INTERESTING INFORMATION
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 10/21/2026 Every Wednesday
Est. 1997
The following material is provided for information purposes only. Any conclusions or opinions formed should be based on the principles as outlined in Acts 17:11. The material is intended for use as a witnessing tool and to keep you informed so you will not be unaware (Luke 21:34) of what is happening according to Scripture’s” However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find any faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8b)
Ezekiel 34:2 "Shepherd, feed the Flock
CHRISTIAN MUSIC VIDEO
The Prayer
Jackie Evancho & Josh Page
INTERESTING INFORMATION ARTICLES
'SHUT UP, DEVIL': ARE TOO MANY CHURCHES IGNORING EVIL? (Excerpt)
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Work as if you were to live 100 years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.” – Benjamin Franklin
SUMMARY OF ARTICLES
" "The Church That Lost Its First Love" Part 2 0f 7
McLaughlin, Heritage Church, McKinney, TxThis is a wonderful Message. Don’t miss it, you will be blessed! Pass it on to your Homebound Family and friends
Charisma News - In Ephesians 6, the apostle Paul implores Christians to dress themselves in the "full armor of God" to "stand against the devil's schemes" (v. 11).
He illustrates a vivid spiritual battle in which humans must acknowledge the existence of "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm" (Eph. 6:12). But what does that look like, why does it matter, and how does one triumph in such a war?
These are particularly pertinent questions in a world in which the topic of evil is often overlooked, downplayed or ignored, even in some Christian churches.
Winkler, who breaks down in the book the "enemy's secret tactics" and provides Bible-based advice for overcoming evil, shared his experience and the pushback he sometimes gets within the church while discussing these issues.
"In some ways, I think the world gets it more than some people in the church," he told The Playing With Fire Podcast. "I've gotten more flak, I think, from some people in the church ... 'Why are you always talking about the devil so much?'"
Winkler says Christians shouldn't "obsess about the devil" but contends believers must be aware, on guard, and defend themselves, especially in light of Scripture's warnings.
"The Bible does talk a lot about him, and definitely one of the key scriptures that I reference is 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT), where it says, 'Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around,'" Winkler says. "It's one of the great deceptions, if the enemy can convince people that he doesn't exist at all, and that is where, sadly, a lot of people in the church culture are today."
He said the endless quest for positive messages can sometimes eclipse discussions about evil, as people come to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" and avoid conversations about Satan altogether.
"I tell people the most positive message isn't the denial of evil; it's the defeat of evil," he says. "The devil is a sneaky but defeated foe. We don't need to obsess about him but talking about him isn't [obsessing]."
Winkler dove into this topic a few years back with the launch of his Shut Up, Devil app, a tool with more than 250,000 downloads — and counting. He said the app was created after battles with his own insecurities held him back in life.
At the time, Winkler was employed by a large church, had a Master of Divinity and biblical studies, and had been a firm believer for a decade. Yet he still felt some of the same fears and anxieties he had before embracing Christ.
"[I had] a lot of the insecurities and mind games that I battled well after I was a Christian — in some ways, more after I was a Christian than before I was a Christian," he says. "But I would take scriptures related to things that I was facing to confront the mind games and the lies with truth."
Winkler says he had tragically come to embrace some of the enemy's lies, believing he didn't belong, he would never be loved, and that God would punish him. And these lies persisted even after he found Jesus. He had to come to a place of renewing his mind based on biblical truth to escape the fallout.
"I was trying to work my way to achieve God's acceptance and God's love and things like that," he says. "And that was just this cycle of up and ups and downs."
Eventually, he was able to overcome that dynamic. Now, he's hoping to help others. Winkler said the name for the Shut Up, Devil book — and the app of the same name — originated from biblical truth.
He specifically pointed to Jesus' 40 days in the desert and Christ's interactions with Satan.
Those familiar with the biblical account know that at the end of the devil's failed attempts to tempt Jesus, Christ proclaimed, "Away from me, Satan!" This sentiment had a profound impact on Winkler.
"But what does Scripture do to the lies? What does Scripture or truth do to the devil?" he asked. "It shuts him up just like Jesus did in the wilderness ... when the enemy came after Him, questioning Him. He used the truth of God's Word to say, 'Shut up, devil.' So that's really where it came from."
Winkler wants to equip Christians to push back against the devil's lies — mistruths that can separate people from the Lord. Rooting oneself in Scripture helps Christians better ignore the enemy's lies.
"Some of what [Satan] says can be scary, but it really has no merit. It can't really do anything to you except maybe to convince you of lies," Winkler says. "That's really the enemy's only power, and that's why I also call it, 'Shut up, Devil.'"
In the end, Winkler said it's all about "dismissing" Satan's influence over one's life.
"That's what this is all about. It's really saying, 'No, you've been defeated in my life because of Christ. I am in Christ. So, therefore, you don't have a place to talk to me,'" he said.
