I'm Alive

 I'm Alive

Yes siree, I’m alive and well and writing! Thirteen posts so far (this one makes fourteen) and my New Year is off and running in the right direction. I say the right direction because I’m not wasting my time sitting endless hours on facebook just waiting for some kind of activity for me to like. Nope, I’m writing!

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re retired and enjoying the Golden Years of your life, by all means use facebook for what it is good for, games. If you’re disabled, facebook and socializing can be great therapy. If you’re wealthy and don’t need to work, facebook can be a great form of relaxing or if you’re sick and in bed seeing some familiar names to chat with can sometimes make you feel all better.

I always seem to come down hard on facebook maybe because I am dead to facebook and facebook is dead to me. I’m getting back into what God intended for me to do and this is to write. I think if He intended for me to twiddle my fingers and thumbs, He’d see to it that FB was a joy in my life instead of an idle/idol distraction.

It’s taken me a while to realize that facebook is an actual lifeline for folks and by me always negatively harping on it, may do more harm than good. My son almost slapped me upside the head and told me to stop ragging on facebook; that some people actually LIKE it. Okay sure, whatever. I notice HE is never on facebook but then it’s just not for him. To him it’s a retirement community for old folks. (remember, he’s a kid!)

Maybe I should stick to being lonely in the confines of my mind. I notice that no legitimate, successful author ever made a name for himself by sitting on the walls of facebook becoming oh so popular. Nope, his/her writing is what spoke volumes and that is where I’m at, at this juncture in my life; making my writing stand out!

I think this is the year I need to focus more on the seriousness of writing. Not just spitting out blog posts, I mean some serious writing. It might mean spending a lot of time inside my mind and that could be quite dangerous. It also means focusing on courses that will move me forward with my writing.

I often wonder if I died tomorrow, would all of those so-called friends miss me? Would they say what a great friend I was and how they’ll miss my whining, loving, caring words? I don’t think so. I think they’ll wipe me off the bottom of their shoes and continue on in their Mardi gras life, whooping and hollering about all that is wrong with the world and doing absolutely NOTHING to make a change. All talk, talk, talk and no action, except a facebook post.

May I walk with God all the days of my life and may His light shine ‘round about me. Amen!

Rom. 1:21-32 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Thank You Dear Lord

THANK YOU

Below is a scripture that I was led to by the Spirit and I read it in the wee hours of Monday morning. This is exactly how I have been feeling lately.

Pss. 143:1-6 Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.
I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

And my prayer:

Pss. 143:7-12  Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name's sake: for thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.

And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

And my answer:

Pss. 144: 1-15 Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.
LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;
Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.
It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:
That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.
Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.

This was Monday morning’s meditation and Bible reading and if you read my poem on Sunday, you’ll see how similar they are. I wrote the poem on Saturday and Monday morning I was led to these readings. I am Spirit filled and Spirit led.

Just so you know, no matter how deep the pit, there is always the Light that will lead you to a comfort zone in your soul.

Praise be to God!

Do I Fear?

Pss. 143:7 Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit

Do I Fear...

I don’t live in fear but yesterday I felt a twinge before posting my poem post to facebook. I expected no reply and got no reply. Eighty friends and only three LIKES? Boy that makes me feel like all the writing I do is worthwhile. I haven’t posted on my FB wall since Christmas Eve and I’m all the better for it; I’ve written for the first twelve days of the New Year. I feel liberated, alone, but free from the restrictions FB places on me as a human being.

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” 

~Robert Frost

As the sun rises in a flaming ball of fire and clouds brush over to hide it in the shadows I’m reminded that that is how life is. Sometimes you’re standing in the spotlight of the world with all eyes on you and then it happens, a mist falls over your face veiling you and placing you in the darkness of the shadows.

Do you cower in fear or reflect on what is taking place? I choose reflection. Only because in the shadows the reflection becomes more clear for you to see. The only thing I fear in life is the Wrath of God. As I’ve said in previous posts, I don’t feel ready to grab even the first rung of the ladder into Heaven.

As I watch others prance around in confidence or blindly traipse as if there is nothing to be concerned with, after all they’re guaranteed the walk up the ladder because they believe. I’ve said it before, I’m not so sure that just believing is the route to heaven.

