Sky Links, 2-1-20

Impeachment, John Bolton’s Book, And His Cash Grab Gone Wrong
-Lance Walnau

John Bolton was a confidential advisor who has turned into a bitter enemy with a bruised ego, exploiting a nation’s agony so that he can profiteer from a tell-all book. As Trump’s enemies seek to exploit this division and turn Bolton against Trump, the President takes his case to the people. The battle lines get more intense as Bolton’s document leaks. What happens next?

White House Summit on Human Trafficking

President Trump delivered remarks at the White House Summit on Human Trafficking, The 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The president then signed an Executive Order on child exploitation in the U.S.

The Origins of the Enneagram
-Marcia Montenegro

Explosion of the Enneagram among Evangelicals
-Krista Bontrager

The Enneagram isn’t new. It’s been circulating in Roman Catholic circles for a few decades. But its influence among evangelical Protestants has skyrocketed in the last few years. Here are just a handful of examples to illustrate how pervasive it has become.

Enneagram Christian Perspective: Is the Enneagram for Christians?
-Kap and Joy Chatfield

Christian Leaders are Saying Lies About You
-Mario Murillo

Mark Galli is telling lies about you. He doesn’t understand that the evil one has riled him up and given him a wispy need for recognition from the intellectual community. For ten years I have watched a number of smart Christians seduced in Berkeley by the need to water down their faith in order to be accepted among the “intelligentsia.”

Remember when Peter played the hypocrite and ate with Gentiles until the Jewish believers from Jerusalem arrived? Then he withdrew from the Gentile believers. Paul rebuked Peter publically, and wrote about it in the book of Galatians chapter 2! It’s the same thing. Guys like Mark Galli seem to need the approval of the media. Small wonder he appeared on CNN right after this.

Lest you think it is wrong to name names, take a look at the long list of heretics mentioned by name in the New Testament. From Paul calling out Alexander and Hymenaeus, to John naming Diotrophes. It is biblical to warn the sheep about wolves.

Mark Galli’s now infamous editorial where he called for Trump to be removed from office is his second lie. There is no evidence that Trump committed any impeachable offense. Nancy Pelosi found nothing. That’s why she hasn’t gone forward with the process and presented the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, holding up the trial she knows is going nowhere.
Mark Galli took their false accusation, and stated it as fact.

But he is not the only Christian Leader lying about you. Beth Moore tweeted Galli saying “My hat’s off to you, @markgalli. Respect.” She is commending someone for making a false accusation. She also lies by signaling that no true Christian man can support Trump.

It is also possible to lie by omission. Neither of these leaders ever criticized Obama or the Christians who violated their conscience by voting for Obama.

Is The Message as bad as they all say?
-Mike Frost

There are many criticisms of The Message, some of them justified. It’s not a reliable translation if that’s what you need. It’s a rendering of the text, an attempt to make the Bible accessible in the common vernacular. But as a doorway into serious Bible reading, it has been a gift to the church. At least that’s how my friend has found it.

In his book on Bible reading, Eat This Book, Eugene Peterson writes about his motivations in writing The Message. He goes so far as to say it’s a form of sacrilege to speak of God in language that is “inflated into balloons of abstraction or diffused into the insubstantiality of lacey gossamer.”

And that is the reason he agreed to provide people with a paraphrase of the Bible that makes sense in contemporary language. He sees it as part of the mission of God’s people. He explains:

“For those of us who take the Scriptures seriously as the word of God and the authoritative text by which we choose to live, translation is one of the primary defenses that we have against . . . letting language inflate into pomposities or artifices that are no longer current with the way we express our ordinary lives.”

Crowdstrike

The Transcript of the 7-25-19 Phone Call

Page 3:

CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller’s Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims
-Aaron Maté

Before he nixed U.S. government contacts with Assange, Comey was implicated in another key investigative lapse – the FBI’s failure to conduct its own investigation of the DNC’s servers, which housed the record of alleged intrusions and malware used to steal information. As Comey told Congress in March 2017, the FBI “never got direct access to the machines themselves.” Instead, he explained, the bureau relied on CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC, which “shared with us their forensics from their review of the system.”

While acknowledging that the FBI would “always prefer to have access hands-on ourselves, if that’s possible,” Comey emphasized his confidence in the information provided by CrowdStrike, which he called “a highly respected private company” and “a high-class entity.”

CrowdStrike‘s accuracy is far from a given. Days after Comey’s testimony, CrowdStrike was forced to retract its claim that Russian software was used to hack Ukrainian military hardware. CrowdStrike‘s error is especially relevant because it had accused the GRU of using that same software in hacking the DNC.

There is also reason to question CrowdStrike‘s impartiality. Its co-founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, the preeminent Washington think tank that aggressively promotes a hawkish posture towards Russia. CrowdStrike executive Shawn Henry, who led the forensics team that ultimately blamed Russia for the DNC breach, previously served as assistant director at the FBI under Mueller.

And CrowdStrike was hired to perform the analysis of the DNC servers by Perkins Coie – the law firm that also was responsible for contracting Fusion GPS, the Washington, D.C.-based opposition research firm that produced the now discredited Steele dossier alleging salacious misconduct by Trump in Russia and his susceptibility to blackmail…

…While the extent of the FBI’s reliance on CrowdStrike remains unclear, critical details are beginning to emerge via an unlikely source: the legal case of Roger Stone – the Trump adviser Mueller indicted for, among other things, allegedly lying to Congress about his failed efforts to learn about WikiLeaks’ plans regarding Clinton’s emails.
Lawyers for Stone discovered that CrowdStrike submitted three forensic reports to the FBI that were redacted and in draft form. When Stone asked to see CrowdStrike‘s un-redacted versions, prosecutors made the explosive admission that the U.S. government does not have them. “The government … does not possess the information the defendant seeks,” prosecutor Jessie Liu wrote. This is because, Liu explained, CrowdStrike itself redacted the reports that it provided to the government:

At the direction of the DNC and DCCC’s legal counsel, CrowdStrike prepared three draft reports. Copies of these reports were subsequently produced voluntarily to the government by counsel for the DNC and DCCC. At the time of the voluntary production, counsel for the DNC told the government that the redacted material concerned steps taken to remediate the attack and to harden the DNC and DCCC systems against future attack. According to counsel, no redacted information concerned the attribution of the attack to Russian actors.  

In other words, the government allowed CrowdStrike and the Democratic Party’s legal counsel to decide what it could and could not see in reports on Russian hacking, thereby surrendering the ability to independently vet their claims. The government also took CrowdStrike‘s word that “no redacted information concerned the attribution of the attack to Russian actors.”

Do You Care What People Think? How do you handle criticism?
-Shawn Bolz

How do I deal with criticism?  I get asked from time to time…did you research that on Facebook? Wow!  I don’t have time for that! LOL!  That would be so incredibly hard to do.  The amount of work it would take to maintain a lifestyle of manufacturing would be all consuming.  But when you are a lover of the Holy Spirit and a lover of truth, you can’t let yourself get distracted by people who don’t believe you.  My job is never to convince people if they don’t believe in it,  it’s not important for people to believe in me, but I want to help people understand these gifts: words of knowledge, wisdom and prophecy and I hope to help people believe in the gifts. 

