Attention Deficit

Prov. 20:27 "The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly."

Attention Deficit

I was sitting here this morning thinking, and like a dam bursting open my thoughts steered toward the attention span of human beings. It seems these days, this era is an attention deficit era where everyone is so wrapped up in themselves they can only see off in the distance. If someone were drowning, they'd have to let them and just watch the struggle from afar because of the distance between the two.

Basically, the only relationships that stay alive are the daily face-to-face ones because eventually everyone bores of any empathetic behavior unless it's going to benefit them. An email the other morning exclaimed, America's Loneliness Epidemic; how should we respond? I wasn't surprised at what the solutions were and being a Christian email I, a Christian knew where they were going to go with their line of thinking. 

With the rise of the 'me generation' loneliness is inevitable because everyone is focused on the 'me' of the equation and not the 'them'. From the email by Michael E. Stallard, Crosswalk:  "...loneliness triggers a host of negative effects, including a decline in physical and emotional health, greater incivility and violence, and a rise in addiction and suicide."

While the email went on with solutions, solutions I thought were pretty good but just one-sided and Bible Christian based. We don't live in a society of believers so I don't think any of these suggestions would rest well with a person contemplating suicide or a person so lonely they isolate themselves from the daily rush of traffic of ignorant negative people; being alone is a safer option.

It's very easy for me to say just trust in Jesus, but to a non-believer that might not go over well. It might be easy to say build lasting relationships with people who earnestly care but honestly, they are hard to find in an emotional deficit world of the 'me' generation. While the churches are catering to the generation by making their programs more alive and active with life, there is a depressed generation that is not turning to the church for moral support.

I totally get where these folk are coming from. The church sometimes is a big letdown. It shouldn't be that way but it is a fact to the people who need more than the church can give. The church that is supposed to 'accept all' winds up shunning the very people they need to reach. I personally think the church could benefit these lost souls if they helped anonymously. All of the programs I see where I live come with a nametag of "brought to you by the--name of the church". The lost and lonely want no part of the church so they miss out on the extension of help. Why does the church need to be seen as the one giving assistance/aid/love/compassion?

I know you'll say that God is the only way and spew all the scripture pointing to "no one enters but through me" scripture, I know, I get it! But the lost souls, the suicidal, the ones who NEED help don't understand at that point. They're lost, they're lonely and all we're worried about is having them know the bible? In time maybe spring the Word on them but right off the bat? They need compassion, an ear, a friend, not someone who is only there because Jesus called them to be there to spring the Word on them. Yes, they need to hear the Word but initially, they just need to be HEARD.

Community support groups, community activities brought to you anonymously by the church could reach the people without a nametag, reach them by not boasting of 'we helped you', reach them by opening a door of communication with the very society that has let them down. Lead them in a way that they should go. There ARE ways to help but again, the attention deficit society can only focus on the prize, not the race.

There has to be a starting point. Communities need to be willing to accept the church's help anonymously, the church needs to be willing to help anonymously, we the people need to be FOR the people in every sense of the word.

Non-coincidentally I stumbled upon one of my followers' blog posts this morning: 
I was already writing my post so when I was led to this one, it made me see I'm not alone in my thinking. He was writing basically the same line of thought as I was writing. It is so mysterious the way that God collectively links the Christian minds to universal thought processes. 

I believe Christians can aid the lost and the lonely. I believe showing people love, compassion, caring and understanding can all be attributed to our Christian faith without a bible-thumping mentality of connecting to the lost. People need to be listened to, they need to feel as if they matter. Tied up in the 'me' generation are people seeking help and not finding it because as I said, everyone is so wrapped up in their own thing, giving time to another person who might be on the brink is too much of an effort and cuts into your precious time of caring for YOU.

Yes, I understand that everybody has a life and their own struggles to deal with on a regular basis but is it too hard to reach out to someone who has seemingly become distant all of a sudden? Not asking the question of 'are you okay' leaves the window of help closed as you back off because you don't think they want to talk about something. Usually taking time to think can cost someone his or her life. 

You might be wondering how I know about this; I'll tell you I know because I've been there on the suicidal end and no one reached out. I know what loneliness feels like and I know that the blanket of inner struggle one deals with when no one is around to lift even one finger or an ear of compassion. And yes, Christians let people down more than you ever know. 

Why are so many kids on drugs for attention deficit disorder? Why are kids deprived of attention? I'll tell you why but you're not going to like what I say. Parents neglect children because they NEED an outlet too and in finding their 'outlet' the child gets left behind. We're not raising kids in a two-parent household. We're tossing kids in pre-school at an earlier and earlier age and sending them off to school to allow teachers to bear the burden of raising the children of the 'me generation'. We put kids on the ADD drugs (which by the way have the same suicidal side effects that you hear about from the drugs/medication YOU take) thinking the drug will help but the kid grows, can't afford to keep up the 'meds' and more times than not, the suicidal tendencies of the drug kick in while no one is looking.

While you were worried about you, someone died that you couldn't say, 'Hi' to or 'how are you' in a meaningful banter of words. I'm tired of talking about me and my disease, I'll live or die but somewhere out in the world as I'm writing this, someone is taking their life because YOU were too busy worrying about YOU. 

I reach out through words but slowly my words are not enough, the extent of my reach is not far enough, I'm alone in trying to convey a message that people are tired of hearing. Why are they tired of hearing it? Because they are busy with other things. 

Prov. 25:27 "It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory."

Eccl. 1:13 "And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith."

What Portion Do You Believe

Pss 103:3 “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”

If you’re a believer, then you believe without seeing. You believe because you read your bible and you believe the Word to be the truth. But how many believe that it is the full truth? Or do you only believe in portions? You believe God created the world, that Moses parted the sea, you believe Jesus rose from the dead, was it because the bible told you? You sit there believing He’s coming back again. But you have trouble believing Pss.103:3 where the bible states: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”

It says he heals ALL thy diseases but we only trust Him to heal a few? That to me makes no sense. People can tell me until their blue in the face that ‘we need doctor’s to heal us’, but in my eyes, doctors are for treating symptoms never really addressing the underlying CAUSE. I believe God is the healer of the cause. You might find that one rare doctor who is willing to assist you in finding the cause but essentially it is up to you and God whether you find actual true healing. Maybe your doctor is guiding you in the right direction but I myself don’t believe God is a God of drugs.

“Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;” If you don’t believe He heals ALL diseases, in my eyes, you only believe a portion of the bible. It is so hard to truly trust the Word because we’ve been so conditioned to believe man for all he says and all that he offers. We take his word at face value and it holds solidity to our belief system. Then and only then do we truly rely on God’s word to heal ALL of our diseases. 

You might believe wisdom comes from man but wisdom cannot come from man it can only come from GOD! You might glean knowledge from books but wisdom to discern is solely from God; from the Spirit that dwells in you, the same Spirit that has you trusting in Him completely. Either the bible is true or it’s not. I don’t believe the bible lies in some places and suddenly exhibits truth in other places. Either the entire bible is the truth or none of it at all.

I mentioned yesterday that disease is first spiritual in nature not physical. This statement might need some clarification. Some children are born with diseases; obviously, they had no mind to spiritually bring about disease upon themselves. It is quite obvious that the environment, the foods that no one knew were toxic, the metals, the inoculations that toyed with our very cells all were in there playing a part of what makes our insides tick. Scientifically, DNA plays a small part meaning what your mom and dad did (ate, drank, breathed) formed the very strands that brought you to life.

I’m speaking of the cause of your (my) own disease; by holding tightly to false beliefs (fear, doubt, and shame) it enabled an attack that neither you or I were ready for. Anxiety, at a very young age, started us on the path of fear that you (and I) began and no drug is going to take away what we spiritually placed on our path. God did not place fear and anxiety on our path, God is not to blame for a disease taking over your body, only WE can blame OURSELVES for the CAUSE of any illness that holds us captive.

I think what happens with our anxiety and depression, mine anyway, is that we dwell and linger. We linger in past places that hold us prisoner and sometimes we’re not willing to let go because we’d rather remain bitter and angry than find healing; at least that’s what we tell ourselves. Yes, that was me for YEARS, for most of my life.

This disease that I brought upon myself basically is my wake-up call telling me it is time to change now or I will die. I can’t read myself into a healing place. I can’t keep telling you over and over of the bad things that happened in my life because that is my way of clinging to what little memories I have. I have to honestly and truthfully let it go! Reiterating my pain over and over is a way of not releasing the very things that got me to this point in my disease and remaining a prisoner of the past.

I know I’ve spiritually found a healing place. I sent my anxious thoughts away and replaced them with good positive memories. Here’s an example, on the 26th of April my daughter would have been fourteen years old. In previous years the grief strangled me to tears and led me to rehash her death over and over. The same goes for my son who would’ve turned 35 years old in December. This year was different, I only thought good of her and him and when my mother wanted to rehash the past I point blank told her, I’ve dealt with that pain already, I really have let it go, so please stop rehashing. I’m glad she remembers my son and daughter whom neither of us had a chance to know, but I don’t cling to that part of my past anymore. I’m in a healing point and it feels better than all years before!

I’m healing from the emotional baggage of a previous marriage. I’m healing from the child abuse, the molestation, I’m healing where things clung and tightly held on, and I’m releasing them from my present. This disease isn’t just about what has my cells in an uproar, it’s about forgiving all the wrongs in my past and not just at face value. I cannot heal just a portion of my soul just as I cannot believe just a portion of the bible. 

I myself cause my stress and anxiety by clinging to the embedded emotions that have no right dwelling in my being anymore. Being around positive influential people bring about a healing presence just as the negative influences bring about the non-healing ability. If you find yourself never healing from emotional stress, you’re not releasing the whole portion of events; you’re still clinging to the past. Don’t blame the medicine for not working. Don’t blame someone else for your retentive behavior because we are the sole heirs of who to blame. Our parents, siblings, and exes may shoulder some of the blame but they are not the reason we are so determined to allow the occasions to destroy our immunity.

You know, I hadn’t thought that my internal loving relationship with God could grow any further. I had become comfortable in my reading and believing and practically complacent with all I have learned over the years. Sometimes we think that memorizing scripture will bring us closer to God, or reading and studying so hard we forget what we came to the Word for. We came to learn and GROW right? Not to sit like an idle robot in one place repeating the same actions over and over again. No, to heal we need to understand the health benefits of the Living Water flowing through our veins on a different level that will carry us to our healing spot. The area where the past has no bars and the pasture is an open fortress to gaze at, not take up residence with. 

I am choosing to heal by believing the full portion of the Word in its entirety, not just a small portion. He said He will heal and I believe Him. He said He will return and I believe Him. I know I’m listening to God and not the enemy. How do I know it is God speaking to me and guiding me? Because He said so!

All praise and Glory to God! 

John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

John 10 is a very powerful scripture in its entirety.

Cowardly Lion

Joshua 1:9  “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

The Cowardly Lion

I’m sure you’ve all seen the Wizard of Oz right? When I think of a coward I think of the Cowardly Lion and how he reacted to everything. Was there a reason he feared all of the time?

Dorothy: My goodness, what a fuss you're making! Well naturally, when you go around picking on things weaker than you are. Why, you're nothing but a great big coward!

Cowardly Lion: [crying] You're right, I am a coward! I haven't any courage at all. I even scare myself.

Cowardly Lion: Look at the circles under my eyes. I haven't slept in weeks!

Tin Woodsman: Why don't you try counting sheep?

Cowardly Lion: That doesn't do any good, I'm afraid of ‘em.

The Cowardly Lion may not have been a coward, he just didn’t have any faith in himself to tackle anything thrown at him. He was probably always led to believe what others told him, and they are the ones who instilled fear in the gentle giant. It wasn’t until he was told he held the power within him to be a royal King could he ever give courage the chance to shine. 

When I used the word coward the other day I didn’t mean it in the harshest sense of the word. I do not think people are cowards who choose the easier way to their problems or illnesses. You had the courage to go to the doctor and you took what the doctor said as solid gold. Why? Because we were raised and conditioned to believe that the doctor is always right and could never be wrong. That is not cowardice! It’s just a different route, a tried and true acceptable route to millions, but not a route for ME.

Just as the four characters on the yellow brick road in Oz soon found out the truth about the Great and Powerful Oz, he was just a man and didn’t hold the power he claimed! Do you remember all that they endured getting a chance to even SEE Oz? I’m sure you’ve also heard or read about the symbolism of the great movie. 

