Light In The Darkness

John 9:5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Light in the Darkness

One spark, that’s all it takes to get the fire under you to burn brightly, to spread so others can see the light. We become conditioned to spreading hate, bad news, or controversial topics. Our hearts are set on seeing a reaction of disgruntled people joining together to fan the flames to form a riotous response.

Can you even imagine the inferno of passion you could ignite for God? Imagine the HOPE you could instill if you put aside the dark negative mechanisms that drive your day. I believe my mission in life is to bring hope to the lost, light to the dark and love to a world consumed in hate. I might be that one spark that’s needed to fan the flames.

When I was diagnosed with this disease, I felt fear and sadness flood through my screen. It was as if I told my friends, ‘hey, I’m going to die’ and their reaction was felt, even for a moment. That was a fleeting moment because my next step was to go to God; I asked Him, what could I do for You? I have this disease that everyone fears, how I can I show them there is nothing to fear and that with God all things are possible? Thus my journey began, journaling, documenting and researching and relaying a positive spin on my disease.

Job 23:10-11 “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.”

I remember my mother-in-law and her reaction to the ‘devastating illness’, was to come out to my house and see me. An ironic response to me but I had to understand, even she, a good Christian woman, believes this disease to be about fear and death. I had to set her straight as well as my friends. No one understood where I was coming from. I stood in the doorway holding a candle of hope and yet they stood, looking on with fear in their eyes trying to penetrate the light I held.

I was being luminous where they once saw darkness. I was hope and life where they once cradled death. I was the candle being set down in a forest of negative vibrations trying to bring a light to the woods that surround the world.

Fear is a prevalent reaction in this world. Satan has a way of slithering in and using fear to his advantage and people are like flies to bug zappers. The first response is not to see God in any given situation, people turn to what they are accustomed to and that is fear. Even with the best of intentions, even when they know the power of God humans have an innate ability to trust the dark before the light.

When I asked God at the beginning of this Lenten season what I could do for Him, since I had given up so much over the year, and His response was ‘think’. I’m telling you now that has been harder than giving up all the toxic elements in my diet! I have to think before speaking, think before just blurting something out, think before writing that grumbling response. I also have to think and meditate on what will be written on any given day. A challenge for sure but a task I believe I can handle. 

Mark 7: 20-23  “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

God asks us all to think. Before we react to people with a defensive spewing of hate, think, and not for yourself, but what He would expect to hear coming out of our mouths. When we say we are Christian do we act like it or do we give people a reason to not want to be ‘Christlike’? Do we show the world that we’re full of anxiety and hate and that our first response is to fear?  I would hope that we all know where a fear response comes from.

It’s hard I know. Change is hard. Being strong is hard. Being a light in the enveloping world of darkness is strenuously hard. I never gave off the impression that choosing the right from wrong or the light from dark was an easy journey. If you don’t understand the struggles whether from the Bible, or a sci-fi novel, or a fictional tale of how the west was won, you should KNOW every aspect of life is hard. The choice in choosing the EASY road or the hard road is quite simple, pick what comes easy, all *cowards do and that is why so many want to choose that route. (*more on that in another post)

Think. Did I just call everyone a coward who chooses the easy road? I believe I did. I may be wrong or right but whatever I blurted out was from a stance of understanding the rewards of choosing the hard route. Examples? Let’s say someone commits suicide. To me, they took the easy way out of a difficult life. Look what they missed; a chance to try and HEAL from the warped darkness that shrouded them because the road seemed too hard. They didn’t give a spark a chance to light the fire of hope.

To me, and this is only one woman’s opinion, the easy route is filled with more darkness. An example is people think wealth will make them happy. Look at Robin Williams, he had enough money to live happily ever after but money was the deception that satan used, and in the end, the easy route got him nowhere, literally a dead end.

I think of my fellow man who consumes enough junk food in a lifetime as an easy route to feeling good and filled with life, but in the end, does everyone feel good? No, they feel bloated in a society that labels them in a negative light. To change their diet is hard stuff, again, the easy route is accepting death over life.

I choose life over death. When someone says, you’re going to die, I look at them and without thinking I spit out, AREN’T WE ALL? Then God taps me on the shoulder, a Light in the darkness has lit the world on fire, He whispers, “I AM THE HARD ROAD, WALK WITH ME.”

There IS hope, you just have to be willing to see the Light in dark places; a spark about to ignite into a flaming bush, a match to candle, the candle to dry wood, a breath of hope enflaming a sea of negativity, a Sonrise to the plethora of stars in the night sky.  

