Think Maturely about Speaking in Tongues

The Lord gave me this prophecy. “Take off your diapers! Think maturely about speaking in tongues.”

This Scripture came with it: Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature (1 Cor 14:20 NASV 1995).

This verse is about tongues and is in the middle of a teaching about speaking in tongues.

Read the same Scripture from the Living Bible Dear brothers, don’t be childish in you understanding of these things [speaking in tongues]. Be innocent babies when it come to planning evil, but be men of intelligence in understanding matters of this kind (1 Cor 14:20 The Living Bible).

Jesus Christ gave me the gift of speaking in tongues in 1963. I think it was ’63, maybe it was ’62. Tongues and the Holy Spirit mean more to me now than ever. Wonderful gifts! Yes!

Reflect with me, please, on 60 years of praying or speaking in tongues.

Mature Thinking: Jesus Christ is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. He Made the Holy Spirit and Speaking in Tongues the Foundation of the Christian Church. We all recognize Pentecost Sunday as the beginning of the Christian church. What happened on Pentecost? How did Christ form the church? He poured out the Holy Spirit complete with tongues! Never forget the tongues.

Think about it! Without tongues there would be no Christian church! God chose tongues along with the Spirit to begin His church. Tongues are key to our beginning. Tongues are essential to our identity. Tongues are part of our DNA. Dwell on this fact.

Tongues are not an add-on. Nor is the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Together they are essential to the foundation of the church.

I was born to Rognar F. Anderson and June N. Anderson in 1942, Their chromosomes are in my body and blood. Nothing can ever change that fact. That is my DNA.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are part of the DNA of the church. Nothing can ever change that fact.

What about your church? Is your church built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit?

Mature Thinking: Jesus Chose the Holy Spirit and Tongues as Inseparable Gifts to His Church. Tongues and the Spirit came together. They came together at the same time. Not separately. Not one hour or one day or one minute apart. Jesus gave tongues and the Holy Spirit together.

Tongues are not an add-on. Some people consider tongues as merely a useful appendage. Think seriously about this connection. On Pentecost Sunday, Jesus gave the Spirit and tongues simultaneously. The Spirit and tongues are Siamese twins. When you receive one, you receive the other. As the apostle Robert Ewing used to say, ” When you get a new pair of shoes, the tongues come with it!”

Reread Acts Chapter 2. Did the Spirit and the tongues not come together? Read Acts 10:44. Read Acts 19:1-7. They come together.

Doubtless, some who know the scriptures will think of Acts, chapter 8 where some Samaritans were being saved and healed and the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on them. True. Neither had they spoken in tongues. Yet, when the apostles came and laid Spirit-filled hands on them, they were receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17).

The scripture does not explicitly say the Samaritans spoke in tongues, yet something happened so dramatic and obvious that Simon the magician offered “cash on the barrelhead” so he could have this same power as the apostles.

What about scriptures other like Romans 8:9 that claim you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. There is no indication that individual speaks in tongues. True, yet remember the letter to Romans was written to the Spirit-filled tongue-talking saints who resided in Rome. In fact, all the churches in the New Testament were Spirit-filled and speaking in tongues.

Mature Thinking: Jesus Gave the Holy Spirit and Tongues to Lift the church out of the Solely Natural into the Supernatural Realm.

Do you want to live in the supernatural?

Before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit and tongues were given, leaders cast lots for guidance. After tongues and the Holy Spirit were given, they received direct guidance.

Tongues are the gateway to the supernatural.

Mature Thinking: Speaking in Tongues Promotes Prophecy

Prophecy is the spiritual gift the Bible promotes above all others.

Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more [than you are doing now][in order] that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying (1 Cor 14:5 NASV 1995).

Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy (1Cor 14:1 NASB 20).

Mature Thinking: Both the Holy Spirit and Tongues are a Gift from God.

Mature Thinking: Tongues Give Evidence of the Resurrection.

Mature Thinking: You’ve Got to Use Tongues to Get the Benefits

Mature Thinking: The Correction for Misuse of Tongues is NOT Disuse, but Proper Use.

–Larry Christiansen

Mature Thinking: Jesus Believed the Holy Spirit and Tongues are Indispensable for Service.

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me Acts 1:4 NASB1995.

How to Find Direction by Praying In Tongues

Does “How to find direction by praying in tongues” pique your curiosity?

Need guidance and direction for day-to-day matters? We all do. Try this process.

Praying in tongues makes our love for Jesus grow and glow. The child-like act of speaking in tongues with Jesus keeps us filled with the Holy Spirit.

In this relationship, the Spirit of Christ often alerts us to a fresh thought or feeling. It’s usuallly just as soft as a whisper or a feather tickling our arm. We have to become alert and open to the Spirit world to recognize this.

This is how God generally “speaks” to his sons and daughters.

Perhaps an impression will come through a “quickened” verse of Scripture (a verse that garners our attention). Or perhaps an impression will come through a picture in the mind’s eye.

Some people receive these God-ideas through dreams. I once asked a young woman who receives a lot of direction and “God-thoughts” through dreams, “”How do you get so many spiritual dreams?” Abigail replied, “I speak in tongues before I go to sleep.”

