Bubble Bursts

Can you hear them too, dear reader?, bubbles bursting all over the place. 

I have a couple of friends that really hate balloons, especially when they anticipate startling pops, followed closely by bits of colourful latex splatters littering here there and everywhere, evidence of a murdered airy thing. Inside each blown up or bloated balloon is air, helium, or water, depending on desired float-ability. Bubbles and balloons are similar, in that both have short life spans and are created for entertainment, rather than meaningful purpose. 

Self-deception

All bubbles and balloons pop, and when people pretend to live inside a bubble, as was most recently the case, they bring in with them a self-deception that is bound to burst open and splatter them with the yuck of lies. We have collectively witnessed the second greatest scam perpetrated in human history ~ the first and greatest occurred in a garden called Eden. My my, our ancestors sure were gullibly arrogant, and not much has changed since then. Back to bubbles. 

Bubbles are those delightful rainbow coloured see through things that seem impossibly magical. Babies blow bubbles, and children do too. A little dish soap and water, a handle with a hoop at the end dipped in the formula and voila, a bubble making mechanism has been created for endless fun... well, at least as long as the dish liquid and water mixture lasts, the bubble blower stays amused, or someone bursts your bubbles ~ more on this in a couple of paragraphs.

Types of bubbles 

Big bubbles are always the best, and the one that manages to generate a massive bubble gets a little hit of satisfaction for their achievement. Launch the thing, watch it fly high in the sky, and hope that somehow it never ruptures: but there is the knowing, if you are an honest fella, a truthful gal, that what goes up, must come down, and bubbles are not meant to last. 

Have you ever seen one of those doubles? I am presuming that you have made dish soap bubbles of course, and if you haven't, it is your time to play. Doubles: when delightfully twins are made, two bubbles intricately attached from one blow into the hoop on the handle that has been dipped in the soapy water. Ahhh, it is always cool when this happens. Some people claimed that there was room in their personal bubble for others made of the same soapy substance; anyone made from different stuff, divergent solid material that would not, could not float high in the sky, weren't permitted entrance. They were the wrong sort, not bubbly material and could damage the insular seclusion, so there simply had to be exclusion. 

Trudy

Now Trudy, a man of many mixed up words and meanings, has declared something quite opposite of what he stated adamantly not long ago, publicly. He is Mr. Contrary, and admits that some injury has occurred despite certain solutions for a pretend problem, being very safe, very effective, and a must do and have for the masses. He blew bubbles with his halitosis breathe speeches, and so many people wanted to be in these floaty things that they let themselves be mingled into the formula! Trudy is bursting bubbles, pop pop pop, all over the place, with the very needles he used to inject the bubbly people to float them high on self-righteous arrogance, and presently drop them low on their bubbly heads. Note, not everyone was arrogant, some sincerely believed Mr. Contrary, and they are loved and embraced by those that would not, could not, blend into the formula.

Trudy is stating an uncomfortable, responsibility, accountability laden truth that the bubble people would rather not hear. He is stating what many solid, immoveable, gravity and ground heavy people already knew: no one had to believe in the bubbles as real. No one had to blow the same bubbles as he blew, moving into them, finding other bubbles to attach themselves to, and leaving many a loved one, I mean non bubble, out of their circle of relationship. Bubbles are bursting, pop pop pop...

Threat to well-being

Dear reader, I could state that this was a fun little metaphorical message to write, but it was not. I think of all the people that kept me out of their lives, people I declared as my forevers, and never in a million dog years, would have believed that they could treat me, or anyone, as though we were a threat to their well-being. People I shared my pain, my hopes, my dreams, my soulful essence with. I wasn't in their "bubble", a buzz word used by the wicked ones to make enemies of friends and relatives. I grieve once more for the love losses, wishing they hadn't taken such an airy, fake and feigned stand manufactured from make-believe. 

People have shown us their substance, what their souls are made of, and who we might have thought they were, burst, leaving behind splatters of faulty thinking, weak character, lack lustre latex like remnants of wasted humanity, murdered by their own self-deception. 

My only hope is for them to feel the heaviness of loss too, repent of their self-indulgence, ask for forgiveness from God and man, and once more decide that love is more valuable then fake-believe self-preservation.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: 

and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it 

(Matthew 16:25)

We were created for relationship with God and one another. When this is impaired and we are told to keep our distance, we know the schemes of the devil are evident. 

Taking Liberties

Since people have been taken liberties, their liberties have been taken... consider this, perhaps reread it, and let the double entendre soak in. I will do my very best to make sense of this sentence as you and I travel the dark alleyway of deceit.

