Trust? Faith? Should there be a line drawn?

It's a simple question really. Should there be a line drawn with how much or how far we go in our trust and faith in God? I'm going to let that question marinate in your mind while I move on. I'll come back to that one later.

There are only a few things in this world I have a passion for. My husband. I love that man with all that I am worldly capable of. There is not a day that goes by without me thanking God for bringing him into my life at the young age of 15. My children. I have advocated, taught, loved, and provided for them with a fervent passion only a parent can understand. Not a day goes without thanking the Almighty for entrusting to me the responsibility of their care. And beyond that, I am passionate about God, curious to know His thoughts on subjects that often come up in this world, determined to seek His Will with controversial topics.

Which brings me to the moment I woke up this morning. Groggy, unfocused, stretching it out. It was as if God were waking me up because in that moment the idea formed so crystal clear in my mind, only God... I'm definitely not the morning thinker. :) Yet clear as day I had a yearning to jump into the Bible and find out what God desires, what He requires of us, specifically regarding a topic that is highly controversial among the most adamant, and very close to my heart as it primarily affects my children.

I'm almost hesitant to say the word, for I don't want readers who are strikingly for this topic to either quit reading or to jump on the defensive. Yet I felt a really strong pull to write this. To research it. To discover what God may have to say. I don't think He woke me this morning without purpose or cause.
And honestly, if Christian women can write their blogs on the potential ill-effects of watching Magic Mike, then I, as a Christian woman can, with confidence in my God, write what I feel He is laying on my heart this morning.

Many of you know, I am strongly against vaccinating our children. The decision didn't come lightly nor without resistance from those closest to me. Nor without judgement from those who feel I am needlessly putting my children in harm's way. Nor without critics who believe differently from the way I do.

I have put in thousands of hours of research on the topic of vaccinating. I have read research, data, and medical journals, delved deeper into the meanings of things I didn't understand to gain a clearer picture of what I was reading. I have gone above and beyond researching a topic to make the logical decision I have come to today.

Not once did I go to the Bible for this decision. Not once did I seek God's will in our lives. I just knew I felt deeply convicted to not vaccinate our family.

You see, my son was injured by a vaccine. He was injured to the point that he cannot be repaired. There is no regrowing the brain nerves that were destroyed, there is no detoxing the damage. And what gets me the most, the vaccine that caused this irreversible damage, the MMR, is used to "prevent" diseases that have not caused irreversible harm in decades. The "benefit" did not outweigh the risk.

So after years of research, years of deep and sometimes argumentative conversation with my husband, we finally came to the decision to not vaccinate any of our children further. Before finally agreeing to this, I found myself praying deeply as they were giving my youngest daughter her shot (yes, shot as in singular, because if my husband insisted on vaccinating, the least I could do was spread them out), to "please, Lord, don't let this harm her. Don't let this one be the ONE that kills her. Don't let this one be the ONE that damages her brain. Please, Lord. Protect my baby" I knew things had to change. What an oxymoron. I'm praying that God would protect my baby from something I was allowing them to do to her? A friend of mine put it best... "It'd be just as ridiculous as holding your child underwater and praying that she hold her breath for the 30 seconds you hold her down, praying that she doesn't breathe, praying that she doesn't die... when the simple solution is to not hold her underwater in the first place!"

I had a friend of mine who is decidedly pro-vaccination say to me once in a heated discussion about vaccines, "Do you not trust God that He will take care of your child, protect your child from the bad stuff in the vaccine?" I had to sit back and mull over that one for a bit. Evaluate and reevaluate my own faith and trust in my Lord. Am I not trusting God? Am I not putting my faith in Him?

I've concluded that I am probably more trusting of God than I am of man, as I'm not putting my faith in man-made vaccines to "save" my child, I'm putting my faith in God, that He created our bodies to fight disease and that He will be our ultimate healer and protector.

When the very first "vaccine" was created (which consisted of cutting a pox pustule in an infected person, cutting a small slice in a healthy person's arm, and rubbing the two together), I truly believe that people were just trying to find a way to stop the "madness". Smallpox was being spread like wildfire. Adults and children alike. One would also do well to keep in mind that this was a day in age when people didn't know how things spread, or how to prevent spreading it. (Washing hands, covering your mouth, isolation, etc).

