One Week After…

Sometimes it is still hard to believe.  A man who was beaten, scourged with a whip and crucified, pierced with a spear into His left side so that water and blood flowed from His heart, buried in a tomb and left for three days and three nights… NOW, He IS ALIVE⁉️

His own apostles, the eleven who had been with Him for three years and saw the miracles: the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame could walk, Lazarus and others raised from the dead… did not believe at first.
“But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.” (Mark 16:11)
“These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe [the women].” (Luke 24:11)

It wasn’t until I was a teen that I realized how absurd it was to believe someone could arise from the dead, yet Jesus DID just that!!  So what must it have been like one week after the event described in Luke 24?
“Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’  But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.  And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself.  Touch me, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’  And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’   They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.  But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’”

Imagine Jesus coming and going among the disciples for 40 days.  One wonders what He was doing when He was not with them.  Can you imagine the times together when He would open the Old Testament and line by line explain how He had fulfilled over 300 prophecies?!  How slow they were to believe and how dull of mind we are sometimes to understand the Truth!

The apostles and all Jesus’ disciples seemed to have a hard time believing He had risen from the dead.  In Matthew 28, just before the ascension of Jesus, even still some doubted.  We do not know exactly who as the text does not say, but we assume that they changed their minds by the time they saw Jesus ascend, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.  And it leaves us wondering why doesn’t He just appear to each of us that He knows will put our faith in Him?

Everyone gets on Thomas’ case because he would not believe the ten other apostles’ claims that they had seen Jesus until he put his finger into His wounded side and saw the nail-scarred hands himself.  But ALL of the apostles were just as unbelieving when the women first reported Jesus resurrection!  Even after visiting the empty tomb, Peter and John would not believe until Jesus appeared to them.  Thus eight days later, Jesus told them all, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

So that first week must have been a mind-bending one: to see their friend and mentor, having been crucified and buried, now walking and teaching them in a crash course in Old Testament theology!  Yet, the disciples were still quiet and tried to avoid the High Priest and his associates, even going back to fishing in Galilee, in spite of Jesus command to wait in Jerusalem.  Were they just wanting to avoid the authorities who had crucified Jesus?  Were they considering going back to their old profession?  Perhaps this was the meeting He had scheduled with them?

Before being too hard on the apostles, consider that such are we even after God has done amazing things for us.  We have seen healings, been baptized into the Holy Spirit, watched Jesus work miracles in the lives of others.  Some of us have experienced miracles… six strokes and still walking around like a “normal” person and typing blogs.  And yet, at times my faith wavers.  I yield to temptations.  My anger flares up and moments later I have to ask forgiveness from Him, if not the person at whom I was angry.  Don’t I believe He is risen!?  Do you believe He is alive from the dead?  Because He IS.  He is risen, indeed!

The empty tomb was proof enough; the Sadducees and Pharisees could not produce a body to refute it.  The Roman guards who should have been executed for failing to guard the tomb were bribed to keep the strange event quiet… if they even understood what had happened; only that they had failed to keep the tomb closed.

Now it is up to us, one week after the Resurrection to live in light of the Truth that death will not have the last word.  Because He lives, any who place their faith in Him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and confess with their lives that He is Lord, will be saved from sin’s most destructive effect: death.  We who believe in and live for Jesus will also live forever.

Hallelujah, He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!

Linda Holm left this world on December 30, 2023.  Dallas wrote this song to say goodbye… until Forever.

Oneta Hayes is “dancing with Jesus.”

Oneta Hayes is a dear friend and beautiful blogger who has graduated to Heaven: our loss, Heaven’s gain.  I miss her, but will see her again when we meet around our Master’s throne.

Visit her blog and read some of her thoughts from her archives while she was here on earth with us.  Rich theology and cultural views.

Until We Meet Again….

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Roger Hayes for Oneta Hayes

Thank you to each of you who have followed my mother’s blog. Your interactions have been rewarding to her in so many ways. We pray that her words ministered to each of you. We know that in her heart, her intentions were always from love. So let this be a farewell since she is now dancing in Heaven with Jesus. – Roger Hayes and the Hayes Family.

In Loving Memory of Oneta Hayes…

People who love women and babies and want them both to LIVE, braved a cold day in January!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Only one minute and 27 seconds in this time-lapse, but WoW‼️ The Pro-Life generation turned out HUGE in freezing temps on January 19, 2024 to celebrate the new opportunities for women and unborn children to enjoy life‼️

The 2024 March for Life | The pro-life movement is here to walk With Every Woman, For Every Child! pic.twitter.com/uHvZPJzMwj

— March for Life (@March_for_Life) January 19, 2024

Lila Rose at the UN, November 17, 2023

My apologies; we will wait one more week to address the Whispers of God.  In the meantime, you can attune your ear to hear Him; “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Jesus)😉
Today, January 20, 2024, the 20th Annual Walk for Life West Coast is occurring in San Francisco, California, where Live Action president, Lila Rose will be speaking.  Yesterday the Washington D.C. March for Life occurred in spite of the snow and freezing temperatures.

On Friday, November 17, 2023 Rose joined the United Nations Transatlantic Summit  to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).  Here is a transcript of most of her speech:

“When the member states of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the world was reeling.  We were three years removed from the liberation of the Nazi death camps in 1945, where the horrors of the evils committed against the Jewish people and political dissidents emerged, and the world would never be the same.  Their human rights were violated.  They were enslaved, their bodies used for labor or human experimentation at the whim of their captors.  They were cruelly tortured and degraded as if they were less than animals.  They were murdered.”

Killing on an industrial scale.
Rose noted the Universal Declaration was not written as “an academic exercise,” but rather “a robust response to some of the greatest atrocities and most severe and systematic human rights abuses perpetrated in modern history.  These were bloody times, in living memory of some who are with us today.  The 20th century saw more bloodshed than any century before.  World War I; over 20 million deaths.  World War II; over 70 million deaths, including six million Jews murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.”  Then millions more killings were carried out under Josef Stalin’s reign of terror, and then millions more under Mao Zedong.  “It was killing on an industrial scale.

“The capacity for evil exists in every human heart but so does the capacity for good.  As Solzhenitsyn points out, ‘The line between good and evil has always cut through every human heart.’  The truth is every single one of us is spiritual, formed in the likeness of goodness itself, oriented toward the Highest of Powers, God Himself.  Each of us possesses reason to know and to choose the good.  Respect for the everyday miracle of human life, respect for every human person must be the first movement of our shared moral conscience and so inspired the United Natons Declaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration That ALL Have the Right to Life.
“From Article 3 of the Declaration, ‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person’. From Article 6, ‘Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law’. From Article 7, ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.’  Who is the ‘All‘ this Declaration promises rights to?  Who is included in ‘Everyone‘?

“The Declaration’s preamble states that the rights enumerated are for ‘ALL members of the human family.’  It states: ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of ALL members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.’

“So how does one become a member of the human family?  I am proud to be a member of the human family, as I know all of you are with me today, as is the little baby daughter in my womb.  Here is a quick review for us, thanks to a team of medical experts and scientists, created with Live Action and world-class animators:” This is the Baby Olivia video Rose showed midway through her speech:

“Many powerful people today… argue that a human in the womb is not a human, is not a life, and is certainly not worthy of the basic human rights enumerated in the Declaration.  Instead, these powerful people argue that one must pass through the magical birth canal in order to receive one’s humanity —how ludicrous!  It’s clear; science is clear that human life does not begin at birth, but before, at the moment of fertilization.

“Since our Universal Human Rights are grounded in being human and being a member of the human species, not in your age, not in your level of development, not in your location, human embryos and fetuses have the same inalienable and universal right to life as human infants, toddlers, teenagers and adults.

“So, how are we doing here in 2023 when it comes to Human Rights for ALL, for Everyone, for ALL members of the human family?

There is no right to kill.
“Here’s the hard truth: every year, globally, seventy million children are slaughtered by abortion.  That’s as if World War II happened again every single year with its victims exclusively civilians, particularly children.  Abortion is, by far, the worst human rights crisis of the last half century.  In fact, most of the members the United Nations outright support this human rights abuse.

