Messages From Heaven: Thanks to 'Transgender Equality' Laws, Boys Are No...

Messages From Heaven: Thanks to 'Transgender Equality' Laws, Boys Are No...: We knew this was coming, and we told you this was coming, yet many people still refuse to believe us. Even as I write these words, diffe...

Thanks to 'Transgender Equality' Laws, Boys Are Now Sharing Girls' Locker Rooms!

We knew this was coming, and we told you this was coming, yet many people still refuse to believe us.
Even as I write these words, different cities in America are considering dangerous and irrational laws that impose unfair and potentially dangerous burdens on the vast majority of citizens, all in name of helping a tiny number of deeply confused individuals. When will we learn?
To put it simply, you are guaranteeing trouble when you effectively make public bathrooms and locker rooms gender neutral. It is an experiment in social madness, and it is completely without justification, no matter how much we care about men and women who struggle with gender identity issues.
Many of us in the pro-family movement have warned for years that so-called anti-discrimination laws that include "gender identity" and "gender expression" as categories open the door to a host of potential problems and abuses.
First, these laws do not consider the needs of a multitude of women and children who will feel quite uncomfortable when a biological male comes walking into their bathroom or locker room, understandably so. (Note to LGBT activists: The fact that a biological male dresses like a female does not make women and children feel any more comfortable.)
Second, there is no way to keep heterosexual predators out of the ladies' rooms, since a heterosexual male could simply pose as a woman to satisfy his voyeuristic (or worse) desires.
Yesterday, in Seattle, "A man undressed in a women's locker room, citing a new state rule that allows people to choose a bathroom based on gender identity."
As reported by krem.com, "It was a busy time at Evans Pool around 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8. The pool was open for lap swim. According to Seattle Parks and Recreation, a man wearing board shorts entered the women's locker room and took off his shirt. Women alerted staff, who told the man to leave, but he said 'the law has changed and I have a right to be here.'"
Was he transgender? Heterosexual? Something else? Does it matter? If he feels he should be able to use the women's locker room, he can, and no one can stop him.
In the words of pool regular Aldan Shank, "Sort of works against the point they're trying to make. They're causing people to feel exposed and vulnerable with the intention of reducing people feeling exposed and vulnerable."
When I posted this report on my Facebook page, a woman named Kati commented, "This is VERY real. This new policy that was recently adopted by our local YMCA in WA allows for people to use whatever locker room they self-identify with. Just two weeks ago a boy around the age of 13 walked right into the girls side of the women's locker room. All he did was sit down and scroll through his phone. Little girls where surprised when they came in from showering with their towels wrapped around them to see him sitting there. My daughter was one of those girls. This policy opens the door to those who have malicious intent."
What kind of lunacy is this?
Last year, at a Planet Fitness gym in Midland, Michigan, Yvette Cormier was in the ladies' locker room when a man, dressed as a woman, entered the locker room. According to local ABC News, "Cormier, who had been a Planet Fitness member for two months, said she went to the front desk immediately. The man at the desk told her that Planet Fitness policy is 'whatever gender you feel you are, that's the locker room you're allowed to go in,'" she said.
When Cormier warned other members about the Planet Fitness policy, her own membership was revoked.
Even more alarming, in 2012, in Olympia, Washington, female high school students sharing a college campus swimming pool were shocked to see a naked, 45-year-old male student who identifies as "Colleen" sitting in their sauna. (The police report stated that "she" was exposing "her male genitalia.")
The girls were traumatized and the parents outraged, but college officials said they could not do anything because of state policies against gender-identity discrimination: "'The college has to follow state law,' Evergreen spokesman Jason Wettstein told ABC News affiliate KOMO. 'The college cannot discriminate based on the basis of gender identity. Gender identity is one of the protected things in discrimination law in this state.'"
Adding to the insanity is the fact that it was subsequently discovered online that Colleen also identifies as a lesbian and is strongly attracted to women, in other words, just like most heterosexual males. Yet it is perfectly legal for Colleen to sit in a sauna with naked teenage girls.
Who can possibly justify abuses like this?
Last October, The HuffPost reported, "The University of Toronto (U of T) is temporarily changing its policy on gender-neutral bathrooms after two reports of voyeurism in a student residence.
"Two women showering in Whitney Hall, a residence at U of T's University College, reported they saw a cellphone reach over the shower-stall dividers in an attempt to record them, in two different incidents, police Const. Victor Kwong told The Toronto Star."
But of course. Is anyone surprised?
Recently, before speaking at a chapel service for a Christian middle school and high school, I stopped in the restroom, which, I discovered, was in the elementary school wing of the building.
As I walked out, three little boys walked in, perhaps 6 years old.
I thought to myself, "How could any adult possibly think that it is fair to these little boys to have a confused little girl use their bathroom, or a confused little boy use the girls' room? And how could any adult possibly think that it was fine for a confused (or opportunistic) teenage boy to share a locker room with teenage girls?"
Yet in schools across the nation, this is hardly a theoretical question. In fact, in an extraordinary example of government overreach, last November a headline announced: "Department of Education orders school to allow boys to use girls' locker rooms, showers."
It's time we say, "Enough!"
I urge every man or woman of conscience and decency to stand against these laws while, at the same time, working to help those who are gender-confused get to the root of their struggles.
This social madness must stop.

