After both pregnancies with our first two children, my wife, Anna, dealt with severe postpartum depression. With Gabriel, our firstborn, it lasted about nine months. With Lily, our second, almost a year passed before she started to feel like herself again. There were many mornings when it felt as if we’d never find our way to the other side. Anna often woke up with what I can only describe as a cloud of blackness over her mind.

Usually, instead of settling into the hopelessness, she chose to sing, pray or call a friend. I always knew my wife was a fighter, but these moments of unwavering devotion to God and her family convinced me I’d married a warrior. She would often ask me to tell her things that didn’t make sense to me at the moment, such as “You’re not alone” and “You won’t always feel like this.” While I always thought it was silly that she wanted to hear things she already knew, I told her anyway. Any glimmer of hope in the dark hole she felt lost in was welcome, no matter how it came. If there were ever a time in our lives we dealt with the lie of abandonment, it was then.

Our daughter Lily went through some major life-threatening health issues. Unfortunately, these two circumstances coincided. We were in what felt like the perfect storm from hell, with Anna battling debilitating postpartum depression and our daughter fighting for her life.

Right around this time, Sarah and John Mark McMillan released their song, “King of My Heart.” The truths in the lyrics were anchors for our hearts. The declarations, “You are good!” and “You’re never going to let me down!” gave us the language of faith we needed to declare a greater reality than the one we were living.

Anna sang and prophesied this song until she believed with resilient conviction that God had not left her on her own. Even when we weren’t entirely convinced that the words were true, we sang, and the more we sang, the louder we heard His love roaring above the lies.

In Deuteronomy 31:6 the Father made the everlasting promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. What the Father promises in this Scripture is His undivided, uncompromising devotion to us. His heart will ever be leaning in toward us. He will never give up on us, never turn His back on us and never leave us. Even in the midst of great trials, when we felt as if God were a million miles away, He was still good, and His plans for us were full of hope, life and deep joy.

SOURCE: Charisma News

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Persecuted Iranian Christian Dabrina Bet Tamraz vividly remembers the day that her family’s church was shut down.

The day was Monday, March 30, 2009, when her family home received a phone call from the government demanding that her father, Victor Bet Tamraz — the pastor of an Assyrian Pentecostal congregation in Tehran — meet at his church.

The family arrived at the church and were greeted by lots of cars and big men. The pastor was given the choice by a government official to either “give up the keys” to the church or ensure that the church only allows Assyrian speaking members.

Speaking at a Family Research Council panel discussion on religious freedom in Iran Wednesday afternoon, Tamraz explained that the family and church members asked to be given a few hours to pray about what their decision will be.

After a couple of hours, Tamraz said her father walked out of the church and handed the keys to an official from the intelligence service.

“[My father] said, ‘Thank you very much. You have done us a great favor. We don’t know how to thank you. Please close down the church,’” Tamraz recalled. “He looks at my dad and said, ‘Are you crazy? Why are you saying thank you?’”

Tamraz said that during the prayer time in the church, the congregation heard from God that if they allow the authorities to close down the church, He will “open the gates of Heaven.”

“My father said, ‘Thank you, because I can’t wait for God to open the gates of Heaven for people to shout Hallelujah on the streets,’” Tamraz said.

Today, Tamraz’s father, mother, and brother are among dozens of Christians facing jail time, abuse and torture in the Islamic Republic of Iran simply because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Tamraz’s father is in the process of appealing a 10-year prison sentence he received in 2017. He was arrested in 2014 during a Christmas gathering and was held for 65 days in solitary confinement. Tamraz’s father was accused of acting against national security by conducting house church meetings and evangelizing.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith

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The Michigan Annual Conference for the United Methodist Church will hold a special session to determine whether to forward to the denomination’s next General Conference a highly publicized plan to separate the UMC over LGBT issues.

Last month, UMC leaders and activists of diverse theological views announced their support for a measure called the “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation,” which among other things would allocate $25 million for theologically conservative Methodists who adhere to biblical standards of marriage and sexuality to vote to leave the UMC and create their own denomination.

Bishop David Bard of the Michigan Conference announced Wednesday that his regional body will hold a special session on March 7 to consider the protocol legislation.

According to a conference statement, the special session will not amend the proposed legislation, but will simply vote either in favor or against the protocol.

If passed, the protocol legislation will then go to the denomination-wide General Conference, scheduled to be held May 5-15 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“Michigan United Methodists gathered for this special session of annual conference will decide if we want to serve the wider church by forwarding this legislation. Delegates to General Conference will decide what to do with the legislation,” said Bard in a blog entry on Tuesday.

“I am calling our annual conference into special session because I believe in this liminal season, the delegates to General Conference need the opportunity to consider every good option for the future of our church.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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A federal judge ruled this week that the city of Boston, Massachusetts, does not have to raise a Christian flag at City Hall Plaza even though the city has raised flags representing other cultural and social groups, including flags indicating support for LGBT rights. 

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper, an Obama-appointee, issued an order Tuesday denying summary judgment to a Christian man who sued the city in 2018 after the city government rejected his request in 2017 to fly a Christian flag on a public flagpole outside City Hall.

The plaintiff, Harold Shurtleff, runs the organization called Camp Constitution. Camp Constitution exists to “enhance understanding of our Judeo-Christian moral heritage.” The organization hosts annual Constitution Day and Citizenship Day events at City Hall.

But Shurtleff’s request for the Christian flag (featuring a cross in the upper lefthand corner) on Constitution Day (September 17) 2017 was denied by the city on the basis of a policy that gives discretion to the city to determine which flags can fly.

Shurtleff believes that the city’s rejection of the flag equates to censorship of the Christian viewpoint.

The city of Boston raised nearly 300 flags by private organizations on the City Hall flagpole between 2005 and 2017, according to court documents. The conservative religious freedom legal group Liberty Counsel, which is representing Shurtleff, argued that the flagpole is designated by the city as a public forum for private speech.

According to Liberty Counsel, the city had never censored any flag until Shurtleff’s request to fly the Christian flag on Constitution Day 2017.

Casper rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the flagpole is designed to be a public forum for private speech, saying that the “display of flags outside City Hall is government speech.”

“The [then-head of the property management department Gregory Rooney] had never considered a religious flag prior to the Plaintiffs’ application,” the judge reasoned in her ruling.

“There are no additional facts in the record that would suggest any improper preference for non-religion over religion or selective treatment of any person or group based on religion. The City did not alter its procedures for review of flag applications because of Camp Constitution’s request, instead, Camp Constitution’s request presented a novel issue for the City’s consideration, which the City considered consistent with its practice and policy.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith

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Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has again garnered attention for his views on abortion, this time with an exchange between himself and “The View” co-host Meghan McCain.

On Thursday’s episode of “The View,” McCain asked Buttigieg about earlier comments he made claiming that the Bible says life does not begin before the first breath, and so it can be interpreted that abortion is acceptable.

“In my circles it was passed around everywhere because I think the interpretation from pro-life people like me was that you meant a baby actually being born,” said McCain.

“You know there’s a lot of controversy with Governor Northam and what it means and what time a woman should be able to have an abortion. I just wanted you to clarify because I found that statement to be pretty radical.”

Buttigieg responded by saying that he was just explaining that there are different interpretations of Scripture and morality on the abortion issue.

“We live in a country where it is extremely important that no one person have to be subject to some other person’s interpretation of their own religion,” he said.

McCain then brought up partial birth abortion and what limits he supported on abortion, to which the Democratic candidate said that he did not believe the government should be involved in setting any limits on abortion.

“My point is that it shouldn’t be up to a government official to draw the line, it should be up to the woman,” said Buttigieg, who received loud applause from the studio audience.

Buttigieg also defended the practice of late-term abortion, arguing that it presents a situation in which “a woman was expecting to carry the pregnancy to term” only to find out that she must make a “terrible choice” due to unexpected complications.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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Dear Chuck,

I have a jaundiced eye about the World Economic Forum’s view of the world. What are the economic issues that concern you?

Not impressed with Davos

Dear Not Impressed,

While the World Economic Forum has its shortcomings, it may surprise you that I think there is some good that comes out of Davos each year that is helpful to Christians.

What I find helpful to learn from Davos is what the world’s elite are concerned about. While I may or may not agree with their solutions, they often surface issues that merit our attention. Here are two of the many issues they are concerned about that caught my attention. Following these, I give a list of my economic concerns.

Disruptive Technology – Heaven or Hell

History expert, Yuval Harari, issued a stern warning about three global risks ending with his perspective of the ever growing and expanding invasion of technology:

“In Davos we hear so much about the enormous promises of technology – and these promises are certainly real. But technology might also disrupt human society and the very meaning of human life in numerous ways, ranging from the creation of a global useless class to the rise of data colonialism and of digital dictatorships.

“The twin revolutions of infotech and biotech are now giving politicians the means to create heaven or hell, but the philosophers are having trouble conceptualizing what the new heaven and the new hell will look like. And that’s a very dangerous situation.

“If we fail to conceptualize the new heaven quickly enough, we might be easily misled by naïve utopias. And if we fail to conceptualize the new hell quickly enough, we might find ourselves entrapped there with no way out.”

There is certainly an ominous concern and interesting choice of metaphors in Dr. Harari’s perspective. Fortunately, we are not looking to technology as our Savior.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Chuck Bentley

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Hollywood actor and Christian filmmaker Corbin Bernsen attended the 28th annual Movieguide Awards where he talked to The Christian Post about the divisiveness he sometimes sees between believers and nonbelievers.

Bernsen has worked in Hollywood for half a century and more recently has been creating and starring in faith-based entertainment. However, he is not using his influence in Hollywood to convert people to what he believes.

“I think my journey, is not about, ‘I’m Christian, come to Jesus.’ I’m not that. I have my own relationship with God, my own relationship with Christ — that’s the way it works for me. I have my very special, private relationship,” Bernsen said last month while walking the red carpet of the popular award show which honors faith and family content.

“What we see today, this sort of clash of believers [and] nonbelievers, of any faith really. People over here are like, ‘I don’t want any of that stuff. I don’t care what package you put it in or what you want to call it, I don’t want it,’ “The Resident” star illustrated.

Bernsen, who is gearing up for the Valentine’s Day release of the new “faith-friendly” movie “First Lady,” went on to say that the separation of believers and nonbelievers is critical.

“That collision has become dangerous and venomous. It’s not that I want one side to accept the other, and the other to accept the other, but I think we have to come to a place of mutual respect.

You’re never going to solve all the problems, things that Christians want legally, other people don’t want,” he told CP.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

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