What Portion Do You Believe

Pss 103:3 “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”

If you’re a believer, then you believe without seeing. You believe because you read your bible and you believe the Word to be the truth. But how many believe that it is the full truth? Or do you only believe in portions? You believe God created the world, that Moses parted the sea, you believe Jesus rose from the dead, was it because the bible told you? You sit there believing He’s coming back again. But you have trouble believing Pss.103:3 where the bible states: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”

It says he heals ALL thy diseases but we only trust Him to heal a few? That to me makes no sense. People can tell me until their blue in the face that ‘we need doctor’s to heal us’, but in my eyes, doctors are for treating symptoms never really addressing the underlying CAUSE. I believe God is the healer of the cause. You might find that one rare doctor who is willing to assist you in finding the cause but essentially it is up to you and God whether you find actual true healing. Maybe your doctor is guiding you in the right direction but I myself don’t believe God is a God of drugs.

“Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;” If you don’t believe He heals ALL diseases, in my eyes, you only believe a portion of the bible. It is so hard to truly trust the Word because we’ve been so conditioned to believe man for all he says and all that he offers. We take his word at face value and it holds solidity to our belief system. Then and only then do we truly rely on God’s word to heal ALL of our diseases. 

You might believe wisdom comes from man but wisdom cannot come from man it can only come from GOD! You might glean knowledge from books but wisdom to discern is solely from God; from the Spirit that dwells in you, the same Spirit that has you trusting in Him completely. Either the bible is true or it’s not. I don’t believe the bible lies in some places and suddenly exhibits truth in other places. Either the entire bible is the truth or none of it at all.

I mentioned yesterday that disease is first spiritual in nature not physical. This statement might need some clarification. Some children are born with diseases; obviously, they had no mind to spiritually bring about disease upon themselves. It is quite obvious that the environment, the foods that no one knew were toxic, the metals, the inoculations that toyed with our very cells all were in there playing a part of what makes our insides tick. Scientifically, DNA plays a small part meaning what your mom and dad did (ate, drank, breathed) formed the very strands that brought you to life.

I’m speaking of the cause of your (my) own disease; by holding tightly to false beliefs (fear, doubt, and shame) it enabled an attack that neither you or I were ready for. Anxiety, at a very young age, started us on the path of fear that you (and I) began and no drug is going to take away what we spiritually placed on our path. God did not place fear and anxiety on our path, God is not to blame for a disease taking over your body, only WE can blame OURSELVES for the CAUSE of any illness that holds us captive.

I think what happens with our anxiety and depression, mine anyway, is that we dwell and linger. We linger in past places that hold us prisoner and sometimes we’re not willing to let go because we’d rather remain bitter and angry than find healing; at least that’s what we tell ourselves. Yes, that was me for YEARS, for most of my life.

This disease that I brought upon myself basically is my wake-up call telling me it is time to change now or I will die. I can’t read myself into a healing place. I can’t keep telling you over and over of the bad things that happened in my life because that is my way of clinging to what little memories I have. I have to honestly and truthfully let it go! Reiterating my pain over and over is a way of not releasing the very things that got me to this point in my disease and remaining a prisoner of the past.

I know I’ve spiritually found a healing place. I sent my anxious thoughts away and replaced them with good positive memories. Here’s an example, on the 26th of April my daughter would have been fourteen years old. In previous years the grief strangled me to tears and led me to rehash her death over and over. The same goes for my son who would’ve turned 35 years old in December. This year was different, I only thought good of her and him and when my mother wanted to rehash the past I point blank told her, I’ve dealt with that pain already, I really have let it go, so please stop rehashing. I’m glad she remembers my son and daughter whom neither of us had a chance to know, but I don’t cling to that part of my past anymore. I’m in a healing point and it feels better than all years before!

I’m healing from the emotional baggage of a previous marriage. I’m healing from the child abuse, the molestation, I’m healing where things clung and tightly held on, and I’m releasing them from my present. This disease isn’t just about what has my cells in an uproar, it’s about forgiving all the wrongs in my past and not just at face value. I cannot heal just a portion of my soul just as I cannot believe just a portion of the bible. 

I myself cause my stress and anxiety by clinging to the embedded emotions that have no right dwelling in my being anymore. Being around positive influential people bring about a healing presence just as the negative influences bring about the non-healing ability. If you find yourself never healing from emotional stress, you’re not releasing the whole portion of events; you’re still clinging to the past. Don’t blame the medicine for not working. Don’t blame someone else for your retentive behavior because we are the sole heirs of who to blame. Our parents, siblings, and exes may shoulder some of the blame but they are not the reason we are so determined to allow the occasions to destroy our immunity.

You know, I hadn’t thought that my internal loving relationship with God could grow any further. I had become comfortable in my reading and believing and practically complacent with all I have learned over the years. Sometimes we think that memorizing scripture will bring us closer to God, or reading and studying so hard we forget what we came to the Word for. We came to learn and GROW right? Not to sit like an idle robot in one place repeating the same actions over and over again. No, to heal we need to understand the health benefits of the Living Water flowing through our veins on a different level that will carry us to our healing spot. The area where the past has no bars and the pasture is an open fortress to gaze at, not take up residence with. 

I am choosing to heal by believing the full portion of the Word in its entirety, not just a small portion. He said He will heal and I believe Him. He said He will return and I believe Him. I know I’m listening to God and not the enemy. How do I know it is God speaking to me and guiding me? Because He said so!

All praise and Glory to God! 

John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

John 10 is a very powerful scripture in its entirety.

"Stuff It"

meet Spidey, my 13-yr.-old houseplant

Pss. 64:1 “Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.”

Stuff It

I’ve been telling you about my emails targeting me? Well this morning’s email, once again, gave me a God-slap moment. It came right out and basically said, ‘stuff it’! Okay, it didn’t tell me to stuff it, that’s what it said I’m doing with my emotional baggage instead of surrendering the juice of the problems up to God.

I figured the reason a person likes reading my blog is that they connect with my blunt honesty of any given subject. I really try not to sugarcoat anything I’m experiencing; I lay it all out there for you to read. So why am I being told that I’m really stuffing my emotional baggage when it comes to God? I’m supposed to be getting rid of it all so I can heal, remember? Total surrender, remember?

Apparently, I’ve been stuffing it! I loved this line in my Bible Gateway email by Amy Carroll, she said it was a famous punch line so I’m not stealing it from her. 

“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.” 

There it is. I think I’m surrendering my emotional baggage all to God but really it’s a form of denial when I suppress the meat of the problem. God doesn’t want the orange; He wants the juice, pulp and all! He doesn’t want a lamb chop, He demands the entire Lamb! Wow! 

In other words, God doesn’t want our artsy fartsy lifestyle laid before Him, like our religiously reading of the Bible, our attending church, getting everything scripturally right, or our loving thy neighbor. Yes, these things are all well and good, but God wants our pains, the heart, the soul of man and all of the ugly portions, not just the package wrapped up neatly with a bow! We never give Him what keeps us awake at night, we give him our day, we give him all the cute parts that we think He’ll enjoy seeing from us.

I may read too much into things these days but the accuracy is chilling. Another example, I received my Neck Traction Device. An email came with a picture stating it had been delivered, but there was something missing from my purchase that I didn’t know I was supposed to get (maybe that free item had expired), there was a silk mask. You know the kind, the ones that gently go over your eyes for a better nights rest? It hides the light so you can sleep better. I didn’t get one. I thought, now I know why, I’m already wearing one! I may already have the Light in me, but I hide the rest thinking He can’t see the mush that’s still there. He let me know, HE SEES IT ALL!

Think of it like this. You are baggage on a conveyer belt at the airport, before you can go on to your next destination, you need to be scanned by an x-ray so you don’t get anything over on ‘the powers-that-be’. The one time I went on a plane I was a little surprised my pen that hides a very pointy letter opener inside, made it through the x-ray, the rifling of my purse, the checks and double checks, but my underwire bra set off the beep on the scanning process!

You see how I over think things? I’m thinking I’m baggage being scanned and everything is exposed but still, there is that ever so small portion that is hidden inside that might not be detected. I’m telling you, know that God is seeing your hidden emotional baggage! He detects it all. He knows when you’re giving it all to Him and when you’re hiding a small portion. Stop being so selfish and share the very depths of your being with Him; ALL of it!

How do we fix it? Well, it sounds like a tedious chore is at hand but I may be making a mountain out of a molehill. I don’t think so. I seriously have work to do especially if I’m ever to be fully healed and rid of this lingering disease. First, I’m adding to my much-needed break. I need this time to look at the whole picture and reassess the ever-long journey I’ve placed myself on. And yes, I’ve taken quite a few breaks in the past forty days but for the wrong reasons. I have a renewed purpose. Don’t read too much into it, my breaks may not be what you’re thinking they mean. REST! I need rest and reassessment!

Psalm 62:5 says, “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him” (NIV)

Second, I will strengthen my stance by surrendering everything to God and allow Him to be my rock when I’m unbalanced and trying to walk. I’m inviting Him to a feast and I’m not serving up toxic food in the form of a pig or just a spare rib, no, I’m offering him the entire lamb for sacrifice on the x-ray table so he can see the whole me.

Pss. 62:6 “He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.”

Third finding shelter in His arms as the tears begin flowing downstream releasing denial into the river in Egypt. I am healed by His blood, I am strong in His arms, I am protected by his Light!

Pss. 62:8 “Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.”

I can tell you’re all intrigued by this journey of mine. If only to see my success because you’re a dear friend or a person who just needed a little spark to reassess their life. I’m your go-to person! Whatever you do, don’t tell me to just stuff it because I’ll tell you to get out of your own denial and unpack. You're home and now is the time to make sure your bag is empty so you can go to the REAL home that awaits you to be delivered. 

All praise and Glory to God! 

geese! 

Gateway to Health: Change

Job 30:18 “By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.”

Gateway to Health: Change

Everyone thinks about change, little actually do something about it. In other words, change is just something people think about doing but if you put no action behind it, it is then just a word you throw around. This week is the week resolutions will be broken. The promise of change scared you back into your lazy habits.

You can’t just say you’re going to change your habits you have to actively seek out the best way to make your life better and cut those nasty, toxic routines down a couple of notches! 

When I was first diagnosed I knew a change was in order and one of the major protocols. I didn’t realize just how drastic the change had to be, but I dove right in, researching what needed to change first and foremost. I went from eating mac and cheese, pasta crazy woman who loved her milk and cookies and her unfathomable amounts of bad for me foods and sugar, to zero!

I cut out dairy, meats, carbs, sugar, you name it, I more than likely couldn’t eat it or was leery of it feeding the sick cells in my body. Let me tell you, just because you’re not diagnosed with the Big C doesn’t mean it isn’t sitting inside you right now festering and waiting for the right time to be caught. I know you’re saying, “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it,” and I pray it never finds you. If it does are you going to be ready?  Yeah, I wasn’t ready either. I too would much rather be eating junk food, drinking Pepsi and living like I just don’t care but God handed me a second chance. Not everyone is as lucky as me. Yeah, the diagnosis was shocking but it didn’t end me. God might not give you, your kids or your grandkids a second chance so why not change now, or at least TRY to change?

I think people in the world are disillusioned. They tell themselves lies to justify why they do what they do or maybe they really don’t care and the YOLO attitude is in charge. That’s still no reason to drink a beer because it helps you fall asleep, or drink aspartame even though you’ve read that it causes cancer. People lie to themselves all the time and justify each step of their wrongdoing.

From the link above:
“...this is due to the fact that tumors were extremely rare in the past. They only became common and rampant in recent times due to people’s poor diet habits, laziness, and excess technology.”

Do you see/read that and realize what it is saying? Our bad eating habits, our laziness has CAUSED cancer? You probably don’t believe that as you’re sitting there biting into a chemically laden burger, or drinking the toxic soft drink, with french fries soaked in grease then ingested. Oh, I know it tastes good, but when you’re popping numerous pills because of an illness, day after day, is that easier and cheaper than CHANGING your diet?

Change isn’t all about food. When you change your diet a lot of times everything else falls into place like exercise, less need of drugs to keep you going, your clothes size, and your health transforms. You no longer want to lie to yourself, you no longer are a person who whines and cries about every ache and pain, you’ve challenged the pain to go away and by changing, it goes away. Change is everything!

With this disease front and center in my life, I changed more than my diet, I changed the toxic water I drink, the soap I use, the shampoo, pots, and pans and with that change, I am no longer a prisoner to chemicals being ingested. We live in a world where no one cares about the round-up being used on our food, the chemicals to keep our food fresh for DAYS and maybe weeks, or the plastics that we radiate our food in a microwave and then eat the food. We have made ourselves sick because we have allowed ourselves to be simplified not knowing it’s what is basically killing us.

We live in a hurried and rushed world not ready for the change. Change is too hard, too challenging, too out of reach. We want our steaks bigger, so they’re shot up with GMO’S, we want our food bigger lasting longer and cooked faster. We don’t want challenges, we like being overweight and lazy. And what is so weird is if we’re not lazy we still gain weight. It’s the chemicals and drugs that have tampered with your metabolism and no matter how hard you try, the weight stays, you keep growing and nothing changes.

I challenged you on January first to give up just carbs and sugar. That’s it. I don’t think anyone took me up on the challenge and that’s okay. If you won’t give up those two, at least become a label reader and become aware of all the carbs and sugar you put in your stomach. Just by changing the way you buy food, can change your waist size, and everything else will follow suit. ACTION causes a REACTION! Guaranteed! It is scientifically proven!

I’ve changed for my health because I want to live yet I can’t figure out for the life of me why. I’m still working on that one. I’m going to live while everyone around me dies? I think I’m being transformed. I’m being prepared. My body is becoming the purity that was born into this world. I’ve only just realized now that I was a tainted lifeform and now my transformation will bring me back to the beginning. It makes no sense to you but all the sense to me.

While I write to try and help you to want to change, I realize no one really wants to change they want to stay the same. Change takes time and since I was in line with a ticket and it came that my time was up, it made the matter more urgent and change was necessary or I’d die, plain and simple.

I have seen testimonies of Stage 4 brain/ colon/ lung cancer patients heal with alternative protocols, I have read testimonies of Stage 3 Breast Cancer patients healing with self-care, I have also seen testimonies of the tragic Stage 1 patients being led to slice and dice slaughter and down the immune life damaging path because they were told they were going to die. One word – CHANGE. Change changes everything! Are you up to the challenge?

