WARNING: HEAVY POST! I have to get some things off my chest.
"Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zehariah. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD." - 2 Kings 18:2
"Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD..." -2 Kings 21:1-2
"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah... And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD..." -2 Kings 22:1-2
A mother can change the course of an entire nation. A mother is one of the most powerful and influential people in the world! And all power is given, and taken, from Almighty God. What a high and amazing calling we've been given as servants of Christ to be mothers!
Maybe one of the greatest lies of feminism is that motherhood is slavery or drudgery or a waste of talent and power. Mothers stand in a position of power at least as great as kings and presidents... they are the molders of kings and presidents. Not that these verses are about mothers. And not that mothers are to be worshipped (feminism can swing the other way too). God saw fit to include the names of the mothers of some kings who effected radical change on their nation for good or evil. If He saw fit to include it, I think I should pay attention.
Each child is responsible for their own actions before God alone, and his mother is responsible for her actions in molding the future leader of a nation before God alone.
I hate pornography! It's a drug more powerful and more destructive than cocaine and heroin combined! Apart from the moral putridness of it, this science should be enough to cause alarm for us residents of a pornified culture. If I could champion a social cause, the obliteration of pornography would be one of them! Hezekiah removed similar "high places" in his day. Maybe God would raise up a son of this mere momma to do the same! It's poison that has personally damaged my psyche and the psyche of many.
You know it's funny to me how we are. Actually it's not funny at all, it's a horror!
I love Christ's righteousness and I hate man's. You know why? Christ's righteousness is unchanging! It's solid. You know what's right. It doesn't change and have a 5000 page legal-lingo code full of loop-holes to describe it. Christ's righteousness is pure! It's totally free of perversion or filth. It doesn't say something is evil for you, but for me it's ok as long as no one gets hurt. Man's righteousness is a tangled web full of trap doors and booby traps and poisonous spiders.
For example:
On one floor of one building a newly forming human life is being fought for with thousands of dollars of medical technology and specialized doctors and nurses, while on another floor, in the same building, that same newly forming human life is be burned alive in his mother's womb or slowly ripped, limb from limb. I hate man's righteousness!
I've worked in women's health as a nurse since 2001. NEVER, never, does a physician have to kill an unborn baby to save the life of a mother! NEVER!! But ALWAYS, always, a physician must DELIVER an unborn baby to save the life of a mother. If the unborn baby is unable to live outside the womb, every measure is taken to give life an opportunity to take hold, and a mother an opportunity to grieve. The prescription for a pregnant woman who's life is in danger due to her pregnancy is always the delivery of the baby. Never the killing of the baby.
And then we wonder why the news is full of stories of young women killing their newly born children. Why should she be prosecuted when in a sterile building in her town the same act could be done as a "right" and called a medical procedure?
I hate man's ideas of what's right!
I love Christ's idea of what's right:
"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." -Matthew 18:5-6
A society, a person who seeks to preserve life, may loose many a life, nevertheless the honor of Imago Dei is upheld and the health of the person and society grows.
In case you or a loved one is toxic with the poison of pornography, here are a few resources I have found very helpful:
1. Encouragement and Truth
2. Practical Gospel Help
3. Accountability Help
"I do not take this for granted. This is most remarkable. That I would be given the privilege to address the most influential people in the world... A woman on her knees, sways more in this nation than a thousand three-piece suited, Wallstreet jerks." -John Piper
“Men look at pornography out of an arrogant desire to see women in a way that God does not allow. They show arrogant defiance to God's commands, rejecting the delight of sexual intimacy in marriage and deciding for themselves what they believe is better — looking at naked women in porn. They show arrogant disregard for God's call to selfless marital love. They show arrogant derision for the female actresses whom they should be seeking to respect as women who need to hear the good news of Jesus. They show arrogant disdain for their own children by hiding their sin and inviting the enemy into their home and their marriage. They show arrogant disrespect toward all those who would be scandalized if their sin were known. The root problem with men who look at porn is not neediness — it is arrogance.” (110)
“Until God is your chief concern — until sinning against him is what makes your heart break — you will never turn the corner.”
- Finally Free, Fighting For Purity With The Power of Grace by Heath Lambert
Quieted,
Sheila
