To Subscribe: Email request to dlw@gracepointcounseling.org
In The News ARCHIVES
In The News
(2018)
The Grace Perspective identifies troubling issues In the News as an opportunity to teach the message of grace – that man is broken, the world is broken, and experiencing Christ for salvation (justification and sanctification) is the beginning of the solution. It is written, sometimes densely worded and intense, as a follow-up supplement to past and present counselees.
Week 52
Week 51
Week 49
Week 48
Week 41
Week 40
Week 37
Week 36
Consider:
Week 31
Week 23
Item 1: Conservatives mock university “cry rooms” for hurting students
Week 16
We also made ready to hunker down in a coat closet at the center of the house.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18D14
Week 14
Jordan
Week 52
Item
1: Trump points to 'wall' built
around Obama's DC home during fight for border wall funding
Consider:
- Border wall protection for the nation is as
appropriate and needed as a locked door to our homes.
- We welcome into our homes (also churches) everyone
- for whom we have sufficient resources to support
them, and
- who is committed to receiving the support we offer, including for making wise choices, but especially to learn about Christ and the salvation he offers.
Item
2: Famed psychology professor says
taking personal responsibility for choices and outcomes is best bet for success
in life
Consider:
- A more certain hope for health and happiness than the
professor’s Plan B is God’s Plan A for us to
- connect to his Resources (for support to make wise
choices) and then
- surrender to him the responsibility for good outcomes.
Item
3: Observed: Christmas lights
go out on day after Christmas
Consider:
- Turning off the Christmas lights the day after Christmas is the same as celebrating the expectancy of a baby more than its birth and life.
- So we leave the Christmas lights on for at least a week longer because they become even more meaningful beginning Christmas Day.
Item
4: Popular pastor tells members to
integrate the world’s values into their pursuit of success during the New Year
Consider:
- Although we are not OF the world, we live IN the
world (John 17:14-15), and so, of necessity, we incorporate some of its ways
and values into our lives.
- But we take care not to be so consumed by the world
that
- we are conformed to it (Romans 12:2) or
- our experience of Christ is lost - which is the state of the Church the Bible says will exist as we near the end of this Age of Grace before the Rapture.
Item
5: Dozens of pets removed from
filthy home, owner says pets are her life
Consider:
- Paul writes, “I consider my life worth nothing unless
I can finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me –
the task of testifying to the Good News of God’s Grace” (Acts 20:28).
- Also, “For me to live is Christ and to die is
gain” (Philippians 1:21).
- If to live is pets, than to die is not gain, but
loss, because pets are not born again, raptured, or resurrected so that
they go to Heaven.
- That’s why we invest our lives in matters that have eternal value (Matthew 6:19).
Item
6: Author gives reasons why pets
will be in Heaven
Consider:
- Animals will certainly be in the Kingdom Age and may or may not be in Heaven (the renewed Earth) or in the universe somewhere, placed there by God as they were in the Garden of Eden, but animals that have lived and died during our time on Earth will not be resurrected to live again.
- That’s because, animals have a soul but do not have a
spirit to be born again so that they have eternal life.
- The same as my 1986 Toyota Camry will not be going to
Heaven – even though driving it, riding in it, and even looking at it or
hearing it “purr” puts a smile in my heart - like the
- Also, our experience of
Heaven (now or when we get there) is elevated far above the superficial
happiness that non-eternal “things” may give us in our present life on
Earth.
Item
7: Report: Longevity, also health
status, declining in America
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Health decline, of course, is the result of aging. But not so fast! Although we are all leaky buckets, we can make choices each day so that the life force in our bucket is renewed to extend our years. That’s included in the meaning of Psalm 90:10, that “the length of our years is 70, and may be 80 if we are strong.” Still, unless we are raptured or die, we will experience the wear and tear of aging. Muscular strength declines, while recovery time from injury and sickness increases, and also mental sharpness, including short-term memory, tends to decrease as we age. (That’s one of the reasons I memorize large passages of Scripture – because memory is like a muscle, so I exercise it almost every day.) My favorite old joke is about the old guy who half way up the stairs forgot if he was going up or coming down. At the steakhouse yesterday, I saw a framed drawing of a confused looking old cowboy holding a rope saying “I can’t remember if I found a rope or if I lost my horse!” Our five senses also decline. Sometimes our hearing is the first to go. The word most often spoken in our home is not “love” (as in “I love you!”) or “sorry” (as in “I‘m so sorry!”) or “would” (as in “Would you please pass the biscuits?”). The word most spoken in our home (by far) is “what” (as in “What did you say?”)
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective
18L29
Week 51
Item
1: Democrats set to oppose Trump in
new congress
Consider:
- God has raised up President Trump to support government for protecting our freedoms and constitutional rights - which extends God’s timetable for the work of the Church on Earth before the Rapture.
- “No weapon formed against you will prosper… This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD” (Isaiah 54:17).
Item
2: Oregon
Consider:
- It is not the role of government to promote
Christianity but to protect our freedom to embrace it.
- More important than religion in government is for
Christ to be
- the foundation of our homes and churches, and especially
- the experience of our hearts (mind, emotions, and will) during our quiet-time worship.
Item
3: Popular teacher says the
‘experiencing Christ’ message of GracePoint Counseling is mystical, a
charismatic doctrine
Consider:
- Experiencing Christ in our hearts per Revelation 3:20, John 15:4-5, and Ephesians 3:19, and 4:13 is not the same as the noisy, wildfire, whooptydramatic outbursts of charismatics (“speaking in tongues,” etc.).
- It is also not the same as Performance Christianity to look religious (also called Bumper Sticker Christianity or Cosmetic Christianity), “having a form (facade) of godliness but denying (rejecting) the Power thereof (that makes holiness possible)” (2 Timothy 3:5).
- Rather, it is quiet and powerful like the hydration of a thirsty person drinking water, or warming of a cold person standing by a fire, or healing of a treated wound or injury, or flowing of life from the vine into the connected branch to produce fruit.
Item
4: Report: Americans starved for
sleep
Consider:
- Sleep starvation is the result of fear and tension
and disobedient choices.
- Sleep is
- essential to good health (to support our immune
systems),
- a gift from God (Psalm 127:2), and
- the promised result of including his Provisions of Grace into our lives (Matthew 11:28-30).
Item
5: Mental health magazine says
boredom can literally kill you
Consider:
- But the Life God gives to support our health also increases our happiness (3 John 1:2).
Item
6: Rate of stock market decline
worst in ten years
Consider:
- So, we take care that our investments have eternal value (Matthew 6:19-20) – that is, they support God’s Work in the world to meet the redemptive needs of others, most importantly their eternal salvation, but also their health and happiness in this life.
Item
7: Pastor hopes church will be
blessed in New Year
Consider:
- To be “blessed” does not mean God is delivering us from the suffering of our wrong choices, but that we are experiencing his Provisions of Grace to support us in health.
Item
8: The demise of Sears said to be failure
to adapt to changes in buying trends
Related: Book “Dying for a Change’ promotes need for churches to
adapt to culture
Consider:
- The “Performance” message (“go and give” in order to make God happy with hopes of receiving a blessing from him) embraces the changing culture in order to increase attendance and giving.
- The Grace message (“come and receive” in order to experience Christ for holiness / sanctification) is
- the “narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13-14) through which few enter (compared to the number who travel the broad road),
- opposed / rejected / crucified by religious pride (John 5:40),
- (but) will be the prevailing message during the Kingdom Age and in eternity (Heaven).
Item
9: Churches must set goals to have ‘Best
Year Yet’, says church growth leader
Consider:
- Increased church attendance and more income are pride and performance based goals, the same as wins and championships are in sports.
- God calls the Church to
- worship (know / experience) Christ (John 4:4-6),
- “grow up into Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-15),
- “experience him and the Power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10) as our “most earnest expectation and hope” (Philippians 1:20), and
- “consider all else as
loss” (Acts 20:28; Philippians 3:8).
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: This week, a sweet little lady who doesn’t have enough supply to care for her own health needs gave us a $100 bill in a Christmas card. I was shocked. She has heard me teach often enough that God does not call us to give sacrificially out of our brokenness to our resources (an Old Testament teaching), but only to receive from them. Sometimes the religious notion that we need to give to God as a performance to make him happy in order to win his favor is so ingrained in our understanding of God that it is hard for us hear the Message of Grace (that we don’t give to our resources but they give to us and to others through us). Anyway, I continue to go on record to say that I don’t accept gifts from those I serve as a support resource, that our personal needs are met from the income we earn from our employment and that the expense needs of our ministry are met by a few resources (non-counselees) God has raised up to give support out of the overflow of their abundance. When funds turn up in Christmas cards and such from counselees in a way I don’t have a chance to politely refuse or return, I always delight to pass it on to meet the redemptive needs of others.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective
18L22
Week 50
Item
1: ‘Joy to the World’ named most
popular Christmas carol (“Let earth receive
her King” / “He rules the world with truth and grace”)
Consider:
- Jesus did not come into the world to be a king (although he will come as King of Kings at his Second Coming to rule over the earth), but came to die in order to satisfy God’s judgment against the human race (because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden – Romans 5:12-19).
- Also, during this Age of Grace, Christ does not “rule the world with love and peace.”
- Although he does offer to reign in our hearts – that is, to direct and support us for making wise choices that result in health and happiness.
Item
2: Report: Number of suicides
increases at Christmastime
Consider:
- The leading causes for tension, disappointment, and unhappiness at Christmas are:
- unmet needs and expectations,
- buying on credit,
- overspending the budget,
- purchasing gifts for self (especially to meet superficial pain relief needs) or for others (to win their favor or forgiveness or to meet codependency needs), and
- giving to the Church, pastors, parents, husband, employers, or other resources (which may feel good to us at first, but, in time, we will resent it).
- God expresses his Love for us by giving to us (his Provisions of Grace) in order to meet our redemptive (healing) needs (John 3:16) – the same as pastors, parents, husbands, and other resources express God’s Love for those they serve by giving to them to help meet their redemptive needs.
- We express our Love for God (and his Resources for our lives) by receiving from him.
- This means, we are happiest during the Christmas season when we
- take extended quiet time each day to open the door of our hearts to receive the Life of Christ (Revelation 3:20; John 15:4-5) and also to
- give to help meet the redemptive needs of others.
Item
3: Life of local woman celebrated,
‘worked day and night to build successful business,’ dies at young age from
cancer, friends say it was God’s Will
Consider:
- God’s Plan to support our health and success is for us to
- include his Provisions of Grace into our lives (including rest, and then to
- trust him for good outcomes (health and success).
- Psalm 127:2: “In vain you rise up early and stay up late toiling for food to eat (success), because God gives sleep to those he loves (the support God gives provides for sleep and recovery).
Item
4: Award winner says, ‘Stay true to
self’
Consider:
- Man’s “self (mind and values)” is broken.
- Staying true to self is depending on support rooted in weakness.
- We do better to trust in the Support that comes into our lives through Christ, without whom, the Scripture says, “You can do nothing!” and through whom “All things are possible.”
Item
5: Popular pastor says God is our
‘Boss Father’
Consider:
- In the Old Testament, God related to his people organizationally as a king (or boss father, if you will).
- But during this the Age of Grace, God relates to us organically through Christ in both the home and Church as a husband to his bride and shepherd to his sheep – that is, as a servant-leader, resource support, and advocate for making wise choices that result in health and happiness.
- Employees who have authoritarian bosses are at risk for broken health, but those who have employers who support them (for living out God’s calling for their lives while also fulfilling the company’s redemptive mission in the community) are increased in health.
Item
6: Pastor says ‘prayer’ is greatest
need for 2019
Consider:
- God’s Plan for our needs to be met is to provide us support (Provisions of Grace) for making wise choices that produce good outcomes.
- For example, God meets our need for hydration, not by ‘miraculously’ hydrating us in answer to “prayer,” but by providing water for us to drink and then calling us to drink it.
- “Prayer” when understood as pleading with God to meet our needs (instead of receiving his Provisions to support us for making wise choices that result in our needs being met) is religious socialism – akin to government socialism.
Item
7: SC pastor buys $200G Lamborghini
for wife on installment plan, says why not, NFL stars do the same
Consider:
- Husbands do well to care for the needs of their wives.
- But going into debt is not God’s Plan for meeting our needs.
- Also, a $200G car for personal use is excessive.
- A pastor is a servant, not a celebrity.
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: Carole likes to look nice. She dresses modestly and
has an appropriate sense of style. Her health also matters to her, so she
takes care every day to make choices for diet and exercise that support
her to look and feel healthy. She trusts in God’s commitment to her
safety, so expects him (me) to provide her a safe home to live in and also
a reliable vehicle to drive. (She said a camper and a healthy horse would
not do). So we bought a $120K home and also paid cash for each of our four
cars – an ‘86, ‘93, ‘98, and 2000. (Carole’s employer provides her income
to lease a 2016 Kia for her work.) Her birthday is in a few days, so last
week I bought her the necklace, watch, and sprays she wanted, and strolled
along with her at the mall to tell her I liked the sweaters and tops she
bought. Christmas is here also, so we bought two Lazyboy recliners and a
new GE dishwasher, and a thing or two else that serve good purposes. We
are not impulsive spenders but budget conscious, make highly routine and
predictable lifestyle decisions, and content to live modestly. We owe
nothing, take no expensive vacations or trips, buy only when items are on
sale, eat out at family restaurants, use coupons, and never waste food.
Once when eating with an associate, he said he was really full. I told him
to stop eating. He said nope, he couldn’t do that. I asked why he ate all
the food on his plate at one time. He said, “One continuous taste!”
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective
18L15
Week 49
Item
1: Report: Scientists can now see
thoughts
Consider:
- Our thoughts are not only revealed by computer images but also by our countenance, eyes, behavior, and words.
- God looks in our hearts and
sees the pain of our unmet needs.
Item
2: Politician says ‘Politics is what
I do, not who I am’
Related: Survey says leading self-identifications are (1-10) family
status, religion, gender, age, occupation, nationality, race, region, political
party, social class
Consider:
- Christians are children of God and heirs with Christ of all God has.
- Leadership in the home and Church (parents, husbands, and pastors) are vessels God sanctifies (makes holy) and uses for his redemptive work in the world.
- Religious churchgoing may be what we do, but effectual ministry is both what we do and who we are.
Item
3: Pastor solicits gifts, says ‘more
blessed to give than receive’
Consider:
- Broken people are not made healthy by giving, but by receiving.
- We can understand the meaning of Acts 20:35 to include “the healthy give; the broken receive.”
Related: Inspirational speaker tells filled arena, ‘Jesus first,
others second, yourself last’ is formula for JOY
Consider:
- The leading cause of broken physical and psychological health is
- neglect to attend to personal health needs,
- performance of religious duties (in order to win God’s favor), and
- providing superficial pain relief to broken people in order to circumvent the sowing and reaping outcome of their disobedient choices.
- Take time first thing each day to include God’s
Provisions of Grace into your life so that
- you are supported (made competent)
- in your service to others.
Item
4: Texas
Consider:
- To avoid arrest, it may be better for Christians to lift up Jesus as the Reason for the Season!
- But no guarantee.
Item
5: Limbaugh warns against use of
word ‘conservative’ to identify political position, says to focus on solving
problems instead
Consider:
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: Scripturally and doctrinally, GracePoint Counseling
is a Baptist church. But we don’t always include that information in our
literature - not because we attempt to hide it, but because the name
Baptist has been hijacked by performance groups who don’t represent the
name well. The word “Grace” to identify our message and ministry has also
been hijacked by groups that don’t have much clue what the word means (at
best they confuse it with the word “mercy”). A “
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18L08
Week 48
Item
1: NJ school teacher tells first
graders Santa Claus is not real, principal apologies to parents, reminds
teachers to be kind
Consider:
- One day old is not too young to begin teaching
children about God’s Love and the real meaning of Christmas.
- The best time to lie about the existence of a Santa
Claus is never.
- The worst unkindness is information abuse.
Item
2: Report: US
Consider:
- Christ alone, living his Life within us, supports our enthusiasm for living usefully to God as vessels for his redemptive work in the world.
Related: Report: Life expectancy continues to drop
Consider:
- Medical science has found ways to increase longevity.
- But “whoever believes in (trusts in / receives) Christ (his Blood/death on the cross as the only Payment God will accept to satisfy his Judgment against us) shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
- And, everyone who is increased to fuller measure of
the Resurrected Life of Christ each day during their quiet-time worship
will be increased in health and happiness and longevity in this life.
Item
3: Former First Lady uses vulgarity
on book tour
Consider:
- Vulgarity flows out of a vulgar heart.
- The healthiest people don’t use vulgarity, but express as Christ does and in the way we will in Heaven.
Item
4: Townhall with First Lady at
conservative Christian
University
Consider:
- Experiencing Christ is not identified as our most critical need when Christianity is understood only as religious performance to please God.
- Christ is the foundation of all health and happiness (1 Corinthians 3:11).
- The solution to all brokenness begins with trusting / receiving him –
- his Blood/death (for regeneration of the spirit) and
- Resurrected Life (for healing of the heart).
- The further removed a broken person is from experiencing Christ, the more difficult his or her recovery.
Item
5: President says his ‘gut’ tells
him more sometimes than the ‘brains’ of others
Consider:
- The human brain is a biochemical organ directing the functions of the body, maybe like a motherboard or hard drive.
- Our mind is the capacity of our psychological being (our heart/soul) for thoughts and values, to comprehend information and experience affection.
- The Mind of God (his thoughts and values) has unsurpassed power to support us for making wise choices which result in good outcomes –
- this, so that we are not left to be supported only by our own mental strengths (human intuition, analytical ability, and insight), the world’s culture, or, worse, demonic influences, including the Angel of Light (the religious spirit of Antichrist).
Item
6: Pilot blamed after commercial
flight lands at wrong airport
Consider:
- To err is human.
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: Confession of ignorance (lack of information) is
painful, so we tend to deny it. But I’d rather confess to ignorance and be
committed to learning than to think I am smart while watching the smart
train go by leaving me intellectually behind. The most informed people
never assert how smart they are. That’s because strength never asserts
itself. That’s why I trust people more who admit they may be wrong than
those who deny they might not be right. I don’t want to confess it to
excess, but I sometimes admit that I may be a quack. There is plenty of
evidence that I am not, but also that I may be – even though I am smart
enough to know that going north is always up even though it may be going
downhill. Carole sometimes worries the worst about me when I point down
the hill and say let’s go up there or when I tell her I am going down to
my office upstairs. I traveled once with a young man who asked me to raise
the window down. I said, “Do what!” For several months after moving to
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18K29
Week 47
Item
1: Celebrity atheist mocks belief in
a God who has no beginning
Consider:
- Can a universe which has no end exist without a God which has no beginning?
- If God had a beginning, then he is not Eternal - which means, the Life he gives us is not Eternal.
- Our confidence that God is Eternal is supported by the conviction (faith) the Holy Spirit gives us (as we read the Scripture), so that our belief is not just information we blindly accept.
Consider:
- God is Light and the Author of Life. Optimal health is not possible apart from our experience of him.
Item
2: Civil rights organization
classifies witnessing for Christ as hate speech
Consider:
- Religious pounding feels like hate to non-Christians and invites rejection.
- But Christ, living his Life in and through us, enables us to
- value every person unconditionally,
- effectually manifest / communicate his Likeness (per John 1:5; 15:8; Philippians 1:20; Acts 20:28), and
- draw (influence) the unsaved to honor / receive him (included in the meaning of John 12:32).
Item
3: Highway billboard tells the lost
to turn from their sins in order to go to Heaven
Consider:
- The only sin we turn from in order to go to Heaven is the sin of rejecting God’s Provision of Christ’s Blood/death (John 3:16-18) as the only Payment he will accept to satisfy his judgment against us (and all mankind because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden - Romans 5:12-19).
Item
4: Popular pastor says God expects loyalty
to him and his ministers
Consider:
- God does not call us to be loyal to him, but to trust him – to receive his Provisions of Grace which support us in health and happiness.
Item
5: Pastor struggles to explain why
God allows adversity in our lives
Consider:
- God allows adversities in our lives in order to
- get our attention and to
- give us opportunity to recognize / confess our brokenness and need for him.
Item
6: Overheard: ‘I’ll always give you
the best price unless you tick me off’
Consider:
- God’s Provisions of Grace for our support flow
- unconditionally
- to every person
- for us to receive.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Carole and I always ask for the best price, and sometimes for discounts that don’t exist. Surprisingly, sales people sometimes come up with an additional discount. But sometimes not. Recently I asked the sales girl if she gave discounts to members of the owner’s family. Elated, she asked if I was for sure related to the owner. I said I wasn’t but was just wondering who the store gave discounts to. For lunch on Black Friday, we wanted to get the early bird special at our favorite restaurant. So we sat in the car 15 minutes waiting for 3:00. Then at 2:55, we remembered the early bird was Monday thru Thursday. So we hurried inside to get the daily lunch menu from 11 to 3, but were told we would have a 15 minute wait. I asked if we could still get the lunch menu, but was told the computer changed pricing at 3:00. So we paid full price. The meal and service, however, were worth it. Anyway, we couldn’t afford to save any more money.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18K24
Week 46
Item
1: Pastor asks man dressed in drag
to leave church service
Consider:
- Religious legalism condemns behavior, but
- the Heart of Christ living within us supports us for providing redemptive ministry unconditionally to every person who seeks it.