John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Poetry Sunday ~ No Heaven in Hell

Pss. 139:8 “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”

No Heaven in Hell

*a repost from 2015

There is no heaven in hell

Only a place for sin to dwell

The liars charred in flaming fire

When hell becomes their one desire.

There is no hell in heaven

Souls transform like leaven

To rise above the earthly skies

Heaven gives home to the wise.

There is no heaven in hell

The hypocrites home a shell

Tears will be shed for the dead

Who dare not cling to the Bread.

There is no hell in Heaven

Unclean souls to beckon

Roaming through the stardust light

Bid the cosmos a sweeping g’nite.

There is no heaven in hell

The party’s over it's time to quell

Thirst you crave throughout the day

Allow our Lord to Light the way!

~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

Isa. 35: 8-10 And a highway will be there;

    it will be called the Way of Holiness;

    it will be for those who walk on that Way.

The unclean will not journey on it;

    wicked fools will not go about on it.

 No lion will be there,

    nor any ravenous beast;

    they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

     and those the Lord has rescued will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

    everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Poetry Sunday ~ The Soul's Descent

Gen. 28:12 "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

The Souls Descent

***

Plummeting downward I watched it fall;

the deep abyss the shadowed wall.

Gripped by pain and tidal emotion;

wrought with fear an inner devotion.

In this fissure of my being, 

analyzing all I'm seeing.

The foulness of vengeance lurks throughout,

seeds of hatred sprinkled about.

Where once there lay a fluent stream,

drought and hunger fuse a team.

Lust it lingers in this pit,

I try to flee...but here I sit.

Liquid anger claws at me,

my very essence squints to see.

Howls and screams ~~ a wailing sound.

crimson walls melting 'round.

Fires racing torments edge;

keeping me from realities ledge.

I struggle within this master's plane,

as wilted red walls fall down like rain.

My soul has found a resting place,

torrents of tears streaming down my face.

Trickling along like glistening sand,

I hold my pain in the palm of my hand.

Rom. 10:7 "Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)"

*a worthy repost

from 2012

I'm Gonna Let It Shine

1 Peter 1:7 “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”

I’m Gonna Let It Shine

Do you have a goal in life? I never really was a goal setter and I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I have since a young girl of about fourteen always had a plan, kind of, and that was for people to see Christ in me. 

You might say, well weren’t you a drug addict and alcoholic? And I would quite bluntly and honestly admit that yes, yes I WAS. BUT here’s the thing, people always saw God in me. Comments like, “Oh she’s that God person”, or “Don’t ask her for advice, she’ll give you a sermon.” stuck with me. I went through life thinking, I’m a God person, and that is what people see in me, even in my darkest days, they see a Light.

As an adult, in hindsight, I see that it wasn’t my plan after all; I think seeing God in me has been His plan all along. While being dragged through coals of fire, being darkened by pain and strife, I always saw God. People would often wonder how I could see God through raging storms of hell. Again, quite bluntly I responded with, “Because He never lets me down.”

Drug addiction and alcoholism didn’t break me, being sexually abused didn’t taunt me, the loss of two children didn’t crack me like an egg, I plowed on refining my light so that the world would see the brilliance shining from me. 

Last week I went to WalMart. I was standing inside as I waited for hubby to park the car. It was a chilly rainy day so I opted for being let off at the door instead of walking in the rain. I stood inside and my eye caught an older lady and man as they passed me. She had an ear-to-ear smile as our eyes met, then her hand went to her husband's arm as she was gently nodding towards me. Did she know me? Recognize me, what? I didn’t recognize her but I smiled back.

As I walked through the store, I felt like I had a neon sign on my forehead because for some reason I noticed more and more people smiling at me. Not just the smirky kind of smile, smiles that said, I SEE you! What? It was an interesting shopping event, to say the least. This week I went shopping but this time I was going to notice what and why the smiles were there.

I realized that I had a smile on my face for every passer-by. Whether a crotchety old woman, a disgruntled older man, a mom with a screaming child, I had a smile for each and every one of them and they could do nothing more but to look at me, and smile back!

My ego would say, oh yeah, I’m all that. But the portion of a realist in me says, they see me; they see CHRIST in me. Instead of looking at people and forming a judgment in my mind, ‘she wore THAT’, ‘she needs to lose weight’, or ‘take a chill pill dude’, I looked with an intense gaze and thought, GOD, BLESS YOU!

I think the drastic change in my diet has caused my mind to expand on some metaphysical level; I see God in everything. Yes, this has always been parts of me but lately, it is ALL of me not just a portion of me.   