By receiving this impression, this idea, this whisper, this “quickened” word or vision through faith and alertness—we find the faith to focus our time, money, attention or efforts.

Really, it’s all about relationship–relation to Jesus and His Spirit–and the faith to act on whatever They “whisper” to us.

Yes, speaking in tongues ushers us into a new realm, a realm not of the mind but of the Spirit. It can be daunting, but it’s certainly exciting. Do you want to add some adventure to your life? Extend your spiritual antennas. Go for it!

And yes, we will make mistakes as we are experimenting in this new realm. But aren’t we making some mistakes with what we are doing now?

Here’s a real-life story of how this process worked out for me in about the year 2000.

God impressed me in a dream to begin a Chaplaincy Program at Muscatine Community College. After prayer, I approached the college president with the proposal. He listened, but was non-committal. I waited, wondering what would happen. However, just before the school year began, the president called with the announcement, “Let’s start!”

For years the faculty, staff and students at Muscatine Community College have enjoyed the services of the Chaplaincy Program. Pastors and leaders from about twenty churches staff the program.

This Chaplain’s Program directly resulted from a dream. God-given dreams stem from the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues (Acts 2:17-18). Focused faith resulted in clear direction and guided us to effectively serve college students.

GO to Living Water Muscatine

What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like a Christian

Do you feel like a Christian? Maybe I should ask, “How does a Christen feel?”

Last week I went to Muscatine Lawn and Power to purchase a part for our lawn mower. As I entered, I saw the owner, a man named Chris.

I did not feel like talking with him about the Lord. I had already talked with Chris about God a couple of times earlier. He is a nice fellow and has always listened. But this time I made an inner decision to not witness.

I got the mower part (and buried my impulse to complain about the price which ws higher than quoted).

Then I spotted the restroom. At my age, a person has to use the restroom more frequently than a young person. In the men’s room I remembered “Chicken Evangelism, bring up Christ before you ‘chicken out'”.

That thought must have been from the Holy Spirit . . . .

I spent the next 3-5 minutes sharing Christ and His good news with Chris. As usual, he listened to my story. I reiterated how God healed me a stage four, inoperable cancer. Chris seemed impressed. I made sure to share the gospel: Jesus Christ died for our sins. Mine and yours. People saw Him after He rose from the dead. He went back up into heaven. I continued to make the gospel as clear as I could.

“Does all this make sense to you, Chris?” I asked. He responded affirmatively.

“So what is keeping you from accepting Christ? I queried.

” I don’t know,” he replied.

We chatted a moment or two longer. I departed with the words, “We’ll talk again.”

As I got into my car to leave I remembered the research. On average, it takes an adult 7 times to hear the gospel before he responds. Well, I thought, “This man only needs about 4 more people to share Christ with him before he is saved. Lord, please send four more witnesses to Chris.”

As I drove toward home, I suddenly realized my own feelings. I felt so good, so-o-o-o-o-o good! I felt elated. It was beyond satisfaction. I felt happy that I had shared good news with this man. I was excited. I was hopeful.

We all know that life, especially the Christian life, is more than feelings. Yet feelings are important to us.

After sharing Christ, I had an indescribable sense of supernatural joy. I couldn’t wait for my next opportunity to witness. I wanted to do it again!

I felt like a Christian!

As I reflected about this, an idea came to my mind. “Perhaps people don’t act like a Christian, because they don’t feel like a Christian.”

Witnessing is one way to remedy that.

Chicken Evangelism: A Strategic First Step in Evangelism

Chicken evangelism: a strategic first step in evangelism! Let me give a recent example of how it worked with a fellow named Dennis Yerington.

Dennis (now known as Denny) was repairing soffits and siding on our church’s building. I had never met him before. As I was preparing to leave the premises, I spotted Dennis leveling a ladder against the building.

I walked to him, caught his attention and introduced myself. After a moment of conversation, I asked, “Have you ever invited Jesus Christ into your life?”

Dennis looked at me mildly startled and answered, “Yes, and I need healing.”

Now it was my turn to be startled. Most people answer either “Yes” or “No” to my initial question, but no stranger had yet requested healing so soon in a conversation.

Often, I pray for a man with a need on the spot, but this time I didn’t. I just invited him to come to church. He surprised me again by saying, “Yes, I will come.”

Since I’ve heard that before–with people who turn out to be no-shows–I was not confident I’d ever see him again.

But on Sunday, Dennis showed up. And he wanted prayer for healing! We prayed. In fact, a whole handful of the church surrounded him and prayed.

God worked. When I talked with Dennis several days later, he had been free of neck and head pain ever since the prayer.

All this happened several weeks ago when I first met Dennis. In the meantime, he has not only been coming to worship meetings, but also has been helping around the church premises. He has carried away some tires left over from a church workday, pressure-washed the siding and soffits, and done some electrical repair. Plus, he has invited relatives and friends to church.

Dennis and I have prayed together about other things. I have been to his home in the country, and he has been to our home.

What is Chicken Evangelism? It’s simply being a friend to someone the first time you meet It’s “bringing up Christ before you chicken out.” It’s a wonderful conversation opener.

How did all this happen with Dennis?

