Bible — Page 18 — Woman to Woman Mentoring

If You’re Pro-life, You’re Pro-Woman!

I woke up the morning of January 24 excited and eager to watch the 2020 March for Life on TV. For the first time in the forty-seven years of this annual march, a President, our President Trump, was going to speak in person! A bold and brave step in the current political climate.

I made my coffee and turned on the TV, but to my dismay, no reception. Looking out the window, I saw snow on our cable Dish, and even though we cover it with a trash bag, sometimes the weight of the snow or ice inhibits the DISH from operating properly.

Knowing how important this was to me, hubby put on his snow clothes and boots, grabbed the brush to clear the DISH, and plodded out through the snow in what was now rain. A true act of love!

The TV screen finally came alive, but now what channel would be broadcasting this momentous event? Surely, no mainstream media since they were too busy championing the impeachment trial.

Again, hubby to the rescue located the march on C-Span just as the program was starting. Then with an opening prayer, a welcome from pro-life Vice President Pence and his wife streamed in from Italy where they’re meeting with the Pope, President Trump strode onto the stage to address the tens of thousands of marchers ready to take up their Pro-Life signs and march for the right to life of the unborn.

[Tweet “One sign at the March for Life was especially poignant as it portrayed the birth of Jesus in a manger with the words “An Unplanned Pregnancy Saved Us All!””]

One sign was especially poignant as it portrayed the birth of Jesus in a manger with the words “An Unplanned Pregnancy Saved Us All!” We know that Mary and Joseph didn’t plan that pregnancy, but God did as He plans each and every pregnancy!

As President Trump greeted the crowd, he reiterated how proud he was to stand with the advocates for life to “protect the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential.”

A few of his remarks:

[Tweet “Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.” President Trump at the March for Life”]

“All of us here today understand an eternal truth: Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.”

“When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation.”

“As the Bible tells us, each person is wonderfully made.”

“Together, we are the voice for the voiceless.”

What If You’ve Had an Abortion or Know Someone Who Has?

[Tweet “If you’ve had an abortion, please know that God loves you and is ready to forgive if you only ask. ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. Luke 24:27 NLT”]

If you’ve had an abortion, please know that God loves you and is ready to forgive if you only ask. ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. Luke 24:27 NLT

I’m sure it hurts to hear and read about pro-life speeches and marches when you don’t know what to do with your pain and sorrow. I encourage you to share your story with a trustworthy person. Someone who will pray with you and keep your confidence. It’s healing to talk about your feelings and not let them fester in your heart where they can lead to bitterness and self-deprecating efforts to soothe remorse.

If you know someone who has had an abortion, offer to be a listening ear. Pray with and for her. Assist her in finding the help and support she needs to experience the peace and forgiveness her heart craves.

Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman

The March for Life chose the above theme this year because 2020 marks one hundred years since the 19^th Amendment giving women the inalienable right to vote.

[Tweet “From the beginning of time, God empowered women with the incredible ability and responsibility of bringing new life into the world. Eve, whose name means “life-giving” was the first mother through which the entire world populated.”]

But from the beginning of time, God empowered women with the incredible ability and responsibility of bringing new life into the world. Eve, whose name means “Life-giving,” was the first mother from which the entire world would populate. Eve also means “Mother of All Who Have Life.”

[Tweet “Only a woman is empowered by God with the capability and privilege of carrying a human life in her womb.”]

Only a woman is empowered by God with the capability and privilege of carrying a human life in her womb. To feel her baby as it grows. The first kick. The first hiccup. The first rollover. That is our amazing joy as women to bring another person into the world. New creations, each one designed by God unique with its own DNA, fingerprint, and purpose.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:13-14 NLT

God picks the time of each child’s conception! Sometimes His timing coincides with our desires, but like everything God does, it’s not always on our terms or times. That’s why He’s God and we’re not.

[Tweet “With the advent of ultrasounds, unborn babies may be voiceless, but they’re not invisible and their heartbeats are clearly heard.”]

With the advent of ultrasounds, unborn babies may be voiceless, but they’re not invisible and their heartbeats are clearly heard. It’s the Devil’s lie that these aren’t precious little human beings to be incubated and nourished in their mommy’s tummy until they burst forth with their first breath and cry. Both bodies intertwined from the moment of conception, bonding even before birth. That’s how God designed the mystery and majesty of creation.

Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.

[Tweet “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”]

The case for abortion is based on lies and manipulation. Abortion has become a cash cow funding industries and organizations like Planned Parenthood who lie to women and tell them their baby isn’t really human and that they won’t feel a thing. The truth is that they will feel their searing loss for the rest of their lives. Those women who sadly tout and brag about how liberating their abortions have been are trying to convince themselves that they didn’t really eliminate their own children.

What Can We Do?

As Christians, we need to remember that God doesn’t conform to man’s laws!

We can’t stand idly by and do nothing or think abortion isn’t our issue because it might not affect us personally or it’s “legal.” As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, apathy is the antithesis of the Christian life.

We need to let what breaks God’s heart, break our hearts.

I know you may have other good causes that you’re giving your time and energy too, but I ask: What could have been more important than saving the life and future of the 61,000,000 babies aborted? The purpose and plans God had for these baby boys and girls?

You don’t have to walk in a march or carry a sign to be an advocate for life.

As speakers pointed out in the Walk for Life, we have the right and obligation to vote for this Human Rights Issue. With our empowered vote, we choose government legislatures and presidents who don’t just talk about changing the status quo, but are willing to risk their political future and reputation to save the next generation of babies.

Who will go up against the liberal left?

Who will use the power we give him or her to not just maintain limits on abortion, but abolish it completely?

[Tweet “No woman or man should have the right to make a choice that ends in savagely taking a life and calling it legal.”]

No woman or man should have the right to make a choice that ends in savagely taking a life and calling it legal.

I challenge you that silence is compliance. Not taking a stand for right is inadvertently taking a stand for wrong.

[Tweet “Silence is compliance. Not taking a stand for right is inadvertently taking a stand for wrong.”]

I applaud each of you with a burden in your heart for the babies tortured, dismembered, and horrifically burned every second of every day because Satan spreads the lie that an unborn child does not have the inalienable right to life.

For everyone reading this blog, and I know there will be many unsubscribes, I pray that God speaks to your soul with what He wants you to do. Because there is no denying there will be a price to pay for this bloodstain on our nation as God asks: I saved you, why aren’t you saving the children?

Our Family’s Adoption Story

I have an amazing grandson because fifteen years ago a pregnant 15-year-old girl chose life for her second baby, while she was still raising her 18-month-old first baby and attending high school! She managed to keep her pregnancy a secret from her mom for seven months, when fifteen years ago abortion wasn’t an option at that late stage of pregnancy. Instead, she delivered a beautiful baby boy. My daughter and son-in-law, who suffered from infertility, blessed our family by adopting him and we became his forever family.

While I rejoice and praise God over that young girl’s choice to give her baby, my grandson, an opportunity to live, I cry over the millions of babies who never had the same opportunity.*

“We cannot know what our citizens yet unborn will achieve. The dreams they will imagine. The masterpieces they will create. The discoveries they will make. But we know this: every life brings love into this world, every child brings joy to a family. Every person is worth protecting. And above all, we know that every human soul is divine and every human life, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of Almighty God.” President Donald J. Trump

Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb
and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰I was thrust into your arms at my birth.
You have been my God from the moment I was born. Psalm 22:9-10 NLT

You can watch President Trump speaking at the 2020 March for Life and/or read the transcript at LifeSitenews.com.

Read two of our daughters’ infertility stories and about my grandson’s adoption in Dear God, Why Can’t I Have a Baby?

In my book Mentoring for All Seasons, there’s a section on “Pregnancy—Planned and Unplanned” with tips and Scripture on how to mentor a pregnant woman, Teen Mom, and “Post-Abortion Recovery” section for mentoring a woman who has had an abortion.

