Poetry Sunday: We Are One

John 20:29 “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” 

We Are One

I am the branch and He the vine

or the other way around 

so intertwined.

I am the shadow He is the Light

I fall to the ground without

                                         a sight.                                          

I am the wick and He the spark

illuminating space there is

no dark

I am without as He is within

breathless purity leaves

                                       no sin.                                        

I am the bride, He is the groom

loving relationship in

full bloom.

I am the vine, He the branch

integrated as One

mortal chance.      

I am the branch and He the vine

communal spirits 

natural design.    

God In Me

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

When people meet me for the first time they look past my outer beauty and see something they might have never known or seen in someone before; they see God in me. To a non-believer they’re seen scratching their heads in wonder, wondering what it is about me that makes me different. Then I speak, if I did not carry God with me, I will leave those people scratching their heads but as soon as I speak they see it, that thing that makes me different, they see God in me. 

Eph. 4:22-24 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

When attending Church, people have a tendency to walk out the door still the same person who went through those doors. If we have an ounce of faith in what was said behind those doors we will walk out renewed and wear a different layer of clothing; a new man.

We can read and believe until we’re blue in the face but if putting on a new spirit does not renew you then you have missed the gift that God has given you of being a new person in Christ. We’re not the same, we’re different and non-believers can see Christ in you.

If you walk out of those church doors and are the same beer drinking, hate spewing, judgmental person then you are missing the message being delivered and not learning to live with Christ in you. People will then see you as a non-Christian and as such you contort the very meaning of deliverance that Christ brings to the world. You’re setting up shop of becoming known as a hypocrite who knows the Word but doesn’t know Christ. 

Phil. 2:1-5 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

We can’t live like we know Him if we don’t make an effort to get to know Him. Reading the bible is not getting to know Him, attending church is not getting to know Him; living with him in us is the only way we can feel the personal connection to Him that causes us to be renewed in the spirit. 

Here’s an example of what I mean. When you read To Kill a Mockingbird, do you know Atticus, do you know Gem and Boo Radley? No, you read about them but you don’t KNOW them, they can’t live vicariously through you by just reading about them. Let’s say you went to Harper Lee’s house, does that mean you know her? You read her book, visited her house so does that make you an all-knowing friend of hers? Not at all, you have to have years and years of a relationship with her to even KNOW her. 

When we go to our mother and father’s house we know them. We know where they put the forks and spoons, we know where the spice rack is, we know which bedroom is theirs; we know because we lived with them throughout our life and have taken all that we learned from them with us out into the world. 

If our father has passed away, we still carry him with us and we still see him in little things like an old hammer he used or an old song he used to listen to; we smell him in different foods and colognes because he is living in us because he is with us in spirit.

This is the difference in reading the bible, going to church and saying we KNOW God. We cannot know God unless we live WITH Him. We carry Him with us out into the world because He defines our world; He IS our world. 

If we read, believe and go to church we cannot in all good conscience come out and spread the word saying we KNOW Christ, we have to LIVE with Christ to say we know Him. In all we say and all we do with all that our Father has taught us over the years can we carry Him to the world.

It would be very vain of me to say, I am God; it would be smug of me to say, I am Jesus; but it would be truth to say that God is IN me because I’ve known Him my whole life and the Spirit of my Father dwells within my soul.

Rom. 12:1-2 “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Poetry Sunday ~ Harvest of Souls

Pss. 29:2 “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”

 Harvest of Souls

The time is near, the hour nigh, 

Moonbeams droop in a blackened sky 

Blazing sun scorches the land 

Earth erupts in a quivering stand. 

Encircling us is ravaging hate, 

Lust and greed sever our fate

I sit and watch as lives unravel, 

The boulder of strength now merely gravel. 

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, 

Souls bewildered by mistrust 

Doubt and fear, they give rise 

To muted pleas and mournful cries. 

As souls ascend and souls descend, 

It is our own that we must mend. 

