Poetry Sunday ~ I Was Weeping

Christ-mas display in Texas 

John 19:25-26 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

I was weeping…

There were some who placed Him on the cross;

while others pulled His linen to toss.

Some were poking spears in his side

while women below were weeping and cried.

I was weeping.

Men were standing there mocking Him

some laughed and scoffed as His eyes grew dim.

Wails could be heard all across the way

as God put an end to the longest day.

I was wailing.

Some contend He was a guilty man

but only God knew his master plan.

Carried off to a cold empty tomb,

women followed; their faces bore gloom.

I was full of gloom.

In three days she came looking for

a Man that laid in the tomb no more.

Run and tell men to praise and sing

The Lord has risen, our Savior and King!

I was singing!

While many stood in disbelief

there were some who felt great relief.

Not all men nailed Him to that cross

Some people wept and felt the loss.

I was weeping.

Matt. 28:5-9 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

Gateway to Health: The Mind

Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (NIV)

Gateway to Health: The Mind 

Today we’re going to venture into the power of the mind, the weak mind and the powerful mind. Please note, a weak mind does not in any way mean a weak person, it just means you don’t have a powerful mind. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think the mind works in an optimistic or pessimistic flow of thoughts. A powerful minded person is usually an optimist, who sees healing powers whereas a weaker minded person is a pessimist and doesn't necessarily believe the mind holds any power.

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” 
― Marcus Aurelius

I know there’s a scripture that says there is strength in numbers.

Ecc. 4:9 “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour."

Matt 18:20 KJV “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

In context, strength in numbers means people out of context suppose it means THOUGHTS.  Two [thoughts] are better than one.

Where two [positive thoughts] are gathered together…

Think about it. The world would be a much better place if optimism ran rampant in the minds of humans. Such as it is pessimism [is not realism] it is negativism! Doubt and fear are humanistic but fear and doubt are not of God and all He stands for. Being born a pessimist is quite hard to change, just as being an optimist has its hurdles too, but the mind IS a powerful thing to waste.

“Any fear is an illusion. You think something is standing in the way, but nothing is really there. What is there, is an opportunity to do your best and gain some success. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
~ Michael Jordan

The gift of disease can be a blessing to the optimist, devastating to the pessimist. Where I see a time to change, they see a time to give in and give up. Where I, an optimist, see my diagnosis as a positive change, a blessing, to the pessimist they will see a diagnosis as the end of the line, a curse to reckon with.

When I got the diagnosis almost a year ago to the day I asked two oncologists, an M.D. and a P.A a question. If I don’t for one minute believe chemo will work for me, will it work? All four said, “Absolutely NOT!” They all agreed that the mind is very powerful and what I think and believe will shape the outcome.

So when someone (usually pessimists) questions the route I’m taking, I point them directly to my BELIEF that this is healed and the path is already laid out, I’m just following the yellow brick road, so to speak. I obviously have a very strong mind. I sleep eight hours, of good restful sleep, I exercise, eat right and healthy and am an eternal optimist!

The doctors tried to use fear to get me to succumb to their line of treatment. We NEED to slice, dice and radiate you! NOW, we can’t wait, the longer you wait the less chance you have of survival. “Okay. Doc,” I said, “I’ll take my chances with faith.”
Some (pessimist) see this as crazy. Faith doesn’t mean to carry a serious diagnosis like this lightly, is what they think. Then I’ll ask them, just what DOES faith mean to you? 

I read the link from The Truth About Cancer, if you also scrolled to the bottom and read the comments, the one lady says how this is not a gift, it is tiring always looking over your shoulder and hoping. Sad to say, but I don’t feel that all the supplements in the world are going to heal that woman. I read too much negativity from her and she sounds like a pessimist at heart.

If you are a pessimist [realist, whatever you call yourself] there is no easy alternative treatment for you. Go to the doctor, believe your doctor and your doctor will heal you, or at least the drugs you think will can. I am an optimist, I don’t believe for one second a doctor or his drugs can heal me and I have every ounce of faith that my Eternal Healer has already healed me. This does not make me right and you wrong it makes us different, just the way God designed us to be, different.

Pss. 143:5 “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.”

The mind is very powerful. I believe the nation is in the troubles it is in because of the culmination of negative thinkers, the pessimists of the world. Pessimists, by no fault of their own mind you, but by the very power of negative thinking have shaped the world with their doubt and hate. The collective conscience of society has had a detrimental effect on society as a whole. 

While I see the positive beauty in the world, I see hope filtering through from behind a veil obscured from view, yet the negativity shines in the night as a planetarium; it is full of light in the darkness of the cosmos, not the other way around.

Through my Gateway to Health series, I will try and lead you all onto a lighted path. A healthy mind is ESSENTIAL to healing! Please leave your pessimism at the door I just mopped the floor. If you are not willing to TRY and change (I’m not talking about religion here, I’m talking MIND) then you really don’t want to be here. I’m all about ooey gooey optimism and the power of positive thinking. Granted I live for my Lord, positivity can be had believing in light, love and spirituality.  The choice is yours, not mine, I’ve already made MY choice. 

Next up: Spirituality and Meditation

I Choose To Believe

Gen. 15:6 "And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness."

I Choose To Believe

I have a new favorite movie, it’s titled Little Boy and it’s about faith, racism, hate, love and belief. It shows the strength of one little boy who gains faith so that he can move mountains AND that he can will his father home from the war. I like this show so much that I watch it over and over again when I feel doubt seeping into my life and it pulls me out of the mire. 

As you should know by now I have been diagnosed with cancer; Her2 positive stage 3. The first day I was told I was devastated because like you, the word cancer elicits fear and immediately the word death falls from your lips. How do I know? I’ve had too many people in my life fall victim and die that’s how. ALL chose chemo, ALL are now deceased. 

