 God is the Lord of the breakthrough and we hope that you get your breakthrough today because we're so glad you're joining us on Hope Today where we love to spend this time to uplift and encourage you and we're so glad you're joining us today. I'm here with Tom and Amy and Tom, tell us about our guests that is coming up because we're going back into history talking about a very important person. I know. Well, you know, most of us have heard of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who wrote a diary is she and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. You may have read it. I've talked to people who said, yeah, I read it in junior high, high school. Well, but have you ever wondered what Anne's faith was like? Well, Pastor and historian Johnny Teague is with us today to dig deep into Anne's life and to see what strength we can gain for this time, for this time in history through her example. I'm really looking forward to this conversation, guys. Yeah. And talking about going back in history, you know, I watched the Jesus Revolution movie this past week. And you know, it's not just watching a movie that this could have happened. This is actually a historical event that did take place that was a spiritual awakening and revolution and revival. And so I cannot even tell you what it did on the inside of me. I just felt, I just felt like do it again, Jesus. You are doing it. And I just, I just saw that this movie and this time and these revivals and these moves of God that are popping up all over the world that this is just part of it. It's like fanning the flame of revival. There's so much happening. And I know Sydney, you've mentioned so many things happening. I'd actually like to bring Johnny in real quick here before we go to the main interview. Johnny, you've studied the great awakenings. Tell me what your opinion of what God is doing right now. My goodness. We've shared of how so much of revival begins with prayer. It begins in the most unexpected places. We saw it with D.L. Moody. We saw it with George Whitfield. We saw it with Charles Spurgeon. But it really is organic. God just begins to move amongst the people and the neighborhoods and the streets and the homes. And all of a sudden the thing breaks out and it breaks out everywhere and it sweeps the nation. And that's what we're praying for. Amen. Well, that's a good point. And I know Sydney, you've shared so many times about what you've seen on social media of people that are coming to the Lord. Yeah, it's really exciting. So I know right now there's a lot of controversy with TikTok. So I know some people, I know there's a lot going on there. But I have been, I'm still on TikTok and I know the Lord is moving on there. But I have seen just in Mexico that they're incarnable. There was 1,000 people that gave their lives to Christ. Amen, I saw that even during one of the Jesus revolution movies, like afterwards people were on the ground. People were slain in the spirit. They were getting healed and delivered. So God is truly on the move. And I just want to share something quickly that I just saw God moving in a really special way. So I wasn't here yesterday because I acted to be in court because about a year and a half ago, I know many of you know that my car got stolen by a group of juveniles. So it's just been this whole ordeal that has been going on. But let me tell you yesterday that I just saw the hand of God in just a really special way. And so the whole time that God has just placed in my spirit, my husband, I like even the day that our car got stolen we prayed for the young man. And we just wanted an opportunity just to say like talk to them and just speak some heart to heart. So I had an opportunity on the witness to give a testimony and I would be honest like I was in front of the judge and he was there and I was like here we go Jesus. He was like praying underneath. What to say because it's just seeing, I think one thing that is beautiful that when you see within the juvenile system is that I just saw the importance of community and just really they're having their arms around this young man. And just so I shared like I forgive you and I believe you knew it was this whole move. And in that moment in that courtroom of just being able to share about a little bit about God and faith and just different things like even the judge has said it was a grace of God what was happening is it wasn't a courtroom anymore. It was a moment that we were lifting up this young man and he started sharing about his dreams and sharing about different things. And it was so powerful and moving. And afterwards we got out of court. I gave, we both gave each other a hug. I talked to his mom and we exchanged numbers. And I think what God was showing me in that moment is what Jesus does for us. You see a lot of times that we are in that place, right? What we have all fallen short that we have all have sinned. And what Jesus does and what God was showing is that he is the faithful witness that he will testify and he will speak of the things that we've done. But he says you are forgiven. And because of the blood and because of what the price he paid on Calvary that's what he does for us. So I had this whole revelation of just the amazing thing that Jesus does for us that is standing before the judge. But Jesus says to all of us you are forgiven. That everything that has happened all the things that the transgressions they are gone, they're in the past start your life again. And so with this young man just to be able to see that and just like his mom and just it was, it was just such a beautiful thing. And I just wanna say this is that wherever you are I know where you're seeing moves of God that are happening all around the nation but God wants to do something in you. There's something that you can do in a moment whether it's a courtroom the classroom in your family on the street in the grocery store are you going to be obedient to the Holy Spirit? Are you going to listen to him and say, you know what? In this moment I'm gonna be like Christ and I'm gonna show the love and light in the midst of the darkness. I'm telling you there is a generation that is out there. They are hungry and they are crying out for revival. They are crying out to touch and experience Jesus like never before. So are you gonna be the one today to go out and do it? So that's all I had to share but that's just been on my heart. And it's just like, yeah just really just a powerful moment. Yeah, powerful moment and grace filled. That's what I love about it. Grace filled. That's awesome. Well, as I said earlier, many of you are familiar with the story of Anne Frank and her diary that she kept during the Holocaust. Her diary gave the world a glimpse into what life was like for her and her family during those horrific years during the Nazi regime. And our next guest has spent years compiling research on the life of Anne Frank and he discovered some astonishing facts about her life and her faith. Dr. Johnny Teague is a historian, is a pastor, he's an author. And in his book, The Lost Diary of Anne Frank, he explores what happened after her diary suddenly ended on August 1st, 1944. Johnny, welcome to Hope Today. Thank you. It's already been a blessing to be with you. Thank you. Well, it's a blessing to have you. So for some who may not be familiar, tell us who was Anne Frank? Why does the world know about Anne Frank? Anne Frank is really the most famous, most touching story that came out of World War II in the Holocaust. Anne Frank was born in Germany to Jewish parents. And when Hitler took over in Germany, thankfully her dad had plans to support and to protect his family. They moved to Amsterdam. He was very successful businessman. And as Hitler's tentacles began to reach into Holland, he had already set up an annex, a place for the family to hide. And when his older daughter, Margo, was called up, they went into hiding. And they were hiding for two years. Right before they went into hiding, they gave Anne Frank a diary on her 13th birthday. And it's because of that diary, it's because of Anne Frank, that we know what a lot of Jewish people and a lot of people are victims of Adolf Hitler went through just to survive. And her story has touched the hearts of this world for generations. And the diary just ends abruptly, just ends. And what did you find in your research for your book? And I was mesmerized by what you've written here, writing, well, just explain the process you went through to research and write the lost diary of Anne Frank. Well, thank you. We see the diary in. And like anyone who's ever read that diary, we want to know what happens next. We want to follow Anne through the next chapters of her life, which were tragic, but we weren't able to. She wasn't able to take a pen and a paper or a diary with her. And so what I set out to do is to research what Anne went through from the day she was arrested. What happened? How did they find out where they were hiding? Where did they go after they were arrested? What was Westerbork like, which was like a transit camp? What was it like for her in Auschwitz and then Bergen-Belsen? So I traveled to all these places and interviewed eyewitnesses and survivors. This book follows the facts as best we can, but I write it in first person. I write it as if Anne continued with her diary because I want us to feel the emotions of it. And I shared with y'all my three trips to Auschwitz where I studied, and that trip to Auschwitz, that third trail, I would go into the Auschwitz camp. I would walk through very prayerfully, just really trying to grasp the weight of that place. And I got there when the thing opened on that third trip the first day and I followed everything that I could. I walked through it, I read everything. I would sit and contemplate. And I got to the very back of the camp where the crematorium was, and I sat there and I just prayed and reflected on Anne Frank and so many. Well, I'll be, I realized it was getting dark. I had been there all day. And I thought, man, I better get out of here. I better leave before they close. Was I headed back? I found that nobody was there. Everybody had left. I'd been so enamored by what was going on in that place, what Anne faced, that I'd completely lost track of time. So I hurried back to the front gate, that infamous gate where you'd enter. And I was locked in and no one was around. I pounded on the guard door of the tower, the guard tower, hoping that someone would be there. No one answered. It got dark. I began to walk the perimeter of Auschwitz trying to find a way out. I couldn't find a way out. My heart was beating. I was fretful. And I knew I wasn't in 1944. I wasn't there with Nazis, but the fear that I felt really kind of took me back. And so I circled around and went back to the guard tower. I saw light at the guard tower, I began to bang on that door again, praying, Lord, please let someone let me out. And by God's grace, I heard the heavy boots of a Polish guard walking down out of that tower. Obviously it was a place where he would stay the night and he didn't speak English. I didn't speak Polish, but he let me out. And it was really then that I thought, man, we have got to reflect what Anne Frank and millions faced like her. So that's really what really pushed me to write this book. Wow, what an experience, my goodness. And as you write this, and as I was reading this, you get drawn into what was going on and the horrific nature of it. But let me ask you, what do you speculate something in the book about her wrestling with God? And she says that so many people that were in there they turned their back on God, became atheists. What did you find out about Anne or speculate about Anne and her relationship to God? Well, the great thing is Otto and Edith Frank, her parents had a strong commitment to God. They were a Jewish family. They weren't as active in the synagogue as perhaps they wish they would have been. But Otto Frank and Edith prayed with their children every day. They discussed God's word every day. And Otto Frank even broached the subject of Jesus with his children. And he wanted, before they went into hiding, he had wanted to get them the New Testament so they could learn about Jesus. And so he set a foundation in Anne Frank's life. And even in her diary that you read, you hear her reference God and you hear about her dreams about her friend Haneli. And so that clearly carried on in the Westbork Auschwitz of Bergen-Belsen, eyewitnesses and survivors spoke a little bit about just, of course they didn't know Anne Frank would be anybody famous. They didn't realize she would impact our world. But just a brief grasp of some of them was her understanding that man is to pray, that