Messages From Heaven: Testimonial Evidence: Witness Statements!

Messages From Heaven: Testimonial Evidence: Witness Statements!: In the days before cameras were allowed in courtrooms, we depended on artists like Walt Stewart to attend the trials with sketchpads, c...

Testimonial Evidence: Witness Statements!

In the days before cameras were allowed in courtrooms, we depended on artists like Walt Stewart to attend the trials with sketchpads, capturing the electrifying moments for news organizations. Stewart’s first assignment was the trial of Jack Ruby, who was accused of shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. He depicted on his sketchpad the dramatic scene when the prosecutor, facing the jury, said about Oswald, “Whatever he did, he was entitled to be tried before a judge and jury.” Then whirling around to the defendant, he pointed a finger at Ruby and said, “Just like you.”
Suppose you were on trial, accused of being a Christian. If the prosecuting attorney assembled a group of your friends to testify against you, would there be any dramatic moments? Would they whirl and point their finger at you?
God has always had a handful of people whose lives were so uniquely different that the world easily “convicted” them of being Christians. We’re always on display, whether we realize it or not. Romans 14:7 says, For none of us lives to himself.
In his book, Ten Mistakes Parents Make with Teenagers, Jay Kesler describes a conversation he had with a young lady at a Youth for Christ summer camp in Ohio. She told a sordid story of long-term abuse in a dysfunctional home. As they talked, Jay noticed that the girl’s wrists were scarred, and he asked her about it. She admitted that she had tried to kill herself.
“Why didn’t you do it?” Jay asked.
“Well, I got to thinking,” said the girl, “We have a youth pastor at our church—”
At first, Jay thought he was going to hear an ugly story about her getting involved with some youth pastor. But that wasn’t it at all. She said, “He’d just gotten married before he came to our church, and I’ve been watching him. When he’s standing in line in church behind his wife, he squeezes her right in church. They look at each other, and they hug each other right in our church. One day I was standing in the pastor’s study, looking out the window and the youth pastor walked his wife out into the parking lot. Now there was only one car in the parking lot; nobody was around; nobody was looking.  And that guy walked all the way around the car and opened the door and let her in. Then he walked all the way around and got in himself. And there was nobody even looking.?”
Jay thought that was a nice story, but he couldn’t make a connection between that, her problems at home, or attempted suicide. So he asked why this was so significant.
She replied, “Well, I just got to thinking that all men must not be like my dad, huh?” Then she said, “Jay, do you suppose our youth pastor’s a Christian?”
“Yes,” Jay said, “I think he probably is.”
“Well, that’s why I came tonight,” she said. “I want to be a Christian, too.”
She wanted to be a Christian simply because she saw a man being respectful to his wife even when nobody was looking. That’s the power of a consistent life.
An unknown author once wrote:

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day.

I’d rather one would walk with me than merely show the way.

The eye’s a better pupil and much sharper than the ear.

Fine counsel can confuse me, but example’s always clear.

The lectures you deliver may be very wise and true,

But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do.

Many unbelievers don’t attend church because of “all the hypocrites there.” Perhaps we’re all guilty of hypocrisy to some extent, for none of us is perfect. There aren’t any perfect churches here below. We don’t live as consistently and perfectly as our great example, Jesus Christ. But we should be trying. We should be maturing. We should be growing. And we should increasingly be learning to “walk the talk.”
It’s said that one day St. Francis of Assisi invited one of his young assistants at the monastery to go with him into town to preach. The novice was delighted to be singled out as Francis’ companion. The two men passed through the main streets, turned down many of the byways and alleys, made their way into the suburbs, and at great length returned by a circuitous route to the monastery gate. As they approached it, the younger man reminded Francis of his original intention. “You have forgotten, Father, that we went to the town to preach!”
“My son,” Francis replied, “we have preached. We were preaching while we were walking. We have been seen by many; our behavior has been closely watched; it was thus that we preached our morning sermon. It is of no use, my son, to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere as we walk.?”?
It reminds us of the old poem by Paul Gilbert that says:

You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day,

By the deeds that you do, by the words that you say;

Men read what you write, whether faithless or true.

