The Walking Dead

Rom. 1:10-11 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

 

The Walking Dead

Well I caved in due to the pressure my man and son kind of placed on me. Not really pressure but I myself felt like an outcast in my own family because I didn’t watch The Walking Dead when these two hailed it as the next best thing since sliced cheese!

I’m not really into zombie flicks but in my day I did like watching the campy ‘B’ movies of Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead. They were just way out there creepy and well as a kid, I liked creepy. Not so much these days but I will watch them for laughs; and to see how far I’ve come in my likes and dislikes of the movies I watch.

Since I really couldn’t pick out any good movies with no nudity and barely clothed people in it, I tired from the search and I buckled, giving into, “I’ll watch the Walking Dead, season one episode one and we’ll go from there.” Cheers and smiles rang out across the two ‘Dead Heads’ I call them who had told me, “It’s really not that bad of a show.” So I would see for myself.

After the first episode I was hooked, like it was some kind of an addictive drug given me, I was hooked. We watched two more episodes and last night we watched three and tonight we’ll start season two! The first episode had a mild sex scene in it but it was much cleaner than any of the movies I was searching, so the prude in me let it pass and I sunk into the storyline.

Unlike the old zombie movies where it was all about the zombies, this show actually has a story, the Zombie Apocalypse.  The apocalypse happened and there are a few survivors and we follow these folk trying to survive in a zombie-ridden world. Granted there is plenty of gore and head turning moments but the characters have substance. You like them as soon as you are introduced to them. THAT to me is good writing as all of my writing friends will attest to.

The writer in me dissects everything I watch (or read for that matter) and The Walking Dead is no different. Even though the guys have seen all the shows and are anxiously awaiting the new season in October, I am new blood to the show (pun intended).

I’m finding it kind of funny how we three see it differently. Adam likes the death and gore, Steven likes the sci-fi elements, and me… hold on people… I see HOPE! Adam almost chopped my head off for saying that and Steven went silent but I rambled on and on how these people all have hope in finding other survivors, finding the reason this happened, finding a cure if any. The people who’ve died so far gave up; they had no hope that there is anything out there except zombies.

Then came my thwarted analogy: This movie is not much unlike man today. We are living in the zombie apocalypse. *screams and eeks heard*  

“Not EVERYTHING is about God, mom!”

Really? To ME it IS! EVERYTHING is about God!

After watching the episode where the man from the CDC showed the few living wanderers the zombie’s brain, it hit me. He showed an active brain full of color and the zombie’s brain activity was all black, empty, void just for a small red splotch that showed their hunger. When defining Zombie here is the definition:

a. the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose.

b. the supernatural force itself.

To ME and my understanding of it, when a man or boy walks into a theater and KILLS innocent people, for that split moment their brain has gone black, they think and feel nothing, but HUNGER, the hunger for death. When the adrenaline starts to flow back to their brain (if ever) they realize what they’ve done and either commits suicide or claims insanity.

Think of a man who kills his wife and child. Think of the man who chopped his wife’s head off. Think of all (and I mean ALL the killings globally) where killing is at an all time high. The brain has gone blank. For that one moment, they are a zombie.

When I said this to Adam again his response was, “Well, we’re all gonna die.”

I quickly responded, “Not me, honey, I’m promised eternity!” There’s that God referencing again.

Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

You see, some of us can CLEARLY see what is going on. We don’t need police to tell us that they are searching for a REASON why these murderers and evil is running rampant. We don’t NEED to know, we can clearly SEE.

I often think about the stories I’ve read passed down through the centuries of how the people of their times laughed at Copernicus, scoffed at Aristotle, mocked Columbus chuckled at Einstein and the list goes on.

I will be laughed and scoffed at too for my ‘theory’ but rest assured, those that can SEE will have the last laugh. While you sit and wonder why this or that happened, I’m at peace knowing I see it all too clearly. If you’re into quantum physics like I have ALWAYS been interested in, maybe take a look at this discovery, the Discovery of God in scientific terms that I totally understand! I can clearly SEE.

Note: I watched this video AFTER I wrote this post and thought it relevant enough to add to it.

