Comforting Words

Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Comfort in Trying Times

I was going to hang my hat up for the rest of the year of blogging but as many of you already know me so well, I do what God calls me to do and last night it was evidently clear that He wanted me to send out some comforting words to you, who need to hear.

As you know, we have all experienced a year of awe-inspiring deaths; deaths that affected the very core of our soul. Yes, I know everyone dies, and every year we have our shocking deaths of the year that just makes our jaw drop open and hang there in wonder. Last year for me was a blur as I had three deaths in the family and it looks like this year my husband might be losing an aunt. She is in the hospital being kept alive by feeding tubes as I write.  

I’m referring to the current year of celebrity deaths that seemed to touch many generations not just my generation as Prince, Glen Frey, George Michael in the music world, but to the older generations as in Garry Marshall, Gloria DeHaven, Arnold Palmer and the space exploring Astronauts John Glenn and Edgar Mitchell to writer Harper Lee. These deaths touched many generations. The list goes on and on and the year isn’t even over yet. This seems to be the year of icon deaths. 

When growing up what is magnified in shaping you is what goes into your mind, body, and spirit. While God may have shaped the early years, the television and radio input has also chiseled little pieces of your psyche. As you travel down memory lane December 31st, remember those icons who shaped who you are today. 

The political arena where people fought like pit bulls tossed into a pit with a bunny running in circles overshadowed this dismal year also. Devastating fires and earthquakes in places that rarely receives any media attention carved the year and the disheartening ending. This was a year for the record books from weather, destruction, deaths, politics, wildfires to entitlement. We the people who feel entitled to everything our fingers and minds can grasp are being put into our place for certain. 

We are not entitled! This is not our world to do what we want, this place is on loan and the sooner people realize how close we are to the end and that it is time to pay our dues maybe people can focus deeper on their soul and the continuance of the spirit that will leave the body, leave the beloved family behind to mourn and leave you to cleave only to your own spirit.

I watch as people succumb to their wants and needs. Even if all of their needs are met they seek more; more meds, more money, bigger house, better car, more materials, want, want, want. Their heads are spinning from the confusion instead of calmly looking around at all they have within their grasp and meditating what is right at their fingertips.

Heb. 13:5-6 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."

I have nieces and nephews with small children that have to grow up in this world and this is not the world I want to leave them. I want to leave my mark so that when I go, like the iconic figures that have gone on before me this year, I want to be remembered for my poetic life, the laughter I shared, the smiles I gave, for the joy I bestowed and for the God I loved in life and in death, and His comforting words that I share with you today.

Heb 6:10-12 NIV “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” 

Some of these icons that passed over were either well aged or who had not even begun their life, but take note, they all left their mark on the world. I can only assume that God is ready for His chosen to be lifted and taken to a better place. 

I find comfort in knowing that I have a place to go after this life. While some still struggle to understand the depths of the hereafter, probably because they are too consumed by the here and now and the wants and needs of today, I am comforted in knowing that there IS a hereafter and that this life is a continuum of a path that never really ends for us. 

Heb. 6:17-20 “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.”

So as I am saddened by the recent deaths of George Michael, Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds I can rest assure with the fact that the choir of angels amassed in heaven this year alone is going to be its own resounding trumpet. 
To the literalist I say, don’t wait for the brass, to the realist I say see what is real, to the pessimist I say, stop conjuring and to the optimist I say, keep the faith! 

Maybe we should all… be Praying for Time. 

God Bless one and all!

Nurturing The Seed Within

Pss. 72:7 "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth."

People are going to ask, how do I nurture the seed within?

Well, I can only tell you what works for me. I think every individual is different and will react to His blessings differently as they begin to nurture, continue to feed, and discipline themselves to receiving all of the knowledge the Lord has to offer. Through good and bad, the seed is within you just waiting for the water so it can blossom.

If you think God handpicks the perfect in society, boy are you ever wrong. He doesn’t choose the most beautiful to guide, He doesn’t ask the strong to come to Him, He doesn’t want the saint that man appoints, nope, he wants the ugly, downtrodden, dirty muddy sinner. Why? Because He sees what is deep inside. If he knows every hair on your head, you can bet your bottom dollar he can see the mud built up on your feet from going barefoot for long walks at a time.

1 Sam. 16:7 (KJV) “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

Going barefoot is like a man who never knew or wanted to know the likes of Christ. He’s washed his hands of everything to do with God and is living the life that he has planned for himself. You know what? That is the kind of man or woman that God has set His sights on even when you think there is nothing, there is something calling you to Him. You might not acknowledge the pull, but you know, deep in the night as you try and fall asleep, the stars are out there twinkling and you wonder.

You might think He’s washed His hands of you but I can assure you, God did not create us to dispose of us because we don’t fit His bill. No siree, God has his eyes on you when you think you’ve ridden yourself of Him. Even when you shun Him and don’t seek him he has landed his eye on you and is deep within you pulling you toward him, to an eternity with Him. 

Samuel chose David over all of Jesse’s sons, the ones who were taller, smarter and better looking for small little David who was out in the fields tending the sheep. Did God overlook David? No, he saw in him a King and that is what David would later become. 

If you read the book of Samuel you’ll see, David, the one who would one day be king, is the same boy who fought Goliath. Was it an easy task? Did he just walk up to him and say Boo, be gone? No, I do believe David struggled all of his life to be accepted by his family, fought to want to be included as a warrior but was overlooked by man and was tread upon and ground into the dirt but overcame a giant! HE was the one chosen by God.

This is the God I love and praise, One who sees me in all my tattered clothing, broken body, dry crinkly skin, He sees in me a King, so to speak. As I realize this, I begin ACTING like a king, in character and dignity and carrying myself for the entire world to see God IN me!

He sees something in each and every one of us no matter how small we think of ourselves, He’s choosing us to come to Him. That is how we nurture our Spirits. We fill our lives with everything God. From animals to plants, from flowers to trees, from the clouds to the moon, He is all, living in all and once you start seeing Him in everything you begin to want to know more and more about this God.

Does this mean He’ll heal you of your pains and illnesses? No, they’ll become bearable. Will He pay your high electric bill for you? No, but you’ll have the means to do it. You have to be willing to SEE the blessing instead of seeing a coincidence. Sometimes we have to sacrifice our WANTS for our NEEDS to be fulfilled. That right there is God working in you. You are important to Him. As with anything that is important to you, you take care of it, you nurture it until the seed becomes you, the you God intended. 

When you finally accept that science will never find Him or ‘prove’ Him and live with the faith that KNOWING Him is well enough for your soul, blessings and miracles fall like sparkling confetti and you see them and know they are from Him, the Him you didn’t even believe existed. May the Spiritual seed that God planted in you be nurtured until you bond together, grow, and flourish.

Praise be to God!

1 Samuel

Quotation Saturday ~ Love

LOVE

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” 
~ Mother Teresa

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.” 
~ Paulo Coelho

“When I look in the mirror, I know I’m looking at someone who isn’t sure she deserves to be loved at all.” 
~ Nicholas Sparks

“About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.” 
~ Rita Mae Brown

“Was it hard?" I ask.
Letting go?"

Not as hard as holding on to something that wasn't real.” 
~ Lisa Schroeder

HAPPINESS

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” 
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Always forgive, but never forget, else you will be a prisoner of your own hatred, and doomed to repeat your mistakes forever.” 
~ Wil Zeus

“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.” 
~ Leo Tolstoy

“Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within” 
~ Helen Keller

WANTS

“The life of less, one bent on simplicity, and not needing or wanting anything other than what God has deemed good for you turns out to be all you could ever need or want.” 
~ Hayley and Michael DiMarco

“What we all want, really, is to be loved. That craving drives our worst behavior.” 
~ Jodi Picoult

