Nurturing The Spirit

James 4:16-17 KJV “But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Nurturing the Spirit

If an innocent child is abandoned and left on his own without guidance, he is bound to get into trouble. Whether making the wrong decisions because he/she knew no better like toddling out the unlocked front door right into on-coming traffic, or just making the wrong choice because he can, like setting the house on fire by playing with matches near the curtains. This is what happens to a wayward society without God leading them in the right direction. The people play with fire and get they burned, figuratively and literally.

God left us alone with a few instructions and we can’t even decide which ones to follow or which ones don’t need our attention, basically, we struggle with choosing right from wrong. That’s where nurturing the Spirit within you comes into play. God planted the Holy Spirit here on earth to dwell within us IF we’d have Him but so many have made the conscious decision of not wanting Him or His Spirit near us. People CHOOSE to not have Him or anyone for that matter, governing their lives.

You see, reading the Bible and believing in the Word is all well and good but nurturing your spirit is the much-needed task and the difference between being raised by humans or being misled by a pack of wolves. While I love wolves, “they are considered one of the animal world's most fearsome natural villains.”

If you leave God out of the equation of humanity, we become like a pack of wolves, villains at our worse behavior imaginable, like killing and maiming the lower species because we as the human species can act in the most animalistic way we can think of and our packs are in record numbers dividing the majority and minority sector.

The minority of people clings to God and allows His spirit to rule our soul and we ACT like civil God loving human beings practicing our faith while the majority of the world follows the ravenous pack of wolves. Mind you we have tamed packs where they act civil but their teeth bearing, howling hate nature is ever visible. They’ve been allowed to roam too long in the wild, taking in and feeding off whatever the media throws them, absorbing the fecal matter into their spirits and allowing that to shape who they are and showing the world their sugar-coated dish to make it look more delectable to the unknowing and misguided mind.

The world does not nurture the spirit within them. Their egos are so big they think they can control their world around them never giving reins to a supreme more powerful Godhead. The ego is a masterful wolf ravaging your insides controlling every action or inaction you take. When we allow the ego to rule we are essentially tossing God to the ever-loving covetous wolves.

This is the world you see before you. THIS is the very reason everything seems to be going downhill. You wake and hear more and more bad news, mass killings, rape, incest, torture, and hatred among political human beings. The minority of God dwellers is not strong enough to overpower the majority of ego driven, voracious savages that now rule the streets, homes, countries and soul’s of what is left of the human species. 

My naïveté tells me that the power of prayer will help guide and protect us, the minority, in sync with the Spirit that we hold steadfast within our beings. It is only through prayer and meditation on the word DAILY not weekly, that we can save the damned, the ill, the misled, and the lost. God save us all.

James 4: 13-17 NIV "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring!
"What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 
"So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

Poetry Sunday ~ Help Me, Lord

Pss. 12:1 Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

Help Me Lord

Help me Lord it’s been a long day

My body is failing I begin to sway.

Through the mist I see them rise,

Mangy wolves in disguise.

They rant, they rave through it all

bellowing out a howling call.

Looking like sheep dressed in white

Prowling on innocence in the night

They saunter along and show their claws

Prying open my self-made walls.

I stand alone they circle ‘round

To steal the Light in me they’ve found.

In one fell swoop they’re whisked away

My Holy Savior saves the day.

Help me Lord, to always see

The You that found a part of me.

Dog Days of Summer

Rom. 12:2 “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.”

Summer is in full swing and as such my body is drained due to the heat and exhaustion that each day brings. As you might have guessed this is not an upbeat season for me and I try to stay away from the social media scene so as not to bring my negative vibes into the corral of hatemongers, the wannabe activists who are hung up on memes and the ‘I’m right-listen-to-me’ opinions.

Why do people assume that because they have an opinion on something they need to rally to get other people to stand firm and walk WITH them into the social media spotlight getting them nowhere really but caged up in their own heads.

