God’s Not Dead!

If you have not watched the series of movies, “God’s No Dead”, you really don’t know what you’re missing. They are moving and compelling and they really do get to the heart of what is going on in the world we live in today. They are also based on true stories of things that have happened.

The first one follows a student who refuses to be bullied into writing God is dead on a piece of paper and turning it into a philosophy professor. This is the actual case that started the whole movie series. In the class the professor says we might as well dispatch with this fallacy upfront and then we don’t have to waste the whole semester with that portion of the debate. One student in the whole class refused to compromise his belief in God to satisfy this teacher and pass his class. The admiration I have for this student as I watched this was inspiring. To see how many were just so willing to sign that paper and go on. As Christians we need to stand up for our faith and for God. It’s what we are called to do.

In the second one a history teacher answers a history question. Yes Jesus is history. (His life is a historical fact whether a person chooses to believe He was the Messiah or not.) The history question asked by the student to the teacher was comparing the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Gandhi. The teacher did nothing wrong in answering the question and only answered the question as it pertained to history but then she is put on trial for saying the name of Jesus in class. This also is another tale of a person who stood up for her faith and refused to be bullied by threat of loss of job into stating something she did not believe or taking a plea to get it over with. 

In the third one there is a priest who is being told he move his church off the university campus where it has resided for decades after it burns down. This one follows how it burned down, the discourse of family and the fight to do what is right with the desire of human nature. It also shows that even someone of great faith can have a moment of weakness. 

The fourth one takes on home schooling and the governments attempt to tell them that they can not teach religion and give them a curriculum they must follow. It delves into the rights of the government to not only tell us how to raise our children but what we can and can not teach them. In this they were following the regular school curriculum along with a religious class with a group of neighborhood children all of the same religious faith. This one delves into civil rights and shows how there is no truth to how people believe in the separation of church and state the way people quote it verses how it was actually written. There is actually nothing in the constitution that states this. It was addressed in a letter from Thomas Jefferson where he is explaining that the constitution is there to ensure that government does not restrict the way a person practices their faith. 

I could watch these movies over and over. They give me strength and they put a smile on my face. I would highly recommend that you watch them regardless of your religious belief’s. The movies tackle the very things that are going on in our society today and as you watch them it becomes very apparent that we should be scared of the way our world is moving. The united states alone has moved from a position of great light to looming darkness in just the past year.

God is good all the time and all the time God is good!

God’s Not Dead!

Without A Warning Or Maybe There Was

 

I’ve always been told my heart is healthy as a horse, so it was a shock to me when I had my heart attack in October. In trying to understand what is going on with me though I have been doing my research as I normally do after something of this nature occurs in my life. I had known for almost two years that I had a condition called bradycardia. What this means is that my heart beats slow for my age, size, etc. My normal heart rate resting is around 52. With activity I sometimes get up in the 60’s and with extreme exercise I might break 90. My doctor had been monitoring it and did not send me to a cardiologist. She told me it was nothing to worry about. I will be getting a new doctor due to her moving out of town, but had thought about it anyway after hearing from the hospital that bradycardia is something I should have had a referral to a cardiologist for. As many of you know I often hid any health issues I had from parents as I didn’t want them to worry and especially the last two years since they had enough to worry about. I’m actually writing this to hopefully inspire some of you not to ignore your health warnings. Especially women. Heart attacks are not just about chest pain. Symptoms can very greatly. I strongly urge you to go on line and check out the symptoms. Women are more likely to have what is called a silent heart attack too, which means there are no symptoms,, so heart health checks as you get older are very important. With this being said I’ll continue my story. So for the last couple of years I have had almost constant nausea and I’ve had several times where I wake up in the middle of the night and have to run to the restroom to vomit. Nothing apparent wrong with me, just out of the blue then gone. I’ve had bouts of dizziness and extreme fatigue that would hit out of nowhere. There were moments where it took every ounce of energy I had to walk across a room. My husband can tell you that I would often tell him I didn’t feel well. He’d ask me what was wrong and say I’m not sure I just feel off. This is listed as a sign of an ailing heart when you go look it up. My appetite hasn’t been there either. I’m a big girl who eats very little. I fill up after a few bites. I also have been burping and had a lot of indigestion and heartburn. Funny fact is all my life the only time I’ve ever had this until now was when I was getting a health issue. So I should have known something was off, but I’ve been taking antacids per the doctors office for some time now. So somehow I feel as though I should have known, but God made sure he let me know that night I had my heart attack. I went to the restroom and as I was walking into the bedroom to go back out where my husband was I coughed very hard and it felt as if all the oxygen was sucked out of my chest. The first thought that went through my mind was do I have pneumonia but I quickly informed myself that doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t come on that quickly. I also felt like all the life had been drained out of me as well. I didn’t want to worry my husband if it were not necessary so I decided to go in and sit down and see how I felt in a couple of minutes. As I sat there the sweat started rolling down my face. My clothes became wet with sweat. A voice inside of me was letting me know I needed to go to the hospital. I calmly told my husband we needed to go to the hospital and assured him it could just be a false alarm. I didn’t want him worried though I knew something wasn’t right. There was a calm in me too though as the Lord God was with me and was comforting me just as He has always stated He will do in your hour of need. I got through this heart attack, but I still have an aneurysm on my right aortic valve in my heart. It could not be stinted. The aneurysm and the artery clogged off all the way. This is what caused me to have the heart attack. Currently I take 4 blood thinners a day and a blood pressure pill along with other meds to try to keep it from clotting off again and to try to get the aneurysm to go away. Funny thing is they say I’ve more than likely had the aneurysm since I was a child. My heart issues, as ironic as it is are not caused from my eating habits and my lifestyle choices. As far as that is concerned. The clotting/clogging I had a little, ok lot, to do with. Can I live a normal length life…. It’s doable. It’s also just as equally optional that I may not. If the aneurysm doesn’t play nice I could say good bye before my time. One never knows, but then that is no different than anyone else. None of us are promised a tomorrow. Thank you God for sending your Son and thank you Jesus for coming into my heart to live. I wrote this to make sure you all get checked for your health, but while we are here you might also want to get right with God. Time isn’t a guarantee. The only guarantee is that we will eventually die and when we do He will either know us or He won’t. 

Matthew 10:33

“But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

I love you all very much. I may not like your lifestyle or I may not be on good terms with you at this moment; but I’d lay down my life for all of you and I hope to see you all in Heaven some wonderful bright day.