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Only Jesus Can Cancel the Debt that Saves Your Life!

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Biden has created quite an uproar, and rightly so, by claiming he has the power to cancel college loan debts to the tune of 500 billion dollars by charging taxpayers, many who either have paid off their own college loans or never accrued them. He’s not even going full socialist by taking from the rich to give to the poor; he’s going true communist by taking from everyday Americans and in some cases giving to the rich who could pay off their own loans.

The timing is obvious as his poll approval is in the tank and this is a last-ditch effort to buy votes before the November elections. But so many people are enraged at this political ploy, that I’m sure it will backfire with lost votes because it doesn’t matter what political party you support, the 89,000 armed new IRS agents are coming for you and your money. It’s estimated this college loan forgiveness sham will cost every American family $2000. I wonder if that includes the students receiving the loan payoff since they’re taxpayers too!

I had already decided to write on a similar topic, when Biden just confirmed I was on the track God wanted me on.

Originally, I was going to write on cancel culture and how God isn’t worried about it because He was the originator of cancel when He sent His Son Jesus Christ to the Cross to cancel our sin debt. But there’s one important stipulation—you must believe that Jesus not only died on the Cross, He also arose three days later and returned to Heaven to prepare a place for all who would believe and follow Him.

There is no charge to you.

There is no charge to anyone else.

There is no price you must pay for forgiveness of your sin debt.

Your slate is wiped clean! You’re free to live a life honoring Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Such a hard concept for many to grasp and yet so many need to hear this Good News.

For those who are foolishly comparing corrupt Biden unjustly wiping away college debt to Jesus Christ being nailed to a cross in a bloody gruesome death to justly wipe away our sin, I say blasphemy. Anyone who would even try to compare the two is not a Christian and knows nothing about becoming a Christian, but this is certainly an opportunity to inform them of the biblical facts of salvation.

Going to college and incurring enormous loan debt is a choice. It was not forced or imposed on students. It was a life choice, a commitment, and a responsibility they accepted and willingly agreed to pay back.

Jesus went to the cross willingly to offer everyone the choice of accepting Him as their Lord and Savior without imposition or coercion. It’s a choice with no payback. You cannot pay for or earn salvation by good works or effort. You simply trade in your sin-filled life by surrendering your heart to Christ to receive the gift of eternal salvation and eternal life. It’s a commitment. It’s free. It’s available to everyone!

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom. 6:23 ESV

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Eph. 2:8-9 ESV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Rom 10:9 ESV

For those who make the life-saving, life-changing choice, Jesus has already paid the price. No one can make the choice for you or wipe away your sin debt, only Jesus.

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

Why Has College Become So Expensive in the First Place?

One of the things I’ve said about this ridiculous and unrighteous attempt to make innocent people pay for the college debts of others is that the Biden Administration loves to talk about getting to the “root cause” of issues like the outrageous onslaught of people flooding over our borders from other countries. The obvious root cause: Biden is inviting them here!

Why don’t the liberals investigate the root cause of exorbitant fees to attend colleges? Why don’t they investigate the tuitions that require college loans? Many colleges are already receiving federal subsidies. Who holds them accountable for what they’re charging students? These same over-priced institutions are the beneficiaries of all this government bailout and will only be encouraged to raise the tuitions even higher. The root cause: College administrators are also usually large Democrat donors with a huge liberal lobby.

The Biden Administration thinks they’ll win favor with the public by just throwing money at the problem and appeasing their donors and college lobbyists. Sad that college has now become a political tool and students and their families the political football. And we the taxpayers are being tackled and squeezed to pay for debts we didn’t incur.

What Are Others Saying?

I was interested to read what Christian financial expert Dave Ramsey had to say about this latest maneuver from the White House. Here are some of his comments.

“This is so intellectually dishonest.”

He added, “If [student loans] are so bad that you have to cancel them, then why are you continuing to make them? You should at least stop making them before we start forgiving them,” he added of student debt arrangements.

“It’s an obvious political ploy.”

He called the student loan industry “predatory.”

“If you are a $10,000 student loan person and you make less than $125,000, and [your loan] is getting ready to be forgiven — we’re happy for you. We want good things for you,” he said, referencing the notion of getting out of debt as quickly as possible. However, he said, “we’re also simultaneously angry on behalf of the people who paid off their loans and feel screwed — and you know why they feel screwed? Because they got screwed. That’s why.”

So, everyone out there “just paid off all of these other people’s student loan debt, and your grandkids paid them off.”

“This slide toward socialism … is out of control. This is a failed presidency,” he said.

Ramsey also said of the student loan handout, “What about the guy who takes out a student loan next week? What [is Washington] going to do to help him?”

Dave Ramsey reacts to Biden’s student loan handout: ‘Obvious political ploy’ | Fox Business

Former Secretary of Education William Bennet told FOX Business host Maria Bartiromo . . .

“This is a terrible, terrible, idiotic idea.”

“College charges and university charges have gone up so much higher than the rate of inflation — and we will see another increase now by the people who run these institutions.”

Bennett added, “We just keep chasing our tail. Keep increasing the grants, the loans — and they will keep increasing the charges. As soon as the money’s there, they will find a way to charge you for it.”

“The people who paid down their debt — they get nothing out of this. The people who never had debt — they get nothing out of this. The welders, the hairdressers, so many others — they get nothing.”

“So here you are, making a move that’s very bad for the economy, in terms of inflation,” said Bennett. 

“You’re favoring an already advantaged class over others,” he said. 

“You’re violating a basic contract agreement and obligation — when you take on debt, you should pay it back. You signed the paper — you took it on. And you’re not helping people who did the honorable thing.”

The “moral hazard here is pretty obvious,”

And “the only reason we can think that a person would advance this,” Bennett said, “would be for political purposes. They’re hoping that the people who get this [loan handout] will vote for Biden. That’s the only conclusion you can draw.” William Bennett on Biden’s student loan handout plan: ‘Terrible, idiotic idea’ | Fox News

Susan Rice’s response to those who have paid off their debt: “Yes, those who have paid their loans back deserve to be credited, that’s fantastic. That’s to their credit.” What a tone-deaf statement. Is she talking about crediting them back all the money they paid to fulfill their contract? No, I didn’t think so!

While Pelosi admits their going to selectively “relieve people of their obligation.”

How Will God Use This for Good?

The Democrat party has become godless and evil. But let me encourage you that God is bigger than all of this! He sees everything.

Biden doesn’t have the authority to cancel college debt with the stroke of a pen on an executive order. He’s not a king. He’s a President that must follow the Constitution and present this proposal to Congress, which he’s choosing to bypass. So far, they’re letting him, but we can only hope there are soon legal challenges to this obvious pay-for-votes bribery scheme. The Bible warns . . .

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. Pr. 22:7

Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings does have authority to cancel our sin debt and just like I did in this article, the discussion about this unjust extortion by the Biden Administration opens the door for us to discuss the free salvation available through a relationship with Jesus.

We simply turn the conversation to sharing our testimony and the Gospel with those who haven’t yet asked Jesus to forgive their sin debt.

We present the living Word, Jesus Christ, to a dying world.

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom. 10:13

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August 28, 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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We’re In a War of Words with the Devil

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Have you noticed how many new words and terms suddenly and slyly invaded our cultural vocabulary? Most do not reflect conservative or Christian values and yet we find ourselves using them because the left has done a very good job of normalizing them.

I heard a statement recently that jarred my thinking: “Marxists makeup words and their own definition to create a narrative, then those words become mainstream!” Yes, mainstream even among Christians. Marxism attempts to brainwash the population into subconsciously accepting their terms and narrative.

George Orwell said, “The best way to control a society is to control its language first!”

Think about some of the words and narratives introduced into everyday conversation and given new meaning. Here are just a few:

Abortion, the killing of unborn babies in the womb, is redefined as “healthcare.”

Marxists’ goal is depopulation. Fewer babies born, less people to have to worry about converting and controlling. The Old Testament describes evil enemy invaders opening up the bellies of pregnant women to kill their babies. Today with modern science, they just kill the baby in the womb. The Marxists have convinced enough people that this is a good thing, that they’re rioting and protesting in the streets that unborn babies must be killed!

Anarchists are vandalizing and attacking pregnancy centers devoted to helping mothers carry and deliver their babies, even with Socialist members of Congress like Senator Liz Warren incredulously demanding that pro-life pregnancy centers should all be destroyed! Don’t let babies be born and their mothers cared for after birth, but only give women a choice to kill their babies! How barbaric and yet revealing of the progressive left’s agenda.

The Marxist narrative around abortion has led to terms like “Pro Choice,” which should actually be “Pro Murder” because the baby certainly has no choice to live. Pro Choice makes murder sound righteous. Marxists are anti-family and killing the next generation of babies certainly reduces the number of families and the population.

We counter Pro Choice with “Pro Life,” but we should actually say “Pro Babies” or “Pro Babies’ Life.” Or Pro-family! We need to clearly articulate what lives we’re talking about and why they must be saved from slaughter.

Black Lives Matter or BLM came into prominence during George Floyd’s death. A criminal and drug addict was suddenly immortalized with statues and because of the bad acts of several policemen, all police were demonized. BLM is a self-described Marxist organization that professes in their manifesto that they want to dismantle the traditional family and what better way to gain control than to eliminate law and order. Large corporations and private citizens blindly contributed to this Marxist organization. You were criticized if you said the reality that All Lives Matter or pointed out that BLM has done nothing for the black community!

How did a Marxist group get so much power in America? Brainwashed Americans gave it to them.

Defund the Police and reimagine the police became the motto of left liberals and radical activists. When did you ever think you would hear that being a battle cry? What happens when there are no police? Crime escalates while domestic terrorists like ANTIFA and BLM rule the streets in a Marxist takeover of society.

Woke wasn’t a real word until 2017 when it was actually added to the dictionary meaning a slang word for social justice, another Marxist term. Both concepts came from the BLM movement. Woke is now mainstream indicating politically left-leaning ideology.

Stay woke has become words of action. Woke activists call on others to stay woke. Wokeness has now invaded every area of our life, starting with the White House and throughout government, the media, corporations, and education.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Systemic Racism theorists erroneously argue that American social life, political structures, and economic systems are founded upon race, which (in their view) is a social construct. Systemic racism, in the eyes of critical race theorists, stems from the dominance of race in American life. https://criticalrace.org › what-is-critical-race-theory

In announcing a legal coalition, Conservative Chris Rufo rightly explained that “Critical race theory is a grave threat to the American way of life. It divides Americans by race and traffics in the pernicious concepts of race essentialism, racial stereotyping, and race-based segregation—all under a false pursuit of ‘social justice.‘” He continued: “Critical race theory training programs have become commonplace in academia, government, and corporate life, where they have sought to advance the ideology through cult-like indoctrination, intimidation, and harassment.” What is critical race theory? | Fox News

CRT or racism is also invading the military and being taught to our children in schools that some are the oppressed and others are the oppressors, determined by the color of your skin. What better way to take over a population than to divide them by race and have them attack each other.

What does God say? There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28

Transition is a new favorite word from the left. They never clearly articulate what we’re transitioning to but it’s clear by their actions that they’re attempting to transition America from a democratic Republic to tyrannical Marxism.

Then we come to the homosexual movement, which is not only being normalized, but also legalized and accepted. Sadly, many Christians are okay with that. Well God isn’t! You won’t find any of the following terms in the Bible, but He does give His thoughts on homosexuality.

Gay and Gay Marriage–never sanctioned or intended by God. We even let them hijack our blessed rainbow.

4 “Haven’t you read,” he [Jesus] replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? Matt. 19:4-5

Gay pride—God hates pride, especially when you’re proud of your sin.

Transgender, cisgender, binary and whatever else they come up with—God made two genders, male and female that’s it. Everything else is concocted by man’s confusion or evil desires.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Gen. 1:27 ESV

Drag Queen Crossdressers—there’s even a verse in the Bible against this demented practice, which is now also being used to groom young children.

A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this. Deut. 22:5

As if it wasn’t enough that this ungodly movement has been normalized in our society, they’re now invading our schools teaching sinful lifestyles to small children. We can’t teach the Bible in schools, but the left is eager to teach Satan’s sexual perversion to impressionable children.

