Stephanie’s Blog- a snippet of my thoughts

“If there is an Enemy of Souls (and I have not the slightest doubt that there is), one thing he cannot abide is the desire for purity. Hence a man’s or a woman’s passions become his battleground. The Lover of Souls does not prevent this. I was perplexed because it seemed to me He should prevent it, but He doesn’t. He wants us to learn to use our weapons.” -Elisabeth Elliot

I read this quote in one of my Bible Studies recently and it made me admire Elisabeth Elliot even more. She hit the nail on the head. We think that God should save us from every bad circumstance, but there is a reason why He does not. It is not because God wants us to suffer. If He wanted that, He would never have sent Jesus to suffer and die in our place. It is because He want us to “use our weapons”. We are in a world that Satan has been given dominion over. Yet, everything is filtered through God’s hand. Satan is not given total freedom to screw up our lives as much as he would like. I cringe at the thought of what he would do if he was able to. Instead, God desires us to learn how to stand strong and firm in those difficult times. He equips us with everything that we need to fight Satan in our lives. It’s just a matter of us using those weapons and putting on the armor that He has given to us. (more…)

I am astounded at the pictures of New Orleans and Biloxi, along with other places greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina. I am affected even more by how people are having to live as they wait to be rescued from these places. New Orleans has gotten the most attention because they not only lost everything they had from the fierce winds, but flooding ensued. People drowned, some are still trapped on their roofs or upper stories, and others evacuated to the Convention Center and Superdome. Yet, they are not getting the food, water and shelter that they were promised. It seems that the entire evacuation was poorly planned. There was no food or water waiting in either location to take care of those who sought shelter there. There were no medical supplies to help those who need insulin, oxygen, dialysis, or other medications. It’s not like the hurricane came unexpectedly. I wonder why the local Costco, Walmart, etc. was not delivering supplies by the truckload before Katrina hit land. Yet, that is all in the past. What needs to be focused on is how to help the people. (more…)