(Worthy Insights) – A new study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine is confirming the power of prayer, concluding that just 5 minutes of intercessory prayer improves physical and emotional health.

The researchers chose to study in-person prayers, known as proximal intercessory prayer (PIP), rather than distant intercessory prayers (DIP) which are prayed by someone who is not in the same room as the patient. They found both immediate and long-lasting benefits from PIP.

The scientific study discovered that, as a complementary aid to medications, healthcare professionals can use PIP to relieve physical pain and treat anxiety in their patients. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Pastor Mark Burns, a televangelist and ally of President Donald Trump, pushed back twice within days against comparisons of a newly unveiled golden statue of Trump to a biblical idol, insisting the effigy was an act of honor, not worship.

The 22-foot bronze figure, covered in gold leaf, depicts Trump raising his fist in the gesture he made after surviving an assassination attempt in 2024. Titled “Don Colossus,” the statue was unveiled Wednesday at Trump National Doral, the president’s golf course in Miami, Florida, Barron’s reported.

Burns, who led the dedication ceremony, posted on X the same night: “Let me say this plainly: this is not a golden calf.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Until recent ceasefire agreements in the Middle East, Christians who gathered to pray and worship in war zones regularly heard overhead missiles hit their targets – explosions happening as they courageously united to exalt the name of Jesus from secret locations.

In this environment of uncertainty, a covert prayer room staffed by indigenous believers and supported by a missional base in the United States is meeting to pray and worship for 50 consecutive hours beginning April 23rd.

Beyond that location, more than 1,200 believers across six other prayer points within the 10/40 Window will join in worship and prayer during the same 50 hours, creating a symphony of voices unto the One true God of nations. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Washington State University has transformed sewage sludge’s environmental liability into a valuable energy asset.

A successful pilot program has validated a dual-benefit method for wastewater management: it produces cleaner natural gas more efficiently and lowers the overall cost of waste disposal.

Interestingly, the local sewage sludge was pretreated, resulting in a 200 percent increase in renewable natural gas production while cutting disposal costs in half. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Researchers working in Turkey say fresh scan data uncovered what appear to be tunnels inside a long-debated landform, bolstering their case that the site may be a manmade object that they believe to be Noah’s Ark.

Noah’s Ark Scans researcher Andrew Jones told “Fox & Friends First” on Wednesday that he believes the peculiar formation near Mount Ararat is the real deal.

“I do believe that this is the real, decayed, buried remains of Noah’s Ark, the famous ship. And we’re doing our best to convince the skeptics and show the world this site,” he said. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – A college football field was converted into a makeshift baptistry this week after thousands of college students rallied at the University of Samford to hear the good news of salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ.

This latest UniteUS outreach, held at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 8, saw another powerful response from Gen Z students who committed their lives to Christ as 64 of them publicly declared their faith through baptism.

UniteUS founder Tonya Prewett reports, “God moved at Samford University where thousands of college students gathered for a powerful night of worship. So many students were set free from years of unforgiveness, secret sin and addiction. The testimonies are pouring in. We baptized students until after midnight! To God be the glory!” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – In a world first, scientists at Bar-Ilan University say they have discovered that a single-letter switch in a region of the genome once dismissed as “junk DNA” can reverse the biological sex of a mouse.

“If you change just one letter in the DNA in a place that doesn’t create proteins, and does not encode for anything, you can prevent the ability to create an ovary, and instead you will get development of testes,” said principal investigator Dr. Nitzan Gonen from the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, in a recent video call with The Times of Israel. “This is why it’s super exciting.”

Using CRISPR technology, a gene-editing tool, the scientists changed “just one DNA letter out of about 2.8 billion,” Gonen said. “I was completely surprised to find that XX mice, which genetically should have been female, developed instead as males with full testes and male genitalia.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – As CBN News has been reporting, widespread revival is sweeping U.S. college campuses, with thousands of students attending events, engaging in worship, and getting baptized. That has included campuses across Texas, but now several more universities in the Lone Star State are also seeing powerful moves of God.

Evangelist Jay Lowder, founder of Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries, recently headlined a campus-wide event at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, where hundreds of students made decisions for Christ.