It’s a result of Chicken Evangelism: a strategic first step in evangelism. I’m so glad I asked Dennis, “Have you received Jesus Christ into your life?

What’s So Great about Praying in Tongues?

What’s So Great about Praying in Tongues? Praying in tongues is perfect prayer!

If people understood this, Nearly everyone would invest more precious time in praying in tongues. Much of the time, we don’t know how to pray, especially in difficult or impossible situations.

Recently the 1.5 inch drainline under our sink clogged up. I attempted to unclog the line by use of a hose and “plumbers balloon.” This method uses water pressure at approximately 40 psi to force the drain to open. No success.

Next I tried a “plumbers snake.” Didn’t work either.

Lastly, I tried a “big gun,” a flat 25 foot snake with an arrow on the end (another type of “plumbers snake”) No results. Nada.

Disheartened and discouraged, I gave up, went upstairs, sat down and prayed. Since I didn’t know how to pray, I prayed the next hour in tongues.

After an hour or so, I returned to the clogged drain line, What a surprise–the drainpipe was empty! Completely clear! No more waste water or clog. It was completely clear.

After thinking about it, the truth of Romans 8 came to my mind:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Romans 8:26-27

Notice the twice repeated phrase: The Spirit intercedes for us, and the Spirit intercedes for God’s people. When we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit of the Godhead is actually praying through us. The Holy Spirit is borrowing our tongue to speak words to the Father in heaven. This “Spirit prayer” is perfect prayer.

To make the point even clearer, I am reprinting the verses from another translation, the Bible in Basic English:

And in the same way the Spirit is a help to our feeble hearts: for we are not able to make prayer to God in the right way; but the Spirit puts our desires into words which are not in our power to say;

And he who is the searcher of hearts has knowledge of the mind of the Spirit, because he is making prayers for the saints in agreement with the mind of God.

Romans 8:26-27 BBE, Bible in Basic English

What’s so great about praying in tongues? It’s perfect prayer according to the desire of God. It is pure prayer, unmixed with human motivation. It is supernatural intercession 100% in the perfect will of God.

Isn’t that what we all want?

Publisher’s note: The image above is from Amazon. I receive no payment or royalties from it in any way. Simply put, I like it and believe the author has something important to say.

Need Healing? You Need a Fresh Revelation of God

Need Healing? You Need a Fresh Revelation of God
Need Healing? You Need a Fresh Revelation of God

If you need healing, You need a fresh revelation of God.

No matter who you are or what your level of faith, you need a new revelation from God in order to get your next healing. Your current understanding of God is God-given and powerful. It has carried you this far. Now the super-abundant God of the Bible wants to give you more.

If you need healing, you are on the precipice of a fresh revelation of the Almighty.

Your current concept of the Savior may be wonderful, even praise-worthy, but is not sufficient to secure your needed healing. If it were, you would already be healed.

God has healed me from stage 4, inoperable cancer. A fresh revelation of the cross of Jesus Christ based on Galatians 3:13 provided my healing.

But the cancer left me with neuropathy symptoms in my feet. I am currently seeking God for a fresh revelation of Himself, a revelation sufficient to clear me of the damage to my feet.

No matter who you are–and maybe you are a giant in faith–to receive your healing, God wants to give you a fresh concept of Him. God wants to heal you and He’s even more interested in giving you a fuller concept of Himself. He delights in both healing you and gifting you with a fresh comprehension of Himself. The fresh concept comes first. Don’t miss it! Don’t try to skip it.

I repeat. Need healing? you need a fresh revelation of God. No matter what He has healed you from in the past, to get your next healing, seek Him for a fresh download of His nature. He has chosen to do it this way so we continually seek Him and not level off.

Healing is about Him, who He is, not so much about us. Ongoing healings are part and parcel of God’s ongoing redemption and revelation of Himself. No new revelation, no new healing. It’s that simple. Healing is the revelation of His nature. His name (His nature) is the revelation needed for His healing (Acts 3:16).

With every fresh revelation from God there comes a fresh grace. We are healed by grace through faith.

A new revelation need not be complicated. It could come in a natural way. C. Walden Hedmen, my professor at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Seattle, was driving his car when he stopped at a red light at an intersection. The Holy Spirit came suddenly upon him and he began speaking in tongues. What a profound revelation! That experience affected him and his students, including me(!) for a lifetime.

Or perhaps a child prays for you and you sense the stirring of the Spirit. The idea (the revelation) comes that God uses children for supernatural healing. It may come as you read the same old verses in your Bible that you’ve read a hundred times earlier. It may come as you put two truths together.

Perhaps the impartation will come from observing nature. Or perhaps it will come via a dream. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ Romans 10:17.

Need Healing? You Need a Fresh Revelation of God
Need Healing? You Need a Fresh Revelation of God

However God gives it, the new revelation is pregnant with fresh grace and vigor sufficient to birth your healing.

How to Transition to Dynamic, Dedicated-to-a-Task, Documentable Prayer Meetings

How to Transition to Dynamic, Dedicated-to-a-Task, Documentable Prayer Meetings.

Here’s the Problem

Too many prayer meetings are boring, ill-attended and ineffective. Too many times nothing really happens at a prayer meeting. Or so it seems.

