The Well Is Dry

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” 

– Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

The Well is Dry

After writing yesterday, I prayed about what I wrote and the reason behind why on earth would I share such a pity party post? Well, I know why, because even I have my bad days. People think because I laugh and make them smile that there is nothing wrong in Joni’s world, well let me tell you, there are things wrong in my world! 

Is it possible to focus too much on the Lord, therefore alienating yourself from the rest of the world? Am I to blame for all the angst in my life? I sometimes think I am. 

I’m trying to get back into writing and my well is dry. I woke this morning with a renewed faith when cool air kissed my cheek in the middle of summer. It was 6o degrees and a storm was about to erupt when all of a sudden, a poem came to my mind. The rain began falling, the thunder cheered with lightning displayed across the sky.

Was this God cheering me on? Was He letting me know He was right there and hasn’t left my side? It is as if He was filling my well with water to drink and words to write. The poem I wrote was, God is Crying. I normally write a poem, let it rest a day, then come back to the poem and fix anything that doesn’t work for me. Through the thundering morning and cool rain showers egging me on, I felt the need to post the words right away, so if you see something wrong with the poem, take it up with Him.

Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”

I sometimes wrongfully think I’m in control of my life when I know full well God is in complete control. When I whine of the pain I’m in and cry about the reasons my disability hinders me from doing what *I* want to do, I have to remember who it is I work for first and foremost. If anyone remembers (you have to go back to my posts from 2011-12) my disability hit me after my hubby got his sight back after being blind for two and a half years. The many hours behind the wheel driving to and from Omaha, sometimes two times a week, (6-8 hour trips) took its toll on the lumbar portion of my back.

Had this happened while he was blind, I would have never been able to do the work that I felt God had called me to do and that was to take care of my man. Yes, that was basically the job I signed up for when I met my beau but it was so much more than that. God had His hands in the stew the entire time and he decided to whip it up a bit to see how I handled the situation. 

I’m allowed a day or two to feel sorry for myself, by dagnammit, no one else will or does for that matter so I feel I have to have my bad days or I’ll never rise up and be more than the pain that defines me.

It’s weird how me having a bad day warrants hits on my blog out the gazoo! My happy, joyful posts might get 13-20 hits but my woeful, pained posts near the hundred and over hit mark, how odd is that? When I began this blog, it was all about the writing craft and when I decided to make it about God, I no longer wrote for other people, the hits or the followers, I took on the challenge to write what God wanted me to write and what I felt that He spoke to my heart to say to the world.

I no longer write to satisfy everyone else, I never LIVE to satisfy others; I only live for God, pain and all. I realize that God has me this way because my heavy lifting, hours upon hours of driving, snow shoveling and overworking myself days are over. I would have never stopped so God made sure I stopped, maybe so I wouldn’t further damage myself, after all, He did see ahead of the steps I take, this is His plan and not one of my own selfish making.

Sure I would love to be able to walk normally again, to dance while dusting, to skip while vacuuming, to meditate while mowing the lawn but that is not God’s plan for me. His plan is for me to rest. Maybe he has something big planned or maybe not, maybe the walk in the cornfields is His plan for me. Nah, I know that is not His plan, He told me so. Now you’ll have to tolerate me a little longer!

I’ll end this post on a happy note. While my husband is complaining that the 61 degrees and rain is too cold for the month of July (he LIKES the 100 degree days), I am relishing the dampness of an eight-hour rainfall accompanied by a dark overcast sky with stormy weather erupting every half hour or so. I have washed clothes, dried clothes, and folded them all because my back loves cooler temps and affords me more mobility than normal. Praise be to God.

I have written two blog posts today and all is right with the world…for today. May you look at God’s plan as the master plan for your life and your own plans as selfish fodder. Life is already too short to be giving up when YOU are done, always remember it will last until God is done!

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” 

– Mother Theresa

God Is Crying

Isa. 22:5  "For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains."

God is Crying

God is crying once again

The ground is wet with shame

Man can’t see the pain God’s in

Your senseless acts to blame

God is crying can you hear

The rumbling sounds that stir

Heaven shakes as tears roll down

The earth to Him’s a blur

God is crying can you see

The echoes mount the sky

Signs that leak from the clouds

But man dare not ask why.

God is crying do you know

More souls ascend, He bleeds

Fear tears down our only hope

Of fruit within his seeds.

God is crying can you taste

Corroded corpses embers

Here among the righteous 

Godly earthbound members.

God is crying can you feel 

The trembling of His feet

Earth erupts in quaking stance

To a rhythmic tapping beat.

God is crying feel his grief

For man has left Him lonely.

I alone will take a stand

To hug Him once if only.

© Joni Zipp

I Had a Bad Day...

Job 33:19 “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:”

I had a bad day…

If you’re looking for a happy-go-lucky post click a button that tells you to go to the next blog, this might not be worth reading for you today.

Yesterday I had a bad day. A good day to me is where I wake and can move without pain, that makes me happy. Tuesday I woke up and could move so I thought yay it’s going to be a good day. I always try to stay optimistic but here lately, I’ve lost all hope in optimism. With the world, with people, even with writing.

My body reacts to the extremely hot weather so much so my knees feel like balloons and if I try to do any outside activity they reach the bursting point and I have to return to the house and find solace sitting in front of the screen resting my knees but not my fingers. 

If you were one of those curious people who would ask a disabled person what is wrong with them, then I’d have to be honest and say, I don’t know. All of my vitality was sucked out of me as a Hoover vacuum went over my body and took most of the life out of me. Now I’m a barely walking zombie of sorts.

