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Christians, You Each Have Your Own Jesus Revolution Testimony to Tell!

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

I’m sure by now you’ve seen the movie Jesus Revolution, plan on seeing it, or heard about it. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to go now, or if that’s not possible, read the interviews and reviews people are sharing on social media and watch a trailer. Without a doubt one of the most professional Christian movies I’ve seen told with raw vulnerable frankness. A true story of a generation who had tried everything from sexual promiscuity to LSD and was still searching for “truth” and fulfillment. Their desperate quest eventually led them to find truth in Christ alone.

The movie tells how Pastor Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie meet during the “Jesus freaks” movement initially led by hippie Lonnie Frisbee in the late sixties and early seventies in Orange County, California that spread across the United States and changed the world. “Jesus Revolution” graced the cover of Time Magazine five years after their cover asked, “Is God Dead?”

Pastor Chuck, as he was fondly known, was pastoring a dry failing church until he opened his heart and his church doors to a generation hungry to know Jesus. A revival and revolution blew open the doors of his church as the congregation overflowed into a tent to accommodate not just the hippies but everyone eager to hear about the saving grace of Jesus through His sacrifice for them.

A seventeen-year old Greg Laurie with an alcoholic mother married seven times but never to his father, tried escaping his painful home life in the drug culture where he meets his girlfriend Cathe. Both were searching for “truth” in all the wrong places. When they watched Cathe’s sister almost die from drugs, Cathe convinces Greg that maybe they should investigate what this Jesus movement says about truth.

When you see evangelist Pastor Greg Laurie today leading Harvest Church and Ministries you might never expect to hear the life he led before accepting Jesus as his Savior. Like so many of us with sordid backgrounds, he shares his testimony openly and honestly to give hope to others who might think they could never be forgiven for their past or used by God.

Pastor Greg says today, “I hope my story can inspire young people in difficult circumstances to know that God can intervene in their life and change their story. We don’t determine what hand we are dealt in life — but we do determine how we will react to it.”

How Dave and My Life Intersected with Pastor Chuck and Pastor Greg!

If you’ve read my book Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter: Hope, Help & Encouragement for Hurting Parents, you know I had my prodigal backsliding years after divorcing my daughter’s father. For seventeen years, I was a prodigal raising a prodigal. I became a Christian after the murder of my CHP father when I was ten. I lived out my faith until I went into the world as a successful businesswoman and single mom. I continued going to church and taking my daughter, but I wasn’t living the Christian life or being a good role model for her.

When she turned sixteen, it became apparent I needed to change because she was following my wayward choices. I also told God I wouldn’t date another man I didn’t think was from Him and I joined a small group at church. There I met Dave and we started dating, but I soon broke up with him because I thought he might be too good for me.

He was persistent and kept asking me out, so finally I went to a Harvest Crusade in Anaheim Stadium with him. This was now 1992 and Pastor Greg Laurie was fulfilling the prophecy that Lennie Frisbee had made over him in the early 70’s that one day Greg would be speaking to thousands! Dave and I attended the third Harvest Crusade and Pastor Greg was indeed speaking to a stadium that holds 50,000 people when Pastor Greg asked the audience, “If you died tonight, are you ready?”

I knew I wasn’t! As Crystal Lewis sang “Come Just As You Are,” I went down with hundreds on the stadium floor rededicating my life to the Lord and telling Him this prodigal had returned. I would go where He led. I had no idea the plans the Lord had for me to become a Christian author and start a Woman to Woman Ministry that is still blessing women today. Praise God, He never gave up on me!

That night Dave and I sat in the parking lot until it emptied talking about our relationship when I heard God say to me, “You asked for this godly man and I gave him to you. Now rededicate yourself to this relationship.”

I did and we were married five months later, December 19, 1992! I had heard on the radio that Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel was hosting a Caribbean cruise and I suggested to Dave we go on the trip for our honeymoon. We had asked God to help us meet other Christian couples, and even though this wasn’t our home church, we were open to wherever the Lord led us. It was so fun because we were the “honeymooners” on the cruise!

Soon two of Dave’s kids came to live with us and we would go to the Monday night meetings at Calvary Chapel depicted in the Jesus Revolution movie that were still continuing all those years later. Dave and I also went each year to the Harvest Crusades as counsellors to those surrendering or re-surrendering their life to Christ. It was such a joy when Pastor Laurie brought Harvest Crusade to Boise, Idaho last year and our church took a bus down from our mountain community.

There’s Power in Letting God Use Your Testimony!

“Your mess can be turned into a message and your test into a testimony.” Greg Laurie

While waiting to enter the theater to see Jesus Revolution, Dave and I started chatting with a group of three women. They didn’t know anything about Pastors Chuck or Greg, so I shared some of our story with them. When I asked what church they attended locally, only one answered. When the movie was over, I saw the woman who had said she went to church on her knees in front of one of her friends who was crying. I knew she had just given her heart to Jesus because of the powerful testimonies in the movie of real-life searches for truth found only in Jesus. Salvation offered not just during a movie or revival, but available to each of us in our personal lives.

I started to walk by them, but the Holy Spirit prompted me to stop and give them a group hug. Then the Lord led me to make the following statement: “Because the movie takes place in Orange County California where Dave and I both lived for many years, it brought back such memories seeing all the beautiful places and beaches we knew so well.” Then I said, “This movie gives me such hope for California. If God did this once, He could do it again!” They agreed.                        

There’s no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what He’s done in your life. No one can question your testimony because it’s your personal Jesus Revolution experience. Once I was lost, but now I’m found by the saving grace of Jesus my Lord and Savior. A revival or a revolution can start with one person. The joy and peace found in Jesus is contagious.

In Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten, I share two biblical testimonies of King Nebuchadnezzar from the Old Testament and the apostle Paul from the New Testament. Both of their testimonies are recorded in the Bible and they each humbly shared their story publicly to influence others to trust in God’s goodness available to all sinners.

King Nebuchadnezzar tells of his prideful attitude thinking he was greater than God in Daniel 4. Paul shares his testimony in Acts 22:1-16 that he was formerly a Jewish religious zealot persecuting Christians until he met God on the road to Damascus. King Nebuchadnezzar’s and the apostle Paul’s testimonies are examples and encouragement that God can change anyone’s heart: once I was prideful, now I am humble. Once I was blind, now I see!

As we mature spiritually, we move beyond just remembering God’s goodness for our own benefit and start retelling our testimony to help others. We all have varied testimonies in our life in addition to our salvation testimony.

I never tire of telling my story as HIStory.

You may not think you have a testimony if you’ve been a Christian most of your life and life has gone smoothly, but God has been walking beside you guiding your life every step of the way. That’s your testimony to others who worry about losing something by turning their lives over to God. You’re a living example of how good God really is!

Maybe you have a hidden past you’ve been too embarrassed to talk about, but now is the time to deal with those buried hurts and hang-ups.

Like Pastor Greg and me, God redeems your spiritual revival story by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past, so it doesn’t become their future.

It’s the opportunity to give purpose to a crisis.

God will bring people across your path and the Holy Spirit will prompt you to share, just like He did with me and the ladies in the theater.

Every day you encounter opportunities to share your Jesus Revolution testimony, and every time you tell it, you’ll remember how good God has been to you and offer hope to others!

REVEALING IS THE FIRST STEP TO HEALING.

Your story doesn’t have to have a “happy ending” for you to share it. Someone might need to hear that even though things didn’t go like you hoped, God has been faithful and He will be in their life too.

When people ask me how I’ve made it through life’s difficulties, the best answer is, “I couldn’t have done it without God.” That’s your best answer too. It opens the door to share your story . . . your testimony.

YOUR STORY BECOMES YOUR TESTIMONY WHEN THE FOCUS IS ON GOD, NOT ON YOU.

It’s not a “tell all” and it’s not a time to tell someone else’s story. Stick to details that pertain to you.

Don’t dramatize how bad you were; characterize how good God is!

When anyone tells me about an encounter with God, or a memorable circumstance in his or her life, I always ask if he or she is writing it down because God is going to use it as a life-experience revival testimony.

Pray for God to give you the opportunity to share your testimony often and authentically.

“I would hope people realize that God is still in the business of changing lives. What happened to us some 50 years ago can still happen for people today.” –Greg Laurie

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

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here. I’d love to hear your Jesus revolution story.

March 6, 2023
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Yes, He Gets Us, But Jesus Doesn’t Want to Leave Us How He Found Us!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. Romans 8:22-23

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But wait a minute . . .

Jesus loves the little children!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s the message. Go. Show. Love.

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

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

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

Definitely worth the trip.

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

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

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

February 20, 2023
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Revival Is Necessary for Survival of the Church!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no such thing as:

 A “woke Christian” only a fallen Christian.

A “woke church” is a false teaching church.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Revival before Rapture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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February 13, 2023
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When Did Bible-Believing Christians Start Being Labeled “Right Wing”?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Thoughts on Being Called Right-Wing Christians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I said, “Here I am. Send me.” (NLT)

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

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

October 3, 2022
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They Called Jesus and His Followers Names Too!

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In my last two blogs, I’ve talked about the goal of the left, especially the left-leaning media, to create words and redefine others and the latest assault is “Christian Nationalism.” Oh, and they usually put “white” in front of that slur so they can somehow tie it to “white supremacy.” I’ve also mentioned that the goal of Marxism is to destroy the family and the church to ultimately destroy and control the country.

They’re attacking the family through the LGBTQABC and transgender movement invading our schools. The DOJ calls parents domestic terrorists for wanting to stop their children’s indoctrination with racism and sex grooming. The left wants to eliminate parents from knowing what’s happening without their permission in the schools.

The church is also under siege. The left has tried to use the racism card but when that failed, they’ve come up with calling us names like labeling patriotic Christians who love God, family, and country as “Christian Nationalists” and then equating that term with the Taliban! Notice a theme here. You fall into this category by their definition if you maintain that America was founded on Judeo Christian principles and profess there’s nothing in the Constitution or Bill of Rights that says there should be a separation of church and state.

Do you see how they’re also subtly trying to silence teaching American history and sharing the Gospel with these outlandish claims?

Liberals who haven’t accepted that abortion is NOT a right given in the Constitution have now segued to the absurd accusation that the conservative majority in the Supreme Court that led to the overturn of Roe v Wade is a result of the “Christian nationalist movement!”

If you want to know what they mean by “Christian nationalism,” Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism conveys the following radical propaganda: “The term ‘Christian nationalism’ is not a word game . . . It is descriptive of an ideology as well as a political movement engaged in an organized quest for power.”

Absurd! Deceived! Demonic! Name-calling! Yes, Word Games!

They want to force us to denounce our flag and patriotic views! To be afraid to say what we all know is true that the further our country moves away from God, the closer we get to destruction. To put blinders onto the moral deprivation, lawlessness, and decay of our culture we can all see for ourselves as God was removed from our schools and our government. Silence us from saying our country was founded on Judeo Christian values for fear of being called a “Christian nationalist.”

It won’t work! They can’t intimidate us! We already have the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. We’ll keep singing songs like “Proud to be An American” by Lee Greenwood and “Same Power” by Jeremy Camp. I love both those songs!!

