Neighborhood Bible Studies-The sad fact is that today, very few churches have Bible Studies. Many have dropped adult Sunday School and have teaching for young children during church. As a result, few adult church members have much knowledge of the Bible or how it applies to their everyday life. There may be families in your neighborhood who attend a church but have no real Bible knowledge. Neighborhood Bible Studies often include people from a variety of denominations united in the common interest of getting to know more about the Bible. While some passages may refer to beliefs held differently by different churches, most of the Bible is not controversial. You either believe it or you don’t. There are good Bible study guides available. It will help if the leader studies the material ahead of time and refers to a good commentary to help understand the study guide. It is also good to ask members how they feel the information will benefit them. Due to busy schedules, the group might feel that once a week is too ambitious and the group may consider twice a month during the school year and once a month in the summer. The church might group its members together that live near each other but live at a distance from the church to form the core group in the beginning but should plan for growth as new members are brought in and the group split when it gets over 12-15. If the group gets too large, members might not feel comfortable sharing and are not likely to invite their friends.
Politics-AB-BA
It is interesting to watch liberals trip over their own words. The Democrats in their convention have been railing against Republicans who they say are depriving families of having kids by opposing artificial breeding of babies. Yet, they push the murder of over a million unborn babies a year. If they want every family that wants a baby to have one, all they have to do is cut back on aborting them. If abortion was abolished today, there would not be enough families to take all the children. Those who push abortion have created a monster by unleashing sexual freedom. Before, women were afraid to have sex outside marriage because they might get pregnant. Now, they say you can enjoy sex with anyone anytime and not have to worry about carrying a baby to term. If you don’t want the baby that results, you can abort it. Now we are reaping the fruit of that. Then they say if you do want a baby, we can manufacture one for you. It is strangely similar to Hitler’s plan for the master race. You abort all the babies that aren’t wanted because of their race or some disability, then you kill those who are born with disabilities, and finally, you selectively breed the strongest of the race to create a master race.
Politics-AB-AZ
Democrats joined Republicans in criticizing Harris for not controlling the border and other tasks assigned to her as Vice-President. All of a sudden, when she became the nominee for President, she is portrayed as competent and confident. She didn’t change overnight, but Democrats realized if she was going to win the election, they would have to change her image. Voters have to look at her record and realize she isn’t fit to be President. President Biden was not competent to be President and a lot of the work was probably carried out by Harris. President Biden referred to Harris several times as President Harris and to himself as Vice-President. She also referred to herself several times as President. Was it just a slip of the tongue or did they accidently forget and reveal who was really running the country. She did a poor job then and won’t do any better once she is elected to the Oval Office. It is even worse the fact that she wasn’t selected by the Democrat voters but was appointed by the Democrat party leadership.
Economics-G-A
Kamala Harris claims that she will institute price ceilings to stop the price gouging of big corporations. She refuses to admit that the price raises are the result of out of control government spending which has fueled inflation and increased regulations and taxes on corporations which have driven up production costs forcing companies to recoup the increased costs from the consumer. Price ceilings have never worked. They limit how much a company can charge for its product but do not limit the costs of producing the product. When companies can no longer charge enough to pay for producing goods, they stop producing them. The result is that the product is no longer available and the workers who produced them are laid off. It sounds good to stick it to corporations but people forget that corporations have to make enough to pay their expenses in order to stay in business. When they can no longer meet expenses, they go out of business. President Trump recognized that. He cut government spending and the rate of inflation dropped. He also cut taxes and regulations and businesses expanded, the economy flourished, and unemployment dropped. President Obama and President Biden expanded government spending and increased taxes and business regulations. As a result, inflation increased and businesses cut back production and laid off workers. President Biden even went beyond President Obama in wasteful government spending and in expanding welfare benefits which led many people to go on government benefits rather than go to work. The result is less job openings, but far fewer people looking for work so there are a lot of jobs available but people don’t want to work because they can make more in government benefits.
