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Fanciful… but Dangerous

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Relationships, Vocation, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2011| 1 Comment »

“Not a Scientist” has offered ezerwoman the opportunity to hear from someone of a contrasting worldview.  I don’t know “Not a Scientist,” but I am grateful that he’s interested in dialogue.  This society needs more of that.

Twice, “Not a Scientist” has commented on my post, “Questions to Help Us Think (4-4-11).  My pastor and son have also joined in the discussion.  This is a good thing.  That’s part of the reason why I’ve put myself out here — in blog world.  Some say, “Linda!  You’re a target.”  There is no fear in that.  Not if I’m a target for well-thought out words that may — or may not — agree with my worldview.  We should be doing more talking.  Explaining.  Researching.  Challenging.  We should practice building our lives upon what we think and know to be true rather than upon fickle feelings and emotions. 

To “Not a Scientist” I offer the following:

You and I see the world through very different glasses.  Our worldviews boldly contrast.  

  • My worldview is built on God’s Word.  Yours is not. 
  • My worldview does not blow with the wind or shift like sand.  I believe yours blows and shifts a great deal depending upon circumstances.
  • My worldview is built on the created order; thus, I know who I am, from where I come, how I’m to live, and where I’m going when I die.  You don’t appear to believe in any created order but, rather, evolving chaos. 
  • My worldview tells me how God wants men and women to live and relate to one another.  Yours, well, how are men and women supposed to live and relate to one another?  Why? 
  • My worldview offers a future of generational hope built on the backs of fathers, mothers, and grandparents who faithfully teach their sons, daughters, and grandchildren what God says about morality, ethics, marriage and family, “loving our neighbor as ourselves, and serving “the least of these.”  It appears you can entertain your fanciful and humanistic ideas only because fathers, mothers, and grandparents faithfully wove the strong fabric of this nation which you don’t seem to appreciate but certainly enjoy wearing.  
  • My worldview explains that the problems and challenges of relationships, marriages, families, and the whole of society are because of sin which opposes God’s good and perfect design.  I’d be interested to know why you think life is so difficult.
  • My worldview explains that everything — good or bad — has a consequence (you know, like gravity).  Do you acknowledge consequences and can you explain why they exist?
  • My worldview explains why I daily battle with myself and that I’ll never be good enough to save myself.  Do you sense an inner struggle between right and wrong, good and evil?  Even though you say you don’t believe in souls, what if you’re wrong and you really have one?  Where will your body and soul be after you die?
  • I can’t seem to do the good I know I should but, instead, I do the bad I don’t want to do.  This quandary could leave me in desperation.  In desperation, I might be tempted to sacrifice something in order to save myself.  But, I don’t have to.  My worldview assures me that the one and only necessary sacrifice to make me right with the Holy God was made by Jesus Christ on the Cross.   At the Cross, I can lay down my burdens, sorrows, disappointments, and failures.  Jesus forgives me.  Now, He only asks that I use His Word for life that changes lives.  Every day for me is new and filled with hope.  Mr. “Not a Scientist,” how do you start your days?  To what do you look forward?  What hope do you have?  What hope do you offer others?  (I can tell you: You have the same hope I do because Jesus died for you, too.  Can you believe it?)

You have fanciful ideas, Mr. “Not a Scientist.”  But, they are dangerous.  When I expressed concern for the two young men now “joined” in “marriage,” I did so because I am positive they have souls.  Souls that will live forever — with God or not.  I am positive because God’s Word tells me so.  If I’m wrong, there is no loss.  If I’m right, and those created and precious souls are separated from God because of sinful choices, then there is huge loss.  Soulful loss. 

Fanciful ideas, like free-falling without a parachute, are exciting — for awhile.

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Questions to Help Us Think

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Relationships, tagged , , , , , , , on April 4, 2011| 6 Comments »

Two days have passed since my hometown newspaper ran a page one story of a young man’s “marriage” to another young man.  If the headline, “Mr. & Mr,” didn’t capture people’s attention, the photos of the men kissing and signing their “marriage” license did.

Today, several members of my congregation made a request and a promise.  If I would write a letter-to-the-editor, they would gladly sign it.  As members of our community, we agree that every home, classroom and newspaper mentors children and encourages them in one direction… or another.  As Christians, we agree that we are compelled on behalf of our neighbors (young or old) and for the benefit of society to speak whatever the Word of God speaks.

Pondering appropriate words, I’m aware that some  of my neighbors will claim that it’s the personal right of those men to marry (especially in light of Iowa’s same sex “marriage” law) and that everyone should just leave them alone.  But…

  • Do we all have the right to do whatever we want?
  • When does my perceived “right” place my neighbor in harm’s way?
  • Does a newspaper have the right to print any photo or article that gets attention, even that of a curious child?
  • When two people do whatever “feels right” to them and one or both contracts an STD or HIV, do I have the right to insist that my personal tax dollars not fund their medical bills?

My hometown newspaper chose to highlight the “marriage” of two young men, ages 19 and 21.  What was the message of the lead-in paragraph: “There wasn’t any music.  No flowers or photographer.  But something else was there Wednesday that’s present at most weddings — the look in the couple’s eyes.”  Why was the reporter at the “wedding”?  Obviously, photos were taken, but for what purpose?

I am concerned for these two young men.  I am concerned about their spiritual welfare.  Are they (like so many young people today) confused about their “sexuality?”  Were they enticed by momentary feelings, flattered by attention, or empowered by a trendy social experiment?  Did the newspaper paint a bulls-eye on these young men?  If either of the young men experience emotional stress or depression, will the newspaper and community offer themselves as care-givers?  What happens if these men want to be fathers?

What lesson… what value… what hope for the future of families and children is being taught when behavior is celebrated that flies in the face of the Creator of man, woman, and marriage?

Jesus said,

Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:1-2).

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Just Another Wedding, Or . . . ?

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Life issues, Relationships, tagged , , , , , on April 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The front page headline of my local paper read, “Mr. and Mr.”  Beneath the headline was a photograph of two newly-wed young men, holding hands and kissing.   The story continued from page one to page three where a second photo was featured of the two men signing their marriage license.  The “feature story” described how the couple met and why they decided to marry.  Comments from family members and friends were included.

I wonder.  The photos from my son’s and daughter-in-law’s weddings were relegated to the “wedding section” of the paper.  No reporters were on hand to ask how my sons and their wives met or why they decided to marry.  No comments from family members and friends were included.

I wonder what my hometown newspaper is trying to tell me… or my grandchildren… .

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Missing Persons

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A long time ago, I began to wonder: Would the generation that ushered in legalized abortion be ushered out by legalized euthanasia?  Maybe… because so many of the people that could have supported us in our senior years are missing.

Since 1973, over 50 million babies have been aborted in the U.S. alone.  What is the impact of so many missing persons?  So many heads to think?  Hearts to love?  Hands to serve?

There are approximately 76 million in my generation of babyboomers.  There are only 17 million of my sons’ generation.   (Can you get your arms around that one?)

Ask anyone in my family and they’ll tell you I’m not good with numbers.  But, with some 2008 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Security Administration, Guttmacher Institute, and National Center for Health Statistics, I’ve got some big numbers for your consideration.  If abortion had not been legalized in 1973 . . .

  • 17,250,839 more people would have been employed
  • $398,900,760,733 earned by those employees
  • $11,105,397,179 contributed to Medicare
  • $47,485,146,558 contributed to Social Security
  • 3,432,000 more retired workers could receive average monthly social security benefit check
  • 2,165,707 more people could receive Medicare Hospital Insurance

What is the economic impact of abortion?  What do 50 million + missing persons mean?  It has been said that the basis of any economy is its population, or human element.  Consider that the parents of 50 million children are not shopping for diapers, toys, or school books.  50 million children won’t require teachers.  50 million children won’t grow up to work, spend, save, marry, start families, build houses, invest wages, be innovative or use their skills.  50 million children won’t become adults who pay taxes.  50 million children won’t think, love or serve.

Perhaps, in missing these persons, we will be sorry and ask for forgiveness.  A Cross beckons us to journey from hopelessness to hopefulness.  From deception to truth.  From death to life.  When I look at my grandchildren, I see the promise.  I see heads to think.  Hearts to love.  Hands to serve.

It’s true that the consequences of our sins carry to the third and fourth generations.  But, God’s mercy in Christ is to thousands of generations that love Him.

(I am grateful to my friend, Chuck Asay,
for his editorial cartoon.)

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Too Long at the Animal Circus

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, Sexy or holy?, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2011| 3 Comments »

Sexual gratification rules.  Sex — any type, any time, with anyone — is the ultimate freedom.  Sex rules the marketplace, classroom, court of law, and military.  Sex is the one “right” above all others.  Why?  Because Kinsey said so.   “Children,” said Kinsey, “are sexual from birth.”  In other words, according to Kinsey and his followers, we are animal-like beings captive to sexual desires, urges, and feelings.

Progressive people everywhere already knew they were “animal-like.”  Why?  Because Darwin said so.  Anyone feeling inhibited by a Creator God now had “license” to do as they pleased.  Piggy-backing (how animal-like!) on the theory of Darwin, Kinsey plunged into “scientific” study with the goal of breaking down all sexual inhibitions Kinsey’s “scientific” study has been exposed as fraudulent and criminal.  (You can discover why by reading “Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences” or visiting Dr. Judith Reisman.)  Nevertheless, a psychologically twisted and sexually deviant Kinsey was granted “license” to move a culture away from guarding innocence and protecting boundaries of modesty to educate in all manner of sex.   The animal circus went on the road.

Progressive and enlightened Christians filed God’s Word on sexual purity under “religious myths” and joined the animal circus.  Willingly, or unwillingly, they became “animal trainers.”   If you really cared about a child, parents and educators were told, you would help a young, “evolving” conscience become “comfortable” with sexual desires, urges, and feelings.  At least four generations have been educated in all manner of sexual behavior, but left clueless about what it means to be male or female.

We’ve been too long at the animal circus.  The evidence explains why.

  • Young women suffer a variety of sexually transmitted diseases, sterility, and depression following casual sexual encounters.  (Visit Dr. Miriam Grossman or read her book, “Unprotected.”)
  • Young men and women are “brain damaged” and addicted to sex.  (Visit Dr. Joe McIlhaney or read his book, “Hooked.”)
  • Husbands and wives, each having partnered intimately with others prior to marriage, are having difficulty bonding — relating, communicating, and working as a team for the sake of their children.
  • High school and college-aged girls admit they feel “more free” and sexually unbounded, but also admit to being “less happy” and “content.”
  • Girls raised in Christian homes demand the “right” to “shower together” at camps and retreats; some go further by experimenting with bi-sexual and lesbian lifestyles.  (These examples from personal testimonies.)

We’ve been too long at the animal circus.  Darwin, Kinsey, Margaret Sanger (Planned Parenthood), and others who’ve wanted to re-wire the minds of our children have trained long enough.  Their education has mentored boys and girls to be sexual, not relational; all about me, rarely about others; empty, not filled; hopeless, not hopeful.

The church — the Body of Christ — stands guilty.  To be more attractive to the world, we adapted the ways of circus trainers.  As long as Jesus was part of sex education, our sons and daughters would be all right — or so we thought.  But, Jesus does not wrap Himself around worldly ideas.  (See post of October 1, 2010 in the ezerwoman archives.)

Is there hope?  Yes.  Away from the animal circus.

God didn’t create us to be “sexual beings.”  That is not our identity.  He created us to be human beings who reflect His glory by living life as male or female. According to His design, male and female are equal, but different.  Our “plumbing” is different.  The way we think, love, and communicate is different.  God’s Word explains the meaning and purpose of the two genders/sexes.  His Word explains why we need each other and how to treat each other.  Then, when the time is right, God “fits” a man and a woman together in the faithfulness of marriage.  Through the act of procreational sex, God brings new life into the world.

We are not animal-like beings captive to sexual desires, feelings, and perceived “needs.”  We are, by creation, persons of great worth with minds, hearts, and souls able to control emotions and feelings.

Away from the animal circus, we are better able to see children as God sees them.  Sons and daughters… on their way to a future of hope as men and women.   Husbands and wives.   Fathers and mothers.  Grandparents.

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Even The Rocks Cry Out

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2011| 1 Comment »

While union members and politicians are “acting up” in Wisconsin, perhaps 10,000 men, women and children have died in Japan.

While we use our time to worship at the altar of “me,” the very earth is groaning.

Even as the earth groans, we seem obsessed with either disposing of or putting our children at risk, destroying marriage, weakening the family, legitimizing all manner of unnatural behavior, collectively bargaining for Viagra, serving ourselves rather than our neighbor, and doing whatever is right in our own eyes.

This is only the third month of a new year.  Think of what has already happened in 2011:  The shooting in Tucson, continued murders along our southern border, civil unrest in Egypt and Libya and Saudi Arabia, a massive earthquake in New Zealand and, last Friday, the deadly tsunami which followed a 9.0 earthquake in Japan.

Even the rocks cry out.   Yet, Planned Parenthood unashamedly begs funds to abort more children.

I wonder what the parents of five-month-old Baxter Gowland would have to say to that.  Baxter was the youngest to die in the Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake.

I wonder what the Creator and Father God thinks.  After all, He so loved the world that He sent His only Son to value each human life — on a Cross.

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Marriage in the Classroom

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Relationships, tagged , , , , , , , on March 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »

If the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is not defended, what might happen?

Shortly after same-sex “marriage” was forced on Massachusetts by that state’s highest court, a few parents realized their children were being taught same-sex unions were normal, natural, and the moral equivalent of marriage between a man and a woman.  These parents attempted to opt their children out of these public school lessons, but were ultimately unsuccessful in a court of law.  Two federal courts in Massachusetts, including the appeals court just below the U.S. Supreme Court, determined that, because same-sex “marriage” was legally recognized in Massachusetts, parents no longer had the right to determine whether or what their children would be taught about these relationships.  (Source: Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family)

Marriage is being attacked even as children are being taught that all choices are equal.  Here’s the thing.  Mentoring, teaching morality, and raising children is the job of parents, not schools.  Chuck Colson writes, “If we want our children to know how to behave prudently, how to delay gratification for a higher goal, how to look to the needs of others before pandering to their own passions, then we’ll have to teach them in the context of family — best of all, of course, a loving, mom-and-dad family.”

If the courts decide that marriage is just a contract between any kind or number of consenting adults, what consequences will follow?  Colson notes that “we will have, in effect, removed all restraints and social conventions surrounding not just sex and marriage but child rearing and training as well.  If morality is anything we want it to be, if it serves only our passions and personal autonomy, we’re doomed as a culture.”

Homosexual activists are working feverishly to convince educators to normalize an unnatural behavior.  But, moms, dads, and grandparents can speak with the conviction of God’s Word, science and age-old human experience.

It appears to be very dark out there, but darkness has never overcome the light.  (John 1:4)

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Honor Killing

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In January, a trial opened for Faleh Almaleki.  Mr. Almaleki is an Iraqi immigrant accused of murdering his 20-year-old daughter, Noor.  Noor’s father was upset that his daughter dressed and behaved like a Westerner.  He was angry that she was about to marry, not the man he had chosen for her, but an American.  And, so, on October 20, 2009, he ran over her with his Jeep in a Peoria, AZ., parking lot and injured her so badly that she died.

Noor’s father killed her because she had dishonored her family.  Her murder is called an “honor killing.”  It is justified by Muslim tradition.

Abigail R. Esman, a self-defined “liberal,” wonders why her liberal peers, journalists and activists, are not reporting this “honor killing” as well as thousands of others.  Esman writes, “U.N. statistics of 5,000 honor killings per year are generally recognized to be grossly understated.  In the Netherlands alone, the official number of honor killings per year stands at 13, or more than one every month — and that does not include the growing trend of ‘honor suicides’ — girls and even boys who take their own lives knowing that if they don’t do it, others will, that they’ve been marked for death.  In England and Germany, the numbers are about the same.”

Esman continues, “These are not — as often is claimed — your standard cases of domestic abuse.  Honor violence, unlike the domestic abuse we know, is often supported, sanctioned and even encouraged by the local Muslim community.  Indeed, parents frequently feel they have no other choice.”  (The Washington Times Weekly Edition, 2/14/11)

There is another way.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.  Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life . . . (Deuteronomy 31:19-20).”

Jesus Christ does not call us to “honor killings.”  He calls us to honor Him with our defense of human life, no matter the circumstances.  No matter the failures or disappointments.  No matter the inconvenience.  No matter the embarrassment.  After all, He died in our place — to remove the failures, disappointments, inconvenience, and embarrassment. To remove the stain of sin.

We disobey our Father with our daily sins, but He does not attempt to kill us.  Instead, He has mercy on us.  His mercy is new every morning.  It is given and shed for us.

Jesus sacrificed Himself on our behalf.  We are created, loved, and redeemed by God.  We are treasures of great value.  For this reason, Jesus says:

Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

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Merry Christmas, Jan!

Posted in Faith & Practice, Life issues, Relationships, tagged , , , , , on December 24, 2010| 2 Comments »

A long-time friend and warrior in the battle for life was taken home this week.  Her death was unexpected.  Hit by another car, she died instantly.   This amazing woman will be missed by family, friends, and all those she served throughout a life-time of agape love.

Agape love well describes my friend, Jan Ebert.  It is the name of the ministry to which she dedicated her heart and soul.  Some may ask: Why now?  Why at Christmas?

Knowing my friend as I do, I believe Jan would tell us that she now rejoices in the most unimaginable, yet longed for Christmas gift.  Her prayers have been answered.  She is sitting at the feet of her Heavenly Father singing His praises and basking in His agape love for her.

Jan and I walked into uncharted territory many years ago.  With others, we took a stand for life and co-founded Lutherans For Life of Iowa.  I became president.  She became the Executive Director of the AGAPE Pregnancy Center in Des Moines and served in that position until her departure from this earth.  Jan will be missed because she put  her love into action.  But, knowing Jan as I do, I think she would say, “Do not grieve!”  I believe Jan prayed many times: Come Lord Jesus.  And, for her, He has.

Jesus came down from heaven this Christmas to carry home my friend.

Jan knew she was a vessel in the Lord’s hands for whatever time God allotted.  She was faithful to do what was placed before her, recognizing her human frailties but trusting God for discernment and strength.  Her eyes were always on Jesus.  “The most important thing I am called to do,” she always reminded me, “is to share Christ with those in need.”  That’s exactly what Jan did.  She was an advocate for the women who came to AGAPE.  She prayed for them.  She recognized the deceiver at work in the lives of those women and, for that reason, she wrapped their bodies, hearts, and souls in the warmth of God’s Word.  She took their calls all hours of the day and met with strangers at their convenience.  Through Jan, God welcomed countless babies into the world.

Jan was a light in a dark world.  But, she could only be a light because she clung to her Savior, Jesus Christ.  This Christmas when I sing “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come,” I will think of Jesus — true Agape — coming to earth for Jan.  And I will hear Jan say to me:

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.  Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.  Likewise, you should be glad and rejoice with me (Philippians 2:14-18).

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Oh, Gentlemen!

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Relationships, Vocation, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Gentlemen.  What words are there for you?  As a mom, I can speak to my sons about women.  I can describe feelings, emotions, and the complexities of my gender.  But, any wisdom and true instruction I have for men comes only from God.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'” (Genesis 2:15-17).

“. . . [T]he man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?'” (vv. 8-9).

God created man to be the head and steward of His creation.  It is to man that God gave the words of life and the warning away from death.  Man was to pass on the Word of Truth — to his wife, their children, and their children’s children.  Even though the woman was the first to disobey God, man was held responsible.  Such is the order of God’s creation.  Even after sin, God brings order out of chaos using the leadership of godly men.

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  In the same way husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body” (Ephesians 5:25-30).

The husband is not to rule his wife, but to love her (Colossians 3:19).  St. Paul wrote more to the husband than to the wife because it is an opportunity to rejoice in the Gospel.  If a husband’s love for his wife is Christlike, he is willing to give up his very life for her (Galatians 2:20; Titus 2:14; 1 John 3:16).  St. Paul notes that the husband is the “head” in a marriage.  Perhaps it follows, then, that the wife is the “heart.”  One is not more important than the other; both are necessary for life.  Neither man nor woman honor God or themselves by asking: “What can I get out of this marriage?”  Instead, everything a husband  — or a wife — does should be a living illustration of Christ’s love.

“Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).

Feminists may be offended by the expression “weaker vessel.”  But, as students of history, we do well to remember that the culture of the Apostle Peter’s time had little respect for women.  For this reason, the apostle was guided to choose his words with express care for women.  Physically, women are typically smaller in size and weaker in strength then men, which could make them vulnerable to abuse.  Peter admonishes husbands not to exploit a woman’s size and strength in unkind ways.  Viewing husband and wife through Biblical eyes, each was made to complement the other.  Both are heirs of God’s saving grace.

What about the unmarried man?  How is he to treat a girl or woman?  St. Paul prepares the young man Timothy for ministry with these words:

“Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity” (1 Timothy 5:1-2).

A man is called by God to treat all people as Jesus did — as members of His own family (Matthew 12:46-50).  Here is a culturally-transforming opportunity for men.  Can you imagine how esteemed and safe women — and, therefore, children — would be if they were treated like mothers and sisters?

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