Science has discovered God

May God be with you all!

A comment from Anon: “God has made Himself evident through "what has been made" - ie "creation" or "Nature".

And, what does Science study? Nature.

If "that which is known about God..." could be known by ordinary, non-science-trained individuals (from thousands of years ago) by observing Nature, then why on earth should it be surprising that those "trained and learned scientists", who have the job of observing Nature, should end up proving that Nature could not exist without God?”

Do Your Homework

Prov. 10:20 “The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.”

As a writer I was taught to do my research; research into facts before writing so that people can believe and trust in my words. A classmate in a nonfiction course recently said that he was writing a ‘creative nonfiction piece, embellishing a little here and there’. Well to me that is clearly fiction because it isn’t the truth. It is embellished truth. Just like facebook posts, embellished truth that no one cares to do research on.

I have two facebook accounts: one for family and one for my community of writers. On both pages I see people posting stuff just to cause dissension to the masses. Do they do their homework first into what the truth really is? No. They love the commotion and the hate swirling pool so they feed the fish that are hungry for anything to be angry at, seeking some sort of unified agreement into their hate; their unified hate, I might add.

What is ironic is that they post these lies in a let’s unite and fight manner but these same folk are the seemingly Christians who need PROOF of the living God? Wait, they can post lies without doing any research but need proof of God and His Word? We can all find the truth that we WANT to believe. Kind of makes me wonder if we don’t have a bunch of Jim Jones followers among the living. They are the folk that will follow any wind of doctrine handed them and try to pull in like-minded folk.

As I said before we don’t live in God’s world, we live in a political world where people are living and breathing politics and everything being politically correct and then squeeze in some time for God, for good measure I imagine.

This is going to be a year where we have a race for the Presidential finish line and everyone will be caught in the stampede not unlike the running of the bulls. Attacks will be bloated, lies will flourish like a streaming waterfall, causes will be heightened, illegals will be pressed like grapes in a winery, every agenda under the sun will be exasperated and the silent will fall.

Here we are living in the End Times and political issues are all that people care about, really? I don’t see anyone shouting from the rooftop that Jesus is returning. I don’t see them digging into their homework on THAT matter. Nope, satan has them wrapped around his little finger and they are engrossed in politics, being caught unaware no less.

A lot of people think I’m a closed-minded fool not caring about the world around me. What a false belief yet again. I care so much I just saved a beetles life that was drowning in a pool of water. Care? I care that people would rather focus on the negative aspects of life instead of focusing on the positive aspects thus bringing about a positive change.

I see people drowning in the pool of hate and I want to save them but unlike the beetle that will see the extension of a branch as a life preserver, humans would rather flail their arms and fling splashing water all around than grab onto the Branch of the Living that could possibly save their life.

I look out my window to see the pivots circling the field with nurturing water for the crops to be replenished day after day. While some humans would rather wait for the rain and do nothing to replenish their soul, there is Living Water out there that will fulfill you to no end. If you do nothing but see the negative hate in the world, you are missing out on the positive that the living, breathing Branch extends to you to restore your soul and prepare it for eternity.

The CHOICE is YOURS whether you do your homework or not. Live a lie or live the Truth.

John 15:4 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.[5] I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Dog Days of Summer

Rom. 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Summer is in full swing and as such my body is drained due to the heat and exhaustion that each day brings. As you might have guessed this is not an upbeat season for me and I try to stay away from the social media scene so as not to bring my negative vibes into the corral of hatemongers, the wannabe activists who are hung up on memes and the ‘I’m right-listen-to-me’ opinions.

Why do people assume that because they have an opinion on something they need to rally to get other people to stand firm and walk WITH them into the social media spotlight getting them nowhere really but caged up in their own heads.

I have all but abandoned my own wall seeking instead to just lay low and stick with the prayer warriors of the social scene. I’m down to five people on my newsfeed and they post so rarely, I’m left with prayer and a friend who rises EVERY morning with a positive word from the Lord. “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it,” she begins, and then goes on to tell a story of her positive outlook that really helps me start my day in His Light!