Fourteenth Sunday of Pentecost-Aug 18
Mothers Clubs-Mothers who do not work may feel isolated and become frustrated with no social interaction besides their kids, especially if their husband is gone all day at work and even more so if they are a single parent and have no other adult interaction. Today, many mothers no longer have family living nearby to help. Since families are having fewer children, many mothers did not grow up with younger siblings and did not learn to care for children. As a result, they need help learning to manage their kids. They are glad to get together with other mothers who can help them to deal with the problems they face caring for young children. In addition, many parents no longer let their kids roam the neighborhood and it gives children the opportunity to play together and learn to deal with others. Mobile home parks, apartment complexes, and new neighborhoods often have a lot of families with young children, and are fertile for neighborhood mother’s clubs. It is good to have an older church woman whose kids are grown who can work with the young church mother who hosts the group to help her deal with problems she hasn’t experienced yet. Older unmarried college age girls can help watch the kids and keep them occupied while their mothers meet giving them valuable experience dealing with kids, or the mothers may take turns watching the kids if no one else is available. You may also have older women whose kids are grown teach a children’s Bible Club for the children of the mothers who participate and other neighborhood children who wish to attend. Since many households in poor areas are single parent households, there is also a need for social and spiritual ministry to the mothers, but many churches aren’t interested in reaching out to the mothers. Churches often only provide children’s activities one day a week, but because of the neighborhood environment in poor areas, mothers have to keep close watch on their kids. As a result, the mothers take the time during after school programs for washing and cleaning. Such neighborhoods may require more work with the kids to free mothers for time to get together. Unfortunately, many of those that do run outside ministries do it to attract people to support their failing church and not to minister to those who are in need. Christ cared for the lost and ministered to the needs He met. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and comforted those who grieved to meet their needs, not just to get them to follow Him and He calls the church to do the same.
The Courts-B-AB
We are seeing an increasing number of courts that ignore the law and push their agenda. The Colorado courts are continuing to prosecute a man for refusing to bake a transgender transition cake even after the Supreme Court has twice overturned previous convictions. Now the man is facing prosecution in another attempt to force him to create cake depicting Satan. This has gone on for over a decade. In addition, we are seeing the courts continue to prosecute the man who revealed that Planned Parenthood was illegally selling body parts from aborted babies. Yet, no attempt has been made to prosecute Planned Parenthood for violating the law by selling the body parts. We are seeing similar cases in Texas where they are prosecuting a nurse in for revealing that the hospital billed Medicaid for child transgender hormones and a doctor was previously prosecuted for revealing the program and was sentenced to prison for sharing patients records even though they were redacted to preserve patient privacy. Liberal judges seem to feel that it is a crime to reveal their crimes but that they are exempt from prosecution for their own crimes. Its time we got judges that prosecute criminals and not those who expose the criminals.
The Courts-B-AA
Recent decisions by the Supreme Court show the shift taking place between ruling on the case based on the Constitution which has been its tradition to ruling based on furthering their agenda. The Supreme Court did rule that religious organizations are exempt and are still free to decide for themselves whether to conduct same-sex marriages or not but government employees must do so. So once you are hired by the government, you no longer are allowed to object to things that violate your conscience. I am certain that now that a precedence has been set allowing the Supreme Court to set aside the Constitution when it gets in the way of their agenda, we will see attempts to get the Supreme Court to repeal that exemption, just as we have seen attempts by President Biden to take away the rights of people of faith to refuse to conduct abortions and to refuse to support Gay marriages. The liberal press has severely criticized the conservative judges for detailing what they believe is the end of democracy. The conservative justices know that when a majority of Supreme court judges can ignore the Constitution and ignore the will of the people, imposing their will on the country, there is nothing left between us and a socialist dictatorship. Supreme Court justices are appointed, not elected, and serve for life. They can only be removed by impeachment to isolate them from political pressure but it can’t protect us from Supreme Court justices who put their own agenda before the will of the people. We are seeing similar trends in lower courts who choose to ignore Supreme Court rulings which they do not agree with. Courts are to uphold the law, not ignore them when they don’t like them. It is important for voters to carefully consider the judges they elect, whether they will continue to uphold the law or violate it and impose their own agenda. It is also important to consider the candidates for US President who appoint federal judges, whether they will appoint judges who support the rule of law or who will impose their own agenda over the rule of law. A good indication is whether they themselves obey the law or ignore it. You cannot rely on what they say but must research what they have done in the past.
Video-Immigration-study course promo
Immigration is the number one concern to most Americans so I have produced a course to help see the important way that uncontrolled immigration not only hurts Americans, it also hurts the immigrants themselves.
I am offering my course on “Immigration” for free until September 11, 2024 to the first 100 who sign up with the following link https://www.udemy.com/course/immigration-m/?couponCode=B42EF2EC
Thirteenth Sunday of Pentecost-Aug11
Neighborhood Children’s Bible Clubs- You can start one by holding a neighborhood VBS, driveway basketball games, or backyard activities. You reach more kids since kids in the neighborhood can walk to it so their parents don’t have to take them and they aren’t as afraid of attending since they probably know the other kids there. Church members can host it and trained teachers can teach it. With families having fewer children and becoming more isolated, children have little to do but watch TV and play video games. This is even more vital in mobile home parks and apartment complexes where parents are often afraid to allow their children to play outside. Many mobile home parks and apartment buildings now have community rooms where churches can provide activities for the children, especially if they are led by church members who live in the complex. Many are glad to participate in neighborhood Bible Clubs. Many kids will want to go to Sunday School after hearing about the fun things they do from kids that already go, and their parents may begin attending your church if there are fun activities for their kids, their kids want to attend the Sunday School, and they know someone from their neighborhood attends.