Blog Archives - IRONSTRIKES

"Boy trapped in adult body" abuses 3 young girls

1/30/2018

A Chicago man accused of sexually assaulting three young girls told prosecutors he considered himself a boy in a man's body, according to Cook County court documents.

Joseph Roman, 38, is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault stemming from repeated attacks on three girls who were 6 to 8 years old at the time, according to prosecutors. Roman was a friend of the girls' families at the time of the attacks between 2015 and January of this year.

During a hearing Wednesday, prosecutors said Roman admitted to some of the attacks and told Chicago police "he is a 9-year-old trapped in an adult's body." He was ordered held without bail.

Prosecutors said the attacks began when the family of one of the girls moved into Roman’s home for 10 weeks. Roman is accused of regularly assaulting her between August 2015 and December 2017 while the other family members were sleeping. The girl was 6 when the assaults began.

In October 2016, Roman is accused of assaulting an 8-year-old girl while her family stayed with him for 10 weeks. Her mother worked a night shift, and Roman would help take care of the children, prosecutors said. One attack occurred while two younger children were in the room watching a video on a cellphone, prosecutors said.

The attacks continued after the family moved out, prosecutors said.

Between January 2017 and January of this year, Roman allegedly assaulted another 6-year-old girl while she slept in his home, prosecutors said. The girl's family, and the family of one of the other victims, confronted Roman after an attack Jan. 6.

Roman was taken into custody and made a video admission Monday, prosecutors said. The charge against Roman is a Class X felony.

This post was written by the Chicago Tribune. You can find the article here: www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-web-sexual-assault-case-denied-bail-20180124-story.html?

Gymnastics sex abuse survivor shares Christ with abuser in court

1/30/2018

CNN is reporting that "the fallout from Larry Nassar's sexual abuse is just beginning." Rachel Denhollander was the first victim to speak out. At Nassar's hearing last week, she made this remarkable statement to her abuser:

"Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing. And that is what makes the Gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none should be found and it will be there for you."

She added: "I pray you experience the soul crushing weight of guilt so that you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God which you need far more than forgiveness from me, though I extend that to you as well."

How could she make such a courageous and Christ-centered statement to her abuser and the world?

Making God "my light"

Rachel Denhollander has clearly experienced what every believer facing great pain can know: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1-2).

To choose God as "my light" means that I choose not to live in the dark or try to walk in light produced by my capacities or those of others. This is a humbling decision, an admission that I need God's light and can trust it above any other.

Of course, making God "my light" does not exempt me from darkness. In David's psalm, triumph is followed immediately by tragedy.

His next verse: "When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh . . ." (v. 2). And the next verse: "Though an army encamp against me . . ." (v. 3). He even states that "my father and my mother have forsaken me" (v. 10). In addition, "false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence" (v. 12).

Nonetheless, David knows that his enemies will "stumble and fall" (v. 2) and his "head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me" (v. 6). Though his parents have forsaken him, "the Lord will take me in" (v. 10).

Why? Because he has chosen to make the Lord "my light." He has chosen to stay close to his Source, to live by his word and will, to stay out of the dark and in the light of his presence.

Why to make God "my light"

Why should we do the same?

Consider this promise: "If we walk in the light, as [God] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
According to C. S. Lewis, a Christian "does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it."

One of the hymns I learned as a teenager promises,

When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word,
what a glory he sheds on our way!
When we do his good will, he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.

As we stay in the light, others are drawn to the light we reflect.

How to make God "my light"

An elderly man walked to his church every morning and sat quietly in the sanctuary for hours. One day his pastor asked him what he did during those long hours of silence. He said, "I look at God and he looks at me, and we tell each other that we love each other."

The secret to making God "my light" is spending time in his light.

Mother Teresa authored one of the most profound statements I've ever read on our subject. I invite you to read her words reverently:

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is a friend of silence. See how nature-trees, flowers, grass-grow in silence. See the stars, the moon, the sun, how they move in silence. . . .

The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls.

The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us.

All our words will be useless unless they come from within. Words which do not give the Light of Christ increase the darkness.

Rachel Denhollander's words gave the light of Christ. Will yours do the same today?

This post was written by Jim Denison of The Denison Forum. You can find his original post here: mailchi.mp/denisonforum/dailyarticle2018129?e=7af1b98df0

My name is Bob and I have a confession...

1/29/2018

I have been exposed to pornography since a very young age. Elementary school to be exact, and I still remember that first movie I was shown by an older kid that lived on my block, and I still remember the name of the individual who showed it to me! AND WHO WAS THERE WITH ME! (Crazy!)

Over the years I had encounters with female and male partners up until High School, when I started dating a girl in the 10th grade. My worldview of love, relationships, and sex were so distorted because of pornography, that I eventually ended the relationship out of pure boredom and not feeling sexually satisfied with that individual, whom of course over the years I would still reach out to for "hook ups", in which case she would leave her home over an hour away, leaving her HUSBAND, and come to be with me for 20 minutes to 30 minutes, then drive home.

As Paul says in Romans 7:24 - I’m a miserable human being. Who will deliver me from this dead corpse? (CEB). I was a horribly depraved individual who only wanted to fulfill my fantasies with whoever would give it to me. It didn't help that just after High School, I joined a band and became the lead guitar player. I can still remember the names of every one of those individuals I had encounters with. I feel disgusting, mortified, and shameful.

Eventually I met my wife, and I quit the band while we were dating, but never came out to her about my problem. During our marriage counseling, I'd fill out the booklets how I WANTED to be. But not who I actually WAS. I deceived my wife from the get go.

It wasn't until October of 2016, when I walked into the doors of a Celebrate Recovery, hosted by my own church, did I come out about my problem. I literally felt the Holy Spirit pushing me to get up to that microphone, take a 24 hour chip, and say "Hi, my name is Bob, and I struggle with lust and pornography." From there on out, I hit my knees in prayer, confessed my sin to the Lord, and asked for his forgiveness, which I was so unaware that he had already given me by His sacrifice on the cross, and shed blood.

Just a few months later, in January of 2017, I was baptized, and gave my life, and heart fully to the Lord, but it has been a rollercoaster of a struggle. With each relapse, I learned more and more about the grace of God, and the need for continual prayer, as well as communication with my accountability partners and sponsors (I have two, and one struggles with same sex attraction).

Currently I am almost 30 days clean, and that is not without incredibly tough battles. Especially when I am not going to the Lord immediately in prayer, and thinking I can do things by my own strength and will power. It's only when I pray with all of my heart, that I truly feel protected, and free from the choking grasps of my sin.

This post was written by anonymous. Please pray for him that he will continue to seek God's plan and direction and that he would live a life of honesty and integrity.

Uncle Buddy: The Two Greatest Powers

1/28/2018

To the interested reader, and to the man or woman that desires to think a little for yourselves, and of course we all desire to do that: No man wants to use the other man's head all the time, and almost everybody desires to use his own head part of the time. And in studying and reading my Book, I found out these facts until it is perfectly clear to me that the two greatest powers that are known to God, men, or devils is just simply nothing more nor less than holiness and worldliness. While many things have been written on the subject yet we have by no means exhausted this subject.

The hope of the world as well as the hope of the church is in scriptural holiness, and the danger of the world as well as the danger of the church is in worldliness. It looks like we are hard pressed for words when we say it is dangerous for a worldly man or woman to be worldly, and yet that is the very thing we need. The Book said that "the sinner is in the world," and He said that the world will love its own. We see that is true. A gambler can go to town and find a gambling house before sundown. A drunkard can go to town and find a bootlegger before bedtime. A safecracker can go to town and locate a bank before he goes to supper, and an adulterer can go to town and locate a den of vice before the day is over. They seem to know each other, and work to each other's hand, and that within itself proves the awful danger is seen in the fact that the world in which they are is the very thing that will destroy them. And there is no power that can save a man from worldliness but the one thing that we call scriptural holiness.

Bishop Joyce said that holiness was God's proposition to get the Devil out of man. He never said a truer thing than that. We have seen men and women who have gone to the bottom in downright worldliness but they would weep their way to the altar, unload the affairs of this life and the old world, in such a way that they were born again and taken out of the world, and . maybe a few weeks later the same person would be cleansed and purified and made holy. And then they had been taken out of the world, and the world had been taken out of them, and while they were in a sense in the world, yet they were not of the world, and they were as free from worldliness as if they had never been mixed up with it. So worldliness has power enough in it to wreck, ruin, blight, blast, mildew, and damn the soul. While holiness has power enough to undo everything in the human heart that sin and the Devil and the world has done for him and lift him above the whole thing and make him a fit subject to keep company with the angels and walk and talk with God.

Robinson, Reuben A. (Bud). The Collected Works of 'Uncle Bud' Robinson (Kindle Locations 3328-3347). Jawbone Digital. Kindle Edition.

Secure in God

1/27/2018

Readers of Charles Darwin will recall the description that he gives of a marine plant which rises from a depth of one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, and floats on the great breakers of the western ocean. The stem of this plant is less than an inch though; yet is grows and thrives and holds its own against the fierce smiting and pressures of breakers which no masses of rock, however hard, could long withstand.

What is the secret of this marvelous resistance and endurance? How can this slender plant face the fury of the elements so successfully, and, in spite of storms and tempests, keep its hold, and perpetuate itself from century to century?

