Month: September 2024

There are so many things that I think I know better than God. Things I wish were true, but aren’t.

But if they were true I would be God. Or, at least I would have created a god in my own image.

I wish it were true that everyone went to heaven.

I wish it were true that there wasn’t a hell.

I wish it were true that people just could love each other, accept each other, be kind to each other.

I wish there were no war.

I wish there was peace.

I wish that no one would get sick. I wish that no one would be weak. I wish that there would be no unwanted humans in the world, no racism, no abortion, no selfishness, no stealing, no bad words, no pain, no…..

What an amazing god I’d be. I’d want a bunch of robots who adored me all the time.

BUT THAT IS NOT THE TRUTH.

The truth is that there is sin and sadness, sickness, death, hatred, pride, and pain. The truth is that abortion is allowed in Minnesota up until birth of a baby. I have heard of cases where a baby is killed after birth. I’ve heard. Just saying.

Does Minnesota law have a ‘viability’ threshold limiting abortion? Well, that depends

https://www.mccl.org/post/minnesota-legislature-repeals-protection-for-born-alive-infants-support-for-pregnant-women

Look it up. The law passed a couple of years ago. Walz signed it.

I wish it were not true, but it is.

When that law passed I thought of how God was going to punish this wickedness for this beautiful state.

He sees. He knows. It’s His creation, and he is just. He will judge.

The late Francis Schaeffer wisely called abortion a “watershed issue.”

If you value life you will be anti-abortion. If you value selfish pursuit you will be pro-abortion. (What is in the interest of the mother/child/father/family…)

God chooses to bring humans into this world, this beautiful world. Life is always a gift. Existence is a blessing.

Why did He hate the worship of Baal/Baphomet so much? It was because of the sacrifice of human life. WE are not animals. We are made in His image.

I believe that the first sacrifice of a lamb to cover Adam’s nakedness was a ritual of deep sorrow for God. Sacrifice is a horrible picture to illustrate the severity of sin.

God loves those animals, too.

Witchcraft sacrifices life. Abortion sacrifices life. War sacrifices life. Anywhere there is sacrifice of life it is the result of SIN.

God defines Himself. Our wishes are not the truth about God. He WILL judge.

God defines Himself as love. What kind of love?

An eternal love. A just love. An amazing love, merciful, gracious, kind, and wonderful.

Are you following God? Not the one in your imagination, but the God of creation, the God of the Holy Bible?

Yes, Christianity started in the garden of Eden with the presence of the LORD. The story is all there.

Read it. Believe.

Find the TRUTH.

Jesus said “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me. “

Read it and get right with God, the One True God.

See you in eternity!

MARANATHA!

…doesn’t exist…in my opinion.

Today I drank coffee with Cheri facing the sunrise, outside by the kitchen garden on our little rocking bench that needed work this summer: the fabric failed, so Cheri found an old piece of lumber to place on it so we could still sit and rock occasionally.

Nothing is simple. Stuff breaks too often!

I’ve written over and over about how spoiled I was as a wife. Brian fixed anything and everything. He was a genius capable of that. No job was too difficult, but time was always a factor. Poor guy! Living here on this farm since his passing has revealed all of his “unseen” chores. I hope God is letting him know how appreciated he was!

Car care, wood pile maintenance, yard stuff, keeping the nuts and bolts of the house working seamlessly—(Not for the faint of heart, here in the country!) Snow removal —!

He took care of the bills, the finances, the nitty-gritty.

When the plumbing failed he figured it out.

He always saved us $$$ with house repair and new projects.

Husbands are wonderful. Appreciate yours, if God has allowed you to have one. Just being able to discuss things with a partner is such a blessing.

_____

But we drank our coffee facing the sun and the morning was lovely. It’s September. What more can I say? Minnesota September can be paradise.

Do they have a study on how people are affected by facing the sunrise versus the sunset in an apartment? I think seeing the sunrise is a must for the day.

Of course in the winter months I’m at school already, usually. It becomes a luxury then.

Tomorrow I am back in the saddle at school. Fifth grade math tomorrow. I had that weird sickness and I’m still taking my horse paste ivermectin to medicate and fight it. I think a week of sunshine, walks with the dogs, and rest was helpful.

I saw an interesting video about nanostructures last night. There is a study in Korea and Japan that was published/peer reviewed about how people with moderna and pfizer options may be experiencing some form of tiny structure formulating in their cells now. It’s worth looking at. A scientist from England was presenting the study on a video. Again, I say, worth looking into. (If you still can)

A friend has cancer. It has metastasized. I don’t know how long she has, what her thoughts are. I think she has put it in God’s hands.

I just found out this week and I’ve been grieving for her.

If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Job 14:14

Yes, God has appointed our days, our time here. Some may not be willing to accept that truth, and it may be a hard truth for those of us who have lost. It is a Biblical truth, however, and it can be weirdly comforting.

Nothing can “kill” you with out God’s permission. You will not live a day longer nor a day less without His appointment. Suicide may be a self-driven decision, but God in His infinite power did not stand aside powerless. God knows.

This is a fallen world with much suffering. I believe Jesus truly grieves at our pain. Cancer is, perhaps, one of the most blatant indications of a fallen creation.

Because of its increase and its persistence worldwide I think it indicates Christ is coming back soon. I know there are theories out there that curing cancer would be taking away a cash cow for the pharmaceutical companies, that there are multiple ways to cure cancer that God has given in modifying diet, herbs, lifestyle, etc.

I am a watcher.

But ultimately God is in control of our days, and those of us who know this can stand confidently each day that we are given, resting in the assurance of His sovereign will over all of creation. His plan still holds, even as we go about our daily stewardship of living life wherever He placed us on this earth.

So, today I will be a good steward and go to the YMCA at Ridgedale, swim for an hour, lift some weights, hit a racket ball, walk the dogs in the hay field.

I sat and got some vitamin D with Cheri, but if the sunshine holds today I should get a bit more.

Read “Five Loaves and Two Bowls of Borscht” by Janice Lemke.

One thing that I remember from that book is the Ukrainian women sunbathing practically religiously all summer. Storing up sunshine for winter….

That thought stayed with me.

One of our oncology nurses once mentioned that coffee is the USA’s number one antioxidant.

Drinking coffee in the sun is really a cancer fighter. We can rest in God’s wondrous healing hand, too. Each of our cells is His, the body is His temple.

His timing, His healing, His hand—when we have given our lives to Him.

Peaceful rest, stillness, awareness that His will WILL BE DONE. The simple life.

MARANATHA

Consider praying for LAY, a huge influencer in Asia. Listen to his lyrics, notice his symbolism. Such a pretty song—and truths, too. Just add his name to your prayers for salvation.

Late summer has a way of bringing out the poetry. Everything that surrounds us is practically perfection, here, at least.

The leaves are full and the sun shines gently, not the harsh of early August.

Fruits are ripened, plants are mature.

The work of the harvest consumes the time and energy of farmers and gardeners, but those of us who simply seek to tame our property have a respite from the wild growth that characterized the first months of summer.

I have had a revisiting of my illness that I experienced aboard my cruise ship. It was Sunday night when I started feeling a little feverish again. My throat was sore the next day and I have been lying low all week in hopes of a good rest being the antidote to it all.

Feeling blue/dark hearted this time of year is also one of my biorhythms. It started in my childhood when I dreaded the end of summer, the beginning of the school year.

Perhaps a tendency toward melancholy nurtured my periodic bouts of depression. Anyway I do experience depression, and I find all sorts of ways to deal with it, not chemically.

Other than caffeine. perhaps.

As I got older I became aware of hayfever, and this year hasn’t been too bad, but I think I’ve had a touch of it.

A trifecta of yuk; being sick, hayfever, depression.

But my mom told me about a conversation she had with her Swedish grandson-in-law. He said there was a monk in Scandinavia that learned how to deal with Seasonal Affect Disorder by embracing the dark—leaning in to it, finding the silver linings of it. It seemed an effective plan, and birthed “Hygge” and candlelight, fika and fellowship.

I will let the pain in my heart have its way today, the grief that visits me unannounced —perhaps not as frequently as before. The loss that I still calculate from time to time.

I am feeling the privilege to be alive today.

Humans are the exact middle of the created universe some physicist once said—between the seemingly endless boundaries of our known existence and the micro string theories that mathematically present themselves—God made us the center of that.

He chose to bring eternal beings into existence in this precious womb of planet earth.

What a great privilege to be His loved creation.

Can we not appreciate His greatness?

He is awesome.

Some chipmunks chose to place perfect acorns in a little angel dish my mom has in her garden. What sentience brought this little act about? Certainly it wasn’t random! There is a sweetness in our animals, both wild and tame. God put it there.

Our gray and red squirrels are so busy. I see them burying acorns all over the place. Deer will feast on the acorns that carpet the ground under my many, many oak trees.

Oak wilt has visited our area, but God has preserved most of ours. Something has pestered the old fashioned lilacs nearby, and they are looking terrible, blooming again in September, which is just wrong. The feeble blossoms are fragrant, blessing the bees, I guess.

I have a dread that these bushes may be beyond recovery.

Everything changes. Death comes to all things on this fallen planet.

That is why I focus on our blessed hope, the glorious appearing.

Too many people do not understand the timeline of what is to come, the whole picture of God’s feasts and His promise to redeem His creation.

There are covenants He made with us, with the animals, with Abraham, with Israel. Too few people understand these monumental promises.

Those of us who seek to know them can see that they are still in play, slowly (to us) unwinding and coming to fruition.

There has never been a time more exciting to live, looking up, waiting and watching for our Lord to come for us.

I understand that death and destruction are also a part of the prophecies.

I choose to put my hope and joy in anticipating God’s great restoration of Heaven and Earth—as He promised. He will make all things new.

Those who believe in Him, in Jesus, have that promise, that covenant to live in hope, not fear.

No fear.

MARANATHA!