Exposing Error

This blog was created to encourage Christian Stay at home mothers, and Christian women in general. My husband encouraged me to create this blog when we became aware of many SAHM's we know personally who don't have a source of encouragement daily. Being at home with Sofia all day without contact with other Christian women can sometimes become lonely. When I first had Sofia I dealt with post-partum and what I needed was Biblical Christian women to surround me and remind of God's providence and Sovereignty in my life. The enemy always finds a way to attack us when we are vulnerable. The Lord and my husband are certainly enough for me, however there is a huge blessing in being surrounded with like-minded Biblical believers.

I have learned in that past few days that those who were friends with the “old” Crystal tend to appeal to that friendship which in some way means that I will compromise the Truth for their “feelings” sake or for our friendship's sake. When Malachi and I were first married he warned me of this. He told me that it is not only possible for Satan to use old friends to attack and destroy but he most definitely WILL use them.

The old Crystal and the new Crystal are completely separate from each other in that the old has died. She is no longer living, and no longer resides in this body. Every once in awhile the old self tries to rise up, but the new self calls upon the name of the Lord and once again the old self is put back in her place.

I am about to post an email that was sent to my myspace account and then just to make sure I received it was spammed to my personal email by a “messenger” so to speak. This “messenger” is a former friend who has become angry with me because basically I will not compromise even for her. I have known this person for about 6 or 7 years. She knows the old Crystal very well, and because she is not a believer cannot understand the new Crystal, nor can she comfortably accept me. The woman who actually wrote the email I only know casually, but she is very good friends with my former friend. It seems she thought she knew me well enough to make a judgment call on my husband and I seeking a physician's help in fixing a biological issue that has been prohibiting me from conceiving and carrying to term. She used her own personal traumatic experience with breast cancer to prove that by taking the Clomid there are not just physical implications but spiritual ones. As you can tell through her own words, her entire argument flows with absolutely no logic or biblical understanding.

This woman wanted the “messenger” to spam my “many blogs” with this email and made it known that she wanted her email to be made public in an attempt to blast me.

My husband being the wise and Godly man that he is, took the reigns and personally responded because ultimately he is biblically responsible for any choices that are made for our family. He also wanted to show biblically that there is nothing wrong with seeking medical care.

The enemy has shown many times in the past that he will attack the very thing that I hold precious. I hold my relationship with Jesus Christ the most precious. I hold my marriage and children precious. I also hold the desire to have more children precious, and it seems the enemy knows just how to attack those things all at once. By the Grace of God I know His Word and I have a husband who knows God's Word as well. The Holy Spirit has given us the spirit of discernment and this was not emailed to me out of a concern for my physical or spiritual welfare. In the end what is sad is that the “messenger” who was so unfairly thrust into the situation probably thinks that her friend's email makes sense. This is what the Bible tells us will happen with those who are not Christians. They cannot understand things that are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Malachi and I continue to pray for these two women and their families. We hold no grudge or ill will for either lady. We only pray that they will come to know the True Jesus Christ and submit under the authority of His Word.

Serving God and My Family,

Crystal <>< (SAHM)

Email addressed to me: (I have in no way tampered with this email, it is in the original form it was sent to me.) This is the email that was sent to my personal email address. When it was sent to my myspace email the first part was left out for some reason.

This is a message I sent to Crystal but I was wondering if you would post it for me to one of her many blogs... she said she needs to hear it from scripture... well here it is....