In Everyday Brave, the chapter on “Brave Mothers” includes a testimony of Kathleen, a brave teen mom who chose to keep and raise her baby, who twenty-eight years later is a digital media arts teacher. In the chapter “Brave Believer,”
Penelope tells her brave story of being an RN Circulator in operating rooms and refusing to participate in abortion procedures even though it could jeopardize her career and she received much ridicule from her peers.

January 27, 2020

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Is Our President More Excited Than We Are About Religious Freedoms?

Is January 16, National Religious Freedom Day, marked on your calendar as an incredibly important day in our nation?

It’s not on mine either. In fact, until I read on Facebook about President Trump announcing on National Religious Freedom Day, January 16, new rules designed to roll back “discriminatory” federal regulations to promote teachers’ and students’ right to pray in public schools, I wasn’t aware of this national day.

How was I not aware of such a significant day?! As a Christian writing and speaking about preserving and expressing religious freedom, how did I miss this day? Obviously, President Trump knew about January 16 and he took notable strides to not only commemorate it, but to regain many of our religious freedoms denied us over the years!

Prior to January 16, I didn’t see any publicity about a day so vital to all religions. No mention in church or social media, and except for the landmark announcements from the Oval Office, this day could have slipped by with no recognition.

Why wasn’t there more publicity, blogs, articles?

Why wasn’t social media a buzz about the significance of regaining so many of our lost religious freedoms?

Why was President Trump the only person making a big deal of such a momentous day? Especially, considering he is restoring in schools religious freedoms that I remember when teachers and students could talk freely about God, Jesus, the Bible, and their faith without fear of repercussions or discrimination.

According to Religiousfreedomday.com “Each year, [since 1993] the President declares January 16th to be Religious Freedom Day, and calls upon Americans to “observe this day through appropriate events and activities in homes, schools, and places of worship.” The day is the anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. We encourage schools to recognize Religious Freedom Day during the school week leading up to January 16.

The goal of ReligiousFreedomDay.com is to promote and protect students’ religious expression rights by informing educators, parents, and students about these liberties.”

There is information on their website for students, educators, parents, and churches.

Our Family’s Personal School Discrimination Story

When my granddaughter was in third grade, she was a little evangelist. She didn’t know that telling the Good News of Jesus stopped at the front door of the school. She and two other little girls of a different faith were discussing their beliefs and she told them the only way to get to heaven was a relationship with Jesus Christ. One of the little girl’s mothers complained to the school and my granddaughter was shattered when she was the one called into a parent teacher conference and scolded. How could this be she cried when she had learned at Sunday school and VBS to share Jesus with everyone?

Not only did this teacher wrongfully crush her emotionally, she crushed her spiritually. Whenever we talk about sharing Jesus with others, my granddaughter, now 14, recalls this life-changing incident because you’re supposed to obey the school rules even when they’re wrong.

Thank You POTUS!

[Tweet “On January 16, 2020, President Trump announced that the U.S. Education Department will send out memos to secretaries and administrators in all 50 states stressing that they can’t prevent teachers or students from praying in public schools.”]

On January 16, 2020, President Trump announced that the U.S. Education Department will send out memos to secretaries and administrators in all 50 states stressing that they can’t prevent teachers or students from praying in public schools. The goal is to “further safeguard students’ constitutionally protected right to pray in school” and to let public school administrators know that they can lose federal funding if they violate students’ religious freedom.

Additionally, the administration will publish rules issued by nine federal agencies that ensure less regulation on religious organizations and social service providers.

President Trump said during a news conference that he doesn’t think there is anything more important than “the right to pray.”

“In public schools around the country, authorities are stopping students and teachers from praying, sharing their faith or following their religious beliefs. It is totally unacceptable. You see it on the football field, you see it so many times where they are stopped from praying. We are doing something to stop that.”

“You have a side that believes so strongly in prayer and it is being restricted and it’s getting worse and worse,” he said. “And I think we have made a big impact. We have loosened it up a lot and I want to loosen it up totally.”

As President Trump sat in the Oval Office surrounded by religious leaders, Christian, Jewish and Muslim students who have suffered discrimination, and Joe Kennedy, a high school coach who lost his job for silently praying on the field, POTUS said: It is a “sacred principle in our republic that government must never stand between the people and God, . . . Yet in public schools around the country authorities are stopping students and teachers from praying, sharing their faith, or following their religious beliefs.”

Trump stressed “there is a cultural war” that not that many years ago it would have been unthinkable that something like this could happen.

[Tweet ““Tragically, there is a growing totalitarian impulse on the far left that seeks to punish, restrict, and even prohibit religious expression.” President Donald J. Trump”]

“Tragically, there is a growing totalitarian impulse on the far left that seeks to punish, restrict, and even prohibit religious expression.”

Where was the excitement from all of us for these historic comments and executive orders?

The hurrahs?

The “Thank you Mr. President for caring about us and our religious rights!”

I maintain that we lost these rights through complacency. And yet, isn’t it that same complacency that doesn’t find us jumping up and down with joy when our President is reinstating them?!

[Tweet “Do you see the irony and spiritual battle of the news cycle obsessed with covering the impeachment of a President who is fighting for our spiritual freedoms?”]

Do you see the irony and spiritual battle of the news cycle obsessed with covering the impeachment of a President who is fighting for our spiritual freedoms?

[Tweet “Restoring religious freedoms is not political; it’s constitutional and moral regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on.”]

Restoring our religious freedoms is not political; it’s constitutional and moral regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on.

It has nothing to do with whether you like or agree with President Trump. It’s all about being on God’s side and helping to put Him back on His throne in the public square.

Dr. James Dobson didn’t let this historic day slip by his notice. Benjamin Gill wrote in a CBN News article on January 17, Dobson said,

“I’ve lived long enough to remember well a time when public prayer was expected and appreciated, even in schools.”

“I’ve also lived long enough to see the consequences of our societal disregard of the Ten Commandments and the eternal truth they represent.”

“For this reason, I’m greatly encouraged by the steps this administration is taking to correctly understand, restore, and preserve our constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms.

“It [the First Amendment] was designed to protect our first liberty. Unfortunately, government officials have increasingly bought the lie from groups such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and have worked to purge religion from the public square, demeaning the beliefs of millions of Americans in the process.”

Then he adds the important message I’m trying to drive home with this blog,

“We should celebrate the administration’s vital efforts to protect our religious freedom. But such work is in vain if we don’t seize the opportunity to live out our faith and thereby transform the heart of this nation.”

We May Have Missed January 16, But Let’s Celebrate Our Religious Freedoms!

We need to make sure our schools and colleges enforce these new rules the President is establishing. Unless we take it upon ourselves to exercise our religious freedoms that are quickly being denigrated by those who want to take God and His ways out of America, we could find ourselves censored in our churches, our speech, our writing, and in our homes.

How did abortion become legal?

How was God’s definition of marriage legally changed?

How did prayer, the Bible, and Jesus become taboo in schools?

How are crosses, even on a necklace, the 10 Commandments, Christian caps and clothes prohibited in schools and public places?

I submit to you, it’s because we let it happen.

Let’s be sure the significance of President Trump’s Proclamation and Executive Orders on January 16 are remembered and enforced.

[Tweet “Let’s bravely and courageously take a stand for our religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment written to protect the church from the State not the State from the church.”]

Let’s bravely and courageously take a stand for our religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment written to protect the church from the State not the State from the church. Don’t be fooled and don’t let anyone use it to silence you.

Let’s make it clear that our faith is in our heart that goes with us everywhere, including school.

Let’s not let the State rip the heart out of America.

“A society without religion cannot prosper, a nation without faith cannot endure because justice goodness and peace cannot prevail without the glory of almighty God.” President Donald J. Trump

[Tweet ““A society without religion cannot prosper, a nation without faith cannot endure because justice goodness and peace cannot prevail without the glory of almighty God.” President Donald J. Trump”]

For more on these historic strides allowing the expression of faith in schools:

“Trump Announces School Prayer Guidance; 9 Agencies Draft Religious Freedom Rules”.

