4 Reasons Why Holman Publishers Should Not Have Inserted an Article by a Contemplative Author into Their King James Bibles |
Recently, Lighthouse Trails learned that Holman Bible Publishers (the oldest Bible publisher in America) has inserted an article by a strong contemplative proponent into several of their King James Version Bibles (some of which Lighthouse Trails WAS carrying) including: the Ultra Thin Reference Bible, the Pocket-Sized Bible Classic, the Large Print Ultra Thin Bible, and the Personal Reference Bible. The article in the Bibles is titled, “Why You Should Read the King James Bible,” written by the late Calvin Miller (died 2012). This is a major issue, and let us tell you 4 reasons why we believe Holman should not have done this:
1. Calvin Miller is an advocate for contemplative/centering prayer. Ray Yungen discusses Miller in A Time of Departing:
In Into the Depths of God, [Calvin] Miller encourages readers to engage in centering prayer and explains it as a union between man and God:
“Centering is the merger of two ‘selves’—ours and his [God’s]. Centering is union with Christ. It is not a union that eradicates either self but one that heightens both” (p. 107).
Into the Depths of God is an exhortation in contemplative spirituality and is brimming with quotes by Thomas Merton and other contemplatives. Miller speaks of the “wonderful relationship between ecstasy [mystical state] and transcendence [God],” and says that “Ecstasy is meant to increase our desire for heaven” (p. 96) (A Time of Departing, p. 186).
Into the Depths of God is riddled with favorable quotes by and references to a number of contemplative mystics. In addition to Thomas Merton, there is Evelyn Underhill, St. John of the Cross, Esther de Waal, Kathleen Norris, Hildegard of Bingen, Annie Dillard, Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. Anthony (a Desert Father). In Miller’s newer book, The Disciplined Life, Miller again turns to the mystics. Miller also wrote The Path to Celtic Prayer (Celtic spirituality is another avenue through which contemplative is entering the evangelical church).
2. Secondly, Calvin Miller resonates with emergent teacher Marcus Borg. In Miller’s book, The Book of Jesus (2005), Marcus Borg writes an entire chapter for the book. Miller would never include an entire chapter of his own book if it was written by someone he did not resonate with. As Lighthouse Trails has revealed in past articles and books, Marcus Borg denies the tenets of the Christian faith including the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, and His atonement for sin. Roger Oakland discusses Borg in Faith Undone:
Borg explains in his book The God We Never Knew that his views on God, the Bible, and Christianity were transformed while he was in seminary:
“I let go of the notion that the Bible is a divine product. I learned that it is a human cultural product, the product of two ancient communities, biblical Israel and early Christianity. As such, it contained their understandings and affirmations, not statements coming directly or somewhat directly from God. . . . I realized that whatever “divine revelation” and the “inspiration of the Bible” meant (if they meant anything), they did not mean that the Bible was a divine product with divine authority.” (p. 125)
This attitude would certainly explain how Borg could say: “Jesus almost certainly was not born of a virgin, did not think of himself as the Son of God, and did not see his purpose as dying for the sins of the world” (p. 125) (from p. 196, Faith Undone).
There’s no possible way that Calvin Miller could have been familiar with Borg’s writings and not been aware of his blatantly anti-Gospel stance. This is a common problem that Lighthouse Trails has had in the past and continues to have that people we are critical of tend to resonate with those who are blatant in their New Age views, but they themselves appear to be relatively benign to the larger evangelical community. (See a book review of one of Borg’s books.)
3. As we have shown above, Calvin Miller holds to contemplative persuasions. And yet, these Bibles have an article written by him within their pages. What this will do is point Bible readers to Miller and his writings and possibly even to Marcus Borg and his writings. To have Calvin Miller’s article in a Bible seems to be a terrible dichotomy: i.e., the Bible points people to the Gospel’s message of the Cross and man’s sinful state and need of a Savior while contemplative, as a movement, points people to man’s supposed divinity and diminishes the need for a Savior.
4. In view of Calvin Miller’s contemplative propensities, let’s briefly examine his article in the Holman Bibles, “Why You Should Read the King James Bible.” In the article, he lists three reasons why the KJV should be read: 1) it is the version your parents and grandparents read 2) it has literary and poetic strength and beauty, and 3) there is ease in memorizing verses in the KJV because of its “high literary resonance.” While these reasons all produce merit, the article seems to turn the KJV into more of a poetic book than the Word of God. While Lighthouse Trails is not in the category of what some call King James Only (in that that is the only version someone can get saved through), we do see it as a standard high above many of the Bible versions available today. Thus we have come to trust it more than others. We find it noteworthy of these two things: one, that emerging church figures (such as Phyllis Tickle who suggest it is a lovely book of poetic literature but not an authority in our lives and Tony Jones who minimizes the authority of the Bible as the Word of God) have done much to disregard the Bible as God’s inspired Word, and two, that the Holman Bibles include someone (Miller) who resonates with a man (Borg) who rejects the basic fundamentals of Christianity and Miller himself speaks of the poetic nature of the Bible.
Another Possible Ramification:
There are serious implications and possible ramifications regarding what is going on here. For instance, something many may not have considered: The King James Bible has no copyright on it because of its age. Bluntly put, anyone can do anything they want to that Bible and still call it the King James Bible. As an example, in some of Holman’s editions, they have changed the spelling of some words (e.g., Saviour to Savior). This might not seem like a big deal to some people, but how do we know what a particular publisher is changing and not changing? If they can change the spellings of words, they can also omit or change words and phrases. For instance, they could change or remove references to homosexuality (e.g., 1 Corinthians 6:9, Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:27) or to the deity of Christ (e.g., Romans 9:5, Isaiah 40:3 – see more). While we do believe that the Lord will preserve and protect His Word, the “editing” of the Kings James Bible could become a free-for-all to emergent-leaning publishers.
Conclusion: Perhaps it would be a good idea to check inside your own Bibles and ones you are giving as gifts and make sure there are no articles written by contemplative and/or emerging authors. If any reading this feel compelled, here is the contact information for Holman Bible Publishers. If you do contact them, please ask them to remove the article by Calvin Miller in their Bible editions.
Note: Lighthouse Trails has put in two calls into Holman, but we have not yet heard back from anyone regarding this matter. Update: On the afternoon of April 8th, shortly after this article was posted, we received a phone call from someone who works at Holman Publishers. She is going to be passing this article onto the editorial department. We were told that LifeWay Resources is the parent company of B & H (Broadman & Holman).
Holman Bible Publishers
127 9th Avenue N
Nashville, TN 37234-0002
(615) 251-2520 |
| BOOK REVIEW: Putting Away Childish Things, a Tale of Modern Faith by Marcus J. Borg |
LTRP Note: While reading this book review on Marcus Borg’s new book, please bear in mind two things: one, that Borg rejects essential tenets of the biblical Christian faith (such as that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he was born of a virgin, and that He was God), and two, that numerous emerging “progressive” church leaders have at various times shown admiration for Borg and his writings (these would include Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Calvin Miller (included Borg in his book, The Book of Jesus), Walter Brueggemann (helped write Richard Foster’s “Bible”) and at least on one occasion, Leonard Sweet). After you read this book review, you may better understand why Lighthouse Trails is so concerned about the “new” spirituality that has entered the Christian church and been embraced by so many of its leaders and pastors.
BOOK REVIEW: Putting Away Childish Things, a Tale of Modern Faith by Marcus J. Borg
By Ted Kyle
Free-lance writer
Putting Away Childish Things, a Tale of Modern Faith by Marcus J. Borg, published by Harper One, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2010, 342 pages, $25.99.
Learning to Doubt 101
Marcus J. Borg is a veteran of the Christianity wars, having been at one time a member of The Jesus Seminar, a humanist circle of liberal theologians who set themselves the task of voting Bible passes “in” or “out,” depending upon their supposed collective wisdom. Borg is also professor emeritus in the philosophy department at Oregon State University, and the author of the New York Times best-selling Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, The Last Week, and Jesus (from the dust cover).
Borg’s latest book, Putting Away Childish Things, is a novel. It is his first work of fiction, but he uses this vehicle knowledgeably to make his points. His protagonist is Kate Riley, an assistant professor in the department of religious studies at a small Midwestern liberal arts college. Kate is serious about her religion and thinks of herself as a Christian—though her concept of what that means would not agree with a conservative’s definition: she has had a lover (from whom she distanced herself when she decided he was not marriage-material), as well as other sexual encounters, and would not mind another liaison, though the only man she likes in her surroundings is gay. He is, accordingly, her best friend but not her lover. The thought that extra-marital sex is sinful adultery does not enter the picture—it is no doubt one of the strictures that liberals have written out of their workaday Bibles. Sin and the need for forgiveness receive no honored place at the table in this book.
As a story, this is not an easy read, being burdened with its load of liberal doctrine. But as a literary device to lead the unwary into swallowing that doctrine, along with the vulnerable student, Erin, it may succeed very well. Readers should be aware that this is an agenda-driven book. Virtually everything in it is there for a purpose.
The author’s most important point is championing the Age of Enlightenment’s attack on the inerrancy of the Bible. It is a theme he introduces early and often throughout the book, as the following dialog illustrates:
Fiona, a member of Kate’s class, Religion and the Enlightenment, spoke up in an early class discussion: “I’ve had a couple of courses from Kate—I mean, Professor Riley—before and one of the things I’ve learned is that we need to set aside our worldview if we’re going to understand other worldviews…I ‘m not sure where that leads—I just know that there are a lot of different ways of seeing.”
Another student (Andrew, the class skeptic): “But you must know that our way of seeing things is just one among many. How do we know it’s any better?…. There’s no one true way of seeing—there are only ways of seeing…. And if you take that seriously, it means we can’t really know anything for sure” (p. 101).
Another student (Erin) protests: “I belong to a Christian group… We think there are some absolutes, that there have to be. Otherwise, anything goes.”
Andrew: “And where do you get your absolutes?
Erin: “Well, we—the group I’m part of—get them from the Bible. We—at least most of us—think the Bible is infallible, because it’s inspired by the Holy Spirit. And we think that if you don’t think that way, then the Bible is just another book, and you get to pick and choose what you like and don’t like in it. That’s called cafeteria Christianity.”
Andrew: “So, in a sea of relativity, the Bible is an absolute? The Bible is the exception?”
Kate, the professor, interrupted the silence which followed to say that the discussion is about “the central question of the course: What happens to the Bible and Christianity within the framework of modern thought?… What has happened to the notion of sacred scriptures and sacred traditions over the past three centuries because of the encounter with the Enlightenment?”
It is a thought-provoking session, well-designed to crack open old belief-positions absorbed without much thought as children. For many, it opens the floodgates of questions and doubts. Others have already passed that stage and now are convinced that the opening chapters of Genesis, the miracles in both Testaments, and much else in the Bible are not true. In Kate’s class they will be exposed to philosophical arguments to strengthens this disbelief.
THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN THE BOOK
1. The Two Narratives of Jesus’ Birth
One of the major plot twists comes in the form of reaction to a newly-published book by Kate: Two Stories, One Birth. In the book, she sharply distinguishes between the “stories” of our Lord’s birth in Matthew and Luke, instead of fitting them together to give a fuller picture of the occasion, as is normally done. Matthew’s account, she wrote, is dark and threatening, being dominated by Herod’s plot to kill the infant Jesus. Luke, however, “is basically joyful. There’s no plot by Herod to Kill Jesus; instead, there are hymns filled with joy” (page 24). Additionally, her book concludes that in Matthew, Mary and Joseph live in Bethlehem, in contrast to Luke’s account of the lengthy trip to Bethlehem from Nazareth. She comes to this astounding conclusion simply because “Matthew’s narrative makes no mention of the couple traveling there, leading us to assume that Bethlehem is their home” (page 31).
All this sets the stage for Kate to make her case during radio interviews that the stories of Jesus’ birth in both Gospels are parables—and “parables are about meaning, not factuality. And the truth of a parable is its meaning. Parables can be truthful, truth-filled, even while not being historically factual” (page 26). The interviewer responds with a leading question: “As I understand your book, you’re saying that it doesn’t matter whether there was a star of Bethlehem or wise men bringing gifts, or whether Jesus was born at home or in a stable, or whether angels sang to shepherds…. Would you extend this to the virgin birth as well—that it doesn’t matter whether it happened?” (page 27).
Kate ducks the question: “Well, my emphasis as a historian is on the meaning of a story of a divine conception in the context of the first century, not on whether it happened.” Much more is to come in Kate’s class sessions, where students are subtly led to question the Genesis account of Creation, including the creation of our first parents, Adam and Eve, miracles in both Testaments, and much else which is abhorrent to liberal thinking.
[Reviewer’s note: This retreat into theological gobbledygook is standard procedure throughout the book, in which pregnant suggestions and hanging questions are used to plant doubts, rather than making direct assertions regarding the unreliability of the Bible.]
2. Setting Us Straight on Homosexuality—and This Is a Biggie!
Erin, the student who has been part of the campus conservative club, The Way, has begun to question many things she had formerly taken for granted, such as the inerrancy of the Bible. Then, over the Christmas break, she learned that her younger brother is gay, and she is caught between her feelings for her brother and what the Bible says about homosexuality. Before she goes to Kate for guidance, she reads two books she finds in the college library (Dirt, Greed and Sex, by William Countryman and The New Testament and Homosexuality by Robin Scroggs) and in them, she tells Kate, she finds that “homosexuality is an abomination is in a context in Leviticus that also forbids lots of things that almost all Christians think are fine. Like planting two kinds o seed in the same field or wearing garments made of two kinds of cloth—I mean that would rule out blends. We set those laws aside and say they don’t apply to our time—so why should we think the verse about homosexuality applies to all times? And what they say about two of the three verses in the New Testament about homosexuality makes sense to me—that they probably refer to an older man having sex with a young boy… But the part of the New Testament that I still have trouble with is that passage from Paul in Romans….” She then reads Romans 1:26-27 aloud. “That’s really strong,” she says to Kate. “…That’s the passage I stumble over.”
