New Life, by Sonia Doyle

 My life before Jesus was a life of pain, confusion, and personal destruction. Through faith in Jesus, I entered a spiritual, personal relationship with God and discovered a new way to live.

I love spring! It’s wonderful, after a long, grey winter, to feel the gentle warmth of the sun and see the first signs of new life. Often, it seems to me that winter will never end but spring reminds me that death in winter is only, a part of the cycle of life and life is much more powerful than death. Spring reminds me of the new life Jesus has given me. Before I believed in Jesus, or understood who He is, and what that means for me, I belonged to death. Death frightened me and I understood it to be the ultimate end of all things. The only life I experienced was painful and confusing, with a few moments of pleasure here and there. Because I was afraid of death and suffered because of the pain it governed me by, I gave my life over to death. No little girl dreams of growing up and becoming a drug addict but the forces that shaped me and the choices I made in response to those forces, led me directly, to that destination. Every day, I ingested a little death, in the form of drugs, to cope with the emotional pain, that enabled death to rule my life. I was caught up in a cycle of death that left me with no hope for my future. Even though death was crushing me, I longed for death to swallow me whole. I was a child of winter and I didn’t believe that spring would ever come.

Dancing In Celebration Of Life!

It is normal, when in pain, to want something to take that pain away and quick! People become drug addicts in response to pain. There is nothing like a childhood filled with physical illness and abuse to leave a person crippled, with emotional pain. I was such a person. Abuse by others in my childhood, taught me to abuse myself. Others abused me in order to make themselves feel better so, I abused myself in hopes of making myself feel better, even if it were only, for a few hours, at a time. Yet, I didn’t understand myself as an abused child, or even as a self-abuser. I thought the life I experienced was normal life and I didn’t think there would ever be anything better for me. I was so overwhelmed by my emotional pain, that I seldom noticed beauty in the world. Death was like a dark cloud that enveloped my mind, heart, and soul. The drugs I loved were those that deadened pain by sending me drifting into a netherworld, where time didn’t exist, and nothing was required of me. In my condition, the best feeling was feeling nothing. These drugs were the love of my young life and even though they nearly took my life, I responded to my near-death experiences by reaching for more drugs. I saw death as an extension of that nothingness that felt better than my excruciating, emotional pain and I dreamed of it. I wasn’t afraid of death, anymore because I was part of it.

I was a young woman shattered into a million pieces, by the time I was nineteen years old. I was bitter, jaded, and inwardly, an old woman before my time. Physically, I was sicker than ever and spiritually, I was dead. As a small child, I’d always believed there was a God but I didn’t know Who He was or what He was. I’d dabbled in mysticism, as that was a part of the popular culture built around hallucinogenic drugs, but I never figured out what God was or who He was. I of course, knew about Jesus but I didn’t have a clue as to Who He is or what His life and death could possibly, mean to me. At that point in my life, I was at bottom and I would either die or begin to reach up. I was introduced to Jesus and understood that He had the power to save me so, I reached up to Jesus, in faith. I was no longer spiritually dead. I was spiritually alive, because I believed in Jesus and received eternal life. Actually, I understood very little of that in Biblical terms but I experienced it as being filled with life and for the first time, hope. Everything, lit up and became new. I was suddenly, aware of the beauty of life surrounding me and I no longer longed for death. I wanted more life! I also, began to want to live a different kind of life than the life I’d always, known. I wanted to live a life that pleased God.

Some people say that the Christian faith is so etherial that it isn’t practical, but Jesus has always met me where the rubber meets the road. The gift of faith in Jesus, that I received as a gift from God, is the most practical force available to me in my life. Faith in Jesus, opened the way for me to enter into a personal, spiritual relationship with God, that is the source of strength and guidance that enabled me to change my life and live a very different kind of life than the one my childhood prepared me for. My Heavenly Father is a great dad. He provides for me, loves me unconditionally, teaches me, and patiently, guides me into all knowledge of Him. He created me for a special purpose and enables me to fulfill that purpose. I am no longer tossed by circumstances, on a path that leads to the ultimate conclusion of death. I no longer belong to death. I am a child of the Living God, the Author of Life, and I belong to life.

Since Jesus, my life hasn’t been without pain. Even though I now belong to life, I still live in a world governed by death and I experience the pain that is common to all people, who live beneath death’s shadow. The difference is the condition of my soul. Because I have received the gift of eternal life that comes by faith in, Jesus, my soul has become eternal. Death can cause me physical pain but it can no longer, destroy me. Because of this, I’m no longer defeated by the things that once drove me to addiction and a deep longing for ultimate nothingness in death. I am empowered to conquer evil  and overcome the obstacles set against me.  By faith, through pursuit of the truth, and faithful application of truth, I have learned to overcome my emotional pain. Jesus is the example I have followed, in learning how to live a victorious life. As long as I live in this present world, I am faced with struggles, but I am assured of ultimate victory through the power of life. I accept this ultimate assurance because of the battles God has enabled me to win. Truly, “faith is the victory that overcomes the world”. Not faith in anything, but faith in Jesus, the only, Son of God and Son of Man. My personal Savior and also, the Savior of the world. The only one to die and live again. Thereby, He earned the right to offer eternal life to all who believe in Him. Jesus won this victory by living a perfect, sinless life, in service to His Father.  He enables those who are His to also, learn to serve only God, from the heart. I believe that in the promised, perfect world to come, I will wake up and be just like Jesus. A child of God, able to obey God perfectly. This is the desire and the goal of my life. This is the heart of the new life that Jesus gave me. Joy in the midst of suffering and rejoicing in the midst of pain; because the present world is vanishing and a new, more perfect world is yet, to come. It is the meek, not the rich and powerful, who will inherit the earth and it will be ruled directly, by God. Peace and life will reign in place of pain and death.  That is the hope I have for the future and it is a hope worth living for!

Grown Up Too Soon

Sex-education in public schools and services offered to minors, by Planned Parenthood, are for insuring that children don’t engage in unsafe sex or face an unwanted pregnancy. However, neither of these methods have succeeded and in some ways, they promote the sexual abuse of children.

Our culture is toxic for children and it is important for parents and grandparents, to work overtime in protecting their children from engaging in sexual activity before they are mature enough to do so. It is also, necessary to protect them from sexual predators, as they are an ever-increasing threat to children. It is important for children to be informed about sex but in this culture of undefined sexual morality, children need help in establishing healthy boundaries around sexual activity and relationships. Children must be taught to value and honor themselves, by honoring their bodies and emotional health. The problem with sex education in the public schools is that information is offered, but none of it is offered within moral guidelines and in the popular culture, almost all sexual activity is tolerated. What is not tolerated is stating unequivocally, that sex is wrong outside of moral boundaries. Children are bombarded with sexual images and behaviors through media and this coupled with the morally, unfiltered information they receive in school, puts a great deal of pressure on young people to become sexually active. Children are also, pressured to discover their orientation and consider the possibility of becoming a transgendered person. Children find themselves overwhelmed by information because they lack the maturity and wisdom to filter it. Sex has always been an important part of personal identity but today, sexual identity is blown out of proportion and seen as the sum of an individual. Also in many ways, sex has been removed from its natural context and accompanying, natural boundaries. It is no longer presented to children as an act that bonds a man and woman, emotionally and permanently. Thereby, forming the foundation for creating and raising a family. By removing the natural consequence of pregnancy,through birth control and abortion, to many people, sex has become little more than a recreational activity. The only guidelines that many children are receiving for sexual activity, is in what birth control to use, how to use it, and how to prevent the spread of disease. Sex education is a powerful tool in the hands of social engineers who want to destroy the traditional family unit and they are enjoying great success, at the expense of the physical, emotional, and psychological well-being of our children. Safe sex should be emotionally safe as well as physically safe. The bond between a man and a woman, along with the family formed as a result of that bond, is sacred.