Trump Criticizes liberals’ ‘growing totalitarian impulse’ as he vows to protect school prayer includes President Trumps Proclamation on Religious Freedom Day, 2020 that he signed in the Oval Office.

Who Told Students They Can’t Pray in Public School?

Read an Op-ed by Pastor Greg Laurie on President Trump’s historic executive action regarding religious freedoms.

Trump Fights to Protect Prayer In School with New Federal Guidelines.

The Hill: Trump Administration’s Religious Freedom Announcement Square with Constitution, Supreme Court Precedent.

If you haven’t read my book Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten, it is written for such a time as this.

January 20, 2020

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God Wants a Word with You!

First, let me wish each of you a blessed 2020!

As I talked about in last week’s blog, How Do Your Plans for 2020 Align with God’s Plans for You?, we often set goals for what we want to achieve in the upcoming year. A fresh start.

There are two complementary thoughts for the New Year that I want to share with you in this week’s Monday Morning Blog.

A Word to Focus On in 2020

Several years ago, a friend and I decided to pray about a personal word God wanted us to incorporate into our actions, thoughts, and speech in the New Year. We remind each other of our word when times get tough or we’ve lost our focus. One we can pray for ourselves every morning, night, and throughout the day as a guiding remembrance of how God wants us to live and reflect to others.

As I browse Social Media, I notice that this has also become a tradition for many of my friends as they share their “word for the year.” Maybe you have a word for 2020 and if so, I’d love you to share it with us.

My “word” for 2018 was “Calm.” That year I fell down the stairs and broke my wrist, tore up my leg, and we had a septic flood. Calm was a prophetic word I clung to in the chaos.

2019’s word was “Joy.” The damage from our 2018 septic flood wasn’t repaired until August of 2019. I started the year still in a wrist brace and physical therapy from the fall, and we sold my writing cabin, which was bittersweet. In my sadness and unrest, I longed for joy and gladness. Joy was an appropriate word for 2019.

And drum roll . . . my word for 2020 is “Glorify.”

I’ll share with you how I arrive at the word I feel God wants for me each year.

I pray asking God, the only One who knows what the coming year will bring, the word He knows will help me as I encounter the next year’s events.
I read God’s Word, the Bible, expecting the Holy Spirit to speak to my heart.
I listen to Him in my quiet time.
I notice that a word appears repeatedly in songs we sing in church or I hear on the radio or in a sermon.
I discuss with my friend our individual “word for the year.”
When I feel confirmation, I settle on my word.
I write my word in places I will see daily and pray over it each morning.

Some of you might also have a Scripture to focus on for the year or one that inspires you to pick a word for the year.

As I prayed about different words to pick for 2020, my thoughts went to the fruit of the Spirit.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-33

I wanted each of those words in Galatians 5:22-23 to define me. I would be a better wife, grandmother, mother, friend, neighbor, speaker, writer . . . and then God reminded me that if I focused on glorifying Him in everything I did, I would be reflecting all the fruits of the Spirit. I would become more Christ-like. Worthy of professing I’m a Christian.

For example, before I speak or write, I will think, Would that glorify God? Before I act, Would that glorify God? It’s amazing how my 2020 word is already changing me in one week. I still have a long way to go because after I say something, I also think, Wow that didn’t glorify God. Please forgive me.

Glorify is making me more aware of what God wants for me in my life.

[Tweet “I’m not suggesting everyone needs to have a “word,” but every Christian does need to know God’s Word.”]

I’m not suggesting everyone needs to have a “word,” but every Christian does need to know God’s Word.

God’s Word in Your Life in 2020

I often read the Bible in a year. I’m usually about a month behind on New Year’s Eve, but I don’t let that deter me. I just start the New Year’s reading plan in February instead of January, although I’m trying to catch up faster this year. As I write to you today on January 5, I’m just starting 1 Peter. Almost there!

So here’s my point. I don’t speedread to say I did it, but read at a pace that allows me to digest what I’m reading and what the Lord wants me to discern from His Word. The Bible is how He speaks to us. If you’re not in your Bible daily, you’re missing a daily Word from God. When someone tells me that God doesn’t speak to him or her, I ask, “Are you reading your Bible? Are you studying your Bible? Are you listening to what His Word is saying to you?”

As I read, I have a highlighter in my hand to note what speaks to me. God always has something new to tell me about how His Word applies to the issues in my life and in the world.

In the Preface of Everyday Brave: Living Courageously As a Woman of Faith I shared how God spoke to me in my annual Bible reading that He wanted me to write about the brave women in the Bible.

God started my journey of writing Everyday Brave during morning quiet times. I often begin the New Year by reading the Bible over the course of a year and choose a different translation each year. About fifteen years ago, as I read Genesis in January, the Lord opened my eyes to the amazing accomplishments of biblical women. I was in awe of the courage and boldness as I continued reading through the year. A few years later, I decided to start making notes as I came across these courageous women in my annual Bible reading.

I want the best God has planned for you and that’s why I’m pleading with you, if you’re not already reading your Bible daily, start now. You don’t need to read the Bible in a year, but you do need to read the Bible during the year.

[Tweet “”God is not the God of confusion or division. He wants to help you live your life with purpose, but you have to be in His Word to know how to do that.”]

We live in tumultuous times, the Bible was full of those also. God is not the God of confusion or division. He wants to help you live your life with purpose, but you have to be in His Word to know how to do that. No self-help book will help you like God’s Guide for your life.

[Tweet “God is not the God of confusion or division. He wants to help you live your life with purpose, but you have to be in His Word to know how to do that.”]

I came across two other blogs today that I want to share with you, because they were my confirmation that at least one of you, and maybe more, need the encouragement to chisel time out of your busy schedules to pick up your Bible and let God speak to you. Even if it’s just one passage.

A short conversation with God is better than no conversation!

2020 Is the Year of the Bible for Many Christians

The Benefits of Reading the Bible in 2020

Let God’s Word, not the world’s words, guide your thoughts and actions.

[Tweet “Let God’s Word, not the world’s words, guide your thoughts and actions.”]

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.

Psalm 90:12 NLT

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life. Phil. 2:15-16

Bible and highlighter Aaron Burden @aaronburden

Bible with cup of coffee Nathan Dumlao @nate_dumlao

January 6, 2020

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Grandparents Praying with Purpose

I hope the you had a blessed Thanksgiving whether you were with friends and family or spending a quiet day yourself reflecting how good God is and how fortunate we are to be His children.

Speaking of children, many of us have grandchildren. Dave and I are grandparents to eleven ranging in age from nine to twenty-one. As part of my morning quiet time, I pray God’s Word for these precious ones. It doesn’t mean they haven’t encountered trials and hardships, but they do each know Jesus as their Savior and I find comfort and confidence that God is watching over each one.

But I’m not fooling myself that in today’s culture there will be many temptations and the evil one is targeting the next generation. Satan does not want us producing more Christians in our families and the family of God.

So I want to introduce to you my dear friend Lillian Penner, Co-prayer director for Christian Grandparenting Network, and her new book The New “Revised and Expanded” Grandparenting with a Purpose.

If you’re a grandparent, you’re going to want a copy of this book. If there are grandparents in your life, this would make a great gift. If you’re a parent you need all the help you can get and what a gift to have your parents praying for your children, their grandchildren.

I asked Lillian to tell you about her new book . . . here is a message from Lillian Penner!

Today, there are over 70 million grandparents in the United States plus many more around the world. Grandparents represent one-third of the population with 1.7 million new grandparents added to the ranks every year in the U.S. Grandparents lead 37% of all U.S. households in this country — that’s 44 million households nationwide. (Google) [email protected]

How GRANDPARENTS CAN IMPACT THE WORLD?

