Seeing Life to Choose Life

This is a thought provoking article from Baptist Press about the numbers of women who choose LIFE if they could just see their unborn child through an ultrasound machine.Two lives were saved in one day through the Mobile Ultrasound unit they are promoting.

"It's important to note that nearly 80 percent of all women considering abortion choose life when they see their unborn child on the ultrasound screen," says Mary Lou Hendry, Director of Sanctity of Human Life for the Florida Baptist Children's Homes.

See the Whole Article here: 

Smells of Remembrance...

Ever had one of those episodes where you smell something and it takes you back to a memory way before? I have - Strawberry Freezer Jam, Fresh Cookies Baking, Summer Squash & Okra sauteing in butter and spices. Others from my life are Salt Water on the Coast, Fresh fish smell on my hands, Tobacco being fired in the smoking barns the Summer I paid for Jessica's Engagement Ring.

The Disciple Peter had a Smell Of Remembrance too. The smell was an outdoor fire, one that the Bible calls "charcoal", used only twice in the New Testament; both times with Peter and Jesus involved. The significance of these two scenes cannot be understated. Personally, I think the significance of that second smell slammed home painful memories to Peter as he came up on the beach after his "It Is The Lord!" swim from the boat. But then, he couldn't twist away. He had to deal with his failures. This charcoal fire smell and the ironically created situation was one of those emotional avalanches that started slowly and then hit him like a ton of bricks as they sat there eating. Peter must have remembered the FIRE SMELL, DARKNESS & EVIL, JESUS NEARBY, 3 QUESTIONS, 3 ANSWERS, A LOOK FROM JESUS, WEEPING, HORRIBLE GUILT as the smoke and smell faded. Then his present reality that was MORNING & LIGHT, JESUS NEARBY, JOY, GUILT, 3 QUESTIONS, 3 ANSWERS, CONFESSION, and REINSTATEMENT, COMMITMENT.
Not so different from our own lives when we sin, eh? temptation, decision, sin, guilt, memory, scars. Then when we encounter a similar situation again, there is a sort of beach meal with Jesus. He requires us to fess up to our shortcomings. He urges us to FOLLOW HIM again. Privately first, then more publicly, then if asked before the world - much like Peter confessed to the world with his death. Honesty is a MUST if we want to be healed, if we want to be saved. In the midst of confession, we have to go through the memory of the whole dark scene again before Jesus can lead the way to forgiveness and restoration.
Next time you smell something that makes you remember, think of Peter. Think of yourself. Be encouraged - we serve a God of Second Chances. Just look at Peter's life for a reminder.

It's Friday ... Don't Relax

Adults, do you remember Summer Vacation? When we finished school and all the hard work paid off and the relief settled in?
The ZITS cartoon pretty much demonstrates the level of relaxation by students who have finished their latest year of school. Our VBS workers are feeling sort of the same way after finishing our long week of Outreach. WHEW! It's over. I got another pie in the face - this year, my WIFE was the agent of swift whipped cream and graham cracker destruction to my cranium. Though, I will say that dried whipped cream in hair can withstand hurricane force winds and support small woodland creature nests.
The Most Important thing about VBS week is that multiple children made professions of Faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Their lives will forever be changed because of the dedication and creativity of over 100 workers at our church. Thank you everyone for making a mark on ETERNITY!
Looking back to the cartoon above, after big events and spiritual highs, I believe there is a level of relaxation, maybe too much relaxation in our Spiritual Life as well. We go through something stressful and spiritually challenging and we come through it with fortitude and to the Glory of God. Afterward, part of us wants to celebrate and rejoice. But there is another part - one that we don't see very much and may not realize is active. That second part is our flesh that just wants to relax and reflect on the victory. This relaxation could be dangerous if it means that we "sit on the couch" and won't even do the things we normally do for Spiritual Upkeep.
This can lead to ....
Laziness
Less Resistance to Temptation
Sinful Activity
Lack Of Accountability
Harsh Attitudes
Lack Of Discipline in the Spiritual Disciplines like Bible Reading, Prayer Time, Memorizing God's Word

So, if you are coming off of a spiritual peak in your life, and you saw God move on the heights, keep doing the things you were doing before the Mountain Top Experience. God rewards those that seek His Face, and strive to see Him high and lifted up. They may not be the rewards we think of first, but it will be His and ultimately the fulfillment we need.
It's Friday, Don't Relax!

