Miracle Baby, Miracle Mother

This family's tremdous faith is incredible. Many people would have aborted in an instant to save the mother's life, but this couple who valued life and knew that God would take care of everyone, did not. God can do anything, even the medically "impossible". Here is the story.

In Perfect Health

This confirms that we have no right to decide who lives and who dies. Once again, we have more more evidence that abortion is wrong and NEVER the right thing to do.

My God Sees My Needs

(I thought I would combine a couple of articles and some Scripture on this one since they all go together so well. It works best to read the articles as you come to the link.)

Boundless.org has been such an encouragement to me. They recently posted this article.
Here are some Scipture verses that have also been reiterated over and over to me recently (All from The Message translation).

Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn't a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing. You're at least decent to your own children. So don't you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? ~Matthew 7:7-11

You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus~ Phil. 4:19

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.~Matt. 6:33-34

God is confirming over and over again that I have no reason to worry about money or if I'll be provided for. Even now, when I have so many unexpected expenses pop up each month, there's always money to cover them. (How? I have no idea!) I read a guest post on Crystal's blog today called, Trusting God For Provision.
It's so neat to see how everything I'm reading blends together so wonderfully and only strengthens my faith in my God. My God who sees all my needs, big and small, will provide for them all.

"Miss Bimbo" Website

This is just sad. What's even sadder is the people that promote such sickness. It's hard enough to be a young girl in this day and age without the added pressure of a "game" like this. At such impressionable ages, the girls who play the game don't possess the capacity to decipher the difference between reality and fantasy. It becomes ingrained that they are supposed to look like the images and to do whatever it takes to attain "perfection". Anyway, you can react to this without my help. It just grieves me to see that such a thing could ever be the least bit successful

No Man Is An Island

No man is an island. ~John Donne~

I've been thinking about this a lot recently. God has made relationships because they are so very important. In Nathan Zacharias' article on Boundless Webzine, he says this,

We're not meant to go through this life alone. As Marcus states at the end of the movie, "you need backup." God uses friendships to help bring happiness when all seems right, and to help hold us up when all seems wrong. Certainly, there are risks involved. Will was right; if you open yourself up enough to where people can make you happy, then they can make you unhappy too.

None of us is perfect, and friends are likely to let you down from time to time. And sometimes a person you thought was your friend may even betray you in a very painful way. Yes, letting someone in to your life can open the door to heartache. But Marcus was right too; living a life where you keep everyone at arm's length and avoid caring about anyone other than yourself causes you to miss out on one of the greatest sources of happiness.

(Read the whole article here- it'll probably make a little more sense :) )

The American lifestyle is not extremely conducive to close and open relationships inside families and much less outside of families. We don't like to rely on others, ask for help, reach out of our comfort zones, or sacrifice our precious time, but relationships are the entire reason we weren't zapped up to Heaven the moment we placed our trust in Jesus Christ. Relationships are the only way we can reach the lost, hurting world. Religiousness doesn't endear us to anyone, but when we take time and energy and invest ourselves in others' lives, that is when the opportunities present themselves to talk about the One we are here to glorify. Let's not live by rules and regulations, but by relationships (which by the way, gives us the desire to honor with obedience to rules and regulations) with the pain filled world and with our God. Show your care. Show your love. Show the world who Christ is.

"Choosing Us"

This article is just sickening. I can't even find the words to describe it. That a couple could do that to their child and then look back and not have a regret is disgusting. I guess we have to do what we have do for our own comfort and ease in life, right? It frightens me really. I hope that God will have mercy on our land.

Growing Debate Over Abortifacients

Several months ago, I read an article similar to this one, but I believe this one has a much clearer explanation. I was quite surprised because I had no idea what BCPs really did. Now that I know, I wish everyone knew. Millions of women are aborting their children in complete ignorance. Imagine what the estimated 46 million aborted children count really is when you include all the unknown abortions caused by birth "control" pills. It's absolutely sick and disgusting.

In the End

In the end, it doesn’t matter how well we have performed or what we have accomplished—a life without heart is not worth living. For out of this wellspring of our soul flow all true caring and all meaningful work, all real worship and all sacrifice. Our faith, hope, and love issue from this fount, as well. Because it is in our heart that we first hear the voice of God and it is in the heart that we come to know him and learn to live in his love.

So you can see that to lose heart is to lose everything. And a “loss of heart” best describes most men and women in our day. It isn’t just the addictions and affairs and depression and heartaches, though, God knows, there are enough of these to cause even the best of us to lose heart. But there is the busyness, the drivenness, the fact that most of us are living merely to survive. Beneath it we feel restless, weary, and vulnerable.

Indeed, the many forces driving modern life have not only assaulted the life of our heart, they have also dismantled the heart’s habitat—that geography of mystery and transcendence we knew so well as children.

All of us have had that experience at one time or another, whether it be as we walked away from our teachers, our parents, a church service, or sexual intimacy; the sense that something important, perhaps the only thing important, had been explained away or tarnished and lost to us forever. Sometimes little by little, sometimes in large chunks, life has appropriated the terrain meant to sustain and nourish the wilder life of the heart, forcing it to retreat as an endangered species into smaller, more secluded, and often darker geographies for its survival. As this has happened, something has been lost, something vital.

(The Sacred Romance, 3-5)

Visit Ransomed Heart Ministries

Marriage Myths According to Modern-Day Psychologists

I saw this article called "'Don’t Go to Bed Angry’ and Other Marriage Myths" on the MSN homepage today. I found it quite sad really. You tell me, what do you think? If I followed their advice, I know I would be unhappy. Maybe some people are satisfied with that kind of relationship, but marriage is supposed to be a demonstration of Christ and the Church (us). It's the greatest relationship we will every have on this earth and it is meant to be an example of Christ's love to us. That means you should tell your spouse everything, keeping things from them does nothing for oneness. You shouldn't go to bed angry, don't let the sun go down on your anger. And your spouse most certainly should be your closest friend and confidant.

I know I have no experience in a marriage relationship, so I'm not calling myself an expert, but I see so many marriages that can be so much more. Divorce is not the only enemy of marriages. Lifeless, unproductive marriages that have ceased to grow are just as big a threat to the union. God doesn't call us to settle with an okay relationship, He wants it to be an incredible display of His power, glory, and love. In fact, that's why He made marriage. He made marriage, not for us, but His glory.

Everybody Claiming to Know Jesus by Jonathan Falwell (From the Falwell Confidential)

I was intrigued to observe a sign being held by one of the protesters at the writers strike in California this week. Scrawled under a sign bearing the Writers Guild of America logo was the message: “Huckabee, Jesus Wouldn’t Cross.”

The protester’s message was being aimed at Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a Christian, who crossed picket lines on Wednesday to appear on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” prior to Thursday’s Iowa caucus.

And it struck me that, in this present age of situational ethics and moral ambivalence, man is continually attempting to create Jesus in his own image, usually to fit the circumstances or states of affairs in which he finds himself.

We often hear conflicting arguments that Jesus would be a Republican or a Democrat if He were living on earth today.

As evidence, we see books such as Clint Willis’ and Nate Hardcastle’s “Jesus Is Not a Republican: The Religious Right’s War on America” or Mark Ellingsen’s “When Did Jesus Become Republican?” We also see Alan Colmes’ book, “Red, White and Liberal,” which contains a chapter (“Jesus was a Liberal”) in which he attempts to define Jesus as a social liberal.

We also hear people insinuating that Jesus would be driving a hybrid car if He were on the earth today. Or we hear that Jesus would be working to help the oppressed people of our world.

Moreover, I believe that even within the church today we often see depictions of Jesus that are simply unfounded.

The fact is that opinions of Jesus don’t really matter.

The only thing that matters in our understanding of Jesus is what He told us of Himself in His Word, the Bible. And the Bible must be our only standard in our endeavors to understand Jesus, the Son of the Living God, and His purpose for our lives.

In this regard, it is important to note that Jesus did not come to earth to teach us what car to drive or which candidate to vote for or to compel us not to cross picket lines.

Instead, Jesus came for one simple reason, as He stated in Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

That statement applies to all of us, for we are all lost without Jesus Christ in our lives.

Jesus did certainly outline plans for the disciples (and hence the present church) to care for widows, the affirmed and the disadvantaged. But this was not His principal message.

I fear that many people these days are using modern social guidelines such as “inclusiveness” or “multi-culturalism” or “globalism” to define Jesus.

In effect, these individuals are attempting to socialize the Gospel, humanizing Jesus to fit their needs.

These are superficial perceptions of Jesus and have virtually nothing to do with the Bible narrative of His life and design.

And so to understand Jesus, we must first understand that He understands us even more than we understand ourselves; and we fail when we attempt to justify ourselves by recreating what the Bible makes clear about Him.

A wonderful verse is I Samuel 16:7 because it shows God’s uniqueness in His approach to mankind. That verse states: “… for man looketh upon the outside appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart.”

And the heart is where we truly find Jesus and His purpose.

When we trust in Christ, we then know the purpose of Christ.

Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus, explained the beauty of truly knowing Jesus: “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

My prayer for this New Year is that I can reach out in love with this message to many people so that they can truly know Jesus Christ as He wants to be known.

Let’s work together in this effort!

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