A few weeks ago I went through our medicine drawer and threw away all of our medicine. Pills, both over-the-counter and prescription, syrups, headache medicine, even Tony's epi-pen. I threw out Mina's medicines too, except for her allergy pills that her doctor gave us that are really expensive, and her nebulizer that was hard to get and expensive. I didn't feel like my faith could merit me throwing away that important medicine of hers.
Then, a few days ago, she was going through the drawer where we kept it all, and she saw a small paper bag. When she looked in and saw that it was the allergy pills, she picked them up and took them to the trash. A while later, she told me that I forgot to throw them away. How could I argue?! Then a couple days later, she comes to the kitchen with the box that has her nebulizer in it. Cool!
-------------------
Our neighbor, Summer (5), was at out house watching a movie with us. She had dinner already, but we just started ours. We got ready to say a prayer and asked if she wanted to say it with us, which really only involved her holding our hands. She said yes and Tony said the prayer. After we said amen, she did too.
An hour passed and her mom came to get her. She told Summer the usual mom thing, "What do you say?" "Thank you", and proceeded to say thank you for letting her watch the movie, thank you for the popcorn, thank you for the hot chocolate, and then, after she concluded all of her 'thank you's', she said "Amen!"
We laughed while her mom was just like "What?!" I guess she was thinking what a strange child she has. I wonder if there was a conversation later about that at their house.
--------------------
Mina came home with science homework. We knew it would come, and it did. Evolution. Now, realize, I'm ok with them teaching evolution, but they should at least teach both evolution and creation. Not teach evolution as a definate. Especially when, most likely, a good 80% or more of the people in the school believe in God. The God of the bible.
So here is the question she had:
Explain some possible causes of the extinction of the dinosaurs?
She was irritated by this question because she knew it was all about evolution and didn't even give the possibility of creation. And she wasn't alone. A boy in her class said "What about the flood?"
Here was her answer that she wrote down:
"Other than the real reason, the flood, some possible causes of the extinction of the dinosaurs are...."
I'm not even going to mention the "possible reasons" because they don't deserve the space. What matters is that she believes in the flood. She believes in God. And no amount of brainwashing from these "science" books and the teacher is going to matter to her at this point. She decided to tell the truth in spite of what the book said. I think that's amazing. And if her teacher gives her trouble, she can take it up with...God.
Thank You God for helping Mina to be bold.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
response to my friend's post
Here is my friend's post Faith in Love.
I wanted to respond on her blog but I think I have too much to say, so I'll do a response post.
Dear dovecliff,
Faith and love are my favorite spiritual topics. I agree with you so much that I had to write about it myself.
I John 4:7,8 says the one who doesn't love, has not known God.---We say we do love. We think loving our family is enough, or loving a few friends is enough. But it isn't. 1 John 4:11-13 shows that we should love one another, our brothers. And then, going further, like you showed in Matt 5:43-48, we also have to love our enemies, who may or may not be our brothers.
How do we love our brothers and our enemies? I think we have concern for them. It may seen cliche but what would Jesus do? Would he be mean to them? Maybe insult them? Maybe belittle them? Maybe he'd show them how smart he is to prove how stupid they are. No, I don't think he would. Sure, he got angry and hurt that people were buying and selling in the temple and he drove the animals out with a whip, and told the people to take the doves out and not to turn his Father's house into a market. And in doing that, he wasn't doing anything to pride himself or to be mean. There are times when we are allowed, I believe, to get stern with people if they're doing something against God. But never for our own satisfaction. Never thinking "Yep, I told them that they were pathetic....." We do these things out of love for our Father and for those who we speak with, ALWAYS out of the desire to help them. Not to prove anything.
We have to look at our enemies as God's possible children. Not as a lost cause. Treat them with love. Jesus never was unloving to those who were ordering his death or the ones who drove the nails into his skin. If anyone had the right, it was him. If he didn't, who are we to think we have the right to be mean?
