Lent: Day Thirteen ~ Muslim

Gen 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation

Muslims

Did you just squirm at the mere mention of the word Muslim? Why? Because they’re vile despicable people who maim and torture Christians who also wish you the infidel were dead? Makes sense to me. Well, not really. I don’t understand hatred very well.

Maybe it is just me but when Jesus told us to love our brother, for some reason, I don’t think he meant just our siblings by blood. For some reason I got the idea He meant it to mean ALL of our brother’s and sister’s; red, white, brown, black and yes Muslim’s.

I see so many Christians hating on them and I don’t just mean hating things they do, they hate THEM as a people. Can you imagine people hating us because we’re WHITE Americans? Lumping us all together, or saying, “The majority of you.” (I’m not blind, yes I KNOW white man is not well liked) I wonder why? Hmm…

A Muslim nation is not a nation of haters; they are humans with DIFFERENT ideologies than you. They are humans, the same humans that Jesus would have sat down at His table with and broke bread. They are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, just like you.

Now your mind is reeling. You’re gathering up some hate to spew at me because how can I, a young Christian woman, be defending Muslims. “How dare her!” you say. Oh I can hear the names under your breath now.

This topic was placed on my heart a few weeks ago when pastor Mike said something about us all being a server of the God of Abraham. The history of the Muslim peoples began with the prophet Abraham and his descendants through Ishmael, his firstborn son. 

Even Muslims believe in the God of Abraham. Are you listening to me? We all serve the same God, so to hate the Muslim people, you in essence hate the son of Abraham and maybe hating Abraham himself, after all he was of Arab descent. All throughout the bible we read from those Arabs and you say you’re a Christian, read and believe the bible? Then did you skip the part where there is not ONE white American in there??? Oh, I get it; you’re a pick-and-choose person. You pick out what you want to believe, hate what you want and do what you please?

So do you hate Jews? Catholics? Mormons? No, just Muslims. Ever since that day in 2001, on September Eleventh you became a judge a jury for the Muslim people everywhere. Forbidden them Mosques, hated their people. Because madmen of an Al Qaeda terrorist group, that numbers less than thousands of people compared to millions of the Arab nation of people, you choose to HATE all Muslim.

I see your posts of “How could they?” Where Muslims are killing children, killing Christians! How dare they! You say, “I’m a Christian, how dare they kill my people!”

Listen to yourself a minute before justifying what you’re saying. You say you’re a Christian, read, believe every word of the bible as truth, and yet you hate what Muslims are doing? YOU are hating God’s people! Yes, I know it is wrong to kill ANYone.

Let me place a scenario here for you. When God was creating the world, he had beside him Angel’s right? One of those angels was satan. Satan wanted things for himself! He wanted the earth, he wanted to RULE the earth, right? He wasn’t allowed to, right? Tempting God’s followers all the way down to this very day was his lot in this world. By hating people or actions you are falling right into Satan’s hands!!!

The Word of God places generations upon generations of Arabs to WRITE the word of the Bible, the very bible that you read and believe every word to be true. Jesus, Son of God came into the world to wipe out your sin; was He a white American by any chance? No, I didn’t think so. You say, “But really, how dare [the Muslim] kill Christians!”

How dare they? Let me tell you how. God formed the world and ALL its inhabitants; He knows what you’ll do today, and what you’ll do tomorrow. How? His master plan! The killing of Christians is all part of his master plan! To say how dare they, you are asking God how dare Him kill Christians! What a mean God! What a vengeful God. Have you read the Word 'persecuted for Christ's sake'? God is mounting up his army in heaven; to hate what He is doing? That is mans pride in you.

During this Lenten season, I see YOU posting hate, posting your judge and jury OPINIONS; does this make you ANY different than those Muslims you hate? You can’t even take one day off from posting hate, during the Lenten season no less; you my friend are no different than the Muslims you hate. YOU are persecuting your own religion Christianity, which to me, is not much different than those ‘Muslims killing Christians.’

Lent is a time to meditate, a time to sacrifice, a time to fast and a time to feast. You are not following the very doctrine that God has divinely given to the world. Nowhere do I see in the bible the doctrine to HATE. Jesus is LOVE. Even His enemy, He loved. Even the killers and murderers He loved. Just as he didn’t give satan dominion over the world, he didn’t make you judge and jury of your fellow man, for a REASON! Unless you’re on a jury, appointed to judge a man/woman of a crime they committed, YOU have NO RIGHT to judge/hate human beings for THEIR choices.

Luke 6: 37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

If you really believe in the Word you read, than you’ll understand why it was pertinent to LOVE in the midst of hate. My friends, I’m not judging you for the decisions you make, but before you make the decision to become a Christian, know wholeheartedly what it means. The very God who created the Muslims, to SERVE HIM, calls you to be a disciple of His.

Luke 19: 9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

Lent: Day 12 ~ Poetry Sunday ~ Are You Asleep

Dan. 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

~ Do You Sleep ~

I walk along as the city sleeps

Amid the ruins someone weeps

No one hears the trebled cry

Hunger fills them, then they die.

Sacrifice a duties call

I want to help; help them all.

On my shoulder a gentle hand

Whispered out where I stand.

“They have died, for my sake

a journey few dare to take.”

Persecuted on the ground

Now their soul is Heaven bound.

“I cannot save the world you see

Man has taken all thought of Me.

I will come back in due time

To have man pay for his savage crime.”

“My children must be fully aware

I hear them calling in fervent prayer.

All who cry out will be heard

That carried faith in my written Word.”

“Though many die while they’re asleep

I hear you all, as Earth does weep.

Do not hate while there you roam

I need you awake, to bring you home.”

Jonah 1:6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

Lent ~ Day Eleven ~ Quotation Saturday

Job 8: 6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

~ LENT ~

"Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy."

~ Pope Francis

"Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God."
~ Andrew Murray

"Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers."

~ Sidlow Baxter

"Everything in life has its own time. There is time to celebrate and there is time to mourn. This is the time for reflection and transformation. Let us look within and change into what we ought to be." 

~ Aaron Saul

~ COMMUNION ~

“Christians should put survival of the planet ahead of national security...Here is the mystery of our global responsibility: that we are in communion with Christ- and we are in communion with all people...The fact that the people of Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Russia, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia are our brothers and sisters is not obvious. People kill each other by the thousands and do not see themselves as brothers and sisters. If we want to be real peace-makers, national security cannot be our primary concern. Our primary concern should be survival of humanity, the survival of the planet, and the health of all people. Whether we are Russians, Iraqis, Ethiopians, or North Americans, we belong to the same human family that God loves. And we have to start taking some risks- not just individually, but risks of a more global quality, risks to let other people develop their own independence, risks to share our wealth with others and invite refugees to our country, risks to offer sanctuary- because we are people of God”
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

“Faith is not knowledge of an object but communion with it.”
~ Nicolás Gómez Dávila

“We who have turned our lives over to Christ need to know how very much he longs to eat with us, to commune with us. He desires a perpetual Eucharistic feast in the inner sanctuary of the heart.”
~ Richard J. Foster

“At the heart of Galatians 2 is not an abstract individualized salvation, but a common meal. Paul does not want the Galatians to wait until they have agreed on all doctrinal arguments before they can sit down and eat together. Not to eat together is already to get the answer wrong. The whole point of his argument is that all those who belong to Christ belong at the same table with one another.
The relevance of this today should be obvious. The differences between us, as twentieth-century Christians, all too often reflect cultural, philosophical and tribal divides, rather than anything that should keep us apart from full and glad eucharistic fellowship. I believe the church should recognize, as a matter of biblical and Christian obedience, that it is time to put the horse back before the cart, and that we are far, far more likely to reach doctrinal agreement between our different churches if we do so within the context of that common meal which belongs equally to us all because it is the meal of the Lord whom we all worship. Intercommunion, in other words, is not something we should regard as the prize to be gained at the end of the ecumenical road; it is the very paving of the road itself. If we wonder why we haven't been travelling very fast down the road of late, maybe it's because, without the proper paving, we've got stuck in the mud.”
~ N.T. Wright

~ AWAKEN ~

“When we awaken to our truth, we realize we are free.”
~ Kristi Bowman

“The degree to which your Consciousness expands, is the degree to which you understand yourself and the universe.”
~ Gina Charles

“To love those who love us and are good to us is easy. To love those who are indifferent to us is workable, but to love those who have harmed us, intentionally or not, is true growth and realization.”
~ Patsie Smith

“Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.”
~ Dōgen

 Rom. 13: 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

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.

Lent: Day Nine ~ YOU are the Church

1 Cor. 1: 9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

 YOU are the Church

These words still ring in my ears, ‘YOU are the church.’ Pastor Mike said these words one week during a sermon and they’ve stuck with me ever since. What on earth did he mean?

Well he said something more like, “When you enter this building every Sunday, it is merely a building, it isn’t until all the people are gathered here that it becomes a Church, you ARE the church.”

No matter where I put the emphasis, ‘I’ am a part of the bricks (community) that form this church. That’s a lot to drink in. Many people go to church once a year for whatever reason but they are not a brick in the building, they’re a colorful decoration in the form of a flowerbed outside the building.

The once a year-ers are no different than the ones who sit at home listening to a weekly service coming through to them via the airwaves, they are a flower in the flowerbed. Don’t get me wrong, if you are sick, disabled, unable to attend a church building, you are nurturing your spirit in your own way.

But if you’re sitting at home listening because the whole ‘building’ thing is not for you, you become the soil. I know this firsthand because that was me twelve years ago. My oh my how life has changed. Changed because of a building, you say? Not at all, changed because of a community, a congregation of family, brothers and sisters of Christ bonded together, knitted like a fine afghan.

For too many years I was sitting at home week after week filling myself with God. Reading, believing and listening to the very word I would one day share with the world. Not because I’m preachy because I’m a human who has walked where you have walked, a sinner just as you but I CHOSE to change.

God is like that, you know, gives us the CHOICE to change or to stay stagnant. Growth cannot and WILL NOT happen if you don’t CHOOSE to change. Soil DOES hold the power to bring forth a flower. It also has the ability to form a brick in the making of a building.

If you attend a church and the first sermon you hear has words in it that speak of tithing and giving, and offerings, then you should leave and seek out a new church. Sometimes it takes a few visits to get to the one that speaks to YOU. If you feel the people are judging you, you should leave. If you feel uncomfortable, leave.

I remember when we first started attending church about ten years ago. We found a community that embraced us, we had the pot luck brunches, we shared, we tithed and for four years we enjoyed the church until the minister made a mistake when Steven was going blind. We were seeking Social Security and I had said that I was trusting God to see that we received S.S. He told me that you can’t ALWAYS trust God, sometimes you need a lawyer because S.S is not easy to get.