“I’ve been in full-time evangelism for over 20 years,” Lowder told CBN News. “College students sometimes can be a difficult group to reach because they’re transitionary and a lot of times not living in their normal hometown, but we literally had, I’m not evangelist-exaggerating, we had a packed house every night, standing room only, and we saw over 500 students make different commitments to Christ.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – A storm erupted on social media overnight into Thursday following remarks made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference, which were perceived by many as disrespectful toward the figure of Jesus.

The commotion began after Netanyahu was asked a question by Guy Azriel, the diplomatic correspondent of i24NEWS Hebrew Channel, when he included a reference in his answer that sparked harsh criticism for offending the feelings of Christians around the world.

Netanyahu published a clarification of his remarks this morning: “More fake news about my attitude toward Christians, who are protected and flourishing in Israel. Let me clarify: I did not defame Jesus Christ at my press conference this evening. On the contrary, I quoted the great American historian Will Durant.”

“Durant, an ardent admirer of Jesus, determined that morality in itself is not sufficient to ensure survival. A civilization that is morally superior may still fall into the hands of a cruel enemy if it does not possess the strength to defend itself. ‘No offense was intended,’ Netanyahu stated.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Amid the thunder of Israeli strikes and Hezbollah rockets, Lebanon’s ancient Christian communities cling to fragile neutrality—yet whispers grow that this war could shatter Hezbollah’s grip forever, handing Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Armenians, and other Christian sects a historic chance at revival.

Whether that hope leads anywhere remains unclear. The fighting could stay largely confined to southern Lebanon, widen into a broader regional conflict, or end in an arrangement that reduces the violence without resolving the deeper question of who controls decisions over war and peace in the country.

For Reda Sawaya, a Lebanese journalist and member of the Maronite community, the war reflects not just military escalation but the collapse of hopes that the state might begin reasserting itself after the election of a new president and the formation of a government.

“I do not claim to speak on behalf of Christians or Maronites, nor to represent their views in general. However, based on my observation, the prevailing sentiment is a national one that transcends sectarian lines, coupled with deep concern about the country’s future amid the major transformations taking place in the region,” Sawaya told The Media Line. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – A senior political source from the Middle East tells Israel Hayom that the US wants the military campaign against Iran to end, and has given Israel just one week to conclude it. The source also assessed that the regime in Tehran is unlikely to be replaced, because such a change would require either a ground invasion by troops or the renewal of large-scale protests inside Iran, something the source does not believe will happen in the near future.

According to the senior source, there is a major gap between how the war is viewed in the US and how it is seen in Israel. In Washington, the source said, officials are worried about the impact on oil prices, whereas Israel sees the war as an achievement and is celebrating it.

The source also addressed the issue of Lebanon and Hezbollah, saying that despite Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s previous secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, the organization is still standing, as is Hamas. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Israel and the US have prepared a plan aimed at creating the conditions to accelerate the fall of Iran’s ayatollah regime after the war ends, according to a source familiar with the details who spoke with Israel Hayom.

The plan includes public components designed to provide real-time assistance to the oppressed Iranian people in replacing the country’s leadership. Naturally, the source declined to reveal the tactical aspects of the plan in order not to expose details to the other side.

According to the planning, however, the main force expected to bring about a change of government in Iran is the Iranian people themselves, not American or Israeli forces. In addition, both countries hope that any alternative leadership will emerge from the central elements of Iranian society rather than from the many minority groups living in the country, such as the Kurds or the Azeris. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Franklin Graham preached the gospel to 90,000 people in Lima, Peru, over the weekend, and thousands made commitments to give their lives to Jesus Christ as a result.

The historic “Esperanza Lima” outreach was held in the country’s National Stadium, which the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) reports was “packed from wall to wall” for two nights straight on Saturday and Sunday.

The hunger for God was so strong that thousands of people who couldn’t get inside still lined the streets outside to hear Rev. Graham share the hope-filled message of the Gospel. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Iranian Shiites have a saying, “Sag Sunni.” It means Sunni Muslims are dogs. The Iranians don’t mean it as a compliment.

