A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®

Knock! Knock! Some body  comes to open the door. Un announced A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® [ATCT] has paid a surprise visit to a mystery Christian guest. She is a wife and home maker. A dreamy dinner is almost ready (or is it?) and before she can excuse her self to turn off the cooker, we shall have a two minute marathon interview. The interviewee will remain anonymous for this session as we stir the contents in the frying pan and see what she truly believes. So, what do these Christian believe and why do they believe so? Listen in:

ATCT: Sorry you are masked from your audience today. What is a typical week in your life like?

CHRISTIAN: A typical week is being a homemaker primarily, dealing with meals, the care and feeding of a toddler, teenager and husband, and all that this entails. I spend my child’s naptime writing usually on my blog or sharing news and information through my facebook outlet. It’s a very different life than I used to have, but it’s where God has put me.

ATCT: Did you have any Christian  influence in your youth or childhood?

CHRISTIAN: I was raised in a home of professing Christians. We saw little reality of that in the life of our distracted ministry father, but saw real faith in our mother’s life. She was the one who taught us Scriptures, Bible stories and hymns and songs. She was a prayer warrior and she prayed for all of us. Grateful for that.

ATCT: What is the gospel in one sentence?

CHRISTIAN: The Gospel in one sentence: The only way I as a sinner from conception can find forgiveness of sins and everlasting life is through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.

ATCT: If you woke up this morning and found your self transported back in time, which preacher in the last 500 years would you like to listen to? Why?

CHRISTIAN: I would love to hear Charles Spurgeon. His work has had a big influence on me, and to hear him preach Christ crucified would be a delight.

ATCT: How would you like to be remembered by your husband and closest family?

 CHRISTIAN: I want to be remembered by my husband as a woman who feared the Lord and loved her husband and children with all her heart. Nothing else matters.

ATCT: How easy (do you think) is parenting?

CHRISTIAN: Parenting for me is very difficult to do well. Failure in key areas can have generational consequences, and it sobers me and causes me to yearn to do it right with God’s guidance.

ATCT: Your teenage daughter comes weeping to you and tells you she is pregnant. She doesn’t know who the dad is. (Yup, it’s that bad). She feels she has let you down and feels disillusioned about her walk with God. She got a phone number from a friend who can arrange to “sort out” this inconvenient unplanned pregnancy. It’s all a big shock to you. What do you do?

A)    Pretend you didn’t hear her and continue reading your news paper.

B)     Tell her to dial the number REAL QUICK!

C)    Let her know in no uncertain terms she has brought shame to you and your testimony. And she has therefore left you with no option but to disown her.

D)    OTHER:

CHRISTIAN: D. Other: I would tell her that we loved her, that God will forgive her for her sin, and that we will help her decide whether to parent the baby with our help if the father is not responsible, or whether an adoptive home would be in the child’s best interest. I would then go to work to get proper medical care for her.

ATCT: What major theological shifts have happened in your life as a Christian?

CHRISTIAN: I was raised in an arminian, fundamentalist home where decisional salvation and external compliance to “standards” skewed my understanding of the way of salvation and sanctification. As a young adult, I was introduced to Reformed theology and began to understand things I had never understood before: that Salvation is of the Lord, that sanctification is of the Lord as well, and that holding fundamentalist positions on things like drinking, movies and dance were not the primary signs of the Holy Spirit’s work in us. I continue to undergo transformation in my understanding of these things, longing to have the right balance of Law and Gospel, and understanding grace, biblical grace, not the “anything goes” greasy grace of American evangelicalism

ATCT: We are sending you to a desert island. You can only take one book aside from the Bible. Which book would you take and why?

CHRISTIAN: If I was only allowed one other book besides the Bible on an island, there is no question about it. I would take my Trinity Hymnal, filled with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, Scripture readings and the creeds and confessions. It’s a wonderful tool for praising and worshiping the Lord.

What attribute of God do you struggle to understand?

CHRISTIAN: I don’t understand God’s kind of love. I have gone through many, many dark places in my life, and suffering is something I have not understood and probably never will. Sometimes it feels like there is never enough pain in my life. Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand once told me after an interview that when God loves you, He really beats you up. Sometimes that reality gives me pause, but then I remember He is God and we are not.

ATCT: What are the words of your favourite Hymn?

CHRISTIAN: Francis Ridley Havergal’s hymn, O Savior, Precious Savior, is my favorite:

O Savior, precious Savior,
Whom yet unseen we love!
O Name of might and favor,
All other names above!
We worship Thee, we bless Thee,
To Thee, O Christ, we sing;
We praise Thee, and confess Thee
Our holy Lord and King.

O Bringer of salvation,
Who wondrously hast wrought,
Thyself the Revelation
Of love beyond our thought;
We worship Thee, we bless Thee,
To Thee, O Christ, we sing;
We praise Thee, and confess Thee
Our gracious Lord and King.

In Thee all fullness dwelleth,
All grace and power divine;
The glory that excelleth,
O Son of God, is Thine;
We worship Thee, we bless Thee,
To Thee, O Christ, we sing:
We praise Thee, and confess Thee
Our glorious Lord and King.

O grant the consummation
Of this our song above,
In endless adoration,
And everlasting love!
Then shall we praise and bless Thee
Where perfect praises ring,
And evermore confess Thee
Our Savior and our King.

Thank you very much mystery guest. May that Savior whom yet unseen you love be your constant and endless adoration.

More Anonymised Interviews here!