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I'M GUILTY, AND I CONFESS, I'M A SINNER....and God called me on it tonight.
He impressed on me my need to seek Him for forgiveness.....He laid this on my heart...
Earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, excessive rain, and a financial crisis like I've never seen before...oh the list goes on and on, I could add one bad thing right after the other...but I don't have to, because you guys can add the very same things to my list as well.
Life right now in the US is a mystery. I just don't know what I'll find when I wake up each morning and turn on the news. It's one bad thing after another, and to be honest, I have gotten to the point where I almost expect it, and it just does not phase me as it should, I have either hardened my heart to it--or become numb with each successive one.
Oh, I'm so very guilty, put my name up at the top of the list. Hurricane coming? Yes, it's bad, but I'm saved Lord so I don't worry so much about it. Earthquake in a foreign country? Yes, it's sad that so many were killed, but I'm saved Lord so I don't worry so much about it.
You see, Lord, I'm busy--busy living MY life the way I see it needs to be lived. I'm covered in the blood, and besides.....................................
Lord, I've read Revelation.....this is what end times is supposed to be like....the beginning of end times I mean.......but I should not worry because the Bible teaches me to NOT worry.....and besides, I'm saved.....so I don't worry so much about it......
Prayer taken out of school? 10 Commandments not allowed in government buildings anymore? Accept living arrangements of people who are unmarried and/or people who are gay because I'm Your child and it is better to show a genteel Christian side all the time.....Just not go to the movies anymore because I can't stand the filth that comes from the screen? Accept...accept....deny..........
I'm guilty of Pride, thinking I am immune to what goes on in this world just because I am saved by Jesus Christ. Thank Jesus that I am saved, and Thank Him that He has convicted me of Pride....I'm not better than anyone else on earth, He that lives in me is better than all things on earth....man how I got that mixed up for a while....
I'm guilty of sitting on my butt and doing nothing, not even wringing my hands over what has been going on in this land. Why? Well, because I'm saved....oh what self-righteous baloney!!!
I can't believe how gullible I am, how Satan used my very own salvation to lure me into a false sense of wellbeing. Oh how I spouted to my family and friends each time a new catastrophe hit, "It's all in the Bible, just read Revelation, nothing we can do, glad I am saved."
God forgive me for my Pride, my hypocritical attitude, my stupidity.
Heavenly Father, I humble myself before You, begging for Your forgiveness, and Praising You for Your continued love for me even when I was acting like a spoiled brat. I Thank You dear Lord, for convicting me and motivating me into action.
I come to you broken-hearted Father, living in a land I do not recognize. One in which my very principals don't fit in. I ask You dear Lord to heal my land, to hear Your many children as we call out for Your Mercy and Healing on our very souls, on our nation.
Thank You dear Lord, for the Truth of Your Word, and for answered prayers...amen
*********
That was satan working in the shadows luring me into utter compliance and eventually destruction.
Jesus commanded me to WAKE UP.....rattle some tree branches.....shout to the Lord for what is going on around me....
2 Chronicles 7:14
[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
If a land was ever in need for healing, I do believe it is ours.
I call on each of you, my brothers and sisters, to cry out to the Lord from your broken hearts, with true emotion piercing and tearing at your heart, with shuddering sadness for what we face, with true belief in His Word to forgive us our sin and Heal our land.....
I challenge you, my brothers and sisters, to earnestly lay your hearts at His throne, to throw yourselves at the blood stained feet of the Cross, for a national healing of our land, for a rise of Christian brothers and sisters to speak out and reclaim back our faith, values, and morales and principals....
We must recommit ourselves to Christ, rediscover His message to us, His path for our lives.....and take the burden of the unsaved to the Cross, crying out to Him for His divine intervention.
God has laid this on my heart, getting me out of bed to deliver this heavy burden......are you up to His challenge? Will you come to the Cross and Pray, crying out your heart to Him?
Our nation, our world needs our Christian prayers.....
I call on each of you, my brothers and sisters, to cry out to the Lord from your broken hearts, with true emotion piercing and tearing at your heart, with shuddering sadness for what we face
Aiangel:
June hesitated and thought long and hard before responding to what you have written, for somewhat obvious reasons, as she cannot consider herself as being one among those whom you petition to "cry out to the Lord from (your) broken hearts, with true emotion piercing and tearing at your heart, with shuddering sadness..." However, June can relate to this:
June has no idea what Revelations means, has no idea, really, what it means to be "saved," and has no idea how that which you all refer to as the Holy Spirit works. She does, however, take the notion of personal responsibility very seriously. She has also learned how to listen to the heart wrenching utterances of others and not let them emotionally destroy her; to be able to cordon off that which she needs to, in order to help those she needs to. To use sensitivity empathically. However, she is also one who is all too vulnerable to her own self limitations at times, as she takes the well being of others very seriously. On an ethical and personal level. So June goes about her day, listening and responding as best she can to the desperation of others that she hears almost daily. And she fends off vicarious traumatization in the process in order to do her job.
