"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took

and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened."

(Matthew 13:33)

We?re in the midst of our summer family ministry trip in the Nort­­heast. Our over-stuffed mini-van pulled out of our driveway June 17. We?ll be returning to Arizona on August 10, one day before our homeschool community begins the fall session.

Each year, this is an incredible opportunity to deepen ministry connections as well as build new relationships with pastors, leaders, and churches. We?ve been preaching, equipping, and sharing our own story of God?s power and grace in our lives. We?re offering a variety of ministry events at churches during the week and on weekends ? meeting with pastors, leadership teams, young adults, youth, parents, youth leaders, and congregations on Sunday mornings, and also offering full-day event at various churches throughout the country.

It is our partners who make this kind of ministry possible. Your generous support provides the funds needed for the work we do to strengthen the Church in the essential areas of sex and identity. Speaking of which, our Summer 2022 Matching Gift Challenge (to help scale our work and particularly what Melissa recently joined Love & Truth Network to help with) is going very well. We have raised $5,476.13 of our $10k goal so far. Thank you so much to all who have committed your prayers, volunteer efforts, and finances towards what God is doing through LTN! For those who are interested in helping, we?ll explain more later in this letter.

The need for solid teaching and modeling in the area of authentic, deep biblical community is great. Both the prevention of sexual brokenness and restoring of sexual and relational wholeness require something the Church has been in short supply of ? vulnerable and intentional community (what we often refer to as ?bands of brothers? and ?bands of sisters?) walking together in transparency, compassion, and biblical truth.

These are some of the core themes we teach and exhort churches to press into. We have a deep desire to build long-term connection with pastors and leadership teams. We want to be a resource to them for the long-haul, not just a blip on the teaching schedule every once in a while.

Everywhere we go, we find that church communities struggle with relationships of real depth. Most every church has a veneer of relationship that is mistaken for the real deal. Depending on the size of a church, people know one another in a variety of ways, but the level of ?relationship? is more akin to reading an autobiography about someone?s life (we know a lot of details, but we don?t actually know them; we don?t know their heart on any meaningful level).

You may think, ?Well, my church has a small-group ministry and I?m involved in that, so I have real community.? Small groups are good, but from all that I?ve seen, they are primarily places for fellowship (a good thing) and discussion about a book, the Bible, or a weekly sermon discussion (another good thing); rarely does a small group actually open up about each other?s hidden, painful heart issues ? like conflict that a couple in the group is having, the son or daughter who just revealed they are LGBTQ, the discovery of a husband?s porn addiction, or the food addiction that has been a struggle for years, etc? The list of hidden, heart-wrenching issues like this that are kept carefully concealed and never shared (and therefore not ministered to) are innumerable.

Most Christians seem to have completely drifted away from God?s design for healthy inter-dependency (not co-dependency) and spiritual family without any awareness that?s it?s even happening or knowledge of what they?re missing. Transparent, confessional, trusted, loving relationships in which we are fully known (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and fully loved (I do not mean that our sin is loved, but that the person is loved) are critical to how the Church is designed by Jesus to function. We need to love each other so much that we help each other leave behind patterns of sin, which strip away peace, joy, contentment, and living into our true Kingdom purpose and calling.

The Church of Jesus Christ needs a reawakening to God?s purpose for His family and our intended and vital role in the lives of our brothers and sisters.

I find great comfort in the Matthew 13:33 Scripture above in which Jesus compares the Kingdom to leaven. When it appears that everything is ?going to hell in a handbasket,? it?s very grounding and reassuring to be reminded that the Kingdom of God is like a little bit of yeast that Jesus and His disciples are working into their own lives, into their families, into their churches, and into their communities.

By comparison with flour, yeast is a very small and seemingly insignificant ingredient, but through the method of kneading and working the yeast into the dough, over time the yeast has an incredible impact, spreading throughout the entire lump. Yeast is covert and subtle, yet powerful in its complete impact on the whole. So too, is the Kingdom of heaven.

You?re probably familiar with Jesus? declaration in Matt 16:18 that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. To me, this statement sounds like military action ? overpowering the gates of hell. While the Kingdom of heaven and the Church will overcome and be victorious, often God?s methods in the process can appear to our limited human understanding to be weakness, even looking like defeat.

There?s no clearer picture of this than the disciple?s expectation that Jesus would establish His rightful rule and authority, overthrowing Roman occupation in the process, only to be utterly crushed under the horror of Jesus? mock trial and subsequent execution on a cross. It seemed that all hope was crushed? Jesus was dead. How could anything good come out of this disaster?

Jesus was overthrowing much more than the Roman occupation of Israel. He sacrificed Himself for the sins of the whole world, opening salvation and freedom from the tyranny of sin to anyone who would come to Him through repentance, faith, and surrender.

I believe a lot of Kingdom yeast is being kneaded into our culture these days. It seems to me the enemy has become far more bold and over-confident in his attacks against God?s good design and creative intent for His image bearers. Basic morality, and even natural law, are openly opposed. Satan senses opportunity, and he?s seizing it. However, just as Satan thought putting Jesus on a cross and in a tomb would achieve His greatest victory, it actually became His greatest defeat.

