FAITH :: Thinking about how GOD works in our lives...

It has been a long week.  I just finished watching a PBS documentary under the Ken Burns title about "COLLEGE BEHIND BARS."  I cried a lot.  It takes you back into places you never planned to go.

I have been busy sorting through what remains of my life, papers, photos, dreams... prison records for my sons, writings I still have about the struggles, memories.  It never goes away, it just gets put away for other things that have to get done to survive today. 

In our search for GOD in the middle of our pain, it isn't always easy to find Him.

I'm still looking.

All these tears are catching up with me.

I will return...

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

FAITH :: Still working on 2021, finding great old papers I saved, and sharing a wonderful quote I found...

 I have been going through so many of my saved papers and finding things that really are great to review again.  I will be busy with that this weekend -- reading and then deciding what to do with them.

I found a really nice QUOTE on one of the pages and wanted to share it here... I don't have the full article, or a date when I found it, just the page it was on.  

This quote is attributed to PAUL TRIPP ::

"Every day we lay little bricks on the foundation of what our life will be.... The bricks of words said, the bricks of actions taken, the bricks of little decisions, the bricks of little thoughts, and the bricks of small-moment desires."

I think I would like to add the small paragraph that follows it, and ends the goal-related article.

"Over time, as we add layer upon layer of these so-called little things, we reach our goals.  It's the little things, done with intention, that create a form of ourselves often unrecognizable as the person we used to be."

Isn't that an amazing pair of thoughts...  it's bricks make us think of building a house, a place to live, a design we create.

This is what Christ does for us when we accept the gift of salvation and let Him lead us to a place where all our sins, the harm they have done, are changed into good results.  This doesn't change the harm, but it does find a way to redeem our bad choices.  We build a new future and become a new person..."unrecognizable as the person we used to be."

Praise GOD for the opportunity to become that new person.

On my planning activities for 2021... still working on them.  Finding good ideas in all the pages I keep finding... looking for a plan that will work for me... praying for GOD's help.

I don't know what the final goals will be, but I have a direction to move in... PATREON, then selling options like ETSY and EBAY, then Social Media selling, and whatever comes after that.  I am working on my budget restrictions, on what I can afford to add to my tools and supplies, and other connected details to sell online.  It is a long process with restricted budgets, but I keep going in the directions I know I need to go and hope for GOD's help. 

It keeps me busy in my "old age."  :-)   That is a real blessing.  I hope I can continue until the day GOD calls me home.

I may start posting here more, like I did in the past, as my connection to all things about GOD, Faith, and what they mean to us.  I have to have some PUBLIC posting spaces, and then I will work on linking my readers to the selling spaces I am building.  I don't want to do a lot of PUBLIC posts at PATREON... it seems like it will defeat the purpose of joining.  That is one of my searching issues for 2021... HOW to organize my online sites.  What a huge job!

Until next time,

Deborah Martin

https://etsy.com/shop/work2gather

https://patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan

I will be needing a new post like this for 2021, too.   :-)

FAITH :: Feeling the need for greater Faith... :-)

It's a long day.  I want to get back to bed after sleeping more than normal.  So tired.  Because I get awakened in the night and can't seem to get back to sleep.  How to get back to a better schedule.  BIG question.

Being tired affects every area of our lives.

It's hard to do much when you are tired.

I think I will stop here and let the call of my body rule.  :-)  Sleep.... so wonderful.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

FAITH :: Thinking about what matters...

This has been a different kind of year.

In starting a PRAYER Journal for my kids and others, I began to see things differently.  I added old friends, and included some famous people I have prayed for over many years, and then decided to add ministries to my list.  I prayed for our nation and the election we faced.

The Internet has become a soft porn space, growing toward hard core porn.  I don't watch much TV anymore, but the ads I see when I'm online tell me it isn't a nice space.  I have tried to find some way to eliminate that problem from my life, my internet, my house, my work, but there isn't one that I can find, yet.  

