There's a biblical narrative that mirrors today's war in Iran and cannot be ignored. The Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates the Bible story of Queen Esther of 2,300 years ago, when the young Jewish woman confronts the Persian King Xerxes about the plot to kill all the Jews hatched by his high official Haman. The king then allows the Jews to protect themselves against their aggressors, which becomes a bloody conflict.  

Today, many Jewish leaders are noting the parallels in Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who frequently touted "Death to Israel" and was killed just days before Purim began on March 2. On this episode of the Lighthouse Faith podcast, Rabbi Josh Joseph, Executive Vice President and COO of The Orthodox Union, discusses how Purim serves as a continual reminder for the Jewish people to remain diligent in their faith and identity.

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"I Can Only Imagine" is recognized as the greatest-selling Christian record of all time. Adapted into a movie of the same name in 2018, it tells the real-life struggles of MercyMe's lead singer, Bart Millard's complicated relationship with his father. Now, a sequel to the film has just been released. "I Can Only Imagine 2" digs deeper into the song, "Even If", about Millard's struggles and pain dealing with his young son's diabetes.

On this episode of the Lighthouse Faith podcast, the multiple Dove Award-winning MercyMe's lead singer and songwriter, Bart Millard, talks about the film, his unshakeable faith, and the reckless love of God that endures all.

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Is the Devil sexist? Yes, and No.  Satan has a war chest of spiritual deceptions in his arsenal; some are tailored specifically for women, says Christian author and speaker Emily Wilson Hussem.  

It doesn't matter the age, the enemy tries to destroy women with discouragement, sorrow, and even despair in life against the particular light that women bring to the world.

On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Hussem talks about her book Sincerely, Stoneheart. It's modeled after C.S. Lewis' famous book The Screwtape Letters, about a senior devil agent named Screwtape, writing to a junior agent about how to corrupt and discourage God's image bearers. While Satan attacks both men and women, there is a very specific way he goes after women.

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The prophet Jeremiah warned about putting too much reliance on the heart, saying, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"And yet in today's nomenclature, the heart reigns supreme as the purveyor of truth, that its feelings equate with reality.  But what if the heart is filled with darkness? What if the heart leads you into spiritual depression and anxiety?  

On this episode of the Lighthouse Faith podcast, Pastor Nate Pickowicz talks about his book, "Overcoming The Darkness", and his own battles with anxiety and spiritual darkness, and how the Bible has long offered solutions. This conversation differentiates between a battlefield of the mind and spiritual warfare. 

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Always feisty. Always blunt. The Catholic League's president, Bill Donohue, is not terribly fond of New York City's new Mayor, Zohran Mamdani. And it's not because Mayor Mamdani is Muslim. He doesn't care about that. What he cares about is the observation that Mamdani has excluded traditional religious practices, specifically, Judeo-Christian heritage.

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The hidden war against Christians living in Nigeria is being brought to light.

On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast Lauren is joined by CEO & Founder of Across Nigeria, Brad Brandon to raise awareness the massacre of Christians living in Nigeria, the immense violence being inflicted by dominant Islamic-based regimes living in the area and his organizations efforts to mediate the crisis.

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There are many films and documentaries about World War II and the grim reality of the Holocaust of the six million Jewish lives taken at the hands of Nazi's, and the subsequent allied victory that brought it all to an end. Or did it?  The documentary "Among Neighbors," shows the lingering effects of the cruelty of the Third Reich, when even six months after the end of the war, as Jewish survivors of the death camps returned to their homes  and villages, they found that life could never be the same with the neighbors with whom they once enjoyed a blissful co-existence.

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TED Talks are 18-minute videos of influential speakers. So, here's a question: What would Jesus say if he gave a Ted Talk? Turns out, He already did some two-thousand years ago, and it's probably one of the most, if not the most, influential and profound speeches of all time. It's called the Sermon on the Mount, found in the book of Matthew. Many people may not know its name, but they know many of the golden nuggets of Jesus's core teachings that come from it, like The Lord's Prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven..." and the Beatitudes like "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." Lauren revisits a conversation with Dr. Robert Jeffress, Senior Pastor at First Baptist Dallas, on the philosophies and Divine guidance of the Sermon on the Mount in his book, "Eighteen Minutes with Jesus: Straight Talk from the Savior about the Things that Matter Most." 

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No matter what your professed faith is, it has to be lived through relationships. It's unavoidable. Faith without interaction with other image bearers will inevitably be weak. But it's in the most intimate and close relationships that we are tested and tried to our very limits. Best-selling Christian author Lysa TerKeurst bares her soul in her books, bringing to light our greatest wants and needs. She's been frank and open about her divorce from the man who just a few years ago, she renewed vows with after the union of two decades went sour. On this episode of the Lighthouse Faith podcast, Lauren revisits her conversation with Lysa on her book, "Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are." Love is complicated. It's the one lesson any spouse or parent learns, oftentimes, the hard way. But it can also bring us closer to understanding who we are, while strengthening and loving who we are meant to be.

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The start of a New Year often brings a desire to renew your faith, and The Rosary in Year podcast is the perfect way to get started. It's a ten-to-fifteen-minute devotion hosted by a Franciscan monk to help people to draw closer to Jesus Christ. On this episode of the Lighthouse Faith podcast, Lauren revisits a conversation with The Rosary In A Year podcast host, Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who talks about the spiritual hunger in the world that's making more and more people turn away from the unsatisfying pursuits of worldly wealth and draw closer to the God who made them. 

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