#2357 (6/30) PRO-LIFE SAT: "The GOP: Where Life Comes to Party"

"THE GOP: WHERE LIFE COMES TO PARTY" - Tony Perkins, Washington Watch, June 28, 2018;
http://www.frcblog.com/media/filer/2018/06/28/062818_justices_770x400.jpg [AS I SEE IT: Even as we should be encouraged that the prospects for greater protections for the unborn are greatly increased with the opportunity to replace Justice Kennedy, let us remember that the next Justice needs to be - as all of them need to be - one who will strictly uphold Constitutional law and prevent the Court from becoming the activist institution it has become in just the past few decades.  Also, as I've said before, the battle for the unborn will not end even with the overturning of Roe. It will only end as more and more American women CHOOSE life rather than abortion for their unborn! - Stan]- 

     Endangered species are usually something we try to protect -- but not when those endangered species are pro-abortion Republicans! Over the past few years, the GOP has become a tough environment for Republicans who aren't committed to advocating for the unborn. Now, with President Trump boldly leading the charge for life, most of the party's more liberal members have seen the writing on the wall.

The retirement of Congressmen Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) signals the end of what was once a struggle within the GOP. Politico's Jennifer Haberkorn talked about the significance of the change, writing that the House GOP can finally close ranks on abortion. Next year, she points out, the "rare breed" of anti-life Republicans "will finally be extinct." "The retirements of Reps. Charlie Dent and Rodney Frelinghuysen mark the end of the line for abortion rights supporters in the Republican Conference," Haberkorn writes. "And there's no GOP nominee in a competitive race who backs abortion rights this year, according to party officials."

In other words, barring some major upset in five months, the GOP will officially be the party of life. Rep. Richard Hanna, one of the pro-abortion casualties of the GOP landscape, learned his lesson the hard way. Opting to retire in 2016 rather than lose his seat, Hanna explained, "The issue was put into so many bills, and it became such a deep belief system of the Republican Party. They all jumped on board because they know fighting it doesn't pay. You can't win. I certainly couldn't."

The party's position is so absolute that Republican Majority for Choice announced earlier this week that it was closing its doors after more than 30 years. Miffed that they were "dismissed by party leaders," the group's leaders explained the decision in a column for the New York Times. "Our founding principle had been that proponents of abortion rights should be comfortable in both major parties. But we have to face reality: There probably will not be a single pro-choice Republican member of the House after the fall election, and only two in the Senate -- Ms. Collins and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. It has become taboo within the party to even say 'pro-choice.'"

For pro-lifers, who remember the days when pastors were actually jailed for protesting abortion, seeing the GOP speak with one voice on the unborn is the answer to decades of prayer. So, many would argue, is the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. In the whirlwind 24 hours since the Supreme Court's announcement, the reaction of both sides (as anyone would expect) was quite different: jubilation from conservatives, despair (and profanity) from liberals. Abortion groups started whipping supporters into a panic almost immediately. "Kennedy was the firewall for abortion rights for as long as he was there," the New York Times pointed out. "He has been the defining force in American abortion law since the '90s, so his absence means that Roe will be in more peril."

NARAL leaders began the public hand-wringing, insisting that "a woman's... access to abortion is in dire, immediate danger." It's a "catastrophe for liberals," echoed Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern. "Abortion access, same-sex marriage, voting rights, environmental regulations -- they're all on the line now." And both parties know it. At the very least, the Times goes on, Kennedy's retirement will "redraw the well-established legal battle lines over abortion rights, making it more probable that the court would move to uphold new restrictions and, potentially, abandon Roe altogether." Which is exactly how conservatives came to support Trump in the first place. He promised to reshape the courts with objective, principled, constitutionalists. He's done it from the lowest judicial vacancies all the way to the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch. Almost two years later, as I told the Times, the religious conservatives who backed him because of his promise to name a pro-life justice have been vindicated. They took a risk -- and the reward is five solid votes for life.

For now, all eyes will be on the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who deftly turned the vacancy Scalia's vacancy into a galvanizing issue in the 2016 presidential election. "We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor this fall," he told reporters yesterday." And, as the president himself confirmed, his nominee will be someone from the list he released before the 2016 election. "We have a very excellent list of great, talented, highly educated, highly intelligent, hopefully, tremendous people... I think the list is very outstanding."

Both developments, the evolution of the Republican Party and the president's commitment to select another quality justice, are the fruits of decades of hard work from pro-lifers. "Let us not be weary in well doing," Galatians 6:9 tells us, "for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." The pro-life movement is proof of that promise. If we remain persistent in our stand for the truth, God promises that we will see a harvest like we're witnessing today.

   That ought to be an encouragement to pastors who are engaging the culture on moral issues today. Our friends in California -- entire congregations -- are challenging laws that would take away their freedom to speak openly about areas of sexual bondage. Right now, they're caught up in the present and can't see the long view -- but understand from the life movement: where we are now is not where we'll be in three decades if we stand firm on the transcendent truth of God. Yes, the LGBT issue has different dynamics, but truth is truth. And it will stand the test of time.

 [bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
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 "Justice Kennedy’s Long Awaited Retirement - What it Means for Life and Religious Freedom" - by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, Breakpoint.org, June 29, 2018,ww.breakpoint.org/2018/06/breakpoint-justice-kennedys-long-awaited-retirement/

#2356 (6/29) "Nikki Haley's Passport to India"

"NIKKI HALEY'S PASSPORT TO INDIA" - Tony Perkins, Washington  Watch, June 28, 2018; https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA18F60&f=WU18F20 [AS I SEE IT: Let's be praying for Ambassador Haley as she travels to India. Pray that the significant leadership role she plays as well as her well-earned reputation for toughness will lead to the changes needed to ensure greater freedoms for Christians and other religious minitory in this still democratic country. - Stan]

    The last time Nikki Haley went to India, she was the governor of South Carolina. It was 2014, two full years before the next president would give her one of the most critical diplomatic jobs on his team. Now, the daughter of Punjab immigrants is back in her parents' homeland with a very different mission: finding common ground between two nations on religious freedom.

