Posts Tagged ‘Christianity’

Taboo Topic Triple Crown

{ November 7, 2008 @ 1:35 pm } · { Family, Heartbreaking, My Family, Opinion, Politics, Religion, She's So Heavy, This Happened, What I Think About That }
{ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , } · { Leave a Comment }

When Riley got home from school on Monday, I noticed a sticker on his backpack that said “I Voted”. I thought that was pretty cool, so I asked him about it. He told me he voted for Barack Obama. I just smiled and said “Oh, really? Why him?” The answer wasn’t a surprise. “I don’t know”.

On Tuesday afternoon, within minutes of getting home from school, Riley told me he wanted to change his vote. “Well, you can’t do that… but why do you want to?” He then proceeded to tell me that one of the boys in his class told him that Barack Obama kills babies.

Let me just say that it is one of the most gut-wrenching things in the world to have to explain abortion to a 6 year old child. Especially one who is as curious, intelligent, caring, and empathetic as my son is. The look of anguish on his face as he asked more and more questions, and the realization sunk in, was just too much. I tried to keep my explanation as “kid-friendly” as I could, (wow, what any oxymoron… “kid-friendly” abortion), but I had to be honest, too. I just couldn’t stand the sadness on his face for those unborn babies (I didn’t go into Live Birth Abortions, of course), and I didn’t have the heart to change the obvious impression he had that this has maybe only happened a handful of times.

Ever since I had Riley I have been against abortion, and now my faith solidifies that, of course. But seeing a child (someone so innocent and unworldly) grieving for another child he’s never met, just reminds me of how evil and selfish we all are, that this idea doesn’t even phase most of us anymore.

What a different world we would live in if we could all see more things like children do.

Matthew 19:14 Jesus said “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

A belated Happy Reformation Day

{ November 4, 2008 @ 12:41 am } · { Being Silly, Kids are crazy, My Family, My Photos, Religion, This Happened }
{ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , } · { Comments (1) }

This is my first year in a church that celebrates Reformation Day, so I’m pretty new to it, but here is the basic idea:

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the doors of a church in Wittenburg, Germany. He actually nailed them to the door, which was the common practice of that time. If you had something you wanted to discuss with the clergy, that was how you let them know. Printers saw the sheer volume of theses that he posted, however, and sensed a story, so they quickly translated (he had written them in Latin, the Catholic Church’s official language for teaching and communication) and distributed his papers. His ideas were so at odds with the church’s that word spread quickly, and everyone wanted to read them… and they were so widely distributed that everyone could. After Luther’s excommunication from the church soon after, there was a massive revolt.

This holiday even has an official color, which is red, to remind us of the Holy Spirit descending on Christ’s followers in tongues of fire on the Day of Pentecost. It was also, of course, the Holy Spirit who inspired Luther and his colleagues to begin the Reformation of the church.

On this holiday we celebrate what God achieved through Martin Luther- the return to the knowledge of salvation by grace through faith, instead of what the church had turned to… selling indulgences. Indulgences were certificates that you could purchase from the church to free yourself or someone else from purgatory, or lessen their suffering. Johann Tetzel is famous for his quote (which angered Luther enough to write his theses): “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs”.  So basically, the Catholic Church needed to raise money to build St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, and so they told people that for enough money, they could save their dead loved ones from hell. Cuz, ya know… God cares more about having a beautiful cathedral than true repentance for sins by the sinner himself.

Anyhoo… our church had a picnic at one of the church family’s homes on Saturday, and I took some pictures. They have a farm, and there were fires for hotdogs and s’mores, a hay ride, and Reformation trivia. It was a lot of fun, and there were probably about 75 people, or so. <- Drew will have to help me out with this, I’m really bad at judging the number of people in crowds. It could have been 50, or it could have been 150. I’m shooting for something modest inbetween.

