Sunday, October 30, 2016

October 31, Halloween or Reformation Day?

Hi everyone.
With tomorrow being October 31 I think it would be a good idea to spend some time on the topics of Halloween and Reformation day. Just so you know everyone should listen to Cell53 Radio's podcast "Holidolatry"  it is a great podcast that deals with topics that every Christian should consider. As a little teaser to the episode I think what they did for Reformation Day last year was great! Now you have to listen to the episode to see what it was.

I hope everyone knows what Reformation Day is, but if not here is a short explanation: On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther pinned the 95 theses on the door of the church which is known as part of the Protestant Reformation. Next year is the 500 anniversary, maybe we should get a big group of people to have a party outside a Catholic Church and pass out tracts and hold signs about Salvation by Grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Just an idea.

Since most of you know the roots of Reformation Day, what about Halloween? Again listen to the Cell53 Podcast for more information. But long story short Halloween is a wicked holiday! From Trick or Treating to Jack-o-lanterns this holiday is not something we as Christians should be participating in! If you look into the roots of these activities you will see that they have strong connections to things of great wickedness among which are demons.

When Christians know these things and yet still celebrate Halloween and participate in the activities that go along with it I think it goes to show that they are willing to set aside their duty to glorify God in all they do, in order to have fun. Some may say that is not wrong to celebrate Halloween as long as you are not worshiping Satan or anything. Just go around and do what the world is doing. Just have fun, as long as we just go through the motions and do not really mean it, what is the problem? Yet how many of those same people would say it would wrong for Christians in other countries to offer incense and bow down to the king of that country. I mean if their just going through the motions it does not really matter if they do it as long as they do not really mean it right?

Now do not take me wrong, I am not saying that any Christian who celebrates Halloween is not saved. I am just saying that all Christians should seriously consider that Halloween is a wicked holiday. As Christians we are called to glorify God in all that we do and when we celebrate a worldly holiday are we glorifying God in that? Please seriously consider this!

Okay off of Halloween, On Friday I watched, for I think the first time, a Donald Trump Speech.  Mr. Trump was in Lisbon, Maine on Friday. While we were not able to attend the rally, a couple of people from Cell53 were able to go. Brian and Tabitha even made it into the newspaper. Even though we could not go to do some evangelism we watched the live video feed from here at home. Please continue to pray for the Salvation on both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton. We serve a powerful God who is able to save both of these people if it be in His will. It is our job as Christians to continue to pray and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people wherever we go!

Prayer
Please pray for all those involved in abortion ministry around the country. Many are involved in the fight for life, just to list a few: Scott and Patte Smith, my friend Angela, Matt Trewhalla, T. Russel Hunter, Christians at Cell53 Church and Redeeming Grace Fellowship. These are just a few of our faithful brothers and sisters around the country who faithfully stand for the lives of these babies. Pray for their safety and pray that God would use them to save the lives of babies and that they would continue to stand firm in the faith no matter what men may do to them to try to distract them from preaching the Gospel.

Pray especially for our brothers and sisters outside the abortion mill in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as they have recently dealt with many injustices, even from the Police officers. A couple of weeks ago a man was acting aggressively to Matt Trewhalla's son who is 16. When the cops came they said Matt's son was the aggressor, though video of the entire encounter prove otherwise. This is just one of the many cases where the Police side with the wicked and punish the righteous, especially allowing abortion to continue while they stand aside and persecute Christians. Pray that justice will be served! Please continue to pray for Officer Keller's Salvation as well!

With love in the Lord,
Virginia.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Missions conference wrap up, a chance to share!

Hi everyone,
This Saturday was the Mission Leap conference put on by Maine Ministry Outreach Center, (MMOC). Our family spent multiple hours at the conference listening to many different people speak and present what God has been doing with their ministries.

One of the people I really enjoyed listening to was Dr. Ronald Blue. Dr. Blue works at the Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a very animated speaker and is very easy to listen to. He preached on the book of Romans from multiple different chapters. He preached on Romans 1,10,and 12. He summed up the entire book of Romans in this way, Chapters 1,2,3 the key word is "sin", 3,4,5, "salvation" 6,7,8, "sanctification" 9,10,11 "sovereignty" 12 to the end of the book, "service".