When you are processing your prophetic journey,  you will have people who will not believe you.  But the moment you compromise is the moment you ruin the whole thing for yourself.  The moment you have to manufacture, it the moment you need to step out of the prophetic for a while. 

Anytime you go after something new that’s supernatural, you will get a lot of mixed reviews, and that is part of what you will deal with when you go after these gifts.  I want to encourage you, you are not alone.  A lot of people who are used in this way have gone through a season of rejection, and that’s part of the journey and graduating.  The moment you put people in the enemy category is the moment you will not have authority to love them. Focus on the right people that God has put in front of you!

Steven Strang, “God, Trump, and the 2020 Election”.
-Eric Metaxas

Steven Strang returns to the studio with an interview that’s sure to stir the pot in both the political and religious worlds when he shares thoughts from his new book, “God, Trump, and the 2020 Election”.

Disputed NY Times ‘1619 Project’ Already Shaping Schoolkids’ Minds on Race
-John Murawski

Since its publication in August, the 1619 Project has been adopted in more than 3,500 classrooms in all 50 states, according to the 2019 annual report of the Pulitzer Center, which has partnered with the Times on the project. Five school systems, including Chicago and Washington, D.C., have adopted it district-wide. It is mostly being used as supplemental, optional classroom teaching material. By and large, school systems are adopting the project by administrative fiat, not through a public textbook review process.

Even as it is being embraced by schools, the project is facing strong pushback from some leading scholars who say it presents a false version of American history. They dispute The New York Times’ claim that America’s true founding date is not 1776, the year the colonies declared independence from Great Britain, but 1619, when 20 to 30 enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown, Va., leading to the creation of a “slavocracy” whose legacy of racism and oppression has been encoded in the nation’s DNA and hidden in plain sight.

Gordon Wood, a leading historian of the American Revolution and emeritus professor at Brown University, told RealClearInvestigations the Times material “is full of falsehoods and distortions.” In its current form, without corrections, which the Times has declined to run, the only way to use it in the classroom, he said, would be “as a way of showing how history can be distorted and perverted.”

The 1619 Project reflects disputes about both the facts and meaning of American history at a time when the nation is divided by identity politics, including a movement to transform education in colleges and high schools through “ethnic studies,” an approach that emphasizes teaching about white oppression of minorities and their resistance to “whiteness.” Proponents of ethnic studies use the term “whiteness” to refer to the political, economic and cultural power structure imposed by a dominant culture of white Europeans.

What Not to Say to Someone Who is Grieving
-Kay Warren

Two Project Veritas Whistleblowers On Why They Blew The Whistle on Pinterest, CNN—With James O’Keefe, Cary Poarch, and Eric Cochran
-Jan Jekielek

At Turning Point USA’s 2019 Student Action Summit, we sat down with James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas, and two whistleblowers who came to his organization—Cary Poarch, a former CNN employee who shed light on what he saw as political bias at CNN, and Eric Cochran, a former software engineer at Pinterest who exposed evidence of how Pinterest appeared to censor Christian and pro-life content.

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Photo Credit: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0

Sky Links, 1-18-20

How The Media Lies To You
-Chris Kohls (Mr Reagan)

The Truth About the Australian Bushfires
-Paul Joseph Watson

It has nothing to do with climate change. (Language advisory)

The Ukraine Phone Call Reenactment
-Brandon Straka and Mikey Harlow

A Quick Tour Through Ephesians
-NT Wright

Speaking at a Wheaton College Chapel in April of 2010, the brilliant theologian, N. T. Wright, finds a way to be simple enough for young college students as he presents a brief tour through Paul’s magisterial Ephesian letter.
(h/t Glenn Packiam)

Will Supporting Trump Ruin My Witness?
-Mario Murillo

One of the arguments made by the editor of Christianity Today Magazine was that supporting Trump ruined our witness to America. No one yearns to win souls more than I do, therefore, I will tackle this argument, beginning with a story that seems to be analogous.

After the United States Army liberated the German concentration camps, General Eisenhower viewed the incomprehensible horror. His reaction was to make every soldier in the area come and see it for themselves.

When he was asked why he had subjected these men to such savagery and why he forced them to view images which they could never wash from their minds, he said this, “We are told that the American soldier does not know what he was fighting for. Now, at least he will know what he is fighting against.”

Millions of Christians look at Trump and see a man who is not perfect. He is not their model of a true believer. They reject him because they know what they are striving for: gentleness, civility and increased church attendance. What they do not know is what they are fighting against.

I know this, because whenever they attack Trump they offer no alternative for the office of President. They can’t tell you who else they would rather vote for. Or they assume it doesn’t matter if Democrats win. They only know they are offended by Trump’s behavior. But how does his behavior appear when compared to the horror of what the Left will do to this nation?

Loving To Know-N.T. Wright

We have worshipped Mars, who leads us to address all problems with tanks and bombs. We have worshipped Mammon, so that turning a profit trumps all else. We have worshipped ­Aphrodite, and any suggestion that we should resist her infringes on our human rights. And so on. The false gods obtain their power and apparent authority from the fact that they really are aspects of the ­created world that, for a Jew or a Christian, is itself the loving gift of the wise creator. But when we respond to the idols, rather than to the creator, we are driven not by love but by greed and lust. That’s what idols do: They lure you into the Faustian trap.

The way out is an understanding of ­creation as the gift of love, to which love is the appropriate response. But we cannot reach that true understanding of ­creation by a direct approach, for it quickly leads us back to idols. We must start with the center of creation: Jesus himself.
Two key Pauline passages sum this up. In Galatians, after speaking of God’s sending the Son and then sending the Spirit of the Son, Paul says, “Now that you’ve come to know God—or better, to be known by God—how can you turn back again” to the “elements of the world?” (Gal. 4:9). In other words, the gospel events have unveiled the true God in all his glory: the God who sent the Son and the Spirit of the Son. Since these actions are always God’s initiative, our knowledge of this God must always be seen as the reflex of God’s knowledge of us. This idea is amplified in 1 Corinthians 8, which deals with the problem of idolatry. Paul mocks the Corinthians’ pretensions to any kind of special knowledge, gnōsis. “If anybody thinks they ‘know’ something, they don’t yet ‘know’ in the way they ought to know. But if anybody loves God, they are ‘known’—by him” (1 Cor. 8:2). And what does it mean to love this God? Paul quotes—and adapts!—the central Jewish prayer, the Shema. Instead of “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one . . . and you shall love the Lord your God . . .” Paul incorporates Jesus within the prayer: There is one God (the Father) and one Lord (Jesus the Messiah). Paul’s whole letter is, then, an exposition of what it means to love this God—to love, not by taking the initiative, but by responding to the love revealed in the gospel; and to allow that love to be the mode of all other knowledge.

