Posted in theology

When the Slam Book Goes Digital: G3/Pray’s Mill Church in Scandal Again

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Protestia article

When I was in junior high school in 1972, there was a popular thing among the students, especially girls, called a “slam book“. It was usually a ringed notebook in which the owner would write his or her name on the inside cover, and also write the names of all or some of the classmates at the top of each page. Then the notebook would circulate and other students could write anonymous comments about the student written at the top.

Sometimes the comments were nice, but much of the time the comments were cutting, sarcastic, or downright cruel. The anonymity of it tended to encourage the cruelty. Sin natures coming out, and all that. Eventually, the book would land back at the original owner after having thoroughly circulated. If your name was written in the book you wanted to read about yourself but often regretted seeing the comments that were not so nice about yourself. Positive comments were always overshadowed by the negative.

There is a thing called the online disinhibition effect. This is when people online feel less inhibited than they normally would and overshare, or do runaway commenting. The online disinhibition effect works as a boundary-less field where people act less inhibited online than they do facing a person. Then there is the worse ‘toxic online disinhibition effect.’ It’s when you get a person commenting cruelly, sarcastically, using rude language, or trolling. We have seen this all too often.

What is it about anonymity that encourages such cruelty? Being able to write anything about anyone under the cloak of anonymity brings out the worst in us. Anonymity encourages cruel comments by removing accountability, lowering social consequences, and instilling a detachment from the pain your comment inflicts on others. People slam someone and then scroll away. Boundaries and filters fade behind the cloak of anonymity, and our deeper nature leaks out in the poison pen.

It’s an online slam book culture.

Josh Buice

At Pray’s Mill Church in Douglasville, GA last year, it was discovered that Josh Buice had been operating anonymously as a troll under eight accounts across different social media, for over three years, anonymously. He had been rebutting comments, slandering others, and generally behaving, in my view, as a junior high schooler writing in a slam book. He was found out, stepped down, and Pray’s Mill assigned other elders to take his place. All of Buice’s online content work was scrubbed. His presidency of the para-church ministry he founded of G3 was changed to now-President Scott Aniol.

Protestia reported last year when this happened,

“Both the church’s and G3’s now-removed statements in May 2025 stated: These accounts (of Josh Buice) were used to publicly and anonymously slander numerous Christian leaders, including faithful pastors (some of whom have spoken at G3 conferences), several PMBC elders, and others. These actions were not only sinful in nature but deeply divisive, causing unnecessary suspicion and strife within the body of Christ, and particularly within the eldership of PMBC.

All that was sad and shocking to us who watched G3 crumble before our eyes. It has been the fastest growing seemingly solid conference in the United States. I attended two of them and was thrilled and edified at the learning being offered. We never guessed that its president was operating a slam book behind the scenes, a deceitful move and one that cost him his ministry presidency, his pastorate, and G3’s reputation.

The Bible forbids gossip, slander, and deceit. They are listed as sins. Pastors are held to a higher standard and are judged more strictly. It was right that Buice stepped down. We were sad about this scandal but encouraged that the Pray’s Mill elders seemed to have understood the gravity of a moral and ethical behavior breach in their pastor. They recovered a bit of their lost reputation by their proper handling of Buice’s deceptive activity.

But then again, maybe they didn’t. Cut to this week.

This week, Protestia published a lengthy investigative article on new allegations coming out of Pray’s Mill Church about their elders. Apparently, as Protestia reported this week,

“Less than a year after Josh Buice’s downfall, current G3 Ministries leaders anonymously distributed damaging allegations against former G3 board member Tom Buck. And rather than admit and defend their actions, these leaders fabricated claims about David Morrill at Protestia and gaslit the Pray’s Mill Baptist Church congregation as being under Satanic attack.”

Gossip, slander, lying, deceit, hypocrisy…again- are SINS.

Incredibly, it was reported that “current G3 board member Jon Norton was personally involved in distributing the anonymous material, which was mailed from Texas while on business (versus mailing from Georgia), using FBC Lindale’s name and return address (presumably to imply that the dossier came from someone at Tom Buck’s church, and was previously brought to his elders by a known accuser), and using latex gloves during the process to ensure fingerprints were not left on the mailed materials.“

“Witnesses indicated this was done to prevent the packets from being traced back to G3 Ministries (from which Buck had recently resigned amid concerns over post-Buice leadership), and that all Pray’s Mill elders were aware of the mailings.” [bold theirs].

