The Great American Shift

Pondering this for quite some time now, it is clear the position of America has shifted.

The question of “should Christians get involved with politics?” is one that has been swept under the proverbial rug for decades. Why? The idea that we would have a voice in governing was a deceptive lie of the enemy that many embraced on both sides.

How can any country have Christian leaders if they don’t get involved with the process?

Exodus 18:21

“Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.”

The above verse demonstrates God’s purpose for us in that we have the elect duty to place in leadership roles those who pledge truth to govern. Once again God gives us the choice but if we elect people of dishonest gain, we all will suffer.

In my 63 years on this earth, I have never known America to be so divided. For decades the enemy has been working hard to achieve disunity and to a great extent he has succeeded. But this is America, and what goes on in America goes elsewhere and God is putting a halt to it.

A discorded media, along with venomous social atmospheres have become the crusades of hate, vitriol, cruelty, bullying and maliciousness. Much of these have been planted; paid for and fueled by wealthy donors of contempt and viciousness. Why? The devil doesn’t like to lose and he is speaking through the mouths of those who have allowed him entrance into their sad, jealous lives to maintain power and control.

As I dive into to murky waters here, it is imperative that we see the difference. God is no respecter of persons or political party. (Romans 2:11) However, when it is perfectly clear which side is right and which one is wrong, we as Christians need to wake up and understand God expects us to follow righteousness even if it goes against what our family has always done or what we have believed in the past.

Recently on Facebook a woman replied to a comment I made about the state of our country. Her hate for President Trump centered on the future of her grandchildren and what a terrible example he was as our leader. She had been a Democrat her entire life and felt our present government was leading us down the wrong path. She alluded to the fact she is a Christian and didn’t really believe in abortion yet was determined to vote liberally.

My response to her was anyone who votes Democrat at this point is voting for abortion, homosexuality (etc.), illegal immigration, and just about anything anti-Christian. The top 2 are reasons enough for any Christian to vote conservatively because they go against everything God stands for. She never responded. At the least, hopefully she rethought her position.

Christians have had the idea President Trump isn’t Christian enough. He isn’t a Pastor, Preacher or Priest. He’s a business man. Yet, observe just a few of his positions and accomplishments so far.

President Trump’s Executive Order prohibits the U.S. Government from discriminating against Christians or punishing expressions of faith, affirming First Amendment protections for religious freedom.

President Trump has reversed President Obama’s policy of allowing transgendered people to serve in our military because the military is no place for progressive social experiments.

President Trump has given states the option to deny Planned Parenthood access to Medicaid and other federal grant money because Planned Parenthood uses this money to facilitate its conducting of more than 328,000 abortions per year at Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills.

In sharp contrast to President Obama’s rhetorical war on America’s police, President Trump is outspoken in his support for America’s police and has offered cities federal support to crack down on violent crime in our city streets.

President Trump ordered the move of the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. A major win for the Jewish people that no other President has accomplished.

President Trump and his team have worked diligently to free almost 20 Americans from foreign prisons including Christians such as Pastor Andrew Brunson.

We must remind ourselves that many in the Bible such as Moses, Abraham, David, Samson, Peter and Paul were faulted men who in some cases were involved in criminal acts. God raised them up and used them mightily to achieve his purposes. God is doing the same with President Trump. He is just as human as they were and as we are.

Election Day is around the corner and many are already voting. God is just getting started with the last great revival. He is using America as a cornerstone of spreading the gospel because we are and always have been a Christian nation.

God has given America a fair and balanced system of election; use it. Vote according to God’s word and will.

All you have to do is Google an agenda for the Republicans and Democrats and read the Bible.

The writing is on the wall. (Daniel 5)

 

 

 

 

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The Lost Champion

 

As one who played tennis for many years and watched championships for decades, I must say I have never seen one like yesterday’s Women’s final at the US Tennis Open.

 In any sport there are rules and regulations. There are contentious moments and days of grandeur but in the end the cliché that “it’s not about winning, but how you play the game,” still holds true.