We are living in a time of great turmoil. I for one do not believe we will ever go back to a pre-COVID world. The stage is set for global tyranny ? whether that occurs slowly or quickly. Nobody knows for certain whether we are living in the final days before Jesus returns, but certainly signs of Biblical prophecy are all around us.

I also see signs that Jesus is waking up and enlivening His true Church. He is clarifying the false from the authentic. Just as there were false teachers and prophets in Biblical times ? those who were always declaring God?s favor and approval of His people, even when Israel was following after other gods, indulging in sexual immorality, and reveling in all the evil of the pagan nations and cultures around them ? we are plagued by similar lies and false teaching. 1 Peter 2 is just one of many scriptures that warns us of these false teachers and prophets within the Church.

A primary purpose of the Christian is to carry the fragrance and seed of Christ wherever we go, and in all that we?re doing. A believer aware of the reality of the spiritual battle raging all around us daily understands that even the seemingly insignificant interactions at the gas pump, the grocery store, the workplace, social media, online, and a myriad of other places are all opportunities for the leaven of heaven (or the leaven of hell) to be ?kneaded? into loved-ones, acquaintances, strangers, and the broader society around us.

We get the opportunity daily to be the sweet aroma of Christ contrasting the tragic ?deadening? of humanity. So many have lost their understanding of what being human even means. People are unwittingly participating in the destruction of their most precious possession ? the glory that God put within in them, His Image. We have been set apart from all other created beings as ones who were designed to have dominion over the earth that completely contrasts the ?stench of death? all around.

A couple of days ago, my family and I went to see the final (one can only hope) Jurassic Park movie. Of course, the theory of evolution is communicated as settled fact in all areas of media, but in Jurassic World Dominion, as Jeff Goldblum?s character is teaching a classroom full of eager, young adults, he states, ?Humanity has no authority or mandate for dominion over the earth.? Umm? God disagrees: ?Then God said, let Us make man in Our image, according Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over everything that creeps on the earth.? The idea of dominion is not to abuse the earth and all God created, but it does mean to care for it and have authority over it.

We have a high calling and responsibility as His image bearers. But in Satan?s scheme and deception He has turned the heart of man against ourselves, for our own self-destruction. As I listen to the loud clamor, confusion, and frenetic noise of culture, I hear a common refrain and theme of shame. Unfortunately, it is not proper and appropriate guilt about something we?ve done wrong, but rather a toxic shame that falsely labels being human or being the ?wrong kind? of human as ?sin?. The masses are taught and molded in a myriad of ways within the halls of ?higher? education, social media, the business environment, and popular media:

• humans are a parasite on the planet
• unless you?re a feminized man, you?re toxic
• if you?re a healthy, typical boy, you?re toxic
• if you?re a woman who values the life of the unborn, you?re a misogynist
• if you?re a woman who values a man who leads his family well, you?re a self-hater
• because of your skin color, you?re either perpetually a victim or racist
• if you?re an orthodox Christian, you?re in league with patriarchy and a misogynist
• your sex was ?assigned? to you at birth, and the body has no bearing on gender
• love requires celebration of all things LGBTQ+
• a lack of full celebration of all forms of LGBTQ+ identity and behavior = hate
• speech and words of disagreement with LGBTQ+ are actual violence
• silence is violence

Forgetting and rejecting who they were actually made to be, human beings (certainly in the United States) are turning inward on themselves and one another. We are taught to reject our high calling and position of both care and authority over the earth and all it contains, to lower ourselves and our sense of value to be subservient to animals. By many, humans are viewed as a parasite in an otherwise pristine world.

From my vantage point of watching these issues closely and working to help equip and prepare the Church, the perspective in much of the rhetoric I read and hear is appalling. In our overall national rejection of God, His design for us, and the celebrated descent into the lowest forms of degradation, we glory in functioning more like animals than image bearers.

Does that sound like an exaggeration or extreme statement? If so, you?re a bit removed from the massive cultural shift that?s happening all around us. Which is completely understandable. While most people just want to live their lives peacefully, there is confusion and darkness spreading rapidly across our country.

Throughout our current trip, Melissa and I have heard over and over again from parents and pastors that their children are under tremendous pressure and influence to conform and convert to the new religion of the age ? LGBTQ+ orthodoxy, which is without a doubt an extremely legalistic form of pagan religion. It?s the worship of self and the worship of others as dehumanized objects of unbridled sexual pleasure; it?s the worship of confused forms of personalized identities made in the image of the fallen human mind and a rejection of the God who actually created us and designed us for vital purposes.

Many people in both large cities and small towns told us that kids in their public school system were not only identifying as bisexual (kids as young as 7 years old), lesbian, gay, or trans ? all incredibly confusing and damaging to children ? but there is a newer phenomenon picking up steam across the country of children and adults identifying as cross-species, particularly as cats and dogs.

