Home Archives for children

Yes, He Gets Us, But Jesus Doesn’t Want to Leave Us How He Found Us!

3

By now, if you watched Super Bowl, or even if you didn’t, you’ve probably heard about the “He Gets Us” campaign. I’m often asked my opinion. Let me preface by saying, I’ll present what I’ve learned and discerned and then you can prayerfully form your own opinion of whether this campaign accurately glorifies Jesus. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

As I researched and prayed asking Jesus to give me wisdom, here’s the first three things I learned.

1. The originators’ motivation is to give Jesus what they refer to as a better “image” or “brand” than they think the church and Christians are portraying. They want to reach the younger generation with a “Jesus of love and understanding.”

2. Their website, offers choices like reading about Jesus in the Bible using You Version reading plans, which I’ve used too. I do much of my scriptural research on Biblegateway.com and they endorse He Gets Us.

3. There’s also a link on the He Gets Us website to join a chat group, but it doesn’t say who you chat with or who’s leading those groups. You can connect to a church, but what’s the criteria for belief statements of the churches? Can any church with any beliefs be on that list? You can also text for “prayer and positivity.”

I wasn’t impressed with the two commercials on Super Bowl. They seemed directed to a social justice Jesus who loves everyone, which is true He does, but Jesus does not love everyone’s sinful actions. Jesus hates sin that destroys the people He loves. That’s why He went to the cross to offer us redemption, forgiveness, and salvation from our sins. Sin separates us from God; reconciliation brings us back into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

The caption on the black and white Super Bowl commercial. “Jesus loves who you hate,” made it sound like we all hate someone. But disagreeing with someone’s actions isn’t hate. Jesus’s message was hate the sin, love the sinner enough to free them from their sins.

22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet 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. Romans 8:22-23

As a believer in Jesus Christ of the Gospel, I found the commercials confusing and not true representations of Christ, although the first one was endearing. We should come to Him as children.

There is an argument in favor of the campaign because it was Revealed: Hobby Lobby founder behind $3 billion effort to ‘rebrand Jesus’ (msn.com) and how could he be part of something that isn’t spiritually authentic? Here’s what he had to say about it . . . .

Green discussed his involvement in the campaign, and the Super Bowl ad spots, during a November 2022 interview with conservative talk show host Glenn Beck. “We are wanting to say — ‘we’ being a lot of different people — that he gets us,” Green said. “[Jesus] understands us. He loves who we hate. I think we have to let the public know and create a movement.”

Again, who is David Green talking about that we “hate?”

What’s Missing with the ‘He Gets Us’ Campaign?

The “About Us” page on the He Gets Us website opens with: “He Gets Us is a movement to reintroduce people to the Jesus of the Bible and his confounding love and forgiveness. We believe his words, example and life have relevance in our lives today and offer hope for a better future.”

The word missing in that introduction prior to forgiveness is “repentance.” I also question the use of “reintroduce people to the Jesus of the Bible” because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and always, He doesn’t need a choreographed reintroduction.

The campaign founders describe themselves as “a diverse group of people passionate about the authentic Jesus of the Bible.” Who are these “diverse” people? Since “diverse” is a buzz word for CRT and DEI, what kind of diversity? They don’t explain.

They say, “We [who is we?] simply want everyone to understand the authentic Jesus as he’s depicted in the Bible—the Jesus of radical forgiveness, compassion, and love.” Which is true, but again confession and repentance of our sins comes before forgiveness.

They gloss over the actual Gospel with “Jesus is the son of God, who came to Earth, died, and was resurrected, then returned to heaven and is alive today.” What’s missing is the heart of the Gospel: how and why Jesus died a brutal horrific death on a cross to offer forgiveness of our sins by His blood shed for us. I don’t see sin, repentance, or the Cross mentioned anywhere on the website, which appears to be more a depiction of a feel-good Jesus.

Then again, the “diversity” element: “We also have included many voices in our work here—welcoming diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences to help us address the many concerns and issues we all face.”

What I’ve concluded, along with others, is they’re describing a Universalism “religion” where Jesus loves everyone so no matter what kind of life you’re living, it’s okay with Him. All people will be saved because there is no hell! Heretical. NOT biblical.

Jesus was human so yes, He does get us, but He was not one of us. He was God. That’s the Deity of Jesus I see missing in He Gets Us Campaign.

“The Father and I are one.” John 10:30

Natasha Crain wrote an insightful article I encourage you to read 7 Problems With the He Gets Us Campaign. In her article she writes, “Jon Lee, one of the chief architects of the campaign, says the team wanted to start a movement of people who want to tell a better story about Jesus and act like him. Lee states, “Our goal is to give voice to the pent-up energy of like-minded Jesus followers, those who are in the pews and the ones that aren’t, who are ready to reclaim the name of Jesus from those who abuse it to judge, harm and divide people.”

“But in today’s culture, there’s a popular notion that Jesus was the embodiment of love and all things warm and fuzzy, whereas His followers who talk about judgment, sin, objective morality, the authority of Scripture, and so on, are hopelessly at odds with what He taught. The He Gets Us campaign plays straight into that misconceived dichotomy.”

Crain continues, “Christians who adhere to clear biblical teachings on hot topics like the sanctity of life, gender identity, and sexuality, for example, are consistently accused of “harming” others by even holding those beliefs. Those who speak the truth about what God has already judged to be right and wrong are accused of being “judgmental” themselves. Those who understand Jesus to be the Son of God—the embodiment of truth, not warm fuzzies—are accused of being divisive when rightly seeking to divide truth from error as the Bible teaches (1 John 4:6).”

She then asks, “So my question is, when Lee says that he wants to rescue the name of Jesus from those who “abuse it to judge, harm and divide people,” does he mean that he wants to give people a more biblical understanding of Jesus, or does he want to rescue an unbiblical, culturally palatable version of Jesus from followers who proclaim truth that people don’t want to hear?”

When I [Janet] researched Jon Lee, I found an article that describes his goal and premise: “Jon Lee has some words for evangelical leaders who argue that Christian ethics like kindness, honesty, and loving your neighbor don’t apply to culture-war politics. “Good luck,” said Lee, a principal at Lerma, a cross-cultural advertising agency based in Dallas. Lee is one of the chief architects of the “He Gets Us” campaign, a $100 million effort to redeem Jesus’ brand from the damage done by his followers, especially those who say one thing and then do another.”

I personally don’t know of any evangelical leaders who don’t believe in “kindness, honesty, and loving your neighbor.” This only reinforces to me, as Natasha Crain determined, that this campaign led by Lee is trying to paint Bible-believing Christians as not portraying Jesus. We are the “oppressors” against killing babies, gender manipulation, mutilating children, and same-sex sexual relationships.

But wait a minute . . .

Jesus loves the little children!

But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. Matt. 18:6

Jesus loves the two genders He created and affirms that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman!

 4 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’[a]” 5 And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’[b] 6 Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” Matt. 19:4-6 NLT

Lee and those with him are confusing and confounding Jesus’ perspective on sin and the sinner. When Jesus met the woman at the well, He gently called her out for having five husbands and the man she was currently living with was not her husband. He didn’t say I love you so much and understand how hard it is to be a single woman so it’s ok that you’re living in sin. No, He told her she had found the living water in Him, so go and sin no more. (John 4:1-30)

Jesus loved her to salvation when He told her every sin she had ever done but offered her repentance, forgiveness, and freedom from her sins!

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[b] from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[c] So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. Romans 8:1-8

In Mark 9:40, Jesus said, “Anyone who is not against us is for us.” I encourage you to read some of the links I’ve presented and make up your own mind, but it seems like the He Gets Us campaign is falling in line with the liberal government’s attempt to criminalize biblical Christianity, although many liberals were really upset about the Super Bowl commercials.

The good news is He Gets Us is getting people talking about Jesus. Not often do you see the name of Jesus during a football game! You usually hear His name said in vain! We can hope and pray that people will seek out the true Jesus of the Bible and not just someone’s interpretation of who He is.

Satan tried to tempt Jesus in his humanness, but Jesus NEVER sinned in His holiness. Not one of “us” can say that.

Jesus was perfect as a human. Not one of us is perfect.

So, trying to make Jesus our buddy who gets us is blasphemy because it removes His Deity. He does understand us, but He loves us so much He wants us to live holy lives. He doesn’t want us living harmful sin-filled lives.

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

The Younger Generation Is Not Seeking a “He Gets Us” Jesus

The He Gets Us movement claims their goal is to reach the younger generation but when we watch the grassroots revival that started at Asbury University almost two weeks ago, there was no “rebranding campaign.” It was unscripted. The Holy Spirit prevailed and these young people see and feel the presence of Jesus. Thousands have been drawn to Asbury to be a part of a real Jesus movement as I wrote about last week, Revival is Necessary for Survival of the Church.

Even Tucker Carlson took notice and interviewed the student body president on his show last week. But when the Carlson producers wanted to send a film crew to capture what was happening at Asbury, they requested them not to come. They didn’t want media publicity or any commercialization of what was happening in the Spirit. They didn’t want marketing. They want to stay humbly and purely seeking Jesus. Tucker Carlson was surprised, but also in awe at the authenticity of what is taking place at the revival.

On June 18, 2018, I wrote a blog on my website Why Is the Church Going Dark? I also write for Crosswalk.com and they read my blog and asked if they could post it, so I gave permission. They’ve run that article almost quarterly ever since and posted on Facebook. It continues to receive thousands of views and comments. An oft repeated claim is that dark churches better reach the next generation. Yet we’re watching an amazing revival in a well-lit chapel with stained glass windows in a university filled with young people. No loud bands or famous speakers. The Holy Spirit leads and as of this writing, it’s spreading to other college campuses.

This revival started with a young man suddenly standing up in chapel confessing his sins, repenting, and asking for forgiveness. Only Jesus! No “branding.” No marketing. No pyrotechnics. No tolerance of sin. Only organic repentance and recognition of the need for forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with our Great God. As one professor at Asbury University described it, “A chorus of forgiven sinners crying out in thanksgiving to an almighty God!”

That’s what I feel is missing with the He Gets Us Campaign.

Jesus so gets us that He seeks after each one of us so that none will be left behind. He loves us but He doesn’t want us to stay where He found us wallowing in our sinful life. He offers us a new beginning and new life in Christ. The old shall pass away and the new life abound. That my friends is the Jesus of the Bible so easily found by simply opening our Bibles.

I want to close with a firsthand account from a friend who visited the Asbury Revival. She couldn’t even get in the chapel or auditorium the line outside was so long so she sat on the grass under a tree and could hear the music and the testimonies over the sound system. Here is an excerpt of what she heard about our Jesus.

I heard this during a brief period of testimony. “We are not only the object of Jesus’ affection. We are the agent of it.”

That’s the message. Go. Show. Love.

In a world that screams hatred, we crave what’s holy.

We found it, finally, and it’s spreading. Thank goodness.

Hope and relief. That’s the best way to describe it, and the hills were singing their song.

Definitely worth the trip.

Go. Show. Love. That’s the message. May it spread across the world.

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6 NLT

I would love to hear your comments and opinions, even if you disagree with me! If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

February 20, 2023
Return to top of page

Revival Is Necessary for Survival of the Church!

5

Sorry, there was no blog last week. Hubby and I both had Covid again. I had brain fog along with all the other symptoms. I couldn’t even read so writing just wasn’t going to happen.

There are so many topics I’ve been praying about it’s hard to narrow down to just one. I agree with Anne Graham Lotz who opened her newsletter recently, with these words:

“As 2023 begins, the news headlines remind us that we are living at a time of spiritual darkness and oppression. Traditional values of integrity, morality, and common decency have been discarded, while faith in the one, true, living God is derided and even despised. As a nation, when we desperately need stability and unity in the midst of a world that is careening out of control, we are left without a foundation. As followers of Jesus, we are a remnant. A minority. But the Light in our lives shines even brighter in contrast to our surroundings.”