It’s not easy looking intently into someone’s eyes and seeing their pain, like the crotchety old woman who had a bit of road rage on the way to the store. I offer a smile. To the grumpy older man who was hesitant in getting out of bed and going shopping on his own because he NEEDED his medication, I offer my smile. To the man who has a bit of impatience brewing while waiting in a long line, I smile and let him go ahead of me, silently blessing each and every one as they pass. 

Can you imagine what kind of world we’d live in if every person took it upon themselves to bless people? I know the world is set on destruction but individuals can make a difference by shedding a light in all the dark places. They’re everywhere you walk, they’re in every person you have eye contact with, bubbling under the surface, with a light and a smile, the anger can be dispelled.

My General Practioner’s office called the other day, Ashley said, “Dr. *** wanted me to call and see how you’re doing and if you need anything.” 

I said, “I’m doing GREAT! I didn’t go to chemo and I’m feeling GREAT!”

July is my sixth-month marker and I was informed the doctor will be leaving in July since she’s finished up her two-year residency. I told Ashley, I’d make a well patient visit before the doctor left. I WILL go and shine the light for all to see! Test or no test, this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine! Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!!!

I thought I’d share this for you to keep in mind:
From the Purpose Driven Life: “The Bible often compares trials to a metal refiner’s fire that burns away the impurities. Peter said, “These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold.” (1 Peter 1:7) A silversmith was asked, “How do you know when the silver is pure?” He replied, “When I see my reflection in it.” When you have been refined by trials, people can see Jesus’ reflection in you. James said, “Under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.” (James 1:3).”

James 1:3  “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”

Rejoice! Healing Taking Place!

                                       

Pss.5:11 “But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.”

Rejoice! Healing Taking Place!

Many might not see this as a healing taking place but let me tell you, witness a HEALING taking place. As many know I had a new oncologist visit last week and also a PET scan. Read over the past weeks posts to see my take on the onc.2 and all he had to say. Once again the issue of chemo is trying to be forced on me and I’m standing with God as I trust HIS healing over mans.

On Monday the 6th of March, I got a call ‘to inform me of my doctors appointment’ on Tuesday. Last week I told the doctor and his assistant that I COULD NOT come there this week as my husband HAS to work. He only has a part time job due to his disability and has already been missing too much time. I guess it went right over their head and they put me down anyway for an appointment on the 7th of March. I called, the woman put me on voicemail where I left a message that I was NOT able to make the visit.

On the 7th, my doctor called. His message went something like, “I have your PET scan results and you didn’t show today for your scheduled appointment.” I called right back and he was supposedly in a conference, but ironically he called me back immediately. Short conference? 

“Joni, your scan shows that your cancer is only in left breast. Good news, it is not spreading. Now we treat this with chemotherapy. You make an appointment.”

I repeatedly told him, “Not now, I have to see what else it out there, I need to look into alternative treatments, are there any clinical studies out here in Nebraska I can get in on?” Twenty different statements all with him piping in, “we have chemo, it is scientifically proven to heal you ninety percent guarantee! You come in. If you knew what I knew, you would come in right now.” He has a very strong Bulgarian accent and he is very pushy as most doctors are because they believe themselves to be Gods and the owner of your soul. 

I told him AGAIN that this is MY decision, MY body, MY choice. He said, “We no can help you if it spread and go stage four.” THAT, my friend, is a bold lie! In all my research there IS help for three-hundred pound tumors and stage four cancers. He either hasn’t done his homework, or he is set on telling lies to get his patients to commit. I like to call this ‘strong-arming’! And keep in mind, he had just got done telling me that this crud I've been carrying noticeably for a year, HAS NOT SPREAD!

I went on to tell him that I’m being hit with two thousand dollar doctor bills and tests that my insurance isn’t covering. I again said I cannot come in because my husband NEEDS to work to pay for these bills! My husband is on S.S. and works part time; he NEEDS to work. Good old doc pipes in, “we help, we get you financial assistance.”
He said he’d get his navigator to call me to talk about where we can get financial assistance for these mounting bills. I said, ‘fine’, we said our good-byes and the call ended. I felt liberated; this crud IS NOT SPREADING!!! I said my peace and left it at that. I then went to spread the good news to my dear friends and my naturopathic niece who are an immense support system at this time.

Later in the day on my voicemail, there was a message, the nurse navigator lady. “Hi, we’d like to set up an appointment for you to come see the Dr.” I believe this is getting to be borderline harassment! How come what I say goes in one ear, out the other but I’m supposed to jump at their very fear tactics? I hope they know all this is being documented. 

