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!

Poetry Sunday ~ Never Fear The End

Pss. 30:12  To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

Never Fear the End

I walk the place I fear to go

Where all men one day travel.

The breath of me hangs on to life

While the other threads unravel.

I press my toes in the snow

No fear for the taste of cold

I tiptoe with the brush of frost

My tongue is tipped with gold.

Rays have reached the horizon

Stretched out in welcome prayer.

I slowly walk to greet them

For the end is hidden there.

I’m bathed in a bastion of beauty

Unveiled is the Light within.

I raise my hands in mercy

Washed away is clinging sin.

I remember all the moments

As they pass before my eyes

Warmth and love surround me

I hear it in their cries.

Every tear becomes a puddle

Of this new life I must swim

Sorrow is then converted

Into a glorious hymn.

My body dripped in sunshine

Not yet for you my friend.

I softly whisper for all to hear

The righteous don’t fear the end.

Prophecy - End Times

Ezek. 12:2 “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.”

I know quite a few people who see the prophecy of the Bible for them and not us. For them I mean the people ‘over there’ and not here, in America. Do you really think that one of the most powerful countries in the world was left out of biblical prophecy? Why, because it was written so long ago? In the book of Revelation God spoke of the ‘End Times’ and you think he was talking just about the people in ‘other’ countries? Israel alone?

Do you believe the God who breathed the world into existence, knew the beginning and the end, would leave a country, a nation so full of sin out of the end times? So you think the end is only going to come to the other countries and God will spare America? Because we’re all that? I’m not a realist and even I can think in realistic terms concerning the end. America is not exempt!

In all my years of reading, studying and trying to understand the vast amount of truth in the writings of the Bible, I never one time thought that America was going to be excluded from the End Times. God did not specifically say the word America but He alludes to it in many references.

Haggai 2:[6] “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
[7] And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.”

Isa. 66:18-20 [18] For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
[19] And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. [20] And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.

Zech. 12:[2] “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
[3] And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”

Just as when he said “an eye for an eye” did NOT mean to pluck out the eye of another, the use of metaphors are rampant in the written word of thousands of years ago. To understand prophecy in the Bible you must understand metaphors and their meaning. Maybe this is why I’ve been a poet since as young as I can remember, I understand the difference in a metaphor and literal meaning.

Ezekiel 38 is full of end time prophecy and understanding this book with eyes wide open, not sleeping, you might see what God is trying to tell you. After some digging and research, I found that my thoughts are not mine alone. Now that I have the internet, my thoughts have reached a reality shared by other men and women who see.

Again, while granted I may be thought a strange one, these thoughts were in my mind before I could ever understand what they meant. My heart knew America was not exempt from End Times, my soul knew where I’d be in the End Times, and the momentum of my thoughts finally caught up with other people who see the same thing. Praise be to God!

While man is distracted with satans willpower by having them enmeshed in the here and now, worrying about idle chit-chat, engaging in senseless banter, he sweeps the shores and you’re caught unaware. He has you not believing in angels because he has unleashed a legion to thrive here on earth with you and you drink from the bath of his deceit.

There’s a reason I don’t tie myself up in prophecy and it’s because I’m awake, I see and am not blind to the truth right under my nose. Do you think our ‘nation’ is covered in evil because that is just the way humans evolved not ape to man but from good to evil? No, it’s because satan veiled our eyesight so we see only what he wants us to see. Is it a coincidence that veil is an anagram of evil? I don’t believe in coincidence.

Ecc.3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
[2] A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
[3] A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
[4] A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
[5] A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
[6] A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
[7] A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
[8] A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

May the Light of the Lord shine on you all and give every one of you a reason, a season, a lifetime.

God Bless you!

1 Pet. 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

End of the World?

Here lately I’ve been hearing nothing but talk about the end of the world. Big booms in Wisconsin waking people in the middle of the night, the government scrambling to make sense of it all. Nation rising against nation. War, pestilence, famine, a society of moral-less inhabitants and we wonder, where does that leave us? You and I?

I think as writers, it is our duty to bring to the world truth. I always felt there was a place for writers in any given age; take for example the writings in the Bible or even before the bible was written, there were writers. I feel as this age passes, we writers will also have a place in this society and we can either bring people fantasy, fact or fiction.

