"Can God Prepare a Table in the Wilderness?"

In suffering, we learn the nature of our confidence in God. Proverbs tells us “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…” What is it that cringes in us, when we stand on the threshold of understanding, but our fear of losing control, fear of the opinions of others, fear of understanding the nature of the battle we are in? It is, after all, comfortable to enjoy the position of a reserve. Our plans fit comfortably in the small secure foxhole, our weaknesses are safe from scrutiny because they are un-known, and the dim roar of battle, while loud enough to make us feel important, is dull enough to feel “safe.” Most soldiers can look relatively capable in a foxhole…its getting out of one that we all fear. In short, we are remarkably good at fearing everything but God.

The Israelites are the chief testimony in scripture to Solomon’s assertion, “There is nothing new under the sun.” The chosen nation’s ungodly fears are easy to criticize and moralize over until we lay them side by side with our own. In Psalm 78, their response to the raging and often deadly cultural battle and the fears that accompanied it are laid out in detail. Being the chosen people was no piece of human cake. Their flesh didn’t relish the idea of being holy and set apart more than the modern man’s. When Moses brought the declaration from God and identified who they were, they balked; even though chattel-slavery was probably not their profession of choice.

Admittedly, the cosmic –sized coup with which almighty God “brought them up out of Egypt” and the wonders that He showed restored some confidence in their identity. But the Psalm states that they “forgot.” In other words, they did not truly fear God. They enjoyed the “magic tricks”, mighty escorts of fire and cloud, and the mighty procession “going up” from slavery with carts loaded with Egyptian gold. Unfortunately, they missed God’s point. It was never really about them. It was all about Him.

Psalm 78 verses eighteen through twenty were like a bucket of cold water for me yesterday.

And they tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy.
Yes, they spoke against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.
Can He give bread also? Can He provide meat for His people?”

The parting of the red sea, any one of the great plagues, or the miracle of water from a rock, which they cite themselves, adequately and silently mocks their sarcastic demands. Rather than fearing the God who did all these things before them, they “tested God in their heart” assuming they deserved compensation for taking the trouble to be His chosen people. Notably, God did not give them a pass on excuses of over-stress, recently thirst-afflicted, tired and cranky, or just-recovering-from-oppressive-slavery. Verse 32 and 33 clarify.

In spite of this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wondrous works.
Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear.

Unbelief or failure to fear God is a sin He must mortify in us. My own heart has whimpered “can He provide meat?”

The fear of God is not a natural human reaction any more than it is an ambiguous emotion. In fact, our natural fears serve to confuse our understanding of the fear of God because our emotion-driven reactions to trouble are nothing like it. The Israelites manifested one version of human fear, i.e. complaining and questioning. The current, purely emotional response to pain so often yields vague platitudes of purported happiness, a high aptitude for “putting a bold face on it,” and a confusion of mind steeped in the murky waters of a self-conjured hope that is unreliable at best. To answer the question “How are you doing?” with a “Doing good!” is the commonly accepted response in lieu of the real answer which may be as helplessly vulnerable as “I have no idea.”

In contrast, the assurance of God’s goodness is not an exclusively emotional resignation devoid of knowledge. It is founded on a concrete belief in the sovereignty of our powerful God. But what about emotions? We know that God has emotions and that they are an integral part of who we are. How can we feel rightly without being enslaved to human “wisdom?”

Psalm 78 was one of my favorite Psalms before yesterday. I have always especially treasured the beginning verses because of the generational call that echoes from them down the generations as God’s battle plan of the ages:

Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children,
That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;

Now the passage has new meaning for me because of the following sixty-five verses of rebuke and warning beginning with these words:

And may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The King James Version translates the last “faithful” as “steadfast,” a word that speaks of firmness, establishment and confidence. These verses are the antidote to a disease of spiritual death in fear. Generational faithfulness is established through hope in God, not forgetting the works of God, and keeping His commandments.

God’s plan in the wilderness was not merely to perform mighty acts for the sons of Israel. He was building a nation and ultimately paving the way for His gospel and the saving of all the sons of men. His loving kindness is great enough that He can show love and compassion to every one of His children, and yet perfectly orchestrate the Plan before which all other plans dim in comparison. Neither our “help” nor the filling of our individual stomachs is necessary for the completion of His plan. Yet in perfect love, He redeemed us out of slavery and the death penalty for our sin, uses us for His glory, helpless though we are, and feeds us.