The accusations by Pray’s Mill elders were not even against one of the members in their own church! They circulated this packet against a former member of the board who had resigned long ago and lived quite a distance from Georgia, in Texas.

I read the entire Protestia article, I found it balanced, thorough, and credible.

Reactions have been running the range from disappointment, incredulity, and renouncing any participating in the conference culture.

I am heartbroken over the fall of any formerly credible ministry or pastor. But the deception and hypocrisy in this act is inexcusable. It is particularly grievous after this same church practiced church discipline correctly a year ago over the same issues of anonymous slander and causing division. The accusations emerging this week leveled by the Pray’s Mill elders were against a good pastor, one of whom was crafty enough to use latex gloves so fingerprints would not be traced back to their church! were found to be largely untrue, some true but minor, already handled, and less incendiary than the packet mailed around made out.

There are many scriptures dealing with how we are to behave toward one another. I’ll post just a few.

but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2).

For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or [a]by way of deceit. (1 Thessalonians 2:3).

The north wind brings rain, And a gossiping tongue brings an angry face. (Proverbs 25:23).

As we watch the ugliness unfold, there are lessons for us. Don’t just ‘tut tut’ from the sidelines. When we see something like this happen, remember that sinners be sinning and we’re sinners too. We need to remember our gut reaction to seeing people’s sin exposed, and remember it’s just as ugly when we ourselves gossip, slander, cause division, and deceive. I’ve been saying to myself with renewed energy, ‘Goodness, I do not want to be that person, behave honorably at all costs!’

14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16because it is written: “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” (1 Peter 1:14-16).


Further Resources

Haman’s Gallows: Phil Johnson’s remarks about the current G3/Pray’s Mill scandal. “One wonders how this itch to discredit or destroy their adversaries by anonymous dirty tricks crept into G3’s DNA. This will be another scandal G3 did not need, and it is one they probably cannot survive.”

Resignation from G3 Ministries: By Ethan Jago.

About that Anonymous Accusation: By Tom Ascol (article on X)

Posted in theology

The splendor of the temple, the beauty of the Savior

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In my church we are going through Mark. We are up to Mark 13, the much anticipated (by me) the Olivet Discourse. This is the time that Jesus spent answering a series of questions the disciples asked, and Jesus sat down and taught them while they were on the Mount of Olives (hence the name of the discourse).

Mark 13:1-2 says,

As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, look! What wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

The disciples must have been shocked. When we see a great building and its sturdiness, the huge blocks from which it is built, its towering presence, we think that it will last forever. The Twin Towers in New York fell after the terrorists’ planes crashed into them. I remember seeing that in wonder and amazement. How could such a strongly built building fall? But it did. Here, my pastor begins preaching and teaching in this verse by showing how massive and strong the Temple was:

One of the 12 disciples, we don’t know who, turned around and looked back toward the temple.

Whoever this was marveled at what he saw. And according to verse 1, he called out to Jesus, look teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings. What caught the eye of this disciple was the grandeur of the temple. in all of its magnificent adornment and scale. Viewed broadside, it would have been impressive. It was the largest of all the temples in the Roman Empire, and surely the wealthiest as well.

In fact, someone has remarked that if it hadn’t been a Jewish temple, it would have been considered one of the wonders of the world during its time. Nevertheless, anyone who saw it would have been awestruck. The first century Jewish historian Josephus said that it lacked nothing that could astound either mind or eye. No one had seen anything like it. One reason for its impressiveness was its sheer scale. It was massive.

The temple complex encompassed over 1.5 million square feet, equivalent to 35 football fields in size, and covering one-sixth of the area of Jerusalem. The perimeter of the complex, if you walked around it, stretched nearly a mile in total length. The cornerstones of the complex weighed more than 100 tons, and a stone along one side has been found to weigh over a million pounds. viewed from the Mount of Olives across the valley. The temple complex rose 160 feet above the Kidron Valley below, and the temple itself rose another 150 feet from the center of the complex.

