Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Your Best Steps to Protecting Love - Lynn Cowell

Your Best Steps to Protecting Love
Lynn Cowell, 04 Feb 06:20 PM

I wish that I hadn’t been so shocked.

For over a year I had been meeting with a group of girls, each week sharing snacks, school drama and what God had to say about real life. We ended our time together by forming a circle, looking each other eye-to-eye and praying for each other. The requests normally were predictable: a crush that was crushing, a family that was fighting or a school grade that was sinking. This week, though, one young lady bravely looked up and said, “I’m addicted to porn.”

I’m not sure what my face said that day. I hope it revealed the compassion and kindness for this sweet girl. She loved Jesus intimately; read her Bible regularly. She came from a strong, Christian family who was church attendees. My heart was sick and sorrowful for this broken young woman that I loved so much. What advice could I give her?

Often, we categorize pornography as a boy problem; a male issue and it is. But we are turning a blind eye if we fail to recognize that due to the internet, it has also become a girl problem as well. A huge problem.

These statistics, which I obtained from Covenant Eyes (the Covenant Eyes Porn Stats 2018 edition), help us to wrap our minds around the enormity of it.

In 2008, the company Hitwise cataloged 40,634 websites that distributed pornography.

According to the research by two neuroscientists, Ogi Ogasa and Sai Gaddam, in 2010, out of the one million most trafficked websites in the world, 42,337 are sex-related sites.

Webroot Cybersecurity says 28,258 users are watching pornography every second.

That is the general population. Then there are our kids.

Too Young

According to a 2016 survey by The Barna Group, the younger the respondent, the more likely they were to respond positively to the statement: “I started looking at pornography before puberty.” This includes 27% of respondents aged 25-30.

In 2016, a study by the Barna Group discovered among teens age 13-17:
– 7% came across porn daily; 8% intentionally sought it out daily.
– 21% came across porn weekly; 18% sought it out weekly.
– 21% came across porn once or twice a month; 11% sought it out. – In total, 57% of teens sought out porn at least monthly.

In a 2007 University of Alberta study, 429 students ages 13 and 14 from 17 schools across Alberta, Canada, were surveyed about how often they accessed sexually explicit media content:
– 90% of boys and 70% of girls reported accessing sexually explicit media on at least one occasion.

This one really broke my heart. According to the third Youth Internet Safety Survey, published in 2010, the ages when youth were unwillingly exposed to nudity online were: 10-12: 15% – 13-15: 23% – 16-17: 28%.

According to a 2012 study from the University of Sydney among 800 regular porn users: 43% started viewing porn between the ages of 11 and 13.

Christian Children are Not Exempt

According to a survey by the Barna Group in 2016:
– 41% of practicing Christian boys 13-24 use porn at least once a month.

I know that this a lot of very discouraging news, especially if you are a parent intentionally trying to raise a child who understands that each and every one of us is God’s creation; fearfully and wonderfully made.

Here is the good news!

There is help readily available to help us overcome these horrific statistics. Because porn thrives on shame and secrets, Covenant Eyes has designed an Internet Accountability service to help overcome porn by monitoring Internet activity and sending a report to a parent or trusted friend who can hold device users accountable for online choices. They can protect family members online with a filter that’s tailored to their needs and blocks the Internet completely at certain times a day. That protection has the ability to follow your family on all the computers, smartphones, and tablets you use. Covenant Eyes monitors and keeps a record of all Internet browsing and can even block the bad stuff if you want!

The question is: does this work?

According to the 2016 Barna report: 0% of filter users never seek out porn!

Do I really need to do something about this now?

If you are anything like me, the stuff that gets on my to-do list that is not urgent just doesn’t happen. At least it doesn’t happen for a really long time. (I finally disposed of two computers from the early 2000s over Christmas break this year! That is a long time!)

So, yes, do something now, while you can!

Here is your why:

When a child or adolescent is directly exposed to pornography the following effects have been documented:

1. – Lasting negative or traumatic emotional responses.

–2. Earlier onset of first sexual intercourse, thereby increasing the risk of STDs over the lifespan.

3. The belief that superior sexual satisfaction is attainable without having affection for one’s partner, thereby reinforcing the commoditization of sex and the objectification of humans.

4. – The belief that being married or having a family are unattractive prospects.

5. – Increased risk of developing sexual compulsions and addictive behavior.

6. – Increased risk of exposure to incorrect information about human sexuality long before a minor is able to contextualize this information in ways an adult brain could.

– 7. Overestimating the prevalence of less common practices (e.g., group sex, bestiality, or sadomasochistic activity).

This is exactly what you don’t want for your family!

So, set a plan in motion now, today, to get internet protection on your devices and begin open, vulnerable conversations that are age appropriate with your children on the why behind you loving them this way.

“A warm and communicative parent-child relationship is the most important factor [in reducing porn use among children]. In addition, open parent-child channels for communicating about sexual and media experiences, sex education at home or school, and parental participation with children on the Internet are constructive influences. Finally, for boys already at risk for antisocial behavior, parents should carefully monitor and severely limit access to pornography on all-sharing networks and elsewhere.”
– Dr. Patricia M. Greenfield

As we earnestly and consistently pray for our children’s welfare and couple that with preventative measures, then we are truly doing the best we can do to give our children our best!

Get Started!

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Hi Ho Silvers! - The Silvers Are Back! Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Hi Ho Silvers!
The Silvers Are Back!

Steve Martin

“Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.” (Matthew 17:9-12, NKJV)

After more than 21 years...it is time to be back.

The silver-hairs are BACK AT IT!

Laurie Martin - climbing the stairs to the worship team stage.

I just want to share this testimony, for it has become a fulfilled hope and promised day for us. I strongly believe it will also be an encouragement for many others who think the time has come and gone.

On Feb. 3, 2019, Laurie and I were once again on a Sunday morning church worship team. It had been almost six years since the last time that had happened.

By then it had gotten to the point where we thought our time was done. The days were over. The years had come and moved on. We didn't sing in public since August 2013 - the last time with our group Ahava Love Band at a One New Man Saturday night meeting with Warren Marcus.

In fact, at times we considered, if not aloud but to ourselves, "Let the others do it now. I've done my part. I am tired, old, and time has passed." I can speak for myself, that this thought was just to cover up the longing I still had from the Lord to lead others into worship. And now that it seemed to have finished, I wanted the inner longing to stop. It almost was as if I didn't want to think about it, for it didn't seem that it would happen again.

The Bible speaks of that happening to others. They have a call from the Lord, they do it for a time, and then they are set aside; distracted into other areas, or just quit out of discouragement and "lack of use".

But the Lord has His plans, His purposes, and His faith, which is bigger than ours. If the time is not over with Him, then it is not over with us. That which He has put in each of us may have been buried for a while, and even considered as dead. But it is only taking more process time to pressure the soft coal into a hard diamond, more so to enable the finest to come forth, beyond what would have done if completed earlier ahead of its time.

Character building.

The gifts may be there, but the fruit takes longer to develop.

We give thanks for the Lord God Almighty, bringing us back into the place of leading worship, as we had been gifted to do for so many years before.

We also give thanks to the leadership of Antioch International Church, with Dr. Peter and Joy Wyns, Pastors Jesse and Elizabeth (Liz) Enns, who have given us this opportunity once again.

Our hearts are that we, being 64 (Steve) and 59 (Laurie) respectively, will be an encouragement to others who are "silver-haired"- that the Lord has much yet to do in and through you too.

He is not finished with us yet! There is much to do, increasingly coming forth as we step out in faith and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and the FINISHER of our faith.

If you have been out of the game for a while, seek the Lord to get back in. You are needed on the team once more, to finish the race! With you in the Lord’s service!

And the rest of the story…

Another very important part of this restoration concerns the building that we sang in – the former Heritage USA/PTL Barn (Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker ministry). In November of 1997, I was the Administrator of All Nations Church/Mahesh Chavda Ministries (Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda), which had relocated from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Charlotte, NC on July 3, 1994. (Full details of this have been written in my book Prophetic Stories – Signs Along the Way, published in April 2014 through Martin Lighthouse Publishing. Available below.)

Having administrated many conferences since the beginning of my time with that ministry, in August 1987, (a grand total of exactly 40 in the 14 years I served with them) we had scheduled a national conference with the then current owners of the former Heritage USA property, to be held in mid-November 1997. The New Heritage USA (as it had been renamed) Barn venue was the specific location.

As was our joy, Laurie and I were also on the Mahesh Chavda Ministries conference worship team, along with Doug Goff, bass player. (Doug now plays bass every other week on the Antioch International Church five worship teams.) The three-day conference went very well. Though I cannot recall the name of the worship leader or conference speakers we had, it was an awesome time being in the Barn and on the worship team, leading the people into the presence of the Lord.

At one point during one of the worship times, the Lord gave me a prophetic word, which I spoke out from the stage at my singer’s position. In my mind’s eye, I could see an image of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, on the very back wall of the auditorium, high up, almost filling the entire space. As I remember in part, I declared that the Lord Himself, the Lion of Israel, was in this place, and His purposes were being accomplished. He was ruling and reigning in the earth. I will never forget that image!

After the completion of the conference, two weeks later the entire New Heritage USA shut down. The entire 2000 plus acre main grounds, consisting of the Grand Hotel, Pyramid administration building, the Barn and attached Studio where the PTL Club program had run, the King’s Castle, Kevin’s House, the Bunk Houses, Heritage Island, and the incomplete Tower were all left desolate. Over the period of the next 7 years, nothing was operational for public use. Only the former Fort Hope, located across the railroad tracks, which was a reformation, restoration ministry of the Bakkers, to give the homeless a place to live and earn a trade, was sold by the four Malaysian businessmen who had bought the entire property in those years (buying out Morris Cerullo, who half-owned with them at the time, but specifically wanted the PTL TV Network for his ministry.)

During this time, Hurricane Hugo came through the Carolinas, severely damaging the Grand Hotel and other facilities. A few years later, the north side of the Barn’s roof lost a good third of its roof, caving in down into the building itself. Water damage from frozen pipes destroyed all the carpet and interior lower walls in the former Heritage School rooms below, leaving that area quite unusable. Rick Joyner had prophesied in 1988 that the entire Heritage USA would die.

But he also prophesied that it would be resurrected. And as was in the Lord’s heart from the beginning, so it was!

The full history of the years from that time in November 1997 through this February 2019 are well documented in other volumes and websites, involving Rick Joyner and Morningstar, Mahesh Chavda and All Nations Church, Peter Wyns and Christians For Messiah Ministries/Antioch International Church (read my book, The Promise, One Man’s Journey To See God's Word Revealed (published by Martin Lighthouse Publishing, Sept. 2013. Available below.) but I just want to share this following portion with you, to keep this short.

In the book I also document the time I met with the Malaysian’s Administrator of the property (which is now the current Morningstar’s Comenius School building) negotiating the sale/purchase of the Fort Hope 26 acres property, as Administrator for All Nations Church. We were able to purchase that for the church home in the late fall of 1999, for $900,000.

Now back to the future. When Laurie and I walked onto that restored Barn’s stage, Feb. 4, 2019, to once again be a part of a worship team leading the Lord’s people into His presence, it wasn’t just another time to sing.

After more than 21 years since the last time we had sung on that very stage, the Lord was returning us to a place that He still has deep in His heart of love. The place where we had given $3,000 in 1985 for three Lifetime Partner memberships; the place where multitudes, in the millions, came every year to witness, experience, and walk in the presence of the Lord with all the other believers who brought family and friends there annually.

This place is not just another big building. It is a place that is revealing the Lord’s tremendous heart of worship, intercession, restoration, and reformation for His people, and all those who are coming back to Him, to fulfill His purposes and plans for this area and the nations that will be affected from it!

We rejoice in this! We proclaimed the Living God Yeshua HaMashiach, the Mighty One of Israel, is on the move! He rules! He reigns! Nothing can stop Him from carrying out His will in all the earth! (That was part of the prophetic word He also gave me that morning from the platform.)

And one last word I want to share with you. I received this in an email from a long-time friend, Lisa Antonson, just a week before on Jan. 27, 2019:

“I told Ray I had a dream on Friday night & you were in it, it was on the PTL grounds and I remembered in the dream you said you were helping to restore PTL back to the great Christian place to come to as it was intended many years go…….and everyone was so happy in the dream.”

Bring it on Lord! Let Your Holy Spirit come and rule over this place, and in the hearts of all those Who You are bring back, for re-storation and re-commission!

Steve & Laurie Martin

Antioch International Church worship team
(Photo by Ed Brigham, Prayer Pastor)

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

Here are the two books I mentioned above, written in 2013 and 2014, documenting more of what I have shared in this edition of Now Think On This. I hope you get them and see what the Lord has done! We rejoice in His miraculous works, and all that He is restoring in the earth for His people!

Prophetic Stories – Signs Along the Way,

published in April 2014 through Martin Lighthouse Publishing

You can buy now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle: Buy here: $7.95 & $1.99

Buy now on Amazon: The Promise - Buy on Amazon Paperback $5.95 and Kindle $1.99

If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$120 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

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Now Think On This #387 - in the year of our Lord 02.05.19 – “Hi Ho Silvers! -The Silvers Are Back” – Monday, 5:22 am

How to be Truly Righteous ✡ "A righteous nation enter, [A nation] that keeps faith" - Israel365

Open the gates, and let A righteous nation enter, [A nation] that keeps faith.
Isaiah 26:2 (The Israel Bible™)

פִּתְחוּ שְׁעָרִים וְיָבֹא גוֹי־צַדִּיק שֹׁמֵר אֱמֻנִים
Hear the verse in Hebrew

pit-KHU sh’-a-REEM v’-ya-VO goy tza-DEEK sho-MAYR e-mu-NEEM

How to be Truly Righteous

Israel’s first Chief Rabbi, Abraham Isaac Kook, expounds upon the nature of righteousness, described in beautiful poetry in this verse. “The purely righteous do not complain about evil, but increase justice. They do not complain about godlessness, but increase faith. They do not complain about ignorance, but increase wisdom.” Let us strive to become “purely righteous” by increasing justice, faith and wisdom in this world.