Home Archives for Forgiveness

What If Abortion Had Been a “Legal” Option for Mary?

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Abortion has been in the news recently in a way that gives us hope that Roe v Wade could be overturned and precious innocent lives saved. Three months ago, a six-week abortion ban became law in Texas and the Supreme Court is currently considering a case regarding Mississippi’s law preventing abortion after fifteen weeks, Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization. For me, six and fifteen weeks are still too late to snuff out life, but it’s a start. Progress in the fight for life.

The arguments for Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization rest heavily upon their claim that abortion is a question of right, liberty, and autonomy, and for those reasons, they maintain it must be upheld.

How did we ever get to the place where there are court battles over whether a mother should be allowed to kill her baby in womb at any time on the basis of “liberty” and “personal autonomy”? Liberty and bodily autonomy occur when you decide to have unprotected sex. Yes, you have the liberty to make that choice with your personal autonomous body, but once that choice is made, as with any other choice in life, you are personally responsible for the consequences.

Even before the choice to have sex, the autonomous consideration should be: “Am I ready to have a baby if I get pregnant?” If the answer is no, then NO should be the answer to having sex.

Today, women aren’t required to make that sensible responsible decision. They can take a pill or go to Planned Parenthood and have their baby destroyed. Then continue on with their life . . . or so they think.

My friend Patti Smith wrote a blog about the devastation of her own abortions: Nobody Told Me the Truth. Maybe that’s you and you were misled or misinformed. Patti learned that God is the God of forgiveness as she learned the truth about the life she was carrying and subsequently aborted. I’ve also heard good things about Project Rachel: Hope After Abortion. 

After your own healing, like Patti, God may use your past to help another woman not let abortion become her future.

Misguided Justifications Women and Lawyers Give for Abortion

Misconception: Abortion is a “right.”

Last week, Supreme Court Justice Thomas poignantly asked where in the constitution is abortion a right. “I understand we’re talking about abortion here, but what is confusing is that we — if we were talking about the Second Amendment, I know exactly what we’re talking about. If we’re talking about the Fourth Amendment, I know what we’re talking about because it’s written. It’s there. What specifically is the right here that we’re talking about?” Thomas said.

Thomas was pointing out that abortion is not a written constitutional right. The Constitution does say everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and that includes a baby in the womb.

Here are more “my right” misconceptions and misuses of terminology.

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

Other reasons given to justify abortion might be too young, inconvenient, embarrassing, being a mother wouldn’t fit in with life plans. Motivations are often selfish and self-centered not even considering they are carrying God’s creation. A person!

Let’s Look at Mary the Mother of Our Lord and Savior.

When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, he told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1: 35 NLT) Mary was going to become pregnant with the Savior of the world as a young teenager and a virgin betrothed to marry Joseph. Talk about bad timing! Inconvenient! Embarrassing! Disrupting her marriage plans.

Today’s pro-choice advocates would argue that Mary had every justification for either saying no I won’t do this for you Lord, or if she conceived anyway, call the local abortionist and murder God’s Son, the future Savior of the world.

There would be no Christmas. No fulfillment of prophecy. No chance for repentance and forgiveness of our sins. No eternal life! God’s plans for future generations thwarted!

Praise God, instead, “Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” (Luke 1:38 NLT)

How many of God’s children who He knit together in their mother’s womb and had great plans for them to rescue our world in the areas of medicine, health, science, teachers, leaders, preachers, fathers and mothers of future generations have been slaughtered before they could take their first breath or horrifically some even murdered after birth? How many? An estimated 62,502,904 since Roe v Wade legalized unlimited abortions in 1973!

God creates and has a plan for every child conceived. That’s not just a “religious belief” as one pro-abortion SCOTUS said, but a reality, and He had a plan for her too!

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jer. 29:11 NLT

The pro-abortion attorney in the Dobbs case also tried to argue that “the burden of parenthood is an obstacle to women’s success” even as she addressed this absurd argument to Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett a mother of seven, including two adopted children.

A man and a woman should carefully consider parenthood BEFORE having sex, not after a child is conceived. Only secular cultural worldly thinking considers success outside the home more valuable than success in the home as a parent.

Mary’s choice to continue with the pregnancy wasn’t easy, but by all standards was one of the most successful and fulfilling choices a mother could ever make!

God Creates Each of Us At Conception


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

When liberal SCOTUS Sotomayor compared a baby in the womb to a brain-dead person, she actually admitted that a pre-born baby is a person! Satan tries to seduce with deception by calling the baby a “fetus,” which sounds clinical and not like a human being. But I’ve never heard a woman say she’s pregnant with a fetus, a brain-dead person, or a blob of cells. An expectant mother says she’s going to have a baby: a precious, fragile, defenseless human being that according to our current laws she can “choose” to murder or let live.

A scientific discovery is now confirming what Christians have always known that life begins at conception when sperm fertilizes an egg. A video reveals what appears to be a fluorescent display of fireworks taking place at the moment of conception. The ‘flash of light’ is created when zinc is released and binds to tiny molecules that “emit a fluorescence,” only viewable by microscopes. This discovery is nothing short of a breathtaking display of our Creator’s hand at work in creating each of us.

Science and technology now confirm that by six weeks, a child has a beating heart, a developing brain and spinal cord. At ten weeks, the child has arms, legs, fingers, toes and can kick. By fifteen weeks, the baby has a nose, lips, eyebrows, eyelids and can feel pain, yawn, and suck a thumb. If you’ve watched the movie Unplanned, you know the baby feels pain in an abortion and struggles to get away from the suction tube. It’s heartbreaking.

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

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

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

Our culture today is playing God by choosing who can live and who should die. That’s not going to end well. I’m asking you to PRAY for the Supreme Court to uphold the Mississippi law and forever change what Roe v. Wade has done to this nation. Pray for each SCOTUS to have a heart conviction to do the right thing and not let innocent lives become political pawns. Ask your churches to pray as ours did this morning.

Mary celebrated her inconvenient pregnancy with a song because she knew “all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

The Magnificat: Mary’s Song of Praise

46 Mary responded,

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
47     How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
    and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
49 For the Mighty One is holy,
    and he has done great things for me.
50 He shows mercy from generation to generation
    to all who fear him.

His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
    He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
52 He has brought down princes from their thrones
    and exalted the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away with empty hands.
54 He has helped his servant Israel
    and remembered to be merciful.
55 For he made this promise to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and his children forever. Luke 1:46-55 NLT

You might also enjoy my Bible study Face-to-Face with Elizabeth and Mary: Generation to Generation, which studies the mentoring relationship between Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist and Mary the mother of Jesus.

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December 6, 2021
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We’re No Longer One Nation United Under God!

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It’s been a subtle shift of disunity over the years as God became degraded and discarded in our country and the two political sides became defined by whether they stood for godly principles. But two recent significant events have clarified and delineated the spiritual political divide: Covid and the disputed election.

Let’s start with Covid. A pandemic, like any traumatic event, should’ve united our country in fighting it together, but instead it divided us, even in the church. I wrote a few weeks ago about Don’t Let Vaccines Divide the Church, and then last year, Don’t Let Covid Divide the Church: We’re on the Same Team! But because Covid has been politicized, the country and the church are divided often along political lines. And we’ve let it happen. Lies from the media blame Conservatives and Christians for causing what they now refer to as the “unvaccinated pandemic,” when in actuality the highest number of unvaccinated are people of color regardless of party affiliation.

Democrat politicians show their ignorance about God by trying to claim that God wants everyone vaccinated and yet they’re the party that voted several years ago at their convention to take God out of policies and programs, even the Pledge of Allegiance. They wrongly think they can pretend to represent God now as they show their biblical ignorance by taking Scriptures out of context and trying to manipulate a Christian population they know nothing about.

It was the liberal blue state governors that forbid churches to meet during Covid lockdowns calling them nonessential and even imprisoning pastors and fining parishioners who defied them and met anyway. With never an apology, they think they can tell us they’re now speaking for God concerning His desire for vaccinations. Even going so far as to say you’re disobeying God if you don’t get the vaccine!

Which brings me to the next great divide: Diabolical progressives and godless liberal Democrats used Covid to perpetuate voter fraud and take control of our country, while falsely claiming to be the party of unity. Their idea of “unity” is agreeing with them or you lose your job, are fined, or even put in jail.

But good can never unite with evil, without denouncing faith.

14 Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? 15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? 2 Cor. 6:13-15 NLT

Let’s look at just some of the differences of Conservatives vs. Progressive Liberals (which have hijacked the Democrat party).

