Saturday, April 30, 2016

AMERICA: SHUNNING OUR MESSENGERS AND BLOCKING OUR EARS



April 29, 2016
America: Why are we shunning our messengers and blocking our ears?
By Michael Bresciani

When nations are in decline they all tend to follow the same path. They place their hope in a new leader who says all the right things and in a desperate attempt to clean up the mess the citizens have made, he or she is placed on the top of the rubble and expected to lead us out of the shambles.

Mao promised that he would give China what the old dynasties could never produce; they got communism.
Mussolini promised Italians a return to the glory of Rome; they got subservience to Germany followed by humiliating defeat.
Hitler promised a renewed and "Great Germany" that would rule nations for thousand years; They got a world that bound itself together at the cost of millions of lives to crush her ambitions in less than a decade which left her destroyed, divided and stuck with a legacy of shame.
Then along comes America with her deep plunge into perversity and immorality, scoffing at her founding fathers and ignoring her roots in Scripture, and her very own Constitution. The answer to all this is, yet another leader (Donald Trump) who promises more "greatness."

The exceptional nation is about to prove it is just like all the nations before it – that is not so exceptional after all.
History can be kind – but it is not today
In one of the most unusual passages of the Bible which contains the history of the first 30 years of the Church, one of the first deacons becomes the first martyr of the church. It was a cruel death, but it is what sparked the mob to kill the young deacon Stephen that stands out.

Being dragged before the rulers for a charge of sedition he began his defense with the glowing history of the nation of Israel and her dealings with God. They ate it up, and some were considering letting him go because it is exactly what they wanted to hear.
Verse after verse of Stephen's lengthy diatribe is recorded and it looks like all is going to be just fine. But when Stephen brings up Jesus and says that they are the ones who rejected, denied and crucified the very Lord of Glory that God had sent them – they flipped.

Oddly, they did not just kill him, but they took precautions not to hear any more of his words by the childish, but typical behavior of the rebellious – they stopped up their ears!

"Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." (Acts 7: 57-58)

America is seeing a resurgence of voices that are calling us to repentance and renewal. Our penchant for everything prurient and sleazy is condemned and a real call to righteousness is going forth like a mighty river. How are we responding to these messengers?

We are following those before us who "stopped up their ears" and while we haven't yet begun killing the messengers, we are persecuting them with renewed fervor and applied a force of indifference to their messages.
The media chases political frontrunners hanging on their every word like salvation itself was contained in their promises. 
The clarion call to what is right is relegated to the backwaters of the media where tweeters and bloggers can cast hate, doubt and drown out the essentials of a message in a sea of personal opinions, nasty attitudes and four letter expletives.

Blocking our ears has become an art in America.
States, judges, celebrities and presidential candidates do not decide what is moral

The late David Wilkerson predicted many years ago that America would approach the last days by replacing the authority of scripture, constitution and families with the authority of judges, politicians and activist groups. That prediction has risen to the fore and the list is amazing.
The same judicial body that gave us the right to murder our own off spring (Roe) has now greenlighted perversion in marriage (Obergefell) – we can only imagine what may be next.
The clamoring electorate has recently put forth their favorite in the race to the White House by declaring that he (Trump) is a non-politician, an outsider who will fix everything. And yet only recently he announced that men in women's bathrooms – was hunky-dory.
When the axe of public opinion came down on his unadvised statement he did what is now commonly called "walking it back." He said, it would all fall to the states to decide. The non-politician used one of the most common political tricks in the history of our nation known as – "passing the buck." Nothing to see here folks – just another politician hiding in the twisted nonsense of his own personal ambitions and political rhetoric.

Celebrities and corporations have jumped on the progressive bandwagon to disengage or boycott states like North Carolina because of their refusal to let the slippery sleaze slither into their state.
Before the controversy subsides the headlines are already coming in on the result of this planned horror show. Stay tuned – headlines like this, "IT'S BEGUN: Man Goes Into Women's Bathroom And Commits Horrific Act To 10-Year-Old Girl" are a promise of worse things to come.

Pop prophets offer diagnoses – Real prophets offer prognoses
On average the fulfillment of the prophecies in the Old Testament took about forty years to happen. The rule is general, but recurrent enough that we can pretty much rest assured; America's modern prophetic voices will also be right on time.

