Do Not Pray for This People

From our pulpits we hear constantly how God is merciful and forgives sin.  Often a mark of “success” of a sermon seems to be how good people feel about themselves as they leave a meeting or church service.  Pastors do not want to hear complaints or negative comments; they only want to be told how many attended and how large the offering was.  Would it meet the budget and have money for the programs?  The polish and prominence of the parish is the paramount proportion to show we are doing “the Lord’s work.”  This is not to say all pastors or church leaders are out of the loop of what Father may be planning, but there seems to have been so much emphasis in the last few decades on love that we have not heard any warnings about ignoring God’s goodness.

How rarely does one hear of God’s anger, even though there are over 150 references to God’s judgment in the Bible and only about half that in reference to God having mercy?  Of course, a word search does not fully reveal the themes of Scripture and certainly, God IS merciful.  The concept of His desire for none to be lost, and for all to come to repentance is rife throughout the Word.  The Bible is God’s love letter to us, that we can be saved from judgment!  Yet, one of the chief motivations to appeal for His mercy, is that unless we entreat Him for it, He WILL pronounce judgment on the recalcitrant.  His mercy is for anyone who requests it, but what of those who refuse to ask or do not even know that they should!?

God is certainly more patient than we are.  Within the book of Judges, there is a pattern of disobedience followed by punishment, followed by repentance, followed by deliverance, followed by repeated disobedience . . . over and over and over and over!!  This pattern continued throughout the Kings of Israel and Judah, until finally God’s patience wore out.  All along the way, He raised up many prophets to warn the people that judgment would come, until finally, He told Jeremiah to stop praying for the people!

How far down the path of calling good evil and evil good can we go before we have exhausted His patience again?  How many innocents who have not yet been born can we kill, sacrificing them to the gods of convenience, fame and money?  What does one make of an elected governor who says abortion is the way to love your neighbor!? (Ezekiel 16:35-38; 23:37-43).  How long can we keep putting darkness for light and light for darkness; how long can we exchange bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter; how long can we be wise in our own eyes, promote heroes for how much wine they can drink, and take bribes to acquit the guilty and deprive the innocent of their rights?  (Isaiah 5:20-25).

Is the USA past a point of no return?  Is God telling His people to stop praying for our nation?  When you pray for our leaders and the condition of our country, do you get a sense that Heaven is brass, and God will not listen anymore?  Who will warn the society that famine may be a season away, that a sword is being sharpened to cut off the life of the republic?  Should we not be concerned when the choices for our leaders have devolved so low, when Supreme Court Justices must fear for their lives because of ruling in favor of protecting the unborn?  Are the following warnings given to Jeremiah about Israel equivalent to God’s words to the United States?  Who will warn our people?

“Do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.  Do you not see what they are doing in the cities and in the streets?  The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven.  And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.  Is it I whom they provoke?  Is it not themselves, to their own shame?”  Therefore, thus says Yahweh-Elohim, “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.” (Jeremiah 7:16-20)

“They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words.  They have gone after other gods to serve them. …” Therefore, says Yahweh, “Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape.  Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them.  Then they will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble.  For your gods have become as many as your cities, and as many as your streets are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal.  Therefore, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.  What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done many vile deeds?  Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom?” … Yahweh once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’  But with the roar of a great tempest, He will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed.  “I, Yahweh-tzavot [The LORD of hosts], who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil you have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.”  (Jeremiah 11:10-17)

“Yahweh said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people.  Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer … offerings, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”  Then I said: “Ah, Yahweh-Elohim, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’”  And Yahweh said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them.  They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.  Therefore, thus I, Yahweh say concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed.  And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters.  For I will pour out their evil upon them.” (Jeremiah 14:11-16)

May Yahweh, The God Who Is, have mercy on us.  Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Rated PG-13: Christianity and Sex

Why Do Christians Make Such a Big Deal about Sex?
September 26, 2022 by: Rebecca McLaughlin (in Crossway.org, an excellent free resource for book reviews.)

Beliefs about Sex
One day, to try and catch him in his words, the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (Matt. 19:3).  Some Jewish rabbis allowed divorce for any reason.  Others only allowed it in cases of adultery.  The casualties of the more permissive view were women, who could be abandoned freely.  Jesus replied, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matt. 19:4–6)

Jesus goes right back to the beginning of the Bible, when God creates us — “male and female” — in his image. (Gen. 1:28)  These are the first words the Bible says about humanity.  They are also the first planks in the raft of human equality.  We tend to see equality for men and women as a self-evident truth.  But it is not.  It started as a Judeo-Christian belief.¹

Beliefs about Equality
Jesus connects God’s creation of male and female in Genesis 1 to a pivotal verse in Genesis 2.  God makes man first, but then says, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Gen. 2:18)  This role is not inferior.  In the rest of the Old Testament, God himself is most often described as a helper.  What is more, the creation of the woman is not an afterthought.  In Genesis 1, humanity is told to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28).  It is literally impossible for man to accomplish this mission without woman!

In Confronting Jesus, this follow-up to Confronting Christianity, Rebecca McLaughlin shares important biblical context to help all readers explore who Jesus really is and understand why the Gospels should be taken seriously as historical documents.

Right after God says he’s going to make a helper, he brings the animals to the man and gives him the chance to name them.  But no animal is a fit helper for the man (Gen. 2:20).  God does not discover this by trial and error.  (Maybe an orangutan? Nope. How about a chimpanzee? Nope.)  God already made the animals before he said he would make a helper for the man.  Parading the animals before the man emphasizes that the woman is different from them.  Instead of being like an animal, she is like the man.  To underscore this point, Genesis describes God putting the man to sleep, taking a part of his side — almost like taking a cutting from a plant — and making the woman.  On seeing her, the man exclaims, “This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.” (Gen. 2:23)

Just like in English, the Hebrew word for woman (ishshah) includes the word for man (ish).  The first words God speaks about humans in the Bible were that he would make them — male and female — in his image.  The first words a human speaks in the Bible celebrate the relationship between male and female.  They are followed by the verse that Jesus quotes in his response to the Pharisees: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24)

Man and woman are cut from the same cloth.  Marriage is in one sense a reunion, as man and woman become “one flesh.”  In case we missed the role of sex, the narrative concludes, “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Gen. 2:25)  This is the picture to which Jesus points when he’s asked about divorce.  If a husband and a wife are “no longer two but one flesh,” if God himself has joined them together, then who are we to tear them apart?  But we do.

The Spiritual Significance of Sex
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s powerful short story, Zikora, begins with a woman in labor.  As the story and the labor progress, we see Zikora texting the father of her baby.  He was her long-term boyfriend who abandoned her when she declined his proposal — not of marriage, but of abortion. 

“’I’ll take care of everything,’ he said.”²  She had told him she was stopping birth control and thought he was on board.  But he had said they had miscommunicated.  “‘Kwame,’ I said finally, in a plea and a prayer, looking at him, loving him. Our conversation felt juvenile; an unreal air hung over us. I wanted to say, ‘I’m thirty-nine and you’re thirty-seven, employed and stable, I have a key to your apartment, your clothes are in my closet, and I’m not sure what conversation we should be having, but it shouldn’t be this one.’”³

We find out later that Zikora had an abortion at age nineteen.  She was pregnant by a guy she had met in college.  “’I don’t do commitment,’ he had said, ‘but I didn’t hear what he said, Zikora recalls; ‘I heard what I wanted to hear: he hadn’t done commitment yet.’”⁴ 

In the first century, poverty and fatherlessness often led to infants being left outside to die.  Today, they are the biggest drivers of abortion — which is often less the flower of a woman’s so-called right to choose and more a bitter fruit served up to women who feel like they don’t have a choice.⁵

Jesus locates sex in the one-flesh union of marriage between a man and a woman and gives it spiritual significance.

In some ways, the divorce of sex from marriage that we’ve witnessed in the twenty-first-century West is not unprecedented.  Some form of commitment-free sex for men has been a feature of most societies throughout history, and women have borne the consequences: social, emotional, and physical.  But Jesus locates sex in the one-flesh union of marriage between a man and a woman and gives it spiritual significance.  This makes sense of his hard words about adultery and other forms of sexual immorality.  Sex is not just a pleasurable act.  It is not even just a means for having kids.  It is an expression of a one-flesh unity, made by God to picture Jesus’ love for us.

The Pharisees ask Jesus, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” (Matt. 19:7).  Jesus replies, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” (Matt. 19:8–9)  This teaching protected women and children from being abandoned.  It presents marriage as a permanent commitment that can only be undone by adultery.  As usual, Jesus takes what the Old Testament law said about sexual ethics and tightens it up.  Even his own disciples are shocked (Matt. 19:10).  So why does Jesus — who never married — see marriage in these uncompromising terms?  Because it is a picture of his own love for his church.

Whenever people ask me why Christians are so weird about sex, I first point out that we are weirder than they think.  The fundamental reason why Christians believe that sex belongs only in the permanent bond of male-female marriage is because of the metaphor of Jesus’ love for his church.  It is a love in which two become one flesh.  It is a love that connects across sameness and radical differences: the sameness of our shared humanity and the radical difference of Jesus from us.  It is a love in which husbands are called not to exploit, abuse, or abandon their wives, but to love and sacrifice for them, as Jesus did for us.  In Adichie’s story, Zikora’s college boyfriend often said, “‘I don’t do commitment’ with a rhythm in his voice, as if miming a rap song.”⁶  With the same consistent rhythm in his teaching, life, and death, Jesus says to us, “I do.”

Notes:

1. Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, vol. 2, trans. J. C. Rolfe, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914), 65.
2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zikora: A Short Story (Seattle, WA: Amazon, 2020), Kindle.
3. Adichie, Zikora.
4. Adichie, Zikora.
5. For more on this, see Rebecca McLaughlin, The Secular Creed: Engaging 5 Contemporary Claims (Austin, TX: The Gospel Coalition, 2021), 75–80.
6. Adichie, Zikora.

This article is adapted from Confronting Jesus: 9 Encounters with the Hero of the Gospels by Rebecca McLaughlin for Crossway.
Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin (PhD, Cambridge University) is the author of Confronting Christianity, named Christianity Today’s 2020 Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year. Her subsequent works include 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity; The Secular Creed; and Jesus through the Eyes of Women.

 

Wordless Wednesday – Life Found!

Can you imagine the excitement if scientists find one living cell on Mars?
The headlines would shout out, LIFE FOUND!
A baby begins with two living cells, a sperm and ovum.