Conservatives Believe                                                           Progressive Liberals Believe

Sanctity of life protecting unborn babies                               Slaughter/sacrifice babies

Scientific biology of male and female                          Scalpels can change genders

Police/Military protection                                                       Defund police/woke military

Medical treatment is personal                                                Government forced medicine

Following the Constitution                                                     Destroying the Constitution

A country with borders                                                           Borderless country

Freedom                                                                                  Mandates

Work ethic                                                                              Social welfare

Democracy / civil rights                                                     Marxism/Communism

Against racism                                                                        Critical race theory

Judeo/Christian foundation                                                     Godless government

God reigns                                                                               Government rules                                                                   

I’m sure you can think of even more differences like equality vs equity. But you get the point that there can never be a compromise, reaching across the aisle, or meeting of the minds with a political party or position that excludes God. We can never support a government that refuses to submit to godly principles and only uses God when politically convenient, but fundamentally wants to rule as gods themselves.

This radicalization has been slow in coming, but living up to their name, it’s been progressive. Several years ago, everyone was laughing at AOC and Bernie Sander’s “New Green Deal” and today it’s included in a massive spending bill before Congress with only two legislators holding out against it and progressives mad because the bill isn’t even bigger and include more socialism. And those two holdouts probably will go with the bill if the price tag is lowered, but it would still be a bill that allows the government to spy on your bank accounts, the IRS to harass you, tax your driving miles, and turn us into a socialist welfare state.

What’s Changed?

Over the years, we’ve watched the changes in government officials like Pelosi and Biden and the Democrat Party. They weren’t always totally godless as they are today, but they’ve succumbed to the alluring sin of power at any cost, even renouncing the ways of the God some claim to know. I don’t know the spiritual history of all the Democrats in Congress and the Senate, but no one in Congress who voted for the latest deceptively named “Women’s Healthcare Act” allowing babies to be killed up until birth, could have a clear conscience if they had a relationship with Jesus. Only one Democrat Congressman was brave enough to do the right thing and vote against it. I wrote about this in my blog last week, Satan is Running Scared: He Knows His Time is Short!

I’m not an historian, but I do believe the downfall of America began with Roe v Wade and has been on a steady decline to the historic deterioration we’re watching today. When a country decides that unborn babies should be violently poisoned and viciously ripped apart in their mother’s womb and taxpayers actually pay for it, God cried. God was angry. He’s still crying and angry! How could He not be?!

They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! Jer. 7:31 NLT

You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me. 1 Kings 14:9

And the worst part is that Christians and the church have actually done very little to reverse this atrocity or keep child sacrifice in front of politicians until recently and the Dems have noticed our sudden advocacy. What started over 50 years ago as a practice only to be used in an extreme emergency has evolved to killing babies on a whim and even as a form of birth control. Yet still for the most part the church and Republicans have been fairly quiet as millions of babies are murdered.

Last year was the first time a sitting President, Donald J. Trump, appeared personally and spoke at a National Walk for Life in Washington DC. It seemed like the Republican Party and the church became emboldened. Some red states are beginning to pass laws forbidding abortion, especially after a heartbeat, which is a beginning. Now we have a political party in charge of our country that wants to, as Nancy Pelosi’s own Bishop said, pass a bill that could’ve only been written by Satan.

I hear more Conservative news pundits willing to call out what we’re watching take place in our government for what it is: evil! They use the word evil! Finally, people willing to verbalize what is happening in our country and world today. But is it too late? I don’t know. But what I do know is God is only going to put up with what He’s watching for so long, just like in the days of Noah.

God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to forgive those who repent from their sins but that promise is shouted down today by rioters, Marxists, and corrupt legislators who encourage sin and violence instead of repentance and forgiveness.

We will never be a united nation as long as evil rules in our nation.

Our only chance to take back our beloved nation is to vote the Democrats and Communists out of power and keep them out of power forever unless they have a spiritual awakening. They’re not going to go quietly and they’re going to do as much damage as they can while they’re still in the driver’s seat. You can see them squirming and frantically scrambling as I wrote about last week, that Satan is running scared because he knows his time is short. How short? I don’t know, but I do know that we can’t give up the fight and sit back and wait for the next election because maybe God’s not waiting. Any day He could say “Enough!” and it’s over.

So…

Be ready

Make your voice heard now for godly justice.

Vote and do your part for voter integrity.

Run for local offices like school boards and state legislators.

Make sure the people you love most are ready when Jesus comes to rapture His people.

38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Matt. 24:38-41

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October 4, 2021
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Jesus Loves the Little Children Our Government is Exploiting

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When we hear on the news about the “border crisis” and the surge of thousands crossing into our country from other countries, it can seem so distant from us, unless you live in a border state. Border security, something that should be of great concern for America’s safety, has become dangerously and erroneously politicized with the Biden Administration’s only focus on erasing everything that President Trump had accomplished, even when it hurts our country and its citizens.

On the nightly news, we see pictures of the caravans and lately we’ve seen the insanely crowded and unhealthy conditions of the overflowing detainment centers. Especially heartbreaking are the ones for children crammed into facilities not equipped for such large numbers.

We worry about how many of these illegals have COVID while we’re all forced to wear masks and parents are fighting to get their kids back into school. We wonder if we’re the only ones worried about all of this?!

How can the Biden Administration brush off this travesty and falsely call it humane as they continue to encourage people from all countries to flood our borders with the promise that migrant children will not be turned away at the border and will be placed in federal shelters. And once you’re here, America will take care of you!

But Biden conveniently leaves out, if they make it here alive! A sick and cruel incentive that Biden is enticing parents to send their children alone on a treacherous dangerous journey.

Again, it still seems distant and solely the source of news monologues and partisan arguments.

Until the twisted and evil reality could no longer be ignored as we watched the video clip of a frightened 10-year-old little boy in a hoodie with tears streaming down his face who had come all the way across the border from Nicaragua now wandering alone on a dirt road fearing for his life.

How could tears not pour down your face too and your heart not break imagining the terror of this child alone in a foreign country where he doesn’t speak the language. Lost and afraid of being robbed and kidnapped, he sobbed to the off-duty border patrol officer who happened to come upon him that no he wasn’t with his mommy or daddy and the group he was traveling with “left me behind, of course.”

But as the young unaccompanied migrant boy pleaded for help, he had been told the words to say, “turn myself in to you.”

His parents didn’t send him off to camp, they sent him on a harrowing journey with a migrant group who obviously weren’t looking out for him! He didn’t have a bottle of water or even a backpack and how many days had he been traveling before the group abandoned him?

I heard the WH Press Secretary refer to “loving parents” who were sending their children of all ages alone on these perilous journeys. Last week, we saw two sisters three and five dropped over a 14-foot wall by themselves. What are these parents thinking??? How many of these children never complete the journey or are traumatized for life?! How is this considered “loving”?

19,000 unaccompanied minors traveled across our southern border in March!! Parents of 19,000 children intentionally sent their children alone to our border with no guarantee they would make it safely! 18,890 in February! How many “John Does” never made it? How would those parents ever know what happened to their children?

Look at your own children and grandchildren . . . no matter how bad life gets, would you ever subject them to such an atrocity? Of course, not. You make it through somehow together at home. Or you travel with them.

Have you ever thought that your child was lost in a mall or at the park? Remember the terror that struck your heart. Were you ever lost as a child or separated from your parents? Or heard the cries and sobs of a young terrified child who lost sight of their parents!

It all seems unimaginable, like something from a sci-fi or horror movie and yet it is happening everyday at our southern border and our government is encouraging it! Biden in my mind has done horrible things since taking office, but that little boy’s tear-streaked face captures it all. Has Biden seen that video? Does it not break his heart? Did he watch those little girls dropped over the wall?

Biden and Harris are ignoring the tragedy of all these unattended migrant children while they continue to encourage parents to inhumanely sacrifice their children! What is wrong with them?

Evil is the only answer.

First, they encourage the murder of children in the womb and now they entice desperate parents to do the unspeakable act of sending their innocent children purposely into harm’s way . . .

God has a proclamation for this kind of shameless treatment of children:

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matt. 18:6

The Little Children and Jesus

People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Luke 18:15-17

I think we can safely say that Jesus hates what He is watching happen to these little children He loves so much. Some are actually sold to cartels to be used over and over again to cross the border and many are brutalized and raped. Rep. Chip Roy told Todd Starnes he saw a 7-year-old little girl who traveled across Mexico by herself and crossed the border without any family.

Biden/Harris and the Democrat party using these children as pawns, as bate, are as guilty and demented as all the traffickers and cartels. They’re encouraging this and they know it! That’s why they don’t want reporters or politicians to take pictures. They don’t want the public to see the reality of what’s happening to these unaccompanied innocent children.

