Healing Wounds

Pss. 147: 3 “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”

Healing Wounds

Reading the news and looking out at the apocalyptic images, it’s obvious we are living in uncertain times. People will argue that we’ve always had wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods and yes, they’d be right. But this year so far ties for weather disasters that have topped the billion-dollar mark. Remember, the year isn’t over yet. 

I believe that like human beings having the capacity to heal our wounds by the intricate ways we’re made (our immune systems) Earth had the ability to heal also. I say HAD the ability because I think the earth is done with our disastrous actions. We laughed and scoffed at climate change, we thought we had hundreds if not thousands of years to heal the planet, we tried the recycling bit, but the earth is wounded. Earth has cried out for our help and we ignored the calls, it is now beyond healing. Earth is now walking to its death.

Jer. 14: 19 “Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!”

It’s not just weather anomalies, it’s human behavior, we’re a messed up species. We betray laws in record proportions. We damage lives without consideration, we go on in life as if everything will just either go away, heal on its own, or eventually get better. Sorry people, we are not getting better, we are not healing, and we’re not even trying if we tell ourselves the truth.

What I do know, for a fact, is that individual healing can and is taking place. Every man and woman alive has the chance to heal. Again, we shrug it all off as if we have time. We eat what we want, drink what we want, we have no restraint as we plow ahead killing ourselves. We are living to die and we’re happy with that.

I’m not happy with just settling for ‘it’ll get better on its own’ and I’m doing everything within my power to change. People call it bravery and being courageous, I don’t see it that way, I see it as a choice, life or death and I choose life. There’s nothing brave about choosing life over death or have we become so mixed up that we see survival as courage?

Josh. 2:11 “And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.”

We are living in times where we get sick, we go to the doctor, he gives us a drug, and tries to pacify what is ailing us. We don’t try healing ourselves we go right to the doctor, taking the pill he offers and then playing the wait and see game. Let’s see if this pill works, if not, we’ll try a different one, over and over. There is something seriously wrong with that. I’m not naïve in my thinking, I’ve had my share of damaging experiences from the medical communities from three different states and can assure you, all of the doctors were different with their approaches to ‘healing’ the sick.

Now I think the country is in the mindset that it is too far-gone, we are too conditioned to change our way of thinking. The earth cannot turn back the clock, the earth takes hundreds of years (if not thousands) to heal, but humans have the ability to change right now in their lifetime! I did it and I’m no different than you. I am fifty years old and changed in the blink of an eye; I chose LIFE! That’s not courage or bravery it is survival. Maybe if everyone saw waking up each day as an opportunity to survive instead of living a mundane ho-hum life of work, eat, sleep, maybe the world wouldn’t be in such bad shape.

I noticed something; Yes, I’ve noticed this happening over the years but more so now than ever before, besides the disastrous weather. When people are sick, they go to the doctor, trust that the pill prescribed will heal them, take the pill, then pray to God the drug works. When the pill doesn’t work, people assume God didn’t answer their prayer. They go back on the drug carousel and go around and around searching for a pill that works and when it finally does, praises God, prayers answered. That doesn’t sound right, does it?

Now imagine getting sick and turning to God first, trusting Him and HEARING him, and patiently waiting FOR HIM to do his healing. Number one, people (yes even believers) don’t want to turn to God first, He takes too long to respond and they want to heal NOW! Second, this is a serious health issue and a doctor is needed. He has happy pills that will make this illness/disease go back to sleep. Thirdly, there is the money factor. You have insurance that will pay for the pills and doctors and by golly, you’re going to utilize it. This is your life in a nutshell.

People would rather heal the outside before healing the inside. People would rather trust in man and his book knowledge than God and His infinite wisdom. Have you ever looked at a DNA strand? Have you ever thought about the intricate layers of healing via our immune system that we have within our grasp? Do you ever think that the Almighty Healer knew what he was doing when creating humans? He trusted us, to take care of our bodies and He put His trust in us to take care of His land, and we can’t even give Him the same trust and respect.

Rev. 20:11 “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.”

