Focus

How is it possible to kill by abortion more than 336 million people and to sterilize more than 222 million people since 1971 in China? How is it possible to kill by abortion more than 55 million people in America since 1973 and to sterilize more than 60,000? One part of the answer is that it's necessary to "educate" as many people as possible to think that evil is good.

Satan, the devil, sometimes pretends to be gentle and good to confuse people into embracing evil as good.

Recently I was reading a book that described China's one-child policy as "highly effective." A confused mind describes as "highly effective" killing baby boys and baby girls via abortion and sterilizing women and men all accompanied with government compulsion on parents to pay for these acts.

1 Corinthians 13:7 Amplified Bible says, "Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]." Love does not focus on sin and difficult circumstances. Love focuses on God first then people. A Twi African proverb says, "Love is the greatest of all virtues." Matthew 22:36-40 Amplified Bible says, "Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light—which are heavy?] And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets."

God is Love. Obey Love. Disobey the devil. Love sees the potential in people. The devil sees people as worthless and hopeless; the devil seeks opportunities to create problems for people, accuse them of sin and kill them.

God does not ignore sin and difficulties. God sees all reality and is still willing and able to love. Before the healing of a son with mental and physical disabilities Mark 9:23 Amplified Bible says, "And Jesus said, [You say to Me], If You can do anything? [Why,] all things can be (are possible) to him who believes!"

When a father brought his son who had mental and physical disabilities to God the Son Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ did not sterilize, starve or separate the father and/or son. Instead Jesus Christ healed the son who had mental and physical disabilities and didn't hold his sins or his father's sins and difficult circumstances against them.

A Spanish saying is, "God will provide the means." God is a healer and a problem solver, not a people accuser and people killer. Imitate God. Ephesians 4:3-5:2 Amplified Bible says, "Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace. Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]. And walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another] as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance."

Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead in three days getting back all that Satan stole from people. Satan has no potential for good. Jesus Christ is sterilizing, starving and separating Satan and his kingdom of darkness, so that God's love and goodness will reign in all the universe. What are some ways you on purpose focus on love instead of sin and difficult circumstances? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.

Embrace People. Erase the Spirit of Fear.

Jesus Christ sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemane knowing He was going to be beaten, crucified and killed for the sins of creyentes (believers.) After He was beaten, crucified and resurrected from the dead in three days, Jesus Christ had paid the debt owed God the Father for sin. 

As creyentes we have a new life as reyes y reinas (kings and queens) empowered by God the Holy Ghost, who is love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, goodness and self-control. Having peace and the other qualities does not mean that we will not work hard to live in peace and in the other qualities which are interconnected.

"The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war," says Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the first woman president of the United Nations. Some succumb to the spirit of fear and refuse to sweat in peace.

The spirit of fear is the greatest threat to love and to peace. 1 John 4:18 Complete Jewish Bible says, "There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love."

Because the Chinese government is afraid of people, they punish pro-creation. China's one child policy has killed more than 330 million baby boys and baby girls via abortion and more than 190 million people have been sterilized.

How many adolescent and adult women and men have been killed by China's one child policy? ChinaAid News reports in the May 18, 2013, article "Family Planning Officials in Jiangsu Province Beat Farmer to Near Death for Unauthorized Births," "Zhang Futao, of Group Five, Nangou Village, in the town of Beigou, in Xinyi city, is now hospitalized in critical condition and fighting for his life after suffering severe head injuries from the beating by the family planning officials who burst into his home at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday (May 15). They then kidnapped Zhang to Tashan Brigade and made his family pay a ransom." Zhang Futao and his wife have three children, a girl age 12, a boy age six and another girl age 4. Read the full story at http://www.chinaaid.org/2013/05/family-planning-officials-in-jiangsu.html.

America's sexuality policies are not as soaked in fear as China's sexuality policies. We cannot take comfort or congratulate ourselves. More than 55 million baby girls and baby boys have been killed via abortion in America. Adolescent and adult women die from abortion. Tonya Reaves, a 24-year-old African-American woman, died July 20, 2012, on the operating table of a Chicago, Illinois, Planned Parenthood as a result of an abortion-induced hemorrhage reported a local CBS television station.

The following LifeNews.com link shows that Kermit Gosnell is not the only abortionists killing late-term unborn babies, babies born live after botched abortions and women: http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/15/another-gosnell-report-shows-texas-abortion-doc-kills-babies-born-alive/.

Some Nigerians share kola nuts to signify friendship. The global and American national media can show women and men friendship by thoroughly investigating abortionist Douglas Karpen and the entire abortion industry.

Late-term abortions can be done to kill baby girls and baby boys suspected of being disabled. Why should being disabled be a death sentence? Helen Keller, who is blind and death, says, "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God."

After a speaking tour in the 1930s in Japan to improve conditions for the blind there, the Japanese gave Helen Keller an Akita dog. The Japanese and many other people enjoy and are enhanced by Helen Keller.

Embrace people. Erase the spirit of fear.  A Persian proverb says, "Human beings are part of each other, they are created from the same clay."

How Many Abortionists Like Gosnell and Karpen Are There? What Is the Abortion Industry Really Like?

Some are jealous, envious and hateful of what we have. They pretend to be our friend and try to get us to do things to "help" us that are really intended to harm us.

Satan had a special relationship with God. He lost that and couldn't get it back. In jealousy, envy and hatred of the relationship Adam and Eve were having with God, Satan pretended to be Eve's friend and influenced her to eat the harmful forbidden fruit. She then influenced Adam to eat it (Genesis 3).

Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer went to a doctor believing she was getting friendly medical treatment; instead her doctor sterilized her because he hated black people and their sexuality. Fannie Lou Hamer had enviable social skills gained as the youngest of 20 children and used those skills to help African Americans gain voting rights and power within the Democratic Party.

Jealousy, envy and hatred are not racially exclusive. In China in the name of helping people, the Chinese one child policy has lead to more than 330 million deaths by abortion and 196 million sterilizations. Imagine that--the populations of one continent and one country being exterminated; that is what more than 330 million abortions represents; it's more than the population of America and Australia combined.

A Chinese proverb says, "pointing to a deer and calling it a horse;" meaning "right and wrong are deliberately mixed up." Satan specializes in confusion. Satan got Eve to mistake the identity of God. Eve thought that God was her enemy denying her power and thought that Satan was her friend helping her to choose something good.

God made Adam and Eve as reyes y reinas (kings and queens.) They ruled the earth and enjoyed sex without fear. Genesis 2:25 Complete Jewish Bible says, "They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed."