We certainly don’t have a firm worldly foundation to steady the downward spiral of our crumbling cultural foundation. And sadly, true Bible-believing and Gospel-living Christians are slipping into the minority. Many Christians try to precariously balance following Jesus while still keeping one foot in the world. Wanting to be accepted by a world gone woke, they sacrifice faith to the idol of going along to get along.

That’s an impossibly uncomfortable and immoral line to walk and one that leads to a life of confusion, compromise, and separation from the Lord. Jesus clearly told us that we must leave our old life behind to take up our cross and fully follow Him. No reservations, no turning back. We’re in the world but not of the world.

There’s no question that Jesus specifically says life won’t be easy here on earth for Christians, but this earth is not our permanent home. We’re just passing through to spread His Light.

Committed Christians do have a solid foundation built on biblical Truth and belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That foundation will never let us down or disappoint. But we must choose.

There is no such thing as:

 A “woke Christian” only a fallen Christian.

A “woke church” is a false teaching church.

Why? Because the woke agenda is tolerant and accepting of murder, evil, and sin and has been hijacked by all those who want to live a life opposite of what God teaches in the Bible.

For example, the recent Grammy Awards not only featured evil devil worship, but awarded the performance with a Grammy and a standing ovation to the first man impersonating a woman to receive the idol!

I know there were nominated Christian musicians in the audience. I hope they kept their seats and hands in their lap, or better yet walked out, during that horrific display of debauchery. Or did they feel pressure to rise with the crowd and reward Satan? Did anyone watching on television turn it off or keep watching to see how bad it could get? I’ve actually seen some Christians on social media justifying the performance and you can be sure Satan is clapping.

The culture and our government are trying to commercialize, sexualize, and normalize Satan.

The Battle Belongs to the Lord, but We’re His Mighty Warriors!

I read something recently that made me ponder and put the world’s happenings into perspective. The author was saying the moral demise in our government and the world must happen according to prophesy before Jesus’s return. Many refer to what we’re experiencing as birth pangs that we can’t actually stop because they will usher in the rapture of God’s people. But we aren’t to sit by silently and wait either. Instead, we work diligently and urgently to share the Gospel so more unbelievers will be saved before Jesus returns.

8 He [Jesus] replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’[a] and saying, ‘The time has come!’ But don’t believe them. 9 And when you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place first, but the end won’t follow immediately.” 10 Then he added, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven.

12 “But before all this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons, and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers. Luke 21: 8-12 NLT

We’re watching this Scripture passage come to fruition today.

Covid was certainly a worldwide plague. While we haven’t experienced famine in America, we’ve seen food shortages and empty shelves, even of essentials like baby formula.

NEWSMAX, one of the few Conservative media stations, was dropped by Direct TV and AT&T, cutting transmission to eleven million homes. While the secular CBS network tweeted before the devil’s Grammy presentation, “Let us worship.”

The devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake occurred the day after the Grammys, February 6th!

Thursday, February 9th, an FBI whistleblower leaked a memo that the FBI is targeting Catholics as criminals. Here’s a quote from the former FBI agent who unveiled this information on Tucker Carlson.

An internal document from the bureau’s Richmond, Virginia, field office allegedly vowed to spy on “radical traditionalist Catholics and their ideology.” “They have found a gateway in what they think is fringe Catholicism in order to move into Christians in general and declare them to be the actual criminals in this country or the potential terrorists,” federal whistleblower and former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin said. 

Seraphin continued that the whistleblower who brought the information to him is not a Catholic, but knew it was problematic. “He or she stated the very simple statement, which is that if they’re going to go after radical, traditional Catholics, then radical traditional Baptists are next and radical, traditional evangelicalism and anybody else that espouses essentially what is radical, which is just a Christian faith and that is dangerous apparently in this country.”

Fortunately, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and 19 GOP state attorneys general are demanding answers from the FBI and Justice Department and threatening legal action after this leaked internal FBI memo revealed that the agency had efforts underway to identify and treat Catholics as “potential terrorists.”  Miyares and his colleagues, told the FBI and DOJ to “desist from investigating and surveilling Americans who have done nothing more than exercise their natural and constitutional right to practice their religion in a manner of their choosing” and asked that they “reveal to the American public the extent to which they have engaged in such activities.”

“Anti-Catholic bigotry appears to be festering in the FBI, and the Bureau is treating Catholics as potential terrorists because of their beliefs,” the AGs wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The targeting of Catholics for treatment as ‘violent extremists’ because of the language in which they pray or because of the beliefs to which they subscribe is unacceptable, unconstitutional, and deeply un-American,” they said.

So we’re watching Luke 21:12 lived out in an attempt to persecute the church.

Do you find it odd that the FBI would go after Catholics when the President and Pelosi claim to be “faithful Catholics”? I’m going to speculate that you won’t hear Biden speak out against this FBI travesty against the Catholic Church, as he rightly should.

Biden has touted his Catholic faith for most of his political life and opposed abortion until the Democrat party decided to support it. Now with this overreach and politicization of the FBI, he and Pelosi could justify supporting abortion by claiming they’re not “traditional radical Catholics,” which have criticized both of them! Now, they can justify selectively choosing the parts of their faith they politically agree with and attacking the rest. Sick. Twisted. Demented.

I also believe the FBI started with the Catholic Church because they are the largest denomination, with few exceptions, to devoutly remain opposed to the travesty of abortion and same-sex marriage. Sadly, that can’t be said about all Protestant Christian denominations. Some are either silent, as when Roe v Wade was overturned, or refuse to universally unite against murdering babies or unequivocally profess the sanctity of marriage as solely between a man and a woman. Too many churches and Christians are afraid to take a public stand against evil.

What does that say? Protestants aren’t as big a threat to the evil invading our culture as the Catholic Church? Unfortunate and unforgiveable. We need to be boldly firm about the Bible’s teaching or don’t call yourself a Christian church because you’ll be misrepresenting Jesus and His Word.

True Christians follow Jesus even when it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, and not popular . . . especially then! We’re not obnoxious, we’re bold. Sometimes all we need to do is ask questions to make our point.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh silenced a Tennessee lawmaker this week with one simple question about transgender surgery for minors.

“Do you think a 16-year-old can meaningfully consent to having their body parts removed?” Walsh asked. “Do you? No?”

What followed was more than 10 seconds of silence. Hemmer never answered the question. Instead, he appeared to protest to committee chairman Cameron Sexton (R) that Walsh, a witness at the hearing, asked a question.

You can watch this encounter and more of Walsh’s defense of exposing Vanderbilt Hospital for promoting transgender surgery on minors at this link Matt Walsh sends Dem lawmaker into verbal paralysis with one simple question about gender surgeries on minors – TheBlaze

Revival before Rapture

I want to leave you with hope and encouragement that even though the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, a spiritual revival has been going on for days at Asbury University in Kentucky. Interestingly, it started last Wednesday, February 8!

To recap, the devil worshipping Grammy’s aired on Feb. 5. An earthquake in Turkey-Iraq on Feb 6th. A leaked FBI assault on the Catholic Church on Feb. 9th and in the middle of all that, the Holy Spirit poured out a revival on college students on Feb. 8, and as I write on Feb. 12, the Holy Spirit is still leading the revival!!

Here’s a quote from an article written by Clayton Bullion in Outreach Magazine about this amazing spontaneous youth revival that is now attracting all ages. I encourage you to read the entire article.

 “I got to the auditorium late last night and the stage and carpet were still damp from tears…”

“These were the words of a campus minister in Kentucky describing Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University the evening of February 8, 2023. Revival has come to Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. On February 8, 2023, during a routine Wednesday morning chapel, the Holy Spirit fell, resulting in continuous worship, praise, and confession over the past days.

On January 24, 2023, Dave and I heard Dutch Sheets share on Flashpoint and amazing vision he had while speaking in Boise, Idaho right after 911 of revival coming to the youth on college campuses. God’s timing is always so perfect. Even though that vision was over twenty years ago, Dutch felt led to share the vision shortly before the revival broke out at Asbury University. Let’s pray that Dutch’s vision of this college revival spreading across the nation is for such a time as this. I encourage you to listen at this link.

I’ve been saying that revival will happen in the next generation and God is fulfilling that word He gave me. I recently did a podcast interview with Meredith Schoeller where I tell my testimony of God calling me into the ministry of one generation teaching and training the next. Here’s the link if you would like to listen to it.

The following quote is referring to the revival at Cambridge with D.L. Moody in 1885: “The heart of the older generation turned towards the younger generation and the younger generation went on to change the world.”

May this be said of us in 2023 too! The survival of the church could depend on it.

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

The opening picture is from the Asbury Revival with credit to the photographer Sarah Thomas Baldwin.

PS. See Pastor Greg Laurie’s movie Jesus Revolution opening in theaters February 24 for a limited time. It’s about the hippie Jesus movement of the 70’s when Pastor Greg was saved and Pastor Chuck Smith opened up Calvary Chapel to the movement of God. This film is so timely! I can’t wait to watch it.

PSS. I apologize for the length of this blog. I’m just making up for last week lol.

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

February 13, 2023
Return to top of page

What Our Culture Doesn’t Understand about Christ’s Love!

10

My first career was as a Registered Dietitian. I went to college for four years at Cal Poly University and then another year of internship at the VA Hospital and UCLA in Santa Monica. I had grandiose visions of being the Florence Nightingale of dietetics! I would devote myself to helping people learn how to experience a healthy nutritional way of life. Maybe even save lives by teaching them how to eliminate foods contributing to their illnesses and replace them with foods that their body needed to heal and stay well. In my altruistic vision, they would be so grateful that I was part of their medical team working to restore their health and help them remain in good health.

Then I went out into the real world of hospital dietetics and my idealistic aspirations met resistance reality. Instead of welcoming my guidance in food restrictions and replacements that could possibly save their life, they would rather take a pill and hope for the best. How could I expect them to sacrifice their favorite foods they “loved,” almost more than life?! They were angry, disgruntled, or dismissed me for even thinking they would make lifestyle changes to give them a better quality of life.

When I tried to engage wives to help their husbands, they also resisted that I was asking them to remove foods he “loved”! I could see in her eyes as she shook her head that she wasn’t about to tackle changing her husband’s diet. It wasn’t worth the battle and often her way of showing love was to make all the foods he loved. I literally watched wives love their husbands to death rather than love them enough to learn how to nutritiously lengthen their lives by changing their diet.

I wasn’t trying to ruin these people’s lives; I was trying to save their lives. I didn’t hate them. I loved my fellow men and women enough to help them fight for their life, often as I watched the same patients return with the same health and diet-related issues.

Eventually, the rejection and frustration became more than I could envision for the rest of my life, and I changed careers. But once a Dietitian, always a Dietitian and I practice good eating habits for my family and myself. I try to get my husband to limit his intake of “junk food” and keep his weight down, not because I hate him, but because I love him!

I want my husband to be healthy and live a long life. There are certain foods I know will harm him. I want him putting into his God-given body foods that will build him up and not tear him down. I’m not always successful in convincing him, but I love him enough to keep trying.

This is exactly the same love that Christ shows to us! He doesn’t tell us to avoid sinful actions and thoughts that will harm us because he hates us; it’s because He loves us! He wants the best for us. God sent His only Son to die on the cross to give us an opportunity to turn from our sinful ways not to revel in them.

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. John 3:16-19 NLT

There’s a false argument that lovers of sin try to use against Christians: “God loves me just like I am.” That’s Satan’s lie. Jesus never said that. Jesus does love everyone, and He accepts us where He finds us, BUT he loves us so much, He doesn’t want to leave us how He found us . . . sinning. Like the woman at the well, He tells us to go and sin no more!

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. Gal. 6:7-8 NLT

There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again,[a] you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:1-3 NLT

Paul cautioned the church in Corinth:

18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Cor. 6:18-20 NLT

Paul didn’t hate the Corinthians or any of the churches when he told them that homosexuality and sexual immorality was an abomination to God and detrimental to their own bodies. Paul loved them and that’s why he was warning them to repent from their sins.

Peter told those who repented of their sins and asked God’s forgiveness that they would receive the Holy Spirit to help them live a life pleasing to God.

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38

The World’s Futile Attempt to Redefine “Love”!

Today’s culture has tried to twist the truth into attacks on anyone who doesn’t go along with abortion, LGBQT, sexual immorality, transgenderism, or now the next level of perversion is brainwashing young children into believing God made them wrong and they can be whatever gender they choose.

Liberals or “progressives” try to bully us calling us haters or not good Christians when we don’t agree to their lifestyle choices, but it’s the exact opposite. It’s out of love and wanting people to experience eternity someday and God’s plan for their life while they’re here on earth that we refuse to agree with sin or be pressured into the world’s decadent mold.

Often, they try and use God’s Word against us, especially this verse: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31. What they don’t realize is Christians are experiencing the joy and peace of repenting from our sins and receiving the forgiving love of Jesus in our life and we want it for them too. That’s truly loving your neighbor.

Parents who love their children try to protect them from harm and now the culture is even attacking parents who will not acquiesce to the world’s perversion. Schools used to be a safe and trusted place, now every day we see videos of liberal school boards and teachers trying to confuse and indoctrinate young children with harmful evil beliefs and values.

Parents tell children “No” often as they’re growing up and sometimes the children resist and might even yell, “I hate you.” That’s hard to hear as a parent, but we know it’s a childish reaction when we’re stopping them from doing something harmful or sinful. They may later thank us for loving them enough to protect them from harm or evil.

Parents who are championing or tolerating their children’s waywardness are not helping them. That’s not love, especially when we know it will lead to heartache and maybe even a separation from God. Defending evil just because our children might be indulging in it is the furthest thing from love. As I wrote in Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter, we love our children unconditionally, but it doesn’t mean we love everything they do or try to justify wrongful behavior, just because our child is doing it.

God doesn’t rewrite the 10 Commandments when His children break them. He doesn’t change His views on sexual immorality, even when a government wrongfully legalizes it. He doesn’t decide that He made a mistake creating a little girl or a little boy or that He shouldn’t have designed sex and marriage to be between a woman and a man.

No matter how distorted our culture becomes God always stays the same. The Bible is His timeless guide for life until He returns to rescue us because He loves us and wants everyone to be with Him in heaven.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Heb. 13:8

It’s God’s will and His ways that should guide our life and that we should relentlessly defend regardless of those who bully us, call us names, or try to intimidate us. Our response should always be that we didn’t make up how God wants us to live our lives, God did, and He wrote it all down in the Bible.

I was so impressed with the Philadelphia Flyers hockey defenseman Ivan Provorov, who stood firm by his Russian Orthodox faith, and declined to participate in a “gay pride” event where the players wore gay pride jerseys with gay flags wrapped around their hockey sticks. The media went crazy and bullied him, many saying he was “hiding behind his religion.” He wasn’t hiding; he was staying steadfastly true to his beliefs.

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov recently infuriated sports journalists when he refused to wear a rainbow jersey for warmups during “Pride Night,” citing his Russian Orthodox faith. “I respect everybody and I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

I wonder how many Christian players succumbed to pressure and chose culture over Christ.

We’ll all have to answer to God for our actions someday and there will be no excuses or any people we acquiesce to now present then to defend us.

Jesus said Christians should be glad when we’re tormented and called names for our beliefs because the world hated Him, and they’ll hate us for being His followers. In today’s world, we should wear it as a badge of honor.

Not agreeing with someone’s sin does not mean we hate them; we love them enough to want them to turn to Jesus and not the world. Those calling us “haters” are actually haters of Jesus.

16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

The World’s Hatred

18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 . . . Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. 25 This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures[a]: ‘They hated me without cause.’ John 15:16-25

I often say that being an evangelist is a lot like being a Dietitian. God does have a sense of humor since He didn’t let me get away from sharing a message that isn’t always popular or appreciated. But now God is asking me to help people have a healthy spiritual life and relationship with Jesus that will lead to eternal life in heaven instead of eternal life in hell. That’s what love does, and that’s what I’ll do as long as I have breath. I hope many of you will join me. The eternal life of someone dear to you could depend on it!

12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. 14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. 1 Peter 4:12-14 NLT

13 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. 15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 1 Peter 3:13-15 NLT

You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant. 2 Tim. 4:3-5 The Message

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

January 23, 2023
Return to top of page

Has the Church Forgotten We Are the Conscience of the Government?

10

First, let me say Happy Blessed 2023 to you all! I took a break during the holidays from writing my Monday Morning Blog, and that break was extended by an injury to my right eye that took time to accurately diagnosis and get correct medication. I’m still using steroid drops so I’m going to try and make this blog short . . . well shorter than usual.

So many topics of discussion have been in our news lately that it’s taken great restraint not to break my writing sabbatical and pour out thoughts to you. Even today, it’s hard to narrow down my topic but I recently heard Eric Metaxas as a guest on Flashpoint, and he repeatedly made the statement: “The church is the conscience of the government.” When I researched that quote, I learned it was originally made by Martin Luther King Jr. and how timely that his birthday is January 15 as I write this blog to you.

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”― Martin Luther King, Jr.

Metaxas is the author of the book Bonhoeffer who also pointed out in his day that the church was avoiding taking a stand against the evil that was right before their eyes in the 1930’s when the Nazis were methodically and mercilessly taking over Germany. We know the atrocities that developed into World War II. The church chose to just sit it out rather than get involved and millions of innocent Jews were arrested and annihilated . . . exterminated. The Nazi’s were proficient at anesthetizing the church, and when the church finally woke up, it was too late.

Anyone who grew up hearing Pastor Billy Graham interact with many Presidents during his lifetime, knows that he never backed down from confronting government with the Gospel and the Truth of the Bible. Many of those Presidents considered Graham their confidant and pastor.

Even still, we saw horrific laws passed like Roe v Wade, which again annihilated millions of innocent lives. The extermination of children went from being a moral issue to a political football that the church for the most part decided to also sit this one out.

Many Christians and pro-life organizations continued to fight for every life and miraculously after almost fifty years, we saw Roe v Wade reversed by the Supreme Court, and yet still most churches stayed quiet. There was no dancing in the streets, confetti, cheers, or celebrations of our victory because protecting life had somehow turned political and many churches erroneously thought they shouldn’t get involved.

They forgot, and still forget, that the church is to be the outspoken and visible moral conscience of the government not the reverse where the government dictates the morals and the church acquiesces, which is where we find ourselves today as the woke agenda is coming for our children with brainwashing and evil intent. Still much of the church is either quiet or even worse embracing wokeness that contradicts God’s Words and His ways.

The Devil is Drawing His Line in the Sand and Christians Must Choose Who They Will Follow

When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability. Pr. 28:2 NLT

1 John 5:19 lays out the situation today. “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Jesus confirmed the devil’s power over this world. He called Satan “ruler of this world” in John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11. John 10:10 refers to the devil as “the thief” who comes to “steal, and kill, and destroy.” Satan’s ways lead to destruction. If our culture doesn’t change soon, it will be the demise of our country. But there is hope and that hope is found through Jesus Christ in our personal lives and in our government.

The new Republican led Congress just passed a Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act and all but two Democrats voted against it!! 210 members of Congress voted for infanticide, that a baby who survives an abortion should be left to die if that’s what the doctor and mother decide.

Two Democrats were brave enough, and perhaps triggered by their conscience, to not vote against the bill. One voted for it, and one said “present.” We need to pray more Democrats listen to their conscience.

I applaud the Catholic Church who wasn’t afraid to express their support of the bill and condemnation against those who voted against it. Catholic Bishops Celebrate Born-Alive Act Condemn 210 Democrats Who Voted Against It.

“We commend the House of Representatives for passing legislation to protect innocent children from infanticide, and urge the Senate to follow suit,” said Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington in Texas. Burbidge is also chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Pro-Life Activities. The bishop previously sent a letter to House members urging them to vote for the legislation. “Babies who are born alive during the process of an abortion deserve compassionate care and medical attention – just the same as any other newborn baby,” Burbidge added.

But where was the Christian and Evangelical church? Crickets!

This life-saving bill is expected to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate. How did life versus death become a Republican vs. Democrat political issue instead of a Bible-based moral issue?

Why do Democrats vote against allowing a born baby to live? Because voting for it would be admitting that an unborn baby is a human that is being murdered during an abortion. How many of those Democrats sit in churches on Sundays and claim to be a Christian? How many of their pastors are willing to talk about the horrors of abortion and the sanctity of life and call out their Democrat parishioners or any parishioner who would choose to kill babies?

We know many Democrats choose politics over faith just like Pelosi who always touts her “strong Catholic faith” and does everything “for the children,” but she was one of the 210 who voted to allow a live baby to die!

Democrats call it “extreme” to give medical care to a baby born alive!!! Every doctor takes an oath to do exactly that! I’ve said it before that these people have let the Devil influence their words, minds, and actions. They’ve sold their souls to a radical evil agenda. They’re blinded to human decency. Willing to sacrifice children on the altar of politics!

There are many so-called “political” topics, which are actually “biblical” topics, the church seems afraid to address. We’ve let the moral downfall of our country happen while Christians go to church every Sunday but often don’t hear how to apply God’s Word to the world they’re living in today.

Here are just a few sermon topics that come to my mind that every pastor needs to be addressing. If he doesn’t, he’s complicit in allowing the government to define our morals or lack of instead of encouraging parishioners’ consciences to take a righteous stand for good against evil!

  • Thou shalt not murder!
  • Thou shalt not lie!
  • Thou shalt not commit adultery!
  • Homosexuality is abominable to the Lord!
  • Marriage is between a man and a woman!
  • Only women have a womb to carry a child! Only women can have babies!
  • God only created two genders, man and woman!
  • All lives matter!
  • Every child from the moment of conception has a right to life!
  • Robbing the innocence of children is a sin. Better to be thrown overboard with a milestone around your neck!
  • Parents teach your children how to live godly lives in an ungodly culture.

We’re seeing some turnarounds like the reversal by the Supreme Court of Roe v Wade and Coach Joe Kennedy winning his case for prayer to be allowed back into schools. But how many schools are actually allowing prayer? Instead, we see school boards more concerned with allowing a few sexually misguided children to be indulged at the expense of all children instead of receiving the counseling and help they need. Many parents are speaking out against this travesty, but again I ask, where is the church?

A few pastors are willing to take a public stand against tyranny and two of those are Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills and Pastor Dave Ax of Calvary Chapel here in Star, Idaho. Pastor Ax, along with Jack Hibbs, made a video encouraging parents and the community to go to the School Board Meeting in Caldwell, ID where they were proposing that “transgender” children be allowed to use whatever bathroom and locker room of their choice.

Many from the community showed up that night and when the audience applauded speakers who were speaking against this insane policy, the school board shut down the meeting. My point though is where do those school board members go to church? What are they hearing or not hearing from their pastors if they are church members?

I follow a Values Advocacy Council in the Boise Idaho area and here is an example of the urgent email they sent out about this meeting. If you scroll down in the email, you’ll hear the two pastors I just mentioned, with their plea to the public, especially parents, to attend the Caldwell School Board meeting. They were so successful, the School Board couldn’t deal with it!! Do you have anything like this in your area where the church is taking the initiative to enter the political arena and protect our children from evil lunacy? To be the conscience of the government?

Kudos to Pastor Hibbs and Pastor Ax! If you have a pastor who understands the important role of the church in this fallen culture, praise God! If not, talk to your pastor and remind him that the role of the church is to be the conscience of the government, the state. We’re seeing progress as we chip away at the evil, but there’s so much more for each of us to do in our own spheres of influence. God is giving us the opportunity to save America and it starts and ends with the sharing of the Gospel in and out of the church.