“What do I want? What kind of question is that? I want what everybody wants. I want someone who has my back. I want someone's name to put in the space after "in an emergecy please call." I want someone who will drink the other half of the bottle of wine so I don't. And someone to make it worth sitting down at an actual table to eat. I want someone who's dying to get home after a long day because I'm going to be there.” 
~ Claire Cook

“Sometimes, I think we're afraid to admit we want certain things. Especially things that contradict the image we have of ourselves.” 
~ Debbie Macomber

NEEDS

“If Christ has been given us, if we are called to his discipleship we are given all things, literally _all_ things. He will see to it that they are added unto us. If we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness, we are in his hands and under the protection of Him and His Father. And if we are in communion with the Father, nought can harm us. God will help us in the hour of need, and He knows our needs.” 
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“When I save, I lay something aside for future need. If I sense God's leading, I will give it away to meet greater needs. When I hoard, I'm unwilling to part with what I've saved to meet others' needs, because my possible future needs outweigh their actual present needs. I fail to love my neighbor as myself.” 
~ Randy Alcorn

“You won't discover God is all you need until God is all you have.” 
~ Reverend Claude Nicholas

“First you find out what you have, Dad would say. Then you figure out how to make it work for what you need, 'cause you don't get what you want. You get just what you have and no more. ” 
~ Lilith Saintcrow

My Own Little World

My Own Blessed Little World

1 John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

Out here in the middle of nowhere, I sit in my own little world. People expect me to be absorbed in the virtual world but no, it serves no purpose in my life so I sit in my own little world tapping on keys writing to my hearts content. 

The mornings here in this springtime world are bathed in sunshine, after almost a month of gray clouds and rain. The crisp cool mornings are still upon us where a light jacket is needed in the morning but by afternoon, no jacket is required, just sun, grass, and endless fields.

The pivots are making their morning stroll releasing a mist to the newly planted fields. Big-wheeled tractors are making their morning rounds discharging a fertilizer to protect the greenery from insects. Then there are the cottonwood trees freeing the clumps of cotton-like substance landing on the ground looking like a newly fallen snow.

Then there is the insect world. The spiders have been awakened from their winter slumber, the flies are mounting an army to attack any living creature in their way, and the hummingbird moths have made their appearance on my Salvia bush. Butterflies flit off in the distance inspecting the newly bloomed Marigolds that resurface every year. Note that marigolds are not perennials but the mild winters have been protecting the seeds as they fell from last year and so I am blessed with hundreds of marigolds each season.

I was in a bit of depression a few weeks ago and my one friend asked me what was wrong. I didn’t really give him any clear answer but sure enough, a week later he prodded further and I told him I was healing. I had been down for who knows what reason but I was now working on myself and finding healing. That’s a friend, who senses when you’re down and actually cares enough to poke in your business to see what the problem is and checks up on you to make sure you’re doing okay. 

He assured me that I am blessed and it hit home. I began counting the blessings in my life instead of focusing on what I can’t do. You see, I’m not an idle person; I always like to be moving whether planting in my garden, digging up weeds, mowing, cleaning, and doing laundry or whatever. I type/write in the few minutes of rest that my disabled body needs, then I’m back up moving around. 

My disability gets me down a lot of the times. I don’t even know what the disability is but I do know if I was pulled over and asked to take a sobriety test I’d fail for my inability to walk a straight line and not from alcohol either. My vision isn’t too good either so I stopped driving for my safety and the other drivers, too. I was diagnosed with arthritis in my back but after reading the M.S. symptoms, I’m not going to rule that out.

After I throw myself a pity party, I find a healing place in counting my blessings. I know this doesn’t sound like a blessing but my neighbor finally mowed down her waist high grass. Her riding mower needed blade repair and a push mower that she bought (so that she could lose weight, she told me) was too hard for her so she had her riding mower repaired and spent four hours for three days out there in the sun, stirring up my allergies, but I was feeling blessed by not having to see the eyesore any longer.