This movie very well could have been written with every intention of all the symbolism but we are conditioned to see the beauty in the movie. I love the symbolism of Toto, the little dog of Dorothy. He stands for the little guy, interestingly enough, not much unlike myself standing up to the Great and Powerful Medical and Pharmaceutical world. I would’ve rather been Dorothy, but no, I’m much smaller than her. No one likes ‘that little dog’.

I’m not into politics but going against the medical field kind of ties one into the political aspect of all that the government does to see us little people stuck in the trap they set for us. From forcing vaccines, to the overuse of pharmaceuticals, from food rationing, to aid after a storm, everything in America is tied in some way, shape or form to the political arena. And that is just what it is, an arena,  a win or lose battle.

I in no way meant to demean your decision in going the slice, dice, medicate route. That journey holds its own kind of bravery and you’ve earned the Victory of Survivor in your own right! I’m just CHOOSING a different path because it is my right as a human being. So my government and all of their spin-offs (pharma., Drs., etc.) leave me in the dust it just makes my journey a little more challenging. I don’t get a parade; I don’t get unending charitable donations; I don’t get much support from the Big C community (only from the small groups on Facebook that I join). I certainly don’t get medical or political support. 

Failure is not in my vocabulary these days. While many people fear and cower I push on, right or wrong. Funny thing is, I won’t have an inkling if I was wrong until long after I’m gone, I’m that optimistic on this path I’m on!

My body is working FOR me not against me. We’ve been told for years when faced with a diagnosis of the dire kind, that our bodies are working against us. We believe Dr. Oz to be right and we think we need drugs. We dance our way down the Yellow Brick Road and end up in the poorhouse, not at the Emerald City where the movie leads the characters.

Our bodies were created to fight FOR us, not against us! Our immune system is so intricate that the Creator has in place the ability for our system to attack invading illnesses. Our systems were not built to recognize drugs in our system, that is when we become like the Cowardly Lion. When we believe that our bodies are attacking us, do you know and understand the negative connotation that goes along with that belief? Your body begins shutting down believing YOU’RE the one giving up on IT! They tell you your lymph nodes need removal but that is taking away your very defense mechanism in your DNA make-up!

To counterattack, you need to BELIEVE you have the ability to FIGHT any invader in your body and do something to change your line of thinking and winning. Don’t be led down an imaginary path, don’t believe everything the Great Oz or your doctor tells you, question everything! Ask the right questions and find a Naturopath in your area. In the end, you won’t wind up in a fairytale city, you’ll find yourself Somewhere Over the Rainbow, a picture of health and beauty! 

Happy Ending

Gen. 6:13 "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

A Happy Ending

Who doesn’t like a happy ending? We watch movie after movie waiting, wanting, expecting a happy ending. We go through life with the same expectancies and when we’re let down over and over we become pessimistic expecting the bottom to drop out.

I live in a house with two men, one my son and one my husband, both pessimistic. My son says he’s a realist! I say, “You’re a stubborn pessimist!” How is reality always seeing the bad? You’re looking to buy a new car, you wait expectantly for everything to go wrong, everything goes right, now you wait for the car itself to go wrong. There’s no end to everything going wrong in a realists mind! Then as soon as they expect something to go right, it follows suit and goes remarkably wrong.

Day after day you expect everything to go wrong? Well, no wonder your life is dismal. No wonder you’re a pessimist always seeing the wrong instead of the right. I am a full-blooded, passionate, optimist in every regard. When things do go wrong, I always see the good intricately tied in there. These things happened for a reason and I SEE the reason and embrace everything that is dished out whether to me, others, or the world. I might not like it but that is no reason to see the bad in everything.

While Christmastime focused on the Christ child, February is focused on a Saint Valentine, in short, he was a martyr all in the name of LOVE. I’m not Catholic so I really don’t follow saint days but here we are in the 21^st century and people, like with Christmas, have made February 14th more about materialism than for Christ/love respectively.

No wonder the suicide rate is highest in these two months; loneliness, shortcomings, unworthiness is at an all-time high in December and February because the pessimistic society sees everything wrong and none of the right in their lives. This saddens me because this pessimism and negativity have shaped our very world that we live.

I know I’ve said this over and over but I’m going to say it again. When I got this diagnosis, the doctors WANTED me to fear, they wanted to scare me into submission by telling me all that could go wrong, all that has gone wrong with millions of patients worldwide! When I threw optimism into the mix, they looked puzzled. This was one of those times that you look at supposed educated smarter people and wonder how they ever got by in life. I felt the thread of support from the doctor’s burning and singeing leaving me dangling.

Did that deter me from my positive route? NO! When I asked two doctors, that if I didn’t believe chemo was ever going to work for me, would it still be the cure-all they touted, they both said no, it would not work for me, the mind has everything to do with the outcome. I asked that if alternative treatment would work if I BELIEVED it will work, they buckled, searching their brains for what to say. Their minds were like scrambled eggs before being put on the hot fire. I knew right then and there that my alternative route was going to be my happy ending!

I know too many people who have gone the chemotherapy route and died. I know people who went that route and lived. Ask them what worked for them. I would bet money that they can say they believed their doctor, they believed in the system, they believed they’d be healed. Their mind healed them, not the radioactive chemicals coursing through their veins. What they believed was happening as the juice ran its course is what gave them a positive outcome. Had they pessimistically viewed the situation the outcome would have been markedly different.

Ask them what keeps them going; they’ll more than likely tell you the will and determination to LIVE! Their minds are defining their route in life. Our optimism and pessimism are shaping our lives. The over-abundance of pessimism in today’s society has shaped the angry world. Look at the earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, devastation, murder rate, suicide they are all residual effects of the dismal down sighted pessimistic world.

I know quite a few of you who will say, “It was written in the Bible!” I believe that to be true too, I’ve never alluded to the bible not being prophetic. God knows what He created. He knew what our withered minds were capable of manifesting. Now you see before you how well your pessimism worked. It has BECOME your reality!

All that we BELIEVE will shape our happy ending! Remember that on your deathbed. Your pessimism will have you meeting the snake of fear, the fires of hell, the torment you put your mind through will carry you away. Your last breath of optimism will have you breathlessly meeting your Heavenly Father in a beautiful, painless, worry-free realm of possibilities conjoining with eternal living! You are in total control of your Happy Ending.