I have all but abandoned my own wall seeking instead to just lay low and stick with the prayer warriors of the social scene. I’m down to five people on my newsfeed and they post so rarely, I’m left with prayer and a friend who rises EVERY morning with a positive word from the Lord. “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it,” she begins, and then goes on to tell a story of her positive outlook that really helps me start my day in His Light!

Whenever I start to feel down, God always brings a new friend, a new light into the equation of my day and as such all the negativity dwellers fade to black. I’m trying to make the most of this pain-filled summer and believe it or not negative vibes add to the pain. I’m pained to see dear ones sink to a level I’ve never really understood or grasped.

I have to individually seek out friends to see how they’re doing and what they’re up to and more times than not I’m disappointed in seeing they’re the same-old-same old spewers of propaganda that they always were. Why do I even bother?!?

I have to look at character. I’ve noticed that some people ARE a character instead of harnessing what makes character work. I work on myself daily when I’m in the comfort of the morning dew, nestling my coffee in my hand and reflecting with the sunrise on all the positive things that I have to be thankful for. I then find myself knee-deep in prayer to start my day.

I try really hard to see the good in people but it is kind of hard as they walk around in sheeps clothing deceiving, misleading or just plain filled with so much hate standing behind the word of God, then leading people into hating what THEY themselves hate. From everything I’ve learned in life, I realize that what these people really hate is something churning inside of them, they really hate themselves so much that they want others to hate with them so they can feel somewhat good about themselves?

You know what I hate about myself? My over optimistic ways! The conformist, I mean realist are turning me away from everything I hold positive in my life. They don’t give me hope, they don’t shed Light, they DRAIN all of my optimism and make me want to barf in their faces. Yeah, that’s a picture for ya!

As I climb back in my bubble, as I place my rose colored glasses on and as I cling to optimism which for me is MY Light in a darkened hate-filled world, I will steer clear of the venom that tries to seep into my veins. Some people like bedding with snakes, I prefer to have a pillow of Christ to lean my head on and that is who I am; always will be.

Maybe it isn’t the Dog Days of Summer that weigh me down, maybe it’s just the dogs/wolves.

Luke 10:3 “Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.”

It Is Happenning

 “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” 2 Thessalonians 2:3 (KJV)

I don’t know about you but I see it happening; a falling away from the Word of God. While the world struggles to live in political correctness, we in turn are giving up the very true essence of our one and Only God.

We serve many masters, follow many beliefs, cling to other people who claim to have the truth but again, if it is not God’s word then we are fooling ourselves into believing in the wrong things and turning away from the only Truth and that is the God given truth we have before us.

It even seems some churches have turned their back on the Truth that God gave them to bring forth to many nations and to me, that is a falling away. Why would a church turn away from God’s truth? To conform with what other people or churches are doing. To be politically sound so as to bring in all the politically minded people who will accept the truth they are feeding them.

I even see people who attend church not agree with the testimony or truth being given, yet still go to the church. Why? Well to look good of course. If everyone sees and knows the person is going to church, they’ll think differently of them, maybe more highly? They’ll think that person is good with God and good with the church, even though he or she doesn’t believe in their teachings.

People and churches are falling away from God in record numbers. They are following false teaching and believing whatever is being spoon-fed them. Giving credence to the wolves in sheep’s clothing making themselves out to be the foolish ones that the bible speaks of very often.

Today is my birthday, and a wolf came out of the woodwork last night. I have to say, I am now falling away. It is thanks to them. It is thanks to so-called Christians that are trying to turn me away from the very God I worship. But keep this in mind, only God knows what He has shown me and what I hold in my heart and soul. I will only turn away from the conformists not God. Thanks for disrespecting me, thank you for persecuting me, thank you for allowing me in on YOUR truth.

I will not listen to scientist and I will not believe what they say, only because science is in place to be proven wrong and I stand with God not science. Those who stand with science as the truth are more fallen away than I, so again, I stand with God because He is the only testament of truth I need. Not words in a book, not words on a screen, not lies and rumors being fed out to the world in a tickertape fashion.

