Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Nurturing Lifelong Faith in a Turbulent World

As you’ve read in my previous blogs and newsletters, I have a heavy burden for protecting our children and grandchildren from the wiles of the evil one. Satan is no longer sneaky and sly in his tactics. He’s open, blatant, and ruthless in going after our children in the schools, libraries, entertainment, games, sports, sexualization, gender confusion, and child-sex trafficking, while liberal “progressive” politicians on the left and media are complicit with the devil’s evil demonic ways. As a grandparent, I find it horrifying to watch the legal system working as accomplices to the breakdown of the family and taking away the rights of loving parents.

Satan had a minor setback with the overturn of Roe v Wade, so he’s now targeting his evil attacks on the children given precious life.

Children Are A Gift From God

Children shine with exceptional and extraordinary worth that exceeds all other God-given blessings. These priceless souls arrive in our arms as eternal treasures bearing the very image of God. As stewards of these divine gifts, we have a duty to equip ourselves for their proper care. It sounds like such a daunting task, and at times, it can seem overwhelming. We need tools and insights steeped in Scripture and spiritual wisdom that will empower us when we feel inadequate to guide our children towards a lifelong commitment to Christ.

The Bible does tell us that parents bear a sacred responsibility when it comes to nurturing children in the ways of the Lord. Joel 1:3 instructs parents to impart the truths of their faith to their children, who in turn, will pass on this sacred legacy to future generations. The Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry and platform God entrusted me with almost 30 years ago is exemplified in this verse.

Tell your children about it in the years to come,
    and let your children tell their children.
    Pass the story down from generation to generation.
Joel 1:3 NLT

This cyclical transmission of faith serves as the bedrock upon which the continuity of Christianity rests, echoing the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19–20. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Lee Ann Mancini Wants to Help Parents!

A book from an author friend of mine has come along at the perfect time to help parents and grandparents raise and nurture children for Christ and not the culture. Today’s Monday Morning blog is featuring author Lee Ann Mancini’s new release Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Instilling a Lifelong Trust in God. (No relation to my daughter Kimberly Mancini) Let me share with you some thoughts about Lee Ann’s book because we all have children in our family and community. We all should care about their souls.

Our culture’s current trend toward moral relativism amplifies the urgency of instilling a steadfast faith in our children. Lee Ann Mancini provides the solutions we need in her new parenting guide. Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Instilling a Lifelong Trust in God offers invaluable insights drawn from both scripture and cutting-edge research in childhood spiritual development. As the CEO of Raising Christian Kids and a distinguished professor, Mancini emphasizes the vital role of parental guidance rooted in love and joy, safeguarding children from the perils of faithlessness.

I often ask audiences when I’m speaking on mentoring, “Are you the men and women you want your children to become?” “Do you have the marriage you want your children to have?” “Do you have the faith you want your children to live out?”

Lee Ann also recognizes parents are the primary educators and spiritual mentors in the lives of their children. She stresses that the way we live proves the most significant character lesson we teach. Lee Ann says that our actions and attitudes serve as the blueprint upon which our children model their own beliefs and behaviors. Her book shares insights on how to exemplify a life centered on the Word of God so we can provide a living testimony of Christ’s transformative power. Faithfully measured, our personal steps will lead our children and grandchildren towards a deep and abiding relationship with their Savior.

Lee Ann emphasizes the cornerstone of parental efforts must rest upon the unwavering truth of God’s Word. Just as Jesus is the living Stone chosen by God, so too must His teachings form the solid foundation upon which our children’s, and grandchildren’s, faith is built. Amidst the storms of life, anchored in Christ, they can stand firm unwavering in their devotion to Jesus and unyielding in their faith convictions.

As many of us know so well, the journey of raising children in the faith comes with a myriad of challenges. In a world hostile to Christian values, we must remain vigilant in equipping our children and grandchildren with the spiritual armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) necessary to withstand the onslaught of worldly temptations. Through prayer, guidance, and unwavering commitment, we can nurture within them a love for God and His Word thus empowering them to become beacons of light in a world shrouded in darkness.

Lee Ann esteems the calling to raise godly children as sacred, but she also shares her parenting advice with the hope of grace. It is never too early, nor too late, to inspire our children to love Jesus and develop a passion for His Kingdom. With fresh insights and transformative strategies, she welcomes us to embark on a journey of faith, nurturing the next generation of believers and disciples.

Raising Kids to Follow Christ serves as a wise and powerful companion as we navigate parenthood or as grandparents. The crises and shadows of life in this world will threaten to shake its youngest souls. Our children need the hope only Christ can offer. With a strong foundation, this generation can transform the future.

As we embrace our role as stewards of His precious gifts of our children, may we rise to the challenge with unwavering faith and steadfast resolve. We can depend on experts like Lee Ann Mancini to come alongside us in raising kids to follow Christ. Together, we can fulfill our true purpose and enjoy our greatest reward of raising a generation to love and follow Christ Jesus as their personal Savior.

An Overview of the Treasures Found in Raising Kids to Follow Christ.

In Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Instilling a Lifelong Trust in God, Lee Ann Mancini inspires parents, grandparents, teachers, and others to teach their children essential Christian principles to enable them to navigate the world with grace, integrity, and an unbreakable bond with their heavenly Father.

This book goes beyond surface-level advice, delving into the intricate matters of children’s hearts and minds and offering a blueprint for nurturing a deep and unwavering faith in Christ.

Raising Kids to Follow Christ offers:
• Decades of personal experience and training based on key essential principles in Scripture
• Practical strategies for addressing doubts, fears, and questions that arise in today’s culture
• Ways to help children control their emotions and actions in various situations
• Suggestions from some of today’s brightest Christian minds in children’s spirituality
• Empowerment for parents to become their child’s spiritual champion
• Easy-to-understand apologetics for children and adults
• Fun ways to connect your child’s heart to Christ

Raising Kids to Follow Christ is a collaborative journey inviting parents to learn, grow, and flourish alongside their children as they become bold in their witness and committed to their faith rather than the secular culture.

About Lee Ann Mancini

Lee Ann Mancini is the award-winning author and executive producer of the Sea Kids series, which can be viewed on Answers.TV, Pure Flix, Right Now Media, and Minno. Lee Ann earned Master’s degrees in Theological Studies, Christian and Classic Studies, and Biblical and Theological Studies. She serves as an adjunct professor at South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary and hosts the award-winning podcast, Raising Christian Kids.

Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Instilling a Lifelong Trust in God would make a great Easter or Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or any day gift for the parents in your life. The children of today are the future of tomorrow. Let’s be sure they’re spiritually prepared to win the battle for their souls and for our world.

Please leave a comment here. I always reply.

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Jesus Doesn’t Just Get Us, He Saves Us!

Like some of you, I watched the Super Bowl. I’ll admit, I know nothing about football, but I do enjoy watching the commercials. Dave forgot about that at first as he had recorded the game and we typically fast forward through all commercials, which we did do with the halftime show. Watching the commercials with an overtime game made for a long program, but the ending was exciting.

What I want to talk about in today’s blog is the two “He Gets Us” commercials during the game. You can read my thoughts on last year’s He Gets Us commercials @ Yes, He Gets Us, But He Doesn’t Want to Leave Us Where He Found Us.

My overall opinion of the 2024 He Gets Us commercials, Who Is My Neighbor? and Washing Feet, were much like last year. They reinforced the secular voices calling Christians who oppose a sinful culture as intolerant and haters. The commercials falsely portrayed Jesus and condemned Bible-believing Christians. That was the inference I got from watching them and I’m sure many others did too.

The two commercials depicted a social justice Jesus who loves everyone. He does love everyone, but He doesn’t love everyone’s sinful actions. Jesus hates sin that destroys the people He loves. He went to the cross to offer redemption, forgiveness, and salvation from our sins. These commercials don’t portray or even imply that gospel truth.

Who is My Neighbor? depicted a variety of people culminating with a final slide: “The one you don’t know, value, or welcome.” Insinuating that these people, or people like them, aren’t visible even to preachers, missionaries, evangelists, outreach ministries, churches . . . . Christians.

As believers, we know the biblical reference is Luke 10:26-37. A nonbeliever probably wouldn’t recognize that reference.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he [Jesus] replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus went on to share the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37.

The second He Gets Us commercial had a variety of people having their feet washed by people who looked different than them. The ending slides read, “Jesus Didn’t Teach Hate. He Washed Feet. Jesus Gets All of Us.” If you didn’t see the commercial, here it is. You can make your own determination. But what raised me up off the couch, just like last year, was their implication that if you oppose sins like abortion or homosexuality, you’re a hater. Feeding right into the Marxist, secular, and dare I say, partisan political agenda and propaganda.

Actually, Jesus only washed the feet of his disciples. In Luke 7:36-50 we read the story of a sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears of repentance. “As she stood behind him [Jesus] at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” (vs. 38)

Washing feet in the Bible isn’t only a symbol of humility and service, but also a powerful metaphor for spiritual cleansing and forgiveness. It symbolizes the spiritual purification and reconciliation offered through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In 1 John 1:9, we’re told, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The He Gets Us commercial didn’t portray the significance or true meaning of foot washing. Jesus does love all of us, but He wants us to repent from our sin, turn away from it, and ask for forgiveness. That’s the complete message of the Gospels. “Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” (vs. 48)

Questioned about the use of foot washing in a CBN interview, Jason Vanderground, president of the marketing firm Haven and co-creator of the He Gets Us campaign, said their goal was to get people to go to the He Gets Us website to ask their questions and learn more about the meaning of the ads. When asked how many people actually responded, he evaded the question and told a story about someone who talked to them in the streets of Las Vegas.

Pastor Inspired to Make ‘He Saves Us’ in Response to ‘He Gets Us’

Interestingly, in Northern Ireland, Pastor Jamie Bambrick was watching the Super Bowl and saw the He Gets Us commercials as a missed opportunity. I totally agree. He graciously said they might be well intentioned, but they “put a Jesus-shaped stamp of approval on the values and actions of our generation common today. Things Jesus considers sin and is strongly against like homosexuality and abortion.”

“I think a lot of Bible-believing Christians viewed [‘He Gets Us’ ads] and went, ‘You know what, this just isn’t a reflection of the Gospel, and it’s not a reflection of our heart toward the lost, either'” Bambrick said.

Pastor Bambrick emphasized that the He Gets Us campaign portrays a false gospel of what the church must do and therefore Jesus would do. The ads imply your sins are not a problem or something needing repentance. You see a message that all God wants the church to do is love, affirm, and accept everyone and their actions, even when sinful. We do love, but we don’t affirm every action and we don’t accept everything as being moral and right.

Christian Post reports that Pastor Bambrick believes the ads were implying that “if the Church calls people to repentance, if the Church calls people to turn from sin, that is preaching hate, which of course it isn’t. . . That is an act of love, it’s an act of grace” he said.