And maybe the idea of "vaccinating" was God-given. Maybe not. I don't know much about the guy who thought that intentionally giving a tiny bit of the infection directly into the bloodstream may help in preventing the illness. However, like everything else in this world, in a depraved society, people pervert it. Sex, for instance was created by God to be enjoyed within the confines of a marriage between a husband and his wife. This world has perverted sex, in the forms of exploitation, pornography, rape, incest, sodomy, etc. So lets say for the sake of argument, this guy who created the original "vaccine" received the idea from God. It was done with good intention. It was created for good. But just as with anything in this world, it has become perverted. It has become a means of billions of dollars a year to line the pockets of those that make them. They have put known deadly toxins in them simply because they are an excellent preservative and will allow for more vaccines to be made and to sit on the shelves at doctor's offices abroad for use. They have been "fined" for misconduct, for tax evasion, Medicare fraud, consent decrees, HPV contamination as well as falsifying data to reflect safety and efficacy for the vaccines that are mandatory for school attendance. That is just from our government and FDA. We, the people, are not personally allowed to sue them. They have immunity from us.

And nearly every year, another shot, another booster is added onto the roster. For instance, in 1980, about the time I was born, we got 3 vaccinations, 8 shots total (for the boosters) before the age of 2. That's it. And never more than 2 shots per visit. 30 years later, we have 49 doses or more. They've gone up like the rate of Autism.

Anyway, I digress. The point I'm trying to make is there is a fine line between "trusting God" and "trusting man & then trusting God". We are a depraved nation.

Lets look at what "faith" is. Christian Faith is defined as having a constant outlook of trust towards God, whereby human beings abandon all reliance on their own efforts and put their full confidence in him, his word and his promises. That speaks a lot. "Abandon all reliance on their own efforts". Say, reliance in things created by man to keep our children "safe", as if man could do it better than God could?

Lets look at what "trust" is. Trust is defined as reliance on and confidence in a person. Scripture affirms the total trustworthiness of God, especially in relation to his promises to his people. Christian faith is, essentially, trust in the person and character of God. While Scripture insists that believers should be able to trust one another, it also provides examples of false or misplaced trust.

In Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV) it says "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Forsaken in this passage can mean "failed" or "neglected"... hewed (because if you're like me, I didn't know what hewed meant) in Hebrew can mean "engraved, hewn together", in other words to put pieces together to make their own cistern (which in this passage means "well"). So lets put this verse in perspective. God is saying here that his people (us, Christians) have failed or neglected him, as He is the TRUE living waters, He is our sustenance, He is our life source. And that instead of coming to him for "safety & efficacy" in our lives and the lives of our children, we go to our man made wells, put together with only a fragment of knowledge in how the body, this world, this universe works, that can hold NO water compared to that of our Living Water, who created the body, the world, the universe. I believe it grieves our Father when we look to broken and depraved people for protection when He is there, in all His absolute authority, longing for His children to come to Him for ALL.

In Isaiah 31:1 (ESV) it says, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!" Ouch. There's nothing to reword here. It goes on to say in verse 3 that the Egyptians are man and not God, the horses are flesh and not spirit. Woe to those who go to "man" for help and rely on "their flesh... their creations" but never look to the Holy One or consult with Him (in this passage "consult" can mean inquire or seek, of Him).

In Jeremiah 17:5 (ESV) it says, "Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord." In this passage "trust" can mean to rely on or to be careless in. Both of these speak to me. When my son was due for his shots, it never once occurred to me that I should be looking into the side effects and dangers of the vaccine. As a young mom, what the doctor said, went. I was careless in man. I put not only my faith and trust in them, but I didn't even second guess it. Not for a second. And then I think about the mom's who DO know the side effects, dangers, and risks of vaccinating, but choose to do so anyway, because they rely on man, they rely on those shots to protect their child. "Heart" in this passage can mean "conscience" and I thought that to be interesting. Our conscience is what convicts us, as Christians, God's spirit sent into us to guide us by the gentle pricking of our hearts, to not only help steer clear from temptations, but to condemn us of wrongdoing so that we can realize this and ask for forgiveness. For our conscience to "turn away from the Lord" could only mean that we ignored, silenced, distanced ourselves, or avoided it. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for "turns away" means just that. In perspective, we are avoiding the conscience of our Hearts, that is God, rather putting more trust in man and the creations of his flesh.

And lastly, in Jeremiah 9:4 (ESV) "Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer." Clearly to put our trust in man, we set ourselves up for certain disappointment. And likewise, to put our trust in the things man makes, we can expect the same outcome.

As reports from around the world are surfacing, related deaths from vaccines in our children, irreversible and debilitating damage in our future generations... more and more of you are now faced with the ultimate question, "to vaccinate or not to vaccinate". Some of you are scared to make either decision. Remember fear is not of our Lord. Place your trust and faith in Him, and Him alone.