The framing of the recent military action in the Middle East so far has been the U.S. and Israel against Iran. Yet President Trump pointed out during a White House appearance with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Tuesday that Iran has also attacked other countries nearby: “They’ve hit Qatar. They’ve hit U.A.E. They’ve hit Saudi Arabia. They’ve hit Oman,” Trump said. Iran also used missiles and drones to attack Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait, according to a statement by those governments and the U.S. Reports on social media yesterday showed what appeared to be an Iranian drone strike near a U.S. consulate in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

What’s up with that? It goes beyond just Iranian incompetence in reaching Israeli targets or Iranian attempts to hit American military bases and diplomatic installations in the Arab countries. It—like much of what happens in the Middle East—has something to do with the split between Sunni Islam—the dominant variety and the religion of most of the regional royalty—and Shiite Islam—the religion of Iran’s ruling clerics and of its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. Iran is a Shiite country with some Sunni minorities. The Sunni-Shiite split is frequently a stronger explanatory dynamic in the Middle East than settler-colonialism or U.S. imperialism or oil or whatever other favored explanation the press or academia are pushing. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – The United States is intensifying efforts to build an opposition within Iran. According to intelligence sources talking with CNN, the American initiative is not limited to ethnic groups such as the Kurds and the Baloch. It is also focused on garnering support from within Iran’s regular army, public figures, local leadership and even relatively moderate senior officials within the regime.

President Donald Trump himself hinted at the effort in an interview with Politico on Tuesday. Asked whether it was too late to consider working with figures in a new Iranian government, Trump replied: “No, it’s not too late. Forty-nine were killed, don’t forget, so it’s pretty deep, right? New ones are emerging. A lot of people want the job. Some of them will be very good.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Chinese state-run propaganda outlets are promoting U.S. protests against the Trump Administration’s strikes against the Iranian regime, with the protests being organized by a Chinese Communist Party-linked financial network in the United States.

Immediately after the start of this weekend’s U.S. military-led operation striking Iranian leadership and military sites, street protests opposing the conflict with Iran were quickly organized in New York City and nationwide by the the leftist “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism” (ANSWER) Coalition, the Marxist revolutionary group known as the People’s Forum, the far-left anti-war group Code Pink, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Widespread interest in aliens, extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena, and flying objects – even among many Bible-believing Christians – has reached the White House, where, overnight, President Donald Trump pledged full disclosure of government intelligence on these matters.

“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant departments and agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing government files related to alien and extraterrestrial, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important matters. God Bless America!” Trump posted overnight.

Interest in these matters has grown significantly in recent months. From a documentary film to congressional hearings, a Hollywood science-fiction movie and a national news magazine cover story, the narrative about extraterrestrial life reached new heights with the president’s announcement. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – An extraordinary move of the Holy Spirit that broke out at Florida’s Southeastern University (SEU) a week ago is continuing. Some people have been comparing to the Asbury Awakening from 2023.

It began during a three-day conference that started last Monday and was scheduled to end Wednesday evening. When speaker Jennie Allen called students to repentance, Campus Pastor Jonathan Rivera told CBN’s Billy Hallowell that things unexpectedly began to change.

“What she did was she asked students to confess sin publicly and as loud as possible. At first, we were kind of like, we don’t know how this is going to look or where it’s going to go, and students literally leaned in completely and started shouting as loud as they could, confessing sin, burdens, issues, all kinds of stuff. And after that happened, something shifted in the room, something undeniable happened that we all felt,” Rivera said. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy Insights) – Franklin Graham preached the Gospel this weekend at the world’s southernmost city, and hundreds of souls placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

The “Esperanza Ushuaia” outreach was held at the José “Cochocho” Vargas Stadium in Ushuaia, Argentina. That location is known as the “city at the end of the world” because it’s about 650 miles from the tip of Antarctica.

The city is known to have the highest suicide rate in Argentina, so the primary theme of the event was hope, which is what “esperanza” means in English. The American evangelist began his appeal by asking the thousands in attendance, “Are you running out of hope?” [ Source (Read More…) ]