Category: Family

Reading List: Dissent, Parental Rights, Train Rifle Reloads, Dystopia

Children do not belong to the state!

CRIMINALIZING DISSENT “Darrell Castle raises the question of who has the right to decide what goes into the heads and arms of your children. Phrased differently, who owns your children?” https://www.castlereport.us/criminalizing-dissent/

“Replacing parental control with government control of education (and other aspects of child raising) has been a goal of authoritarians since Plato. After all, it is much easier to ensure obedience if someone has been raised to think of the government as the source of all wisdom and truth, as well as the provider of all of life’s necessities.” http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2021/october/04/parents-should-control-education/

Have you harvested firewood for the winter?

Energy Crisis May Trigger Winter Blackouts Across US: Coal Firm CEO https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/energy-crisis-may-trigger-winter-blackouts-across-us-coal-firm-ceo_4039344.html

Misinformation ignored by the thought police?

“New York Times Pens Major Correction After Overstating Child COVID-19 Hospitalizations… by over 800,000 cases” https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/new-york-times-pens-major-correction-after-overstating-child-covid-19-hospitalizations_4039143.html

“But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!” Acts 8:20 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/act.8.20.ESV

Big Tech for the Police State

‘The Perfect Police State’: China’s Digital Dictatorship Goes Global https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2021/october/the-perfect-police-state-chinas-digital-dictatorship-goes-global

“Since 2017, an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and people from other primarily Muslim minorities have been accused by the government of harboring “ideological viruses” and “terrorist thoughts,” and taken away to hundreds of concentration camps.”— The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China’s Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future by Geoffrey Cain https://a.co/fPKOaLr

“… each place you go you scan your ID card at the entrance, in front of armed guards. After you scan it, a display next to the scanner shows the word “trustworthy,” meaning the government has declared you a good citizen, and you’ll be permitted entry.”— The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China’s Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future by Geoffrey Cain https://a.co/esBPyA0

“When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he assembled his 318 trained men, born in his household, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.” Genesis‬ ‭14:14‬ ‭CSB‬‬ 

Warrior Poet Society “Today, John talks about the real worth of a man.” https://youtu.be/yMZZT0_rI14

T.REX ARMS “How To Train Rifle Reloads – Stop Doing 1R1s” https://youtu.be/xSleniGt5lU

Colion Noir “California Says LAPD New Service Pistol Safe For Police But Not For Civilians…California gun laws are designed to punish gun owners and not keep them safe, and here is yet another example.” https://youtu.be/xtMU0VlXpjE

New FBI Study Finds Knives Kill 2X More Than Rifles & Shotguns Combined https://youtu.be/ovz_Fb3dk7Q

Reminder: Tyranny always makes everything political. That’s how a tyrant can take control of all aspects of life… God made humans before the state and politics. God made humans in His image. This has huge implications that should not be overlooked. https://ministry.family.blog/2021/08/01/tyranny-politics-and-the-pre-political/

Money, in Matthew 22 a denarius (Matt. 22:21), has the states “likeness.” Therefore, we pay our taxes to the state. Our money is political (not to be confused with labor!).

But our children and we ourselves have God’s “likeness” (Gen. 1:26), therefore we belong to God. We are pre-political. https://ministry.family.blog/2021/08/01/tyranny-politics-and-the-pre-political/

Household Prayer: community, love one another

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John‬ ‭4:11‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/1jn.4.11.ESV

Brothers, today I’m praying for the community. Praying that we love and serve one another in the grace and mercy of God because He first loved us. Every family in our CC community will have joys and challenges and I pray we love and serve one another and rejoice and morn with one another. Finally, I pray that our love for one another in our community would bear witness to the love of God in the larger community.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us…
We love because he first loved us…
And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

‭1 John‬ ‭4:9-12, 19, 21‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/1jn.4.9-21.ESV

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Hebrews‬ ‭10:23-25‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.10.23-24.ESV

Household Prayer: faith to upend the world

“And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,”

Acts 17:6 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/act.17.6.ESV

Praying that we embrace “[our] responsibility to raise up the next generation to know Christ and His world… steeping them in the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christ and His ways… training them to believe and obey the King of the world.” (1)

I pray that we and our children would “follow Jesus at all times and in all places… in marriage, vocation, education, military service, recreation, financial exchanges, and political decisions.” (1)

And I pray that our faith would be so strong that like Paul and the other Apostles people would say “These men.. have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 ) and that our witness would “shutdown the very industry of idol making (Acts 19:27).” (1)

““Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it … You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Deuteronomy 6:1, 7 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/deu.6.1-7.ESV

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,”

Psalm 24:1 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.24.1.ESV

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Matthew 28:18 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.28.18.ESV

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 6:10 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.6.10.ESV

1. “Strong and Courageous: following Jesus amid the rise of America’s new religion” https://press.founders.org/shop/strong-and-courageous/