Bringing forth joy, love and peace, 

The decorum of beauty will never cease. 

Firmly tread as the time is here, 

To boldly proclaim, all we revere

The harvest of souls its beckoning plea 

It's craving you; devouring me. 

Come forth and share your inner beauty 

Unleash love as our earthly duty

Reap what you sow, seek and find

Then you my friend, won't be left behind. 

Copyright ©Joni Zipp

Beauty ~ To Each His Own

Pss. 36:2 “For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.”

As some of you may know, I attended a Catholic school from first to eighth grades. Daily I wore the uniform of the plaid jumpers with a white collared shirt for five years, to the plaid skirt and white shirt for another three. 

I never had to worry about competing with looking good to the other girls. Each passing year the time came for me to receive my hand-me-down jumpers from my shorter sister. Yeah, I was taller than my sister by second grade and even with the awkward unleashing of the hem the length was still too short, for me. 

All the other girls had new pristine jumpers every year obviously from a wealthier family but me and my little jumpers, we made it through five years, and the skirts lasted for three. Only on weekends and after school did I wear different, more comfortable clothes and I always decided that this was when I was defiantly going to show my body in a way the nuns would scoff.

I suffered from low self-esteem as a child always trying to be different and I would dress to where I would be noticed, whether it was in butt bearing shorts, halter tops or painted on jeans. I was being noticed; icy blue/gray eyes, long flowing blonde hair, a perfect size zero. It didn’t take me long to figure out that men (yes grown men) were not looking at me (a child) because I was cute, they were looking at me like I was a raw steak being fired up on the grill and they couldn’t wait to stick a fork in me! Certainly not the attention I was seeking.

As I grew, I matured and realized I didn’t need that sort of attention; my tastes in clothing grew, as did my self-esteem. Sure I was now a perfect size six, still long flowing blonde hair and icy blue/gray eyes but something had changed within me; I found God. No longer was I dressing for beastly men, I was now dressing for God! I wanted Him to notice the beauty within me and I longed to please Him in every way.

The problem with that was I was still being noticed in my modestly covered up body but no longer seen as a steak on a grill, I was being admired as a beautiful woman. People saw something in me and I’m most certain it was God shining through me; I had finally become the modest young lady my father could be proud of and the person my heavenly Father didn’t have to turn His head away from.

It saddens me today to look around and see the young girls dressing like they want to work the strip in their hot-pants and boob bearing shirts but I also see that men have not changed over my lifetime. Since the beginning of time man has lusted after the female gender, sadly young or old. Women have always wanted to be looked at and some of us will go to great measure to see our esteem lifted. I would never go to the lengths women do today with all of the plastic surgery from their noses all the way down to their butts. They NEED to be seen and men NEED to look. 

How can I help these young girls? Do I judge them? Do I laugh at their foolishness or do I show compassion and understanding knowing I was much like them once?

Besides pray, I’ll write. The only way to look beautiful and I mean REALLY beautiful is when you have self-confidence. You don’t need tattoos and to be pierced in every orifice to feel confident; you don’t need to dress in slutty attire to attract a man. A real man is attracted to inner beauty that exudes from you whether you’re dowdy or absolutely gorgeous. The beauty you carry inside is what finds the real men to marry, not the false bravado you traipse around and taunt men with. You need to know you’re worth something to YOU not just an object for men to be their eye candy!

I’ve seen many young girls walk into church looking like they were going out to a nightclub and yes, I would think what on EARTH possessed them to wear THAT? Then I remember…I was once like that too; in time they’ll realize it is only for God they should look good for, not for the MAN beast or the WOMAN competitor. Build confidence in YOURSELF, dress for YOU, see your beauty as God sees your beauty! He doesn’t see you with dyed hair, tons of make-up – He sees you naked and bare and what He sees is BEAUTY!

For the non-believers please know, if you’re dressed as a lady of the evening and you’re attracting men and boys, know that they’re not worth the air you breathe if sleaze is what they’re interested in. Maybe it IS what you’re interested in; a life with no breath. 

