14 DEC 2023 - prepping for 2024 - moving my efforts to this blog.

Hello to my readers.

I am developing my plans for 2024 this month.

I unpublished my PATREON pages today.  I can start them again, if that becomes a renewed effort, but I am not sure it will.  I have been at Patreon for many years and one of my sons has been my only supporter... and that ended several years ago.

I only have a senior level of energy these days.  That is what happens when you get old.  :-)  So I am going to try to focus on just ONE main posting effort for now.  If GOD allows me to prosper this year, I will try to build up my online pages and find help for Working Together.

I decided a blog would allow me to post photos, include links to places I will sell at, and be a space to share my thoughts about all the things that matter to my life and yours.

I am working on building an ART space for myself, my senior activity project, where I can share the process and try to sell what I can.

Working Together is my ongoing project for the Christian communities everywhere.  I will try to share information about our struggles as a persecuted group of people heading into the Antichrist.

I have encountered a long path of hidden attacks for most of my adult life.  I don't have the ability to overcome them myself, so I depend on GOD to do whatever is needed to help me.  I just keep going, trying to do what I can each day.

With the internet being our main option for life needs, communication, and work, we have to connect - try to connect - through it for now.  I don't know what GOD is going to do for us as we go through these next years, I just focus on what I can do.

I wish I could have done more.  It seems GOD has decided to delay all the plans I made for us... through years of prayers and efforts.  I created a plan but He needed to provide for it.  Since the Enemy seems to have prevailed, I continue to pray for GOD's Wisdom and purposes for Working Together.

I will most likely keep my ETSY and EBAY shops open so I can link to products to fund my life and work needs.

I haven't decided what to do about social media.  I was trying to focus on Twitter as that connection, but I don't like it now that it is called X.  I let Facebook go while I was trying out Twitter.  Scaling down my presence/activities online mean changes in all my online spaces.  I am still praying about what to do.

I will post here with updates.

We are so close to the Antichrist now, depending on how long it takes for digital currency to become the global norm.  It is scary.  I am over 70 years old now.  I don't know how much longer GOD will keep me alive for the work He put in my heart to do.  I wonder who will be alive at that moment the microchip becomes mandatory.  It seems to be the most obvious MARK of the Beast.

I hope to see changes for myself and my problems in 2024.  I hope we find a path that will help all of us.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us 

When I spend more than I planned to...

I went shopping yesterday.

I had a list.  I had a budget.  Then I "siezed the opportunity" to get things I needed or wanted or that had been on my "list" a long time.  And I had my "treat" meal for lunch.  Now I have to recover my budget.

It was fun!  I hardly ever spend money like that, but it seems to happen every now and then.  I don't really regret doing this, but it does require some recovery efforts.

I am hoping to make some online sales from the money I spent, which makes it an investment in my future.

Right now, though, I am working on my income goals and strategies.  I have my goal statements for the year now.  I am trying to build up my Etsy sales, increase my Patreon supporters, my check some items off my Bucket List.  I need MONEY!!!  I think all of this kind of builds up and then I go shopping with money available to spend.  :-) 

I could have spent more than I did, and that would have been a very serious problem.

Christmas is coming and I need to get some items made to sell in the season.  Every year I try to do this, and every year I seem to fail.  I hope to change that this year.

With my new venture into creating and selling artworks, This year may be different.  I can create lots of items to sell online, especially with some of the new tools and supplies I bought yesterday.

So, did I really commit a financial crime?  I don't know.  It depends on what happens now.  Once I get my items done, listed online somewhere, and sold, it may prove to be the best year yet.

I have always lamented that GOD has not provided what I seriously expected Him to provide.  Keeping my efforts within a boundary I can deal with has been the core issue.  There have been so many times GOD could have blessed my finances and efforts to build my income and Working Together's.  At this point, I am not sure what to expect.  

I still have LARGE goals, dreams, hopes... and still wait for GOD to bless my efforts.  

I really wanted to win those BILLION dollar lotteries.  I could have spent it really good.  :-)  I have been waiting all my adult life (mostly) to spend money on Working Together, Christians, and people in great need.  I have a lot of plans that just need money.  (Like everyone else, including every church or ministry.)  I still look to GOD to provide for them somehow.

I guess all we can do is keep going, keep trying, keep praying, keep hoping...  We are GOD's servants and His Plan is all that matters, even if we don't understand it.  

I am sure GOD has reasons for what He does and doesn't do.

Keep your faith in GOD, He will provide what we need to accomplish HIS Will.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Faith in Persecution

My life has always been focused on the Antichrist because he is the main turning point for all Christians (and Jews) in our lifetime.  I haven't always understood the impact this has on our everyday lives.  I looked for things in life that would/could somehow be attached to when he would show up.  I didn't realize what this search would do to my own life.

We don't seem to see the spiritual battles that are going on all around us.  We think they are caused by other things, so we don't even register their spiritual nature.  Our lives become filled with struggles we can't understand and don't seem to be able to overcome.  We wonder where GOD is, and why He has allowed these problems, and why He doesn't "fix them."  

Our faith seems to falter when some of these trials enter our lives.

We blame GOD, not the Enemy.  

In my own life, I was so confused by all the struggles I didn't understand.  It made me seek GOD for the reasons why.  It made me find answers I never saw before.  I began to understand all those people in the Bible I never really thought about.  I learned more about our true relationship with GOD.

