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A UNC grad stood on the side of the road hitch hiking on a very dark night
in the middle of a storm. The thunder was rolling and no cars passed. The
storm was so strong, he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him. Suddenly
he saw a car come towards him and stop.

The man, without thinking about it, got in the car and closed the door to
realize that nobody was behind the wheel. The car started slowly. He looked
at the road and saw a curve ahead. Scared, he started praying, and begged
for his life. He hadn't come out of shock, when just before he hit the
curve, a hand appeared through the window and moved the wheel. The man,
paralyzed in terror, watched how the hand appeared every time before a
curve.

He gathered his strength, got out of the car and ran to the nearest town.
Wet and in shock, he ran into a bar and asked for two shots of tequila,
and started telling everybody about the horrible experience he went
through. A silence enveloped everybody when they realized the man
was crying and wasn't drunk.

About half an hour later, two men walked into the same bar, and one
said to the other. "Look Billy, that's the character who climbed into the
car while we were pushing it."
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If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,
if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the
Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy
complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being
one in spirit and purpose. Philippians 2


===============

Do you know why the UNC student quit being Catholic?

She went to Mass every Sunday, but eventually the air fares
to Boston caused her to go bankrupt.

________
*UNC is the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Specializing in a wide range of degree programs including:
B.A. A.H.F.(Advanced Hamburger Flipping), A.P.E., B.S. B.R.C.
(Bar Room Conversations), etc. Institution was founded in 1898
for sons/daughters of local Chapel Still politicians that were
unable to qualify for the more prestigious institutions of higher
learning such as Duke, Wake Forest, and N.C. State.
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Dear Dr. Howdy & Friends,

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Because of God's continuing faithfulness, GFA Radio is now able to broadcast the Good News in 103 languages. The response from these broadcasts continues to be phenomenal. Many thousands are receiving Jesus as a result of hearing the Gospel in their own language over the airwaves.

I hope you will take some time to read this exciting news. Click the following link: http://www.gfa.org/newsupdate103106?motiv=WA6A-G3LP
Thank you for your prayers for GFA Radio. May the Lord guide you today and provide for your needs as you follow Him in faith. You are a blessing.

Yours for the lost in Asia,

K.P. Yohannan
Founder & President
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Bless this House

Bless this house, O Lord we pray,
Make it safe by night and day . . .

Bless these walls so firm and stout,
Keeping want and trouble out . . .

Bless the roof and chimneys tall,
Let thy peace lie overall . . .

Bless this door that it may prove,
Ever open,
To joy and love . . .

Bless these windows shining bright,
Letting in God's Heavenly light,
Bless the hearth, the painting there,
With smoke ascending like a prayer!

Bless the folk who dwell within,
Keep them pure and free from sin . . .

Bless us all that we may be,
Fit O Lord to dwell with thee . . .

Bless us all that one day we may dwell,
O Lord! With Thee!
Words and Music by Helen Taylor
and May H. Morgan ( a.k.a. Brahe ), 1927
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'The Unpaid Bills of the Church'
Wicca's Charm

October 31, 2006


"Imagine losing all your friends at once," a woman named Margaret Ann told Catherine Edwards Sanders, the author of Wicca's Charm. Margaret Ann was talking about her decision to leave her Baptist faith and become a Wiccan during her college years. "My family ganged up on me and refused to discuss it with me at all," she recalls.

Sanders adds, "All of her friends, except one, deserted her. Not one of the members of the Christian group [on campus] bothered to ask why she liked Wicca. . . . Other Christian students would only talk to her to tell her that they were praying for her."

At another point in the book, Sanders tells the story of what happened to a group of Wiccans in Orange County. As they were practicing a sunrise ritual, a group of Christians surrounded the Wiccans with their cars and blared loud Christian rock music at them.

What's wrong with this picture?

To begin with, we need to understand that Wicca and its power are real. Marketers of popular kids' books and TV programs about Wicca told Sanders that it's all fake and something kids do just for fun. But as both current and former Wiccans report, Wicca is a real, powerful, and dangerous thing. Laura, a high school student, told Sanders that she "had a very bad experience" during a Wiccan ritual and is now "haunted by a scary presence." Kathleen and Paula, two former Wiccans, also report "negative experiences too frightening to describe." Others have similar accounts.

So it's hardly surprising that we Christians would perceive Wicca as a threat. But is it right for us then to turn our backs on Wiccans, or to treat them offensively? What good can that possibly do? That kind of behavior has never been known to win anyone to Christ—on the contrary, it only turns people away.

As I said yesterday, Sanders writes that many Wiccans were driven to their religion in the first place by the actions of Christians—like some women who were treated like "second-class citizens" in their churches, and turned to Wicca. Art Lindsley of the C. S. Lewis Institute says that Wicca and other forms of neo-Paganism are a result of "the unpaid bills of the church." The Church is supposed to be a place where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Our whole worldview is built on the idea of a loving God who created every person in His own image. When we fail to put that worldview into practice, people lose interest in Christianity. Many of them go off in search of a religion built on self-fulfillment, not love of God—a religion like Wicca.

So how should we as Christians reach out to Wiccans? For one thing, we can take time to study and understand what they believe and the issues that are really important to them—issues like the environment. We don't have to worship the earth to understand why many Wiccans are so concerned about it. But even more importantly, we must live out our own worldview through our actions, treating all people with love and respect. He whom you would change, remember, you must first love, as Martin Luther King, Jr., taught us. And if we do this, we will start paying some of those unpaid bills ourselves.

This commentary first aired on October 31, 2005.




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