Job 14:14 “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.”

Getting To Know Him

I spoke of God in me, now I’d like to let you all know how YOU can get to know Him. I alluded to the fact that knowing God is very different than just reading about Him and visiting a place He calls home. It is so much more to getting to KNOW Him. 

“The longer I serve Him the sweeter He grows. The more I love Him, more joy He bestows.” ~ H.S.

First of all, you begin with talking to Him. Like an old friend you don’t need high and mighty salutations, you just need to be you; because only He knows the real you, hidden secrets and all. This is usually called prayer. 

Pss. 5:3 “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”

This isn’t the time to ask him for things, if anything this is the time to thank him for all he has done in your life no matter how minuscule, thank him for the food you eat, the warm home you live in, the shoes on your feet and anything else you’d like to thank him for.

If you feel that you’ve gotten all of those things on your own accord then you really need to search who you believe God is in your world. If you’ve always felt a supernatural presence in your life, rest assured it is God not some part of your over-successful vain imagination. 

God has been with you through all of your life, He’s just been waiting for you to get to know Him. Then and only then will He make himself known to you through channels you once believed were mere coincidence, you will now see that it was God all along trying to communicate with you.

Second, you’ll want to pick up a bible. I prefer the King James Version but choose what is easiest for YOU as you read about Him and get to know Him. You’ll see that for thousands of years men were dedicated to him and his promises and men to this day are still committed to Him. We Christians don’t follow Him because he let us down but because He has lifted us up.

Luke 11:28 “But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”

Now some will read the bible and say it is all hokey-pokey. You’ll read about a sea parting, a bush burning, a lion and a man, a whale swallowing a man? Blind seeing, lame walking, lepers leaping. Well, lepers’ leaping was mine but I bet they were leaping with joy when they were healed. But you get my meaning, some astounding things take place in the Bible that is sometimes hard to swallow, this is where faith comes in; faith in believing these are true testaments by living men.

I can attest to the fact that miracles still happen. My man was blind for 2 and a half years and it was nothing short of a miracle that has him seeing again. Take a look back at my posts from 2011(on the left) that entire year was a miracle. You’ll say something like, it was the doctor and an operation that got him seeing again, and you’d be right, but the miracle was the road we took to get there and the positive outcome. It could’ve all gone differently but faith in God got us through the entire ordeal.

2 Sam. 22:50 “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.”

Third, visit God’s home and worship Him. There is nothing more soul soothing than going and singing praise to the friend who is always going to be there for you. Now if you find a church where they’re asking for money more than they’re preaching about God then get yourself away from that place and find one that you find comfortable in like an old shoe. THAT is the place where God is dwelling.

Acts 2:47 “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

Our pastor always tells us that church is not about giving money, it is about praising God, if you want to give then give but they never ASK us to commit to giving so much a week. It is always OUR choice if we give. 

Fourth, surround yourself with like-minded people, if you don’t know any, don’t worry, God will lead you to them or them to you, but rest assured, you WILL meet. With them you will SERVE the Lord, whether helping out at the nursery on Sunday, making food, doing crafts, there are numerous ways to serve the final resting place you will call home, the church and house of God Himself. 

1 Cor. 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Remember this, the church is just a building it is the PEOPLE who make it God’s home. You should be able to wear what you want, never feel judged and feel like you just stepped into your grandma’s house for a visit, comfortable and at home. 

Pray, read, believe, visit, praise, serve; these are the steps in getting to KNOW God on YOUR level, not what some mega-church minister touts. Be careful not to be swayed by false prophets who claim to know ‘the truth’ but are really wearing sheep clothing all the while a wolf in disguise. If you can’t find their truth in the bible, more times than not, they are lies to lead you away for Him, the God you can ALWAYS trust. He doesn’t promise you that the road will be easy but He does promise to be with you every step of the way. 

Matt. 7: 15 “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

So What Now...

Pss. 30:3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

So What Now…

As I sit here thinking of the losses from cancer, I myself wonder what’s next for me.

My uncle (by marriage) is fighting the fight diligently and I know it won’t be long before I get the unawaited call that drops me to my knees yet again.  I lost my grandmother to lung cancer over forty years ago and now my aunt just recently succumbed, I watched (from afar) my dad do battle with throat cancer and my nephew testicular cancer, and I also remember my mother’s aunt dying from cancer, so where does that leave me in the line of targets for cancers next victim?

I’m sure there are more members of the family that I’m forgetting because it is quite obvious cancer has targeted my gene pool. Am I to sit here in line and wait for cancer to tap me on the shoulder with a smile and say, ‘You’re next, sweetie.’

I’m not a health nut by any means. I know right from wrong and I know what is good for my body and what is not good for my body. I don’t go out of my way to overindulge in food carelessly and that has helped ME with any health and weight issues in my lifetime. I don’t consume poison (alcohol) and although I try to keep my brain in working order, I believe I fail miserably.

