Fear: A Driving Force

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 

1 John 4:18

There is something going on in my life that I’m not quite ready to share with you at this time but I can say that fear has tried to creep in and take over. Also allow me to say that I’m not one to succumb to fear, I live through faith. 

Recently I have been taking everything at face value. It is what it is. I allow outside influences to steer my thoughts and I’ve never done that before because I’m so focused on God. Here lately the dark one has been doing overtime trying to get me to live in FEAR! My prayer and meditation remains on God but again, outside influences and negativity try to seep into my being. 

“Fear is an acronym (I received this in my email this weekend from Bible Gateway) False Evidence Appearing Real.” How did they know I was dealing with this? Oh, they didn’t but GOD did and made sure the message was sent to me and received!

Lent for me is always a time where mysteries are revealed to me. The Greek meaning of mystery is defined as: what was not known but is now revealed. My body is going through some earthly changes; changes that scare me and have me dawdling in fear, but I can’t and won’t live there because I have an immense faith that there is something greater going on.

As I walk on faith, people will come at me saying but you have to be looked at, you have to see a doctor, you have to do this and do that, you can’t just rely on faith. I would like to slap them upside the head but I won’t, I’ll just simply say, “Thanks for caring but this is my cross to bear.” (I know, I can see your eye roll from here.)

God has a plan and that is to get His message across and He can be as subtle as the dark one when it comes to conveying a message. He wants and NEEDS us to walk on faith to find 'perfect love' and He’ll carry us the rest of the way on this little blip we call life. If you think for one moment that these fifty, sixty, one hundred years of life that you live on this planet is all that there is, you are sadly mistaken. 

We are on a mission for Him and He uses every way possible, even deaths, for us to see the Light. Take for example people who run on and on about what they hate of the Muslim people. People they don’t know and have never met. Don’t tell me because you’ve met a couple of them you hate all of them, really? And what they’ve done to the Christian faith?  (more in a later post about the Crusades)

God at work does not mean everything He does is rainbows and beauty, some of the things that has to happen HAS TO BE ugly, or no one would sit up and take notice. Take the Muslim women who have converted to Christianity secretly. You assume all Muslims are killers and worship a false god. Do you know that many are over there sacrificing their life for Jesus? How else can God wake up an evil nation? Because I choose not to HATE, I’m considered Un-American, really? Well I consider you who hate unChristian. Touché. May I ask if you hate Jews in America? Germans? Mexicans? No? Just Muslims?

When you spew hate, you are doing the Muslim’s work for them, they are feeding off fear and hate and you are feeding off of what they are planting while God is busy at work trying to get you and them to see Jesus, to spread LOVE not to spread hate. If that is your mission, you are no different than the very Muslims you abhor. When I see the slaughtering and pillaging I see God at work and see the Muslims realizing that this Jesus is bigger than anything they’ve ever imagined. They are delivering a message from OUR GOD without even knowing it, which is why I said God is subtle. He KNOWS what He’s doing.

Romans 5:15 (NIV) “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”

If dying for Christ is wrong; if God is wrong for taking lives; if we’re just here to read and believe, then this is a sad day to be a Christian. Take note: It is NOT a sad day to be a Christian, this is the time to stand up for Christ and show the people of the world that Jesus IS worth dying for in every way imaginable. Fear does not rule our world! But I see many who feed on the same venom those they despise feed on. You cannot bring people to Jesus through loathing what you don’t like in the world. 

If I have to die to show you how Christ lives then I am honored to be a part of this master plan and if satan thinks I’m going to go in fear and feed off of what the hatemongers wish me to take a bite of, he has another thing coming because the only thing I fear is what is left behind and that is leaving my family. But I’ll take Jesus over my family any day. 

This brings to mind a beloved worship song:

Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God!
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.
Then what could stand against.

Think of this song and the power of YOUR God before you spew your next rant of antagonism. 

Stressed Part II

James 3:10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. (NIV)

Stressed Part II

I wrote a post about me being stressed about my sons graduation, I also think I mentioned it was more than that and all I knew to do was to take it to God and await an answer. Well last Sunday after our service at church, we were listening to a sermon on the radio (Yes, we listen to a radio sermon on the way home from church) and there seemed to be a message hidden in the sermon for me.

The minister said something like, “It’s all well and good that you sit on facebook, hours on end, posting scripture and inspiration but what do you ACTIVELY do to walk in Christ throughout your day?”

That lay on my heart pretty heavy and as such, I brought it back to God and asked for some sort of clarification/guidance to all this confusion going on inside my head. Whatwith the graduation approaching quickly, face book time, Adam going off into the world, too soon for me to grasp, but soon.

This week I got a lot of clarification. First, I went into facebook and announced that there would be a ‘change in the way I post, I hope you like the change’. I informed no one of just what that change would be but I got an immediate response from a dear, well respected friend, “Whoa!” he said, “I noticed it right away!”

Then the conversation went on about how they like reading what people are REALLY thinking, not through inundating the wall with pictures, but words, they like to read words. Wow! Change one, met and approved.

Now onto change two. Words! For years my blog was about writing then the change came when God spoke to me and He told me about WORDS; people want to read words. They don’t want information shoved down their throats, they want real thought provoking words; thus the change to poetry, my words, my thoughts.