If we do not turn, repent, re-consider and change the present course we are on our nation is facing its own unceremonious fall into the heap of past glories.
My own God given utterance is coming into the home stretch for its fulfillment. 
Nothing will shake America out of its fascination with sleaze faster than a sudden, deep and thorough disconnect from its wealth. It is rounding the corner and the economic crash will touch every man woman and child in this nation.

As one said recently we will be changing lines very soon. 
We will not be standing in a line at Starbucks waiting for our expensive fancy lattes, but we will have moved over to the line where a piece of bread and a bowl of soup is offered to fend of the withering effects of poverty and hunger.
Pop culture prophets are calling for more "greatness" for America; it is the diagnoses of fools.
The diagnoses and the prognoses for this nation are dire.
"And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." (Mt 3: 10)

© Michael Bresciani
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/bresciani/160429
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BILL FEDERER: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A DICTATOR MEETS GOD

Napoleon, defeated


AMERICAN MINUTE

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A DICTATOR MEETS GOD

Bill Federer recounts tangled history of French global influence

Spain claimed most of the Americas from its native inhabitants by virtue of first discovery. Conquistadors who explored North America include:
  • Ponce de Leon, 1513
  • Panfilo de Narvaez, 1527
  • Desoto, 1539
  • Coronado, 1540
  • Cabrillo, 1542
Since gold was minimal in North America, the area was of little interest to the Spanish empire, and thus was sparsely settled for over a century. English settlements began in Virginia in 1607 and Massachusetts in 1620. In 1673, French missionary priest, Jacque Marquette, and French explorer Louis Joliet, traveled down from Canada to Lake Michigan. They then followed the Fox River till they reached the Mississippi, canoeing as far south as Arkansas.
In 1699, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, started the first French settlement, at Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi). France claimed Canada and the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, across the Mississippi River valley to the beginning of the Great Plains.
The Louisiana Territory was named after Louis XIV, “the Sun King,” the longest-reigning monarch in European history. Louis XIV had a global empire stretching from the Far East to the Caribbean, Africa to America.
Centralizing power, Louis XIV was reputed to have said “L’État, c’est moi” (“I am the state”) and “It is legal because I wish it.”
In 1702, Sieur de Bienville settled the Mobile, Alabama, area. In 1718, Sieur de Bienville started construction of New Orleans. In 1723, he moved the capital of French Louisiana there from its previous locations of Dauphin Island and Biloxi.
Beginning in 1755 the British drove the French out of Acadia, Canada, in the Great Expulsion. Thousands of French sailed to the Caribbean Islands and other colonies, most notably Louisiana, where the name “acadian” came to be pronounced “cajun.” Describing the expulsion, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem “Evangeline.”
Louis XIV’s grandson was Louis XV, who lost the French and Indian War in 1763. This gave Britain control of all of America east of the Mississippi, with the exception of Spanish Florida. As the war was ending, France ceded the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi to Spain in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau, 1762, to keep Britain from getting it. French settlers fled the the British-controlled land and crossed the Mississippi, founding the city of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1764, even though the land was nominally under Spanish control. In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, the British and Indians led a failed attack on St. Louis.
France’s new King, Louis XVI, sent his navy to help America win the battle of Yorktown, resulting in America’s independence from Britain. Ironically, France’s enormous accumulated war debt weakened the monarchy. The French Revolution began in 1789, and on Jan. 21, 1793, a mob beheaded 38-year-old Louis XVI.
A Reign of Terror began in France with 40,000 beheaded in Paris by the Committee of Public Safety, and hundreds of thousands killed across France who refused to embrace the new secular government.
Out of this chaos, Napoleon staged a coup d’état in 1799 and installed himself as First Consul of France. Napoleon pressured Spain to sign the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, giving the Louisiana Territory back to France. In 1802, Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to France to purchase land in New Orleans to dock ships.
Needing cash to fight Britain and the other European countries, Napoleon offered to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million dollars. President Thomas Jefferson agreed to the purchase and the size of the U.S. doubled on April 30, 1803, with the Louisiana Purchase.
