1. Russia = “anti-terrorism law”
As of July 20, no sharing of faith in homes, online, or anywhere but recognized church buildings.

2. Earlier reporting (June 29): “Christians in Russia won’t be
Earlier reporting (June 29): “Christians in Russia won’t be allowed to their friends an invitation to church or to evangelize in their own homes if Russia’s newest set of surveillance and anti-terrorism laws are enacted.”

3. Last month, “the local police officer came to a home where a group of Pentecostals meet each Sunday," Konstantin Bendas, deputy bishop of the Pentecostal Union, told Forum 18. "With a contented expression he told them: ‘Now they're adopting the law I'll drive you all out of here.’

4. California =
SB 1146 = The bill’s primary goal is to prevent colleges that receive state funds from enforcing codes of student conduct that reflect the college’s religious beliefs about sexual identity and the confining of marriage to male-female relationships.

5. Proponents want to prevent a religious college from assigning
Proponents want to prevent a religious college from assigning transgender students to housing based on their biological sex at birth or denying married-student housing to same-sex couples. 

6. Iowa =
A pair of Iowa churches are challenging a new interpretation of their state’s civil rights act, which prohibits Christians from making gay or transgender people feel unwelcome and from restricting church bathroom use to a person’s biological gender.

7. A 2007 amendment to the Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits
A 2007 amendment to the Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, among other factors.

8. Religious institutions are exempt, but only when they are doing something “related to a bona fide religious purpose.”
The language is vague, and no churches have been disciplined for discrimination.

9. But the newest explantion from the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (ICRC), a law enforcement agency commissioned to end discrimination in Iowa, wrote that “a childcare facility operated at a church or a church service open to the public” would be subject to the regulations.

10. 1 Peter 2:11-12
“Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

11. 1 Peter 2:13-17
“Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right….”

12. 1 Peter 2:18-25
“Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor….”

13. but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; ….”
“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats,
but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; ….”

14. 1 Peter 3:1
“In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives…”

15. 1 Peter 3:7
“You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

16. Rom 8:11
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”

17. 1 Peter 1:10-11
“As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.”

18. Lk. 16:19-31 (26)
“And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.‘”

19. Baptism relates to the Ark, not the water of the Flood.
It saves the believer from judgement, just as the Ark saved Noah and his family.
“…through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,…” Rm. - 6:1-11