October 18, 2007 by pamela.

Like the unannounced, quiet entry and the subtle dominance of the abortion indu$try, so also, I believe was the gentle entrance and indoctrination of acceptance and embracing of magic. No, not that magic was new - by no means - especially when we consider God’s Word and His dealings with magicians, sorcerers and diviners throughout; but the universal acceptance and endorsement of magic introduced by Walt Disney is predominately accepted and permanently etched in history and in the daily lives of countless millions. Just consider one of the most common family vacation dreams or destinations… Disneyland or Disneyworld.
I was briefly scanning Doug Phillips’ blog and his comments on the role and influence of Walt Disney in and on our society. He said,

The scope of his cultural legacy is truly massive, impacting everything from our nation’s vision of childhood, family life, and gender roles, to the meaning of a happy family vacation. But his legacy — both positive and negative — has largely gone unexamined by Christian theologians, cultural warriors, and filmmakers.”

I remember something like sixteen years ago our family had the great, or so I thought at the time, great privilege of going to Disneyland for two days as our boy had won a contest and subsequent trip to Disneyland for his family.   It was amazing.  (Our stay with our family was my most favourite part of the trip! I will never forget those days!).  Anyway, It was to our children, the trip of a lifetime… a dream come true.  Just like Magic!  In so many ways, it really was a delightful time and was matched only by the wonderful warmth, sunshine and family time we thoroughly enjoyed - it was actually quite surreal as the vacation time was so opposite our life and difficult financial circumstances at that time.

But there was another thing that happened during that trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth” — it was the inescapable, unparalleled feeling of oppression and darkness. The realization that magic isn’t cute - it’s deadly and it’s counter to or in opposition to God’s holy Sovereignty. It was that feeling that led to my personal decision to never go there again and to never promote “Disney stuff” in our home. I’m not afraid of it - I’m not a disneyphobe… I just won’t endorse it. There are gray areas, I suppose, to the actual outworkings of this decision, but overall, it’s the back magic, the “white magic” and the fairytales and all that goes with all of that could never/can never have a place in our home again. Though, quite honestly, subtle forms of magic and fairytales present themselves from time to time in our lives. I mean… I am sure I was born to be a princess… and, well, I am.

So, the decisions regarding Disney stuff came some years after our questioning and decision to have nothing to do with halloween. It’s not a cute day… it’s not ‘nothing.’ It’s not innocuous, it’s not innocent, and it’s not just a fun day to dress up. Dress up and play games tonight, if that’s the only motivation. But to ‘c-el-e-b-r-a-t-e halloween’ and ‘trick or treat’ is devilish foolishness. So what if people come to the door looking for free candy… you don’t have to take part in the day in any way… unless the Lord gives you some prompting to just talk to everyone that comes to your door and tell them some Good News … that way you won’t add to their decay… decay in their teeth or decay in their life. I just forget the day entirely - and make it a point to avoid shopping at stores in October. Especially thrift stores.

It’s interesting how things sort of come along in groups… sort of like getting understanding about a matter and it all spills over into other areas, activities or thoughts. Those things sort of all coincided with the decision to eliminate the cultural icon, Barbie, from our home, too. At first, she was so lovely… so fun to play with. I mean, I had Barbies, so they must’ve been okay… was my justification. But then I got to evaluating the doll… her dress(es), her appearance, her lifestyle and her face… her eyes… those alluring eyes… her immodest clothes… and I decided that her appearance, her lifestyle was actually counterfeit… it was counter to the lifestyle, character and qualities of biblical womanhood we were teaching in our home… so: out she went and all her stuff, too… her strapless gowns, her pink convertible and the promotion of her carefree lifestyle.

It was freeing to be able to replace all that stuff with things we wanted to teach and promote in our home… babydolls and items that promoted care and concern for babies, for motherhood and nurturing a family. It was delightful to promote what God was teaching me: respect for modesty, the role of women, wives and mothers, and to be able to communicate that to our daughter and then as each daughter came along, to teach them, as well.

In many ways, much of Disney, Barbie, halloween… and whatever other forces of darkness that are evident around us are all subtle indoctrinations of the enemy of God… the enemy of our souls.

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August 29, 2007 by pamela.

More or less. That’s what we have on this earth: a few decades, more or less.

And I’m beginning to see that the more or less depends not so much on length of time or number of decades as the use of the days and time in each decade. My friend sent me a song… “A Life Profound” by Mica Lee Williams. I listened. I listened again.  Because we’re not really familiar with her music,  I’m not sure I, or my friend, would likely recommend all of her music or style or spiritual position… I just don’t know. But there’s something about the song…  And I decided to listen to it/read it in light of the LORD - in light of Scripture.

