IsaiahSix.org

We’re pretty much going about business as usual here today, despite the fact that a voluntary evacuation of the coastal islands and low-lying areas is underway. An evacuation may sound like a big deal to those who don’t live on the coast but it isn’t really, not until they start issuing mandatory evacuations, anyway. Most folks around here don’t really get uptight about a storm until it’s a mid-category 1 level. Ernesto is a little different than most storms, though, in that it’s coming in from our south and will pass by or over our entire coastline. Basically almost all of our coastline will feel some effects tomorrow. We’re expecting a lot of rain, maybe as much as six inches. Which is about six inches too much for downtown Charleston. Downtown floods with just the least bit of rain, and the closer to high tide the worse the flooding gets. We’re probably looking at winds anywhere from 40 to 70 miles an hour for a few hours tomorrow. I’m pretty sure schools will be closed, although they haven’t said yet.

So we’re just sitting back and waiting for God to put on a show. He’s good at reminding us He’s in charge. Maybe that’s why I enjoy hurricane season so much.

FOXNews reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were released by their Palestinian captors on Sunday nearly two weeks after being pulled from their cars, bound and kept in a warehouse. Please do not read this post as one in which I minimize the gravity of being kidnapped and held hostage for two weeks. For me, for my friends and certainly for my family that would be unbearable if it were to happen to me. I am not trying to downplay the situation.

According to their accounts of their captivity, with guns pointed to their heads they were forced to convert to Islam. In order to save their lives, they complied. So I have a couple of questions:
1) did they mean it? Are they really followers of Islam now? Or was this a way simply to save their own lives?
2) if you were in their position, would you have done the same thing? Be very careful how you answer that question. Don’t just answer, “No,” because you happen to know that’s the biblical answer. Your answer will be the truest barometer of your relationship with Christ you’ve had in some time.

I pray that I am never in a situation where I am held at gunpoint for any reason, whether it be by religious zealots or carjackers or bank robbers. But more importantly than that, I pray earnestly that if I am ever in such a situation that I will have the fortitude not to deny the Christ Who refused to deny me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Luke 9:24 ESV

Life for the Pittman family will take a dramatic turn tomorrow morning when our first child begins kindergarten. We’re very excited that he will be attending the local fine arts magnet school, where the arts are used to teach the full curriculum and they have more dedicated arts time than typical schools. I’m told there’s a waiting list for teachers to join the faculty and until a couple of years ago, the wait time to enter as a student was more than five years. We were told when we moved to Charleston that because he was already six months old and not yet on the waiting list he probably wouldn’t get in until the first or second grade. The enrollment process is now done by lottery and his number happened to be one of the ones pulled for this year, and we’re grateful.

I think the type of atmosphere fostered at the school will fit our son’s personality quite well and we’re looking forward to a great relationship with the school. But let’s all bow our heads and say a prayer for Mrs. Black and Mrs. Blackburn.