Eyes On Christ

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.

Have you ever woke in the morning and went right to the news of the prior day or morning? Well, the first thing I do is read my morning meditation and that usually means an email from Bible Gateway or an encouraging word from Max Lucado. Then I read a bible verse that wraps around me like a warm blanket and cradles me in the Word of God.

Prayer is also in my morning ritual so that my days start out with my eyes on Christ.

This weeks sermon was about our focus and how we’re very easily led away from Christ wrapping ourselves up in the news and what’s going on out there in the world. If you wake up and think God is leading you to read about the turmoil of killings, wars, hate, mistrust, you are sadly mistaken. You see, we wake up and satan is already there waiting to greet you with all the bad things he’s had a hand in on the prior day or even the very day you awaken feeling refreshed thinking you have a handle on things.

When we place our focus on all the negative things in the world, we have been led right into the hands of satan and he is all the more happier to steer you away from God and Christ. We tend to place our focus on the rights and wrongs of the world, voice our opinion and walk a fine line of the double-edged sword. I do believe it says in the Bible that we cannot serve two masters, so when your focus is swayed from Christ, you are allowing satan to hold your hand and walk you through your day. Toss in a little Christ here and there to appease your mind.

With this being Holy Week, my eyes are very strongly on Christ and yes just as he was tempted by satan, I see all around me people filling their world with him. Christ comes second and that is just the way the world is now-a-days.

My week started off with my man being very sick. It started with a sore throat but by Monday morning he could hardly speak or breathe. His asthma was hitting him hard and yes it’s a place he’s been in quite a few times in his life so we pretty much know what to do when an episode hits. I made chicken noodle soup in hopes it would give him some relief, it did momentarily but by Wednesday we were at the doctors.

Tuesday night I decided to watch The Passion of Christ. Yes I had seen it a few years back and yes it had an impact on our Christian lives and yes, I knew it would impact me yet again. The movie is an extremely powerful movie that makes you think what Jesus was sacrificing on the cross. He became the sacrificial Lamb. He sacrificed Himself so we could be forgiven of our sin.

As I watched the movie it made me think of the ways that satan tries to distract us from God, wandering here and there, watching us suffer with a smile on his face and readily offering us an outlet to our pain.

The movie also made me think of the atheists who don’t understand Christians. They think we believe in a mythical creature in the sky and only believe because of some words written in a book by men. I think if they watched that movie, with an open mind, they would understand why we are so devoted to that man on the cross.

Have you ever heard or witnessed a man running into a burning building to save a life? We hold that man up as a hero, and praise him and honor him. That is exactly what Jesus did for thousands (now billions) of people. He was led into the arms of torture and flaming fire, all for blasphemy of saying He was the Son of God.

While atheists will celebrate Easter with a drink in their hand and food in their face, they won’t even realize that it is because of Jesus that they are allowed to live and breathe in the sweet air of springtime. They will laugh and scoff just like the men who beat Jesus nearly to death only to hang Him on a cross dripping with blood.

After Jesus took His last breath, the soldiers looked up and realized He WAS the Messiah. Guilt filled their heads and even the chief priests wondered what they had done and as you can see with the upheaval in the Middle East nowadays, they are paying dearly for killing an innocent man who lived over 2000 years ago.

So you might say it is a myth. You might like denying Christ. You might even find sanctuary in the arms of satan who is all too eager to carry you away from anything that resembles Jesus. But know in your heart, for this legend to be alive, living and breathing 2000 years later, don’t you feel some kind of truth in His words?

If God wanted the Bible to be backed by scientific data, He could have very well had the elite scientists of the day write His words but instead He chose men, sinners, nobodies to write the truth of His moral compass He gave to us. The Bible was not meant to be scientifically dissected but as you try and scientifically find the answers, you are falling into the trap satan has set for you, to take your eyes off of Christ and the living testimony of real people who had no ulterior motive in bringing God’s word to you lasting thousands of years.

Scientists seek to prove and disprove, satan leads to distract, life goes on as if nothing has changed except the minds of humans. The sermon on our focus was right, the more we’re led away from Christ by exterior means, the more the world becomes consumed by satan. At the end of the day when I sleep a peaceful nights rest I do so knowing that my day was consumed with God. Persecute me as you will, I sleep easier at night knowing Jesus shed His blood for me.