“To let God make us, instead of painfully trying to make ourselves; to follow the path that his love shows us, instead of through conceit or cowardice or mockery choosing another; to trust Him for our strength and fitness as the flowers do, simply giving ourselves back to Him in grateful service,—this is to keep the laws that give us the freedom of the city in which there is no longer any night of bewilderment or ignorance or uncertainty.”
~ Sarah Orne Jewett, A Country Doctor

I found this author (thanks Bob) and practically fell in love. I’m in search of her writings because she sounds so much like me I had to do a double take. Her quote above is dead on. We can not make ourselves, only God can do that. And too often I see people trying too hard (conceit?) to make themselves something they’re not.

“Trust Him for our strength and fitness like the flowers do…” Very well put Ms. Jewett.

Flowers do not feed themselves with dogma, doctrine or debates. They are fed with earth, Light and rain. A Rose does not compete with the Lily; they have acquired their own beauty in their own right/rite. They don’t need to be the best and most popular in the garden, they just need to be…ALIVE. And THAT my friends is what I’m striving for; to simply give back to God the beauty He has shown me, nothing more, nothing less. I will walk the path He has placed in front of me and be grateful for every step I’m allowed.

May God bless you on your journey.

"I learned the hard way that I cannot always count on others to respect my feelings, even if I respect theirs. Being a good person doesn't guarantee that others will be good people. You only have control over yourself and how you choose to be as a person. As for others, you can only choose to accept them or walk away."
— Unknown Author

 

 

Poetry Sunday ~ Alone Am I

Pss. 102:7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

Alone Am I

Alone am I in the confines of my mind

Left for no one but me to see

Running along in these empty halls

As an echo sounds as sanity calls.

Forsaken am I can anyone bear

The care and love of life

Amnesty airs forgiveness of lies

Solitude speaks silence of eyes.

I dared to go where lightning glared

Its fingertip on my soul

Searing a hole in loneliness cold

Breaking the mold if truth be told.

Seclusion aims an arrow set free

On me it callously claims.

Alone am I in the confines of free

Left for no one but me to see.

 

 

~~ * ~~ * ~~

Quotation Saturday

1 Tim. 6:20 “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:”

FAKE

“The difference between my darkness and your darkness is that I can look at my own badness in the face and accept its existence while you are busy covering your mirror with a white linen sheet. The difference between my sins and your sins is that when I sin I know I'm sinning while you have actually fallen prey to your own fabricated illusions. I am a siren, a mermaid; I know that I am beautiful while basking on the ocean's waves and I know that I can eat flesh and bones at the bottom of the sea. You are a white witch, a wizard; your spells are manipulations and your cauldron from hell yet you wrap yourself in white and wear a silver wig.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“I despise the rituals of fake friendship. I wish we could just claw each other's eyes out and call it a day; instead we put on huge radiant smiles and spout compliments until our teeth hurt from the saccharine sweetness of it all.”
― Jody Gehrman

“You will never find the real truth among people that are insecure or have egos to protect. Truth over time becomes either guarded or twisted as their perspective changes; it changes with the seasons of their shame, love, hope or pride.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Being kind to someone, only to look kind to others, defeats the purpose of being kind.”
― Shannon L. Alder

SINCERITY

“Sincerity - if you can fake that, you've got it made.”
― George Burns

I am an extremely sincere individual. I am sincere, to a fault. One of the many things that I have come to realize, to learn, is that sincerity must be reserved and given only to those who deserve it. And one must save one's emotions, channeling them only to the people who are worthy of it. One must not throw one's pearls to the pigs.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.”
― Confucius

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

CHARACTER

“The worth of a person’s thought is measured not by the quantity but by the quality of the support that it has got and this quality is defined by a single factor, which is only people’s human character.”
― Anuj Somany

“A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading.”
― Leszek Kołakowski

“A company of wolves, is better than a company of wolves in sheep's clothing.”
― Anthony Liccione

“The steady soul and the ego pretender / walk with their arms round each other's shoulders / through the mirage.”
― Jay Woodman

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters”
― Albert Einstein

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
― John Wooden

“Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.”
― Abraham Lincoln

ALONE

“It is better to be alone than in bad company.”
― George Washington

“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”
― Norton Juster

“Alone, I often fall down into nothingness. I must push my foot stealthily lest I should fall off the edge of the world into nothingness. I have to bang my head against some hard door to call myself back to the body.”
― Virginia Woolf

“Suddenly this defeat.
This rain.
The blues gone gray
And the browns gone gray
And yellow
A terrible amber.
In the cold streets
Your warm body.
In whatever room
Your warm body.
Among all the people
Your absence
The people who are always
Not you.