The Bible is God's Word to those who count Him as Sovereign. It isn't just a bunch of words thrown onto a page, convoluted and confusing: therein is an intertwining and revealing of Who He is, and it requires time and meditation to have meaning sink into the spirit in the most profound and edifying manner. To change the wording in small or significant ways, can dim the brilliance it shines on hungry and thirsty souls that crave the pure bread and wine of the Saviour. In other words, don't mess with scripture; if you do, at is at your peril. 

Just for some ridiculousness, let's see if you recognize this famous prayer. I suggest you speak this out loud, like you're a rapper:

Yo Yo Daddy

Who lives on the clouds

Holy be your name

Your kingdom come on down

Your will be something we dig

Here, on the flat or round earth

As it is, somewhere high up there

Give us this day our sandwiches

Forgive us the stuff you know we done

And we will forgive them other guys what they done to us

Lead us not into bad stuff

Deliver us from them bad guys

For yours is the kingdom

You got da power

Da glory

For now till always

Ahhhhmen!

I have been watching false preachers and teachers do their motivational selling, lining their pockets, and presuming that using God as their front man is perfectly acceptable, so long as they pretend that they are His, that He sent them, that He speaks to them and through them, using them divinely as His mouth piece. When I first heard the terminology that there are many false Jesus's, I found it confusing. I had the concept clarified for me recently, and the simplicity is a relief to recognize. 

Here is how you know you are hearing from a charlatan: 

1. What comes out of the mouth does not even remotely resemble anything Jesus said, in fact, if you are inclined, you can get your hands on a Bible with Jesus's words highlighted in red or blue, and compare what you hear from the stage, to what He actually spoke

2. How the false preacher/teacher/prophet acts, what they do to make money, how they behave on and off camera, is as far from how Jesus lived as you are from the sun

3. Their mission is not to make disciples of men for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, their mission is to make you a follower, on all their SM accounts, so that you buy their products and proffered services. There isn't one instance where Jesus asked someone to pay for being His disciple... in fact, people gave up their work and income the moment they followed Him when invited.

4. Shenanigans... the smoother the talker, the faster the walker, the more energetic, exciting, engaging, the more eyes on them, the more money they make, and all the more people are misled into believing in yet another guy or girl with charisma, rather then meeting the humble, meek, Saviour that died for the sins of the world. He is tolerating miserable mankind... for a time. 

5. Do I add another, or are we understanding one another? Perhaps you can add to this list, believer, based on what you have observed?

To return to our theme, people have taken liberties with what God hath said, and this hath wreaked havoc from kindergarten classes to philosophy courses in universities; from tv time for toddlers, to story time in libraries with painted ugly pedophiles. The only way you and I, if we truly love God, can contribute to the world as citizens of His kingdom while we reside here on earth, is to take the liberties He gave us when we were born, to worship Him, honour Him, glorify Him with our words, but MOST importantly, with our deeds, seen and unseen by sometimes prying public eyes (your phone, iPad, computer are watching YOU, dear reader).

Last night, in the dark sky hours, I asked God, What can I do about what is happening? It was one of those moments that I felt disabled from taking action, because so much has gone so wrong. This morning, I read 1 Samuel, Chapters 15-16 and learned what I must commit to. Obedience. I must be obedient to God, living the life He describes in His Word. I must also commend you to do the same, believer; only then are we safeguarded mind, body, and spirit. 

I hope you know the famous prayer I hinted at above... not my silly version, but the One given by The One, to His disciples. When I don't know what to say or pray, I remember Him and His words, and they are a balm for my soul. I pray they are for yours too, dear one. 

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)

Stay of Execution

What do you think of when you hear the short sentence stay of execution?

Here is an explanation of the concept: An order by a court to temporarily stop an action or an earlier court decision being carried out

The first time I heard this terminology was in reference to someone being on death row, and attorneys fighting for a stay of execution, a holding off of the event because the person in custody awaiting their turn in the electric chair was evidentially innocent. Imagine an innocent person being killed for a crime they didn't commit; why, that may be labelled murder, especially if they were wrongly accused, imprisoned, sentenced and subsequently hung, injected with lethal poison, or firing squad executed. Jesus was beaten, abused, and hung on a tree to die and He never hurt a soul, always speaking truth... some people don't take kindly to the Truth, it actually makes them murderous.

Here are the words of the apostle Paul to the Galatians:

Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (Galatians 4:16)

Paul too, was killed by Vicious. I personify this word, dear reader, because it would appear that killers actually become this, when they want to take the life of someone that challenges their words and ways. 

