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Sanctity of Life-GD-A

17 Dec

Recent reports show that women today between the ages of 25 and 34 are dying at a higher rate than women baby boomers did at that age. The rate of homicides, suicides, and maternal related deaths in that age group are quite a bit higher now. While no study has been done on the exact causes of each, some facts are known. Baby boomers were born after  the Second World War beginning in 1946 and the  first ones reached 25 in 1970.  Roe vs Wade in 1976 opened the doors to abortion. Increased pregnancies out of wedlock have occurred once women were told they could have sex without worrying about pregnancies. They had previously avoided sex due to fear of pregnancy but were assured they no longer had to worry about that and many began engaging in sex while single. Since contraceptives have a high failure rate, which girls were not told, it has resulted in a lot of unwanted pregnancies. Boyfriends and child molesters, upset by the prospect of being saddled with child support have killed the girls to avoid it or at least killed them I a fit of anger. That could be part of the cause in the higher homicide rates. In addition, sex education courses given by Planned Parenthood to middle school and even elementary school which teach children to engage in sex  before they can handle it responsibly and assures them that contraceptives will prevent pregnancy, which is not true, contributes to girls getting pregnant at an early age, before their bodies are fully developed, which could result in serious complications. While working at a pro-life Pregnancy center during a short period while I was out of work, I saw three girls who were pregnant while only eleven years old. A pregnancy at that age could be quite difficult for the girl. In addition, while factors endangering the mother during pregnancy have been reduced to almost non-existent, the deaths from complications in pregnancy have risen. Planned Parenthood does their best to hide the fact that women are rushed to the hospital due to botched abortions, hasty abortions often result in a perforated uterus and numerous cases  have been documented by pro-life sidewalk observers. In addition, women have been sent home with excess bleeding and told not to worry, it will stop. Some who experienced a perforated uterus during the abortion, have gone to the hospital on their own and some have been saved, but others have died, and others did not go to the hospital and died at home. Some coroners have tried to hide abortion deaths by listing them as simply complications in pregnancy. That could account for some rise in pregnancy related deaths. In addition, women having abortions often experience depression afterward. While depression often occurs after giving birth, it is more pronounced after an abortion once the girl realizes she killed a living baby and not just a blob of tissue as she was told. That could account for some of the increase in suicides in that age group. While these three factors could account for some of the rises in deaths, it is hard to tell how much since abortion providers do everything they can to hide the connection between abortions and deaths in women. Anything that can help reduce the death rate in young women should be explored and reducing the deaths from abortions is obviously one possibility.

 

 

 

 

Third Sunday of Advent-Dec 17

13 Dec

Lead-(Psalm 23:3b)The Lord will lead us in the path of righteousness. He came to show us the way to live in peace with each other and will lead us like a shepherd leads his sheep. The good shepherd does not drive the sheep in front of Him but goes before them and they follow because they know His voice. In the same way, the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of the believer  and Christ speaks through the Spirit. . If we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us,  He will lead us in the way that Christ would have us go and we will follow because we recognize His voice.  Before Christ came, God sent the Prophets and the Scripture writers to show people how to live but man could not understand because he did not understand what love was, so Christ came to earth as a man to show us the way to live. By the same token, if  we follow Christ, others will see His love in us  and desire that love. You cannot force people to love each other but you can gently lead them and show them the way.

 

 

Reaching The Lost-C

12 Dec

Providing Entry Points Worship doesn’t have the draw like it once did. Many people have no idea what church is and see no reason to attend.  Until people get to know Christ, worship is just entertainment and there are lots of different kinds of entertainment out there which are more professional and have more resources than the average church has. Vacation Bible School once attracted unbelievers but rarely does today. Entry points, like the ministries I have described on my blog under church ministry, not only minister to people where they are, they often provide opportunities for people to get to know you and find a reason to become a part of your church. For entry points to be effective, the church must follow up on visitors, but few do, so very few visitors return. Visiting those that visit the church often leads them to visit the church again. As they attend church, they can get to know Christ. Once they get to know Christ, worship will take on a whole new meaning for them. However, worship alone will not hold them. Unless there is fellowship and members are being ministered to, they will not stay. However, keeping them in the church is not the final goal. They need to grow in Christ and learn what it means to serve Christ and very few churches today have active programs to train members to become disciples. Once members are trained as disciples, they can become points of light leading unbelievers to Christ.

 

Reaching the Lost-B

12 Dec

In the past people either had a church background or someone close who attended church and when they had problems, they turned to the church. Evangelists like Billy Graham also led people to seek out a church. In addition, many parents who went to church as kids, but no longer go, sent their kids to Sunday School to learn how to live a good life. Some people also attended special programs that provided entertainment, like Gospel groups, or fellowship, like dinners and study groups. That is no longer the case. Many people today have never had a church connection and there are no longer any great evangelists. They see no reason to contact a church, let alone attend one. As a result, the church now has to go out and search for them. However, few churches make the effort and so see very few new people. The ones who they see are usually those formerly active in church who just moved into their area and are seeking a church. Since people no longer seek out a church, the church must develop entry points to attract people.

 

Video-sermon-Winning the Lost

12 Dec

 

Reaching The Lost-A

11 Dec

Lately, God has been impressing me with our need to expand our work in reaching the lost and making disciples. I have had a burden for the lost ever since God called me to serve Him but lately it has become a heavy burden as I see people struggling to survive in our increasingly secular society with reaching out to help them. I reach far more people than the average pastor, outside of radio and television preachers, yet it is mostly with pastors and the number of unbelievers I have contact with is only a small number when compared to the number of those who don’t know Christ and it isn’t the close personal contact needed to bring someone to conversion and nurture new believers. With the changes in our society, many pastors don’t have the close personal contact with unbelievers to bring them to conversion or the personal contact with their members to nurture them in the faith. That is why I wrote the three courses in the “Church That Transforms” series that details the changes in our society and how it has affected the church, how the church has dealt with similar problems in the past, and how it can become more effective in reaching the lost and making disciples. But it will take more than just church leaders. Christ calls all believers to reach out and touch those around them. That is why I am looking for churches who are willing to reach their neighborhoods and believers who are willing to gather their family, friends, and neighbors to study the Gospel.

 

Media-B-I

08 Dec

The vast number of people, including Christians, get their news and entertainment from popular media, however popular media is very biased in favor of liberal causes and openly censors organizations trying to reveal the true facts. They are having a widespread effect on the views held by children and young people. As a result, many people, including those in many of our churches hold liberal views. There are still some Christian radio stations and local radio stations which are  trying to report the facts, but few Christians and conservatives listen to them or support them. There are now a number of organizations developing conservative oriented social media. Gab has been around for a  little while and there are some others but they are not widely known. I just heard of two new ones, Daily Wire and a new Bentkey, which are joining. While they have a long way to go, they are a refreshing alternative. Bentkey is challenging Disney who is so liberal as to provoke widespread boycotting by conservatives. Disney has continued to turn out liberal movies and watched them bomb out at the box office because consumers aren’t buying them. We can vote with our money by supporting conservative businesses and organizations and boycotting those that support liberal causes, and by letting people know about them and supporting them, we can not only get factual information and wholesome entertainment, we can ensure that they survive and grow so more people can access them. In addition, by withholding money and support from liberal organizations, we can force them to cut back services and reduce their effect on our society. Money talks and too few Christians understand how to use it effectively.

 
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Second Sunday of Advent-Dec 10

06 Dec

Feed-(Ezekial34:13-14, Matt. 14:13-21) God will gather His sheep on the mountains and feed them on the rich pastures. Everyone likes to eat, and it is a good time to fellowship but there are many who do not have the food they need. When 5000 people gathered on the mountainside to hear Jesus, He saw that they were hungry and had compassion on them and fed them. By the same token, there are many hungry among us. Christmas is a good time to provide food for them that they too might be able to enjoy the holiday, but we should not forget them when the holiday is over because hunger for many is a way of life which lasts all year long. Many communities have food banks that supply food to those in need and they need regular donations to be able to supply the need. Things like potatoes are sometimes on sale, buy one get one free. You might not be able to use the other bag before it spoils. Pick it up and donate it to the food bank, or someone you know struggling to make ends meet. Churches can have regular collections to donate. In addition, we should not just provide food but work to help them to provide for their own needs through employment counseling and job referrals. However, the Bible says “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We should not only provide food, but the Good News of the Gospel as well.