But it doesn’t have to be that way..

How would you describe your church’s prayer meetings? Would you like to enjoy and transform your prayer meetings?

I Propose a Biblical Model that is Dynamic, Dedicated-to-a-Task, Documentable Prayer

Third world churches use this Biblical model with effectiveness. Certainly I did not originate it. I have seen it in the widely expanding church in Mexico. South Korea popularized this type of prayer through the ministry of Dr Paul Yongi Cho.

Would it be wise for more churches, even ours and yours, to experiment with this Biblical form of corporate prayer?

Before continuing, let’s recognize two important facts. 1) All prayer is a plus, whether silent or verbal. 2) Corporate prayer is different than individual prayer. When we pray alone, we can pray the way we want to, the way we are most comfortable, or the way we “have always done it.” Corporate prayer requires us to “lay down our lives” (our favorite method of prayer) in order to unify with others who pray differently.

Here is a report of a dynamic, dedicated, documentable prayer time from the book of Acts.

23 When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported everything that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind and said, “[p]Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them, 25 who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said,

‘Why were the nations insolent,
And the peoples plotting in vain?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’

2For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and purpose predestined to occur. 29 And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant it to Your bond-servants to speak Your word with all confidence, 30 while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:23-31

Several items are notable.

1 They all prayed aloud together. They raised their voices with one mind.

2 They had “one mind,” i.e., an agreed manner of prayer. Since they did not have to discuss how to pray at that moment, it’s obvious this was an accepted, common, usual manner of prayer for the disciples. Further, they had one purpose–to deal with the current situation: civil authorities (who were slso religious authorities) were suppressing their freedom.

3 They declared God’s word into the situation.

4 Luke documented three stirring results: The place was physically shaken, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak God’s word with boldness.

Revelation 19 Offers Additional Insight into Dynamic, Dedicated-to-a-Task, Documentable Prayer

After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,

“Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And a voice came from the throne, saying,

“Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.”

Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

9 Then he *said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him. Don’t do that. . . worship God.

Revelation 19:1-9

Notice again: The participants prayed out loud, together. No boring prayer meeting here! They were LOUD. It sounded like “many waters” and “mighty peals of thunder.” (One visitor to a prayer time at a church in South Korea said, “When they started to pray, it sounded like a waterfall.”)

This is an example of New testament, Biblical prayer! Do our prayer times sound like this?

Do you think children would be attracted to a prayer meeting like this? Teenagers?

Even though it was loud–like rumbling thunder–discernable content was heard above the noise: “Hallelujah,” “Salvation, glory, power belong to God,” as well as other united voices and actions. Yes, actions. Intercession may involve action. Some fell down and worshipped God who sits on the throne.

Judgment was a theme of this heavenly prayer time. The people were celebrating God’s judgments!

The meeting had a leader who spoke from the throne (verse 5). Although loud, the assembly was not a disorderly meeting. When a mistake was made, correction came with it.

Several results were documented from this prayer time. I choose to comment on only one. The presence of God was so great that John fell down and began to worship an angel! Strange, yes, but in a time of the strong presence of God, we become “undone,” and do things we don’t ordinarily do. A powerful prayer meeting moves us into a new realm.

Fortunately, John was corrected in his behavior. “Don’t do that. . . worship God.”

I admit. Not all prayer times will see dramatic, documentable or immediate results. After all, churches prayed for nearly 50 years before Roe vs Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court.

Still, we humans need to see some results for our prayers. We need the encouragement that documentation brings.

A Modern Day Example of a Dynamic, Dedicated-to-a-Task, Documentable Prayer Meeting

I have learned a lot about prayer and intercession from a man in our congregation named Ken Eichelberger. He often reminds us of two goals as we begin a prayer meeting. 1) The direction of the Holy Spirit to discover the task for the day and 2) the energy to pray it into being.

On one particular day, we were led to ask for repentance or removal of national leaders in America. Shortly, a well-known and well-respected Christian teacher died unexpectedly. Then the news cam out this leader had been engaging in sexual immorality.

Was it because of our prayers? We don’t know everything. But we do know this: We prayed; a man was removed.

Jesus “retired” from effective ministry on earth to initiate an effective intercession ministry from heaven. Perhaps God is calling many to lead effctive prayer ministries while we are stil on earth.

Are your prayer meetings dynamic, dedicated to a specific task and finding documentable results?

Dynamic Prayer is “Caught” More than “Taught”

If you are stirred by the Holy Spirit to upgrade your corporate prayer times, invite Ken and me to join you in your prayer meeting by replying to this email with your intention.

Mother’s Day 2022: The Real Reproductive Rights Battle Isn’t Abortion, It’s to Have and Raise Children

TOPSHOT - A woman carrying a baby visits an exhibition at the China National Art Museum in Beijing on April 5, 2016. / AFP / WANG ZHAO / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION …
WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images

P:ublisher’s note: This article by FRANCES MARTEL 8 May 2022, was originally published by Breitbart News. Something to think about.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through a spokesman, declared “reproductive rights” the paramount struggle of humanity this week. He is right, but not in any way recognizable to him or his organization.