Paul’s exposition of love receives its classic expression in the great poem we know as 1 Corinthians 13. Paul here places love at the center of his eschatological epistemology:

We know, you see, in part;
We prophesy in part; but, with perfection,
The partial is abolished. As a child
I spoke, and thought, and reasoned like a child;
When I grew up, I threw off childish ways.
Why, in a poem about love, does he take this time to contrast an earlier phase of life with the later maturity? Because love is the mode of knowing that ­provides continuity between the present age and the age to come. Love is the constant between our present incomplete knowledge and the full knowledge yet to come:
For at the moment all that we can see
Are puzzling reflections in a mirror;
Then, face to face. I know in part, for now;
But then I’ll know completely, through and
through,
Even as I’m completely known. So, now,
Faith, hope, and love remain, these three; and, of
them,
Love is the greatest.
(1 Cor. 13:9–13)

Paul’s Christian virtue is always responding, always discovering, the love that is the heart of true knowledge, the love inspired in him by the love revealed in, and flowing from, the gospel. Galatians again: “The life I do still live in the flesh, I live within the faithfulness of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20).

Paul focuses here on the love within Christian communities—the love that holds together the varied ministries of 1 Corinthians 12, the love that prevents disorderly chaos in worship in chapter 14. But this poem in chapter 13 indicates what it means to know God’s world, to know one another within God’s world, and to know God himself, with a love that, though awaiting fulfillment in the age to come, has already broken into the present world and time. And when we see how this love works, we recognize that it transcends the antitheses of modern thought.
The Enlightenment has often tried to propose its own replacement for love, in the form of tolerance. But tolerance is a hands-off, arm’s-length kind of relationship. We can understand its appeal in the eighteenth-­century world, weary of revolution and wars of religion—though about to collapse into internecine murder in the French Terror and the American Civil War, to look no further. But as we all know, tolerance is not enough. Invoking it produces a downward spiral of ineffective semi-moralism. We urgently need to explore the possibilities of a genuine epistemology and hermeneutic of love.

Trump announces school prayer guidance; 9 agencies draft religious freedom rules
-Samuel Smith

On National Religious Freedom Day Thursday, the White House announced several new rules and memos designed to roll back “discriminatory” federal regulations as well as promote teachers’ and students’ right to pray in public schools. 

President Donald Trump was joined in the Oval Office by Christian, Jewish and Muslim students who have suffered some form of discrimination as he introduced new regulations and guidance promoting religious freedom.

Among them is the announcement that the U.S. Education Department will send out memos to secretaries and administrators in all 50 states stressing that they can’t prevent teachers or students from praying in public schools. 

The goal is to “further safeguard students’ constitutionally protected right to pray in school” and to let public school administrators know that they can lose federal funding if they violate students’ religious freedom.

Babylon Bee CEO: “How funny is it that CNN is coming after us for spreading disinformation?”

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Photo Credit: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0

Sky Links, 1-11-20

Jeffrey Epstein Prophecy: ‘No One Is Getting Away with Anything
-Shawn Bolz

The Jeffrey Epstein story is not over. Another story related to him is going to break that will take the focus somewhat off of his death and put it back on what happened throughout the corruption of his life.

Someone is going to be brave and share their information that will expose something huge.
God is going to bring more to the light in 2020. I heard this: “No one is getting away with anything.”

This new, exposing story will put fear and then the consequences in several prominent families, including ones already linked, as well as some of his partners as more information gets exposed linking all kinds of people to this criminal underbelly.

Epstein was not the mastermind but a piece of the story. God is going to show unusual justice in the situation and there are people who will be freed who are imprisoned in this mess, crying out for help.

Shawn’s Instagram: Epstein Prophecy is starting to get fulfilled

Soros Joins With Evangelical Christians to Promote Invasion of America
-Rosemary W. Pennington

Top Southern Baptist Russell Moore teams up with George Soros again to demand amnesty for Third World invaders. Russell Moore’s open-borders Evangelical Immigration Table is funded by George Soros and supports the Third World immigration and refugee invasion of the USA and Europe.

RUSSELL MOORE is one of the heads of the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), a front group for the George Soros-funded National Immigration Forum (NIF) which calls for open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens. The fact that the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission head, Russell Moore, has never had to explain his association with anti-White Jewish billionaire George Soros is telling of the direction the denomination has gone. The Southern Baptist Convention is now primarily an outlet to propagandize semi-conservative pew-sitters with left-wing politics.

Now, Russell Moore together with George Soros calls on the United States to implement a “restitution-based” immigration plan — a plan that they say would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country legally so long as they pay restitution to the government over a period of seven years.

Eric Metaxas Quits Evangelical Immigration Table -Mark Tooley

The Evangelical Immigration Table Exposed As Another Soros Front -Marjorie Jeffrey

Evangelicals and Immigration -Betsy Woodruff

Evangelical Immigration Table: 

Here’s a list of influential Christian leaders across the United States who have signed the Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform — listed by group:

The Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) is a front group for the National Immigration Forum (NIF).

Intelligence Community’s Inspector General Is the Link Between FISAgate and Impeachment
-Julie Kelly

Democrats in the House of Representatives still refuse to release the closed-door testimony of a key witness in the concocted drama: Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community.

Atkinson, you may recall, launched the impeachment saga when he determined that the accusations by the “whistleblower” about Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president last summer were so alarming as to deem the complaint a matter of “urgent concern.” (It wasn’t.)

Atkinson sent two letters to the House Intelligence Committee demanding immediate attention to the bogus complaint.

“I have not been authorized to disclose . . . basic information to you, in addition to the important information provided by the Complainant that is also being kept from the congressional intelligence committees,” Atkinson warned September 17, a week after the U.S. aid had been released to Ukraine.

As part of his impeachment charade, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) interviewed Atkinson in his secret lair; it is the only transcript out of 18 that Schiff won’t make public….

…A report issued last month by Atkinson’s counterpart at the Justice Department, Michael Horowitz, offered a detailed account of how that agency, specifically the FBI, violated the law to obtain a warrant to spy on Carter Page for a year. Horowitz identified 17 “significant errors” on the initial application and three subsequent renewals submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The office responsible for the government’s FISA process is the Justice Department’s National Security Division. The head of the NSD during the first several months of the secret surveillance on Carter Page was acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord.

McCord’s senior counsel? Michael Atkinson.

10 Things I Learned in 2019
-Regi Campbell

7. Three sets of magic words can change the tone and trajectory of a marriage . . . “You’re probably right.” “Could you use a few more words so I can better understand?” “What can I do to help?”

Regi’s “Things I Learned” Lists from 2011-2019

Some that I really liked:

2011, #10. God answers essay questions, not multiple choice.

2012, #9.  Disciple-making is about leading others to find and act on their calling, not just living out my own.

2013, #12. Your legacy won’t be what you leave behind for people. It will be what you build into people.

2014, #6. Being ‘fully present’ is the only thing that slows life down and creates more minutes per clock hour.

2015, #4. Maybe the most uncomfortable yet useful question God often poses to us when we slow down and listen . . . “What breaks your heart?” That question can take us to God’s calling for our prayers, our giving, our lives.

2016, #8. If your closest friends aren’t like-hearted with you, it may be time to fire them and find replacements. There’s a difference in like-minded people and like-hearted Like-minded people think alike but like-hearted people want the same things. I want to ‘do life’ with like-hearted people . . . people who are all-in for Jesus and want to make disciples. 

2016, #9. The anemia of Jesus-followers is not just their lack of prayer but their inability and unwillingness to engage in listening prayer. We rattle on and on, praying the same words and telling God things He already knows. All the time, He’s sitting there with the answers to our heart’s questions . . . wanting to help us, but we’re too afraid, too busy, or too faithless to ask and listen.

2017, #5. A request is a demand when the answer can’t be ‘no’ – This is subtle but strong because unmet demands yield to anger, whether it’s suppressed or expressed. Don’t deceive yourself thinking you’ve made requests when you’ve really made demands. You’ll know which they were by your response when the answer is ‘no.’

2018, #7. Don’t miss the life you have, comparing it to the life you think is possible but doesn’t really exist.

Toby:

“The last couple of months have been the hardest I’ve ever faced. Thank you for the love and support. Part of my process has always been to write about the things I’m going through, but this went to a whole new level. What started out as getting some of my thoughts and feelings about losing my firstborn son down on paper, ended up a song,”

’21 Years’ is a song I wrote about the recent passing of my firstborn son, Truett Foster McKeehan. I loved him with all my heart. Until something in life hits you this hard, you never know how you will handle it.”

“Writing this song felt like an honest confession of the questions, pain, anger, doubt, mercy and promise that describes the journey I’m probably only beginning. The rest is yet to come. One thing I know is that I am not alone. God didn’t promise us a life of no pain or even tragic death, but He did promise He would never leave us or forsake us. And I’m holding dearly to that promise for my son as well as myself”.

TobyMac pens ‘honest,’ heartfelt song ’21 Years’ after son’s death -Jeannie Law

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Photo Credit: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0

Sky Links, 1-4-20

Trump Taking Out Soleimani Just Made The World A Better, Safer Place

-Ben Shapiro

His death makes the world a significantly better and safer place. Soleimani was responsible for the killing of hundreds of American troops in Iraq (by State Department estimates, 17 percent of all Americans killed in Iraq were Soleimani’s handiwork), the arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon with tens of thousands of rockets, the Houthi terrorism in Yemen, the building of Islamic Jihad, and a bevy of terror plots all around the world, including the latest assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Speculation that this represents an “act of war” is utterly baseless — Soleimani is a terrorist who was killed while abroad, in Iraq, planning further acts of terrorism.

Suggestions that the Trump administration is responsible for “escalation” with Iran — after months of Iranian aggression in international waters and in foreign countries, after downing an American drone and attacking an American embassy — are absurd and morally disgusting. When Nancy Pelosi tweets that it is “disproportionate” to kill a terror leader planning action against Americans and our assets and allies, she’s not just reflecting moral confusion — she’s evidencing moral foolishness of the highest order.

There is a lot to be nervous about here. Is the Soleimani killing part of a broader American strategy with regard to Iran, or a supposed one-off? Has the U.S. hardened its assets on the ground in the Middle East in preparation for Iranian retaliation? Are America’s allies ready for the surge in terrorism that will surely follow, given the Iranian government’s need to show strength in the face of this devastating loss?

With all of that said, it’s obvious that President Trump was attempting to restore a deterrence against Iran that had been completely disintegrated by the Obama administration. History didn’t begin with Trump, and Iranian aggression didn’t start with the end of the Iran nuclear deal. Far from it. Iran has become more powerful and aggressive thanks to the overt planning of the Obama administration.

 A Response to Mark Galli and Christianity Today 
-Wayne Grudem

Writing as an evangelical Christian who has taught ethics as a professor at the college and graduate school level for 42 years, and as the author of a major textbook on Christian ethics and another widely-used book on the relationship between politics and the Bible, I wish to respectfully differ with Mark Galli’s editorial…

Why it isn’t always God’s will to heal 
-Jessica Miller

I cannot overemphasize just how harmful and damaging this teaching can be for someone who is dealing with a chronic condition such as infertility. My emotions were a rollercoaster as I sought to “believe for a miracle” and was devastated month after month when my prayers went unanswered. God wanted to heal me, I was told. If the problem wasn’t with him, perhaps it was with me? What was I doing wrong?

Fortunately, I had enough biblical understanding to recognise some aspect of what was false, and this protected me from wholesale engagement with the lies. But the grief I was grappling with made me more vulnerable and, as a result of engaging to a certain extent with these teachings, I experienced more pain and heartache than I would have otherwise. My healing journey only began when I started to identify the lies and replace them with biblical truth. I realised God’s plan for our lives is according to the purpose of his will, not ours. I reflected on how waiting on God is a normal part of the Christian life, and scripture is full of teaching on how to endure and persevere amid our less-than-perfect circumstances.

Embracing Word of Faith theology results in a very transactional view of God. God is seen as a genie who will always say yes to our requests if we just say the magic formula (or pray hard enough or wait or fast long enough). Some notable individuals who previously ascribed to this theology have nearly lost their faith entirely. One of them, Lisa Gungor, first started to doubt when she began to struggle with infertility. I can relate to her doubts and questions because this theology does not work at all if God says “no.”

When God says ‘no’

The Bible actually teaches that “no” is a possible answer to our prayers (Luke 22:42, 2 Corinthians 12:8-10) so the theology that God always says “yes” is conclusively unbiblical. As I began to recognise and reject these theological errors, I began to experience emotional healing. However, it was still very difficult to encounter people who stated or implied that if I just had enough faith I would be healed. Though packaged in a way as if to be helpful, the theology itself is extremely wounding. Though it’s not usually an overt accusation, the theology implies that the person who has not received the healing is doing something wrong. It’s their fault. They are to blame.

Two Popes, Too Many Untruths
-John Waters

These men bore no resemblance to the real-life men they were supposed to represent. That’s fundamentally why The Two Popes (on Netflix starting December 20) is a dangerous and misguided movie…

…In its core scenarios, the movie is almost entirely fictional…

…Everything about The Two Popes is designed to promote an agenda that has nothing to do with Catholicism/Christianity, and everything to do with purveying a bogus notion of freedom in the public realm…

…The script puts words in Pope Benedict’s mouth—not just words to convey convictions or character, but words that seek to change the meaning of history…

…It has been observed that The Two Popes is ultimately frivolous—a “holy bromance,” a “buddy movie,” a sort of “odd couple” remake. So, you know, lighten up! And this is the level on which it is most successful. Yet this is also the movie’s most insidious aspect: It draws you into itself. In the depths of its mendaciousness and shallow moralizing, an engaging and moving story of a personal encounter is told. This means that, as propaganda, this movie is both hugely effective and extremely dangerous.

What Are The 7 Mountains?
-Lance Wallnau

Lance Wallnau spends a few moments going over exactly what the 7 mountains are, and what they mean for us as Christians, and taking our God-given place in the world.

Learn about the 7 mountains of influence and Christian culture in this “Lance Rewind” from the video archive.

What Listening Really Means
-Matt Kennedy

Social media reactions to the piece I wrote objecting to Dr. McGowin’s misrepresentation of Dr. Grudem have been predictable. I will not link to the comments and responses here because most of them are from colleagues I know and admire. 

The word “listening,” however,  has been employed, as it often is, as a kind of weapon. Those who object to Dr. McGowin’s article, we are told, need to do more “listening” to women. One female commenter counted up the number of men responding and the number of women and noted that there were far more men than women. That seemed to be a significant point in her mind. 