You and I, every Christian, are the ‘church.’ God gave each of us a conscience and the Holy Spirit speaks in and through us. I hope that you’ll listen to that still small voice that is challenging you to take a step of faith and go where He leads and follow the example of Jesus and His followers like the disciples and Paul who understood that God is the head of the government and were not afraid to proclaim that truth.

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Is. 9:6 NLT

9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! 10 For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” 11 So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God. Acts 18:9-11 NLT

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

Abortion survivors blast Democrats for opposing Born-Alive bill: ‘Disingenuous’ | Fox News

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

January 16, 2023
Return to top of page

How to Celebrate a Peaceful Joyful Post-Election Thanksgiving

4

A resounding and fervent prayer request from our Bible study group prior to Thanksgiving following an election, went something like this: Please, Lord, help us to be a light on Thanksgiving with the eclectic group of people attending with differing political and faith beliefs.

Whether it was all family, all friends, invited guests . . . or a combination . . . most of us were apprehensive how the day would turn out.

In the fragile aftermath of the recent volatile election, I imagine many of you are having similar concerns and conversations. I remember my mom cautioning that if you want to keep the peace, never talk about religion or politics. As a kid, I never understood that warning. Believers are supposed to tell everyone about Jesus. Since being a Christian is our first identity . . . how could we not talk about our Savior? Isn’t everyone entitled to his or her own spiritual and political opinion?

Then I grew up!

If you follow me, you know I’m bold about my first role in life: being a born-again Christian. All other roles come second. But as I wrote in Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten: “Bold doesn’t mean obnoxious. It simply means not being afraid to speak the truth, even in the face of adversity: ‘Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold’ (2 Cor. 3:12).” For example, if someone asks what I do, I answer, “I’m a Christian author and speaker.” They usually ask what I write, and I say, “Christian living nonfiction.” My response often opens the door for further discussion of the types of books I write and my faith.

For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. Philippians 1:20 NLT

So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. 2 Timothy 1:8 NLT

Is Thanksgiving a Religious Holiday?

That could be an awkward question in some circles.

I was with a group of people and mentioned how I hoped people would set their differences aside on Thanksgiving Day, and one person said, “It’s just a time for eating a lot of food, watching football, and shopping online anyway.”

Me: “I’m pretty sure the first pilgrims who celebrated Thanksgiving didn’t have TV or Amazon.

Another responded: “Well at least Thanksgiving isn’t a religious holiday.”

I asked: “Who then are we thanking?”

Complete silence.

Of course, the answer is: God.

Abraham Lincoln made it an official national holiday “as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.”

The English colonists we call Pilgrims celebrated days of thanksgiving as part of their religion. But these were days of prayer, not days of feasting.

Yes, it’s a time of family and friends gathering, but as we sit around the feast together, we can’t thank each other, or aliens, or the “big bang” for giving us life, the sun, the moon, the trees, the ability to grow the food, the earth, the waters, the sky, sweet babies, and all the blessings we enjoy.

We read in Genesis that God spoke everything into being, and yet, many of us will be sharing turkey and dressing with people who don’t believe or discount the existence of God. They don’t know where they’re going when they die, or where everything we enjoy on earth came from . . . and maybe they don’t even care.

They’ll walk out of the room when we pray before the meal and may try and bait us into an argument over who we voted for and why. Or what happened to the expected “Red Wave?” Maybe after a few drinks, their conversation will turn ugly, even though innocent young eyes are watching how the “adults” interact.

My husband and I pray beseeching God to prepare us to be a light in the darkness . . . not to avoid the darkness because that would be the cowards way out . . . but to help us respond as if Jesus was standing behind us speaking through us. You’ve all been in situations where it seemed like Satan was standing behind or speaking through the other person . . . at least I have . . . so how can we have Jesus reflect through us? Granted, the other people might not recognize Jesus . . . but they’ll see there’s something different about us.

Biblical Ways to Have a Peaceful Joyful Thanksgiving

As I prayed and talked to the Lord, here’s a list I came up with. I’d love to hear your ideas too.

Don’t worry what to say. “Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” Mark 13:11 (Jesus was talking to his disciples if they were arrested, but I think it could apply to us too if we felt our faith was being tested or put on trial.)

Speak kind words. “Kind words are like honey— sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” Pr. 16:24 NLT

For your part, maintain peace. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18

Don’t instigate or respond to leading antagonistic discussions. “Interfering in someone else’s argument is as foolish as yanking a dog’s ears.” Pr. 26:17 NLT

Play with any children present. “We will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.” Ps. 78:4 NLT

Don’t drink. “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18 NLT

Smile, Smile, Smile. “Fix my eyes on God— soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God.” Psalm 42:5 The Message

Listen. “Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.” Pr. 12:15 NLT

Take a deep breath and think before you speak. “There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking.” Pr. 29:20 NLT

Less is more. “The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they?” Ecc. 6:11 NLT— There’s “A time to be quiet and a time to speak.” Ecc. 3:7 NLT

Silently pray in your mind. “Pray continually!” 1 Thess. 5:17

Have a secret sign or word between you and someone else that signals: Let’s change the subject or move into the other room. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.” Ecc. 4:9

When you’re Hosting, pray and thank God for each guest. Ask to be a blessing and to share joy. Pray over your home and each chair at the table. Before the meal, pray as you normally would, your guests know they’re coming to a Christian home. “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 1 Peter 4:9

If you’re a Guest—As you walk up to the home, pray to be a blessing and that God will stir up the fruit of the Spirit in your heart. If you’re hosts don’t pray before the meal, bow your head and pray over your food as you normally would. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Gal. 5:22-23

Thanksgiving is a day for harmony and focusing on God and giving Him thanks and praise in whatever way He leads. Fiction writers have a saying: “Show don’t tell.” Which simply means, you don’t always have to speak Jesus with your words, you can show Him with your actions and people will want what you have!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4 NLT

Past Thanksgiving Blogs

Here are a few past Thanksgiving blogs you might enjoy reading. I do give thanks for each one of you who have followed me on these Monday Morning Blogs, and I pray you have a joyful, peaceful, and God-filled Thanksgiving Day.

Acquiring Overshadows Thanksgiving

What Are You Most Thankful For?

Love Your Body During the Holidays

I also have a Bible study Face-to-Face with Euodia and Syntyche: From Conflict to Community that discusses many biblical ways to resolve conflict peacefully.

Thanksgiving Tablecloth Idea

In Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten, I share a way to use your tablecloth as a conversation piece and make memories for generations to come. Here is an excerpt from the book. I hope it gives you some ideas. I’ll be taking our Thankful Tablecloth with us this Thanksgiving to my daughter’s house.

When my breast cancer journey started, I became keenly aware of making memories with my family. At times like that, you think seriously about your mortality and the legacy you want to leave with your loved ones. You appreciate each new day of life. The sun rising every morning is an act of God to celebrate.

 Holidays like Thanksgiving have new meaning. Typically, Thanksgiving is a celebration where family and friends gather for a feast, and everyone says what they’re thankful for in the past year. But after finishing the dishes and putting away the leftovers, how many really remember what everyone said?

The Thanksgiving following my first breast cancer surgery in 2002, I had an idea of a Thankful Tablecloth. I purchased a Thanksgiving themed tablecloth with plenty of white space and a box of wash-resistant colored markers. After Thanksgiving dinner, I brought out the markers and asked everyone—kids included—to find a spot on the tablecloth to write what they were thankful for that year, sign, and date it. We traced handprints for the tiny ones with their name and age.

Today, we have years of thankful messages to read every Thanksgiving and remember the many acts of God’s goodness to us and the people who joined us at the celebration table each year. If we go to someone’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, I ask if I can bring our Thankful Tablecloth and markers.

When I go to be with the Lord, I pray my family will continue bringing out the Thanksgiving Tablecloth as a reminder through the generations of how good God has been to our family and friends.

If you receive this by email, you can leave a comment here.

PS: My plan right now is to take a sabbatical from my Monday Morning Blogs until the New Year so don’t be alarmed if there’s not a blog in your inbox on Mondays until then. Of course, the Lord could always prompt me to write one and surprise you; but if not, I thank all of you for letting me chat with you on Monday Mornings. Dave and I wish each of you a blessed Christmas celebration of our Lord’s birth and a glorious New Year.

November 21, 2022
Return to top of page

Will America Survive the Next Generation’s Choices?!

8

Every Christian surrendering your life to Christ knows it’s a choice. A choice between continuing to live our old carnal life or a new godly life. God designed the world with options to choose Him or the world. Last Tuesday, November 8, Americans were given the same choice and it’s heartbreaking how many chose to let the current secular socialist Administration continue destroying America and obliterating righteousness in our country.

Many will say that analogy doesn’t work and Christians should stay out of politics. Well you cannot substantiate that myth in the Bible. God created politics man didn’t originate it. Politics is attacking Christianity and everything we hold dear like sanctity of life, marriage between a man and a woman, family, innocence of children, and God made only two genders. We’re in a spiritual and political war to overcome evil. When pastors and parents fail to take on the mantel of educating their flock or family in the contrast between wrong and right, evil and good, corruption and sanctification, Satan and God . . . our civil society crumbles as we’re watching happen today.

The world’s laws are sanctifying same sex marriage, murder of babies up until the day of birth, casual sex, arrest of Christians, closure of churches, mutilation of children, denying the freedom of speech, which morphs into not allowing us to profess the Bible. We’re experiencing the results of that decay in our once great America.

We could’ve changed much of that on Tuesday. If every evangelical Christian went to the polls and voted for the many candidates who were Bible-believing Christian conservatives, not even politicians, vowing to bring God and His ways back into our government, we wouldn’t see the angst, or maybe even apathy, we’re watching today.

We put our hope, support, and prayers into believing the conservative candidates, would win and clean up the corruption and evil we’ve watched coming out of this White House. Maybe they couldn’t stop it, but they could hinder it even though the current President said, ‘That’s what pens are for, veto.”

The media deceived us into believing there would be a “red wave” which never materialized. We should’ve known that anything the mainstream media says is a lie to mislead. They wanted us to believe something they knew would never happen because the wheels of corruption now run too deep in our voting system. The Democrats, just like the Communists, will do anything and everything to win and stay in control and the Republican leadership seems to be either in denial or in agreement with the corruption.

When 57% of women in Pennsylvania voted for a man who can barely talk and cannot communicate without a stenographer and wide screen, is further left than Bernie Sanders, and wants to let hardcore criminals out of jail, kill babies up until the moment of birth, and stop all fracking, the heart of Pennsylvania workers, something went wrong. Not only that, the state voted in a Democrat who died a month ago and was still on the ballot. They elected a dead person! That tells you voters didn’t do their homework or research, they believed the left’s lies and voted to keep their state poor, crime infested, and corrupt.

Sadly, the main point that drove many independents and even some Republicans to vote Democrat in spite of the dismal approval ratings and destruction of America by Biden was to vote against any candidate with a firm position on eliminating abortion. Killing babies was democracy to those voting Democrat.

We won at eliminating Roe v Wade as a federal victory, but five states had abortion protection on the ballot, and it passed in all five states, Michigan, Kentucky, Vermont, Montana and California. In California, they will codify abortion up until the day of birth and pay with taxpayers’ money for all expenses of travel, hotel, and “surgery,” aka murder. Montana rejected efforts for medical care for a baby born alive after an attempted abortion. Infanticide!

Even as I write this, tears fill my eyes, which they have often this week. Killing babies was the most important issue for those voters! Pastor Che Ahn, the pastor in California that took Newsom to court over the right to keep his church open during Covid and won, said that California now has a curse on it because God hates the spilling of innocent blood.