We study the stories of the Bible to learn more about GOD and our relationship to Him.  Because the stories in the Bible are about people from way back in history, we think our lives don't really compare to them.  But that isn't true.  They were people like us.  Every human being throughout life on Earth has the same nature.

We like to lift up the blessings GOD gave them.  We tend to make them holier than they were.  We believe there must have been something supernatural about them to have done the things they did.  But the struggles are the same for ALL humans.

We don't seem to have the same kind of faith GOD's best people had.

I have wished I had that kind of Faith.  I wondered why GOD even put the desire to make places to help Christians on the way to the Antichrist and then didn't provide.  Was it my Faith that wasn't big enough to deserve His provision?  I didn't know.  Something was wrong, but what was it?

I still don't know, and GOD still hasn't provided what Working Together needs to build any resources for Christians as persecutions rise.  I can't make anything happen.  I believe there is a very thin line between prayer and presumption.  We can ask GOD for the things we need, or we can push our own plans into being.  If GOD is going to use Working Together to provide for His People, then He has to provide for its needs.  I know GOD has created this direction in my life, so I continue to wait for His path to making it a reality.

With all the struggles I have had to this point in time, I understand more about the unseen battles that go on in GOD's Work on Earth.  In the beginning, I expected GOD to quickly provide whatever was needed in ways that were normal for our time in history.  It was a godly work, so naturally GOD would provide.  Then a lot of problems seemed to happen.

GOD provided for our individual needs as each day happened, but not in the ways I thought He would.

Persecutions entered our lives.  Hidden attacks we couldn't really fight against.  Miracles happened that we would be hard-pressed to verify.  

Eventually, I gave it all to GOD and tried to walk through each day as it happened, trusting that GOD was bigger than Satan, believing GOD would do with Working Together what He wanted.  I guess I began to see I might die because of my place in GOD's Work, but only when it was GOD's time for me to go.  I couldn't do anything without GOD's provision so I tried to find things I could do in my circumstances.

We are heading into greater persecutions than anyone thought possible.  Technology has changed the battlefield.  I don't know how I will deal with what is coming, or how the greater Church will change, but I know we can survive each day and trust that GOD knows all the hidden details.  He will be with us as we walk each step.  We may not get all the "goodies" we think we need, but we will have enough for the moment.

Trusting GOD in the middle of really hard times is not easy.  We lose things that matter to us.  We might only have the clothes on our back and a piece of bread.  It is what we need for the moment.  

The Bible doesn't say GOD promises everything we want.  He only promises food and clothes.  It was a hard lesson to learn. 

We see the blessings of Job, not the suffering of Job.  The prophet had only a brook for water and ravens for food.  The apostles left everything behind to follow Jesus.  

Faith isn't easy.  It has a price.

I hope I can stay faithful to the end.  I want to spend my eternity in Heaven, with those I love.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

What If... God's definitions are not the same as ours?

Reading the Bible is a challenge when we see different views of what the words say.  It's been the same way since Man was created.  In our day, the challenges can be worse.  Do you realize that online information can be hacked, changed, and we would never know.

I haven't memorized the Bible.  I can hardly repeat any full verses.  When I read Bible quotes these days I don't see the version attribute that once was "required" information.  I am not sure why, but that is how it is in my limited access.

I remember reading that Zondervan was purchased by a non-Christian company, but later on another company was listed as its owner.  The reason I mention this is because when someone buys a company they acquire all their assets... including the primary manuscripts.  Anything could be altered and we wouldn't know it.

The purpose of this theme is to share how vulnerable our spiritural lives are in a day when Christ is the target and the Bible is something we depend upon.  

I keep trying to think of ways to protect God's WORD for the future and for us.

I don't know Hebrew or Greek, or the Latin of some other versions.  I don't have access to authorized (trusted) versions of the original manuscripts.  My collection of Bibles is small, in English, and mostly kept for referencing.  I don't remember if I still have my concordance/s.  I barely have the ability to study my Bible these days, and struggle to know why GOD has not provided more for me to do the work I know He put in my heart to do.

We live in hard times for godly things.

We are also not the first in history to suffer for our faith.  It is just new to us.

I worry about how fear will change the faith of so many who believe they are saved.  I try to think of things we could do to help each other as things get worse.  I want to save our resources for taking care of God's People, not watch the Enemy sieze them to build evil weapons that will be used to harm and kill us.  And God has not provided for this work.  I just don't understand why.

I know there is a reason.  God always has a reason.  I just cannot think of what that might be.  So I wait, trust, seek GOD for what to do, and wait more. 

That is what we do.

I think the Bible shares this process over and over again.

I used to think of all the people who were forced to wait long times for GOD to do what He promised to do.  Abraham and Sarah are the most obvious.  I also thought of the judgements of GOD that lasted many years... 70, I think, in one story; over 400 years in another.

It always makes me realize that I am not the focus, GOD is, His Word is, His Plan is.  Whatever happens, our task is to stay true to our salvation, to keep believing that GOD does what He promises, that His Word always comes true.

One of these days I will have to die.  How and when that happens is in GOD's Hands.  I just want to stay faithful and meet as many of my loved ones in heaven some day.

I can see GOD's patience in the long years of waiting.  He wishes for all to be saved, and stays true to His promise to let us make our own choice about being in heaven with Him one day.  The Bible tells us what those requirements are.  This is why the Bibles we read are so important.  How do we protect God's Word from the violations technology is capable of causing?

Maybe you know the answer.  I hope you find a way to share it and help all of us.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

When we disagree about the Bible, what do we do?

Trying to reach the current Christian community, where everyone seems to be fixated on a Rapture theory to save them from the Antichrist, is really difficult for me.  I am not like the people I see on TV or listen to on the radio.  I don't really want to be like them.  I have felt that GOD would provide other ways for me to build Working Together for the future.  

Now, here I am, so many years later, after more struggles than I ever imagined, with no resources for those who will need them soon... if they don't already need them.

Technology has created a very different battlefield.  I don't have the ability to fight those who use it to hurt us.  I wonder what it will mean in the end... when the Antichrist rises to power.

It is all known to GOD.  I am just one Christian.  I thought this was what He wanted me to do.  With my experiences over the years, I now wonder why life turned out the way it did.  I wonder what will happen to many of the Christians and Jews who are alone and will not have help when the Enemy becomes our eliminator.

Understanding how GOD does things is a real challenge for all of us.  We expect Him to act like us, to be like humans in His reasoning.  Then He doesn't do what we expect Him to do.

This year I have been moved by the discovery of digital currencies become the global standard and the microchip being ready to put into our bodies.  I have tried to find ways to reach other Christians and ministries with the reality of the Antichrist being so near and the MARK of the Beast ready to become law.  I don't seem to know what to say to change the Rapture theology that many cling to.  And I can't seem to overcome the other spiritual battles I face in technology and poverty.

It all leads to questions about Truth and warfare... and how to deal with our current society. 

Faith is just not easy.

The Enemy SEEMS to be more powerful than GOD, but we know he is not.

The only place that we can go back to is Hitler and the Nazi attacks on the Jews and anyone who helped them.  Technology has changed what happened then into a new battlefield.  Preparing for the days ahead is not like the days of Hitler.  Only the actions of hate and war are the same.

The nature of MAN is always the same.  Without the influence of GOD, we become terrible creatures.  

Hitler had a cause to help him find soldiers who would do what they did.  Later he ruled by violence.  We seem to be headed in the same way... and poverty is the same tool being used to gather soldiers for this war of hate.  People in Germany were starving I understand.  We become survival focused and forget everything else. Sometimes we forget GOD.

There must be a reason why GOD has chosen this way of doing things.  I don't understand it, or know how to be a warrior for what He has put in my heart to do, but I know GOD is the ONE in charge of life and death and accomplishing His Will.

If mainstream Christianity believes they will be saved by a Rapture, perhaps that is the "Great Deception" the Bible talks about.  I hope we find a way to change that soon.  I hate the idea of so many people believing a lie.  I don't understand how it could happen, but it did.  

Maybe we can just focus on the resources we need and not get bitter in our different beliefs.  I'm not sure that is humanly possible, because of the nature of Man, but maybe we can try.

I hope GOD will lead us in a better direction than we are going in now.  This is a global problem for us, not just a single country or continent.  Life has become a global network, and we are dependent on the internet more and more each day.  How will we survive for as long as we can?  We need to prepare for it.

I made my plans for Working Together because I believed GOD would be able to do miracles to help us, collectively, more easily, if we were gathered and helping each other.

I still wonder if that is the best plan, and how we could achieve it.

What do you think?  Can we create enough places to provide for ourselves as society prepares to eliminate us?  How would you prepare?

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

At 70, I wonder what my future will be like.

It is really a challenge to make plans as a Senior Citizen, especially a low-income one.

I just finished my post for this week at my Working Together blog, on the pending economic issues we face as a nation and as a world  (Working Together Inc: Can America really survive a big disaster? (working-together-inc.blogspot.com) so my thoughts are not very hopeful for my own life.  I depend on the government for my survival.  I have been homeless too many times already.  I am wondering if I will have to face homelessness again, and what kind of health I will be in if that happens.

I have been working on my goal statements this month.  It is a strange process for me.  I am not to the point of repeating them over and over again throughout the day.  I am currently working on writing them once a day, trying for the first thing in the morning, and noticing what the process does to my actions.

It is interesting.

It is a battle every day.

I am wondering why that is so.

Because of Working Together's mission in this life, I have discovered spiritual warfare.  I don't know how to do battle like great saints, but I have felt and seen the effects of spiritual warfare in my life.  The battles I went through moved me into a space of leaving it all to GOD.  I can't fight, and we are told that GOD does battle for us.

And there is the idea of His Will.

If we push our way through, is it GOD's Will or ours?  

That is quite a technical issue.  Once we know we are in GOD's Will, pushing through may be the only way.  It took me awhile to get to that realization... was it my idea or GOD's... and then do my best to make it through all the struggles.

I'm not young anymore.  I don't have the energy and stamina I had when I was young.  But, I am still willing to do whatever I can.  If GOD provides, I will keep doing whatever I can.

So, in the aging process, my goals have had to change.

I am beginning to wonder what other seniors do.  How do they see their future when death could happen at any moment?  How do they prepare to travel?  How much money do we really need when we are older?

I never planned to be so poor in my life.  My efforts just didn't work out the way I planned.  