For others, the problem is my article. I have not spent enough time listening to women’s experiences. Had I done so I would not have answered Dr. McGowin’s piece as I did. I was apparently too unfeeling. Had I taken the time to listen to my wife who has, because she is a woman, more experience with such things, I would have written differently. Anne, ironically, read Dr. McGowin’s piece before I wrote mine and was indignant that she should leverage the emotion she did and ignore the actual evidence of Dr. Grudem’s work and writing. Anne read my piece twice before I published it and thought I was too mealy-mouthed and needed to grow a spine. 

…But if, as in this case, “listening to the experience of women” (or any other group) suddenly means that women can make inaccurate misrepresentations of other people’s work, as did Dr. McGowin, and men are not permitted to point out the inaccuracies and misrepresentations without being told they are not “listening,” then we truly do live in that “Brave New World.” What does “listening” mean in such a world? It seems to mean: assenting to an untruth or at least remaining silent when an untruth is spoken by a woman. Why must men do this? Because men have never experienced “oppression” and women have no “power.” But of course, silently assenting to an untruth as if it were truth, or agreeing to remain silent is, itself, an act of submission to a raw exertion of suppressing power.

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Photo Credit: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0

Sky Links, 12-21-19

Horowitz Report & Testimony Provide Historic Condemnation of FBI’s Surveillance Actions—Jeff Carlson

Amidst the media spin about the recent Department of Justice IG report, what is the real bottom line? What does it mean for the FBI and its future?

Did Inspector General Horowitz really find that there was no bias in the opening of the Russia probe?

And, doing a deep dive into the Horowitz report and Horowitz’s testimony in the Senate hearing that followed, what’s the most important information that was revealed?
-Jan Jekielek.

Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast- Terry Wardle

Terry talks about why so many leaders cave under the pressure of leadership, what’s underneath the moral failure so many leaders experienced, and how to grieve the losses that come your way in leadership and ministry.

The Eric Metaxas Radio Show- Sidney Powell

Sidney Powell is the attorney for Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and author of “Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice”.

How FBI (or Congress) can use warrant surveilling one American… to spy on many more-Sharyl Attkisson

If you’ve watched the current impeachment proceedings with something beyond a passing interest, you might have heard the controversy over Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) secretly obtaining and then releasing phone records of political rival Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and journalist John Solomon.
Critics say such an alleged invasion of citizens’ privacy and rights for political purposes is beyond the pale.
But Democrats argue that Schiff didn’t really target Nunes or Solomon in his information dragnet. He says their calls were merely picked up incidentally because they spoke to two people who are targets: the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani or Lev Parnas, a figure charged with violating campaign finance violations.
However, Schiff’s controversial release of information naming Nunes and Solomon provides a window into how the FBI secretly operates to obtain information on Americans for whom they have no explicit permission to wiretap or monitor.
Believe it or now, intelligence agencies can use one legal wiretap to monitor as many as 25,000 people for which there was no wiretap justification.

The Shaming of Wayne Grudem
-Matt Kennedy

I know that there are, lurking in the dark corners of the biblical patriarchy movement, horribly abusive pastors who instruct abused women to stay in their homes and endure abuse. Such men are disqualified from the ministry and should be fired by their congregations. Husbands, likewise, who physically abuse their wives should find themselves on the receiving end of severe civil and ecclesial justice.

But one must not conflate Dr. Grudem with pastors of that ilk or suggest that all who hold his former view would in any way countenance physical abuse. The vast majority of those who hold Dr. Grudem’s former view would rightly do all in their power to help a woman subject to abuse get out of the house and separate from her husband. They would enact church discipline against the perpetrator and call the police.

Dr. Grudem, before he changed his mind, also upheld the biblical principle that the weak and/or those being victimized must be protected from abuse and that the abuser ought to be punished by law. There are numerous places where Dr. Grudem expressed this concern explicitly had Dr. McGowin taken the time to look. Just last year Dr. Grudem and the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) published a “Statement on Abuse”. Here’s a snippet:

“We believe that abuse is not only a sin but is also a crime. It is destructive and evil. Abuse is a hallmark of the devil and is in direct opposition to the purposes of God. Abuse must not to be tolerated in the Christian community. We believe that the local church and Christian ministries have a responsibility to establish safe environments; to execute policies and practices that protect against any form of abuse; to confront abusers and to protect the abused, which includes the responsibility to report abuse to civil authorities. We believe that church and ministry leaders have a special obligation to report abuse to civil authorities. Moreover, these leaders are responsible for knowing the laws of their state about reporting the suspicion or accusation of child and spousal abuse, and for following those laws in good faith. We believe that the church must offer tender concern and care for the abused and must help the abused to find hope and healing through the gospel. The church should do all it can to provide ongoing counseling and support for the abused. The wounds of abuse run deep and so patience and mercy are needed over the long-haul as the church cares for the abused…”

Dr. Grudem’s former position forbidding divorce in cases of abuse was, I believe, biblically incorrect. But he never denied the principle that the abused must be protected and that their abusers be subject to discipline and judgment. 

12 Most Mortifying Media Moments Of 2019
-Tom Elliott

If there’s a theme for this year’s Most Mortifying Media Moments, it’s that some hoaxes are just too big to fail. Over the last 12 months, many of the biggest stories America’s major media broadcast turned out to be … flat wrong. And unfortunately, these networks’ enthusiasm for their reporting dissipated when it came time to correct the record.

The hoaxes came in all different forms — fake hate crimes, foreign collusion, debunked dossiers — but that isn’t to say they had nothing in common. These stories all helped advance a narrative that just so happened to be shared by the news outlets themselves.

But as you’ll see from the items below, not everything was serious; many of these stories — like the collective freakout about an obscure Trump meme — were complete jokes.

This year we’re organizing things differently, going in chronological order, with a “most mortifying media moment” from each month of the year. Enjoy!

JK Rowling is Cancelled
-Paul Joseph Watson

Sky Links, 11-14-19

An Official Record of the Trump Presidency—Doug Wead

Today we sit down with Doug Wead, a bestselling author who has interviewed six presidents, first ladies, and their families. Earlier, he served as a special assistant to President George H. W. Bush.

His newest book is titled “Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency.”
-Jan Jekielek

Victor Davis Hanson: Spygate, Impeachment & the Assault on Trump For Undoing the Progressive Agenda

In this episode, we’ll sit down again with historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller “The Case for Trump.”
-Jan Jekielek

Domestic Violence Against Men: No Laughing Matter
-Rob Whitley, Ph.D.

A recent UK government survey indicated that 9% of males had experienced some form of partner abuse, which amounts to around 1.4 million men. This includes stalking, physical violence and sexual assault. Indeed, a seminal US study found that male IPV victims are often slapped, kicked, punched, grabbed or choked by their partners.

Interestingly, a growing body of international research indicates that men and women experience IPV in similar proportions. For example, a recent survey from Canada’s national statistical agency concluded that “equal proportions of men and women reported being victims of spousal violence during the preceding 5 years (4% respectively).”

The aforementioned surveys indicate that small proportions of men (less than 20% of victims) will tell the police or a health professional about their victimization. This may be due to well-grounded fears that they will be scorned, ridiculed, or disbelieved by these authorities. 

How Traffickers Brainwashed Me Into Selling Myself—Courtney Litvak

Today, our guest host, Epoch Times senior reporter Charlotte Cuthbertson, sits down with Courtney Litvak, to hear her exclusive firsthand account of surviving the horrors of sex trafficking. 

Full Interview: Barr Criticizes Inspector General Report On The Russia Investigation | NBC News

In an exclusive interview, Attorney General William Barr spoke to NBC News’ Pete Williams about the findings on the Justice Department Inspector General’s report on the Russia investigation and his criticisms of the FBI.

If you want to kill a big dream, tell it to small-minded people
-Gbenga Adebambo

Mark Twain said: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition, it is important with whom you regularly associate.”

The most important thing after dreaming big is actually the people you tell it to. Joseph in the Bible had a big dream, but he shared it with shallow-minded people and it almost cost him his life. The Bible says in Genesis 37:5: “And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.” Telling your dreams to the wrong people can cost you the life of the dream and sometimes your own life. If not for God’s intervention, Joseph almost lost his life.

The moment you tell your dream to small-minded people, they would discourage you, belittle it, steal the idea or become your competitor. Your dream is not to be shared with everybody, especially with small-minded people, who would make you see several reasons why the dream cannot work, but blinded to the reasons why it would work.

Joy Break: Man Sings Nothing but the Blood of Jesus at the US Capitol Rotunda in Viral Video
-Nancy Flory

When new recording artist Edward Byrd toured the U.S. Capitol last week he didn’t expect to sing in the Rotunda. Now a video of him singing the hymn Nothing but the Blood of Jesus has gone viral.

To learn more about Edward Byrd’s music, click here.

Willow Creek Community Church- “It’s The Culture, Stupid!” (Sorry, Too Harsh)
-Dr. James Bedell

Willow Creek Community Church (WCCC) reflects the dualistic split of an organization that promotes a public mission, while it has been dominated by a shadow mission agenda for a long time. This is because the architect of the culture is driven by a shadow mission of brokenness that unfolded the church culture around his results oriented focus on numbers, programs, looking good, building income and buildings. Its public mission may be about inclusive involvement of all members of the body of Christ, while its shadow mission culture values top-aligned concentration of power and the exclusion of any true ownership by the common laity.

Although I could go into a detailed analysis of the culture of WCCC, one specific area that is clear to me,and has resulted in the frustration of any attempt at change, is the strategy of hiding truth. Many people have appealed to the elders and leaders to reveal a long history of treating anyone that threatened the exterior image of WCCC with expulsion and shame based rejection. Although it is clear in scripture (I Timothy 5:20) that there is a redemptive value in publicly exposing sin, and particularly the sin of those who have a greater influence in the church (pastors/elders), the culture of repression has trumped every effort. In a culture of truth and transparency, sin gets exposed, not to shame individuals, but to purify the church of all the hidden works of evil.

A Jesus-based culture would have a profoundly different true mission, with Biblically validated values and strategies that are loving, redemptive, and restorative. A Biblical culture lives in the light of Truth and exposes the works of darkness. The culture of WCCC has been more about staying in the darkness and protecting the image. Calling those who have been so immersed in the culture of WCCC to see the unhealthiness of the “tree” seems to elicit the response “what tree?”. Culture is so powerful and self-sustaining.

Waiting on God
-Roger Thoman

Sometimes we wait. We don’t know what the next step is. We wait on God.

• We have left a church situation not knowing what is next, and now we wait.
• We want to connect organically with ‘house church’ people, but for today it has not happened, so we wait.
• We have promises God has given to us. Awesome promises. But, for now, we wait.
• We need a provision, or a healing, or a breakthrough. But up to now… we wait.

Though I personally do not like these times of waiting, I am in such a season now and this is not unusual. These are prime times in God’s economy in which He shapes us, re-shapes us, and most importantly, draws us close to Him.

God, let me use this season well. The purpose of waiting is not to deprive me, but to fill me with a greater abundance of You which is, in the end, the greatest gift of all. May I walk with you through to this fullness of Your life and presence that You desire for me and that truly meets each and every need of my heart and life.

_______________________________

Photo Credit: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0

Sky Links, 11-9-19

The Power of The Purse

-Nick Fad

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”

 ICU nurse adopts man with autism so he can get life-saving heart transplant

Program pairs retired race horses with prison inmates

Sexually Explicit Books Were Put in These Virginia Classrooms Parents Want Answers
-Anna Anderson

“I had to help them”: Single dad adopts 5 siblings so they can stay together
-Steve Hartman

Some Days Are Dark
-Rebecca Masterson

“What do you want others to know about parenting a special needs kid?”

 Adoption and Foster Care: 3 Important Things to Remember
-Meg Meeker

A practical guide to discernment (Hint: just be yourself)
-Sean Salai

Does Marriage Really Make Us Healthier and Happier?
by Marina Adshade

Chinese churches made to replace Ten Commandments with Xi Jinping quotes

Sheep Among Wolves Volume II (Official Feature Film)

Today, Iran’s aggressive posture and rogue nuclear weapons program are straining the patience and nerve of the international community. With Iranian fighters, funds, and strategic weapons flooding into the Middle East, significant war appears inevitable. Meanwhile, something surprising is taking place inside this controversial country. 

Muslim-background Iranians are leading a quiet but mass exodus out of Islam and bowing their knees to the Jewish Messiah—with kindled affection toward the Jewish people. The Iranian awakening is a rapidly reproducing discipleship movement that owns no property, no buildings, has no budget, no 501c3 status, and is predominantly led by women. THIS IS THEIR STORY.
-FAI Studios

The Plot Against Trump, From Spygate to the Impeachment Inquiry—Lee Smith | American Thought Leaders -Jan Jekielek

Just why does investigative journalist Lee Smith believe the so-called “Steele dossier” was not actually written by Christopher Steele? Who does he think did the authoring?

How has the mainstream media been complicit in the Spygate scandal? What are the broader implications for America?

And why does Smith believe that all of this, including the current impeachment inquiry against President Trump, is part of a broad coup attempt against the President?

James Rickards: “Donald Trump is a Genius”

James Rickards is a renowned lawyer, economist, and finance expert. Jim is also the author of Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis and five other books.

Stand-up comedians Konstantin Kisin (@konstantinkisin) and Francis Foster (@failinghuman) make sense of politics, economics, free speech, AI, drug policy and WW3 with the help of presidential advisors, renowned economists, award-winning journalists, controversial writers, leading scientists and notorious comedians.

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Photo Credit: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0

Sky Links, 11-2-19

‘Jesus Is Lord, Every Knee Shall Bow’: Prophetic Minister Says Kanye’s ‘Sunday Service’ Just Might Change the World
-Shawn Bolz

Kanye himself sang over and over: “Jesus is Lord, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, Jesus is Lord.” And invited his adorable daughter on stage to sing with him who repeated. “LA put your hands up this is our final song!”

Witnessing firsthand that Kanye really does love Jesus was a phenomenon. It wasn’t just words, it was real to him. Knowing that he is in an industry that literally is adversarial to Christianity in many ways made us really want to pray for him even more. He is at the beginning of his journey and it can go many ways depending on who he gives access to. He needs spiritual mentors and fathers, but thank God some of the team we met who are around him are great spiritual voices. Ultimately, he has a lot to grow through and he is so public with friends who have the exact opposite values as he is embracing that I want to encourage you to also pray for him. Pray that God sends discipleship to him and through him because, if Kanye gets his faith right, he will do what he has told the world he wants to do: Evangelize the nations.