Man has destroyed man. Man has destroyed the earth and continues to do so and all we can do is BLAME God? Think about it people, God gave us everything we’d ever need to succeed in replenishing our bodies, our souls and the earth and we mangled our duty to trust and OBEY. Sure some of us trust, but the majority does not OBEY! We like to think we do, but if you look around at the catastrophes you can now SEE, we botched the job!

Mal. 4:2 “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”

I’ve come to realize something, I was given a death sentence and I chose to trust and obey God on this, that’s it. I’m doing nothing that isn’t in each and every one of our grasp. It’s not bravery it is survival. I’ve realized what I should’ve known (and basically did) many years ago, I’m not fighting to live in this damage depleted world, I’m fighting for my survival in eternity with Him. I’m not returning to him a damaged product, I’m returning to Him a HEALED mind, BODY and soul! It is the very LEAST I can do for Him.

All praise and Glory to God!

Rev. 22:2 “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

Quotation Saturday ~ Hurricane, Death, Destruction

Prov. 15:11 “Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?”

HURRICANES

“Do you know why hurricanes have names instead of numbers? To keep the killing personal. No one cares about a bunch of people killed by a number. '200 Dead as Number Three Slams Ashore' is not nearly as interesting a headline as 'Charlie kills 200.' Death is much more satisfying and entertaining if you personalize it.

Me, I'm still waitin' for Hurricane Ed. Old Ed wouldn't hurt ya, would he? Sounds kinda friendly. 'Hell no, we ain't evacuatin'. Ed's comin'!” 
― George Carlin

“Demons never die quietly, and a week ago the storm was a proper demon, sweeping through the Caribbean after her long ocean crossing from Africa, a category five when she finally came ashore at San Juan before moving on to Santo Domingo and then Cuba and Florida. But now she's grown very old, as her kind measures age, and these are her death throes. So she holds tightly to this night, hanging on with the desperate fury of any dying thing, any dying thing that might once have thought itself invincible.” 
― Caitlín R. Kiernan

“He knew too what it was to live through a hurricane with the other people of the island and the bond that the hurricane made between all people who had been through it. He also knew that hurricanes could be so bad that nothing could live through them.” 
― Ernest Hemingway

“Despite the fact we give hurricanes names like Katrina and Rita, a hurricane isn't a self-contained unit. A hurricane is an impermanent, ever-changing phenomenon arising out of a particular set of interacting conditions - air pressure, ground temperature, humidity, wind and so on. The same applies to us: we aren't self-contained units either. Like weather patterns, we are also an impermanent, ever-changing phenomenon arising out of a particular set of interacting conditions. Without food, water, air, and shelter, we'd be dead. Without our genes, family, friends, social history, and culture, wouldn't act or feel as we do.” 
― Kristin Neff

DISASTER

“You don't need another Human Being to make your life complete, but let's be honest. Having your wounds kissed by someone who doesn't see them as disasters In your soul, but cracks to put their love into, Is the most calming thing In this World.” 
― Emery Allen

“A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains.” 
― Criss Jami

“How many times had those awful words - "I know what I'm doing" - been uttered throughout history as a prelude to disaster? ” 
― Christopher Buckley

“Over the years, Americans, in particular, have been all too willing to squander their hard-earned independence and freedom for the illusion of feeling safe under someone else's authority. The concept of self-sufficiency has been undermined in value over a scant few generations. The vast majority of the population seems to look down their noses upon self-reliance as some quaint dusty relic, entertained only by the hyper-paranoid or those hopelessly incapable of fitting into mainstream society.” 
― Cody Lundin

SUPPORT

“I want to be around people that do things. I don’t want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do. I want to be around people that dream and support and do things.” 
― Amy Poehler

“What is home? My favorite definition is "a safe place," a place where one is free from attack, a place where one experiences secure relationships and affirmation. It's a place where people share and understand each other. Its relationships are nurturing. The people in it do not need to be perfect; instead, they need to be honest, loving, supportive, recognizing a common humanity that makes all of us vulnerable.” 
― Gladys M. Hunt

“There are going to be times when you learn more about the world you’re entering and feel defeated when you see the gap between the ideal and the reality… But that’s something we’ll all face. The people that face those obstacles and overcome them are people whose dreams come true.” 
― Tsugumi Ohba

“No person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone. There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.” 
― Adrienne Rich

“The next time you want to withhold your help, or your love, or your support for another for whatever the reason, ask yourself a simple question: do the reasons you want to withhold it reflect more on them or on you? And which reasons do you want defining you forevermore?” 
― Dan Pearce

DEATH

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.” 
― Anaïs Nin

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” 
― J.K. Rowling

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” 
― Mark Twain

Phil. 3:18-19 “(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)”

Comforting Words

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

Comfort in Trying Times

I was going to hang my hat up for the rest of the year of blogging but as many of you already know me so well, I do what God calls me to do and last night it was evidently clear that He wanted me to send out some comforting words to you, who need to hear.

