God Intended Us For Pleasure? Really? What Saith The Scriptures?

  I'm going to put this article on this particular blog, as I have lots of blogs to choose from. I want to put it on the blog that corresponds best with the topic at hand.

 I am troubled by something, and I can't quite pinpoint what it is. But, after reading an article a little while ago, I think I have come closer to identifying what the problem is.

 The foundation of why I am writing has to do with the condition of the church. (By church, I mean the body of Christ, in general, not any particular church). I know I sound like a complainer, at times, but I want to communicate something on my heart, that I believe we could pray for and see God at work in.

 The condition/health of our nation is related to the condition/health of the church. If the church generally believes that the Bible is no longer authoritative, in the way it used to be, then we are in trouble. If the church loses the 'fear of the Lord' it will no longer be the light in the community it was intended to be, and it will no longer be the salt that preserves what is valuable in society.

 About 40 years ago, Madeline Murray O'Hair went to court and succeeded in having prayer taken out of our schools. Also, the 10 Commandments were no longer allowed to be in our school systems as well as in any governmentally owned buildings. This was unfortunate, for now, all kinds of chaos has been taking place in our society, and God is being mocked every day, while the authority of Scriptures declines.

 Today, people commit all kinds of crimes, yet never get caught. Even if the speed limit is 50, and someone goes 75, police do not care anymore. Many of them will go 75 in a 50 miles speed limit zone. The standard of right and wrong is disappearing.

  Let's get to what is bothering me though. I hear supposed Christians saying things like, 'When Scripture and culture are at odds with each other, Scripture must bow to the culture." No wonder people think it is ok to sleep together or get an abortion. In their minds, God must not have known how hard life would be in America, in the 21st Century!

 Why is this thinking so prevalent? I will give you an example of something I read tonight, from an article in 'Christianity Today'. See what you think.
"To counter hook-up culture, Christians remind young people if they follow God's good design, it will actually be better for them. The hook-up culture promises freedom, excitement, and the occasional orgasm, Christians promise something more. Within the confines of a loving, committed, marital relationship sex is actually the most satisfying and enjoyable.

In some ways, they're right. God intended us for pleasure. He created sex, and he made sex good."

Did you catch it? I hope as you read the excerpt, you will see it right away. If you didn't, here it is: "God intended us for pleasure". Really?? Where is that in the Bible? I thought the Bible says that God created us for His pleasure?

Here is another one. This one is written by a 'Christian' Blogger who is struggling with the CCM director on his decision to dismiss Amy Grant due to her having an affair, and divorcing Gary Chapman. The blogger is pleading with this director to allow Amy Grant to stay in CCM, but the director believes that divorce is not an option for people who want to get out of their marriage (except for the case of adultery). 

"Amy Grant made a very bad choice in divorcing Gary Chapman.  But from what she says in the CCM piece that I linked, it seems that her relationship with Gary Chapman had deteriorated to the point where there were no good choices left for her to make.  In our fallen world, sometimes that’s how it is.  Sometimes there just aren’t any good choices; sometimes one is forced to choose the “least worst” alternative.

But whatever the case may be, God’s grace and redemptive power is big enough to cover all of it.  This is the big idea in Turner’s piece, that Amy Grant had found redemption for her failure to fulfill her marriage vows to Gary Chapman by leaning hard into the Gospel.  Too bad that his boss was blinded to this by his concern for upholding what he understood to be God’s moral absolutes."

Really? Again? What is wrong with holding up God's moral absolutes? C'mon people. Do we really believe that God made us so we can have a blast and ignore His statutes when they violate our fun? Do we think God is some kind of cosmic Santa Claus waiting to bless us with pleasure and fun all the time? How have we gotten so far away from the truth? Who are we to not uphold His laws any more? 

  Do you see a problem here? Do you see that many in the modern church do not know God? They do not know what He is like. God doesn't change. He wants us to have a relationship with Him, but He is holy and we are selfish. These people think that God made us to be selfish and that He caters to us, but nothing is further from the truth!

   What God has is so much better, and so much higher than any of us can imagine. First of all, God is uncreated. Everything in existence is here because He made it. God never had a beginning, nor will He have an end. God is all knowing. He knows the beginning and the end. He knows what will happen 20 billion years from now. God is all powerful. God is sovereign and in control. God is holy and perfect. God is love. God is judge. Every person will give account of his or her life to God. 