The 828,000 square miles were purchased at less than three cents an acre – it was the greatest real estate deal in history! Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore it.
Not everyone in America was happy. The state of Massachusetts threatened to secede from the Union, arguing that the adding of so large a territory would dilute the influence of existing states. Jefferson brokered a compromise with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, commenting in his second inaugural address, March 4, 1805: “I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger the union, but who can limit the extent to which the Federative principle may operate effectively?”
The rush to turn the Louisiana Purchase into new states, either slave or free, was a factor leading up to the Civil War.
Another contributing factor influencing Napoleon to sell the Louisiana Territory was the slave rebellion in Haiti. Christopher Columbus discovered Haiti, calling the island Hispanola, with the capital city of Santo Domingo named for Columbus’ father, Dominic. The French took half of the island in the year 1660, and calling it Saint-Domingue, and later Haiti. It was one of the wealthiest colonies in the world, producing sugar, indigo, cotton and coffee. Plantations deplorably used slave labor.
While the French Revolution abolished slavery in France, they let it continue in Haiti. Slave revolts from 1791-1804 resulted in tens of thousands French, mulattos, blacks, and even Polish, dying with horrible brutality on all sides.
After losing Haiti, France wanted another tropical colony so Napoleon invaded Egypt, 1798-1801. Napoleon’s fear that Haiti’s slave rebellion might spread to the Louisiana Territory was a contributing factor in his rush to sell it.
During his career, Napoleon fought in over 100 battles, conquering large areas of Europe. When Napoleon put his brother Joseph on Spain’s throne in 1808, Venezuela declared independence in 1810, followed by Central American countries of Chili, Argentina and eventually Mexico. On June 23, 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with nearly a half million men. Six months later he retreated with less than 50,000. This disastrous loss forced him to abdicate the throne and he was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba. Napoleon escaped Elba on February 26, 1815, and returned to rule France for 100 days.
After losing the battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, Napoleon was permanently banished to the tiny South Atlantic island of St. Helena.
The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) had caused an estimated 6 million deaths from battle and related diseases, starvation and exposure. On the island of St. Helena, Napoleon began to reflect on his life and even began reading the Bible.
A few years before dying at the age of 52, Napoleon commented to General H.G. Bertrand, as recorded in “On St. Helena,” 1816: “The Gospel possesses a secret virtue, a mysterious efficacy, a warmth which penetrates and soothes the heart. One finds in meditating upon it that which one experiences in contemplating the heavens. 
The Gospel is not a book; it is a living being, with an action, a power, which invades everything that opposes its extension. Behold it upon this table, this book surpassing all others (here the Emperor solemnly placed his hand upon it): I never omit to read it, and every day with new pleasure. Nowhere is to be found such a series of beautiful ideas, and admirable moral maxims, which pass before us like the battalions of a celestial army. … The soul can never go astray with this book for its guide. …”
Napoleon continued: “Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison; He is truly a Being by Himself. His ideas and His sentiments, the truth which He announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things. 
Truth should embrace the universe. Such is Christianity, the only religion which destroys sectional prejudices, the only one which proclaims the unity and the absolute brotherhood of the whole human family, the only one which is purely spiritual; in fine, the only one which assigns to all, without distinction, for a true country, the bosom of the Creator, God.”
Napoleon concluded: “Christ proved that He was the Son of the Eternal by His disregard of time. All His doctrines signify one only and the same thing-eternity. What a proof of the divinity of Christ! With an empire so absolute, he has but one single end – the spiritual melioration of individuals, the purity of the conscience, the union to that which is true, the holiness of the soul. … Not only is our mind absorbed, it is controlled; and the soul can never go astray with this book for its guide. Once master of our spirit, the faithful Gospel loves us. God even is our friend, our father, and truly our God. The mother has no greater care for the infant whom she nurses. …”
Napoleon ended by telling General H.G. Bertrand: “If you do not perceive that Jesus Christ is God, very well: then I did wrong to make you a general.”
Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/this-is-what-happens-when-a-dictator-meets-god/#IwojZawUqh8bm8Rz.99
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MATT BARBER - JESUS: THE 'INTOLERANT BIGOT'

PULLING NO PUNCHES

JESUS: THE 'INTOLERANT BIGOT'