As you know, we have all experienced a year of awe-inspiring deaths; deaths that affected the very core of our soul. Yes, I know everyone dies, and every year we have our shocking deaths of the year that just makes our jaw drop open and hang there in wonder. Last year for me was a blur as I had three deaths in the family and it looks like this year my husband might be losing an aunt. She is in the hospital being kept alive by feeding tubes as I write.  

I’m referring to the current year of celebrity deaths that seemed to touch many generations not just my generation as Prince, Glen Frey, George Michael in the music world, but to the older generations as in Garry Marshall, Gloria DeHaven, Arnold Palmer and the space exploring Astronauts John Glenn and Edgar Mitchell to writer Harper Lee. These deaths touched many generations. The list goes on and on and the year isn’t even over yet. This seems to be the year of icon deaths. 

When growing up what is magnified in shaping you is what goes into your mind, body, and spirit. While God may have shaped the early years, the television and radio input has also chiseled little pieces of your psyche. As you travel down memory lane December 31st, remember those icons who shaped who you are today. 

The political arena where people fought like pit bulls tossed into a pit with a bunny running in circles overshadowed this dismal year also. Devastating fires and earthquakes in places that rarely receives any media attention carved the year and the disheartening ending. This was a year for the record books from weather, destruction, deaths, politics, wildfires to entitlement. We the people who feel entitled to everything our fingers and minds can grasp are being put into our place for certain. 

We are not entitled! This is not our world to do what we want, this place is on loan and the sooner people realize how close we are to the end and that it is time to pay our dues maybe people can focus deeper on their soul and the continuance of the spirit that will leave the body, leave the beloved family behind to mourn and leave you to cleave only to your own spirit.

I watch as people succumb to their wants and needs. Even if all of their needs are met they seek more; more meds, more money, bigger house, better car, more materials, want, want, want. Their heads are spinning from the confusion instead of calmly looking around at all they have within their grasp and meditating what is right at their fingertips.

Heb. 13:5-6 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."

I have nieces and nephews with small children that have to grow up in this world and this is not the world I want to leave them. I want to leave my mark so that when I go, like the iconic figures that have gone on before me this year, I want to be remembered for my poetic life, the laughter I shared, the smiles I gave, for the joy I bestowed and for the God I loved in life and in death, and His comforting words that I share with you today.

Heb 6:10-12 NIV “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” 

Some of these icons that passed over were either well aged or who had not even begun their life, but take note, they all left their mark on the world. I can only assume that God is ready for His chosen to be lifted and taken to a better place. 

I find comfort in knowing that I have a place to go after this life. While some still struggle to understand the depths of the hereafter, probably because they are too consumed by the here and now and the wants and needs of today, I am comforted in knowing that there IS a hereafter and that this life is a continuum of a path that never really ends for us. 

Heb. 6:17-20 “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.”

So as I am saddened by the recent deaths of George Michael, Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds I can rest assure with the fact that the choir of angels amassed in heaven this year alone is going to be its own resounding trumpet. 
To the literalist I say, don’t wait for the brass, to the realist I say see what is real, to the pessimist I say, stop conjuring and to the optimist I say, keep the faith! 

Maybe we should all… be Praying for Time. 

God Bless one and all!

An Overly Obsessed World

Job 26:6 “Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”

An Overly Obsessed World

There is a sickness running rampant through the veins of society as a whole. I’m not finger pointing a color, culture, nation or country; nope I’m pointing fingers at human beings, well those things walking on two legs that CALL themselves humans. Judgment? No, just an observation of the reality that we all have to face.

