The 700 Club - June 10, 2011

They're the toughest warriors in the world. Do you have what it takes to be part of this elite group? You're about to find out. How much are they paying me for this? Well, welcome to The 700 Club. Congressman Ron Paul was one of the surprises of the 2008 presidential campaign. He attracted a passionate following, including many younger voters. And actually, the 75-year-old congressman from Texas is back in the race for the 2012 election. David Brody has this look at the candidate and what he stands for. Ron Paul may not have the presidential look or the campaign machine, but what he does have is a movement. Ron Paul was a Tea Partier before it was cool to be one. For 30 years, he's been talking that talk. In 2008, he wrote The Revolution: A Manifesto. And a year later, the Tea Party popped up and invaded the GOP. When I go to the Republican meetings, there was a time when they didn't invite me to the Republican meetings. But now I go and a lot of times they look like my rallies. His supporters are passionate, to say the least, and some might call them rabid. Just this week, an online fundraiser called "The Revolution vs. RomneyCare" raised one million dollars in one day as they slapped the big government label on Mitt Romney's Massachusetts healthcare plan. Paul's "money bombs," as they are called, get results. In the 2008 campaign, one day's effort raked in six million dollars. While still dubbed as a candidate who can't win, Paul thinks the landscape has changed. If you asked me if that is true, I would say yes, partially so, more true four years ago than now. But we had a campaign and this thing shifted. Four years ago I was either excluded or laughed at and sometimes booed, but not in the last four years. Paul's economic positions clearly resonate with all the attention on the country's deficit, but his non-intervention foreign policy is outside of the GOP mainstream, especially his hands-off approach to Israel. For that matter, Paul wants the government to pretty much stay out of everything. He has earned the nickname "Dr. No," because he says no to virtually all federal government spending. He positions himself as the guy who would cut the size of government more than any candidate out there. In, I think, foreign welfare and corporate welfare and bank bailout welfare and all this kind of stuff, we could save a lot of money that way without doing all the social programs. Eventually it all has to be cut. But I think I can come across a little bit more compassionate than some people think I am. Paul typically polls around 10 percent or so. It's roughly the middle of the pack. So even if Ron Paul never becomes president, who knows, there may be a senator out there who just happens to be his son, who might inherit the movement. (Interviewing): If there is never a President Ron Paul, there may be a President Rand Paul in the future? Time will tell. For now, though, Ron Paul and his revolution march on. David Brody, CBN News, Washington. We're going to be bringing you profiles of all the candidates, so that you can make informed decisions. You can keep up with it with the latest from David Brody by checking out the Brody File on CBNNews.com. Lee Webb has the rest of our top stories from the CBN Newsroom. Lee. Gordon, this Sunday Turkey will hold elections that many analysts believe could have a profound impact on the US, Israel, and the Middle East. The outcome may determine the influence that a more radical form of Islam has on the region. Chris Mitchell has the story now from Istanbul. Turkey is in the final days of a campaign that will affect one of US's biggest Middle East allies for years to come. The elections center around one party and one man. Here in Istanbul, it's hard to escape posters of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, the head of the ruling Islamist party, the AKP. Polls point to a sizable victory by the AKP, and that would mean the third straight election win for a party that has worked hard to make one of the most secular Muslim nations on the earth more and more Islamic. Political adversaries say the world is finally seeing the real Erdogan. CBN News found the number two man in Turkey's main opposition party campaigning in Istanbul's main square. The dear prime minister in America and Europe was very popular and they supported him in 2004 and 2007, and his mask looked very liberal. But now they see that he's not liberal. He has restricted freedom and the journalists can't express themselves because of the prime minister. Therefore, the mind of Ergogan is fascist and it's a dictatorial regime. Some accuse the AKP of using democracy to gain power and then limit freedoms. We asked Erdogan's second in command about those charges. Some people might not enjoy the fact that Turkey is becoming a stronger country. We can understand their feelings, but Turkey is becoming more and more democratic every day. But if Erdogan's party wins a majority of seats in the election, some fear he'll re-write Turkey's constitution, set up a presidential system, and consolidate his power. The AKP party is closely linked to the worldwide Gülen Islamic movement, and some even feel he hopes to reestablish an Islamic caliphate with Turkey as its head. Whatever the outcome of Sunday's elections, Turkey will be a different country come Monday. What kind of country is still to be decided. That's why many Christians in the Middle East are praying for Turkey and the future of the region. Chris Mitchell, CBN News, Istanbul. And here at home, a federal judge has ruled that businesses can give money directly to political candidates. The Virginia judge struck down the ban on those contributions in a case two weeks ago. The Obama Administration, though, asked the judge to reconsider his decision. He did, but he upheld his ruling. He said businesses have a right to make contributions to candidates, because they're a form of free speech and protected by the Constitution. For more on this story, let's go back to Gordon. Well, we've got Jay Sekulow with us from the American Center for Law and Justice. Jay, this one, I think, is significant. For the first time, a federal judge says the ban on corporate contributions is unconstitutional. Do you think it's going to last? I do think it's going to last, because if you look at what's happened in the Supreme Court with the Citizens United case, which was the big case after McCain-Feingold, the fact of the matter is, the court is consistently striking these prohibitions or bans down as unconstitutional and violating free speech, mostly because Justice O'Connor was on the court during the McCain-Feingold case, because I was one