Mike’s Mix For Your Weekend Reading – April 11-12

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This weekend the weather forecast is for sunshine and temperatures in the 60’s – very nice for Ohio. I hope your weather is as nice. If so, take time to get outside and enjoy it. Don’t forget to feed your spirit and mind this weekend as well.

Some articles I recently read include:

Jared Moore encourages pastors and church leaders to stay the course through self-reflection in When They Won’t Follow Your Leadership

Thom Rainer hits the nail on the head with One Sentence That Pastors and Church Staff Hate to Hear

Praying for other pastors and churches has become such a foreign idea in so many churches that when we do pray for one another as we are commanded to do, people assume something is wrong in that other church. Eric Bancroft candidly leads us to a better understanding of our Kingdom responsibilities toward others in 5 Reasons to Pray for Other Churches

Parents – do you have any idea what the text message you found on your child’s phone means?  Here’s a list of texting abbreviations that will help you decipher the code. Essential texting acronyms every parent must know

Finally, over at The Federalist Sean Davis hits a home run with his piece entitled, Men Without Chests; How C.S. Lewis Predicted Charlie Hebdo Censorship.

Enjoy your weekend friends.

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5 NASB

*As always, references in my blog do not constitute full and unqualified endorsement of everything you might find on another blog site. Be Bereans folks. Acts 17:11

Be Offensive In Love (Part 5)

Thus says the Lord of hosts,“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the Lord. “They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’ Jeremiah 23:16-17

Friends, we have been discussing the changing cultural norms in America in this five-part series. We started this conversation by observing that tolerance has been redefined to exclude the original idea of freedom of expression to the now sacrosanct notion of celebrating every behavior as normal and right.  This new freedom does not include the freedom to disagree so it is really just freedom to walk in lock-step with the prevailing enlightened ideals of those opposed to historic, biblical Christianity. Clearly this is not freedom in any sane, logical, rational sense but merely Orwellian double-speak.

What does this mean for Christian evangelism?  It means that Christians need to sharpen their minds and focus on exactly what it is we are trying to speak to our neighbors and friends.  Old techniques of evangelism don’t work for the simple reason that people don’t see anything “good” about the Gospel.  For the most part all they hear are do’s and don’ts. This leaves us needing to rethink our approach.  In other words why is the gospel good news to those we want to speak to?

It is precisely at this point that the Gospel is most clearly seen as relevant to every culture, time, and place.  You see, the problems mankind has wrestled with and sought answers to – namely where is hope to be found, can I find acceptance for who I am, who will love me truly and intimately, and even where can I find tolerance for my views – are all wrapped up in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hope is found in our new identity in Christ, an identity that He hand picks for each of us as His special creation. Acceptance is found in the unfathomable grace we experience as God accepts us in Christ and declares us holy and just in His eyes.  Intimacy is found in the midst of an ongoing love that lifts us up in every circumstance. Finally, even tolerance as the present world defines it is turned upside down as Jesus Christ shows us how to love those different from us and yet remain faithful to proclaim the truth that Christ alone saves.

Friends, don’t be dismayed by the current condition of the American culture. See instead great opportunity to share why the Gospel is great news for everyone.  It truly is a transforming truth.

Be Offensive In Love (Part 3)

Thus says the Lord of hosts,“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the Lord. “They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’ Jeremiah 23:16-17

In this series we have been discussing the subject of Christian evangelism that has come into direct conflict with an American culture that believes it is wrong to suggest there are moral absolutes. Tolerance has been hijacked and true to Orwellian prophecy has become a double-speak of the highest order.

Intolerance is now state sanctioned. Did that statement startle you?  If so what I want you to do now is ask yourself why you are startled by that comment.  Saying that intolerance, specifically intolerance toward Christians and Christianity is now a government mandated practice is easily proven from the abundant evidence all around us.

Examples are plentiful. For many years now, the federally funded National Endowment for the Arts has financially supported all expressions of art that serve no other purpose than to desecrate Christian symbols and sensitivities.  Compared to other examples this now seems tame.

The US Government’s continues to purge our military of chaplains who insist on praying in Jesus name while simultaneously increasing the number of Islamic imams and Wiccan leadership who denounce Jesus Christ; the suspension of teachers who attempt to teach creation or who dare speak of evolution as theory, and the now notoriously famous re-education of Christians who have refused to cow-tow to political correctness run amok and have stood instead on their convictions that certain behavior is sinful now matter how much government cover and celebratory nonsense it is shrouded in.

Of far more concern than our government’s predictable behavior however, is the behavior of much of the Church.  Pastor, author, and theologian John Stott succinctly describes the present delusion of the church: “Tolerance is not a spiritual gift; it is the distinguishing mark of postmodernism; and sadly, it has permeated the very fiber of Christianity. Why is it that those who have no biblical convictions or theology to govern and direct their actions are tolerated and the standard or truth of God’s Word rightly divided and applied is dismissed as extreme opinion or legalism?”

That is the question we will answer next.  Look for Part 4 of “Be Offensive in Love” soon.

Jeremy Gimpel Tuesday, February 17th at Calvary Chapel of Lima

Mark your calendars friends. Tuesday, February 17 at 7p – Jeremy Gimpel will be speaking at Calvary Chapel of Lima. Join us to hear what is happening in Israel. You won’t hear this from the American news media.

Jeremy is a Commander in the IDF Reserves, rabbi, former co-host of the popular TV show “Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem,” and current co-host of the radio show “Israel Inspired” with his best friend Ari Abramowitz on Voice of Israel. Jeremy is deputy director of the World Mizrachi Movement, and is a well-known and sought after speaker concerning the land and people of Israel. You won’t want to miss this inspiring night!