Kate has her read the next verse. Erin reads verse 28, supposedly from her NIV Student Bible: “Furthermore, since they [the Gentiles] did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done” (page 207).
[Reviewer’s note: The words, “the Gentiles,” are not in the original Greek, nor are they in any Bible I have ever seen, specifically including the NIV Student Bible. The parenthetical words were doubtless added by Borg or an editor to buttress the professor’s argument that Paul is simply repeating “standard Jewish synagogue rhetoric about what Gentiles are like” (page 207). Erin, who wants to avoid having to regard her brother as under God’s condemnation, is convinced. And so might be readers of the book who fail to compare the quotation before them with their own Bibles—for the words appear to be part of the sacred text, despite being placed in a parenthesis.]
[It seems to this reviewer that Borg has crossed a very hazardous boundary indeed, for the Bible contains stern warnings about adding to or taking away from God’s Word (Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19, which includes a dire warning for tampering with God’s Word).]
[While the addition of these words may appeal to those who try to abrogate the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality, it cannot be shaken. And Paul’s whole argument in Romans chapter 1 applies to every individual of whatever persuasion or religion—against “all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who; hold the truth in unrighteousness” (vs. 18).]
Things then get worse in the counseling session: While Erin is absorbing the impact of Kate’s suggestion that Paul didn’t really mean to call homosexuality an abomination, Kate goes on to suggest that even if Paul did mean exactly what he said, he could very well have been mistaken—implying that there is no Holy Spirit inspiration involved (page 209).Truly, wickedness is at work in this book.
3. Positing Two Jesuses
In a class discussion about the effect of the Enlightenment on the Church’s understanding of Jesus’ intentions and accomplishments, Kate states in a hand-out that “Jesus as a historical figure was not the same as the gospels portray him. This especially the case in John’s gospel”—which, she writes, “is a very developed layer of the tradition.” In other words, liberal scholars, including The Jesus Seminar, do not believe Jesus regarded Himself as the Son of God, or Messiah, or the Bread of Life, etc. Nor do they believe Jesus came to Earth to die as the Lamb of God. All these things, they insist, were claimed for Him, after His death, by His followers (pages 238-239). These theologians deny especially the factuality of John’s Gospel, including our Lord’s assertion that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
4. Tie-ins with New Age and Emergent Church Thought
Martin, a minor figure in the book, who is Kate’s one-time (and possibly future) lover, outlines a lecture he will give about mysticism. He jots down: “Would affect our sense of what the word ‘God’ points to: a reality that can be known and that is ‘all around us’—not a person-like being ‘out there,’ separate from the universe, a super-powerful authority figure whose existence can be argued about” (page 133). Later we learn that Kate shares this belief with Martin (page 276).
Additionally, in perhaps the only inclusion of real persons in the book, Brian McLaren and Jim Wallis are recommended by a faculty member of the seminary that is inviting Kate to fill a temporary position. He says: “I would love to have either of them on our faculty, though I don’t imagine they’d be interested. Both are committed evangelicals” (page 149).
5. A Horrifying Glimpse into Liberal Academia
The seminary which has invited Kate for a one-year visiting professorship has, in Martin’s words: “We have so many specialized points of view here—Asian, African, feminist, womanist, gay, lesbian, plus, of course, older white male.” He goes on to say: “Don’t get me wrong—I’ve learned a lot from feminist theology and African theology and Asian theology and gay theology, and I’m grateful” (page 269).
Conclusion: While I can only conclude that this book will lead readers away from truth (and from the Gospel) rather than to it, one poem quoted in the book, “Dover Beach” written by British poet Matthew Arnold in 1870, moved me. Arnold was attempting to describe how people’s faith in God was being shattered by overtly unbiblical challenges.
The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch’d land,
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d,
But now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! For the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
The third stanza may seem to tell the tale of the Church’s defensive battle against the attacks of the Enlightenment—a tale of retreat and gathering impotence in the face of worldly knowledge. Yet the tale is true only on the surface, for God, who cannot lie, has sworn that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. Our Lord has also sworn that His Gospel “shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14).
Though the church in our land is beleaguered, let us recall that “… They are not all Israel, which are of Israel”(Rom. 9:6), and that all this was foretold: “Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1).
The Church in America, as in Europe in general, has forgotten that “…strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14). We are called to live as pilgrims and sojourners in a strange land, for this land is not our true home: we seek another!
Meanwhile, let us soldier on for our Captain, holding His banner high, knowing that our work is not in vain—for our Father declared, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa. 55:11).
Praise His Name!
P.S.: If you wonder about Borg’s title, as I did, I have to tell you that he never mentions it in the book. But it dawned on me eventually that he is describing Erin, the girl who came to college clinging to her childhood faith, and lost it in the blaze of the Enlightenment. He’d like to be describing real persons—people like you and me. But personally, I’d much rather have the child-like faith that our Lord had in mind when He said: “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17).
Ted Kyle
Related:
Marcus Borg – A Key Force in the Emerging “New Paradigm” of Christian Faith
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| What is Next for Calvary Chapel? |
By Roger Oakland
Dan Kimball is the author of The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations and founder of a church called Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California. Kimball made the following statement in the introduction of his book:
I believe with all my heart that this discussion about the fast-changing culture and the emerging church must take place. While many of us have been preparing sermons and keeping busy with the internal affairs of our churches, something alarming has been happening on the outside. What once was a Christian nation with a Judeo-Christian worldview is quickly becoming a post Christian, unchurched, unreached nation. New generations are arising all around us without any Christian influence. So we must rethink virtually everything we are doing in our ministries.1
It is a fact that the spiritual climate has changed radically over the past few years just as Dan Kimball has stated. Kimball used the term “post-Christian era” to describe the days in which we are living. He sincerely believes that the Emerging Church and the experiences it provides will be the best way to reach the postmodern generation driven by experience.
One of the arguments for promoting the Emerging Church in the post-modern era goes something like this: while the seeker-friendly era was successful in bringing a generation of “baby-boomers” to Jesus, that time is past. Now we need to find new innovative methods that will reach the present generation for Jesus. Click here to continue reading this commentary by Roger Oakland.
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| "Meeting Corrie ten Boom on My Way to Barracks No. 4, Vught Concentration Camp" |
 "Barracks No. 4, Vught Concentration Camp"
by Diet Eman (Christian resistance worker in Holland during WWII - Diet is 92 today)
June 6, 1944, the day of the Normandy Invasion, came. That afternoon, all of the prisoners at Scheveningen, sixteen hundred of us, were told to gather all the belongings we had because we were going to be moved right away. We had no belongings, of course, so I was ready in a moment. We were called out, cell by cell, and we had to line up in long rows and be loaded onto those trucks, some of which were covered with canvas. The soldiers were standing all around us, bayonets on their rifles. They moved us first to a railroad station, and then they put us on a train.
Even while they moved us that night, the Germans were very nervous. The invasion had begun, and they were scared. None of us really knew about the invasion, but I suspected it because of what Trix had told me. And I heard the Germans, while they piled us on the buses and the trucks, talking about it themselves.
I knew this area, and I knew that if we left the Scheveningen prison through the side door, as we did, we would be on the street at the very end of the city of The Hague, the van Alkemadelaan. On the left were the dunes, with all those German fortifications that the Allied planes had been bombarding; then there was the coastal strip with its big, expensive hotels. But there was nothing else around the prison—nothing other than the strip of dunes where Hein and I had often biked together, the place I could never forget because the little trees had their peculiar honey smell in the spring—the meidoorn trees. The place was called Meyendel. I had even biked there as a child with my friends Rie and Jet, and played cops and robbers.
When we left the prison, therefore, I thought we would go to the right because the city had two railway stations: one to the south, the Hollandse spoor, and the other to Utrecht and the heart of the country, the Staats spoor. The stations were only twenty minutes from my parents’ house. I told myself that we should be going to the right because there was nothing to the left except the forbidden territory of the dunes.
Instead, the buses took a turn to the left. The only destination to the left would have been Waalsdorp, in the dunes, and everybody was scared stiff of Waalsdorp. It was the place of executions, so I was terribly afraid too. The Hague prisoners all believed that if they were being taken to Waalsdorp, there would be nothing but silence for all of us. At the same time, though we didn’t know where the invasion might have happened, we knew that there was an invasion somewhere. And an invasion represented, for us, the end of all our misery. The Allies had landed. Everyone expected it sometime, of course, like the coming of Christ: we all believed that at some point, somewhere, our Allied friends would come and we’d be free again.
But when those buses turned to the left, the prisoners from The Hague knew what was going to happen. The trucks followed a road where the dunes are high on both sides, an open area full of dry grass called helm, to Waalsdorp, the place of execution in the dunes. Some people on those trucks were so desperate that they were nearly out of their minds with fear. I think that God gave me a very logical mind; sometimes that is good and sometimes not. But in this case I had already thought that there was no point in jumping out of that truck: you couldn’t really run in the sand, and soldiers were all around, so where could you go? Even if you didn’t break your leg or get a concussion jumping off the train or truck, you couldn’t run very fast up steep hills of dry sand in forbidden territory full of land mines.
But some were so desperate that they were jumping out. The buses kept right on going, so I never knew exactly what happened to them; but there were other vehicles full of soldiers right behind us.
At two in the afternoon we came to a tiny railway station that I had never known about. There, all sixteen hundred of us were crammed onto the platform, arranged in blocks, and again surrounded by armed soldiers. We stood there in deadly silence for hours, except for the Germans who were talking to each other. And it was during those silent hours of standing there that Corrie and Betsy ten Boom (whose story was told in The Hiding Place) first saw each other. They hadn’t seen each other for months, and their father had already died in our prison…
As we were standing there, the two sisters started worming their way toward each other, which you could do very slowly without being spotted in that mass of people surrounded by the Germans. Finally they stood beside each other and could whisper a few words when no one was looking. After several hours a train pulled up, and we were herded in. Corrie and Betsy were able to stick together, and once they were on the train they could actually sit next to each other. It was a passenger train with seats, not a cattle train. I happened to end up in the same compartment with them, and that’s when someone who may have been in Betsy’s Scheveningen cell told me the story of Corrie and Betsy. When I saw them sitting there for the first time, they were holding hands, tears streaming down their cheeks from happiness—and sadness too because their father had already died.
As we were being loaded onto the train, the Germans walked up and down very menacingly. For all those months, we had talked only to our cellmates; but here, all of a sudden, were sixteen hundred people on that train. It was maybe six or seven o’ clock by now, and getting dark. Every train at that time was equipped with blackout curtains inside, so that the whole train would appear perfectly dark from the sky—thus the Allied planes could not see them. As the train lurched forward, I was praying that we wouldn’t go to Germany, because I knew that if we crossed that border our chances for survival were not good. I’d been initially overwhelmed by the fear that we would go to Waalsdorp and be executed; now that fear was removed, and the longer we stayed on the train, the more I believed we were going to Germany. …
All of a sudden, the sound of the steel wheels beneath us changed. We couldn’t see outside, and there were guards walking up and down through the aisles the whole time. But when I heard the sound of that train change, I peeked out quickly and saw water. I knew that we had to be at the Moerdijk Bridge, a very long bridge over a long waterway, the Hollandse Diep. Again, I felt a sense of relief. I knew then that we were not heading east toward Germany, but instead probably south to Vught, the big concentration camp in a wooded, sandy, and infertile area near Den Bosch. Actually, I had held out hope that we would go to Vught. Of all the evil places, I believed, it was probably less bad because at least we would stay in the Netherlands. Vught did have a bad name—there were many executions there—but Amersfoort also had a bad name, and every camp had a bad name of its own. I knew it was not going to be any fun.
At one point on that train ride a woman got up to use the bathroom, and she stayed inside so long that I didn’t know what she was up to. But when the train took a little curve, and I saw that she had opened the window in that bathroom, I guessed she was going to try to escape. If the train had been going straight, I wouldn’t have seen that. I thought immediately about how I could help her. I knew she was going to need time, so I tried to make sure that nobody would enter the bathroom right at that moment. Nobody else was in line right then, so I stood there as if waiting for my turn; meanwhile, I could be sure that nobody else would come and force the door open.
Then I saw her jump off the train. That woman must have known that territory like I knew the area around Barneveld—like the inside of my pocket. She knew there was going to be a sharp curve where the train had to really slow down. It was dark already, and I was keeping my eye on a little split in the door. And when I saw her jump, I said a prayer: Lord, protect her.
The rails there are situated mostly on the dike. German soldiers were sitting on the roof of the train with machine guns, but it was very late on the 6th or early on the morning of the 7th of June and quite dark. She knew that curve was coming, knew where there would be woods and shrubs, and she jumped at the right spot.
That escape gave me an indescribable feeling. There!—one got out. Thank you God! I said to myself.…
We arrived at Vught in the darkness of early morning, and there was roll call immediately. About eight had disappeared. So, apart from the woman I had seen jump, there were other escapees. I was very happy that eight had gotten away during the train trip alone. I heard that report because the guards often spoke to each other as if we weren’t even there; to them, we were just like cattle. Sometimes that was a good thing because when they discussed what was happening in the war, those of us who could understand German picked up a lot of information. When your life is at stake, your ears are like radar. Whenever I heard them discussing anything—such as how many had escaped—I listened very closely.
