Month: March 2018

The Value of a Small Group

March 27, 2018

One of the best treats in this life is to enjoy a cup of coffee with a friend – to sit across the table from someone with whom I can freely share my hopes, dreams, and disappointments is a genuine treat. I had that treat recently when Sherry and I met for breakfast. As we sipped our coffee, we caught up with things going on in our lives. Sherry’s has been very busy with law school so over the past three years, the only time we had to meet were during her school breaks.

Our journey as friends started about 10 years ago. I desperately wanted a small group of women who would come together to dream about how we could make the world a better place. So, I held women’s meetings specifically for women in ministry. I discovered is that women are world changers who are often receive little to no encouragement to help them reach their goals. That was certainly true for me. Out of those large group meetings, I found two other women who wanted more accountability (and so did I). We began to meet and dream together about how we could help each other reach our goals. We held each other accountable to action plans and above all we prayed and encouraged each other.

We dubbed ourselves the Wilberforce Three (WF3) after William Wilberforce’s Clapham Circle, a group of committed believers in the mid 1800s who met every evening to dream about how England could be a better place. Wilberforce called it “The Better Hour.” They were responsible for founding over 120 non profits in England and eventually eradicating slavery.              

I asked myself, “Why couldn’t it work in Tulsa, OK?”

So we began. We shared our dreams and goals. Sherry wanted to become a lawyer. At the time, she had no college credits. Carol, a former singer with the Berlin Opera, wanted to take musicians to Israel to perform music that would inspire and uplift the people of Israel. I wanted to write books and I wanted to inspire others to pray for America’s schools.

Fast forward – Sherry finished law school Dec. 2017 and sat for the Bar exam Feb. 2018. This is a tremendous fete, since she started her undergrad work as an adult with no credit hours, plus she worked while she attended classes.

Carol now goes back and forth to Israel and Germany and has taken her first large group of musicians from Germany to Israel to perform. Carol also shares her talent at public venues in Oklahoma and Texas, where she now lives.

I recently finished my fifth book and have been able to do a lot of humanitarian aid. The help and encouragement these two women have given me over the years is invaluable.

It’s true, we need each other more than we could imagine. We need people in our lives who will hold us accountable and will encourage us along the way.

One biographer, John Pollock, said of Wilberforce: “Wilberforce proved that a man can change his times, but that he cannot do it alone.” I say a big “AMEN” to that!

In My Opinion … Maybe We Could Consider Forgiving Them

March 22, 2018

A couple of weeks ago, I heard a talk on forgiveness. There wasn’t a lot of new material that I hadn’t heard before, but as I listened, the Holy Spirit gave new insight, and a way to pray for America’s educational system.

 

Increasingly educators endorse liberal and anti-Christian agendas much to the chagrin of those of us who follow Jesus. The National Education Association (NEA) facilitates the teaching of all things liberal– climate change, sex education, gender identity, etc. Every year the NEA and its 50 state branch offices go deeper and deeper into anti-Christian, progressive, and immoral teaching, all the while, they think they are doing the right thing. For the most part, they believe they are actually setting our children free from the constraints of religion.

 

This is the same attitude the Jews had who crucified Jesus. They actually thought they were doing humanity a favor by killing a person they perceived as a horrible imposter. But Jesus did something unheard of in return for the cruel treatment they gave Him—He forgave them! As He hung on the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).” Later when He appeared to the disciples and commissioned them he said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven, if you do not forgive, they are not forgiven (John 21-23).”

 

Forgiveness has many benefits but, one thing it does that is significant is that it rewrites history. Jesus on the cross is not the end. He rewrote history when he rose from the grave and made salvation available to all of us. Because He forgave, we can now identify with Him and live our lives serving a living God who provided a way for us to know Him personally. We have a future because Jesus rewrote history!

 

In DC next week, I want to rewrite history. I will take a team of intercessors will go to pray at the NEA building and we will do an act of forgiveness. Because it’s nearby and needs prayer, we will pray at the National Geographic Society. The National Geographic Society is one of the main perpetrators of evolution.

 

Would you agree with us as we pray and forgive, that these institutions can, and will, be redeemed and history will be rewritten?

 

Common Core is Dead!

March 19, 2018

Did you hear the news that Common Core is Dead? The obituary was rather short, a mere 250 words, not much for such a weighty historical effort, and for the most part, the media paid little, if no, attention. My guess is that they long suspected that Common Core would find its way into the graveyard of programs developed by past US Presidents that did nothing to improve this nation academic test scores. Every President since George H. W. Bush has had a national educational program implemented through the Department of Education: Bill Clinton—Expanding Educational Opportunities; George W. Bush—No Child Left Behind; Barak Obama—Race to the Top which included Common Core. The surprising thing is that none of the federal programs worked!

 

January 18th Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke at a conference hosted by the American Enterprise Institute on “lessons learned”  about school reform specifically during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Her conclusion was that the only thing the two Department of Education programs had in common was that they were federal programs. Secretary DeVos said, “Common Core is a disaster, and at the U.S. Department of Education, Common Core is dead.”

 

Many times we pray and we never see the answer to our prayers.  I dedicate this article to the many prayer warriors who have prayed in small home groups for years for America’s schools. Their prayers intensified when Common Core became the . Yes, some of the teaching methods of Common Core were questionable, but teachers know new methods of teaching come and go. It was the clandestine agenda that lingered in the background of Common Core that was more dangerous than teaching methods. The curriculum was produced by globalists who want a moralist society that is easily controlled. They followed the footsteps of Communists like John Dewey who began in the late 1800s and worked diligently (and successfully), in our public schools to produce global citizens for the 21st century.

 

Secretary DeVos’ new plan for education is for the states to exercise control over their individual educational programs, and for more “parental empowerment.” She stated, “Ideally, parent and teacher work together to help a child discover his or her potential and pursue his or her passions.” Her statements do not mention the federal government.

 

Secretary DeVos’ statement on Common Core is a brave move. In her declaration, she stood against the largest, most powerful, and most liberal labor union in the United States, as well as a lot of other liberal educators who will consider her demented. Let’s pray for Secretary DeVos—protection from verbal attacks as well as safety. Also, pray for her to complete her mission to reform American education. Pray for our schools to teach students to grow in the knowledge and the grace of God!

 

In my opinion…the cost and rewards of being a Christian in education

March 14, 2018

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Okay, let’s take a personal survey. Please put a check-list by each of the following instances that have happened to you, in order to be fair—lets say, in the last ten years?

____ heckled in public

____ spit on in public

____ run out of town for your views

____ had your words misconstrued by the media

____ falsely accused of mishandling money

____ faced an angry crowd that didn’t want to hear what you had to say regardless

____ accused of not caring about those whom you serve

____ assaulted for your beliefs in Christian values, i.e. marriage is between a man and a woman, a child is born with a specific sex, etc.

 

I can check off two on the above list, and if I stretch it three. That’s not enough to claim the rewards of someone who has been persecuted for righteousness. But there is a lady who can check off every item and then add a few on the list, and that’s the US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. I’m not stretching the truth—thanks to the media, every incident has been documented in great detail.

 

When Jesus was on the earth, He demonstrated the Kingdom of God, and many times the result was that people demonstrated demonic activity. That’s exactly what is happening today. It’s not Secretary DeVos’ policies they dislike, it’s the fact that she’s a power broker for the Kingdom of God. So it doesn’t matter what policy changes she proposes like school choice, vouchers, state’s rights, diminishing the role of federal government in education, etc. All her ideas are rejected simply because she knows Jesus and cares for the well-being of the children in our nation.

 

Would you join with me in praying for Secretary DeVos?

  1. Pray to dispel the spiritual darkness around our educational system.
  2. Pray Matt. 5:11-12 for Secretary DeVos. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”