FAITH FRIDAY :: 26nov2021 - Another week

 Been watching old movies, well... an old Gary Cooper movie with some faces that would rise later.  It's hard to remember star names, but I think I saw a young Buddy Ebsen and an early Hawaii Five-O guy.  I recognized some faces, but I don't know all the Hollywood names.

The westerns have some really bad guys.  It makes me think of criminals and how terrible they can be.  This one included Gary Cooper as a reformed outlaw meeting his old gang again... all the problems that brings up.  It is one of the biggest problems in every age... finding a new life, getting out of the old circles, becoming a different person.  

I have been making progress with my workspace challenges.  By emptying boxes I find more space.  I am almost done with emptying two more boxes.  I sorted through tons of seeds I have collected for a long time.  I am trying to keep the organic seeds from store products and the seeds from things I bought at farmer's markets.  I want to grow trees of all kinds so I have a bunch of those seeds to go through still.  I am not sure how many will end up as my final savings, but one box of seeds will be enough to start my efforts if I ever get the larger space I want.

I have always liked the idea of saving little trees that are already growing and want to live.  I want to try growing trees and other things from seeds also.

Arbor Day is the holiday focused on planting trees to help the earth save itself.

I wish my income had been different all my life.  I wanted to do so many things.  I just never made it to a high enough amount to get to those things.

GOD is able, but He chose not to.  I have to trust He had reasons.  

Well............I guess I will go for now.  It's hard to write an update when you are still in the middle of the same project... sorting and reorganizing.  :-)  The process is slow, but it is really helping the long goals.

In Christ, Deborah Martin

Working Together - http://work2gather.us 

FAITH FRIDAY :: 19NOV2021 - Suffering and GOD

Hello, again...  how has your week been?  I hope you are well and happy and keeping your eyes on GOD instead of the world.

Living is a bit precarious for me, always.  I am almost 70 and I still fear having to live on the streets, maybe die there.  I wonder why GOD has not provided the finances I need, so I don't feel secure about my existence.  The valley I am living through is still a valley that filled with battles against the enemies of Faith.

When GOD is not doing what we want Him to, we have to search for the why.  I look for clues in the Bible, and other Christian testimonies, and history, and any place I can find it.  I want my life to be safe and peaceful and busy with good things.  That isn't what history tells me happens to Christians.

In times of persecution, men who only know power and hate and violence seem to thrive on the attacking the innocent, the weak, those who cannot defend themselves, women and children, the elderly, etc.  It allows them to see themselves as powerful, in control, the "boss" of everyone and everything.  Are they just "lost" or are they used by the Enemy of GOD or do they make the conscious choice to do what they do?  It is hard to decide about evil and what causes it to hurt us.

In the 80"s I made a statement for a card design I was working on...  The enemy is not Man, it is Satan living inside Man.  That's the best I can remember of it.  I lost those cards along the way of life.  In those days I was able to separate the actions of people from the damage they did. We fight the same Enemy every day.  I am not sure I can separate the source anymore.  The statement is still true, but the pain caused by those who lift up evil is also more real to me now.

It's hard to see the reality of suffering in Christian films... we don't even want to think about it.  The Hiding Place is one film we think of, how concentration camps were operated.  Maybe Schindler's List and how we become in the midst of a battle for life in wartime.  I can't think of a lot of Christian films right now... mainstream films... things that make it to the larger Christian community.  Maybe Fiddler on the Roof would be in that group - a picture of how the Jews suddenly have to leave everything because of a change in politics.  I watch these films every so often to remind me of how the world gets about Faith... just because it is Faith.

They show us parts of suffering for our faith... but to live through it is another thing, especially in our America.  The Enemy uses hidden tactics in our time.  Lawsuits.  Pies in the face of those who have opposed them - in public spaces to hurt the opposition even more.  There are collusions.  Lies?  Financial ruin so there is less ability to fight back.  Luring our loved ones into places they wouldn't go otherwise.  Attacking people for no real reason, including children.  We call it many things, but behind it all is the Enemy of GOD.

I don't know what else will come up in the future, but technology is already being used to hurt anyone who disagrees with the politically correct views of a lot of topics. Maybe with algorithms or suspensions or thefts or internet access or medical connections or business or education or ???  Technology is growing into that weapon that will destroy us.

In my own life I have endured a lot.  I remembered that the Bible tells us to endure to the end.  It doesn't make it easy.  It just helps me to see that there is pain in Faith, there is suffering in Faith, there is a choice every day about whether we will stand with GOD or fall away to avoid pain and suffering because we believe Christ died to save us.

