GOD ESTABLISHED THE ROLES FOR MEN & WOMEN

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A great article appeared in The Washington Stand by Joshua Arnold: Lead, Provide, Protect: An Urgent Call for Godly Men. I have taken excerpts from it

Lead, provide, protect. That’s what God created men to do. Our society has other ideas, to its own disadvantage and disgrace. But the best counter to the culture is for men to step up and embrace their God-given identity and role.

Today, “boys are penalized … for being boys,” Owen Strachan, senior fellow for Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, declared on “Washington Watch” last week. “Boys hear, ‘Don’t be strong’ and ‘Don’t want to be … a traditional man. … You’re not really good the way you are as a boy. You should be more like a girl.’ … Nothing could be worse for boys than that.”

This propaganda — blasted out by every mainstream institution from schools to Hollywood — applies half a century of radical feminist ideology. Radical feminists of the late 20th century argued for abolishing all differences between men and women. They demanded absolute equality in the academy and the workplace. They demanded utter sexual libertinism, endorsing promiscuity, childlessness, and the dissolution of the marriage bond, in imitation of their mistaken caricature of masculinity. They demanded freedom from their own reproductive biology (through birth control and abortion), again in an attempt to reproduce a false version of masculinity.

Ironically, as radical feminists tried to become like men in every way, they also insisted that men become more like women. “There are all sorts of traits associated with good things in Scripture that in today’s culture — among woke, leftist, pagan thought — are very bad things,” said Strachan. “So, if you take risks today if you’re assertive if you speak up in groups if you might dare to ever correct a woman in public … if you like competitive sports, if you like watching World War II movies, you better get out your blanket and hide in the closet because they’re coming for you.” This attitude nurtures men “against their nature,” he added, “against their wiring, because now they’re being told, ‘Don’t be what you naturally want to be.”

Because of his death on the cross, we who believe in him are redeemed from the futility of our dead works and restored to a right relationship with God. In his sacrificial example, we have a model to imitate (1 Corinthians 11:1), especially those of us who are husbands (Ephesians 5:25). “Our ability to fulfill our God-given responsibilities as men is not because of virtue within us,” said Strachan, but “because of God’s grace in us that summons us to wake up and to be not just a man for ourselves, not just an adult in terms of age, but to be a man who lays down his life for others to whatever extent is necessary.”

Lead, provide, protect. This is what God designed me to do, and it’s more necessary than ever in our fallen, messed-up world. It’s especially important for families, the building blocks of society. “If you build fathers, you build the family and you build the society,” Strachan stated. “If you break fathers, you break the family. If you break the family, you break the society.”

Lead, provide, protect. That’s the role of a godly man. The world has always sought to tear down, trip up, or otherwise neutralize godly leaders, and that’s especially true of our culture, which has embraced an anti-biblical, anti-masculine ideology. “Of course, a Christian is going to say, ‘You’re only going to be truly strong when you recognize your weakness and your need for Jesus Christ,’” Strachan granted. “Nonetheless, in Scripture, in case after case, (David to Solomon or the Lord God to Joshua), there’s a call to courage, and there’s a call to strength, and that is what boys need.”

We need men who, in the face of worldly opposition and devilish temptation, will heed this call:

“Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God” 1 Kings 2:2-3

ONLY GOD DEFINES WHAT IS GOOD AND EVIL

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God gave us His commandments to define what is lawful. God’s law is Holy. His commandments are Holy, righteous, and good. God defines what is sinful. Moreover, God gave each of us a conscience, an inner sense of right and wrong. One reason is because He loves us, and He doesn’t want us to destroy our lives and the lives of others through our evil deeds. But He also gave it to us to show us our need for Christ. He alone can forgive our sins, change our hearts, and then help us live the way we should.

The conscience is defined as that part of the human psyche that induces mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate it and feelings of pleasure and well-being when our actions, thoughts, and words are in conformity with our value systems. The Greek word translated “conscience” in all New Testament references is suneidēsis, meaning “moral awareness” or “moral consciousness.” The conscience reacts when one’s actions, thoughts, and words conform to or are contrary to God’s standard of right and wrong.

When King Solomon rebuked someone who had wronged his father, he said, “You know in your heart all the wrong you did” 1 Kings 2:44

Tragically, our conscience—this inner moral compass that ought to point us to right and wrong—can become dulled and suppressed, and we may not even be able to hear its warnings. Instead, we deliberately choose to do wrong—and the more we do this, the more calloused or hardened our conscience becomes. Some people, the Bible says, “suppress the truth by their wickedness” Romans 1:18

The world is increasingly suppressing God’s truth and is now openly opposed to it. It has embraced evolution and naturalism so that Man can make up His own rules. Christians who hold to God’s values are being treated as bigots and haters. Jesus said that in the last days before He returns this would be the case and we need to prepare for it.

