Why We Are a Nation Divided

Here are a few quotes from an article written by Patrice Lewis at WND.  

“So when election-year promises come down to politicians informing us that ‘MY government solution is better than THEIR government solution,’ I’m not impressed. … If we got rid of unconstitutional government interference, most of our country’s problems would solve themselves through the often harsh corrections of the free market."

 "We are encouraging government to be cancerous and invasive, rather than streamlined and minimalist. Instead of letting people make their own mistakes, suffering the consequences and learning … we are using the government to “save” us and thus ruin us. Brought to its ultimate conclusion, this means – as far as the federal government is concerned – there would be no government rescue programs, no welfare and no entitlements … because those things were deliberately not in the Constitution."

 "No strong presidential candidate has emerged to say what should be said: STOP. Stop violating the Constitution. Stop funding things the government shouldn’t fund. Stop corrupting the free market. Stop, stop, stop."

Read Patrice's entire article at WND.

Why I Am Not Cut Out to Be a Home School Mom

by  Kristy Howard of LittleNaturalCottage.com

(find this article at Growing Home)

Sometimes, I  get this funny feeling that many folks think we home school mothers are just not normal. “Not normal” meaning: we are somehow exempt from the common plagues of womanhood.  You know, impatience, griping, anger, poor time management, selfishness, loneliness, hormones, etc.

I’ll never forget the day a mother told me, “I wish I wanted to home school.  But I just need that alone time while my boys are away at school!” Where do people get this idea that women who choose to home school their children, do it because it’s just so easy for them? 

That we don’t “need alone time”.  Don’t wake up tired and grumpy on occasion. Never get sick, or have sick little ones.  Don’t crave adult conversation, or relish a hot shower without interruptions, or wouldn’t like to spend one day without peeling hardened pasta off the kitchen floor with a spatula.

I have a news flash to share: Homeschooling moms are “normal”. We are flawed, selfish sinners, just like everyone else.  We fight the same battles with our flesh (and our flesh and blood) as every other mother in the world. The one difference between the “I don’t want to’s”, the “I wish I wanted to’s”, and the determined “I’m going to’s!” is nothing but… Grace - the power and desire to fulfill God’s will for our lives. That grace is new…every morning.

I well remember the frazzled day I told my husband (in a not-so-gentle way), “I AM NOT CUT OUT TO BE A HOMESCHOOL MOM! I just can’t do it!” Looking back those eighteen or so months, I realize I am not the same woman who sobbed those exasperated words to my husband. Granted, I have the same struggles. Wake up to the same challenges every day. But I am not the same. Because of grace.

I’ll give you a few good reasons why I’m not “cut out” to be a home school mom:

• I’m impatient.                                                                                                                                                                              This lack of virtue has been my life-long struggle. I get irritable. Easily. Gentleness does not come naturally or easily for me. I’m task-oriented. High strung. A perfectionist. Interruptions bother me. Chaos distresses me. Need I say more?

• I’m inconsistent.                                                                                                                                                                      Home school moms are Super Women who know how to train perfect children, maintain a well ordered home, prepare healthy meals,  sew their own clothing. I can’t do all those things all the time. I start… and stop. Learn… and burn (out). I struggle to with stick with basic routines, much less strict regimens. I’d ruin my kids!

• I don’t have time.                                                                                                                                                               Seriously, what mama does “have time” to home school her children? Who is supposed to clean the house and buy groceries and do laundry and plan menus… while Mama teaches her children? I haven’t even mentioned my role of being a wife, much less the wife of a pastor. I definitely don’t have time. Do you?

• I don’t have space.                                                                                                                                                                           In my house, I mean. Right now, there are 7 of us living in a 2-bedroom house. Where would I put all those books and supplies and materials- piled on the dining room table? We’d be in each other’s hair all day. It just isn’t reasonable. I need my space.

The odds are against me: temperament, schedules, circumstances. It just wouldn’t work! But it does work. And I am. Not because I’m necessarily “good” at it, or because it comes easily for me, or because everything always just falls into place for our family.

Homeschooling “works” for our family because we make it work.  It is a priority.  A calling.  Even a conviction. Because of our commitment to home school, there are many other things we aren’t involved in, don’t spend our money on, don’t invest our time into.  Not because some of these “other things” are bad, but because they would rob us of these precious years to nurture and train our children. 

I can only home school my children once in my lifetime and theirs.  Now is that time.  It is up to me, and to my husband, to make these days count.  For eternity. This is why I choose to get up every morning, sit down at our dining room table, and teach my children in the best way I know how. 

Honestly, I don’t love it every day.  But every day I am learning, growing, and increasingly grateful to be a home school mom.  Even though I’m not really “cut out” for it.

