Pendulum Swing?

We can rejoice that our Savior came to free us from the power of sin - Romans 6 tells us that the result of sin is death, but that we have been given eternal life. Romans chapter 8 contains these verses:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Later in the chapter, we can read:
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Through the gospel, we recognize that Jesus came to save sinners - that's each of us, and the apostle Paul described with great clarity the struggle that all of us have with the power of sin. He identifies sinful behavior - the works of the flesh - and encourages believers to walk in the overcoming power of the Holy Spirit.  We now have new hearts and powerful resources in Christ, giving us the power to overcome sin and live according to God's ways.

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Through our knowledge of the Scriptures, we can recognize what God loves and identify the sin he hates, realizing that He does not hate the sinner; He loves each of us so much that He sent His son to defeat the power of sin in our lives. Hebrews chapter 2 states:
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Today and tomorrow on The Meeting House, there is content that will enable us to wrap up our coverage of so-called "Pride Month," when the stunning breadth of the LGBTQ agenda is on display.  My three-part series of conversations with individuals who have experienced freedom from homosexuality through Jesus Christ continues with Cari Gintz, a former lesbian who has seen Christ expressed through her as she has surrendered to Him.  And, tomorrow, Arielle Del Turco of Family Research Council explores how the U.S. Government is spreading and funding LGBT ideology to multiple countries around the world.

The news service of Family Research Council, The Washington Stand, has recently covered the results of recent polls which examine Americans' views toward the "T" in LGBT: transgenderism. The article, published just over two weeks ago, opens up in this way:

The American public is increasingly rejecting the LGBTQ agenda, as a series of new polls show a growing majority of Americans agree that attempting to change your gender is “morally wrong,” that only two genders exist, and that women should not be forced to compete against men in sports.

A total of 55% of Americans believe “changing one’s gender” is immoral — up four points from 2021, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. 

And, citing Gallup, the article relates that "more than two out of three Americans (69%) now believe athletes should not have to compete against members of the opposite sex who identify as transgender, up seven points in two years."

The Washington Stand article also related information from yet another poll, this time from the left-leaning Public Religion Research Institute.  The story says:

Americans are also more willing to declare that the human race consists of only two sexes, male and female. About two out of three Americans (65%) believe there are only two genders, a 6% rise, while those who believe in a gender spectrum decreased six points (to 34%), found a separate poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

That poll indicated that, according to the article: "Even among the most liberal generation in U.S. history, 57% majority of Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2010) now believes in the gender binary — increasing 14 points in two years."

David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, said that the Gallup survey “contains encouraging news for those who believe in an objective moral order and common sense..."  He added, "The overreach of the Left in areas related to women’s sports and policies that allow children to be legally pumped with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones is resulting in a predictable backlash..." 
 

The article also stated:

“The more the public sees it, the more it opposes gender ideology,” wrote Jay Richards, a senior research fellow in religious liberty and civil society at The Heritage Foundation — even when pollsters substitute the confusing term “birth gender” for “sex.

Well, it's certainly not time to spike the football, but this polling data reflects what you have seen culturally over the past few weeks - the astonishing backlash to the promotion of the gay agenda by certain corporations, and the willingness of people to stand up and say "enough is enough" is certainly encouraging.  Those who promote debauchery have certainly overplayed their hand, but that doesn't mean that their quest to further their agenda and the attempt to make the LGBTQ lifestyle more acceptable is waning.  In fact, these setbacks are quite likely, I would think, to cause them to double down.   

But, we should never get comfortable with sin around us - nor in us.  The body of Christ is in the position of demonstrating a true sense of morality that brings peace with God and peace within. In an age in which there is much confusion and frustration, we can radiate the love and peace of God.  And, when we are discouraged or feel we've lost our way, we can go to the Lord, surrender to Him, and allow Him to express His power through us - the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power that has defeated sin and death, power to change and power to walk in His triumph over the forces that would attempt to deceive and defeat us!

Parallel

The problem was sin - originating from the Garden of Eden and passed on through generations. But, throughout the ages, we see that God continued to reach out to call people to Himself. Romans 3 says:
11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."

That is the problem - humanity's separation from God and inability to save itself. But, that is not the end of the story; later in the chapter, we can find these words:
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...

We can ask ourselves: are we content to remain in our sin?  Do we have internal issues that we have continued to harbor, without going to the Lord for help?  And, cultural speaking, even though it seems that sin is so rampant, we can ask if we are being people of complaining or people who are looking for solutions in Christ.  God has a purpose for each of us, and as His representatives, we can be agents of reconciliation, demonstrating to the world God's grace and presence, bringing solutions to the challenges we face.

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We can sometimes feel overmatched with evil in this world, but we realize that Jesus gave Himself to defeat Satan's power. When we see areas of decay or challenges to our faith, we can look to Him for solutions. Romans 12 provides some practical insight:
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.
20 Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head."
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Recently, I spotlighted some of the trends in corporate America that represent a threat for people of faith.  From investment strategies where those who don't tow the proper ideological line may find themselves excluded to corporate promotion of ideas that don't line up with Scriptural beliefs to workplaces that don't allow free expression of a person's faith, there is much concern.

One particular company is attempting to operate by his deeply held beliefs and show respect for faith principles.  The Daily Signal reported recently:

PublicSq. Founder and CEO Michael Seifert believes “strong families make a strong nation.” But when the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, he began witnessing a lot of companies grandly making “impassioned petitions to pay for their employees’ abortions.”

“I was shocked by that because it’s an immoral and egregious act for an employer to pay for an employee to terminate their children,” he told The Daily Signal. “That’s my opinion. But on top of that, it was also a very blatantly obvious move for just more productivity out of their employees. And it was a stifling of [employees’] potential desires to have families.”

So, Seifert decided that his company would take a different course, offering a $5000 "baby bonus" for employees who have a child or adopt a child.  And, this was done to coincide with the first anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The article says: 

His employees can use the bonus, which is $5,000 after taxes, for anything they want, Seifert said. Some parents who are adopting face exorbitant fees, and the baby bonus could help offset that. Other families with several children already may just “need some more diapers” or a babymoon, he joked.

So what is PublicSq.?  The Daily Signal states:

Seifert’s company, PublicSq., is both an app and a website “that connects patriotic Americans to high-quality businesses that share their values, both online and in their local communities,” according to a company press release.

The company’s goal: to help consumers “shop their values” and “put purpose behind their purchases.”

The company issued a press release at the Business Wire website on June 1, stating that PublicSq....

... announced that its consumer member base increased by over 300,000 from May 23, 2023, to the end of May. PublicSq.’s consumer membership grew by more than 40% in a single week, fast-tracking the platform to more than one million consumer members in less than 11 months since its nationwide launch on July 4th, 2022.

The rise in the platform’s consumer membership propelled PublicSq. to the #2 shopping app and the #3 free app in Apple’s App Store last week, ranking above other shopping apps such as Shopify, Target, Amazon, and Walmart.

Seifert is quoted as saying: “We are thrilled to celebrate this incredible milestone of reaching one million consumer members in such a short span of time and believe this is further proof that many Americans are tired of corporations advancing DEI and ESG agendas...In the same week that Target watched its market capitalization drop by $10 billion, our marketplace experienced exponential membership growth. We’re now providing more than one million Americans with a commerce experience that connects them with the largest marketplace of values-aligned small businesses in the nation, and we’re just getting started.”

Seifert has been featured on a number of media outlets, including the podcast of Heidi St. John - in a short bio corresponding to the feature, it states:

At just 27, Michael has been a thought leader in the areas of politics, culture, and business for many years, especially as these topics intersect with technology. With a combined social media following of nearly 350,000, Michael shares his relentless passion for Truth, Liberty, and conservative values with his patriotic following. Prior to the launch of PublicSq, Michael hosted his own podcast, Refining Politics & Culture, which confronted challenging cultural topics from a conservative, Christian perspective.

Breitbart reports that Seifert...

...mentioned that Public Square is the start of a “parallel economy ecosystem” to rival the corporate push for ESG and DEI.

“So there’s really this cool parallel economy ecosystem that’s been created. And it all starts with consumer spending. We hate ESG, we hate Dei, we talk about these policies all the time in the news. But the only way that we are going to topple those corrupt philosophies that are destroying our economy is by shifting consumer spending. And so we’re offering the easiest directory out there to go and do that as your starting point..."

The article notes that in excess of 55,000 businesses are participants on the platform; businesses that Seifert says are "pro life, pro family, pro freedom – they love the country and the Constitution and the values that it protects..."

Don't like the direction of some corporations?  Concerned about policies that do not line up with our Biblically-based values?  We can stomp and shout and get angry, which is not the most effective way, because anger does not glorify God.  Or, we can take concrete, God-inspired, wise steps to go in another direction.  We can depend on the Lord to provide solutions when we face cultural challenges. 

And, we should always be seeking solutions.  We cannot just stop at pointing out what is wrong with culture.  Certainly, we read in Romans 3 that there is none righteous; you know, as the song, says, "no, not one."  But, there was more - Paul goes on to write about what Jesus Christ did for us.  I think we can follow His example - He directs us to identify issues and challenges, but also provides wisdom to bring honor to His name. 

We have to trust the Lord to provide direction for us - certainly we are called to speak truth, but we are also called to demonstrate the power of the truth that is within us. 

Training Young Minds

In one generation, as the book of Judges points out, the Israelites experienced rapid decline in their allegiance to God - that shows how quickly it can happen. Following the death of Joshua, according to Judges chapter 2, we can read these words:
10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.
11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals;
12 and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.

That's all it took - one generation.  Even though in Deuteronomy 6, Moses had admonished the children of Israel to teach their children about the ways of the Lord, once the Israelites entered the promised land and after their leader died, the decline was steep and rapid.  That becomes a challenge to Christian parents to model the teachings of Christ and make sure the principles of Christ are being relayed to the next generation and generations to come.

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Parents have a Biblical responsibility before God to train and equip their children to walk according to His ways, and in Deuteronomy chapter 6, we find these words:
4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

We have continued to see parents rightly challenge their local boards in an effort to hold them accountable for curriculum that concerns them.  Christian parents are rightly considering the educational options they have available to them for their children - we can remember that Christian parents are given the responsibility in Scripture for raising their children according to God's principles.

A new educational option has emerged over the past few months and was announced at the recent National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando and the Florida Parent Educators Association in the same city the same week. It's called Covenant Journey Academy and it is an online Christian school that was founded by Mat Staver, who is recognized as Founder and President of Liberty Counsel and is heard on Freedom's Call on Faith Radio.  The school's website describes it this way: "CJA is a full-service K-12 online Christian Academy that is available around the world 24/7/365 with more than 150 courses all taught by certified teachers."

The site notes that CJA is "built upon the foundation of a Christian worldview with the vision to empower courageous generations of highly skilled people thoroughly grounded in a Christian worldview to transform the culture."  And, CJA hopes to be part of what it calls a "revolution," stating:

While the popularity of homeschooling has experienced a 2-8% annual increase for the past several years, the COVID lockdowns caused a surge in the number of families choosing to become more directly involved in the education of their children. As a result, America is experiencing a revolution in education, having already witnessed explosive growth in homeschool students from an estimated 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.3 million in 2023.

So, not only did the COVID crisis expose parents and children to virtual education, but it enlightened parents of some children to ideologies that were being taught that were of concern. The CJA website states: "Parents are sick and tired of having their children indoctrinated with gender ideology or critical race theory that divides people and pits students against one another based on race, ethnicity, or gender."

In an article posted at CBN.com, Staver lamented the indoctrination into these philosophies and highlighted critical thinking from a Christian worldview perspective; the article stated:

Staver said he found “a lot of Christian schools, whether they’re at the graduate level or K through 12 and may be Christian in name … they’re not thinking biblically [for] each one of these courses [in] how to integrate them.”

Covenant Journey Academy, which launched with 150 courses taught by Christian-certified teachers trained in biblical worldview, hopes to change these dynamics and better prepare students by presenting content through a faith lens.

Staver said one of the most versatile parts of the Covenant Journey Academy is the fact “any student, any family, anywhere in the world can be part of this.” And for private schools looking to launch but without infrastructure, the institution provides the curriculum and services needed for students to thrive.

Provost and Executive Vice President of the Academy, Dr. Shanna Akers, is quoted on the Academy's website, saying: “...As schools around the nation are increasingly using education not to teach but to challenge traditional American values, to deconstruct biblical morality, and to re-write the American story, Covenant Journey Academy is empowering parents to provide their children with excellent private school education in the safety of their own homes.”

The Board of Advisors of CJA includes a number of high-profile Christian leaders, including former Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell of Family Research Council, along with his wife, Rosa, an experienced educator; Tim Geoglein of Focus on the Family; Rick Green from Patriot Academy, Bishop E.W. Jackson of STAND, Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and Lt. Col. (Retired) Allen West. 

Kudos to Mat Staver and the leadership team of Covenant Journey Academy.  You know, a desire of mine on the Meeting House radio program is not only to point out challenges to our Christian faith in our culture, but to provide Christ-centered solutions.  The CJA founders saw a deficiency, and have taken concrete steps to provide a solution. 

Parents obviously have an opportunity to enlist a partner for the training of their children. And, we recognize that Scripture teaches that the responsibility to raise children according to Biblical principles falls upon the parents; now, parents will definitely sub-contract that to others, such as the local church, to community organizations, sports clubs, and schools - but it is incumbent upon the parents to make sure that those contributing to their children's lives do not violate or contradict the principles that ideally should be being taught at home.

We recognize that in society today, the well-being of children is being defined in ways that are radically different than the Bible would define it.  Politicians and thought leaders may claim to have the child's best interest in mind, but as we have seen over the past month, we have people in power that practice a different morality. Children must be taught to think critically and Biblically about the world around them - and while parents do have a degree of protection they can provide, ultimately, the kids have to decide for themselves.  So, the challenge is to equip them in the best ways possible. 

