December 8, 2011
Christmas
It’s that time of year again, Christmas. I’ve thought a lot about Christmas last year and this year, especially with everything that has happened to me and my family in the last few years. We realize that what matters to us has nothing to do with presents and holidays. What matters to us most is truth. Pilate said, “What is truth?” in Jon 18:38. Well, the answer is easy. Truth is what is in God’s word, not in man’s inventions. So back to the subject of Christmas, it seems to be the “sacred cow” so to speak that is beyond questioning. No one wants to question their beliefs about whether Christmas should be celebrated.
It used to be that Christmas was outlawed in the U.S. The puritans fined you if you celebrated Christmas or sang carols, and as we found out in colonial Williamsburg the citizens didn’t celebrate Christmas in the mid 1700′s. However that soon changed and people in this country fell prey to man’s inventions. More on the history of how Christmas came to be in American can be found here. There are many sites on the internet that show how December 25th is pagan and appropriated by the Catholic church just like other holidays in order to try and convert the pagan populace. One pagan has written an article here about why Christ is not the reason for the season. Now, the author states he used to be a born again baptist Christian and now he’s a pagan. We know that he wasn’t really born again and doesn’t understand the term if he *was* Christian and has turned his back on God so completely. But, he does make a good point about the pagan origins of the Christmas celebration.
So that brings me to my post today. What do you feel about Christmas, should we celebrate it? Well, I have news for you, it doesn’t matter what we feel about Christmas, it only matters what God’s word says. God told the Hebrews before they entered Caanan not to adopt the pagan practices of the people there, but that is exactly what we’ve been doing by celebrating Christmas! The mistletoe, the yule log, the decorated tree, the date, the gifts to each other and not to Christ.. all those things are from pagan practices and are not honoring to our savior, the Lord Jesus.
I’ve been a fan of letgodbetrue.com for a while now and came across these links that I wanted to share:
http://www.letgodbetrue.com/bible/holidays/christmas-is-adultery.htm
http://www.letgodbetrue.com/bible/holidays/christmas.htm
I exhort you to be like the Bereans who searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. Please click the above links and read through them, they detail why we should not be celebrating Christmas. If we are truly to be bible believing Christians then that means following what we are commanded to do which is to turn our backs on paganism. Did you know that throughout the book of Kings that the groves were repeatedly cut down? Yes, pagans planted groves of tree to their gods. Our Lord, Jehovah does not need nor want us to use props to worship him, we are to worship in what? Spirit and truth!
My family has turned around from churches that had tress on the stage because we teach out children that Christmas trees are pagan gods and to worship in a place with pagan gods would be not only confusing to them but a lie. God does not need trees, what he wants is our devotion to him free of pagan symbols and props.
I pray that your heart is open to these words and that God convicts you of the need to worship him in truth.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Cured!
Praise God! Yesterday I saw my oncologist who declared that I do not have cancer any longer. The colonoscopy and PET scan results were clean.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Missing Benjamin
We still cry over Benjamin’s death . Our oldest kisses a picture of him every night. If you ever have a baby die and have to have a funeral, please have your other kids present, no matter their age. Don’t shield your children from death. They need to know that the baby you had was a real person and that you loved it and that God loved it. I know I made the right decision by including my children when we went to the funeral home the day before the funeral so they could see Benjamin for the first time, and also by having them at the funeral. Yes it was hard, but I won’t have any regrets and they don’t either. They realize he was a baby, not just a blob of flesh that becomes a baby when birthed. He was my son and they know that. Praise God that even a 5 year old can understand what life means and appreciate that Mommy and Daddy had a baby they cared very much for.
We thank you Lord for giving him to us for even a short time and pray for your blessing of more children.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Cancer and Christ
Now that I’m done with chemotherapy I’ll say that I’ve thought a lot over the last 6 months about why I have cancer. Atheists would say that stuff just happens, Prosperity preachers would say I didn’t have enough faith and didn’t speak words of healing over myself. Confucius would say bad stuff happens to good people. Ok, maybe not. I think that ultimately, I don’t know and won’t know. I could just say God wanted me to have cancer, I was predestined to have cancer, but what is that really saying? Maybe he wanted me to have more empathy for my wife who has had 5 c-sections (I had a colon sectional). I don’t really know, but what I do know is that if chemotherapy works, it is because God made it work. Just like the advil in the medicine cabinet. Jesus overcame sickness, disease, ultimately death, but he didn’t do it so prosperity preachers could twist Isaiah 53:5 -
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Note then 1 Peter 2:24 -
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Contextually, it’s sin that Jesus healed us from, so ultimately, disease may take our fleshly body, but in Christ we are healed eternally. Praise God that through Christ Jesus we are made righteous and can stand before God and say “Jesus saved me, he paid my penalty.”
