Another sex-filled "family" show on ABC Family Channel

I quit watching ABC "Family" Channel a long time ago because of the way it made my stomach roil in protest at the so-called family shows. Some of them looked like they would be really good, but alas not so! It makes me glad that we have TV shows rated now, that is a least a little warning.

I received this email from One Million Moms today... Thought I'd share with you...

Another Adult Sitcom Introduced to ABC Family

June 27, 2014

Gina,

Warning to parents! ABC Family Channel has introduced yet another sex laden adult sitcom. The "Young & Hungry" premiere aired Wednesday evening at 8:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. CT and, with a 14 DLS rating, is not suitable for young viewers. The show is airing at a time when children are likely watching. Not only is the program broadcast during primetime, but it will attract a young audience with the title and with the main character being played by the same actress who played the best friend of Disney's "Hannah Montana."
The show includes sexual references, innuendos, foul language, homosexual attraction, one night stands and excessive alcohol consumption. Specific examples of content aired during the new thirty-minute family channel sitcom are below.

• Main character, a young personal chef, gets drunk and sleeps with her new boss after the boss's girlfriend breaks up with him
• Discussions about sex preferences and experiences during majority of the episode
• Boss and girlfriend both admit to sleeping with someone else the night before
• Boss and girlfriend make up and sleep together
• Girlfriend is mentally unstable and extremely selfish, with bizarre behavior and unhealthy relationships
• Crude humor about utensils used during an OBGYN visit

This program is obscene for any network but especially for a family channel. This show is indecent and offensive and needs to be removed from television immediately. "Young & Hungry" is a kiddy version of the lewd show "Two and a Half Men."
Take Action
Please send an email letter to the sponsors of this week's "Young & Hungry." This week's sponsors were: Yoplait (General Mills), Dove (Unilever), Purina (Nestle), Marshalls (TJX Company) and Diet Coke.
Urge advertisers to place it on their "do not advertise" list in protest of pushing sin directly into America's living rooms.

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I know Whom I have believed

I'm copying my column from Live As If... because it made me cry and I wanted to share it here, too.

One of my all time favorite songs is "For I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day..." That is found in most hymnals even though it is such a very old song. So old, it is found in 2 Timothy 1:12. How sweet to have that deep confidence and that utter trust in the One who saves us from that most heinous day of judgement. There is another verse in that chapter that holds sweet assurance.
2Timothy 1:7 For God did not give a spirit of cowardice to us, but of power and of love and of self-control.

Other translations call it a "spirit of fear". Fear does not come from God, guess who it comes from? That old dragon who knows his time is drawing near, and he is getting angrier and angrier, but not more cunning. He just watches and listens and catches us when we are not looking at Jesus and looking down instead of up.

Paul is not talking about Fear of the Lord here. He is talking about that irrational (for Christians) fear that closes up our throats and gives us that adrenal rush of urgent flight when we come up against things we have a difficult time handling or don't even want to face in our daily living. Things like losing a job, or facing cancer in self or loved ones, uncertainty of the future. Satan uses those feelings we have and intensifies them with his whisperings creating more fear if we allow him to do so.

A synonym for fear is "awe".
"Awe1.a mixed feeling or reverence, fear and wonder caused by something majestic, sublime, sacred etc.2. the power of inspiring intense fear or fearful reverence.SYN- awe refers to a feeling of fearful or profound respect or wonder inspired by the greatness,superiority,grandeur etc of a person or thing and suggests and immobilizing effect. reverence is applied to a feeling of deep respect mingled with love for something one holds sacred or inviolable and suggests a display of homage, deference etc."

That is a lot stronger than what is usually meant when we hear, "Oh that is awesome!" How trite that word sounds next to its literal meaning. When we acknowledge Satan's whisperings with feelings of fear, we are actually giving him profound respect and to a lesser degree, homage and respect. We actually should have a healthy respect for the Devil because he rules the earth and is the prince of the air, (Eph 2:2) who sows disobedience.

When I am inspired with an intense feeling of wonder, peace, respect and a feeling of being tiny and insignificant when I look at a sun rise or sun set knowing that God designed this perfect artwork, is that just plain awe or reverential awe? Does that feeling of being insignificant put it into the "reverential awe" category?

