Babies Dedicated, God's Good News, Children of the Taliban

Baby Dedication: It was a special time this past Easter Sunday celebrating and dedicating three precious children to the Lord.  Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 1:27 took on extra special meaning for me as I had the opportunity to dedicate our only grandchild, Cora Danielle.  Hannah presented Samuel in the Temple and said, "I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.  So now, I give him to the LORD.  For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD."  And he (Samuel) worshipped the LORD there.

Presenting the Gospel: I found it exciting and deeply humbling to present God's Good News (Romans 1:1-8) to so many guests on Easter Sunday.  I was reminded of James Packer's thoughts about our dependence on the Spirit of God in any effort of evangelism: However clear and cogent we may be in presenting the gospel, we have no hope of convincing or converting anyone. Can you or I by our earnest talking break the power of Satan over a man's life? No. Can you or I give life to the spiritually dead? No. Can we hope to convince sinners of the truth of the gospel by patient explanation? No. Can we hope to move men to obey the gospel by any words of entreaty that we may utter? No. Our approach to evangelism is not realistic till we have faced this shattering fact, and let it make its proper impact on us."

Chilling Story about Children of the Taliban: Joyce and I saw this news story on PBS on Tuesday evening.  You can see it on pbs.org/frontlineworld.  So opposite to Jesus' radical approach and love for children. Imagine: children viewed as instruments of God (Allah) to kill others as suicide bombers. May God have mercy!