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Cancer Treatment and Losing More Children
I have now had 5 chemotherapy sessions (7 left) and am waiting on insurance approval for an MRI to see if the tumor is responding. I praise God that I still have a job and insurance and that they are letting me work from home on chemo weeks. I ultimately would still like God to heal me without chemo, but we’re not guaranteed bodily healing. We are guaranteed a glorified resurrected body that will be perfect and I place my trust in that.
We have decided to return to our favorite church (Hempstead Bible Fellowship) now that they are meeting on Sunday’s again. We have received such an outpouring of support and have been tremendously blessed by the people there. Hempstead is a much smaller church than the other in the last post and we’re not just a number. We praise God for people that care about us and hope to continue going now that church is meeting on Sunday’s again.
Pray for Sarah’s health and the well being of my children. Sarah was pregnant with twins two months ago and miscarried one but was still having pain. Finally she was able to get a high level ultrasound which confirmed she had a tubal pregnancy. While she was in the operating room her tube ruptured and had to be removed. So in addition to Benjamin in march, we have now lost 2 more children. Our 5 year old used to pray every night that God would give mommy a safe delivery with Benjamin and then with the miscarried twins she would pray that God would keep them safe. She no longer wants to pray and doesn’t talk about new babies anymore. Pray that God would send his Holy Spirit upon her to change her heart and bring her to him.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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New Church
Unfortunately our favorite church now meets on Saturday evenings so we’re not attending at the moment. However God has led us to a large reformed baptist family integrated church pastored by a leader in the movement. While we feel the worship is to be frank, boring, we feel very blessed to be there and my children love having lots of others children their ages around. We have met several people from other churches that we know, once of which came from an arminian baptist church we were part of for a while. It’s a shame to say that since the arminian church’s pastor stepped down, the church has gone back to being not accepting of children in the service and also pushing Sunday School. It just goes to show that the pastor can’t be the only one with the vision of being family integrated.
God certainly works in mysterious ways and we are fortunate to have found this church. We praise God that there are several family integrated churches in the Houston area and we feel blessed to find one that we can go to without either calling attention to ourselves by nature of head covering or being ‘divisive’ for reformed beliefs.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Cancer!
I had my appendix out last October and since then was running a high fever every 2 to 3 weeks with no other symptoms. By the time Benjamin died I had abdominal pain and pain where one of the incisions was. Levaquin knocked out the infection causing the abdominal pain and I felt great for 3 weeks. Then the incision pain started returning. I had another CT done in May that came up with nothing abnormal (and they did it twice!). I started being in more pain and had another CT done in August. That one showed a thickening of my colon wall. A Colonoscopy confirmed that there was a large mass, a small mass, and an advanced pre-cancerous polyp. Since the large mass had to come out anyway, I scheduled surgery. September 10th they did the surgery to remove the mass and found out real quick that laparoscopic surgery was not going to work and they opened me up the old fashioned way.
The large mass had grown past my colon wall into my small intestine as well as an artery in my leg. It was also large enough to be pushing on my back making it hurt. The surgeon removed 1 ft. of my right colon, a little small intestine, and as much of the mass as he could. Pathology confirms that I have colon cancer. I guess now it’s not colon cancer since they excised that section, but regardless, I have cancer. Please pray that the Lord God will heal me of cancer for my family’s sake.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Losing a Child
Benjamin’s Find-A-Grave Memorial Page
We lost our expected son less than a month ago (he was almost 41 weeks). Sarah had a placenta abruption where the placenta separated from the uterus. When she knew something was wrong we left our midwife’s house and went to the hospital which was 7 minutes away. An hour later they finally do a c-section and by that time it was too late for Benjamin Isaiah. Sarah’s uterus also ruptured after being in a constant contraction for an hour. We praise the Lord that he saw fit to spare her uterus and the surgeon was able to repair the breech which was along the c-section scar.
I guess this is where the rubber hits the road so to speak and you have to decide what you truly believe about God’s word. My parents blame bad advice and bad choices for the death of Benjamin. We believe that he would have died no matter what we did, and that things worked as the Lord had intended. A week before his death Sarah had a dream that our youngest (which is 2 now) came up to her in a few years and said “Mommy, do you remember when we buried Benjamin?”
Some people say bad choices, we say God’s will. What do the scriptures say?
Deuteronomy 32:39 – “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.”
