A Modern Woman's Perspective On The Kingdom of God on Earth


August 22, 2015

It's Time The Church Stepped Outside The Box

     Before you think that I'm about to counsel that we abandon our Biblically-endorsed doctrines or compromise with the culture on any matter that is not found in, authorized by, or based on the Bible, I think you know me better than that.  But I would like to ask you to consider stepping outside of the box of our man-made suppositions on how the Church or the Body of Christ is to fulfill our commission to the unsaved of the world.
     Perhaps it is just me ... I have always been unconventional in my thinking, and I have a natural propensity for looking at alternative ways to accomplish the same goal.  I tend to look at things from a different perspective than the majority of people, and when it comes to the Church, I feel that the Holy Spirit is telling me we need to throw off our biases of how Church is to be conducted, and be bold in our efforts to reach those who desperately need Christ's saving grace in these last days... before it is too late!
     That is not to say that we give in to changing attitudes on the divinity of Christ, or the authority of the Holy Bible, or question if only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved.  That might sound like a ridiculous assumption, but believe it or not, many churches and denominations are doing just that!  For instance, a 2011 survey of pastors in the Presbyterian Church revealed that 41% said they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that Jesus was the only way to salvation, while 45% said they disagreed or strongly disagreed.  This was the opinion of PASTORS!  That is defying the core of Christian faith and doctrine!  All you have to do is open the door to other ways to salvation, and that reasoning leads you to acceptance of all kinds of biblical sin within the church.  Once you've compromised on that core principle, it is easy to accept anything that the Enemy presents.
     So, this leads me to the conclusion that something is terribly wrong in how the Church is conducting its mission.  Even if you are reading this and thinking, "That's not my Church.  We're sound in our teaching and preaching of the Gospel Message.  We know that salvation comes through the Word, and the Word is Jesus", let me ask you this ... Is that enough?  If so, why are there so many people within your church walls that are unhappy and confused and unfulfilled?  If that model holds true, shouldn't everyone who proclaims themselves saved by the blood of Jesus be able to overcome their fleshly sin at some point and share that message of salvation with others? But do they?  How many are continuing to fight their own battles, over and over, and never get to the task of saving others?
     Let me take it a step further ... if "doing Church" as we've been doing it was accomplishing Christ's goal for reaching the world and saving them from the Adversary and their own fleshly nature, would we have 55,000,000 dead fetuses; or would we be seeing the destruction of God's model for marriage and the family; or would a website that advocates infidelity make $55 million per year?  Shouldn't we have made a bigger impression on the culture than we have?  After all, look at the impact that only 12 disciples made on the Middle East, parts of Asia and even into Europe!  Yet a Pew Research survey in 2014 revealed that 70.6% of Americans identified themselves as Christians -- that's over 225,000,000 "professed disciples of Christ", folks!  I think you would agree with me that based on the state of our society, we haven't done a very good job.
     Can we agree that in order to minister to and rescue lost souls we need to be doing more than preaching and teaching the Word of God from within the four walls of a church building?  And can we agree that preaching and teaching are not enough?  Oh, the Church is good at telling us who God is, but I think we have failed to tell our fellow Christians about who Satan is; and how he can not only fool and deceive the world into following after him and his servants (just look at our culture!), but he can also oppress Christians with false messages about our limited role in defeating him.
     When Jesus gave the Disciples their commission to share the Kingdom of God, He was very specific about the tools He was giving them to accomplish that job ... preaching and teaching the gospel; healing the sick; and casting out demons.  Until we realize that Satan wants to keep us from recognizing that Authority and Power, we will never be able to deliver non-believers from their broken state.  And until we deliver ourselves from this false understanding, we will be ineffective in  delivering and feeding others.
     But here's the catch ... because we have kept to the same old model of the Church, we have been indoctrinated into thinking that as long as we are associated with a Church denomination or sit in a pew every Sunday, then we are doing the right thing; and there is nothing wrong with how we see ourselves as the Church.  But all the letters Jesus wrote in the Book of Revelation were to the Church, and they were mostly about what needed to be corrected!
     I believe that all we have to do is take an honest look at the state of this country -- our schools, our entertainment, our government, our communities and families -- and we will see that maybe it is OK to step outside the box (and exchange Church ritual for unconventional methods) in order to reach all the lost souls.  It isn't hard to realize that the majority of lost souls are outside the church walls.  The personal experience of my husband and myself has taught us that principle.  The Holy Spirit has brought us into touch in recent weeks with two young women who have both led lives plagued by the Enemy. They have been oppressed in varying degrees, and one is desperately seeking to know all she can about God, spending many hours reading the Word and asking countless questions in her journey towards deliverance and salvation.  I am in awe of her desire and her commitment.
     The other's struggle is even more difficult.  She has huge trust issues, and while she says she wants to pursue God and be rid of the overwhelming oppression in her life, she is struggling against forces that physically won't allow her to open her Bible.  Every time she makes the effort to read the Word of God, she feels a weight on her body that keeps her from being able to turn a physical page.  The Enemy is trying to convince her that she is not worth our trouble.  Of course, that is a false and damaging message!
     I can honestly tell you that these are two young ladies whose souls need to be snatched out of the hand of the Enemy, and through God's sovereign means, they have been brought into our lives.  I can further tell you that we would never have encountered them inside the church.  I truly feel that, as The Church and the Body of Christ, we are running out of time to fulfill our commission; we have but a short time to win souls and claim victory over Sin.  It's time to step out of the pew, engage the lost, and start winning souls!  With the help of our Lord and Savior, we can be assured victory!

Matthew 10:7-8    And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.



   

August 21, 2015

Immoral vs Amoral

     If you have been uncertain if we live in modern-day Babylon, then this should settle any doubt you might have.  I found it sadly ironic that the website that tempted over 32 million people to cheat on their spouse by advertising "Life is too short.  Have an affair", is now accusing the group that hacked them of being "immoral."  Spokesmen for Avid Life Media (ALM), which owns the tempting website Ashley Madison, released the following statement:

     This event is not an act of hacktivism, it is an act of criminality. It is an illegal action against the individual members of AshleyMadison.com, as well as any freethinking people who choose to engage in fully lawful online activities.
     The criminal, or criminals, involved in this act have appointed themselves as the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society.
     We will not sit idly by and allow these thieves to force their personal ideology on citizens around the world. We are continuing to fully co-operate with law enforcement to seek to hold the guilty parties accountable to the strictest measures of the law.

     In case you are unaware of what this story is all about, Ashley Madison is a website where anyone can register for an account and make contacts with other unfaithful people in order to cheat on their spouse.  In other words, they facilitate extramarital romance and sex for married people.  And in case you cannot believe that such a site exists, perhaps their profitability will shine a light on exactly how popular it is ... their 2014 pretax profits have been estimated at $55,000,000.
     A month ago, the site was very publicly hacked and the hackers, who call themselves The Impact Team, leaked snippets of the compromised data and threatened to publish names and salacious details of as many as 37 million customers unless Ashley Madison and its parent company were taken down.  A couple days ago they made good on that threat.  But did you note how quick ALM is to call the hackers "the guilty parties"?
      The blame game that ALM is trying to establish attempts to follow this logic ... The Impact Team dumped a huge cache of data containing customer information, including email addresses and credit card details on the Dark Web.  And what is the Dark Web?  It is sort of an "internet black market" which cannot be accessed with the usual search engines such as Google, instead requiring the use of a covert internet browser called TOR.
     As their statement proclaims, ALM would like you to believe that they are a target of cyber vigilantism, and claim that the hackers have appointed themselves as "the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society," Avid Line Media said in its statement. "These are illegitimate acts that have real consequences for innocent citizens who are simply going about their daily lives."
     Excuse me?  Did they say "innocent" citizens?  How is anyone innocent who is caught actively seeking an opportunity to cheat on their spouse?  Since when is one innocent who thinks that having an affair is OK?  And even if you don't believe that marriage is a sacred and holy institution in the eyes of God, you can't tell me that there isn't a part of every human being on the planet that feels a sense of wrong in betraying the trust of a loved one!
     So which are they, these millions of men and women who feel it's OK to commit adultery, and these company executives who proudly promote this temptation?  Are they immoral or amoral?  First, we have to understand the difference.  Immoral means ‘failing to adhere to moral standards.’ Amoral means ‘without, or not concerned with, moral standards.’ An immoral person commits acts that violate society's moral norms. An amoral person has no understanding of these norms, or no sense of right and wrong. Whereas amoral may be simply descriptive, immoral is always judgmental.
    So, let's just cut to the chase, shall we?  As sad as it is to admit, I am beginning to discern that our moral standards are becoming a thing of the past.  Is anyone even interested in being "moral" anymore?  If you are a moral person, you are concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.  It seems to me that the parent company of Ashley Madison doesn't give a flip about whether the behavior they promote is right or wrong, good or bad for the people it affects. They're just loving the money!  And the millions who have signed on as subscribers to the site?  I think they fit both descriptions; they are both immoral and amoral --- they have abandoned any moral standard they might have had, and obviously aren't concerned about violating any code of honorable behavior.
     And even if you have a sense about what is right and wrong, or have determined what you think is good or bad for society, would you agree with me that our standards have slipped?  Our acceptable guidelines and patterns of living are becoming widely divergent.  It is obvious that the standards between secular and faith-based groups are moving in opposite directions; but even as Christians, we are seeing a division among those who strictly adhere to God's standards, and those who want to merge with the culture.
     As bad as all this sounds, there are still some in the business world who are resisting the lure of Ashley Madison.  I think we can all agree that pornography is a pervasive, yet common, cancer upon the human soul --- even Subway's ordinary spokesman, Jared, has pleaded guilty to porn and soliciting sex with minors.  Did you know that statistics say that 68% of young men, and 18% of young women view porn on the internet at least once a week?
     But take heart!  Even in the midst of this shocking revelation, a site such as Ashley Madison which promotes adultery still has the power to offend.  (Remember that adultery is listed after murder in the Ten Commandments).  Ashley Madison is banned from South Korea and Singapore, and the justice secretary in the Philippines said she would like to do the same.
     And despite the parent company's 2014 ad budget of $34 million, Microsoft's Bing search engine will still not run Ashley Madison ads, although Google will.  Many TV stations in the U.S., including ABC, and all stations in Britain won’t run its spots.  Cisco classifies Ashley Madison as an adult site, making it easier for corporate IT to block access for employees.  Ryanair turned down Ashley Madison's offer of 120,000 euros to paint the Ashley logo on one of its planes that flies to Spain (site of possible vacation trysts).  But here's the other side of that coin ... Ashley Madison has found plenty of willing media outlets, including MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.
     It will be interesting to see where this story goes from here.  Will society view the hacking through a superficial, self-centered lens, and condemn the release of personal data as a criminal act?  Will we also bemoan the loss of privacy and the rights of individuals to lead their lives as they desire, without the fear of disclosure or judgment?  Or will it be a wake-up call to the sinfulness of our culture and the need to examine our souls and re-establish measures of virtue, and right and wrong?  In the end, how we choose to view this situation, and how we choose to answer those questions will reflect the moral compass of our nation, and its ultimate success or failure.  

Thanks to the U.K. website "The Telegraph", and Forbes.com for much of the facts and statistics on this post.

Isaiah 47:10   You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”

August 20, 2015

What Were They Thinking?