Not trust God? Really? My entire life has been centered on trusting God AND receiving the fruits of my labor and now a minister is telling me to NOT trust God? Needless to say, after four years of attending that church, we sought out a new one.

And as God promised, we received the S.S., found a new church but then we were called to Nebraska. We then set out to find a NEW church that was right for us. We went to two different churches and while they felt like a snug fit, we needed an extra-width because we had grown in our faith.

We found it at eFree; a community that wrapped its arms around us and blanketed us in a comfortable layer as we braced for blindness. We were no longer just flowers in soil, we were a brick forming a building!

About our third or fourth sermon at eFree, Pastor Mike had said as the offering plate was being passed around, “If you’re new here, this plate is not for you, it is for the members who wish to give to the community of Christ. If God has placed on your heart to give, by all means, but this plate is not us begging for money.”

A year would pass before the mention of money came up and he addressed it as, “People keep asking me why we don’t ask for money or talk about money and tithing? Tithing is about believers who understand the meaning. If you’re new here, we don’t want to turn you off by always asking for money. That’s not what we’re about. We’re about Christ and HIS message to you.” Wow!

You’re right if you’re saying that not all churches are like that. You’re right if you’re saying most churches are about money (mega churches for example) but that IS NOT what a church is supposed to BE about. The church is about you, becoming a brick in the solid foundation of a community. You are not meant to be soil, you’re not meant to be a pretty flower on show, you are about change and what a community who’s built on growth can do for that change.

Our church is about people! We serve the surrounding community, whether it be meals, whether it be shelter; we have mission trips to other states and countries and encourage change and growth. The church parking lot is not filled up only on Sunday’s, it is filled every day of the week with some form of activity; be it bible studies, women meeting for further study or men meeting for further study, or kids (college age) who attend two a week sermon’s for them, or Awana for smaller children. All in all, our church’s main function is growth, change, and most of all commitment to Christ.

A church is just a building until YOU fill it; it then BECOMES a Church. Thank you Pastor Mike for making it all clear to me. I’m NOT just a flower I’m a brick forming a building! I’m still learning and growing but without my community of brothers and sisters, I’d be just soil.

Acts 16: 5 And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

Lent: Day Eight ~ Born Again

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Born Again 

I remember that day I became born again quite vividly. When you are born again in Christ, it’s not a day you can ever lightly forget. Christians worldwide can’t quite remember when they became a Christian, but being born again? They never forget that day.

I told my family in my excitement and they responded negatively to my announcement, 'I’m born again!' They said mean things like, “She’s being brainwashed,” “Don’t be spitting that Jesus stuff on ME.” And “Now she’ll be a Jesus freak.”

They were right, not about being brainwashed but about becoming a Jesus freak. As I’ve said before, I was being raised Catholic and the day I became Born Again I converted to Christianity. I was giving my life to Christ and my family didn’t know, didn’t understand what that meant.

My new school was a Christian based school and I was learning new things I had never learned about in my eight years during my Catholic elementary school. I had NEVER in my life heard the term Born Again. I didn’t know what it was. How can someone become BORN again?

The change began in my eighth grade year. I was on my way to completing one of the seven sacraments that it takes to be, I guess, initiated (?) into the Catholic religion. Confirmation was important to the teachers and nuns and the priests and all year long we worked on the meaning of Confirmation.

My mind swirled like storm-warning clouds as you can imagine for a thirteen year old. I was feeling the Lord deeply in my soul. He was moving within me and confirmation was confusing me especially when I was asked to tell a priest my sins. I had had a private meeting (like all of my classmates) with the priest and since I didn’t/couldn’t answer his questions I was deemed unconfirmable, which means one strike against me being confirmed.

The second strike came when we were to go to the church and have confession. You might call me defiant or stubborn, but I WOULD NOT tell the priest my sins! Sister Margaret Mary asked me why, “Why Joni, why?”

I bluntly told her that a priest cannot forgive my sins, only God had the power to do that. She rolled her eyes with a tight smile on her face and said, “You’re right.” A long pause, then she said something that changed my life, “God has a special plan for you, Joni. You don’t conform, I like that. Maybe you’re not meant to be in the Catholic religion. Only God knows.”

She had the sweetest smile when saying that. Any other nun would have been shocked and aghast but not her, she and Sister Karl Ann had said over the years that they saw something special in me. So my saying this did not shock her like I thought it would have.

That year, I was denied confirmation. I should have known that since I had picked Saint Joan of Arc as my patron saint. She was a persecuted saint. She talked with God on a regular basis (not much unlike myself) and she was burned at the stake. Sister Margaret Mary had wanted me to pick St. Christopher (the Christ bearer) or Saint Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals) but no, I chose the patron saint of my God given name, St. Joan of Arc.

Being denied confirmation, I was told by my father that I had shamed the family, the only one in his memory who had EVER been denied confirmation in the Catholic-in-name-only family. Persecuted, I felt persecuted.

The night my classmates were confirmed, Sr. MM had told me I could sit up in the balcony and watch the service and that is exactly what I did. This was the night I was confirmed by God! Not by a priest, not by man, but by God himself. As the Spirit of the Lord washed over me tears fell from my eyes landing in Sr. MM hands as the procession of classmates cleared the church, she looked up at me and smiled. She knew, God had confirmed me.