In the past, players would rant and rave, scream at umpires and throw rackets. Some more than others depending on their temperaments. They displayed themselves in questionable performances or meltdowns of anger and hurt. Often they were cited for violations and sometimes fined as they should be. These outbursts of emotions from top seeded tennis pros would draw crowds filling stadiums to witness such shows of passionate athleticism but it doesn’t excuse their behavior.

Sadly, it has become the victimization of players who get offended by umpire calls and cited for their blistering tirades on the court that screams at the validity of the game. Calling into question are also the umpires who have personal issues with certain players along with whether or not they nitpick rules in different matches. The job is one that comes with recognition but should be scrutinized carefully. Umpires should be fair to all.

Bias of sportscasters of one athlete over all the other players has become as bad as the media in politics.  It only adds to the fury of hate and the loss of the Champion in waiting; and that was definitely the case these last 2 weeks.

 Of course there are discriminating facts between the sexes. It isn’t right, but shouldn’t be given into the debate of one player over another simply because of their accomplishments, fame and fortune. No one is above the rules especially as technology today can reveal exact spots the tennis ball lands and film crews can video tape unauthorized activities of those involved with the players during a match.

Everyone is responsible for how they act on and off the court. In this day and time the authors of entitlement have declared war on others because they believe they deserve to be treated differently and receive that which doesn’t belong to them, no matter what. That goes for players, coaches and umpires alike.

Forget competition as an incentive; the master of greed and offense has taken over.

What started out as an exciting, and anticipated great Championship match ended up being all about victimization that literally stole the greatest moment in a 20 year old girl’s life.

As she stood on the sidelines waiting and watching, her years of hard work and labor were swept under the rug of a diminished culture set on an “it’s all about me” syndrome. Tears streaming down her face should have been tears of joy for becoming the first Japanese woman to ever win a Grand Slam tournament. Instead they were tears overshadowed by shameful disputes that should have been determined peacefully and quickly to the point of being settled off the court in private even if the match needed to be paused.

 

As an American citizen and one who loves the game of tennis Naomi, I apologize that you were exposed to such reprehensible inefficiency.  The USTA needs some strong lessons in court management so that this kind of disorganization never happens again.

I commend and congratulate you, Naomi Osaka for your mature, quiet and graceful conduct in the midst of a tumultuous scene. You truly are the real Champion.

 

 

John the “Scammer”

 

Just when you think it won’t happen to you, it does.

A few weeks ago my laptop almost crashed. Literally. It began screaming and sounding off alarms….do not shut off….do not close….call this number……

Had I known then what I know now I would never have called that number.

The guy who said he was ‘John” from Microsoft wasn’t. Or whatever his name was.

He had the drill down pat.

He was nice, professional and loved to be a Microsoft tech agent helping people gain their privacy back. Yeah, right.

Had I looked up the real phone number to Microsoft I would have caught him sooner than later.

My Dell was suffering.

He walked me through the process of repairing it all the while lying through his teeth.

According to Microsoft, the real one, these scammers are everywhere. The fraudulent phone numbers they sent to me was a mile long.

These scammers con people into ordering their tech support, then get the unsuspecting customer to give them access to their computer. Little did I know my virus protection had run out and that’s how “John” or whatever his name was, got access to mine.

They also lie to you and tell you to buy a Google Play card, call them back once you do so they can install it which helps to protect your PC and then use it themselves. NOPE. NaDa. Not happening.

Once it was fixed or I thought it was a few days later as I was surfing, all of a sudden I lost control of my mouse. Then all these porn sites began to appear on my screen. The mouse was obviously being controlled by someone else…..because I couldn’t move it. I would try and click the exit button to remove the sites and they would take it over again.

Checking my installed programs I found one, “logmein” that looked unusual. Google told me that was one of many, scammers use to scam into the most vulnerable laptops.

They don’t care; it’s all random.

Explaining this to my husband and daughter, we realized the guy who was supposed to be helping was the villain himself.