May the Light and Love of God go with you in each and every day. Keep your eyes on Christ. ~ Amen

Matt. 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Poetry Sunday ~ Never Fear the End

Pss. 30:12  To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

Never Fear the End

I walk the place I fear to go

Where all men one day travel.

The breath of me hangs on to life

While the other threads unravel.

I press my toes in the snow

No fear for the taste of cold

I tiptoe with the brush of frost

My tongue is tipped with gold.

Rays have reached the horizon

Stretched out in welcome prayer.

I slowly walk to greet them

For the end is hidden there.

I’m bathed in a bastion of beauty

Unveiled is the Light within.

I raise my hands in mercy

Washed away is clinging sin.

I remember all the moments

As they pass before my eyes

Warmth and love surround me

I hear it in their cries.

Every tear becomes a puddle

Of this new life I must swim

Sorrow is then converted

Into a glorious hymn.

My body dripped in sunshine

Not yet for you my friend.

I softly whisper for all to hear

The righteous don’t fear the end.

Pss. 37: 37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

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!

God's Not Dead

GOD’S NOT DEAD

Eph. 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

If you’re a reader of my blog, you know that Lent is an extremely delicate spiritual season for me. This is the time of deep meditation, insight, prayer and connecting to the Lord my God. It is a time where metaphysical events take place in my life and I don’t take them lightly, I take them to heart. Not only was I born during Lent, I have a very deep spiritual connection to the greater things in life and the Higher Power, God.

I have a few Native American friends and I have the utmost respect for them because of their spiritual connections to the earth. I believe my spiritual connection is not far removed from their spiritual connections and for that reason we bond. Our souls know one another and we respect each other. It is out of that respect I would never post scripture of my Lord on their wall and tell them, ‘this is who I like’. We are different but we are the same. I honor the difference.

Friends mostly respect me and I try to respect my friends for our different beliefs even if we are all Christians believing in Jesus Christ. I respect the Catholics and different religions but they would never post a picture of the Pope on my wall, or JW or Mormon memes out of respect for my belief. Just as I would hope no one would post satanic or witchcraft post on my wall out of respect for MY religious beliefs.

On March 22^nd, a friend who knows I don’t agree with anything Ken Ham teaches because I feel he is a false prophet who is teaching lies, posted a link of KH. Was I delighted to see this post? No! Did I even click the link? I would never! I get a really bad spiritual feeling from this guy and I mean BAD! How can I explain my blood trembling in my veins? What scares me even more is I now know respected Christians actually believe this false prophet.

As with all believers we are entitled to believe what we want when we read the Bible but I realized I am very different and thought strange for my beliefs, while others can drink in the false beliefs of dinosaurs frolicking with humans in the beginning of time, I do not share that belief and I’ll tell you why, God!

Can I prove what God says to me? No, because it’s between Him and I. Can I show you in some way how God talks to me? In all my posts I thought that this is what I was conveying but maybe I’m not as good a writer as I thought. Did you read how it came to be that we were led to Nebraska? Have you even read what we endured as my man went blind? Did you brush up on the story of his sight being restored? It was all God people. He spoke to me, He led me, I listened and I followed Him.

If any of you have read my story you should know that I shouldn’t even be alive today and a follower of Christ no less. I wasn’t raised in a religious household, I was sent to Catholic school but that was the extent of religion in my life. I was raised by generational alcoholics, and surrounded by alcoholic/drugs addicts. I married into a like family that was full of alcoholic’s, drug addicts and people who believed lies. My entire 20 yr. marriage was based on lies that I was told.

I wasn’t raised in the computer world either. I only got a computer in recent years so Google did not shape the person I am today. The Holy Bible did that and God Himself spoke me into being. I wrote and read a lot of books, the kind you hold in your hand with yellowing and dog-eared pages. Hearing God speak to me and move me became my way of life. I saw myself as resting in the palm of God’s hand and sometimes I gazed up at Him and saw Him holding my hand leading me in one direction or another.

My life is shaped by God’s truth not MY truth or mans truth. Even when reading the Bible God would lend me His truth, through soft whispers or loud resounding echoes. And the very reason I don’t believe in KH lies, is because I don’t feel he is spreading God’s truth but his truth as HE interprets the bible. Every one of us has a right to interpret God’s words as we hear them but falling under a spell of a false witness, to me, is not being led by God.