of the lawyers that argued McCain-Feingold. And she is now off the court. And the replacements have been Alito and Roberts and so forth. So the court has gotten better on free speech when it comes to election law, and they're protecting the speech rights. So if McCain-Feingold, for instance, which was the huge case, the bipartisan campaign finance case, if that case were decided today it would have come out completely different. We won our provision, by the way, title three, which was the prohibition on minors participating in political campaigns. But, Gordon, this is huge, because, and I think you're right, I think this case, as they continue to move up, you're starting to see a coalescing, where courts are just striking these provisions as violating free speech. And this was with business contributions, so it's a little bit different. Let's go back in the history of it. All this came out of the ‘72 election and what happened with the Nixon campaign and the sense in Congress was we need to rein it back in, because it looks like politicians are being bought by big corporations. We just ran the story that Paul was able to raise a million in a day, six million in a day. Are we still in that same kind of environment that we have to worry about big corporations buying candidates? Well, it was a couple of things. It was the big corporations buying candidates, what was called conduit giving, which was individual. There would be limits put in place, and then people would give around those limits. But you know what, the overreach here, though, is they do these bans. Instead of saying we're going to limit it to x, y, or z or a certain amount, they'll say complete prohibitions. And there is a significant constitutional difference between a limit, which may or may not be legitimate, by the way, versus a complete ban, the idea that you could ban an entire category of speech, which is what the corporate political contribution ban did, is unconstitutional. Now, are there dangers if corporations can buy candidates? Sure. You've got to be careful about that. But I really like free speech, and there are corporations on both sides of the issue. And I think the robust marketplace is better than government regulation at the end of the day. But can you solve the buying a candidate problem just by disclosure? Of course. And that's the interesting thing here. They will say—it has to be the least restrictive alternative whenever you're dealing with free speech. What's the least restrictive? Well, the least restrictive would be disclosing who the donor is. That's not unusual. As individuals, we have to do that on federal election campaigns. Why not do that at the corporate level instead of a ban? So I think the reality is and I think what the courts are quickly realizing, and those that are opposed to corporations participating in the free speech process, is that the days of prohibitions on free speech in corporations is over with. And in a sense, it's the Supreme Court's earlier decisions which said corporations have free speech rights, too, because they have to engage the marketplace. So this idea that this is some kind of new idea, that's not true at all. It's been recognized for over 40 years. There's an argument within the free speech, and just for clarity, I'm in favor. I'm in favor of robust market and everybody gets to participate. There's an argument that by limiting and prohibiting corporate contributions, you've actually created the lobbying industry. Sure. And that is a shadow thing, where you don't know what's going on. There is no disclosure required. It's all underground, and it's who has got the influence within the beltway. Exactly. It's almost like a shell game. In other words, I can't do it directly. Therefore, I hire a lobbying group that I pay hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars to, and they get my information to those same candidates, who then also make contributions, have their friends make contributions. So I'm with you. Remove the restrictions. Stop the shell games. Let them engage directly, because there are going to be corporations on both sides of issues, but why should they not be able to protect their own political interests, which affects their business, their employees, their staff. I think they should. Do you think Congress is going to get into the act now? There is also another argument that all the campaign restrictions passed in the ‘70s were incumbent protection acts, that when you limit contributions to 2,000 to an individual, you prohibit corporate. You create this sort of pack environment. The packs, the lobbyists, the packs will support the incumbent. They will not support the challenger. So you've created an, "I get to stay in office the rest of my life." They used to call in the "incumbent protection act," because in reality it did, because your ability to challenge the incumbent when you've got these really significant restrictions was very difficult. So I think that Congress is going to have to tread carefully here, because you always have this call for reform. But I think between now and the next election, nothing happens, on a whole host of issues, including this one. And the courts are not hospitable to congressional oversight here to the significant degree that the initial bipartisan campaign for finance reform tried to get in place. I think those days are done, at least for now. Now the Supreme Court, another change in one justice, and you could have a whole different story. But right now, I think we're okay. Well, as this case moves forward, could this literally break through all of that and put the whole federal election commission regulations . . . . I think you're exactly correct. And it will probably come down to, when you argue the case, you always argue to nine, but you've got to argue to five. But in this case, I think it's going to be one. And that's going to be Justice Kennedy. But Justice Kennedy has not liked these restrictions on speech. So I'm optimistic at the end of the day that these restrictions go. And if there are other things that need to be put in place, like disclosure, fine, do it. But this idea where you silence the corporations from speaking, I think that's dangerous. Why would we do that? We believe in robust and freedom and this idea that all sides can engage the marketplace. And let's stop the move it around to this group to get my point across. Believe me; the corporation is going to get their point across one way or another. Directly is better than the other. All right. Well, Jay, thanks for being with us. And keep in mind that how much have we lost free speech in America, where you've got to run through regulations