I live out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the cornfields surrounding me in all directions. The only communication to the outside world is from my online friends and a daily call to my mother (twice on weekends). I can no longer drive because of my blurred vision so when my husband asked if I wanted to go to the mall Tuesday, I got excited, sure why not. (I often forget my disability and move full steam ahead without thinking, just ask my kneecap I cracked on the wall last week.)

I often feel like taking a walk into the cornfield until my legs buckle and just lie down and let the bugs eat me and wait for harvesting time when the big harvester of crops finishes off what is left of my body. Or walking through the woods and waiting for nightfall for the coyotes to come and devour me or maybe a mountain lion (who has been spotted in my area) would find me to be a good meal. No, I chose to go to the mall instead.

We get to the mall and no shopping carts, that make walking easier on me, are available at the mall. I made my way to the JCPenny door. Wow, I made it, now to make it allllllllll the way to the back of the store to the tiny shoe department. We must’ve gone up and down the two aisles of men shoes five times before it was declared, “I don’t see anything.” I know I’m a woman and should love to shop but I despise the event, even if it is online, I DON’T like shopping!

Let’s go to Shoe Express he says. He had seen the shoes he wanted online but here in the mall is the same store so they should be here, right? No, no they were not after hobbling all the way to the other side of the mall. We leave there without a purchase and pass another shoe store so we go in there. By this time the mall was slowly filling up with the bored-to-be-home-from-school-with-nothing-to-do people. Did you know people stare too long at imperfect people? Long glaring stares as if to say, “Is she faking or is she really wobbling, is she crippled, what?”

Another shoe store another no sale. I start making a beeline to the exit but we have to go through JCPenny because the truck was parked outside the entrance that we had come through. Great! The pain by this time was unbearable and my eyes started to water. No, wait, it wasn’t water, I made it to the truck, breathed a sigh of relief and began bawling my eyes out.

Now I’m throwing myself a pity party. I’m done, I’m just done watching the world go ‘round as I sit crippled unable to get help, for the pain, for a cure, for my life back. I wasn’t done living. I didn’t ask for it to be taken away and here I am hearing people complain because their pool water is too warm, that their A.C. is too cool, that their vacation wasn’t long enough, or that they’re tired from working too hard. The next step is a wheelchair, no other option for me but a wheelchair. (No the cane doesn't work for long walks.)

I sit here and stare out the window and watch the corn get taller and think to myself, maybe God will take me today, maybe I AM done. As the tears continue to roll down my cheek I realize, I made it home. I think I’ll wash clothes. No matter how making it through a day pains me, I’ll go on… God will be calling soon and I have to be ready to answer.

Pity party over...

Rev. 21:4 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Peace Through War?

2 Timothy 3: 1-5 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Can we find peace in war?

A simple meme with a child in an Army hat on facebook draws out the roaring crowd; the words anything war can do, peace can do better. Yeah, memes feed my writing these days. The ones I agree with and ones I disagree with.

“Anything war can do, peace can do better.”

Full names hidden to protect the innocent.

Comment from James: “Si vis pacem, para bellum is a Latin adage translated as, "If you want peace, prepare for war". What this means is war is inevitable and peace will never last. So no matter how good peace sounds, sadly there will always be war.”

Comment from Hannu: “It's more like a question about constructive or destructive thinking. I guess war is a good business for some ...but how much good does it really do? Revenge leads to another revenge...it's endless...

Building bridges is better than building walls.

Utopia ? 

So what is it worth to win a battle if the war still gets harder and harder? That's what is happening now...nobody wins...”

Glenda wrote: “If only that statement were true. Wonderful young men & women who have served in our military who have lost their arms & legs. Lost their lives. To protect Americans & their freedoms against those who kill Americans. This post is irresponsible.”

John wrote a well thought out comment: Whenever I see discussions on-line promoting peace in the world, the path to peace is nearly always expressed in ways that indicate that peace must begin with us, and then the world will of course, become peaceful overall. This “peacefulness” as a practice frequently is promoted as a process of Spiritual Passivity, like that observed by practicing Buddhists.

Some 5 or 6 years ago as a result of this topic continually coming up in a discussion group that I facilitate I wrote a (somewhat long) article named: “An Argument Against the Development of Passivity as a Spiritual Practice”, that some might want to check out.

About a third of the way down in the article I state:

“The fact that we must be aware of is that the overwhelming majority of our fellow inhabitants of this planet neither understand, nor are much interested in understanding, our interest in developing a sense of detachment. As a result, they can misinterpret one of the aspects that manifest in an individual as they develop a sense of Detachment through Denial”…

…“The appearance of “outward passivity” has become a prominent goal in many of the Westernized Yogic and New Age Philosophies. It has been promoted as a character trait to be prized and developed on its own, rather than recognized as an outer manifestation of an inner development.” 

“The snag is that Passivity developed as a personality trait alone can actually draw conflict.”

Wow. There are some intelligent comments when you scan facebook but a lot of the times the people are so filled with rage you begin to see why we don’t live in a world where peace is an option.

Last night we watched a movie called The Giver. I’m not into sci-fi but this one had a Tomorrowland feel to it and since I liked that one so much, I gave The Giver a shot. It was not a bad premise. The world had been changed and taken over, minds were erased and there was no hate, war, jealousy, anger, you name the emotion. People-bots floated around in a pristine controlled-life living and raising only children who were worthy. 

Also gone was love. The feeling of love. One person was to receive the memories taken and stored with the Giver and wouldn’t you know it, the chosen one was a rebel going to defy the leader of the new world.

By the end of the movie, I realized something and it might only make sense to me but with everything going on in the world today it struck me as ironic. Without love, you can’t feel hate and with hate gone, you can’t know love. We watched the movie World Trade Center the other night and I believe the end words were:

John McLoughlin: [Narrating] "9/11 showed us what human beings are capable of. The evil, yeah, sure. But it also brought out the goodness we forgot could exist. People taking care of each other for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. It's important for us to talk about that good, to remember. 'Cause I saw all of it that day."