For the last several months, Trump's U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. has put her stamp on many key international decisions. She's fought the anti-Israel forces at the controversial body, helped to roll back the abortion evangelism of the last administration, promoted life, and pulled the United States out of the U.N.'s joke of a Human Rights Council. During her confirmation hearing, Haley was honest. "International diplomacy is a new area for me. Like most government agencies, the United Nations could benefit from a fresh set of eyes. I will take an outsider's look at the institution."

If it's a new area for her, Haley's a natural. She's earned a reputation at the U.N. and among conservatives as a clear voice of reason and truth. She doesn't shy away from the tough issues, even when the world's leaders come at her as they did when the president announced his decision to move the U.S.'s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. "At the UN we're always asked to do more and give more," Haley tweeted from her phone before the U.N. Security Council formally condemned the U.S. "So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, about where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

Like the president, Nikki Haley speaks the truth -- even if she's expressing it alone. Over the last two days in India, she's tried to use her same powers of persuasion to promote another one of the administration's priorities: international religious freedom. Before an inter-faith tour with leaders there, she made a point of saying that she looked forward to it because "we think freedom of religion is just as important as freedom of rights and freedom of people."

"We look to the fact that we are two of the oldest democracies that share the value of people, the values of freedom, the values of opportunity. We see there are opportunities between the U.S. and India in multiple levels. Whether it is countering terrorism, whether it is the fact that we want to continue our democratic opportunities, or start to work together more strongly on the military aspect, there are lots of things that India and the U.S. have in common."

While the common ground between the U.S. and India on religious freedom may exist in theory, in practice the nation has an exclusionary concept of national identity (based on the Hindu religion) that's made religious liberty difficult, if not impossible in practice. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's (USCIRF) most recent report lists India as a Tier 2 country, which is defined by USCIRF as nations in which there are violations of religious freedom that are either "systematic," "ongoing," or "egregious."

The focus on religious freedom is a refreshing reminder of the transformation that's taken place in the State Department. 

[italics and colored emphasis mine]
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"Fighting Bullies at the UN" - Armstrong Williams / @Arightside / June 28, 2018 / https://www.dailysignal.com/wp-content/uploads/rtrlnine829868-cropped-1250x650.jpg

#2355 (6/28) "Jumping off the Ban Wagon'"

"JUMPING OFF THE BAN WAGON" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, June 27, 2018; https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA18F56&f=WU18F19

    It was a "wow" win all right. When President Trump tweeted his reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on his travel ban, those three letters said a lot about the state of American politics and justice. "Wow" that he was vindicated after a year's worth of hysteria from the media and far-Left. "Wow" that what should have been standard national security policy turned into a months-long debate over settled presidential power. And "wow" that there were actually four justices on the court who were willing to ignore the plain text of the law just to spite a president they despise.

For the far-Left, this case wasn't so much a protest of Trump's refugee policy -- but the fact that he's president at all. And since his opponents can't remedy that fact for at least the next two years, they've tried the next best thing: using the courts to strip him of the authority he does have. We've seen this same strategy play out on the military, immigration policy, and now, national security. Fortunately, there are five justices on the Supreme Court who understand that Donald Trump may be the most unconventional president America's ever had, but that doesn't mean he isn't entitled to the same powers. And one of those powers is keeping the country safe, secure, and protected.

When Donald Trump became president, he promised that one of his first priorities would be preventing terrorist attacks on American soil. The obvious way to do that is by stopping terrorists from entering the country in the first place. So, the White House issued an order (not a ban) that put a temporary, 90-day hold on the people streaming into America from countries who pose the greatest threat to U.S. security: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia. Of course, that was a major departure from the Obama administration, which let refugees (or radicals posing as refugees) pour through our borders without vetting them.

Democrats came unglued, insisting that the president was somehow barring Muslims from America. A) The order doesn't ban anyone. It delays them. All the Trump administration asked for was a more thorough screening process, which, under any other White House, would have been seen as a reasonable request. B) Nothing in the order even mentions Muslims, a fact the Supreme Court highlighted when it said, "The text says nothing about religion." If this is a ban on Muslims, it's not a very good one, since there are dozens of Muslim-dominated nations who aren't even included. And, if Trump was targeting Islam, what are North Korea and Venezuela doing on the list? The point is, Trump isn't banning Muslims, he's banning terrorists -- who don't subscribe to a faith so much as a doctrine of radicalism. It's not the president's fault that the majority of terrorists carry out their violence in the name of Islam. If Democrats want a more diverse terrorist corps, they'll have to take it up with the jihadists.

Now there are those, including Justice Sonya Sotomayor, who suggested that the same five-justice majority who ruled in favor of Christian baker Jack Phillips should have ruled against Trump's travel policy for the same reason: religious animus. "Unlike Masterpiece [Cakes]," she writes in her dissent, where the majority considered the state commissioners' statements about religion to be persuasive evidence of unconstitutional government action, the majority here completely sets aside the president's charged statements about Muslims as irrelevant." Here's the problem with Sotomayor's argument (and there are several): Jack Phillips didn't want to commit violence in the name of his religion. And if he had, he couldn't claim a First Amendment defense to it.

The legal justifications that we make in the context of protecting the First Amendment don't automatically apply when it comes to letting unsafe actors into our borders. Everyone, from all backgrounds and faiths, has the same free exercise of religion. But they have to be willing to respect the Constitution that gives us that right. If they want to destroy it (and us), then we have every reason to deny them entry into our country. That's what President Trump is trying to do -- prevent a threat, not the expression of a certain faith.

