21 September 2017

Thursday...  finally.

Fighting the battles of faith in an ungodly world brings so much pain with it...  we tend to expect GOD to make that hedge around us and prevent all pain from reaching us, but He doesn't.  We suffer for many reasons, some are because of our relationship with God, Jesus, and the Bible. 

I finished the last chapter in the book by Dr. Cho today... and it was about faith in our daily lives.

I guess this would be a good quote from that chapter...  "Whether I live or die, succeed or fail, increase or decrease I will do according to God's word."  It was sharing the idea that we follow God's directions to us, at a personal level, despite what the consequences may be to us...even though it is hard... sometimes when we don't understand.  The big key to this is knowing it is GOD speaking to you, and making sure the enemy isn't pretending to be GOD.

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We live in an age that no one in the past could have imagined.  The power of the internet is beyond our ability to fully understand, and we are victims of what it can do to us and those we love.  In my own search for a way through these issues, I keep remembering that GOD warned us we would have to endure to the end... it seems a bit early for that prophecy, but the advice is pertinent to our situations now.  As the internet grows, as our ability to control it becomes more obvious, and as we begin to see the potential details of prophecy happening around us, our need to keep our focus on GOD and to endure the new kinds of suffering ahead of us will be very important.

I am a senior citizen.  I don't know how much longer I will be alive, and I don't know how many years we have as Christians until the Antichrist is revealed.  Instead of a rapture out of this world, I think we will have to die in our faith because of the global power the Antichrist will have... we will be leaving this Earth, but the way will be different.  The goal of Working Together is to make places for Christians to help each other until that time gets here. 

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I received a comment from someone claiming to be a pasor in India.  I have been trying to decide what to do with this comment.  It doesn't interpret my goals for WT correctly, and posting it on the blog is not a solution.  It is one of many problems to deal with as I continue to work to establish Working Together in the midst of my own trials and tribulations.  It makes me see how the enemy seems to have more power than God... because this world is all we know, what we can see, where we suffer... but GOD is the one with a larger power, and the ability to make sure His Will is done even when Satan would like to thwart it.

In the chapter I read today, the example of Moses and the Red Sea was used.  How the people trembled at the thought of dying, how Moses was the only one who really understood the power of God, and how God speaks and does things.  I noticed in the scripture quoted that they would no longer see the Egyptians that were chasing after them, that God would fight for them... and what God did to fulfill that word.

"And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever.  The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

GOD protected His people, and destroyed the Egyptian army.

I also noticed how God does these things... through natural sources, like the river.  When they put lambs blood over the doorposts, the angel of death passed them by.  When Pharaoh declared he would kill the firstborn of the Israelites, the firstborn of the Egyptians were killed.  In the Bible, these themes are repeated over and over again, including in the life of Christ.

Knowing this makes it hard for Christians to accept suffering and death in their lives, believing it to be judgment for something.  I guess this is also a theme of the Bible... why people were considered cursed when they suffered, etc.

I have been working through these mixed thoughts all my life.  I want to know, but there is no clear answer.  It is suffering that makes us seek God for the answers.

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Today I also entered a post at a Christian group,  "Praying for God to intervene..." -- because I want to see a Red Sea open in my own life, and the Egyptians that plague me to be destroyed. 

How will GOD answer this prayer?  I don't know.

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The sun was shining today, and that was good.  I did take some cold medicine to ward off the illness that is trying to get me.  :-)  I will know by the end of the weekend.  It takes about a week to get a cold, about a week of being sick with it, and then another week as it goes away...  I found this out when my kids were young.  It seemed to take so long for them to get better I worried about pneumonia and all kinds of things.  Naturally, I went to the doctor in the third week, when it was going away on its own!

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This weekend I should be able to get some art and crafting done.  If I figure out how to post photos with my blogs, I may share some with you.  I think I need a real computer to do that.  I can post photos, but haven't been able to post a photo in the blog... like I use to do way back when.  I'm still searching for the path on that one.

This is a personal journaling-style blog... please try to remember that.  I will be posting separately to WT blogs about those issues.  I also have a separate Crafting blog for those activities.

Time to go.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD watch over the good people who love Him as the days pass by.
May He help us to see His path for us.
May our hearts be willing to do our tasks in the Body of Christ.
May the enemies we face be overcome.
Amen.