We’ll also sing God Bless America because God cares about our country just like He cared about giving the Israelites the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 26:15, Moses told the people to pray “Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

But Moses also warned them not to forget the Lord’s ways, “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.” Deut. 8:1

Just like America has forgotten God, the Israelites failed. So, God told them what they needed to do. It’s the same thing our nation needs to do now as I wrote about in Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten.

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. 2 Chr. 7:14

Calling us Racist Didn’t Work and This Latest Name-Calling Attack Won’t Either.

Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, addressed this issue in a recent sermon where he said he wasn’t a “Christian nationalist, but insisted the United States was founded as a ‘Christian nation’.” He pointed out that a perversion of the Constitution by progressives, atheists, and others has led to the creation of a secular nation now defined by a culture that is both tragic and decadent.

He pointed out that, “Today, over 10 million teenagers in the U.S. drink alcohol regularly; 20 percent engage in binge drinking; 2,800 children die each year as a result of gun violence; another 14,300 are injured. Nearly 1 million babies were murdered in the womb last year, and one in four women in the U.S. will have aborted at least one of their children by age 45. On and on and on it goes. Are these tragedies just a coincidence?” he asked.

“Now, just consider the warning that God gave to His own people Israel. In Hosea 4:6, He said, ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being My priest.’ Listen to this: ‘Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children,‘ Jeffress said.

“He’s given us so much. You can see His hand in the founding of our country. But in the final analysis, God is no respecter of people or nations. Any nation that reverences God will be blessed by God, and any nation, including the United States, that rejects God will be rejected by God,” he rightly emphasized.

“America was founded predominantly … by Christians who wanted to build this Christian nation on the foundation of God’s will,” he said. “And furthermore, these men believed that the future success of our country depended upon our fidelity to the Christian beliefs. And that’s why we can say, though it’s politically incorrect to do so, we say without hesitation or apology that America was founded as a Christian nation, and our future success depends upon our country being faithful to those eternal truths of God’s Word.”
Robert Jeffress rejects ‘Christian nationalist’ label | Church & Ministries News (christianpost.com)

I hope you, like me, agree with Pastor Jeffress and those beliefs alone can now get you labeled as a “Christian Nationalist,” a “threat to democracy.” I’ve been thinking of appropriate responses.

1. Like Dr. Jeffress, we reject this label’s definition and evil connotation, but adamantly and vocally stand by our Christian beliefs and patriotism.

2. We remember our first allegiance is to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, not a government, an official, a president, or people calling us names!

3. We ignore the slanderers and continue living our lives as honorable Bible-believing, born-again Christian American citizens.

15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. 1 Peter 3:15-16 NLT

Their Goal is to Divide and Weaken the Church

And it’s working. There’s even a group called Christians Against Christian Nationalism that completely distorts and insinuates being a Christian who loves Jesus, the Bible, and country is somehow a power grab and evil?!

I see confusion and misunderstanding all over social media. It broke my heart to read a comment on Facebook that the writer who had been a Christian for many years was now afraid to refer to herself as a Christian because “Christians are giving Christianity a bad reputation.” This is exactly what the devil and the Marxists hope will happen. That Christianity will become so distorted and tainted that the core TRUTH of the Gospel and the Cross will fall under the weight of slander and misrepresentation . . . eventually silenced.

Here’s just one example of how this confusion is generated in the public arena.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who calls himself a Christian, accused his Republican colleague and sister in the faith Rep. Lauren Boebert of advocating for “the Christian Taliban, after she spoke in a church and said she is “tired of this separation of Church and state junk.”

Boebert, a born-again Christian, argued that the principle of separation of Church and state is not in the Constitution and was only in a letter that “means nothing like they say it does.” Boebert was likely referencing an 1802 letter from President Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Church Association in Connecticut stating that the First Amendment has “a wall of separation between Church and State.”

In context, Jefferson was referring to the fact that the government can’t establish a universal religion or interfere in the church. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution “prohibits the government from making any law respecting an establishment of religion” and “government actions that unduly favor one religion over another.” It also prohibits the government from “unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.”

The purpose was always to keep the government out of the church, like they unconstitutionally did in forcing churches to close during the pandemic, not to keep the church out of government. Say that truth today and you’re labeled Christian Taliban.

As opponents often use the term “Christian Taliban” or even “Christo Fascists” to demean conservative Christian policy stances, conservative radio host Larry O’Connor reminded Kinzinger that he, too, was once branded as “Christian Taliban” before he was elected to Congress in 2010.

“All of us at Breitbart helped you win in 2010 when the protesters in the streets were calling YOU Christian Taliban and Nazi. Remember all the posters of you and Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin with swastikas?” O’Connor noted. “You’ve become the very people we fought against to help you get elected.” Adam Kinzinger slams Boebert’s call for Church to direct gov’t | Politics News (christianpost.com)

Names the Government and Religious Leaders Called Jesus

The Pharisees were the religious government of the day and they even accused Jesus of doing miracles in the name of Satan. They labeled Him a blasphemer and demonic.

Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. 2 Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” 3But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, “That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?”

32 When they left, a demon-possessed man who couldn’t speak was brought to Jesus. 33 So Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!” they exclaimed. 34 But the Pharisees said, “He can cast out demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons.” Matt. 9 1-3; 32-34

When He called them out for their hypocrisy, they tried to trap Him.

But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now then you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you’….