Are you seeing a theme here? When my grandson was only nine-years-old, he said it was obvious that we were not supposed to be homosexuals because how would we repopulate the earth?! He knew that it takes a male and female to have babies, even though the crazy liberals would have you believe that men could get pregnant.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Gen. 1:27-28 ESV

The homosexual agenda and all its variants are designed by Satan to create confusion and normalize demonic practices and policies to destroy the American Family and the population.

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. 1 Cor. 14:33

Notice the new plague Monkey Pox is transmitted through homosexual men having sex with each other, especially those with multiple partners. That’s exactly how AIDS was first transmitted. Do you think God is trying to get our attention that our society is blindly falling into Satan’s web?

What’s a Christian to Do and Say?

Another new term that stops many people from speaking the truth is cancel culture. If you mention any of the points I made above, you risk being canceled, maybe from social media (another new term) or from your liberal friends or family, but other times your job may actually be at risk if you refuse to accept the craziness or use the wrong pronouns.

I was alarmed that so few Christians and churches were celebrating the overturn of Roe v Wade! Were they afraid to actually admit that they were opposed to murdering babies? We should’ve heard an eruption of praise and joy that reached the heavenlies, yet I didn’t even see many professing this amazing act of God among my Christian friends on social media. Does Facebook and Twitter hold so much power that we don’t speak openly for fear of being canceled? If you follow me, you know I won’t succumb to that kind of tyranny. None of us should!

We have a choice as Christians. Do we tolerate this insanity, or do we refuse to be indoctrinated and dominated by satanic demonic ways of life? Do we go along to get along or do we boldly stand for truth and what we believe, even when it’s uncomfortable and yes even when it’s with family members. Their eternal life depends on it.

We all have different styles of communication and God will give us the words and the timing if we let Him.

I recently heard this interesting quote, “Nice is not a fruit of the Spirit!” If you were facing Satan face to face, you wouldn’t conform and be nice to him. You wouldn’t nicely give him an audience, so he could try to tempt you like he did Eve or intimidate you from speaking truth.

As Bible-believing followers of Christ, we aren’t mean or unkind, but we are unashamedly bold and brave! We don’t back down from speaking and standing up for God’s truth! If not us, then who?!

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 1 Cor. 13:6

The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help.
16 But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil; he will erase their memory from the earth. Ps. 34:15-16 NLT

Jesus was not nice to demons and did not tolerate sin or evil. He boldly spoke the truth and called the Pharisees just what they were, vipers.  

34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. Matt. 12:34-35

33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Matt. 23:33

And Paul wrote in Romans 1:24-27 to those who wanted to live intentionally sinful lives.

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.

And for those who are championing the murder and sexualization of children, Jesus didn’t hold back.

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

God couldn’t be any more direct: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Is. 5:20

I’m writing a blog for Crosswalk “What Is the Biblical Truth Behind Gender Roles.” When it posts, I’ll share it with you. But for now, pray about what God wants you to do in this rapidly changing social environment.

In summary, let’s stop using Satan’s words and ideologies and just call it what it is, evil. Another writer asked me once if they could reprint a blog I’d written about abortion murdering babies in the womb, but she asked if she could change the word murder because it might offend some. You can imagine my response was that the article needs to stay as written or don’t use it.

That’s exactly my point: Don’t be so afraid of offending others that you stop opposing evil!

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. Acts 14:3

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July 25, 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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6 Ways to be ‘Slow to Anger’ in Today’s Crazy World

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My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. James 1:19

Our nation seems to be teetering on the brink of its own destruction. The news is full of smash and grab theft, car jackings, senseless killings, criminals allowed back on the streets, illegal aliens bused and flown into our communities, government tyrannical mandates and lockdowns, an ongoing politicized pandemic, boys allowed in women’s sports, nonsensical defund the police campaigns, and now even an after-school “Satan club” in Illinois just to name a few of the atrocities and assaults on our peace. Daily we’re bombarded with contesting angry voices deluging the airways, media, public, and even private discourse.

You might feel your anger swelling up just reading the opening paragraph!

Undoubtedly, we’ve all experienced anger in our personal lives too! Someone says or does something we don’t appreciate. The car won’t start. Our child throws a ball through the neighbor’s window. A prodigal makes bad choices. Spouses get into a tiff. Our candidate loses.

Often, anger turns inward at ourselves. Maybe we didn’t get the job promotion. We failed the test, made a bad decision, or didn’t perform up to our own expectations . . . .

Anger bubbles up when we feel out of control. Occurrences like a pandemic that we can’t change make us anxious and mad.

Sometimes, we’re even angry with God. Perhaps for the loss of a loved one, a troubled marriage, a devastating health diagnosis, infertility, or God not answering our prayers the way we want.

Anger can range from annoyance and strong displeasure, to actual hostility that could lead to violence and bodily harm. Some people become so upset that it results in physical symptoms or panic attacks. Their face might turn red, neck vessels bulge, clenching of fits, pounding heart, sweating, muscle tension, blood pressure rises, ulcers, and even tremors or twitches.

Frequent uncontrolled anger can damage your health. Anxiety weighs down the heart. Proverbs 12:25

Many horrific acts occur and hateful words hurl in a moment of anger. You can’t retrieve actions or words. Uncontrolled raging anger makes us, and everyone around us, miserable. Repressed anger eats away at us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Anger is a legitimate emotion felt in the moment that requires quick resolution, which is why James warns us to be “slow to anger.”

What Does Being ‘Slow to Anger’ Mean Biblically?

Anger can be a root and result of conflict; and left to fester, it opens the door for potential sin. Anger isn’t necessarily a sin, but how we handle it can lead to sin: “in your anger do not sin” (Eph. 4:26).

The world is watching Christians to see how we react to unfavorable situations. Do we have the peace that passes all understanding that helps us express our emotions in a Christ-like way or do we react the world’s ways.

Are we able to show restraint and respond with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, or do we explode with a temper tantrum during adversity?

The Greek word for self-control is sophron meaning, “to be of a sound mind, sane, curbing one’s desires and impulses, temperate.” Our witness to our family, friends, community, and most importantly unbelievers that God is in control can be tarnished with one fit of rage.