   
     I'm sure the readers of this blog were just as astonished as I was when I heard that the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts made changes to their permanent parenting plan form.  Very quickly after the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, the AOC revised their forms to replace "Mother" and "Father", with parental designations "Parent 1" and "Parent 2".  WHAT?!?!?  I thought to myself, "isn't it enough that this wicked generation desires to expunge gender from marriage ... now they want to rid parenthood of gender, too?"
     As appalled as I was at that decision, I was equally elated to hear of the adverse reaction to that insane decision.  Apparently, the AOC received so much criticism for this amendment, that they have reversed their decision, and once again will legitimately recognize a mother and a father as parents of a child ... for now.
     I understand that we are likely to see our society rush towards similar changes in an attempt to recognize the "different types of families" that now dot our cultural landscape.  But that doesn't mean that we have to approve of it, or go along with such changes.  How have we come so far, so fast, that we think the terms "mother" and "father" should become obsolete?
     And if, in this politically correct world, this kind of controversial decision is supposed to signal equality by removing the gender qualification for a parent, I must ask this question ... doesn't the designation of "Parent 1" indicate that this parent is somehow superior to "Parent 2"?  And by removing "mother" and "father" from these forms, isn't that, in effect, violating the rights of heterosexual parents who embrace these titles?  Why must we be forced, or reduced, to a lesser classification?  Isn't that what the fight for gay marriage was all about... the right to call your relationship as you see fit?
     But this particular form is just the tip of the iceberg, and it is not the end of Satan's battle to eradicate our Biblical identities.  In 2011 the State Department removed the words mother and father from U.S. passport applications.  Of course, they had a culturally acceptable explanation ready to explain that decision:  “We find that with changes in medical science and reproductive technology that we are confronting situations now that we would not have anticipated 10 or 15 years ago.”  So, is there anyone else besides me that doesn't necessarily approve of where medical science and reproductive technology have taken us ... that think perhaps we've abandoned or corrupted God's design for our bodies, our marriages, and now our families?
     Of course, I understand that the basis for that last statement is a fundamental belief that God exists.  Without that core component, there is no justification for my argument.  But here's what I don't get .... the understanding of distinct genders among the human race; the concept of marriage as between a man and woman, and who makes up the individual parts of a family, have been consistent and unchanging for thousands of years.  How in the world, in the last couple of decades, do we think that we're so evolved that we've got a better plan than our Creator?  I suggest that these social progressives stop for just a moment and tell me what is wrong with the following logic:
     • Mother is the term that the One who created us gave to a woman who bears a child in pregnancy.  Only a woman can do that ... the gender-neutral term "Parent" does not designate if you are the person in whose body that fetus grew into a full-term baby.  The role of a mother is to be taken seriously; her job, as defined in the Bible, is to be available morning, noon, and night; to interact, discuss and help her child process life; to teach her child a Biblical worldview and to love the Scriptures; to train a child in developing their spiritual gifts and strengths; and finally to nurture her child --- a term that has always had a distinctive feminine connotation.  So, tell me, can you identify if it is Parent 1 or Parent 2 that has delivered the fruit of the womb?
     •   Secondly, Father is the term that God used to indicate the person who would instruct and discipline those borne by the mother.  The Father is the instrument by whom God shows His ultimate authority.  The human father models God as the teacher and ruler of his family.  It is the responsibility of the Father to provide Christian discipline that will enable children to grow up with reverence for God, respect for parental authority, knowledge of Christian standards, and habits of self-control.  Chastening, discipline, and counsel by the Word of God, giving both reproof and encouragement, is at the core of a father's duty.  There is a distinct countenance of leadership that distinguishes a father from a mother --- that is true no matter how hard the feminists and progressives try to convince us that their advanced social agenda is better for the development of a confident, secure individual.
     And here's what really concerns me ... by using the designations "Parent 1" and "Parent 2" are they paving the way for "Parent 3, 4, or 12"?  If you take away the male and female identification of a parent, what is to stop us from saying multiple parents are necessary to birth and raise a child? And by denying gender roles in parenthood, is Satan trying to signal that he has a plan to introduce a way to create a child without male and female interaction?  Can we truly say that we are that far off?  All you have to do is browse the internet to find all the freaky experimentation being done in the name of .... oh, yeah, medical science and reproductive technology.  
     In the end, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that this renaming of parental roles has come so quickly.  It seems as if the goal is to confuse and control the next generation.  If Satan, through his representatives in this realm, can remove the distinctive and unique characteristics that make us who we are in the eyes of God, then he will be able to convince mankind -- no, wait!  I can't use that term.  How about human race?  Nope!  Reproductive technology is combining human and animal DNA, and also trying to create a hybrid human robot ... so, I guess I'm going to have to settle for the fact that Satan will successfully disassociate whatever form of existence the next generation becomes from the Source of Life who created them.  There will be no need for terms like man, woman, wife, husband, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, him or her.  We will be reduced to a life form that is generic, nonspecific, bewildered, and debased.  Unfortunately, I'm afraid we are taking the first steps toward that reality.  Sweden has even gone so far as to adopt a gender-neutral pronoun ... hen.  Really?!?!  Please, God, save us from ourselves!  Preserve us in Your image, just as You created us!

Proverbs 1:8-9   "Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck."


August 19, 2015

An Old Lesson On Liberty

   
     I want to share with you a speech that was given on May 21, 1944, in New York City's Central Park.  It was given by Judge Learned Hand, who first served on New York’s District Court, then on the U.S. Court of Appeals.  Judge Hand’s legal decisions were so respected they were referenced in U.S. Supreme Court cases.
     His judicial opinions were time-honored; it is my viewpoint that we should revisit his decisions on cases such as the one which considered a citizen's duty in paying taxes (“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible;. … Nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands”); and his decision on limiting free speech if its goal is to overthrow the Constitution and set up a government which would not allow free speech. Doesn't that sound like a breath of fresh air in this age of judicial activism?
     But the real purpose of this post is to let you contemplate his words to a crowd of nearly one-and-a-half million people, just two weeks prior to the D-Day invasion.  The place was Central Park, and it was the site of the annual “I Am an American Day,” including 150,000 newly naturalized citizens about to swear their oath of allegiance to the United States.
     The United States had been mired in WWII for nearly 3 years, and while patriotism was running high, the weight of the war was resting on everyone's shoulders.  But none of the speeches that day -- including those by New York Mayor LaGuardia, Senator Wagner and clergymen of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths -- spoke to the crowd like that of Judge Hand.  The title of his short speech was "The Spirit of Liberty", and I'd like you to read it and see if it still applies to today....

     “We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. … We sought liberty; freedom from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be ourselves. …
     I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. …
     And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.
     What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest."
     Judge Learned Hand ended his speech, after which he led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance:  “In the spirit of that America which lies hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all; in the spirit of that America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country.”
   
     This speech was given 71 years ago.  Do we still retain that Spirit of Liberty in this country?  Do our judges and rulers still recognize that the spirit of liberty is born from the spirit of Jesus?  That it is God's Kingdom we should seek, rather than our own?  Would he recognize us as the same America?
     The good Judge was fervent in his belief that there was a destructive nature in political correctness and the labeling of someone’s opinions as “hate speech”.  He had this to say on the subject:  “That community is already in the process of dissolution…where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our conviction in the open.”  Sadly, I fear that reason has been replaced by the pursuit of one's ideology at all costs.
     And Judge Hand must have sensed that agenda as well.  He was clearly clairvoyant when he made the following statement:  "I confess it seems to me that we are pretty plainly headed for some fairly comprehensive collectivist ordering of industry; people don’t want it. … Can you have a collectivist democracy? The future has all sorts of creatures in its womb. … There seems to me great obstacles; a society in which the individual’s fate is completely in the hands of the government can scarcely manifest itself as a succession of resultants of ‘pressure groups’ – it won’t stand up."  Apparently, no one told Cloward and Piven that!
     In looking back on his legacy, I find it ironic that Judge Hand was nicknamed “the tenth Justice of the Supreme Court.” Boy, could we use him on the Court today! He died 54 years ago yesterday, and it is a sad commentary on the current state of our country that I doubt he would get more than a handful of people to show up to celebrate an "I Am An American" Day, or to hear him speak about Liberty.  But perhaps we should listen to his opinion on history ... "The use of history is to tell us … past themes, else we should have to repeat, each in his own experience, the successes and the failures of our forebears.”  May future generations look back upon this time in our nation's history and celebrate how we snatched victory out of defeat... and may we finally learn that two-thousand-year-old lesson of Liberty that we so desperately need to grasp.

Thank you to Bill Federer, writer for WND.com for his inspiring article on Judge Learned Hand.  

Job 8:8-10    "For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?"




August 18, 2015

Space Aliens and The Demonic Agenda

     I bet there's not an American alive who has not been exposed to the idea of aliens from outer space.  No matter your age, you've probably seen an episode or two of Lost In Space or Star Trek; or sat wide-eyed at the revelations of movies like War of the Worlds; 2001: A Space Odyssey; the Alien series; or Prometheus, just to name a few.
     These examples of entertainment present different scenarios regarding the alien species ... a few are sweetly sentimental, like E.T., while others have scared us to death with their overt images of brutal and powerful adversaries who wish to conquer us, such as those in Starship Troopers.  But a new trend has intrigued me in recent years -- that of benevolent visitations by aliens from outer space who reveal that they wish to see Earth and its population free of war, and that they have actually been watching our evolvement from afar ... as our creators.  This line of reasoning has been shrewdly introduced on the popular series Ancient Aliens. 

      And now we have former astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the moon, announcing to the U.K. online website, Mirror, that sources within the space industry, along with military officials, have revealed to him that space aliens "have been attempting [for years] to keep us from going to war and help create peace on Earth."  His opinion is nothing new, and this was, in fact, the exact storyline of the recent TV series "V".  
     Mitchell is on record as having spoken of U.S. missile bases being monitored by UFOs, as well as relating stories of missiles being disabled and even shot down by alien spacecraft.  But Nick Pope, a freelance British journalist, who was an employee at the British Government's Ministry of Defense, and responsible for investigating reports of UFO sightings, has this to say about the former astronaut's claims:  "Edgar Mitchell is an honourable and truthful man, who I've had the privilege of meeting... Clearly, because of who he is, he's had access to government, military and intelligence community personnel at the highest level, but because - quite understandably - he won't name his sources, we can't be certain these people were being straight with him, or indeed that they were privy to any classified information about UFOs."
     Pope further stated, "the idea that peace-loving extraterrestrials are here to warn humanity about our destructive ways is popular with those who take a New Age view of the UFO phenomenon."  And that's where the convergence of space alien "myths", ancient texts, New Age religion, and Christianity takes place.
     This blog post is by no means meant to be an exhaustive treatise on this subject.  I simply want to begin a dialogue on the similarities between the ancient Scripture of the Bible and today's superficially altered version of the original agenda, which is still in play.  I have made no secret of my acceptance of the literal translation of Genesis 6.  I believe that the "sons of God" who cohabited with human women to produce the giants (nephilim) of the day were fallen angels.  I base that interpretation on the fact that this view of Scripture was accepted as true by the early Church. In the first century A.D., Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews (1:3:1) held the position that angels co-habited with women. Later authors such as Philo of Alexandria (early first century A.D.) also held this position as did many rabbinical authorities. The Genesis Apocryphon, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, states this angelic interpretation. Furthermore, many Christian interpreters also took this position. These include: Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ambrose.
     Those who reject this angelic view do so by rejecting the historicity of the Bible, and they feel the angelic interpretation in Genesis 6 is an example of the myths that were common among people at that time.  Those, like me, who believe in the authenticity of the Bible, suggest that the later myths that arose concerning angels and women producing monstrous offspring may have been derived from the actual occurrence as recorded in Genesis.  It's kind of a question of what came first, the chicken or the egg? 

     But for the sake of arguing the veracity of modern space aliens, we must consider if there is a connection to this ancient account of "fallen angels".  Could the stories be one and the same?  Could it all be part of Satan's evil agenda to lead man away from God by introducing not only new DNA that would corrupt our bodies and negate us as "images of God"; but also tempt us with an alternative origin --- one in which Satan suggests the theory of "panspermia"; that we are the products of some unknown ancient civilization that seeded our planet with life.  This theory is furthered by the notion that they have been observing us for thousands of years and are displeased with how we're treating not only the planet, but each other.   Therefore they will be returning soon to announce that they are mankind's true creator, and all the religions of the world are nothing more than man's pathetic attempt at explaining his existence.
     This "directed panspermia" theory was created by a Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist, Francis Crick, and biochemist Leslie Orgel.  A brief summation of the 1973 Crick-Orgel theory of panspermia is stated in this way: "It now seems unlikely that extraterrestrial living organisms could have reached the Earth either as spores driven by the radiation pressure from another star or as living organisms imbedded in a meteorite. As an alternative to these nineteenth-century mechanisms, we have considered Directed Panspermia, the theory that organisms were deliberately transmitted to the Earth by intelligent beings on another planet. We conclude that it is possible that life reached the Earth in this way, but that the scientific evidence is inadequate at the present time to say anything about the probability."
     Fast forward 42 years, as we see that their theory still has a life of its own in our secular society, as evidenced by the trendy popularity of Ancient Aliens.  But here's the thing ... there just may be enough truth sprinkled among the false narrative to lead many impressionable people astray.  They have twisted the story just enough to remove it from the Biblical narrative and to create their own similar story with a different ending.  Those who left their estate in Heaven (according to Genesis 6) to "seed" the earth with their own DNA fits both the Bible's account and the Ancient Alien story (as extraterrestrial living organisms deliberately transmitted to Earth to create life -- albeit not in the "image of God").
    There is just enough symbiosis between the two theories that it will be easy for Satan when he appears as the Anti-Christ to say "you almost got it right ... but the god that you've been worshipping was the wrong creator.  I really orchestrated the whole thing with my faithful servants!  That Bible you've been reading is just a fairy tale.  Listen to all the evidence of your scientists and yes, your astronauts.  They have given you the proof that other planets exist and that there is life on those planets.  Your Bible is just a primitive and inaccurate interpretation of alien and UFO encounters.  Remember the tales told by Ezekiel of the four living creatures, and the turning "wheels"?  Those were really space aliens and my spacecraft."  Can you see how countless humans, both the easily-deceived young, and the weak-in-faith will fall for this deception?
     You see, Satan is a master counterfeiter.  He will not sit by and watch God redeem His people without setting up a counter-narrative that promises "saviors" of mankind. But in order to pull off his deception, he must convince the human race that the Bible is inaccurate and our faith is without foundation.  He must find a way to encourage us to accept alternative ways to immortality and that perhaps life began on other planets, then evolved, and that space aliens are really our "brothers" or even .... our creators.  If he can get us to accept the possibility of space aliens, and that our religion has been misguided, then it's only a small matter of introducing a substitute global religion based on the occult, which will be presented as supernatural knowledge and experiences from our alien "ancestors".
     I know this is hard for us strict, Bible-believing Christians to accept.  But I want you to know what your kids and grandkids are hearing through their songs, their video games, and their forms of entertainment.  I want you to see how the alien agenda is being woven into our secular culture and directly challenges our Christian religion.  Any similarity is embraced in order to give this demonic agenda credibility, while true Biblical teachings are mocked.  Sadly, the delusion is slowly becoming acceptable as legitimate scientific data.  After all, if NASA and a celebrated astronaut believe it, who are we to deny it?  So, take this as a cautionary piece of advice.  Be ready to debunk this popular theory and refute it with clear Scriptural evidence.  This UFO and space alien storyline is growing and gaining steam ... I don't doubt the existence of "inter-dimensional beings", but let's not play word games.  Why will the public acknowledge the existence of "aliens", but deny the plausibility of "angels" or "demons"?  It is time for those of us who know their true identity, and to whom they belong, to declare the Truth and expose the lies.