I think the pandemic seriously damaged a lot of lives.  I don't know if we will really recover from it.  I hope we do.

In the Christian perspective, the details are very different.  We are watching for the Antichrist, and what the Bible tells us will happen when he gets here.

All these global problems, economic problems, government actions, and more, show us the Antichrist is very near.  

I was listening again to the video speech I love, by Paul Harvey, called FREEDOM TO CHAINS, at the Natalie Sims channel,  https://youtu.be/VPlQ-ANUCuc , and one statement stood out to me again as a description of the Antichrist we expect ::

"Some believe that the need is for a vigorous strong man to arise on the scene to regulate and regiment the affairs of men."

Paul Harvey made this speech in 1965, according to the video.  It's almost 60 years ago and we are on the brink of seeing that kind of person being asked to save the world.

GOD moves slowly because He wants to save as many souls as He can, but the day of His Prophecy will arrive.

I have heard some sources claim that digital currency and other technological "resources" will be in our lives by 2025.  I am wondering if that means the Antichrist.

I guess the only thing I can do is just meet every day with the best I have.  To keep trying.  To reach for the goals I have.  To be content with what the day brings.  (That reminds me of a verse in the Bible... haha)

I still hope to have some fun before I die, but I am not sure that will happen.  I remain one foot from life on the streets again... or death.  

I suppose GOD knows why my life has gone the way it has, and what my future will allow me to do.

As long as I remain faithful to the end, and make it to heaven, I will be happy.

How do you plan your future life?

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Keeping on...

What can I say?

Faith is hard.

It's a daily commitment.

It costs.

I just finished my post for Working Together (working-together-inc.blogspot.com) about persecution and an old movie I watched yesterday about the Nazis invading Denmark.  Lots of hard thoughts, and wondering about us in 2023.

GOD doesn't just make all our problems go away.

We suffer... for doing nothing wrong.

We suffer because people sin, because we sin, because others sin against us.  I have thought about these issues with suffering a very long time.  This is what I decided was true.  It all has to do with GOD's promise of Free Will -- we have the right to choose, good or evil.  It is the basis of all GOD stands for.  

Suffering is the big argument against GOD.  People tend to blame GOD for everything they suffer, and they expect GOD to just fix everything that is wrong with the world.  When you seriously think about these issues, you see that the idea is ridiculous - there is no way GOD can make every life without pain and still give us the will to choose our path.

He can't stop the bad choices of others from hurting us either.

When I studied the Bible more deeply, I saw a GOD that only intervened in essential moments, when there is no other choice, when He needed to.  When His greater Will was involved, He acted.  That would be most evident in saving Jesus from the attacks of evil that wanted to kill Him.  

When I suffer, I try to see the cause, God's Purpose, and my part.  It isn't always easy to find the spiritual details and keep my faith in GOD.  Suffering is hard.  It hurts.

The world has been struggling for some time now, especially with the effects of COVID.  No one expected anything like COVID to happen.  The damage it did will never go away.  We will all keep looking for ways to recover.  

I keep coming back to the fact that GOD is able to do whatever needs to be done.  We may not get what we want, but GOD is still in charge.  We may be facing a test, may be the focus of some evil battle, may be heading into GOD's Plan for our future -  there's no way for us to fully understand all the details of our current struggles.  But we know GOD could do something if it was needed, so we trust Him to provide what we need to accomplish HIS WILL.  Even is we die, we trust GOD through the hard times and the good times.  It is all leading us to heaven, if we keep our faith in Him.

I'm 70 now, so I am ready to leave this earth.  It is expected I will die soon.  I wonder how younger people will meet their suffering.  Will they give up and run to the temptations Satan uses on them?  Will they lose their place in heaven because they aren't prepared to suffer for what they believe in?  It is hard for me to think of friends and family turning away from heaven because they don't want to suffer, have no one to help them, or don't even know what the Bible teaches about our time in history.

I wonder what other Christians believe.

What do you believe about suffering and persecution for your faith?  Are you ready for it?  Do you have a plan?

Let me know what about your struggles and faith.  How do you deal with it?

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Still working on my goals for this year.

 I am not sure I can share everything that has been happening in my life, but I do want to share some updates and some thoughts.

My Goal Statement Project is coming along.  I am writing the two statements I decided on in the mornings.  I am working on a way to repeat them daily, once or more, so I can keep that focus in the front of my mind.  I see that is the main reason for repeating them... to keep them on top of your "to-do" list every day.  It helps keep you moving in the directions of your chosen goals.  Once in the morning is just not enough.  I may try to write them more often through the day.

I started working on some art yesterday.  It took awhile to reach that point and it isn't proving to be a good event.  Space and deciding what to paint are the second problem.  I am getting to a better place in this quest.  Small changes add up.  It's forward movement... just very slow for me.

I have bought more lottery tickets in the last two months (June and July) than in years (YEARS!) past.  It is my decision to buy them when the jackpots are high WHEN the option comes before me.  I didn't think about the effect of shopping more often.  :-)  BUT, I am going to follow through for this current effort.  I may change my strategy in the future.

Right now the jackpots are almost 700 million and almost 500 million.

I walked to the store this morning.  I was not happy to have to spend another five dollars to buy one ticket for each of the three games in my state.  It is a waste of money if you don't win... my view.  BUT, you do have to have a ticket to win.  I'm working through this current strategy and trying to find a different plan for the future.