The Context of James 1:19

James addresses his letter in 1:1-2 “To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters when you face trials of many kinds.”

Commentators believe he was writing to fellow Jewish Christians from the early Jerusalem church, who were scattered to other areas after the death of Stephen (Acts 8:1) and were encountering hardships as they relocated and sought safety.

James’ theme relates to practical ways to maintain and display faith as a Christian while experiencing trials, temptations, and persecution. He gives us tools and reasons for keeping the lid on anger that could so easily arise: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” (James 1:19-20)

Why Did God Give Us Anger?

Notice that James isn’t telling us never to be angry, but to be slow to anger. Anger shouldn’t be an instant go-to response.

James specifies that “human” anger isn’t a righteous retort for Christians. In the Greek, and in some translations, it says, “a man’s anger.” Human anger usually has a self-centered motivation of how something affects us personally. It’s often accompanied with hurtful, even vicious words and can resort to inflicting harm.

Conversely, we might be righteously angry that someone we love turns their back on a relationship with Jesus because we know they will be lost for eternity. Or they choose a sinful lifestyle that will only bring them pain. But our anger should spur us on to persistently pray for their salvation and change of heart not berate them.

Mark 3:5 shows Jesus’ anger and grief because the Pharisees did not believe he was the Messiah. He was concerned over their lack of faith and their example to others. “He looked around at them [the Pharisees] in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts . . .”

When Jesus cleared the temple of the moneychangers and animal sellers (Matt. 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-18; John 2:14-17), His anger stemmed from the lack of respect for God and His Holy temple. He also reprimanded sinful behavior from those who were taking advantage and gouging people who had come to Passover and needed an animal to sacrifice. And it was taking place on God’s holy ground!

He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” Matthew 21:13 (NLT)

Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” John 2:17 NLT

Jesus became angry for the right reasons but was never malicious, hurtful, or hateful.

We can and should have righteous anger over evil like abortion, child trafficking, and injustice, but just being angry serves no purpose other than a display of emotion. We can let our anger lead us to asking God what He wants us to do to stop evil. Then obey and do it.

Scriptures to Help Manage Anger

God knew that in our humanness, we would experience anger and so He gave us a number of ways to restrain from acting inappropriately. Here are just a few Scriptures addressing managing anger.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. Psalm 37:8

People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness. Proverbs 14:29 NLT

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. Proverbs 15:18

Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Proverbs 22:24-25

Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end. Proverbs 29:11

An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins. Proverbs 29:22

Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool. Ecclesiastes 7:9 NLT

As surely as a north wind brings rain, so a gossiping tongue causes anger! Proverbs 25:23 NLT

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27 NLT

The Benefits of Being Slow to Anger

Unbridled anger unleashes an offensive attitude that often expresses itself in a barrage of vile words and/or aggressive behavior. While there may be a quick release of angry emotion, others may become victims of the residual fallout.

If we internalize and bury anger without dealing with the root cause, bitterness festers and our heart hardens.

Learning how to follow the smart advice of James to listen carefully before speaking and respond slowly while controlling our emotions could be the answer to many of our physical, social, and relational concerns.

6 Ways Christians Can Respond to Anger Today

1. Turn off Mainstream Media

Did you know the media outlets design the news to raise your blood pressure, anxiety level, and anger meter? The media wants you to engage angrily with the person or situation their reporting on—they want you mad. Occasionally, they’ll throw in a feel-good story, but usually it’s a series of “breaking news” that’s not substantiated or factual . . . just hearsay, opinions, or “maybes” . . . and you walk away worried . . . angry. Maybe even yelling at the screen!

The media purposely creates headlines to generate a negative response and the more salacious the title, the more people read the article. Even as Christians, we’re being conditioned right along with everyone else.

Dave and I like watching NEWSMAX and Flashpoint because they present current events from the perspective of how we as Christians should respond.

Keep current but not conflicted.

2. Refrain from Heated Discussions

We’re all guilty of saying to someone, “You make me so angry!” Maybe that person does typically irritate us, but it’s our choice whether or not we give into our anger.

If you find yourself raising your voice, change the subject. If you can’t debate without being disagreeable, don’t forge on trying to win the argument. It’s not worth it.

3. Don’t Engage on Social Media Over “Hot topics.

People feel free to express their anger on social media with words they probably would never use in person. I’ve experienced angry, vulgar, mean, vicious lashing out comments on my blogs, Facebook, and Twitter posts. It’s alarming that people live with such angry, bitter thoughts in their minds and hearts and use hurtful, X-rated words in their daily lives.

Ignore them. Engaging online with someone you may not even know isn’t a good use of time or energy. Avoid following people whose posts and comments tend to annoy you.

4. When Possible Take Positive Action

We may think that we can’t make a difference or change circumstances that upset us, but often we can. When you’re doing something about a situation and you feel a sense of hope and purpose . . . your anger subsides.

5. Recognize Your Angry Signs

Next time you’re starting to feel angry, notice your trigger body and mind reactions. Acknowledge that you’re getting angry. Stop, take a deep breath, and if possible step away from the source of anger. If you’re in the midst of a heated discussion, let the other person know you’re not walking away in a huff; you just need to take a break.

6. Release Your Anger to God

Pray and ask God what you should do regarding the source of anger. Defuse and release your anger to God. You’ll feel a sense of peace.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

Let’s Pray

Father, I know I grieve You when I respond harshly in anger. It seems I do this most often with those close to me where I feel comfortable letting my emotions show unchecked. I need Your help to make me aware of the trigger signs that my anger is rising to a level where I’m going to verbally attack someone instead of taking the time to consider what I’m about to say and how it will be received.

I want to be a good example of Christian love to my family and those in my sphere of influence. I know that angry words and a mean demeanor is not the Christian image that I want to portray. I can’t speak of the love of Jesus and later act unkindly towards someone.

Please help me develop patience and learn how to channel my emotions in directions that are pleasing to You. When presented with ways I can rectify injustice or evil so prevalent in our world today, give me the courage and boldness to take actions that are helpful but not hurtful.

Lord please remove any unrighteous thoughts from me and use me to Your glory. In Jesus name I pray, Amen

We live in a fallen world. This isn’t Paradise yet. So there will always be something or someone in the world that could be a source of our anger. But remember: Jesus didn’t display “man’s anger” but the righteous indignation of God! Let us go and do likewise.

Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Psalm 30:4-5

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January 17, 2022
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Christmas Isn’t About a Tree; It’s About God’s Love

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You may have read the title to this blog and said, “Of course, I know that!”

I love having my grandchildren help us decorate our Christmas tree and I especially enjoy the lights. Hubby puts the lights on a timer so they come on in the morning before I wake up and go off at night after I’m in bed. I wake up to our beautiful lit tree and enjoy it until I put my head on the pillow at night.

So this blog is not a discussion of whether or not Christians should have Christmas trees. As long as we’re not worshipping our tree but instead worshipping our Lord, Christmas trees bring joy and beauty to our festive celebration of the birth of Jesus.

What I do want to talk about is the recent trend by evil deranged people burning down Christmas trees. Several well-meaning media reporters equated the burning of the trees as an attack on Christians because Christmas is a Christian holiday. I think it’s a stretch to think the arsonists were going after Christianity, but I did appreciate that the newscasters were emphasizing that Christmas is a Christian celebration.

But at the same time, there was a subtle implication that Christmas trees signify a Christian Christmas. Burning down a Christmas tree is a sick twisted even satanic crime, but a decorated tree doesn’t represent our faith. Our faith is in the birth, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Christmas I went through radiation for breast cancer, we didn’t have a Christmas tree. I didn’t have the energy to put one up, but we did set up a mini manger scene. A friend brought us some hay from the feed store, we laid a baby doll wrapped in a blanket on top of it and put stuffed animals all around. That’s where we placed our presents.

For years after, we set up the manger scene along with a Christmas tree. It helped display the real meaning of Christmas to the grandchildren and anyone who visited us.

Make no mistake, Christianity is under attack by the liberal secular cult of “wokeness,” and that is something we do need to be aware of and resist. It doesn’t usually present itself in the form of burning flames that we can visually see but in a new religion of man-made “social justice” rules founded on various groups’ definition of how we should live, not on how God and the Bible designed for us to live.

If we’re not careful, their “statement of woke faith” can begin to creep into our own thinking as we start using their language, terms, and subjecting ourselves to their atheistic beliefs, which oppose and reject God.

In an article “Where ‘woke’ came from and why marketers should think twice before jumping on the social activism bandwagon,” Andrew Sullivan was quoted on what he wrote about woke social awareness as an equal but opposing position to Evangelical Christianity:

And so the young adherents of the Great Awokening exhibit the zeal of the Great Awakening […] they punish heresy by banishing sinners from society or coercing them to public demonstrations of shame […] We have the cult of social justice on the left, a religion whose followers show the same zeal as any born-again Evangelical.

In an article by Jose Gomez, How Should Christians Respond to the Challenge of Wokeness, Gomez wrote, “secularization means ‘de-Christianization.’ For years now, there has been a deliberate effort in Europe and America to erase the Christian roots of society and to suppress any remaining Christian influences.

“In your program for this Congress, you allude to ‘cancel culture’ and ‘political correctness.’ And we recognize that often what is being cancelled and corrected are perspectives rooted in Christian beliefs — about human life and the human person, about marriage, the family, and more.

“In your society and mine, the ‘space’ that the Church and believing Christians are permitted to occupy is shrinking. Church institutions and Christian-owned businesses are increasingly challenged and harassed. The same is true for Christians working in education, health care, government, and other sectors. Holding certain Christian beliefs is said to be a threat to the freedoms, and even to the safety, of other groups in our societies.”

What Can Christians Do to Avoid Wokeness

1. Don’t use their terminology.

I heard Mario Murillo speaking on how Satan is using wokeness to infiltrate our language. The example he used was “transgender.” This is not a word or a concept we would find in the Bible, and we know it’s unbiblical because God only made male and female. He does not create anyone trans or gay. I would add fabricated terms like “gender fluidity” “gender identity” “nonbinary ” “gender confusion” again are words and concepts with no legitimate substance or credible meaning because our Creator God is not the God of confusion. If anyone is confused, where do we as Christians know they should turn? To God and the Bible.

Yet, we as Christians probably find ourselves falling into the trap of using the same language as the woke cult instead of confirming what we know to be true. Why would we do this when they certainly do not use our language in fact their mission is to destroy Christianity because we are anti everything they are for.­­­­

2. Share the Truth in Love

Christmas is a perfect time of year for Christians to proclaim loud and clear what we believe and know to be true: Jesus came into the world as a baby to be our Savior from the sin that so easily entangles us in this world. He came to call sinners, which is everyone, to repentance. He came to seek and save the lost and give His life as a ransom for all who would believe in Him.

With love and joy we can share that Good News. We pray for those who are lost because we know that all things are possible with God. We don’t enable sin but help the broken and broken-hearted to find healing.

We’re never ashamed of what we believe, we don’t compromise or succumb to the world’s ways or give credence to their misconceptions and misguidedness. We pray that God will give us wisdom to live for Him in every area of our life. When people encounter us, they should see the pure love of God. Our every action, thought, and response motivated by love because God is love and God lives in us.

We celebrate CHRISTmas boldly, bravely, and broadly whether or not we put up a Christmas tree. We love our neighbor, praise God for forgiving our sins, and prepare for the imminent Day of His return. Christmas is God’s answer to the Fall. Christmas is redemption. Jesus came to earth to show us the way of love. The Devil can’t manifest in the presence of God’s love.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 1 John 4:7-12, 17

Here is another interesting article about Christians and wokeness. How Should Christians Think About “Wokeness”? (frc.org)

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December 13, 2021
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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.

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December 6, 2021
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Don’t Just Be an Admirer of Jesus Be a Follower!

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In last week’s blog, Yes, You Can Be Biblical and Political, I mentioned that our Couples’ Group is studying Dr. David Jeremiah’s new book, Where Do We Go From Here? In Chapter One, “A Cultural Prophecy—Socialism,” Dr. Jeremiah had a section that resonated with my spirit, Resolve to Follow Christ and Not Just Admire Him! Take a minute to reflect on that concept.