Back to the original question of this blog post.... Should there be a line drawn with how much or how far we go in our trust and faith in God? Should we tell our Father, "I trust you, Lord, however, I'm going to vaccinate because although I KNOW you can do all things, I don't really trust that can do ALL things."? Was that too harsh? I learned from my pastor. ;)

So, God has shown me, that though I did not initially seek His will out in making this decision, nor searched the Bible for tidbits of wisdom going forward, regardless, by putting ALL of my faith and trust in God, and yes, even (*gasp*) when it comes to the health of my children, that He has guided me in the correct way and for that, I am so grateful. I had a ton of conviction to make this decision, and now I know that I have my Father backing me.

I could go on in a million different rabbit trails with this subject, about the uncleanliness of ingredients (human aborted fetal tissues, monkey and pig DNA, formaldehyde, aluminum, mercury, etc, etc, etc) and pumping those chemicals and toxins into the temple of God, our bodies, and such. Or I could go on about the ruthless makers of vaccines and link up some statements made by their own people proving that they KNOW what these vaccines do to children, some who express remorse of "not being able to look mothers in the eye" and some who don't care as it's all about that "bottom dollar". (If you want the link, message me... it's not only eye opening but disgusting). But I will save that for the one who wants to know.

Overall, I encourage you Christian parents, seek God's Will, evaluate who and what you are putting your trust and faith in. There isn't a lukewarm answer here. It's either all in, or not at all. Just like you can't just follow the parts of the Bible you like the best, and you can't be a Christian only on the days when you're not hanging out with your friends, you can't put only some of your trust in God. You either trust Him, or you don't. Pray about it. Just as I made the mistake of not seeking God's Will about not vaccinating, have you sought God's Will on deciding TO vaccinate? Or did you do it because you were "careless in man" and they said so? It's time to evaluate, friends.

Until Next Time,
**Writers Note (upon feedback)** I have had the opportunity to hear some of my readers out after they have read this particular post, and as an afterthought, I would like to clarify some things... This has been my conviction. This is what God, I felt, woke me up to this particular morning. To get in the Word, to see what God wanted me to see about a highly controversial topic that I'm passionate about it. After hearing some trusted friends opinions, hearing how they have read this & what they took from it, I feel the need to get back in here & do some clarifying. Particularly in the area that seems most commonly received from the tone of my note above. I am not saying, in any way, shape, or form that if you DO vaccinate your children, then therefore, you must not trust God. I repeat, I want no one to walk away from this post defensive or confused, angry or offended, in any way. I am NOT suggesting that your faith in God, your trust in God is lacking if you have chosen vaccination in your family. I don't want to cause division among Christians, nor finger pointing. That was never my intentions, nor ever was my "way" of handling these topics. To clarify my intentions of writing this post: It was a personal & very deliberate, well researched decision for our family to not vaccinate. I never thought to myself as a Christian woman, "I should go to God and ask His Will on this subject". In making the decision to not vaccinate, I DID NOT TRUST GOD, nor put my faith in Him... I chose to put my faith & trust in the research I had done myself. I trusted my own decisions. I trusted myself, long before I even thought to ask God. Because He showed me the error of my own ways (good ol' conviction), I spent nearly a full day completely immersed in the Bible, studying God's perspective that I felt he was showing to me. If I could've done so, I would've written every scripture I happened across that affirmed my beliefs in not vaccinating our children... It was an entire pages worth of scripture. It was THAT thought provoking & consuming for me. In the same sense, my only intentions in writing this blog were to a.) Show others what I had learned, as far as what God showed ME for my family... (If it spoke to you on a personal level, I encourage you to follow those convictions, immerse yourself in God's Word & let Him show you on an individual level what to do, where to go from here, etc.) And b.) To create a thought-provoking question... "In the same manner that I was mistaken in not seeking God's will in our lives, not trusting Him in the decision to NOT vaccinate, have you sought God's will in the decision TO vaccinate, or were you 'like myself' careless in man, trusting blindly the decisions doctors & others had made for you, just because they said so?" I wrote this with a personal conviction, which applies to myself & our family... Again, if it struck a chord with you, pray, seek, devour God's Word searching for His answers in your own life. If you've read this & felt offended that I was insinuating that you didn't trust God if you vaccinate, please understand that those were feelings I did not intend to manufacture within you. I encourage you all to seek God's will, & upon doing so, deeply immersed in the Word, if you feel God is pulling you toward vaccination, then who am I to question that? I stand by my closing statement, to encourage you to seek God's will, evaluate who & what you are putting your trust & faith in... It's either all or nothing. No matter the conviction God puts in your heart. :) Have a great day!