Christ Needs No New Inventions

Scott T. Brown of NCFIC February 29, 2012

Today's church is a house of inventions, where church leaders feel free to reinvent Christianity in their generation. Not only do they feel free to do this, but they also believe it is their obligation to the people in order to be relevant. In this age of inventions, Charles Spurgeon speaks clearly about the inappropriateness of man's inventions in the church.

First of all, Christ needs no new inventions to glorify Him. "We have invented a new line of things," says one. Have you? "We have discovered something very wonderful." I daresay you have, but Christ, "the same yesterday, today and forever" (Heb. 13:8 NKJV), needs none of your inventions, discoveries, or additions to His truth. A plain Christ is forever the loveliest Christ. Dress Him up, and you have defamed Him. Bring Him out just as He is, the Christ of God, nothing else but Christ, unless you bring in His Cross, for "we preach Christ crucified" (1 Cor. 1:23); indeed, you cannot have Christ without the Cross; but preach Christ crucified, and you have given him all the glory that He desires. The Holy Spirit does not reveal in these last times any fresh laws or any novel doctrines or any new evolutions. He simply brings to mind the things that Christ Himself spoke. He brings Christ's own things to us, and in that way glorifies Him.

– C. H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon on the Holy Spirit, p. 60-61

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Once Again Sentenced to Death

Once Iran has sentenced Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani to death. Read the article on FOX to find out the details. Please keep praying for him and his family. May God be glorified.

Hell and the Mission of the Church

“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that…. The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed Master, wil be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others…..

If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”--C.H. Spurgeon

Go  here is listen to sermon number one.
Go here to listen to sermon number three (I couldn't find number two).


A lot has been said lately about hell. What do you believe?  I hope you will listen to these messages, but be careful, you might (hopefully) be convicted!

Lawmaker's resolution condemns Iran for Christian pastor's death sentence

"Lawmakers in Congress have joined the fight to save an Iranian Christian pastor who has been sentenced to death for refusing to renounce his faith.

A resolution sponsored by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA) denounces Iran for its leaders' ruling of apostasy against Youcef Nadarkhani and calls for his immediate release."

Read the entire article here.

Please contact your lawmakers and let them know you want them to support this resolution by Rep. Joseph Pitts. Keep praying for Pastor Youcef Nadarhkani and others like him who have been jailed for their faith.  May God be glorified.

"Who are You to Say What Worship is!?"

"The scripture says “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth.” (John 4:24)

Read this great article by Israel Wayne here about what true worship is REALLY all about, not what most churches today claim worship to be.

(sorry about forgetting to put the link for the article)

Are you a Peeping Tom?

Here is an article written by Stacy McDonald at Your Sacred Calling.

This is a small excerpt from Randy Alcorn’s book, The Purity Principle.

Suppose I said, “There’s a great-looking girl down the street. Let’s go look through her window and watch her undress, then pose for us naked, from the waist up. Then this girl and her boyfriend will get in a car and have sex–let’s listen and watch the windows steam up!”
You’d be shocked. You’d think, What a pervert!
But suppose instead I said, “Hey, come on over. Let’s watch Titanic.”
Christians recommend this movie, church youth groups view it together, and many have shown it in their homes. yet the movie contains precisely the scenes I described.
So, as our young men lust after the girl on the screen, our young women are trained in how to get a man’s attention.
How does something shocking and shameful somehow become acceptable because we watch it through a television instead of a window?
In terms of the lasting effects on our minds and morals, what’s the difference?
Yet many think, Titanic? Wonderful! It wasn’t even rated R!
Every day Christians across the country, including many church leaders, watch people undress through the window of television. We peek on people committing fornication and adultery, which our God calls an abomination.
We’ve become voyeurs, Peeping Toms, entertained by sin.

While the movie, Titanic, is old news, there are plenty of movies (and television shows) that would fit this description, and there are plenty of Christian watching them under the catch-all excuse of “Christian liberty.”

1 Corinthians 6:18, "Flee immorality. Every sin that a man commits is outside body, but the immoral man sins against his own body."

Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things."

God's Design for Union in Marriage

"In the sexual relationship we proclaim with our spouse that we truly are one and we declare our ongoing love and allegiance to one another. We affirm that we have given ourselves to one another in a whole and complete way. Sex proclaims, “I am yours. I am yours alone. I am committed to you to the end.” It is an ordinary means of grace to marriage through which we truly do strengthen our marriage and our bonds of love."

Read Tim Challies complete article at Challies.com

What a great follow-up to the perfect marriage from last.

What is Wrong With Conservatism?

"Here is the gist of the problem: “We have met the enemy, and it is us.” In a Constitutional Republic, America is US!  WE are the problem."

Read the entire article by Israel Wayne at Biblical Worldview.