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
17         haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18         a heart that devises wicked schemes,
        feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19         a false witness who pours out lies
        and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. Pr. 6:16-19

Hal Lindsey points out in his blog this week that “One of the problems with idolatry is that it does not sit still. It grows. Satan always wants more. Eventually, he even demands the children. Deuteronomy 12:31 explains where idol worship leads: You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Those ancient idol-worshipers burned their own babies alive! In this enlightened 21st century, we would never do anything like that, right? Wrong. We kill children by burning and dismembering them only we do it while babies are still in the womb.

Lindsey brings up the point I have often said, abortion isn’t a legal argument, it’s moral!

As Dave and I listened to the candidates who promised during their campaign to go against the corrupt establishment and elite swamp “idol-worshipers,” we cheered them on, but in my heart, I knew they were putting a target on their back. Sure enough, McConnell removed all support from any candidate, even in key states like AZ, NV, and PA, who said they wouldn’t vote for his reelection in the Senate. McConnell in the Senate and McCarthy in the House brought this election down to the wire, nail-biting maybe a red ripple. They let down their party and their country. I’ve always been suspicious of McConnell, but sorely disappointed in McCarthy who aspires to be the next Speaker of the House.

There’s Another Dynamic Not Being Addressed

Robert Spencer wrote an article There WOULD Have Been a Red Wave, But….. | Frontpage Mag. But for who? The group we let fall out of most churches. When kids age out of Children’s Ministry, some churches have Middle School and High School ministries, but then the church turns them out into the world without mentors or Christian peer groups and the leftist culture gobbles them up with devilish joy. Charlie Kirk, a young man who saw this debacle and started Turning Point USA is one of the few caring about the college age young adults. But he’s one man and one ministry and the conservative Christians who should biblically care for this age group for the most part throw them to the wolves.

In Robert Spencer’s article he quoted, “John Della Volpe, a hard-Left pollster and author of a deathless tome entitled FIGHT: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear & Passion to Save America, is claiming that his favorite age group saved the midterm elections for those who love skyrocketing inflation, open borders, rising crime, international ridicule and brinksmanship, and accelerating authoritarianism. In a tweet, he [Volpe] wrote: “One thing I know already. If not for voters under 30 … tonight WOULD have been a Red Wave. CNN National House Exit Polls
 R+ 13 65+

R+ 11 45-64

D +2 30-44

D +28 18-29

#GenZ did their job.” He added, “& young #millennials :)”

Robert Spencer responded: “If Della Volpe’s numbers are correct, and 64% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 really voted for Democrats, then one thing is clear: the corruption and politicization of our educational system has worked.”

“What he [Volpe] is crowing about is the apparent fact that the voting group with the least life experience and the most recent subjection to the Leftist indoctrination that dominates America’s educational system ended up voting as it was brainwashed to do. Gee, that’s terrific, if you like evidence of the success of the relentless propagandizing of a vulnerable and impressionable captive audience, but neither John Della Volpe nor anyone else should be proud of it.

What it shows is not that the Leftist case is compelling or persuasive; it shows that patriotic Americans have been far too complacent in allowing public schools to become centers of Leftist indoctrination and hatred of our own nation and heritage.”

“Many, if not most, of the Gen Z-ers who voted overwhelmingly for the Left will, as they get older, come to realize how foolish and wrongheaded they were to support socialist internationalism and the managed decline of the United States. But others will never wake up and will applaud that decline as retribution for centuries of alleged racism and colonialism. Even as their own cities and towns become ever more squalid, poor, dirty, and dangerous, they will continue to think of themselves as righteous for having chosen all that. That pride will be all they have left.”

Pastor Ahn, who I mentioned earlier, said this is exactly why they homeschooled all of their children and I think he said two have become pastors. Ahn’s own father was imprisoned during the Communist takeover in China and by God’s grace was able to escape. Ahn said that’s the only reason he himself is alive so he knows what can happen to a country headed for demise like America and his own state California is right now.

On a positive note, I just read that the youngest Republican woman ever elected to serve in the State House flipped a blue House seat in Texas. 28-year-old Caroline Harris primarily ran a campaign focused on property taxes, border security, the pro-life movement, and parental rights in education. Her opponent, Echegaray, ran on immigration reform, gun control, the pro-choice movement, and improving infrastructure.

Harris was supported by a group called Run Gen Z whose mission is “Empowering and mentoring conservative trailblazers from Generation Z to pursue election to public office and win, leading state and local chambers and councils toward a more constitutionally-focused government.”

My Reaction

Mario Murillo wrote in a blog, “Christianity will survive without America, but America will not survive without Christianity. “The gloves are off and all pretenses of ‘the greater good’ are gone. This, to them, is a street fight. They [the left] want all morality removed and all pleasure legalized. They want to forcefully take what belongs to those who worked hard and squander it. Their boasts are predicted in the Bible.”

“Their eyes bulge with abundance; they have more than heart could wish. They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth” (Psalm 73: 7-9).

I’ve been saddened personally and cried a lot for the Christian conservative candidates who were willing to stand up for God, family, and patriotism who lost and I pray the few that did win will bring righteous values to Congress.

My heart breaks and my spirit cries out for the babies being killed even as I sit here writing in my red state of Idaho. As you read this blog wherever you are, think right now a baby is being dismembered, poisoned, or having his or her neck broken! I hope you stop and cry a moment with me.

I’m reminded of the story of Joseph who eventually could say that God meant all his pain, agony, fear, and unjust treatment for good, yet it was still painful, agonizing, fearful, unjust, and his own family turned on him. His father Jacob suffered with grief for years at the seemingly loss of his precious son and then to find out it was his other sons who inflicted the horrendous years of distress on their family.

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. Gen. 50:20

There is no guarantee that God is not going to let America go through the same painful, agonizing, fearful, unjust consequences of people destroying our beloved America before He brings out the good. There’s still a glimmer of hope as I write on Sunday, that we will not continue to be traumatized by the left and there will be enough people with integrity in government federal and local to keep our beloved country adrift.

Our friend Norm who studies Bible prophecy wrote: The enemy that we are up against is so big and so pervasive that it will take a lot to bring them down. I believe that the first step is to help people see the beast. This is not just a physical war, but a spiritual war as well. Unfortunately, many people will remain under a delusion, because they refuse to love, or believe the ‘Truth’. (See 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 & John 14:6) If people have not awakened as a result of Tuesday’s activities, then they probably won’t awaken. In my humble opinion, I believe that what we are seeing is God’s way of awakening His church. (See Rev 3:2,3 & Matt. 25:1-13)

Always I Want to Leave You With Hope

Our hope doesn’t come from the government, our hope comes from God, and if you know Jesus as your Savior, you know you will one day leave this world to spend eternity with Him. But I know you have people in your life who do not have that hope of salvation.

The government will always fail us. We know from the hard times in the Books of Judges and 1 Kings and 2 Kings, God’s people suffered greatly under evil judges and kings, but often because the people would not take a stand for their God. They didn’t get to vote for the next judge or even the kings; they were at the mercy of the lineal hierarchy. God chose David, who was fallible and struggled with hardship throughout the Book of Psalms. God tried to warn the people through the prophets of their eminent demise if they continued to worship other gods and idols.

There was silence from God for 400 years, then Jesus. Life wasn’t easy for Jesus and His followers or the churches Paul founded and counseled either, but they all knew this world was not their home, and those who didn’t choose Jesus chose Satan to follow.

So we’re back to where I started: life is full of choices. Your political party choice may affect your life here on earth, but your eternal choice and who you take with you to heaven is the only choice that really counts.

If you have a young person in your life, your church, your neighborhood love on them, mentor them, give them reason to want to make the choice you made to choose Jesus because there is no doubt the Lord is on His way back soon for His people. Don’t let anyone you love be left behind.

When believers get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory!

 No politics, only Jesus.

For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 1 Peter 15-16

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

November 14, 2022
Return to top of page

Democracy Is Alive When You Freely Vote On Your Ballot!

5

You’ve undoubtedly heard Biden and the liberal media pundits falsely lamenting, “Democracy is on the ballot.” Or “Democracy will die and autocracy begin if you don’t vote for Democrats.” That’s not true. They need to go back to civics 101.

Democracy is not on the ballot; democracy is the ballot. The right we still have as Americans to vote in fair and free elections for whomever we want to govern our country, states, and cities is democracy alive and well.

However, attempts at autocracy started January 20, 2021, when Biden sat in front of a stack of executive orders and one by one with the stroke of a pen, started the destruction of America along with many lives, jobs, and the freedoms we had enjoyed under a democracy. He is a Democrat President with a Democrat controlled Congress and Senate and together they set out to “transition” democracy in America into Marxism where the rights and concerns of ALL Americans are NOT represented, only those the elite liberal woke left determine are worthy.

On Biden’s first day in office, the White House made insane decisions to stop oil production in America when we were energy dependent for the first time in history. Open up our borders to change the profile of our country. Worship earth instead of God and act as if they could control the climate forcing gas prices to skyrocket, diesel and baby formula to become sparse, the cost of everything to explode causing average Americans to have trouble feeding their families as elder Americans on fixed incomes watch their retirement funds vanish. Many Americans will freeze or use their life savings just to stay warm this winter.

The Democrats created a woke culture to promote and endorse drag queens and queers over hardworking families and protecting our children from pedophiles, grooming, and evil ideology. They fabricated the illusion of multiple genders to confuse children while telling you to follow the science and get an experimental drug or lose your job or right to attend school, and criminalize anyone who speaks out against the insanity.

I could go on but you’re living in this autocratic takeover, more specifically dictatorship, right now and they desperately want to retain their undemocratic power so they lie, intimidate, and infiltrate the judicial system.

Have you ever been in a situation where the other side accuses you of exactly what they’re doing but you never would’ve thought of doing? That’s called hypocrisy or gas lighting. The left assumes Republicans must be thinking of doing the atrocities they accuse us of because it’s what they’re doing. We have an autocracy/dictatorship at this very moment and Biden has the audacity to say if he loses any power at all in the Congress or Senate that we’re going to become the very autocracy he’s created and forced on an unwilling population.

As he ridicules and even jails the election deniers, he should just look in the mirror because claiming that he won the presidency is the biggest election denial of all!! A man who sat in his basement the entire campaign knew he didn’t have to extend any effort because the machine was already in operation to assure he won at any cost, even fraud and deceit.

Horrifically the conservative patriotic producers of the movie 2000 mules, True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht and colleague Gregg Phillips were both arrested last week for not revealing their sources. How often does the mainstream media get away with “anonymous sources” and even impeach a president using them and yet these two people investigating the 2020 election are arrested right before the next election! They’re both honest patriotic Christian conservatives that do not deserve this treatment. I’ve heard them both speak on Flashpoint and Tucker Carlson who reported last Friday on their unjust incarceration.

Just tonight as I prepared to post this blog, I received and update that Catherine and Gregg were released from prison. Praise God! Our church prayed for them this morning. Tonight, Catherine wrote, “Those who thought that imprisoning Gregg and I would weaken our resolve have gravely miscalculated. It is stronger than ever. The right to free and fair elections without interference is more important than our discomforts and even this detention, now reversed by a higher court. We are profoundly grateful for that. We will continue to protect and defend those who do the vital work of election integrity, and we will make sure that their findings become a matter of public record.”

Do Not Be Fooled

I want you to read a portion of a statement made this past weekend that completely encapsulates what’s happening in our country and finally a Democrat Senator is saying what we all know. In case you didn’t see this article, here’s part of it.

Sen. Joe Manchin Saturday demanded President Biden apologize for saying coal plants “all across America” will be shut down, in a scathing statement just days before crucial midterm elections. 

“President Biden’s comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs,” Manchin, D-W.Va., said. “Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure.”

Manchin added: “It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day. Politicizing our nation’s energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people.”

“Let me be clear, this is something the President has never said to me,” Manchin said of the Biden comments. “Being cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting.

“The President owes these incredible workers an immediate and public apology and it is time he learn a lesson that his words matter and have consequences,” Manchin said. 

Yes words do matter especially when you read the Press Secretary’s response to Manchin’s long overdue reprimand of Biden. Notice her last line.