before you can even give a contribution to a candidate for office. And when we keep that in mind, we realize how far we've come. Kristi, over to you. Thank you so much, Gordon. Well, coming up, get a taste of what it's like actually to be a US Navy Seal. In actual Seal training, exercises like this are designed to teach these guys what they're capable of and push them beyond their physical limits. And that's why only about 20 percent of them actually make it to the end of Seal training. We'll take through the Navy Seal experience, up next. Do you have money to burn? If not, you need to know that the paper dollars you've invested your life savings in are being consumed right now in a growing blaze of inflation and declining value. Economists know why the dollar is burning and at risk of crashing. It's because politicians and central bankers keep printing them, and this makes the dollars you've worked so hard to for, worth less and less. The politicians and bankers hated the gold standard, because it forced them to be honest. That's why the US dollar keeps losing value and could soon crash. The good news is that you can create your own personal gold standard and keep your savings protected when the dollar crashes. Call or visit online now. Find out more about the best performing assets of the 21st century from the best company in the country, Swiss America. Monday . . . . I aspired to greatness. . . . . an Olympic hopeful with gold medal dreams. I really believed were achievable for me. . . . . until this former ski star wiped out. My name is Scott Arnold, and I used to be a dumpster diver. Plus . . . . Basically, I had tumors in my body. . . . . cancer riddled her body. I was pretty much near death. How she was healed without surgery, on The 700 Club. Well, the Navy Seals became super heroes in the eyes of millions of Americans when they tracked down Osama bin Laden. The country remains fascinated with these elite Special Forces. And as Chuck Holton found out, many people want to know what it takes to be part of the team. The US Navy Seals are legendary for their toughness and tenacity. These highly trained warriors spend years honing their skills on land, sea, and air. As a former Army Ranger, I wanted to find out if Seal training was as tough as everyone says. But I'm not about to join the Navy to find out. This is the Extreme Seal Experience. Situated just outside Norfolk, Virginia, the weeklong course gives regular folks a taste of the real thing. I have to stencil my t-shirt with my last name front and back, so I can remember who I am. I wanted to see if I still had what it takes, so I signed up. Fifteen others showed up the first day, regular guys from all different backgrounds. A retired Navy Seal, Senior Chief Don Shipley, runs the program with the help of other former Seals. All the instructors are Seals. And we've all been though hell week. We've all done the deployments. We know what it takes to get through that training. The Extreme Seal Experience started with a surprise wake-up call at 02:30. I knew a long hard day was on the horizon. The weeklong course starts with over 24 hours of grueling physical and mental challenges. Okay, it's time to go and get on the bus. The first day of training we run down here is called Hell Night. It's a simulation of hell week in BUD/S, kind of. BUD/S stands for Basic Underwater Demolition School, the six-month training all Navy Seals must complete. The most intense part, hell week, 132 hours that push men past their breaking points, much of it done in the cold ocean water. Most who enter the school drop out during this phase. If I was running actual Seal training down here, I'd be backing ambulances in here every day. The next 24 hours were non-stop action, starting with a 10-mile paddle, eight men crammed into each boat. And navigating the river in compete darkness was more difficult than I anticipated. It's a pretty good team work exercise, kind of getting to know each other and trying to figure out how we were going to work together and make this happen. We ended up in front of a stagnant, algae-infested pond. Then the fun began. Nothing like pond scum for breakfast. But there's a method to the madness. Special operators can't afford to be squeamish. I get the feeling it's going to get a lot harder from here. Next came lots and lots and lots of physical training, or PT. It's hundreds of push-ups, sit-ups, flutter kicks, and whatever else the instructors can dream up. The art of camouflage is also vitally important as Seals must regularly operate behind enemy lines. How much are they paying me for this? And before every new activity, more physical training. All these guys behind me have come from all over the United States and Canada and paid between 1,500 and 3,000 dollars for a couple of weeks of training to find out one thing, and that's if they have what it takes to be a Navy Seal. If the push-ups weren't perfect, we had to start over. Log PT is designed to force the men to work as a team under very arduous conditions. The course isn't just about running and push-ups. We also learned some tactical skills like hand-to-hand combat and how to transition silently from water to land. In actual Seal training, exercises like this are designed to teach these guys what they are capable of and push them beyond their physical limits. That's why only about 20 percent of them actually make it to the end of Seal training. The highlight of hell night is a simulated mission. It's the pay off for all the hard work. The guys must use all the skills learned throughout the day to complete the operation. These weekend warriors get painted up, paddle down river under the cover of darkness, hike through dense forest, a small taste of what life must be like as a real Navy Seal. For these guys, this is better than spending vacation sitting on the beach. The reward is knowing they challenged themselves and made it through, going back home with a little more self confidence, some incredible memories, and a greater respect for the sacrifices made by our nation's special operators. Chuck Holton, CBN News, Chesapeake, Virginia. All right, Kristi, I've got to ask you, would you do that? Brother, you couldn't pay me. In fact, I was sitting there thinking, I'm so glad you assigned him that assignment, because if you would have assigned me, mm-mm. Mm-mm? All I kept thinking of were bugs. Two o'clock in the morning. Yes. I can see you with some pond scum. That would be good. You'd like that. I have no comeback for you. All right. What's next? I have no comeback on that one. Well, we love to laugh, as you see. Well, up next, you're going to meet a comedian who says he doesn't