man is sinful, that man brings harm, that God brings good, that God brings life, that God carries us through. And so that was prevalent in Anne's last few months of life. And I wanted that to be represented. Where others left God in the Holocaust, I believe firmly, Anne drew closer to his wings, trusting him not just with her daily bread, but trusting him to take her when life ended. Johnny, what happened in you as you put yourself in her shoes and you were finishing her diary and her story? What changed in you? That's such a great question. And honestly, I was transformed by the study of her life. A lot of things kind of came to the surface for me. One is she had these animosities towards her mom. They were petty. And once she got into the concentration camp, she started looking at people, not for their little negatives. She began to see the beauty of her mom and her dad and her sister. So I believe firmly one of the things that I've found in my own life, it's so easy to deal with the petty and forget to look at people for who they really are. And every one of us, God has placed himself, we are created in his image. And when we look at people, we can see his image. I think the other thing that kind of came to mind was that we treasure so many things and they're just stuff. And when someone like a Jewish person, the Holocaust, I mean, I'm sitting in my study right now, I've got awards, I got family pictures, I got all these things that I treasure. But when someone is yanked out of their house and thrown in a concentration camp, all they have is their being and their relationship with God. And it's really made me take things a lot less serious, folks in what really matters. And those are just two that really have impacted me. Johnny, we've seen anti-Semitism in various forms throughout history. Why does there seem to be a rise of anti-Semitism right now in the world? Well, I'll tell you what, we've left God as a nation. We see it in the headlines, we see it in the streets, we see it in our churches where we're compromising, where we're letting a public sentiment determine what's right or what's wrong. And because we've left God in a lot of ways, though we are seeing, I think we're seeing some revival. I think we're seeing what we've been praying for. But I think more than anything, when you leave God, then you leave God's people. And God said in Deuteronomy 28 that he would bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. And the Jewish people are here to point us to God. And so really anti-Semitism to me is at a front against God. But because we can't hurt God, we seek to hurt those who belong to him, whether they be Jewish or Christian, there is this push against anyone who reminds us of God. And that's something that we've got to be very mindful of, which is one of the reasons I wrote the book. We've got to understand what this movement can do if it's not contested and if we don't return to the living God. You know, Johnny, what you're talking about anti-Semitism, you know, it hits home here in Pittsburgh. We have a very large thriving Jewish community. And several years ago, we had a synagogue shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. And so what would you say, you know, from your experience even writing this and how we can be a bridge to our Jewish brothers and sisters during this time? Oh, I'll tell you why. That's such a great question, Sydney. And we as Christians, in particular, the Bible that we have was written by primarily Jewish people. The Savior that we bow before who has saved us and given us eternal life came through the Jewish people. And so what we've got to do is we've got to love them. We've got to stand for them. And we've got to constantly be praying for them. The Bible says we're to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And I think it's just Jerusalem. It's also the Jewish people. I had a big, big visit with some church members the other day who were fighting amongst themselves. And I asked them, do you love them? Do you love that person? And they said, the right answer, yes, I love them. I said, well, you know what? They don't know you love them unless they see your kindness. And I think with the Jewish community, we must show our love through kindness. Johnny, just final thoughts, final takeaway. What, as the church of God, what can we take from this? You've already mentioned loving those that are the people of God. What other lesson, what maybe internal lesson can we take from this that we can walk the walk that God wants us during this time in history? Well, I think the Bible, I know the Bible says in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves. And there's such a big push in our community that with depression, with suicide on the rise, with all these things going on, that if we just love ourselves, everything will be good. And honestly, we've got to love God. We've got to put Him first, seek first the kingdom of heaven and everything else will be given to us. And if we love God and we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we're able to see things change. But my prayer always for Johnny Teague is holiness. If I am holy, if I am set apart for God, if I am sold out for Him, every good thing and every blessing will come to me and I'll find a peace and I will find a unity with the people who live to the left or the right of me. The book is called The Lost Diary of Anne Frank. Dr. Johnny Teague, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank y'all for having me. Well, a powerful time and a powerful lesson. We're gonna have a quick break and we'll be back with a scripture and a time of ministry. When Laura called our 24-7 prayer line, she had so much fear that she didn't want to leave her house. She had lost her husband of 54 years, just six months earlier. Laura was flipping through TV stations when she came across Cornerstone Television. She felt compelled to call. One of our prayer partners talked, listened, and prayed with her for 45 minutes. At the end, Laura said how much the ministry had helped relieve her fear. Praise God for how He's using CTVN. When you give, you become part of what He's doing. This month, when you give, we'll send wild expectants as our way of saying thank you. This book will inspire you to live your life as God intended. To give and request your copy, visit us online at ctvn.org slash donate or call us at 888-665-4483. Hope happens here. I don't know about you, but I loved hearing, you know, the story of Anne Frank and what her diary would look like. You know, if she had kept writing and I think it's so important that we remember, you know, what caused those moments in her life, the hate, the racism, the discrimination, and what do we do as the people of God today in 2023? How do we bring heaven to earth? How do we bring thy kingdom come? So we don't see that ever again. May we learn from history? Let's go to the word of God. And in this scripture, you know, growing up in a Jewish home, it's quite, it might be that Anne Frank read this very scripture Deuteronomy six, verse four and five, here is real. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. If we would just get back to the basics and we would just obey and honor the word of God, the teachings of the Bible, we literally could see such massive revival and repentance and the move of God and the love of God, such as the world has never known. You know, Sidney, it's so important that we don't just read the word and it not become a part of who we are and change who we are to represent him on earth. You know, one thing I love about this scripture when I was doing some like research and digging, this is actually called a Shema. So this is a very common prayer among the Jewish people. And the one thing I just love about this, it's not individualistic. And I think a lot of times in our Christianity, it's all about me, but it's about as a whole, as a community. And so what would it look like as us, as the ecclesia, as the body of Christ to do this is know that our Lord God is like, the Lord, we're one. We are one in him. See when we have that revelation that we're one in him, then all of these denominations, all these divisions, all those things, they come crumbling down. We celebrate that God has made us unique, but we don't let those things define us because we are identified and defined by him and him alone. And what would it look like as the body that we would love our God with all of our heart, that with all of our soul and with all of our strength. And I wholeheartedly agree, Amy, that we would see such a move and such a change. And that's why I truly believe that this move of God that we're seeing, that we're not seeing one person out in the front. That was the thing of the past. But now it's we're moving in unity. We're moving in solidarity because people need to see and to experience something different. I love that God says that he puts the solitary in families. And there's a lot of people that are on the outside, a lot of people that are hurting, that are broken and wounded, and they need a family. They need someone to come to. And we can be that in this moment in time. Tom, what are your thoughts? I think about that loving God with all your strength, that clause right there, that phrase. What is it like? Carried a refrigerator of steps. I don't know if you ladies have ever done that. Nope. I've done that. I've done that with somebody else on the other side. And it's all the strength you can imagine. I remember when we were moving and I was older than I had been when we moved in, right? And it was, and carrying, this time it was the washing machine of the steps and just carrying and thinking, I am straining everything I am of my joints and muscles and everything are fully 100% engaged because anything less than 100% wasn't gonna accomplish the goal. What's that mean for us? What's it mean for us to do something with all our strength? You know, sometimes we're a little bit passive about our relationship with God. And we do it with a little bit of our strength. Or we do it with some of our strength. Or we even do it with most of our strength. But do we do it with all of our strength? Are we gonna put every effort? If there was a pot of gold at the top of those steps and all I had to do was get that refrigerator up there, every effort would go into it. And when we have something here that is so much greater than any earthly prize, will we put today all our effort into it? I mean, that just really resonates with me, Amy. You know, today we went back in time and we talked about an era. We talked about a time. What bad happened, what good happened, how God did move, how evil was prevalent. And you know, there will be people that are writing about this time that we're living in. So it's our opportunity. It is our moment in time. What are we going to do about the move of God? What are we going to do about the evil on the earth? Maybe it's time as the believers that this is our call to action. This is the time to be courageous, to be very strong and very courageous and rise up and no matter where you're at in the workplace, in the church place, in the community, in your home that you are bringing revival. You're bringing the move of God to earth. You're bringing the presence of God. It's not out there someday gonna happen in the sweet by and by. God is moving now. He's pouring out a spirit now. So let's be vessels, Sidney, that God can use that He will move through us in this time when people are writing about this time, Sidney, our names are going to be in those stories. I'm just really excited. Are you excited? I mean, I know sometimes a lot of times are like, oh, there's so much darkness. There's so many things happening, but we know this is what's supposed to happen. And God has called us, you know, next week, I'm just really excited. It's like Purim, and that's when we celebrate, you know, Esther for such a time as this and all of the changing and things happening, you have been called for such a time as this. God has chosen you, He's chosen me for this time, this moment in history that we can make an impact, that we can clearly be the hope and the light of Jesus Christ. So let your light shine wherever He calls you to be, whatever that sphere is, because you know what? People need to know Jesus. People need to see Jesus because that's the hope that we have today. On tomorrow's Hope Today, learn how you can experience a more intimate relationship with God. International best-selling author, John Bevere, unpacks how a healthy fear of God can strengthen your faith and transform your life. That's tomorrow on Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers, whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.