Jean-Puerre responded: “The President’s remarks yesterday have been twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended; he regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense. The President was commenting on a fact of economics and technology:  as it has been from its earliest days as an energy superpower, America is once again in the midst of an energy transition.”

There’s that word transition again. None of us voted for or asked for an “energy transition” and definitely not a transition into Marxism! But that’s why they’re pushing electric cars, reduction of fracking, coal, and fuel production. Biden lied about all of this when he was running and said he would never do it.

This is an extreme transition ideology from the woke liberal left. We the people did not ask for, vote for, or want!! That’s what’s on the ballot.

The only way we’re going to stop this trajectory transition they’ve fabricated and forced on Americans is to take back the Senate and Congress and prevent more craziness until we can take back the White House and transition back to a free, fair, and energy independent country again.

Finally, someone in his own party has called Biden out but it would take hours and hours for Biden to apologize for all his outrageous comments and lies! I heard someone on TV say what I’ve been saying all along, “Biden is a pathological liar.” I’ve known one personally and I spotted it in Biden from the beginning, and those types of liars believe their own lies. It’s not just the dementia or senility; he’s been a liar since he first entered politics!

Just like Machin said, he says what fits the audience and concocts a story that’s all about himself for the moment. The media writes them off as “Joe stories” or gaffs but they’re lies. Words matter and lies shatter!

On November 8, We’re Voting to Take Our Country Back and Replace Woke Autocracy with Common Sense Democracy!

Here’s an example of how the Democrat machine works. They don’t care if a candidate can talk, hear, or respond without a stenographer and large screen by his side; they just want a body that will always vote their way. Yes, it’s sad that Fetterman running against Oz in Pennsylvania had a stroke, but it was early in the election process and the party and his wife should’ve pulled him out of the race. Just like Jill Biden knew that Joe had dementia and was not capable of the highest office in the nation, she wanted the power and Fetterman’s wife does also. She’s outgoing, attractive, and very vocal and is actually the candidate behind the candidate who won’t be able to hear or understand anything happening on the Senate floor. But that doesn’t matter to the Democrats, they just want his thumbs up or down however they command.

Why would Oprah speak in Fetterman’s support at the last minute, when she is the one who introduced Dr. Oz to the world? Because Oz is his own man and didn’t follow the liberal Democrat party line, he chose to run as a respectable conservative Republican candidate. Oprah couldn’t have that; after all she’s the one who also introduced the world to Obama. Yes, she helped push him on an unsuspecting country and I’m sure she would’ve done the same for Oz if only he capitulated to the Democrat’s agenda. That alone should tell Pennsylvanians why they should vote for Oz. He’s his own man not influenced by intense pressure from the opposition; he’ll do what he’s promised for his constituents.

Oprah while hosting a virtual conversation on voting said before going on to urge listeners to vote for Democrats running for governor and Senate in various states. “I said it was up to the citizens of Pennsylvania and of course, but I will tell you all this, if I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons.”

What are those “many reasons” Oprah would vote for Fetterman? Could it be that he is a further left socialist than Bernie Sanders. That he wants to release 1/3 of all Pennsylvania prisoners, including murderers and violent criminals and eliminate cash bail. Supports Philly being a sanctuary city or else you’re xenophobia. Endorsed the excessive spending that led to inflation. Supported cancelling Keystone Pipeline and banning fracking. Even though he blatantly lied in the debate and kept repeating that he’s always supported fracking. He’s behind raising taxes. Oh yes and wants to codify Roe v Wade and abortion up until the day of birth.

So, Oprah, were those the “many reasons” you support Fetterman or now the clearly radical Beto O’Rourke in Texas? Please do not be persuaded by these liberal Democrat progressive celebrities who do not share our values or beliefs.

Some of you will have abortion on the ballot or candidates saying it’s a woman’s human right, completely ignoring the human right of the precious baby. As a Christian you cannot vote or support abortion. That we would choose to kill our own children never entered God’s mind!

They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! Jer. 19:5 NLT
They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molek, though I never commanded—nor did it enter my mind—that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin. Jer. 32:35

Let’s Pray Together

Let me pray for you before you go out and vote this Tuesday, November 8th! Remember this is God’s country and we should consider voting as a sacred trust the Lord conveys to His followers.

Lord, I pray that every man and woman reading this blog would pray and vote what You want for America. Let us know what’s on Your mind. Flood the polling centers with people using their pen or pencil and filling out a ballot for who they think is the best person to serve with integrity, dignity, righteousness, honesty, and Your will Lord.

Fill their minds with wisdom and I pray they won’t be influenced by commercials, campaigns, celebrities, or commentary but only by You Lord. You gave us the opportunity to live in this amazing country, Lord, please let us vote for people who will put You and Your values back into the public square. Give us courage, tenacity, and desire to not only vote, but pray for each candidate who is willing to serve America, not destroy America. Thank you for loving us enough to give us life and help us live it to the fullest as men and women, brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.

Psalm 51:1-12 The Message

Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King-God, I need your help. Every morning you’ll hear me at it again.
Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.

You don’t socialize with Wicked, or invite Evil over as your houseguest. Hot-Air-Boaster collapses in front of you; you shake your head over Mischief-Maker. God destroys Lie-Speaker; Blood-Thirsty and Truth-Bender disgust you.

And here I am, your invited guest—it’s incredible! I enter your house; here I am, prostrate in your inner sanctum. Waiting for directions to get me safely through enemy lines.

Every word they speak is a land mine; their lungs breathe out poison gas. Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mudslides. Pile on the guilt, God! Let their so-called wisdom wreck them. Kick them out! They’ve had their chance.

But you’ll welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to you. Let the party last all night! Stand guard over our celebration. You are famous, God, for welcoming God-seekers, for decking us out in delight. Psalm 5:1-12 The Message

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here. I read every comment and reply and appreciate knowing your thoughts on what I’ve written.

November 7, 2022
Return to top of page

You Can Use Your Vote to Combat Evil!

2

I’m not going to mince words this week. As Christians, it’s our civic duty, obligation, right, and responsibility to vote for candidates that reflect our values. We may not like how they look. They certainly won’t be perfect, but no one is perfect except Jesus.

However, today we have politicians running our country whose policies are immoral, irrational, and evil. Their agenda is to destroy our American democracy and rebuild it as a Marxist/Communist secular country where the government controls everything and the people obey or face the consequences.

This midterm election might actually be the only way we can salvage our free country and I’m not the only one who thinks that.

Of course, you pray before you vote, do your research, and consider what has happened to our country in less than two years since the Democrats took control of the Senate, Congress, and White House. On day one of Biden’s presidency, he signed a stack of executive orders to undo and obliterate our civil liberties, freedoms, and destroy the great American way of life. Here are just a few of the ensuing dire consequences of that election!

  • The National School Board and teacher’s union kept our schools closed
  • Vaccine mandates or lose your job!
  • Transgenderism forced into schools, sports, military, and jobs
  • Skyrocketing unprecedented inflation and recession
  • Energy production halted when we were energy dependent and still have plenty of natural fuel to support not only our country but could help others
  • Gas prices doubling and tripling with no relief in sight
  • Retirement funds disappearing
  • Equity replaces equality
  • “Inclusion” includes immorality and unjustness
  • Partisan two-tiered biased justice system favoring Democrats
  • Crime terrorizing our streets
  • Defund the police and the military
  • Millions of illegals flood our boarders unchecked and unvetted
  • Drugs flowing into every state from open border drug cartels
  • Sex trafficking of women, men, and young children coming across the border
  • Critical Race Theory and racism taught in schools, which the last president banned
  • Sex and perverted explicit pornographic sex taught in school as young as kindergarten
  • Men in women’s sports, locker rooms, and bathrooms. Again, banned by Trump
  • “Misgendering” can cost your job or get you expelled from school
  • Denial of scientific biological sexes: male and female
  • Concerned parents targeted as terrorists
  • Funded drag queens in Ecuador with a $20,000 grant from our tax money to brainwash minors with the transgender ideology
  • Threat of a nuclear war and millions spent in the Ukrainian/Russia war
  • Despicable retreat from Afghanistan with tragic loss of eleven military lives and numbers injured
  • Disastrous and dangerous foreign policy
  • 89,000 new armed IRS agents added to an already overstaffed agency
  • Use of the justice department and FBI to attack political adversaries. I hesitate to even call it a justice system.
  • War on women (unable to define) and motherhood
  • Promoting the murder of babies
  • Genital mutilation, castration, mastectomies, hysterectomies, and puberty blockers of young children with some states allowing without parental consent
  • Worship of the earth and not the Creator of earth, God.

I’m crying as I make this list. Regardless of what you think of the former Republican President’s personality, none of this happened or would’ve happened during his watch. Even though he was under constant attack from the left, he took measures to prevent, curtail, or stop every item on the list. These are all Democrat despicable policies inflicted on our country in less than two years!

Many are afraid to speak out against the atrocities happening under the current Democrat led administration that tries to silence any opposition with intimidation and threats. But when you vote, it’s just between you and the paper you’re voting on. No one can entice you or force you to vote against your will, conscience, or beliefs.

Please Take the Time to Research Before You Vote!

I’ve covered many of the issues I listed above in previous blogs. I do my research before I write and I’m hoping when I give you a link to follow, you go to it to substantiate what I’m saying. If we can take back the House and the Senate for now, with the Lord’s help, we can put a halt to future destruction under the current administration, especially of our children.

Controlling our children is the goal of Marxism/Communism, which no one denies the Democrat party has become. We are no longer a country with two different political parties; we’re literally a country trying to survive a Communist attack on our republic. There’s such an emphasis now on the Democrats trying to prevent parental rights because if they can control the children, they control the next generation coming into power in our beloved country.

Look at every Communist takeover and it starts with indoctrination of the children. It’s happening right now in the schools with Critical Race Theory and sexualizing young children. Soon Christian schools will not receive accreditation if they don’t agree to comply with the demands of the National School Board, which donates to the Democrat party. This government run organization and the teacher’s union have overtly controlled schools to favor the liberal ideology.

Let’s Just Look at a Couple Items on the List: The Transgender Degradation of Women and Exploitation of Children

In Senator Ted Cruz’s new book, Justice Corrupted: How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System, he opens with the story of the father who went to a schoolboard meeting to protest his daughter being raped in the girl’s bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt. That father was jailed. The school first denied it happened, then admitted it and transferred the boy in a skirt to another school where he raped another girl. Cruz also discusses how the justice department has been weaponized, corrupted, and politicized.

A brave 14 year-old freshman volleyball player in Vermont, Blake Allen, and her father appeared on Tucker Carlson tonight with their attorney to tell their story of Blake being uncomfortable when a boy identifying as a girl was allowed in their school locker room. She left and complained to the school authorities who suspended her for 5 days because she wouldn’t write an apology to the boy! Her father was fired from his job as soccer coach at the same school because he wrote about it on social media and “misgendered” the boy impersonating a girl.

A school in North Carolina announced it would forfeit all games against teams allowing “transgender” players after one of their own players was injured in the head by a spike from a boy player on the other “girls” team. Here’s a short quote from this article “In June, the Biden administration proposed an updated rule for the enforcement of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational settings. The proposed regulation would expand the definition of sex to include gender identity and sexual orientation, raising concerns that schools would be required to allow transgender athletes to compete as women.”

Transgender is a fabricated term for a genetic boy with a fetish or genuine mental gender dysphoria disorder dressing or simply “identifying” as a girl and demanding acceptance that he’s a girl/woman! Which, Biden fully supports since he spent time in the oval office with a grown man, Dylan Mulvaney, who identifies as a young girl and obviously has a fetish for dressing up and pretending he’s a girl. With all that’s going on in our world, Biden doesn’t have time to speak with reporters, but he sits with this man dressed like a girl who makes tic toc videos demeaning women while he’s portraying to be one.