After hearing about KH and feeling what I felt I had to do a little research to see if ANYONE out there had the intense belief of the same things that shaped this young child, not a grown woman, not a child raised in religious theology, a young child LISTENING to God. There has to be someone, God wouldn’t lie to me I know that, so after some deep meditating and prayer I searched and was being led once again.

I found this page loaded with Evidence of God. Believe or not; listen or don't; ignore and walk away, it is YOUR choice!

After the post of the false prophet on my facebook wall, I felt a severe level of disrespect for my belief. I was told to read Gen 6 as a way of understanding KH. (Personally, I don’t need to understand him, thank you. I listen to God. HE is all I need to understand.)

Gen 6: 5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Taken out of context this scripture means one thing to you and meant a lot more to me when reading Genesis 6. It jumped out at me, it clung to me, it whispered over and over in my ear. It meant to me that this is the epitome of KH. He is NOT of God and BIBLICAL truth. He is a scientist making millions off of feeding the dinosaur theology to people. (I won't link to the books he is selling our children. Go dig for yourself the books of people riding on dinosaurs.)

I thought my birthday was ruined, darkened by a false prophet who believes dinosaurs were on board Noah’s ark, babies mind you, not the enormous ones that supposedly roamed with Noah and his people and helped Noah build the ark.

God guided me to Ephesians 4. It is the King James version.

GOD would NOT let my day be ruined. I prayed for people, I meditated on God’s word and assured Him I would not be misled. I spoke to Him and He spoke to me. My birthday was taking on the glimmer of sun, sparkled upon by the receiving of a ‘Double Knockout Rose of the Star family’ and a huge cookie wishing me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

We settled down to watch a movie. We hadn’t picked one out and Steven said, “You pick.”

I signed onto NetFlix and a big bold BANNER across the screen read: GOD’S NOT DEAD!

I didn’t need to pick a movie, God picked our movie for us.

What a wonderful birthday gift from God Himself! Thank you sweet Jesus!

Ex. 15:13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

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.

Poetry Sunday ~ Spiritual Cleansing

John 7:38 (NIV) "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Spiritual Growth

Now has come the season

Where my soul tends to grow.

Like living waters inside me

My spiritual growth will flow.

The buds begin to surface,

The flower not yet seen

Until the sun has nurtured

From sleep what they can glean.

The trees will slowly waken

Arise from seasonal cold;

The buds will peak in numbers

Bringing forth the springtime gold.

My soul will drink in measure

The still waters from within.

My spirit churning back to life

The new season I now begin.

Take from me the darkness,

As my slumber is called to rise

Fill me with living water

For to shed my winter cries.

Behold, a new me emerges,

As a bud turns into a flower.

Washed over by the hand of God

I’m renewed by a spiritual shower.

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

Daily Slaughter

Pss. 62:1-2 Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

Daily Slaughter

I see it; it is happening all around me and far from me but it still has fingers to touch me; the persecution of Christian believers. Death and slaughter is on the banks of every shore reaching in and finding the ones who believe in God, in Christ, in anything but the distorted Islamic religion.

I won’t justify the terrorists by giving them a name, which is too good for them. I just like to refer to them as slaughtering beasts. By the reading of morning headlines, I see that the terror isn’t restricted to one part of the world. I see men and women losing their mind over here in the good old U.S of A. also.

We live in a world where sanity is laughed at, insanity is a way of life, so much so that even the sane people are left to feel somewhat insane. Slaughter takes on many shapes and forms and insanity is driven by an evil force although no one wants to call it what it is for fear of being thought insane.

I think people of today are finally waking up and seeing with their own eyes that there is something going on that cannot merely be explained as insanity. Just as light is a force of growth (sunlight causes trees and flowers to grow) darkness is a force that causes people to be driven from the light. Even the definition of darkness is ‘absence of light’.

While we stand in awe of the tangerine orb hanging in the sky, we know that it will settle off on the horizon only to give light of the cratered cantaloupe light hanging from the sky with its beads of pearls strung all through the infinite realm of darkness.

