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