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In my early twenties, I was told I couldn’t defend what I believed. My faith was challenged. I was asked some difficult questions. My defensive response was proof that this person was right. I couldn’t correctly defend my Christian beliefs. I could barely define certain core principles of my faith. One of the reasons was I had never questioned my beliefs. I was thankful for the spiritual heritage that I was given, but I failed to make it my own. But at the root of it all, I was defensive when challenged because I had not properly studied the Word of God.

Over time, I began to seek the answers to my questions and measure everything against the standard of God’s Word. I even tried to question the things I really didn’t doubt. Like, why did I feel an assurance of my salvation? Why am I confident in my identity in Christ?

Taking the time to properly evaluate my faith and spending time in the Bible was just about me and God. I didn’t look to outside sources because the one thing I did know was where I could find those answers. At times, Scripture led me to different conclusions on theology. I even had to unlearn things that were not biblically based but denominationally driven. Many times, it led me to ask God’s forgiveness and repent for ways I didn’t love as Jesus taught. And repeatedly, Scripture reminded me what a gift the gospel is to me and why I can confidently say I am a follower of Jesus Christ.

Eventually, I came to a place of assurance in my salvation. There was no need to become defensive because profound confidence came from digging deeper and contemplating my doubts and questions with God alone. He met me with every question and doubt. He still meets me with my questions. And I am still learning and growing in Him daily.

Today, there are many walking away or deconstructing their faith. Most deconstruct from the point of hurt or bitterness from the church. I feel for them. Church hurt cuts deep. It feels like the ultimate betrayal next to marriage betrayal. Others deconstruct because they see the Bible and Christianity as irrelevant to living in today’s culture. Others see Christianity as a standard that they feel they can never measure up to. Ultimately, everyone has a different reason for walking away.

I understand all those reasons. But all those doubts and questions are starting points to construct your faith or perhaps, like me, reevaluate and measure based on Scripture. In their book The Deconstruction of Christianity, Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett get to the root of this new deconstruction movement. In many ways, it’s a new term but an ancient idea. 

Deconstructed beliefs nearly always begin with questions. It’s not that questions are bad. Questions can be good. Jesus himself asked over three hundred of them in the Gospels alone. But not all questions are honest questions. When it comes to faith, some questions seek answers, and some questions seek exits. There are questions that seek after truth, but other questions seek to avoid truth.

Looking back, I wonder if that person who challenged me about my beliefs wanted me to take the exit route. Regardless, I am grateful that he called me out to seek after the truth.

Do we give enough space in the church to ask our questions and bring our doubts? Do we challenge each other in discipleship to define and defend our biblical worldview? There is no fear in questioning if we genuinely pursue the One who provides those answers. Understanding what I believed became a confidence—I know “my God, in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:2).  

I came out on the other side with more assurance of my faith but with much more empathy for the doubters and those stuck in all the hurt. I am drawn to the people in the deconstruction movement, which is why I read Childer’s and Barnett’s book. I’ve seen my fair share of hypocrisy in the church. I’ve witnessed spiritual manipulation and spiritual pride. I have seen loved ones hurt by church leaders. But if I attempt to elevate myself above all those whom I reject because they don’t represent my “brand” of Christianity, that’s pride and puts my faith (or non-faith) in a category that looks nothing like righteousness.

The apostle Paul talks about our unrighteousness (Romans 3), but at the same time he shows how valuable we are in the sight of God. So valuable that God offered up His Son on the cross to forgive our sins. Why would I want to take the exit off that redemption path? When Christians or the church let me down, I go back to the Source that connects me to my faith. Every time God meets me. Following Christ is dying to self; part of that is laying down our hurt and bitterness and forgiving those who have hurt us. When you experience that letting go, it’s incredible how much freedom in Christ you gain.

The Deconstruction of Christianity is an important book for the church today. I think every Christian should read it to know how to respond to those who are walking away. But sometimes, a book can trigger a memory. It reminded me of the person who led me to question my beliefs and find the answer: the gift of my salvation. But the book also calls me to be a disciple maker of Jesus Christ and to love those who have been hurt by the church and those who have done the hurting.  

I leave you with Tim Barnett’s message of hope that resonates with me:

I still have lots of questions. Christianity isn’t tidy, and neither is the church. As long as there is a church, there will be church hurt. As long as there is cursed creation, there will be suffering. As long as there is mystery, there will be unanswered questions. But as long as there is a risen Savior, there is hope.

I am so thankful for that hope in my life!

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Several weeks before the start of 2023, I felt this undeniable nudging of the Holy Spirit. I felt it before, but I always had an excuse not to listen. Take a break. Pull yourself away. I kept returning to that still, small voice telling me to “fast” social media. I put “fast” in quotes because I don’t want to compare this fast in any way with the fasting described in the Bible. Breaking from digital platforms is in no way an equal comparison. But after being on social media for about 16 years, it would be a sacrifice in some way to go cold turkey. I have taken breaks before, but this was different. This was a clear direction to break away from all my accounts for one year. So, on January 1, 2023, I quietly stepped away.

I felt this calling for a sense of revival in my spiritual life. Merriam-Webster defines revival as “a renewed attention to or interest in something.” I needed a renewal in my heart, so I committed to becoming more rooted in God’s Word. Rooted was my word for 2023, and Colossians 2:6-7 would be my guide: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in Thanksgiving.”

I started a chronological reading of the Bible without any distractions during my devotional time. More times than not, I would sit down with my Bible but first check my social apps. Before I knew it, an hour or more had gone by. My time with God in His Word was often neglected by being consumed with scrolling the views of the world. I needed to make a clean break from the digital world and soak in the pages of the Bible. I started from the beginning in the book of Genesis. If God’s story defines my worldview, I had to be obedient and revive it with a renewed interest.

It Starts with His Word

I can’t explain it but my soul needed this fast. As a freelance writer and editor, the Bible is often the focus or reference of my work. But God’s Word often felt dry and dull. It was the resource I pulled off the shelf instead of what should be the lifeblood of my work. I hardly recognized it, but that quiet Holy Spirit nudge to break away was just what I needed to acknowledge that the roots of my faith were rotting out from under me. God wanted me to be obedient to nurture those roots and build my relationship with Him—starting with His Word.

A healthy tree that rises from the ground with a firm trunk and multiple branches fanning its leaves across the sky must be equally supported by a strong root system.  The 19th-century minister Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached about taking proactive measures to nurture one’s spiritual life. “They tell me there is as much of a tree under as above ground,” Spurgeon said, “and certainly it is so with the believer; his visible life would soon wither if not for his secret life.” The secret life Spurgeon was referring to was not to hide it from the world but to keep my time with God sacred. As a believer that sacred time develops a firm foundation. It is a call of obedience to holiness and, hopefully, a heart revival.

In 2022, the American Bible Society released its State of the Bible report describing an “unprecedented drop in the percentage of Bible users in the United States.” More Americans are becoming disengaged with the Word of God, and according to the study, only ten percent of U.S. adults use the Bible daily. That was me—I was becoming more and more disengaged. Don’t misunderstand; I had my Bible open at church on Sunday and almost daily found a quick scripture reference to try and apply to my life. But it fell in line with more of my to-do list. Bible reading: check. A quick prayer: check. On with my day. God was saying, “No, I want more of you, Julie.” So I carved out my mornings—away from social media—and each day the Bible became more alive to me than ever before.

It’s Not About Me

My reading time slowly developed into a habit, but I also changed how I read the Bible. This time, I stopped looking for myself in Scripture. What? It sounds crazy, but I heard a podcaster say she really didn’t comprehend the Bible until she stopped looking for the answers to her life and just read it to understand the character of God. “Stop looking for yourself in Scripture. Look to understand God.” I knew this would be difficult, and I would have to rewire my brain in how I read the Bible. But the more I read from this perspective, the more God revealed His character to me.

The Bible is not a story about me. It’s about God. Previously, I would bring my thoughts, preconceptions, and feelings into Scripture and often found it difficult to understand many passages of the Bible. But when I solely concentrated on looking for God’s character through the chronological story, I found a God who is constantly yearning for a relationship with His creation—including me. When I stopped looking for answers in Scripture, I found them and Him. Oh, how I treasure His Word in my heart!

Applying the Bible to our lives is important, but not until we read—cover to cover—and unlock the mystery of God and His character. It feels as if I have spent a lifetime reading devotionals, attending women’s Bible studies and conferences, and getting bits and pieces of God’s Word. But this year, when I committed to reading the Bible daily, without commentary or a well-meaning application, I began to be genuinely rooted in God’s Word.

The best analogy of this is I remember visiting a store with handcrafted quilts. There was a quilt folded over a wooden rack. Each square of the quilt was beautifully embroidered with a unique image. There were animals, trees, flowers, and water scenes. Each block on the quilt revealed these amazing intricate designs. But when I lifted the quilt off the rack, it revealed all those images depicting one seamless landscape. That quilter intentionally crafted every square with a bigger picture in mind. That’s the Bible; every author, book, chapter, and verse was intentionally designed to reveal God’s story to humankind.

Stop looking for yourself in Scripture. Look to understand God. — Tara-Leigh Cobble

 

A Lifelong Journey

So, here I am, nearly twelve months into my chronological journey through the Bible. I have grown in biblical knowledge, yet I have so much more to learn. There were days when the Bible became alive to me with greater understanding. And there were days when confusion was the theme of my day’s reading. But Scripture reading is a lifelong journey. It’s the relationship tool to know God. Those pages are taking root, and it’s up to me to nurture that growth.

It is humbling to write this part because I must admit I let social media cut in on my sacred time. If I had not been on social media platforms, other things might have overshadowed my time with God instead. But I am grateful for that gentle tug to step away. Shutting down the distractions was God’s gentle reminder to commit to His voice. I had to ask myself: Do I put Him in a place of prominence in my life? Do I idolize and strive for other things more than Him? It was only through quieting the voices around me that I heard His voice calling me to a deeper relationship with Him. God was reawakening in me a habit of daily aligning with Him. The same habit He taught to the Israelites—the practice where our identity is found in Him and Him alone.

With all this rooting and renewing, I think I have a treasure trove of things to share and blog about. I have asked God whether He is rooting me in His Word for a specific purpose. I haven’t received an answer. But for now, my Bible reading continues. I decided to concentrate on the Old Testament in 2023. So now I’ll venture into the New Testament in 2024, where the plot thickens and God’s redemption story is revealed. I am grateful that God was mindful of me in 2023. The time I have spent in His Word has been invaluable. Over the years, I let the habit of neglect uproot far too much. I never want to take His Word for granted again.

(Adapted from a previous article in Faith Family Freedom magazine)

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Have you ever blamed the church?

I have.

It used to be my go-to response to the ills of society. Abortion, drug addiction, poverty, pornography…no matter the issue, my response was, “If only pastors addressed these topics from the pulpit. If only churches had ministries to help those hurting and in need. If there’s a problem, then the church must fix it.”

I was wrong.

It took a gentle conviction by the Holy Spirit to whisper in my ear, “Julie, you are my church. Do your part.”

Ouch, that hurt. But that nudge gave me the right perspective I needed.

I was so busy blaming the church as a whole that I failed to realize I was doing very little myself to be the light of Christ to those around me. Matthew 5:14 says, “You [me!] are the light of the world.”

I preface this for this last part of this blog series. Susan has let us into her family’s struggle with her daughter’s transgender identity. If you are reading this for the first time, you can read from the beginning here, here, and here.

I have asked Susan how we, as Christians and the church, should respond to the transgender issue. I encourage you—the reader— not to take a critical reaction to “the church” or your place of worship. But to see yourself as the body of Christ in how to respond and be a light in an increasingly dark world. Sometimes all it takes is one person to magnify that light and to embolden a church community to respond biblically and compassionately to a family or person in need.

From your perspective, where is the church on this issue regarding transgenderism?

The LGBTQ issues that society is dealing with today are usually handled in two different ways in the church community. Either they attack it with anger and fury from behind the pulpit, or it is taboo and not spoken of. Neither of these is a healthy balance. Many behind the pulpit preach anger because they feel out of control or uncomfortable with the subject. Of course, there are probably churches with a balanced approach, but I haven’t found them.

The heart of the struggle for us was that we felt so totally isolated and alone. Although it may not be that way for some people, as Christian parents, we knew the only way for us to approach this issue with our daughter was according to God’s will. We are no longer part of an organized church but are involved with a small group of believers that meet together several times a week. We opened up to our small group only because we knew them well enough to trust them with our situation. We share this heartache and pray for one another.

But to be quite honest, none of the people or church leadership from any of our former organized churches knows anything about what we are dealing with, and I am quite happy to keep it that way. My “mama bear” comes out even thinking about the possibility of Grace having to deal with the trauma of rejection by the church.  I truly believe that most people dealing with any of the issues surrounding the LGBTQ lifestyle live their life daily EXPECTING to be attacked by the church, not loved as Jesus would love. “Just cast the demons out of them; they will be fine” seems to be the motto of those we once worshipped with.

How should the church respond in a balanced way?

Churches can’t take a strong, forceful approach in dealing with the LGBTQ because that is what they are expecting those in the church to do.  If we kick them out or shun them, start looking over the obituaries because you’ll probably see some familiar faces that have passed through your doors. I’ve been there, done that.  It hurts, and it still stings when I hear of others experiencing the same thing. Where is God in this equation? It seems they are doing all the work for the Holy Spirit and leaving very little room for genuine conviction and repentance.

Yes, the Bible tells us it is a sin. But it doesn’t tell us this in a hateful way. So many people are being wounded with the bullets that come out from behind the pulpits and platforms. If we preach to the congregation as if EVERYONE was wounded and personally dealing with that particular issue, it might be dealt with in love and compassion.