Daylight and moonlight are our sources of light in a darkened world but as humans we have not come to worship the sun and moon, we worship the Creator of such gifts. The insanity of life is formed when we are consumed with the worship of the physical and material aspects of life.

I often think of the time when the world was being formed and the angels were in discussion. Lucifer wanted control of the earth and God wanted man to be at the helm of its glory and thus the unraveling of the conscious mind began.

Gen. 1: 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

We can be told by scientist of the Big Bang theory and possibly believe it, but honestly, could an astronomical event create the human mind, body and soul? Did the Bang have the power to separate the Light from the Dark? Yes, you say? Well how did it divide the atoms to make up the spirit residing in the human mind called a soul?

Since the beginning of time the light and dark forces have been at war. These same elements are in us. IN US! Running through our veins in a rampant force just waiting to surface. Obviously, the dark forces causing us to do evil shadowy things in the land that we were to make prosperous and not destroy causes the insanity of man.

We’re taken back to the control of the situation. When I see men/women being beheaded I think of the control freaks doing the injustice and I see the demon gloom hanging from a sword. When I see beasts killing men and women in MY land with a gun or knife, I see that person who is dying for control, losing his mind to darkness that has blurred his vision stealing the light from within him/her.

No gender or age is immune from this cloudburst. No profession is off limits to the unruly behavior that the force seeks out to destroy. The dark force is upon us, hanging over in an impulsive manner almost forcibly shaking us to do what we normally would never do in a thousand years. Our only sense of self-control is to cling to our sanity.

I feel as if I’m in the midst of a Zombie apocalypse just waiting for the guillotine to wrap around my neck. I observe the seemingly sane give into insane behavior lapping up all the darkness that is there to feed off of.

How is man to ward off the evil taking over the world? Just as he did in the beginning of time, giving up control. Man is to give up control of his material possessions, his physical world and be bathed in the Light that God so freely gives to all.

Luke 18: 22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

I think of the entire fleet of atheist wandering around groping in the dark. If just once they gave control over to the Light, I can bet God would see them and they’d see Him, whether they want it or not. But it looks to me like they’re accepting living in a dark world of pessimism giving control over to the wind that carries them to and fro.

When I think of Israel and the land where my Savior was born, I also think of the persecution that went on there. I think of the first man and woman who were led out of the Garden of Eden with the promise of life. I think of the Eternal life that we are given when we choose, quite simply, light over dark.

While the world is succumbing to the evil darkness washing over us like a summer rainfall, we become parched and depleted in a world without light. The sleeves of armor are wearing thin as we watch the takeover. Our only saving grace is not out here in the physical world, it is in the moisture of our insides drinking the fresh, ripe fruit juice of the Spirit living within us.

Pss. 63:1-4 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

The Martyr

Rev 11:7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

The Martyr

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Christians beheaded by the ISIS group?

I read that they were Coptic Christians and I thought, what’s the difference, isn’t a Christian a Christian?

A Coptic Christian is called Coptic because this is the language of the Afro-Asiatic. I’m intrigued to know more about them. They are Christians living in a predominantly Muslim world, which is why they are persecuted on a daily basis.

This isn’t the first beheadings and certainly won’t be the last we hear of this atrocity. So why do these beheadings warrant an outcry more than the others?  I can’t say. I do know the bible says that we will be persecuted for His names sake so why does it shock us that prophecy is being fulfilled?

These people live in the very land where Jesus and His followers walked. His shoes were filled with the sand of the land and the same that were persecuted in Moses day and Jesus’ day are the same men and women being persecuted in this very day. Can you think of any difference in then and now?

I thought about it and the main thing I found different was the way we, in the safe zone called America basically thousands of miles away from the Middle East and these horrendous acts, hear the stories by the click of a button.

We’re sitting at our desks, all snug in our warm socks, possibly wrapped in a warm blanket, drinking our freshly brewed coffee, relaxing behind a screen. All the while Christians are being persecuted all around us in record number.

Imagine a time when we were fed our news via mouth. “I heard this...”

Yup, word of mouth, then it was the written word via a long article in the newspaper, now we click a button of our preferred news source and then we become the relaters of the words like little gossipmongers.

“He said this.”

“She said this.”

It must be the truth because they said this and that.

