Sometimes I just think this world is going to hell in a handbasket, and I long for the day when I will be in God’s Eternal Kingdom and no longer have to worry about what’s going on in this world.

I feel that God has begun to withdraw His blessing from our own country and yet I pray for the sake of the believers He will not completely withdraw His blessing from us.

We turn our heads and look the other way on sin that God declared is sin from the beginning of our awareness of Him. We try to justify it as being a sign of modern times and modern thinking, but if God said it was wrong a million years ago it’s still wrong today.

We allow our unborn to be killed in utero because it’s the woman’s body. Guess what? Our bodies are God’s and not ours.

Yet, because we are human, we constantly sin. That’s why we should go to Him daily confessing our sins in order to be sanctified by Him. Sanctification is not something you can grab onto and keep unless you treat your mind and body as God wants you to treat it. It does not affect your salvation, but we are to be as pure as possible before our Lord. That’s why we pray for forgiveness of our sins, and we do it daily.

Our bodies are not our own and when people realize that maybe we can get back on track.

Unfortunately I just see us getting worse with demands of same-sex marriage, pedophilia, doing anything that is pleasurable to us and nothing that is pleasing to God, our Creator.

I have felt strongly about these issues for a long time.

I was distressed to read that Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon wants to cede part of control of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.

“The government does not have a majority (to support) Haim Ramon’s opinions on anything to do with Jerusalem,” Pensioners Party Chairman Rafi Eitan said Tuesday following the exposure of the vice premier’s letter calling for the division of Jerusalem and the establishment of joint sovereignty over the city’s holy sites.

I totally agree with that statement.

Where does this man get off thinking he can give away one grain of sand of the land given to the Jews by God Almighty Himself? He holds the deed to that property and Jesus even instructed us to pray for peace in Jerusalem, the city He loves so much.

There will never be real peace in that city until Jesus sets foot on it again, but praying for the peace in Jerusalem is something I do daily.

Israelis shed their blood and lost their sons and daughters in battles brought against them when they recaptured the land that had been taken from them for 2000 years.

Since the election of Olmert we are seeing a policy which is disturbing in that he seems willing to bend over backwards to do the bidding of the Palestinians, all in the name of a peace that will never come.

The Palestinians and all Muslims are sworn to destroy Israel. Not just destroy it, but push the people into the sea.

Now it seems members of the government are doing their level best to see to it the Palestinians get their way.

I’m not an Israeli citizen so I have no say in their internal affairs, but I can say I hope someone who is stronger against the threats to Israel will get elected and soon.

I have read reports Olmert is even considering granting the right of return to Palestinians who left Israel of their own accord when the state of Israel was re-created.

These people or their ancestors were given the opportunity in 1948 to remain in their homes on their property and become a part of Israel.

They can be elected to the Knesset and enjoy full citizenship. That’s for those who decided to stay. The others left and gave up any claim to the land when they did.

If they were to get the right of return to Israel it wouldn’t be long before they would take over the government and run the Jews into the sea.

I don’t see God allowing that to happen.

First of all I don’t understand why a school would have 15 valedictorians in the same class, but I digress.

Erica Corder was one of 15 valedictorians at Lewis-Palmer High School in Colorado in 2006. They each got 30 seconds to speak and when it came her turn her speech was to encourage the audience to get to know Jesus.

Oh, my! The entire faculty must have swooned at the same time! Her principal, Mark Brewer, told her if she didn’t apologize she wouldn’t receive her diploma, though she’d still be able to graduate.

On Monday Erica Corder sued the school district.

The lawsuit said Brewer would not give Corder her diploma until she included a sentence saying, “I realize that, had I asked ahead of time, I would not have been allowed to say what I did.” Corder received her diploma after complying.

The school district released a statement Wednesday saying officials reviewed Corder’s case when it happened in 2006 and also met several times with Corder and her parents.

“While we are disappointed that this matter has resulted in litigation, we are confident that all actions taken by school officials were constitutionally appropriate,” the statement said. “As a result, we intend to vigorously defend the claims. Beyond that, it is the district’s policy not to comment on pending litigation.”