Exclusive: Matt Barber notes Christ didn't say, 'Go now and continue your life of sin'

“The Gospel of Christ doesn’t care about ‘tolerance.’ It cares about truth.”
These words caused me to look up from my Bible Gateway app where I was reading along with selected scriptures. Matt Short, missions pastor at One Community Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, had just uttered from the pulpit a profound reality that, regrettably, we hear far too infrequently from this millennial generation (or any generation for that matter).
After several weeks of having worshiped with this young church body, I’ve been repeatedly shocked, and pleasantly so, that, under the headship of lead pastor Paul Dudley and, clearly, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this group of faithful 20 and 30-somethings does not sidestep truth, in love, as concerns transcendent issues that in today’s politically correct and postmodern culture (to include much of Christianity) are considered highly controversial.
Pastor Short judiciously stacked his words – words that blossomed from the very Vine of Truth Himself – upon that elusive sweet spot in the tense continuum between truth and grace: two central features of Christ’s nature that are neither mutually exclusive nor at odds with one another.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” we are reminded in Ecclesiastes 1:9.
Indeed, by today’s secular-progressive standards – and, more vexing yet, by the standards of lukewarm Christians and ministries that, under the intense thaw of postmodern paganism, fall away from the berg like vast chunks of ice – 
Christ Jesus Himself would, like so many of his followers today, be slandered as an “intolerant bigot” and crucified all over again.
To be sure, under the contemporary misconception of “tolerance,” which supposes that one must not only tolerate sin of every stripe, but refuse to call it even that, Christ was (and is) intolerant indeed. 
Rather than admonishing the adulterous woman to, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (see John 8:11), postmodernism, to include the moral relativist yeast that leavens the body of Christ, demands, at once, that our never-changing Lord change the unchangeable: “Go now and continue your life of sin.”
This is not true grace.
It is cheap grace.
And it is apostasy.
While it is true that none of us is without sin (I’m the first to drop my stone in the sand for this reason), we are nonetheless commanded to repent of our sins: “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish (Luke 13:3).”
The first step to repentance is recognizing sin for what it is and rejecting deceptive attempts to sanitize it by calling it something else (i.e., “choice,” “sexual orientation,” “she’s not my wife, but we’re soul mates” and the like). 
Alas, ’tis true: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).
Indeed, far too many “seeker friendly” and mainline Christian denominations do just that. They call evil good. They intentionally omit the central “repent and go and sin no more” elements of the good news (or otherwise affirm sin altogether) for fear of driving away would-be fish in the net – those slippery little buggers (aren’t we all?) who prefer whirling about in a toxic sea of temptation, rather than surrendering to the ultimate Fisher of Men.
Pastor Short, to his credit, did no such thing. In fact, he went on to address Paul’s rebuke of the church in Galatia. Much like today’s “nicer than Jesus” set, they, too, for different reasons perhaps, adopted a false gospel that, in their eyes, made them more “relevant” and palatable to the world around them.
Sound familiar?
Wrote Paul: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you,let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:6-8)
Not very tolerant.
But grace, tempered with truth, nonetheless.
“As we have already said,” Paul continued, “so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:9-10).
And so, according to Paul, those who shrink from the “full counsel of God,” are not only out of line, they are under “God’s curse.” The fall he took on the road to Damascus clearly knocked free his ability to skate the thin ice of political correctness.
Still, like the Galatians, far too many in today’s church are more concerned with not offending others, most especially those who are without Christ, and, rather than being fearless “servants of Christ,” instead have busied themselves with “trying to please people.”
And, like the Galatians, they have created a false gospel to that end.
Pleasing the world is not taking up your cross and suffering for Christ. 
Pleasing the world is a cakewalk. “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:19).
Does the world hate you?
It should.
We can’t belong to the world and to Christ.
We must choose.
(Note: Let’s help our young brothers and sisters continue speaking Christ’s truth, in love. I urge you to give to the powerful ministry of One Community Church.)
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/jesus-the-intolerant-bigot/#exdPWuASr7uCo757.99

 My comments: As Christians we either Please God or the World. We cannot Please Both. 
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PATRICE LEWIS: IS FEMINISM KILLING WOMEN VIA SUICIDE?

REAL AMERICA

IS FEMINISM KILLING WOMEN?