What differentiates a follower of Christ from an admirer? Words we associate with a Christ-follower are self-sacrifice, service, surrender. We can observe outward reflections of a follower of Jesus by their life-style, countenance, choices, actions, language, inner joy, love, and willingness to profess their faith in Christ and belief in the Gospel at all times under all circumstances.

An admirer might be in awe of Christ as an example of a good and moral man and the sacrifice He made for us, but they’re not willing to actually follow in His footsteps. They claim to be a Christian, but they’re not willing to completely surrender their entire life to Jesus when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient. The fruit isn’t there. They may go to church every Sunday, serve on church committees, sing in the choir, take communion, and intellectually understand faith, but don’t let faith and the Bible define their life.

Dr. Jeremiah quotes Soren Kierkegaard who put it this way: “The admirer never makes any sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how he praises Christ, but he renounces nothing, will not reconstruct his life, and will not let his life express what supposedly he admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength to be what he admires.”

I think about Biden meeting with the Pope last week and claiming that the Pope told him he was a “good Catholic.” What does that mean anyway? Who determines what’s considered good? By whose standards?

Jesus doesn’t care if we’re a “good” Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, non-denominational, or a member of any organized denomination. Following Jesus is not about a specific church, religion, theology, or doctrine. He’s looking for one thing in His followers: a changed and surrendered heart. Salvation. Have you given your whole heart to Jesus? Have you received the Holy Spirit? Do you live out your faith everywhere and anywhere? Are you willing to pick up your cross and follow Jesus?

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. Luke 9:23-24 NLT

3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3 NLT

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

What It Looks Like to Follow Jesus

When we’re truly born again, we’re a new person. We’re granted a new life in Christ and everything changes, if we’re willing to be a follower and not just a sideline admirer of Christ. Paul explains the life of a Christian best in Colossians 3:1-11:

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your[a] life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,[c] circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,[d] slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Maybe Biden, who I’ve only ever heard speak of himself as a Catholic not a Christian, and liberal progressive Democrats who claim to be Christians, admire Christ but not enough to follow Christ and make the political sacrifice of turning the Democrat party away from supporting and financing the murder of babies! Not enough to acknowledge that God only made two genders. Not enough to admit that God said marriage is between a man and a woman. Not enough to stop lying! Not enough to surrender their life to Holy Jesus, instead of the idol of political power!

Any politician, regardless of party affiliation, who is willing to be a Christ-follower will be hated and persecuted by the world but he or she will not back down because they understand that their authority comes from the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, not the government, and they will govern accordingly.

Here’s how Jesus put it:  The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. John 15:19 NLT

Biblical Examples of Christ-Followers

In Everyday Brave: Living Courageously as a Woman of Faith, Chapter 17 “Brave Loyalty,” I offer examples of women willing to follow Christ no matter what the cost. Here is the opening to that chapter:

“In our current culture, it’s no longer cushy and easy being a Jesus-follower or loyally defending Jesus. Standing firm in our faith takes grit, determination, and fierce loyalty. When society tries to dissuade and discourage us from remaining true to Jesus, we must stand firm with bravery and courage, even it if means standing “alone”—God is always with us cheering us on.

Jesus was followed by many courageous women disciples, like Joanna, Susanna, and others who also went against the cultural norm to loyally support Jesus’s ministry, even as it became more and more controversial and his life, therefore theirs too, was in eminent danger. We can look to these women disciples as prime examples of faith and devotion to Christ and emulate them in our own lives as believing disciples today, regardless of daunting circumstances.”

Here’s a quick review of these women, which you can read about in Matt. 27:55-61; 28:1-10; Mark 15:33-16-8; Luke 8:1-3; 23:44-24:11:

Joanna was a wealthy woman accustomed to the glamour and prestige of living in Herod Antipas’s court as the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward and manager of his vast estate. When doctors couldn’t help her, she sought out Jesus who healed her and she became a devoted Jesus-follower joining a group of women who followed him on his journeys and financially supported his ministry. We don’t know what her husband or Herod thought of this, but she took the risk and joined Susanna and Mary Magdalene and a number of other women who traveled with Jesus during his ministry and became part of his inner circle.

These women bravely went against cultural norms to care faithfully for Jesus and the disciples. They selflessly gave of their time, energy, and resources to serve and support Jesus’s ministry, even though everyone knew the Pharisees threatened to expel Jesus’s followers from the synagogue. This didn’t deter them. They were committed Jesus-followers not mere admirers.

Current Example of Christ-Followers

If you’re not familiar with In-N-Out Burger, like Chick-fil-A, they are a Christian owned restaurant chain with Scriptures printed on all their cups and wrappers! I encourage you to read this article where the Jesus-follower owner, Lynsi Snyder, shares her faith and her testimony. Here’s the opening paragraph of the article: “In-N-Out Burger hasn’t necessarily been secretive about the fact that it’s a Christian establishment. It has printed John 3:16 on the bottom of its cups. However, like Chick-fil-A before it, the owner and heiress of the burger chain, Lynsi Snyder, is letting everyone know just how much Christ means to her publicly.“

Sometimes we need to engage in righteous rebellion. It is God and not the government that we obey when there is a moral conflict between the two. You may have read recently that several In-N-Out Burger restaurants in California were shut down because they refused to be vaccine police. Here is their statement:

“The reason for the closure is that In-N-Out Associates were not actively intervening by demanding COVID-19 vaccine or testing documentation and photo identification from each dine-in Customer before serving them. Rather than acting as enforcement agents, our Associates were allowing our Customers to be responsible for their own compliance with the divisive local regulations,” In-N-Out Chief Legal and Business Officer Arnie Wensinger said in a statement.

“We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government. It is unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant Associates to segregate Customers into those who may be served and those who may not, whether based on the documentation they carry, or any other reason,” Wensinger said in a statement.”

In a tweet the Chief legal and Business Officer also wrote:
“We fiercely disagree with any government that dictates that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronage their businesses. This is clear governmental overreach and is intrusive, improper, and offensive.”

We Must Live As Jesus-Followers, Not Mere Admirers!

I’ll leave you in closing with another quote from Dr. Jeremiah:

“To persevere in an increasingly socialist culture, you’re going to have to decide whether to be a Christ-follower or merely a Christ-admirer. . . . Set your mind fully on the hope you have in Christ, and be ready to pay any price, challenge any foe, and confront any lie for the sake of the Gospel . . . At any moment, Jesus Christ will descend from heaven for His people. We haven’t long to wait. But until then, we need to understand what the age requires—and we need to do what the Lord commands.”

When Christ returns . . .
the government will be on his shoulders. . . .
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this. Isa. 9:6-7 NLT

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November 1, 2021
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America Has Forgotten Its First Love!

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When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan. Pr. 29:2 NLT

The word wicked means those who are morally wrong, hostile to God, anti-God and that describes many who are in authority today in our country.

A country that denies God as its Creator and moral Compass is headed for doom and disaster.

Our founding fathers knew that and so they based the Constitution and Bill of Rights on biblical godly principles. They were men who went before the Lord seeking His guidance. Our country was established on Judeo/Christian values that recognize God created the earth, He created each of us, and people who honor their Creator will succeed. Those who try to deny God and go against the laws of God will fail miserably.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Gen. 1:1 NLT

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Gen. 1:27 NLT

I always laugh at the term “climate control.” Man doesn’t control the climate, God does. Man can barely attempt to predict the weather. But man has no say over when it rains or when there’s a drought or hurricane or the sun comes up in the morning and the moon at night.

Only God knows when He will say it’s time to end the world as we know it. Only God!

35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,, but only the Father. Matt. 24:35-36

Many have foolishly tried to play God or give the impression that they had godly powers, always for personal gain, but eventually they’re unveiled as the charlatans they are.

America Has Forgotten Its Identity is in Christ Alone!

Last week Jason Whitlock, a black Christian sports journalist, podcaster, and host for Blaze Media for the show Fearless with Jason Whitlock, appeared on the Tucker Carlson show and clearly put into perspective what’s happening in our country today. Here’s what he said:

“We should be taking our identity in Christ not in skin color. Not in these superficial things your sexual preference or your gender identification. All of these identities have taken precedent over what used to be our primary identity: Are you a believer? Are you a Christian? Once you identify as that, now I can see the commonality between Tucker Carlson and Jason Whitlock.” [Tucker nods his head in agreement and says “Right”]

Jason continues, “We’re both believers. We’re both Christians. We both love our country. Those things that unite us they’re telling us to disavow and embrace things like skin color and sexual orientation, gender identity, those things that separate us they want us to lean into and lean away from God. That’s the mistake we’re making here in this country.” 

Jason gave a sermon right there! And who is the “they” he’s referring to trying to divide us? I wrote about them last week in my blog: We’re No Longer One Nation United Under God. It’s those on the left, including Biden and his administration, who want to turn America into a Marxist/Communist country. The only way they can succeed is to create division among the population and denounce and marginalize Christian Conservatives and our beliefs. They want to deny God!

Jesus wrote about what happens when a church forgets its first love. Imagine what’s going to happen to a country that forgets its first love!

4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.” Rev. 2:4-5

Removing the lampstand from a church meant that they would fail as a church. That’s exactly what’s going to happen to our country if we forget our first love, Jesus Christ. America will fail.

We’re Watching Authoritarianism Replace Democracy in America

The latest attempt is to silence parents protesting in School Board meetings about the racist, sexual deviant content of what their children are being taught and the fascist attempt to mask all children and even force them to be vaccinated, which has already started in California.

Biden has made it clear the government is coming for our children by characterizing parents who want to have a voice in what their children are being taught as potential domestic terrorists, when it’s the government using a fascist game plan to suppress opposition and take over our country.

I hope that parents aren’t intimidated and continue to take a stand for protecting their children from indoctrination and harm. Don’t let the government have your children. Be respectful and passionate but let your voices be heard. God’s word, not the government, is the final authority and benchmark on how parents are to raise their children.

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Pr. 22:6 NKJV

Next, the Biden administration wants the IRS to monitor every person’s bank account over $600! Oh, and that will require 80,000 new IRS employees, but of course only those who’ve been vaccinated. They want to know if you buy a new couch or computer or sell something on EBay! They’re not going after tax fraud in big business and the wealthy; they’re scrutinizing the middle class struggling to survive or spying on where you give donations.

The left think they’re clever the way they hijack the conversation and come up with their own definition of terms. Justice is really revenge. Equity disguises discrimination. Public safety justifies mandates. Women’s health legalizes murder. Their main goal is to control words and repeat them enough until we start using their words and thoughts too. We must not let that happen.

3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 2 Peter 3:3 NLT

So What Do We Do?

We keep close to God by reading His Word DAILY and praying asking what He wants us to do. He has a plan for each of us. We were all born for such a time as this.

I’ve said many times that God has a purpose for you and me. You’ll not experience fear or frustration when you feel like you’re doing something to make a difference.

“When people quit talking to God, they quit talking to one another. And people who quit talking to God soon get very lonely and depressed. They are actually lonely for God, hungering for communion with Him, yearning for His close love and nearness; but instead of recognizing these needs as spiritual, they blame their lack of fulfillment on their husbands or wives.” ― David Wilkerson

While it’s terribly infuriating and makes us even angry to watch the damage our current administration is doing to our country and our world relations, they are showing their hand clearly and God told us this would happen.

In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 we read, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power. “

Gather together with those who love the Lord like you do for encouragement and support, but also use whatever platform the Lord gives you to share Jesus with those who don’t know Him. Like Jason Whitlock, look for open doors to explain why you can still smile and be hopeful in the midst of the turmoil and chaos we see all around us.

I end conversations and encounters with everyone and anyone cheerfully saying, “Have a blessed rest of your day.” It’s amazing the responses I receive, all positive. Some seem a little surprised but say thank you. Others reply, “You have a blessed day too!”

Remember we don’t belong to some secret society! Just the opposite! Jesus came to earth that all might be saved and He told us not to hide our light but to let it shine brightly for all to see.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matt. 5:14-16

That’s exactly what Jason Whitlock did on public TV and it’s what we can do in our private life.

Interesting that the prophet Isaiah could’ve been talking about America when he wrote,

I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord. Isaiah 43:11-12 NLT

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October 11, 2021
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How Does God Define Evil Vs. Good? How Do You?

