Circle Of Mom's Top 25 'Faith' Blogs

As I posted in my previous post...today is "a brand new ballgame!" Or, rather, "it's an old ballgame newly revised!"

A few weeks ago I entered my blog in Circle of Mom's Top 25 'Faith' Blogs contest. I knew at the time that I had no chance of winning, but it was fun to get in there, interact with the other ladies, meet some new ladies, and even pick up a few new readers. AWESOME!

As time went on, things turned ugly. The contest stopped being about the 'best blog' and became about being the 'best faith'. I struggled between wanting to 'come out from among them' and wanting to 'stand shoulder-to-shoulder' with my Christian sisters that had chosen to stay and just not advertize anymore. 'On one hand...this' and 'on the other hand...that'! In effect, what I did was stay straddle of the fence!

This morning, in reading over my own writings from the past, I ran across this (it was a response to someone else who was responding to something else that I had written around Halloween of 2002)...

"...My roots grow deep in the Celtic peoples and  I celebrated Halloween my whole life in big way, until the Lord, through His Word...not church doctrine,  convicted me and my family of celebrating it about 10 years ago. I have studied the origin of Halloween extensively and...even though I'm ashamed to admit it...my first husband was a satanic priest in Panama. Believe  me...from the world's perspective...yes...paganism is GREATLY misunderstood, but paganism is NOT misunderstood here. I understand it much more than I would like to and I fully understand how truly  satanic it is. The world, and much of the church for that matter, would like for us to believe that Halloween is just a cute, little, harmless "Christian" holiday and that it's okay to celebrate it, but God's Word tells us EXPLICITLY that we are not to conform to the world's standards. In 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 we are admonished to "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what  concord [accord] hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Verse 17 goes on to say, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate..." As Christians, we must not compromise the Word of God...not even  for  church doctrine and policy when it is not in agreement with that Word..."

After reading that...I was convicted! This is what I wrote to Circle of Moms just now as I pulled my blog from their 'contest'...

"Please remove my blog HEARTH AND HOME from the list of blogs on Circle of Mom's Top 25 'Faith' Blogs. I had about decided to stick it out, but, you know, instead of a contest for the best blog, this has turned into nothing more than a contest between Christians and witches. In 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 we are admonished to "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what  concord [accord] hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Verse 17 goes on to say, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate..." That's what I'm doing today. Thank you! ~Rebecca"

To those of you who have voted for me...thank you! And...to all of you who would never have visited Circle of Moms, except for my asking you to go there to vote for me...please...forgive me. Forgive me for sending you into an arena that further exposed you to the works of the devil. (Like we all don't have enough of that anyway!!!!) At the time, I did not realize what any of us were getting into.

Taking A Deep Sigh Of Relief and A Step Back,
~Rebecca