I will fall away from all the little sheep being led to slaughter and whatever is to be my destiny, whether heaven or hell, I will follow Christ and where He and only He alone will lead me.

I read an interesting statement this morning:

K.P states:

“Well, all I have to say is that having aliens in hell would make it an even more interesting place. We already know that some of the best, most interesting, and nicest people will be in hell. After all, it is not being bad that sends you to hell, but failure to agree with Christians. Terrific people who are sincere Hindus, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims, but who honestly reject Christianity will be in hell. Top philosophers, scholars, scientists, artists, and writers of all sorts will be in hell. In short, hell will be full of good people. Meanwhile, many of the worst people who ever lived will be in heaven--inquisitors, crusaders, witch-hunters, slave-traders, war-mongers, tyrants, and bigots--because they became Christians at least a few seconds before dying. Then, of course, heaven will have lots of just silly people like Ken Ham. Hell with scientifically and morally advanced ET's would have been even more interesting.”

Since I am a sinner and will more than likely remain one until the day I die, if Jesus leads me to hell, then I’ll be in good company. If I’m taken to heaven, then that should be a pretty fun place too.

So if you see no posts with any content, know that I have fallen away from the conformists and know that I am walking on the sands of time awaiting the destiny that is before me.

Happy Ishtar. The day of my new year.

Help Me Lord

Pss. 12:1 Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

Help Me Lord

Help me Lord it’s been a long day

My body is failing I begin to sway.

Through the mist I see them rise,

Mangy wolves in disguise.

They rant, they rave through it all

bellowing out a howling call.

Looking like sheep dressed in white

Prowling on innocence in the night

They saunter along and show their claws

Prying open my self-made walls.

I stand alone they circle ‘round

To steal the Light in me they’ve found.

In one fell swoop they’re whisked away

My Holy Savior saves the day.

Help me Lord, to always see

The You that found a part of me.

 

 

 

 

 

The Wolves are Rising

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

The Wolves are Rising

We are living in a day and age where false teachers are rising in record number. We have the mega churches taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars on one Sunday and not using the money for the greater good of the church.

I can’t be sure what they’re using the funds for, but to see them dressed in $200 leather loafers, and a three-hundred dollar suit, drive off in their Mercedes, they are really giving off the aroma of smelly pulpit behavior.

Matt. 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Am I the only one seeing wolves in sheep clothing on the rise? Am I the only one that sees people flocking to false teachings like it was the bread of Christ being delivered by Himself right to their, what, computer? Television?

This is why I think it is important to attend a church, physically. By physically being present, physically seeking out the one that fits you, you will in turn become part of the fruits of the Spirit that Jesus was referring to. Otherwise you’re allowing yourself to become an unsound tree. By being that, you are more susceptible to false teachings. Every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit.

When you fall prey to a false teacher, you then pass on his/her information as if it were truth. You then allow yourself to be an open doorway of bearing bad fruit. If you are so wrapped up in knowing the age of the Earth; so enamored with the timeline of the universe; if you’re so fickle in knowing the lineage of Adam and the age of man, you are missing the entire point of the Holy Bible. You are losing sight of what God was trying to do. You are minimizing God extensively and putting your faith in a ravenous wolf.

Yesterday’s sermon brought it home for me. Pastor Dave spoke of the reality of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Had hundreds of people not witnessed the resurrection, would Jesus’ life have carried any weight over two-thousand years? The same goes for the flood and the parting of the sea and the miracles Jesus performed. Had there been no witnesses to the FACT, would Jesus’ Word been able to be carried for so many years?

I hear today people say that the bible is a myth. Think about it, are they saying that thousands upon thousands of eyewitnesses are liars? Are they saying that the pastor standing in front of me is a part of this massive conspiracy to bring lies to man?  Has he been fooled along with millions of others?