Meanwhile, as even the justices pointed out, "...The twelve-page proclamation was more detailed with factual findings than any ever issued under the statute. The restrictions imposed were not based on nationality per se, much less religion, but on inadequacies in addressing risks." In other words, this controversy was less about the actual policy than it was about Trump issuing it. The plaintiffs here, Kyle Sammin writes in the Federalist, say "the Supreme Court must ignore the text entirely when the motives behind an action are impure. Hillary Clinton could have issued this order were she president because she is good; Trump is bad, so he cannot. And who would determine bad and good? The unelected courts, of course." He, like a lot of people, think the most astounding part of the ruling was the final vote.
    "What is shocking is that the decision was 5-4, not 9-0. That four justices -- including the more thoughtful members of the court's Left -- were willing to adopt a radical theory of intent-based law shows how deep the rot of Trump Derangement Syndrome goes, and how far activists in the judiciary will go to thwart the man they hate, even when he acts strictly within the rule of law."

Perhaps the most maddening part of the Left's effort is that they're trying to tie Trump's hands when he has the benefit of intelligence that most people don't, including the justices deciding this case. Even so, it's not – and never has been -- the role of courts to substitute their judgment for the president's. "There is no special jurisprudence of Trump, no judicially legislated exemption that denies this duly elected president the legitimate constitutional and statutory powers of his office," the editors at NRO point out. "Federal judges do not have to like the president, but their allegiance is supposed to be to the law, not to the Resistance."

The Democrats' dramatics over the situation are completely overblown. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) went so far as to say, "Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty." But better the Statue of Liberty, victims' families would say, than thousands more grieving families who will never see their loved ones again because their president was more concerned about being politically correct than protecting their citizens.

[bold, italics and colored emphasis mine

#2354 (6/27) "Aid the Iraqi Christians! - The U.S. Needs to Step up to the Plate"

ATTENTION:  SCROLL DOWN  to get TODAY'S article entitled in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. And PLEASE be sure to note the various PRAYER REQUESTS listed BEFORE and AFTER the posted article. (NOTE the list of DAILY prayer requests for the persecuted church.)  They ALL deserve  your intercession. THANK YOU.

PERSONAL UPDATE: 6/23- Note my latest entry in the JOURNAL section on the right side of this page.

6/27 - PRAY for the President and others in leadership (1 Tim. 2:1-3)

Heavenly Father,

 I pray that you will guide President Trump to seek you with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength in the New Year. May he act with wisdom and strength against those whose actions would bring harm to this nation and the world now and for generations to come. I pray that you would strengthen his marriage and deepen the love he and his wife Melania share. Pray that you give them wisdom to speak into the life of their son Barron. Please protect him and his family and others in our leadership from physical harm that any might seek to do against them. May all that our President does bring honor and glory to YOU and cause him to draw in closer relationship with you. I ask this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
P.S. - 3/27: I just finished reading the newly released book, "The Faith of Donald J. Trump" that the public library had and sent to me. Greatly recommend you read it to better understand our 45th President.

(from Intercessors For America) As the Lord Leads, please pray:

*For safety for President Trump and Vice President Pence as they travel.
*For guidance for President Trump as he speaks in North Datota TODAY regarding issues that concern the nation.
*For wisdom as Vice President Pence meets with leaders from Ecuador in an effort to address the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
*For guidance for NSA head John Bolton as he meets with key U.S. allies in Europe and that he would be able to know what is in the best interest of national security.
*For God’s will to be accomplished through the efforts of our leaders regarding foreign policy.
*For God’s will to be done and lasting change accomplished through the results of the summit with North Korea the decisions that come after. 

     BE Prepared TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST ABORTION 

(...because ALL Babies Matter! - http://www.lifenews.com/2017/03/01/why-do-unborn-babies-matter-just-because-they-are/ : Go to: LIFE Training Institute - http://prolifetraining.com/resources/five-minute-11/  

Be Prepared TO ENGAGE WITH THE PC CULTURE:Go to:"Tactics" - 

http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2016/04/29/tactics-n2154983
"Don't Argue the Exceptions - Beating Bad Arguments For Abortion and Transgenderism" - by John Stonestreet, Breakpoint.org, May 25, 2017; http://breakpoint.org/2017/05/breakpoint-dont-argue-exceptions/

American Pastor Andrew Brunson

May 16th - [from the American Center for Law and Justice] "It's an outrageous miscarriage of justice. Pastor Andrew's sham trial just got worse. The head Turkish judge in his trial basicallyy told American Pastor Andrew Brunson that none of his witnesses will be allowed to testify on his behalf. He was thrown back in prison and his trial is again being delayed until July 18th! "

May 8 :(Yesterday, the pastor's trial resumed.) "It's an absolute outrage.Turkey is playing political games with an innocent pastor's life. After the second day of trial - which came after a 3-week delay from the first day of trial - the panel of judges has just thrown American Pastor Andrew Brunson back into prison - delaying the trial again. This time, more than 70 days - until July 18th. Yesterday's hearing, which lasted nearly 12 grueling hours, was more of the same absurd antics. The first two witnesses were once again "secret." They had no firsthand knowledge about any of their testimony; it was all completely hearsay and conjecture. In fact, all 7 witnesses testified that they had not personally seen or heard Pastor Andrew do anything. It's a complete and utter sham. Pastor Andrew is innocent. This isn't a real trial - it's a show trial".     "We must keep maximum pressure on Turkey. 66 U.S. Senators and 50 Members of the European Parliament have sent letters to Turkey's President demanding Pastor Andrew's release. There are even calls now for sanctions to be brought against Turkey by the international community."