Exclusive: Patrice Lewis addresses recent surge in suicide by middle age females

A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post published a sobering statistic: It seems there has been a huge spike in suicides among white middle-age women.
Suicide is an unspeakable tragedy. We lost a dear friend that way, and I wouldn’t wish the resulting pain on anyone. Suicide shatters lives, instills guilt and raises unanswerable questions.
The rise in suicides is hitting several groups, but the sudden spike – 80 percent – in suicides among white middle-age women is curious. This is a specific and unusual demographic.
Causative factors for suicide are hard to pin down. The Washington Post article states, “Last decade’s severe recession, more drug addiction, ‘gray divorce,’ increased social isolation, and even the rise of the Internet and social media may have contributed to the growth in suicide, according to a variety of people who study the issue. But economic distress – and dashed hopes generally – may underpin some of the increase, particularly for middle-age white people.”
Being a white middle-age woman, I’d like to put forth a theory about what I believe might be causing my cohorts to feel such pain that they feel compelled to end their lives:
Feminism.
Before you spew your coffee all over the keyboard, hear me out. Clearly, what follows does not apply to every suicide in this demographic, but I believe feminism is an unexamined influence in the sudden rise of deaths.
For women of my generation (53), feminism had a massive impact. It was instrumental in shaping our culture, our worldview and most especially our personal lives. As a young woman, I lived and breathed feminism. I gullibly swallowed every talking point they put out: the freedom of birth control, the need for legalized tax-paid abortion, the knowledge that we didn’t need children to make us “fulfilled,” the belief in career as the most fulfilling aspect in life, the knowledge that women could have it all with effortless ease.
Remember the old Enjoli perfume ads from the 1980s? But was it true? Could a woman have it all? Could she “bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan” and never let her husband forget he’s a man?
Maybe. At least the Enjoli woman had a family – a husband and children. But my guess is a significant number of the suicide victims in this demographic did not.
The feminist mantra, of course, is women need men like fish need bicycles. Women were supposed to put themselves first. They were supposed to want everything else – career, education, sexual freedom without repercussions – more than they wanted a family. Children were a burden, and Planned Murderhood rose to national prominence to meet the “need” created by that lie. Endless millions of women killed their babies so they wouldn’t derail their careers. Endless more women put off trying to have babies until it was biologically too late. Yet more women never married, or failed to hold their marriages together because their feminist agenda got in the way of the relationship.
“People [were] growing up with a certain expectation … and the Great Recession and other things have really changed that,” said Julie A. Phillips, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University who studies the demography of suicide. “Things aren’t panning out the way people expect. I feel for sure that has had an effect.”
Substitute “feminism” for “the Great Recession” and read that paragraph again. Could the promises of feminism have failed so spectacularly that women of my age or older knew in their hearts they missed out on their biological calling of marriage and family?
The hard-core emphasis on abortion is one of the biggest doses of poison for young women. Consider this article, which illustrates the staggering amount of blatant brainwashing on college campuses: “Atheists display fetus-shaped cookies at university pro-abortion rally.”
This trains young women to become (or remain) callous and indifferent about their unique powers to give life. They learn killing their own offspring is no big deal. Now fast forward to when these women are in their 50s or 60s. They have no children to love, they have no genetic legacy, they have nothing. Their line ends with them. They aborted their only child (or maybe they aborted more than one; I know someone who aborted three), and now the biological reality has caught up with them. Their future is bleak, empty.
Without faith to sustain them – remember, God was kicked out and the holy sacrament of abortion brought in – these women had nothing but feminism to shore them up … and feminism proved to be a false god.
When the economy tanked, many of these dedicated career women found themselves jobless. At this point, perhaps they realized they had no anchor, no foundation and no family to sustain them through dark times. They found themselves alone, all alone. As they looked ahead to the dark empty years before them and realized they murdered the children who might have offered comfort, perhaps the gravity of the feminist lies caught up with them. The promises of Ultimate Fulfillment through career were gone. Turns out those fish needed bicycles after all.
This is what feminism has wrought.
Feminism is ultimately selfish – it’s all about ME – and when women have spent their whole lives me-focused and then realize they’ve reached middle age and no one cares about them, the concept may be more than some can handle.
We – my husband and I – are at the point in life where we’re facing the classic empty nest. One child (age 20) is on her own, working in another part of the country. The other child (age 18) is attending classes toward her chosen career and thinking about moving in with a friend. It’s hard to watch our beloved daughters embark on their adult lives, but it fits with the correct order of things.
However there’s still so much to come. We have each other, we have the lifestyle (small farm) we’ve built up over the last two decades, we have a solid faith in God and His goodness, and we have much to look forward to – watching our daughters’ lives unfold, welcoming future sons-in-law and hopefully someday dandling grandchildren on our knees.
But too many women bought the feminist poison and consumed it, sip by sip, over their entire lives. For some, the pain is now so great they see no option except to take their own life.
When a major statistical change occurs in an entire demographic, there’s a reason. In my opinion the reason is obvious: After all, haven’t the feminist-led women gotten everything they wanted? They have no children to complicate their world, and no God for the life ever after.
To women everywhere, I beg you: be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/is-feminism-killing-women/#wCZhpbhlOKswETea.99
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GREG LAURIE: PRAYER THAT HITS THE MARK

A NEW BEGINNING

PRAYER THAT HITS THE MARK

Exclusive: Greg Laurie on the key to having 'open access to the throne of God'

Have you ever been betrayed by someone you loved? Have you ever faced seemingly insurmountable odds? Has it ever seemed as though there was no way out of your particular dilemma?
If so, then you have a good idea of how David felt when he penned the words of Psalm 5. David had made a number of mistakes in his life. He committed many sins that haunted him in his later years. Because of his multiple marriages, he had children who were partially related to each another. But it wasn’t the Brady Bunch. There was a great deal of conflict and problems in his household as a result.
One of David’s sons was named Absalom, whose full sister was Tamar. David had another son named Amnon, who took advantage of his half-sister Tamar and raped her. Absalom, her full brother, was outraged by what Amnon had done. He also was angry that David hadn’t taken stronger measures to deal with his son. So Absalom arranged to have Amnon killed. The result was that Absalom was banished from the kingdom. But after a period of time, Absalom was allowed to return. In the process, however, he turned the hearts of the people away from his father, the king.
The chickens were coming home to roost, as the old saying goes. David was reaping the consequences of what he had sowed many years earlier. After David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan told him, “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:10 NIV).
Out of his own household, David was reaping the results of his sin. But that shouldn’t surprise us too much. In reality, David simply was seeing his own behavior reflected in his children. Amnon treated Tamar as David treated Bathsheba. He forced himself upon Tamar sexually, just as David misused his position as king to sexually take advantage of Bathsheba.
And Absalom, in murdering Amnon, was only treating his half-brother the way David treated Uriah in sending him to the front lines with the full intention of having him killed. Then David took Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, to be his wife. Like father, like son.
It’s sad when we see our own character reflected in our children – that is, when they reflect the bad aspects of our character. We want to say to them, “Listen to me! Do as I say, not do as I do.” But our children are going to watch us, and they will emulate our behavior.
So there was David, in his older years, fleeing for his life because Absalom had devised a plot to overthrow him. He actually was leading a coup, causing a very aged King David to desert his throne and escape into the wilderness. If ever there was a time David needed to be sure that God was listening to his prayers, it was this time.
David had traversed that rugged terrain before. As a young man he had been an outlaw, hunted by the paranoid King Saul. The prophet Samuel had anointed David and said he would be the next king of Israel. And then he killed Goliath in the Valley of Elah. Everyone loved David. But Saul, paranoid and angry that someone would try to take his position, drove David into exile.
But David no longer was the sprightly young boy who could leap from rock to rock with no real effort. He moved more slowly. And he wasn’t being sought by a paranoid king but by his own son, who wanted to hunt him down and put him to death.
David really needed to know that God was with him. It was during this time he penned three psalms, including Psalm 5, where he wrote, “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up” (verses 1–3 NKJV).
What stands out to me about David’s prayer is there was a holy boldness: “Give ear to my words, O Lord. …” In the original Hebrew, “give ear” literally means “to broaden the ear, as with the hand.” It’s the idea of someone who is a bit hard of hearing cupping their hand around his or her ear to hear. David was saying, “Lord, I want you to cup your hand around your ear and listen to what I am about to say.”
Where did David get the audacity to speak to God this way? How did he dare to stand before God and say, “Cup your hand around your ear and really listen carefully”? It was because David had a relationship with God. The reason David could say, “Give ear to my words, O Lord” is because he went on to say, “My King and my God.” David had a relationship with God that gave him the freedom of access.
That is why David could speak that way to the Lord. It gave him a boldness. And we can have that boldness, too. We can have that same relationship. The writer of Hebrews said, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place” (10:19–20 NLT).
Another passage in Hebrews says, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (4:16 NLT). We can have open access to the throne of God.
How did things turn out for old King David? I would say quite well. Things started out pretty bleak, with David as an aged man who lost his throne. The hearts of the people were turned against him, and Absalom was on the rise. But through a quick chain of events, David was returned to his throne, and Absalom ended up hanging by a tree as he fled for his life. God turned things around and put David back where he belonged. And it all happened through prayer as David cast his problems upon the Lord.
What a difference prayer can make. But let’s not wait until the last minute to do it. Let’s take our problems and burdens and cast them upon the Lord, and he ultimately will have his way.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/prayer-that-hits-the-mark/#V2V44EJwuRAwUVBt.99
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TARGET LOSES BILLIONS IN FALLOUT OVER TRANSGENDER-RESTROOM POLICY