What we HAVE to do, is forgive people. Again, Jesus did. He forgave people who did not deserve it. There is no other answer. We MUST forgive our enemies. And of course, we must forgive our brothers, the ones we love. We do not have the right to make them pay for what they put us through. And, if God forgave them, who are we to continue punishing them? No one at all. Forgiveness isn't just saying you forgive a person. It is in your heart. You feel for them, you care about their relationship with Jesus and our Father. You want them to have that too. You don't just want them to have a good life. You want them to have LIFE. If you don't forgive them, like Matt 6:15 says, your Father will not forgive you. How can you get stronger in your faith if you aren't forgiven? Forgive. Forgive and love the person you forgave. Love them by wanting to show them God through Jesus. Be Jesus for them. BE Jesus for them. Perfect love.
Now for fear...sometimes we think we don't have fear. We might believe that nothing will ever scare us. Nothing will break us. Nothing will get through our hardheadedness (hardheartedness). And that's what it is sometimes. We are so prideful, so afraid (fear) of looking foolish, so afraid of being hurt after we let out guard down, that we just don't let it down. And we think that makes us strong. But that is a LIE. That "strength" comes from flesh, not from God. If we aren't getting our strength from God, it will only hurt us. Fear is very bad. We are told to not be anxious over anything. Don't worry about tomorrow. Don't worry about your provisions. God will provide for you. Yet, what do we do? We store up treasures on earth. We have 401K's and stocks. We have storehouses with food, just in case. That is anxiety. Where is our faith that God will provide? Why are we worrying about the future? Why are we putting faith in ourselves, and in what we can do? Why do we put out faith in God NOT providing for us? Are we not more important than the birds and lilies? Don't be anxious. Ever.
Fear keeps us from wonderful, spirit-filled relationships. Again, we are afraid to look stupid. What if we try something, like say we try to have faith that God will heal our broken leg, without having to go to the hospital. So you pray, but you don't want to get up and walk on it. There are two fears. One, that it will hurt, and two that it won't work, then you feel foolish. But conquering that fear makes our faith stronger. Or maybe our fear is that we don't want to open up to people. We're afraid because we have been so terribly hurt before when we trusted people. So we choose not to let that happen again. That IS fear. Like it or not, it is fear. We have to be willing to hurt. I promise that if we let ourselves trust each other, yes, it will hurt, but we will heal quickly and our Father will make us soooo much stronger for it. It will be so much better once we do. We will grow in faith and love and be able then to help other people out of pure Godly love, rather that our fleshly love. It will come from God.
OK, now I was thinking of crazy things while reading your post. I'm sure I'm way off, but it's still a pretty awesome idea.
You quoted 1 Cor 13:2-8. We can do good things but if we aren't doing them out of love, it is pointless. It means nothing. It isn't what we do, it's why we do it. We may even suffer for another person and we think we must love them if we suffered for them. No, it isn't enough. It has to be pure, without pride, without self-glorifying. It can't be selfish.
Then it goes on about what love is and is not. But then, THEN, at the end, people end it with 'Love never fails'. But it doesn't end there. It goes on with 'But if [there be] prophecies, they will become useless; if tongues, they will cease by themselves; if knowledge, it will become useless.'
Why does it say this after talking about love? Love never fails. And then this? I thought maybe it was saying that love will never go away, but at some point prophesying, tongues, and knowledge will go away. And I think that is true. One day, there will be no need for those things. When Jesus comes and makes the Kingdom complete, there will be no need for these things. But there will still be a need for love.
It made me think of it like this though. If you don't have love, eventually you will stop prophesying, you will stop with tongues, and your knowledge will be useless.
Eh, I don't know why it came across that way to me while I was reading your post. It sounded good then.
I have heard of people who speak in tongues and they have a form of godly devotion, but I can see that their love isn't pure. I know people who are knowledgeable in "spiritual" things, but it isn't pure. I don't know about the prophesying.
So, yeah. Those are my thoughts on your post.
I wanted to respond on her blog but I think I have too much to say, so I'll do a response post.
Dear dovecliff,
Faith and love are my favorite spiritual topics. I agree with you so much that I had to write about it myself.
I John 4:7,8 says the one who doesn't love, has not known God.---We say we do love. We think loving our family is enough, or loving a few friends is enough. But it isn't. 1 John 4:11-13 shows that we should love one another, our brothers. And then, going further, like you showed in Matt 5:43-48, we also have to love our enemies, who may or may not be our brothers.
