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Politics-AB-AK

03 Nov

The second tactic being used today is one I learned about very early in life. I had Polio at age two and was on crutches for several years. I was an easy target for bullies. They would attack me by stealing my lunch or kicking my crutches out from under me. When I complained, they said I started it. Their friends would lie and support what they said. All the other kids were afraid to speak up and tell what really happened, because they were afraid the bullies would attack them too. The teachers believed them since there were several of them and only one of me, so I got punished. We see this in the current Hamas war with Israel. The Hamas made a brutal attack on Israeli civilians and when Israel fought back to defend themselves, they claimed that Israel had attacked them first. The other Arab nations then rallied behind Hamas, and the media supported their claims and blamed the Israelis. Many nations are afraid to speak up in support of Israel because they are afraid the Arabs would cut off their oil supply or attack them. As a result, many people believe them, especially young people who have grown up hearing how Israel was attacking its neighbors, but never hear about how Hamas had attacked them first. Unfortunately, many people do not think things through. Any thinking person would realize that a small weak nation would not go around attacking its big strong neighbors, unless it had a serious death wish. There are many large powerful Arab nations surrounding Israel which is very small, only about the size of New Jersey. No nation in its right mind would attempt to attack it neighbors like that and hope to survive. Israel has survived continuous attacks by its neighbors because God has protected it. In the same way I could never understand why my teachers believed the bullies. I would be a fool to attack someone bigger and stronger than me when I couldn’t defend myself if they attacked back. If I attempted to attack them, they could just run away and I couldn’t chase them. In addition, Hamas has been open and vocal about its goal of destroying Israel and wipe it off the face of the earth. All Israel wants is to be left alone. Israel has even given up land to its neighbors in the hope of being left alone but its neighbors have continually broken the treaties and demanded more land. Hamas has clearly stated they will not stop until they have wiped Israel off the map.

 

 
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Posted in Politics, violence and social strife

 

Politics-AB-AJ

03 Nov

Many people say the world is so confusing today and they don’t know what to believe. I find two main trends by those who are intent on gaining power. The first is an old tactic characterized by the old saying, the best defense is a strong offence. In other words, strike first. Liberals have tried to cover up their crimes by accusing their opponents of doing it. Then when they are found out, those who accuse them look like they are merely trying to get back at liberals. When people began to suspect that Hillary Clinton was working with the Russians by selling American uranium to Russia, Liberals accused Donald Trump of working with the Russians. They manufactured fake documents to support their accusations, and engaged in a long drawn out investigation which turned up no evidence that Donald Trump was working with the Russians. That served two purposes. One was to distract people from investigating Hillary Clinton so it would not hurt her chances of being elected for President. The second was to discredit Donald Trump so he would not be elected. They felt confident that it would help them win the election but were shocked when the American people responded by electing Donald Trump anyway. They continued their smear attacks throughout his presidency in order to prevent Donald Trump from being reelected and were successful in manipulating the election in their favor.

 

 
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Posted in Politics

 

Voting-AC

03 Nov

When I talk to people about voting, they echo what they hear in the media. They do very little, if  any, research on their own. With the way issues are deliberately written to confuse voters and widespread censorship of the media, that means they often vote for issues that go against everything they believe.  The current issue in Ohio is a perfect example. The issue begins by prohibiting abortion after the baby is viable and when there is a threat to the mother’s life which have widespread support and is already included in current Ohio law. Then they add an exception clause that allows an exception for when the doctor feels it is  a threat to the mother’s health which they use to allow abortion on demand up until birth. It also prevents any interference by anyone, including parents of minor children. While those two clauses seem innocent enough, they are loopholes that abortionists use to get around the prohibition against abortion after the baby is viable, and even leaves the determination of when the baby is viable to the doctor. It  does not specify abortion but uses the term medical services to also include contraceptives and sex change medications and surgery to get around parent opposition to them, so they can sell young girls and boys on them. Young girls are listed as adults with no resources so they can bill Medicaid for the cost. Their advertising is also deliberately misleading. They state that the change is needed because the current law does not allow for exceptions for rape or a threat to the mother’s life which is an outright lie because it does. In addition, the change does not state that it allows an exception for rape but they make allowance for it in the doctor’s determination of threat to the mother. Voters have a responsibility to research the issues before they vote on them because many approve things like abortion without realizing it.