Brewer, who now works for Douglas County schools, declined to comment Wednesday.

Corder is represented by attorneys affiliated with Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based group that says it is dedicated to advancing religious freedom.

Wanna bet if she had mentioned Muhammad and his “peaceful” religion she would have not been penalized?

Reuters writer Ed Stoddard has written an article titled “Religion and culture behind Texas execution tally”

Great eye-catching headline there, Mr. Stoddard.

Like his predecessor, Governor Perry is a devout Christian, highlighting one key factor in Texas’ enthusiasm for the death penalty that many outsiders find puzzling — the support it gets from conservative evangelical churches.

This is in line with their emphasis on individuals taking responsibility for their own salvation, and they also find justification in scripture.

“A lot of evangelical Protestants not only believe that capital punishment is permissible but that it is demanded by God. And they see sanction for that in the Old Testament especially,” said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Yessir, we evangelicals go to church and stand around after hearing the pastor tell us weekly we should kill people on death row and talk about killing more people on death row just because.

Instead of going to a professor of theology or a well-known minister, Reuters goes to a political scientist at SMU to discover Christianity is the cause of all those executions in Texas.

He then goes on to tell us the cultural problems with the death penalty, but for purposes of this post I’m sticking with the religion aspect of what he alleges.

I am an evangelical Christian of the Baptist variety. I am not 100% in favor of the death penalty and wish sometimes we didn’t have one.

Then there are circumstances such as Ted Bundy or the brutal killing of a child that make me feel human justice demands the death penalty because if the perpetrators were ever to escape they would continue with their killing sprees.

I have also said if someone is to be executed we had better be 100% dead certain he is guilty of the crime for which he is being executed, because there is no “oops” possibility here if we are wrong.

I had read several articles yesterday in the Washington Post which had to do with religion, and I had planned to write them in a positive way until I made the mistake of reading the comments on the posts there.

I knew our country was slipping spiritually, but when you read it and see how rampant it is, you really don’t understand it. I guess I’ve just led a sheltered life as far as what I have seen and heard, but to see and read what some of the awful things these people say is just mind-boggling.

In every thread it always got around to politics and beating on Republicans for being Christians. I won’t be writing that post, but I wanted to mention it here.

As for Reuters, well the disrespect for their news coverage I had before is even higher now.

The Anchoress has tagged me to tell you five things I love about Jesus.

1. Because He first loved me a nobody, who was a somebody to Him. Even the hairs on my head are numbered, and when He was on the Cross, I was on His mind.

2. Because He is God and there is no other. None before Him and none after Him.

3. Because in His earthly Incarnation He was also Man, and as such He experienced the things we experience. He wept at the deaths of friends, He felt sorrow and compassion for the sick and healed them as well as raising the dead. He knows how I feel under any circumstance and He cares and helps me through the bad times and rejoices with me in the good times.

4. Because He loves me enough He left all the glory of Heaven and became a man with not even a place to call His home. He slept outside or at friends’ houses, but owned nothing of His own while in His earthly Incarnation.

5. He is the Perfect Son Who obeys His Father, and because He is the Perfect Lamb of God His shed blood, burial and resurrection have made it possible for all mankind to be redeemed and to live with Him and the Father for all eternity in His home with many mansions.

“Come unto me all those who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

“For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

From Friday’s Omega Letter:

I was reading the comments posted by readers of the Huffington Post in response to a column posted by Max Blumenthal about the “Christians United For Israel Tour” Washington summit meeting, hosted by San Antonio pastor John Hagee.

The column was entitled, “Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United For Israel Tour.”

Blumenthal’s column fairly dripped with hate for Christians in particular, but reserving some for Jews who collaborate with them.

“CUFI has added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby. Hagee and his minions have forged close ties with the Bush White House and members of Congress from Sen. Joseph Lieberman to Sen. John McCain.

In its call for a unilateral military attack on Iran and the expansion of Israeli territory, CUFI has found unwavering encouragement from traditional pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and elements of the Israeli government.”