“The helpless victims of this abuse have no representation here.  They are too young, too vulnerable to speak.  They are totally dependent on others.  They cannot rally, they cannot vote, they cannot demonstrate.  They require and rely on adults to speak for them.  They are babies, infants, growing in the womb of their mothers.  The womb which should be a safe haven, a place of nourishment and unconditional love, has become a war zone. 

“What are the euphemisms used in polite society, even in this building, that cloak the brutal reality of abortion?  Even the word ‘abortion’ sanitizes the unnatural act that kills a human being.  ‘Reproductive healthcare,’ ‘Women’s rights,’ ‘The right to choose,’ ‘Bodily autonomy.’  Reproductive healthcare does not include the right to harm a child — that is ludicrous!  Women’s rights do not include the right to kill a little woman, a little girl in the womb — that is ludicrous!  The right to choose does not include the right to murder — that is ludicrous!  My bodily autonomy, as a woman, does not include the right to destroy the little daughter growing in my womb — that is ludicrous!

Speaking up for the preborn.
“How have we bought so many ludicrous lies?  It’s because the unborn cannot speak that the born, the powerful, have succeeded in trampling on their rights.  The human rights abuse of abortion has killed billions of innocent human beings over the last half century, eclipsing every other cause of death or human rights abuse.  Abortion is the leading cause of death globally and it deprives its innocent victims of their first human right: LIFE.

“From Article 4 of the Declaration of Human Rights, ‘No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.  Slavery shall be prohibited in all forms.’  From Article 5, ‘No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment.’

“Abortion not only violates the unborn child’s right to life, abortion also violates the child’s right to be free from slavery and the right to be free from torture.  With abortion, human beings are treated as property to be created and killed at will.  Unborn children are routinely bred for stem cell research; their cells used for medical experimentation; their body parts sold or traded.  In the name of ‘medical research,’ millions of human embryos are created only to be victims of experiments, manipulated and ultimately to be destroyed in labs across the world. 

“Abortion also is torture for millions of murdered children.  In abortion procedures, children are routinely subjected to the worst acts of violence imaginable.  A Dilation and Evacuation, or D&E abortion, is the most common procedure used for a second trimester abortion committed on babies 14 weeks old through 22 weeks old.  In a D&E abortion, the abortionist inserts a large suction catheter into the uterus and turns it on, emptying amniotic fluid.  After the amniotic fluid has been removed the abortionist uses a Sopher clamp, a grasping instrument with sharp teeth, to grasp and pull one by one the living moving baby’s arms and legs, ripping their limbs from the child’s body.  The abortionist continues to grasp the child’s intestines, spine, heart, lungs and any other body parts.  The most difficult part of the procedure is usually finding, grasping and crushing the baby’s head.  You see, many abortions are not just killing. A D&E abortion is excruciating, torturous killing of a baby who feels every second of his or her live dismemberment.

“Abortion at its core is a contradiction of every human right.  If human rights are not for ALL, then they are for none.  If human rights do not apply to life in the womb, then they apply to no one.  If our youngest child is not considered worthy of these rights, then why do these rights matter for anyone?  As Mother Teresa said prophetically, ‘In a nation where a mother can kill her own child what is left but for you or for I to kill one another?’  We must do better.  We can do better to live up to the great ideals of this Declaration.  We must stand for ALL human rights for ALL and the most basic human right: LIFE for ALL members of the human family.

“So how do we move forward?  How do we protect human rights worldwide?  I call on the United Nations to address this human rights crisis of abortion and set a resolution of all its member nations to end it.  A strong leader stands on the truth and the truth is the first step toward lasting political victory.  We must refuse to tolerate in our nations the homicide of any child in the womb no matter the circumstances or excuses.  It is our duty to abolish abortion.  It is our duty once more to listen to our human conscience and refuse to rationalize why one child should be welcomed and another one killed.