Sexually Exploited Teenager

“It’s inevitable that teenagers will have sex so, we must make sure they know about safe sex.” This is the mantra used to bring sex education into the public schools. It is also, the accepted notion that has made it possible for Planned Parenthood to offer reproductive services to underaged girls, without notifying parents or guardians. Parents have been stripped of their rights to decide if their child should take birth control pills, or receive an abortion. Planned Parenthood not only disables parents, it enables, ephebophiles, hebephiles, pimps, and those who traffick children for sexual abuse, in abusing those children, by supplying the children being abused and exploited, with the necessary, reproductive services. As a teenager who was led away from home by a predator, I know first-hand that this is true. In the first few days that I was in the custody of this man, I was taken to Planned Parenthood for birth control pills. There was no need for me to lie about my situation and at that time, I didn’t know it was wrong for a man more than ten years older than myself, to ‘be in love’ with a teenaged girl. The women I talked to at Planned Parenthood were well aware of my situation and not only, did they not report it to the police, they didn’t even seek to educate me about the situation I was in. I came from a troubled home and this man had promised me escape and a safe haven. I believed him when he said he loved me because I was desperate to be loved. In those first few days, when I was taken to Planned Parenthood, intervention by an adult could have saved me from being the victim of a crime and a long ordeal that shattered me emotionally, changed the course of my life forever, and became a source of life-long pain. Even though my parents didn’t seek to intervene, intervention, by another adult and the law, could have forced them to take some kind of action. The truth is, I was exactly the kind of person that Margaret Sanger, a devout believer in eugenics, was thinking of when she founded her clinic. Though Planned Parenthood is promoted as being about protecting the rights of women, this wasn’t Ms. Sanger’s top consideration. It wasn’t the main consideration when I was a teenager and women’s rights are not what Planned Parenthood is about, today. Planned Parenthood was founded as a means of performing negative eugenics, (the science that teaches that human beings can play an active, directive role in human evolution) for the purpose of ensuring that low-class, undesirables don’t procreate. Margaret Sanger believed that eliminating lower class persons from the gene-pool would improve society. I wasn’t the first unwanted child to be protected from having an unwanted child. However my rights, as a female child, were never considered and Planned Parenthood aided my abusers, in stripping me of personal control over my body. The predator who had me in his possession, was enabled to make sure that his new toy wouldn’t produce any difficult consequences, like becoming pregnant. It didn’t matter that in many ways, I was still a baby and in great need of adult intervention and proper, loving supervision. I know the same kind of thing happens to millions of girls, today.

I didn’t have sex-education in school, but I do know from experience, what it is like to be educated about sex without being taught to honor myself, value myself, and require others to treat me with dignity. I know how information about sex without healthy, moral boundaries prepares a child to be sexually abused. In fact, that is how predators groom children for abuse. They first sexualize their targeted child, by flooding them with sexual information and abuse them, psychologically and emotionally. Teaching children how to use a condom, in a class of both boys and girls, by putting condoms on bananas, is a sexualizing technique. It is emotional, sexual abuse in and of itself and it is common practice in public school, sex-education classes. Most teenaged children know they can obtain birth control, sometimes at school, but certainly, through Planned Parenthood and they know that their parents will never be informed. The truth is that teachers and workers at Planned Parenthood don’t care as much about these children as most of their parents do, and it is abusive to these children to strip them of the parental protection they need. All children have a God-given right to parental protection and that right is sacred. Abortion is a dangerous procedure that has the potential of ending a young girl’s life. It isn’t right for a child to make this kind of medical decision for herself. Abortion also, causes emotional and psychological damage to most girls who have abortions. It is natural for a female to want to nurture and protect her child and it is unnatural for a female to end the life of her unborn child. It is not the kind of decision that a teenaged girl is emotionally, or psychologically, capable of making because she doesn’t have the life experience necessary, to be able to consider all of the consequences. I know many women who are haunted by having abortions as teenagers. Death is never a good solution to any problem and when teenagers have abortions, the life of one child is ended and another child is emotionally and psychologically damaged. Some girls suffer physical harm and even, die. I consider abortions performed on young girls, without the knowledge of their parents, to be extreme child abuse. Just as I consider the lack of intervention by Planned Parenthood workers, when they know a child is being sexually abused and/or exploited, to be an extreme form of child neglect. Workers in family planning clinics, should be legally, required to report suspected cases of child, sexual abuse and exploitation.

Too many children are being sexually abused and as a people, we need to take a serious look at how we are treating our children. As parents, we’ve given government too much control over our children, by abdicating our personal responsibility, in training, educating, and protecting our children. I encourage young parents to take that responsibility back. Government doesn’t make good parents and children are suffering for it. It is very easy for the Foster Care system to become involved in any family it chooses to involve itself with. Parents, grandparents, and other extended family members, have almost no rights when a child is taken into Foster Care. Often, they work through and in tandem with, the Public School system. Very few of us knows what goes on in Foster Care and how powerful social workers are in deciding when a child is being abused. The law is arbitrarily applied, according to the whim of the social worker. I have read that AIDS medications were first tried on children in Foster Care before being given to adult patients. They have also, been used as the subjects of social experiments, in studying the effects of varying forms of family, on children. I have talked to children coming out of this system, who say that they were given behavioral medications, routinely, as a means of control. This is supported by recent reports by Diane Sawyer, a well-known journalist for ABC news. Being a foster parent is considered by some, to be a possible career and an easy way to earn a paycheck. Other foster parents use the system to obtain children to sexually abuse themselves or sell to others, for sexual abuse. There are also, good people in the system, who care about children and open their homes to them for the right reasons. However, the system needs to be more transparent and subject to tough checks and balances. Much more needs to be done, in order to prevent the corruption that is creating a hell for children in a system that is intended as a haven for abused children.

No matter how brilliant our technology, if we don’t treat our children with the respect they deserve, our civilization will crumble. Child abuse affects everyone. We have allowed government to become too big and too involved in our personal lives. They are taking our rights and freedoms, in payment for their services. At this juncture, children are suffering the most but if we don’t change, we all are more likely to suffer, as they are suffering now. We need to return to the values that made us a great people. We need to return to strong, healthy morality and clear concepts of right and wrong. Our system won’t change if we remain the same. We must become non-compliant with evil and do what is necessary to protect children and that includes protecting them from morally, unfiltered information in sex-ed classes. Parents have to fight for the right to protect their children from Planned Parenthood and their enabling of girls in becoming sexually active too soon. Planned Parenthood absolutely, must not be allowed to enable child predators or coerce underaged girls into making medical decisions without  guidance from their parents.  If child abuse is to become less common, we must all cease to be passive when children are being abused. We must be brave and speak truth to power. We must stand for what is right even, when it isn’t politically correct or popular. There is little hope for abused children, in politics. Americans have traditionally lived by the motto “In God We Trust” but we have allowed big-government-power-seekers, to alter that motto and replace our it with “In Government We Trust”. Government continually, proves itself to be untrustworthy. We have to return to trusting God to fill our needs and start doing the right thing. It is the only way to create a culture that nurtures and protects our children and it is the only way to keep our civilization from crumbling. If we are to save our children and ourselves, we must turn our hearts towards our children and fight for them, with every fiber of our being.

Jesus! The Conquering King!

Religion works from without and conforms adherents to its standards. Jesus works within believers and transforms sinners into obedient,children of God.

I John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

There is only one Biblical religion and that is the Jewish religion, which God gave the children of Israel to practice. Everything about that religion, prophesies of the Messiah and reflects his character. The Jewish religion is the form of godliness that Jesus fulfilled. The Jewish religion was not burdensome for Jesus because it is His nature to live the commandments that God gave His children to live by. The life Jesus lived on earth was a living example of what the Jewish holy days and festivals established, as those things hoped for by the Jewish people. Jesus fulfilled many prophesies and the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of Him. Jesus still lives and prophecies are still being fulfilled by Him and that will continue until Jesus delivers the creation back to His Father, free from the corruption of sin and death. Since Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the only Biblical religion, there is no longer any need for religion because all that religion promises, is available to all who are willing to believe in Jesus as their personal savior from sin.

The Lion Of Judah!

There are many religions in the world and they serve an important role in controlling the behavior of human beings. We all need a moral compass to help us make healthy decisions for ourselves and those we love. Religion serves the purpose of conforming individuals to a standard of right and wrong, that makes civilization possible. Religion is the foundation and the binding agent of culture. No successful civilization was built without that foundation and every human civilization has crumbled when the people cease to uphold the values of their common religion. Laws and regulations are legislated morality and those laws have no teeth when the people they govern, no longer hold the morality from which they were forged. This is the basic problem of religion, it has the power to conform individuals but it doesn’t have the power to change the hearts of individuals. Outward obedience is helpful in containing destructive, human emotions, thoughts, and actions but it can do nothing to change the nature of human beings.  Religion attempts to make people holy but this is impossible to accomplish by imposing rituals, morals, and celebrations, on people whose inward desires remain unchanged. Even the Jewish religion, which came directly from God, is unable to change the inward nature of human beings. There is no greater example of this fact than that of the Pharisees whom Jesus said, were like whited coffins filled with the bones of dead men. God knew the religion he gave the children of Israel was powerless in making them holy but He gave that religion to them so they would be able to recognize Jesus as the true Son of God and Son of Man.