 Matt. 1619 "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

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'm Hanging in There

Rom. 8:28- 29 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Dangling by a thread

I’m hanging in here. If you see a thread dangling from a shirt and are tempted to pull on the string, don’t, that’s me dangling there. In other words, I’m dangling by a thread. The thing I’ve noticed is I don't really need to be around; people can get back to their same old, same old mundane routines in life without worrying about lil old me, in other words, not burdening anyone. I’m not the same anymore and I can no longer pretend that I am the same. While some people like to remain stagnant and sedentary in their lifestyle, that is no longer the me I never wanted to be in the first place. God has called me to change.

I’ve had to accept that I am the cause of this disease residing in me and as a spiritual tap on the shoulder; the C caused me to SEE! Many people want to blame God, doctors want to blame ‘tough luck of the draw’, I want to blame my lousy life choices throughout my life! I accept this wake-up call, not to throw myself a pity party but to CHANGE! Change everything about the lifestyle that brought me to this juncture in my life.

I dove into processed foods like the first day of the summer pool opening. I jumped into the toxic foods, pasta, and breads along with doughnuts and sweets and swam for years not recognizing the damage being done until recently since I have now learned my lesson after being shriveled up because I waded too long in the deep end. Most people don’t get that wake-up call and when they do, they ignore the sound.

We all, every single human being alive, has C cells swimming in our bodies. What has happened is the unhealthy lifestyle, previous illnesses, and nonchalant care for the direction of your life wakes these cells up as our immune system shuts down unable to take care of us, which allows a tumor to grow. Our cells got sick and mutated to become cancerous, C cells. Doctors won't tell you that they can be alternatively healed. Did you know there are healings that doctor’s deem ‘Spontaneous Remission’? That’s what they call it when people heal via holistic treatment rather than the medical costly pharma/drug/slice/dice method. The Big C patients recognize it as a powerful miraculous HEALING, not a pacifier that the medical community prescribes.

The causes of the C? Diet, lifestyle, environment, and stress! The doctor will clarify that only five percent of the C comes from genetics, so where does the other ninety-five percent come from? The toxic food you eat, the lifestyle like toxins you put in/on your body via water, deodorants, toothpaste, root canals, dental work, and the environment! Do you drink alcohol? Do you have a prayer life? Hopefully not both. The very air you breathe is killing you. Even vaccinations as a child were toxic. Stress, it all comes back to traumatic events in one's life. I know you’ll say that we’ve all had traumatic events in life and yes it’s true, that is why not just stress alone causes cancer. Have you not read my words over these eight months? All of my components that make up this disease, convened and came back with a guilty verdict. I am guilty of all of the above.

I’ve been trying to steer clear of talk of the C, but just when I want to calm down Chris Wark of Chris Beat Cancer comes up yet again with the free viewing of his Square One Module Series. Well, of course I’m going to watch it again because it is HIM who started me with this confidence boost in beating this disease.

I also work hard, extremely hard, to not let paranoia overrun my thinking. Allowing myself time away from the social media helps immensely as it allows me to just look within myself. A lot still needs changing, even after eight months of trying my best to change everything I could. Then my one-year mark my regimen more than likely will have to change again.

I keep this in mind as my life changes daily. God is still working for me, He presents Himself in His timing (not mine) and lets me know he’s still the Rock in this journey for the long haul. I am so blessed.

Faith is choosing to believe.

3 John 1: 2-3  “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

To Believe or To Not Believe

Pss. 27:13” I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

To Believe or To Not Believe

When I see this kind of rhetoric as comments across many different sites, the animosity and verbiage are the same towards Christian believer.

*not the actual screen names
nosheeplepeople says:
“You're busy playing the children's Game of Make-Believe, Christian Version, that even has your imaginary magical friend you call Yahweh playing your edition of the children's Game of Hide 'N Seek as a subplot in your Land of Pretend. Your Game of Make-Believe even includes a talking bush, a talking donkey, a talking serpent and a talking volcano.
The cartoons you watched with talking animals weren't true even though you believed they were true.”

And a response went like this:

Josh said:
If your perspective of my trust in God is nothing to you, why are you getting so worked up about it? If I simply believed that the world was made out of jello, you wouldn't give a second thought to my belief, and you'd go on about your day on to things that actually mattered, but that is not the case here, your soul is so disturbed by my trust in an all powerful Creator, that you must put in your efforts and attempts to make the disturbance in your soul, a part of my reality. I could dismiss your attempts as imaginary, and make believe, but then I'd be suppressing the subjective evidence of your existence, much like you do with the reality of God's existence.

This response was not liked by the sheeple so he tried to one up Josh by saying,

Sheeple said:
“Christians have been sold an invisible product that has an invisible cure for an invisible disease that harms an invisible soul so that the invisible soul can go to an unseen place that is invisible until they die based on a guilt trip their Pastor told them that they should have.”

Josh replied:
You know, it's funny that I address the objections or points that you make. But legit answers that I give, and points and objections to your objections that I make, never seem to be addressed. They are ignored, repressed, and then it’s on to your next objection. What is the point of trying to give an answer to your objections, when you never take them into consideration in our dialogue here? You’re not seeking the truth, you’re seeking to establish your own agenda. May God bless you, have a nice day :)

Pss 78:22 “Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:”

I have to say, Josh had a good debate going and that his words were sound. But the sheeple guy sounded like a broken robot that I’ve heard in Yahoo comments, YouTube comments and anyplace the very word God is uttered; my God is fake and they (atheist) have no God. Sheeple continued to have this same conversation with himself.

The comments went on and on and on. I’m so used to this kind of hate towards Christians because that is what satan has himself formed out of the world. No, he didn’t magically create anything, satan has a tendency to work through the mind to bend whatever truth you may hold.

I have come to find that satan is working in EVERY faith and religion to distort and turn your thoughts away from the Creator. He puts these doubts in your mind and they fester until you are turned against God and you know what, God is okay with that because the non-believers need to be weeded out anyway. 

I’m okay with people NOT believing but don’t judge me and call my God a fairytale because of a book you might have read and not believed. If billions of people are wrong, then so be it, I’m one among many. I’m going to dissect what the sheeple wrote.

“Christians have been sold an invisible product [is he calling God a product? Sorry sheeple, God is a spiritual entity.] that has an invisible cure [cure? Where, I need one pronto!] for an invisible disease [I wish my disability was invisible!] that harms an invisible soul [I actually KNOW I have a soul because every word this person said touched me. Having never been touched, sheeple does not have a soul and if he does it is a lonely and empty one] so that the invisible soul can go to an unseen place [unseen place? Sorry buddy, I’ve SEEN heaven and tasted it and that is why I long to be there!] that is invisible until they die [not true] based on a guilt trip their Pastor told them that they should have.” [Umm, this person must’ve really been hurt by the church and a pastor because he was well versed in my Bible, KJV, but to think that everyone finds God via a church or a pastor is illogical. Did he ever think that God finds YOU? Not always the other way around?

God made His presence known to me at around age three and then I looked for Him everywhere I went as I aged. Sometimes God finds you, some people are taught about God, some are raised on the bible and attended church regularly since grade school and yes they were allowed to experience Him for themselves and make their OWN judgment call on whether to believe or not to believe. My invisible God placed within me FREE WILL to believe or not believe what I want, also! 

To the atheist, God can be explained away by scientific answers to everything that exists but to me, a believer, if God didn’t exist neither would science/scientists! You can’t have one without the other. Now my faith is invisible, the only way you see my faith is by what I project to the world. You either see it or you don’t. You have the free will to believe or to not believe. 

Prov. 14:15 “The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.”

Getting To Know Him

I spoke of God in me, now I’d like to let you all know how YOU can get to know Him. I alluded to the fact that knowing God is very different than just reading about Him and visiting a place He calls home. It is so much more to getting to KNOW Him. 

“The longer I serve Him the sweeter He grows. The more I love Him, more joy He bestows.” ~ H.S.

First of all, you begin with talking to Him. Like an old friend you don’t need high and mighty salutations, you just need to be you; because only He knows the real you, hidden secrets and all. This is usually called prayer. 

Pss. 5:3 “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”

This isn’t the time to ask him for things, if anything this is the time to thank him for all he has done in your life no matter how minuscule, thank him for the food you eat, the warm home you live in, the shoes on your feet and anything else you’d like to thank him for.

If you feel that you’ve gotten all of those things on your own accord then you really need to search who you believe God is in your world. If you’ve always felt a supernatural presence in your life, rest assured it is God not some part of your over-successful vain imagination. 

God has been with you through all of your life, He’s just been waiting for you to get to know Him. Then and only then will He make himself known to you through channels you once believed were mere coincidence, you will now see that it was God all along trying to communicate with you.

Second, you’ll want to pick up a bible. I prefer the King James Version but choose what is easiest for YOU as you read about Him and get to know Him. You’ll see that for thousands of years men were dedicated to him and his promises and men to this day are still committed to Him. We Christians don’t follow Him because he let us down but because He has lifted us up.

Luke 11:28 “But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”

Now some will read the bible and say it is all hokey-pokey. You’ll read about a sea parting, a bush burning, a lion and a man, a whale swallowing a man? Blind seeing, lame walking, lepers leaping. Well, lepers’ leaping was mine but I bet they were leaping with joy when they were healed. But you get my meaning, some astounding things take place in the Bible that is sometimes hard to swallow, this is where faith comes in; faith in believing these are true testaments by living men.

I can attest to the fact that miracles still happen. My man was blind for 2 and a half years and it was nothing short of a miracle that has him seeing again. Take a look back at my posts from 2011(on the left) that entire year was a miracle. You’ll say something like, it was the doctor and an operation that got him seeing again, and you’d be right, but the miracle was the road we took to get there and the positive outcome. It could’ve all gone differently but faith in God got us through the entire ordeal.

2 Sam. 22:50 “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.”

Third, visit God’s home and worship Him. There is nothing more soul soothing than going and singing praise to the friend who is always going to be there for you. Now if you find a church where they’re asking for money more than they’re preaching about God then get yourself away from that place and find one that you find comfortable in like an old shoe. THAT is the place where God is dwelling.

Acts 2:47 “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

Our pastor always tells us that church is not about giving money, it is about praising God, if you want to give then give but they never ASK us to commit to giving so much a week. It is always OUR choice if we give. 

Fourth, surround yourself with like-minded people, if you don’t know any, don’t worry, God will lead you to them or them to you, but rest assured, you WILL meet. With them you will SERVE the Lord, whether helping out at the nursery on Sunday, making food, doing crafts, there are numerous ways to serve the final resting place you will call home, the church and house of God Himself. 

1 Cor. 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Remember this, the church is just a building it is the PEOPLE who make it God’s home. You should be able to wear what you want, never feel judged and feel like you just stepped into your grandma’s house for a visit, comfortable and at home. 

Pray, read, believe, visit, praise, serve; these are the steps in getting to KNOW God on YOUR level, not what some mega-church minister touts. Be careful not to be swayed by false prophets who claim to know ‘the truth’ but are really wearing sheep clothing all the while a wolf in disguise. If you can’t find their truth in the bible, more times than not, they are lies to lead you away for Him, the God you can ALWAYS trust. He doesn’t promise you that the road will be easy but He does promise to be with you every step of the way. 

Matt. 7: 15 “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

So What Now...

Pss. 30:3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

So What Now…

As I sit here thinking of the losses from cancer, I myself wonder what’s next for me.

My uncle (by marriage) is fighting the fight diligently and I know it won’t be long before I get the unawaited call that drops me to my knees yet again.  I lost my grandmother to lung cancer over forty years ago and now my aunt just recently succumbed, I watched (from afar) my dad do battle with throat cancer and my nephew testicular cancer, and I also remember my mother’s aunt dying from cancer, so where does that leave me in the line of targets for cancers next victim?

I’m sure there are more members of the family that I’m forgetting because it is quite obvious cancer has targeted my gene pool. Am I to sit here in line and wait for cancer to tap me on the shoulder with a smile and say, ‘You’re next, sweetie.’

I’m not a health nut by any means. I know right from wrong and I know what is good for my body and what is not good for my body. I don’t go out of my way to overindulge in food carelessly and that has helped ME with any health and weight issues in my lifetime. I don’t consume poison (alcohol) and although I try to keep my brain in working order, I believe I fail miserably.

Does this mean that cancer will pass me by? I’m not blind to the fact that it has no preference in where or when it strikes. All of us are most certainly guaranteed some health crisis in our lifetime that will either make us or break us in its procession of consuming the living.

I’m not riddled with paranoia instead I’m riddled with life. I wake every day and ask, what can I do for you, Lord? And He doesn’t say go out and share what other people have to say about me, share what YOU say about me and experience in YOUR life. And basically that is what I do. When I share a scripture from the Bible, I’m not pointing at you and telling you that you need to read and believe this because * I * do. I’m sharing it with you as an explanation for something I’m going through and allowing God and scripture to guide ME down the path.

I’m not a very knowledgeable person but I am a very wise person. I’ll take wisdom over knowledge any day. Knowledge is book-smart wisdom is heart-smart. Not all knowledgeable people are heart smart. I mean they know things because they’ve read about it somewhere, shared it so that you know they’ve read it somewhere but sincerely do not have the wisdom to share it through experience, only what was read.

I’ve come to the conclusion that cancer has infected humanity, not just physically but mentally and spiritually as well. It has made its way into unsuspecting hosts and breeds like fleas; where there is one flea (cell) you can bet there are more right behind it multiplying.

I live and learn from experience not from something that was spoon-fed me via words on a page. Humanity is being eaten away and unsuspecting hosts are breeding the lies, deceit and corruption. I say unsuspecting because they believe they’re doing the right thing, but then again, they’re only going by the knowledge that was fed them, not by anything they witnessed or experienced first hand.

The biggest snowstorm of the century was a misleading adventure that hosts wanted to feed you. Every year the Farmer’s Almanac has been proven false, every day the weathermen appear to be liars in disguise, religious scholars are pretending to be scientist and vice versa, liars are lying, cheaters are cheating and killers are killing. People are willing to believe wholeheartedly the things they read.

My heart aches for misled humans. I won’t believe I’m next in line for cancer to strike because I’ve read it somewhere. I’ll believe it when the experience is upon me. My heart bleeds for those that have suffered with cancer, lived to tell about it and those that we have lost to this illness. A cure for cancer will one day be found, maybe in my lifetime and maybe not. One thing is for certain, humanity holds the key. 

Balance

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Where does balance come from in the Christian life? One doesn’t seek it, nor buy it, and one can’t find it through all the knowledge you put into your system. Balance is achieved. Notice the wheel, how well balanced it is? When there is no balance, the wheel will not roll!

Balance is achieved by having a goal and reaching it, like climbing to the highest mountaintop and looking out at all the glory, you have achieved a goal. Balance is holding onto that goal once it is achieved.

The lack of balance in a Christian’s life will certainly cause a bit of trouble; sleepless nights, worry, stress. When you achieve a balance of all that God has shown you there is only one outcome and that is of pleasurable peace.

Pastor Tim talked about the intellectual Christian. That to ME, is the type of Christian who builds his strength and faith on KNOWLEDGE of the bible. Sometimes he/she can spew scripture down to the book and chapter, sometimes he can find a scripture (via google?) that deals with suffering, pain, need, faith etc. He is the reader/believer I spoke of in my Lent series.

When only the head is involved with Christianity, you lose sight of the balance. I know of many spiritual based faiths that speak of balance also and in the Christian faith it is not much different for the spiritual Christian who has learned to balance his/her faith with the head (knowledge), will (action), heart (a deep passion).

With everything in life, if you just gain knowledge of something, what exactly are you gaining? A big ego? “Yeah, I know this, that and the other thing.” Whoop-de-doodle, you’re knowledgeable.

If you put that knowledge into action with a deep passion, you are balancing the three. The will, the heart and the mind. We do not take up Christianity (just gain knowledge) we are taken UP by Christianity. With our hearts and minds and physical actions we are drawn to be LIKE Christ.

God’s Word is spiritual food. We grow by it, we're seasoned by it, we’re transformed by it. The Holy Spirit uses the word to revive you, restore your spirit and change your heart. You must process the filling of your spirit and OBEY what you are being called to do.

If I want to be used of God, it is important that I fill my mind, my heart, and my life with the Word of God. A practicing Christian has strength to fight the enemy, he is refreshed daily by the wisdom he holds and transformed so that the old person who sat and judged his fellow man, name calls, feeds the fire of satan’s lure, is gone, he is NO MORE, he is transformed.

I see a lot of folk who claim to be Christian sit in some safe corner of the globe reading and believing that no matter how often he/she sins, they’ll be forgiven and taken up to heaven when their time comes. People see them profess Christianity but their actions are far from Christlike giving people the idea that sin is good. “I can just call myself a Christian and God will save me.”

Christianity is a transformation, the balance of the heart, mind and soul. If the outer world doesn’t see the balance in you, and YES, they will see the transformation, they get the idea that Christianity is a false belief system. You have turned people AWAY from God instead of TO God.

You don’t hold the power of transformation in your own hand. All the reading and believing in the world will shape you but it will not transform you. I know you’re tired of me saying this but CHURCH aids in the transformation. Action is going to cause a reaction.

Let me see if I can simplify this. Let’s say you’re hungry. You go to the freezer and find meat. You think to yourself, that sure looks good. (Christianity looks good) You then place the meat in the oven or frying pan and begin to cook it. (This is where you read and believe.) You share this cooked meat with your friends and they all spit it out. It tasted horrible, drab, lifeless. You realize you didn’t marinate and season the meat. You took no action to make this meat a meal.

Marinating the meat is like bathing in the word. You season the meat, you cook the meat, you share the meat with people who presumably are not vegetarians. Sharing the word with unlike minds is like sharing meat with a vegetarian. Church is a place of like-minded people. You will know who and who is not a vegetarian. You have transformed the meat into a solid meal for ALL to partake of, not just the carnivorous meat eaters.

Transformation and balance of the transformed individual allows you to be of a pure mind, spiritually and physically. People with a seasoned just right balance, shake off the snares of the devil. Their strength is in the meal and the deliverance of the meal.

People have eyes to see and if you are not balanced, it shows. It doesn’t help God any if you're unbalanced. The men and women God used WERE sinners but by their transformation, they didn’t dwell in sin because it was a given that they’d be forgiven, they worked earnestly to live a pure life; they were all balanced (seasoned) in the proportion God dished out.

I Walk with Him

Luke 18: 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

I see a confused nation. They’re walking around dissecting the bible as if it was written to be dissected. They believe in every wind of doctrine and follow false teachers in a parade of arms waving them on.