My niece said, “If he can guarantee 90% healing through chemo, I can guarantee 100% through alternative routes!” She is a storm trooper! My friends all said, good news, keep up the good work, let God continue to heal. See there it is! It is GOD who is doing all the healing. I don’t believe for one minute that chemo can HEAL me and thus it WILL NOT heal me. I BELIEVE God CAN and WILL heal me and I’m sticking to my dedication to Him! The Almighty Healer.

Now don’t get me wrong, if you went the chemo route and it worked for you, then praise be to God that it worked FOR YOU. I don’t believe it will work FOR ME and that is the only reason I’m choosing to go a different route. 

Matt. 9:35 “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

Now someone keeps asking about surgery and the size, etc.. Let me make this clear, I am not depending on God to heal a portion of me, I KNOW He will heal ALL OF ME!!! I will not go the 'butcher me up and radiate me' route. Read that again, GOD IS THE ALMIGHTY HEALER! I TRUST HIM FOR HEALING ALL OF ME!

You all might be wondering about my arthritis and my inability to walk very well? Let me tell you, I went to WalMart the other day, I usually let hubby do the shopping but Sunday I said that I wanted to go. I WALKED to the front door, went to the garden section, walked all the way to the back of the store to the car dept., then headed over to the food portion of the store, shopped, checked out and walked back to the truck. 

I asked my husband as we got in the car, “Did you see me?” He noted, “Yeah, I did, I see a difference!” He has seen my body basically deteriorate over the years and yet here he stood, seeing a difference in just ONE MONTH of my holistic healing!

Like I said, God is not healing a PORTION of me. He’s not just carrying one illness, He’s taking hold of my entire body! This my friends is what trust and faith is doing for ME!

The other day the woods too close to our home caught fire. On a 35 mph, sustained wind day with gusts of up to 50 mph carried the towering flames higher and higher but AWAY from our home. I sat in the house so as not to toxify my lungs with the strong odor that hung in the air. But the blackness could be seen too close for me. I remained calm and prayed. My newly mopped floor was covered in soot; you could feel it skidding under your feet.

Do you see the raging battle? Are you paying attention to all that I’m writing? Where something can be seen as devastating, I am turning it into a positive. Where something is trying to control ME, I control the situation. Where things around me try to dim my light, I only shine brighter and brighter!

I am REJOICING in the HEALING taking place in my body! I am moving forward not backward! All praise and Glory to Him who is Most High!

Pss. 9:2 “I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.”

Poetry Sunday ~ No Heaven In Hell

Image by Elaine DeBoucher

Pss. 139:8 “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”

No Heaven in Hell

There is no heaven in hell

Only a place for sin to dwell

The liars charred in flaming fire

When hell becomes their one desire.

There is no hell in heaven

Souls transform like leaven

To rise above the earthly skies

Heaven gives home to the wise.

There is no heaven in hell

The hypocrites home a shell

Tears will be shed for the dead

Who dare not cling to the Bread.

There is no hell in Heaven

Unclean souls to beckon

Roaming through the stardust light

Bid the cosmos a sweeping g’nite.

There is no heaven in hell

The party’s over it's time to quell

Thirst you crave throughout the day

Allow our Lord to Light the way!

~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

Isa. 35: 8-10 And a highway will be there;

    it will be called the Way of Holiness;

    it will be for those who walk on that Way.

The unclean will not journey on it;

    wicked fools will not go about on it.

 No lion will be there,

    nor any ravenous beast;

    they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

     and those the Lord has rescued will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

    everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Refiners Fire ~ Perfection

Zech 13:9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”

I’m Not Perfect!

I sometimes feel like I come across as a miss-know-it-all. Let me stop you right there in that thought, I am the farthest thing from known perfection since my son was born. To me, he was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen!

Guess what, he grew up and is not perfect either! Wow, how did something so perfect, reshape and transform into an imperfect being? Life, that’s how. Life happens to all of us and instead of being perfect we are refined. We are but grains of sand in a shell waiting to become the perfect pearl.

We are an imperfect species and as we grow we, in all of our instabilities, try to refine ourselves to become the most perfect beings possible. To me, there is only one way to achieving such status and that is to allow the Holy Spirit to live in me and take up a residence in my soul.

Only through the storms are we going to find the refiners fire to go through the hailstorm and shape our inner beings into something of perfection. Maybe not what perfection is to you but what perfection is to me. Since we’re all on different paths leading to different places we will all achieve our own perfection in our own time. Maybe not even in the time that we want or expect but by the Holy Spirits time. 

