Live Life on Purpose

We are currently reading the book Live Life on Purpose by Claude Hickman in our Church. It is a book helping people to find God’s purpose for their life.
It has caused us to look back over our journey for the past few years and wonder what would be different if we had chosen to move 4 years ago when we felt God pulling at us?
· Our house was worth much more - we calculated we had enough to sell it, payoff what we owed, including credit cards and cars, with a little extra for a down payment on a new place in AZ.
· Our kids were younger and most likely would have moved with us – at least 2 (not saying which ones), how would they feel changing their lives in the middle of their teen age years.
· Unsure of the team we were planning on joining.
Instead, we felt we needed time to really listen to God, really pray and seek Him. Here is some of what we experienced –
· With my job loss, collapse of the housing market, all our savings/retirement gone, we nearly lost our house as well. We had to do a government modification on it to try and save it; we are upside down currently.
· Our oldest is married; our middle child received a job promotion and our youngest starts college this fall.
· A new ministry formed with our dear friends doing what we feel God wants us to do, 3:18 Ministries.
· We finished the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class, I completed a 2 1/2 year study as well as continuing our studies in Bible classes.
· Daily prayer and reading of the Bible.
I feel confident God had us wait. We weren’t ready. We learned to earnestly pursue Him daily. He has stripped away from us all we did not need, and has taught us to truly trust in Him and His provision. Though a lot of it has been quite painful, He provides all we need. Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
Philippians 4:6-8 tells us “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”


Liz

Mourning

So...

I read a couple articles that got me to thinking.

One was about an eighth grader who was shot and killed by police while he was at school. The article was really one sided. They portrayed the kid as a good kid who was doing well and the parents couldn't understand why the police would use such brutal force to stop this poor kid. This poor kid had gone into school punched a kid in the face and pulled a gun. The police confronted the kid and he refused to drop the gun, it turns out it was a pellet gun, so they shot him 3 times and killed him.

My first reaction was the police were justified because he was a threat to everyone. Plus it is difficult to tell it was a pellet gun. The police had to make a decision on the spot. Here take a look. Can you tell which one is a pellet gun and which one is a real gun? So I just knew I was on the cop's side on this one. Btw...the the kid's pellet gun is on the left.

The second story is about a woman who went to have an abortion. She was having twins and one of them had a heart defect so the doctors said she should abort the child. She agreed but they aborted the wrong one. Then they had to do a C-section to remove the other. So this woman lost both of her children. This article was also written with a bias. It was written as such a terrible tragedy. The doctors made a huge mistake and this family is devastated. Me? I was angry, my first thought was what is going on here. How could the doctors do such an awful thing?

Then I heard the story of a 15 year old girl who was being "bullied" by other kids at school and on Face Book. She was so distraught that she wrote a suicide note and stepped in front of a bus. The article said she killed herself because she was bullied. They actually said the cause of her death was the bullying.

These three articles got me to thinking. And here is the conclusion I came to. It is our fault. We as a society have devalued human life. I didn't mourn for an eight grader who was so messed up he took a pellet gun to school. I could only think it was his own fault. That his life meant nothing.

Women get "legal" abortions all the time. We as a society don't value human life. I know some will say that it isn't a life yet. That it's just a piece of tissue. If that's the case then why are we upset that this woman lost both pieces of tissue. We are upset because the doctors made a mistake by killing the wrong "CHILD." We should be upset that we as a society don't care about human life.

And this 15 year old didn't kill herself because she was bullied. She killed herself because we as a society taught her that human life isn't important. If we tell her that an eight grader deserves to die and a child with a heart defect deserves to die then how can she ever know how important her own life is?

I know I've stepped on a lot of toes. That was not my intention. This is something that I have been struggling with for the last couple of days. So today I will mourn for and eighth grader who died when he didn't have to, I will mourn for Two children who died when they didn't have to, I will mourn a 15 year old girl who stepped in front of a bus and died when she didn't have to and I will mourn for all of as we have all allowed this to happen right in front of our eyes and have done nothing about it.

Robert