That says it all. While the darkness tries to smother you, while hate tries to take over the world love and compassion will rear its head and you’ll feel what all the angst is for, for us to find LOVE!

Rev. 19:14 “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

Tomorrowland

The Giver

World Trade Center

Quotation Saturday ~ War, Peace

Dallas, Texas

Dealey Plaza

Pss. 28:3  “Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.”

 DIVISION

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” 
― Winston S. Churchill

“We need to eliminate the concept of division by class, skills, race, income, religion, and nationality. Every human requires food and water to survive and every human has a heart that bleeds, loves, and grieves.” 
― Suzy Kassem

“Faults are thick where love is thin.” 
― English Proverb

“Americans claimed to be following a higher law, even when this higher law only turned out to be a personal preference.” 
― Mark A. Noll, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

HATE

“If you want to forget something or someone, never hate it, or never hate him/her. Everything and everyone that you hate is engraved upon your heart; if you want to let go of something, if you want to forget, you cannot hate.” 
― C. JoyBell C.

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” 
― James Baldwin

“Hate hurts the hater more'n the hated.” 
― Madeleine L'Engle

“To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of all the creeds.” 
― Robert G. Ingersolln 

RACE

“When you hate a person because of their race or religion, it is then you realize in the depths of yourself, you really hate YOU.”
~ Joni Zipp

“We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don't share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.” 
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“It is when we think we can act like God, that all respect is lost, and I think this is the downfall of peace. We lie if we say we do not see color and culture and difference. We fool ourselves and cheat ourselves when we say that all of us are the same. We should not want to be the same as others and we should not want others to be the same as us. Rather, we ought to glory and shine in all of our differences, flaunting them fabulously for all to see! It is never a conformity that we need! We need not to conform! What we need is to burst out into all these beautiful colors!” 
― C. JoyBell C.

WAR

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” 
― Plato

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.” 
― Ernest Hemingway

“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.” 
― John Steinbeck

“There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.” 
― Neil Gaiman

PEACE

“Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:

- I shall not fear anyone on Earth. 
- I shall fear only God. 
- I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. 
- I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. 
- I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

“If man thinks war is a means to peace, that man is delusional.”
~ Joni Zipp

“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” 
― Chuck Palahniuk

“Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?” 
― Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue

Pss. 29:11 “The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.”

Fort McHenry

Baltimore, Maryland

Ten Things Money Can't Buy

Pss.40:4 “Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.”

Manners - We live in a nation where please and thank you have gone way to “yeah, text me sometime.” We’ve lost all sense of politeness and maybe if the new generation teaches kids manners the world would change but parents today would rather a machine like a tablet, iPod, phone, computer, and television raise their kids so they won’t have to.

Morals – You don’t have to be a religious person to teach your kids morals. If YOU have morals then this would flow from you to your children but if you don’t care if your children have a moral compass more times than not you’ll raise a self-centered child that feels life owes THEM and not the other way around; grateful for the very food on their plate! They NEED to know right from wrong from the very beginning.

Respect – People today don’t have the respect for their elders the way in older times. I’m not THAT old but I know respect and taught my child to respect ALL people, not just one race. I never once heard my dad call his wife his ‘old lady’ but kids today call their girlfriends their old lady before they’re even married. It is a derogatory word meaning he/she is chained to this person but wishes they weren’t. THAT is not respect, that is entitlement when kids are raised with no moral compass!

Common sense – Kids today definitely don’t have the sense God gave them, take God out of the equation and kids still don’t have the sense their parents gave them. Their common sense is flushed in a sewer somewhere and they’re happy just sitting behind a screen. Children today don’t want or NEED common sense in their minds because they have no aspirations for anything other than ‘just living’.

Character – And I don’t mean Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse as a character either. Character is defined by the way you think, feel and BEHAVE. Even adults today lack this aspect of their personality and I don’t know why. They were raised in a generation where they were taught respect but when a child grows and forms his own character, sometimes their moral compass does not sway the character they need. They allow their character to build off of the hate they have for people and the world and thus lose any sense of a personality with character. They and they alone have deformed their character thus giving them a false personality.

Class – This is right up there with respect. A person with class doesn’t need to be rich or hold their tea in a proper way, class can be defined with the way you treat people. If you treat all people the same as you would say, your mother, you have class. It’s respecting ALL people in the same manner as you would treat the most respected person in your life. Example? When you’re with a bunch of the guys, you curse like a sailor, but would you speak that way in front of your mother? You lack class. 

Integrity – The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Honesty is one of the hardest things to live by. Too many choose the route of a fib or a ‘little white lie’ but this my friends defines your character. If you can lie about something ‘simple’ it makes it easier to lie about something big and more times than not you’ll choose the fib over the truth because the lie makes you look better, where the truth might allow people to see the ‘real’ you.

Trust – Remember I just mentioned honesty? Well, trust goes hand-in-hand with honesty. People trust you to tell them the truth but when you’re caught in a lie, it chips away at your trustworthiness.

Patience – Patience is the ability to wait. We live in a world now where everyone wants what he or she wants and they want it NOW! There is no patience in waiting for the right time, the right way or the right purpose. This is obvious when you’re driving down the road, doing the speed limit of 60 (or 75 for that matter) and someone comes up behind you, rides your tail and waits for an opportunity to SPEEEED around you! Mind you, you both wind up at the same intersection or red light, but sometimes you can see the speed-demon in a ditch because they lacked patience!

