Several essential characteristics separate humans from other mammals. The most significant among them is our complex reasoning ability. We can solve problems throughout the full range of our current awareness. We have a powerful capability to observe, collect, and analyze facts. We can formulate theories and design meticulous studies to test them out. And we can debate the meaning of the findings of those studies.

Never underestimate a heart of hatred. Every day in the news there are acts of unspeakable brutality around our world. Over the last several days, Israel has witnessed again just how deep the work of the Evil One can unfold in a human heart. On Wednesday of this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his nation detailing atrocities that had occurred during the terrorist incursion into Israel last weekend. It wasn’t just killing. It was how people died.

Americans should be dismayed by the fact that the single most effective force for good in the West, which has done so much on behalf of the powerless and weak, referring to Christianity, is under virulent, relentless attack from the Left!

Immigrants have long swarmed America’s shores because of the opportunities afforded to all who arrive here. Historically, a person could start a business with all the potential risks and rewards involved or take the safer route of being employed by someone else. Employment and educational opportunities have been virtually unlimited, and the choice was yours to make.

It’s a topic that’s showing up more and more in books, thought pieces, news outlets, podcasts, and blogs, inside and outside the church: the secularization of America. Pew Research and Gallup (to name a few) have recently highlighted the rise of the “nones” (religiously unaffiliated) across the nation, specifically in the last several years.

“America's Chaplain” and Illinois Pastor, Steve Lee, now has a GiveSendGo account to collect funds for his legal defense: www.GiveSendGo.com/ChaplainLee. We at Illinois Family Institute have been raising funds for him too, collecting tax-deductible donations at www.IllinoisFamily.org/Contribute and letting people designate to the Pastor Lee Legal Defense cause.

Some phrase origins are hard to pinpoint such as “dropping like flies.”  A story in the May 1902 edition of the Atlanta Constitution might have said it first, “I saw men and women rushing back and forth within the flames. They would run along, then came the choking smoke and they would drop like dead flies.” 

The Mosaic law is one giant picture book. Turn to almost any page and you'll find imagery teaching you about God. You'll find specifications for the priesthood illustrating Christ's mediation and showing how holy God is. You'll find records of the Israelites' many blunders into sin that show us just how serious our own blunders are.

Teacher union lobbyists and government employees work against every school choice bill and scholarship program they can; they reject the need for parental control over their children’s education. In doing so, they flatly dismiss the ability of parents to educate their own children or even to make viable decisions on their behalf.

“If I am to be effective, which I believe I am, we must always see the hurting human in front of us and compassionately, sensitively, truthfully confront that person with the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ.” These are the honest and sincere words of Reverend Stephen Lee, also known as America’s Pastor. Recently, Reverend Lee was indicted in Georgia for so-called election interference, along with 18 others, including former president Donald Trump. The state alleges Lee and others “unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere.”

Gender-affirming care is the current standard for dealing with any child who is gender non-conforming, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The primary proponent of that standard in the administration is Rachel Levine, the transgender Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services. Levin claims that any other approach endangers the welfare of the transgender child. He said: “There is no argument among medical professionals – pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. – about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care.”

In the Bible, Judges 21:25, we read that when there was no king (authority) in the land of Israel, everyone “did what was right in their own eyes,” meaning lawlessness became the norm. Sounds like America today! Lawlessness is the antithesis of God, for He created order in the universe; and that order is beneficial! Mankind’s lawlessness originated with Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden (“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and all sin is lawlessness,” I John 3:4 NKJV).

Most people, if given a glimpse of a future event that was going to cause harm to their friends, family, community, and nation, would use every means possible to alert those around them to the danger. From time to time, there are real, best-case scenario examples of this, such as when someone shares a tip with law enforcement or the intelligence community and a mass killer or terrorist is stopped before he can enact his deadly plan.

Those wanting to support Chaplain Stephen Lee's legal defense fund can get the honey in a unique bottle by going to www.MakeHoneyGreatAgain.com and using the promo code “Chaplain.” You may like or dislike the bottle design, but it’s filled with healthy, pure, raw honey and a large amount of the proceeds will go to help Chaplain Lee fight his legal battle in Georgia.

As Christians, we have the amazing freedom of coming before the throne of the Almighty, Holy, Omnipresent, All-Powerful Creator of the universe to petition Him in prayer – without being destroyed – because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It’s an incredible privilege, and what’s more, we’re told in James 5:16b that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Prayer is powerful because we are talking to a powerful God. As we wrestle against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12), prayer is one of the strongest weapons we have.