Does this mean that cancer will pass me by? I’m not blind to the fact that it has no preference in where or when it strikes. All of us are most certainly guaranteed some health crisis in our lifetime that will either make us or break us in its procession of consuming the living.

I’m not riddled with paranoia instead I’m riddled with life. I wake every day and ask, what can I do for you, Lord? And He doesn’t say go out and share what other people have to say about me, share what YOU say about me and experience in YOUR life. And basically that is what I do. When I share a scripture from the Bible, I’m not pointing at you and telling you that you need to read and believe this because * I * do. I’m sharing it with you as an explanation for something I’m going through and allowing God and scripture to guide ME down the path.

I’m not a very knowledgeable person but I am a very wise person. I’ll take wisdom over knowledge any day. Knowledge is book-smart wisdom is heart-smart. Not all knowledgeable people are heart smart. I mean they know things because they’ve read about it somewhere, shared it so that you know they’ve read it somewhere but sincerely do not have the wisdom to share it through experience, only what was read.

I’ve come to the conclusion that cancer has infected humanity, not just physically but mentally and spiritually as well. It has made its way into unsuspecting hosts and breeds like fleas; where there is one flea (cell) you can bet there are more right behind it multiplying.

I live and learn from experience not from something that was spoon-fed me via words on a page. Humanity is being eaten away and unsuspecting hosts are breeding the lies, deceit and corruption. I say unsuspecting because they believe they’re doing the right thing, but then again, they’re only going by the knowledge that was fed them, not by anything they witnessed or experienced first hand.

The biggest snowstorm of the century was a misleading adventure that hosts wanted to feed you. Every year the Farmer’s Almanac has been proven false, every day the weathermen appear to be liars in disguise, religious scholars are pretending to be scientist and vice versa, liars are lying, cheaters are cheating and killers are killing. People are willing to believe wholeheartedly the things they read.

My heart aches for misled humans. I won’t believe I’m next in line for cancer to strike because I’ve read it somewhere. I’ll believe it when the experience is upon me. My heart bleeds for those that have suffered with cancer, lived to tell about it and those that we have lost to this illness. A cure for cancer will one day be found, maybe in my lifetime and maybe not. One thing is for certain, humanity holds the key. 

Balance

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Where does balance come from in the Christian life? One doesn’t seek it, nor buy it, and one can’t find it through all the knowledge you put into your system. Balance is achieved. Notice the wheel, how well balanced it is? When there is no balance, the wheel will not roll!

Balance is achieved by having a goal and reaching it, like climbing to the highest mountaintop and looking out at all the glory, you have achieved a goal. Balance is holding onto that goal once it is achieved.

The lack of balance in a Christian’s life will certainly cause a bit of trouble; sleepless nights, worry, stress. When you achieve a balance of all that God has shown you there is only one outcome and that is of pleasurable peace.

Pastor Tim talked about the intellectual Christian. That to ME, is the type of Christian who builds his strength and faith on KNOWLEDGE of the bible. Sometimes he/she can spew scripture down to the book and chapter, sometimes he can find a scripture (via google?) that deals with suffering, pain, need, faith etc. He is the reader/believer I spoke of in my Lent series.

When only the head is involved with Christianity, you lose sight of the balance. I know of many spiritual based faiths that speak of balance also and in the Christian faith it is not much different for the spiritual Christian who has learned to balance his/her faith with the head (knowledge), will (action), heart (a deep passion).

With everything in life, if you just gain knowledge of something, what exactly are you gaining? A big ego? “Yeah, I know this, that and the other thing.” Whoop-de-doodle, you’re knowledgeable.

If you put that knowledge into action with a deep passion, you are balancing the three. The will, the heart and the mind. We do not take up Christianity (just gain knowledge) we are taken UP by Christianity. With our hearts and minds and physical actions we are drawn to be LIKE Christ.

God’s Word is spiritual food. We grow by it, we're seasoned by it, we’re transformed by it. The Holy Spirit uses the word to revive you, restore your spirit and change your heart. You must process the filling of your spirit and OBEY what you are being called to do.

If I want to be used of God, it is important that I fill my mind, my heart, and my life with the Word of God. A practicing Christian has strength to fight the enemy, he is refreshed daily by the wisdom he holds and transformed so that the old person who sat and judged his fellow man, name calls, feeds the fire of satan’s lure, is gone, he is NO MORE, he is transformed.

I see a lot of folk who claim to be Christian sit in some safe corner of the globe reading and believing that no matter how often he/she sins, they’ll be forgiven and taken up to heaven when their time comes. People see them profess Christianity but their actions are far from Christlike giving people the idea that sin is good. “I can just call myself a Christian and God will save me.”

Christianity is a transformation, the balance of the heart, mind and soul. If the outer world doesn’t see the balance in you, and YES, they will see the transformation, they get the idea that Christianity is a false belief system. You have turned people AWAY from God instead of TO God.