It was the following year at Christian Liberty Academy that I became Born Again. We had watched a heart-wrenching movie on salvation and afterward we (all 28 of my fellow classmates) gathered around in a circle and fervently prayed. Tears were shared, emotions were high, the power of prayer consumed me, and as the Holy Spirit filled the room, satiated my soul, I gave my life to Christ. I was not just confirmed by God this time; the entire trinity wrapped warm arms around me and welcomed me to the family.

My life would never be the same again. As with all born again Christians, we remember distinctly the day we gave our life over to God, we distinctly remember the day we were ‘Born Again’. We became a newborn all over again, living for Christ and nothing else. Christ, our birthmark, would mark our every move. We wear Him on our skin for all the world to see. And like a newborn babe, everyone looks at us too see the beauty that we hold.

1 Pet. 1: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Lent: Day Seven ~ Offended by Christ?

Matt. 18: 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Offended by Christ?

I have encountered many in my life who were offended by Christ. They say they believe in God but seem offended when I say the words, “So, you follow Christ?” Almost as if I spat phlegm on them, they retreat, “You’re not gonna push that bible stuff on me now, are you?”

What? Bible stuff? They said they were believers, so why are they offended when I say the name Jesus Christ? Many try to put a political spin on this but if you think about it since our first president, man spoke their feelings, their opinions and their desires for a New World, our elected officials heard the voices of the many and moved to make it so.

Each and every president has heard the voices and when you say ONE man or however many sit in congress make laws, remember they are listening to the many people who are offended by Christ, offended by this and that. MAN and WOMAN have shaped this world for millennia. (I say world because not just the USA is involved in fearing Christ.)

When I say the name Jesus Christ, and you are offended, you are only reacting to what other men have tried to feed you. You say that the bible is a fairy tale and it is full of lies, and you do everything in your power to prove it to be truth. Why? Because you too have doubts; you SAY you believe every word in the bible to be truth but there in the back of your mind as you’re digging for proof, there resides doubts. If you believed (meaning have FAITH) that everything in the bible is truth, you would need no proof.

Since the beginning of time, Jesus resided in God. He was there at the creation and will be here at the end. “How do you know that as a fact?” Let me tell you.

Yes men wrote the bible. They physically wrote, in stone or with pen, every word in the bible and events that were taking place in THEIR time. The difference in their writing and that of men who told a fairytale was a spirit that consumed them. Their stories were handed down to each generation and then compiled to make the bible, thus becoming the Holy Bible because the Spirit of God was divinely inspiring the words. Many translations later, the Word still holds truth to believers.

How do I know it was divinely inspired? Well let me tell you. As I’m sitting here writing this Lenten Season of posts, they are not just my thoughts, they are being Divinely Inspired. Meaning, I FEEL the SPIRIT moving in me and inspiring every word I write. I’m not just making stuff up out of my head as I go along, I am being driven by a Divine FORCE that is compelling me to write!

I imagine this is what the very first men felt when they were writing the Bible. They were being driven by the POWER, the SPIRIT of God. to write these things down. Mighty arrogant of me you say? To compare myself to the biblical authors? Well, if you believe in every word in the bible, then you MUST know and FEEL the truth I am conveying in my words, right? God did not die and stop inspiring people.

I am not forcing Jesus down your throat. I am not telling you that if you don’t read my words you’re going to hell. I’m just conveying a message that God has placed on my heart. Take it any way you want it. THAT is exactly the way the bible was intended, for you to read and walk away with what YOU believe.

Did you know that atheist read the bible? Yes they sure do. How do I know this? If you speak to an atheist, they’ll tell you “The Noah story isn’t true.” They’ll go on and on and point out inconsistencies (in their eyes) in the Bible. How would they even know to view these as inconsistencies if they hadn’t sat down to read the bible? Hmm…

Jesus offends them because the story is remarkably unbelievable! A virgin, pregnant by some Spirit God; Jesus, God as MAN. Yeah, remarkable and unbelievable. But to believers who read and BELIEVE the words of men from thousands of years ago, these two events ARE remarkable AND believable and prophesied about since the very beginning of time!

Man fears the unknown. Can you hold air in your hand? No, but you know it is there. Through every breath you take, you know it exists. Science can dissect the elements and show you what it is made up of. Can you hold a star in your hand? No, but science can tell you what a star consists of. And because science can PROVE this to you, you believe and put your faith in man because it all makes sense. This Bible stuff don’t always make sense, so you fear.

Man fears God, Christ, a Supreme being that holds ALL power over you. Science can’t prove the existence of God, nor can they disprove it, so man again, puts his faith and trust in man, not in God.

And we wonder what is wrong with society today? Christ offends man, He is superior and man in his selfish egotistical mind fears being ruled. Hate is running rampant because NO ONE likes to be ruled so they retaliate with pride and anger. That’s the will of man.

The will of God just simply asks you to accept Him, His son, the comforting Holy Spirit that rest in you. Until the Spirit consumes you, you will not understand one word I’ve said. You will continue to deny God, lash out, spread hate, share pride driven opinions and to allow your soul to sleep.

Man fears God and is offended by the mere mention of Christ. To fear one is to fear the other. As man fears the unknown, my only fear resides in what is known to ME.

Pss. 34: 11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

Lent Day Six ~ Communion with Christ

Eph. 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

A lot of people think when I talk about all this spiritual stuff I’m not leading a Christ-filled life because I’m too wrapped up in all of this Spirit mumbo jumbo. Spirit mumbo jumbo, huh. So you think that Jesus, the Holy Spirit, is a bunch of mumbo jumbo?

Let me try to elaborate a little if I may. I grew up in a house that was not filled with God. We had drugs and alcohol and each one of us kids, six in all, strayed to the dark spirit that called us. I will only speak of my journey because it is mine to tell.

As a small child I believed in ghost, who amongst us wasn’t curious about ghosts? A few of you I’m sure, but in all honesty, I was intrigued by spirits and the pull that they had on my life. I’m certain that God didn’t just create all good spirits, it is written that there will be a legion of evil spirits walking the land, after all He did condemn Satan for giving Eve that apple didn’t He?

It is through the communion with Christ, my comforter, the HOLY Spirit that I find my saving grace. When I died of alcohol consumption, it wasn’t satan who saw to it that I came back, it wasn’t the bible that saved me, it wasn’t wisdom and knowledge all crammed into my head that saved me, it wasn’t ideology either, no it was the Holy Spirit that blanketed me, surrounding me with Angels that warmed me and pulled me out of the abyss.

Talk about breathing new life, Spirits will do that once you experience them first hand, the good ones AND the bad ones. Yeah this is the point in my life where people started calling me weird and crazy but I was okay with that because I knew the Holy Spirit had great plans for me otherwise I would be dead right now unable to relay important messages.

I think the problem that society has is that they’re under the false assumption that they can read the bible, fill themselves with all the scriptures, gain wisdom and knowledge and that that is their communion with Christ; THAT is their saving grace to them. They don’t have to live Christ-like, be Christ-like or bear ANY cross.

To be FILLED with the Spirit is a whole different ballgame. Think of yourself as the batter, you’re preparing to swing as God is the pitcher and his Angels are surrounding you on the bases. He throws the word at you, you swing, hit and it’s a pop-up going long (that would be you filling yourself with the bible/wisdom/knowledge.) It’s soaring, you’re feeling good about this one but then it falls flat in the outfield right into an Angels hand. You’re OUT

He winds his arm ready to toss another one. You look Him dead in the eye, determined to hit a home run with this one. He throws out material treasures, you see all of them dancing in front of you. You go to swing but you’re too consumed with the penetration, the strong pull of seeing treasures not the ball. He threw the ball three times but you were distracted. Strike three, another out.

Okay, we’re at the bottom of the ninth; tie game. The demon spirits are cheering from the stands every time you fail. They let out a roar of applause as you hang your head in shame for the failure that you’ve become in this game. You think you’ve done good but those demon spirits are filling you with doubt and embarrassment. You know you’re trying your best, but again, the demon spirits pull out all their ammunition to distract you. They even line the sidelines (unseen in baseball) with half naked cheerleaders that you see as beautiful but really, they’re demon spirits trying to lure you away from being the best, the VERY best you can be.

God winds His arm, a sweat brow has formed on His lips, this is it, will you or won’t you? The ball is now filled with Christ, His Son! The ball leaves His hand, you see it coming at you full force. Your eyes are focused. As the stadium falls silent, you take in a deep breath; focused, you swing, you miss. Strike one.

Revving for another pitch He tosses the cross at you. Your focus is on the cheerleaders, the commotion in the stands, everything around you begins a slow motion movement. You swing. Strike two.

You see another ball coming straight at you, but blood is dripping from your eyes. You kneel and look up at the cross and it is not your blood, but the blood of Christ dripping down on your face. A deep inhale as tears swell in your eyes. The game, your surroundings, the ball coming at you is gone, you’re now inhaling the very soil that the Cross is buried in.

You look up and see a spiraling vapor ascending from the cross. At first you feel scared but when the vapor consumes you, fills you with confidence, surrounds you in peace, comforts you with love, blankets your soul, your eyes…they now see the ball more clearly. You swing, hit the ball with a strength you never knew, snapping the bat into shards.

Home run! No one in the stands is cheering for you, but the other team (God and His Angels)? They are rejoicing in your overcoming the distractions. They are delighting in your achievement of winning the game…the game of LIFE.

You now play a lot differently because you know the meaning of Communing with Christ.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Poetry Sunday ~ Farewell

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"   

Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)

 Lent ~day five

Farewell

It’s time to say farewell

A time to bid adieu

The glory of the Lord

Has fallen upon you.

Farewell Farewell

What’s old is new again.

Soar amid the mission

We’ll meet I know not when.

God has come a calling

Goodbye I will not say.

Farewell farewell

My heart will hurt today.

Tears will fill my eyes

A newness falls on me

Amid the Lenten season

Our souls are now set free.

Farewell Farewell

I give it all to Him.

An everlasting change

My eyes no longer dim.

Quotation Saturday ~ Season of Lent

Pss. 51: 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

I need no explanation as to why I chose these quotes. This is the season of Lent and for the next seven weeks all, including Quotation Saturday, will pertain to Lent and the season culminating into Easter Sunday.

LENT

“O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, faintheartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.
“But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to your servant.
“Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own sin and not to judge my brother, for You are blessed from all ages to all ages. Amen”
~ Ephrem the Syrian

“God is not interested in your art but, your heart.”
~ Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

“As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus' thirst...'Repent and believe' Jesus tells us. What are we to repent? Our indifference, our hardness of heart. What are we to believe? Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor -- He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you."