“”Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12

As Christians, we are to keep our consciences clear by obeying God and keeping our relationship with Him in good standing. We do this by the application of His Word and submitting to the indwelling Holy Spirit’s leading. We need to help those whose consciences are weak, treating them with Christian love and compassion. Don’t give in to cynicism or despair but ask God to help you point others to Christ’s transforming power.

IN THE LAST DAYS LAWLESSNESS WILL ABOUND

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Last week, the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement announcing that it had issued Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to two pharmaceutical companies, AbbVie Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

The demands are part of an investigation to “determine whether these manufacturers of puberty-blocking drugs deceptively advertised and promoted hormone blockers for unapproved uses without disclosing the potential risks to children and their parents.”

“Companies should never promote or supply puberty blockers for uses that are not intended or approved,” Paxton said. “I will not allow Big Pharma to misleadingly promote these drugs that may pose a high risk of serious physical and psychological damage to Texas children who cannot yet fathom or consent to the potential long-term effects of such use.”

The attorney general’s office contends that the medications at issue — Supprelin LA and Lupron Depot — have approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat children with Central Precocious Puberty, a condition in which puberty comes early for a child. While Lupron has also “been prescribed for palliative treatment of prostate cancer,” neither drug has been approved as a treatment for gender dysphoria by the FDA.

In a fallen world this is exactly what we would expect to see, a large opportunity to make “big bucks” has opened up for these two pharmaceutical companies and they have grabbed at it regardless of the impact the use of their drugs may have on the future physical and psychological health of the young children that ingest them.

The conservative American College of Pediatricians has warned that the use of puberty-blocking drugs for gender identity purposes on children can cause infertility. Critics claim providing such drugs to children struggling with their gender identity would sterilize otherwise physically healthy children.

“There is not a single long-term study to demonstrate the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for transgender-believing youth. This means that youth transition is experimental, and therefore, parents cannot provide informed consent, nor can minors provide assent for these interventions. Moreover, the best long-term evidence we have among adults shows that medical intervention fails to reduce suicide.”

The debate about puberty blockers has received increased attention in recent years, particularly after “60 Minutes” aired a segment featuring testimony from “detransitioners,” those who began to transition from one gender to the other only to regret doing so later.

The young adults on the panel interviewed by CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl agreed that they were rushed into “hormones and surgery” without completely understanding the long-term impacts of taking that course of action.

In the USA and many of the developed countries, we now have a medical establishment for whom ethics is little more than a laid-back, indifferent acceptance of technological possibilities enabled by a political class that has jettisoned God and His morality, these groups are shaping pediatric care. And the cost will be catastrophically high.

HIGH COST OF REJECTING GOD AND HIS CREATIVE ORDER

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Having rejected our Creator, society is hell-bent on rejecting His created order. Society is intent on self-harming.

As I see it, the big cost to rejecting God is missing out on eternal life with our Creator in a new heaven and earth, but I am amazed at the number of people who are interested in only the here and now. Moreover, they seem totally oblivious to the enormous costs that are manifesting now across those nations that are abandoning God’s laws.

Devaluing life:

In the USA, in at least two States including New York, in 2019 it is legal now to terminate a baby’s life at birth. 

Book image: Snubbing God - The High Cost of Rejecting God's Created Order

In its twin Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, which were handed down on January 22, 1973, the Court federalised the issue and legalised abortion for any reason. Tragically, 45 years later, National Right to Life estimates that over 60 million unborn children have lost their lives as a result of those decisions.

Suicide rates rose in all but one state in the USA between 1999 and 2016, with increases seen across age, gender, race and ethnicity, according to a recent report  by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In more than half of all deaths in 27 states, the people had no known mental health condition when they ended their lives. Increasingly, suicide is being viewed not only as a mental health problem but a public health one. Nearly 45,000 suicides occurred in the United States in 2016 — more than twice the number of homicides — making it the 10th-leading cause of death. Among people ages 15 to 34, suicide is the second-leading cause of death.

“At what point is it a crisis?” asked Nadine Kaslow, a past president of the American Psychological Association. “Suicide is a public health crisis when you look at the numbers, and they keep going up. It’s up everywhere. And we know that the rates are actually higher than what’s reported.

Sexually transmitted diseases:

Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in the United States. Last year, 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis were diagnosed — 200,000 more than the previous record number, from 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, the CDC director said, the increase has been “steep and steady” for the past four years, calling it “a persistent and troubling trend.” The most common STD has been chlamydia, with 1.7 million diagnoses last year, with nearly half of those cases in women and girls ages 15 to 24.