One of the experts of the law (Scribes who were mostly Pharisees) answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things you insult us also.’ Jesus replied, ‘And you experts of the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them’….When Jesus left there, the Pharisees and teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.” Luke 11:37-41, 45-46, 54

As followers of Christ, none of the attacks on Christianity should come as a surprise or discourage us. They only come after us because we represent a formidable and effective threat to tyrannical control of our country and attempts to destroy our culture. I heard a pastor (who BTW is black) say, and I agree, that his biggest sorrow is that his children and grandchildren are not enjoying the America he knew growing up. One that never would’ve allowed the degradation of morals and cultural demise we’re watching today, much of what I’ve written about in previous blogs.

Who could’ve imagined men would be allowed to participate in women’s sports, locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms; pronouns we learned in English now discarded with new ones made up every day; children encouraged to change to 101 different genders; the definition of marriage between a man and a woman discarded, and on and on.

We must not adapt to this immoral society. As Bible-believing Christians, we live unequivocally by God’s Word and set examples for the next generation to follow. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. 1 Cor. 11:1

The world didn’t accept Jesus and His followers either, so let’s not be naïve and think everyone is going to accept Christ-followers. But the only acceptance we seek is that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We remember that this world is not our permanent home; we’re just passing through. But while we’re here, we seek to fulfill the purpose God has for each of us to be About His Work! We occupy and stay engaged until Christ returns for us.

“Grace lets us live as godly, loving Christians, even when politics fails!” Pastor Brian Smith

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:18-19

14 For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven. 15 With Jesus’ help we will continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by telling others of the glory of his name. 16 Don’t forget to do good and to share what you have with those in need, for such sacrifices are very pleasing to him. Heb. 13:14-16 Living Bible

The very essence of your words is truth; all your just regulations will stand forever. Ps. 119:160 NLT

The last two blogs I referenced in the opening paragraph are:

We’re in a War of Words with the Devil

It’s Not Easy Being Me, But I’m So Glad God Chose Me to Be About His Work!

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August 8, 2022
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America Needs Truth Not Tolerance

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You might’ve noticed that I took a little longer to resume Monday Morning Blogs after Memorial Day break. I came down with a distressfully messy cold over Memorial Day, then a scratch on my cornea so I was trying to limit screen time while it healed. As hard as we tried to protect Dave from the cold, a week later he started coughing and sneezing too. A summer cold is not fun, and we take so many preventative supplements and eat so clean and healthy, I don’t know how it snuck through, but we’re both on the road to recovery now.

As always, the Lord has put a message on my heart to share that cannot be ignored, especially as we’re living in times that seem to resemble Sodom and Gomorrah and yet few are pushing back. Even many Christians and churches have decided to take the “safe” stance of tolerance as our children are being taught to believe that sin is normal and acceptable.

I mentioned to you previously that Dave and I enjoy watching Flashpoint on the Victory Channel and have shared it with many who become followers of this program that addresses current events with a biblical view of how Christians should respond to and engage in the culture. A recent show caught my attention, and God grabbed me with the assignment to share it because I knew what was being said was so true. I took notes as fast as I could and will present some of them here for you to consider.

Why Must Every Christian Know and Honor Biblical Truth?

Brenda Keesee, the author of Fight Like Heaven: A Cultural Guide to Living on Guard, responded to the Flashpoint host Gene Baily’s question about what pastors can do to help fight the spiritual warfare now going after our children, specifically trying to indoctrinate them in the “LGBTQ” lifestyle. She pointed out that the last generation was indoctrinated with abortion and the “women’s movement” and now that the enemy’s socialist/Marxist agenda has successfully normalized the gay way of life, it is now accelerating efforts to normalize transgenderism and gender confusion. When you give Satan a successful foothold, he moves on to the next victory!

You might’ve seen the disgusting clips of parents in Texas actually taking their children to a drag bar for a “Pride event” and having the young kids participate in perverse acts. What kind of parent would do that? Maybe a parent thinking they need to raise their children to be “tolerant” of all lifestyles. That’s what the liberal agenda and media drill into us that we’re prejudiced and intolerant when we don’t accept perversion instead of protecting our children and telling them the truth. Not wanting to be called names like “intolerant” or “homophobic” or worse, we cave to an immoral culture. This can happen even among Christians who would rather be woke tolerant than bold truth tellers.

New York City has paid $200,000 of taxpayer money to bring drag queen story hours into 34 public schools for children as young as three-years old! The events involve cross-dressed drag performers reading to schoolchildren at public schools, libraries and other LGBTQ centers, but have expanded to include coloring activities. Photos show drag performers instructing children in classrooms how to apply drag makeup. 

According to a reading list the non-profit shared online, performers read a variety of books ranging from classics like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and “The Rainbow Fish,” which discuss topics like growth, acceptance and diversity, to others that more overtly discuss gender identity, such as “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish Swish Swish” and “The Dragtivity Book.”

Sometimes the parents were informed other times not.

Where is the outrage in the pulpit? Where are the pastors teaching the truth of what the Bible says about sinful living from the Bible not tolerance and acceptance from the culture?

Sadly, many are quiet and give the devil just the victory he’s celebrating today. You might have seen that abortion activists stood up in the middle of Joel Olsteen’s church while he was preaching and undressed shouting obscenities. That’s demonic. Something you would see demon-possessed women do in the Bible. But if Joel Olsteen has never spoken out against abortion, he left his door wide open for Satan. Even as this was occurring, he didn’t address it. He missed a perfect opportunity to say why abortion is biblically wrong and he didn’t take it.

Here are some shocking statistics:
1 out of 2 Christians don’t believe in absolute truth.

2 out of 3 Christians believe that absolute moral truth is determined by whether it furthers my beliefs.

There’s no definitive right and wrong. No moral consensus or compass. No reliance on biblical truth.

Does that shock you like it does me?!