Poetry Sunday ~ The Flow of Change

Prov. 24:21 “My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:”

Flow of Change 

In a pool of standing water

There is no ripple to bear

In the running of the river

Seamless change fills the air.

Flowing forward flawlessly

The sediment staggers below

A rocky road emerges

To sever the seasoned flow.

If life is like a puddle

Silent silhouette to remain

Through the open window

Surges streaming pain.

If life whispers like a river

The tide of change will rise

Echoing in the morning wind

Released in dewdrop cries.

The year of change is colored

By departure of all sin

Behold the rampant glory

Emanating from deep within.

1 Cor. 15:51 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,”

MY Belief

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." ~ I Corinthians 10:13

My belief might not be your belief just as your belief might not be my belief. I’m okay with that. We are humans living in a time where we discover something and we just feel the need to share it, I think in hopes that we can all agree on believing the same things.

I came down pretty hard on Ken Ham the other day, only because I don’t buy into his not so grand philosophy on things. I’m not saying he’s 100% wrong but to me he is not 100% right either. Can anyone be, really? I see much of his theories or what do you call them, beliefs, as regurgitated theology from previous theologians and philosophers.

As a writer, I could never take someone’s work and call it my own and some of these ‘new’ thoughts of KH are not new to say the least. If you’ve just discovered KH as the answer to your questions, of course you’re going to accept what he spills out to his ‘followers’. He’s your go to guy when you have questions and seek answers.

When I was in my late teens I read a book titled: Heaven, Its Wonders and Hell by Emanuel Swedenborg. As I read him there were things in there that only solidified my beliefs of things that I already knew and interpreted from the Bible, but again, a lot of folks were not reading the King James Bible and understanding some pretty difficult prose. I always felt that because I was a poet at heart, I read and understood things in a more picturesque way then say as a laymen reader/believer?

As such I never shared my beliefs with others out of fear of being laughed at, and now here I am laughing at KH for believing dinosaurs and man cohabitated. I had a sort of epiphany. Why laugh at him, he is only solidifying things as HE understands them. More than likely he would laugh at me for my beliefs but there would also be a meeting of the minds.

While he might have the degree saying he has more knowledge than me, my wisdom is from God (not a school and certainly not from google) and what I speak of is from my heart and experience, just as Mr. Swedenborg. When KH has looked at demons, walked with angels, died and came back here, maybe then I’d begin to understand where he is coming from. I believe you should experience something before you tout it as truth.

When I was younger and someone sparked in me the need to look further into something, I had books to run to, today I have google and its vast amount of information from many perspectives not just one.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Also I’ll have you know before I believe in ANYthing, I take it to God first. I don’t take what people throw at me at face value, I need to dissect it with an open mind and come to a rational and logical conclusion. Dinosaurs’ dallying with men is not of anything rational and logical, so for the time being I cannot accept it as truth because a man says it’s so.

2 Thes 2:9
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.

Matthew 24:24
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

I’d like you to take a look at this:

The Prophetic Years 

Farfetched? Crazy? Laughable?

Now look at this and Ken Ham is tossing out to his followers:

Yes siree, Ken Ham touting the same stuff.

So I ask you this, if you laughed at the first link I showed, did you laugh at KHam links? Why or why not?

All I can say is this… the truth is within you. It is not OUT THERE. It isn’t in the head or mind of someone else it is right there within you waiting to be tapped. Sometimes we get so caught up in the physical we forget that there is an entire spiritual realm, a realm from which we were created!

This week, one of my most sacred weeks, I’ve been thrown into pages upon pages of demons and UFO’s when I would much rather be drinking in the purity that Jesus has blessed me with. After Easter is over I may elaborate more on some things that I learned this week but were in no way new to me. Now who would go and start this???

Would it be (in my Dana Carvey- Church lady voice) S-AAAAA-T-AN??? Teeheehee!