Sign the Petition: https://aclj.org/persecuted-church/save-pastor-andrew-from-a-turkish-prisonPLEASE PRAY FOR HIS  SOON RELEASE!

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"AID THE IRAQI CHRISTIANS! - THE U.S. NEEDS TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE" - by: John Stonestreet  and Roberto Rivera , Breakpoint.org, June 19, 2018; http://www.breakpoint.org/2018/06/breakpoint-aid-the-iraqi-christians/

    For too long the U.S. government has done too little to aid Iraqi Christians. That has to change.

It takes courage to be a Christian in Iraq, more courage than I or I’d bet most of us can even imagine. Some of the courage we see from our brothers and sisters there comes from the church’s deep roots in the region. 
    Tradition holds that the Gospel was first preached in what is now Iraq by Thaddeus, who was either the Apostle of the same name or one of Jesus’ seventy other disciples mentioned in Luke 10. By the end of the first century, when most of our ancestors were still worshipping trees, the Aramaic-speaking people of what is now northern Iraq worshipped the Triune God.
Their faith has survived for generations, including through the coming of Islam and the Mongol hordes. But it might not survive American faithlessness.

Last October, Vice-President Pence announced that “From this day forward, America will provide support directly to persecuted communities through [the United States Agency for International Development]” instead of the “ineffective relief efforts at the United Nations.”
At the time it was a welcome announcement. That’s because little, if any, of the $1.4 billion in U. S. humanitarian aid distributed by the U.N. actually reached Iraqi Christians.

Unfortunately, as former Reagan National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane and Representative Chris Smith recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal, seven months later those communities still haven’t received the promised support from USAID. In fact, last month two requests for support from the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee and the Catholic University in Erbil were rejected without explanation.
    In their article, McFarlane and Smith ask, “Where is the direct aid Mr. Pence promised?” They warn that “the light of Iraqi Christianity could be permanently extinguished” if the U.S. doesn’t keep faith with Iraqi Christians.
   That same day, an even blunter assessment was published at National Review. Benedict Kiely of Nasarean.org wrote that Middle Eastern Christians, especially Iraqi ones, no longer consider the United States to be a serious ally.

It’s impossible to overstate how shameful this neglect is. And thankfully, as the Washington Free Beacon reports, the Vice-President agreed. “Irate . . . about the lack of progress in getting aid to Christian and Yazidi minorities,” he immediately ordered the USAID administrator to go to Iraq to “expedite the grant making process and ensure aid gets to the most vulnerable communities as quickly as possible.”

This is an important step to right what’s become a 15-year wrong. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraqi Christians have been, at best, an afterthought in the minds of American policymakers. They failed to provide for their security when Saddam Hussein was deposed, and more recently, the United States failed to recognize the threat by ISIS posed against Iraq’s Christians. It took until March 2016 to use the word “genocide” in this context.

And as if to add insult to repeated injury, Iraqi Christians have been victimized by the administration’s immigration and refugee policy. According to the CATO Institute, “rather than rescuing more Christian refugees than prior presidents,” as he promised during the 2016 campaign, “President Trump has halved their numbers.”

McFarlane and Smith are absolutely correct when they write that “USAID must use whatever creativity is necessary to complete its mission and keep Mr. Pence’s pledge to Iraq’s religious minorities.”And they’re correct to call on the Senate to “swiftly pass bipartisan legislation to authorize funding for these victimized communities.”

If we can’t do this much, then calling us “unreliable” would be putting the matter charitably.

 [italics and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES - As John reiterates, the situation with Iraqi Christians must change, and the United States has the ability and the strength to give the aid needed. Pray for our leaders and organizations to get rid of roadblocks and get the job done. For more discussion on this topic, check out the links in our Resources section.
"Trump Making Situation 'Worse' for Iraqi Christians by Continuing Obama's Policies" - 
Samuel Smith | Christian Post | September 27, 2017; https://www.christianpost.com/news/trump-making-situation-worse-for-iraqi-christians-continuing-obamas-policies-nina-shea-200764/
"Iraqi Christians Are Still Waiting, Mr. Pence" - Robert McFarlane and Chris Smith | Wall Street Journal |June 7, 2018; https://www.wsj.com/articles/iraqi-christians-are-still-waiting-mr-pence-1528413035
"Pence Demands USAID Break Through Bureaucratic Gridlock to Help Iraqi Christians, Yazidis" - Susan Crabtree | Freebeacon.com | June 9, 2018; http://freebeacon.com/politics/pence-demands-usaid-break-bureaucratic-gridlock-help-iraqi-christians-yazidis/
"The U.S. Is Not a Serious Ally, Say Middle Eastern Christians" - Benedict Kiely | National Review | June 11, 2018; https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/iraqi-christians-say-trump-administration-not-serious-ally/

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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is the one of the great privileges AND responsibility for EVERY believer." - Stan 

“INTERCESSORS ARE THE RUDDER” – A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT - Wanda Alger, June 28th, 2017; https://www.getamericapraying.com/blog/

I was recently given a word by my good friend, Bill Yount. His word greatly encouraged me as an intercessor. Working for Intercessors for America, I soon realized it was not just a word for me, but for all who have been praying for our nation, wondering if their prayers are truly making any difference. Bill told me, “I kept seeing you as a small rudder on a huge ship. Hidden, but giving guidance. Although it seemed slow it was turning the whole ship. Patience was needed to see the impact of your…ministry. I sense the Lord saying, ‘Don’t jump ship! I’ve made you the rudder!’ ” I was immediately touched in my spirit by this encouragement, knowing that our seemingly small place in prayer was having a great impact.