A Power Point on Biblical Eldership 
-Dave Black

Here I inquire as to whether the concept of “first among equals” (primus inter pares) is biblical, drawing heavily from Strauch’s classic work.

Casualty of Conscience: Out of Integrity A Pastor/Leader at Willow Creek Community Church Is Leaving
-James Bedell

But the truth is that the current leadership of WCCC has been confronted by many with their duty to protect the internal integrity of the body of Christ, and they have largely minimized or ignored the truth. It has become apparent to me and others who have attempted to hold WCCC accountable, that they have engaged in a strategy that can be characterized as “weathering the storm”. They are essentially ignoring all challenges brought to them that have asked them to deal with the sin in the church in an honest and forthright way. They are using  an atritional strategy, that involves the leadership “sort of” listening, acting like they agree, but then essentially ignoring and not addressing the truth in any real way. It is a passive resistant organizational strategy. The underlying goal, it appears, is that with time, the intensity of the concerns of those critics that are trying to hold WCCC to a truly Biblical standard of accountability, will wither and die. The critics in time will start to realize that they fundamentally are ignored, and will lose energy to continue the fight for truth. (Disillusionment)

The  confusion that we critics feel is due to the fact  that we assume that we are sharing a common view with the leadership of WCCC of what the church is and what it should do . That is not true. The current elders were immersed in the culture of WCCC, and so for them, focusing on the image and programmatic elements of the church is more important than focusing on the deep integrity issues of those in leadership. There is a lack of congruity between the concerns of the critics, and the values of the WCCC leadership. That is why it appears that  they are ignoring the concerns of the critics, and why there seems to be a lack of a serious and broken response by WCCC leadership to what has happened. 

Virtue Signaling
-James Brtholomew

12 Examples of Virtue Signaling-Anna Mar

1. Persuasion
2. Hypocrisy
3. Conspicuous Conversation
4. Slaktivism
5. Self-Righteousness
6. Radical Chic
7. Greenwashing
8. Sharewashing
9. Political Correctness
10. Groupthink
11. Social Desirability Bias
12. Tribalism

The Critics Corner: His Girl Friday
-Frank Miller & Jeff Stafford

“His Girl Friday is one of the very few screwball comedies that actually merits the label ‘satire,’ for unlike most others, this satire has an object — journalism as practiced in the United States — its tone is openly derisive.” — Ed Sikov, Screwball: Hollywood’s Madcap Romantic Comedies.”

“Perhaps the funniest, certainly the fastest talkie comedy ever made…Charles Lederer’s frantic script needs to be heard at least a dozen times for all the gags to be caught; Russell’s Hildy more than equals Burns in cunning and speed, and Hawks transcends the play’s stage origins effortlessly, framing with brilliance, conducting numerous conversations simultaneously, and even allowing the film’s political and emotional thrust to remain upfront alongside the laughs. Quite simply a masterpiece.” – Geoff Andrew, TimeOut Film Guide.

Watch His Girl Friday  on Amazon Prime

Is Suicide an Unforgivable Sin?
-Lesli White

Many Christians wonder if a friend or loved one commits suicide, are they still saved. It is a sad reality that some Christians have and will commit suicide. Another heart-breaking tragedy is the false teaching that committing suicide automatically sends you to hell. Because of this, many believe that a Christian who commits suicide will not be saved. The truth is, this teaching is not supported in the Bible. Suicide is never God’s Will and is always a tragedy, but it is not the unpardonable sin.

3 Things Christians Do That Non-Christians Despise
-Carey Nieuwhof

Spend two minutes talking to almost anyone outside the Christian faith and you’re almost certain to hear a list of complaints they have about Christians.

The problem has been around awhile.  As Mahatma Gandhi famously (and sadly) said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
He’s not alone.

The problem with many non-Christians isn’t that they don’t know any Christians. The challenge is they do.

So what gives?

Rep. Devin Nunes: Spygate is Greatest Political Scandal in Modern US History—And He’s Still Investigating
-Jan Jekielek

When did the FBI investigation into the Trump presidential campaign begin? Was Congress properly briefed at the time?

Just what exactly are the “protodossiers,” and how did they contribute to the development of the now-infamous Steele dossier?

What parallels are there between the Spygate scandal and the current Trump impeachment inquiry, and what is the role of the media in all this?

This is American Thought Leaders 🇺🇸, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

Today we sit down with U.S. Congressman Devin Nunes, Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and past committee Chairman.

He heads “Objective Medusa,” the committee’s investigation into the Spygate scandal that yielded the Nunes Memo, an investigation that continues to this day.

Survival Learnings From A California Fire EvacueeThey universally apply to any unexpected emergency
-Adam Taggart

Reality Rule #1: You Will Be Caught By Surprise

Reality Rule #2: Things Will Happen Faster Than You’re Ready For

Reality Rule #3: You Will Make Mistakes

Reality Rule #4: When Stressed, All You Care About Is People & Pets

Sky Links, 10-27-19

How to Turn Conservative Evangelicals Into Egalitarians
-John Ellis

In recent weeks, this conservative evangelical “civil war” has found itself in the midst of a pitched battle kicked off by the ill-timed and uncharitable comments made by John MacArthur and Phil Johnson about noted Bible teacher Beth Moore. Combined with the mocking responses from many attending the conference, MacArthur’s patronizing command to Moore to “go home” started an avalanche of online hatred directed at those who are deemed less complementarian than they should be. The mocking. The insults. The unintentionally ironic ex-cathedra pronouncements of anathema and excommunication of those who dare to be less complementarian than what is deemed acceptable. All of it. Grown men should be embarrassed at the fever pitch their fury over Beth Moore has reached. Embarrassed to the point of repentance, in fact.[1]

Within all of that is the specter of guilt by association. In a blog post calling John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, and others to repent of their uncharitable words and responses to Beth Moore, pastor and theologian Dr. Sam Storms confessed, “I am a complementarian, but I fear in making known my convictions I may be linked with those who claim the same label and yet speak unkindly and in snarky, snide soundbites of our Christian sisters.”

I empathize.

Let’s be honest, the anger, spite, and rancor are mostly one-sided. To the point where, like Dr. Storms, I hesitate to openly label myself a complementarian, even though I am one. Over the last several months, pastor friends and I have commented on how even those times when we agree with organizations like Founders Ministry or Grace to You, we are unable to voice assent because of the acerbic, uncharitable manner in which the truth has been packaged. Not to mention that those truths are often part of a larger system that demeans women and oversteps the boundaries of the Bible’s instructions on women’s roles. Articulating thoughts that I’ve had, one Twitter user wrote, “I’m a complementarian – but wow. Seeing the deep suspicion so many evangelical men feel about a woman’s voice has been eye opening. No wonder so many women are sexually abused in churches. These men dehumanize us. There’s nothing of the heart of Biblical complementarianism in them.”

