The YouVersion App is a great tool that enables you to dive deeper into your relationship with God. You can read the Bible, highlight, bookmark, create images, write notes, and share with others, all in one place!

It offers daily verses and devotional plans that you can do either publically or privately, individually or in a group, and it can even send you a daily reminder.

In addition to all these awesome features, Pastor Tom's sermons can be accessed each Sunday.

Follow along and have the outline right at your fingertips by

simply: clicking on the "More" tab, then scroll down to "Events",

There you will see a list of locations,

select "Restoration Fellowship Int'l" to access our outline.

You can also highlight and save notes from here! Neat!

It is available for FREE in your app store. :)

Pastor Tom would invite you to join him in reading the Bible Plan, "How to Battle Fear" in the app.

https://bible.com/p/25889431/1c88be7ad16a2e5e8a9e36409c291ff4

Vaccines lead the news this week, so Focus on the Family President Jim Daly addresses the subject on today’s daily radio broadcast.

There’s a lot of energy surrounding the topic and it’s one where good people might see things differently.

Over 2,000 years ago, the Latin writer Publilius Syrus declared, “Agreement is made more precious by disagreement.”  

“Always be willing to look at both sides of the argument,” said the late Jim Rohn. “Understanding the other side is the best way to strengthen your own.”

1. COVID-19 Vaccines: What You Need to Know

Focus on the Family President Jim Daly writes:

You’ve no doubt heard many things about the coronavirus vaccines that are currently being rolled out.

Many of you have contacted us here at Focus on the Family with questions about the vaccine, so today on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Covid-19 Vaccines: What You Need to Know” we want to get the information you need to keep you and your family safe and healthy.

Focus on the Family has 35 medical professionals who comprise our Physician’s Resource Council and who guide our ministry’s health content. I’ve invited two of them to join me today to answer the most common questions we’re hearing from our listeners. They are both infectious disease specialists.

Dr. Daniel Hinthorn is a board-certified physician at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Dr. Scott James is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital.

We’ll discuss questions such as:

Are they safe?

What are the risks?

What about vaccines with fetal cells from abortion?

How long does the vaccine last?

Should we take the vaccine to protect others, especially those at risk?

Do we continue with masks/handwashing even after receiving the vaccine?

What about Christmas plans with family?

Should we trust the government’s guidelines?

How bad could the pandemic have been if government protocols hadn’t been followed?

Where could the pandemic be heading in the months ahead?

While I know there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the issue of vaccines, I believe we can thank God for this provision. Even through this challenging time, God is working and will work all things for good.

Tune in to the program on your local radio station, online, on Apple Podcasts, via Google Podcasts, or on our free phone app.

2. Doctors Talk COVID Vaccines on Friday’s Focus on the Family Broadcast

From The Daily Citizen:

On Friday, December 18, Jim Daly, the President of Focus on the Family and host of the ministry’s daily radio broadcast, along with co-host John Fuller, are joined by two very special guests, Dr. Daniel Hinthorn and Dr. Scott James to talk about COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Hinthorn and Dr. James are both infectious disease specialists; Dr. Hinthorn practices in Kansas, and Dr. James in Alabama. Both are members of Focus on the Family’s Physicians Resource Council (PRC). For years, 35 to 40 doctors on the PRC have met twice a year at the Focus campus. They look at the ministry’s medical information, and our medical advice, to ensure that it’s medically accurate. They help Focus analyze bioethical issues. In the words of Jim Daly, “They have been a cornerstone to the effort at Focus on the Family for many years.”

Now that the Pfizer vaccine is rapidly being deployed across the country, with the Moderna vaccine expected to follow closely in the near future, people are seriously confronting the question of whether they and their loved ones should receive a vaccination.

While Focus on the Family won’t advise you how to make that decision, the Friday broadcast will help in answering the questions that you may have about the vaccines, such as:

How do vaccines work?

Were any shortcuts taken in the development of the new vaccines that should be of concern since they were produced in record time?

How are the new vaccines different from the typical vaccines that use weakened or dead viruses?

Is there any truth to the rumors that these vaccines can change your DNA?

3. Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Gets Backing From FDA Advisory Panel

From the WSJ:

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended Thursday that Moderna Inc.’s MRNA 5.09% Covid-19 vaccine be cleared for broad use, setting the stage for the FDA to grant an expected emergency-use authorization by late Friday.