Some might say I walk around in a blind ambition but let me tell you, I am not blind to what the Lord is showing me. Maybe He tells you to dig and dig to find the truth, dissect book by book to find the true meaning of the Word. Maybe He is the one leading you into  false doctrine? I doubt it.

People are a curious lot. They need answers to all their questions and they will shovel anything that someone is out there ready to cover them with. They will call it deciphering Bible prophecy and to my mind, they’re trying to know God’s mind and that is, to me, impossible and not able to be dissected.

I think what people are trying to do is put a Religion into a box, wrap it up and look at the beautiful present they have before them. I was always taught to think outside the box and not to conform to what others want me to think and believe, thus the very reason I consider myself a Spiritual Christian.

There is a verse in the bible that has always stuck with me:

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.

While I don’t feel in any way that this is a literal statement meaning we should all walk around with pacifiers in our mouth spewing goo-goo ga-ga, I do feel it is meant for us to become of the utmost innocence that only a child knows.

When a newborn babe is wrapped in your arms, you are touching innocence from the realm of God in the purest sense of all creation. Did you ever wonder what was going through their minds as they looked around at their new surroundings? I always thought they were wondering how to get back to the God realm and as they grew and grew they found that there is only One way to get back there and throughout life in all their journeying they were being led back TO Him.

I never felt in any way that God wanted me to pick His words to pieces, dissect book by book looking for meaning, I always felt God taking me on a journey based on faith. The newborn has faith like no other. He is striving to be led by his Creator. He doesn’t need to understand the why’s of the things God wrote, or the how’s of how he did it, or the when’s as in the precise time God created the world; all that a newborn knows is trust and faith.

To become as little children always meant to me, to take on the innocence and purity of faith and all that means. If you cannot see with your own eyes that bible prophecy is coming to fruition and you need some stranger to dissect and point it all out in black and white, you’re throwing mud in the face of faith. You’re slaughtering all that God intended you to be, a faith-filled servant.

“Religion is the belief in someone else’s experience, Spirituality is having your own experience.” ~ author unknown

If you are going to fall into the snare of religion, you are only following others and what they learned on THEIR journey. To be a spiritually vibrant person of Christ, you will have your very own journey/experience led by God, it is YOUR story to relay to people, not regurgitated words of someone else.

We live in a world where ministers are telling us, “We sin, we go to hell”, “You are saved by the blood of Christ, you’re going to heaven”, “Sin all you want, you’re saved, you’ll go to heaven.” By the way they make it sound, we’re all destined for heaven. I tend to think God had it right when He said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Point blank, no explanation necessary.

When I think of Jacob, Peter, David, Noah and the other sinners God used for his message to be delivered, what they all had in common in the end, they had FAITH in God and ALL His works and needed no clarification. (google and wikipedia wasn’t on hand) so they HAD to become like little children tasting the truth on their tongues as newborn babes in purity and innocence.

I Walk with Him.

Rom. 1: 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Lent: Day Thirty-two ~ Quotation Saturday

Mark 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

LENT

"Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life..."

~ Pope Benedict XVI

"As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus' thirst...'Repent and believe' Jesus tells us. What are we to repent? Our indifference, our hardness of heart. What are we to believe? Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor -- He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you.”

~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

"Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy."

~ Pope Francis

"Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God's sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God."

~ Thomas a Kempis

BELIEVE

“The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. If you can change the way people think. The way they see themselves. The way they see the world. You can change the way people live their lives. That's the only lasting thing you can create.”
~ Chuck Palahniuk

“It's what you choose to believe that makes you the person you are.”
~ Karen Marie Moning

“If you let people break your spirit and detour you from your path, then you have not been true to yourself or those you're here to touch, those who believe in you.”
~ Allison DuBois

If you believe in God, you have faith and trust in the unknown. If you have faith and trust in the unknown, then you believe in YOU.

~ Joni Zipp

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

TRUST

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
~ Corrie ten Boom

“I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”
~ Maya Angelou

“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them”
~ Thomas Merton

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.”
~ Paulo Coelho

OBEY

“If you lose your integrity, you will also lose your identity, your sensitivity and your dignity. Integrity is honesty, modesty and security in all kinds of weather. It should be our priority!”
~ Israelmore Ayivor

“Yes, it is God who works in you. And, yes, there is work for you to do.
Yes, the Spirit empowers you to do the work. And, yes, you do the work.”
~ Francis Chan

“Don’t worry when you meet opposition for obeying God. Worry when you don’t have opposition, because you’re probably not obeying God.”
~ Craig Groeschel

“The suicide committed by Sampson was partly determined by the craftiness of Delilah and partly decided by the disobedience of Sampson. Satan uses crafty means to set traps for us, but by our obedience of the laws of God, the traps remain functionless.”
~ Israelmore Ayivor

Gen. 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Lent: Day Seven ~ Offended by Christ?

Matt. 18: 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Offended by Christ?

I have encountered many in my life who were offended by Christ. They say they believe in God but seem offended when I say the words, “So, you follow Christ?” Almost as if I spat phlegm on them, they retreat, “You’re not gonna push that bible stuff on me now, are you?”

What? Bible stuff? They said they were believers, so why are they offended when I say the name Jesus Christ? Many try to put a political spin on this but if you think about it since our first president, man spoke their feelings, their opinions and their desires for a New World, our elected officials heard the voices of the many and moved to make it so.

Each and every president has heard the voices and when you say ONE man or however many sit in congress make laws, remember they are listening to the many people who are offended by Christ, offended by this and that. MAN and WOMAN have shaped this world for millennia. (I say world because not just the USA is involved in fearing Christ.)

When I say the name Jesus Christ, and you are offended, you are only reacting to what other men have tried to feed you. You say that the bible is a fairy tale and it is full of lies, and you do everything in your power to prove it to be truth. Why? Because you too have doubts; you SAY you believe every word in the bible to be truth but there in the back of your mind as you’re digging for proof, there resides doubts. If you believed (meaning have FAITH) that everything in the bible is truth, you would need no proof.

Since the beginning of time, Jesus resided in God. He was there at the creation and will be here at the end. “How do you know that as a fact?” Let me tell you.

Yes men wrote the bible. They physically wrote, in stone or with pen, every word in the bible and events that were taking place in THEIR time. The difference in their writing and that of men who told a fairytale was a spirit that consumed them. Their stories were handed down to each generation and then compiled to make the bible, thus becoming the Holy Bible because the Spirit of God was divinely inspiring the words. Many translations later, the Word still holds truth to believers.

