sin – Page 2

Tragic Trends: Sexual Predators seem to be everywhere

Posted on March 14, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m on Twitter a lot (now called X). I get the headlines and weather in just a few lines. I commune with Christian friends, both virtual and in real life that I know personally. I see nice photos of different areas of the country. It’s a good social media for me.

I’ve also seen a lot of headlines lately about public education teachers arrested for lewd or sexual acts with their minor students. Enough to make me investigate whether there has been a noticeable uptick in reported incidents over the past few months. It seems to me there has been, which could suggest increased media coverage—or simply more incidents coming to light. From CA to CT to Delaware to NYC, and sadly, many in Texas, have been in the news just this past month.

Even worse, there has been momentous and tragic news of this sort in Christian circles, too. The news that Steve Lawson had been engaged for five years in an adulterous affair with a young woman in her twenties and thirty+ years his junior came to light a few months ago and was a severe shock to many.

But even this week, Robert Preston Morris, formerly pastor at mega-Gateway Church in Texas, was indicted on charges he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. In March 2025, he was indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. A warrant has been issued for Morris’ arrest. What happened was, Morris was a pastor invited to a friend’s home and over repeated visits, molested their host’s 12 year old child. This is an unconscionable evil and betrayal of the worst kind.

This same week, International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOP KC) founder pastor Mike Bickle is found in a released report which alleges 17 cases of abuse. The report states “The allegations range from spiritual abuse to rape.” Two of the women at the time of the alleged molestation/rape were minors. Another unconscionable evil.

Can you think of anything worse than USING the name of Jesus as a cover and His church hunting ground in order to prey on children?

We know that Jesus was tender about children and toward children. He considers children, and widows, a most vulnerable demographic. Always at risk, children have been misused in every culture and period in history. In ancient Rome a father could kill his child without penalty. They were seen as property. In Hawaii, China, and Japan, many female and disabled children were killed to maintain a strong race without overpopulation. Girl children were not as preferred as male children. Child sacrifice was rampant. (Molech, among other cultures). Child labor was routine.

Sexual predators have always been around. But even lately it seems to be growing worse in every level of society. We read about abductions of children who are trafficked and put up for sale to sexual predator and porn rings.

God puts a high value in children. Almost the first command God gave to the man and the woman was to be fruitful and multiply. “The Bible emphasizes the significance of children from the opening chapters of Genesis, where God makes the earth and every living thing on it to be fruitful—including the man and woman (Gen 1:27–28). Humanity can only fulfill God’s mandate of fruitfulness by bearing and raising children…” The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

Children were to honor their parents, and were expected to work with the family, especially in that agrarian culture. In return, children, especially boys, were educated in the scriptures, liturgies, and expected to attend the festivals. They were full participants in daily life of the family and the community.

In the New Testament, “Thompson notes that 50 percent of children in the ancient Roman world died before age 10, and Graeco-Roman society valued girls less than boys. Infants born with disabilities or unwanted female infants were commonly left exposed to the elements. As Christianity grew more influential in the Roman Empire, the Jewish and Christian value for human life increasingly pervaded Roman society. Christian emperors of Rome outlawed infant exposure in AD 374“. The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

Jesus valued children.

We are perhaps most familiar with the verse from Matthew 19:13-15, “Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.”

Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 18:10).

The Gospels record that Jesus healed several children and even brought at least one child back from the dead. For example:

• He raised Jairus’ daughter from death (Matt 9:18–26; Mark 5:22–43; Luke 8:41–56).
• He healed the Gentile Syrophoenician woman’s daughter of a demon (Matt 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–30).
• He healed the demon-possessed son of a common man (Matt 17:14–19; Mark 9:14–28; Luke 9:37–42).
• He healed a royal official’s son (John 4:46–54).

By healing such a variety of children—both boys and girls, Jews and Gentiles, poor and wealthy—Jesus showed that He valued all children, for their own sake as well as for their families and communities.
The Gospels further portray Jesus ascribing value to children by welcoming them and inviting them to come near to Him even over the objections of His disciples (Matt 19:13–15; Mark 10:13–16; Luke 18:15–17). Jesus also identifies qualities in children that He wants His disciples to emulate. For example, He uses the humility of a child as a leadership model for His disciples (Matt 18:1–5; Mark 9:35–37; Luke 9:46–48). In Mark 10, Jesus states, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

As sin increases, we know that the warnings from Paul to Timothy are true: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” The last days have been since Jesus ascended, but with sin, it always gets worse. As time goes on, our sin-soaked world will eventually reach the state where it’s Genesis 6:5 again, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.”

Child abuse, molestation, neglect etc. are heinous crimes against little ones who are defenseless and rely upon their adults to nurture and protect them. I will be glad for the day when there is no more sin, no more predation, and no more evil against our precious little ones.

Further Reading

Challies: Why my family doesn’t do sleepovers

GTY: Providing Shade for our Children

crown, curse, encouragement, savior, thorns

Exploring Sin and Its Consequences Through Thorns

Posted on February 20, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In the desert, cacti and thorn bushes mean business. Often, there are impenetrable thickets of rough bushes with spiky thorns that hurt even if you catch a glancing blow. Some cacti don’t even wait for a glancing blow but eject their little hairs to hurl at you as the wind of your passage awakens them. Desert thorns means business.

It wasn’t always that way. When the earth was created and the Garden of Eden planted nothing inside the Garden would hurt man as he passed. Which was good, because he was naked and not ashamed. Soft plants, beauteous flowers, stately trees, and mild animals dotted the landscape.

Then sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and because he listened to the voice of his wife, the ground became cursed. In some places today, the landscape even hurts to look at it.

After the Fall, thorns sprung up everywhere. Thorns hurt, thorns are negative, thorns are because of sin.

And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
(Genesis 3:17-18)

Anytime there was a curse thereafter, thorns are frequently mentioned as part of the curse. (Nu 33:55; Jos 23:12-13; Isa 5:5-6; 7:23-25; 55:8-13; Jer 12:13; Hos 9:6). Jesus used the symbols of “thorns” in his teaching in a negative sense (Matt. 7:16; Mark 4:7, 18; Heb. 6:8).

Thorns came in with sin, and were part of the curse that was the product of sin, Gen. 3:18. Therefore Christ, being made a curse for us, and dying to remove the curse from us, felt the pain and smart of those thorns, nay, and binds them as a crown to him (Job 31:36); for his sufferings for us were his glory. Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume.

In Matthew 27:29 we read that the soldiers who were crucifying Christ had some mocking fun with Him and placed a crown of thorns over His head.

In the crown of thorns placed upon His head, it was not only a mocking activity performed by pagans, but symbolic of the Lamb caught in the thorn thicket when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. It is symbolic of the curse of sin that Jesus took upon Himself, so that we may escape it through Him.

When you see that crown of thorns, and you think about the mockery and pain Jesus endured on our behalf, think about Him the spotless Lamb taking upon Himself the sins you and I do daily.

The Roman soldiers unknowingly took an object of the curse and fashioned it into a crown for the one who would deliver us from that curse. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). (source)

What a tremendous, loving, wonderful Savior we have in Jesus Christ.

——————————–

Further Reading

The Splendor of Thorns

Can you imagine the Wal-Mart floral department offering a bouquet of thorns? Does the Garden Center ever advertise Acacia thorn bushes? Do carpenters choose two-by-fours made of thorn wood? Except for our botanist friends, few people find thorns captivating. They are not beautiful. And they don’t seem very useful, though they do burn extremely well. The negative associations of thorns are what make their appearance in the Bible so intriguing, for God weaves these very thorns into the revelation of His grace. He gives them a star role in the unfolding drama of His judgment and unbelievable mercy.

The curse on the Man, part 2

In the original Eden you didn’t have to have cultivated planned crops, and you didn’t have any weeds. You had the natural flourishing of the earth producing all manner of food without crops, as we know them, that now produce flour and from that we make bread and there was no siach, no weeds which grow profusely now. And it also mentions in chapter 2 verse 5 that the rain contributes to that as we well know. Take a vacant piece of dirt, do nothing to it, just wait and let it rain and you will have a flourishing field full of weeds.

What is the meaning and significance of the crown of thorns?

After Jesus’ sham trials and subsequent flogging, and before He was crucified, the Roman soldiers “twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said” (Matthew 27:29; see also John 19:2-5). While a crown of thorns would be exceedingly painful, the crown of thorns was more about mockery than it was about pain.

encouragement, Uncategorized

Thirty Days of Jesus: Day 26, Jesus’ sinlessness

Posted on December 27, 2024December 13, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

This section of verses that show Jesus’ life are focused on His attributes. In His earthly ministry we’ve seen Him as servant, teacher, shepherd, intercessor, and healer. We then looked at His attributes of omniscience, His authority, and now His sinlessness.

He came from glory where righteousness reigns. He descended to an earth that’s cursed where every single human is depraved, thoroughly drenched with a sin nature. He lived among us, sinlessly and perfectly fulfilling the Father’s commands for righteous living. He did this at every moment in every way. Not one blot, not one thought, not one act of anything less than perfection.

For this, He was reviled, mocked, hated, and killed.

He did it for us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More about Steve Lawson. But this isn’t about that. It’s about something else

Posted on September 26, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

When the sad news broke about formerly well respected Reformed preacher Steve Lawson, head pastor of a Dallas church, leader in several ministries, and Dean of the Doctor of Ministry program at The Master’s Seminary, had an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman, I wrote about it, but only the factual news and shared a few scriptures.

As I waited to see what would happen, there were several things on my mind and heart I hadn’t shared. Some were sparked by the vagueness of the original announcement from Lawson’s church (Trinity Bible Church). Some sparked by the surprisingly angry tone of some insiders tweeting, and some thoughts came to me as I pondered it over the days following. I wondered also about the swiftness Lawsons’ ministry doors closed and deleted.

One thing I spotted was this line in the church announcement-

The elders have met with Steve and will continue to come alongside him and pray for him with the ultimate goal of his personal repentance

That looks to me like he had not repented yet. Not if it is a ‘goal’. And is there any other kind of repentance than ‘personal’?

Well, yesterday, Phil Johnson @Phil_Johnson_ tweeted more details. His series of tweets are now deleted. He said he deleted in deference to Lawson’s church, who is charged biblically with handling the situation. But Johnson’s information went a long way to resolving some questions for me and for many others.

1/3 Almost. Steve himself informed the elders, but only after the girl’s father had confronted Steve and threatened exposure. This was not a noble confession of sin.

2/3 “Inappropriate” is too ambiguous—as if someone merely caught them holding hands. This was a 5-year relationship with strong romantic overtones. Both parties insist no literal fornication was involved, but their tie to one another was adulterous in spirit, if not in fact.

3/3 He is 73. She is in her late 20s. She is not a member of his church. In fact, she lives in a different state nowhere close to any of the ministries Steve served. I don’t believe any good end would be served by exposing her identity to the public.

I don’t want to be crude, but I flat out do not believe the statement about no intimacy of any kind.

Anyway, it’s even more sordid than we thought. I’m sure it will get worse. Sin always does. Remember, both the woman and the man involved were outed unwillingly. Unrepentant people caught in sin always share the least amount of facts so as to either justify their sin or downplay it. In fact, Lawson preached one last message as the situation was building to blow open publicly, and mentioned (out of context) that a man should not be judged by his one “hiccup.”

Five years is a long time to be hiccuping.

I was upset and angry. It’s a massive betrayal of his wife, family, church, ministries, and the Bride. Not to mention against Jesus.

If you are reading this and are in Christ Jesus, think about that anger for a moment. Why, when faced with new information, did so many people trip from ‘sad, it could have been me, let’s forgive’, to ‘I’m furious and upset and will never, ever listen to him again’ ? More on that below.

As I watched social media since the news broke, there was shock, and from the pagans, mocking of Calvinism, accusations of coverup, parsing about adultery. Many people urged compassion, they focused on forgiveness, there were debates about restoration, and so on. One man wrote,

“Steve Lawson’s sin is that he deceived others while practicing a sin. That doesn’t make me better than him, it just makes me disappointed in him.” from Twitter.

No. It’s worse than just “disappointment.”

Phil’s was actually helpful information. Why? Because the length of time the sin went on, covered and glorying in it, trips the benchmark from a pastor who sadly chose to briefly sin, to the hypocrite, living a lying double life and potentially a false convert. It deepens the lawlessness exponentially.

The one thing I didn’t see was talk of what I consider the main thing.

HYPOCRISY

GOD HATES HYPOCRISY. I’d dare to say that He hates hypocrisy worst of all sins.

The anger we felt when learning the further details exposed Lawson as a hypocrite. Hypocrites make the Spirit in us angry. We become angry, righteously, I hope, but if righteously, then it’s right to be mad.

Hypocrisy is the gap between external appearance and internal character. It is someone who says one thing in the name of the Lord and does another privately. Kevin DeYoung describes it this way–

“the gap between public persona and private character. Hypocrisy is the failure to practice what you preach. Appearing outwardly righteous to others, while actually being full of uncleanness and self-indulgence—that’s the definition of hypocrisy.“

Of course someone preaching holiness and righteousness but all the while cheating on his wife is a hypocrite. The damage is untold when a hypocrite is unmasked. It’s an abomination because he had used the Lord to cover his sin, he had co-opted Jesus into his sin at the pulpit. He had uttered out of two sides of his mouth, blessing and cursing at the same time. It’s putrid, and it makes God extremely angry.

The hypocrite is the Christian who uses the veneer of public virtue to cover the rot of private vice. ~Kevin DeYoung
Tweet

The Bible speaks much about hypocrisy. It is always with anger, condemnation, and even curses and woes.

You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you, by saying: THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. (Matthew 15:7-8a)

James says a hypocrite’s religion is worthless!

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. (James 1:26)

A hypocrite may even be denied entry to heaven!

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 6:1)

A married man who for years indulged his lusts privately but preached holiness, warned of sin and hell, is a man practicing righteousness before other people, NOT pursuing it for himself. Only judgment is in store!

Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? (Romans 2:3)

At heart, hypocrisy is theatrical religion, religion as a means of personal enrichment or enhanced reputation. It is an abomination to the God who sees and knows the heart. ~Tim Challies
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Steve Lawson is a hypocrite. Of course, if he humbly repents, not lip-service repentance, but true heart-baring public self-denial and apology to Jesus and to his people, Jesus will forgive. But personally in my opinion, someone with such a thorough knowledge of the scriptures while indulging in adultery for five years, has a seared conscience about it.

As for the rest of us, sitting here thinking about our own decisions, what it all means, next moves…a layman named Boyd Kendrick replied to Phil Johnson’s post on Facebook, saying,

God is still on His throne, and His ongoing global redemptive works will not be undone. Yet, even so, the seismic aftershocks of this catastrophic moral failure will be felt for generations and may yet affect the lives of many. Such is the long shadow of shame cast by a public ministry with such long tenure and such global reach when it falls.

Hypocrisy is devastating. Absolute corruption. It is where unaddressed sin leads. Be warned!

Further Resources

What does the Bible say about hypocrisy? GotQuestions

What is Hypocrisy? Kevin DeYoung

Bible verses about hypocrisy GotQuestions

God Hates Hypocrisy Tim Challies

marshmallow test, rewards

The Marshmallow Test: an illustration of temptation and the hope in future rewards

Posted on August 26, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Do you wrestle with temptation? Is delayed gratification a struggle? Of course you do. I do. We all do. Here is a video that may be worth 3 minutes of your time.

Did you notice the various ways the different children handled this temptation?
Some smelled the marshmallow and put it back down.
Some licked the marshmallow and put it back down.
Some took a small nibble with their teeth or pinched a small bit off with their fingers.
Some just gobbled it up.

Onw boy turned his body and hid his face in his arms so he would not see the marshmallow. This is the correct way to withstand temptation. Flee it!

The children who waited and received double the treat were praised when the adult saw that they had waited.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; (Matthew 6:20).

As Christians, we are instructed to “flee immorality” as 1 Corinthians 6:18 says. We are also to “flee from youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22). Joseph is given as an example, who ran out from the adulterous advances of his master Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:12). Escape from, or even better, do not put yourselves in tempting circumstances, places, and people.

Resist that sin. Slay that temptation. Puritan John Owen said, “Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.”

We are already patiently waiting for the universe’s biggest gratification of all, seeing Jesus. We can kill those smaller temptations in order that when we DO face Him, he will say “Well done, good and faithful servant”. Kill the temptation so it does not lead to sin. And wait to hear the praise from the One who is holy and perfect.

theology

The good I see in the Robert Morris issue

Posted on June 24, 2024June 24, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11).

One who hates disguises it with his lips,
But he harbors deceit in his heart.
When he speaks graciously, do not believe him,
Because there are seven abominations in his heart.
Though his hatred covers itself with deception,
His wickedness will be revealed in the assembly. Proverbs 26:24-26

This essay isn’t about Robert Morris.

On June 14, 2024, a woman named Cindy Clemishire in partnership with The Wartburg Watch (a church sexual abuse reporting and support page) announced she had been molested by Robert Morris in 1981 when she was 12. Morris, now age 63, is the pastor of the largest mega-church in the United States. He was selected as then-candidate President Trump’s spiritual advisor. He has been in the preaching business since he was 19 years old. He is incredibly famous.

But this isn’t about Robert Morris’s fame.

Several times in the past, Morris had confessed to his elders and sometimes to his congregation that when he was younger, around age 20 or so, but married and with a baby, he had fallen into what he termed “a moral failure” with “a young lady” but since that time he has “walked in purity and accountability.” He was pastor of Shady Grove Church the first time the issue came to light. Most recently he has been pastor of Gateway Church.

(Side note: any pastor who engages in adultery is a fallen ‘below reproach’ pastor, and needs to step down and resume his seat in the pew. He can be forgiven if he repents, Jesus will forgive. But he has lost the office of pastor forever, his immoral act disqualifies him. 1 Timothy 3:2-7. It should also be remarked that many people had warned about Morris’ false doctrine for years, accusing him of being a false teacher. Where there’s smoke there’s fire).

But that so-called “young lady” grew up. She is Cindy Clemishire, and Morris’ interaction with her was not a consensual short term fling, as Morris had intimated. She was a 12 year old child, and the alleged molestation had gone on for four and a half years.

When this accusation came out, the nation was stunned, shocked, and sickened. For the next week, accusations flew, coverups were intimated, information and misinformation shot out from the can of worms and flung around in frenzied orbits. Morris’ accused act was even rebuked by Texas State Representative Giovanni Capriglione, former Southlake Mayor John Huffman, and State Representative Nate Schatzline.