Now what if I were to tell you that there has been a stay of execution, for you and I, and thousands upon thousands of others that know Jesus Christ as Saviour? Guilty deserves punishment, isn't that right? Don't we suffer consequences when we do wrongly, break the law, injure another with our words and or deeds? In Christian parlance, unrepentant sinners end up in the fiery pit when their numbered days end, and those that profess Christ as the remission of sins, or forgiver based on Him having paid the price for us, end up in eternity with the three in one God when we breathe our last. One way or another, we get what we deserve without the Advocate, or we receive a stay, with Jesus as our Mediator.

With the above background set in place for this blog, I am going to be sharply blunt. There are many guilty parties roaming this carbon soaked earth (I mock the carbon nonsense in this reference, dear one: bs-ery must be made fun of to break the spell spun on a populace that is easily misled) that are currently and unknowingly, living a stay of execution. They have yet to learn that their guilty existence has been stamped with the words IN JEOPARDY. God, in His mercy, has given a grace period between crimes committed, judgment, sentencing, and punishment meted. Time on earth will not last forever, and rarely does a human get to the ripe old age of one hundred and twenty, let alone ninety: in fact, an average lifespan is seventy-nine years... hmmm, how many years do you think you might have left, dear reader?

This said, the execution of God's plan will not, I repeat, will NOT BE STOPPED or stayed, and has been laid out before the dawn of time, before the foundations of the earth were formed, and before silly little humans got the idea that they could do what they wished without fear of reprisal. God is Justice, and this word is also personified, along with the word Truth, which is what Jesus is known as. 

It stands to reason since God is immutable, that His timeline for our beginning and end on this earth be set. He isn't waiting for you and I to finish our plans. He does not consult with us regarding the when of the ending of this human race story: it is His will that matters. He has given us time to set our houses in order, because Jesus is coming to Judge (personification anyone?) the living and the dead, and He knows exactly who we are, what we have done, and where we will end up once the gavel comes down. As the prophet Isaiah said to Hezekiah:

Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live (Isaiah 38:1)

Hezekiah asked God for an extension and was given a reprieve... but dear reader, he was an exception to the rule, and perhaps some of us have been too, but the average person dies when they die, and that's the end of that, I mean them!

There are two camps, and only two, and you and I have sunk our tent pegs into the earth, establishing which one we belong to. The world-lies set up circus tents, with grotesque displays of carnival like characters that reduce humanity to a lowly state of carnality. Perhaps the godly can be envisioned as occupying humble canvas abodes, modestly adorned and elegantly inviting. We are created in God's image, and yet many have sullied themselves to the point of looking more like their father, the devil. 

I don't know, dear reader, what we are to do with the current state of the world? I know it ain't pretty, as the saying goes, because the great divide is Lord of the Rings real, and if people can't see it, feel it, hear it, does it mean what I sense is imagined, or they are just plain old blind, deaf, and dumb? 

Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (Galatians 4:16)

I like Saul turned Paul. I like that he made His way to Jerusalem knowing he was walking to his own execution as a martyr. Saul was in one camp and got recruited to move to the other, becoming Paul, willing to die for the Truth. Paul could have asked for a stay, a postponement, a delay to stop and smell the roses, perhaps attend a revival meeting, church pot luck, or cool conference with his bros in Christ, but instead, he spoke the gospel everywhere he travelled, because he was commissioned to make disciples of men. 

And so are we. We are commissioned to make disciples of men, dear reader, when we are in Christ and following in His footsteps. 

There will come a point in time when each of us will be in a position to prove ourselves, really let everyone know which camp we lodge in and ultimately belong to. The clowns have painted themselves in a rainbow of colours, profaned the name of the Lord, and debased themselves publicly: some attend churches and say strange things about the Bible and Jesus... The person they describe is no one I know, dear one. 

God will execute His plan, in fact, He already is, already has, always does, always will. He is God and no matter the generation, He makes a way for those that love Him, honour and obey Him, and sadly, those that reject Him will make their way to where He isn't, because God cannot tolerate despicable debasement displayed by His created beings. He is Holy, and will not suffer the ungodly for eternity... which means we have time, before this earth rolls up like a scroll, to switch camps if we have been occupying the wrong one!

❓Have you been in the enemy of God camp, dear reader? 

❓Are you ready to pick up your belongs and travel to Him and be with His people?

If so, make your way out of that garish tent, and take the road less travelled. Along the way you will encounter The Prince of Peace and He will give you an understanding beyond your earthly human reckoning. There are only two camps, and one is anti-christ... the other is with Him.

Which do you choose, this day? And, you simply must choose... everyone must choose.

The Deplorable's

Come rain or shine, the killing must continue... 

Grains of truth leave pockmarks on my soul. Leaning into the whipping wind, I am rewarded with shifting mounds of swirling sand, pelting viciously as though they are a tiny army recruited for cruelty sake. The sun shines this April day but the temperature is biting cold with the sky threatening rebellious snow. Contrary: we live to witness contrary diametrically opposed circumstances at every turn. 

When the sun shines, it is near impossible to be miserable, to feel depleted and sad, and yet the murderous have a job to do come rain or shine, and they are not uplifted by rays; the deplorable's want to blacken the Son. 

If it weren't for my faith, perhaps I would succumb to the sucking hole of blackness that engulfs countless numbers. Today I wax poetic, metaphorically attempting to paint a picture of dichotomy. In plainer language, we have God as love and light wanting none to be lost; in diabolical opposition, the demonic forces rush at us from all directions wanting to kill Him because of hatred, snarling and frothing their pitiful dispositions of enmity. The absurdity of believing one can kill God is mockable...

Just as the swirling sand requires wind to lift it high and drop it low, so too, man requires the breath of God to utter threats and ultimately, drag in the final inhale, and expel exhausted exhale, marking the end of a human life. 

Watching the vicious ones age rapidly and strangely believe that they will live forever via artificially crafted intelligence is a bit dumbfounding: graves mark the places their ancestors were placed when they expired, leaving this world for their final destination. What could possibly have the wicked believe they will not be meat for worms too, when God chooses to withdraw His life giving breath from their nostrils?

Declaring Christ as Saviour is not enough in a wicked world. There must be proof, I tell you, of a soul that belongs solely to Him. How are we to know one another, dear reader? What must we see in our professing brothers and sisters, to distinguish them from the deplorable's? The blurry line has been weather worn to the point of being indistinguishable. They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love... these are lyrics from a song that I used to savour... but I see them now as a lie. We must not be known by our love, but by the godly love that marks us as His. Human love is self-obsessed, godly love is other focused.

Love is not ignorant, excuse making, tolerant of stupidity or irreverence for Him and His ways. Love is not easy going, flighty, accepting of willy nilly anything goes progressive modernism and twisting of faith. Love is not many things, and it is definitely NOT anti-Biblical. And the world is precisely that, anti-Biblical, making it anti-Christ.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4)

We are living Revelation, and just in case you don't know what Revelation represents, it is all about the revealing of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords, the universal God Almighty that is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. The entire Bible is about Jesus as Sovereign, the Son of God the Father, Saviour of the world, who will return to judge the living and the dead: this does not mean all peoples everywhere will be saved, dear one, that is the misguided belief system known as universalism. Jesus died for all, but not all humans want Him as their Master. Most humans prefer to be mastered by the God of this world: this includes countless professing Christians. 

So I ask you: 

🔥 How is one to know to whom you belong?

🔥 Do you live the Bible?

🔥 Are you willing to die for your faith in Jesus Christ, as your Saviour?

🔥 If someone were to describe you, would they call you a Christian, based on their sound knowledge of scripture?

🔥 What does being a Christian mean to you?

When I read scripture, the joy expressed there always comes from relationship with God, even when a believer is being scourged, beaten, pummelled with rocks, imprisoned... not one martyr would give up their faith for creature comforts. Can you be counted as one such as these? 

While prosperity pastors pretend the world is their oyster to be harvested, Christ followers humbly preach and teach God's Word, unabashed, unashamed, always with their eyes on the prize of souls won for the Lord, even when threatened with bodily harm and death: 

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

In Ecclesiastes 7:29, we read:

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions (KJV)

In other words;

This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes (NIV)

And; 

Behold, this only have I found: that God has made man upright, but they have sought out many perversions (JUB)

God creates, man devaluates... that, dear reader, is what humans do when they decide to reject Jesus as their God in favour of worldly ways:

🖤 Inventions

🖤 Schemes

🖤 Perversions

Sound familiar? 

Come rain or shine, will you honour the Lord? 

Righteousness vs Vulgarity

What if I were to tell you that at the end of your street, a couple of houses to your left and right, or even in your own home, depravity has taken root and is festering, causing soul infectious disease and rotting?

It is true, and is happening all around you. 

If someone were to look up the history of your internet interactions, what would they find there? Are you an open book, unfettered and unafraid, or would you experience some self-conscious discomfort, embarrassment or perhaps even shame, when eyes and ears peer and attune to what you have indulged?

As humans we have eyes to see and ears to hear... even the blind and deaf have access to knowing, to sensing and feeling what is happening all around us, unless of course, they, we, prefer to turn away and pretend all is well despite the empirical evidence.

In my profession as a Christian coach I have heard alarming stories, too grotesque to comprehend or repeat: sexual immorality with repugnant, unnatural interchanges shrouded in secrecy; but not really, dear reader. The secrecy is a facade, a farce, a bit of fakery feigned by the pervert and perhaps, hoped for by the ones that have been injured and have a sense of dignity. If you are reading this, it may be what you are experiencing, or have experienced. I have been coaching for nine years and some of the things I've heard would make your coffee cream curdle if you too, heard them.