[Tweet “We have reached a time in history when the grandparents must rise as one to cry to God.”]

It is estimated that there are over 30 million Christian grandparents. We have reached a time in history when the grandparents must rise as one to cry to God. I believe if 30 million Christian Grandparents who believe in the power of prayer and deliberately praying the enemy will be crushed.

[Tweet “Satan is relentless in his aggressive attack to desensitize our children to truth and righteousness. This is a spiritual battle requiring spiritual weapons.”]

Satan is relentless in his aggressive attack to desensitize our children to truth and righteousness. This is a spiritual battle requiring spiritual weapons. Our grandchildren and their parents not only need our support, they need our earnest and united prayers. They need our united prayer, a genuine, unified prayer for our hope and dreams for the next generation to be realized.

Grandparenting with a Purpose: Effective Ways to Pray for Your Grandchildren - Revised & Expanded

The “Revised and Expanded” Grandparenting with a Purpose, Effective Ways to Pray for Your Grandchildren is designed to encourage and equip grandparents to intentionally pray for their grandchildren and their parents.

Since I have had many requests for a study guide to go with the chapters, I have expanded the book with additional chapters and a study guide for each chapter, which you will find useful.

I have found there are many hurting estranged grandparents today with heavy hearts, so I am addressing that issue in a chapter. Is your grandparenting painful or a blessing?
I include a section looking at a view of the culture our grandchildren and their parents are navigating today.
God’s Design for grandparenting plus several additional chapters and Scriptures to Pray for Teens and Scriptures for Grandparents to pray for themselves.

The book retails for $14.99, however, on my website it is available for a discounted price of $15.00, including shipping and handling costs in the U. S. for a limited time. A bonus of Scriptural Prayer resource will be included with your purchase. The book will be available in EBook format for $3.99 for those who would prefer the EBook format or live outside the U. S. to save on shipping costs.

[Tweet ““Revised and Expanded” Grandparenting with a Purpose, Effective Ways to Pray for Your Grandchildren will show grandparents how to be intentional disciple-makers and prayer warriors to impact the next generation.”]

This book will challenge you and give you resources for this spiritual battle with the enemy. It will show you how to be an intentional disciple-maker and prayer warrior to impact the next generation.

Written by Lillian Penner, Co-prayer director for Christian Grandparenting Network. [email protected]

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

December 2, 2019

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Who Cares What the Critics Think?

If you read the news or listen to it at all, there’s one common theme: negativity.

[Tweet “If you read the news or listen to it at all, there’s one common theme: negativity.”]

It struck me while browsing headlines that so many of them used the word “criticize.” One person criticizes what someone else did or said. Most of the time, you don’t even know the critic nor do you care to know them or what their opinion is: Why should I care what they think? They don’t represent my values, my opinion, or me. Why should it matter to me what they have to say about something or someone?

But for some reason the media thinks posting other people’s criticism will catch our attention. We’ll want to read the critique or criticism from someone who means nothing to us and then they’ll get more readers or viewers?!

Naught! I bet you’re with me: I’ll form my own opinion about what someone did or said and it doesn’t matter to me what some obscure person, or even famous personality, thinks about it.

In the political arena today, you’ll hear or see reports on what one candidate says about another candidate’s words or opinions or choices or life. Or someone else chimes in just to make news.

[Tweet “Form your own opinion about your candidate and don’t get caught up in the political rhetoric and mudslinging.”]

Form your own opinion about your candidate and don’t get caught up in the political rhetoric and mudslinging.

Recently an author friend had a well-known newspaper review her new book. A live media source wanted to interview her before they found out the article was positive, then there was no rush. If it’s not a mean, vengeful, misrepresentation that you have to defend, it’s not newsworthy.

[Tweet “Underneath all the media negativity is an underlying principle: Joyful, happy, good news that builds you up doesn’t sell.”]

Underneath all this negativity is an underlying principle: Joyful, happy, good news that builds you up doesn’t sell. News isn’t relevant unless it’s filled with drama, personal attacks, negative opinions, belittling, and criticism. Otherwise, today’s media doesn’t bother to report it. Or if they even try, there’s always another newspaper, media, or vocal person that’s ready to rip that reporter or person to shreds for being a Pollyanna, too nice, too religious, too respectful, too kind, too positive, too out of touch with reality . . . .

[Tweet “Have we become conditioned to only being interested in bad, traumatic, critical, negative, drama news?”]

And what about us their audience? Have we become conditioned to only being interested in bad, traumatic, critical, negative, drama news? On our social media do we share positive strides in areas that we care about or do we only read and share articles that will get crying, angry face emoji’s?

It’s All About Mind Control

[Tweet “Let’s not let negativity influence or control our minds.”]

My point is let’s not let negativity influence or control our minds. As you know, I’m the first one to be an advocate for speaking out against immoral issues and the wrongs of today, and I will listen to those who are constructively fighting for the same causes and denouncing those who are doing evil. But I’m not interested in the opinion or criticism of someone I don’t respect.

[Tweet “The Bible gives us guidelines for what we should take into our mind and it’s good to remember in all our communication.”]

As always, the Word gives us guidelines for what we should take into our mind and it’s good to remember in all our communication.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

⁵Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:5-7

And here’s a good guideline for how we should respond to those we don’t agree with or to criticism of our opinions:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29

Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. Colossians 4:6 NLT

What are your thoughts on the use of criticism by the media or the reporting of other people’s criticism?

You might also want to read my blog post a year ago, When Did We Become So Uncivil?

How Should We Respond to Verbal Attacks?

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June 24, 2019

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Abortion: A Crime of Passion

With all the discussion lately about abortion, the focus has been on the depravity of late term abortion now legalized in some states, and the life-saving efforts of other states to eliminate abortion completely. But what I haven’t heard in the public discourse is what leads to abortion in the first place: sex!

No one seems to want to touch the underlying cause of 59+ million babies murdered since Roe vs Wade became law at a time of sexual revolution with the advent of birth control pills and the availability of abortion to anyone who wanted it, regardless of age or reason. Though, originally abortion was supposed to be safe and rare, with the advent of Planned Parenthood it became another form of birth control and frequent. Approximately 20% of pregnancies end by abortion!

Boys and girls, men and women, felt the freedom to have sex with whomever they wanted whenever they wanted because if they got pregnant, all they had to do was find the money to get an abortion. And many girls and women have stories that they didn’t stop having indiscriminate unprotected sex after their first abortion. No, they did it again and maybe again…

Feminist actress Alyssa Milano by her own admission wanted women to go on a sex strike when Georgia passed a law prohibiting abortion after a detected heartbeat. She said women couldn’t afford to get pregnant because they couldn’t have an abortion. In other words, abortion, not protection, is your failsafe way to deal with the product of conception: a baby! “Our reproductive rights are being erased. Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. Join me by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back.” So says Alyssa Milano.

What she and many others fail to address is that a few moments of sexual passion and pleasure can lead to a lifetime of living with the murder of their own babies. Today, you hear women, especially liberal actresses and politicians, celebrating the death of their babies, but I surmise that they’re actually angry, hurt, and anguished over what they’ve done. If they can get a group together with similar feelings, they can live in denial knowing they’re not alone. They find comfort in commonality. Like the old adage, “misery loves company.”

[Tweet “Today, you hear women, especially liberal actresses and politicians, actually celebrating the death of their babies, but they’re actually angry, hurt, and anguished over what they’ve done”]

My friend Patti Smith wrote a blog about the devastation of her own abortions: Nobody Told Me the Truth. Maybe that’s you and you were misled or misinformed. Patti learned that God is the God of forgiveness as she learned the truth. I’ve heard good things about Project Rachel: Hope After Abortion . After your own healing, like Patti, God may use your past to help another woman not let it become her future.

