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In The News ARCHIVES

In The News

(2017)

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

Item 1: Economist says U.S. economy built on a bubble

Consider:

• Our financial well-being, also our health and happiness, is founded upon / secured by Christ (his Life in us supporting us for making wise choices). 

Item 2: Report: Christmas spending fails to boost happiness

Consider:

• Deep and abiding happiness, contentment, and also prosperity are not destinations we chase after but the guaranteed outcome of making scheduled choices for health each day consistent with the scientific law of cause and effect (sowing and reaping). It is not an outcome we find, but that finds us. 

Item 3: Politician says sickness is the result of no health insurance

Consider:

• Health insurance is critical for emergency medical needs, but broken health is mostly the result of failure to include in our lives God’s Provisions which support good health. 

Item 4: Report: Future romance won't be with humans

Consider:

• Romance with robots began with a fixation on social media.
• Romance is enhanced when couples experience Christ together. 

Item 5: Report: Minister derides decline in moral standards

Consider:

• Broken behavior grieves the heart of Christ.
• The world gives it a pass (rationalizes / excuses it).
• Religion condemns it to Hell. 

Item 6: Report says well known theologian 'destroys' opponent in debate

Consider:

• Grace ministry does not destroy those with opposing views but speaks the Truth in Love.
• Christ did not come into the world to condemn but to heal. 

Item 7: Minister says sickness and injuries are unavoidable, that 'the books don’t balance with God in this lifetime'

Consider:

• The books (outcomes) absolutely do balance in this lifetime according to God’s Redemptive Plan.
• God ordained the Law of Sowing and Reaping (Cause and Effect) to govern outcomes.
• This means, outcomes are normatively the result of the choices we make to include God’s Provisions into our lives each day.
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Friends seeing me recently for the first time in a long while hugged me and exclaimed that I was a miracle. They were referring to a report they heard that I had a stroke almost two years ago, but which actually was vertigo-type loopiness and nausea, a reaction to taking caffeine enhanced pre-workout supplements which overstimulated my heart.  I was set back for several months, but recovered – not because God chose to “miraculously” heal me, but because I stopped taking those damned caffeine enhanced pre-workout supplements.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L30

Week 51

Item 1: Report: Loneliness is more deadly than obesity

Consider:

• Man’s physical needs are critical, but far more so are the needs of his heart (the soul: mind, emotions, and will) for information, affection, and structure (schedule).
• But far greater than the needs of man’s body and soul is the need of his spirit to be born again.

Related: Pennsylvania teachers resign due to violence

Consider:

• Unmet needs in children for support with regard to information, affection, and decision-making (schedule / structure) result in pain and anger and can lead to violence.

Related: Study: Eating salad every day keeps brain 11 years younger

• Good health is not automatic or the result of our lucky stars (chance) or of religious performance to make God happy, but of making wise choices each day to include in our lives his Provisions of Grace which support health consistent with his law of sowing and reaping (the scientific law of cause and effect).

Related: Study: Sitting is bad for heart health

Consider:

• Our bodies were not made for / cannot survive long-term inactivity.
• So, we lift weights to build muscle (and maintain healthy weight), walk and run to increase energy, stretch to maintain flexibility, and sleep long so that we can work hard without injury.

Item 2: Child dies, “faith healing” parents refused medical treatment, pray for resurrection

Consider:

• Lost health is not the result of our failure to “ask” God for healing but of our neglect to receive his Provisions into our lives.

Item 3: Pet groomer uses puppies to recreate nativity scene

Consider:

• A dog maybe to portray a cartoon superhero, but not the Savior. This is heartbreaking and might be the worst sacrilege.
• Dogs are animals, not people, and are not called by God to manifest Christ into the world.

Item 4: Retailers celebrate boosted holiday spending

Consider:

• Gift-buying to meet codependency needs (co-dependency: broken people using broken people for superficial pain relief) is a disappointing hope for happiness.
• Receiving God’s Gift of Christ (his Life) at Christmas supports us for gift-giving that meets the redemptive (healing and eternal) needs of others.  

Item 5: Popular radio guy says the “feel good” of gift-giving is the true “Spirit of Christmas”

Consider:

• God gave Christ, not so that he could feel good, but so that we could go to Heaven and also be healed from our brokenness.

Item 6: Report: In the U.S. 50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second, and 73% of third marriages end in divorce

Consider:

• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Without Christ (his Life renewed in us each day), every marriage is subject to failure and heartbreak. Attempts at remarriage can have increased risks. Lost influence with children can be the most disappointing. A man lamented recently that his children called their new stepmom their “dad’s wife” and that her children called him “uncle.”

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L23

Week 50

Item 1: Judge Moore loses Alabama election

Related: Accusations bring down high profile names

Consider:

• The warning in Numbers 32:23 (“Be sure your sins will find you out”) may or may not be public, but it is impossible for wrong choices to have a good outcome (Galatians 6:7).
• Receiving God’s Provisions of Grace (Plan A) produces good outcomes (Isaiah 1:18; Matthew 11:28-30; Romans 5:17); It also recovers us from the failed outcomes of our wrong choices.
• The World and its Religions, the Performance Church, and Dr. Phil-type counseling
• have no solution for happiness (rooted in health) or for recovery from failure - except Plan B (to work on ourselves), so they
• condemn to Hell those who fail (“shoot their wounded”).

Related: Fake Media, Popular Pundits, Politicians Exposed as Frauds

Consider:

• But the Fraud of the Year / Fake News Award goes to Santa Claus.
• Parents lying about Santa inoculate their children against the Scriptural message of Christmas and experiencing / understanding the reality of Christ.

Item 2: College tells students ‘have more fun’ to reduce political stress

Consider:

• Plan B therapy offers good supports for managing, surviving pain, but God’s Provisions of Grace (beginning with experiencing Christ per Ephesians 3:19; 4:13) heals the brokenness at the root of pain.

Related: Report: Millennials Bored with Sameness

Consider:

• Hurting people, bored with sameness, are impulsive to chase after something new.
• The healthiest people enjoy making the same scheduled choices every day that support health.

Item 3: Report: Patients more likely to die treated by doctors older than 60

Consider:

• Young service professionals (including in the Church) are excellent supports for performance (going and giving) and managing the pain of brokenness, but are failing supports for making choices (coming and receiving) that produce health and happiness.

Item 4: Charity says ‘Christmas is about the children’

Consider:

• The world always gets it backwards.
• Healthy parents is the greatest need of children.
• That’s why God’s Plan invests first in parents - so that they can be the support children need.
• Programs that by-pass ministry to invest first in parents leave children with an unmet need for their most essential support (healthy parents).

Item 5: Merchants Banking on Record Gift Buying

Consider:

• God gave Christ to meet our need for going to Heaven (regeneration) and healing from brokenness (sanctification).
• Giving at Christmas to meet addiction / co-dependency / pain relief needs, motivated by guilt and people pleasing,
• does not celebrate, but dishonors, God’s Gift of Christ,
• is surpassed only by the addiction to giving.
• “God blessed us in the heavenly realm (our born again spirit and sanctified hearts) with every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3).

Item 6:  Woman pastor encourages members to stop calling God ‘he’ and ‘Lord.’

  

Consider:

• The woman pastor’s teaching opposes the message of Scripture that:
• God is our “FATHER” (gr. pater, masculine noun),
• Christ is the SON (gr. hulos, masculine noun) of God and SAVIOR (gr. soter, masculine noun) of the lost.

• CHILDREN (gr teknon, neuter noun) of God are adopted into God’s Family as SONS (gr. hulos, masculine noun).
• It is God’s Redemptive Plan for MAN (gr. aner, masculine noun) to serve as
• HUSBANDMEN (gr. georgos, masculine noun, “a gardener”) to support their
• WIVES (gr. gune, feminine noun, “a woman”) and
• PASTORS (gr. poimen, masculine noun “a shepherd”) to support the CHURCH (gr. ekklesia, feminine noun) for growing in grace (sanctification).
• (John 15:1-8; Ephesians 1:5; 5:22-33)

Related: Professor warns about ‘masculine toxicity’

Consider:

• Leadership in the home and Church that does not experience the Life of Christ to a fuller measure each day during quiet time worship is either passive or abusive and, indeed, toxic to the health and happiness of the members God calls it to serve.

Related: Popular pastor tells wives to take care of their husbands

Consider:

• Scripture instructs husbands to take care of their wives (Ephesians 5:22-33).
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I came upon a cowbell while walking thru J.C. Penny at the mall. I looked around to show Carole but couldn’t find her, so I rang the cowbell. She told me later she heard the cowbell but didn’t want to believe it was me. I told her I could use it at home when I needed her. She asked why a cowbell. I said because I grew up in the city and she on the farm and that I had never seen a cow up close until I met her.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L16

Week 49

Item 1: Report: Godbot religion expected to boom

Consider:

• As the end of this Age nears, we can expect faith (conviction of Truth concerning God’s Redemptive Plan) to diminish (Luke 18:8; 2 Timothy 4:3).

Item 2: U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel, enemies rage

Consider:

• Evil is hostile to / fearful of Truth.
• In contrast, Truth does not fear evil, gives opportunity for evil to coexist (because of its confidence that darkness cannot prevail against the Light), and never attacks, except to protect itself against aggression.

Item 3: Leading conservatives encourage not voting in Alabama election

Consider:

• All that evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
• Over piety to do nothing is not piety.
• Sometimes, piety must hold its nose when doing the right thing.

Item 4: Merchants promote purchasing Christmas gifts to make people happy, call it “the Christmas Spirit”

Consider:

• Giving that is appropriate for celebrating God’s Gift of his Son at Christmas is redemptive – that is, it supports good health. 

Item 5: Man risks life to rescue rabbit from LA fire, praised as hero, said to restore faith in humanity, cited as what it means to be a man.  

Consider:

• According to firefighters,
• people are foolish to put themselves and others at risk (including being lost to family) to save wild animals,
• wildlife knows best what to do to save themselves during fires.
• According to Scripture, unnatural affections and diminished values (over-interest in matters that won’t exist in eternity) will be a leading indicator of the end of this Age.
• Christ gave his life to save man from eternal loss and he calls us to give ourselves to no lesser cause (“God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” - 2 Corinthians 5:18).

Item 6: Organization provides guidelines to big city dwellers for surviving apocalypse  

Consider:

• The report included storing up emergency supplies, staying calm, and staying home.
• God’s Plan for our protection is to enter beforehand into relationship with Christ who is made unto us the Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:30) in order to have his support for making wise choices.

Related: World leaders rehearse for a pandemic that will come ‘sooner than we expect’

Related: Report: Outbreaks of life-threatening infectious diseases are spreading faster and with more unpredictability than ever

Related: Plague fear grows as 10^th nation put on alert

Consider:

• Jesus warned (Matthew 24:7) that pestilences (plagues) would forecast his Second Coming, that man’s pharmaceutical plan to control disease will fail as we near the end of this present age (the Church Age).
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: I dreamed the world was hit by a natural disaster of some sort resulting in massive destruction. As I looked around I saw a large church building, damaged but still standing. A large crowd of people was gathered around it. When I inquired, a group stepped forward to ask if I would be their pastor. I awoke thinking that the time will come when the ministry of GracePoint to support hurting people for experiencing Christ will be a premium value, different from the entertainment and socializing the Church clamors for today.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L09

Week 48

Item 1: Women’s organizations rally to expose badly behaving men, say sexual harassment is a “man’s issue”

Consider:

• Sexually aggressive behavior toward women is immoral.
• But it becomes a woman’s issue also when women dress seductively.
• The hypocrisy is: Immodest women
• condemning men’s lustful nature and behavior while excusing the complicity of their own behavior,
• dressing seductively for the attention they want, angered by the attention they don’t want, also by men who use, then abandon them (“...no fury like a woman scorned”).
• Jesus said it is better for a person to be tied to a millstone and thrown into the sea than to cause someone to stumble (sin).
• Seductively dressed women miss understanding that the best of men appreciate modesty. 

Item 2: Report: Less than a million dollars not enough to retire on

Consider:

• That would be for a fantasy lifestyle.
• Jesus promised, “Seek first God’s Redemptive Plan and you will have every thing you need” (the message of Matthew 6:33).
• Otherwise, this author is in big trouble!

Item 3: Christmas Fraud: Intruder steals the message of Christmas

Consider:

• The world rejects the message of Christ’s birth, think Jesus is the intruder at Christmas. But the intruder is Santa Claus.

Related: FAKE NEWS: Santa Claus sees you when you are sleeping, knows when you are awake, and he’s coming to town with a list who’s naughty or nice

Consider:

• Only God is omniscient.
• And he alone is Judge.
• Parents make a horrendous mistake to tell children “they better not pout or cry” (to suppress the pain of their unmet needs). 

Related: GOOD NEWS: Christ the Savior has come

Consider:

• Christ came at his birth (incarnation) as a Savior to save the world. He will come again (The Second Coming) as a King to rule over the world in righteousness.

Item 4: Church leaders ask members to do something special for senior pastor during pastor appreciation month

Consider:

• God calls children, wives, and church members to “give opportunity for influence” (the meaning of the Bible words “honor” and “submit”) to their parents, husbands, and pastors.
• But we do not support our Resources; rather they support us and others through us.
• Consider:From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Trying to be a hit with the checkout lady this week at the mall, I asked if the black shirt I was showing her came in black. I told her my Wednesday humor was not that good but that I could come back on Friday. She laughed and said she thought it was pretty good. I asked if she took returns. She said she did. I said that was good, that I would be back with my wife. 

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L02

Week 47

Item 1: Sins of entertainers, politicians, and church leaders exposed, denied

Consider:

• God has a Recovery Plan for the healing of every broken person.
• Denial of brokenness shuts the door to our healing.
• Confession of brokenness is painful only when our solution to it is working on ourselves (trying harder).

Item 2: Customers wearing stolen employee uniforms sneak in to stores ahead of long lines

  

Consider:

• No one will be able to sneak into Heaven.
• At the Great White Throne Judgment, posers will be exposed (Revelation 20:11-15).
• “Everyone who has been baptized into Christ (immersed by the Holy Spirit into spiritual union with Christ) is clothed in the Righteousness of Christ and will be given entrance into Heaven” (from Galatians 3:27). 

Item 3: ‘Love is Love is Love’ says pacifist organization  

Consider:

• No, human love (phileo/neighborly, storge/family, and eros/romantic love) is
• conditional, based upon what others can do for us, and is
• not the same as
• God’s love (agape) which
• is expressed by giving his Provisions (John 3:16),
• meets our redemptive (health) needs, not our addiction / feel-good needs, and
• is unconditional – not based upon who we are or what we do, but upon who God is.

Item 4: Church posts warning sign: “We are heavily armed!”