just make people laugh; he gives them the ability to laugh. We can do so much more than we think we can do. See why Michael Jr. actually takes the road less traveled, up next. Still ahead, she wanted to be the perfect wife. I was addicted to being small. Until it nearly killed her. I got really good at explaining away my weight loss. See what saved her, on today's 700 Club. I saw the truth for the first time. This dining set is almost $1700. This dining set? Less than 1100. This living room over $4600. The same living room, 3500. It's not a sale. It's not a closeout. It's a whole new way to buy over one million products for your home all at huge savings. That's DirectBuy. And right now you can get a 30-day membership free, so you can start saving today on virtually everything for your home. Our first project with DirectBuy was our kitchen cabinetry. We save roughly around $27,000. DirectBuy lets you buy without any of the hidden retail markup you'd pay in stores saving you hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Imagine getting this entire room for nearly half of what you would pay in stores. Start saving today. Call now for your free 30-day membership certificate. Don't wait, DirectBuy at 1-800-839-2075, that's 1-800-839-2075. Call today. To see this week's most viewed stories, go to CBN.com. When Michael Jr. was a teenager, he went to the movies with his friends. Then the projector went out and Michael decided to jump up and take center stage, and a stand up comic was born. Well, he's been making people laugh ever since, and recently we caught up with him before an event at a Salvation Army retreat, where he shared why his comedy is more than just jokes. When I was kid, laughing at church was illegal. You couldn't laugh at church. I remember one time I'm at this church, right. And this lady was jumping around and her wig fell off. That stuff was funny, right? I laughed. My grandmother would pinch and twist. I could understand a pinch. You're going to twist, that's the devil right there. Comedy at best is a seasoning for the Word of God. At best, it's a seasoning. It's not the meat. It's the seasoning, to make it more palatable to people who really, really need the meat. Reading the Bible is like paying bills. Right? You're supposed to pay attention to everything, but if it shows up with some red ink, you'd better do something. Right? My comedy is very purposeful, even when I'm not trying to be. God is setting some stuff up in a really cool way, whether I know it or not. I found out Jesus had a little brother. Anybody know his name? James. The first one was James. And I when I read that, I was like, man, how much pressure was that? Jesus is your big brother? How many times did he have to hear, "How come you can't be more like Jesus, James?" Because you know everybody probably thought that James could do the same things Jesus could do, but he couldn't. He was just James. He wasn't James Christ. What I'm learning is it's really important that Christians laugh, but it's also important that we be seen laughing. At the wedding banquet, Jesus turned water into wine. Everybody was amazed. But they don't tell you about the next banquet. Jesus left early. They started running out of wine. Everybody looked at James. "Last time this happened, your brother made some wine. You just going to stand there with your sandals on? You can't make no Kool-Aid or nothing, man?" When I was a child, it was hard for me to read. It would mess with my self esteem. So what I did was I developed this ability to look at a word in seven different ways. I came up with seven different possibilities of what that word could be or different ways to look at it to determine what the word was. And it would always pretty much work. And then when I got a little older, probably around high school, I figured out how to take those same seven different viewpoints and apply them to a situation. So any situation that one person would look at in a regular way, I have seven different ways to look at it. And that's exactly where I draw my comedy from. Now, let's look back. Not being able to read or having a really hard time reading as a child and it messed with my self esteem, was really a plan of the devil. But what the devil meant for bad, God has turned to good, because now I use it as my primary tool for developing content for the comedy for the Kingdom of God. I love what I do, man. I get to travel all over the world doing comedy. Like, I perform all over. I get to perform at the clubs, and as well, churches, which is cool. It's the same show wherever I go, because it's the same God wherever I am. So it's not like I'm doing two different shows. Right. And so then God gave me this cool comedy accountability. Any comedy that I do at a club has to be clean enough that I could do it at a church. But any comedy I do at a church has got to be funny enough that I could do it at a club. I was doing a prayer right before I hit the stage in Los Angeles, and did a prayer. And in an instant, God changed my mindset about comedy. When a comedian gets on stage he wants to, normally, and I was the same way, He wants to get laughs from people. Well, God said, "No, don't go up there to get laughs from people. Go up there and give them an opportunity to laugh." The moment I said, "Yes, God, I'll do this," a woman approached me and asked me about doing comedy for people with AIDS. Before, nobody ever approached with that before. Or my mindset was so that I probably never even noticed it, where I was available to them. So we did this film, a comedy, "The Road Less Traveled." We went to four locations across the country, and we brought them comedy, places that normally don't have comedy. A placed called the Samaritan House. Everyone there was homeless and they have HIV. We also go to Skid Row and do comedy. We go to a youth prison and do comedy. We also go to a placed called the Dolphin House that takes care of abused children. And only with God's strength was I able to do it. So I get up there and I do these jokes, and people started laughing. And I'm blown away by the fact that they're laughing, even with all the hurts and the pains they've been through. They're laughing at my comedy. Because we can do so much more than we think we can do. We've just got to trust God and step out there. And this film actually motivates people to step out. A lady in Orlando saw this film and now what she does, a ballet teacher. Now what she does is on Wednesday night, she teaches homeless children how to dance ballet. So I think this movie, one of the things it does, it motivates people to take what they have and go give it where it's needed. And the blessings