I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed that not only is God working here but satan as well? God is trying to hold us to our commitment to Him while Satan is waving his arms all around garnering our attention and it is working. Yes the crimes are horrendous, yes it is despicable to think that one must die proclaiming Christianity but it is also saddening to watch ‘Christians’ walk right into satans hands. How? By spewing hate, that’s how. This is his goal and all too many are the gullible, willing recipients. He spews hate, they spew hate, and the line of hate flourishes and grows.

Yes, we are called to despise evil but when YOU spew evil am I to despise you? Think about that. There are always two sides to every story. Did Jesus use just one disciple to spread his word? Did God have one man spread His word across the nations? No, He didn’t and as such we have the books that form the Holy Bible in front of us today. And an FYI, the Bible was not written in verse form I believe, so that one verse couldn’t/ shouldn’t be taken out of context.

We are in the midst of nation rising against nation. God and Satan are at war. Prophecy is being fulfilled and we cower and spread hate? We are divided spiritually, religiously and politically. I do not pretend to know the religion of my acting president no more than can I know who my fellow Christian brother/sister is. Just because I clicked a button and was fed lies am I to believe them as truth?

I am neither democratic nor republican, I am neither a Jew nor a Muslim but in this world I am persecuted no matter what I believe. I believe in truth. God’s truth not man and his twisted truth. Do you get it? If you partake in the spewing of lies and hate, you are no different than the men of the ISIS group; you want to be heard, you want to be right, you my friend are doing just what satan wants you to do, not what God wants you to do.

You say you’re a Christian but would you defend Christianity in death? Can you place yourself in the beheaded Christians place and say you too would die for your belief? I see Americans and people worldwide being persecuted for Christ and we don’t hear anything about them, they are all hidden deep within the information highway so you only SEE the most gruesome of crimes being committed. We FEED off this brutality hence become a part of the atrocity. To my eyes, you are fulfilling satans task at destroying us.

To be called a Christian you must act like one. Name-calling is not what Christianity is about. If our government stood firm and called themselves Christians and not ACTING like Christians, the fingers would be pointing, shouting even, you’re a liar, you can’t be Christian, but when the government takes no stance on religion they are called other names and the vicious cycle of satan-born hate goes round and round.

Instead of hate-spewing, I read this yesterday:

...whatever the world news may say about the Brave, Martyred 21 Christians who were beheaded by ISIS, Lord, we know Your Word speaks the Truth: "The world was not worthy of them." (Heb.11:38) However any evil thinks it's winning & overcoming, Your Truth declares that they are the Overcomers, that they overcame "because of the blood of the Lamb & because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death." (Rev.12:11) And wherever Your people are tonight, God, We will remember every one of their names because they did not forget You or forsake claiming Your name, We will pray for their families because they are our literal family, And we will pray that our faith *in You* is worth laying down our life *for You,* We will pray that we don't live lives of cheap grace but of costly Christianity, We will pray that their sacrificed lives will stir us to live sacrificial lives And we will weep prayers for the persecuted Church because we are *bound* to them through Your Heart & in Your heart they are UNBOUND, UNDEFEATABLE, UNDAUNTED, & UNFORGETTABLE.  ~ Courtesy of Ann Voskamp of Smoky Mountain Christian

I don’t know if the author is Ann Voskamp but instead of shouting injustices she took the high road and showed her CHRISTIAN faith! This is what it’s all about people, PRAYER! Not hate-filled, dogmatic words of prayer, genuine heartfelt, fervent prayer.

I am a child of God. I will not judge you for whatever road you choose to get to where you are at in life today, and I should hope and pray that YOU don’t judge others for whatever path THEY are choosing. Don’t let satan have the pleasure of deceiving you.

 Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Technology - This Day and Age

Dan 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

This Day and Age

This day and age we are bombarded with the virtual world. Kids are being raised to think it is cool to post ‘selfies’ of themselves nude; after a murder they take shots of themselves with their ‘kill’; college kids post pics of sorority pledge rapes and the unthinkable list continues.

Are we such a naïve nation to think that these pictures are our property and no one will see, get in trouble or even steal these works? Just recently a friend of mine had her facebook account hacked and they stole all her beautiful flower pictures and did who-knows-what with them.