Religion is often perverted by religious leaders who seek personal power. It is natural for people to seek power because we live in a dangerous, violent world and those with power are afforded more protection than those without power. Religion is a powerful tool in the hands of such persons because they are empowered by traditions that the people hold as sacred. People are prone to trust those who say they represent God. When religion also, enjoys political power, being banned from that religious organization can be highly detrimental to individuals, within the culture formed around said religion. In such countries, religious leaders have more power than political leaders. Power is able to corrupt all people by giving them more control and wealth than any human being is capable of handling. People who hold absolute power over others, begin to think of themselves as gods, whether or not they possess godlike attributes as part of their nature. The Catholics and the Ottomans once, held this kind of power, on a global scale, and from it came torture, murders, and wars as atrocious as the world has ever seen. Even in modern times, those in religious offices of power, who seek greater power, use religion to incite their followers to commit violence against others, in the name of their god. Though religion, in and of itself, isn’t harmful and is a necessary part of human civilization, it becomes an agent of death when perverted by leaders who use it as a tool to gain personal power and wealth.

Jesus didn’t come to earth to establish a new religion. He practiced the Jewish religion that His people had received from God. In fact, He lived that religion as no other human being as ever been able to live it. Jesus was not a Jew who practiced outward obedience. Jesus is the true Son of God and He obeyed God from the heart. This didn’t stop those who held power through religion from seeking to discredit Jesus and eventually, have Him put to death. It was the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, who knew their religious power was threatened by Him and made sure that Jesus was executed as a criminal. They recognized Jesus as the Messiah and as the true Mediator between God and human beings. They knew that if the people knew they could go to God directly, through faith in Jesus, they would no longer be necessary and would lose their power and their wealth. The fact that Jesus didn’t come to establish a new religion also, didn’t stop power seekers from constructing new religions in Jesus’  Name. There are many different Christian religions in the world, today but there remains only One Jesus, the only Mediator between God and man. Christian religions aren’t necessary for establishing or enjoying a personal relationship with God.

Faith in Jesus has the power to do what religion can’t do, change the hearts of those who believe. When a person accepts Jesus as their Savior from sin, the Holy Spirit begins to live in them and this is where true transformation takes place. People who practice a religion but have no faith in Jesus and no spiritual relationship with God, are as spiritually dead to God as any Atheist because the Spirit of God is not in them. Though they may work very hard at their religion and struggle with the burden of keeping their religious code, without faith in Jesus, they remain spiritually dead to God and their religion is powerless to give them spiritual rebirth. No one who is spiritually dead can know God because God is Spirit and only those who are spiritual can commune with Him. The only way to become spiritual, is to believe in Jesus and invite Him into your life and this can only be done when the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man. It is the Holy Spirit that causes believers to feel remorse for the sins they’ve committed and turn to God for relief. Repentance is the first sign of the change of heart that marks the children of God. The Holy Spirit changes natural human desires to Godly desires. When a believer wants what God wants, they are empowered to keep the commandments of God and it is natural for them to keep them. The Ten Commandments are Spiritual and only believers who have been made spiritual, will love them and want to keep them. To such persons, God’s Ways aren’t burdensome and they are no longer a religion that demands outward conformity. It is the Holy Spirit of God that transforms believers from the inside out.

Faith in Jesus is a process and no believer is perfect in the same way that Jesus was perfect when He walked the earth. However, no Christian is happy living according to the selfish desires common to human hearts. Believers still sin but they can’t sin and be happy doing so because the Holy Spirit will not give them rest. The mark of a true believer, is that of a person who is quick to confess to their sins and continues to battle against them, while also, continuing to live for God. Obedience brings peace and happiness to those who love Jesus and seek to be made like Him. Those who belong to Jesus love Him because He loved them first and set them free from the penalty of death, that all of us earn by the sins we commit. Believers are free to live for God and that liberty is expressed through the love that they have for others. True faith is not expressed by how one practices any Christian religion but by the way one lives. The true Christian faith is not for Sunday’s only, but is a way of life. The life of a believer is a life lived in service to God for the benefit of mankind.

We are approaching a holiday that Christian religions hold dear and it is a time when many flood churches, in response to the religious traditions of our culture. It is a holiday that was once enjoyed by Pagans and when they were converted to Catholicism, those religious leaders allowed the people to keep that holiday, while attempting to change the meaning of it. As a believer, to whom all days are much alike, with every day being a day set aside for the worship and service of my God, I will do my best to honor Jesus during this holiday.  I will not fill this day with religious traditions but instead, I will seek to live that day in a way which brings glory to my God and honors Jesus, Who has made all religions obsolete. In Him, I have available to me, the mighty power of God, that isn’t like human power that raises one sinful man in authority above another sinful man. In Jesus there is transforming power, that is working to change this very, sinful woman into a true child of God, who will be just like Jesus when that process is complete. Jesus is the only one who conquered death and rose to live again. Thereby, earning the right to freely, offer eternal life to all, who believe in the Only Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the Only Mediator between God and man. Every day is Resurrection Day and every day, I have that resurrection power continually, available to me. The power that enables me to overcome the world through faith in Jesus. Through Him, all things will be accomplished, as the same transforming process taking place in me, will someday, transform the world!

The Modern Holocaust Against Children

Maggie Tuttle is a dedicated grandmother in Great Britain, who is also, an advocate for abused children in the Foster Care System that often, subjects those children to further abuse. Maggie’s fight takes place in England but it is a global problem and children are in great need of people like Maggie who works tirelessly, on their behalf.

The website, Children Screaming To Be Heard at www.childrenscreamingtobeheard.com is dedicated to helping children who are lost within the Foster Care systems that were designed to help and protect abused children. Those systems, in many cases, have become the monsters they were supposed to defend children from. These systems can’t survive and provide jobs for government workers if there are too few abused children. This results in children being taken into the system when there are better alternatives for them. Children are also, in high demand for sexual abuse and are valuable merchandise for those willing to obtain and sell children to adults for their personal gratification. This is a huge problem in Great Britain and Europe but it is also, a problem in the United States. Few people know what goes on inside the Foster Care System and this makes it a perfect system to corrupt for the purpose of trafficking children, on a global scale. Though few people seem to be aware of how millions of children are being abused in their homes and also, in the government programs, and charities designed to serve them, it is a problem that affects us all. Children are the future and their personal destruction means the eventual, destruction of our civilization. All good people have the responsibility of making child abuse unacceptable in our society and also, to make sure that children aren’t merchandised as slaves in the underground global-sex-trade.

Maggie Tuttle is a woman who isn’t afraid to fight city hall and Maggie fights to win. Below, I am sharing a You-Tube video featuring, Maggie, as she discusses the plight of today’s children and the safe houses for abused children that she is working to establish. I hope you will take the time to watch this video and also, consider what part you might be able to play in ending the silent holocaust that is taking place against children. All baby boomer parents and grandparents have the potential of becoming a voice for children, who have no voice at all. Follow this link to Maggie’s video. https://www.youtube.com:443/watch?v=oQiuI9yJwRw

The Devotion Of Mary Magdalene

Jesus not only, called Mary Magdalene to salvation but also, chose her to become part of His inner circle. By doing so, Jesus fulfilled the purpose of God, in having mercy upon those upon whom society regards as less than human in value and beyond hope of reformation. Jesus hates prostitution but Jesus loves prostitutes.

There is no lower station in society than that of prostitute.  This was true during the time when Jesus walked the earth and it is still true, today. Religious people, those who claim to represent God, probably bear the most responsibility in how society views prostitutes. I hate prostitution and I believe that Jesus hates it too but I know that Jesus loves prostitutes, in the same way that He loved Mary Magdalene. Mary returned that great love with deep gratitude and devotion to Jesus, the first person who treated her as a human being, equal in value to all other human beings.

Love & Gratitude

In Jesus, there is no male or female and there is no Greek or Jew. In Jesus, there is equality and that equality is extended to those whom the world holds in degradation. No one is born wanting to be a prostitute. There may be a few women and men who make that decision as an adult, but most prostitutes were sexually abused as children and then used as prostitutes during their teenage years. These children, grow up to have no other value for themselves besides that of their sexual performance and their ability to please others, sexually. It is the means by which they make their way in the world and their self-worth is built around their ability to perform sexually, upon demand, no matter how they may feel about the person making that demand. Growing up in this kind of life, a life of abuse, leaves prostituted children with few choices when they become adults. The kind of abuse they are raised in, leaves them suffering from mental illnesses and addictions. No one can do what prostitutes do without suffering damage. Mary Magdalene fit into this category and though, the religious people of her day despised her, (as most religious people and others who hold respectable positions despise prostitutes) Jesus elevated her to equal status with His disciples and others who comprised His inner circle. Mary Magdalene was chosen to deliver a special message and there is no time in history, when that message is needed more than now.

