Sickeningly Yours.......

Yeah that's right...I've been diagnosed with strep throat. Hurrah. I can not begin to tell you my excitement. :(

Ha ha! Oh well! Just got to grin and bear it. Whenever I get sick I like to think dark thoughts about Adam and Eve. Boy they really didn't know what they were getting themselves into. Especially Eve. Thanks alot sister! It's hard to imagine our world without pain, sickness or death. We see it everywhere, all the time. And yet, God knows because that was exactly how he created the world to be. How sad he must be to see what it has become.

Adam and Eve had no idea what the result of their one bad choice would be. It's so easy to blame them...after all they were the ones who ate the darned fruit, but that wouldn't be right. If it had been you in that garden, and you had what seemed to be a chance to be like God, wouldn't you try? Something so innocent as taking a bite of a fruit...

We all have our own forbidden fruit that we've chosen to taste or sometimes swallow whole. And just like Adam and Eve, once we've realized what we've done, we stupidly try to hide it. You know what I'm talking about. We've ALL done it. The fruit may look different...and we may not have consumed the entire thing...but to God it is still sin.

Our Pastor spoke about hidden sins on Sunday. He gave 4 things we should never underestimate. 4 things that lead us into hidden sin.

1 Never underestimate the dangers of distractions.

Kind David learned this with Bathsheba. I learned this when I was 15 and became more concerned with fitting in rather then standing for God.

2 Never underestimate the deceit of your darkside.

How many times I've rationalized myself into doing, saying, or thinking something. How many of you love music? You know some of those songs you're listening to are not right. "But they're not that bad!" You protest. So are you saying that God has different levels of Bad? What about those lies you throw around all day? "Aw come on! They're just a little white lie!" So now you're saying God color codes the lies?

3 Never underestimate the snowball effect of sin.

The disobedience of Adam and Eve has caused sin to enter the world. Because of sin, death has entered, and because of death, millions will go to hell. You do not sin in a closet. When you sin, you do so touching the lives of your family, friends and sometimes even people you do not know. Sin is always more complicated then it seems.

4. Never underestimate the consequences of disobedience.

Your sin will find you out. It's written in the Bible. Yes, Jesus' death on the cross covers the payment for all your sins. But forgiveness does not eliminate the consequences. While you still have breath in your body, you can always come back to God. But the journey back is only harder the deeper you've gone.

In Bible times, God gave us a picture of sin through an illness called leprosy. Nasty sickness! The nerves in the body would be eaten away, leaving you numb and without feeling. Eventually parts would start to fall off and you would die. Sin does that. It eats you inside out until you wake up one day and wonder, "God! How did I get here?"

There are 3 things that cause us to step off the straight and narrow. 1 The lust of the eyes, 2 The lust of the flesh and 3 The pride of life. That's right. I didn't say playing hooky, doing dope, or sleeping around. See, those things are part of the snowball effect. But the root? Where does it start? It starts with our hearts. When our hearts become distracted from our walk with God. The moment we stop living for a purpose bigger then ourslelves is the moment we start living for ourselves. It isn't those big sins that trip us up, but those "little" sins, the white lies, the not so bad songs, the thoughts...these are the "germs" that cause us to become spiritually sick. And what's the best way to get rid of sickness? Take your medicine and starve it out.

Forever and Always,

-Me

For Love of Words

I think most of the people who read this blog have the same passion I do for the written word, or rather, the word written well, carefully edited and published :) My love for books, and lack of self-control has cost me dearly on some occasions, but nothing can quench that incessant thirst for more....more adventure, more mystery, more glory, more sorrow, more true love, more laughter, more of my beloved world of books.

I love Writing books almost as much, if not as much, as I do Reading them. Whatever was God thinking when he put that inexplainable power behind the pen and the word created from it? Why did he choose the written word instead of the musical word, the painted picture or the expressive dance? Whatever the reason, he obviously knew what he was doing, and I am VERY thankful for his wisdom.

When I was younger I wrote tons of stories, many of which are still lying unfinished on my desk. God gifted me with a VERY vivid and crazy imagination. Sometimes this gets me in trouble (actually make that most of the time gets me in trouble) but there are times when fragments of pictures will fold out before my mind's eye. Words will entwine these. Bold, powerful, passionate words like Surge, Gallant, Dread, and Ardor become gold thread that winds around the picture. Soft, delicate, but strong and unbreakable words like Trickle, Near, Concern and Friendship are turned into silver threads that lace themsleves through the gold ones, crisscrossing now and then across the still unfolding picture. Then the eminent words like Run, Grasp, Fear and Love are interwoven through these, crossing frequently over and around the picture like blue, silk thread. In a fit of writer's fervor I rush to my room, snatching one of my numerous notebooks, along with a black ink pen and throw myself on the floor to WRITE.

Maybe I'm the only one who sees words in that way. I've heard them described many times by different people. Some people describe them as birds, flying high and low in an immence blue sky. Other's depict them as a thousand different colored and shades of paints on a large canvas. How do you see them, in your own mind's eye? Whether we know it or not, everyone has their own pictures for them. For some they may be puzzles, a crazy jumble of strange shapes and sounds that sometimes seem to make no sense at all. The only wrong picture, and very sadly often seen, is when the words appear as only meaningless black marks on a white piece of paper.
Words are God's gift. The written word, his very choice to be the holder of his works and plans. An ill used word can be a danger, but the uplifting unused word is a shame.

"Yes, with just the common words
In usage everywhere,
You can capture incidents
Beautiful and rare.
In words you have a weapon
More mighty than a gun;
You can sway a multitude
Or stir the heart of one"

-From "A Jingle of Words" by Elizabeth Scott Stam

Cyberspace and Death

Today I made one foolish click of the mouse and somehow deleted all my previous posts. (Yeah I'm still not sure how it happened.) I called my dad over to see if he could make any sense of what I had done, but he couldn't. Needless to say I was pretty upset. I'd posted quite alot over the last two months and it felt like I had basically taken my journal and thrown it into the fire. So as I was moping (and yes brushing away a few tears) my wise Dad said, "Isn't there something you could learn from this?"

"Think before I act." Popped out before I really thought about it. (It's the lesson I've been working on since birth).

Papa smiled. "Well, that's good. Anything else?" he coaxed gently.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Think about it. You spent alot of time writing down your thoughts, day after day. Pasting pictures and posting entries. And then with just a click, it was all gone."

"I know!" I wailed, wanting only to cry more.

"Don't you see?" My ever patient Papa explained. "Isn't that just like our lives? We think we're in control, that we know what we're doing. We spend alot of time on certain things that we think are important and then, suddenly, it all ends. We die."

I was quiet as this truth sank in. Over the last two months we've gone to two funerals and heard of lots of others. Walking by the caskets has always spooked me when I was little. But this time I couldn't help but feel awed. The person lying there was no more. Gone from this life forever. During their brief time on earth they had had choices to make and they had had time to change them. But now, that was all over and they were going to see the consequences and rewards of those choices.

Life is short. Very short. That's why it is so precious. Every minute is a jewel to be cherished and not thrown carelessly away. We are living in the last days. Our world has slowly been dying ever since Adam and Eve made that one wrong choice to disobey God. Every second brings us closer to that day that has been foretold for thousands of years, when Jesus will return. We don't have much time left. The board is set, the pieces are moving. The devil grows bolder with each passing day. The remnant is shrinking, the strongholds are weakening. America is not what she used to be.

We are in another garden. Unaware of the ever ticking clock and its quickly passing minutes. Again we are faced with a choice. Only one. It must be God's way, or our way. He can not make it any clearer. Hebrews 9:27 says, "For it is appointed for man to die once, and after this to face judgment." Adam and Eve had a choice and so have all the others who have been born, lived and died. What will your choice be? Choose quickly, choose carefully. You don't have much time left.