Have a blessed Holy week my readers and remember, Jesus loves you!

Temptation

Matt. 6: 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Temptation

Will you resist temptation

As it’s knocking on your door?

Will the past you try to run from

Come calling to prowl for more?

There’s truth amid the ruins

Of all you seek outside

If only man would look within

His light it could not hide.

Will sin beat and batter

Your soul you try to waken

Will you embrace the darkness

That has your self  forsaken?

I see you hugging evil

in the liars den.

You stroke the hand of many

Calling them your friend.

See them turn away from you

In disgust as you glower

Sin is not a pretty pic

Disguised as a flower.

The sinful man cannot see

The harm that he has done

His only triumph is in himself

And battles he has won.

He stands alone looking proud

Of all of his possessions.

Appearing as a man of truth

Leaking false impressions.

Temptation has a hold;

His will to fight is bleak.

Look to find the Lord within

The Light to all you seek.

Luke 8: 13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

The Reflecting Pool

Job 32: 18 For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me.

This week I feel that I’ve gone and jumped in a reflecting pool. I’m doing a lot of reflecting and thinking things through so bear with me. I know my whining about no internet for three days might make some of you say, “Enough already!” But I hope you see how dependent and addicted to the web my family and I have become. Also realize, my son has outside activities like school, and my man, he works. Me, I blog/write! I would much rather be addicted to the internet than suffer from drug and alcohol abuse. But like I said two weeks ago, we give up one addiction and fill it with another. At least this one isn’t sucking out all my brain cells or is it?

The God imposed fast was like He himself gave me a little push into the reflecting pool, and at some point in your life, I hope you take a dive yourself. Reflection is a way of seeing the truth in matters. When you look in the mirror, you are seeing the truth of what you look like, not a photoshop picture of what you WISH you really looked like. Nope, the image you see reflecting back from the mirror is the real deal.

The reflecting pool allows you to walk up to the edge of the water line, look down and you can see what’s in your soul. Yup I looked at my soul and it took a complete cut off from the wide world of the web for me to see an honest reflection of what MY soul looks like.

I saw ripples of the life I made for myself.

I saw me as a positive influence on others.

I saw me sharing the truth (or what I see as truth) and people getting it.

I also saw me striving to write and taking anything that falls on the page as a baby step towards my writing journey.

I also see everything anyone posts (blog, twitter, facebook) as an attack on me personally, as a human being, especially all the negative posts that people can’t keep themselves from posting. It affects peoples psyche! Even if it is intended to inform, it really comes across as ‘We’re too stupid to already know this stuff’?

I see me in prayer praying for each and every friend that I’m in contact with on facebook. (not so much the twittersphere)

I find peace in knowing I can’t save the world and that it isn’t all on my shoulders to bear.

I know I don’t need to run a popularity marathon to make me feel special. I feel special just being myself.

I am loved for just being me.

I saw my pain washing downstream with all the negative thoughts clinging to it.

My eyes were opened to what is wrong in MY LIFE and definitely see a way in making it right, and it isn’t in random hate-filled post. It isn’t in the outside social media trap, it is within! I’m liking who I am within, and praying for those who need to feel loved and are finding a satisfaction in false love.

Others need to see themselves as part of the very problems they so readily post! By you feeding fires and fanning flames is NOT the way to make a point. Do something about it physically! Words are just babble.

As I will continue to share positive things with substance, I will shun and run from all the negativity and it will force me to do a self-imposed fast of the internet. I will not be a follower.

“The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.” ~Albert Einstein

The message in this post? Take the time to jump in the reflecting pool and really look at yourself and who it is that you present to the world. Maybe what YOU see won’t be what the world sees.

Pss. 40: 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

Prov. 16: 18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Back in the Saddle Again

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

 ~Marsha Norman

Well here I am nearing my 1,000th post. As many of you know, I took a little break from writing, but lo and behold, the writing bug is still in me and here I am, back in the saddle again.