As I woke today and encountered a double rainbow I knew right then that there was a beauty that was going to encompass my entire day. If I were to allow negativity to drive my day it would have wiped the slate clean of such beauty so early in the morning.  The sun was struggling to peek through heavy clouds in the east while I was facing west and there it was a double-arced rainbow alight in wondrous color right before my eyes. 

I tried with all my might to see the beginning and the end of the rainbow and what I saw was myself, standing midway underneath the joyous arc. I smiled taking in all the beauty and became one with the luminous shape, so much so, I stood in the quiet coolness of the morning and allowed the aroma of the crisp air to shape my day.

As the day progressed the clouds swallowed the rainbow; lightning crashed as thunder erupted in a calamity of rumbles unleashing a torrent of rain that washed over the parched fields. I sat in the stillness of the darkness that had blanketed the room. The rain, calling me to write…I embraced my inner peace of perfection and sat to write today’s blog. 

No, no one is perfect and judging people for their imperfections makes you even less perfect than the Holy One had intended when he refined the pot of gold He shaped you into. He never left you alone to sort out this thing we call life. He never once made you feel that you had to achieve perfection because one thing I’ve learned, He loves us the way we are, only because in his perfection He created you! You ARE perfect in His eyes.

When my son drove off today to go to work in the rain, my maternal instincts wanted to worry about the muddy roads, the nighttime driving when he comes home and all the worries a mother faces but the words ‘I love you, mom’ as he drove off, was like a rainbow of peace washing over my soul. I thought of him going off in his own direction perfecting what his soul means to him. 

Peace has completed my day!

May the Light of the Lord wash over you all and bless you on your individual journey.

Tunnel Vision

2 Cor. 4:18 “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Tunnel Vision

There is a world around me that has tunnel vision. They only see one point of view and that is theirs or people who believe in the same thing while all others are wrong and considered a liberal. Their vision is so shallow, any attempt to steer them right they become boisterous, overbearing and sometimes downright rude.

I try desperately to separate myself from them but as a living loving soul, I see a good spot in all people, in all walks of life and in many different colors. Here lately what has been bothering me has been the bashing of Religions, Races and Lifestyles. I just don’t get it or understand and I wish someone could enlighten me without bashing me and calling me a Libtard, why because I have an open mind as opposed to being close-minded?

Take the Muslim religion. There is such a hate for them because of what they see on TV, read on their screen, or listen to a minister bashing the Muslim faith. Do people try and understand the religion or would they rather jump on the bandwagon of hate? You cannot brand them all the same and if you took one second to stop hating, you might see a human being in there somewhere.

Note: Have you ever walked past a Mosque and had Muslims come running out with machetes ready to behead you? Of course not. You only hate what the Arab country and their men are doing. You don’t even understand the culture OR religion, you just want to hate

Then there is the black community. They are not all the same! They don’t all agree with the hate that is thrown at them. They don’t all want to riot and start fires and protest, they want to be HEARD but it is the people with tunnel vision who only see blacks as a degrading term. Have you ever had one in your home, eating off of your forks? I did and guess what, they are human too!

Note: Have you ever lived in a black community? Did they run the streets rioting and burning down houses? Of course not. You only hate the black community when it fits to your form of hate filled attitude. You have never tried to understand the culture or the person of a different color.

And guess what? I’ve sat at the same table and on the same church pew as a homosexual. Did I move away as if the person had the plague? Did I run home and put on facebook, “How could they allow those people in a church?” What sick and twisted mind thinks like that? I’ll tell you what kind, the people with tunnel vision who only see what they want to see and agrees with only those who are in agreement with their line of thinking.

All other people are just wrong!

Let me ask you this, do you bash the Catholics? They worship false idols. I was born and raised Catholic and around the Church sanctuary there are statues of Mary and Jesus and I have many times seen women at their feet praying to the statue. They place statues of Mary in their yard in hopes it will bring them good will and grace. They have priests who have been molesting small children long before there was EVER an internet with social media coverage. They pray and worship the Saints too. Are these atrocities any worse than the raping of women or the beheading of Christians?

Do you bash the Jews? They don’t even believe Christ is the Son of God. But do you bash them? No, or maybe this is one of those things you hide when you proclaim, “I stand with the Jews.” Do you really know what you’re standing for? Of course not, you don’t WANT to understand their culture.

You pick and choose the scripture that suits you. You also pick and choose which religion is wrong (meaning not the same belief as yours); you pick and choose who you love and hate. When Jesus said, “Love your brother as yourself.” He NEVER said pick and choose which brother you’ll love and hate or surely He would have HATED Judas for betraying Him, right?

