Prayer Changes Hearts ... Thx Paul C!

"Prayer Changes Hearts": President Trump Honors God's Redemptive Work in Former Bank Robber's Life

by Talia Wise : May 7, 2018 : CBN News
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2018/may/prayer-changes-hearts-president-trump-honors-gods-redemptive-work-in-former-bank-robbers-life

"Your story reminds us that prayer changes hearts and transforms lives. It uplifts the soul, inspires action, and unites us all as one nation under God." -President Donald J. Trump

(Washington, DC)夕CBN News] Jon Ponder was an inmate that was given a second chance and he says it did not come from a prison reform program, but from the hand of God. (Screengrab: President Trump shakes Jon Ponder's hand as he honors him in the Rose Garden at the White House/via CBN News)

"I invited Jesus to be the Lord of my life and life just went in a 180-degree turn," Ponder told Fox & Friends. 

President Trump honored Ponder and the work he is doing with prison inmates during the National Day of Prayer [last] Thursday.

"Your story reminds us that prayer changes hearts and transforms lives," the president said. "It uplifts the soul, inspires action, and unites us all as one nation under God."

Ponder took to Twitter hours later to thank the president. 

"What an absolute honor to have the @POTUS @realDonaldTrump acknowledge the transformative power of God at work in my life and validate the great work God is doing through the ministry," he wrote.

Ponder, now the CEO and founder of Hope for Prisoners, Inc., spent his time in and out of prison starting at the age of 12. He was arrested for bank robbery and sent to a maximum-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. 

"Jon soon ended up in federal prison relegated to solitary confinement. That's where God found him," Trump told the crowd gathered at the White House Rose Garden Thursday. "Jon began to read the Bible and listen to Christian radio."

That's when the transformation took place.

"I remember one time I was in prison in solitary confinement and I had a little transistor radio and in that transistor radio, I heard a Billy Graham sermon," Ponder told Fox News. "I woke up in the middle of the night and Billy Graham was sharing a story of the prodigal son and at the end of that message he made the call to surrender your life to the Lord and I invited Jesus to be the Lord of my life."

Jon spent the rest of his time in prison praying, studying the Bible and leading fellow inmates to Christ. 

Jon was released from prison years later at the age of 38. The day after his release he was visited by the man who put him in jail, FBI special agent Richard Beasley. 

Richard told Jon he had been praying for him while he was in jail. 

The pair are now best friends. (Screengrab: Richard Beasley and Jon Ponder/via CBN News)

"I love him," Jon told Trump at the event. 

Jon now shares the love of Christ by helping other former inmates receive a second chance by providing them job training, Christian discipleship, and financial literacy courses. 

"When a person gets out of prison, he or she wants to change, but many don't know how to change," Ponder told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2016. "It's our job to help the ex-offenders become a valuable part of society."

"I tell people that Hope for Prisoners is something that God impregnated me with many years ago while I was in prison," he continued.

Trump told listeners at the White House that there is power in prayer. 

"Jon and Richard, you are the living testament of the power of prayer," he said. "Our country was founded on prayer, our communities are sustained by prayer, and our nation will be renewed by hard work, a lot of intelligence, and prayer."

Click here to watch the CBN video report on the event.

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"Jon and Richard, you are the living testament of the power of prayer," he said. "Our country was founded on prayer, our communities are sustained by prayer, and our nation will be renewed by hard work, a lot of intelligence, and prayer."

Click here to watch the CBN video report on the event.

President Donald Trump ... Thx Paul C

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An American ... Thx Paul C!

Sam Kegley

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Fwd: An American 2 messages

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Subject: An American To:

Jim Redding PHS (58).... Thx Jim Keg!

  A former Portsmouth man, Jim Redding, who was a former basketball player for PHS, was featured at the beginning of a 9:00 p.m. Monday, May 7, Smithsonian tv channel program, regarding the year in history…1968.  In 1968, Jim was a U.S. Army officer attached to ARVN, a South Vietnam military group.  

