Daily Archives: September 28, 2014

How does faith begin?

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ladderI am in the midst of an attempt to describe and encourage faith in Jesus Christ:                 30 different ways in 30 days.

I am afraid I am doing a very imperfect job. I’d really love any feedback you might have to offer. I’m serious! Please use the comments at the bottom!

There are many descriptions of faith given to us from the ancient writings grouped together to form the Bible.

“Faith comes by hearing.” Another version puts it like this:

So faith proceeds from hearing, as we listen to the message about God’s Anointed.

When we are faced with a choice or a new possibility or path – like seeing the ladder in the picture, we want to know that the choice is able to bear my weight. If I decide to climb that rope ladder, am I sure it is stable enough to hold me?

Is it possible for you to take a leap of faith to consider that God might actually desire a relationship with you? That, in accepting His offer of a relationship, it might lead to a lot of good results in your life. Not necessarily the results we might order if it were possible to choose them, like on a menu. But results that we could look back on, after a period of time, and reflect that choosing a life of faith has yielded more good things than we could possibly have imagined.

So, even if you might not feel ready to begin a life of faith, maybe you could begin by simply reading more about the message God has preserved for us. All of the ancient writings point to His Son and keep telling us the story from many different angles.

We had a problem. We need to realize it and acknowledge it and turn to God. As we turn to Him in faith, He will open up insight and life to us through Jesus Christ. Everything begins and ends with Jesus. His invitation is to everyone no matter what nationality or religious background. He is not offering us a religion, but a relationship. There are no cultural barriers.

We don’t even need to believe to start. We can just start.

Faith comes through hearing. Are you willing to hear? If you’re not yet ready, are you ready to examine whether the ladder of faith is Jesus is secure enough to hold you?

But a right relationship based on faith sounds like this: “Do not say to yourselves, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’” (that is, to bring down the Anointed One), “or, ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring the Anointed One up from the dead).  But what does it actually say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the good news we have been called to preach to you). So if you believe deep in your heart that God raised Jesus from the pit of death and if you voice your allegiance by confessing the truth that “Jesus is Lord,” then you will be saved! Belief begins in the heart and leads to a life that’s right with God; confession departs from our lips and brings eternal salvation. Romans 10:7-11

 

Day 10 Encouraging people to Seek Jesus: 30 ways in 30 days

 

Flu Shots in Pregnancy?

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pregnantMany parents are experiencing a lot of confusion and stress in trying to make wise choices for their babies. There is an unbelievable amount of push for pregnant moms to get vaccines during pregnancy. This was UNHEARD until the last few years. As a breastfeeding advocate and health proponent I have tried to imagine how, when, and why there was such a big switch in policy that now ENCOURAGES all pregnant women to accept vaccines.

After tragic widespread birth defects resulting from drug use in pregnancy (one example being thalidomide), doctors became extremely cautious about recommending any drug for pregnant women.

So why did the recommendations change? Did someone study the flu shot when used by pregnant women? If you read the vaccine package insert you will find most of them state that the flu shot has never been studied for safety in pregnancy.

If you dig deeper into the statistics available you will find that there is a huge increase in miscarriage after receiving the flu shot.

Someone somewhere must have thought it was a good idea to give pregnant women “protection” from the flu. But I can’t help but wonder if this was a disinformation campaign to try and sell more flu shots, reduce the birth rate (by purposely promoting miscarriage), hide the correlation between infant vaccines and injury by injecting the moms with the toxic chemical cocktail before the baby is even born.

I guess I’ve been researching into vaccine science and vaccine safety too long and I have become cynical. Maybe there are good reasons, but for me, I’d far rather take my chances with my God given immune system, natural vitamin D, supplements of vitamin D3, and the actual flu virus, than any concoction man has put together to try and circumvent it. Vaccines are known to be unavoidably unsafe. Humans have survived for thousands of years without them. We can’t protect ourselves from every calamity in life, but I am certain I want to protect myself from the calamities caused by vaccines.

There is so much to read on the efficacy of the flu vaccine, the ingredients (including aborted human fetal cell tissue and other foreign proteins), I urge you to explore it extensively before complying with a flu shot. Ask your doctor to list the ingredients or the contra-indications, or even if they have read the package insert. Ask them who will be responsible if you have a reaction or a miscarriage.

I’ve written a brief blog with links to four great videos here. Take some time to investigate the facts and the science before you make up your mind.

September 2014 blog by the Thinking Moms Revolution – boy do I admire everything those brave warrior moms do!

Your baby is much too precious to risk to disinformation.

Thanksgiving 2015

Author: Becky Hastings, wife of 35 years, mother to five plus two, grandmother to four so far, passionate about truth, health, and healthy babies. I’ve been a breastfeeding counselor for 23+ years. I love helping moms succeed in mothering through breastfeeding. I can’t keep quiet and watch moms struggle because of the pressure they face to throw themselves and their babies ‘under the pharmaceutical bus’ and hope for the best. Moms need to know the truth.

Vaccines in Pregnancy? Really??

This blog post is the 11th in a series of blogs I wrote in 2014 called, 30 ways in 30 Days, Exploring Vaccines.