So, I here clomid is your drug of choice?? well, I only mention this of course because I believe you truely want to do the will of god. I have not read all your blogs, to be honest, my day is too busy to keep up, as my day starts at 4:30 am and does not end until 10pm, and I usually only have time for the computer when the children are eating, as I am snacking, monitoring them/ and looking over email.
The bible is very tricky because it leads you to one answer, then to make you question that answer with another. Here is an example “he who has been given the power to heal has a God-given gift and should never be mocked, nor has anyone in the world the right to prevent him from healing, or to deprive him of the right to heal” (Does having a licence to practice medicine makes someone a healer???) Psalm 127:3-5 - children are a gift of favor from God and blessed is a full quiver. Married couples must always be open to God's precious gift of life. Contraception, which shows a disregard for human life, has lead to the great evils.
Scripture is filled with accounts of women who suffered from infertility. The sorrow they felt at not being able to have a child could not be diminished even by a husband's love. In the Old Testament Elkanah says to his wife who was unable to conceive, "Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart so sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?" Of course Elkanah's wife loved him, but she wanted to bear their child. Such stories in the Bible are told to show the power of God; most end happily as the women become pregnant even in their old age. There is Sarah, the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac; Hannah, wife of Elkanah, who becomes the mother of the prophet Samuel; and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. But the Bible tells us there are limits to acceptable methods for conceiving a child. Recall the story of Noah's unmarried daughters who tried to get their father drunk so that they might have children by him! Obviously not any means can be used to achieve pregnancy. The bible tells us, all good things happen in his time not our own!!
Titus 1:10-16 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach - and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be strong in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Matthew 7:15-20 Signs of the End of the Age "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."
The problem is this: sometimes we want things so badly that we don’t see the wolf (in this case your fertility MD’s) so we justify our actions biased on scripture to justify our own agenda instead of gods.
I am not a perfect vessel of God, I do not claim to be, he teaches me valuable lessions every day… in my case I was a 27 year old with breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy!! Had I followed the advise of my wolf, He would have had me come back for more and more surgery…because it meant more money for him, not concerned with my recovery but his lavish lifestyle however, God showed me how to heal myself and the MD’s at Baylor and Md Anderson were my wolf, I am recovering nicely with no future surgeries in site!! Clomid is dangerous for many reason, spiritually and for your health!! It will come back tenfold, scripture tells us this….

This is my husband's response to the above email: (Again I have in no way tampered with this email, it is being presented in the exact way it was sent, other than I have kept the woman's identity concealed.)

My name is Malachi Sewell and I feel the need to respond to an e-mail you recently sent my wife. I felt it appropriate to address your concerns personally since the overall nature of your e-mail had to do with a medical decision we made that you feel has spiritual implications, which biblically speaking I am ultimately responsible for (1 Cor 11:3). If you do not feel comfortable with this then please accept my apologies and understand you are under no obligation to read the rest of this response. I'm including your original e-mail below to make it more convenient.

Let me start by saying thank you. I hope that a genuine regard for my wife's welfare was the motivation behind your e-mail. You sound like a devoted mother who has precious little time for yourself, so we are grateful that you would take some time out of your day to address an issue you feel needed attention. With that said, I feel it necessary to address some issues within your e-mail that are concerning:

The Bible makes it quite clear that God's Word is unique in that it is God breathed (2Tim 3:16), trustworthy (Psalm 119:172), effective (Isaiah 55:11), powerful and eternal (John 1:1-3). God also makes it known that if we are not approaching the scriptures with the right motivations and attitude, then it will not make much sense to us (Psalm25:9, Matt 11:25). The Holy Spirit tests our heart and attitude then reveals His Word to us ( 1Cor 2:9-15). I am saying all of this for this important reason: when we attempt to provide an argument from scripture, the clarity and its effectiveness is directly related to our motivation and attitude. To use some imagery: the Bible says we are at war with an enemy for not made of flesh (Eph 6:11-12), the Word of God is our weapon against the enemy (Eph 6:17), and if we want to use it effectively we must study and show ourselves approved to handle it correctly (2 Tim 2:15). A soldier must study and practice, submitting themselves to instruction and correction in order to use their weapon effectively. What will happen if a soldier grabs their gun and blindly starts shooting it at random, or a warrior picks up a sword in haste and wildly flails it around? Will they hit their intended target? No, in fact they my accidentally hit their fellow soldier, or even wound themselves. Hebrews 4:12 states:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

So we must ask ourselves if we are allowing the Holy Spirit into the innermost chambers of our hearts to examine our intents, making sure it is Him Who is prompting us to address someone and not our flesh. If we don't we are going to miss the target completely and not achieve our intended purpose. If we are in Christ then we must ensure that we “have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God”(2Cor 2:4).

The Bible also teaches that a house is only as good as the foundation it is laid on (Luke 6:47-49) , I believe the same applies to a point or argument we hold to. If the foundation is in error, then no matter how well our argument appears, the whole thing is wrong. After prayerful and thoughtful examination of your letter I observed that your foundational premise is in error. You have based your argument on your feelings about modern medicine, not on any evidence found in scripture. You have had an extremely traumatizing experience with certain doctors and medical procedures. I cannot begin to understand what you have been through, nor am I attempting to minimize the pain you must have suffered. But the Bible is very clear that we cannot judge truth from error by our feelings, no matter how strong they are, because our hearts can't be trusted (Jer 17:9). It also appears that you have a very unhealthy fixation on medical doctors, so much so that you see them as the fulfillment of the non-genuine Christians spoken of in Matt 7:15-20 and the Jewish Greeks teaching legalism in Titus 1:10-16. The plain sense and immediate context of these two passages cannot be applied to the topic you have used them for.

I am not certain of how you came to the conclusions you did using scripture, but I can offer a source that, unknowingly to you of course, may be fueling your skewed view of doctors. You made the following statement in your e-mail:

“The Bible is very tricky because it leads you to one answer to make you question that answer with another. Here is an example “he who has been given the power to heal has a God-given gift and should never be mocked, nor has anyone in the world the right to prevent him from healing, or to deprive him of the right to heal”

This in fact is not a passage from the Bible, it is a direct quote from Rudolph Breuss in page 1 of his book entitled “The Breuss Cancer Cure” where he says:

“The Bible says, as far as I recall,'he who has been given the power to heal has a God-given gift and should never be mocked, nor has anyone in the world the right to prevent him from healing, or to deprive him of the right to heal.' This law, then, is valid throughout the world.”

Rudolph Breuss is a Naturopathic author who came up with a dietary regiment he claims can cure and prevent cancer. He was very skeptical about modern science and openly felt that those in modern medicine were hiding the real cure for cancer in order to get more money out of the public. It seems he was trying to validate his right to practice his brand of healing by making it seems as though the Bible advocated it. He was either very ignorant of the scriptures, or he was being purposely deceptive. Either way I do not hold someone in very high respect who handles the Bible so loosely and irreverently.

As far as biblically acceptable means for conception goes, the Bible is clear that there are only two methods to obtain children: sex between married couples and adoption. All of the major Christian organizations agree that fertility treatment is acceptable as long as it does not inhibit or go outside of the bonds of marriage. This means that as long as the treatment does not require the use of someone else's egg, sperm, or use someone else's body (i.e. surrogacy, or test tubes) then it is allowed. There are cases in scripture where people have gone outside of marriage to try to get children, and God chastised them for it: Abraham with Hagar his wife's maidservant (Gen 16:3) and Lot's (not Noah's) daughter's getting their father drunk and laying with him in Gen 19:33. So if a married couple is using a medication or goes through a procedure that corrects a biological condition that results in an increased chance of conception, then they are completely within biblical guidelines. There exist no medicine in the world and no procedure anyone can go through that creates life. God alone is the Author of life and He gives it when and if He desires. As a note, all the women you mentioned in the Bible that had trouble conceiving all eventually had children after seeking the Lord.

I'd also like to offer some things to consider that may shed some light on the Bible's stance regarding medicine and doctors; the leaves of certain trees will be used for medicine (Ezek 47:12), medical mixtures, ointments, balms and physicians were used in Israel (Jer 8:22, Isaiah 1:6), two books of the Bible were written by Luke who was a doctor (Col 4:14), and Jesus Himself said that sick people need physicians (Luke 5:31). There are some fringe cults out there that teach their followers that using medicine and going to doctors is wrong and against scripture. The Bible speaks for itself on the matter.

I also wanted to note for the record that we did not choose Clomid to get pregnant, we do not have infertility issues. I purposefully kept this detail last because I wanted to present a defense for Christians that do have infertility issues. Clomid regulates hormones and the menstrual cycle. So even if we didn't have a desire for children, my wife would take it. Since Clomid is a very old drug it has a lot of research with it, many studies show that the cases of cancer in women taking it was the same percentage in women that never took it. In your e-mail you stated : “Clomid is dangerous for many reason, spiritually and for your health!! It will come back tenfold scripture tells us this.”. I am not sure who is giving you the impression that scripture condemns Clomid and that Clomid patients will receive tenfold of something, but I strongly encourage you to take some time out of your day to pick up the Bible and start studying it. Every error that I note in your e-mail you would have caught with ease if you had a better understanding of scripture. No drug is completely safe, but if you doubt the research and tests done then you may want to throw out Aspirin as well, since Clomid shares it's track record.

In closing, I hope you will thoughtfully consider my response as I have done yours. I encourage you to take the time to read each verse I have cited in context, it may take awhile but it will be well worth it, and then pray about it. If you have any questions or replies I would appreciate it if you would send them to me. Thanks again for your time and I pray you and your family be blessed.

In Christ our Lord,
-Malachi Sewell