Whenever I start to feel down, God always brings a new friend, a new light into the equation of my day and as such all the negativity dwellers fade to black. I’m trying to make the most of this pain-filled summer and believe it or not negative vibes add to the pain. I’m pained to see dear ones sink to a level I’ve never really understood or grasped.

I have to individually seek out friends to see how they’re doing and what they’re up to and more times than not I’m disappointed in seeing they’re the same-old-same old spewers of propaganda that they always were. Why do I even bother?!?

I have to look at character. I’ve noticed that some people ARE a character instead of harnessing what makes character work. I work on myself daily when I’m in the comfort of the morning dew, nestling my coffee in my hand and reflecting with the sunrise on all the positive things that I have to be thankful for. I then find myself knee-deep in prayer to start my day.

I try really hard to see the good in people but it is kind of hard as they walk around in sheeps clothing deceiving, misleading or just plain filled with so much hate standing behind the word of God, then leading people into hating what THEY themselves hate. From everything I’ve learned in life, I realize that what these people really hate is something churning inside of them, they really hate themselves so much that they want others to hate with them so they can feel somewhat good about themselves?

You know what I hate about myself? My over optimistic ways! The conformist, I mean realist are turning me away from everything I hold positive in my life. They don’t give me hope, they don’t shed Light, they DRAIN all of my optimism and make me want to barf in their faces. Yeah, that’s a picture for ya!

As I climb back in my bubble, as I place my rose colored glasses on and as I cling to optimism which for me is MY Light in a darkened hate-filled world, I will steer clear of the venom that tries to seep into my veins. Some people like bedding with snakes, I prefer to have a pillow of Christ to lean my head on and that is who I am; always will be.

Maybe it isn’t the Dog Days of Summer that weigh me down, maybe it’s just the dogs/wolves.

Luke 10:3 “Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.”

Quotation Saturday

Rom. 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

DIFFERENT

“I existed on my own terms. I was different my entire life. Some called me divergent, wild, crazy, unpredictable and unconformed—an apostate to the rules of the majority. I called myself God’s creation and found purpose in the madness. When that day came, I didn’t allow other people to dictate how I should feel or act. I learned there was no shame in imperfection because history had shown being different had the power to change perspectives and eventually the world. This is when I realized that flaws had responsibility. This was the day that I learned I was truly BLESSED.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“God has a way of picking a “nobody” and turning their world upside down, in order to create a “somebody” that will remove the obstacles they encountered out of the pathway for others.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“If your not annoying somebody, you're not alive.”
― Margaret Atwood

“For a man who makes his salvation perfect through suffering, is more of a saint and a loving hero of nature.”
― Auliq Ice

NON-CONFORMITY

“My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?" they asked me the other day.
I told them this story:
In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, "Look at me...I'm tall, and I'm straight, and I'm handsome. Look at you...you're all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you." And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, "Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest." So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day.”
― Tom Waits

“But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.”
― Howard Zinn

“to be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its’ best, night and day, to make you just like everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
― E.E. Cummings

“If, living in the world, you refuse to be a part of it, you will help others out of this chaos - not in the future, not tomorrow, but now.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti

INDIVIDUAL

“The first duty of a man is to think for himself”
― José Martí

“Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.”
― Vladimir Ilich Lenin

“I have no right to call myself one who knows. I was one who seeks, and I still am, but I no longer seek in the stars or in books; I'm beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn't pleasant, it's not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves.”
― Hermann Hesse

“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson

INSPIRATION

“when you're a poet
you can dish out whatever's
on your mind and you don't have to
apologize for it”
― Shannon Lynette

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
― Paulo Coelho

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.”
― Walt Disney Company

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
― Maya Angelou

Tuning Out

Rom. 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

It is quite sad that so many are working hard to bring people to God yet turning them away from Him unaware. I’ve been tuning people out for some time now but still, that doesn’t keep me from observing their behavior. The negative aspects still have a way of seeping in when I least expect. I’m not offended as much as I’m saddened at their inane actions while claiming to be children of God. Human beings are a sad lot.

