Astounded:

     I will be astounded when it's all over.  It is said in the scriptures that no one knows when that time will be, but I believe I will see it.  I have seen lately the direct results of some people's hearts that had a direct bearing upon my family's well being.  My last blog was about that.  Today I got another dose of this present reality. Love is "waxing cold before our very eyes" and those who move in this mode inflict harm on innocents by a cold heart.  I moved clear across this country with little or nothing just 300.00 dollars on  hand and lots of prayer coupled with anxiety of course ( I tried to stiffle it.) This 300 came from my boss who knew my circumstances and was moved to help me.  I thanked God for this and set out in hope to start over again.
     Today after circumstances again unfortunate, my car's front end crumpled from a pothole and so I will fix it and go on and continue to be of the same mind Paul had, " To be content in any and all circumstances."  He said he had found the secret in Christ.  I intend to do the same.
     I know there are wonderful people still out there, with love that overflows, I hope to meet more of them along the way, and be built up again in my Spirit!  My inner man needs this....... from one who is in Christ forever....
     

OOPS! Here I go Again: Putting my faith in God and defying circumstances!

Oh, NO!  I just finished a 2-week stay in a camp ground in a small 8x8 tent with three humans, 3 cats and an 85lb. dog!  What the!  And I did not do this on purpose or camp for fun.....My landlord took back my house on short notice of 3 days and dispossesed us of our home of 3 1/2 years.   And on top of that I quit my job of three years that was a blessing and traveled 1900 miles across country to be taken in by a relative...thankfully.
     All this because of a man's heart that  "waxed cold" like the scriptures warn us Christians of in these last days.  Confronting him face to face and telling him he did not care for people did not phase him at all.  Let this type of thing be a warning to those with kind hearts that there are people who will trample and crush without remorse.
     I have at times been fearful of this type of circumstance especially since 2007 and in a shaky economy.  At best I managed to tamp this fear down and and keep going on doing the best I could do, but there are times when change overtakes planning and then my faith must be sufficient for the task ahead.  Often as a Christian I am moved by those less fortunate than I and those on the street who must hold cardboard signs and ask for handouts.  I do not judge and often I help when I can.
     So I will land again on my feet with God's grace and try and let the peace that surpasses understanding be in my heart.    Thank you Jesus for a safe trip! in a 20 year old car......with three humans, three cats, an 85 lb dog and many rest stops along the way!
   

I Can't Help It II }

     Now that I have your attention; in regards to yesterday's blog "square peg", let me refine what it is that I mean!  It is God who "shaves our corners" and fits us into a place in this world. I had a little fun with yesterday's blog, but let me say in all seriousness, God has purpose for those who have entered in and have left what they had been born into in their natural life.  It is God's will and intent that when we enter into a kingdom of right living and of "his right living" and not ours, we are subject to a change> and must be because without change we are no good to him.  If you want to be set on fire ( not a fire that consumes and turns to ashes that which it touches) but a fire that refines everything and anything that is witnin you that was corruptable then their are steps to take and a "WAY" to do this.
     The Way I am refering to is none other than Christ.  The Way was known as those  believers who believed in something different, they may have been known as a "sect" In Roman times and people were wary of them, but nevertheless, it changed the world.
     John the Baptist led the way for Christ laying a precious stone of Baptism (or "Death and in the grave"  and of repentance.  This was a necessary step to the beginning of Christ's ministry.  A repentance of our way and our sin.  Do not misunderstand our understanding of Sin, as those "things" we do that are considered wrong or not acceptable in a good world, but rather  as an "inescapable Curse" we had levied on us because of disobedience.  If that is a hard fact to swallow in our time then it will  always be a stumbling block to entrance. Your mind will not comprehend this fact but but your Spirit will.
     Your square peg must be whittled down little by little in order to continue in the faith one you have made choice.  And with wisdom and grace you will find that it does indeed have reward for you.
     Not that I have found everything about our current state of the (Church to be  what I thought it would be) but you can trust that the words of Jesus and of those forerunners, the Apostles who labored on in faith that their labor would bear fruit.  And it did a hundred and a thousand fold and into our day.
     The reference to " those people" polarizing, rough and sandpaper like are all those who stand on issues that divide and are abrasive because they hold to one element of truth only and make it their sole cause  and this bumps into another who holds the exact opposite and then instead of harmony their is confusion.
 

  3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

     
   
   

I Can't Help It!

I think I was born a square peg all along. And I cannot fit into the round hole no matter what I do! (even if I shaved the corners)  Always somewhat a loner, viewing life from a stance that did not include me it seemed!  And now it's even worse! I'm an Octagon.......I kinda fit nowhere!
Why is this, I ask myself?  It's all his fault.........Jesus....
     When I started searching for life's answer to the big {Me}...and all of the why's, why am I here, what do I do?  who am I?  It all started like a giant snowball rolling down hill. I did not really know if I was going to get an answer.
But now I know.  Why you say, are you so smart?  When some of the brightest people who ever lived could not find it. truth, or peace, or contentment or any of the other of life's precious things that make us feel special for a life well lived?
I have yet to figure that all out but I do not think it's Calvinism! Pre-destination? Paul's little topic?  NO
     It's more complex.  If God can relent and change his mind, (and he did over and over again) with his little "stiffnecked people" then I know we all have the posibility to find and enter into a kingdom with seemingly a different set of rules that exist!  and there's the rub.....we are now separate from what we were born into, and if we did not fit then, certainly we do not fit now!
     The more I wanted fellowship with "likeminded" people, the more I was startled to find a rude awakening.  Sandpaper, rough, abrasive, polarizing, people that were anything but co-hesive, all in the name of Chris............insanity?  (What men have done to it!)
     You see the Light of the World revealed all of the imperfections wherever he went and the biggie was our Sin and our state of being compared to his.  And because of this we are oil and water.  We can't mix in the world, we can't mix with our own because of the pettiness that overcomes reason in the Doctrines of men.........So now what?  If you feel sometimes like I do and bounce from place to place like a rubber ball, take heart and pray like the one who always ran to a place of solitude and prayed to the one who made sense!  Have a good day!

   

The Power of God's Kingdom

Disease, Leprosy, healed                                                             The 12 Lepers

Spiritual bondage- broken                                                                        Legion

Blindness, lameness, deafness, healed              The blind man, the lame, the deaf

Intellectual arrogance,                                                     Nicodemus-made wiser                                                                                      Saul, made Paul

The poor, fed                                                                            The multitudes

 The weak, made strong                                                                         Samson

The hopeless, given hope                                             Those under Roman rule

The shamed, redeemed                                                                              Mary

The one appointed for death,                                                           Risen, Jesus

Navigating:

Filled with grace,
I turn and come about
neither starboard, nor port
my compass, magnetic north
With Sirius above, the deep below
I navigate, through life's milky fog
With but one mind, and with invisible company,
I steer toward eternity, and infinite possibility.

Can Angels See In The Dark:

Can Angels see in the dark?
As they glide, their wings cause spark,
Cascading down to Earth so stark
Through life's lament, and human fears
Angels draw so ever near
Triumphing over darkened realm
Ever bearing the one so crowned
Rule and reign forevermore
Waiting for the Son's of Men