Initially, the elders at Morris’ current church (Gateway Church) defended their lead pastor, but eventually the flames and horror grew to the point that they met and asked for Morris’ resignation. You can read Cindy’s account here.

But this isn’t about that.

That info above was just the necessary context.

As the news came out, and it was just a few days after mega-church long term pastor Tony Evans (also false) stepped down abruptly due to an unnamed sin, I was reeling. Granted, both are false, but it’s such a blot on Christianity, and the pagans don’t know they’re false. What is happening?!

I, like everyone else, was reeling from the horror of a child molester revealed. The disgust and outrage mounted as the heinousness of his casual lie about her age or the length of time it went on was revealed. About the fact that he took advantage of his friends who were hosting him overnight, to allegedly molest their daughter right under their noses. On Christmas, the day we celebrate the holy Savior’s birth!

At the loss of a childhood innocence, betrayal, blots against Jesus, abuse of his position, the sullying of the pulpit. The list goes on at all the terrible things a revelation of this sort raises.

But this isn’t about that.

I do not like to dwell on foulness. It shrinks my soul. I sought a positive. I chose to look at Jesus, not the horror. THIS is what it’s about.

It’s about JESUS.

Finding the Good through the worst news. I thought of three things that a horrific event can bring to mind about our God. Because Jesus is infinitely GOOD, there must be an infinite number of GOOD aspects to this our finite minds cannot grasp. I’ll be happy with these three.

1.His patience. Jesus is patient. He is patient to a degree I cannot even understand. His patience is not endless, but it is magnanimous. I myself was not saved until I was 43. He was patient with ME all those decades, and I strutted around the earth doing sin and reveling in it. His patience to allow a man such as accused child molester Robert Morris is even greater, because the man all these years purported to speak in Jesus’ name.

Angry, I mentally changed Exodus 22:18KJV “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live” to “Thou shall not suffer a to suffer a molester to live.” Yet I remember God’s patience, wanting all to come to repentance, unwilling that any should perish.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).

Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4).

Jesus allows sin to exist because it serves His good purpose. His patience is not endless. Sin will end one day. We can cling to that. But until that day, focus on how patient He was with YOU (me too) before the moment came when He justified us.

2.His wisdom: He tests us all through false teachers. I mean, we know Robert Morris is false. We know through their doctrine. False doctrine is evil because it is sin. However seeing also HOW false they are through exposure of his sinful immorality is hard to bear. But there is a purpose in it. Jesus uses corruption when exposed as a test to show His elect the ‘exceeding sinfulness of sin’ as the Puritan Ralph Venning coined. As we view the rancid evilness of sin, we recoil, and cling to the purity and holiness of Jesus all the more.

What did David do when Nathan rebuked David for his sin? David recoiled. Then he wrote his Psalm 51 confession. It is the same when we see others’ sin so blatant, we shrink back in disgust (just in case we were getting used to our own pet sin or sin in others). Any Christian pursuing holiness and advancing in sanctification will quail in horror to see such doings, and the boomerang reaction is to run to Jesus. We cry out, ‘Lord, let that not happen to me! Preserve me from sin, I confess my sin!’ Then we care even more deeply about the holiness of His church.

For nothing is concealed that will not become evident, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. (Luke 8:17)

3.His mercy: This one was big for me. If we were allowed to see all the sin there is, we would die immediately from crushing grief. That He lifts the blanket covering sin so minutely, slowly, measuredly is a mercy. As always, His timing allows us to absorb, self-reflect, test our emotions, engage compassion, repent ourselves, fight for purity in our own church… and so on.

We reel and stagger in disgust when this one man’s sin is exposed, imagine how FULL of sin this world is. Its foul and fetid stink permeating everything man does. Sin’s percolating decay leaching into the perfect world God hath made, staining it with vile rot.

We don’t see it all. Our puny souls and finite minds cannot get a mental hold of the totality of it. But imagine this: Jesus sees it ALL. He sees it all at once. And not just from heaven, He came down from glory and lived among it. Sin did not stain Him, but in the end, He became sin. He lived among sinful man, knowing their hearts and minds. He saw Nathanael under the fig tree before he was even called, (John 1:48).

Jesus sees this one is a secret embezzler (Judas) or that one is a molester and that one is a murderer. He knows the secret sins of all. He is merciful to allow us to see sin in only thimbleful amounts!

If He were to lift the blanket on even our own sins all at once and force our nose in it like a puppy? We would die, probably. It’s a mercy that Jesus ONLY allowed us to see Robert Morris’ sin and not all the sin in the world.

When a pastor falls or a secret is exposed to the world it does take a moment for us to absorb, process the feelings, and re-attain equilibrium. But don’t dwell on the horror part. Know this:

now, will God not bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night, and will He delay long for them? (Luke 18:7)

Then look to Jesus.