You don’t hold the power of transformation in your own hand. All the reading and believing in the world will shape you but it will not transform you. I know you’re tired of me saying this but CHURCH aids in the transformation. Action is going to cause a reaction.

Let me see if I can simplify this. Let’s say you’re hungry. You go to the freezer and find meat. You think to yourself, that sure looks good. (Christianity looks good) You then place the meat in the oven or frying pan and begin to cook it. (This is where you read and believe.) You share this cooked meat with your friends and they all spit it out. It tasted horrible, drab, lifeless. You realize you didn’t marinate and season the meat. You took no action to make this meat a meal.

Marinating the meat is like bathing in the word. You season the meat, you cook the meat, you share the meat with people who presumably are not vegetarians. Sharing the word with unlike minds is like sharing meat with a vegetarian. Church is a place of like-minded people. You will know who and who is not a vegetarian. You have transformed the meat into a solid meal for ALL to partake of, not just the carnivorous meat eaters.

Transformation and balance of the transformed individual allows you to be of a pure mind, spiritually and physically. People with a seasoned just right balance, shake off the snares of the devil. Their strength is in the meal and the deliverance of the meal.

People have eyes to see and if you are not balanced, it shows. It doesn’t help God any if you're unbalanced. The men and women God used WERE sinners but by their transformation, they didn’t dwell in sin because it was a given that they’d be forgiven, they worked earnestly to live a pure life; they were all balanced (seasoned) in the proportion God dished out.

I Walk with Him

Luke 18: 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

I see a confused nation. They’re walking around dissecting the bible as if it was written to be dissected. They believe in every wind of doctrine and follow false teachers in a parade of arms waving them on.

Some might say I walk around in a blind ambition but let me tell you, I am not blind to what the Lord is showing me. Maybe He tells you to dig and dig to find the truth, dissect book by book to find the true meaning of the Word. Maybe He is the one leading you into  false doctrine? I doubt it.

People are a curious lot. They need answers to all their questions and they will shovel anything that someone is out there ready to cover them with. They will call it deciphering Bible prophecy and to my mind, they’re trying to know God’s mind and that is, to me, impossible and not able to be dissected.

I think what people are trying to do is put a Religion into a box, wrap it up and look at the beautiful present they have before them. I was always taught to think outside the box and not to conform to what others want me to think and believe, thus the very reason I consider myself a Spiritual Christian.

There is a verse in the bible that has always stuck with me:

Matt. 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

While I don’t feel in any way that this is a literal statement meaning we should all walk around with pacifiers in our mouth spewing goo-goo ga-ga, I do feel it is meant for us to become of the utmost innocence that only a child knows.

When a newborn babe is wrapped in your arms, you are touching innocence from the realm of God in the purest sense of all creation. Did you ever wonder what was going through their minds as they looked around at their new surroundings? I always thought they were wondering how to get back to the God realm and as they grew and grew they found that there is only One way to get back there and throughout life in all their journeying they were being led back TO Him.

I never felt in any way that God wanted me to pick His words to pieces, dissect book by book looking for meaning, I always felt God taking me on a journey based on faith. The newborn has faith like no other. He is striving to be led by his Creator. He doesn’t need to understand the why’s of the things God wrote, or the how’s of how he did it, or the when’s as in the precise time God created the world; all that a newborn knows is trust and faith.

To become as little children always meant to me, to take on the innocence and purity of faith and all that means. If you cannot see with your own eyes that bible prophecy is coming to fruition and you need some stranger to dissect and point it all out in black and white, you’re throwing mud in the face of faith. You’re slaughtering all that God intended you to be, a faith-filled servant.

“Religion is the belief in someone else’s experience, Spirituality is having your own experience.” ~ author unknown

If you are going to fall into the snare of religion, you are only following others and what they learned on THEIR journey. To be a spiritually vibrant person of Christ, you will have your very own journey/experience led by God, it is YOUR story to relay to people, not regurgitated words of someone else.

We live in a world where ministers are telling us, “We sin, we go to hell”, “You are saved by the blood of Christ, you’re going to heaven”, “Sin all you want, you’re saved, you’ll go to heaven.” By the way they make it sound, we’re all destined for heaven. I tend to think God had it right when He said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Point blank, no explanation necessary.

When I think of Jacob, Peter, David, Noah and the other sinners God used for his message to be delivered, what they all had in common in the end, they had FAITH in God and ALL His works and needed no clarification. (google and wikipedia wasn’t on hand) so they HAD to become like little children tasting the truth on their tongues as newborn babes in purity and innocence.

I Walk with Him.

Rom. 1: 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Lent: Day Sixteen ~ Disciples of Christ

John 14:16-17  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Disciples of Christ

We are called to be Disciples of Christ. The Christian life is all about discipleship. What does this mean? Isn’t it a bit of arrogance to say, “I am a disciple of Christ”? No not at all, a disciple is a follower BUT and this is a big BUT to BE a follower you must walk in the Lord. I’ve already touched on, YOU are the Church, I’ve brushed on you being a reader, believer, follower, and I’ve also asked which are you: soil, flower or ROCK.