Light in the Darkness

There is a picture of our Savior and His mission contained within the words of Bible prophecy in Isaiah 59, reminding us of our Messiah's triumph over the enemy's power. We can read in that chapter:
17 For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, Fury to His adversaries, Recompense to His enemies; The coastlands He will fully repay.
19 So shall they fear The name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

Even though there are powerful forces arrayed against us, we can remain steadfast in the Lord and trust in His great power.  The Church is finding itself at odds with the dominant ideologies of this world, and around the globe, we find that Bible-believing Christians are facing opposition that can bring discouragement, but in the midst of great trial, there is a great move of the Holy Spirit that is occurring. So, we lament the persecution, but rejoice in the conversions.

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God brings us the great ability and perspective to be able to reject the philosophies of this world and to focus on what God wants to do in our lives. Paul knew His share of opposition, and in 2nd Corinthians 12, he relates a message that the Lord shared with Him:
9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

There continues to rightly be a focus on the nation of China; after all, with its large population, its economic and military, as well as technological, ambition, and unfortunately, the surveillance and suppression of many of its people, its influence should not be ignored.  Just recently, the U.S. Secretary of State took a diplomatic trip to the country to try to improve relations.  Noted China expert Gordon Chang, as quoted by Newsmax, said:

"Before this meeting even started, before it was announced, China was delivering slight upon slight upon our Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They also did it during the visit when he arrived in Beijing during the meeting with Xi Jinping. He was seated in a subservient position. This was just one problem after another, and it really shows that … communication is not the issue.

"China talks when it wants to talk, it doesn’t talk when it doesn’t want to talk."

But, we can also remember that in the midst of the oppressive regime, millions upon millions are coming to know Christ. That has the potential to change a nation. 

Writing for FoxNews.com, Lauren Green states:

The growth is so exponential that one theologian is predicting the conversion of China within one to three generations.

The Rev. Johnnie Moore, a member of the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, says, "I not only predict the conversion of China to Christianity — it's much further along than people realize and than the Chinese want to admit. And they're underestimating it."

Conservative estimates put the number of Christians at around 100 million.

But Moore believes the number could be as high as 150 million or even 175 million.

The article states, "The percentage growth of Protestant Christianity in China since the late 1980s has gone from a negligible amount to where it is 3% of the population, according to The Economist." When you factor in other religions, according to the article, "religious adherents outnumber members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."

Moore, who is one of the foremost advocates for persecuted Christians, in an interview for the "Lighthouse Faith" podcast, stated, "In a generation, the Communist Party will not be the Communist Party that we know today. I don't think it will exist at all. But what will happen is the Chinese church will probably be the strongest, largest church in the entire world."

Green contends that is what is motivating Xi Jinping in "clamping down on Christians."  Examples?

Some 2,000 church spires and crosses have been torn down. Pastors have been locked up. Bibles have been confiscated.

Bibles have even been rewritten to create more allegiance to the government rather than to Jesus. And hi-tech AI surveillance is meant to intimidate and coerce believers into submission.

CBN.com reported just over six months ago that, "...the country is said to be on track to having the largest Christian population in the world by 2030, according to Rodney Pennington who studies church growth for Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF)." The article relates:

"We are overjoyed with what the Lord has already done in China," said Pennington in an interview with The Christian Post. "But that doesn't mean the task is finished."

"While 200 million Chinese believers by the year 2030 may seem ambitious, it certainly gives us a strong goal to pray toward," he added.

That article apparently refers to a Christian Post article from 2016 and I would echo that, as Pennington contended at the time, that it remains a solid goal for the future. 

The gospel is continuing to advance and flourish around the world, and in the case of China, it is doing so in the face of intense persecution.  Johnnie Moore refers to the Church in China as "an anvil which has worn out many a hammer."  So, even while one would say the enemy is being victorious, we can also recognize that what the enemy intends for evil, God is intending for good.  When the enemy comes in like a flood, God's standard is lifted high.  So, we can be burdened by the persecution of the Church, but we can rejoice that the Lord is energizing His people. 

Even though it seems like the American church is lagging behind, perhaps times of turbulence can be a wake-up call to our congregations and Christ-followers.  Our institutions are continuing to see compromise and complacency in the ranks and we have to make sure we double down on our passion to draw closer to the Lord and to do His work.  He can create a sense of urgency in our hearts and stir a fire in our lives, so that Christ might be exalted. 

Evil on Display

Believers in Christ have access to spiritual sensitivity and discernment that enable us navigate through this world and recognize spiritual forces that are at work. In 2nd Corinthians 10, Paul writes:
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
7 Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ's, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ's, even so we are Christ's.

In John chapter 10, Jesus described the work of our spiritual enemy, who has come to "steal, kill, and destroy."  He has come to bring us abundant life, as He taught.  The spiritual conflict is real, and we have to recognize who, ultimately, the true enemy is - that enemy wants to deflect attention and cause us to look at people and to drive wedges in between us.  We have to recognize that there are forces aligned against - and for - the purpose of the Kingdom of God. 

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As he concludes the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminds us that there is more at play than what we experience with our senses, writing:
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

The devil is not just something that filmmakers or authors have conjured up, a creepy character in a horror movie.  We recognize that evil is real, the devil is real, and he is at work powerfully and pervasively in the world today.

A high-profile actor in a movie franchise has decided to take off the gloves and call out this enemy.  A Relevant Magazine story reports:

Fast and Furious star Tyrese Gibson is warning Christians that the world is trying to “promote the devil.”

In the middle of promoting Fast X, Gibson took a moment to call out people who are trying to “normalize the devil.”

“As much as I’m supposed to be promoting this movie and talking about my album, I just feel like we’re in competition right now because they are trying to normalize the devil,” Gibson said. “The devil is on the main stage at award shows and in every video and signs and symbols.

And, he devoted some time to speak directly to Christians, saying:

“We need to stop treating our relationship with Jesus like the little buddy that you talk to before you go to bed at night,” he said. “Be more vocal about all the things that God means to us, and all of the things that God has brought us through. There’s been a lot of moments that you didn’t post about, but yet you know how did God decide to get you through this.”

The article notes that the actor in 2015, "opened up about how his faith has helped him stay focused on the important things while navigating fame." He wrote: “Fame is one of the biggest unspoken addictions...Validation is a men’s and women’s silent killer… When you love yourself deep within, when you fall in love with Jesus and you’re completely submerged in Christ, your heart and soul is fulfilled independent of what’s in your bank account and where you are on the charts.”

Gibson is also a singer, and a Movieguide article included some content from some of his Instagram posts, including this nugget:

“Every show while I’m singing I’m praying, when I lift my hands I am thanking the Lord Jesus Christ for the God given stage of influence he has given me…. I fear no man…. I walk IN my truth and IN my life’s purpose everyday…. I am clear that God is my SOURCE, and people and things are just resources…. God IS my source…. And, I want for nothing cause I have it ALL cause I have Jesus…. #Amen”

He doesn't express himself in the way I would, but Tyrese Gibson has certainly brought clarity to the issue of good vs. evil. In fact, there are reports out there that he has taken Hollywood to task, saying that it is full of "Satanic pedophiles."  One might say that is redundant.  

