TODAY'S CHURCH

Wow, you won't believe this! 2 weeks ago I posted a blog called "Can a Christian be Trusted?". Then yesterday, Kodi forwarded me a link to a blog by Bil Cornelius (pastor of Bay Area Church in Corpus). He had posted this YouTube clip, that I want you to see by Penn Jillette of 'Penn and Teller'. Penn is not a Christian but listen to his thoughts reminiscent of the questions I posed 2 weeks ago!

BLOOD DRIVE-
Benefitting Braden Allard
at Walnut Ridge Baptist Church
Sunday, January 18th
8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Contact Deborah Jackson
682-556-2896

Click here to schedule your donation time.
Click here for Blood Donor Guidelines.

You can read Braden’s story below. For updates you can view or subscribe to his website click here!(http://caringbridge.org/visit/bradenallard):

"My name is Braden Allard I am seven years old and I live in Mansfield, Texas in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I was diagnosed with leukemia on 12 December 2008. I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. With God as my savior, my family and friends around me I can overcome anything put in front of me. Please continue through this website to read more about me.

I live with my mom Tammy, my dad Chris, my sister Katie and my brother Logan.

I was first diagnosed with leukemia on 12 December 2008. My mom, who is an awesome Registered Nurse, noticed that my gums and tongue were very pale after I had complained about hitting my gums with a chopstick. I had complained of being tired for a couple of weeks before that and Mom had noticed that I was really pale. My mom made a doctors appointment with our family doctor on 10 December to just draw some blood to check to see if there was anything going on. Mom was in the doctor’s office on 11 December with Logan and the doctor told her that my blood levels were critically low and we needed to get a referral to see a specialist. Mom immediately asked if we needed to admit me in the hospital but the doctor wanted to go through the process of getting a referral and letting them check me out.

My mom went to work on the morning of the 12th and was talking to some doctors at the hospital where she works about my blood test levels. One of the doctors turned to her and asked why she was at work?! The doctor told mom to get me and take me to the emergency room and do not wait on the system to get this looked at. The doctor told us to go to Children’s Hospital in Dallas and we ended up there in the emergency room about 10am.

Our experience at Children’s was unbelievable from the moment we stepped into the ER. We stayed in the ER where Dr. Bowers and Dr. Fowler talked to us about what they saw in my blood. From the ER we were moved to the 10th floor which is the oncology floor. There our nurses started taking wonderful care of me. Doctor’s Wickiser and Fustino my Oncologist worked diligently to find out what exactly we would be dealing with.

On Monday, 15 December I underwent a surgery to place a Medi-port underneath my skin which will enable me to get treatment and other procedures without having to undergo multiple sticks with the needle. The doctors and nurses will access my blood through this port in my side. They took a sample of my bone marrow from my hip in order to analyze it and also did a lumbar puncture to take a small amount of fluid from around my spine and brain. This was to see if there was any cancer in the fluid around my brain. That test was NEGATIVE!!! When they did the lumbar puncture they also gave me my first dose of Chemotherapy!

The doctors thought for sure they would be able to tell us for certain what kind of leukemia I had once they were able to look at the bone marrow! Well my parents always said I was odd and the doctors were able to prove that. Normally they find what they call blast cells in the bone marrow at extremely high levels. And that is how they diagnose leukemia (ALL or AML the two different common kinds of leukemia). What they found was that there were high levels of Blast cells (leukemia cells) in my blood but not an abnormally high level in my bone marrow. Normally the blast cells are found in higher levels in the bone marrow where it develops. That being said this is where the doctors started scratching their heads. Which is never a good sign? However with Children’s Hospital being apart of an Oncology Group, the doctors are able to confer with a multitude of other agencies around the country and many different specialist will take the opportunity to evaluate my test results.

On 18 December, my dad’s 44th birthday I was discharged from the hospital. We don’t know for sure what it is I have as of yet but we know that the wonderful people at Children’s Hospital will find out.

My family and I would first like to thank the Lord for taking care of me and blessing me and my family with all of you, our friends and family. My dad said that it was like raining Angels. The amount of prayers and support that we have received is incredible. We would like to thank Uncle Terry and Aunt Lisa for getting to the hospital at a time when we really needed the support, even though my dad sent them on a wild goose chase to Fort Worth and back.

My Aunts Sue, Pam and Joann took care of Logan and Katie while I was in the hospital with my mom and dad. Aunt Shannon and Uncle Charles came and stayed with me and my parents in the hospital and were very instrumental in keeping my parents calm and just having her there was a blessing. Ms. Shelly, Ryan and Zack came by and gave me my very own DS and several games which was an incredible gift that kept my mind off of being in the hospital. The neighborhood clan of Ms. Bitsi, Ms. Tina, Mr. Paul, Megan and Ryan came to see me and brought me a bag that holds my DS and all of my games and then some.

I would truly like to thank Mr. Jason Oxley and Mr. Michael for coming to see me and praying with me. My family at Walnut Ridge Baptist Church is awesome. Mr. VA and Mr. Chuck deacons from the church also came and prayed with me which is really special to me. Walnut Ridge Baptist Church ROCKS!

So now our journey begins……"

I once heard a non-Christian proclaim that it is "impossible to trust a born-again believer". This person was very aware of what Christians believe happens post-death. They knew about the Biblical description of hell, and what a Christian believes happens to a person who perishes without accepting the forgiveness that is offered only through receiving Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.

They said that a Christian who really cared for a ‘professing’ non-Christian should be willing to do just about anything short of murder; even torture to get them to profess a faith in Christ. (This actually was a medieval philosophy- used to 'win' converts; I guess that is one way to get your numbers up!) What would be worse they reasoned; the short term discomfort of the physical body or eternal suffering, separation from loved ones and God himself?

The alternative to this he said was, “the Christian who says they care about me but does nothing to persuade me to receive this free gift of salvation that Christians claim Jesus offers. Thereby proving that they are nothing more than a liar, who cares nothing at all about me. I would expect if they did, there would be a much greater sense of urgency to impress the gospel upon me.”

The breakdown in this logic is found in the first part of the argument. The Bible indicates that each person must choose Jesus of their own volition. Coercion cannot replace personal conviction. A personal response to the gospel like the one that Paul exhibited (Acts 9:20-31) does not take place through intimidation or compulsion. The logic does hold up however, in the second argument. If we say we are a Christian, yet do nothing and say nothing, then we by default ‘care not’.