Item
2: Sale
Consider:
- Hearts grateful for blessings desire to commend and express gratitude to Christ.
- But Scripturally, to give thanks to Christ means more than to say “Thank You” to him or to post a message for him to read on a yard sign or bumper sticker.
- Rather, we express thanksgiving to Jesus by giving ourselves (opening our hearts) to him in order to receive the flow of his Provisions into our lives, beginning with his Blood / death and Resurrected Life – in the same way we express thanksgiving for food by eating it.
Item
3: Pro-Trumper says conservatives
are resilient, that right will triumph
Consider:
- Without Christ, righteousness will not triumph. It did not triumph in the days of Noah, nor will it in the time the Bible says will be just “as it was in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37-39).
- That’s because, conservatives motivated only by politics, but without the renewal of experiencing Christ, will in time suffer battle fatigue and cower to the opposition.
Related: Pundit says no one knows where nation is headed
Consider:
- Yes we do:
Item
4: Study: Millennials tend to reject
advice of elders, even as little as 5 years older
Consider:
- Millennials, if their support need for information was missed by attentive parenting during their childhood years, will suffer insecurity and reject correction for fear of appearing ignorant.
- 1 Corinthians 1:30: “God has made Christ to be Wisdom
for us (support for making wise choices - including to connect to God’s
leadership for our lives).”
- That means, no one who has an open heart to experience
Christ will get dumber, but become wiser as they get older.
Item
5: Psychologists warn: Facebook can
cause depression
Consider:
- Facebook is a failing support for
- meeting our inborn need for affection and validation and for
- providing information (Truth) that sets us free.
- God provides for the health and happiness of our
hearts through one-on-one connection to Christ and his Leadership
Resources for our lives in the home and Church.
Related: Science Daily: Increase in posting of selfies due to
increase in narcissism
Consider:
- The most essential need of every person is confidence
that to someone we matter (especially to God, but also to leadership in
the home and Church and also at work), that to them “we are what it’s all
about.”
- This, so that we are not left in our insecurity and
brokenness to try to be “what it’s all about” to ourselves.
Item
6: ‘DO’ statements for instructing
are better than ‘DON’T’ statements, says psychologist
Consider:
- “Don’t forget” is more helpful than “Remember” when helping someone to make wise choices - for example, to lock the door or to take your keys.
- Healthy people appreciate “don’ts”; hurting people are offended because of intolerance to correction.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: My friend Andy said that when growing up it seemed he could not do anything right. He joked that he was 12 years old before he realized his name was not “Andy Don’t”. He also said his dad spit tobacco out the window when the family traveled, and that he thought those spots on his face were freckles. Things aren’t always what they seem. At a sandwich shop yesterday, two girls and a guy sat in a booth beside us. Or it may have been two guys and a girl. One of the three acted and dressed like a guy, but may have been a girl because s/he wore a bra. They seemed to be nice kids having a good time. I enjoyed watching them. When their meals came, they bowed their heads and prayed, and then talked about the church service that morning. Sometimes we can know a lot about a person by their appearance, but not always. God looks on the heart. “Though God is on high, he looks on the lowly; but the proud he know from afar” (Psalm 138:6).
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18K17
Week 45
Item
1: On pre-election night, ‘Name-it,
Claim-it’ Christian tv network names-claims Republicans will keep House majority,
win 60 seats in Senate
Consider:
- “Word of Faith” theology is a hoax.
- God accomplishes his Redemptive Purpose in the world through vessels who take time each day to include his Provisions of Grace into their lives in order to be supported for making wise choices.
Item
2: 49-year-old boxer pursues
passion, dies after brutal KO loss
Consider:
- Passion to chase after an unmet need for significance puts our lives at risk.
- God supports us in health for the Work he does in and through us to accomplish his Will in service to others.
Item
3: US Soldier, father of seven,
killed in Afghanistan
Consider:
- Whatever heroic needs or patriotic purposes are accomplished by husbands and fathers in military service, they pale compared to the need for their service at home to their wives and children.
Item
4: Study: University of Granada
Consider:
- Lying creates stress, restricts blood flow to the face.
- Worse, man’s conscience is seared each time he lies, so that it becomes easier to lie, harder to tell the truth - or to know the difference.
- Telling the truth sets our minds free, supports us for good health and happiness.
Item
5: Report: Chinese develop ‘gait
recognition’ software
Consider:
- Jesus said,
- “by their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:16),
and
- “when I live my life in and through you, everyone will know that you are my disciples and will be drawn to me” (from John 12:32 and 15:8).
Consider:
- Humans seek a god that will supply their wants.
- The God of the Bible supports us for making choices that meet our Redemptive needs, beginning with receiving Christ (his Blood/death and Resurrected Life).
Item
7: Phone time increasing mental
health issues in children
Consider:
- The information, affection, and structure needs of young children are best met by extended one-on-one time with parents.
Item
8: Report: Skin cancer on the
increase
Consider:
- The leading cause of skin cancer is not exposure to the sun or even neglect to use sun screens, but an unhealthy immune system.
Item
9: Center for Disease Control begins
promotion for seasonal flu shots
Consider:
- We have two options to help protect us during the flu
season:
- Take time each day throughout the year to make wise
choices (for diet, exercise, lifestyle, and supplementation) which
support our immune systems;
- Otherwise, take a flu shot.
- “Prayer” for healing in the sense of pleading with God won’t help.
Item
10: Pastor tells Church to pursue God
Consider:
- God is not running from us so that we need to chase after him.
- Rather, we need to stop, become still, and say YES to his pursuit of us.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I met Carole 30 years ago on November 4. At lunch this week I told her she did not know what she was getting into when she married me, that I was sometimes a smart-aleck. She said that was okay, that she did not think I was so smart. I also told her that I was sorry for the times I had been a jerk. She said she could not believe I had been a jerk and asked when I thought that was. I said that, “a week or two before I met you,” a young lady had become friendly who I thought was very pretty and nice, but that “after meeting you,” I had lost interest, so that, when the young lady stopped by again one day, I asked if she would like to take a walk, but that, when we stepped outside, I told her I needed to get back to work and turned to go inside, that, when I looked back, she was taking our walk by herself, and that I never saw her again. Now that's being a jerk I said. Carole shook her head at me and said yes it was.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18K10
Week 44
Item
1: Trump says if Republicans lose
control of the House, ‘We will deal with it’
Related: Actor warns if Democrats don’t win back control, ‘there
will be blood in the streets’
Consider:
- Evil reacts with violence to adversity - whenever it doesn’t get its way.
- Righteousness responds to adversity by investing for change, with confidence (faith) that fertile seed has power to produce good fruit, also that Light has power to prevail against darkness.
Item
2: Election analyst says polls don’t
reflect the silent majority
Consider:
- Some conservatives are called to political activism (the same as to military service), putting their lives at risk; but others, especially with families to care for, and also for health and safety reasons, do not loudly announce their voting intentions to a broken world filled with angry people.
Item
3: Rapper reverses support of Trump,
cites disagreements
Consider:
- Immaturity demands full and immediate compliance to its expectations.
- Wisdom is patient to invest in redemptive causes, then to allow time for return / growth.
Item
4: Evangelical leaders call Christians
to pray for God to intervene in behalf of coming election
Consider:
- Confessing to God our hopes and fears, also expressing our earnest desire for his help, and even pleading with him to give an outcome we desperately need may help relieve some of our tension, but it will not result in God providing anything more than he is already providing for us to receive.
- Scriptural prayer in behalf of an election means to open the door of our hearts to receive the Mind of Christ in order to be renewed with his Wisdom for
- knowing personally how we should vote according to his Will and also for
- providing support to others for doing the same.
Related: Evangelical churches participate in ‘get out the vote’
drive
Consider:
- Pastors do well to support church members to be politically involved.
- But
- When God’s Goodness to us does not motivate us to more fully give ourselves to him, but instead causes us to drift further away, God allows adversity to remove the prosperity so that he is all that remains – giving us an opportunity to learn that, when he is all we have, he proves to be what we need most.
Item
5: Conservative candidate challenges
crowd, asks ‘Why would anyone vote for a Democrat?’
Consider:
- Democrat voters are motivated by the promise of at least two things: 1) government support (socialism) and 2) protection from the consequences of immoral lifestyle choices.
- Conservative government supports opportunities for making choices that result in good outcomes.
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: After my steak and potato dinner today Carole
caught me sneaking a look at the dessert menu. I said I was just looking. My
father in the ministry many years ago was R.J. Barber when he pastored the
old Baptist Tabernacle in
Week 43
Item
1: FBI probes if Mail Bomber acted
alone
Consider:
- The mail bomber did not act alone. Satan is complicit
in every evil act on Earth.
Item
2: Poll: 69% Americans stressed
about nation’s future, want peace
Consider:
- Conservatives work to win at the ballot box; liberals throw temper-tantrums in order to stress-motivate change, undo wins, and get their way.
- Spoiled children do the same at home.
- But grace parenting stays the course.
- Christ, living his Life within us, makes us strong and stouthearted (Psalm 138:3).
Item
3: Religious and government leaders
seek to reduce tension in nation, call for ‘acceptance’ of all people
Consider:
- The Heart of Christ within us supports us to
unconditionally and equally value every person, regardless of race,
belief, or behavior.
- But he does not support us for accepting
everyone – for example, to receive them into our homes or inner circle of
relationships.
- Also, we are all equal, not in the sense of
gender or abilities, but in our opportunity to connect to God’s resource supports
for making wise choices.
- God accepts as his children only those who
receive (trust in) his Provision of Christ’s Blood/death on the cross as
the only Payment that will satisfy his Judgment against the human race
because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Romans 5:12-19).
Item
4: College student chokes to death
during pancake eating contest
Consider:
- Behavior in order to meet the need to be number one puts our lives at risk, the same as religious striving to win God’s favor.
Item
5: Students taking burdensome
government loans into their forties
Consider:
- Student loans are not God’s Plan for providing
education.
- Every Provision from God is good and produces Life
(James 1:17); they do not result in bondage or debt. (God’s Provisions are
experienced without regret is included in the meaning of Romans 11:29.)
- God is faithful, beginning with our experience of
Christ, to provide support (including financially) for living out his
Will.
Item
6: Minister and family fast 40 days,
wife and children emaciated, 15 year old son dies
Consider:
- An occasional 24-hour period to abstain from eating food in order to help cleanse the body can support good health.
- Fasting does not include abstaining from drinking water.
- An extended food fast (beyond a day or two) is religious legalism, deadly, inconsistent with the message of Grace (to daily include in our lives God’s Provisions of Grace per Matthew 6:11), and is not supported by Scripture.
- Scriptural fasting means to exclude from our lives for an extended amount of time anything that does not support health or that interferes with us making wise choices to include God’s Provisions in our lives (junk food and entertainment are examples).
- (Matthew 17:14-21)
Item
7: Parents charged with ‘beating’
child
Consider:
- Grace parenting invests to meet the inborn needs of children for
- food, shelter, and protection,
- information, affection, and structure (support for decision-making), and especially
- to trust / experience Christ for salvation (justification and sanctification).
- Grace parenting does not hit or beat children but
- allows them to experience the outcome of their disobedient or foolish choices, not as punishment but as discipline (training with a view of growth) and
- may be stern, speak with
an elevated voice, snap fingers, or smack (but not hit or slap) their
butts, not as punishment, but in order to get their attention – for the
same reason God allows storms into our lives.
Item
8: Leading pastor struggles to
explain call for wives to submit to their husbands
Consider:
- God’s call to a wife to “submit” to her husband means for her to “give him opportunity” to
- win her confidence concerning his commitment to support (be an advocate for) her health and happiness and to
- provide earned leadership influence and support to her for
- making wise choices for her health (especially for learning how to experience Christ during quiet-time worship) and for
- living out God’s Calling and Will for her life.
Item
9: Noted author says ministry and
Christian living are hard
Consider:
- God enables us to do everything he calls us to do (Philippians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:3; John 15:4-5). Christ, living his Life in and through us, makes ministry and Christian living easy. When it is not easy, we have missed receiving some part of his Support which he freely and faithfully provides (Matthew 11:28-30; Ephesians 1:6).
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I dreamed last night that, while visiting the Bible college (now university) I attended many years ago, its famous founder spotted me on campus and stopped to say that it was good to see me again and that if he could help me in any way, we could schedule a time to meet. I said that I would absolutely appreciate that. After scheduling with his secretary, I woke up troubled because I could not think of anything that, after these many years, I needed to talk with him about. I told my dermatologist this week that I just turned 70. He jumped back and said I looked 55. At my annual checkup, I asked my doctor if he knew how long I had to live. He said he didn't. At home, I told Carole that the doctor said he didn't know how long I had to live. She did not think that was funny.
Week 42
Item
1: Thousands of migrants march
toward U.S.
Consider:
- Conservatives welcome into our country (the same as into our homes) those who
- have ability to contribute to the good of all, or
- are willing to learn and adopt our values (assimilate), and
- make application at legal ports of entry.
Item
2: Election Analyst: Undecided
voters to determine 2018 election outcome
Consider:
- How we vote is influenced by our acceptance or
rejection of the following: God works in the world to support us for
making wise choices that set us free from brokenness, while evil protects
broken choices in order to increase our dependence on its control.
Item
3: ‘Bait and Switch’ campaign
promises exposed
Consider:
- Satan is a deceiver and the “father (promoter) of lies” (John 8:44).
- Truth never hypes or misleads.
- No person has ever lived who found God not to always prove faithful to be in our lives exactly as he promised.
Item
4: Candidate removes opponent’s yard
signs
Consider:
- God will always provide support for the Work he does
through us. For that reason, Truth and Righteousness does not fear the
right of opposing views and efforts to exist.
Item
5: Lottery buying grips nation,
jackpot reaches 1.6 billion
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I probably would not refuse a lottery ticket someone offered me (no one ever has), but I would not walk across the street or reach into my pocket for a penny to buy one. That’s because
- my Father “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” and also owns the hills (Psalm 50:10),
- he has adopted me as his son (Ephesians 1:5), making me a co-heir with Christ of all he owns (Ephesians 1:11-14, 18), and
- every need I have flows freely to me from him for me to receive (“What he provides, we gather” – Psalm 104:28).
Carole told me
recently that, several years ago when shopping, she and a friend bought a
lottery ticket. I asked if she had forgotten that God has promised to meet the
needs of everyone he uses as a vessel for his work in the world per Matthew
6:33. Carole said she knew that and felt bad after she bought the ticket.
“Especially since I didn’t win anything,” she said.
Item
6: Report: Pet owners will spend
nearly half billion dollars on Halloween costumes for pets this year
Consider:
- Spending for pet costumes is for owners’ enjoyment; because pets don’t know what they are wearing or what Halloween is about (the same as birthday parties for babies are for the parents, because babies don’t know that it’s their birthday, or what the party and gifts are about), making it a costly feel-good experience that lasts only for the moment.
- (But if it helps, even superficially, to relieve the boredom and unhappiness of persons who do not understand or appreciate eternal values, especially if it helps save their lives, then why not? Much could be worse, including alcohol and drug use or other risky behaviors.)
- Happiness is based on events and circumstances. Fun helps kill the pain of unhappiness. Joy is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit produced in our hearts by the Resurrected Life of Christ living within us.
Item
7: Senator claims status as ‘person
of color,’ DNA reveals she may be 1/1000th Cherokee Indian
Consider:
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: Many years ago, I pastored in a town with a park
named
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18J20
Week 41
Item
1: Pickup torched, vandalized because
of Trump bumper stickers, says owner
Consider:
- We fight what we fear.
- Error is fearful of, also hostile to, Truth because it cannot prevail against it, the same as darkness cannot prevail against light.
- For that reason, and with that confidence, Truth is willing for opposing views to exist / participate in the arena of ideas.
Item
2: World’s oldest woman says long
life is punishment from God
Consider:
- Longevity is “better than the alternative” - but not
without health and happiness.
- Broken health is not punishment from God but the cause and effect outcome of neglect to daily include in our lives his Provisions of Grace (especially the Resurrected Life of Christ during quiet time worship) to support our health.
Item
3: Pastor asked about death and
destruction to good people during recent hurricanes, says to ‘trust God’s
goodness’
Consider:
- God was good after the fall of man to provide for our
redemption and safety.
- Broken people suffer the outcome of exposing
themselves to the elements of a broken world.
- Religious activity does not protect us from brokenness,
but increases it.
- Our best hope for safety is the measure of our usefulness to God as vessels for his Redemptive Work in the world.
Item
4: Observed: Few in giant megachurch
crowd participate with loud music during ‘praise and worship’ service
Consider:
- Stimulant music has a tolerance factor; in time, it results in burnout.
Item
5: Loud pastor encourages loud
response to his preaching
Consider:
- Emotions are stimulated by loudness.
- God communicates Truth to us when we are quietest, not when we are loudest.
- Loud response can be a subtle way to minimize / neutralize the message.
Item
6: Popular Christian minister
announces plans to teach through the Old Testament
Consider:
- God gave the whole Bible to all of us, but the Old Testament was written specifically to Old Testament saints, while the New Testament is written specifically to the New Testament Church.
- Teaching the Old Testament is like looking at pictures or touring the sites of a famous restaurant, while teaching the New Testament is going inside to eat the food.
Item
7: Reports: Loneliness becoming mental
health crisis
Consider:
- Loneliness is not the absence of people in our
lives but the result of unmet leadership, especially in the home, to
support our inborn temperament (psychological) needs for information,
affection, and decision-making.
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: Carole is a classic encourager to those she serves
in her ministry to seniors. She also sometimes needs to rescue me from my
melancholy brokenness. She tells me I can do anything, even when I don’t
know what I am doing. This week, she asked me to repair a broken item. I
said I did not know how. She said I did. I said I didn’t. So she suggested
step-by-step instructions that guided me to put the item back together.
“See,” she said, “I told you you could do it!” Carole says she is certain
that I am not an idiot, but that I just act like it sometimes. My friend
said his neighbor was not the brightest bulb. I said neither was he. He
said neither was I. I said that makes three of us.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18J13
Week 40
Item
1: Kavanaugh opponents intensify
rage after confirmation
Related: Senators hire security for protection
Consider:
- Violence (including verbal) against opposing opinions is rooted in brokenness.
- Truth
- is bold to defend itself,
- invests for good outcomes, including at the ballot box,
- may militarily act preemptively to neutralize threats of imminent danger, but
- is never violent against others because of their religious or ideological beliefs.
Item
2: Conservative Analyst: ‘Opposition
to Trump is about abortion rights’
Consider:
- More than about “a woman’s right to abortion (the ultimate separation of children from their parents), opposition to Trump is mostly about the fear of losing "the right” to circumvent the “cause and effect” consequences of wrong choices.
Item
3: Politicians celebrate success to
increase number of women in leadership
Consider:
- Men had their opportunity.
- God placed men to serve as support resources (in the
home, Church and Community), but, in their brokenness, they failed to
provide support, and instead, used and abused.
- For that reason, women are broken and angry.
- Fearful, intimidated, submissive, rule-motivated
religious women who stay in abusive relationships are most broken and die
early.
- Leadership that comes from God always supports health
and freedom.
Item
4: Giant Billboard reads ‘Real
Christians Forgive Like Jesus Forgives’
Consider:
- God’s call to forgive is to
the Body of Christ, not to governments.
- The Bible word “forgive” does not mean to overlook or even forget about an offense but means 1) to withhold punishment and also 2) to minister to the brokenness (cause) at the root of the broken behavior.
- “Forgive as Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32) means we are supported for forgiving (ministering to) others by our experience of the ministry of Christ to forgive (heal and enable) us, so that we are not left in our own strength to forgive as Christ did - which we cannot do (John 15:5).
Item
5: Jewish pundit says historic
Christianity has brought good to the world but also harm
Consider:
- Religious “Christianity” has brought both blessings
and pain to the world.
- But Scriptural Christianity (Christ living his Life in
and through members of the Body of Christ, the Church) has produced only
good (the message of John 15:1-8).
Item
6: Church Promotes Program to
Increase Attendance for 2019
Consider:
- The role of the Church is to support its members for learning how to experience (be filled with) Christ so that they
- are effectual to influence the lost to trust him for salvation (per Philippians 1:20) and then to
- bring new converts into the meetings of the church for learning how to do likewise.