COULD THE 1942 “VEL D’HIV” ROUND-UP OF JEWS HAPPEN AGAIN?
DID THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS PREDICT THE RAPTURE? PROPHECY WATCHERS EXPLORES ANCIENT CLUES HIDDEN FOR 2,000 YEARS
Chrisma News - Aug. 8, 2026-- For decades, the Dead Sea Scrolls have strengthened confidence in the accuracy of the Old Testament. But could they also contain clues pointing to one of Christianity’s greatest prophetic hopes—the Rapture?
That was the question explored during a recent Prophecy Watchers roundtable featuring Josh Peck, Gary Stearman and Mondo Gonzales. While emphasizing that the Dead Sea Scrolls are not inspired Scripture, the panel argued the ancient writings may preserve remarkable insights that align with New Testament prophecy.
“I certainly don’t put the extra-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls at the same level as the Bible,” Peck said. “But they do add a lot of contexts for the time that Christ would have lived.”
One of the discussions centered on Daniel 12 and repeated references in the scrolls to mysterious “shining ones.” Peck believes those figures are more than symbolic language.
“When you really break down everything that it says about them, it really seems to be talking about these are raptured believers,” he said, noting the writings distinguish them from both angels and ordinary people.
The conversation also turned to the 24 elders in Revelation. Peck argued they are glorified believers already in heaven before the Tribulation begins, calling their presence one of the clearest biblical arguments for a pre-Tribulation Rapture.
“If the 24 elders are … glorified believers,” Peck said, “they’re there in heaven before Jesus starts breaking scrolls.”
The Dead Sea Scrolls do not reveal a new doctrine. Instead, the writings show that long before the New Testament was completed, some Jewish believers were already anticipating prophetic events that we now see fulfilled in Christ—and ultimately pointing toward His promised return.
REASONS TO PRAY
Psalm 25:1-22
What motivates you to talk with God? Throughout the Scriptures, we are commanded to pray. In fact, Jesus—the Son of God—considered prayer so essential that He regularly left the crowds to seek time alone with His Father (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16). Any relationship requires communication if it is to grow and flourish, and that includes our relationship with God.
David was a man who knew the Lord intimately. Since he recorded many of his prayers in the psalms, we are able to catch a glimpse of his heart as he poured out his soul before the Lord. Today’s passage shows us five reasons that we, too, should come to God in prayer: 1. Guidance (Psalm 25:4-5). If we ask, the Lord will lead and teach us. 2. Forgiveness (Psalm 25:7; Psalm 25:11). Each day we need God’s cleansing for sin and His power to repent and turn back to Him. 3. Decisions (Psalm 25:12). When we reverentially fear God, He instructs us in the way we should choose. 4. Trouble (Psalm 25:16-18). When we’re overwhelmed by difficulties, no one can comfort us like the Lord. 5. Protection (Psalm 25:19-20). God is the one who guards our soul and rescues us from the enemy’s attacks.
When we seek the Lord, He becomes our refuge. God understands our weaknesses and invites us to come to Him with all our concerns. It’s in the intimacy of prayer that we learn to know His faithfulness, compassion, and love. Then we can say, as David did, “O my God, in You I trust” (Psalm 25:2).
In Touch Ministry
Koenig’s Int’l News – Eighty some years ago, a massive round-up of Jews took place in the Greater Paris area. It became known as “La rafle du Vel d’Hiv” or the “Vel d’Hiv Round-up.” The Vel d’Hiv or “Velodrome d’hiver” was a winter stadium built for bicycle races near the Eiffel Tower. It was a highly frequented place for sports fans and could hold a large crowd. In 1942, the stadium became the site of World War II’s most extensive round-up of Jews from France. The French police worked very closely with the Nazi regime, and in two days, July 16 and 17, over 13,000 Jews were taken to the stadium, including 4,000 children. They were packed in and kept in minimally sanitary conditions. Soon after, the French police sent the people to one of three internment camps in France in Pithiviers, Beaune-La-Rolande and Drancy. The next step occurred in late July and early August when most prisoners were sent to Auschwitz. Of the 4,000 children, only six came back, and only 811 adults returned after the war. My maternal grandfather was put on a train out of Paris to Auschwitz on July 19, 1942, only two days after the infamous round-up. All seems to indicate that he was part of the round-up.
Outside of the terrible collaboration between the Vichy government and the Nazi regime, the Vel d’Hiv round-up left a scar on France that has been haunting people, although not much has been said or done to date to maintain the memory of the event. The building was burned to the ground in a fire in 1959. Soon after, a small plaque was attached to a wall near where it stood. It was not until 2008 that another more detailed plaque was placed to remember the victims, thank those who might have helped some of them at such a difficult and dangerous time and encourage people passing by to remember the past. The plaque says:” On July 16 and 17 1942, 13152 Jews were arrested in Paris and its suburbs and then deported and assassinated in Auschwitz. In the Winter Stadium that once stood here, 4115 children, 2916 women and 1129 men were packed in inhuman conditions by the Vichy government police obeying orders from the Nazi occupiers. Let us be grateful to those who tried to help the victims. As you are passing by, please remember!” The discrepancy in the final numbers of victims is due to the fact that a final count brought the revised number of victims to over 13,000. The Vichy Government had promised 22,000 Jews out of France to the Nazi regime and came short at the round-up, but by the war’s end, 88,000 French Jews had perished. Eighty years later, could such a thing happen again anywhere in the world? In his book, Every Day Remembrance Day: A Chronicle of Jewish Martyrdom, the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal listed six major causes that could lead to another Jewish catastrophe. A close look and analysis might surprise you as to how close we are.