Vulgar is a term I would like to see used more often to label what is happening: 

1. Lacking sophistication or good taste

2. Making explicit and offensive reference to sex or bodily functions; course and rude

3. Characteristic of or belonging to ordinary people: 'common people'

Vulgar, according to yours truly

1. Sexual interactions between people that are not married (marriage explicitly defined as between one male and one female) turning them into animals using their private parts for gratification 

2. Sexual deviations, including body parts or things forced to fit where they do not belong 

3. Filthy, demeaning, degrading, suggestive and unseemly speech, that reduces a person or people to objects of lasciviousness

Having grown up in a world of ungodly people that rode the wave of "sexual revolution", with a free for all attitude that sex is love and love is love: and that procreation was optional and something we could choose when we felt the time was "right"; with birth control and other methods of pregnancy prevention available for anyone wanting these items, I realize in my late adulthood how prevalent freedom of physical expression, of intimacy, of "bumping uglies" has been. We have been immorally imposed upon, dear one, and we must be aware of this in order to consciously change the situation. Thank-You, by the way, for making your way through this run on paragraph! 

In other words, just like the rainbow has been appropriated by the prideful, love too, has been misconstrued in a demonic attempt to make it vulgar and common. 

The Bible is clear, God is love: 

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love (1 John 4:8)

🔥 Love is not sex

🔥 Love is not sexual gratification

🔥 Love is not you be you

🖤 Love is not whatever you feel like, want to be, want others to believe 

🖤 Love is not sex with the same gender or marriage to someone that has the same body parts as yours

🥸 Love is not changing your genitalia, artificially manipulating your hormones, dressing as though you are the opposite sex, and insisting that everyone agree with your fake-believe

☠️ If you profess love, and it is not God's will, God's way, and on God's terms, you knoweth not God, because God is love

Murder is afoot, dear reader. Young people are killing themselves in droves because they have been told that they are just body parts, that anything goes, including their virginity, sense of right and wrong, sense of decency and self-respect, and their innocence too: all is expendable in the now, leaving them with no future. They have been lied to and stolen from and they knoweth not God because their parents give them up to sex gods that hate them and want them used, abused and disposed of. 

We have become vulgar as a society, and it is repulsive to witness

Now, just to put a fine point on this conversation...

💔 Do you have some memories that when visited, cause you to blush?

💔 Are there things you have said, done, witnessed, that you wish you hadn't?

💔 If you could erase some of your history, would you?

💔 Do you have regret?

❤️‍🩹 Do you have remorse leading you to repentance? 

If you said yes to all of the above, I am very happy for you! Regret, remorse, and repentance, are gifts from a conscience that desires to be cleared and cleaned, white as snow! We all have regret and perhaps remorse, but it is repentance, that wonderful desire to be pure before God, that lifts us from being common folk to citizens of the Kingdom of heaven as God's own children. I think of Romans 3: 21-26, and the encouragement we find there:

God's Righteousness Through Faith

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Compare and contrast righteousness through faith in Christ, and vulgarity as presented by the demonically driven, dear reader. Only God through His Son, can eradicate, erase, and rewire a sinner unto righteousness. You and I have a chance to change ourselves, our neighbourhood, our communities, and the lives of those that knoweth not God, because they have been lied to about love. 

We can make a DIFFERENCE, and we MUST! 

Now, I have some instructions for you that will change your life:

1. Read the Bible

2. Live the Bible... Live God's commands

3. Watch and listen closely for a new song in your heart

Can you hear it? 

Goodbye Dalai

I saw an appalling thing yesterday: while I wish I hadn't, perhaps I was meant to.

A young boy sitting on a man's lap ~ a man dressed in a flowing orange gown, puffed up with his own importance, held the child captive there, whilst masked men watched and chuckled at the commands of the culprit. One man could be heard laughing like a deranged maniac, perhaps he is the one that videotaped the child's ordeal?

The old man, the guru, the purported wise man, told the little one to suck his tongue, and after a moment of hesitation, the child did his bidding. At this point my revulsion and rage took over. How is it that a room full of men could watch this savage attack on a vulnerable innocent child, used publicly as a sex toy, demeaned and degraded to delight an orange grub of a pseudo-man. A real man would never harm a defenceless child: if there were any real men in that audience, they would have punched the living daylights out of the repulsive, grinning, smirking godless guru. 

What happened next, happened to me. I began cursing this revolting psychopath and asking God to rot his private parts and subject him to great pain and suffering... what else is one to do, dear reader?