Support for abortion around the world is slowly diminishing today. Even so, in practice, the world is far more hostile to the idea of having a baby than killing it – from the near-total lack of prenatal care in parts like Africa and South America to Japan’s infamous “maternity harassment,” from China forcibly fitting tens of thousands of Uyghur women with IUDs to American celebrities and megacorporations promising women everything from an executive title to a Golden Globe statue if they reject their internal desire for motherhood.

“The Secretary General has long believed that sexual and reproductive health and rights are the foundation for lives of choice, empowerment and equality for the world’s women and girls,” Farhan Haq, Guterres’ spokesman, said on Tuesday. “Without the full participation of 50% of its population, the world would be the biggest loser.”

“Women should always have the right to choose when it comes to their bodies and their health,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the U.N.’s World Health Organization (W.H.O.), similarly proclaimed on Friday. “Restricting access to abortion does not reduce the number of procedures — it drives women and girls towards unsafe ones. Access to safe abortion saves lives.”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (R) talks to Syrian women and girls during a visit to the Zaatari refugee camp which shelters some 80,000 Syrian refugees on the Jordanian border with war-ravaged Syria on March 28, 2017. (THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)

By “reproductive rights,” Guterres meant abortion – the “right” to kill a child (Tedros openly discussed only abortion). The two were responding to the illegal leak of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade, which concluded in 1972 – before ultrasound technology and non-invasive prenatal testing was the order of the day in America – that a woman’s right to “privacy” was a constitutional guarantee that prevented states from stopping her from killing her child. The new decision, which Supreme Court Justice John Roberts confirmed is not final, would leave abortion laws to the states, not outlaw abortion, as leftists have disingenuously argued (never mind ban interracial marriage or outlaw homosexuality, as they have somehow concluded).

The debate around Roe on the left this week largely takes for granted the idea of abortion (and infanticide, as former Virginia Governor Ralph Northram famously promoted) as a liberalizing tool in women’s lives and the concept of motherhood, in essence, as 18 years of slavery. The reality for women in most of the world does not align with this view – often most loudly proclaimed from the summit of the world’s elite, out of the mouths of men.

Women around the world have to fight everything from mosquitos to Amazon human resources to fulfill the dream of motherhood. Societies of all economic statuses are actively hostile towards mothers and children. And for the few who do give birth, few things are more diverse than the number of ways the world tries to strip mothers of the power to raise their children.

Naturally, disease and lack of access to pre- and postnatal care are the biggest threats to motherhood in underdeveloped countries. Mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and Zika virus (which causes cerebral deformations in unborn children) are paramount threats. Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and remote parts of Latin America – often tropical climates where mosquitos thrive – consistently document the lowest rates of access to prenatal care.

Mothers and their newborns rest in a maternity center in Caracas, on December 15, 2011. (LEO RAMIREZ/AFP via Getty Images)

In socialist Venezuela, for example, dictator Nicolás Maduro’s plundering of the healthcare system sent maternal and infant mortality rates skyrocketing in the latter half of the 2010s. “Between 2015 and 2016, maternal deaths grew by 65 per cent and child mortality after six days of being born increased by 53 per cent” in Venezuela, according to the United Nations. The Maduro regime has essentially stopped publishing health statistics after global observers began pressuring the socialists to fix the problem. Venezuela’s leftist constitution has a right to health care enshrined in it, but under socialism the country functionally does not have a healthcare system. Abortion is illegal there, but increasingly popular due to the lack of access to most major contraceptives, along with nearly every other medical product.

In neighboring Brazil, under socialist President Dilma Rousseff, the Zika crisis of 2016 exposed a total lack of understanding in how to handle maternity care. For those who are not pregnant, Zika typically causes mild illness, though it can sometimes lead to Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a crippling auto-immune disease. For unborn children, it is often a death sentence, causing microcephaly, a condition where a baby’s skull is too small for its body and crushes the brain. Rousseff responded to the health problem with the biggest military operation in Brazil’s history, fighting the mosquitos with soldiers and leaving mothers to fend for themselves.

Brazilian Army soldiers pass out pamphlets on Copacabana beach warning of the dangers of the Zika virus and how to protect against mosquitos on February 13, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The World Health Organization and developed world in general only add to the obstacles mothers face in these parts of the world. The W.H.O. has launched extensive campaigns, for example, to browbeat and shame women who cannot produce breast milk for using baby formula. The W.H.O. wants women to breastfeed for two years. While most women in wealthy countries have been lamentably familiar with the false slogan “breast is best” for a while, to the detriment of their mental health, the W.H.O. is flooding Africa and Latin America with similar propaganda, much of it based on poor science.

Tedros called breastfeeding a “vaccine,” for example, during “World Breastfeeding Week” last year.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=francesmartel&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1520069679401762817&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fhealth%2F2022%2F05%2F08%2Fmothers-day-2022-the-real-reproductive-rights-battle-isnt-abortion-its-to-have-and-raise-children%2F&sessionId=1ab19a4cee98070b86373e63adff2fff7baeab62&siteScreenName=BreitbartNews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=c8fe9736dd6fb%3A1649830956492&width=550px

The men running things like “World Breastfeeding Week” appear unaware or uninterested in the scientific fact that “stress is the No. 1 killer of breastmilk supply.”

