"Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side," says motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar. Love is better than war between the sexes.
Many African American couples purchased the freedom of one or both. Frederick Douglass was named Frederick Bailey as a slave. He fell in love with Anna Murray who was born free. Murray and paper played important roles in his life. Ts'ai Lun, an official of the Chinese Imperial court is credited with inventing paper. He combined bamboo fibers, the inner bark of a mulberry tree and water to create pulp. Lun then poured the pulp on a cloth and let the water drain through. When the remaining pulp was solid enough, he lifted it off the cloth and hung it up to dry. When dry it made a writing surface.
On September 3, 1838 using the borrowed identification papers of a black sailor and abolitionist named David Ruggles and money that Murray had saved, Frederick Bailey left slavery in Maryland for freedom in Massachusetts. Love shows itself.
1 Corinthians 13:6 Amplified Bible says about love, "It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail." Slavery is wrong; freedom is just and right. Like Murray worked nine years, saved money and gave it to her future husband Frederick Bailey to purchase his freedom, Absalom Jones and Mary King were slaves who married, and Absalom worked several years to pay for the freedom of Mary, their children and himself. Absalom Jones went on to found the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church on July 17, 1794, and he became the first black American to become an ordained priest. Read more in my article "Stern-Looking But Big-Hearted." Lucy Terry was a 16-year-old poet and slave who wrote "The Bar's Fight" describing a Native American attack on Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1746 during the French and Indian War. Abijah Prince an ex-slave who gained his freedom after serving in the French and Indian War, married Lucy Terry and purchased her freedom. They moved to Vermont and had six children two of whom fought in the Revolutionary War.
Fred Korematsu who fought for Asian American civil rights said, "If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up." Frederick Bailey changed his name to Frederick Douglass to avoid slave hunters and spoke against many evils and for love. Douglass became a public speaker, wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and established the newspaper called North Star which is the same name of the first newspaper I wrote for in high school and eventually became editor-in-chief of it. The North Star's motto was "Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and all we are brethren."
Even if something or someone is in the way of love, pasos cortos, vista larga (short steps, long view.) Harriet Tubman was married to John Tubman. Harriet was born a slave. John was born free. John did not help Harriet gain her freedom. Step by step Harriet gained her freedom and went on to help hundreds of African Americans gain their freedom. Read my article "Only One is All Good."
Love is not without struggle, but we can work together for in the end, love always wins.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Aren't the Unborn Boys or Girls!
The unborn are not a part of their mother's bodies. The unborn are individuals. The life of the unborn can be started outside their mother's bodies. Frozen embryos are sometimes fought over in child custody cases. The unborn can survive both birth and abortion in the second-trimester and third-trimester of gestation. Surgeries and medical treatments can be done on the unborn.
"Doctors can almost always prevent transmission of H.I.V. from infected mothers to their babies by testing the mothers during pregnancy, treating those found infected with antiretroviral drugs, and giving their babies a six-week course of one or two drugs to prevent them from becoming infected. That works in the vast majority of cases, but when it does not, doctors provide stronger drug regiments to treat the infection in the baby," says The New York Times editorial staff in the March 5, 2013, article "The Intriguing Case of a Baby Cured of H.I.V."
Yet babies in their mother's wombs of the same age as those treated with antiretroviral drugs can be killed for virtually any reason by legal abortion except for some late-term abortions in fewer than 11 American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."
Science has forced some pro-choice people to now admit that abortion ends human life. Frances Kissling, a long-time pro-choice advocate and former president of Catholics for Choice, told Time Magazine in the January 14, 2013, article "What Choice? Abortion-rights activists won an epic victory in Roe v. Wade. They've been losing ever since," "When people hear us say abortion is just another medical procedure, they react with shock . . . Abortion is not like having your tooth pulled or having your appendix out. It involves the termination of an early form of human life. That deserves some gravitas."
The women's movement started out pro-life. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, passionately-in-love wife married 47 years, mother of seven, women's-rights activist and abolitionist, was both pro-woman and pro-life. In a 1873 letter to Julia Ward Howe, the originator of Mother's Day, Stanton writes, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Read my article "Pro-Woman, Pro-life."
Preacher, Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist Sojourner Truth said, "You say women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches. Nobody's ever helped me into a carriage or over a mud puddle. And ain't I a woman?" Truth said, "I have plowed, and I have planted. I have gathered into barns. No man could head me. And ain't I a woman?" Truth also said, "Jesus came from God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him."
Science has now demonstrated that human life begins when sperm and egg unite. Aren't the unborn boys or girls!
