A letter to my Christian brothers and sisters - Take Heed

 August 29, 2020 - A letter to my Christian brothers and sisters:

If you say that you are a Christian are you doing your best to show others the love, kindness, and compassion of our Almighty Father?  Are you showing the world how Jesus would act and respond in such a time as this?  Are you doing your best to control your opinions, your words, and your actions, to exemplify our Savior?  Or are you Christian in name only and not in action?

I have been there.  I called myself a Christian the entire 8 years Obama was in office and yet I belittled him, called him names, spewed disrespect in my words and actions, and said with my own mouth that I hated him.  I lost several friendships over this type of action and rightly so.  I was not acting Christian in any sense and only hurting many of the people I called friend, even family.  I hope I will be forgiven by the Lord and the people I hurt with my words and actions back then. 

Fast forward, we moved in the President Trump era.  I hear many of my friends and family doing exactly to Trump what I had been doing to Obama and his people.  How can I be offended when I know that I did the same thing to another president?  How can I not forgive my Christian family and friends whose words and actions are far from being any kind of love or compassion when I did the same thing for 8 Obama years?  How can I call them Christian hypocrites when I was exactly the same? 

Nothing I did or said back in the Obama years changed anything that happened in our nation during that administration.  I spewed my hate for the man and it literally had no effect, whatsoever, on his time in office.  He didn’t hear me.  Those closest to him did not hear me.  99% of the nation did not hear me.  The only ones who heard me were the people in my tiny, little circle of life.  My unkind outspokenness only caused grief for some of my family and my friends. 

If you are a Christian and you are acting like I did, I implore you, don’t do it.  Don’t go there.  You will lose some of the people that have brought you joy and smiles throughout the years.  You will look back at yourself and wonder why you abandoned your Christian values over hatred and disrespect for a man you do not honestly know and never will.  You will never sit down and speak with the President of the United States and get to know him.  You do however know Jesus Christ if you are an honest to goodness follower of Christ.  He has told each of us to love one another, not hate those who we do not agree with in values, morals, or even political stance.  (John 13:34-35, Romans 12:10, I Peter 3:8).  He has told us not to judge the actions of others and let him take care of the world and the affairs of the world. (Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37, Micah 5:15, Jeremiah 51:11).

The word “heed” is defined as; “pay careful attention to; take notice of.”  The words “heed” is in the NIV version of the Bible over 2,500 times.  Do you think the Lord was trying to get his point across to his people that we need to take heed of his words, our words, his actions, and our actions?  I am trying harder and harder these days to choose my words wisely or say nothing at all.  The only way we can save our relationships with family members and our relationships with friends and acquaintances is try our best not to offend with our words and our actions. I am far from getting it all right but I am trying.  If you are a Christian I hope you will try too.

They Lied

                                                        They Lied

 

They told God to get out of the schools.

They told God to get out of the government.

They told the people that sex outside of marriage was fine.

They told the people that homosexual sex was normal.

They told the people that men could marry men and women could marry women.

They told the people aborting an unborn child was nothing.

They told the people the government would take care of all their needs.

They told the people to stay home, not go to work, not go to school,

Avoid all human contact or you will die.

They lied.

They have been lying for decades.

Only God can save you now.

You had better find him before it is too late.

If you do know him, you’d better be talking to others and praying for the lost souls.

There are billions of them.

 

Proverbs 8:35

For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord.

 

 

Debrakay

8-17-2020

SUFFERING

 The people suffer and curse their image of god.

The people of the One True God call upon him for relief.

Has God abandoned His people?

Have His people abandoned Him?

Will the Father abandon His children?

Have the children of God walked away from Him?

How many days and years can God watch His people dishonor Him?

Many speak out of the love of God.

He is a God of love.

He is a God of wrath.

How can He be both love and wrath?

A father who loves his children will teach them discipline.

He will teach them that trials and failures bring strength.

He will allow each child a free will to accept or reject his teachings.

When a child turns their back to their father they are left to live their own life.

If the failures and trials become more than the child can bear, they suffer.

Suffering children have a choice to return to their father or continue in their suffering.

The return of the child to the father’s house brings joy to the father.

His arms are open and his love is apparent.

Just as the human father welcomes his child home, the Creator Father does the same.

He calls time and time again for His child to return to him.

His love is immeasurable and eternal.

His wrath and abandonment is the choice of the people.

People are free to choose love or wrath.

People are free to choose God or themselves.

Choose God and receive love and forgiveness.

Choose yourself and live with abandonment and wrath.

 

Matthew 11:28- 30

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Where Do We Go Now?

Sunday, August 2, 2020

3:00 PM

 

It is hard to understand what has happened this year.  Two years ago when my brain tumor was found, I was asking the same questions, but at that time it was for me personally.  This time it is about the entire planet and all of it's inhabitants, not just me.

 

The economies of all nations are suffering.  Most have lost more than 10% of it's economy and there seems to be no reprieve in sight. There are people who have lost everything.  They have lost their businesses.  They have lost their jobs.  They have lost their incomes.  As this moves forward, many will lose their homes.  They will have to start completely over.  Of course, that will not happen until businesses open at full capacity.  I honestly do not see that happening the remainder of this year and into the next year.  It will be a very slow recovery and the recovery has not even begun.  Most of the government restrictions are still in place across the world.  Schools are not reopening this month or next month.  Large gatherings for any kind of entertainment are still closed.  For the most case, in Oregon, we have a limit of 10 persons per gathering, regardless if it is a private gathering or a public gathering.  These kinds of restrictions are ongoing across the globe.

 

So what does God think of all of this?  Does he even care anymore about the suffering of the people?  Does he hear the cries of the hopeless people asking 'why'?  Can he or will he, move to end the suffering? 

 

God has watched the suffering of people since the beginning of time.   He also knows that much of the suffering is of our own free will.  As humans, we have chosen to turn our backs on God.  We have chosen not to follow him and his way.  We have obliterated him from the minds of the children and then we wonder why the children are up in arms, are disrespectful, are lost in their own selfish desires and wants.  All across the nations, God has been booted out of the lives of the people yet when there is suffering they turn their screams and cries to him and ask him to end the suffering.  As he hears the people call out to him, his heart of compassion comes along side of them.  He has not walked away from them, ever, but they have walked away from him.  It does not mean he has stopped loving them, ever.  It means he will only come to the aid of the people when they cry out to him and ask for his help. 

 

Over and over throughout time and throughout scripture we have heard the stories of the lost people coming back to the Father.  Mostly it happens during a time of suffering.  When the people of Israel were held in slavery by the Egyptians they had no choice but to do as their slave masters told them.  If they did not, they were killed.  They suffered for 400 years as slaves to the rulers of Egypt.  But the time came when God responded to the cries and led them out of slavery.  It was a tough road with many more years of hardship but they were no longer slaves.

 

Exodus 6:6 (NIV)

Therefore, say to the Israelites:  I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

 

Will it take 400 years for God to hear the cries of his people again?  I have no idea, but it is a possibility.  The United States was built on the premises of faith and freedom.  That was 400 years ago this year.  But America stayed faithful to God up until 50 years ago.  As America walked away from God we watched the people of the nation fall into pits of evil and hellish ways.  The people became selfish and killed their unborn children in the womb.  Both sexes became selfish and lusted after their own kind.  All became obsessed with money and power.  The spiral to hell has continued and is now spinning so fast that one cannot keep up with the evilness and vileness of the human being. 

 

As I see it today, the people of America and the people of the world will continue in their suffering and mostly because of their own doing.  You can't blame God when you don't believe in God.  You can't expect God to help you when you never thanked him for the good things in life.  I would like to be writing a more positive word than words of a bleak future.  I'd like to be a shining light for God filled with words of hope, encouragement, and a pleasant future.  Instead, I am here writing about a suffering people and a God who may chose not to alleviate any of the current suffering.  For 400 years, in just one story, he did not help.  There is another story of the destruction of Jerusalem and the people taken into slavery by the Babylonian nation.  They lived in slavery for 70 years during that period of suffering. 

 

Jeremiah 15:2 (NIV)

And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “ ‘Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.’

 

I guess my best hope today is that American's only suffer for 70 years and not 400 years. I don't want to be known as a follower of Christ with only bad news on my lips.  What I would like for God to do in this day and age of suffering is to melt the hearts of those with hard hearts.  To make himself known to the god-hater.  To find a way to speak to those who feel alone in their hopelessness.  To raise up and army of believers to take back what evilness has destroyed.  To bring the people back to their knees before him.  I would like to hear of and see revival in the hearts of the lost and those who have walked away from God.

 

The God that I know can do this.  He can make a way to do this, but only if it is his will to do so.  6 months, 70 years, or 400 years God can make changes in and to the lives of the people he loves.  Our part is to be patient, pray, and watch and see what God can do.

 

The following scripture in the book of Revelation repeats the words from Jeremiah, but then God added the last sentence to give us hope.  Hope in him and his plan.

 

Revelation 13:10 (NIV)

“If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.” This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.