Today I opened my Bible to a place where I wrote from, not long ago:

But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof (1 Samuel 5:6)

🔥 Hand of God

🔥 Heavy upon them

🔥 Destroy them

🔥 Smote them

🔥 Emerods

🔥 Ashdod and;

🔥 The coasts thereof

This morning I realized something with surety yet again. While men participate in perversion, and next perpetrate of their own accord, they miscalculate that they are safe to do so openly and shamelessly: they are heinously mistaken. God is always watching. And while you and I would love to turn away, repulsed and enraged, we must not, we simply MUST NOT, for the sake of the children being misused now, and those that are currently being hunted. God permits without permission, meaning it is man's free will to choose this type of abhorrent vileness, and it is man's free will also, to take a stand against these abominable acts of vulgarity that wound sweet young souls. 

Everything, and I mean everything, is God's. What is sacred to Him, He jealously establishes for all to see, and by God, our days simply must be numbered, dear reader, because how can it be, that these things we witness, have become so obvious, so common day, so in our faces?

For perhaps the very first time in my life, I earnestly prayed that the end come quickly. I love my life, I am blessed beyond measure and grateful everyday, but my heart is rend for the little ones, and forgive me Lord, but I pray for tongues of fire to consume the abominable's, the demonically driven abusers that subject humans to their sick and reprobate violence. 

The child in the video - I took a screen shot from the ghastly thing - was stolen from a mother. As a mother, I have an urge to injure each and every pseudo-man that participated passively, watching the scene unfold before them. It is obvious to me that they were well acquainted with this type of behaviour, and more than likely, indulge themselves similarly with their own tiny victims. 

Since you and I can watch this type of crime committed publicly without apparent recourse for the victims or recrimination for the predators, then I simply must assume that we are living in the end days according to scripture (which you can study for yourself, dear reader). Praying for God's justice now is all that I know to pray... His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

Only in heaven will there be peace for these little ones. They cry for vengeance:

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? (Revelation 6:10)

Time is running out for Dali, and saying goodbye to this wicked man will be a pleasure. 

Memories Chirping

Memories... they aren't always fun when they perch at the window of the mind, chirp chirp chirping. 

Switching gears...

I simply plain old love April... it is a prelude to the kiss of summer, and in the bitter sweetness of saying goodbye to the cold of winter, one cannot help but eagerly anticipate the warmth promised us, with the sun spending more time hanging out just over head for long stretches of day. 

Switching gears...

As I look out the front room window, branches still bare of decorative foliage wave hello. They reach up to the blue sky and my eyes sweep upward too. I cannot see the saints, but we are told there are a cloud of witnesses, way high up there. My limited imagination cannot fathom how it can be that a person is here with me, with you now, and then no more? They go somewhere, and picturing the where is a little problematic. I know someday I will understand, but this day I wonder, knowing I will have to wait and see. March turned to April, April nods at May... the month of endings and beginnings too. 

Switching gears...

It is Good Friday and my mother always says "What is good about it? Jesus died this day." Like any true believer, anyone that loves Him, we weep when we allow ourselves to feel the tiniest smidgin of what He bore for us, in life, and in His death on the cross. The resurrection, because we know it well, is such a happy uplifting thought that we skip to it quickly, not wanting to spend too much time in the grief and sorrow our Saviour suffered for our sake and the sake of the Kingdom. Juxtaposition is our reminder that life is precious beyond measure and when we take it for granted, as we often do, we miss the meaning, the purpose, the grandeur. Christ is Grand, isn't He?

Switching gears...

I met a man and we began to date May 1st

Three years later, we married on May 9th

Five years later, God gave us a son on May 8th

Three years later, my father died on May 5th

Three days later, my father was buried on May 8th

May 9th... 2017... my marriage died too

Oh May, how I want to love you. You gave and took away so much and the chirping of the memories at the window of my mind have me recalling all, every single year, no matter how much time has expired, evaporated, expended itself. 

Switching gears...

I used to think I was a rather cold person, quick to recover from loss, strong in my acceptance of what is - a pragmatist deluxe. I can match difficulty with fortitude, loss with emotional independence... face the darnedest circumstances and simply buck up. External presentation of preservation and internal melting of heart is the juxtaposed life we live sometimes, isn't that right, dear reader? If you are at all like me, you are an M & M, hard candy coating shell on the outside, soft dissolve and disappear on your tongue chocolatey inside. When you eat your smarties do you eat the red ones last? I do love all things chocolate...

Switching gears...