James 3:4 talks about the power of a small rudder to steer a large ship. In this scripture about the power of our tongue, consider the power of prophetic intercession! In the Forerunner Commentary on this verse we read, “…rudders manipulate the course of immense ocean vessels with a slight movement of a pilot’s hand. Since it is underwater and aft, the rudder of a ship does its work UNSEEN. A passenger is ignorant of its movements most of the time. Yet, when it is in proper working order, the rudder holds more power over the ship than the wind. The wind will blow, toss, even destroy the ship’s rigging, but the rudder guides the ship exactly where it directs.”

This is God’s promise to the intercessors in this hour of national turbulence. Don’t stop praying! Your prayers have great power to turn the ship! Continue praying, interceding, and discerning the workings and movements of the Holy Spirit, being faithful to God’s commands. As we come together to declare God’s faithfulness, this nation will, once again, head in the direction that God intends. Don’t give up and don’t give in. Regardless of the winds of adversity and the fires of the enemy, God’s people have a power that cannot be matched. Let us join in faith and continue to pray and speak of God’s faithfulness in order to bring God’s people and this nation into the fullness of God’s plans. Note this additional encouragement from God’s word:

Colossians 2:15 – “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (ESV). 

Psalm 33:8-11 – “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” 

Wanda Alger, IFA Field Correspondent

PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14) Short of that, we should not be saying "God Bless America"but instead "God be merciful towards America!"

PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS:  1) Pray for President Trump and his advisers, that they would select Godly leaders at the federal level who will be accountable to do an excellent job (or be fired!) ; that he would seek God's wisdom and be enabled to lead our country effectively in the years ahead; and 2) Pray our leaders at every level of government will Spirit-filled, leading us with Godly wisdom and integrity; that they will  only pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit Americans today as well as future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.

SUPREME COURT: PRAY that the justices will only hand down decisions that are Constitutionally sound and in the best interests of our country now and for future generations.

World-Wide Prayer Requests:

1/1 - PRAISE GOD for the continuing recent successes against ISIS! Pray that coalition forces will be able to  fully destroy the leadership and infrastructure of ISIS.
*For believers in Syria and in this region as they navigate so much uncertainty. May they remain faithful to God through these most difficult times as He sustains them with peace and endurance. 

Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:To learn more, please go to -https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
June 27 | DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC) - Jadot Kasereka Mangwengwe, the director of a radio station in the North Kivu province, was recently kidnapped. Pray for lasting peace for civilians and pray for often-indoctrinated members of the rebel group Allied Democratic Forces.
*Names changed for security purposes

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STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM - OpenDoorsUSA.org

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.  2 Tim.y 4:16                                                 

SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHO SUFFER

The Apostle Paul knew exactly what it was like to be alone, to be deserted by all who called themselves “brothers” and “sisters.” A former colleague who has done considerable travel among the persecuted says, “It is hard to believe that Christians are the largest persecuted group in the world today. But it is even more difficult to believe that this is so seldom mentioned in our gatherings and church services. More Christians know the names of their favorite actors than their fellow believers who are in prison.”

He continues, “With every trip something in my heart breaks as I hear the echoes of suffering:

I remember the echoes of an Egyptian mother as she shared how her young boy was stuck in a haystack because she refused to deny Jesus.

I remember the sounds of weeping as fellow students in Indonesia shared how Sariman, their co-student, was hacked to death.

I remember the cries of anguish as we walked from church to church that was burned to the ground on the island of Lombok.

I remember the tears of Rebecca in Iran as she showed the picture of her father who was stabbed to death for sharing the gospel.

I remember the voice of Pastor Daniel in Vietnam as he shared how he was chained to the ground for six months.

I remember the fear of Grace from Sudan as she shared how her church was attacked and her friend was shot through the head.

Oh, I remember the cries of Caleb in Eritrea as he shared with tears how two dear friends were executed in front of him because of their faith.

And I remember the tears of Joy in the southern Philippines as she shared how her fiancé was shot to death in their church in Mindanao.

But, most all, I remember the deafening sounds of silence every time I return home.

RESPONSE

How can I be silent today? How can I not speak on behalf of those who suffer? How can I desert those that belong to the same body that I belong to and who desperately need the encouragement of my intervention on their behalf?

PRAYER
Lord, broaden my awareness of the needs of my suffering brothers and sisters. May I not be known for my silence.

#2353 (6/26) "What Lincoln Foresaw Would Occur If Maxine Waters, Others Got Their Way With Mob Justice"

"WHAT LINCOLN FORESAW WOULD OCCUR IF MAXINE WATERS, OTHERS GOT THEIR WAY WITH MOB JUSTICE" - Jarrett Stepman / @JarrettStepman / June 25, 2018 / https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/06/25/what-lincoln-foresaw-would-occur-if-maxine-waters-others-got-their-way-with-mob-justice [AS I SEE IT: Some might see this story as about the rant of one American official. But to realize that this call for acts of harassment and even  violence against those who disagree with you is not that uncommon. Over 30 years ago, I was at a peaceful pro-life effort outside an abortion clinic when someone walked up behind me and blew and air horn in my ear! Talk about painful! Another time, I was doing the same thing and a car suddenly came at me, trying to run me over! In other words, actions such as this is not new but it's not often that it's action called for by a public official. This kind of outburst should worry us as they give sanction to mob rule. (P.S. - If you read the daily prayer requests I post at the end of each day's post, you will not that it's often for Christians somewhere in the world being killed for simply being a Christian. You have to wonder if third world violence against those you disagree with is not far from coming to America!) - Stan] 

    At a rally Saturday, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called for harassment of Trump administration officials and other political opponents. (Photo: Brian Cahn/Zuma Press/Newscom)

     In 1836, at the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, a 28-year-old lawyer named Abraham Lincoln delivered one of his finest addresses. Lincoln condemned the sharp increase of mobs in America, which had exploded in number as the debate over slavery and regional animosity intensified. “Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the every-day news of the times,” Lincoln said. Many of these mobs had turned violent and subverted the law. They were undermining free government.