But now we have seen it and we can’t ignore it. [If you haven’t already seen the video of the abandoned little boy, please open the links I’ve provided.]

When you remove all the political rhetoric, people with platforms need to be brave enough to call out the Biden Administration on this in a way they can’t ignore. To play the video of that lost frightened little Nicaraguan boy pleading for help and put the onus on Biden. Not just the nebulous “administration” but Joe Biden! This is what you’ve caused Joe. This is what you could stop if you were an honorable man.

What Can We Do?

We can take it personally, just like that little Nicaraguan boy became personal to me. Contact your Congressmen and Senators and make it personal to them. Call it what it is, child abuse perpetuated by the current administration.

Pray for these children. It’s hard to imagine how afraid and traumatized they are right now. These children weren’t separated at the border from their parents, these children’s parents separated themselves from their children at home!

It’s unimaginable but it’s also endtimes specific.

21 “A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child.” Matt. 10:21 NLT

To close on an encouraging note, my family and I went to see the new faith-based release, The Girl Who Believes in Miracles. I encourage you to go see it now! We were the only people in an afternoon matinee and I’m sure if more people don’t go watch it that it won’t be at the theaters for long. You’ll cry and laugh and hug your family. You’ll also be touched by the Holy Spirit speaking to you how He wants your faith to match this little girl’s faith.

 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20 NLT

The opening picture of Jesus with the children is a mural available for purchase on their website.

The political cartoon is used with permission by the artist A.F.Branco. https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/04/branco-cartoon-bull/
You can see his daily conservative legal cartoons on FOXnews.com or at A.F. Branco | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion.

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You might enjoy a new blog I wrote for Crosswalk, 4 Powerful Prayers for Forgiveness in the Bible.

April 12, 2021
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5 Ways to Refocus and Renewal This Easter Season

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Easter is less than a month away! I hope your church will be open to celebrate as a church family the commemoration of the foundation of our Christian faith: Jesus Christ arose from the tomb and lives today in every believer’s heart! The Gospel! The Good News!

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that if your church is not open, find one that is! Yes, it might take a little effort, but if there was one day out of the year, especially this year, that believers needed to gather together in praise, worship, and fellowship . . . it’s Easter. It’s time for churches to cut the chains on their doors and throw them wide open just like the tomb was wide open on Easter morning! Then stay open.

Covid canceled Easter in churches last year. Don’t let anyone cancel Easter for you this year! Yes, you can watch services online, which is awesome for those who are housebound and I’m so glad it’s available for them. But for those of us who are able to attend church in person, we need to be participating and professing together with our brothers and sisters in Christ as one body in God’s house.

People without a church family desperately need to be with us in church on Easter to experience the hope we have in the living Christ, our Lord and Savior who overcame the grave! Easter is a great outreach when many turn their life over to Christ. An important role of the church is to welcome those seeking the Truth or any who are lonely, depressed, discouraged, fearful. It’s not all about us, it’s about us being there for them!

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Rom. 12:4-5

Easter Reminds Us of Our Hope in a Fallen World

Without Easter, there would be no hope. Easter reminds us, and the world, that there is forgiveness for our sins and the assurance of eternal life. As the Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians:

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

When we ask Jesus into our heart and receive the merciful forgiveness of our sins that nailed Him to the cross, we experience a spiritual rebirth. Hallelujah! Then, as we grow in our faith, we need a daily empty-tomb reawakening not just annually at Easter.

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” John 3:3

Jesus lives within the heart of every Christian and He wants us to live as if we believe it! The Christian life is one of evolving renewal! We continually cast off old patterns of thinking and behaving as we transition into a richer more fulfilling faith.

But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. Col. 3:8-10

I don’t know about you, but watching the prevalent and even celebrated evil in our culture, I feel like we need an Easter season, not just Easter Sunday. A refocus of our heart and mind. A reminder of who we are in Christ and why we must continue persevering in His name and His purpose!

Store shelves and displays take commercial advantage of Easter to sell their products for over a month prior to Easter; shouldn’t we start NOW sharing the real message of Easter?! The world needs Jesus, let’s remind them of that message and prepare our hearts for sharing loud and clear: Jesus is alive!

5 Ways Scripture Helps Us Refocus and Embrace Renewal This Easter Season

1. Renew Your Mind

What we let enter into our mind—positive or negative—controls our emotions, actions, and beliefs.

What is bothering you right now? What is seeping into your psyche that keeps you up at night or troubles you during the day? Can you identify it? The news. Politics. Social media. Stock market. Cancel culture. COVID.

Whatever is stressing you, try a mental fast! Free your mind from everything that furrows your brow. You may never want to let those things have dominion over your thoughts again.

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

Personal Renewal: God wants us to rid our mind of worldly ways and saturate our mind with His wisdom. Proverbs is God’s Book of Wisdom, so try reading a proverb everyday and write it on an index card. When your thoughts begin to drift to things of this world, recite the day’s proverb. If you’re ambitious, read an entire chapter in Proverbs daily and in thirty-one days you’ll have read the entire Book of Proverbs. When you finish, start back at Proverbs 1:1. You can never be too wise!

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out. Proverbs 18:15

2. Renew Your Heart

God created us uniquely with our mind, heart, and spirit intertwined. A renewal of one affects the other two. A mind change touches our heart and our spirit nudges us to act according to our mind and heart. If our heart fills with compassion for a situation, our mind follows suit and again our spirit reminds us of how God wants us to act. We are to have the mind of Christ and what breaks His heart should break our heart too. Much in our world is surely breaking His heart!

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

Personal Renewal: Who could you invite to Easter services? Maybe you’ve asked them to join you at church before and they’ve declined or it’s someone you’re sure would say no. Perhaps your heart has become a bit hardened toward their spiritual future. Ask God for the courage to ask them anyway. This could be the Easter they say “Yes!” and their life changes forever.

If they say no, then commit to pray for them to say yes to God someday.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

3. Renew Your Commitments

A commitment is a sacred vow, a promise, to honor your word. Commitment often involves a sacrifice of putting others’ needs before your own needs, even when it’s inconvenient or painful.

Our Christian faith hinges on a commitment we make to Christ to follow Him and adhere to His Word, whether it’s easy or difficult. At Easter, we remember the ultimate cost Christ paid on the cross to fulfill His commitment to save a lost world. Now he expects us to honor our commitments to Him and to others.

Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved. Ecclesiastes 5:6 NLT

Practical Renewal: Have you committed to something you wish you hadn’t? We’ve all been there. Learn from it and pray next time before you make a decision; but this time, follow through on your commitment. Backing out of a promise damages the credibility of your Christian witness.

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. Matthew 5:37

4. Renew Your Testimony

There is no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what He has done in your life. No one can question your testimony because it’s your personal experience. The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) isn’t just for disciples and pastors; it’s for every follower and believer of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to be an evangelist to share your story.

As we mature and evolve spiritually, we retell our testimony to benefit others. You and I are Christians today because twelve disciples obediently followed Jesus’ command to tell the world the Good News. They shared their personal experience with the gospel to anyone who would listen and with many who didn’t listen.

When we become Christians, our charge is to tell the world why we love Jesus! Your story becomes your testimony when the focus is on God, not on you.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:3-7

Personal Renewal: When you give God the glory for something in your life, you testify to God’s goodness. Your salvation testimony shares your life before Jesus. How He changed your heart and spiritually, maybe literally, saved your life. God has given you a story to share, so seize every opportunity to tell it. Sometimes God redeems your testimony by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past so it doesn’t become their future.

Who needs to hear this Easter what Christ has done for you?

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

5. Renew Your Soul

Easter is springtime in our souls! God is calling His people into a closer relationship with Him so that we can share Jesus with others who need more of Him in their life . . . or don’t yet know Him.

The world is full of unsaved people stumbling in spiritual darkness and deceit. God calls every Christian to help the lost find their way to the light. When Jesus spoke . . . he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

We need to refresh, renew, and refuel our body, mind, and soul so the illuminating joy of Christ radiates from us!

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:30-31

Personal Renewal: Let the songs you sing on Easter and the messages you hear, revive your spirit and speak directly to your soul. Bask in the glow that Jesus is alive!

If you’re ready to arise and be God’s messenger, start praying now for those divine appointments where God will use you in a hurting and lonely world.

I pray this Easter season finds you refreshed, refocused, and renewed in your relationship with Christ and the purpose He has given each of us to keep the memory of Easter alive and vibrant, every day in our hearts, speech, and actions. Let us never forget:

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Col. 2:13-14 (NLT)

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16

If you received this article on email, please leave a comment here!

March 8, 2021
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4 Hope-Filled Promises From Jesus, Our First Love

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Yesterday, was Valentine’s Day where you might have celebrated with a special dinner, gifts, cards, flowers, or candy, but most importantly, time spent together with your loved one. Dave and I had a lovely dinner out on Sunday. Our church had a special dinner Saturday night, but we were snowed in and couldn’t attend!

While our focus and attention is rightfully on our earthly love on this annual universally recognized day of love, we know that we don’t just love the object of our affection one day a year, but every day.

We make promises to each other that we have great intentions of fulfilling, but can’t always honor. “I promise I’ll be home by 6:00!” Many unexpected things could prevent you from keeping that promise.

Other promises are a sincere commitment, but aren’t always honored, “I’ll love you for as long as I live!”

Jesus’ promises to us are sincere commitments that He always keeps! We can count on it. We can trust that Jesus will fulfill all His promises in the Bible.

Scripture delineates over 7000 promises of God that provide the answers to all our cries for help for things like our provision, problems, decisions, crises, spiritual questions, and just daily life.

You’ve probably sang worship songs in church with lyrics like “standing on the promises of God.” Have you ever wondered what those promises were and how you could stand firmly on them? Do we just take it for granted that God promises us everything we want or desire . . . or is He more specific about what He will and won’t do for us?

How Do I Know If Jesus Hears My Cry for Help?

Jesus always hears our cries and pleas, but sometimes he adds the qualifier “if” and asks us to do something first.

For example, Jesus promises forgiveness and salvation to everyone who asks and repents, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

2 Chronicles 7:14 is a verse we’ve used a lot lately as we cry out for God to heal our land. It’s a promise from God, but there’s a big “If,” “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

God is saying that if we, His people—Christians—humbly pray and repent from our sins, then He will forgive us personally and heal our land. God wants us to live righteous and upright lives and He promises to help us be that kind of person . . . that kind of country.

We know it’s fair to say that the whole country isn’t going to repent and God isn’t expecting that, but God does expect His people will repent. That’s daunting. The pressure is on us to comply with His “If.”

How Do I Know If Jesus Will Help Me?

Like parents when their children ask for things, God answers and provides for us what He knows is best at the right time, not just for the moment, but also in the future.

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jer. 33:3

Rest assured that “my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

Most of us can look back on our lives and know that Jesus was there helping us navigate through struggles, confusion, decision-making, hurts, and likewise, celebrating with us during triumphs, joys, accomplishments, and good times.

It’s easy to forget our victories with Jesus in the past, when we face a new problem. But if we take a moment to pray and ask God to help us remember how His presence intertwined through all our life experiences, we’ll have confidence that He will be there for us now. A testimony to His faithfulness to all generations.

God doesn’t promise a life of ease, but he does promise always to be with us in all circumstances. God’s character is unchanging and He cannot lie. He assures us, “The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm” (Ex. 14:14 NLT). Relax and count on it.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Is. 41:10 NLT)

Here are four hope-filled promises for trials where Jesus can help you make it through.

1. Jesus Help Me Believe in You

It’s God’s desire that all would come to a saving grace by believing in his One and only Son, Jesus Christ: “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.” (John 3:16)

What an amazing promise! One that every believer cherishes.

You might think that you’ve done too many bad things in your life for God to ever forgive you, but the Apostle Paul had persecuted Christians before he became a believer and an avid evangelist.

“Even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 13-14 NLT)

Notice that Paul admitted that he didn’t initially understand about the saving grace of Jesus. It wasn’t until he believed and had faith that Jesus was who he said he was that his eyes were open to receive the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

The Bible is the inspired Word of God. So to understand about Jesus we need to read the Bible. When you have questions talk to your pastor or a mentor who can help you understand how to change your life to adapt to the Bible not change the Bible to adapt to your life.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. (James 1:5 NLT)

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Acts 2:21

Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. It’s always two-way where you can talk to him through prayer and He talks to you through His Word, the Bible.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1

2. Jesus Help Me Overcome My Doubts

Maybe you identify with the father who asked Jesus to help his son tormented by demons, but he added the qualifier, “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” (Mark 9:22 NLT)

Jesus replied with a promise, “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” (Mark 9:23 NLT)

The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24 NLT)

It is possible to be a Christian but have moments of questioning when things don’t go the way we think they should or we’re not sure God can, or will, truly help us. In the case of the father, Jesus did give him a visible tangible miracle and healed his son. But what if we don’t get our miracle? How can we come through with our faith still intact?

Hebrews 11:1 reminds us, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Faith requires believing in things we cannot see because we don’t see the whole picture like our Sovereign God does. There are things we must accept as believers because, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)

For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. (Heb. 3:14 NLT)

3. Jesus Help Me Overcome My Fear

Fears are a natural part of life. Fear is an honest, real emotion. Our heart races. We tremble. There’s a sinking fluttering sensation in our stomach. We’re terrified. Sometimes even frozen to the spot—we can’t move.

We’ve all experienced fear. Often, it’s a healthy reaction to a dangerous situation. Other times, it’s rooted in past or recent trauma or chronic worry. Letting Jesus help you conquer a fear can offer a world of new opportunities and accomplishments you might have previously avoided.

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you. (Deut. 31:8 NLT)

In Everyday Brave, I remark that faith is the opposite of fear. So the antidote to fear, worry, and anxiety is to trust God. Don’t doubt Him. Realize and internalize the fact that God’s got this and He is way ahead of us.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9)

When I’m encountering a particularly difficult time in my life, I recite the 23rd Psalm, especially the promise in verse 4:

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

4. Jesus Help Me When I’m Lonely

When asked to share a time when they were lonely, some responses were grief, living alone, singleness, misunderstood, moving, spiritual emptiness, illness, unemployment, financial loss, and you can probably think of more. Sometimes loneliness is short-lived and other times it is ongoing, even chronic.

We long for someone or something to fill the ache in our heart for companionship or relief from the feeling that no one understands us or has time for us. But God does!

God wants to be our everlasting friend, but this is another one of those “if” promises. “You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14). And what was that command? “This is my command: Love each other” (John 15:17).

Jesus is saying that He wants us to reach out to others. Extend the hand of friendship or make an effort to take action to overcome the source of our loneliness knowing that Jesus will be right by our side giving us encouragement and confidence.

He promises that “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Those were such comforting words to me when I lost my father at an early age, but accepted Jesus as my Heavenly Father. His promise proved true that He was, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling” (Ps. 68:5).

God’s promises provide the help we seek and an answer to all our needs and problems. We just need to find them in the Scriptures, pray over them, claim them, and rest in the assurance that God is always faithful, He is omnipresent in our lives, and He loves us with a never-ending love.

The destination will be worth the journey. Refuse to get discouraged!

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57)

A Prayer to Ask: Jesus, Help Me

A wonderful promise when we need help or are anxious about anything is when the Lord tells us to pray and He will bring upon our hearts and minds the peace that we so desperately seek.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4-6-7)

So let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, I’m crying out to You because I need Your help. Help that I cannot achieve on my own. I surrender to You all my attempts to try to solve my problems. I am so grateful for all the promises You give to me to personally claim and the solutions they offer. Help me to trust and obey the times You ask me to do my part in applying Your promises to my life. I know each one will improve and enhance my relationship with You and with others.

Lord, when I falter or forget Your faithfulness to me, please remind me that You’re only a prayer away! Amen

Parts of this blog appeared in my Crosswalk blog on 6/25/2020.

You might enjoy reading my recent Crosswalk article 5 Calming Prayers for Serenity During Stressful Times. We certainly are living in stressful times, but I read a great quote “Worry is a fruitless attempt to make things better. You must seek peace and pursue it by believing that I [God] hear and answer prayer.” Marsha Burns

A blog I wrote on February 9, 2015 has been trending on my website How to Have a Date With Jesus.

February 15, 2021
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Christians Should NEVER Validate an Evil Political Platform!

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I struggled with what to write about the day before an election that could change the trajectory of our nation. How we experience the American way of life. How we practice our Christian faith.

This is not an election about whether you like a candidate’s personality or communication style; it truly is a choice between good and evil.

Many will challenge that statement so let me explain.

Biden has been saying that he will unite the nation, but there is nothing in his platform that Bible-believing, Jesus-following Christians could unite with or validate.

The Bible is clear in The Message translation of 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:

“I’ll live in them, move into them;
    I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
    leave it for good,” says God.