Let’s digest that before moving on, ok. The warmongering Christians are in a conspiracy with other pro-Israel groups and elements of the expansionist Israeli government to destroy Iran.

Now that we know who the players are; warmongering Christians and expansionist Israel, Blumenthal warns that the Christians are not just warmongers, they are duplicitous, as well.

“But CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers - Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. - must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation. Over a dozen CUFI members eagerly revealed to me their excitement at the prospect of Armageddon occurring tomorrow.”

The real motive behind Christians United For Israel, according to Blumenthal, is suspect, because what Christians really want to do is convert Jews to Christianity.

There are two ways to look at that motive. The first is positive.

The Bible says that Jesus is the only way to heaven and my greatest earthly obligation is to do everything I can to keep people from going to hell. I have nothing to gain in this lifetime by seeing someone converted to Christianity. (more…)

Today Sue commemorates the first anniversary of her beloved mother’s death in this life and her entry into eternal life with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Sue, her Dad and family on this first anniversary of her mother’s homecoming.

Last night I got a telephone call from my and Guss’ precious Aunt Marge, who just lost our beloved uncle last October.

She asked me if I was sitting down and I told her yes. Then she began to cry almost to the point of not being able to understand her. She told me “Something terrible has happened!”

I asked her what was wrong and she told me to wait a minute. She tried to compose herself and I asked again what was wrong. Then she sobbed, “Matthew died this afternoon at 6:30!”

Matthew is her oldest grandchild, and was only 24 years old. We don’t know yet what happened as he seemed in good spirits and good health when he got back home Sunday afternoon.

He went to his room to lie down and locked the door. Sometime later his step-father tried to awaken him and had to break the door down. That’s when he found him, lying in bed, covered with a sheet with his foot outside the sheet, looking as though he had gone to sleep and just didn’t wake up.

It had been a number of years since I had seen Matthew until his Pap-Paw died in October. He was a grown man, very clean-cut and very polite and friendly.

Now, he’s left us to wonder what happened, at least until the autopsy results are known.

His mother is beside herself and will take no comfort from anyone except her father.

As a born-again Christian I find deaths the hardest things to try to deal with and to try to comfort people because it is such an emotional time for those closest to the departed one that no amount of reasoning or saying “I’m sorry” can”t help and I know that.

I go to the Bible (King James version this time) and find Scriptures that talk of death and dying.

We die because we inherited the sinful nature of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

The unknown human author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 9:27:

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

(more…)

As I’ve said many times on this blog I don’t usually watch TV, but last night my aunt called me and told me to turn my TV set to CNN and watch Larry King because Tammy Faye Messner was on.

I turned on the screen and I was shocked! She had colon cancer several years ago and it was thought cured until she found it had spread to her lungs.

She now weighs 65 pounds and says she has gained 5 pounds since her last appearance on the show.

I’ve seen movies and still pictures of Holocaust survivors and she looks like one of them. You can see every bone in her body and she says her back and stomach ache constantly.

She gasps for breath and yet she still has her smile and sense of humor. She has an unwavering faith in Jesus as her Savior and said when she dies she knows she is going straight to heaven, as she pointed her index finger upward.

I live about 10 miles from where PTL was in its hey day. I remember all the hateful press that dogged her as well as her first husband Jim Bakker.

I worked right down the street from the federal courthouse where he was tried and taken out in shackles and handcuffs, begging not to be treated that way.

I have seen closely how these two people hit rock bottom and had no way to look but up.

I saw the T shirts in the malls that had an imprint of makeup all over the front with the words “I ran into Tammy Faye at the mall today.” Funny then. She joked about it too, but it was cruel.

Through all of it Tammy was solid as a rock in her faith in Jesus. It was there for all of us to see, but we were too busy mocking her to see it.

She didn’t change, but I did.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I admire her after seeing the Larry King show last night.

Watch the video for yourself to see how thin she is, how she gasps for breath, and her smile and upbeat attitude based on her love and blessed assurance from Jesus Christ Himself.

May God forgive me for any laughing I did at her. I ask you all to pray that God will ease her pain and suffering and will be with her family when that pain and suffering are finished.