As humans it is our nature to turn a blind eye. We see people getting beat up and all we can do is watch. We see a house burning down and we just stand there with our mouths wide open for precious moments saying, “Wow, looks kinda bad.” and that is BEFORE thinking to dial 911 for help!

We’ve become a society of voyeurs and a lust filled nation thriving on sitcoms with nudity and profanity garnering the laughs a minute, and a majority of people are eating this stuff up and turning their heads to this lewd behavior. Are we that gullible or are we that weak as to allow this to take place and still walk with your head up? Do you hold NO shame in your actions at all?

We as writers are the ones who are bringing this stuff alive. Do you not realize that? T.V shows become such because a writer, wrote a script and brought it to someone of the same low moral caliber and weak mind and everyone sat around laughing at the big boobs, killing sprees, murder, and victimization. Writers have desensitized society to the point a young boy can get shot and killed and the police, so called authority, can do nothing, because of a statute?

It is sad when a sitcom can be called GCB -- why not use what it is really-- a show based on a book titled Good Christian Bitches??? Are the words offensive to you but not the letters? What? That is no different than text talk.  You’ll sit and write OMG or LMFAO, but would you speak this way to a persons face?

And we as the good righteous men and women of society sit back and say, “There is nothing *I* can do.” YOU’RE WRONG!!! You have a voice, you CAN stand up! YOU are a writer, you can move mountains with your words but you choose to live in your cave, and tickle the fantasy paint brush and thrive off of the pink slime? Maybe it IS the end of the world, and maybe my VOICE or WORDS will be the last thing on your conscious mind before you go...to bed tonight.

Alone one voice is nothing...
Together we can become a choir!
One voice to tell the world
Two voices bind them
I have HOPE to see in the dark,
And all at once, I’ll find them!
~ Joni Zipp ~

E.S.P of Writing: Part II

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin
***

Have you ever heard of E.S.P.? It is short for Extra Sensory Perception. That’s not telling us a whole lot now is it? To me, I perceive it as an Extra sense. What? we have an extra sense?

Have you ever heard your mother say, “Don’t you have the sense God gave you?” Well maybe your mother didn’t but I’ve heard it a few times in my lifetime, and I always looked back and whispered, “Yes, my sixth one,” and as she would turn her back I know I had a tongue sticking out at her. I was just an ornery child like that.

We at f2k (the FREE Creative Writing Course) have a lesson that deals with the senses. We have the normal five senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste, but we have also added three more to add to the effect of your writing; time, space, and the unknown.

Eerie isn’t it, the unknown? Not really: As the sky opens up and unleashes a torrential downpour this late afternoon, I wonder if the newly born kittens are dry. Look at that sentence! The sky would be SPACE, late afternoon would be TIME, and a moment of wonder would be the UNKNOWN. It is THAT simple.

And to top it off the sentence is showing not telling. You get the idea here, right? Now try this on for size.

As I walked down the street in the afternoon sun, I wondered where the aroma of coffee was coming from. I grabbed the pole to catch my balance, as my mouth watered in anticipation of finding the noisy outdoor bistro on the corner.

As I walked down the street (space) in the afternoon (time) sun, I wondered (unknown) where the aroma(smell) of coffee was coming from. I grabbed the pole (touch) to catch my balance, as my mouth watered in anticipation (taste) of finding the noisy (sound)outdoor bistro on the corner. (sight)

Notice how those two sentences, a small paragraph, used all eight senses? In our f2k lesson we ask for you to write a paragraph (READ my words, a PARAGRAPH) using the eight senses. Would you believe, it could take four and five paragraphs to use eight senses?
Keep in mind, many in the class are novice writers, but seriously?

Over six hundred people signed up for this free course, and many quit after the first lesson because they found that either, there are too many restrictions (thanks, we don’t allow porn), there are too many guidelines, (yes, when we say 500 words, we don’t mean 648)and this is my favorite, “I am a stiff shirt.” *loud laughter here*

I like kidding around with the rest of them, but really, this is a business I take quite seriously and in all of my eight senses, it tells me that this “stiff shirt” is going places, while the rest of the people continue to try and balance a ball on their nose and ride a tricycle at the same time.

A Time for the New Year to begin...

Ecc. 3:1-8 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
***

We’re three days away from the old year ending and and a new one beginning. I normally celebrate my New Year around Easter, when not only the calendar is marking a new beginning but the season of growth blooms into beauty, souls become redefined, and newness of life is being ushered in!