God could not be more adamant that His people don’t vote for a political party that champions evil and removes God from their platform!

He warned the Israelites when they went into the Promised Land not to partner with pagans, but they didn’t listen to Him and there’s been a battle between people who walk in the light and those on the dark side ever since.

They are corrupt and not his children;
    to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
6 Is this the way you repay the Lord,
    you foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,[a]
    who made you and formed you? Deut. 32:5-6

Our country was founded on Judeo Christian values that both parties agreed to in the writing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. God’s principles were central to those two documents that form the basis for our government and laws. At least they should!

But the Democrat party wants to remove God and His moral principles and values from the public square, from their convention platform, and in some cases even the Pledge of Allegiance. While incredulously Biden’s campaign slogan is “a battle for the soul of the nation!”

He’s got that part right, we are in a battle but it’s a spiritual battle and only God, not a godless political party, can put the soul back in America and possibly unite us again!

Here are just a few areas that this election highlights to Christians on how we should use our voting power to vote our values for the Presidency, the Senate, and the Congress, as well as local officials.

Christians can NEVER Unite with a Murder-Driven Platform that Denies the Sanctity of Life!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Ps. 139:13

The most profound moral division between the Democrat and Republican platforms is on abortion— the spilling of innocent blood in murdering, yes murdering, millions upon millions of precious babies created by God in their mother’s womb, who never had a chance at life.

Abortion is cherished by the Democrat Party in the name of arrogance, pride, and moral decay. They are in rebellion against God’s commands that sex is for the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. Proponents of abortion encourage sexual promiscuity without responsibility.

The opposite of pro-life is pro-choice of having sex without consequences.

The opposite of pro-life is pro-death when a life is not convenient.

Science, as well as God, tells us that sex results in possible conception of a child.

Democrats promote sex without consequences. Their solution is genocide that allows the ripping apart, poisoning, or burning in the womb of a viable child who feels pain. Even extending this barbaric torture up to and after delivery.

They expect every taxpayer to subsidize this horrific and savage practice of the shedding of innocent blood that has brought a curse upon America. How could it not? Abortion does have consequences.

Planned Parenthood is the primary baby murdering organization and they refuse to compromise with ways to reduce the number of abortions they preform because abortions are their primary business and source of revenue! Democrats will restore funding removed by the Trump Administration to Planned Parenthood, which is why PP is a huge financial donor to the Biden campaign with money made from the destruction of babies!

Biden, who professes himself a “faithful Catholic,” now endorses abortion in his platform. He will repeal the Hyde Amendment and continue to defeat born-alive protection bills! While he touts restoring the soul of America, He has sold his own soul to the evil partyline.

If you’re a Christian considering voting for the Democrats, knowing their stance on taking the life of a baby God created in His image, I challenge you to find justification for the sin of abortion in the Bible.

If you’ve had an abortion, voting for it won’t remove your guilt but Jesus is waiting for you to ask for forgiveness and repentance and He offers you grace and mercy, which brings the peace your heart desires.

Abortion: A Crime of Passion

Babies Lives Are Important, But . . .

Christians can Never Unite with “Gender Fluidity”!

“On his first day in office, Biden will reinstate the Obama-Biden guidance revoked by the Trump-Pence administration, which will restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity. . . . Biden will ensure that LGBTQ+ individuals have full access to all appropriate health care treatments and resources. This includes covering care related to transitioning.”—Biden campaign website

The Democrats who contend we should always “follow the science,” reject the science of biology that God created every human male and female.

Christians can Never Unite with a Political Party that Restricts Religious Liberty!

Democrat run states have kept their churches closed and inflicted penalties and fines on churches allowing their congregants to worship together. President Trump has repeatedly said churches are essential and should open now.

Obama/Biden lit up the White House in gay pride colors and if the Democrats are in power, they could prevent pastors from preaching the sins listed in Acts chapter 1. They have already shown hostility to religious freedom in running your business according to your faith beliefs as in the cases of Christian florists, bakers, and photographers who choose to not serve at gay marriages. Under the Trump Administration, their faith rights have been protected but they were persecuted under Obama/Biden.

Biden promises to make the misleadingly named Equality Act a top priority in his first 100 days. This federal legislation makes sexual orientation and gender identity protected civil rights, with no protections for religious organizations or people of faith who hold orthodox beliefs on sexuality as taught by Judaism and Christianity. It would also gut the landmark Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The Equality Act treats churches, businesses, adoption agencies and medical professionals as discriminators if they operate based on their belief that humans are created male and female and sex is between a man and a woman.

Biden plans to reverse all of President Trump’s actions to protect religious freedom.

Christians can NEVER Unite with a Socialist/Communist/Marxist Agenda!

We’ve watched the Democrats, including Biden/Harris, stay silent while ANTIFA and BLM riot in the streets looting, burning, and destroying innocent business owner’s livelihoods! They don’t condemn what they refer to as “peaceful protests” while cities are destroyed.

They talk about the police being the enemy and reimagining the police, whatever that means.

The mainstream media supports the liberal agenda and feeds the people propaganda! Yes, just like in Communist countries. Often the networks all repeat the same identical mantra! That’s Communism!

Big Tech, which I wrote about in last week’s blog, censors conservatives while spreading liberal lies and talking points.

We see the “tyrant” governors and mayors in Democrat run states during Covid, but what would it look like if they were in charge of the entire country?! You might be able to leave California or New York now, but where would you go if the long arm of socialism and liberalism could reach you wherever you lived in this country?

We are one nation under God not under a liberal Socialist government!

The attack by socialism and communism on the status quo is a call to our consciences — those of us who consider ourselves Christians. This call warns us more strongly than any sermon that our task is to live in protest against everything that opposes God in this world. So poorly have we Christians filled this role that the question must be asked: Are we Christians at all? (Eberhard Arnold) The Intersection of the Gospel, Culture, and Politics

The Two Candidates

If I haven’t offended you too much and you’ve read this far, you may still have an argument about the character of the candidates so let me briefly discuss that too.

Biden is a corrupt politician. He had to back out of several previous attempts at the presidency because of his blatant lies, fantasized life stories, and plagiarism that were investigated by real journalists who exposed him.

He still tells the same lies and untruths, but as I said earlier, today’s propaganda media covers for him. For example, the recent discovery that he lied about having interaction with his son Hunter’s business dealings with foreign countries, and may have profited from them even while in office as VP, has only appeared on FOX and NEWSMAX. Silence on all the other networks.

The Democrats have vowed to increase the number of justices to pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges if they win the Senate and Presidency. A “liberal” Supreme Court removed prayer from the schools, made Roe v Wade the law of the land, and went against the vote of the people to legalize gay marriage.

President Trump has his character flaws, as has every past and future President. But it’s never mentioned that Trump has asked for forgiveness for his past discretions in his personal life. Christians should grant grace to a man who acknowledges his wrongs.

It’s amazing how many Christians want to continually go back to things he did and said years ago, ignoring the person he has become in the past four years and the good he’s done and the promises he’s fulfilled for our country, and Christians in particular. In his first term, he has put three conservative justices on the Supreme Court and hundreds of federal judges.

President Trump definitely has room to improve. Even his wife doesn’t agree with some of his tweets, but unlike corrupt politicians who just tell you what you want to hear, as his family attests, you always know what he’s thinking.

President Trump made his money before becoming president and walked away from a good life because as a patriot, he saw the downward slide of America. He doesn’t take a salary as President but donates it. Unlike Biden, who has become rich as a politician!

I believe God put it on Trump’s heart to leave the comfortable life he had and step into the lion’s den of Washington where he has been unmercifully spied on, plotted against, resisted, hated, lied about, and even impeached.

God is using this unlikely man to unveil the evil and corruption in our government and the underground world. I pray he has four more years because the work isn’t finished yet.

Many people think that Jesus came to Earth to unite the world, but He actually came as a divider to separate those who would follow Him and His ways at any cost from those who might follow Him in name only or those who chose a secular life. Divide, not unite, those who chose the world over His ways.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[a]

37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Matt. 10:34-38

Sadly, many deceived “Christian” leaders have tried to meld Christianity’s truths with secular culture’s fallen mind-set and morals.

Christians are to infiltrate and influence the secular world but never let the world’s ways invade the church or their personal lives.

We don’t unite with evil, we fight evil.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Is. 5:20

God does not compromise or condone evil and neither should we, His people.

If you’re a Christian voting for Biden/Harris, I would ask you to prayerfully consider why you would choose the Democrat’s evil policies and plans that will affect our country for future generations as they vow to eradicate generations that will never get to take their first breath.

