Making a Difference in your Life, in the Parts that are for Keeps!
I recently heard this on American Family Radio.
Excellent evaluation for a church—
Instead of declaring your church’s seating capacity,
What is your church’s sending capacity ?
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I believe the same thought could be modified to apply to the home and family.
God has feelings, strong feelings about everything He created, and keeps on creating—most especially people, made ‘in His image.’
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When God made the world, He simply said “it was so” and “it was good.”
When God made man and gave him dominion over everything, He said “it was so” and “it was VERY GOOD!”
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God is pleased with all of His creation, but He has special feelings for the people He created—love and sadness, smile and frown, joy and grief, pleasure and anger, compassion and regret—feelings demonstrated in action—mercy and judgment, forgiveness and justice, patience and accountability, day of grace and day of reckoning.
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Consider God’s very special feelings about the little children He created and still creates with us, safe and unseen ?
He sure talks a lot about His feelings for them in His Book.
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Consider His horror over harm to any of them.
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What about the person who causes such harm ?
“If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble . . . “
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What about the death of a child ?
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What about the murder of a child ?
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What about the person who causes the murder of a child ?
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble (to sin) (to die), it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
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Before I was born, God knew all my DNA.
Before I was born, God knew my every breath.
Before I was born, God knew my life’s history.
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Why all the trouble with details ?
Because, besides all that, He loves me, He wants a relationship with me after I’m born, just like He had already knowing all about me for the nine months before I was born.
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Who would dare to mess with a God like that ?
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“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You. [When I am born, I am still with You.]
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
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And that is
THE ULTIMATE ULTRASOUND ! ! !
MARTIN LUTHER AND HIS WIFE KATHARINA—LESSONS FOR CATHOLICS—500 YEARS AGO AND TODAY
Martin and Katharina married in 1525, eight years after the beginning of the Reformation.
He was a Catholic priest (excommunicated in 1521), and she was a Catholic nun (escaped from a convent with eleven other nuns, like a prison breakout, masterminded by Luther in 1523).
Luther made this comment on the decision to marry, “his marriage would please his father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh, and the devils to weep.”[
They had a blessed family, with six children plus several orphans—heartwarming, described as “affectionate, loving, fruitful, faithful, and enduring.”
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It is obvious to any observer that the perpetual Catholic policy of celibacy for priests and nuns persisting today is a perfect storm (tornado, hurricane, wildfire), waiting to happen—not waiting—happening like tsunamis all over the church.
It should be obvious to Catholic leaders that change of policy on celibacy is the only Biblical solution, the only common sense solution.
Get real.
Is it too much to sacrifice this huge 2000 year Catholic edifice?
Is it easier for Catholic leadership to sacrifice more thousands of child victims of abuse at the hands of those burning with passion, enduring the manmade mandate against Biblical release only in Godly marriage.
Catholics, get a reality check.
It’s time for the fear of God to shake the church—fear greater than the fear of losing power.
“Whoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe in Me to fall, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea.”
(Please read slowly and carefully, re-reading when necessary, because many sentences are packed and loaded.)
When I was growing up, we always had fire prevention week, and everyone had to make a fire prevention poster. I don’t know if they still do that in schools today, but everybody of every age knows about dialing 911 for the fire department.
I wonder what the percentage is of people who have used a fire extinguisher on a real fire emergency. Did you ever stop to think about what is in a fire extinguisher? Some have water. Some have chemicals to smother a fire by blocking access to oxygen.
What if someone bent on evil and terror had filled fire extinguishers with gasoline, without labeling. I don’t need to describe the chaos and destruction, and injury and death.
Now consider the family—marriage needs fire prevention. Sometimes a poster will help, sometimes a fire prevention week. And sometimes prevention doesn’t happen.
Sometimes a fire starts in a family, and nobody on the outside knows about it, even when it gets fully involved. The most common ingredient (fuel, if you will) is secrecy, because of embarrassment if anyone knew their family was on fire.
Fire extinguishers are great, before a house fire or a family fire is fully involved. In a family fire, the natural inclination to to think they can handle it themselves. And here is the tragedy. Usually the family fire extinguishers are filled with gasoline.
Individuals using these family fire extinguishers filled with gasoline believe the ingredient labels say: “I’m right, you’re controlling—I’m out of here—you don’t love me—if I can put you out, I can escape the fire—you lose, I win.”
So the typical family fire quickly becomes fully involved—that is, fully involved use of the above ingredients, and more.
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Why, Oh Why ? Seems like ‘everybody’s doing it,’ and where are the first responders ? Where was the fire prevention when it could have helped ?
You know the saying, “Firefighters and police (and other emergency personnel) don’t usually prevent fires or crime, they can only investigate after the fact”—or, if they get to the scene in time, they might limit the devastation.
Perhaps the current dilemma discarding support for police, with their resulting reluctance or reduced authority to respond to certain situations—perhaps there is a parallel in the disregard, the discarding of support for families, with the resulting reluctance or perceived incompetence for anyone to respond to risky, unpleasant family fires. And so, one more time a judge says, “Have it your way.”
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Where are you ? Where am I ? When a family we know is gonna blow.
When we see or hear signs of impending terrorism, we’re supposed to ‘say something, do something.’
When we see or hear signs of the devil’s terrorism in a family, we must say something and do something.
Abandon the mantra to leave counseling to the professionals—there aren’t enough, and there isn’t enough time.
You and I may be in the right place and the right time to make a difference in somebody’s life, and in somebody’s family.
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Prevention ?
Fire prevention, crime prevention requires more than answering 911 calls. It calls for personal presence on the streets and changing potential hazards before they erupt. Most personnel instinctively know what it takes, IF they have the freedom to spend time with their people to develop relationships that motivate to do right.
Family fire prevention also calls for personal presence—people, friends, time—to develop personal relationships that motivate to do right.
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And, if we pray for a time, a place, a person to talk to—that prayer is likely to be answered.
Personal note—I wrote this to me also, to encourage and commit myself to do what I said.
Perhaps the most difficult job in the world is being a single mother, particularly of a son.
Perhaps the second most difficult job can be that of a stepfather.
Perhaps close behind in difficulty is the role of being a stepson.
Other combinations may also be difficult—some more so, some less.
But if this is where you are now, it is very difficult for all.
Because the past is not pretty—overwhelming abuse, sin, shame, guilt, mistakes, fear, despair, anger, sin—it is very hard to shake free, to start over, without part of the family, or with a new family.
Parts of the past return to plague the mind and emotions, and cripple vital decision-making.
Many years of patterns and habits are hard to change.
Everybody is affected, and it is not easier just because so many people are living this today.
Even the multitude of helps and advice do not seem to make the challenge less.
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+Wherever you are on this road, just don’t keep your situation a secret, for any reason—embarrassment, fear, thinking you can handle it, waiting for “a second time” to call for help, spiritual reasons (like doubt, just pray, just wait, just repent, just believe), failure again, never win.
+Talk to someone who cares, and don’t depend on one person’s views or advice. Beware of storytelling that doesn’t do anything for you. Beware of spiritual piety—real offers to pray for you include praying with you right then.
+The battle for our families is unavoidable in the spiritual realm—don’t be afraid to say, ‘NO, IN THE NAME OF JESUS’ to the devil out loud as many times as necessary. But be sure every time to immediately ask Jesus to come in and fill the empty space. Don’t give up if the devil tries again and again—that’s why I said, ‘as many times as necessary.’
+If possible, pray for each child while you touch them or hold them.
+Read the Bible with your children, and have them read the Bible aloud, as well as encourage them to read their own Bible the last thing before they go to sleep. Do the same as parents. We all need the spiritual protection.
Read TEN MINUTES A DAY posted 2-18-23
When this works, and ten minutes changes your life, you may very well add more minutes for more blessings.
ANY INDIVIDUAL—
Five minutes the very first thing every morning.
Five minutes the very last thing every night.
+Ask Jesus to come and be in charge of all of your day, and all of your night, and thank Him.
+Read something in your Bible.
ANY COUPLE—
Each person start with this, separately:
Five minutes the very first thing every morning.
Five minutes the very last thing every night.
+Ask Jesus to come and be in charge of all of your day, and all of your night, and thank Him.
+Read something in your Bible.
After each person is doing that for a week or more, continue doing so separately, and add doing the same together.
ANY FAMILY WITH CHILDREN AT HOME—
Each parent start with this, separately:
Five minutes the very first thing every morning.
Five minutes the very last thing every night.
+Ask Jesus to come and be in charge of all of your day, and all of your night, and thank Him.
+Read something in your Bible.
After each person is doing that for a week or more, continue doing so separately, and add doing the same together.
After doing that for a week or more together, then add this, together with your children:
+Tell them what you have been doing. (If your children are grown and not at home, tell them also.)
+Give each of them a Bible passage to read aloud.
+After a week or more, give each of them a longer passage or chapter to read aloud.
By then you will know what to do about time and conversation and questions and praying.
It does not make any of us a better person if we are inclusive or compatible with erroneous ideas and beliefs, even those held by friends or relatives, or by the voting majority or the vocal minority, or by political leaders or religious leaders, or by those threatening our reputation or our livelihood.
“He whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”
That is pretty tough language from the Bible, for Christians, for those the Lord especially loves and wants to strengthen and use mightily.
And, God also uses severe discipline to correct and bring back His chosen ones from sin, to a closer walk with Him.
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Except for what we know about Joseph and Daniel, every person in the Bible that God used mightily (and most of God’s people outside the Bible) were seriously flawed, and their shortcomings are so open for us to see, that we could reject any of them for good reason.
But what does God do and say about His special, chosen, favorite people? Exactly what He says in the beginning of this article.
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When we don’t like what we see when God deals ‘unfavorably’ with us or someone close to us, for His purpose of refining us or them through fire, we can become impatient and fail to see His long-term plan—and maybe we don’t need to see His long-term plan. (You may want to re-read that sentence again, slowly.)
I’ll reprint it here for you:
When we don’t like what we see when God deals ‘unfavorably’ with us or someone close to us, for His purpose of refining us or them through fire, we can become impatient and fail to see His long-term plan—and maybe we don’t need to see His long-term plan.
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Example:
He had eight children, rich land in the river bottom, and four hundred large pecan trees that he had topworked and brought to full production with the best varieties. This enormous, five-year undertaking in the 1940’s was a monument to his judgment, with the return to be realized then and for the rest of his life and beyond.
This reward was short-lived with repeated blows that devastated him financially and psychologically—a Job experience indeed.
+When the Belton Dam and Belton Lake took our farm on the Leon River in 1950 (the year I was born), Daddy and Mama lost everything they had worked for from scratch for decades.
+The government did not pay a single dollar for the gold mine of the pecan trees. Then, adding insult to injury, they charged lease for us to use the land, after they bought it for a fraction of its value.
+The replacement farm south of Temple could not come close to providing like the place on the river, and laboring under debt for decades changed almost everything.
+Another blow came when the first wet year (1957) after the dam was built, temporarily raised the new Belton Lake high enough to flood the pecan trees, and then one by one over the next several years all the trees decayed and died—more like Job. Pecans were Daddy’s first love as a farmer and rancher ! ! !
+What about Daddy and his children? Did he lose them in one fell swoop in a tornado like Job? Daddy lost them in a different way—most reacted in four major additional devastations for Daddy.
1-Resenting Daddy for the seriously curtailed lifestyle and standard of living, doubting and disputing and blaming his decisions, for life getting harder to make ends meet.
2-Rebelling against Daddy’s authority and leadership, making things worse.
3-Rejecting Daddy’s increased seriousness in spiritual matters, in leading the large family.
4-Finding a scapegoat to vent their emotional struggles—to direct their disappointment and disapproval of Daddy.
Was God hiding?
Was God behind it all?
Was God faithful in it all?
This brings to mind one of the many quotations that Daddy repeated often:
“God’s mills grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small—while with patience He may linger, yet in justice He grinds all.”
And another, “God doesn’t settle all His accounts on Sunday.” That was from a Christian farmer, responding to an unbelieving neighbor bragging on his successful farming operation, intentionally working on Sundays.
So, how long does it take God to settle His accounts and grind out justice?
I don’t know—that is for Him to decide.
But I can read—you can read—His record in the Bible (yes, Job) and in history and in Daddy’s life.
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IN THE BIBLE:
+Job went through everything but hell, at Satan’s initiative but God’s control, then God restored double what Job had before. We wonder about God’s use of time—why He took 42 laborious chapters in the Bible that I just told in one sentence.
+Israel suffered in slavery four hundred years, then God suddenly, miraculously, delivered through the Passover and the Red Sea—monumental milestones for all of Jewish history—a perpetual memorial. But why the four hundred years?
+Hebrews 11 itemizes the faith of God’s people previously going through unimaginable trouble, with supernatural deliverance. Then, “others” who were not delivered in their lifetime, went through unimaginable torture, “that they might obtain a better resurrection”—as in, ‘but God.’
+If you really want to deal head-on with the question of God’s faithfulness and justice and His timing, read all of Hebrews 11, and then the perspective for us in chapter 12. You’ll find the quote above in verse 6 of chapter 12.
+Stephen, first martyr in the Christian church, got a standing ovation from Jesus, at His throne in heaven.
+”Blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Early church “turned the world upside down.”
IN HISTORY:
+Telemachus was a monk in the fourth century, who felt compelled to travel to Rome, walking. In the city he was drawn into the crowd heading to the stadium, where he was shocked to see the gladiators fighting Christians to the death. Telemachus jumped into the arena, yelling repeatedly, “In the name of Christ, forbear.” Obviously, he soon met Jesus. But the boldness of this one man of God so moved the people that they left in silence, and the emperor Honorius banned gladiator fights after that day.
+Reformation martyrs were burned at the stake. Martin Luther was spared by friends ‘kidnapping’ him.
+United States of America—worldwide missions, unselfish justice, saving freedom in WWI and WWII—in the name of Christianity, publicly depending on God (until recently).
+Today, Iran has the fastest growing number of Christians in the world.
+China is scared to death of Christianity right now.
+Today, the most dangerous place on earth for Christians is Nigeria—over four thousand killed last year for believing in Jesus. But what do they say about their suffering—they have a different perspective than we do. They pray for faithfulness to witness for Jesus, rather than deliverance. And they plead with us to pray for them, “Please don’t forget us.”
IN DADDY’S LIFE:
+God did honor Daddy, with doubled blessings? Yes, vindication that I see continuing to this day 38 years after his death.
+A preliminary note that had significance in 1956 and again in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Before the flood of 1957 there was a historic drought from 1952 to 1956. We were still leasing the land from the government, and Daddy saw a bumper crop on the pecan trees in 1956, but they needed water. The Leon River still had water, at least in places. Daddy made a major decision to purchase a significant irrigation system powered by the tractor pto, with over 2400 feet of aluminum pipe in 30′ sections, 45 with sprinklers. God confirmed that purchase decision by that one pecan crop paying half the cost of the system.
+Then, not only did the next year bring the flood that destroyed all of that very same pecan orchard, but the irrigation system sat nearly idle for a decade and a half. The new farm had no water source for the required 450 gallons/minute. There was only 34 acres of good bottom land, with Bird Creek, but it dried up quickly every summer.
+In the book, DADDY SAID, I tell the following story in detail of God giving Daddy a vision, and bringing it to glorious, miraculous reality. On the 34 acres, there was water six feet below the surface, but the water was inaccessible through the very fine soil. Daddy’s vision was that there might be gravel under the silt, when the river may have run in this horseshoe bend centuries before.
+God simply said ‘yes’ and guided Daddy through the most astounding construction and faith venture. He gave us a well, and it produced the 450 gallons/minute for continuous irrigation every summer. The 34 acres produced as much as 4000 bales of coastal bermudagrass hay in a year plus grazing for up to 200 head of cattle. I can tell the story best because I was the only one left at home with Daddy and Mama. And I spent every summer keeping this irrigation going day and night, sleeping on a trailer a mile from the house, carrying pipe to new settings every four hours while another set of sprinklers was running (4″ worth of rain on 3/4 acre at a time).
+Oh, the 34 acres did have one hundred pecan trees, that needed to be topworked also. I was blessed to help Daddy quite a bit, climbing all over the trees and following his instructions. There is one bud I placed all by myself, and it grew.
+Daddy was able to pay for all five years of my college, and then loan me $1400 for my first car. And the relationship forged between us was out of this world ! Why me, so specifically blessed of the eight? This is when you simply say, “But God . . .”
+Referring to the four numbered points above, about the others in the family:
1-God chose to wait many years for the financial turnaround, and then He totally honored Daddy’s vision and decisions in meticulous detail, with no naysayers.
2-God chose to wait many years for a time of peace, to act in showering blessings on Daddy’s farm and ranch operation.
3-Daddy had only a couple long-term best friends that were likeminded spiritually, and I took a Bible verse literally and visited them years after Daddy was gone. And I am thankful to say I am also likeminded spiritually with Daddy.
4-I was the scapegoat for the others’ emotional struggles over their disappointment and disapproval of Daddy. When I was very young, they said to me, “You’re just like Daddy,” with disdain. But Daddy said, decades later, “I’m so glad you’re telling those little lambs about Jesus.” (When I was teaching in a Christian school in South Florida.)”