     The program did not concentrate on the war, but mainly on the riotous year and the people who were against the war…Hippies and the Anti-war demonstrators.

     Jim was a highly decorated, and renowned army officer who is featured in a series of photographs, and display of his uniform, he wore during the Hue Offensive.  All are on display in the military section of the Smithsonian Institute Museum in Washington D. c. of this period.  He is a retired Colonel, now living in South Carolina and Florida.

     Jim and his family lived on Grandview Avenue, between Grant and 17^th Streets, during his school years; he also attended Highland Elementary school.  He graduated PHS in 1958, and joined the Ohio National Guard when it was in the 17^th Street Portsmouth Armory.    

Thomas Jefferson ... Thx Dr, Jim Ki !

Thomas Jefferson

Social Security ... Left's stealing of, ... Thx Anne D and Sarah R!

Social Security A woman dies at age 65 before collecting one benefit check.  She and her employer paid into the system for almost 50 years and she collected NOTHING!   Keep in mind all the working people that die every year who were paying into the system and got nothing!   And these governmental morons mismanaged the money and stole from the system, so that it's now going broke.   BEAUTIFUL! And they have the audacity to call today's seniors "vultures" in an attempt to cover their ineptitude.DISGRACEFUL!   The real reason for renaming our Social Securitypayments is so the government can claim that all thosesocial security recipients are receiving entitlements thus putting them in the same case as welfare, food stamp recipients. THIS IS WORTH THE FEW MINUTES IT TAKES TO READ AND DIGEST! F.Y.I.  By changing the name of SS contributions it gives them a means to refute this program in the future.  It's free money for the government to spend under this guise. The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a *Federal Benefit Payment*? I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you.   Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.  The government is now referring to ourSocial Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment."  This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income!  Not only did we all contribute to Social Securitybut our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes. (This should be enough for you to forward this message, If not read on.) If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.  If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved!  This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.   That's almost three times more than today's averageSocial Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it's a fact). And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts. Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger *Ponzi scheme* than Bernie Madoff ever did.  (Lyndon Johnson) They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking.  They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them.  And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer. (Isn't it funny that they NEVER say this about welfare payments?)   But is it our fault they misused our investments?  And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a *benefit*, as if we never worked to earn every penny of it. Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't mean that our investments were a charity! Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare.. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government. Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it. Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income. 99% of people won't forward this. Will you?

Racoon Poop ... Thx Paul C!

Raccoon Poop...

 
Interesting perspective....
 
 Like many citizens, I've wondered and tried hard to understand why Trump has such a remarkable following. (It's obvious why he probably should not!) Then a friend sent me this raccoon story. It makes no difference about your political leanings, this is just a good explanation of WHY... (or it's as good as any I can come up with).
 
If you really want to know how the majority of people feel? And this applies to both democrats and republicans, read below, it says it all.
 
You've been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately. You call the city, 4 different exterminators, but nobody can handle the job. But there is this one guy and he guarantees you to get rid of them, so you hire him. You don't care if the guy smells, you don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he has a plumber's crack, you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He's the guy. He's the best. Period !

Here's why we want Trump, yes he's a bit of an ass, yes he's an egomaniac, but we don't care. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republicans and Democrats can be two-faced & gutless, and illegals are everywhere. We want it all fixed! We don't care that Trump is crude, we don't care that he insults people, we don't care that he has changed positions, we don't care that he's been married 3 times, we don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, we don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslin terrorist.
 
This country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegals, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hasid is a special group with special rights to a point where we don't even recognize the country we were born and raised in; "AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED" and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want.
We're sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, and sick of illegals. We just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but he doesn't have lobbyist money holding him, he doesn't have political correctness restraining him, all you know is that he has been very successful, a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he's also not a politician, he's not a cowardly politician. And he says he'll fix it. And , we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong or looked at and called a liar. Also, we don't care if the guy has bad hair. We just want those raccoons gone, out of our house, NOW.
 
I feel this is why thousands of people who haven't voted in 25 years are getting involved.
 
The raccoons have got to go.