The next day I woke up empowered to change this diagnosis and fight it head on. It’s no different than Christ calling you into battle and you either fall to the sheep and follow behind what the majority of men and women on this earth would do, or you take up arms and fight for Him.

I drastically halted my lifestyle in one day; no sugars and no carbs. Had I done this sooner, I might not be here writing about this diagnosis but it is what it is and here I am finding a way to LIVE. What I found with this shift was that I had no food to eat. I looked in the fridge and there was food, but the meat was chemically enhanced for taste, the cheese processed, the boxed food all had chemicals that would feed the cancer, even the vegetables were chemically treated with toxins for better growth and sprayed with pesticides, rinsing them, soaking them in vinegar is not going to take out what was put into something as simple as a carrot. 

I went through the week nibbling on toxins until I could find a weapon on the battleground. Organic, cancer-fighting techniques that could actually STOP the progress of all the toxins I’d had in my body. I would halt the growth of the cancer that I was feeding on a daily basis. The little YouCaringFund is essential in helping me in this battle! I thank each and every one of you for fighting this battle WITH me not against me. I love you!

What I’m finding out is that we all have the cancer cells dormant in our body and it's just a matter of time until they wake up and decide to take over all the cells in your body until you no longer have a defense mechanism in place. That small lump is fed day after day by your chemically treated water, your nice big fat juicy steak that was shot up with steroids, your vegetables that were sprayed with toxic chemicals before they were processed and treated to another chemical treatment so they last longer on the shelf.

You’ll say you don’t agree with the way our food is chemically treated, yet day after day your placing chemicals and toxins in your body that you think is good food because you think it was properly handled. Just how was that fish caught out in the Pacific Ocean tasting until the thought of Fukushima Japan had a chemical leak popped into your head? You rinsed it? You cleaned it? And that made it all better? I guess the poison didn’t get into the meat of the fish, huh? 

The following week after my diagnosis, I was told that chemotherapy would be used in the fight of my cancer. Wait a minute, it is the toxins and chemicals in the food and water that got me here and I’m supposed to just let you shoot me up with more toxins and radiation?  I might as well eat all of the Pacific Ocean fish I can, it’s not going to hurt me right? Radiation is good, right?

Research, that’s what I need and you know what I found out? Radiation is not good. Radiation will kill the cancer cells but it will also kill any other immune-boosting cells I have. More research, page after page, hour after hour, the result? I can beat cancer without chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the LAST resort, not the FIRST resort. 

If you can go into battle with vitamins, oils and hoop-de-la witch doctor fanatics (that’s what everyone believes self-treatment is really) why are people still dying of cancer? Let me put it this way, just because you took the fish out of the water and cleaned him up, it isn’t fighting what built up his muscle throughout his life. 

Holistic healing is just that, HEALING the meat on my body from within with God given herbs, fruits, and vegetables that were essentially put here for us to nurture our bodies with. The almighty dollar got in the way as the government allowed its people to be slowly deprived of the real nutrition that would sustain our life. They shot up our cows and pigs and poultry and gardens as well as our waterways with TOXIC CHEMICALS. We are now junkies relying on our fix and I am fighting back just as any other drug addict would. Do they treat drug addicts with chemo? No, why not? 

Cancer is NOT a death sentence, it is a wake-up call! Am I going to die? Yes, I am but I will go out fighting! Are you going to die? Most definitely, you don’t know when or how no more than I do. Do I want to live? Most definitely, just as much as you do but I’m taking action right now right this minute as I purify my system not toxify. If I continue in cleaning up my body the old way with toxins and poisons, vitamins and supplements will never reach the portion of my biological chemistry that's needed to change the outcome.

Remember, cleaning off the fish is not going to make him healthy enough to eat, he has to be cleansed from the INSIDE and there is only one way to do that, counterattack the toxins in his system. Fish need to be nourished not destroyed. Man needs to start tending his garden now not shooting up to get his fix for another day. 

Back to the movie Little Boy, he believed! He believed he could end the war, he believed he could will his father home, he believed! He had the faith of a mustard seed and that is all we’re asked to have. I BELIEVE I can beat this! I BELIEVE I can win the battle! I don’t believe in chemo so how is that going to help me? I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE!

p.s. If you have a negative opinion and goes against what I BELIEVE please keep it to yourself. It’s not helping, it only adds negativity to an ocean of positivity. 

Top Ten Trigger List

acidic vs akaline

An alkaline chart:

Matt. 17:20  "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

Reflecting

google image

sad tree

Isa. 40:31 "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

A Reflecting Post

I’m writing this on Monday, September 7th a day before the election that will change the world. I could already feel the rise in change at the beginning of the year and my fellow man didn’t let me down. They began the year consumed in hate and carried the angst all the way through to November and surely through December with the outcome no one will like.

I saw hypocrites crawl out of the woodwork like termites in dry-rotted wood all taking their place in the march to destroy whatever pleasantries one has known in America. I’ve been writing my heart out this year taking my stance with Christ and my love for Him, never to be swayed by the vermin of society who has taken a stance in the mire. 

Sadly, I can count on one hand the people who stayed true to their beliefs and didn’t succumb to the rallying cries of animosity. It is as if believers were on a collective conscious stream where we gathered together knowing the destruction had unfolded and they/WE were not going to be a part of it, they would fight against the flow and stand firmly with their faith!

I will add to this writing on November 9th when the shock of what the humans have done sinks in. Are they going to all stand proud? Are they going to rally together and continue with their bashing and displeasure? Are they going to boast of their love of God while raging at their brother?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, thank you for showing me that you CAN be stronger in Christ by not allowing the antagonism to wash over you and carry you into the swamp of a broken democracy, a shattered people. I am proud to call you friend as I’ve watched this entire year, as you stood separate from the indignation and finger pointers who added to the demise of our country.

