The Afterlife: Lazarus and "Abraham's Bosom"

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The Afterlife: Union with Christ at Death

The Serving and Sharing website has moved! Please look for this article (and all other articles) here: https://serving-and-sharing.blogspot.com/.

 

Gender Surrender?

Related post: Transgendered? No U-Turn for LaVern
http://coryhcollins.blogspot.com/2016/05/transgendered-no-u-turn-for-lavern.html

Does anyone remember the old TV sitcom, “Father Knows Best?” It reflected a time in which our culture respected the role of the father as the leader of the home, protecting and caring for each member, and resolving issues – all in just 30 minutes per episode!

How rapidly and dangerously has our society moved from that view. Today it seems that, when it comes to gender, anything goes.

It’s vital that we address cultural issues, and our culture is changing fast.

For example, Toys R Us, once one of the nation’s largest and oldest toy retailers, is closing all 800 of its stores. Do we all understand why?

From BreakPoint:

In its annual filing, the company pointed to online competition like Amazon, as well as traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, as the major reasons for its bankruptcy. But Toys R Us (which also runs Babies R Us) cited another and much more troubling reason for its collapse: sagging birth rates.

“Most of our end-customers are newborns and children,” writes the toy chain’s management. “Our revenue [is] dependent on the birthrates in countries where we operate. In recent years, many countries’ birthrates have dropped or stagnated as their population ages.”

It’s so obvious, most people don’t even consider it. But a toy chain’s business model is dependent on, well, children. One of the reasons toy retailers are dying is because their base of small customers has become…well…too small.

The U.S. fertility rate is now at an all-time low. Some experts estimate it could be nearing 1.77 children per woman, which is well below what’s known as the “replacement rate”—or that number of babies each couple must have on average in order to keep the population from shrinking. Needs to be 2.11.

Little wonder, since according to a recent Pew Research poll, young Americans today are less likely to be married than any prior generation. In 1965, nearly 80 percent of those between 21 and 36 years old were married. Today, just 37 percent of Millennials that same age are married.

As a result, the non-immigrant population isn’t just shrinking. It’s also graying—and fast. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2035, senior citizens will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.

One of the factors affecting marriage and childbearing – gender confusion.

“Men are like waffles. Woman are like spaghetti.”

In the beginning God made “man” – male and female – in His image. He created not only the biological differences between the two, but also the psychological differences. He defined specific roles for men and women, in the family and in the church. These roles do not compete with each other; they complete each other. Regarding gender, we must not surrender!

God Made Us Different!

Biologically, psychologically, emotionally.

Brains, temperament, problem-solving, strengths.

Each needs what only the other can give.

Complementary – to complete, not compete.

Rooted in creation and the Fall. Gen 1-3

Reflected in marriage. Eph 5:22-33

Reaffirmed in the church. 1 Tim 2-3

Equal in Value, Different in Role

Similar to all of life – work, school, traffic, sports, politics, travel, construction, farming.

Every person’s role is limited.

Every person’s role is needed.

Every person’s role is dependent.

Every person’s role is subject.

Christ / Son, God / Father: 1 Co 11:3; 15:25-28.

Gender: Not a Social Construct!

If anything goes in marriage, then why not …?

Gender is inborn, not created by society.

Gender is given by God, not chosen by me.

A person “trapped in a fe/male body” is fe/male!

And that person is not trapped, but blessed!

Scripture, science, society, history, and nature all converge and have always agreed. Until recently.

Transgender Affirmation Therapy

New $5.7 million study just commissioned by the National Institutes of Health.

Will be used to support chemically and surgically altering the bodies of children.

The conclusion has already been reached.

This study is to search for a basis for it.

BreakPoint: Sacrificing Children to Trans Ideology

Free Speech?

University campuses; Title IX funding control.

Some want to remove these “dangerous” words: man, woman, male, female, he, she, lady, etc.

Former Google engineer James Damore was fired. His memo: “Men and women are different.”

CEO Sundar Pichai called it “offensive and not OK.” He “advanced harmful gender stereotypes.”

The Diversity Dilemma

“Let’s acknowledge and promote diversity.”

“Let’s fire and silence people that discuss it.”

Back to Biblical Basics

Mt 19:4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’”?

We affirm, honor, and celebrate God’s creation!

Possible hymns:

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

All Creatures Great and Small

All Things Praise Thee

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

This is My Father’s World

All Creatures of Our God and King

Researching Life – 10 Questions from a University Girl

One of our young ladies in a Christian university asked for responses to ten questions she was researching for a paper at school. I have posted her questions and my responses below. See how you might answer these, and how you might discuss these questions with your own children. They need you to share your experience and guidance with them.

1. What are some of the most important lessons you have learned in your life?

Pr 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

Keep sowing good seed, regardless of circumstances or the behavior of others.

Life is not what happens to you. Life is what you do with what happens to you.

Don’t take yourself or others too seriously.

If you can’t do what you love, learn to love what you do.

See every person and situation as you think God would, and respond to each in a way that glorifies Him.

Keep learning, stretching, and growing.

Keep reading books on leadership and working with people.

2. What advice do you have on getting or staying married or remaining single?

Prepare yourself by studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Commit yourself to every part of its teaching. Do not marry until you find someone with a similar passion to follow Jesus Christ in every way, all the way.

Set your standard high. Respect yourself. Don’t cheapen yourself or settle for less. It’s better to be single than to be unhappily married.

To stay married, determine every day: “When this day is over my spouse will be glad he or she chose me instead of anyone else in the whole world.”

Be more concerned about filling your spouse’s bucket than you are about your spouse filling your bucket.

Read the Bible together. Pray together. Be present for every service and Bible study with the church. Choose a ministry project together. Go on missions together. Teach World Bible School students or a children’s class together.

3. What advice do you have about raising children or contributing to others raising children?

Make your marriage, not your children, your primary focus.

Be the person that you want your child to become.

Balance tender love and tough love.

Keep reading Christian books on raising children.

Plan what you want your children to have learned or accomplished at each stage of life.

Give your children an anchor, a rudder, and a sail.

4. What advice can you share about finding fulfilling work and how to succeed in a career?

Col 3:23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

5. Difficult or stressful experiences can yield important lessons. Is that true for you? Can you give me examples of what you have learned from experience?

I have dealt with some difficult people and situations. I learned that:

People always have their own reasons for what they do.

People do not always think or act as I do or as I might expect.

I can be difficult, too. At times I was stubborn, impatient, etc.

I must forgive others and ask them to forgive me.

6. Can you see any turning points (key events or experiences) that changed the course of your life?

Marrying my precious wife and moving to New York to share the gospel opened my eyes and raised my horizons. The opportunity to teach English and Bible in One World Trade Center in Manhattan was incredibly life-changing for me.

I once resigned from working with a church because of a divided leadership and some changes in that church that violated my convictions. It was hard at the time, and my family and I suffered. However, God has blessed me because of my convictions. My resignation led to a chain of events that brought me to where I am today. I am very thankful for the providence of God!

7. What would you say you know now about living a happy and successful life that you did not know when you were in your early 20’s?

It’s not about you. The less you focus on yourself, the better.

Make and treasure all the friends you can. You will appreciate and need each other more and more as life goes on.

Admit your faults, and ask others to help and pray for you.

Don’t stress yourself out too much about money. God will provide.

8. What would you say are the major values or principles that you live by?

Mk 12:28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

9. Have you learned any lessons regarding your health that you would have liked to know about when you were younger?

Protect your hearing from loud music and machinery.

Protect your skin from too much sun.

Exercise regularly. Control your diet and your weight.

10. What advice would you give to people about growing older?

Today you are closer to seeing God’s face than you have ever been before.

Make the most of every day. Dwell on what you can do, not what you can’t.

2 Co 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.