He continued to call me and leave me messages of which I didn’t respond to any.

Within the next 24 hours we had to change everything. Thank the good Lord, nothing was stolen.

Thanks to Experian, we now have Fraud Alerts on our accounts. Even if he tried to get a credit card in our name, the companies would get an automatic alert to stop it.

Hindsight is often a learning tool. Looking back, the signs were there.

Red Flags jumping like screaming cats.

Misspelled words in emails from this so-called Microsoft Tech Agent.

His constant stuttering on the phone and anxiety ridden words.

But….this is not about what John the Scammer did to me and who knows how many others but how God immediately told me to forgive him.

Outside of wanting to ring his neck, calling him back and placing the fear of God in him, my gut instinct just told me to pray for this guy.

Sure, he’s a criminal but God still loves him just like He loves me.

I truly believe in his mind he is so deceived that as he attacks unsuspecting victims. By invading their privacy he thinks he is really helping them. I only think that because either he was an extraordinary actor or he was a nice criminal if there are any.

However, I give him no resolve, just forgiveness and many prayers that God is convicting him of his lifestyle of sin.

Beware of these scams. They catch people off guard and can if one is not quick and smart to steal what they can.

And Forgive.

Ephesians 4 31-32

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

 

 

 

 

Monotonous Ramblings of Repetitive Requests

This morning God and I had a long conversation.

My trail of long winded questions, pleas for the unsaved and requests for healings, my constant chattering all of a sudden stopped.

“God, where are you?” “God, why haven’t you said anything?”

In a rare moment of silence came the words, “How could I speak, you are doing all the talking.”

Most days are not spent ranting and raving bending his ear with repeated lists of the same petitions, but for some reason I needed to vent. The burdens of many had developed into an emergency meeting of answers.

As I suppressed my soul I could hear God laughing as he spoke,

“Did you think I didn’t hear you the first time you asked all these questions?” don’t you know I have all this written down already?” do you think I don’t know how to use a laptop?”

“ugh….yea.”

Sinking in humility I sensed him wrapping me in my swivel chair with joy.

He wasn’t angry that I had inconsiderately forgotten he is a little busy these days.

He wasn’t upset that he needed to save children, find water for those without not to mention the significant task of salvaging America.

My underestimation of his memory didn’t sway him.

The monotonous ramblings of months of pleas did not rattle him.

He calmly lent his ear as I ranted on about my heart’s desire for the lost, sick and suffering.

He gently extended grace to me once again in the form of a Savior who enjoyed communion with one of his children even if it centered on a bunch of repetitive requests.

His humor about the whole conversation was a profound confirmation of his presence.

He wasn’t interested in my questions; he already knew them. He was happy I was seeking him. He rejoiced in my crusade to find him. He allowed me to unleash myself simply to be with me. He didn’t care the words I spoke or the tangent I may have wandered off on. He unconditionally accepted me no matter how I arrived.

The futility of my ceaseless inquiries had come to rest on the assurance of his faithfulness.

The faithfulness gave us a few moments of laughing together at the silliness of my approach.

Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine,  but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Sounds like to me God wants us to laugh. I’m with him.   I don’t want your old dried up bones any more than he does.

http://goldenbible.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/relying-on-christ/

http://samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/do-you-really-have-christ-in-your-heart/

http://churchgraphics.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/g-r-a-c-e/

http://rebecaurora.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/a-revelation-of-peace-wil/

Copyright @ 2012 All Rights Reserved

What we fail to See is often in our own Backyard

Noticing she rarely came out I wondered why. She would let her little, white dog out to be relieved a few times a day through the back door.  When he was finished, the barking started. Finally, after about 10 minutes she would let him back in.

No one ever visited. The house always seemed closed up. Window coverings shut. I wondered.

Whenever she did open the back door, she appeared disheveled. unsettled. alone. Unbrushed hair and pajamas were her daily attire.

The yard possessed a few dirty pots, a small fence and one car that rarely left the driveway.

In the fall, the lights off her back patio started glaring into our bedroom at night once it was dark.

My husband and I discussed this and decided we needed to do something.

These floodlights were turned on every night as if looking for something or someone.

At times the lights appeared to have been moved to shine in a different area of the yard. By New Year’s it became annoying, but something wasn’t right.

She kept to herself by choice, but something had to change. Something was wrong.

The next afternoon I rang her doorbell. The dog barked. She yelled through the door, “Who is it?” I replied, “I’m your neighbor who lives right behind you. Could we talk for a few minutes?”

Opening the door she looked the same as always; as if she had just gotten out of bed. Inviting me in, she apologized for the cluttered house. The signs of a recluse were everywhere.

Laughing when she told me her name, I thought “this must be a joke.” Sadly it wasn’t. Actually in some ways she mirrored the famous actress she was named after.  Their lives were both full of drama.

As I asked her about the lights she became extremely apologetic and assured me she would have them arranged so the light would not shine towards our windows. Quickly, the conversation switched as she began to tell me her story. No, it was more like a horror movie.

Piles of legal documents decorated the house fueled by family betrayal, hatred, divorce and alcohol abuse to believing someone was out to kill her. The splattering of her life was sealed in those pages to ensure she would receive the inherited money the family was fighting over.

She continued to open her heart to me as if she hadn’t talked to anyone but her Psychiatrist in months. The list of anti-depressants, anxiety meds and paranoia pills she described to me she was taking were only a few of the prescriptions getting her through each day. Her heart was bad and she had suffered a stroke years before which added to her illnesses. Her weekly visits to her Psychiatrist were the only times she went out except to the store.

The old white dog made her way into the room whining. Blind and deaf, the dog was her life line to the world.

Not knowing whether to believe this outrageous story she gave me, I felt a leading of the Holy Spirit to pray for her. We discussed her faith a little and she assured me she was a Christian but had lost her way. She recalled her Baptism as a young girl and how much it had meant to her.

As I prayed I sensed her tears, her sadness yet the moment of prayer was a welcomed joy.

I continued to visit her off and on bringing her food and sitting with her some. Mother’s Day she let me know her daughter had called her. She hadn’t spoken to her in years.

Not long after that my life changed completely when my dad got sick. Unable to keep up with myself I never heard from her again.

The outside lights no longer burn.  The dog doesn’t bark anymore.  The yard appears to have had some work done and all of a sudden left unfinished.

She is gone. There is no movement; only dim lights left on inside. No sign in the front yard that speaks of selling the house. Nothing.

One day she was there and the next she wasn’t. I don’t know what happened to her.

To this day I don’t know whether anything she told me was true or not. In her mind it was.

Looking back, God did this. The lights shining through our windows brightly at night were almost a cry for help. A sorrowed soul whose life had produced mostly pain was dwindling away in a locked fortress she created herself right in our backyard. This was her means of survival.

For all I know, God used me to recondition her faith for whatever she was facing. Of course, I had no idea at the time what was at stake but somehow I knew in my spirit God wanted his seed replanted. Even her years of displacement from God didn’t keep him away. He reminded her he was still there.

I followed my heart and did the best I could to replenish her heart with the love of Jesus. Who knows? That may have been the last time on earth she heard it.

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• Your Light-HIS Light (thundersstorms.wordpress.com)
• http://thewayeverlasting.com/2012/03/07/quote-aflame/
• http://goodchristianfiction.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/choose-life-to-the-full/
• http://thewayeverlasting.com/2012/02/27/quote-cares/

Copyright @ 2012 All Rights Reserved

If You’re Looking for the Pot of Gold it ain’t at the end of the Rainbow

Image via Wikipedia

Oh, looking for the pot of gold. I was disillusioned as a kid when I tried to find the rainbow much less the end of it.

Legend has it, the Leprechauns  make lots of shoes. Once they sell them they keep the coins hidden away in a big pot.  As the Leprechauns themselves are Irish folklore, so is the pot of gold.
How many of us have one sitting around?
What constitutes our pot of gold?

The child who fills their “piggy bank” with a few coins. The Lock Box at the bank with who knows what in it.

James Bond found his behind the safe in the wall; only it was not filled with coins. It was an Encoder along with a few other unsightly items.

Many buy Lottery tickets thinking they might win millions of dollars. Others enter contest after contest hoping for that free trip to the Bahamas.

Back in the Old West, men would travel afar to reach California for the mighty “gold rush.” Glad I didn’t have to do that. Riding in a wagon train, sleeping on the ground and drinking cold coffee out of dirty cups.  Nope. Not for me. I’ll take my warm bed and hot coffee over that life any day.

A pot of gold can mean a lot of different things to different people.

A new job. A new boyfriend. A new car. That 2nd trip to the Bahamas. A new house. An old house. A meal. A shelter for the homeless. Shoes when you haven’t had any. An award. A nice hot shower. A miracle of healing. You favorite team winning the Super Bowl. (not this year.) Money to buy your next meal from an anonymous donor. Saving the children. Sponsoring missionaries to go overseas to spread God‘s word and offer hope. Giving your last dollar to the Salvation Army so they can give it to the poor. Receiving an unexpected gift. Listening to a child you don’t know who just wants to be heard.

Whatever we value the most can become our pot of gold. It is a matter of priority; or choice. Sometimes your life  is smacked out from underneath you and it is neither priority or choice, but becomes a “pot of gold of survival.” It feels like a bad joke; someone pulls the chair out from underneath you. As you hit the floor you realize getting up by yourself is not an option. You survival kit is no where to be found.

All of a sudden, you have nothing left. You are alone, without.  Whatever you had in the pot is not getting you through the day. It is not supplying your every need or any need for that matter. You realize the pot was something you were holding on for dear life that wasn’t even there.  “Linus’s” security blanket  might be good for keeping you warm, but it won’t put food on the table.

Falling flat on our face is an indication we are not self sufficient even though we spend most of our life trying to prove we are. And for some of us it just might be the best thing that ever happened to us. Why?

Like the pot of gold;  we can’t see the bottom of it unless it’s  empty. Underneath the dirt, filth and trash is the golden nugget we are looking for.

So empty your pot.  Get rid of the trash and filth. Clean out the dirt so it can shine!

Once you have emptied it, let God begin filling it up.
Little by little, God will add love, gifts, prosperity, health, joy, peace, contentment, wisdom, knowledge, abundance of all he wants us to have.

On top he will pour the Holy Spirit to mix all these good ingredients together. He will take the pot to the cross of Jesus and sit it at his loving feet.

It is there my dear friends, you will find your “pot of gold.”

Photo of Cross by John Randolph Harrison

• http://www.pbase.com/jrandyh

Copyright @2012 All Rights Reserved

Why Can’t Others See Where I am Headed?

They can’t see where I am headed because they are not supposed to go there. So why get upset when they don’t see it? It is warfare. It is often very close to home. Others may not see it that way but Jesus did. His own siblings became so use to his difference the veil covered them from his true destiny.

Daniel was thrown into a den of lions.
David had to kill a “Goliath.”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked into a fire.

We must be willing to go where we are called to do what we are called to do. Often that means moving, or getting out of our comfort zone or leaving our home culture. I can account for this after having moved where we now live 4 years ago. My life has exploded with dreams I didn’t even have all because I was willing to leave my comfort zone and go where God called us. My husband has a great job and is in a stable and promising position. Losing his job in 2007 was a good thing for us. God has planted us for a while.

It is still not easy at times. I have to get my mind into the frame God has designed for me. I miss my family. I miss the ease of driving down the street to see my aging parents. I miss my Aunt who has been my mentor my whole life. I miss the close camaraderie I have with my dad. I miss my mom’s great cooking.

Having confessed my heartache, I would much rather be in the center of God’s will than anywhere else even if means I had to move to get there.