I have to think it's organized crime hidden behind corporations, or the evidence of no GOD in our public spaces... or both.  This matters to Christians and their families.  I assume its a negative application of algorithms, purposeful, violating opposing opinions.  How it exists is beyond me.  I figure it is prophecy becoming reality.

I have spent a lot of time trying to understand the lives of the wealthy, the famous, the "leaders" of our world.  What does it mean to find happiness for them... real happiness.

I was going to title something I wanted to write about this topic "The Blessings of Being a Nobody."  We don't have to worry about being photographed with "casual clothes" and "bad hair days."  I live in my socks most of the time.  I have taken to wearing a hoody sweatshirt so I can pull the hood up when I go outside with messy hair.  :-)  The pressure reaches us all at some level, I suppose. 

I suppose our popular preachers face the same pressures as the public famous.

Since many years ago I assumed I would become wealthy in order to operate Working Together, but that hasn't happened.  I prayed for so many years about the topic of money and the organization of any ministry I might create.  When GOD did not provide the funds I expected, I searched for answers about the why.  

I don't know why.

I have come to believe that GOD has His own reasons for the issue.

I have felt the wars going on in my life over spiritual matters, I just didn't have the ability to fight against them.  I trusted GOD for each day.

I look at the "images" we admire.  I try to find a matching moment in the Bible.  I wonder who will be the ones that Jesus never knew.  They are people who think they are doing all kinds of good things for GOD, for Jesus, for the faith of others.  But they don't make it into heaven.

Finding REAL people of faith in this world is more of a challenge than I ever thought it would be.

Before the LEFT BEHIND series appeared, the only "rapture" was the one at the end of our world's existence.  The Antichrist was the one to fear.  Now we have a world of Christians who are expecting to get out of standing for their faith, dying for their faith, believing in what others tell them without searching for their own answers in the Bible.  

I don't understand the reasons why some are lifted up and others are not.  

TRUTH seems to always be thwarted, hidden, covertly changed, misinterpreted....  What does it mean in our lifetime?  Who do we trust?  Where do we find answers?  With so much technology and the increasing dependence on the Internet, will we really know if what is there is the Truth?

I know what Hollywood does.  I didn't think they would have the same effect in the church, but it seems they do.  We produce our ministries like Hollywood produces a movie, advertisement, freebies to entice us into giving - even when they border on being idolatry. It's really a scary thing when you take the time to think about it.

In my looking more deeply at the lost in our public spaces, there is so much pain.  I don't know what they turn to in their despair.  I have GOD.  I have the deepness of my faith.  I have hope for my tomorrow.  I have faith that there is a purpose to all that happens.  I know the pain of today will help others tomorrow.  I don't see that kind of perspective in the lives of those we see in our news, movies, government, schools, and every other public influence.  How do they cope?  What is the basis for their decisions?  What do they value?

They seem to have more power than those who love GOD, are saved by Jesus Christ, and seek to make the world and the lives of others better.  This is talked about in the Bible, but seeing it in our lives is different.  

The big word is "seem" - like Satan's ongoing battle for supremacy.  Though He doesn't continually make an example of evil activities, GOD has the power to stop them.  My thoughts have led me to believe that the issue of "free will" is the reason.  It suddenly made sense to me when I was writing a statement about Herod.  GOD didn't stop Herod from killing all those innocent babies, but he warned Joseph to flee in order to save the baby Jesus.

GOD's interventions are always as small as they need to be, and work to preserve His Will and/or the lives of important people in the process of faith and history.  Search the Bible and think about how GOD actually moves in our world.  It changes the way you see everything.

So... What matters in our lives?  Faith in the GOD of the Bible.

When we don't have this foundation, life is miserable.  We ache and there is no one to help us.  We look for answers and cannot find them.  We struggle to find meaning in all that exists.  We vainly search for love and truth and hope and happiness.

Those famous people are willing to give up everything in their lives for money, fame, and the lives they are accustomed to.

Their children don't know any different.

How will GOD judge their souls?  I don't know.  

Do they know about Jesus?  I don't know.

They have until they die to find Him.  

We can pray for them, but who will reach them for salvation?

In Christ,

Deborah Martin