I can't control what the Enemy does, I have to keep my eyes on GOD and trust that He is still at work in the world, my world, when it seems like the Enemy is winning.  Prayer is my weapon, sometimes my only weapon against the forces of evil in my life.  

I do my best to keep going and stay faithful to GOD.  

I think that is all anyone can do.

In Christ,  Deb  <3

FAITH FRIDAY :: 12NOV2021 - Trusting when we wait

11:35 pm

I moved my VCR yesterday, to a place I can access it better.  So far I have watched 6 of my collected movies.

Pocahontas

White Christmas

It's a Wonderful Life

Land Before Time

Batteries Not Included

Remember the Titans

I'm not sure how many more I will watch over the weekend, but I am going through my boxes of things to decide what to keep and what to sell or pass on somehow.  I want to reduce my possessions as much as possible right now.  

My big goal is to find space to do my art and crafts and writing and selling online.  It seems pointless to keep things that are not useful in my senior years.  So, I decided to only keep the things I still want to have until the day I die... whenever that is.

It is much harder than I thought it would be.  

A lot of memories are attached to things we have.  It is a long process deciding what really fits my life and goals and personal needs at nearly 70 years old.  Unless something has a monetary value, most of the people who inherit our stuff don't really want it.  This is another part of the downsizing effort.

In my thinking about end-of-life issues, I guess heaven is the main thing I still want to have - everything I possess will only be needed for a little while longer, and is only important to me.  I am trying to cover my burial and get my debts paid and take care of what might cost money in the future (like medical bills).

Morbid details that have to be taken care of.

In the middle of all this death stuff, there are still unfinished dreams that only GOD can provide for.  How much I could do is questionable.  Not impossible, but definitely in need of adaptations to accomplish.  I have never been able to find out.  I wonder if I will ever find out if I can do what I wanted to do.

We all pass through these spaces on our way to old age.

Maybe that is the reason some people have a "mid-life crisis" and go crazy trying to be young again.  :-)  

Tomorrow I find a box to start putting the discards into.  

We can't take anything with us to the next life, heaven or hell.  I hope I can decide what really matters to my future and let the rest go.

Pray for me.  Thanks.  Deb <3

FAITH FRIDAY :: 5NOV2021 - on how we are so easily changed.

Just watched a Christian film about teens and a summer camp about learning horse skills.  Strange movie for me now.  I always wonder if other Christians are really like the movies.  :-)  This is a lot of people who were not "always" Christians see the world.

It's the end of a long week.  I don't know why, but the days seemed to take longer to pass this week.  I am hoping the time change this weekend will make next week better!  :-)  

What to say... 

I am more of a thinking type of person... searching for answers.

I watched a lot of YT videos the other day about earthquakes and liquefaction and prepping. I am about to do my major shopping for the month so this is an expensive thought.  It seems there is little to do about the "BIG ONE" on the west coast except pray GOD protects us or that death is not really painful.  I have been trying to prep for my own life for some time, looking for what I can do for myself and thinking about what my options for surviving might be.

With my age, the idea of dying is not that big of a thing.  I expect to go one of these days.  It's what happens when you get old.  I am trying to figure out the process for me, and what I need to do on the way.

I just keep going the best I can.

I guess I look for what I can do.

I wish I was in charge, had the resources to make the world a better place, but that is not what GOD has decided for me right now.  I don't stop believing, but I also don't push against GOD's Will and purposes for me.  It's not an easy stand to take.

Some of the videos I have been watching this week are about Social Security, the government battles for control of our future, and my search for ways to increase my income online. I saw a business video tonight that shared the concept of focus.  The author presented the view that what we focus on is what becomes our value... how advertising leads you to buy their product by showing you only things that will make you want to get their product.  It was a different way of saying the same truth we already know about advertising/marketing... or any presentation (sermon or lecture or article or movie or TV show or game or book or whatever we allow our eyes to see and ears to hear -- remember that verse?)

How to apply GOD's wisdom in our daily lives... THAT is the challenge.  :-)

I'm pretty tired right now so I hope I am not too confusing.  We can read the Bible fast and find it meaningless, or we can think about a serious passage for many years and still not understand what GOD is trying to tell us.  We get a little closer to GOD's Truth after years of hard thinking, but no one ever reaches the final version.  We will see that in the next life.

I hope to see you there.

In Christ,  Deb  <3