Ezekiel 1:16:  "As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel."
  
       
     

August 17, 2015

Personal Reflections on Ferguson, One Year Later

     Yesterday, my sister texted me a photo of my nephew, a police officer in St. Louis County, Missouri; a photo that has appeared in countless newspapers.  He is standing with fellow officers in riot gear during a protest in Ferguson, Missouri on the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown -- a death that has polarized that community and all of America.
     It is one thing to view that image as an American concerned over the racial violence that has spread across this nation; and quite another to view the steely gaze of a loved one who is standing for law and order, and putting his life on the line to protect the community and innocent citizens from further destruction.
     I guess I thought as long as I could not distinguish him from among the policemen whose images have become part of the disturbing montage of rioting and mayhem, I could pretend that he was safe and far removed from harm.  But there he was, his eyes and features clearly distinguishable through the glare of the lights on his helmet's safety shield.  He had often texted me not to worry, he wasn't assigned to that area and he was stationed in other parts of the metroplex.  But now I know that to be an effort to calm the fears of his anxious aunt.
     So now the turbulent and unstable state of race relations are up close and personal.  After a long year of turmoil and genuine efforts to change the conditions in Ferguson that led to this point, I am desperately looking for signs that positive change is happening.
     Admittedly, there has always been an uneasy relationship between the citizenry of neighborhoods like Ferguson (and nearby East St. Louis, close to where I spent much of my childhood) and the police, whose job often seemed to be about keeping the violence from spilling over into the surrounding middle class suburbs.  It is easy to blame the disparity between education and job opportunities among the races; all of which seemed to grow worse after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal.
     It has been 51 years since this law was passed.  The Civil Rights Act was declared the most wide-ranging civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, nearly a century prior.  So what happened?  Why are we still seeing the imbalance in education, skills, and upward mobility in the black communities? Why is there still a perception that more crime is committed against blacks by white authority figures,  while statistics are ignored that suggest black on black crime is the primary cause of death among young blacks?  Why, as an article in The National Review points out, do we, as a nation not consider that "the disproportionate criminality among the black population is the reason that the police are deployed in much higher numbers in black neighborhoods, where they are trying to save innocent lives. There are thousands of law-abiding inner-city blacks who live by conventional values and who need protection from criminals. Only the police are willing to provide that protection."  Doesn't that indicate that "black lives matter" to them, too?
This photo of police officers in Trinity, TX went viral
     Are the police perfect?  Of course not!  And there will inevitably be incidents where bad cops prevail, but let me ask you this .... there are honorable black men who become police officers; is it the authority of the police department that is so despised, or just the particular skin color of the officer?  Why are we, in the 21st Century, still judging people by the color of their skin... and why is it this racial prejudice always one-sided?
     I am no social or cultural anthropologist, but it isn't hard for me to see the correlation between the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the subsequent War on Poverty, that introduced the Job Corps and Head Start (both designed to help disadvantaged youth to combat poverty and raise their standard of living), and perhaps the most damaging and divisive legislation of my lifetime -- the Food Stamp Act of 1964.  Does is strike anyone else as antithetical that these two forms of legislation were signed back to back in 1964?
      Were these components of LBJ's dream of a "Great Society" merely empty promises, that were really designed to counter any forward advancement made by the Civil Rights Act?  I know that sounds cynical and conspiratorial, but it just seems odd that at the same time that the disadvantaged segment of our society were given the keys to economic and social equality, they were also given a ball and chain called "Welfare" that enticed them to avoid employment, and kept them indebted to the politicians who controlled those welfare checks.
     And it all leads to Ferguson, Missouri. As Breitbart.com reports, there have been some positive changes .... "The city has a new police chief, a new city manager and a new municipal judge — all blacks who replaced white leaders. All Ferguson officers [now] wear body cameras. The city council has new members, too, several of whom are black. And the business district that was at the center of last year’s sometimes-violent protests is slowly rebuilding."
     It appears that this proud community is engaging with those who govern them, and both sides are listening to each other.  Ferguson's leadership is now reflective of the demographics of the community.  At the time of the Brown shooting, just three of Ferguson’s 53 officers were black. The department now has five African-Americans among a total of 50 officers, including the newly appointed interim chief, and has four budgeted positions still to fill.  Nearby West Florissant Avenue, a scene of pillaging and destruction one year ago, is poised to get $37 million in upgrades. The improvement plan is expected to include bricked sidewalks, bicycle lanes, stylish lampposts and landscaping. Those are the positive signs of change and hope.
     But the prejudice and doubt among the community is harder to transform.  It's going to take more than millions of dollars of cosmetic changes to erase the mistrust.  The peaceful protests of Ferguson residents did not fall on deaf ears, and I pray that continued efforts to heal this damaged city will be successful.  It remains to be seen if outside agitators and those who stand to profit, both politically and socially, will fail in their efforts to make the race division permanent.
     One year later, some progress has been made -- and while the peace is holding, it is not guaranteed.  I pray that Ferguson can become a model for other cities who sincerely want to see improvement in race relations, and foster mutual respect between law enforcement and the community.  As a nation, it is imperative that we succeed in this mission.  And as a concerned aunt, I would like to be able to sleep better at night.

Romans 12:9-10    "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;"






August 16, 2015

Proverbs 4:20-22

My son, attend to My words; 
consent and submit to My sayings.
Let them not depart from your sight; 
keep them in the center of your heart.
For they are life to those who find them, 
healing and health to all their flesh.


     The Scripture for today's post was suggested by my husband, who is reading a little book by the late Derek Prince, noted Bible teacher and prophetic minister.  The title of the book is God's Medicine Bottle, and is the result of what Prince discovered about the healing power of God's Word during his own debilitating health crisis in the deserts of North Africa during WW II.
     I don't know if you can commiserate with Derek Prince over human infirmities, but I certainly can.  It seems that recently, one of the ways that the dark forces of the spiritual world love to attack me is through various assaults on my physical body.  But we need healing not only from physical attacks, but from spiritual bombardment.  I am happy to say that I am learning to fight back by loosing those strongholds in my flesh, binding the particular spirits, and rebuking them in Jesus's name; in short, using the Authority given to me by Christ, along with the Power of the Holy Spirit to fight an effectual spiritual battle.  I have seen great success using this method, but I also find impressive wisdom in Mr. Prince's instruction for healing using the Word.
     This selected Scripture, in Proverbs, Chapter 4, actually serves as a prescription from God; to be taken just as ordered, with an infinite number of refills.  The first step in God's spiritual protocol is to attend to His words.  He is demanding our full attention -- not to be divided between Him and the distractions of this world.  If we are to heal, we must listen and pay strict attention to His words that He speaks to us in the Bible.  Hearing God is the key to Biblical healing.  And how do we hear, or attend, to God's words?  By starting with the Bible and staying tuned in!  You can only hear God while reading the Bible when your mind is diligently occupied with Him and His Word.  
     The second order of the prescription is to consent and submit to His sayings.  That indicates that we are to have an attitude of humility and teachability; surrendering ourselves, and both our physical flesh and spirits to the receiving of His Word in meekness.  If we come with our own preconceptions and our demands, then God's Work will not be able to teach you and heal you.
     The next instruction is to not let God's Word out of our sight.  We are to focus our spiritual eyesight so we get a sharp picture of what God wants to teach us.  We must be careful to let the Bible be our authority, and not get too caught up in endless commentaries and theological doctrines.  Don't look around at what the world says about God's Word; instead, focus on it alone and read the Bible as it is written, and take it as meaning what it says.
     The next instruction on how to take God's medicine is to keep His Word at the center of your heart.  When we pay strict attention to His Word, and hear His teaching through surrendering ourselves to His instruction, and focus on what He wants us to see in His Word, then that Word will arrive at the center of our soul and dwell in our heart.  And the last verse tells us why it is so important to guard our hearts... for that is where our healing will originate; healing is the very essence of life and health.  
     God's Word brings us life through hearing the Word, which leads to faith, which provides spiritual joy and fullness.  It also is the cure for our physical infirmities, providing us with the ability to heal infirmities, disease, or physical and mental weaknesses.  Just as we follow the doctor's orders when taking prescription medicine, we are to ingest God's Word; let it enter into our body and mind and spirit in order to start breaking down what is defeating us and begin to heal us wholly and completely.  The Word is truly God's medicine for what ails us.

August 15, 2015

Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice: It's Unequivocal!

     I doubt that anyone in America is unaware of the multiple videos concerning Planned Parenthood ... six, so far.  They have certainly stirred contentious debates across our nation as we are forced to consider the issues that lurk beyond abortion and "a woman's right to control her body".  Naturally, there are those who will fall sharply on either side of the argument -- they either see nothing wrong with what PP chooses to do with fetal tissue procured with the supposed permission of the "donor"; or they are appalled that the bodily parts of babies are viewed as a "fiscal by-product" of an organization that promotes itself as a champion of "maternal and child health services."
     Admittedly, any argument will result in a "faith versus viable medical research" conflict.  We, who view this "tissue" as a human baby do not approve of the method by which it is obtained.  So, yes, that means abortion is the underlying issue for us, which is an anathema to our faith.  I do not shy away from that position, nor do I apologize for it.
     Then there are those who see the retrieval of fetal tissue used in research and therapy as a benefit for the good of all mankind.   Vox.com actually expressed the disparity between the two sides in an insightful manner: "They don't believe a first-trimester fetus to be a living, feeling human being, and so they see the donation of fetal tissue for medical research to be an obvious, unalloyed good. Their critics oppose abortion — they believe abortion to be murder and fetal tissue research to be a form of desecration. Where you fall on the Planned Parenthood videos really reflects where you fall on the fundamental questions of abortion."  So true!
     And I admit that I have a problem with people who can somehow find some middle ground on this issue.  For instance, I am somewhat confused by the recent statements of Presidential candidate, Ben Carson.  In response to an inquiry regarding his own use of fetal tissue for research, The Washington Post reports the following response:  "You have to look at the intent," Carson said before beginning a campaign swing through New Hampshire. "To willfully ignore evidence that you have for some ideological reason is wrong. If you’re killing babies and taking the tissue, that’s a very different thing than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it... Bear this in mind about pathologists; regardless of what their ideology is, when they receive tissue, they prepare the tissue. They label it. They mark how it got there. Regardless of whether it’s from a fetus or someone who’s 150 years old, they bank them in tissue blocks. Other people doing comparative research need to have a basis. When pathologists receive specimen, their job is to prepare the specimen. They have no job opining on where the tissue came from."  
     Is anyone else bothered by that reasoning?  Am I mistaken, or is he willing to excuse the procedure (and overlook the moral aspects of it) because it supplies useful research data?  Maybe it's just me, but it seemed a bit callous to say that it is not their job to worry about where the tissue came from.  How can you say If you’re killing babies and taking the tissue, that’s a very different thing than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it --- when the dead specimen is the result of killing a baby!  One thing leads to the other!  You can't get that "dead specimen" unless you kill a baby!
     And there are always the emotional arguments.  The Blaze reports on the ridiculous position presented by Fox News's Geraldo Rivera, who favors such donations because they are necessary to advance medicine. “I want a cure for cancer. I want a cure for heart disease," he selfishly declares. He then goes on to self-righteously demand that our society needs "good abortions", which he defines as the following: "A good abortion is sitting in a clean place, where the woman’s health is protected! As opposed to a back alley! As opposed to a back alley where the woman dies with some butcher cutting her to pieces!"  What about the babies, Geraldo?  Do you care that some butcher is cutting them to pieces in the process?  How convenient to focus on the mother, but ignore the life that she is sacrificing.
     This topic is so divisive and poignant that one cannot compromise on one's position.  There is no middle ground.  And it deeply saddens me that those who are Pro-choice have been so deceived into making this a feminist issue, thereby rupturing one of the most instinctive relationships among the human race -- that of mother and child. Satan has successfully blinded women into rejecting one of their most blessed purposes for existence...giving life.
     So, is there anyway to reach the approximate 1.2 million American women who make that choice every year?  The Center for Medical Progress, the makers of the Planned Parenthood videos, have done their best to show the truth behind this "women's healthcare" issue.  God Bless them for their efforts!  And I would like to close out this blog post by sharing a video that you might just want to share yourself.  I ran across it at The Blaze, and was initially skeptical because I did not want to hear another "production" by Glenn Beck.  But I like this video precisely because it does not feature Beck, except in introducing the work of the producer of the video.  (If you want to skip the usual Beck monologue, start at the 1 minute 40 second mark).
     As the video states, "Every generation has its defining moment."  What we, as a nation, decide to do with the information we have received from the Kermit Gosnell trial and these Planned Parenthood videos will define us.  The greatest genocide the world has ever known is happening NOW ... and on our watch!  We have killed more babies in this national genocide than over 30 of the most horrific genocides in world history ... combined!  Watch the video to find out the one word by which future generations will judge us as monsters.  The act of abortion represents choices that must be made... and those who participate in abortion don't seem to be considering the baby's choice to life!

Deuteronomy 30:19   "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."
   

August 14, 2015

Heaven and Hell; Good and Evil

     I often struggle with hearing what God wants me to write about, and today was no different.  There was so much news in the headlines ... the "apocalyptic" explosion in China; the fragile world economy; the devastation to the Animas River by the EPA; the continuing horror that is Planned Parenthood; the threat of violence around the world; and on and on.
     But, for some reason, my mind kept coming back to the question, "What do people believe about Heaven and Hell?  How do they define Good and Evil?"  I finally decided that perhaps God wants us to consider where we stand on these issues, and why.  So I'm just going to let my thoughts take me where He wants to go...
     I would venture to say that most people have an easier time imagining that there is a heaven, than they do that hell exists.  That only seems natural, doesn't it?  After all, the idea of a positive, happy place is much more appealing than one of pain and torment.  But first one has to decide if they believe that there is something beyond this earthly existence; that our life, or existence, so to speak, doesn't stop when we take our last breath and are no longer present in this world.
     I did a little bit of surfing the web to see if I could get a picture of the different opinions expressed by a cross-section of people.  As you would imagine, those who have faith in God have no problem with accepting that life goes on after we have crossed the threshold of physical death.  On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who refuse to consider the possibility, either out of ignorance or arrogance.
     I found it interesting that there are people who have actually decided that life does exist after death, but are unable to attribute that notion to God; seeing that as too "religious" and "convenient".  Instead, they look upon our lives here on earth from a "cosmic" perspective; we are all energy that simply recycles itself in both spiritual and physical form.  For me, that seems like a "convenient" way to sidestep any real search for evidence of a Creator or Higher Being.
     Obviously, in order to accept the themes of heaven and hell, one must at least consider the Bible.  True, there were religions and cultures before the Bible was written that alluded to the same concepts, but to modern-day man, the terms are most often associated with faith in Jesus Christ -- which as it turns out, can be a huge stumbling block for many people (just as the Bible said He would be)!
     Satan has done such a good job of projecting doubt on the veracity of Scripture that it is not difficult for people to simply cast Jesus as a man, a great teacher and prophet; or to deny the existence of evil as being just "negative energy".  When those limitations are put in place, then it is easy to dismiss that heaven and hell really exist.  You can see this confused logic in some of the following answers from a question posed on Ask Yahoo:  Does Heaven or Hell really exist?
•  "Science has never attempted to define, classify, measure, qualify or quantify either Heaven or Hell. Each exist solely if you believe they do."
•  "Religion is nothing more than superstition with a collection basket. Why would an almighty God have to ask for money when Gods before him like Zeus and Apollo never asked for a dime?"
•  "I don't really think that there is a heaven or a hell. But I think that your consciousness never dies when you die. Your...spirit per se, is left behind while your body rots. And that energy is used to create new life. It is kind of like reincarnation, but it is more like recycling a mind and consciousness."
•  "There is no science to confirm or deny the existence of either. Nor is there any evidence for santa, easter bunny, zeus, odin, etc.  If you want to believe in these things fine, but realize that they are, indeed, fabrications of your mind."
•  "Physically? No. You don't pass through heaven when you go into space, and you don't fall into hell when you drill into the earth. On a mental plane or extra dimension somewhere, maybe."
•  "Most likely not, which is good, because it doesn't matter anyways."
     It is obvious from these answers that these people have been deluded into thinking that their existence in this world is all about them.  They've never looked beyond themselves to see if there is a greater purpose for the existence of mankind.  Notice that each answer is centered around the narrow confines of their own opinions.... they are in effect saying, "It's up to you if they exist or not; you have the power to decide."  However, there were one or two who answered from a deeper line of reasoning:
•  "There are non-fiction books by people who claim to have experienced one or the other (or both) that says they do exist, but I'm not too sure. Nothing yet really convinces me."
•  "It's a question that can only be answered by those who have died and gone to either place -- therefore we don't know. It's like that old myth I've heard that states if you die in your dream you die for real. Does that seem plausible??  If there was truly a God or Satan, wouldn't God have destroyed this world with so much evil in it? And if there was an all powerful Satan, the whole world would be inherently evil.  And if there is a kind, loving God, why do so many people say they're "God Fearing" -- if God loves us, why should we fear him??"
     Now, these people represent the all-too-common trait of those who need proof of some sort.  They are searching for answers, but can't grasp the concept of faith.  And it is quite obvious that they are willing to read non-fiction books, but won't even consider cracking open the Bible.  Because, if they did, they would discover the eternal battle between God and Satan for the souls of men.  They would realize that God has given us an innate sense of right and wrong, and the free will to choose good over evil.  We are made in His image and He desires us to choose Him!  What purpose is there in our lives if God is a god that just allows evil to exist and then destroys it?
     Again, there is truly a "cosmic" sense to this battle, to use a popular term.  Because, surely these doubters do not deny that there are evil people in the world.  The murder and rape statistics, the sexual abuse of children, and the over 161,000,000 people killed in wars in the 20th and 21st centuries (so far) prove that bad things happen to good people.  Yet, there are literally millions of compassionate acts between individuals every minute of every day around the world -- therefore, proving that the world is not inherently evil.
     Surely they can see the supernatural battle that exists between the Spirit of a merciful God and the spiritual tactics of one who is God's "cosmic" adversary.  The evidence of both good and evil is undeniably and physically manifested before our eyes.  As for "fearing God", once again this shows a lack of Biblical understanding.  (And I find it ironic that those without faith in God and the truthfulness of the Bible would dare to try to define Biblical terms from a secular standard.  Doesn't that go against "scientific" guidelines)?  But I digress... as anyone who understands Faith with a capital "F" knows, the meaning of the word fear, in this case, points to a reverence or awe of our God.  This reverence comes from knowing that He is our Creator, He has determined the number of our days on this earth, and that He has the power to determine where we will spend the rest of the eternity He has made.
     Without personal knowledge of God and His Son, I doubt that you could ever convince anyone of the existence of heaven or hell.  They are the consequences of either belief or unbelief, just as our abilities to be either good or evil derive from belief or doubt in a Sovereign, Omniscient God.  It is not a matter of physical proof, but of complete trust, confidence, and spiritual intuition in One whose very breath indwells us.
    We are all familiar with the comparison that inevitably surfaces at some point in this argument ...  if those who refute the existence of heaven and hell are correct -- and the screen just fades to black, so to speak, when we die -- then it won't really matter to either one of us.  But if I am correct, and we are all assigned to heaven or hell, then there is an eternal consequence for their refusal to acknowledge the existence of either.  It is hard for me to leave the argument there; how do we impress upon people the eternal, everlasting, permanent consequences of them seeking an answer to this significant question?
     I may not be able to prove that heaven or hell exists; or what defines good and evil, but I know this... I am more than blood and tissue; more than biological matter.  This earthen vessel houses a spirit that longs to return to its original home.  And these few years that I occupy this space on earth are not all there is.... and that is great, glorious, and merciful Good News!

Romans 2:6-8   "He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury."

 

August 13, 2015

Look What We've Set In Motion!

     I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.  It has been less than two months since the Supreme Court's historical decision striking down traditional marriage and conferring the Biblical state of matrimony upon basically everyone, regardless of sex.  In less than two months, the State has begun exerting its power over those who wish to preserve the religious liberty heretofore guaranteed them by the First Amendment.
     We have seen County Clerks forced to choose between their job and their faith when they decline to issue marriage licenses based on their religious convictions.  We have seen the growing threat against the tax status of Churches who have stated they will refuse to conduct same-sex marriages. There is also the threat against military chaplains who will not disavow the Bible's teachings on marriage. And now there is the case of a prison chaplain who was told he could either sign a state-mandated document promising to never tell inmates that homosexuality is “sinful” or else the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice would revoke his credentials.
     Saying that "it broke his heart", Chaplain David Wells could not comply with the demand and saw his volunteer credentials as an ordained minister revoked – ending 13 years of ministry to underage inmates at the Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center.  Those years of ministry included many counseling sessions with youth who were sexually abused both inside and outside the justice system.  Having been abused as a child, Wells was uniquely qualified to help young men deal with the horrors of incarceration and the sexual abuse that often accompanied it.
     “I sat across the table from a 16-year-old boy who was weeping and broken over the life he was in,” Wells said. “He had been abused as a child and turned to alcohol and drugs to cope. He wanted to know if there was any hope for him.... I was able to look at him and tell him the saving power of Jesus Christ that delivered me – [and] could deliver him,” he said.  He was able to counsel the young man, that is, as long as he did not refer to Biblical opinions on homosexuality, which would understandably be part of any conversation about prison rape or sexual abuse within the walls of the juvenile institution.
     I confess that it was difficult for me to find any solid statistics on the rate of sexual abuse in prison.  There were allusions to it, but often no hard numbers.  And if there were, they seemed incredibly low to me ... one claiming only 140,000 assaults in the entire U.S. justice system, and less than 1500 among juveniles.  Yet the personal testimony in the link above makes it clear that the cases are grossly underestimated.  And that makes Chaplain Wells's dismissal even more tragic.
      So, essentially, what we have is this monumental Supreme Court decision that will affect so much more than an individual's right to call themselves "married".  It has the potential to remove all Christian influence from our cultural conversation.  There is now no absolute moral code.  The Supreme Court has essentially ruled that individuals have civil rights based on their sexual behavior, whatever that might be.  For now, that has been expanded to mean two men, or two women.  We are already seeing challenges to that.
     A man in Montana plans to sue after being denied a marriage license to wed a second wife.  And can you really say that you do not foresee someone who wants to marry his pet, which constitutes what the Bible calls Bestiality?  And what about a personal robot?  Think that's preposterous?  Just read this article that presents all the arguments we can expect to hear in the near future.
    And then there is the abhorrent organization NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) which was founded in 1978 and whose aim is to overturn statutory rape laws and force the reduction of “age of consent” laws that require a child to be of a certain age (which varies by state) before they can agree to sexual intercourse.  (Please know that, in general, the LGBT community is just as appalled by this organization and disassociates themselves from NAMBLA).
     I can remember Dr. Laura warning of this organization 20 years ago, and she was nearly laughed off the airwaves for even suggesting that this group existed, or that they promoted and "celebrated the dignity inherent in the natural love of boys."  That's called Pedophilia by any other name.  Yet how long before their individual civil rights will be upheld by the Supreme Court?  If it is the law of the land that one's civil rights cannot be denied on the basis of sexual behavior, what limitations have been put in place?  None that I can see.
     While I truly believe that our lost society will eventually embrace all these aberrations, as eccentric as they seem, I also have profound confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to enable those of us who believe in the Word of God to resist these societal changes that fundamentally contradict our faith.  But we must expect pushback and resistance.  Indeed, because we have been silent too long, and have tried too hard to be accommodating and "politically correct", we are now paying the price that comes with compromise, and it will result in social conflict.
     But we must not draw back or shrink from our commission to speak God's commandments into the world.  We understand, like Chaplain Wells, that our Christian influence will be limited by the State.  But God will anoint us with powerful testimonies that will overcome the barriers erected by men.  Like the mighty Apostles of old, we will come back from apparent defeat.  We will not be intimidated; and the strength and boldness that comes from the indwelling Spirit will be evident to all.  So, while the future is unforeseeable, we can be sure of one thing ... the Lord will tolerate only so much transgression before He sets things aright.  And with possibilities such as the aforementioned, we certainly seem to be nearing that limit...

2 Chronicles 16:9    "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars."