A real MOM!!

Below is Kim Keller's letter to her daughter found on her Blog. This letter was written on the heels of the Miley Cyrus fiasco on the VMA show. Couldn't agree more with this lady being a real mom to her daughter!! 

 

"Yes, this is what happens when you constantly hear everything you do is awesome. This is what happens when people fawn over your every Tweet and Instagram photo. This is what happens when no responsible adult has ever said the word “no,” made you change your clothes before leaving the house, or never spanked your butt for deliberate defiance.

    If you ever even consider doing something like that, I promise you that I will run up and twerk so you will see how ridiculous twerking looks. I will duct tape your mouth shut so your tongue doesn’t hangout like an overheated hound dog. I will smack any male whom you decide to smash against his pelvis – after I first knock you on your butt for forgetting how a lady acts in public.

    Why would I do that? Because I love you and I want you to respect yourself. Miley Cyrus is not edgy or cool or sexy. She’s a desperate girl screaming for attention: Notice me. Tell me I’m pretty. See how hot I am. I know all the guys want me. All the girls want to be me.

    You probably know girls who will emulate this behavior at the next school dance. Don’t do it with them. You are far too valuable to sell yourself so cheaply. Walk away. Let the boys gawk and know in your heart that they see only a body that can be used for their pleasure and then forgotten.

The mother also apologized to her daughter if she has ever “felt sad because I haven’t gushed over everything you’ve done.” The job of a mother, she writes, is to “praise when praise is due, but also to offer constructive criticism and correction when it is needed as well.”

“Dear daughter, I am going to fight or die trying to keep you from becoming like the Miley Cyruses of the world,” she concludes. “You can thank me later.”

Appreciating men of backbone!!!

Below is what is needed!! Backbone in our spiritual leaders across this land.

Rev. Joe Wright of the Central Christian Church in Wichita, Kansas, gave the invocation at the Kansas House of Representatives on January 23, 1996. He prayed:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

We Have Standards!

We Have Standards

In the political arena today, we have a tendency to base decisions on emotions instead of the rule of law. Seemingly, our politicians are sacrificing the law at the expense of supposed popularity. They are forgetting that the law is a set of standards to be upheld to insure success. Many are parading the stories of children or spouses who are residing here illegally and are now being readied to be deported who want to remain with their parents or spouses who are legal citizens. The crying during the interviews plays on the human heart and the politicians exclaim “this is inhumane and these families deserve to remain intact!” Then when a person stands up and states the fact that there are standards to be met before legal entry; that person is labeled as a hater of people of another national origin. No, it is a person who isn’t afraid to tell the truth! We have standards that are set by the rule of law. It takes people who are not afraid to stand up and tell the truth regardless of how they may be perceived. When a politician sells his soul for popularity and the truth to the highest bidder; that my friends is a dangerous man! Here is an example: the judges on American Idol will tell the performer “that was not good enough to make it on the show.” The person sulks back to their family, and the family exclaims “that’s not right; they have a beautiful voice, and they’re a nice person and Mr. Cowell is just mean!” No, he is not meant; the fact is, that the show has standards, and they must be met. Of course, all of this seems so easy to understand and even falls under the category of common sense. However, the beltway seems to have cinched itself too tight around the mind of many of our politicians and has cut off the flow of common sense to the brain, and somehow severed their backbone. 

Let’s shift gears to the spiritual. The same phenomenon has entered into the church by our leadership. The standards are being sacrificed for increased popularity and membership. Things are now said, “they’re a nice person, and you know they love the Lord.” However, his or her lifestyle is contrary to the standard of living prescribed by the Bible. Pastors are afraid to stand up for the truth and therefore, a lot of illegals are infiltrating the church. Now their culture is being implemented in the house of God, and it is changing the standard of God’s Kingdom. The standard of God is to produce and maintain the culture within the church. Our nation is being changed by not upholding its laws, and the same is happening in the church. The pastors of America have to go back and fall in love with the truth again instead of themselves! Just because a pastor tells a person they are wrong doesn't mean he hates them, but rather he has chosen to uphold the standard of God over their feelings and opinions. It's not the pastor's fault - the person simply needs to meet the standard and as a result will enjoy the benefits that standard will produce in them. Truth is not relative. Truth is based on the Word of God not on emotion or feelings. Sometimes the truth hurts because it has found rebellion in the heart. If truth was based on my feelings, then there would be no anchor to hold onto because it would be shifting continuously. Thank God for the Truth that never changes!!!

Don't Let Go!!

An outline of a sermon I recently preached. I pray it be encouraging to you. 

Don’t Let Go

I.            Hebrews 10:23 (KJV)
²³ Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

A.   Hebrews 10:35 (KJV)
³⁵ Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

B.   Hold fast indicates other things are attempting to take it from you.

1.    Something or someone is trying to reach it and grab it from you.

2.    Sickness, hardships, unexpected circumstances, people, etc

3.    Storms come but they also go. But just because they came and went doesn’t mean you stood…

4.    When the storm ended what are you holding onto?

5.    I get rewarded when I hold onto my confidence in God and refuse to quit!

C.   The greatest enemy to your faith is time!

D.  Nothing has the potential to weaken your faith like waiting.

E.   Waiting can bring on weariness.

F.   What the devil means for evil God can use for good.

G.  2 Samuel 23:9 (KJV)
⁹ And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away:

H.  2 Samuel 23:10 (KJV)
¹⁰ He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.

I.    It’s natural instinct that when you become weary, that to ease the pain brought on by it you let go.

J.    He wasn’t weary just because he was fighting the Philistines but when he looked around, he saw his brethren leaving.

K.  People will be with you when you start the battle and encouraging you and praying for you but after awhile, one by one they start leaving you to finish the battle.

L.   You’re in good company!

1.    Jesus in Gethsemane asked his disciples to pray with him in the battle.

2.    One by one they fell asleep, but the Holy Spirit came and Angels came and strengthened him in the battle and he overcame!!!

3.    I know its nice when people pray for and with you but please know that you can go on when no one else will.

M. The greatest battle eventually was not the philistines but fighting the weariness that tempted him to let go.

N.  When a person fights a sickness for so long, it isn’t the sickness that is their greatest problem but the weariness that sets in and be tempted to let go of any hope of deliverance.

O.  His hand clave…. It cramped around the sword…

P.   Clave = to be united with

II.          Judges 7-8.

A.   Judges 8:4 (KJV)
⁴ And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them.  

B.   Sometimes you may be praying faintly but you’re still pursuing.

C.   Sometimes weariness can you make you tired but you’re still lifting up your hands to the King and looking unto the hills whence comes your help!!!