The advisory panel’s vote was 20-0, with one abstention, to recommend use of the Moderna vaccine for people 18 years of age and older. That puts it in line to become the second Covid-19 vaccine to be granted an emergency use authorization, following the FDA’s green light of a vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE last week.

“The evidence for the vaccine highly outweighs any issues that we have seen,” said panel member Hayley Gans, a Stanford University pediatrics professor.

The vote came as the coronavirus pandemic continued its rampage, with a record 247,000 U.S. cases reported Wednesday alongside peaks in reported deaths and hospitalizations.

“We’re talking about a pandemic where we really need to move this forward, and there’s really an effort to get this done quickly,” said committee member Dr. Steven Pergam, infectious-disease specialist with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. “There’s no doubt in my mind that it looks like the benefits outweigh the risks.”

4. What a Frank Luntz Poll Tells Us About COVID

From RCP:

Republicans and Democrats see the threat of COVID-19 very differently – both in how serious they think it is and what our country should do about it. But there is a lot of agreement about effective versus detrimental language. Respondents viewed “stay-at-home orders” more positively than “lockdowns” and preferred “personal responsibility” over “national duty.” They want policies that are based on “facts,” “science,” and “data” rather than policies that are “evidence-based,” “sensible,” or “reasonable.”  

The poll revealed several tips for anyone communicating about the pandemic, such as:  

Don’t make your message just about the consequences of failure. It must also be the benefits of success.  

Personalize, humanize, and individualize the pandemic and its consequences.  

Don’t let politics or partisanship slip into your messaging.  

Emphasize that the science is settled. Wearing masks, social distancing, and hand washing slow the spread of the virus. Period.  

Friday February 26, 2021

Good Morning!

Even a rudimentary review of the headlines reminds us the world is hungry for wisdom – God’s point of view.

“Knowledge is horizontal,” said the late Dr. Billy Graham. “Wisdom is vertical and comes from above.”

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders,” wrote the apostle Paul. “Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Col. 4:5-6).

1.‘Equality Act’ Passes House – Christians Continue to Warn About Its Dangers From The Daily Citizen:

The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, the Equality Act, by a vote of 224 to 206 on Thursday, February 25. The Human Rights Campaign, the world’s largest LGBT activist organization, tweeted, “The #EqualityAct has passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. We are one step closer to ensuring that every person in America is treated equally under the law.”

That “bipartisan support” refers to 3 Republicans who voted for the measure.

Focus on the Family’s President Jim Daly explained some of the dangers of the act. He wrote, “If enacted, the bill would seriously undermine religious freedom and our rights of conscience.” He explained that the bill will sanction abortions and remove pro-life protections; allow males to overpower girls in athletics; close the doors of faith-based foster and adoption agencies; deny parental rights in the name of a sexualized political ideology; and silence people of faith.

The legislation now moves to the Senate, where it faces a more difficult battle, as it will need 60 votes to break a legislative filibuster from Republican senators who oppose the measure.

2. Senator Rand Paul Questions Dr. Rachel Levine Over Supporting Sex Changes for Children

From The Daily Citizen:

Earlier this week, the United States Senate had a contentious confirmation hearing for Xavier Becerra who President Biden has nominated for Secretary of Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Yesterday, the Senate held another combative hearing for Dr. Rachel Levine to serve as Assistant Secretary of Health at HHS.

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., questioned Dr. Levine over the nominee’s support for giving puberty blockers to minors who believe they are members of the opposite sex.

Sen. Paul followed up with the story of Keira Bell, who began to believe she was transgender when she was 14 and was given hormone blockers and opposite-sex hormones by the Tavistock and Portman Trust, a British transgender clinic. Bell also underwent a double mastectomy.

She eventually realized that “the medicalized gender transitioning was a very temporary, superficial fix for a complex identity issue,” Sen. Paul quoted.

Additionally, Bell filed a lawsuit against the clinic, getting a British court to rule that it was “highly unlikely” children and teens were “competent to give consent” and could “weigh the long-term risks and consequences” of drugs, hormones and surgery.

As Senator Paul noted, Bell knows that she will now suffer lifelong consequences due to the treatment she received.