When I write feelings flow. Sometimes people contact me after they read what I have written, concerned for my well-being. This is such a tender experience for me, the check-ins, the well wishes, the offer to listen if I need an ear. I am always grateful, and forgetful too? I wonder why, regarding the concern... I move through my emotions, back and forth through the tidal waves, often swept to shore for a little sunbathing. I give myself permission to feel, weep, laugh, remember, long, wish, and then snap out of it! That's right, I snap to it, not really wanting to be melancholy for long dear one!

There is beauty in switching gears; being able to feel one way for a moment, and experience another emotion in the next. Capacity and range with expression of our inner workings, must not be stagnant and stay still. May is a wild ride for me with beginnings and endings and I am grateful for the memories, chirp chirp chirping at the window of my mind. 

I loved my dad

I loved my husband

I love and adore my son

I love them still... all these years later... love endures, how marvellous for me

I am grateful for each of these men in my life, and mostly, I am grateful to God for giving them to me, even if it was only for what seems to me, too short a time.  

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD (Job 1:20-21)

Job, oh Job, how much we can learn from your steadfastness! No matter the loss, the heartache, the gifts given and taken away, you worshiped and blessed the name of the LORD 💖

Praise be to our LORD God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen

Intrusion, Introspection & Transference

Ever have those pop into your head thoughts, the ones unbidden and unwelcome that present themselves with a "Hey, look at me, LOOK AT ME!" bounce-up-and-down-in-your-face display of immaturity? How intrusive they are, isn't that right dear reader?

When I try to shoo these thought monsters away, they skulk out of sight, until bam, when I least expect them, there they are again. That is when I know I have to pay attention, and deal with whatever my just-below-the-surface feelings are trying to tell me. 

It is at this juncture that I make a choice: introspection or transference? 

While these sound like psychology laden words, they are simply ways we all choose, or don't choose, to handle pesky memories that relentlessly steal our focus when we would rather look away. With introspection, you look at you, other, circumstances and situations, and honestly assess what was said and done, without bias or guarding yourself from what really happened. With transference, you ignore what occurred that generates all the touchy, sensitive, make your skin crawl memories, and somehow they show up elsewhere in how you relate to self and others. I call this leakage: items from the past that resemble open files that have not been signed off as completed, or perhaps more poignantly, a family photo album stuck on one page from your childhood that doesn't allow you to grow up and past what took place way back when. 

Thoughts that intrude have a way of making us aware that we have yet to resolve some issues that we did not have the strength, capacity, or presence of mind to handle to our satisfaction, when we were "in it", that situation that haunts and torments, or simply annoys. 

So, dear one... it is time for some introspection!

1 Do you have prevalent thoughts that pop into your head and meander around in there, wreaking havoc?

2 What does it feel like to have this intrusive visitor taking up your time and perhaps, stealing your peace?

3 What is unresolved in your life that if you paid some attention and worked at fixing, could alleviate the heavy burden that accompanies these repetitive thoughts?

4 How do unresolved issues, memories, persistent painful thoughts, impact your current relationships?

Thoughts become things: Have you heard this before? They do, they really do, because what we think we become. 

☠️ Bitter thoughts turn into grimaces and ungraciousness toward others. 

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: (Ephesians 4:31)

💖 Joyful thoughts bring smiles and gestures of kindness. 

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32)

👻 Haunting thoughts cause frowning, and perhaps a distractedness that has one ignore the needs of others due to self-absorption. 

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy (Micah 7:18)

We can unwittingly take on a disposition that predisposes us to impoverished relating, and that is perhaps the worst form of transference, when what we feel on the inside, shows up in how we treat the people we have out in front of us; our ick can stick to other. What a yucky mess we can make, dear reader, especially when we choose to ignore what only goes away, when we finally say, "I see you" and decide to do something about what mentally ails us. 

I read a lot and with a grin, I tell you the main thing that I have learned and continue to remind myself, is that we are designed for relationship. It is that simple. You, me, them, we are made to love one another, and it is always the absence of love that causes breakage, followed by transference, and then intrusion... and hopefully, when our souls are exhausted from trying to perpetually self-preserve... introspection? 

God does not make mistakes and so I point us, you and me, to what we have been commanded to do in Matthew 22:36-40:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets 

God commands us to love! Can you even believe this? It is outstanding, and you know, just like I do, when we are not, I repeat, when we are NOT being loving. Not being loving is at the root of all evil, the cause of all dysfunctional relating, and dare I say, is the reason we can point at selfishness as the culprit when everything goes to hell in a hand basket. It is always self-absorption at the expense of other that has us making decisions that generate collateral damage. 

If thoughts become things, and indeed they do, then it follows that our love, the kind God commands, with all our heart, soul and mind, can transform us, the people we interact with, and to circle back to the beginning of our time together, to the way our brain and what it conjures, interacts with our spirit. 

