Message Summary:

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"So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female" (Genesis 1:27). "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female" (Mark 10:6). "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12).

This October we will celebrate 20 years of preparing these daily encouragement messages. I have a single WORD file of all messages beginning with the first on October 21, 1996. (It's about 6000 pages long at 10 point type and has nearly 3,500,000 words!) I can use a search box to determine when I have used a verse, theme, or illustration. Some verses tend to be used frequently such as Romans 8:28, John 3:16, etc. Other verses are used less frequently and of course there are many verses I have never used.

For what seems like a short time now, although I suppose I really don't keep up with the progressive cause de jour, there has been a growing delusion regarding the fundamentals of human sexuality. This fundamental teaching in Scripture is first expressed in the Bible in our first daily text which I have never used in this series. It's a powerful verse, rich in meaning, but up to the last several years something I would not have felt a need to teach from. If I would have used it the focus would probably have focused on being created in the image of God.

Some readers may recall a series of cute Geico ads from several years ago. One person sees an ad and says, "15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance" and is told, "Everyone knows that". Well, throughout most of my life and as best as I can determine each generation that preceded mine right back to Creation everyone knows and knew that we were created male and female. During my years as a pastor from 1976 till 2001 if I were to have preached a message that God created us male and female as if I were teaching something new I would likely get a response like, "Everybody knows that".

But as many readers know, the current battle line in the regression into sexual anarchy is the confusion of basic biology and Scripture as expressed in the latter part of the text that states, "He created them male and female."

Now powerful forces assert that is really not the case. Keeping up with the flood of evil is hard to stomach but I just read that there are 31 different gender identities!!! *¹

Seeking to apply spiritual and Biblical discernment to this matter I note that the the fundamemtal nature of marriage is specified in Scripture in Genesis 2:24 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh". This has been the common understanding of marriage from Creation right up to our current generation. When my dad died in 1998 it was unthinkable that marriage was anything but between a man and a woman. Look at how far we've gone down in less than 20 years! It has gone from a perversion of God-ordained marriage in Genesis 2 to a perversion of God-ordained sexual identity in Genesis 1. *²

Many years ago Francis A. Schaeffer wrote a book with the intriquing title "How Should We Then Live". This book came out in 1976, the year we married and began our ministry together. It really seems prophetic given the direction of society since it was written all though my adult years. Here's a summary description: "Schaeffer's central premise is when we base society on the Bible, on the infinite-personal God who is there and has spoken, this provides an absolute by which we can conduct our lives and by which we can judge society. This leads to what Schaeffer calls "Freedom without chaos." When we base society on humanism, which he defines as "a value system rooted in the belief that man is his own measure, that man is autonomous, totally independent", all values are relative and we have no way to distinguish right from wrong except for utilitarianism. Because we disagree on what is best for which group, this leads to fragmentation of thought, which has led us to the despair and alienation so prevalent in society today." *³

Today's message is a admittedly a bit disjointed given the hard subject and the realization that some of our readers may already be affected by the political correctness and god of this age. Perhaps it will give you something to think about.

Finally let us consider the lengthier passage from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians. Chapter 2 has long been somewhat a mystery to serious Bible students with a variety of understandings. But consider the phrase "a strong delusion". When people reject the truth they subject themselves to error. This leads to spiritual blindness and deception. I consider that what we are now seeing is "a strong delusion". Today we urge each of our readers "to love the truth and so be saved."


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer:

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"My Redeemer Is Faithful and True"  Video  Steven Curtis Chapman

*¹ Article on gender identities  and this from the NYC site.

*² Of course one wonders what the next level of perversion will be and how it relates to the fundamental teaching of Genesis. We've gone from a perversion of God's design for marriage to a peversion of God's design for sexual identity. What's next? You may read it here first but one conjecture is known as trans-speciesism. See here or here. As one "progressive" commentator actually logically states, "Surely if it is logical to believe somebody can be assigned the incorrect gender/sex at birth, it's equally logical to believe someone can be assigned the wrong species."

*³ Article on "How Should We Than Live"

Geico ad, "Everyone knows that"  Video Let's end today with a chuckle if you have not seen these ads!