My brothers and sisters, you stood tall in the face of a challenge. You brought God to the world and were messengers of the Word and never let the hate filter in. You never strayed. Yes, we may all be sinners, but God NEEDED us to be strong for HIM, and so many in the world have let Him down but you, you stood firm FOR Him. For that very reason, I know you are truly blessed and will continue to be the Light the world needs to see in this time of darkness.

Words from my dear friend, Bob Hembree, the day before Election Day 2016:

“Most of us agree social media has contributed to the ugly current of distrust toward our social institutions, the foundations of American stability. This includes legitimate news organizations, the sciences and all three branches of the government. We pick our news sources based on our prejudices, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Lies have more weight than truth if they agree with our politics. We create enemies on impulse, decide who is a criminal, then create the crimes. When legitimate news reporting disproves these charges, they too become the criminals, the accomplice’s, the co-conspirators. When the truth no longer matters, what's left but chaos? It doesn’t matter who wins the presidency tomorrow. The damage is done. My vote is not for the individual, but for the party best able to handle damage control. We need all the sanity and empathy we can get.”

I’ve been around for quite a few elections in my life but never have I feared one the way I do this one. Will we wake and act as if this year filled with angst, destruction, and chaos never happened? I don’t think so, I think they’ll wake with the same resentment that they carried all year. Will they accept change, male or female there IS going to be change. This sentence stuck with me from Bob, “Lies have more weight than truth if they agree with our politics.”

I now wait to see what the morning after brings. 

11 9 2016 ~ Reality sets in

the morning after

I’ll have to admit first that I did not stay up and wait and see what the people had done but I rose this morning turned on my computer to see Hillary’s smiling face in the headline. Oh, it was just a split screen picture; Donald Trump was squished to the left of the box that announced we now have a reality TV star for President of the United States.

The headlines down the google page read like this:

2016 Election: Donald Trump Wins the White House in Upset NBC - News.com
Featured: Donald Trump's Stunning Upset -The Atlantic
Trending: Donald Trump wins the presidency in stunning upset over Clinton - Washington Post
Live Updating: Election Night live blog: Trump's historic upset and the last cliffhangers --The Mercury News
Republicans keep control of Congress - CNN
Allies scramble after 'huge shock' of Trump victory – Politico
Trump victory sparks angry protests across California: 'Not my president' -Los Angeles Times

And don’t even get me started on the facebook wall.

The reality of all of this is that we are not United States, we are bullies and get what we want by bullying, misleading, lies, dishonesty. The Missouri pick three (obviously fixed and nothing random about it) 666? I question everything in my world.

What was once a world power has now become the laughing stock of the world! You did it people, aren’t you happy? You kicked, you screamed, you whined, you pushed, you shoved, you lied and threw a tantrum and now you’ve gotten your way. Does it feel good? I wouldn’t know because what I feel in the pit of my stomach is not a fluffy feel good churning. 

I woke to find a different world surrounding me. I see people are in shock for what they made into a reality. I feel tremors under my feet as the earth is quaking in fear. As we reflect on the year that could’ve been, make note of the year that was because the spinning of the globe has only just begun to collapse. Hold on tight to your loved ones, ignore the reality, as many people think I do, and realize this is the new world of Reality Television and we the people are the stars. 

I Stand with Christ!

John 11:35 "Jesus wept."

The Truth Hurts

Gen.1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

The Truth Hurts

Well, yesterday was a good day even with summer rearing its ugly head to let me know it hasn’t gone too far away. Sometimes summer does that, it holds onto the season until the very last day and sometimes longer not wanting to let go and release the cooler temperatures of autumn!

After a quite refreshing couple of days in the fifties, eighty degrees raised the bar yesterday. Sure I stayed inside and did my work but I could feel the warmth tapping on the closed windows wanting to heat the house. Then last night we had a thunderstorm that washed away the heat in a light show beyond comparison. Flashing across the sky, lightning lit up the south, west and northern portions of the sky, the strobe light blinked in red and bluish hues. 

You could say I got a wake-up call yesterday in speaking the truth, right or wrong? I called my mother like I normally do at the same time every evening. I was in a relaxed mode as we had settled in to watch our movie but I pause the movie every evening to call my mother back home.

I could sense harshness in her tone but I shrugged it off as the conversation continued. She had said that she had a bad day, I knew what that meant but I prodded for more info and maybe I should have just ended the call by saying maybe a better day tomorrow but  it’s my mother, I needed to know if she was okay. 

A little back-story might help you with where I’m going with this. My mother lost her best friend, her husband of sixty years and she misses him intensely! A bad day means she just sits there thinking about him, his illness, his hospital stay, and most heart-wrenchingly, his death. As is to be expected, she has her good days and her bad days.

It hurts me to no end that I can’t be there for her but my calls have got to be enough at this juncture in my life and MY healing. She went on how my sister took her out to lunch and a little shopping. I know it’s good for her to get out and that is her healing mechanism, to shop. It always has been.

She told me about a book she read (this is where the conversation went downhill) about a young boy who died and went to heaven and came back and told this story of meeting Jesus in heaven and his deceased sister (that he had no knowledge of before the coma). The story Heaven Is for Real is the book she was referring to. 

She went on to tell me that because of THAT book she believes Heaven is for real and that ‘I’ should read the book to see for myself. I told her I READ a book that tells me heaven is for real called The Holy Bible. She retorted, “Oh, I’m going to read that one too.”

But then her tone became one of anger and she started berating me, “Why do you always have a conflicting response? Everything I say, you always try to correct me!”

Calmly I spoke and said, “I think I need to call you tomorrow.” I was not going to allow her bad day to leak through the phone and cause ME to have a bad day (too late) also. It already had in ways you don’t want to know. 

Was I wrong in telling her the truth? Should I let her believe Jesus is up there with a rainbow crown prancing with unicorns? Was I wrong in directing her to the bible? Should I let my mother holler at me like a two-year-old because she is grieving? I did and ended the call and afterward, I cried.

I told my son what had happened because he had overheard me, after talking to my mother, very loudly vocalizing my hurt from the phone call and then suffering a chest-tightening anxiety attack. 

His response? “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” 

Yeah, I spat that at him more times than once, now it was his turn to fling those sentiments at me. Boy, I'm batting a thousand in the feel good vibes!

I explained to him that I respect our difference in beliefs; I don’t force my belief on him, I already lost that battle and he is his own person believing what he wants. But no one wants to respect MY beliefs. So now here I am…

Tears roll down my cheek as I wonder if all of this is in vain. Am I writing the truth, yes I know it is MY truth, to believers or non-believers? Do the non-believers think I’m an overbearing, pompous, bible thumping donkey? Do believers believe the same truth? Prayer…lots of prayer time for ME coming up in the following weeks, I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I know grief has no time limit. I understand the mourning process. I have lost all four grandparents (not the same as a husband), I’ve lost two children (not the same as a husband), I’ve lost a father, along with aunts and uncles to illness or suicide (not the same as a husband); so maybe I don’t understand my mothers’ grief. Maybe it IS normal for her to buy my father's cologne so she can inhale the fragrance he once wore. 

I don’t understand the loss of a husband and truly hope I don’t have to ever cross that bridge but one thing I AM certain of is Heaven, FOR ME! I’m not certain if my father is there, I don’t know if my mother will wind up there, I don’t even know if I’M going to end up there but… I DO KNOW HEAVEN IS THERE! I will strive to reach heaven, long for it, and always feel it within my grasp. 

Maybe I should just shut my mouth and stop my fingers now.

Matt. 18:3 “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Quotation Saturday ~ There Is Hope

Pss. 130:5  “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.”

ATHEIST

“I don't profess any religion; I don't think it’s possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words ‘spiritual’ or ‘spirituality.'”
[Interview, The New Yorker, Dec. 26, 2005] 
― Philip Pullman

“The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven. The Bible is the product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.” 
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“...it is not to be understood that I am with him [Jesus] in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist, he takes the side of spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance toward forgiveness of sin. I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it... Among the sayings & discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence: and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being."

[Letter to William Short, 13 April 1820]
― Thomas Jefferson,

AGNOSTIC

“As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.” 
― Bertrand Russell

“You could just as well say that an agnostic is a deeply religious person with at least a rudimentary knowledge of human fallibility.” 
― Carl Sagan

“My lack of faith in God is not a dilapidated house.
It does not need to be razed to the ground or burned down to cinders.
I refuse to be the wounded woman on a cross
that you crucify with your disapproval like nails;
I will only be the woman who believes in thunderstorms
the same way lightning loves the tops of trees it strikes
every time it gets tired of being pent up in an unforgiving sky,
the only difference is that I believe these are natural weather phenomenons,
not God’s belly rumbling or synapses firing.
When my doorway is filled with groups of people
wielding religious conversion pamphlets like crossbows,
I will be the martyr who steps aside to let the arrows
crack through the plaster in my wall instead of piercing my chest.
This is not a eulogy to the believer I could have been.
This is a battle cry to the believer I always have been,
believer in sunsets like splashes of paint, handholding
like willow branches brushing one another, new mornings
after old nights spent drowning in despair, believer
in love as an entire language instead of a single word.
Just because my beliefs align themselves on a different spectrum
does not mean they are the wrong wavelength or color.
And even though I think the universe was created by the Big Bang
instead of a God with magic dust shooting from his fingertips,
my universe does not contain fewer stars.” 
― Meggie Royer

FAITH

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” 
― C.S. Lewis

“God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.” 
― Elbert Hubbard

“Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We can't always understand them, but we have to trust in them. I know you want to question everything, but sometimes it pays to just have a little faith.” 
― Lauren Kate

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” 
― Søren Kierkegaard

BELIEF

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.” 
― Mitch Albom

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.” 
― Stuart Chase

HOPE

“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you're going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.” 
― C. JoyBell C.

“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

“Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul 
And sings the tune without the words 
And never stops at all.” 
― Emily Dickinson

“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” 
― Kalu Ndukwe Kalu

Belief vs. Knowledge

Ex. 31:3 “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,”

“I no longer want to be a Christian. Oh, I want to follow Christ and stick to my beliefs but to be a person who calls herself a Christian I feel like I have to put on an armored coat while all other Christians walk around pretending to be a Christian and wearing the face mask the rest of the week. They are the Sunday only Christians I spoke of in another post.”

Please note I do have on the full armor of the Lord and that the term ‘Christian’ I found only three times in the bible:

Acts.11:26 “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

Acts.26:28 “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

1Pet.4:16 “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”

Also, note that I make the statement above to see a reaction, not as a statement of me giving up on everything I believe in. And you just know there will be more posts, so hang in there before judging me. I’ll say this also, if any man (or woman) suffer as a Christian, let him glorify God on this behalf. 

Belief vs. Knowledge - I can see this topic is not one that I’m equipped to just spew out an answer of the differences in a few hundred words, so links will be added so you can read your heart out. 

Belief vs. Knowledge an interesting read.

Knowledge definition: 1. facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.

Belief: 1. an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.
2. trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.

My belief comes from knowledge not via books, or an encyclopedia or the internet, not from scientists or ministers, it comes from what I’ve experienced and know to be true to ME. That is what makes my strong belief different and that is that it comes from hands-on, visual, and sometimes spiritual experiences that have happened to me in my life. After an experience, I would check a book to see if I’m crazy or not and more times than not my experience is not much unlike many of the people that I’ve read about in the bible and others who have been on the same journey.