At every ministry stop, we have been told over and over again about public schools accommodating this kind of insane behavior and animal identification. Teachers have quit because they have no ability to actually teach in their classrooms because kids are climbing on their desks, licking the backs of their hands and wiping their face and hair, meowing and barking, etc.? and teachers are told they need to affirm these ?identities?.

Concerned and bewildered parents and leaders have brought up these conversations in every church we?ve been to. One person told me that a school-teacher/friend of hers was reprimanded for not meowing back at a student who meowed at her. This is the insanity we?re living in, with no end in sight other than Jesus? salvation!

God is still on His throne, and He has empowered us as His sons and daughters to be agents of His grace and transforming power. The Church is still God?s plan A for the world. We need to examine our own lives and rid ourselves of ?the sin that so easily entangles? (Hebrews 12:1) and get into the battle. As Scripture reminds us, model your hope after Jesus? victory on the cross: ?For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart? (Hebrews 12:1).

??

We are very excited to let you know about a ministry event we have chosen to co-sponsor that is being put on by Living on Purpose & SheRecovery.com ? the SHE Virtual Recovery Summit. The event is a FREE 5-day online global summit for women and teen girls, which was created to address the rise and crisis of female pornography addiction and other unwanted sexual behavior. 

 

Both Melissa & I will be presenting at the summit. The founder of Living on Purpose & SheRecovery.com ? Crystal Renaud Day (who?s testimony is shared below) ? is leading the event. Click here to learn more.

Crystal's Story

I was only 10 years old when I discovered my brother?s pornography magazine in his bathroom. As a young girl, I don?t know why I didn?t immediately run to tell my parents, if for no other reason than to just get my brother in trouble. But I didn?t. The graphic, hard-core images intrigued me. They lit up something inside me that I couldn?t understand at the time. I was quickly hooked. I returned over and over again to pour over the images of men and women in the magazine. Until one day, it wasn?t there any longer. 

I panicked. I had become dependent on looking at pornography. I searched through his bedroom when he wasn?t around but never found another magazine. My desires drove me to my dad?s movie collection. While he didn?t have pornography, he did have R-rated movies I knew I wasn?t supposed to watch. When I was alone, I would pull out a movie and fast forward through it, looking for sex scenes ? anything that could give me a similar ?rush? as looking at porn.

My desires intensified, and I began calling phone numbers for sex chats, and looking on the internet for anything I could find. My parents had blockers on the computer, but I managed to find a way around them and into a whole world of images and videos. Seeing sexual acts portrayed on the computer screen was a whole new experience that drew me in even more deeply and became a stronger trap for my young heart.

While I didn?t go to church much, I grew up in a Christian home. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew my parents would be horrified that I was even viewing, much less dependent and addicted to pornography, but I didn?t know how to stop. As I got older, I risked getting caught on many occasions. I watched porn at the school library, and even while volunteering at my church. But no one ever found out. Perhaps that was because I was a young woman and everyone assumed women didn?t struggle with the things I was indulging in.

I started attending church regularly with my mom at the age of 15, and I remember hearing my pastor teach on pornography one Sunday. The fact that he was actually talking about pornography was a very good thing. Most pastors rarely address the topic at all. He said this was an issue men struggle with. He called it out as sin ? lust for unmarried men and a form of adultery for those who were married. Again, it was reinforced that as a young woman I must be the only female who struggles in this way. It only intensified my sense of shame and fear of discovery. I had to keep this secret. What kind of woman was I? What was wrong with me that I could get hooked on something like pornography?

On the outside I lived a ?godly life?, striving to do all kinds of good things in the church for others to see, making sure my image was intact and flawless. It was also a way to feel a little better about myself, a sense of making up for the sinful behavior I was doing in secret.

When I was 19 years old, another young woman only a few years older than me, shared her testimony with me. I was stunned to hear her say that when she was a teenager, pornography had been a real struggle for her. In that moment, I had a flash of temptation to say something like, ?I?m so sorry you experienced that, I?ll pray for you?, or some other ?Christian? non-sense. But here was my opportunity? I wasn?t alone in my struggle as a woman anymore. For the first time, I spoke the truth about the biggest addiction in my life and said, ?me too?.

Those two words were the very first step into my journey of healing. I knew that deep change wasn?t about mere behavior management or just accountability to stop what I was doing. I wanted and needed to get underneath of my actions and into the ?why?. What was driving me toward pornography in the first place? What was my particular vulnerability rooted in? I needed counseling to help me unpack answers to these mysteries, and I needed support along the way.

I have been married to a wonderful Christian man for several years now and have been free of pornography for nearly 20 years. God has been so gracious and so faithful. He has been faithful in becoming the answer to my deepest longings. In 2009, He put it in my heart to start SheRecovery.com ? a ministry for women who experience sexual and relational struggles and addiction. Over the last 15 years, I have seen Him redeem my story again and again as I have worked with women from around the world.

We are so grateful to be able to serve our Lord Jesus Christ by leading His Church into greater purity as we all prepare for His return. There is much still to be done, and you can help us.

Would you prayerfully consider praying for us regularly, volunteering, and/or supporting us financially?

Gratefully,

Garry Ingraham

Executive Director

???