God loves all people even His enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 the Message Bible says, "“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”"
God even loves rapists, the women and men raped and the babies conceived of rape. None of these people should be killed. Instead God desires that people be changed into the goodness of His likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Amplified Bible says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit."
Isn't it past time to outlaw all abortions except those that science is not yet sophisticated enough to save the physical life of both the mother and the unborn? Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
The loss of a child hurts. "I have borne thirteen children and seen them almost all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief none but Jesus heard," said Sojourner Truth. Japanese American and other Asian American parents couldn't do much to protect their children when former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered that Asian Americans be thrust from their homes into internment camps. Read my article "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans." Rock star Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith writes in his autobiography, Walk This Way, about his abortion experience, “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. … You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I’m going, Jesus, what have I done?”
"Doctors can almost always prevent transmission of H.I.V. from infected mothers to their babies by testing the mothers during pregnancy, treating those found infected with antiretroviral drugs, and giving their babies a six-week course of one or two drugs to prevent them from becoming infected. That works in the vast majority of cases, but when it does not, doctors provide stronger drug regiments to treat the infection in the baby," says The New York Times editorial staff in the March 5, 2013, article "The Intriguing Case of a Baby Cured of H.I.V."
Yet babies in their mother's wombs of the same age as those treated with antiretroviral drugs can be killed for virtually any reason by legal abortion except for some late-term abortions in fewer than 11 American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."
Science has forced some pro-choice people to now admit that abortion ends human life. Frances Kissling, a long-time pro-choice advocate and former president of Catholics for Choice, told Time Magazine in the January 14, 2013, article "What Choice? Abortion-rights activists won an epic victory in Roe v. Wade. They've been losing ever since," "When people hear us say abortion is just another medical procedure, they react with shock . . . Abortion is not like having your tooth pulled or having your appendix out. It involves the termination of an early form of human life. That deserves some gravitas."
The women's movement started out pro-life. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, passionately-in-love wife married 47 years, mother of seven, women's-rights activist and abolitionist, was both pro-woman and pro-life. In a 1873 letter to Julia Ward Howe, the originator of Mother's Day, Stanton writes, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Read my article "Pro-Woman, Pro-life."
Preacher, Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist Sojourner Truth said, "You say women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches. Nobody's ever helped me into a carriage or over a mud puddle. And ain't I a woman?" Truth said, "I have plowed, and I have planted. I have gathered into barns. No man could head me. And ain't I a woman?" Truth also said, "Jesus came from God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him."
Science has now demonstrated that human life begins when sperm and egg unite. Aren't the unborn boys or girls!
God loves all people even His enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 the Message Bible says, "“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”"
God even loves rapists, the women and men raped and the babies conceived of rape. None of these people should be killed. Instead God desires that people be changed into the goodness of His likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Amplified Bible says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit."
Isn't it past time to outlaw all abortions except those that science is not yet sophisticated enough to save the physical life of both the mother and the unborn? Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
The loss of a child hurts. "I have borne thirteen children and seen them almost all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief none but Jesus heard," said Sojourner Truth. Japanese American and other Asian American parents couldn't do much to protect their children when former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered that Asian Americans be thrust from their homes into internment camps. Read my article "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans." Rock star Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith writes in his autobiography, Walk This Way, about his abortion experience, “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. … You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I’m going, Jesus, what have I done?”
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Interconnect
Raizy Glauber and Nathan Glauber were 21-years-old, Orthodox Jews of the Satmar Hasidic sect who had been paired by a matchmaker before marrying about a year ago reports The New York Times. The Glauber's were also killed in a car accident Monday, but doctors were able to perform an emergency Caesarean section to save the life of their son who was born at 24 weeks gestation, according to The New York Times's March 4, 2013, article "Emergency-Room Crisis: When Pregnant Woman Is Dying."
The Glauber baby boy is the age of babies now protected from some second-trimester and third trimester abortions in some American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."
Because of the age and place of residence of the unborn they are being discriminated against. The unborn have few legal rights.
Issues are interconnected. Christian minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." King also said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
The injustice of discrimination is widespread. During segregation African Americans and other people of color were compelled to sit in the back of buses and to go to colored only public places. The Voting Rights Act got rid of things like poll taxes, literacy tests and other administrative barriers erected to block African Americans and other people of color from voting. Are today's citizen tests, English tests, long waiting periods to become citizens like the past discriminatory poll taxes and literacy tests?
All Rafael and I had to do to become American citizens was be born. We thank God that we are not slaves, undocumented or living in countries where much of the population is living in circumstances comparable to segregation and even slavery.
Is anyone advocating for making American citizenship for immigrants almost as easy as it is for those born citizens?
