Here-and-Now

Luke 1:76-79 - And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Luke 1:79 (ICB) - God will help those who live in darkness, in fear of death. He will guide us into the path that goes toward peace.

Luke 12:25-26 - And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

Dear God, Help me to focus on TODAY. It is okay to make plans for the future and it is okay to reflect on the past, but You are saying to focus primarily on TODAY and to enjoy Your presence in the NOW. So help me do that. Thank You. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Room for Me

II Corinthians 12:9 - But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

II Corinthians 12:9 (ICB) - The Lord said to me, "My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, then my power is made perfect in you." So I am very happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ's power can live in me.

James 1:2-3 - Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Dear God, Fill me up with Your power, peace, love, joy, grace. Fill me to the point that I overflow. Use that overflow to teach Tom how to be a true Christian when he finally gets the letter extending grace and giving him a chance to come into biblical reconciliation with me. Thank You God that You do bless me beyond human measure. Help me to remember that so that when others try to justify their hatred by tearing me down because of my DIFFERENT-ability and insistence that I am just lazy or somehow to blame for my disabilities (really? Poor decisions do NOT make a person disabled and EVERYONE is one accident, illness, or injury away from being disabled if they were not born disabled like I was. Nor does being disabled make a person lazy.), I can say that I am blessed to be different because in my differences, I am kind, loving, caring, honest, loyal, real, compassionate, passionate, and have integrity. And You created me to be that way God! You did that! You instilled higher values in me than in some others because You want people to see glimpses of You. Thank You God for choosing me to have autism among other things. Let me be a blessing through it and because of it and open others hearts and minds and eyes to the blessing that I am. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

So Many Blessings

Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Hebrews 12:28-29 - Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:28 - Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.

Dear God, Today many people are suffering as storms have struck and done damage to their property. In light of this, I have many reasons to be thankful. Thankful that the tree that suffered from its third storm didn't do any damage and that the city sanitation department timed just right so that the men could assist with its removal. Thankful that in spite of a horrible night with the weather and being sick because of it that I am doing better this morning (sore throat) and did get some sleep. Thankful that my furbabies are safe, even though they are both agitated. Thankful for life. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

A Mighty Fortress by Christy Nockels (YouTube)

Our God is a consuming fire

A burning Holy Flame with glory and freedom

Our God is the only righteous judge

Ruling over us with kindness and wisdom

We will keep our eyes on You

We will keep our eyes on You

A mighty fortress is our God

A sacred refuge is Your Name

Your Kingdom is unshakable

With You forever we will reign

Our God is jealous for His own

None could comprehend His love and His mercy

Our God is exalted on His throne

High above the heavens

Forever He's worthy...

A mighty fortress is our God

A sacred refuge is Your Name

Your Kingdom is unshakable

With You forever we will reign 

Forever we will reign

Forever we will reign 

Forever, forever we will reign

We will keep our eyes on You

We will keep our eyes on You

So we can set our hearts on You

Lord we can set our hearts on You!

A mighty fortress is our God

A sacred refuge is Your Name

Your Kingdom is unshakable

With You forever we will reign

A mighty fortress is our God

A sacred refuge is Your Name

Your Kingdom is unshakable

With you forever we will reign

With You forever we will reign

With You forever we will reign

Our God is a consuming fire

A burning Holy Flame with glory and freedom

I'm Right Next to You

Psalm 34:8 - Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 

Lamentations 3:22-26 - The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 

Dear God, Help me to choose and to find what is right for me, be it my actions or my words or even my thoughts. And be with me no matter what the outcome. Thank You. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Empty Hands and an Open Heart

Isaiah 40:28-31 - Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the. Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. 

John 17:20-23 - "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." 

Disclaimer: I have no actual understanding of what any of the John 17 passage is saying right now. Best summary is that Jesus is saying that just as the Father is in Him and He is in the Father, that He desires that those who believe in Him will have the same kind of belonging to the Father as He does. I welcome any comments on this though.