Did you ever have someone knock on your door handing you a tract and say can we talk to you a minute? When you open the door you’re offended by seeing this person spewing Jesus stuff. NO, I’m not a Jehovah’s Witness, I believe in the trinity and they see God as God, Jesus as a man. But I’m not here to debunk their Commission of Christ in which they take to a level you and I might never understand.

God commands us to a Great Commission and that is discipleship. Spreading His word is a part of that commission but you must be well versed in what you’re doing. You must know the bible not just spew it out with a pretty pic. I’m sure all manner of putting out the Word of Christ is acceptable to Christ but also He is watching the character of who is doing the spewing.

I’ve said before people think I’m a Jesus freak and I’m okay with that. But let me tell you, if a person ever said one time to me, “You sure don’t act like a Christian.” That statement would offend me. You know why? Because they are seeing my character as hypocritical to the message and Light  that I’m putting out there.

I’m not saying this out of arrogance or conceit, but people HAVE told me that they see a Light shine from me and the only explanation they have is that God is shining His Light through me.

I John 2:4 “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him”

As a writer, I learned about character. The character in a book is a person that you create, give personality to and allow people to see them and judge for themselves if they are the protagonist or the antagonist. Even if your character is a good person, loving, giving caring, then they rob a bank, shooting five people in the process, you get the idea of their character and what has shaped them.

The same goes for a Christian; character is what has shaped you and what you carry and show to the world. Jesus’ disciples show to the world the Light of Him and all he has done and will continue to do.

A false witness is one who carries the Word but his character reveals something else, something hiding, lurking like a shadow instead of a Light. He pretends to carry the Light and sometimes shows the Light to the world, but the character of his actions speaks volumes.

What you do that you DON’T show the world is your character and this is exactly what the world can see coming from you. To be a disciple of Christ, you must carry Christ with you in all aspects of your day, not just what you pick-and-choose to show the world because more times than not, they’ll see through the veil.

I think of Judas Iscariot, he was a reader, believer and follower of Christ but in the end, his true character showed through thus betraying the very Man that had come to save sinners. I do not see him as a disciple of Christ because he betrayed the trust the apostle’s and Christ himself had put in him.

To be a disciple of Christ is not to betray Christ, His mission, His commandments or His work by picking and choosing wrong over right. Being a disciple is to choose RIGHT every time even if it hurts, through patience, diligence, honesty and righteousness. Men, who see through the veil and into your soul, thus exposing the inner depth of Light in your character, see discipleship.

Go with God my friend…

Matthew 28:19–20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”

 

Being the Voice Among Many

One Voice among many

Gibbon, Nebraska

***

Yesterday we talked about being unique; today I want to talk to you about being a Voice. You say you’re popular among your writing friends. They swoon at your feet and are a welcome relief in the struggle to get to the top of your writing journey. That’s all well and good, but what does your voice sound like to strangers who’ve never met you.

Say a publisher is reading your work. They don’t know you from Adam so they are not in the popular crowd that you’re so used to having lifting you up and stroking your ego. They are strangers and theirs are the eyes that will read/publish your cherished work.

Like I had said, being popular is all well and good in your little clique of writers, but it isn’t going to help you among total strangers who are going to take a chance on you. Without a voice, you will get nowhere.

1) Query – Your query letter is going to be your voice to someone outside the familiar territory of your group of friends. Read the guidelines and follow them. They don’t want to know how to throw pies at someone, or hear your favorite joke, they want to hear about your story, and that is it!

2) Presentation – The way you present yourself is going to be the step you stand on. This isn’t the time to put on your funny hat and think that a magazine publisher/editor is your bud. Be professional. I tried to teach this to students and they pointed out quickly that the classroom is for fun and silly. I just wanted them to be prepared for the seriousness of writing and submitting. By practicing being a professional, maybe you’ll carry that with you when you need it the most. Point taken: classroom = fun and silly learning, Professionalism for the real world.

3) Reasons for wanting your work – You’ll give them the reason they are going to want to publish your work. Save your life story for the novel. This is not the place to think you are rubbing elbows. If you haven’t found your voice by now, this is not the place to begin looking for it. Give them a heartfelt, down to earth, PROFESSIONAL reason. What? You didn’t learn how to be professional? Should have listened to me the first time.

4) Waiting – This is the hardest part, even harder than the submitting of your work. The waiting is where you’ll more than likely cast self-doubt and second-guess, look at your work again and find fault, see errors and a ton of other negative things. Don’t do it. As hard as it may seem, don’t fret over your submission and being accepted. It may take months before you hear from someone, so take this time to write new material.

5)  Rejection – Oh dear, I mentioned the most horrendous word to a writer, the dreaded rejection letter. Hey, it happens more times than not, but that is not any reason to give up. This is the very reason you send out simultaneous submissions (sim subs); when all ten come back with rejection letters, refine your search and send them to ten more prospective mags/pubs/editors.

Now your voice is being read AND heard, so what are you waiting for?

Quotation Saturday~

In writing a series of stories about the same characters, plan the whole series in advance in some detail, to avoid contradictions and inconsistencies.
~L. Sprague de Camp

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
~E.L. Doctorow

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out.
~E. M. Forster

All fiction is a process of imagining: whatever you write, in whatever genre or medium, your task is to make things up convincingly and interestingly and new.
~Neil Gaiman

Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.
~Ernest Hemingway

The two most engaging powers of an author are, to make new things familiar, and familiar things new.
~Samuel Johnson

You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writers in the world.
~G.K. Chesterton

Without a pen I feel naked, but it's writing that is my exhibitionism.
~Carrie Latet

A Writer Reads...before he writes

Writer’s are adament readers before they become affluent writer's!

If you are a writer, you didn’t just stumble upon the idea one day and dream it into existence. You had to begin somewhere. More than likely you were young, took a liking to reading and thought that maybe YOU could be a writer too!

I started with poetry at a very young age. The passion inside never left as I waltzed through life trying on different fields of color, never coming up with anything of substance except my love of writing. I wrote in journals, in notebooks then I moved onto the computer.

My life took on a whole new world where my imagination not only lived but soared above the skies, floated through the clouds, landing gently on a piece of paper. Where I once had lived in the mind of Alice (in wonderland) or through Gem’s mischievous ways (To Kill a Mockingbird) or dappling into the unknown with Eleanor (Haunting of Hill House.) I was now writing stories of mystery and intrigue through a child’s eyes, (Jenny’s Plight) or through a ghost who loved her tenant, (The Haunting of Mrs. Willowby.)

Writing stemmed from many years of reading. Continuing in my reading I also interlocked with educating myself not only in the craft of writing but also the art of writing.
Writing as an art form should not be overlooked. Making words stream together like a gentle river or a rapid stream, you can form a story and make a masterpiece of something so simple as language.

Read, educate, write, produce; writing will then become to you all the doorways it holds for me. I can do your homework for you and list the many books out there to help you attain your dream but it is much more fun to dig and find them yourself. Amazon.com is loaded with Creating Fiction, Shaping the Story and many other books to start you on your lifelong journey with your love of writing. (or you can go to your local library and dig too.)

Come on, what are you afraid of? Become a writer. Read your heart out and gain knowledge and smell the sweet aroma of success. If not for anyone, do it for YOU!

Reading is to the writer, what the sun is to the earth, the sustenance of life. ~joni

Write,Read,Revise!

Write it, read it, revise it ….

Okay now we know that we WANT to be a writer, the passion has been fired up and we’re ready to roll, now what? Well your first step is to write something. What? Where do I get idea’s? That’s the easy part. All across the internet you can find writing prompts some good, some not so good, and some daggone awful!

Writing prompts are simple sentences or pictures that you look at and write, let’s say 500 words or less. You then expand on those five-hundred words that you wrote to make it either a fictional short story, if you’re lucky it may become a novel, or maybe even a non-fiction article idea will surface. Note that not all prompts will elucidate a creative writing tale. This is why you need the discipline to do many many exercises and prompts! (but you’re a writer, you can handle it.)

You’ve written the words now what? Well, you need to read them, OUT LOUD! I can’t emphasize this one enough! When you read your work out loud (it’s okay, no one will think you’re crazy) you will HEAR what is wrong in the sentence structure, the dialogue or the paragraph. Take note of what you’ve noticed. Is it clumsy? Is the dialogue not sounding believable enough? Is that comma giving you a problem?

I always use my MSWord to do my work with. On occasion when the computer isn’t available (usually for poetry) I actually use the old-time pen and paper. Either way I have a yellow highlighter within my reach. (MSWord has one or there is one in my hand.)

Now we’ve written our words, have them compiled into what looks like a possible story, now what do I do? It is time to let it rest (for a day at least) then we come back to it and revise it.

What is a revised piece of work? It is where you’ve gone over it with a fine-toothed comb, highlighted all the spots that are not working out for you and you fix them!

Please be diligent and check for spelling errors. Grammatical errors can be picked out by your group, but not taking the time to FIND your spelling errors (sorry MSWord won’t do the work for you) makes you appear to be either a hurried writer or a lazy writer.

It is helpful if you have a study group (there are many online writing study groups or at your local library.) Writer’s Village University is a wonderful source for my inspiration. You might find another one useful to you. Maybe you seek out in-depth student/instructor assistance? Maybe you desire a one-on-one mentor? Whichever you choose for the writer in YOU is what will work best for you.

Now get writing! Do your best and make it shine!

Within every writer is a magical world just waiting to be explored. Remember that Columbus didn’t discover America just by looking out at the sea! ~Joni