A proverb from Zaire says, "A kind person is the one who is kind to strangers." Matthew 7:12 New Living Translation Bible says, "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." It does not matter if people want to stay in a country permanently or temporarily, God encourages us to treat them like ourselves. Deuteronomio 10:17-18 Palabra de Dios para Todos dice, "porque el SEÑOR tu Dios es el Dios de todos los dioses y el Señor de todos los señores. Él es grande, poderoso y terrible. Él no tiene favoritismos ni acepta sobornos. Él se encarga de hacer justicia a las viudas y a los huérfanos. Él ama al inmigrante que habita contigo y le da comida y ropa." Deuteronomy 10:17-18 Complete Jewish Bible says, "For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty and awesome God, who has no favorites and accepts no bribes. He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing."
Of course, we would not want to offer citizenship to drug lords, terrorists and other real criminals, but many foreign people will add great value to our American society by becoming citizens. Ruth, who was from Moab, was also in the human heritage of King David and Jesus Christ. Ruth said to her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, in the book of Ruth 1:16-17 English Standard Version, ". . .“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”"
Ruth was brave enough to escape the paganism of Moab. For other escapes, read my article "Audacious Escapes" and "Only One is All Good."
Ruth married the Jewish Boaz and lived the rest of her life in Israel. The women of Israel said to Naomi about Ruth in the book of Ruth 4:15 New Living Translation, " . . . your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons."
How much value and goodness are we missing through discriminatory practices like abortion and the process for foreigners to become citizens?
The Glauber baby boy is the age of babies now protected from some second-trimester and third trimester abortions in some American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."
Because of the age and place of residence of the unborn they are being discriminated against. The unborn have few legal rights.
Issues are interconnected. Christian minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." King also said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
The injustice of discrimination is widespread. During segregation African Americans and other people of color were compelled to sit in the back of buses and to go to colored only public places. The Voting Rights Act got rid of things like poll taxes, literacy tests and other administrative barriers erected to block African Americans and other people of color from voting. Are today's citizen tests, English tests, long waiting periods to become citizens like the past discriminatory poll taxes and literacy tests?
All Rafael and I had to do to become American citizens was be born. We thank God that we are not slaves, undocumented or living in countries where much of the population is living in circumstances comparable to segregation and even slavery.
Is anyone advocating for making American citizenship for immigrants almost as easy as it is for those born citizens?
A proverb from Zaire says, "A kind person is the one who is kind to strangers." Matthew 7:12 New Living Translation Bible says, "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." It does not matter if people want to stay in a country permanently or temporarily, God encourages us to treat them like ourselves. Deuteronomio 10:17-18 Palabra de Dios para Todos dice, "porque el SEÑOR tu Dios es el Dios de todos los dioses y el Señor de todos los señores. Él es grande, poderoso y terrible. Él no tiene favoritismos ni acepta sobornos. Él se encarga de hacer justicia a las viudas y a los huérfanos. Él ama al inmigrante que habita contigo y le da comida y ropa." Deuteronomy 10:17-18 Complete Jewish Bible says, "For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty and awesome God, who has no favorites and accepts no bribes. He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing."
Of course, we would not want to offer citizenship to drug lords, terrorists and other real criminals, but many foreign people will add great value to our American society by becoming citizens. Ruth, who was from Moab, was also in the human heritage of King David and Jesus Christ. Ruth said to her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, in the book of Ruth 1:16-17 English Standard Version, ". . .“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”"
Ruth was brave enough to escape the paganism of Moab. For other escapes, read my article "Audacious Escapes" and "Only One is All Good."
Ruth married the Jewish Boaz and lived the rest of her life in Israel. The women of Israel said to Naomi about Ruth in the book of Ruth 4:15 New Living Translation, " . . . your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons."
How much value and goodness are we missing through discriminatory practices like abortion and the process for foreigners to become citizens?
Monday, March 4, 2013
Push for Paid Leave
When Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Mosaic law and the prophets, He didn't come to implement a rigid system that put people in bondage and denied them the best of living. The Gospel is filled with stories of Jesus Christ challenging His Jewish people to practice the Sabbath in a way that provides maximum help for people. Mark 2:27 Contemporary English Version Bible says, "Jesus finished by saying, “People were not made for the good of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for the good of people."
How can employers pay for one-year or more of paid employee leave?
** All leave balances accrued should be portable from one place of employment to the next.
** Some may prefer increased paid-leave benefits instead of a 401K match.
** Some may prefer increased paid-leave instead of a monetary increase for merit performance.
** Some may desire a customized benefit package.
What are some other ways to pay for one-year or more of paid leave?