“My experience with most Christians is that we actually love those who are in sin, but we love them enough to want to see them set free from their sin,” he said. “We love them enough that we want to see them delivered and brought to newness of life in Christ; to turn from their sin and be saved from it — both obviously from the eternal consequences of sin, but also in this life, how much better it is to walk with Jesus.”

He went on to ditto my reaction that the perception from the He Gets Us commercials will be that Christians who are calling on the world to turn from their sins are haters preaching and teaching hate. These commercials played right into the playbook of attackers of Christianity who call us the “oppressors” because we’re against killing babies, gender manipulation, mutilating children, and same-sex sexual relationships.

The true gospel is not a message of hate; it’s a message of love that Jesus is calling us to share. He loves us enough to lay down His life to cleanse us from our sins while we were sinners. That’s not hate, that’s amazing love. Love says we see you as someone who can be rescued from your sin!

So Pastor Bambrick felt inspired to make a powerful video ‘He Saves Us’ of people with testimonies of life-changing transformations. The slideshow in Bambrick’s video includes Kat Von D, a tattoo artist and TV personality who became a Christian after renouncing witchcraft; Josh Timonen, who became a Christian after helping atheist Richard Dawkins write a book against God; John Bruchalski, an abortionist turned OB/GYN; and Steven Bancarz, who repented of New Age practices.

Other portraits include former jihadist Mohamad Faridi, former KKK member Mike Burden, former drag queen and prostitute Kevin Whitt, former porn star Brittni De La Mora, former gang leader Sebastian Stakset, former drug addict Jeff Durbin, former trans-identifying woman Laura Perry, and former lesbian activist Rosaria Butterfield.

All slides show their former and current life with the same music in the background as in the He Gets Us foot washing ad. Closing captions on He Saves Us are: “Jesus Doesn’t Just Get Us. He Saves Us. He Transforms Us. He Cleanses Us. He Restores Us. He Forgives Us. He Heals Us. He Delivers Us. He Redeems Us. He Loves Us. Such were some of you.”

Pastor Bambrick said he hopes his video shows “the heart of Jesus” and reflects the love Christians have for those who remain enslaved to their sins.

‘He Saves Us’ is one minute, as was the foot washing slideshow. The two He Gets Us ads totaled 75 seconds. 30 seconds of commercial time during Super Bowl costs $7 million, not to mention the cost of making them. What a waste of money and opportunity.

Pastor Bambrick made his video in an hour, posted it on X, and it immediately went viral with millions of views. Praise God! He said the majority of comments were encouraging and positive.

Here is more of his interview Pastor Makes a ‘He Saves Us’ Ad in Response to ‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Ad, and It Goes Viral | CBN News. I hope you’ll take a minute to check it out and especially watch He Saves Us and share.

Let’s hope that He Saves Us and even He Gets Us has people talking about Jesus. We can pray that they open doors for people to seek out the true Jesus of the Bible.

Jesus was perfect as a human. Not one of us is perfect. Even though if you look closely in the first frame of the foot washing commercial, the girl on her knees doing the foot washing is wearing a white T-shirt that says “perfect.” A subtle message that believers see themselves as perfect. Not so.

Jesus was and is God. That’s the Deity and saving grace of Jesus that’s missing in the He Gets Us campaign. “The Father and I are one.” John 10:30

He understands us. He loves us. He wants us to live holy lives. He doesn’t want us to live sinful lives. He Saves Us.

15 For we do not have a high priest [Jesus] who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15

Library Update

On Valentine’s Day, three of us attended the Garden Valley Library Trustees Board Meeting for the second time where we were successful in having removed from their November minutes the reference to us as “people in favor of censorship.” We continued to request that seven books targeted to children with obscene and pornographic material be removed from the library shelves and the online library catalogue.

I read the Idaho 1972 code on the definition of obscenity and pornography to minors. Another person shared the lack of trust in the library being a safe place for children, and a third person shared the American Library Association that presents books and policies to libraries is now being led by a Marxist Lesbian whose intent is to destroy capitalism, the family and subvert Christianity. The board said they would consider these requests, but we’ll need to continue attending future board meetings.

I’m interested to get your thoughts on this blog. Leave your comments here and I will reply.

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Is Giving Thanks a Lost Tradition?

This week is Thanksgiving when many of us will gather with family and friends to eat a big delicious traditional meal. Maybe watch football, play games, fellowship, and hopefully say a prayer thanking God for the many blessings we enjoy in our life. Often, the only time we really focus on the true meaning of Thanksgiving is during that prayer before the meal we’re all anxiously awaiting with anticipation and appetites! If you’re looking for some ideas of how to offer a Thanksgiving prayer for various circumstances, I wrote a Crosswalk article on that topic—4 Prayers to Say At the Thanksgiving Table.

Last week, I learned a term that was new to me. As Dave and I were shopping at Trader Joe’s a full week prior to Thanksgiving, the aisles at this store and Costco were jam packed with shoppers. I commented to the Trader Joe’s checker that I was surprised people were shopping so early for the big meal a week away. Both she and the bagger simultaneously said, “Friendsgiving.” I didn’t hear what they said, so they repeated it several times. When I had a questioning look on my face, the checker said many people get together for a meal with their friends the weekend prior to having a family Thanksgiving celebration later in the week.

I love that idea. We’ve done that in the past too, as well as invited friends to the family dinner. But I’d never heard it called “Friendsgiving” before. When I posted about Friendsgiving on Facebook, I received many comments from people, including my daughter, who said it wasn’t a new term. Just new to me, I guess.

Thinking about Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving brought to mind a thought I’ve had for quite a while. Are we raising generations that have forgotten the courtesy of expressing gratitude not only to God, but also to others? Let me explain. I’m a boomer. My generation was born between 1946-1964. As soon as I could print, or even scribble, the expectation was that when I received a gift from someone, especially for birthdays or Christmas, I sent a thank you note to the gift giver whether it was family or friends.

When I was married, part of the shower and wedding preparation was ordering thank you notes to send out for the gifts we received. And when I was pregnant and received shower and baby gifts, as crazy as it was being a new working mom, it was a given I would make the time to send thank you notes.

I’m finding this thank-you etiquette courtesy is now a lost tradition. Yes, today it might be an email or text instead of a mailed thank you card, but often those aren’t sent either. Somewhere along the generational sequence, one generation didn’t pass down to the next generation the importance of showing gratitude for the gifts they receive. And we wonder why we’re watching generations of entitled children and adults today who expect someone else to pay for college loans they willingly took out and then complain about having to work 9-5 jobs!

Author Carol Roth says Gen Z’s (1997-2012) woes with fulltime work stem from “their parents failing them.” Here’s a quote from her article. “While it’s easy to dunk on these young people, I really blame the parents. This hurts, because Gen Z is being raised in large part by Gen X [1965-1980], which should make the kids awesome and self-sufficient.” She goes on to say that “young people consuming Marxist propaganda online and even in school it’s not surprising they want to do as little works as possible while still expecting food, clothing, shelter, entertainment and more will just fall from the sky for them.” I was happy to see she suggested mentorship as a solution.

But an even sadder consequence of not feeling compelled to be grateful to those who sacrifice their money and time on a gift or providing a college education or offering them a job, is we now also have a generation that has forgotten to say thank you for the sacrifice Jesus made to give them the gift of salvation.

It only takes one generation failing to pass down their faith, traditions, work ethic, or even the courtesy of showing tangible gratitude for a gift, for these things to be forgotten or eliminated from a culture, as we’re watching today with the void of Christian beliefs in government and in families.

Make This Thanksgiving a Wake-up Call in Our Life and Families

Even more important than thanking each other is to give thanks to God who is the provider of every good thing in our life.  I like how Dr. David Jeremiah presents the importance of experiencing continuous daily thanksgiving in his November 18-19, 2023, Turning Points Magazine weekend devotion titled “Thank Goodness!”

“Thanksgiving is understanding that blessings are hiding all around us, and we must find and focus on them. It’s the attitude of knowing we have a God in charge of all. It’s the habit of pausing to whisper, ‘Thank you Lord,’ throughout the day. It’s finding good times even in bad times and rejoicing even in sorrow. It’s noticing the color of flowers, the shape of clouds, the smell of fresh bread, and the comfort of a soft pillow at night.”

“Gratitude leads to ‘glad-itude.’ Counting our blessings is a positive step toward erasing our heartaches. The psychology of thanksgiving comes from the very mind and heart of the God who told us to be vigilant in thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2) and ‘in everything give thanks; for this the will of God in Christ Jesus for you’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18).”

With the birth of Christ, there were no longer Old Testament feast days of thanksgiving. All the ceremonial celebrations of Israel were fulfilled in the Messiah.  Instead, we’re told to give thanks in and for everything—the good and the bad times. As we gather together to celebrate our American holiday of Thanksgiving rooted in the harvest celebration of the Plymouth Pilgrims in 1621, let’s be reminded to give thanks in everything and to everyone—today and every day.

I personally want to thank each of you who take the time to read my weekly blogs and monthly newsletters. I appreciate your comments on the blogs and also for those who share on social media or forward them on email. We really are blessed to live in a time when we can freely communicate with each other across the miles and expand our friendships even to those we’ve never met personally. It’s a blessing I don’t take for granted and a ministry I take very seriously.

As the apostle Paul would say, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Cor. 16:23-24 NLT

Have a blessed and grateful Thanksgiving from Dave and me.

PS There won’t be a Monday Morning Blog on November 27, but I’ll be back December 4. Can you believe it’s almost December?

Please leave a comment here and I will reply.

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Be Alert for Where and When the Lord Wants You to Get Involved!

If you follow me regularly, you know I’m always challenging my readers to be Christians of action and not just full of biblical knowledge. It’s one thing to know the Bible; it’s another to live the Bible. The Lord wants us to do both. Not only be knowers of the Word, but also doers. In our volatile world today, we don’t have to look far for where we can get involved in promoting good where evil is invading our culture.

It’s easy and comfortable to be armchair critics where we sit on the couch and watch on television, social media, or our electronics the world atrocities contradicting reason and right. We complain about how insanely wrong things are today.

We might even gather in groups and discuss our opinions and complaints, but talk is powerless unless we put our disgust and distress into some kind of positive action to make a difference.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

There was a time when our frustration focused mostly on the world stage or maybe even centered on our government, but Satan is shooting his flaming arrows into our neighborhoods, families, schools, and yes, even, our churches.

We’re watching horrific pictures and narratives of evil at its worst as satanic barbarians attempt to wipe out the country of Israel. An evil attempted genocide of Jews we never expected to occur again after the Holocaust. How could this current atrocity happen to one of America’s allies and the people God has called His chosen?