“As we protect fundamental human rights we can ensure that every soul has the opportunity to be born, to live and to thrive.  Our shared commitment to the dignity of EVERY life for EVERY member of the human family will secure us the freedom, justice and peace that we so deeply desire for each of our beloved nations.  Thank you.”

Just to be clear, if you have had an abortion you can find peace and forgiveness from Jesus, though the mourning for the child you killed may stay with you for the rest of your life.

Thanxgiving Thoughts

“A day late and a dollar short” is how some of my teachers in high school described me.
So I may be late to the online Thanxgiving Day party, but we had a great time with new friends from Russia with whom were a delight to share their first traditional American Thanxgiving dinner!

Plus they helped decorate our Christmas tree‼️  But like a putz, I forgot to take pictures in process of us decorating, so you’ll just have to imagine it.

We are so blessed that even the poorest among us are the envy of much of the world.  Even with all our problems in the USA, people still flock to our shores and boundaries in hopes of the freedoms that we are slowly forfeiting.

If there is one thing to be thankful for in all of the messy world, it is that God came in the flesh, lived, loved and taught us what He expects from us.  Then He died to show us how just He is, He rose from the dead to show how powerful He is, and He ascended to Heaven to make intercession for us poor sinners to show us how much He still loves us.

Check out Bible Gateway for the real story of history past and history future.
love and prayers,
c.a.

Yolo, the Best Ice Cream Experience in Branson, Missouri!!

A great Mom and Pop operation, Yolo opened a year ago in Branson, MO. The artistic proprietors decorated the interior, designed the signs and had the car painted for parades. If you go to Branson to see Sights and Sound Theater or any other shows, don’t miss the delightful YOLO experience!

True for You, But Not for Me?

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  John Adams

“Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.”  Maimonides

“Believing something doesn’t make it true.  A thing is true or not regardless of whether anyone believes it.”  Paul Little

“Truth is what reality says it is.”  Mark Cahill

One of the silliest, yet most popular, arguments against believing that Jesus is the Son of God is the statement, “Maybe that’s your truth, but it is not mine,” as if Truth were as malleable as a politician’s stance on issues that divide his or her constituency.  “We live our lives on the belief that objective truth exists.” (Paul Copan, from his book, True for You, But Not for Me)  The “relativist” who claims there is no objective truth is a hypocrite, because he believes in it from the moment he gets up in the morning; when he orders a coffee, sits on a chair, makes a phone call or does anything!  He admits that objective truth is not relative, but absolute.  And when he claims there are no absolutes, all one needs to do is to ask him, “Are you sure about that, absolutely sure?”🤔

Now, it gets personal.  My dear older sister just entered hospice care this week following a major stroke in May.  Her main concern was that she is opposed to suicide on principle.  She was afraid that refusing medication or various efforts to improve her health would bring condemnation by the Lord she loves and has lived her life to please.  It was heart-rending to assure her that declining medication is not suicide.  I would prefer she lived until I, the “baby” of my siblings, left this world.

That afternoon, we read together Philippians 1, wherein the apostle Paul states, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  The word translated from the Greek “gain” is κέρδος (kerdos), which refers to profit!  It carries the idea of advantage or benefit that is preferable to its alternative.  (Don’t be impressed; you can look it up, too.😉)

Now is when “the rubber hits the road” we say.  Do we believe that the Bible really IS the Word of God?  Is it true?  Is it universally true, or “just true for you?”  Faced with hospice care, we are confronted with the question of our faith, our trust.  Do we believe we belong to Jesus?  Do we believe there is a Heaven awaiting those who have received Him into their lives, our lives? 

And from my sister comes a resounding, “YES!”  We know that Jesus is our Savior and the Giver of Eternal Life.  When we leave this world, we know where we will be five minutes after we die.  And that provides a “peace that passes understanding.” (Philippians 4:7)

We had an interesting conversation with the social worker, a nurse and a nutritionist about LaVonne going onto hospice.  These are people who have provided excellent care and try to make residents at their facility comfortable in this life as long as is reasonable, and as long as there is some undefinable “quality of life” that the resident wishes to continue.  As we shared LaVonne’s view of death and eternal life, my own faith was growing, and I found myself assuring these excellent professionals that death holds no fear for us because we know that we know that we know!  Jesus arose from the dead and lives in us, and assures us that we will live forever!!  “Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.'” (John 11:25-26)  This is not a fantasy for our family, a nice wish, nor an “individual truth.”  It is a fact as certain as knowing who my brother and sisters are.