In Dr. Blue's sermons he also told stories about his life such as, when he met his "wifey", when they were missionaries in Spain and others. One time he was saying that he was sitting at the table looking across at the man on the other side. The man was talking about when he went to the moon and back and how the earth began to look smaller and smaller. The man then realized that all that was important to him was on that little ball of dirt called earth.  This man's name was Jim Irwin. I found out later when talking to Dr. Blue, that he got to spend 2 days with Jim Irwin. Some of you may not know the story of Jim Irwin. Mr. Irwin went from being a test pilot, which there many interesting stories about, to landing on the moon on Apollo 15. Later in his life he climbed mount Ararat in search of the Ark. Mr. Irwin has since passed away but his story lives on. You can read the story of Jim Irwin in the book Flight of the Falcon

At the conference there were also some local people speaking including an old friend John Dowdy. John is a staff member of CEF or Child Evangelism Fellowship. Before John was married we used to help him with the CEF wagon at one of the fairs in our area. CEF is a worldwide program which includes Bible clubs, and many other different programs to share the Gospel of Christ.

Another person who was speaking is a missionary to Malawi named John Boyington. He goes to Malawi 2 times a year and over the whole year he spends about 1 month there. When he is there he digs wells called bore holes but more importantly he shares the gospel of the Living Water Jesus Christ. If all they did while they were over there was dig wells then they would be doing something good to help the people, but only for a little while. What these people need is the Living Water of Jesus Christ which makes a lasting impact on their lives. There have been reports that from this man's team coming over and digging these wells and sharing the Gospel, churches have been started and now instead of just one church there are many more churches. God is doing His work there in Malawi. Let us not forget to pray that the Gospel will continue to be preached around the world and that God will change the hearts of these people and grant them repentance and faith.

Today the pastor at our church is out of town and Dr. Blue is speaking at another church in our area so we are going to go hear his sermon today. 

Prayer 
On November 12 there will be a youth gathering put on by MMOC and God has given me the opportunity to have 5 or 10 minutes to share about the work going on at the abortion mill. Please be praying for me as I prepare and also as I speak. I have never stood up and talked before a group of people that big before and would appreciate prayers for wisdom and courage. 

Yesterday I was made aware that there is a fellow christian in Turkey who is being held in prison. Sadly his story is not unusual among Christians around the world. As Christians in this world we are to expect persecution from the enemies of Christ and we are to remember those in prison as though we were there with them. Pray that God would comfort all of our brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted for their faith and that he would give them the courage to stand no matter what men may do to them.
"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body." Hebrews 13:3

With love in the LORD,
Virginia. 

Sunday, October 16, 2016

A Presidential Rally, A Press Release, Great Fellowship, all in one day.

Hi everyone.

On Saturday there was this guy speaking in Bangor who I guess is well known here in the U.S. His name is Donald Trump. Our thought is, when someone draws a big crowd we may as well go and do some evangelism, so we did.

When we got to the rally there were already a lot of people there even though the doors still did not open for an hour. We did not preach yesterday but we were handing out Gospel tracts and holding signs as well. Our signs said things such as: JESUS CHRIST IS KING, TOM HOEFLING FOR PRESIDENT, ABORTION IS MURDER, and others.

When we got there we saw a sign that said, "No Demonstrations Beyond This Point", so we obeyed and stayed in front of the sign. We did get a picture right in front of the sign but we did not go beyond when holding our signs. A little bit later the Police officer asked us to move farther down closer to the road.  Funny enough where he had us move to was a better location than where we had been before. A little while after we moved they then moved the sign as well, but where they put the sign was blocking the sidewalk. Some of you may not know this but one thing we get in trouble with at the abortion mill is blocking the sidewalk, so I took a picture to show Officer Keller. I took the picture and may have said something about it blocking the sidewalk. The Officers must have heard me, then moved the sign and said something wanting to make sure that people could still get through!

After a couple hours Mommy took everyone but me and Daddy and went to the Children's museum in town. Daddy, me, Jeremy and Matt, who had come to join us, moved down to the street where the Anti-Trump group was standing. Daddy tried to do some preaching but people came up and kept talking to him so that he could not preach or shouting him down, so we did our best to have personal conversations and pass out tracts.