We are hell bent on destroying the world in any manner that we can. I am hard pressed to see any generation over the years that didn’t bring about some form of destruction on the world. I sometimes wonder if God didn’t create the world just to watch us totally annihilate the planet we live on, and you wonder why we’re looking to see if Mars is habitable? We’re obsessed bringing about the destruction of earth.

All you have to do is turn on your computer and it is evident. I have a mother who has never used a computer so she has to see it firsthand on television or read about the ruination in the newspaper. And we all know that those forms of information are lies that the media allows through our open window.

Ezek. 31:16 “I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.”

We are:

Destroying the atmosphere – I see this in contrails and the emissions from cars. The slaughter of perfectly healthy trees to make way for roads and more homes to house more and more people who are spreading out into the world by the billions causing us to be in astronomical debt for the extinction of the human race.

Destroying the waters – Polluting waterways is nothing new but a new exterminating process is underway in the form of pipelines running under the sea or river ways. Yeah, I don’t see a catastrophe happening there. 

The oceans are just vast graveyards for bodies and excrement that we relieve ourselves from, thinking the garbage hides on the ocean floor not realizing the chemicals bleed into the water taxing an already deplete ecosystem. 

Destroying farmland – By justifiable means of chemically treating our food sources and justifying our decision, we are encouraging unhealthy spores of illness to arise in a nation wrought with cancer killing illnesses on the rise and it is not going down. New illnesses are bred from the misdirection and misinformation being fed to humankind.

Matt. 10:28 “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Destruction by overmedication – We have a world dependent on drugs, prescription or illegal sources, we dish out medication like a daily dose of candy on Halloween night. Hand the person a pill to pacify their illness, make money and raise addicted children who need the same meds, daily. When the pacified child no longer feels good from the meds he/she has been prescribed to all of their life they seek out a stronger (illegal) drug to quiet the demons eating them to pieces.

Destruction by monetary gain – If there is a dollar to be made, rest assured destruction is not far behind. Whether earned, begged for, borrowed or stolen, money is all part of the downfall to humankind. Money is the root of all EVIL!

Isa. 28:15 “Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:”

Destruction of morality – There is a massacre taking place by the elimination of morality on a grand scale where even our newborns are being exploited. Humanity is obsessed with nudity, sexual pleasures, defiance, brazenness, naiveté, and gullibility.

We obsess over breast – to the point that something that is supposed to be beautiful between mother and child has become a contrived exploitation of a viral epidemic where breastfeeding is no longer a bonding moment between mother/child, it is between mother and the virtual world.

Prov. 27:20 “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”

We obsess over sex – to the point that millions of dollars are made by legal ‘gentleman’s clubs’? ~ Seriously, what kind of GENTLEMAN lusts over naked women? 
Pornography sites, illicit boob-bearing hamburger joints, all the way down to the barely-there costumes of the surgically enhanced cheerleading squad; sexual deviation is another legal sickness that will never be addressed. 

We obsess over looks – So much so, that beautiful women have themselves sliced and diced to ‘look’ better when all that the surgery does is makes them look like an ego driven living Barbie doll; plastic and not real. We’re obsessed with the real and the surreal. The fantasy and the delusion of fabricated truth.

We’re obsessed with rights and being right in a world where everything is wrong! We’re obsessed with clicking and baiting; we’re obsessed with primping and prepping. We’re victims of having or being had. I, as a God-loving woman, (Christianity doesn’t live on this earth anymore) have become a delicacy to the masses that are trying to devour me and ridiculed because I won’t be a part of their game plan.

Pss. 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

I won’t do the YouTube boob bait. I won’t partake of the Instagram food bait, the facebook, I’m  right, you’re wrong bait or any-other-virtual-predator bait. We are an obsessed nation with baiting you with legal sinful pleasures that you later justify as just being normal.

Prov. 15:24 “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.”

I have come to the conclusion by merely observation that this world is NOT God’s world this is satans domain and we’re all in hell digging and clawing ourselves out of the pit to gain access somewhere in the heavens. May God have mercy on our soul!

Pss. 86:13 “For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.”

What's Going on?

Matt. 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

What’s Going On?

I wake in the morning and say my prayers. I’m into a serious prayerful phase. While that is the normal me anyway, here lately my prayerful ways have been more intense. After my prayers I go to the news and see what it has to say.