 

 
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Posted in Voting

 

Ninth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Oct 29-B

29 Oct

Ministry to members-B  The minister must be free to concentrate extensive time to members going through trials. However, the pastor is often so tied up in administrative duties that he has little contact with members and is not aware of members who are going through trials. The church should seek to limit the time required for the pastor in administrative duties to free him to minister to members and train help. Most pastors don’t get to spend much time actually visiting and ministering to their members and even working full time, the pastor cannot adequately supervise and minister to a church of more than 150-200 members. However, most pastors aren’t trained to do such work, even if they have time. There is too much need for the pastor to be able to do it all himself. Some churches are hiring nurses and Social Workers as part of their pastoral staff to provide medical care and Social Services to their members. At the very least, the pastor should know the nurses and Social Workers in his congregation and consult them as needed. Pastors need to train lay leaders to help them carry on their ministry when the church becomes too large for them to do it adequately themselves. The best method is to have each lay leader oversee a small group that is like a family, who he nurtures and ministers to the members under the pastor’s supervision similar to how it was done in the early church. Such small group ministry is proving just as effective today as it was in the early church, however few churches utilize it.-(See “The Living Presence” in “Rebuilding the Kingdom” copyright 2012)

 
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Posted in Church ministry, Faith in practice, Kingdomtide

 

Ninth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Oct 29-A

29 Oct

Minister to members-A Ministry to members going through trials-The minister must be free to concentrate extensive time to members going through trials (seriously ill or dying family member, job loss, financial crisis, etc). Unfortunately, most pastors aren’t trained to do such work, even if they have time. Most schools training pastor provide extensive training in theology but little training in actually ministering to their people. Pastors need to get such training and begin training mature Christians in the congregation to assist them, because there is too much need for the pastor to be able to do it all himself. Jesus recognized that He would need to concentrate His efforts on training the twelve to take over when He left and pastors need to train lay leaders to help them carry on their ministry when the church becomes too large for them to do it adequately themselves. In the past, members knew each and when a member was in need. In addition, they helped the pastor in meeting the need. Church members today are often so caught up in their own lives that they have little interaction with other members outside church and interaction in church is often superficial. Most members do not know other members well enough to know when they are going through trials. In addition, members do not know each other well enough to confide in other members when they are going through trials. The result is that most members feel isolated and alone in handling trials. They often feel defeated and do not experience victory over trials. As a result, their worship is merely show and no substance. The church needs to provide regular supervision of its members to enable it to recognize and minister to members in need.

 
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Posted in Church ministry, Faith in practice, Kingdomtide

 

Sanctity of Life-4-III-B

29 Oct

The worst provision of the new law is the provision which prevents interference with access to an abortion. The provision poses a serious threat to babies and  their mothers. The provision would block the State from preventing abortions when the physician determines it is necessary to protect the life or health of the mother. That would overrule laws that would prevent parents from interfering with a child getting an abortion and block the legislature or the people from passing laws to limit abortions. When I worked as an office manager for a pro-life crisis pregnancy center for a while, a woman brought in three high school girls. The girls were unrelated and the woman did not act like the mother of any of the girls. The woman acted like a professional woman and I got the impression she might be a school nurse. It is a good possibility that none of the girl’s parents knew they were there. A school nurse or even a child molester could take girls for abortions and the amendment would bar the parents from preventing them, in spite of the laws of every State which ban minors from getting non-emergency medical treatment without their parent’s consent. The way the amendment is written, it could possibly bar the mother from preventing it also since it states that the State cannot prevent it if the physician  determines it is necessary. It does not include any provision requiring the patient’s consent and could be used by a rapist or sex trafficker to force a victim to get an abortion against her will.  It could possibly be used to block attempts to license abortionists and abortion facilities since abortion providers claim they make it more difficult for them to conduct business which interferes with women’s access to abortions.

 

 
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Posted in Politics, Sanctity of life

 

Sanctity of Life-4-III-A

29 Oct

Abortion providers in Ohio are pushing an amendment to the Constitution to expand abortion in Ohio.  They have continued to spew forth a pack of lies to get support. It is important for voters to understand the law in order to vote intelligently. It restricts abortion after the child is viable, which many people support, but allows the doctor to determine when it is viable and that depends on the doctor. A doctor pushing abortion could say a baby isn’t viable until it is born. Many mothers who want their baby have been told it would probably have a deformity and not be viable, yet when the baby was born, it was perfectly healthy. It is hard to determine exact conditions before birth. The amendment also allows for when the mother’s life is in jeopardy, which is also determined by the doctor, which many people support. Those are already included in Ohio’s law so that is no change.  The change is in the little phrase they add including a threat to her health in the determination. Since abortion doctors feel that an unwanted pregnancy puts stress on the mother, they feel that jeopardizes her mental health and so feel that allows them to perform abortions for any reason and at any time up until birth.  It is a phrase they have added to State Constitutions to open the door to unlimited abortion. They have been running numerous ads saying that there are no current provisions in the Constitution to allow for cases of rape which many would agree is needed, but that is a total lie since the law already contains such a provision.

 

 
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Posted in Politics, Sanctity of life

 

Sermon-Known By Their Fruits

24 Oct

 
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Posted in Kingdomtide, sermon, Videos

 

Schools & Education-1-AA

20 Oct

Ohio and other States are proposing legislation to outlaw the sexually explicit performances being conducted for children in schools and libraries. Laws in every State outlaw such performances for children but Gay Rights advocates say the laws don’t apply to them because they are homosexual performances, not performances of men and women. Therefore States are having to pass laws explicitly stating they apply to homosexual performances. Liberals feel laws don’t apply to them. Nowhere do the laws state they only relate to heterosexual performances. They are designed to protect children from adult content and apply to all adult content. It is the same argument abortion providers use to evade laws designed to protect women who get abortions. All States have laws protecting those who receive medical procedures such as licensing medical clinics and personnel, providing information on procedures so they can made informed decisions, and parental consent for minors. The argument that they don’t apply in the case of abortions is ridiculous. They apply to all medical procedures and abortions are medical procedures. They can claim the laws protecting the baby don’t apply because we don’t know when life begins but that is ridiculous because we now know when life begins and that has nothing to do with laws protecting the mother because the mother is legally recognized as a person. However, liberal judges and prosecutors refuse to prosecute offenders allowing children to be exposed to explicitly adult performances, just as they refuse to prosecute offenders who violate laws protecting women getting abortions. It is necessary to elect judges that uphold the law and prosecute offenders when they can and elect officials that will appoint judges that will uphold the law. States should not have to go through the cumbersome process of enacting new laws when the necessary laws are already on the books. It is time we begin prosecuting judges and prosecutors that refuse to uphold the law.

 

 
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Posted in Church & Society, Gay Rights

 

Eighth Sunday of Kingdomtide Oct 22

19 Oct

Small Group ministry-part-B  witness to those around them

As they learn to identify needs and how to minister to those in need in the small groups, they begin to develop a concern for those around them. As they begin reaching out to those around them to get to know them, they begin to see the needs of those outside the church and can begin to minister to them also, demonstrating the love of Christ to unbelievers. As unbelievers see the love of Christ they begin to desire that love and are attracted to the small group. People are more willing to join a small group where they know the person that brought them than to walk into a large church where they don’t know anyone. As they get to know the members of the group, they are more willing to attend church since they know the people from their group. Many churches are often built away from residential areas. In addition, churches no longer have neighborhood activities where unbelievers get to know those in the church.  The small group can be the church present in the neighborhood and reach out to the neighbors through neighborhood Bible studies and children’s activities.

 
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Posted in Church ministry, Faith in practice, Kingdomtide

 
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