But the calendar demands me to flip the month over and start a new year. Although, I don’t feel it will be a new year unless I personally make the changes to make it a new year. So what am I going to do this year that’s different from last year?

I’m a woman of honesty, if you are my friend, I love you with a part of my soul that you can trust and depend on. I don’t do lip-service and call you friend, hence the reason I have a select number of friends on facebook. They are people who actually know me and want to be a part of my life, to accept someone just to accept them, is to me, not friendship at all.

So this year I will:
ONE, continue my selective few friends that I can bring into my bosom and call friend. That means I will embrace new friends in the warmth of my heart who would like to be my friend, in the truest sense!

TWO, I will continue to write my blog and keep the new writer’s of today abreast of all the new things going on in our writing community.

THREE, I will continue to pursue a publisher for my poetry. If not I will go the self publishing route, determined to get my spiritual uplifting words into many people’s hands.

FOUR, I am determined to grow in love. Even if I feel isolated and lonely, I will give all that I am to whomever is willing to embrace me and be honest and trustworthy! I need this in my life. I’m too old to play games of secrets, lies, mischievousness, and downright disloyalty. Betrayal is my enemy.

FIVE, I will cling to my spirituality even more so than I’ve already done this year. I have given my heart and soul to God and I expect respect from others who share in the same Glory as I. Don’t judge me and I won’t judge you.

These are just five of the new and improved me things that I will wholeheartedly pursue in this coming year. I had a blessed Christmas holiday with the love of beau’s family, and although my mother spent Christmas in the hospital back home, I was blessed that she healed and returned home to the warmth and loving arms of my father. Maybe this will be the year I finally make the trek back home to see my family. One can dream can’t they?

Week one down...

Deut. 1:9 And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:
***

Week one down and 4 more to go!

Well we’ve gotten week one under our belts at f2k. It never ceases to amaze me at the amount of people who don’t listen to rules and guidelines. They come into class and one person wrote a 1700 word piece for lesson one.

We emphasize and emphasize a 500 word count but still they act like the rebellious child and post what they want. I’m wondering how they will do in week two? Or how they will do during submission time.

I usually give leeway in week one, because they are just new, anxious, want-to-write, writers. So I allow it and think they are cute and go on to our week two. This week I think I’ll threaten them with being ousted if they don’t adhere to the rules. Just kidding folks, I’m a little more professional than that.

I just wish that the new writer, (and keep in mind a lot of them appear to have degrees and are coming back into writing,) would show a little respect to the course and follow the guidelines. Is it that hard?

We have much smaller class sizes this time. I’m used to the first week being so full of running here and there, but this week has been laid back and I’m not as active. I want to run the halls but I think sometimes over exposure to too many mentors may scare a few kids back into the corner. I’m not there to scare, just help aid a writer in learning.

I’m sticking to my room and playing nice. This should make some people very happy.

Okay, I’m going to get to work. Writing is fun and exciting but you know what? There is a real world that is calling me out here! Time is NOT on my side!

Bye for now...see you in the morning...hopefully

Poetry Sunday

To love all is the end all...


In a world of misconception
a deceitful nation endures.
To love all is the end all...
It’s the end all of the world.

We should be coming together
instead we’re drawing nigh.
To love all is the end all
it’s the end all of the pain.

Death and destruction arises
we’re scattered in our faith.
To love all is the end all
its the end all of our lives.

The Word is in your heart
The King of Kings declares
To love all is the end all,
it’s the end all of the world.

Harvest of Souls~

Soul Harvest

The time is near; the hour nigh,

Moonbeams drape the blackened sky.

Blazing sun scorches the land.

Earth erupts in a quivering stand.





Encircling us is ravaging hate,

Lust and greed severs our fate.

I sit and watch as lives unravel,

The boulder of strength now merely gravel.





Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,

Souls bewildered by mistrust.

Doubt and fear, they give rise.

To muted pleas and mournful cries.





As souls ascend and souls descend,

It is our own that we must mend.

Bringing forth joy, love and peace,

Beauty within must never cease.





Firmly tread as the time is here,

To boldly state all we revere.

Harvest of souls its summoning plea.

It's craving you; devouring me.







Come forth and share your wholesome beauty.

Unleash love, as your earthly duty.

Reap what you sow, seek and find.

Then you my friend won't be left behind.



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