In the developed world, corporate culture can be the biggest obstacle to motherhood. Japan – widely recognized as having one of the world’s healthiest populations and functional healthcare systems – has experienced record lows in its birth rate and child population repeatedly over the past decade. The reason is simple: nearly every aspect of Japanese life is hostile to mothers. Companies actively pressure women to have abortions to keep them from being less profitable. The few women who defy this pressure face constant discrimination, from a total lack of consideration for the health difficulties of pregnancy to being told to simply quit and drop out of society entirely. Bosses pressure mothers who have already had a child to “wait their turn” or “take a break” for years, potentially forcing them into riskier pregnancies later in life.

Japan’s entirely male-dominated government has been aware for years that its anti-child policies have put the entirety of the ethnic Japanese population on the path to extinction and has tried to address this without addressing the rights of mothers. Programs like state-sponsored egg-freezing and artificial intelligence matchmaking have done almost nothing to reverse the birth rate collapse.

Abortion is legal under certain circumstances in Japan and requires the male partner to consent.

In this picture taken on May 8, 2015, a mother holds her child in the subway in Tokyo. (FRED DUFOUR/AFP via Getty Images)

Much of the West is on the same path, albeit somewhat less dramatically. ItalySpainFrance, and America, have documented catastrophic birth rate drops, though not as bad as those in Japan and China. Their stories lack the obvious villains of both those nations (intransigent corporate culture warriors and the Communist Party, respectively), but share with them a clearly hostile environment towards the entire concept of motherhood, from conception to the child reaching adulthood.

In America, the largest and loudest corporations, the ones most obnoxiously proclaiming their love of “social justice” and “equality,” are beginning to offer women thinking about becoming mothers false promises like paid egg-freezing. Touted as the “ultimate workplace perk,” the painful process of extracting a woman’s eggs and attempting to cryogenically preserve them often fails. The success rate of egg-freezing – the percentage of processes that result in newborns – is around one percent, a fertility expert told the BBC in 2020.

Egg freezing party t-shirt displayed at WIRED25 Festival: WIRED Celebrates 25th Anniversary – Day 1 on October 13, 2018 in San Francisco, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for WIRED25)

“It’s an expensive lottery ticket,” Dr. Emily Goulet explained to NBC News in 2019. “If you win, you get the best payout ever: You get a child. But if you don’t win, you feel scammed.”

This week, corporations like Amazon, Citigroup, Yelp, Uber, and Lyft announced this would cut the middleman and just pay for employees to travel to undergo abortions, dodging motherhood as a potential barrier to squeezing the maximum profit out of every woman.

The women who manage to overcome these barriers and have a child face a society that has largely already concluded for them that they will not be raising their child most of the time. Homeschooling – the ultimate act of maternal autonomy – is still frowned upon for allegedly producing poorly socialized, undereducated, or even abused children. The left actively challenges concepts like charter schools that give mothers active authority over the majority of hours in their child’s day. A one-income household is a fantasy for many families. For women who want to work and raise their child – even after the past two years proved that technology can allow for both mothers and fathers in certain industries to work from home with their children – the expectation is that they will simply not parent. Teachers, nannies, day cares – anyone but the mother – will raise that child if a woman wants a place in society.

A woman works at a distribution station at the 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City, on February 5, 2019. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)

Despondent as the situation may seem in the West, nowhere is the war on motherhood more violent and revolting than in China. For decades, China imposed a “one-child policy” that banned women from having more than one successful pregnancy. Women who “illegally” got pregnant a second time were forced into harrowing government abortions or infanticides if caught. Given that they could only have one child, many women were pressured into ensuring that child was a son, resulting in an untold number of baby girls being left out to die of starvation or exposure, sometimes in marketplaces or other public areas.

The result of this policy is that China currently has 35 million more men than women and one of the world’s worst birth rates due to the severe shortage of women of child-bearing age. The Communist Party increased the “one-child policy” to a “three-child policy” in 2021, which has had no effect on the birth rate collapse.

A woman cycles pass a billboard encouraging couples to have only one child, along a road leading to a village in the suburb of Beijing, 25 March 2001. (GOH CHAI HIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Even this impending economic and social disaster has not forced the Communist Party to adopt friendlier policies towards motherhood – at least not for all Chinese. China is currently conducting a genocide against one of the few populations that had previously shown healthy birth rates: the Uyghur people of East Turkistan, who are distinct in language, religion, and culture from the majority Han ethnic group. Rather than encouraging Uyghur communities to build larger families in the face of low birth rates, dictator Xi Jinping has executed a mass sterilization campaign.

Given the secrecy with which China governs East Turkistan, outside experts do not have an exact date for when the forced sterilizations began. At least one local doctor who escaped said she performed 80 sterilizations a day for years; some eyewitnesses say Communist Party officials executed operations to sterilize the female population of entire villages at a time. Experts suggest hundreds of thousands of women, at least, have lost their ability to have children, but the witnesses affected have testified in ways that make it difficult to know exactly how they have been sterilized. Intrauterine devices (IUDs), Depo Provera implants, and hysterectomies are among the most prevalent ways China is believed to be sterilizing Uyghur women.

An Uyghur man holds his grandson amid the rubble of a location the government is “developing” June 28, 2017 in Kashgar, occupied East Turkistan, where China is currently committing genocide. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Abortions are legal in China, as in America, though the birth rate collapse has made the Communist Party increasingly hesitant to giddily promote it among Han mothers. Evidence shows forced abortions, like forced sterilizations, are increasingly common in East Turkistan.

The United Nations – the same one that claimed to believe this week “that sexual and reproductive health and rights are the foundation for lives of choice, empowerment and equality for the world’s women and girls” – has taken no meaningful action to stop, or even condemn, China’s mass sterilization campaign. It has little to say about American corporations promoting abortion and dubious alternative fertilization technologies to discourage motherhood. It actively participates in campaigns that make the lives of mothers in the developing world more difficult.Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

Rest–Did Jesus Ever Take a Vacation?

No, there is no evidence that Jesus ever escaped to Disneyland, yet three or four biblical clues hint He did find some vacation time alone or with his family and/or disciples.

First Clue That Jesus Ever Took a Vacation

Despite the paintings of Medieval artists, no halo glowed around Jesus’ head. He looked normal to people. His family and townspeople saw nothing supernatural about Him. In fact, they couldn’t mentally grasp the divine side of His character. Nor could the Pharisees. Nor the Sadducees. Nor Pilate. To His half-brothers, he seemed “like one of them.” Nothing special. After all, he got hungry, tired, thirsty. He also got annoyed and angry, most likely at them.

But there was one relative with whom Jesus had a lot in common: John, who did have insight into his cousin and identified with his work. It’s not hard to imagine a bond between these two cousins. So when John was brutally beheaded in prison by the capricious despot Herod Antipas, it’s no wonder why Jesus wanted to “get away” by himself and spend some time alone.

Now when Jesus heard about John [the Baptist being executed], He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself . . .Mark 14:13

A vacation? Not exactly by our standards, but at the very least a time for reflection.

Rest–Did Jesus Ever Take a Vacation? Second Clue

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) Mark 6:31

The price of notoriety was overtaking Jesus and His disciples. I have never walked in His sandals like this. Have you? We get harried, pressured and tired. We may skip meals occasionally. But to become so busy that eating is impossible for a lengthy time? Probably not.

No wonder He wanted to get away. Have you ever felt like you just needed to take a break for a few days? Or just need to take a ministry break and have some fun?

Rest–Third Clue

After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days. John 2:12

My wife spotted this verse years ago. “Jesus took a vacation?” We have several times laughed about it and joked, “Maybe we need a vacation too.”

What was in Capernaum that attracted Jesus so much that he invited his mother, in fact, his whole family along with his closest followers to this village?

First of all, Isaiah prophesied that it would become a light to the nations.

Isaiah 9:2-3 NIV Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali [where Capernaum is located] will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.

Could it be that Jesus brought His mother, family, and close disciples to Capernaum to check out the site as a base for future operations. In Capernaum, Jesus preached his famous Light of the World sermon.

Or maybe he just liked the city. After all, it was a lakeside town. He did move to the city and spent a lot of time there. Five of His twelve disciples were from Capernaum. Plus, more recorded miracles took place in Capernaum than any other town.

Do you know any lakeside village where you’d like to move someday? Or maybe a mountain town? Why not arrange a little trip this weekend with family and friends?

Rest–Did Jesus Ever Take a Vacation? Fourth Clue

This is my favorite and final clue.

Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. Mark 7:24-30

The Pharisees had just attacked Jesus over a picayune matter–something about washing hands. I think Jesus had “had enough.” Probably tired, He just wanted to get out of there. And when he got to Tyre. He didn’t want to talk to anybody, or see anybody. He didn’t even want anybody to know He was there.

Have you ever got to that point?

Then this woman came making a commotion and wanting His attention. He put her off as long as He could. But she was persistent. even rude. She kept calling–loudly! Eventually the disciples intervened, Send her away; she is shouting out after us! Jesus rejected her not once, but twice. But she was a desperate woman and would not go away.

Finally, Jesus responded and delivered the daughter.

What was going on? I don’t know for sure, but I think Jesus was tired and wanted rest. He was on vacation.

How ’bout you? Do you need a vacation?

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Jesus Christ’s Resurrection Is Probably The Best-Documented Historical Event Ever

This Truth is a Big Reason Why I Follow Jesus:

Jesus Christ’s Resurrection Is Probably The Best-Documented Historical Event Ever

During my college days I considered giving up Christianity. But wait. . . I determined that if Jesus Christ really rose from being a dead man, I would follow him. On the other hand, if facts could not show conclusively that He rose from the dead, I would give up the whole scenario.

The following article gives many of the same facts that convinced me the historical evidence for His resurrection was overwhelming.