On the cooler days, I take advantage of getting outside, in my own little world. Sometimes I mow (carefully, knowing my limits) sometimes I just sit out there watching trucks roll by, other times I’m out there, counting my blessings.

While many people are consumed with what they don’t have, what they HAVE to have, what they WANT and what they’ll spend their money on, I’m here in my own little world counting my blessings of all that I HAVE! Cherishing the fact that I have all that I NEED and want for nothing but cool nights so I can continue sleeping with my windows open and the breeze chilling me so much that the quilt is pulled up to my neck!

I know spring will end and summer will arrive, and in my own little world, that will be fine by me! I’ll just continue to count my blessings!

Deut. 28:2 “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”

Family Values

Job 13: 4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

Well here we go again, yet another heinous school shooting. I remember back in 2000 when my son was old enough to start school, I knew in my heart that it was a bad idea. I could feel the winds of change although there had been no school shootings in my area, I was not going to send my kid to a government run, bureaucratic system.

There have been over one hundred school shootings since 1980 and a massive amount of fatal deaths in those shootings. Statistically it began ascending after the Columbine incident and to this day is a growing trend in America. That’s not taking into consideration the massive shootings in malls and movie houses.

What is happening in America that people just want other people dead because either their life isn’t as good as the next person’s, or they’re mentally unstable, or they’re angry at a country which is failing them.

I follow the vile hatred of these stories in disbelief. While others think I have rose colored glasses on and am blind to the world around me, I AM aware. I find it quite silly to place blame. No, school shootings are not our government’s fault, guns are not to blame, the ease of getting guns are not to blame. The mind is to blame. Self value is to blame!

Somewhere along the line we lost the value in life. These days we glorify death, we support the smarmy entertainment business, (yes, even Christians who say they can’t stand this and that are supporting the sleaze that comes through the box!)

I hear so many couples (with kids more times than not) say they can’t make ends meet. They can’t afford their two cars, clothes that they worked for, no less, eating out five or six times a month, they can’t afford the cable bills or electric bills and barely have food for the kids. What?

Sure blame the husband because he’s tired of having no money. Blame the wife for having too many shoes that she DESERVES; blame, blame, blame!! Here we go. The modern family has two people working (to barely make ends meet) the kids are off in a school system where parents allow the system to raise their children, so they can make ends meet, mind you. And what value do parents place on their children?

Sure we live in a society of let me buy you this let me buy you that. Buy materials, you’ll be happy. Enjoy trash on TV, you’ll be happy. Have two cars, buy steaks, eat out at restaurants, you’ll be happy.

Guess what people, YOU’RE NOT HAPPY!! You’re a devalued human being, being manipulated by materials and you’re ALLOWING it to happen instead of taking a stance for your FAMILY and family VALUES!

Kids are having kids, they become hard to handle so they put them on drugs. ADHD drugs that from every commercial I see come with a warning: May cause suicidal tendencies. This is what the kid’s flipping out and killing people were more than likely on as a child. Their mother’s, who became divorced, couldn’t handle the wild child, and placed him on meds. We lost value of life along the way of medication and an over abundance of materials. The media is saturating society with what they THINK people want to see, and people claim to hate it but the majority is watching it and buying into the devaluing of society.

We no longer value marriage, we no longer WANT to spend time with the kids, we’d rather put them in front of a TV and let a game system raise them. We over feed them on takeout food, we’d rather work to make more money so we can have luxuries of the world. A tainted crop of humans has emerged and it is not pretty.

Blame evil, blame satan, blame the government, blame everything but yourselves who are showing as much lack of control as these very angry students. Just because you don’t wield a gun doesn’t mean you’re NOT to blame. YOU are enabling them. You are feeding their fire with every meal and tv show, every luxury you bathe in, YOU are to blame.

My son just graduated high school. He CHOSE to go the last four years but he soon discovered it wasn’t HIM who had the societal problem it was society itself. He was taught the rights of Americans and realized he really had none at all. He has CHOSEN not to go to college so as not to burden himself with the money it will cost. And while people frown on his decision and almost laugh at his indecision, I think he made the right decision. He’s thinking of his future while the naysayers are thinking of MONEY in his future. Yeah blame me, his mother, whose life does NOT revolve around money and materials. I taught my son that.

2 Cor. 12:14 Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

Parents need to stop owning children and raise them instead. Values are taught at an early age and you can’t tell a sixteen year old that what he is doing is wrong when he was allowed all his life not to respect morality.

We need to change. We need to put family values back in this world. I think returning to a one person working household is a start. I know you’ll say, “But we can’t AFFORD to be a one person working household.” And I’ll say why? WHAT is it you won’t be able to afford? Cable? Get rid of it. New shoes? Wear the ones you have! Take-out food? Cook at home. This alone will save you HUNDREDS each month!

How are we as adults going to teach our kids responsibility if we ourselves can’t even sacrifice for the luxuries we want and put our NEEDS first? It’s going to be a hard climb back into morality and values when our eyes are fixed on blaming everyone and everything else for the situations we find ourselves in.

God is not to blame! Satan is not to blame! Our government is not to blame! Guns are not to blame! YOU my friend, are to blame. When we start taking responsibility for our own selves, that is when the blame game will end and morals in society will surface and we can begin placing a value on life.

Rom. 30:28-32 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Quotation Saturday

LOVE

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
~ Mother Teresa

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.”
~ Paulo Coelho

“When I look in the mirror, I know I’m looking at someone who isn’t sure she deserves to be loved at all.”
~ Nicholas Sparks

“About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.”
~ Rita Mae Brown

“Was it hard?" I ask.
Letting go?"
Not as hard as holding on to something that wasn't real.”
~ Lisa Schroeder

HAPPINESS

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Always forgive, but never forget, else you will be a prisoner of your own hatred, and doomed to repeat your mistakes forever.”
~ Wil Zeus

“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.”
~ Leo Tolstoy

“Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within”
~ Helen Keller

WANTS

“The life of less, one bent on simplicity, and not needing or wanting anything other than what God has deemed good for you turns out to be all you could ever need or want.”
~ Hayley and Michael DiMarco

“What we all want, really, is to be loved. That craving drives our worst behavior.”
~ Jodi Picoult

“What do I want? What kind of question is that? I want what everybody wants. I want someone who has my back. I want someone's name to put in the space after "in an emergecy please call." I want someone who will drink the other half of the bottle of wine so I don't. And someone to make it worth sitting down at an actual table to eat. I want someone who's dying to get home after a long day because I'm going to be there.”
~ Claire Cook

“Sometimes, I think we're afraid to admit we want certain things. Especially things that contradict the image we have of ourselves.”
~ Debbie Macomber

NEEDS

“If Christ has been given us, if we are called to his discipleship we are given all things, literally _all_ things. He will see to it that they are added unto us. If we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness, we are in his hands and under the protection of Him and His Father. And if we are in communion with the Father, nought can harm us. God will help us in the hour of need, and He knows our needs.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“When I save, I lay something aside for future need. If I sense God's leading, I will give it away to meet greater needs. When I hoard, I'm unwilling to part with what I've saved to meet others' needs, because my possible future needs outweigh their actual present needs. I fail to love my neighbor as myself.”
~ Randy Alcorn

“You won't discover God is all you need until God is all you have.”
~ Reverend Claude Nicholas

“First you find out what you have, Dad would say. Then you figure out how to make it work for what you need, 'cause you don't get what you want. You get just what you have and no more. ”
~ Lilith Saintcrow

All Tied Up?

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble." - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
***

Did you ever notice people with the means to help, don’t. And the people without the means, do? Or at least want to. I think I remain poor because even if I was a popular published novel writer, my money would be flung out the window, handed off to people who need it!