Dear God, You ask that I come to You and accept Your love and friendship with me. Why would You be a friend to me when I am apparently so undeserving and so undesirable? Tom said he was my friend and then when grace was most needed, he believed some lies, spread them, and shattered everything and crushed my spirit. He cannot be a Christian. He has not shown the marks of a true Christian. He has made no effort to seek peace or restoration with me. God, in light of that, how can I trust that You really are a friend? Belonging? Oh how I wish! But God, as much as I want to belong, when churches abuse and bully those who have autism or any other kind of special needs, they make the world unsafe for us. The onus is on them in the end because if they are a church that does such heinous acts, then they are not following You to start with since You and Jesus have such compassion for the least of these and Jesus refers to anyone who does not treat them well as goats. Hmmm.... That would mean that Tom is a goat herder, not a shepherd. Even if he was a shepherd, the fact that he threw a sheep off the cliff just because it was crippled was wrong in itself. Heaven will rejoice all the more when he does finally come to his senses and seek peace and restoration with me. Belonging? The tea party doesn't think anyone who is not rich or healthy belongs in America now. They claim to be "patriots," but they are willing to cut veteran's healthcare and throw their fellow Americans off a cliff by starving them and denying them access to healthcare they might need and resources they need to stay afloat. They claim they are only doing what You would have them to do. Well, that is a problem now then, isn't it. Because You would make sure that we have access to medical care if we need it, food, shelter, water, clothing, and most of all, You would still treat us with dignity and respect. So if they are cutting off the least of these and cutting off the social safety nets that help them, then they are clearly not acting in Your name at all. The thing is, an article came out yesterday that the South Carolina governor (republican (most likely tea party extremist)) wants to get rid of public schools because public schools are not in the Bible. Well, neither are private schools. But by that logic, they cannot have guns either because guns were not in the Bible. I learned that whenever anyone tries to impose rules based on something that is not specifically mentioned in the Bible that they are being legalistic which is as sinful as being libertarian. The problem I have with the tea party is that are libertarian. Which means they don't really want to play by the rules of the game. They are trying to create their own rules and pretend like they can just blow off all the rules that have come along since the original constitution. They are fighting a war citing Christianity but they are hellbent on protecting the constitution. So much so that they have become white supremists again. They want their guns and they want America to be all about Christians but no one else. The thing is, if you look at how they define socialism, Jesus is the spitting image of socialism in action. Sarah Palin is an airhead more interested in being able to own a gun to shoot moose than to make sure that the least of these are taken care. She claimed to be in support of veterans having healthcare but the Paul Ryan budget of hate that the GOP passed in congress that will be dead on arrival in the senate due the unnecessity of it and also due to the fact that it again attempts to destroy the ACA which is helping millions of people everywhere now threatens to cut veteran healthcare. Talk about double standard hypocrisy or being uninformed. So yes, God, while I may have belonging when You finally decide to send Jesus back or when You finally decide to bring me home to You, I do not have belonging here on this side of heaven. Because I am apparently not wanted or desired by most churches or by most people. It grieves me when I see a parent of a child with special needs who would not be able to remain insured for long due to all the medical needs vote against her best interest by voting against anyone who supports the ACA. If it were not for the ACA, her child could be dropped or hit a lifetime cap and then what? Her family could lose everything they own. Unless her desired job is one that will secure millions of dollars a year. It also grieves me seeing the parents of children with autism pitting themselves against the adults who have autism. And for that matter, as much as I do not agree with everything that Autism Speaks is about nor TACA (there is no cure for autism, there never will be, there does not need to be, and I do not care what the cause is because I know what the cause is and it is genetic just like ADHD), I support any organization that is raising awareness of autism and providing any resources and information about it. Autism Speaks is more about legislative advocacy than anything else. And if people honestly think that they are suppressing the people with autism from speaking, they really need to think again from the insight of a person with autism. The way I see it is that as long as you are writing on their page, you have a voice. And they may or may not respond to it, but you are speaking. Hence, autism does speak. But the problem is that all these people are so focused on the children (we must help the children who have autism, they need therapy, they need this, they need that) that they forget there are adults with autism who are now floundering and that their children will also become adults who have autism and will end up floundering as well unless something begins now to address the issues that adults with autism face. No job, no churches to minister to and with us, no schools, no community resources like recreation or home living resources or therapy, nothing. And if the adults with autism lack these things now, what kind of future is there for a child with autism who one day become an adult with autism? Not a good one so far. There needs to be a shift in the focus to addressing the problem adults with autism face. At any rate God, this all just goes back to the desire to belong. Bottomline is that I am a young and relatively new believer, a Christian, and I have no place to go to worship with other Christians because a church used the autism as an excuse to exclude me and to abuse me and to bully me and then the one friend I thought I could trust turned on me and has not evidenced that he is even a Christian over something he later claimed was a petty trigger to a meltdown (which he called a tantrum which means that perhaps he lied when he said he understood the autism after all, and a pastor who lies is not a pastor at all). If it was so petty a trigger though, then why would he refuse to seek peace and restoration and work toward biblical conflict resolution? Because of what he did, he brought down not only himself and his own reputation but the reputation of the entire church, not like they hadn't already done a good job of that themselves, especially the new "mercy" pastor. But still. And because of what he did, he brought down ALL churches and not just his own. God, I know that even if things do not get resolved this side of heaven although I pray along with many others that I will at least get answers this side of heaven if nothing else, answers from him, so that I can move forward, I know that You will deal harshly with him when judgment day comes and there is actually a chance that he will not be in heaven because of what he did. I mean those words from Jesus are pretty powerful: "Whatsoever you did to the least of these, you did to me.....Whatsoeevr you didn't do to the least of these, you didn't do to me." Sheep or goat. Which will it be? Thank You though. You are stirring in my heart in a major way. Thank You for wanting to be my friend even if I am not ready for that yet. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Let Your Problems Lift You Up

Psalm 89:15 - Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face.

II Corinthians 4:16-18 - So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

II Corinthians 4:16 (ICB) - So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day.