Household Prayer: work

Brothers, today I’m praying that God would establish the work of our hands. Wether our vocation, day job, the work in the home, or the work of educating and instructing our children. Whatever we do, may we “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,”

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,”

Colossians 3:23 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/col.3.23.ESV

Creation mandate, cultural mandate, or dominion mandate: Genesis 1:26-28

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:15‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.2.15.ESV

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3:12-13‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/ecc.3.12-13.ESV

“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:5-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/jer.29.5-6.ESV

““Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭24:45-46‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.24.45-46.ESV

“Entwined in our natures as image-bearers of God, we have an integrated directive as vice-regents over God’s creation… God created the heavens and the earth and granted humans the privilege of work to order those raw materials and subsequent derivatives in a way that glorifies and honors him (1 Corinthians 10:31). We were not meant to sit idly and waste time, space, or resources. God intended for us to work and manage the assets he created—and it glorifies him when we do it well…

Creation Mandate: Why we work, how God’s labor directive permeates human culture, and the implications in your own life
https://answersingenesis.org/genesis/creation-mandate/

Household Prayer: eternal focus

Brothers, today I’m praying that we would be living for eternity and that our children would come to know that they are eternal souls. I pray that we can represent God and His eternal Kingdom well and that they would be more esteemed than the things of this temporary world.

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

Mark‬ ‭8:34-38‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.8.34-38.ESV

“Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”

Psalm 34:11 ESV https://www.bible.com/59/psa.34.11.esv

Fear God

“He is an awesome God. He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). He is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). He makes mountains smoke (Psalm 104:32). He makes the waters divide. He created man from the dust. He gives life and breath to every living thing. And He has condescended to speak to us. If we do not fear God, then we cannot raise a generation to fear Him.”

Strong and Courageous: following Jesus amid the rise of America’s new religion https://press.founders.org/shop/strong-and-courageous/

Household prayer: providence and the work of our hands

Brothers, I’m praying our children will see God’s hand, His work and His power, in history. And I pray they will see their part in His story. Bless the work of our hands, Lord, to educate and instruct our children in the knowledge of God!

“Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!”

Psalm‬ ‭90:16-17‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.90.16-17.ESV

“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”

‭Psalm‬ ‭95:3-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.95.3-6.ESV

Household Prayer: image bearers on earth

This week I just want to share the prayer I shared at the foundations/essentials parents meeting.

https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.6.10.ESV

“And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”” Matthew 22:20-21 ESV

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26-27 ESV

“but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”” Matthew 19:14 ESV

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10 ESV

Heavenly Father, thank you that we are yours, that we have your likeness and image upon us. Thank you that our children bear your image, your inscription.

And thank you Lord that if we place our faith and trust in your Son we are forgiven and sealed with the Holy Spirit. 

Holy Spirit lead us in your truth. Help us with our faith and obedience as we seek to do your will here on earth as it is in heaven.

Heavenly Father bless our community, help us live in obedience and display love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. 

Help us as we instruct and educate our children to know you, and help us equip our children to make you known in this world. Thank you, Lord, that our children belong to you.

For your glory God because you first loved us. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray – Amen

“Some things – educating the young, caring for the old or ill – might be just too precious to leave to the care of impersonal institutions. Other things might be just too risky to fully outsource – things like food security and sources of income are moving closer to home…

exercising dominion, as in the dominion the first household was given, and as Tom Bombadil, in The Lord of the Rings, lives it out in Middle Earth. Now, I know what you’re thinking – domination is bad. But the word dominion shares a common root with the Latin word for home, domus, from which we get the word domesticity. Tom Bombadil’s dominion is not over other people but over his own home domain.”

“Households Are Back” By C. R. Wiley https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/work/households-are-back

Household Prayer: hopefully optimistic!

Hopefully optimistic!

Brothers, I pray for an attitude that is hopefully optimistic. I pray we can be hopefully optimistic as we are doing the hard work of building Godly households and raising the next generation in the instruction and admonition of the Lord. No matter what the spiritual condition of the culture around us, we are praying and working in faith and obedience to bring God’s will to earth as it is in heaven. Carrying out our ambassador and witness responsibilities. Not because we have to, but because we get to thanks to the mercy and grace of our savior!

“Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Matthew 6:9-13 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.6.9-13.ESV
“The more we make reading the Bible a part of our daily routine, the more we desire and appreciate it:”
buff.ly/3zP2tCR
“Daniel obeyed God’s laws, not the pagan laws. And through Daniel’s love, faith, and obedience to God, he thrived in an ungodly land.”

