America

I love America. The freedoms we enjoy in this country are innumerable. However, liberty and law are incompatible. Laws are restricting. Liberty is... well, liberating. The founding fathers created the government with a delicate balance of freedom and law. Current issues in debate are threatening the scales. The government is creating laws that allow us to kill our children because we want to. Is that liberty? The government is creating laws that allow us to participate in homosexuality, a practice that has been detested for centuries in every nation in the world. Is that liberty? These legislations are enslaving us. Not to other men. Not to the government, though that might also be true, but to SIN. Is this a path you want to follow? Christians must take an active stance in government. James 4:17 says, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." We cannot be neutral in the war against sin. Jesus said, "Whoever is not with me is against me"(Luke 11:23). Who's side are you on?

Dead or Alive?

I was born dead. The doctor did nothing to resuscitate me. The hospital staff saw nothing wrong with my vital signs. I was a healthy newborn. But I was dead in sin, born in iniquity. The nurses could do nothing to save me from the wickedness that was in my heart. I spent the first twelve years of my life believing I was alive when the truth was far from it. Paul wrote to the Romans, “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23, ESV). I was a sinner separated from God by an impossible void. I could not save myself. I had no hope. In my seventh grade year, I immersed myself in worldly pleasures. I hung out with the wrong people at school. I did not go to church or read my Bible. I constantly rebelled against my parents. But God allowed me to fall so that He alone could pull me up. A pastor from a local church visited our home in November of 2001. My parents explained to him the difficulties they were having with me. He took me aside and we discussed my situation. He clearly showed me the wretchedness of my own heart and compared it to the holiness of God. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the fact that God required perfect righteousness from me, but because I broke His law, I would be justly punished in Hell for eternity. Then the pastor revealed the glorious Gospel, “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:8). Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, born of a virgin, died for my sins and rose on the third day, and if I would repent and trust in Him, He would save me. That night God lifted me out of the darkness of my sin into the light of His holiness. I did not deserve forgiveness, I could not earn it, but God chose to be gracious toward me. Paul continued in Romans six,”…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). The Bible makes it clear that true Christians are promised eternal life in Heaven. Because Christ paid my debt when He died at Calvary, I am no longer required to go to Hell. His righteousness is imparted to me. The Holy Spirit lives in me, guiding me in the sanctification process and assuring me of the reward to come. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). That is the story of my second birth, my live birth. I heard and believed, and now I am living to glorify my God and worship Him forever.

Quote of the Month - March 2007

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" — Albert Einstein

UTC - Chapters 37-45

Meanwhile, back at the Quaker settlement, Tom Loker suggested that Eliza disguise herself in order to get to Canada. Descriptions were always put out on runaway slaves, so they could be caught. Finally, the Harris's arrived in the land of liberty for slaves. They went to a mission to begin their new life. Uncle Tom, over time at Legree's plantation, began to lose heart and faith. Legree took notice of that and mocked him. Tom felt refreshed, though, after the taunting. Everyone noticed a difference in Tom's attitude and behavior. Cassy wanted to kill Legree but was physically too weak. She attempted to enlist Tom's help but he rebuked her for thinking of such wickedness. He would rather she run away than murder. Legree was afraid of the attic in his house because one of his slaves had died there and he thought it was haunted. Cassy and Emmeline "ran away" by hiding in the attic. They were not discovered because everyone was afraid to go up there. Cassy stole some money to pay for a boat fare later. When Legree couldn't find his slaves, he asked Tom to report their whereabouts. When he refused, Legree beat Tom and had Sambo and Quimbo whip Tom. As a result of Tom’s testimony during his severe punishment, Sambo and Quimbo were saved. Back in Kentucky, Mr. Shelby died, leaving his estate in the care of his wife. She and Young Master George Shelby paid off their debts and gathered funds to free Uncle Tom. George found Tom by an extensive and difficult search. He came to buy him from Legree but Tom died from his lashes. Tom, like Legree's mother, forgave his cruel master before his death. George buried Tom in a little spot by the road. Cassy played tricks on Legree at night. She came into his bedroom and left like a ghost. Then she and Emmeline escaped and took a boat to Canada. She became acquainted with George Shelby and Madame de Thoux, who was George's sister. She found out that Madame de Thoux's brother was married to her daughter. Stowe's humor came into play again when Cassy fainted and, "they made all the tumult which is proper in such cases; - George upsetting a wash-pitcher, and breaking two tumblers, in the warmth of his humanity; and various ladies in the cabin... crowded the state-room door, and kept out all the air they possibly could, so that, on the whole, everything was done that could be expected (601-602)." Cassy, Madame de Thoux, and Emmeline visited the same mission that George and Eliza had gone to when they first entered Canada. Things were arranged and the family got back together again. Harry was much older and had a little sister, little Eliza. The family moved to France where George got an education and Emmeline got married. Then they all, minus the newly married couple, moved to Africa. Miss Ophelia raised and freed Topsy in Vermont. Topsy was baptized and sent out as a missionary to Africa. A wonderful chapter with which to end the story. Though Chloe's heart broke when she heard of Tom's death, she knew that Jesus could help her. Stowe ended the story by freeing all of the Shelbys' slaves. The last chapter, while providing great support and background information for the book from a historical perspective, would have been better categorized as an appendix, rather than an extra chapter, to the story. Stowe remained in third person while giving her arguments for the authenticity of her book.

UTC - Chapters 29-36

Because their master had not made provisions for them for after his death, St. Clare's slaves were sold at an auction. Marie refused to give Tom his freedom, even though her late husband had promised it to the honest man. Rosa was sent to a whipping house for talking back to her mistress. A whipping house was the most shameful and degrading way of punishing slaves. Emmeline, a new character to the story, was sold with Tom and two other men to Mr. Legree. Emmeline's mother tried her hardest to present her daughter as plainly as possible and not flaunt her natural beauty, but the two were separated in the end. Legree made Tom give him all his clothes and other personal belongings. He threatened all his slaves with his unusually large fist. I imagine a situation akin to Legree's plantation when I think back to pre-Civil War times. Though his actions may not have been common, the kindness of Tom's previous owners was more rare. Legree seemed to amass wealth that never was spent on anything he needed. Shelby and St. Clare, however, spent money they didn't have on things they did not need. Several of the slaves were surprised that Tom had a Bible; some had never heard of it before. Tom helped two women to grind their corn and they helped to make his corn cake. His small deeds of kindness changed the hearts of the slaves on Legree's plantation. Cassy, Eliza's mother, appeared for the first time in chapter thirty-two but was not developed until chapter thirty-four. She was Legree's mistress until he bought Emmeline. Cassy had cast a sort of spell over Legree and his slaves. She had a glare that made even her hard master tremble. Legree made Sambo and Quimbo whip Tom for not whipping another slave when he was told to. Cassy told the story of her life to Tom while tending to his wounds. She had been happily married to a man but he refused to give her her freedom. Two of her children were sold into slavery but she killed the third one when he was only two weeks old. The heart of a mother so longs to protect her children that she will kill to save them from the horrors of the inevitable. Legree was very superstitious and horrified of insane persons such as Cassy. When Sambo gave him the lock of Eva's hair that Tom had kept, Legree was horrified. He remembered his mother, who gave him a lock of her hair and forgave him for the evils he had done. Wicked men are more afraid than others because they don't know if someone wants to get revenge on them. Cassy talked Emmeline out of trying to run away and talked Legree into leaving Tom alone for a while. Legree tried to make Tom "recant" but Tom stood true to his faith. Cassy rescued Tom from another certain beating by drawing on Legree's superstitions.