Yes, we can have one-year or more of paid leave in America. Just because we have not gotten it in the past does not mean that we cannot get it in the near future. A Japanese proverb says, “Fall down seven times, get up eight times.”
Ida B. Wells was kicked out of a train because she refused to sit in the back. She sued the train company for discrimination and won, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned her victory. Ida went on to fight against racism, especially the lynching of African Americans and for women's right to vote. Wells was a married, mother of four children who also helped to found the National Association of Colored Women, National Afro-American Council and Women's Era Club in addition to her crusading journalism.
Let's leave behind the one-size-fits-all thinking. Why mandate that one year or more of paid leave has to be taken all at once? Some may want to split it in various ways. One example is a dad works part of the work day, then uses leave for part of the work day while a mom does likewise in a way that their children are never in day care. I had a former supervisor who told me that quality day care is just too expensive especially when first beginning a career. She and her husband solved the problem by he worked days, and she worked nights before their children went to school. She said while this worked economically, physically and relationally it was exhausting. One year or more of paid leave would have helped this creative couple.
How did you solve your childcare issues?
Dads who have used paternity leave, what was your experience with employment, family, friends and others? Moms who have used maternity leave, what was your experience with employment, family, friends and others?
Does anyone have employment benefits that include one year or more of paid leave?
One year or more of paid leave is not just for married people and/or parents. While one of my single, Christian friends did not have as much as one year of paid leave, she would accrue a large leave balance so that she could take mission trips to Africa and Latin America. During these trips she would participate in distributing food, clothing, shoes, medical supplies and the Word of God. Singles with and without children can use one year or more of paid leave.
Earning money is essential to survival and progress (cash is efectivo,) and so is voluntarism in America and other countries globally. Former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
One year or more of paid leave should be granted without any necessity of giving the reason for its use. What are some positive, novel ways to use one year or more of paid leave?
Many countries in Europe and Asia already have one year or more of paid leave, while America does not. Yet in America we have a large population of Jews and Christians who say they believe in the Bible which teaches a one-year Sabbath every seven years. Long-term paid leave is good for singles, married people, everyone! Read my articles, "Paid Leave Please," "Paid Leave is Good for Us" and "Novel Submission."
Proverbs 25:11 Amplified Bible says, "A word fitly spoken and in due season is like apples of gold in settings of silver." Leave an on-line comment. Recommend this article on Google. Tweet with me (michelelove30).
How can employers pay for one-year or more of paid employee leave?
** All leave balances accrued should be portable from one place of employment to the next.
** Some may prefer increased paid-leave benefits instead of a 401K match.
** Some may prefer increased paid-leave instead of a monetary increase for merit performance.
** Some may desire a customized benefit package.
What are some other ways to pay for one-year or more of paid leave?
Yes, we can have one-year or more of paid leave in America. Just because we have not gotten it in the past does not mean that we cannot get it in the near future. A Japanese proverb says, “Fall down seven times, get up eight times.”
Ida B. Wells was kicked out of a train because she refused to sit in the back. She sued the train company for discrimination and won, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned her victory. Ida went on to fight against racism, especially the lynching of African Americans and for women's right to vote. Wells was a married, mother of four children who also helped to found the National Association of Colored Women, National Afro-American Council and Women's Era Club in addition to her crusading journalism.
Let's leave behind the one-size-fits-all thinking. Why mandate that one year or more of paid leave has to be taken all at once? Some may want to split it in various ways. One example is a dad works part of the work day, then uses leave for part of the work day while a mom does likewise in a way that their children are never in day care. I had a former supervisor who told me that quality day care is just too expensive especially when first beginning a career. She and her husband solved the problem by he worked days, and she worked nights before their children went to school. She said while this worked economically, physically and relationally it was exhausting. One year or more of paid leave would have helped this creative couple.
How did you solve your childcare issues?
Dads who have used paternity leave, what was your experience with employment, family, friends and others? Moms who have used maternity leave, what was your experience with employment, family, friends and others?
Does anyone have employment benefits that include one year or more of paid leave?
One year or more of paid leave is not just for married people and/or parents. While one of my single, Christian friends did not have as much as one year of paid leave, she would accrue a large leave balance so that she could take mission trips to Africa and Latin America. During these trips she would participate in distributing food, clothing, shoes, medical supplies and the Word of God. Singles with and without children can use one year or more of paid leave.
Earning money is essential to survival and progress (cash is efectivo,) and so is voluntarism in America and other countries globally. Former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
One year or more of paid leave should be granted without any necessity of giving the reason for its use. What are some positive, novel ways to use one year or more of paid leave?
Many countries in Europe and Asia already have one year or more of paid leave, while America does not. Yet in America we have a large population of Jews and Christians who say they believe in the Bible which teaches a one-year Sabbath every seven years. Long-term paid leave is good for singles, married people, everyone! Read my articles, "Paid Leave Please," "Paid Leave is Good for Us" and "Novel Submission."
Proverbs 25:11 Amplified Bible says, "A word fitly spoken and in due season is like apples of gold in settings of silver." Leave an on-line comment. Recommend this article on Google. Tweet with me (michelelove30).
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Only One is All Good
"And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone," (Mark 10:18 English Standard Version Bible.)
Yet we often except near perfection in people we marry, in leaders and in others. Believers are saints, and saints sometimes sin. Jesus Christ taught us to ask Him for forgiveness daily. Luke 11:2-4 the Message Bible says, "So he said, “When you pray, say,
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”"
Harriet Tubman was called Moses after the Biblical Moses because she led hundreds of African Americans out of slavery through trips on the Underground Railroad, not a train but a network of people who hid and helped slaves escape slavery and live in freedom. Large rewards were offered for Harriet Tubman's capture, but with God on her side she was never caught, and she never lost a passenger.
Harriet also married, John Tubman. John was a black man who was born free, but he treated Harriet as if she were his slave and said that if Harriet tried to escape slavery he would tell her slave master!
Harriet hid her plans to escape slavery from her husband. In 1849 traveling through the Underground Railroad, following the North Star, Harriet escaped from slavery on the Brodas plantation in Eastern Shore Maryland. Harriet said, "I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now that I was free." She later said, "There was such glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven."
Harriet could have stayed in "heaven," but she decided to go back to slave-states repeatedly to rescue slaves including her children, her brothers (she had 11 siblings) and their families, her elderly parents (Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross) and many others.
Her husband, John Tubman was a hard-hearted man. On one trip when Harriet came back to the Brodas plantation, her husband refused to come to a non-slave state. Harriet didn't waste the trip, she rescued some slaves. John Tubman married another woman.
Some of us are married to people we should have never married, or in relationships that we should have never entered or in other difficult relationships. 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 Complete Jewish Bible says, "To the rest I say — I, not the Lord: if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and she is satisfied to go on living with him, he should not leave her. Also, if any woman has an unbelieving husband who is satisfied to go on living with her, she is not to leave him. For the unbelieving husband has been set aside for God by the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been set aside for God by the brother — otherwise your children would be “unclean,” but as it is, they are set aside for God. But if the unbelieving spouse separates himself, let him be separated. In circumstances like these, the brother or sister is not enslaved — God has called you to a life of peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?"
When her marriage failed, Harriet kept on living and doing good. Harriet served in the Civil War on the side of the Union as a scout, spy and nurse. She was the first woman in U.S. military history to lead an armed expedition. In the Combahee River Raid Harriet led a group of mostly black soldiers in an audacious escape that liberated more than 750 enslaved persons. Movie material? Proverbs-style women are warriors. Read my article "Warrior Women,"
Being a warrior does not mean that a woman lacks nurturing capacity. After the Civil War Harriet went to live on a small farm in Auburn, New York. She eventually turned her home into a home for poor and elderly African Americans.
Harriet was also active in the women's movement. She worked with women like Susan B. Anthony to fight for women's right to vote.
Dr. Derek Grier says in his Ministry Minute "Strong Marriage," "We really have no idea how selfish and how self-centered we are until we commit to spend the rest of our lives loving and making decisions with another person." Read my article "Divorced = Eliminated from the Race?"
Just because John Tubman had no sense to appreciate the woman he had, didn't mean others didn't recognize Harriet's value. Abolitionist John Brown called her, "General Tubman." Solider Nelson Davis and Harriet Tubman married in 1869.
What other warrior women are like Harriet Tubman?
Douglas Brinkley writes in The Washington Post March 1, 2013, article "What would Parks do? Honor Tubman," "What would have truly perturbed her was that Obama has yet to issue an executive order to create a national monument for Harriet Tubman. The paperwork is ready; it just needs the president's signature. . . . Call or write the White House and urge the president to pick up his pen on behalf of history."
Yet we often except near perfection in people we marry, in leaders and in others. Believers are saints, and saints sometimes sin. Jesus Christ taught us to ask Him for forgiveness daily. Luke 11:2-4 the Message Bible says, "So he said, “When you pray, say,
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”"
Harriet Tubman was called Moses after the Biblical Moses because she led hundreds of African Americans out of slavery through trips on the Underground Railroad, not a train but a network of people who hid and helped slaves escape slavery and live in freedom. Large rewards were offered for Harriet Tubman's capture, but with God on her side she was never caught, and she never lost a passenger.
Harriet also married, John Tubman. John was a black man who was born free, but he treated Harriet as if she were his slave and said that if Harriet tried to escape slavery he would tell her slave master!
Harriet hid her plans to escape slavery from her husband. In 1849 traveling through the Underground Railroad, following the North Star, Harriet escaped from slavery on the Brodas plantation in Eastern Shore Maryland. Harriet said, "I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now that I was free." She later said, "There was such glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven."
Harriet could have stayed in "heaven," but she decided to go back to slave-states repeatedly to rescue slaves including her children, her brothers (she had 11 siblings) and their families, her elderly parents (Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross) and many others.
Her husband, John Tubman was a hard-hearted man. On one trip when Harriet came back to the Brodas plantation, her husband refused to come to a non-slave state. Harriet didn't waste the trip, she rescued some slaves. John Tubman married another woman.
Some of us are married to people we should have never married, or in relationships that we should have never entered or in other difficult relationships. 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 Complete Jewish Bible says, "To the rest I say — I, not the Lord: if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and she is satisfied to go on living with him, he should not leave her. Also, if any woman has an unbelieving husband who is satisfied to go on living with her, she is not to leave him. For the unbelieving husband has been set aside for God by the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been set aside for God by the brother — otherwise your children would be “unclean,” but as it is, they are set aside for God. But if the unbelieving spouse separates himself, let him be separated. In circumstances like these, the brother or sister is not enslaved — God has called you to a life of peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?"
When her marriage failed, Harriet kept on living and doing good. Harriet served in the Civil War on the side of the Union as a scout, spy and nurse. She was the first woman in U.S. military history to lead an armed expedition. In the Combahee River Raid Harriet led a group of mostly black soldiers in an audacious escape that liberated more than 750 enslaved persons. Movie material? Proverbs-style women are warriors. Read my article "Warrior Women,"
Being a warrior does not mean that a woman lacks nurturing capacity. After the Civil War Harriet went to live on a small farm in Auburn, New York. She eventually turned her home into a home for poor and elderly African Americans.
Harriet was also active in the women's movement. She worked with women like Susan B. Anthony to fight for women's right to vote.
Dr. Derek Grier says in his Ministry Minute "Strong Marriage," "We really have no idea how selfish and how self-centered we are until we commit to spend the rest of our lives loving and making decisions with another person." Read my article "Divorced = Eliminated from the Race?"
Just because John Tubman had no sense to appreciate the woman he had, didn't mean others didn't recognize Harriet's value. Abolitionist John Brown called her, "General Tubman." Solider Nelson Davis and Harriet Tubman married in 1869.
What other warrior women are like Harriet Tubman?
Douglas Brinkley writes in The Washington Post March 1, 2013, article "What would Parks do? Honor Tubman," "What would have truly perturbed her was that Obama has yet to issue an executive order to create a national monument for Harriet Tubman. The paperwork is ready; it just needs the president's signature. . . . Call or write the White House and urge the president to pick up his pen on behalf of history."
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Abortion Hurts
March 3rd is the centennial of the 1913 National Woman Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C. Women finally secured the right to vote through the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
The women's movement started out pro-life. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, passionately-in-love wife married 47 years, mother of seven, women's-rights activist and abolitionist, was both pro-woman and pro-life. In a 1873 letter to Julia Ward Howe, the originator of Mother's Day, Stanton writes, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Read my article "Pro-Woman, Pro-life."
Advocates for women's rights shouldn't be fighting for abortion as about 50 percent of unborn babies are female. God is no respecter of persons. God is for the life of males and females. Galatians 3:28-29 the Message Bible says, "In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises."
Women and men in America and globally are standing up for the rights of the unborn. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
On Thursday Arkansas joined Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma to become another state to outlaw abortions past 20 weeks of gestation based on fetal pain. The Arkansas law is one of the National Right to Life Committee's model law called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
The website http://www.doctorsonfetalpain.com/ says, "Pain receptors are present throughout the unborn child’s entire body by no later than 16 weeks after fertilization, and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than 20 weeks. For unborn children, says Dr. Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, 20 weeks is a “uniquely vulnerable time, since the pain system is fully established, yet the higher level pain-modifying system has barely begun to develop.” As a result, unborn babies at this age probably feel pain more intensely than adults."
Abortion hurts and harms people. Late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart has killed multiple babies and even some of their mothers, including Christin Gilbert, who was a 19-year-old with Down Syndrome, and died in 2005 following one of Carhart's botched abortions. Pro-life groups are currently asking the state of Maryland to revoke Carhart's medical license following his botched abortion on Jennifer Morbelli that resulted in her death and the death of her daughter.
Lifenews.com reports in the article "Jennifer Morbelli Not the First Woman Carhart Killed in Abortion" that Gilbert was raped and may not have consented to the Carhart abortion. Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who was instrumental in securing voting rights for African Americans and African-American representation in the Democratic Party, did not consent to being sterilized. A Mississippi doctor thought that black women should not reproduce, so he took it upon himself to reduce the African American population by sterilizing Hamer without her consent.
Abortion is so unfair to everyone involved. Sperm and egg are required to start human life, but only women have legal abortion-decision making rights. Read my article "Do Fathers Have a Say in Abortion and Frozen Embryos?"
Hamer liked to sing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." Hamer, who survived polio, but walked with a resulting limp, is the 20th child of her parents. Read my article "Big is Beautiful."
Please shine light on other injustices and inequalities related to abortion and involuntary sterilization by leaving an on-line comment.
The women's movement started out pro-life. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, passionately-in-love wife married 47 years, mother of seven, women's-rights activist and abolitionist, was both pro-woman and pro-life. In a 1873 letter to Julia Ward Howe, the originator of Mother's Day, Stanton writes, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Read my article "Pro-Woman, Pro-life."
Advocates for women's rights shouldn't be fighting for abortion as about 50 percent of unborn babies are female. God is no respecter of persons. God is for the life of males and females. Galatians 3:28-29 the Message Bible says, "In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises."
Women and men in America and globally are standing up for the rights of the unborn. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
On Thursday Arkansas joined Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma to become another state to outlaw abortions past 20 weeks of gestation based on fetal pain. The Arkansas law is one of the National Right to Life Committee's model law called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
The website http://www.doctorsonfetalpain.com/ says, "Pain receptors are present throughout the unborn child’s entire body by no later than 16 weeks after fertilization, and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than 20 weeks. For unborn children, says Dr. Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, 20 weeks is a “uniquely vulnerable time, since the pain system is fully established, yet the higher level pain-modifying system has barely begun to develop.” As a result, unborn babies at this age probably feel pain more intensely than adults."
Abortion hurts and harms people. Late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart has killed multiple babies and even some of their mothers, including Christin Gilbert, who was a 19-year-old with Down Syndrome, and died in 2005 following one of Carhart's botched abortions. Pro-life groups are currently asking the state of Maryland to revoke Carhart's medical license following his botched abortion on Jennifer Morbelli that resulted in her death and the death of her daughter.
Lifenews.com reports in the article "Jennifer Morbelli Not the First Woman Carhart Killed in Abortion" that Gilbert was raped and may not have consented to the Carhart abortion. Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who was instrumental in securing voting rights for African Americans and African-American representation in the Democratic Party, did not consent to being sterilized. A Mississippi doctor thought that black women should not reproduce, so he took it upon himself to reduce the African American population by sterilizing Hamer without her consent.
Abortion is so unfair to everyone involved. Sperm and egg are required to start human life, but only women have legal abortion-decision making rights. Read my article "Do Fathers Have a Say in Abortion and Frozen Embryos?"
Hamer liked to sing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." Hamer, who survived polio, but walked with a resulting limp, is the 20th child of her parents. Read my article "Big is Beautiful."
Please shine light on other injustices and inequalities related to abortion and involuntary sterilization by leaving an on-line comment.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Coming Out
In the movie la mujer de mi hermano Ignacio is married to the drop-dead gorgeous, smart and kind, Zoe. Ignacio is highly successful in his work. Ignacio and Zoe live in a stunning house. One would think this would be the kind of couple that has sublime sex sometimes multiple times daily.
But Ignacio limits sex to Saturdays only.
While Ignacio has multiple issues, he doesn't present as an intentionally mean person. He goes to church and has a friendly relationship with the priest and his mother. In one scene Ignacio is concerned that a sexy, sleeveless black dress that Zoe wants to wear to church is not appropriate.
However, it's not her dress that is the problem, but Ignacio's failure to sexually satisfy his wife, Zoe. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:3 New Living Translation Bible, "The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs."
The Apostle Paul also writes in Ephesians 5:25 Contemporary English Version Bible, "A husband should love his wife as much as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it." Whenever we receive a now and eternal relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost (1 X 1 X 1 = 1), we are giving up control of our life and turning the control over to God. God is anti-self-centeredness. God is love and works through us to not only love God but also love ourselves and other people. 1 John 4:7-11 English Standard Version Bible says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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."
Because Zoe and Ignacio cannot have a child biologically and Ignacio refuses to have sex with Zoe except on Saturdays, Zoe decides to have sex with Ignacio's brother, Gonzalo. Sex with Gonzalo feels divine with all the licking, sucking, touching and kissing that should be inside her marriage. But sinful sex outside marriage also causes Zoe to cry and to renew her efforts to have more sex with her husband, Ignacio, who she really wants but they don't know how to have a marriage relationship.
Zoe is sad. Jill Scott writes in her poem "Blue" from her book The Moments, the Minutes,the Hours The poetry of Jill Scott:
"I put food coloring in my bath yesterday
Sat in a pretty blue
Let the drops fall from my finger tips
Onto my breast and my stomach
I just wanted to look how I feel
Without you."
Turns out that Ignacio likes men sexually. Ignacio sometimes uses his business trips to have sex with men.
God wants us to receive Him, talk to Him about His Bible and to really learn how to overcome homosexuality, other forms of sex outside of marriage and other sins and to live in enjoyable, beautiful, good relationships. Yes, homosexuality and other forms of adultery can be given up without settling for an unsatisfying life.
Christopher Yuan was in dental school and had a time where he had anonymous sexual encounters with men daily. He was also an illegal drug user and dealer. But God, a mom who prayed and fasted for seven years for Yuan's deliverance, a prison sentence and a HIV diagnosis caused Yuan to go from prisoner to professor. Today Yuan teaches at Moody Bible Institute and has a speaking ministry (christopheryuan.com). Some ex-gays are single like Yuan. Others are married with children like Pastor Mike Goeke, who is married to Stephanie Goeke. The Goeke children are Margaret, Frances and Peter.
While we are all born with a sin nature, we don't have to stay naked without God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit (like water has three states: liquid, ice, gas/steam) living on the inside of believers. Every day is a good day to receive God and grow in relationship with Him and people.
Please share stories about coming out of sexual sin into sexual victory.
But Ignacio limits sex to Saturdays only.
While Ignacio has multiple issues, he doesn't present as an intentionally mean person. He goes to church and has a friendly relationship with the priest and his mother. In one scene Ignacio is concerned that a sexy, sleeveless black dress that Zoe wants to wear to church is not appropriate.
However, it's not her dress that is the problem, but Ignacio's failure to sexually satisfy his wife, Zoe. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:3 New Living Translation Bible, "The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs."
The Apostle Paul also writes in Ephesians 5:25 Contemporary English Version Bible, "A husband should love his wife as much as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it." Whenever we receive a now and eternal relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost (1 X 1 X 1 = 1), we are giving up control of our life and turning the control over to God. God is anti-self-centeredness. God is love and works through us to not only love God but also love ourselves and other people. 1 John 4:7-11 English Standard Version Bible says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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."
Because Zoe and Ignacio cannot have a child biologically and Ignacio refuses to have sex with Zoe except on Saturdays, Zoe decides to have sex with Ignacio's brother, Gonzalo. Sex with Gonzalo feels divine with all the licking, sucking, touching and kissing that should be inside her marriage. But sinful sex outside marriage also causes Zoe to cry and to renew her efforts to have more sex with her husband, Ignacio, who she really wants but they don't know how to have a marriage relationship.
Zoe is sad. Jill Scott writes in her poem "Blue" from her book The Moments, the Minutes,the Hours The poetry of Jill Scott:
"I put food coloring in my bath yesterday
Sat in a pretty blue
Let the drops fall from my finger tips
Onto my breast and my stomach
I just wanted to look how I feel
Without you."
Turns out that Ignacio likes men sexually. Ignacio sometimes uses his business trips to have sex with men.
God wants us to receive Him, talk to Him about His Bible and to really learn how to overcome homosexuality, other forms of sex outside of marriage and other sins and to live in enjoyable, beautiful, good relationships. Yes, homosexuality and other forms of adultery can be given up without settling for an unsatisfying life.
Christopher Yuan was in dental school and had a time where he had anonymous sexual encounters with men daily. He was also an illegal drug user and dealer. But God, a mom who prayed and fasted for seven years for Yuan's deliverance, a prison sentence and a HIV diagnosis caused Yuan to go from prisoner to professor. Today Yuan teaches at Moody Bible Institute and has a speaking ministry (christopheryuan.com). Some ex-gays are single like Yuan. Others are married with children like Pastor Mike Goeke, who is married to Stephanie Goeke. The Goeke children are Margaret, Frances and Peter.
While we are all born with a sin nature, we don't have to stay naked without God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit (like water has three states: liquid, ice, gas/steam) living on the inside of believers. Every day is a good day to receive God and grow in relationship with Him and people.
Please share stories about coming out of sexual sin into sexual victory.
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