Jakarta, Indonesia – For a second day, believers from all over Asia gathered at the Sentul International Convention Center in Jakarta for the Empowered21 Asia Regional Congress. Themed FIRE & GLORY, the four-day event is designed to strengthen and encourage believers as they seek a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” said the Spanish philosopher and writer George Santayana who died in 1952. Educator and author Vernal Lind reminds readers how the lessons of the past inform the future in his newest release, the novel The Future Wears a Strange Face (Redemption Press, August 2018).

All my life I’ve heard people make up excuses for missing church. Long before funny memes were invented for social media, absentee churchgoers joked about attending “Bedside Baptist,” “Church of the Holy Comforter” or “Church of the Inner Springs” to imply that they decided to sleep in on Sunday morning.

Jakarta, Indonesia—Empowered21 opened its Asia Regional Congress Tuesday night with 11,000 delegates inside the Sentul International Convention Center and another 2,000 watching in tents outside, making a total of 13,000 delegates from 45 nations.

With a population of 21.2 million people, Mexico City maintains the distinction of the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. A prime location for Church of God World missions’ Send the Light to the Cities emphasis, the converts and students trained at a proposed center will have a strategic stance on the people of Mexico City.

A CEO donated his personal car to a college student who walked 20 miles overnight to get to his new job.

Members of the Church of God Doctrine and Polity (D&P) Committee have released companion papers on a contemporary cultural topic. The papers are intended to be read together and are entitled, “Same Sex Marriage: A Biblical Perspective,” and ”Same Sex Marriage: What Is the Christian Response.”

The journey began with a number one hit song on both Christian and mainstream charts. Next came a biopic blockbuster major motion picture, followed up with a best-selling memoir. Now, Bart Millard, contemporary Christian band MercyMe’s front man and writer of the bestselling single in the history of Christian music “I Can Only Imagine”, offers a 40-day devotional book titled I Can Only Imagine 40-Day Devotional (ISBN: 978-1939622518; $15.99) co-written with Robert Noland.

On Sunday, Pastor Steven Andrew posted to Facebook a popular picture of George Washington praying at Valley Forge and wrote, “The USA’s National Motto is ‘In God We Trust’.” Facebook censored the first president and the national motto, showing the post to only 280 people in 19 hours (7/16/18 10:50 am PST). Andrew has a Facebook audience of 467,714 people liking his page and 456,153 following him.