The power of the resurrection brought about a reality. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all wrote what THEY had seen. Are these men just liars? Are they just a part of the grand myth? The Holy Bible has withstood the test of time, the very time that so many men are trying to put an actual timeline on. The Bible stands its ground and carries the weight of gold in the very words handed down from man to man.

1 Corinthians 15 says it all. If we as believers of the risen Christ believe in a myth then all of our steadfast faith is in vain? Yes wolves are running about wanting you to believe that your faith is in vain; that all you hold true is false; that the book you hold in your hand, called the Holy Bible, is full of false witnesses, lying scholars, who just wanted to hand down an elaborate fairytale for you to tell your children so that millions and millions of people would believe in this One God.

If believing in Christ makes me a liar, then so be it, I stand with millions who have fallen for the Glorious Risen King! I need no proof of the ages, no physical evidence of sediment, I need no visual papyrus and I need no physical proof to build my faith on.

While the wolves are out and about trying to give you this proof, they are taking money to build themselves up, build museums for you to come and see for yourself the artifacts that they have; or to build mega churches where you can give more money so they can have more nice things.

If you are following these wolves that are teaching false things or guiding you in an unsavory manner remember you are a part of the den of thieves that Jesus was referring to.

My Savior is ALIVE. He’s not dead, bound for dissection; He is ALIVE! And I have eternal life through Him. What do you have, cold hard facts? And that helps you sleep at night?  I have nothing against wolves as a species but I do have something against the false prophets in the bible. The men (wolves) are out to devour the sheep (the Christ followers.)

Awake you sleeping nation. While the atheists are trying to get you to believe that the Bible is a myth, Christians are coming out by the millions to testify and become a part of the witnessing that still continues to this day of a living God and a Risen Savior.

I would rather put my faith in eternity (spiritual), than something temporal (physical); eternal love, hope, joy and blessings versus sadness, sorrow, death and a cold hard coffin? Yeah, I choose CHRIST!

1 Cor. 15: 3-14 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

Lent: Day Ten ~ Spiritual Maturity

Prov. 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Spiritual Maturity

Well they were new words tossed out at us one Sunday, Spiritual Maturity. What did it mean? To be mature in your Christian journey?

I spoke the other day about being Born Again, and it is just that, you are reborn, your eyes see differently the new world surrounding you. Like a babe in a bassinet, your hands are curled in a tight grip, as you look around you, you see the world in a mobile; a newly spinning environment.

Does being born again mean you just one day wake up and become sinless? No, we are all sinners, even the ones who walk with Christ, our road has as much rubble and thorns as anyone else, we just handle the road a little differently. Like babes in a crib our beginning is being wrapped in love, we are pacified of all the dangers lurking, but they’re there nonetheless.

In my case I was walked through a dark valley with surrounding hills shadowing me. I had no one that supported my new ‘born again’ status but Jesus knew and every step I took He was there on the sidelines cheering me on, or sparing a shoulder to cry on, or carrying me along the sandy shores.

There was a river flowing right through the center of the valley with sandy beaches leading to the water, it became my living water, just as the bible says. I was no longer a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes; I was a toddler getting into everything I could. Climbing stairs where I knew danger lurked. Opening cabinets full of poison. Touching fire and getting burned.

As my adolescent years of being born again were full of mischievous iniquity, I pursued everything that I knew I shouldn’t have. Climbing in dark tunnels, trudging up the side of tree lined hills, only to be knocked down to the waters edge. Always the water, the cleansing healing water.

I waded in the water for a bit feeling the spiritual cleansing on my soul. I was growing but was not fully mature yet so my path, lined with stone, made the footing that much harder to walk on.

Job 19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

I could see the path up ahead. It was getting greener and greener and grass was lining the walkway. Church was calling to me but I had to endure more rubble in my road first. Some really big boulders blocked my path and it was up to me to move them out of the way, climb over them, or allow them to hinder my goal of finding a pasture filled with wildflowers and sheep.

Even in my darkened days, there was a Light shining as bright as the morning star, warming my body and filling me with hope that there was a pasture, waiting just for me up ahead.

