Monday night, just 6 days ago, Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans spoke at TCBC’s Marvelous Monday. Dr. Luter shared his heart on what happened during Katrina and what the Lord did. He described a little of the devastation. The church was destroyed, the Baptist seminary, his home, and most of the homes of congregants. It was devastating. And the Lord worked an amazing testimony in and through His people in New Orleans, Mississippi and the Gulf.

Tears of a pastor After seeing Franklin Avenue Baptist Church seemingly afloat in stinking water, pastor Fred Luter dries his eyes while aboard a chopper flying him and others over New Orleans. “We’re gonna rebuild. We’re gonna rebuild,” he later said. Photo by Norm Miller

As Gustav bears down, I cannot help but think of the fact their church just began meeting again in April of this year. By God’s grace, they DID rebuild. Please, please pray for the people in the Gulf Coast as this hurricane bears down. Pray the Lord works a miracle and spares them a second devastation, as they rebuild out of the first from three years ago.

This is what Fred Luter’s church website says:

Hello Franklinites – This is Pastor Luter

Due to the uncertainty of the direction of Hurricane Gustav, the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church has cancelled all of the weekend activities and worship services.  Our city is right in the middle of the projected path of this hurricane; therefore, we want to err on the side of caution so that no one will be in harm’s way. 

I trust and pray that you and your family have determined your evacuation plans and are ready to carry them out.  Let us all pray that this hurricane will pass over the south Louisiana area with minimal damage to life and property.  If all goes well, we hope to see you next Sunday “On the Avenue” where we will continue to “Exalt the Savior”, “Equip the Saints”, and “Evangelize the Sinner”!

May God bless, protect, and keep you is my prayer

My heart just breaks for his congregation, and the people of the beautiful city of New Orleans. Their website http://www.franklinabc.com/ Please pray without ceasing for the Gulf.

How to campaign

Okay - I admit it. I am a political junkie who can’t stay out of presidential campaigns. I vowed to take the 2008 Presidential Election OFF, to retire, not volunteer. But I just can’t. Since watching Rick Warren interview Obama, and his vapid 6 minute answers, gaffing off the sanctity of life in his “It is above my pay grade” answer on abortion. Obama terrifies me. May I just be blunt on my own blog? I see a vacuous man, who strives to be charismatic and enlightened, who bumbles through answers never being straight. When you compare what he says to biblical truth, no matter the translation, the Hebrew or the Greek, he fails, misquotes and does NOT take scripture in context. Obama does not understand what the Bible clearly says about homosexuality or taking an innocent life.

The media is enthralled with him. They report ad nauseum about the details of his life, his speech. The media is TELLING YOU WHAT TO THINK. Step back and watch Obama. Put the thrill of his campaign and the adoring media glare off, and take a good look at him. The Emperor has no clothes. He has no substance. But you will never see that on CNN, ABC, NBC or CBS, Time Magazine, People or any other magazine extolling his virtues and telling you how fabulous he is.

We watched the Democratic National Convention all week. It was appalling. The platform is a slap to a holy and righteous God. The views espoused are not biblical.

And I can’t sit here mute on my own blog anymore. Wake up evangelicals. Wake up.  Compare what Obama says to the Bible. Compare the Democratic Platform to the word of God.

I have not shared my personal testimony on The Prudent Wife, but I was a liberal, atheist, feminist for 10 years. I marched in abortion rallies, for the “Right to Choose.” I thought it was a woman’s right to choose. I was a true Saul in every sense of the word, arguing Christians down, casting doubt, doing what I could to murder their belief. For ten  years I vehemently denied God. But let me tell you, while I did not personally believe, I could quote scripture, I could speak in Christian-ese, I could play the part and pretend I was just like the Christian in front of me, if it were to my advantage.

Just like Obama.

And one day, after praying the night before I had Emily (God, if you exist, help me raise this baby). He had me in a MOPS group the following month. By the grace and mercy of a sovereign Lord, I understood the tremendous depth of my sin. I wept for hours, went forward, asked the Lord to forgive me. But it took me six long months to truly accept the fact that the Lord could forgive a sinner of my magnitude. I had argued against God, seeking to cause doubt, destroying and belitteling the faith of others, because I could just not believe myself. Yet God, in His infinite mercy, sent His son to die on a cross for me.

After being saved, I was still a liberal, feminist, but now a Christian. I still believed in a woman’s right to choose, and that homosexuality was just fine, and other core liberal tenets.

Just like Obama.

As a brand new baby Christian, I was hungry to understand what the Bible said. I had argued so vehemently against it, because people could twist it to say anything they wanted. They can. But they were taking scripture out of context. I was introduced to the Inductive Study Method with Precept International. As I began taking Bible studies, confronted with scripture, my liberal views quickly fell by the wayside. I was adamant that the right to choose was alright. That fell aside quickly. I held on to homosexuality being okay. My best friend in high school was gay, and I liked him, he was safe, funny, my friend. But there it was in scripture. Old and New Testament. No arguing it.

And slowly, the Lord began to take the scales off my eyes, peeling away liberal thought, after liberal thought. Either I believed in the inerrancy of scripture, or I did not. If I believed, then the Bible is true. That requires a change in my thinking and in my beliefs, whether it agrees with my current thoughts and attitudes or not. If it is not true, why believe in the God of the Bible or His Son? You don’t get to have it both ways. The more I studied, in the Greek and the Hebrew bearing it out, the more I was confronted with truth. Biblical truth. Something bigger than my feelings, thoughts and emotions. I was wrong. And it turned my life upside down. I recanted all of my former ideals, liberalism and feminism, and replaced them with what the Bible says.

Unlike Obama.

I stopped playing with the Bible, speaking Christianese. Under the power of the holy spirit, willing to work in and through true believers, change is required. Radical change. That change is seen in fruit in the believer’s life.

This is not seen in Obama. He whips out his “God bless you” and “God bless America,” but what God is he taking about?

Obama has been in a radical church for close to 20 years. Claims to have become a Christian. So where is the fruit?

Obama sows the fruit of the unrighteous, denying biblical truth. His words and his policies, the liberal agenda he stands up for betray the tree. He produces what he believes.

Yet there are evangelical Christians who are going to vote for him. Why?

In an article in The New Yorker, Frances Fitzgerald writes about “The New Evangelicals”

The Democrats may well pick up more evangelical votes this year, but for reasons that could be circumstantial. The same polls that reported a third of evangelicals in Missouri and Tennessee and forty-three per cent in Ohio voting Democratic in the primaries also showed that evangelicals were more concerned with jobs and the economy than with gay rights and abortion. That was not the case in 2004, but it was in 1992, when Bill Clinton took a third of the evangelical vote. A lot also depends on the candidates. In Hunter’s church, many of the young are Obama enthusiasts, as are many educated young evangelicals.

Why? Why are 1/3 of the evangelicals in traditionally conservative Missouri and Tennessee (my home state and the state I was married in) voting democratic in the primaries?

What makes you think a man with poisoned fruit is worth voting for??

Why don’t you ask the creator of the universe.

I have got to admit - I am crazy about this nomination!! Still nursing, supportive family, PRO CHOICE, PRO HOMESCHOOLING, I will take the whole Palin family!

I have worked every presidential election for the last 24 years. I had decided to take this one off, until we saw Rick Warren interview both candidates. 5 minutes into McCain, Emily and I looked at each other and said, “We HAVE to volunteer.” There is simply too much at stake, up to 3 Supreme Court Justices, not to mention national security. If we allow the Obamaification of the Nation, we deserve it. Christians need to stand up, be the Moral Majority again, or the living breathing Word of God will become hate language.

Think through it. Pray through it. Ask the Lord what YOUR family can do. Then volunteer, WITH your kids! There is nothing more exhilarating than working on a presidential campaign, especially one that matters so much to our Judeo Christian values. Go to www.JohnMcCain.com and sign up today!