I have been easy with trees
Too long.
Too familiar with mountains.
Joy has been a habit.
Now
Suddenly
This rain.”
― Jack Gilbert

Weight On My Shoulders

2 Cor. 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about heaven. I don’t know, it’s a quirk of mine. I’m hard pressed to see the Light in this world so sometimes I think of what heaven must be like without all the evil running around. It must be, takes a deep breath, heaven.

I had always made a false assumption that just believing in Jesus, accepting Him as my Savior and asking for forgiveness (over and over mind you) would assure me of at least one rung on the ladder to the so-called Pearly Gates, right? Wrong.

You see, I don’t think I’ve ‘got it right’ with God and on a daily basis I strive to get it right but sometimes I think I’m an epic fail. I walk with ‘blind faith’, I think that is the term, because I walk on faith alone not needing the proof so many Christians seek.

Blind faith is something people believe without any evidence to support it, but my faith has been sustained BY evidence of what I’ve seen and beheld, so blind faith is the wrong term for me. So what next, the weight of the Bible.

Have you ever risen on any given day and your first thought is of food? Coffee? Anything BUT the Bible? Hmm. Here’s a concept; maybe we have an overweight society because food is all we think about. Sure many Christian’s will say, “Hey, I read the Bible!”

 Offended are they? Why? Because they think of food MORE than they think of the Bible? Can you imagine how different your life would be if every time you thought of food, you replaced it with reading a scripture verse? Can you imagine a world, that if when feeling a pang of anger/hate/disgust/bitterness you reached for a bible verse before spitting out the words of anger? I bet more and more people would be FILLED and not think of food/anger/hate/disgust.

We are a society that lives to please ourselves first and foremost. We are a hunger craved society who feels we can only be filled if we place ‘things’ in our life to fill us so that we can feel a somewhat peace, but really, seriously think if this gives you peace.

My son is always telling me I need to eat more, ‘You eat like a bird.’ Did you ever think that maybe because I am filled? Maybe because my stomach is content? My thoughts are not of food until my stomach cries out in weird gurgling noises screaming for me to nourish myself with food and water that sustain this life and its mere existence.

I’m a strange little creature. Food, coffee and cakes do not define me. God does and with that I have never in my life struggled with being overweight (or underweight for that matter). Maybe it’s my metabolism but I have always placed God first and allowed Him to be my nourishment and life sustaining food. Yup, strange little creature.

As I search for the rungs of the ladder that will eventually lead me to heaven, I need to be sure I’m getting it all right with God before that fateful day. The weight of the Bible is the most heaviest thing that you can carry and I don’t feel that I or the strongest man alive is up to the challenge. As humans, we’re destined to fail but it is by the faith and that heavy bible that the rungs of the ladder seem a possibility.

Which book of the bible, if any, have you allowed to define you? What are YOU doing to carry the weight of the Holy Book? Are you working to get it right with God?
 
May God Bless each and every one of you!

Why King James Version?

Prov. 30:5-6  Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

Since first grade and my entry into a Catholic elementary school, I was introduced to the Word via the King James Bible. For countless years the King James Bible was my guide. I read it like it was the only book on my shelf from front to back and over and over again through the years.

In ninth grade I went to a Christian school and again, the use of the KJV bible was the one used for our bible studies. I hadn’t even heard of other translations of the bible but our Pastor at CLA (Christian Liberty Academy) told us of numerous ‘other’ translations that were out there and that we should steer clear lest we wanted to be led astray.

I remember one distinct day a conversation my sister and I were having as she was struggling in her faith. She asked me how I understood the bible so clearly when she herself found it so confusing. She knew of my love of poetry and I told her, “It is poetry to my eyes and ears.”

As you can imagine she looked even more confused by stating, “I just don’t get it.”

I personally don’t think the bible was written for us to ‘get’. I think it was written solely for us to feel! A new age guru did not write the words of the bible. He did not set out to explain every minute detail of every single word defining passages along the way. But in many of the NEW translations I feel that is what someone tried to do, write the bible more clearly so everyone could understand the Word it was speaking.

Even at our church, the KJV is frowned upon, seeking the word from the NIV because that was the most closely translated version of the KJV. Pastor Mike would often reference the KJV because the NIV didn’t have the clarity of the words. Many friends find the NIV an easier read, also. Can you all say, DIVIDED?

Does anyone realize that all these versions are simply dividing instead of what the Word intended on UNIFYING. When people hear that there are over 50 different versions of the Bible in the English language alone, they often think, "No wonder they are so divided.”

They might be wrong and they might be right. I’m not here to say who/what is wrong or right, I’m here to say what works for ME! And quite frankly, the King James version has worked for me for over 40 years now, so why would I want to conform to what other believers are believing and using? If the other translations work for you, that is fine, but my house, and me, we serve the Lord and I won’t let other translations cloud my enjoyment of the poetry it speaks to my heart and soul.

The one scripture that stands out to me that is too ‘changed’, and it’s not because of any Charlie Brown Christmas either, is the one from Luke.

KJV - Luke 2:8-14 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

NIV – Luke 2:8-14  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

The entire scripture was changed! Did you notice that the NIV omitted the words CHRIST OUR LORD? Yes, I know Messiah the Lord means the same thing but WHY omit CHRIST? How is changing those three words more clearly defining the Word? I find that entire scripture sacrilegious! But then again, that is just ME! And just on whom does His favor rest?

As hard as satan tries to tug and pull me away from what CHRIST has shown me, I will not be led to his lies, fear and doubts he tries throwing at ME! I am SPIRIT-FILLED, not just a liver and believer. I am a follower of Christ and not ashamed of it in anyway way. But satan will have you believe otherwise through guilt, shame and doubt. Be aware of his tactics.
So why do I choose the King James Version? Because it is a poetic imprint on my soul that I just can’t shake and don’t want to either.
 
Follow what is on your heart and may God be with you at all times.

The Lesser of Two Evils

Eph. 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

I find it quite funny these days when people use Social Media to promote Christ and the Word of God. A lot of these people are the same folk who smoke, drink, lie, cheat and anything else you can name, but in the name of the Lord, they promote Him?

Yeah, that used to be my mode of operation but then I realized, shoving the bible down people’s throat is a turn-off not a turn-to way of operating. Now if you have a plethora of Christian friends and you post a bible verse that is touching you that day that you want to share, your friends high five in agreement. But suppose you’re just a casual believer along with many of your friends? Will the Word of God be accepted the same way?

Sure they’ll like it, sure they’ll read it, sometimes laugh with you about it, but then the next day your so-called Christian actions prove you to be a believer not an active participant. That’s acceptable because it is the path you choose. It is okay for you, not ME.

When a Jehovah’s Witness knocks on your door, do you like the intrusion? How about when you’re unloading groceries from your shopping cart? How about if a man is standing on the street corner belting out Bible verses telling you to become a born again Christian because the end is near? I think facebook and twitter have become that form of platform for spreading the Word.

I see more and more people using the word of God for an agenda. Using God? That rolls over well doesn’t it? Since God knows all and sees all, maybe He’ll see you posting and trying to bring people closer to Him, maybe that will earn you brownie points with God.

James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

I laugh because very early on I learned you CANNOT earn your way into heaven! The show you put on for others is for you and you alone so you look good and righteous-like. It’s a total turn-off to me and saddens me to see people using God like an old bath towel; tossing Him around here and there but never really utilizing His word and works in your life.

When I used to post bible verses, I chose them from my morning bible reading that touched me and I thought maybe my fellow Christian friends would be touched also. To choose the lesser of two evils (figure of speech?) I would post biblical memes that meant nothing to anyone in particular but I was bombarding the walls thinking it was the right thing to do. In hindsight I see that it touched only me and that only I knew what they meant, to ME.