In this day and age I keep my information as private as possible and even as such I’m still vulnerable to attacks via internet, cell phone and snail mail. Nothing is private any more and the sooner we realize this the sooner we can learn to raise our children with this knowledge that privacy is in place for a reason. Modesty is necessary in this cold-run viral metropolis.

I became very modest after my father told me one time that exposing myself (cleavage, butt-bearing tight shorts) was a window for the wrong kind of man to lust after me. He was right. All the catcalls and whistles were not because I was a pretty girl; the men were more likely thinking what they’d like to do with this little lady, and it wasn’t good.

So I became extremely modest to the point of being too tightly wound and being called a prude. Ha! I’m a pretty prude, but a prude nonetheless. I’m okay with that. Now when I’m gawked at, whistled at or complimented, it is a more respectable man admiring my beauty not my body. Lesson learned.

I sure wish the kids today could understand this. I know where they’re coming from; ‘I can do what I want’ attitude and today’s kid is basically raising themselves doing just that, what they want. This is why we’re in such a virtual-living world. Kids today have lost human physical contact and they are drawn to the illicit, inappropriate, seemingly private world of the internet.

Take a game system away, an Ipod or Ipad, or computer privileges; you’ll see a child thrust into the throes of withdrawal just as when an addict has his drugs taken away, they become lethal. We are raising addicted children and not seeing it as such because the child seems happy. So we ignore the addiction and instead feed it by giving them hours upon hours of non-communication with the physical world. We are in the depths of running to and fro as technology has increased.

Just today a kid was shot by police officers in Baltimore, Md. It was found out that back home in Kentucky he had killed his mother, father and sister. The article stated: “the teenager was angry at his parents for taking away his computer privileges days before the slayings.”

One day we’ll realize our mistake and try to intervene and actually help these lost in the system addicts. Intervening with an addict is not an easy task because children addicts need to see that they even HAVE a problem, which they don’t, so parents are left on their own in fighting the child, oftentimes growing into addicted adults.

We have intervention programs for the alcoholic and drug abusers. We have help for the over eater, the anorexic and bulimic but we have nothing for the Dependent on the Virtual world programs. Someone who can’t go an hour without texting or checking their facebook page or posting a tweet or just the need to interact virtually are at the mercy of their obsession that has over taken their life. While technology can be a good thing, it has been abused, and will continue to be abused, until we all wake up and see the problem facing us.

The virtual world is consuming humans in the record numbers and as we adults stay fixated on it, our children are learning that it is an okay way of life. My neighbor texted me the other day and I had to call and tell her that text cost money, money that I don’t have on a plan that doesn’t have free texting. Everyone assumes that everyone else is in the text freak world. Everyone else assumes everyone is an addict too.

While my son was in school, all of his friends had phones but my son didn’t. Besides being poor he just doesn’t need another thing to fixate on. I try to teach him the value of the net and it isn’t on facebook or twitter or texting. My prayers are that when he goes out into the world, he sees the difference in reality and falseness the internet can lead to.

In this day and age, we are living in the Prophecy foretold in the Bible but people are so busy running to and fro, that they don’t see or don’t even care, they are sleeping. As you can imagine, my mornings, afternoons and nights are all consumed with prayer. Prayer for the people who seem lost in the chaos.

God be with you all!

Isa. 5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Quotation Saturday ~ Valentine's Day

Matt. 19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Valentine’s Day

“If Valentine’s Day is the day of love. I think every day should be Valentine’s Day. If we don’t live everyday in love than why live at all?”

~ Joni Zipp

“Sharing oft leaves less.
   But with love the more we share,
     the fuller our hearts.”
~ J. Benson

“Most people are slow to champion love because they fear the transformation it brings into their lives. And make no mistake about it: love does take over and transform the schemes and operations of our egos in a very mighty way.”
~ Aberjhani

“Today's Valentine's Day. There's a whole day devoted solely to love. Does that make any sense? Nah. Love makes us all crazy. But it's fun too.”
~ Lisa Greenwald

“Love knows nothing of short hauls because it has committed itself for the long haul.”
~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

LOVE

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
~ William W. Purkey

“You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”
~ Bob Marley

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
~ Robert A. Heinlein

“And, in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love you make.”
~ Paul McCartney

MARRIAGE

“I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with.”
~ Mary Ann Shaffer

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”
~ Elizabeth Gilbert

“Aim high, but do not aim so high that you totally miss the target. What really matters is that he will love you, that he will respect you, that he will honor you, that he will be absolutely true to you, that he will give you the freedom of expression and let you fly in the development of your own talents. He is not going to be perfect, but if he is kind and thoughtful, if he knows how to work and earn a living, if he is honest and full of faith, the chances are you will not go wrong, that you will be immensely happy.”
~ Gordon B. Hinckley

“A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.”
~ Dave Meurer

He asked...I said YES! 

 

Love Online Gone Right

Matt. 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

Love Online Gone Right

The year was 2002. I had just discovered the internet via a free computer my bro-in-law had given me. I’ve told this story many times over the years but it is worth repeating because some things have changed and the backstory always gives you the broader picture.

My niece introduced me to a chatroom and the rest is history so to speak. I found it interesting that you could be this anonymous person and no one ever had to know the real you. Little did I know I was some sort of wave of electrical magnetism and could feel these people coming through my screen who were also anonymous.

I met Steven as an anonymous user and we became fast friends. I was married, he was married and we came together as friends who just needed someone to talk to. Little did I know we’d complete one another. He’d finish my sentences, I’d finish his; we found common interests that I had never shared with my husband of nineteen years.

It wasn’t a friendship based on comparison of our partners; it was a relationship being formed by the universe in some way. We knew it, our partners knew it and we all knew that there was something here that we couldn’t just walk away from, even though both spouses tried to pull us apart. This kind of soul meeting happens very few times in a lifetime and if you’ve ever been a part of a true soul-find, you know what I’m talking about.

Ten months later we took the plunge into the unknown and we met in person. Steven just coming off of a divorce and me with a marriage in shambles, and a child who needed more in life and more than my ex could ever give him.

The first couple of years were our feeling-each-other-out years. The discovery years I should say. This is where we would get to know each other in a physical sense instead of the months of a spiritual journey that we rode on. All new learning experiences for me since he was only the second man in my entire life that I ALLOWED to get into my mind; mentally, spiritually, and physically.

It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns. At times I thought this was the biggest mistake in my life but then the thought of going back home scared me more than persevering and seeing what this future held for me. There were times I hated this man so much but the love for him was deeply embedded inside of me and the thought of a life without him was scarier than a life WITH him.

We found a church about the second year we were together. I was very committed to Christ while he had strayed from Christ over the years and wanted to return to Him. This made me very happy since my ex wouldn’t even think of church. Funny, how could I be so embroiled in Christ while neither man had even known the POWER of Him?

Then Steven went blind and my love for him turned into compassion. I was seeing him in a new light while he was relinquished to not seeing at all. I began wondering if this was the reason God brought us together so I could take care of him and show him the way into the Light of the Lord, hmm. Being blind showed Steven things he could have never experienced had he had his sight and I could feel our love deepening through this trial. After two years of being blind, the miracle of his sight was restored.

We had not really talked about marriage. We had both been there, done that sort of thing. I only just recently got a divorce and marriage just was not an option. Even though our church frowned on us living in sin, they did not understand the complexities of our relationship. We’re not bound together because of physical attraction or what we can give each other physically, our spirits binds us together.

Think of it like this:

We have this cute little electric heater sitting to my right. It’s black with a windowed front and the lattice-look that allows a fake fire to be seen behind; it is very attractive to the eye. We turn it off at night which means no electrical current is running through it. I unplug it sometimes and leave the cord just lying on the floor.

To me, this is what people come up against when they meet someone in the physical sense. They find themselves attracted to the physical person, but they haven’t plugged in the mechanism to see if it works. When they do plug in the relationship, it needs to work so like the heater, it is then turned on.

When you meet someone online, your spirits are plugged in and turned on right from the get go. It seems a little confusing and trying at times to understand what the connection is and where it came from, but if you don’t unplug it, it works. You feel the electrical current running through your system and it makes sense to keep that connection through the electrical vent of the cosmos.

Our church wanted us to turn-off our relationship for a while and see if we found our way back to one another. Sorry people, we’ve been plugged in for thirteen years now. We don’t have a relationship that turns on and off, we have a cosmic connection that can’t be unplugged from the universe.

