Happy Valentines Day ? 3115

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.

What, then, would we say about a society in which the overwhelming majority of children were born into homes without fathers and who grew up, in significant measure, without fathers? We would say that this society was in a state of disaster, heading toward disintegration....Millions of America's children live in a state of multiplied fatherlessness -- that is, in homes without fathers and in neighborhoods where a majority of the other homes are likewise without fathers. In 1990, 3 million children were living in fatherless homes located in predominantly fatherless neighborhoods -- neighborhoods in which a majority of the families were headed by single mothers. QUOTED

Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

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Ever since I can remember, shame has been connected to sexuality.My mother was ashamed to tell me about sex. I was ashamed to talk about any girl I might have tender feelings for. The boys spoke about budding sexual maturity either with bravado or with embarrassed silence. An erection was a great embarrassment that no amount of fear could control. It almost seemed like sexuality was something that was forced on a person, an irresistible attraction. At least it seemed my mother felt that way, and my father spoke nothing about it. Sexuality seemed almost to be a tabooed subject that grew stronger the more it was kept secret. How different that seems to be from today when everyone talks about sex and people live together almost as a matter of course. Yet the mystery and conflict have not gone away. Broken marriages are escalating, and there is little sign that the misuse of sexuality (incest, adultery, sexual abuse of many kinds) has lessened. Instead of the former mystique we now are in danger of "profaning" sexuality by our blatancy. We seem to have regressed to what used to be called "polygamy"-- many relationships according to how one feels. We have slipped into a kind of "shamelessness" that flaunts the taboo, but that deadens one to the sacredness of sex. In a word, sexuality is both sacred and profane. It is sacred because it opens us to the mystery of life and love -- domains of God -- and to the deep vulnerability of one another. It is profane because it touches our animality and threatens to overcome our reason by instinctual drives that can overwhelm us. It is a source of the greatest happiness by freeing us to give and receive love, but experience shows that it is also a source of the greatest sadness and conflict, and our deepest shame. FROM - Healing the Gender Wars by Robert T. Sears

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Lindsay Lohan's doing it. TV shows are based on it.
Is it our imaginations, or are wives and girlfriends ditching
their men and falling in love with other women?
New science says that sexuality
is more fluid than we thought.
The Oprah Magazine' - April 2009

FROM - Gender Wars: A Peace Plan

Why gender wars are still raging, and how to get along with the opposite sex.
By Mark B. White, Kirsten J. Tyson-Rawson, published on March 01, 1996

Gender is so basic to our assumptions about who we are and how we and others should behave that we are seldom aware that gender-related experiences influence and shape the ways we think about others and ourselves. Our beliefs--typically experienced as "oughts" and "shoulds"--nevertheless guide our behavior, establishing the nature of the interaction in...relationships without our conscious awareness.

The Gender Wars in Education by Susan McGee Bailey and Patricia B. Campbell February 9, 1999

What isn't talked about is our fear that boys who do "girl" things will somehow become "less manly". When caring, nurturing and the expression of feelings are seen as "girls' stuff" and "girls' stuff" is seen as not good for boys, boys are at emotional risk. This is not about being "masculine" or "feminine". It is about having the courage to challenge tradition. Without this courage neither boys nor girls will have all the choices they deserve.

Pitting boys against girls in competition for a good education is out of place in today's world. It shortchanges both sexes. The educational gender wars must cease. If we must have a war, let it be a war against ignorance. In this surely we are all on the same side!

AND NOW THIS

AND THIS

DEBATES and discussion

All (diabolic) tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for

people of good conscience to remain silent.
Jefferson

 

....in the past the danger had been that leaders held power at the expense of the common people and the struggle was one of gaining liberty by limiting such ... power. But now that power has largely passed into the hands of the people at large through democratic excercises, the danger is that the majority denies liberty to individuals, whether explicitly through laws ... or more subtly through morals and public opinion ...Mill (paraphrased)

 

 

Sir, is there anyone you

trust enough to tell your story?

 

We have the Gospel

the MOST POWERFUL STORY

because the disciples were faithful

to tell the TRUE story.

 

Many hurt who never heard.

...or heard lies.

 

Many years have past...yet

I was thrrown for a loop.....

Did he just use the expression

"christian homosexual"?

Should I just leave this subject alone?

 

It's a 'can of worms'!!

 

The reason I can't let it go is: this teacher has not testified.

I am frustrated by the fact that I am only getting

'second-hand' information. 

 

Yet the matter concerns me because I cannot give any

meaningful explanation to the children. They are getting

'information' from 'other' sources and coming to their own

conclusions.

 

So we just have to live with it.

The verdict: we are hypocritical,

judgemental and incincere.

END OF STORY.....