Intermezzo Guest Blog by Alabastersky – Deceived

This guest blog has been edited somewhat with a paragraph deletion, links added and minor changes; if you wish to read Lisa’s original, you can find Alabastersky’s “Deceived: The New Religion” here.  People, we must learn to love Truth more than anything.  Our Father guarantees that if you love the truth you will not be deceived.  Galatians 6:7 commands, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”  The Bible would not give us a command without the ability to fulfill it!  As for those who are deceived, this is because they did NOT love the truth: “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)

From Alabastersky:
It occurs to me that as we plummet headfirst more into darkness each day, that we compromise and allow deception to reign. There are those who become so far removed from truth along the way that they will begin to not only believe but to embrace the lie so much that they themselves are convinced by it. The deceivers actually begin deceiving themselves!

I’ll give you some examples. The New Testament of the Bible tells us much about the Pharisees. We always see them waiting to trip Jesus up, or catch Him in some blasphemy, or in an act violating their traditions. They truly seem to be a demonized and hateful bunch, and Jesus often appears saddened and annoyed by them. But I believe their zeal was not only born out of a perceived threat of loss of control over the people, but also out of an actual belief that Jesus was a crack-pot blasphemer who was leading God’s chosen people astray. It was a combination of these two (and probably other motivations not mentioned). But as we can clearly see now, and for anyone who wishes to study it, Jesus fulfills every Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah’s [first coming]* – every single one.
[*Editor’s Note, the only ones remaining are about End Times events.]

Jumping forward to today, I’ve often wondered how multitudes could be allured into buying wholeheartedly into the one world religion of the antichrist that the Bible describes in Revelation 13, but believe the sincere zeal of the Pharisees gives us a clue. From this chapter in Revelation, we learn that the antichrist (or beast* as he is called), together with the false prophet* (or second beast) perform miracles that are so great that they deceive even possibly the very elect (see Matthew 24:24 and 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). So we know from this that there is great allure and attraction for people to become followers of the beast who sets himself up not only as the Messiah but also as the fulfillment of all other religions, but is in fact the very antithesis of truth.
[*Editor’s Note: these leaders will NOT be called “antichrist,” “the beast” nor “the false prophet” in the media.]

This allure of deception was confirmed when I saw New York’s Governor on a news broadcast recently stating that she needed “apostles” to evangelize people to get the vaccine because “Jesus taught us to love one another,” and that people who’ve gotten the shots are “the smart ones” while those who refuse to get it “aren’t listening to God and what God wants,” Whose god, I wondered, and why isn’t she taking individual circumstance into consideration? I also have to ask if she herself hears “God” when it comes to the murder of innocent unborn (and even just born) babies?

Now if you honestly believe that the vaccine is the best thing for you, then by all means, go for it. That is your choice, and I’m not here to stop you. But if for various reasons there are those of us who do not believe it is the best thing, why is the government working so forcibly to mandate that it is not our choice? One has to consider that if a government (any government) can force you to take the jab, then they can also force you to take the mark of the beast. Compromise is made in small steps, and the lines we cross in the midst of compromise can be dangerously deceitful.

I’m still trying to figure out why those who have been vaccinated need to be protected from those who have not been vaccinated. If the vaccine is as good as they claim, why would that be necessary? If the vaccine is as good as they claim, why, according to CDC data, did the virus almost flat line as far as new cases in the US prior to the vaccine, and then suddenly and aggressively spike after people began being vaccinated? I’m curious to know why there is a higher risk of catching covid after vaccination than there is before, by the very people who have been vaccinated? I’m curious to know why countries like Australia never took the extreme measures they are taking now for covid against such things as the flu, since the flu has higher death rates than covid?  I’m curious about a lot of things, and I know I don’t stand alone in my curiosity.

But I digress… The point I am hoping to make about the governor of New York’s appeal is that she, much like the Pharisees, has bought into this secular empire religion, and as a result not only perceives a threat of loss of control over the people, but also truly believes that those who act in an individual manner against the government-dictated social norms are crack-pots who are leading people astray.

Take that with another news article regarding a letter from a [national] teachers organization, that requested for parents who engaged in protests to be designated as domestic terrorists and treated as such, as if the government has final authority over our children. For anyone who is a Christ-follower, all of this appears to be the height of hypocrisy and lunacy, but to those who swallow the lies “hook, line, and sinker,” they are just as sincere in their belief in the deception as we are in the grounded and absolute truth of the Bible.

This goes along with a book my husband was reading recently, Hitler’s Cross by Erwin Lutzer, which analyzes what happens when a country forgets God, and declares the state in place of God in regards to what you are allowed to believe, and what happened to the church and Germany as a result. In the book he describes one of Hitler’s top enforcers, Heinrich Himmler, who believed in reincarnation. In his warped idea of spirituality based on a mix of Norse mythology, Hinduism, racism, and the occult, he believed that the Jewish people were “lower than the animals.” As a result he also sincerely believed he was actually doing the Jewish people a favor by annihilating them, so they could return on a higher rung of life than before. How absurd! Sin, hatred and the evil in which it is rooted has no bounds. Those who combine an almighty state with total control and a warped spirituality, and racism in whatever form, who deny Judeo-Christian values, advocate for loss of freedom, and the right to one’s life, and deny the right to decide what entails one’s own physical health, are crossing the line from welfare to tyranny.

THIS is why it is so important to know and understand our enemy is not flesh and blood but are the rulers and powers, principalities and forces of this present darkness (see Ephesians 6:12). This is also why it is important to stand and not compromise.