+And there’s one more—severe test, plus God’s hand of blessing. In 1977 my invalid brother Norlan died and Mama had a severe stroke the same night. I came to visit, and Mama recovered enough to go home after a few weeks. She didn’t return the house of 25 years. Arrangements were made while she was in the hospital to sell the farm south of Temple and buy the farm north of Whitehall, and that is where my parents lived their remaining years, close to family. And that is where I sit, writing, today.
+One last financial note—the farm they sold brought considerably more than the much larger farm they bought, and Daddy paid all the bills for Mama’s two strokes and time in the hospital.
B U T G O D ! ! !
“Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.
Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own.”
Every woman (young or old) has every right to do with her body what she wants* and what she will be satisfied to live with for the rest of her life.
This includes the right to not be pressured by individuals or current cultural campaigns that persuade her to do something she will regret, permanently.
This includes anything that alters and/or harms her body with long-term consequences.
1—A woman (young or older) has a right to not be sexually mutilated by anyone, even with her consent—just as surely as a woman has a right to not be sexually molested (raped) by anyone, even with her consent.
How ridiculous the parallel of rape by consent—yet sexual mutilation with the new fad of transgender, is actually more permanently harmful physically that rape, and the psychological consequences later loom very great, because it is a choice a woman does not have to make.
2—A woman (young or older) has a right to not kill her baby, either by her choice or by others’ pressure.
A woman has a right to not be physically harmed by anyone with the procedure (even when termed ‘successful’), which will have lifelong negative consequences, physical and psychological.
3—A woman (young, very young, or older) has every right to not be killed by anyone, ever, at any age of her life, for any reason whatsoever.
A woman has that right that no other woman or man has a right to take from her—by decision (‘choice’), by procedure.
This includes the right to not be murdered weeks or months after she started living, before she has the power to make the decision.
The right to life without the choice to live ?
4—A man (young, very young, or older) has every right to not be killed by anyone, ever, at any age of his life, for any reason whatsoever.
A man has that right that no other man or woman has a right to take from him—by decision (‘choice’), by procedure.
This includes the right to not be murdered weeks or months after he started living, before he has the power to make the decision.
The right to life without the choice to live ?
THE RIGHT TO LIFE WITHOUT THE CHOICE TO LIVE ! ! !
That is inhuman, evil, unholy, unGodly, unAmerican, unfeminine, unwomanly, abominable—WITH CONSEQUENCES we’ve only begun to see.
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+God sees !
+Just wait !
+Just watch !
+Just do everything you can to “save those being led away to slaughter.”
*Unless the woman or the man is a Christian. Then this applies, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Every woman (young or old) has every right to do with her body what she wants,* and what she will be satisfied to live with for the rest of her life.
This includes the right to not be pressured by individuals or current cultural campaigns that persuade her to do something she will regret, permanently.
This includes anything that alters and/or harms her body with long-term consequences.
1—A woman (young or older) has a right to not be sexually mutilated by anyone, even with her consent—just as surely as a woman has a right to not be sexually molested (raped) by anyone, even with her consent.
How ridiculous the parallel of rape by consent—yet sexual mutilation with the new fad of transgender, is actually more permanently harmful physically that rape, and the psychological consequences later loom very great, because it is a choice a woman does not have to make.
2—A woman (young or older) has a right to not kill her baby, either by her choice or by others’ pressure.
A woman has a right to not be physically harmed by anyone with the procedure (even when termed ‘successful’), which will have lifelong negative consequences, physical and psychological.
3—A woman (young, very young, or older) has every right to not be killed by anyone, ever, at any age of her life, for any reason whatsoever.
A woman has that right that no other woman or man has a right to take from her—by decision (‘choice’), by procedure.
This includes the right to not be murdered weeks or months after she started living, before she has the power to make the decision.
The right to life without the choice to live ?
4—A man (young, very young, or older) has every right to not be killed by anyone, ever, at any age of his life, for any reason whatsoever.
A man has that right that no other man or woman has a right to take from him—by decision (‘choice’), by procedure.
This includes the right to not be murdered weeks or months after he started living, before he has the power to make the decision.
The right to life without the choice to live ?
THE RIGHT TO LIFE WITHOUT THE CHOICE TO LIVE ! ! !
That is inhuman, evil, unholy, unGodly, unAmerican, unfeminine, unwomanly, abominable—WITH CONSEQUENCES we’ve only begun to see.
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+God sees !
+Just wait !
+Just watch !
+Just do everything you can to “save those being led away to slaughter.”
*Unless the woman or the man is a Christian. Then this applies, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
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