Let’s Look at What the Bible Says About Truth Versus Tolerance

Before we look at God’s truth, it’s important we’re all understanding the terminology and definition of truth. I came across and amazing article and I’m going to share parts of it in this blog as well as next week when we look at the shocking realization that America is a Republic and NOT a Democracy, which the Democrats keep trying to tell us it is.

Let’s agree on some definitions of truth, fact, positive knowledge, and opinion.

Truth is defined as: “the body of real things, events, and facts.”  Simply said, truth is something real, a fact.  

Fact is defined as: “something that has actual existence,” or, “an actual occurrence.” It defines “in fact” as: “in truth.” Therefore, fact is truth, truth is fact, both are real, and one supports the other. 

Positive is defined as: “real, unqualified, and incontestable.” 

Knowledge is defined as: “the condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning.” 

Therefore, positive knowledge would be real, unqualified, and incontestable truth or fact. 

Incontestable means “indisputable” and “unquestionable.” In other words, BEYOND ANY SHADOW OF A DOUBT.   

Contrast those with the definition of opinion: “a view formed in the mind,” and, “a belief stronger than impression and LESS STRONG than positive knowledge.” Opinion, then, is LESS STRONG than either truth or fact which are both positive knowledge, meaning, opinion is not only “in the mind,” it’s make-believe and fantasy.

Fact and truth are real. Opinion is make-believe. 

Fact and truth are undebatable. An opinion is debatable. A fact or truth is something that really happened and is shown with unbiased words. An opinion is a perception of something that is expressed with biased words. A fact or truth can change opinion, but opinion cannot change either fact or truth. 

The only time fact or truth won’t change an opinion is when the person holding that opinion is either incapable of logical thought or behaving irrationally, or, in the case of a psychopathic mindset, lying, meaning, someone who might be mentally ill. Article IV Section 4 – Reclaim Our Republic Because Truth Matters

So when we speak biblical truth it is God’s irrefutable, undebatable, undeniable fact and not simply an opinion!

We determine truth by what does the Word of God say. Whether it’s popular or not, if God says it, we go with it! And that’s a fact. You can listen to different opinions, but we don’t tolerate or accept them as truth if they’re contrary to God’s Word, the Bible. The only infallible truth.

We’re not left to wonder and come up with our own definition of truth, Jesus is the Truth. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

The Belt of Truth is the absolute truth that holds all the other parts of the armor of God together. When we don’t operate out of God’s Truth, we’re conceding to losing the spiritual battle. Truth is more than information. God’s Word is the sword of the Spirit, but without the Belt of Truth, our sword falls at our side useless. (Eph. 6:10-18)

Love speaks God’s truth. Not in a mean-spirited argumentative way or beating someone over the head with the Scriptures, but when Satan in the desert or demons in His ministry confronted Jesus, the only response He gave was to quote Scripture.

God’s Word is a weapon that the Holy Spirit will use to give life to the world, but we must know our Bible to use it and live by it effectively. Polls show that there are 28 million less Bible readers than a year ago!! I pray that doesn’t include you.

72% of Pastors don’t think the Bible is absolute.

1 in 6 Christians can’t identify current events with Scripture.

Many Christians base their faith on soundbites like: God is love. God loves everyone. Love the sinner not the sin. They’ve let this misconception of “theology” slide into “tolerance of sin” without realizing that when someone chooses to keep on sinning and not separate from that behavior, it becomes who they are!

God hates sin. He sent His One and Only Son Jesus to the cross to provide a way out of sin not to live in sin.

Love without truth is not love. We hurt people when we don’t share the truth. If I love someone, I need to bring the truth to him or her so that they can be free from the wages of sin, eternal death.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31

If there’s no truth, there’s no conviction, no repentance, no salvation.

You will never read in the Bible about God or Jesus tolerating sin and God was very specific in Romans 1:18-32 to outline exactly what is sin. He also said that for those who choose to keep on sinning, He will turn them over to the life they’ve chosen and the resulting consequences. He did NOT say it’s OK to keep on sinning and I’ll tolerate it.

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

There are six things the Lord hates—
    no, seven things he detests:
17 haughty eyes,
    a lying tongue,
    hands that kill the innocent,
18 a heart that plots evil,
    feet that race to do wrong,
19 a false witness who pours out lies,
    a person who sows discord in a family. Pr. 6:16-20 NLT

Jesus Is Love but He Never Compromises on the Truth!

Let me close with an example of how Jesus lovingly shared the truth with a Samaritan woman living in sin.

Jesus first found common ground with her in asking for a drink of water while she was at the well, even though He a male Jew traditionally wouldn’t be talking to a Samaritan woman.

Then He intrigued her curiosity by suggesting she ask Him for living water and an opportunity for eternal life.

Next, he tactfully, called out her sin of living with a man who wasn’t her husband, which she admitted. Then He told her . . .

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:4-42

Jesus didn’t tolerate her sin, He confronted it. He showed her love by leading her out of her sinful life. He offered her eternal life, and she shared her faith with others who became believers! Who do you know living in sin who needs to be loved with the Truth? Tolerance hurts, Truth loves.

Let the Word of God guide you, not the culture.

2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Matt. 18:2-4 NLT

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June 13, 2022
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How Do We Love Those Who Reject God and His Ways?

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“Loving people unconditionally is not the equivalent of affirming their life choices at the expense of biblical truth.”

The above quote was a post on Facebook by my friend Susan Reinhardt. I was browsing through posts while praying for the Lord to reveal what to write about this week when I came across Susan’s post and realized this was a theme the Lord had been giving me all week.