LOVE! – The world has lost the interpretation of love. They say they love but know, these people only love their mother and have no room to love anyone or anything else. They say they love God, but you can see in their actions that love is just a term they use again, to make themselves look good, feel good and like they have good character. 

The entire post I deliberately left God out of the equation you know why, to show you that it is morality that is lacking in the world. People decry, it is the lack of God but I’m here to show you these ten FREE things on a moral compass are lacking and thus, there goes the world. WORLD! Not just our country.

Bonus, the God factor: 
Faith – The ability to believe in things unseen. 
Hope – That all things are built trustfully and honestly on this thing called faith. 
and Charity – Matt. 7:12 (NIV) says it all: 
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

A Child Will Lead Them

Isaiah 11:6 “In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.” 

A Child Will Lead Them

Why would God choose a child to lead them? Is it because of the innocence of a child who sees no wrong and can only see the good? Who loves without condition?  

Matt. 19:14 KJV
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

NIV
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

God has chosen the humble innocent children of the world to scatter in heaven and have a safe place to call home. It is these little children who are going to lead us because a grown man who has been stupefied by imaginations of the world that has destroyed any chance of being a leader among men.

Children hold in their heart a peace that man lost long ago and only the innocent child understands this peace. The Lord asks us to become like children and strive for that innocence in loving all but man has built up a hatred for everything under the sun that he unhinged the chain and can’t get that innocence back.

Children are not yet tainted by the world. When you see a one-year-old taking his/her first steps, what do you see? You see a trust that their little legs are going to work and lead them where they want to go. Often times they fall and get right back up and persevere until their legs can carry them where they were headed.

A grown man tainted by the world sees hate. He has to share hate, spread hate and for some reason says he is a man of God? Does that man even read and understand what it is that God is teaching us in the bible? With over 50 different versions of the bible, it’s not hard to see why man is so confused with what he is putting his faith in today. I totally get that the many translations of the bible say the exact, no wait, almost the same exact same thing throughout but what I’m saying is, that man has been led around on a string and now wanders lost and confused because he doesn’t understand what he is reading!

When the bible says the kingdom of heaven belongs to the MIND of the man who has a child-like innocence, the grown man misinterprets those words as he must act like a kid joking and laughing with asinine behavior, he is a confused man. Coming to Christ in a child-like manner you need to put on the armor of innocence, gentleness and purity; something man lost in his pursuit of hate. 

I am not pleased with my fellow Americans who show no self-control. They badger, berate, live life to hate all the while using the term for the love of their God. Wow, sounds like a lot of the men they themselves condemn. Does that make you any different than the man you hate? 

For the love of God, can’t one day pass where you don’t spread your hatred for man? This world is in need of a child to lead and at this rate of a hate-filled world, we are being led by the dark one on the path that he has set. Follow little ones (small-brained humans) because my ever-loving God is not happy with the plan that you chose for yourself, you follow the dark seed in a blatant obvious procession spitting in His face the inheritance He had set for you. God help us all!

Psalm 33:12 KJV "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance."

Storing Up Treasure

Col. 2:2 “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;”

My neighbor is a hoarder. You know the ones you hear about on reality TV shows? She has piles of pallets sitting here and there, wooden crates stacked over here, trash everywhere so much so I feel like I’m living in the county dump until I walk outside and realize this is my neighbor’s treasure.

I saw a meme recently and it said:
“A spotless house is a sign of a wasted life.” 

I kind of took umbrage to that remark because my house is very clean. I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘spotless’ but if you knocked on my door right now I wouldn’t have to run around straightening up before I opened the door. Does that mean I have a wasted life because I see cleanliness as next to Godliness?

Some people who are not too clean might like reading the above meme because it makes them feel good knowing they haven’t wasted their life cleaning their home. Maybe some people take pride in a dirty home, I don’t know, my neighbor sure holds no shame in her mess building, so why do I love and appreciate a clean home?

I was raised in a house with six kids, both of my parents worked so it was up to the two girls to clean the mess left behind by the others and often I found myself cleaning alone. I was married to a man whose mother was a hoarder and at her house, there was a path to the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms but clothes and trashy treasures lying around in case they were needed one day.

What is so funny is that my ex and I would clean her house immaculately when she went on vacation and within a day of her returning home, it was back to the same mess. It was as if the mess cradled them to sleep at night and gave them a secure feeling of safety. 

I used to clean houses for a living (when my back was able) and I loved cleaning for people who couldn’t do the hard labor themselves. I had one lady who would clean before I even got to her home but insisted she didn’t and would pay me to do the finishing touches. Fine by me! 

Now that my back isn’t what it used to be I can’t do the cleaning I would like to do but I still keep a nice house AND have a life. Oh dear, but has all the time I spent cleaning mean I’ve wasted my life? Why do I let a stupid meme get to me? Guilt because I’ve wasted my life cleaning and LIKING it clean?

Just to clarify, I LIKE my house spic-n-span. Now more than ever I appreciate my tidy house you know why because I’m still able to do what I can to satisfy my need-to-be-clean urge! In a couple of years I probably won’t be able to sanitize my house due to disability and I’ll lay there wondering why I wasted all that time cleaning when I could’ve been doing… what? 

Thirteen years ago I left behind every treasure I owned except for what I could fit into a small u-haul truck and most of what I brought was for my son. My cleanliness I brought with me and to this day my home here is as clean as the one I left behind. Cleanliness is a part of who I am. Not for any other reason than the enjoyment of smelling freshly washed linen, newly mopped floors, the aroma of Windex wafting through the air. Ahhh… life is good when it is a clean life.

Some people treasure trash while others treasure cleanliness. Whatever the case may be as I’ve heard many a time in my life, you can’t take what you have here with you when you die, but one thing I can take with me…my clean pure soul and that my friends, is good enough for me! 