Letting go of our will in order to seek and fulfill His will instead has nothing to do with conformity. We need to understand that unity and conformity are not one and the same. We can all unite as one nation without conformity, keeping our individuality and God given rights. There is nothing more powerful [against tyranny] than being who God created us to be! That is why our founding fathers emphasized being created equal, with equal opportunity. Equal opportunity does not guarantee equal outcome, and the sooner we return to that understanding, the faster all this racist nonsense being propagated by those wishing to divide and conquer through fear will come to an end.

Know this, the truth and understanding of which I speak is only imparted through the Holy Spirit. Scripture tells us that when we hold to His teachings, then we will know the truth, the truth will set us free (see John 8:31-32). Jesus said He IS the truth (John 14:6). You can know Him too. He is found by everyone who sincerely seeks Him, and He will set you free!

 

“I was in awe.” – Intermezzo Guest Blog

Parents overcome fears to welcome baby Henry, born without arms.
by Nancy Flanders, July 17, 2021 , 03:55pm

After learning that their preborn son would be born without arms, Jessika Turner and her husband doubted their abilities to parent a child with additional needs. But when baby Henry was born, life changed for the better.

“We called our close family members and explained what little we knew at the time,” Turner told Love What Matters. “They had so many questions, and I was fresh out of answers. The one question I kept asking myself was ‘How in the world are we supposed to raise a child with no arms?’ At first, when I looked back on those few days after we received his diagnosis, I felt so guilty for feeling like I did. I repeated over and over, ‘How am I going to be a mom to a little boy who needs more than I can give him?’ Now, I realize I wasn’t worried about his arms, or lack thereof, at all. I was worried about our ability to care for this amazing child because I felt inadequate.”

Turner is not alone in her fears. For every child who receives a diagnosis, there are parents who wonder if they will be able to provide their child with everything he needs. When the child is still in the womb at the time of the diagnosis, doctors often suggest abortion instead of discussing how to actually help the child or the parents.

Henry’s doctors believed he had a rare genetic disorder called Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius Syndrome (TAR). According to Turner, TAR causes low blood platelets, missing arm bones, and other limb deformities. It also causes a lowered immune system and a milk protein allergy. There are two types of TAR: long arm and short arm. Those with long arm are missing the radial bone in the arm while those with short arm are missing all three arm bones. Henry has short arm TAR.

READ: ‘He’s absolutely perfect’: Mom of baby with missing limbs said choosing life was the ‘best’ decision

“Our next step was learning to adapt,” said Turner. “One of my biggest things, when we found out about Henry’s arms, was his clothes. Why does EVERYTHING have sleeves? All of the sleeveless items were summer clothes, and Henry was due in December. The feeling of being inadequate hit me like a freight train. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t eat. I screamed and cried and acted like a crazy person. I felt my soul break in half. My fellow special needs parents will know what it feels like. It’s gut-wrenching. I then realized I couldn’t stay in that dark place. I had to fight. I had to figure out how to do the best for this boy with lucky fins.”

Thankfully, Turner was able to find a support system with other families of children with TAR on Facebook. They gave Turner and her husband hope — “a life raft to hold onto.”

When Henry was born, Turner felt prepared and excited but also nervous and scared. He had a low platelet count of just 13,000 compared to the typical 150,000 to 450,000 and spent the first month after birth in the neonatal intensive care unit. He overcame a high white blood cell count, transfusions, IVS, x-rays, and five surgeries.

“The first time I got to see him with my very own eyes, I was in awe,” said Turner. “We created that! He was ours forever.”

Today, Henry is like any other toddler who loves to play with his trucks and uses a sippy cup. His parents have a mantra of, “No arms? No problem!” and his mother said she “cannot wait to see the person he grows into.”

Every child deserves to be loved the way Henry is loved, regardless of abilities or differences. No child should be discriminated against in the womb, but instead, all children should be welcomed at birth with love.

“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!

Connect with Live Action here: Live Action News info@liveaction.org

My notes:
Every baby IS loved and would be welcomed into the world if we could just connect those who think abortion is the only route out of a difficult situation to those who want a baby.  There are so many childless couples who wait for years to provide loving homes that no baby needs to enter the world unwanted.
For a humorous spin on this, check out the Babylon Bee’s May 21, 2021 satire piece (remembering this is a joke website!): https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-worry-of-dark-future-where-they-cant-murder-children-for-being-inconvenient.

Life In Abundance, Even In Death

“A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10 (CSB))

It always intrigues me when discussing death with some ‘Christians’ that they demur and say, “Let’s talk about something nicer.”  And I wonder, what is ‘nicer’ than death?  True, I do not look forward to debilitating disease or pains and problems of aging, but the end of this life on earth is not something awful for us to fear.  Even in death, there is abundance of LIFE!

The Christ-follower daily faces paradoxes.  Jesus announced very clearly, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35)  The “sermon on the mount,” Matthew 5-7, has many of these oxymorons, starting with the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-12).  The most pointed of these are the last two: “Blessed are those who are persecuted (?)” “Blessed are you when others revile you (?) and persecute you (?) and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely (?)“  What kind of invitation is this to follow this guy!?

Far too many Christ-followers have been sold only half of the bill of goods.  Prosperity preachers abound with promises that if you just buy their books and listen to their sermons, you will have unending health, wealth and comfort.  If things do not work out to make your life its very best, it must be your lack of faith, or something wrong with you, because God only wants to do good for you.