Since the leak of the SCOTUS draft opinion by Justice Alito on the unconstitutionality of Roe v Wade and stating that abortion legislation should be decided in the states not at the Federal level, we’ve all watched the screaming, yelling, vulgar signs, and vile words of the Pro-Abortion activists taking to the streets. Pro-death protests that women should be able to kill their own children have occurred nationwide, many involving violence. Protesters have targeted the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices, vandals have targeted at least five pro-life crisis pregnancy centers across the U.S., and Catholic churches have been threatened and vandalized.

Sometimes, the protestors admit to being Satanists, but Satan is rejoicing with all the protests. I’m sure many of the protestors are women who’ve had abortions and are seeking affirmation to alleviate their guilt. Then there are those who are just following the crowd or it’s something they were told was a woman’s right and they’ve never even considered that there’s another person involved with rights, the innocent baby. Or they haven’t read or heard details of the torture and gruesome realities of abortion.

You hear some of these activists interviewed and they’ve been force-fed by the media, Planned Parenthood, liberals, Elites, and Democrats that even though science proves there’s a living feeling moving human baby waiting to be born, they’ve believed the lie that it’s not really a fellow human being until its first breath. Lies! Lies! lies!!!

Satan is the father of lies and deception and without the Holy Spirit to help discern the truth, lies can seem believable. Just like Eve was deceived in the garden by the serpent Satan who had her doubting and questioning, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Gen. 3:1

 I’ll admit when I saw the angry, illiterate, disgusting words and signs of the protestors, I was appalled, repulsed, and angry. I’m sure many of you are too. Then I saw a sign one young woman was holding, “I wish my mother had aborted me!” The only emotion I felt was sadness for her. What little self-worth does someone possess who would rather they were never born so she’s championing that no child should have the right to life.

I realize that most of the protestors do not want to have a rational conversation, but that young woman was crying out for help. Was anyone listening? She needed someone to tell her there’s a God who created her with a purpose for her life and He wanted her to be born.

My mother once said to me, if she had known all the illnesses she was going to have in her lifetime and might pass on to her children, she wished she had never had me! I’ve never forgotten her words and I can’t imagine that I wouldn’t have had a chance to live the life I’ve enjoyed or accomplished what the Lord had planned for me, especially to be known and loved by Him. That poor girl holding the “I wish I hadn’t been born sign” needs to know she is loved by God.

A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. 2 Tim. 2:24 NLT

Our Battle is Not Against the Protesters or Pro-Death Advocates!

I heard a woman who leads a pro-life organization interviewed and it was pointed out to her how the pro-life groups are the exact opposite of the pro-abortion groups. Pro-life groups are typically smiling, praying, singing, holding life-affirming signs, and trying to have rational conversations with those who oppose them. When asked how she tries to combat the pro-abortion groups, she said many of them don’t really understand the barbaric torture of abortion and I wish we could just have open discussion with them. But most of the time that’s impossible. They just want to scream and not listen.

You may have seen last week during a Congressional hearing when a young pro-abortion activist said she believed that yes men can get pregnant!! It was hard not to just laugh at the absurdity of her belief, but it begs the questions: What did she not learn in biology? Where did she receive her brainwashing? Is she mentally ill or mentally incompetent? Could she give an example of that ever happening in history? Satan smiles at her illiterate response and God cries.

In the same hearing, a Planned Parenthood doctor wouldn’t answer if she had seen or removed baby body parts during abortion. Even she couldn’t verbalize the horror of what she does as a “doctor” while killing a baby in the womb. A doctor that took an oath to save life works for an organization whose sole purpose is murder under the false pretense of “healthcare.”

The Democrat led White House is already preparing for the nationwide violence they expect from their radical constituents when the Roe v Wade ruling is announced. Instead of telling their people not to riot or take violent actions and to be sure their protests are legal and peaceful, they’re expecting violence because that’s what the liberal left, progressives, and Elites do when they don’t get their way.

The woman leading the pro-life organization understood the evil one has deceived these people. Paul clearly tells us in Ephesians 6:10-13 who the real enemy is and how to combat him!

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

As Christians, What Should We Do for These Lost Souls?

Satan is blinding people to the truth and he’s unwilling to let the captives go. Even some news commentators have mentioned that the opposition we’re watching by the pro-abortion advocates and government officials seems like a spiritual battle. They can’t deny what their eyes are seeing.

Our job as Christians is to pray that the truth would set the captives free from this satanic woke cult that has invaded their heart, mind, and soul and replaced their sense of reason, common sense, and morality! I know that’s hard to do when they can be so belligerent and their actions are so detestable, but they’re lost and destined to eternal damnation. As my pastor says, they are our mission field. When we think of it that way, I don’t know about you, instead of feeling angry, I feel sorrow and even compassion for them. They are who Jesus came to save not cast aside as hopeless!

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10

Many people have the false belief that because Christians are to display Christ’s love, we cannot call out people’s sin. But that makes no sense. How will they ever be convicted that their actions are wrong if someone doesn’t help them see the truth? Jesus did not agree with sin. He went to the cross to provide forgiveness for sin, but the sinner has to acknowledge their sin and repent, and then they can receive forgiveness and be blessed with eternal salvation. That’s the Truth and Good News of the gospel and there is no shortcut.

3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. 4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. 2 Cor. 4:3-4 NLT

It’s easy to love those who think like we do and agree with us, but it’s challenging to love our enemies or those who don’t believe like us. We are living in times when the spiritual battle between good and evil is prevalent and evident. As Christians, we must stand up for good and abhor evil. We don’t go along with evil to get along. We don’t accept evil so as not to make waves, even when it’s happening within our own family. We stand up for truth and morality always! We keep showing the love of Christ while not condemning but not condoning.