Matt. 6: 19-20 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:”

July 4th - Independence Day

Fort McHenry - Baltimore, Maryland

Acts 22:28 “And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.”

We live in a world where every word is analyzed and every thought found to be offensive, offending at least one person in a group. I’m not perfect by any means, and I don’t know the terms that are politically correct these days so I’m sure I unintentionally offend someone somewhere at some time or another.

The other day I read a story about a Red Cross poster that offended one woman and she made a viral fit asking them to take down the offensive poster saying it was racist. They quickly apologized and took down the poster so they could continue their good work for people of all races.

Why do people feel entitled to make a statement that THEY are right and YOU are wrong? Why has the world been spinning lately to the sound of racism, sexual orientation, political correctness and almost mass hysteria when the God word is spoken?

I am a very sensitive person and when someone offends me I more than likely turn inward instead of unleashing cruelty on the offending person. I think to myself, they have to live with themselves on a daily basis and it must get awful lonely living a life looking to see what offends you in every second of the day.

People will say it is a freedom that soldiers died for but if these soldiers knew that this is what was going to be made of their country, would they do it again? Would they die so people had the freedom to be ignorant, self-serving, and greedy? Freedom of Speech I don’t feel was intended to be a freedom of being offended by everything someone speaks under the sun. 

Things that were intended to be ‘free’ are not free. Sure I have a roof over my head, but it’s not free, nor is the gas, electric, water and food. Did you know that in some states it is against the law to catch rainwater and use it to water your lawn? Rainwater - it falls freely from the sky, but the greed in the depths of pockets tries to control who and what you can use rainwater for! My brother owns his home and has to pay a ‘rainwater’ tax! 

While the Powers That Be claim they want God in the equation, there are those who are moving to take God OUT of the equation and rewrite the history that we’ve come to celebrate on this Independence Day - July 4th.

The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, 1776.  Can you imagine if these words were the truth of today?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Endowed by their Creator. My how times have changed and the majority no longer believes in a Creator, or they believe in their own creator. We’ve lost sight of what this nation was built on and have become our own creators with our own rights. 

Freedom of Speech, I do not believe, meant that we could call people raving idiots because we feel like it. Right to Bear Arms – surely did not mean that we can shoot whomever we want and whoever didn’t agree with the world that WE created, we have a right to kill! What does the Declaration of Independence even mean these days? 

We say, God Bless America but what does that truly mean to each individual? We became free but enslaved the Negro. We freed the blacks and now enslave the refugee who seeks freedom for their families. We speak freedom but, in a nutshell, deny many the freedoms we speak of.

While we have cookouts, attend firework shows, and proudly fly our flag, do we remember or do we forget just what it is we’re celebrating? Do we stand behind our country and its leaders or do we flex our right of Freedom of Speech and denounce anyone who doesn’t fit our bill of standards that we’ve set for OURSELVES? Are we the people willing to run the country? Yes, we the people are willing to run the country…right into the ground so other countries can sit and laugh.

“One nation under God” should be “ONE WORLD UNDER GOD!” That would make me much prouder if we all just got along. 

Carrollton, Texas

They Ruin It...

Prov. 13:18 “Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.”

They Ruin It…

They’ve [humans] ruined my relationship to church; it’s now relinquished to a place to show my face so I can come home and boast of how great the sermon and praise was. They’ve ruined what little trust I had in people by being more about the manipulative angle they can use to abuse me. They make drinking alcohol all about fun and games like it is just a second nature and fine to do without ramifications, they spread lies like mosquitoes spreading Lyme disease injecting their poisonous falsehoods for the world to see and STILL claim to be Christian. 

It is Christians, you know, the very good Christians that are destroying the religion, for ME. I have a faith in Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father but I have zero faith in humankind. I don’t have faith in the churches because they are imploding while touting their growth. Church is no longer about God, it is about an opinionated what-you’re-doing-wrong drama. 

I read the headlines and the stories are unending of a collapsing society. I should say societies because this is happening worldwide and if you just happily ignore the succession of downfall going on around you, then to me, you are part of the problem. We are perverting society by accepting sin like candy from a dirty old man, it’s become the norm.

Evil is stampeding across the globe knocking down pillars that have been in place for centuries. I’m saddened not celebratory at all. Everything is about race, sexism, politics, shoot or be shot, kill or be killed, blatant propaganda spoon-fed by the media to the masses and fed to innocent children who know nothing yet but are being programmed to follow in the footsteps of the hate in the world.

We as a human race are not coming together to solve problems, I see too often people sitting back and being PART of the problem and enjoying their placement in a world of fellow angry citizens who can’t even rise from bed without feeling hate in their veins.  And that makes you a good person?

What exactly constitutes a good Christian or a good person? I shouldn’t have to struggle to see them; they should be quite obvious among the crowd yet they’re not. They’re hidden among the booze drinkers, layered with, if not covered in, the hatemonger; splintered by the right and wrong in the world.

Actions are what separate the good, not color, religion, race or sex but that is what we’ve done to the world, divided man and thought, and has made information so liquid we bathe in the offering. It does not make us good people by agreeing to everything the hate spewers feed you.

Greed has ruined any form of celebration for me. People want and want but are not willing to give a little time and effort to the term ‘change’. They’d much rather be herded together like cattle and be tagged and counted among the crowd as one of the all.

I feel alone as I wade in the ocean of life. I’m out to sea and see no land in sight. Ruined is the joy in a day. Gone is the hope in tomorrow. I have but one thing to hold onto as a life preserver and that is my faith in God. 

While man has destroyed everything, burnt the promise of growth, singed the tide of deliverance, damaged the blossoms of love and buried the plateau of joy, I remain alone. I will count by single digits the good ones and remain skeptical of the boasting 'good' people; skeptical not judgmental because I hold no right in judging. We each have to judge for ourselves what is right and wrong and prayerfully I choose right.