However, having gone onto hospice, she is actually doing much better!  We do not know if this is because of the many visitors who came to see her upon hearing of the change or because of the relief of having made a difficult decision.  It could also be that the staff now purees her food so that it is more easily digestible, or the anti-esophageal reflux medicine that she is willing to drink.  If she continues to do well, she will be reevaluated in a few months and possibly come back off hospice care to see how much physical therapy can help her.

LaVonne is not without faults, but I reminded her of Martin Luther’s last words (a leader of the Protestant Reformation that she has always admired): “We are beggars; this is true.”  When we think of Luther’s integrity, his intelligence yielded to his Master, his uncompromising stand against abuses in the leadership of the only Christian organization in the world at that time, it is difficult to understand how one so fundamentally committed to Truth would consider himself a beggar when he was approaching a Judgment Seat before which we all will stand someday.  Yet, he understood that all our good works, all our attempts to please God, even our religious activities, are tainted with our selfishness that we inherited from Adam and Eve.  “We are beggars; this is true.”

Thus, if you are wondering what will happen in the first five minutes after you die, you can know!  It is not an issue of, “Well that may be true for you, but not for me.”  It is a matter of factual evidence that Jesus is who He said He is and has done what the Bible records.  It is not a vain philosophy that we have an option to believe or not based on our personal preferences.  It is not a fantasy of sitting on the backs of elephants or being visited by aliens; it is not empty nihilism without hope.

“Truth is what reality says it is.”  Mark Cahill

Love Works – A Movie Worth Watching

RedeemTV is an excellent resource for healthy family films, many of which are very good.  Some may at times seem rather dry compared to cinematic fare you can find at the multiplex, but the messages are uplifting and beneficial, rather than depressing and destructive to family relationships and healthy thought processes.

One of their best in recent months has been the addition of a semi-documentary called “Love Works.”  As it starts off very dark one could wonder how it turns out to be “a story of healing and hope,” but without spoiling the ending, let me assure you, it DOES!  Beyond the shadow of a doubt, this movie shows that Love Works as nothing else can!

The coolest thing about Redeem TV is that it is a completely free service, funded by generous donations, but its requests are never “in your face” like a carnival hawker nor rummaging for guilt if you choose not to give.  There are no “Donate NOW to Triple the Value of Your Gift!” appeals.  I always wonder when I see those kinds of promos, will that person be a jerk and NOT donate their money if I choose not to donate?  Riiiight.

Go to the RedeemTV homepage, click on the Sign Up Now button and sign up with just your email.  You will occasionally receive announcements about new releases or refreshers of old ones, but they will not inundate your email with tons of messages like political aspirants do with dozens of pitches, most of which are for donations!

After signing up, you can click on the Start Watching Now button and look through their offerings from biographies to children’s fare to comedies to documentaries to dramas to prophecy pieces among others!  Just click on the Search tab and enter “Love Works.”  You can even generate a “My List” of items you and your family might want to view later.

Check out “Love Works” for some heartwarming demonstration that no situation is beyond Father’s reach, to transform relationships, lives and eternal destinies.

https://watch.redeemtv.com/love-works

For a fun family night, “Church People” is a comedy worth watching that is a full-length movie with some good laughs.

Remembering David

Remembering David by Gavin Duerson, May 17, 2023

This past week our simple church lost someone special.  David was our next-door neighbor and a faithful pillar in our simple church family.  Loving and being loved by Dave has been one of the biggest blessings of hosting simple church on our street.  Simple/house church creates family and as we grieve the loss of Dave, I realize how true this is.

I was honored to facilitate Dave’s “Celebration of Life Service” this past Saturday.  It was a true joy to hear others tell stories about Dave.  His hilarious personality, love for others, and desire to always help people were common themes.  The stories of the jokes and laughs Dave and I shared could fill up pages.  We experienced Dave’s love in so many wonderful ways.  He already is so greatly missed.

I wanted to share a part of the message I passed on to friends and family.  I’m grateful for being able to see God work in Dave’s life through the interactions and relationships that developed in our simple church.

Today, this is called a “Celebration of Life Service.”  But it doesn’t feel like a celebration, does it?  If Dave were here with us wearing some goofy shirt or costume and we were having a party, good food, and good Dave stories, it would seem much more like a celebration.  But that cannot happen.  Last Sunday at our house church meeting this passage was brought up.

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

The Scriptures teach that there is something really healthy and good about seasons of life like this – as painful as they may be.  As I got to know David after Debbie (Dave’s wife) passed, he would often say that as painful as losing Carrie (Dave’s daughter) was, losing Debbie was worse because he was now alone.  He no longer had a partner to help him deal with his grief.  His honesty was a real gift to others because it gave those who knew him a window into God’s work in Dave’s life.  In our church, Dave didn’t try to just move on or forget about his losses or pretend to be okay.  I saw him lean into his grief and “take it to heart,” as this Scripture mentions.

We have and will continue to speak a lot of Dave and all the amazing things about him – and rightly so.  But he wasn’t a perfect person.  He had faults as we all do.  When he started meeting with our church family, he would often say things like, “I just don’t know if God can forgive me.”  He voiced doubt about his standing with God.  But two weeks ago, when Dave was on his way to a follow-up appointment with a doctor, I had a conversation with Dave that I’d like to share.

Dave told me they were going to run some tests and that everything would be fine, but that if it wasn’t fine and for some reason he didn’t make it, he wanted me to tell everyone that he knew that Jesus Christ lived in his heart, that he was going to Heaven, and that he was 0% afraid of death.  I told him that I didn’t anticipate having to have those conversations any time soon and that I expected him to have many more years ahead of him and to that he said, “Well, it’s true.  I’m not afraid of dying and I’m ready.  I have had an amazing life.”  

How does someone move from wondering if God can forgive them to making such a bold and confident statement like that?  How might we arrive at a similar place through our grief?

First and foremost, it begins by leaning into our pain and grief – running to God and not from Him.  That’s what Dave did.  I think he would encourage everyone here today to do likewise as they deal with their grief today and in the days to come.

Secondly, it does involve getting to know what Jesus is really like.  My wife shared that Dave reminded her of Jesus.  In the Bible, in the book of 1 John, the author, reflecting on Jesus, states that the Christians loved Jesus because He (Jesus) first loved them.  My wife mentioned that we wouldn’t have picked David to become what has amounted to an adopted member of our family.  We wouldn’t have done that, but we grew to love Dave because from the moment we moved across the street, he loved us first.  He showered us with his love as he has many of you here today.

Over the past seven years, we have spent a great amount of time together with Dave discussing and experiencing the amazing and unconditional love of God.  During this time, our family welcomed Wylie, who was not expected to live beyond a few days, and Dave really loved her.  He would always call her “Ms. Wylie.”  Not only has Ms. Wylie played a big role in us all understanding God’s love better, but also the multiple conversations around the person of Jesus we often shared did, too.

It is so easy for us to fall into this religious trap that says we try hard to love God and if we do it good enough God will love us back.  While this is what a lot of people believe Christianity is about, it’s the opposite of what Jesus is about.  It is as backwards as thinking that if my daughter Wylie loves me good enough then I will love her in return.  This lie is so easy to creep into our minds.  When we get to know Jesus, we realize that He came to flip this whole idea of God’s love being based on our performance on its head.  He came to show us all that He loved us first and his love is perfect and powerful enough to take care of all our mistakes.  When we encounter His love, then we can truly love God.  We love because He first loved us!

I want to conclude by sharing this passage in its context with you all because I think it beautifully explains the truths that David was able to absorb and ultimately led him to a place where he was able to express the things he expressed to me on his way to the doctor appointment a few days ago.