The show is over. I will not give up on God and I will not sugarcoat the Word but I will also not use God for an agenda, I use the Word to set my moral compass by and hope that in a dry stale world people will actually seek out all this ‘jargon’ that people are talking about.

I will not rely on the media, social networks, or the so-called Christians to fool me into something. That’s what it feels like, they’re trying to fool me and turn me AWAY from God instead of into His arms. I have fallen off the ‘hey-look-at-me-I’m-a-Christian’ wagon. I now turn to the regularly scheduled program, the BIBLE!

Never in my life have I been so discouraged. The way I see it is evil is using some pretty creative ways to taint the Word of God and His children. It’s his mission and one he’s succeeding at and one I won’t be a part of. Again… I’ll remain ME. I cannot buy, sell or work my way into heaven and more than likely I won’t even get to knock on the doors of heaven but when God sees Me, He’ll see the genuine SPIRIT of me that He created.


 Pss. 1: 1-6 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The Shadow Knows

Psalm 27:13 (NIV) I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Writing for myself…

These days I’m writing for myself. If by chance you pass on by, lucky you but I’m no longer promoting my blog on facebook, so if I’m not one of your bookmarks, you more than likely miss what I’m writing. I might on occasions share a poem on facebook or maybe my quotations but no, facebook isn’t working out for me these days. Maybe with the New Year as I take hold of doing new things, new classes, writing, remaining sane in an insane world, I will write to inspire.

I’m distancing myself from all things that bring a negative energy into my life. While facebook is okay, there is a negativity that cannot be cleansed simply by bathing. I visit, click a few likes, thank the two people who still remember me and sometimes think of me, then I’m on my way with the busyness of my day.

Here lately my household has been taken over by what I feel is dark negative force. So eliminating facebook and all its false images and negativity has driven me to take a deeper look at my surroundings physically. I see a collapse in view. Crumbling of walls where only rubble is left to pick through and I feel a pain in knowing this and the inability to stop the movement that has begun.

My son loves The Walking Dead and now Steven has found it on a site where he can watch TV shows with listings from A-Z. I understand that people are fascinated with Zombie’s and wanting to watch people eat people but where do you draw the line? Steven’s list started with the innocent watching of Gotham then Agents of Shield but now includes Fringe, Falling Skies, Walking Dead, Sleepy Hollow and Hemlock Grove, which he lost interest in, I think. Hemlock Grove looks like a soft-porn show with demons, vampires, lesbians and nudity on Netflix, but I could be wrong about the soft-porn. (Too judgmental?) Sometimes I do judge a show too harshly but it is only by MY moral standards, apparently.

People crave these dark shows because just as when they sought God and the Light, they feel they are protected in some way and can walk with the dark being for a bit uninfected. How wrong is THAT assumption? Yes, it’s just TV shows but again, where do you draw the line in what you allow to seep into your conscious? How can the dark shadows be in your outer conscious awakening, without leaking in bits and pieces to your sub-conscious to your very consciousness of being?

What comes over people to make them take steps toward the evil calling them? Well I just answered my own question. Evil comes over people. Satan licks his finger and touches a person and you can hear him joyfully boasting, “Tssssssss, gotcha.”

What starts out as innocently watching a few dark shows, grabs a hold of you and pulls you in a direction you no longer have control of. You can pretend to have control but darkness is nothing to control, it is something to push away, something to obliterate from your life.

From the very first man, a woman smote Adam, and they began their lust-filled adventure, one that we as humans cannot get control of in this lifetime. We can pretend, we can ask forgiveness and be forgiven a thousand million times, so we feel the sin is worth it because hey, we’ll be forgiven.

I understand it is our human nature to sin. It is impossible to live a sinless life but we can strive to be better humans and walk with the Lord, who IS sinless, and maybe just maybe His traits will rub off on you.