Consider:

• Plan B armament is a better solution than being exposed to violence in an open-door, everyone-welcome, increase-attendance, fund-raising church.
• But God’s Plan A for the protection of the Church is for members to win their family, friends, and neighbors to Christ, then bring them to the private meetings of the church to be supported for learning how to experience Christ so that they can in turn win their family, friends, and neighbors to Christ, and so on.
• Living by faith does not mean piously trusting God while disregarding his Plan.

Item 5: Report: Over-stimulated experiences change how brain responds

Consider:

• The brain’s ability/capacity for healthy responses to life’s experiences (for example, food, music, entertainment, and romance) is supported when we make choices to experience them in ways that are consistent with God’s Plan.

Item 6: Woman given time off to care for sick dog

Related: Pet dogs have pictures made with Santa Claus

Related: Dog eats in high chair for family meals

  

Consider:

• This may explain some of the reason why small children, looking across the table at an animal which has been elevated to be their equal, grow up confused, with unmet validation needs, feeling abandoned and angry, and behaving accordingly.

Item 7: Report: A broken heart can be as devastating as heart attack

Consider:

• We illustrate the relevance of our needs by giving a value of 1 to physical needs, 10 to the needs of the heart (mind, emotions, and will) for information, affection, and structure, and 100 to our need to experience Christ who heals our broken hearts.

Item 8: Study: Angry people die sooner  

Consider:

• Anger is the result of unmet needs, especially of the heart.
• Inward rage breeds a biological environment toxic to good health.
• Our experience of God’s Provisions, especially Christ, supports peace (mental and emotional oneness with God). 

Related: Study: Angry people are dangerous

• Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: In the Dentist Chair Learning to be Nice Years ago I began learning to be careful what I say to people when I told a young, newly-hired dental hygienist that I was a runner. She said she used to run but didn’t any more. I told her there should not be anything we ought to do that we “used to” do. Suddenly she became very aggressive and set my mouth on fire.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17K25

Week 46

Item 1: Judge Moore denies accusations

Consider:

• Sexual assault is depraved behavior.
• Only one person ever lived on Earth without brokenness and failure.
• The righteousness of the rest of us is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
• Man denies his brokenness because of the pain of
• not having a solution to his sinfulness (except to try harder - which always results in more failure) and
• living in a world of unforgiveness (that doesn’t understand grace / God’s Provisions for our healing).

Related: Liberal Media rethinks charges against Bill Clinton, exposes moral failures in Hollywood and DC

• Liberalism will expose the sins of those it loves in order to have opportunity to condemn to Hell the failures of those it hates.

Item 2: New York Post: ‘Make room, Satan! Charles Manson is on the way!’

Consider:

• No one goes to Hell because of their past sins, but because they reject the Blood of Christ as God’s Provision to satisfy his judgment against the human race because of Adam’s one act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Romans 5:12-19).

Item 3: Report: Future Godbot billion times smarter than humans

Consider:

• God is a billion times smarter than Godbot, and then some.
• We have opportunity in this life and in Heaven to be increased in the knowledge of God (to know what he knows) without ever exhausting his Mind.

Item 4: Poll: 1/3 adults will avoid talking politics with family and friends during Thanksgiving gathering

Consider:

• Worse if no one talks about their experience of Christ without whom nothing is possible.
• “In him was Life and that Life was the Light of man. Through him all things were made and without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3-4; Colossians 1:17).
• “As for us, we cannot help but speak of the things we have seen and heard” (First Century Christians / Acts 4:20).

Related: Report: Conversations at Thanksgiving Dinner shortened by 30 minutes

Related: Report: Pets are favorite subject at meals

• Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Best Laid Plans to Not Overeat at Thanksgiving Dinner! I asked a staff member at the gym this week if service animals were allowed. She said yes, although one lady brought her poodle because she did not want to leave it at home alone. I asked her if she had heard of matching pajamas for snuggling with dogs. She said I would not want to know what her dog did in her bed. She said she read about a lady who slept with a python. When the python stopped eating, she took it to the vet who asked for more information. The lady said there was nothing else to say except the snake just stretched out each night beside her. The vet suggested the snake was sizing her up for a meal.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17K18

Week 45

Item 1: Wife says Texas shooter consumed with hate

Consider:

• Pain, anger, and hatred fill man’s heart and lead to violence when his inborn support needs (for information, affection, and structure) are not met.
• The world and also religion miss understanding that broken people are the product of broken parents and pastors.

Item 2: Republicans Retreat from Judge Moore

Related: Accusations Against Judge Moore Question His Moral Fitness for Office

Consider:

• Failures four decades ago do not necessarily represent what is true about us today or disqualify us for God’s use in redemptive service to others. 
• That’s because God has a recovery plan for every person’s life – which the world, hostile to God, does not understand, appreciate, or accept.
• God’s Plan for our healing and recovery is not religion, church-going, trying harder, or rule keeping, but to experience Christ for regeneration and sanctification (healing).

Item 3: Church says children should choose their own gender

Consider:

• Children left to themselves for making life choices is abuse.
• God provides leadership in the home and Church to support children for making wise choices that establish them in long-term health.

Item 4: Entertainment, fashion world deny seductive dress is cause for assaults on women

Consider:

• Seductive dress attracts users and abusers, puts women at risk.
• The best of men are attracted to modesty. 

Item 5: Report: Mouse gets human brain

Consider:

• But no animal will ever get a human spirit or soul so that it can be born again or transformed to be Christ-like (sanctification).

Related: Available for Christmas: Matching pajamas for snuggling with dog

Related: Report: Most people would choose to save dog before human

Consider:

• Unnatural affection is one of the signs of the end of this Age.
• “The righteous care for the life of his animal” (Proverbs 12:10), but the heart of Christ within us is most passionate for the spiritual and eternal well-being of people. 

Item 6: Report: Wealthiest ministers named

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Little is Much When God Is In It! Jesus was supported by Provisions that flowed from his Father, yet he was poor by worldly standards (so are the best of ministers). When a recent report identified the wealthiest ministers, my name wasn’t among them. So just to aggravate Google, I asked, “What is Don Whisnant’s net worth?” Google understood me to ask “What is my old whiskey bottle worth?” So I asked again, “What is the net worth of Don Whisnant?” Google answered “God! What’s in it?” 

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17K11

Week 43

Item 1: NFL owner’s ‘inmate’ statement inflames players

Consider:

• People with unmet needs are sensitive, like an open wound.
• Leadership has an opportunity to either
• minister to the brokenness of hurting people or to
• be careful what it says to them.
• Neglect to do both will result in anger and sometimes rage.

Item 2: Leading mega church announces female as senior pastor

Consider:

• Female leadership may be successful in the Church to promote attendance growth and fund raising and in the home to support organization needs, but God uses men to support us for learning how to experience Christ.
• “Do not permit women to teach men or have authority over them.” - 1 Timothy 2:12
• “The woman is the glory (reflects the support) of the man (as Christ is the glory of God the Father).” - 1 Corinthians 11:7

Item 3: Saudi Arabia first to grant citizenship to a humanoid

Consider:

• Humanoids have capacity for artificial life – that is, they can be constructed to look and feel human and programmed to mimic human behavior and intelligence. But they do not have a spirit or soul, so have no capacity to experience God or manifest his Likeness (glory).
• Humans have capacity for organic life – that is, they have a body and soul. They also have a spirit and opportunity through regeneration (the new birth) to experience God and to manifest his Likeness (glory) into the world.

Observed: Christian music in restaurant delights customers, fails to inspire unhappy staff

Consider:

• Music (the same as aromas and atmosphere) may enhance our enjoyment of eating, but joy and happiness to provide service to customers is supported by our experience of Christ during our quiet-time worship to prepare us for serving (John 15:5; 2 Peter 1:3).

Related: Popular Christian singer asks, ‘What could the Church be singing that would really help members get back to where we need to be?’

Consider:

• We cannot sing or perform our way to holiness, but we can be transformed to be like Christ by the flow of his Life into our hearts during our quiet-time worship.

Item 4: Man shoots neighbor in dispute

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Competing so my neighbor doesn’t get uppity The tree guy I hired did a good job. I told him to put his sign in my yard. He said it didn’t help because neighbors tend to compete. He was right. We tend to compete because we have trouble with the possibility that someone else may know more, have more, or do more than we do – especially if they try to act all “uppity.” It’s an insecurity issue we have, rooted in our unmet need for confidence that we are valued (not the same as valuable), especially by God. In Atlanta, dead branches from a tree on my property often fell on my neighbor’s lawn. I sometimes liked to ask him when he planned to pick them up. We had become buddies, so he would laugh and say that I could do it when I mowed his lawn.  

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17J28

Week 42

Item 1: Restaurant blasted for tweeting that non-tippers are heartless

Consider:

•  “Goodness”
• is a “fruit (the Likeness of Christ) produced in us by the Holy Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23),
• means “generosity,”
• makes giving (including “tipping”) a delight.
• Tipping is not a handout but deserved recognition for excellent service.
• The happiest servers are people-oriented and committed to providing good service more than to programmed performance to win tips.

Item 2: Report: Number of stay-at-home dads falls as novelty wears off

Consider:

• God’s role (his Redemptive Plan) for moms to care for the affairs of the house, especially for her small children (Titus 2:5), can not be improved upon.

Item 3: New Data: Americans Are Retiring Later, Sicker, and Dying Sooner

Related: World health organization warns failure of antibiotics

Consider:

• Jesus said (Matthew 24:7) that pestilences (plagues) would mark the time before his Second Coming.
• (How is it in this age of miracle drugs that such a time will exist!)
• Antibiotics only help to manage the symptoms of diseases; they do not cure or establish health.
• Also, harmful bacteria build tolerance to antibiotics.
• This means, good health is not the absence of disease or established by the presence of antibiotics.
• Rather, good health is established by the presence of God’s Provisions (including probiotics) against which harmful bacteria cannot prevail.

Item 4: Report: Sleeping with your dog can improve night’s rest

Consider:

• Sleeping with a pet may improve the worst experiences of sleeplessness, but it will not improve the sleep God gives (Psalm 127:2; Matthew 11:28-30), the result of including in our lives his Provisions of Grace, beginning with Christ (his Blood/Death and Resurrected Life for Regeneration and Sanctification).
• Neither will it improve or enrich marriages, although it may help relieve the pain of broken marriages. 

Item 5: Elderly man tells fan to sit down, gets sucker punched

Consider:

• Violence is rooted in anger which is rooted in the pain of unmet mental, emotional, and decision-making support needs.
• That’s why, in a broken world, we take care what we say to hurting, angry people.
• God uses law enforcement and the courts to punish crimes (Romans 13:1-5).
• The role of the Church is to minister to (so as to “remove”) the brokenness at the root of criminal violence (which is the Scriptural meaning of the word “forgiveness”).
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Blessed Not to Have a Crooked Nose People with unmet temperament needs (for leadership support in the home and Church with regard to information, affection, and decision-making) become either fearful (insecure so that they are offended by advice) or angry (including otherwise good church-going people and even ministers, especially performance types). So, in my early years, I was angry. I had not experienced enough of Christ to be able to forgive like Christ forgives – that is, to withhold punishment and minister to the brokenness (Ephesians 4:32). I was not a bully or aggressive towards anyone, but people did well not to aggravate me or get in my face. I was a fighter and knocked the daylights out of at least a few people. Others saw the look in my eyes and backed down or got away. But given the times I was outnumbered, if not outsized, I was Providentially watched over not to have gotten killed or injured. My dad was not so blessed. He told me the reason his nose was crooked was that, as a young minister, he took on a man who got in his face and the man broke his nose.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17J21

Week 41

Item 1: Shooter’s brain probed for hidden cause of Vegas massacre

Consider:

• Evil deeds can be linked to brain disorders, mental and emotional disorders, addictions, and the brokenness of man’s fallen human nature, but 
• Satan, like a roaring lion, roams the earth to find human channels for his destruction in the world.

Item 2: Victims of national disasters ask for “prayers”

Consider:

• We grieve because of the sufferings of others and we can communicate our grief to God and also our hope that they will receive the help they need. But that communication is not prayer.
• Scripturally understood, prayer for others means to receive from God the support we need in order to be the support they need.
• Belief that God withholds his Provisions waiting to be prevailed upon by the pleading and begging of desperate people in behalf of themselves or even of compassionate people in behalf of others mocks his Promises to meet the redemptive needs of every person who “abides in him” (“delights in him”) so that
• their desires are transformed by the Holy Spirit to be made holy and conformed to his Will/Redemptive Plan for their lives, (so that)
• every redemptive need they have is met according to Psalm 37:4, John 15:4-7, Romans 8:26-27, and 2 Corinthians 3:6, (and so that)
• they are made useful to God as vessels for redemptive service to others in need.

Item 3: Revealed: Aspiring actors traded favors for Hollywood fame and fortune

Consider:

• God calls us to holiness (usefulness / competence in redemptive service to hurting people) (Philippians 3:14).
• The wages paid by the world for our services is death. The outcome of offering ourselves to God as vessels for his use in redemptive service to others is health and happiness (Romans 6:19-23).

Item 4: Famous Actor/Entertainer: “Actors are liars. When I leave the stage, I return to being me.”

Consider:

• The word “hypocrite” comes from the Ancient Greek hupokritḗs meaning “actor.”
• Acting to help illustrate a true story in a theater is not lying, but taking on a false persona to misrepresent reality in Hollywood movies is deception. 
• God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2), is Truth, and the Life he produces in us is Truth.
• Christ enables ministers to be godly both in and out of the pulpit.

Item 5: Replacing Need for Dependency on God: The Reported Fantasy Goal of Perfected Artificial Intelligence

Consider:

• God has always given man the opportunity to succeed on his own, but independence from God’s Redemptive Plan has never resulted in health and happiness.

Item 6: Report: Estimate 72,000 centenarians lives in the U.S.

Consider:

• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Celebrating Contentment and Health I won’t tell how old I am, but can report that last year I was a year younger than I am now, and also that I am contented and, by all reports, healthy.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17J14

Week 40

Item 1: Investigators continue search for motives in Vegas massacre

Consider:

• Satanic influence is at the root of all evil behavior, wherever and however it manifests.

Item 2: Report: Americans not willing to give up freedom to “go and do” whatever they want

Consider:

• Hurting people are not willing to give up their addictions to having fun (behavior to help manage the pain of their unhappiness).
• God calls us to surrender to his Redemptive Plan to make choices that support health.
• The freedom God gives is not for doing wrong but for making wise choices.

Item 3: Religious Leaders call for love and tolerance

Consider:

• The world’s understanding of
• love is gentleness and kindness to everyone and
• tolerance is to overlook their bad behavior.
• But the Scriptural meaning of
• God’s Love is his support for making wise choices and
• tolerance is patience allowing time to for healing and growth.

Item 4: 22,000 concertgoers pray “God Bless America” before massacre

Consider:

• God’s Blessings do not come upon us because we “pray” (in the sense of “asking”), but because we receive his Provisions of Grace which result in good outcomes (Romans 5:17).
• Otherwise, “blessings” came upon America in Vegas disguised as judgment / death.