If you know a Christian voting for the Democrat platform, please prayerfully send them this article.

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. Proverbs 29:2 ESV

A closing note from Pastor Bill Johnson a fifth-generation pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, author of Born for Significance, and speaker on revival and the Holy Spirit, who wrote an op-ed for The Christian Post on why he voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and will again in 2020. In it he says,

“For me it is worthy of note that I’ve never seen a president who loved prayer as much as Donald Trump — and that includes from those I voted for and those I didn’t, . . . His passion for godly counsel is also legendary. His historic actions for Israel should appeal to believers, as the biblical mandate to pray supportively for Jerusalem is a clear priority in scripture.”

If you haven’t voted already, please pray and let God lead you to vote your faith values for President, Senators, Congress, local candidates, and our country.

God Bless America!

November 2, 2020
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America’s Problem is Systemic Secularism NOT Systemic Racism!

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Recently, a “woke” phrase has emerged and is repeated so often that many people accept it as true: systemic racism.

Let’s look at the definition of systemic: something that affects the whole instead of just parts. Embedded within and spread throughout and affecting a whole system, group, body, economy, market, or society.

Those who have now applied systemic to racism infer that the systems in place create and maintain racial inequality in every facet of life for people of color.

Liberals, the radical Left, mainstream media, and anyone trying to stir up strife and unrest tout “systemic racism” is factual. It’s become a mainstream mantra and few question its validity.

But could it possibly be true? If racism is systemic, how do they explain a black president for eight years (whom many white citizens voted for) and the popularity of his wife? Numerous black mayors and police chiefs, including women. Black athletes. Black politicians. Black lawyers. Black business men and women. Black business owners. Black physicians and scientists. Black media personalities and celebrities. The list goes on.

Let me be clear, I am not discounting that racism does still exist in many facets of our society, and maybe those who became successful experienced it at some time, but I am saying that it is not “systemic” today. Many blacks agree with me. Even as I was writing this blog, two prominent well-respected black men spoke on this very topic:

“‘Systemic racism’ is used as a ruse to avoid talking about the real problems. To deflect from real issues in areas run by their own people of black officials and systems.” Bob Woodson, founder of the Woodson Center and the 1776 Project

“You hear this phrase, ‘systemic racism’ [or] ‘systemic oppression’,” host Mark Levin told [Thomas] Sowell. “You hear it on our college campuses. You hear it from very wealthy and fabulously famous sports stars. What does that mean? And whatever it means, is it true?”

Thomas Sowell replied:

“It really has no meaning that can be specified and tested in the way that one tests hypotheses. It reminds me of the propaganda tactics of Joseph Goebbels during the age of the Nazis in which he is supposed to have said ‘People will believe any lie if it’s repeated long enough and loud enough!’ Even people who use it don’t have any clear idea of what they’re saying. Their purpose is served by having other people cave in.” –Black economist and author Thomas Sowell interviewed on Life Liberty & Levin.

America repented of the sins of slavery long ago. In his essay Understand What Is Happening: A Christian Response [which I encourage you to read in full] Larry Alex Taunton reveals the motive behind this attempt to rekindle racial divides:

“Now, the self-righteous types filling the ranks of Democrats, BLM, Antifa, and the radical Left in general, themselves wronged by no one and possessed by a hateful, secular, utopian ideology absent any notion of grace, see themselves as the embodiment of retribution and national reckoning. They are determined to keep America’s sins—both real and imagined—ever before her, reminding her, flogging her, as a means of reducing us all to a pathetic national guilt that will be leveraged for evil purposes.”

One of those evil purposes is to silence anyone who disagrees with them by calling a dissenter a “racist.” This overused term has lost any real meaning but people still quake at the thought of being called one for fear they will lose their job or reputation.

Most Americans are NOT racist, but they are being accused of racism just because of their skin color and because it’s part of a political power-grab agenda.

It astounds me that people are accepting this falsehood touted by white people on television scolding us while apparently not looking in the mirror. Or high-paid, well-coiffed black commentators trying to convince us that we are back in the sixties.

Sadly, the public is allowing the promotion of this racial divide. People in leadership, including many in the church, are afraid of offending the secular culture. They stay silent or go along with it when the real answer to racism is spiritual.

We don’t have a skin problem, we have a sin problem.

Systemic Secularism Will Be America’s Downfall

“I hope we don’t just go back to ‘normal,’ if normal means a nation that continues to defy and rebel against God and His ways, a nation that is openly hostile to Christians, a nation that rejoices and revels in godless behavior.”—Franklin Graham, Decision Magazine June 2020

Systemic secularism, immorality, and evil runs rampant in our world today. Secularism is another word for what the Bible calls “worldly” or “the world.”

Applying secularism to the earlier definition of “systemic,” secularism is truly embedded within and spread throughout and affecting a whole system, group, body, economy, market, or society, including the church.

When is the last time your pastor preached against abortion, homosexuality, living together, pornography . . . sin? I hope it was recently.

On the 4th of July, many of us sang “God bless America” and the Battle Hymn of the Republic. But we also saw systemic evil prevail throughout the streets with flag burning, murders of innocent black children, and hateful words spoken about the greatest nation in the world.

Good versus evil. Jesus versus Satan. Truth versus lies. Patriotism versus socialism. Freedom versus bondage.

How did we move so far away from the ideals of our nation’s founding fathers? How did America go from biblical to secular? How did Christians let Americans forget that God is the original Founder of America and the world?

The authors of the Constitution and Bill of Rights believed in God as the Creator who guides our lives and our country. Even those who weren’t Christians understood that we needed to live by the guiding principles in the Bible. Thomas Jefferson, whose statues are being toppled, said, “The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.”

Is it any wonder that as we watch the Bible degraded and discounted today that we’re also watching the attack on American ideals and patriotism. We’re losing “inalienable rights” such as free speech. People are too afraid and intimidated to speak out against the mob and “woke” censorship.

The Declaration of Independence declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Everyone no matter race, color, or background is important to God and therefore should be important to the governing powers.

Abraham Lincoln, whose statues and legacy are also being torn down, declared of the Bible in 1864: “All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”

But aside from putting their hand on the Bible when sworn into office, and some recently the Quran, you seldom hear the Bible mentioned today in the same breath with laws and rights that govern our country.

We can’t go back and change history whether it’s racism or secularism, but we can make a difference as much as it is up to us.

Returning to Systemic Biblical Values in America

1. God Wants Christians to Heal Our Land

I always appreciate when VP Pence ends his speeches with “God heal our land.” I assume he’s referring to 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

But God puts conditions on healing our land and you and I are the ones responsible for fulfilling those conditions.

God doesn’t say if the secular culture will change. He specifically says “If his people,” Christians, will humble ourselves to prayerfully repent from our sins, then He will listen and forgive us and start healing our land.

Wow that means the healing of America is up to you, me, and the church. We can’t change the world but we can change ourselves and cleanse our lives from the sins that God hates.

We need to purge secularism out of our own lives. Don’t wait for a convicting sermon because you might not hear one.

Read God’s Word, the Bible, and prayerfully live by its guidance not the guidance of the world!

Then when we take the plank out of our own eye, watch the world change. Not because of what we’ve done but because of what God says He will do in and through us.

The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 2 Chr. 15:2

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. 2 Chr. 16:9

2. Make the Bible Systemically Relevant in Every Aspect of Life!

I heard a troubling quote: “Satan is discipling America because the church isn’t!” Ouch!

We need to learn how to speak the Truth in terms the world can understand.

Scripture doesn’t usually have meaning to the unbeliever because they don’t believe in following Jesus so they won’t relate to it or might just argue.

Slip into your everyday conversations the way the Bible would handle specific situations without saying, “the Bible says.”

Don’t alter your conversation when around unbelievers; talk just like you would with a group of believers.

Satan is a false teacher, but many are succumbing to his lies. Satan’s will is done more in America than God’s will! That should break every Christian’s heart.

Don’t let the Bible lose relevance in our culture. It’s up to us to be living examples.

It’s up to us to become systemically biblical in our every action, thought, and word.

And then watch God heal our land. Heal our racial issues. Return patriotism and love of America. Take down secularism and replace it with a love for God, our country, and each other.

#3. Pray and Ask God Where He Wants Us to Get Involved.

In an interview with the mother of a black sixteen year-old boy shot while walking home from the store, her black attorney pointed out that often the senseless brutal black-on-black killings are not coming from gangs. They also stem from anger. They haven’t been taught how to deal with anger, so they pick up a gun and start shooting. He said they need someone to invest in their life.

