What Faith Can Do

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than just what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

Overcome the odds
You do have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

(I’ve included two videos of the same song  – in the first one you can’t see her hands from the camera’s viewpoint and in the second one you can.  The second one is two years later though and it’s on a piano that is not as good in quality.)

While I thought the book was a decent enough read for a fiction book, I was disappointed with it as a Christian.  The reason I didn’t care for it is that I found it to be contrary to what Scripture teaches.  I realize that it’s a fiction book and isn’t meant to be taken literally – at least I would guess that isn’t the intent – but when a person writes things about Christianity and the Bible that just aren’t true and aren’t backed up by Scripture a huge risk is being taken – a risk of leading people away from the one, true God.

In the comment thread that I was referring to, Neil shared a great site that nails the way I was feeling after reading the book.  The guy that wrote the article on that site lists many things that are problems in the book.  I would highly recommend reading his article!

I will share with you just a few things that really struck me as wrong in the book though:

1. In the story, God manifests himself as a woman.  Not only is God always referred to as God the father in the Bible (and not mother), He is not a man (like Jesus became man) and does not have a human body like we do.

2. The Holy Spirit manifests himself as a woman.  Just as above – the Holy Spirit is never referred to as female nor does the Holy Spirit have a human body like we do.

3.The way the Trinity is portrayed in the book is not Biblical. The Trinity are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in one.  They are not three distinct people.

4. In the book, God says that sin does not need to be punished – that it is punishment itself.  That’s not Scriptural either.  The Bible clearly teaches that God will judge each and every one of us one day.  We will be held accountable for our sins.

5. The Trinity is portrayed as being completely equal and that there is no heirarchy among the three of them nor should there be on earth.  That’s simply not true.  Jesus says many times in Scripture that he does as his Father commands him, that he wants to do the Father’s will, that he seeks his Father’s will through prayer.  We also have many heirarchies on earth as Scripture commands.

These are definitley not the only problems with the book but these were the ones that really stood out to me and made me say, “Wait a minute!  That’s not right!”  Other things were much more subtle – enough that I would kind of furrow my brow and say, “Hmmm…” to myself but not something I really could put my finger on in the middle of the story.  Norman Giesler and Bill Roach, the authors of the article I linked to above, have done a fabulous job of pinning down the problems so please give that a read.

Mark Driscoll has also preached against this book and has a short video on You Tube.  I would highly encourage you to watch it as well.  He explains very well why this book is not Scriptural.

I saw a different interview that she did but for the life of me I can’t find the video anywhere online.**  Can I just say that I was literally weeping (as was my 15 year old daughter) as I listened to her describe what she went through and what she witnessed.

I can’t even begin to put into words how it makes me feel to know that another human being can be as cold and heartless as Obama is in this area.  There are so many reasons why I don’t want him to be President but even if he were great in every other area I could NEVER vote for him because of his stance on abortion.

Please research this, if you haven’t already, and vote to save lives this election day.

**Update: I can’t believe this but Neil has linked to the interview I was talking about on his blog!!  Thank you so much, Neil!!

Please, PLEASE watch it: