Christian Family Services Ministry

A Word to the Wise – 7-31-2020 – ON SELF-ESTEEM

Our society is consumed with the idea of self-esteem. It is promoted in every aspect of our society. However as much we like the idea of improving self-esteem that concept is not to be found in scripture. The idea of self-esteem is a humanistic concept. Humanism focus ones attention on humans.

What then are we supposed to be focused on if not self ? Very good question. We find the answer on every page of scripture. The question is not what we think of ourselves rather what does the Lord thinks of me.

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A Word to the Wise – 7-30-2020 – FORGIVENESS

My mother taught me some very meaningful lesson that remain with me even some 70 years later. This is the most important.

I have often thought that forgiveness is the most difficult of Christ’s commandments. But again soon we discover this too is for ourselves.

Often it is little or no gain to the one forgiven by us. It is for ourselves. It is through forgiving that we keep our hearts from hatred and bitterness. It is through forgiveness that we do not fall into the trap of seeking vengeance or desiring to get even.

We must desire a pure heart—but this is not obtained as a free gift from God. It is developed through keeping our hearts and minds. A part of this process of keeping is the byproduct of learning to forgive.

Oddly enough the greater the injustice done us the greater the need to quickly forgive. We must not give place to the devil. If the evil one can fasten our attention on how greatly we have been wronged he then as planted the seeds that will bring forth hatred and bitterness.

The spirit of vengeance will indeed destroy our souls.

This is what in the end Christ cannot forgive us if we have refused to forgive those who have sinned against us.

Only the pure in heart will see God. And the heart that refuses to forgive is burdened with impurities. The reason we refuse to forgive is so we can avoid our own guilt and our own need to be forgiven.

Our besetting sin is a manifestation of a specific inner spiritual deficit that imprisons our soul. (Matthew 18:21ff)

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7-15-2020 – A Word to the Wise – SATAN’S WAR ON CHILDREN

It would seem that mankind is constantly at war about something. Many of the conflicts are senseless and there only purpose is to acquire power, land, material products, or at times simply to destroy for the sake of destroying.

These conflicts have a tendency to cover up or obscure the real life and death struggle occurring behind the scenes. Satan has always been at war with mankind. The most powerful struggles comes against the souls of children. It is our purpose to outline this war and reveal the depths of the struggle going on.

This war begins right after conception. According to the CDC the latest available records indicate there were 623,471 abortions in 2016. Worldwide it is estimated there were 42.3 million abortions in 2019. Satan’s war on infants is the opening salvo in his war on mankind.

The war on infants is wide spread and diverse. According to the National Children’s Alliance intervention was required in 114,510 cases involving children 0-6 who are abandon, abused, or neglected with the largest majority in the first year of life.

Another 488,000 suffered the results of prenatal tobacco use by the mother. (How well I know this problem. My mother was a heavy smoker at a time when the harm was unknown. Smoking resulted in a 2 month premature child who was deathly sick for nearly a year), another 352,000 from the effects of the mother using alcohol while pregnant, and another 220,000 from the mother using drugs while pregnant. (AFCARS, 2016).

One must know that these are only known cases many, many are never reported.

Do you see a pattern beginning to appear? If Satan is able to destroy children he defeats creation. If he is able to destroy post conception, within a few weeks aborting the fetus then he has interfered with God’s creation.

If abortion does not work then his next plan is causing a host of physical problems with substance abuse.

If that fails in the sense that it leaves the victims helpless, or with a host of birth defects then he moves to the next opportunity.

Abusive and neglectful parents which bring untold emotional pain to the child lasting throughout the child’s existence. The earlier the deeper the problems of emptiness and abandonment for the child.

Then starting at the age of 5 with sexual awareness Satan introduces the child to porn, some a little later. The ultimate goal of porn is to cause the child to forsake God’s ordered creation. But going further the evil one has an even more sinister purpose, homosexuality.

Here is the key Satan knows if he is able to convince the child of homosexual leanings he has won. For with homosexuality there are no children for there is no sex that produces children.

Understand this is the goal of Satan, no children. Remember the first command God gave his creatures? To have children. (Genesis 1:28)

Where is Satan with his ultimate goal? Estimates place the LGBT population of the U.S. at around 4.5% or around 10 million out of a population of 315 million.

Add to these stats is the problem of single parent families, and the terrific social economic impact undermining today’s youth.

Divorce, abandonment, abuse, neglect, all of these assault the children of our day.

One does not stop the problem by sticking ones finger in the dam. Remember the advent of the “War on Drugs,” that war only made drug abuse rampant. Acceptance of humanistic ethics does not slow the process of destruction, it only makes it more deadly.

The only solution to these problems starts with national repentance and a return to holiness.

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