BY: SCOTT POWELLAPRIL 15, 20226 MIN READ

Peter Paul Rubens, Christ resurrected

Jesus Christ’s Resurrection Is Probably The Best-Documented Historical Event Ever

There are many religions with different founders, prophets, and teachers going back thousands of years. But only one of them, Christianity, has a founder who professed to be the Messiah—the son of God—who provided irrefutable proof of who he was by conquering death through resurrection. Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

Christ is also the only person in history who was pre-announced starting a thousand years before he was born, with 18 different prophets from the Old Testament between the tenth and the fourth centuries BC predicting his coming birth, life, and death. Hundreds of years later, the details of Christ’s birth, life, betrayal, and manner of death validated those prophecies in surprisingly accurate and minute detail. One thousand years BC, David prophetically wrote about the crucifixion of Christ at a time crucifixion was unknown as a means of execution.

Every other consequential person of history came into the world to live. The death of other religious leaders—such as Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Mohammad, and Confucius—brought an anticlimactic end to their lives and their work.

But Christ came into the world as God’s son in order to die and pay the price for man’s sin. His sacrifice was the ultimate climax of his life, done for the benefit of all mankind—opening the way to eternal life in heaven for all who believe.

Of the four major world religions built on personalities, only Christianity claims its founder is still alive, having overcome death through resurrection. No Jew ever believed that, after Abraham died and was interred, his tomb ever became empty. After Buddha died, no disciple ever claimed that he or she saw or spoke to him again.

As for Mohammed and his teachings that are the basis of Islam, there is no trace of this founder appearing to his disciples or followers after he died at age 61. His occupied tomb is located in Medina and is visited by tens of thousands of devout Muslims every year.

Christ was unique in that he gave up his life as a sacrifice to fulfill why he came into the world. Christ set the highest standard of love possible, both in his teachings and in making the ultimate sacrifice—giving his life to rescue and save mankind. Then, to provide “seeing is believing” evidence, God brought Jesus back from being dead in a tomb to being alive—resurrected—so people would have living proof of who he was.

The New Testament provides accounts from multiple sources who witnessed Jesus firsthand after the resurrection. In fact, Jesus made ten separate appearances to his disciples between the resurrection and his ascension into Heaven, over a period of 40 days. Some of those appearances were to individual disciples, some were to several disciples at the same time, and once even to 500 at one time.

Particularly noteworthy is that there were no accounts of witnesses who came forth and disputed these appearances or called it a “hoax.” Not a single one. Nor do we find any historical record of any witness accounts that were contradictory.

While there are skeptics of the biblical account of Jesus, there’s actually far more reliable historical evidence for his life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection than for any other historical figure of ancient times. Consider, for instance, that the authenticity of Alexander the Great, who was born some 350 years before Christ, is based on two original biographical accounts of his life by Arrian and Plutarch, which were written some 400 years after Alexander died.

The manuscripts of Virgil and Horace, both of whom lived within a generation of Christ, were written more than four centuries after their deaths. The copy of works by Livy and Tacitus on Roman history and the works of Pliny Secundus on natural history were written on average some 700 years after the time of the original account.

Yet no one doubts Virgil and Horace lived and authored great poetic masterpieces. Nor do we hear questions about the authenticity and accuracy of accounts of Livy and Tacitus in chronicling the events of the Roman Emperors Augustus, Claudius, Nero, or Tiberius.

About 1,000 times more manuscripts preserve the deeds and teaching of Jesus in the New Testament (about 25,000 total) than there are preserving other classical ancient works of historic figures who lived at approximately the same time, with the exception of Homer, whose “Iliad” is backed by 1,800 manuscripts. But that is still less than one-tenth the number of ancient manuscripts that back the authenticity of the New Testament.

We know the historical Jesus mainly through four different accounts known as the gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—not written hundreds of years later, but within a generation or two of Jesus’s life. Apostles Matthew and John provide eyewitness accounts from their years of walking with Jesus as disciples. Mark also had eyewitness experience, although he was only a teenager when Jesus began his public ministry. Luke, the doctor, learned about Jesus from his friend Paul, the apostle who wrote the most letters in the New Testament.

Because of their experience with the resurrected Jesus, the apostles were in a unique position, knowing with certainty that Jesus was truly the Son of God. They had been present for the life, ministry, miracles, and death of Jesus. If the claims about Jesus were a lie, the apostles would have known it. That’s why their commitment to their testimony was so powerful and compelling.

Additionally, the apostles’ willingness to die for their claims has tremendous evidential value, also confirming the truth of the resurrection. No one will die for something he invented or believes to be false.

Seeing, talking to, and touching the risen Jesus transformed the apostles, who then committed the rest of their lives to educate and advocate for the truth about the message of salvation through Christ. With the exception of John, who died exiled on the island of Patmos for his testimony of Jesus, the other 11 apostles—including Matthias who replaced Judas, the betrayer of Jesus—died as martyrs for their beliefs in the divinity of Christ.

It turns out that Easter, which has its ultimate meaning in the resurrection, is one of ancient history’s most carefully scrutinized and best-attested events. The resurrection is real, and changes everything. Easter is the commemoration and celebration of the single event that transformed the world forever.


Scott S. Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute. This article is a vignette adapted from his acclaimed book, “Rediscovering America,” now Amazon’s No. 1 new release in the history genre. Reach him at scottp@discovery.org

Publisher’s note: Do you know a thinking person not yet following Jesus? If he were to see this post, would it help him investigate further?