I share being in this exact situation in my book Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter: Hope, Help, & Encouragement for Hurting Parents. My daughter never doubted my love for her, but she also knew that I didn’t agree with her actions at the time. They weren’t ok just because she was my daughter. I prayed daily for her for six years, never agreeing with her sinful choices but always loving her with a mother’s unconditional love and one day she accepted Christ as her Savior. Today, she’s a godly wife and mother.

I know many of you are in a similar situation right now. You have a loved one who is making bad choices. You still want a relationship with them but you don’t know how to do this without agreeing with the way they’re living. My advice to you is don’t change or waiver from your beliefs and truths. You stay consistent in living biblically but you show kindness, compassion, and love rather than condemnation. Keep communication open. Keep praying. Keep loving. Keep close to Jesus. Don’t waiver in your faith or beliefs, but don’t stop loving.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Eph. 4:15

 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good! Romans 12:9 NLT

To learn more about the Purple Sash Revolution.

To read my recent post on abortion There’s Hope for America Breaking Free from Demonic Paganism!

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Since next Monday is a holiday, there won’t be a Monday Morning Blog but God willing, I’ll be back June 6th! Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.

May 23, 2022
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Our Forever Valentine: Jesus, Our First Love!

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Since my Monday Morning Blog is posting on Valentine’s Day, I thought it was only appropriate that we talk about love. Typically, we think about romantic love on this day, but there are so many different aspects to love.

Remember in grammar school sharing Valentine’s cards with classmates. You might’ve had a crush on one of them, but mostly you were trying to collect as many cards as you could that day. I’m not even sure kids still are allowed to share Valentines today but it’s a fun memory for many of us. It wasn’t about love, but more about friendship and camaraderie.

February is the month of valentines, but it’s also National Heart Health month, and a good time to reflect on your diet and exercise regime. At least, be sure if you’re eating chocolates today, it’s dark chocolate! At our house, we’re hoping the snow will start melting and there will be glimpses of spring and warmer weather.

When I think about true love, my mind always goes to Jesus. Yes, my husband and I make plans to do something special to celebrate our love on Valentine’s Day, but we both know that Jesus is our First Love. We wouldn’t have made it these twenty-nine years through the stresses and trials of a blended family and other devastating life issues if we hadn’t put Jesus at the center of our marriage, but most importantly, at the center of each of our lives. We don’t want to ever forget that Jesus Christ is our First Love!

In Revelations 2:2-4, Jesus admonishes the church in Ephesus that even though they were a dutiful church following all the religious rules and ceremonies, they had forgotten who they were serving and why they were even a church. They weren’t showing or exemplifying the love of Jesus.

 I [Jesus] know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Removing the lampstand meant they would stop being an effective church. And if we’re not careful, the same thing could happen to us in our personal lives too! When we forget the love of Jesus that burned in our heart when we first gave our life to Him, Jesus says . . . no matter how many Bible studies we attend, how perfect our attendance is at church, or how much we volunteer and tithe. . . none of it matters if we’re motivated by duty and not love.

A pastor once asked the children how we know Jesus is alive today. Their answer was He lives in each of our hearts. That’s true love!

So whether you’re single or married, I want to share three important points about what love has to do with our witness for Jesus, especially as we look at the tumultuous times we live in today.

Christians Need to Love Each Other

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. John 15:16-17

Jesus was talking to his disciples here and we are Jesus’s disciples now. God chose us to bear fruit and we can’t have a message of love if we don’t love each other. We can’t have dissention in the church or among church members. Sadly, Satan has used the current political and pandemic unrest to pit brothers and sisters in Christ against each other. In the Bible, there are no Democrats, Republicans, Progressives, Liberals, Conservatives, vaxxers or anti-vaxxer, maskers or anti-maskers.

There is only One timeless Word of God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Heb. 13:8

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

As born-again Bible-Believing Christians, we’re appointed to go out and bear testimony to the world together. We should unite as one front! Whatever allows us to share the Good News that Jesus saves, we’re for; whatever prohibits that freedom or tries to silence us, we’re against.

Whatever upholds the teachings of the Bible, we’re for; whatever prohibits or alters those teachings, we’re against.

We stand together for the sanctity of human life, marriage between a man and a woman, God creating us as men and women, and we’re not afraid to lovingly bear that fruit for Jesus.

Anything separating us on those issues isn’t from God!

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Peter 1:22

Christ Loves Us with a Never-Ending Love

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:38-39

Sadly, we see divided churches, families, friends . . . all proclaiming to be Christians yet separated by issues where there should be unity, and Satan wins because our witness is compromised. That’s a shame! There is a lost world that really needs to see the love of Christ displayed through a body of Christ that shows the love of Christ and agrees on what it means to be a Christian. But we know today that’s not the case. The good news is that nothing we do can ever separate us from the love of God for those who have truly accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I had a man on Facebook tell me once that he had been a Christian for 50 years, read the Bible numerous times, been to church, talked to pastors, attended Bible study groups, but now has decided Christianity is a farce, doesn’t work for him anymore, and told me I needed to know that Jesus is not returning. Two things came to mind: (a) You can leave Jesus, but He will never leave you. (b) You can be a Christian in name only, but never have experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ, your First Love, which I wrote about in last week’s blog, A Society Crumbles That Doesn’t Recognize Sin. His words were so harsh I fear he was in the latter group.

I remember singing a song as a little girl, maybe you remember it too: “I have the love of Jesus love of Jesus down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay.”

How Much Love Do You Have to Give?

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. John 3:16-18 The Message

Do You Love Jesus Enough to Share Him with Others Or Are You Keeping All the Love To Yourself?