“Those who stand steadfastly on the historic principles of the Christian faith will eventually be called extremists by the ones blown about by the winds of cultural change”

https://founders.org/2021/07/22/pleasing-christ-in-uncertain-days/

“… if the Bible calls it a sin, it’s a sin. Don’t try to nuance the Bible into oblivion. Open the Book and let it speak! Be so fanatical that you take this Book for what it says and how it says it. Be a Bible man or Bible woman. It’s okay to be a weird young earther. Moses was. Paul was. Jesus is. I’m content siding with them. If it’s the “simple-minded” who’re willing to believe what the Bible says, count me among them. I’ll make my home with the pig farmers over the professors. Count me among the cultural exiles rather than the capitulating elites…

The foulest sinner in your town or in your home or God forbid, on your deacon board, is no match for the power of God in the gospel. Preach the gospel to the self-righteous, the down and out, the poor, the rich, the affluent, and the illiterate. And trust that it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. No breathing sinner is beyond the reach of God. So, be a gospel radical…

2 Corinthians 5:10 reminds us that we won’t stand before earthly kings or presidents or networks one day. No. It will be the King of kings Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ. Will we be found faithful? Will we be found loyal? …

Your aim is to please Christ. Your goal, your desire, your ambition is to please the King for the glory of His Name. Carry that motto to the guillotine.”

Pleasing Christ in Uncertain Days https://founders.org/2021/07/22/pleasing-christ-in-uncertain-days/

“Righteousness means a person wants what is right according to the Word of God:”
buff.ly/2TJuFaS
“The Bible tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). A righteous person is a person who is in right standing with God. A righteous person has a personal relationship with Jesus as his or her Savior. A righteous person seeks to obey God and yield to the direction of the Holy Spirit. Righteousness means a person wants what is right according to the Word of God—he or she wants to see God’s Truth and God’s will established on this earth.”

Household Prayer: fruit of the spirit

Hey brothers, hoping and praying you are well. It’s been tough getting the school discipline fired back up. I admittedly didn’t exhibit the fruit of the spirit well this week, so I’m praying for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Praying to keep the focus on knowing God and making Him known in the instruction of our children, equipping them to hold firm in the faith as they become His ambassadors and witness in the world. I pray for each of you as well. For His glory!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gal.5.22-23.ESV

“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

John 15:8 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.15.8.ESV
https://www.ltw.org/read/my-devotional/2021/08/give-god-credit

Tyranny, Politics, and the Pre-Political

Are you fundamentally political? follow that to its conclusion, if you, body and soul, are political, then you are a creature of the state. Are you? What would God say?

“Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.”

Matthew‬ ‭22:17-22‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.22.17-18.ESV

Is Politics Everything?

The Theology Pugcast had an excellent episode recently, asking the question “Is Politics Everything?“

Tyranny always makes everything political. That’s how a tyrant can take control of all aspects of life. Sex? Political. Gender? Political. Labor? Political. Health care? Yep, political. Vaccinations? You know it, political! Oh, here is a good one, children? Political. The state wants to control it all!

“the Left pushes its ideology ever deeper into the personal realm, leaving fewer and fewer areas of daily life uncontested. This, warned Arendt, is a sign that a society is ripening for totalitarianism, because that is what totalitarianism essentially is: the politicization of everything.”— Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher
https://a.co/0gFsTIo

In this episode, and I highly recommend it… all the way through, there are some truth bombs at the end. They coin the term “pre-political.”

We are, our gender, marriage, children, all of it, we are pre-political.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.1.1.ESV

God created us, not the state or politics.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.””
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1:26‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.1.26.ESV

God made humans before the state and politics.

God made humans in His image. This has huge implications that should not be overlooked.

Money, in Matthew 22 a denarius (Matt. 22:21), has the states “likeness.” Therefore, we pay our taxes to the state. Our money is political (not to be confused with labor!).

But our children and we ourselves have God’s “likeness” (Gen. 1:26), therefore we belong to God. We are pre-political.

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.””

Matthew‬ ‭22:17, 19-21‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.22.21.ESV

Listen to The Theology Pugcast “Is Politics Everything?” here https://subspla.sh/9x2gmqn

“You may have heard feminists say, “The personal is political”—but are they right? Is the relationship between a mother and her child really a political relationship—or is it something else? In today’s show the guys discuss what else relationships like this could be. The term that they use is “pre-political”.”

https://subspla.sh/9x2gmqn

Christians are owned by a higher authority

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

1 Corinthians‬ ‭6:19-20‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/1co.6.19-20.ESV

Foundations of the United States of America

The concept of the pre-political nature of man is the foundation of America.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Declaration Of Independence https://a.co/6ICBszd

Therefore, the state is derived from among the people with the purpose of securing our pre-political nature.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”

Declaration Of Independence https://a.co/figcjIb

What happens when we let what belongs to God become political?

Biden BLM [Bureau of Land Management] nominee called to ‘wage war on overpopulation’

“Manning is quoted:  “The damage is evident and the demise of the [grizzly bear is] imminent, yet we continue our war cries while breeding our weapons“

Yes, she just “referred to a human child as an ‘environmental hazard‘ and called for Americans to have no more than two children”

She claims “‘we must breed fewer consuming humans.’  In other words, save the grizzlies but get rid of as many humans as possible and stop people having children (or I’m sure she would support killing them by abortion).  But God states the opposite.”  – Ken Ham

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Genesis 1:28