Item 5: Conservatives lament public’s loss of self-reliance, increasing dependence on government for personal protection  

Consider:

• Our personal safety is
• least secured by government,
• better secured by private gun ownership, and
• best secured by being where we need to be, doing what we need to do, when we need to do it according to God’s Redemptive Plan for our lives.

Item 6: Report: Pet ownership sharply rises  

Consider:

• … as personal brokenness and unhappiness sharply increases.

Item 7: Report: Married couples less happy than ever

Consider:

• Romance, children, possessions, fantasy lifestyles, entertainment/ recreation, pets, drugs, and alcohol are false hopes for enduring health and happiness.
• Union with Christ and daily experience of his Life during quiet-time worship never disappoint.

Observed: Restaurant customers enjoy observing energetic bantering among wait and kitchen staff 

Consider:

• Bantering may sometimes be a cover for underlying anger, but it can also be the healthy communication of happy people.
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Bantering, Having Fun Picking on People We Melancholies sometimes think too deeply, get tense, and seek relief through humor, even at someone else’s expense. We may also be trying to be a hit. Or it may be because we are happy! Whichever, on the way out of the mall this week, I asked the little lady at the check out if she had a layaway plan for my $3 purchase. She laughed and said she didn’t. I ask if that meant she would need the full payment today. She said she did. “Even if I promise to come back tomorrow?” I asked. Her laughter encouraged my nonsense. I said I was having trouble remembering where I parked and asked if she remembered which door I came in. She laughed again and said I might be there all night.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17J07

Week 39

Item 1: Parents refuse medical treatment to dying child, say “God makes no mistakes”

Consider:

• God makes no mistakes but people do when they refuse his Provisions which support our health.
• “When you come to me with your needs, receive my Provisions of Grace; do not reject them. The person who rejects my Provisions … should not think he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7 GIP).

Item 2: Shooter kills one, wounds 7 in Tennessee during Sunday morning church service

Related: Neon church sign invites public to “Come as you are!”

Consider:

• Does “come as you are” include infectious diseases, lice, or strong body odor? How about with hatred and murderous intentions?
• God calls the Church to
• experience Christ in order to
• manifest his Likeness, first at home and then into the community, and to
• bring new converts to the private meetings of the church for support for learning how to experience Christ.
• “Open door” / “Come as you are” churches
• are attendance and money oriented and
• miss God’s Plan.

Item 3: NFL Players Demonstrate During Anthem to Protest Injustice

Consider:

• A broken world is filled with the deep pain of injustices and unfairness.
• But the PROBLEM is not the presence of adverse people and circumstances which cause us PAIN, but the absence of supports (in Creation, Community, and especially Christ) that sustain us regardless of the adversity.
• God has not promised to save us from the storm but to support us thru the storm (Psalm 91).

Item 4: Customer attacks waiter because of slow service

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes Taking Care What We Say To Hurting People Yesterday Carole and I ate at a favorite restaurant that uses a spray and fresh paper towels to disinfect tables and seats after each customer. Otherwise, we may not know what we are sitting in. That may be the reason I dreamed last night that an emotionally fragile man and woman departing a restaurant were offended to see their table being disinfected.

While stopped at an intersection a few days ago, a panhandler was offended by the driver ahead of me. When the car pulled away, the panhandler chased it about two blocks to the next traffic light, slammed his fist on the car window, cursed the driver, poured bottled water on the glass, and invited the driver (an old man) to get out and fight. I wanted to put my finger over my lips to politely signal “shhh” at the enraged panhandler, but Carole was in the car, so I thought better of it.

Recently I heard loud music in the distance while running in a community. It got louder as I approached a house with large speakers booming from an open garage. I put my fingers in my ears and looked toward a man washing his car in the driveway. He hollered to ask me if I had a problem with the music. I nodded my head yes. He invited me to come up into his yard and do something about it. On this day I smiled and kept running.

Not too long ago in a buffet restaurant, a man was talking way to loud. I looked at him, smiled, and put my fingers in my ears. He thought I was funny, laughed real big, apologized, and engaged in some friendly talk with me - demonstrating that healthy people engage with each other differently than broken people.   

I dreamed recently that I visited a home of a church member. When he put a cigarette in his mouth, I told him I loved him and loved also his wife and children, and that smoking cigarettes would kill him. He looked at me, put out his cigarette, gave me a strong hug, and walked out. I woke up thinking about “speaking the Truth in Love” (Ephesians 4:15).

Item 5: Former First Lady: “Pets bring joy and healing to wounded vets!”

Consider:

• Pets can support healing through helping to relieve emotional pain.
• But JOY is a fruit of the Seed (Christ) sown into us by the Holy Spirit during our quiet-time to read the Scripture (Galatians 5:22).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17I30

Week 38

Item 1: Interest in NFL plummeting

Consider:

• Our surpassing experience of “Heaven on Earth” leaves little interest remaining for entertainment and other matters which have no eternal value.

Item 2: Church Growth group introduces plan to increase attendance

Consider:

• Church attendance is a poor substitute for experiencing Christ - the same as gathering at a well is for drinking water.

Item 3: Black and white graphics making a comeback

Consider:

• The “old” returns to become the “new” because of the boredom / over stimulation / tolerance factor.
• Our enjoyment of Christ never gets old but always increases, the same as it will for eternity in Heaven

Item 4: New studies confirm: Adequate sleep for maximal health, once over-rated, now considered critical

Consider:

• Heroic, non-stop performance to achieve wealth and status sabotages our immune system, destroys health and happiness.
• Sleep is a Grace Provision from God to support our health (Psalm 127:2).
• Christ calls us to
• come and receive,
• stop / wait / take time for renewal, and
• live and serve out of the strength he provides (Matthew 11:28-30).

Item 5: “Positive Thinking” preacher says “faith in self makes anything possible!”

Consider:

• Jesus said, “Without remaining connected to me, nothing is possible (John 15:4-5).

Item 6: Prophecy teacher predicts apocalyptic event on September 23

Consider:

1) The Church Age (the Age of Grace) in which we now live

• is the sixth of seven Ages (or Dispensations) during which God relates to mankind in different ways,
• began at Pentecost (50 days after the Resurrection of Christ),
• will end with the Rapture of the Church (to be with Christ “in the air” - somewhere in the “heavenly realms” - for a celebration and awards ceremony),
• will be followed by

1. a seven-year period of “Tribulation” (on Earth to be experienced by the unsaved who are left behind at the Rapture),
2. Christ’s Return to Earth (the Second Coming) for the beginning of
3. the Kingdom Age (Millennium) during which Christ will reign as King over the Earth for a thousand years,
4. the renewal of the heavens and the Earth (so that Heaven will occupy the universe), 
5. the end of time, and
6. the beginning of eternity. 

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Dreaming About Heaven Living in a Mansion on a Hill During a recent post exercise nap, I had a short dream that I lived in a mansion on a hill and it was filling up with happy people coming in. I was just beginning to lead the excited gathering in singing “Thank You Lord for Saving My Soul” but I woke up when a man entered to discover he no longer needed his wheel chair.

“In Heaven there are many mansions which God has prepared for us” (John 14:1).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17I23

Week 37

Item 1: Report: Women prefer strong men

Consider:

• Strong men are not the same as tough-acting men.
• The best of men support their wives for making wise choices for health, beginning with taking time each day to experience God’s Provision of Christ.

Item 2: Football coach fired for praying mid-field after game, fights to regain job

Consider:

• Whatever the benefit is of public “praying,” the Scriptural word “prayer” means “place of exchange” and is where we go during our quiet time to give up our wants in order to receive from God our needs, beginning with Christ (his Blood for our justification and his Life for our sanctification). 

Item 3: Church growth expert tells pastors to “just have fun”

Consider:

• “Have fun!” is good advice for athletes, entertainers, and other performers, even business people.
• But ministers have joy (not the same as fun) serving as a support Resource for meeting the redemptive needs of hurting people. 

Item 4: Popular teacher says God wrote the Bible so that everyone could understand it

Consider:

• The Bible can be translated so that we can understand what it says.
• But we can only understand what the Bible means as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us (1 Corinthians 2:14; John 16:13; 1 John 2:27) – which he promises to do during our quiet-time for Scripture reading and confession of need. 

Item 5: Church sign: “May God bless you!”

Consider:

• Churches don’t have power to pronounce God’s blessings on anyone.
• God’s blessings flow into our lives according to his Law of sowing and reaping when we receive his Provisions of Grace.

Related: Church has “Pet Blessing” Day

Consider:

• God’s purpose for the Church is for its members to be supported for learning how to experience Christ.
• Pets are blessed by the caregiving of their owners.

Related: Pet Advocate says “Humans just don’t know what animals go through!”

Consider:

• Neither do animals!
• Unlike a brick, animals have instinct, brains, and bio neurological senses, but they don’t comprehend what they are “going through” or even who they are. (For example, a dog doesn’t know it’s a dog.)

Related: Observed: Frustrated dog owner tells distracted dog to look where the ball is being thrown

Consider:

• Dogs can learn to recognize and respond to sounds but do not understand the definition of words like look, love, or good dog.

Related: Report: No longer just TO pets, greeting cards FROM pets becoming profitable business

Consider:

• Pets cannot read or send a birthday, valentine, or Christmas card and are none the healthier or happier for “sending or receiving” one.
• Money spent on the redemptive needs of hurting people has eternal value.

Item 6:  Parent abandons child in supermarket

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Losing sleep dreaming about leaving church members high and wet I dreamed last night that a former co-pastor and I were flying a plane filled with church members. At some point we decided we needed to take care of some business on the ground, so we parachuted out of the plane. When our business was done, it occurred to us that the plane was flying out over the ocean without a pilot. The rest of the night I tossed and turned in and out of my sleep worrying about how I could get back to the plane before it crashed.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17I16

Week 36

Item 1: Popular tv host says he’s an atheist

Consider:

• The God rejected by atheists is not the God of Ephesians 2:4-5: “But because of his great love (unconditional value) for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead (separated from him in darkness).”
• If the concept of God rejected by atheists was the only concept to be considered, I would be an atheist also.

Item 2: Tv actor-turned-evangelist says God sends hurricane to “humble, awe, call to repentance.”

Consider:

• God does not send hurricanes but allows them consistent with the course of nature in a broken world.
• Hurricanes did not exist in the Garden of Eden before Adam’s disobedience (resulting in creation being subject to brokenness and suffering – Romans 8:19-23).
• Neither will we experience hurricanes in Heaven.
• Although God has power to alter adverse events, he allows them for the purpose of giving us opportunity to
• confess our brokenness, weakness, and need for him,
• turn to him,
• receive his Provisions of Grace, and
• experience his faithfulness to sustain us.

Item 3: New website seeks partners to pray for God’s help

Consider:

• Every person on earth can pray to God (as commonly defined – that is, to plead and beg), but it will not move him to do anything he is not already doing.
• We do not experience from God what we “ask” for but what we take time to receive from him, beginning with Christ (his Blood/death and Resurrected Life).
• The Life of Christ manifesting in and through us into the world is Light and Salt against which evil cannot prevail (John 1:4-5).

Item 4: Group of hurricane rescuers: “We’re having fun!”

Consider:

• We experience JOY in our redemptive service to others – the same as Christ did (Hebrews 12:2) and also the Apostle Paul (1 Thessalonians 2:19; Philippians 4:1).
• But service to help others in order to perform, meet addiction needs to be a hero, feel good about self, win God’s favor, or to have fun, will in time become boring and result in personal brokenness.

Item 5: New computer program recognizes facial features to identify sexual orientation

Consider:

• God does not look on man’s outward appearance but on the state of his spirit, mind, emotions, and will).
• Nothing about any person can prevail against his or her experience to be filled with the Life of Christ.

Item 6: Group announces national gathering of church leaders to hype new growth and fund-raising methods

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Doing Church the Old-Fashioned Way Before assisting me, the receptionist said into the phone, “Bye, I’ll see you at church tonight!” I asked if she were one of those “mid-week go to church” persons. She said she was and asked about me. I said I wasn’t, that I pastored a grace renewal church which follows the model of the first century church in the book of Acts - that is, we meet at least five and six days a week, sometimes twice a day, with different groups of usually two and three members (according to Matthew 18:20) in order to provide support for learning how to make wise choices for health, especially to experience Christ to a fuller measure each day. I told her she would need to make an appointment. She looked interested, but confused.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17I09

Week 35

Item 1: Liberal activist discourages donations to Harvey victims because some of them might have voted for Trump

Consider:

• God’s Provisions flow fully, faithfully, and freely from him to meet the physical, psychological, and spiritual health needs of every person who receives them.

Related: Opposing groups come together to help hurricane victims

Consider:

• Our awareness of the physical suffering of a community brings out the best in us to help others without consideration of their political or religious views.
• Also, the sensitivity of Christ within us, that every person suffers unmet needs, supports us for offering redemptive ministry to them instead of condemning them.

Item 2: Woman takes in 16 during hurricane flooding  

Related: Heroic sacrifices to help hurricane victims applauded

Consider:

• Our service to help others can be motivated by
• the suffering of others (their need to be helped), but also by
• our need to feel useful.
• But it is foolish for us to save people we don’t know if it puts at risk the needs of our wives and children for a husband and father.
• The need to serve or to be a hero is already being met by husbands and parents who are faithful to support the health needs of their wives and children.
• The support needs of families are neglected and missed by husbands and parents who chase after their unmet needs to feel valuable, especially to win favor from God.

Item 3: Hurricane Harvey rescuers on mission to rescue pets  

Related: Woman says her pets are her children, would refuse rescue without them

Consider:

• Care and expense to rescue pets is appreciated. But a level of passion for pets that exceeds matters that are eternal is heartbreaking.

Item 4: Groups fixated on destroying Trump presidency

Consider:

• Man’s sinful nature, also religious nature, is hostile to causes that threaten his power, addiction needs, and money flow.
• Jesus said his sheep will hear his voice and will open the door of their lives to him (John 10:3-5).

Item 5: 16-year-old running for Kansas governor

Consider:

• It is not God’s Plan for children to lead adults.
• Isaiah 11:6 (“…a child shall lead them”) means that, during the Kingdom Age, children will lead the wolf, leopard, and lion around without fear of harm.
• Leaders in the Church are called “elders.”
• According to scientists, the part of the brain that supports understanding the connection between choices and consequences is not fully developed until age 25.
• Growth in grace (“to be filled to the measure of the fullness of God” – Ephesians 3:19; 4:13) in order to experience Christ (the Wisdom of God – 1 Corinthians 1:30) for support to make wise choices is a life-long journey.
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: When East was West and North was South: Sending Warm Thoughts to Strangers (or My Confused Years as a College Youth) After graduation from high school in Virginia many years ago, I boarded a Greyhound bus and headed west to Arlington, Texas for college. Early in the morning hours of the next day while I slept, the bus bypassed Dallas and Arlington and continued on west. I woke up when we stopped in Fort Worth. After a brief stopover, the bus then headed back east toward Dallas to drop me off at Arlington. Only in my mind, we were still traveling west. It never occurred to me that the bus had doubled back east after arriving first in Fort Worth. So for those years in Texas, I assumed Arlington and Dallas were west of Fort Worth. This meant on those lonely nights when I went out to look up at the stars and think about home that I was not waving and throwing kisses at family and friends back east, but to the folks out in California. I finally got east and west cleared up in my mind, but not north and south really until on the occasion of my first visit back to the college in Arlington ten or so years later. Flying into Dallas, I knew to drive west, not east, to Arlington, but was not prepared to find the college on the wrong side of the road. 

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17I02

Week 34

Item 1: Hurricane Harvey threatens water safety

Consider:

• Life and health are impossible without sufficient intake of water.
• So is holiness without taking time each day for drinking the Water of Life (worship).

Item 2: Man drives 15 hours to view solar eclipse for two and a half minutes

Consider:

• Man gets out of bed, walks to his quiet place to experience the Light of Christ in his heart.

Item 3: Science discovers the sun is a conduit for light, not its source

Consider:

• God is Light (1 John 1:5).
• Light was in Jesus and he was the Life of men (John 1:4).
• The entrance of God into our lives produces Light (Psalm 119:130).
• John the Baptist experienced the Light and manifested it into the world so that others could see and receive it and be saved (John 1:6-9).
• The Apostle Paul’s most earnest desire was to be a beacon light in a dark world (Philippians 1:20).

Item 4: World religion says women make God happy by serving the needs of their husbands

Consider:

• Wives are not responsible for the health and happiness needs of their husbands, but to care for their homes in order to meet the needs of their children.
• Wives are the glory (reflection) of their husband’s care as the Church is the glory (reflection) of Christ’s care and as Christ is the glory (reflection) of his Father’s care (1 Corinthians 11:7).
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Carole Insists She Wouldn't Be Not Fair For Us Carole said she would be back later. I asked her if she was slipping out for nefarious reasons. She said no, that she was definitely not having an affair. I said good because that would be not fair for us.

Item 5: Report: Pet owners willing to pay as much for pet care as for personal care – and more

Consider:

• We make needed investments in possessions that will perish, but we make our best investments in lives that will exist for eternity.
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: A Dog Gone Way to Make Life Better I dreamed last night I was visiting a neighbor. He excused himself for a moment leaving me with his little dog. But the little dog irritated me. When a sales person came by, he said he loved the little dog and wished he could have it. I told him if he wanted to he could take it. So that took care of that.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H26

Week 33

Racism

Consider:

• Racism is the belief that one race is superior to another.
• God created one race – the human race.
• We don’t know man’s original skin color.
• Different skin color and facial features came later over a long period of time after man at the Tower of Babel was dispersed by God throughout the world.
• No race, person, or gender is valued by God more than another.
• But that does NOT mean
• each of us does not have specific strengths and features which are valuable to society or to God in different ways, or that
• we cannot be more comfortable with, or have our needs met by, one person more than another, or that
• we cannot be nationalists (America first) - the same as we can give our children first priority for our care without believing they are valued by God or by us more than other children (although they may indeed be more valuable in some needed ways).

The Confederacy

Consider:

• The cause for which the Confederate states fought to secede from the Union was in order to protect their Constitutional right to self-govern. It was not, in and of itself, in order to own slaves.
• Slavery was not right, but it was a Constitutionally protected State’s Right.

Considering Non-Solutions to Racial Tension

• Removing Confederate Symbols
• Removing Confederate Symbols will not reduce racial tension.
• That’s because pain is not the result of the presence of adverse people or adverse circumstances in our lives, but of the absence of mental, emotional, and spiritual health to support us regardless of the adversity. 

• Government Intervention
• President Lincoln correctly believed that the South’s secession from the Union would weaken America economically and militarily.
• But military intervention (the Civil War) was not the solution: The price was 620,000 lives lost; yet, racial tension has continued to exist and intensify.
• Good men would likely have eventually led the newly-formed Confederate Nation to end slavery.
• (The 1964 Civil Rights Act also did not reduce racial tensions.) 

• Violence
• Violence can terminate violence or it can promote it.
• But it cannot heal the brokenness of unmet support needs (not the same as addiction needs). 

• The Religious Notion that “every person is equally valuable to God”
• We are not all equally valuable to God; instead, we are all born equally worthless to God (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:10-12) and become valuable to him for redemptive service to others only as Christ transforms us into his Likeness (John 15:1-8).
• But we are equally loved (agape: unconditionally valued) by him.
• A sense of feeling valuable does not support health and happiness, but instead, drives religious performance to please God which results in increased disappointment, tensions, anger, and violence.

Considering the Grace Solution to Racial Tension

• Leadership support in the home and Church for
• growing in confidence (produced in us by the Holy Spirit during our quiet-time worship to experience Christ) that God values us unconditionally (even if we are not valuable to him) and for
• learning how to experience Christ to a fuller measure each day.
• Education (Free course studies at Hillsdale College and Prager University)
• Protest at the Ballot Box (Report: Most rioters don’t vote.)
• “But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize (holiness) to which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

 DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H19

Week 32

Item 1: Historic symbols removed from government sites to accommodate sensitivities

Related: California church won’t mention Trump’s name, says it triggers negative reaction

Consider:

• The best of society does not celebrate man’s past inhumanity to man.
• But unmet needs during formative years are leaving Millennials with mental and emotional brokenness and little tolerance for reality.

Item 2: President’s point based immigration policy said not compassionate

Consider:

• Government has the responsibility to permit or restrict who visits or takes up residence in our nation based on their willingness to assimilate, grow, contribute, and to be supported by the leadership for doing so (merit points) – this in the same way as parents and pastors have the responsibility to permit or restrict who visits or takes up residence in our homes and churches.
• “Everyone welcome!” and “Come as you are!” modern day churches miss the Scriptural model set by the first century Church in the Book of Acts. Whatever their accomplishments, God’s Redemptive Plan will be missed.

Item 3: Pacifist religious groups tell government leaders to trust God in face of nuclear threats

Consider:

• God calls the Body of Christ (the Church) to trust him for going to Heaven (justification), living a godly life, and competence in Redemptive service to others (sanctification).
• But he calls governments to carry the sword for our protection from evil (Romans 13:4).

Item 4: Report: North Korean dictator worshiped as deity

Consider:

• The best of leaders, including parents, husbands, pastors, and government leaders, confess their brokenness and reliance upon the God of the Bible.

Item 5: Congress takes summer break, returns home to learn will of voters 

Consider:

• Establishment politicians say and do whatever is necessary to get votes in order to stay in power.
• Polling the will of voters is a distortion of leadership.
• Government needs statesmen – that is, leaders who
• have core convictions and values,
• identify those convictions and values to citizens, and
• ask for the vote of those who agree, giving them a mandate for their work in Congress.

Item 6: Ape who learned sign language dies

Consider:

• Animals have biological and emotional needs, senses, memory, and also instinct. But they can’t read or learn a language.
• That means, pets hear sounds and tones, and may respond to pats and hugs and rewards, but they don’t comprehend the dictionary meaning of words, including “I love you!” or “Stay out of the road!”
• From donloyw’s Journey Notes: My wife said that when growing up, their family dog Zeb got run over in the road, and that her dad shook a tobacco stick at the dead dog and said, “I told you this would happen if you didn’t stay out of the road!”
• Pets don’t have eternal life, so will cease to exist when they die. Our time is better invested in communicating the Gospel message to unsaved and hurting people who will exist somewhere in eternity, in Heaven or Hell, beyond their lives here on Earth.

Item 7: World’s Oldest Man Dies in Israel, Aged 113

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Living Long Enough to be 100 if I Don't Die My wife assured me that if I lived long enough I could live to be 100. Especially if I do what my friend did: He skipped his 69^th birthday. He thought it was an achievement to be 70, but not wanting to chance he would live that long, he decided to go ahead and celebrate it a year early. He could be 100 in a few more years. That is, unless he dies. I remember a minister friend forewarning his church that if they lived long enough they were going to die.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H12

Week 31

Item 1: Church leader explains: “Praise and Worship” is singing to an audience of One

Consider:

• God has no need to be sung to.
• “Worship” means to open the door of our hearts to receive/experience Christ per Revelation 3:20.
• “Praise” means to 1) acknowledge God’s Provisions and 2) commend them to others.

Item 2: Flying car company announces plans to test pilotless air taxi

Consider:

• More risky than a vehicle without a pilot is a home or church without leadership.
• “…they fainted, and were scatter abroad, as sheep (children, wives, and church members) having no shepherd (servant leadership).” – Matthew 9:36

Item 3: Observed: Rule-barking parents practice rule keeping in public, promise to get their misbehaving children out more often

Consider:

• Actually, instead of being taken out more often, misbehaving children need to be kept home more to be trained before allowed out.
• The happiest, most secure children have confidence someone cares enough about them to take time at home to provide their information, affection, and structure needs before having expectations for their behavior in public.

Item 4: Millennial men seek to redefine masculinity, hope to appeal more to women 

Consider:

• The best of women are not interested in girlie men.
• The best of men invest first in their own health needs and then in the health and happiness needs of their wives and family.

Item 5: Trump fires unproductive staff members

Consider:

• Organizational leadership (in government and business) demands productivity.
• Organic leadership (in the home and Church) invests to meet support needs.

Item 6: White House Firebrand Flames Out in Eleven Days

Consider:

• Attempting to be a hero is a quick route to becoming a zero.

Item 7: Aging Congresswoman commits to impeach Trump, and then, Vice President “Putin”

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: AKA Ron and Shirley My neighbor spoke to me when she walked past our house recently. “Hello!” I said, but I called her by the wrong name. I was embarrassed and quickly apologized. Then I told her that while Carole and I were walking recently, we came upon a group led by favorite fellow-walker who came to know us as D and C to help her remember our names, but that, on this occasion, she said to her group, “These are my old walking buddies, Ron and Shirley!”

When we first moved to our neighborhood, an elderly neighbor came over to introduce himself. I said we are Don and Carole Whisnant. He said he had a hard time remembering names. I told him to remember D and C. He said that wouldn’t help. Recently he stopped by to chat and to say that we might soon be family because his granddaughter was getting married to a Stedman. “But my name is Whisnant,” I said. “Oh!” he said, “Well then that won’t work will it?”

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H05

Week 30

Item 1: White House: Vulgarity is a “New Yorker thing”

Consider:

• Seasoned speech flows from a heart made holy by God (Colossians 4:6).
• “… anything more comes from evil” (Matthew 5:37).

Item 2: Report: Liberals tip less money than Conservatives

Consider:

• Liberals provide handouts to needy people, not because they value them, but to keep them broken and dependent on their services – while at the same time, resenting (hating) them.
• The heart of Christ in us supports us for investing in hurting people in order to help set them free from their bondage and dependence.
• “When Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scatter abroad, as sheep (children, wives, and church members) having no shepherd (servant leadership).” – Mathew 9:36

Item 3: Aggressive Masculinity is Misconduct says University

Consider:

• “Quit you like men” (1 Corinthians 16:13 KJV) means “Conduct yourself in a specific way” – that is, “act like a man.”
• Masculinity abides quietly in the heart, asserts itself only to provide, serve, and protect.
• Grace leadership does not impose but informs, encourages, and invests in order to win agreement.
• Boys and girls grow to identify with the parent of the same sex and to be romantically attracted to the opposite sex.
• At the root of some homosexuality is confusion in childhood which parent is the man and which is the woman.

Item 4: Study: Americans spend 13 hours a week escaping reality

Consider:

• The more we experience Heaven on Earth, the more we embrace living here.

Item 5: Study: Loud noise disrupts heartbeat, triggers disease

Related: Study finds sleeping less than 7 hours at night contributes to obesity, heart disease

Consider:

• God calls us to rest, peace, and quiet.
• His Provisions, including sleep, support contentment, peace, and a quiet life.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:11; Romans 12:18; Hebrews 12:14; Psalm 127:2; Matthew 11:28-30.

Item 6: Study: Alzheimer impairs ability to recall memories, but does not destroy them

Consider:

• In eternity, the unsaved will recall the opportunities they rejected to receive Christ (Luke 16:25).

Item 7: Studies Show Blocking Brain Inflammation Halts Memory Loss

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Forgetting Where to Put What, When, and Why! I supplement with lots of antioxidants, so will be disappointed if my mind fails. My long-term memory seems to be okay - enough to quote a growing number of Scripture, about 300 verses. But I may have some short-term memory issues. For the first time several months ago I pulled away from a gas pump without removing the nozzle. I have not worried too much about that incident until yesterday when Carole stopped me from walking out of Burger King carrying my food tray.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G29

Week 29

Item 1: Male NYT writer says women on street don’t step out of his way

Consider:

• The best of women give the best of men an opportunity to support them.

Item 2: Report: Trump staff bickering

Consider:

• Good leadership wins support, welcomes and considers opposing views.
• Broken people bicker; healthy relationships debate.

Item 3: Report: Adversity aimed at wearing down Trump administration, stopping agenda

Consider:

• “The Apostles rejoiced to be considered worthy to suffer adversity.” – Acts 5:41
• God makes “bold and stouthearted” those he uses (Psalm 138:3).
• “No weapon formed against you will prosper.” - Isaiah 54:17
• We serve with the strength God provides (1 Peter 4:11), go in the strength of the Lord (Psalm 71:16).

Item 4: Ad makers learn Millennials have 5-6 second attention span

Consider:

• The choices we make today to quick fix the pain of our unmet needs have a tolerance factor, like a drug, so will need to be quicker and more powerful tomorrow.
• Our new birth is a one-time, quick-fix event the moment the Holy Spirit places (immerses) us into spiritual union with Christ (when we trust the Blood of Christ as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against the human race because of Adam’s transgression - Romans 5:12-19; 6:3-4).
• But our experience of Christ for healing from our brokenness (psychological health) is an extended, long-term process.
• “If we have expectations for healing from our brokenness (sanctification), we WAIT for it patiently” (Romans 8:25).
• “I wait for the Lord, my soul (mind, emotions, and will) waits, and in his Word (Provisions) I put my hope” (Psalm 138:5).
• The Bible calls us to “wait” more than it calls us to “go.”
• Any device or behavior that short-circuits our ability to wait conflicts with God’s support for our health and happiness.  

Item 5: Famous tv evangelist says he was nearly killed by Satanic attack

Related: Minister says his computer was hacked by Satan

Consider:

• Brokenness, injury, and loss are the result of our wrong choices.
• Satan hates and opposes God’s work in the world, but he has no power against the vessels God is using in his redemptive service to others (Psalm 91).
• This means, we can trust that God cares for and protects every tool he uses in his service to others, including our minds and bodies, but also our vehicles, property, and equipment (mechanical and electronic).