However, every now and then, it's those things that catch her unaware, in the moment; unanticipated and thereby hitting her like a ton of bricks. June arrived home last night and sat down to watch the news. There were no earthquakes, hurricanes or natural disasters reported, except for the (un)natural disaster that CNN was reporting in the moment: That of the 90 year old woman who is one among thousands whose house was being foreclosed on, due to her not being able to pay her mortgage any longer. After living in her home for 38 years. As such, the "powers that be" arrived at her door to inform her that her home was being taken from her. -At which point, she picked up a gun and shot herself in the chest. But miraculously lived. --And in the aftermath of this, the bank ended up deciding to let her have/keep her house.
That got to June. More than anything else she has heard about Wall Street, the economy, political candidates, or the state of the world. CNN didn't mention what religion this 90 year old woman was; didn't mention where she lived; didn't mention what her politcal offiliation was. They didn't have to. The point was made. She was just one individual who drove home the point, to June, that we are all somehow accountable not only for our own selves, but for the well being of other selves. It drove the point home with "true emotion piercing and tearing" at June's heart in such a way that it would be difficult for me to articulate...
You, of all people I know, Aiangel, are among one of the most tolerant, kind hearted, generous, and truly decent people I have met on here. And while I am NOT about to invalidate your "conviction" of last evening any more than I can invalidate my own "whatever" as regards what I heard on the news, I will say this: We are all, on some level, as anonymous to one another as that 90 year old woman, somewhere in this country is. That does not mean, however, that we don't impact one another. -Because we do. Hearts are vulnerable despite the chaotic business of each of our personal lives. But within that, we do impact one another in whatever accounts for our inter-relatedness. And sometimes we experience with a new level of awareness that which we weren't so acutely aware of before; in a way that we might not have quite realized or anticipated. June, certainly, has no way of explaining that in any "spiritual" or "religious" sense, other than to acknowledge that that which truly accounts for the human spirit is indeed, a spirit of some kind...
As it awakens our hearts.
And hopefully makes us just a bit more aware, or kinder, or more humble or compassionate in our awareness.
June thinks, therefore, of that 90 year old woman, whose life was somehow saved, and thereby, saved that which she could not bear to lose: a simple dwelling. But clearly far more precious than "just" the simple dwelling of a house or physical body. --That which held her, and her spirit.
Both of which continue on, despite the odds, this morning.
I like June don't really know what Revelations are, what it means to be saved, or how this whole thing is supposed to work. But, what I do understand is that there are supposed to be a period of dark times before the second coming and that a lot of people feel this is a time leading up to that.
You know, I guess one of the things that has always sort of turned me off about Christianity is this obsession - predominantly in America - with the end of times and looking for all of these reasons and signs of it coming. And I'm not saying that to be rude but I honestly feel that Americans have become a little too isolated to see what else is and has been going on in the rest of the world for a very long time now.
I think that if I really wanted to look for signs of the end times that I'd have to look outside this country, aiangel. Things certainly do seem bad around here lately. Not to sound as if I'm making a joke of things but gas prices are so high it's hard to fill up our second vehicle. Food prices are getting higher as well which means we have to buy more of the generic brand foods rather than the "name brand" foods. There are just so many bad things going on in this country that it's hard to know where to begin. And yet, although we may be in one of the deepest lulls of economic prosperity as well as one of the most trying times as a nation that we have faced in several decades, it most certainly doesn't even come close to the things that people have been dealing with outside of this country for hundreds of years.
I think that if I wanted to really look for a sign of the end of times that it would be hard for me to know where to look. How many starving children in Africa do we get to look at to realize that our children are rather well fed? How many times do we have to hear about suicide bombings taking the lives of other people before we realize that we don't have to worry about going to the supermarket or drive down the highway?
While you can step back and look at it with a different set of glasses and say that this all a sign of the end of times; I would have to disagree because this has been going on for hundreds of years - we're just much more exposed to it now. The media is a horrible thing used to instill fear and scare the living daylights out of people and it rests on their unconscious minds.