How do we love our brothers and our enemies? I think we have concern for them. It may seen cliche but what would Jesus do? Would he be mean to them? Maybe insult them? Maybe belittle them? Maybe he'd show them how smart he is to prove how stupid they are. No, I don't think he would. Sure, he got angry and hurt that people were buying and selling in the temple and he drove the animals out with a whip, and told the people to take the doves out and not to turn his Father's house into a market. And in doing that, he wasn't doing anything to pride himself or to be mean. There are times when we are allowed, I believe, to get stern with people if they're doing something against God. But never for our own satisfaction. Never thinking "Yep, I told them that they were pathetic....." We do these things out of love for our Father and for those who we speak with, ALWAYS out of the desire to help them. Not to prove anything.
We have to look at our enemies as God's possible children. Not as a lost cause. Treat them with love. Jesus never was unloving to those who were ordering his death or the ones who drove the nails into his skin. If anyone had the right, it was him. If he didn't, who are we to think we have the right to be mean?
What we HAVE to do, is forgive people. Again, Jesus did. He forgave people who did not deserve it. There is no other answer. We MUST forgive our enemies. And of course, we must forgive our brothers, the ones we love. We do not have the right to make them pay for what they put us through. And, if God forgave them, who are we to continue punishing them? No one at all. Forgiveness isn't just saying you forgive a person. It is in your heart. You feel for them, you care about their relationship with Jesus and our Father. You want them to have that too. You don't just want them to have a good life. You want them to have LIFE. If you don't forgive them, like Matt 6:15 says, your Father will not forgive you. How can you get stronger in your faith if you aren't forgiven? Forgive. Forgive and love the person you forgave. Love them by wanting to show them God through Jesus. Be Jesus for them. BE Jesus for them. Perfect love.
Now for fear...sometimes we think we don't have fear. We might believe that nothing will ever scare us. Nothing will break us. Nothing will get through our hardheadedness (hardheartedness). And that's what it is sometimes. We are so prideful, so afraid (fear) of looking foolish, so afraid of being hurt after we let out guard down, that we just don't let it down. And we think that makes us strong. But that is a LIE. That "strength" comes from flesh, not from God. If we aren't getting our strength from God, it will only hurt us. Fear is very bad. We are told to not be anxious over anything. Don't worry about tomorrow. Don't worry about your provisions. God will provide for you. Yet, what do we do? We store up treasures on earth. We have 401K's and stocks. We have storehouses with food, just in case. That is anxiety. Where is our faith that God will provide? Why are we worrying about the future? Why are we putting faith in ourselves, and in what we can do? Why do we put out faith in God NOT providing for us? Are we not more important than the birds and lilies? Don't be anxious. Ever.
Fear keeps us from wonderful, spirit-filled relationships. Again, we are afraid to look stupid. What if we try something, like say we try to have faith that God will heal our broken leg, without having to go to the hospital. So you pray, but you don't want to get up and walk on it. There are two fears. One, that it will hurt, and two that it won't work, then you feel foolish. But conquering that fear makes our faith stronger. Or maybe our fear is that we don't want to open up to people. We're afraid because we have been so terribly hurt before when we trusted people. So we choose not to let that happen again. That IS fear. Like it or not, it is fear. We have to be willing to hurt. I promise that if we let ourselves trust each other, yes, it will hurt, but we will heal quickly and our Father will make us soooo much stronger for it. It will be so much better once we do. We will grow in faith and love and be able then to help other people out of pure Godly love, rather that our fleshly love. It will come from God.
OK, now I was thinking of crazy things while reading your post. I'm sure I'm way off, but it's still a pretty awesome idea.
You quoted 1 Cor 13:2-8. We can do good things but if we aren't doing them out of love, it is pointless. It means nothing. It isn't what we do, it's why we do it. We may even suffer for another person and we think we must love them if we suffered for them. No, it isn't enough. It has to be pure, without pride, without self-glorifying. It can't be selfish.
Then it goes on about what love is and is not. But then, THEN, at the end, people end it with 'Love never fails'. But it doesn't end there. It goes on with 'But if [there be] prophecies, they will become useless; if tongues, they will cease by themselves; if knowledge, it will become useless.'
Why does it say this after talking about love? Love never fails. And then this? I thought maybe it was saying that love will never go away, but at some point prophesying, tongues, and knowledge will go away. And I think that is true. One day, there will be no need for those things. When Jesus comes and makes the Kingdom complete, there will be no need for these things. But there will still be a need for love.