Item 6: Rasmussen Poll: Unmarried adults said to be the happiest

Consider:

• This finding is consistent with GracePoint’s suspicion that most marriages are in divorce status – that is, the issues that exist in failed marriages are present in 90 percent of all marriages.
• Unhappiness in the home is always the result of unmet needs – needs God has provided for through Christ (living his life in and through the leadership in the home).

Related: Rasmussen Poll: First 40 years said to be the best, life after 65 said to be the unhappiest

Consider:

• Christ living his Life in and through us makes every year a little more like Heaven.

Item 7: Man ends up lost in wilderness, says map was wrong

Consider:

• The performance-laden message (“go and give”) which church members hear on Sunday leaves them in bondage to their brokenness.
• Truth (“come and receive”) sets us free (John 8:32).
• Jesus said to a group of broken people (Matthew 11:28-30), “Give up your performance, come to me, and I will give you rest (recover you).”

Item 8: Confused politician calls Trump “Bush” for fifth time

Consider:

From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Sanctifying the Small Intestine Once in a presentation on health I repeatedly called our small intestine the New Testament.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G22

Week 28

Item 1: Man fights wife, says she fights him like liberals fight Trump, so he fights back

Consider:

• The dynamics of leadership in government (organizational imposition of rules) are not the same as in the home (organic investment in redemptive needs).

Item 2: Catholic women pledge as lifelong “Brides of Christ”

Consider:

• We can offer ourselves to God as vessels for his use in redemptive service to others.
• But we become members of the Body of Christ (as his Bride) when he immerses (baptizes) us into spiritual union with Christ – which he does the moment we trust (receive) his Provision of Christ’s Blood as the only payment he will accept to satisfy his judgment against us (because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden).
• Romans 6:3-4; Ephesians 5:22-33

Item 3: Religious group “lays hands” on President, “prays” for God’s blessings

Consider:

• The “Laying on of Hands” may have power to comfort and encourage, but has no power to transfer God’s blessings (healing or enablement for service) on anyone.
• We pray for our leaders by being renewed in God’s support (during our quiet time worship) for being a Light in a dark world in order to participate with them in their service to others (2 Corinthians 1:11).

Item 4: Government limitation on immigration challenged by lower court judge

Consider:

• We invite into our nation, the same as into our homes and lives, only those who
• have ability to meet our redemptive needs in order to make us better or
• desire to be supported by us for meeting their redemptive needs.
• Those who attempt to enter into our lives in any other way are “thieves and robbers who come to steal and destroy” (John 10:10).

 Item 5: U.S. House to review dress decorum

Consider:

• Our dress at home, church, work, school, and in public reflects the value we give to our resources, including God, and those we serve.
• “Come as you are” (dressing down) at meetings of the Church by ministers and parishioners is a values issue.

Item 6: Scientists plan to make better humans through biohacking

Consider:

• Scientists may have some ability to biohack solutions to improve our longevity, but
• God has made plans to make us better wholistically through Christ –
• his Blood (death on the cross) for us in order to reconcile us to him, and
• his Resurrected Life living in us in order to heal our brokenness (Romans 5:10).

Item 7: Report: Frequency and speed of travel continue to increase, fulfilling Bible prophecy for end of the Age

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Finding Myself a Misfit for the Modern World All the modern day conveniences have not added to my contentment. There is no place I’d rather be than home, no need to go anywhere I can’t walk to, and no need to be there faster than a horse can take me.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G15

Week 27

Item 1: Joey does it again: Eats 72 hotdogs in 10 minutes to win contest, suffers outcome

Consider:

• Risk takers may struggle with the boredom of unmet validation needs.
• Taking time each day for proper diet and exercise will have more long-term benefits for good health.
• “God’s Provisions are received without regrets” is included in the meaning of Romans 11:29.

Item 2: Canadian parent fights to block gender ID from baby’s birth certificate, wants baby to decide

Consider:

• God has already decided: “When he created Mankind, he created them male and female and blessed them” (Genesis 5:2).
• God’s role for parents is to support their children for understanding and receiving God’s Plan for their lives.

Item 3: Atheist group demands Wisconsin town remove church welcome signs

Consider:

• God’s calling to the Church is for members to win their family, friends, and neighbors to Christ, and then bring them to the private church meetings for learning how to read the Bible in order to hear God and experience Christ, in order to manifest his Likeness into the community.
• God’s Plan is always best. “Everyone Welcome” churches may be exposing themselves to unwanted problems, even danger.

Item 4: Founder Zuckerburg says Facebook is ‘the new Church,’ takes on role to give its 2 billion members sense of community 

Consider:

• God’s purpose for the Church is to support members for learning how to experience Christ.
• Facebook (Me, Me, and more Me) feeds codependency needs.
• (Codependency: Broken people using each other to help relieve the pain of their unmet redemptive needs.)

Item 5: Pundit: “Democrats resist policies removing financial assistance to able-bodied Americans”

Related: Contemporary Church Promotes Mega Growth to Gain Increased Donor Base

Consider:

• The first century churches were small groups meeting in homes.
• We are alert to political parties, also charities including churches, who need people to remain broken and dependent in order to sustain their attendance (and funding).
• God’s Redemptive Plan for the Church promotes healing and recovery - the same as for a home: It is not to be inflated with broken members, but to support its members to be increased in health in order to begin their own home or church.

Item 6: Church changes name to “Grace Church” to promote need for being nice to others

Consider:

• The Bible word “grace” means “God’s Provision of Christ to support our reconciliation to him and recovery from brokenness.”
• Sometimes “grace” does not at first feel nice or taste good.

Item 7: Study: Elders losing influence with younger generations.

Consider: From donloyw’s Journey Notes: Missing Out Knowing Everything When I Was Born I learn new information almost every day. Most of the helpful information I know now I learned after I was 40. (Either I have been really dumb or I have become extraordinarily smart!) But I have a friend who did better than I. He says he knew everything when he was a teenager, and that he had looked forward to being a father so that he could teach his son. But he said he missed out on that because, when his son was born, he already knew everything.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G08

Week 26

Item 1: Parenting Expert Encourages Supporting Children for making their own Career Choices

Consider:

• To the other extreme, world religions bind children to vocations chosen for them by their parents.
• But God’s purpose/role/calling for parents in the home is to support their children for making choices that establish them in health, beginning with experiencing Christ - who supports them for seeking and living out his Redemptive Plan (Will) for their lives.

Item 2: Child dies from beating, parents charged

Consider:

• God did not send his Son (or any of his Provisions/Resources, including parents) into the world to pound on children, but to invest in their redemptive needs so that they may be saved.
• John 3:17

Item 3: Bad behaving man dies from beating by irritated by-stander

Consider:

• God did not send his Son into the world to pound on broken people, but to invest in their redemptive needs so that they may be saved.
• John 3:17

Item 4: President reacts to verbal attacks

Consider:

• Christ enables us to respond to non-violent attackers (to minister to their brokenness) instead of to react to them (to pound on their behavior).  
• But the Scriptural guidelines for engagements in
• the Kingdom of God during the Church Age (revealed especially in the New Testament letters written to the churches) or
• the Millennial Reign or Kingdom of Heaven (taught by Christ especially in his Sermon on the Mount)

are not binding or always relevant for life and survival in

• the Kingdom of the World in which 1) we react to fight (or flee from) a violent person (the same as an aggressive animal) and 2) opponents in politics, war, and even sports pound on each other. 

Item 5: Report: Funding is Abundant to Provide Protection for Pets Suffering Domestic Abuse

Consider:

• Funding for the protection of animals has value only in this life.
• The investment God makes (through us) to call hurting people to experience him has eternal value (that is, it will continue to produce dividends throughout eternity).

Item 6: Ape’s Paintings to be Exhibited at Art Gallery

Consider:

• God once spoke through a donkey (Numbers 22:28).
• But in this Church Age, conviction of Truth comes by the Holy Spirit through the Scripture (Romans 10:17).

 DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G01

Week 25

Item 1: Church Leader Tells Pastors to “Preach Hard” Against Sin

Consider:

• Identifying and "preaching hard" against "sin" (judgment preaching) 
• promotes fear and pride based performance,
• does not help long-term (Romans 7:10),
• and misses the real need of the Church to be supported for learning how to experience Christ who sets us free from bondage to our sinful nature – which is at the core of our sinful behavior.

Item 2: Popular YouTube Videos: Sad tunes cause newborns to cry

Consider:

• Newborns can hear the sounds of music but do not understand the meaning of words.
• We are increased in Christlikeness (supported for making wise choices) by the power of Truth to renew our minds, not by the power of music to move our emotions.
• Silly notions about God have entered the contemporary “seeker friendly” Church through emotion-driven, doctrinally weak, feel-good “praise and worship” music.
• “The entrance of Truth gives light (life), dispels the darkness (brokenness).”
• Psalm 119:130; John 1:1-3

Item 3: Report criticizes over prescribing pharmaceutical drugs

Consider:

• Cause for alarm: When physicians ask what medications we take instead of what foods we eat or nutritional supplements we take.

Item 4: Conservatives mock Liberals’ efforts to ban guns, unhealthy diets, etc.

Consider:

• The availability of guns to hurting, angry people in a broken nation is a dangerous policy.
• The freedoms provided by our Constitution are intended for a nation of people who passionately embrace Judeo-Christian principles.
• It is God’s role for the home and Church, not government, to support us for making choices that help establish us in health.

Item 5: Report: Single mothers are going to jail in increasing numbers, leaving more children without needed attention; better government programs sought

Consider:

• Unmet support needs are at the root of broken homes and lives.
• Healing of the home begins, not with government programs, but with support in the Church for understanding God’s Redemptive Plan for meeting human needs, especially to experience Christ.

Item 6: Study: Holding hand to provide comfort reduces pain

Consider:

• God, in his Mercy, has provided multi-dimensional support for our healing – in Creation (aromas, sights, and sounds), Community (touch and other expressions of care), and especially Christ (our experience of his Life within our hearts).

Item 7: Report: Number One thing people want to do for vacation: Nothing!

Consider:

• Taking a break from a demanding job is helpful.
• Entertainment and recreation are a false hope, provide only superficial relief at best, and can disappoint (just like last time) – because of the “tolerance factor.”
• The renewal of our hearts (the soul), especially through extended quiet time to experience Christ, is powerful, deeply satisfying, and long-term.
• Romans 12:2; Ephesians 3:19; 3 John 1:2

Item 8: Medical Report: Broken hearts may never heal

Consider:

• The emotional strain of experiencing loss (including relationships, opportunities, finances, and possessions) physically damages our hearts and can take up to four months to heal (or may never fully recover).
• God’s Provisions establish us in wholistic health during our formative years, sustain us during our adult years, and recover us when we are broken.
• “We do not experience stress as others who have no experience of Christ” is included in the meaning of 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17F24

Week 24

Item 1: Report: DC shooter acted alone

Consider:

• Evil works through dark hearts.
• Attitudes and behaviors are rooted in influences from
• without (the world’s culture, Satan, man’s sinful nature) or from
• within (the Life of Christ flowing up like a fountain from within our born again spirit and sanctified heart - John 7:38).

Item 2: Report: Democrat candidates trend toward vulgar language to attract Millennial voters

Consider:

• We attract who we are.
• Godly hearts gravitate to godly resources. 

Item 3: Warning Signs Abound for Mega Earthquake Along San Andreas Fault

Consider:

• Signs also abound (wars, immorality, silly notions about God, unnatural affections, and addictions) that the end of this present age (the Age of Grace or Church Age), the Rapture of the Church, the 7-year Tribulation Period, and the Second Coming of Christ are upon us.

Item 4: Group says live animals have more rights than unborn humans

Consider:

• Human life begins at conception according to Scripture (Psalm 139:13-17; Jeremiah 1:5).
• Unborn babies who die go to Heaven and live forever.
• Animals die on earth and cease to exist – they have a body and a brain but they do not have a spirit or soul, so cannot be born again or sanctified by the Life of Christ.
• Animals can be domesticated so that they can live in a house, but not born again so that they can go to Heaven. 

Item 5: Man dies from plunge over Niagara Falls

Consider:

• Our experience of Christ supports us (meets our need for contentment) so that we don’t put our health at risk attempting to outrun our boredom.

Consider:

Item 6: Report: Happy people get 7 hours sleep

Consider:

• Sleep is a Gift of (Provision from) God (Psalm 127:2).
• Every gift of God supports life (James 1:17) when we receive it (John 3:16; Romans 5:17).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17F17

Week 23

Item 1: Popular pastor/author says God heals when we pray

Consider:

• Our healing is not “on hold” waiting for us to persuade God with pleading, fasting, or good behavior.
• God provided for our healing when he
• created the heavens and earth (atmosphere and soil),
• established the home and church to provide grace leadership, and
• provided Christ to die for us (to satisfy his judgment against the human race because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden).
• We experience healing when we receive God’s Provisions of Grace.
• The word “prayer” is a noun and means “place of exchange” where we exchange our ways (performance to go and give) for God’s ways (to come and receive).

Item 2: Observed: Hatred for Trump intensifies

Consider:

• Jesus warned that good would be hated – which means,
• Being hated is a leading evidence of being good - because
• Evil does not hate evil.

Item 3: Liberal groups press Fox News to refuse new contract to popular conservative host

Consider:

• God’s support for us is never withdrawn; our citizenship in Heaven will never be canceled.

Item 4: Anti-Trump group produces print of President’s “small” hands to prove he can’t be trusted.

Consider:

• The measure published by the anti-Trump group is not to scale, exposing their dishonesty and untrustworthiness.
• Scales used to measure behavior during the Kingdom Age will be true to the Righteousness of Christ, the True Vine.

Item 5: Report: Trump sleeps little, works non-stop on agenda

Consider:

• God never sleeps, his Love (Provisions) to support our health and happiness is never exhausted, he will never abandon the work of his hands (Psalm 138:8).

Item 6: Texas realtor markets clients seeking move to conservative state

Consider:

• God seeks clients desiring deliverance from a broken world.
• Different theological or political views will not exist in Heaven.
• False doctrines and silly notions will be purged from our minds, leaving each of us to grow throughout eternity in the understanding of God’s grace with which we leave this life.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17F10

Week 22

Item 1: Publisher promotes “Voice Bible” as improved tool for understanding the Bible 

Consider:

• The ears with which we hear God are internal (of the heart).
• The voice of the Holy Spirit is not heard audibly.
• Loud noises from without hinder us hearing the Holy Spirit quietly communicate Truth from within.
• Words written on paper
• make no sound,
• has served the Church for 2000 years, and
• has not been (cannot be) improved upon.

Item 2: Church leader advises churches, “For safety, stay under the radar”

Consider:

• As this present age advances toward its conclusion, churches pursuing “Greatness for God” status increasingly expose themselves to the hostility of Satan (terrorism).
• Turning down the lights (going underground) may not ensure their safety - because Satan knows where we are.
• Our assurance of protection is to take time each day to be renewed in our experience of Christ in order for him to manifest his Life in and through us into the world according to his Redemptive Plan.
• We are indestructible as vessels for God’s use until his Calling for us to accomplish his Redemptive Purpose in the world is completed (Romans 8:28, 36-39; Acts 20:28; 2 Timothy 4:6).

