God Helps as Usual

Out of the deepest gloom, God has helped us again.  Thank God!  Well to be honest, Jon was not gloomy, pretty much the opposite of gloom for him (as usual).   His lack of dread at the situation puzzles me.  But that is his way, to trust in God.  I do, but then I let all the nagging thoughts that come into my head start to grow.  And I do know where they come from, so I have to fight this pattern.

A man in our church tried (but failed) to stir up the men to change the way things are being done in the church.  He talked to lots of people (sneakily) and a special meeting was called.  I felt it was a personal attack on Jon.  Being his wife, I wanted to defend him.  Imagine my frustration when the "men" said no women were to be at this meeting!!!!  Guess it's a good thing though that women couldn't attend, I probably would have said something I shouldn't have said.  But then again, I really knew to let God and Jon handle it.  But boy did I want to be in there to hear exactly what was said.

Wednesday night, seeing people talking in small groups like they usually do after church and not knowing if they were talking about "the meeting" and not knowing who was involved really got to me.   I felt like they (someone) was plotting against us.   I ended up running out of the church on Wednesday evening in tears.  But with all the praying, God took care of Jon. (and me)

No worries for him.  Everything that was brought up as a criticism of the way Jon ran the church or the way deacons work/don't work was brought into the light, exposed and vanished as if nothing.  God took all those criticisms and crushed them.  Jon had so many friends there to watch his back.  We are hoping lots of good things will come because of this shakeup.  I know Jon now feels there are many men who really want to be more of a part of the church and to help, in all areas.  The director of the Parker Baptist Association moderated it and he was excellent.

Child's Faith

Sometimes kids can see things differently than we do and sometimes kids say the most unexpected things.

In the book, She Can Laugh at the Days to Come by Valerie Bell, I found the following interesting.

     We had guests over one night.  Our talk turned lightly to what heaven might be like.  My extroverted husband, Steve, said that heaven would be like a giant beach party and all his friends would be there.  My oldest son, who can rarely get his family to invest hours and days into the kind of strategic games he likes to play, said, not surprisingly, that heaven was going to be an enormous strategy game and everyone would have to play.  When it was my turn I said I pictured heaven to be like living on an African safari, except all the animals would be tame and you would not have to feed or clean up after them.  They laughed at me and called me "Sheena of Heaven."
     As we went around the table, we enjoyed each other's interpretations of heaven that exposed who we were and the things that gave us joy.  When we came to our guest's small son, he looked up with an innocent expression, his face covered with a chocolate-cake smile, and said, "I think heaven is going to be....that whenever you want you can get up in Jesus' lap!"
Leave it to a child!

More on Standing in Faith

Referring to my previous post: 
     Would you be so rooted and grounded in your faith enough to take the bombardment from a college professor or other anti-christian? Is your faith strong enough?
 
     We are to lean on Christ and that alone. I know deep in myself that He is real.  Jesus has done so much for me. Who cares what arguments the world makes? If you know that you know deep in your heart, pray, lean on Jesus, cast out the doubts that Satan and the world tries to put in there, give it to God.

     But they are tricky and can deceive us so quickly. If they can get a foothold, a tiny crack, or a bit of doubt in our faith they will continue to hammer away and enlarge the crack in our faith until we crumble. Don't let it happen. No matter what, we have to turn to God and tell the world and Satan where to get off. God will give us strength.

     I just read this in another book I'm reading and it kind of goes along with this topic.

     Some people take few precautions to protect their heart and soul. They leave the doors to their convictions and beliefs unguarded. Perhaps the desire to win the acceptance of society has become the most important goal.

     Without a strong foundation of belief, compromised thinking can tiptoe in and steal the ability to discern truth from lies. One of the most seductive lies of our times is that all sincerely held beliefs are right--that all spiritual roads lead to heaven.

     In the world, there is huge competition for our hearts, minds and souls, but settling for a comfortable and convenient "truth" leaves us exposed to every danger."

(from Lessons Learned Looking Back by Todd Linaman and Laura Sowers)

Standing on Faith

Here is an excerpt of a book I'm reading: Coming Home by David Lewis
   
     Andy's downfall probably originated with a certain naivete and the sense that his faith was invulnerable.  For the second semester of his junior year, he signed up for what he thought would be a benign history course; The Historical Origins of Christianity.  When he discovered the extreme liberal nature of the professor, Andy decided to stay and duke it out, counter fallacy with fact, lies with truth.  I can take him, Andy had thought.
     The professor ate him alive.  Dr. Neal raised hundreds of questions in the name of Biblical cristicism and historical accuracy, questions Andy had never considered before.  In spite of digging throught his apologetics books for endless hours, looking for answers, his faith began to slowly disintegrate.
     It was like being attacked by intellectual bombs, each one tearing out another piece of his house of faith.  By the end of the semester, Andy was despairing, the historical roots of his faith having been all but destroyed.

So far this looks like a mystery/love story/faith building book.  Can't wait to see what will happen between him and Jesse (his long lost childhood best friend; girl)
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There are some pretty chilling things out there that liberals are doing to college students, which in turn will and is affecting our nation.  I found these quotes on a message board:

     You see, I am one of that rare breed--a conservative professor. For eleven years now I've been teaching literature and composition courses, helping students to hone their critical thinking and reading skills, a "market" many liberals laughably believe they have cornered. True critical thinking involves going beyond childish Bush-bashing; it involves using logic rather than simply throwing the grenades many liberals love to throw--"You're sexist! You're racist! You're a homophobe! You're stupid!"--in lieu of an actual argument.

     I would be happy to challenge you to a "critical thinking" contest any day. But go ahead, foolishly believing that all the smart people are liberals; the more people like you continue to make that miscalculation, the easier it will be for conservatives to win the culture wars, not to mention the war on terror.

     As a student who has survived the ravages of liberalism in our universities, I want to share with you some of my experiences with liberal bullying.  When I was a student at New Mexico State University, I was a psych major.  Now, everyone knows that psychology is literally "owned" by liberals. However, there comes a point at which one must draw the line of tolerance.

     I have been forced to withdraw from courses taught by liberals simply because I refused to allow myself to be indoctrinated by their leftist propaganda.  I find it objectionable that there are professors who are forcing students to agree with them, under threat of assigning failing course grades simply because the student disagrees with said propaganda. Folks, our universities have become reeducation centers.

      "My teacher came into class the day after the election proclaiming, 'That's it. This is the death of America.' The rest of the class was eager to agree, and twenty minutes of Bush-bashing ensued. At one point, one student asked our teacher whether she should be so vocal, lest any students be conservatives. She then asked us whether any of us were Republicans. Naturally, no one volunteered that information, whereupon our teacher turned to the inquisitive student and said, 'See? No one in here would be stupid enough to vote for Bush.' "

      Some students undoubtedly find such banter fun. But for others it can be chilling. And just as teachers' freedom of speech must be protected, so must students' freedom to learn, if it is threatened.  "The inability to benefit from a robust and free exchange of ideas--intellectual harassment if you will--goes to the very heart of the academic enterprise."

Some student responses at Yale:

• "My professor mocked conservatives constantly."
  
• "Professors in Biology were extremely anti-religion and mocked it openly. Pro left-wing jokes/anti-Bush jokes abound."
  
• "I feel intimidated."
  
• "My Spanish teacher only presented readings against Bush's trade policy in Latin America. . . . Also actively silenced people who disagreed with her."
  
• "Professors often have a slant in the readings they choose. As long as you're aware of it, you can prepare against it."

Hamilton said...

Alexander Hamilton once said,   "The people of any nation, ancient or modern, who lose the liberty of freely speaking, writing, or publishing their beliefs, soon lose all their liberty and become slaves."

Sometimes I get the feeling that Christians are heading that way.  We are more and more forbidden to say what the truth is and attacked by the media about it.   What can we do?  Pray is one thing to do.

We are tempted to protest against all the evils in the world that rears up against us.  But how?  If we were to march or counter things that groups of people do that we know is wrong, then how are we perceived?  I know some Christians protest against homosexuality or abortions, (some go too far the other way) but then do we come off looking judgmental and violent when things get out of hand?  The media portrays us as being that way or make us out as a joke to "liberal" society.  I've got to think on this some more......
I know that it seems Hollywood runs things, but there has to be more of us who don't follow all the thinking that comes from there.

Jesus Freaks

Have you all read this book?  Jesus Freaks, Martyrs by DC Talk and Voices of the Martyrs.   I couldn't put it down. The things people go through to just be able to worship God! They give all to have a chance to worship and share the gospel with others. They are beaten, imprisoned without any trial or help to get out, families are harassed or family members are against them and turn them in or kill them. Tortured.

If Christianity was against the law, would Christians be strong and have enough faith to endure? I would hope we would have faith, strength, and courage. If they took our Bibles, would we know Scripture by memory so they could always have it no matter who took the Bibles? I know many of the verses, or parts of verses, but I always have trouble with the address part. But thankfully, prayer is always available to us no matter what the situation.