Many people ask me why I celebrate the Christian holidays. There are good reasons.
See course promo on You Tube at https://youtu.be/KuLA6uQTqhg
Church Ministry-3V
17
Aug
I am often asked by pastors in underdeveloped countries how they can get training for their pastors. Frank Laubach was a missionary in the Philippines and forced to leave when WW II broke out. It left the people without any teachers. He developed a way for someone with a fourth grade education to teach reading to someone who could not read.
Child Evangelism developed a way that they could teach mothers to teach the kids in their neighborhood, even though the mothers had no formal Bible training by getting the mothers together and teaching them the lesson for the week. They didn’t have to know a lot, all they needed was to know the lesson they were to teach that week.
These things can help when there are no trained teachers. If a teacher teaches a student something, the student can go and teach it to others. They don’t have to know a lot, they just have to know more than the one they are teaching.
In many areas, it is hard for rural pastors to get together for training. However, if someone teaches those who are within ten miles of him in all directions, it creates a circle of knowledge 20 miles across. If they then teach those who are ten miles beyond them, it creates a circle of knowledge 40 miles across. If they then teach those ten miles beyond them, it creates a circle 60 miles across. Like ripples on a pond, the knowledge spreads.
Freedom of Religion-A-G
17
Aug
Liberals have sought to infiltrate and control what is taught in our public schools and universities, as well as the media, because they know that is where children learn about the world around them. As a result, liberal administrators are seeking to banish Christians and any beliefs that run contrary to their liberal ideas from our public schools and universities and have sought to impose their liberal beliefs on students without their parent’s knowledge or consent. Schools no longer seek to educate students to analyze problems and seek solutions based on facts, but are trying to turn children against Christian beliefs and indoctrinate them in their liberal beliefs. In addition, it has sought to control Christian schools and universities through threats and intimidation. Christians must recognize the threat and seek to reach children with the truth and expose liberal lies. Christians cannot expect that their children are immune to the lies and threats of the liberal school administrations. Churches must actively teach their children the truth and expose the lies in the media and their schools. While liberals portray Christians as accepting falsehoods on faith, the liberals base their arguments on feelings with little or no basis in fact and it is Christians whose beliefs are supported by facts. However, Christians cannot resist the liberal lies without access to the facts and liberals are doing everything possible to suppress the facts.
Freedom of Religion-A-F
17
Aug
The Biden Administration has changed the definition of sex in the non-dis crimination laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity and started excluding schools from the school lunch program who do not comply with their radical gender privileges including restroom use, dress codes, hiring, and pronoun use. Schools cannot get federal funds to feed needy children unless they comply with the radical Gay agenda. Alliance Defending Freedom took them to court and got them to agree to provide a religious exemption to all religious schools when it conflicts with their beliefs, but their mandate still applies to other schools that don’t have an explicit statement of faith opposing Gay practices. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution, and we should not have to go to court to access our rights.
Twelfth Sunday of Pentecost-B
17
Aug
Ministry to travelers – Few people think about those that travel, yet a large portion of our society travels at one time or other. Many travel by car and by plane but many also travel by bus. Many spend only a short at their destination before returning home. Most will stay in motels while away from home. Those who regularly attend church at home may or may not seek a church to attend while they are away. My wife and I usually seek a church to attend on Sunday when we are away from home. We usually do a computer search to find a church nearby and how to get to it, however many travelers may not be able to or may not want to take the time to research it. Motels used to have notebooks in each room with a list of nearby churches compiled by local ministerial groups, however I have not seen any for years. Searching usually requires going through the phone book to get names and then looking up their websites or Facebook page. Since we usually are not familiar with the area, we must then look up directions to them, to see if they are nearby. That is a lot of work. Unfortunately, many churches do not have addresses on their websites or Facebook page. I may look up First Church in Columbus, Oh and it will pull up a list of pages for First Church. Many of them may be in New York, Texas, Florida, or someplace else. If the site doesn’t list the city and State, you don’t know if it is the right one. If it doesn’t list an address, you have no way to know if it is nearby. Obviously, travelers are not going to visit them. Putting addresses on websites and Facebook pages would be a big help. It would also help those moving into an area find a new church home. Distributing a list of nearby churches to local churches with directions would help many travelers find a church to attend.
Twelfth Sunday of Pentecost-Aug 21-A
17
Aug
Truck Stop Ministry- Few people take any thought to the many trucks that travel our highways day and night. Many truckers have families that they don’t see for weeks at a time. Often, they are alone for long periods except for stops at truck stops to fuel, eat, and sleep. Drivers have long periods with nothing to do but think as they drive, or while they rest over layovers and while they may have passing conversations with truckers they pass, they often have little meaningful conversation. Truck stop ministries are springing up where truckers can stop and visit and where volunteers are glad to minister to their spiritual and social needs. Many ministries are getting trailers to use for worship services where Christian drivers can worship while they are on the road, since it is difficult for drivers to drive around town on Sunday morning looking for a church with a parking lot big enough to accommodate their rig.