I am so thankful every day that the Lord is my breath and life sustaining virtue. That He carries me through the darkness whether by His side, or in His arms, He’s there to see me through all the darkness that tries to grab hold of things in my life. That’s one thing I can say, not boastingly but rather confidently; I am a beacon of Light in a household that succumbs to dark shadows lurking. Praise the Lord, Amen!

The Myth Factor

Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

I hear over and over again that the Bible is a myth. Why would some people believe this is beyond me but I do see why they’re misguided. After all, the book does have dragons and giants, Behemoth’s and rising dead people along with a virgin giving birth. That can all seem too ‘out there’ and a fabled myth for some folk.

I can go through hundreds of comments in a day and over and over when God is brought up, the unbeliever shoots him down quickly. The recent conversation of comments was on the subject of the Church denying gays and placing them outside as sinners condemned. The church tries to ‘change’ them and oftentimes they feel so left out that suicide is better than living.

One commenter states:

“It always amazes me how much hate people practice because they found it in a thousands year old book and insist on calling it love.”

Another Comment:

“Christianity has been peer reviewed for two thousand years and has done far more good if followed in spirit. Religion is merely a formalized moral position on various subjects that is voluntarily followed by a group of people. The same definition could be made regarding politics. And no, religion does not need a God, it simply needs a moral lawgiver. Something the world is in dire need of.”

I do believe that the world is conflicted because since the beginning of time there has been the war of good and evil and it looks to me like this day and age, evil is winning out in record numbers. The everyday news reports of killings, bombings, slaughtering makes the news but I wonder if what is going on and IS reported, what is seriously going on and NOT being reported?

I often read/hear, “Where was your God when [such and such] was happening?”

“Where’s your proof of this ‘God’?”

I’m so sick of people blaming God for bad things happening. Who can forget 9-11? Was that God who flew the plane into those buildings? No, it was evil that struck the nation and God saw the heartache and tried salvaging what evil had done.

When a plane crashes and kills four of five of those aboard, was it God who so heartlessly killed those people? No, it was HUMAN error! When God saw that one seven-year old child alive, His child, He led her to a safe house where she could receive assistance. Braving a rough terrain, almost freezing temperatures, and walking over a quarter of a mile, barefoot and in summer-like clothing, this child became the sole survivor of a devastating plane wreck.

Miracles happen and people will still blame God for the things He ‘didn’t’ do. I can see why the world is so confused. We have people claiming to be Christians but not acting like Christians; we have a ‘politically correct’ nation so hung up on technical jargon; we have a nation that hates God, and will spew anything against Him because He hasn’t shown Himself physically in many-a-year or done anything for ‘them’; we also have an entire group of people claiming to be Christians but needing scientific proof to be sure where exactly they stand. An extremely confused world we are.

Well people, I don’t have proof of anything; don't need it. All I have is my testimony, just as the men in the bible preach and write about. You see, the Bible is just a testimony, albeit divine, from man handed down through centuries. The Bible is comprised of them documenting certain events. They documented what THEY saw/heard and thus you have all the testimony in one book for you to discern as fact or fiction.

I CHOOSE to see it as fact only because of what God has shown ME. Whether He has shown YOU anything is up to you. If He’s shown you nothing, of course you’re going to doubt and need some sort of PROOF of this God.

Just today I was reading about ‘Scientific Proof’ of Jesus teaching in a synagogue. Scientific proof, that’s cute. One commenter said that WE people only believe this stuff because of a “mythological” story we read.

Let me tell you straight up, I don’t believe in God because of something I read. I do not base my faith on a book written and documented by men thousands of years ago. My faith comes from God himself. Sure, my moral compass was guided by the Word of the Bible; Yes I live a moral code set by the Bible but my faith is not just because I read a book called The Holy Bible.

Can you honestly say you have faith then seek out PROOF? I, in good conscience cannot. Faith is seeing and believing in the unknown; no proof needed. I don’t need scientific proof that the sea was parted. I need no documentation of Jesus’ footprints being found in the sand. I don’t need to know the exact spot the Ark was grounded and I sure don’t need a man (or woman) telling me what I’m doing right or wrong in MY belief.