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22).

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” (Numbers 21:8)

looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

mortifying sin, Uncategorized

The fruit of sin

Posted on February 23, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. (Romans 6:21)

Paul is asking this rhetorical question in the majestic section of “The Wages of Sin.” What has sin profited you? What fruit, then, has sin produced?

I’m a lover of art. I saw Caravaggio’s Bacchus in the Uffizi some years ago. Caravaggio’s Bacchus is a decadent painting, becoming more so as one gazes at it. Bacchus was the Roman god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual ecstasy, fertility and so on. Dionysus was the parallel Greek god. Here he is:

How is it decadent, one asks? We see the heavy-lidded youth, the Bacchus, reposing against his dirty sheets, with his own covering having slipped off, exposing his fleshy upper torso. He fingers the opening suggestively. His face appears ruddy, from outdoor farm work in the vineyards, or perhaps more to the point, the florid blush of too much wine. On close inspection, the bowl of fruit shows its over-ripeness. The pears are bruised and browning. The figs are burst and oozing. The peaches are in obvious decay.

Decay, rot, decomposition is the theme of the entire portrait. And anyway, it’s a false god.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Does sin bring the fruit of love?
Does sin bring the fruit of peace?
Does sin bring the fruit of patience?
Does sin bring the fruit of kindness?
Does sin bring the fruit of goodness?
Does sin bring the fruit of faithfulness?
Does sin bring the fruit of gentleness?
Does sin bring the fruit of self-control?

Can you think of any sin which brings any of the good fruit of the Spirit? Does jealousy bring love? Does bitterness bring self-control? Does gossip bring kindness? Does adultery bring peace?

Or does sin’s fruit bring decay, rot, and decomposition? The fruit of love only grows brighter as it ripens. The fruit of sin brings festering putrefaction, flies, and disease. Eventually, death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23).

Flee from that sin, sister. Resist it, slay it. God has given us His Spirit to aid us in this, and the free gift of eternal life is ours so we can enjoy His Holy self forever.

encouragement, Uncategorized

Advent- Thirty Days of Jesus: Day 26, Jesus’ sinlessness

Posted on December 22, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

This section of verses that show Jesus’ life are focused on His attributes & earthly ministry. We’ve seen Him as servant, teacher, shepherd, intercessor, and healer. We looked at His attributes of omniscience, His authority, and now His sinlessness.

For this, He was reviled, mocked, hated, and killed.

He did it for us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beth Moore will answer to Jesus for normalizing women preaching/teaching to men

Posted on September 8, 2023October 9, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I published this in 2018 and I updated and added to it today because of a confirmation of a tweet I saw Sharon Hodde Miller express on Twitter recently. Moore took hold of the goat and brought it into into church where it lurked in corners and tried to be inconspicuous. Now these women settle the goat onto a pew and treat the goat as a sheep. Jesus said in Revelation 2:20-23 that he is against false female preachers/teachers/prophets, especially ones who preach falsely!

But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. 23And I will kill her children with plague, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

This passage SHOULD strike deadly fear into these women who boast of their sin.

It was a given that for more than 2000 years women are not to be teachers or preachers of men. We women can and do teach, we minister, and we evangelize. We discuss, we help, we clarify in a private setting, but we are not to have biblical authority over men in church expository situations.

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:12)

How is a women preaching to men a sinister situation? It’s sin. As RC Sproul said, sin is cosmic treason!

Ask the metaphorical Jezebel of Revelation 2:20 who was teaching things God did not say. Jesus promised to kill her and her followers. Inserting words into God’s mouth is sin.

What God says to do or not do matters. We don’t need 50,000 verses. One is enough. Women are not allowed to teach the Bible to men.

But Beth Moore does.

She has been doing it for 35 years.

Woe to Beth Moore.

A generation is about 25 years. Therefore, it’s woe to the generation of women coming up in Christian circles who have for the entire time been seeing Moore’s preaching to men as normal, even with her former pastor’s overt blessing, or the tacit blessing of her former denomination the Southern Baptist Convention and its arm, Lifeway.

For years Moore taught Bible to a co-ed Sunday School class of 600-700 people as you read in that link above and later up to 900 people as stated in this link from her own former SBC church:

At that time, God began to do a new thing, stirring the heart of Beth to move to a new meeting place, meeting time, change the name of the class, and allow men to attend.

Is it God ‘stirring the heart’ of a woman to disobey scripture and to teach men? I think not. In Revelation 2:23 it’s noted that Jesus will strike Jezebel’s children dead. These are not Jezebel’s biological children, but the spiritual daughters she is raising up in her polluted, sinful likeness who preach and prophesy.

She describes her origins as a Bible teacher. Her Sunday School class began in 1985 and she was still teaching it in 2005. Her class almost from the beginning had a mixed audience.

Being a woman called to leadership within and simultaneously beyond those walls [of an SBC church] was complicated to say the least but I worked within the system. After all, I had no personal aspirations to preach nor was it my aim to teach men. If men showed up in my class, I did not throw them out. I taught. ~Beth Moore

Abuse of the word “called” here is especially egregious, because it intimates that God assigned her to preach, which is in effect, co-opting God into her own sin, and using Him as the excuse. God will address this abuse on the Day.

Secondly, it does not matter if you “had personal aspirations to preach” to men or not. Your opinion does not matter, only the Bible’s statutes. If you do preach, you’re sinning. If you fail to stop it, you’re sinning.

Other women elsewhere began copying Moore’s excuses and language. “I’m called to do this”. “I have no desire to preach but it happened anyway”, “I want to step into the gifts God has given me to teach [men]” and the like.

Moore eventually founded Living Proof Ministry in 1994. By 2003 her Living Proof Live conferences had gone beyond the confines of her church and beyond the Texas border. A national magazine took notice. Their opening sentence called her a minister.

“Once a victim of abuse, Beth Moore is one of America’s most popular ministers today.”
Charisma Magazine

The article went on to note that men attended her Sunday School class. It was popular, so crowded with both sexes that attendees were asked to car pool because the parking lot was so jammed.

An obedient teacher says “My love is for Christ and His word, and I asked the pastor to restrict the class to women only.” But as Beth Moore said above, “I didn’t throw them out. I taught.” She purposely sought bigger rooms to accommodate them all.

The leaders of her church allowed it, encouraged it. About this time, her pastor also asked Beth to preach the Sunday Night service, too. Woe!

She has been a usurper from the beginning. And she keeps on teaching. And the women were watching. Like hawks.

In 2010 when her fame was rising, Christianity Today did a 6-page cover story on her. The article cites the following:

Before she begins, she addresses the few men in the crowd. A Southern Baptist, Moore emphasizes that her ministry is intended for women. “The gentlemen who had such courage to come into this place tonight, into this estrogen fest if you will ever find one in your entire life: we are so blessed to have you,” Moore says. “I do not desire to have any kind of authority over you.”

It’s laughable to pronounce a blessing on the men in attendance, welcome them, preach the Bible to them, and then meekly deny any authority over them. Is her teaching from the Word authoritative over the women but not the men sitting next to them? Or do the women reject her authority to teach and they’re just coming, say, for the music? You see the illogic. If she teaches the Bible, she is teaching authoritatively, and it’s authoritative to all in the hearing of it.

As far as Moore’s coyness that she does not desire to be authoritative over them, this is false. Genesis 3:16 tells us it is IN us to want to usurp male authority. It doesn’t matter if you desire to break God’s command or not, if you DO, you’re sinning. Try telling the traffic policeman that “I did not desire to speed on the highway” and see if he lets you go.

The Christianity Today story is behind a paywall now. However, the link is here if you want to see the source.

Moore’s occasional weak protest, that men attend her classes and conferences on their own volition so it isn’t really her fault, doesn’t hold water. She taught men in her SS class for 20 years. By 2012, she was personally asked to substitute for pastor Louie Giglio preaching the Sunday Service at Louie Giglio’s Passion City Church, and she accepted. It was Holy Week, and she preached John 19 to a very, VERY large crowd of congregants. Now the “secret” was out and widely public. ‘Women, even SBC women, can preach! No one will stop us!’

Screen grabs from videos like this in 2012 harm women when they see a female on stage preaching from the Bible shoulder to shoulder with men. It’s visual egalitarianism. Photos like this are damaging. L-R, Lecrae, Moore, Chan, Giglio, Piper preaching at Passion Conference in 2012:

How Beth Moore is helping to change the face of evangelical leadership

Now the POINT: (I know, I know, this blog is like a pastor giving a 30-minute sermon intro in a 40-minute sermon session,)

Moore is personally the transition linchpin for this new future of women preachers:

Moore is one of the evangelical leaders today who represent the future of the global church, in which people outside Europe and the United States will be dominant. … Moore represents this transition, which is shaping even the most conservative corners of evangelicalism.
Washington Post

ANd I refer you to this tweet again.

There is the danger. After so many decades of preaching and teaching, with little to no pushback from her leadership in the denomination, Moore has mirrored the metaphorical Jezebel Jesus threatened death with in Revelation 2:20-23. He threatened death to her and also the women the Jezebel had raised up by her sinful example.

Imagine, within one generation a woman whose former claim to fame was the latest aerobics moves climbed steadily up to being seriously considered for president of the world’s largest denomination, a conservative one, at that. One generation, after 2000 years of holding fast to scripture on this issue. Sin is amazing in its power.

Yet the LORD our God is still on His throne and He still maintains a hard line on the roles women and men are to operate within in His church. That is a given.

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1Corinthians 14: 33-35).

confess, court, jesus

Jesus is our Judge

Posted on August 25, 2023August 25, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Jesus is our judge. He is the sole authority to Whom we will answer, and our sins are crimes we have committed against Him. (Acts 10:42; 2 Timothy 4:8)

The world hates this notion, and continually rebels against it. They say that we only answer to ourselves, or that Jesus doesn’t exist, in the vain hope that their lawlessness will go unpunished. Most people will acknowledge there is some sort of God, distant and perhaps disinterested. But Jesus is the name at which they cringe. That is because He convicts of sin and will judge it. Deep down, they know this. (Romans 1:18-20)

“There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.” (James 4:12).

If you really think about all the language of the Bible, you realize just how much of it is “legal” language. This is because sin, also known as lawlessness, is a crime. (1 John 3:4). It is a crime against God. Like any crime, it must be judged.

Many people say that the Bible is a “love letter from God.” In a way, it is. Others say that Jesus is our Friend, our Comforter, our Father, and all these are true too. However, when I came to Jesus for salvation, I came with a deep knowing of how pervasive and ugly sin is. By contrast, I understand His holiness. I appeal to Him as my Judge. Though Jesus is all things that are Good, and I enjoy my relationship with Him as Father and Friend, I relate to Him also as my Judge.

Far from it being a cold, distant relationship, I enjoy the order of His courts, the regularity and perfection of His dispensing of Justice, past, present and future. I am the kind of person who has always lived for justice, order, and for moral good, and in Jesus I finally found my home in that and it comforts me like a security blanket.

When we tune our ear, the Christian use of legal language is pervasive, all of it from the Bible. I bet we say these things without really envisioning them being used actively in His court in a legal context, by God, Jesus, satan… But, let’s.

By the way, I deliberately chose verses mostly from the New Testament to show that there is one God, not two. The Bible does not show us an ‘OT God of wrath’ and a ‘NT Jesus of love.’ They are one and the same. He is wrathful in the first place because He hates sin. He is also a God of love because he loves the creation He made, including humans.

Accuser

“And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” (Revelation 12:10)

Advocate

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ ” (1 John 2:1)

Confess

“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9)

Convicted

“I got convicted of that activity when I heard the preacher’s sermon.”

“It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 1:14-15).

Court
There is a heavenly court, you know! It is much more perfect to be judged by God than by man.

“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.” (1 Corinthians 4:3)

Judge

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:” (2 Timothy 4:1)

Lawlessness

“I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” (Romans 6:19).

Pardon
He pardons us of our crimes!

“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17)

Penalty

“and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:27)

Testimony

During the Tribulation, the Two Witnesses testify to and of Jesus constantly for three and a half years.

“And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,’ (Revelation 11:7)

Verdict

“‘The decision is announced by messengers [‘Watchers’ in ESV], the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men.'” (Daniel 4:17).

I sure would like to know who these mysterious Watchers are mentioned three times in Daniel 4:13, 17, 23 but nowhere else. They seem to be a class of angel, because they are holy, and angel, because they are messengers. The term is introduced by Nebuchadnezzar who describes how he saw “a watcher, a holy one come down (singular verb) from heaven.” They seem to me to be both Bailiff keeping watch over proceedings, and Jury Foreman announcing the verdict. But I don’t know for sure. The Bible is cloaked on the subject, only alluding to but not explaining these Watchers.

Witness
Paul is ordained as a witness for Jesus.

“for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:15)

The Two Witnesses testify to the power and holiness of God. Rev 11:1-14. (Gérard Jollain, engraving 1670)

This article is intended to remind us of the fact that God is HOLY HOLY HOLY. Everything stems from that. Sin, its effects, its lawlessness, our pardon, His justice…is all about dealing with sin in the face of a Holy God. Oh, yes, Jesus will judge. Are you ready?

All a person needs to do is be penitent, that means, to be sorry for your sins. You must ask the Judge (who is Jesus) to pardon you. His death on the cross satisfied the justice required from God as the blood sacrifice to satisfy the penalty. God’s wrath is therefore satisfied in all people who come to Him through Jesus. You will be pardoned and washed clean of your crimes. The Judge will say “You are justified and free to go.”

Failure to repent before your own death means that you die having committed many crimes. Those must still be dealt with. Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean your crimes go away. They are in fact still boomeranging around the Universe, tainting everything. On the day of Judgment, Jesus will stand you before Himself and you will answer for those crimes in His court. The penalty for them is eternity in hell (jail) with no hope of parole. All judgments are final. But all His mercies are eternal!