Item
7: Lyrics of popular praise song: ‘It’s
your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise’
Consider:
- The breath of Christ is not in our lungs; rather, his Life flows up like a fountain from his residence within our spirit and is living within our hearts (mind, emotions, and will) to support our healing (John 4:14).
- The Bible word “praise”
- does not mean to tell God how good he is but
- means to rejoice because of our experience of Christ and to commend him to others.
Item
8: Popular tv pastor tells members
to set life goals
Consider:
- God does not call us to set performance goals;
instead, he sows his passions and desires into us.
- The Apostle Paul: “It is my earnest desire and hope
that in nothing I should be ashamed (paled by fear) but that with all
brilliance, like a beacon light, the Life of Christ will be manifested in
and through me into a dark world, whether by life or by death, in this
life or in Heaven… I press on toward the goal (the desire in my heart) to
win the prize (holiness: moral purity and usefulness to God in redemptive
[healing] service to others) for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:20; 3:12-14
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: I’ve never thought too much about birthdays, except
for the big one that came up this week. I won’t tell my age except to say I’ll
never be 69 again. Also that I love the number 70. That’s because,
Scripture seems to teach that, unless we make reckless choices, we can
expect to live 70 years (and beyond, to 80 or more, if we are faithful to
include God’s Provisions into our lives). Also, Scripture seems to teach
that a generation is 70 years. That’s significant because the Scripture
also seems to teach that Christ will return (the Second Coming) during the
generation that is living when
On board the
Gospel Ship,
by death or
raptured glee,
I make my
destined trip
to where I
long to be.
-from Heaven’s Now
Real to Me
(Words and Music: Don [Carole] Whisnant/2018)
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18J06
Week 39
Item
1: Kavanaugh vote delayed by
accusations
Consider:
- Valid accusations are made for the purpose of justice, and also to support needed recovery.
- Charges made for the purpose of punishment and destruction forfeit credibility.
Related: Liberal activists invade private spaces, rage against
conservatives
Consider:
- The Heart of Christ within us offers support to meet the redemptive (healing) needs of broken people, even to those who have opposing views.
Item
2: ‘It’s a different day!’ says
pundit noting disturbing trends in the world
Consider:
- According to Scripture, tension, violence, and cultural decline will exist in the world at the end of this Age (the Age of Grace or Church Age) just prior to the Rapture.
Item
3: Man’s legs infected,
amputated after dog licking
Consider:
- Hygiene issue: A dog’s tongue is dirtier than unwashed hands.
Related: Woman mauled, killed by dog she rescued two weeks
earlier
Consider:
- Safety issue: Pets can save lives, but can also put owners at risk.
- Also, we take care what/who we allow into our homes, also nation.
Related: Illinois
Consider:
- Faith issue: Pets are not children, cannot be adopted as children or spiritually born again, and will not go to Heaven.
- Brokenness issue: Fellowship with Christ, more than relationship with pets, is God’s Provision to meet man’s happiness needs.
Item
4: Study: Family feuds begin
with competition to win favor, unmet codependency needs
Consider:
- Healthy relationships invest in redemptive (health and happiness) needs without expectation of winning favor.
- A codependent relationship is broken people using each other for superficial pain relief, and has expectation of a return.
- Tension in relationships begins when codependent expectations are not met.
Item
5: Church sign reads ‘We are
all born in the image of God’
Consider:
- In the Beginning, God created man to manifest his Image (Light), but that Light was lost when Adam sinned (chose to disregard God’s Will for his life) - so that, every person since has been born into the world in spiritual darkness, separated from God.
- But his Image (Light) is restored in us -
- in our spirit when we are born again (regeneration) and also
- in our heart (soul) through our experience of Christ during quiet-time worship (sanctification).
Item
6: Church says homosexuality is
inborn, votes to allow gays into the membership of the church
Consider:
- God created man male and female (Genesis 5:2).
- Homosexuality is a chosen behavior motivated by outward influences and experiences and inborn predispositions.
- When gays trust in the Blood/death of Christ as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against them (because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden), they are
- born again and
- placed by God into the Body of Christ, the
- On that basis, born again gays can be accepted into the membership of a local churches upon their willingness and commitment to be supported for learning how to experience Christ.
- But, according to Scriptural standards for leadership in the Church, a gay lifestyle disqualifies members for serving as pastors, teachers, counselors, and deacons.
Item
7: Ministry panel exposes
doctrinal error, laughs at, mocks others with opposing views
Consider:
- Truth is grieved by error, but does not laugh at, mock, or belittle opposing views.
- Ministry time is better invested winning the lost to Christ and supporting new converts for learning how to experience him for holiness, health, and happiness.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: In an initial interview years ago, a potential counselee declined our counseling when she learned I had been divorced and remarried. I told her that, on that basis, I would not be able to support her for making wise choices for her diet because I was once overweight. I am very conscious of my brokenness and past failures and, in my religious, self-righteous days, found confession to it was painful. But not so much now that I have a Solution (God’s Provision of Christ). Still, I take care how much I am willing to report - especially to the unregenerate world and also to self-righteous religious people, both who do not understand or appreciate God’s Redemptive Plan for our healing. Entertainers know how much people dislike know-it-alls, so they confess to all kinds of stupid behavior which we find funny. Ministers sometimes like to entertain, but we make a mistake to think we increase our influence for supporting others to grow in grace by self-debasing. Because who wants an airplane pilot or physician to announce they are drunks or that they cheated on their exams? We should absolutely confess our brokenness, but mostly we should make much of God’s Provision of Christ to support us so that the brokenness we confess to does not need to define our lives or our futures.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18I29
Week 38
Item
1: Florence
Related: Coach under attack for leading students in post-game prayer
for his little girl
Consider:
- Nothing good will come by restricting religious
freedom in
- But religious expression in government schools is not a substitute for learning in the home and Church how to experience Christ.
- Also, no harm is done to “ask” God to meet our needs, unless it is a substitute for taking time to include in our lives each day his Provisions of Grace which result in healing and health.
- Also, there may be benefit to “asking” God (in the sense of requesting) to spare us from outcomes over which we have no control – like storms, earthquakes, and other dangers, including during wartime and while driving on the highway – especially when we are living out each day his Calling and Will for our lives in redemptive service to others.
Item
2: Vacationing husband, wife, two
small children hit by 18-wheeler, die at scene
Consider:
- We live in a broken world filled with broken drivers.
- The best of people, also innocent people, die. We don’t always know why.
- But we can know that nothing comes into our lives that God does not allow.
- Our best hope for health and safety is to know and live out God’s Will and Calling for us.
- God’s Will and Calling is always redemptive – that is, it supports our
- personal health and holiness and
- competence for manifesting his Light (Likeness) into the world, beginning with our family.
Item
3: Congress, public weigh
accusations against Kavanaugh
Consider:
- First and always in
- Honest claims and accusations are made to help, not to condemn or destroy.
- God acknowledged the seriousness of lying (bearing false witness) by including it as one of the Ten Commandments.
- Also, Christ addressed the reality of Evil and dark forces in the world when he instructed us to pray “Deliver us from Evil.”
- A lie once told becomes a lie easier told.
- False memories are sometimes born out of dreams, also latent desires.
Item
4: Pundit says economy is still main
issue for mid-term election
Consider:
- A good economy for
socialists is financial assistance; for conservatives, it’s opportunities
to earn.
Item
5: NBA superstar refuses to meet
with Trump
Consider:
- Everyone with a redemptive message welcomes opportunities to communicate it with anyone who in good faith will consider it.
Item
6: ‘Surrounding self with opposing
view makes us stronger’ says celebrity doctor
Consider:
- Experiencing the disappointment of losing builds character, but adversity doesn’t make us stronger.
- God allows adversity into our lives to expose our brokenness and need for his support.
- Support for winning makes us stronger, so we connect to God’s Resources (especially to leadership in the home and Church) which he brings into our lives.
- God created our minds and bodies with a secondary defense measure (Plan B) to support us against adverse elements so that we are not completely destroyed, but his Plan A for our health is for us to include his Provisions of Grace into our lives each day.
Item
7: Celebrity says entertainers
should “thank Jesus” for their success
Consider:
- Entertainment that promotes immorality does not come from the God of the Bible but from Satan, the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Item
8: #MeToo movement faults men, not
immodest dress, behavior
Consider:
- Women who dress to seduce men are immodest.
- Immodestly dressed women become angry when
- the wrong men respond or
- the right men respond, but use them and then cast them off or go back to their wives. (Famous quote: “Hell has no fury like a woman scorned!”)
- The Heart of Christ promotes modesty, also passion for redemptive values.
- Attire will be modest in Heaven – because both men and women will desire it.
Item
9: Report: Popular vulgar term
becoming acceptable communication
Related: Mall security officer says vulgar expressions on clothing
now considered art
Consider:
- Scripture says it will be this way as we approach the end of this Age and the Second Coming of Christ.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Watching an old black and white movie made in the 1940’s, a young boy repeatedly said “gee” (a euphemism in those days for saying the name “Jesus”). Other JC words and phrases like “Jiminy Cricket” were euphemisms to tone down profanity (using God’s name in vain). Growing up, I never heard vulgarity or profanity in our home, not even “darn” or “heck” (except I did hear my dad say “pshaw” one time). I never used and still do not use profanity or vulgarity. But I did get in the habit of saying GD euphemisms like “doggone” and “dead-gummit” and also “what the heck” and “shoot” - I guess to show that I was not a complete prude. (I remember a buddy once tried to stop saying DG words, but he slipped and said “doggone,” then shook his head and said “doggone it, I said it again!”) In Heaven we won’t have that problem because Christ puts a new song in our hearts and elevates our language – the same as he does in this life so that, the more of Heaven we experience in our hearts, the more like Christ we speak. I dreamed last night that, after waiting 3 hours in a long cafeteria line, I was met by a disrespectful server. I reacted by saying, “You know, young lady, I didn’t wait 3 hours in line to be met by a rude server.” I fussed so loud and so long that I lost my voice and had to miss speaking to a group that evening.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18I22
Week 37
Item
1: Tv judge tells women ‘please your
husbands to save your marriage’
Consider:
- Marriages are not saved by wives pleasing their husbands but by husbands investing in the health and happiness needs of their wives.
- A husband finds happiness in his wife’s confidence in
him and in the opportunity she gives him to influence / support her (the
Scriptural meaning of the word “submit”).
Item 2: Young minister named leading
evangelist in America, says the lost are saved by ‘asking’ Jesus to come into
their hearts, does not mention trust in Christ’s Blood, death on the cross
Consider:
- The lost are saved by trusting in the Blood/death of Christ as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his Judgment against mankind (because of Adam’s disobedience) – not by “asking” (in the sense of making a request).
- The Life of Christ is imparted by the Holy Spirit into the spirits of the unsaved the moment they trust in Christ’s Blood/death.
- Christ does not come into the hearts (soul: mind, emotions, and will) of the unsaved but only into the hearts of the saved (during their quiet time worship).
Item
3: Famous tv preacher says God gives
good things in order to win our favor
Consider:
- God is not a people pleaser seeking to win favor, but relates to us as a Resource to which we can connect for his support per John 15:1-8.
- God loves (values) every person unconditionally and provides every redemptive need mankind has (for us to receive).
Item
4: Hollywood
Related: Church denomination exposes moral failure of its leaders
Consider:
- Both the unsaved world and the self-righteous (religious legalists) deal with moral failures in the same way – to either
- give offenders a pass / deny and cover up their failure or to
- isolate them / condemn them.
- (Offenders also deal with their own moral failures in the same way.)
- The entertainment industry condemns the same immorality their movies promote in order to mask their complicity and to ease their conscience.
- The Church and religious world condemn immorality in order to mask their failure and inability to support its members for learning how to experience Christ for healing and renewal.
- Conversely, Christ forgives – not in the sense of overlooking offenses, but by
1.
withholding judgment (separation from
him) - based upon the offender’s acceptance of Christ’s Blood/death as the only
Payment God will accept to satisfy his Judgment against the human race (because
of Adam’s transgression), and also by
2.
providing ministry support to teach
offenders how to experience him during quiet-time worship in order to be healed
(renewed and restored).
Item
5: Democrats condemn Kavanaugh on
basis of one person’s accusation of failed behavior as high school junior 36
years ago, ignore exemplary life since and support of 65 others
Consider:
- “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future” (famous quote).
- The Heart of Christ does not condemn the fallen but provides support for their recovery.
- “With you, O Lord, there is forgiveness (removal of brokenness: healing), therefore we are in awe of you” (from Psalm 130:4).
- Christ living in our hearts, renewing us daily to fuller measure of his Likeness, supports us so that, if we made a youthful mistake, we also made certain it never happened again.
- But a man without Christ living in his heart, even a religious person, is subject to make many mistakes, and then to repeat them lifelong.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: If I should confess the sinful choices teens and young adults sometimes make, that I cursed, drank and did drugs, cheated, fought, bullied people, stole, behaved inappropriately on dates, and attempted to murder a person I hated, and that, as a result, I spent time in prison, I would not be telling the truth. That’s because I did not do any of those things. Instead, I was a good kid, grew up in a pastor’s home, never caused problems at school or in the community, president of the Christian Youth club in my high school, a good student, tapped as a member of the National Honor Society, surrendered to ministry at the age of 17, went to college and seminary, and was a virgin when I married. But I do confess that, as a kid preacher over 40 years ago, I failed as a husband and dad while preoccupied with attempting to build a large ministry and become a “Champion for Christ,” and that, after losing my marriage and ministry, I eventually became discouraged, and for about six months began going to places with work buddies that I had never been to before. But I can also give testimony that God does not abandon those in whom he has begun a good work, that when we fail and then hit bottom, he lifts us up out of the pit, guides and supports us on a journey in Grace that renews us to health and holiness and establishes us with a faithful and enduring testimony - at home, in the workplace, in business, in the community, and in ministry which is affirmed by everyone who knows us, including hundreds of counselees – although maybe still condemned by the religious self-righteous from our past who have no appreciation or understanding of God’s Redemptive Plan for our lives, that he does not throw away the broken vessel, but renews it again to become a new and stronger vessel through our experience of him.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18I15
Week 36
Item
1: Research: ‘Friending God’
Provides Support for Hurting People
Consider:
- Fellowship with God
- is not a substitute for human relationships (the same as God is not a substitute for water or food), but
- is the Supporting Foundation which sustains us during loneliness.
Item
2: Liberal author attacks
conservatives, says liberals are intellectually superior
Consider:
- The smartest people among us don’t
- assert they are intellectually superior (That’s because, strength never asserts itself!) or
- attack others who have opposing views.
- We are cautious about anyone who says they are smart or competent! (We can better trust those who say they do their best.)
- The least smart among us attack because it
- feels good,
- makes us feel better about ourselves, and
- masks our insecurity (feelings of intellectual inferiority).
- The Heart of Christ within us supports us to
- value every person,
- grieve for, but not condemn, the views they hold with which we disagree.
Item
3: Seminary professor insists
ministers need supporting bibliography for speaking and writing
Consider:
- No one should speak or write on subjects (health, for example) beyond their personal experience or expertise without identifying their supporting resources.
- But Christians have opportunity during our quiet time to read the Scripture in order to hear the Holy Spirit communicate Truth - so that the support resource for our understanding is God himself teaching us by the Holy Spirit through The Scripture (chapter and verse).
Item
4: LDS Church
Consider:
- Churches in evangelical denominations (including Baptist, Pentecostals, Methodist, and Presbyterians) have also dropped the name that identifies their theology. They may do it in order to
- hide their doctrine,
- deceive, or
- minimize the importance of doctrine - all in order to
- increase attendance and support.
- “Everyone who lives by the Truth comes into the Light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done through God (or what they believe is from God).” – John 3:21
Item
5: Popular teacher says God spoke,
called the worlds into existence by ‘the word of his mouth’
Consider:
- God does not verbally speak anything into
existence (like the incantation of a magician).
- Rather, he sowed his Word (Christ, the Logos /
the Living Seed [gr. “sperma”]
of God) into the darkness which produced Creation (John 1:1-3; Colossians
1:17).
- Neither does God verbally “speak” Life into us;
rather, he imparts (sows) the Resurrected Life of Christ into our
- spirit for regeneration (the New
Birth) when we trust Christ’s Blood / death as the only Payment he will
accept to satisfy his Judgment against us (because of Adam’s
disobedience) and into our
- heart for sanctification (the healing
of our brokenness) during our quiet-time worship.
Item
6: Elderly pastor retires from
prestigious church, confesses struggle to understand the Bible.
Consider:
- We are supported for understanding the Scripture by patiently taking time each day for an extended period, sometimes years, to read it with an open heart in order to hear the Holy Spirit communicate / teach / reveal Truth as Jesus promised he would do (John 16:13; 1 John 2:27).
- This means, we do not need
to exhaust ourselves dissecting the Scripture like a textbook in order to understand
its meaning.
Item
7: Panel recommends churchgoing as
solution to anxiety
Consider:
- Participation in church programs can initially feel good, but in time it may increase anxiety.
- But our experience of Christ during quiet time worship will meet the deepest need of our hearts for peace and joy.
Item
8: 60% Americans own pets; a 30%
increase in one year
Consider:
- This, while anxiety increases in the world, also in the home and Church.
- That’s because pets fail as a substitute for experiencing Christ.
Item
9: Poll: Young Christians say lack
of scientific evidence is main reason for rejecting religion
Consider:
- The notion that God gives good outcomes to those who make him happy, plead with him, convince him of their sincerity, express sorrow for their sins, or promise to do better is a hoax and may be the leading reason why the unsaved reject Christ.
- God provides for us (to meet our needs for health and happiness) consistent with the scientific law of Cause and Effect (Sowing and Reaping).
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: I dreamed I was attending a conference featuring
Governor (Reverend) Huckabee. At lunch break, I came upon him in a
cafeteria sitting with a large group of pastors. So I sat down among them.
Just as I did, he disappeared. I said to the remaining pastors that I had
wanted to speak to the Governor about the need in
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18I08
Week 35
Item
1: At Dinner with Trump,
Evangelicals express gratitude for President’s conservative agenda
Consider:
- Conservative government and evangelical leaders, also conservative radio, tv, and internet voices, strongly support the conservative message and agenda.
- But at this time (as we near the end of the Church Age), support for the Message of Grace is absent from the evangelical church, embracing instead the message of
- “Performance Christianity” (religious works to impress God) or
- “Predestination Christianity” (God orchestrating outcomes in the world according to his Predetermined Will with disregard to his Law of Sowing and Reaping.)
- However, during the Kingdom Age (the 1000 Year Reign of Christ on Earth), support for the Message of Grace in all its Truth will return.
Item
2: Pundit: Dems will be driven to
vote in mid-term by pain of 2016 loss
Consider:
- Children who suffer the excruciating pain of unmet needs while growing up at home, over-compensate in adulthood as parents to indulge their children, hoping to protect them from the pain they suffered, but instead leave them unprepared to deal with the hardship and loss of living in a broken world.
- Hence the meltdown (including anger and violence) of (poor) losers after the 2016 election.
- Also, the Saved and Unsaved deal with loss differently:
- The unsaved are hostile to Truth; also, weep with gnashing of teeth.
- But the Heart of Christ in saved people weeps and grieves because of brokenness and loss in the world (which was expressed in sackcloth and ashes by Old Testament Prophets).
Item
3: Church reader board: ‘Choose
Love’
Consider:
- Whatever ability we have to choose expressions of human
love (romantic/eros, storge/family, phileo/neighborly love), we have
absolutely no (none, zero, zilch) ability to love (agape: “to value
unconditionally”) as God does.
- Our only hope to love others as God does is for
Christ to love them through us.
- (This is one of the signature messages that
distinguishes GracePoint Counseling.)
Item
4: Church reader board: ‘Put your
problems in the Hand of God’
Consider:
- Our expectations for God to reverse the tragic outcome of our poor choices will be disappointed.
- God’s Plan for our health is for us to receive his healing Provisions of Grace into our lives each day.
Item
5: Minister quotes popular adage, ‘God
gives the best to those who leave the choices to him’
Consider:
- God does not choose who does and doesn’t have health.
- The choice God makes is to provide supports for our recovery (for us to receive) in Creation, Community, and especially Christ.
Item
6: Popular pastor tells church God
will pay their personal debts if they give first to help pay church debt
Consider:
- Giving to a church hoping God will give back to us (called “Seed Giving”) will increase our spiritual and financial brokenness and bondage.
- (So will feel-good spending to help superficially relieve the pain of our unmet need to experience Christ daily.)
- God’s Plan for our financial well-being is for us to
- receive his support for making the wise choices that result in good outcomes, then out of the strength of his support to
- invest first in our own health and then in the health of others, beginning with family.
Item
7: NBA Star smashes fan’s camera
Consider:
- Celebrity types, especially athletes and entertainers, but also leaders in ministry, government, business, and organizations, fancy they deserve exalted status and recognition.
- Christ came into the world, not to be served, but to give himself up as a vessel for his Father’s use in redemptive service to others.
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: A son’s inborn need for significance (to be validated)
is met in childhood by his dad, also by his experience of Christ in his life –
a need which was not fully met during those critical years in my life, so I
sometimes acted out in my pain to make up the difference, to make me
significant to myself. Such a child has trouble receiving instruction, because
of the pain of feeling ignorant, considering instruction just another example
of something he doesn’t know. Such a child also fights for his identify that he
is somebody he wishes he was but fears he is not. That’s why, when I asked a
pastor once for the reason he did not talk to me as a young man about the
wayward choices I was making, he said he did not think I would listen. He was
right. On the first day of my first job as a young college student, I strutted
past security on the way to my workplace. I assumed they knew who I was. They
took a few moments to enlighten me. As a young minister, when I showed up late
for an appointment with a businessman, he dared to tell me that disrespect for my
appointments was not responsible behavior. Years later a pastor’s teen daughter
felt the need to instruct me. “Don’t you know who I am?” she asked. I remember
thinking she was who I used to be. Favorite story: A famous minister recalls
that as a young man he thought God was calling him to work for Billy Graham. So
he saved his money to buy a one-way ticket to
Item
8: New book encourages Christians to
enjoy the world
Consider:
- Everything the world offers to meet our needs as an alternative (and with disregard) to God’s Provisions of Grace will
- be addicting,
- satisfy only short term (because it has a tolerance factor like all drugs), but worse
- deafens our hearing to the Call of Christ knocking at the door of our hearts.
- Jesus prayed that, although we are in the world, we would not be of the world (John 17:14-15).
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18I01
Week 34
Item
1: Report: Increased number of
traditional churches in the Bible Belt are closing, while attendance in
contemporary churches increases
Consider:
- Rule-focused churches are being replaced by rule-free churches.
- Neither supports learning how to experience Christ.
- Members bored and wornout by spiritually dead churches will soon be bored and wornout by entertainment churches.
- “The letter
(rules) kills, but (only) the Spirit (the Presence of Christ in our lives)
gives life.” – 2 Corinthians 3:6
Item
2: International Ministry calls for
Church to pray more for persecuted Christians
Consider:
- God has provided support to meet the needs of every person who receives his Provisions.
- He does not delay providing for persecuted Christians while waiting on enough churches to plead with him.
- No darkness can prevail against God’s Light. This means, every person and nation experience deliverance from darkness equal to the amount of Light (God’s Provisions) they allow into their lives.
- Scriptural praying means to open the door of our hearts in order to experience Christ so that we are conduits of his Light into the world to dispel darkness and suffering.
Item
3: Church organization promotes Safe
and Secure Kits to help protect open-door churches
Consider:
- We can trust God to protect churches that are
fulfilling his purpose for members to win their family, friends, and
neighbors to Christ, then bring them into the private meetings of the
Church for support for learning how to win their family, friends, and
neighbors to Christ, then bring them into the private meetings of the
Church for support for learning how to …
- But an attendance-focused, entertainment church hanging a “Welcome” sign at its door is at risk.
Item
4: Televangelist says God cures
cancer, quotes ‘all things are possible to those who believe’
Consider:
- God chooses to cure diseases during this Age of Grace mainly through our connection to his Provisions of Grace (Romans 5:17) which flow to us through Creation (elements in the soil and atmosphere to meet our biological needs), Community (leadership in the home and Church to support our need for information, affection, and structure), and especially Christ (his Blood/death and Resurrected Life to meet our need for justification and sanctification).
- The Scriptural meaning of the word “believe” is more than to “agree with” information or “think positive about” God, but means to receive his Provisions of Grace which have power to heal.
- For example, we can study nutrition and have positive thoughts about food, but unless we eat it, we will starve.
Consider:
- The destiny of everyone’s
soul is fixed at death.
- Asking God for anything in behalf of the dead will not help.
- Christ said an understanding of Truth would be lost as we near the end of this present age (the Church Age).
Item
6: Woman attempting to save dog from
gator dragged to her death; dog said to be her only child
Consider:
- What does it profit a man if he saves his dog but loses his opportunity to experience and share Christ in this life (included in the meaning of Mark 8:36).
Item
7: Denomination promotes pastor
appreciation Sunday to its member churches
Consider:
- Appreciation for leadership in the Church is
expressed, not with applause, but by giving them opportunity to influence.
- Youthful pastors, still working through their unmet
need to be significant, focus on building attendance and increasing
offerings.
- Pastors best serve their churches by supporting members
for learning how to experience Christ.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I was called to pastor my first church (which had 7 deacons) when I was 19. To the old, well-known preacher retiring I was “a kid preacher.” I didn’t appreciate being called that because I was a bombastic preacher and proven attendance builder. (The Sunday morning attendance of that church tripled from 33 to 99 in three months.) But I was definitely a kid preacher and didn’t need to be anyone’s pastor. (I would not want me then as my pastor now.) After three months, I left for an opportunity in ministry that didn’t have so many deacons telling me what to do.
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: As a kid preacher I thought the Power of God was a
mystical anointing of sorts from Heaven to energize my preaching (which is
not my understanding now - that God’s Power is his Life flowing into my
heart from his residence within my born again spirit to make competent my
ministry as I remain connected to him in quiet-time worship per John
15:5). Standing one day on a street corner with a preacher buddy who was
dumb as I (Dumb and Dumb), a transformer exploded above our heads giving
us both a thrill. “That just goes to show you the Power of God,” he said.
“Amen” I said.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18H25
Week 33
Item
1: 29-year-old, self-confessed “broken”
man steals plane for suicide flight to his death
Consider:
- We are born with a need for confidence that we have significance in the world – a temperament (psychological) need which is mostly met in sons by their dads and in daughters by their moms. It can also be met by leadership at school and in the Church, and also by friends and other family members. If not met at all, the pain may be so great that we attempt to meet it for ourselves with see-me behavior, sometimes in destructive ways.
Item
2: Angry protests lead to removal of
school banner stating boys behave more gentlemanly to girls who behave ladylike
Consider:
- God calls women to be modest because of men’s sinful nature.
- Immodest dress attracts users.
- The best of men appreciate modesty.
- Rule haters are hostile to expectations for taking responsibility for outcomes.
Item
3: Popular minister says everything
happens for a reason, that God plans who gets cancer
Consider:
- God’s Plan is to provide for every person’s health and happiness. We suffer sickness and brokenness when we disregard his Provisions (the Scriptural meaning of the word “sin.”)
- "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation." - Hebrews 2:3
Item
4: Famous Christian athlete says ‘Knowing
who we are in Jesus’ is greatest need of Christians
Consider:
- Who we are in Christ (born again, justified, reconciled, children of God)
- makes certain our going to Heaven and
- is the greatest need of the unsaved.
- But who Christ is in us
- makes certain our adoption (as sons of God), sanctification (holiness), and Divine inheritance (health and happiness) and
- is the greatest need of Christians.
Item
5: Popular tv minister invites
listeners to ask God to save them
Consider:
- We ask for help to move furniture, but we don’t ask for what has already been provided for us to receive – for example, a tool being handed to us. We can refuse the offer, but we don’t need to ask for it. And we don’t need to ask for salvation which God has provided for us to receive.
- We use the word “ask” with regard to salvation only in the sense of “receiving” – the same as opening a window is asking the light to come in.
Item
6: Declining church invites
community, ‘Come help us build our church’
Consider:
- God does not call church members to build the Church, but calls the Church to build its members.
- God’s purpose for the Church is to support its members for learning how to experience Christ in order to manifest his Likeness.
- Church leaders using church members to build the programs of the church, mostly by giving money and time, and church members willing to be used in that manner is codependency at its worst (defined as two broken parties using each other to help relieve the pain of unmet needs, including for favor with people and God).
Item
7: Video catches road rage incident
Consider:
- Violence, including bullying, thinks it is being bold. But violence is not boldness; rather, it is weakness.
- Boldness
- is strong and stouthearted,
- does not attack offenders, but
- provides support for their healing.
- Weakness
- is rooted in fear and anger and
- uses violence to punish / control behavior.
- Psalm 138:3: “He
made me bold and stouthearted.”
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: “Don’t make me mad,” a nervous little man once warned me, “or I will tell you what I really think.” I remember providing ministry many years ago to inmates at a maximum security detention center along with several other ministers, one a fearful, frail little man who talked loud and acted tough. He reminded me of an outlaw character in a movie who found an officer’s uniform. He said he was going to ride into the next town and declare marshal law. His partner asked how he planned to do that. He said he was going to ride in hard and talk loud.
Item
8: Study: Happy spouses banter
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: My friend worries he is being monitored at home through his microwave. It occurred to Carole and me that, if our conversations were being monitored, eavesdroppers would think we did not get along very well. That’s because I tease Carole a lot. For example, after she worked hard to prepare another wonderful meal today, she asked me to pass her a napkin. I said “Well, if I have to do that, I just as well do everything!” After the meal, I told Carole how much I enjoyed and appreciated everything she did, and that we could have just eaten the tuna salad left over from yesterday. She said there probably wasn’t enough for both of us. I told her that she wouldn’t need to eat that much.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18H18
Week 32
Item
1: Socialist candidate says health is
a right, not a privilege
Consider:
- Good health is the result of responding to God’s Call to receive his Provisions of Grace (in Creation, Community, and especially Christ) - with the promise they produce good outcomes (for body, soul, and spirit) per John 15:4-5; Romans 5:17; 8:28; 2 Peter 1:3; 3 John 1:2.
Item
2: America
Consider:
- God’s Plan is not to be understood as God working in our lives to produce an outcome according to his predetermined Will for everything to turn out good, for reasons we can’t know, without any regard to the scientific law of Sowing and Reaping (Cause and Effect, Choices and Consequences) – so that God gets the blame for every bad experience in our lives (that we are being punished).
- Rather, his Plan is to provide Supports in Creation, Community, and especially Christ for our health, bring them into our lives (to the door of our hearts: mind, emotions, and will), announce their presence and call us to receive them by the Holy Spirit, and then give us ample opportunity to respond.
- Romans 8:28 means “God is always working to accomplish his Redemptive Purpose to make healthy every person who loves him (expressed by receiving his Provisions of Grace) for the purpose of being made useful to him as vessels (the “called” – same as the word “sanctified”) for his Redemptive Work in the world.
Item
3: National voices identify changes
needed in America
Consider:
- Of the changes needed in
- Without him, man is left to work on himself, which will not succeed because it is performance rooted in inherent weakness.
Item
4: Millennial employees protest against
company’s merit-based compensation policy, opt for worker’s union supports,
socialism
Consider:
- Progressives insist good outcomes are a human right.
- Conservatives welcome the opportunity to work hard, prove their value, earn promotions in order to increase pay.
Item
5: Extreme Left renews call for ban
of all guns, ICE, law enforcement
Consider:
- Rule haters support policies that circumvent the consequences of their law- breaking, foolish choices.
Item
6: Report: Trump resistance
movements disrespect laws, trash protest sites, refuse to bathe
Consider:
- Conservatism is founded upon rules; Progressives tend to disrespect / resent rules in pursuit of their feel-good goals.
- God gave rules (summarized
in the Ten Commandment) in order to protect society against chaos.
- The Hebrew word for Law is
Torah meaning “teachings to support making choices that result is health and happiness.”
Item
7: In advance of new school year, leaders
remind teachers to ‘make children feel valuable’
Consider:
- Children are supported for doing their best when they
are made to feel valuable.
- But far more important than feeling valuable (conditional approval, based on successful behavior to please) is their need for confidence they are valued (unconditional love, based not on who they are or what they do, but on who God is and what he has already done for them).
Item
8: Religious leaders call for more
love, say it is the solution to division in society
Consider:
- Brotherly / neighborly love (phileo) for others, with all its merit, is a weak, failing solution to promote goodwill in society except as it is founded upon and supported by our experience of God’s Love (agape) in us for them.
Item
9: Observed: Church reader board
announces class for Christian book study
Related: Church promotes Christian comedian event
Consider:
- Use of books written by favorite Christian authors,
also special events for Christian entertainment, may have some benefit for
church programming, but should not substitute for the church’s pulpit ministry
to preach and teach the Scripture, and especially to support members for
learning how to experience Christ during quiet-time worship.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I’m impressed with people who are talented to mimic voices and sounds. I wished I could do that, but I can’t. Neither can my wife. The difference is, she can’t resist trying, even though she makes every person, vehicle, and animal sound the same. While walking recently on a nature trail open to bikes and cars, we saw deer crossing ahead of us. Carole worried about the deer running across the road and getting hit by a car. “They could be ‘umph’ surprised by a car!” she said. Teasing her I said that was probably true but I did not know if they would make that sound. “They would if they got hit!” she said.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18H11
Week 31
Item
1: More states now allowing gender-neutral
identification on driver’s license
Consider:
- “God created man … he created them male and female.” - Genesis 1:27
- The Apostle Paul pleaded with the Church, “do not be conformed to the ways of the world” (Romans 12:2; 1 John 2:16-17; 5:19).
Item
2: Trump-hating pro athlete says he
would not sit down to talk with President
Consider:
- Truth
- is powerful to dispel error,
- never passes on an opportunity to communicate its
beliefs in the marketplace of ideas, and
- suffers quietly its rejection.
- Error
- cannot prevail against Truth and
- is able only to rage against it in anger and violence.
Item
3: UN Ambassador Nikki Haley warns conservatives
against boastful language to celebrate debate wins over liberals
Consider:
- The Heart of Christ within us “is kind, is not proud, does not boast, is not rude, does not rejoice in brokenness, but grieves” (from 1 Corinthians 13:4-6).
Item
4: Church organization promotes plan
to make churches safe and secure
Consider:
- Christ said, "I will build my Church"
(Matthew 16:18) - which he does through born again, sanctified
vessels whom he calls and equips for influencing the lost to become
disciples.
- But the Plan he gave us is for us to
- wait in the Upper Room (our quiet time) until we are
transformed (made holy/useful) by the Holy Spirit, and then to
- influence others to trust Christ for salvation - first
our families and friends, then neighbors, and then our communities (Acts
1:4-8), and then to
- bring new converts to the meetings of the Church
for instructions in righteousness ("to do the same as I have
instructed you" - Matthew 28:18-20).
- Short circuiting God’s Plan by employing quick growth
methods in order to build attendance is putting the Church at risk.
- Also, the growth will be superficial and shallow –
foretold to be increasingly the state of the Church as we near the end of the
Church Age (Revelation 3:1-20).
Item
5: New ‘praise and worship’ music
sings ‘la la la’ lyrics
Consider:
- When we sing “la la la la la” instead of actual words, is that the same as speaking in tongues?
Item
6: Celebrity Christian says ‘The
Church needs to stop judging and to love others as Christ did’
Consider:
- The default disposition of every person’s sinful nature is to criticize. And we don’t have a button to turn it off. Our only hope to love others as Christ did is to be renewed each day by our experience of his Life within our hearts per Revelation 3:20 and 2 Peter 1:3.
Item
7: Famous evangelical pastor says he
has a special place where he goes to meet with God
Consider:
- God is not distant from us so that we must travel to a place to meet with him.
- Rather, he is resident within the spirit of every born again person, never leaves or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5), and brings his Life to the door of our hearts (soul) for us to receive (Revelation 3:20).
Item
8: Report: Life expectancy for
Americans in 2017 declined for second year in a row
Consider:
- Worse than a decline in longevity is a decline in health.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: While I was visiting with a friend this week, a neighbor stopped by to say hello to him, and then when leaving said to him, “good to see you old man.” But my friend is only a few years older than I am. So I took it personal. Years ago I was a church growth consultant for a 53 year-old pastor who referred to himself as “this old man.” I’m a decade or so older now than he was then and I am in no way close to considering myself old. I feel great, eat and sleep well, and if blood test results, pulse rate, blood pressure, and endurance (I am on pace to log 1000 fitness miles again this year) are indications, I am in excellent health. And I don’t have a pain in my body except a sprained thumb. But other people don't help sometimes: They insist on reminding me that I am past my prime - for example when I am offered senior discounts I don’t ask for. And worse, when female servers who once called me sir now call me sweetie, and the guys call me buddy.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18H04
Week 30
Item
1: Dallas
Consider:
- Whatever may be said about the merit of non-violent
protests, kneeling during the national anthem is disrespect for
Item
2: Trump’s Walk of Fame Star destroyed
by hater with pickax
Related: NYT ignores over 500 attacks on Trump supporters, says
Trump’s claim of false news promotes violence against journalists
Consider:
- The unmet need of broken hearts for confidence in God’s care for us can result in anger and violence - for both conservatives and progressives.
- The difference is: Conservatives grieve, but usually do not rage when we lose elections; instead, we communicate Truth with the hope we can influence family, friends, and neighbors to vote next time for conservative values.
- “We grieve, but not as those who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
Related: Observed: Restaurants, airports, waiting rooms choose
Trump-hating tv news
Consider:
- Some establishments know that airing Fox News may
subject them to anger and violence.
- That’s because conservatives tend to suffer opposing views, while progressives may attack.
Consider:
- Members of the Body of Christ, the Church, do best to
take time each day for quiet-time worship in order to be effectual for leading
family, friends, and neighbors to receive Christ.
- Aggressive attendance-building programs are a convenient Plan B substitute (which God may sometimes use), but they are nonetheless a rejection of his Perfect Plan.
Consider:
- Newscasters, bankers, and other professionals wear suits and ties.
- Also, we tend to dress our best for first dates, weddings, funerals, job interviews, meeting presidents and royalty, and for when company visits.
- Some may “dress up” to attend church for vain reasons, but others because of their profound respect for the Gospel and eagerness to hear it.
- “Dressing down” can be rooted in disrespect for the Church by worldly hearts looking for subtle ways to neutralize the message of Christ.
- Christ dressed appropriately during his time on Earth.
- Christians are spiritually clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and will dress appropriately in Heaven.
Item
5: Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful asks
“Why do I want pets, I have kids!”
- From donloyw’s
Journey Notes: My
haircutter said her pets were her children, that she would refuse rescue from
a flood if they were left behind. I wanted to ask if she believed her pets
would be left behind at the Rapture, but decided not to while she was
cutting my hair.
Related: Drudge Report reads: ‘Study shows dogs go out of their way
to help upset owners’
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: When I saw a recent headline that read, “Study shows dogs go out of their way to help upset owners,” I said to Wife, “I knew it! Dogs sometimes help upset me too.” She said the headline meant that dogs help comfort their upset owners. I said, “Oh!” Years ago I told a group that I was disappointed with the message of a new tv show called “You Can Do It!” - because Christ said without him I can do nothing. Someone spoke up to tell me the show was a talent show called “You Can Duet!” I said I can’t do that either.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18G28
Week 29
Item
1: Severe weather warnings ignored,
17 vacationers, including 9 in one family, die in duck boat tragedy
Consider:
- We can trust that God watches over us and keeps us safe when we are in the places he calls us to (Psalm 91).
- Impulsive lifestyle choices put our lives at risk.
Item
2: Dukes of Hazzard John Schneider
says he’s ‘proud to be an American’
Consider:
- Quote: "You are backed by a people, by a system,
by laws that help you, protect you, provide for you a road in which to get
to your dream. In
- Amen! But mostly, in matters that are eternal, we are who Christ supports us to be as we take time each day during our quiet time worship to be filled with him.
Item
3: Pro Trumpers excuse Trump’s hype
as salesmanship
Consider:
- Hype may promote financial success in business and government, but it is the ruin of health and happiness in the home and Church.
- Profit-driven (commission) salesmen tend to be liars, but God is true (Romans 3:4); his Life in us supports us for providing information to customers that supports their needs.
Item
4: Extreme left politicians call for
open borders
Consider:
- Wise leadership in the home (also Church) takes care to
- protect against intruders; also to
- be selective who we expose our family members to.
Item
5: Pampered dog, Princess Cleopatra
Superchill, has 175 pairs of sunglasses, 3 sport cars, and 65 outfits
Consider:
- Over-attention to animals and pets is an example of the unnatural affection which the Bible says will exist at the end of this Age before Christ returns to remove the Church.
- Princess Superchill will leave it all behind when she dies; and she herself will be left behind at the Resurrection of the saints - that is, unless dogs can read the Scripture, confess their need for Christ, trust his death on the cross for their salvation, and be baptized by the Holy Spirit into spiritual union with Christ and spiritually born again (in which case, pet owners should attempt to evangelize their pets).
Item
6: Infighting splits famous church
Consider:
- Pettiness and misunderstanding will not exist in Heaven.
Item
7: Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s new book
tells wives they can save their marriage by meeting their husband’s needs
Consider:
- If a wife’s husband is a user, in time he will become bored with whatever she does to please him.
- That’s because every man is born a user and will use his wife unless Christ transforms him to become an investor in his her needs (which he does during our quiet time to read the Scripture in order to hear and experience him).
Consider:
- God created male and female, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters.
- The deepest need every child has is to learn and experience God’s Plan to support their health and happiness.
Item
9: Christian magazine exposes author’s
autobiography as fraud
- Broken men are subject to fall. Christ alone, living his Life in and through us, supports us so that we are established in holiness and integrity.
- “He will keep
you strong to the end (of your life or ministry) so that you will be
without blemish.” – 1 Corinthians 1:8
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: A story isn't necessarily a lie. For example, the
stories I post in Journey Notes are true accounts – that is, unless
combining two events or characters into one, or changing a name or gender
to protect privacy, or just not telling the whole truth is lying. A story
does not need to be the whole truth. For example, I sometimes say that
I was 59 on my birthday. And I remember telling an older girl when I was
13 that I would be 16 on my birthday. I also once told an employer that I
was spending up to thirty minutes a day on a special project he had
assigned me. He seemed impressed. Also, I once told my wife that I ate one
donut. That was the truth, but the whole truth was I ate several. But
sometimes I go ahead and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Recently I told Carole that of all the women in the world, she was one of
them. And then, sometimes even a lie can be the whole truth and nothing
but the truth. For example, I boldly stated to a group recently that I was
absolutely certain that, unless I was wrong, 2 plus 2 equals 5. And I will
maintain that lie to be the whole truth as long as I live.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18G21
Week 28
Item 1: Report: ‘Richest Americans buying up space tickets, plotting to leave the rest of us behind’
Consider:
- Born again Christians
- are making plans for our future trip to Heaven; also,
- invite others to receive free ticket for the journey so they won’t be left behind.
Item 2: Popular news pundit says ‘beer, sports, and debt’ are what being an American is all about
Consider:
- But it is not what being a Christian is all about.
- Beer and debt will not exist in Heaven – although we will probably participate in be-your-best, non-contact sports - like baseball, tennis, golf, and track.
Item 3: Tim Tebow tells kids to pursue their dreams - that the biggest failure is not trying
Consider:
- Tebow’s philosophy of pursuing our dreams is fine for sports and business but is the road to failure and ruin in ministry.
- That’s because, God accomplishes his Redemptive Plan through vessels who are yielded to him for living his Life in and through us.
Consider:
- Children profit nothing who gain success as the world understands it but do not have the needs of their hearts met by Christ (for love, joy, and peace).
- The greatest need of every child is confidence that they are unconditionally valued, especially by God (not the same as to feel valuable).
Item 5: Papa John’s founder uses racial term in training session, suffers major blowback and loss
Consider:
- Habitual offensive language or behavior to demean any person or race is rooted in weakness and insecurity, comes from evil, and should not be tolerated.
- But reaction of timid hearts to the careless one-time use of an offending word, regardless how offensive, to the extent the offender suffers major loss, is also rooted in weakness and insecurity.
- Being called an offensive word is not to be condoned, but it is not the same as being shot with a bullet (for crying out loud).
- Whatever happened to “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words cannot hurt me!”?
- God calls the Church (not the government) to forgive – that is, to 1) withhold the penalty against offenses and 2) invest ministry for healing of the brokenness at the root of the offense.
Item 6: Caught on video: Impatient customer punches cook in the face
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: We live in a hurting world (because of unmet needs), so are subject to the anger and rage of broken people. Especially do we need to take care what we say to people. But I can be careless sometimes. Exiting WalMart recently with my wife, I heard a fast approaching shopping cart behind me. Just then a muscular young man busted by. I called out to Carole ahead of me, “Watch out for the freight train!” The young man turned, looked at me, and gave me a big smile. So I got away with that one. Later while running at the park, I came upon a group of young men on the trail who had stopped to talk. When they did not move to clear a path for me to pass, I slowed to walk around them and called out, “I’ll just get over here off the rude, I mean road.” They said nothing. A few looked confused or embarrassed, but the faces of others told me to go to Hell. Out of their sight I prayed, “Dear Lord, help me before I get killed!”
Consider:
- Of course we take care to look and behave our best because of the Work of Christ we represent.
- But our need to be impressive is rooted in the insecurity of our unmet need for significance.
- The Heart of Christ in us transforms our values so that we are attentive more to being a help than to being a hit.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I need an editor for my postings. I try hard but don’t always get it right. That’s because I tend to write extemporaneously – the same as I speak. My writings and speaking are too often little more than first drafts. When I don’t take time for one more read, I risk poor grammar or a silly misspelled word. And if I would muse a bit more on my subject before speaking (not the same as quiet-time to experience Christ), I might make more sense. But while I haven’t given up the need to get it right, I am no longer in bondage as I once was to being perfect. For one thing, making mistakes keeps me humble; also, as Glen Campbell famously said, if I am always perfect, people will begin to expect it.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18G14
Week 27
Item 1: Teen attacked at Whataburger for wearing MAGA hat
Consider:
- Our hostility against opposing political views
- discredits the validity of our own beliefs and
- is rooted in fear.
Item 2: Kindergarten teacher recorded calling 5-year-old a ‘loser’
Consider:
- Children tend to live up to the expectations teachers (and parents) have for them.
- Satan either feeds our egos or attacks us.
- The Holy Spirit
- communicates God’s unconditional love (value) for us; also
- expresses his grief within us because of the outcome of our failed choices, but
- does not condemn.
Item 3: 25 year-old Thai soccer coach leads youth into cave, endangers lives
Consider:
- Redemptive leadership in the Church are called elders.
- Youthful leadership puts our health and happiness at risk.
Item 4: Christian magazine looks back: Famed pastor’s suicide remembered
Consider:
- Ministerial influence and success are deceiving and a failing substitute for experiencing Christ every day in quiet-time worship.
- Christ, living his Life within us, is our surest support for health and emotional well-being.
Related: Survey: 92 percent of those planning vacation are going away; say staying home doesn’t count
Related: Health magazine: ‘Vacations often disappoint, fail to meet expectations’
Consider:
- Human nature tends to
- be discontent, impulsive, and under appreciate God’s Provisions for health and happiness, including the need for sameness (structure) and quiet, also
- build tolerance to the choices we make for superficial pain relief (the same as to drugs).
- Temperance, one of the virtues of Christ produced in us by the Holy Spirit (during quiet-time worship), supports us for making choices that increase health.
- God’s Provisions (of spouse, church, job, house, and possessions) never disappoint.
- God brings his Provisions to the door of our hearts – meaning
- they are close by,
- we don’t need to chase after them.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Twenty-five years ago when a friend told me he had just won a lottery, I said I had won big a few years earlier (meaning the day I met Carole). I became his hero. To this day he may still think I’m a millionaire. And I am (and more), considering my wife, the opportunity I have for meaningful ministry, and especially my experience of Christ in my life. This week, I bet Carole a kiss that I was the world’s happiest person, and said I was so sure of it, that I would go ahead and collect on the bet in advance, and if I was found to be wrong, I would give it back.
Week 26
Item 1: Liberals intensify plot to remove Trump
Consider:
- Liberals are disingenuous to oppose the same policies they supported during previous administration.
- Hidden beneath their opposition to Trump is their hostility to leadership support for Judeo-Christian values.
Item 2: Women dominating Democratic primaries
Consider:
- Women can be good choices for leadership roles in government and business.
- But according to God’s Plan, leadership in the home and Church is best provided by men.
Item 3: Candidate caught removing opponent’s yard signs
Consider:
- God has a Plan for our success: It is to work hard, be honest, and then trust him for good outcomes (Psalm 112).
Item 4: Facebook usage declines
Consider:
- My Me Me, Mine, and More of Me, Myself, and My Facebook feeds codependency needs and in time proves to be a disappointing substitute for one-on-one relationships.
- Facebook will not exist in Heaven (1 Corinthians 13:10-12).
Item 5: Man goes over waterfalls, dies trying to rescue dog; widowed wife in shock
Related: Wife seeks divorce, says husband prefers to sleep with dog
Consider:
- Husbands have opportunities every day to demonstrate their commitment to meet the support needs of their wives and children.
Item 6: Destiny theology preacher says if we ‘can think it’ we ‘can do it’
Consider:
- If we can think it, it may indicate that it is not God’s Plan for our lives.
- That’s because his ways and thoughts are far above ours (Isaiah 55:8-9).
- God’s Plan for our lives usually surprises us.
- God does not call us to success as the world recognizes it but to experience him each day in quiet-time worship - with this confidence: God will accomplish his Purpose and Will for our lives in and through us.
- John 4:23; 15:4-5.
Consider:
- God’s role for leadership in the Church is to serve as a Resource Support for experiencing Christ.
- We are not called to support our resources; rather, resources are called to support us and others through us.
- 1 Corinthians 9:8
Item 8: Woman convicted of threatening KFC worker over missing mashed potatoes, says ‘I will come down and shoot you’
Related: Angry customer bites off part of restaurant owner’s ear
Consider:
- Violence (against self and others) is rooted in anger which is rooted in the pain of unmet temperament needs (beginning in childhood for information, affection, and structure).
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I have pondered 1 Corinthians 13 (the Love Chapter) so often through past years that I can quote it. I have been revisiting it this week so that it stays fresh in my heart and life. I also wrote the song
“O Christ, live your Life thru me,
Your Love for others to see”
which I sing often during my quiet-time worship. I also recently wrote
“I trust you (Your Kindness) through me to give care,
Support you give me freely share.”
Still, my sinful nature can resurface to be impatient with people and to be unkind - for example: I was not happy recently with the driver who butted in front of me in the turn lane where I had been waiting through three light changes; and again later I was less than happy when I waited 10 minutes (at least) on a new store employee to do her register thing just to exchange a size; and then at dinner I had something to say when a server repeated my food order and asked loud enough for all the restaurant to hear if I had a coupon. Only a few days earlier I had fussed to a manager that the chicken tenders were cold and tough. I meant only to give helpful feedback, but when he argued with me, I lit up. Then, later at home when I answered the phone and a telemarketer asked, “Mr. Whisnant, how are you doing?” I said I was not doing well enough for his nonsense, then hung up. I bowed my head and lamented to Carole that I was a mess. She said I just needed more rest and, besides, I inherited my temperament from my mother. I said I got it mostly from my sin nature and from Satan. Desperate to help me, she called out, “Get thee behind him, Satan!”
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18F30
Week 25
Item 1: Trump’s Press Secretary Sanders refused service at restaurant
Consider:
- It’s not safe to eat food prepared by haters.
- So, please and thank you, anti-Trumpers, for giving conservatives a heads up by asking us to leave your restaurant.
Item 2: Americans react to separating children from parents at the border
Consider:
- The use of cell phones by parents on family outings is more harmful to the welfare of children than law enforcement along our nation’s border.
- Especially is abortion.
- The Heart of Christ supports parents for investing in the attention needs of their children.
Item 3: Media mock recent 'End of World’ prediction
Consider:
- The Age of Grace (Church Age) will end at the Rapture of the Church, to be followed by the seven-year Tribulation Period, Second Coming of Christ, 1000-year Kingdom Age, Great White Throne Judgment, and Eternity.
- But the “world” will not end (when nothing will exist).
Item 4: Sales of ‘Thank you, Jesus’ yard signs tops 100,000
Consider:
- The Bible word “thanksgiving” means more than saying a polite thank you to God.
- It means to open the door of our hearts to receive the flow of his Provisions.
- In other words, in the Scriptural sense, it can only be said that we appreciate Christ when we take time for quiet-time worship in order to receive his Life into our hearts.
- This, the same as we best say we appreciate water when we drink it, and not just by speaking polite words to or about it.
Item 5: Financial Advisor Dave Ramsey promotes (Dr. Laura) Schlessinger’s book telling wives they can save their marriages by caring for their husbands
Consider:
- God accomplishes his Redemptive Purpose for our lives through our connection to his Leadership Resources in the home and Church.
- It is the role of husbands and dads (not wives and children) and of pastors (not church members) to take responsibility for the wellbeing of the home and Church.
Item 6: Magazine’s list of famous people whose existence is doubted includes Jesus Christ
Consider:
- There is more evidence for the existence of Christ than for George Washington.
- And Who is this living within my heart, communicating with me, and imparting to me Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance, and Wisdom to support me for making wise choices each day which increase me in health and happiness!
Item 7: Researchers ask what God looks like
Consider:
- The only member of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) we will ever see is Christ, the Son of God. The Father and the Holy Spirit do not have physical bodies.
- Manifestations of God in the Old Testament were pre-Incarnation appearances of Christ.
Item 8: Publisher promotes new easy-to-understand Bible
Consider:
- The Scripture is a Divine Instrument through which the Holy Spirit communicates Truth to our minds.
- Other voices, including from the demonic world and also from the church pulpit, can use the Scripture to communicate error.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: A few times through the years, after speaking to a group, someone has been bold enough to tell me they didn’t understand a word I said. So, as an experiment to test whether it was me or them, I have on occasions inserted a 5-10 second statement into my presentations which made absolutely no sense. But I was just being mischievous yesterday when I told Carole that God gave me a wife I didn’t deserve. Without hesitation she said she didn’t get the husband she deserved either. I dreamed (old joke) that Saint Peter was asked why I had such a beautiful wife. He said I was being blessed. Asked about her, he said she was being punished.
Week 24
Item 1: Conservatives recommit to drain political swamp
Consider:
- The Swamp consists of people in power who have a high need to be
- right and
- in control
- because of their lifelong insecurity rooted in the pain of their unmet need for validation and significance, especially during childhood.
- The Swamp exists not only in government but also in businesses and organizations, and most sadly, in the Church and even in the home.
Item 2: Famed football player says we’re spiritual beings having a human experience
Consider:
- Human wisdom always gets it backwards.
- It is more correct to say that we are humans having a spiritual experience –
- beginning with the regeneration (new birth) of our spirits when we trust Christ Blood/death on the cross as our only hope for going to Heaven (justification and reconciliation to God) and
- including also the renewal of our hearts (the soul: mind, emotions, and will) by virtue of Christ living his Life within us when we take time each day during our quiet-time worship to receive him (per John 15:5 and Revelation 3:20) as our only hope for holiness (sanctification).
Item 3: Ethiopian pastor killed by crocodile during mass baptism in river
Consider:
- If water baptism is understood and taught by a pastor as essential for going to Heaven, he has no reason to expect God’s protection.
- That’s because, water baptism does not save, but is a symbolic act to give testimony to the world that we have trusted Christ (his Blood/death on the cross) for our salvation.
- No one has ever died during the act of turning to Christ or leading someone to him for salvation.
- While it is true that God may providentially use our death to call lost people to him, we have reason to be confident that our safety is assured for the duration of the time he is using us as vessels to accomplish his Redemptive Purpose in the world, especially to lead the lost to trust Christ.
- God may be able to use us after our death (by the testimony and works we leave behind) so that a greater number of people experience Christ for salvation than might have if we lived (Philippians 1:20).
Item 4: Report: Hollywood celebrities notorious for body odor
Consider:
- John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Denomination, famously said, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
- Physical and moral hygiene are always found together – on earth as they are in Heaven.
Item 5: Report: Religious people live four years longer than atheists
Consider:
- The performance of religious people to obey rules, even when fear and guilt motivated, has promise to extend life beyond the years that can be expected by those who disregard God’s Law of Sowing and Reaping (Proverbs 3:2,16; 9:16; 10:27; Ephesians 6:1-4).
- However, taking time for quiet time worship each day to be renewed by Christ living his Life within us supports us for longevity even beyond the years rule-driven religious people can expect (Psalm 91:14-16).
- Also: “And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” - John 11:26.
Item 6: Churches in poor countries ask charismatic ‘name it claim it’ groups to stop sending their missionaries
Consider:
- The Prosperity Movement (investing money as seed in a ministry with the hopes of a profitable return) is a hoax, a ponzi scheme, benefiting only its leaders.
- God’s Plan for our prosperity isn’t for us to give to him, but for us to receive from him per Romans 5:17.
Item 7: Jenner children wish Caitlyn (Bruce) happy Father’s Day
Consider:
- The pain of abandoning God’s Way can run deep and increasingly manifest in confusion.
- Of course we celebrate God’s gift of dads. But Father’s Day is best celebrated as an opportunity for dads to recommit as a Resource to provide health and happiness support for their children.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: My biological father is in Heaven (so I don’t have a father resource to support me), but my Heavenly Father imparts his Life to live within me each day to support me here on Earth (per Psalm 27:10). Carole likes to celebrate Father’s Day as Husband’s Day. I tell her that means I get to recommit myself to her as a Resource to support her health and happiness. But she is stubborn to want to celebrate “Husband’s Day” by doing something special for me. So this year we took a daytrip, went to one of her favorite restaurants, walked at the mall instead of on the trail so she could stay out of the heat, bought a new weedeater so I could better help keep her plant beds looking good, and replaced my ten-year-old sports watch and wornout running socks to help me remain physically fit so that she won’t be too soon burdened by an unhealthy husband. Back at home, she said she had a happy Husband’s Day.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18F16
Week 23
Item 1: U.S.
Consider:
- The world provides all manner of services, but God calls Christians to provide services that are redemptive – that is, services that promote Judeo-Christian values, also healing and good health (spiritually and otherwise), in the home, Church, and Community.
- “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (for the purpose of accomplishing God’s Redemptive Purpose in the world” - 1 Corinthians 10:31.
- Providing services “in Jesus’ Name” means to provide services consistent with the reason Christ did it - that is, “to seek and to save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10).
- This means, if the work we are doing is not redemptive, it is not God’s Work in the world, and would not be a vocation God calls us to do.
- But if our service is redemptive, we do not withhold it from anyone.
Consider:
- Standards and discipline (support with a view of health), especially in ministry, are necessary.
- But performance (legalistic) churches deal with the failures of leaders and members differently than ministry churches – the one either gives failures a pass or condemns to Hell those who fail, while the other supports learning how to experience Christ for healing and renewal.
Item 3: Observed: T-shirt reads, ‘Christ died for me, I live for him’
Consider:
- The observed t-shirt promotes the performance message.
- The grace message is “Christ died for me and lives his Life through me.”
Item 4: Report: Oldest person turns 129, still says God is punishing her
Consider:
- God has provided biological, psychological, and spiritual support in Creation (elements in the soil and atmosphere), Community (leadership in the home and Church), and especially Christ so that we can live long and also enjoy good health.
- Health, holiness (usefulness to God as a vessel for redemptive service to others), and happiness is the guaranteed outcome of including God’s Provisions into our lives each day (Romans 5:17).
Item 5: Publisher promotes easy-to-understand translation of the Bible
Consider:
- Regardless of the translation or version, we are able to understand the meaning of Scripture only as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us during our quiet-time reading.
Item 6: Grandmother charged with transporting kids in dog kennel
Related: Employee ‘Pawternity Leave’ provided by Norwegian company
Consider:
- Another Sign of the Times is here!
- Pets can be given child status on Earth, but they are not God’s children and do not have citizenship in Heaven.
- Children reduced to pet status will need extra support for mental and emotional well-being in adulthood.
- We do best to devote ourselves to the redemptive needs of children.
Consider:
- Another great goal for retirees is to remain useful in redemptive service to others, especially family.
Consider:
- Understanding the Five Temperament Types before marrying is a leading support for happy marriages.
- If robots can be programmed with temperament traits compatible with their spouse, that would be good.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I admit it. I’m a fusser. It is the downside trait (affliction) of my Melancholy temperament - which means I can be intense and also make blunt comments when circumstances do not meet my high need for perfection (or excellence, I prefer to call it). God was gracious to give me a wife who is my opposite in that she responds kindly to almost every adversity, including my tense moments. Recently on a daytrip when Carole drove through a parking lot full of speed bumps, I just had to say, “Well, you managed to hit every one of those speed bumps didn’t you?” “Thank you for that!” she replied. When I told her I liked her taking four parking spaces to park, she seemed to appreciate that also.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18F09
Week 22
Item 1: Yanni or Laurel? How we hear words pronounced is all in the brain science says
Consider:
- Apparently, two people can hear the same word differently.
- This may help us understand better why, when we read the Scripture, we can hear either a religious interpretation given by the Angel of Light (Satan) or a grace interpretation revealed to us by the Holy Spirit during our quiet time.
Item 2: Texas
Consider:
- “Koinonia” means more than “Christian fellowship.” It means “mutual burden-bearing” and is the experience of the Church to share in the burden of Christ for the Redemptive needs of hurting people.
Item 3: Famous minister says ‘God is not finished with you yet’
Consider:
- God’s Provisions for our healing and support began flowing to mankind immediately after Adam and Eve fell into ruin in the Garden of Eden.
- His Provisions are no less powerful today to accomplish his Redemptive Purpose in our lives (for health, holiness, happiness, and Heaven) than they were 6000 years ago (“God does not change; he is the same yesterday, today, and forever” - Hebrews 13:8).
- This means, God is not continually experimenting to discover new and improved ways to transform us; rather, his “workmanship” goals for our lives (Ephesians 2:10) are accomplished as we take time each day to include his Provisions of Grace into our lives (Romans 5:17) which produce them according to his Law of Sowing and Reaping (Galatians 6:7).
Related: New research claims exposure to animals increases immunity to social stress
Consider:
- Whatever benefit exposure to germs may have to increase immunity to diseases or that exposure to animals may have to improve immunity to social stress, God’s main way (Plan A) to support our health and happiness is for us to include his Provisions of Grace into our lives, beginning with Christ.
- Else how will our health and happiness be supported in Heaven?
- “How shall we escape (brokenness) if we neglect such a great salvation!” – Hebrew 2:3 (contrasted with “How shall we escape if we neglect to expose ourselves to negative elements!”).
Item 5: Conservative tv host confesses to enjoying some vulgarity
Consider:
- Vulgar language is rooted in tension, unhappiness, and moral brokenness.
- Vulgarity will not exist in Heaven.
- This means, as we increase in our experience of Heaven on earth, our language values are elevated.
- “He lifted me up out of the slimy pit … and put a new song in my mouth” – Psalm 40:2-3.
Item 6: Report: 40% Americans don’t have $400 for emergency needs
Consider:
- God’s Provisions to meet every need we have flow fully and faithfully into our lives for us to receive (Romans 5:17), beginning with Christ (Revelation 3:20) who supports us for making wise choices each day which result in financial health and security (Matthew 6:33).
Item 7: Report: ‘America ’s Largest Church
Related: Televangelist asks followers for $54 million to buy private jet
Consider:
- We give money to the church only as it serves as a conduit (gives an opportunity) for us to meet the redemptive needs of lost and hurting people, beginning with their need for learning how to experience Christ for salvation (justification and sanctification).
- This means, we do not give to the church in order to provide the carnal needs of church leaders - to meet their need for significance or to build monuments to their egos.
Item 8: ‘Destiny Theology’ church tells members to pursue greatness
Consider:
- God does not call us to greatness but to holiness (usefulness in redemptive service to others) through our experience of Christ.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: When I began in ministry many years ago, I was chasing after what I thought (was told) was success – that is, to build the largest and fastest growing church in America, and if not in America, in my state, and if not in my state, in my city, and if not in my city, (teasingly) on my street. Any of those goals I accomplished only temporarily met my need to feel successful. So when I received a phone call years ago from
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18F02
Week 21
Item 1: Report: Christianity mocked, belittled; author asks ‘How long will I be allowed to be a Christian?’
Consider:
Consider:
- It is performance-based religion, not the world, that mocks the Message of Grace “in all its Truth” embraced by the first-century Church (Romans 6:17; Colossians 1:6).
- The world does not mock the Message of Grace, but is silenced by it, because it does not comprehend it or have an answer to it (John 1:5; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
- But the world does mock the silliness of emotion-driven, hyper-dramatic, hooptalyptic, feel-good, entertainment-based "wildfire" Christianity.
- Wildfire Christianity is
- a departure from the experience of Christ to which the Scripture calls the Church and
- the distorted expression of Christianity that will exist at the end of this present age (the Church Age) - which the Scripture says will be void of faith (conviction of Truth) (Luke 18:8; 2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Item 2: National leadership conference wants to help pastors overcome burnout, renew passion for church growth
Consider:
- Pastors can attend annual church growth conferences to learn new ways to hype, entertain, and ego-motivate church members.
- But they will do better to take time daily to be renewed by their experience of Christ during quiet-time worship.
Item 3: Poll: Love is the number one reason couples marry, followed by companionship, having children, religious approval, financial stability, and legal benefits
Consider:
- God’s purpose for marriage is to meet the need of
- husbands to serve as a resource and of
- wives to be supported for
- experiencing Christ and
- living out God’s calling and will for their lives, including to bear and rear children, and also to care for the home.
Consider:
- This is a parenting failure more than a son’s failure.
- Eviction of adult children may be a necessary last resort, but parents do much better to meet the support needs of children during their early years.
- Some call it “tough love,” but this development may be another example of legalists “shooting their wounded.”
Item 5: Emotional health seminar promotes increased family ties
Consider:
- Individual temperament (psychological) needs of children vary in intensity, including to experience closeness with family and friends. But while the need of some children is intense, in others it is more moderate.
- But the most intense and indispensable need of every person is to experience God.
Item 6: Documentary: Famous actor confessed additive need to be loved, applauded
Consider:
- If all the preachers and gospel singers quit the ministry who are motivated by applause, it would be interesting to know how many would be left.
- Many years ago, crowds did not clap for singing or preaching, but it is now a leading feature of the entertainment church.
- The greatest redemptive act in all history was at
- The same crowd that wildly applauded Christ's entrance into
Item 7: Coffee chain shuts down for more sensitivity training
Consider:
- In a hurting world, any slight or criticism can feel like condemnation.
- The Heart of Christ within us, renewed daily during quiet-time worship, supports us for
- experiencing God’s unconditional value for ourselves and
- appropriately relating to others.
Item 8: ‘Destiny Theology’ church tells members to pursue greatness
Consider:
- God does not call us to greatness but to worship (know/experience) him (John 4:23b).
- Christ living his Life through us will lift us higher and take us farther than our best performance-based efforts, and is our only hope for our lives to have eternal value. All else is “wood, hay, and stubble” (John 15:4-8; 1 Corinthians 3:12).
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Carole and I call her Memorial Weekend hotdogs, “Carolee Dogs.” We load them up “all the way” - with mustard, onions, coleslaw, and chili. I told Carole that I used to be a hot dog and that a pastor once introduced me to the church as their new hot shot Sunday School director. She said he thought I was a hot dog “all the way!” Once, I was the 13th preacher to candidate for a pastorate in a small town of 5000. The search committee enthusiastically recommended me as the “man with the plan.” One old deacon said he never heard better preaching. In one year the church attendance grew from 112 to over 400. Soon after, though, those same leaders asked me to leave. As it turned out, I may have been too much mustard on the hot dog! I stayed on for awhile but my preaching suffered. Each sermon I preached for the next six months was better than the next one (old joke). When I resigned, I started a new church that was named the fastest growing church in our state that year. But for my efforts I lost my health and home. For the next seven years I learned what God allows to happen to hot dogs. Now, for the past 30 years, I have been slowly learning what God can do with a preacher who quits trying to be a hot dog.
Week 20
Item 1: 17-year-old student kills 10, wounds 10 in Texas
Consider:
- UNMET NEEDS result in PAIN which results in ANGER which results in VIOLENCE (against self and others).
- Worse than lost gun rights is missing leadership in the home and Church to provide support for
- meeting inborn needs (for information, affection, and structure), and especially for
- learning how to experience Christ.
Item 2: House minority leader says every person has ‘spark of divinity’
Consider:
- The human race (Adam and Eve) was created possessing God’s Life but came under God’s Judgment (separation from God) because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
- This means, the spirit of every member of the human race, by virtue of heredity, is born dead (separated from God).
- But our spirit is born again when we trust Christ (his Blood / death on the cross) as God’s Provision to satisfy his Judgment against us because of Adam’s disobedience.
- Unregenerate humans (not born again) have no more spark of divinity than animals have a spark of humanity.
Item 3: Report: 128 year-old Russian woman says she’s never been happy, that long life is punishment from God
Consider:
- God has made Provisions in Creation, Community, and especially Christ for every person’s health and happiness and longevity.
- Our experience of these outcomes is based upon the measure to which we include his Provisions into our lives.
Item 4: Counseling organization tells members to prefer others over themselves
Consider:
- Preferring others over self is at the core of most counseling issues suffered by counselees coming to GracePoint Counseling.
- Scripture calls us to prefer others above ourselves only in the sense of preferring their redemptive (health) needs above our carnal / superficial desires.
- Jesus called to those who were giving themselves up for others, and who were broken by it, to come to him for restoration (Matthew 11:28-30) - that is, to "come and receive" before "going and giving".
- We don't give our way to health, we receive our way to health.
Item 5: National financial well-being survey reports 40+ percent struggle financially
Consider:
- No one needs to struggle financially who makes choices based on God’s Redemptive Plan for their lives – including working hard, buying only items that support health, and staying out of debt.
- Financial independence is not the result of religious giving to please God but of receiving his Provisions of Grace which support us for making wise choices each day.
Item 6: Meghan Markle omits ‘Obey’ from her Wedding Vows
Consider:
- God does not call husbands to be rule givers or wives to comply with their rules.
- But God does call wives to give opportunity of influence to their husbands (the meaning of the Bible word “submit”) who faithfully demonstrate their commitment to
- value them unconditionally (agape) and
- invest in their health and happiness needs (Ephesians 5:22-33).
Item 7: Study: Fast talking people sacrifice correct information, word elocution
Consider:
- That may be why fast talking tv/radio talk show hosts say fer and ta instead of for and to – also pronounce or, our, and are the same.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I walk slow, think slow (I prefer to say deep), and speak slow. It’s a temperament trait, I think. Wife, Carole, is blessed with quick twitch muscles, so works, thinks, and talks much quicker than I do. She gets things done while I am still reading the instructions. I think I try her patience sometimes, including when I am talking to her. Often when I pause to think about the next word to use or statement to make, she will select one for me. But sometimes her contributions don’t communicate my thoughts. Yesterday before leaving the house, I attempted to tell her where I was going. But when I paused mid sentence to think, she volunteered information that had me going in the wrong direction.
“No,” I said, “I won’t have time to go there because, uh…”
“You need to get there early,” she said.
“No,” I said, “it’s a, uh…”
“A long drive,” she said.
“No,” I said, “I need to stop first to, uh…”
“To get gas,” she said.
“No, I, I, uh… Now where did I say I was going?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, “you didn’t say.”
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18E19
Week 19
Item 1: Fox News host says Jehovah and Islam’s god, Allah, are the same
Consider:
- Most important among many differences, Allah
- does not have a son and
- denies Jesus is the Son of God.
Item 2: Celebrity gala mocks Christianity
Consider:
- The world mocks Christianity when it is represented to them as a religion (rule-based, performance-driven).
- Religion (including Performance-based Christianity) rejects Christ when he is represented to them as a Shepherd, the True Vine, the Living Water, and the Bread of Life.
- NOTE: Christ was not crucified by the world but by religionists.
Item 3: Tv’s Bill Cosby called ‘America
Consider:
- The root word for “actor” is the same as for “hypocrite.”
- So we take care when watching tv that we do not confuse tv characters with the actors portraying them.
Item 4: Parenting class promotes teaching life skills to children beginning when they are small
Consider:
- Grace parenting teaches life skills to older children; small children are taught obedience.
- Worldly parenting gets it backwards.
- Anyway, who wants to eat a meal prepared by a small child?
Item 5: Conservative group tells snowflakes to “get over it”
Consider:
- Conservative groups are sometimes desperate to find ways to excuse their failure to invest in the health needs of children.
- We don’t get over unmet health needs. Either they are met or we suffer brokenness.
Item 6: Leading morality preacher suffers moral failure
Consider:
- Rules alone are a weak support for moral behavior.
- That’s because of the weakness of man’s sinful nature.
- The Resurrected Life of Christ renewed in our hearts daily is our only hope for Christlikeness (Colossians 1:27).
Item 7: Health Institute says 30 minute exercise 4-5 days a week supports sense of well-being
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I expect to run when I get to Heaven, maybe even for health reasons, but mostly because of Joy in my heart. I already experience that Joy in this life – not only while running, but also while power walking when push-mowing the lawn. A member of my dad’s church many years ago liked to run to places he needed to go, including sometimes to church. He also grinned a lot. I asked him why he ran to church and grinned so much. He said he liked to dress up for church – that it made him happy, especially when he could wear his favorite trench coat. Sometimes, he said, it made him want to run. He said the cops stopped him late one night after church to find out why a grown man wearing a trench coat was running the streets with a grin on his face.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18E12
Week 18
GracePoint Counseling, A Grace Renewal Church
- was formally organized on July 4, 2010 as a New Testament church by the adoption of a Commitment Statement, Confession of Faith, and Constitution;
- is not a traditional, attendance-driven, seeker-friendly, open-door, everyone-welcome, come-as-you-are, performance ("go and give") church, but
- is a renewal (“come and receive”) church - that is, it
- provides support to its members (and to new converts who enter its meetings by invitation of current members who have supported them for trusting Christ for salvation and growth in grace) for learning how to
- read the Scripture in order to
- experience Christ during personal quiet-time worship in order
- manifest his Likeness into the community, beginning at home;
- meets privately, usually in members' homes;
- does not advertise or identify its meeting place to the public;
- meets multiple times 4-6 days a week for teaching and counseling in
- individual counseling sessions,
- groups, sometimes as small as 2-3 members, and
- institute classes for studies in grace concepts (Institute for Studies in Grace Concepts);
- does not charge for counseling sessions or accept donations from counselees or "receive offerings" (take up a collection) from its members;
- is supported by churches and organizations and also by individuals who give, not sacrificially out of their brokenness, but from the overflow of their abundance per 2 Corinthians 9:8;
- does not pay salaries, but may help pastoral and administrative staff with expenses for housing, transportation, education, and professional dues; and
- has an extended goal for its members, as they phase through its programs, to serve in a leadership role within the church or to formally organize a renewal church in their own homes supported by GracePoint Counseling.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18E05
Week 17
Week 17
Item 1: Conservatives mock university “cry rooms” for hurting students
Related: Men’s Group says unhappy wives need to ‘Get over it!’
Consider:
- The Heart of Christ in us supports us for identifying the unmet needs at the root of pain and crying.
- Broken people do not “get over” unmet needs. Either their health needs are met or they suffer.
- Husbands, parents, and pastors fail when they neglect to invest in the support needs of those they are called to serve, and fail worse when they condemn the fallen.
- It’s called shooting our wounded.
Item 2: Senate Chaplain fired, failure to engage members cited
Consider:
- Although the roles of evangelists and pastor-teachers have some overlap, evangelists are aggressive to pursue the lost, while pastor-teachers are attentive to engage the saved when they are present.
- That is, evangelists roam the world in search of the unsaved, while pastor-teachers roam the church to provide support.
Item 3: Famous minister says church attendance is for praise and worship
Consider:
- God calls us to worship (open our hearts to receive him) during our quiet time at home each day.
- The work of the Church is to support its members for learning how to read the Scripture in order to experience and manifest Christ.
Item 4: Company guarantees new glue will bond anything
Consider:
- Advertised products may be powerful to bond but give no guarantee for how long. So we take care to not be deceived!
- But Provisions from God never lose their power to save and support.
- This means, we can trust that our immersion by the Holy Spirit into spiritual union with Christ (so that we are born again into God’s family) will endure to secure us “until the full redemption of God’s possession” (Ephesians 1:11-14). If we can lose our salvation, it will have to be after we get to Heaven.
Item 5: Framed art for sale in mall store reads, ‘I work really hard every day so that I can give my dog a better life’
Consider:
- Children grow up healthy and happy who have parents who work hard every day so that their children’s needs are met.
Item 6: Twelve Years for men, 14 years for women: Researchers surprised how many years added to longevity by diet, exercise, and weight management
Consider:
- For extended longevity, and also good health, we can add supplementation, scheduled lifestyle, and our experience of Christ during our quiet-time worship.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: While waiting in my parked car at the yogurt shoppe recently, I enjoyed seeing an elderly man drive his well-maintained 1970-something Oldsmobile onto the lot and park across from me, and then get out to enter one of the small shops. He was dressed nattily and as agile as could be. When he got to the door of the shop, he wiped his feet on a mat at the door. Every evidence of a happy life well lived, I’d say. Also that he was a neat freak! Later that evening, Carole and I watched an archived 1970’s Paul Harvey interview with a fit looking Billy Graham, then in his mid 50’s, at his Montreat home.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18D28
Week 16
Item 1: Science set to give human intelligence and emotions to robots
Related: Scientists predict world will gravitate to worship AI as God
Consider:
- During the Great Tribulation, the False Prophet (the Second Beast) will give power to the Image of the First Beast (who is the Antichrist). This image, considering current technology, is perhaps a robot with artificial intelligence and emotions. Obedience to the Image of the First Beast is how deceived people will worship the Antichrist during the Tribulation (Revelation 13; 2 Thessalonians 2:3).
- This time of Tribulation will follow the Rapture of the Church at the end of the Church Age.
- “Even so, Lord, come quickly!”
Item 2: Former President says First Lady Barbara Bush was the foundation of the family, that he floated above it all while serving the country
Consider:
- As the mother of a
- But God calls husbands to be the foundation support for their wives – the same as Christ is the Foundation support for his Bride, the Church.
Item 3: Waffle House hero says he was thinking of saving his own life first
Consider:
- Our first responsibility is to ourselves (our own health) - so that we can be competent to provide help to others.
- God does not call us to give up our responsibility to our wives and children in order to save strangers (be a hero).
- Also, we arm ourselves so that we are supported when we confront the bad guys.
Item 4: Famous minister quotes 1 Timothy 5:18, says pastors are worthy of pay
Consider:
- Pastors are not hired hands, but shepherds (John 10:12).
- Jesus said to beware of hirelings who are self-serving.
Item 5: Conservative pundit condemns meanness of liberals
Consider:
- Meanness is motivated by the self-serving need to win, to be in power.
- Both conservatives and liberals can be mean.
- Ministry motivated by the Heart of Christ for others
- cares about the healing needs of hurting people and
- is humble and always kind.
Item 6: Minister says pets go to Heaven
Consider:
- We take care not to trust/teach doctrine that is based on our emotional needs more than on Scripture.
- Pets cannot comprehend the Gospel and have no capacity for faith and repentance or to trust Christ for salvation.
- Pets have body, mind, and emotions (capacity to know the world about them), but do not have a spirit (capacity to be born again and to know God).
Item 7: Report: Crying relieves tension
Consider:
- God created us with the ability to cry as a safety valve to relieve tension.
- Famous coach Jim Valvano encouraged cancer patients to cry everyday.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: On a regular checkup at the dermatologist recently, the receptionist said it had been a crazy day. I said I was going to tell the doctor she said she was seeing a lot of crazy people. She laughed, “No, no, don’t do that! I said it has been a crazy day!” I said, “Oh!” Signing in just seconds behind me was another Don: Don Smith, another fun loving guy, I could tell. I asked him if we could swap last names - that mine was Whisnant and I always had to spell it. I told him I once had a counselee whose last name I suddenly forgot. Too embarrassed to ask again, I thought it would be clever to ask her how to spell her last name. She said S-M-I-T-H. After a few minutes the nurse lady stepped out and called, not me, but Mr. Smith. When she called me later, I said I was mad – because I had signed in before Mr. Smith. She said, “So you’re mad are you?” I said not really, that I would be okay. When the doctor came in, he found some sun damage to freeze which he said was not pre-cancerous, but that it was “thinking about it.” After giving me a warning, he shot me several times with the nitrogen gun. When I stiffened, he said he knew I had not planned on being mistreated by the doctor today. I told him that I taught our counselees that screaming was therapy when they hurt - a way God gave us to vent our pain - but that a woman told me she did not think a man should scream. On the way out, the good-bye lady looked at me and asked if I was doing okay. I told her no, that when I got to my car, I was going to scream.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18D21
Week 15
Item 1: Report: More restaurants go cashless
Consider:
- During the Tribulation Period (following the Rapture of the Church and the end of the Age of Grace / the Church Age), purchases will be made by followers of the Antichrist using a number assigned to them (represented by 666) and implanted as a chip on their forehead or hand in order to transact business – possibly in the way we now use a debit card.
- The number 666 may represent three sets of 6 numbers each.
Item 2: ‘Christian numerologist’ predicts world coming to an end on April 23
Consider:
- This present Age (the Church Age or Age of Grace) may end with the Rapture on April 23, but the world will never come to an end.
- But so much for Scripturally understanding future eschatological events.
- If the Church is raptured on April 23, we welcome it, eagerly await it, and say with John, “Even so, Lord, come quickly” – Revelation 22:20 (next to last verse in the Bible).
Item 3: Feminists says she does not need to be set free by a man
Consider:
- But she does need to be set free by God from his Judgment against her (and all mankind) because of Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden.
- Also, to be supported by servant leadership in the home and Church for making wise choices that increase health and happiness.
Item 4: Christian actor celebrates long marriage, says submission to her husband is the reason
Consider:
- The Bible word “submit” does not mean to surrender to the hierarchal authority of a decision-maker in the home.
- Rather, it means to give opportunity of influence to a husband who has won her confidence that he is committed to her health and happiness.
- Marriage based on the religious submission of wives to their husbands is the leading reason for broken lives and tension in marriages.
Item 5: Anti-gun woman abandons family, takes up arms against intruder to protect family pet
Consider:
- The best in us would take up arms to first protect our families and freedoms.
Item 6: Pacifists call for world governments to lay down arms, quote 6th Commandment “Do not kill!”
Consider:
- The commandment, “Do not kill” means “do not murder.”
- Evil will not disarm – which means those who do will be at risk.
- God directed Old Testament
- God equips and enables us to protect ourselves. Jesus told the Disciples to buy a sword (Luke 22:36).
- Doing nothing is “tempting God” (Matthew 4:7).
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: The weather report recently warned of tornadoes in our area. So Carole and I decided to stay inside. We also sang the first verse of a confession song God gave us earlier this year:
We trust you, dear Lord (your Provisions of Grace)
for shelter and needed supply;
We trust for Protection of life, goods, and home,
for Watchcare of all you provide.
We also made ready to hunker down in a coat closet at the center of the house.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18D14
Week 14
Item 1: Fox’s Ingraham criticizes teen anti-gun spokesperson, loses sponsors
Consider:
- In her better moments, Laura must have known not to criticize a child, that
- Teens may have big-boy ideas but may not be secure enough to deal with criticism.
Item2: Angry woman rages against YouTube
Consider:
- The pain of unmet support needs is at the root of anger and violence.
- God has provided leadership in the home and Church, also the Life of Christ renewed in our hearts (through quiet time worship), to support our health and happiness needs.
Item 3: Feminist groups rally for gender equality
Consider:
- Gender equality (of opportunity to become all God created us to be) is not gender sameness.
- Gender sameness training is child abuse.
- Biology is not bigotry.
- God is the Author of all science, including biology.
Item 4: Pundit: ‘Everyone, liberals and conservatives, wants America
Consider:
- No, not everyone!
- Addictions, not financial well-being, drive liberal voters.
- They would rather starve than give up their immorality.
- Our experience of Christ transforms our hearts to desire health and holiness.
Item 5: Church sign reads ‘Everyone Welcome’
Consider:
- Left unsaid is “Bring your money!”
- God's Provisions to support our increase in health is freely given (Ephesians 1:6) for us to receive (Romans 5:17).
Consider:
- Hell is not funny. The Heart of Christ within us is grieved by the reality of man’s separation from God so that we can not talk about Hell without weeping.
Item 7: Report: Youth giving less thought to dying
Consider:
- In every group of people (family, friends, or strangers), large or small, one person will be the next in the group to die, and another will be the last.
- God has made Provision of Christ (his Blood/death on the cross) so that no would needs to perish but can have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Item 8: Health said to be the new wealth
Consider:
- Jesus taught exactly that, “You may lose the whole world, but you have profited if you gain the well-being of your soul” – from Mark 8:36.
Item 9: Report says ‘evidence scarce that vitamins work’
Consider:
- Trustworthy reports know the difference between “vitamins” and “vitamin supplements.”
- Of course, vitamins work. That’s the reason God put them in food.
- They can also be included in supplements to accomplish the same purpose.
Item 10: Report: Car AI devices know more about us than spouse
Consider:
- God knows more about us than AI devices.
- And, people in Heaven know more about us than our spouses.
- But it doesn’t matter: They have the Heart of Christ so that they know we suffer unmet needs and are broken.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I told Carole our meal was fit for a king. She said I WAS a king. I said no, I was not a king, but a servant to support her health and happiness needs. She said she was okay with that and asked me to pour her some more tea.
Week 13
Item 1: Group says First Lady should forgive President’s unfaithfulness
Consider:
- The Bible world “forgiveness” means “removal” – that is, to
- withhold punishment for an offense and also to
- provide support (ministry) for the recovery (removal) of the brokenness at the root of the offense.
- It means more than to just give a pass to an offender.
- Also, forgiveness flows from God to man, not from man to God.
- This mean, it is the leadership role of the husband, not the wife, to initiate forgiveness.
- “If a husband desires to provide leadership to his wife, he should first invest in her health and happiness” is included in the meaning of Matthew 5:23-24.
Consider:
- Evil always calls for disarmament, while it deceptively builds up its own arsenal.
- Less guns doesn’t mean less evil in man, but that only evil people will have guns.
- Armament by godly people best guarantees peace (“Peace through Strength”).
Consider:
- The odds are 1 in 1 that receiving God’s Provisions of Grace, beginning with Christ (his Blood / death on the cross and Resurrected Life), will produce health and happiness.
- The most financially secure people are not the wealthiest but the most faithful to steward God’s Provisions – that is, they do not waste, gamble, or spend money, but purpose to make every purchase a wise investment in health.
Consider:
- Tension (unfulfilled needs for health and happiness) is always the result of wrong choices.
- Christians who communicate with God for at least one hour a day are happiest.
Item 5: Loyola-Chicago chaplain shares formula for Final Four success: ‘Worship, Work, Win!’
Consider:
- Support for doing our best in redemptive service to others begins with experiencing Christ (worship).
- And then to go in the strength God gives to do our best.
- “I will go in the strength of the Lord” – Psalm 71:16.
- “He has made us competent for this ministry” – 2 Corinthians 3:6.
- Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing” – John 15:5.
- “Work out of the strength of your salvation for it is God who works in you to both desire and to accomplish his Redemptive Purpose for your life” – Philippians 2:12-13.
Consider:
Week 9
Week 7
Week 6
- Neglect to take care of self is at the core of broken lives and relationships.
- Injury (including physically, financially, and relationally) is the result of demands made upon us greater than the strength we have to sustain us.
- That’s why God calls us to come and receive before we attempt to go and give.
- Giving (parenting, ministry, serving) that is not supported by us first taking time each day to receive God’s Provisions to support our personal health is ineffectual (wood, hay, and stubble – also, withered branches – 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; John 15:6).
Item 7: Famous preacher says ‘We were worth dying for’
Consider:
- “All have turned away, they have together become worthless, there is no one who does good, not even one” – Romans 5:12.
- Christ did not die for us because we were worthy, but because only he was worthy to die for us – that is, no other payment qualifies to satisfy God’s judgment against mankind (because of Adam’s disobedience).
- Otherwise, God’s Love for us is not unconditional (based on who he is), but conditional (based on who we are).
- God values unconditionally (agapao) those who have no value (Isaiah 64:6; Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Romans 3:10-18).
- To VALUE is not the same as to deem VALUABLE (which is based on performance).
Item 8: Professor rejects resurrection of Christ
Consider:
- The promise of Scripture is: Everyone who confesses that 1) the Blood of Christ (his death on the cross) is the only Payment God will accept to satisfy his Judgment against mankind and that 2) God raised him from the dead (proving that he was the Son of God), will be saved” (John 3:16; Romans 10:9; Ephesians 1:7).
Item 9: Vatican
Consider:
- Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven.
- The worst part of Hell is not the fire but separation from God and all that is holy.
- God has made Provision of Christ’s Blood (death on the cross) so that everyone who receives (trusts in) him “shall have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Item 10: 13-year-old running for governor of Vermont
Consider:
- Whatever attempts youth may make to lead government, God has ordained seasoned pastors (elders) to lead the local church.
- Also, God placed children in the home for the purpose of being taught and nurtured, not to give leadership to their parents.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I dreamed this week that I attended a gathering of friends for an Easter picnic. Christ was not mentioned, so I called everyone to attention to say that Christ was raised from the dead, not only to prove he was God, but to also be resurrected in our hearts. At first, no one said anything. Then, they tried to ignore me, and then began laughing. Some rolled their eyes and even mocked. When I pressed on to speak, they told me to go away, that they would read up on it later in the Bible. That dream may have come from an experience I had earlier this week while cleaning out a wooded area next to our home. A passer-by called out and stopped to talk. And talk and talk - mostly about politics and government conspiracies. After listening a while and needing to get back to my landscaping project, I found an opening to begin talking about God’s faithfulness to live in our hearts in order to support us for making wise choices which result in good health and happiness. The passer-by quickly got quiet, became blank-faced, began backing up, looked at his watch, and then said he needed to go. So I got back to landscaping.
Week 12
Item 1: Preacher warns against women dressing immodestly
Consider:
- Immodest dress appeals to men’s fallen, sinful nature.
- Fear-based religious legalism (including Islam, but also religious Christianity) of necessity obsesses over immodesty, to target it as an adversity, because it disregards the opportunity Christ gives us to be transformed by his Life which purifies our hearts (minds) to look upon women for how we can support them rather than use them.
- This means, the real problem is not the presence of immodesty (the adverse factor) but the absence of holiness which supports us regardless of the adversity.
Item 2: Religious group teaches ‘everyone will go to Heaven’
Consider:
- Only regenerate (born again) people will go to Heaven (John 3:3-7).
- Unregenerate people would not enjoy experiencing God in Heaven - no more than they enjoy experiencing him here on earth.
Item 3: Popular “Christian” movie portrays father choosing to save strangers instead of his own son, calls it God-like
Consider:
- God does not call us to save others at the expense of our own health or the health of those we are called to serve (support); rather, he equips us and ministers through us (the Church, the Body of Christ) to “reconcile the lost to him” (2 Corinthians 3:6; 5:18).
- God the Son (Christ) was not sacrificed by God the Father (in the sense of being forfeited). Christ is God and he gave himself willingly (John 10:18) to satisfy God’s Judgment against mankind (because of Adam’s transgression – Romans 5:12-19).
- The son (character sacrificed in the movie) did not choose to die because of his love for strangers, but was sacrificed by a father wanting (in my opinion) to be a hero, also thinking he was pleasing God.
Item 4: Local church sign reads: ‘Love others like God loves you’
Consider:
- This is an example of performance Christianity.
- That’s because, it is impossible for us to love others like God loves us – except as we experience his Life within us so that he can love them through us (John 15:4-5; 2 Peter 1:3).
Item 5: Parents starve daughter, attribute death to ‘God’s Will’
Consider:
- God has made Provisions - not only food and water, but also leadership in the home and Church - to support the health and success of every person.
- It is not his Perfect Will that anyone should perish (2 Peter 3:9),
- or to be sick or fail - although he permits sickness and failure (according to his Permissive Will) for the purpose of discipline.
Item 6: Teenage survivor of school massacre belittles parents in vulgarity-laced rant against NRA
Consider:
- Ignorance asserts itself but Wisdom is quiet, unassuming, and appropriate.
- It is not God’s Plan for teenagers (whose brains have not yet fully developed) to instruct adults.
- God places children in the home (and also Christians in the Church) in order to be supported by its leadership, especially for growing in Wisdom (enablement for making wise choices).
- Failed parenting (and ministry) leaves children exposed to influences in the world - including teachers in government schools. (Wisdom and knowledge must come from somewhere: Children are not born with it.)
- Worse, the brokenness (curse) is perpetuated to the next generation: Children of failed parenting are subject to become failing parents.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I hate to think that teenagers (whose brains have not yet fully developed) have more understanding than adults. It has only been as I have grown older that I have begun to understand (for a few first to mind examples) that
- good health is not mainly the result of what we exclude that hurts but of what we include that helps,
- live food is medicine,
- eating fat doesn’t make us overweight, sugar does (so does eating after we work, also resting/sleeping after we eat),
- work doesn’t wear us out as much as neglect to exercise does,
- we run in order to increase energy and build muscle in order to manage weight, and
- the time to exercise is when we don’t want to. But mostly, that
- God is not in a power position (as a king) over us demanding compliance to his rules but is in a support position (as a shepherd) beneath us providing for our needs.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18C24
Week 11
Item 1: Facebook Fatigue: Millennials becoming bored with Social Media
Consider:
- Looking to be LIKED in all the wrong places, My Me Me, Mine, and More of Me, Myself, and My FaceBook misses the need of our hearts to experience God.
- All superficial communication becomes boring in time.
- Communication with Christ by the Holy Spirit through the Scripture during quiet time worship never diminishes in meaningfulness.
Item 2: Liberal leaders call for the President’s impeachment, cite moral failure
Consider:
- That’s it! Enough is enough! I’m firing Donald Trump as my pastor.
Consider:
- Godly women give opportunity for influence to godly dads, husbands, and pastors for the good choices they make.
Item 4: Popular Bible teacher says we will serve God in Heaven
Consider:
- We do not serve God on Earth, nor will we serve him in Heaven.
- Rather, he serves (supports) us and others through us.
Item 5: Popular Positive-Thinking Preacher tells followers ‘Be patient, God will make all things good in his own time’
Consider:
- God relates to us as a Wise Parent (“Heavenly Father” – Matthew 6:9).
- This means, he provides for us in a special way when we are little children (baby Christians).
- But in order to support us for growing into maturity (Ephesians 4:11-14), God allows us to experience the consequence of our choices – which is discipline (not the same as punishment, but leadership and guidance with a view of / for the purpose of growth) (Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:4-12).
- This means, he does not circumvent the outcome of our poor choices by causing everything to turn out okay in our lives regardless of the choices we make.
Item 6: Famous minister explains tragedies, says God is in control
Consider:
- God is in control, but not in the sense that he controls our behavior or arbitrarily chooses unknowable outcomes for our lives, but rather in the sense that (with regard to us) he decreed in eternity (predetermined) that good outcomes in our lives would be the result of our timely response
- to his laws in creation (Galatians 6:7-8),
- to leadership influences in the home and Church, and especially
- to experience Christ (Ephesians 1:11).
Item 7: Baby beaten to death with Bible during exorcism
Consider:
- Many lives have been ruined by judgment preaching and teaching (religious pounding on sinful behavior).
- But many lives have also been ruined by disregarding God’s call to receive his Provisions of Grace in Creation (for food choices, exercise, lifestyle, and supplementation), Community (leadership support in the home and Church), and especially Christ (his Blood and Resurrected Life).
- “The letter (the rule of law) kills unless the Spirit gives Life” (2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 7:9-11).
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: If there is a better place to eat out than Zaxby’s in Archdale, I don’t know where it is. The commitment of ownership and staff to good service at that particular location is on the order of Olive Garden and Chick-Fil-A, especially at our favorite locations. At Zaxby’s this week, we heard a tiny little voice call out, “Daddy, what do you want me to drink?” I looked up to see a 5-6 year-old darling little girl walking with a cup toward the beverage dispenser. Daddy answered that he would be there in a moment to help her. So she sat down in a booth to wait. Waiting on God? Now that’s what I am talking about!
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18C17
Week 10
Item 1: Survey says Millennials, Generation Z depressed and sad, cites addiction to social media, obsession to be liked, need to feel valuable
Consider:
- Structure (scheduled choices) shuts the door to depression.
- More critical than our need to be liked or to feel valuable is our need to be loved (valued) unconditionally.
- The one is based on our performance – who we are; the other is based on our experience of who God is.
Related: Report: The Average American Has 60 Bad Days A Year
Related: Mental Health Study: Young adults spend more than 6 hours a day feeling ‘stressed out’
Consider:
- Leading contributors to unhappiness are:
- work responsibilities,
- financial pressures,
- loss of sleep,
- broken relationships,
- health concerns, and
- fear of the future, guilt of the past, and unmet affection and validation needs in the present.
- Unhappiness is dispelled during our daily quiet time to
- read the Scripture (in order to)
- hear God call us to receive him (in order to)
- experience Christ (in order to)
- manifest his Life into the world.
Item 2: Popular eastern religion tells followers to ‘accept average’
Consider:
- To the other extreme, Performance Christianity tells followers to perform in order to be great and to please God.
- But God calls us to
- open our hearts to Christ who heals us (our values) and makes us competent as vessels for his use in redemptive service to others and then
- surrender the outcome to him.
Item 3: Popular minister tells church ‘You pray, I preach!’
Consider:
- Praying for others means to pray for ourselves in behalf of others – that is, to receive from God the support (Grace Provisions) he gives which supports us for supporting them.
- This means, God works through us (uses us) to support others only as we take time each day to be renewed by his Life in us.
- The notion that we can normatively ask (beg) God, especially during this Age of Grace, to do something for (“bless”) others, regardless of their disregard for his Provisions of Grace, is a distortion of Scripture and Satan’s biggest hoax.
Item 4: Famous minister says God never gives up on anyone
Consider:
- God’s Provisions of Grace continually flow to every person.
- Our response to include his Provisions into our lives results in peace and prosperity (especially of our hearts / soul: mind, emotions, and will).
- But he allows those who reject his ways, reverse his order (elevate their ways above his ways), to suffer the consequences (Romans 1:21-32; Galatians 6:7).
Item 5: International Women’s Day promotes steps to achieve gender equality
Consider:
- No race, gender, or person is valued more than another by God.
- God’s Provisions are experienced by everyone who receives them.
- Gender injustice is the default disposition of man’s fallen nature.
- Laws and activism may suppress injustices, but only God can purge it from man’s sinful nature.
- Authoritarian leadership is needed for organizational life (for example, in the military), but not for organic life (the home and church).
- Men and women in the home have basically the same roles – that is, to provide support: men to their wives and children, and women to their children.
- Both men and women equally depend on resources for support: For men, on God and leadership in the Church; For women, on God and leadership in the Church and home.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Carole knows she married a recovering perfectionist and authoritarian. Through the years she has become willing to give me opportunity to provide leadership as I have earned her confidence that I no longer just want to be in control, but that she is in my life, not for what she can do for me, but for how I can support her health and happiness needs. This means, for example, I had to learn to drive the car at the speed she is comfortable with, go to the places she wants to go, and to go and be there when she wants to, and to delight in her experience of it. As I learned to give up control, she began feeling safe to stop fighting for it. So now, when we are together (and although without her needs in mind I would do nothing), she delights to depend on me to decide where we walk along the trails, what we do for entertainment, and who our resources should be (for example, nutritionist Roy D. Strand, M.D.). Most enjoyably, we love to banter. She frequently threatens to “pow-zoom” me to the moon and I love to ask her if she thought she did anything while we were apart that I needed to fuss about.
Week 9
Item 1: Local man spends $26,000 on pet’s recovery in 2017
Related: West Coast man provides diapers for therapy chicken
Consider:
- God created animals for service, including chickens for food.
- Our experience of Christ (for going to Heaven and for health and holiness) makes therapy (for superficial pain relief) less necessary.
Item 2: Billy Graham buried
Consider:
- Burial in the ground honors
- the burial and resurrection of Christ from the grave and also
- God’s promise to resurrect those who have died in Christ from the grave (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15).
Related: Members of Billy Graham family confess to brokenness and failures
Consider:
- Children in families with strong Christian heritage survive personal brokenness and failure to become highly productive and successful.
Item 3: Civic group calls for more expressions of love in the world
Consider:
- The world’s greatest need is to experience God’s Love (agape) expressed through the Body of Christ, the Church.
- But God’s Love is not expressed by
- circumventing the outcome of unwise choices or
- enabling behavior for superficial pain relief.
- Rather, it is his unconditional value for us, expressed by his faithful commitment to
- make Provisions for our redemptive needs (justification for going to Heaven and sanctification for healing from brokenness), also to
- call us and give us opportunity to receive them.
Item 4: Religious group calls for increased forgiveness in the world
Consider:
- The Bible word "forgiveness" means “removal”: It is the removal of
- God’s judgment against sinners (separation from him and inherent brokenness) and
- the compounded brokenness caused by sinful behavior.
- Forgiveness flows fully and freely to us from God through his Provisions of Grace – in the same way light flows to dispel darkness.
- It is not based on our “repentance” (in the sense of giving up bad behavior) but of taking time to include God’s Provisions which remove the judgment and brokenness.
Item 5: Spokesman for atheist group says life’s principles are not permanent but ‘fluid’
Consider:
- God’s order was determined in eternity before the creation of the world and never changes (Ephesians 1:4-13).
Item 6: Conservative candidate says ‘God is in control!’
Consider:
- God controls the weather, wild animals, the orbit of the earth, and anything else he chooses to control.
- But he chooses to allow the law of sowing and reaping to govern outcomes in our lives - that is, for outcomes to normatively be the result of the choices we make to include / receive his Provisions of Grace.
- The notion that “God is in control” of every outcome in our lives, regardless how we live (the health choices we make), conflicts with conservative (Scriptural) principles which is based upon human responsibility to make wise choices.
- In other words, the “God is in Control” notion is more consistent with liberal (big government) politics than conservative (human responsibility) politics.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: This week I moved a truck load of wood chips one wheel barrel at a time to a landscaping project on the opposite side of a two-thirds acre lot. After 2 days work, it occurred to me that I should have first put down a liner to help reduce weed growth. So I raked back the mulch, put down the liner, then replaced the mulch, wearing myself out taking 2 or 3 times longer for the project. At my last physical fitness exam, a technician checked the arteries on one side of my neck for blockage. “Beautiful!” she said. When she checked the other side, she said “Umm!” I said “Not so good?” She said no, that it was “gorgeous.” The doctor called later to say that whatever I was doing, to keep doing it. What I am doing is sleeping hard, eating good, and then working/exercising hard before sleeping hard again. The work/exercise part is regular workouts, including running and weight lifting, and also lots of yard work. I call it staying in shape so that I can outlive my failures.
Week 8
Item 1: Anti-NRA groups attempt to register high school students to vote
Consider:
- The wisest choices for the home and Church and also for government are, made, according to God’s Plan, by men.
- The least wise decisions are made by youth whose brains are not developed until at least age 25.
Item 2: Anti-Trump youth rage against panel of conservative leaders
Consider:
- Rage and disrespect forfeit the validity of opposing views.
Item 3: Forensic science seeks to learn what Jesus looked like
Consider:
- Jesus likely possessed the physical traits of other Jews living in Jerusalem at the time: Brown/olive skin with short hair and a short beard, not particularly good looking (Isaiah 53:2), likely 5 feet, 6 or 7 inches tall, with a slight but muscular build - not at all the way he is portrayed by the movie industry.
Item 4: Study: Jogging reduces stress, increases blood flow to the brain
Related: Company introduces new diet for managing weight
Consider:
- Exercise to increase pulse rate for a sustained 20-30 minutes on most days of the week supports good health.
- Exercising to offset a poor diet (eating at the wrong time and eating the wrong foods) sabotages good health.
- So does dieting (restricting food intake) in order to lose weight.
- We do not run to lose weight, but in order to increase energy.
- To lose weight, we build muscle.
Item 5: Billy Graham dies at 99
Consider:
- Graham preached that Christ died because of our sins and that, in order to go to Heaven, sinners must give up their sins (which he misdefined as “repentance”) and then ask God for forgiveness.
- However, Christ did not die because of our sins (sinful behavior), but in order to satisfy God’s judgment against the human race because of Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden.
- Which means God does not call us to give up our sinful behavior so that we can go to Heaven but to give up trusting in our good works to trusting instead, wholly and alone, in the Blood/death of Christ.
- Repentance means “a change of mind” and (like faith) is produced in us by the Holy Spirit – that is, it is not something we do, but something the Holy Spirit does in us (i.e., he gives us faith [conviction] which “changes our minds” concerning Truth).
- Billy Graham did not clearly separate
- salvation (justification and reconciliation) for going to Heaven (by trusting in God’s Provision of the Death of Christ – that is, trusting in Christ as Savior) from
- salvation (sanctification) for healing from brokenness in this life (by receiving God’s Provision of the Life of Christ – that is, receiving Christ as Lord).
Related: R. J. Barber, ‘world’s longest running daily radio broadcast,’ married 73 years, dies at 90
Related: Bobby Roberson, pastored same church 61 years, dies at 87
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: My next door neighbor is 98, still remarkably independent, and has a sharp mind. My neighbor directly across the street is 94. Carole’s aunt is 94 and just moved into a retirement village from her home of almost 60 years when her husband, aged 91, died several weeks ago. She is in good health, active, likes to read, and most of the time, sharp as a tack. She has a full head of hair, all her teeth, and a good appetite. She says that, growing up, her brothers did not care much for vegetables, so she ate them. She has an option to eat her meals in a dining hall – which is okay she says except she doesn’t like to listen to “those old people” talk. At lunch this week she said she did not know what the meat was on her plate. Carole told her it might be fish because of the tartar sauce that came with it. She said she didn’t think so, that it looked more like chicken. Carole persuaded her to try it with the tartar sauce. “Is it fish?” Carole asked. No she said. “What’s it taste like?” Carole asked. “It tastes like tartar sauce,” she said.
Week 7
Item 1: Nation seeks explanation, solution for school shootings
Consider:
- Violence is rooted in the brokenness (pain and anger) of the unmet need for leadership support (in the home and Church, especially from the Holy Spirit) with regard to information, affections, and decision making.
- Religious teaching, church and civic programs, tighter gun laws, and increased security may help but are not the solution at its deepest level.
Item 2: Pence says Jesus talks to him, celebrities pounce
Consider:
- The Incarnate Jesus spoke to many during his time on Earth.
- Since his ascension back to Heaven in his resurrected (glorified) body (Acts 1:9-11) he has communicated to us, not verbally, but by the Holy Spirit to our minds though the Scripture to teach and guide us (John 16:7-13; 1 John 2:27; 1 Corinthians 2:4-16).
- Satan also attempts to communicate religious notions to our minds as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:3, 14; John 8:44; Ephesians 6:11).
- During our quiet time to read the Scripture (in order to hear the Holy Spirit communicate Truth), the Holy Spirit slams the door shut to Satan.
Item 3: Report: Use of profanity is a strength
Consider:
- Cursing, (condemning others to Hell), vulgarity, and profanity (taking God’s name in vain) are not the same.
- Whatever they indicate about a person’s language skills, they
- come from moral brokenness, not health (Matthew 5:37), and
- is uttered in Hell, not spoken in Heaven.
- The heart of Christ within us purifies our minds and communication.
Item 4: Canadian PM rejects term “mankind,” prefers “peoplekind”
Consider:
- God’s order (including for men to provide support leadership in the home and Church) is the foundation of civilization. When it is rejected, chaos will follow in time.
Consider:
- Regular schedule for making health choices slams the door to depression.
Item 6: Tv preacher tells viewers, ‘Send offering if ministry is a blessing’
Consider:
- Charlatans sell their support.
- Grace ministries
- invite hurting people to connect in order to receive support,
- receive offerings from established believers only as a conduit to help “bring to completion” their support to meet the needs of unsupported believers per the example of the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 8:1-24).
- This means, we do not give to our resources but receive from them support for experiencing Christ in order to be supported for providing support to others for also experiencing Christ.
Consider:
- Learning what the Bible says has benefit but is not the same as hearing the Holy Spirit
- communicate what the Scripture means or
- call us to open our hearts to receive the Life of Christ (during quiet time worship).
- Knowledge of information “puffs up (makes arrogant)” (1 Corinthians 8:1), but
- hearing and understanding Truth produces faith and humility and support for making wise choices (Galatians 5:23).
Item 8: Alan Jackson’s ‘Living on Love’ favorite Valentine’s Song
Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Carole and I could not think of anything extra special to do for Valentine’s, so we took a day trip to Crabtree Mall in Raleigh. We ate in the food court and shared a waffle cone before roaming around the mall holding hands. Walking into Hallmark Gold, the staff was having fun bantering. So I joined in. I told one lady who said she and her husband were going to Rome that I had been to Rome , Georgia
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18B17
Week 6
Item 1: Church leader says community service pleases God, has benefit for earning eternal life
Consider:
- Community service indeed has benefit, but not for going to Heaven. Neither does religious performance (going to church, reading the Bible, or giving money to the poor).
- That’s because we are saved by receiving (trusting in) God’s Provisions of Christ (his Blood for regeneration and his Life for sanctification – Romans 5:10), not by works of righteousness which we have done (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).
Item 2: Large ministry launches fundraising campaign, calls for sacrificial giving
Consider:
- Sacrificial giving is at the root of broken lives and homes.
- We are not called to give to God (as religionists do), but to receive from him - in order to
- have our personal health (redemptive) needs met (not the same as our carnal / feel-good needs) and to
- be supported / made competent for meeting the redemptive (health) needs of others, beginning with our own families.
- This means, we do not give sacrificially to others (including food, clothing, and shelter), but give to others out of our overflow – that is, after the essential health needs of ourselves and our families have been fully met.
Item 3: Famed minister says worldly church members are not born again
Consider:
- (The spirit of) Every person who trusts (receives) the Blood / death of Christ on the cross as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against the human race (separation from God because of Adam’s disobedience) is justified, reconciled to God, immersed by the Holy Spirit into spiritual union with Christ, and born again.
- But born again persons are made Christlike and fruitful (sanctified) only as they take time each day to experience the Life of Christ through quiet-time worship.
Item 4: President bashed for saying ‘God is on the side of’ hurting people
Consider:
- God is an advocate for the health (redemption) of every person - which he demonstrates by providing
- nutritional elements in the soil and atmosphere for our physical health,
- the home and Church and its leadership for our psychological health, and especially
- Christ, his death and resurrection, for our salvation (justification and sanctification), also
- the Holy Spirit and the Scripture to call us to receive him.
Item 5: Woman prays for healing, says the pope ‘blessed’ her rosary
Consider:
- Prayer to the Pope is a hoax. So is “prayer” to God (in the sense of pleading).
Item 6: Report: Life expectancy declining in U.S.
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Acting silly, Carole asked, “Why do WE need to go to the gym today!” I said so that we can be healthy. Or, we could just pray about it, I said. She said she didn’t think that would work. Recently a high school buddy emailed to say he’s “a tired old man, just hanging on, although he never smoked or drank.” But good health is not the result of excluding harmful choices which sabotage our health but of including wise choices (for diet, exercise, lifestyle, and supplementation) which support our health.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18B10
Week 5
Item 1: Poll: Only 16% favor Patriots’ win
Consider:
- Dislike for winners may be a subtle rejection of God’s Plan to support us for making wise choices that result in freedom from our personal brokenness.
Item 2: Report: WHOLE body could be ‘replaced or upgraded’ with robot parts by 2070
Consider:
- The bodies of born again persons will be upgraded (glorified) at the Rapture.
- Man’s spirit is born again in this life when we trust in the Blood/death of Christ for going to Heaven.
- Also, in this life (and in Heaven), our hearts (souls) have opportunity to be continually increased in holiness as we take time to be renewed by the Life of Christ during our quiet time worship.
Item 3: GOP train hits garbage truck, Trump haters mock, say God was cleaning up the trash
Consider:
- Condemnation of opposing opinions forfeits the credibility of our own views.
- The heart of Christ within us does not mock opposing views, but sows seeds of Truth which sets us free from error and brokenness.
- God does not throw away the broken vessel but “makes it again a new vessel” (Jeremiah 18:4).
Item 4: National “church growth” conference planned for this year
Consider:
- We go to meetings of the Church in order to enjoy friendship with others, participate in programs, and to study the Bible (what it says), but 90-95% (as an expression to make a point) of the reason God calls the Church to assemble is in order to be supported for learning how to experience Christ in order to grow in grace (sanctification).
Item 5: Report: Pastors quitting the ministry
Consider:
- Performance Christianity breaks the health of its churches and ministers.
- But our experience of Christ and redemptive service to others never gets old or burdensome – just as Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30.
Item 6: Fake Followers: Attention-Addicted Celebrities, Pundits, Politicians Buy Fake Social Media Numbers
Consider:
- Our experience of Christ increases our confidence of God’s Love (agape: “unconditional value”) for us and sets us free from bondage to our need to be “liked.”
Item 7: Denomination says a pastor’s past divorce will hinder his ministry
Consider:
- Performance-based “go and give” churches don’t understand God’s Provisions of Christ for recovery.
- “Come and receive” churches are best served by recovered pastors.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: A friend suffered a running injury. Since I had once suffered the same injury, he sought my support for his recovery.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18B03
Week 4
Item 1: Explanations sought for outbreak of school shootings in 2018
Consider:
- The problem is not too many guns, but too many broken homes and churches: Guns and broken people are not a good mix.
- Freedom for everyone to bear arms is dangerous in a broken world.
- Churchianity, rules and religious condemnation are not the answer.
- The choice is between freedom from oppressive rules and neglect to experience Christ daily: We can’t have both.
Consider:
- We saw that one coming!
Item 3: Group seeks to file legal petition demanding food stamps for pet food
Consider:
- Welfare for pets is next.
- This is a values issue – both to elevate pets to human status and reduce humans to pet status.
- The Heart of Christ in us transforms our values and strengthens our conviction of Truth.
Item 4: Elderly Pastor tells Church he is ‘blessed’ with good health
Consider:
- Indeed, we are healthy because we are blessed, but not in the sense God rewards us with a “miracle” because he is pleased with us or because of mystical forces in the universe (lucky stars, for example); rather, it is because, in some measure, small or great, intended or not, we included into our lives God’s Provisions of Grace (which he gave to begin flowing into the world immediately after Adam’s disobedience) to make possible our healing according to the Law of Sowing and Reaping.
Item 5: Tim Tebow promotes ‘putting the needs of others before our own!’
Consider:
- This sacrificial “go and give” performance-based, feel-good religious notion is at the core of the brokenness in homes and lives.
- Christ calls us to first come and receive his Provisions of Grace (especially his Life) in order to be supported for providing redemptive service to others (Matthew 11:28-30).
Item 6: Tom Brady said to be best QB of all time
Consider:
- Go Brady!
- But from an eternal perspective, not that important!
Item 7: Women’s Group Insists Men Not Needed
Consider:
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: On movie night at home this week, Carole and I watched Gary Cooper lead a small squadron of soldiers to destroy an old Spanish fort used by the Seminole Indians to store weapons and then to escape to safety through the Everglades. Next morning, Carole said she dreamed she was one of the troops and that I was Gary Cooper leading them. She said they trusted me and followed me through the swamps back to safety.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18A27
Week 3
Item 1: Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson teaches water baptism necessary for salvation
Consider:
- We absolutely must be baptized in order to go to Heaven, but it is not water baptism by a minister; rather it is spiritual baptism – our immersion by the Holy Spirit into spiritual union with Christ (so that we are IN Christ).
- Romans 6:3-4
Item 2: Religious parents chain children to bed
Consider:
- Our experience of Christ sets us free from weird religious notions and expressions.
Item 3: Famous mega church tv preacher says God is holding on to us as his children, that all will be well
Consider:
- The message of “feel good” preachers is for spiritual children who, like babies, teeter and totter along on feeble spiritual legs, dependent on emotional hype and pabulum for support (Ephesians 3:14).
- In this Age of Grace (the Church Age), Christians have the opportunity to enter (through daily quiet-time worship per John 15:4-5) into fellowship (intimacy) with Christ as our Shepherd, Great Physician, and Savior for support to mature us into spiritual adulthood, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
Item 4: Beloved leader of large ministry dies, had asked ‘prayers’ for his recovery
Consider:
- Good health and longevity are extended in our lives when we take time to make wise choices each day according to God’s Law of Sowing and Reaping (Galatians 6:7-9; James 1:4-8). The “prayers” and fasting of every person on earth (in the sense of pleading with God) will not make a difference.
Item 5: Bible Conference panel exposes, then mocks, laughs at wildfire preachers
Consider:
- Wildfire religious preachers and ministries grieve the heart of God.
- But so do those who laugh at (rather than weep for) them.
- Mockers in a theological debate discredit the validity of their own position.
Item 6: Scientists argue adulthood now begins at 24
Consider:
- Jesus was “about his Father’s business (providing ministry)” at the age of 12 (Luke 2:41-49).
- In the early 1900’s, adulthood began for many at age 12 (half the age now being considered).
- In the 1940’s, with the decline of family values, along with an increased obsession for recreation and entertainment (to help relieve the pain of unmet support needs), the term “teenage” became popular to represent a period of extended childhood adolescence.
Item 7: Women’s movement promotes electing more women to political office
Consider:
- Whatever may work for leadership in government or corporate life,
Related: Women’s March: ‘How we DRESS does not say YES’
Consider:
- There is a reason God calls women to dress modestly: It’s because of the brokenness of men’s sinful nature.
- Women’s seductive dress and behavior
- reveals brokenness (neediness for relationships to help ease the pain of unmet validation and affection needs),
- communicates, even to those for whom it is not intended, “I am desperate to be loved!”
- Christ (living his Life in us) transforms us to be modest.
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I began having issues with my longer hair and new beard when a counselor said his wife told him that she liked his beard and long hair because it made him look “sexy”. He said he didn't want to look sexy but Christ-like, especially for ministry. So I asked Carole. She said the risk for me was low, that I didn't need to worry.
Week 2
Item 1: Report: Christians say glad Christmas is over
Consider:
- Christians can get it backwards: During the Christmas season, we hustle and bustle, party and make merry, give and receive gifts, and then, hurriedly take down the lights
- on the day the Christ child is born,
- when the rejoicing should begin to celebrate God’s gift of Christ which makes possible our redemption (health, holiness, and going to Heaven).
Item 2: $103 Billion: Amazon’s Bezos wealthiest person ever
Consider:
- Good for Bezos! He has a better than average opportunity and ability to invest in his own personal health and the well-being of others.
- But without Christ living in a man’s spirit (so that he is born again) and in his heart (so that he is set free from his brokenness), he will be a spiritual pauper in this life, and in the next life, separated from God for eternity” (Luke 16:23-26).
- “For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul (health and happiness)” (Mark 8:36).
Item 3: Report: Vulgar language becoming public norm
Consider:
- Vulgar thoughts, language, and behavior are the norm for man’s sinful nature.
- Christ, living in our hearts, purifies our minds, behavior, and speech.
Item 4: Study Seeks to Identify Perfect Age
Consider:
- Mostly considered is age 30 when strength is thought to be at its peak and age 50 before aches and pains are said to begin.
- But at age 120, Moses’ eyesight and strength were unabated (Deuteronomy 34:7).
- One understanding of Psalm 90:10 (“We live for 70 years - or 80 years if we're healthy”) may be that we are born with physical and psychological potential to live without pain or disease for 70 or 80 years if we make the wise choices that support health.
Item 5: Talk Show Pundit Supports Fat Shaming
Consider:
- The heart of Christ in us neither condemns broken behavior (“You are bad!”) nor gives it a pass (“You are okay!”), but invests in our needs (for information, affection, and structure) so that we are supported for making wise choices that result in good health.
Item 6: Radio preacher says the prayers of listeners is reason for his recovery
Consider:
- We cannot (not even a million of us) persuade God to provide anything more or less than what he is already providing for us to receive.
- We can “pray” for others only as we pray for ourselves in their behalf - that is, as we receive from God the support he gives us so that we can support others to receive his Provisions which meets their needs.
Item 7: Poll: One of four non-believers prays during crisis
Consider:
- One of four non-believers (also believers) who prays (in the sense of "asking" God for superficial pain relief) experiences the same disappointing outcome as the other three.
- That's because, God's Provisions flow into our lives to meet redemptive needs and are offered freely to every person for them to receive.
Consider:
- In Bible language, the word “conversation” means “way of life.”
- Which means, outcomes in our lives are not the result of positive thinking or the words we speak (“I can do it!”), but of the choices we make.
- (An exception may be, if we say the wrong thing to an angry person!)
- From donloyw’s Journey Notes: There is a reason drivers are more aggressive in
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18A13
Week 1
Item 1: Artificial Intelligence devices identify needs, solve problems
Consider:
- AI can respond to verbal commands to adjust room temperature, troubleshoot, or operate equipment, but can not respond to requests to “Make me healthy (or holy or happy)!”
- But God has given us opportunity through quiet-time worship to be filled with Christ whose Life within us meets every need of our hearts.
- “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open the door, I will come into him (his heart) to meet his needs” (from Revelation 3:20).
Item 2: Report: Problem solvers are happiest
Consider:
- Humans have superficial, even sinful, wants and desires (for pain relief).
- We also have biological needs for food, water, oxygen, clothing, shelter, and safety.
- But more deeply, we have temperament (psychological) needs of the heart (mind, emotions, and will) for information, affection, and structure.
- Our deepest need is for the regeneration of our spirit (to be born again).
- The deeper the needs we help others to experience, the happier we are.
Item 3: Report: Millennials, Generation Z sad and depressed
Consider:
- Impulsive living and spending (driven by the need to outrun boredom and unhappiness) is a poor choice for health and long-term happiness.
- So is recreation, sports, entertainment, partying, pets, and social media, especially My Me Me, Mine, and More of Me, Myself, and My Face Book.
Item 4: ‘Faith, Family, Football, and Philanthropy’: Hall of Fame-bound Drew Brees prioritizes values
Consider:
- Faith (our experience of God through Christ), not family or vocation or religion, is the only sure and faithful Foundation for every other value.
- Jesus said, “Do not think I came to bring peace on the earth (including in the worldly home where Christ is never mentioned)… For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, (and other family members against each other). The enemies of a man who experiences Christ will often be the members of his own household” (from Matthew 10:34-35).
Item 5: Report: Increasing numbers look to Facebook for religious beliefs
Related: Religious News asks, ‘Can Facebook replace church?’
Consider:
- Facebook may replace attending church, but it cannot replace taking time each day to read the Scripture in order to hear God communicate Truth (not the same as Bible study).
- We can only trust teaching that is supported by Scripture (chapter and verse upon verse upon verse).
- All other teachings, including from Facebook, are pious notions, religious opinions, and deadly error.
Item 6: Billy Graham: ‘God predestines every event according to his plan’
Consider:
- Good outcomes are the result of our choices to include God’s Provisions of Grace into our lives (Romans 5:17; Galatians 6:7; James 1:12).
- God predetermined (determined / decreed before time in eternity) for the law of sowing and reaping to govern outcomes.
- This means, God is not a puppeteer (and we are not his puppets) manipulating outcomes according to reasons we cannot know.
- By definition, “sin” (the behavior) is the choices we make that disregard God’s Provisions to meet our redemptive (biological, psychological, and eternal) needs.
- This means, we cannot absolve ourselves of our responsibility to make wise choices.
- Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Returning home from our travels, we exited Interstate 74W to a restaurant on State Highway 74W, the same restaurant we exited to on the same travels three years earlier. Leaving the restaurant we continued on our merry way on
- We ended up at a location in the direction we were headed.
- We experienced the same outcome as we did before when we made the same mistake.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 18A06