  God does not bend to the culture. If 100% of the people believe it is ok to sleep around and have abortions, guess what? God says 'no'. Culture will have to submit to God, if not now, it will in the future. Every knee will bow to God, and acknowledge that God is God. Richard Dawkins will bow one day and acknowledge that God is God. Hitler will face God one day. Every one of us will be before the throne of God, giving account of our lives. 

  If God commanded us to not commit adultery, 4,000 years ago, the same command applies to us today. We live in recycled sin. It is the same things people were doing from the time of the fall, until today, just repackaged differently. 

  If God says he will judge the sexually immoral, 2,000 years ago, the principle still applies today. It will apply as long as it is in existence. God's word will be valid throughout eternity. 

  This, of course, is why we need to 'Pray for the church, and pray for the country'. 

Thoughts on D'Souza's Movie 'America; Imagine A World Without Her'

  I love the idea of being an entrepreneur and have lots of ideas on how I can make this happen in my life.
  I was talking with a young man yesterday who has a 'dream room' (which was a closet) filled with pictures he dreams of doing or owning in the future.
  I believe God designed people to use their talents and skills to help build a society, and also the creative side of people is evidence of their being created in God's image.
  Throughout History, nations have been lost due to being conquered by other nations. This has been going on since the fall of mankind, recorded in Genesis 3, and will continue until the King of Kings returns to earth to rule and reign.
  In American History, situations have been written down of people coming in who have conquered other people groups and won. These would include the Native Americans, and also, in a sense, African Americans who were brought over to America as slaves. In American History, some connections have never been made, nor were they taught in our History classes that would be helpful for us to know. One of those things that needs to be brought out is the fact that, while people came over from England, primarily to be freed from a king who wanted to rule in the church, other people groups were coming to the New World as well. On the Mayflower, for example, half the people were the Pilgrims, but the other half were called, 'Adventurers'. The Pilgrims and the Adventurers did not get along well, as the Adventurers were coming to America to find gold and for adventure. They did not know the Lord, nor did they live out what the Scriptures taught. But both groups landed in America in the early 1600s.
   Throughout our known History, America has always had people come to try to conquer the land. Spanish conquerers were always arriving on the shores, usually wanting to find gold. They were ruthless and heartless people. But they did not ultimately take over America. The ones who took over America did not take over the land by conquest! They settled here and built their kingdom based on peaceful principles. Unfortunately, the acts of conquest that others used are all woven into the story of the establishment of Early America, and this is an unfair understanding of what really happened and how our country came into being.
   In the movie, America, D'Souza brings this out. He starts with the accusations that are used by our current president and other influential authority figures. Even college professors write books framing early America as a nation that is wealthy because of the supposed conquest of our Forefathers.
  America has really been built on the work of industrious people who want to make a community work properly. There are two ways to build a kingdom. One of them is through conquest and the other is through industry. America was not built by stealing the wealth from others! America was built by people who loved to work and build their businesses. That is the way God intended for people to build their communities.
   So, next time you hear the famous quote by Obama, saying 'you didn't build that', know that that statement is false. People are building businesses all around us and are being successful. They are successful because they are creating products and services that people will use. Obama's plan is to destroy all of that and build large corporations that people will have to work for instead. Pretty soon, the government will support all these large corporations, and people will not really have much choice of what they want to do for a career. Creativity will be lost. Entrepreneurship will be gone. Schools to train people for a trade will disappear. Those who grow vegetables and fruits will not be able to do so anymore, because large industrial farms will replace local farms.
   This is why we need to be aware of what is going on in our government. This is why we need to pray for the church and the country. It starts in our own hearts first, then the church. The health of the church will determine the health of the nation. This is a good reason to be on our knees before the Lord of All today.