and the things you get in return are so much bigger than anything you'd ever ask. And I'm starting to see that's really part of my message. That's part of the message that the season of comedy is for, is just to show people not only that they have value, but other people really need them as well, and they value them as well. A lot of men here. This is cool. I thought it was a woman's retreat at first. And then I got there. I was like, these are some hard looking women. I don't know what happened. I'm glad they're here. I'm glad they're here. There are some guys in the audience tonight who have been through some hurts and pains. Some of them have been homeless. Some of them have been on drugs and just really beat down. Tonight, they get to come together and laugh. Why do you have an accent like for Chicago? My name is Julian. My name is Julian. Oh, the south side. Oh, that makes sense. You're used to saying your name after you've been running. That's why it is. It's Julian. Julian. Julian. And my job tonight isn't so much to give them any sort of message. It's really about just having them laugh. The message will show up. I'm just saying, I don't know what the message is going to be. But I know God has something really cool in store. And I just get to be kind of an audience member and find out what that is as it happens, even if it's coming through me. So it's going to be really, really cool. I'm excited. I just love bringing laughter to people. So it's like mad cool. I love it. That night, 89 men accepted Christ. Their hearts were opened. You were reacting. I had my own little focus group going on over here. I love him. I love laughter. Well, you know me. It breaks down barriers. Even today, I came in this morning kind of with a little attitude. I was upset about something. You? Yes. I was. I know, it doesn't happen. I don't believe it. It's true. And something that he said . . . . You're sweetness all the time. All the time. Well, yes. And so am I. Wait, the lightning. Anyway, but something that he said I loved. He said you've got to change your perspective. And laughter, it's not just about making people laugh, but showing them—what was that line? Showing them that they can laugh, or something like that. I don't know. But even just watching that piece and me laughing broke the stuff that was on my shoulders. I love it. Yes. I've gotten the inside story. I had talked with him. He was here for the Christmas party. He was hysterical. And he said he was going to a comedy club to do an act, and across the street he saw a homeless man. And God spoke to him and said, "What's it going to take to make him laugh?" And that really challenged him to say, how much does laughter liberate us and get us out of whatever situation we're in? And he said, "I needed to start taking laughter to the people who are downtrodden, that really have serious problems in the world." And so he did that. And he put a DVD together. It's called The Road Less Traveled. And he went to the homeless. He went to abused children. He went to HIV patients. He went to imprisoned youth in reform school. He went there and it's amazing the transformation. If you want to see it, check out his DVD, and you can find out how you can get a copy on CBN.com, The Road Less Traveled. I love it. What does the Bible says? Laughter is a great medicine, or something about medicine, and it's good. I don't know. It's good for your bones. There you go. The Gospel according to Kristi. I know, right. The NIV version. Amplified. I know, exactly. Very amplified. All right. Well, coming up, we have an amazing story. She was actually addicted to being skinny. I would always choose to eat and just know in the back of my mind it was just always an option to just go make myself throw up. But see what saved her life, up next. Insight into today's events, news you don't get anywhere else and inspiring stories of hope. Now you can share them with your friends. Go to CBN.com to "I saw It On The 700 Club" for a fast easy way to share your favorite videos. If you have diabetes and love food, pay attention to this free offer. Hi, I'm Nicole Johnson, I've had diabetes for years, and I love food. To me there's nothing tastier than rich chocolate cake, except maybe crispy oven fried chicken or cheesy potato skins. Get these recipes and many more free in these amazing diabetes cookbooks. If you have diabetes and are on Medicare, you qualify for these three, free cookbooks. Call 1-800-659-5105. Enjoy dozens of yummy recipes for deserts, main dishes, snacks, and more. Plus get this free guide to planning delicious diabetes friendly meals. So call now and get cooking. For your free three cookbooks and free meal planning guide, to qualify call 1-800-659-5105. That's 1-800-659-5105. Welcome back to The 700 Club. This weekend, millions of Christians are expected to take part in the Global Day of Prayer. Believers will hold public gatherings in stadiums, city squares, and parks on Saturday. It's something they've done for the past 10 years. They will repent before God and each other and seek for reconciliation. On June 12th, Pentecost Sunday, congregations in more than 200 nations will observe the day of prayer in their church services. Then Monday they will begin three months of service to their communities, churches working together to help the needy and restore neglected neighborhoods. You can learn more about the Global Day of Prayer on our website, CBNNews.com. Operation Blessing is helping to fight child abuse and trafficking in Brazil. Hundreds of youth filled the streets of 11 cities across Brazil to raise awareness. Each person held a candle. Every 15 seconds a small group of people blew out their candles, and that represents the fact that every 15 seconds a child in Latin America is sexually abused. This year's cities were chosen because they will be the host cities for the 2014 World Cup Soccer tournament. Big events like that attract what's called sexual tourism and it only increases the nation's problem. You can find out how to help and get involved with Operation Blessing by going to its website at OB.org. Gordon and Kristi will be back with more of The 700 Club after this. Amanda had $3000 dollars until her transmission went. Rich had $4000 before his engine died. Sue has no money and her onboard computer broke. No one likes putting money into their car for repairs. Get AutoAssure and be assured you won't have to. With AutoAssure you never have to put money into expensive covered repairs. You keep it. It's guaranteed protection. You can keep your mechanic, your dealer. AutoAssure pays them directly. You choose the coverage you need on any make or any model car and you don't lay out a penny. 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We'd go up there; I just knew it was going to be a good result. You could just see the joy on Dr. Granik's face. Call now and we'll show you how the most compassionate people anywhere put you at the center of everything we do. Together, we'll explore real treatment options you may not even know exist. Cancer Treatment Centers of America. It is such a different place, because they give you hope. I would strongly urge you to call them and get a second opinion. Please call today. Well, they say if you repeat a lie enough times, people will believe it. Amy Woods actually knows that fact from experience. She has lied her entire life, and that lie was killing her. There were times when at night in my bedroom I would do workout routines. I know that I was very aware of wanting to make sure I looked like all of the other girls in high school and drill team, cheerleading. Amy Woods' struggle with her body image carried over into her marriage to husband Brian. It was about six months into our marriage that I officially started making myself throw up. And I was just very determined to appear always that I was the perfect wife. The pressure Amy put on herself to maintain that image was too much. She desperately grasped for control in her own life and weight. I would just eat super small amounts. And then I went from eating those same things and not swallowing it, just spitting it in the trash. Then I remember loving to eat. I would always choose to eat and know in the back of my mind it was always an option to just go make myself throw up. And in the beginning it was not very often. And then it would go to every day, and then it would go to several times a day. Brian was a medical resident and worked long hours at the hospital. Amy had no problems hiding her bulimia from him. I got really good at lying and explaining away my weight loss. My face was very sunken in, and I was way smaller than a person my height should be. And people noticed. The battle continued through three pregnancies and 11 years of marriage. It's like a drug. It's like a drug with people that they don't want to do that, but they can't help it. And I was addicted to being small. I was addicted to being in control. In 2005, Amy was out on the front porch watching her kids play. I just prayed for the first time, and I said, "God, I don't know what it is I'm missing. I don't get it." God took me on a little journey, I guess. And it was sort of like a movie clip where He took me back through some times when I heard things from family members or from society: "When you're fat, you're not lovable." He took me back through relationships that I had in high school, that the boyfriends that would say that really my value came from being pretty or small and I believed it. The doctor telling me I was two pounds from being what they call obese. And I wasn't. But I believed it. At the end of each one, He kept telling me how much He loved me and how that was not who I was. At the very end I was on a boat, and my kids were on the boat with me. And the boat was sinking. And He said, "You're taking your children there, too." And in that moment I knew that I could no longer live like that. And it was not going to be my own strength and my own power that would make it different, be different. It was going to be Him. For the first time I knew that I was going to be able to get up from that porch and walk away from the actual behavior of making myself throw up. I was transformed in that moment. I saw the truth for the first time. She finally told Brian everything. He reacted with just love, support, just no judgment from him whatsoever. He was sad. He was sad that I had believed those things about myself. In reality, my husband always found me attractive. It was my mind. It was the lies that I was believing about myself that made me go there. Amy and Brian grew in their relationships with the Lord. Today, Amy teaches the family of seven to find their worth in Jesus Christ. I want my kids to know where I've been, how the Lord saved me, and it wasn't on my own. I didn't do anything to make it better, that the Lord did that. There's nothing too big. There's no place too far that you've gone that God won't be there. I want them to know the places that I've been and the true joy, the true freedom you get from God, from Christ alone. What a telling story. What lies have you been telling yourself? What lies are you believing? The lies that say that you're not loved, that you're unworthy, that you're insignificant, that no matter what you do or how hard you try, it's just not good enough. Have you said those words, those things, believed those things? I was reading the Word the other day, and in the Word it said that God was talking about how oftentimes we exchange the truth for a lie. We literally have the truth of who God says we are and who He believes we are, and we literally push it away, and we believe the lies of the enemy, the lies of things that people have told us, that we are unworthy or insignificant, or we're stupid, or we're fat, or we're a failure, whatever it is. Today is the day that I want to not only encourage you, I want to give you the opportunity to change. You see, God has given us the power through His Word to change our mind. You see, the things that we believe because of the things that we have either said or been said to us go not just in our hearts, but they come through our mind. But God has given us the power to renew our mind with the Word of God, because it's the Word of God that penetrates the lie, that breaks it down, that busts it out, and that literally shines through to the truth. Do you know really who you are in Christ? Do you know that Jesus Christ says that you are the head and not the tail, that you are above and not beneath, that you are made in the image of Him? Do you know that He loves you so much that He knows the number of hairs on your head? Do you know that He says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, that one thing about you is a mistake? And do you know how worthy and significant and valuable you are, not because of what you do or who people think you are or what you say, but because who is in you, and that is Jesus Christ. Today is the day that you have to make the choice and the decision to drown out the lies and to believe the truth of who God says you are. And it all starts with choice. You have that choice. So if you don't know who you are in the Lord, it's simple. Pick up the Word of God, and every word that you read on that page, let it come through your ears, through your eyes, through your heart, through