~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

"Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God."
~ Andrew Murray

Renewal

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”
~ Vance Havner

“We say that flowers return every spring, but that is a lie. It is true that the world is renewed. It is also true that that renewal comes at a price, for even if the flower grows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring are themselves new to the world, untried and untested.
The flower that wilted last year is gone. Petals once fallen are fallen forever. Flowers do not return in the spring, rather they are replaced. It is in this difference between returned and replaced that the price of renewal is paid.
And as it is for spring flowers, so it is for us.”
~ Daniel Abraham, The Price of Spring

“Renewal requires opening yourself up to new ways of thinking and feeling”
~ Deborah Day

“The first step in conforming our intellect to God's truth is to die to our vanity, pride, and craving for respect from colleagues and the public. We must let go of the worldly motivations that drive us, praying to be motivated solely by a genuine desire to submit our minds to God's Word - and then to use that knowledge in service to others.”
~ Nancy Pearcey

SPIRIT

“I challenge every one of you who can hear me to rise to the divinity within you. Do we really realize what it means to be a child of God, to have within us something of the divine nature?”
~ Gordon B. Hinckley

“We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”
~ Hermann Hesse

“There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways.”
~ Mother Teresa

“[...] I grew up out of that strange, dreamy childhood of mine and went into the world of reality. I met with experiences that bruised my spirit - but they never harmed my ideal world. That was always mine to retreat into at will. I learned that that world and the real world clashed hopelessly and irreconcilably; and I learned to keep them apart so that the former might remain for me unspoiled. I learned to meet other people on their own ground since there seemed to be no meeting place on mine. I learned to hide the thoughts and dreams and fancies that had no place in the strife and clash of the market place. I found that it was useless to look for kindred souls in the multitude; one might stumble on such here and there, but as a rule it seemed to me that the majority of people lived for the things of time and sense alone and could not understand my other life. So I piped and danced to other people's piping - and held fast to my own soul as best I could.”
~ L.M. Montgomery

Lent ~ Day three ~ A Spiritual Season

Ex. 13: 10 Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year.

Did you ever notice how people prepare for Christmas? Year after year they get their houses ready, fill it with lights, trim the tree, rejoice on Christmas morn that the Savior was born? Oh, let’s not forget the gifts; the payoff of the holiday season, right?

Did you ever notice that the only planning to get ready for Easter Sunday is the dying of eggs, the purchase of a new Sunday dress and shoes, the preparing of a meal, or the getting ready to visit church and family? Or maybe even a basket full of candy will dress your table.

Why is this? Has society so saturated us with materials that we fail to see the spiritual value of these two most religious Holy Days? Let’s not forget the political correctness of these days either. We don’t see commercials fill our airwaves with Hanukkah presents or celebrations; we don’t see Kwanzaa as a celebrated Holy Day, so why are we fed all the commercialism of Christmas and Easter? Why is man SO offended by Christ?

Please, don’t blame Obama on this one. Since man dictated to us that on December 25^th we’d celebrate it as Jesus’ BIRTH has man fought against the entire Christ movement. On Christmas day we’d light trees, give gifts, spend time with family, drink and be merry; thus MERRY Christmas?

We have been nourished by commercialism, materialism and have been driven away from the entire Spiritual movement that these two extraordinary events were meant to be. Whenever someone approaches us and says they are spirit-filled, we move away from them as if they just stepped in manure, distancing ourselves from the odor. Why do you think that is? Nobody wants the aroma clinging to him or her all day, so they move away from it in hopes that it isn’t a contagious disease.

Imagine that, thinking the spirit, the Holy Spirit no less, is a contagious smelly disease. That is what man and man alone, not just ONE man, has done. Through all this wrongful thinking, man is destroying the spirit.

Have you heard the old saying, ‘You are what you think’? I’ve heard it put in many different colorful connotations but all in all, they mean the same thing. Action causes a Reaction. Man has MOVED (action) to eliminate any spiritual drive from us causing a REACTION, a spirit-less society.

I have many Native American friends who understand the spirit and the Forefathers before them strive to keep the Spirit alive. But many will tell you, that as we move into a new frontier, many natives are losing sight of the Spirit.

The spirit is not some imaginary thing, it is real and it is a force of all things in nature. The Holy Spirit is what is within you driving the vehicle you call a body. Think of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as the fuel in your system, in Earth’s system, in every living and breathing creatures system! When we take the Spirit out of this world, we are then taking LIFE out of this world.

Even if you don’t believe in God, say you’re an atheist, the spirit, or driving force, is STILL in there, you’re just lower on fuel than many.

The Spiritual Season is upon us and as many nourish their souls with commercialism and materialism, know that the spirit is still moving in you and would love to connect and bring back to the world the fullness of His intention from the beginning.

It is by universal thought that we created this dissolution. Before you blame ONE man for this earthly demise, look to the man that YOU are and what part YOU feed and in turn feed to your environment. Because in truth, WE become what WE think.

 Lev. 23:4 These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.

Lent Day 2 ~ Spiritual Hunger

Luke 6: 21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

As you know, or have an idea, that this is the Lent season, I deem it my spiritual renewal and I tend to get deep into thought. I hope you can all bear with me and my hope is that you, through reading my journey of renewal, will take a peek in the mirror and instead of condemning yourself, try and look into your mind, your heart, your soul. What you see is the true essence of you.

