Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Why Welcome a Same-Sex Couple to Church?


How congregations can reach out to people with same-sex attraction and remain committed to biblical human sexuality.
JAHI CHIKWENDIU / THE WASHINGTON POST / GETTY
Gary Nixon, right, and Mel White, a gay couple, attend Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg, VA. The couple (together for 20 years) has rented a cottage directly across the street from Falwell's church for a year, are are attending services there and getting to know the neighbors. While some people have called them sinners, others have brought over pies and cookies in welcome.
Imagine this no-longer-hypothetical situation: Matt and Alex Jones-Smith, newlyweds, arrive on a Monday morning in summertime to register their adopted daughter, Rachel, for Vacation Bible School at Maranatha Bible Church on Main Street.
What should be the response of the Sunday school superintendent?
  1. Provide directions to the nearest liberal congregation.
  2. Register Rachel for Vacation Bible School and then hand the couple Marantha Bible's statement of faith, including the part on human sexuality where homosexual behavior is condemned.
  3. Proceed with registration, and then ask the Jones-Smiths, legally married in the eyes of the state, to meet with the pastor to talk about baptism and membership.
  4. None of the above.

The Unbiblical Marriage

This week, Minnesota and Rhode Island became the 12th and 13th states to allow same-sex marriage. With the favorable U.S. Supreme Court rulings in June, there will be more same-sex marriages nationwide for years to come. The 2010 federal census estimated there are already more than 150,000 same-sex couples legally married or in legal civil unions. It reports some states experienced a 50 percent or more increase in households with same-sex couples from 2000 to 2010.
For generations, Christianity has encountered unions outside the one man-one woman Christian ideal. During the colonial missionary era in Africa, many Christian churches had zero tolerance for a new convert with multiple wives. If these men wished to be baptized, join the church, and follow Christ, they had to dismiss all but one wife.
But missionaries soon realized that this policy of zero tolerance created enormous hardship on abandoned mothers and their children. It also absolved the polygamous husband of providing for dependent children of his former wives, according to Sunday Agang, academic dean at ECWA (Evangelical Church of West Africa) Seminary, Jos, Nigeria.
Over time, indigenous churches developed more than one response. Some churches accepted the entire household of a husband who desired to become a Christian yet had more than one wife. Many churches, however, did not permit these new converts to preach or teach or lead in the church.
Yet, the goal of churches remained the same. Once a person accepted Christ, Christians invited the individual into joyful, church-based fellowship and a lifelong journey of discipleship and sanctification.

Welcoming, Not Affirming

Choice #4—none of the above—is the answer that best reflects the sense of confusion that many church leaders have regarding the most appropriate response to state-recognized same-sex couples.
But for churches committed to the biblical teaching about heterosexual marriage and compassion for all, is there a solidly biblical approach or model for churches to follow? As early as the 1990s, conservative Christian leaders began to welcome, but not affirm, the open involvement of people with same-sex attraction into church life. Along with a sincere welcome, tragically, too many times fear of disease (HIV/AIDS), public condemnation, homophobia, and pressure for behavior change through unproven and often harmful therapies overwhelmed any sense of welcome.
There is some evidence of progress. A new Pew Research Center survey found that less than 1 in 3 LGBT respondents reported feeling unwelcome in a place of worship. Even fewer reported that this unwelcome feeling occurred within the past 12 months.
Christians and the church can do much more beyond welcome. About half of LGBT adults surveyed report no religious affiliation. While the ones who did attend worship felt welcome, the Pew survey found that most LGBT respondents view major religious groups (Christians, Jews, and Muslims) as "unfriendly."
A new attitude within churches of openness and hospitality, anchored in biblical grace and truth, would be a startling response for individuals or couples with same-sex attraction. We need to repent of the notion that sexual identity is as easy to change as a light bulb.

The Ninety and Nine

What would this new attitude look like? Biblical belief and practice are tested by extreme situations. In this instance, the test occurs inside and outside the four walls of a church.
It begs key questions about how far fully engaged followers of Christ are willing to go to establish credible relationships with same-sex couples as a prelude to change, brought about through the Holy Spirit.
Would Jesus go to a gay pride parade? Would Jesus attend a gay marriage ceremony inside a church? Would Jesus enter a gay bar? Gospels accounts show the behavior of Jesus was scandalous partly due to his public presence in the lives of sinners. The Good Shepherd parable illustrates how far outside one's own comfort zone we as Christians should go on behalf of a person who needs Jesus. We need to be where sinners are.
Inclusion and hospitality require a context. Yes—Jesus would go a gay bar, or for that matter, the local Sunday champagne brunch, if the Matt and Alex invited him. It is a sincere act of Christian hospitality to welcome gays and lesbians when they come to our churches as well as engage them in the places they meet.
This is not just a convenient editorial point. Here are several real-world examples of how Christians are responding differently: As CT reported last December, more Christian colleges (with extensive behavioral covenants) now allow students with same-sex attraction to meet on campus for confidential discussion, while these students remain fully involved in campus life and ministry.
Redeemed Lives, an international ministry based in Massachusetts, trains pastoral leaders in addressing sexual identity issues in local churches. The ministry emphasizes the gospel (not therapeutic technique) in its mission statement: "Bringing all people into the healing and saving embrace of Jesus Christ." Founder Mario Bergner believes that sexual redemption is for all people and is not optional for Christians with same-sex attraction.
Another example: Peter Ould, an Anglican pastor and blogger in Canterbury, England, describes himself as "postgay." This means he acknowledges same-sex attraction, but he does not form his identity around it or use it to validate or participate in same-sex behavior. Now a husband and father, Ould, writing in God, Gays, and the Church, says his ministry is to help churches discover how "to respond with compassion and care to those whose sexuality is broken...."
Creating empathy is a crucial first step. Humility, not shame, is our mutual aspiration.
Finally, Catholic blogger Eve Tushnet calls on all Christians to have a richer understanding of brokenness, healing, and being wounded. In 2011, she wrote, "Even imagery of woundedness is more complex [than referring to someone's sexuality as 'broken'], insofar as wounds, in Christian thought, are not solely healed but sometimes glorified."

Redeemed Orientation

Pastoral leaders will ask: Where should we draw lines around including same-sex couples in church life?
That depends, of course, on a congregation's convictions, values, purpose, and statement of faith. In any case, churches should be transparent, clear, and fair about how it applies behavioral and leadership standards, derived from Scripture—to everyone. In Austin (dubbed the "Capital of Copulation" by the Austin American Statesman), Gateway Church lead pastor John Burke has created Christian community around the message, "Come as you are, no perfect people allowed." Gateway does "not condemn or condone" as it teaches biblical sexuality (Gateway's five-part series on sexuality is now online). But it is gracious and generous when it comes to the level of welcome the church extends.
In a 2012 interview with CT, Max Lucado, renowned author and former pastor at Oak Hills Church in Texas, cautioned church leaders against impatience. "We have several people in our church who practice a homosexual lifestyle. If I get up and say, 'God loves you just where you are, and he's going to help you change,' will they really get it as quickly as I want them to? I think there's a desire in us to control the time and way in which people grow in God." He said it's essential for leaders to trust God "to work out his will as he wants."
The congregations that reach out to people with same-sex attraction and remain committed to biblical human sexuality are too few. But many of those who do share the following characteristics:
• They have a strong dedication to prayer and healing ministry—this is connected to public worship, and not isolated from the rest of the congregation.
• They commit themselves for the long term to reach out to survivors of sexual abuse, people with same-sex attraction, or gender identity issues, thereby avoiding avoid quick fixes or one-size-fits-all solutions.
• They give significant role for people who have personally addressed their sexual brokenness and are willing to give testimony about how God worked in their lives, understanding that many may not realize the level of change they desire.
• They build a resource network of Christian professionals who tailor counseling to a person's needs and profile.
• They watch their language and won't put up with people demonizing or homophobic slurs.
The era when the church could prop open its doors and sin-sick souls would flood in are over. When our Christian vision for human sexuality, embodied in our message of fidelity, chastity, and celibacy, comes out of the pulpit and move into the lives of people, sexual brokenness will lose its ability to harm us.
The true identity of each person is found in Christ. The gospel invites us to a redeemed orientation, one that is anchored in lifelong relationship with God and neighbor.

Gibraltar's war of words with Spain: Where is the EU?

from the Daily Express.

YOU CAN tell when a government is in trouble - it starts looking overseas, spoiling for battles to boost national pride.

A-woman-stretches-her-legs-in-the-queue-to-enter-GibraltarA woman stretches her legs in the queue to enter Gibraltar
Failing Argentine governments start rattling sabres over the Falkland Islands while Greek ministers start beating their chests over the Elgin Marbles as if they could help mend a bankrupt economy broken by years of overspending and failure to collect taxes.
As for Spain it is always Gibraltar.
If you want to understand why Spain has started making it difficult for people to cross the border over the past few weeks and why Spanish foreign minister Jose Garcia-Margallo threatened to levy a charge of €50 (£43) on anyone crossing the border you need to look beyond the newly constructed reef, which some Spanish fishermen complain has stopped them fishing.
The real reason for the war of words is that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government is engulfed in a corruption scandal.
Last week Rajoy was forced to make a humiliating apology following the arrest of his party's former treasurer over allegations of a slush fund from which illegal payments were made to party bosses. Rajoy has been threatened with a vote of no confidence.
All this comes on top of Spain's economic crisis that has forced the country to go to the EU for a bailout and which has led to unemployment of 25 per cent.
How the Spanish government would love to be able to say to its people: "Look, we may have messed up the economy but we have won back sovereignty of Gibraltar."
IT IS not going to happen, of course. True, as a piece of Spain it might have fallen into British hands in a way which would not be acceptable now: it was captured by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1704 during a battle over the succession in the kingdom of Castile and ceded to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
Nowadays issues of sovereignty are decided democratically.
Twice, in 1967 and 2002, the people of Gibraltar have voted in referendums to remain British, and that - to any government which cares about freedom and the rule of international law - is what matters.
The posturing of Rajoy's government would look less ridiculous if Spain did not itself have a similar colonial possession across the Straits of Gibraltar: Ceuta, an African city captured by the Portuguese in 1415 which passed to Spain in 1668.
Funnily enough, while moaning about British imperialism no Spanish politician ever called for the sovereignty of Ceuta to be ceded to Morocco to which it is attached.
But it isn't just the Rajoy government that comes off badly over Gibraltar.
Where is the EU when we need it? If the EU stands for anything it is surely the free movement of people and goods across the borders of member states.
Spain's attempt to charge to cross the border is so contrary to the rules of the single market that it would not be unreasonable to expect EU commissioners to warn Spain that it will face large fines unless it ensures unobstructed passage of people and goods across the border.
The same applies to Spain's threat to close its airspace to planes heading to Gibraltar. Ensuring that member states allow access to international flights should be one of the central roles of the EU.
There would quite rightly be uproar if David Cameron announced he was closing UK airspace to transatlantic flights between the US and Germany.
So why haven't EU commissioners read the riot act to Spain; let those planes through to Gibraltar or your aid payments will stop?
gibraltar, sapin, Uk, row, Rajoy, Cameron, UK, EUThe row over Gibraltar is an attempt by Spain to distract from their troubled domestic scene
More than 4,000 Spanish citizens are employed in Gibraltar and would lose their jobs if a commute across the border were to be made impossible.
That would be a threat Spain could not ignore.
The country has done fantastically well out of EU money.
When it joined the EU in 1986 Spain was a poor country struggling to emerge from the fascist rule of General Franco who had died a decade earlier.
Since then Spain has become a modern country.
British taxpayers, through EU aid, have helped pay for new airports, high-speed rail lines and even helped to modernise the Spanish fishing fleet, even though it has undermined our own fishing industry.
Even now Spain is a net beneficiary of EU funds, receiving a net e3.72billion in 2011.
It is a strange way to thank us for all this largesse: threatening to make life difficult for the people of Gibraltar - not that it would only be they who suffered, of course.
As with most countries that lie next to each other and which are not divided by barbed wire and gun emplacements the economies and social networks between Gibraltar and southern Spain are intertwined.
More than 4,000 Spanish citizens are employed in Gibraltar and would lose their jobs if a commute across the border were to be made impossible.
The days when Britain sent in the gunboats are over.
Neither we nor any other country should attempt to hang on to colonies, overseas territories and dependencies whose people do not want us but for historical reasons the people of Gibraltar identify with Britain more than they do with Spain.
The attempt by Spain to prise sovereignty of Gibraltar is an act of verbal aggression that would be unacceptable coming from any country but coming from one of our EU partners it deserves special condemnation.

Gibraltar's war of words with Spain: Where is the EU?

Gibraltar's war of words with Spain: Where is the EU?

Abba - Chiquitita

Monday, 5 August 2013

Declining seaside towns being used as 'dumping grounds' for the vulnerable

1 Samuel 22 :1ff

David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

CT Studd.
“Some want to live within the sound Of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”

Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ. Ct Studd

Does it not stir up our hearts to go forth and help them, does it not make us long to leave our luxury, our exceeding abundant light, and go to them that sit in darkness?" - Amy Carmichael


Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world." William Booth.

BRITISH seaside towns are suffering a “severe social breakdown” as holidaymakers desert the UK for overseas resorts, a report warned today.

Blackpool-local-authority-has-the-highest-rate-of-children-in-care-in-the-whole-of-England-Blackpool local authority has the highest rate of children in care in the whole of England
Living standards in some of the UK's best-known coastal towns have declined beyond recognition
CSJ director Christian Guy
Levels of school failure, teenage pregnancy, lone parenting and worklessness are now rivaling inner-city areas which have previously set the benchmark for deprivation.

The report, by the Centre for Social Justice, found that Britain is spending almost £2 billion a year on welfare payments to people of working age in seaside towns.

It also said that councils in wealthier areas are using former hotels converted into cheap flats as "dumping grounds" for vulnerable people such as children in care.

The report, entitled Turning the Tide, called for action to revive the fortunes of seaside towns like Rhyl in North Wales, Margate in Kent, Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and Blackpool in Lancashire.
SeasideDerelict holiday chalets await demolition at Pontins Holiday Camp
In one part of Rhyl, two-thirds of working-age people are dependent on out-of-work benefits, while 41 per cent of adults in Clacton have no qualifications, said the report.

Of the 10 wards in England and Wales with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, four are in seaside towns - the highest rate is in Great Yarmouth - said the report. In some neighborhoods, more than 40 per cent of families with children are fatherless.

Blackpool local authority has the highest rate of children in care in the whole of England - 150 per 10,000 population - far exceeding the English average of 59.

The report said: "Whilst each town has its own particular problems, a recurring theme has been that of poverty attracting poverty.

"As employment has dried up, so house prices have fallen and so less economically-active people, such as single-parent families and pensioners, have moved in, seeking cheaper accommodation and living costs."
seasideFollowing the report the CSJ has called skills to be improved in seaside towns
"Similarly, vulnerable people - such as children in care and ex-offenders - have been moved in as authorities take advantage of low-cost housing as large properties have been chopped into HMOs. Many parts of these towns have become dumping grounds, further depressing the desirability of such areas and so perpetuating the cycle."

CSJ director Christian Guy said: "Living standards in some of the UK's best-known coastal towns have declined beyond recognition and locals are now bearing the brunt of severe levels of social breakdown.

"We have found inspiring local people, services and charities working hard to turn things around, but they are struggling to do this alone.

"Some of these areas have been left behind. We must ramp up efforts to revive Britain's coastal towns, not just for visitors but for the people who live there."

The CSJ recommended measures to improve skills in seaside towns and devolve greater powers to local level.

Jesus Culture - Holy

Church





1 Samuel 22 :1ff
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

CT Studd.
“Some want to live within the sound Of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”


Hell will freeze over before we bow to Spain - Gibraltar's defiant message to Madrid


GIBRALTAR’S chief minister said this morning that “hell will freeze over” before it removes an artificial reef that has angered Spanish fishermen and which has led to what many see as a road blockade of the Rock.

Spain-is-taking-a-more-belligerent-approach-to-the-row-causing-misery-to-workers-in-GibraltarSpain is taking a more belligerent approach to the row, causing misery to workers in Gibraltar
Fabian Picardo said the reef was required for Gibraltar’s economy and was no different to others built by Spain in its own coastal waters.
And he said Spanish threats to close its airspace around the Mediterranean outpost would make landings more difficult for pilots and so endanger the lives of passengers.
He accused Spain of acting like North Korea and sabre-rattling over the country's new hard-line stance on Gibraltar.
Madrid’s foreign minister Jose Garcia-Margallo has become increasingly belligerent in his language, threatening to impose a toll charge of 50 euros (£43.40) on vehicles entering and leaving the British Overseas Territory.  
gibraltar,fabian picardo, blockadeGibraltar's defiant chief minister Fabian Picardo (centre; from Facebook)
He has said the proceeds could be used to help Spanish fishermen who have lost out because of damage to fishing grounds allegedly caused by Gibraltarian authorities. 
Such a fee could impose punitive costs on Gibraltarians who regularly commute into Spain to work. 
Spain is also considering closing its airspace to flights heading to the Rock.
Mr Picardo said any border costs would violate European Union freedom of movement rules.
He added Spain’s threats were the “politics of madness”.He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "What we have seen this weekend is sabre-rattling of the sort that we haven't seen for some time.
"The things that Mr Garcia-Margallo has said are more reminiscent of the type of statementyou'd hear from North Korea than from an EU partner.
"We've seen it before during Franco's time during the 1960s but I think all of us hoped that those politics were never going to come back and that the much more enlightened politics of Mr Moratinos (Miguel Angel Moratinos), who was the previous but one foreign minister of Spain, would prevail, which talked about people working together and creating economic benefits for the citizens on both sides of the frontier rather than the belligerence we are seeing now.”
What we have seen this weekend is sabre-rattling of the sort that we haven't seen for some time
Fabian Picardo
His comments came three weeks after the Sunday Express broke the story about the escalating row, with Mr Picardo demanding Britain send a gun boat to patrol Gibraltar in a show of strength.
Last week, Express Online revealed that Spain had been turning away lorries full of concrete thought to be destined for the artificial reef.
Thousands of other motorists have been forced to queue for hours in sweltering heat as Spanish border guards began to check every vehicle at the border post.
Yesterday, the Foreign Office voiced concerns over Mr Garcia-Margallo's comments and said Britain would not compromise its sovereignty over Gibraltar.A spokesman made clear that the UK expects Madrid to live up to the commitments it made in the 2006 Cordoba Agreement, which included deals on issues like border crossings and access for flights, as well as establishing a tripartite forum for regular dialogue between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar.
Spain claims sovereignty over the Rock, which stands on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula but has been a British Overseas Territory since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. 
But the UK Government has made clear that it will not negotiate over sovereignty as long as Gibraltar's people want to remain British.Foreign Secretary William Hague last month phoned Mr Garcia-Margallo to complain about Spain ramping up border checks, which forced drivers to wait for up to seven hours in searing heat.
The Foreign Office yesterday summoned the Spanish ambassador to demand assurances that there would be no repeat of the excessive checks.

Our seaside town dumping grounds: Faded resorts filled with workless cost £2bn in benefits

  • Unemployment is twice or even several times the national average
  • Plummeting property prices mean hotels turned into cheap housing
  • Report said it was a case of 'poverty attracting poverty'
Declining seaside towns have become ‘dumping grounds’ following the destruction of their economies by cheap foreign travel, a report warns today.
Once-thriving resorts are now heavily populated by welfare claimants, those with substance abuse and mental health problems and patients leaving the care system, it claims.
Unemployment is twice or even several times the national average – with working age benefits costing almost £2billion per year.
Run-down: Seaside towns like Margate are full of empty shops and benefits claimants
Run-down: Seaside towns like Margate are full of empty shops and benefits claimants
A report from the Centre for Social Justice said seaside towns underwent rapid decline in the 1970s with the advent of cheap flights abroad.
While some, such as Brighton and Bournemouth, have retained their tourist industry by attracting the business community, many others have suffered ‘severe social breakdown’, the report says.
The numbers of pupils leaving school with no qualifications, teenage pregnancy, lone parenting, and joblessness are among the highest in the country.
In areas of Blackpool, the researchers found more than 40 per cent of children were fatherless, and in one deprived area of Rhyl, north Wales, 67 per cent of people were out of work. The national average is 7.8 per cent.
One phenomenon found in all five towns they examined – Blackpool, Rhyl, Margate in Kent, Clacton-on-Sea in Essex and Great Yarmouth in Norfolk – was a plummeting of property prices which has seen former hotels and bed and breakfasts in town centres turned into cheap housing.
The seaside town of Jaywick, near Clacton on Sea, is one of the most run down areas of Britain
Desolate: The seaside town of Jaywick, near Clacton on Sea, is one of the most run down areas of Britain
'Dumping ground': Jaywick, near Clacton on Sea, where unusually high numbers of residents are on out-of-work benefits
'Dumping ground': Jaywick, where unusually high numbers of residents are on out-of-work benefits
This has attracted vulnerable people from nearby towns and cities, putting a drain on public services, said the CSJ, a conservative-leaning think-tank founded by the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. 
The report said: ‘A recurring theme has been that of poverty attracting poverty.
‘Many parts of these towns have become dumping grounds, further depressing the desirability of  such areas and so perpetuating the cycle.’ 
Of the 20 neighbourhoods across the UK with the highest levels of out-of-work benefits, seven are in coastal towns that once attracted millions of holidaymakers.
The Turning the Tide report says there is a clear case for more investment in transport and infrastructure in coastal areas. 
The report recommends giving these towns funding for initiatives such as improving local housing and schools to attract more upwardly-mobile residents, and grants for businesses outside the tourist industry.
sunsandpanel
It claims the new Universal Credit benefits system would help more unemployed into minimum-wage jobs. And it says the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund should be devolved to a more local level. 
Traditional high streets are set to disappear and be replaced by small clusters of shops, with empty properties converted into homes.
Planning minister Nick Boles said councils should attempt to preserve high street shopping on just one or two ‘prime streets’.
Town hall chiefs will get greater freedom to convert retail premises into private housing because we are doing more shopping online.

CSj Report http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/UserStorage/pdf/Pdf%20reports/Turning-the-Tide.pdf

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384597/Our-seaside-town-dumping-grounds-Faded-resorts-filled-workless-cost-2bn-benefits.html#ixzz2b55WbjkU
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Abba, Take a Chance on Me

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Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

I had the privilege to be raised in a Christian Home and had the input of my parents and grandparents into my life, they were ...