Tag Archives: light

Not that I want to go there again…

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Last year was fraught with stress, pressure, hurt, questions, doubts, frustrations…you name it!  In fact the last few years for us were pretty stressful in one way or another and brought some disappointments here and there.  That’s the way it is for everyone, I know, it just seemed to be ultra concentrated for a while.  My heart was gasping for God like suffocating lungs for oxygen.  I had to hear His voice, tried to find Him day after day and be near Him.

In this new chapter of life we’ve just started many of those pressures have been relieved.  Life feels a little easier right now.  The only problem is, how do I stay so intimately connected to God like I was before?  It seems I searched for Him more fervently when I didn’t know where the resources to meet our needs in each day were coming from or when I felt so at a loss for solutions that I simply fell into Him in hope that He had them ready.

It’s not like I want to go back, no, no, no, Continue reading →

Glow

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It’s one of our favorite family laughs.  We were living in Las Cruces, New Mexico and had been teaching our girls a little bit about constellations: the big dipper, little dipper, the north star, and Orion’s belt.  They had fun looking for them in the wide, clear desert sky at night.  All three shared a bedroom and while out shopping one day we picked up a package of glow-in-the-dark stars to put up on their wall.  I put them up while they were at school one day and arranged them into some of the constellations, hoping the girls would recognize them when the lights went out.  Bedtime rolled around and all three were tucked in.  After we said our prayers, I asked, “Are you ready to see your stars?”  Continue reading →

Day 17 – “Free” thinking

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I saw a news story yesterday about a group of college kids who call themselves the “Atheist Agenda” who set up a table on the campus of UTSA in San Antonio, Texas offering porn to students in exchange for their holy texts.  One of the leaders said it was trading smut for smut.  He said porn is consensual “unlike religious texts that condone lying and using violence against individuals which is the exact opposite of let’s say anything that is peaceful.”  To view the short story click here.

It sounds like he hasn’t read all of the Bible at least and is taking a few instances out of context on which to base his argument – which is ridiculous to me.   And why hand out porn in exchange?  Does porn stand for peace, for something better than what holy texts offer?  That doesn’t make sense.  They were just appealing to an urge and desire as a lure to come away from God.

I don’t understand why some atheists feel it is their obligation to enlighten others to the error of their ways if they believe in God or some other diety, or follow a religion.  Why should they care?  If they don’t believe in God or an afterlife, why would it bother them if someone else believes that way?  Seriously.  At first I thought they were only asking for Bibles in exchange for porn and that led me to think “is this really an opposition to believing in God or an opposition to Jesus?  Why not a Quran?  Or one of the Vedas of Hinduism?  Or the Book of Mormon?”   Is it all to satisfy some need we all seem to have to feel superior to others?  To proclaim that we’re right and they’re wrong?  Do they feel they are doing a civic duty by leading Christians back to reasonable thinking, back away from following the teachings of Christ, back from their foolish lives of faith in things that are often unseen?

If I share my faith with someone, or testify about something God has done for me, it is because I believe it will benefit them in their life and give them hope.  If I knew of a cure for an illness or a medicine that would relieve pain and met someone in great pain or with that illness, I’d want to share what I knew with them to hopefully help them.  If I was walking through a really dark place with some others around me and had the only flashlight or torch, I’d walk closer to them and hold out the light to help them see the path.    I think it would be odd for someone who didn’t believe in light to come and tell me to snuff out my torch or turn off my flashlight.  If they want to walk on their own and find their own way that’s their choice, but why bother to try and convince me I don’t believe in or need the light I have in my hand?

What do you think about the reason behind atheists’ campaigns against people who believe in God?

Another interesting interview with the leader from Atheist Agenda on Youtube

Don’t look at the headlights

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I walked out into the warm, humid, early morning air to take my jog for today and headed up the road.  I could tell it was overcast.  Even though it was dark as night, the cloud cover seemed thick and low.  There are two paths I can take in the morning, one heads north toward two nearby neighborhoods, the other east toward a big neighborhood.  Either way, I have to do my warm-up walk by dark woods before I get to sidewalks and houses.  I don’t relish that as the dark woods kind of give me the creeps!   On a clear morning the dawn begins lightening the sky by the time I head back toward home…but I knew it wouldn’t be that way today.

As I walked, the path was barely visible but I know the route well.  I was determined to warm-up at a fast pace and get to the street-light lined street quickly.  Whenever a car appeared, heading my way, the headlights were blinding.  I made the mistake of looking toward them the first time and the path disappeared – the lights being so bright everything else became completely black.  The next time a car drove by I kept my eyes on the path and even though it was barely visible ’til the car passed by, I could still see where I was going.  It made me think of a great devotional I read a few days ago by John Piper about the verses in Matthew 6:22, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.”   I’ve read that verse many times but often thought Jesus had it backwards.  The eye as a lamp?  It gave me a mental image of someone with eyes shining like flashlights on everything around them.  Now that would come in handy on these dark early morning jaunts!   Continue reading →