What will you give-Matt 13:44-46-When the merchant found the pearl, he sold all that he had and purchased it. Christ, through His death and resurrection has given us eternal life but He has also given us far more, He has come to give us life and that more abundantly. He knows how we need to live to get the most out of life. If we walk with Him in this life, we can enjoy life far better than anything we can find on our own. Is that life worth giving up all our earthly pleasures to obtain? Our earthly pleasures will give us pleasure for a short while, but they soon fade, but life with Christ will never fade. In addition, it promises eternal life with Christ. During Lent, we think of giving up momentary pleasures, but Christ asks us to turn away from all temporary pleasures to gain that which will last a lifetime and beyond.
Schools-1-Y
The schools have become increasingly secretive about what is being taught because they don’t want parents to know what is being taught. Our schools were founded on the principle that parents would oversee the schools but liberal politicians have been increasingly adding federal funding to help the schools, but are using it to blackmail schools into teaching what they want them to teach and hiding it from parents. The Covid crisis forced schools to go online and opened the door to parents to see what is being taught in the schools. Many parents have been shocked to learn what the schools have been hiding from them. When parents objected, liberal politicians pushed the FBI to begin investigating parents who objected to what is being taught. Parents who only want what is best for their kids are being threatened and intimidated to silence opposition to the liberal agenda. Conservative politicians have introduced a bill in the House that would spell out and safeguard parents rights. It would guarantee parent’s right to know what is being taught in the school and to be heard when they voice opposition to it. It would also protect the child’s privacy and require schools to inform parents of violent activity in the school. Finally, it would protect parent’s right to view school budgets. In 2021, the FBI created a task force to investigate threats against school board members. Under Congressional investigation by conservative representatives, the FBI stated that they would not use it to infringe on parent’s rights to voice their opinions, yet they have opened a number of investigations on parents who have voiced opposition to their school’s liberal agenda, under the pretense that they pose a threat to school board members, in order to intimidate the parents so they will remain silent.
Sanctity of Life-GC-B
Those pushing for killing babies after they are born were able to pass it in California and are now pushing into other States. They pushed abortion on the grounds it wasn’t a baby but they kept pushing until they got laws allowing abortion up to birth. Then they pushed delivering the baby feet first and killing it before delivering the head so it was born dead. Now they are pushing for killing it after it is born. While they have all kinds of excuses for abortion, their intent has always been to eliminate unwanted babies and adults they feel are no longer “productive” due to severe injury, illness, mental illness, or aging. Since the majority of Americans are against killing, they have had to use the courts to force it when they could not get liberal legislators to vote it in. Voters need to stop tolerating legislators and judges who that approve things they don’t want. The longer voters tolerate these legislators, the farther they will push it. We are seeing in Canada and Europe where they have legalized killing children up to age 12 and adults who are considering suicide or are critically ill or injured. We aren’t there yet but liberal legislators are pushing to get us as far as the voters allow them.
Second Sunday of Lent-Mar-5
You Can’t Serve Two Masters. Jesus said, you can’t serve two masters. You must love one and hate the other. (Matt. 6:24) That is especially true of God and Satan. They are exact opposites. You must choose between them or be torn apart. Lent is a time to focus on who we are serving and make sure we are following God and not Satan. Liberal philosophy is so deceiving because they use words, we understand but with a different meaning. No Christian would be against two people loving each other but love to them means sex solely for selfish pleasure, not true love and concern for each other. True love can be really satisfying for two people, but the love the world promotes is very destructive. We have to know what they mean by what they say or we will end up supporting things which go against God. Satan goes around like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. He seeks to deceive even the people of God. Therefore it important to study the Word of God so you will not be deceived. Choose one of the four Gospels and read a chapter a day between now and Easter and see what Jesus says about living a life pleasing to God. If we truly love God, we will want to obey Him. We can please Him by doing what He wants us to do (obeying His Commandments). God set down His commandments as guidelines to show us how to live a life that is pleasing to Him and that would bring us peace and fulfillment. He knows what is best for us and did not give us the Commandments to spoil our fun but to help us avoid that which creates strife and dissension among us. When we ignore His commandments, we throw away that peace and fulfillment and stray into things that create strife and dissension.
Schools-1-X
Public schools are increasingly teaching students to accept what they hear in school as fact and not question it, even though a great deal of it is politically correct but false. Churches need to educate both parents and students to critically examine what they hear and not be misled by propaganda put out by the schools and media. When I taught sociology at a local college, I ended up writing my own textbook because much of the information in the textbooks was outdated and false, or at the very least incomplete. The textbooks added news events like 9-11 to make them appear up to date but never examined old material. For instance, the textbooks talked about how African nations suffered under colonialism, in spite of the fact that colonialism had ended in Africa over 30 years before and most of the suffering is the result of civil war and corruption within their own governments. I published my lessons in two books under “Truly in the World, But Not of it” to make them available to churches and individuals. It is published by Outskirts Press and deals with issues in relationships, health, welfare, government, education, and finances and is simple enough for the average reader.
Truly in the World But Not of it-part-A (Relationships, health, welfare)
Truly in the World But Not of it part-B (Government, economics, education)
Spiritual Aspects-G
The church often grown cold and merely gone through the motions, but God will not let the church die. He has continued to raise up a remnant to restore the church. We are seeing a fresh moving of the Spirit arising out of Asbury College in Kentucky and spreading to churches in the surrounding area and to other college campuses. God is calling to all of His people to return to Him and commit their lives to following Him in the way that leads to life. He is calling His people to study His Word and learn from it, not just give it lip services and ignore it. There are many who are comfortable in their pew and walking in the way of the world who will oppose the moving of the Spirit and even attack those who decide to follow Christ, just as the Jewish leaders attacked Christ and those who followed Him. There will be those in the world who will also feel threatened by those who commit their lives to Christ because they are profiting from the world. They will also attack those who decide to follow Christ. But Christ has promised that those who persevere to the end will be saved and inherit eternal life.
Spiritual Aspects-F
Christ came to show us a better way to live. He calls us to put away the old life and accept new life in Him. However, the church has often lost its commitment to God and fallen back into the old temple worship where members go to church, pay their tithes, and are blessed by the priest (or minister). Members in many churches are no longer asked to commit their lives to Christ and no longer taught to walk with Christ. Their members continue to walk in the ways of the world that lead to death. As a result, the world has taken over many churches. While a church serving Christ changes the world around it, many churches today are no different than the world. They think they are following Christ, but are following the ways of the world. Christ says when He comes back to receive His own, they will be left behind because they proclaimed Him with their mouth, but did not accept Him in their heart and follow Him.
Yet, God will not let the church die. He has continued to raise up a remnant to restore the church. We are seeing a fresh moving of the Spirit arising out of Asbury College in Kentucky and spreading to churches in the surrounding area and to other college campuses. God is calling to all of His people to return to Him and commit their lives to following Him in the way that leads to life. He is calling His people to study His Word and learn from it, not just give it lip services and ignore it. There are many who are comfortable in their pew and walking in the way of the world who will oppose the moving of the Spirit and even attack those who decide to follow Christ, just as the Jewish leaders attacked Christ and those who followed Him. There will be those in the world who will also feel threatened by those who commit their lives to Christ because they are profiting from the world. They will also attack those who decide to follow Christ. But Christ has promised that those who persevere to the end will be saved and inherit eternal life.
Politics-AB-Z
The release of the FBI memo labeling conservative Catholic groups as terrorist groups needing to be investigated is reminiscent of the rise of Nazism in Germany. The Jews were blamed for the deteriorating economy in Germany, just as Christians are being blamed now. The Nazi State began investigating and monitoring churches that objected to the removal of Jews. Lawless groups (like the Brown shirts) began terrorizing the Jews and groups that opposed the governments attacks on the Jews, just as Antifa and Black Lives Matter are doing. Liberal politicians today are monitoring and attacking the Catholic Church because it is the biggest group opposing abortion and the most vocal. However, Christians of other faiths should not ignore the attacks against the Catholic Church. They will begin attacking smaller vocal churches of other denominations as they gain power and control, just as they did in Germany.
Schools-DA-P
In Europe, only the wealthy got an education. Then America pushed for universal education and it opened up a time of great economic prosperity. Now with failing public schools, we are fast returning to where only the rich get a quality education. Churches have been using their extra space for schools for a long time but were expensive, since they received no public funds. Churches have a lot of space that is normally not used during the week and Sunday School rooms are often ideal for classes. New online curriculums make less demand for trained teachers. Currently church-based schools are mainly limited to large affluent churches who can afford to subsidize their schools to make them more affordable. Ohio Christian Ed Network and Center For Christian Virtue are partnering to develop schools in churches to provide Christ-based education at a low cost because they meet in churches. As a result, they have low overhead and can still provide a quality curriculum. They just opened their first church this year and plan to open more next year. Such schools are usually smaller and closer to students than public schools who have been increasingly moving towards consolidated schools with long bus rides to school. Churches and their members can assist the expansion of Church-based education by starting a school of their own or supporting schools in nearby churches through donations to the schools and scholarships for students, particularly those from their own church.