Bible

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled…Lean Neither Left Nor Right

francis schaeffer

We must realize that the Reformation world view leads in the direction of government freedom. But the humanist world view with inevitable certainty leads in the direction of statism. This is so because humanists, having no god, must put something at the center, and it is inevitably society, government, or the state. ~ Francis Schaeffer

This is why the gospel and the left are not compatible. However, before you get too upset with me, allow me to share another quote from Francis…

One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary.

There is nothing so counter-cultural as the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

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Adversity

Coffee Beans and Adversity

Bitter or Better 2

I recently read a wonderful story. I stumbled upon it at the following web address: http://www.upmoments.com/she-tells-her-grandma-that-shes-just-been-cheated-on/.

You’re gonna like it. It’s sweet. It’s poignant. And it’s truthful…to a point. Well, stick around until the end, you’ll see what I mean.

Here’s the story:

“A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her – her husband had cheated on her and she was devastated. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, ‘Tell me what you see.’

‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied.

Her grandmother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The grandmother then asked the granddaughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, the grandmother asked the granddaughter to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, grandmother?’

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her granddaughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity? Do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level?

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”

See what I mean? It’s a beautiful story…a parable illuminating truth…except for one thing…boil the beans again and again and again, and you no longer have the desired outcome. The analogy fails. Like the coffee beans, a person left to him or herself simply cannot be boiled over and over and over. Pretty soon there’s nothing left to produce the wonderful change described in the story…

unless…

unless the beans are very special…

unless the beans are miraculously renewed over and over and over again. Then the bean–and the person–can keep giving over and over and over again.

Then, in the face of adversity, we can make things better, not bitter. Whether coffee or life there must be something that’s new and fresh. With coffee the requirement is new beans. With us the requirement is new life. This is the miracle of regeneration. Its effects are spectacular.

Here, take a quick look…

“For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”        2 Corinthians 4:15-18

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Bible

“You Are Loved.” from another 20Something making a difference…

Click on the following link…you’ll not be disappointed.

You Are Loved..

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Bible

I Am Overwhelmed

I Am Overwhelmed.

From a twenty something with somethings you just need to read.

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Life's Moments

The Planned Parenthood Plight

10 week feetUp to this point I have deliberately avoided commenting on the horrific ordeal in our news regarding Planned Parenthood. Why? Well, at the outset, let me say it’s not because I intend to defend PP in any way. From its beginning with Margaret Sanger ‘til today PP has been and is immoral and criminal. It started as a eugenics movement and, quite frankly, I see no reason to believe it’s moved away from that goal.

No, I have waited because I wanted to see the outcome of what I knew would be PP’s and its supporters go to argument: the “heavy editing” charge. We know the released footage has come to us in two forms: the longer unedited version and the shorter edited videos showing various PP employees in some sorrowful light. You can see all of them at https://www.youtube.com/user/centerformedprogress.

We now know much of the media and PP itself are going to run with the “heavily edited” argument. In fact, given current media biases, they will have a field day with it. That is the nature of propaganda. When you cannot articulate a cogent and logical point of view you resort to name calling, blaming, and shaming. You have no truth, so you attempt to create psuedo-guilt.  You have no facts, so you assert hateful things. However, nothing they say or do will trump certain truths. Of course, many, perhaps an uber-majority, of PP supporters will simply and stubbornly refuse to accept what I’m about to point out, but they will not be able to defend their position with any reasonable or intelligent defense. These certain truths are twofold:

First is the undeniable cavalier attitude regarding aborted babies displayed by the exposed PP employees. And these are employees at the highest ranks. These are culture makers within the PP ranks. If it starts at the top it trickles and often runs down. Just as in the videos brought to light a couple years back by Lila Rose concerning the racist attitudes within PP ranks, one has to ask “What kind of culture even opens the door for this kind of conversation?” The answer is simple: any culture opening the door to such cavalier attitudes is nothing shy of barbaric. You can call it compassionate all you like by saying it’s all about research and helping others, but when you talk about little ones with language like the following,

“like 18 on a light day but up to 25,”
and “avoid crushing to preserve choice parts,”
and “if we alter a process and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers,”
and “it’s all just a matter of line items,”

you display a haughty, disdainful, contemptuous attitude toward your subject matter. It’s heart breaking on many levels.

Second is the revelation regarding the manipulation of the baby’s position to provide opportunity to harvest certain desired body parts and intact bodies as witnessed in the following description:

“I’m going to crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact. And with the calvarium (head), in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation (of the fetus) so that it’s not vertex (head first), because when it’s vertex presentation, you never have enough dilation at the beginning of the case unless you have a real, huge amount dilation to deliver an intact calvarium (head). So, if you do it starting from the breech presentation (feet first), there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium (head) at the end.” (See this egregious and heartless description at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxwVuozMnU , 3:49 to 4:20)

This is a description of partial birth abortion! The baby being described is alive with body parts outside the birth canal! It is not only immoral, barbaric, and evil, it’s illegal! My word what more needs to be said? No matter how pro-choice one might be, the only way to accept this practice is to silence your conscience. This cannot be…yet it is!

I am left in tears…on my knees…calling out…”Oh God have mercy on them for surely they do not know what they are doing. Surely they are blind. Surely they would stop if only they understood. Right…right?” Yet I fear my hope is misguided. They do know. They do. They have hardened their hearts. All that is left for them is salvation or damnation.

So I must move past them for now. Now I must plead with those who are the first line of defense for the innocent unborn, their Mom’s and Dad’s…and here is my plea…

“I do not want to label you. I do not want to make life bitter for you, only better. To do so, I must help you see that in all cultures and through all of time those who have made sacrifices on behalf of the defenseless and less fortunate have been called heroes. Soldiers who push comrades aside only to take the bullet—heroes. The fathers and mothers who work three jobs and go without sleep—heroes. The social workers who give up lucrative careers to labor in poverty, but in support of the impoverished of the third world—heroes.  First responders rushing into the fires and the rain of bullets so the innocent may survive—heroes. All of them, heroes. All who make sacrifices for the benefit of others, heroes. Laying aside one’s own drive for self-preservation and self-fulfillment for the hopes and benefits of the defenseless brings out the honor of one’s soul. Please, may I help you see this is what your baby and the world needs from you. Be a hero.”

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