[Tweet “Before ultrasounds and heartbeat monitoring, women bought into the lie they were told that it’s just a blob of cells that can’t feel pain.”]

Before ultrasounds and heartbeat monitoring, women bought into the lie they were told that it’s just a blob of cells that can’t feel pain. But now, we know none of that is true. We can see the baby developing and hear the heartbeat at six weeks. We know, without a doubt, that life begins at conception. Yet there are still many lobbying for killing that human being, even after it takes its first breath! Inhuman barbaric depravity is actually celebrated in Congress and some state governments.

[Tweet “The Devil tries to seduce with deception by calling the baby a “fetus,” which sounds clinical and not like a human being.”]

The Devil tries to seduce with deception by calling the baby a “fetus,” which sounds clinical and not like a human being. But I’ve never heard a woman say she’s pregnant with a fetus or a blob of cells. She says she’s going to have a baby: a precious, fragile, defenseless human being that she can “choose” to murder or let live.

Liberals and abortion advocates try to couch the killing of babies by using terms like: A woman’s right to choose. Reproductive rights. Control over our own bodies. Healthcare. A decision between the woman and her doctor. Prochoice. A war on women.

Even a SCOTUS said you can’t call a pregnant woman a “mother”! A woman who exercises her constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy is not a mother” – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If she’s not a mother what is she?

Read a father’s reply to Ginsburg’s outrageous statement as he discusses that even babies who die in miscarriage still have a mommy and daddy.

[Tweet “Abortion is not a constitutional right.”]

Abortion is not a constitutional right. The Constitution says everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and that includes everyone with a beating heart. You would think a Supreme Court Judge would know that. But that’s how delusional some people have become. Another sly deception is to confuse by denying biology that every baby has both a mother and a father.

Let’s look at some common deceptions.

“A woman’s right to choose.” In 99.9% of situations, a woman does have a right to choose . . . if she’s going to have sex or not. That’s her choice.
“Reproductive rights” start with the right to say yes or no to sex. Sex leads to reproduction. A scientific and biological fact and a right God gave to every man and woman who chooses to have sex.
“Healthcare.” There’s nothing healthy for a woman to have a baby poisoned, burned, dismembered, or sucked out of her womb.
“It’s my body.” It’s not her own body. She didn’t create herself. God did by her parents having sex to create her. Then she used her body to have sex and create a body separate from hers with its own heartbeat, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, brain, organs, skin, arms, legs, sensitivity to pain, and cry.
“Bodily autonomy is a human right.” Autonomy does allow a woman to choose to have sex with her body, but when she creates another body, that little body has autonomy and a human right also.
“Abortion is morally good.” When murder becomes morally good and justified, we’ve definitely regressed to barbarism and savagery. Promiscuous sex is morally wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right.
“It’s a decision between a woman and her doctor.” When a girl or woman goes into Planned Parenthood, they don’t see the doctor until they’re in stirrups and he’s killing her baby. And often it’s not even a doctor performing the abortion.
“Prochoice.” The argument is between prolife and prodeath advocates! That’s something no one wants to say.
“A war on women.” Hmm. How about we stop the war on babies, both male and female.

Why is the Movie Industry so Pro Abortion?

That answer is clear: money. Sex sells. Sex leads to unwanted pregnancy, which often leads to abortion. So Planned Parenthood, Hollywood, elites, and liberals are in the Devil’s circle.

[Tweet “Sex sells. Sex leads to unwanted pregnancy, which often leads to abortion. So Planned Parenthood, Hollywood, elites, and liberals are in the Devil’s circle.”]

Almost every movie and most TV programs show couples going on a date and having sex. Maybe not even the date first. Entertainment exploits explicit sex. Everyone sleeps together, hook ups, casual promiscuous sex is presented as the norm, and sadly, it’s become the norm. You don’t see women saying no or concerned with pregnancy.

[Tweet “Virginity is only said with respect at Christmas with the “Virgin Mary.””]

Virginity is only said with respect at Christmas with the “Virgin Mary.” Young people often don’t even know what virgin stands for today. Girls and women who’ve had multiple sex partners are still married in white, maybe pregnant or carrying their baby and no one blinks at it. I saw a program with girls picking out wedding dresses and one of them laughed, “Maybe I’m pregnant.” It was funny, not remorseful. I applaud the women who choose to keep their babies, I just wish they had also chosen to save God’s gift of virginity for the man they want to spend the rest of their life with because you can only give the gift of virginity away once.

[Tweet “Today’s culture considers abstinence until marriage archaic and laughable and scoffs at anyone who dares to suggest it, or chooses to live by God’s moral principles.”]

Today’s culture considers abstinence until marriage archaic and laughable and scoffs at anyone who dares to suggest it, or chooses to live by God’s moral principles.

And that brings us to a place those of us who have lived a while would never have expected possible in America: infanticide.

Abortion has become the accepted crime of unbridled passion and lust. Sex for murder.

[Tweet “Abortion has become the accepted crime of unbridled passion and lust. Sex for murder.”]

There’s only one entity who could bring us to this despicable time in history: Satan.

[Tweet “No matter how anyone tries to twist God’s Word, he designed sex to be between a married man and woman. That’s it! No exceptions. “]

No matter how anyone tries to twist God’s Word, he designed sex to be between a married man and woman. That’s it! No exceptions. Everyone who is having sex any other way is sinning. I didn’t make that rule, God did. Many today try to make God into their own image the way they want to live, but you’ll always be going against God’s will for you.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature . . . Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!” Gen. 1:27-28 The Message

There’s no right way to do the wrong thing. There’s no justification for having sex and killing a baby because the sex was convenient, but the baby is inconvenient.

So what can you do about these atrocities?

Let your voice be heard in your state’s legislature.
Be a voice for the voiceless. Boldly and unashamedly stand for prolife as an abolitionist.
Mentor women who are having indiscriminate sex, considering an abortion, or had an abortion. I give ideas about how to do this in my book Mentoring for All Seasons.
If you’re having sex outside of marriage, stop now!

[Tweet “Our culture today is playing God by choosing who can live and who should die. That’s not going to end well.”]

Our culture today is playing God by choosing who can live and who should die. That’s not going to end well.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. ⁷He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

⁸A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’^[a] which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

⁹A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand,¹⁰they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

¹²This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

Revelation 14:6-12

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June 3, 2019

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An Easter Morning Testimony

I thought you would enjoy a flashback with me. Our church puts on an Easter Sunrise Cowboy Breakfast down at the river behind our church for the community. It’s a great outreach.

I love that in Idaho, Sunrise Service starts at 8:00 am! When we lived in California the sun rose at 6:00 am.

My husband, Dave Thompson, was asked to give his testimony one year and he allowed me to share it with you today. Enjoy and be blessed.

Dave’s Easter Testimony

I learned about God and Jesus in my teens, but in my early adult years – I became a self-made man.

Robert Ringer’s book Looking Out For Number One became my motto – in his book he talks about don’t let anyone take your marbles, so I walked over and through everyone or anyone in my way to achieve my goals.

I was a successful corporate executive married with a young family with a large home in an influential community. I had it made, so I thought, until it all came crashing down! I was eventually divorced, my family split up.

It was then I began a real relationship with Christ.

I dedicated my life to Jesus and reversed my motto, and let the only Real #1 look out for me. He does so much better than I could ever do.

When you think about it . . . who could better look out for you than the One who is:

Omnipresent – always with you

Omnipotent – all powerful

Omniscient – seeing all and everything ahead goes before you preparing the way.

So you ask: What has Christ meant in my life? Everything!

He has taken me with all my sins and prideful ways, and made me His child, an adopted heir. He loves me more than anyone else could, or I could ever love myself.

[Tweet “[Christ has taken me with all my sins and prideful ways, and made me His child, an adopted heir. He loves me more than anyone else could, or I could ever love myself.”]

Further, I would have never met the love of my life, my beautiful wife, Janet, if it were not for my relationship with Christ. You see, we met in a church small group at Saddleback Church and have grown together in a true marriage triangle relationship with Christ at the apex.

My wife, Janet’s writing and speaking ministry, About His Work Ministries, was born out of our love for Christ and His church. Many lives have been changed by Him using her, us, and our experiences, challenges, and trials as vessels to help others.

[Tweet “When you give your life and your time to Christ and make yourself available, He molds you and makes you into who He wants you to be and uses you and the gifts He has given you to help others.”]

When you give your life and your time to Christ and make yourself available, He molds you and makes you into who He wants you to be and uses you and the gifts He has given you to help others. In fact, our ministry tagline “Sharing life experiences and God’s faithfulness” defines our life in Christ.

[Tweet “If you are a self-made man or woman stop playing king of the mountain, give up your fight to stay on top and let the only one who belongs there take your place.”]

So if you are a self-made man or woman stop playing king of the mountain, give up your fight to stay on top and let the only one who belongs there take your place. He will give to you more abundantly than you could ever imagine. He will not only renew your mind, but He will change your heart.

Happy Easter and God bless you all!

We hope you had a blessed Easter and a chance to tell someone, or many someones, that Jesus is Alive!

Testimony originally given on Easter April 1, 2013

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April 22, 2019

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5 Examples of How to Join God in Bringing Good Out of Evil Intent

I struggled with what to write this week. As I prayed, God kept bringing to mind two thoughts: Lying always backfires and evil is being exposed.

If you haven’t read my last two blog posts, I hope you will. I’ve received many encouraging comments that they might be the best I’ve ever written and to that I say, “To God be the Glory!” I honestly never know what He’s going to ask me to share with you. I pray and sit down at the computer and suddenly I have a blog post. I often read it later and am amazed at what I wrote. Only God.

10 Things You Can Do in a World Gone Mad!

How Not Mentoring Millennials Implodes a Political Party. What Can the Church Learn?

Everyone Knows The Difference Between Good and Evil

Since Satan enticed Adam and Eve to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, humanity has known the difference between good and evil, truth and lies.

¹⁵The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.¹⁶But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— ¹⁷except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Genesis 2:15-17 (NLT)

Satan: “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5

Everyone, even those who choose to do evil and lie, has a conscience. They know the difference between right and wrong . . . except maybe psychopaths

It’s a matter of whether we choose to make evil or good our guiding life force. Tell the truth or lie to our own advantage. You don’t have to be a Christian to make that choice. Even unbelievers can do good and be truthful.

[Tweet “Our choices between good and evil usually come down to whether we’re self-centered or other-centered.”]

Our choices between good and evil usually come down to whether we’re self-centered or other-centered. Caring only about our own selfish desires or caring more about others than ourselves. Again, you don’t have to be a Christian to make the choice to do good, but Christians should always make that choice.

When I hear politicians and pro-choice advocates expound that every woman should have a choice with her body, I want someone to challenge them with asking, “A choice to do what? Good or evil?”

Let’s look at 5 examples of how we can join God in bringing good out of evil intents.

1. Abortion

Many agree that abortion is evil, but until recently how many really did anything about it. Yes, there were annual walks for life and pro-life advocates, but few people, even Christians, let the murder of innocent babies keep them awake at night or invade their everyday life.

Then abortion went to the next level of infanticide and everyone started taking notice. When New York approved abortion up and through delivery and lit up the city in pink to celebrate this evil, the governor of Virginia told us in graphic terms that a baby who survives an abortion could be left to die, and Congress voted to legalize infanticide . . . suddenly we were kept up at night. We were appalled. We couldn’t ignore that 50 million innocent souls are tortured to death in their mommy’s tummy every year.

[Tweet “We can’t ignore that 50 million innocent souls are tortured to death in their mommy’s tummy every year.”]

Social media lit up with graphic pictures and descriptions of the atrocities of abortion. The mainstream liberal media, as usual, wouldn’t touch the topic, but FOX News did. You’d have to be a hermit today to not know what happens to babies during abortion.

So how could this publicity about the atrocities of abortion be used for good?

Pushing the envelope to late-term abortions and infanticide has now made abortion a topic of discussion and disgust.

There’s renewed hope and fervor for overturning Roe vs Wade. We must keep the momentum going when the publicity dies down.

We can’t become complacent again while murder of innocent babies happens in our own hometowns every single day!

Women who have long suffered with the guilt of abortion have an opportunity to use their story for good by sharing their testimonies and turning the bad in their life into good by helping to save more babies. We can pray for these mothers and share with them the forgiveness that comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

A young dad who had no say in the death of his own baby when his girlfriend chose abortion, has now brought an unprecedented legal case for the rights of fathers.

We can send a message to Congress that all newborn babies should be welcomed with warmth and care, and join thousands of Americans in a End Birth Day Abortion campaign.

[Tweet “See the movie Unplanned releasing March 29. Tell all your friends about this movie and encourage mothers to take their teenage daughters and sons.“]

Go see the movie Unplanned releasing March 29. The true story of former Planned Parenthood Director, Abby Johnson, who suddenly saw the evils of abortion and became a pro-life advocate. A former abortion doctor has a role in the movie also.

Tell all your friends about Unplanned and encourage mothers to take their teenage daughters and sons. The movie is by the same producers who made God’s Not Dead. It has an R rating only because Hollywood promotes abortion and they’re trying to discourage people from seeing it.

[Tweet “Only God could bring out the movie Unplanned at a time when abortion is in the national discussion. We can work with God in helping publicize it.”]

Only God could bring this movie out at a time when the atrocities of all abortion is the topic of national discourse. We can work with God in helping publicize Unplanned.

[Tweet “An evil world has made killing babies a political issue. Abortion is a criminal issue. Make it your spiritual issue“]

An evil world has made killing babies a political issue. Abortion is a criminal issue. Make it your spiritual issue.

God created each baby in His image with a unique fingerprint and DNA from the moment of conception. Let’s not be satisfied until the world acknowledges this truth.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. — Genesis 50:20 NASB

2. The Mueller Investigation

I know you’re saying, “How could that be used for good?” We’re all so sick of it and it has plagued our president since before he even took office. Now he’s vindicated!

But consider that if there had been no investigation, would we have ever known about the corruption of some in the FBI and Justice Department? Those evil men and women who chose to put their own political interests before the good of the country have been exposed.

And the lies, lies, and more lies of the mainstream liberal media and politicians during this investigation are now boomeranging on them as the Mueller report is released.

Let’s pray for a revival of honesty and truth in our government and that our country can begin to heal. Corruption would continue to be eradicated and God would be brought back into our schools. We would vote into office godly public officials. It starts with we the people!

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.

²²Woe to those . . . who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.” Isaiah 5:20-21, 23

3. Democrat Presidential Candidates Running on a Platform of Socialism/Communism

I know again, how could this be good? It’s not. Socialism is evil, but the younger generation and school age kids aren’t being taught that in school. This is our chance to educate them on the evils of socialism, which leads to communism and a dictatorship.

[Tweet “We have a choice. Take action or stay silent while Democrat candidates lie about the freebies of socialism without exposing how it ruins countries.”]

Again, we have a choice. Take action or stay silent while these candidates lie about the freebies of socialism without exposing how it ruins countries and lives. Speak out against their platforms and mentor truth to the next generation. If you don’t, who will?

“For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.” 1 Peter 2:15

4. Suffering

It’s hard to find good in suffering. It’s painful. Dreadful. Costly. Debilitating. Destructive. And yet, it happens to most of us at some time in our life. We try to avoid it by taking good care of our bodies, eating healthy, exercising, and taking vitamins. But one day we can’t outrun the diagnosis that stops us in our tracks. We want to deny it, but we can’t.

While in the moment it seems all about us, maybe God actually wants us to use our suffering to help others.

