Good versus Evil

 Which list describes what I want or should choose?
Order               Hate
Love                 Anger
Peace               Chaos
Honor              Cheat
Truth                Lie
Do right           Steal
Compassion    Revenge

 In the future, maybe soon, maybe in a few years, there will come a time when evil will seem to triumph. There will be much done against the godly and it may seem to them that they are helping God by bringing down these good folks. I want to be counted among the godly and I hope you do too because Psalm 52 is pretty clear about what happens to the evil people:

 Psalm 52: 1-5
Why do you boast, O mighty man, of mischief done against the godly?
All the day you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. 
You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
But God will break you down for ever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. 

But I say also, in that time, it will seem very tempting to be among these powerful people because they will be prospering while most folks are barely getting by or are in fact dying of starvation. They will not care for the poor, they will care only for increasing their power and wealth.

Jeremiah 5: 26-28
For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.
Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

But I say we must not be like these wicked people. No matter how little we may have, like the loaves and fishes in Christ's hands, it will be enough for our needs and enough to share with our friends and neighbors. You must show compassion and mercy, remembering that we are to be holy as God is holy.

Deuteronomy 15:7-8, 11
If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. ....For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.

Soon you must choose: will you walk with the wicked or delight in the Lord? More and more the words of the Old Testament and New Testament seem as if they are written for today. They are being fulfilled in this age and we, as much as the early Christians, must choose whom we will serve.

Psalm 1: 1-2
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

So I say we have our work cut out for us. Today's culture more and more is one of entitlement and receiving without putting in. And now that we are very close to having no money at any government level to pay and pay and pay, people are getting angry and others are telling people to get angry and be violent in protest, to seek to take what others have. But that is not to be your way. You must seek peace and pursue it.

1 Thessalonians 5: 13b - 15
Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.

Look up! This earth is not our home. It is only a place of journeying, a way-station - not our eternal home.

Colossians 3: 1-2, 12-14
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 

I am really working on being aware of what is going on and making decisions about whether or not I want to do what everyone else is doing. I do not want to be rioting. I do not want to be destroying property. I do not want to be coveting what my neighbors have to the point of grabbing it from them. As in the early days of the Church, Christians may have to give everything, including their lives to be numbered among God's holy people. I want to be willing to give it all, do you?

Angry Words

With the union argument going on in Madison, Wisconsin, there has been quite a bit of angry language and threats mostly coming from the pro-union side of the table. After the shooting in Arizona, there was much talk by those same folks about civility in the public arena. Why are they not listening to the words coming out of their own mouths? 


This morning I was reading in James 1 and came to these verses:
Know this my beloved brethren, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, show no anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20) And just a few verses later: If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. (James 1:26) I think it is pretty clear that a Christian listens first and then speaks but always with a controlled tongue.


Times may come soon when anger will pour out of people who have been living on the government when the government finally acknowledges that it is out of money, out of credit and in huge debt. And many organizers will encourage the people to be angry, to get angry and to take their anger out on others who seem to be better off. There is nothing like entitlement to make people feel that they have a "right" to be taken care of in the way they would like. Poverty in this country is for the most part hardly the poverty of other countries. People can do more for themselves than they have been in the habit of doing. There are many resources here and in the past there were good folks here who looked out for one another. Those who have lived without worry will now have to worry. They will have to work more to take care of themselves and their families but that is a good thing, not a bad thing. Together, sharing of our own free will, we will make it.


The first reaction to change is anger. But American's must get over that anger quickly. It isn't going to help and it will most certainly hurt if it goes unchecked. We are going to find out if the America that was brought into existence by the founders is still the America of today. I do hope so.

The Lord is telling some people...

 I got an email today from a woman who has a group who gather to speak in tongues and then to say what they feel the message was. One of them said this:


 "Kept hearing repentance, not relying on Lord enough, saw big circles over US.  Big circles were where prayer was not going up, many of them in Midwest.  He said my people are so busy they are not relying on me.  Then saw the White House and the white was pealing off, then saw slaves crying out for prayer (don’t understand the slaves part).  Message is that we are not praying enough, specifically for our president and our Holy Father, protection for him.  Betty confirmed that this morning she received at Mass to pray for Holy Father.  Need more prayer and less criticism."

 I can see that certainly, with all that is going on in Wisconsin, there is likely not enough prayer about that explosive situation where many are bringing anger and violence instead of civil discussion. I also see very well that the White House is in decay because Obama and his administration are not honoring God in any way. Certainly there will be many slaves, slaves to many different things: wealth, power, Islam, debt and many will cry out for prayers for themselves when things go south. We need to pray for President Obama. He needs the Lord's wisdom and guidance.