We don't need to shrink back from calling evil what it is.  In an age of moral relativism, clarity is so very important.  We can classify what is good in God's eyes with what isn't.  And, it is certainly not a matter of the Bible somehow being unclear about the truth of God - we water it down and try to make something cloudy out of what is clear, gray where it is black and white.  

The fact is, there is evil in the world today - and it is prevalent.  We face the temptation in our own lives - to choose evil or good, the world's ways or God's ways.  We have the power and wisdom available to us in order to reject temptation, to resist the power of the enemy.  But, do we have the will?  Will we do what is necessary, by any means necessary, to reject sin and to reflect the presence of our Savior?

Advancement of Life

In an age where people are identified, divided, and generalized by their backgrounds, we can reflect on how we are united by our shared identity, people who share the image of God. Job 31 touches on this subject, when it says:
13 "If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant When they complained against me,
14 What then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him?
15 Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?

Jesus Christ gave His life for all - because humanity reflects the image of Almighty God, His love has been extended, His invitation to know Him has been issued.  His love now dwells in the hearts of those He has saved and therefore, we respond to Him in love and operate in our capacity to love others as He has loved them.  That love should even extend to those pre-born babies who are in danger of having their lives terminated - and to women and their families who are considering a decision to have those lives taken.

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A sweeping rescue operation is in progress in our country, and a key development occurred one year ago this Saturday. The striking down of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court opened a new era of opportunities to protect the lives of pre-born children. Proverbs 24 says:
11 Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
12 If you say, "Surely we did not know this," Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?

This Saturday marks the 1-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs case, overturning Roe v. Wade, that had provided legal protection for the taking of the life of unborn children.  After almost 50 years, states had the opportunity to craft their own laws regarding abortion.  There is also a call for federal legislation to protect life, as well.  

Now, the media would tell you that the decision actually made abortion more acceptable and became a losing issue for politicians.  Abortion, to many in media and politics, has become a necessary sacrament of American life.  But, through education and compassion, expressed through the hard and diligent work of dedicated pro-life individuals, churches, and organizations, there is a move to completely stigmatize abortion - to make it, as it's been said, "unthinkable."  

LifeNews.com has reported on a new Gallup poll which takes the pulse of Americans on the abortion issue. The article says:

Though the Gallup poll may appear to indicate that Americans support abortion – with questions about abortion in general showing Americans support abortions in the first trimester — a further Gallup question that more specifically identifies people’s views on abortions reveals what has been true for decades – Americans oppose most or all abortions.

The article goes to to say: "Looking at the brand new Gallup poll...69% say abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy. But ending the analysis of the poll with that figure is highly misleading."  It relates:

That’s because the subsequent question that more accurately identifies abortion views makes it clear more Americans oppose most or all abortions.

As Gallup notes, “Specifically, close to half of Americans, 47%, now say abortion should be legal in all (34%) or most (13%) circumstances, while a similar proportion, 49%, want it legal in only a few (36%) or illegal in all (13%) circumstances.”

Add those together, and, as Life News puts it: "That means 49 percent of Americans take a pro-life position opposing all or most abortions while a lower 47% take a pro-abortion position supporting all or most abortions." In 2022, Gallup data shows 53% support for "all or most abortions" v. 45% opposition.  That's a 6-point drop in abortion support.

Professor Michael New, writing for National Review, offers this analysis:

Overall, the results contain some good news for pro-lifers. The findings indicate that 41 percent of Americans identify as “pro-life.” This is an increase of four percentage points from last year’s Gallup poll. Additionally, since last year the percentage of Americans who felt that abortion was “morally wrong” increased from 38 percent to 41 percent.

He adds:

The survey contains some evidence that pro-lifers might have lost a little bit of ground on some individual policy questions. The percentage of Americans who felt that abortion should be legal in the first three months increased by two percentage points. However, the Gallup poll adds to the body of survey data that show strong public opposition to abortion after the first trimester. The results indicate that 55 percent of Americans think abortion should be “generally illegal” in the second trimester and that 70 percent think abortion should be “generally illegal” in the third trimester.

While we can be encouraged by some of these findings, it remains that the country is still divided on the topic of abortion.  And, that leaves plenty of room to grow for the Biblical, pro-life cause.  We must recognize that not only is abortion an issue of the life of an unborn baby, created in the image of God, but that it is a matter of the heart.  

We have to continue to pray that hearts would change regarding the sanctity of life - and that can be challenging when people are hardened in the other direction.  Prayer can be an effective tool in breaking down the barriers, certainly, and we have to continue to communicate the message of life, which is more than a set of talking points.  It ideally should be the way we live - clothed with the compassion of Christ and helping women and their families in crisis to see that we truly care about them and their unborn child.  

The overturn of Roe was the end of an era, but the beginning of a new one, in which life is respected and in which compassion can flow.  An era in which the image of God is extolled and the identity of Christ in us is expressed. We can continue to seek the Lord and ask Him what we should do in response. 

Shiny

We need Jesus every single day in order to live the life to which He has called us. Legalism won't do it; in fact, Paul took the Galatians to task by trying to live by faith and setting up rules for themselves to follow in their own strength. Romans 3 teaches us:
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...

While the law is described in Galatians as a "tutor" so that we may come to know Christ, once we are under grace but trying to keep a set of rules that we think pleases God, it becomes an exercise in futility and can be, as it's been said, exhausting.  We don't have the capability to keep the Law. Under the New Covenant, we are called to walk by faith, believing in Jesus, being in a right relationship with God, and allowing His Spirit to empower us to bring Him glory. 

+++++

God has written His Law on our hearts - His heart is reflected in His Word. The Law was given so that people might recognize what pleases Him, but as Galatians 3 states, it is not intended to save a person; that is done by the work of Jesus as we accept Him. We can read these words:
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them."
11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."
12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them."
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

But, legalism, which Jesus called out when He saw it, cannot save nor satisfy us; it can choke the joy right out of a believer who tries to live by it.  

There is a tactic of the enemy that is insidious, but not surprising.  And, if we're not careful, we can find ourselves doing it.  It's simple: find a person or small group that is engaged in behavior you don't like and characterize, or mischaracterize, entire large groups of people by the mistakes or misappropriations.  We see it all the time - associate people or groups of people you don't like with erroneous behavior. 

That seems to be the aim of a documentary series that has been made available on Amazon Prime.  It's called, Shiny Happy People, and it purports to be a behind-the-scenes look at the reality show family, the Duggars, even including comments from one of the 19 children in the family and her husband.

But, in its wake, according to Ministry Watch, the documentary cuts a wide swath of criticism through organizations and people with whom this family associated.  Warren Cole Smith notes:

In 2015, Josh Duggar publicly apologized for having “acted inexcusably” following reports he molested five girls, including some of his sisters, by fondling them. TLC announced that the show was officially canceled and would not resume production. A spin off show, “Counting On,” aired in December 2015 and was cancelled in 2021, due to Josh Duggar’s arrest for child pornography. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crimes.

All of this has, of course, been tabloid fodder for the past dozen years. In the beginning it was a “feel-good” story of a large and happy family, and more recently it was a train wreck from which we could not avert our eyes.

The problem with treating the story as tabloid fodder, which this new documentary continues to do, is that it will likely prevent the church from dealing with important issues.

For example, “Shiny Happy People” either ignored or edited out reasonable voices that could have added much insight and nuance to this story. The very subtitle, “Duggar Family Secrets,” suggests that what was in the documentary was previously not known, or had been somehow silenced by a powerful fundamentalist or evangelical cabal.

The "star" of the documentary, as Smith contends, is not really the Duggars, but the founder of the Institute of Basic Life Principles, Bill Gothard.  Gothard was removed from the ministry he established due to inappropriate behavior, and Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their family were very active in the IBLP movement, likely to a fault.  But, a lot of "straight lines" have apparently been drawn by the series that are not there. 

Warren, who had researched and even interviewed Gothard during his time at WORLD Magazine,  called out "the producers’ inability to differentiate between various tribes within evangelicalism and fundamentalism. The documentary tried to suggest that the Duggars and Gothard were at the center of a vast network of organizations that included TeenPact, Patrick Henry College, the Family Research Council, Generation Joshua and the Home School Legal Defense Association, and others. The documentary did not include interviews or statements from any of these organizations, though their critics — including Alex Harris, Josh Pease, and Kristin du Mez — were on full display."

Jared Longshore writes on the Reformation and Revival blog:

The reason the Duggar family and this particular documentary catches the eye is because it touches upon both structure and spirit. These are age old principles with an age old relationship. The structure of the traditional family—the Christian family, the real family—testifies to a structured world, an ordered cosmos.

We live in a time when there is quite a movement to burn down the ordered cosmos, which means deconstructing the divinely ordered family. Leftist revolutionaries have been after this for decades. Kate Millett, one of the leaders of second wave feminism, was gunning for this back in the 60s when she held here meetings and chanted about destroying the American Patriarch. How would she do it? By promoting prostitution, abortion, and other sexual perversions.

Unfortunately, the good intentions and Biblical foundation of IBLP were discredited by the legalism that seemed to be associated with it.  Longshore writes:

The truth is that our problems are not found in the structure. They are found in our hearts. I’m not denying the existence of systemic sin. I am ousting the lie that the problem is in hierarchy, order, structure, and God’s design of male, female, and the natural family. That is the central lie of the Duggar documentary.

Longshore says that "Those behind the Duggar documentary are not your friends..."  A TV Insider article bears that out. 

The article integrates comments from several of the makers of the documentary, Cori Shepherd Stern, Blye Pagon Faust, and Olivia Crist, and attempts to lambast Christians who believe that the Bible offers a proper moral foundation for our country. The deploying of Christian people to positions of influence is somehow bad in their eyes, but seem to be OK with un-Christian beliefs taking root. Case in point - the article says that Michael Farris...

...founded the Home School Legal Defense Association and is the former President and CEO of the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), a Christian legal advocacy group that aims to expand Christianity in public schools and advocates against reproductive and LGBTQIA+ rights. AFD played a major role in the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Farris’s connection to IBLP is detailed in a book written by his wife, Vickie Farris, A Mom Just Like You.

“Her husband went to a Bill Gothard seminar, he came home and said, ‘we’re gonna have as many kids as God will give us,’ basically. I’m paraphrasing, but they became a Quiverfull family,” Stern says. Quiverfull is a Christian theological position that sees large families as a blessing. They abstain from all forms of birth control and sterilization. It’s the philosophy the Duggars follow, as taught by Gothard. Shiny Happy People details how these Quiverfull children were trained to be “arrows” deployed to “take America back for Christ,” as said by former Generation Joshua member Alex J. Harris, who’s also interviewed in Episode 4.

Harris wrote a piece for The Gospel Coalition, in which he said: 

...the Joshua Generation story is one worth telling. It’s an ambitious plot that has been far more successful than most people realize, and it helps explain much of our current political, cultural, and spiritual moment. To the extent someone was trying to tell even part of that story, I wanted to help them do it accurately—ideally paired with a more biblical vision for Christian engagement with politics and culture.

But, Harris seems to distance himself from that involvement now, writing, "there’s no discussion of what a more faithful approach to Christian political engagement might look like."  

The TV Insider piece pulls back the layer on the true agenda.  Get this:

Looking ahead, government regulation will play a huge part in combatting the continued growth of oppressive religious fundamentalism. The “linchpin” in this “whole system of indoctrination,” Faust says, is the homeschooling program. “There was a piece yesterday in The Washington Post that was really beautifully written about a family who had moved out of the homeschooling space and enrolled into public schooling, and what a huge, huge step that was for them as a family because of their greater extended family within their church, within their belief system. If you look at this, and you start looking at the numbers of kids who are homeschooled in this country with little or to no oversight of what they’re learning, that is inexcusable.”

This documentary and the discussion surrounding it illustrates that all of us have our flaws.  While no one lives the Christian life perfectly, we can all admit we need the presence of Jesus flowing through us in order to walk in obedience.

It doesn't come from our own strength - that's where legalism takes root.  Legalism can corrupt the best ambitions.  When we try to please God based on rules and regulations that we set up for ourselves or allow others to set up for us, it becomes a frustrating exercise.  Legalism grows from human understanding of what it takes to please God.  I contend that the Gothard/IBLP teachings have a seed of truth, including proper Biblical authority and moral purity.  But, as the enemy does, he will distort that purity of Biblical truth and cause people to be in bondage to a system that smothers, rather than sets free. 

We can also recognize that you can take a set of facts, expand those facts with conjecture, and craft a narrative that is inaccurate.  The documentary seems to suggest that the plight of Josh Duggar, his immorality, is directly related to his exposure to the Gothard teaching, and, to a degree to the practice of homeschooling, and even to the homeschool movement.  Facts + uninformed opinion (+ destructive agenda) can lead to deception. The Bible says that each person will carry his or her own load - Josh Duggar made numerous mistakes, but quite frankly, he's one of 19 kids - what about the others?  What about Jinger, who has written what appears to be a more compassionate take on her family's lives? She seems to have turned out OK.  What about the other males in the Duggar family?  I haven't heard about other "scandals" in the family. C'mon - people can and should not be painted with a broad brush. Beware of using individuals and small groups to paint a negative picture of a large group. But, who cares, when you can pick and choose content to fit a certain agenda?

We can certainly learn lessons from the Duggar story, but we have to be careful who we listen to.

Has God Indeed Said?

The arrogance of those who buy into unbiblical patterns of thoughts and seek to marginalize and silence those who disagree has created a sense of division and even desperation in our culture. But, as Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun. It's the same old lie. Colossians 2, speaking of Jesus, relates that:
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

The exaltation of human ingenuity and strength, the placement of worldly philosophy over Biblical principles, has brought about a culture in which people are divided against one another. The promotion of unhealthy and outright unbiblical ideas in a way that shuts out people of faith is a reckless course. But, those who name the name of Christ should not cower, but be determined to live our lives in a way in which He is exalted and His truth is demonstrated.

+++++

The enemy of our souls appeared in the Garden and set out to undermine the authority of God. In Genesis 3, we read about an exchange between Satan, in the form of a serpent, and Eve:
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' "
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Note the 1st 4 words of the question the devil, i.e. the serpent asked: "Has God indeed said..."  It's also been translated as "Did God really say?"  That is a challenge that is being issued today.

The Stream recently ran an article from The Daily Caller about a University of Cincinnati student who was instructed to re-do a paper she had written because she used the term, "biological women."  That's right; the article says:

Olivia Krolczyk, a student at the University of Cincinnati, made a viral video discussing how her unnamed professor had awarded her a zero on an assignment in which she had argued that biological men, or transgender women, have an unfair advantage over biological women when they compete on the same sports team, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. University of Cincinnati Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies professor Melanie Rose Nipper admitted to the outlet that she awarded Krolczyk a zero for her use of “biological women,” stating that the right to free speech and debate ends when “you are, intentionally or unintentionally, participating in a systemic harm of some kind.”

The Media Research Center blog points out:

Krolczyk is one of many students who experience unfair treatment in academia for adhering to science and objectivity instead of “wokeness” and “inclusivity”. The quality of higher education continues to deteriorate as schools discourage the exchange of differing ideas while pushing a leftist agenda.

Citing an article from the New York Post, the blog article said: "After using examples, like the first woman to compete in the Olympics to the discussion surrounding Title IX, Krolczyk concluded by stating how 'these rights and opportunities are being threatened by allowing men to compete in women’s sports.'"

Krolczyk is one of a number of ladies who is speaking out on this issue, and Texas is one of the latest states to pass legislation that addresses it.  The Daily Citizen of Focus on the Family reported last week:

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the Save Women’s Sports Act on June 15, keeping men from competing in women’s intercollegiate sports.

The bill, SB 15, also stipulates that in mixed competition a biological male cannot take a position that is designated for female students.

Women competing in all school sports are now protected in the Lone Star State, as the legislature had passed a measure in 2021 protecting elementary through high school interscholastic sports. That bill also required students to compete based on biological sex, rather than “gender identity.”

The article goes on to say:

Mary Elizabeth Castle, Texas Values director of government relations, told The College Fix the legislation was “a huge victory for Texas women college athletes.”

She added:

The voices of the University of Texas alumni women college athletes who spoke out against Lia “Will” Thomas swimming in the women’s NCAA championship were heard and answered.

The laws in Texas to protect female sports from kindergarten to college simply ensure the fairness, safety and victory in sports that Title IX has promised for the past 50 years.

And, there is federal legislation on the table regarding male participation in female sports.  The Washington Stand recently reported:

On June 7, a nonprofit by the name of Moms for America held a press conference on the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. to speak out about biological men competing in women’s sports across the country. H.R. 734, otherwise known as the Protection of Women’s Sports Act of 2023 has passed the House and is waiting for the Senate to schedule a vote.

The article quoted several of the speakers, including Tennessee State Rep. Diana Harshbarger, who said, "I know, as a health care professional, you cannot change somebody’s DNA.” adding, “As the Bible says, what is looked at as evil is now being looked at as good, and what is good is being looked at as evil. That is a spiritual message that I want to send to every American...”  

The article also said:

The fight for integrity in women’s sports is raging, because it questions a fundamental truth. As Kassidy Comer, former college basketball player, told The Washington Stand, “You [cannot] ignore God’s plan for who we’re made to be. You know, we were crafted in the womb in His image, and He does not make mistakes. So, when you’re looking at it saying, ‘I know I was born this way, but I feel like I might be this way,’ that is just spiritual warfare, and that is my strong belief as a Christian.”

Did God really say?  Has God indeed said?  I think if you want a definition of the word, "woke," there you have it.  What is termed wokeness, Biblically speaking, is a repackaging of humanism, placing man's view of life, sexuality, and identity above the viewpoint of the Scriptures.  It seems to disregard other points of view, actively promoting one point of view while demonizing and minimizing all others. By so doing, it creates division and sets groups of people against one another.

And, we see it expressed in so many areas, including areas of gender.  It's been pointed out that "sex" is biological, and gender is what someone thinks, feels, and/or declares about his or her or their sexuality. It's the age-old, "Did God really say?" right?  

Yes, this is a battle for fairness in athletic competition.  But, it's more than that...These ladies to whom I referred have it right - this is a spiritual battle. We must not undermine God's intent as our Creator.  It's harmful in so many ways and leads to actions that could cause permanent harm.  We have to be forthright to demonstrate God's plan for sexuality and not be caught up in the trends of the day that contradict His absolute truth.

Immersed

There is an astonishing story that we find in the 2nd chapter of the book of Acts - Peter preached to the crowd gathered in Jerusalem, who had experienced a demonstration of the presence of God. In light of His message, we pick up in verse 37:
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

The Bible reports that "three thousand souls" came into the Kingdom that day; they were saved because of their response to the gospel.  And, they were instructed to follow repent and be baptized. The sacrament of water baptism is seen as an act of obedience to God.  It is an outward expression of the inward work of the Holy Spirit in a person's heart.  We have been cleansed, our sins have been wiped away, and we have a new life in Jesus Christ!

+++++

The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is found in Matthew chapter 3, which included a supernatural affirmation of this act of obedience. We can read these words in that chapter:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

If you've seen the movie, Jesus Revolution, or are familiar with the history of the Jesus Movement, you may be familiar to some degree with Pirate's Cove in Southern California, where people who came to Christ were baptized.

The Faithwire website reports on a truly phenomenal event that occurred recently at that iconic site; the article says:

Just months after the Asbury revival took the world by storm, a recent story about more than 4,100 baptisms unfolding at a historic California beach is inspiring the faithful.

Daniel Mamora, a worship leader at Calvary South OC in San Clemente, California, was on-site at Pirate’s Cove, the location of the historic Jesus people movement captured in the film “Jesus Revolution,” to watch the incredible Baptize SoCal event unfold.

He said the scene, which involved people from 300 churches, was deeply moving.

The story states that some 8000 people attended the event. Faithwire linked to a CBN.com story about what was called Baptize SoCal: 

Attendees report the atmosphere was electric as people praised God and celebrated their "Kingdom family."

"What an amazing and historic day," said musician and pastor at West Coast Life Church, Ray Gene Wilson. "Thousands baptized at Pirates Cove, God is moving in California!"

"A moment I'll never forget," one attendee commented on Instagram.

"This is absolutely amazing praying for all in their new walk with Jesus…. Welcome to the Kingdom family," another Instagram user commented.

It quotes Mamora as saying:

"It was so incredible just seeing all of these people come together. In fact, I was sitting on top of the cliff watching the baptisms and there's a staircase in order to get down if you want to get baptized and literally, there was a whole line right there and then all of a sudden, the line just goes around into the parking lot, it wasn't just people wanting to come in and witness but people wanting to get baptized, that blew me away!"

And, pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie, who himself was baptized at Pirate's Cove in the 70's, will be returning to that location soon - CBN.com reports:

Harvest Church will host a "Jesus Revolution" church-wide baptism on July 8 at Pirates Cove in Corona Del Mar, CA. The event had been initially planned for July 9 but had to be moved to a different day after an overwhelming response from people wanting to be baptized.

Pastor Greg Laurie shared on social media, "The immense response from individuals desiring to be baptized is genuinely remarkable! It’s a clear testament to the revival that is happening in individual hearts and minds and the profound impact of the Jesus Revolution film."

In the meantime, the preceding weekend, Greg Laurie will be leading the 2023 SoCal Harvest Crusade in Anaheim at the Honda Center.  According to the event website, the musical guests on Saturday, July 1st will be Phil Wickham, Taya, and Passion. On Sunday, July 2nd, the music will be provided by Chris Tomlin, Michael W. Smith, and Phil Wickham.

That is truly incredible! Over four thousand baptisms in one event. Another event having to be rescheduled to accommodate those wanting to be baptized. This is certainly a compelling sight - whether it includes thousands, or just one person standing before a congregation and allowing himself or herself to be immersed. 

The Bible is full of powerful imagery that God will use to touch hearts and minds. Water baptism is an outward testimony to the world of the inward work of the Holy Spirit.  It is an act of obedience to our Savior; an act through which we show our love for and desire to follow the Lord. 

We can also be reminded of how God is VERY active in our world today.  We are seeing it expressed through young people who responded to a move of the Holy Spirit at Asbury University and other schools across America. It was expressed recently in the annual Crossover event held in association with the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans. The Louisiana Baptist Message of the state's Baptist Convention reported that "...Convention messengers were told that 84 Crossover and Serve Tour events across Houma, New Orleans and the Northshore had 1,300 volunteers from 21 states." Over 12 thousand people attended, yielding almost 3500 gospel conversations.  336 decisions for Christ were reported. 

We can be reminded that God is available to all of us - we just have to put ourselves in a position to receive what He has to give to us.  Through our openness and an expression of our desire to be filled, we can know Him as totally faithful. 

Impact

Our Savior admonished His disciples in John chapter 15, encouraging them to walk in fruitfulness. We can find these words:
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

We are His friends - He has loved us so much that we have been brought into His family; we are children of God and He desires to have intimacy with each of us.  Out of that fellowship with God, He bears fruit through us by His Holy Spirit.  If we are friends of God, then we, appointed to represent Him, can bear fruit to the glory of His name.  It's not a matter of what we can conjure up in and of ourselves, but of what we allow Him to express through us. 

+++++

Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure and their dispatch into the world to be witnesses for Him. In John 13, He offered these words of encouragement:
31 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.
33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Seemingly out of nowhere, a family from Louisiana that was involved in manufacturing duck calls became a national phenomenon.  Members of the Robertson family have become known not only for the Duck Dynasty television series, but for their devotion to ministry.

Recently, according to Movieguide, the wife of one of the sons of family patriarch Phil Robertson, Korie Robertson, shared her perspective on ministry with a member of the women's ministry from Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas.  

She recounted how she and her husband, Willie Robertson, married as teenagers and soon thereafter started a family - she was even making duck calls at home!  But, they also had a desire to be in ministry.  The article goes on to say:

Korie stated, “I think that’s what we’re all called to. We’re all called to ministry, and you know when we did start our show Duck Dynasty, I remember people asking us, ‘Well are they going to let you talk about your faith? Are they going to show that y’all are Christians?’ and I remember saying to them, ‘Well they can’t get around it because it’s who we are. It affects how we parent, it affects everything about our life. How we are as a married couple, how we parent, how we are as a family, how we are as employees and employers, and how we are with our friends.’ And so, to me it was just like well it is who we are. I think that that is what God has called us to.”

Willie and Korie have become involved in a new project, and CBN.com devoted a recent article to it.  The story states:

Willie told CBN’s Faithwire he was working on a book not long ago about sharing the Christian faith with others and found himself stuck. As he worked through the manuscript, he received a text message.

“I get a text from the director of this musical, ‘His Story,’ and I didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “And it was one of the songs, and I was just blown away.”

Willie quickly realized the musical was a unique way of spreading the Gospel — and his mind immediately opened to the possibilities.

“It was like I was hearing God saying, ‘There’s other ways to get the Gospel out,'” he said. “[I] told Korie about it, and I was hoping she shared in my enthusiasm.”

The CBN article goes on to say that this musical "is the couple’s latest effort to bring faith into the entertainment space, with the live production currently on stage at The Broadway Tent at Grandscape in The Colony, Texas. The show is described as a 'contemporary pop musical based on the life of Jesus.'” CBN also reports: "Willie and Korie have also been moving into podcasting and unscripted television through their production company, Tread Lively. They’re on a mission to focus on truth, love, and Scripture."  The article notes that a movie about the Robertson family, The Blind, is due out later this year. 

CBN also related:

Korie said the “Duck Dynasty” experience showed the couple the important role TV, movies, and other related projects play in culture.

“The scales kind of came off of our eyes, and we realized, ‘Entertainment is really shaping our culture for good or for bad,'” she said. “We just saw the impact of ‘Duck Dynasty’ and how people would come up with tears in their eyes and say, ‘Because of your show, our family is going to church now’ or ‘Because of your show, we pray together as a family’ — ‘Your show has saved our marriage.'”

Movieguide reported that she "...posted a video from the HIS STORY Revival Nights event, showing the cast of the show and the audience singing and worshipping together." The  caption: “@hisstorythemusical prayer and worship in the tent🙏🙌🏼 #hisstoryrevivalnights..."

In light of the experiences of Willie and Korie Robertson, we can ask the question: How am I influencing people around you and perhaps by so doing, impacting the culture?  If God has done a work in our lives, that is something that we not only should not, but ideally, can-not keep to ourselves. If Christ lives in us, then we can allow Him to live through us. 

As Korie says, essentially, being a Christian is who we are.  And, the presence of Christ in us should permeate all that we do - our decisions should be directed by godly wisdom.  How we relate to others can be governed by the love of Christ flowing through us.  As Jesus said, people will know that we belong to Him because of how we love each other.  The way we live reflects the degree to which He lives through us. 

What the Church Does

A unified body of Christ will be an unshakeable representation of God's love to and truth for the world. We can find these words in 1st Corinthians 12:
(24b) God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,
25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

So, from this passage, we can see that the body has been "composed" by God - the Church has been ordained by Him.  And, we are called to walk in unity with one another; certainly we will not always think or act the same, but we are bound together by the guiding principles we see in God's Word and are focused on the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Collectively, we worship and honor Him by loving as He loved and speaking as He directs.

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The Bible lays out for us the role and responsibilities of the Church. We are the body of Christ, called to represent Him, to shine His light. 1st Timothy 3 states:
14 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly;
15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

In light of a major gathering that took place earlier this week in New Orleans, one might question the role of the church.  We recognize that the local church is an expression of the entirety of the body of Christ, the big-C Church, if you will.  Each of us, in our own communities, should be an expression of the presence of Christ.  Our church attendance provides the opportunity to connect, to learn, to grow, and to be equipped for service.  Some churches are denominational, others are not; some denominations are governed top-down, others bottom-up.  But, the ultimate allegiance we have is to the head of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Church is described as His bride.

The Barna Group has published some survey data recently that examines the perception of the Church.  The summary on its website says:

There are some stark differences between what pastors and their communities around them think a church should focus on. In general, pastors see many ways the Church could show up, but think the local church should mostly be focused on evangelism and discipleship—telling people about Jesus and helping them grow in the faith. Eighty-four percent of pastors say the local church’s role in community is to “tell others about Jesus,” and 75 percent say it should “help Christians grow.”

Non-Christians, on the other hand, think local churches should focus outward, providing practical help for people in their community. Non-Christians’ top choices for the role of churches in their community are to provide hands-on help (39%) and practical assistance (38%). Crucially, however, 26 percent of non-Christians selected “none of the above”—a reminder that the church’s role is sometimes perceived to stop at the church’s door.

The organization surveyed Protestant pastors last year, and did a broader study of the view of the church in the community in 2020. In that study, according to the summary: "62% of Christians select 'help Christians grow' and 58% say 'tell others about Jesus.'" 51% say that "churches should provide hands-on help" and 46% indicated that "practical assistance" was a role of the church.

But, a declining number of pastors believe their churches are being effective. The summary indicates: "Barna finds that 76 percent of pastors feel that their church is at least somewhat effective at discipleship and spiritual formation, but only 39 percent feel they are at least somewhat effective in terms of outreach to their community."  The latter is interpreted as reaching the unchurched. That's down from 87 and 63 percent, respectively, in 2015.

And, this perceived lack of effectiveness, according to the article, can be a contributing factor for a pastor who wants to leave the ministry.

The Church is the visible representation of Jesus Christ in the world, and has a number of functions, according to the Biblical model - certainly those who are part of the church should be involved in growing in their walk. And, pastors play a key role, according to Ephesians 4, which names pastors and teachers among church leaders who are called to equip those who are followers of Jesus.  But, we are also called to go into the world, as Matthew 28 relates to us, and that involves doing ministry outside the church.  

So, it really is an inside-outside concept - we minister to one another in the church and to others outside the church.  What we may receive in the form of Bible teachings and mutual exhortation can propel us to be influential in the lives of those around us. Christ-followers are light-bearers, and we shine the light of the Lord as we walk in obedience to Him.

Taking Faith to Work

The Bible teaches us to do whatever work that the Lord has given to us with all that is in us and that we are to glorify God in all things. That is our purpose and should be our ambition. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 states:
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, And drink your wine with a merry heart; For God has already accepted your works.
8 Let your garments always be white, And let your head lack no oil.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

This paints a picture of how we are to regard the temporal blessings of this life and the glorious riches we will inherit in the life to come. While there is much to enjoy on earth, there is far greater awaiting us in heaven.  But, while we are here, we are to seek and fulfill God's purpose; that includes walking in Christ's joy, loving our mates, and doing our work with all "your might," as verse 10 says.  Our motivation should be to please God, and we can certainly do that in the workplace.

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The believer in Christ is called and empowered to honor God in all he or she does, and Colossians 3 describes that proper attitude:
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.

One of the challenges that Christians can face is how to demonstrate their faith in the workplace. This is especially important in corporate cultures that do not welcome faith perspectives and even where Christians might feel ostracized.

I spoke with Jeremy Tedesco of Alliance Defending Freedom at the recent National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando. You will hear from him on an upcoming Meeting House program.  He oversees what is called the Viewpoint Diversity Score, which last month released its second annual Viewpoint Diversity index.  The ADF website notes:

The Business Index is the first comprehensive benchmark designed to measure corporate respect for free speech and religious freedom. It scored 75 publicly traded corporations in its year-two edition across forty-two performance indicators.

Eight companies increased their scores year-over-year. That includes large jumps by Fidelity Information Services (50% vs. 18% last year) and M&T Bank (25% vs. 14% last year) largely because they participated in the survey portion of the Business Index.

Unfortunately, this year’s results also underscore that policies and practices at JPMorgan Chase, PayPal, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta threaten the fundamental freedoms of every American. Of the 75 major corporations evaluated in this year’s Business Index, only two scored over 25% out of 100% possible in their respect for speech and religion. That means millions of everyday Americans are at risk of cancelation or punishment for their views.

Recently, a conference called the Faith@Work Conference occurred; it was sponsored by an organization called the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, According to an article at ReligionNews.com, foundation President Brian Grim "said its conference drew more than 250 people, with 50 companies represented — more than half of them Fortune 500 firms, such as Dell Technologies, American Airlines and professional services company Accenture."

The article referred to faith-based small groups, called, "employee resource groups," or ERG's. It says: "The conference brought together Christian chaplain networks, human resources staffers and members of ERGs that can include people of faith and no faith."

Religion News noted:

In a breakout session, Mark Whitacre, an executive at Coca-Cola Consolidated, touted the hundreds of people who annually had become new or recommitted Christians after meeting with corporate chaplains or attending prayer groups at the bottler’s distribution and production sites.

In an interview, Whitacre said that he usually attends conferences of Christian groups focused on religious inclusion in the workplace. But he also appreciates the range of perspectives expressed at the Faith@Work gatherings.

Also speaking at the Faith@Work conference was Tim Schabel, described as "a human resources contractor for metal-coating company AZZ..." According to the article, "he said the use of spiritual advisers from the Marketplace Chaplains organization was 'one of the biggest tools in the toolbox' to help employees when they needed a listening ear, including during the pandemic."

Union University, a Southern Baptist-affiliated school in Jackson, TN, held a Faith in the Marketplace conference recently featuring another representative from Coca-Cola Consolidated: its CEO, Frank Harrison, according to the school's website.  The article relates that Harrison is a "fourth-generation family leader" of that bottling company, and relates:

Soon after coming into leadership at Coca-Cola Consolidated, Harrison realized that he would one day be held accountable for the influence that the company has had for God.

As he began to pray about this legacy, a man mentioned the influence of chaplain ministries within secular workplaces. After this, Harrison placed the company’s first chaplain at a plant in Nashville, and he soon realized the great benefit of these chaplain ministries.

“A few months later, we got a call from our HR people that said, ‘Frank it’s incredible what’s happening here,’” Harrison said. “Today, we have about 80 chaplains working with 17,000 employees and their family members.”

The article says, "Harrison finished the lecture by describing the purpose statement of Coca-Cola Consolidated, which states its purpose is to honor God in all they do, to serve others, to pursue excellence and to grow profitably."

This topic area provides some reminders; one is: as you sow, you shall reap - business leaders should care not only about profitable companies, but profitable lives of their employees.  Unfortunately, we live in an age where those who want to integrate faith into their life and work, specifically Christians, may find themselves ostracized, while points of view that are offensive to that faith perspective are championed.  

Faith ideally should be a key element of workplace culture - companies should reinforce employees who desire to glorify God, because they put Him first, will put others (customers) first, do their work with excellence (as unto the Lord), and are concerned about being morally upright. If a Christian is living according to the principles of the Scriptures, who wouldn't want that type of employee?  Unfortunately, when companies go to great lengths to emphasize "inclusion," people of faith may find themselves coming up short, but it's important to recognize that the faith piece has many benefits, because it is related to a person's core beliefs, purpose, and I would dare say, performance.