your soul. And let it cleanse you, because it will. And over time, every time you look in the mirror, you will not see your face. You will not see your flaws. You will not see your brokenness. You will see the reflection of Jesus Christ looking back at you through that mirror. That will happen. If you're struggling right now, I'm going to pray for you, and I'm going to pray for you, because I know that Jesus loves you, that He can change that thought process, and that He is good for you. So bow your head with me right now. Let's just pray together right now. "Lord Jesus, Lord, we just come to you right now and first of all just repent and ask, Lord, please forgives us for believing the lie, Father God. Lord, you're such a good God to us, that you said that we are all these wonderful things, not because of who we are, what we do, but because of who you are in us, Father God. Lord, help us to change from our ways, to see you and to see us the way that you see us, Father God, that we are made in your image, Lord. Lord, I pray that you will heal those broken places, those deep places at the depth of our heart and soul that have been wounded, Father God. Go deep in us and mend those places and restore us. Lord, we love you. We praise you. We glorify you. And we thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen." You see, the Bible says who the Son sets free is free indeed. And you are set free, because Jesus Christ is freedom. So allow Him to penetrate your heart and to break those walls down. Listen, I want to encourage you today. We have a pamphlet called "Overcoming Eating Disorders." And so if that's your issue, we want to give this to you. But I also want to encourage you as well; maybe it's just feeling like a failure, insignificant, or unworthy, or whatever issue it is. Know that Jesus Christ can help you. Call the number right there, 1-800-759-0700. You can always log on to CBN.com as well, just for more information to encourage you. Gordon. Well, still ahead, your questions from our live chat room. Stay tuned for Bring It Online, when we come back. Hello, I'm Terry Meeuwsen. Did you know there are more than 148 million orphans in the world today? 148 million. But it was three little girls that taught me about the plight of orphans. Eight years ago my husband and I spent nearly a month immersed in the daily activities of an Ukrainian orphanage as we waited to adopt three sisters. I saw firsthand the utter loneliness, the pain of rejection and the overwhelming desire to be loved. That experience changed me forever, and out of it, grew a ministry from my heart called Orphan's Promise. Today we're helping orphans and vulnerable children in more than 50 countries worldwide. Thousands of children are now in safe homes. They're being educated and they're learning life skills. I'm asking you to join with me and become family to these children. Will you call the number on your screen right now because every child deserves a chance to be happy? What makes the miracles of Jesus even more miraculous? Standing where they happened, in Israel. Come sail the Sea of Galilee where Jesus calmed a raging storm. Experience Jerusalem where Jesus restored a paralyzed man. Explore Capernaum where Jesus spoke a Centurion servant into health. To learn more about standing where it all happened in Israel, visit www.goisrael.com. Come visit Israel. Monday . . . . I aspired to greatness. . . . . an Olympic hopeful with gold medal dreams. I really believed were achievable for me. . . . . until this former ski star wiped out. My name is Scott Arnold, and I used to be a dumpster diver. Plus . . . . Basically, I had tumors in my body. . . . . cancer riddled her body. I was pretty much near death. How she was healed without surgery, on The 700 Club. Well, every day, a man named Ruben spent hours working for a meager income. And when he tried to earn a little extra, he nearly bankrupted his entire family. Ruben Dario sells plastic bags for a living. Every day for the past four years, he's taken his small inventory of bags and pedaled his bike up to 10 hours a day trying to sell them. It was very exhausting to ride my bike, because your whole body is working. Sometimes I had to walk and push the bike up a hill. It's very tiring. After four years, Ruben was exhausted. And although he didn't have the money, he bought a motorcycle on credit. I believed that I could sell more products if I had a motorcycle and make money more quickly. But things didn't happen that way. Months later Ruben had no money to pay for his motorcycle loan, and he had run out of bags to sell. I cried when I didn't have the money to buy more bags. My family was just eating the bare minimum. I felt trapped and knew I was going to lose the motorcycle. One day at church, Ruben heard that Operation Blessing was helping people with small businesses. A few days later he got the call that we would help. First, Operation Blessing restocked his inventory with 20 bundles of plastic bags. And we began to train Ruben on how to manage his small business, teaching him how to tithe and reinvest his profits. I remember the Bible verse that says that the diligent man will prosper, and I believe it. Within six months, Ruben's business had doubled. His regular clients increased, and the extra profits are allowing him to quickly pay off that motorcycle. Thank you Operation Blessing for the opportunity that you gave me, for being so good to us and helping us move forward. God bless you all. God bless you. If you're a member of The 700 Club, you're part of that. If you're not a member, you can join with us now. All you have to do is call a toll free number: 1-800-759-0700. And just say, "Yes, I want to become a member." How much is that? Well, it's just 20 dollars a month. That's only 65 cents a day. When you join, we want to send as our gift back to you Life Beyond the Grave. It's an incredible DVD, stories, real testimonies, real people. You get to see them and hear them, who died. Some of them went to Heaven. Some of them went to Hell. And they tell of their experience and how God rescued them or God sent them back and said, "Well, it's not your time. You have to go back." If you'd like that, all you have to do is join with us. We'll send it as our gift back to you. And if you join at 700 Club Gold, we'll not just give you one of the Life Beyond the Graves, we'll give you three, so that you can share it with friends and family. And if you join at 1000 Club level, and that's 84 dollars a month, we'll send you five of them. So we want to get the message out, so people can understand, yes, there is life after death. Yes, there are consequences. Yes, there is a