Family breakdown:

A huge, painful hash of gender, sex, marriage and family is obvious. In 1960, the height of the post-World War II baby boom, there was one dominant family form. At that time 73% of all children were living in a family with two married parents in their first marriage. By 1980, 61% of children were living in this type of family, and today less than half (46%) are. The declining share of children living in what is often deemed a “traditional” family has been largely supplanted by the rising shares of children living with single or cohabiting parents. The decline in children living in two-parent families has been offset by an almost threefold increase in those living with just one parent—typically the mother. Fully one-fourth (26%) of children younger than age 18 are now living with a single parent, up from just 9% in 1960 and 22% in 2000. The share of children living without either parent stands at 5%; most of these children are being raised by grandparents. Could family breakdown be a cause for the increased suicide rate in young people? The link is inescapable.

Environment

Alternately, idolising and brutalising the environment and living creatures is what we see happening. Moreover, as the world continues to reject God, judgement will escalate exactly as prophesied with increased natural disasters, famine and pestilence.

What we see happening in the world is exactly what Jesus said would be signs of the “end times’ and His soon return to rule and reign with a rod of iron during His Millennial reign on earth. His Kingdom will have come to earth as it is in heaven. The prayer Jesus taught us to pray will finally be answered.

 

FORMERLY TRANSGENDER WOMEN SHARE REGRETS ABOUT TRANSITIONING DURING TEEN YEARS

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Four brave young women have taken on the bold task of combating our culture’s popular but extremely harmful views surrounding sex and gender identity. Dagny, Chiara, Jesse and Helena are the faces of the newly launched Pique Resilience Project, a movement designed to support individuals who have been victimised by progressive transgender ideology.

Earlier this month, the group launched a YouTube channel devoted to discussions surrounding “gender transition” and the pressure to define one’s sexual identity at a young age.The Pique Resilience Project website explicitly notes that the group is not conservative.

In the first video, posted Feb. 1, the young women, ages 20 to 22, share how they came to identify as men. At one point, three out of the four women were taking male hormone supplements to catalyse their physical “transition” from female to male.

Desiring happiness

Dagny noted that her parents’ encouragement led her to make decisions she would ultimately come to regret.

“I think if I had been made to wait until I was 18, when I was just on the verge of going to college, I would not have started hormones,” she said.

Later in the video, Dagny explained how her transgender identity ultimately stemmed from a desire to feel loved, accepted and happy.

“I think that transitioning both socially and then later medically became this way to inject positive change over my life when at the time I had no control over my life and was super sad,” she said. “But looking back it was probably the most stagnant period of my life so far.” “I made no new friends,” she added. “I was miserable all the time, my grades were dropping, I was self-harming.”

“I think what I saw as positive change was actually the thing that was dragging me down the most in my life at the time,” Dagny said. “So I honestly can’t see any pros to, at least, my experience with transition.”

Jesse shared that her decision to live “as a man” only served to worsen other already existing mental health issues. She looks back on that period in her teens as a “confusing and deluded” time. “I completely regret jumping into it,” she said. “I should have just chilled out.”

Helena added that her decision to transition ultimately came down to intense pressure from others. Whenever she voiced any doubts or raised questions, she was “vehemently shot down.”

Paying the price

Chiara also spoke about the pressure to solidify her transgender identity, and the backlash she faced when she dared to change her mind.

“As soon as you start to maybe move away from a trans identity or start to voice things, they call you a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), or they instantly ostracise you and call you a traitor and fake,” she said. “So it’s very hard to voice doubts and that contributes to not allowing you to voice that or realise that about yourself.”

The group is not against transgenderism so much as it seeks to promote an openness to individuals who no longer identify as trans. But for many in the transgender movement, even that is going too far.

Seeking solidarity

Efforts like the Pique Resilience Project should be welcomed by Christian and conservative groups who oppose radical gender ideology. Though these women may be coming from a different political and moral perspective, their experiences speak to the true consequences of living outside God’s design. They may not be able to see exactly why just yet, but the freedom they experienced after breaking away from a transgender lifestyle is a testament to the goodness and beauty of embracing the law written on every human heart.

As our culture continues to push new and confusing views surrounding sex and gender, we need to be praying for our struggling brothers and sisters, that they may find healing and freedom in living out God’s plan for their lives.

Taken from article by Carly Hoilman in Faithwire

 

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FEAR GOD & HIS JUDGEMENT – VOTE NO

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 The Bible says : “Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. “(Proverbs 14:34)

SAME SEX MARRIAGE VIOLATES GOD’S DESIGN FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY.

Your belief system is foundational and fundamental to Your daily living and crucial and critical to Your destiny in life.
1. – It directs what You think and feel
2. – It controls what You say and do
3. – The quality (and the quantity) of Your life rests on it.

When the belief system gets CORRUPTED, the thinking will be COMPROMISED, the feelings will be CONFUSED and Life will be COMPLICATED.