After a peaceful nights rest, I wake in the morning, I read the Word from the bible first and then I pray; thus starts EVERY promising day. So change two would be The Word, I would share my verse(s) that spoke to me that morning and THAT is what I’d post, first thing. Not a random pic with scripture, words that touched ME and would maybe touch someone, anyone reading.

People like reading words! Now onto hurdle three, emoticon madness. A few years back I actually quit a writing course and gave up most writing because the emoticon madness was rampant. Now don’t get me wrong, I love smiley, I probably would want to marry him, if he was HUMAN. That’s just it, he is NOT human, so in the rampant unending posts of emoticons, you as a human come off as INHUMAN. You know what I mean?

People want WORDS! A happy smiley here, a grumpy smiley there, a heart here, an angel there, smiley’s can have the effect of how you’re feeling. But you know what, they are inhuman feelings. You cannot express true feelings with a smiley.

A smiley with WORDS has an affect. Overuse of a smiley can have an affect too, a negative one, as in my case. When someone asks for prayer, I offer WORDS of prayer, not an emoticon, when someone needs a lift, I offer WORDS to lift them up, not an emoticon. Granted I abused the picture situation; I had no idea people would actually want to READ MY WORDS!

So the change comes, and with that oftentimes a stir of controversy. Like a post the other day where I had a dilemma. It came to my attention that someone in school, in an administrative position was sleeping with a student. I didn’t have all the facts but it was enough to cause me concern. What do I do? I had prayed and like so many, I didn’t wait for an answer or resolution, and I just wanted someone’s opinion on the matter.

Boy oh boy did I get it. Keep in mind I was sexually molested as a child so I was very bias. No one heard me, no one did anything, so what was I to do for this kid. Granted he is 19, graduated early in November (which I stated) and she is a thirty-something administrative assistant; works in the office typing and such.

I said I’d pray and wait for an answer but the comments already had her burned at the stake. That was my first response too, but like always, I pray first, act later.

“Turn her in!”

“Go to the authorities!”

“She’s a child molester! Working with kids! How many other children has she molested?”

“Probably a government paid education!”

Things of that nature.

Wow! My dilemma had become a full-blown witch-hunt! When the word government reached the post, I deleted it. I in no way have anything to do with people’s political agenda. When I say I love my brother, I mean ALL of my brothers of humanity! ALL!

Pray and pray, that’s what I did. Later that day it came to my attention more FACTS about the whole thing. 1) The authorities know (as well as the small community) 2) The boy is 19 OUT OF SCHOOL (meaning, he is his own person) 3) Their liaison took place AFTER school (not on school property) so there is NOTHING the authorities in charge can do!

Shameful: an older woman, having sex with an adult child, yes. Illegal – no. Criminal – no. Immature were the acts of the boy showing pictures of his conquest to friends. Mistake – yes. Judgment? There is only one judge and jury now and it is in HIS hands.

Lesson: Really choose your WORDS wisely before posting ANYTHING!

The change has come and continues to grow. I will move and ACT only by His hand.

March Madness

Deut.28:28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
***

Well, since my friends are all talking March Madness, I think it is my turn for MY version of March Madness!

They went on and on about basketball, but me, I’m a March woman born and raised. So march madness is nothing new to me. Oh, basketball is because it’s one sport I don’t really care for, neither do my blogger friends who posted about it, but for some reason found b-ball a topic of discussion. *sticking my tongue out at them*

How silly.

I am in the throes of March Madness and I won’t talk sports either. To me MM is so much more than a sport, it is a way of life and living. We just ended an F2K course and April 7th a new one begins, I’m taking this 4-week WVU version of an MFA, (masters of fine arts course) and this week I’ve fallen behind because of the March Madness. My study group of critters is growing to a swell and I’m frazzled, and loving it I might add.

My birthday passed, a bill was signed by the prez, insurance was denied once again to my blogging madman, and I’m writing a lot these days as the spring air flows through the farm like a welcome relief as the winter’s wisp of icy air passes away, lost to the overtaking of a new season, March Madness.

Is March Madness a season?

It is to me. It is a rejuvenating of the senses, the bringing to life all that lay dormant, a walk in the fields of wildflowers as opposed to the crunch of the snow underfoot. The sounds of crane readying for their flight further North into Alberta Canada where quite a few of my virtual friends live these days. I wonder if they love the crane as much as I do.

I was sitting in church on Sunday and was talking to the elder gentleman next to me about the crane. Here in Nebraska, most find the birds annoying but some come to sit on the side of the road just to get a glimpse of the enormous amount of birds just setting in the field like a flower awaiting its water.

The man told me that the crane fly up from Texas, rest here, then head to Alberta Canada, their final destination. What a flight isn’t it? March Madness took on a new meaning when I experienced these birds! I found it hard to even concentrate on writing as they warbled and murmured in the fields, dancing a slow dance, flapping a new song, singing a new tune to my ear. What an awesome experience.

Then there was writing, inside, at my desk when time allowed. But the sounds could still be heard because it was so many darn birds! I wanted to fly with them!

March Madness to me is LIFE taking new shape, gathering new meaning, breathing new insight, praising, rejoicing in being alive. So life isn’t perfect, who cares! New life is about to surface and I’m going to be there to drink it all in! Whether in writing or in my world of dreamy fields, I’m going to embrace LIFE and March Madness as it leaves its footprints on my soul.

Godspeed one and all!