But just thinking of how the love of parents requires them to sometimes do something painful to their children should eliminate any confusion here.  No child ever said, “Oh, goody, I get to have a vaccine shot today!”  But a loving parent will vaccinate their children against DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus) to protect them from these much more harmful diseases, no matter how much the child may scream.  Love constrains parents to make their children eat their vegetables even though the dessert cake is sweeter.

So, yes, our Father only wants what is good for us.  C.S. Lewis began to understand this as he matured in his trust in God, writing “We are not doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”  And “there’s the rub,” as Shakespeare’s Hamlet said.  The maturity to which Jesus calls His followers is not the nursery school comfort of warm milk and cookies.  It is the challenge to come to Him and DIE so that you can truly live.

The Christ-follower, like Jesus, lives in a culture of life-affirmation.  Thus abortion, the unwilling taking of an unborn child’s life is anathema to His people.  Euthanasia, the execution of those who no longer are “contributing” to society (whatever that means), is also viewed as something more demonic than beneficial.  Suicide, in societies that have honored God’s word, has always been viewed as counter-productive.  Even suffering, when viewed as a means to draw us closer to the One who suffered more agonizingly than we can imagine, becomes life-affirming and a channel for God to bring glory to Himself.  Our rewards will wait, but they will come.

Thus, we are instructed that when we are persecuted, we can move to another place (Matthew 10:23), but not to retaliate against our persecutors, but to pray FOR them (Note: NOT against them).  We are not to fear death or its agencies that try to murder us (Matthew 10:28).  Francis Chan, just as he headed to Hong Kong to set up ministries in Southeast Asia, noted, “It is crazy to me that it is perfectly normal to be a Christian in America and to be obsessed with staying alive.” (February 7. 2020)  Jim Elliot penned in a letter to his bride, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Someone observed once, that unless one is willing to die for something they can not really live for it.  We who follow Jesus view death not so much as an enemy of life, but as a ferryman who will one day transport us out of his reach.  Following Jesus may involve pain, suffering, or apparent loss in the world’s eyes.  We may lack in comfort or have greater difficulties than those who just go with whatever cultural stream is flowing.  But there will come a day when it will all be worthwhile.

We must not serve God just for His rewards (another blog coming soon), but He does promise great rewards for those who give up their lives to or for Him.  Our confidence in Him assures us that there is nothing for the Christ-follower to fear.  He came to give us LIFE, and that promise is as certain as His resurrection!  There is no historical event more certain than that Jesus arose from the dead.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  (1 Corinthians 15:54-55)

 

 

Intermezzo: A Life That Is Valued

“As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”  Ecclesiastes 11:5

A Heart Starts Beating By Five Weeks

Can you imagine the headlines if scientists discovered one single living cell on another planet.  LIFE EXISTS OUT THERE!  So how is a “mass of cells” bearing the DNA of a mother and father not life just because “it” is dependent on the mother to stay alive?

One of the condemnations of Israel was the bloodshed of the innocent.  The result was Father allowed them to be overrun by the Babylonian kingdom.  A quick examination of the Old Testament prophets will reveal that the nation’s arrogance and lust for profit, the immorality that was justified by the leaders and the murder of children and innocent victims that was excused and even condoned as part of their worship brought God’s judgment.

In our generation we (at least some of us) abhor the killing of children (more about this in a minute), but if the child is still in the mother’s womb some do not even consider “it” a human yet.   In January, 2019 the NY State Senate passed a law allowing abortion “up to the moment of birth!”  The cheers are reminiscent of the loud drums that would drown out a dying infant’s cries in the worship of Molech.

In the 1960’s we began “dehumanizing” unborn babies, first by calling them “fetuses.”  Pro-abortionists claim that even at 36 weeks (!!!) the baby is just a mass of cells, part of the woman’s body that she can dispose of like she would a offensive mole.  Compare a real medical picture with a papaya!

When people are presented with the facts, they often change their minds and reject the killing of preborn children.
Live Action has produced tasteful animated videos with two main goals in mind:
1. Expose the brutal reality of what happens during an abortion, and,
2. Show the beautiful humanity of the preborn child.

The videos are compassionate and well done, not graphic or gory, but still represent the terrible things abortion does to a baby.  These Abortion Procedures – medically accurate animations depicting the reality of abortion – have prompted thousands of people to reject abortion, including pregnant women, who then chose life for their preborn son or daughter!

Here is the link to their website dedicated entirely to this video series: https://www.abortionprocedures.com/

And now there is even discussion going on about “post-birth” abortion in The BMJ’s Journal of Medical Ethics!  How can anyone not recognize this as infanticide, the premeditated murder of babies!?  Laws have been attempted in various states to ban the murder of “abortion survivors,” babies who live through an abortion procedure only to be tossed into the garbage.  Most of these have been overturned by judges who will someday give an account to the Life-Giver who loves every one of the children who died.  Dr. Anthony Levatino who narrates the videos has received denunciations of other medical professionals because he has changed from providing abortions to preventing them.

The biggest and most insidious lie the abortion industry, particularly Planned Parenthood, espouses is that abortions are done to save a woman’s life.  Abortion is never medically necessary under any circumstances.  The separation of a baby from his or her mother may be necessary, but that is a far cry from saying that the unborn baby must be killed to save the woman’s life.  Attempts should be made to save both.

