Interesting things happen when you consistently share your faith. Before eating breakfast at a hotel, I asked the hostess if she needed prayer for anything. She quickly said yes. She was having marriage problems and asked for prayer. I immediately prayed for her and encouraged her. It turns out she was a believer in need. Within a few minutes she came back to my table and asked if I would pray for a co-worker. I finished my breakfast and started looking for them. Her co-worker was also in need of prayer for her marriage. It was like revival broke out in the hotel. We gathered for prayer and God used us to minister to those two ladies. They were very thankful and moved that God would send a stranger to care for them. Before I left, I connected them to a Pastor friend of mine in that town.
Expect God to connect you to those in need of Him. Pray and be ready.
Go Fish!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Beautiful Foolishness
“I don’t believe in God,” begins Julian Barnes in his latest book Nothing to Be Frightened Of, “but I miss him.” Though he admits he never had any faith to lose (a “happy atheist” as an Oxford student, Barnes now considers himself an agnostic), he still finds himself dreading the gradual ebbing of Christianity. He misses the sense of purpose that the Christian narrative affords, the sense of wonder and belief that haunts Christian art and architecture. “I miss the God that inspired Italian painting and French stained glass, German music and English chapter houses, and those tumbledown heaps of stone on Celtic headlands which were once symbolic beacons in the darkness and the storm.” Such are the thoughts that surface as Barnes attempts to confront his fears of death and dying in this memoir. He believes Christianity to be a foolish lie, but insists, “[I]t was a beautiful lie.”(1)
There is certainly room for beauty in the description the apostle Paul gave of the gospel. Like Julian, Paul saw its foolishness clearly as well. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). He also noted the weakness inherent in the Christian proclamation. At the heart of the Christian religion is one who “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and being found in human form” (Philippians 2:7). On this much Paul and Julian agree: however beautiful, foolishness and weakness imbibe the Christian story.
But unlike Julian, Paul saw the foolishness of the gospel as a reason--not to disbelieve--but to believe. “For God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). It is indeed difficult to explain why at the heart of the Christian narrative there is a child, why God would answer the dark silence of 400 years with the cry of a displaced and homeless infant, why God would take on the weakness of humanity in an attempt to reach humanity with power. Most of us would know better than to create, or to perpetuate, a story so foolish. However beautiful, the story of Christ is difficult to explain; that is, unless it was not crafted with human wisdom at all.
The story of a Savior coming as an infant in Bethlehem is indeed astonishing, as astonishing an idea as the resurrection. That God chose to come into the world with flesh, flesh that would suffer, is strange and paradoxical, beautiful and foolish. Perhaps it is also wise beyond our comprehension. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25).
Though the word incarn is now used infrequently, it was once used medically, describing the flesh that grows over a wound. Applied to healing, the word refers to the recovery of wounded flesh due to the presence of new flesh.(2) The Incarnation, the astonishing event we remember in Advent, the story that has inspired music, architecture, and hope, is God’s way of doing exactly that: Christ comes in flesh to cover our mortal wound. God comes near in body and in weakness to bring healing to weak and wounded bodies. This may seem a foolish mission, but to the blind who their receive sight, the lame who now walk, the diseased who are cleansed, the deaf who hear, the dead who are raised, and the poor who have good news brought to them, it is the most beautiful foolishness ever known.
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
“I don’t believe in God,” begins Julian Barnes in his latest book Nothing to Be Frightened Of, “but I miss him.” Though he admits he never had any faith to lose (a “happy atheist” as an Oxford student, Barnes now considers himself an agnostic), he still finds himself dreading the gradual ebbing of Christianity. He misses the sense of purpose that the Christian narrative affords, the sense of wonder and belief that haunts Christian art and architecture. “I miss the God that inspired Italian painting and French stained glass, German music and English chapter houses, and those tumbledown heaps of stone on Celtic headlands which were once symbolic beacons in the darkness and the storm.” Such are the thoughts that surface as Barnes attempts to confront his fears of death and dying in this memoir. He believes Christianity to be a foolish lie, but insists, “[I]t was a beautiful lie.”(1)
There is certainly room for beauty in the description the apostle Paul gave of the gospel. Like Julian, Paul saw its foolishness clearly as well. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). He also noted the weakness inherent in the Christian proclamation. At the heart of the Christian religion is one who “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and being found in human form” (Philippians 2:7). On this much Paul and Julian agree: however beautiful, foolishness and weakness imbibe the Christian story.
But unlike Julian, Paul saw the foolishness of the gospel as a reason--not to disbelieve--but to believe. “For God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). It is indeed difficult to explain why at the heart of the Christian narrative there is a child, why God would answer the dark silence of 400 years with the cry of a displaced and homeless infant, why God would take on the weakness of humanity in an attempt to reach humanity with power. Most of us would know better than to create, or to perpetuate, a story so foolish. However beautiful, the story of Christ is difficult to explain; that is, unless it was not crafted with human wisdom at all.
The story of a Savior coming as an infant in Bethlehem is indeed astonishing, as astonishing an idea as the resurrection. That God chose to come into the world with flesh, flesh that would suffer, is strange and paradoxical, beautiful and foolish. Perhaps it is also wise beyond our comprehension. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25).
Though the word incarn is now used infrequently, it was once used medically, describing the flesh that grows over a wound. Applied to healing, the word refers to the recovery of wounded flesh due to the presence of new flesh.(2) The Incarnation, the astonishing event we remember in Advent, the story that has inspired music, architecture, and hope, is God’s way of doing exactly that: Christ comes in flesh to cover our mortal wound. God comes near in body and in weakness to bring healing to weak and wounded bodies. This may seem a foolish mission, but to the blind who their receive sight, the lame who now walk, the diseased who are cleansed, the deaf who hear, the dead who are raised, and the poor who have good news brought to them, it is the most beautiful foolishness ever known.