Say—what is the gospel according to you?       

What can you do to improve the chances of your being “convicted” of being a follower of Jesus Christ?
Start each day by rededicating yourself to Him, asking Him to guide your thoughts, words, and actions during that day. Bishop Taylor Smith (1860-1937), British commanding army chaplain, once wrote: “As soon as I awake each morning I rise from bed at once. I dress promptly. I wash myself, shave and comb my hair. Then fully attired, wide-awake and properly groomed, I go quietly to my study. There, before God Almighty and Christ my King, I humbly present myself as a loyal subject to my Sovereign, ready and eager to be of service to Him for the day.”
Then enter each day with a joyful attitude. Our Christian faith shows up on our faces. Remember the exhortation of 1 Peter 3:15: But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. In other words, our most effective witness comes when others have seen the hope and joy that radiate from our lives.
It might also be helpful to imagine that a film crew was following you throughout the day with television cameras, watching for you to “blow it” as a Christian. Guard against such moments. Recognize the damage you could do to your testimony by uttering that word, looking at that magazine, listening to that joke, or snapping at that employee.

We are the only Bible a careless world will read;

We are the sinner’s gospel; we are the scoffer’s creed;

We are the Lord’s last message, given in deed and word;

What if the type is crooked; what if the print is blurred?

                                                —Author Unknown
When you do fail as a Christian, be quick to admit it and apologize. Recently a Christian father lost his temper with his children while trying to get them ready for church. He yelled at them, slamming his fist on the table and creating a frightful scene. As it happened that day, the sermon was about the importance of a father’s influence. Afterward, this man gathered his kids and said to them, “This morning I failed God and I failed you by losing my temper. I’m not a perfect man, but I try to live as I should each day. This morning I didn’t do very well, and I’m sorry. I’ve confessed it to God and asked for His forgiveness, and I’d like to ask for your forgiveness, too.”
It was a moment his children would remember for a long time.
Finally, be growing each day as a Christian. The Lord wants to perfect what concerns you (Psalm 138:8). He desires your being increasingly conformed into His image, so that your testimony will grow increasingly effective. Daily Christian growth is a matter of staying in the Bible, praying, trusting, and obeying.
The Bible says, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). That’s a solemn command. Someone’s eyes are on you, and you may be the only Gospel they will ever see. If they keep watching for evidence of your Christianity, will there be enough to reach a verdict?
May we all be found “guilty as charged.”

Messages From Heaven: What’s the Point of Praying?

Messages From Heaven: What’s the Point of Praying?: As a pastor, I’ve met a lot of believers over the years who ask a simple, but honest question: If God knows what He’s going to do, what’s ...

What’s the Point of Praying?

As a pastor, I’ve met a lot of believers over the years who ask a simple, but honest question: If God knows what He’s going to do, what’s the point of praying?
 If I’m near a pen and paper, I answer that question by drawing a diagram. At the top is the throne of God, and at the bottom are followers of Christ. On the right-hand side is a steady stream of plans that God wishes to accomplish on earth, and on the left-hand side is a steady stream of prayers being prayed to God.
What I show in my diagram is that prayer is really a loop that begins and ends with God. Our heavenly Father, by His Spirit, places requests and petitions on our hearts, only for us to then offer them back to Him. What begins in heaven returns to heaven through the mysterious power of prayer. In this way, prayer is not working to change our Father’s mind. It’s instead finding the mind of God!
[Pull Quote] Prayer is not working to change our Father’s mind. It’s instead finding the mind of God!
 When you and I pray, we invite the nearness of God. We lean into the warm embrace of our Father. We accept with open arms the good gifts He desires to bestow. And oh, how good those gifts are! Let’s not forget the words of Jesus in Luke 11:11-13:
 “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
 Our Father longs to give us the desires of our heart when those desires align with His will. “No good thing will he withhold from them who walk uprightly,” Psalm 84 promises. In the same way an earthly father wishes to bless his children, not curse them, our heavenly Father says we can rest assured that there are no serpents or scorpions headed our way.
[Pull Quote] Our Father longs to give us the desires of our heart when those desires align with His will.
 Think about it this way: Let’s say my grandson, Ian, scurries up a tree and is hanging from a limb positioned very high from the ground. Just when he starts to wonder how on earth he’s going to get down, he sees me walk by. “Daddy Jack!” he hollers. “Daddy Jack! Help me!”
I crane my neck skyward to find Ian swinging precariously from a tall branch and know if I don’t do something to intervene, the little guy is probably going to fall and hurt himself. Now, do you think I’m going to take stock of Ian’s behavior before I offer him a helping hand? “Ian, hold on just a second,” I could say. “Let me check your latest report card first. Let me have a talk with your mom and dad to be sure you’re deserving of my assistance here.”  Of course not! Even in my imperfect, sinful state, if a member of my family is in need of my help, I will move heaven and earth to provide it.
 And the same is true for our God. When we are sick, He loves to heal us. When we are hungry, He loves to provide food. When we are hanging from a tree limb, there’s nothing He loves to do more than to carry us safely back to the ground. This is the God we serve, my friend, the God who longs to give us the desires of our hearts when we find His will through prayer.

