July 4th - Independence Day

Fort McHenry - Baltimore, Maryland

Acts 22:28 “And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.”

We live in a world where every word is analyzed and every thought found to be offensive, offending at least one person in a group. I’m not perfect by any means, and I don’t know the terms that are politically correct these days so I’m sure I unintentionally offend someone somewhere at some time or another.

The other day I read a story about a Red Cross poster that offended one woman and she made a viral fit asking them to take down the offensive poster saying it was racist. They quickly apologized and took down the poster so they could continue their good work for people of all races.

Why do people feel entitled to make a statement that THEY are right and YOU are wrong? Why has the world been spinning lately to the sound of racism, sexual orientation, political correctness and almost mass hysteria when the God word is spoken?

I am a very sensitive person and when someone offends me I more than likely turn inward instead of unleashing cruelty on the offending person. I think to myself, they have to live with themselves on a daily basis and it must get awful lonely living a life looking to see what offends you in every second of the day.

People will say it is a freedom that soldiers died for but if these soldiers knew that this is what was going to be made of their country, would they do it again? Would they die so people had the freedom to be ignorant, self-serving, and greedy? Freedom of Speech I don’t feel was intended to be a freedom of being offended by everything someone speaks under the sun. 

Things that were intended to be ‘free’ are not free. Sure I have a roof over my head, but it’s not free, nor is the gas, electric, water and food. Did you know that in some states it is against the law to catch rainwater and use it to water your lawn? Rainwater - it falls freely from the sky, but the greed in the depths of pockets tries to control who and what you can use rainwater for! My brother owns his home and has to pay a ‘rainwater’ tax! 

While the Powers That Be claim they want God in the equation, there are those who are moving to take God OUT of the equation and rewrite the history that we’ve come to celebrate on this Independence Day - July 4th.

The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, 1776.  Can you imagine if these words were the truth of today?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Endowed by their Creator. My how times have changed and the majority no longer believes in a Creator, or they believe in their own creator. We’ve lost sight of what this nation was built on and have become our own creators with our own rights. 

Freedom of Speech, I do not believe, meant that we could call people raving idiots because we feel like it. Right to Bear Arms – surely did not mean that we can shoot whomever we want and whoever didn’t agree with the world that WE created, we have a right to kill! What does the Declaration of Independence even mean these days? 

We say, God Bless America but what does that truly mean to each individual? We became free but enslaved the Negro. We freed the blacks and now enslave the refugee who seeks freedom for their families. We speak freedom but, in a nutshell, deny many the freedoms we speak of.

While we have cookouts, attend firework shows, and proudly fly our flag, do we remember or do we forget just what it is we’re celebrating? Do we stand behind our country and its leaders or do we flex our right of Freedom of Speech and denounce anyone who doesn’t fit our bill of standards that we’ve set for OURSELVES? Are we the people willing to run the country? Yes, we the people are willing to run the country…right into the ground so other countries can sit and laugh.

“One nation under God” should be “ONE WORLD UNDER GOD!” That would make me much prouder if we all just got along. 

Carrollton, Texas

A Perfect Day?

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

A Perfect Day…

Yesterday was as close to perfect as I can ever remember. We rose early in the morning, anticipation was high and excitement filled the house; it was Christmas day. I won’t go into detail of what a glorious day it was by not waking and running right to facebook to see people sharing love pics and well wishes.

After my day of relishing the LOVE of God, spending the day with such an endearing family who actually knows what the meaning of LOVE is, then coming home, stuffed full of some good home-made eating and relaxed with some tea and a movie. The camaraderie of family and stories and just idle loving banter made my heart swell three times bigger yesterday.

I rose today feeling good and refreshed only to peek in on facebook and saw what was LOVE sharing days ago, turned into a pile of hate filled people calling people names and acting like two year olds instead of the mature men and women they claim to be. I guess when popularity and loneliness rules your world, you have nothing better to do than call people names and wholeheartedly agree with those other folk calling names. A sad day.

Pss. 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

I’m living in a world full of hate. They try to dress it up with cute pictures but dig not so deep the surface of their skin, they’re bitter souls lashing out at whoever will listen and from the looks of it, hundreds of similar people (they call friends) LIKE it.

The month of reflection has led me to believe that this world is a lost cause. I try to see the good in everything but here lately the negative hating is turning me against all the love I seek to see in the world. I cannot and will not be a part of the evil that is slithering into lives and being accepted. After-all, the laws of the Lord only apply to a select few while others fashion the law and candy coat the Word to suit them when they need it. Dress it up and call yourself a Christian. To be honest, if this is the way Christians behave, I sincerely don’t want to be a part of that religion.

Do you know the word I’m defining here below?

Psychology: (no longer in technical use; considered offensive) a person of the lowest order in a former and discarded classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25??? The word is idiot.

The word offends me just as calling a person a retard offends me. It offends me when prejudice and racism collide, just as religion and all those so-called Christians collide.

So are you telling me, people, that YOUR I.Q. is higher than that of the person you called an idiot? Seriously? Look in the mirror. Judge YOUR life before judging someone’s life.

I’ve been offended by one too many people of the supposed intelligent stature who uses this word like dipping their cookies in milk. Tastes good, might was well use it while the going is good. Jump on the bandwagon and wee, wee, wee all the way home.

I’m obviously not worried about offending these people who name call because it is quite evident they have a scholastic degree, make thousands upon thousands of dollars and are productive people of society. No?

I’m tired of all the hate, I’m tired of surrounding myself with people who live and thrive off of negative lashings to feel good. I’m tired, just so tired of trying to be turned into something I’m not. I think I need a new outlet for being alone, filled with love and wonder, in a world full of hate.

Isolating myself is an option; one I don’t look forward to but I’m just so tired of negativity affecting my being that it is my only choice. There is no place else left for me in this sinister world unless I want to be conformed to this world and in my heart and soul I don’t feel that is what God has in mind for me. I'll let all the scholastic, hard-working, higher people enjoy it.

People have taken this Icy Palace I have built for myself and melted it into a puddle for them to stomp through; they have taken my High-horse and set him free to roam unleashing him to a society that would rather see him dead and on their plate for dinner. As long as they feel good, let go and let live. Maybe I’ll have something positive to write about in the New Year.

So much for the Perfect Day…

Jer. 5: 28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.