The magnitude of the temple complex far exceeded any other temple in the ancient world. Another reason for its impressiveness was its sheer beauty. One contemporary Roman historian called it immensely opulent. Much of the complex was constructed with polished white marble so that it gleamed in the sun. It was said that from afar the temple complex looked like a snow-covered mountain. The temple itself was adorned with much gold. The front exterior walls were covered in thick plates of gold that reflected the sun’s rays so brightly at sunrise that onlookers had to look away.” —end of sermon excerpt

Nothing on this earth will remain. Not Mount Everest, not the biggest buildings, not the most powerful person. The earth will melt away and be remade. With that in mind, rejoice we have Jesus to cling to! He transcends all earthly strength, power, majesty, and splendor.

Posted in theology

“I fell for it”; More women realizing having it all is a myth

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m 65 years old. Second wave Feminism hit when I was in my formative years and early adulthood. I watched it, perplexed. It WAS a wave, it swept the country quickly and made many promises.

We are reaping regret now. A generation or two later, women who bought into the myth of having it all are on videos and blogs crying, wondering, regretting, mourning.

Continue reading ““I fell for it”; More women realizing having it all is a myth” →
Posted in missionaries, theology

Adventurer gone wrong? Or a committed missionary?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I wrote about John Allen Chau in 2018 when his apparent death at the hands of an unreached island tribe in the Bay of Bengal was reported. My essay is below.

Meanwhile, this week Stacie, host of her channel “Adventures Gone Wrong” produced a video about Chau. She covered his upbringing and early life, his growing obsession with the Sentinel Island tribe he’d heard was unreached, and explained all his preparations prior to his attempts to reaching them. She included previous attempts in history to meet with and learn about the tribe, from the unwise contact in the 1800s, through to the NatGeo attempts in the 1970s.

The North Sentinel Island is part of a chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal where the unreached tribe living on this small speck has fiercely rejected outside contact- to the point death to those who try. In modern times, two shipwrecked sailors washed up on the shores and were summarily speared and hung as scarecrows to ward off subsequent attempts. It is this island that the young man Chau was drawn to.

Questions remain in my mind. Chau didn’t seem to belong to a church or have oversight of any pastor. He did train for brief period with All Nations International, which says they “train leaders to ignite church planting movements among the neglected peoples of the earth.” Stacie covers other preparations CHau made to reach these people.

Should missionaries operate under jurisdiction and oversight from a church or closely-tied church organization? Or are those men who say they are ‘called’ to certain peoples working under the Bible’s Great Commission in Matthew 28, under the Highest Power there is? Should there be support and oversight? Or was Chau’s willingness to give up his own life something individually but supernaturally instilled? Or was he just an adventurer, unwise but sincere?

Stacie did a good job of being fair in presenting a balanced and complete picture of this extraordinary incident that for a short time, captured the world. My essay is below the Youtube from Adventures Gone Wrong. I encourage you to watch.

The End Time essay:

Finishing my missionary series, we end with a modern day missionary, or as some call Chau, a rogue adventurer. Either way, he did what he did, and his death caused a brief global conversation about unreached peoples and the cause for Christ.

chau1

In fact, a few months ago a National Geographic documentary was issued about the life of John Allen Chau, again, depicting Chau as an unmindful adventure seeker, whereupon Voice of the Martyrs’ Tom Nettleton considers him a hero. Nettleton had rebutted this perspective, after having “conducted extensive research for an in-depth backstory. Nettleton found in Chau’s journals and other primary sources that Chau underwent an intentional and intense training process to make first contact in order to obey Jesus’ command to “go into all the world and make disciples.” More here

So, what happened?

John Allen Chau, a 27-year-old American, was killed in November 2018 on Sentinel Island, part of a series of islands owned by India in the middle of the Bay of Bengal. They are restricted islands, due to the natives’ demonstrated hostility and their continued isolation with all the lack of immunity toward modern diseases. There was a buffer zone that even local fisherman were not allowed to penetrate.