I know it sounds as if I'm being facetious here, but I'm not. I think Fear of the Lord is categorized into two distinct parts. One is the respect and reverence that Christians give to our Father. The other is what will be felt by many unbelievers when they face the Great White Throne., that awful day of judgement. The first is action and the second is emotion. As Christians we are commanded to fear the LORD.

Jesus said in Luke 12:5
But I will warn you whom you should fear; fear the One who after the killing has authority to cast into Hell; yea, I say to you, Fear that One!

The trouble is, there are far too many who don't have a clue just how horrible Hell is. They joke about meeting their friends in Hell, they put cans of beer and packs of cigarettes in caskets because "Old Joe never went anywhere without a cigarette and he'll need them in Hell."

How ridiculous, we say. Yet, that is Satan's lie that many believe. Some hold back from committing to Jesus because they don't want to go where their loved ones won't be... they'd rather go to Hell with their spouse than to Heaven with a real Husband. May it not be so! Yet, it is. There is no fear of the LORD any more. This is why sin is rampant, and why we hear a "feel good" philosophy from the pulpit instead of the harsh truth of judgement. Amen? Amen.

You know what? When ever I think about going before the Throne of God I get tears in my eyes where I can hardly see--like right now. I think of all the times I've let Him down. I think of how I am absolutely nothing--like Paul says, a worm. And the only way I can even imagine myself before the Throne of God is behind the robe of Jesus.

To me, this robe is red with blood...

As I touch this robe so I can peek at God the Father, it is soft and comforting but the color reminds me so powerfully of what I have done to cause that blood to be there. Tears stream down my face and I can't stand up, my face falls to the ground and there is just no way I can even look into the Face of the Lord for I am so unworthy. At my touch to His robe, Jesus bends down and picks me up, holds me and turns back to the Father...yet, I still cannot look at the Father for I am too ashamed.

Jesus, holding me really close and very tightly, gently pushes my face to His chest and whispers in my ear, "It's okay, Gina. I claim you as My own." Only then do my tears dry up and as my feet touch the floor of this majestic Throne Room, my heart is light and I finally see the Face of my Beloved Father.

Tears well up again, and I fall to the ground again but not in shame but in true, full worship of the Living God. Worship that I can barely understand now in this physical body. The worship from a true and perfect heart with no thought of "how's the roast doing?" but with one mind and purpose to praise and glorify The Lord God Almighty, The Creator, The I AM, The Parter of Seas, the Provider of manna, The Pillar of Fire. The Raiser of Jesus Christ. And He knows me, little old Gina...Ach! The awesome wonderment of it all! Amen.

The Art of Prayer

Photobucket Pic

Is prayer an art?

Lately, I have been inarticulately groaning (not praying in tongues, but groaning because there is so much to pray for). I am so glad that Paul wrote the Holy Spirit interprets for us. I am grateful that He knows better than I what needs to be said. I am so thankful that I don't have to do everything or remember everything to pray for.

I am so grateful that I can leave everything in God's hands. I don't have to worry and fret over the hurts and cares of my siblings in Christ, or for the lost friends and families of my siblings in Christ. I am also thankful that God is so much bigger than any problem I have. How can I not trust Him? He sometimes answers my prayers before I've even prayed! That is just so incredible to contemplate. No wonder David would say, "Selah!"

I can be lost in wonder at the beauty of some prayers. David's for example. Paul's. Or the simple prayer of Jesus, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

And isn't it absolutely wonderful that Jesus prayed for us!


John 17:10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine and I have glory in them.

Of course this part of His prayer is for His disciples, the eleven who were faithful. However, I am a disciple of His and I am expected to bring Him glory. Jesus has glory in me. Selah! What an awesome thought. How I act. How I present myself to the world. What I think, either brings glory to Him or shame.


John 17:13 And now I come to You, and I speak these things in the world, that they may have My joy being fulfilled in them.