This then is the love of God for us. Until we recognize that we deserve nothing and that He gives us everything, even eternal life, there can be no right emotional response. The love that casts out fear is perfect. The oft-quoted verse is often referenced bereft of its context:

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. - 1 John 4:17-18

This is clearly a love unrelated to the formless and indistinct love of modern definition. Jesus defines our love for Him:

John 14:15 – If you love Me, keep my commandments.

In obedience we must fear God alone and nothing else. “I’m doing well,” can no longer mean unspoken platitudes, or that I am doing well. By the grace of God I am well, always and forever, even when I don’t feel so, because He is doing well in me to the praise of His own glory. When our obedience to believe reveals the magnitude of His bestowed love and mercy, true emotions of gratitude, contrition, and love cannot fail to follow.

“Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” - Mark 9:23-24

Greater Expectations From Visionary Daughters.com...

An honestly inspiring post from Visionarydaughters.com

Greater Expectations
Posted October 24, 2010
By Anna Sofia Botkin

"I just turned 25. Oddly, it seems a lot more than one year older than 24. The realization that I have lived a quarter of a century brings new awareness of the preciousness of time, the reality of aging and death, and the fact that life unfolds at a speed and in a way that I can’t control. I’m past feeling like my life is stretching out endlessly before me — I’m a good third of the way into it (Lord willing) and the ticking of the clock seems to grows louder.

I think these feelings are normal; observation has taught me that it’s at some point around a young woman’s twenty fifth revolution around the sun that she experiences a messy head-on collision with certain rock-hard facts of reality. Often it’s her point of disillusionment – the point when she finds out that the world is not what she thought. That life did not deliver what she expected. That things didn’t happen according to her plans. That she didn’t get her way and that her dreams didn’t come true. And to cap it off… she doesn’t get another shot. This is the big moral test in every girl’s life, and I am no exception...

It’s at this crisis point that a young woman’s true faith and motivations emerge, sometimes in ways that surprise everyone; over the years I‘ve seen many whom I counted as friends and allies change course dramatically and walk away from the principles that they fought alongside me to defend — namely, the tenets of biblical daughterhood.


The reasons are many and varied:

It got too hard. The level of self-sacrifice turned out to be more than they bargained for.

It did not produce the desired result (a husband).

The stigma of being an adult daughter who still lives at home with Mommy and Daddy became too much to bear.

The barrage of probing questions about why they were so “different” became too wearisome.

There really was no vision for life at home. For them, home was never really home, just a port to be stranded in, waiting for the soonest ship.

The feeling that God did not hold up His half of the bargain – He didn’t deliver what they assumed was coming to them for their good deeds.

Rarely do the reasons spring from an honest reexamination of their convictions on biblical womanhood, but rather a disappointment with what those “convictions” yielded.

Sometimes before we start to question what we believe, we should question why we believe – is it because it’s easy, it’s convenient, it’s socially acceptable to the crowd we’re in, it’s eventually going to pay… or because we know it’s true? If we believe something because we know it’s true, then we will keep believing — even when it becomes hard, inconvenient, socially unacceptable, and appears to be costing, not paying. It’s good to stop and question why we believe – yes, even if those beliefs have been in a published form for five years, permanently set into the stones that make up the bedrock of a so-called “movement.”

This month is also the fifth anniversary of the release of my sister’s and my first book, So Much More. Many speculated that time and experience would dampen our idealistic notions, and change our convictions. Some have asked if I still agreed with the naive 17-year-old me who started that book eight years ago. After all, haven’t I changed?

Well, yes, I have: By God’s grace, my grasp of the Scriptures and the issues is firmer, my communication skills have been sharpened through combat with an onslaught of criticism, and an acquaintance with hundreds of young woman and their unique situations from around the world has broadened the scope of my vision and taught me to have more compassion. But one thing I hope never changes — that I never grow out of — is a child-like faith in the plain teachings of Scripture and youthful zeal in proclaiming them.

I have changed, but the Bible hasn’t, and I still believe it means what it says. Time and experience have further proved to me that God is a much better Author of a woman’s destiny than she is. Her plans will go awry. His can’t.