(Photo: Twitter)


TARGET STOCK PLUNGES AS 1 MILLION BOYCOTT

Retailer loses billions in fallout over transgender-restroom policy

Bob Unruh

 Target elevated its social activism a week ago, boasting of a new policy allowing transgender “team members and guests” to use whatever restroom they like, and largely has remained mum on the issue since.

But its board members and stockholders might have something to say soon, as the company’s value has plunged billions of dollars since the announcement.
A boycott organized by the American Family Association over the company’s aggressive move surged past 1 million participants Thursday night.
On Friday, the count still was exploding, rising from 1,020,650 to 1,023,850 in minutes.
The signers of the petition agreed that Target’s store policy “endangers women and children by allowing men to frequent women’s facilities.”
But more importantly, they also affirmed, “Until Target makes the safety of women and children a priority, I will shop elsewhere.”
What do YOU think? Share your thoughts on Target’s Facebook page, use the Twitter hashtag #BoycottTarget and sign AFA’s pledge to boycott the retail giant
Mark West at Patriot Post calculated the impact of the boycott. He cited statistics from Perfect Price, a database of credit card transactions, showing the average “dollars spent per trip by Target customers is $62.”
“So I’ll use a very conservative calculation to extrapolate the impact of the #BoycottTarget petition so far. Assuming that the average customer makes two trips per month (a likely conservative number), and the signatures grow to one million (this was written just before that benchmark was passed), we arrive at $1.5 billion … in lost revenue annually to Target.”
But he pointed that that there are many who “likely will never sign a petition.”
“They’ll simply leave Target in disgust as they see a company that has abandoned common sense values,” he said.
He also noted that consumers offended by the social engineering agenda of Target can pressure their 401K and other investment vehicles to sell out of Target.
“Dumping your investment in this company will also send a strong signal to both Target and the rest of the mega-corporate world that they should keep their nose out of the social battles and simply focus on selling their products, period,” he wrote.
Target “is not responding to customers’ opposition,” reported Breitbart.
But the report noted the company’s stock dropped from $83.98 per share on April 19 to about $81.33 on April 28.
On Friday, it had dropped down to the next low-water mark, of $79.77, down almost 2 percent just for the day.
Even at the halfway point, Breitbart reported, the company’s stock market value was down by $1.5 billion, to $48.8 billion.
The report noted the company’s Twitter account “has been very inactive.”
A Target spokeswoman, Molly Snyder, did double down on the company’s policy days ago, stating: “We certainly respect that there are a wide variety of perspectives and opinions. As a company that firmly stands behind what it means to offer our team an inclusive place to work – and our guests an inclusive place to shop – we continue to believe that this is the right thing for Target.”
An NBC News headline read, “‘Bathroom’ protests will likely leave Target unscathed, experts say.”
But support for that notion came from Bob Witeck of Witeck Communications, a marketing communications firm that “focuses on the LGBT market.”
“If you look historically at corporations attacked or boycotted, there’s no empirical or market evidence that they ever suffered any specific losses,” he said. “None of these boycotts have legs, they don’t last for a long time.”
However, the report also noted an industry metric called “Buzz Index,” from YouGov BrandIndex, which measures both positive and negative consumer perception.
“YouGov found that Target’s reputation fell by nine points, with a slightly more negative perception among women,” the report said. “YouGov also found that the percentage of consumers who said they would consider shopping at Target the next time they visited a store in its category fell by four percentage points, from 42 percent to 38 percent.”
“It’s meaningful, meaning it’s statistically significant,” YouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli said in the report.
He said it’s part of a larger issue.