If I win enough money to get Working Together started, pay off my debts, and set up my retirement plan, then it would be a good investment.  :-)

I watched a video at You Tube yesterday... and it seriously impacted me.  It was called The Great Awakening and I found it on the channel Project Clarity.  I would urge you to find it and watch it, too.  It will change your view of America.  I think you will see how prophecy is becoming reality in our lifetimes.  

We get so busy with our own survival we don't notice all the events in the world that are the are GOD's prophecies becoming a part of our lives.  I suppose that is the strategy of Satan, we just don't think about it because we are so busy with our lives.  I always discover things I never knew before.  

I hope you watch it and think about your families, your work, your life.  We don't have much time left.

Pray for GOD's blessings on me if you can.  I really want to get some things started to help us -- Christians and America.  When Digital Currency and the Antichrist get here, we won't have any money to spend.  I think we need to use it N-O-W to prepare for what's ahead... the hard parts, the times when those we love will be losing what they worked so hard to build.  I know the poor can't do much of anything to help anyone, including themselves.  If we all wait until we end up poor, homeless, and isolated, no one will be able to help us.

Let's start gathering to find out what we need.

Let's start seeing the end of money, and figure out how to invest what GOD has blessed us with for what is ahead of us.

I suppose everything is going the way GOD saw it going... I keep hoping we can make it stay away a little longer, and prepare to keep each other safe in our own communities.

It's hard to have tried for so many years and not been able to get my work started, ready for these times.  I just wish GOD would have shown me why He didn't provide.

Until next time...

Deborah Martin

Starting my Goal Statement journey

July is becoming my first month of trying out Goal Statements and getting my subconscious to work for me.  By the first two days, I would say it is really a great way to keep my goals in focus.  It's like a repeated reminder of what you want to get done, and that helps you keep your focus on whatever you make your goal/s.

I decided to do two statements because I couldn't figure out one goal with a reasonable money amount.  At my budget level, everything seems ridiculous.  So, I made a goal for JULY only and will make separate goals for each month on the way to DECEMBER.  Plus I made a goal for the end of the year... with a money amount and other goals that need to get done first.

It's going to be an adventure I have tried before, but I hope to see how this works out.

I received my free book (WHEN FAITH IS FORBIDDEN) from Voice of the Martyrs this weekend and am trying to read it.  It is a compilation of stories about people who were martyred for their faith... I suppose everywhere but the USA, but I don't know yet.  Well, I think the author traveled to other countries and is sharing their struggles.  I don't know if all the stories take place in 1998 or not.  I will have to let you know.

What is interesting to me is this oppression over GOD and Jesus.  Salvation makes people better.  Why wouldn't a country want to have good people as its citizens?  America is now becoming an oppressed country.  This is why I am reading this book, no matter how dated the details might be.  

An example ::  One paster held services every Tuesday, I think it was, so the government would arrest him every Tuesday morning and keep him all day (or overnight) to make sure he couldn't preach to his people.

I think that was the first day of his forty day sharing... the first chapter... the first person he is telling us about.  That's where I am right now.

America is already arresting people of faith who go against someone or some thing that is being regulated for social standards.  It mostly seems to be the LGBTetc right now.  To me, this is the defining issue of prophecy, but it is not the only one.  Crime, corruption, violence, and other non-good activities go along with sexual sins.  The world will become like Sodom and like Noah's day.

I can hardly believe what is happening in America and other countries already.  Technology is a big part of the changes, but how it will evolve is not clear.  It seems the governments are all trying to survive and digital is the easiest path.  It all will lead to the Antichrist, and then the MARK of the Beast will be required.  I see the establishment of digital currency, then the microchip in our bodies.

I watched a video the other day, maybe yesterday, maybe Friday, about all the US FOODS that are banned in other countries.  It was a serious awakening for me.  GMO issues and other ingredients in foods we make here were the primary causes.  The video was by the Dr Bobby Price channel.  It included so many of our foods...  Beef, Dairy, Pork, Chicken, Processed Meats like Bacon and Sausage and Ham and even Smoked Meats.  Bread was on the list, and I think that is part GMO and part other ingredients.  I was surprised to see Farm Raised Fish and Salmon.  

One item that I also was surprised by was PREpacked Ground Beef, which was because of something they use in the process of making it.  I haven't decided what to do about my shopping lists.  I can't afford to buy expensive foods that appear to be healthier and grown without all these issues.  According to the video, there is no way to know if the healthier products are actually what their labels claim.  One example was that farmers will raise cattle on GMO feeds and then put it into a pasture at the end of their lives to label the products grass-fed.  

It's another sign of the corruption that will rise as the End gets closer.

Income is still my main struggle.  I keep asking GOD why this has been an ongoing struggle and why He hasn't changed the issue in my life.  No answers yet.  This is why I am making goal statements, why I sometimes buy lottery tickets, and why I keep looking for ways to change this problem... even at seventy (70) years old.  I even wonder if it's too late to change any of the things I sought God's blessings for.  I decided to keep trying until He calls me home.

I watched a movie in the wee hours of today and was helped by the theme of faith it shared.  The main statement I am talking about is we just have to do our best and believe God is in control, that He will help us to find the place He is leading us to.  Something like that.  I didn't write it down, I was just encouraged to hear it.  I looked at my YouTube History and I believe it was the movie called Paper Angels on the Johnson Production Group channel.

