Pied Piper again

This is going to be in the youth newsletter tomorrow.  All the parents will be reading this tomorrow:

I’m taking this course with the EPC about Youth Ministry.  For this course we are reading a book called Starting Right.  The chapter “Theological Framework for Youth Ministry: Repentance” by Robin Maas uses clever but chilling analyses that I will share.

            First, Maas re-tells the story of the Pied Piper.  In the story, there are so many rats in the town of Hamelin that the mayor promises to pay a Pied Piper 1,000 guilders if he will play music to charm the rats out of town.  After the Piper fulfills his end of the bargain, the town reneges and only pays him 50 guilders.  In response, the Piper plays to entertain the children and leads them out of town with promises of magic and delight, but he only leads them to their doom and only one child returns to tell the tale.

            Then, the author asks us youth ministers, “Are you a piper or a prophet?”  We are tempted to have games, fun, and happy messages that will make kids and parents happy, yet the kids learn nothing about theology or about holiness, and their souls are not saved.  However, there is a biblical example of a man who was every bit as alluring as the Pied Piper, but he only led people to the truth: John the Baptist.

            He lived in the desert, ate only bugs and honey, never combed his hair, and wore camel skins.  He probably smelled terrible.  But people flocked to him to get baptized in the middle of nowhere because he called them to repent.  These people wanted freedom from the Roman occupation, and John offered them a hope for the soon-coming Messiah who would free them from their sins.  Later, the Messiah came to him and he revealed him to the crowds.

            The difference between the Piper and the Prophet is only one thing: ministry that draws people to a certain leader versus ministry that points people to Jesus.  Is my ministry self-centered, or do I care more about teaching Jesus?  This same applies to all people, especially to those raising kids.  Are you going to let the kids do whatever they want, or will they have higher expectations to want to be more like Jesus even if it means being less popular?  The correct answer is only possible if we keep looking to Jesus and showing our kids how to get to him.

PFR

I was 11 and it was 1996.  Dad had just been to a Promise Keeper's conference and introduced our family to Christian music.  This was also the year I started liking the Beatles.  So when Dad brought home "Goldie's Last Day" by PFR, I was hooked.

Then we went on a trip to Orlando, FL.  On family trips we all took turns picking the music.  We had just purchased "Great Lengths."  I picked it every time it was my turn.  Needless to say, every time I listen to PFR, I think of Orlando, FL.

That fall, I started 6th grade only to find out, PFR is breaking up!!!  NOOOO.  We went to their final tour concert, and I met them and got their signatures on a picture that I still have.

Then they made a greatest hits album with 3 new songs and one bonus.  Then, in 2001, they made another album, but I didn't go to their concert because it was at the Varsity.  Seriously, guys?  Also, I wasn't into the album.

It's 2012 now.  I'm listening to them so much this week that I'm obsessing.  I like their 2001 album, in fact, love it, along with "Them" which I also used to not like as much as "Goldie" or "Great Lengths."  And joy of joys, they're back together for a 20 year reunion tour.  I could do backflips if I did that stuff.

Here's a video of when Joel Hanson had long, beautiful, clean-looking hair:

Here is him now, hiding his pretty eyes behind geek glasses:

Cats and Dogs

I'm piggy-backing my friend Lydia's blog post.  Maybe it's because I have two cats named Rachel and Leah, one that was just in my lap and one looking over my shoulder.  It's also because they're still new and make me very happy.  Seriously, Leah sat on my shoulder this afternoon and I felt like a pirate getting a massage. 

But seriously, read the blog.  Oh, and here's 8:38:

8:38

There's this man named Matt Thien.  He's a super-talented musician who led worship at Smyrna for 2 or 3 years.  It was like Jason Mraz led our worship.  Sadly, being in the Navy, he got transplanted to Newark, VA and had to go to Iraq.  Now his family is in Maryland and he's touring with his singing again. 

But he had written a song called "8:38" after noticing it on the clock all the time.  For the past two weeks I've done intense praying to the Lord.  I'm usually one who will superstitiously look at the clock to make decisions.  Odd numbers are yes, and even are no.  All of a sudden I started noticing 8:38 every day.  Sometimes twice a day.  Even if I saw 8:39, I still felt encouraged because it's the next time after 8:38.

Today, I was lead to read Romans 8:38-39, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  I guess the Lord was encouraging me with reminders that his love will never leave me.  It's just what I need to hear.

Pied Piper -- reading from my text book

Farmer-tanned facts

So after two years of pro-life counseling, a year and a half of youth ministering, I'm not politicking for the GOP.  Yesterday, I was at the Cherry Blossom Festival petitioning people to vote no on sending our tax money to Atlanta for who-knows-what and only getting a quarter back for every dollar for some projects that bring the neighborhood down.  I wore sleeves, no sunblock, and now have a farmer's tan.

I think I kind of like getting sunburned because it gets people talking to me and I can tell them about the awesome weekend I had. 

Sunday School was amazing today.  We had an extra teen girl in there, and the same upper elementary boys, my brother, and my dad.  We talked about Jesus being the Bread of Life.  We talked about Real Presence.  It's getting to the point where I'm starting to believe in consubstantiation but I'm not telling anyone that.  (Shhh!).  I've believed in Real Presence since 2009 in that Worship class taught by Bob Glick.  At that time, I thought his ideas were a bit extreme, but it's what Calvin believed, and seriously, we do make a huge mistake not doing communion every week.  I'm still quite weirded out by Jesus saying that his body is real food and his blood is real drink.  It conjures up almost sexual thoughts and I believe that's intentional.  I say, if more people believed in Real Presence there would be less temptation and more purity.

But that actually was not the object of the lesson.  The lesson is about how we get the Bread.  Those guys who Jesus fed the day before followed him to the other side of the Lake.  Did they want Jesus?  Know, they just wanted his bread.  That also has me thinking of sex.  It's like when unmarried people have sex.  Do they really love each other, or do they just like the physical attraction?  We have the same problem with loving our Lord.  Do we like him or do we just like that he gives us eternal life, bread, sunny days, and any other nice thing he does for us?  Do we ever think of how holy he is and how worthless we are in comparison?  We are mere worms, yet he loves us enough to create us in his image and send Jesus to die for us.

Thankful

1. I'm thankful for my cats.  I am really loving them and they give me the affection I need.  It's good to be a little less lonely here.

2. Thankful that despite theological differences I'm getting along with my friend again.  Praise the Lord.

3. I'm thankful that in 2012 I've influenced two ladies to not abort their babies.  We'll know the real results when they have their kids, but Soli Deo Gloria.

4. I love Target.

5. I'm thankful for Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection in my place.

6. I'm thankful for my wonderful family.  We all eat at Cracker Barrel every week, and I don't know too many people who have that opportunity.

7. Thankful that I'm helping with the GOP at the Cherry Blossom Festival.  I can now say I am practicing what I preach.

8. I'm thankful for the extra sleep I've been getting.  The doc upped my Prozac, and it's making me drowsy, but I like that I could sleep without my Clonidine last night.

9. Thankful for music and that I'm blessed to have a hymnal.

Life thoughts

Dad came to chat with me and Mary Monday evening.  I talked about how I've been walking around at the monastery and how Scott and Debbie (our pastor and his wife) walk there all the time.  Then Dad mused at how lucky Scott and Debbie are that they can do anything as a couple and not be tied down by an autistic son like Andrew.

To which I curtly replied, "Andrew's not a burden.  Quit talking about him like he's a burden."  And then with a bit of bickering with Dad about whether he was saying Andrew is a burden or not, Mary comments on pleading the fifth as me and Dad can come and go as we please and Mary has to stay and watch Andrew.

It got me thinking, am I really as pro-life as I think I am?  I counsel girls to not get abortions, I post stuff on facebook all the time, but do I really care about life?  Have I really abandoned me brother to follow my dreams?  I hope not.  I hope one day I can have a home, a steady job, insurance, and even a husband, and then when I'm not trying to launch anymore, I can take more responsibility with Andrew again.  But either way, he's still not a burden to me.

Also, two pro-life movies are coming out tomorrow.  One is October Baby that looks like a tear-jerker.  The other is the Hunger Games, which is not intentionally pro-life, but it is quite an amazing books series that I could not put down.  The only catch is, I honestly don't care for movies based on books that I love.  And plus since it's more anticipated, I might wait a while to watch Hunger Games.  and since I paid my tag tax this week, I might have to wait to see October Baby, too.

Intro/Extra

Today I finally buckled down and research how to relate to INFJ personalities.  Not only am I introverted, but I have the INFJ letters from the Myers-Briggs test.  What is bizarre, although I am both of those things, I still have trouble relating to other innies. 

Here's what I noticed so far.  Innies like to be alone.  They like people but social situations drain them.  They need two hours to recoup from one hour of person time.  And they are deeply philosophical. 

Despite being INFJ, I love parties, even though I'm usually in a corner eating pot pie.  I like meeting people.  I must say social situations do drain me, but I also just don't understand people in general.  But I'm not one to let my introversion be my excuse to stay home on the weekend.  I also get cabin fever.

I have introverted intuition.  I try to observe the psychology behind what people do, why they do them, and if this means they still love me.  I also try to meddle with them.  Leading me to...

Extroverted feeling.  I'm not ashamed to tell you what I think.  If it hurts your feelings, then too bad.  You need to know what I believe to be true.  This is why I thrive on debate chats and in theology and politics.  This is also why many friends feel alienated from me.  It's not like I'm trying to kick them, but it is really important to me that they know what I believe.  Fortunately, now that I'm moving past a recent rift, I can pretty much put my beliefs aside for the time being as I have already expressed them and need not do so again.

Introverted thinking.  This part of the personality is why I probably will just sit and stare at you at lunch rather than talk.  I lose my words.  I'm afraid of looking stupid.  And this is probably also why I obsess over people.  I think way too much.  My mind goes a mile a minute from politics, to religion, to friends, to my duties, and never really stops.

Extroverted sensing.  Meaning, I am absorbed in intuitive perceivings but oblivious to reality.  I miss the forest for the trees. 

And, my MBTI letters are 1% of the population.  Us different people should stick together.  And if your introverted quirks drive me crazy, help me to remember that I too, am an introvert and have learned to deal with it.

Jon Foreman's TULIP

As you all know, Jon Foreman is Switchfoot's lead singer.  A few years ago he did some solo songs.  I finally found them on YouTube and seriously like them better than his music with Switchfoot.  While Switchfoot is semi-secular, Jon sings openly about his faith and about life.  I'm certain he isn't Reformed, but I found songs that could fit all five of the petals.

Total Depravity -- Here Jon sings about how wretched his life is, how he should be dead, and how he can't move past his circumstances.

Unconditional Election -- God is the one who has to resurrect Jon.  Not Jon.  Not me.  Now free will.  Just God.

Limited Atonement -- Jesus's sacrifice completely sets people free.  It doesn't make salvation merely possible.  It makes it definite, and nothing will keep his Bride from going free.

Irresistible Grace -- "You are turning our hearts back to you."

Perseverance of the Saints -- In the house of God forever.  Nothing can change that.

In humility

David Murray linked to this article today.  Very  convicting.  I have the biggest problem with telling the truth but not in a loving way.  Sometimes in an even vengeful way.  I wish I could soak in this advice and remember it.  Learning social skills does not come easy for me.  So here, I think I will take each point and try to think of how I'll remember to do it.

1. In humility, avoid thinking more highly of yourself than you ought.  Romans 12:3. 
So basically, I should remember my total depravity and that I'd have nothing good without God.

2. In humility, count others as more significant than yourself.  Paul says this in Philippians 2.  In other words, I need to remember that if I speak harshly to someone created in God's image, I've spoken harshly to him.  Especially to a fellow believer.  Talk to them as if I as talking to the Lord, only without worshiping them.

3. In humility, listen first, and speak last.  James 1:19.  I just need to shut up.  And actually listen to someone without losing my attention.

4. In humility, deal with the matter as privately as possible.  Galatians 2:11-14.  Alas, I fail most at this.  Send an email, don't write it on their FB wall.  Talk to the person, not all your mutual friends.

5. In humility, be honest about all your struggles and limitations.  Matthew 7:1-5.  Take the plank out and then use the 2x4 from your eye to hit them.  I suppose this does not include false humility or over-bashing myself.

6. In humility, be honest about the graces of others.  Luke 6:37-38.  So, I should probably think of something nice to say before I hit them with the plank in my eye.  Not flatter, but compliment.  Think of why I really love the person and not rip them to shreds.

7. In humility, speak the truth.  Ephesians 4:15.  Back to square one.  I still have to tell the truth.  It might be in the form of not telling a lie at this point.  Or to positively say what I believe, not negatively say what I don't believe.

Anybody want to boil these 7 tips to something easy for me to remember?

Compassion

We studied the fish and loaves again tonight at Shepherd's Staff.  That place gets me excited.  They just opened a thrift store, calling it Shepherd's Stuff.  We opened this garage up and had dinner and Bible study in a much bigger space, the place where they will have the Stuff. 

But back to the story.  I'm recalling the lesson I did on Sunday, the same lesson, and Debbie pointing out something convicting.  The situation: Jesus's cousin, John the Baptist, had just been killed.  He and his disciples have been having a rough day.  Jesus calls them to come with him and rest.  But the people came to them and he taught them until the evening.  Then the disciples were tired and wanted to go home and send all the people home.  But they were miles from the nearest McDonald's.  It would take forever for them to get home and prepare their meals, which took longer then.  They might even faint from hunger on the way.

Jesus sees what the disciples don't see, something he wants them to see.  He has compassion on those people, like sheep without a shepherd.  The disciples are so wrapped up in their ministry and duties that they forget to stop and care about the people.  Jesus calls them to feed the people.  Take time to take care of their needs, both physical and spiritual.

Then, I was reading this book for my online youth ministry class.  It was a chapter written by a more liberal guy.  However, despite his questioning of defining theology, the had a wonderful insight on the story of Jesus healing the demon-possessed boy after coming down from the mount of Transfiguration.  He had just had the time of his life with Peter, James, and John on Mount Tabor.  Jesus got to see Moses and Elijah, transform into what he looks like in his heavenly state as God the Son, and Peter even threatened to build tabernacles.  Now, they come home to the rest of the guys who can't get this demon out of the boy.  They are trying so hard to do their miraculous works and argue about who is the best disciples, but this boy and his father still suffer.  Despite coming back from an amazing trip, Jesus takes the time to talk to the father.  The father tells him more about the boy and says, "I believe.  Help my unbelief."  The disciples cared about having a good, holy face toward the world, but this father and son suffered from their neglect of compassion to the point that they struggled believing.  Have you ever been so busy with holy activities that you could not take a break and spend time with someone to their detriment?  We must be so careful in all our godly work that it is for God's glory and not to get merit.  To care more about other people than your own quota for the day.

Finally, RC Sproul's sermon this morning on RYM was about Jesus forgiving Peter in John 21.  The announcer wasn't even done speaking when the Holy Spirit started moving.  He said, "What if someone asked you if you love him more than your fellow disciples?  What if he asked this in front of them?  What if this man was Jesus?"  Then Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Jesus more than the fish, more than his job, more than even his brothers in the boat with him.  Three confessions of love to match the three denials.  This broke Peter's heart.  It breaks mine, too.  Do I really love Jesus more than I love my ambitions, goals, my friends?  Even my church job?  I can't always say yes to that. 

It gets worse.  Then Jesus tells Peter that if he loves him then he will feed his Sheep.  That means he will take care of his fellow believers and encourage them in the Lord while preaching the Word to them.  You cannot love Jesus if you aren't willing to give up your life for your fellow sheep.  I can't say I follow either love really well, vertical or horizontal.  Lord help me to love people in such a way that I'm not getting something out of it, but that I truly seek your glory.

Bread of Life

I don't know if it was an article on Tim Challies or on David Murray's blog, but I've taken the challenge to give up my yahoo email for now.  I keep sending poisonous e-mails on that and will be off of that for at least the rest of Lent. 

I taught on the fish and loaves yesterday.  The book had a wonderful quiz game that was a lot like Bingo.  After we reviewed the lessons from the past weeks, we read the passage and then played Fish and Loaves Lotto.  Everyone had seven words on their paper, not the same words.  They were answers to the questions, and whoever covered all seven words with their fish and loaves won. 

The pastor's wife came back with me.  I like her technique.  She pretty much asks about every detail on in the passage where Jesus feeds the 5000.  It was similar to how I team teach with Dad.  I try to speed through the lesson, and Dad and Debbie both stop and ask the students to think with more detail on the passage being read.  What is compassion?  What was Jesus teaching the disciples in this miracle?  Etc.

The teens weren't there this week, so I have one more week to figure out how I'm going to teach on the Bread of Life.

Facts on Cats

I'm officially a crazy cat lady now.  The two cats who lived downstairs in Mary's room now live with me.

I never thought I would have a litter box in my bedroom.

I never thought I'd have a litter box and my bedroom still smell decent.  I'm moving up in the world.

Now, if only the cats could knock over more stuff, then I would have to organize it.

But alas, I have not organized it yet. 

John 5

Along with WSC, I taught John 5 to our "teen" Sunday School.  At first I was going to try to compare how Jesus interacts with the sick man to how he interacts to the Pharisees.  I start to realize, none of them deserve Jesus.

He asks the man at Bethesda if he wants to get well.  The teens rightly reasoned that some folks enjoy being disabled so that they don't have to work.  Jesus must have known this was that kind of guy. 

He then tells him, "Get up, pick up your mat and walk."  Despite who he is, Jesus heals the man.

The Jesus tells him, "See, you are well again.  Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."  Immediately the man goes and rats out that Jesus healed him on the Sabbath.  But Jesus did heal this scoundrel, and he used that as an opportunity to include some good Calvinistic theology in this Gospel.

Verse 17: My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.
That was a notable verse to me.  It shows how God never stops in working for our salvation.

Verse 21: For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
Jesus heals who he wants to heal.  It has nothing to do with your choice or mine.  God unconditionally elects his sheep.

Verse 24: I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he as crossed over from death to life. 
Those who hear Christ's word and believe have already crossed from death to life when they believed.  This resurrection happened first.

Verse 28: Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out.
They would not be able to hear unless he first called them.

43: I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you accept him.
Showing that they never knew the Father.  Despite John the Baptist's testimony and the testimony of the Scriptures, they do not accept Jesus, but the other Pharisees show up with no credentials and they just listen to them and their man-made rules.

WSC 2

I did not plan on doing catechism with the "teen" class this week, but I felt lead to remind them of the question and ask them about the difference between the Bible and other "holy books."  I had no idea we'd spend 30 minutes talking about it, or that my dad would take over, so I'm glad we did that.  I hope the Holy Spirit used that somehow.

At some point, Dad and I argued over who came first: Erasmus or Tyndale?  I know Erasmus got the ball rolling on Bible translation that led to the actual Reformation, but later I figured out that dad was getting Tyndale confused with John Wycliffe and the Lollards.  They are the ones in England that first tried to translate the Bible, started a revolution that reached all the way to Prague and influenced Jan Hus.

But for those who are curious: the Bible started as God telling the Ten Commandments to Moses.  Then he gave Moses the law and history that compile the first 5 books, the Torah.  Then prophets gave histories that the Jews knew were authoritative.  This is how we have Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.  We don't know who wrote them now, but they did then and knew them as truthful people.  We also have the more famous prophesies from Isaiah et. al.  Then, there are the Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Jonah, Daniel, Ecclesiastes, Chronicles, Job, and Esther that they consider authoritative and that teach wisdom and songs to the Jewish kids.

Then the New Testament: All the books are by Christ's disciples, brothers, or someone really close to the disciples.  And Paul, who Christ appeared to and who even Peter considered Scripture.  Nothing in both the Old and New Testaments was done in secret or given by some angel in the woods or in Mecca that no one ever saw.  The words had witnesses and knowledge. 

Thank yous

1. Thankful for our church family.  Our session is so varied, but we all come together for what matters.

2. Thankful that I got the cats to live with me upstairs!  I'm a crazy cat lady now!

3. Thankful tomorrow is Tuesday.

4. Thankful that I get to go to bed in an hour.  I might actually sleep tonight.

5.  Thankful that I actually asserted myself at session tonight.  I put my foot down about not putting the five-year-olds in the nursery.

6. I'm thankful the cats live upstairs now.  Leah is very friendly.  Rachel is hidden somewhere and is usually very catty.

7.  I'm thankful for Febreze.  It really keeps my room from smelling like a litter box.

8. Thankful for Project Gutenberg.  I don't have to pay for books for my eReader!

9.  Thankful that God is keeping me content for now.

Session Plans tomorrow

Tomorrow night is session meeting!  I'm finally going to sit before the elders and bring a boat-load of ideas for them to hopefully approve a discuss. 

One.  I'm proposing a vision statement to go along with the one the church already has.  Trinity's vision statement: A place where God's truth is alive.  Trinity's youth program's vision: A place where God's truth is alive and learned.

Two.  I'm finally defining the difference between Sunday School and children's church.  Sunday school will be more of the discipleship aspect of the church, and Children's Church will be worship.  I want CC to be more like church.  Not quite as interactive as SS, but hopefully not boring either.

I think I'm going to need another adult to come back to Children's Church with me.  I'm realizing more and more my weakness in disciplining and classroom climate.  I'm fine with that, but that also means I need to find another adult to come back with me once a week to help keep the kids in line.

I really would like to see about having dinner with the older kids once a month.  There are teens that don't always come to Sunday School and it would be nice just to sit around, talk, answer questions, get ideas, and even do homework. 

I need the church to approve of us doing VBS with Hope Fellowship.  I need to get to calling the pastor again and making more definite plans, though I think all I've talked to like the idea of doing a joint VBS with them.

Speaking of Hope Fellowship, the other Megan, who leads Shepherd's Staff, is planning on doing an Easter Egg hung with them, too, through Shepherd's Staff. 

I hope to delve more into my weekend's lessons, but I'm kind of tired and we had some intense lessons, both with older and younger kids.

Jesus = Messiah

This is for a friend.  He asked for another friend: where is it that Jesus says he is Messiah?

John 4:25-26, where the woman at the well told him, I know Messiah is coming, and Jesus replies, "I who speak to you am."  That's the way the Greek says it.  He plainly tells her he is the Messiah and God all at the same time.

John 10:22-42, where the Jews ask him to tell them plainly if he is the Christ.  He said "I did tell you but you do not believe because you are not my sheep."  He also tells them that he and the Father are one, causing them to pick up stones because he's claiming to be God.

Reminder that Christ and Messiah are the same word in two different languages.

He also called himself the Son of Man, which was synonymous to Jews as a title for the coming Messiah.

1 John 4:1-3, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." 

Okay, so that does not specifically say Jesus is the Messiah, but it does condemn anyone who preaches a different Jesus than the one revealed in the Scriptures, aka, the Messiah. 

John is very obvious about Jesus being Messiah and God in the flesh.  Paul always refers to him as Christ Jesus.  Jesus himself said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

Don't listen to the Jesus Seminar.  He really did say the things he says in John.

All this is in response to another video by a famous preacher who says that the Jews didn't sin in killing Jesus because Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah.  If this preacher dies still believing that he will be condemned forever.

I'm all for supporting Israel, but we must remember that all true Christians are the completed Jews.  The biological Israel rejected Christ and forfeited their salvation.  Only those who accept Christ's sacrifice in their place and accept his righteousness imputed to them are Israel and will live with God in eternity.  This is only possible if Jesus is the Messiah.

Facts on Women's Health

So, obviously, this post is inspired by recent antics from Obama and commentary by CNN.

Which is more important: religious freedom or women's health?

Actually, this is another religion: sex.  The world will do anything for it, sacrifice their bodies for it, sacrifice their children for it, and totally risk everything for it.

Why should my religious freedom be impeded for another religion?

And what's so healthy about it for women?

Sex alone can alter a woman's body through pregnancy, clamydia, human papiloma virus, other diseases, and also destroy them emotionally as men just use them as toilets and not as a person made to complete God's creation.

Moving on to abortion.  This is even more unhealthy.  It tears up a woman's uterus, increases her risk of breast cancer, pieces of baby get stuck in there and cause infection, future complications in having children when you want to have them, and at least ten years of emotional trauma and guilt, or hardening of hearts, if not for the rest of your life.

As for abortifacients, women who take RU-486 are more likely to have to be readmitted to the hospital, they've died from it, and face all kinds of horrors.  Kind of like when a teenage girl goes to get an abortion without telling her parents.  A girl recently in the news got killed from one, and this wasn't even in a back alley.  This was "safe, legal, and rare."

And for normal contraception that simply prevents an egg and sperm from meeting: it's not that expensive.  I don't have insurance and I'm on it for medical reasons.  It only costs about $20 once a month whereas gas costs $30 twice a week.  Where's my insurance on that?  Or my insurance on my ADD medicine that costs $800?  Or my anti-depressants?  These are not exactly frills.

But abortion and morality aside, why should my tax dollars go to pay for something that's completely elective, like a pedicure or a back massage?  Like Rush Limbaugh said, should even go on to pay for the car's backseat where you got pregnant in the first place?

And echoing the sentiments at the CPC today: when is California going to have its earthquake and drop into the ocean?  And can we relocate CNN there?  And for good measure, our current President or lack thereof?  Can I at least throw this blog through a window with a rock at CNN?  I know where they live and can get there in an hour.

The Wrong Verse

God really moves at Shepherd's Staff, the outreach that Trinity helps with.  This week, Danny, who goes to a different church, led the Bible study.  He first taught on Mark 6 where Jesus is not accepted in his hometown.  Then he noticed how Jesus would not do as many miracles there because of their lack of faith.  I think Danny was trying to teach about how people with more faith will see more miracles, but toward the end of the lesson it ended up being more Calvinistic and I didn't even open my mouth except to read a verse.

Speaking of, Danny asked me to read Exodus 4:29-31.  He had meant for me to read a verse from chapter 14 when God parts the Red Sea, but he told me the verse in chapter 4 and I read it.  I'm so glad I read it.  This is what says, "Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, ³⁰ and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, ³¹ and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped."

So, there were still signs and wonders, and the people realized how much the Lord is concerned about them.  They were fickle people who started to doubt right when they got to the Red Sea, but God still saved them with a mighty hand and outstretched arm.  It had nothing to do with their consistent faith and everything to do with God's holiness.

Then, we read other reactions to miracles.  Some doubters, like Abraham and Sarah, still received their promise.  Some like Pharaoh saw all kinds of miracles but God hardened his heart.  Then the Israelites saw the best miracles and still doubted depending on what day it was.  God still used them to bring us Christ.  Christ still saves us despite ourselves.