Messages From Heaven: Is It Too Late to Make a Difference?

Messages From Heaven: Is It Too Late to Make a Difference?: Some people still believe that sooner or later we will make this world a safe place, there will be peace on earth, and we will do it by ...

Is It Too Late to Make a Difference?

Some people still believe that sooner or later we will make this world a safe place, there will be peace on earth, and we will do it by human ingenuity. Some Christians may think the preaching of the Gospel will do that. However, that is not the job given to the Gospel! Now, I don't want to disillusion you, but I don't want you to have illusions, either.

The Gospel was never given to save civilization from wreckage.

The Gospel was given to save men from the wreckage of civilization.

I hope you are both encouraged by the freedom we have in Jesus Christ and challenged by the responsibility we carry. Every believer sensitive to spiritual matters knows our nation is in serious trouble.
Many feel that history as we know it is coming to a climax. Some say we’re seeing foreshocks of Armageddon. There’s no question we’re in a moral free fall. Soon we will hit bottom and there will be no repair. America will become a moldy crust in history’s landfill if something radical and dramatic is not done quickly.
Does this bring fear to your heart? It shouldn't, for we can rest knowing God is the Author of hope, and we can stand surefooted on His unshaken sovereignty, His Word, and His Kingdom! America's first line of defense is not the government nor the military, but God Himself.
Concerned Christians are rightly asking, what should we be doing to help bring our nation back to God?
First, let me say it's not too late. Turn to Psalm 80 and read the entire psalm prayerfully. God is speaking about the nation Israel. Psalm 80 is the prayer of a patriot, praying for national revival. Note especially verse 14:
“Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine [Israel]; And the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself.”
Our hope lies solely in God's mercy.

We Must Look Up

 

“Turn us again, O Lord God of Hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” Psalm 80:19                                                                                          

We need to look to God with fasting, praying and weeping, an old-fashioned revival in the heart of our nation. God doesn't route revival through Washington. Revival must come from within every individual heart.
We Need to ‘Fess Up
“If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 Did you know that prayer from an unrepentant people is an insult to Almighty God? Religion without righteousness is repugnant.  In May we held a day of prayer where even Washington politicians gathered to pray. Yet the cesspools of iniquity are full and running over. We spend six days a week sowing wild oats and Sunday praying for crop failure. So much of our praying is “God bless us. Just bless us, anyhow.” But God is not going to do that. We must confess and turn from our wicked ways.
We Must Speak Up
“Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the Son of Man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself” Psalm 80:17
Clearly and strongly, in the name of Jesus, we must speak up. Some would say, “Sounds like you're trying to mix politics and religion.” No. The church is not the master of the state, nor is the church the servant of the state. The church is the conscience of the state. We need to speak up and say what God's Word says. Satan's strategy is to keep good people silent in evil times.
We Must Stand Up

Finally, we must stand up bravely.

“So will not we go back from Thee: quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name.” Psalm 80:18  “One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you, as He hath promised you.” Joshua 23:10

When they tell us to go back under a rock, we must reply, “Never! We stand on The Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ!” We don't have to have great numbers. Our Savior began His ministry when He was just thirty years old with twelve men. It's time God's people were filled with an unshakeable resolve.
It's time we said, “Oh God, give us deliverance!” We have the Word, our weapon for battle. We have Jesus, our commander. The Holy Spirit is our ally. Victory is ours through the Man of God's right hand, Jesus Christ.