 

The Media-B-H

06 Dec

Conservatives have begun to talk about government control being necessary in light of widespread censorship by the media and social media, however, it is dangerous because it is often hijacked by liberal politicians to censor Christians. While it seems to be the answer, government control has tended to support liberals and target conservatives. We are learning of increased pressure by the FBI to get the social media to censor conservatives and feeding them which posts to remove.  Even when we had a conservative President, much of the deep State remained committed to liberals. Democrats continue to push for government control over the internet and have been crowing about how Silicon Valley pulled the wool over the eyes of what they called “the stupid Republicans” who ran the hearings on censorship in the media. Government action, if any, should seek to break up the monopolies held by liberal media opening social media up to competition, allowing conservatives to develop their own networks or find some way to get around the censorship, just as they have set up their own radio and TV stations, and magazines to counter the liberal media. Churches need to openly inform their members about important social issues and Christians need to be aggressive in passing along Bible-based material and the truth about Social issues and events to their friends. I have worked hard to keep Christians informed on Social issues and events but I can only reach so many. However, if others pass it on to their friends, and they pass it on to their friends, it will soon reach millions of people.  Liberals are very aggressive on social media and doing everything they can to block those who promote the truth. It is easy for them to block big organizations from posting material but almost impossible to track millions of individuals who pick up the information and pass it on.    

 
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The Media-B-G

06 Dec

Almost all the national media is funneled through the Associated Press which filters and colors the news, the media has been promoting liberal programs and ignoring, and even attacking conservative programs. While there are still independent radio and TV stations, they are few and are being squeezed out of the marketplace and few Christians support them. In addition, many Christians still rely on the mainstream media to keep them up to date in spite of its open attacks on Christian values and few Christians take advantage of Christian programs. As a result, many Christians have a distorted view of what is going on today. Christians need to seek reliable news sources and support them. Since they don’t read the Bible, and their churches do not teach on Biblical values, they often support programs which clearly violate Scripture. Many people don’t consider Social media when they talk about media, but social media is becoming an increasing force in our society. In fact, the Social media has become the main source of the truth for many people, because of the censorship in the mainstream media. As the media censors Christians and other conservatives, they are increasingly turning to social media to inform fellow conservatives about issues. Recently, that censorship has been spreading to the social media. Now Christians are facing an increase in censorship in the Social media as well.  Large reputable Christian organizations have reported that their posts had been restricted or blocked, (particularly those on Facebook and Twitter) often with no notice from the internet provider. Others are receiving notices that their postings have been removed because they don’t conform to company standards. Apparently those standards are very one-sided because it is alright for liberals to call on others to kill conservatives but not alright for conservatives to call on people to not kill unborn babies. If a conservative reports that being Gay is not genetic, that is censored as hate speech, but if a liberal calls on their followers to harass, bully, and even kill conservatives, that is allowed to remain and is not restricted. Clearly something needs to be done. If social media blocks it, there is no other way for people to hear about it. That is why I began producing this blog. I am just a small site and have not had many problems, but I know Face Book has been blocking people from reposting the Neighborhood Ministries page, from time to time. I don’t know how long I will be able to continue publishing this blog. I have received word that Word Press, who provides this website, has begun censoring conservatives. Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge blocked me from  accessing my website for awhile so I could not update it but I could still access it from other media. If those block me, it will prevent others from seeing it, though it wouldn’t take it down. I don’t know of anyone who is being prevented from viewing this site yet and hopefully it will not come to that.

 
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