I have family members who make more than $100,00 thousand a year, and ones who make less than $25,000 a year. Wanna know who helps in our dire time of need? Yup you guessed it, the ones with the least amount to give. And if you ask the ones with more than enough money for help? They tell you they don’t have it, their money is all tied up. What does that even mean? Oh wait...it is in savings for THEM, so THEY have a good life, for the rest of their lives. Poo, on those who have nothing, get a job they say. Well! I don’t need you, I have GOD, and YOU have your place carved out for you.

More so than that, the ones without don’t even need to ask if I need help. Have you ever seen the man with raggedy clothing on the street corner, cup in hand, sign on ground, NEED FOOD, some call them ‘bums’, some say they are derelicts, some whisper, ‘street trash’, I say the are ‘homeless’ victims.

Why victims? Because they became a victim of circumstance. Please don’t give me the story on these men and women, how they are just out for booze. Sucking off of ‘good taxpaying people’. Do you hear how wrong that sounds? I grew up in the city, Baltimore city, and the homeless could be seen sleeping on top of steaming sewer drains, they will carry their ‘home’ with them, usually a cardboard box, a lot of times a shopping cart filled with a coat and boxes that they would roll around the streets from one place to the next.

It was always so sad to see these men AND women clinging to the very edge of society. A misfit among the human race, pushed there by disease? Hard times? Society? Or Family? I have been on the edge of that line numerous times but God has always sought someone to reach out to me and bring me something, anything in my time of NEED, not want. God is the only saving Grace during these hard times of need, and having real Christians surround you and pull you together into their arms, that is what you NEED!

Sure we all want a nice home, a warm home with a car outside waiting for us to jump in, clothes on our backs, and food on our plates. We also want that new blouse we saw at JCPenny’s, or that purse we saw at Macy’s, or the new sofa we saw at the Furniture Store. But those are all WANTS and nothing that you really NEED.

I NEED my state of mental health, and the Greed Factory is not where I’ll ever visit anytime soon. You enjoy your time there and if you see someone who resembles Jesus, in need, tell him you can’t help, “YOUR money is all tied up.” See how that works for you.

Hebrews 13:1-2 "Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares".

But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mk 10:43-45 (NLT)

Angry...at God???

I’ve been on this planet for many a year. I gave my life over to God and I did it for a reason. A couple really; to be closer to the creator, salvation, redemption, saving grace, and the promise of eternal life.

1 Tim. 3: 9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

I didn’t become a Christian so I could get things, you know, prayers answered. But upon accepting Him and all His glory, there were standards that I had to meet. I could no longer walk in the dark, do what I wanted to and never be held accountable. No, I was living my life for Christ and as such, I would try with every vein in my being to be the best person He created me to be.

1 Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

A lot of people I know, assume things about faith. “Well I won’t have to answer for THAT sin until I meet him in heaven.” So they go about doing what they want in life, never feeling they have to answer until they are dead, so why worry about stuff like that while they’re living?   
1Tim. 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

4:7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

So when we, as Christians, don’t get what we want, is it God’s fault? Are we to blame him for not giving us what we want? Why would anyone assume that? When you get angry, you do things that aren’t in your Christian nature, losing sight of the One who created you, the Almighty God that would never give up on you, yet you, you feel you can just turn your back on him and stomp off like a child who didn’t get that toy he wanted?
 
You know, I lost two children and everyone expected me to be angry at God. Angry because he took away something so precious to my heart, that I had wanted, but he ripped them away before I ever had the chance to see them smile.
 
Instead of anger, I gave Him GLORY. I praised Him and rejoiced. Why? Because I know that HE knows what is best for me in any circumstance I am facing. No he don’t give me what I want, he fulfills my every need. 


1 Tim. 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Don’t be told what to pray for. Know what to pray for. Don’t ask to be given something, pray that he knows what you need. NEED! Not WANT!

Tim. 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

My sermon has thus commenced.