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The Key to Experiencing Personal Joy in a Troubled World

Yes, God created us in his image but we, as a human race beginning with Adam and Eve, are sinners.  This fact deserves a moment of reflection.

As human beings we are not a close cousin of the animals, or a distant relative of primitive plant life, nor a product of Primordial goo.  Rather, we are wonderful and unique—the most excellent of all God’s works.  We represent a special expression of the divine nature, created by God’s own personal activity.  In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (emphasis mine.)

Unlike the making of everything else described in the Bible’s opening chapter, there was a council that occurred between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit prior to man’s creation.  Humanity is introduced with solemnity, dignity, and the honor of an intimate deliberation on the part of the that mystery often referred to as “The Trinity.”

Contemplate how wonderfully we have been made.  God graciously gave us intellectual ability far superior to that of any animal.  We have a mind able to hear and understand God’s word, emotions suited to respond to God’s love, and a will that enables us to choose whether or not to obey God.  Thus we’ve been equipped, not only to obey Him, but to love, follow and participate in His work on earth.

That’s powerful stuff.

Psalm 139:14 sums this up nicely:

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfullymade; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

When one considers all this it would seem foolish to not take up God’s offer of forgiveness through repenting of our ways and surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Only then are we able to begin to understand that the precepts of the Lord are right.  And once we live according to those precepts we have fellowship with God and our lives operate much better, thus giving joy to the heart.

A young man once told me about the night that changed his life.  At his mother’s insistence he and his twin brother left their dysfunctional home to escape domestic violence perpetrated by their stepfather.  The two boys had been attending a youth group at a local church and the pastor was able to take them in.

I’ll never forget my friend’s description of that first night away from home.

“I was laying in the bottom bunk; my brother was up top.  I thought about all the wonderful people in the church who were so nice to us. My brother and I were in bed and safe. I knew God loved me.  I knew He was my true father.  I decided right then and there I wanted nothing else in life but to follow Him.”

This young man never swerved from the path, and God has blessed him in remarkable ways.  He never attended college (I’m not sure he even graduated high school), but when was about 19 he landed a job as a deliveryman for a Silicon Valley high-tech startup company.  He kept getting promoted.  Soon he married a beautiful woman from the church.  He kept following Jesus.  They started a family.  He stayed at the same firm and, because of his excellent work, he continued seeing promotions.  The company became wildly successful.  He is now worth millions.

My friend knows that the precepts of the Lord are right, and through obedience his life is full of great joy (and it has nothing to do with his bank account).

Sadly, that night on the top bunk his twin brother didn’t make the same decision.  For many years his life was wasted as he drifted in and out of trouble and jail.

Obeying God doesn’t mean you’re expecting to be perfect.  It just means you’re making a choice to yield your imperfect ways to Him.

This is the key to authentic joy.

Parents purchase gear to hide children’s biological gender

Okay, before we dive into this ball of confusion, let’s begin with why God created two distinct genders: male and female.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it… And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Genesis 1:26-28; 31 (ESV)

God honors humanity by creating us in His own image and likeness, male and female. This story is expanded in Genesis 2, as God forms the man from the dust of the earth and breathes life into him.  He then fashions the woman from the man’s side — or heart. In doing this, He separates humans into two sexes, male and female. Each is unique.  Both reflect the image and likeness of God.

The word “sex” even comes from a Latin word meaning “to divide or separate,” showing that humanity has been separated into two distinct groups, male and female. Not only does Moses write about this in Genesis, but Jesus and the Apostle Paul also point to the male-female creation as a foundational truth.

Adam rejoices at this creation of Eve, celebrating and recognizing her as his partner, a complement, distinct from any other created being. Woman is uniquely formed as a gift for man — and man as a gift for woman. The two aspects of God’s image, male and female, are joined wholly together in marriage — a unique, permanent and covenantal relationship.

God doesn’t make mistakes.  When a man or woman identifies as the opposite sex, there’s a serious emotional problem.  Often it involves sexual abuse, or a broken family.  I’d recommend professional therapy, but in California such therapy has been outlawed.  Seriously.

Enough preaching.  Here’s the story…

The online store Tranzwear apparently is a fan-favorite for those in search of fake child penises, offering products such as a “semi-erect“ unit for children “under [five years old],” as well as an item called “Best Boy Bump for the little guys“ which is “made especially for the younger kids.”  In case you and your child find all these products and methods overwhelming, plenty of information on “packing” for youth is available on YouTube.

Parents who believe their children to be a male-to-female transgender have the opposite problem, sharing tips and recommendations of products meant to help male children “tuck” to appear or feel more female. Many members mention Etsy stores by the names of Tuck Buddies and Leolines, both of which sell handmade feminine looking underwear with extra lining to help conceal the bulge of the male anatomy. Leolines also offers chest bindersmeant to flatten breasts in “teen to adult” sizes.

Parents of Transgender Children has more than 8,000 members on Facebook, and is just one of many closed Facebook groups geared toward “gender affirming” parents, most of which claim to extensively screen individuals who wish to join in order to ensure they are friendly to the cause.  The group appears to have strict rules banning screenshots or sharing posts in any way with outsiders.

Separate websites such as TransPulse.com also have specific forums for parents of transgender children, and while many of the discussions focus on parents whose children have “come out” to them as transgender, others focus on trying to determine the gender identity of children as young as two. (“My [two-and-a-half-year-old] daughter has been saying on-and-off  for [five] months that she’s a Boy,” one post reads.)

However, there is at least one group formed to combat this nonsense.

4thWaveNow was started by a mom after her teenage daughter “suddenly announced she was a ‘trans man’ after a few weeks of total immersion in YouTube transition vlogs and other trans-oriented social media.”

And the mom, “Chiara,” has taken some heat for her position.

“Online, I have been accused of being ‘unsupportive,’ even abusive, simply for daring to question whether lifelong medical treatment – injections and plastic surgeries – is the answer for every young person who has gender dysphoria,” the group’s founder explains. “In my world, caring about, listening to, and lovingly parenting a child or young adult is not necessarily a synonym for unexamined ‘support’ for everything the child says or wants. In fact, one of the main jobs in parenting a teen is, not coercion, but the offering of alternatives; discussing, and sometimes disagreeing.”

What a concept! “In God We Trust,” in our schools?

What a concept.  Place our schools under the dependence of God.  Sounds like a great plan to me, but the pagans that run my state of California will never go for it.  Here’s an edited version of the the story by Moriah Balingit, of the Washington Post…

God “is the light. And our schools need light in them like never before,” the Jacksonville Democrat said Feb. 21. “It is not a secret that we have some gun issues that need to be addressed. But the real thing that needs to be addressed are issues of the heart.”

Her proposal? Ensuring every Florida public school student is educated in a building where “In God We Trust” – the national and Florida state motto – is prominently posted. The bill passed and was signed into law.

Florida is one of seven states this year that passed laws requiring or permitting schools and other public buildings to post “In God We Trust.” Arkansas passed a similar measure in 2017, and Arizona this year allowed schools to post in English the state’s motto, which appears in Latin on the state seal: “God Enriches.”

Arkansas state Rep. Jim Dotson, a Republican, said the national motto reflects a central part of what it means to be an American. He sponsored the 2017 bill requiring the posting of “In God We Trust” in classrooms and has since helped lawmakers in other states pass similar laws.

“Our history and our heritage is incredibly important, making sure that we as a nation remember our roots, remember where we came from,” Dotson said. “America is an exceptional nation. It’s the greatest nation in the history of this planet. Obviously, that success is attributed not just to individuals but probably some higher power than ourselves.”

Even though the laws often pass by substantial margins, some members of the public take deep offense at the posting of “In God We Trust,” saying it violates the Constitution and the nation’s legacy of keeping religion out of government.

Americans have long disagreed about the role religion should play in public life. Some argue the acknowledgment of God is central to the nation’s identity. Others point to the founders’ efforts to eschew state-sponsored religion.

Much of that battle has taken place in public schools. The Supreme Court in 1962 struck down school prayer and in another case ruled against a Pennsylvania school that required students to start the day with the Lord’s prayer and a Bible reading.

Charles Haynes, founding director of the Religious Freedom Center at the Newseum in Washington, said these tensions often flare when the nation is in tumult.

“We’ve had really from the beginning of our country, even in the Colonial period, we’ve had a tension or really an argument about what kind of country we are,” Haynes said. “When we have a period of great anxiety about our nation and who we are and we have a great upheaval . . . this comes backs to the surface.”

It happened after the Civil War, when religion advocates pushed to amend the Constitution to include references to God, and during the Cold War, when evangelical Christians successfully inserted “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance and pushed to make “In God We Trust” the national motto.

Haynes said we may be in such a moment now, with growing polarization between Americans who have radically different values and perspectives on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage and growing anxiety over how immigration is changing the face of the nation.

That’s why Rep. Daniels, of Florida, fought “to remind our children of the foundation of this country, which was founded on people who came for religious liberty,” she said in February.

Even though Daniels’ measure passed, some viewed it as an empty gesture and accused the lawmaker of capitalizing on a tragedy to advance her agenda of pushing religion in schools.

Greg Pittman teaches honors U.S. history at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, the Florida school where 17 people died in the February shooting. Pittman said he is religious but resents the effort to bring religion into schools following tragedy.

“I do not see how placing the motto ‘In God We Trust’ is going to protect us from someone coming down the hallway and shooting students and teachers,” Pittman said.

Mei-Ling Ho-Shing, a 17-year-old survivor of the shooting and student activist, said she appreciated the initiative, saying the school could use more “positivity.”

“It’s powerful because it reassures people of faith,” Ho-Shing said.

Read the full story here…