Ben Carson tells the story of being an angry young man who threw bricks through windows to express his aggression. Like so many black families, he didn’t have a father in the household, but he did have a praying mom. He found a Bible in the bathroom, opened it to the Book of Proverbs, and started reading. He recounts that he realized he wasn’t living like the Scriptures said to live and his anger left him. Proverbs changed his life.

He went on to become a pediatric neurosurgeon, ran for President, and is now the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Carson realized the Bible is relevant to every area of life. It’s systemic!

In my June AHW Ministries Newsletter, I shared another story of an angry black young man in a fatherless home who had flunked out of school when a “white” mentor stepped into his life and helped him find purpose to succeed. That young man is Senator Tim Scott.

Jesus spoke in stories to share the truth. We all have a story. Not everyone will read the Bible but each of us can be a living Bible.

God is looking for those who are willing to make America Systemically Biblical Again!

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people he chose for his inheritance. Ps. 33:12

“Freedom is not doing what we want. It’s doing what we should.” Mike Huckabee

You might find it helpful to read Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten, or Everyday Brave: Living Courageously as A Woman of Faith. Both were written for such a time as this.

July 13, 2020
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I Only Bend My Knee to Jesus Christ and No Other!

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In the middle of a pandemic and possible recession, we find ourselves also thrust into a racial war. I’m not going to discuss the merits or faults of a peaceful protest, but violent malicious rioting is wrong. Detestable! Evil!

I mentioned in last week’s blog something I’ve been posting all week, “The rioting has nothing to do with the original frustration over an injustice. Doing wrong to justify another wrong still makes your wrong, wrong!”

There are so many things that alarm me, and I’m sure you too, about what is portrayed about the racial division being stoked in our country.

Bad cops made a bad decision and they will pay the price. But why are the rest of us paying the price?

If this is a racial protest, why are black communities and black businesses being destroyed, looted, robbed, and burned? Why are blacks being killed by blacks?

There’s only one answer to these questions and so many more like them: Satan!

God created one race—the human race!

God gave us the color of our skin. We had no control over that and yet today many Caucasians are bowing down before those who are promoting chaos and mayhem and apologizing for the way God made them. Only Satan could create such an atrocity.

Satan wants to destroy God’s creation of all skin colors because we’re all made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

When I watch a Black Lives Matter man create a video of him demanding several times that a young white woman bow down before him and repeat after him that she needs to apologize for being “white privilege,” and she does it, I am revolted.*

Or the video of hundreds of people with their hands in the air in a position of worship repeating a renouncement of white privilege mantra led by someone on a stage. Like followers of a false religion. A cult. *

I wonder how many Christians are in that group thinking they are doing something righteous by kneeling to the culture and the world?!

I have another image in mind when I see these videos and it’s not righteous, it’s evil: Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Mussolini, or even King Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible.

 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide[a] and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 Then he sent messages to the high officers, officials, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the provincial officials to come to the dedication of the statue he had set up. 3 So all these officials[b] came and stood before the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

4 Then a herald shouted out, “People of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king’s command! 5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments,[c] bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue. 6 Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”

7 So at the sound of the musical instruments,[d] all the people, whatever their race or nation or language, bowed to the ground and worshiped the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

8 But some of the astrologers[e] went to the king and informed on the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “Long live the king! 10 You issued a decree requiring all the people to bow down and worship the gold statue when they hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments. 11 That decree also states that those who refuse to obey must be thrown into a blazing furnace. 12 But there are some Jews—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon. They pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They refuse to serve your gods and do not worship the gold statue you have set up.”

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted God to protect them when they refused to bow down to the gold statue and if you remember, they walked out of the fiery furnace untouched.

Like these three brave men, we should never take a knee or bow to anything or anyone except our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we’re not only renouncing our heritage, the color of our skin, our country—or whatever else they come up with to try and get us on our knees—we are renouncing our God.

Don’t do it; it’s not worth it. Only Jesus Christ deserves our prostration before Him. Everything else is an idol of power, control, manipulation, intimidation, and evil, yes evil.

Because . . .

And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. Phil. 2:8-12

Christians of Every Color, Nation, Tribe, People and Language Are United in Christ!

Many of you know that my family has different “skin colors.” When I look at our family pictures, I see a big happy, handsome, smiling, loving family. I see different hair colors. I do not see different skin colors.

When I see my Christian brothers and sisters, I don’t see skin color, I see the family of God!

It is sadly true that racial injustice is a part of our country’s history, which we should as Christians admit and repudiate the sins of the past. Admission demonstrates humility and acknowledgement that wrongs happened, but it does not have to characterize who we are today. Our job is to make a difference in our generation.

No matter what our skin color or heritage, we aren’t defined by what our ancestors did or experienced. We are defined by what we do and who we are now.

Since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, we’re all born into this world as sinners. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).

Until we learn a new better way to live, we will keep on sinning. That’s why everyone needs a Savior and to be born again out of our unrighteousness into the righteousness of following Jesus. Not followers of any fringe or woke group that wants you to change for their benefit. Your identity is in Christ alone!

22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, [black or white]23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:22-24

As Christians, we live counter-culture! We get ourselves right with God and then we can love on others.

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matt. 22:36-40

Today, politicians, anarchists, and agitators want to keep the old wounds open and look for every opportunity to fester them. It is to their advantage to maintain division and unrest. They have no desire to unite us because then they lose their power and control.

Race isn’t a political issue, it’s a sin issue. It’s not a skin problem, it’s a sin problem.

We’re not dealing with systemic racism, we’re dealing with systemic secularism!

Change won’t happen with a policy change, it happens with a heart change. Hearts transformed by Jesus Christ.

We can’t legislate or demand unity. Only God is the Unifier. It’s our responsibility to continue to love our neighbor as ourself, no matter what their skin color. God’s Golden Rule (Matt. 22:36-40); (Mark 12:30-31).

We defy Satan’s schemes for disunity when we live under God’s plan for unity!

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:2-3

I remember the song we sang in Sunday school as a child, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and Yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.

When you don’t embrace your own skin color, you deny who you are in Christ.

When you bow to anyone or anything other than Jesus Christ, you deny God who said I will have no other gods before me.

We must be on our knees in prayer for the civil and spiritual unrest in our world.

Let’s look for ways this week to keep the focus on God and not the works of Satan. That means we need to outshine the divisive voices in the news and many on social media. We need to bring the light of Jesus into the worldly darkness.

Then we will counter evil with good like these pastors who led a praise march singing Waymaker in the streets of Milwaukee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj4IrB3I20s

*You’ll find the woman kneeling and the people reciting the mantra in this news clip.

June 8, 2020
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Preparing Our Hearts for Easter

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Yesterday was Palm Sunday, which ushers in Holy or Passion Week. Yet, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is warning us that this could be a grim and difficult week as we see a “peak” in Americans contracting and succumbing to Covid-19!

It was also a difficult and grim week for Jesus 2020 years ago when He would die a horrific death on a cross out of love for each of us.

But three days later, He arose! Hallelujah!

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave[a] 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. John 3:16-17 NLT

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 1 Cor. 15:3-4

A New Kind of Easter Celebration

Easter is going to be different this year, but I wonder if the meaning of Easter might be more real to us during the stay-at-home restrictions of this Covid-19 crisis. In the past, we might’ve been more concerned with what we were going to do after church rather than what we would do at church.

Typically, family’s discuss who is going to host Easter brunch or dinner or is the family going to fight the crowds trying to get a reservation to eat out. What do the kids want in their Easter baskets and what’s everyone going to wear. Sunrise service or spend the morning hunting Easter eggs and go to church later?

We attend a worship service hearing the traditional Easter message and then out the door on to the activities planned for the rest of the day. We felt spiritual and reverent while we were in church, but now let the fun begin!

Believe me I enjoy having fellowship and fun with our family and I will greatly miss them this year, but I also think quarantined at home, I’ll spend more of the day truly reflecting on the actual meaning and significance of Easter.

President Trump has said he would’ve loved for the pandemic self-distancing to be over and churches filled on Easter Sunday. “What a beautiful thing that would be,” he said. It would for sure since it would’ve taken a miracle for that to happen.

But could it be that God has a bigger miracle in mind for us?! We’ve been forcibly removed from outside distractions and given the opportunity to renew and refresh our faith and commitment to the Lord—individually, as a family, as a church, and as a nation.

Church is a building, but the risen Savior lives in every believer’s heart every moment of every day no matter where we are—in church or in our homes.

Easter commemorates the foundation of our Christian faith. The Gospel! The Good News! Without Easter, there would be no hope.