Even though, we live during a time when boundariless, sexual morals are widely accepted, people still shun prostitutes and close their eyes to their suffering. We also, live in a time when slavery is making a comeback and most of those slaves are used in what is referred to as the” Sex Industry.” This industry is booming, despite the fact that the greater economy is floundering and it is flourishing in both legal and illegal trade. The people who run this industry use the open sexual morals of our culture to normalize what they do to children, young women, and young men. It is popular to refer to those in their stables as “sex workers”, a politically correct term that divorces prostitution from the horror of its reality. This kind of language promotes tolerance of criminal activity that is very intolerant of human beings, especially children and young women. Prostitution is an ugly business and those who sit at the helm of this industry, use the natural revulsion to prostitution that many people have, as a cover for the crimes they commit. As long as people are willfully blind to the problem, they can carry out their evil work under the noses of decent people without fear of being caught. Very few people have empathy for prostitutes and almost, all people view them as less valuable than other human beings. Jesus loves these prostitutes that the world ignores and tramples. He sees special value in each one. The same value that God places upon every human child, when they are conceived. There is nothing that can be done to a person, to take that value away. It comes directly, from God and isn’t diminished when human beings fail to recognize that inherent value.

The Bible calls promiscuous sex, self-abuse. All abuse is destructive and the boundariless sexual morals of our time, are destroying millions of young lives. Pimps, madams, and human traffickers find many young people easy to prey upon because promiscuity is accepted as normal, by many deceived people. When people don’t value their own dignity, they will not honor the dignity of another. When a person is used as a prostitute, they are allowed no dignity or honor and trying to reclaim that for themselves, by escaping a life of prostitution, often means poverty and even death. Those who run stables of prostitutes see no value in them as human beings. Often, they are treated much worse than a farmer or rancher treats livestock. The only way for a prostituted person to be valued by those who exploit them, is to be highly desirable as an object for sex and thereby, be enabled to bring in more money than the other prostitutes. No human being should be treated and valued as a sex-toy. Sexuality is not the sum of any human being. Jesus saw the value in Mary Magdalene and elevated her as an equal, enabling her to see her true self and also, enabled her to heal from the abuse she suffered as a prostitute. Because of Jesus, Mary Magdalene was given a second chance to live life with dignity.

Jesus’ ministry focused upon elevating those of low social status and viewing them as equals. Jesus is the friend of sinners. He also, often rebuked those who held positions of high social status. Those who received His rebuke most often, were the Pharisees. Those who ruled the people through the power of religion and grew wealthy doing so. Of course, they despised prostitutes as they despised all sinners, while covering their own sins in the trappings of religious, hierarchy. This religious system couldn’t exist if it were not for one person ruling over other persons with lesser power. True equality doesn’t exist in any system of hierarchy. Prostitutes in this system, were not afforded even the status of human being and they had no hope of ever earning equal status with the Pharisees. I would not at all, be surprised if some of these religious men, used prostitutes in secret. I say this because it happens today and human nature never changes. Also, the same pecking order of power that they enjoyed is still in place in modern religious institutions. One of the reasons powerful men show disdain for prostitutes is because those children, women, and young men know about their secret perversions. All prostitutes are sexual abuse victims who are paid (though they may receive only a small portion or none of that money)so that people more powerful than they,can abuse them. As all abuse victims must be kept quiet, in order to protect the abusers, prostitutes are not recognized as having any trustworthiness or capability of telling the truth, because their truth has the power to strip away the veneer of respectability, that those who abuse them possess. When victims speak and their words are proven to be true, powerful men lose their power and fall.

Jesus is the equalizer of all human beings and He didn’t come to earth to establish a new, religious hierarchy. In Jesus, a prostitute is every bit as valuable as the most powerful man in the world. Whether a person gains status in the world by riches, by politics, or by religion, they are all sinners in the eyes of God and no better than any person trapped in a life of prostitution. Those who held religious power in Jesus’ day, were threatened by Him because Jesus is the mediator between God and human beings. In Jesus, there is no need for religious hierarchy. The Pharisees were responsible for having Jesus executed on the cross even though, He committed no crime. There are few people in power who don’t employ evil as a means to gain personal power and maintain that power. The Pharisees were no different and though Jesus had done nothing to be executed for, the Pharisees committed the crime of having the Son of God, the true King of the Jews, the Messiah, put to death so that people wouldn’t go to God directly, but remain dependent upon them and the religious system that empowered them. There are religious leaders today, who do the same. They are most likely to judge and condemn certain groups of people, such as prostitutes, who aren’t likely to be represented in their following, as a means of puffing up the faithful, by making them think they too, have a higher status than those who are regarded as vile sinners. This also, helps maintain the illusion that the religious organization is a safe haven from sinful, human behavior. Religious leaders offer this safety as a way of maintaining control, over the people they lead.

There is no one more useless, than a snobbish Christian. One who cloisters themselves among the religious and looks down on those other worldly sinners, living in sin, outside of the faith. By clinging to religion, rather than to Jesus, they exchange the true power of God for a form of godliness. Their tradition leaves them useless, to reach the world with the Gospel of Christ. Instead of worshiping and serving God, they worship the traditions of their fathers and serve their religious leaders. Sin grows more powerful in the world, every day, while these Christians wring their hands, call it God’s Will, and cower in fear of losing their social status within the church. The only cure is in Jesus and in learning to view others as God views them. It is in treating all others as being equal to ourselves in common, inherent value that believers are enabled to be effective in presenting the gospel in love, as it is meant to be presented. All are sinners and all are valuable to God. If the church is to make a difference in the world, we can’t be like the world that looks down on prostitutes. Prostitutes are hated because prostitutes are the scape-goats of those who have worldly power. Jesus died for our sins, all the sins of everyone. There is no need for anyone to suffer as a scapegoat. When those who have, meet Jesus, they will love him with the grateful devotion that characterizes Mary Magdalene. In this current era, that seems to be growing spiritually darker every day, there is a great need for such devoted, grateful Christians and the field is white for the harvest. There are millions of prostitutes, suffering in a life of abuse and degradation, who need Jesus and the chance to live a new life.

Dear follower of Jesus, in whom Jesus dwells, Jesus loves prostitutes. Do you?

Jesus Values Those Who Are Weak

Though parents are often confused as to how they raised adult children who abuse them, child abuse and elder abuse are the same problem.  Children abuse their parents when they become adults because they were abused as children.

Child abuse comes in many forms. Some parents overtly, abuse their children because it gratifies an emotional need within themselves. They purposely, abuse their children because it makes them feel better. It also, aids them in maintaining power and control in an abusive family system. Other parents passively, abuse their children not because it makes them feel better but because they don’t recognize the dysfunctional behavior as abuse. Both types of parents are abusive to their children because of the abuse they suffered as children. Whether abuse is passive or aggressive, all abuse causes emotional and psychological damage in children. Child abuse and elder abuse are two sides of one problem.

Wrathful Child

Parents teach their child who they are and how to relate to others by the way they respond and relate to their child. Child abuse gives children a warped view of themselves, other people, and society in general. Children who grow up in abusive homes aren’t subjected to one or two instances of abuse instead, they are raised within an abusive family system that creates a toxic atmosphere of abuse. Whatever forms of abuse, whether they be physical, psychological, sexual,or emotional, abuse leaves psychological and emotional scars. Child abuse does much more than hurt the child, it shapes the child during his or her formative years and dictates who that child will become. The more intense and pervading the abuse, the more it damages the child. That child will view much of the abuse they endure as normal and they will grow up to accept abuse and abuse others, including their elders.

Abuse always forces the victim to do something against their will and their conscience. Some children react to this by becoming perpetual victims because their abuse teaches them that abuse is love. They grow up to accept abusive behavior as part of what has to be tolerated, in order to be loved. When these children grow up to become parents, they are very apt to raise abusers because of the way they’ve learned to relate to other people. Many parent who were abused as children and adopt victimhood as their identity, want to raise their children differently than they were raised. However, if they don’t receive the kind of help they need to teach them to have a healthy view of themselves and how to relate to others, they can very well raise children who have the same personality problems that their parents had. This happens because they relate to others in the same way they learned to relate to their parents. It is common for parents who were abused as children, to over-compensate in areas in which they experienced neglect and abuse. It is also, common for survivors to try and fix their childhood through their children. This blinds parents to the true needs of their child and inadvertently, they neglect the needs of their child. When a parent is overly responsible, as is the case with survivors who were scape-goated as children, it translates as controlling, anxious, over-protective behavior, that is abusive to their children. It is possible for survivor parents to feel themselves so responsible for what happens to their child, that they emotionally engulf their child into themselves. When the child misbehaves, it is a threat to the well-being of the parent and instead of the child receiving the correction they need, it becomes all about the parent. By correcting themselves, survivor-parents think that they can correct the problem in their child, because their abusive childhood taught them that they are always the source of the problem. Such parents will also, struggle to meet every need and desire of their child and deny him or her, the opportunity to develop ways of gratifying themselves and taking personal responsibility. Such children can’t help but to grow up to become self-centered tyrants, who expect others to meet all of their needs. This causes the child to be overly, dependent on their parents and they learn to manipulate and work through others to obtain the things they need in life. If a parent, because of ill-health, age, or financial setbacks, is unable to continue to provide what their child needs as an adult, they are likely to find themselves abused by their adult child. The child in these situations, has been taught that they hold the power over the family system and view that family’s function as existing  for the purpose of gratifying all of their needs. These children are likely, to grow up and create family systems in which they hold power and fill their needs through their spouse and children.

There are also, children in abusive homes who aren’t scape-goated and don’t learn to view themselves as victims. Instead, they identify with the abuser, accept abuse as a normal part of life, and seek to prevent themselves from being abused, by manipulating and abusing other people. These survivors of child abuse are often referred to as “the golden child”. Because they are admired for reflecting what the abusive parent wants to see in themselves, they learn to define admiration as love. They adopt the abusive system they were raised within and learn to gratify their needs by using and abusing other people. They are motivated by admiration and must always appear perfect to others. They measure their worth by how much admiration they are able to obtain from others.While victims are forced to act against their conscience by their abuser, the overt abuser makes the conscious decision to act against their own conscience, in ways that enables them to manipulate and abuse others and thereby, gratify their needs. By objectifying other people for the purpose of manipulation and abuse, they numb their conscience and destroy their natural ability to feel empathy for others. When overt abusers choose to abuse, they don’t only abuse their victim, they abuse themselves. They become cold, calculating, monsters who crush and destroy the people they are in relationship with. They often seek positions of power and their self-esteem is dependent upon maintaining power over other people. Exercising control over the people in their personal life is practice for achieving power and control in society. However, these parents are not exempt from being abused later in life by their children. Such survivor-parents may even incite murder in the child whom they have crushed and twisted through manipulation and abuse. Abusive family systems are systems of the strong ruling over the weak and the parent who is strong today, will be weakened by old age and find themselves at the bottom of the pecking order. By this process, they find themselves victims of elder abuse.

Children raised by both types of survivor parents, will continue the cycle of abuse through their own children if they never receive the help they need to rewire their thinking of themselves and how to relate to other people. They may abuse their parents, or they may not but they will never experience a healthy relationship with their parents unless, everyone involved is willing to change. The cycle of abuse is broken by survivors of child abuse who seek out their own healing. The only way to prevent elder abuse in families is to break the cycle of abuse.

People who find themselves abused by their adolescent or adult children, should take whatever steps are necessary to prevent themselves from being abused. An elderly parent who allows their child to abuse them because they feel responsible for damaging their child, damages that child further by not stopping the abuse. However, the victim of elder abuse must also, take responsibility for how they damaged their child and work to change their abusive behavior. People who abuse their children don’t automatically, stop when their children reach a certain age. More likely, the abuse changes form but will continue for as long as the relationship between parent and child continues. Preventing one’s self from being victimized by a child takes courage and a willingness to do what is right. Though many parents who survived child abuse themselves, would like to have a second chance at raising their children, it isn’t possible to go back and change what has already been done. However, it is never too late to seek healing. It is never too late to face the past and reconcile with it. It is never too late to learn to see ourselves and others differently. It is never too late to seek health for ourselves and our loved ones by doing what is necessary to break the cycle of abuse. Child abuse and elder abuse are the same problem and one can’t be ended without also, ending the other. Every abuse survivor must seek healing from the trauma of their abusive childhood and also, face the abuser within. Learning to relate to ourselves and others as Jesus does,  by establishing equal treatment and respect in our relationships, is the key to not only stopping abuse in our families, but also the way to a more abundant life. Shame and guilt give power to abuse in families by enforcing a code of silence that allows the abuse to continue and grow. Just as Jesus set aside His shame for being executed for crimes He didn’t commit, so that the way of reconciliation with God could be opened, so too must survivors of child abuse set aside their shame. Each survivor who despises the shame of abuse in their family and seeks personal healing, opens the way for other family members to do the same. Choosing truth over denial is the only way to break the cycle of abuse.

Jesus Is The Power Of Life Over Death

From the moment we are conceived, we enter into a constant battle with death. Most of the time, we are able to deny that reality but there are events in life, that bring us all face to face with mortality. The only way to conquer death is to reach for life, in Jesus Christ.

Many people who accept Jesus and make Him the Lord of their lives don’t have the stark realization of their choice being one of life vs death. The stark contrast of my choice for eternal life instead of death, was very clear to me because the events that led me to that point, brought me face to face with my mortality. I was only, nineteen years old when I became a follower of Jesus, but I had felt the brush of death as a small child when I had scarlet fever and spent my third year of life in bed. My childhood wasn’t rosy and my teenage years were troubled. Like many troubled children of my generation, I sought comfort in drugs. There is no comfort there, other than the comfort of denial, but denial is a lie that enables what threatens us to do more damage, under cover of darkness. By age eighteen, I no longer had any hope in myself and I didn’t want to live. I purposely, over-dosed and I died. However, a friend came looking for me and the doctors revived me. There were no white lights or visions of Heaven. There was no life in me, physical or spiritual, and my clinical death experience, was one of deepest darkness. I felt myself enveloped by the familiar, dark cloud that overshadowed my life. When I regained consciousness, I cried because I didn’t want to be alive. The life I’d always known, was always dogged by death. In fact, death was so powerful in my life that I saw death as the ultimate solution to my emotional pain and hopelessness. Every time I used drugs, I was reaching for death and my suicide attempt was an attempt to not only, reach for death but embrace it. I hated life and loved what death promised me, an end to all pain.

Jesus Took the Burden of My Sin, Death

By the time I was nineteen, I knew a lot about death but I knew nothing about an abundant life. When I accepted Jesus into my life, I experienced an overwhelming, filling of life when the Holy Spirit first entered me. Suddenly, the deep shadow of death that made my childhood so dark and hopeless, lifted and I was filled with wonder at the energy and beauty of the life that surrounded me. It had always been there but my close relationship with death, made me blind to the overwhelming power of life. Though I have come face to face with my mortality since then, I no longer see it as the ultimate destiny of all who are living. With Jesus in my life and by reading the Bible, I know that life will one day swallow death. Death will die but life is the eternal state.

The Bible says that people who hate God, love death. I would never have claimed to hate God, when I was trying live by reaching for death, but I was His enemy and I proved it by never seeking Him for relief from my pain but instead, I sought out more death. If left on my own, I never would have thought to reach for life, by reaching for God. So, God reached down to me through Jesus and by His Holy Spirit, revealed Jesus to me. He chose me as an object of His Mercy, as a vessel for His own Holy Spirit. I wasn’t chosen because I was special in any way. I was chosen because I was once a common enemy of God and by His mercy and grace, I was changed into a child of God, by receiving faith in His only Son, Jesus. This is for God’s glory and part of the plan He is working to reclaim His Creation from sin and death. I am a living demonstration of the saving power of God and His ability to conquer death. By faith in Jesus, I was transformed from a child of darkness and death into a child of light and life.

I can’t say I have no fear of death but I am no longer so afraid of death, that I see it as the ultimate conclusion to life. Death causes pain and I fear the pain that may come when my body dies, but I know that pain will completely fade from my memory when I experience the fullness of life free from any shadow of death. When my first child was born, I experienced pain like I’d never experienced before but the joy I felt when I held him in my arms, made that pain an empty memory of events with the anguish wiped away. I expect a similar experience on the other side of death’s final reach for me. I also, know there will come a day when the world will no longer be infected with death and all the things God has created will be eternally, beyond the grip of death. On the day that death dies, only life will remain.

I know these things are true because my spirit testifies with the Spirit of God. I know how faith in Jesus changed me and the Holy Spirit tells me that God’s Word is truth. In the Bible, I find the Words of life that infuse my spirit with life, nourish me, and give me joy in hopelessly, sad times. Even when I am so sick that it seems that death has me down for the final count, I know he can’t own me because I belong to life. I belong to Jesus and my Father is the Author and Giver of life. He is the almighty God Who removed the power of death’s sting, through the sacrifice of His perfect, only begotten Son, Who obediently, paid the price for the disobedient acts of all human kind. The disobedience that brought death into God’s perfect world, by crimes worthy of God’s hatred and total destruction. All of those terrible crimes, wiped away through God’s Grace and sacrificial love for the children who disowned Him and became His enemies. Though not one person sought Him, God seeks us through Jesus and God’s desire is that no one should perish but instead, repent of the disobedience common to all, and receive eternal life. Those who never repent and refuse His gift, have no part in the eternal life freely, offered in Jesus. They along with death must perish and remain eternally, separate from God. Yet, I have hope in God’s desire than none should perish and I pray that all people will be led to that point of repentance and full revelation of Jesus. The only reasonable response to such revelation, is to bow before Jesus and confess Him as Lord. I have hope for every human being, in the completed work of Jesus Christ and in my mind and heart, I place no one outside of the mercy of God. I can’t fully understand all that God is doing in the world but I seek to conform my desire with His desire and I want no one to perish and remain eternally, separated from God. I seek not to judge nor condemn anyone. Jesus is the only One worthy to sit above all, in judgement. I know that in Him, there is no condemnation. I know He is the ultimate conclusion of all things and we are all equal before Him.

Jesus Is Offering You Eternal Life

I write these words for those who find themselves face to face with mortality. I write these words for those who feel they are beyond hope and view death as the ultimate conclusion to life. I offer these words as words of hope and I pray they will cause you to reach up for Jesus, as He is reaching down for you. Life in Jesus is the ultimate conclusion for all who respond to the Holy Spirit’s call, to open their hearts to Him. In Jesus, there is a more abundant life in this present world and eternal life in the perfect world to come. The Bible tells me so and I know those Words are true because Jesus proves them true to me, everyday. He’s been with me every step of the way for going on, forty years. By faith, He has seen me through many hardships and because of Him, I enjoy victory over all the things that sought to crush me. I have indestructible joy. Everything material, deteriorates and dies but those things that are spiritual and eternal, remain.

In this world governed by human reason and science, spiritual words and thought can seem strange and forgien. I know that when I write or speak about Jesus, I sound stark-raving mad to some but I’m not crazy. I am spiritually enlightened by the Holy Spirit that lives in me and by years of studying the Bible. I believe the Words in the Bible are God-breathed Words that are Words of life. They give me insight, strength, and peace that can come from no other source. People aren’t made to live by material means, alone. In every human being there is a deep hunger for those things that are spiritual. We all need love, joy, peace, mercy, and justice. We all need forgiveness for the things we’ve done wrong and we all need to find a way to heal, forgive, and let go of the wrongs committed against us. We all need eternal hope in the face of our death. All of those things are spiritual and can only be found in the God, Who is Spirit. There is only one way to be part of the unseen, eternal world and that is to become spiritual by experiencing spiritual rebirth in Jesus. This is the eternal life offered by Jesus. Spiritual life that can’t be harmed by death because death only has power over what is material. Science can’t measure Spirit or produce it because it has no beginning or end but it is the force that animates all living things. When God removes His Spirit, all material things are proven for what they are apart from the God Who created them. This wonderful gift of eternal life is offered freely, to all who will believe in Jesus.

Unwanted Children Are Abused Children (Orphans by, Thomas Kennington)

I doubt anyone, especially Christians, would claim to support child abuse. It’s true that Jesus hates child abuse but children are commonly, abused. Therefore, many people (including Christians)who deny supporting child abuse are in reality, abusing children and the church often contributes to the cultural silencing of victims.

Child abuse isn’t the uncommon problem that most people pretend it is. Even though, most people deny being abused as a child, all children experience some instances of abuse. Children may not be abused by their parents but fall prey to other family members, adults entrusted with their care, and older children. The truth is, all children are raised within a culture of abuse and no one is exempt from suffering as a victim of child abuse. Of course, there is a difference in the degree and type of abuse and who the abuser is does make some difference in how it damages a child. Some of us suffer extensive abuse, while others experience it as one or more traumatic events. However, child abuse always damages children and all damaged children grow up to be damaged adults.

Every Child Is Important To Jesus

Sin is an old-fashioned word that many people associate with religion, only. The modern word for sin is abuse. Abuse is sin and sin is abuse. The simple definition of abuse is any action that disrespect the personal boundaries of another. There is no honorable way to sin against another and whenever we commit sin, we abuse. It is natural for people to sin against God, against ourselves, and other people. Every one of us is a sinner and we are all abusers. Of course, there is a difference between common abuses and horrific abuse. However, child abuse will never end until we all deal with the abuser in the mirror. Ending child abuse begins with self-confrontation. It is the only way any survivor of child abuse can find healing and it is the only path that leads to ending the cycle of abuse. None of us are able to see how we should raise our children until, we first heal ourselves from the damage done to us in childhood. Denial is the vehicle that has allowed child abuse to become the pandemic problem that it is, today.

When I was a young mother, I viewed most of the abuse committed against me when I was a child, as my fault. I think most of the abuse that my parents meted out to me, was committed in ignorance and came as a result of their own emotional damage. However, I know that they know they didn’t treat me as they should have because they are so willing to have me accept all the blame for my painful childhood. The most devastating abuse I suffered wasn’t at their hands, though they knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it, but the way that I was treated from the day I was born, conditioned me to accept abuse as love. I wasn’t treated with respect and I didn’t have any self-respect. I didn’t even realize that I had self-ownership and I was so starved for love and affection, that I allowed anyone who said they loved me, to control me through abuse. I was a victim of horrific sexual abuse as a teenager and it left me with no personal boundaries at all. I also, treated myself in the same way that others treated me and became highly, self abusive. I even tried to murder myself and though I survived that suicide attempt, I had no hope for a better life. I was completely, unable to protect myself and the people I attracted were like all the other abusers, who governed my life in the past. Any hope I had at all, was in death. I simply didn’t want to live anymore because all life had ever been was pain and personal devastation. At nineteen, God intervened and Jesus was revealed to me as my Savior from my personal sins. I accepted Him and received eternal life. Because of Jesus, I began to have hope and found a reason to live. My journey in healing from the abuse that colored my childhood, began on the day that I asked Jesus into my life.

My first prayer, as a new Christian, was that God would send someone who would love me. I met my husband soon after and through him, God taught me that love was unconditional. My husband and I were blessed with two little boys and I vowed to give them a life very different from my own. I didn’t want my past to touch them and I didn’t want them to do the things that I had done. I buried the sexual abuse alive, taking full responsibility for it. I also, took responsibility for my upbringing even though, I didn’t understand very much of it as abusive. From the time I was very small, I’d been taught to take blame for what the people I looked up to most, did wrong. It was natural for me to take responsibility for everything and think that if I corrected myself, then none of my past would be repeated in the lives of my children. I loved my children very much but because I never confronted my past and dealt with it honestly, I created dysfunction in the family system I created for my children. I lived in constant pain from the past and it blinded me to what my children needed because I was continually, trying to fix my childhood through my children. I didn’t raise my children the way I was raised but I had no idea how to raise children, correctly. I didn’t know what was appropriate because my personal boundaries were so damaged and I didn’t know where I ended and others began. I needed help and I looked to the church and other Christians for that help. I did find help in changing my personal sin habits, but I found no help in repairing the damage that child abuse caused me. I found absolutely, no help in identifying the abuse of my parents and others because the way the Bible was taught actually, reinforced my faulty definitions of what it means to honor parents and the value of children. The abusive definition I learned as forgiveness from my childhood abusers also, seemed to be reinforced by what I was taught in church. I needed clarification on the responsibilities of the offender and the victim because what I had been taught, put all responsibility in forgiveness on the victim.

I fervently, believe that God provides all the answers His children need to live an abundant life. I have found healing from my abusive childhood through Jesus, but it has been a long process and often, the church subverted that process through wrongly, applied scriptural teaching and practices that support the cultural silencing of child abuse victims. The church, like all institutions, is subject to politics and the politics of the church often, protects child abusers. Religious leaders and people within the church care very much about the reputation of the church and it results in people pretending to be perfect rather than actually, dealing with their sin. If a child of an important member of the church complains to the pastor about how they are being treated, too often, the pastor will respond by telling the child to remain silent and that by doing so, they are honoring their parents. In this way, scriptural teachings are twisted. When those twisted applications of scriptural truth are passed down and become tradition, the truth that scripture contains is suppressed. Survivors of childhood abuse need truth, both scriptural and factual truth, in order to heal and understand how to raise their own children. Traditional teachings that suppressed the truth I needed, kept me from finding the personal healing I needed and added confusion to the somewhat, dysfunctional family system, I created for my children. I was taught to deny the factual truth of my abuse, so that I could accept scriptural truth twisted by human teaching. I also, witnessed a youth pastor who was caught in an inappropriate, abusive circumstance with a young, teenaged girl, denied the punishment he should have received under the law and then quietly, passed on to another church. This was done so as not to offend the family of the youth pastor and spoil the reputation of the church. The girl went on to live a very self-destructive life and nothing was ever said in her defense when members of that same church gossiped about her. This is a common evil in the church and one that shouldn’t be allowed to exist. There is spiritual healing, life, and a healthy psychology to be gained from scripture but teachings and actions twisted by church politics, aid child abusers in silencing victims and churches can become havens for child abusers. Adult survivors, even those in ministry who were raised in Christian homes, are prevented from finding the right applications of scripture that can enable them to heal. Jesus hates child abuse and if the church is to make a difference in helping to bring child abuse to an end, Christians have to hate child abuse more than they love a good reputation in the community. Whenever believers compromise on the truth for the sake of pleasing other people, the truth is suppressed and evil is allowed to flourish, through ignorance.