When I first had breast cancer, I wanted to go through surgery and treatment and then move on with my life. The last thing I wanted to do was identify as a breast cancer survivor. Then God took hold of my heart and I wrote the book I wished I had going through my cancer journey, Dear God, They Say It’s Cancer: A Companion Guide for Women on the Breast Cancer Journey. I’ve had many women tell me it was like God and I were walking along beside them during their breast cancer.

I’ll never know how many women God has used to turn evil cancer into a blessing for other breast cancer sisters.

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” Colossians 1:24

5. Sin

No matter how good we try to be, the evils of sin enter our life often through our wrong choices. But here’s the Good News: at Calvary God traded evil for good. The horrible death of Jesus Christ by evil men, and His ultimate resurrection, ushered in the amazing opportunity of salvation for everyone who chooses to believe in Jesus and receive forgiveness for his or her sins.

²³For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, ²⁶for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Romans 3:23-26 NLT

[Tweet “For believers, evil doesn’t have the last word in our life. No matter how evil the world becomes, we know that this world is not our final home.”]

For believers, evil doesn’t have the last word in our life. No matter how evil the world becomes, we know that this world is not our final home. We must share that Good News with everyone we know who might not be joining us in eternity.

The best way to exemplify the goodness of our Holy God is to let our Light shine in the midst of a dark unholy world.

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶holding fast to the word of life . . . .” Philippians 2:14-16

We each have a choice:

Stay silent about evil or expose it.

Turn our backs on evil or work with God to bring good out of it.

“Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” Romans 12:21(NLT)

Will you share in the comments where you’ve worked with God to bring good out of what Satan meant for evil.

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

You might also enjoy a slide how I wrote for Crosswalk.com 10 Powerful Gifts to Pass to the Next Generation.

March 25, 2019

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10 Things You Can Do In a World Gone Mad

Each morning we wake up and thank God for another new day.

Then we look at the news headlines in disbelief that Satan is getting bolder and more visible. Evil seems to be winning and prevailing in a country founded on Judeo Christian values.

[Tweet “We’ve gone from most people believing in the 10 Commandments as a solid foundation for behavior to a world that’s traded evil for good”]

We’ve gone from most people believing in the 10 Commandments as a basis for behavior to a world that now finds the 10 Commandments offensive and has replaced good with evil. Truth with lies. Moral with immoral. Like in the days of Judges, everyone does what seems right in their own eyes. There is no recognized central truth. Truth is whatever you want it to be. Your truth is all that matters.

“You can be whatever you want to be,” used to be an encouragement parents gave to their children to follow their dreams. Now it means children are “gender neutral” until “they” determine whatever sex “they” want to be regardless of their scientific biologic sex.

More Madness

Legalized infanticide and late term abortions.
Gay marriage.
Young children who haven’t even experienced the hormonal changes of puberty are receiving hormones to change their biological sex.
Transgender athletes allowed to compete with their new gender identification, even in the Olympics. Yes, that means biological men are competing against biological women.
Political leaders stump for Socialism and Communism in America.
A freshmen Congresswoman suggests we eliminate air travel, cows, cars, hamburgers, and having children and seasoned legislators support this ludicrous fictional fable.
A Congresswoman denounces Israel and Congress doesn’t denounce her.
A sixteen-year old high school student is slandered and defamed by the mainstream media and celebrities for standing still and smiling while being harassed because he had participated in a pro-life rally and was wearing a MAGA hat.
A celebrity fabricates a hate-crime for greed, fame, and incrimination of supporters of our president, and fools the media with his lies.
Celebrity parents pay enormous bribes in a lying fraudulent scam to get their children into prestigious colleges.
A Democrat presidential contender encourages smoking marijuana to experience joy and legalizing prostitution.
Another inexperienced liberal Democrat throws his hat into the 2020 contenders. The newbie has no platform and his only claim to fame is that he swears a lot, has a DUI, fanaticized about killing children, was part of a hacking group, and can skateboard across a stage.
Media outlets no longer present news facts, but instead spew partisan opinions and biased liberal propaganda.
Churches of all faiths need armed guards.

I could fill this blog with cultural madness, and as soon as this blog posts, there will be even more shocking headlines.

We live in tumultuous times in the church and in the world. Confusion and fear reigns among newer believers who don’t have a solid foundation in biblical truth to help them discern evil from good, lies from truths, abnormal from normal.

How do you mentor the next generation when it seems we are in the end times?

[Tweet “How do you mentor the next generation when it seems we are in the end times?”]

How do you help young people stand bravely by the Bible when even many churches and pastors are deviating from God’s Word?

[Tweet “How do you help young people stand bravely by the Bible when even many churches and pastors are deviating from God’s Word?”]

Each generation has a predisposition to look at God as the God of the past who doesn’t understand the current culture. That’s why I’m a passionate proponent of mentoring and living out Titus 2:1-6 where spiritually older men and women receive the charge to teach, train, and model the Christian life to the next generation so they won’t be deceived and dissuaded.

Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives. Titus 2:1-6 The Message

To understand the full impact of Titus 2:1-6, we need to read the issues Paul was addressing in the previous verses. It sounds a lot like our world today:

Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.—Titus 1:15-16 NIV

[Tweet “There’s a steady increase in crime and decrease in morality in our culture because many believers are failing to take up the Titus 2 mantel”]

Today, we see a steady increase in crime and decrease in morality in our culture because many believers are failing to take up the Titus 2 mantel—one Paul and I call the job description for every Christian man and woman. A consequence of a generation not accepting the charge of Titus 2 is a liberal progressive society aggressively challenging Christianity and long-held truths governing our society for over 2,000 years.

Just as the apostle Paul saw the need for mentors in his day, we desperately need mentors today. Yet, many who should be stepping up to mentor and teach the next generation are falling away from Titus 2 just as quickly as our world is falling away from God.

[Tweet “How do we ordinary Christians make a difference in today’s confused and fallen world?”]

So how do we ordinary Christians make a difference in today’s confused and fallen world? We follow Paul’s teaching to Pastor Titus. As mentors, we speak, teach, and train the truth to the spiritually younger, straight from the Bible.

We read our Bibles and let God’s Word speak, teach, and train the truth to us so we can respond to life’s issues from God’s perspective. Together mentors and mentees learn spiritual wisdom and scriptural principles to help navigate the moral decline of our culture, and in some cases, the foundation of the Christian faith.

**Here’s What We Can Do**

We can pray for revival.

We can pray for everyone blinded by lack of faith in God!

We can pray for the victims of evil.

We can ask God what He wants His people, to do. What action does He want us to take?

We can share Jesus openly in this urgent time of uncertainty.

We can reassure our children, grandchildren, and mentees that they can make a difference in this world.

We can live as godly role models in a world that has forsaken God.

We can live by the Bible in our personal lives and share the Truth that salvation is free by the grace of God.

We can emphasize that we don’t follow God’s laws because we have to; we follow them because we have Jesus in our heart and they can too.

**Here’s What We Can’t Do**

We can’t lose hope.

We can’t ignore what’s happening around us.

We can’t live fearfully.

We can’t be silent.

We won’t become relics if we stay relevant.

[Tweet “Jesus didn’t come to conform to the culture; he came to reform the culture.”]

Jesus didn’t come to conform to the culture; he came to reform the culture. Now we’re to go and do likewise. Are you up for it? I pray your answer is “Yes, Lord, Yes. Here am I, use me!”

If you received this blog by email, please leave your comments here.

Here’s a slide show I wrote for Crosswalk.com that also posted today. I encourage you to read it: 10 Powerful Gifts to Pass On to the Next Generation.

March 18, 2019

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How Not Mentoring Millennials Implodes a Political Party. What Can the Church Learn?

Let me say right from the beginning that this is not a political blog. But it is a blog about what happens politically, spiritually, and personally when generations don’t heed God’s instructions, Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors? Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. —Joel 1:2-3

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know the Man who does, Jesus Christ. The Lord knew everything we would encounter in life and in our country. There’s nothing new under the sun. The culture may change, but the Bible is timeless.

