Old Testament.”

A reading of the entirety of Scripture allows believers to see the powerful ways Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecies.

“When all of that prophecy is fulfilled, Jesus comes to the earth, then is the willing sacrifice, then rises and now sits at the throne with God,” Bure said. “It has this whole new meaning to me, and it was literally a whole new revelation of just appreciating and understanding how big God’s love is for us.”

The actress said she “can’t get enough of it” and now has true “joy” reading Scripture, but admitted she struggled with reading the Bible just a few years ago.

“I wanted to. I made time for it … but I’d often kind of read it and be like, ‘OK, like how does this apply to me?’” Bure said, noting that “The Bible Recap” helped provide helpful context to what she was reading. “Understanding the context, the entire history, and this macro view of God’s love and looking for God in the Bible and not me in the Bible — it just changed my life.”

Christmas, Bure said, is a “celebration of prophecy fulfilled,” explaining how these foretold events help give confidence in our faith.

“It’s the most incredible gift any human being has in life, and it’s amazing to me,” she said. “That we still get to celebrate it every year and … it’s our opportunity to share with the world. It is the easiest time to share with the world the Gospel message at Christmastime.”

Bure added, “If I think about it too long, it brings me to tears every time, because I’m so humbled and I’m so grateful that we have such a loving and kind God who [has] mapped out everything for us, but He is a God of truth, and He’s given us His word, and then He’s fulfilled it, and He just wants us. He’s waiting for us with open arms, and it’s such a beautiful thing.”
Sources:faithwire

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Moved by his grandfather’s death, oft-raunchy comedian Matt Rife is exploring faith.

After admitting he has “never been a super religious person” and finds church “excruciatingly boring,” the 29-year-old celebrity told “History Hyenas” podcast hosts Yannis Papas and Chris Distefano he “want[s] to believe in God.”

Serious about exploring religion, the Netflix jokester said he was baptized “in a dude’s pool” in August. While Rife did not grow up in a Christian home, he said he decided to take the plunge after occasionally attending church services with friends.

The impetus of his exploration, Rife said, was his grandfather’s death two years ago.

“I’ve never been a super religious person, but, when my grandpa passed away, something hit me that I was like, ‘I’ll never see this person again,’” he reflected. “So something has to exist. I skew Christian, so I started going to church a little bit more.”

Rife continued, “I hate church; I find it excruciatingly boring. But I want to believe in God, and it’s obviously a huge part of the process.”

The “Natural Selection” comedian is undoubtedly rough around the edges, often sharing scandalous stories and reciting vulgar jokes, but his interest in Christianity seems authentic — and he’s hardly alone.

Distefano, a comedian, recommended Rife check out journalist-turned-apologist Lee Strobel’s best-selling book, “The Case for Christ,” in which the author details his conversion to Christianity, a divine result of his effort to disprove the existence of God.

In fact, in February, when Distefano was on HBO personality and fellow comedian Bill Maher’s podcast, “Club Random,” he suggested the “Real Time” host read Strobel’s book, too. Distefano, who was raised Catholic, told Maher the book helped deepen his own relationship with Jesus.

Other comedians, like Russell Brand and Rob Schneider, have recently found faith in God.

Brand, who has faced a spate of sexual assault allegations, which came out as a result of a joint media investigation, openly converted to Christianity earlier this year. The British-born actor and comedian was baptized in May of this year in the River Thames with the help of reality TV star Bear Grylls, who called it a “privilege” to play such a pivotal role in Brand’s Christian journey.

Schneider, for his part, acknowledged he’ll need to clean up his comedy routines now that he’s Christian.

“I know I can’t do the same stuff I used to do,” he told The Christian Post. “Not because I have anything against what I did; I did what I did, and I felt fine about it at the time. I’m not going to judge myself. But I won’t do the same stuff I’ve done. I don’t know what I’m going to do. … I want to come to it from a place of faith, a place of something good in my heart.”
Sources:faithwire

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