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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 25, Issue 10
Who Is A Disciple of Christ?
By Carey Kinsolving March 2025
(15:13). Every face needs grace. Even a beautiful or handsome face can appear ugly if the heart is agi- tated or depressed. I was amazed one day when the owner of a health food store I fre- quented asked me why I was al- ways smiling. I didn’t realize my joy was showing. “I try to help people as much as I can,” says Abby, 9. “I try to help my mom with dinner. I will feed my birds, also. My mom usually fixes salad. I help.”
“People will know that I am a follower of Jesus if I get caught doing good deeds,” says Emma, 8.
Being caught for doing good deeds?
That isn’t the way it worked at the elementary school I attended. But that’s the policy instituted at Cincin- nati Hills Christian Academy where Emma attends. When students get caught for doing something good, teachers send them to the principal’s office. There they choose a prize from a treasure chest packed with all sorts of goodies.
Enroll in God’s Discipleship University by being faithful in whatever He gives you today. God honors faithfulness in small things by pro- moting us to greater opportunities to demon- strate His love. Think about this: Jesus demonstrated His love by offering His life as a sacrifice for the sins of the entire world. Jesus followed His Father’s will all the way to the cross so that we might re- ceive eternal life by believing in Him. Memorize this truth: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13). Ask this question: Would anyone accuse you of being a disciple of Christ? KidsTalkAboutGod.org
Jesus had taught that the way up in His king- dom is the way down. That’s the direction Jesus went when He demonstrated how His disciples should love one another at the Last Supper. He started the evening by washing feet. Jesus per- formed a task normally reserved for servants. At the Last Supper, the apostle Peter initially objected to the Lord washing his feet. Taking on the role of a servant is so contrary to the way we think, but it’s the way Jesus said people would know His disciples. People will know you’re a disciple “by the way you act,” says Faith, 9. “It’s what’s inside. More like your attitude. If you have a bad attitude, people aren’t going to think about you being a Christian.”
The only thing I remember about visits to the principal’s office is the board. I treasured every instance in which I walked away from a visit without feeling the effects of that board when I sat down. Anna, 7, says Jesus’ disciples will love people by “telling them about Jesus, giving stuff to poor people and making pictures for grandma, grandpa, sister, brother, mom and dad.” Consider yourself blessed if a child draws a picture for you. Some of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received have been from young children who drew pictures for me at Kids Talk About God Arts Festivals. Whether the art is a master- piece or simple stick figures, one thing remains consistent. Children’s faces always beam when they hand me their pictures.
You can’t fake it. “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance,” says the Proverb
My Motherhood — No Law Can Erase Me
By Jane Isley March 2025
ered slaves subhuman animals.” I call out to the religious who stand beside the crisis our nation is spiraling through and support the dehumanization of both genders and wish to strip away my motherhood. Your religion is not
is going on in this nation because you would then have to deny yourselves of your worldly labels, those badges you wear in pretend honor. Your religion excels at propaganda and forced labels, you create new ones each day and often
are always going to get pushback from those of us who hold fast to it, understand it, and follow it. You have no right to claim you are of the Christian faith, any Christian faith. It is time you release my faith from your lips,
February 22nd, 2025, I stared in shock at a Fox News article trending on my news app. “Wiscon- sin Democratic governor proposes replacing ‘mother’ with ‘inseminated person’ in state law.” In that moment, I knew a day would come when I would have to defend and fight for my right to say I am a mother in conversation. “So God created humans in His image. In the image of God He created them. He created them male and female.” (Genesis 1:27). By His design and proclamation, we are created in His image, two genders equal but different. Both masterfully created to bring life into this world together, each holding a significant role. As women, we are honored to live unique experi- ences that only we can understand and be an equal counterpart in conception. My gender is not a trend to be picked out of a magic hat one morning and tried on, insulted — or worse — exterminated because our very ex- istence is a threat that needs to be eradicated by those who wish to live in my reality. To offer up our existence as a sacrifice for your immoral pur- pose is a dehumanizing propaganda stain that I truly do not understand. To quote Brene Brown, “Dehumanizing always starts with language, often followed by images. We see this throughout history. During the Holo- caust, Nazis described Jews as Untermenschen -subhuman. They called Jews rats and depicted them as disease-carrying rodents in everything from military pamphlets to children’s books. Hutus involved in the Rwanda genocide called Tutsis cockroaches. Indigenous people are often re- ferred to as savages. Serbs called Bosnians aliens. Slave owners throughout history consid-
Christianity, it is time to relin- quish the use of that word to those of us who truly follow Jesus and the Word of God. In your quest for inclusion and indulgence, my gender is being expunged and the Bible is being trashed and being rewritten be- fore my eyes. It is torn apart page by page, and verse by verse because of it. “Pride” is now the word of the day that hangs negligently from your lips. You may think you are making
because it’s not in your heart. But then I see the dilemma you have created for yourself. You truly believe you can rewrite sci- ence to change chromosomes, fix genders with a swipe of ink, and think away my motherhood as though I don’t exist. That’s when I see the root problem you created for your- selves and why you still defiantly try to convince us you are a Christian. In your blurred reali- ties, you can identify as anything
wonderful progress, but you don’t look behind you and see the carnage in your wake. The soul you are destroying is your own. Christians are instructed to be separate from this world for a reason. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2). You are seduced by this world and blind to God’s word, only wanting your own because you are fat with slothful hearts. You are a destroyer of Christianity, twisting Scripture for your means. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.’” (Matthew 16:24). You religious are not capable of denying what
leave the rest of us slack-jawed at the new defi- nitions, redefinitions, and word rearrangements you come up with each week. But my faith does not require any redefinition and is not a PR stunt to steal from. The Bible does not need New Age dissection or inclusive interpretations. You’ve bloodied the waters long enough. Let those of us who believe in God be separated from your religion. You are of this world, not God’s kingdom. I do not deny or hinder your free will to believe as you wish, identify as you want, or force my be- liefs on you, yet you steal from my Bible? You claim to want inclusiveness but I see — you only want that as long as you can take our free will, force us to identify, change our faith, and strip our genders. Do you see it yet? For as long as you keep try- ing to appropriate Christianity and the Bible, you
you want; therefore, it becomes fact. You still want heaven. But — “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the king- dom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not proph- esy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many mira- cles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21–23). “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you per- ceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.” (Psalms 139:1–4_. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself of your lie, it is still — by definition — a lie.
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