Imagine that, God commanding LOVE... love is an action word, a verb, dear reader. And LOVE looked at us from a cross, without bitterness, malice, or grimacing, seeing past what we have said, what we have done, to the joy of reuniting us to our heavenly Father and the family that awaits our arrival in eternity. 

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2)

Wouldn't Change A Thing

Wouldn't change a thing... how many of us with a clear conscience, can make this kind of statement?

Every time we apologize, it is a way of saying we would change something we have said, something we have done. Regret, remorse and then repentance, are emotional markers if you will, of that feeling that if we could we would, change some things. 

If you have never been sorry, then perhaps you have never been wrong, but I doubt that dear reader, because that would make you divine, perfectly infallible.

As of late I have been suffering the scourge of wishing for what will never be. I want people to say they are sorry, for lying, causing disruptions in relationships, fractures in friendship and worst of all, breaches of trust, relative to relative. When I think of the Man, Jesus the Christ as God betrayed, I feel some shame in my complaining, since He is and was perfect and never once deserved the disloyalty He suffered at the hands of the fallen humans that feared for their lives rather than revering their God while He was in their midst. We humans are a dangerous lot, aren't we? We must each question our own loyalty to others, and most vitally, our loyalty to Him:

How loyal are you? He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool (Proverbs 10:18)

How trustworthy? Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers (Ephesians 4:29)

Are you inclined to criticize people when they are out of sight but in YOUR sites? An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered (Proverbs 11:9)

What makes you do this? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile (Psalm 34:13)

How do you feel after you have verbally ripped to shreds someone you associate with regularly? A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit (Proverbs 15:40)

How is it for you when you are in their company again, knowing what you have said, what you have done to malign them when they are out of earshot? A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends (Proverbs 16:2)

These days I am observing behaviour: I say these days but really, this is a way of life for me. The idea of loyalty is strange conceptually, and something that I think ought to be taught. Consider this, dear reader, that since many parents are not loyal to one another while married and certainly become decidedly disloyal in divorce, what are children to do, without this character trait modelled for them? Dare I say, they haven't a clue what loyalty looks, acts, or even smells like, but they sure can sniff it out when someone is disloyal to them. Children deeply resent being second best to parents, and their is a longing to be loved to the point of a person, a parent, being willing to die for the child... but alas, selfish ways inject themselves into how we relate, and kids get the message that they don't matter as much as they ought, while subjected to childish parents. 

As a root cause of dysfunction, disloyalty must be considered as an instigator and agitator. Betrayal is breathtakingly painful to experience, and when this is the norm for a child, the question becomes "Who can I trust?" Loyalty to self may very well be a defence mechanism utilized to ensure that needs are guaranteed to be met, since one never knows when others will turn on them or worse yet, attack them unawares. 

Lately, sibling rivalry has been my consideration. Parents can make or break budding childhood relationships between brothers and sisters: in turn, those young ones take what they have learned out into the world, and healthy or otherwise, relating can be treacherous for the naive, and sickly satisfying for the vicious and vindictive. 

How we relate is an indicator of what we experienced growing up, and what we committed to when we were betrayed, or alternatively, did the betraying of someone we purported to love. Telling or hearing secrets is often a child's first taste of delightful wickedness, and it can become a soul sickening addiction that rots relationship... the Bible calls it gossip, ever hear of it? 

When I think of the past three years and counting, all I see is adultery... people have abandoned, cheated, lied, backstabbed their friends, family, co-workers... I know, I KNOW, adultery is committed when a man or woman has intimate relations with someone other than their spouse, but this is how it feels lately: promises of love, kinship, forever to the point of death, have evaporated into thin air and all that is left is relationship carcasses. People seem to want relationship without the responsibility of committed lifetime loyalty, and that just will not do as good enough for me, and it must not be the norm, dear one, for any of us...

So I ask you... how does one know that you are trustworthy? How can you be differentiated from the pack, as someone of character, ethically and morally motivated? When you have regret followed by remorse, do you repent and say you are sorry to the injured party?

I heard a great line once, and I try my very best to live by it: Don't ruin a perfectly good apology with an excuse. 

If we love like Jesus does, we will be fearless in our relating, because loyalty will be a natural and normal element in our every day associations. I can count on two hands all the people I trust without doubt or hesitation, and that is a marvellous feeling for me. Cultivating trust requires energy and effort, and it is well worth the expenditure if you value holy relationships. 

With Jesus as our example, our perfect model of love, we can emulate what loyalty looks and feels like, by learning from the Master. Reading scripture is the single best way to be convicted of sinful ways, and course corrected if we so choose 🔥💖

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 2:16-17)