It’s disgusting! But Biden actually tells this man that it’s immoral to not affirm his audacious behavior or to not allow small children, who for a moment might wonder what it’s like to be the other gender, to be surgically and medically mutilated/castrated for life. Tucker Carlson talks about this Biden interview with Riley Gains who lost her swimming championship title to a boy going by the name of Lia Thomas but is still genetically and physically a boy! Riley is Co-chair of Nine Pac supporting politicians who will defend Title IX allowing only biological women to compete against each other in sports!

Have you noticed it’s the males who are primarily trying to invade the true female gender? How often do you hear of a woman pretending to be a man and invading men’s space?

These men obviously have issues and need mental and spiritual help not affirmation in hurting women and misguiding children.

Which leads me to two more issues I want to address.

Last week, the Lord led me to write a blog Woke is Just a Euphemism for Demonic. I want you to read two articles that the Lord revealed to me why He’s asking me to call out Satan by name. You cannot deny any longer that what’s happening on the left is satanic and demonic.

God is giving us a chance to fight against Satan with our vote, but it demands courage, bravery, and trust to support journalists, politicians, candidates, and citizens who are fighting too!

If you thought I was overemphasizing the Drag movement last week, please read Christopher Rufo’s article below. There are schools allowing Drag shows to take place in the classrooms and not letting parents know or opt out their children from the debauchery. If you think Drag queen story hours and brunches are innocent family friendly, you’re deceived.

The history and purpose is to sexualize and normalize pedophilia and they’ve been given full reign in the school system under this liberal administration. This is a slow slide into the tolerance of adults having sex with little children. When’s the last time you heard anyone arrested because they had child porn on their computer? Now porn is being introduced into schools as “tolerant” “inclusive” “good education” and entertainment for children.

Christopher F. Rufo is a journalist who has been drawing attention to the sexualization of children. In his article below, he outlines the history and purpose of the new Drag Queen phenomena, which has received no pushback from this administration but is instead included as acceptable by the Democrat controlled National School Board. I hope you’ll read the whole article, here’s a snippet.

Drag Queen Story Hour’s radical origins and the subversive sexualization of our kids: Advocates describe Drag Queen Story Hour as family-friendly but an underlying and serious message about childhood sexuality is being conveyed. Rufo explains:

“Having begun with voluntary programs at public libraries, Drag Queen Story Hour has been remarkably successful, sparking a trend of state-subsidized drag readings, dances, and performances across the country. Advocates of Drag Queen Story Hour might reply that these are outlier cases and that many of the child-oriented events feature drag queens reading books and talking about gender, not engaging in sexualized performances.”

“But the spirit of drag is predicated on the transgressive sexual element, the ideology of queer theory, and the goal of elevating those at the bottom of the sexual hierarchy—including pedophiles—which cannot be erased by switching the context and softening the language.”

“When parents, voters, and political leaders understand the true nature of Drag Queen Story Hour and the ideology that drives it, they will work quickly to restore the limits that have been temporarily—and recklessly—abandoned. They will draw a bright line between adult sexuality and childhood innocence and send the perversions of queer theory back to the margins, where they belong.”

We need to vote the liberal progressive Democrats out of office to protect our children in so many ways and this is just another one on the list. The current administration will not draw a line because they’re promoting it under the elusive “inclusion” ideology. Inclusion should never include evil perversion, which the liberals refuse to denounce.

This next story should appall you if nothing else does!

Andrew Mark Miller wrote an article titled: Left-wing activists harass conservative reading Bible, steal book and rip it up, protester eats pages | Fox News Leftist protesters were spotted outside a speaking event by a conservative commentator surrounding and shouting down a man reading Bible passages before they snatched the Bible, ripped it up, and one protester ate the pages!

In the video posted by Young America’s Foundation earlier this week, a man reading Bible passages on a loudspeaker outside a screening of conservative commentator Matt Walsh’s “What is a Woman?” documentary in Madison, Wisconsin was accosted by screaming leftist protesters. One of the protesters can be seen banging on a can next to the Christian man’s face while another blared a siren next to him.

“The leftists’ attempts to silence a student reading the Bible demonstrate their utter contempt for the Judeo-Christian values upon which America was founded,” Nick Baker, a spokesperson for Young America’s Foundation, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“Well, you can be on the side that eats the Bible and castrates children, or you can be on literally any side but that one,” [Matt] Walsh posted on Twitter along with the video. “Your choice, America.”

Walsh also posted a photo of a notice posted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison warning students of the event and calling it “harmful towards our trans community.” The protesters also reportedly vandalized multiple buildings on campus including a veteran’s memorial.

Even a transgender activist, Buck Angel, a “transsexual man,” believes the transgender movement has “gone too far” by encouraging minors to use drugs and surgery to transition to the opposite sex. In an article and interview with Gabrielle Reyes of Fox News, Buck admitted, “We do show that there is a lot of trauma not being addressed before going to medical and why we are having a large population of detransitioners that the transgender community is trying to hide,” Angel said. Angel also said he “does not believe children should medical transition.”

 “Mental health needs to be the priority,” he continued. “Not affirmation therapy but actual therapy.” “We do not have enough research to show that this will alleviate the gender dysphoria,” he told Fox News.

The article described, “Gender dysphoria is a “marked incongruence” between a person’s “experienced or expressed gender and the one they were assigned at birth,” as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. https://www.foxnews.com/us/transsexual-activist-criticizes-trans-movement-accelerating-far-fast

We’re not “assigned a gender at birth.” We are the gender at birth that God created us as either a baby boy or girl. Whoever wrote that definition of gender dysphoria in the manual needs some mental and spiritual help themselves.

Have You Heard Enough?

I could go on, but I want to close with three Republican Conservative candidates who aren’t afraid to say they’re Christians and God is who they depend on and work for, along with serving the American people. I hope and pray you have candidates like this running in your state and local elections and you do your American duty to defend our country and our children by voting in this election. We have friends who went three hours out of their way to be sure they voted before they took a road trip out of Idaho.

Herschel Walker reacts to Obama attacking him as a ‘celebrity’ politician: ‘I’m a warrior for God’ | Fox News

‘The news is a LIE, the Bible is the TRUTH’: Kari Lake debunks rumors about her faith – TheBlaze

Ron DeSantis Florida proceeds with ban on puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgeries for minors | Fox News

Christians let’s do this! Let’s turn our beloved America back to God! Pray, Vote, and Keep Praying. “For the Christian, voting is more than a privilege. It is a responsibility before God . . . we are to be stewards over all the gifts God has given us–including the right to vote.” Hal Lindsey

Let’s make this election such a landslide for good against evil that no amount of cheating from the left could alter the outcome. Vote like your life and the life of your family depends on it, because it does!

Here are two sites I recommend to research information about your local ballot.

iVoterguide.com

My Faith Votes | Home

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

October 31, 2022
Return to top of page

Are We Going to Surrender to Christ or the Culture?

6

If you watched Tucker Carlson’s interview last week with Kanye West, you heard a man who has become a Christian yet is still struggling with the lures of fame and fortune. Professing to be a believer in the liberal world of his music and fashion businesses is courageous but the atheists consider him “crazy” and a threat. He’s viciously pelted with criticism, lost his family, and is a target for the political left who find it offensive that a black man would wear a tee shirt proclaiming, “White Lives Matter.” The left will try to cancel and censor anyone who says, “All Lives Matter,” which they do to God and should to everyone. Both slogans are an affront to the BLM scam and how dare a black man be bold enough to point that out.

I’m not a fan of West or rapper music, but I do see a brother-in-Christ struggling to live in two worlds. The Bible tells us we must live logistically in the world, but we’re not to succumb to the world’s ways spiritually, ethically, or morally. (John 15:18-19; 17:14-15)

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” Matt. 6:24 NLT

Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money! Ps. 119:36 NLT

I especially appreciated Jason Whitlock’s commentary right after Tucker’s interview. Whitlock is a born-again Jesus follower and always laces his comments on any topic from a Christian perspective. The next day, he wrote in his column in The Blaze, Kanye West remains dangerous, disgusting, and harmful to demonic leftists. “Kanye West is not as confusing as he often sounds. His outlook on life stems from a defined set of values spelled out in the Bible. His actions and words often conflict with his outlook . . . He produces an album titled “Jesus Is King” and then collaborates with Lil Nas X on the song and video “Industry Baby,” which depicts gay prison sex.”

“He’s normal. Every human being struggles to align their values and deeds. The difference between West and most human beings is the transparency of his failures . . . We’re in a battle of good vs. evil. Kanye is one of the good guys. He’s trying to be on the right side of God rather than the history left-wing atheists plan to write.”

It’s Not Easy Letting ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’ In Our Lives!

In the Tucker Carlson interview, West said he performs for an audience of One, God. I truly believe that is his sincere desire and goal, but like all of us, he often falls short by trying to remain relevant rather than reverent.

The popular adage, ‘Jesus take the wheel,’ originated with a song written by Brett James, Hillary Lindsey, and Gordie Sampson recorded by Carrie Underwood. The ballad tells of a mother deep in thought about her difficult year while driving too fast on a snowy Christmas Eve when the car spins out on black ice. Unable to control the car, she throws her hands in the air and cries out for Jesus to take the wheel and help her and her baby in the backseat. When the car finally rests on the side of the rode, she ultimately realizes she needs to restore her faith and let Jesus take control of all her life.

The song Jesus Take the Wheel resonated with many who have tried to live their life on their own terms, often with devastating results. Maybe they had never given their heart to Jesus, or at one time knew the comfort of surrendering to Jesus then snatched back control to navigate life themselves. Traveling through life on our own terms will always end in a crash either emotionally, physically, or mentally, but always spiritually.

The true Christian life is one of constant submission of our ways to the Lord’s ways. It’s often a tug-of-war between letting Jesus take the wheel and wrestling it away from Him thinking we know better than He does what’s best for us. We know there can only be one person in the driver’s seat, but we’re not always willing to let that person be Jesus. We’re often backseat drivers trying to argue with Jesus or we push Him completely out of our life and take over the wheel on our terms.

The struggle for my husband during his two knee replacement surgery recoveries was letting me drive without repeatedly giving his opinion and directions from the passenger seat. We had many discussions that he had to relax and just let me drive. I was the only one who could safely get us to our destination. I needed his confidence, encouragement, and prayers. He literally had to surrender the wheel and trust me with his life.

 It’s just as hard for us to trust Jesus to safely get us to our destinations in life, as Kanye West and many others find when they’re not quite ready to surrender every area of life to Christ. Yet, that’s the only true place of peace and security in this world, regardless of what the world tells you.

How Do We Surrender to Christ in a Culture That Calls Us the Enemy?

Just like my husband continually struggled with giving up control to me every time we got in the car, giving up control to Jesus is a lifetime daily struggle. It doesn’t come easy and it’s not instant the moment we become Christians. Being a Christian and living by biblical principles is a continuous evolving process as our faith matures and we learn to trust that God wants the best for us, even when we can’t visibly see or even sense it and the culture is working against us.

Jesus knew our humanness would make it difficult to surrender our lives completely to Him when we couldn’t see Him visibly and faced opposition, so He made sure we had ways to communicate with Him in our Spirit.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Heb. 11:1 NLT

  • Establishing a Daily Prayer Life is Essential

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jer. 29:11-13 [emphasis added]

Jeremiah 29:11-13 outlines exactly how to know what God’s plans are for us so we can trust that He’s looking out for our best interests when He’s at the wheel navigating us through a world that doesn’t want or understand Him as Savior or us as His followers. God says call on me, come and pray to me then you’ll find me. But He also adds that we must be sincerely searching for Him with all our heart, not holding anything back, even fortune, fame, and success as West is still learning.

A daily time with Jesus is essential to Christian life. That means setting everything aside like phones, computers, TV, and noise. Even getting away from people to a quiet place where you can commune with Jesus with no distractions so you can hear His answers to your prayers. I create a special Jesus spot in our home. I’m distracted easily, so I have my quiet time out on our deck in nice weather or in the winter, my prayer closet is the loft outside my office. I also love to talk with the Lord on a morning walk or even in the shower!

