"When you pray, pray first for the Holy Spirit because when you have the Holy Spirit, you have everything."        - Medjugorje April 4, 1985

"You have forgotten that through prayer and fasting you can avert wars and suspend the laws of nature."       - Medjugorje Dec. 2, 1982

The following reminder was written for last Friday but as many did not receive it due to technical issues, we are resending it. Thank you...

Last December, St. Joseph Partners celebrated our company Christmas party in Dallas and while there the team visited Watermark Church.  We had a wonderful experience with the believers there as we almost always do when traveling the country and visiting Christian churches from tiny dilapidated one-room houses of worship to glittering facilities like Watermark.

Thanks to Greg from Watermark who sent us the following thoughts. Greg shows how easy it is for believers to arm ourselves when confronting self-proclaimed scientists trying to make belief in God seem foolish.  As Greg highlights below the spiritual argument that science makes today, namely that belief in God as our Creator and Redeemer is naïve, is downright ridiculous in light of real science. 

Statistics demonstrate that rejecting belief in God as Creator and Redeemer is even more foolish than the so-called science to mask up. It was easily demonstrated that masks would not keep the corona respiratory flu out but trapped harmful gases inside masks – yet “trust the science” was the narrative.   

That was followed by the alleged science that despite less than ½ of 1% of the population dying from the coronal flu, one had to “trust the science” and take a shot … even though self-proclaimed scientists who should adhere to transparency refused to tell the population what was in the shots … and refused to tell of the devastating effects from the shots in trials.

An even more obvious lie hoisted on Americans in the name of science is that the universe evolved.

Never mind that the particles colliding had to be created … or the shear absurdity of such an idea as big bang … and never mind the clear body of evidence that shows planet earth is only thousands of years old and not millions - from childhood we are indoctrinated to take this spiritual belief shot, “trust the science” we are told again …  and ignore our Creator’s reality.

Here is Greg’s thoughtful template that addresses this opportunity for believers head on …

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Do you sometimes find yourself feeling reluctant to openly share your faith in Jesus out of a fear that you don’t have all the answers? We’ve probably all been in a situation in which we gave an imperfect defense when our faith was tested that ultimately concluded in us saying we “just believe” or “have faith”. In those events, I limp away from the conversation feeling like I 1) looked dumb, and 2) missed an opportunity to explain the gospel well. God gave us minds capable of critical thinking so that we would think critically. Fortunately, we have a world view that stands up to logical arguments, and God gave us reliable evidence to support and defend our faith if we spend time to grow in that knowledge.

God has called us to be prepared for questions about our faith. 1 Peter 3:15 says “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” I love Peter’s use of the words “always” (Greek “aeI”) and “everyone” (Greek “panti”) in this text to point out exactly how prepared we should be to talk with others about Jesus.

Our church (Watermark Community Church in Dallas) offers an equipping class that teaches the 5 P’s that give a framework for how to be prepared to give an answer for questions about the reason for the hope that we have. I hope this framework will be helpful to you.

Profession – The Bible claims to be the inspired word of God.

Production – The Bible is a compilation of 66 books written by 40 authors in 3 languages over 1,500 years about one person, Jesus.

Preservation – No other work in antiquity has as much manuscript evidence as the Bible. We have over 6,000 Greek NT manuscripts, 10,000 Latin manuscripts, and millions of Version and Church Father quotations.

Importantly, the Leningrad Codex is the oldest dated manuscript of the complete Old Testament dating back to BC 1008. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 and carbon dated to BC 200. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls there was no complete OT manuscript to compare against the Leningrad Codex to determine if the Leningrad Codex was even reliable. The Dead Sea Scrolls produced text that was the same as the Leningrad Codex and provides evidence for the reliability of the OT.

Prophesy – The Bible contains many messianic prophesies. Louis Lapides and Peter Stoner are two messianic prophesy experts that have interesting ways to approach the mathematical impossibility of the fulfillment of messianic prophesies.

There are over 40 messianic prophesies in the OT that are fulfilled by Jesus. (i.e., Micah 5:2 and Matthew 2:1, Genesis 12:1-3 and Matthew 1:1, Zechariah 9:9 and John 12:12-14, Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:18-23, Isaiah 53 and John 1:1, 2 Samuel 7:12-13 and Luke 3:31, etc). Lapides said the probability of just 8 prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion, which is a number much greater than the total number of people that have ever lived.