 

no, no no noooooo !!!

Lord, please help me get an opportunity....

just one...to talk.... one on one

with the teacher.

 

I would like to tell

this story....

I think the record

can be set straight.

bulldog

"You can have everything you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want," - Zig Ziglar   IS THIS TRUE??? 　　 "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10   Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for - love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men - will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o'-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted. If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience."  - CHAMBERS   Remain spiritually tenacious.

greatly concerned

If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it.

Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, nor because it was useful, nor because there was anything in it at all beyond the fact that I love Him? Have I ever realized that I can bring to God things which are of value to Him, or am I mooning round the magnitude of His Redemption whilst there are any number of things I might be doing? Not Divine, colossal things which could be recorded as marvellous, but ordinary, simple human things which will give evidence to God that I am abandoned to Him? Have I ever produced in the heart of the Lord Jesus what Mary of Bethany produced?

There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion - "Am I of any use?" and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time. - CHAMBERS

 

"She hath wrought a good work on Me." Mark 14:6

worthy?

Whatever happens,
conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ... whether I come to see you or whether I stay away, I'll hear all about you. I'll hear that you are firmly united in spirit, united in fighting for the faith that the Good News brings.
Philippians 1:27

*****************

Sin will take you further than you want to go.
It will keep you longer than you want to stay,
and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

pardoned

survive the night

A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him
alone.  He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the
blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it.  He cannot
cry out for help to anyone.  Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He
cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each

lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified.

He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him .

Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth,

and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold.

It would be the only way he could become a man! Finally,

after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.    

He had been at watch the entire
night, protecting his son from harm.    

 

We, too, are never alone.    

Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us,

Sitting on the stump beside us.    

When trouble comes, all we have to do  is reach out to Him.  

If you liked this story, pass it on

(u never know who might need it,I did).

 

Moral of the story:

Just because you can't see God,

doesn't mean He is not there.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight"
"Tune out the nay-sayers, silence your doubts,

start speaking words of faith and

move in God's  direction."

T E S T I N G 1 2 3

James 5 :11 We consider those who endure to be blessed. You have heard about Job's endurance. You saw that the Lord ended Job's suffering because the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

 

Romans 5:3 But that's not all. We also brag when we are suffering. We know that suffering creates endurance, 4endurance creates character, and character creates confidence. 5We're not ashamed to have this confidence, because God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

 

Hebrews 12:11 We don't enjoy being disciplined. It always seems to cause more pain than joy. But later on, those who learn from that discipline have peace that comes from doing what is right.

 

James 1:2 My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways. 3You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 Endure until your testing is over. Then you will be mature and complete, and you won't need anything.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he told me: "My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak." So I will brag even more about my weaknesses in order that Christ's power will live in me. 10Therefore, I accept weakness, mistreatment, hardship, persecution, and difficulties suffered for Christ. ....

 

....It's clear that when I'm weak, I'm strong.

those who endure

Behold, we count them happy which endure.— JAS.5:11.
We glory in tribulations: . . . knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.—No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.—My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.—Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, then am I strong. - QUOTE

Rom.5:3-5. -Heb.12:11. -Jas.1:2-4,12. -II Cor.12:9,10.

everything?

<< Hebrews 13:17 >>
Obey your leaders, and accept their authority.
They take care of you because
they are responsible for you.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
"do everything they tell you"
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"Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!"
1 Corinthians 9:16

Beware of stopping your ears to the call of God.
Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact....
Paul's words have to do with being made a servant
of Jesus Christ, and our permission is never asked as
to what we will do or where we will go.
God makes us broken bread and
poured-out wine to please Himself.

Every ambition is nipped in the bud, every desire
of life quenched, every outlook completely extinguished
and blotted out, saving one thing only -
"separated unto the gospel." Woe be to the soul
who tries to put his foot in any other direction
when once that call has come to him.
- CHAMBERS

+++++++++++++++++++++++
"do everything they tell you"
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"...many Christians would rather simply be
“nice” and “do good” while remaining silent
about why they’re being nice and doing good.
It is a good, moral life lived well among neighbors,
coworkers and family, but it is a life absent of the
proclamation of faith and God’s glory
as revealed in Jesus Christ."

Service without proclamation of Jesus’
love does indeed meet needs, but
a filled stomach without
hope is a tragic paradox.
QUOTE

+++++++++++++++++++++++
"do everything they tell you"
+++++++++++++++++++++++

last sunday pastor reminded us about the pharisees...

Many "woes" were pronounced against them, but
...was Jesus against them
because of their instruction?
apparently not:

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
So be careful to do everything they tell you.
But don't follow their example,
because they don't practice what they preach.
Matthew 23:3

+++++++++++++++++++++++
"do everything they tell you"
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