Maybe for you it means getting up earlier than the family or before you get ready for the day. Establish a place and time where you can be alone with your Lord and prayerfully ask Him questions and be still to listen while He answers.

  • Studying the Bible

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

Jesus speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. It’s impossible to be a faithful Christian and not read your Bible. If we clocked the hours we spend browsing social media or the internet, we would probably be astounded and alarmed at how much time we devote to taking in the world’s words instead of the Lord’s Words.

Do we want the world or Jesus to take the wheel? We would probably say we want Jesus, but does our life reflect that answer? It will if we soak in His wisdom and guidance by reading His Love Letter and following His Road Map every day.

  • Mentoring

 You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. 2 Tim. 2:2 NLT

Sometimes we’re sidelined in our spiritual life by thinking we don’t need anyone else. We can handle everything life throws at us by ourselves. But we’re made for community. God said in the first Book in the Bible that it’s not good for man to be alone. (Gen. 2:18)

When we need help with our car or around the house, we seek expert advice or at least we should. We need to do the same with our spiritual life. We can’t go it alone and expect to grow and mature spiritually. We need to talk with others who have gone before us in the faith and have experienced life. A mentor with wisdom and spiritual maturity can guide and direct us and someday we can be a mentor to others.

Every Christian is in a continual process of learning and growing in the knowledge of Christ. But until that day we meet Him face-to-face, we who are further along in our walk with the Lord or have navigated a curvy and bumpy road through a life season, must be willing to intentionally share with others what we do know and what the Lord has done in our lives when we let Him take the wheel.

I sign my book Mentoring for All Seasons with ‘Be a mentor, find a mentor.’

Let Go and Let God!

We hear this saying often in sermons and read in blogs and articles and it seems so easy in theory, but we all know how difficult it is when life happens. We want to do something, anything, to feel like we’re making a difference. Do what we want to do. Yet, we stand in church on Sunday morning singing, “Jesus, I surrender all!”

It’s exhausting trying to always be in control. Jesus wants us to rest in the assurance that He has everything under control. God is our hope and promise. He is concerned about our daily needs, as well as our problems and the condition of our culture today. He sees the big picture and the road ahead and knows what’s best for us in our daily lives, but also how we can contribute to changing our culture. We need to rest in Him, obey Him, and seek His will daily. We need to give up our tight grip and let Jesus take the wheel.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matt. 11:28

20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Phil. 3:20-21

In closing, I want to share with you three encouraging stories that show we the people can make a difference when we take a stand and pushback against the evil so prevalent in our culture today. They all have hyperlinks. I hope you’ll read the full articles.

Story #1 A state refuses to abide by evil federal mandates, even under the threat of losing federal funding. Attorney General of Alabama, Steve Marshall writes, Biden administration demands Alabama embrace genderless schools or else, but we aren’t giving in. Alabama’s federal funding could be stripped away by Biden administration over trans bathroom demands. I encourage you to read and pray for their success in this legal battle between good and evil for the protection of our children.

Here’s a quote. “Undeterred by repeated losses, the Biden administration’s war on red states and our “Neanderthal thinking” rages on. This month, my colleagues and I are fighting Biden and his comrades at the United States Department of Agriculture in court to protect the right of states to run their public schools as they see fit. This time, the fight isn’t over curriculum or masking — it’s whether states still possess the paltry authority to require boys to use the boys’ bathroom at school. The United States Constitution leaves no doubt as to the states’ broad authority over their own public schools, but the Biden administration supposes that everything — even schoolchildren — has a price. 

The Biden administration’s actions seeking to impose the left’s gender identity agenda on schoolchildren are illegal and unconstitutional. But even if they were not, and federal funding was at risk, the duty of state leaders is not to dollars. We are meant to serve the interests of the people of our states — and the people of Alabama have clearly spoken, through their elected representatives, that they do not wish for sexual politics to be thrust on their children by the far-left in Washington. While I hope to preserve every penny of federal funding being threatened by this administration, Alabama’s sovereignty is not for sale.“

Story #2 Parents and communities take a stand for a Christian biology teacher who refused to succumb to evil mandates, even at the threat of losing his job!

Pennsylvania biology teacher suspended for refusing to follow pronoun policy, reinstated after backlash. Last month, Virginia parents and teachers sued their school district over its mandatory pronoun policy. Pennsylvania teacher Daren Cusato of the South Side Area School District was suspended last week after he reportedly told school officials that he would not follow a new district mandate requiring teachers address students by their preferred pronouns, because it violated his religious beliefs. A Pittsburgh-area school district reversed course after receiving backlash from the community and students for suspending the high school biology and anatomy teacher who refused to comply with the school’s preferred pronoun policy. 

Story #3 BREAKING: Oklahoma Gov. Just Signed Bill And It’s BLOWING UP

Governor Kevin Stitt signed SB 3XX which blocks funding to prevent gender transition services for minors at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital at OU Health. The bill went into effect immediately upon the governor’s signature.

Pray for the boldness and courage of more Governors to protect the children of their state from this child abuse and mutilation.

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

I apologize last week’s blog had a glitch getting to everyone on Monday. I had to resend it on Tuesday and some may have received it twice! Praying everything works this week correctly. There will NOT be a blog Monday October 17, but I’ll be back God willing October 24.

October 9, 2022
Return to top of page

When Did Bible-Believing Christians Start Being Labeled “Right Wing”?

8

The title of my September AHW Ministries newsletter’s opening article is “Lord, Bring Our Prodigals Home!” I wrote that article because of the recent interest and activity around a book I wrote almost fifteen years ago as a memoir of being a prodigal mom raising a prodigal daughter, Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter: Hope, Help & Encouragement for Hurting Parents. My daughter Kim shares her journey during that time too and each chapter also includes the story of other moms with a prodigal daughter and some of those daughters share their story.

The key to praying for my prodigal I discovered was praying and personalizing Scripture. Praying God’s Word back to Him for my daughter. Instead of just praying my will, I prayed for His will in her life. The back of the book has a section 40 Days of Praying Scripture for Your Daughter and this can also be applied to prodigal sons or grandchildren.

In the past few months, the Lord has brought Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter to my attention in a variety of ways. One of the contributing mothers in the book sent me a praise for her daughter’s return to the Lord and to her family after 10 years of praying. A few days later, another mother emailed me that she had just read the book and it was helping her in communicating with her daughter. Sales on the book have suddenly increased noticeably. A couple who has a podcast, “It’s Not How You Start But How You Finish,” contacted me for an interview on the book, which you can listen to here.

Again, I hope you’ll read the full article in my AHW Ministries newsletter of what God is doing with this book and listen to the podcast because I don’t want to repeat it all here for those of you who already read my newsletter. If you don’t receive my newsletter, you can sign up on my website or let me know and we’ll sign you up.

But here’s what I do want to talk about in this blog. Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter has been out since January 2008, so I hadn’t looked for a long time at the comments on Amazon. I’m not an author that is always checking my reviews because I’m usually on to writing the next book or article, but with all the activity lately, I decided to take a look. God wanted me to see a comment which was right on top.

At first, I chuckled, but then I was sad for the mother. It was the best “worst” review I’d ever had.

The reviewer returned the book, gave me only 1 star, and headed her comment “This book is for the deeply and devoted right wing Christians.” This was startling since it was my first time being referred to as a “right-wing” Christian. I’m always clear that I’m a Bible-believing Christian and in today’s culture that can set you apart because anyone can say they’re a Christian, but fewer and fewer people are connecting Christianity with the Bible and that’s a real travesty.

Here’s the first paragraph of the reader’s comment. I would encourage you to go to the page on Amazon if you want to read the remainder because it makes it even clearer why she thought my book was only for the deeply devout Christian and yet I ask: how can you be a Christian and not be devout?

“I have no judgment for the author or the tone of this book. For Christians who are devoted to God and extreme in their beliefs, this book is for them. My own struggles with my prodigal daughter led me to buy the book with hope to help guide me through my pain. However, the book is not so much about daughters coming home to their family as it is daughters coming home to Jesus. Over and over again, the dilemma was about the prodigal daughter coming back to Jesus and religion.”

I was elated that she got my point in the book that the answer to any prodigal’s life-changing return is first their return to Jesus! But I was deflated that she rejected this truth as too “right wing.” She added the term “religion,” but I talk about a relationship with Jesus NOT a religion.

My Thoughts on Being Called Right-Wing Christians

I don’t receive or acknowledge “right wing” as an acceptable term for Christians. I find it offensive to make it sound like we’re eccentric or on the edge to be extremely in love with Jesus and the inerrant Word of God, the Bible!

I don’t accept “Cultural Christian” or “Progressive Christian” as a description for any Christian because you’re either with the culture or with Christ. There’s no in between. The Bible is clear that we will have to be in the world while we’re alive, but we must not become of the world. Christ came to change the culture and turn people away from sin, not embrace sin as acceptable because it makes them feel good.

Christ came to make us holy NOT happy! What so many don’t understand is that when you let go of the secular culture and grab the hand of Jesus, you will be happy for eternity.

14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to this world any more than I do. 17 Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. John 17:14-17 NLT

I had a Facebook “conversation” where someone told me God did not create her or the climate. So I asked well then who did? She said that I needed to study biology instead of the Bible, which she referred to as “fantasy.” I said, well one thing the Bible and biology both agree on is that we’re all going to die and I know where I’m going to spend eternity. Do you know where you’re going when you die? The conversation ended.

The Bible tells us this world is but a bleep in the big picture of our life. Attempting to be a Christian who thinks that Jesus died on the Cross so that we could keep on sinning because He loves us so much or that the Bible doesn’t apply to today’s world is left-wing, wrong-wing, believing Satan-infused-demonic wing progressive lies and rationalizations.

Every Christian must make the decision to remain Christ-like and be a Bible-Believer no matter what names they call you. In fact, if someone isn’t calling you a name in today’s culture, you might not be wearing Jesus on your sleeve, and I’m not talking about a t-shirt.

Christians are not left wing or right wing, we’re under Jesus’s wing!

He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Ps. 91:4 NLT

In Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter, my daughter, Kim, came to the realization that being a Christian cannot be inherited or passed down through your family. Living in a Christian family doesn’t make you a Christian. It educates you and certainly wraps you in Christian love, but choosing Christ as your Lord and Savior is an individual decision only you can make.

Kim wrote about an experience she had in the Bible-based premarital course Dave and I gave her and Toby as an engagement gift, which they didn’t appreciate, but that is where they were both saved!

“Pastor Pete made it clear we couldn’t get to heaven on our parents’ faith—something I had been counting on—it had to be our own personal decision and relationships with Christ. That really got us thinking. I know that because we committed our lives to Christ, God has blessed our marriage.”

You’re either Holy Spirit-filled, or you’re not. I think God is putting the pressure on currently for the true Bible-believing Christians to step forward. The words I wrote in Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter, still ring true today because they were based on the premise that Jesus is the Only way, a truth that never changes.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Phil. 1:9-11

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Note: Dave and I saw the movie SuperSpreader about worship leader Sean Feucht’s journey in starting the ministry Let Us Worship during a time when Covid was closing churches and not allowing people to sing in church. A powerful movie only in theaters until 10/6 so I hope you’ll find out where it’s playing in your area. Sean lives out Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”

I said, “Here I am. Send me.” (NLT)

My book Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter is also available on my website signed and personalized.

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

I apologize if you receive an email of this blog twice, but we’re having problems with MailChimp our delivery mechanism and it didn’t send out the blog to the majority of our mailing list the day it posted so we’re reposting it again.

October 3, 2022
Return to top of page
« Previous Page
Next Page »
Return to top of page · Copyright © 2025 Crown Laid Down Designs All Rights Reserved · Our Privacy Policy