Item 3: Comedian mocks ISIS beheadings, expresses hatred for President

Consider:

• Mocking beheadings and hating Trump expose the same brokenness.
• The Mind of Christ opens our eyes (transforms our hearts) so that we are not blind to Truth.
• “My desire is that the eyes of your heart will be opened so that you may clearly see” (Ephesians 1:18).

Item 4: Report: Robot priest beams light, gives automated blessing

Consider:

• A robot has no power to pronounce a blessing; neither do a human priest, pope, or minister.
• All blessings are from God and come through our personal relationship to Christ.
• 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”
• John 1:18; 14:6; Acts 4:12; James 1:17; 2 Peter 1:3

Item 5: Accused murderer of 8 says he’s “not fit to live”

Consider:

• Unmet needs, anger, and hatred of self and others are at the core of violence.
• The heart of Christ within us transforms us to value God, ourselves, and others.
• No person’s sin (except rejection of Christ’s death on the cross as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against mankind because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden) is so deep he/she cannot be born again, made fit for Heaven.

Related: Man kills senior citizen on Facebook, blames girlfriend as the reason

Consider:

• By default of our sinful nature, every person is born a user.
• Users always blame others for their broken behavior.
• The best of girlfriends and wives cannot be good enough to please a user.
• Only Christ can transform us from being users to becoming investors.

Item 6: ISIS said to be plotting contamination of food sources

Consider: 

• No adversity can prevail against God’s protection for the vessels he has called and sanctified for his Redemptive Purpose in the world. All others are at risk.
• Psalm 91; Isaiah 54:17; Romans 8:28, 36-39

Item 7: Report: Almost half of Americans die nearly broke

Related: Report: Nearly 70% of Americans do not have $1000 savings

Consider:

• Worse than dying without savings is living without health.
• Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount, “Pursue God’s Redemptive Plan for you to experience him and you will have everything you need for health and happiness” (from Matthew 6:33).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17F03

Week 21

Item 1: Observed: Goal of Radical Religions is control, even if it must use violence to do it

Consider:

• God’s Provisions and Resources support our freedom. Only Satan seeks to control and destroy.

Item 2: Terrorism kills 22 at UK entertainment event; Prime Minister calls nation to remain calm, positive, resist alarm

Consider:

• Liberal’s response to the tragic outcome of bad policies/choices (to “Party as usual!”)
• denies their broken policies
• manifests their hostility to God’s Redemptive Plan, and
• protects their need to remain in power.

Related:  Famous Pop Singer Says Answer to Terrorism is Love and Open Borders

Consider:

• The answer to evil is for
• citizens to shut the door to it;
• nation’s military to destroy it.
• God calls the Church to be the salt of the Earth and his Light in the World – that is, to be filled with him in order to manifest his Life against which evil cannot prevail.

Item 3: Warning: Terrorists target vulnerable victims

Consider:

• Women, children, and entertainment events are soft targets for terrorism.
• So are religious gatherings, including performance-focused church meetings.
• Home churches (providing support to born again persons for experiencing Christ) are protected by God – not the same as open door, “everyone welcome,” attendance-focused, Champion for Christ, fund-raising churches.
• Persons who were experiencing / living out God’s Redemptive Plan for their lives in the world did not die at the Manchester rock concert.

Item 4: Facebook Founder Promotes Providing Basic Income for Everyone

Consider:

• Parents properly provide an allowance to their small children.
• Grace Parenting offers older children opportunity to earn income. 
• God’s role for government is to protect our God-given opportunities to make adult choices that set us free; it is not to perpetuate our childhood.
• Facebook, like television, for whatever benefit it may provide, can also be a tool of Satan. Beware!

Item 5: Famous Psychologists says everyone needs multi win experiences every day

Consider:

• Wins are more than
• having fun,
• hitting home runs, or
• being applauded/celebrated for beauty or talent.
• Wins that heal are experiencing 
• support for making wise choices and
• the outcome of those choices.

Item 6: Report: Increased climbers add to deadly Mount Everest season

Consider:

• Increased boredom increases crowds seeking thrills.
• Our experience of Christ increases our contentment with the outcome of our wise choices.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17E27

Week 20

Item 1: Liberal pundit ponders why most Christians prefer Fox News

Consider:

• Political views are based in personal belief about solutions to suffering in the world.
• Christians generally believe God supports man for making wise choices which increase health according to the law of sowing and reaping (a specific viewpoint of The Grace Perspective).

Item 2: Conservative report says Liberals are closed-minded to opposing views

Consider:

• Conservatives suffer the same close-mindedness.
• Truth does not insist on being right, is not intolerant to considering opposing views or to being considered wrong.

Item 3: High school student writes desire to behead Trump in yearbook

Consider:

• Hatred and violence are rooted in anger which is rooted in unmet needs for support - for instruction, affection, and structure, and especially for experiencing God.

Item 4: California considers adding intersex as third gender option to state documents

Consider:

• Transgender issues are not physical but psychological (rooted in unmet temperament needs).
• Confused youth need compassionate support counseling, not complex sex change.

Item 5: Study: Stink gains popularity as the new romantic appeal

Consider:

• In the last days, according to Scripture, nose blindness will increase (stink will be less offensive).
• Stink will not exist in Heaven.
• Heaven is pure. So is our experience of Heaven on Earth.

Item 6: Study: Psychological intimacy a stronger bond to hold marriage together than physical intimacy

Consider:

The strongest bond for marriage is a couple’s mental and emotional oneness rooted in their mutual experience of intimacy with Christ.

Item 7: Popular minister encourages church to get out of their “comfort zone”

Consider:

• God does not call us to get out of our comfort zone but to live within the support he provides.
• We are not called
• to be Heroes, but to be Holy, or
• to be “Champions for Christ,” but to be made competent by him for redemptive service to others.
• Christ did not command Peter to get out of the boat to walk on the water, but permitted his impulsive behavior in order for him to learn the need to stay in (live out of) his comfort (support) zone.

Item 8: Publisher offers improved “teaching helps” for understanding the Bible, living the Christian life

Consider:

• God’s Plan for the Holy Spirit to communicate Truth during our extended quiet time has never changed and cannot be improved upon.
• Most foot notes in Bibles are a hindrance to hearing God, the same as city lights are a hindrance to seeing the stars.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17E20

Week 19

Item 1: Report: Millennials only age group to mostly favor socialism over capitalism

Related: Poll: Majority of Democrat women favor socialism over capitalism

Consider:

• Unsupported women and children (abandoned by leadership in the home) tend to gravitate to assistance programs because of insecurity and in order to survive.
• The solution is not scorn but renewed support in the home and Church

Item 2: Church sign urges community to “Pray Hard!”

Related: International Church Leader on Day of Prayer: “God, We Beg You!”

Related: Popular Teacher/Author says “Praying is hard work!”

• Nothing the Holy Spirit enables us to do is hard work.
• The Holy Spirit enables us to pray only for what God provides.
• God’s Provisions of Grace flow faithfully, freely, and fully to every person for us to receive.
• God does not make hard for us to receive what he provides.
• We do not need to beg God to give what he has already given.
• (Matthew 11:28-30; Romans 5:17; 8:26, 27, 32; Ephesians 3:20; James 1:5)

Item 3: Report: Vulgarity increasingly becoming acceptable speech

Consider:

• Christ is never the source of man’s vulgar (sexual or bathroom) expressions.
• Christ, during his life on earth, never uttered a vulgar or profane word.
• Vulgar expressions will not be heard in Heaven. Vulgarity is the language of Hell. 
• Vulgarity is the expression of man’s broken, sinful nature (mind and emotions).
• Christ, living his Life in and through us, purifies/sanctifies our minds and heals our emotions.
• (Matthew 5:37; Romans 12:1; Galatians 2:20; 4:19; 5:19-21; 22-23; Ephesians 4:29; Philippians 4:8; Colossians 1:27; 4:6)

Item 4: Report: Bullying is on the rise

Consider:

• So is unmet needs in the home – which is at the root of anger and violence.

Related: Report: Cop killing, violent protests, and rage against authority increasingly becoming the norm

Consider:

• Respectfully “Speaking Truth to Power” is not the same as attacking leaders we disagree with.

Item 5: Wife of Alzheimer sufferer, Glen Campbell, says he doesn’t know her but is still conscious of God

Consider:

• We hear what we have “ears to hear.”
• We are born with ears to hear Satan, religion, and the wisdom of the world.
• God gives us ears to hear him.
• “He who has ears to hear God should take time to listen” is the meaning of Mark 4:1-9.
• (John 10:3; 1 Corinthians 2:1-13)

Item 6: Man celebrates 111^th birthday, says daily whiskey, ice cream, and 11 cigars are partial reasons for his longevity

Consider:

• A very few persons may be supported by extraordinary genetics so that they better survive their poor diet.
• But most who make unwise health choices will generally not feel well and then die too young.
• More than diet, mental and emotional tension and stress (strain) is 85-90% cause of sickness and disease.
• Our experience of Christ (his Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, and Temperance/support for schedule) during our quiet-time worship each morning heals our broken minds and emotions so that we reign in life.
• (Romans 5:17; Galatians 5:22-23)

Item 7: The Grace Perspective: Religious World Misses Grace Meaning of Mother’s Day

Consider:

• Mother’s Day is a Scriptural opportunity for
• mothers to be renewed in their understanding of God’s calling for them to be a Support Resource to their children and for 
• children to be renewed in their commitment to receive that support (which is the Scriptural meaning of the word “honor”).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17E13

Week 18

Item 1: Theme Park offers men fake fight to impress date

Consider:

• Christ offers men enablement to love their wives to secure their marriage.

Item 2: Study: Social Media Lovers Suffer Increased Loneliness

Consider:

• Emailing, texting, and social media diminish quality of relationships, increase loneliness.
• Ministry visits and old-fashion phone calls enrich personal health and relationships.

Item 3: Losers in election continue to struggle with loss

Consider:

• Losers in a political election can
• resist,
• riot,
• give up, 
• leave the country, or
• stay and invest in change.

Item 4: Vulgarity against Trump reaches new low

Consider:

• Vulgarity is the rage of evil against Truth (John 3:19-21; Romans 8:7).

Item 5: Arizona university professor prohibits reading the Bible in classroom before start of class

Consider:

• Worse is not reading the Bible at home before the start of day.

Item 6: Group says dress and behavior codes are hate speech

Consider:

• Mocking/berating dress and behavior is hate-driven.
• But identifying harmful choices is compassion.

Item 7: Globalists protest strict vetting

Consider:

• God can use a godly nation to help heal broken immigrants - that’s because Light dispels darkness.
• But broken people entering a broken nation (or church or marriage) results in more brokenness - that’s because, brokenness cannot heal brokenness, darkness cannot heal darkness.

Item 8: Popular counselor says parents should embrace cultural changes of new generations

Consider:

• “This is what the LORD says. ‘Walk in the old ways that resulted in good and you will find rest for your souls.’” - Jeremiah 6:16 (paraphrased) 
• “Do not move the ancient landmarks which your fathers have set.” - Proverbs 22:28
• “May each generation manifest the Likeness of Christ” is the meaning of Ephesians 3:21.

Item 9: Centurion offers advice for living to 100

Consider:

• John 3:16 explains how to live forever.

Item 10: Donors pay to hear speech

Consider:

• Church goers do essentially the same every Sunday.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17E06

Week 17

Item 1: Protesters riot to shut down conservative speech

Consider:

• We fight against what we fear.
• Truth always wins in the marketplace of ideas, except when it is not heard.

Item 2: Leading tv personality fired, accused of sexual harassment

Consider:

• The best of women find no occasion to accuse the best of men.
• Broken women are selective who they want attention from.

Item 3: Prime time tv pundit says use of pharmaceutical drugs promotes psychological health

Consider:

• Mind-altering drugs result in more problems than they solve.
• Psychological disorders are mostly the result of missed support needs for information, affection, and structure –
• for which God provided the home, Church, and especially Christ (his Life in us).

Item 4: LGBT members say they are “Christians”

Consider:

1. Being born again and being a Christian are not necessarily the same: The one has to do with going to Heaven; the other, with being healthy and happy in this life.
2. According to Acts 11:19-26, members of the early Church were first called Christians (sarcastically) by non-believers who did not know what else to call a group of people who manifested virtues (the Fruits of the Spirit - Galatians 5:22-23; John 15:8) they had not seen before.
3. LGBTs can be born again so that they go to Heaven (since we are not born again by merit of our lifestyle choices but by trusting in the Blood/Death of Christ per John 3:16 and Titus 3:5), but they are not, by definition, Christians (Christ-like).

Item 5: Leading counselor tells parents to support children for any vocation they choose

Consider:

• Does that include selling drugs, joining a terrorist group?
• Grace parenting does not choose vocations for children, but it supports them for experiencing Christ who, by his Life working in and through them, accomplishes God’s purpose for them.
• (Psalm 138:8).

Item 6: Popular minister tells Christians to work harder for Christ

Consider:

• The same religious legalism that promotes increased performance is also the harshest to condemn failure.
• God calls us to be filled with Christ who lives his Life in and through us to accomplish his Redemptive Purpose in the world.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17D29

Week 16

Item 1: Popular church growth seminar teaches pastors how to build attendances, increase giving

Consider:

• Pride (the unmet need to be significant) motivates broken people to build organizations and programs as monuments to their egos.
• God builds people.

Item 2: Mother explains son’s stealing: “He doesn’t like to work!”

Consider:

• People are not really lazy; they are just broken.

Item 3: Report: Number of working age young men living at home with parents is increasing

Consider:

• God’s Plan is for everyone to be connected to a support system – children to parents, wives to husbands, Church to pastoral leadership – so that they do not wither (John 15:4-6).
• Young men and women do well to live at home until they marry to establish their own homes.
• “For this reason (to care for his wife), a man leaves his father and mother.” – Ephesians 5:30

Item 4: Bumper sticker: “I Sleep With My Dog!”

Related: Poll: 37% of 1000 wives say their most preferred activity is reading a book, 26% taking a bath, 18% crafting, 8% say intimacy with husband

Consider:

• Wives gravitate toward husbands who are advocates for their health and happiness.
• “With you there is support for healing; therefore, you are respected (revered).” - Psalm 130:4.

Item 5: Famous counselor: “Marriage and parenting is hard work!”

Consider:

• Anyone who is “trying hard” (striving) to have a good marriage or to be a good parent is struggling and has a lot of tension in their home.
• God’s Plan for our homes to me healthy and happy is for Christ to husband our wives and parent our children through us.
• Christian living and leadership is hard only when we are attempting to do it in our own strength.

Related: Famous preacher: “Prayer is hard work! So is Christian living!”

Consider:

• The Holy Spirit prays through us and for us (Romans 8:26-27).
• No one who is working hard to live the Christian life will succeed.
• The only hard part of Christian living is taking time each day to include into our lives God’s Provisions of Grace which enable it.

Item 6: Tv evangelist says God “miraculously” heals sickness instantly, through prayer and faith

Consider:

• Normatively, God heals brokenness according to the Law of Cause and Effect (Sowing and Reaping) when we receive his Provisions of Grace into our lives (Romans 5:17).
• Healing, according to God’s Redemptive Plan, is a long-term process, not an immediate event.
• If God “miraculously” instantly healed bodies, he would also instantly heal credit scores, overdrawn bank accounts, weeds in the garden, poorly maintained houses and vehicles, etc.!
• There is nothing we can ask God for which he has not already provided (in Creation, Community, and especially Christ), waiting for us to receive.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17D22

Week 15

Item 1: Trump said to be outcome-oriented, not ideological

Consider:

• Unbending commitment to principle may sometimes put us at risk for unwanted outcomes – for a classic example, refusing to lie to intruders about whereabouts of family.
• But most often, unwanted outcomes are the result of choices that disregard Scripture.
• God calls us into intimate fellowship with Christ, who is our Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30) and supports us for making wise choices - which always have a good outcome.

Item 2: Fallen minister says he yielded to compulsions

Consider:

• We are supported against yielding to compulsions by
• laws,
• conscience,
• fear of loss, being found out, disappointing loved ones, etc.,

but mostly by the Fruit of Temperance (Christ’s Life in us to support us for structure and self-control - Galatians 5:22-23), produced in us by the Holy Spirit (during our quiet-time worship).

• The Daily Bread (the Life of Christ) meets our unmet needs and heals our brokenness so that we are lifted up above temptation (Matthew 6:11-13).

Item 3: Terrorists bomb Christian church in Egypt

Related: Lawmakers vote to allow Birmingham church to form Police Department

Consider:

• God does not call the Church to increase attendances, but to
• support members for learning how to grow in grace,
• win the lost in their homes and in the community, and then
• bring them to the closed (private) meetings of the Church for baptism and teaching (Matthew 28:18-20).
• “Everyone welcome” churches are at risk, so do well to form a police department.

Related: World-wide war on “Christianity” escalates

Consider:

• Christ was opposed by religious leaders who feared loss of power and wealth, so called for Rome to crucify him.
• Roman rulers opposed Christ as a political leader (King), not as the Savior of mankind.
• The common people “heard Christ gladly” (Mark 12:37).
• Christ warned (John 15:18-25) that those who embraced his message of grace (Grace Provisions) would be hated (not by hurting people, but by performance-oriented religionists).

Item 4: Judge approves genderless designation

Consider:

• The Bible says God created man as “male and female” (Genesis 5:2).
• Christ living his Life in us supports us for living out God’s Plan.
• Apart from Christ, there may be gender confusion.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17D15

Week 14

Item 1: Senator calls opponents “idiots”

Consider:

• We forfeit the value of our opinion by name calling.
• We sometimes know best what is true about others by what we have learned about ourselves.
• We trust most the opinions of those who speak the Truth in Love.

Item 2: Popular talk show guy insists he’s not a racist

Consider:

• Truth never asserts itself.
• We are being most honest, not by our declaration of goodness, but by our confession of brokenness.
• Racism is the belief one race is superior to another.
• Comfort with family and friends is not racism.
• Identifying harmful behavior is not racism.
• Racism is the inborn default disposition of every human being, because of our sinful nature.
• We can trust more the person who confesses brokenness than the one who denies it.
• The darkness of racism cannot prevail against the Life/Light of Christ renewed within us daily.

Item 3: Recent study: Premature gray hair may indicate heart disease

Consider:

• Hair coloring will not help.

Consider, also:

• Giving to help the poor, church attendance/membership, water baptism, and other religious performances are a bridge too short for going to Heaven.

Item 4: Documentary: Wealthy man gave away $billions, lived modestly in apartment

Consider:

• Giving is God’s Way for us to help others, but
• Receiving (God’s Provisions, beginning with Christ) is God’s Way for us to go to Heaven; also, to be healthy and happy in this life.

Item 5:  Student dies after choking at pancake eating contest

Consider:

• We put our health at risk when we chase after our unmet need for significance, attempt to outrun our boredom.
• Beating others in order to be number one feels good only temporarily.
• Our experience of Christ (his peace, joy, happiness, and contentment) is enduring.

Item 6:  Man 'marries' robot after failing to find a partner

Related: Bumper sticker: “Life is better with a dog”

Consider:

• Life is better with
• nutrition,
• exercise,
• education,
• connection to Support Resources in the home and Church, and especially,
• extended quiet-time for Scripture reading and confession of need in order to experience Christ.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17D08

Week 13

Item 1: International group honors famous women who have “become strong through adversity”

Consider:

• Adversity does not make us strong, but crushes us.
• God’s purpose for allowing us to suffer adversity is to call us to experience Christ who makes us strong.

Item 2: Panel formed to discover cause for the intense, wide-spread hatred of Trump

Consider:

• Our most intense hatred will be reserved for those who attempt to save us from our addictions.
• Violence and emotional hatred are motivated by Satan.
• The heart of Christ within us does not hate others but grieves because of their broken behavior.

Item 3: Analyst: Trump not ideology-driven, but success-motivated

Related: Report: Fastest growing churches hide doctrine to promote growth

Consider:

• Business rooted in Truth will be redemptive and have eternal value – so will church programs rooted in New Testament doctrine.

Item 4: Conservative pundit says Liberals are intolerant to being wrong, resistant to considering opposing views

Consider:

• So is the Conservative pundit. (It takes one to know one!)
• Truth
• never asserts itself,
• is not intolerant to hearing opposing views or to being considered wrong, and
• does not belittle those who oppose it (although it grieves).

Item 5: Family of famous lung cancer victim says she did not smoke or work with chemicals, but was just unlucky

Consider:

• Genetics, according to some studies, are, at most, only a 30% cause factor for disease (with inherited lifestyle being the greatest factor).
• Good health is mostly the result of what we include, not exclude. 

Observed: The Death of Protocol: More trail walkers ignore courtesy rules, litter postings, safety markings, says park officer

Consider:

• Compliance to rules supports health and safety, also promotes good-will.
• Hurting people (the result of unmet needs) are sometimes too angry to care.
• The heart of Christ in us supports us for providing ministry to hurting people.

Item 6: Court asked to grant human status to chimp

Consider:

• Robots are the new work force, pharmaceutical drugs the new traditional medicine, bizarre sounds the new music.
• Pets may be the new humans.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17D01

Week 11

Item 1: Christian group calls for authoritarian husbands to give their wives more freedom

Consider

• A wife’s freedom does not come from her husband but from God.
• Wives who are “in Christ” (that is, born again) are already free (by virtue of their spiritual union with Christ - Galatians 5:1).  
• Her freedom is not her husband’s or anyone else’s to give. 

Item 2: Conservative “think tank” mulls solutions to declining world condition

Consider:

• The best solutions of men are only notions, result in only marginal success at best, and may be a waste of time to consider.
• God’s Redemptive Plan, alone, has power to meet the needs of a broken world.

Item 3: “Feminist” group celebrates new study reporting the demise of need for men

Consider:

• Women have never needed dysfunctional leadership.
• God works through godly leadership in the home and Church to accomplish his Redemptive Plan in the world.

Item 4: Study links rise of social media to increase in artificial intimacy

Consider:

• Somewhere along the way, face to face communication was replaced by
• courier,
• mailed letters,
• telegraph, telephone, television, and tell a woman (Sorry! Old chauvinist joke!).
• Then came social media, and with it, the rise of artificial intimacy.
• But the God of Heaven, who never changes, continues to communicate to us personally and intimately by the Holy Spirit through the Written Scripture during our extended quiet time with him.

Item 5: Social Security, pensions, savings, and investments essential to secure retirement years say leading financial advisors

Consider:

• The securest retirement for members of the Body of Christ is God’s promise to those who are the “Called” – who are living out his Redemptive Purpose for their lives in the world (Romans 8:28).
• Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God (his Redemptive Plan) and all these things (including Provisions to secure your retirement) will be ADDED unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Item 6: Couple postpones wedding, hires PI to hunt for missing dog

Consider:

• This marriage may be “gone to the dogs” before it starts.
• A wedding without a dog! What about the wedding photos!

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17C18

Week 10

Item 1: Watchgroup says privacy at risk to spying devices

Consider:

• All who are in Christ and in whom Christ lives are protected/safe.
• “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” - Isaiah 54:17
• (Psalm 55:16-22.)

Item 2: Family of teen who fell from mountain overlook says “it could happen to anyone”

Consider:

• Accidents happen in a broken world, but God has provided support - especially Christ “who has become for us Wisdom (support for making wise choices) from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30).  
• God provides for the safety of everyone who remains in the place he calls them (James 1:13-15; Psalm 91).

Item 3: Popular ACC coaches bash Trump, call HB2 “stupid”

Consider:

• Ticket-driven sports programs cater to the values of entertainment junkies, not family values (1 Timothy 6:10).
• God accomplishes his Redemptive Work through members of the Body of Christ who are committed to experiencing him per Matthew 6:9-13, John 15:1-8.

Item 4: “Feminist” Groups Reject Need for Men, March to Protest Plight of Women

Consider:

• Women do well to reject dysfunctional leadership.
• Christ is the True Vine and calls his Bride, the Church, to connect to him (and to his Resources in the home and Church) for support so that they do not wither (John 15:1-8).
• “With your Right Hand (God’s Leadership Resources in the home and Church) you save (support) me” (Psalm 138:7).
• “God has called us into intimacy with his Son Jesus Christ who is a faithful resource” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

Item 5: New CD adds background music to make Scripture more appealing

Consider:

• The Holy Spirit (not the sound of music or dramatic effects) gives Life to the Scripture.
• The Scripture was not written to stir emotions but to
• communicate Truth to our minds,
• produce conviction (which enables us to trust), and
• set us free from the bondage of our sinful nature. 
• (John 8:32; Romans 10:17; John 15:3; 2 Timothy 3:15-17).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17C11

Week 9

Item 1: Daughter of popular Christian author/radio personality outs as bisexual.

Consider:

• Religious, performance/rule-based parenting is a failing support for Christlikeness.
• Scripture calls us first to be filled to fuller measure with Christ who lives his Life (Values and Integrity) in and through us.
• Colossians 1:27: “Christ LIVING in you, your hope to experience God’s Redemptive Purpose for your life (holiness).”

Item 2: New internet service offers to expose truth about anyone’s past

Consider:

• God has a detailed record of every action of every unsaved person.
• He deletes (never to be remembered) the “sin” record of every person who is “in Christ” (born again).
• Friends, family, and others who do not experience Christ may choose to remember and condemn our past.
• Worse than the truth told about us is the lies based in false reports (including from Satan), false memories, life-like dreams, and misjudgments that grow to be perceived as reality.

Item 3: Passive group opposes Peace through Strength, fears military buildup provokes enemies

Consider:

• No one bothers (more than once, at least) a 7th-degree black belt or the home armed with weapons.
• The most militarily prepared are the least deployed.
• The unprepared suffer disrespect, intimidation, and attack.

Item 4: Report: 91% keep mobile phones within arms reach 24/7

Consider:

• Mobile phones increase safety but we are most safe by our
• obedience to be at all times in the place God calls us and
• dependence upon his care and commitment to us.

Item 5: Report: Trump wealth affords lavish lifestyle

Consider:

• Lavish lifestyles are common for dictators, but not appropriate for leaders of democracies, and especially for ministers of the Gospel.

Item 6: Report: Dogs and some monkeys have a human-like sense of morality

Consider:

• Dogs and monkeys are driven by animal instinct for survival, including to protect and secure their providers.
• They have morality only in the sense that it exists as an obsession for whomever and whatever satisfies their biological, sensual, and emotional cravings.
• Humans have an elevated sense of morality which is supported by information, emotions (including affinity, ego, guilt, and fear), and physical needs (hunger, shelter, etc.).
• Born again Christians have the opportunity to be supported for God-like morality by the Life (Values and Integrity) of Christ.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17C04

Week 8

Item 1: Witches gather to call on the Powers of Darkness to defeat Trump Presidency

Consider:

• Satan/demonic powers
• occupy the atmosphere surrounding the Earth,
• rule the Earth,
• are hostile to God,
• influence destructive behavior,
• work through vessels/conduits, including witches (sorcerers), who chant dark verses to receive them,
• are limited/restricted by God
• (Ephesians 2:2; 6:11-13; John 14:30; Job 2:6; Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Galatians 5:19-21)
• God’s Provisions of Grace, beginning with Christ (his Blood and his Life), have power against which no other power can prevail (John 1:4; Romans 8:32-39; Ephesians 1:19; 1 John 4:4).
• Christians receive God’s Provisions, not by chanting or begging (as witches and even religionists do), but by connecting to his Resources through which they flow into our lives (Romans 5:17).

Item 2: Trump favors people who treat him nice

Consider:

• God is grieved when we reject his Provisions of Grace to support our health, but he is not emotionally offended by those who don’t treat him nice/make him smile/tell him how great he is/express pride in him.
• God (grace leadership) values everyone equally and provides for the redemptive needs of every person, including those who are hostile to him.
• God’s Provisions are missed only by those who reject them (“You have not because you receive not” is the meaning of James 4:2).

Item 3: Tv Reporter says media should control what people believe

Consider:

•  A free press is necessary to a nation’s freedom.
• But made up, bias news is poison.
• Truth flows from God to our minds by the Holy Spirit during our quiet time to read the Scripture (Romans 10:17). 
• If we embrace information about God and his Redemptive Plan from any other source, we are at risk for being deceived.

Item 4: Church provides sanctuary to illegal immigrants

Consider:

• Users protect those they use for money, votes, and power (but secretly hate/disrespect them and throw them away when they are no longer useful).
• But investors (grace leadership) support those they serve for obeying the law which has promise of a good outcome (Hebrews 13:17; Romans 13:1-4; Ephesians 6:1-3).

Item 5: Fake News: Man proudly announces he is 100 years old – on his 99^th birthday

Consider:

• The 99 year old possibly thought he might not live long enough to be a centurion, a crowning achievement for sure. (Either that or he forgot more than what day it was.)
• We do not declare ourselves children of God; rather, God declares us children of God when we trust his Provision of Christ’s death on the cross as our only hope for going to Heaven.
• (John 1:12-13; John 3:16-18)

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17B25

Week 7

Item 1: Church leaders troubled by moral decline in America, call for Christians to pray hard

Consider:

• Church members “praying hard” in the sense of non-stop pleading and begging with groaning and tears will only wear them out.
• God has already provided every need society has and brought them to the door of our lives for us to receive, beginning with the opportunity to be filled with Christ (Ephesians 3:19; 4:13).

