MEN WANTED: IN PRO-LIFE MINISTRY

(...but at first I wondered.
"What was I thinking?")

by Scott Manganelli

Those “what was I thinking” moments haunt every one of us.  From an unaffordable purchase to a personal relationship, we often find those words running through our minds. 

For me it was in the early 80’s.  I had been a successful pastor for a few years, fresh out of college and wanting to change the world.  In the course of that pastorate, God began to work on my heart regarding the pro-life movement.   It seemed as if He was telling me to get involved.  I told him I already was and informed God that I was actively involved in writing letters to elected officials, marching in D.C., and lobbying my congressmen. 

But God kept saying, “That’s good, but what are you going to DO?”  Keith’s Green’s song, The Sheep and the Goats, with the tag line, “the only difference between the sheep and the goats is what they did and did not DO,” kept haunting me.  A phrase by another preacher, “It is not enough to curse the darkness; you must light a light,” chased me day and night.

So I Got My Church Involved

Finally, I approached my congregation and informed them I could no longer preach against abortion, if we were not going to do something to help young women facing crisis pregnancies.   We did not know exactly what to do, but we knew we had to do something.  I met with a few women in church and we decided we would offer a 24-hour hotline, provide free pregnancy testing, and assist with meeting physical needs like clothing and baby furniture. 

At that time, very few Crisis Pregnancy Ministries had started.  After a few months, I decided it might be a good idea to get some training, so I found a conference for Crisis Pregnancy Centers that were just beginning.  I arrived early and anxiously sat in the front row. After a while, I turned around and realized that except for the presenter, I was the only man in the room.  I shuddered, “What was I thinking?” 

I Was a Man in a Women’s Ministry! 

In the early days, I was reminded often by leaders in the pro-life movement as a man, I should not be heading up a Crisis Pregnancy Center. ...

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Singles & Sex!

LOGICAL, LOVING, LIMITS

Many people think God is unfair. That He made us sexual beings and then tells us don’t! Almost every young person I know faces this problem. "Well, when you really like somebody, and you really get close to them, it s really hard to control yourself." Why does God limit our behavior towards one another in sexual areas? Let’s take a look at the character of God and find out the reasons behind His logical loving limits.
God is, by nature, not a restrictor but a fulfiller. When He limits our sexual activity to certain situations, He’s not trying to steal our fun but has logical and loving reasons. God thought up sex. It was 100% His idea. He created our bodies and our responses. The devil wants us to believe he’s the sex expert - that if we get too close to God, or too holy, we’ll miss something. It’s a lie that we’ll miss something if we do it God’s way. To the contrary, we’ll miss something if we don’t.
Most people feel that God is trying to push them into a corner and cramp their style. If you have too much fun or too much pleasure, you’re not going to be saved and He won’t like you anymore. They think God wants you lying on beds of nails to prove you’re really serving Him. That’s not the way God is and that’s not Christianity.
God saw you in your mother’s womb and said, "Oh, have I got something for you!" And He got so excited (and He’s still excited) about every human being on the planet. Some are greatly disappointing Him and hurting Him, but every one of us made Him exceedingly excited when He saw us in our mother’s womb. And He had this thing in mind, and it was that He wanted the highest possible spine-tingling... oooh ... depth of fulfilling experience for you. That is His plan for you in relationship to the opposite sex. But few of us really believe it. We think, "If I’m really gonna have what I want, I’ll have to get it myself. I know what’s going to fulfill me better than God does." And most of us blow it because we don’t know God. We don’t understand that He created pleasure.

The God Of Taste Buds

Click here to finish Dean's article

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