I skip over all the political jargon because let’s face it the government is a mess. Do we really need to whine and whine and do nothing about it? When is the last time YOU wrote to your leaders? Last time you went to a protest? When is the last time you actively sought change in the US? Besides a facebook rant, have you done anything? Okay then, I forego the political agenda’s of the day because I don’t see a point. I do nothing so I have nothing to say on the matter.

While I’m very vocal about ME, and not liking the blood, gore and sleaze in movies, the news is full enough of all the catastrophes movies only dream of. What’s going on? A two-year old is killed walking with his dog on railroad tracks; a twenty-two tear old burns her newborn baby to death on the side of the road, telling an onlooker that it was dog feces; a five year old shoots his infant brother lying in the crib; a two-year old shoots and kills his mother in a Walmart after finding her gun hidden in her purse!

Again I say, what’s going on? We live in an abusive, negligent, selfish, trigger-happy nation. I’m all for the right to bear arms but I’m also for the right to act responsibility while bearing those arms. We are not a responsible nation! We can’t even drive responsibly let alone have an unattended firearm within reach of a child.

Then there’s the children. We’re off multiplying like rabbits and then dispose of the responsibility of taking care of these children, tossing them out into society and allowing a pack of wolves to raise them or people choose to abuse and kill them. And we wonder why society is the way it is?

Then there’s the Earth. You know, that planet hanging out there in the solar system sustaining life? Yeah, that’s us! We’re out here destroying the very thing that sustains us and we’re doing a bang up job of keeping it spinning.

The scientists have told us what we want to hear. Their opinion is just that, an opinion, not fact. We cling to their words no different than we hold onto the lies the media feeds us. We’re going downhill in a bobsled and we have no brakes in place.

                 

Last night as I sat star gazing this January evening, I heard the sounds of…crickets. Granted it has been warm for January, crickets and flies are a fact that I see and hear with my own eyes and ear; while I know this just shouldn’t be happening.

I look at the world and see it falling down the side of a mountain and I can do nothing to stop the descent. I think I’d rather believe in the dinosaurs building the pyramids than to face the fact that we’re going to hell in a handbag.

Oh well, just another day on the planet earth. What’s going on? You be the judge.

Matt. 24:5-11 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

 

 

Caught Unaware; Where Is God?

 Luke 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

We are four full months into the New Year and already we have mounted up disaster after disaster. Just this week a swath of storms and tornadoes crawled across the US leaving death and destruction in its path.

The stretch of storms rolled over Nebraska making its way east touching down and crippling cities and states catching many unaware as warning sirens were knocked out by high winds allowing the storm quiet entry and in the terror of its wake, many dead.

The weather is downright strange! We have been under high wind warnings for weeks, possibly months now since the evidence still sits in my front yard of a tree toppled by high winds.

The 20^th of April we had high winds and blizzard like conditions leaving us under a blanket of snow as my springtime perennials were making their show. We warmed up nicely and Saturday the 26^th we hit daytime high of 80 degrees although the winds were still gusty as we made a trip to Lincoln.

Yesterday the 29^th, I rose to the heater coming on as temps with windchills were dipping well below 30 degrees. As I sat writing it was 39 degrees and the windchill of 25 mph sustained winds made it feel like 24 degrees! And this is Spring? Winter just won’t let go!

The weekend storms are still rolling across the country threatening the east coast with flooding and torrential rains. They battered many states like Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee and were now threatening Georgia and the Carolina’s. So far the death total from these storms is at 30 with many still missing.

So where is God in all this death and destruction? I know He’s out there so where is He? Many people struggle with that question in an aftermath of such devastating brutality to their communities. They’re surrounded with why me questions and sometimes they find comfort in understanding God’s purpose but others just don’t get it. They are in shock and have every right.

Trevor Freeze wrote: “In response to an outbreak of tornadoes over the past few days, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team is deploying to some of the hardest hit areas, with teams responding in Arkansas, Mississippi and Kansas.”

Aha! That’s where God is. He’s in the hearts and souls of men and women responding to these disasters. Neighbor’s who never spoke to each other before are now aiding in the search and rescue. Teams of Christian’s are banning together to aid the down trodden. Churches across the country are sending help (and you wonder where your tithes go each week you give?)

Without your tithing the church would never be able to send assistance so really, if you attend church regularly, tithe each week, you in essence are a part of the assistance sent to help if you can’t go yourself.

Yes, churches across the country send around tithing baskets asking you to contribute. This isn’t money to build bigger and better churches or to build statues this money is SUPPOSED to be used for the people.

Lev. 27:32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.

Yes, it is our DUTY to give to the Lord so that the Lord in turn uses the money to aid and assist in times of disaster. In times of distress, the Lord is seeing to it that you are comforted, you are aided and in turn YOU are doing the Lord’s service.

Where is God in these times? He’s right there among you. Do you see Atheist groups sending help? Do you witness hate groups backing communities up? In reality, not even our government is the first responders, church organizations are! The government goes through red-tape before assisting to send money. Churches send actual human beings to be there when a mother cries, a father dies, or a child is missing.

The Church – all of God’s people, react with ACTION, not words. If your church is not one that acts in a disaster, then maybe seeking out a new church is in store because we the people of the church KNOW there is money to give out to the people in need and the Churches across the nation are there. People of the Church respond!

So when you hear that a mother finds her lifeless child among the rubble of a tornado stricken home, know that there is someone of God’s right behind her doling out comfort. We see it, but many won’t acknowledge it as the hand of God. Usually it’s the ones that don’t believe in God or His Almighty strength and power!

God IS alive!

2 Sam. 22:7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.

Lent: Day Fourteen ~ Suffering

2 Cor. 1: 6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

Lent: Day Fourteen ~ Suffering

Some say I turn a blind eye to suffering and strife in the world. Well let me tell you, I lived with a blind man for two and a half years so I know literally what it is like. I make no apologies for the way I am. God made me this way as He made you the way you are. Some SEE and some turn a blind eye to Him.

People are so full of hate for their fellow man that I’d say they are the ones consumed with turning the blind eye because they don’t see through the beautiful picture window, all they see is a small portal of the bigger picture. Whatever that portal feeds them, they believe it to be so.

Since I was born and long before I was born there has been suffering in the world. Turning a blind eye is assuming I don’t care but unlike you, instead of allowing hatred to fester in my soul I see the suffering as salvageable. No, I’m not on a mission to save the world, no I can’t spew hate because I disagree with someone, and I definitely don’t have the power within me to change the world and the way it spins.

Suffering is part of the Christ journey. If we don’t suffer than how are we to know the joy behind prayer? A lot of people won’t accept Christ or a God that causes suffering. I’m not naïve in actually thinking that God CAUSES suffering, MAN causes suffering and God cleans up the mess.

I also hear many times, if God is so great, how can He let people die, like children who were enjoying a wonderful day at school and a shooter comes in and takes away their very breath in life?

The problem I have with that thinking is they missed something along the way. God gave us free will so to blame HIM for the shooters choice (sin) is to blame God for HIS choice in creating. Doesn’t make sense does it? Why didn’t He save the children? Why didn’t He reach right in and stop the bullets? If he can ‘part the sea’ surely He can do that. Well, yes He could. He can stop all the suffering in the world but the real question is, why doesn’t He?

Tom W wrote: “Because of SIN in the world, God sent His Son, who in turn, gave His life that we might have a path to forgiveness. This, to as many as would believe. It did not eliminate Sin, but instead provided us a way out of the life of sin and the body of death. God does not form the actions nor decisions of Man, for if that were the case, it would be saying God caused man to sin. It was because of sin that man was separated from God, and given parameters to return to Him, and even offered His own Son as the necessary sacrifice. Even then, it is up to man to accept; actions derogatory to that end are against the Will of God, and will be dealt with as described in The Revelation. As a result, I take exception to senseless killing being called "God's master plan." It IS POSSIBLE, however, to disagree with people, humans, and not hate- This is what all God's people are called to. Destruction of the creation at the hands of the creation is simply sin in action.”

Let me try and make some sense out of this. I think I use the term God’s Master plan too loosely and to some it is misunderstood as me turning a blind eye to the suffering because I say it is all just a part of God’s Master plan. Clarity: God did not create us to sin. We were perfect in His eyes but when woman and man sinned, He didn’t just kill what He created right then and there, He gave us a chance to work our way back to Him, and I believe, to ME, that suffering is just one of the ways our spirit comes closer to God.

He sent His Son into this destructive world to suffer and die for us, our sin. Now I know a lot of folk who think this is a cruel God, they are not shy in expressing WHY they don’t believe and most of the time it has to do with SUFFERING that they think God causes.

Have you ever lost someone close to you? Have you ever suffered and just wish all suffering would go away? Why doesn’t God END all suffering? Why do we continue to suffer? I have lost two children and I KNOW suffering firsthand. I CHOSE to turn to God in my suffering instead of AWAY from God.

A majority of the time, when we’re in the midst of suffering, we pray, to whatever God or spirit you believe in, you pray. When there is the heinous crime of shooting and killing of innocent people, or when planes fly into buildings causing thousands to die, what is it we do in the pangs of our suffering, we pray. We call to God and pray.

God’s master plan is not the action of the sin, and I don’t claim to KNOW His plan, but I feel that through our suffering, we both call on God and come closer to Him or we shun and blame Him! As a note, my suffering has pulled me closer and closer to God. To me, I think people are blaming Him for creating the sinner more than the sin that man commits.

When I say God’s master plan, I only mean that He knows every hair on our head and calls us by our name; I’m not Joni the sinner, I’m just Joni but He already knows my sin as well as the mass destruction man is causing on the earth. No they are not, I REPEAT, the sins of man are NOT His master plan. Free will wasn’t even His plan for us but it IS our saving grace through the SUFFERING of His Son.

I do not turn a blind eye to suffering; as a matter of fact I’m focused on the suffering of many and am in prayer many hours for the suffering that goes on. Whether it is people, trees, animals, or the earth, I pray! I am connected to ALL of God's creation, not just what I pick and choose.

I disagree with a lot going on in the world today but instead of name calling, flinging mud in the faces of men and women and belittling God’s CREATION, I pray. My true colors are worn on my sleeve, I love and I pray while many would rather, in their disagreement of the world’s condition, they’d rather spew hateful words. THAT is showing THEIR true colors.

Which leads me to my next post…

Heb. 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Common Bonds?

Pss. 97: 10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Prov. 8: 13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Common bonds?

Bond in hatred, bond in love

Nothing makes any sense.

How can one be devoted

To a life that’s so intense?

Bond in glory, bond in joy

Blessings mount on high.

With humble adoration

My Savior’s drawing nigh.

Bond in hate, bond in love

There rises inner conflict.

Turmoil then slowly erupts

By the pain you chose to inflict.

Bond in glory, bond in joy

A peace-filled soul pursue.

You’ll never be at a loss

For blessings that ensue.

Bound to glory, bound to joy

My life is full of love.

Bound in peace, bound in mercy

Blessings rain from above!

Deut. 28: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Thank you my friend in Christ who rained unexpected blessing upon me. You see Christ in me, and I thank you! God Bless!

Enmity Abounds

Matt. 18: 9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Enmity Abounds

*  *  *

The blanket of hatred is pouring

Its darkness across the land.

Evil cannot be counted

In every grain of sand.

Marching to a different drum

The music can be heard

Waves crashing all around

The silencing of the bird.

Fires light up the night sky

Dolphins line the shore

The earth it shakes and trembles

Awakened is the core.

Lust lines the heart of man

In every quaking stance.

Hidden from the Light of truth

Like a fireflies swift dance.

Man can’t see beyond himself

Although he thinks he can.

He breeds the little seeds of hate

In his insufficient den.

Calamity will rain upon the seas

As flames fall from the skies

Be ready for mass destruction

Pluck enmity from thine eyes!

I'm Done...I Move on...

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. ~Booker T. Washington
***

Well I’m done with it all. I’m done being attacked, spit on on, trashed and made to feel like an incompetent piece of crap. I am, and I know it, a much better person than that, and I, like all of you, deserve respect. We live in such a hateful world, that I think moving on is best for all involved.