I think some of the surprise attack came from relying on technology that can always be hacked or fail. Also, complacency and apathy to the reality that until Jesus returns for His church, Satan really is the ruler of the world.

We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. 1 John 5:19 NLT

We must remain alert to the enemy’s tactics, which are ALWAYS evil and destructive with the motive of deception and denial of God’s principles.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8 NKJV

Complacency masquerading as “tolerance” has allowed the enemy to infiltrate almost every area of life today. Americans think we’ll never be blindsided by a 9-11 style attack again. We take our shoes off and go through metal detectors and put our liquids in 2 oz. bottles to board an airplane because that was the vehicle of evil used the last time, while millions of illegals flood our borders and throw away their passports and ID’s once inside so they can assume new identities in America. Why would anyone want to do that? You know it isn’t for good. Are we ready? Is the church ready?

I’m not talking provisionally ready; I’m talking spiritually ready. Are our loved ones ready? Are we willing to reach out with the gospel to those who aren’t?

Yes, it can be uncomfortable. Inconvenient. Unpopular. Challenging. Scary. But when I find myself in those situations, I rely on the promise God gives us in Luke 21:14-15 . . .

14  Don’t worry about what you will say to defend yourselves. 15 I will give you the wisdom to know what to say. None of your enemies will be able to oppose you or to say that you are wrong. Luke 21:14-15 CEV

My Recent Getting Involved Experience

I hope you know I would never challenge you to do something I’m not willing to do myself. My mantra for years has been that the church, you and me, need to get involved in our local communities to right any wrongs that God brings to our attention. I’ve also said that we shouldn’t look only at the national level, but open our eyes to what’s going on in our own backyards. Maybe it will be running for office or actively supporting candidates who support our values. Every position is important from school boards to library boards.

I also would encourage you to investigate Christian-based organizations keeping a pulse on what’s happening in your area. I follow several in Idaho and one of those is Freedom Foundation. I receive their emails which often expose unethical issues in our state and draw our attention to pray over, and if we feel the Lord leading, to get involved. Since I live in a very small rural community most of the issues I read about are not in our area. But several weeks ago, there was an email from the Freedom Foundation addressing sexually obscene, pornographic, inappropriate books for children discovered in our local community library.

How could I ignore this? I couldn’t. So at first, I just posted the article on my social media page and a community social media page. Little did I know I was starting a firestorm! The comment attacks were fast and furious. I have to admit I was shocked that so many people were in favor of these books.

My main question was why were the books in our library? What was the purpose in making them available to our local children? But instead of answers, I received attacks on Christianity and my “morals,” although I never said I was a Christian. But it seems if you took a moral view of this atrocity, you must be a Christian. I was told, “keep your morals in your church.” I wondered what kind of “morals” the accusers had.

I learned there was a “Material Reconsideration Form” we could fill out to request these books be removed from the library. So I announced the situation to my church congregation and asked others to join me in filling out the forms. I was encouraged that many did. The two-sided form wasn’t easy to fill out and it required reviewing the dark material in these books, which I didn’t want to do. I felt like I needed a shower. How would I get the images and words out of my mind? It was just too dark.

Did I really want to do this? When my grandchildren were younger and visited us, I used to enjoy taking them to the children’s section of our library as a fun activity, but they’re older now, so these books weren’t affecting me personally. But I care about all children. I care about the next generation.

You would recognize some of the book titles as the same books parents are bravely contesting and reading aloud in school board meetings. Now God had brought them to my attention in my town. I had a choice to just complain or take further action beyond filling out the forms.

Then I discovered a podcast “Banned?” with Pastor Jack Hibbs interviewing Karen England, from Capitol Resource Institute. In this podcast, they discuss the sexually explicit and pornographic books that are plaguing our public-school systems and public libraries. Karen kept pointing out that we may be surprised to learn this isn’t only a problem in liberal cities, but many of these books are often available in conservative “red states” as well. They were talking about the very books in our “red state” small community library or on their website as an e-book download that children could access.

Banned?” is an important podcast for every parent, grandparent, and concerned citizen to hear. It’s hard to listen, and yes, it’s dark, but that’s where Satan does his work. Especially, if you’re in a “red state” like we are in Idaho and think that none of this could happen in your local library or school. It is happening in school districts and libraries throughout our state! You can’t escape it.

It was a timely podcast for me. I thought if this brave Christian woman, Karen England, can subject herself to knowing the content of these books and go around the nation exposing them to protect our precious children, I can and will do my part.

I prayed long and often late into the night for God to give me the words, wisdom, and courage to take a stand and encourage others to join me. Many did. We attended the next library board meeting where those opposing our “moral” position and those joining me opposing the books each were given three minutes to present our arguments to the board.

Even a young twenty-year-old woman courageously read a disgusting sexually graphic page from one of the books and others told testimonies of the horrific acts that occur when young minds are exposed to pornography. To the board’s credit, they listened and allowed everyone the opportunity who wanted to speak. They recorded the meeting, and we were told they would review and make their final decision, which as of this writing we haven’t received.

Applause and Assaulted

A group of us stood outside the library hugging and thanking each other for speaking out and for those that came to support us. But as you can imagine, not everyone was happy about us being there. It only took a day for me to be attacked personally on the community social media page. I received the usual “hater” slander, my ministry was ridiculed, and I was pretty much told to stay in my own Christian lane. Which actually I was!

I could also see the delusional confusion when the slanderer accused me of making the young woman read the vulgarity from the book and referred to her as my “daughter”?! I had no idea she was going to read or what she was going to say. I was just delighted to have the next generation participate and speak the truth.

Sometimes you just have to laugh at delusion. The Lord reminded me I should be flattered they thought this 20-year-old was my daughter, since my own real daughter just turned 50!!!

Jesus told us to expect persecution but also not to stop sharing the gospel because there are some who will listen just as He experienced.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
John 15:20

Paul said, 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. 1 Cor. 4:12:13

I’ve chosen to not give the satisfaction of answering the latest slanders because I choose not to escalate the discussion with those who are blinded by lies. That’s a lose/lose attempt and only gives them more of a platform. I can only pray that one day their eyes will open to the truth.

As an author myself, I know that authors write to a target audience with a purpose and focused message. I can’t imagine what kind of mind writes this smut for children. An author would have to have a sinister agenda and purpose to write books like these directed towards children. Their purpose is either pedophilia or grooming.

If you saw the movie Sound of Freedom, they really are coming for our children! I wrote a blog last year on November 8, 2021 by that very title They’re Coming for Our Children! We can’t stay silent.  

Jesus didn’t say living the gospel-life would be easy. It’s often heartbreaking to see so many people championing evil as a “freedom” when we’re talking about innocent little minds and bodies. If you’re willing to take action in the schools and libraries in your area, I want to leave you with this tool.

Obscenity Law Defined: Supreme Court Defines Obscenity

Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).  Ruled on two criminal convictions for obscenity. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the convictions, holding that obscene speech is not protected by the First Amendment.  It further determined that the standard for obscenity is “whether, to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeal to prurient interest. (Emphasis added)

Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), reaffirmed the Roth ruling. “In sum, we (a) reaffirm the Roth holding that obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment; (b) hold that such material can be regulated by the States, subject to the specific safeguards enunciated above, without a showing that the material is “utterly without redeeming social value”; and (c) hold that obscenity is to be determined by applying “contemporary community standards” not “national standards.” (Emphasis added)”

Where is God asking you to get involved?

[God] who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 2 Tim. 1:9 NKJV

 “Today is no random day. It’s a God-planned day for His devoted children.” Greater Purpose by David Jeremiah

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The middle picture is from Andrew D Griffin of Love Alive.

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Once I was Blind, But Now I See!

This week, I’m doing something I occasionally do and that’s promote a movie with a message that everyone needs to see and hear. I’m talking about the movie The Blind in theaters this week. Dave and I went to see it on 9/29 and even though I knew most of the story of Duck Dynasty’s Phil and Kay Robertson, I really didn’t know how bad it was before Jesus came into their life.

Decades before “Duck Dynasty,” Phil and Kay Robertson suffered a stormy early period of ten years in their marriage marred by Phil’s alcohol abuse and infidelity. “The Blind” captures their story of struggle, redemption, and hope.

When we were finding our seats at the theater, I saw a young teenage couple and asked if they knew what the story was about. They smiled and said they did. I told them how happy I was to see them there and that this film was reaching the next generation. After the movie, Dave and I started talking to a couple sitting next to us and discovered we had the same conservative faith beliefs and burden to protect children in our state’s schools and libraries. We were blessed to make new like-minded friends.

Let me backtrack a bit. Dave and I enjoyed watching the Robertson family with their four married sons’ families and Phil’s brother Uncle Si in their Duck Dynasty reality show adventures. That sparked our interest in learning more about them since the whole family was obviously Christian and they weren’t afraid to talk about their faith, Jesus, and family.

After Duck Dynasty ended, many in the Robertson family branched out with other shows, podcasts, books, and ministries.

Dave and I have a remote connection to the Robertson family. Their third son Willie Robertson’s wife Korie is the daughter of John and Chrys Howard owners of the former Howard Publishing that published my first two books, Dear God, They Say It’s Cancer: A Companion Guide for Women on the Breast Cancer Journey and Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter: Hope, Help, & Encouragement for Hurting Parents. The Howards later sold their publishing company to Simon & Schuster, which still publishes those two books.

I never personally met Miss Kay [as she’s fondly called] or Phil Robertson, but they spoke several years ago in Nampa, Idaho and Dave and I attended. Phil is a bold evangelist and speaks freely about his life before Christ and the change accepting Jesus as his Savior made in his life, his marriage, and his family.

Recently, we heard Phil and Miss Kay interviewed by Kirk Cameron on his TBN program Takeaways. They said that their children felt the couple’s early tumultuous marriage years needed telling to share the miraculous transformation Jesus made in Phil’s life and Kay’s belief in him when he was haunted by the demons of alcohol, infidelity, and childhood memories. I don’t want to give away any spoilers because you need to see the movie, but to quote Phil, “You’ve got to come to the end of yourself to find the beginning of God.”

It’s one thing to read and even hear Phil and Miss Kay’s testimony, but to see it visually in this film is indescribable and inspirational. The portrayal of Kay and Phil is raw, open, and vulnerable. They hold nothing back of how bad things were and how good God is. In the Kirk Cameron interview, Phil revealed something I hadn’t heard before that he had learned of fathering a now 45-year-old daughter during his time of infidelity. She’s welcomed into the Robertson clan.

Their son, Willie Robertson, said in an interview with USA Today Network about The Blind, “It’s the early years of their marriage, so it’s gutting and raw. It’s definitely not ‘Duck Dynasty.'”

 “It tackles big issues – mental illness, depression, alcohol abuse,” Willie said.