Ten Things Money CAN’T buy?

Manners
Morals
Respect
Common sense
Character
Class
Integrity
Trust
Patience
LOVE!

Bonus: Faith, Hope and Charity

1 Cor. 13:13 KJV “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

Quotation Saturday ~ Ego, Vanity, Empathy, Truth

1 Sam. 12:24 “Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.”

EGO

“The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.” 
― Criss Jami

“The Ego is a veil between humans and God’.”
“In prayer all are equal.” 
― Rumi

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge… is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.” 
― Bill Bullard

“Accomplishments don’t erase shame, hatred, cruelty, silence, ignorance, discrimination, low self-esteem or immorality. It covers it up, with a creative version of pride and ego. Only restitution, forgiving yourself and others, compassion, repentance and living with dignity will ever erase the past.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

VANITY

“The wise do not buy into other people’s perceptions of who they are and what they are capable of. Instead, they bypass a person’s public persona and see who they are in their highest expression. When you see actions taken with integrity, instead of words only, you will then know a soul’s worth.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” 
― Jane Austen

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.” 
― Dale Carnegie

“Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.” 
― Blaise Pascal

EMPATHY

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” 
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” 
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors.” 
― Andrew Boyd

“Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action.” 
― Daniel Goleman

TRUTH

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.” 
― Jim Morrison

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” 
― Søren Kierkegaard

“Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now.” 
― Joss Whedon

“The truth doesn't always set you free; people prefer to believe prettier, neatley wrapped lies” 
― Jodi Picoult

Pss. 51:6 “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”

Nurturing The Spirit

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

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

Nurturing the Spirit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Pick-N-Choose World

Ps. 55: 16 “As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.”

If you believe what you like in the gospels,
and reject what you don't like,
it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.
 ~ St. Augustine

I saw this quote and felt like giving St. Augustine a high-five! This is so true. People have a tendency to pick and choose what they believe and read in the Bible. 

Then I spotted this meme of the Mash TV series.  Hawkeye and Father Mulcahy are talking:

“War isn’t hell, war is war and hell is hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

How you figure Hawkeye?

Easy Father. Tell me, who goes to hell?

Sinners, I believe.

Exactly, there are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them – little kids, cripples, old ladies, in fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.” 

This struck me: “Who goes to Hell? Sinners, I believe.”

If we are all sinners, does that mean we are all going to Hell?

Well wait, we’re not all going to hell, right? Because all we have to do is read, believe, sin, and ask for forgiveness over and over again? Right? I got it. I don’t believe it but that is my right also just as you have your right to pick and choose what you believe in the bible and what actions you take LIVING the word of God. 

It seems to me that all this country is wrapped up in is politics, lies, media’s supposed truths, and more sin drowning in their veins. They love riling people up as they sit and judge and point fingers demanding transparency from situations we have no business in knowing. I say that with respect to the DECEASED in the matter and families who are dealing with a horrible death. They don’t want the stories rehashed over and over. They don’t want killers faces again and again in the news. When does the media share the innocent victims lives and plaster their images for all of the world to see? They don’t because NO ONE would SHARE that and feed the click-bait world.

The world bathes in sin yet claim an allegiance to God, any God for that matter, they wrap their belief in sin, let sin seep through their veins and bleed falsehood all in the name of an allegiance to their God?

While everyone is enjoying hating the president of the U.S, I’ve heard him called everything from a liar to a Muslim, to being a part of Islam and it goes on and on. People of the world would so much rather HATE than look deeply in the mirror and see the true them that is reflected back. Lies have been going on since the beginning of time itself and we think we have rights to the truth? Just what truth do you seek? Do you seek truth from politicians? That’s funny. Presidents lied in the past and they’ll lie in the future. Man will lie in his own lie.

The further and further we push God out of our country, the more and more people need to hate. They’re addicted to it, it’s a NEED of theirs to feel in control.

John of the Yahoo comment section wrote: “I am so surprised that the anti-Christ [Trump] is going to use political correctness to take over, I always wondered how he would do it, the bible says he will be a great speaker spewing good things from his mouth, that he will preach peace. Years ago I thought all this religion was nonsense, that there was no way we would ever lose Christianity in this country, or that the teaching of Jesus would stop as Jesus said it would, but now as an old man I am a firm believer, because I see the things of Christianity coming to an end in the name of tolerance, and I am not just talking about the saying of have a merry Christmas or the taking down of the ten commandments, I see an assault by our own government and president, and I have to wonder where all the Christians are at.”

All the Christians are too busy picking and choosing what they believe in. They’re rolling around in a mud bath slinging hate to the world, getting caught up in sin and calling their anger justified by the word of Christ. Allow me to tell you, there is no in between. You can’t be against the Lord one day (full of hate, rage and rants) and be a good looking upstanding Christian the next. It just doesn’t work that way. 

Pick and choose right or wrong, there is no justifiable middle.

Goodness Makes The Badness Go Away

John 14:21 (NIV) "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

“Goodness makes the badness go away”

This song was a part of the Smurfs Christmas special one year. They sang the song to dispel an evil curse that was poured over them by mysterious dark man. Even Gargamel was under the curse and only the Smurfs could save them.

The lyrics go like this:

Goodness makes the badness go away.
Goodness makes you happy every day.
Badness cannot start if there's goodness in your heart.
Goodness makes the badness go away.

This song came to mind as I posted my blog. Yesterday I tried to post a blog about the evil taking over the world but wouldn’t you know it, a force kept me from logging in as our internet went out completely in the morning and didn’t return until bedtime 10 pm. So I posted my blog, The Legion Puzzle, on 6 16 16. Ironic isn’t it, that 666 is in the date?

