“But be doers of the word, and nor hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22

This scripture underscores the harrowing reality that permeates the life of many who profess to be Christians.

The blessing of being a Christ follower comes not only from hearing God’s word, but obeying it.

James continues, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. 

But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and perseveres - being not a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts - he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:23-25 

"Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?"

Maya Dillard Smith, Executive Director for the Georgia branch of the ACLU resigned her position over the organization's support for allowing men into girl's restrooms. Smith is no conservative. She earned an economics degree from Berkeley and a masters degree at Harvard.

This self-described progressive cannot go along with the ACLU's transgender agenda. Her personal experience, having taken her elementary school age daughters into a women's rest room when shortly after three men over six feet tall with deep voices entered the restroom, shaked her concern for restroom safety.

Though it isn't PC to say, God made them both male and female - period.   

“But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ ” James 4:6

My good friend, Wil Addison, Director of Urban Family Talk, a ministry division of the American Family Association, shared something I know he received from God. He said, “God spoke to Moses face to face. Yet, Moses had the humility to heed his father-in-law Jethro’s counsel as it concerned resolving disputes among the Israelites.

Humility is a spiritual quality.

As a result, the world cannot comprehend its power. They misconstrue meekness with weakness, not realizing that God Himself stands as an opponent to the proud.

But He overwhelms the humble with His potent grace.  

“I will build My church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18

What are gates? They are defensive tools used to keep stuff out, to keep an advancing force at bay.

Too often the enemy is successful in putting Christians on defense, when the facts are the Lord established His church as an aggressive, offensive, territory-taking body.

The Lord never meant for us to sit on the sidelines of life or to cower in the corner as a result of the wickedness in our culture.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. The light of the world cannot be contained.

The Lord is building His church and the mamby-pamby gates of Hell shall not prevail against us.

“… When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  John 8:44(b) (ESV)

In a Time essay, Donna Brazile finally admitted what we already knew. She passed questions to Hillary Clinton prior to a debate with Bernie Sanders.

She then went on national television to lie about it after the Wikileaks email dump exposed her dastardly deed.

Brazile went as far as to invoke ‘Christianity” to continue her charade.

But now, after the Clinton Presidential loss, being ousted as DNC Chair and dropped from CNN it seems the bills may beckon a little truth telling.

“Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffers.” Psalm 1:1

One word has proven to be debilitating in our society: the “D” word—discrimination.

What we fail to realize is discrimination is not automatically a dirty concept. We discriminate against thieves and murderers when we send them to prison. We discriminate against sexual predators by keeping them away from children.

And yes, we rightly discriminate against men when we keep them out of women’s restrooms.

According to Psalm 1, we have to discriminate against the counsel of the wicked in order to be blessed. It’s a good thing God isn’t debilitated by the “D” word.    

“A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight..”  Proverbs 11:1 (ESV)

The media cried foul when Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired 46 U.S. Attorneys appointed by the Obama Administration.  The only reason they lost their collective minds is because Donald Trump is President.

Interestingly, former President Bill Clinton’s Attorney General, Janet Reno, fired 93 U.S. Attorneys in 1993, the first year of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Jeff Sessions will remember that well because he was one of the U.S. Attorneys who was fired in 93.

Selective moral outrage by the media is crafted to be deceptive moral outrage.

“And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land…”  Ezekiel 22:30 (ESV)

Amy Lawson, a Wisconsin photographer, is going to court to preemptively stop the application of a Madison ordinance and state law that prohibit creative professionals from refusing commissioned work that is contrary to their religious or political beliefs.

The laws also bar Amy from posting on her website that her religious or political views prohibit her from taking such work.  So she has filed suit.

This is not happening in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, or Communist China.  This is happening right here in America.

“Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.”  Proverbs 27:23 (ESV)

A dozen workers at the “I Don’t Care Bar and Grill” in Catoosa, OK were fired for skipping work during the  the “Day without Immigrants” protest.

The former employees, all of whom are Hispanic, worked there for two years prior to being terminated.

The restaurant owner said all of his employees are well aware of his zero tolerance policy for no call/no show incidents and the 12 who were terminated violated that policy.

The lesson here: you are entitled to your choices, but you do not dictate the consequences of those choices.

Sexual deviance is not the new black.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi outlined her next goal for the sexual deviancy agenda – passage of something called the Equality Act. This act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to twenty-five areas of federal law.

The strength of this movement has been its connection to the civil rights movement of the '60s. But there is a Grand-Canyon-size difference between skin color and sexual deviance.

Skin color is evident at birth and does not change. Sexual deviance is not evident at birth and changes quite frequently.

Despite what the media would have you believe, sexual deviance is not the new black.

“Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.”  Proverbs 27:23 (ESV)

The Democrat Party is organizing their own version of CPAC.  The secular progressive Center for American Progress is starting the event and they are calling it the Ideas Conference.

They are modeling the event after CPAC, to be a prime stop for Progressive leaders as well as a nationwide gathering for leftist activists to exchange ideas.

Some liberals fear the event will expose the depth of division within the Democrat Party just before the 2018 midterm elections…  Some frustrated that the 2016 losses brought Nancy Pelosi, Tom Perez, and Keith Ellison back to lead the party.

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”  2 Timothy 3:13.

Mika Brezinksi, in a rare moment of candor, revealed what many Americans have long suspected. 

On air, she disclosed that it was the media’s job to “control exactly what people think.”

In discussing President Trump, she went on to say:

“He could undermine the messaging so much that he could actually control exactly what people think - and that’s our job.”

Messaging is a phrase used by PR firms.  It is not the verbiage of journalists.  Brezinki’s comments acutely frame the reality that the modern national media is driven to control.  Not inform.

“A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight.”  Proverbs 11:1.

In spite of Nordstrom removing her products, Neiman Marcus no longer selling her jewelry, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls discarding her advertising signage Ivanka Trump’s clothing line reports record sales.

Though the “Grab Your Wallet Campaign” asked shoppers to boycott retailers with any Ivanka Trump branded products, Ivanka Trump’s sales have increased 346%.

The mainstream media just doesn’t get it.  The America people refuse to be controlled by them.  What they loathe, the American people love.

“Jabez was more honorable than his brothers…”  1 Chronicles 4:9.

Companies added jobs at a blistering pace in February.  Employment in the private sector surged by 298,000 jobs.

The total shattered market expectations for the month.  The record encompassed the first full month under President Trump.

February proved to be an incredibly strong month for employment with increases we haven’t seen in years according to economic experts.

Moody Analytics’ Chief Economist, Mark Zandi, said “confidence is playing a large role.  Businesses are anticipating a lot of good stuff - tax cuts, less regulation so they are hiring more aggressively.”

The year is off to a sizzling start on the job front.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” I Corinthians 13:1 (ESV)

When most people use the word “love,” they normally draw from a Hollywood romantic, comedy-based view of the word. But contrary to popular belief, it is not loving to remain perpetually silent when friends, family, and loved ones embrace wickedness.

I Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.”

Hebrews explains that correction is one of the ways that God shows He loves us.

Next time the love subject comes up, make sure to discuss it biblically.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (ESV)

Paul’s epistle to the Romans was written to believers. This verse highlights the fact that it’s possible for Christians to be conformed to the world’s ways.

The word “conformed” there means to be squeezed into the mold of another.

Rather than to be squeezed into the world’s mold, the Lord requires us to be transformed by having our minds renewed by God’s Word.

Everything about us must be held up to the light of Scripture. And whenever there’s any discrepancy, we must be transformed.

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15b

Martin Niemöller was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in a concentration camp. He’s best remembered for the quote:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Freedom is never more than one generation away. If we’re going to stand, today is the day.

Ronald Reagan said, “If we don’t preserve this Great Republic of ours, we will only be able to tell our grandchildren about freedom in hushed tones.”

The United States Commission on Civil Rights, the federal agency that recommends to the Department of Justice when civil rights violations are afoot, issues a statement condemning recent state proposals that it feels targets the LGBTQ community. Translation: religious freedom, if it’s to exist at all, must be subordinated to LGBTQ interests.

Can you truly be out and proud as a Christian in public, or does Jesus have to be kept in the closet, only to be mentioned in hushed tones?

First, they silenced the sheep. Now, they’re trying to silence the shepherds.

Dr. Eric Walsh, a renowned public health expert who also happens to be a bi-vocational minister, was hired to work in the public health arena in Georgia, until the Georgia Department of Public Health heard a few of Dr. Walsh’s sermons.

You see, he preached sermons on issues ranging from homosexuality to evolution. Once the department listened to his sermons, they terminated Dr. Walsh’s employment, but Georgia’s governor recently vetoed their religious freedom protection law.

It seems you can come out of the closet as anything you want nowadays – except Christian.

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“The borrower is the slave of the lender.”

Newly published information from Lifeway Research shows 77% of self-identified Christians in dozens of states think it’s a sin to lend money to someone who can’t afford to pay it back. Still, few say payday loans are immoral and one in six Christians have admitted to taking out a high-interest payday loan.

The federal government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the typical two-week payday loan charges the equivalent of a 400% interest rate.

These “sharks” prey on the poor, elderly, and most vulnerable in society.

Sound the alarm and make sure your family, church, and neighborhood steer clear of this vermin.