I believe that the Holy Father absolutely needs prayers too. I have been praying for him for a while now. We must all focus on the truth of our faith and try to live that out. That is what Pope Benedict XVI is asking us to do.

Travel? Maybe...

My husband and I were going to drive to California to visit friends but with gas prices already at $3.50 here and without a doubt headed higher by April when we were considering going, we are now wondering if we can do it. I think it would take $500 plus meals and the occasional motel room so flying looks better. But, what to do with our two Bichons? We already impose on our daughter quite a bit and we wanted to take them with us, which we can't do if we fly. Also, at least one of our friends does not welcome dogs so that's a problem too.

I have a feeling that everyone's travel plans are going to be limited this year by oil prices which will cause airfare to go up and make car travel unattractive too. We are so used to going whenever and wherever we please in our cars that it is going to be a shock to the system to have to weigh the options very carefully, and perhaps not go at all. We have already started trying to take one car to work, not two. And we buy gas at Costco which is the cheapest around here. It was a 15¢ a gallon difference this past weekend between Costco and our local stations.

With the government's decision to cut off drilling for oil nearly everywhere in the United States, and the unrest in the Middle East, which surely will not end well, there is no place for oil prices to go but up and up and up. Delivery figures into the price of everything we buy so prices on everything will necessarily rise. This country, and the world, are headed for an economic time like no other. We will all be pulling in the belt sooner or later. Prepare now and save yourself some real grief in the future. Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.... a depression era mantra that we would be well to heed now.

Fear Not

All the political news these days is pretty grim: the whole middle east in turmoil and threatening to coalesce into a caliphate; South American countries become more communist and anti-American; unions organizing to fight for their own interests, no matter what the interests of the country might be; strong anti-Christian and anti-Israel sentiment around the world; our debt mounting and China, who holds most of it, not exactly a friend of the US; threatening collapse of the dollar. What is the answer to times like these when one might seriously think that the end times may come in one's lifetime?

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not rulers, nor things present, nor things yet to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39)

I worry a lot. I am just a fearful person by nature. I am not an optimist. So this encouragement in the face of today's news comforts me.

"I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me and set me in large places. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do to me? The Lord is on my side to help me; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me." (Psalm 118:5-7)

This is the antidote to my fear: call upon the Lord in my distress. No matter how bad things might get, I can always call upon Him.

Sleeping Dogs

I was reading in Isaiah 56:9-12
All you beasts of the field, come to devour- all you beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. The shepherds also have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all. "Come," they say, "Let us get wine, let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure."

Does this passage not describe Americans today? To be fair, many people all over the world. We are slumbering, not paying any attention to those beasts who come to devour us, easily catching us off guard. We are concerned with our pleasures. We think that how it is is how it will always be. No need to worry about the future. We are full of pride, thinking no one will challenge us, no one will come to take away what we have. And our leaders are without vision, oblivious because they have their own agenda, each trying to increase his own power and influence.

What of the righteous? "The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands." (Isaiah 57:1) In this culture, Christian people are ignored as being 'not with it' so no one cares if they are cut off.

The rest of this chapter talks about all the ways the culture is turning from God: deceitful, lustful, worshiping the world, shameless, looking everywhere for new things to tantalize - even as far as hell, finding new strength in new sins. God questions, "Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not give me a thought? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and so you do not fear me?" (verse 11) How many go about their lives taking no thought of God? Many, many of our children, my own included, think that faith in God is unnecessary; their lives seem to be going along just as they like without God. Verses 17 and 18 "Because of the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry; but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart." This generation is enamored with stuff; everyone's closet are full and many have to rent storage units to contain all the things they have but don't even use. God must heal these slumbering dogs.

But as for the wicked, solidified in their evil ways: "But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace for the wicked." In this world there are many wicked people. They strive for their own gain and power. They think that eventually they can rule the whole world, as in the days of the Tower of Bable. God alone is fit to rule the world.

Beware, therefore, things will not always be as they have been; never in the history of the world has this happened. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Get wisdom.

Retired?

I didn't expect this. I thought that it was surely several years off. But instead it has come like falling off a cliff. I am still in free fall. I don't know where I will land or in what condition. Some days I feel positive, seeing signs that God is caring for us and some days I am scared witless, feeling like I am staring into a black hole where I might at any moment run smack into the bottom with no warning.

More than anything this is a journey of faith. God quietly shut down our business but He has not yet revealed what shall be for us. He preserved my husband's life with a triple by-pass which prevented a certain, fatal heart attack, so we know He has a plan. It is so hard to be still and wait for the Lord. Patience and fortitude, gifts of the Spirit, needed now.