1. Hatred (prejudice, racism, xenophobia or antisemitism)
There has not been a time in our recent history when hatred was so strong. We live at a time of extreme polarization between the political left and right, between conservatives and liberals, and between blacks and whites. Somehow, just as it was during the Maccabean period when the Seleucids fought the Ptolemies, and the Jews got caught in the proverbial crossfire, modern-day Jewish people end up in the crossfire between the polarized factions. Fair and polite dialogue including disagreements doesn’t seem possible anymore. Add to this the fact that we are in what appears to be the 59th minute of the 11th hour on the end times timetable.
2. A dictatorship or totalitarian regime.
Throughout its history, the world has seen a number of dictators like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein to name just a few. The dictionary defines a dictator as, “a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary
succession.” The idea is that one person or a few elite members of a group control the masses. It could be argued that the World Economic Forum (WEF) operates with dictatorial tendencies. Biblically speaking, we know that there is a new world order coming that will include the antichrist (1 John 2:18-22; Revelation 13) as the ultimate global dictator. Even in the United States, as we are seeing the rapid erosion of free speech, freedom of religion and Judeo/Christian ethics, we could see a totalitarian regime on the horizon if things don’t pivot back to a more balanced political landscape.
3. A bureaucracy.
When we speak of bureaucracy, people often think of large offices with a myriad of paper-pushers and a hierarchical system of filing, retrieving and processing. There is truth to that at the core of the definition, but what is meant here is more about those who carry out the order of the regime, often almost blindly and “for the greater good”, whatever that means! We witnessed some of that when the world came to a stop and the masses were funneled into doing the same thing, like sheep, hoping for the best results.
4. Technology.
Technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 50 years. Personally, I have always considered myself somewhat of a technology aficionado. I love all the different things we get to perform better and faster, not to mention the new things we have at our fingertips that several decades ago would have been considered pure sci-fi. Technology will continue to be developed and grow exponentially. The problem is not with the technology, but rather on how it is used and by whom. We have seen too often when technology falls into the wrong hands, disaster follows. Take for instance the use of the Hollerith tabulating machines (IBM) by Nazis in the camps to catalog and process Jews faster towards total elimination. This was most definitely a case of great new technology landing in the wrong hands.
5. A crisis that becomes an opportunity to blame people.
The world we live in is never going to be without crisis, simply because it is an imperfect world. It has been that way since the fall of man in Genesis 3. Crises can be economic, political, natural or medical to name just a few categories. Gas shortages, food shortages, extreme weather, immigration, diseases, inflation, recession and political uncertainty are all crises that we have seen recently. Globally, we can even look at all these and see how they have converged to a point where our planet appears to have become so fragile. Many of these crises are great opportunities to blame people and further control them.
6. A scapegoat people such as a minority to demonize.
Now, if the world could pinpoint a people group, point the finger at them and have them carry the responsibility, that would be the perfect storm. But wait, the world HAS found its scapegoat, and not just recently, but for the last several millennia. We, the Jews, are constantly held responsible for the ills of the world. We have been accused of the black plague, using the blood of Christians to make Matzoh, killing Jesus, controlling Hollywood, controlling the world, inventing diseases and inventing their cures to make money. When it comes to faulting the Jews, much of the world has never let a crisis go to waste.
So, when I look at the events of the Vel d’Hiv that took place years ago; and when I see how over two days, 13,000 Jews were collected in the greater Paris area and packed in a single location with the help of French police bureaucracy under the Nazi totalitarian regime without much fight from the Jews and with almost no help from the French populace, I have no doubt that everything is currently in place for another catastrophe to take place. This time it will include the Jews–it always has in the past–but people need to wake up because more of us are at risk today. There is a slew of ready-made “immigration camps” all over the world. They are ideal for a repeat of the Vel do Vel d’Hiv scenario. Please, do not believe that humanity has learned from the mistakes of the past. Yet, as individuals, we always have an opportunity to make a difference and fight tyranny.
People of goodwill, Christians and Jews are now becoming prime targets. The reason why I need to bring your attention to the Jewish people is that for a very long time now, we have been the canaries in the coal mine of civilization. What happens to us is often a precursor of what can or will happen to you. When you see the world going after us, don’t look the other way or you might miss those who are coming after you next!