John McCain is about to speak with his new VP choice.

Todd and Sarah Palin with Trig

Sarah Palin had her fifth child yesterday! She and her husband Todd Palin named the child Trig Paxson Van Palin. The Governor’s office put out this statement:

“Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.”

The name Trig is a Norse word meaning “true” and “brave victory,” Leighow said. Paxson is an area of Alaska that both Palin and her husband, Todd, feel is “one of the most beautiful spots in Alaska,” she added.

Where do your children’s names come from?

TODD: Sarah’s parents were coaches and the whole family was involved in track and I was an athlete in high school, so with our first-born, I was, like, ‘Track!’ Bristol is named after Bristol Bay. That’s where I grew up, that’s where we commercial fish. Willow is a community there in Alaska. And then Piper, you know, there’s just not too many Pipers out there and it’s a cool name. And Trig is a Norse name for “strength.”

Woo hooo!!! A life long goal achieved ~ Emily and I have learned how to can! One of several things my grandmothers did with ease, that was not passed down to my mom and her sisters, but always a goal. We had the honor of talking a canning class a few weeks ago. It distilled the whole mystery of canning down, and made it feel like we could actually do it! On our own.

When a friend at church brought us a bunch of tomatoes, the challenge was on!

We had already gotten extra onions and garlic, so why not! Granted, we are readying our home to move, but why not learn to can in the middle of moving, the start of Freshman year, in the midst of writing deadlines!

We made Salsa from Fresh Tomatoes, Serrano Jalapeño Salsa, and Roasted Garlic Salsa, all with recipes on The Prudent Wife site, and videos to follow! You can make this too!

What a total blessing, to make 24 pints of mostly organic salsa and 4 half pints for gifts, for less than $10 for ingredients!

Life is swirling, changing and churning! After having our lovely home on the market for 10 months, we are finally moving in “The Great Downsize of 2008!”

Originally, it was our desire to move to the Southeast and embrace a simpler life, less cluttered. We also planned on taking 2 years and working toward this goal. We had it all written down, how we would plan and prepare for our move, the things that needed done, how to attack decluttering 12 years in one town, with the goal of taking a lean household to the other side of the world. A truck filled with only the things we love the most.

In God’s economy, sometimes our excellent plans and dreams don’t work out. He is moving mightily despite our plans. We found ourselves in an accelerated moving schedule, leaving 21 months before we intended to! Just enough time to get the house ready to sell and off.

So for the last few years of living in the beautiful Southeast, we have been trying to catch up. First we took two storage units 10×30. Who needs that much stuff? Then we moved it all temporarily to a home in Virginia. Then we moved it into our pretty home in Tennessee.

The world is enlarged for us, not by new objects, but by finding more affinities and potencies in those we have. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Declutter.

 If you have been tempted into evil, fly from it. It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.

      – Author Unknown

Never forget it. Perhaps you are struggling with the economy. Perhaps you are like us, and took a huge chance and started a business, and lost everything. Either way, you are burdened with debt, wondering how to make it each week, let alone each month. Wondering how to survive as gas prices creep up and up, and groceries go sky high. Not wanting to contemplate the price of heating this winter, wondering just how to survive today.

Debt kills dreams.

The borrower is servant to the lender.

And that debt can wrap around your abilities, to serve within the body of Christ, and crush them like a boa constrictor slowly squeezing the life out of someone. Debt is a many edged sword.

This week, I lost a dream to debt. A dream I had hoped to resume after five long years away, a good dream, a ministry dream. The one thing I had wanted to do, thought the Lord had for me to do. It is gone, for this season. Perhaps it will return again, perhaps never.

And I have a choice. Obedience and to continue walking.

Or drown in the deep, deep sorrow and shattering that I feel, growing bitter.

Lord, give me the strength to look at YOU, and not the situation.

You give and take away, blessed be the name of the Lord.