What is an apostate? He or she is someone who becomes a Christian by hearing and believing the truth, then ultimately rejects it—but still walks, talks and acts like a Christian.

Identifying and calling out apostates today is not an easy thing to do. You are called intolerant, a “heretic hunter” and worse. Your concern for the truth is dismissed as divisive, and your efforts are not welcome in the “enlightened” church of the 21st century.

It’s nothing new.

I was prompted to write this when I heard about an Episcopal from Seattle named Ann Holmes Redding, who claimed last month that she is now both a Christian priest and a practicing Muslim. She claims that, since becoming Muslim while remaining Christian, “I have been, by my own estimation, a better teacher, a better preacher and a better Christian.”

What she claims is utterly impossible in the eyes of God. She is either an apostate or someone who never had the truth to begin with. But to call her out on her massive error is to invite attacks of “bigot,” “intolerance” and worse.

But first: what is “the truth?” That Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the only begotten son of God, and that His sacrifice on the cross was and is sufficient for the total remission of sins for those who believe in Him. The truth is that scripture is unerring and sufficient. The truth is that there are no new “truths” to be discovered in God’s word, and that the message that has already been revealed to us is IT.

But today, if you say that and boldly proclaim it, you’re in a hated minority.

And that, too, is nothing new. During Israel’s kingdom period, the prophet Jeremiah often felt as if he were the last true believer among all the people. And the people themselves ignored the repeated warnings of God’s prophets until it was too late, and they were swept to 70 years of captivity in Babylon. During Christ’s time on earth, the Lord repeatedly told the truth about Himself to the Pharisees, but they were so wrapped in their own religion and their own misunderstanding of what they had been given, that they refused to see the Messiah standing right before them!

All of the authors of the New Testament missives warn of apostates in the newly established churches, but none are so pointed as Jude. Jude was a son of Mary and Joseph, making him, along with James, a half-brother of Jesus in His earthly incarnation. Jude urged Christians to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What does this mean? That people who would pervert Christianity and turn it from the truth are being accepted as Christians, but what they’re preaching is poison—and they have to be stopped. Stopped being accepted as teachers and stopped being listened to. “Marked out for condemnation” means that God Himself will deal with them.

And who are some of these apostates? They are leaders of many mainstream denominations who think that they can change the word of God to mean whatever they want it to mean. They are people who think that what was written 2,000 years ago just isn’t hip enough for today, so the truth of Christ needs to be downplayed, even set aside, lest people get scared away from church. They are people who preach feel-good nonsense about getting rich, who claim to be miracle makers, and who try to conform Christ to popular culture instead of conforming themselves to Christ. These are people who reject authority—God’s authority—but still call themselves Christian. The popular Emerging Church movement definitely has problems with apostasy, because its leadership, especially its founder, throws out all doctrine. That movement has toubles because it essentially boils its message down to “Jesus loves you; isn’t that enough?” No, it isn’t. If it were as simple as that, everyone in the world would be Christian.

If you want to get an understanding of just how bad things are getting, and how apostates can so easily mislead people today, try this: compare a sermon of today from any “mainstream” church to one from the same church 50 or 100 years ago. What’s the topic today? Christ crucified for our sins—or your self esteem? Christ glorified—or being “slain in the spirit?” Christ the redeemer—or the “social gospel” of a political party? Try comparing Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” sermon to one by Joel Osteen or one of the other masters of a megachurch. (I don’t know if Osteen is an apostate, but his sermons are light on substance and heavy on fluff.)

Why, then, is doctrine so important? Doesn’t it just limit people? Isn’t there enough Christ to go around for all of us? Doesn’t it cramp the style of a dynamic fresh leader in the church? Don’t ideas from 2,000 years ago just not apply to today? Aren’t they woefully out of date and don’t fit with today’s hip, secularized American culture? Isn’t Christ open to interpretation from one generation to the next? Shouldn’t those concerned with doctrine just lighten up?

Tell that to Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude.

The “lighten up” mentality puts little faith in God. Would not God hand His word down for all time? Would He not give us the means to deal, on a basic level, with all situations? Would He not reveal His entire plan for redemption? To act as if God’s word as handed to us through His scriptures is anything less than adequate for our needs is, frankly, telling God that He isn’t perfect, isn’t adequate, isn’t up to the task, isn’t all-loving, all-knowing and all-providing.

Again, this is nothing new. The means for apostasy may have changed, but the intent hasn’t. Ultimately, it places man before God. It places the human ego before God.

Thanks for reading.

—Truman

Wednesday I read a story in my hometown newspaper about a 22 year old young man who had been killed in Iraq.

It’s never pleasant to read these stories but I owe them the time to read about their death and/or funeral after what they have given to our country.

I was struck by the words of his father, quoted below:

Paul House told mourners that he imagined his son’s transition from a bloody battle in this world to the sublime peace of the next as a gradual and soothing realization.

“As you marched onward in battle, you noticed that your helmet feels weightless and that your armored vest feels like an angel took it off your shoulders,” House said. “You no longer hear the sound of gunfire and bombs. The hot sun is no longer beating on your weary body. You then look down at your feet and notice that the dust you were walking in has turned to gold.”

House imagined his son being welcomed into Heaven by Jesus with “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You are safe with me at last. You have fulfilled your mission in life and will be at peace with me for eternity.”

I am humbled by this young man’s sacrifice and by his parents and brothers. May God keep him in His bosom for all eternity.

I don’t call it the Big Bang but I call it Creation. Some people don’t believe in Creation and prefer to call it Intelligent Design.

I’m no physicist and don’t pretend to understand their mathmetical equations that prove anything, but they have the brain power to do so.

Here is an excerpt from an article at Space.com talking about looking beyond the Big Bang to see what was there.

Scientists could spot clues in the present day of what the cosmos looked like previously. If evidence of the past persisted after the Big Bang, its influence could be spotted in astronomical observations and computational models, Bojowald explained.

However, Bojowald also figures some knowledge of the past was irrevocably lost. For instance, the sheer size of the present universe would suppress precise knowledge of how the universe changed in size before the Big Bang, he said.

“It came as a big surprise that some properties of the universe before the Big Bang may have only such a weak influence on current observations that they are practically undetermined,” Bojowald said of findings detailed online July 1 in the journal Nature Physics.

One implication of this “cosmic forgetfulness,” as Bojowald calls it, is that history does not repeat itself-the fundamental properties of the current era of the universe are different from the last, Bojowald explained. “It’s as if the universe forgot some of its properties and acquired new properties independent of what it had before,” he told SPACE.com.

“The eternal recurrence of absolutely identical universes would seem to be prevented by the apparent existence of an intrinsic cosmic forgetfulness,” he added.

The only way this sinner saved by Grace can explain the Big Bang is God said it and Bang! It was done.

I went to bed early last night and awakened after 8 wonderful hours of blissful rest.

I checked my email and saw that Sue had written to say her aunt in Delaware has suffered a massive stroke and she had been asked by her cousin to be with her cousin and uncle.

The next 48 hours are the touch and go hours and I ask all our readers and bloggers to say a prayer for Sue’s aunt and family and for Sue and her husband as they travel back and forth to visit with them during this difficult time.

Here is something to think about. 

 Where do you stand? 

 Personally I think it’s a nonstarter.

“God either exists or He doesn’t. Based on the testimony, both general revelation (nature) and special revelation (Scriptures/Bible), it is safe to assume that God does in fact exist. It is abundantly fair to conceive, that there is at least 50% chance that the Christian Creator God does in fact exist. Therefore, since we stand to gain eternity, and thus infinity, the wise and safe choice is to live as though God does exist. If we are right, we gain everything, and lose nothing. If we are wrong, we lose nothing and gain nothing. Therefore, based on simple mathematics, only the fool would choose to live a Godless life.” (Pascal Wager)

What’s the number one fear most people have? The FEAR OF DYING! Okay, but if God doesn’t exist, and we all just drift into nothingness when we take our last breath, what are we so afraid of? Socrates said “If death be but a dreamless sleep, what have mortals to fear?” Obviously there’s something after this life, if there weren’t, then we wouldn’t be so afraid of the possibility of spending eternity in heaven or hell.