An isolated tribe dwells there with whom very few people have made successful contact over the last hundreds of years. Chau, desiring to contact the tribe for the purpose of telling them about Jesus, (as his notes and journal state), was appeared to have been speared on the beach by arrows. The same fate had awaited nearly all of the visitors to the island since written records first mentioned the place. [Photo above source]

It’s interesting to read and watch India news outlets on this story. Some there, believe Chau to have been a rogue adventurer out to get more likes on his social media. Others believe him to have been a passionate missionary desiring to share the name of Jesus. He hadn’t been trained by a missionary organization, or involved in any long-term way with a supporting church. He seemed pretty much a lone guy concerned that this isolated and unreached tribe didn’t know Jesus. Whether this was a black mark against him or a white mark for him, history will tell.

Chau’s arrival wasn’t the first visit to the island by Chau, who had gone to or near the Sentinelese at least 5 times previously. He had brought gifts such as safety pins, a football, and other trinkets in hopes of proving his friendliness. This had been hard to do, as the first recorded contact in 1880 by British Officer Maurice Vidal Portman ended badly and all subsequent contact since has demonstrated only hostility by the natives.

Portman was stationed at Port Blair on nearby South Andaman Island (the port from which Chau had departed on his ill-fated trip). Portman was fascinated with the tribe, who were painfully timid, he wrote, and ate roots and turtles. He absconded with two elderly tribe members and four children, bringing them back to his house on the nearby island for observation, where the elderly members promptly died, having been exposed to diseases against which they had no immunity. Portman returned the children to North Sentinel Island and called the foray a failure.

In more recent times, a NatGeo group attempted to land on the island to film the tribe in the 1970s, but they were repelled in a hail of arrows, one of them striking the director in the leg. Sadly, in 2006 two local fishermen were stranded there after their boat engine failed, and were also immediately killed. Their bodies were impaled and erected like scarecrows on the beach, perhaps as a warning to others who might want to venture near.

Chau had stated that he was motivated by a missionary zeal. This is commendable. However, I strongly caution all of us to be discerning about those who go forth to proclaim Jesus to the nations. Just because someone claims to be a missionary, doesn’t mean they have a firm grasp of who Jesus is. Some Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesuits and other Catholics call themselves missionaries, yet they do not know Jesus. Chau also graduated from Oral Roberts University, which is not known for teaching the most solid of doctrine. We don’t know Chau’s doctrine. We don’t know which Jesus he was proclaiming. One hopes and prays that he was a true believer, laying down his life for his friends.

“The poor Heathen knew not that they had slain their best friends” ~John G. Paton

But moving on from that caution, Chau was motivated by a strong urge to proclaim Jesus to an unreached tribe. His writings demonstrate this.

His joy turned to sorrow as he was killed on the beach. Fishermen observed the natives dragging Chau’s body and burying it in the sand. Some still held out hope that Chau is alive, that the arrows did not slay him. This is not likely, however.

There are many facts and circumstances around the death of John Allen Chau that aren’t known yet. Some may never be known. However, I am satisfied that this death has captured the world’s attention. The lost do not know why Christians are willing to die in order to proclaim Jesus. Though there are Christian missionary deaths every day, sometimes in large groups at once, the fact that this death, a young man, solo, on the beach, with an unknown stone age tribe hostile to outsiders, captured the world’s attention for over a week and is still going strong. A week is a long time in the minute by minute news cycle.

Clipboard01
Google Earth

Because of this, people now know of the tribe and are praying. Additionally, it’s sparked a discussion about dying for the Gospel. It has baptized the ground for Jesus and for perhaps an awakening to come.

People made many comparisons of Chau’s death to the 5 Ecuadorean martyrs in 1956 (Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian) but I see the comparison more toward the missionaries to the New Hebrides Islands in the 1800s. This is an excerpt from missionary to the New Hebrides, John Paton’s book, Thirty Years among the South Sea Cannibals-

Glance backwards over the story of the Gospel in the New Hebrides may help to bring my readers into touch with the events that are to follow. The ever-famous names of Williams and Harris are associated with the earliest efforts to introduce Christianity amongst this group of islands in the South Pacific Seas. John Williams and his young Missionary companion Harris, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, landed on Erromanga on the 30th of November 1839. Alas, within a few minutes of their touching land, both were clubbed to death; and the savages proceeded to cook and feast upon their bodies. Thus were the New Hebrides baptized with the blood of Martyrs; and Christ thereby told the whole Christian world that He claimed these Islands as His own. His cross must yet be lifted up, where the blood of His saints has been poured forth in His name! The poor Heathen knew not that they had slain their best friends; but tears and prayers ascended for them from all Christian souls, wherever the story of the martyrdom on Erromanga was read or heard.