Jeremy Gimpel

The Real Roots of School Violence by Tom DeWeese

In the brave new world of the very near future, children will enter their public schools passing police checkpoints, surveillance cameras, metal detectors, X-ray scanners and warrantless physical searches. Parents will relax, knowing their child is now “SAFE.” No violent evil doers will be able to get past that wall of security.

But what none of the checkpoints, scanners and cameras will detect is the child who walks right past, armed to the teeth with a hidden weapon actually enforced on him by the school itself. The weapon comes in many names and varieties: Ritlin, Luvox, Prozac, Zoloft, Cymbalta, Paxil, and more. Each weapon lovingly loaded into their child by concerned parents before they send them off to their “safe” school. And while the child’s backpack and pockets are checked by the armed force on the way in, the pharmaceutical poison is building up in his blood system, racing to the brain like a lit dynamite fuse.

As communities reel from one massive act of student violence after another, most recently in Newtown, Connecticut, the nation looks for answers. How many are looking at the schools themselves as the conduit through which millions of students are drugged with mind-altering drugs?

Some history. In 1965, the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), changed education forever as the seeds for today’s massive restructuring -away from academics to behavior modification – began. It was psychology’s crowning moment. The ESEA allocated massive federal funds and opened school doors to a flood of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and the psychiatric programs and testing needed to validate them. The number of educational psychologists in the U.S. increased from 455 in 1969 to 16,146 in 1992. As of 1994, child psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and special educators in and around U.S. public schools nearly out-number teachers.

To date, there has never been issued a single peer- reviewed scientific paper officially claiming to prove ADD/ ADHD exists. Nor has there ever been a single bit of physical evidence to confirm the disease exists. So-called experts on the subject have refused to answer the simple question, “is ADD/ ADHD a real disease?” Medical researchers charge that ADHD does not meet the medical definition of a disease or syndrome or anything organic or biologic.

Yet, in 1991, eligibility rules for federal education grants were changed to provide schools with $400 in annual grant money for each child diagnosed with ADHD. That same year the Department of Education formally recognized ADHD as a handicap and directed all state education officers to establish procedures to screen and identify ADHD children and provide them with special education and psychological services. As a result, the number of ADD/ADHD cases soared again.

Today more than 7,000,000 children have been labeled, tamped and registered as permanent patients of the school system. 10 to 12 percent of all boys between the ages of 6 and 14 in the United States have been diagnosed as having ADD. One in every 30 Americans between the ages of 5 and 19 years old has a prescription for Ritalin. And the fuse burns as the “patients” sit in the classroom.

AS THE USE OF PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS RISE – SO TOO DO CHILD SUICIDES

Children are dying. Not just in shootings, but in rising incidents of suicide. Here are some details:

A November 1997 medical report found: “The association between benzodiazephine use and attempted suicide is especially high for…the young, and for males…” In the April 1996 Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, a study found that “the older tricyclic antidepressants are a significant cause of suicide” and accounted for the majority of antidepressant deaths studied between 1986 and 1990.

A December 1996 French study entitled, “Suicide and psychotropic drugs,” established that “suicide attempts are more frequent among patients taking antidepressants…”

In Denmark, with a huge usage of psychotropic drugs, the suicide rate is twice the rate of that in the United States…
In the U.S., teen suicides have tripled since 1960; today, suicide is the second leading cause of death…

In Israel, between 1981 and 1994, the estimated suicide rate for 15- to 19-year-old Jewish boys increased by about 183 percent. (Tellingly, the suicide rate dropped 10 percent during a 1997 period when Israel’s psychologists went on strike.)

Australia’s suicide rate increased between 1960 and 1967 when legislation was passed to enable a person to obtain multiple prescriptions for sedatives. When the law was modified in 1967 to restrict the practice, there was a decrease in per capita sedative usage and a decline in suicide rates.

Are we hearing an outcry from that tragedy? Are there calls for stopping, banning, regulating the use of these mind- altering drugs? Is the pharmaceutical industry being called on the carpet? Are there emergency congressional hearings being held to showcase the heads of big pharma as murdering criminals? Not on your life.

As the nation is outraged over the school shootings, demanding that something be done, guns become the target, not the drugs that filled the child’s mind with delusions to take such horrific action. Meanwhile the gun sits innocently in the corner, unmoving, unable to cause damage – until the real loaded weapon – the drugged student – picks it up.

View the full list with detailed information on the connection between drugs and school shootings

© 2013 Tom DeWeese – All Rights Reserved


Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence.

A native of Ohio, he’s been a candidate for the Ohio Legislature, served as editor of two newspapers, and has owned several businesses since the age of 23. In 1989 Tom led the only privately-funded election-observation team to the Panamanian elections. In 2006 Tom was invited to Cambridge University to debate the issue of the United Nations before the Cambridge Union, a 200 year old debating society. Today he serves as Founder and President of the American Policy Center and editor of The DeWeese Report

For 40 years Tom DeWeese has been a businessman, grassroots activist, writer and publisher. As such, he has always advocated a firm belief in man’s need to keep moving forward while protecting our Constitutionally-guaranteed rights.

The DeWeese Report , 70 Main Street, Suite 23, Warrenton Virginia. (540) 341-8911

E-Mail: admin@americanpolicy.org

E-Mail: ampolicycenter@hotmail.com

Website: www.americanpolicy.org

Originally published January 21, 2013
NewsWithViews.com