Item 2: Illegal immigrants protest deportation, demand rights of citizenship

Consider:

• American citizenship is not the right of every immigrant but is offered through a legal process.
• Citizenship in the family of God is offered through acceptance of Christ’s Blood/death on the cross (as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against mankind because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden - Romans 5:12-19).
• “God gives the RIGHT to become the children of God to everyone who receives Christ as Savior” (John 1:12).

Item 3: Loud advertisement veils disclaimer, small print says “results can and will vary”

Consider:

• It is impossible for God’s Provisions to fail or vary; they will accomplish exactly the purpose for which he gave them.

Item 4: Popular evangelist becomes atheist

Related: Conservative talk show host makes career change, abandons conservatism

Consider:

• Conservatives can become liberals.
• Religionists can change religions.
• Church members can change churches or denominations, leave the Church, or walk away from God and the Scripture.
• Church members can also tire and walk away from performance Christianity.
• But born again Christians can never be spiritually unborn.
• Also, no one will ever walk away from their experience of Christ or understanding of the message of grace.
• And no one will ever walk away from their experience of Heaven on Earth – the same as they will not want to walk away from their experience of Heaven in Heaven.

Item 5: Man tattoos every part of his body including eyes

Consider:

• Like the country preacher said, “If the barn needs painting, slap a little paint on it!”
• But God has provided for every need we have, including support to be and look our best – especially Christ who transform us to be at peace with ourselves and our circumstances.
• “I am not in need because I have learned to be content with such things as God provides” is the message of Philippians 4:11.

Item 6: Celebrity says Valentine is a dog

Consider:

• God was good to give Adam and Eve to each other; also Mary and Joseph. Having only a pet for a valentine misses having God’s best for our lives.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17B18

Week 6

Item 1: Election losers continue to pound on Trump

Consider:

• Losers pound on winners in order to destroy them.
• Winners also pound on losers, but not without first investing to help make them winners.

Item 2: Report: Patriot’s Brady, Belichick haters complain winning too much is unfair

Consider:

• Hoping a team loses because it just isn’t fair for one team to win so many championships is akin to socialism.
• God’s Provisions support us for becoming winners – not only for going to Heaven when we die, but also for health and holiness in this life (Romans 5:17; 6:22).

Item 3: Concerned Citizens group views national chaos, ponders “How did we get here!”

Related: Conservatives increase security to protect against violent protesters.

Consider:

In the beginning:

• Moral brokenness and broken behavior began in the Garden of Eden with Adam’s disobedience (Romans 5:12).
• Condemnation, hard rules, and punishment (not the same as discipline) helped control the broken behavior but did not heal the brokenness and pain at its root.
• Appeasing the broken behavior helped eased the pain, but in time, resulted in dependence, addictions, and perversion, and disrespect for leadership.
• Reversal to impose rules again ignited fear, anger, and violence.

God’s Grace Redemptive Plan:

• God has provided (especially through Christ - his death for us and his Life in us) for the spiritual, psychological, and physical recovery needs of every broken person (Romans 5:10, 17).

Item 4: New book says women suffer inferiority, strive to please, perform, prove themselves.

Consider:

• Striving does not increase confidence but intensifies brokenness and disappointment.
• The need to strive is rooted in Old Testament theology - that God has expectations for us to perform in order to please him, earn his favor/blessings.
• God accomplishes his redemptive purpose (health and happiness) in the lives of everyone who
• confesses their brokenness and need for him and
• receives his Provisions of Grace.
• Psalm 138:7

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17B11

Week 5

Item 1: Inaugural singer Lee Greenwood thanks his lucky stars to live in America

Consider:

• We do not have lucky stars; but we do have an attentive God who faithfully      provides for our needs and calls us to receive them.

Item 2: Trump says he's deeply touched by "I am praying for you" sentiments 

Consider:

• Christians are instructed to pray for those in authority over them (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
• Paul welcomed the prayers of the Church to support God’s Work through him in the world (2 Corinthians 1:11).
• However, praying for others means to pray for ourselves in their behalf – that is, we seek to be filled with Christ so that his Light is manifested in and through us into the world in order to dispel the darkness in which evil thrives to oppose God’s Redemptive work.

Item 3: Famous reverend says all persons are born equal, children of God

Consider:

• We do not all look the same or have the same strengths and talents.
• But God loves (values) and provides for everyone equally.
• And the U.S. Constitution protects every person’s God-given freedom to make wise choices (including to receive God’s Provisions).
• We are all born members of the human race, but none of us is born children of God.
• We are born again into God’s family and become his children only through faith to receive/trust the Blood/death of Christ as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against us (John 1:12, 3:3,16-18).

Item 4: Report: Conservative principles do not have the support of the mainstream media

Consider:

• If the reports are true, 94-97% of mainstream media members vote Democrat.
• Worse, the (“come and receive”) Message of Grace doesn’t seem to have the support of the mainstream Church.

Item 5: Driver plays conservative talk on bus radio, met with intolerance

Consider:

• Darkness fights/rages against Truth because of fear it cannot survive in the Light (John 3:19-21).
• Faith (conviction of Truth) makes us
• bold and stouthearted (confident and unafraid) and also
• kind.

Item 6: Conservative talk show hosts bash bad behavior of protesters

Consider:

• The heart of Christ in us grieves deeply because of the broken behavior of angry, misguided people, but his heart living within us does not bash, mock, or condemn anyone; instead he moves us to seek his enablement for ministering to the brokenness at the root of the behavior.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17B04

Week 4

Item 1: Liberals warn strong law enforcement will incite more violence

Consider:

• Strong law enforcement does not incite violence, but reduces it.
• So does support for making wise choices, which is the work of the Church.

Item 2: Trump confident in plan to make America great again

Consider:

• God has a Recovery Plan for America: It is for the Church, the Body of Christ, to support its members for learning how to experience Christ in order to manifest his Light into a dark world.

Item 3: Protesters reject Trump as their president

Consider:

• Worse is to reject Christ as Savior.

Item 4: Conservatives tell fearful anti-Trumpers to “Get over it!”

Consider:

• Fear of losing access to addiction needs is warranted.
• Fear rooted in past experience of rules imposed without support provided for compliance is understandable.
• Fear is exacerbated by exaggerated media narrative of past cruelty.
• The expectation to “Get over it” is not the answer, but only increases fear, which leads to anger and violence.
• Just and righteous government (modeled after the Rule of Christ during his future Thousand Year Reign) restricts destructive behavior while supporting citizens for making wise choices.
• The fear (dread) of righteous rule by the disobedient is not the same as the fear of (respect for) righteous rule by the obedient.

Item 5: Report: Safety of conservatives put at risk at Anti-Trump rallies

Consider:

• A non-believer may live safely within a Church community (not the same as a religious community). That’s why a LGBTQ is loved (agape: valued unconditionally) by the Body of Christ and is safe from condemnation or attack.
• But a born again person manifesting the Life of Christ while living and working in the world can expect trouble.
• This means, Christians have the option to
• look and act like the world so that we do not suffer adversity or to
• live so that all men will know Who lives within us (Matthew 5:16; John 15:8) – in which case, the promise of Psalm 138:7 will become very dear to us: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me.” 

Item 6: Famous Pastor calls for hurting Christians to “Let Go and Let God”

Consider:

•  “Letting go” in the sense of trusting that everything will “be okay” because God is merciful (never mind our neglect to make wise choices) will have a disappointing outcome.
• Scripture calls us to turn from (let go of) our dependence on ourselves in order to receive God’s Provisions of Grace which support our recovery from brokenness.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17A28

Week 3

Item 1: Trump speeches filled with hype

Consider:

• Whatever benefit hyperbole may have to motivate action in business or politics, it is not appropriate or needed for the work of the Gospel ministry.
• The power of ministry is the work of the Holy Spirit which, like the deep waters of the ocean, is quiet and powerful, unlike the noisy waves at its surface.

Item 2: Report: Religious affliliation sharply declines during Obama era

Consider:

• Decline in organized religion is a good thing.
• Performance-driven religion
• crucified Christ and
• is at the root of brokenness, tension, and unhappiness in hearts and homes.
• An increase of holiness (Christlikeness) in the Body of Christ is America’s greatest need.

Item 3: Millions celebrate the inauguration of a new president 

Consider:

• The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem was also celebrated by the multitude who tried to inaugurate him as a king (“Blessings to the King!”)
• But the next day, the same multitude cried out, “Away with him, crucify him!”
• That’s because, Jesus did not come into the world 2000 years ago to be a political king; rather, he came to die in order to satisfy God’s judgment against the human race because of Adam’s transgression (Romans 5:12-19) and to live in our hearts in order to transform us to be like him.

Item 4: Pained voters react to loss with anger, violence 

Consider:

• Mental and emotional pain because of loss (especially of codependency or addiction needs) is not the same as grieving (as the Holy Spirit does) because God’s Redemptive Plan has been rejected.
• Anger reacts in violence; but grief responds with renewed commitment to experiencing Christ in order to manifest his Light into a dark world.

Item 5: MLK3 “prays” with Trump for God to save America

Related: Inauguration sets record for most “prayers”

Consider:

• “Asking” in prayer, in the sense of requisitioning God is a pious religious act and will result in disappointment, discouragement, and disillusionment.
• Confession of “who God is” and our need for him and also expressing our desires and burdens to him are a prelude to Scriptural praying, but are not, of themselves, prayer.
• Scriptural prayer means to receive God’s Provisions of Grace which flow faithfully and freely to the door of every person’s heart/life without consideration of their merit or worth.

Item 6: National ministry promotes reading through the Bible in 2017

Consider:

• Whatever the benefit is for reading through the Bible like a textbook in order to learn what the Bible says, the most critical need is to take time each day to read the Psalms and Proverbs and the New Testament Scripture written to the churches in order to hear the Holy Spirit communicate Truth concerning what the Bible means.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17A21

Week 2

Item 1: Bible commentary attempts to explain Scripture for child’s understanding

Consider:

• The Scripture was not written so that a child’s mind could understand its meaning.
• But neither can the most intellectual minds understand its meaning.
• Bible teachers can explain what they think the Scripture says (religious notions), but only the Holy Spirit, who authored it, can reveal to our minds what it means (Truth).
• I Corinthians 1:18-2:36 

Item 2: Trend: Mainstream media produce fake news to advance anti-Trump opinion, agenda

Consider:

• Worse than fake news in the media to promote a political agenda is false teaching from the pulpit to promote religious performance (sacrificial going and giving) in order to increase attendance and funds for buildings, feel-good programs, and staff salaries.
• The Good News (Gospel) is:
• God has provided Support (Provisions of Grace) to meet every need we have for living out/fulfilling his Calling for our lives (Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 9:8);
• We do not perform works of righteousness in order to earn God’s Provisions; rather, we simply take time each day to receive them into our lives, especially during our Quiet Time to read the Scripture in order to experience Christ.

Related: Successful Football Coach Named Best Locker Room Motivator

Consider:

• How to know if your pastor preaches/teaches performance theology? He sounds like a football coach hyping his players before the big game.

Item 3: Protesters set to disrupt Inauguration, some by any means, including violence and destruction

• Grace leadership
• does not impose change through violence but
• influences change through investment to meet redemptive needs, but
• is also prepared and willing to militarily defend against violent attacks on life and liberty).
• Christ warned of hate and violence against righteousness, but he also promised protection, not against adversity or loss of possessions and comfort, but against the destruction of our lives and ministry influence (which is the message of the Book of Job).

Item 4: Leading ministry promotes goal setting for achieving success, pleasing God in the New Year

Consider:

• Commitment to performance goals (goal setting) is an Old Testament concept (also, a necessary strategy for rudimentary child rearing.) 
• The Old Testament Scripture was mainly written to the Jews (as a schoolmaster to support children – Galatians 3:24) living in the Dispensation of Law, and under the Old Covenant (which was rule/performance-based).
• The New Testament Message of Grace
• was written to the churches, the Body/Bride of Christ,
• especially by Paul to whom it was revealed (Colossians 1:25-27),
• in order to mature Christians (Ephesians 4:7-16),
• so that we “serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code (and according to Plan B "work on yourself" strategies and mind games)” - Romans 7:6.
• The Message of Grace is
• “Christ in you is our Hope for reigning in life (health and happiness) and also for competence in redemptive service to others” (Colossians 1:27; Romans 5:17; John 15:4-5);
• God imparts his LIFE (the 9 Fruits of the Spirit and Wisdom) into our hearts (mind, emotions, and will) during quiet-time worship which supports us for making the choices that effectually accomplish his Purpose/Will in and through our lives. 
• God's plan for maturing the Body of Christ, the Church, in this Age of Grace diminishes (but does not remove – Matthew 5:17) the need for the rudimentary support he gave his People under the Old Covenant (before Christ came to live in our hearts by the Holy Spirit).
• That's the reason God calls us first to take time each day for quiet-time worship in order to experience Christ.
• This means, we do not need to write down and review goals any more than we need to review and write down the benefits of drinking water; instead, we take time to drink the water.
• When we drink (receive) the Water of Life during quiet-time worship per John 4:14 and Revelation 22:17, the Life of Christ flowing into us will make certain the outcome he has promised in John 7:38; Romans 5:17; 8:28; 2 Peter 1:4; Revelation 3:20 and many other related Scripture.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17A14

Week 1

Item 1: Airport shooter said to suffer mental illness

Consider:

• Violence is rooted in the mental and emotional pain of unmet needs - needs for which God provided in Creation (the soil and atmosphere), Community (the home and Church), and especially Christ (his Death for us and Resurrected Life in us). 

Item 2: Chicago teen tortured by party buddies

Consider:

• Relationships at risk: Broken people hanging out with broken people
• Redemptive relationships: Broken people seeking/receiving support from Resources in the home and Church for making wise choices

Item 3: Street Survey: Millennials’ Goal for 2017: “Have more fun!”

Consider:

• Redemptive goals for the New Year: 
1. Learning how to read the Scripture in order to hear and experience Christ to a fuller measure each day
2. Health - physically, mentally, emotionally, and even financially, but especially, 
3. Holiness (usefulness to God in redemptive service to others).

• Goals are
1. Surpassing (Sanctified): Health/Holiness
2. Secondary: Happiness
3. Superficial: Fun (recreation and entertainment)
4. Sinful: Choices that disregard God’s Provisions, diminish health

Item 4: Popular website promotes sacrificing self, serving God and others first

Consider:

• God’s first call to us is to invest in our own health – that is, to make wise choices (receive his Provisions of Grace) which increase us in health and happiness and usefulness in redemptive service to others.
• God does not need our support or for us to give up (sacrifice) ourselves for him.
• We do not serve God; rather, he serves us and others through us.

Item 5: The Trump Plan: Make Americans Wealthy

Consider:

• Business Plans for financial success assume people are good, not greedy;
• Only God (his Life in us) makes people good.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17A07