In Jesus all people have equal value. Women are as valuable as men and children are as valuable as adults. There is no hierarchy in Christ. Those among us who have the least power not only deserve our respect but also, our protection. The church should not be a haven for child abusers. It should be a haven for children. The church should be a place where adult survivors of child abuse can find personal healing and help in breaking the cycle of abuse. It is important to recognize abuse in all of its forms and not put child abuse in a separate category. Jesus values children but the world we live in values them less every day. They are killed in the wombs of their mothers for no other reason than they were conceived at an inconvenient time. Where there is substance abuse, there is child abuse and too many children are being raised by alcoholics and drug addicts. The church is not the only institution that provides safe cover for child abusers. In fact, institutions created by charities and governments for the protection of children are also, havens for child abusers. Slavery is enjoying a comeback in this era and many slaves are children who are trafficked for sex. All children today are being raised within a culture of abuse and even those who are blessed to live in homes where they are cherished, can’t fully escape. Entertainment is important in our culture and most of it depicts human beings abusing one another. Children are bombarded with sexualizing images and violence permeates everything. Believers have the power available to change this culture of abuse into a society that nurtures children but we have to truly, hate child abuse as Jesus hates it. Practicing zero tolerance for child abuse, by embracing the truth into our own lives and applying that truth wherever we have influence, will make a difference. Christian pretense robs the church of its effectiveness and eventually, creates an institution with a form of godliness that lacks the power of God. Believers, we shouldn’t abandon the church but instead, seek to purify the church by standing for truth. Each of us must be the eyes and ears that seek to protect children. We can be the help that young parents need when struggling, as I once struggled, with attempting to end the cycle of abuse with their children. Survivors of child abuse, who have found healing, have the power to end the silencing of victims that allows child abuse to continue as a common practice. Believing survivors have what is needed to create a better world for children by speaking truth and living in truth. Shame is just another expression of human pride and when we set our pride aside, while seeking to obey God, the healing power of God is unleashed.

My hope and prayer is for every child to be born into a world that values the life of every child in equality. May every believer have the same heart for children that Jesus has and may our actions be those that never cause a child to stumble. May the light that is Jesus shine into every heart darkened by the damage caused by sins committed against children and may child abuse be fully, exposed. Everything hidden in darkness festers but when it is brought into the light, it becomes light. Jesus is the light and Jesus loves every abused child. Jesus even loves child abusers, though He hates child abuse. In Jesus there is hope for us all, when we live a transparent life, in obedience to Him.

A Mother’s Love

The fight for equality is a popular, political theme but equality isn’t an outcome to be achieved, it is a fact to be realized. Equality is an inherent gift from God, that can be surrendered but never taken. In Jesus, all people are equal.

The U.S. Constitution declares that “all men are created equal”. This statement is the foundation of personal liberty in the United States. It has never been fully realized but the ideal of inherent equality must be upheld, or all personal liberty will be lost. Many Americans, in this present era, have been confused by power-seekers and no longer define equality as inherent in all human beings. In fact, people who have no faith in God can’t understand true, human equality because they are blinded by unbelief and don’t know where equality comes from. I believe most people today, understand equality as an outcome to be achieved, when individuals prove themselves to be viable human beings, worthy of equality. By this definition, only the strongest people, who’ve received the right opportunities, are fully viable and worthy of equality and freedom. The weak and the poor are considered less viable, less than equal, and worthy only, of whatever charity the elites wish to hand out to them. Those who claim to fight for the equality of women and minorities are those who have redefined equality. They rise to power by doing so and live in luxury off the labor of those they deem as not measuring up to elitist status. They declare their own achievement of equality, as they oppress the poor and the powerless.

Inherent Value Is Equality

Some believe this to be the era of greatest human equality but the reality is we are progressing toward greater inequality. Slavery is alive and well in the United States and in Europe. Children and young women are stolen and bought and sold every day, as slaves in the sex-trade industry. I have heard no person in power speak up for modern-day slaves and I know it is because these children and women are not considered viable or equal to children from privileged families. In fact, I am sure many would use this as an example as to why abortion should be kept legal, as a form of birth control. Unwanted children have little hope of ever achieving the status of viable life or equality. This is a reasonable conclusion for those who believe that viability of life and equality are bestowed by elites. They are unable to  recognize that it is God, who created all of us with equal value and a unique purpose, that should never be taken from a weaker individual, by a stronger person who seeks greater power.

The newest poles show that most Americans believe that abortion should be kept legal. While the majority of people have believed for some time, that abortion in extreme instances should be legal, abortion as a common means of birth control was not openly, approved of. Of course, many young women who were taken in by the current, boundariless attitudes towards sex and were faced with an unwanted pregnancy, resorted to abortion, even though they had misgivings about their decision. Abortion rights define the life of the mother as being more important and  viable than the life of her unborn child. These artificial rights, bestowed by powerful human beings, tore out the heart of true, human equality. Now, the elites are discussing extending abortion rights to include children up to five years old, when they gain self-awareness and by their thinking, become viable human beings. Already, it is becoming considered as cruel for parents to allow children with birth defects to be born, as their lives will include suffering. According to this view of human equality, all who are either fully or somewhat, dependent upon others for survival aren’t viable forms of human life. Of course, the elderly, infirm, and those who have suffered from addictions and destroyed their health, are also, less viable forms of human life. The unborn are the most vulnerable among us and if this kind of thinking remains unchecked, it will become acceptable to end the lives of all people considered by the ruling class elite, to be unviable. Individual rights will be forgotten and collective rights will continue to supersede and do away with personal liberty and freedom.

Those of us who love the ideals expressed in the U.S. Constitution and view all others equal to ourselves, are appalled by the things we see being accepted in Western culture, today. Those of us who love children, the elderly, and have compassion for those who’ve been destroyed, by disease and the excesses and the abuses that are commonly accepted, grieve for those who are destroyed by the evil that flourishes, unchecked. It is frightening to see this evil in the highest seats of power and know that this corruption in high places enables the political elites, to grow ever more rich and powerful, by allowing it to continue and taking part in it. I hate child abuse. I hate elder abuse. I hate the sexual exploitation of children and young people. I hate that people in power have no compassion for the weak and innocent, among us. I recognize narcissistic abusers when I see them. I know what they are made of and I see many of them inhabiting the highest offices. I see these heartless people, all around me and I know we are in the midst of a human epidemic of evil, embraced as a way to survive and gain power over those from whom they depend on for wealth and power. No one can objectify another without also, dehumanizing themselves. These people like the walking dead, threaten to infect everyone with their evil view of equality that is in reality, inequality, and bring civilization down around our ears.  They will also be destroyed when that destruction comes. Though they see themselves as gods, they will be destroyed by their abuses, of others and themselves. When human beings classify other human beings as less than equal and unworthy of life, they make themselves less than human. They become monsters, dictators who crush those weaker than themselves in order to gain greater power. At the peak of their achievement, they too will be crushed and find themselves with nothing. We all know the names of these monsters who ruled by the power of fear in the past. May we not forget those names or fail to recognize those in the present, who have made themselves like them. May God grant us the courage to resist them.

The American Constitution declares that all people are created equal but that document does not give us those rights. It is meant to protect them but those rights based upon inherent equality, come directly from God. No other human being, no matter how vicious or powerful can take those rights from us. They can only be surrendered and we surrender them every time, we give in and begin to live our lives in fear of powerful human beings, rather than in fear of the God who gives all of us equality and personal freedom. Those of us who love God and have fully, realized the equality that all men, women, and children have in Christ, must not give in to the fear that enforces the great lie of our age, that man can replace God. There is no hope for the future in the philosophies and politics of human beings. Even though, others attempt to raise themselves up, by the power of evil, they remain only, human beings. The heights they achieve are but delusions. Though, they cause great suffering, they will meet the end that is common to all. Having stolen the position that rightfully, belongs to God in this world, they will find themselves with nothing, in the world to come. Their choosing to crush the helpless, in pursuit of wealth and power, will end in the forfeiture of their own inherent value and they will find themselves with no inheritance. They will be exposed for the lie they have made of themselves and those they sought to swallow, will inherit the earth. Those of us who love God, even though we are presently, viewed as less viable life forms who believe in an old superstition, must cling to Jesus. He is our champion, our savior, and redeemer. He knows what it is to suffer destruction at the hands of those who seek to place themselves above others and gain power and wealth. Jesus loves and remembers every aborted child, abused child, prostituted child, and all the innocent, who are crushed by evil. He waits with forgiveness for all who repent of evil and humble themselves before Him, in remembrance of His Sacrifice. When He returns, those who have lived well by crushing the powerless, will receive their full reward. Until then, those of us who belong to Jesus, must continue to be a voice for the voiceless and speak truth to power. No matter how unpopular Jesus becomes, we must continue to follow Jesus and be a force for good in the world. May He empower us to remain humble in an age that glorifies human power and artificial greatness. May our steps be guided along the way that leads to eternal life and a better world to come, as we continue to hope for that day when God’s Will on earth will be done, and human beings will no longer wish to be seated in the seat that belongs only, to God. True human equality will come when every knee bows and every tongue confesses, Jesus as Lord.

The Source Of Equality And Freedom

Progressive thought is based on eugenics, scientific thought that includes human beings in playing a directive role in human evolution. Through progressive, slow implementation of the ideals of eugenics, Progressives have redefined equality and close examination reveals that inequality is the heart of the Progressive movement.

The Progressive Movement has been active in the United States for over one hundred years. At the turn of the 20th Century, it was very popular thought and considered, cutting edge. Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were both important, Progressive presidents. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood was also, an important member of the Progressive Movement. Eugenics, the science of selective breeding as applied to human beings, was the foundation of the Progressive movement. By it, the true believers of Progressivism sought to end crime by removing undesirables from the population. Positive eugenics were expressed by promoting “good breeding” among the elite population. Negative eugenics were carried out by sterilizing mentally ill and mentally handicapped persons. Birth control was promoted by Margaret Sanger, under the guise of women’s rights, with the true intent of preventing promiscuous women and other lower class women, from having children out-of-wedlock. The ideals of eugenics, that were first promoted in the United States, were adopted in Europe and Adolph Hitler put those ideas into extreme practice through his attempted, full genocide of the Jewish people. Since most proponents of eugenics were also, racists at that time, I doubt that American Progressives were against Hitler attempting to wipe out the Jewish race but as the name implies, Progressive ideas must be implemented by slow progression over a long period of time, or they will be rejected. Adolph Hitler was not allowed to exterminate the Jews and his crimes caused people of that era to turn away from progressivism, in revulsion. The Progressive Movement was forced underground but continued to slowly, implement the ideals based upon eugenics and the creation of a perfect human race and a utopian world.

Margaret Sanger’s organization, Planned Parenthood, managed not only to survive but thrive, under the guise of equal rights for women. This organization enjoys special privilege under the U.S. Government and is supported by U.S. tax dollars. While it is true that birth control opens opportunities for women in the workplace by giving them more control over their bodies, it is also, the key issue that Progressive’s have used to redefine equality. The United States Constitution declares that “all men are created equal”. This is based upon the idea that no matter what class a person is born into, their race, their creed, or their gender does not make them more or less valuable than anyone else. This ideal supports the idea that all people are born with inherent value, given to them by God. It is the heart of individual liberty and freedom. It is not the Progressive equality of outcomes but the true equality of every person having equal value and a unique purpose. Outcomes are based upon each individuals ability to fulfill their personal dreams of success. However, that  success or lack thereof, does nothing to diminish each individual’s inherent value. Margaret Sanger fought for women’s rights but never recognized the inherent value of women and what only, women can contribute to society. She redefined equality for women by seeking a means whereby, women could be changed and made more like men and therefore, equal to men. The Progressive definition of equality, sets a standard of equal outcomes that must be met by individuals and those individuals who don’t meet those standards, are viewed as less viable life forms. This new definition of equality has become mainstream and has allowed the Progressives to become visible, once again, as top leaders in the United States. It is this new definition of equality that is allowing our government to strip us of individual freedoms and still remain popular. Progressives in the United States are united with Progressives in Europe and view themselves as “the ruling class elite” who seek to build a new, global, collective form of government. They have made steady progress since the 1960′s and they are very near to completing this goal.

The old Progressives of the last century, believed that certain races of people were inferior. New Progressives view certain classes of people as inferior and therefore, undesirable as citizens. Those of us who love the Constitution and individual liberty are an obstacle to the utopian world these dreamers of self-directed evolution hope to build. However, I believe that those of us who “cling to our God and our guns” as our current president defines us, hold the true hope for humanity. The equality as defined by Progressives is evil and though many are blinded by those things that it promises as good, their hoped for utopia will end as all utopian dreams that put man in the place of God, end. Though Hitler moved too fast and disrupted the progress of Progressivism by revealing its true nature, Hitler remains a true example of the ‘ruling class elite’ that seek to rule the world. They see themselves at the pentacle of human evolution and while they think it is necessary for them to take our wealth and more wisely, distribute it among the masses, they see themselves as worthy of taking a great deal of that wealth for themselves. This is already, evident as the economy in Washington D.C. booms and most of the rest of the United States struggles. The Progressives that rule in the Capitol, live in luxury. They fly in private jets and drive expensive, forgein cars. The most expensive restraunts in Washington D.C. are the most popular and successful. There is no want for our Federal politicians, those who lobby them, ( who are often relatives) and the large corporations that benefit from political favor. This decadence is the corruption that will eventually, bring them down but their demise won’t come about without suffering on the part of the people. When the land no longer produces enough fat to satisfy their taste for luxury, they will have to resort to tyranny. This will result in hardship for the American people but it is the values that are the foundation of the United States Constitution that will enable us to endure and eventually, overcome.

Just as the true nature of Progressivism was revealed by the atrocities of Hitler, today’s Progressives are also, beginning to reveal their true nature. It seems that most people have come to accept abortion (used as birth control) as a woman’s right to choose and Progressive thinkers are emboldened by this acceptance. Now, the idea of children not being accepted as viable human beings until the age of 2-5, when they become conscious of themselves, is being considered, as a means of introducing the idea of after-birth abortion. Obamacare isn’t even fully, in place and already, people are discussing the possibility of allowing obese people and smokers to die. Of course, the current president, a smoker, wouldn’t be included in this because by having reached the pentacle of human power, he has proven himself as highly, viable and important to the collective. Other ruling class elites would also be exempt from such standards of proven equality and viability of life. Eugenics, in this modern era as expressed through genetic engineering, has the potential to recreate the human race and produce what Progressives define as perfect human beings. Never before in history, have Progressive dreamers been so close to achieving their utopian view of a world in which elitist human beings control human evolution. Individual liberty with its foundation of inherent equality from God, appears to be all but dead. The collective, based upon the equality of outcomes, is nearly here. In fact, the only thing that remains is the full revelation of who holds the true seats of power. This new utopia will be misery for those who don’t meet the standards of equality, expressed as viability of life and defined as usefulness, to the collective. History will repeat itself because too many of us are ignorant of history, especially of our own. History also, tells us how collective forms of government end and that ending is assured because of the inherent flaws contained within that world-view.

Progressives hold seats of power on both the right and the left. They have the same agenda and maintain power by keeping the people weak, by manipulating us against one another. They also, continue to develop greater dependence of the people upon government through entitlement programs and government jobs. We the people, will not be able to win this battle solely, through politics. We will be able to achieve victory and return freedom to the American people, by returning to the values that made the United States a country that sought true equality. Those values are upheld by the United States Constitution but they don’t proceed from that document. They proceed directly, from God. The God that rules over nature and sits above all human beings, whether they acknowledge Him or not. In Jesus all people are equal, there is no male or female, and there is no hierarchy of one person over another, for those who belong to Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom of conscience and every individual in that Kingdom is ruled directly by God. I am a citizen of that Kingdom and my true, undying allegiance is to King Jesus. I will live free or I will die free but I will never bow before any human being who has put themselves in the place of God. I vow to treat every man, woman, child (born or unborn)(no matter their class or color), politician, rich man, poor man, or earthly king, or president, as equal. I will live according to the inherent rights that God has distributed evenly, to all. I will view every human life as viable and worthy of existence, even if they are set on viewing me as a less than viable. I will continue to speak truth to power, as Jesus spoke truth to power, and leave the outcome to God. Though human beings, who seek to replace God, strip me of all my material wealth, they cannot remove me from the hand of the Living God;even if they destroy me. Evil men will be given their full day of evil and by it, will bring themselves to a full end. I will continue to strive to overcome evil with good until the day when Jesus returns. Then the meek shall inherit the earth and God’s Kingdom will be fully, revealed. Jesus will rule that Kingdom and true peace, joy, and eternal life will be realized by those Whom Jesus purchased with His blood. All the inhabitants of this Kingdom will cling to God even more tightly, than ever before; but guns won’t even be remembered because man’s rule over man will have permanently, ended. This is the hope I cling to with certainty, even in times when all seems uncertain. Jesus is the light of the world and the true hope of mankind. There is no true equality outside of Christ. “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”