New from Pacific Press:
Testimony of a Seeker
a young woman's journey to grace
"Testimony of a Seeker is one of the best books I've ever read. Jennifer writes with scathing honesty and openness. Her life runs the gamut of human experience from inadvertently burning down her best friend's house to nearly starving herself to death. And through it all you can see the loving hand of God guiding her searching heart to its final destination. Whether you're searching for God yourself or just looking for a deeper, more honest relationship with Him, this is one book you won't want to miss."
- Céleste perrino Walker, author of Prayer Warriors, Making Sabbath Special, and others.
An excerpt.
"I have to talk to you," he whispered, the usual sunlight gone from his face. He followed me to the stairs that led to my room and we sat while he talked between ragged breaths;
"There's a man who has come to our farm house named Karl. No one really knows him that well, but somehow he got permission to stay with us for a while. He is just sort of hanging around now, really causing problems. He seems to be demon possessed, you know, saying weird things and burning himself with fire and . . ." he gulped, "threatening people. It gets worse and worse until we say the name of Jesus, and then he stops and the evil spirit leaves."
Conviction tapped on my shoulder, but instead of whirling around to face it, I fought. No, no, not Jesus, not Christianity, I thought. I have already tried it and found it to be a dead end. Nothing more than a bunch of moralistic people trying to impose unnatural constraints upon the culture. I had moved on from the stodgy traditions of the western world to the exotic religions of the east. . .
"Oh, come on!" I spoke up, "Believe in God, but Jesus? I don't think we have to resort to that!"
"I didn't either, but we were scared enough to try anything. Christine remembered reading in the Bible how Jesus used to cast out demons, and so we gave it a try, and it worked! Maybe Jesus is the answer after all. Maybe He is God, and all this other stuff we have been doing . . ."
"No, no, it can't be." I shook my head in refusal. In spite of the plain evidence Norman was giving that Jesus was the source of power over evil, my heart was a stone in my chest. The idea of Christianity repulsed me, with all it's pretension and hypocrisy. I had grown up in a churchgoing family, in a Christian culture, and I had left it all to find "the truth." Now I was being told that the power was in Jesus Christ. Where was this powerful Jesus, I thought, when the children in Bangladesh starved while the "Christians" in America wallowed in excess? Where was this powerful Jesus when the church spent more money on a new organ than they spent on charity? Why couldn't this powerful Jesus make "real" people out of the plastic professed Christians I had met? Cynicism blinded my eyes to the truth. No way would I regress back to Christianity, I thought. I was on a spiritual path that would someday lead to enlightenment if I tried hard enough. I wasn't giving up now, not for Jesus, not for anyone!
When I Was a Child- "Barbara Maria!" by Michael Schwirzer
I was a missionary in Honduras when I was twenty-five years old. My job was to farm and gather wood for cooking. I was chopping wood next to the river one day when I heard a lady who was on the banks washing clothes cry out.
"Miguel! Miguel!" she screamed, pointing to the opposite bank. "Hay culebra!" She said, meaning "There's a snake!"
Well, I already had my axe in my hand, so I marched right across the river (which was very shallow) to see a black snake about six feet long and as thick as a strong man's arm.
"Oh, it's just a harmless black racer," I thought, "these primitive people are frightened so easily." I lifted my axe and let it fall, chopping the huge snake in half. One half crawled one way and one half crawled the other way as fast as they could go. I turned around and smiled at the lady washing her clothes, crossed the river and went back to my work.
The next day I was working outside and two "hombres," (men) in huge sombreros and mustaches, with huge six-shooter guns in their holsters came galloping up the trail on their horses and stopped right in front of me. One was speaking to the other in Spanish, saying, "This is the man. This is the one who killed the snake!"
They both studied me for a moment, then pulled on their reins and galloped away. Later I found out that I had killed a "Barba Maria" snake, a member of the viper family and the most dangerous snake in Honduras. If this snake had bitten me, I never would have made it to the hospital.
No, I take it back. The "Barba Maria," isn't the most dangerous snake in the world, Satan is, and when he bites, you never make it to the hospital either. Thank God that heaven sent an E.M.T., in Jesus Christ. He didn't wait for us to find Him, He came in search of us, and that's why we are alive today. Aren't you thankful?
"Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not" Lamentations 3:22.