Let me just say this, God is the current running through our veins so when we unplug from one another, we would be unplugging from Him and His connection and I’m not willing to do that.

Just last week Steven asked me to look at something…wedding bands. I’m not a fancy-scmancy kinda gal and he knows me so well I loved what he was looking at. Wait! Wedding bands? Is this a proposal? He said no in his rye only-I-can-understand sense of humor. I told him that it’s not the ring that matters; it’s what it symbolizes that does.

We’ve been through love, hate, trust, mistrust, doubts, fears, joy and sorrow and now after thirteen years together, an online connection gone right, we are now discussing a marriage that will bind us together for eternity. Let’s hope the ‘talk’ of marriage leads to one. 

MY Commitment to Christ

Pss. 31:5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.

MY Commitment to Christ

I need to think of the commitment I made to Christ and not my readers. While you all are important to me, not to hurt any feelings, but I need Christ more than I need you. I watch as people are committed to the social media walls, their allegiance to unhealthy food is quite amazing, they have the audacity of committing to anything BUT Christ. They commit on a Sunday morning but then they fall until the next Sunday.

Sure they read and believe, but commitment to Christ is 24/7, it cannot be compartmentalized to suit you when you need it. You can’t be a Christian one-day a week. You go to church on Sunday and the rest of the week you act like your good old sinful self, then Sunday comes around again and you’re suddenly a Christian again? Does anyone else see something wrong with that picture?

We live in a world where everyone knows more than everyone else. Ministers are in the pulpit preaching and we feel they MUST know more than we do not only about the Word but most everything. I’ve seen so many times a preacher taking advantage of the system he vowed to uphold by way of taking money from the poor leading them to believe the more they give the closer they will get to God.

Sometimes I’ve seen the church give gold-bound Bibles out for a fee of course, or a little crystal bird to display and show everyone you gave more than 100 dollars. When I was younger a priest was fired for putting alcohol in the chalice instead of the grape juice all the other priests used.

Then we have the Jim and Tammy Faye ministers of society preaching the word of God as they see it and believe. Do we wonder why the world is in such a Christ crisis? We wonder why we’re such a confused nation? We have churchgoers acting sinful, priests acting sinful, ministers participating in the act of sin; we as followers of Christ might have a hard time discerning truth from fiction here.

We live in a ‘jump on the bandwagon’ nation. If someone says you’re going to hell because your beliefs aren’t perfectly aligned with their beliefs, everyone jumps in cheering, “yeah, yeah, you’re going to hell!”  I am so glad that God appointed man judge and jury of who is going to hell; it sure makes His job a lot easier.

I read something interesting today:

“The Chinese have an interesting lesson in the two characters chosen for their word “crisis.” One character is danger and the other is opportunity. The inference is that in every crisis experience, both elements are present. So a crisis is a dangerous situation presenting an opportunity. When you focus on just the danger, you become paralyzed by fear. Focusing on the opportunity, however, enables you to fly with wings of faith. It is we, ourselves, who choose on which of the two we will focus.” ~ Paul Estabrooks

I think the world is in a Christ crisis. While people see men not of Christ as a danger, I see the situation as an opportunity to show MY commitment to Christ. Not by lashing out but by being what He intended for ME to be, Christ-like.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Nowhere in this scripture does Jesus point fingers at people and boldly proclaim YOUR GOING TO HELL. I do distinctly remember Him saying, ‘Judge not lest YOU be judged.’ And for that very reason, I may slide off the grid for a while. I will not sit, point fingers and judge my fellow man. The only thing I WILL judge is my soul. It is not MY mind that needs the help, I realize it is the world I’m surrounded by. I cannot allow myself to be exposed day after day to the negative aspects of humans that try and put a dent in MY commitment to Christ.

My commitment is 24/7. I don’t pick and choose the hours and days I will stand committed to Him. He dwells in me; He is a part of my Spirit. I do not have a one-way ticket to Heaven just because I believe in Christ. What, no baptism, no being born again, just believing is my ticket? I for one am not THAT naïve. I cannot conform to man and his ways, I can only conform to the Spirit that dwells in me and that my friends is MY commitment to Christ.

John 14:15-17 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

 

 

God be with you ALL!

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.