I’ve had a few post here and there to keep my blog alive, but my writing came to a complete standstill and thinking I never wanted to write again due to upheavals, I’ve realized NO ONE can make me stop writing but me! People can sling mud, disassociate with me, toss me overboard, but writing is within me, not just an outer shell that people can peel away from me, in hopes of destroying my dream.

My dream is still alive and kicking; it just needed a rest. My muse needed to take a step back, drink in all that has happened over the many months of intimate soul searching, healing and growth. And healing and growing is what I’ve done. By the grace of God, my beau has gotten his sight back after being blind for two and a half years; my dental issues have been resolved, and my back issues are still on the mend, but all in all, HEALING is going around.

I didn’t do it alone, mind you. I have a church family that came through amazingly; I had a few internet friends that heard my cries, actually sympathized with me, and reached out to me. Without that cluster of people, whether it was monetary, or prayers, I would not be right here today writing to you telling you of my healing. I would still be in intense pain, and no healing would have taken place. Each one of you knows who you are. You have my undying gratitude, love and appreciation. I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Now with a new understanding of ‘friendship’, knowing who and who is not my friend, I can move forward in my writing. I’ve said it before, and I’ll shout it out to all of you again; writing is within! When I hear people whine (yes, I whined!) about giving up on writing, or that someone hurt someone so much that they wanted to give up writing, I have to chuckle a little. NO ONE can you hurt you so much, that you can give up writing.

From experience, I’ve learned people can hurt you! They can be downright mean and cause you to go into isolation, but giving up writing? If you are a REAL writer, nothing and no one can take that away from you. Want some sage advice from this whole experience? It is better to pray for those people who caused your pain, isolate yourself from THEM, but never, and I mean never turn your back on your writing!

I knew my writing was there waiting for me like a warm blanket on a cold night; just sitting on the back of the chair anxiously awaiting my hands to embrace it and to envelop me in warmth. So to you my friends I say; when you fall off the horse, you definitely cannot watch Bullseye ride off into the sunset, you need your hand firmly on the reigns, and get yourself back in the saddle again! And don’t forget your blanket, it gets cold out here in this world and it is your source of heat and passion! Wink

That which the dream shows is the shadow of such wisdom as exists in man, even if during his waking state he may know nothing about it.... We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself.

~Paracelsus

Labor Day

“When pure sincerity forms within, it is outwardly realized in other people's hearts.”
-Lao Tzu

They say it is Labor Day, but why do they give people the day off? That’s not labor.
 

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
 

If it is to recognize the achievements of American workers, why does Canada, and Non-American workers, get off of work?
 

I think holidays are just a way for the government to get a paid holiday for themselves. Holidays are a time for cookouts, get together's and fun with family. I had a great time with Stevens family yesterday and today do I get the day off? Not at all, I’m tapping on the keys and segueing into a post.
 

We have to be prepared. Labor Day might be for the workers of this world who need recognition of their labors and work, whereas for me, I will work my tail off this day in honor of LABOR!
 

I need to announce the next f2k session, which will be rolling around real soon, October 6th, and I’ll write more this week. F2k is the FREE Writing course that Writer’s Village University offers. Yes, it is FREE, and it is a seven week course that leads you into the labor of writing. If you’re a pro, the class offers a refresher in the basics. If you’re a new writer, then it offers you a chance to see if you have what it takes to BE a writer.
 

Writing is a laborious job. Some people enter class thinking they can whiz through because what, writing is easy? It’s a hard job that takes a lot of thought, persistence and patience that pays off in rewards beyond your imagination.
 

So on this Labor Day, take a moment to register to write. Take the initiative and give yourself the journey that keeps on giving. You WILL NOT gain entry until October 6th, but we do have a Social Scene set up (similar to facebook) that allows one and all a chance at viewing the format. Look for Writers Village University on facebook, we have  a page loaded with info and friends you might already know. :)
 

Have a wonderful day. Don’t stop working just because ‘man’ has given you a holiday. Persist! Work! Live!