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Abraham Lincoln offers Thanksgiving to God
October 3, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln Establishes the annual day of ThanksIn response to the persistent requests of Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, President Abraham Lincoln was the first president to establish an annual day of thanksgiving. This was to occur on the last Thursday in November as a day of repentance and humility before God almighty. Here are Lincoln's exact words issued in his proclamation that day:The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863.Thank you, President Lincoln, for a reminder as timely now as it was then. Happy Thanksgiving to every reader, American and people of all nations. And thank you, dear Lord, for your grace and kindness to all, which is far greater than anything we deserve.
www.randyalcorn.blogspot.comwww.epm.org
October 3, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln Establishes the annual day of ThanksIn response to the persistent requests of Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, President Abraham Lincoln was the first president to establish an annual day of thanksgiving. This was to occur on the last Thursday in November as a day of repentance and humility before God almighty. Here are Lincoln's exact words issued in his proclamation that day:The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863.Thank you, President Lincoln, for a reminder as timely now as it was then. Happy Thanksgiving to every reader, American and people of all nations. And thank you, dear Lord, for your grace and kindness to all, which is far greater than anything we deserve.
www.randyalcorn.blogspot.comwww.epm.org
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Just Do It
11/21/2008 1:40:00 PM
11/21/2008 1:40:00 PM
I tend to procrastinate. So to fight that tendency, I’ve posted the following quote from a nineteenth-century preacher under my computer monitor. I hope these words inspire you to attend diligently to the most important matters each day, by God’s grace.
It reads:
It reads:
No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.
-Alexander MacLaren (1826–1910), Scottish preacher
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Renowned Serbian joins former abortionists in becoming ProLife
The Catholic News Agency Online issued this remarkable report. My comments follow:
MADRID, November 13, 2008 (CNA) - The Spanish daily "La Razon" has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former "champion of abortion." Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after spending 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country."The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue," the newspaper reported. "Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares."In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. 'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn't recognize the name.""Why don't you ask me who these children are?" St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream."They are the ones you killed with your abortions,” the Dominican saint told him."Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions," the article stated."That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion - something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby's heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being."After this experience, Adasevic "told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university." After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas."You are my good friend, keep going,” the man in black and white told him.“Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslavtelevision to air the film 'The Silent Scream,' by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times."Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.....Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.
From Randy: Many years ago, when we spoke at the same prolife event, I met and conversed with Bernard Nathanson, now in his eighties. At the time he still had no faith in God, though since then he has become a Catholic.What Dr. Nathanson became convinced of was that the 75,000 abortions he had committed were all the killing of children. His lies to the media, spoken from his position as co-founder of NARAL, were widely spread throughout the country and helped create the climate in which abortion-on-demand was made into law by the Supreme Court.
I refer to Dr. Nathanson (whose most recent book is titled The Hand of God) often in my prolife books, for instance in Why Pro-Life? under the section "Is Abortion Really a Women's Rights Issue?" I personally know another physician who used to perform abortions and joined us in peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience at abortion clinics nearly twenty years ago. Our friend Carol Everett was director of four Dallas abortion clinics, and owner of two. She was responsible for the clinics' daily operation and knows the abortion industry inside out. She had an abortion soon after it became legal in 1973, and now speaks out about the ugliness she saw and was part of in the abortion industry.
There are countless physicians and "abortion providers" whose eyes are now open to the truth. Here are links to the stories of a number of them: www.prolifeaction.org/providers/ You can also order a "Meet the Abortion Providers" video at www.prolifeaction.org/store/#providers
I am grateful that Dr. Adasevic of Serbia has joined the ranks of those who know first hand the terrible truth our culture, and often even Christians, want to deny: abortion kills children.www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
The Catholic News Agency Online issued this remarkable report. My comments follow:
MADRID, November 13, 2008 (CNA) - The Spanish daily "La Razon" has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former "champion of abortion." Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after spending 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country."The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue," the newspaper reported. "Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares."In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. 'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn't recognize the name.""Why don't you ask me who these children are?" St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream."They are the ones you killed with your abortions,” the Dominican saint told him."Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions," the article stated."That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion - something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby's heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being."After this experience, Adasevic "told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university." After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas."You are my good friend, keep going,” the man in black and white told him.“Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslavtelevision to air the film 'The Silent Scream,' by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times."Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.....Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.
From Randy: Many years ago, when we spoke at the same prolife event, I met and conversed with Bernard Nathanson, now in his eighties. At the time he still had no faith in God, though since then he has become a Catholic.What Dr. Nathanson became convinced of was that the 75,000 abortions he had committed were all the killing of children. His lies to the media, spoken from his position as co-founder of NARAL, were widely spread throughout the country and helped create the climate in which abortion-on-demand was made into law by the Supreme Court.
I refer to Dr. Nathanson (whose most recent book is titled The Hand of God) often in my prolife books, for instance in Why Pro-Life? under the section "Is Abortion Really a Women's Rights Issue?" I personally know another physician who used to perform abortions and joined us in peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience at abortion clinics nearly twenty years ago. Our friend Carol Everett was director of four Dallas abortion clinics, and owner of two. She was responsible for the clinics' daily operation and knows the abortion industry inside out. She had an abortion soon after it became legal in 1973, and now speaks out about the ugliness she saw and was part of in the abortion industry.
There are countless physicians and "abortion providers" whose eyes are now open to the truth. Here are links to the stories of a number of them: www.prolifeaction.org/providers/ You can also order a "Meet the Abortion Providers" video at www.prolifeaction.org/store/#providers
I am grateful that Dr. Adasevic of Serbia has joined the ranks of those who know first hand the terrible truth our culture, and often even Christians, want to deny: abortion kills children.www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
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