I once wrote this on another post of mine and to another friend of mine when she was going through a tough time, but I look to it a lot because it really sort of makes things clear (in my mind) exactly what the best of times and worst of times really are. It's the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only
What I find funny about those opening lines is that you can apply them to the French Revolution of the 1700's or you can apply them to today's current problems and it only takes a second of pondering to realize that the life we lead is mired and mixed with the best of times and worst of times. Thus, I cannot honestly bring myself to openly believe that resting in the trough of the worst of times for we Americans, is actually the worst that it can be and hence a sign of the end. It can be a lot worse. Believe me, I've seen it. All you have to do is put on a different set of glasses and look at the more unpleasant side of history to realize that these "worst of times" are really a lot better than anybody could ever ask for throughout most of history.
Troop, I get your post....really I do... how can I invite you inside my head
I'm not saying I think the end is like right around the corner for next week, month or year....that is not what I mean when I talked about end times..
I believe since Christ died and ascended into Heaven the clock for end times started ticking....no one knows at what time that clock was set to expire...
Words are failing me at the moment, if you can believe it, I'm going to have to think some on how I want to respond to your post so that I can relate to you what I meant....Sleep deprived and caffeine deprived is not a good way to be in deep thought and discussion...I'll get back to you on this one..my friend..
My dear friend and sister Aiangel (and my late at night mentor) You are so much more gifted in understanding the bible than I am..I just read it and pray that the Holy Spirit will teach me what I need to know..I do not look for signs in the book of revelations, nor do I try to relate what it says to what is going on in the world today..I simply believe what Jesus said about not looking for signs..I concentrate on his words of comfort, and love and His command.
Yes indeed, it does seem that almost every hour something else happens in the ecomomy, in the war zones, in nature to cause us great concern and worry about what tomorrow or the next minute will bring us from home or the far corners of the world..
The wonderful technology of "mass media" allows us all this news be it good or bad..There is a wise saying, Aiangel, about history repeating herself, and about the mystery of nature doing what it does ever so often.
Imo, what is goiung on now has been going on since the beginning of time, and civilizations.. We just weren't aware of it, but as communication improved we heard some of it..Today, as I mentioned before, we know all of it within minutes of the happening..
Oftentimes, we are drawn into the mass hysteria which is often caused by the mass media..You memtioned in your recent blog about growing a garden and preserving food, and getting your finances in order..I agree, and have made a few changes in our financial burden because I do think there is a possibility for a a few tough times ahead, but we will get through them as we have before..You are prepared physically, and we should always be prepared for the Lord to return in our hearts and souls, but without worring about trying to find signs by relating every bad thing to the end of times..
Thank you for your heartfelt post, aiangel. It spoke to my heart! Truly, we (I) have become complacent.. and if we ever were in a time when we should be fully committed, it is now. May the events of the world and our time cause us to listen to God's gentle call to come closer to Him!
One of the things that has amazed me through all this is the very fact that I have been so at peace. That is not how I would have been say two years ago. I believe the fact that I am so calm and at peace is because of the Spirit working in my heart.
One thing, I did not want this post to sound like an alarm --that I thought the world was coming down on us in the near future, nothing to the sort...
Just a call for Christians to stand up for their belief and let their voices be heard....and to call upon God to see us thru this time when the atocoties of a few have affected so many.
I seee I should have thought out my post a bit more before posting....
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only
Interesting.
June has always loved those lines from Dickens. --But what struck her as particularly interesting as she read them again, just now, is the fact that they are universal in their content. Meaning that they speak to all of us in a way that we are all able to, (on some level) relate to them. They resonate with us. We can empathize with them. -Whether we are believers, nonbelievers, or what not.
Sort of like what transpires, at times, on this very forum...
Hmmm.....
Take gentle pondering care.
Last edited by june 7th; 10-07-2008 at 09:03 AM..
Reason: Just needed to go back and highlight something... :)
Thank you for your heartfelt post, aiangel. It spoke to my heart! Truly, we (I) have become complacent.. and if we ever were in a time when we should be fully committed, it is now. May the events of the world and our time cause us to listen to God's gentle call to come
closer to Him!
Wonderful words of reason for the christians/believers...Thanks Cg...
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) You are so much more gifted in understanding the bible than I am..I just read it and pray that the Holy Spirit will teach me what I need to know..I do not look for signs in the book of revelations, nor do I try to relate what it says to what is going on in the world today..I simply believe what Jesus said about not looking for signs..I concentrate on his words of comfort, and love and His command.