“This is more than just about Target. This is about a political debate that’s been brewing over the last couple of months. The reality is I think Americans are uncertain about this – or there are many that are certain, but on both sides of the issue,” he said.
On Friday, AFA said its campaign contends the Target policy “opens the door for predators and voyeurs who would take advantage.”
AFA President Tim Wildmon said the campaign has gathered support more quickly than any of the other initiatives his organization has launched over the years.
“Corporate America must stop bullying people who disagree with the radical left agenda to remake society into their progressive image,” he said. “#BoycottTarget has resonated with Americans. Target’s harmful policy poses a danger to women and children; nearly everyone has a mother, wife, daughter or friend who is put in jeopardy by this policy. Predators and voyeurs would take advantage of the policy to prey on those who are vulnerable. And it’s clear now that over one million customers agree.
“We want to make it very clear that AFA does not believe the transgender community poses this danger to the wider public,” he continued. “Rather, this misguided and reckless policy provides a possible gateway for predators who are out there.”
Award-winning journalist and WND Managing Editor David Kupelian noted that only a few years ago, virtually everybody in the world would have agreed it’s “stark, raving mad” to allow grown men to use a women’s restroom or locker room.
“Today, it is still stark, raving mad,” he said. “But the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender movement, fueled by its success in imposing same-sex marriage on America, is now trying to force middle America to pretend that a serious mental illness, one that frequently involves amputating healthy body parts in a desperate but impossible quest to morph into the opposite sex, is perfectly normal and we must all join in the pretense or be demonized or legally prosecuted.
“So now they’re getting some real push-back. That is a very good thing.”
In his most recent book, “The Snapping of the American Mind,” Kupelian wrote about gender identity disorder – the strong feelings of belonging to the opposite sex that drive some people to try and physically change their genders. This erstwhile disorder was recently renamed “gender dysphoria” in an effort to de-pathologize it, according to Kupelian. So today being transgender is considered completely normal while those who don’t accept the normality of transgenderism are often labeled “transphobic,” which suggests someone has a disorder, or phobia.
But Kupelian believes his fellow countrymen see through the pro-transgender propaganda.
“Most Americans recognize the ‘transgender movement’ for what it is – a deeply misguided campaign to normalize mental illness and to force all Americans to abandon their common sense and core values and affirm and celebrate what is really pathological delusion,” he said.
“Remember: It is literally impossible to change your gender. Every one of the trillions of cells in your body is permanently branded male or female from birth and cannot be changed.”
WND columnist Michael Brown wrote on the Target issue: “People have said, ‘Enough is enough!’ – and for good reason. Just think: Target has declared war on gender. Last year, Target announced that it was doing away with boys’ toys and girls’ toys. Instead, all toy aisles are now gender neutral, since Target didn’t want to promote gender-stereotyping – as if it’s bad to say that most boys prefer GI Joe toys to Little Princess toys or most girls prefer doll houses to Nerf guns or girls like pink and boys like blue.”
He continued: “Now Target has gone even further, imposing the struggles of less than 1 percent of the population on the rights of the other 99 percent. … Target has crossed a line, and that’s why millions of Americans will soon be saying to Target, ‘We used to love shopping in your stores, but your radical activism and your scorning of our concerns has driven us away.'”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/target-stock-plunges-as-1-million-boycott/#LxckWofxz9uGzOwU.99

 My comments: Unless Christians and concerned American Stand-Up, the godless will Overrun America with their PERVERSIONS. 
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