When God is Left Out, We Feel The Effects

  When I was pregnant in 1980, I thought it was just me reacting to morning sickness, but looking back, I know now that it wasn't.
  It started when I noticed people breaking the speed limit wherever I went. No one was concerned about getting a ticket or hurting anyone else.
  I would be seething because I knew something was wrong, but couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Why did I have to obey the speed limit, yet everyone else seemed to get away with breaking it?
  As one friend pointed out, today there are not consequences for wrong doing. Very few cops are actually out there giving tickets. Plus, the speeders have radar detectors in their cars, even though they are illegal to use in many places.
  I have recently been perplexed by the way people live. When I was a teenager, people slept together, but they knew it was wrong, and they did it in secret. Not many were doing that, but a few did. But today, this is just a way of life for people. What happened that makes it easy for people to do this today? What happened to the human conscience?
  There are a couple of reasons. I figured out what one of them is, recently. I graduated high school in 1974, and right around that time, prayer was taken out of the school system. The 10 Commandments were not allowed up in school systems anymore, and a new concept of 'separation of church and state' came about.
  Separation of church and state came about when the Pilgrims came over to America in the early 1600s. In the church of England, the king made the decisions in the church. There were many restrictions that the Pilgrims did not want to cooperate with, so, they came to America with the hopes of having a church which was run by a pastor, or pastors instead of a king. This would be a valid reason for leaving a country and going to a new land. Yet, as time went on, there was always a fear that the government would once again be in control of the church. Could you imagine Obama making the decisions which govern your church?
  There was concern from a group of Baptist people who lived in Danbury, CT. They were corresponding with Thomas Jefferson on this issue, and in a letter back to these people, Thomas Jefferson assured them that they would be protected from ever having the government interfere with the life of their church and the decisions the church would be making. Here is an excerpt from his letter:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties

The government was not to make the decisions for the church, and there was a lot of fear that that would happen again.
  How does this tie in with today? First of all, it has been established that the government will not interfere with the church, especially in the area of running the church and making decisions. That's not what the government is for, yet in England, that is what was happening, and why people escaped to be in a land where they could do church the way they knew God wanted it to be done.
  But today, people want to take that out of text and reverse it. Instead of the government running the church, the idea has been twisted to mean that nothing of religious value is allowed to be in or part of the government, or of any governmental body or establishment. So, for a school system, that would be twisted to mean that nothing that has religious connotation can be in a school system, since the school system is supported by the government.
  Madeline Murray O'Hair made a case, took it to court, and won. She made a case that ended up taking prayer out of school. It went further than that though. Now principals are telling the teachers that they can't wear a pin saying 'I love Jesus'. The 10 Commandments were taken out of the schools and aren't allowed to be put up because they have to do with 'religion' and religion cannot mix with government. How far do you think this is going to go?
  It will go as far as we allow. The ball is in our court. We are either ignoring the ball, or not seeing the seriousness of the danger. We are more wrapped up in going to Disney or the beach than we are to see that our rights (as in the Bill of Rights) are protected. Some of us say that God is in control, and we give up our responsibility as stewards of what God gives us. That would be like letting our kids do anything they want, but believing that God will protect them and nothing harmful will happen to them.
   Here is the connection: The 10 Commandments disappeared from our school walls. Today, a lot of people do not even know that it is wrong for men and women to sleep together outside of a marriage relationship. They are surprised when they find out. How could they know? We have kept the 10 Commandments out of view, because we have fallen for the silly lies that entered into our government about 40 years ago.
  In the mid 1900s, most everyone had a Bible in their homes. Just about everyone knew what the 10 Commandments were. Almost everyone had either been a church member, or attended a church or synagogue in their lifetime. And almost everyone was familiar with John 3:16. There was a notable difference between right and wrong. But that is not so, today.
   There are even 'Christian' groups who question the validity of Scripture. Some would say that when there is a conflict between Scripture and the culture, the Scriptures must bow to the culture. Some believe the Bible is outdated, or, that God wasn't aware of what problems that people in America would be facing in the 21st century. What does this say about God?
  Is it any wonder people don't fear God anymore? If God isn't powerful enough or knowledgable about what we would be going through, then He isn't to be trusted. But the God of the Bible is all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere at all times, uncreated, Creator, sovereign, and a host of other things that people don't know, and churches don't teach today.
   So, this is a good reason to 'pray for the church, and pray for the country'. Praying begins with us, and we must take responsibility for educating people on the truth of who God is and what His word says to us. We pray and follow God, and He produces the results.

Graceful Actions We Can Take To Bring Back Food That is Safe To Eat

I am writing this today because I see so many of us just sitting back complaining because of the way things are, and we are either just apathetic or defeated, and I don't know which one it is (maybe both).
 
