FIFTY SHADES OF PORN FOR WOMEN

BY CHERYL MOELLER

I am always interested in how we as women rationalize our sin and I certainly see myself in the reasoning at times. 

A seminary student told us she is going to the Fifty Shades of Grey Movie because anually she watches the Oscars. She likes to have watched each film that year, so she can make an honest opinion if the Oscars have chosen correctly on the winners.

Are there any redeeming characteristics to porn? No. Good porn is an oxymoron.

Some of my acquaintances have complained about their husband watching porn, but they have gone alone or with their husband to every PG-13 (yes some of them are raunchy at least at the plot level if not more) and R Rated movie, without saying, "No." Maybe they did not watch it to make their husband happy, maybe they wanted to watch it for themselves. They are now worried because their husband is watching porn even though they have been watching it with their husband for 25 years.

Porn is not going to help you, your husband or your marriage. The old excuse that it's "just the two of you" is not going to impress God. It's not "just the two of you", it's also the two or twenty people in the porn pictures or film.

Some feel as though because they have not said, "No" in the past, it would be hypocritical or too hard to start now. What if your kids used that reasoning about something they need to quit?

If you haven't started saying, "No," the time to start is now.

It's porn.

I have heard the compromise excuse that somehow there is only five bad scenes in a certain movie. If those scenes were put into flash frozen photos and made into a magazine, it would be 100 pages of porn.

At first many thought Fifty Shades of Grey was a man's fantasy, but actually the books and movies are targeted to women. In the interest of never denying ourselves in Modern America, isn't it interesting that instead of flourishing, we have encased ourselves as slaves from some time travel to the past, gone horrid, like torture chambers from the Middle Ages.

The truth or should I say, the trick here is that Hollywood is teaching to love a woman is to torture a woman. The real truth is a woman bleeding from being beaten with a whip is hate, not love.

God is against porn, but not to take your happiness away. Porn is like drinking a swimming pool full of pickle juice to quench your thirst.
 

In the end you will not be satisfied, instead it will bring destruction and death to a relationship.

A revival is a husband and wife turning to Christ in complete humility and saying we are lost and undone without you. We desperately need Christ in our relationship for He and He alone is the source of love, hope, honesty, and true intimacy.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalms 51:10

Thanksgiving Postcard from God Devotional

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thanksgiving Postcard from God Devotional

It was 10:00 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving. In just a few hours the doors to our inner-city church would open, and we would host our urban neighbors, many of whom were Native Americans, to a free Thanksgiving dinner.

We were making last-minute preparations when we heard a loud knock at the front door. Another interruption, we thought as we trudged toward the door. When we opened the door, we were greeted by two delivery men from Sears.

"Will you sign for this?" one of the men asked as he shoved a clipboard our way.

"Sure, what is it?"

"A freezer," he answered.

"We didn't order a freezer."

"Someone did," he said. With that, he and his burly partner pushed past us and wheeled a full-length deep freeze up the steep steps and into our church.

As we studied the invoice, we discovered a sister church, New Hope Church in Crystal, MN, had purchased the appliance for us. That's strange, we thought. They never told us it was coming.

Our minds returned to the Thanksgiving dinner. Within a few hours, the first flakes of snow started coming down. In Minnesota in late November, that can mean anything from a dusting to three-foot snow drifts. On this particular day, it meant the worst. By 4:00 p.m., the flakes had turned into a major-league blizzard. The timing couldn't have been worse. By that late hour, all the food for our dinner had been prepared—a dozen turkeys, nearly a hundred pounds of mashed potatoes, and scores of piping-hot pies.

But we had no one to eat any of it. All our food and effort was about to go to waste.

That's when we remembered the gift we had received only hours earlier. We wrapped the food and carried it upstairs to our new storage freezer. One week later we held the postponed dinner and served a hot Thanksgiving meal to a church packed with grateful neighbors and needy friends.

Looking back, we realize we received more than an appliance from a department store that day. We received a postcard from God.

What's a postcard from God? It's one of those providential, serendipitous events that appear in our lives, marriage and family—a reminder that God has not forgotten us. For us, it's like receiving a short note that reads, "Dear Cheryl and Bob, I was thinking of you today. Just thought I'd let you know. Love, Your heavenly Father."

The ways in which he sends these timely postcards are as unpredictable as they are amazing. The net effect seems always the same: to encourage and strengthen us, often when we need it the most.

Piles of unwanted junk mail are delivered daily. As catalogs, sales brochures, newspapers, and a host of other materials accumulate on our desks, our goal is to dispose of the piles as quickly as possible. In the same way, our lives, our marriages, our families, and schedules can become cluttered with carpools, shopping, taking care of kids, exercising, committee meetings, weekly deadlines, and urgent calls to make. Our goal can become simply to get through the day.

In the midst of sorting through such clutter, it's easy to overlook the simple notes our heavenly Father sends to remind us of his love. When we take the time to sort through "coincidences" of my life, we discover simple but much-needed messages reminding us, "I love you. I haven't forgotten you."

Signed, Your God.



By Cheryl and Bob Moeller

Which Card are You Going to Pick out for Dad on Father's Day?

12 Father's Day Cards

Sample #4
#4.  Dear Dad, how come whenever you make dinner a car with a lit up sign on its roof pulls into our driveway? Happy Father's Day.
Read all 12 

Happy Father's Day! Especially to my dad Roy and father-in-law Homer, who are both now in heaven.
Happy Father's Day to the father of our six children, Bob.
Happy Father's Day to my grandson's father and our great son-in-law Stephen

We add now also a daughter-in-law and grandson since this picture was taken.

Desirous and Desperate for the Christ Child's Glory (A Christmas Devotional)

by Bob and Cheryl Moeller

We'll never forget when an acquaintance proclaimed to us on December 11th of that year; she was going to bake large quantities of 12 unique types of cookies for their family Christmas celebration.

"I don't care what happens. I have to finish all my baking," she said.

And, we were thinking, "Why?"

To do this marathon over-achieving baking goal, she missed church for two Sundays, our church's Christmas concert, her children's performance in our Christmas program, and her children's Sunday school trip to sing Christmas carols at her mom's nursing home and the mall as an outreach.

Tragically, her mother who lived nearby in the nursing home, passed away early Christmas Eve day.

During the funeral eulogy the daughter delivered with sobs, she said "I never saw my mom once in the last two weeks because I was too busy shopping for cookie ingredients and baking for our Christmas celebration. Had I known my mom was going to pass away this week, I would have spent my time with her."

This December in our Christmas Celebration, let's not miss the important, the Glory, because of the mundane.

We are very grateful for God's glory as 2012 draws to a close. We echo the words of the Psalmist, "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart...I will sing your praise." Psalm 138

May we be desirous and desperate for the Christ Child's Glory this next month. Let's not trade the Glory of the Christ Child for a box of cookies. www.forkeepsministries.com

Thanksgiving Postcard from God Devotional

It was 10:00 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving. In just a few hours the doors to our inner-city church would open, and we would host our urban neighbors, many of whom were Native Americans, to a free Thanksgiving dinner.

We were making last-minute preparations when we heard a loud knock at the front door. Another interruption, we thought as we trudged toward the door. When we opened the door, we were greeted by two delivery men from Sears.

"Will you sign for this?" one of the men asked as he shoved a clipboard our way.

"Sure, what is it?"

"A freezer," he answered.

"We didn't order a freezer."

"Someone did," he said. With that, he and his burly partner pushed past us and wheeled a full-length deep freeze up the steep steps and into our church.

As we studied the invoice, we discovered a sister church, New Hope Church in Crystal, MN, had purchased the appliance for us. That's strange, we thought. They never told us it was coming.

Our minds returned to the Thanksgiving dinner. Within a few hours, the first flakes of snow started coming down. In Minnesota in late November, that can mean anything from a dusting to three-foot snow drifts. On this particular day, it meant the worst. By 4:00 p.m., the flakes had turned into a major-league blizzard. The timing couldn't have been worse. By that late hour, all the food for our dinner had been prepared—a dozen turkeys, nearly a hundred pounds of mashed potatoes, and scores of piping-hot pies.

But we had no one to eat any of it. All our food and effort was about to go to waste.

That's when we remembered the gift we had received only hours earlier. We wrapped the food and carried it upstairs to our new storage freezer. One week later we held the postponed dinner and served a hot Thanksgiving meal to a church packed with grateful neighbors and needy friends.

Looking back, we realize we received more than an appliance from a department store that day. We received a postcard from God.

What's a postcard from God? It's one of those providential, serendipitous events that appear in our lives, marriage and family—a reminder that God has not forgotten us. For us, it's like receiving a short note that reads, "Dear Cheryl and Bob, I was thinking of you today. Just thought I'd let you know. Love, Your heavenly Father."

The ways in which he sends these timely postcards are as unpredictable as they are amazing. The net effect seems always the same: to encourage and strengthen us, often when we need it the most.

Piles of unwanted junk mail are delivered daily. As catalogs, sales brochures, newspapers, and a host of other materials accumulate on our desks, our goal is to dispose of the piles as quickly as possible. In the same way, our lives, our marriages, our families, and schedules can become cluttered with carpools, shopping, taking care of kids, exercising, committee meetings, weekly deadlines, and urgent calls to make. Our goal can become simply to get through the day.

In the midst of sorting through such clutter, it's easy to overlook the simple notes our heavenly Father sends to remind us of his love. When we take the time to sort through "coincidences" of my life, we discover simple but much-needed messages reminding us, "I love you. I haven't forgotten you."

Signed, Your God.



By Cheryl and Bob Moeller
http://www.marriagevine.com/
http://www.momlaughs.blogspot.com/

Cheryl's Free Cookbook Offer:

Need a unique recipe to add sparkle to your Thanksgiving feast? New punch recipe? Crunchy salad? Fabulous dessert? Cheryl's cookbook Aunt Sarah's Alaskan Cookbook will give your guests cause for a standing ovation. Here's a free copy from now until Thanksgiving Day:

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=25778&it=1&filters=0_0&manufacturers_id=199&discount=49965

Indiana Wants Me

I'll be in Schererville, Indiana with my comedy on Tuesday Morning,
November 11. If you live in the area and would like to attend, please
contact me for more details. momlaughs@gmail.com

Think Outside the Bulb...

I'll be in Orland Park (Wednesday) and Grayslake (Thursday) this week
making moms laugh. Let me know, if you are interested in attending
and I will send you details momlaughs@gmail.com

Product Review - Tales of Glory Nativity Set - from One2Believe Toys

http://store.messengersoffaith.net/mof50538.html

Every home needs a nativity set that invites children to act out the Christmas story.

We received this beautiful set today from One2Believe Toys. Our kids couldn't be happier!

This is a user friendly soft plastic set that children and grandchildren will feel welcome and comfortable with. Our youngest is riveted to the beautiful figurines and it's sure to be her first choice for playtime until Christmas Day and beyond.

MacKenzie says: This is an adorable nativity set that I can actually touch and play with. I have played with it alone and with my sister. I also play with the set with friends when they come over for a playdate.

Order online today:

http://store.messengersoffaith.net/mof50538.html

Don't Miss "Laugh Your Way Through Womanhood" in North Liberty, IN, Tuesday, October 22 at North Liberty Church of Christ