I may have to change my posting date for this blog to Sundays, or Fridays... I'm not sure yet.  It's a work-in-progress.  I think my Goal Statements will help me keep on track for posting... I hope.  :-)

Until next time,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us 

https://patreon.com/Art2you

https://etsy.com/shop/work2gather 

New designs to share...

I finally decided to see what I could create at CANVA and came up with several designs for different spaces.  Here is one that is faith oriented:

What do you think?

Would this be good for social media?

I'm working on designs to sell but this seems like a good social media posting graphic.  It might work as an insert for letters/cards to loved ones.  Maybe it would be a good design for putting on community bulletin boards.

What do you think it would be good for?

I am still working on my ideas.  I have to make these the right size for some projects.  Knowing what it will be used for is important right now.  I don't know how to create VECTOR designs yet.  They can be easily changed from small to big or big to smaller sizes.  They are supposed to maintain their clarity at any size.  Vector designing has been on my list for a long time.

Here is another design I created:

I am trying to create new designs for my writing called MOUNTAINS.  I love this message and have always wanted to share it in various formats.

I think I shared earlier that I was trying to find the right mountain scene to go with the words.  Now I think I will have to find more than one perspective for it.  

I want to figure out the scene to represent the "places others will never see" as well as the mountains that need to be climbed.

I found one photo, at Getty Images website, that has a man with a metal leg climbing like this!  I was shocked but delighted to see someone climbing like that.  I don't know how real the photo was because I kept wondering how it could be real... but then I figured the man adapted his skills for the disability he had.  Getty Images are expensive so I didn't purchase it (yet).  I might someday.  I don't think there are many people with false legs that mountain climb.  It seriously defined the words I wrote.

So that is what I am busy with, among all the other things I have to do.

I will try to post on Saturday this week.  I don't know what happened.  I'm working on a calendar and ways to remember my "schedule."

Until next time...

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

https://etsy.com/shop/work2gather

https://patreon.com/Art2you

Still thinking...

 It takes me a long time to find a workable path, but when I finally decide on something I just keep going -- unless an unknow problem comes up.  :-)   I guess that seems to happen a lot when we are heading toward something.

This week I have been trying to remember what I said in all my statements online.  :-)  What days to post, what to post about, how to get it all organized, how to find the details for important sharing.  

I bought some lottery tickets this month, when I was shopping and the jackpots were very high.  I keep thinking it could be a good way for GOD to fund Working Together since it is a lot of money and doesn't have "strings attached" to it.  I would never be able to get a traditional loan... and I don't want debt anymore.  I tried several ways to accept donations over the years, but those efforts didn't work out.  And I have created products to sell that didn't turn into a purchase.  WT Memberships haven't worked either.  So, the lottery seems like my only hope... a possible way for GOD to provide... so I just buy one ticket and wait for what would definitely be a miracle for me.

I don't know if I would call one ticket gambling.  Some people say playing Bingo is gambling.  I don't see how that works for my level of playing.  Gambling is a tough topic.  It's like drinking.  Some people can only have one or two drinks, others can't stop if they have the first one.  

In my quest for trying to decide about GOD providing through the lottery I once used my tithe to purchase tickets to see what would happen.  That was a waste of money.  :-)  A lesson on the path of faith and financial need.

Eventually I decided buying a single ticket when it happened to cross my path and the prize was very high was not too much.  So that is where I am at today.  I buy a ticket so GOD can choose to provide that way, but I don't get obsessed with the option.  With the lottery you have to have a ticket just to have the option.  So I buy one ticket.

I still continue trying to sell things online as a way to create income... Etsy, Ebay, PayPal links.

I have a Patreon page for finding income through crowdfunding.

I have the membership link for WT.

And I am trying to decide how to ask for donations, other than my PayPal.me options.

At my age I wonder what I would do with GOD's blessings, if they happened, especially a large amount like the big jackpots with the lottery. and I figure GOD would help me spend it as fast as I could so Christians would be helped.  

These issues are more important than I ever thought about before.  It's the age issue.  I could die before I even get the check to spend!  Crazy.  After all these years.  And still I hope.

When we seek GOD for important things, the details seem to matter a lot.

We want to make sure we are in right standing with Him, and don't block His blessings.  We make all kinds of promises about the answer we want.  We look for all the ways He might bless us.  We pray with intensity.  We expect Him to do what we seek Him to do, or try to get a reasonable substitute for our desired solution.  Faith is not easy.

With all the problems in our nation, and the rest of the world, surviving is high on the list of my conversations with GOD these days.  There are problems we face now that have never been in our lives before.  The increase in evil, the separations within families, the needs of aging, and more, all create desperate prayers to a GOD that hasn't answered me in the ways I thought He would.  I don't know what to expect, what to plan for, what to do on my own.  Prayer is essential but doesn't always seem to "work."  :-)

I am wondering how all the other Christians in the world are doing in their prayers and blessings.  How is GOD going to care for us as times get worse... 

I guess there isn't much we can do to survive whatever is coming.  We have to trust that GOD will provide as each day passes.

My ongoing efforts to survive are continuing.