1 John 4:4-19 [NIV]
⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.
_______________________________

David loved his family.  Cars.  Music.  Food.  Making people laugh.  He loved greatly, and in the end, Dave was confident about his transition to the next life because He learned most of all that God is love, and that he was loved by God despite his mistakes.  He embraced what Jesus did for him when He absorbed all his sin when He died on the cross.  I’m confident that if Dave could speak to us today from where he sits, he would long for us to lean into our grief and get to know the real Jesus as well.

Gavin Duerson, Simple Church Alliance

The Inmates Are Taking Over The Asylum!

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”  (C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity)

We used to equate a man thinking he was a poached egg with such a detachment from reality that he was to be pitied.  But now if someone “feels” he is a poached egg, who are YOU to disagree⁉️  You must be some kind of arrogant “anti-egger” to be so disrespectful to nice “poached eggs.”  The government may think you are a terrorist threatening the well-being of “poached eggs.”  Your “anti-ovism” is despicable if you criticize or assume insanity on the part of the “poached egg!”  Your Twitter and Facebook accounts are subject to investigation to see if you have overtly expressed other “human-supremacy” views.  Your restaurant purchases and grocery lists may be scrutinized in case you may have even eaten “poached eggs” in your pretentiousness and assaults on the dignity of those who believe they are poached eggs.

Such is the state of our world, that to assert the reality of XX chromosomes being different from XY chromosomes is to be hateful, abusive, inconsiderate and narrow-minded.  Even the godless evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, “re-affirms women’s and girls’ sex-based rights, and challenges the discrimination [they] experience from the replacement of the category of sex with that of ‘gender identity.'”  The statement by the Women’s Declaration International to which Dr. Dawkins is a signatory goes on to say that “men with a female gender identity should not be included in the category women in the context of women’s human rights.”

When he was denied in 2021 the American Humanist Association’s “Humanist of the Year Award” for his “demeaning of marginalized groups using the guise of scientific discourse,” he doubled down saying “When trans people insist that you say she is a woman, you redefine something.  If you define a woman as a human with an XX karyotype, then [a trans-person] is not a woman.  If you define a woman as someone who identifies as a woman, feels they are a woman and has maybe had an operation, then by that definition she is a woman.  From a scientific point of view, she’s not a woman.“

Another victim of the thought police was J.K. Rowlings of Harry Potter fame.   When she supported a Scottish minister’s opposition to a bill that would codify gender identity into law she noted, “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction.  If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.  I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives.  It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”  Accused of “trans-phobia” in the New York Times, she has been vilified with calls for boycotts of her further novels and works, even though she tried to assuage her critics by voicing support for trans-women.  She even received threats of violence for opposing Scotland’s proposed “gender recognition” bill.

C.S. Lewis would join the cadre of those who oppose the redefining of words based on how we “feel” about them.  In his essay, “The Death of Words,”  he wrote, “As long as ‘gentleman’ has a clear meaning, it is enough to say that So-and-so is a gentleman.  When we begin saying that he is a ‘real gentleman’ or ‘a true gentleman’ or ‘a gentleman in the truest sense’ we may be sure that the word has not long to live.  The vocabulary of flattery and insult is continually enlarged at the expense of the vocabulary of definition.  As old ships to the breakers, so words in their last decay go to swell the enormous list of synonyms for good and bad…  Words, as well as women, can be ‘killed with kindness’.  And when you have killed a word, you have also blotted from the human mind the thing that word originally stood for.”

So what is a woman?  What is a man?  One who “feels” like one, or by scientific definition has either an XX or an XY chromosome?  A person can go through whatever mental gymnastics they want, but when God created us male and female, He meant what He said.  “Follow the science!”  You cannot change the chromosomal makeup of a man or woman, and no amount of media hype nor social influence will change the facts.  “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”  (Aldous Huxley)

Tragically, the inmates are taking over the asylum and we do not yet fully know how this will affect our society or families.  But it does not portend well.