I’ve been struggling a lot lately with religious division. It seems like what so many of the non-believers feel is that if the Bible is so true and proof-worthy, why are so many religions divided? If we all believe the same bible, the same Word, why are we so divided? Because we’re human! Humans have egos and a person with an ego always needs to be right; thus, a divided religious system.

I think I’ve figured it out. There will be debates on the proof, the non-proof, the truth and the non-truth until the end of time, until He comes back and wipes the smirk and ego right off your shoulders. I’ll keep MY faith tightly wrapped in the arms of the Holy Spirit.   

Poetry Sunday ~ I Bare My Soul

I Bare My Soul

I bare my soul for all to see

My heartstrings on display

To strum and pluck as you like

Now fill me with dismay.

You threw my soul onto the floor

I’ll strive to rise above

Fighting with all that’s left in me

My heart consumed by love.

You try your best to stuff my face

With brutal basted hate

Stringing me along in time

No longer can I wait.

Life is precious, as you’ll see

When you awaken to the truth

We are not meant to bathe in lies

Or struggle with being couth.

I bare my soul for all to see

One day you’ll understand.

That I’m not misled by earthly guise

I’m ushered by a Heavenly Hand.

 

 

 

Quotation Saturday II

POPULAR

“Christ has not called us to be popular, but to be faithful. We are not saved to be relevant to the crowds; we are saved to reflect Christ.”
~ Dillon Burroughs

“If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.”
~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“Popular culture is a place where pity is called compassion, flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, tension is called peace, gossip is called news, and auto-tune is called singing.”
~ Criss Jami

“As individuals die every moment, how insensitive and fabricated a love it is to set aside a day from selfish routine in prideful, patriotic commemoration of tragedy. Just as God is provoked by those who tithe simply because they feel that they must tithe, I am provoked by those who commemorate simply because they feel that they must commemorate.”
~ Criss Jami

UNPOPULAR

“Hanging with people who make you feel unappreciated, for the mere sake of appearing to be popular, is the loneliest place to be.”
~ Ellen J. Barrier

“Your crown is in the place that has the least crowd”
~ Constance Chuks Friday

“Stark truth, is seldom met with open arms.”
~ Justin K. McFarlane Beau

“Sometimes broken hearts are needed, that way you will appreciate the one that handles it with care.”
~ Lilly Ghalichi

ARROGANCE

“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”
~ Virginia Woolf

“Be careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility! Humility has nothing to do with the insecure and inadequate! Just like arrogance has nothing to do with greatness!”
~ C. JoyBell

“When you think yours is the only true path you forever chain yourself to judging others and narrow the vision of God. The road to righteousness and arrogance is a parallel road that can intersect each other several times throughout a person's life. It’s often hard to recognize one road from another. What makes them different is the road to righteousness is paved with the love of humanity. The road to arrogance is paved with the love of self.”
~ Shannon L. Alder

“Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.”
~ Emma Goldman

CONCEIT

“Arrogance is perhaps the most socially acceptable form of sin in the church today. In this culture of abundance, one of the only ways Satan can keep Christians neutralized is to wrap us up in pride. Conceit slips in like drafts of cold air in the winter. We don't see it, but outsiders can sense it.”
~ David Kinnaman

“Time and time again does the pride of man influence his very own fall. While denying it, one gradually starts to believe that he is the authority, or that he possesses great moral dominion over others, yet it is spiritually unwarranted. By that point he loses steam; in result, he falsely begins trying to prove that unwarranted dominion by seizing the role of a condemner.”
~ Criss Jami

“He thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow.”
~ Charles Martin

“Social media has infected the world with a sickening virus called vanity.”
~ Kellie Elmore

 

 

 

Quotation Saturday

RESOLUTIONS

“People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.”
~ Chuck Palahniuk

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.”
~ G.K. Chesterton

“The problem with people that ignore people they dislike is they can’t ignore them. Anger carries a person in your mind forever, whether you choose to speak to them or not. Therefore, don’t mistake prosperity or accomplishments as resolution. You can’t escape what you will not deal with. The day you can stand in the room with someone and not be affected is the day you truly moved on.”
~ Shannon L. Alder

“The first day of the brand new calendar year is an empowered time to psychologically unwind to mentally find own life charged emotionally with a refined energy & enthusiasm to create a beautiful growth paradigm within the physically defined laws of nature and the rules of the game called life.”
~ Anuj Somany