Peter Stoner’s book Science Speaks, is awesome and lays out his conclusions clearly and concisely. Stoner went through and, in my opinion, assigned wildly conservative odds for every messianic prophesy. For example, he assigns odds of 1 in 1,000 to the messiah being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (as prophesied in ~500 BC in Zeccariah). In my opinion, the odds that the payment for betraying Jesus to be exactly 30 pieces of silver more than 500 years later are probably worse than 1 in 1,000. In any event, Stoner calculates the odds that 48 messianic prophesies are all fulfilled by 1 person is 1 in a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion (that’s 13 trillions). This number is equal to the number of atoms in a trillion trillion trillion billion universes the size of our universe. To say these numbers are unfathomable is fair, and the odds that 1 man fulfilled all these prophesies is, in practicality, impossible. 

Personal Testimony – Share your personal experience with how God has worked in your life! Your personal testimony can open the door for others to ask follow up questions that may be more approachable. Our ultimate goal is not to win an intellectual debate. Our goal is to respectfully and gently give a reason for why we have faith in a way that gives our friend a chance to come to a relationship with Jesus.

Praise to God for His goodness,

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Thank you for fasting with us today as 1^st century Christians wrote all believers are obligated to do each Wednesday and Friday. 

Fasting is the required prescription Jesus said is necessary to overpower evil when it is strong.

Through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, soon believers will re-awaken to our obligation and the need to fast in light of evil’s rampage through society today. It is exciting to see what happens to families and believers when they unlock the power of fasting in their lives...

Without coincidence this weekend we celebrate Pentecost – The completely transformative day in history when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and instantly transformed the world. 

Come Holy Spirit, transform our churches and renew America!

Have a wonderful start to summer. Be sure to pause and give thanks to the Lord for His blessings upon America and remember those who died so that we may live. God bless.

Why We Fast – Our Core Fasting Intentions

1) We add the new fasting intention of taking back the church from evil. We submit the three-step process to achieve this victory is 1-Repent, 2-Prayer & Fasting and, 3-Imitate our Savior by throwing the evil leadership from the church. We will seek to emulate the Savior in our effort to End The USCCB, an organization that has been devastating to the church.  (“You shall know the spirit by the fruits” - Matt. 7:16)

2) For the Holy Spirit to reign down upon America, renewing our land as the Christian, capitalist meritocracy we were founded to be.

3) For the protection of our police, firefighters, military and their families from harm and that the Lord bless their courageous generosity on our behalf.

4) For the protection of the families who fast with us, and for God’s blessings of abundance upon them and that true to His word, we will be able to witness that He prospered us in famine.

Would you like to learn more about fasting?

We maintain a repository of ideas and information we have learned over the last decade while fasting weekly for America. From scientific studies on the benefits of fasting, to the differences between intermittent dieting vs intermittent fasting, to scriptural references regarding the power of fasting to the history of first century Christians who stated believers are obligated to fast weekly, we hope you will find numerous insights with our free resource located here.

Together let us also implore Heaven while fasting for intentions you have highlighted:

4) For all patriots who put themselves on the front lines in combatting evil and for all of the warriors who are stepping up around the nation to fight for the gospel – May The Father cover them in the blood of our savior,  protect them and their families from evil and bring victory to their endeavors.

5) For priests, ministers and all who aspire to lead others to the Lord, that the Holy Spirit will reign down upon them as at Pentecost filling them to overflowing. 

6) For the Americans jailed after January 6th who were admitted to the Capitol building by the police, and who were not found to have destroyed any property at the capitol yet who have been held captive ever since on our own soil - That God's Spirit will move quickly to bring justice back to this land and free them.

Who We Are
St. Joseph Partners is a for-profit business that has funded Fast for America for over ten years. To the extent you support our work to renew America and if you understand why gold and silver protect believers' wealth in this world, please consider us or recommend us when you or someone you know buys or sells gold and silver. From our website www.StJosephPartners.com you can buy and sell dozens of types of precious metals. We close on Sundays to honor the Sabbath. Click here for a link where you can view a brief video about our firm and a brief video about why all investors and families should have some gold and silver in their portfolios.