Dr. Levine again evaded Sen. Paul’s question, instead asserting that transgender medicine was “very complex.”

3. Not a fair fight: Our athlete daughters shouldn't have to compete with transgender women.

From USA Today:

Participation in sports has had a positive impact on countless young women, helping them to develop leadership skills and learn to work together as a team. Striving to be the best is the goal, and valuable opportunities can stem from the competition. However, these lessons and opportunities would be seriously endangered if transgender women are allowed to compete in girls' sports. Indeed, the entirety of women's athletics would be deeply imperiled.

The reason is obvious. Biological male athletes have an insurmountable physical advantage over biological female athletes. They have greater muscle mass,bigger and stronger bones, and larger hearts and lungs than women. Moreover, one new study shows that even after taking female hormones, transgender women athletes still enjoy at least a temporary physical advantage on the playing field.

Our daughters, and those of every American parent, deserve to compete in a fair environment and have their futures open to them without being crushed by politicians who are caving in to ideological interest groups. Given how much progress has been made since Title IX was enacted nearly half a century ago, we cannot afford to go backward.

Instead, we concerned parents must stand up to save women’s sports. We strongly urge the Biden administration to reject this extreme agenda and for Congress to bolster protections for female athletes, not weaken them. To ensure the next generation of girls enjoys the athletic opportunities we have come to take for granted in this country, the time to act is now.

4. Prayer and Science Led Me to the Vaccine

Pastor T.D. Jakes writes in the Wall Street Journal:

I received invaluable advice from my longtime physician, a black woman and member of my church who has herself received the vaccine. Because I believe in the multitude of counsel, I also spoke with several leading infectious-disease specialists here in the Dallas area, a metropolis that is home to many globally renowned health-care facilities.

I don’t consider myself an advocate for taking the vaccine. That is a personal decision. But you shouldn’t make a critically important personal decision with no information—or poor information. In an age when the line between fact and fiction is gradually eroding, it has never been more important to keep people from being swayed by misinformation or by the innumerable falsehoods spreading throughout the internet.

Here’s my unsolicited counsel: Do your own research. Pray. Consult multiple credible sources, from your personal physician to federal agencies like the CDC. Your earnest quest for the truth could save your life—and your loved ones.

5. Religious Freedom Law Introduced by Georgia’s Governor: ‘I Want Georgia to be Known as a Sanctuary State for People of Faith’

From The Daily Citizen:

Reacting to the spate of church closure orders issued around the country from various governors during the COVID-19 pandemic, one governor has drawn a line in the sand and, in effect, said, “Not in my state.” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) has introduced a bill in the state legislature entitled the “Faith Protection Act” to shield churches in his state from being ordered closed by him or any future governors acting under the state’s emergency powers statute.

The bill is fairly straightforward. In one short paragraph, the proposed language states:

“Chapter 3 of Title 38 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to emergency management, is amended in Code Section 38-3-51, relating to emergency powers of Governor, termination of emergency, limitations in energy emergency, and immunity, by adding a new subsection to read as follows:

“No power granted under the provisions of this Code section shall be utilized to specifically limit the practice of any religion.”

6. Fallout from Ravi Zacharias’ abuse begins

From World Magazine:

It appears possible the global ministry’s headquarters in the United States will shut down entirely, according to several employees. In late February, Vince Vitale, RZIM’s director of the Americas and the Zacharias Institute, released a statement with wife and RZIM apologist Jo Vitale confessing their personal culpability in how the organization handled the accusations, and the possibility of shutting RZIM down.

“So much is uncertain about the future, but what we do know is that we serve a God who is infinitely more concerned about the cries of victims than about our reputations, and far more interested in repentant hearts than rebranded ministries,” the Vitales said. “In light of the severity of what has occurred, it may be right for this organization, at least in its current form, to come to an end. We are at peace with that. We have absolutely no interest in getting back to business as usual.”

The week after it released the Miller & Martin report, RZIM temporarily stopped accepting donations. RZIM United Kingdom split from the U.S. organization and will change its name. RZIM Africa shut down its website except for a statement saying it would consider how to continue its work in light of the abuse reports. RZIM Canada announced it will close its organization with no signs of further investigation into possible abuses in Canada. Lori Anne Thompson, who in 2017 was the first publicly to accuse Zacharias of sexting, lived in Canada at the time.