A Life Profound

There is a reason for believing in the seasons
To know that spring will always come around
It’s to begin again though there seems no means to this end
Before one lays a body down
But things that die and wither soon will find new roots and tether
To gather strength beneath the ground
I think that
Far too many soon forget the sound of their own laughter
Far too quickly we move swiftly towards the ever after
But I will stake my claim and I will find the rapture
Of a life profound
I cannot manage to estimate the damage
Of holding deep regret that seeks to pull us down
I see my life as a vessel traveling swift and light
I seek my wrongs to right where I run aground
And the wind that fills these sails speaks metaphors and fairytales
That never fail to set me safely down
I think that
Far too often we forget exactly what we’re after
And far too soon we skip the book to read the final chapter
But I will savor in each moment I can capture
Of a life profound
When fortune wheels spin around it’s good to stay in the middle of it
Cuz yes luck she is a tricky one, but there is joy in the riddle of it
And all that can be lost in another way can be won
And there in lies the meaning.”

I listened again and mull over the message… ” all too soon we forget exactly what we’re after… far too soon we skip the book and read the final chapter… but I will savour in each moment I can capture… of a life profound.”

I quit listening… but the message continues to play in my head. Am I missing the here and now for what was and what I fear lies ahead? Am I skipping the now and am I forgetting what I’m to be after? Is there any deep regret that’s pulling me down? I know… lately (for for a long lately) I’ve been pretty involved with this post-childbearing season. I’ve been pretty preoccupied with the loss… the passage of time. I mean I should’ve seen all this coming… I mean, I did read Gail Sheehy’s Passages in the 70’s and I should’ve seen these seasons coming. But I didn’t. I didn’t see a lot of stuff coming. Not really.

I’ve often asked the LORD to use my life to make a difference. I don’t want to be ordinary and I don’t want to pass silently through life never making foot prints in the sand or heart prints on people’s lives. I don’t want to have had the great gift of life and then wasted it. A I surely don’t want to have wasted the greatest blessing of all: motherhood. I want to have had a life profound.

I don’t want the ‘p’ of my first name to simply be an initial that stands for my given name.  No… I want it to be more than that. I want to have been patient. present. pleasant. practical. passionate. private. provocative. peaceful. prolific. poised. prompt. proved. polite. productive. plentiful. prayerful. pardoning. prudent. pondering. playful. persistent. philosophical. pure. and profound. and phunny.

But most of all… I want my life to matter to and for Jesus… for these few decades I have on this earth.

(thank you, Kelli, for the song - I do love you)

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July 25, 2007 by pamela.

Why do statistics tell us that 80% of Americans are “born-again” Christians and yet America is one of the most openly immoral and vile countries? Christians live practically no different than the world! We go to the same corrupt movies, listen to the same fleshly music. Girls dress like prostitutes and guys dress like punks, both showing no respect for themselves and those around them. From a young age they are engaged in dating and other promiscuous activities. The divorce rate of the “church” and the world is practically the same. Christian teens have as much honor and obedience to their parents as their unsaved friends. We have a fraction of the zeal JW’s do, it’s painful and embarrassing for most to share their faith; besides, we are to busy arguing when the rapture will take place. It is not a problem for a reprobate to go to church, in fact churches go out of their way to make them as comfortable as possible! With sermons bringing no conviction, one could get “saved” and still continue on in the same lifestyle as before and yet this is no cause for alarm. We use bible translations that are worse than even the New World Translation. No one has any respect for the Word of God anymore!

The Church today is at best luke-warm and at worse cold and dead asleep.
As Christians we are supposed to be a counterculture and yet we blend right in!

Our country is rapidly decaying and about to fall, no one would deny this. We kill our newborn babies by the millions and ship our parents off to nursing homes–they both are just too inconvenient! The country is obviously divided on most everything. The world–and even the church–almost universally tolerates blatant immorality of every abominable sort, an obvious trademark of a nation about to collapse. The statistics on the revenue of the porn industry is deplorable.
The family has/is being destroyed. The average American family has two kids at most while Islamic families have an average of 7 and immigrants from Latin America who are truly Catholic have an average of 8 to 9! It doesn’t take very much brains to figure out what is going to happen!
Psalm clearly states: “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” (127:3-5.) Our liberal friends would have us to believe that we need to stop having children! If they don’t want a reward and would prefer to go into battle without arrows in their quiver they can go ahead!

In short, when the world looks at the church it sees itself! The Christians of the NT and later years shook the world! They died for their faith and took the Lord seriously. As Paul Washer said, “The American idea of a radical Christian is one who wears a religious t-shirt or has a bumper sticker on their car.”

What is going to stop the slide of this country and turn it around?! Obviously Liberal politics is quickening its demise. Conservative politics aren’t fairing any better! They thought since Mr. Bush was a Christian he would turn us around and yet he is handing the country over to Mexico and attempting to divide Israel. No, it’s not going to be in the arena of politics. If you want to fight a shark you don’t do it in the water!

This country and the world needs Jesus. The “church” needs Jesus! We need the gospel to be preached. We need Christians who are light and salt! We must take the basket off of our lamps. We must be in the word and in prayer daily. We must be walking in the power and after the Spirit. There must be revival or else there will be persecution–and the Lord knows we have enough mediocre and flat out hypocritical Christians that perhaps persecution is the only option.

It is not only a dark hour for America but for the whole world.

Brothers and sisters, the whole world is sinking wholesale into hell because there is no light. We must live up to our name, we are to be witnesses! We are preachers of peace and ministers of reconciliation!

What are you doing for the Lord? There is a war going on, get in it!”

Timothy - April ‘07

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