I see why people are turning from God in record numbers, not just because they don’t believe in the first place, but they are being deceived and that can lead to a falling away of forming any sort of belief system.

It’s confusing when people are touting that they KNOW the truth but don’t LIVE the truth. People boasting of their love of God but are visually so filled with internal hate for everything. People seeking the truth are then led to believe that you can do no wrong and the bible then becomes a laughable joke. They see people practicing not what they are preaching.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t live in God’s world, we live in a political world and man uses the bible as a footstool to base their belief system on and of course, the non-believers are not going to stand for the word Bible or God in their vocabulary. Everyone is too busy seeing the left and right or the wrong and right of things, not the God things. Their focus is NOT on God but the world.

Rom. 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

I realized something last year; that I had raised my son in a Christian household and when he turned eighteen; I realized his beliefs were not the same as mine. Sure I tried to instill all my Christian beliefs into him but there came a backfire when he said to me, “I don’t believe the same things as you.”

A shocker right? Wrong! I realized (an awakening of sorts) that my son is not my property, he is God’s property. It was my job to teach him in the way that he should go but in the end, he is his own person and can form his own ideas/beliefs. He hasn’t turned from God, he’s just drinking in all the foolish lies people spout and forming his own opinion. Wow, how did that happen, he turned out to be his own being? He doesn’t do the facebook thing because, “There is no good in that place.”

This is what is happening in the world today. We try and shove OUR belief down people’s throats and it backfires, people are not buying what we are trying to sell. To a believer you’ll get an AMEN sometimes but to the non-believer you get tuned out. You are turning them AWAY from God instead of TO God.

I was taught as a child that you don’t discuss money, religion and politics because it causes disagreements, arguments, and division. It’s not a law to abide by but it is a non-formal moral code that humans have supposedly grown accustomed to, you’d think.

I think of facebook as a gathering of friends. It would be no different if it were everyone sitting around in the park at a picnic table sharing food and family fun. What I don’t expect is to be hit (and hit hard) with a barrage of political crud, religious buffs (who know everything, BTW) and gabfests on money. Oh wait, the only time money is brought up is when people are sharing the abundance of the amount they have, which is almost NEVER! So why not hold the religion and politics to the same stature? You’re among friends, act like it!

I’m starting to think that these folk don’t have a moral code that they live by. They just want to point out that they are right and you are wrong. It makes me want to tune out and turn away from the very people I’ve come to know and love. Facebook has become a cesspool for the arrogance of society; taken away (or lost in the crud) is the fun-loving, God embracer. Oh they’re there, but far and very few between. My newsfeed is down to about five people now, a much more POSITIVE flow of the GOODNESS in the world.

This is what is happening in the world today. People are tuning out and turning away; tuning out from the hypocritical society, the political garbage and turning away from God. Guess what, people can actually THINK for themselves. They don’t need YOU to tell them what is wrong with the world, clearly showing them where YOUR focus is, and it isn’t on God!

My only saving grace is turning away from the world and tuning into God. God is my refuge; He’s not my platform, I don’t use Him for gain, I use Him for comfort. He is my Soul Food!

Let me let you get back to your political propaganda, your regularly scheduled program. I’m tuned out of Social Media and I’m tuned into God.

Pss. 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

AMEN!

Growth Within

Rom. 4:13 “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

After yesterday’s post I found myself thinking of how much I have grown as a woman not only with marriage but as a woman in general; a full fledged spiritual woman. I’m no longer the woman that I used to be and every day I wake to outstretch my arms and strive to reach for the Son and grow a little bit more.

I read something this morning after I had already posted my growth post of yesterday and it really touched me. I DO have friends that share the Light from within them; thanks Debbie! I need to share it with you, my readers, as I think you’ll see why it is such a positive and heartwarming post; and with Billy Graham ministries, you can’t go wrong.

Nine ways to GROW in your faith, so inspirational!

Love – It sounds simple enough but I see so many struggle with this one because they are too busy balancing hate with love. To love God with your whole mind, body and soul there is no room to hate.

Joy – This one is a hard one too. How can you feel joy when there is so much wrong going on? Simply put, if you focus on all the wrongs you will NEVER allow joy to live in your spirit, hence there is no room for God to grow the seeds He’s planting.