Jeremiah 10:23 – “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
Some believe that God is passively waiting for people to die and that he has no direct control over them dying. I don’t see how that can possibly be true in light of Deuteronomy 32:39. God opens and closes the womb (Gen 4:1, Gen 16:12, Luke 1:7,13, etc.), he kills and he makes alive, and above all, if you are in the elect, he wrote your name in the book of life before he created the world (Rev 13:8, 17:8, Eph 1:4). Can I prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Benjamin died because God called him home at that specific time? No, but if you believe in the sovereignty of God then you know that it is true. We believe what the Apostle Paul said:
Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
We ask that you pray for us, pray that the Lord would restore Sarah’s uterus and she be able to have vaginal deliveries instead of more c-sections. Pray that our girls would always know what their little brother meant even though he never lived outside of the womb. God called him home and spared him a life on earth fraught with sin and sorrow. He is dancing at the feet of our Lord and Saviour, we know we will see him again.
A Baby’s Secret
I’m just a little person
Who didn’t quite make it there
I went straight to be with Jesus
And I’m waiting for you here.
Don’t you fret about me Mommy
I’m of all Gods lambs, most blest
I’d have loved to stay there with you
But our Shepherd knows what’s best.
Many dwelling here where I live
Waited years to enter in
Struggled through a world of sorrow
And their lives were marred with sin.
So sweet Mommy don’t you sorrow
Wipe those tears and chase the gloom
I went straight to Jesus bosom
From my lovely mother’s womb.
Thank you for the name you gave me
I’d have loved to brought it fame
But if I’d lingered in earth’s shadows
I’d might instead have brought it shame.
Daddy gave me something for you
It’s our secret Mommy dear
Pressed it tight against my forehead
Whispered in my tiny ear.
I’ll be waiting for you, Mommy-
you, and Daddy, all my sisters
I’ll be with you then forever
And I’ll give you Daddy’s kiss.
Portions (c) Elsie Diamond
Psalm 116:15 – “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Importance of Humility
The Lord has given us a 5th child, due to be born any day now. He will be our first son (after 4 girls). We thank God for him and pray that he will have a brother one day.
We have gone to several family integrated churches since the last update. We had left the previous church where we though a ministry opportunity would exist when that didn’t materialize and the people did not seem to be on board with family integration at all. We had gone back to a small baptist church of <25 people that was great, they were believers in sovereign grace, they were loving and compassionate, but as we found out, they were family integrated by circumstance and not by choice. They were looking for a new building and wanted children to be given their own class instead of keeping them with their parents. We were told one Sunday that our kids were a distraction. While they were moving around a bit, it was also 1:30 and they’re hyper. They were diciplined and calmed down.
Someone in the church complained about them and we were told that we needed to get them to sit still. While it was done ‘in love’, it made us realize that family integration does sometimes cause distractions, but it shouldn’t mean that every time an incident happens that there should be chastisement for it. Training children takes time, patience, and yes, a little distraction at times. As much as we hated to leave the church and hop once again, my wife and I thought it wasn’t best for our family to stay at a church that wasn’t truly welcoming of having children in the service.
We have made a church 85 miles away (one way) our home church. It is pastored by someone we knew from our non family integration days. He has 7 children and we share a lot of the same beliefs. While we do differ and the church is dispensationalist, it is nice to be around other large families and not be the odd man out. They understand that sometimes training children is noisy and are supportive of us and other families with young children.
It is refreshing being able to talk to a pastor that ‘is on your side’. He realizes that we all make mistakes and we all don’t know it all. He is humble enough to talk to others in the church about beliefs and realizes that we’ll all on a spiritual journey and we can all learn from each other and discuss beliefs with an open mind. Even though we can only go once every several weeks to church, it has been good for the kids to have somewhere they can play at after lunch and to see how the other children behave properly. We feel even with differences of opinion in religious beliefs and differences in discipline that we are still welcome as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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Update
No we haven’t dropped of the face of the earth! Four young children sure do keep you busy though! Interestingly, the Lord led us to a church in a nearby city that wants to become family integrated. What’s interesting about this is they’re not reformed, nor do they head cover or modest dress! And no, we haven’t lost our marbles. We are assisting the church in whatever way we can to help them become family integrated. The pastor has a definite vision for it and is trying to get the congregation to catch that vision.
We thought in the beginning that the Lord may have a full time opportunity here for us and that may still happen, however with us being reformed in soteriology and the church not, that poses a problem. Regardless, I believe God definitely led us to this church for a reason, even if we don’t wind up staying long, there are people he wants us to meet and things he wants us to do. The most important part of a church are the people. Through this church we’re seeing the power of conviction when God’s word is preached. We may not agree with every point the pastor makes, but it’s meaningful to see a couple living in sin come before the congregation and publicly state that they recognize they are living in sin and want to get married! Yes what we believe is important and we need to teach others that modest dressing and head covering IS important according to God’s word, but we must also remember that at the end of the day, what is most important is not us being dogmatic but the people of the church and the relationships we build with them.
I am still in the ministry program and am waiting to see how the Lord leads me with that. I expect to be finished this fall and will be praying for God to show us how we are to serve him.
Increasing in Him,
Paul
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