Or, it could be a wrong belief system, which says that God is sovereign and whatever will be will be. This happens in the political realm often during elections where people won't vote because they assume the circumstances mean that Jesus is coming back tomorrow, so it won't matter anyway.

  In spite of the reasons why we don't do anything to improve society in the spiritual realm specifically, people have spoken up and their voices are being heard.

  There is an interesting dynamic when it comes to living a natural life, the way God originally intended, but has been distorted by technology combined with our desire for convenience. Some liberal groups as well as Biblical Christians are both fighting for protection for genuine food, and are opposed to the unnatural processes that are available to make our food stretch to feed many while losing nutritional value, such as GMO processing and industrialized farming (Big Ag).

  Somebody is speaking up, for food companies are now pursuing ways that food can be produced naturally, without having to be genetically modified, and are seeking ways for food to be in its most natural form without having additives put into their products.

  We are all greedy people, and left to ourselves, we could be controlled by greed. What we earn from our work will not be enough, and we will find ways to get more money from what we do for a living. The food companies, for the past several years, have not had a 'checks and balances' system in place, or if they did, the standard was not one that would serve people well. Those outside of the food industry had no idea of what was going on, and we were eating food that was bad for us, without having any idea of what we were eating. But people began to question why Americans are so sick today. Could there be a connection between what we eat and our health?

   I think the answer is obvious, and many have taken steps to fight against food that is unsafe or unfit for us to eat, but is promoted by the FDA and other authorities as acceptable.

  Here are some of the things which have been done to food, to make it unhealthful; genetic modification, irradiation, preservatives, growth hormones & antibiotics which are added to meat and affect milk and milk products as well, meat and milk that is fed with grain instead of grass, and food that has been sprayed with pesticides, such as produce.

  Our current president appoints people who do harm, into our government, such as Michael Taylor being appointed to the FDA as head. Michael Taylor has also been the lawyer for Monsanto, in case you didn't know. Monsanto is the company which came up with creating the process of genetic modification, and has been known to sue those whom they would accuse of stealing their patent (a farmer went to jail because of his soybean crop which Monsanto accused him of using their patented soybean without having a license to do so). If Monsanto has their way, the local farmers will go out of business, and anyone who does farming will have to use their patented seeds.

   There is a lot of talk about GMO products and people are stepping up to the plate, letting authorities know that they do not want to buy GMO products. Of course, the government is trying to keep people from knowing if the product in question is genetically modified, by not mentioning it. Also, the government is making statements that aren't true about the benefits of genetically modified food. 'Authorities' are writing articles and getting on talk shows defending Monsanto and genetic modification. Many of these 'authorities' are the same ones in the governments 'checks and balances' system.

But  now the public are protesting and making their voices known that they want food to be labeled genetically modified, if it is, but the government is opposing that. People spoke up and now products sold in Hawaii must be labeled genetically modified if they are.

   What will happen if food is labeled genetically modified and what will it mean for companies like Monsanto? Companies like Monsanto will lose money. The love of money is the bottom line for the products they sell, and we are the losers if we just sit back and say, 'whatever will be, will be'. People are speaking up and it is making a difference.

   One well-known company is going to stop using food that has preservatives and artificial ingredients by the year 2016. This company is Panera Bread. I believe they are responding to the many voices who are proclaiming their reluctance to eat food that is not pure. I have seen a few other companies take steps to go in the right direction.

  Here are some steps to take action with:

* Ask your butcher if he knows if the beef has been grass-fed, and if the cows were treated with antibiotics and growth hormones.
* Ask the produce clerk if the corn is genetically modified.
* Write to senators and representatives about your concern for unsafe food.
* Support restaurants and stores which intentionally do not carry GMO products.
* Grow your own food using heirloom or organic seeds
* 'Like' pages on Facebook that have to do with fighting against GMOs or Monsanto.
* Share articles on Facebook with others to inform them of the harm that is done to genetically modified food, preservatives, additives, antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, herbicides, and food that has been irradiated.
* While at restaurants, request food that has not been genetically modified.

   At first, these suggestions will seem radical. Store clerks will look at you as if you were talking in Greek. Don't give up. If enough people ask a clerk in the produce section if the corn is genetically modified, they will bring it up to the managers. After all, they don't want to lose money due to informed customers.