STARTING OVER

“There are no coincidences in life. What person that wandered in and out of your life was there for some purpose, even if they caused you harm. Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense the short periods of time we get with people, or the outcomes from their choices. However, if you turn it over to God he promises that you will see the big picture in the hereafter. Nothing is too small to be a mistake.”
~ Shannon L. Alder

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come. -”
~ Joseph Campbell

“Hearts rebuilt from hope resurrect dreams killed by hate.”
~ Aberjhani

“The death of a dream can in fact serve as the vehicle that endows it with new form, with reinvigorated substance, a fresh flow of ideas, and splendidly revitalized color. In short, the power of a certain kind of dream is such that death need not indicate finality at all but rather signify a metaphysical and metaphorical leap forward.”
~ Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams

DREAMS

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
~ Oscar Wilde

“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.”
~ Langston Hughes

“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Naked New Year

Acts 5:20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

Well as many spent their New Year’s Day sitting on facebook, tweeting on twitter, wasting a new day and the beginning of a new year, I was being productive and dismantling Christmas.

New calendars were hung and the first picture of the New Year? A Cardinal. That glorious red bird that visits me when he can is now on my wall for at least a month. That brought a smile to my face.

I sure get a lot done working with my disabled body. As I wrapped ornaments, snowmen and all, to be put away while Adam was unstringing lights from the tree and Christmas was slowly being sucked out of the house. By the end of the day my body was screaming in pain, not because Christmas was melting into the boxes not to be seen for another year, but because I try to do too much in a crippled body.

I woke thinking the day was going to be something special; that all the revelers knew something that I didn’t. I realized that I’m alone in the world of zombies. I woke to find it was a new day, the same as the day before, just a new calendar. The only thing that is going to change is me. I have to make some changes this year. This is not a resolution, this is a part of my continued soul searching and where it is leading me. There sure isn’t anyone going to do it for me.

1 Peter 4: 16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

The scripture above says a lot to me. While I’m not ashamed of my Christian beliefs, what I am ashamed of is how loosely based the term Christian is used. People who fear Christ, fear salvation, fear being born again call themselves Christians. I have to laugh out loud when I hear/read “Christians fear Christ” in the same sentence.

The reasons people fear Christ is because they haven’t opened themselves up to the POWER of the Holy SPIRIT of Christ. They call themselves Christians without even knowing what spirituality is because that’s some far flung belief from old.

My path is leading me away. Not that I sit in judgment of man because I know full well I am not one to judge people for misunderstanding, I’m just done with justifying and excusing them for not having the strength to seek out and find the spirit within them. For all intents and purposes, they seek what is on the outside. They will have to answer to their god one day, too.

Life after death. My new calendar year, as so many others in the past, will have me seeking. What will become of me in my life after death has drawn interest in me. I am not focusing on the here and now because all of this will be gone in a blink of the eye. What will be left of us? Our bare naked souls.

I’ve opened a wounded soul and seek out healing. I cannot pretend that my popularity and friendships will walk me through the gates of heaven. I will not put on a show of wondrous works to walk me through the Pearly Gates because I KNOW, nothing of this earth is going with me when I come face to face with God Himself! The only thing that will be exposed is my conscience.

I will walk with no guilt or shame when the portal opens. My clothes will be peeled from me, my skin shed and I must stand in front of God exposed. You know, I try to live every single day as if I’m standing exposed in front of God. Maybe if more people believed in God, and more people took the seriousness of their life after death, the world would not live in fear of Christ or His words, they would fear their eternal life.

No scientist is going to verify any fact that hasn’t been granted to me by knowing the Spirit of Christ. When we walk in the Spirit, there is no room for doubts and fears. And when people wake up and realize that being a Christian is MORE than just a name to call yourself, more than just a religious faith, more than any human mind can comprehend, then and only then will they be justified in calling themselves a Christian. A Christian is a disciple of CHRIST. Nothing more and nothing less.

May the Spirit of God be with you all!

Acts 11:23 Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
[24] For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.
[25] Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:
[26] And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.