If you look into your eyes and see yourself as fat and ugly, no good, unworthy, unaccomplished or unappealing then you are full of doubts and fears not truth. You may even put on a false face as you embrace the world but know this, I SEE the real you. Even in your doctored persona I can see right through the veil and see all the negative energy seep through.

Don’t ask me how I see, all I know is that everyone emits an energy; a deeply rooted energy. Like the sun rising and moving across the sky, you might never actually SEE the sun move, but you KNOW it moved from one second to the next because it shows in the warmth of the rising to the setting. Humans emit much of the same energy. And if you are full of a negative energy it shows. You can’t mask energy no matter what you do.

Have you ever awakened in the morning and your stomach started churning inside, grumbling like a madhouse in there? You realize you’re hungry, so you eat; rumbling and churning gone, you then feel satisfied that you’ve eaten. You go about your day when around noon time, there it is again, the rumbling begging for more food.

Your body needs sustenance to keep you going. It feeds the energy inside you. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you? God is a lot like that, He wakes you in the morning, calls to you and you eat food instead of asking Him what He wants. You need to be filled but your not getting the fullness through food and can’t put your finger on those images you saw in the mirror. The ones you saw yourself in the morning? You know, the ones where you looked and saw fat, ugly, unworthy?

You might only know me through WORDS but do you see me as fat, ugly, unworthy? I hope not. I hope you see me as a jovial spirit, filled with love, happy-go-lucky kinda gal.

You probably wish you could smack the happy right off my face, don’t you? Well you can’t, why? Because it is the energy I emit and energy cannot be contained.

You might also assume that I have never experienced lethargy, depression, anxiety, sickness, anger or hunger? Well you have assumed wrong. I have suffered through the pains, been dragged about on limp legs, have cried in pain until I felt all the life in me leap out and go off into the unknown.

But wait, you don’t see that, do you? Well quite honestly it was through the saving Grace of God that I came through EVERY hardship, illness, every bout of depression and all self-doubt. How? I looked in the mirror one day, I looked in my eyes and didn’t see doubt and fear surface; I saw God looking back at me. Would that scare you straight? Seeing God looking right at you, THROUGH you?

I saw Him looking at me as HE sees me and not as I had seen myself. He saw His creation, perfect in His eyes for He makes no mistakes. If I saw ugly, He saw beauty. If I saw doubt, He saw faith. If I saw darkness, He saw Light! His Light and Son shining through me. The closer I looked the more and more I saw the same thing He saw! Great, now the tricky part is to carry that satiated energy throughout the day.

Depression looked bearable. Anxiety looked tolerable, illness looked manageable. The mirror looked less foggy when I saw through His eyes. HE was now the image I saw in the mirror every single day as I woke up. HE was the image I rested on through the night. HE was the strength in the mirror I would carry with me day after day, second by second. HE became the very heartbeat of my soul.

That hunger I felt was not for food after all, it was a Spiritual Hunger that my soul yearned for, craved for, would DIE for. A hunger that only God himself could fill. I am now a spirit-filled image that you see or read and only through the spirit that God gives each and every one of us will we begin to see the Light, the Truth, our Comforter and Holy Spirit in the mirror that we look in every day.

Next time you look in the mirror ask yourself a question, “What am I going to feed myself with today?” I can guarantee you’re spiritually starved and once you start feeding your soul, YOU too will see God in the mirror!

1 Cor. 16: 18 For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such

 

 

Lent ~ The Season of Renewal

“Sometimes God doesn’t change your situation because He’s trying to change your heart.” 

~ from Peace Be With You

Lent defined is this: the period preceding Easter that in the Christian Church is devoted to fasting, abstinence, and penitence in commemoration of Christ's fasting in the wilderness. In the Western Church it runs from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday and so includes forty weekdays.

Dan. 9: And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

I was raised in the Catholic religion and that meant Ash Wednesday we children would be marched off from School, across the street to the Church where we’d have a service and receive ashes in the form of the cross on our foreheads. The church always smelled so good on Ash Wednesday, the odor lingered for hours after the service departure.

We were not to remove the ashes and had to wear the cross of ashes on our forehead until it wore off or the next day. Imagine how that went over in a non-religious community. Boy was THAT a heavy load to carry a cross on my forehead for hours on end! But then it really made me think of the cross Jesus had to carry and it really was the beginning of rooting me in Christ.

I converted at the tender age of fourteen, much to the chagrin of my parents who were Catholic by mouth only, not religious by any means, they just deemed themselves Catholic. Christianity was my new course. I became a Born-again Christian.

I was mocked and persecuted more for becoming born-again than the ashes I wore on my forehead. Christianity was a heavier cross but one I was willing to carry for the rest of my life. It was as if I had become the bridesmaid and married Christ.

When I put it that way, it makes more sense doesn’t it? In marriage you vow to love, honor and cherish until death do you part? Well the good news was that I would never part with being married to Christ because He promised eternal life; then the hard part, being submissive and learning to LIVE Christ, another heavy cross.

Lent isn’t always about ‘giving something up’, it can also be about adding something that adds to the Glory of Christ. Say you don’t attend church, for Lent, you might want to attend every Sunday finishing up with the Easter service. A lot of people only attend TWO services a year, Easter and Christmas. Why? Doesn’t make sense.