Please understand, I don’t condone this lifestyle, and I can only speak from our personal experience. But quite honestly, our personal experience and way of dealing with this is difficult, but there is progress. Grace expects rejection, and she will walk away from rejection. She will turn to where she is celebrated. We couldn’t blast her with things like her lifestyle is taking her to hell or that she is out of God’s will, etc. She knows we don’t approve and that we will never compromise our faith and beliefs. However, we have finally won her trust, and she listens. She has begun to bend. She is acknowledging that she is worthy of God’s unconditional love. And He is showing her in HUGE ways that He loves her.

But when you have to deal with it first hand in your family, with your child, perspective changes drastically. God told us, “With love and gentleness, she will be won over.” The hardest thing was to let go and let God. He knows Grace better than anyone on this earth. He knows her innermost thoughts and torments and knows exactly how and when to deal with them. How much better would it be if the church would follow this instead of rushing in trying to fix everything because it’s an embarrassment and a smear on the face of God.

Grace isn’t an embarrassment to God. She doesn’t make Him look bad. God doesn’t need our help defending His reputation. He chooses the foolish to confound the wise. But as long as we cater to the “wise” (or rich, influential, or famous), we can’t heal the wounded. The wounded are our greatest warriors. And that’s what we’ve been doing with Grace, showing her the value of her life, God’s love, and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work.

I’ve made some mistakes along the way, especially when we first began to deal with Grace’s problems a few years ago. These mistakes cost us trust, respect, and open communication with her. She is still fearful that we may make those mistakes again, but I had to apologize many times over to her and gain her trust. She is still the walking wounded from many situations. But she is more open in her communication with us and has made such progress.  However, I had to admit that I made those mistakes and regret the hurt and fear I caused her. Maybe this is what we need in the church?

What is your advice to a parent or the Christian community to understand how to minister to someone struggling with transgender identity?

It can only be approached with true agape love. I don’t think I could have helped anyone dealing with this because I didn’t have the experience of loving a beautiful soul like Grace as intensely as I do. Seeing her pain and confusion broke my heart. God is near to those with a broken and contrite heart. I didn’t know where to turn at the beginning of this journey. We kept it to ourselves for over a year. There was no help available, so we had to create our own support… to cry out to God for guidance. It took many late nights praying and quite a bit of pen to paper writing notes and things God would tell me. There are still times when the sting of reality hurts, but these are the key points we gained:

  • Love her unconditionally
  • God is in control and resist the temptation to “fix” things (be still and know He is God)
  • With love and gentleness, she will be redeemed from this
  • Respond, never react
  • Listen to the Holy Spirit, speak when He says speak, and be quiet when He says to be quiet
  • Give Him all the glory for even the small victories

Giving God the control was the biggest struggle for me personally. And to be quite honest, at first, I was ashamed that this was in our family. After all, how could “this” happen to our family?  We were the Norman Rockwell family that was in church every time the doors were open. I wanted to fix it fast, sweep it away and put it under the rug. It took Grace’s two suicide attempts to realize that it wasn’t going to go away and that we could lose our daughter permanently if we didn’t change our way of thinking.  I think it’s a big thing with most parents dealing with this too. They want to bypass faith and trust in the Lord and get their child fixed and fixed quickly. But God’s timing isn’t our timing.  And I truly feel that as parents, we need to submit to God’s process to mature ourselves and become more like Him with our love.

I’d also say to the church community and to people who are NOT dealing personally with this issue in their child, don’t ever think it won’t happen to you. But if a friend comes to you in confidence with this issue, listen first. Then pray for wisdom, peace, and guidance. Honestly, it just helps us to unload this HUGE burden somewhere safe.  And I emphasize the word “safe.” Please don’t take it to other friends, your pastor, and your extended family members who might know how to help. When we first go to someone because we need to talk, it’s because we see you as someone we can trust with the biggest, scariest secret we have ever had to deal with. The easiest way to destroy someone’s life is to break confidence. When we first talked about our situation with Grace, we didn’t want advice. We just couldn’t take the burden any longer. And they listened, prayed, and cried with us. And we felt much better afterward. That’s when things began to change.

For the parents who are dealing with it? Love them unconditionally. Trust God. Pray for Him to bring you someone with whom you can share your burdens. Very important—guard your child’s mental health. The torment their minds go through is unbelievable, and the online community just adds fuel to this fire. The LBGTQ goes where they find acceptance and approval. They have been fed a lie that if you don’t approve or accept their lifestyle, you just can’t love them. Be prepared to hear some hard things from your child, but don’t react. Just respond. Ask them if they just want to unload and talk or if they want your input. Be gentle. Be kind. You want your child to come to you, not to the online community. They have to trust you, just like you need to have someone you trust and confide in.

Lastly, I just want to encourage parents going through this that God knows your heartache over your child. He knows their torment. God trusted you to parent your child’s beautiful soul. He knew you were strong enough to believe HE could change their heart. Trust Him! He is all that matters: His love, His purpose, His glory!

Thanks for listening,

Susan

 

 

 

 

 

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“Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work.”

This quote by C.S. Lewis is one of my favorites. As soon as you hold that beautiful baby in your arms, you realize what truly matters. The birth of a child puts a whole new spin on life’s objectives. When children are young, this quote seems to center around the busyness of parenting and surviving the long nights of feeding, rocking to sleep, and each milestone in a child’s life.

But what about the difficult times of parenting as your children get older? What about Susan, who faces the struggle of her daughter’s self-diagnosed gender dysphoria? A mother who painstakingly watches as her daughter begins to change her physical appearance from female to male. The depression, the attempted suicides… that word “important” takes on a whole new meaning as a parent.

The following is more of Susan’s story. It addresses an issue I highlighted in my introduction that you can read—> Here.  Susan’s words are block quoted, and I’ve changed her daughter’s name to protect her anonymity.

Grace

Thanks for listening to my story. Just telling it is healing therapy in and of itself. This journey that we’ve been on the past few years with Grace has been a roller coaster of extremes but has caused us to grow tremendously in Christ.  

Our daughter was born in 2000. Grace lived life 110% when she was younger. Although she was technically an introvert, she was daring and full of laughter, always playing pranks on people and never afraid to try new things.  Whatever the event, Grace was there participating. Of course, things would get overwhelming for her as an introvert and she would need some down time by herself from time to time.

She accepted Jesus in her heart at 5, and baptized at age 6 with full knowledge of what it symbolized and what she was doing

Exposure and Agenda

When she was 11 we began to homeschool Grace.  I can’t pinpoint when the change began to happen but she needed to be online more to do school work. This has always been the point where I felt she was exposed to this agenda. She did some inappropriate things online and via text (before the Snapchat era) that we caught and thought were corrected. 

On her 18th birthday, we took her to dinner and to the mall to celebrate.  She came back with a book entitled This Book is Gay. At that moment, I knew something was up and I had confirmation to some suspicions.  Everything kind of snowballed from there and it was a huge blur for several months. An online, long-distance relationship with a girl who lives over 1,000 miles away, secretly cutting herself, and two failed suicide attempts. 