Further, the racism and eugenics of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, has finally been acknowledged by the organization, in spite of articles claiming that she championed the health and well being of “undesirables” who would diminish the quality of society.  In a July, 2020 article in that conservative bastion (???), The Washington Post no less (!!), one of Planned Parenthood’s most prominent clinics announced the removal of her name.  “The removal of Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color. Margaret Sanger’s concerns and advocacy for reproductive health have been clearly documented, but so too has her racist legacy.”

In spite of its claim to be reforming and fighting racism, Planned Parenthood continues to house its clinics in predominantly minority  communities under the guise of providing “health care” to financially challenged groups.  According to Wellesley economist Phillip Levine, white births dipped only slightly after legalization of abortion while the nonwhite birthrate dropped by 15%.  Fifty years later, the abortion rate is still five times higher for black Americans than for whites.

Pray for our nation that we will turn away from the selfish view that owning a nice car or having a big house or enjoying a pleasant career is worth more than a baby’s life.  Pray that our leaders and representatives will set the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood on a path to elimination, that every life would be valued.

The Right View: Joe Biden Pre-election and Mail-in Ballot Myths

A quick search online will expose Tony Perkins as a controversial figure.  However, my views tend to coincide with Mr. Perkins, his controversies arising from principled stances on what he believes.  So I will use his two blogs of July 21 2020 for this guest blog.  However, keep in mind that as Christ-followers we must find the perspective of Randy Alcorn, writing in Heaven (the book, not the address 😉 ): “Christians should be involved in the political process, and we can do much good, but we should never forget that the only government that will succeed in global reform is Christ’s government.”   And some of the links, like the ones to CNN, Fox News or the Washington Post, are particularly interesting.

A Veep of Faith?
July 21, 2020

By Tony Perkins

Based on his comments, Joe Biden’s never had much use for evangelicals. As far as he’s concerned, they’re “virulent people,” the “dregs of society.” But those “dregs” also vote. And Joe’s hoping they’ll forget what he’s said and the policies he pushes long enough to support him.

It’s an ambitious strategy, trying to win over a group of people you’ve spent the last several years insulting. And yet, Biden’s campaign is leaving no election stone unturned, including, it turns out, the president’s staunchest base. In an interesting announcement from the former vice president’s camp, Biden confirmed he’s hired former Republican Josh Dickson to oversee his “faith engagement.” The liberal media, which, like Biden, usually has nothing but disgust for orthodox Christians, rushed to applaud the move, suddenly finding some use for the religion it usually maligns.

The press’s flattery wasn’t lost on everyday people like Patty McMurray, who couldn’t believe the same CNN that routinely mocks Christians was rushing to “prop up Joe Biden as some sort of deeply religious man.” Then again, they probably don’t see his faith as a threat, since it never seems to translate to policy. Deputy Political Director John McCarthy admitted that evangelicals “might disagree on a particular issue” (or 20), but insisted that “for faith and values voters,” Biden’s “spiritual authenticity is the quality they’re looking for.”

As Scripture points out, who can know a man’s heart? Maybe Joe Biden, a self-identified Catholic, is personally spiritual. But “authentic?” Surely, no one who’s followed his four-decade career could conclude that Biden shares Christians’ values where it matters: in the public arena. And yet even Dickson himself tried to sell the former vice president as the real deal because he “love[s] our neighbor” and “care[s] for the poor and vulnerable.” But what does he consider children in the womb, if not vulnerable? This is man running on a vision, not only of abortion-on-demand, but abortion right up until — and perhaps after — birth. To cap it off, for those Americans who do have a biblical or moral objection to abortion, he says they should still have to pay for them with their tax dollars. How does he square “authentic” faith with those radical positions?

The reality is, FRC’s David Closson points out, that “while Joe Biden is touting his faith and courting evangelicals, his policies remain odious to anyone whose view of the world has been shaped and formed by Scripture.” Last year, the one-time defender of the Hyde amendment traded his 40 years of integrity for the support of groups like Planned Parenthood. From there, he swore to appoint only rabid abortion activists to the bench and bulldoze every state pro-life law. He told nuns they’d have to fund birth control, churches they’d have to cover abortions, and U.S. taxpayers that overseas abortion would be our newest export. Someone please explain how this is a candidate that can connect with Christians “through a shared worldview?”

And that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of his radical LGBT advocacy. Biden, who brags that he forced Barack Obama’s hand on same-sex marriage, is so outside the mainstream that his first act as president would be to gut religious liberty — destroying Christian schools, Catholic hospitals, and nonprofit charities from food banks to homeless shelters. We’re talking about a piece of legislation, the Equality Act, that hunts down and punishes the same evangelicals whose vote he claims to want! One that also ends women’s sports, girls’ and boys’ bathrooms, Christian counseling, privacy laws, conscience protections, millennia of biology, medical ethics, parents’ rights. If you can imagine a man in every girls’ shower and a drag queen in every library, that’s Joe Biden’s priority. “This is our soul, da** it,” he said. “This is who we have to be…”

Now, there are some who will say that Joe Biden is a more acceptable choice to Christians because he’s less brash and confrontational than Donald Trump. But if a kinder, gentler Biden was what Americans were expecting on the campaign trail, a gentlemanly statesman is not what they got. Biden’s tirades in local town halls have been the stuff of internet legend, as he berates, profanes, and shouts his way through the heartland. If Biden is supposed to be the angel to Trump’s devil, no one told him. As for his personal conduct, there are at least eight women who would question that he’s more suitable choice for the office than the current occupant.

