Big Day-Angel gets dedicated to the Lord today.
It's a momentous occasion in which we will give him over to the Lord and promise to raise him to love God and want to be like Jesus. I love this and my hopes for him are that he is just want God wants him to be.
I Hope that he sees the beauty in things that others would not and that he has a soft heart for helping others and showing them Christ's love!

Letting God Open and Close the Womb

*courtesy of multiply and replenish*
 

Letting God Open and Close the Womb

Some people say, "I will just pray about when to have children." Or, "If I use contraceptives, God will just over-rule it if He really wants me to have children." I have a few problems with this.

One, you would still be using contraceptives which, if you look at my earlier post, invites abortion. For this one reason alone, can we not stay away from contraceptives? Doesn't just the thought that using birth-control can cause you to abort a baby make you want to stay away from it altogether?

Two, isn't this just support for the fact that birth control doesn't always work anyway? Sometimes I hear women talk about having babies like they are ordering pizza. They think they can control everything. Then, after being on birth control for several years, they decide, okay, timing is perfect, so let's have a baby, and then it takes them two or three years to get pregnant and they mourn over the fact that they waited. I know other women who get pregnant no matter what contraceptives they use. As Rick Boyer says in his book Yes, They're All Ours "If you take action to cut off your fertility, God may or may not act to reverse the consequences. The same applies if you take action to cut off your own head. To me it seems that this question gets the issue backward. Why not let God plan your family as He did for people in scripture? Let Him open and close the womb as He knows best, rather than doing something questionable and expecting Him to overrule your mistakes." (P.122)

What scripture says about Halloween and occultism  (emphasis mine)

"Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.  But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.  For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.  Therefore do not be partakers with them.  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them."  ~ Ephesians 5:1-11

"Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil."  ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

"Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.  You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons."  ~ 1 Corinthians 10:20-21 

"[do not] give place to the devil."  ~ Ephesians 4:27

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons."  ~ 1 Timothy 4:1 

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"  ~ Isaiah 5:20

"Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good."  ~ Romans 12:9

 "Seek good and not evil, that you may live; So the Lord God of hosts will be with you..."  ~ Amos 5:14

It may be tempting for people to think the words "evil" and "demon" too strong for being applicable to playing with Halloween, but from what we've been taught, and from what we've learned and have read through out God's Word - we need to take evil seriously.   It's not a joke.  It's not something to be played with.  I can't encourage you enough to read (or listen to) the materials I've listed below as resources, breaking down the realities of Halloween; and encourage your teens to read and listen to this material to give them a deeper, realistic understanding as well.  Satan would like nothing more than for people to believe that just compromising a little bit on this won't hurt anything...that just a little fun in the dark won't lead to anything...that the children will be just fine...but remember,

"Now the serpent [satan] was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?...Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die.'"  ~ Genesis 3:1, 4

I heard a great quote once about playing around with sin or in this case, evil:

"Sin will take you farther than you intended to stray,
keep you longer than you intended to stay,
and cost you more than you ever intended to pay."  (author unknown)

I encourage parents to consider, is it really worth it, playing around with this occultic holiday?

The Heart of the Matter
“Give me your heart, my son.”
This is no longer the plea of the modern, Christian parent. Getting the hearts of our children is essentially “the heart” of discipleship, clearly demonstrated by our Savior as he walked with his earthly children. It is impossible to understand the necessity of this discipleship and worry about “too much inward focus”.
As a family functioning as it should (notwithstanding its own difficulties), it becomes the “city on a hill” the light in a dark world, the most effective form of evangelism.
We had better get inward focused if we want to see real outward change in the world for Christ.
                                                       -courtesy of Generation Cedar

Because of the accepted norm of birth control, life is now something we think we can choose or not, so children have become less valuable, more of a commodity and not viewed in our eyes as the Lord views them…”…for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” We don’t even realize it has happened, but it can be clearly seen as evidenced in comments like the one that prompted this post. Truly, our family is a mission field, ripe unto harvest, and until we have come to a correct perspective on our duties there, we are not fit for evangelism anywhere else.
                                                     -courtesy of Generation Cedar