I think I was on my thirty seventh mile of walking barefoot that I saw it, singing out to me and calling like a bird in a tree, it sang a beautiful melody and moved me on to maturity I had never known.

I was now feeling a Spiritual Maturity wrapping around me. I was clothed, I had shoes now that made the path more bearable. Had I reached my destination? No, not yet. More walking but now my hand was full of seeds. I scattered the seeds along the path so anyone coming behind me on their path would see, see the beauty that they know is up ahead.

When they say the grass is always greener on the other side, they weren’t kidding. I saw a lush pasture; every blade of grass had its own song that sung in the morning dew. Filled with wildflowers the song became an orchestra of melody that chimed from the ground and kissed the sky good morning.

Day after day this song in the field lightened the walk. I saw sheep gathered on the hill grazing, talking about the beauty that lay in this pasture. A layer of wool adorned the hill, but lo, behold, a wolf, looking very much like a sheep, lashed out; snarling with teeth exposed, he was moving in for the kill.  I sprinted forward to put some kind of fear into the wolf and keep the sheep safe, protected in this beautiful land.

SILENCE

That’s what fills the air when hatred seeps in among the well-fed sheep. He looked like all the others and that is why the sheep didn’t fear him, but the closer he got to them, the lure of his instinctive wiles made him out to be just what he was, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

To protect the sheep, I knew I’d need a staff, to help me guide them to safety. With a rod in my right hand, the Word in my left, clothed in beautiful raiment and sandals that sometimes allowed my toes to feel the grass, I was mature enough to know my place in the valley. I was now at the new heights of… Spiritual Maturity.

Pss. 25:10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

God’s Promise:

Isa. 42:16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Hungry Like a Wolf

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become. ~Buddha
***

This morning I rose to find blogger having some sort of difficulties. They ate my words and maybe it disagreed with its tummy. I had a nice blog posted yesterday on the twelfth, only to awaken and find it missing in action, so I decided to write a post for the thirteenth, Friday, that is to say.

I, like the writing fool that I am, went to try and repost the missing post, and they are STILL having difficulties. I think its a bloody conspiracy of some sort. Don’t know what kind of conspiracy, I can only assume.

Maybe it’s the crazy weather! Do you know on Monday we here in Nebraska hit 97 hot summer-like degrees? We haven’t even had Spring yet. I think the conspiracy is that Winter wants to duke it out with Spring and in the midst of the fight, Summer jumped in to rear it’s ugly head. Then just when Spring peeked out (yesterday 70 degrees) Winter body slammed it, literally, with thunderstorms and tornadoes across the state. And for today Winter is in the lead with a 45 degree temp, gusty winds (what’s new for Nebraska, right?) and a windchill factor of 33 degrees.

So the story goes...In today’s news, in little town Nebraska, after Summer reared its ugly head this week, a fight ensued and Spring won but then Winter gave a sneak attack. "You're not done with me!" It exclaimed. Roaring evil laughter can be heard in the echoes of the wind this morning.

This is not even funny anymore! Dallas is looking all the more better every day I tell you! Maybe even somewhere east like North Carolina or South Carolina. That would be nice, and one never knows, after the ‘sight’ comes back, Nebraska might just be a bump in the road.

So as I go on with my day, blogger or not, I will win no matter what the weather throws at me. No matter what, I will tackle cleaning inside today and beat this game that thinks it is a better chess player than me. I will write my heart out too, in between chores and accomplish all the goals I have set for myself this very day. And blogger can lose to the battle of Friday the 13th, and shove my words so far up their nose that it chokes on its own spit.

There, I got THAT off my chest. Now to make the most of my day. :)

Writing is my life. The good thing about it is whether the wind gusts, the rain falls, the earth trembles, or the sun finds itself displaced, I will always have my writing, in my heart and in my head but most importantly... in the hallways of my soul.


**p.s. This is your lucky day! You get TWO posts because some internet gremlin ate yesterdays excellent post, which I reposted for you all! **