Friday, August 9, 2019, 10:28 am | Randy Thomasson
If you’ve been tracking with SaveCalifornia.com for a while, you probably know that children are being ruined in today’s immoral and increasingly unsafe culture.
Every social ill that would have shocked your grandparents is now the norm. Children and teenagers today are in a moral free-fall, and all the social indicators are deadly serious.
This is why nothing other than aggressive, decisive, life-changing action will save kids. Remember, these are precious boys and girls, created in the image of God. You and I and others can save them from a myriad of harmful lies if we first help to save their souls and give them a rock-solid standard of truth.
Let me tell you about an exciting opportunity that, if you’re a Christian, you’re going to like. You can help reach children and put them on Jesus Christ’s straight and narrow path, right in your community!
“Good News Clubs” are specifically permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court (acknowledging the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and freedom of religion) to meet on public-school campuses. These are “Christian” clubs that use an existing classroom after school has been let out for the day. Is one of these calling your name?
I’m told there are Good News Club chapters in every county in California. Such is the spiritual need and heart-felt hunger, these Good News Clubs are growing in number, and need loving, true Christians to receive the pleasure of participating!
Here’s how Good News Clubs work:
Who: Anyone who has true faith in Jesus Christ as God in the flesh and the Only Way to be saved, and who believes the Bible is the sole source of authority for Christian faith and practice, can be approved and trained to be a Good News Club teacher or helper. Then you’ll learn the ease and joy of starting, or participating with, a Good News Club at an elementary school campus near you. Retired (or “re-fired”) Christians who love children are perfect for this. Even current public school teachers can and do lead and participate in Good News Clubs. Depending on your strengths, you can either organize, assist, or teach. There’s a place for all types of volunteers and each Good News Club has a team of adult volunteers who work together.
What: A 60-90-minute interactive program teaching children ages 5 to 14, who either know English or are learning English, to learn about, receive, worship, and serve Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. In an environment of fun and friendship, along with snacks, children are taught what’s right in God’s sight. Volunteers use easy-to-teach and simple-to-grasp lessons from both the Old and New Testaments. The curriculum, written by the Good News Club sponsor, Children Evangelism Fellowship, is so good, it does the teaching, and adult volunteers merely follow it.
When: Immediately after school classes end, for 60-90 minutes, one day a week, for 26 weeks. These Good News Clubs are popular with public-school families, including many parents who are motivated to receive free after-school childcare.
Where: At a K-6 or K-8 public school near you. Serving as the Good News Club location is an empty classroom with adjoining outdoor space. After the first week, children will know where and when to show up!
Why: Most children in public schools, and most children initially attending Good News Clubs, do not come from churched families. They have probably never heard the Gospel (Jesus Christ’s Good News for their bad news of sin). Perhaps the most significant thing you can do this year is to volunteer for a Good News Club to help save children’s souls, teach children God’s ways, and plant a memorable seed of Christianity and morality in their minds that will stick with them for life. Remember, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30).
How: Whether you’re interested in volunteering, or just want to learn more, simply fill out this easy web form and a local Good News Club chapter leader will get in touch with you. In the message field, write “I want to volunteer for” or “I want to know more about volunteering for” or “I want to visit and learn more about” … “a Good News Club in my community.” Ask your questions and tell them SaveCalifornia.com sent you! New Clubs are starting up in September and training is happening this month of August, so right now is a great time for you to make a significant difference for the souls of children near you.
And here’s something else to remember: If you’ve ever helped teach Sunday school, this is like it, but better. The focus and friendship and fruit of Good News Clubs are of such good reputation, no wonder the atheist groups tried to stamp them out (they lost at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001).
Children in your community need Jesus Christ and they need you. Please reach out to a Good News Club leader in your area — or become one yourself — and step out in faith, hope, and love!
Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Luke 18:15-17
Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. Proverbs 24:11
Saturday, August 3, 2019, 8:42 am | Randy Thomasson
“It’s mine!” Remember hearing this from a young child or saying it yourself?
Little children know stealing is wrong — as long as they’re the victim of the theft. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to fall into self-deception and “justify” a little stealing here, a little pilfering there, nothing that will be easily noticed or missed. But God sees it all, doesn’t He?
Likewise, a liberal in an immoral city might claim there’s no absolute truth. But steal from him or lie to him and he’ll say that was absolutely wrong to do!
Because theft is rampant in our culture and our government, and because we’ve all stolen something (no matter how small), SaveCalifornia.com urges you to teach your children and grandchildren that stealing is absolutely wrong because:
1. Stealing always disrespects an owner. Instead of caring what the owner’s free will is, the thief will take what he wants, even if the owner has not given his voluntary, non-coerced consent. For this reason, stealing always devalues the person, deeming the thing to be taken more important than the person it’s being taken from.
2. Stealing always harms an owner. Theft always decreases a legal owner’s profit, use, or enjoyment; theft causes a rightful owner to suffer loss, no matter how small. Because stealing always subtracts from what an owner owns. Whether the owner knows or doesn’t know you stole from her, God sees and knows what you did.
3. Stealing always harms the character of the perpetrator. By agreeing to sin, and agreeing to harm an owner, a thief immediately lowers his standards, becomes untrustworthy, and finds it all the easier to steal more often, in greater amounts. This is the hardening of the heart, the scarring of the conscience, and the depravity of the soul.
4. Stealing always grieves Creator God. From Genesis to Revelation, the Word of God calls stealing a sin and prohibits it. This is why Western Civilization reflects God’s laws when it makes it punishable to steal, beginning with “petty theft” or “larceny,” whenever someone takes or uses property without the owner’s informed consent (the very definition of theft). As the Author of morality, God views any stealing as a crime against Himself, for He cannot fellowship with sin.
5. Stealing always begins with coveting. Security experts know that if a thief can’t see something or doesn’t know it exists, it’s less likely that theft will occur. In the same way, the Bible informs us that all sins start on the inside before they manifest on the outside.
As Christian writer Tim Challies writes, One way of looking at things is to see the tenth commandment as the internalization of the eighth commandment. Just as adultery of the heart is lust, and murder of the heart is hatred, so theft is the heart of covetousness. When Achan stole some of the devoted things from Ai, he first “coveted them” and then “took them” (Josh. 7:21). Likewise, James says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:3).
Types of stealing
Petty theft Burglary Robbery Embezzlement Knowingly receiving stolen property Cooperating with thieves Identity theft Intellectual property theft Illegal Entry Shoplifting Looting Vandalism Dishonest business practices Cheating on taxes Refusing to pay debts Keeping property you found without making an effort to find the owner Claiming the work or knowledge of others to be your own When politicians defraud voters When union bosses coerce money from workers When stealing anything from your employer When stealing food or drink from a restaurant
The Early Church had a high moral standard against all forms of theft: “…they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so.”
Show your children and grandchildren this and then talk about it, especially what moral standard kept some people from stealing: LA Riot Looters: ‘A Colorblind Orgy Of Wrecking And Taking’ (national news report of 1992 Los Angeles riots)
David Pratte explains what the Bible says about stealing: “When I was about 6 years old, my family visited a neighbor down the street. I saw lying on the floor a toy Mickey Mouse watch — it didn’t really even tell time, but it looked like a wristwatch. I wanted it, so I picked it up, put it in my pocket, and took it home. Of course, I felt terrible, because I knew better. Besides, I couldn’t wear it without my parents asking me where it came from. Next time we visited that neighbor, I took it back and put it where I had found it. I never told anybody, and nobody ever said anything about it, but I learned my lesson. Most people do not want to think of themselves as thieves, because they know stealing is wrong.”
Do you remember that when our U.S. founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”?
Do you remember that John Adams said that the price of liberty was “a great expense of blood,” and that 25,000 Americans died to purchase the United States of America for you?
Ask yourself, what are you willing to do (which will not require the shedding of blood) to recover the Constitution they gave you, and to publicly represent the moral standards God gave you?
“The object is great which we have in view, and we must expect a great expense of blood to obtain it. But we should always remember, that a free constitution of civil government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate, as there is nothing, on this side [of] the new Jerusalem, of equal importance to mankind.” John Adams, 2nd U.S. President, on July 1, 1776
July 3, 1776 letters from John Adams to his wife, Abigail Adams: “The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals. And the new governments we are assuming, in every part, will require a purification from our vices and an augmentation of our virtues or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded power. And the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as the great.” Source
“It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.” Source
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