Living in the ‘Bible Belt’ and having mainly Christians in my life, I tend to be sheltered from those to whom I must defend my faith. I have recently read a book called “Unexpected Journeys”. It is a book I would HIGHLY recommend all Christians to read. It is testimonies from 13 people, all from different religions, sharing their journey to find Jesus. There are several common threads between the stories but one is that Christians don’t know their Bible and beliefs enough to share Christianity to a person of a different faith. I have really been pondering the things I learned from this book and plan on reading it several more times. Yesterday, while getting online, I saw an article on Haiti. I am very attentive to Haiti these days because Brittne’s boyfriend, Parker, serves as a missionary there. So, I read the article and for some strange reason read the comments. At first, they made me numb and sick. Then I was shocked as I was being dragged out of my sheltered world to face the reality of the beliefs of others. People are walking away from God as Christians are becoming more and more lackadaisical with our faith. We can’t change others until we mature as Christians and know why we believe what we believe. Though I realize that it will make the devotion really long today (hey, I have been really good lately with short devotions), I am including the story and some of the comments I am referring to. May it encourage you as it did me, to equip yourself to be able to love people to Jesus with knowledge and not have to rely on slanderous words.
msnbc.com updated 7/29/2010 7:01:21 AM ET LONDON — A mother broke down in tears as she was reunited with her baby girl six months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti. "I had thought Landina was dead and when I heard she was alive I was in shock," the eight-month-old infant's mother, Marie Miracle Seignon told Britain's Channel 4 News. "This is very emotional for me." Doctors said the January earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands in the Caribbean island nation actually saved Landina's life. Last December, a house fire caused by candles left Landina seriously injured and suffering burns to her skull. She was undergoing treatment at La Trinite hospital in the capital when the devastating temblor struck and was buried in the rubble for two days. When Landina was pulled from the debris, she was moved to a field hospital run by Doctors Without Borders. Her right arm was badly injured in the quake and had to be amputated.
It was during her stay there that British surgeon David Nott realized that Landina would likely die within days if she did not receive an operation, Channel 4 News reported. Her skull had been so damaged by the house fire that it left her brain exposed to the risk of a fatal infection. Since the complex operation could not be carried out in quake-ravaged country, the doctor helped to set her up with a British charity that specializes in craniofacial reconstructive surgery. The charity, Facing the World, did not know where Landina's family was or if any of her relatives were even alive. With her medical records destroyed in the quake, they didn't even have names to work with. Facing the World brought the baby to London, paying for her travel and medical costs and acting as her temporary guardian. In March, Channel 4 News' Inigo Gilmore returned to Haiti to help the charity hunt for Landina's family. With the publicity surrounding the story, several people pretended to be family members, thinking they could benefit from the relationship. Gilmore interviewed people at the first hospital Landina had been treated at and was told that her mother was possibly living in a slum area of Port-au-Prince called Bizoton. He put out a radio announcement and located Seignon, a 26-year-old mother of four. Seignon had an admission card from the hospital bearing Landina's name, Channel 4 News said. "When the notice was put out on a radio, a friend raced to my house and said, 'Please sit down.' She said, 'This may sound like something from the movies but sometimes movies do come true. I need to tell you that Landina is alive.'" Seignon added: "I didn't believe at first, and even after the reporter came and showed me the pictures, it was still hard to believe." After a DNA test proved that Seignon was Landina's biological mother, the charity helped her travel to London to spend six weeks with the baby she hadn't seen in half a year. Visiting Landina at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in the U.K. capital, the mother told Channel 4 News: "Seeing her now in reality is a shock to me because I last saw her as a little baby with two hands, now she has only one. Even though I had seen her in pictures I didn't believe it. Now it's real."
Comments
Linda/ Stories like these confirm in my heart that there is a God, there is a reason for that little girl to live after going through so much. Truly this is a miracle. God bless the Doctors and the Organization that helped her.
Hoosier/ Great story. Wonderful picture. However, do you blame science for the hurricane and god for the miracle that the baby was alive?
Mike\ Why the hell can't we just give the credit to the hard work and efforts of the folks that made this possible without some jackass stepping in and giving the credit to God? We humans are capable of making good things happen all by ourselves you know. Save your illusions for Sunday coffee hour church chat please.
Laura/Everything comes from God.
Tiredofnegativity/ Mike why can't u shut up!!!
Thetrix/ Mike has a valid point. The rescuers, doctors and organizations did this. They should get credit. Not all people believe in fantasy and can see reality for what it is. Reality saved this child. Real people did the work
Donna/ If this does not verify the existence of a higher power, nothing will. God bless you Mom and Landina.
Joe/ What does this story have to do with a higher power? How many people died in the quake? This story is 1 in a 1,000,000... where is the higher power for the other 999,999? Where was it when the fire burnt the baby's skull? Where was it when rubble crushed the baby's arm and left her in debris for 2 days alone? It seems that if a story is happy (and don't get me wrong, this story is extremely joyous) someone claims that it is because of "god." If a story is sad, it is a learning lesson from "god." Either way you spin it, you still have nothing to base that presumption on. There is no verification of a higher power in this story... it is happenstance... as is life. I am tickled to see these two get to reunite. We have luck to thank for the fact that rubble crushed her arm, not her head. We have man's developed brain, hard work, and determination to thank for finding mom!
Joyce/ All good things come from God.
Mike/ All good things come from God. You make me want to vomit up a belly full of butterflies, puppy breath and sunshine. What ... are we humans not capable of good without God taking the credit?
Handgunner/ Mike - not to worry, I will pray for others who are more deserving. God gave man free will so you can believe what you want to believe - I will not call you names or smear you for your beliefs but why must you smear others?
Mike/ I thank you for not praying for me. That way, my good deeds will be attributable to nobody other than me, thus reinforcing the reality that humans are capable of good without the intervention of Him. If you choose to believe, then so be it and more power to you. But when you bring your ideology into a public forum, you are a target for those of us that prefer to give credit where it is due ... instead of giving it to something that is unseen, unheard and leaves no tracks of its existence.
Maria/ Mike ---So because you don't believe, nobody should? If you don't want to believe then don't, but by the same token, don't try and explain away or demean the beliefs of others just because they differ from yours.
JustAThought08/ Mike, no matter what you say or do there are always going to be people who need to have a parent figure, and need to believe in a God who is running everything and who occasionally intervenes in human lives with assorted miracles. It is not worth getting upset or arguing about it. It is like arguing with someone who is not quite sane, since their attitudes and beliefs are not predicated in reality. You may as well be speaking in Chinese. Just be happy you are not one of them...In the meantime, I, too, am blown away by the sheer persistence and dedication of the people who brought this little girl such a long way from devastating injury to health and her mother’s arms, especially since you know that for every success like this there were probably dozens of heart-breaking failed attempts. What an incredible achievement to have the heart to persist in the face of such odds!
Laura/ So... if God has love for "His" people, why put them through this? You're confusing love with cruelty, folks. Take God (and any diety) out of the equation and just be happy for the mom whose kid was found.
Mike/ This is a wonderful, feel good story. I am overjoyed for mother and child. However .... God has love for Haiti?? One good earthquake story for every 5,000 bad ones. With that kind of friend, who needs enemies? Personally, I strive to do good and be good on my own accord, and I don't need God to make it happen. However, I fully expect someone to come back with "you poor soul, I will pray for you" ... thereby attributing my future good deeds to your intervention. Excuse me while I go floss the butterflies out of my teeth.
Checkmate/ Agreed, Laura. I'm an atheist and the only thing I care about is the mother and the kid. It is awesome that she made it thanks to the paramedics.
Christina/ What an amazing story! It is so nice to see that miracles do happen! May god bless the people who helped make this happen and mother and child!
Ann/ AMEN!!! I just sat here shaking my head thinking how awesome God is to display His grace from this horrific disaster. Through this story I could "hear" HIM say "though the world has forgotten you - I have not"! May all those who love HIM be encouraged to know that in the "rubble" of life HE has not forgotten you! He has love for Haiti and He has love for you! PRAISE HIS NAME!!! HE LIVES FOREVER!!
Angelica/ For all the non-believers out there, this just shows that there is a power beyond all understanding. Seen and unseen. For all the believers out there, the Lord still lives and He's alive and working. Miracles do happen every day. What a wonderful story.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1
3 comments:
Perfect timing! Yesterday, I had a Jehovah's Witness come to my door wanting to share her faith with me. I told her I was a Chritian and that I would be happy to discuss my faith with her, so she left her Watchtower magazine for me to read and said she would come back by at a later time. After she left, I started wondering what I really knew about her faith and what words I would use to defend mine if she came back. I suddenly felt inadequately prepared. I've always avoided these discussions and quickly pitched the magazines in the past because I didn't want to be influenced by their beliefs, but yesterday I realized I had missed an opportunity to witness to her by letting her leave without a discussion. I wondered, who will witness to her...Will there be anyone else? I have my doubts that she will really come back...but maybe she will. Regardless, I am going to get prepared.
Posted for Parker Hall, Brittne's boyfriend who serves in Haiti.
Richard Dawkins, of Oxford University says the following. "In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason for it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no other good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music." Therefore one cannot arrive at a morally compelling thought given the assumptions of naturalism. Atheists run around like chickens with their heads cut off, incessantly screaming injustice and seeking answers in the murky abyss of unbelief. But if DNA neither knows nor cares, what is it that prompts our knowing and our caring? What is suffering? Evil exists therefore a Creator does not? If evil exists, we have to assume that the other side of the coin is good. And what brings about this moral compass? What has engendered in us the desire to see justice fulfilled? I believe that the notions of the true, the good, and the beautiful did not come to exist and now permeate our lives due to a random chemical reaction out in the universe. They were painted into life by my Creator. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love.
The one who goes by the name,tired of the negativity, didn't really say one positive thing. It seems he takes pleasure in hoping the rest of us will be as negative as he is. I would say to him or her,Wait... I have a story I want to share with you and it's called Jesus.The only story that matters.
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