Say you want to add time to your bible reading for lent; maybe attend a bible study group. All of these are a form of the sacrifice that Lent calls for. Adding bible scripture posts to your facebook wall IS NOT glorifying God, it is glorifying YOU. Glorifying yourself is not what Lent is about.

If it was warmer out, this is the time I’d be outside communing with nature. Instead my communing with nature will have to wait a few days and I’ll just walk and talk to the empty fields that will soon burst forth with life. Yes, to me, communing with nature is communing with God. God IS mother nature. God IS father time. God IS all those emotions you feel running through your veins. BUT God IS NOT hate! When you feel the need to lash out, sure, claim it as ‘just stating an opinion’, but really you are drawing AWAY from God and filling yourself with HATE. Then that negative energy will reseed and grow. That is also NOT what Lent is about.

Lent to me is sacrificing for God. Lent to me is a spiritual renewal ending on Easter Sunday when I celebrate my New Year’s Day. Lent to me is Glorifying God in all I do and not myself.

1 Cor. 7: 5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

Stressed Part II

James 3:10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. (NIV)

Stressed Part II

I wrote a post about me being stressed about my sons graduation, I also think I mentioned it was more than that and all I knew to do was to take it to God and await an answer. Well last Sunday after our service at church, we were listening to a sermon on the radio (Yes, we listen to a radio sermon on the way home from church) and there seemed to be a message hidden in the sermon for me.

The minister said something like, “It’s all well and good that you sit on facebook, hours on end, posting scripture and inspiration but what do you ACTIVELY do to walk in Christ throughout your day?”

That lay on my heart pretty heavy and as such, I brought it back to God and asked for some sort of clarification/guidance to all this confusion going on inside my head. Whatwith the graduation approaching quickly, face book time, Adam going off into the world, too soon for me to grasp, but soon.

This week I got a lot of clarification. First, I went into facebook and announced that there would be a ‘change in the way I post, I hope you like the change’. I informed no one of just what that change would be but I got an immediate response from a dear, well respected friend, “Whoa!” he said, “I noticed it right away!”

Then the conversation went on about how they like reading what people are REALLY thinking, not through inundating the wall with pictures, but words, they like to read words. Wow! Change one, met and approved.

Now onto change two. Words! For years my blog was about writing then the change came when God spoke to me and He told me about WORDS; people want to read words. They don’t want information shoved down their throats, they want real thought provoking words; thus the change to poetry, my words, my thoughts.

After a peaceful nights rest, I wake in the morning, I read the Word from the bible first and then I pray; thus starts EVERY promising day. So change two would be The Word, I would share my verse(s) that spoke to me that morning and THAT is what I’d post, first thing. Not a random pic with scripture, words that touched ME and would maybe touch someone, anyone reading.

People like reading words! Now onto hurdle three, emoticon madness. A few years back I actually quit a writing course and gave up most writing because the emoticon madness was rampant. Now don’t get me wrong, I love smiley, I probably would want to marry him, if he was HUMAN. That’s just it, he is NOT human, so in the rampant unending posts of emoticons, you as a human come off as INHUMAN. You know what I mean?

People want WORDS! A happy smiley here, a grumpy smiley there, a heart here, an angel there, smiley’s can have the effect of how you’re feeling. But you know what, they are inhuman feelings. You cannot express true feelings with a smiley.

A smiley with WORDS has an affect. Overuse of a smiley can have an affect too, a negative one, as in my case. When someone asks for prayer, I offer WORDS of prayer, not an emoticon, when someone needs a lift, I offer WORDS to lift them up, not an emoticon. Granted I abused the picture situation; I had no idea people would actually want to READ MY WORDS!

So the change comes, and with that oftentimes a stir of controversy. Like a post the other day where I had a dilemma. It came to my attention that someone in school, in an administrative position was sleeping with a student. I didn’t have all the facts but it was enough to cause me concern. What do I do? I had prayed and like so many, I didn’t wait for an answer or resolution, and I just wanted someone’s opinion on the matter.

Boy oh boy did I get it. Keep in mind I was sexually molested as a child so I was very bias. No one heard me, no one did anything, so what was I to do for this kid. Granted he is 19, graduated early in November (which I stated) and she is a thirty-something administrative assistant; works in the office typing and such.

I said I’d pray and wait for an answer but the comments already had her burned at the stake. That was my first response too, but like always, I pray first, act later.

“Turn her in!”

“Go to the authorities!”

“She’s a child molester! Working with kids! How many other children has she molested?”

“Probably a government paid education!”

Things of that nature.

Wow! My dilemma had become a full-blown witch-hunt! When the word government reached the post, I deleted it. I in no way have anything to do with people’s political agenda. When I say I love my brother, I mean ALL of my brothers of humanity! ALL!

Pray and pray, that’s what I did. Later that day it came to my attention more FACTS about the whole thing. 1) The authorities know (as well as the small community) 2) The boy is 19 OUT OF SCHOOL (meaning, he is his own person) 3) Their liaison took place AFTER school (not on school property) so there is NOTHING the authorities in charge can do!

Shameful: an older woman, having sex with an adult child, yes. Illegal – no. Criminal – no. Immature were the acts of the boy showing pictures of his conquest to friends. Mistake – yes. Judgment? There is only one judge and jury now and it is in HIS hands.

Lesson: Really choose your WORDS wisely before posting ANYTHING!

The change has come and continues to grow. I will move and ACT only by His hand.