You might not want to believe this but you are the Judas’ of Christianity. You are selling out Christ for what YOU believe in. Selling out mankind for all that Jesus taught, for what, a political allegiance, an ‘I’m right, your wrong’ attitude? 

You pick and choose sin like it is today’s bread to eat. “It’s only a small sin. I stole a gumball not a car.”  Isn’t stealing, stealing? Can we choose our sin too? Mankind is lost with his tunnel vision intact, seeing and believing in what he picks and chooses, not what is right and what is wrong.

When Jesus said, “Man cannot live by bread alone.” For some reason, I don’t think He was talking about the loaves of dough we eat; He was referring metaphorically to the Word alone. His Word alone is nothing and meant nothing if you don’t PRACTICE what He PREACHED!

Alleluia Amen! God bless each and every one of you.

Phil. 4:9  “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”

Feed the Fire

Jonah 3: 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Feed the Fire

Feed the fire fan the flame

All you hold is your own shame

Your arms are crossed without fear

Stand to lose all you hold dear.

Feed the fire fan the flame

Hold no truth to all you claim.

Sitting proud you rule the land

Emptiness is in your hand.

Feed the fire fan the flame

You’re the winner of the game

Silence is golden or so the say

But peace is not with you in the day

You feed the fire fan the flame

Stories are yours so you claim.

My life is spent praying for you

To see the harm in all that you do.

Fervent Prayer

Matt. 5: 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Fervent Prayer ~

It’s a big deal prayers are. Uttering words, “I’ll pray for you,” is not a prayer for a person. When someone asks for prayers they are reaching out in a desperate need because they know and believe in the power of prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing." (ESV)

James 5:16, "The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with." (The Message)

People say they read, believe, have faith; some even say the words ‘I’m praying’ then goes on with their day getting sidetracked with one thing or another forgetting to pray. Then they lie awake at night in worry and can’t remember what it was they were supposed to do. They forgot to pray for that person in desperate need. It haunts them.

Some will say I’m praying, then say to God. Prayers for John Doe. Did God hear the prayer? You betcha. Does He know John Doe? Mark my word. Will He answer that prayer? Well let me tell you, He was already at work on the person in need of prayer. The bible says, The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (KJV)

God is waiting for the righteous man to pray FERVENTLY. He’s called you to pray. He NEEDS you to pray. He already has the person in need covered, but it is YOU He needs to hear from.
Is uttering the words ‘praying’ an effectual fervent prayer? Did you actually stop what you were doing to ‘fervently pray’ or did you put it on your to-do list and go about your every day hob-nobbing?

Fervent means: having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, feeling, enthusiasm, etc.; ardent:

Do you see the difference in the ESV bible and the KJV? I think the ESV downplays prayer and has people who ‘are right with God’ praying and is a power to be reckoned with. Really? That sounds so much different than FERVENT prayer of a righteous man/woman, to me anyway.

Righteous defined: acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person.

A righteous man is easily seen in his ACTIONS. Let’s say a man goes around hating this, despising that, gossiping, showing himself in his actions. He dilly dallies his day away laughing and mocking thinking himself a bigger person because afterall, he reads, has faith, believes. Does that make him an upright moral person? So him uttering the words ‘praying’ falls flat. It’s nice that he utters, but it would be more powerful if he FERVENTLY prayed and made himself a man to be reckoned with.

I know people who say, ‘I’m praying for you’ and really mean it. You know how I know? Because I can SEE them living morally upright, they ooze goodness and graciousness, they can never be seen spewing discontent. Are they sinners? Yes, we all are, but their moral compass shows through and it is like a beacon of Light on their forehead.

If I can see no light shining from a person, how do you think God sees it? Sure we can put on righteous looking garb for the world to see, but God knows and sees everything. You can’t wear a veil for Him because he sees through it, easily.

“Are you judging me on HOW I pray?”

No, not at all, only God can do that. What I’m saying is this; when a person asks for prayer what is really happening is God is looking at YOU! He heard the person ask for prayer because he asked with fire and passion; what He is waiting for is for YOU to pray FERVENTLY! To serve Him FERVENTLY! To walk in righteousness FERVENTLY!

God knew what He meant when He said; The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The question is, do YOU?

Rom. 12: 11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

What Dreams May Come

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~Marsha Norman

***

Well here we are. Today I’d like to talk about a few things, if you don’t mind.

For one, I almost gave up on writing (yeah right, you say?) No, seriously, I really have not felt like writing because a few loose cannons went off, and tried to disable me, but then I realized, no one can hurt me but me! I am my own worst enemy when it comes to writing.

I’m no longer a part of a certain writing site, just too much has happened, too much pain and bitter feelings there and as I let the administration down and many writers, I have other avenues in writing to pursue. My old friends will have to visit my blog if ever to see me, or not visit me at all and let me get on with my life. Thanks for the many good years, but now it is time for me to go and grow. They know who they are, know what they did, and they have to wake every morning and live with trying to wreck a writers dreams. Personally, I hope they look in the mirror and feel good about themselves.

It is Spring as you might have all noticed, as the robins are dancing in the yard, flowers have reared their head from the soil, and a mild winter will bring us a beautiful flourishing abundant Spring and Summer for sure. Well Summer is still iffy, since I think we’ll be getting some horrendous storms that will cripple a couple places, but don’t hold me to that, okay? It might just be an amazing and uneventful summer where you are at.

Dreams come from imagination. Your conscious mind creates things and it is up to you to make that dream become reality. My dream of writing cannot be put out by a few watery hoses; someone better bring out mightier and more powerful arsenal to squelch THIS flame.

While the first three months of the year have not been uneventful with Omaha trips, infections poisoning our systems, attacking us, and months of the same from my once joyful writing site, I am heading into Spring, and my New Year (Yes, I celebrate MY new year on Easter) with promise and HOPE for a new beginning.

As I’ve peeled myself away, I have opened new layers of consciousness which have enabled me to meet new people, become a part of NEW places to advance my writing because as it is told to me often, I have a talent, and as such, I must find a way to utilize the gift given to me.

Next week, we’ll begin looking at grammar and all the useful tools available. I will not list the different sites I’ve signed up to, because I do not want the vipers to follow me and continue to haunt and taunt me. But you’ll see, as I move forward, we move forward together. New tools, new aspects of the writing field, can only mean New Growth as Spring comes alive and showers me with what dreams may come alive for me as the days roll along.

Poetry Sunday ~ Silence Whispers ~

Fire in the heart sends smoke into the head. ~Proverb
***
Silence Whispers
***
The crackle of embers
burning desire
embedded in the
human fire.

The light emits
a softened glow
each pirouette
a stately show.

Shadows dance
across the room
with each step
escapes the gloom.

Silence whispers
a single flame
the Light, the glory
without a name.

Hear the call
behold the sound
become one with
all you’ve found.

Melody holds
the infamous key
the Light, the love,
you gave to me!

Woeful Wednesday?

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. ~Eric Fromm
***

Seems like I have a lot of those days lately doesn’t it? It’s okay when it is only one day out of the week or perhaps a day out of the month. As long as I keep the Lord and my relationship with Him in perspective, life will work out just fine for me.

We haven’t gotten any calls from Omaha to say, “Come on down! You’re the next in line for The Cornea Transplant!” Of course I don’t think they’ll be as enthusiastic about it as the Price is Right guy, but that is what it will sound like to us, who are here waiting for that call. I’m sure people on the outside are wondering, “Did they get the call yet?” and we here on the inside have to go through each day, wondering if the next time the phone rings it is going to be ‘the call’.

I’ve been keeping myself busy, cleaning like a mad woman, since I missed two weeks of work due to my twisted blue smurf foot! And thanks for all of your concern, my internet friends. My foot is healing, I can walk around on it, but please don't ask me to put a sneaker on, it just might hinder all the progress that the foot has gone through the past two weeks.

I did something that I rarely do, and that was REST! I kept my swelled and blue foot up for almost two weeks, only walking on it to maybe wash a load of clothes, or fix dinner, then it was back to the sofa to rest! Me! For those of you who know me, and know me well, Joni does not rest, even if she has impending pneumonia!

Now my grass outside has grown to impossible heights. I like to keep up on it, and yes I have a son who has been mowing, but I’ll have you know, my mower does not like wet grass and it conks out about every minute of mow, so that then the thing is so worn out from inhaling all the wet grass, it won’t restart again!

Woe, Woe, Woe is me! Not! Today is beaus and mine’s ninth year together. In all its color and craziness, highs and lows, ups and downs, to see and not to see, we’re still together. So while I have a lot of woeful sighs, bad days, lowest of lows, I have high highs too! AMEN!!!

Even after the barn caught fire the other day. The owner and his workers were well on their way to reopening this Turkey Ranch I live on. They had the barn all cleaned out and the wood chips were delivered and while spreading them on the floor for the soon to be arriving turkeys, the place caught fire and by the time the fire department arrived, the roof of the place had collapsed and not one wood-chip left over.

