Praying in the Middle of a Storm; The Nashville Statement...more

With Death Toll at 30, Storm Makes 2nd Landfall ...Emergency workers rescued many more soaked and frightened people in southeast Texas on Tuesday as floodwaters continued to rise and officials counseled patience, warning that conditions would not improve soon.

The slow-moving, record-shattering tropical storm Harvey battered the region for a sixth straight day and began to move into southwest Louisiana, where it made its second landfall early Wednesday morning. With hundreds of thousands of people under evacuation orders, shelters in Houston filled to bursting with people who craved some news about the safety of their loved ones and the state of their homes.

For now, the city’s focus “will continue to be on rescue,” and not on damage assessment — much less recovery — Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, said at a news conference...

Houston floods: Night curfew bid to stop robbery and looting
...Mr Turner said the curfew would help prevent "property crimes" against evacuated homes, and was in force "only to prevent potential criminal acts"...

Hurricane Harvey Likely To Destroy More Cars Than Katrina: “This Is Bad; Real Bad”

Praying in the Middle of a Storm
We are experiencing unprecedented crisis and chaos in our beloved city. Right now, all over social media you will find people telling others that they are praying and asking the nation to pray for the people of Houston. How are we to pray? The Scripture is clear on ways to pray in times of distress. As I’m praying, below are my requests to the Father and I thought I’d pass them along to you.

We should pray all three of these petitions below -- not just one. This is important. Praying all three allows us to seek the activity of God in all this and yet to display deep trust in God to work as He chooses for His glory...

Albert Mohler: The Urgency of Preaching
...Has preaching fallen on hard times? An open debate is now being waged over the character and centrality of preaching in the church. At stake is nothing less than the integrity of Christian worship and proclamation.

How did this happen? Given the central place of preaching in the New Testament church, it would seem that the priority of biblical preaching should be uncontested. After all, as John A. Broadus–one of Southern Seminary’s founding faculty–famously remarked, “Preaching is characteristic of Christianity. No other religion has made the regular and frequent assembling of groups of people, to hear religious instruction and exhortation, an integral part of Christian worship.”...

Top Evangelical Leaders Back New Nashville Statement on Sexuality  More than 150 Evangelical leaders representing churches, seminaries, and ministries have signed a statement affirming Biblical themes of marriage, gender, and sexual morality. The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) released the coalition statement, called the Nashville Statement, on Tuesday after gathering key Evangelical leaders for a meeting hosted by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission last week in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The Nashville Statement is an urgently needed moment of gospel clarity,” stated CBMW President Denny Burk. “In a culture nearly defined by sexual confusion and brokenness, the church of Jesus Christ has to proclaim with one voice that God’s good design for gender, marriage, and sexuality.”...

The Nashville Statement can be read here.
List of endorsements for the statement found here.

Rod Dreher: Why The Nashville Statement Is Needed   ...What these pastors, theologians, and Evangelical leaders have done is hugely important. So much is at stake! But it is only a start — and the laity cannot leave these leaders standing alone. The challenge Christians face to Biblical orthodoxy is overwhelming — and heterodox Evangelicals have a hurricane-force wind at their backs. For example, when our children are going to schools — public, private, and yes, even religious — in which their peers enthusiastically endorse homosexuality and gender ideology, we cannot realistically expect them to embrace fidelity?...

Calfornia closer to allowing third gender on state IDs  ...The bill allowing people to identify as “nonbinary” will be considered in the California Assembly. It would also make it easier for transgender people to make sure legal state documents appropriately reflect their gender...

80% of Teens in Obama-Funded Sex-Ed Programs Fared Worse Than Their Peers   ...Trump’s administration announced $200 million in cuts to the program earlier this summer, angering abortion activists and others. At the time, Health and Human Services Department spokesman Mark Vafiades told the New York Times that there is very little evidence that the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program is working.

Huber verified this. She said there is no proof that the program reduced teen pregnancy rates, and research actually shows that 70 percent to 80 percent of teens were not positively impacted. She said teen pregnancy rates did drop during the program, but the decline began before the program started...