Cry in the wilderness

Matthew 3:7-12 KJV
[7] But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [8] Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: [9] And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. [10] And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. [11] I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: [12] Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Sound of Freedom Round up pt 2

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/global-histories/haiti/stories-of-faith/ht-04-we-had-to-seek-god?lang=eng

https://www.deseret.com/2010/1/22/20365928/haitian-man-s-grief-started-with-son-s-kidnapping

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth

Sound of Freedom Roundup

We saw Sound of Freedom yesterday and it sparked a day-long conversation.

My adopted daughter was “trafficked” by her own biological mother, who gave her drugs and sold her for sex.

She died of a drug overdose in 2021 at the hands of her abusive boyfriend who bought her for sex.

We are now raising her daughters who were also exposed to abuse.

Child pornography is real and devastating. Trafficking is real and devastating. The movie is worth seeing for that reason, but I have profound questions about this narrative and this organization—which seems to have claims which are hard to verify or even possibly not helpful in terms of de-incentivizing human trafficking.

I began to question the OUR narrative when I read Katherine Ballard’s gloss on their adopted children. I have fostered and adopted a number of trafficked children and none of them have showed me “pure love” (nor do they need to). They have had deep wounds and have needed structure, love, and constancy from my family.

Do I “adore” any of them? I don’t think I should adore anyone but Jesus. But I have stayed in the trenches with them and I have learned that real love is just doing the best and wanting the best for someone, especially when their behavior reflects their trauma.

Christians may be willing to accept any Christian-adjacent narrative when we need to ask the hard questions even as we acknowledge that many of the stories of the predations of children happen inside the economy of poverty and addiction and maybe Ballard’s methods and efficacy need to be questioned by all of us.

OUR promises that they can, do and will go into the darkest corners of the world to rescue children. I hope they do. But we all need to be rescuers and often that is less flak vests and cameras and more quotidian commitments and truth-telling.

Jesus leaves the 99 for us. He expects all of us to be the hands and feet of his love.

All of the below round up is just for others to have more information about a flawed but ultimately valuable movie.

I am not advocating for anything but the Truth.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/global-histories/haiti/stories-of-faith/ht-04-we-had-to-seek-god?lang=eng

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/july/anti-trafficking-ministries-nonprofits-sound-of-freedom.html

https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/tennessee-congressmen-want-answers-on-the-citizenship-of-a-franklin-soccer-coach-accused-of-raping-children/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3apm/anti-trafficking-group-with-long-history-of-false-claims-gets-its-hollywood-moment

https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/sound-of-freedom/

The God of the Living

Within a span of time I had a vivid dream about my adopted daughter who died pregnant, from a drug overdose in 2021.

Then I dreamed that my dad, who died over 15 years ago, was just up the road, able to come rescue me from a deflated bicycle tire.

I don’t usually dream about people I miss who have passed into Eternity.

There were two other dreams.

One seemed to be a glimpse of Heaven and the other a premonition of despair and pain.

I have thought about writing about these things, but it seems personal and maybe a little kooky to tell people about one’s dreams.

Only problem is that other people have brooked their discomfort, shared their dreams and anchored me with them.

Micah 4:1-5 KJV
[1] But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. [2] And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. [3] And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. [4] But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. [5] For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

Humans are eternal.

Jesus is the single, transforming Rescuer who can save us.

Heaven and Hell are mysteries worth pursuing both in how they manifest in our lives now—great Light and deep shadows in this temporal world, and what they will be forever and what we will be to them.

Signs and Wonders

I tell my kids that I had strange dream—in the midst of a banquet there was a duck, laid out on a platter, but the duck was still alive, and seemingly unaware that it was already served up as food.

I spent the rest of the dream trying to mediate some kind of restoration for the duck.

That is when my daughter told me about the Live Action story from my previous post. It hit me hard for a number of reasons. I had a beloved foster daughter who was premature and needed NICU services to survive. I would have adopted the baby in the story. Survivors of abortion should get all the benefits and services other neonates would receive.

I believe that Jesus died for my sins and the sins of a broken world. He died for the pain and he died for the grief and he died for the injustice and he died for the hate and he died for the tyranny and he died for the cowardice and he died for the willful myopia.

We are all the duck and we will get no other God -Rescuer willing to pay for our lives.

We should listen and follow him

The way a duck would if it were given a restored life and the rights of a child, not a meal.

John 3