Easter is the reason we can repent and ask forgiveness for our sins. The assurance of eternal life. People need to hear that message and know salvation is available to everyone. They don’t need to live in fear of the Coronavirus or of death, because for all who believe in Him, Jesus conquered death when He went to the Cross.

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die,[a] this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.[b]
55 O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting? 1 Cor. 15:54-55 NLT

It’s our job as Christians to help others experience the love of Jesus for them. That could be the real miracle of this crisis.

Samaritan’s Purse has setup a temporary hospital in Italy and in New York’s Central Park to treat coronavirus patients. They openly say the volunteer doctors and nurses are there to save lives in the name of Jesus. The Mayor of New York City and others were skeptical and critical that not everyone would receive equal treatment! They needed to hear and understand that Jesus loved us enough to go to the cross while we were still sinners. Their concern underscores the misconception the world has of Jesus and believers.

As the Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians, we need to share with the world:

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.—1 Corinthians 15:1-4

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 John 1:9-10 NLT

Jesus lives within the heart of every Christian and He wants us to live as if we believe it, no matter what the circumstances!

So don’t let anyone tell you that Easter is cancelled this year. Easter, the commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to offer every sinner forgiveness and eternal life, is NOT cancelled. Jesus cancelled our debt but no one can cancel Him. He is the same today, tomorrow, and yesterday.

What is happening in our world doesn’t affect Jesus. He only cares about what is happening in our heart!

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.—Ezekiel 36:26

What should we do this Holy Week to prepare our hearts for an Easter celebration like none we’ve ever had before?!

1. Fill your mind with words from the Lord and not from the media.

Let’s take a break from the media that wants to scare and alarm us and focus our minds on the reason our Lord and Savior went to the cross—to offer us eternal life regardless of what happens in this life. No one wants to die, but if Jesus is in our heart, we have the assurance that we will be alive with Jesus for eternity. That should calm our hearts.

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

I heard Pastor Greg Laurie say in his Palm Sunday message, “There are five gospels . . . you’re the 5th! You are the temple of God.” Read the four Gospels, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Get to know Jesus up close and personal. Walk with Him in His shoes; listen to His words and stories.

  • What was He trying to get people to understand?
  • What does He want you to understand?
  • Look for His personal message to you in your generation.
  • What would He be doing during this pandemic?
  • What does He want you to do during this crisis?

If you were giving the sermon this Easter, what would you include?

2. Tell people what Jesus means to you. Why you love Him. That even while you were a sinner, He still loved you enough to die for you!

Our church has a Cowboy Breakfast for the community on Easter Sunday, which we’ll all sorely miss this year. It was my privilege to share the gospel message one year, with my granddaughter reciting John 3:16. Other years, members of our church shared their testimony with their friends and neighbors who attend the breakfast. My husband also shared his testimony.

When is the last time you told someone your testimony of surrendering your life to Christ? It’s hands down the most important and meaningful day in your life. Yes, it’s greater than the day you married, gave birth, bought your dream house, or signed that important contract. Your rebirth in Christ should top them all!

And yet, we eagerly tell the story of these less significant events in our life, but often are reticent to tell the story of Jesus coming into our life.

We know He is with us every day, but do we give Him the credit and the glory for the things we know He has done and is doing in our life?

This week ask yourself why you don’t talk more about Jesus!

Then share your story with someone! Reflect back on the day the death and resurrection of Jesus really meant something to you. Tell people why it still does.

There is no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what he has done in your life. No one can question your testimony because it’s your personal experience.

Your story becomes your testimony when the focus is on God, not on you.

Your testimony simply shares your life before Jesus. How he changed your heart and spiritually, maybe literally, saved your life.

God has given you a story to share, so seize every opportunity to tell it.

Sometimes God redeems your testimony by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past so it doesn’t become their future.

Who needs to hear this Easter what Christ has done for you and could do for them?

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.—Titus 3:3-7

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

“Let’s use this time to reflect on our own relationship to God. And Pray. Pray for the medical workers, they’re really warriors. Pray for the families who have lost loved ones and ask God to comfort them in their grief.” President Donald J Trump

“Pray for God to protect us and release us from this plague. Pray for the patients. There is sin in the world. Ask for God’s forgiveness not to condemn but to save a fallen world.” Franklin Graham

I look forward to hearing how this Easter was your best Easter ever!

You might also enjoy an article I wrote for Crosswalk, 5 Refreshing Ways to Welcome Renewal Beyond Easter.

Have a blessed Easter the way the Lord leads you to celebrate this glorious day!

April 6, 2020
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Do You Need a Pardon?

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Do you need a pardon?

Pardons were in the news last week as President Trump pardoned and commuted sentences of several prisoners. Speaking at a graduation ceremony for Hope for Prisoners, President Trump said that he “loves” finding those treated unfairly by the criminal justice system and offering them pardons.

The discussion of pardons started me thinking about how God has pardoned every Christian. Since Romans 3:23 reminds us that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Christians are the recipients of unmerited grace and mercy.

In my Bible Study Face-to-Face with Euodia and Syntyche: From Conflict to Community, I describe it this way:

  • Justice is getting what you deserve.
  • Mercy is not getting everything you deserve.
  • Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

Mercy is showing more love and kindness to a person than he or she expects or deserves. Undeserved pardon! Grace is undeserved forgiveness.

It’s so easy to look at the transgressions of others and say they deserved the punishment rendered, and often they do. But what about Christians who had their debt pardoned and paid for by Jesus who unjustly endured the brutal cross for us? He took the punishment that we deserved. That’s mercy! That’s grace!

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:1-5

All we had to do for a pardon was confess our sins to Jesus, ask for forgiveness, and repent! Our dark sins became white as snow. Erased! The Bible says that God has forgiven and forgotten and will never bring them up to us again.

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18

Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Acts 3:19 (NLT)

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

16 “This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day,[a] says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”[b]

17 Then he says,

“I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.” Hebrews 10:15-17 (NLT)

What a gift! How did we deserve such a pardon? We didn’t! Yet, how often do we take our pardon for granted. Almost like we did deserve it. How often do we remember the price and penalty that Jesus paid for our release from the punishment due us? I would suggest, not often enough.

We may not have been in a cold, dark, prison cell, but we were in a cold, dark spiritual hellhole. Satan had us shackled to him in sin and shame. Then Jesus entered into our life and set us free. But Satan never gives up. He’s always trying to lure us back. We can never forget the cost of our pardon.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

Sin Has Consequences

Just like with all pardoned prisoners, there will always be consequences of our sins that we will have to bear ourselves and assume the responsibility. God told the Israelites who refused to follow His lead, “You will bear the consequences of your sin . . .” (Numbers 14:34 HCSB)

As Christians, we must ask for Jesus’ help and strength to make restitution for our sinful behavior when possible. If we broke the civic law, or God’s law, we’ll pay the penalty. The scars will be with us, and possibly with others, for life. Often our actions negatively affected someone else. That’s on us. Jesus forgives us when we repent of our sins, but we may need to forgive others or seek their forgiveness and they might not grant it. The hurt is too deep. The debt too high.

But President Trump also told the crowd of 29 graduates from Hope for Prisoners, “the best part of your life is just beginning.” “Today we declare that you are made by God for a great and noble purpose. You are valued members of our American family and we are determined to help you succeed,” the president said.

And that’s what the Lord says to us too:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. Micah 7:18

My Second Pardon

Do you need a pardon?

In Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter, I share my testimony of accepting Jesus into my life at eleven, but as an adult I backslid into a sinful life for seventeen years while raising my daughter. I was a prodigal raising a prodigal. I can’t change those years, but when I rededicated my life back to Christ, He gave me another pardon I did not deserve. Praise God, He is the God of endless pardons. I was a changed person—a new creation in Christ.

Like President Trump told the released prisoners, God did have a great and noble purpose for my life as He used me to start the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry and write and speak for Him.

But there were consequences to my wayward years. I had to ask my daughter for forgiveness, and while she didn’t understand what that meant at the time, she does now. I prayed and begged God daily to open her eyes to the life she could have with Christ. After six years of a mother’s prayers, she accepted Christ as her Savior.

No matter what you’ve done in your past, or are currently doing, Jesus waits eagerly to mercifully forgive you and restore your life for a great and noble purpose. All you need to do is ask Him for a pardon.

Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Isaiah 55:7

________________________

God has put on my heart that my next writing project will focus on the loneliness epidemic in our culture. If you have a story of seasons of loneliness, or you’ve helped someone through their loneliness, I would love to hear your story. Please contact me or email at [email protected].

February 24, 2020
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