 If you want to grow in hearing God’s voice, here is a super practical tool: (Wait on God for 10 minutes)
-Al Mack

Back to waiting on God. So why did I say not to pray, worship, sing, read your bible, or listen to soft music while you wait on God for 10 minutes? It’s not that any of those things are bad, obviously not, but if we always feel the need to ‘fill empty silence’ with something we can ‘do’ for God, then we might be working from a place of performance. Ouch. Before we can ‘do’, we need to learn to just ‘be’. So for the sake of this experiment, for 10 short minutes, don’t do anything but wait in anticipation for His voice. Now, remember, you’re not just ‘waiting’ for the 10 minutes to finish, you’re ‘waiting’ for Him to speak. Listening with all 5 senses. Don’t limit God’s voice to just your ‘ears’. He could speak at any moment. Sit in expectation. Listening, watching, feeling, sensing, etc.

Pediatricians Call Gender Ideology What it is: Child Abuse
-Jacqueline

The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) recently released a powerful position statement stating that the move to indoctrinate children with the idea that they can pick their gender amounts to child abuse.

They are urging legislators and educators to reject all policies that would condition children to accept chemical and surgical distortions allowing people to impersonate the opposite sex.

Why do I include this post on gender indoctrination on a women’s healthy living blog? Because it is relevant to the health of our children, our homes and the next generations’.

This movement is now in full swing in government schools with LGBT activists demanding bathroom or locker room access. This raises serious privacy questions for girls who will have an anatomical male using their facilities.

Note: On Friday the 13th, May, 2016, the Obama administration issued an edict to all U.S. schools requiring they open bathrooms according to self-proclaimed gender identity instead of biological sex … or risk lawsuit and loss of federal funds.

Gordon MacDonald Shares 8 Decades of Wisdom and Life Lessons
-Carey Nieuwhof

Near Death Experience—What Happens When You Die?
-Doug Addison with Steve Sjogren

Dinner Church, anyone?
-Michael Frost

There was quite a reaction to one of my recent blog posts about Fresh Expressions in Leicester, England, and how we need new ways of doing and being church today. I’ve had quite a lot of interest in what these new ways could look like. I’ve even been interviewed by radio stations around the world about it.

Whenever I’m asked what these new ways look like I always tell them about dinner churches, which I think is a really beautiful, simple, achievable way to start a new kind of congregation.
And I’m not alone, it turns out.

Leonard Sweet, writer, futurist, scholar, once said, “Whenever I’m asked, ‘What is God up to?’ my most common answer is, ‘Have you heard of the dinner church movement?’.”

So, what is dinner church? Well, it’s dinner.  And church.  Scrunched together. But there’s so much more to it than that. Here’s a few dinner churches from around the world to give you a little taste.

Sky Links, 10-12-19

Media says NO PROOF of Joe Biden wrongdoing? China, Ukraine, Burisma, Missing Money Show Otherwise
-Glenn Beck

PBS News Judy Woodruff recently said there’s no proof of Joe Biden wrongdoing. But everything in Ukraine points in a different direction. First, WHY was his son appointed to the board of Ukraine’s oil and gas company, Burisma, when he had little to offer the industry? WHY did Biden push so hard to fire the Ukrainian official investigating Hunter Biden? WHY were huge sums of money coming in from random Swiss bank accounts? WHERE did the missing money — 1.8 billion dollars — disappear to, that Biden pledged would be used for Ukraine? WHY are there even more hints of wrongdoing in China, as well? And most importantly, WHY does the media have such a lack of curiosity in answering these questions? Author Peter Schweizer answers all these questions, and more.

UKRAINE OFFICIALS CAN’T GET VISAS: Ambassador Yovanovitch blocks entry for Trump investigation
-Glenn Beck

John Solomon breaks down the timeline: starting last year, several Ukraine officials working under former Prosecutor General Lutsenko raised alarms concerning the conduct of US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. They say not only was she meddling in Ukraine domestic affairs, trying to control who the government there could and couldn’t prosecute, but that Joe Biden was also up to something fishy concerning his son, Hunter, and Burisma. They tried to bring it to the attention of American politicians, but could never get the visas they needed to travel to America. Why? You guessed it…Yovanovitch blocked their visa applications from ever going further than her desk. And this all happened BEFORE Giuliani ever touched ground there.  

 Jim Cramer: It looks like Trump’s trade strategy is working

The U.S. can hurt the Chinese economy more than they can hurt ours and President Donald Trump’s cards are working in his favor, Jim Cramer says.

Out Of Left Field: Communism Sucks!!! Who Knew?
-Nick Kangadis

After communist China gave the NBA a timeout following Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s now-deleted tweet supporting the Hong Kong protesters, some NBA notable either profusely apologized to China or stayed silent in order to no upset the authoritarian state. After all, China gives the NBA $300 million a year to broadcast its games.

China has continued to act like the communist bully they are and have been for the last 70 years by, now, reportedly banning NBA games, among other punishments for those that would dare speak against the country.

Steve Bannon on trade, 2020 and Ukraine probe

Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist, joins “Squawk Box” from Athens, Greece to discuss the latest on the China trade war, the 2020 Democratic primary, the impeachment inquiry and more.

UK Doctor Who Wouldn’t Call Biological Man a ‘Woman’ Loses Job AND Court Appeal

-Gardner Goldsmith

A story of a family made from foster care

The Brydges family, of Florida, adopted Dalton and Dawson from foster care with the support of Rachel Adler, a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids adoption recruiter. Rachel did all she could to find the boys their forever family. “To me, family is so important,” she shared. “And to know that there are kids who don’t have that and might not have the chance to have that…I thought how awesome that I get to do that work.”

Conversations on Open Adoption, part 2 

“How does that work?”
“Won’t that be hard when they get older?”
“Aren’t you afraid the birth mom will want her child back?”

In the context of domestic infant adoption, open and semi-open adoptions are becoming more of the norm for birth parents and adoptive families these days. There’s not a step-by-step guide on how to do it. But it can be helpful to hear how people are navigating this unique family relationship.

Watch the next conversation in our three-part series on open adoption between Brindan and Jen.

Healing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
-Praying Medic

My notes on how to pray for healing trauma, from Dave’s talk above:

1. Tell your story that causes you pain.
2. What is the strongest emotion you are feeling?
3. Pray, “Jesus, I ask you to take this emotion from me.”
4. Ask Jesus to heal the wound in your soul.
5. Tell Jesus, “I receive your healing.”
6. Rehearse the story again.
7. Now, what is the strongest emotion you are feeling?
8. Give that emotion to Jesus: Ask him to take it from you.
9. Ask Him to heal the wound in your soul.
10. Thank him for healing you.
11. Rehearse the story a 3rd time.
12. Strongest emotion? 
13. Repeat steps 3-5
14. Or, if, “nothing”, no more negative emotions are plaguing you?
15. You are healed.

Start over with the next traumatic story.
If you are the counselor, you can recount the story the 2nd or 3rd time and ask, “what’s your emotion or what are you feeling?”

Trump did not betray the Kurds
-Caroline Glick

The near consensus view of President Donald Trump’s decision to remove US special forces from the Syrian border with Turkey is that Trump is enabling a Turkish invasion and double crossing the Syrian Kurds who have fought with the Americans for five years against ISIS. Trump’s move, the thinking goes, harms US credibility and undermines US power in the region and throughout the world.

There are several problems with this narrative. The first is that it assumes that until this week, the US had power and influence in Syria when in fact, by design, the US went to great lengths to limit its ability to influence events in Syria.