The pinnacle was the day when two sheriff’s deputies showed up at our door on a Sunday night.  They received a report from The Trevor Project hotline about a 19-year-old male who lost their connection to the hotline’s suicide prevention chat room and they traced it to our ISP.  She was upset and got disconnected but they were concerned and sent the deputies.  Of course, they wouldn’t just let it go, and we were waiting until 3am for a crisis intervention team to come.  When she found out that she would be deprived of her phone and laptop if she were to go to the hospital, she said she would be fine.  About a month later, she tried [suicide] again, but got scared and called the crisis intervention team herself.

The next day we went to a crisis mental health center and began to try to sort through the mental health maze.  At this point, I must most emphatically state that I did NOT know that there were at least ten different gender identities she could choose from on the intake form!  Wow, I went into shock.

She walked in the first session and told the counselor she had gender dysphoria and was transgender and the counselor handed her a stack of LGBTQ literature with groups, clinics, etc. It was a scary, intimidating place. The spiritual atmosphere there was very dark and there were questions on the forms we were trying to fill out that were very leading in support of the LGBTQ lifestyle. It didn’t take a great deal of intelligence to see where this was going. Grace was terrified and very uncomfortable but things had gone too far. Her anxiety and depression spiraled out of control. She felt worse after each session, even though she was on Cymbalta and Risperdone. (We tried many meds before finding something that didn’t cause hallucinations). We stayed on that secular counseling course for about five months. 

Irony

One day, Grace heard an advertisement for Christian counseling on the Christian radio station she plays all night while she sleeps (ironic, huh?). She asked me if we could try it.  Grace is a very spiritual person even though she is going through this right now.  She wanted to go in person to make an appointment instead of calling because she needed to feel the atmosphere there before making an appointment. The minute we walked in, she felt peace. Her therapist is soft spoken just like Grace and makes her comfortable.  And she is making progress.  For the first time, she finally admitted she felt she was getting better.  This has never happened before.

One thing I want to mention is the irony of some of the things she does.  She ordered some clothes online.  She went to try them on and came out wearing a skirt, frilly blouse and suspenders and a cute hat and earrings.  Totally girly.  However, yesterday she went to have her hair cut.  I mean a drastic cut.  Like the kind of haircut we give our boys the day they get out of school for the summer type of haircut. My heart is breaking, but God is faithful.  I miss the beautiful curls.  

Unconditional Love

Some time ago, I saw an interview on Joni Lamb’s Table Talk with Joe Dallas. It was part of a series of sexual identity that turned my world “right-side-up” again. This was where I learned how to love Grace through this journey. So this morning I felt led to look through my recordings of Table Talk and saw an interview with Joe Dallas was on again and I tuned in.  Must have been a programming change, because it was a series called “Identity” that has run all this week and this episode wasn’t with Joe.

The episode I watched was an interview with a woman who had embraced the trans lifestyle and transformed herself into a gangster-style young man (no surgery, just binding and clothing). She talked about how the unconditional love of her mother toward her and her friends was key in showing her the unconditional love of God. How my heart just soared when I heard that! I believed long ago that we have been taken on this journey to reach young people who have been deceived into this lifestyle.  My takeaway from this morning after listening to their testimony:

  • When facing rejection from “the church”, these people are searching for love and acceptance. The LGBTQ community is waiting with open arms to draw them in, to recruit them.

  • Not only are they recruiting the vulnerable, they are actively recruiting anyone that is even slightly weak in any spiritual area.

  • They are spreading a propaganda that promotes the idea “if they don’t accept or approve of what you are doing, they don’t “love you”. The one thing that Joe Dallas said that changed my life is that approval and love do not have to go hand-in-hand. For example, I don’t have to approve of my husband’s woefully unsocial habit in order to love him. I love him more than ever and wouldn’t ever think of leaving him because he has an embarrassing habit that I most emphatically do not accept or approve of. God’s love transcends all of that!

  • Words carry great weight. What we speak to people and/or what is spoken over them carries a great deal of weight in their lives. I’ve never realized the impact of that statement more than I do at this time of my life. There are words I’ve spoken that I am seeing still have an impact on those around me, and words that have been spoken to me that still have an impact in my life. I know God is greater than that, but it will be a journey to overcome them.

  • Lastly, this will be a journey with our family, with Grace. It won’t be an instant fix, but it will be a complete and thorough transformation. I am believing that God will totally transform her life into a testimony for those who are following behind her. 

THE. MOST. IMPORTANT. WORK

Susan’s story will continue on my blog. I don’t know who is reading this, but for those going through a similar struggle or maybe different yet still painful, remember God’s unconditional love for you is right where your heart needs to be for your child. But don’t give in to the lies. The world is screaming right now that loving your child is to accept their transgender identity. Extending compassion is not the same thing as giving in to your child’s demands that you know will ultimately harm them. As Susan has learned, approval and love do not have to go hand-in-hand. It’s difficult. It’s messy and painful. But God gifted you with a beautiful bundle of joy. He or she is still that gift created in God’s image. This is the most important work of your life. God chose you to parent your child. Love them unconditionally but protect them. Trust God.  And as Susan reminds us, “Resist the urge to ‘fix’ things. Be still and know that He is God.” (Psalm 46:10)

More to come…

Subscribe to my website to read more of Susan’s story.

 

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In my small corner of the social media world, I open my page to my writing, favorite quotes, or even an article that strikes me as important enough to share. Last summer, I posted about the growing phenomenon of teenage girls being seduced into the world of transgenderism. It was an article that highlighted Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.

Shrier’s book should be a must-read for every parent. It’s one of those books that awakens you to a world you might not have realized existed or maybe that you think won’t touch you or your family—until one day it does.

The reality is more and more of our daughters want to be our sons, and what do we do about it?

They call it gender dysphoria—girls (or boys) who feel trapped in the wrong body. Online influencers say, “Do it! Take those puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgically remove your breasts. You’ll feel, oh, so better about yourself.” The medical community hands out hormone prescriptions to minors without parental consent. Their daughters start to grow facial hair, and their voices begin to change. Counselors are told conversion therapy is discrimination and “to help” these biological girls embrace their new transgender identity. Schools allow students to live a double life. A girl and daughter at home, but, shhh, we won’t tell, a transgender male with matching pronouns at school.

Parents feel alone and isolated. Read Shrier’s book. It is full of parent regret stories of watching their little girls grow up with mutilated adult bodies that never quite look male. Suppose this trend is social contagion influenced by peers. In that case, there’s proof our society is looking the other way and enabling our girls to be fragmented pieces of their true biological selves, with infertility to boot.

The more I read about this growing craze of adolescent girls going to drastic measures to deny their biological sex, the more I felt the spiritual battle in our society. This isn’t about mental illness, anxiety, or depression; although, I think those are all contributing factors. It’s about the spirit of darkness that will do anything to destroy life and deny the power of Genesis 1:27, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

There’s so much power in that phrase “in the image of God” that Satan will distort and deceive to destroy who God has created. He does it with abortion, drug addiction, eating disorders, sexual addiction, and now something increasingly written about in medical journals and news articles—gender dysphoria.

