I call her "mom" but Jesus calls her friend and He tells her things...

So my mom started a family email journal and we write stuff and the whole family gets it (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc...) This is what my mom wrote to the whole family recently and I wanted to post it for the world to see or at least the like 3 of you that may read my blog :) I call her "mom" but Jesus calls her friend and He has revealed His heart to her...

As you all know - I like to read and I am consistently looking at new books to see what is out there. It has become more and more alarming to me to see a strong trend of books on the idea that belief in God is harmful - individually and to our society.

Here is a book from the best seller list: Equally comedic and insightful, Letting Go of God. Anyone who thinks that Julia Sweeney is just the comedian who played "Pat" on Saturday Night Live, doesn't know Julia Sweeney. Letting Go of God, an elegantly written and beautifully performed monologue about her loss of faith. It made me laugh - a lot - and think even more. Far from being an angry atheistic creed, it is an uplifting journey of the heart.

Here is a website that is blatantly against God. Not fun to read through but it shows how direct the fight has become to wipe out Christianity. Godisimaginary.com

I realize that there are some crazy beliefs out there and also that organized religion has been harmful many times. But there is a strong movement away from God and toward the darker side of spirituality. I noticed a huge outbreak of novels about vampires. You may have heard that Anne Rice became a believer and gave up writing about vampires. It seems that Satan's response to that has been to raise up 100's of people writing about vampires. Many of them are sexual and involve a woman meeting the man of her dreams who just happens to be a vampire. We all have a longing for more - for something beyond us - something supernatural. As God becomes less and less a good option - people are moving toward the dark side of spirituality.

The picture I have is that we are again before the tree of Life and being offered the apple. Satan is offering the lie of all knowledge - that we don't need God, in fact we can be God -we can have the power ourselves without waiting for God or without letting him hamper our ideas or desires.

Not taking the apple, the other option we are offered, is so against our culture. Submitting, waiting, trusting, believing – these all go against our culture of having what we want when we want it. Eve didn’t want to wait – she didn’t want to learn through relationship – waiting till the evening for God to speak with her – she wanted it all immediately. How much easier it would be if we could just eat and apple and have all the knowledge we need down-loaded to us. God could do that - but instead he chose relationships - he wants to spend time with us -teaching us - helping us grow.

I used to read the account of Sodom and Gomorra and wonder how a society could get that way, so off course, so self centered that all they cared about was what fed their desires. I am beginning to understand for I am seeing it happen all around me. People choose to believe the things that allow them to do what they want to do. - As God becomes more of a liability and people lean more into their own selfish desires and pursuits - we move into the days of Sodom and the days of Noah - where God was broken hearted by the people he made and judgment came.

I am writing this because I am concerned that we stay diligent - that we know the times - like the sons of Issachar. How easy is could be to become one of the 5 virgins who had run out of oil. I feel urgency in my prayers - that we guard our spirits - that we make sure of our hearts. The spiritual atmosphere is quickly changing in our country. It is moving from knowing and trusting God to trusting in our selves and our dark nature. How did England go from a Great Awakening to a country that does not believe in God? It can happen here and is well on the way. I feel that we have to be sure of our own personal pursuit and knowledge of our God - not just church activities but our own response to him. As Evan used to tell me - we must know God so deeply that we understand what he is doing in these difficult times so that we will not be offended by him. This scripture from Ezekiel keeps coming to me. .

Judgment on Persistent Unfaithfulness - Ezekiel 14

12 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying: 13 “Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. 14 Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord GOD. 15 “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they empty it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts, 16 even though these three men were in it, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; only they would be delivered, and the land would be desolate. 17 “Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, ‘Sword, go through the land,’ and I cut off man and beast from it, 18 even though these three men were in it, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered. 19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, 20 even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.”

It is vital that we be able to stand even if we have to stand on our own. Things could change very quickly and we could lose our support systems – we have to be know what we believe and whom we believe in.

poop...

I know some significant time has elapsed since my last post but some things move a person to write again. In my case, its poop.

I never really had to think much about poop until I started having babies. All of a sudden I started having to carry another whole bag with me wherever I went just in case there was poop. I got used to that after a while and even stopped noticing the extra amounts of time that I had to dwell on poop.

Poop has once again caught my attention.

In my 6th or 7th hour of sleep Aiden lets me know that he has to poop. Sleep ends and the day begins with poop.

Later, that morning poop surfaced again. Literally. My basement flooded through the floor drain. Apparently tree roots had conspired against me and decided it would be amusing to stop the normal flow of water and sewage that usually politely leaves my house. Aiden's morning treasure was amidst some other lovely expressions of human waste floating around my basement.

Bible verse: God doesn't like to step in poop...

Det. 23:12 - 14 “Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp...