So I have some ideas for some new posts which will be up in the next week, but until then you can read the article that I wrote for rMag here.  Also, take a look at some of the other articles on there, they are very worth reading.

What Are We Doing?

My mom showed me this video earlier and it really makes me think about what Christians are doing.  This video applys to both indeviduals and churches.  Are we really being good stewards with our money? 

After I watched this, my mom finished it off with the last paragraph of an article she had just read by J. Michael Sharman:

He concluded his sermon with the challenge that is now being passed on to you: “What is your vision for how to heal your land? Make it big enough so that when it gets accomplished everyone will know it could only have been done through God’s power.”

Coming Soon

Hopefully throughout the next month I will be getting some new features and posts up here.  I will also be updating my blogroll, so if you would like me to add your blog just send me an email and I will check it out.

AiG Defending Your Faith Conference

Well, first let me say this:  the conference was amazing!  It wasn’t until I was there that I realized how starving I had been for solid doctrine like that.  Three ministries united to put on this conference: Answers in Genesis, Vision Forum and Voddie Bauchum Ministries and 2,400 people attended.  I had heard both Doug Phillips and Voddie Bauchum speak last year at the 2nd Worldview Super Conference that American Vision put on, but I had never heard Ken Ham speak before.  All three are very powerful speakers.  They spoke on many different topics from why Genesis is relevant to Christianity today, to Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  They didn’t skirt around the issues either – they said things as they were and that is something that I appreciate in speakers.  All three of them also had a great passion for what they were saying and it came across during their time speaking.  I was very blessed by what they had to say and would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to to listen to those men speak.

Hello All

Just so you know I am in South Dakota at the moment, I’m headed to Branson, MO for a ‘Defending Your Faith’ conference with some of my favorite speakers.   I’m also headed to the Titanic Museum there, so hopefully that’s good.    I’ll try and write a post during the long drive. 

For the Fourth

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY EVERYONE!

So I thought that for today I would post some great quotes:

“I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.”

Patrick Henry (1736 – 1799), (Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775)

“Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.”

John Adams (1735 – 1826), Letter to Benjamin Rush, 18 April 1808

“Duty is ours, results are God’s.”

John Quincy Adams

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

And from a relative of mine:

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

Nathan Hale (1755 – 1776), last words, 22 September 1776 (attributed)

America’s Prayer of Repentance

The following is a prayer we have hanging on the wall in our entryway.  It is really something that we need to remember.

Heavenly Father, We come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.

We know your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that…

We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multi-culturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternate lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it wellfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be seom wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Father, guide and bless all men and women who have been elected by the people of this great nation and who have been ordained by you to govern our beloved country. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will.

Given originally to the Kansas House of Representatives, January 1996 Pastor Joe Wright, Central Christian, Wichita, Kansas. (c)1996 Prayer by Pastor Joe Wright, adapted from a prayer of repentance by Bob Russell.

How true is that?  I only wish that more Christians would realize this.  We as Christian’s need to be humbling ourselves and praying daily for the forgiveness of our sins. We need to pray for God’s revival of this nation. He has done it before and he can do it again. We need to remember 2 Chronicles 7:14:

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and wil forgive their sin and heal their land.   (NKJV)

Restless

 

There are moments in my life that I want to last forever.  I remember times when I didn’t want to get any older, I wished time would just freeze.  But despite all of that there are times when I am anxious for time to roll on faster.  I can’t wait to get married, to have a family and to have a house of our own.  I wish that I could just speed up time until then. 

Sitting in my room one night thoughts like this started to form in my head.  Then a song on the radio that I had never heard before and part of it caught me: 

“You’re gonna miss this/ You’re gonna want this back/ You’re gonna wish these days didn’t go by so fast/  These are some good times so take a good look around/ You may not know it now/ But you’re gonna miss this.”

I’ve thought about it more and more, time flies by, I am gonna miss this.  Yet, even though this one song made me stop and think.  At the root of our restlessness is impatience, but we need to take time and enjoy what’s around us before it’s gone, never to have again.

I can spend my time wishing that school was over, that I had a family, but all that does is breed discontentent and wastes my time.  It can be a nasty habit, but it must be broken.  If I am discontent now, nothing will be different about any other time in my life. 

So, what I need to do is to enjoy those special little moments that life gives me for what they are and not just wish my time away. 

Sorry that this post rambles…it’s just some thoughts that I’ve been having recently.

Chivalry vs. Feminism

Her name was Abby* and I never did understand her point of view.  It seemed, I thought, so contrary to common sense.  I was sitting on the computer reading her post on a forum.  It was one of those nights, I had some free time to catch up on the latest discussion – chivalry – and Abby boggled me.  She was the main debater against chivalry, she was a feminist.  I had never imagined a girl, let alone a Christian homeschool girl, who actually did not like a man or boy holding a door for her.  Did I say that I thought chivalry to be common sense?  Yes – but at that time I didn’t fully grasp why.  Maybe you don’t either – or maybe you, like Abby, are against chivalry too, but do you know what chivalry is?  Really?

