In real life, I'm an extremely soft spoken woman, an introvert of all introverts.
On normal occasions this is not a political blog or a controversial space.
But I have so much on my heart.
I am not good with speaking my heart but writing on this blog is a way that I can lay my heart bare. And if you've known me for any length of time you know that my heart is far from being malicious or condescending or judgmental. I am, in fact, a rather passive person. But Jesus is to important to me for me to be quiet right now. In fact, He's the only One on the planet that would compel me to be bold when all I really want to do is live my quiet little life here on the farm.
I am not a debater. I am simply a woman who loves Jesus and doesn't want our nation to forget how much we need Him.
READ ON WITH GRACE, Please...
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There is so much going on with our country right now that not only breaks my heart, but quite frankly it scares me.
Hitler didn't take over by force. He was voted in. And he made things SEEM so good, when in fact his main tool was removing religion and replacing it with himself.
And before you roll your eyes and think I'm some kind of extremest, just hear me out.
I am not saying that Obama is Hitler.
What I am saying is that deception creeps in quietly in the night.
Satan, when he offered the apple to Eve, chose his words carefully, and now we're all in quite the pickle. After all, what harm could biting into an apple really cause?
When Satan was tempting Jesus in the desert, He took the very Word of God and twisted it right upside down.
That's Satan's greatest tool.
He takes counterfeit money and makes it look so much like the real thing, that before anyone discovers his dirty ploy, trillions of fake dollars have been spent all over the world.
Thus the point of this entire post... We must now, more than ever, be FIRM in our knowledge of the truth of the Word of God. Because the sad reality is that we can so easily mistake a good looking lie, for the truth.
Over the past century we have slowly been handing our children over to the care and direction of people outside of our home. Less than 100 years ago, the majority of families, ate together, worked together, studied together, lived life__together. Opportunities to grow in knowledge are wonderful. But according to the Word of God, there is no knowledge worth knowing apart from Christ.
This is not a post about whether we should send our kids to public school, or whether we should home school.
It's so much more important than that. The main question must be whether or not we are really training up our children to really know their need for Christ in ALL things, or are we allowing our society to saturate them in the belief that they can and will thrive in being their own God.
Society can boast of encouraging morality and service projects but we cannot forget that no matter how many character traits are taught, they are utterly pointless without a firm understanding of our need for God in all things. If we are not serving, loving, and living in the strength of, and for the glory of God, then we will spend a life time striving in vain for something that we can never obtain apart from Christ.
If kids aren't learning to serve others because Christ came not to be served, but to serve, then what good is service?(Mathew 20:28) Do they serve so that they might boast in themselves? (1 Corinthians 1:28-30) Hitler did many "good" things. He provided free healthcare, food, jobs. But he did it all with a poster of himself hanging at the front of every classroom in the nation and he did it at the fatal expense of an entire culture. Why we do things is just as important as What we do.
If kids learn to depend on themselves rather than Christ, where will their hope come from? How will they deal with tragedy and disappointment and all the realities of this broken world without the hope that comes from Jesus?
How can kids learn to to save and sacrifice, when their parents and their government are CONSTANTLY living outside of their means? And the saddest thing of all, is that all this "stuff" that we've accumulated over the past century has made us the absolute, most miserable generation in history. Do you want to know who the most content generation was?? Those poor folks who went through the Great Depression. And I'm thinking it was because they lived for others above themselves.
How can kids know that we are able to forgive, unless they know that while we were yet sinners, Christ forgave us. Forgiveness is nearly impossible unless you know in your bones the unexplainable joy that comes when you realize that the heinousness of your sin has been undeservedly washed away by the blood of Jesus.
We cannot save ourselves.
We have got to stop pointing fingers a the gun folks, and whoever else we feel like blaming, and we need to take responsibility as a generation of parents. It is not only a command, but a total privilege that we've been given to rise up and exemplify Christ to the next generation. Parenting is a gift beyond measure and what greater way to spend a lifetime than to pour truth into souls for the glory of God?
"These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."( Deut. 6)
What our country needs is Christ.
What our children need is Christ.
Humanism (an idolizing of self and self-sufficiency) will not carry us.
It will destroy us from the inside out.
What we pour into our children matters. What we allow others to pour into our children matters.
It will effect generations to come.
And our choices will either bring a nation further into the glorious riches of their Savior or Our Savior will sadly hand us over to our own pride.
"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.”( Ps. 1:25, 28)
God's Word must be more than idle words, it MUST be our very life. (Deut. 32:47)
I have been praying this simple poem over our nation, and over our homes, praying that we (starting with me) would remember that God is what we need...
Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question "Why?"
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand, That God is what we need!
Change starts with families and the way we persevere in raising our treasures to live and thrive on the richness and powerful truth of The Word of God.
If we ignore the fact that Christ is rapidly disappearing from our nation, and choose our desire for comfort and convenience over Christ, we will fall.
Submission to the God who gave us His only Son so that we might have life, that my dear friends, is our only hope.
Him and Him alone.
We can move in the right direction by loving God, speaking of God, and living our own lives for the glory of God in front of, and alongside our children. We can bathe them and ourselves in His sweet Word all day long, every day of our lives. (Joshua 1:8)
Our homes are a powerful witness to communities.
May we as a nation, once again find fullness of joy in our Jesus and boldly live solely for Him for He is worthy of all our praise. (Psalm 16:11, Psalm 96:4 )
Here are several links to some challenging articles...
My heart is not to offend, it's to challenge myself and others who love Him that we can do nothing apart from Christ... We need Him so badly.
Columbine Student's Father, 12 Years Later- I am so thankful for this Dad. Just so thankful.
One Womans Experience In Nazi Austria... I am well aware of the controversy of this article. What I appreciate about this woman's testimony is that deception is nothing new under the sun. Satan deceived people then and he deceives people now. And the thing is, he makes it look sooo good.
Parents Have Such A Tremendous Privilege... Although this woman is very passionate about homeschooling, what challenged me in this article was the reminder that children are a privilege and parents have a tremendous opportunity to influence nations through the love and training that goes on in our homes.
"The generation we raise is only as healthy as the family that raises it." We are so richly blessed to have these amazing little people in our homes! Richly, richly blessed. :)