Sports Center ready for Rapture?

HA! Well if we can get ESPN to acknowledge the Rapture - we shouldn't be too far from reaching the world with the Gospel. Below is a Tweet from SportsCenter today. 

"SportsCenter

If u knew the world was going to end, what sporting event would you want 2 witness B4 the rapture comes? Best answers on 3P"

The Candy Cane Case

Candy Cane Case & First Amendment Rights (link) - Candy is not the only thing at stake when this case goes to court. Basic First Amendment rights are at stake, and confidence that the public school system will allow children to talk about what they believe and not what the government says they should. The defendants are 16 year olds, who as children had pencils and candy canes confiscated by a Plano, TX school for having messages about Jesus on their gifts to classmates. To read the whole article, click on the link above to go to CitizenLink.com. 

Tiger TomCat

TIGER

We have new neighbor and a new pet...sort of. This is Tiger. He is a stray our neighbors picked up and started feeding. As neighborhood animals often are - he is at other houses quite a bit too. He fell asleep on our van a few nights ago; and the girls play with him whenever they are outside. All in all, he has been well received on our street.
However, a couple of Saturdays ago - he showed that he still has a nature in him quite beyond the domesticated house cat. Tiger went on the prowl and caught a starling - the girls called it a crow - either way - it became an after dinner snack.
 The Bible teaches us in many places that we carry within us a constant involuntary desire to "miss the mark" called sin, or sinfulness. This is seen throughout the Bible, but some specific examples are found in Romans 3:9, 5:12-13, 6:1-2, 1Corinthians 15:56, John 8:21, 34, 46 and Romans 8:3, which says, "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God DID; sending His own Son in the LIKENESS of SINFUL flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh." Jesus came as FULLY GOD and FULLY MAN to be a Divine Sacrifice for Sin - paying the Divine Penalty also - giving us access to heaven through Jesus - the Way, the Truth & the Life, John 14:6.


Tiger demonstrates what we see in ourselves daily - a nature that in CHRIST'S POWER we resist and even hide - but is always there. Tiger can eat from a stainless bowl 99 % of the time - but the desire to hunt and kill will always be there - Hence the Starling Snack Bar. He did the whole cat thing - batting it around in the air and playing with his food before finally biting the head clean off of the poor bird. That was when I realized we are the same way.
We are not bad all the time - but humanity is as bad as they can be given the chance. I have witnessed this sinful nature come out at random places - in traffic, in crowds, in stadiums, at dinner with friends...all of us have missed the mark somehow. Here is the picture: Sinfulness is always there, Sin is defined by the Law of God so we know it is wrong, and Sin is carried out through the body or flesh of all people.

King David demonstrated this picture for us. "In the Spring, when kings go off to war..." King David stayed behind, got bored and took a walk on the roof. He wasn't where he was supposed to be and he didn't listen to the Spiritually Controlled part of him, he listened instead to the sinfulness in him. He missed the mark! He was confronted and he thankfully repented and got as many things right as he could.

HMMM

But we all know he couldn't continue as if As The Jewish World Turns didn't just happen. He paid dire consequences and the man after God's own heart continued to pay the rest of his life.


When we face our lifelong enemy SIN next, we need to be reminded of the Power Christians take for granted many times.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5  ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 

When we take sinful thoughts captive and Christ bends our wills toward  His - sinful thoughts don't make their way to action through the flesh. I am reminded again and again watching the cat roam our yard, that THROUGH Jesus there is Daily Dying that must happen as long as we live in the Sin-FULL Condition as Humans.

Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

On The Loss Of A Child...

This blog that I read regularly helped me in some of my private struggles in dealing with the loss of a child, unborn or born. Hope you are encouraged in the midst of your own struggle over such a tremendously painful issue.
Click the Enclosure Link on the Title (On The Loss of a Child) or go here:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/05/10/it-was-not-wicked-for-the-lord-to-take-our-son/