Let me just say, before everyone goes off thinking I’m losing my faith, satan himself has tried to shake my faith and I’m still here writing about what has been MY experience, in a nutshell, I AM NOT LOSING MY FAITH.

My post is not here to sway you to think MY way, my post is here to have you and you alone think, to search, to read, to feel for yourself what is the truth that lies within YOU.

Yesterday’s post about agnostics vs. atheist struck a nerve in veins I never thought reachable. The journey I’m on has me meeting many different people, ones I don’t understand and subjects I need to do a little research on so I don’t come off as someone who don’t know what they’re talking about. 

My post yesterday brought about a slew of links, worthy of a share.

Are all religions the same? 

Hypocrisy in the Church: 

What IS the Church? 

Church bullies? 

What NOT to say to someone who has been hurt by the church: 

As with all of my writing, I aim to gain knowledge, to grow as a person and to share with you my experience along the way. I’m not writing so you can tell me I’m right or wrong, just as your opinion to me is not right or wrong, it is growth, internal or external growth is what we are all here for on this planet. Growth is the very reason we were planted.

My suffering is a part of that growth. I don’t announce to the world that I’m struggling or suffering to gain pity, I offer it to you so you can see my growth through my suffering. You get a visual of what my suffering entails then the further writing of blog posts show you how I as a human being have grown through the pain. 

I am human. I am a sinner. I am the very hypocrite you fear (not for my lies but for times I may judge wrongly) yet the one you long to speak to and embrace. I am a living testament to MY belief through the knowledge that I gained via experience. In truth… I AM ME!

2 Thes. 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

Agnostic vs. Atheist

2 Thes. 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

I don’t know much about agnosticism or atheism but I’m going to do a little research and find out. Maybe it’s because I don’t understand the language.

I have a friend who said he’s agnostic but now he says he’s a Christian; my son who was a Christian now says he’s agnostic. This riddled my brain because I’ve been a Christian for the majority of my life and I don’t understand the concept of not believing or needing proof. My son tells me that my beliefs are like a foreign language to him, he doesn’t understand me, and so here I am trying to understand something I may never understand. 

The definition of agnostic is:
A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.

The definition of atheist is:
A person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.

To me, an agnostic needs proof to believe in the existence of God where an atheist could care less if there is a God and they live every day waiting for the cold, clammy earth that awaits them after death. 

Agnostic vs. atheist - Atheism is about belief, or specifically what you don't believe. Agnosticism is about knowledge, or specifically about what you don't know. An atheist doesn't believe in any gods. An agnostic doesn't know if any gods exist or not.

When raising my son I took him to church, a church that baptized him and saw him through the ritualistic practices every Sunday. He attended the youth groups and he enjoyed it at first but I always told him that he was his own person and could believe in what he wanted to believe and that I could not force him to believe in what I believed. 

Around the age of seventeen my son told me that he didn’t have the same belief as me, he was now an agnostic and though it was a little startling, seeing as I tried so hard raising him right, it hit me like a swift angry wind, it stung. What did I do wrong? I was assured I had done nothing wrong and realized he was now his own person and could make decisions on his own. 

When I asked him what had happened, as vocal as the young man is, he told me point blank, hypocrites happened. Adam has eyes to see and ears to hear and when he witnessed so-called Christians, they were of the Sunday only variety. They looked and performed the Christianity on Sunday but the rest of the week they would drink, curse and be filled with hate so unchristianlike he assumed most Christians were fakes hiding behind masks. He also told me this, “Not all Christians are like you mom, they don’t see what you see.” He went on to say that it was like if I went over to China I would not understand their language just as they wouldn’t understand my language or my faith. He did have a point. I tried to teach him a language he didn’t understand.

As I dug deeper into this agnostic vs. atheist it helped me to understand where my son was coming from in his beliefs, since we were obviously on different pages. I asked him if he believed in Jesus and he said yes because there is proof of His existence. 

This site answered it better than I ever could. 

Tim Staples wrote: “An agnostic is someone who believes human beings simply cannot know anything metaphysical or beyond the physical realm; therefore, they cannot know whether things like spirit, angels or God exist at all.”

Pss. 53:4 “Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.”

There it is in a nutshell for ME. You see, I’ve always put God on the metaphysical level understanding the spirit so as not to be led into a belief of some man high in the clouds sitting on a golden throne judging the lower man of earth. To ME, Jesus was a man, God was the spirit in which He was created thus to me, Jesus IS the Son of God. 

I hit another point to ponder: Austin Cline wrote: “One major problem is that atheism and agnosticism both deal with questions about the existence of gods, but whereas atheism involves what a person does or does not believe, agnosticism involves what a person does or does not know. Belief and knowledge are related but nevertheless separate issues.”

An AHA moment for sure. Belief and knowledge are related but totally separate issues. I wonder if there is another blog topic in here that I will most likely do research on, belief and knowledge. To ME, my belief is my faith and my faith is built on MY knowledge. I can’t judge what others believe because it is a foreign language to me. Only they know what knowledge they have so who am I to judge whether a person is an agnostic or an atheist.

The so-called Christians who turned my son from God is another topic I’ll delve into because they certainly have their eyes on me so I will turn the camera on them. 

Job 36:4 “For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.”

One World

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.”

One social world is enough for me, thank you. I don’t do the whole kit and kaboodle when it comes to social media rounds, and quite honestly as a person, it does nothing for me. I was recently asked to join another ‘social scene’ and I had to flat out decline the invitation. 

I started an account, looked at the wall and once again, it is filled with hate-mongers. Are they hiding their hate on THAT wall and acting all lovey on their facebook wall where people see them? I don’t know but I do know that as soon as I saw all of the same hate spewing I quickly deleted the account laughing at my own stupidity for falling for such a snare.