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In last week’s blog, Take the Spiritual Battle Seriously Don’t Become a Casualty, I had this line: “It’s the battle between good and evil, Jesus and Satan, which will continue until the time of Jesus’ return.”

I talk often about the battle between good and evil and assumed that we would all have similar thoughts on what is evil. I was wrong!

Let me back up a bit. On Facebook, I saw a meme that caught my eye and I was going to ask permission to use it in last week’s blog. It said something to the effect that “We’re Way Beyond Democrats vs Republicans or Liberals vs Conservatives, It’s Good vs Evil.” I thought yes, I agree and went to the page of the meme creator and discovered that person didn’t see evil through the same lens that I do. Obviously, I didn’t use the meme.

But it started me thinking that there’s no longer a universal view of evil. When I mentioned this to my pastor, he said yes because we’re now in the era of what was once evil is now considered good and good is evil. God knew this would happen in the world.

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

The Bible tells us “The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3).

So that raises the question: What does God consider evil?

Evil Was Not in God’s Original Plan for Us

We first learn of God differentiating good and evil during the creation of the earth: 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gen. 2:9 NLT

Then God set boundaries for his first human creation, Adam. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Gen. 2:16-17

But as we know, the serpent Satan tempted Eve to eat from the tree anyway, “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Gen. 3:5

Sure enough, after Eve and Adam gave into the temptation from Satan and ate from the tree, “And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.’” Gen. 3:22

Sadly, people chose to do more evil than good. “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. Gen. 6:5-6

So next, we have the story of Noah building the ark and God wiping everyone but Noah’s family off the face of the earth with the flood. Something God said He would never do again, even though the Israelites did tempt Him, “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.” Gen. 8:21

And there it is. We’re born knowing how to be evil and have to learn how to be good. God gave us godly rules to follow in how to live a good life pleasing to Him in the 10 Commandments. (Ex. 20:2-17) But seeing that people couldn’t even live by these ten simple instructions, God went silent for 400 hundred years.

Then Came Jesus!

God sent His one and only Son to die for our sins so that we could receive undeserved forgiveness and redemption from our inevitable evil sins, with one stipulation: You must ask God for forgiveness, repent, and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Then the Holy Spirit will enter your heart to guide and lead you to do good and not evil. (Acts 2:36-38)

Evil still tries to invade the lives of those saved by grace. Satan will always try to tempt us, just like he did with Jesus in the desert. But like Jesus, by faith and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, we can resist. Sadly, some may give in momentarily to the sin, but a believer always knows in his or her heart that they’re sinning.

Just as I wrote in last week’s blog, from the beginning of time, the source of all evil is Satan. The Bible often refers to him as the “evil one.” When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. Matt. 13:19

Jesus goes on to help define for us evil in Matt. 15:18-19: 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Evil.

Moral evil can exist even without external action. Murder is an evil action, but it has its start with the moral evil of hatred in the heart (Matthew 5:21-22). Committing adultery is evil, but so is the moral evil of lust in the heart (Matthew 5:27-28).

As Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland said, “Evil is a lack of goodness. It is goodness spoiled. You can have good without evil, but you cannot have evil without good.”

Anything that contradicts the holiness of God  (Psalm 51:4) or anything committed against God i.e. unbelief, idolatry, blasphemy, is evil.

 As God’s children, we are to live by this command: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

But people often make up their own definition of evil based on personal opinions that might be contrary to yours. When I went to that Facebook timeline that I mentioned earlier, I saw that my conservative beliefs were considered evil by that person. But the Bible tells us this will happen:

Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Luke 6:22

It’s a Choice: Jesus or Satan

Here’s a hard truth but it’s real: anyone not following Jesus is following Satan. They are the only two spiritual forces in this world. It doesn’t mean unbelievers are satanic but they are influenced in thought, mind, and actions by Satan and they need our prayers for an awakening.

I know you’re thinking: But I know some really “good” people who aren’t Christians. If Jesus doesn’t have their heart, than Satan does. I’m not saying this, Jesus did about those who reject Him: This is the verdict: Light [Jesus] has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19

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

Paul emphasized, But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth [Jesus] and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. Rom. 2:8

Job’s introduction in Job 1:1 describes whether he is a follower of God or Satan, the only two options then and now. Not how he looked physically but his spiritual persuasion: “There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.” (NLT)

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[a] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Col. 1:21-23

God wants all of His creation to turn from evil to good, but He doesn’t force it. Even Jesus didn’t make a mandate that all should be saved. It’s a choice.

Evil is disbelief in God. OR belief in God but rejecting Him. OR a believer trying to justify ungodly thoughts and actions. We’re watching all of this take place in our culture openly today.

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. Rom. 1:28-31

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. Ps. 14:1

BLM and Antifa are blatant self-described atheists, therefore motivated by Satan’s evil, not God’s good, but look at all the people, including misguided Christians, supporting them and their violence.

What about the ungodly laws being passed and supported not only by many in government, but by constituents, even some Christians. There is no way to legitimize the murder of babies in the womb as “good.” But many do. Evil. Satanic.

A deceived Minneapolis DFL called the evil burning of a police precinct “an act of pure righteousness.”

Mutilating the bodies of children in the name of “gender identity.” Evil. God created each of us in the image of God, male or female and He doesn’t make mistakes. (Gen. 1:27)

CRT is evil. Many school boards are calling it “good.” God looks at our heart for goodness and character, not the color of our skin that He gave each of us. “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Sam. 16:7

Child and sex trafficking, smuggling of drugs across the border. Evil. 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 NLT

I could go on, but I hope I’ve prompted you to not just look at issues politically or emotionally, but spiritually. What’s in the hearts, motivations, and actions of those promoting issues and ideas? Then prayerfully ask God what He sees as “good.” What does He want you to encourage and support. How does He want you to live.

 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Eph. 5:15-17

Finally, dear brothers and sisters,[a] we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. 2 Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer. 3 But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. 2 Thess. 3:1-3 NLT

Note: There was an error in last week’s blog link to Dr. Charles Stanley’s “Dressing in Your Spiritual Wardrobe.” It is corrected now (and here), but I was surprised that my husband was the only person to alert me to the mistake. If ever a link doesn’t work or you see a typo, please contact me so I can correct it.

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August 16, 2021
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