[Tweet “There’s nothing new under the sun. The culture may change, but the Bible is timeless.”]

Here’s what I do know. If we’re encountering a problem in our world, God gave us the answer. We just need to seek it out and apply it. I can’t find anywhere in God’s Word where we’re told that young people don’t need guidance, direction, and mentoring before they take on important and influential roles.

[Tweet “Young people need guidance, direction, and mentoring before they take on important and influential roles.”]

For those of us past the age of millennials, we were all their age once when we thought we knew everything and were ready to change the world. But God knew that it was important for us to temper our enthusiasm with wisdom from those who have gone before us, whether it’s in business, ministry, parenting, politics, or just living life.

[Tweet “The Bible and God tells us that one generation should teach and train the next generation”]

Throughout the Bible God repeatedly tells us that one generation should teach and train the next generation. Titus 2:1-8 is a familiar mentoring passage written to older and younger men and women. But so often neither generation, the young or the old, realizes the value of mentoring.

These men and women understood, Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you (Deut. 32:7).

Moses mentored Joshua before Joshua took over the role of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Elijah mentored Elisha as his successor.
Barnabas mentored Paul and Paul mentored Titus, Timothy, and Mark.
Ruth followed Naomi and wanted to know her God.
Young Mary visited with her elderly relative Elizabeth as they both had miracle pregnancies.
Even though Saul was a bad king, David obeyed him until it was his time to be king and he learned from Saul how not to rule.

The younger people didn’t ignore or usurp their elders. They wanted to learn from them so that someday they would be ready for their God-given roles.

What Happens Without Mentoring?

In 1 Kings 12:1-24, a young son of Solomon, Rehoboam, tried to take on a leadership role he wasn’t ready to assume. His subjects implored him, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Rehoboam told them to go away for three days and then he inquired of the elders who had served his father what he should do. They wisely replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”

⁸But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. ⁹He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. ¹¹My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

Do you remember who he listened to? The wise elders or his arrogant young friends?

Yes, he took the advice of the young inexperienced entitled young men who were looking for power with Rehoboam, not what was best for the people.

The people said forget it then. We’re leaving. Those who stayed, rebelled against Rehoboam and he barely got away with his life.

We’re seeing something similar happen with the Congressional Democrats. Young, freshmen millennial women, who weren’t mentored or given wise counsel in how to be a constructive team player in Congress, came into office with their own agendas discounting the experience of those who went before them.

[Tweet “Instead of senior Congressional leaders reining in the freshmen for some mentoring, they seem intimidated”]

But instead of the senior Congressional leaders acting as mentors for the freshmen, they seem to be intimidated by them. The experienced elders are cowering to the inexperienced Millennials. They’re letting these three women set the agenda as ridiculous, rude, radical, and rudimentary as it is. They’re even letting one proclaim she’s “the boss,” and it looks like she is.

Why are Democrat presidential hopefuls endorsing the harmful philosophies of these three women instead of educating them on the pitfalls and dangers of Socialism and anti-semitism? Because the freshmen are getting more attention and press so the contenders for the party nomination feel they must join them, even if it means destroying America.

How could older legislators let the young immature legislators come in as wrecking balls and then bow down to them? Why? Because the seniors think this is what they have to do to get the millennial vote. Sell their souls and the good of the country for party power even as they lose their personal power.

[Tweet “Democrats are immobilized by their own identity politics.”]

The Democrats are immobilized by their own identity politics. Now they can’t seem to discipline or restrain the three women “of color” (which now just means not white) for fear of being called misogynist, Islamophobic, or racist. The same slurs they sling at Conservatives are boomeranging to haunt them.

Three freshmen Congresswomen are in charge while the elders are impotent. And just like the story of Rehoboam . . . they could soon see their party running for its life.

I don’t think this is how Millennials want to be wooed. They’re smarter than this. I don’t think we all raised a generation of arrogant, entitled, foolish, disrespectful, loud-mouthed young people. If I’m wrong and these three women are representative of the next generation, then our country will be in a steady dissent. If the older generation is afraid to confront them, they will indeed be a generation that watches their accomplishments disintegrate.

[Tweet “The older generation’s legacy will be that they tried to please the next generation instead of taking the time to mentor them.”]

What Can the Church Learn About the Importance of Mentoring the Next Generation?

I pray the older generation’s legacy in the culture and in the church will not be that they tried to please the next generation instead of taking the time to mentor them, love on them, and show them how to live godly lives in an ungodly culture.

Mentor them don’t ignore them.

Mentor them don’t appease them.

Do the young people in your church know about the evils of Socialism, anti-Semitism, abortion, and infanticide? Or is your church letting the culture and liberal media brainwash them?

We need to speak out against the wave of anti-Semitism, and yet, so far the only Christian leader I’ve heard denounce it is Governor Mike Huckabee in his monologue for his program on TBN.

It’s the church’s responsibility to educate the next generation, so that the evils of the past don’t become their future.

[Tweet “It’s the church’s responsibility to educate the next generation.”]

Mentor them about the fallacies and faults of Socialism.

Show them that Socialism isn’t free, but you will lose your freedoms.

[Tweet “Socialism isn’t free, but you will lose your freedoms.”]

Discuss articles like this with them and ask, Why Are So Many Millennials Drawn to Socialism?
If you need help explaining the evils and perils of Socialism and Communism read articles like this one On Communism and Socialism, Many Americans are Still Clueless.
Listen and share with a younger person Mike Huckabee’s interview with the Prime Minister of Poland who discusses the horrors of being a socialist country and how hard he fought in his youth to save his country which now flourishes with Capitalism and Democracy.

[Tweet “Each generation is responsible for the actions of the next generation.”]

Each generation is responsible for the actions of the next generation. What did we teach or not teach them? What kind of role models were we? How much time did we spend molding them into responsible citizens? They’re our legacy. Our responsibility. If we’re alarmed at what’s going on today, we have to ask ourselves: How did we let this happen?

I’ve stressed so often in blogs like this one that Generation Gaps Were Never Part of God’s Plan! In my book Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness, I give ideas of how the generations can learn from each other and work together, just as God planned for us to do.

I encourage you to read my blog for Crosswalk: The Forgotten Link Between Seniors and Discipleship/Church Growth.

If you’re a Millennial, I would love to hear your thoughts. How can we reach your generation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help them be ready to take over the responsibility of running our free Democratic country, without ruining it with Socialism or Communism? How can we prepare them to continue God’s earthly kingdom and His church?

In an Op-ed Newt Gingrich writes about what he sees happening between the congressional generations: “To the new Democrats, the leaders are like the grandparents. And I don’t mean this in a positive way that could foster an opportunity for maternal or paternal mentorships.” Instead, “these new Democrats are throwing a party – and the grandparents aren’t invited.”

“One generation commends your works to another, they tell of your mighty acts.” Psalm 145:4

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

March 11, 2019

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What If You’ve Had an Abortion or Know Someone Who Has?

Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman

Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.

What Can We Do?

Our Family’s Adoption Story

Our Family’s Personal School Discrimination Story

Thank You POTUS!

We May Have Missed January 16, But Let’s Celebrate Our Religious Freedoms!

A Word to Focus On in 2020

God’s Word in Your Life in 2020

How GRANDPARENTS CAN IMPACT THE WORLD?

It’s All About Mind Control

Let’s look at some common deceptions.

Why is the Movie Industry so Pro Abortion?

So what can you do about these atrocities?

Dave’s Easter Testimony

Everyone Knows The Difference Between Good and Evil

Let’s look at 5 examples of how we can join God in bringing good out of evil intents.

We each have a choice:

More Madness

Here’s What We Can Do

Here’s What We Can’t Do

What Happens Without Mentoring?

What Can the Church Learn About the Importance of Mentoring the Next Generation?

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