When the train stopped and we got out, we were in the middle of the woods. The step off the train seemed very high—we had to jump down—and all around us were woods. No paths really, just woods. Many German soldiers were stationed all around, still with their bayonets mounted, holding Doberman Pinschers on leashes. We were told to form rows and march into the darkness because the train couldn’t carry us any closer to the camp. If some fell—if they stepped in a hole in the pitch darkness, say—there was screaming and pushing and a couple of whacks. But people quickly got up and marched again on the uneven ground. After a while, we came to the front gate of Vught.
At the camp, we were all put in an enormous reception hall: it had no windows, except maybe a few very high up, and it was still quite dark. There was no place for us yet in that camp, and for a while they didn’t know where to put us. Suddenly and unexpectedly the officials at Vught had received sixteen hundred people from Scheveningen—and perhaps from other prisons as well. The leadership did a lot of running around there, and the Germans left us standing in that hall with no beds, no blankets, nothing. But I had a rain coat, and I put it over my head and got down on the concrete floor. I felt blessed: at least I had something. I was very tired, and I slept.
In the morning, someone high up said that the prisoners all had to undress—the men gave us the order—and so we stood there naked. If you tried to keep your bra and your panty on, they got mad and yelled, “Undress! Undress!” There we stood, while those officers were passing by, when suddenly a whole bunch of male soldiers came into that hall. I was scared, standing there naked. Those soldiers started walking back and forth, laughing and making remarks about what they saw. So many young women, and all of them undressed in front of those guards and the other officers walking back and forth. There were female guards too, so it was not as if we were at the total mercy of those men; but I’ll never forget the way they walked past and stared.
It was a very short time that we were absolutely naked because one woman guard came along and said, “Hey, get those people their prison dresses.” Our own clothes were bundled up, except our underwear, and we all got prison gowns. We still didn’t know what was going to happen to us. We finally got our underwear back, put it on again, and got into our prison gowns. They were the kind of gowns that could be opened a long way in the front: no buttons—only hooks and eyes, and very large pockets; no sizes, of course, just large and small; thick cotton, as heavy as denim, and gray with dark blue stripes. For a very long time after the war, I would never wear stripes—never….
When we came to our barracks, we found a big “4” painted on it. Around that group of barracks stood a tall barbed-wire fence, and outside lay a large open space, then another very high barbed-wire fence, just like you see in pictures of all the concentration camps. That fence was hot with electrical current. On the corners stood towers, and in the towers were guards with machine guns.
Right away they made a big announcement: “There is another fence with barbed wire, and there are mine fields between, and we have trained dogs. So don’t ever try to escape. You will be shot, or killed by the current, or ripped to pieces by the dogs, or else you’ll step on a mine.”
Nakedness in front of those soldiers, the prison gown, and that warning—that was our introduction to the concentration camp at Vught. (from chapter 13, Things We Couldn’t Say)
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| Widows in Kenya Basket Project Changes the Lives of Kenyan Widows |
The Widows in Kenya Basket Project that Lighthouse Trails launched last year as a means to help the widows in Rongo, Kenya support themselves is well underway. Already we have purchased several batches of baskets, which have been shipped to us and sold to our readers. In addition to paying for the shipping and materials, Lighthouse Trails is also paying the women a fair trade price for their work. As you can read in their testimonies in this slideshow below, being a part of the Basket Project has altered these women’s lives tremendously. If you would like to purchase one of these baskets, you may do so at the Lighthouse Trails webstore. You may buy just the basket by itself by clicking here (they are $34), or you may buy the “gift basket,” which is filled with numerous Lighthouse Trails products (you choose which ones – those are $85 – click here). In addition to the Basket Project, Lighthouse Trails readers are actively involved in supporting the Bryce Homes in Kenya missions project through Understand the Times Bryce Home Project. There are currently 20 Bryce Homes and over 120 children being supported.
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| This free scrapbook design personalized with Smilebox |
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| Tens of Thousands Petition White House to Help Fight Deportation of German Homeschooling Family |
Christian News Network
Purcellville, Virginia — Tens of thousands of Americans have signed a petition the White House to grant asylum to a German family that risks  deportation for seeking to come to America to find the freedom to homeschool their children.
The Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is just 15,000 signatures shy of bringing its request before the White House, as the Obama administration responds to only those petitions that gather at least 100,000 signatures within a 30-day period. As of press time, the petition had nearly 85,000 signatures. It has until April 18th — 10 days — to meet the minimum requirement.
As previously reported, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled to the United States in 2008 after German authorities demanded that they stop homeschooling their six children. Homeschooling was made illegal in the country in 1938 under the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler, and the law has never been repealed, but rather strengthened. In 2007, the German Supreme Court ruled that the country’s mandate that children be sent to public school is necessary to “counteract the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies.” Click here to continue reading. |
| Christian Printer Threatened With Lawsuit Over Refusal to Publish Profane Homosexual Magazine |
Christian News Network
County Armagh, Ireland – A Christian printer in Ireland is facing the threat of a lawsuit after declining to publish a profane homosexual magazine.
Reports state that Nick Williamson of Bluefire Media in County Armagh was approached last month by editor Danny Toney of MyGayZine for a printing quote. However, as the two communicated via email, and Williamson realized that the publication was to promote homosexuality and was timed to release with the Belfast pride parade in June, he would not provide the quote. Click here to continue reading. |
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| SIGN UP FOR LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH PRINT JOURNAL - MAILED 6X/YEAR |
NOTE:The next issue of the new Lighthouse Trails Research Print Journal will be mailed out on May 1st to all subscribers. This subscription-based journal can be used in addition to this free e-newsletter you are getting (the e-newsletter will continue to be sent out 2-4 times a month via e-mail at no charge). (view 1st issue of print journal) It's never too late to subscribe - anytime is fine. You will receive the current issue.
Note: The new subscription-based print journal can be ordered at any time during the year. Your subscription (which will entitle you to a full twelve months of journals-6 issues) will start when you subscribe. Click here to read more information or click here to sign up.
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For various addresses, just order single subscriptions.
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| Update Report on Bryce Homes in Kenya – 4 New Homes! |
By Roger Oakland
Understand the Times, International
It has been some time since we have sent out a report from Kenya sharing the progress that is being made with the Bryce Homes Program there. After our last trip to Kenya in December of 2012, we reported that if support funds were available we would like to expand the number of homes for the care of widows and orphans. Thanks to the response from our readers from Understand The Times and Lighthouse Trails we have been able to work towards this goal.
Thanks to the generosity of our supporters located in various parts of the world we now have added four more homes to our program to bring the total in Kenya to twenty. Initially, the vision for this program started with five homes. Since the program began, we have seen how God has directed and blessed all that is being done. Not only are the children and widows receiving food, clothes, and medical assistance, they are being nurtured spiritually by the team that God has raised up in Kenya to oversee the program.
 
 
As well, eight new homes have been built this past year replacing shacks that no longer provided appropriate shelter. Each home is built with a metal roof, a wood stove and a chimney that directs the smoke outdoors. The widows have expressed their gratitude to their brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world who have expressed their love and concern for them even though they have never met face to face. Approximately 120 children are now receiving care, and for the first time in their lives have hope. This is how the Christian Church is supposed to work. Click here to continue reading and for more photos.
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| DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, DAVE HUNT, HAS PASSED ON |
THIS IN FROM THE BEREAN CALL: (source)
To our Berean Call Family:
Friday, April 5, 2013, Dave Hunt drew his final breath and entered into the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His beloved wife Ruth was at his side.
Born in 1926, David Charles Haddon Hunt enjoyed the advantages of a godly upbringing and placed his trust in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Lord in his early teens.
As a young man, he served in the military toward the end of World War II. Afterward, he attended UCLA and received a degree in mathematics. It was during that time that he met the love of his life, Ruth Klassen. In 1950, they were married, and since both loved the outdoors, they enjoyed a beautiful honeymoon hiking in the High Sierras—perfect for two young people madly in love and with very little money to their name. Marriage was soon followed by the birth of two sons and two daughters. Ruth was a busy mother and also a gifted writer herself. She had a tremendous interest in and knowledge of history, a gift that would help Dave further down the road. Dave’s own career path led him into a position as a CPA/management consultant and later as the manager of several corporations.
Click here to continue reading this article from The Berean Call.
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| NEW BOOKLET TRACT: 5 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Kids From Sexual Predators |
 5 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Kids From Sexual Predators written by Investigative Sergeant Patrick Crough is our newest Lighthouse Trails Print Booklet Tract. The booklet tract is 14 pages long and sells for $1.50 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail. Below is the content of the booklet. To order copies of 5 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Kids From Sexual Predators, click here. There is also a bonus section: Safety Check List in the booklet.
5 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Kids From Sexual Predators
by Investigative Sergeant Patrick Crough
I. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate!
We must make it a point to communicate with our children every day to learn what is going on in their lives and who they are having daily contact with. Our children are exposed to school staff, counselors, coaches, day care providers, summer camp staff, and/or babysitters every day. Their social horizons have been expanded at a far too rapid pace. Many of us parents enjoyed a more relaxed childhood in the 1950s and 1960s when it was common to have our mothers home all day with us.
Like the faithful shepherd who checks each and every one of his sheep for parasites, diseases, and injuries, we must physically hold and hug our children and communicate with them every day. We need to reach out and make that connection, and we must listen to them carefully. I constantly made the mistake of using the little time I was around the house to tell my children what I wanted them to do. I rarely took the time to ask them what was going on in their daily lives. Under the pressure of making a living and supporting a family, I would spend the time talking at my children rather than with them. Our two-way discussions were few and far between. Fortunately, for our children, their mother did not make the same mistake. My wife always knew the who, what, when, where, and how of their daily lives. Through her patient guidance, I eventually learned this very important principle. As I became more experienced in investigating sexual crimes against children, I realized just how important daily two-way conversations really are.
As soon as a child possesses the ability to carry on a conversation, there are two absolutely necessary questions every parent or guardian should ask their child every day: What bad things happened to you today? And, what good things happened to you today? Another way to phrase these questions is: Who treated you badly today? And, who was nice to you and made you feel special today? Even if your children were with you all day, still ask them these questions as a matter of routine. This way, from a young age they will be programmed to have this discussion with you. Based on the numerous interviews I have conducted with child victims and their parents, I believe it will prove invaluable to your efforts to keep them safe from predators who desire to seduce and abuse them. Remember that during the trust and courtship phases of the grooming process, the child is unaware of the real reason why the predator is treating him with such favor. Therefore, at this point in the relationship the child has no reason to hide anything from his or her parents. If the parents are communicating with their children daily about who they are interacting with and what they are doing with them, the children should still be willing to share everything. While any conscientious parent would like to know what bad things happened or who may have mistreated them, I believe the more important question to ask is, “What good things happened to you today?” My reason is simple: The child has not yet made a secret pact with a predator that comes with the seduction phase, so he should be willing to share all of the great things this person is doing for him because he is happy and excited about it. Because the child’s morals have yet to be compromised, he is most likely going to remain open and honest with his parents when questioned about his relationship with the undetected predator.
II. Debriefing And Gathering Intelligence: Sharing A Meal
Feed my lambs. (John 21:15)
Most cultures make sharing a meal a special occasion. Whether it is a holiday, a special celebration, a date, a family gathering, or a business luncheon, we share meals with people as an act of social acceptance and personal intimacy. It allows us to interchange our thoughts and feelings, as barriers to open and honest conversation melt away in a festive, inviting atmosphere. In the Bible, we can see how God used the acts of animal sacrifice and sharing a meal to fellowship with His people around the temple. Jesus communed with His disciples over meals and dined with anyone who invited Him. Consuming food with another person has a way of putting us on the same social plane.
In the police detective world, we employ a technique known as “debriefing and gathering intelligence.” In essence, that is what we need to do as parents to learn about what goes on in our children’s daily lives when they are not with us. I urge you to share a special meal with your children—not to gather intelligence for disciplinary action but to assist you in keeping them safe. It should prove helpful to take your child out to a restaurant, for it will be much easier for him to open up to you in a neutral setting. Your authority as a parent is the greatest in the home; eating there may hinder your ability to make your child feel comfortable enough to speak openly about matters he would consider more personal in nature. It doesn’t have to be an expensive or fancy place. Most children and teenagers enjoy pizza, burgers, chicken wings, chicken fingers, tacos, and ice cream. My daughters enjoyed going to cafés in the Park Avenue area of Rochester.
I used this tactic with great success while raising my daughters through their teenage years. I would take them out to lunch separately to their favorite café. It was amazing how chatty either one would become as we sipped our sodas or iced teas, awaiting our meal. By the time we were buttering our bread and starting our soup and salad, she would be revealing everything about herself, her sister, and her friends. It usually kept me a step ahead of my daughters, and I truly believe that several tragedies were avoided because of these intimate meals with both of them.
III. Network With Other Parents
Parents should work with each other and compare notes. Children, like adults, put their own spin on much of the information they share. Unfortunately, our children are not always as honest as we need them to be. Usually that is because they are trying to prevent their parents from finding out something about their past or future participation in a questionable activity. So it would be fruitful for parents to set their pride aside and communicate with each other about what their children are sharing with them. This is an effective way to check the veracity of what your children are telling you, and this keeps them safe. A typical example is when a young teenage girl makes plans to meet the sexual predator she has been talking with over the Internet for the past two months. She lies to her parents, telling them she is going to stay overnight at a friend’s house. Too many times in this scenario, for whatever reason, the parents never check with the friend’s parents to confirm such arrangements, and the girl ends up raped or murdered.