I was raised to sweep everything under the rug. Never confront an issue, keep it all hidden, be pleasant always, therefore pretending, supporting things that you just don’t believe in. Well, when I was sexually assaulted at a young age and my elders did nothing, (swept it under the rug like the good soldiers they themselves were raised to do) Joni developed something new at the ripe old age of fourteen. I gave my life to God and asked HIM to guide me.

Wouldn’t ya know it, He wanted me open and honest? Truthful and trustworthy? He had me forgive my assailant and I did, quickly moving on in life. I found joy in writing because it was a form of releasing all my pains and heartaches, it was my way of dealing with such a sad life that I had gotten myself into.

The recent events had me reliving past events where evil entered into my (or tried to) life and made me feel incompetent. When something is not from God, I have no other name for it. And when it attacks me, it is not from a good solid foundation based on the Lord, that’s for sure.

I confronted the issue while everyone else cowered and climbed in their shell and just wanted it to pass over like a toxic radiation cloud. Can toxic radiation really pass over, without causing any harm? Well I was not about to let it ‘pass over’ me and destroy me, instead I opened the door of ‘communication’ so the problem could be resolved.

Again I was attacked, again I was the bad guy, but all in all, I’m good because now I see this person(s) for who they really are. They play the pity card well, they have all their ducks in a row and are happy and content with that and I wish them nothing but godspeed.

I am not a bitter person, I don’t hold grudges and allow them to cling like leaves to wet pavement. My best bet is to move on, be done with it all and find a new place. I don’t like being judged, and won’t allow the torture that my psyche has had to endure. I am moving on to save myself.

I am an adult, I at least expect my elders to act like adults. When I find that they really can’t...then I move on.

Love and hugs to all who have supported me and comforted me. Those who KNEW what *I* went through and were there for me, I thank you. May you all have a blessed day.

Next up: Quotation Saturday.... godspeed...

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. ~Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice, 1968

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freaky Friday~ Sanity

The Heavenly host cried out in joy the day you were born. Know you are here for a reason and REJOICE!
~joni~
***

Sanity...part II

Okay, after reading my post yesterday I’ll get into clarifying it up, hopefully. It sounded like a cryptic message lay hidden in there and if you know me personally, there more than likely is.

The year started off in a weird way. I was searching for myself and somewhere along the line I got lost; what with the move and all. Some thought I was uncertain of the move, unsure of where I wanted to be but in my heart there is only one place I wanted to be and that is here in Nebraska.

My writing took a big back burner because now I was taking on tasks that I never had to do before. I think life got flipped upside down and confetti flew all over the place (those were my brains) and I found myself here on a farm out in the middle of nowhere with chores that needed tending. A good five-six hours were spent mowing, raking, weeding planting, sowing, reaping, washing, drying, all kinds of chores!

I was sure my writing was going to pick back up but excuse after excuse,distraction after distraction kept me from writing. Now keep in mind, I’ve worked hard to become a writer and all of the sudden things stopped. I didn’t want to write, I hated writing. Writer’s block? No, stuff happens. I was putting others before myself and my writing was what got cut short.

If I could put the year in review? I put my heart and soul in the blender and pushed ON! There I go, look at me twirling all around, jumping through hoops, press STOP and I find it’s Christmas already!

Last week, something happened. I felt a shift in the atmosphere. I got hurt. Hurt to the point I’ve been trying to pull myself together like a worn old teddy bear needing someone to sew his arm back on. I’m not one to dwell on crap, so I move on, but I’m telling you...it was a polar shift and I don’t know if all the pieces will fit together again. Where do *I* fit into this puzzle? I don’t have nostalgia here, or old friends, family, memories. Nothing, so where do I fit in? :::shrugs:::

I was moving right along, enjoying everything this world has to offer then, WHAM, this boulder started rolling like in the Indiana Jones movie? Rolling, I’m running, running, it’s rolling and WHAM! I’m crushed! Like a cartoon character I pick myself up, stick my thumb in my mouth and blow, POOF, I’m whole again.

Come January my writing is going to take precedence in my life once again. No more excuses. No more problems getting in the way! I’m doing it and that is final!! I need to find myself once again and I will turn to the strength and love that has come to comfort me in my darkest of moments, my Heavenly Father. I know I’ll make it because He is going to carry me as if I’m a feather!

godspeed my friends...