At one point there was a Press conference going on. News cameras rolling we thought it would be a great place to practice our freedom of speech. Daddy went up and started talking about how Hillary Clinton was not the answer and abortion is murder. You could see the news cameras turn to see what Daddy was saying. Someone came up to talk to Daddy so Jeremy kept on talking while Daddy was busy. After the Press conference, Someone from the newspaper came up to ask Daddy some questions.

We got to see Donald Trump's plane fly in and then we saw the national media come in, complete with Secret Service. We missed seeing Donald Trump's motorcade when it was coming in but we did see it on the way out. We even got some video of the bomb sniffing dogs for Samuel to enjoy.

If you ever want to give tracts to some well known people, people with influence, try going to a presidential candidate's rally. Daddy gave some tracts to the media who travel with Trump. We got to hand tracts to the Police and Janet Mills,  Maine's State Attorney General, who is well known to some of you! Shout out Andrew and Brian. Daddy also gave a tract to the Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Maine. We did not find out who she was until afterwards.

Since this is a post talking about Donald Trump, I will say here: Vote Tom Hoefling for President! Mr. Hoefling is a 55 year old Christian man, Father of 9, Foster father to 2. He is an abortion abolitionist, pro Constitution and Founder and President of America's party.

So I am saying this: Vote Tom Hoefling for President of the United States of America. Do not vote for the lesser of 2 evils because you think Mr. Hoefling can not win! If 1/3 of professing evangelical Christians vote for Tom Hoefling he could win easily. I do not know if you have figured it out yet, but the lesser of 2 evils is still evil! Our country does not need either  Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Our nation needs to repent and turn to God.

Prayer
Please be praying for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, that God would grant them repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ. Pray that they will realize that, they are sinners like the the rest of us in need of a savior. And that Jesus Christ is the only one who can save them. Romans 3:23

Pray also for Jimmy Hamilton, He was out preaching and said to someone "Sir" the man then said that he identified as a woman. Jimmy still called him a man, since he was indeed a man, and he is now pending an arrest for a hate crime. Pray that justice will be served and that the righteous will not be punished.

With love in the LORD,
Virginia.


Sunday, October 9, 2016

A smelly basement, a great debate, an educational book, and an uphill climb.

Hi everyone.
This week started out with a day with the brethren at Cell53 Church in Lewiston, Maine. We had a great time together full of fellowship, worship, and ministry. First we all got together and had a time of worship through songs, then a time of sharing what people have been learning through the Bible, followed by confession of sins, and communion.

After that we all went down to one of the bridges near the church where there was a Walk For Life event taking place. When we got there all of us had forgotten our signs, so some of us were just standing on the bridge talking and others were in a group praying together. One gentleman then came over and handed us some signs that we could borrow which was helpful.

Some of the people in our group looked at the back of the signs and saw that they said things such as: you can pray to yourself but not to loud, do not talk to much, and things of that nature. I do not know if you knew this but when our group is around we do not know how to stop talking (haha). Brian said he had not read the back of the sign and he was going to preach, which is so much like Brian.

We had a great time together and are grateful to God for giving us the opportunity to meet such bold brothers and sisters in Christ, such as those at Cell53.

 I finally got to see where everything happens in the recording of Cell53 Radio. I have to say that their building is pretty cool. Cell53 meets in an old bar, so there is still a giant bar area in one part of the room which is really neat looking. The basement / studio is a normal basement, yet The Honorable Minister Andrew X, B-Easy, T-Money and others, find the time to sit down there for a few hours every week, to record radio shows to encourage their brethren in Christ as they strive to glorify Him with their lives. (I did not come up with the nicknames and I only used one of Andrew names, he has multiples.)

Just the other day someone posted a debate that Sye Ten Bruggencate did at the end of September. He was debating Matthew Isaacs about the existence of God. While Matthew is on the opposing side from the Christians, I have to say he is at least kind and respectful, and unlike some others who disagree with our Christian worldview, he does not call Sye stupid.

Sadly when people disagree with us they sometimes resort to Ad Hominem  attacks (attacking the person who made the argument instead of the argument itself) instead of using logic to actually defend their argument. When someone uses Ad Hominem attacks,he commits a logical fallacy. The thing is, in any worldview other than a Biblical worldview, there is no basis for Laws Of Logic, or Uniformity In Nature.