Today sadly much of sexuality is soaked in fear. The spirit of fear does not produce freedom. Abortion and sterilization in China are about coercion. A ChinaAid News March 24, 2013, "With ChinaAid's Help, Two Victims of China's One-Child Policy Granted UNHCR Refugee Status" article reports that in 1995, when Guo Yanling was eight months pregnant, she was forced to have an abortion. In 1999, she was forcibly sterilized. In 2006, she was imprisoned for not being able to pay a fine for having more than one child. The Chinese government also refused to issue household registrations to her and to her husband, Du Yiliang's, three children without which they are unable to attend school or to receive government benefits. Guo Yanling's and Du Yiliang's abortion, sterilization, educational and economic terror experience is typical in China. What isn't nearly as typical is that with ChinaAid’s help, Guo Yanling and Du Yiliang have been granted refugee status by the UN High Commission on Refugees. Notes of encouragement to Du Yiliang and Guo Yanling, requests for interviews and financial contributions to ChinaAid's Emergency Relief Fund can all be submitted to ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu at http://www.chinaaid.org.  

Some people want us to think that it is helpful to kill people and to mutilate their bodies as opposed to finding solutions to challenging situations. In America our sexuality policies do not have the level of coercion that China's do, but both America's and China's sexuality policies are rooted in fear, confusion, hatred and other evil.

American segregation was promoted as a way to empower people at the expense of other people. Today we don't have legal segregation, but we do have legal abortion. Legal abortion is promoted as a way to empower people at the expense of other people. Christian minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in a 1963 letter from the Birmingham, Alabama, City Jail, "Injustice anywhere is a treat to justice everywhere."  

Common sense should show that abortionists, people who cut apart baby girls and baby boys and dismember them in others ways for a living, are not compassionate, quality medical providers to adolescent and adult women. The job of an abortionist requires cutting off a good conscience.

The trial and sentencing of Abortionist Kermit Gosnell has received some media attention with his killing of babies born alive after botched abortions and the death of a woman. He should be exposed for the grisly murderer he is. LifeNews.com has also reported on another Gosnell-style abortionist named Douglas Karpen. Read his story at http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/15/another-gosnell-report-shows-texas-abortion-doc-kills-babies-born-alive/

However, where is the muckraking national and global journalism investigating the entire abortion industry? Since the beginning of China's one child policy more than 330 million babies have died by abortion. Since Roe v. Wade, there have been more than 55 million abortions in America and very little coverage of what's going on in abortion clinics. A comprehensive investigation of the abortion industry is long overdue as it impacts people at all levels of society.  

Every abortion involves an unborn baby, a male parent, a female parent and others.

Parenting is undervalued and distorted globally. In America a pervasive idea exists that parents are asexual caretakers of children, and if you want passion, find it in infidelity instead of marriage.

The first parents were married, naked (sometimes having sex) and it was natural, beautiful, passionate and good. Let's get back to the original design of sexuality. Using the Bible as our guide, why not collect the best of various cultures and incorporate it into our own? In the movie Dances With Wolves, the wife of the Sioux Native American holy man is on top of him making love with her husband while friends and family are in the tent mostly sleeping. Children need to see a model of marriage with love and incredible sex. Make us want to be married. On the occasions that siblings are produced from marital lovemaking, embrace them instead of trying to erase them through abortion.

Marital lovemaking is primarily for the closeness of the couple. Some beautiful sexuality is not connected to pro-creation. The Japanese describe oral sex as love licks.

An African proverb says, "When an elder dies it is as if a whole library has burned down." Let's check out the library before it burns down. What are some wonderful martial lovemaking ideas from Africans, Native Americans, Japanese and others?

Chinese pillow books are small, sex-instruction manuals, each on a specific topic with illustrations. You can include erotic poems written by you or someone else, pressed flowers, cards, mementos, clippings from magazines and/or books with your notes, prose of your own on special paper and whatever you and your spouse enjoy. Books can be titled Touch Me Like This, Play Time, Hot Dates, Beautiful Butts, Fellatio, Cunnilingus, Intercourse Positions, S & M Alternatives, Strategies for Presenting a Sexy Marriage to Our Children or something in a code known only to each other. What are the titles of your Chinese pillow books?

Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

Overcoming the What Ifs

The Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:7-8 Amplified Bible, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. Do not blush or be ashamed then, to testify to and for our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for His sake, but [with me] take your share of the suffering [to which the preaching] of the Gospel [may expose you, and do it] in the power of God."

One of the things the spirit of fear does is it attacks our mind with the "what ifs." About one year ago Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer, escaped house arrest in Shandong, China, walking at night for several miles until he met up with He Peirong, who drove him to the US embassy in Beijing, China. Guangcheng probably got attacked with the thought, "What if I get caught? How will the Chinese authorities harm me?"

Harriet Tubman probably also had times in her life when she was attacked with the what ifs. Harriet Tubman started out as Harriet Ross born into slavery in Maryland. As a teenager, a slave overseer hit Harriet in the head with a lead brick because she was blocking his throw to stop another slave trying to escape slavery. Harriet was hit so hard that she became unconscious. The hit did lifetime damage. From that time on she suffered seizures and uncontrollable sleeping spells. Having a disability didn't mean that Harriet wanted to remain a slave. When she thought about escaping slavery, what if thoughts probably came to her mind like, "What if I run away and get caught by slave catchers and their bloodhounds? Will I be whipped? Will I be sold further South? Will I fall asleep or have a seizure at the worst possible moment?"

Some parents today decide to have prenatal testing. They may be thinking thoughts like, "What if the test determines that our baby has a disability like Down syndrome? What if the pregnancy is carried to term? How long will I be a parent? How am I going to afford this? What happens when I die? What will people think and say about a disabled child? How will they treat us?"

Fear comes to all of us. What does God say to do with it? "Have not I commanded you? Be strong, vigorous, and very courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9 Amplified Bible) When fear attacked Chen Guangcheng, he still moved to escape house arrest inflicted on him by Chinese authorities for filing a 2005 class action lawsuit against local officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China's one child policy. When fear attacked Harriet Tubman, she still moved to escape slavery via the Underground Railroad (a network of people who helped runaway African American slaves find freedom in non-slave American states or in Canada.) Some parents instead of choosing to abort their child who may or may not have a disability, choose life and celebrate it. Sarah and Todd Palin have a son who has Down Syndrome. Their car bumper sticker says, "My kid has more chromosomes than your kid."   

Creyentes (believers) are reinas y reyes (kings and queens). We are not called to be intimidated by adversity. We are called to press through adversity overcoming evil with good. Philippians 1:28-29 Amplified Bible says, "And do not [for a moment] be frightened or intimidated in anything by your opponents and adversaries, for such [constancy and fearlessness] will be a clear sign (proof and seal) to them of [their impending] destruction, but [a sure token and evidence] of your deliverance and salvation, and that from God. For you have been granted [the privilege] for Christ’s sake not only to believe in (adhere to, rely on, and trust in) Him, but also to suffer in His behalf."

Chen Guangcheng is still speaking out about human rights abuses in China while his family in Shandong, China is being persecuted by Chinese authorities. Chen Guangcheng, Yuan Weijing, Guangcheng's wife, and Bob Fu, founder and president of ChinaAid, are currently in Europe meeting with governmental authorities and human rights organizations to shine the light on China's human rights abuses. Harriet Tubman not only escaped slavery for herself, she also successfully lead hundreds of slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Some parents are not only choosing life for their unborn babies, they are also working to make it illegal to kill people just because they have or may have a disability.

The spirit of fear seeks to get us to cooperate with evil and to focus on failure/difficulty or potential failure/difficulty. No one has a totally successful easy life. Having failures and difficulties are not reasons to faint. For creyentes, our destination is a now and eternal relationship with a good, loving God. A Yoruba of Nigeria proverb says, "One should keep one's eyes on one's destination, not on where one stumbled."

Share some destination stories of overcoming the spirit of fear. Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P.O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

What Would You Do For Love?

A Kaonde African proverb says, "Husband and wife must be loyal to each other." Wife, Ellen Craft, and husband, William Craft, were reliable to make their relationship work with the benefits of freedom. Ellen was also so fair-skinned that she could pass for white even though she was of mixed European and African ancestry. William was of African ancestry. They were both slaves. Ellen cut her hair and posed as a white man traveling with her black slave. Traveling in this manner the married couple escaped slavery in Georgia and went to freedom in England.

True love inspires great actions. Romans 5:8 Amplified Bible says, "But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us." 1 John 4:11 Complete Jewish Bible says, "Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another."

"... In the Bible we are all considered brothers and sisters despite our race, color or nationality," wrote Pastor Saeed Abedini in a letter to his wife, Naghmeh Abedini. Pastor Abedini was setting up an orphanage and Christian house churches in Iran when Iranian authorities put him under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife and their two children. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight-year prison sentence for threatening Iran's national security. The US State Department, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union have all called for Pastor Saeed Abedini's release, and over 573,000 people worldwide from over 180 countries have signed a petition lending him support. A campaign to write letters to him for his May 7th birthday and to sign the petition is being coordinated at http://www.savesaeed.org.

Everyone can thank God for having a birthday to celebrate. God is author of  life, but not of discrimination. Acts 10:34 Amplified Bible says, "And Peter opened his mouth and said: Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons." Please call Governor Mary Fallin at (405-521-2342) to ask her to sign into law HB 1403 The Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act of Oklahoma which protects the elderly, seriously ill and disabled by preventing medical providers from denying individuals life-saving treatment based on their quality of life.

Discrimination is deadly for the young too. Since China's one-child policy was implemented in the 1970s more than 336 million babies have been killed by abortion;that's more Chinese baby boys and baby girls have lost their lives to abortion than the combined total population of the United States of America and Australia; in America since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion 55 million babies have been killed.

When righteousness reigns, God is pleased. It's easier to receive a right relationship with God and people in free and open societies. China is not such a society.

One person trying to open up China and to eliminate forced abortions and forced sterilizations is Chen Guangcheng. Guangcheng is the husband of Yuan Weijing and the father of a girl and a boy. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy.

Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.

Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."

Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012. He Peirong is a key member of a group of activists who organize support for Guangcheng in China. He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?

A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who also helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures, lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children.

On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

Wherever evil exists, so do fear tactics. 2 Timothy 1:7 Amplified Bible says, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control."

What are some ways love is winning over fear?

Awaking a Sleeping Giant

Frederick Douglass started out as a slave named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. When he was hired out by his slave master to work in a Baltimore, Maryland, shipyard, he met a free-born, African-American woman named Anna Murray. Bailey and Murray fell in love.

Galatians 5:13-14 Complete Jewish Bible says, "For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love. For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”"

Murray used her freedom and finances to help Bailey get his freedom. Using money that Murray gave Bailey and another friend's borrowed identification papers, Bailey escaped from slavery in Maryland to New York, which was considered the "grand station" of the Underground Railroad. In New York Bailey met from African-American Abolitionist and Author David Ruggles.

Later Murray left Maryland too. She met Bailey in New York.

Reverend James W.C. Pennington, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York, was born a slave in Maryland who later escaped to New York. Pennington earned a doctorate of divinity from Heidelberg University in Germany and had the honor of marrying Frederick Bailey and Anna Murray. 

Together the married couple left for Massachusetts where Bailey changed his name to Douglass to escape slave hunters. In Massachusetts Douglass met William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist and newspaper publisher of The Liberator, and began his own career as an abolitionist. Douglass became a speaker, writer and activist. He wrote books and published his own newspaper called North Star, which is also the name of a newspaper I wrote for and edited in high school and the name of the star runaway slaves used while traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom.

Douglass' North Star's motto is "Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and all we are brethren."

Douglass spent his youth in slavery and forced silence about slavery's evils. As an adult he spoke. A Dutch proverb says, "Sooner or later, the truth comes to light." 

Like Douglass' slave authorities tried to keep him submissive and silent, Chinese authorities tried to keep Chen Guangcheng submissive and silent. Guangcheng became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, Internet access blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night.

Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."

Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who wears dark sunglasses because he is blind, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012 and to enter the US embassy in Beijing. A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and two children.

On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

Since China's one-child policy was implemented in the 1970s more than 336 million babies have been killed by abortion; that's more Chinese baby boys and baby girls have lost their lives to abortion than the combined total population of the United States of America and Australia. In America since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion 55 million American babies have been killed. 

Guangcheng's house arrest in Shandong, China, meant that he could not leave his house and people couldn't come to him. During this time Actor Christian Bale tried to visit the activist to publicize his plight, but was prohibited by plain clothes Chinese security.

Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times with others attempted to visit Guangcheng when he was under house arrest. Jacobs was met by a man who swatted at his car with a broom and called for back up who detained Jacobs. The security back up took the reporters' camera and deleted their images. When Jacobs was driving out of town, he was followed by a car with the license plate covered over by paper.

Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape.

Chen Guangcheng said, "Recently, many friends and neighbors who I have been in touch with by phone have been taken into custody by the authorities for questioning. They have been threatened and made to describe what our conversations have been about," (January 29, 2013, Reuters article entitled "Blind dissident urges global pressure on China over rights" by Paul Eckert.)

When asked about having regrets on speaking out about forced abortions and forced sterilizations in China, Guangcheng told Anderson Cooper of CNN through a translator, "I have no regrets."

During an April 8, 2013, George W. Bush Institute interview Guangcheng recommended that Americans listen to various Chinese media to learn the ways that freedom of speech, the right to vote and the right to protest are missing in China and human rights violations are being committed.

A Persian proverb says, "Opportunity should be grabbed."

Chen recommended that once people are informed about the situation in China they can show support for life, freedom and human rights by wearing dark sunglasses like he wears, blogging or something else according to ability.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese forces that bombed Pearl Harbor bringing World War II to America, says about the attack, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve" (Japan Enchantment of the World.)

What are some ways to stand up for life, love and liberty?

Ten and More Arrows for Life and Joy

"I don't want to help someone who is clearly in need because I am afraid of what it will cost me, and/or I don't approve of their lifestyle;" how many times has this thinking shown up?

I'm so glad God doesn't look at us this way. We are not perfect. Only God is perfect. We do a lot of things that God doesn't approve of, and we all need a lot of help. God helps creyentes (believers) continuously while also making us better. God also doesn't break off His eternal relationship with us because of our behavior. God loves us each and every day forever. Romans 5:8-10 Complete Jewish Bible says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners. Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment! For if we were reconciled with God through his Son’s death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled!"

We have known for a long time that families don't spend enough quantity and quality time together, yet resistance exists to making substantial improvement. "Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman," says Marian Anderson, singer and civil rights advocate. Creyentes are people of faith.

One area of substantial improvement in family life is for countries globally to adopt one-year or more of paid employment leave.

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.

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.

Sometimes we need long-term paid time to grieve the loss of a family member. In America since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion 55 million babies have been killed. Since China's one-child policy was implemented in the 1970s more than 336 million babies have been killed by abortion; that's more Chinese baby boys and baby girls have lost their lives to abortion than the combined total population of the United States of America and Australia. 

A lot of lost family members need to be grieved. Chen Guangcheng is one person helping with the grieving process and working to stop loss of life. Chen Guangcheng is married to Yuan Weijing and has two children. Guangcheng, his family, friends and others have been subjected to persecution. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest.

Guangcheng, a blind self-taught lawyer, surprised China by escaping from house arrest in April 2012 and entering the US embassy in Beijing. A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng lives in New York with his wife and children.

Last Tuesday he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

A Japanese proverb says, "One arrow can easily break; ten arrows do not easily break."

Many people are needed to speak up and to push for the implementation of one-year or more of paid employment leave and an end to all types of abortion and involuntary sterilization.

A Breath of Fresh Air

More than 30 men employed by the Cleveland Waterworks Company were at work in a tunnel about 250 feet below Lake Erie on July 15, 1916, when an explosion ripped through the area trapping the men in the tunnel and filling the air with deadly gases. Rescue workers arrived immediately, but the dense smoke prevented them from entering the tunnel. They didn't know from who to get help.

Inspiration came when someone remembered Garrett Morgan. Morgan had won a grand prize at a New York Safety and Sanitation Fair for a gas mask he invented.

Using Morgan's gas mask, the workers were freed from the tunnel.

News of the rescue traveled. Fire departments across America wanted Morgan's gas mask. Orders poured in until people found out that Morgan was black. Then business dropped off.

Christian Minister and Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated April 4th, 45 years ago, said in his I Have a Dream speech, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Proverbios 18:16 Biblia Bilingue Version Reina-Valera 1960 dice, "La dadiva del hombre le ensancha el camino y le lleva delante de los grandes." Proverbs 18:16 Bilingual Bible New King James Version says, "A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men."

In 1917 America entered World War I. Thousands of American soldiers used Morgan's gas mask to protect themselves from the enemy's deadly chlorine gas.

People probably faced fear when the Cleveland tunnel explosion happened and no way appeared to rescue those trapped. Morgan probably faced fear when business for his gas mask dropped when people found out that he was black. Many people have faced fear in the midst of crises and other difficult situations.

A Chinese proverb says, "Use incidents from the past as lessons for the future." Crisis need not stop commitment to self and social development. With courage and creativity Morgan didn't stop when crisis came into his life, and neither do you have to. He kept on perfecting his gas mask, developed other inventions and founded the Cleveland Call newspaper to improve media coverage of African Americans. 

Creyentes (believers) have the power of the Creator of the Universe living inside of us. Be confidant in crisis. God will accomplish all His will. Psalm 115:2-3 Amplified Bible says, "Why should the nations say, Where is now their God? But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases." What is something that please God? -- that good overcome evil.

Silent Rapes

I wrote in my January 13, 2013, article "Thoughts About Abortion," "Even in the hard cases abortion can be avoided. Rapists can be male or female."

Adolescent boys have been seduced by adult women with children resulting from these sexual unions. Not only should these children not be aborted because these children are human, also the existence of these children can be used as evidence of rape/incest.

On a social and personal level we do not like to discuss certain issues because they are surrounded by pecados (sins).

Some men have been date raped by their male boyfriends, and the reason they don't want to tell their wife is, "What are they doing with boyfriends in the first place?"

Leviticus 18:22 English Standard Version Bible says, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Proverbs 5:18-19 Contemporary English Version Bible says, "Be happy with the wife you married when you were young. She is beautiful and graceful, just like a deer; you should be attracted to her and stay deeply in love." Compared to God, who is eternal without beginning or end of life, we are all young.

God does not hate people who have same-sex sexual relations, same-sex romantic relationships, abortions, incestuous relationships, are rapists and other types of sexual/adulterous sins or any type of sin. God wants people to stop sinning and to start loving God, themselves and other people. Pecados (sins) are not sexy and sweet; pecados hurt and harm people.

Proverbs 28:13 Amplified Bible says, "He who covers his transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes his sins will obtain mercy."

First tell God about your sins, and allow Him to heal you and to restore you to a right relationship with God and people. Also, allow God to lead you to the people you need to confess your sins to. James 5:16 Amplified Bible says, "Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]."

Are you involved in secret sins? Don't let Satan fool you with fear and other tactics. "Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman," said Marian Anderson, a singer and civil rights advocate. People experience consequences from our sins; they may or may not know the source of problems. Tell the truth, so that the situation can be transformed for good for you and for others.

In Chinese culture the number 8 is associated with prosperity. What can be more prosperous than lives filled with love?

Love wins when rape, incest, adultery, abortion and other sins end.

God Confidence

Numbers 13:3-15 New Living Translation Bible says, "So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran. These were the tribes and the names of their leaders:
Tribe        Leader
Reuben    Shammua son of Zaccur
Simeon    Shaphat son of Hori
Judah       Caleb son of Jephunneh
Issachar    Igal son of Joseph
Ephraim    Hoshea son of Nun
Benjamin   Palti son of Raphu
Zebulun    Gaddiel son of Sodi
Manasseh son of Joseph    Gaddi son of Susi
Dan        Ammiel son of Gemalli
Asher        Sethur son of Michael
Naphtali    Nahbi son of Vophsi
Gad        Geuel son of Maki

A Chinese proverb says, "To plug the ears while stealing the bell;" it means "to deceive oneself." It is a deception to believe that God favors people based on race, ethnicity or some physical characteristic. God is no respecter of persons. Benjamin Banneker, an African-American inventor, surveyor, mathematician and astronomer during a time when African-American slavery was legal in the United States, said, "The color of the skin is in no way connected with strength of the mind or intellectual powers." Romans 2:28-29 Complete Jewish Bible says, "For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical. On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God."

Shammua, Shaphat, Igal, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi and Geuel were deceived. They believed in the inferiority of the Jews to the Canaanites. Numbers 13:31-33 Amplified Bible says, "But his fellow scouts said, We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are stronger than we are. So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the Nephilim [or giants], the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

The people of God are reyes y reinas (kings and queens.) Jesus Christ is El Rey de Reyes (The King of Kings.) While Jesus died for us when we were sinners, God doesn't view us as sinners anymore. When God looks at us, He sees Jesus Christ, the Sinless One, the Perfect One. Low self-esteem is a sin. Not doing what God tells us to do is a sin even if it seems impossible.

Jesus died a horrible death on a Friday more than 2,000, years ago and got up from the dead on a Sunday, not so we would live in fear, low self-esteem, hatred or without unity among believers.

The people of God are called to do greater things than Jesus Christ did in His earthly ministry. Jesus Christ says in John 14:11-12 Complete Jewish Bible, "Trust me, that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with me. But if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves. Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever trusts in me will also do the works I do! Indeed, he will do greater ones, because I am going to the Father."

What are some trust issues you have seen in the Church?

Sexual Curiosity and Forgiveness

Sometimes we can enjoy forbidden sex, unforgiveness or something else instead of enjoying an intimate relationship with God and the overflow of this relationship with God, things like sexuality within Biblical boundaries, peace of mind and other ways of God.

God fashioned the color of our skin. What God designed is good. Savor dark chocolate; gaze on the lightest brightness; or be memorized by a shade somewhere in the middle. God gave us eyes to enjoy much varied beauty.

As a girl in the early years of elementary school I wondered if the penises of black, Latino and white boys differed. So I conducted an experiment with naked boys.

A challenge exists to look but not to leap into partner-sex outside of marriage. Sadly, sometimes we leap. Gladly believers have God living on the inside giving us the power to find our way back to safe and enjoyable sexuality and spiritual wholeness. Watchman Nee writes in his book Sit Walk Stand The Process of Christian Maturity, "An engineer living in a large city in the West left his homeland for the Far East. He was away for two or three years, and during his absence his wife was unfaithful to him and went off with one of his best friends. On his return home he found he had lost his wife, his two children and his best friend. At the close of a meeting which I was addressing, this grief-stricken man unburdened himself to me. "Day and night for two solid years my heart has been full of hatred," he said. "I am a Christian, and I know I ought to forgive my wife and my friend, but though I try and try to forgive them, I simply cannot. Every day I resolve to love them, and every day I fail. What can I do about it?"

"Do nothing at all," I replied.

"What do you mean?" he asked, startled. "Am I to continue to hate them?"

So I explained, "The solution of your problem lies here, that when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He not only bore your sins away, but He bore you away too. When He was crucified, your old man was crucified in Him, so that that unforgiving 'you,' who simply cannot love those who have wronged you, has been taken right out of the way in His death. God has dealt with the whole situation in the cross, and there is nothing left for you to deal with. Just say to Him, 'Lord, I cannot love, and I give up trying, but I count on Thy perfect love. I cannot forgive, but I trust Thee to forgive instead of me, and to do so henceforth in me." 

What sins are you enjoying and/or suffering that need to turned over to God?

No temere. Don't be afraid to turn your sins over to God. Some sins are fun for a season, but all sin brings pain and destruction that becomes obvious sooner or later. Contrary to any deception you may believe, God ways are the most enjoyable way of living, and God has the power to live out His ways through you.

El Es Indispensable

As believers we are kings and queens. The hearts of kings and queens are being constantly attacked. Gospel singer Debra Ashley sings on her album New Birth in the song "Do It Afraid:"
"Have you ever had a desire in your heart?
A desire so very strong you know it's from God.
Then the enemy has come your way.
Now your confidence is gone.
Well don't give up
Just trust in God.
And do it afraid." 

No matter what our life looks like in the past and present, no matter if we feel fear, what God has put in our hearts will be accomplished. King David had enemies all around him. Yet he committed himself to trusting in God and to keeping on doing what God called him to do day in and day out. King David writes in Psalm 21:7 Amplified Bible, "For the king trusts, relies on, and is confident in the Lord, and through the mercy and steadfast love of the Most High he will never be moved." He says in Psalm 21:2, "You have given him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah [pause, and think of that]!"

Sometimes we feel fear because the desires of our hearts do not always appear immediately, and/or they may not come in the way we imagined. Mary J. Blige sings in her song "Not Gon' Cry," about a woman who was a lover, mother and business partner dumped by her lover and business partner. She regrets ever getting into the relationship and laments, "11 years of sacrifice and you can leave me at the drop of a dime."

Every relationship is not for life. We have some things to give, receive and learn, and then move on. The end of a relationship does not mean the end of our heart's desires.

David didn't focus on his enemies trying to derail his heart's desires or on negative internal messages saying various versions of, "I can't do this." Just like Joshua had the Spirit of God living inside him (Numbers 27:18,) so did David; David had a relationship with God and focused on God. Like David we need to trust in God's abilities instead of our abilities to fix our problems and to fulfill our heart's desires. Is any problem to hard for God to solve?

Watchman Nee writes in his book The Normal Christian Life, "We are sinners, not because of ourselves but because of Adam. It is not because I individually have sinned that I am a sinner, but because I was in Adam when he sinned. Because by birth I come of Adam, therefore I am a part of him. What is more, I can do nothing to alter this. I cannot, by improving my behavior, make myself other than a part of Adam, and so a sinner....Unless we can change our parentage there is no deliverance for us."

Changing our parentage is to receive a relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost. With God as our Parent we can work the principles of the Bible and expect success because God is the one guaranteeing the success. Relying on our abilities inspires fear because we are aware of some of our inabilities. But with God as our Parent we can do it afraid and expect God to increase our courage and to give us the victory of having our heart's desires fulfilled. God never fails; El es indispensable y incomparable. Is God on your side?

Loving By Example

Je vois la lumière. (I see the light.) Our eye needs to be first on the love of God, then on the love of people. When our eye is on, "Whose in charge?," often what comes is rule by the spirit of fear.

If we are afraid of someone, we cannot love them properly. We will spend a lot of energy figuring out how to protect ourselves instead of how to be the best we can in relationships. 1 John 4:18 Amplified Bible says, "There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection]."

Fear reduces creativity, productivity, rational thinking and concern for people. 2 Timothy 1:7 Amplified Bible says, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control."

God does not want to keep tight control of us and force us to love Him and other people. He wants us to voluntarily love Him and people.

We love God because He first loved us. God knows the number of hairs on our heads and the minutest detail about us, not to keep us under His thumb, but because He cares about us, because He is good and because He seeks to bring about good. The more we come to know the love of God, the more we want to be like Him, be in relationship with Him and do what He says to do.

People cannot love perfectly like God. Even believers hurt each other a lot and become paralyzed in renewing relationships. Proverbs 18:19 New Living Translation Bible says, "An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars."

Instead of being paralyzed, living in fear or trying to control by fear, ask God to cause you to forgive, learn and grow in Him and His ways. When someone has changed, don't get stuck in the past and close yourself off to the relationship. Mark Twain says in his poem "Don't Copy Cat:"

"Don't, like the cat, try to get more out
of an experience than there is in it.
The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid,
Will not sit upon a hot stove lid again.
Nor upon a cold stove lid."

Two and More Maasai Warriors Needed

Math and science can seen so challenging to pursue for various reasons. One reason is fear. Lose the fear. We need more Bible-believing, Bible living mathematicians and scientists.

God designed the vagina. Many husbands think constantly about this portal to paradise and can hardly wait to enter it.

Many wives welcome their husbands into their portal of paradise frequently, but are far less enthusiastic for medical instruments to be in their vaginas. A vaginal probe can determine a baby's heartbeat beginning with six weeks of pregnancy. Will someone please invent external methods of measuring a young baby's life in the womb?

Let's remove all masks covering truth and love. Both women and babies are human and deserving of respect. Ephesians 4:14-15 Amplified Bible says, "So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead. Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."

Sometimes students do not pursue math and science because of the fear of failure. Sometimes mathematicians and scientists do not perfect their work because of a fear of failure. Joyce Meyer writes in her article "Overcoming Fear with Faith How to Shed the Layers of Fear That Weigh Us Down" in the March/April 2013 magazine Enjoying Everyday Life, "I remember so many times in my life when I was so afraid of failing, but I would take a step of faith anyway. There were times when things worked out and times when they didn't. When that happens to you, you need to shake it off and move forward. Don't let the fear of making a mistake stop you.

We will experience failures in life, but nobody has to be a failure. Failing at something doesn't make you a failure. Failure comes when you quit trying." Inventor Thomas Edison said, "I have not failed. I've just  found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Yes, we can remove all obstacles to evil. Abel Zavala sings in his song "Unanimes" on his album Jesus mi fiel amigo:

"Victoria hay en El
Mi Cristo derroto
Las huestes del mal
Victoria cantare
Mi libertad pago
Gritare!
Celebrare ante el rey."

Gunpowder was invented in China. We need some new ammunition to defeat the followers of evil. Some followers of evil want to pit mothers against their babies and use deceptive arguments to do so.

Believers already have victory in God the Son Jesus Christ. We have already defeated the enemy and his followers. We also have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16 Amplified Bible says, "For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart."

The ammunition to detect a baby's life at the earliest stages of development with respect to their mothers is already in the mind of Christ. Since believers have the mind of Christ, the ammunition is already in our mind. It just needs to be extracted.

Mathematicians, scientists and all believers need to be masters in spiritual warfare. Satan doesn't want us to use our Christ mind; he want us to use reprobate and carnal thinking, so that his evil ways can reign. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 English Standard Version Bible says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."

Abortion, the taking of the lives of boys and girls, will end when multiple people play their part in ending this evil. A Maasai of East Africa riddle asks:

"Who has more courage than a Maasai warrior?

Answer: "Two Maasai warriors."

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."

Who Is This?

"How big is the universe? asks Alicia Larde (Jennifer Connolly) of John Forbes Nash, Jr. (Russell Crowe) in the movie A Beautiful Mind as the couple gaze at the stars during a date.

Nash, who is Larde's professor, responds, "Infinite."

"How do you know for sure?," says Alicia.

Nash says, "I don't. I just believe."

"It's the same with love I guess," Larde replies.

Love is not the only thing on Nash's mind. One of the fears that Nash has is that he will not come up with a truly original idea in his profession. He pushes himself relentlessly in pursuit of his truly original idea.

Abram, who God later names Abraham, was afraid that he would not have a child. In response to his fear, God said to Abram in a dream recorded in Genesis 15:1 Amplified Bible, ". . . Fear not, Abram, I am your Shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great."

God and Abram also do some stargazing. Genesis 15:5 Complete Jewish Bible says, "Then he brought him outside and said, “Look up at the sky, and count the stars — if you can count them! Your descendants will be that many!”"

Larde and Nash date and marry. Abram and God are already married. However, everyone but God has a lot to learn about love. 1 John 4:18-19 Amplified Bible says, "There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection]. We love Him, because He first loved us."

Nash is so smart and strangely sexy. Larde initiates their relationship and is excited about her catch. However, it isn't long after marrying that Nash exhibits truly bizarre behavior.

Nash seemed so capable when Larde married him. Later Larde and others discover that Nash has paranoid schizophrenia. He often has delusional dreams that he avidly participates in and at times his mental illness prohibits him from working and performing sexually. In one scene Larde screams in the bathroom after Nash refuses sexual relations.

Instead of waiting for God to open his wife's, Sarah's, womb, in fulfillment of God's promise to bless Abraham and Sarah's lovemaking with a child, Abraham agrees to have sex with Hagar, Sarah's maid. Ishmael is conceived from Hagar's and Abraham's sinful, extra-marital, sexual relationship.

Later when Ishmael is an adolescent, Sarah asks Abraham to cast Ishmael and Hagar out of Sarah's and Abraham's home. Abraham is hurt, but God says this is His will, and God will make a great nation of Ishmael.

Even though God does not always do what Abraham expects, he remains in love with God. Even though Nash is deeply ill and dysfunctional, Larde remains in love with Nash. Larde doesn't divorce Nash.

We can find ourselves in relationships that at times we ask something like, "Who is this?" When people don't behave the way we expect, it can be hard to take, and some take off.

But the love of God operating inside believers seeks to grow and overcome the obstacles of relationships. 1 Corinthians 13:7 Amplified Bible says, "Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]."

One day the pain and disappointment in this life's relationships will cease and something far superior will commence. Revelations 21:3-4 New Living Translation promises, "I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”"

What is any trouble in this life's relationships compared to the ecstasy of relating with God face to face forever?

A Yoruba of Nigeria proverb says, "One should keep one's eyes on one's destination, not on where one stumbled."

A Helping Hand

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else," said Booker T. Washington, an educator, speaker, author and Civil Rights Leader who was born into slavery and rose to the top of African-American leadership during Jim Crow segregation. Wu Yiebing and Cao Weiping may have never heard of Booker T. Washington, but they have wholeheartedly embraced the message in his saying.

Keith Bradsher writes in his "In China, Betting It All on a Child in College" The New York Times February 17, 2013, article, "Mr. Wu and Mrs. Cao, who grew up in tiny villages in western China and became migrants in search of better-paying work, have scrimped their entire lives. For nearly two decades, they have lived in a cramped and drafty 200-square-foot house with a thatch roof. They have never owned a car. They do not take vacations -- they have never seen the ocean. They have skipped traditional New Year trips to their ancestral village for up to five straight years to save on bus fares and gifts, and for Mr. Wu to earn extra holiday pay in the mines. Despite their frugality, they have essentially no retirement savings.

Thanks to these sacrifices, their daughter, Wu Caoying, is now a 19-year-old college sophomore."

The couple have one child, Wu Caoying. Abortions are forced on women in China. Since 1979, Chinese couples have been limited to one child by law in order to control the country's population. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion.

Mr. Wu and Mrs. Cao have invested in their daughter expecting her to get a job or run a business after college graduation and to financially support them in their old age.

Family helping family is Biblical. Proverbs 11:25 Amplified Bible says, "The liberal person shall be enriched, and he who waters shall himself be watered."

The New York Times reports that for seven years it followed the family of Wu Yiebing, Cao Weiping and Wu Caoying. The New York Times also says this family is like other poor families in China.

Bradsher writes in his article, "She has chosen to major in logistics, learning how goods are distributed, a growing industry in China as ever more families order online instead of visiting stores.

But the major is the most popular at her school, which could signal a future glut in the field. That is a sobering prospect at a time when young college graduates in China are four times as likely to be unemployed as young people who attended only elementary school, because factory jobs are more plentiful than office jobs."

God has a unique plan for each person's life, and it is not always the safest route. Someone said there are 365 statements in the Bible encouraging us to be not afraid in living according to God's will in every area of life.

Nick Vujicic was born in Australia with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. He's good with numbers. Family and others encouraged him to pursue a financial career, and they took a while to warm up to him telling them that God called him into motivational speaking and evangelism. But they did warm up. Today Vujicic is an international motivational speaker and evangelist. He is also an author, runs a non-profit group, Life Without Limbs, is married to Kanae Loida Vujicic-Miyahara and the couple had a baby boy, Kiyoshi James Vujicic, born to them on February 13, 2013.

One of the benefits of receiving and living in a-now-and-eternal relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost is that God will bless us even in economic hard times. Genesis 26:1-3, 12-13 Amplified Bible says, "And there was a famine in the land, other than the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I will tell you. Dwell temporarily in this land, and I will be with you and will favor you with blessings; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. . . .Then Isaac sowed seed in that land and received in the same year a hundred times as much as he had planted, and the Lord favored him with blessings. And the man became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and distinguished"

The blessings of God do not mean that every believer will be financially rich. It may be that being financially middle-class is best for most. Agur writes in Proverbs 30:8-9 Amplified Bible, "Remove far from me falsehood and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, Lest I be full and deny You and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal, and so profane the name of my God."

Many people desire to be rich like Isaac rather than middle class. Isaac was never poor. Even though Isaac knew how to work the resources God gave him in Gerar, Isaac had a head start on being wealthy. Isaac's father, Abraham, was wealthy. After Abraham died, his wealth went to Isaac. Genesis 25:5 English Standard Version Bible says, "Abraham gave all he had to Isaac."

A generous, financial helping-hand from those with means to those of lesser means is Biblical. Read my article, "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans."

Big is Beautiful

When families have more than four children, American culture communicates the idea that the parents must be stupid. Yet what science documents a correlation between inherent intellectual ability and family size? Isn't poverty rather than population the problem? Could reparations play a role in removing global poverty? Read my article, "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans."

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 the Message Bible, "Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life."

While every amazing person is not from a large family, many amazing people have been conceived in families with four or more children. World-famous athlete and Civil Rights advocate Wilma Rudolph, was the 20th of 22 children, born to Blanche Rudolph and Ed Rudolph. With God on their side the Rudolph family overcome disability and illness. Wilma was a sickly child who had contracted polio at the age of four paralyzing her legs and requiring leg braces on her left leg and foot and an orthopaedic shoe for support of her foot. Wilma also had other illnesses, such as measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox and double pneumonia. Read my article, "Disability Cannot Stop Us from Overcoming," for more on the Rudolph's story.

Who are some other amazing people from families with four or more children?

African American husband and wife James Forten (1766-1842) and Charlotte Vandine Forten (1785-1884) raised their nine children not only in material wealth but also in Christian and intellectual wealth. James was one of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's wealthiest merchants. James owned a business producing sails for ships. His business employed his own sons and both black and white people. Charlotte was a businesswoman who invested in real estate. James and Charlotte were leading members in the free-black community in Philadelphia, which was America's largest free-black community. James and Charlotte were both abolitionists. Charlotte along with the Forten daughters were founding members of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. James wrote letters and articles advocating justice and equality for black Americans and women published in various newspapers. James was also actively against forcing black people to leave America, which had become their country, to live in Africa or Haiti. James and Charlotte's home was a frequent stop on the Underground Railroad which helped fugitive slaves to hide from their former slave masters on the path to freedom.

The Forten children are: Margaretta Forten (suffragist), Harriet Forten Purvis (abolitionist and suffragist), Robert Bridges Forten (abolitionist), Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis (abolitionist), James Forten, Jr., (abolitionist), William Deas Forten (abolitionist), Charlotte Forten, Mary Theresa Forten and Thomas Willing Francis Forten. James and Charlotte taught their children to select spouses who shared their values. The Forten children absorbed the lessons and selected spouses who were also speakers and writers for abolition and other justice issues like women's right to vote. 

The Forten Christian activism extended to their grandchildren. Our children follow our words and our ways. With God the Holy Ghost in control of our lives, nothing good is impossible. Galatians 5:16 New Living Translation Bible says, "So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves." One of the Forten's granddaughters, Charlotte Forten Grimke, was a teacher to newly freed slaves on the South Carolina Sea Islands. One of the Fortens' grandsons, Charles Burleigh Purvis, became the first black American to oversee a hospital with his appointment at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Who are some more Forten family members who have made notable contributions to society?

In the Forten family instead of men and women waging war with each other, they waged war against evil. Author and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, says, "Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side."

Former US. President Abraham Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, encouraging border states to outlaw slavery, helped push through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which finally freed all the slaves nationwide in December 1865, and led the United States through the American Civil War preserving the Union, said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Why don't we have a separate Federal holiday recognizing Lincoln?

Some are afraid of large families because they have bought fear-based propaganda. Yet 2 Timothy 2:7 Amplified Bible says,"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." Yes, one can motivate someone with fear. However, love is a more effective and enduring motivator. Fear creates false realities and causes fatalities. Love liberates and lengthens global good.

Pray for the end of China's forced abortion policies for couples that conceive more than one child, sex-selection abortion which is practiced globally and other evils. Naomi Zacharias, director of Wellspring International, says in the Wellspring International blog entry titled, "What Is Beautiful?" on 4/17/2012, "A tragic issue that has significantly impacted several countries in East Asia and is growing in North America, sex-selective abortion is chosen by parents with a preference for a son, who choose to abort their baby when a sonogram reveals the mother to be carrying a daughter. India alone is said to have 20-30 million “missing women,” and predictions estimate that by the year 2020, China will have 40 million unmarried men, a number equal to the entire population of young men in America. As direct result, crime rates, bride trafficking, sexual violence, and even female suicide rates are all rising." For more about abortion, read my article, "Thoughts About Abortion."

God creates different people with different assignments. International Bible Teacher Joyce Meyer, is victorious over incest and has four grown children, all of whom have been involved in Joyce Meyer Ministries in various capacities. Some of her children are domestic engineers. Others head ministries like world missions. Joyce Meyer also married a man who committed multiple infidelities. She got pregnant by him, got a divorce and remarried, Dave Meyer, who adopted the son from the first marriage. Eventually, God used Joyce and others to build a broadcast audience for Joyce Meyer Ministries of more than 4.5 billion people reaching two-thirds of the world

Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans

"Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman." -- Marian Anderson, singer in eight languages and civil rights advocate　

When Japan bombed American ships in Pearl Harbor not only was World War II kicked off in the United States of America, the US kicked out of their homes about 110,000 Japanese Americans living on America's west coast and forced them into War Relocation Camps.
　
Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which told local military officials to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones" from which "any or all persons may be excluded."
　
Sometimes all three branches of American government, executive, congressional and judicial, fail to protect its citizens and their constitutional rights. In 1944 the US Supreme Court upheld Executive Order 9066.
　
Japanese American Gordon Hirabayashi refused to go to the War Relocation Camps along with other revolutionaries. Fred Korematsu said, "If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up." Hirabayashi, Korematsu and others were instrumental in bringing cases to the Supreme Court that addressed the injustice of putting Americans in prison because of their race. Hirabayahsi didn't realize what a fight was ahead for Japanese Americans to live in America with their civil rights enforced. He says, "We had Constitutional rights. I didn't think anything could happen to us. We had a rude awakening."

"Check your speakers. This ain't a self-help song or another makeover song but how He made me over. You dig. I like me," sings award-winning Gospel singer Kirk Franklin in his song, "I Like Me" with Da TRUTH. Franklin is also a songwriter, record producer, music director and author. Please leave an on-line comment naming songs by Asians similar to Franklin's and Da TRUTH's "I Like Me."

Some people live their whole lives with a No es posible attitude, but those who know and trust God " . . . are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). International Bible Teacher Joyce Meyer says that courage is not the absence of fear, but courage is doing things afraid.

We can ask God to marry and protect us like Ruth asked Boaz to marry her. The book of Ruth 3:7-9 Amplified Bible says, "And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then [Ruth] came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and he turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth your maidservant. Spread your wing [of protection] over your maidservant, for you are a next of kin."

God's ways are often not our ways. After we receive the marriage vow of complete forgiveness of all our sins, eternal life, eternal relationship and eternal, extravagant love from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost (not polygamy, but 1 x 1 X 1 =1), sometimes we are madly in love with our Husband, God, some times we are just mad with Him. It is not always asan (easy) being sadi-suda (married) to someone perfect.

The Perfect One is patient, and He is developing a patient spouse able to spread the true Kingdom of God globally. Proverbs 25:15 Amplified Bible says, "By long forbearance and calmness of spirit a judge or ruler is persuaded, and soft speech breaks down the most bonelike resistance." Proverbs 25:15 Wycliffe Bible says, "A prince shall be made soft by patience; and a soft tongue shall break hardness." Proverbs 25:15 Contemporary English Version says, "Patience and gentle talk can convince a ruler and overcome any problem."

The fight for Japanese-American justice took from the 1940s until 1988 when Congress passed and Republican President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment and said that the government's actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The US government eventually dispersed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans interned and their heirs. Each citizen who had been interned was awarded $20,000. Please leave an on-line comment discussing: Should African Americans receive reparations because of African American slavery in the US? What about the unborn once Roe v. Wade legalizing unlimited abortion is overturned? Gospel singer Fred Hammond is an abortion survivor. Read his story and more in my article, "Thoughts About Abortion." If you received the $20,000 internment payment, please share what you spent it on.

Money matters. Money is not God. 1 Timothy 6:10 English Standard Bible says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs."

Poverty does not equal purity. Money is a tool. A Spanish word for cash is efectivo. Proverbs 10:15 Contemporary English Version says, "Great wealth can be a fortress, but poverty is no protection at all." Brian Tracy says in his book, No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline 21 Ways To Achieve Lasting Happiness And Success, that the top 20 percent of people in America earn and control 80 percent of the assets; he also says that these 20 percent people also started in the bottom 20 percent of income earners and practiced certain principles to climb from the bottom 20 percent to the top 20 percent. If you are a top 20 percent person, share some of your success principles by leaving an on-line comment. 　

Please also leave an on-line comment answering the question, "How is America experiencing the ramifications of the Japanese internment, African American slavery, abortion and similar evils today?"

Marian Anderson

We do not pull our own selves up by our own boot strings. Instead God and God working through us and many other people are our path to success.

I come from a long legacy of bold, bright, beautiful, black, Christian women -- Linda, my mother, Mildred, my grandmother, Pearl, my great-grandmother and many others including Singer and Civil Rights Activist Marian Anderson.

In eternity past God choose specific talents to give each and every one of us. God choose the singing gift for Marian. Marian has a strong, contralto voice able to climb more than 24 notes.

When she was six years old she joined her church choir. Marian's gift was so obvious that church members set up a trust fund to help pay for her musical training.

Marian worked her blessing. Marian realized her potential and discovered her unique individuality. She became a professional singer, singing all over the world and recording records that sold to millions.

Finding work and being prosperous were very hard. Many would not hire Marian because she is black. In 1939 the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Marian perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., because Marian is black, and they had a white-performers-only policy. Eleanor Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a human rights activist, resigned from the group in protest. Eleanor then arranged for Marian to sing in a bigger venue -- on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for an Easter morning concert. More than 75,000 came out for the concert that made Civil Rights history.

What Marian and Eleanor did is Christlike -- black and white working together for good. Romans 12:21 Amplified Bible says, "Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good."

Marian with the help of others overcame other obstacles of discrimination. Marian sang in eight languages. She was the first black person to sing a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Some people are in sin and do not want to embrace black people and other people of color in the mainstream of American life. With God on our side nothing is impossible. We shall overcome in all areas of life surrounding ourselves with God and Christians who live by 1 Peter 4:8 Amplified Bible which says, "Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others]."

Please share on-line stories of people of color overcoming in Christ.