  Of course, all this should be done with prayer. The devil wants us sick, and when we let our voices be make known, we are exposing the works of darkness. The devil would love nothing more than to destroy the whole human race. He hates us because we are created in God's image, and he hates God. If he can lie to us and feed our idols, he has us in his grip. But God wants us healthy, so we can serve Him and make His name known in truth. We can't do that very well when we are sick, although God can redeem our sicknesses and use them for His glory. God wants us to take care of our bodies so that we can have strength to serve Him with.

  This is one thing we can pray for concerning the church and the country. Without prayer, nothing good is going to happen.

Modern Day Molechs

   Back in the days of the Old Testament, many practiced idolatry. Idolatry was one of the oldest sins and is addressed in the 10 Commandments. Idolatry is basically loving, trusting, becoming attached to, or being captivated by something other than God. In the Old Testament, one of the false gods who was worshiped was Molech. Who was Molech anyway?
   Molech was a statue with a grin on its face. There was a fire inside and people would give their babies or small children to this statue, and the child would be burned up in a torturous way. I can't imagine whatever it was that this god promised the people if they gave up their children in such a horrible way. Whatever it was, they were captivated by it. Perhaps they didn't want their children because children interfered with whatever they wanted to do. I don't know, but many people did this to their children back then.
   People do something similar today, in America. People bring their unborn babies to an abortion clinic to have the child sliced up so he or she will die. It would seem like anyone in their right mind would have no intention of ever going into an abortion clinic to have their babies murdered. Why would they do such a thing? Maybe generations down the road will be asking the same question.
  Women have abortions because it is convenient. First of all, they are so bold as to think they have a right to have sex with whoever they want. Then, if they get pregnant, they just have the baby killed. Since it's legal, it must be ok, at least that seems to be their reasoning.
  God never gave us permission to have a sexual relationship outside of marriage. He certainly doesn't give us permission to murder our children. Why aren't moms protecting their babies?
  There are two reasons, I can think of, that women would think having an abortion is good. One of the reasons is simply because she has stopped her conscience from working. She did that when she decided to sleep with a man whom she wasn't married to. Once we say it is ok for us to do something wrong, we silence our conscience. When we do that, we sin in many different ways, and don't even realize it. Many times, a woman does end up feeling bad for what she has done. Nobody told her the truth before she went into the clinic to have an abortion.
   The other reason I think that women have an abortion, and not feel bad about it, is because she isn't told the truth about what takes place during an abortion. Even more serious than that, those who work at the abortion clinic tell the woman that Jesus is pleased with her having an abortion. If the woman doesn't know the Scriptures, she just might end up believing that, at least for a time.
  We can read about parents bringing their children to Molech, and be horrified. It doesn't seem like we are horrified about women going in for an abortion though. Maybe we think the baby doesn't feel anything. Maybe we have believed the lie in which the abortionist says that the baby is only a piece of tissue. I like what Mark Driscoll says about that. He says that he is a piece of tissue. All of us are a piece of tissue.
   There have been babies who are born halfway through the gestation period, and they survived. There have been babies who have died while inside the womb, and we have funerals for them. Why is the baby who gets aborted any different? The only difference is the heart of the parents. Their idol is convenience, and the baby is interfering with their idol.
  If you are a pregnant women and are considering an abortion, think again. Your baby feels pain. Babies, even in the womb, can sense rejection or fear on the mother's part. You are not dealing with a detached piece of tissue, but instead, your baby is a living soul. If you go through with the abortion, your baby will suffer. You will suffer as well, because deep down inside, you know that an abortion is murder. You will have to live with that the rest of your life.
  In our society, we have let go of God's standard, and replaced it with man's standard. We have to bring back God's standard of right and wrong, in the church. The church is responsible for being the light and salt in the community. When the church does not take responsibility, the fear of God will be lost. When people don't fear God, they will turn to idols and worship other 'gods' but will forsake the true and living God. This is why we need to be praying for the church and for the country.

Children being brought to Molech by their parents,
to be burned up and tortured.