Heaven. Yes, there is a Hell. And we've got the eyewitness testimony to prove it. So if you'd like it, call us: 1-800-759-0700. Well, it's time for some questions with Bring It Online. Are you ready? I'm ready. Are you ready? I'm ready. I'll turn them back on you. I'm throwing them to you first. All right, here's the first question. All right, it says, "I was fired from two jobs in the past, and I'm currently in the process of applying for another job. On the application, it asks me for the reason for leaving my last job. Is it okay to put something other than I got fired? Won't putting that down actually hurt my chances of getting the job?" If you really got fired, and fired for cause, then I think you need to disclose that. If you got laid off, that's another way to put it. The Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin. And so if in your own spirit, your own heart, there is a check, I will tell you as an employer when they see that, they're going to say, "Wow, an honest applicant." And so it may actually turn to your favor. But you do need to explain the circumstances. And then another explanation is what have you learned from it. I've heard from a lot of people who have become very successful that, "Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me. It was my wakeup call on what I needed to do to succeed in life." So if you've got that kind of story, that's a good one to put down. Well, here's a question back for you. You ready? Here's a question. "How do we know for sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that we're doing what God wants us to be doing? How can we discover God's perfect will for our lives?" Oh, good googly-goo. This is the question you give me? Yes. Well, I don't—it was the next one in the order. I know, but can't I just throw it you and I just say, "Uh huh, uh huh." Uh huh, uh huh? That's a hard one, seriously. That's a hard one? You take it, and then I'll jump in. There you go. Okay, number one, I think you're trying to be perfect. And boy, you've got an uphill battle on that one. And I'd leave that alone. Amen, brother. Jesus was asked the same question. You find it in the Gospel of John. What does God want us to do? That's the New Living Translation. What does God want us to do? And He answered, "God wants you to believe in the One that He sent." When you start understanding Jesus is the perfect one, and because of His perfection, all I have to do is believe in Him, He has relieved me of the responsibility of being perfect. Well, then you get a whole lot of freedom. Now, the second part of this has to do, once you believe, now what are you supposed to do? Well, it gets real easy. Jesus made it real easy. Love God. Love one another as you love yourself. And then He added to it, "Go into all the world and tell them the good news. Tell them the good news that I have taken care of everything. I love them. I want them to be with Me." Now, some people get into very specifics. "I can't go to the grocery store unless God tells me." I think you're just into bondage. God is not looking for robots. God is looking for co-laborers. The Holy Spirit is not a dictator. The Holy Spirit is a helper. The Holy Spirit is a comforter. So He helps you do what you want to do. And when you start understanding that your heart's desire, if your heart's desire is in line with what you see in the Bible, if you say, "I want to get people saved. I want to help people. I want to love people." If that's your heart's desire, then you can release into a whole variety of activities, and you understand God comes along and helps. He comes along and comforts. And He's not looking for you to be a robot. He's looking for you to be a child. Now, as a parent, I don't dictate to my child what they do every day. God is a much better parent than me, and He is not going to do that either. So walk in the freedom. Walk in the liberty by which you were set free. When you understand these things, that God has just laid down broad principles, and then He wants us to enjoy life. He invented play. He invented good things for us to do, when you get to that understanding, then you start to really have a lot of fun. That was a brilliant answer. Brilliant. It was as though I wrote it down and said, "Here, Gordon, say that." I feel approved. I feel accepted. No, that really was. Because I was sitting here—I know. Once again, I sound shocked. Bring it back. It was a good answer. It reminded me of something that my mom has always told me. She said when we were kind of getting out of the nest and we were like, "Mom, should I do this or should I do that? What does the Lord say?" My mom said, "Go until the Lord says stop." And I said, "Interesting." She goes, "So oftentimes, people do the opposite. They stop and say, ‘Lord, can I go? Can I go?'" She's like, "That's what faith is. You go until the Lord says stop, and then He will direct you." Don't you like that? I like that. Okay, you can go now. The wisdom of mom. Kristi. I know. Of Rosemarie. I love her. All right, they're playing the music, so we've got to stop. Here's a word from Psalm 147 . . . . . . . . "He heals the brokenhearted and He binds up their wounds." Whatever wound you've got, take it to Him. He'll take care of it. God bless you. We'll see you again. Monday . . . . I aspired to greatness. . . . . an Olympic hopeful with gold medal dreams. I really believed were achievable for me. . . . . until this former ski star wiped out. My name is Scott Arnold, and I used to be a dumpster diver. Plus . . . . Basically, I had tumors in my body. . . . . cancer riddled her body. I was pretty much near death. How she was healed without surgery, on The 700 Club. Here at CBN, we see amazing things happen when we stand together. That's why we want to say thank you to the thousands of you . . . . . . . . who recently pledged to join the 700 Club. Your monthly gift makes it possible to bring crucial help to those who need it most. You help heal the sick, feed the hungry . . . . . . . . and preach the Gospel across America and throughout the world. You've brought health and hope to people in desperate need. And changed their lives forever. When Kitty was abandoned by her parents, she went to live with her grandmother in the middle of a garbage dump. They ate scraps of food from the dump and tried not to get bitten by the rats. That's when you built them a new home and set up a small clothing business near the market for Kitty's grandmother. You rescued them from hunger and fear. So please watch for this mailing and send in your pledge. This year millions will know . . . . The love and saving power of Jesus Christ. And that only happens, because you were there.