Elizabeth's Pen
The following article was written from my 14-year-old daughter Charity, about a novel she read Uncle Tom's Cabin.
When Americans owned slaves, a popular fallacy was, without slavery, our nation will fail. In Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, we see a complete failure of Americans to protect life and liberty, and a lack of trust in God to care for them when they submit to Him. History and scripture have deemed it obvious that only when nations follow God's law and obey Him, will He bless them.
God will not allow a nation to prosper when they reject Him. God clearly states in his word, "If ye turn away, and forsake My statutes and My commandments, which I have set before you and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; Then will I pluck them out by the roots out of My land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for My name, will I cast out of My sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations." George Washington said, "The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."
There is something plaguing the Christian church of America today. It is so foreboding that it threatens our very existence. Yet oddly enough, it is so commonplace that we fail to recognize its danger. Kind of like a house infiltrated by deadly carbon monoxide that no one knows is there. It threatens the lives of all those in the house if they don't quickly recognize its existence and purge it from their home.
What is this plague? Compartmentalization. The act of separating our lives into isolated compartments or categories.
I was busily occupied with the demands of the day while my children were enjoying a new DVD the other evening entitled, “The Little Engine That Could.” You know the classic story. I overheard a line in the movie that almost made me stop cold in my own train tracks.
The older, more “experienced” trains laughed at the little train for thinking she could do things that even THEY had never attempted or accomplished. Impossible! But one wiser, reassuring train said to the younger, insecure train, “If you believe you can do it, you will. If you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t. Either way, you’re right.”
Instantly my mind went to the Scripture, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Did you know that was in the Bible? I’m not talking about some New Age “become what you think” transcendental rubbish. I am talking about a biblical faith that not only moves little trains up mountains, but that moves the mountains themselves, as Jesus promised in Matthew 17:20. Take a look at our Master’s words, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Wow!
For me, Mother’s Day and gardening go hand in hand. When we first moved from down south to Ohio years ago, I was still learning to get accustomed to the weather. I was always tempted to “jump the gun” and plant beautiful flowers too early, at the first sight of warm weather. One of my neighbors was kind enough to warn me to always wait until Mother’s Day to plant if I wanted to avoid the dangers of a late frost. I don’t know if you have a green thumb or a black thumb, but we are going to learn about the best gardener ever…Our Heavenly Father!
In John 15, Jesus says the following:
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
So, in these verses, God our Father is the gardener. Jesus is the Vine. And we are the branches.If we don’t bear fruit, this says we will be cut off from the vine and burned. If we do bear fruit, we will be pruned so that we will be even more fruitful!
Elizabeth: Hello?
Republican fundraiser: This is Sarah from the Ohio Republican Party. How are you ma’am?
Eliz.: Fine.
Repub.: This won’t take long at all. We know you’ve been a supporter in the past, and we have many key races coming up and…
Eliz.: Ma’am, let me just cut this short and explain something to you. Until the Republican Party begins to endorse candidates that are pro-family, pro-life, who are for limited government and true to the Republican platform, we are not going to continue to give money to your candidates or the GOP.
Repub.: Well, this is not the first time I’ve heard this. But we have a lot of phone-calling to do so we can stop the liberal agenda…
I am so sorry you have to deal with this irrational criticism of your homeschooling. Try to resist the urge to lash out in frustration – I know how tempting it must be. With calmly presented facts and Scripture, perhaps your family will be persuaded.
First of all, the letter your family member sent you is full of bad arguments for public schooling. Your response should be designed to put her on the defensive. You shouldn't have to explain why you are homeschooling (the perfectly natural thing to do for a child whom you love). She should have to explain why she is public schooling and especially why she is discouraging loving parents from leaving the failed public school experiment which has been a dismal failure!
Letter to the editor, Times Recorder newspaper, Zanesville, Ohio
Having read so many positive letters to the editor concerning The Foxhole - Zanesville's local smut-bar where one owner tried to murder another owner recently - one would think it is a charitable club that bakes cookies for the elderly, crochetes booties for newborns, and gives free marital counseling for ailing marriages. After all, one citizen told us that it is a “clean club” that is helping single mothers and college students “better themselves,” and that its owner, Mr. George, is a “great man”. And another citizen referred to The Foxhole as merely a place of entertainment. When can I get an appointment to take my husband and five children to visit this clean club for some entertainment and meet this great man, Mr. George? I am always looking for more positive role models for my children!