Another woman on Facebook wrote this:

FB woman: There are many other religions who do not make Jesus/Satan part of their belief system. All destined to damnation? It’s a big world out there and much of it overcomes the negative.

Me: “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

FB woman: Written by John a century later, an evangelist trying to convert the world to his new religion. PBS and History Channel do wonderful educational shows on the origins of the Bible. Check them out. I have read the Bible extensively Janet, I just haven’t drawn the same dark conclusions. And the shows I mentioned are created by scientists and historians with no agenda but discovery. I wouldn’t want to rest my eternity on what someone else says.

This woman was very confused, but I was able to talk with her a little and point out that John was actually with Jesus during His ministry, not a century later, and she was resting her eternity on what scientists and television said rather than letting God speak to her through the Bible. Maybe I made some headway. My heart breaks for those misled by the liberal progressive godless agenda with their many “belief systems,” and for Christians who have forgotten their First Love.

Love says we will take the time to share the truth, wherever and whenever we have the opportunity.

I often have to remind myself that Jesus died for the liberal mainstream media and the godless radical progressives. It’s my job to let them know the gospel in a loving way. It’s up to them to make the choice. I don’t try to convince them, because you can’t reason with someone blinded by evil.

If they’re not following God, they’re following Satan. Those are the only two roads; there is no middle path. But now they’re accountable for knowing there is another way and maybe someone else will share a little more love down the road. Who knows, they just might decide that heavy load of anger, bitterness, revenge, meanness, bullying, lies . . . whatever has turned their heart so hard . . . just isn’t worth carrying around anymore.

No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced,
    but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others.

4 Show me the right path, O Lord;
    point out the road for me to follow.
5 Lead me by your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God who saves me.
    All day long I put my hope in you. Psalm 25:3-5 NLT

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Cor. 13:4-5

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You might also enjoy another blog How to Have a Date with Jesus!

February 14, 2022
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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.

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here and I will respond.

December 6, 2021
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A 2021 THANKSGIVING Prayer

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Many of you read my blog regularly, some are new followers. Even though we may never have met, while others I know quite well or we’ve had the opportunity to meet and fellowship together, I want you all to know that when I write this Monday Morning Blog or my monthly newsletter, you are on my mind. I’m wondering what you’re thinking about world events and how I can encourage you with the Word of God.

Often you tell me that a particular blog was just what you needed to hear and we both know that it was God using me as His messenger. To God be the glory. I appreciate all of your comments and always acknowledge with a response.

As I read Paul’s letter to the Philippians, I noticed the heading for Chapter 1:1-11, 27-28 in the NIV translation: Thanksgiving and Prayer. I thought how appropriate to personalize this passage as my Thanksgiving Prayer for all of you.

My Thanksgiving Prayer Personalized from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians in Chapter 1

Adapted from Philippians 1:1-11 (NIV and NLT)

To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus . . . Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every time I think of you my dear family, friends, peeps, church family, readers, blog/newsletter followers, brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow authors and speakers, I give thanks to our God. In my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the first day you heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began a good work within and through you and me, will carry it on until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

So it is right for me to feel this way about all of you for you have a special place in my heart. Whether I am chained to the computer writing the next book, blog, or newsletter, or defending and confirming the gospel and the value of mentoring, all of you share in God’s grace and ministry with me. We’re connected spiritually through prayer, praise, communication, and social networking. God knows how much I love you and long for you to be blessed with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: That your love may overflow more and more and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to focus on what really matters, so that you may be able to discern what is best for you and those you love and cherish, and live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—as you guide, encourage, parent, serve, and mentor others. Be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

Live a Life Worthy of the Gospel. Live as Citizens of Heaven. Adapted from Philippians 1:27-28 (NIV and NLT)

Whatever happens, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I know you personally or never meet you but only hear about your great work, I will know that we stand firm in one Spirit, and one purpose, fighting together as one for our faith, which is the Good News of the Gospel. Don’t be frightened or intimidated in any way by those who oppose or offend us. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that even God himself will save us.

For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this battle together. You and I have struggled in the past, and we’re very much still in the midst of it, but don’t lose hope. Jesus will be back soon! Praise God, Hallelujah!

Personal Message From Janet

This Thanksgiving, and every day, go and represent Christ to a depraved and fallen world, so that because of your witness and sharing the Good News of Jesus there will be more saved than lost (“destroyed”) when Christ returns. We see how eminent His return could be as we watch our world seemingly spinning out of control, but we also remember that God is always in control and He is close to all who seek and love His guidance and direction.

Let’s make this Thanksgiving a day filled with joy, peace, and gratitude for the many blessings we each have because we serve a great and glorious God who will never leave us or forsake us.

Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. Ps. 95:1-2 NLT

Let this be our prayer together as we gather with others this Thanksgiving: For I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 1 Cor. 2:2 NLT

I thank God in remembrance of each of you.

Happy Blessed Thanksgiving,

Janet

PS: You may have noticed that there was no Monday Morning Blog last Monday, November 15. We had a hectic week prior and enjoyed a wonderful time with guests visiting with us from California over the weekend and I just ran out of time and energy. Occasionally, I will take a break and I’ll try to give you warning, so there also will not be a blog the Monday after Thanksgiving, November 29. But I will post my monthly free online About His Work Ministries Newsletter on that Monday. If you don’t already receive the newsletter, you can sign up on my website or contact me and we’ll add your email address.

Here are several previous Thanksgiving blogs for your enjoyment:
Love Your Body—How to Survive Holiday Eating
Love Your Body—Give Yourself the Gift of Health

If you receive this blog by email, please leave a comment here and share what you’re thankful for this year. I read and respond to all comments.

November 22, 2021
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