Jesus spoke His prayer in the world. That is difficult to understand. But when we consider that He lay all His riches aside and His place beside His Father so that we could understand God better, understand how we are to conduct ourselves righteously, understand the stark difference between good and evil in order to choose the good and reject the evil. Yes. I can absolutely see how that fills me up with Joy. Indescrible, unmistakable, unquenchable Joy.

Tough doesn't mean crusty

Back in the 50s and 60s (yes, last century) women had a huge responsibility within the family unit. They actually said with straight faces, “I don’t work.” In the 70s it became, “I don’t work outside the home,” said sheepishly and downcast eyes. Let’s face it, when their day of toil began before sunup and didn’t end until long after sundown and the kids were asleep. They wore dresses and girdles to do house work. Girls were taught how to be women, graceful and lovely and unruffled. We were taught how to make an Entrance without being considered a show-off. It’s a trick, and quite effective, but we don’t do it anymore because that would make us too feminine and weak-looking.

Children had an orderly environment, and it was normal to find the entire family at the table during the dinner hour, as well as the breakfast hour. Women were serious about the children’s education, and fathers were serious about moral values. Family life wasn’t as neatly tied up with string as in the movies or TV shows, but there was considerably more family church going, and family prayer time than is evident today.

Women were soft and curvy with spines of steel. Today, women are crusty on the outside with spines of steel. At least that is what the movies and TV shows would have us believe. There are so many tough, bossy tom-boyish women in the media that I’m ashamed of womanhood. The line between the sexes is so fuzzy now I think we should all be called Pat.

Is it just me? Are we being pushed into a masculine box? Are we being shamed into acting in ways that are supposedly more acceptable for independence with hard, crispy manners? That is what is being dished up by Hollywood, and I’m just saying, “No, thank you,” to that cold dish. “I’ve had plenty, thank you.”

I don’t watch Dr. Phil very much, but I happened to catch one of his “Housewives” shows on Tuesday. This poor man was sitting in the hot seat. (Mind you, I am NOT saying that adultery is okay. It is heinous.) This man was in a sexless marriage with is his wife (one of the housewives) for 16 years. Dr. Phil asked her, “So are you sexually aggressive?” She gave an affirmative answer. When Dr. Phil asked the husband why wasn’t he attracted to his wife for the past 15 years, the man (not once was his face shown) didn’t even get to finish his answer but did manage to say that she always judged his performance.

To be fair, she did say she praised him everyday… but, we all know that when a man is Unmanned, he won’t or can’t perform well. This woman made her husband feel like a non-man in bed. If you were made to feel that way, wouldn’t you run the other way?

When will women get it? When will we understand that we came from Adam’s rib, and we were not made to be better than him or to be behind him, we are the helpmate. The better part of valor is wisdom. Putting wisdom to good use is to understand what makes our husbands tick and then to Gently wind the mechanism for the best performance. Just like the best sex for women begins at breakfast, the best sex for men begins when the woman makes him feel like a real man, not a little boy or a boor, but a real man.

Just remember: Contentious women are like constantly dripping water. Be a shower of refreshing rain, but also be sure that the Son dries up any leftovers so dripping won’t be annoying.

The Great Fellowship stems from Love

Why does He love me so?

Remember when love first blossomed?

What about now? Is it Saturday Night Fever or is it Monday Night Football? Is it The Sound of Music or The Sound of Silence? Is it $60 a dozen or $1.50 a stem including thorns? Ideal or Idle? Which of these best describes your fellowship with your First Love, our LORD Jesus?

Those questions come from one of my very favorite devotions coming to my inbox by Alan Smith of Helen Street Church of Christ in Fayetteville, North Carolina called Thought For The Day

I cannot fathom why God loved us so much He gave His Son. Remember that first flush of love? Remember when it was so exciting to run, not walk, down that aisle to proclaim Jesus had saved you? If you are not Baptist, perhaps you proclaimed it in a different way. Whatever way you declared to the world that Jesus was your Savior and that He gave you the Holy Spirit to wear as a seal upon your heart, you were in the first flush of love… all was fresh… all was exciting… The fellowship was exhilarating, the κοινωνία koinōnia (koy-nohn-ee'-ah)— meaning partnership, that is, (literally) participation, or (social) intercourse, or (pecuniary) benefaction: - (to) communicate (-ation), communion, distribution— fellowship should continue to be thrilling, but as we all know, it either fades away or it develops into something very mature and extremely satisfying.

It is like marriage in so many ways. The first blush of love is that honeymoon phase when you allow absolutely nothing to come between you and your Beloved. You yearn for that closer walk. You study His word. You follow His every step.

Our fellowship with our beloved, our betrothed should be tender, unique and should carry an inexpressible joy. God has a specific plan for our fellowship and that is why He gives us just enough light for a few steps, because His desire is for us to lean upon Him completely every day not just on Sunday. He wants us to remain in the honeymoon phase.

Our engagement ring, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, and the Holy Spirit fellowships with the Father and with the Son and thus we are included in the same koinōnia. This is the vertical koinonia. How great is that! The key to this kind of koinōnia is 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous that He may forgive us the sins, and may cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confessing His word will divide the joints from the marrow, and the soul from spirit. Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living, and powerfully working, and sharper than every two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of both soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

This kind of fellowship leads to such a wonderful relationship, the soul yearns to be in the presence of the Father. We recognize the eternal quality of our souls, but our physical bodies are tied to the physical world for a little while longer to complete the work begun in us. This causes a conflict between the desire to please our LORD and the desire to be both physically and spiritually within Him. Just think how wonderful it will be when all the chains of this earth drop away and we meet Him in the air. Glorious day! But, our conversations with, our communion with Him will have to be enough for right now.

As long as we submit our will to Him, and He holds sway within our hearts and minds, our fellowship is filled from the open windows of Heaven in the form of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Against such things there is not a law. We are not above the law, nor are we beneath it. We are no longer chained to it and the consequences. As Paul quotes from Hosea,
1 Corinthians 15:55 "O death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?" Hosea 13:14 56 Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; 57 but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

God is able to detoxify all relationships because of our partnership with Him. He, of course, does most of the work, but we are also required to participate as well. As in, “if you abide in Me and I abide in you…” which is conditional upon our participation.

Koinōnia is not just vertical from God to us, but is horizontal. The Holy Spirit in me recognizes and fellowships with the Holy Spirit in others. This is horizontal koinōnia —with brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a very special kind of fellowship that is only shared among the joint heirs with Christ.
Have you ever met someone for the very first time and had such a keen rapport with that person there was an instant friendship? If you’ll think back, there was no pride, insecurity, insincerity, or self-absorption involved in that relationship at all. Rather, you found a lot in common. Most of the time, you find that person is Christian, too.

I always remember the time I was getting my college transcripts so I could go back to school to finish my degree. I was walking across the green and a woman was walking toward me. We started smiling at each other and then we started grinning and when we finally met each other, we clasped hands in the air and started reciting the exact same Bible verse! We hugged and then she went her way and I went mine. I never knew her name and am not sure I’d recognize her face, but I know beyond doubt that my soul will recognize her soul in Heaven. The koinōnia was so intense, I could feel the Holy Spirit in me rejoicing with the Holy Spirit in her. That was just a microscopic taste of how it will be in Heaven.

Without our fellowship with God being in perfect shape, we cannot possibly have excellent fellowship with our brothers and sisters. The “I” in me will kill it. Rather we should make sure we are at peace with the Great I Am.

The Peace Offering talked about in Leviticus 7:11 is the Fellowship offering. It is when the Israelites would sit down to a meal with the LORD, and the time spent dining was all about communing with God. Recall Jesus’ promise and blessing to the church at Laodicea, “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” This is when the Soul is satisfied and content.

This is an excerpt from my new book The Crowns of the Believers.

Disengaged Christians

I get Entrepreneur in my inbox. The article about disengaged employees with the infographic attached struck me with the relationship it has to Christians. Believe it or not, I have met professing Christians with each one of these characteristics (both in the workplace and at church no less!) Have you?



This infographic was crafted with love by Officevibe, the employee engagement platform that helps managers see the ROI of company culture while making employees happier and more motivated at work.