When these Missionaries “came to this Island, there were no Christians there; when they left it, there were no Heathens.”

Time will tell of the results of Chau’s death. I do have a fear that we still do not know his doctrine, thus, ‘which Jesus’ (Acts 1:11) Chau proclaimed, but the Lord will take the global conversations, the worldwide shock, and the questions about these ‘strange Christians’, and open many hearts, I am sure. The slumbering world, immune to knowledge of the wrath to come, was awakened by one man’s lone act, his death ‘for Jesus’ both angering and perplexing it. 

Below are some resources regarding the John Allen Chau issue and missions in general.

Denny Burk:
Mission agency clears away some false assumptions about John Chau’s missionary work

Interview via Quick to Listen/Christianity Today with the director of All Nations missionary organization Mary Ho about John Allen Chau

What John Allen Chau’s Missions Agency Wants You to Know

All Nations missionary organization issues letter regarding John Allen Chau

Al Mohler The Briefing–

Segment 1: The morality of global missions: How should those in the developed world look at hunter-gatherer tribes?

Segment 2: Motivation vs. methodology: What the modern missions movement has taught us about how to most effectively reach the unreached.

Garrett Kell: Was murdered missionary John Chau and arrogant fool?

End of the Spear: Movie about Operation Auca and the five missionary deaths in 1956

Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman autobiography of first woman missionary to inland China

Rethinking the viability of short term mission trips

Why short term missions is really long-term missions

Incomprehensible Evangelicals and the Death of John Allen Chau

Posted in theology

Being a ‘Crunchy’ Christian and avoiding New Age Influences

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Doreen “Dee” Virtue is a former New Age adherent who used to write books about angel spirituality. She converted to Christianity 9 years ago and with the scales having fallen from her eyes, now is a Christian. Virtue has renounced all her New Age beliefs, books, and practices, and is happily and unashamedly a Christian. She has a Youtube channel, here.

Ashley Sheatz, wife to Trevor and his ministry On the Mount, mom to 3, has several social media accounts. Facebook, Instagram, On the Mount ‘s Youtube.

Angela Mitchell’s ministry is called Raising Apologists. She is a married stay-at-home-mom, who writes on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog called Raising Apologists, on the topics of discernment, homeschooling, and encouraging mothers and women.

These three ladies, well versed in a biblical worldview and walking uprightly in Jesus, discussed “Crunchy Christians Avoiding New Age Deception“. They talked about what is crunchy Christianity, discerning good wellness advice vs. unhealthy advice, and how New Age ideas can seep into even the most well-meaning mother’s worldview, corrupting it with syncretism.

Doreen Virtue has a knack for asking insightful questions, illustrating her skill to deeply listen then follow up with a question that elicits even more information. Her choice of guests is also wise. The two ladies here explain themselves so well I decided to transcribe portions of the discussion that impacted me, and interspersed with my own thoughts. I urge you to listen to the entire conversation. It will be even more impactful when you hear it in context.

In this first quote, I loved what was being said. Social media has risen to levels that greatly affect us. People with large followings are even called “influencers”. The influence is to entice listeners to buy their product, read their book, heed their advice. Many times their books or advice is good. But sometimes the advice is unfounded, unscientific, or unChristian. We must learn to research widely, and confirm what we hear or see from social media from credible sources.

For example, many people know of Dr. Josh Axe. He usually places the honorific in front of his name. People use the honorific when speaking of him. But he is not a Doctor of Medicine. He cannot diagnose or treat medical conditions or prescribe pharmaceutical drugs. He holds a Dr. of Chiropractic degree, a Dr. of Natural medicine and is a certified nutritionist. But not a medical doctor. Some people don’t research, see the ‘Dr.’ and believe all his advice is trustworthy. It isn’t.

Many social media accounts either purposely or unintentionally add other spiritualities into their advice. Even practicing Christians do this.

2020 was hard on us all, and we lost our trust in the medical profession. Ashley and Angela both speak to this. Nature abhors a vacuum, so the hole has to be filled with something else. Hence, the rise of social media medical advice from people who may or may not be credentialed professionals, or even credible.

ASHLEY SHEATZ:

My warning is don’t get all of your health advice from Instagram because you’re probably going to be led astray. You need to back it up with also your own research and googling stuff and verifying it. There’s a lot of false information on Instagram. But I think one of the key takeaways if you are on Instagram and you are getting a lot of good health knowledge- because there is a lot of it out there- is sticking to accounts that are focusing on just whole foods or more ingredient focused rather than bringing their spirituality into it. So I think that’s a good way to guard your mind is to not even as a Christian to not even follow accounts that are talking about a false spirituality or are saying things that contradict the Bible.

There are so many great Instagram accounts that are just very health food focused. And if you are a Christian, there are also great biblical Christians who are in the health world and who do bring their faith in to the word of God. We just have to be really cautious with following people who are saying they’re spiritual, right?

If you’re married, talk to your husband with what you’re reading about and what you’re ingesting because God has placed your husband as your spiritual head to protect you. And if you’re just on your phone and you’re researching all these things and you don’t ever talk to him about it, I feel like there’s already like an open door for the devil and demons, honestly, to attack you there if you’re not open with your husband.

It’s hard for some people to let go of the teacher/advice/books etc from a favored teacher or influencer if told they aren’t the healthiest for your soul. They have invested and do not want to let go. They invest time, money, or reputation in this teacher or influencer and they don’t want to hear they have been deceived. Deception by investment has a powerful pull.

Often I’ll hear back that “But this teacher is good because his method worked… But my prayer came true… But my thing resolved…”

ANGELA MITCHELL

They’ve really put some trust in this method and they’ll say, “But it works.” And my push back to that is always we’re not pragmatists, which means we don’t just do something because it works. We’re Christians. We have to ask why. We have to ask, ‘Is this ‘glorifying the Lord?’ ‘Is this changing my worldview?’ And so, a lot of the times what I’m seeing is women is, their worldviews are changing.

There’s syncretism. Now syncretism is when you take parts of one religion and you’re mixing it with Christianity. But we know in Deuteronomy and Exodus that the Lord specifically warns against syncretism. I mean we see in Exodus where Aaron creates a golden calf and says, “We’re going to use this to worship God.” And God says absolutely not. This is disobedience. It’s the same thing when we go to something for help that isn’t of God. It’s idolatry.

I see some rigid perfectionism in this crunchy movement. Women become involved with it, then absorbed in it, then myopic about it, having tunnel vision. That’s ground ripe for Legalism. A rigid adherence to a protocol, tradition, or method that the person thinks will save them, or gain ‘points’ with Jesus (or her church).

I understand the ‘crunchy’ movement is wide, with varying levels of commitment or a variety of applications. But sometimes I hear women adhering to a rigid method and thinking that if they achieve it 100% this will somehow put them in better standing with Jesus.

DOREEN VIRTUE:

How do we guard against taking our eyes off the cross and instead thinking that if we just make everything in our house and our diet 100% perfect that that will somehow save us.

ASHLEY SHEATZ:

So as the unbeliever, they are searching and seeking to control all aspects of their life. This is the only life to them and they want to make it long and healthy. But I mean even if you are doing all the right things, some of the most healthy people in the world still get cancer. I mean even you could do all the healthy things in the world and still die in a car crash tomorrow. So there’s certain things that are just completely out of our control. And God has also given us blessings to enjoy in this life. Like if you enjoy going to Chipotle. I use Chipotle because I love Chipotle.

If you enjoy those things and you can sit down and enjoy that meal with joy…how we guard against perfectionism is realizing we’ll literally never be perfect in this life and the reason why you want to have good health and pursue good and healthy foods is to feel good today so you can serve the Lord later. It’s not about preserving your life. Our days are already numbered.

That rigidness rears its head. I’ve heard of women who won’t attend a dinner at someone’s house because their food is served from plastic containers, or their eggs are from a store. That’s perfectionism again, where your preference for something interferes with your ‘one another’.

ANGELA MITCHELL:

I think keeping in mind what stewardship looks like per family is going to be different. And now I’ve had people say that it’s more biblical to raise your own meat, to live on a farm. Kind of like a tradlife culture. Like, ‘you need to not buy eggs from the store’. I can’t do that. I live with an HOA. They won’t allow chickens. So we have to be really careful what we say is biblical and what we say is God-glorifying because we all have different circumstances.

The key word here is “preference”. Desiring to eat or feed your family farm fresh eggs, for example, or locally butchered meat, is a preference. Nothing in the New Testament commands you one way or another on that level of specificity of food or lifestyle.

ANGELA MITCHELL:

There there’s things with hospitality that we have to think- are my preferences ruling out love? I’m seeing a rise in eating disorders because of crunchy culture because it can just take over your mind. Everything becomes about what you’re putting in your body, and that can lead to idolatry. And anytime we create a disordered thinking where we’re thinking about all the time. It’s controlling our thoughts. It’s controlling our behaviors. It’s controlling our speech. We’ve created a functional God. And I would really caution women in crunchy culture to not do that to each other and to not do that to themselves.

Doreen asked about women who may be listening or watching to the video who are going through a health challenge and is becoming desperate. Many times when we go through an unexpected illness or health issue and prayer, patience, and standard medicine is not working, we become desperate. That is a risky time, because our decision making is clouded.

ANGELA MITCHELL:

I would also encourage women, if you have a woman in your life that’s suffering, she needs your prayers. She needs your friendship. She needs you to point her to God’s word before giving her crunchy advice.

I would say what do we believe about God? Do we believe that he actually means to do us good and not harm? Do we believe he’s in control? Do we believe we can trust him? Is he a good God?

I do like to ask questions. What is your desire for being crunchy? Is it a fear of death? Are do you think that you control can control getting cancer? Do you think you can control not getting disease? Do you think your good choices is going to somehow sway the hand of God even though he says you can’t add one hour to your life? I think sometimes we can have a real fear of death and crunchy culture kind of pacifies us with that. But as believers, we know where we’re going. We’re going to be with our God. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And to live is gain and to die is gain. And I just want my sisters in Christ to remember that that God loves you and he cares for you and he cares for your health. 

It was a great conversation. I encourage you all to take a listen here Crunchy Christians Avoiding New Age Deception“. All three women are a good follow. They are consistent with encouragement and advice from a biblical worldview.

Posted in theology

Christ’s love

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The following is a quote from Georg Steinberger, found in Chapel Library’s quarterly magazine, Free Grace Broadcaster #159, “Love”.

THE LAMB TEACHES YOU TO LOVE

“Having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). How did He love? He loved His own more than Himself, and this is really the “love of Christ.” Natural love loves according to its own inclination; the love which the Law commands loves because God wills it. It loves from duty and loves its neighbor as itself (Luke 10:27). But the love of Christ loves others more than itself. How far we still come short of that! So many times we have begun to love, but have soon grown weary and proved unfaithful to the sacred task.

Only in the school of Christ do we learn the true meaning of love. There we learn to love in God’s way, to love with that love which is in God’s own heart. There is no place where sin creeps in more frequently than in the realm of affection. One does less harm by hatred than by false love. Often our enemies have not hurt us so much as our “good friends.” If we desire that our inward man shall grow and prosper, then let us undertake a thoroughgoing investigation of ourselves and allow our hearts to be cleansed of all impurity. In the great chapter on love we are told that “love rejoices in the truth.”

Posted in end of days. prophecy, end time

The Faith to Cut the Rope

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I was reading Acts 27 and the seafaring language was a wonderful reminder of days when I lived on a sailboat. Some days were lazy, drifting along in puffs of wind on a glassy sea. Other days were tempestuous, the sea raging and the boat beating into waves that seemed to grow ever higher. There was one rough overnight passage we made along the coast of New Jersey. When daylight came we saw that the dinghy we’d trailed behind our yacht was missing. The rope had snapped.

It was a disconcerting feeling to be separated from what would need to be our lifeboat if it ever came to that.

Continue reading “The Faith to Cut the Rope” →