Willie and his wife Korie Robertson produced the movie with their Tread Lively production company.

“Mom and dad have been very public about their early struggles, but seeing it up there on the screen really made it real for all of us,” Willie said. “It’s tough for them to open up that part of their life, but they’ve been willing to do it to try to reach others who are struggling. People see the family and ‘Duck Dynasty’ and think, ‘They have everything,’ but this story illustrates we had hard times like everyone else,” said Willie, who was 2 when his parents separated for a time.

“It’s powerful,” Willie said. “It’s a story of hope and redemption that shows you’re never too far gone to be saved.”

“In this movie, ‘The Blind,’ we let go of everything. We’re telling it,” Miss Kay says.

The 10-year span in The Blind depicts what Phil Robertson himself describes as his wild rebellious years of substance abuse and cheating before turning to God and building the clan’s Duck Commander duck-call manufacturing business into an empire in rural West Monroe.

Why would the Robertson’s be so open, vulnerable, and transparent about such a dark time in their life? Because they care more about saving lives than saving their reputation. Their testimony is one of redemption, love, and forgiveness. A wife who didn’t give up hope for her husband and a Jesus who can save even the most despicable wayward person. A testimony shared to bring others to Jesus.

It’s not about how bad you were, it’s about how good God is! He goes after the one that was lost even though 99 are saved. Which gives each of us hope for those we think will never change their life. If God could turn heathen Phil into an evangelist, he can and will save anyone who surrenders his or her life to Jesus Christ and seeks forgiveness for their sins.

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. Matt. 18:12-13

Why Share Our Testimony?

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. —1 John 5:11-12

But as for me, how good it is to be near God!  I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, And I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.Ps. 73:28 NLT

There’s no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what He’s done in your life. No one can question your testimony because it’s your personal experience. As we mature spiritually, we move beyond just remembering God’s goodness for our own benefit and start retelling our testimony to help others just like Phil and Kay have done.

We all have varied life testimonies in addition to our salvation testimony. Some of you have heard my “Feed my Sheep” testimony. If not, you can read a little here. I never tire of telling my story as History.

You may not think you have a testimony if you’ve been a Christian most of your life and life has gone smoothly. You can’t relate to Kay and Phil’s story or maybe even mine. God has been walking beside you guiding your life every step of the way. But that’s your testimony to others who worry about losing something by turning their lives over to God. You’re a living example of how good God really is!

Maybe you’re stumbling under the burden of a hidden past you’ve been too embarrassed to talk about and hope will never be revealed. Now may be the time to deal with those buried hurts and hang-ups. Like Phil and me, once they’re out in the open, Satan can’t use them against you anymore.

When I felt God leading me to write Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter, I had to ask my daughter if she was okay with me revealing the prodigal time in her life before she accepted Christ as her Savior. I assured her that I would also be sharing how I was a prodigal raising a prodigal.

I write her response in the Acknowledgments: “My dearest Kim, you will always be my “baby. To share our story, to bare our souls, is no little thing. I admire and celebrate the beautiful, humble, and courageous Christian woman you have become. When I shared my vision for this book, you were on board and willing to let me expose our lives on these pages, all for the glory of God. That’s no small concession, since our life together has had many twists and turns—some we regret and others we celebrate. I thank God for making both our paths straight. We were lost and now we’re found. I love you baby.”

Kim told me, “Mom, if we can help one daughter and her parents, we need to share our story.” Kim also writes in the book what she was feeling and thinking during her prodigal years.

God redeems your story by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past so it doesn’t become their future. Like Phil and Kay’s testimony and Kim’s and mine, it’s the opportunity to give purpose to a crisis.

You might not make a movie, write a book, or tell your testimony from a stage, but God will bring people across your path and the Holy Spirit will prompt you to share. Every day, you encounter opportunities to share your testimony, and every time you tell it, you’ll remember how good God has been to you.

Revealing is the first step to healing!

Just like Phil’s spiraling down and my backsliding years, our testimony isn’t about how bad we were. Our message is the redemption and forgiveness available through our initial salvation or a rededication to Jesus Christ.

When people ask me how I made it through life’s difficulties, the best answer is, “I couldn’t have done it without God.” That’s your best answer too. It opens the door to share your story. By the way, your story doesn’t have to have a “happy ending” like the Robertson’s or mine for you to share it.

Your story becomes your testimony when the focus is on God, not on you. It’s not a time to tell someone else’s story. Stick to details that pertain to you and those willing to let you include them in your story.

When anyone tells me about an encounter with God, or a memorable circumstance in his or her life, I always ask if they’re writing it down because God is going to use it as a life-experience testimony. My ministry tagline is “Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness.”

I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul [formerly Saul], a persecutor of Christians before he was struck blind by the Lord on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:1:1-18.

 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

Later in Acts 22:1-16, Paul told his testimony of transformation from being an enemy and persecutor of Christians to an evangelist sharing the Gospel.

As I watched in The Blind, Phil Robertson’s retreat into the forest almost living like an animal during his darkest times, I was reminded of the story of King Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony of living like a wild animal until he also surrendered to God (Daniel 4:1-37).

At the closing of The Blind movie, they showed comments on the screen. One was what Miss Kay said to the former pastor of the West Monroe White’s Ferry Church of Christ who visited Phil in Junction City during his darkest hour, planting a seed that eventually sprouted. Kay said to the pastor, “If you can help save Phil, he will go on to help save thousands.” Which Phil certainly has done!

While many may know of Phil’s tenaciously outspoken faith now, they may not know the hard and twisting road he walked before surrendering to Jesus. The title “The Blind is a play on words and refers both to, “I was blind, but now I see” (John 9:25), and to a shelter that conceals duck hunters called “the blind.

“I think maybe if these people watch the movie and see how I was, and then they look at me now and see how I operate, [it will give them hope],” Mr. Robertson said. “You got to remember all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God so I’m not the only person that has sinned. The way out is faith in Jesus Christ.”

“I would have never dreamed I would be out there preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ when I was back there getting drunk as a skunk,” he continued. “But when that happened and I was freed from it, [everything changed]. That’s why I’ve been saying ever since that happened and I came to Jesus [what God can do].”

“Our prayer is that people will see the movie and know there’s hope. It’s never too late to be saved.”

“Jesus—that one sacrifice—has made perfect, forever, those who come to Him. If you just think about it, His blood gives us the opportunity to move beyond our sinful self,” Mr. Robertson said. “What do you get when He shows up, when you come to Him by faith? Love, joy, peace, patience…. It’s well worth the effort to follow Jesus faithfully.”

Amen!

If you didn’t receive my September newsletter, here’s the link. I would encourage you to read it.

Some of the “Why Share Your Testimony” discussion above is from my book Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten.

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When Brave Choices Regarding Our Children are Hard!

When I was writing Everyday Brave: Living Courageously as a Woman of Faith, I chose “Brave Choices” as the chapter to feature Jochebed, the mother of Moses. We know how terrible our culture is for children today, but when Moses was born, Pharaoh was demanding the murder of all newborn baby boys. Parents and children have been the object of satanic attack since the beginning of time.

Today, we have our government calling parents domestic terrorists for trying to protect their children from Marxist propaganda and perverted sexual grooming in schools. In some cases, those parents have been falsely labeled, targeted, canceled, and even lost their job, as one California mother experienced. Even still she says, “It’s been tremendously stressful, absolutely devastating to my family … Hopefully people will be inspired to just be courageous and strong and supportive of each other. And it’ll inspire parents to stand up for their children and come together as a community to not let cancel culture happen to anyone else.”

Marxists are running the American Library Association and pornographic books are considered curriculum in schools. Emergency room visits by children and youth with mental and behavioral health emergencies in the United States have been increasing over the last decade with an increased prevalence of depression and suicide.

Parents and grandparents can relate to Jochebed when they send their kids out the door to school not knowing what harm might come to them physically or mentally. Imagine Jochebed’s angst when she was making her legendary brave choice. As she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, her heart twisted in turmoil: the joy of a new mother competing with fear for his life. Egyptian Pharaoh, observing the Israelites were multiplying too fast for his comfort, had commanded the killing of every Levite baby boy upon delivery.

Fortunately for Jochebed and Moses, the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, feared God more than Pharaoh and made the brave choice to defy Pharoah’s death command; “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” (Ex. 1:16)  Selective infanticide even back then.

How the midwives must have feared for their own lives when the dreaded Pharaoh summoned them and angrily demanded to know why they were letting the baby boys live. Without wavering or hesitancy, they calmly answered that the Hebrew women were much stronger than Egyptian women were and they delivered before the midwives arrived. These two women risked their own lives to save lives. Discovery of their secret would surely result in punishment or even death. Instead, God blessed their courage and grit, “So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.” (Ex. 1:2)

God also caused Pharaoh to believe them so the king decided to take matters into his own hands by sending his soldiers to locate and drown newborn Hebrew males in the Nile River. Jochebed trembled with trepidation hearing the wails and screams of new mothers as soldiers ripped infant boys from their arms and mercilessly drowned the crying babies.

Jochebed and her husband Amram cried out to God to spare their precious son and trusted God to answer. For three months, she nursed and tended to her baby, while trying to muffle his cries and coos and cautioning her two older children, Miriam and Aaron, not to tell anyone about their new baby brother.

When she could no longer hide her baby, Jochebed resolutely wove together a basket to keep him safe from the flowing waters, swaddled him in a blanket, nestled him in the basket, and prayed as she tearfully slipped him into the Nile to float downstream, not knowing his ultimate fate. Would God protect her precious baby? Would the soldiers discover him? A mother’s distraught tears—a heart-wrenching choice.

Living Everyday Brave!

In an article titled, “Living Every Day Brave,” Rachel Linden wrote, “Today I am choosing to be every day brave. What does that mean, you may ask? In essence, every day brave means choosing courage in the face of challenge. Believing that on the other side of fear is something better. It means embracing bravery as a mantra, a habit, a way of life, and embracing it every single day.”

Some choices are easy, but others not so much. While vacillating between options, we’re often weighing the effect of our choice on ourselves or someone else. Sometimes, we have to dig deep to find the courage to make a hard choice . . . a brave choice we may not want to make, especially when it comes to our children.

In Putting the Basket in the Water: Trusting God in the Next Phase of Your Child’s Life, children’s teacher and author Ashlei Woods wrote:

“There comes a time – many times, actually – in the lives of our children where we have to put the basket in the water. We have to let go and trust the plan of the Father. The world is a scary place – a place where we fear our children could drown. But we must remember that we have to let go so that God can draw them from the waters for His great purpose. He has called us to be their parents, but they were His first.

My friend, whatever water you may be getting ready to put your basket into – remember that you have to put them in the water for God to draw them out and place them into His perfect plan. Though you might not be physically present with your child as much during the next phase of life, you can always petition the heart of the Father on their behalf.”