The only affect it had on me was the sadness to the workers who were excited to see, after two years of being closed and job losses, the Turkey Ranch was re-opening and giving hope to possibly new workers! We go on! It is what we do!

I’ll continue to rise at the crack of dawn to write and have a great and glorious day today and always. Now I expect you to do the same! :) Godspeed!

The WIND!

Gen. 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

***

Is anybody listening? You can hear the wind with its deep prolonged howling out there like a wolf baying at the full moon. Tell it to go away! Day after day, night after night, it prowls the grounds like a morning mist.

I remember in days past the wind was just an element that blew throughout any given day, a tousle of the hair here, a flip of the bangs there, but recently the wind has become a force to reckon with all its own.

It’s nasty, aggressive, life maiming, brutal and merciless. It pounds on windows without a care, it sweeps through the farm like a handmade broom by God, it is a horrendous creature about to devour anything in its wake.

Does anyone ask me if I like it? I don’t. I dislike walking in it, I get wind burn. I despise driving in it as it pushes my car from side to side making me feel like I’m inebriated. The wind hates me and I loathe the callous beast!

It is an obnoxious animal that lurks around every corner just waiting to whip your face into a contorted snarl. The wind licks the trees like a lollipop and likes to spit out the branches and twigs that get stuck in its teeth.

I try to love all the natural elements of the world Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. But these forces are not just a part of what makes up this world, they have chosen to unleash their wrath upon us humans.

I looked into what affect the elements not only have on us as humans but what toll they have taken on the planet Earth.

Wind = thoughts
Fire = desire
Water = Emotions
Earth = Stability

Analogies? “Cool breeze of reason”, “Flames of passion”, “Swamped by emotions”, and the ever popular “Solid as a ROCK”

We’ve been chained to the elements since the beginning of time. Tornadoes and hurricanes have wreaked havoc, wildfires have swept the forest like a radiant vacuum cleaner, floods have swallowed entire towns, and nature has reproduced and evolved as new living creatures form in the Brazilian Rain forest and deserts around the world.

We have God the Father, and his beloved, Mother Nature, who could be considered the bride and reflected image of Creation. By the breath of production of these elements, it boils down to the very core of our existence.

Out in the playground (Earth) are the children (humans) who absorb, play, laugh and cry as our toys (the elements) treat us like fodder.

We’re not alone in our elemental world. We’re a part of it. Now I need to stop all this bickering about the hate and destruction that the forces force on me and drink in the beauty and  living wonder that they provide.

From a song:

Clothed in rainbows, of living color
Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor, strength and glory and power be
to You the only wise King

You all have a glorious day...

Job 12: 10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

Apocalyptic Vision

The darkness veils the earth in a blanket of death. Stars fall from the sky like a broken string of pearls falling to the floor. Outside my window I hear the wailing of people in pain. Suffering surrounds me as I cling to the life I once knew.

Holding my beloved photographs in my hand as the shaking earth trembles the very floor in which I sit, I begin to cry. What is this that’s happening? Is the world going to end while I’m here alone?

I reach for the phone as a lifeline. The line is dead, as is my cell phone. The television looks like a looming dark moss-filled lake with its blank screen staring at me. My eyes roam the room looking for signs of life. My plants, my cherished plants hold life within the core of their stem. Life in its solitude quandary is surrounding me while outside hysteria rises like an evening tide; leaping in frothy motion to drink in humankind;devouring everything in its path.

My dreams of late have now become a reality. All that I kept secretly within is now released to the pulsating core of the earth. It breathes, spewing forth iniquity. Riding the pale horse of crimson flame. The sun has turned to blood, dripping like melted wax. A few of us human beings will remain to carry on the torch that never ceases to exist.

The light will shine forth as the new planet reforms itself. With a new ozone in place, all hysteria will have fled, and remaining will be the purest juices of the soil. It will drive forward an abundance of new life. An unspoiled carpet of liberty to shield the newly-formed globe. Regenerated by disaster, the mother earth will climb the towering cosmos, proving to all that behold her, that what was freely given, can be freely taken away…in the blink of an eye.

I rose from my bed
these visions they bled
into words now read.
We’ll do what we can
is the basic plan
to save modern man.
Is it now too late?
Have we sealed our fate?
Do we sit and wait
for the end to near,
I hold no fear,
just shed a tear.
For the blind
who cannot find
love for mankind.
They slowly die,
wither and cry
deeply they sigh.
Rise up and see!
Never flee!
Then you will free…
Your eternity!


"Cherish your visions and your dreams. They are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." -- Napoleon Hill