Gay Rights-V-E
12
Aug
An increasing number of kids are experiencing gender confusion. Gay Rights advocates say transitioning to their perceived gender will solve the problem and have been pushing puberty blockers and corrective surgery. However, many physicians and therapists oppose puberty blockers, even ones that are strongly pro-gay. Gay Rights advocates have been pushing legislation to prevent parents with interfering with the child’s decision to transition and some schools are refusing to notify parents when their child wants to transition. The treatment must begin around age eleven but kids that age are too young to understand implications of it. Time is required for maturity and hormones play big part of that. Puberty blockers prevent normal sexual development, causing sexual dysfunction and often permanently sterility. England has been more aggressive in the use of puberty blockers, however there is an increasing backlash against the use. Workers have become upset with the fact that counselors do not adequately screen children for emotional problems and are pressing for use of puberty blockers with very little understanding of the potential effects and very little follow-up to see if the treatment has been effective. In addition, children are beginning to realize the outcomes from the use of puberty blockers and are beginning to file lawsuits claiming they were misled by counselors. The courts are beginning to agree. Hopefully other countries like the United States will begin to seriously question the practice and it will lead to serious investigation of the use.
Sanctity of lIfe-A-4-Q
12
Aug
Liberal legislators have included additional funding for abortions in every spending bill they have initiated and are now pushing a spending bill to include $350 million in taxpayer funds to transport women to States allowing abortion and expand abortion facilities in those States in order to bypass State laws banning abortions. It allocates $10 million to create a position to promote unsupervised at home abortions, and requires Title X recipients to provide abortion drugs, counseling, and referrals in violation of federal law which prohibits federal spending for abortion. This in addition to the Rights to Contraception Act HR 8373 recently passed by the House of Representatives which adds more funding to abortion providers under the disguise of increasing access to contraception. While Republicans support more access to safe and effective contraceptives, the bill would open access to any contraceptives including those that have not been approved by the FDA. It would also funnel taxpayer funds to abortion providers in addition to the current $1.8 billion provided in 2020 in violation of federal law banning funds to abortion providers. While it claims that abortion should receive funding because it is women’s health care, abortion providers provide little if any health care beyond abortions, and the bill would bar federal funds from life-affirming centers that provide a large portion of women’s health care. It would also override State and federal laws protecting freedom of conscience for health care providers and Christian organizations and force them to provide contraceptives and sterilizations, including to minors, and would block States from canceling funding for Planned Parenthood. In essence, it strips voters of any say in the abortion debate and forces them to pay for abortions even if they are totally against it. In addition, it denies funding to centers that actually do provide women’s health care. It is important to elect representatives that will remove the government from abortion funding and return the freedom to choose to the individual. When abortion supporters say “my body, my choice”, taxpayers should say “My money, my choice”. We should not have to fund things that are immoral, illegal, and opposed by a majority of Americans, including not only those who oppose abortion, it includes many who support abortion who feel they should not have to pay for someone else’s abortion.
Video-Winning the Lost
11
Aug
While Pentecost when the church concentrates on winning the Lost, is coming to a close, vacations are ending and school is starting, so people will be close to home. It is a good time to look at reaching families that may have been gone during the summer.
Gay Rights-V-D
10
Aug
School boards are increasingly pushing for Gay privileges in their schools, under pressure from the federal Dept. of Education and trying to block public opposition. For instance, when the Loudoun County Schools in Virginia proposed a policy which would allow students to change their names and pronouns at school without parental involvement and would require all teachers, staff, and students to address them by their chosen pronoun or face punishment. The initiative was funded by outside groups. A teacher objected in a public comment time in a school board meeting and the school district fired her. She challenged it in court and the court agreed with her. The school board then appealed the lower court’s decision but the Virginia Supreme Court also agreed with the teacher. The school board then instituted the policy in violation of the court rulings. Voters have elected school board members with no thought to what policies they will implement and have allowed school boards to do whatever they want without any opposition. As a result, school boards have increasingly been imposing their liberal policies on school children without parents knowledge. Parents need to monitor what their children are learning. Learning from home during the Covid epidemic has enabled more parents to see what their children are learning, but knowledge does no good without an active response. It is time voters start electing people who will listen to what parents want and implement good policies and voters need to start recalling school board members who blatantly impose their liberal policies on students with no regard for student’s or parent’s rights