The answer has leaped to every lip: It reaches down into the still depths, where it fixes its grasp after the fashion of the instincts that has been put into it, to the naked rocks; and no commotion of the waters can shake it from its fastenings.

When a man has deep and inner clingings to God, when the roots of his life go down and take hold on God, mere surface agitation and pressures will not overcome him. He may be floated here and there within a given sweep like a plant bosomed on the sea, and there may be times when it is very rough and the strain is great, but he will survive and preserve his integrity.

written by F.A. Noble, pages 16-17 in One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations. edited by Webb, A. (1924). New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers

Church of the Nazarene: New manual reflects new changes

1/26/2018

The 2017-2021 Manual of the Church of the Nazarene became effective 1 December 2017, marking the first time an electronic version of the Manual was considered the official version.

A traditional, printed version is on track for publication by May as a sales item from Nazarene Publishing House. The red-line PDF version will be available shortly.

Included in the new Manual are key edits on various topics such as the denomination's Articles of Faith, the Church of the Nazarene's statement on Human Sexuality and Marriage, and the outlined process of clergy restoration.

Direct links to changes are provided below for the following topics:

Articles of Faith
Articles of Faith: reasons for changes
Note: In the electronic Manual, additions to paragraphs in the Constitution section are listed in italics and deletions are in [brackets].

Clergy Restoration
Clergy Restoration: reasons for changes (see 535-567)

Constitutional changes adopted by the 2017 General Assembly are in the process of ratification by the district assemblies.
In June 2017, the General Assembly commissioned the Manual Editing Committee to work on all resolutions that were adopted (or amended and adopted) by the Assembly. According to Manual par. 909, specific legislative language and updates (new or revised) are not deemed “official” until this committee’s assignment has been completed, which was November 2017. Legislation affecting the Manual is now applicable.

A section of the General Assembly website, ga2017.com/resolutions, provided access to resolutions for General Assembly delegates and the general public prior to and during the 2017 General Assembly. This section is still available to anyone who wishes to access it, and no log-in is required.

The page contains folders for each of the original resolutions submitted to the General Assembly (available in English, French, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish). A Calendar of Resolutions was posted to this site in August 2017 identifying the specific action (adopted, amended and adopted, rejected, or referred) taken for each resolution by the 2017 General Assembly. The resolutions are organized into separate folders by committees according to each resolution code.

The electronic version of the new Manual in English is accessible via nazarene.org/manual or by going directly to its website.

Living stones

1/25/2018

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. – 1 Peter 2: 4-5

Peter was writing to a group of people who had been exiled from Jerusalem. These same early Christians (mostly converted Jews) believed that the only true worship took place at the Temple. The problem was, they were not allowed in the temple. Peter acknowledges that God’s people have always equated worship with a physical structure. It made sense considering the Temple was a massive and ornate structure that was built for that purpose. Also, God blessed the building of it in the first place. Even then, there was something ultimately missing.

So, what were the believers supposed to do now? They were far from the worship center, and many didn’t really know if the Temple was still standing or not. Some scholarly Jews would have even thought about the stories of Ezra, Nehemiah, Obadiah, and other prophets. In their day, the Temple was destroyed and in need of rebuilding, and it is possible that these early Christians sensed the same fate was around the corner for their Temple because the Romans had complete control.

Peter encourages these Jesus followers by emphasizing the vital role that their faith and continual worship play in their daily lives. He tells them that worship is not bound by 4 walls, but it is an outflow of who we are as followers. Stones stacked up on each other do not dictate our worship. We can praise the Lord with our mouth, and by our actions. Stones were never central to our faith. Jesus is the foundation.

Compare the second half of this passage to Romans 12 when Paul calls Christians to present their bodies as living sacrifices. When we read this, we realize that we no longer have use for slaughtered animals in our worship expression. We are the ones who give to Him ourselves daily.

Spend today looking at everything you do as an expression of worship. This is what holiness looks like.

Prayer for today: God, help me to keep on track and follow you with everything that I am. Amen

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos. You can find his blog here: www.ministrysauce.com

Thy will be done

1/24/2018

"Now, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of God like that done in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can offer is,

"Thy will be done." It will be offered
in a thousand different forms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily.

But every true prayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing that you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably with an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock your jaw and pray for grace to say, "Thy will be endured: it is bitter, but I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be endured." Not that please. Do not slander God like that.

There is a superficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills for which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very best that can be done under the circumstances [that He designed] for the best results. He has a bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite patience and skills and diplomacy and success too, He is ever working at the tangled skein of human life, through the human will. (pg 202)"

-S.D. Gordon

To read more about prayer, go to the book, Quiet Talks on Prayer by S.D. Gordon

It's not really cheating!!