I'll end this post here, but may return for other details of my quest for GOD to provide.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Sabbath Saturday - A good day to share?

 Since I realized that Gentiles were actually "adopted" into the Jewish Family, I have been trying to figure out the Saturday Sabbath.  I don't think GOD changed after Jesus saved us.  I think the issue started when Jews went to their Temples on Saturdays and then met as Christians on Sundays.  

We change over time.  Like Santa Clause taking over Christmas, and the Easter Bunny taking over Resurrection Sunday.  Somewhere along the path the true Resurrection memorial celebration became a calendar convenience... I know I have seen it on some of the calendars I have had over the years.

We have taken to this convenience with other days... like the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington, celebrating Columbus, MLK Day, and more.

I am still trying to decide what to do with the Saturday Sabbath as a Christian, but I suppose GOD understands.

Now that I am trying to post more frequently, and catch up with all my posting spaces, I am thinking of attaching them to days I have something else happening.  Faith and Prayer seems to be a good topic for a Sabbath.  I don't think GOD would mind if I wrote a post on Sabbath days, but that may change.  This is a work-in-progress.

I have a lot of projects that are in-progress.  The ones that have to do with spiritual topics may go here.

I have a list of scripture verses that apply to the End Times.  I am thinking of going through them and posting what they mean to me.

I also have my small first writing (1999) about the Antichrist versus the Rapture.  I tried to update it a long while back, but it didn't seem to work as a sharing option then.  It needs to be updated again with better details and thoughts about what is happening now.

I also just want to journal about my own paths and what GOD is doing in my life.

It doesn't seem to be possible for me to focus on just ONE blog or posting option.  They all have different topics to work on.  I'm not sure how long GOD will help me continue these activities.

It would be great to be able to establish offices for Working Together so I can focus on just my personal activities and thoughts.  It is still a prayer, still a hope, still a need.  Pray for Working Together.  The times are becoming very hard for Christians and Jews... the people of GOD.  Pray that GOD will help us gather and protect each other.

Thanks for any prayers you can share with Him for me and what I have tried to do over these past years.

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

https://patreon.com/Art2you

Memorial Day

 I just finished watching a replay of the DC Memorial Day Tribute.  I usually watch it every year, but the last few (with COVID) I don't remember.  I think they were cancelled, but I can say that for sure.  Sometimes I miss the day.  This year I cried almost the whole way through it. 

They showed a lot of pictures of each war, starting with Vietnam.  I remember Vietnam from the few TV news reports I saw.  I remember sharing somewhere that it was the first war put on TV.  It was horrible.  I remember some of the movies about it... anti-war media in movie formats.  

I guess they had newsreels for WWII.  I don't know how much death they showed on those.  Vietnam was terrible.  New weapons.  Really terrible battle strategies of the enemy in their familiar territory.  Lots of drugs and suffering.  

The fear of nuclear war I suppose. 

I joined the Women's Army in 1973 and was the last group through Basic Training under Vietnam.  I got a small medal for being in the military at that moment in time.  I didn't understand why.  I thought medals were for doing something extraordinary.

I didn't do too well in the military because of other issues.  I wish I had been wiser at that age.  I learned some important lessons by being in the military but I was so not ready for other parts of it.  It is still a memory of regret.

I cried watching all the stories of soldiers who died. I cried because of our country right now.  I cried because America is not the great country it was.  I cried thinking about what it is becoming.

Knowing the Bible it is hard to watch the destruction of this nation, and wondering if we can slow it down or if there is no hope for us.  I always saw the eagle as America, as a strong and majestic bird, powerful, a warrior for what is right and good and godly.  

Now I see that all the countries of the world are struggling to survive.  We are among those.  Our economic problems make us weak and vulnerable to our enemies.  Our political parties are so embattled for power that it is destroying us.  Paul Harvey has a speech on YouTube called FREEDOM TO CHAINS and says that all the great nations that fell after being in power for a long time did so because of the disintegration from within, not the attacks of outside enemies.  We are destroying ourselves.

In my years of pondering the problems and possible solutions we face, I realized morality IS the key to our greatness.  As we have slowly lost our godly morality and viewpoints, we have slowly eroded into what we are today.  GOD doesn't promise to protect our nation when it doesn't honor Him.  Like He did with Israel, more than once, He judges sin.  I see it as taking away His protection and allowing judgment through other sources, like 9-11.

Because prophecy tells us the world will become filled with sin and its consequences, I don't know that we can stop what we are headed into.  I wonder if we can keep it at bay somehow.  Then I wonder what we could do to accomplish that.

For myself, I have nothing.  I don't know how I will survive the June budget crisis.  I dream of things that could be done, but I am not able to even start them... to find others to help.

What could you do to stop the consequences of years of political mayhem, misjudgment, and even crimes... on both sides?

I cry for America and I cry for Christians.  

I wish I could have done more.

24 MAY 2023 - Checking in on my way to better.

 I am in the process of trying again.

Been working out a path to get everything updated and some kind of plan to keep moving forward with my online selling efforts.

Selling sites.

Blogs.

Social Media.

A lot of places I haven't been able to keep up with.

Now I am learning videos and how to use YouTube to link with all my spaces.

I am hoping I see results before GOD calls me home.

This week I have been posting, updating, and thinking.  I made some new planning sheets to work with, real paper ones.