It made me think of it like this though. If you don't have love, eventually you will stop prophesying, you will stop with tongues, and your knowledge will be useless.
Eh, I don't know why it came across that way to me while I was reading your post. It sounded good then.
I have heard of people who speak in tongues and they have a form of godly devotion, but I can see that their love isn't pure. I know people who are knowledgeable in "spiritual" things, but it isn't pure. I don't know about the prophesying.
So, yeah. Those are my thoughts on your post.
teeth and a request
I can honestly call myself a procrastinator. I will wait until I have no dishes before I would wash any. I will have nothing but a can of coconut milk in the cabinet before I go shopping. I will stay awake until my head is about to fall off before I sleep. And I will let me teeth go until the pain is so bad that I'm crying.
I have fillings that went bad a few years back and probably new cavities as well. I really don't mind going to the dentist. I mean, yeah, I hate going and getting shots. I hate the gooey stuff they put on your teeth to clean them. I hate the whiring noise. And the numb mouth up to my ear that lasts all day. But I would still be willing to go. Along with procrastinating, I also find it hard to get money to go. I know it would cost at least $800. And when we save money, it's usually for a reason. Sometimes for stupid reasons, like going to Disney World. Or for responsible reasons like paying taxes or to fix our sewer.
I can ignore the pain of the cavities by avoiding cold or sweet things that could stick to my teeth, like chocolate candy or caramel. And the pain can be excrutiating. It would usually last for a minute, slowly fading.
I have been working on making my faith alive. You know, walk the walk, not just talk the talk. What's the point in knowing God CAN help you, if you don't believe that He WILL help you? Is your faith that He will heal you or is it that He won't? If you think He won't, then your faith is what fails you, not God.
So, the other day we went to rent a movie and there were people selling Girl Scout cookies. We very rarely get them. I haven't had them in probably 4 years or more. I know Tony likes Thin Mints, as do we all, and I wanted Caramel Delites. We got one of each.
Now, I had just been complaining to Tony about how my teeth hurt so bad when I eat chocolate or caramel and that I have prayed about it. So I will be eating something and not even think about it and start eating on the right side of my mouth, where it hurts. And then I feel that familiar pain coming on. And I say to God "Now why is it that I pray for you to fix my teeth and yet I still have pain? I wasn't avoiding eating on that side of my mouth, Father. Sometimes I avoid it, but I'm trying to have faith and I ate on that side, so shouldn't it not have hurt?" And I continue to pray, first for the pain to go away, then for more faith.
After we bought the cookies, we went home with our movie and watched it. I opened the Caramel Delites and had one. This time, though, I remembered that my teeth normally hurt on the one side and I made it a point to chew on that side that it hurts on. I figure if I'm really going to put faith in God, then I need to act on that faith. I had to believe that I was healed and that since I'm healed, it will NOT hurt for me to eat sweet stuff. And so I ate it. And it didn't hurt. Later I had another. No pian. The next day, the same thing. I thank God.
God can give and He can take. As long as my faith is pure, I believe my teeth will remain well. If I begin doubting again, it will come back.
-----------------------------
And now a request.
My mom has been trying to renew her loan for months now. Well, she's been trying to figure out which portion is hers, and which is mine. That has proven impossible. Finally she got the paperwork filled out and they took them in today. I'm thinking, thank goodness, because I want to quit paying nearly $200 extra a month on this ARM loan that has expired. So we're paying all this extra interest. Then she drops the bomb. She talked with the loan person about my situation with the loan and he said it should be no problem for us to get a loan and that my mom should email me the information tonight and tomorrow I can just run it up there and get it processed with hers. Then she also tells me that it would be a 5 year ARM. I tell her that I don't want to get an ARM, because I see how much of a hassle it has been, and if the economy begins to collapse, I don't want my house to get taken from me. And it will happen whether we have a regular loan or an ARM loan, really. I don't want a loan at all. Then she says "well, if you want a fixed rate loan, it will take two months to process it. " She says that as if I care. She has burdened me with her loan that she has put off refinancing. Because of it, it has cost me thousands of dollars in interest. And now she wants me to screw up my loan by getting an ARM loan , just so she can get her loan processed now, instead of in two months.