As a writer I need Twitter and Facebook to promote my writing and myself. I don’t need to be a part of a social scene where people have nothing to offer the world but their hate-filled OPINIONS of the world! Goodness, take a breather! How does one live in two worlds when they can’t even handle the ONE world they live in without it leaving a bitter taste in their mouth?

I wouldn’t dare take on another social wall unless it benefited my writing but that’s just me. I’m weird that way. I have more to do with my life than sit on the computer at social events spewing hate, what I ate, to take selfies to show that I and my world are just perfect, or to share memes of what I REALLY want to say. I care more about myself than to put myself in the accepted or rejected seat yet again. 

More times than not I’m rejected. Is it because people don’t like the truth I spew? I know people are leery of the God I believe in and I’m okay with that. It’s not like I tell them that it is MY truth and they must follow, I let them decide for themselves who it is they are committed to and here lately, the world is committed to technology over any form of theology I could ever dish out.

The world doesn’t look people in the eyes anymore, the world looks at their phones as they’re texting. They drive and text and more often than not, people die and have accidents because of texting. Is there anything more important in life than living life? I thought it was just a kid phase but no, more and more adults are using their phones as a means to staying connected to the world-wide-web.

I have never taken one of those ‘selfies’ that everybody is hooked on and I don’t text either, does that make me an unacceptable life form? It must mean I’m a scary uptight snob or something. 

In my writing, I like to convey a message. If I have something important to say, I say it and if it is too lengthy, I write and blog about the message. I live out in the middle of nowhere and oftentimes the internet is my only source of the candid view of the outside world that I behold. 

“A lot of people believe I am a Christian because they think I talk about Christian values; the truth is I talk about Human Values.
I have been asked if I am a Buddhist because I have discovered Inner Peace.
Many of my friends are Pagans, and they think that I am one too because I say that being in Nature is like going to Church.
Do you want to know who I really am? It’s very simple. I don’t need a label to define me. I am a piece of the Universe, Sentient and Manifested; I AM AWAKE.”
~ Paul Enso Hillman

Because of the people out there, I don’t define myself as a Christian. That is a label that is misused too much. People believe in God; they call themselves Christians. They read the Bible; they’re Christians. Talk about spirituality, they think you’re not a Christian yet the very book they read about THEIR God is FULL of spirituality so if they really read the book and understood the meaning, why does my spirituality scare them? 

Pss. 50:12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.”

I am not the kind of person who praises God one minute then is so filled with hate that I must relay that hate to get it off of my chest. I am not blind to the world but the world is blind to me. I don’t come out of the woodwork to whine, I don’t display attributes that I will later regret and I don’t follow people just because they think they are a leader.

I am a child of God. You can label yourself any way you’d like but know, your actions are what people see and it turns them against the very belief some of you so-called Christians are trying to guide them into. I won’t be a part of the show.

Isa. 13:11 “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.”

Faith

God, like faith, cannot be seen or proven, it must be felt within and carried with you daily. Allow your testimony of His blessings be your proof!

Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Heb 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Pss. 12:1 “Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.”

Pss 89: [1] I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
[2] For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
[5] And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.
[8] O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
[24] But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
[33] Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
[37] It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

Isa. 25:1 “O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.”

Matt. 6: 30 “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

Matt. 17:17 “Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.”
[20] “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Acts 16:5 “And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.”

Acts 26:18 “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

Rom 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
[12] That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
[17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

God Bless you all!

Just sayin'

Sometimes people struggle. They struggle with following, with believing and with faith. Sure it’s so easy to not concern yourself and just go with the flow like everyone else but let me tell you, conforming to the world makes up a good portion of the struggle.

I hear from many who say, “I pray, but He never answers,” or “I have faith, but I’m scared,” or “I believe!” but have no follow through with their belief.

Number one, when you pray, He always answers, it just might not be the answer YOU wanted, but mark my word, He heard you and answered. You need to be aware of the blessing and SEE it as a blessing, not an unanswered prayer.

Number two, having faith is just that, faith in the unknown and unexpected. Faith is NOT fearing, it is washing away all doubt in not knowing, and expecting the unexpected to happen. I say unexpected because we sometimes expect a situation to go one way (our  way) and it veers off and goes another way (unexpected, God’s way.)

Number three, you can’t just be a believer. If you sit at home with words tucked in your pocket, “I believe, I have faith, I pray, I read the bible.” To be bluntly honest here, they are empty words which equals an empty faith.

To believe, you must embrace the life God has set before you. To struggle is a part of that belief and as your ACTIONS carry you through the struggle, you will be either a stronger person or a weaker person.

Take a look at number three again. You believe, have faith, pray, and read the bible, right? But what do your ACTIONS say? Are you belittling people, ‘that good for nothing, look what he’s doing now,’ ranting, ‘can you believe this? I just had to share so you can rant with me,’ gossiping, ‘can you believe she did/said this or that?’

Feeling good getting all those pent up frustrations off your chest? Well no wonder you’re struggling. Your eyes are not on the Lord just because your words declared it. You’re struggling; fighting with the enemy and he has the upper hand because it is evident in your actions.

Now some will read this and state quite firmly, I’m not struggling. But let me ask, are you the same person you were years ago? Have you actively sought to change? Do you find yourself still hanging on the media and their words? Do you still engage at taking those words as truth then judging the person they’re speaking of?

Are you focused on God?

I can scan an entire news feed without forming a disgruntled opinion. I take my eyes off the screen, look out the window and thank the Lord for a beautiful sunrise. When I read about suffering and hostilities in the world, again, I gaze out the window to see the beauty in the day. When I see women demoralizing themselves, I pray for them, I don’t click that which satan has put before me. I’m not a ‘need to click, see, watch, laugh, judge’ kind of person. I’m a God person and everything that comes forth of me will be to glorify God. Nothing more, nothing less.

