The groundbreaking full length documentary Divided is now available courtesy of the NCFIC:

Official Divided the Movie (HD Version) from NCFIC on Vimeo

Many of us are comfortable thinking and even speaking about our convictions but what would we really give up for them? For a young man named Joel Northrup his convictions were worth more than the treasures of Egypt  (Heb 11:24-26). Well done Mr. Northrup! You have acquitted yourself as a man should.

From the Associated Press via Yahoo:

DES MOINES, Iowa – An Iowa high school wrestler who was one of the favorites to win his weight class defaulted on his first-round state tournament match rather than face one of the first girls to ever qualify for the event.

Joel Northup, a home-schooled sophomore who was 35-4 wrestling for Linn-Mar High this season, said in a statement that he doesn’t feel it would be right for him to wrestle Cedar Falls freshman Cassy Herkelman. Herkelman, who was 20-13 entering the tournament, and fellow 112-pounder Ottumwa sophomore Megan Black, who was 25-13, made history by being the first girls to qualify for the state tournament. Black was pinned quickly in her opening round match.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times,” wrote Northup. “As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa.”

Read the rest here.

Valerie at In Faith and In Purity poses a question with which I think we ALL should wrestle:

So I ask you again, are you REALLY pro-life?

Let’s be clear and make no confusion about my heart on this. I am not saying at all that if you use birth control of any kind, you are pro-abortion. I know many different families with many different views on children, and I know how much each one of them loves the Lord. I try and support all my friends in their personal decision that are between them, their husbands, and God.

But I cannot get away from the hypocrisy of it all when it comes to the pro-life movement in general.

Some of the women I knew, who I KNOW are pro-life, were so horrified when they found out my husband and I were getting a reversal and decided to let God bless us with more children. As many as He wanted actually. They were absolutely disgusted. How can I translate that with their STAUNCH pro-life stance? I just can’t.

I volunteered as a counselor/client advocate at a crisis pregnancy resource center and all the while, my hope was that I could encourage, love on, and bring hope in the name of Christ to some of these hurting women. Not all women who came in wanted abortions, some just wanted a free pregnancy test. But some, whom I will never forget, where hurting, and scared, and desperately wanted to keep the baby, but didn’t know how to make it work. They reminded me so much of myself at nineteen, pregnant, unmarried and scared to death , when I too had to walk in to a crisis pregnancy center because I couldn’t even afford the ten dollar test. I remember the feelings of fear, hurt, and joy that you experience all at the same time when you find out your are expecting a VERY unplanned ill-timed pregnancy.

Read the entire post here.

I like this video on 2 fronts:

1. It attacks our practical atheism in which we live our lives without relating EVERYTHING that happens to the divine plan and purpose for His glory through our lives.
2. It attacks the idea that we can not trust God to determine how many children we have. Dr. Evans makes it clear that the scriptures testify that EVERY single person is a special creation of God. Created by HIS divine volition and unction, out of HIS perfect counsel, plan and will. There are NO “SURPRISE” children if we believe the Bible to be God’s Word. Each of them were sovereignly ordained in eternity past to be created by God’s own hand in their mother’s womb. When we take the “planning” of our family and its size into our own hands we proclaim that we do NOT believe that the Bible is God’s word (else we would live as if we believed passages like Ps 139:13-16) and we show ourselves to be atheistic in our daily practice – living as one with without regard for God and his Law.

Watch at your own risk!

Remember you are accountable for the revelation you have been given!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!