“Obviously,” Michael Brown said on “Washington Watch,” “people have to vote their conscience, and they have to do what they feel is right before God for their own lives. But the big question is, what are we actually voting for?” Evangelicals don’t support Donald Trump because he’ll hold up a Bible — they support Trump because his policies are based on what’s inside. No administration in history has done more for Christians in America and around the world than this president. And I’ll be the first to admit that, four years ago, I didn’t think that was possible. No one is rationalizing or excusing Trump’s failings. But consider what he’s accomplished for the unborn, religious liberty, Israel, persecuted minorities, the military, our economy, the family. He’s had a backbone of steel to push back against LGBT extremism, political correctness, America’s enemies, and the world’s tyrants.

This isn’t blind allegiance on the part of evangelicals. This is reasoned support for a political leader who has made and kept his campaign promises. As for Joe Biden, it’s going to take a lot of outreach for Democrats to prove that he’s even mildly sincere on the evangelical issues that matter. So far, as his record shows, the only way faith has been a “central part of [Biden’s] persona” is his willingness to attack it.

Unsigned, Unsealed, and Undelivered: The Perils of Mail-in Ballots
July 21, 2020

By Tony Perkins

It’s a “myth,” USA Today insists. “Rare,” writes NPR. Either way, the New York Times argues, “it doesn’t affect elections.” That’s interesting, the Heritage Foundation points out. Because they’ve counted more than 1,285 cases of this rare myth of voter fraud that doesn’t affect elections in the last four years — and they’re convinced: that’s not all of them.

Cheaters have prospered — and they’ll continue to prosper — voters worry, if the Left’s campaign for universal mail-in balloting succeeds. According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, a plurality of Americans worry that the Democrats’ idea makes the election “vulnerable to significant levels of fraud.” A majority of them — 60 percent — want to vote in person this November, the latest sign that George Soros’s plan to steal the election isn’t fair or popular.

With more than 70 lawsuits underway in states across the country, Democrats seem intent on forcing their way to a different system. But, as Hans von Spakovsky pointed out with Sarah Perry on “Washington Watch” last month, that won’t score them any political points. This isn’t a partisan issue anywhere except DNC headquarters. By and large, every American wants some form of election integrity, and this system — which we already know from this year’s primaries and local elections — is ripe for abuse.

“If you talk to liberal activists and liberal leaders of the Democratic Party, they’re all against voter I.D. If you actually look at the polling, you find that everyday folks — no matter whether they’re Republican, Democrat, Independent, no matter whether they’re white, black, Asian, Hispanic — a majority of them say voter I.D. [makes sense]. So their constituents don’t agree with the views of their leadership.” The same goes for voter fraud, he said. In the polling he did for his book with John Fund, “we found that African-Americans were more concerned about voter fraud in communities than other voters.”

And why shouldn’t they be? Democrats are talking about a system with no witnesses, no voter ID, no certainty that their vote would even be delivered. If Americans thought 28 million missing votes over the last four elections were bad, imagine no accountability or supervision whatsoever! True the Vote Founder Catherine Engelbrecht prays it doesn’t come to that. “This is engineered chaos,” she warns. “We need to see it for what it is. This is not an effort to make sure that those who’ve been affected by the pandemic are going to be able to cast their ballot in a secure and well-defined process. It’s anything but that.” It doesn’t matter if you’re dead, incarcerated, illegal, or unregistered, Catherine points out. Every active or inactive voter would get a ballot. “Then you throw in all the dysfunction that is the U.S. Postal Service … and it begs the question, why are we doing this if not but for intentional manipulation to a certain end,” Engelbrecht said.

As FRC’s Ken Blackwell has argued, we can’t let anyone exploit this crisis to take away the integrity of our elections. “This pandemic may seem like it’s changed everything, but it has not changed the rules of our constitutional republic. Let’s keep it that way.”

Why I Will Vote in the 2020 Election

The idea that we cannot legislate morality is untrue.  ALL legislation IS morality; it is only a question of whose moral compass will guide the laws we enact.  As a Christ-follower I am distressed that we have so little to choose from in the coming 2020 election: each of the candidates coming to the fore have shown clear evidence of immorality, lying or being significantly deceived by socialism.  So we who follow Jesus are faced with the same confusion the Israelites faced when they were deported to Babylon (see Daniel 1): how do we obey The God Who Is There when under a leader who does not believe in Him?

The answer is simple: as soon as the parties publish their 2020 platforms look at that of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and determine which one will support Judeo-Christian ethics and morals more closely.  This will be easy to do online once they are published.  It is difficult to imagine that they will be much different from the 2016 platforms, based on voting records (below) such as the one recorded on February 25, 2020.

We cannot seem to vote a man or woman into office that will adhere to Biblical norms to which Jesus calls His followers, but we should vote into offices the Senators, Congresspeople, and President/Vice-President who will most closely align with these principles.  Wouldn’t it be nice one year if we could choose between the “better of two goods” instead of always “the lesser of two evils?”  But this is our fallen world until Jesus returns.

Check out the link below for the vote on Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The vote to proceed with a bill to protect aborted children who are born alive died in the Senate along a party line vote with the exceptions of Senators Casey (D) of Pennsylvania, Jones (D) from Alabama and Manchin (D) from W. Virginia voting with the Republican majority “to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.”  Every Republican voted FOR the measure.

Vote Summary
Question: On the Cloture Motion
Vote Number: 58
Vote Date: February 25, 2020, 04:06 PM
Required for Majority: 3/5 (60 votes to pass)
Vote Result: Cloture Motion Rejected
Measure Number: S. 311 Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

Measure Title: A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.