Dear God, Sometimes the problems in life are stifling. They don't make sense in light of Your words. They are created by people who claim to have faith in You but then don't follow through on it. Like Tom. Or like the modern tea party extremists that have infiltrated and ruined the republicans. These are people who claim to be Christians and claim to practice grace and love and claim to have the best interests of people in mind, but then in a time when any if that is most needed, they back out. When conflict arises between two people, like with Tom, there is a mechanism that You prescribe that should be followed. The fact that he expressed unwillingness to do that evidences that he might not even be a Christian. The tea party claims to be about protecting the constitution, but they keep trying to rob from the poor and make them even more poor. They want to take resources away for access to food, medicine, healthcare, education, and a home away from veterans, disabled people, and the elderly. Although they claim to want to give more to the military which no longer makes sense if America is supposedly entering such peaceful times in terms of other countries, but the thing is considering that military families also rely on programs like SNAP, SSI, SSDI, the VA hospital upon completion of their service, and some end up on Medicare and Medicaid after exiting (possibly) and even yes, they may use the Pell grant as a supplement to whatever other education benefits they have to learn new skills upon exiting, when the tea party threatens to take away these things, they are actually also hurting the very people who are serving this country as well. I drew the conclusion that if they succeed with their hateful ways, they will end up with a bloated military prepared to defend this people if necessary but that the problem will be that there will be nobody but themselves to defend because the rest of the people will all be dead and piling up. Why? Because the poor, the sick, the disabled, the veterans, the elderly are all part of this country too. But if you take away our resources to access food, homes, education and healthcare and medicine, then you kill us off until we no longer exist. The worst thing is that they show their true colors and lack of understanding of Your Words when they spew things like "God helps those who help themselves." Guess what people?!? That is NOT Biblical! There is noting in the Bible that even hints at that. And when it was said that a person who does not work should not eat, what was meant by that was that if you are able to work, then you earn your keep, but if you are unable to work, then someone should help with your provisions. In other words, the rich CEO who really does nothing but sit in an office all day is not earning his keep, but the person who works for his company and sometimes has 12 hour shifts should be earning more than enough to take care of himself without having to ask the government for help. On terms of the government having established social programs to help people in need, I have no doubt that at some point some churches, maybe even the Catholic Church, approached the government and said, look we want to be able to help everyone, but we simply cannot. The disabled, the veterans, the elderly, the hungry all need our help. And look here, the Bible is full of passages where God instructed the kings and queens and the leaders of the countries to make sure that the basic essentials of food, medicine, healthcare, and education are provided for. After all Jesus spent the three years of ministry that are recorded in the Bible working with the disenfranchised, the least of these. If the tea party is going to claim to be about Christianity, then they need to stop trying to cut the social programs. The irony? Paul Ryan himself benefitted from the very same programs he is now trying to cut. As did the vast majority of all the politicians no doubt. Yet, they are hellbent on taking those very same programs away from everyone else because Gid forbid that someone might actually benefit from it and finally be able to dig themselves out of the hole they got thrown into and make a comeback such to the extent that they no longer need the help. Great job tea party. You just keep knocking us down when we are already down and you just keep beating the dead horse as though it will make it any more dead. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay. Fix it. If you only scream repeal it, then get the heck out of the game because we are done with your obstruction. As I discovered the other day, the tea party is full of bigots. Up until that, I never experienced it myself. But when that tea party candidate blocked and suppressed my First Amendment right to freely express and opposing opinion, he committed an act of bigotry. Well, these bozos are supposed to represent ALL their constituents and if he will not even allow opposing viewpoints, then he will not be representing the majority of his constituents at all. And he does not need to be running. Say good-bye to your political dreams Chad Mathis. You will never win since you are hellbent on such bigotry. You do not represent the majority of Shelby County, Alabama. I have seen with my own eyes because I am one of the ones who is hurting, but I have seen the fact that there are hardworking people out there struggling to make ends meet. They work two or three jobs and still cannot afford the food they need for their student. Many times it is the disabled grandparent that is taking care of their children too because someone has to be home when the bus drops the child off from school. There is a whole entire half of the county that is disenfranchised. And there are not enough resources in all the churches combined to help them all. The disabled get referred to Social Security and SNAP. The poor get referred to SNAP. The bop veterans get referred to the VA. Yet these programs are being threatened by the tea party in the name of "smaller government" and God. God, I am talking to You, but even I know that is the most illogical thing ever! You clearly state that they are to help those in need. And anything other than that makes them goats. And considering everything I have read in the Bible so far in both the Old and New Testament about your compassion for the poor, I can pretty much tell you that they are sinning when they claim cutting the social safety nets is what You would have them to do. God, teach me to consistently bring every problem to you though. No matter how big or small. If there are lessons to be learned by me, teach me. If not, then grow me. Thank You. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

In the Right Direction

Psalm 102:26-27 - They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Hebrews 12:1-2 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Dear God, Help me keep my eyes on you so I won't crash and burn. Thank You. In Jesus' Name, Amen!