Before we can begin to believe that God exist, we must have faith that He does. Don’t get it twisted, any really Christian will tell you that at some point in their Christian walk, they’ve doubted the reasoning behind there belief in God, but consider this, faith that has never doubted is of little value, but doubt and faith are inseparable. Faith requires that you believe in something that you’re not sure is there. Example, if I tell you that if you send me your mailing address, then I’ll send you $1,000 in the mail, and you do indeed send me your address, then you have faith that I’ll keep my word. Yes, there may come a point when you’ll doubt what I said is true, but you still send me your address anyhow because you want the cash just in cause I’m telling you the truth. My analogy may suck, but it’s almost the same with the decision to believe that God exist. It’s better to believe than not to believe. Cause in the event that you don’t believe, and you find out that the “thing” you didn’t believe in truly existed, and then you’ve lost. If you believe and that “thing” doesn’t exist, you’ve lost nothing.

Here

I have in the past 45 minutes returned from church. I did not attend Sunday School because the sermon seemed to have touched me so deeply I didn’t want to be distracted from it.

I wanted to think and pray about it and a situation that has been very painful to me.

The sermon series is about our need for friends and our need to be friends to others.

All I could think of was my former blogging partner telling me in her last email to me that she did not accept my offer of forgiveness for what she had done to me because she felt she had done nothing.

I wasn’t totally innocent in the matter, but I did ask her forgiveness for any real or perceived hurt I had caused her. She has refused to forgive me and told me God told her to do it.

She thought I was trying to make peace with God when I was trying to make peace with her. I am at peace with God.

When I responded to her very long email she wrote these words back to me:

FYI - I knew you couldn’t do it!

My husband is right. You aren’t a Christian.

That’s why appealing to your Christian spirit won’t work.

I did not read this email. Nor will I - Get thee behind me, Satan!

These words cut to my very soul and have hurt me more than anything else in my life has ever hurt me, and I must get over them.

Riding home from church in tears, two verses came to me:

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. Matthew 7:6 NASB

I tried to give my friendship and was slapped away numerous times. I was casting my pearls before swine and allowing them to be trampled under their feet by my many efforts at reconciliation.

She is neither a dog nor a swine, but using the analogy that’s exactly what I was doing.

God does not command us to be enemies, and my offer of friendship and reconciliation were sincere. She refused my offers.

The other verse is also from Matthew:

“Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Matthew 10:14 NASB

I shall now shake the dust off my feet and let the Lord sort it out whether it be here or in Heaven. Either way, He has shown me there is no fruit on that tree.

Cross-posted at The Barb Wire

This is a very interesting story. I don’t think it leans one way or the other but some might.

                                  How Evangelicals Became Part of Washington’s Fabric
To the Bush haters of America, the young Monica Goodling is a footnote of this wretched era, one of the many Washington types that they’ll be happy to get rid of come January 2009: Venal Vice President, Ex-Lobbyists Turned Regulators and, in Goodling’s case, Young Evangelicals in High Places.Until she appeared before the House Judiciary Committee this week to testify about her role in the Justice Department firing scandal, Goodling had been mocked on the Internet and on late-night TV as a certain type: one of a “bunch of hayseeds” staffing the administration, as HBO comedian Bill Maher called her.Goodling graduated from Messiah College (”home of the Fighting Christies”) and the law school at Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson (”a televangelist’s diploma mill”) — both Maher’s terms.But the joke is on Maher: The age of the televangelist is as dead as Jerry Falwell, and the Regent Web site treats Robertson like a fondly remembered patriarch from a bygone era, when it was suitable to call yourself a “fundamentalist” and scream on TV.

Goodling is part of a new generation of evangelicals ushered in by Falwell, who insisted that Christians get involved in politics. They are graduates of the exploding number of evangelical colleges, which no longer aim to create a parallel subculture but instead to train “Christian leaders to change the world,” as the Regent mission statement reads.