Susan Reinhardt commented on Facebook about Ashlei’s quote above, “I need this message again and again, reminder after reminder. The “water” grows much more tumultuous every day and can be terrifying, especially since I now have grandchildren to pray for as the world’s agenda is to own their souls. Praying, praying, praying!”

Susan has the answer for all of us with children or grandchildren heading off to school this year as the schoolroom turns into a political and spiritual battleground. As I was writing this blog, I came across an Op-ed by Jeannie Cunnion, “I’m a mom who left it all on the field raising my sons and I can’t stop smiling and crying.” The subtitle is “God was our coach and our leader, but now it’s time for my son to move on to college.” As the Lord led me to read this article about a mom sending her firstborn off to college, putting the basket in the water if you will, Cunnion shared why like Moses’ mother she could let the basket go with confidence. Here’s what she said:

“I know this: What I get right and what I get wrong does not determine who my child becomes. Yes, I play a vital role in his life. My words and actions matter greatly. But God’s sovereignty over my son’s life supersedes my significance in his life. What I’ve done is significant. But what God can do is supreme. And His wild grace covers us both!  

But more than anything, God was our coach. He’s our leader and He held us together. And for all the things I got wrong, this is one thing I got right – I left it all on the field and I entrusted the outcome of our effort to God. I trusted God with the son He entrusted to me. God knows what my son needs in this next season. He loves my son in ways I can’t comprehend.  He has a plan for my son that is better and bigger than what I often felt pressure to orchestrate for him.” 

Our Children and Grandchildren Need to be Prepared to Make Brave Choices

God lets us all make our own choices, yes even our children and grandchildren. They have free will, but we as parents and grandparents can make the decision to ask God that they would follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance. S. Hawkins writes in his devotional The Believer’s Code, “An amazing aspect of God’s love for us is the fact that He gives us choices. We are not His puppets . . . . He loves you so much that He allows you to make choices in life. While most of the choices are small, some have the potential to be life-altering.” It’s those life-altering choices that keep us on our knees for our children and grandchildren.

They are His creation, made in His image, but he will not force then to remember that or to make choices according to His will or His commandments. That’s the hardest part in letting go. Some choices could change the trajectory of their life and that’s what scares us, but Janet Denison wrote in an article in Christian Parenting, Push the Basket from the Shore, the following wise advice for every parent and grandparent: “Put the basket in the water—then push!”

“Congratulations to all of you who had to put your babies in a basket for the first time and especially for that last time. Pray that they will row in God’s directions instead of anyone else’s—even yours. Pray that they will serve God and become who he has called them to be. Look forward to watching them achieve their [Jeremiah] 29:11 life.”

“How did Moses’ mom ever place her baby in that basket and shove it in the direction of Pharaoh’s house? It was impossibly difficult, but she wanted her boy to live. 

You will bless your kids if you follow her example. And, chances are, they will bless you in return. The baby Moses grew to become the man God used to save the children of Israel from slavery.  Weave the baskets, put them in the water, and equip them for their journey. Then give them your blessing as they shove off from the shore. It’s not easy, but it’s the right thing—actually, the ‘God-thing—to do.” 

I would add though that we as parents and grandparents must continue the battle to bring God back into our schools and actively do our part in preventing Satan from using public schools to indoctrinate our children. I read a great meme “It’s not about who is right and who is wrong. It’s about what is right!” We should all be fighting for God’s definition of right to prevail against opposition from those who are trying to turn our culture into Sodom and Gomorrah. It didn’t turn out well then and it won’t now either.

Please leave a comment here. I appreciate your thoughts and always reply.

*Portions of this blog were excerpts from Everyday Brave: Living Courageously as a Woman of Faith.

Who Me Everyday Brave?

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Loving God and America is “Dangerous” in 2023!

People come and go over the generations, but demons remain the same from the days of Noah, Elijah, Ahab, Jezebel, and Jesus until today.

Satan is real and his army of demons are continually at war with God’s people. Jesus dealt with demons that understood His true identity and obeyed His command. He cast out demons from a man with an impure spirit – “My name is Legion; for we are many” – into a herd of pigs that rushed over a steep bank into a lake and drowned (Mark 5:1-13).

Author, Lit. Col. Robert Maginnis (ret.) writes in an opinion article, “Today, Satan’s demonic army is very active. They manifest themselves through various practices such as divination, witchcraft, channeling and wizardry (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). They deceive, attack the human mind with the intent of control, and they leverage power to take captive people, especially the prominent.” The Scripture Maginnis refers to here also says in verse 10, “never sacrifice your son or daughter”!

Hal Lindsey reminds us that, “Like it or not, we live in a war zone. Bombs of deceit, violence, and rage explode all around us. This spiritual war is not hypothetical, and it is not a metaphor. It is a real war with real casualties and real collateral damage. But a spiritual war is not to be fought with guns, fists, or missiles.”

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Just like Jesus doesn’t change, neither does Satan. That’s hard to hear and accept, but it’s true. Satan’s goal is the same as it’s always been to tempt, deceive, and destroy God’s created people with sinful and evil practices and choices.

I encourage you to listen to a podcast with Charlie Kirk and Pastor Mark Driscoll. Pastor Driscoll’s recent book New Days, Old Demons: Ancient Paganism Masquerading as Progressive Christianity, describes how the entire apparatus of modern wokeness—transgenderism, child mutilation, abortion, even drag queens—is simply a repeat of themes from the Old Testament starting with Ahab and his evil immoral wife Jezebel, whose evil ways passed down from Genesis to current times.

 There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. 1 Kings 21:25

In the podcast, Driscoll explains that the Bible doesn’t just retell what happened in the past, but forecasts what will always happen in the future. The same political and cultural issues chronicled in 1st and 2nd Kings are the evil issues we see in our culture and politics today. Progressive, woke, soft-woke Christianity / pastors are rooted in the same demonic realm.

If we tolerate evil demonic forces, they will dominate! Jesus told the Church in Thyatira in Revelations 2:20-21, “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. Rev. 2:20-21

Praise God there are spiritual warriors amongst us today who aren’t afraid of the demonic principalities coming against them because these men and women of faith allow the Holy Spirit to guide and lead them. I want to highlight two mighty warriors for God who understand that Satan and his demons work through men and women blinded by evil who want to replace God with government. These men of valor are saying not on our watch!

I hope you stand with them and me in agreement. Even though we don’t have the platforms of these two courageous Christians, and many others, we can support them in prayer, encouragement, and however the Lord leads you.

Two Modern-Day Spiritual Warriors

The first Christian warrior I’m going to discuss is Sean Feucht because he made national news right here in my home state of Idaho when he brought his Kingdom to the Capitol tour to Boise and received demonic pushback. This isn’t the first time it’s happened to Sean, but it became big news because Idaho is considered a red, conservative, Republican-dominated state. Beware: that position isn’t guaranteed nor is it one we can rely upon complacently as evidenced to what happened to Feucht here in my beloved Idaho where Sean was called “dangerous” by the local newspaper, The Statesmen, for daring to bring God and worship to the steps of the Capitol.

You can read the entire news coverage with details here “Christian singer mocks Idaho newspaper calling worship gathering ‘dangerous.’ ‘Good news is that God wins’. But a synopsis is that ahead of his scheduled stop in Boise, the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board wrote an opinion article attacking Feucht and his allies as “dangerous activists” and “charlatans” “who want to inject their brand of Christianity into government.” The Idaho Statesman’s article spewed the following hate propaganda . . .

“Feucht and his group are playing on the same, tired, worn-out, BS, far-right ‘fears’ that evildoers on the Left are coming for your children, through the schools, through the libraries, at Pride festivals and drag shows,” the opinion piece read. While conceding that his “hate speech” was protected under the First Amendment, the editorial board warned it was still “dangerous.” “The danger comes when these groups impose their religious views on others and inject church into the state through the power of government, as we’ve already seen in Idaho through the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, attempts to put a bounty on libraries and bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. No one is telling these groups to abandon their religious beliefs. We’re just telling them to keep their religion in their church and out of our government.”

The Statesman doesn’t think using the power of government to kill innocent babies in the womb, sexually mutilate and castrate children, and allow the teaching of perverse sex in schools is “dangerous,” only biblical principles are “dangerous.”

If you read the full hit job in the Statesman titled “Keep Your religions out of our government. Dangerous activists coming to Idaho Capitol,” you’ll see that a group of “faith leaders” in the Northwest (Feucht went to Olympia WA and Salem OR Capitols before coming to Boise) sent a letter to legislative leaders to denounce “the appearance of these faith peddlers, whose views are full of hate.” Here’s an excerpt from these so-called “faith leaders” who must’ve all gone woke to protest Christian worship at Capitols and reject biblical principles!

Here’s an excerpt from the letter: “As faith leaders in the cities of Salem, Olympia and Boise, we are writing to inform you of an anti-LGBTQ+ speaker coming to each of our state capital cities this week and ask you to speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry,” the faith leaders wrote in a letter to state legislative leaders. The letter from the ‘faith leaders’ continued: “Sean Feucht has spent the past year capitalizing on anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments by railing against Pride Month, even embracing the exclusionary label of ‘Christian nationalist,’ and declaring that people with his narrow view of Christian theology should make all laws in the United States. “We reject these attempts to cloak bigotry in religious language, and we ask you to do the same.”

Sean Feucht’s response:

“It’s all part of the King coming back,” Feucht said at an event in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “That’s what we’re practicing for. That’s why hell hates that we’re worshiping at every Capitol across America. That’s why we get called, ‘Well, you’re Christian nationalists.’”

Feucht understands why his Christian beliefs cause friction. “When you’re doing something BIG for the kingdom of God, the opposition is LITERALLY Satan. The good news is that GOD WINS,” he wrote on Twitter, after Satanist counter-protesters showed up to the Boise event.

“I don’t begrudge the Statesman for what they wrote—they are well within their Constitutional right. We both exercised our rights under the same amendment. What they wrote is not so much a critique of the Let Us Worship Movement as it was a shameless plug for the LGBTQ agenda. To stand on the Bible is dangerous in the year 2023, especially when that truth conflicts with the LGTBQ agenda,” he wrote.

He also tweeted: More than 12,000 “dangerous” God-fearing, America loving worshippers flooded the capitols in Washington, Oregon & Idaho! Thank every one of you for TAKING A STAND for Jesus in your state!

In another satirical tweet mocking the media article and protesters, Sean wrote: “Beware! Kids singing with flags! Hurry up and ban flag waving DANGEROUS Christian kids from the capitol before someone gets hurt!”

On a Facebook post he wrote: “’He who sits in the heavens laughs.’ Sometimes you gotta just laugh at the enemies pathetic attempts to stop the spread of an unstoppable kingdom. He’s weak. He’s lost. He’s got no new tricks. PRO TIP FOR 2023: Laugh your way through victorious living.”

Sean mocked those trying to mock God! He uses humor to combat their vicious attacks and he always prays that some of the Satanists, abortion-rights protesters, LGBQT mafia, and media find salvation at his worship events. He’s reported that many have come to accept the Jesus they initially came to denounce. Still, he concedes, “To stand on the Bible is dangerous in the year 2023.”

As protestors and satanists yelled profanities the entire two hours the Boise Capitol allowed the worship event, Sean’s team passed out individual communion packets. The entire worshipping crowd took communion together with Sean on his knees in front of the Capitol declaring the blood of Jesus over the building and the city. The worshippers did a joy dance around the Boise Capitol and Sean rang the Freedom Bell he said was the first one he’d seen accessible at a Capitol. Then he sang a song about freedom. “I can hear those Liberty Bells rattling rattling the gates of hell. I can hear those Liberty Bells ringing ringing. It’s the sound of freedom. The gates of hell will not prevail!”

The only way to fight satanic demonic spirits is with the Spirit of the Lord, which Sean and many of us “dangerous Christians” fully understand. For more information about Sean’s Let Us Worship Ministry go to his website and learn when he’s coming to your Capitol or city.

The second Christian activist I want to highlight is actor/author Kirk Cameron who has several faith-based children’s books published by Brave Books. Cameron has been trying to host faith-based story readings for children at libraries to counter drag queen story readings and receiving pushback initially having 50 libraries prevent him from coming. He sent them all letters asking them to reconsider and many did, but he’s also had to contend with drag queens, Satanists, and trans people showing up to harass him and the audience of parents and children.

 In spite of the attacks, Cameron pushed forward and declared August 5 to be a See You at The Library national event with over 300 libraries across the country booked by everyday patriotic people to read books to children that cherish family, faith, and patriotism. Kirk says he’s “passing the baton to the people.”

But two days before Kirk and Riley Gaines were to read books to children and families on August 5th in another so-called red state at the Huntsville Alabama Library coordinated by Moms for Liberty, the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library System said it would no longer accommodate the book-reading event “due to concerns about logistics and security” as popularity for the event grew.

Cameron and Brave Books used law firm First Liberty Institute to send a letter saying it was “prepared to vindicate this violation of our client’s civil rights in court,” as a discrimination against religious groups. The library reversed course and allowed the book reading limited to 225 attendees and the police restrained 100 protestors outside.

“We must stand our ground and fight for our public institutions,” Brave Books CEO Trent Talbot said. “The foe we fail to meet at the gate in our own generation is the foe we let into the city for the next.”

Cameron said, “I believe this reconciliation between us and the Madison Public Library is a testimony to the strength and power of moms and dads gathering in prayer for the blessing of their community. Both sides rose to a higher ethic than we often see in today’s polarized society.” He also said, “By seeking the common good and love for our neighbor, we found a solution … See you at the library!”

Gaines said, “We’ve seen this before. The library has come up with an excuse to prevent us from sharing wholesome messages to children and their families because they don’t want to be associated with it.” She added, “The people have shown they want to attend this event and to support the mission of Brave Books. Situations like this embolden activists and ANTIFA. She also said, “I’m happy to say the event now a go again, and we will continue forward with full force! It’s times like this where we must stand our ground as conservatives but more importantly as Christians.”

Here’s an alarming fact. Brave Books uncovered a video discussed in an interview with Cameron where the federally funded American Library Association headquartered in Chicago teaches librarians specifically how to stop Kirk Cameron from coming to their library!  The methods included permitting rooms to be booked only by local library cardholders as well as offering “alternative,” diverse programming on Saturday at the same time as the “See You at the Library” events. An ALA executive, in a live-streamed presentation suggested that members hold a “library-sponsored Pride festival the same day and fill the library with rainbows” to share messages of “inclusion and diversity.”

Yet the ALA has no problem with drag men reading to and sexually gyrating in front of children in their libraries. That’s demonic!

Be Dangerous for Jesus!

It’s true that the Bible, Christians, and Christianity are dangerous to Satan, demons, and all forms of evil! That’s why the Lord tells us “12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Eph. 6:12

Just like God created earth with a physical and spiritual realm, He created humans with an earthly body, soul, and spirit. We take great care of our physical bodies but can neglect that we have a choice as to the spirit that resides inside us. Either the Holy Spirit or a demonic spirit will take residence in our heart. THERE’S NO OTHER CHOICES. NO NEUTRAL.

We see the spiritual forces of evil manifested in our culture, government, laws, schools, libraries, medicine, and people who consider God dangerous. What they’re saying is that to them Satan is safe.

Lord, help the deceived understand that heaven and hell are as real as God and Satan. 

The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand. Ps. 119:113 NLT

If you haven’t seen my July newsletter, I encourage you to read the opening article 4 Prayers Asking God for a Hedge of Protection. Here’s the link.

I love to read your thoughts. Please leave a comment on the website blog and I’ll reply.

*The opening picture is of Sean Feucht’s worship team and the worshippers in front of the Boise Capitol on July 30, 2023. I hope it wasn’t too big, but I wanted you to get the full effect.

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Don’t Be Silent as Our Country Surrenders to Evil!

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Germany was devastated by the brutality of the Nazi regime. Though there was evidence of the Nazi’s cruelty early on, the German church believed its best course of action was to avoid politics and remain silent.

Unfortunately, that decision had disastrous consequences. Before they knew it, the Nazi’s controlled every facet of society, including the church. Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer written in 2010 describing the downfall of Germany, now says he could sense remnants of a similar evil tyranny starting in America as he was writing, but never thought he would see the American church traveling the same path as the Germans like it is today.

That’s why he wrote his new book, Letter to the American Church, to wake up pastors and churches to the tragedy awaiting America if we remain silent.

“The Germans said, ‘We’re the country of Martin Luther. We are the center of Protestantism in the world, we’re fine. We’re saved by faith. We don’t have to worry about what we do too much.’ That’s what set them up for the kill. That’s what allowed evil to triumph, and that is exactly where we are in the American church today.” – Eric Metaxas

Awareness brings responsibility but many people today would rather ignore the evil infiltrating not only our country, our schools, our communities, but also our churches! Because if we admit we have a problem, then the Bible calls on us to do something about it.

Ignorance is not bliss. It’s blasphemy against the Word of God that tells us to reject evil and share the Good News wherever and whenever we have the opportunity if we truly believe that even the worst sinner can be saved!

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes. Romans 1:16 NLT

Because . . . Anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” John 3:36: NLT

Silence is Compliance

We know abortion is murder! Why don’t we hear that in every church?

Have you seen the movie Sound of Freedom? We know America is now the biggest consumer of child trafficking, especially through our open borders. Does it sicken you? Why don’t we hear in the church how to be aware of it and help stop it?

We know the gay, trans, drag agenda is trying to normalize sex with children. Horrific pedophilia! Does that turn your stomach? Why isn’t the church speaking out forcefully against it?

Are we afraid to say what is so obvious that the White House is corrupt? Democrats and liberals support and lobby for everything I just mentioned. If you vote Democrat, you’re endorsing evil.

Our country is in a downward spiral because of the liberal progressive left agenda to oust God and the Judeo-Christian foundation and Constitution of our country. Think about that when you vote in any election. Or if you don’t vote, you’re voting for the other side. Yes, we are now in a situation of political good and evil and it can’t be denied!

Sen. James Lankford, a former pastor for 22 years and Oklahoma’s senior senator, is making religious liberty a pillar of his political agenda and claims the White House is failing to enforce basic protections on the issue and made these remarks in an interview with the Daily Wire. “Faith is not the freedom of worship. You have the freedom to be able to worship as you choose,” said Lankford. “It’s the freedom of religion. It’s the freedom to have a faith and live that faith. And so that’s been dear to me.” The senator went on to assert that President Biden’s administration has abandoned even basic legal protections for religious belief. 

Sadly, we’re not only in a political and social battle, we’re in a spiritual battle, and political candidates are choosing their sides between good and evil, with many calling evil good and good evil! Why don’t we hear about this in our churches?

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. Is. 5:20

I’ll make this one political statement for you to consider. Whether or not you “like” President Trump, he promised to appoint Constitutionalist Supreme Court Judges and he did that times three! We’ve seen Roe v Wade overturned, which many had given up hope. We just saw three judgements denying Biden’s attempt to cancel college debt, honoring religious rights of a Christian web designer, and eliminating race-based affirmative action. The liberals went ballistic over each of those judgments.

Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the embassy there (which many previous Presidents promised but never did), closed the border, and created the best economy in years, just to name a few things! Consider before you vote what the candidates stand for and then vote your faith and your freedom.

Every Church Should Preach: We don’t deny Christ; we denounce Satan!

Paul encouraged the church of believers at Phillip:

27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. 28 Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. Phil. 27-28 NLT

Righteousness exalts a nation. Sin destroys a nation. We are being destroyed from the inside. You have to wonder if there were 10 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah if God would’ve saved the city. Do we have enough righteous people, saved by faith, in America to save our country? I pray we do, otherwise we’re on a fast track to destruction. Silent churches and silent Christians are fueling the disaster!

Metaxas describes it as a “spiral of silence.” You don’t hear evil talked about in church so you don’t talk about it. When you don’t talk about it, your friends, family, children, grandchildren don’t talk about it, while evil blatantly floods the airways, entertainment, media, government, America, and the church does nothing, just like in Germany.

Jesus was not afraid of being canceled, unsubscribed, or disliked. He unashamedly called out sin, untruths, and unjust rulers and politicians. Christians must do the same. He didn’t go to the Cross so we could continue sinning. He gave His life to offer a chance at repentance and forgiveness from sin with the opportunity of a new changed righteous life. That’s also our message and witness!

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Cor. 5:17 NLT

Courage Begets Courage! Cowardice Begets Cowards!

Christians are good at being good people, but we’re not always good at connecting our goodness to God. Dutch Sheets reminds us that, “Truth must be shared and when it is, it becomes a weapon.”

Luke 12:12 (NLT) assures that the Holy Spirit will give us a holy boldness: “For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.”

God has equipped each of us to speak truth in all circumstances, and we can do all things through Him who gives us strength and courage.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 1 Cor. 7:12 NKJV

We are people who love God more than evil, so we must commit to God whatever it takes. Whatever He calls us to do, we do it with a “Yes, Lord, use me” mentality whether we’re in church ministry or in our own family ministry. Yes, we should look at our home as a ministry ready and willing to serve Christ. If the next generation is raised in Christian homes, we will see a turnaround in our country.

For me, it’s praying and pouring into our children and grandchildren. Not all of them appreciate it or even acknowledge it, but we can’t let that intimidate or discourage us from doing the right thing, or worse yet, stop us from living overtly for Christ.

I heard a pastor say, “Freedom and blessings don’t begin at the White House, but in our house!” I would add, in our churches.

Each generation is blessed or cursed by the previous generation and what we’re watching now is definitely a curse to those coming after us. Everything evil in our culture is NOT acceptable in the Bible. In fact, the Bible tells us how to combat it. We’re not to be silent, but to speak out and stand up for righteousness.

We have all the promises of God and the future at our fingertips in the Scriptures, but how often are Bibles open and read in our homes? I hope that you would respond often, but if not, why not?

Just because we’re saved doesn’t mean we stop learning from and listening to God. Every day, as I read my Bible and devotionals, I hear Him giving me marching orders for the day or for my writing.

Producing a weekly blog, monthly newsletter, writing for Crosswalk and books takes a large chunk of my time and I’m often asked, “How do you do it?” My response, “Only God!”

Then I’m asked, “Is it worth it?” I heard a great response to that question from a man who helped organize the evacuation of 17,000 people out of Afghanistan after the horrible debacle of America pulling out and leaving not only Americans behind, but Afghani civilians who had worked with our military. When asked if it was worth it, he said, “It doesn’t have to be worth it to do the right thing. You do it because God calls you to do the right things.”

Just this morning, after hearing that answer last night, my devotional started out with 2 Kings 7:9 NKJV, Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent.”

Don’t remain silent. Share and live the Gospel and do not fear speaking out against the evil engulfing our world and our children. It’s our job to raise the next generation to know and love the Lord and protect them from the evil that so easily surrounds them. We can’t pretend that they’re not exposed to it, so we must prepare them to resist it.

Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. Ps. 145:4 NLT

Let Psalm 34:1-3 describe you! Replace “I” with your name. It will change you.
 I will praise the Lord at all times.
    I will constantly speak his praises.
I will boast only in the Lord;
    let all who are helpless take heart.
Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
    let us exalt his name together.

In her book, Journey to Confidence, Kimberly Sowell suggests we BOW before God and pray, asking Him to make us His witnesses. She suggests using the word BOW as a reminder to plead for: Boldness, Opportunity, and Words of Wisdom. Wisdom is actually my word for 2023!

Kimberly Sowell asks, “Would you be so adventurous as to not only be open to witness for Christ, but to petition Almighty God to grant you witnessing opportunities?”

“When God tells you to do something, you do not hesitate.” – Sound of Freedom

I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. Ps. 138:2 NLT

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. Eph. 3:20-21 NLT

PS: The opening picture is depicting the armor of God found in Ephesians 6:10-18. My husband and I pray those verses EVERY morning.

Please leave a comment here. I reply to each one.

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Why The Serpent is Still Going After Women!

Have you wondered, like I have, why after all the years of fighting and voting for women’s rights and equal treatment with men that suddenly and slyly those rights are disappearing?

I’m not talking about the false claim that women have a right to kill their unborn babies because as you’ll see in this article, calling that a “right” is straight from Satan and not the Constitution.

No, I’m talking about things like a Supreme Court Justice who can’t even define a woman and she herself is a woman!  A college student receiving an F from a female professor because she used the “unacceptable” term “biological woman” in her article. The former Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, trying to force rules to prohibit in Congress the use of terms like mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, woman, female, even though she herself is all of those. Oh, yes that brings up trying to eliminate pronouns signifying ‘she’ or ‘her.’

Matt Walsh traveling all over the United States asking “What is a Woman?” and only receiving an answer in a remote village in Nairobe and from his own wife. If you haven’t seen this excellent documentary, I highly recommend it and Elon Musk has made it free on Twitter. You should be able to access it on the link I provided above or at this one.

Democrat and progressive liberal legislatures and school boards voting to allow men to participate in women’s sports, use women’s locker rooms and bathrooms even in schools.

Men wanting to pretend they’re women by dressing in women’s clothes claiming they are now a woman just because they “identify” as one, even though they are biological males with all their male parts. But as one crazy professor told Walsh and many who are deceived believe, “Sex is how you’re born; gender is how you identify!” Wrong!!

I could go on, but you’ve seen the trend yourselves. Why the sudden war on women while encouraging men to become more feminine and using terms like male toxicity if a man acts like a man?

The blatant attempt from the political left to blur the lines between male and female, even with the propaganda that children or anyone can change their gender, is rampant in medicine, politics, government, education, and sadly even invading the church!

Would it surprise you to know that none of this is new? It all actually started back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, with the first humans God created, Adam and Eve, and will probably continue to escalate until the book of Revelations is fulfilled with the rapture of the church and the tribulation of those left behind.

You’ve heard me and others say repeatedly that this is all satanic. Satan is behind every effort to eliminate genders and thus the human race!

It All Began in Genesis 3!

Sin entered the world in Genesis 3 where God clearly says what the ongoing repercussions of rebellion will be for the woman Eve, the man Adam, and the serpent the Devil.

We know that Satan first approached the woman Eve with the same question he asks many today about whether God really said you should follow His Words and His ways.

“The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (3:1)

At first, the woman stood by her beliefs and faith in what God told them, but the serpent planted doubt in her mind.

“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

Satan challenged Eve with a lie that she wouldn’t die and she fell for the temptation to achieve the same power as God. But what Eve overlooked was that the serpent introduced a word she hadn’t even heard of before “evil.” It seemed like a benign concept to her. What’s so bad about evil anyway?

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

When Eve gave into the temptation to have equal power with God and ate the fruit of the tree and shared some with Adam, both immediately felt something new to them, shame. They had disobeyed God and experienced the remorse of sinning.

The verses go on explaining how God met them in the cool of the night and spoke to them. Not only did they experience evil, shame, and sin, they now experienced fear and thought they could hide their sin from God. But God sought them out asking “Where are you?” (v. 9)

Adam replied why they were hiding. “I was afraid because I was naked.” (v. 10)

God asked them if they’d eaten from the forbidden tree and Adam blamed it on Eve. So God addressed Eve directly, “What have you done?” (v. 13)

Then Eve realized another previously unknown evil, deception!

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” (v. 13)

The Lord pronounced the punishment for the serpent Satan, the woman Eve, and her husband Adam that would last through all generations until He provided a cure for repentance from sin through Jesus Christ.

14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike[b] your head, and you will strike his heel.”

16 Then he said to the woman,

“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.[c]

17 And to the man he said,

Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

I want to focus on verse 15 as we watch the current satanic attack on women.

15 And I will cause hostility between you the [serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike[b] your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Satan had taken the form of a serpent to deceive the woman, Eve. In Revelation 12:9, he’s a dragon. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

The website Got Questions explains what has transpired ever since between Satan and women. As part of the curse, enmity—mutual hatred and ill will—will exist between the woman and the serpent. Later, the same enmity will continue between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed or offspring—mankind as Eve is the “mother of all living,” Genesis 3:20. Woman’s offspring will remain enemies with Satan throughout all generations. The serpent’s offspring are demonic forces and also those people who follow the devil and accomplish his will.

Jesus called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” in Matthew 12:34 and said they belonged to their “father, the devil” in John 8:44. In short, God says that Satan will always be the enemy of mankind. It follows that people who side with Satan will be at perpetual war with God’s elect and that we are engaged in a very real battle between good and evil (Ephesians 6:12).

We also see Messianic Prophecies in Genesis 3:15 “you will strike his heel.” That is, the serpent will bite the heel of “the woman’s seed.” This passage points to the promise of Jesus’ birth, His redemption, and His victory over Satan. The woman’s offspring is Jesus, literally the offspring of a human woman. Being the Son of Man, Jesus is the perfect representative of humankind. The devil’s offspring were the evil men and demonic forces who like a snake, lay in wait for the Savior and struck at Him. Their venomous conspiracy condemned Jesus to be crucified.

But we know the serpent’s strike was not the end of mankind—offspring of the woman—because Jesus rose on the third day overcoming death and offering permanent victory for those who believe in Him.

The striking of the Messiah’s heel was a picture of the wounding and death of Jesus on the cross. Satan bruised Jesus’ “heel,” but Jesus showed complete dominance over Satan by bruising his “head.”

Satan Has Not Conceded Defeat

Satan through his demons has never given up the fight with the woman to try and prevent her from producing more generations, especially those who would follow Christ. Here are some of the ways he continues to deceive women and accomplish his goal of preventing proliferation of humans and counter God’s command to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. 

  1. Abortion—Satan deceives women the same way he did Eve with fear, doubt, and lies that she has power over her own body and she’s not really carrying a human baby, God’s creation, in her womb. Did God really say abortion isn’t okay to kill my baby? Every abortion chocks up another success for Satan to stop mankind from reproducing.
  2. Gay agenda and gay marriage—two people of the same gender cannot sexually reproduce.
  3. Gender Confusion—women trying to become men and vice versa may surgically destroy their reproductive capability by chemical or surgical castration, puberty blockers, opposite sex hormones, or gynecological surgery. Sterilizing children and adults.
  4. Trans—Men pretending they’re women, mocking womanhood by being culturally accepted for “identifying” as a woman and competing in areas which should remain exclusive to women, i.e. sports, bathrooms, locker and dressing rooms, women’s contests, and not sexually performing as a man to reproduce.
  5. Confusing children about their gender or lying to them that they can change their gender and convincing schools and teachers to promote these lies has now turned schools into Satan’s playground.

God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful. Gay’s often say it will be the end of the world if their way of life isn’t tolerated, but indeed, it will be the actual end because two males or two women cannot reproduce. My grandson understood that biological truth when he was only nine.

Anyone who doesn’t understand that this is all satanic does not know the Bible and has given into the same lie that Satan uses over and over “Did God really say . . .?” Even Satan knows and misuses the Bible when he convinces pastors and Christians to just love everyone now living in their sin and not make any attempt to share the Gospel truth with them. Those are cowardly churches and cowardly Christians.

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 1 John 3:6

Satan has succeeded at convincing culture to just let everyone live however they want and anyone who objects to evil being forced on us is called names and may be punished by losing jobs, arrested, shunned, ostracized, . . . Satan’s most effective tools against truth are deception, fear, self-preservation, and apathy.

As I wrote last week, Why Did It Take Beer to Motivate Conservatives and Christians to Boycott Woke? it’s encouraging to watch people finally pushing back because Satan knows no limits or boundaries. He’s coming for our children because they would be the next generation women produce and he’s not waiting until they’re of age to go after them. He’s got his target on them from birth. Satan temporarily lost some power over killing babies in the womb, so he’ll go for them as soon as they can walk and talk, or even as infants if you saw some of the ‘pride” products at Target.

What I don’t understand is why more parents aren’t waking up to Satan’s evil strategy, especially moms?! Who would take their children to drag shows or library readings, gay “pride” parades or events? It’s so obviously focused on perverted sex. I asked the question recently on social media, “Would you take your child to a strip club?” Yet, just this past week there was a gay “pride” show advertised as family friendly where one of the “performers” stripped and you could hear the audience gasping and laughing. Were there children in that audience? If so, Satan is cheering the loudest of all!

 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” Matt. 7:13-14 NLT

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Truth Tellers Become Stronger; Liars Become Weaker!

If you follow my blogs, you know I’m a diligent proponent of truth, especially Christians sharing biblical Truth, to combat the manipulative lies coming from a government trying to control and dominate us by vilifying God and Christian values. It’s tragic watching so many good people mesmerized by lies they never question because they’ve heard them repeated so often. That’s the strategy of liars. That’s the strategy of Satan. Sadly, it’s working!

For example, you hear from mainstream media, and even the President and Vice President, that police officers were killed on January 6. That’s a lie. Not one police officer was killed that day! However, a Capitol police officer murdered one petite unarmed MAGA woman, Ashlie Babbitt. There was a hurried behind doors investigation, and the officer who shot her was praised instead of fired.

I could go on, but hopefully most of you are seeking discernment and praying for God to show you truth amongst the tsunami of lies. Do your own research. Seldom will you hear the truth from the liberal-leaning mainstream media.

Tucker Carlson is a Conservative populist news anchor my husband and I had come to trust to investigate and boldly report the truth substantiated by facts. If he reported something incorrectly, he humbly apologized and often injected humor with a characteristic laugh. Last Monday, to the shock of his followers and glee of left-leaning news outlets, liberals, and socialists, FOX News with no warning “parted ways with Tucker Carlson,” their #1 commentator and reigning cable TV news program not only on FOX, but across all media outlets!

Maybe you never watched Tucker Carlson Tonight or even care what happens to him, and that’s all right too. But as a Christian Conservative Patriot, I care about what’s happening to America and the nation we’re leaving to our children and grandchildren. I feel called to speak truth to lies as God reveals them to me. I hope you do too!

I enjoyed Tucker and learned from him because he was unafraid to push the envelope by tackling topics other journalists avoided. Most recently, I commented to my husband that Tucker was talking a lot about God and depicting the culture as “trying to become their own gods.” He didn’t talk about Republicans vs Democrats, or red vs blue, he characterized cultural events as good versus evil! I often shared his monologues on my social media because he was saying truth that every American needed to hear.

He also championed citizens abused by government policies or inaction and gave many of them an opportunity on his program to tell their stories. He knew that some would be attacked just for being on his show and he commended them for their bravery offering, “God’s speed.”

There was a reason why Speaker McCarthy gave the January 6 complete videos to Tucker because he knew Tucker wouldn’t be afraid to expose truths hidden from the public and that’s exactly what he did. Or tried to do. On the first night, he showed Jacob Chansley being escorted around by the Capitol police, a video which had never been shown to even his lawyers! Chansley was quickly exonerated from his 4-year jail sentence and has just filed a motion to vacate his conviction stating that “Due process rights were clearly violated.” Why was that vindicating video hidden during his trial?

Tucker showed another man moving guardrails and encouraging people to go into the Capitol, who was never jailed and didn’t appear in the congressional committee’s choreographed videos, unlike so many others who are languishing in prison without trials.

But the second night when Tucker was supposed to reveal more of the videos, I sent a note to him that I was disappointed he didn’t show anything new like he had promised. I wondered if he was constrained by higher ups at FOX listening to Chuck Shumer on the Senate floor telling them to fire Carlson. Why shouldn’t we the people be able to see all the videos? What truths were they hiding that go against their “insurrection” narrative?

Then several weeks ago, Jason Whitlock was a guest on Tucker’s show and began quoting Scripture. Suddenly, just as Tucker asked him another question, they cut to a commercial before Whitlock could answer. I started to have my suspicions that something was amiss at the once conservative FOX News.

How to Know the Truth? Those Who Censor and Suppress are Lying!

Often, Tucker and other FOX hosts said they weren’t censored by the network and could say whatever they wanted. I could see that changing on other FOX programs, but Tucker wasn’t acquiescing to censors or critics. He was becoming even bolder about exposing truth and calling out lies. He even talked about the cultural spiritual warfare we’re encountering and depicted atrocities in terms of evil versus good.

The Friday night prior to his Monday departure from FOX, Tucker keynoted at the Heritage Foundation and his speech was prophetic. I encourage you to listen to it in full here, but I’ll give you just a couple insightful quotes.

“The herd instinct is maybe the strongest instinct. It may be stronger than the hunger and sex instincts, actually. The instinct, which again is inherent, to be like everybody else and not to be cast out of the group, not to be shunned — that’s a very strong impulse in all of us from birth. And it takes over, unfortunately, in moments like this, and it’s harnessed, in fact, by bad people in moments like this to produce uniformity.”

When he used the term “this,” he was referring to what’s happening in our culture and country today. He continued.

There is a countervailing force at work always. There is a counterbalance to the badness. It’s called goodness. And you see it in people. So for every ten people who are putting ‘he and him’ in their electronic JPMorgan email signatures, there’s one person who’s like, ‘No, I’m not doing that. Sorry, I don’t want to fight but I’m not, like, doing that. That’s a betrayal of what I think is true. It’s a betrayal of my conscience, of my faith, of my sense of myself, of my dignity as a human being, of my autonomy – I am not a slave, I am a free citizen, and I’m not doing that. And there’s nothing that you can do to me to make me do it. And I hope it won’t come to that, but if it does come to that, here I am. Here I am. It’s Paul on trial. Here I am.’”

He could only be referring here to the Apostle Paul who refused to back down when the authorities told him to stop sharing the Gospel. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:19-20

Tucker then talked about the power of truth vs the weakness of lies.

“The truth is contagious. And the second you decide to tell the truth about something, you are filled with this – I don’t want to get supernatural on you – but you are filled with this power from somewhere else. Try it. Tell the truth about something. … The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become.”

“The more you lie, the weaker and more terrified you become.”

He called out evil.

“There is no way to assess, say, the transgenderist movement with that mindset. Policy papers don’t account for it at all. If you have people who are saying, ‘I have an idea: Let’s castrate the next generation. Let’s sexually mutilate children.’ I’m sorry, that’s not a political debate … but the weight of the government [and] a lot of corporate interests are behind that.”

“None of this makes sense in conventional political terms. When people or crowds of people … decide that the goal is to destroy things, destruction for its own sake – hey, let’s tear it down – what you’re watching is not a political movement; it’s evil.”

“I’m merely calling for an acknowledgment of what we’re watching.”

Carlson stressed that abortion zealotry, like the transgenderist movement, is a theological phenomenon. He has said before that it’s becoming its own religion, a cult.

“If you’re telling me that abortion is a positive good, what are you saying? Well, you’re arguing for child sacrifice, obviously. … When the treasury secretary stands up and says, ‘You know what you can do to help the economy? Get an abortion.’ Well, that’s like an Aztec principle, actually.”

There’s much more to his speech. Again, I hope you’ll listen and understand better why Tucker was where Dave and I turned to get accurate news that others wouldn’t touch because these were the same truths that he was sharing on his news show. He wasn’t afraid of not being politically or socially correct. You’ve heard me say many times that Christians cannot just bury our heads in our churches on Sunday morning and literally let the world go to hell around us. That’s not what God wants us to do.

Tucker ended his Heritage Foundation speech by imploring his audience to pray: “Maybe we should all take just like ten minutes a day to say a prayer about it … and I hope you will.”

During his speech, Tucker said that he didn’t know why more people didn’t tell the truth. Maybe they were afraid of being fired he suggested. Ironically, or maybe prophetically, he was fired three days after giving this speech. We don’t know the details yet. Maybe he quit. Although it seemed he was preparing his Monday night program when he got the call it was over with no explanation.

“@TuckerCarlson has been engaging in the best journalism on TV uncovering and exposing the truth. This is a huge loss to Fox News” texted Senator Ron Johnson.

Let’s take ten minutes to pray that God will find a better place for Tucker Carlson to expose the truth and also to grow his faith as we’ve recently seen with another “celebrity” Kirk Cameron. Like Tucker, Kirk isn’t afraid to go against the culture to speak the truth to evil as he’s been on a tour to libraries sharing his new children’s book As You Grow about the Fruit of the Spirit. He wrote an opinion piece “Here’s what my tour around America taught me about the weird, woke, and wicked!” I encourage you to read it also. Here are a couple of quotes from Kirk.

“Our forefathers and foremothers would offer this culture-preserving advice from the Bible: ‘Train up your children in the way they should go. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, honor your husbands. Love God and one another sincerely, from the heart. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Honor one another above yourselves. Don’t be lazy, but work hard. Rejoice in hope . . . be patient in trouble . . . and keep on praying. Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.’ (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 5: 25,33; Romans 12:9-21)”

“If you’re a parent, if you long for a return to wholesome, God-honoring values . . . if you want to salvage this country and its biblical values for your children . . . stop complaining about the culture. Instead, be brave and start creating the culture you want for your children. Lead by example. Show your kids and grandkids what genuine faith and moral integrity look like. Steel your God-given backbone.” 

“Let your love for your children conquer your fears. Use your own home as a safe place to lovingly uproot the power of evil in your neighborhood. . . . Plant seeds of truth, beauty, and goodness.” 

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Ephesians 4:25 ESV

So we have a journalist and an actor telling us what every pastor should be preaching to his congregation and every Christian should be espousing and living. Truth combats evil; lies foster evil.  Going along with evil as a Christian is counterintuitive and living a lie. Ignoring evil is cowardly. Doing the right thing is good and courageous. God is truth and hates lying.

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight. Proverbs 12:22 ESV

Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit. Proverbs 12:17 ESV

Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Proverbs 12:19 ESV

Abby Johnson is a pro-life advocate who spent years working at Planned Parenthood believing Satan’s lies that a baby in the womb was not a life worth saving before the Lord opened her eyes to the horrific killing of unborn babies by abortion. Now Abby shares the truth with other deceived nurses and doctors to free them from those evil lies. She says, “I am willing to offend you into heaven, but I will not love you into hell.”

 In a video tweet two days after his firing, Tucker Carlson said, “When honest people say what’s true calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time, the liars who’ve been trying to silence them shrink. They become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe: True things prevail. Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places left, but there are some and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon.”

When asked after his speech at the Heritage Foundation what’s the first thing you should do every morning, Tucker quickly replied, “Tell the people around you ‘I love you!'”

Don’t fret because of evildoers; don’t envy the wicked. 20 For evil people have no future; the light of the wicked will be snuffed out. Proverbs 24:19 NLT

We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Ephesians 4:14-15 NLT

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Opening picture courtesy of “Prayers of a Ragamuffin Prayer Warrior.”

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