Peace – Peace is not a political term. Not everything has political connotations, as some are mislead to believe. People are so focused on what is politically correct and what is not they lose the chance to actually acquire peace within their souls. They are missing out on a stillness that fills their souls with joy and love and thus missing out on peace completely.

Patience – I see so many intolerant people, I assume they are all anxious-filled to be wasting so much time and energy. Anxious people are not filled with peace and to me, if you’re not filled with peace, you don’t carry joy (or carry it falsely) and that means you sincerely don’t know love.

Kindness - Philippians 2:3-4 says, “count others more significant than yourselves” and “look to the interests of others.” This one really says a lot to the human race! Just like love and hate don’t walk hand in hand, neither does kindness and hate. If you are filled with kindness toward your fellow man, you don’t allow room for the hatred of your fellow man to seep in and shape who you are.

Goodness - God calls us to have true, right and pure thoughts (Philippians 4:8) God does not call us to hate or think negatively. Again, you’re playing the balancing act (and an act is just what it is) when you can place goodness and hate on the same path. Goodness is a part of loving your enemy as you LOVE yourself. If you hate your neighbor then you must also hate yourself.

Faithfulness – Faith-full-ness. Get it? You’re full of your faith and guided by the hand of God. By letting the dark one rule your thoughts and mind, you are not being pulled by the light of God. Being led down a thoughtless path of hate is not being full of God. Faithfulness is your commitment to the one and only Creator.

Gentleness – I really liked this one from Billy Graham: Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Build others up, don’t tear them down. Believe the best, don’t assume the worst. Distance yourself from harmful gossip.

This one really struck a nerve, in a good way. It helped me to see that I’m on the right path.

Self-control – Controlling the temptation. Another one that is harder than it sounds. So many fall into the pit and don’t even TRY to control it, they just let their crummy thoughts win.

Allow me to say if you can harness all of the eight above, you will have learned the art of self-control and how to utilize it throughout your life, in every aspect!

I have learned a lot as I grow from a young woman to a kinder, gentler, mature woman that it is only by the grace of God do I grow in love and plant the seeds that will refurbish the planet in the Light of the Son!

When people ask, “How do you sleep eight hours a night? Don’t you have any thoughts?”

My reply is simple, “Yes, I place them in God’s hands and find peace.” Know this friends, where there is peace there is rest.

Go with God and you can’t go wrong!

Growth

Rom. 2:19 “And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,”

How can one expect to grow if they are always clinging to the negative fundamental seedlings of non-growth? I see it all too often; people I used to admire, respect and care for feeding off the vulnerable of society in hopes these folks share in their negative thought process.

I love reading people and their positive thoughts. They wake up proclaiming the love of God with WORDS, they continue on in their day with positive WORDS and for some reason, I’m drawn to them like flies to sugar.

On Facebook I have 86 friends. Wow, you might say, only 86? She must be unliked/unloved/unfriendly. Well allow me to tell you, I choose my friends wisely. I don’t just accept friendships to LOOK like I’m popular; I accept friendships of people I truly want to be friends with. That’s pretty hard when you have over 1,000 so-called friends and only a few who you are actually friendly with.

I used to have 89 friends but it is obvious that some have unfriended me because I won’t get on their Political Cruiseship of hate bashing, or their color/race bashing, or their sexual preference bashing. Nope, I am me, a happy go lucky person wanting and NEEDING to share love, period!

Out of my 86 friends I can honestly count on two hands how many of these people I would love to meet and have coffee with in a nice surreal atmosphere. A handful to me is pretty sad, you want to know why? If most of these folk are this political crazy and being the megaphone of injustices in America on facebook, what must these people be like sitting around a table?

Here’s a  meeting scenario for you:

You meet one of your online friends for the first time. Your excitement is building as you assume they’re at least right in the head, right? You meet at Starbucks.

You go to sit down and he says, “Not at THIS table, let’s sit over here.”

“What’s wrong with the table I picked?”