On my blog, I invite you to read about the transgender issue through a mother’s eyes. Susan (not her real name) is a Christian mom just like me and maybe just like you. She reached out to me when I posted the article last summer. Her comment on Facebook invited me into her world:

“It’s real [gender dysphoria], and not just with girls in schools influenced by their friends. My beautiful, joy-filled, homeschooled daughter slowly fell victim to this after being exposed online. At thirteen she began using the internet more frequently for schoolwork and her joy, her light and her entire personality changed. Two suicide attempts and many cutting sessions later, we have found a Christian therapist who is just now beginning to peel away the layers of her self-diagnosed gender dysphoria. Our hearts break when we have to dispense her medicine for anxiety/depression because she can’t be trusted with a full bottle of any type of pills. I cried for days when she changed her name tag at work to her chosen male name. I know it sounds petty, but I thank God she can’t afford transition drugs. It’s real, oh my dear God, it’s SO REAL! And we had no reference point as to what was happening…until I read this article this morning. Thank you for posting, Julie.”

For the last six months, I have read Susan’s emails to me. She’s a writer too, who has let me into her family’s agonizing struggle. As a parent, my heart aches with every pain she conveys over her daughter’s desire to be a boy. Then an email comes through with a hint of a possible breakthrough, and I want to celebrate the small victory that might lead to total freedom from her daughter’s gender dysphoria.

Susan and I also share something that is not conveyed on the pages of Abigail Shrier’s book. We have a firm belief in the transforming power of Jesus Christ. The chains of gender dysphoria can be broken, and her daughter can be set free. We know that. We pray for it daily! There’s a spiritual battle going on in her home. Many other families are going through this same battle, but they are not letting people in because it’s a new phenomenon and it’s scary. How do we maneuver as Christians with this one, Lord? Our daughters are suffering.

Susan has agreed to let you into her world through my platform as a writer. This is something that I have prayed about and asked the Holy Spirit for direction. I feel God has called me to share other people’s stories. Susan feels ready to share her heart on the pages of my blog. She’s vetted me as a writer, and I have vetted her story as much as I can while understanding that the need to remain anonymous and shield her family is extremely important. “It’s so good to finally be able to share our story, even though we’re still in the midst of the battle,” Susan acknowledges. “The world needs to know!”

This is the introduction to a series that I will post about Susan’s journey through her daughter’s gender identity struggle. I ask that you share it wherever you can. If you know a parent dealing with this issue, please share. If you are a youth leader or a pastor, please read. Gender dysphoria might not be an issue that has reached your congregation, but I guarantee you it will. Our society is embracing and celebrating transgenderism at an alarming rate, and it is destroying lives. We need to be united and grounded in Scripture to fight this spiritual battle with our brothers and sisters in Christ. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26-27, ESV)

I pray God uses both Susan’s words and mine to honor Christ and that chains will be broken. Our children’s lives depend on it.

More to come…

 

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In advance of the election, many faith leaders weighed in with their opinions about the presidential candidates. Abortion was a focus of many articles, tweets, and videos. As Christians who embrace the sanctity of life of the unborn, we were faced with two candidates with opposing abortion beliefs: protecting life in the womb or expanding elective abortion up to 40 weeks of pregnancy and even infanticide. The choice seemed clear, yet many faith leaders added their nuanced positions regarding the candidates.

What is the church to do with or think about these diverse opinions from prominent pastors and faith leaders, many of whom we trust for their spiritual counsel?

Although, at times, we do need biblical guidance from pastors and Christian leaders, what is often neglected are the perspectives of those who have experienced the pain of abortion, who have worked in abortion clinics, and those on the frontlines in pregnancy centers who counsel women and men, daily, facing the crisis of an unplanned pregnancy.

Are faith leaders willing to step down from their pulpits and open space on their platforms to highlight these voices?

Kelly Lester’s Voice

Kelly was a freshman in high school when she snuck out in the middle of the night to attend a party with friends. After years of being bullied and teased in school, Kelly was finally finding acceptance in certain social circles. It was her first party. But, by the end of that night, she was raped by one of the most popular guys in school.

The next day was Sunday. Kelly got up and attended church with her family. She needed to confide to someone the tragic events of the night before. Her youth pastor was someone she felt she could trust. “See, if you had never snuck out, gone to that party, and gotten drunk, that would never have happened,” her youth leader coldly responded. That comment cut Kelly so deep with shame and condemnation that, at that moment, she questioned how God could ever love her. From that day forward, the church was not a place to fail or make a mistake, and it was not a safe place for Kelly Lester.

Freely giving away what was taken from her, Kelly then found herself pregnant at fifteen. Her boyfriend’s mother drove her to an abortion clinic, placed a wad of cash in her hand, and sent her into the clinic alone.

“That day changed my life,” Kelly remembers. “They say pregnancy can ruin your life, but that day—in the abortion clinic—ruined my life.”

During the next fifteen years, Kelly would spiral into the deepest pit of her life: drug and alcohol addiction, anorexia, suicide attempts, feeding the depths of her pain with men and sex, and regretfully three more abortions.

Lost Moments

On that Sunday, when the youth leader condemned Kelly rather than biblically counseling and loving her through her trauma, it was a lost moment for that church and pastor. “Many of the decisions I made after that day was my search for a safe place,” Kelly admits. “Looking for that guy who would protect me. Working at an abortion clinic wanting to help women find a safe place to help them with what I had experienced. People in crisis form their own safety nets no matter if it is a net that surrounds them in sin and dysfunction.”

For fifteen years, Kelly believed that the church was not a place of safety. According to a Pew Research study, in 2019, only 4% of sermons shared online on U.S. church websites discussed abortion. And if they did address the topic, it was rarely mentioned again. It’s a sad commentary on the state of the evangelical pulpit when it’s estimated that two out of every five abortions happen to women who attend church.

The influx of Christian voices regarding the election only seemed to heighten the tensions around the political issue of abortion. On a post-election podcast, “Veggie Tales” creator Phil Vischer stated the following:

But Kelly Lester disagrees with Vischer, “If Biden wins, the church needs to vocally advocate for the unborn, religious liberty, the immigrant, the refugee, the poor, civility, and honesty. If Trump wins, the church needs to vocally advocate for the unborn, religious liberty, the immigrant, the refugee, the poor, civility, and honesty. The common denominator is: The church needs to stop expecting the government to be the church.”

Elections are important, and as Christians, we should vote our biblical values that protect the sanctity of life in the womb, but at the end of the day, it is your community and church that makes the most difference.

David French recently wrote about the importance of local engagement and how we often put more importance on national politics within the pro-life community: “We’re most passionate about the president. Yet too many of us are less interested in the crisis pregnancy center down the street. Without forsaking national politics, we can reverse that intensity, and if we reverse that intensity through loving, intentional outreach, we will reinforce the very decision the data and our experience tells us a woman wants to make.”

Are we losing critical moments because too many faith leaders add their voices to national politics without highlighting the role of the local church and pregnancy resource centers?  Are we losing young women from our congregations because the church does not talk about abortion or provide a safety net in crisis?

It’s Time to Wash Feet

“It’s easy for people to make a hypothesis regarding abortion. But when you have lived it, you don’t have to hypothesize about these things,” Kelly acknowledges. “It’s not a political issue or a moral issue, but a real woman’s life, where she is trying to figure out how she is going to make it to the next day. When you understand that, it changes your perspective.”

God has given many prominent faith leaders public platforms to share biblical wisdom over political and moral issues. But what if they shared their pulpits to highlight testimonies like Kelly Lester’s that speak directly about abortion from personal experience.

Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions, uses words on their website like ‘safe,’ ‘safety net,’ ‘care,’ and ‘support’ because women in crisis are searching for that safe place. As followers of Christ, we can be that place of refuge through our words, the care we provide, and by sharing the gospel that brings life.

“Being a safe place does not mean we allow people to stay in their sin. That’s not safe either,” admits Kelly. “Sin brings death and destruction, but the gospel of Jesus Christ brings about a heart change. If the church is not a refuge for those in crisis, the thousands in our pews won’t feel safe sharing their dark secret of abortion that has haunted many of them for decades. Some of these men and women sing in our choirs and even preach in our pulpits. Shame has kept them silent for too long. If the enemy can’t have your life, he will try and steal your identity in shame.”

Today, Kelly Lester walks in freedom from addiction and her past abortions because she chose to walk into the safe arms of her Savior, Jesus Christ. She is a wife and mother of six beautiful children. God redeemed that lost moment in her life, and she embraces Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

In this post-election season, Kelly’s voice is a message of hope, “Church, it is time to stop pointing fingers and start washing feet. As Christ-followers, we are called to fill in the missing gaps that no election result will fill. Because those gaps are in people’s hearts, and they can only be filled with the hope of Jesus Christ.”

The presidential election may bring further challenges for the pro-life community, but our mission to protect life does not change. Your church, community, and local pregnancy resource center is where the safety net resides. Let’s highlight the voices who can speak life into our friends, neighbors, and our congregations.

 

To book Kelly Lester for a speaking event contact media@prolove.com and follow her on Facebook @kellylesterforlife.

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While reading Alisa Childers’ book, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity I had a Jerry Maguire ‘you-had-me-at-hello’ moment in the first chapter.

“Maybe you’re a Christian who feels alone in your beliefs,” she wrote.

I wanted to raise my hand high as if I were a student in her classroom. That’s me! Here I am! I feel alone right now in my beliefs among Christians.

I read on.

Twitter War

My loneliness started a few years ago on Twitter. I was following a Christian author I respected both for her bold viewpoints and her writing. One day she posted something about racism in the church, and I commented. My remarks were taken out of context, but instead of engaging me to clarify, she replied in opposition and retweeted my comment to her ten thousand plus followers.

Throughout the day, I heard the ping of another reply. Her followers were staging a Twitter coup against me. Instead of responding to explain, I decided to let it go. It would eventually die down.

When the comments began to claim I was a racist, I fought back. I went right to the source and called the respected author out for her reactionary retweet. “If you disagreed with me, why did you feel the need to notify all your followers?” I asked. She stumbled a bit in her reply. I tried to clarify my position, but the damage was done. I felt embarrassed, not for my original comment, but for how she publicly called me out. To her credit, she removed the tweet and we moved on. But it still stung.

What I didn’t understand then, was that I was facing a growing ideology in the progressive Christian world called critical race theory. My comment pointed toward the historical Christian definition of sin when dealing with racism. But the progressive view leans toward systemic oppression in the church. As Childers points out, “According to historic Christianity, sin against a holy God is what’s wrong with the world. According to critical theory, oppression is what’s wrong… fixed by activism, raised awareness, and the overthrow of oppressive systems and their power.”

I suddenly came face-to-face with the reality that the Cross was not enough in dealing with the sin of racism for some Christ-followers. And I felt like a social outcast in a Christian community.

Books, Bible Studies, and Personalities

For some time, I was feeling this shift in Christendom, but it was difficult to articulate. I would read or listen to something that didn’t align with Scripture from a favorite Christian leader and suddenly feel a lump in my throat. Then a Holy Spirit tug. Search the scriptures, Julie. Know what you believe and why. Seek me through the questions and doubts.

The Christian community was separating from me. It wasn’t a physical disconnect, but spiritually, I found myself at odds with some very mainstream Christian pastors, writers, and speakers. The Christian books that were becoming bestsellers read like a false gospel to me.

I know that to be a Christ-follower is about the words of Jesus to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24, NIV) But I read books that seemed to compel Christian women to embrace a type of ‘God girl-power’ that made Christianity into some sort of infomercial. Just tap into the God who will make all your dreams come true.

Even my favorite Bible Study leaders seemed to be drifting toward activism instead of discipleship. Women who encouraged me to seek the scriptures and fall more in love with Jesus were using their platforms to fight the church’s evils but ignoring the very words of the Bible that instruct on church discipline and how to navigate restoration of fallen leaders properly. I began watching a shift encouraging disciples of #metoo and #churchtoo movements instead of disciples of Jesus.

It’s what Childers refers to in her book as a cult of personality:

“Without most of us even realizing it, much of the current evangelical church has become a cult of personality. As human beings, we tend to put people on pedestals…especially pastors. We love strength. We are drawn to power. We innately want to follow the guy [or woman] who will stand up for the truth and say what needs to be said, no matter the cost.”

I get why people are attracted to bold personalities. We want someone to stand up for the little guy: the oppressed, the weak, or the ones hurt by the church. But the problem is, sometimes we fail to see the unbiblical reactionary response of these leaders. Too often, they go ahead of Scripture or try to add to it instead of letting the Bible guide them. Regretfully, this leads their followers to hold on to their every word instead of God’s Word.

Shaped by Worldview

Alisa Childers details her journey of being confronted with another gospel known as progressive Christianity. While she describes how God led her through the big questions of her faith, I began to realize the source of my own spiritual conflict. My faith was increasingly clashing with other Christians’ beliefs, and I felt like a stranger in my own community.

The feeling of not fitting in always brings me back to my high school years. I wouldn’t call myself a social outcast, but I certainly felt lonely in my junior and senior years. I was a new student who didn’t party because I was a Christian. I had a different worldview, so my values and moral codes didn’t align with those around me. I had to choose: my faith or friends.

I remember a discussion with the guy in my Chemistry class. He called himself an agnostic, which I had no idea what that meant at the time. He wore a Grateful Dead t-shirt almost every day and bragged about his pot-smoking binges on the weekends. “Your views on sex and marriage are outdated. Good luck with that,” he teased. Thirty years later, I laugh at his statement. My views on sex and marriage are still outdated, but I have a better defense of them from the gospel on which they stand.

Those were probably the loneliest years of my life, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Those pivotal years brought me closer to God. It turned out that denying myself and following Christ was worth it. It made my faith stronger. Was it difficult? Yes. But I found the joy of my salvation and a friend through Jesus Christ “who sticks closer than a brother [or sister].” (Proverbs 18:24)

In many ways, I feel like the Christian world today is much like my high school years all over again. There’s a secular worldview that is still in conflict with my faith.  But now progressive Christianity is pushing the margins of that worldview and questioning obedience to Scripture.

Alisa Childers writes: “Through the ages, Christians have encountered unbiblical worldviews and philosophies that have competed for their obedience and loyalty. These ideologies produce the values, beliefs, and moral codes that shape culture, and their adherents almost always present them as being morally superior to Christianity. To disobey or deny these tenets can make us social outcasts.”

There is nothing easy about the world we live in. Our culture is shaping everything and everyone around us. As Christians, choosing to adhere to biblical authority often means loneliness. It means denying ourselves. And it means holding our beliefs and those Christian leaders we follow accountable to the historical truth of God’s Word.

Not Alone

After reading Alisa’s book, I decided to reread Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His words poured encouragement into my soul about the Christian community. I realized even though I have been discouraged with leaders, authors, and ministers who are embracing progressive Christianity, at what seems an ever-increasing rate, that all is not lost.

I began to get that lump in my throat, and tug of the Holy Spirit again. I know that experiencing these lonely feelings within the Christian community is not necessarily about me. In fact, I have become more mindful of how unrighteous and unworthy I am in a community of Christ-followers. I feel desperate for how God is working inside of me and making me more aware of what Bonhoeffer describes as an “alien righteousness, a righteousness that comes from outside of us.”

“The Christian lives wholly by the truth of God’s Word in Jesus Christ. If somebody asks him, Where is your salvation, your righteousness? He can never point to himself. He points to the Word of God in Jesus Christ, which assures him salvation and righteousness.”

What I realized after reading both books is that I am not alone in the Christian community. Yes, I have growing concerns about progressive Christianity. I believe it is hurting the church and leading those in Christendom away from the true gospel. You cannot call yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ if you are more rooted in a theory, movement, or ideology that does not see Christ’s death and resurrection and God’s atonement at its center. The Cross is enough, and it always will be.

Alisa Childers’ book is a wake-up call to Christians. Her struggles with the big questions of her faith are what we need to encourage in our brothers and sisters in Christ. Know what you believe and why. Search the scriptures. Our doubts and struggles are all answered in the pages of the Bible. We don’t need to add or take anything from it. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.” (Hebrews 13:8-9)

So, while I have felt alone in my beliefs, I can now articulate why with a new sense of hope for the Christian community. As Bonhoeffer encourages, “The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth.”

We need more present-day truth-tellers like Alisa Childers. Writers who are willing to speak the hard truths and bring Christ-followers back to the historical definition of Christianity our Savior mapped out for His disciples over 2000 years ago.

And the best part about reading Another Gospel? is that as I closed the pages of her book, I immediately wanted to dig into the pages of the true Gospel more deeply than ever before.

“It is not the experience of Christian community, but firm and certain faith within Christian community that holds us together.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

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For weeks, God has been speaking to my heart four words. Every time I say them, I feel broken before God.

Lay. Down. Your. Stone

What are you saying to me, Lord? Why do those words bring me to tears every time I speak them?

Lay. Down. Your. Stone

Is it me? What stones do you want me to lay down?

Each time I am brought back to John 8:1-11(NIV):

 1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

 

I have read these scripture verses many times. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees were trying to test Jesus. Could they accuse the man they call the Messiah of violating Moses’ law? Those caught in adultery were supposed to be stoned for their sin. But this time, while reading these verses, I began to put myself into this scene.

How could the crowd of teachers and Pharisees be so blind? They had the son of God, Jesus Christ, standing before the woman who was guilty of her sin. He was the only one who had the power to condemn and forgive her sins, but all they could do was think about the stone that was supposed to be thrown her way.

How many times have I been like that crowd?

How many times do I want justice more than the One who is justice?

How many times do I want to throw God’s law in someone’s face, more than I want to remind them of the power higher than the law?

 

Modern-Day Stone Throwing

I can’t help but compare our world today to this scene in John chapter 8. The pandemic, riots, disputes over COVID-19 regulations, racism, and our country’s upcoming presidential election.

I have watched the Christian community react to all of these events. And with every news article, tweet, Facebook post, podcast…God has been quietly speaking to my heart.

Lay. Down. Your. Stone

Then news reports surface of another disgraced Christian evangelical leader who seems to have made a mockery out of God’s commandments leading me right back to picking up a stone.

That stone has words like hypocrite, sinner, and fraud written on it, and I feel ready to strike.

And then, quietly, I feel the brokenness again toward my sin. It’s that ever-present pull of the Holy Spirit calling me out. Instead of Jesus writing on the ground in front of the teachers and Pharisees, he writes it on my heart.

Lay. Down. Your. Stone

I feel broken over those words because I don’t want to walk with the crowd of accusers. I have been in that crowd. I have held stones with my writing, my tweets, my posts, and my voice.

I feel broken inside because I have followed Christian leaders who throw stones, not pointing to Jesus or recognizing their sinfulness.

I feel broken inside because I rarely see sin exposed with compassion and a broken heart toward repentance.

In our modern-day world of communication, I see condemning headlines, angry posts, and a media in the business of stone-throwing.

If I put myself in that scene in John 8, I want nothing to do with that crowd or the modern-day one. I want the measure of my life to point to the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Laying down stones doesn’t mean I forget the commandments of God. It doesn’t mean I look the other way when a brother or sister in Christ sins. It means I drop my stone, remember my sinfulness, and then point to Jesus. He’s there in the midst of it all.

As followers of Christ, how we respond to sin is so important, and the world is watching.

We know the world throws stones—literally! With the violence, protesting, and destroying of property, the world is full of accusers and stone-throwers. Crowds want justice more than the One who is merciful and just.

But as writers, pastors, leaders, teachers— or anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ— we are to lay down our stones and point to Jesus. Everything we say and do should communicate His truth. He’s the only one that can turn condemnation to redemption.

 

My Prayer

So here I am, Lord, with those four little words you have spoken to my heart.

Lay. Down. Your. Stone

Please teach me how to separate myself from the stone-throwers. I want to be on the receiving end of your mercy and walk in the call of the gospel.

Help me to point to Jesus with my words and my life.

I am called to hold the hand of that adulterous woman after she feels the sting and shame of her sinfulness, and to teach her how to walk in your forgiveness and grace.

And Father God, heal the brokenness in our land. Let a crowd rise up where the gospel of Jesus Christ is the measure of their lives. A people ready to lay down their stones: their sin, their hurt, their pain, their need for justice, and control. And teach us love, compassion, and mercy for the most sinful among us.

Jesus, you laid down your life for me. The least I can do is lay down my stone.

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Book: Hard Sayings: Reconciling the Cost of Discipleship and the American Dream

Author: Joshua West

Publisher: Ambassador International

 

 

There’s been a lot of conversation about the need for revival in our world—especially in America. But perhaps, we need to reevaluate our church methods and preaching before God can issue in a revival?

Joshua West’s book, Hard Sayings: Reconciling the Cost of Discipleship and the American Dream is a warning message to followers of Christ. The church must remain Biblically sound in a culture that veers so far from the truth of God’s Word.

As someone who grew up in the shadows of ministry that, at times, overemphasized repentance without grace, Pastor West lays out that it is about the balance of both. And how do you balance the message of repentance with the message of grace? The answer is through studying the whole counsel of Scripture that teaches the fear of the Lord, along with His overwhelming love and forgiveness. You can’t trade one or the other, or it will have devastating effects on discipleship in the body of Christ.

What I appreciate about this book is that Pastor West writes with a humble heart while tackling the hard, uncompromising truth of the gospel. You can feel the passion and conviction behind his words to awaken and challenge all of us toward a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

Hard Sayings is a wake-up call for the American church!

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

“The message of self-esteem, self-love and self-empowerment are not compatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Scripture doesn’t tell us to empower ourselves; the Scripture calls us to deny ourselves.”  

 

“The American church has been rocked to sleep in the arms of cultural relevance and tolerance.” 

 

“True Christianity is found on a hard and narrow path, filled with self-denial that leads only one way— to a blood-stained cross.”

 

 

For more information about Hard Sayings: Reconciling the Cost of Discipleship and the American Dream and Joshua West go to www.joshuawest.net

 

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My family is praising God! Both my mother and father contracted COVID-19 but have since recovered. My father was hospitalized with the virus, and there were some scary moments for my family. We didn’t know if he would recover.

 I have hesitated to write anything because I realize for many families, they have not had this positive outcome. Some are dealing with the loss of loved ones because of this deadly virus. My heart goes out to them. My prayer is that they would feel the comfort and peace of our Heavenly Father.

But what I share here is to emphasize hope and the power of prayer.

After my father’s recovery, a Christian writer from Sweden contacted me to do a story. David Spaanberger was gracious enough to translate his article in English so I could share it here.

Some details might be lost through translation, but the one thing I want to emphasize in David’s article is that in times of crisis—worldwide crisis—we can’t forget about the importance of the global body of Christ.

In his years of ministry with Teen Challenge, my father traveled all around the world. He gave up so much of his time away from his wife and family to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help establish the ministry of Teen Challenge.

But that sacrifice came back to us as the global body of Christian believers prayed for his healing. We are grateful!

While many of us around the world cannot meet in our churches and feel physically disconnected from our congregations, let’s remember the power of prayer. And in healing or death, our hope is in Jesus Christ.  

 

 

David Wilkerson’s brother received intercession ​– ​survived corona
American preacher Don Wilkerson, brother of world famous David Wilkerson, became fatally ill from the coronavirus, but recovered fast when receiving intercession and anti-malarial medication. – ​God used various ways and means to bring about my healing, says Wilkerson to The World Today.

Now 80-year-old preacher Donald “Don” Wilkerson is the younger brother of the even more well-known but departed preacher David Wilkerson. Together the brothers established the Christian organisation Teen Challenge, that works with drug rehabilitation, evangelisation and discipling, and today is present in over 90 countries, including Sweden.

Don Wilkerson’s daughter Jule Klose has written a book about the beginnings of Teen Challenge and it is through contact with her that The World Today is able to tell about how Don Wilkerson got fatally ill from the coronavirus.

Julie Klose describes​ how both her 80-year-old dad and her 81-year-old mum started having cold symptoms on 21 March, which was about a week after her dad Don had been away on a board meeting for said Teen Challenge in New York, to where he went by train from northern Virginia.

After a few days of having symptoms, the couple seemed to be feeling better, but after another day or two their symptoms got worse and Julie was getting concerned. – ​On Sunday 29 March I got a phone call from my mum about my dad having difficulties moving his legs, she recounts.

Don Wilkerson had​ to go to the emergency room, where it turned out he had a temperature of over 39 degrees Celsius. A COVID-19 test was taken, and he received treatment for dehydration, but as otherwise both his lungs and blood work looked good, he got to go home again the same day.

On Monday morning he was feeling better, but in the evening he again had a high fever and also chills and an intensive soreness in his body. – He could barely eat or drink, and my mum was struggling to care of him. She also had the virus, but her symptoms were not as extreme, the daughter describes.

On Tuesday morning​ Don was feeling a bit better again, but then came another fever pitch. Fever reducing drugs did not help. The same day the family was also notified that Don had been tested positive for COVID-19.

On Wednesday morning the situation got even more critical. – My mum said my dad was incoherent and was barely responding to her questions. She could not get him to eat or drink, Julie recounts.

Again Don Wilkerson​ had to go to the emergency room, where it was now established that he had contracted pneumonia. The doctor then introduced a combination treatment of antibiotics and anti-malarial medication hydroxichloroquine. The latter has created controversy, as president Trump has recommended the medication even though it can cause serious side effects and experts argue that evidence to recommend it against the coronavirus is missing.

A request for​ intercession for Don Wilkerson was also spread to Christians around the world, through Teen Challenge and other organisations.

Julie Klose describes for The World Today how she was aware of her dad already having been used by God for 65 years, and that she had to trust in God’s goodness even if it were to be that time had come for her dad to die. At the same time she dearly wished this would not be the case. – On Wednesday night, while my dad was in the hospital, I had a moment of going into my bedroom and crying out to God: “Please God, don’t take my dad. I am not ready for you to take him”, she recounts.

On Thursday Don​ Wilkerson woke up at hospital and was already feeling considerably better. He was confirmed free of fever the same day, and two days later, on 3 April, he could go home. – Obviously God has more for my dad to do on earth to spread the good news of Jesus Christ, to help those with addiction to find freedom, and I am rejoicing in that today. My whole family is rejoicing in that today, Julie Klose concludes happily.

She describes how both her parents are now recovering well and have regained their appetite, which they both lost while being ill. – My dad is slowly getting stronger and even enjoying his favourite chocolates. He said: “When I could taste chocolate, I knew I was getting better”, she recounts.

When Julie Klose asks a question from The World Today to her dad, about how he has experienced God’s hand in what he has gone through, Don Wilkerson replies that the word “international”, that previously often felt like hype to him, has taken on an entirely new meaning for him. – People all around the world were sending me messages and prayers while I was in the hospital. You realize the impact of the global body of Christ when something like this happens, he says.

To the Christians of Sweden, Don Wilkerson wants to give a double message. The first one is about how he escaped death. – God used various ways and means and the tools available, even those drugs in treatment, to bring about my healing. I believe the timing to get to the hospital when I did was instrumental in my recovery, he says.

Then he gets back to the significance of the body of Christ at this moment in time. – Don’t forget how important the body of Christ – the international body – is during this crisis. No matter where we live or how we are affected by this, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, our hope is in him, says Don Wilkerson.

By David Spånberger david.spanberger@varldenidag.se