As The Wind Blows While it may break the heart of a wise parent, they realize that it is not love to shelter a child from every adversity and all hardship. It is through occasional adversity and the winds of life blowing against us that we develop the muscles to stand strong and steady, gaining our moral balance. In today's culture that worships at the feet of political correctness via the path of least offense, we are enslaving the next generation in chains of fear-based civility to the point that they have no clue how to handle offenses against them. After all, no one dares speak a word that could possibly be construed by anyone as offensive or that might hurt someone's feelings. I believe Christians should never condone hate speech or bullying, however there are times that we as believers need to make a stand for what is truth. For example, there are times when I have faced criticism for quotes that I have posted in the Daily Christian Quote. Recently I received angry email for a Bonhoeffer quote on the subject of abortion. Over the 12 years I have sent out the DCQ, I have posted exactly two quotes concerning abortion. One over six years ago, the other last month. "How dare you parade your rabid politics in a neutral forum such as this?" I must admit that I was amused by another irate reader's dire threat to leave the mailing list as I do not charge for the mailing list and I pay for the running of this ministry out of my own pocket. We as believers are expected to be bold in our witness, even in the face of growing persecution. Presently we in the western world are spared dire consequences for standing for our faith, unlike our brothers and sisters in many nations. However, I believe the cultural pressures to conform to the 'god of Inoffensiveness' will only increase in the coming days; the tsk-tsks of political pundits and the ridicule by Hollywood will give way to more serious consequences: loss of employment, civil law suits and human rights legislation. John 15:18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. Be of good cheer! He has not left us to face our persecutors alone. I encourage you to read Matthew 10:16-32, particularly verses 16-20 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues....But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." Romans 8:35-39 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Revelation 12:10-11 "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." Until Next Week, © 2012 Katherine Walden If you find this ministry to be a blessing to you and would like to partner with us to keep the ministry online, please visit http://psalm121.ca/donate.html News Alert: New FAQs I Lift My Eyes Ministries at http://psalm121.ca/faq.html Daily Christian Quotes at http://dailychristianquote.com/contactdcq.html Looking for the archives of these devotionals? Find them at http://psalm121.ca/devotionals/index.php ------------- If you would prefer to receive the quotes below on a daily basis rather than in a weekly summary go to http://dailychristianquote.com/subscribe.html and join the daily quote mailing list. You will not receive the devotional using this method but you can read past devotionals at http://psalm121.ca/devotionals/index.php ------------- Weekly Archive of the Daily Christian Quote April 10, 2012 Day by day, morning by morning, begin your walk with Him in the calm trust that God is at work in everything....It is your personal business, as a discipline of your heart, to learn to be peaceful and safe in God in every situation....Remember, friend, where your real living is going on. In your thinking, in your reacting, in your heart of hearts - here is where your walk with God begins and continues. So when you start to move into trusting Him, stay there. Don't wander out again into worry and doubt! Anne Ortlund http://www.womenofchristianity.com/?cat=318 Online Works -------------- April 11, 2012 When Jesus hears our prayers and intervenes in our distress, He does so because His love toward us is free and unmerited, and because he by His suffering and death has purchased and won for us all that we need. And He is now ready at all times to give us these things. He waits only for one thing, and for this He must wait, and that is for us to ask Him to help us. For Jesus will not and cannot force Himself into our distress. We ourselves must open unto Him. And that is the purpose that our prayers should serve. Ole Kristian O. Hallesby http://www.booksofthebible.com/p1398.html Brief Biography -------------- April 12, 2012 What would you expect? Sin will not come to you, saying, "I am sin." It would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems "good, and pleasant, and desirable," at the time of commission. James Charles J. C. Ryle http://www.biblebb.com/ryle.htm Biography And Works -------------- April 13, 2012 If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. Robert Murray M'Cheyne http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorpmcheyne.html Online Information -------------- April 14, 2012 Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart has turned to stone. Thomas Merton http://www.merton.org/ Website -------------- April 15, 2012 There is neither encouragement nor room in Bible religion for feeble desires, listless efforts, lazy attitudes; all must be strenuous, urgent, ardent. Inflamed desires, impassioned, unwearied insistence delight heaven. God would have His children incorrigibly in earnest and persistently bold in their efforts. Heaven is too busy to listen to half-hearted prayers or to respond to pop-calls. Our whole being must be in our praying. Edward McKendree (E. M.) Bounds http://whatsaiththescripture.com/Fellowship/E.M.Bounds.html Public Domain Texts -------------- August 16, 2012 When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do, and so on. Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do. A. C. Dixon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amzi_Dixon Biography -------------- Important addresses: http://psalm121.ca/home.html I Lift My Eyes Web Ministries Site Index - please take note of this address - To change your address for receiving this list, please unsubscribe from your old address and subscribe with your new address. All articles written by Katherine Walden are copyrighted and as such, please do not send them on to others without including all the contact information that is included in every newsletter you receive from this ministry. 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