This week I have been reflecting back on the expectations I had for my life: my goals, my plans, my hopes and my dreams. I don’t know if it’s possible for my present reality to have deviated more from my past fantasies. As a teenager, I projected for myself an early marriage (at say, 18) and a quiet, private life, as my three biggest fears were writing, public speaking, and being on camera – in short, anything that would expose me to public scrutiny. So, how do I feel about the fact that seven years have elapsed since my speculated marriage date, that my little brother, four years my junior, just got married, to a good friend of mine five years my junior, and that my life has been characterized by the three things I used to dread above all?

First of all, my feelings have nothing to do with it. Gratitude or bitterness are not really feelings but decisions, decisions that have nothing to do with the circumstances themselves, but with how we choose to perceive to them.

For example, let’s do a retake:

How do I feel about the fact that God has given me seven more precious years to spend with my family and prepare for the future; that I have been able to play a part in my little brother’s transition into adult life which culminated in his marriage to a dear friend of mine (now a dear sister of mine); and that God has brought me many unsolicited opportunities to serve Him that have stretched me and helped me overcome my horror of vulnerability? I should be on my face before God, thanking Him for His overwhelming goodness to me.

God did not give me what I expected – He gave me far more. He has blessed me above and beyond what my little human mind could have imagined.

This year my heart is overflowing with gratitude that my plans didn’t work out, that I didn’t get my way, and that my little dreams never came true.

Maybe when we ruminate over life’s unfulfilled expectations we should stop and consider that God’s “withheld” blessings might not have been withheld at all – just presented in a way we did not expect. Let’s hope that we’re not so fixated on what we had on our wish-lists that we scorn the better gift.

My desires to one day be a wife and mother are still alive and well, but they must bow to God’s will. They may be fulfilled soon, or much later on… or they may not be fulfilled at all. If our desire to be placed in marriages really springs from the belief that we will be more useful to God thus, then we won’t feel let down if He decides to deploy us somewhere else. He knows where we will be the most useful to Him.

At 25, I’m reminded of the bigger picture: marriage is just one front in the context of a much larger war. Whether I get married or not, the war goes on. My life is defined by the fact that I am God’s soldier, not by the fact that I am 25 AND STILL NOT MARRIED.

I’m grateful for another year to stand by my post as a daughter at home, to:

Build strength into my family and make them as powerful as possible

Invest into the relationships that God has put into my life right now: my brothers, my sister, my parents, and others in the community.

Prepare my heart and attitude for the greater sacrifices that marriage and motherhood might bring

To learn new skills to add to my armory

To read more books

To explore more fields of learning

To have more of God’s word written on my heart, imprinted on my mind, and ready on my tongue

To be more joyful and optimistic

To be more like the unmarried woman in 1 Cor. 7:34, who is “…anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit.”

To be an even stronger witness as an adult daughter who still lives at home with Mommy and Daddy

Standing at the threshold of my 26th year, God has given me the grace to repeat the hardest statement ever made by any woman:

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Luke 1:38"

Riding the Storm

My fondest childhood memories happened while we were in the car. We drove on family vacations…miles and miles of varying road driven to our favorite music…the cups of juice and Surprise Bags that Mama packed with projects for us…the conversations that grew out of the scenery; everything from clothes hanging on a wash-line in Tennessee and why stop-signs are French in Canada, to what that loud noise is the trucks in Chicago make (Jake-braking) and why the dirt is red in Oklahoma.
Other vivid child-hood memories are of storms. The first tornado warning experience I remember stands out clearly in my mind…the sky an uncanny color, and Daddy standing on the small hill next to our house watching the menacing cloud-front roll in while we watched him with very little trepidation from our dining room window. I don’t recall being frightened or even concerned. Daddy was checking the sky and of course that was perfectly alright. I suppose it is those things we do which seem ordinary that make the deepest impressions, so as to become ordinary to the child, and thus shape his life.
Daddy often took us out in the car during thunderstorms. To this day, driving through an electric storm in the car with the family still rivals the pleasure I find in a good book in front of the fire. I believe it is the contrast of the turmoil and danger outside with the perfect peace and confidence inside the car that still draws me. I knew as a little girl that no matter how angry the flashes of lightning looked and how loud the crash of thunder was, Daddy would keep us safe and take us where it was best to be. Because of that, I relished watching the storm. I remember that now, and wonder at how shallow my faith in our heavenly Father often grows. What is it about the storm that fixates us so we can no longer remember our Father driving the van?
Trials are humbling; they force you onto a lonely stage out of a familiar living room. Like a child who keeps foolishly looking back at the piece of candy he dropped in the road while his father gently leads him towards the candy shop he cannot see; we tug blindly and with real anguish on the hand that pulls us upward. When we are in the midst of trouble, we realize it is neither what we dread, nor what we could wish and time feels as though it is dragging until you look back and the place you left seems an eternity past. The reason for our suffering is never what we expect, and yet it comes exactly when we are ready for it…not because we can take it on, but because we must.

When God burns every bridge but the one which we stand on the brink of, how certain we should be that He has us in the center of His will and is taking us where we need to go. How can we then refuse to leave behind what we thought was right? How can one in such a position ask for direction of the Father without tacitly refusing to step on the path he is given? The future, however seemingly uncertain or dark, is then revealed to be just where it always was – in His keeping. What better road is there to walk, however steep this may prove to be, when we know the toiling course runs straight Home?

Walking with Conviction...

A School Principal's Letter of Resignation

From the National Center for Family Integrated Churches

Posted by Scott Brown

My friend Mike Metarko recently resigned his post as principal of Hanover Elementary School in Bethlehem, PA.

His resignation letter tells the story of why he would do such a radical thing and abandon what has been his livelihood for many years.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with strong conviction that I write this letter as my formal resignation effective Thursday, July 1, 2010 from my position as Principal of Hanover Elementary School, where I have devoted the last five of my 14 years in the Bethlehem Area School District. Though there is no job at present to which I will be going, God has clearly persuaded me through His Word and through my research into the foundations of our educational system that I must end my career in public education.

For the last fourteen years, I have worked diligently to be the “salt and light” spoken of in Matthew 5:13, but I have realized that while I am plugging up pinholes in the dike that holds back the tumultuous waters of public education, the improperly laid foundation has been eroding beneath our feet. God states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7a). This means that neither God nor moral character can be separated from true education; in fact, the glorification of God and the building of Biblical moral character must be the basis of true education. In the words of Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, “We profess to be republicans [in form of government], and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.”

But what have we done? We have thrown God, Bibles and prayer out of our schools based upon an inaccurate interpretation of the “Separation clause”, while openly proselytizing the religion of Secular Humanism (Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, Ala). We have divorced morality from education and focused only on what special interest groups perceive as the “right” content knowledge. We manage the masses at the expense of the individual. As with most educators in the system, I have been sincere in my efforts to apply the doctrines of those we call the founding fathers of education, but I have realized that I have been sincerely wrong. My research into the real philosophies and beliefs behind men such as Rousseau, Dewey, Hall, etc. has opened my eyes. I am now aware that not only have I not been working for God, I have been working in complete opposition to Him. I mistakenly thought I was on neutral ground: there is no neutral territory.

That said; let me assure you that my argument is not against those I have worked with for the past 14 years. I have a love for my colleagues and friends; most are wonderful teachers of a curriculum they have been given, most truly love the children and will do anything for them, most sincerely try to improve our children, our city, our nation. But we have all taken our eye off the mark of what the chief end of man is. The nation’s statist system of public education is the real issue.

The Bible is overwhelmingly clear in that the primary responsibility in educating a child rests with the parents (Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6:4, etc.). We need parents to be parents once again, families to be families once again, fathers to be the father and leader, mothers to be the mother and nurturer. It does not “take a village to raise a child”; it takes a family entrusted with the Word of God. Our children are not to be wards of the State; on the contrary, they are creations of a God of love, justice, and redemption who loves us so much He sent Christ to die for us so that if we believe in Him and profess Him as Lord and Savior, He will grant us eternal life. He does not need us, but we need Him. He has given us the roadmap to life and to education: the Bible. I pray that He may manifest Himself in your life as he has clearly done so in mine.

Respectfully,

Michael J. Metarko

“Then God Said, ‘Let there be…and there was…’”

"Every season runs into the last, blotting over the faint shades of its forbear that yet linger in the earth. Yet even in the midst of winter, one can put one’s face close to a patriarchal oak and trace the delicate strokes of fresh living green that last year’s moss painted into the gray bark before frost nipped off the bloom of summer and covered the bareness of autumn with a glittering veil. The flashing, regal splendor of winter, it’s pure lines and austere bearing, dissolve dying into the dead ground, fade into the canvas of latent earth, and thus feed a birth. The infantile mouth of spring opens wide and drinks in the wells preserved so long for its hungry advent. Silent waters break out in a reformation and wash away the frigid barriers in a thrill brimming with promise.

Laud another season if you dare, but in Spring the world is made all over again.

The Six Arrows took our annual adventure to the river again. I was reminded of the quote below for that reason.

“… And in that silence Edmund could at last listen to the other noise properly. A strange, sweet rustling, chattering noise - and yet not so strange, for he’d heard it before - if only he could remember where! Then all at once he did remember. It was the noise of running water. All round them though out of sight, there were streams, chattering, murmuring, bubbling, splashing and even (in the distance) roaring. And his heart gave a great leap (though he hardly new why) when he realized that the frost was over. And much nearer there was a drip-drip-drip from the branches of all the trees. And then, as he looked at one tree he saw a great load of snow slide off it…”
~ C. S. Lewis, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

All winter long, we are not even reminded that we have forgotten the sound of running water. We forget to miss it until it breaks its bonds in the warm hearty breath of Spring. Water chortling is Spring laughing in the face of the frost. If you live near enough to hear it, the sound calls you out to come and exult with it. Perhaps we are all far too old to “play,” but that doesn’t prevent us from exploring every inch of the water-ways within half a mile of our house every snow-melt.

Of course there is little spice to adventures such as ours unless someone “goes in.” This year both Charlie and Yours Truly fell in “the drink.” Since we never get anything worse than a good dipping and a boot full of water, nobody minds more than to have a good laugh. Laughing is about the only thing you can do when you are breathing air that smells and feels electric with life. We found a pair of beautiful little ruddy gray water rats in a temporary brook. The way they caper around and navigate the water with their little paws and tails is comical. They just quiver with excitement to their very whiskers. The birds are ecstatic and warble for the mere delight of singing...the higher, brighter and more trilling, the better.

“He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before – this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver – glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”


~ Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows

God doesn't need my vote in the next opinion poll...

We just posted a video on our family blog that brewed some thought in the family circle.  Mr. Glen Beck demonstrates powerfully in this show the incredible advance of the socialist, communist march in our nation through the minds and hearts of children specifically.

There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. The leech has two daughters— Give and Give!  Proverbs 30:11-15

This issue has come to life in a few small ways for me during the past few years.  I have not been the only one observing growing trend among young people...my peers.  When observing popular opinion among Christians, I often receive the impression that someone decided to have an election or poll and God just happened to come out on top; or God won the popularity contest and now He's "cool".  "'My God' loves everyone and accepts everyone just the way they are" probably sounds familiar and eerily close to the truth.

Somehow, more and more, the God, not of scripture but our own imagination, takes on the likeness of the god we are all urged by modern culture to worship...the State.  In exchange for your soul, you get...

 

happiness, security, love, acceptance, tolerance, peace, change...

 

Throw a few extra words in and you have the promise of current politicians or the "gospel" of modern "Christianity," ...whichever you prefer.  And, yes, the statists want your soul.  We are demanded to be accepting, tolerant, peaceable, loving servants in the manner that is dictated by "everyone".  This involves being intolerant of the intolerant, religiously resisting all bigoted religion, accept nothing but everything, deciding "truth" for yourself as long as its subjective, violently demanding peace, and denying the existence of any God in the interests of a new god.  Anyone who objects to the war for progressivism is a warmonger, and anyone who desires any reform but the "right" left reform is an unforgiving, judgmental, legalistic bigot.

The words and catch-phrases are made familiar to us.  They sound good, and feel good, and are accepted as goodness by those who should know them for what they are...evil.  They are the outcry of rebellion from the hearts of lost men.

Our family has done some research recently on these evil agendas that had birth from men like Charles Darwin and continue to come to fruition through the citizens of the "City of Men."  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel aptly expressed the external expression of this internal heart attitude when he said that

"We must worship the state as the manifestation of the divine on earth, and consider that the state is the march of God through the world."

This morning, during family devotions, we discussed the real nature of this ideology as it was manifested at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11.  Men, having fallen, continually seek to uplift themselves, so that man becomes the ultimate god of the universe, rising up in defiance of the Kingdom of God.  This "pride of life" remains, throughout history, the mark of man's plight...the brand of his curse.  It expresses his filthiness and calls out his depravity, and leaves its horrific scars on the pages of history.

Contrary to popular opinion :), God doesn't need our approval to "deserve" sovereignty.  His merits are not scaled according to the number of assets and privileges He provides, nor the quantity of prayers answered "correctly", the tolerance He shows, the grace He extends, or the peace and happiness He grants to His "constituents."  Those measures would merely negate His divinity.  In other words, if He were measured, He wouldn't be God.  God defines Himself.  He doesn't need us to introduce Him or endorse Him.  Moses already asked that question "...what shall I say to them?"  God's answer clarified whether the question need be asked at all. "I AM THAT I AM"

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “ For who has known the mind of the LORD?  Or who has become His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?”  For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.  Romans 11:33-36

As we watch the world around us crumbles on itself, I pray that as believers, we will not forget that "sin lies at the door" and use discernment as we "cling to that which is good."

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."

Picture Credit

From Mr. Doug Phillip's Blog...

In less than 24 hours, I will be boarding a plane on an important mission bound for Haiti. I am writing because I need your help.


Here is the story.

My mission to Haiti is four-fold: First, I will be establishing one of the only distinctively Christian reporting operations to tell stories of both the present crisis and the work of Christians on behalf of the sick and the widows and the orphans in the midst of Haiti’s present horror. Second, I will be working to facilitate the rescue and delivery of orphans to Christian families in America. Third, I will be identifying specific families that need direct support from the people of God in America. Fourth, my team will be providing specific relief to people in distress.

My starting team is seven individuals, including an experienced medical doctor, a logistics crew, and a film production team for news reportage. I should be joined by additional team members in Haiti including a driver, translator, and possibly more physicians in the days to come.

I believe that I can play a special role in getting important stories out to the people of God in a timely and meaningful way. I also believe that I can be effective in helping some of the most important Christian ministries to get the attention they need. I believe that we can be successful, by God’s grace, in meeting urgent medical needs of the sick and wounded in the wake of the recent disaster, documenting the needs of orphans in crisis, and helping to facilitate a plan to connect orphans with the very best families who can care for them.

Our camera team will document the story, and I will be posting regular video updates and written commentary on our outreach to Haiti as it unfolds. You can follow these updates on my blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. My staff will also be making them available through YouTube to the general public. WorldNetDaily has agreed to publish articles I write on Haiti as exclusive commentary on their website to help maximize the reach of our message. Our goal is to reach a broad audience with the details of our ministry in Haiti, and the outlet through WND will help in accomplishing this.

As I’m sure you know, the devastation in Haiti has been overwhelming. More people have died as a result of this earthquake than died in either the Nagasaki or Hiroshima bombings at the close of WWII. Already, the death toll from the earthquake ranks it among the top five most deadly natural disasters in the last century and the top twenty in recorded history. And the death count only continues to climb.

Our goal is to be ministers of Christ in the wake of this enormous disaster — to help rescue Haiti’s children — and we would solicit your prayers and support for this enterprise.

Here’s where things stand: Our transportation to Haiti has been secured. A private jet has been made available for our use to the country. We have transportation and an interpreter who will be guiding us through the disaster zones. We have a clear plan in place to make the most of our mission.

But we need help with the expenses including our technical needs, satellite broadcast feeds (which are expensive), equipment, supplies, and air transportation back through the Dominican Republic to America, in the likely circumstance that we are unable to get out through Port-au-Prince.

I have had to move quickly: I have made the decision to go even before all the funds have been provided; but I would sincerely ask for your consideration in supporting us on this important project. I would appreciate your support, be it prayer or financial assistance, for our mission. Donations to help our effort can be made online. Click here to donate.

Please stay tuned for our broadcasts and articles. May the Lord be pleased to use our humble efforts at this time of intense crisis.

Your friend in Christ, Doug Phillips

Posted by Doug Phillips