Cleaning the bathroom...

-internet meme

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Christian Families are Best for Culture

-eastern rural Iowa 

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"Stable natural families would be, by far, the best anti-poverty, anti-crime, and pro-education program. 

Thus, Christian sexual morality is integral to social justice because it protects and promotes family formation and flourishing. 

It is not an idiosyncratic or arbitrary religious decree or practice but, instead, is rooted in human nature and ordered toward our good and the good of those around us. 

Its truth and beauty are manifest in loving and enduring relationships, grounded on oaths sworn and upheld, rather than the fickle flux of day-to-day desires. 

This commitment provides a solid foundation for an enduring intimacy between man and wife."

-Nathanael Blake

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What is the Cure?!

-internet meme 

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Time passes by too quickly...

 -Kinsman

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The seasons change- seemingly too often.  Autumn has taken over the Summer we loved. 

Now the corn is being harvested with the soybeans waiting to be next. Soon the fields will be empty with room for the winds to gather more speed.

Precious friends have died- leaving loving families to grieve them. Memories of the joys and loves which they shared. Photos are brought out with their love for each other shone throughout. Tears continue until they meet again in Glory.

It feels like a story which is coming to an end. We have nearly four months to the end of this year, but time seems to "rush" by somehow.

I'm thankful for kindnesses people have shown and the words of love which are shared together.  The LORD has been gracious to love us so and then we can love others.

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"My Home is God Himself"; Christ brought me there.

I placed myself within His mighty arms;

He took me up, and safe from all alarms

He bore me "where no foot but His has trod,"

Within the holiest at Home with God,

And had me dwell in Him, rejoicing there.

O Holy Place! O Home divinely fair!

And we, God's little ones, abiding there.

"My Home is God Himself" it was not so!

A long, long road I traveled night and day,

And sought to find within myself some way.

Nothing I did or felt could bring me near.

Self-effort failed, and I was filled with fear,

And then I found Christ was the only way,

That I must come to Him, and in Him stay,

And God had told me so.

And now "my Home is God," and sheltered there,

God meets the trials of my earthly life,

God compasses me round from storm and strife,

God takes the burden of my daily care.

O Wondrous Place! O Home divinely fair!

And I, God's little one, safe hidden there.

Lord, as I dwell in You and You in me,

So make me dead to everything but Thee;

That as I rest within my Home most fair,

My soul may evermore and only see

My God in everything and everywhere;

My Home is God.

-unknown

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I am pruned to bear more fruit.

 -Kinsman

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I walked a mile with Pleasure,

    She chattered all the way;

But left me none the wiser

    For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,

    And ne'er a word said she;

   But oh, the things I learned from her

    When Sorrow walked with me.

-unknown

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John 15:1-11

Jesus says:  “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."...

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The LORD has Spoken!

"The wicked strut about on every side when vileness is exulted among the sons of men."

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Psalm 12

"Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be,
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.


They speak falsehood to one another;
With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.


May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
The tongue that speaks great things;


Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?”


“Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

The words of the Lord are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.


You, O Lord, will keep them;
You will preserve him from this generation forever.


The wicked strut about on every side
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men."

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I thought this was normal--So we really are PLUGGERS!

-PLUGGERS

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A Fetus; a Human; a Person

"In some of the ancient nations, parents literally had the legal authority of life and death over their children. 

They could sell their children into slavery or even kill them! 

In ancient Rome this was codified into law and was called Patria Potestas.  

How barbaric this seems, but if the unborn child in the womb is a person, then laws that legalize abortion today are not that much different from Patria Potestas. 

Virtually the entire debate over abortion would be concluded if we answered that one question: 

"Is the fetus in the womb a person or not?" 

It is my prayer that those struggling with this question would consider what God has said about this issue in the Holy Scriptures:  

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you..."  Jeremiah 1:5"

-Brad Sherman.  Pastor, former State Legislator, and candidate to be the next governor of the State of Iowa.

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Thankful for Faithful Tradesmen

-PLUGGERS

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