Believing and having faith is trusting that God knows what He’s doing. He didn’t need your help in creating you, He certainly doesn’t need your help in getting you to the right place on your journey.

Being a God person is knowing the difference in satan and God, period. When your eyes are always on God (although you’ll be persecuted) satan loses his strength in getting to you (not that he won’t try) but as a God person, you wield armor no other force can get through, and that is the armor of God.

Putting PHYSICAL ACTIONS behind your following, faith, belief, prayer, and what you read. Typing on a keyboard is not the physical action I’m referring to either.

Just sayin’

Is God dead?

Pss. 40: 10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Is God dead?

I’ve been taking a break from writing these past few months, and a friend of mine made the comment, “You’re abandoning your God given talent?”

“No, no I’m not,” I offer, “I’m taking a rest.”

We live in a day and age where people need proof that God exists. They go on and on about having faith, but then they seek out ‘proof’ in archeological findings to see if He was really real, if Jesus existed, if the flood was real, if Moses parted the sea. Is that faith?

I can be preachy at times, but that is by my choice not because someone or some religion expects it from me. I don’t and won’t push my beliefs on anyone but I will share when my heart is heavy laden and I need to get things out there.

I read the news daily and also the comments. Whatever you do in the yahoo comment section, don’t mention God. You’ll get thumbs down out the wazoo! It seems to many that God is an imaginary creature that man has created in the wellsprings of the mind and passed on for thousands of years. Is His legend dying?

By no means. If He can still anger so many people for existing, then I think he is very much alive. They just need proof.

I know this is a writing blog but among writers this debate goes on and on too. This weeks question:

Does adherence to rationality lead to atheism ?

George (opposes Christ) wrote: Paula, I'm glad you are so certain. I know it gives great comfort. I agree that there is a lot of wisdom in the Bible and the Judeo-Christian religions. There is also a lot of mythological fantasy obviously written by man and plagiarized from previous versions of a God.
None of that convinces me that I am doomed to hell for not buying in to the whole nine yards. I go to church with my wife often. At the end of the sermon, the Pastor always says, for those who have not found him yet, ask him into your hearts now. I do that with as much earnestness as I can. The message I get in return is, "You are on the right path, keep trucking, no worries."  (Joni’s note: So where does this message you get come from? Your mind?)
It takes no faith to be an Atheist or Agnostic, it takes great faith to be a Christian. Why many keep trying to make a parallel with that is beyond me and shows a weakness in their faith. LOL 
Where we agree is that in the working of the laws of nature there sometimes appear (for me) positive, unexpected, synergistic results that I choose to attribute to a "Higher Power." I have observed countless miracles in that manner and I am constantly amazed by them. (Joni’s note: Higher power? Would THAT be God?)
The people in my wifes' church here in Texas pray for everything, world peace, end the drought, win the lottery, cure cancer etc. I don't have faith in that kind of "Prayer on demand" but they do, despite any rationally measured success rate.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it until new evidence appears. Which I am open to.

Paula (believer of Christ) wrote: If you were God and you created beings that you love, then do you make them robots? That's not love. That is slavery or worse. So you create this universe and humans evolve from that. They have a choice. The wrong choices humans make have terrible consequences for other humans and nature itself. We have to take responsibility for this and not blame God.

I get really mad at God sometimes, but this life is going to end for me some day. What evidence do I have that no matter how bad this life gets there is still a sunrise? Don't slam the door on my viewpoint. Go back and reread the biblical accounts and the books written about the evidence. There is real evidence.

Cathy (a believer) wrote: George, I don't think that Jesus performed "magic" which is usually a form of trickery where the hand is quicker than the eye. Now how they saw people in half and separate the box, I have no idea. But Jesus was pure, God's power which is ever present for all of us flowed through him. It was his intention rooted in compassionate love that allowed him to use that power to heal the sick. It's like having a very well wired house but never having established the service contract. It is capable of making the lights go on and all of the appliances work but with out meeting the condition of turning on the source, nothing works. So what is the price for service? That is what the whole gospel and teachings of Jesus are about. It is the instructions manual about how to get to the state of a pure and contrite heart that will get the evil and distractions or our fleshly appetites out of the way and under control so that the divine power can flow through us. We are designed to be fully divine. Jesus was the fully functioning 'model unit" so to speak to show the way and motivate mankind to change and return to God.

*  *  *

Let me tell you, George went on for pages decrying the falsity of God and Jesus. Every scientific theory he came up with, there was a believer with a somewhat better argument, in my opinion. But then again, I’m a believer.

I’ve learned many things in my young life, and as a believer there are some things you just don’t talk about: money, God and Religion. I myself don’t have an argument for atheist. They don’t believe and maybe never will. Believers will speak and write, often falling on deaf ears. But hidden among all the rubble is TRUTH. That is where people get divided; seeking out the TRUTH.

In my rational mind allow me to ask you this: How come no one blames Zeus for striking their house with a lightning bolt burning it and all material things to the ground? Why doesn’t man blame atlas for the climate change? Why do they blame a God they don’t believe in? Boggles the mind.

Where does all this fit into the WRITING world?  Apparently the writers of the world are seeking some truth to their writing so that they’re not misleading readers. But who really has the TRUTH?

I watch as man defecates on man, destroys the very thing that they believe in and we wonder, “Where is God in all this turmoil?” There’s a post going around facebook that says something like this: “The teacher is quietest during the test.”  I like that!

He’s watching us destroy ourselves and don’t worry, He’ll be back to ‘correct our mistakes on the test’. But don’t take my word on it, seek out the proof you need, seek out the truth and before you know it, you’ll fall flat on your face in the realization of, the TRUTH!

Holy Week ~ Holy Life

pic taken from the internet

Ephesians 5:8 “But be filled with the Spirit”

It would seem I am on a Sabbatical. This is the time I am reflective as my New Year is coming on Easter Sunday.

I’m strange that way, you know. I never celebrate the New Year on January 1^st because really all that is, is a calendar change. A man-made calendar no less. Easter on the calendar is a man-made holiday, but spiritually it is so much more to me.

I know many of my readers are not Christians, per se, and whatever you believe is fine with me. Don’t judge me and I will surely not judge you and your faith/beliefs/religion.

When I was a child, I was being raised as a Catholic. We were in no way devout Catholics, we went to Church, not as a family, but to put our little envelope in the offering plate, so we’d have reduced tuition for our Catholic school upbringing. Is THAT where I found God? I’m sorry to say, no. It is where I was introduced to Him, but not where I FOUND Him.

Later, when I was about 13 years old, I was sent to a Christian school for my high school years, this is the place I FOUND not only God, but Jesus, in action. I turned myself over to Him and became a born-again Christian, a foreign term to my family. They assumed it meant I was going to be weirded out and a ‘Holy-Roller’ in the process. By no means is that what being born-again means!

(Author’s note: I use the term Holy Roller loosely because we lived across the street from a Church of God, and the people of that church worshiped nightly, praising God.  To each his own.)

Being born-again, means turning your life over to Christ and allowing Him to live in your soul, via the Holy Spirit. In a sense, I did get weirded out, because I was no longer bound to ‘mans’ law, I was bound by God’s laws.

Did becoming a Christian make me a sinless person? Again, by no means. Instead it made me aware of being a sinner; awakened me to my sins. I call myself a Spiritual Christian, only because the Spirit lives and dwells in me, making me aware of all of my surroundings, my actions in life, my mistakes and most clearly, my sins.

I have found inner peace, I am one with nature and the universe, but note I believe that God is the driving force of inner peace, nature and the universe. These truths can be found in the Holy Bible, Old and New Testament, and while many will retort, “The Bible is man made.” I will reply, yes it is, man made, God inspired. Can you deny that? I mean really, I’m a writer with a creative mind, but even I couldn’t come up with the stuff in the Holy Bible and have ancient artiFACTS to back up the testimony, no less.

Matt. 13: 9 “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

That means, since the formation of Earth and before, there has been something out there divinely inspiring us to be better people, to be aware of our surroundings, to be awake in a world that sleeps in the closet called materialistic/consumerism/media-driven life.

So where did I find this ‘Jesus’? I didn’t find Him in a school, a church or even a book, I found Him in…my soul. He was there all the time, I just needed to awaken that spirit, to come alive in me, and practice all that He was showing me.

“…you have to be willing to sacrifice everything to follow God and to follow what He’s called you to do.” ~Patricia Heaton

Ten years ago, I did one of the scariest things in my Christian adult life. I gave up everything: my home, all the materials in the home, my husband, and many cherished belongings. I kept my most precious gift and that was my son and I swept him away because God was calling me to do something. Something against my nature and everything I had been raised to believe, and put my entire trust in Him and where He was leading me.

I could not see where He was leading me and it took a few years to grasp what it was He would have me do, but as I sit here now, ten years later, I have clarity and celebrate the New Year this Sunday as a continuation of my faith, beliefs, and trust in the only being that trusted me, 100%, no questions or doubts.

Throughout the ten years, I was brought into a church, I rejoice with like-minded people, and God’s grace showed me that not ALL churches are built on hypocrisy. Each Church, He chose for us, we attended, and found Spirit-led people, who loved and honored Christ.

In 2007: Roundgrove United Methodist Church (Lewisville Texas), Grace United Church (Lewisville Texas), to the place we praise and worship now, 2009-present: Efree Evangelical Church

As many of you will celebrate Easter in dressy dresses, new shoes, beautifully done hair and accessories, I will walk into church with the same clothes I always wear. Why? Because God accepts me as I AM!

I have changed a lot since I was fourteen and coming to Christ, but one thing that hasn’t changed has been this; I live by the Spirit and will die by the Spirit. Whether you believe or not, we are all interconnected and EVERY-THING happens for a reason.

May the Spirit that lies within you be awakened and guide you through your life. It’s a journey worth living.

Godspeed!

Luke 11:9  "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

Quotation Saturday

Happy Valentine’s Day to you who celebrate the day.
To me, everyday is celebrated in LOVE!
<3 <3 <3

I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind
That I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world.
Elton John ~ Your Song ~ Our Song
***

ON LOVE...

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
~Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

If love closes, the self contracts and hardens...
~Charles Horton Cooley

Love is more than a sentiment; it is a need, a hunger, a thirst which is perfectly natural... Love is the beginning and end, the one sentiment in nature that will not be denied.
~Ernest Holmes

Give me ears, I will listen. Give me fingers, I will touch. Give me eyes, I will see so much.
Give me a scent and I will know, Give me love...and my heart will grow.
~Joni Zipp

On Books...

"I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves."
~E. M. Forster

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
~Groucho Marx

"A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas-a place where history comes to life."
~Norman Cousins


ON BELIEF...

"So great has been the endurance, so incredible the achievement, that, as long as the sun keeps a set course in heaven, it would be foolish to despair of the human race."
~Ernest L. Woodward

"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right."
~Henry Ford

"It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action."
~Lin Yutang

"Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory."
~Norman Vincent Peale


THE SMALL THINGS:

Small things can often make big things bearable.
~Kuki Gallmann, I Dreamed of Africa

Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things.
~Bruce Barton

You lie the loudest when you lie to yourself.
~Author unknown

Your mind is like a parachute...it functions only when open.
~Author unknown