How do I know it was divinely inspired? Well let me tell you. As I’m sitting here writing this Lenten Season of posts, they are not just my thoughts, they are being Divinely Inspired. Meaning, I FEEL the SPIRIT moving in me and inspiring every word I write. I’m not just making stuff up out of my head as I go along, I am being driven by a Divine FORCE that is compelling me to write!

I imagine this is what the very first men felt when they were writing the Bible. They were being driven by the POWER, the SPIRIT of God. to write these things down. Mighty arrogant of me you say? To compare myself to the biblical authors? Well, if you believe in every word in the bible, then you MUST know and FEEL the truth I am conveying in my words, right? God did not die and stop inspiring people.

I am not forcing Jesus down your throat. I am not telling you that if you don’t read my words you’re going to hell. I’m just conveying a message that God has placed on my heart. Take it any way you want it. THAT is exactly the way the bible was intended, for you to read and walk away with what YOU believe.

Did you know that atheist read the bible? Yes they sure do. How do I know this? If you speak to an atheist, they’ll tell you “The Noah story isn’t true.” They’ll go on and on and point out inconsistencies (in their eyes) in the Bible. How would they even know to view these as inconsistencies if they hadn’t sat down to read the bible? Hmm…

Jesus offends them because the story is remarkably unbelievable! A virgin, pregnant by some Spirit God; Jesus, God as MAN. Yeah, remarkable and unbelievable. But to believers who read and BELIEVE the words of men from thousands of years ago, these two events ARE remarkable AND believable and prophesied about since the very beginning of time!

Man fears the unknown. Can you hold air in your hand? No, but you know it is there. Through every breath you take, you know it exists. Science can dissect the elements and show you what it is made up of. Can you hold a star in your hand? No, but science can tell you what a star consists of. And because science can PROVE this to you, you believe and put your faith in man because it all makes sense. This Bible stuff don’t always make sense, so you fear.

Man fears God, Christ, a Supreme being that holds ALL power over you. Science can’t prove the existence of God, nor can they disprove it, so man again, puts his faith and trust in man, not in God.

And we wonder what is wrong with society today? Christ offends man, He is superior and man in his selfish egotistical mind fears being ruled. Hate is running rampant because NO ONE likes to be ruled so they retaliate with pride and anger. That’s the will of man.

The will of God just simply asks you to accept Him, His son, the comforting Holy Spirit that rest in you. Until the Spirit consumes you, you will not understand one word I’ve said. You will continue to deny God, lash out, spread hate, share pride driven opinions and to allow your soul to sleep.

Man fears God and is offended by the mere mention of Christ. To fear one is to fear the other. As man fears the unknown, my only fear resides in what is known to ME.

Pss. 34: 11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

Why am I so devoted?

1 Cor. 10: 31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Why am I so devoted?

You know, I’ve had people ask me, “Why are you so devoted to God? What has He ever given you?”

“I mean really, you need to ask that?  First of all He has given me life, among other things.”

“You really believe that?”

“Yes, yes I do. Don’t you?”

And thus begins a discussion on God.

Last week my face swelled up like a balloon. My whole right side was disproportionate with my left side making me look quite gruesome and grotesque, not to mention the pain that rode along with the swelling.

It wasn’t an allergic reaction to something I ate. It felt like an abscess or some sort of sinus infection. I had a nightmare where I had went into church and everyone was laughing at me whispering behind my back, “She looks like the elephant man.”

We hadn’t been to church in two or three weeks because Steven’s boss keeps scheduling him on Sunday, after he’s asked for Sunday’s off, so I was feeling depleted. I continually sing praises throughout the day, read my bible and keep in touch with God but my worship on Sunday really keeps me rooted in my love of God and keeps my eyes focused on Him.

This Sunday however Steven had the day off so we would be allowed to attend service! I was elated; my face was swelled like a balloon so it kind of scared me to think I’d go into church to be looked at. Not that they EVER would look at me and laugh and judge, (I don’t attend THAT kind of church.)  But Friday’s pain did have me concerned.

I told Steven that this was satans way of trying to keep me out of church this Sunday and that I’d be going if I had to CRAWL! Steven replied, “If it works out that way.”

“Oh, it’ll work out! I have FAITH! GOD wants me there!” Yes, the battle between God and satan happens daily in lives. Who wins is up to you.

I woke Sunday at 5 am like always, had my coffee, slowly sipping because the pain was too much to bear. I was debating going to church, bracing the temps, and fear of shivering because it would hurt.

I was on my knees crying in pain, “God, I can’t make it today. I’m in so much pain.”

Quite suddenly a response of, “What pain?”

“What pain? WHAT pain,” and before I could finish crying out what pain one more time, I felt NO PAIN! What? NO pain, you ask? YES, no pain. I went on to finish getting dressed and we made it to Church. God wanted me there so again, HE won! All praise and Glory to God!

THIS is why I’m so devoted to God. Any time I have ever cried out and times when I didn’t cry out, He always hears and has a response. Now granted a lot of folks, like I was saying yesterday, have faith, pray and believe and that is all well and good, but devoted? Is your life devoted to God?

When you don’t have money to pay the bills or buy food do you worry, do you run around looking for ways to get the funds, or do you place total trust in God? I’ve heard this many times too, “God’s not going to put food on your plate.” Well guess what, He WILL put food on your plate, He will see to it the funds are there, He'll use people to see the food is there, but mark my word, He DOES move mountains to see you well taken care of.

No, He won’t pay your cable bill, He doesn’t see to it you have the luxuries that you so often over indulge in, but yes, food, water, a warm home? YES! He’s also placed the means for a new car in my life, albeit an old used car, but nonetheless a car, only because He saw in advance the total wrecking of our second vehicle, and transportation is a means to food on our table via Steven working.

So YES, He DOES put food on my plate. He covers me in a blanket of protection. He sees my falls before I get there and is the soft pillow I land on before injury. If something doesn’t work out that *I* want, it’s because it is not what HE wanted for me, and sometimes (no, all the time) we have to be alright with that.

Once you accept that in your life, you become devoted to God. Your focus is on what glorifies Him and not what the media (satan) can place in front of you to distract you. Our distractions pull us away from God and thus the state of the world today.

Why am I so devoted to God? Because God, in all His Glory, is devoted to ME!

Phil. 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.