The U.S. RZIM board and senior staff members are wrestling with the next steps, according to staffers: Some seek to continue the organization’s ministry as before. Others argue it has permanently lost credibility.

7. Obesity can alter the timing of puberty in young girls

From Study Finds:

A team from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has discovered that overweight girls can have more testosterone in their bodies. This can lead to irregular periods, acne, and excess body hair. Researchers add that puberty looks different among obese girls in terms of breast growth and reproductive hormones.

According to previous studies, young, overweight females start puberty and experience their first menstrual period earlier than girls with a normal weight. However, it has not been clear if obesity can change not only the timing of puberty, but also a girl’s reproductive hormone levels too. This can impact how females develop reproductive organs such as breasts, ovaries, and a uterus.

“We found that in mid- to late puberty, girls with greater total body fat demonstrated higher levels of some reproductive hormones including follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), inhibin B and male-like hormones such as testosterone,” study author Dr. Natalie Shaw says in a media release.

8. The Old New York Won’t Come Back

Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal:

You can know something yet not fully absorb it. I think that’s happened with the pandemic. It is a year now since it settled into America and brought such damage—half a million dead, a nation in lockdown, a catastrophe for public schools. We keep saying “the pandemic changed everything,” but I’m not sure we understand the words we’re saying.

It will be decades before we fully appreciate what the pandemic did to us, and I mean our entire society—our culture, power structures, social ways, economic realities. We’ll see it more clearly when we look back from 2030 and 2040. A lot is not fully calculable now, and some problems haven’t presented themselves. One is going to be the profound psychological impact on some young people—how anxious and frightened this era will leave them, even how doom-laden.

Kids 5 and 7 years old were trapped in a house surrounded by screens, and the screens said “germs” and “death” and “invisible carriers.” The pictures were of sobbing people on gurneys. We should be especially concerned about kids who are neglected and have no calm in the house, because they were left most exposed to the endless vibrations of the adults on the screens, and had no schools or teachers to help them.

No one can stay fixed in the old world, in the Before Times. We’re in the After Times, and every stakeholder, as they say, is going to have to be generous, patient and farsighted in a way they’ve never been before. That’s the kind of bargain people who know how to survive make. We’re in a battle for our survival, and should start absorbing this.

9. TobyMac says new song represents 'first time' he could 'scream hope' since son Truett's death

From the Christian Post:

Just over a year after the untimely death of his firstborn son, TobyMac has released a song he says marks the first time he felt he could "scream hope from the mountaintop.”

On Friday, the 56-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer dropped his first single of the year, along with a music video for "Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight).” With lyrics including the lines “Some face a lifetime of fallen tears / But He's in the darkness, He's in the cold / Just like the morning,' He always shows,” the song offers an upbeat reminder that God is present, even amid pain.

TobyMac knows firsthand what it means to walk through unthinkable suffering. In October 2019, TobyMac’s 21-year-old firstborn son, Truett, an aspiring artist, died from an accidental drug overdose.

In a recent interview with ReelFaith’s DeWayne Hamby, the artist said he “didn’t do anything for a few months” following the death of his son. When he did finally reenter the studio, all he could write were “sad, teary-eyed ballad-y songs,” he confessed.

“That was all I had in me,” he said. “I just started asking God, ‘What is going on? Is that all I’m going to be able to write? For the rest of my life?”

10. A Transgender Potato Head? Hasbro's Classic Plastic Toy Experiences a Change

Down with the potatriarchy! From CBN:

Hasbro, the company that makes Mr. Potato Head, announced the potato-shaped plastic toy has been given a gender-neutral new name: Potato Head.

Mr. Potato Head first hit the toy scene in 1952, when it didn't even come with a plastic potato — kids had to supply their own vegetable to poke eyes, a nose, or mustache into. Hasbro, which also makes Monopoly and My Little Pony, bought the brand and eventually added a plastic potato.

Shortly after the hot potato announcement went public, Hasbro appeared to be working on damage control, saying (in a tweet) Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head aren’t really gone after all:

Hold that Tot – your main spud, MR. POTATO HEAD isn’t going anywhere! While it was announced today that the POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are dropping the ‘MR.’ I yam proud to confirm that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD aren’t going anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD