March 2009 Archives

Yep. Her birthday was last Wednesday and we celebrated Saturday night. It was fun! We really enjoyed ourselves and she had a ball destroying her cake.

A member of our church read this to us Sunday night and our Pastor took the opportunity to talk to us about it. I immediately felt convicted as I found myself in it. It shined a light on some areas of my own life that I need to deal with and get right in.

Lord, is it I ...

who has stopped fellowshipping with other believers?

who has become full of pride and self-righteousness?

who no longer possesses a geniune overcoming testimony?

who serves you with only a portion of my heart?

who has lost control of my temper?

who has gone astray from conviction?

who has allowed my prayer life to become little more than a ritural or a habit at dinner time?

who has tried to make people believe something about me that You know really isn't true?

who has failed to spend time reading and studying Your precious Word?

who has become a spectator rather than a participant in prayer and worship?

who has become embarrassed to stand up or speak up for You?

who has held a grudge or unforgiveness?

who has gone places I shouldn't have gone or watched things I shouldn't have watched and said things I shouldn't have said?

who makes excuses for the laziness in my efforts to live godly?

who has developed attitudes of apathy and complacency and has become unresponsive to Your voice in my life?

who has failed to honor You in my finances by withholding my tithes and offerings?

who spends little or no private time in Your presence?

who hides unconfessed or unforsaken sins in my heart?

who finds it easier to judge and criticize than to uplift a fellow believer?

who lacks a geniune burden for the lost?

who has become secretly in love with this world's system and it's pleasures?

who talks about revival but refuses to meet the personal conditions for revival?

who would rather have my ears tickled than to hear the truth about my spiritual condition?

I do not know who the author is, but I wanted to share it. I don't think they will mind. :) 

Shane Vander Hart has a post on Fetal Farming that quotes Jacob M. Appel, a bioethicist, regarding aborting babies for their organs. Here is just one sentence ...

Since far more women have legal abortions each year in the United States than would be required to clear organ wait-lists, if only a small percentage of those women could be persuaded to carry their fetuses to the necessary point of development for transplantation, society might realize significant public health benefits.

Can I hurl now? What this man suggests is morally reprehensible and evil. It is bad enough we have women in this country who feel that their only viable option is to murder their own babies ... but then to encourage them to do so ... so we can farm their organs? This is wrong on so many levels. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who thinks that this is a good idea has lost their minds. They need serious psychiatric help. Better yet, they need Jesus. Really.

It gets worse if you really want to read all of it.

While I get that Grassley really doesn't want anyone to commit suicide and all ... that comment wasn't appropriate. He could have just said that the execs at AIG should be ashamed of themselves and apologize for their actions. We know it isn't going to happen, but we could hope.

And, as for this ...

President Barack Obama lambasted the insurance giant for "recklessness and greed" on Monday and pledged to try to block payment of the bonuses.

Good luck with that. Y'all have already let those horses out of the barn. I don't think you are going to have an easy time of reining them back in.

A family member of mine is having a really hard time with someone in their church and I would love it if you would remember them in prayer. I am not going to go into great detail about this or give names ... or even where this is happening. That is not important. But, what has become a simple request has turned into a really weird situation. There is some serious childish behavior going on. I have never seen anything like it ... except maybe when I was in high school. They didn't have Facebook or blogs then though.

We only have $1712.10 to go! We are so excited! The team is preparing now with daily devotionals and a student training manual. We are continuing with our Sunday morning canteen to continue raising funds and the kids are taking $10 pledges from anyone who will make one.

Thank you for your kindness and assistance in this endeavor. It is so appreciated!

Right now, my blog is suffering from some serious issues so don't be surprised if you come over here and see a 500 Internal Server Error. Hostgator is supposedly trying to fix it.

It all started a few months back. OpenID quit working and 403 Forbidden Errors abounded. Then the same thing happened for those signing in with TypePad. Yesterday, I noticed that my trackbacks were being throttled. That was the last straw.

I called Hostgator and they fixed it where TypePad could signin. So, I allowed OpenID to be an option, rebuilt, and now this is happening. I still can't trackback either. I don't know what is going on.

If anyone knows of a good host that has no issues with MT running on their servers ... and doesn't cost a fortune ... let me know. I pay around $10 a month right now.

Update 3/13/09: Well, it looks like my blog is fixed! I am hoping so. Let me know if you get anything funny.

I just wanted to take a moment and update you on the fundraising I have been doing for four of our youth to go to Belgium. We did a BBQ Potato Fundraiser yesterday and we made a profit of $1600! Isn't that great?

Also, with the donations I have received online and the money we have made, we are only $2404.32 from having all of our money. The deadline is March 15th for our funds to be in, but we have been given a little more time to come up with some more funds. So ... if you would like to donate ... please feel free to do so. You can use that nifty button over there -----> and it will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We are so excited. Belgium is slowly becoming a reality for us and I can't wait to see what God will do.

I found this on Twitter ...

Saying "It's been a cold winter proves global warming doesn't exist" is like saying "I felt great when I did cocaine, so it can't be bad for you."

I have never understood why some Christians are so dead set against the thought of global warming. I remember studying it in 8th grade Advanced Biology and I really don't get what the big deal is ... other than maybe it convicts them because we haven't really done that great a job at being stewards of the earth God gave us. We have actually sucked at it in a very big way.

Who knows.

Yesterday, as I stood on the balcony at church and listened to the missionary from Calcutta Mercy Ministries, my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. Hot tears stained my cheeks as I watched the footage of the baby girl being fed by her nurse. The baby was born in India, abandoned by her mother, and was born with a cleft palate. According to the video, that put two strikes against her. Being born a female made that three.

This little baby's face was so deformed, she could not even suckle a bottle. The nurse had to hold her and feed her from a spoon.

Call me a bleeding heart all you want, but I have the heart that God gave me. I can't look upon a person who is hurting, who needs help, who needs food, who needs clothing, who needs love ... and not care. I am not that kind of person and I don't understand how anyone can claim they are a follower of Christ and then not care.

God gives us a new heart, a new mind, a new way of looking at things. As Christians we are called to bear good fruit. I don't think apathy qualifies. Actually, I know it doesn't.

I have had a couple of people write me and tell me that they would love to make a donation to help our youth get to Brussels, Beligium for Spring Break. This is a once in a lifetime trip for these kids and we have struggled to raise the funds to get them there. We are working hard to raise the money but with Winter Storm '09, a lot of people are just donated out ... even our local businesses like Wal-Mart. It has really left us struggling.

I have wracked my brains trying to figure out a way to take donations without making the parents at our church nervous and I have come up with PayPal. It works. I have an account with them and have since 2000. You don't have to have an account to use them. So, if you are interested in helping us out ... we would so appreciate it. I am not asking for a certain amount. Whatever you can give is money we don't have.

I have placed a nifty donation button in my sidebar for your convenience. Thank you!

I said recently in a comment that I wanted to read Christian blogs that edify their readers. One of my favorite blogs ... even though Cory does not post that often ... is The Cantankerous Christian. He is a Kentucky blogger like me. And ... he writes some of the most personal and thought-provoking posts that I have ever read. I love how he just opens himself up, lets you see where he is on a spiritual level and what God is doing in his life. It is awesome.

Anywho ... check him out. His latest post is WWYD...What Will YOU Do?

Blogrolling is back and ad-laden. Just click on any link in my blogroll and you will see what I mean. I am glad it is back though I don't see my blogrolls updating. The blogs with the latest posts are not rising to the top.

The new Google Friend Connect will not fit in my sidebar. It is too big even at it's minimum width of 200 pixels. I can force it to the 160 that I need ... but it doesn't look right. They need to rework their code for blogs with smaller sidebars.

Just sayin' ...

Addendum: I may be wrong. Blogrolling may be updating blogs ... but all the appendages are missing. I know that when the Southern Blog Federation used to update, the blogs with the newest posts would say *YeeHaw* and they don't anymore.

The Human Rights Campaign has created a campaign called End The Lies with the goal of exposing "the lies and fear-tactics of anti-LGBT voices" and even refers to such people as dishonest and bigoted.

See ... I have a little problem with this. If I am correct ... this site is basically saying that if you are not for gay marriage then you are an "anti-LGBT" voice and that you are lying, using fear-tactics, and you are a bigot. Because ... not supporting a group of people who are asking for something that is against everything you believe in and is not a right, but a special priviledge ... makes you a lying bigot.

I don't think so. You don't have to like me because I don't believe as you do ... but making it a faux human rights issue doesn't make you right. Calling me names doesn't endear you to me. Creating a wall and adding people to it in some kind of attempt to shame them just makes you look ignorant and childish.

And, I am not even a member of the "Far Right" and never have been.

The sad thing is ... the more you persist in attacking those that oppose you, the more we dig in. We are standing on our principles. We are standing on our faith. We are standing on the truth. You can call it lies and bigotry all day long but it doesn't change the fact that it is neither a lie nor is it bigotry to tell you that God made marriage to be between one man and one woman. It is also not a lie or bigotry to tell you that homosexual sex is a sin. So is heterosexual sex outside of marriage. The fact that people do both and society is becoming more accepting of both does not change that.

Neither does that website nor your lies.

Related Posts:

• Gay Marriage
• Gay Marriage: Redux
• Calling It What It Is

As anyone who has read my last two entries knows ... I have been feeling a bit down and overwhelmed. For a minute there, I really worried about my own sanity in all this. It was just getting to be too much, especially for one person. Thankfully, I have a moment to breathe before we have to get busy again.

Shorty is off to their team's orientation weekend. All four girls are going and when they come home they will be more prepared and hopefully renewed so that they can buckle down and help get the money we need to pay for their trip. They are taking a check with them for about half of the funds needed for the trip and we are praising God for that.

You know ... we know we are not supposed to worry. We know that God is in control. But, it is so easy to let our flesh take over and run us ragged and boy did I let it. I knew we needed more money and I knew we were not seeing it the way we needed to ... and I let it bother me something fierce. Well, God heard the cries of His daughter and we received two donations back to back ... one for $200 and another for $1000!

We needed those donations so bad. Not just for our total bottom line, but also for our piece of mind. And, it has renewed the girls and they are fired up and ready to come back and make the rest of their money.

Now, I get to rest for a minute. Sunday we will be back at it. The girls will raise some money at Sam's Club while we shop for the BBQ Potato Dinner we have coming up. All I have to do is get their cans ready and that is no big deal. So, tonight and tomorrow ... I will concentrate on getting some stuff done here at home and making a little time for myself.

God is good and He is ever so patient with me. I thank Him and I praise Him. And, thank you for caring enough to pray for me. I know it also has played a part in my better state of mind and spirit. :)

I am really struggling right now. My faith is strong and I love my Lord ... but I am deeply discouraged by some earthly matters. I am bothered greatly by a few things that are going on.

One is the lack of enthusiasm that has been displayed for our youth who are trying to get to Belgium for Spring Break on a mission trip. Another is a change on our Praise & Worship team. They are weights around my neck and I just can't seem to get out from under them.

Plus ... they leave me wondering if I don't need to just step back. I am so frustrated. If it weren't for the fact that I promised my support and my daughter is one of those going to Belgium ... I would walk away completely from this fundraising endeavor. I feel like I am trying to climb a mountain with no equipment ... just my bare hands and feet. I am working myself into the ground and I can't help but wonder if it is all for nothing.