The earth is being swallowed up by the evil permeating the souls of humans. In the news, images, lies, deceit, corruption all smother the mind and keep it away from the goodness that might be had in a day. Yes, there is goodness in the world but when you wake in the morning, is that the first thing you think about? Is all the good in the world the first thing you read about or fill your mind with? 

The newspaper, online or offline, never focus’ on the good happening in the world, they have to target all the bad and ill will that is suffocating humans in every part of the world. People find pleasure in reading about a botched facelift, they cheer on broken marriages, they post and repost about all that is wrong in the world and rarely posts about the good going on in the world. 

There has to be more than the rescue of animals that makes the good news rounds. While I’m all for the saving of animals lives, isn’t there ANY good happening out there in the human form? Are people so consumed with sharing all that is wrong in the world isn’t there anything going right?

Is it possible for goodness to make the badness go away? Am I just a dreamer who wants nothing but good things for this world? Am I alone in my quest to see a turnaround? If every single human alive today took one day out of their lives to consciously become aware of the hate they’re spreading and instead traded it in for something positive, I DO believe the world could be changed.

But such as it is, we don’t want a universal good in the world. We’ll justify our anger by saying, “Well he’s not spreading love and good thoughts, why should I?” That is the problem, you see? You are so worried about what the other person is doing and not caring about what YOU are putting out into the world. 

We live in a click-bait world where you see something interesting on facebook, click it and share because someone said you are heartless if you don’t share. You then have opened the door for advertisers and prey to follow you around posting what they KNOW you’ll click and as a bait, you snag it up and are ensnared and are also blindly walking into a web of deceit.

We live in a self-serving world; ‘if it doesn’t benefit ME than I’m not interested’ attitude. So I’ll ask, doesn’t goodness interest you? Does sharing good positive thoughts hurt you? No? Then why cling to anger and hatred as a daily sport?

I know that this is a political year, and I know everyone has their opinions of who is the best choice but the way I see it, the darkness has taken over the world so much so we are left with two bad choices. This is the way that evil works. You don’t get to choose the best man/woman for the job, you have to choose what is offered universally and there is nothing good left in the world; no light at the end of the tunnel.

Control the input that seeps through your veins and into your mind demeaning your brain. I’m so tired of the ‘If you’re a true friend, you’ll repost this’ as a way of GUILTING me into action. I cannot be made to do anything I don’t want to do but I see so many committing the action because I guess they ARE a true friend? All of us who don’t repost are just normal, non-caring, insensitive souls.  I see fewer people on facebook because it has become a mission of some to destroy the many people and their joyous being.

Why is the world wrapped in badness and sadness? Why do people choose pain over joy? Why is evil over saturating the innocent? Why has darkness swallowed the Light? You can’t blame religion, politics, the Muslim, Islam, radical Islam on this alone. No, EVERY single person who chooses hatred over love is a part of the problem. Your anger and rage should be targeted at YOU! 

A friend’s friend C. Amsden wrote: “Hate is so much easier and less painful than love. Hate allows us to feel superior and righteous. Love tears at our guts and emotions. It leaves us vulnerable and weak. Hate builds an altar to our own egos and lets us worship our own perfection. Hate is never really about the person it is directed toward, it is always about the person it stems from. Love is always about the person receiving it, not the one giving it. Hate is the ultimate selfishness.”

We now accept sin as a way of life. There is only one defense and that is love and forgiveness. Here are the words from a man who just lost his daughter in the Orlando, Florida brutal carnage. 

"We forgive the shooter. We talked about it," said Deonka's father, a pastor who runs a nonprofit that helps the poor and elderly. "Hatred will find a way to destroy you, so we forgive the shooter. It wasn't very hard to do. Anger was in me and there was no place to release it. Forgiveness was the way to release it." 

Can goodness make the badness go away? I fear I’ll never find out. I fear it is too late. So continue what you’re doing and never change. We’re right on the path that was set at the beginning of time.

The Legion Puzzle

James 1:21 (NIV) “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

This past weekend we the people saw what the people of this world are capable of these days. A young up and coming singer/active YouTuber became a victim of violence and her vicious death was overshadowed on Sunday when a mad man went into a nightclub and opened fire killing and maiming as the bullets swept the floor. 

The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place and I, out here in my own little world, am not oblivious to what is going on in the world, I’m saddened by it. I remember a time when we safely walked the darkened streets, listened and respected our parents, and enjoyed life as we knew it to be. Today, we walk the streets with hidden weapons in our purse, mace attached to our hip and extra locks on our door because of fear and hate.

Fear and hate rule the world and don’t you for one minute think politicians in any country rule. Religion does not rule, love knows not where to live, and a legion of darkness is swelling across the world in record heights ready to make this world an afterthought.

Mark 5:9 “And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”

Are you a piece of the Legion puzzle? Do you wake finding yourself so full of rage and hate that the only way to release the hatred is to go and share asinine posts with others so they can mount their hate also?

The media throws fresh animosity on the fire by fanning the flames with whichever political party they’re affiliated with and those from the opposite side eat smores around the flame just waiting to spew new fire among the masses. A vicious cycle that can be annihilated through the power of love and prayer but people are too smothered with the Social Media scene, lies and hate that they can’t get out of the stronghold that their addiction to media-spew holds on them.

I sometimes fear that people are addicted to hate. They wake in the morning and just like their coffee they need to drink in the hate to see what mean hurtful things are out there that they can put their spin on and feed their fellow [virtual] friends. They thrive on hostile illusions with clenched fist. The world is consumed with filling themselves to the brim with hate so much so the days are darkened in every part of the world. 

I know exactly what Jesus felt like when he tried to spread love and the people laughed and scoffed, mocking Him at every turn, willingly hanging Him on the cross to die. I am the outcast that everyone laughs at because I want to share love. I’m the one not liked for not being a part of the Legion of evil hate-mongers of the world. I will not swim with the fish that are so full of bitterness that it’s getting very difficult swimming against the malignant flow.

Not many are willing to stand up for love and positivity because they’re too busy swimming in venom. They are the cancer of our society and are a part of what is destroying the world. It’s kind of ironic that people are willing to ‘share’ the scripture and follow it up with the evil angst that has a grip on them through their malicious rants. Don’t they see that THEY are part of the problem?

The more and more people that feed off what the media spoon-feeds you, you are then becoming filled with their agenda filled animosity. You are not your own person, you’re a sheep being led into slaughter and you don’t try and fight, you just join in and sling mud with them [the media] hoping you look good but you look as demented as them, you have willingly become a part of the Legion Puzzle! 

You are the darkness that hides the Light. You are the evil that permeates the soul of the human species spreading like a wildfire out of control and all that is left is the singed embers that once were known as love.

God is gone. God is dead. He isn’t alive in the many, He is alive in a few and that is why the world will come to an abrupt ending because you didn’t care. Your anger and hatred was more important than your salvation. Millions share your ill will and like lava, the moving flow will destroy all it comes in contact with.

I’m alone. I sit and watch the flames of demons lick the faces of people I once loved and devour them. I watch as the world is pulled into the sweaty palm of satan and squeezed for their very last breath of pure air that they can no longer taste. I look and see people being chewed and spit out of the black teeth that have bit them and left a mark on their soul. Ravaged is the human race that has become victims of the beast. You are now a piece of the Legion Puzzle fitting in nicely where satan would have you placed.

Awake you sleeping nation!

Rev. 6: [1] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
[2] And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
[3] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
[4] And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
[5] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
[6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
[7] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
[8] And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
[9] And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
[10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Are You Addicted to Technology?

Ps. 26:2-3 “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.

Are You Addicted to Technology?

I wasn’t expecting a sermon on the Power of Prayer to start off with, are you addicted to technology, but it did. After speaking about Ecclesiastes Pastor went on to speak about the selfie-driven world, then listed astronomical statistics. He said there are 93 million selfies taken EVERY DAY! He went on to say that the younger generation will take 25,000 pictures of themselves by the end of their lives.

This was not against technology this was about the self-driven nation. We are so absorbed with ourselves that we then forget about God. We may fool ourselves into believing we’re all about God but seriously when you’re so absorbed in a technological gadget, posting on facebook and twitter, hanging out on Instagram and Pinterest, where is God in your life then?

He asked:
Do you take your cell phone to bed and keep it close to you?
Do your friends and spouse complain about it? (the time spent cradling it?)
Do you check your phone first thing in the morning and the last thing before bed?
Do you feel bummed when you forget to bring your phone into the bathroom with you?

Then you’re addicted.

He said, “We think of our phone serving us but we wind up serving them, and that is really the definition of an idol, isn’t it?” He went on to tell us he was not anti-technology he was just pointing out the fact that the more we are absorbed by the techno gadgets, the more our prayer life will be hindered. Connecting with God is an afterthought after we’ve connected with the media world.

Pss.139:1 “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
[2] Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
[3] Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
[4] For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

[23] Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
[24] And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

You may say, “I’ve got my friends, I’ve got facebook.” But how many friends do you have right now that you could call and they’d come to your assistance? Your thousands of friends that LIKE your posts release a dopamine high and you get the rush of feeling loved and that’s all well and good, but do they KNOW you? Really?

Burger King had an offer for a free Whopper meal if you unfriend ten friends on facebook. They had to pull the plug on THAT little promotion because over 230,000 people had been unfriended and were angry! They did find out how much a facebook friend is worth, .37 cent!

People like the appearance of having over one thousand friends, people thrive on being liked but in reality, the average person has four friends, some have less. Four true friends that they physically see on a regular basis and are actual friends, but for appearances sake, they have thousands of friends in the social world, each of which they have no idea who they are they just feel important adding people to the list.

Ecc. 4:9-11 “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?”

“We are drawn to our technology, that provides the illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship.” Terry Sherkel says, “Technology seems to address all the greatest needs we have, the need for attention everywhere, to be heard and to never be alone.” 

Ecc. 5:1  “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.”

Yeah, these days’ people even take their media gadgets to church with them. I hear many say it keeps the bible at their fingertips but I wonder, is that in between a selfie? A picture of their breakfast/lunch/dinner? I’m only asking because I have no idea what the excitement is by taking a picture of yourself. I’ve never taken a selfie. My phone is for phone calls and I don’t text so it is used just for phone calls. Enlighten me on why people need to let the world know what they’re doing every minute of the day, even when they’re sitting in church?

My only techno-gadget is my laptop and I use that for my blog/writing or playing a game of chess or solitaire. I read mail, and sometimes go to facebook to say hi to friends and see all of the prayer requests needed for each day but that is the gist of my techno use and knowledge. I’m happily old-fashioned and I like myself that way, not tainted by the media and all the baloney people post to sling hate to their thousands of friends. Yup, attention seekers survive via their social media outlets. Poor things, they need all the prayer I can give.

My prayer isn’t only for the attention seekers and media addicted folk, my prayer is for the awakening of the world that they may see how they are all a piece of the puzzle that is forming the world-wide web of hate. I can now see how a sermon on the Power of Prayer turned into an enlightening piece of the technology addicts of the world. By tuning into our gadgets that is one less minute we are spending with God. Wonder no more why the world is the way it is today.