The Sexual Abuse Report, just released Sunday night to the SBC Executive Committee, is appalling.  Jesus made a statement that "anyone who causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their necks and they were thrown into the sea" (Mark 9:42).  He was directly referring to a child, but 'little ones' can also refer to those under our spiritual care when we are spiritual leaders.  We pastors and other spiritual leaders have been given a wonderful and enormous privilege and responsibility to be God's servants in various positions.  We are given tremendous trust in those positions.  For a man or woman to use that position to abuse in any way a member of their organization (church, association, state entity, national entity, et al.) is beyond appalling.  It is one of the worst crimes against God and one of His children that a person can do.  And to cover it up only allows the abuse to continue, and compounds the heartaches far beyond the original crime.  Those who have committed these abuses, and those who have covered them up, deserve as severe punishment as is legally possible.

Please pray first of all for the victims of these crimes.  Then pray for their families, who suffer in many ways as well.  Then pray for the organizations where these abuses occur, and the people in them, who must bear the burden of dealing with these tragedies.  Then pray for the families of both the abusers and the ones who covered them up.  They, too, suffer in many ways for what those connected to them did.  Pray for the Southern Baptist Convention and our work in the kingdom of God, because now we must try to overcome the scorn that the world has and will further cast on us.  Pray especially for the missionaries and pastors who must continue to minister.  And lastly, pray for the abusers and those who covered the abuses up, that they will come to complete repentance for what they have done to others.

On May 23rd, Lane and I drove to Greenville, KY, to attend the funeral of our sister-in-law's mother (my brother's wife's mother).  She was 90 yo.  Afterwards, we stopped by my mother's house, and visited with her a few minutes.  First time I've worn a suit and dress shoes in three years!  Went back home, and met our son for dinner.  I gave tracts to fast food clerk, clerk at gas station, and staff at BBQ place.

On the 24th, I worked on my writing.  We are grieving and praying over the deaths of 19 children, two adults, and the shooter at the Texas school today.  We can't imagine the pain that those families and friends are going through now.  Please pray for them.  Pray for our nation, and the world.  The enemy is attacking in so many places, and in so many ways!

On the 25th, I went to the Wednesday evening senior adults class that I am co-teaching.  One of my co-teachers taught about the Progressive Christianity that the enemy is using to attack Christian churches and organizations.  Our pastor came in at the end, and shared briefly about the SBC Sexual Abuse Report that was released on Sunday night.  Please pray about this, as I have said above yesterday.

On the 26th, I worked on my writing.

Thank you so much for your prayers, and please continue to lift us up!

Food for Thought and Prayer:

Learn to embrace failure—not only embrace failure, get good at it, and by that I mean get back up, apply what you’ve learned and hit reset.  —Martin Casado

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.  —Lao Tzu

We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better.  —J. K. Rowling

We look at our users’ interests, without users we don’t have business.  —Jerry Yang

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.  —John D. Rockefeller

There is no harm in being sometimes wrong—especially if one is promptly found out.  —John Maynard Keynes

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.  --John Rockefeller

Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye, and say, ‘I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.  --Ann Landers

Finish each day and be done with it. . . . You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely.  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false and incur my own abhorrence.  —Frederick Douglass

Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal reaching that will save Christ’a sheep.  The preacher’s job is to proclaim the faith, not to provide entertainment for unbelievers—in other words, to feed the sheep rather than amuse the goats.  —J. I. Packer

He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.  —Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist

The distinctiveness of marriage has been abolished (Baird v. Eisenstadt); prayer and Bible reading in schools has been stamped out (Abington, Schemp, et al.); the mother's womb has become the most dangerous place for a baby (Roe v. Wade, et al.); the rights (but not the duties) of fathers and parents of minor girls have been voided (Planned Parenthood v. Danforth); divorce has become easier than marrying; the Ten Commandments have been banned from public view; and now the natural distinction between male and female is being abolished (Goodridge, Lawrence, etc.). The Pledge of Allegiance is forbidden; the Boy Scouts are under attack; Christmas carols are banned; pornography is everywhere.

The structure of American society is being demolished brick by brick. Within a few short years, Americans will have reached the "liberty" desired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the abolition of every particular dependency. This is what Hannah Arendt called "the atomistic mass," a precondition for the establishment of totalitarianism.  — Dr. Harold O. J. Brown (professor, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Reformed Theological Seminary)

Love says, “I’ve seen the ugly parts of you, and I’m staying.”  —Matt Chandler

Pride doesn’t listen. It knows. —Kevin Vanhoozer

I always have this imagination, something I want to use.  I don’t understand the idea of leisure time.  —Cher Wang

To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.  —Aristotle Onassis

We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.  —Arianna Huffington

What is YOUR Ultimate Problem?  DON'T MISS OUT--see the drop-down menu showing  the link UNDER "Solving Our Ultimate Problem" above for more information, please!

If someone you speak to today dies tomorrow, will you be satisfied with the last thing that you said to them?  Share Jesus and the Gospel!