It was just really pretty with all the fall colors, so I snapped a few shots. I wanted to take more, and get some better ones, but I was trying to be discreet. I wasn’t sure if it was weird that I was taking pictures… I would think it was kind of strange if someone came to my house and started taking pictures of my garage, or something. But anyway, here’s what I got.

tractor

riley-swinging

pond2

pond

goldtree

fires

fire

fall-colors

barn

tree

Also, here are a few more that were interesting. This first one is me and Riley about to set off on the hay ride. He hates loud noises and was afraid the tractor would be loud. It wasn’t.

scared-riley1

Evidently there were some other-wordly vistors, too… according to this photo of orbs.

Or the hay was dusty.

orbs1

This one is just strange. I was trying our some different settings on my camera to take pictures by fire-light without blinding everyone with my flash, and Riley was my guinea pig. This one just struck me as really creepy, for some reason, so I thought I’d share.

creepy1

Does prayer change God’s mind?

{ October 20, 2008 @ 4:20 pm } · { Religion, She's So Heavy, Uncategorized, What I Think About That }
{ Tags: , , , , , , } · { Leave a Comment }

Before I came to believe in Reformed Theology (again, just a reminder- the term Reformed Theology refers to the Reformation of the Catholic Church that began in 1517, this is NOT a new idea), this, and so many questions were a mystery to me. After accepting the truth of God’s complete sovereignty, and our complete death as a result of Adam’s fall, I had one of those “A-ha!” moments while talking with Drew. It was like the final piece of the puzzle was in place, and suddenly everything made sense. I said “That explains EVERYTHING!”

Now, I know there are some things that are just simply unknowable for humans in this life, and we won’t understand them until we get to heaven and can ask for ourselves, but I believe that there is a lot we should understand now… and can, if we have the right understanding of who God is.

Numbers 23:19-20 God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.

1 Samuel 15:29 He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind.

Malachi 3:6 I the Lord do not change.

Job 23:13 But He stands alone, and who can oppose Him? He does what he pleases.

God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us, ultimately for good… even though it may not always seem like it at the time. God is timeless, and though we are moving through time, He is looking down at His entire creation, as if it were a painting, and He knows every brush stroke that has already been put into place. If we could change things, and even one stroke was “off” a little, it could ruin His whole masterpiece. A sovereign God would not, and cannot allow that to happen. We all want things to happen in our lives to make things better for us, but what about the effect of those things on everyone else? What if Judas had been able to choose not to betray Christ? Or if Moses had been able to say “Thanks, but no thanks” to freeing the Israelites from Egypt? Or if Joseph had been able to give in to Potiphar’s wife? Think of how different history would look. Or would God have just gone to plan B? Or C, or D… ad nauseam?

No. With a sovereign God, there is no plan B. He causes good to happen for His purposes. He allows evil things to happen, then uses them for good for His purposes. If you believe that God cannot control man, cannot make things happen, and is always scrambling to figure out what to do next, when what he would have liked to have happened does not quite work out, and now he has to fix what we messed up, then why would you even call that a god?

Matthew 26:53-54 (Jesus speaking) “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will not at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?

We cannot change Him, His mind, His plan, or His will for our lives.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The purpose of prayer is to communicate with God, but not so that we can talk Him into doing what we want. It’s so that He can change our hearts and minds, and ultimately, our prayers. If we are listening to the Holy Spirit, we will want what God wants, and we will pray for His will to be done… which is what we are supposed to do.

Matthew 6:9-10 (Jesus speaking) This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Sometimes, what we want is what happens. Sometimes it isn’t. Some would say it is because we didn’t pray hard enough, have enough faith, not enough people prayed… we just didn’t figure out the ‘magical’ formula for manipulating God. But the answer is that it wasn’t God’s will for it to happen our way. Does this mean we shouldn’t bother praying? Absolutely not. God commands us to pray, Jesus instructs us how to pray, and if we are doing it right, it’s not about getting what we want, anyway. We repent, although atonement for our sins has already been granted through the cross; we ask God to meet our daily needs, though we know that He has already promised to care of us; we pray for our family and friends because we love them; and we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, even though it will be done, whether we like it or not. Through all of this, God grows us, teaches us, and builds a relationship with us. This is the purpose of prayer.