Story

newton has been a good blogging friend of mine since she and I were the only bloggers on Oh How I Love Jesus. She moved with me and my partners to HRP but continued to write on OHILJ until I shut it down earlier this year.

She has written an email to me that breaks my heart.

There is a lady from her church who has 3 children, the youngest I believe is seven years old. Her husband left her after the third child was born and she became a nurse to support her family.

Monday night she suffered a severe stroke and there is absolutely zero brain activity on the monitor. She is technically dead, but her eldest daughter, who is married and a mother of two, has full power of attorney and I assume full medical power of attorney, and cannot give up her hope that her mother will live, so she will not allow her mother to be taken off the machines that are keeping her alive.

I fully understand how this girl feels as I was in the same situation seven years ago, and I held out hope my mother would come out of it.

I finally realized she was between two worlds and had to go to one or the other and since she wasn’t strong enough to come back to us I told her to go with the Lord.

Making a decision to pull life-sustaining equipment from your parent or anyone you love is the hardest thing I’ve ever been involved in.

I know the heartbreak this daughter and the other children are feeling. Thankfully, a sister of the mother has arrived from New York and will hopefully will give them good advice and, along with Jesus, will be their rock.

I have known of people who have died even while on life-support and I ask if she is to die that we will all pray this is the case for her so her daughter will not have to carry the guilt and she will not be forced against her will to do it by the doctor as we were.

Sweet, kind-hearted newton sent this amendment to her original email and asked me to ask you folks to pray for her friend:

Her name is Karen. Karen V. Originally from Brooklyn, NY.

She is not famous, nor rich. But right now, in the Lord’s presence, she’s a superstar.

(Daniel 12:3)

Please pray for Karen and her family during this difficult time.

Update from newton

I was at church about two hours ago. The secretary there told me that, as of last night, the machines were turned off: her kidneys and liver were taken off her for transplant purposes.

No one, not even the pastor, has any idea as to what kind of funeral arrangements are to be done. Her ex-husband said he was going to do all of that. As of this morning, so far, he has done nothing.

May she rest in peace. It is not unusual to not have funeral arrangements made the morning after a death.

I have just finished reading two very touching stories on the refusal of parents to terminate a pregnancy.

One turns out to have a happy ending.

In “Fighting for Claire,” we read about two parents, already blessed with two children, whose third pregnancy - in which the baby was diagnosed with encephalocele (a portion of the brain being outside the skull - found them fighting the Tide of Termination which blows so fiercely from both the “well-meaning, compassionate” types and from the lawsuit-bitten within the medical community:

…they began to recognize that the more specialized and acclaimed the doctors were, the greater was the pressure to “terminate”…The diagnosis was confirmed, and a fear they heard over and over again was that, because the skull was open, “the brain will be spilling out of the head.” Throughout the pregnancy, doctors couldn’t find the baby’s cerebellum, the section of the brain which controls fine motor skills. Up to nine doctors and technicians couldn’t find the cerebellum.
[...]

As the medical saga proceeded, Mimi found herself going to Mass everyday, receiving the Eucharist and begging the Lord to touch her child and heal her with a miracle. While Mimi prayed with fervor and great faith, Tito (her husband) prepared for whatever the Lord would allow.
[…]
Mimi went into early labor and was rushed to her local hospital where, amidst the fear and stress of the unknowns contained in high-risk pregnancies she delivered by C-section a healthy baby girl, to everyone’s amazement. Every newborn is given and APGAR test, which measures the physical health, reflexes, etc., of the baby on a scale of one through ten. Little Claire, the “hopeless” case, scored a 9.9!

There was, at the base of Claire’s head, a small sac that was surgically removed two months after her birth. Whether Claire’s story is a miracle worked by God in the womb of her mother or whether the multitude of specialists simply got confused by the sight of the sac and offered a severe misdiagnosis, we may never know. But Mimi and Tito know that they chose the good in the face of trial - loving and accepting their child regardless of any medical condition -and that will have eternal rewards.

(more…)