If parents make a habit of networking with each other, these types of situations can be prevented. Likewise, law enforcement agencies are much more effective in their fight against crime when they share information with each other rather than harboring secrets because of territorial pride, which is an unfortunate reality in many jurisdictions. If networking and sharing information works for the police, then it will be useful for parents as they attempt to protect and supervise their children. We hold back because we don’t want to appear backward, paranoid, or overprotective. We also are afraid of appearing that we don’t trust our children. Satan’s best weapon against man is man’s own pride. Don’t let it get in the way of protecting your children.
IV. Monitoring the Internet & Cell Phones
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
I was investigating crimes against children long before the Internet became part of our daily lives. When I began my career, the Internet was still very much in the infant stages of its development, and its use was limited to the corporate world. But as it has evolved to its present state, the frequency of crimes against children has increased astronomically, and its use is beyond our ability to regulate. No longer is your child safe in the confines of your home under your close supervision. The Internet is the predator’s Trojan horse into what is supposed to be your fortress and sanctuary from the outside world. It makes the predator both invisible and insidious as your child willingly invites him into his or her life via cyberspace. I have met child victims who communicated with their offender over the Internet right under their parents’ noses. Because chat room language is cryptic and hard to decipher, it allows the child victim to become involved, and eventually seduced, online by a predator. Many times the child will be lured out of the safety of his or her home to be sexually offended, or even kidnapped and murdered.
There is no possible way to accurately determine just how many encounters occur between children and predators over the Internet daily throughout this nation. While law enforcement is making a gallant effort to police the dangerous and illegal aspects of cyberspace, it will be ill equipped to even scratch the surface for many years to come. Therefore, parents must shoulder the burden of monitoring their children’s Internet activity. This task has become even more difficult within the past two to three years as cell phones have been manufactured with the technology to access the Internet and to send and receive e-mail and text messages. Nearly every cell phone manufactured today also includes a camera or video and audio recording capabilities. While I understand that parents give their children cell phones in the hopes of keeping them safer, I view a cell phone in the hands of an unsupervised child or young teenager as a grave liability. A predator will use the cell phone to seduce and lure a child away from safety. When parents ask me my opinion on children and cell phones, I tell them to seriously consider not allowing their children to possess one until they are old enough to drive. It is my feeling that children should not be unsupervised until then. At that point, owning a cell phone would be a matter of safety in case they break down or get lost while driving alone. But until then, a cell phone would only increase their child’s risk of crossing the path of a sexual predator. If you feel that your child needs one, I highly encourage you to buy one without Internet capability and that you can limit to give and receive calls only from specific phone numbers. You should monitor your child’s phone activity to make sure he or she did not override your security controls.
I have labeled the children of today as the “Internet Generation” due to their highly advanced computer skills and propensity to seek out and use websites such as YouTube and MySpace. Websites such as these motivate and enable children to promote themselves to the rest of the world and provide personal biographical information for anyone to read. They also allow children to display seductive photographs of themselves and share their sexual fantasies. These websites are feeding grounds for predators, arming them with all of the information they need to choose and pursue multiple potential victims. Jesus told us that in the last days men would acquire great knowledge and become lovers of themselves. He obviously foresaw the future. Satan is brilliantly orchestrating man’s own lustful desires and the technological advances of today into an apocalyptic outcome.
Pre-teens and early teenagers are the most common victims of those who roam cyberspace. These age groups are beginning to experience the development of their own sexuality, so they are curious and open for erotic conversation. The predator is all too ready to satisfy and enhance that child’s curiosity. This leads the child to be secretive and lie to her parents about her newfound friend. I have found that most children will share this kind of activity with at least one close friend. Because it is exciting to them, they feel the need to tell someone about it. This is why I always try to interview the child victim’s friends if they make themselves available. Many times the victim will share things with a close friend about her experiences with the predator that she would not share with any adult, let alone the police.
V. Protecting Your Child With Prayer & the Word
Raising a child has never been more treacherous than it is right now, and it is only getting worse. I grew up during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, when the youth turned the social system of this country upside-down. But back then, the country was being built by the generation of World War II. It was far from perfect, but they laid a rock-solid foundation of wholesome morals and religious beliefs that were by and large based upon biblical Christianity. As a result, God blessed this nation with an economy that was second to no other in the world.
While the past fifty years have seen unprecedented, incredible technological advances, the granite foundation built by our parents and grandparents has been reduced to shifting sand. Aside from being fleeced by greedy and unscrupulous high-level executives, much of corporate America appears to be downsizing and outsourcing many traditional and manufacturing jobs to other countries. Additionally, we’ve become a population that places a distortedly high value in entertainment, pouring billions into the sports and gambling, pornography, and drug industries. Personal debt is off the charts. We have evolved into a nation of pleasure-seeking people pursuing a “comfortable” lifestyle at the expense of our own eternal salvation.
This is the legacy we are leaving our children. As a result, our children’s own morals and values are being corrupted. Tragically, many of the people they admire are nothing more than lovers of themselves, indifferent to the world around them. These so-called role models, whom we adults have placed on a pedestal and financially supported, are leading our children down the wide path of self-destruction. Satan, the master deceiver and manipulator, loves every bit of it.
Too many times, I have lain in bed during the desolate night hours worrying about my children. I worry about their health, their personal safety, and their future. When they were younger, I would think about my own mortality, wondering how they would cope without me to love and protect them. I have often stated in exasperation that being a parent feels like I have been sentenced to a life of worrying. As parents, we know that many dangers, both physical and spiritual, surround our children. It is for this very reason we should call upon God’s Holy Spirit to protect our children, comfort us, and take away our needless worry. And we should bury deep within our hearts God’s Word that is a “twoedged sword” that will give us discernment:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
I have learned that replacing worry with prayer is not only good for my children’s sake but it comforts me and gives me a sense of peace that is beyond my ability to attain on my own or from another human being. It fills that void in me that nothing else seems to fill. Jesus instructed his apostles not to worry and stated that worrying doesn’t help any situation (Matthew 6:27). Easier said than done, but it is true. I can’t think of one instance where worrying assisted me in resolving any issue, especially one involving my children. We must learn to surrender our worries, failures, and lamentations to the Lord every day. This is especially true in the evening when the enemy likes to torment us as we try to rest. Jesus said:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
Some of the heaviest burdens I have borne as an adult had to do with my children. The enemy will attack us through our children in an attempt to distract us, weaken our faith, and ultimately separate us from God. Therefore, we must pray unceasingly for strength, wisdom, and comfort. While God does not require us to pray on our knees, I suggest that praying parents take a knee whenever possible to pray for their children. A sincere act of respect and honor toward our Heavenly Father on behalf of our children demonstrates true humility. The Bible teaches us that “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6). For our children’s sake, parents should pray fervently and daily before God. We will worry far less and sleep more soundly as a result.
Consider this Scripture from Colossians as a foundation of daily prayer for your children:
[We] do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. (Colossians 1:9-11)
The Lord desires to protect you and your children. The Bible is so clear about this. If you do not have a relationship with Him or if you do not know whether He even exists, I suggest you begin simply to ask God to reveal Himself to you. The Bible says He will do that to the one who sincerely, with all of his or her heart, seeks after Him.
As for America, we need only look to the history of the Roman Empire to determine our pending fate as a nation. I believe the only way to change our country’s Titanic course for the sake of our children is to pray unceasingly for parental guidance, repentance, and salvation. If we, as parents, repent from our own rebellion and sin and then call upon the Lord with a sincere and humble heart, He will answer (2 Chronicles 7:14). But we need to keep knocking on the Lord’s door every day. Don’t allow unclean spirits to convince you that you are not worthy or good enough to ask the Lord for help. Jesus tells us in the Gospels that He came to cure those who are sick and in need of Him, not the self-proclaimed healthy people (Matthew 9:11-13). We are in the midst of a universal spiritual war. And those who name the name of Jesus Christ can come to God boldly:
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
Prayer, with a repentant and humble heart toward the Lord, and God’s holy Word are our best weapons against the Devil and his demonic army. Come together as a married couple, as a family with your children, together with other believing parents, and with brothers and sisters in your church to pray and spend time together in His Word. Jesus told us that where two or more are gathered in His name, He will be present (Matthew 18:20).
To order copies of 5 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Kids From Sexual Predators, click here.
Bonus Section: Safety Check List
Keep the following list in the forefront of your mind as you make decisions and monitor your children’s activities. Be diligent in safeguarding your children from those inside their social circles using these principles, and you will automatically protect them from those outside their circles. Some of these points below may not always prove practical in every situation, but I offer them as ways to assure that your child is not victimized. The higher you can hold these standards, the more you can rest assured to your child’s safety.
Caution Flags
1. Offers of assistance
Be suspicious of people who manipulate their way into your lives under the ruse of assisting you through a difficult time. Do they continue to offer assistance when it is no longer needed?
2. Great Personal Investment
Remember, it’s often the men you trust most and who display obvious affection toward your children who are the ones most likely to molest them. Have they made personal sacrifices, investing time and money to gain your trust? The child predator does this for the sole purpose of obtaining access to a child and eventually separating her from her parents.
3. Seeking constant contact
Be leery of the person who is constantly seeking contact with your child because he “loves children.”
4. Professionals seeking alone time with your child outside their normal role
If your child is involved with a child-care professional, teacher, coach, mentor, or counselor in an extracurricular activity in a way that stretches beyond what he normally does for most children, stay on top of the situation and watch the relationship very closely. There are legitimate people in these professions who extend themselves beyond their professional role for the right reasons. However, the predator will utilize this type of relationship to gain alone time with a child. Terminate the relationship if this person appears overly motivated to be alone with your child frequently.
5. Teenage boys providing childcare
Stay away from allowing teenage boys to care for your children unattended, even if they are younger siblings. Teen boys are not in control of their raging hormones and are influenced by today’s sensual world via the Internet and other forms of media. If they are left alone with defenseless small children, they might decide to experiment on them.
6. Possessiveness
Terminate your relationship with the person who becomes, or attempts to become, possessive of your child. This is definitely a red flag. Stay away from them.
7. Interest in pornography
If the child’s father is a chronic voyeur of pornography, then do not allow him to be alone with the child. As I pointed out earlier in the book, not every man who looks at pornography is going to molest children; however, a man who is addicted to pornography is at more risk than one who isn’t.
8. Excessive compliments
Be suspicious of any male who excessively tells you how attractive your child is.
9. False sense of security in your child’s education or “street smarts”
Increasing children’s awareness of the danger that exists in this world is a good thing. However, the responsibility of keeping children safe falls directly on the shoulders of God’s appointed shepherds, their parents. While safety information provided by schools is valuable, I believe it may give some parents a false sense of security that their children are equipped to protect themselves from being tricked and seduced by a child predator. Children seek attention from those they look up to. This is what makes them so vulnerable. As they get older, you will need to give them more freedom; but don’t stop protecting them, because they are still emotionally vulnerable. Asking a child of any age not to fall victim to the cunning seducer is like asking a lamb to protect itself from a wolf.
To order copies of 5 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Kids From Sexual Predators, click here.
Also new this week: Booklet Tract - The New Missiology: Doing Missions Without the Gospel by Roger Oakland
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$1.50 |
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$1.27 |
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$.97 |
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$.82 |
| 151+ |
$0.75 |
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WEEKLY SPECIAL OFFER FOR NEWSLETTER READERS |
Lighthouse Trails is going to begin having a weekly special offer on our webstore for our e-newsletter readers. Last week, we offered 2 books and 2 booklets for the price of one book (Another Jesus book, 2 copies, The Jesuit Agenda booklet and My Journey Out of Catholicism booklet).
This week's special offer to our e-newsletter readers is the "College Discernment Special Offer:
2  copies of Castles in the Sand (a novel about the spiritual formation/contemplative prayer movement in the Christian colleges) and 2 booklets - 5 Things You Should Know About Contemplative Prayer and Lectio Divina: What it is, What it is Not, and Should Christians Practice it.
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HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR HISTORY:
March 2002 - We officially began Lighthouse Trails Publishing Company.
September 2002 - Published first book, A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen, 1st edition.
2004 - Began Lighthouse Trails Research Project, the From the Lighthouse blog, and this e-newsletter as extensions of Lighthouse Trails Publishing and a way to get free information out to those who were reading our books.
2005 - Published Trapped in Hitler's Hell by Anita Dittman with Jan Markell, the first book in our Remembering the Holocaust category. Later we published a book by Corrie ten Boom and Diet Eman, giving Lighthouse Trails 3 Holocaust survivor authors.
2007 - Published Faith Undone, a powerful expose of the emerging church by Roger Oakland.
2010 - Relocated to Montana from Oregon; also began The Shepherd's Garden, a "tent-making" effort to help support Lighthouse Trails - created our own Shepherd's organic Bible verse tea.
2011 - Began working with Understand the Times mission work, the Bryce Homes for Widows and Children in Kenya - currently, Lighthouse Trails readers are helping to support 15 Bryce Homes (over 110 children).
2012 - Celebrated 10th year anniversary at Lighthouse Trails; also started the Widows in Kenya basket project as a way to help widows support themselves. Began outreach to Native Americans and First Nations people through Muddy Waters and other Native Spirituality books and DVDs.
2013 - Began Lighthouse Trails Research Print Journal, a subscription-based journal mailed to homes and offices; also began the Print Booklet Tracts.
As a way to say thank you to our readers and customers of our catalog and online store, we are offering, indefinitely, to our U.S.A. customers a $5 flat rate shipping on all orders (you can choose a lesser rate for smaller orders). When you get to the third step at check out, just choose the FLAT RATE shipping option. Click here to enter store.
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