Calls for civility are sometimes vapid excuses to shut down political dissent. But what’s occurring now in America is not just heated debate at political rallies, it’s a surge in mob activity directed at political opponents in everyday life.
    In just the past few weeks we’ve seen the harassment of a Trump Cabinet member, Kirstjen Nielsen, at a District of Columbia restaurant.
    Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican, was, somewhat ironically, accosted as she left a movie about Fred Rogers, or “Mr. Rogers,” the nationally beloved children’s show host famous for welcoming people to his fictional neighborhood.
   These incidents were bad enough, but some are calling for much more. Over the weekend, the owners of a Virginia restaurant booted White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders because of her association with the Trump administration.

This incident provoked the debate over freedom of association, but then Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., stepped into the fray and made the situation worse. At a rally Saturday, the Los Angeles congresswoman called for mobs to go after political opponents wherever they may be.
    “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” Waters yelled. Waters also said in an interview with MSNBC: “I want to tell you, these members of [Trump’s] Cabinet who remain and try to defend him, they won’t be able to go to a restaurant, they won’t be able to stop at a gas station, they’re not going to be able to shop at a department store.”
    Some activists have grabbed hold of these recent incidents to call for more radical action. One writer on a left-wing blog, Splinter, went even further than Waters. In an article titled “This Is Just the Beginning,” he took the next big leap to essentially condoning outright violence:

Read a recent history book. The U.S. had thousands of domestic bombings per year in the early 1970s. This is what happens when citizens decide en masse that their political system is corrupt, racist, and unresponsive. The people out of power have only just begun to flex their dissatisfaction. The day will come, sooner that you all think, when Trump administration officials will look back fondly on the time when all they had to worry about was getting hollered at at a Mexican restaurant.

Of course, Lincoln in his Lyceum address begged to differ.
    “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law,” Lincoln said. “In any case that arises, as for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition of mob law either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.”

Some, even on the left, have been a little unnerved by calls for mobs, whether violent or nonviolent, to attack political foes in everyday life.
    “Those who are insisting that we are in a special moment justifying incivility should think for a moment how many Americans might find their own special moment,” The Washington Post said in an editorial. “How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?”

Her fellow Democrats have voiced some condemnation of Waters’ demand for mobs to harass political opponents. Much of this criticism has been muted, though.
    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did take to Twitter, calling such language “unacceptable,” but ultimately blamed President Donald Trump for the “provoked responses.”
    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., offered the strongest condemnation of Waters, saying that calling for harassment of political opponents is “not American.”

    One would hope that mob law and mob justice don’t become the norm, but we’ve already seen a steady uptick in the mentality that leads to that point. We’ve seen it with the mobs that descended on historic statues to illegally pulverize them in the name of social justice. Now the mobs are coming for living people.

This kind of ugliness is a bad sign for our future. Lincoln explained to his Springfield audience what could ultimately destroy the United States. “Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?” Lincoln asked. No, never.
     “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?” Lincoln asked again. “I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Passionate debates are good and healthy in a republic. There was never a “golden age of civility” when all Americans got along, nor should we necessarily desire one. Nevertheless, the ability to live together as free citizens in large part necessitates a respect for civil relations among us, where we look to persuasion and ballots to put our ideas in action, not brute intimidation of opponents.
The constitutional system the Founding Fathers built is strong, but it can’t survive when citizens en masse are ready to come to blows with one another on a semipermanent basis, are ready and willing to gin up mobs to go after one another for political disagreements. 

That system shattered in 1860, and ended with the bloodiest period in our nation’s history.
This sort of crackup may, in fact, be what some want, but it’s unlikely to end well for those who believe in free institutions in the United States.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

Jarrett Stepman is an editor and commentary writer for The Daily Signal and co-host of "The Right Side of History" podcast. Send an email to Jarrett.

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"Rep. Waters, You Are Sullying Martin Luther King’s Legacy" -  Derrick Hollie / @DJHollie / June 25, 2018; https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/06/25/rep-waters-you-are-sullying-martin-luther-kings-legacy/
   "...To hear these words coming from a black lawmaker—one who saw firsthand the trials of the civil rights movement—cuts me to the core. That’s because, as American leaders—particularly black American leaders—we cannot praise the beliefs of King on one day and incite violence the next.
We cannot preach the gospel of equality on Sunday and show hatred toward our brothers and sisters of a different political belief on Monday. We cannot criticize the violence shown against those on one side, while at the same time delighting in attacks on the other. Is that not a double standard?

#2352 (6/25) "Media Separated from Reality at Border"

"MEDIA SEPARATE FROM REALITY AT BORDER" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, June 22, 2018; https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA18F45&f=WU18F16

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     It's one thing to tell a story that tugs on people's heartstrings. It's quite another to manipulate that story to color people's view. Of course, the liberal media knows a thing or two about twisting the truth to suit their narrative. And, after days of posting gut-wrenching photos of children at the border, the facts are finally catching up with them. Turns out, the faces of the immigration debate aren't faces from this crisis at all!

Time magazine is one of the biggest offenders. Its latest cover, a crying toddler staring up at President Trump, was never separated from her mother at all. In what is turning out to be a major embarrassment for Time and the far-Left, the little girl's father went to the press to correct the story, insisting that she and her mom were never separated at the border. To its credit, the Washington Post outed the magazine and pointed out that, "The heart-wrenching image, captured by award-winning Getty Images photographer John Moore, was spread across the front pages of international newspapers. It was used to promote a Facebook fundraiser that has collected more than $18 million to help reunite separated families."

And Time isn't the only outlet taking liberties with the truth. Other outlets have been forced to apologize on air for using a photo of a caged little boy, after describing him as "ripped from the arms of their mother" by the president's immigration policy. The propaganda is so out of control that the New York Times took the rare step of shaming the Left in a column, "How Liberals Got Lost on the Story of Missing Children at the Border." Using a picture of two little boys in a cage as an example, reporter Amanda Taub explains, "This image has been widely shared on social media in recent days, offered as an example of the Trump administration's cruel policies toward immigrants, but in fact the picture was taken in 2014."

The real irony is this -- no one needs to manipulate the truth to horrify Americans about the situation. There are more than enough nightmarish stories to compel anyone to act -- and we should. You'd have to be the Tin Man not to be moved by what's happening to children before they even get to our borders. People at ground zero, like National Border Patrol Council spokesman Chris Cabrera, have seen enough to keep them awake every night of the week. On CNN, he explained the absolutely devastating impact our lawlessness has had on families.

"I don't think everybody understands what's happening down here. You know, a lot of these kids that are coming here, and put through terrible, terrible situations by their parents...When you see a 12-year-old girl with a Plan B pill, or their parents put her on birth control because they know getting violated is part of the journey, that's just a terrible way to live. When you see a four-year-old girl traveling completely alone with just her parents' phone number written across her shirt. I mean, come on now... We had a nine-year-old boy last year have heat stroke in front of us and die with no family around..."

    Why? Because our refusal to enforce our laws has encouraged parents to gamble with their children's lives. And despite the media's anti-Trump drumbeat, the majority of Americans still hold the parents responsible. When families are arrested and separated after attempting to enter the United States illegally, Rasmussen reports, "54 percent of likely U.S. voters say the parents are more to blame for breaking the law... [O]nly 35 percent believe the federal government is more to blame for enforcing the law. Eleven percent are not sure."

In the wake of President Trump's executive order, which makes clear that compassion and upholding the law are not incompatible, you would think there would be political goodwill that could be used to address the overarching issue. Not so. Congressional Democrats aren't interested in a solution. They're interested in bypassing immigration laws altogether, regardless of the lives it costs and the havoc it wreaks.

But if they think the American people are on board with that approach, they're mistaken. By a 3-to-1 margin, they reject Obama's "catch and release" program, which essentially apprehends people at the border and then releases them into the country with a court date that they may or may not ignore. Even Democratic voters don't agree with the idea, barely giving it 30 percent support.

The compassionate solution is not the status quo. This has, as Donald Trump pointed out, been going on for many decades. "Whether it was President Bush, President Obama, President Clinton -- same policies. They can't get them changed because both sides are always fighting... This is maybe a great chance to have a change." He's right -- if liberal leaders will set aside their political games long enough to pursue it.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

#2351 (6/24) SUNDAY SPECIAL:"C. S. Lewis, the Great War, and the Road to Narnia Finding Our Deepest Longings"

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"C. S. LEWIS, THE GREAT WAR, AND THE ROAD TO NARNIA - FINDING OUR DEEPEST LONGINGS" - by Eric Metaxas and Anne Morse, Brekapoint.org, June 15, 2018; http://www.breakpoint.org/2018/06/breakpoint-c-s-lewis-the-great-war-and-the-road-to-narnia-2/?key=facebook

     Did you know the road to Narnia began in the trenches of France during World War I?  

One hundred years ago this spring, a ferocious battle raged in in the French village Riez du Vinage. Amidst the savage German bombardment, a shell exploded near a young British lieutenant, plunging shrapnel into his body. The soldier—an atheist named Clive Staples Lewis—survived, and went on to write many books on Christian apologetics—books that would likely not have been written had he not known the horrors of warfare. As my friend Joe Loconte writes in National Review, “The experience of war would transform [Lewis], launching him on a spiritual journey that culminated . . . in his conversion to Christianity.”

That transformation began with mechanized butchery on an unprecedented scale. Lewis, a lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry, spent five miserable months in the trenches. He later described “the frights, the cold, the smell of [high explosives], the horribly smashed men still moving like half-crushed beetles, the sitting or standing corpses.”

By war’s end, most of Lewis’s friends lay dead, and in the years that followed, the West became disillusioned with war. But for Lewis, as Loconte writes, “the war and its aftermath seemed to have stirred [his] spiritual longings.”  Traveling by train to a London hospital, the wounded lieutenant “was seized by a sense of the transcendent as he beheld the natural beauty of the English countryside.” Lewis later described this experience to a friend, writing, “You see the conviction is gaining ground on me that after all Spirit does exist. I fancy that there is Something right outside time and place….”

This transformation continued through new friendships at Oxford, where Lewis taught English literature. J.R.R. Tolkien, a Catholic who had also fought on the Western Front, shared Lewis’s love for ancient myths and the “truth” hidden within them. Lewis read philosophy, and books explaining the nature of atonement and of God Himself. Lewis told a friend, “Now that I have found, and am still finding more and more of the element of truth in the old beliefs I feel I cannot dismiss, there must be something in it, only what?”

Loconte writes that in Christianity, Lewis found “an explanation for his deepest longings, the desire for joy.” In the Gospel, he found “a vision of God’s grace as well as his holiness. Here, in the life and teachings of Jesus, was ‘the only comfort’ as well as ‘the supreme terror.’”

As horrific as the Great War was, for Lewis, the experience “helped [him] to imagine the mythical Narnia, a kingdom that bears the wounds—and the consolations—of a world at war,” Loconte explains. “The noble king, Aslan the Great Lion, is both a warrior and a peacemaker.”

In the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia, “The Last Battle,” a character joyfully announces: “This is my real country! This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.”

The story of Lewis and his wartime experiences reminds us that God can bring good even out of terrible tragedy, as the First World War was: It killed nearly ten million soldiers. But it ignited a spiritual quest for a man whose books about good and evil, war and peace, have been read by more than 100 million people.

And that in turn reminds us that great literature about the battle between good and evil can and does point people to Christ, because they can stir up a longing for transcendence. By creating imaginary worlds, as Lewis did in The Chronicles of Narnia, or Tolkien did in Lord of the Rings, authors can give us imaginary glimpses of heaven—which helps prepare us for the real heaven.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES - Read Joe Loconte’s inspiring article about C. S. Lewis, linked here. And discover (or re-discover) the amazing storytelling of C. S. Lewis, the Oxford professor who penned many of Christianity’s great books. Check out the online bookstore to find “The Chronicles of Narnia” and all of Lewis’s other writings.
"C. S. Lewis and the Great War" - Joseph Loconte | National Review | April 15, 2018; https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/cs-lewis-wwi-experiences-atheist-path-to-christianity/
The Chronicles of Narnia, 7 Volumes: Full-Color Collector's Edition- C. S. Lewis | HarperCollins Publishing - https://colsoncenter.christianbook.com/chronicles-narnia-volumes-full-collectors-edition/c-s-lewis/9780064409391/pd/09395?event=EBRN

#2350 (6/23) PRO-LIFE SAT: "Making Abortion Unthinkable Even More Important than Making It Illegal

MAKING ABORTION UNTHINKABLE - EVEN MORE IMPRORTANT THAN MAKING  IT ILLEGAL" - by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, Breakpoint.org, June 11, 2018; http://www.breakpoint.org/2018/06/breakpoint-making-abortion-unthinkable/?key=facebook [AS I SEE IT: If you've followed my comments on abortion, you know that I have long said what this article does, though this article does give even more reason for the argument. I believe that abortion will always be with us in America in some form, even if the Roe decision is finally overturned. Women (and those responsible for pressuring them) must recognize the evil of abortion as the solution to their pregnancy "problem." They must finally recognize that the "problem" - no matter how undeveloped - is still a human being. Those involved must choose life and not death as the answer to their problem, not mater how complicated it makes their lives. That's why I am encouraged by polls that are telling us that more and more Milleniels are NOT choosing abortion. We can only pray that as more and more of this and future generations are exposed to the truth of the pro-life message, they will ultimately make the RIGHT choice. - Stan]

    To quote a friend: The goal of the pro-life movement should be to make abortion unthinkable–not just illegal. Let me explain why.

Ever since Roe v. Wade, and especially in recent years, pro-lifers are making dramatic legislative gains in restricting abortion. Thank God for that. But we should never lose sight of the fact that the ultimate goal is to change hearts and minds, not just laws.

    Why this distinction matters was illustrated in a recent op-ed in the New York Times. As you might guess, especially from the title, “What Happens When Abortion is Banned,” the piece was not a ringing endorsement of the pro-life position. Still, the author, law professor Michelle Oberman, made some points we need to hear.  She points to Latin America as a harbinger for what might happen if abortion becomes illegal in parts of the United States. Specifically she cited two countries, El Salvador, where abortion is banned without exception, and Chile, where the same was true until just last year.

As Oberman wrote, when she visited Chile in 2008, she “expected to find hospitals overflowing with dying women,” victims of back-alley doctors and self-inflicted abortion attempts. But she found no such thing.The reason was the ready availability of abortifacients, what Oberman called a “revolution that has replaced back alleys with blister packs ordered online.” She continues, “Abortifacient drugs have become so readily available in places like Chile and El Salvador that today it is impossible to enforce abortion bans.”
    They’re “readily available” because they “cost pennies to make” and the most commonly-used one, misoprostol, is also used to treat stomach ulcers. While misoprostol alone is “less effective” (i.e., less lethal to the unborn child) than the combination used in the United States, when used in the first trimester it induces an abortion ninety-percent of the time. Thus, in Brazil, where abortion is illegal in most instances, these drugs are estimated to result in half a million abortions every year.

Oberman’s right about one very important thing: Legally banning abortion is not the same thing as ending it. Which means: if and when—Please God!—Roe v. Wade is overturned, the battle will be far from over.
    For starters, legally speaking, the issue of abortion most likely will be returned to the states. That’s when the political battle will begin in earnest as states debate whether if and/or under what circumstances abortion will be legal within their boundaries. Some large states, such as California and New York, will probably preserve something akin to the status quo. Others likely will not.
   But complicating all of this will be the increased use of abortifacients in place of surgery. By some estimates, the number of drug-induced abortions nearly matches the number of surgical abortions in the United States. And that number will likely continue to grow. This means that two of the most potent tools we possess—protesting at abortion clinics and stigmatizing abortionists—will become less relevant as surgery is replaced by a prescription.

So the battle to protect unborn human life will not be won, at least primarily, in the courts or legislatures. It will be won, as Chuck Colson used to say, over the backyard fence and at barbecues. Through pregnancy care centers, pro-life student groups, trained conversationalists, good books, and raising our own children to respect life.

That is, it will be won when Christians all join in to persuade others that each and every human life, from conception to natural death, is worthy of our protection. Persuade them of this and we’re well on the way to making abortion unthinkable, and whatever you can purchase online irrelevant.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES - While the trend in abortion procedures is moving away from surgery and toward prescription drugs, our goal as believers remains the same: persuading our culture that the taking of innocent human life is wrong, no matter how it is done. Join your local pro-life organization in working toward the goal of making abortion unthinkable.
"Abortion by prescription now rivals surgery for U.S. women" - Jilian Mincer | Reuters.com | October 31, 2016; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-abortion-exclusive-idUSKBN12V0CC?utm_sour%20ce=twitter&utm_medium=Social
The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture- Scott Klusendorf | Crossway Publishers | 2009; https://colsoncenter.christianbook.com/case-life-equipping-christians-engage-culture/scott-klusendorf/9781433503207/pd/503207?event=ESRCG