Molech

(king). The fire-god Molech was the tutelary deity of the children of Ammon, and essentially identical with the Moabitish Chemosh. Fire-gods appear to have been common to all the Canaanite, Syrian and Arab tribes, who worshipped the destructive element under an outward symbol, with the most inhuman rites. According to Jewish tradition, the image of Molech was of brass, hollow within, and was situated without Jerusalem. "His face was (that) of a calf, and his hands stretched forth like a man who opens his hands to receive (something) of his neighbor. And they kindled it with fire, and the priests took the babe and put it into the hands of Molech, and the babe gave up the ghost." Many instances of human sacrifices are found in ancient writers, which may be compared with the description of the Old Testament of the manner in which Molech was worshipped. Molech was the lord and master of the Ammonites; their country was his possession, (Jeremiah 49:1) as Moab was the heritage of Chemosh; the princes of the land were the princes of Malcham. (Jeremiah 49:3; Amos 1:15) His priests were men of rank, (Jeremiah 49:3) taking precedence of the princes. The priests of Molech, like those of other idols, were called Chemarim. (2 Kings 23:5; Hosea 10:5; Zephaniah 1:4)
http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/smiths-bible-names-dictionary/Molech

Families Are Forever

   I love to see pictures of families in Facebook. I went to one person's page, and saw a big family. This is very common though, at least when I go onto Facebook, but it is not so common in the real world.
  Today, we have an added feature of blended families. Now, children not only go to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas, but they go to Grandma and Step-Granda's house, or, Step-Grandma and Grandpa's house! Very interesting. This happened years ago too, but the reason was different. Many people were widowed, and then remarried. Although that still happens today, sadly, many homes are affected by divorce.
   Divorce is one of those weird things that is hard to understand in a Biblical framework. It's not hard to understand in our modern culture though. All of us come to the marriage alter with sinful, self-centered hearts, some of which are being sanctified and are growing closer to God, and away from self, while others still continue to enjoy being selfish and will use marriage to try to fulfill selfish wishes.
  If life is to work right, and ultimately serve us well, we can't be selfish. We must learn to do hard work and not be afraid of doing hard things. There is no where in God's word that tells us that God created us to be 'happy'. Many think that God is here to serve us, and that we should be 'happy' because God wants us happy. It's not that God wants us happy or unhappy. That misses the whole point of why God created us. It is a trick of the devil to mislead us to make us miss the point of why God created us in the first place, which is to bring glory to His name, to be reconciled to Him, and to be filled with the 'joy of the Lord'. Simply speaking, we were created to worship God, not other things, including ourselves. Everyone is a worshipper. It is just a question of what or who is the object of worship.
  If we are looking to marriage to make us 'happy' we are going to be disappointed. The Cinderella story is a lie. People don't get married and live happily ever after. God wants to make us holy, and it will not always be easy. But God promises to give us the help we need, if we want it and ask for it.
  The main point though, that I want to bring out is that today, in our society, and sadly, in many of our churches, there are those who would counsel people to get a divorce. Not only for reasons of a spouse committing adultery, either. I was reading about a Christian musical artist who divorced her husband while having an affair. While she was having counseling, the counselor actually told her that her marriage had failed. The counselor also indicated that God wants us happy and if a person is not happy in the marriage, they need to get out of it. Now I ask, where is that in the Bible? If you were to ask the counselor, he or she would probably say something to the affect of, 'we see what is happening in society. The Bible was written many, many years ago, and it doesn't really apply to us today.' There are also Christians who actually believe that when culture and the Bible are in conflict, that the Bible must submit to culture. Culture is more relevant than the Bible. Can you see a problem here?
   I must have my head in the sand or something like that because I am so surprised when I hear things like this, yet, this kind of teaching is rampant throughout the church in America today. This is not only contributing to the breakdown of the family, but it is leading people to misunderstand the Gospel and become false converts. How many times have you talked with someone about the Gospel only to have them tell you (with strong affirmation) that 'God is all-loving', or, 'God is all-forgiving'. While it is true that God forgives those who repent and is love, these people mean that to say basically, 'I can do whatever I want, and God will forgive me'. I run into this all the time.
   We need to pray for the church and our country. We need to seek to restore what has been lost. We need to teach what the Bible says about marriage, divorce, relationships, and the Gospel. We need to know the truth, and we need to be proclaiming it.

Besides the physical family unit, there are two basic
families; God's family and the devil's family. Every
person is in one of these two families.

How Agriculture Becomes Political - Why We Should Pray and What We Should Be Praying For

   You might wonder how food and politics come together in a blog. In everything I write, I am always trying to 1. not go past established boundaries, 2. not speculate too much, and 3. separate the truth from the lies. I want to be gracious as well as wise. So, with that in mind, I will attempt to write what is on my heart today.
   In the olden days, people grew their own food, and ate their own food. Early Americans bartered for food and other products. The bartering system worked well and some places actually still use this method today.
  Science and technology have brought about unbelievable advances in medicine, agriculture, and other necessities. One of the advancements is in our agricultural system.
  Several factors are involved in this. We have a growing population of people. We have desire to expand our businesses. We have people starving in third world countries. We have an economy based on the principle of convenience. The human nature is greedy. The lust for money can never be satisfied, for when we make enough money, we always want to make more. Also, this desire, if allowed to develop, will require us to stop our consciences from working as we will have to compromise and make some unethical decisions at some point.
  Farming is becoming passe. Even farmers are being discouraged. You are not cool if you are a farmer today. But really, all of this depends upon your perspective. If you base truth on what most people think is right, then you will not want to be a farmer. But if you understand a little of how the human body works, and how nourishing food helps the body stay healthy, you would reconsider your attitude about farmers.
  We have a lot of people to feed, so agricultural authorities who are pragmatic are coming up with shortcuts to produce a lot of food in localized places, using as little money as necessary to feed the animals and plants. If we go a little deeper, we realize that many of these agricultural agencies are sponsored by the government. Before you decide to exit this page, realize I am trying to be objective in what I see. I believe we can critique things without being critical (although it takes a skill to do this properly).
   In days past, we had small and large farms, run by skilled farmers who sold their food (or bartered) to either a middleman or to a local store. The food is grown with a lot of care. The farm didn't have to be overly huge either, because there were several farms. These farms produced enough food for everyone in the area to eat and be sustained by. The soil wasn't depleted much, and the food that was produced was nourishing. The farmers took pride in what they had done. And society was sustained by what they had done, as well.
   Today, we esteem science. We hold science and technology in high honor. But in doing that, we have less appreciation for the farmer. Agriculture has now turned to science to help grow bigger, prettier, more uniform food. Much of what is being done in agriculture today is really an artificial way of producing food.
   Big companies like Monsanto use methods such as genetic engineering, or genetic modification, which is a fancy way of saying that seeds are altered genetically to produce vegetables to have certain characteristics. I actually saw a blue strawberry in a magazine. At first, I thought that it looked really cool. I looked a little further though, and found that the way it was designed to be a blue strawberry was done by genetical engineering. It was a GMO product.
   You are probably thinking, 'So what? a blue strawberry? Come on. What's the big deal?' Genetic modification began probably around 50 some years ago, and started with the idea in mind to produce a plant that was resistant to herbicides, and one in particular called, 'Round Up'. Soy beans were genetically modified in order that they would be resistant to dying from being sprayed with 'Round Up'. Other plants were also being genetically modified so they would be resistant to dying from being sprayed with 'Round Up'. Ultimately, this would mean that those who use Monsanto's patented soy beans could spray the herbicide around their plants and the plants will still grow, and the weeds around the plants would die. They also claim that Round Up is safe to use around food. But there are more problems with this than we could have ever imagined.
   If the theory goes like Monsanto would have it, those farmers who bought the patented seed would ultimately be safe in growing their plants. Round up could be sprayed on all plants and only those that are patented by Monsanto will live. That means if it is possible to spray Round Up from a plane, the pilot could go all over the city and spray Round Up, and all the Monsanto patented plants will be ok, but others won't. Local farms will be destroyed. This might sound absurd, but the potential is there for it to happen.
  Because we are a pragmatic people, and are used to convenience, we gladly use fast food restaurants as if they were going out of style. They won't go out of style though, because at almost any given hour of the day, there are long lines at the drive throughs. But all this requires a special type of farming, that can't be done on local farms. You have to have meat that will be a certain texture, and that will have a specific, appealing taste that everyone who patronizes these fast food restaurants will enjoy. So, commercial agriculture must be employed. That means that there will be big farms, with a lot of animals which have no room to move around in, and are tied up in one place. These animals eat and go to the bathroom in the same place. They are not necessarily healthy and unhealthful meat is produced as a result. But wait one second. They do spray the meat with bleach water. Do you want your piece of meat sprayed with bleach water? Animals that live on commercial farms are given antibiotics to protect them from getting sick. If you can add 2+2, you will figure out that if you eat meat from animals which come from commercial agricultural farms, you will be getting antibiotics into your body as well. Could this be a problem though?
   Antibiotics can be good and life saving, if used right. When I was six, I caught Scarlet Fever and was very sick. The doctor came to the house and gave me penicillin. I was able to recover from Scarlet Fever because of the antibiotic, but once I was well, I stopped taking it. People should not take antibiotics unless they are sick and need to recover, and if there is no other means to get well. If a person continues to take antibiotics, a couple of things happen. One is that the antibiotics not only kill off the bad germs, but also the good ones. In a normal, healthy body, we refer to the good germs as our resistance. We build good immunity to fight off sicknesses. Our good immunity will be gone though if we are taking antibiotics. So if you take antibiotics, you are interrupting nature's way of staying healthy. If you eat meat from an animal which was given antibiotics, you will be compromising your immunity system.
   Another thing done on these farms is to give animals growth hormones. They are given these hormones to help them grow big and fat, and to help cows produce a lot of milk. Once again, if you are eating meat or poultry which was given growth hormones, guess what? You now have growth hormones in your body as well. Could this be a reason why today, girls are going through puberty earlier than their moms did?
  The problem with this also is that these subjects have been brought up to those in charge of commercial agriculture and they are unwilling to acknowledge these facts, nor do they want to do anything to change what they are doing. If they do change what they are doing, they will go out of business (and they know that). The fact of the matter is, you can't mass produce food, no matter how good technology is, and how much science you know. It just won't work. Or maybe a better way of stating this is that, it will work, but the price everyone is going to pay will be really, really high.
   Commercial agriculture is much supported by the government, but it is also supported by the people. We choose to go to McDonald's, for example, even though we have seen the hamburgers that were left out for months. We choose to laugh at farmers and relegate them as primitive. Could there be a correlation between the way we eat, and the amount of sicknesses we are experiencing as a people today?
  Years ago, diabetes and cancer were almost unheard of. Both diabetes and cancer have sugar as a contributor to their causes. Do you realize that almost all processed food contains some form of sugar, and many times sugar is the first ingredient listed? The FDA is who we trust to give us good guidelines on what kinds of ingredients should go into our foods and what should not be allowed. Once again, the FDA also is very liberal in their guidelines. Sugar is in almost all processed foods, yet sugar is addicting. Enough sugar and you will be sick with something. But the FDA already has your problem solved. They are always coming up with new medications to make you feel better. The FDA backs the pharmaceutical companies as well as food production companies. They seem to work hand in hand, if you can see what I am trying to say.
   I can go on and on and make this post many pages, but for now, I will just leave it at this. This blog is to encourage us to pray, and I am trying to inform us of how we can be praying for the church and the country. We have allowed many wrong people into our government and now they call the shots on what we can do and what we can't. There are actually laws in the making that are going to try to stop people from being able to garden. We are ignorant of what is going on, because we are not inside the government, but as people report different things happening, the Internet is good at exposing these things. This is all stuff we can be praying for. We can pray for our farmers. We can pray for good crops and rain. We can pray that Godly men and women will be appointed into governmental positions where they can call the shots and make decisions.
   If we don't pray, we could see the end of farming and gardening as we know it. We will not have any choices of what we eat. We will have to eat processed foods, and we will hear lies from authorities who say that processed food with dangerous ingredients is fine for us to eat. We could go to jail if pollen from a plant patented by Monsanto comes to our plant and produces a seed which would be a product of Monsanto, even though weren't aware of our plant being pollinated this way. Thousands of undesirable ramifications can come about, and many will unless we turn this over to God. I hope you will consider what I have written here, and I hope this article will give deeper insight into the potential problems we might have in the future.

Do you want to eat food sprayed with this stuff? Workers
who spray plants must wear special clothing/attire for protection.
Yet we eat the food they spray. Does this make sense?

http://gmo-awareness.com/all-about-gmos/gmo-defined/

http://gardens4all.blogspot.com/2013/05/10-things-monsanto-does-not-want-you-to.html

This is not written to be critical of any group or person. We need to know the facts in order to be informed or  life will go by, and we will wonder 'what happened?' We need to pray for those in governmental places. We need to pray for Godly men and women to run our nation and to run businesses and farms, as well as a number of other things people can be doing.