I read a lot of materials about apps that people use for business, creating, keeping organized, to reach their version of "success."  Not sure I can do all that.  Learning to set reminders on my devices will be enough for me.  Using the calendar options would be helpful.  Maybe later I can decide about all the apps available then.

I send out monthly prayer letters this year.  It's not always easy to see GOD's answers to our prayers.  I keep praying... because I know GOD is the only one who can help me in some things.  Life hasn't turned out the way I thought it would, but there are still purposes in what I lived.  I see them down the line, not when life is in the middle of a bad time.

I hope you see the future with GOD is better than this world's troubles.  Keep your faith in Him, keep making godly choices, trust that there is a plan for your life and for the unexpected things you encounter on the way.

The Bible says the End Times we live in will grow very evil, very hard... so terrible GOD will have to end this earthly existence or no one will be saved.  We think today is so bad because we remember better times.  People in the future will say the same thing about our times.  Hard to believe that could be possible.

I don't know what it means to live in a politically oppressed country.  I know what America used to be.  We are falling into oppressions slowly, like the frog in the kettle of slowly heated water that kills and cooks it.  It already feels terrible.  I keep hoping it will change for the good but the Bible tells us it won't.  Maybe in small bursts of revival, but the global picture is in prophecy and it isn't good.

I have problems with my internet efforts, and other things.  I sometimes wonder if America is already like one of those oppressed countries where the leaders control everything on the internet.  I assume the Antichrist will control it all... and he is already alive somewhere.  In thinking about it, I see the deletion of all things Christian and Jewish, anything that opposes the governing powers of the Antichrist.  Then I wonder how people will hear about GOD, about Jesus, about salvation, about the Holy Spirit.

It is hard for me to even imagine trying to survive in an oppressive and evil world.  Noah had to do that.  We don't know how he lived in that kind of world.  I suppose that is why he was living somewhere he could build an ark, away from most of the people of that time I assume.

We have preppers.  

Being a prepper doesn't mean you are a Christian.  There are going to be a lot of difficult times for Christians in the middle of a disaster that involves using prepper supplies in a place where others have nothing to keep them alive.

Noah had that huge ark to protect him from all the people who died in the flood.  What will we have?

I suppose that is why the Antichrist will seek to kill all the Christians (and Jews).  We will suffer for a short time and then go to our eternity... not having to suffer the rest of the Tribulation judgments.

It is always a hard thing to think about what the Bible says and how it applies to our lives.

If I haven't already shared it, I saw some videos at YouTube about global governments heading in the way of digital currency as the future form of money.  I have already read about the financial microchip that is going to be put in human bodies - already tested on inmates and then others - which I assume is ready for mass distribution.  I realized that when the two are connected, we would have what the Bible describes as the MARK of the Beast.  The moment of no return, when each person  has to decide to follow GOD to their death or take the MARK in their body and be excluded from heaven.

How to prepare for that... At this point I don't know.  All my plans for Working Together and helping Christians were based on a cash society.

I still need money to survive today.  That is why I keep trying to earn online income.  At my age and in my situation, that is the only path I can do.

We have to trust GOD for all our needs, whether they are much or little.  I keep hoping for more than what I've had so far.  Not sure what GOD will do, but I keep looking for His blessings to finally reach me.

I can't help too many others when I don't have enough for myself.

Somehow, GOD will show us the way forward.

What do yo think we can do for the BODY OF CHRIST in these days?

Let me know in the comments.

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Trying to get back on track, again!

 It's been a long haul, but I am still looking for the answers to reach my many goals.  I feel like Edison, who kept trying until he found the answers he was looking for.  Or maybe Winston Churchill who said, I believe, to never, never, never, never give up!  :-)  Then there are the sayings about quitting right before you might have reached the place you were trying to find (success).  I decided to just keep trying until I can't do anything anymore (when I die).

I am keeping a Thankful Journal this year, but only listing ONE short entry each day.  As I am writing this I realize that recently I have been making short entries and listing several for some days.  Don't want to be lying to you.  The idea is not to be overwhelmed trying to list everything every day.  :-)  I tried that before.  Didn't keep at it because it became such a chore, and so repetitive.

I'm not working too hard at it this time.  Just listing something about the day that is worthwhile to me.

This is garden season now.  I'm working on my container garden options.  Been testing using plastic bags I have saved for my projects and shipping uses.  There are too many critters trying to get to my garden efforts.  I am trying to make little terrariums, noisy coverings that scare the wild creatures (birds), and trying to save the seeds I plant from animal thieves.  Some of my experiments are working, others are still being worked out.  :-)  

Finding the priority focus for what I am doing is always my biggest challenge.  I am trying to work out my goals right now.  Making goals is easy.  Getting them done can be hard.  I'm looking for the ones I can actually get done... not need too much money or supplies to do them... and be able to increase my income in the process.

Sounds like everyone else, right!  Yes.  Just looking for my path to them.

Well, just wanted to start making posts here again. Scheduling my activities seems to be the way to go.  I'm looking for a workable schedule.

Any ideas you might have will be appreciated.  Let me know in the comments.  Thanks.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Working Together, https://work2gather.us

Patreon, https://patreon.com/Art2you

Etsy, https://etsy.com/shop/work2gather

One of my newest designs.

I'm working on some more.

I post new art at PATREON and other items at ETSY.