“Well you can see that gay couple can’t you? I won’t sit next to THEM.”

“Seriously?”

Or let’s take this scene:

You meet and want to attend a church service with them, assuming they are okay with a service.

“Not that church”

“WHY?”

“They allow gays, I won’t sit and worship MY God with a bunch of homosexuals! Or even attend a church allowing such!”

*scares me* "Who IS your God?"

Imagine my jaw dropping and my eyes about to burst out of my head as I rush to just leave the visit completely! Surrounding myself with people like that will have a negative impact on me spiritually.

Some will say, “I would never do that.” Wouldn’t you really? Why? As a show of how good you are for real? Then why would you show this sickening side of yourself on a Social media wall where you have hundreds if not thousands of friends looking at you?

Sure, a good post here, a funny post there, then WHAM ‘hate post’ threaded into the weaving of scripture and love. That’s the way many work these days. I’ve lost friends because of my love of Christ posts, but I’ve not removed anyone for their love of the drama posts. If they act this way on a Social Wall, what are they like in reality? Character is built by what you project.

I had to actually deactivate my family facebook account for a few weeks where I have even less friends. When did facebook go from a friendly place of life event sharing to a world of a political platform, drama of everything wrong with this or that party (note: more this party than that party), or everything WRONG with the world??? This is people and their daily lives, really?

I sit back and watch the soap opera Facebook Unleashed, in slow motion and am just left wondering, ‘and they wonder what is WRONG with the world?’ I find myself looking within on many levels and share only the positive things I see and feel around me. Anything negative I might glance at, I don’t allow it to sink in like a sponge and spew venom day after day. Boy, that must be a boring and unfulfilling life that one must lead.

I’m from the old school of you reap what you sow. If all of these people are reaping in the hate, they must be sowing it too. I can only pray for them and try to emit Light and love to the world in hopes one day someone will grab onto it and hold it in their hand and rejoice with it the way I have and try to do daily; not just for show for REAL!

To the few that I would love to meet – keep your light shining bright, I see it and feel as if I know you already on a much more personal level. God has blessed your hearts and souls and I am honored to call you friend. I can only hope that my light will shine as bright as yours one day!

To the others – keep working on it, you might get there someday. God bless!

“6+3= 9 but so does 5+4. The way you do things is not always the ONLY way to do them.

Respect other people’s way of thinking.” A Message of Light post on FB

I will truly keep that in mind.

1 Cor. 4:5 “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

Quotation Saturday ~ Fourth of July!

Fort McHenry - Baltimore Maryland

Acts 22:28 “And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.”

FOURTH OF JULY

“The most elusive and ultimately impossible act of liberation is freedom from sin and self, and no document or declaration of man regardless of how exquisitely penned can do that. Such an astonishing act of liberation could only have been penned in one place: the cross.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Years ago, a group of good, wise, brave, God-fearing men stood up to claim and defend the human right for independence. Those men are now dead. Their work is not. But if good, wise, brave, God-fearing men fail to stand up in their stead, that independence will cease to exist.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich

“Freedom is the atmosphere in which humanity thrives. Breathe it in.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich

“To celebrate the Fourth of July meant something definite in those days.”
― Carol Ryrie Brink

Annapolis Maryland

PATRIOTISM

“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country.”
― Bertrand Russell

Texas

FREEDOM

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
― Virginia Woolf

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
― Nelson Mandela

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.”
― Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons

Fort McHenry - Looking at the Francis Scott Key Bridge

INDEPENDENCE

“I'd rather die my way than live yours.”
― Lauren Oliver

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
― Jane Austen

“To find yourself, think for yourself.”
― Socrates

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice."
[Stanford University commencement speech, 2005]”
― Steve Jobs

Texas

CELEBRATION

“People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Source: The Wisdom of Heschel”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Celebration is an act of impressing sadistic someone residing in you.”
― Santosh Kalwar

“Life is a celebration. Free your mind to find the liberation.”
― Debasish Mridha

“So much of life is in the smallness of moments...but they are harder to mark. So we need the grander celebrations and occasions. People like to feel significant”
― Ally Condie

Annapolis State House