So I called Tony and he is seeing about loans from someone. And I'm praying for a solution. Whether it be our own loan, my parents keeping us on theirs, or even $30,000 to fall from the sky.
I'm asking you to please pray that God will help us with this and help us to have faith and patience. Not fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety are anti-God. They come from satan, not God. I don't want or need that. Also, I find that when I stop worrying, miracles happen.
Thank you.
I have fillings that went bad a few years back and probably new cavities as well. I really don't mind going to the dentist. I mean, yeah, I hate going and getting shots. I hate the gooey stuff they put on your teeth to clean them. I hate the whiring noise. And the numb mouth up to my ear that lasts all day. But I would still be willing to go. Along with procrastinating, I also find it hard to get money to go. I know it would cost at least $800. And when we save money, it's usually for a reason. Sometimes for stupid reasons, like going to Disney World. Or for responsible reasons like paying taxes or to fix our sewer.
I can ignore the pain of the cavities by avoiding cold or sweet things that could stick to my teeth, like chocolate candy or caramel. And the pain can be excrutiating. It would usually last for a minute, slowly fading.
I have been working on making my faith alive. You know, walk the walk, not just talk the talk. What's the point in knowing God CAN help you, if you don't believe that He WILL help you? Is your faith that He will heal you or is it that He won't? If you think He won't, then your faith is what fails you, not God.
So, the other day we went to rent a movie and there were people selling Girl Scout cookies. We very rarely get them. I haven't had them in probably 4 years or more. I know Tony likes Thin Mints, as do we all, and I wanted Caramel Delites. We got one of each.
Now, I had just been complaining to Tony about how my teeth hurt so bad when I eat chocolate or caramel and that I have prayed about it. So I will be eating something and not even think about it and start eating on the right side of my mouth, where it hurts. And then I feel that familiar pain coming on. And I say to God "Now why is it that I pray for you to fix my teeth and yet I still have pain? I wasn't avoiding eating on that side of my mouth, Father. Sometimes I avoid it, but I'm trying to have faith and I ate on that side, so shouldn't it not have hurt?" And I continue to pray, first for the pain to go away, then for more faith.
After we bought the cookies, we went home with our movie and watched it. I opened the Caramel Delites and had one. This time, though, I remembered that my teeth normally hurt on the one side and I made it a point to chew on that side that it hurts on. I figure if I'm really going to put faith in God, then I need to act on that faith. I had to believe that I was healed and that since I'm healed, it will NOT hurt for me to eat sweet stuff. And so I ate it. And it didn't hurt. Later I had another. No pian. The next day, the same thing. I thank God.
God can give and He can take. As long as my faith is pure, I believe my teeth will remain well. If I begin doubting again, it will come back.
-----------------------------
And now a request.
My mom has been trying to renew her loan for months now. Well, she's been trying to figure out which portion is hers, and which is mine. That has proven impossible. Finally she got the paperwork filled out and they took them in today. I'm thinking, thank goodness, because I want to quit paying nearly $200 extra a month on this ARM loan that has expired. So we're paying all this extra interest. Then she drops the bomb. She talked with the loan person about my situation with the loan and he said it should be no problem for us to get a loan and that my mom should email me the information tonight and tomorrow I can just run it up there and get it processed with hers. Then she also tells me that it would be a 5 year ARM. I tell her that I don't want to get an ARM, because I see how much of a hassle it has been, and if the economy begins to collapse, I don't want my house to get taken from me. And it will happen whether we have a regular loan or an ARM loan, really. I don't want a loan at all. Then she says "well, if you want a fixed rate loan, it will take two months to process it. " She says that as if I care. She has burdened me with her loan that she has put off refinancing. Because of it, it has cost me thousands of dollars in interest. And now she wants me to screw up my loan by getting an ARM loan , just so she can get her loan processed now, instead of in two months.
So I called Tony and he is seeing about loans from someone. And I'm praying for a solution. Whether it be our own loan, my parents keeping us on theirs, or even $30,000 to fall from the sky.
I'm asking you to please pray that God will help us with this and help us to have faith and patience. Not fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety are anti-God. They come from satan, not God. I don't want or need that. Also, I find that when I stop worrying, miracles happen.
Thank you.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
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