Other worldviews also do not provide the Preconditions For Intelligibility needed to make knowledge possible. Since other worldviews display all these problems when considered thoroughly, people who claim to believe in them sometimes resort to using logical fallacies instead of trying to come up with a logical way to defend their worldview which can not account for laws of logic in the first place. As Sye Ten Bruggencate often says, the choice is either God or absurdity.

I have been reading Ultimate Proof Of Creation by Dr. Jason Lisle, which I suggest everyone reads if they have not already. It is a great book which covers a lot of ground in relation to defending our Christian faith. I have learned a lot from reading Dr. Lisle and I would encourage everyone to read his material.

On Saturday Donald Trump will be in Bangor. Our family may be going out to the rally to do some evangelism, please let me know if you would interested in coming. If you do not wish to come or can not make it please pray that the Gospel will go out with power and conviction, that God be glorified as we tell the world about our glorious God.

Prayer
Please continue to pray for my friends the Hill family. They are currently in the hospital with their oldest daughter Sherri as she recovers from brain surgery and problems relating to that. It looks like when they leave, they will have been in the hospital for at least 2 weeks, maybe more. While dealing with this their son also broke his heal and is still recovering from that. The family also has 2 other children under the age of 3. Currently the family is staying at the Ronald McDonald house while Sherri is in the hospital which has kind of become a home away from home for this family. Yet through all this they continue to glorify God and share His goodness with all around them.

With love in the Lord,
Virginia.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Preaching in Bar Harbor with a true Scotsman!

Hi everyone.
This past weekend has been quite fun and we still have more to do!

On Friday Daddy had the day off which would usually mean we go to the abortion mill, but this week we did something a little different. Jimmy Hamilton is a dear brother in Christ from Scotland. For the last 3 weeks he has been here in the States doing open air evangelism around the country. We knew that Jimmy would be leaving for Scotland today so we decided to join him for some ministry before he left. We found out that there would be 2 cruise boats in Bar Harbor on the same day we were planning on going out to preach. The cruise boats together could carry up to 3,500 people. That number combined with all the other tourists and locals of the town ended up giving us a lot of people in town, which means it is a great place for preaching the Gospel!

As soon as we got out of the car there was a police officer standing there who we got to talk to for a minute. He stood talking with us for awhile and then asked us what we were planning on doing that day, we told him we were planning on doing some preaching and he told us to have fun. In other words it seemed like he was fine with what we were doing.

We quickly found a nice place for preaching there was a fountain and benches and it was right on the street corner so we could pass out tracts to people walking past. Jimmy started out with preaching while we passed out tracts. Daddy then preached and then they took turns preaching while the other passed out tracts. A couple of people were not so happy we were out there, from what they said it is because we were sharing the gospel which exposes the darkness of their souls. Yet it was not all bad. I did get some of the nicest comments I have ever gotten when we are out sharing the gospel. Some people were glad we were out there witnessing, one older man said " God bless" and called me "Darling",  Some people are nicer than others.

We had a great time with Brother Jimmy Hamilton, He is a great man who has been serving the Lord through preaching for longer than we have and it very encouraging to speak with a man who is serving the Lord with his life! May God bless his work!

Tomorrow we are planning on joining our brothers and sisters at Cell53  for a time of worshiping our Lord and Savior  Jesus Christ. I am sure we will also have a great time of fellowship as well! I very much enjoy when we get to join our dear family in Christ there in Lewiston.

By the way for everyone involved in abortion ministry, I found out what some of the "deathscorts" are doing when they are sitting there on there phones! On Thursday a "deathscort" took a video of Sye Ten Bruggencate preaching outside a abortion mill and posted it on Facebook. That must be what the "deathscorts" do on there phones when we are out there! Okay maybe not but it would be nice if they were.

Prayer
Please be praying for a dear sister in Christ Angela as she serves the Lord outside the abortion mill in New York. Pray also for my friends the Hill family as they are going through a hard time right now with many medical issues in the family.

With love in the Lord,
Virginia.
Jimmy Hamilton with the Cow kids in Bar Harbor