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Take Heart – Encouragement After The Supreme Court Ruling

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goodnessofthelord

The grief is real. As christians we can’t help but grieve when we see sin legalized and celebrated. When we see a path of destruction ahead. When we see our God ridiculed and laughed at. But then again, there is nothing new under the sun, right? (Ecc 1:9)

We are misunderstood, labeled as intolerant haters. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but would Satan use any other method than a lie as his foundation?

I had trouble sleeping over the weekend. I woke through the night praying for our nation and praying for the multitudes of people who believe the lie that love won with the Supreme Court ruling. Oh, my precious friends who believe yet another lie, my heart aches. You are being deceived. I know your deepest need is for love. And so does the Father in Heaven who created you. God is love. (1John 4:8) He knows better than anyone that love never fails. His love for you is so unfathomable, He sacrificed His Son, placing the weight of our sins on Him, so that we could enter into a relationship with Him both now and in eternity. (John 3:16)

Yes, love wins, but it was won on a cross. It was’t won by the Supreme Court. That version of love is counterfeit. It will fail, fall, crumble, and eventually burn. God’s love – well, it’s eternal, and when we first taste it, we find the satisfaction our soul has craved, and we finally experience true freedom.

My heart grieves for the lost. “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” 1 Cor 1:18.

So we pray and never stop praying. Lord, open their eyes that they may see the wonderful ways of your laws. (Psalm 119:18)

Saturday I read from Romans 1.

Romans 1:20-21 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Romans 1:24-27 “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

This sat heavy on my heart. I felt all of Psalm 119:28 “My soul is weary with sorrow. Strengthen me according to your Word.”

I went to bed praying. I woke praying through the night. Then Sunday morning, the Lord woke me with encouragement.

My eyes opened Sunday morning, and this verse played in my head. Psalm 27:13-14 “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD. Be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

I went downstairs to spend time with the Lord. At the end of my time with Him, I set my Bible down where it fell open to Psalm 27. My eyes drawn like a magnet to His living Word. Psalm 27:13-14. I bowed my head and thanked Him.

Yes, we will remain confident of this. We will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He is Sovereign. He is God. While it appears the world spins out of control, it doesn’t. It’s His kindness and mercy not wishing that anyone perish.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

So, brothers and sisters, let’s look for His goodness in the land of living. Let’s know He is extending patience and mercy to His creation.

Romans 2:4 “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

Let’s not show contempt. Let’s remember His kindness that led to repentance and extend the kindness to others. Sharing that God is loving and kind. He isn’t a God who withholds good, withholds love. He desires that we experience true love, not the fake version.

Sunday morning God encouraged me through His Word after a weekend of mourning the Supreme Court decision. It didn’t take long for God to show His goodness. We sat through church as the Baptist Childrens Home of North Carolina worshipped with us. We listened to stories from kids and adults of a God who reached into their lives and saved them from trauma, abuse, neglect, and pain. We saw the testimony of lives redeemed. The goodness of the Lord on full display. That is the God we serve. Yes, He’s a Righteous Judge, but we can’t lose sight of His love, patience, and kindness.

The Surpreme Court ruling didn’t take Him by surprise. He’s not standing wringing His hands wondering how this happened. There is an enemy who seeks to destroy and devour and uses our sinful desires and pleasures to take us down. But our God holds the world in His hand. A day is coming when He will judge each and every one of us. He knows how it ends. Some battles He allows the enemy to win, but He already won the war on the cross. Love won, love wins, and love will never fail.

So today, we wait for the Lord, we stay strong, we take heart, and we wait for the Lord. We thank Him for His kindness, patience, and mercy. And we pray fervently. Never stopping.

Take heart.

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I Want To Raise Boys to Be Culture Warriors

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nyc

We were in NYC a few months ago- me, my sister, niece, and mom. The cold rain could not stop us from hopping on and off that tour bus to get us to the next shopping location. Finally shopped out, we hopped on and didn’t want to hop back off.

We had the whole bus to ourselves, and I sat relieved to sit in dry warmth. My achy feet thanked me profusely. We welcomed the next 20ish minutes to sit, thaw, and relax.

The bus stopped at the next stop, and the next thing I knew I was exiting the bus not at our stop, which was still many stops ahead. The driver said something I couldn’t understand, we filed out and hopped on the bus waiting at the stop ahead of us. This bus was packed full, standing room only. And the standing room section dripped water. Cold and wet again.

Then it dawned on me to ask what in the world we were doing. None of us really knew why we got off and got on another bus, so we asked the attendant to explain. She had no explanation.

The longer I thought about it, the more I fumed. Not so much at the bus company, but at myself for blindly following and asking not one question.

The very next stop, we hopped off that crowded, cold, wet bus and hopped back on our dry, warm, full of open seats bus. We asked the attendant why he instructed us to get off. He offered no really good reason.

I couldn’t help but think about how we so often do this in life. We just follow the ways of the world. The paths others follow. We assume because they are going that way, it must be safe for us to follow.

God gave us brains to think critically. I want my boys to think. Really think.

Our culture can at times forget to think. We let others think for us. We believe every new study published is truth. Or we believe because it’s available to us, it’s safe for us. We believe every article posted on Facebook is laced with wisdom. We follow the masses with each new wave of thought and change that presents itself.

We fear being different. We fear being wrong, so we keep our thoughts quietly locked away. We silence our questions and tell ourselves if everyone else is doing it, it must be ok.

Culture is always changing. It’s changed since the beginning of time, it will change until the end of time.

I read articles in the news that cause me to gasp that we’ve come so far. As we drove to school one morning, Jacob said, “Mom, I just don’t get it. Our nation was built on Biblical principles. We are a nation under God, but we are trying to take “In God We Trust” off our money, and we are taking prayer out of schools. Why are we doing these things?”

Small steps, one by one, we follow the way of the world. And one by one, we can take small steps that oppose the way of the world that leads back to God.

I reminded Jacob of a friend of mine who defends religious liberties, who stands up for the voice of the unborn. And then I reminded him of the most important tool we have. Prayer. Prayer is what can change a nation, a culture, a generation. Prayer changes everything.

He is seeing it first-hand. He came home from school sharing about some issues that are weighing heavily on him. They are out of our control. So we decided we would pray so God could change the situations. And He is! Jacob is seeing God work out what he was powerless to affect.

Raising kids seems intimidating in this age, but it’s really an unbelievable opportunity and privilege. We get to be part of standing with God, laying our requests at His feet, and watching Him perform miracles.

We can’t stop believing that God is at work in our nation and in our homes. We can’t stop praying for this generation we are raising. We can’t just pray for our own kids, we have to pray for all kids. Praying they love God wholeheartedly, use their brains to think and act for God.

Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

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