 

First let me tell you what chivalry is not.  It is not when a guy holds a door or carries something to get a girls attention and girls, we should not take it like that or only appreciate the good looking guys who do something chivalric.  No, chivalry is a mindset, just like its opposite, feminism.  Perhaps if we understand feminism better it will help us to understand chivalry.  Feminism is completely contrary to chivalry. Webster defines feminism as: 

The theory of the politicl, economic, and social equality of the sexes or organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.

In other words, according to Webster, feminists believe that they are equal with men in everything.  This implies that they believe that they have been treated in a degrading way in the past, by being ‘forced’ to take a position in life lower then men. 

This was Abby’s logic - why should a man hold a door for her when she was physically capable of opening her own door?

Now, don’t get me wrong here, even though I have used the example of men holding doors, that is not the extent of chivalry.  That is just what most now days think of when they hear the word.  Chivalry actually comes from the medieval times when knights had a ‘code’ or a duty which they followed.  This was made up of three different parts, a knights duty to God, his duty to countrymen and fellow Christians, and his duty to women.  Chivalry is made of a much broader scope than we allow ourselves to think today.  Unfortunately, many believe that this chivalric code has gone the way of the knights of old.  That however, is not true and we must not let it die out now. 

 

 

Unfortunately, many people do not realize the importance of chivalry or understand duty, nor do people realize how degrading feminism is.  Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum who has been called “an articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement” Said, “Feminism leads women to believe that their own selfish self-fulfillment is what’s most important.”  Countless families have been destroyed by its poison. Since the beginning it has destroyed women’s happiness as they willingly fell for the lies.

  Some Christian women won’t even admit it, in fact they might not even realize  that they have a feministic way of thinking, this is because feminism has been so engrained in all of our lives. 

I found this myself, I was about fourteen and I had a distinct view of how I was going to live my life.  I was going to graduate from high school, rent an apartment in LA and spend my entire life trying to get into the big movies.  I used lay in bed at night thinking of it and worrying about it, trying to figure out how to attain it.  I didn’t know what I would do when I had a family, it irked me that I might have to give up my dream career for something like taking care of children.  If you told me I was being irrational and unwise, I would have rolled my eyes, I had heard it all before, if you had told me my views were that of a feminist, I wouldn’t have believed you.  Many women are of that mindset.

Abby wasn’t the only one – I too had fallen for the lie.

 

But, I didn’t stay fallen for long.  Soon, I began to realize, that my dream wasn’t what I was meant to do.  This change in my thinking began to happen gradually.  I couldn’t even tell you when exactly I changed my mind about acting, but it did change and I am very thankful for that.  I began to see what a blessing the biblical role of a woman was: to have a family and to be a helpmeet to my husband and to be a keeper at home.  I realize now what I didn’t then, that the Lord’s way is so much better than mine is.  I still enjoy acting, but the difference is that now I no longer desire it for a career and it no longer consumes my thoughts. 

So, now that we have looked at feminism, chivalry’s opposite, it is time that we look at chivalry itself.  Though chivalry is commonly associated with knighthood during the medieval ages, its foundations can be found in the Bible.  If you look closely at the chivalric code, you will see that it is centered around one basic concept: honor.  The Bible has much to say about honor.  Romans 12:10 says “Be kindly, affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.”  If you were to take the knight’s code and break it down to the basic principle behind it all you would find that this verse fully encompasses it. 

Since the beginning of time the world has concentrated on destroying all that is Godly and noble and today we can see its effects.  Both men and women lack respect for each other and women have been taught to look down on chivalric actions as condescending.  That is why Abby was offended when men opened the door for her – the world had taught her that they were only holding the door because they were superior to her and she believed it.

Chivalry and how we respond to it has to do with our hearts.  That is why truly chivalric men don’t just open the door for that ‘hot girl’ and why girls should appreciate chivalry from anyone.  Try and imagine what our world would be like without anyone being considerate what would it be like?  We are already living so much for ourselves, how much farther can we go?

Hopefully you now realize how important it is that chivalry should not die out today.  If we look at what the Bible says we can see that being chivalrous, which is also termed courteous today, is commanded :  Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous (1 Peter 3:18 )   For those with a humble spirit this should not be a problem.  If we don’t appreciate chivalry for the right reasons we need to be asking ourselves why.  Is it because we think we are too good for others?

So thank you to all the men and boys who are still gentlemen and are willing to be chivalric and to the women and girls encourage and appreciate it. 

Oh and in the end… about a year after the chivalry debate began - Abby too, after all her arguments against it, finally began to appreciate chivalry.

 

*Name changed

 

 

Forgive Me

I am so sorry that I haven’t been keeping up with posting.  I will start back up again next week.  I have been staying very busy getting ready for my graduation this weekend.  Hopefully after that I will be less busy…but something tells me that it won’t happen.   Either way next Monday I will begin to blog with more regularity.