Vote Counts:
YEAs: 56
NAYs: 41
Not Voting: 3
(Senators Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren, all Democrats who previously voted against this measure.)

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=116&session=2&vote=00058

 

 

 

 

 

Do Babies Go To Heaven?

I stood by the bedside of the two month old infant girl in 1975.  She was unconscious from the sedatives the doctors had prescribed to calm the seizures that were occurring from her encephalitis.  Her mother was a lovely young Navy mother, but the strain of the last two days was evident in her unkempt hair and bags under her eyes from a sleepless night and hours of crying.  The doctors were “realists” who did not mince words about the little girl’s risks.  She could develop epilepsy or dysphagia if she survived the fevers that were wracking her tiny body with 105-107 temps (40-42C).  If they could not get the fevers down, she might die.

The three of us standing around her were gowned and wore masks and gloves as the cause and contagiousness had not yet been assessed.  The minister with us placed his hands on the febrile child and commented on how hot her body felt.  He asked God very directly for a miracle in Jesus’ name; to heal this infant and remove the encephalitis; to allow this little girl to grow up with no side effects of having the disease; to comfort the mother that it was in no way her fault her daughter had become ill.

The minister and I left eventually as the mother sat by her daughter’s bedside for the evening, planning on sleeping by the child.  The next morning the pastor called me to ask if I would go back to the hospital with him.  He had received an excited call from the mother after the doctors’ rounds.  The infant girl was well, feeding and showed no evidence of fever or the disease that had molested her the last two days!  What a joyous celebration was going on when we arrived.  One of the doctors seemed a little cross, looking for someone to blame for a misdiagnosis, but the techs and nurses, as well as other doctors were very clear.  They had not erred. This was the same girl.  Yes, the tests were on this patient.  Somewhere in the night a Greater Physician, unseen, had visited the little girl and cured her.  Someone once said, “Second-hand miracles make doubters of us all,” but for those of us who had prayed by her bedside the day before, this was no second-hand miracle.  We had been given a front-row seat to our miracle-working Savior.

Fast forward three decades and a five month old boy was lying in a hospital NICU.  Most of his family were believers; many friends were praying in homes and churches whenever they met; several pastors had visited the hospital and laid hands on the child and prayed for healing.  But on May 5, 2005, this first-born little boy left his mother and father to weep and try to understand where God had gone; to wonder why Jesus had not healed their precious baby boy; to bury a child, which is perhaps a parent’s greatest grief.  I wondered why would God heal the little girl so beautifully and allow this amazing little one to die?

We do not have all the answers to the problem of pain and the reason The God Who Is There sometimes responds with miraculous healing and sometimes not.  But we have assurance of the Bible that babies who die will be reunited with believing parents when they meet again in Heaven.

Some argue about baptism of infants or salvation of pre-lingual children as though God would send an “innocent” to hell.  First of all, the children are not innocent.  Just babysit a one to two year old group of children and watch “original sin” in action!  Infants and toddlers are self-centered, thoroughly selfish, completely oblivious to fairness or justice, greedy and merciless, have no regard for others and no respect for life.  To say, “of course God will save children” will not suffice.  Given the inherited sin nature there is no “of course” about it.

Others will note that the Scripture makes no reference to an “age of accountability” that evangelicals like to invoke when discussing the death of a child.  It certainly does not teach the moral innocence of children, but demands training to lead a child into wise paths and righteousness.   Charles Spurgeon said, “We believe that the infant fell in the first Adam, ‘for in Adam all died.’  If infants [are] saved it is not because of any natural innocence.  They enter heaven by the very same way that we [adults] do: they are received in the name of Christ.”  There is simply no other way to Heaven, but by the blood of Jesus, called the Christ (Acts 4:11-12; 1 Timothy 2:5).

So you may ask, from where does my confidence come that babies who die will be reunited with Christ-following parents?  Spurgeon quoted the first half of 1 Corinthians 15:22.  The whole sentence says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”  It is an unqualified claim that has no allowance for exception. It is categorical and absolute!  Yet we understand clearly from the same Bible that not all are saved at the judgment (see Romans 2 and Revelation 20).

Therefore we must use the rational thought processes which God has given to understand this.  Simply ask yourself, “How did I die in Adam?”  We are found guilty before a perfect God for being born of someone who had sinned.  The sin nature activated at our conception makes us guilty.  It is a corporate guilt based on our genetic association and predisposition.  And it is in this same way that we can be made alive!  It is a corporate forgiveness based on Jesus’ position as the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).  So Paul could tell the Romans, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” (Romans 5:18)

This is why Paul became so excited as he went on to say, “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (Romans 5:20-21)  Where the corporate guilt of my involuntary participation in Adam’s sin is covered by the corporate forgiveness of my involuntary participation in Jesus’ resurrection, His grace and mercy extends past the corporate sin and guilt to my personal choices of sin that result in an even guiltier verdict.

Though there is no “age of accountability” mentioned it the Bible, the concept is clear in the Scripture to which we have been referred.  All of us died because of Adam.  All of us are saved from eternal death because of Jesus.  But at the point I take initiative to disbelieve in Jesus, to choose my own way over what I have learned to be right and true, I am no longer saved under corporate salvation, but need my own salvation.  I have to turn my life over to Jesus and make a conscious decision to trust Him for my salvation, and watch His grace abound even more!  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23)