1/23/2018

He sat across the table from me, trying to convince me that his behavior wasn't hurting anybody. "I'm not having sex, I'm just having some fun!" He proceeded to tell me his story. It's one that I have heard many times. Unfortunately.

His behavior started fairly innocently. He was happily married but there were occasions that his wife would work late. During these times, on occasion, he would call a "chat line." The conversations started out innocent enough but he didn't realize that he was being fleeced. God speaks about this. He says,"with persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk."   The young lady on the other end of the phone started flirting with him and tapped into his ego. The next time he called her, she talked about how wonderful he was and how he helped her not to feel so lonely. A few calls later, the trap was sprung. He gave her his credit card number so that she would "tell him things that she knew he wanted to hear." His calls continued with greater frequency. He would get out of bed where his wife was sleeping to call this young lady. She was always available to him and would say things that his wife would never say.

He started to feel guilty and talked to the young lady about not calling her anymore. That is when she set the hook. She told him that she was a college student and that she needed the money to pay for school. She admitted that she did this with just a few men and that they "weren't doing anything wrong."

He looked at me and said, "but, I'm not cheating!!! I'm not having sex with her. We're just having a little fun . No one's getting hurt and I'm helping her pay for her education."

I cautioned him about his behavior. I explained to him what such behavior leads to. That's when he said, "funny you should say that...."    He then proceeded with this all too familiar story:

This young lady suggested that they meet. It was a town that he visited on business often. She explained that she offered private services to help men feel more masculine and perform better in bed. She explained that he would enjoy it as "most men do."

He went to the house that she and several other young women (who were working their way thru college too) used to "help men." There was never any intercourse. He was "learning how to let a woman be in charge." He found these lessons exhilarating. He paused in his story, "but, I'm not cheating!!! We aren't having sex and I really like how she makes me feel." It's as if he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince me.

I would love to be able to tell you that this man conquered this illicit behavior but I cannot. His life became a disaster.

One night when he was talking to this young woman on the phone, his wife happened to be listening on the extension. The next day, when he got home from work, he found his belongings on the yard, the locks changed and a court injunction prohibiting him from ever seeing his wife again. The divorce proceedings were quick and he soon found himself on the street with no home.

I haven't had any contact with him since. I don't know where he is and I don't know if he got help. I do pray for him, hoping that he has turned to God and is living a life that represents Christ well.

Why do I tell you this story? I guess you need to know that it is easy for men to rationalize their sinful behavior. Men have a tendency to compartmentalize their behavior and think that their lives cannot be affected.

God has something to say about this.  ‎"The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be."

Ice cubes in the hands of a loving God

1/22/2018

A Manchineri believer in Brazil, Genesio, recently told missionary Peter Rich, how ice cubes led to his salvation.

“I used to think that only people that preached God’s Word were able to have ice cubes. I didn’t know what they were. One day I asked my mother, ‘What are those hard things that missionaries have in their cups?’ ‘Son, she replied, ‘That’s just something other people do.

“But I was still curious so I asked Peter, What are those things in your cup? He told me that it was water made hard with cold. I knew he was lying to me. I went home and said to my mother, ‘I think Peter is lying to us. He said those hard things were just water. I know that’s not true.’

“Then one day after we had finished some work we were doing for the missionaries, Peter gave me some water with those hard things in it. I drank the water and asked if I could take the hard things home with me. Peter gave me some water with the hard things in it. I ran home as fast as I could and asked for a bowl to put them in. My mother and brothers and I poked them with our fingers and wondered what they could be. Around midnight we noticed that they were turning into something like water. What could it be?

“Later I was watching when Peter was filling a little tray with water. He said he was going to put them in that box they call a refrigerator and by the next day the water would turn hard. Peter said, ‘Come back tomorrow and I’ll show it to you.’

“The next day I went back and the water was hard. Peter showed me the back of the box and explained that the process that made heat which made the water get hard.

“Not long afterwards I was talking with my brother Tshiko. He was telling me that he didn’t believe the things that the missionary was teaching. I told Tshiko that I also did not believe at first but after seeing how a box made by mere men could take water and transform it into hard rocks I now believed that a God who created all things could surely transform the soul of a wicked person into His image.

“From that time on I looked forward to the meetings because I wanted to learn all I could about this God. I never had any trouble listening from then on. Now I know the true God.”

Genesio along with several other Manchineri believers continues to help Peter translate the Scriptures into the Manchinere language.

Pray that Peter Rich and his co-workers, Genesio and his brother Raimundo, will clearly and accurately translate God’s Word into Manchineri.

This post was written by D McMaster. You can find the original post here: http://usa.ntm.org/mission-news/52278/the-testimony-of-the-ice-cube