Thursday, February 11, 2010

Writing Class- It's Quite Incredible

I loved the last third of Franklin's book. It showed just how much God can really use someone who has faith. It seemed fitting to me that little rebel Franklin became such a prominent Christian man. I really liked Franklin's adult life because it was mostly about serving people. It wasn't mostly about preaching or helping the church or anything, it was about going to remote countries and helping the war town villages and giving people food and medical supplies. Not many people do that. The majority of the church will just throw money in the offering plate and won't give it a second thought. Franklin was someone who put his life on the line to make sure the people got what they needed. I absolutely love that he went to the country or territory before he sent Samaritan's Purse there to work. That shows leadership and integrity. What I was amazed at, though I really shouldn't be, was how everything lined up perfectly for Franklin. He always managed to be at the right place at the right time. For example, the "retired" couple that would run the women's halfway house, when he went back to visit Sami, moving the office to Boone, when he worked at the hospital as a youth, and when he helped the contras in Central America were all examples of God's amazing timing. Now, one or two of those events would be normal, maybe even typical. But all those situations with one person? God is amazing to get him through all of them and to provide everything just as it was needed. It's quite incredible.

I was mainly impressed at how constantly he was going somewhere and doing something for God. Whether it was somewhere in Africa or Central America or Soviet Europe, he had been there. Nothing in his book really distressed me. However, the story about the soldiers and the father, son, and daughter was obscene, but that's what a lot of people are going through around the world. Their entire lives are like that, and that's not something we as Christians should ignore. We need to be out there, ministering to these people and helping their emotional wounds heal. Nobody else is going to do that. No other religion will go and no one's government will do anything about it. It's up to us. I go to church in Madison, and let me tell you: There are innumerable amounts of hurting, homeless, addicted people just in Madison for us to help, let alone the greater Nashville area. I see people just walking the streets in Madison around all the time, even in the winter. The situations are so sad. There are only 3 or 4 families in my youth group that have both biological parents living with them. It's just really sad. You see, Christians, and everyone else, have two purposes on earth. One), to interact with God, and two), to tell the world that Jesus lives. So my question to each and every one of you, along with the rest of the Christians out there (this is a non-rhetorical question): Will you help them or ignore them? Are you gonna do something about the hurting people around us or turn a deaf ear?

4 comments:

Hollywood said...

That story that you said was obscene really bothered me...

Logan Vaughan said...

It's disturbing that a person would willingly put a family through that. But you know something? We can’t hold the soldiers to our standards. They aren’t Christians and they are from a war-torn foreign country. They meet my personal expectations: sin. Fortunately, my eyes have been opened. Yes it bothers me, but I tend to focus on how to help either the soldiers or the victims. I usually never dwell on the actual problem because I always dwell on how to fix the problem. The problem is that those soldiers are going to Hell. The solution is Jesus. I'd be finding out how to bring the soldiers to Jesus. I have friends in Indiana whose home life is awful. The family consists of a single mother with three sons, an eighteen, sixteen, and eleven year old. The eighteen and sixteen year old were just bullies and did malicious things to the eleven year old, such as pouring lighter fluid into his ear or beating him up over food. Like I said, such things can make your skin crawl off, but it doesn't do that to me. It makes me want to help the eleven year old and minister to the older brothers. I get really ticked off at fake Christians most of the time. I think we should be helping and sharing Jesus with those soldiers. Don’t you?

David said...

A post where you want us to discuss stuff, how surprising, right lol. I'm not gonna try to answer the question at the end, but your comment opens up a good debate question: what would you have done if you saw those murderers walking away from the scene of their depravity? Franklin said in the book that if he'd had a weapon he would've brought justice down. I think it's pretty obvious that all of us would've filled those guys with shells had we seen them practicing that wickedness. But if you saw them walking away from it and you had... "means" to carry out punishment. Would you initially think "but wait they're going to Hell" or "the devil take you" and commence firing?

Logan Vaughan said...

Nobody cares to answer my question? Why not?

But yeah, you echo a good question, David. I can't help but realize that the sins of the soldiers are no worse than our own sins. They are no worse than us because they murdered and forced a rape. We are no better because we haven't murdered or forced a rape. The only difference in the "justice" of the situation is that we are Christians and they are not. If I really wanted to share Jesus with the world, I would've told the soldiers about Jesus, even if they would've kill me too. If I killed them for so-called "justice", I'd be no better than them. Why? Because we both would have blood on our hands. It doesn't matter if it's innocent blood or guilty blood because we are ALL guilty. We ALL deserve death and to suffer forever. Killing those soldiers would've gotten me nothing but guilt, but trying to save those soldiers would've built my boldness and faith immesnly. If I really cared about taking every soul with me to Heaven, then I'd do everything possible to bring them to Jesus no matter what they had just done.