The Bible clearly teaches us that the sanctity of marriage is solid, secure and safe .
1. SOLID – because this first and oldest institution in the history of mankind is ordained by Almighty God and He Himself performed the very first marriage.
2. SECURE – because this all-important union brings together the law of our land and the love of our Lord.
3. SAFE – because this holy invention is God’s idea and thus it will stand the test of time and succeed over the trends of life.
Ambushed by minority groups, the sanctity of marriage, is currently in serious danger of becoming a thing of the past, if the proponents of same-sex lifestyle and the opponents of common-sense marriage have their way.

Their hideous agenda, especially that of their leaders goes way beyond the desire for marriage, it seeks its demise. Their intention is to redefine our God-ordained institution and replace it with a man-made invention.

The “one man one woman to the exclusion of all others” definition of marriage is at a major crossroads once again.

The burning question on the lips of concerned citizens and conservative voters everywhere is: will common sense principles protect it from evil and preserve it for good, or, will same-sex lifestyle tear it apart and throw it away for good?

The aggressive homosexual activists are no longer satisfied for their homosexual community to be left alone in peace, to practise in private, the unnatural urges they feel and the sinful lusts they desire towards the same sex.

They now want to raise argument after argument to defend the indefensible and to normalise the abnormal.

They even try to rewrite the history books and rewire the human design in order to make the unnatural normal and the unnecessary needed.

Given the relentless attack on traditional marriage we’re currently experiencing, let us  hold in honour the sanctity of marriage and regard it as precious and of great value as the scriptures tells us.

I voted NO to SSM and encourage you all (in Australia) to do the same, because the simple reality is that SAME SEX MARRIAGE violates God’s design for marriage and family.

Your vote at this postal plebiscite is your voice at Parliament House. Make sure that your Vote NO to SSM is heard loud and clear in Canberra’s political corridors of power. Together we can positively impact our Australian family and permanently safeguard the values of our Christian heritage.

And if you think your ONE vote does not matter, well think again – On 18 January 1961, in Zanzibar, (now part of Tanzania) Afro-Shirazi Party won by a single seat of the seat of Chake-Chake on Pemba Island had been gained by a single vote.

Our children and grandchildren deserve the best that we can offer them, and our Christian values are the best there is on offer.  You cannot improve on God’s model.  One day they will appreciate your vision and values and applaud the courage of your convictions.  One day they will think of your life and legacy and thank God for your labour of love.

Extract from article by Peter Rahme – http://www.amazinggrace.org

THE BIBLE: the only basis for objective morality

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Ten Commandments

THE MORAL PRINCIPLES THAT HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED AS SELF EVIDENT AND WHICH FORM THE BASIS OF OUR LAW CODES WERE DERIVED FROM THE BIBLE.

WESTERN SOCIETY TRADITIONALLY HELD THE BIBLE AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS TO BE THE STANDARD OF HOW WE SHOULD ACT.

The Bible’s teachings and the concept of God as the moral law giver, became the overarching influence of our  western civilization. Sadly more and more people are totally ignorant of that fact and of what the Bible teaches. Whilst the Australian Federal Parliament is still opened with a reading of The Lord’s Prayer there is a strong move led by Greens Leader, Senator Richard di Natale to end the reading of prayers at the start of each sitting day. As the Bible (God’s Word) is increasingly marginalized (even in some churches), so is the Bible’s authority in areas such as morality. Young people in particular start to experience confusion regarding what used to be considered basic moral principles. Many have decided they can make up their own rules because there are no moral absolutes. This is exactly what a recent New York Times survey amongst young people reported. This is of course the logical moral outcome of the teaching of evolution and the survival of the fittest in our schools and universities.

If we want our children to be able to tell right from wrong, and to have an objective basis for doing so, the answer is a wholesale return to God’s Word as the authority in our lives. We need to be able to defend what we believe and trust the Bible in everything it teaches.

The falling away which we see happening in the world is prophetically revealed in the Bible so we shouldn’t be surprised. God is sovereign and He is working out His plans and purposes in the world. He has judged nations down through history and he is still doing so. Nations that reject God’s laws can expect His judgment. As reported on this website, Jonathan Cahn shows America has already received nine harbingers (warnings) from God and His judgment will only escalate unless the nation repents and turns back to God.

We are so blessed that our Heavenly Father has sent the Holy Spirit to indwell every born again believer to be our counsellor, comforter and teacher. God has a plan and purpose for each one of us and He will direct our paths if we allow Him – Lord, not my will, but Your will be done today, needs to be our daily prayer.

May the fruit of the Holy Spirit be evident in our lives: love, joy, peace, faith, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness and self control and may the gifts of the spirit be flowing in our churches so we start impacting the world for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.