Keeping our eyes focused on GOD.

Well, what do we do to keep our minds, our hearts, our eyes, focused on what matters?  I listen to my Christian playlist on YouTube.  It helps me remember that whatever happens in this life, we belong to GOD.  Salvation matters more.  Heaven is the goal.  And suffering happens to every life.

I can't remember how many songs I started with.  I had one main music list and decided I needed to have the Christian songs separate.  Now I have a Christian playlist and one called "Other Favorites," which has anything not considered Christian in nature.  My old favorites.

I have 73 songs on my Christian list right now.  I haven't decided how many is enough.  I listen to them on automatic replay... all day, all night, sometimes for more than 24 hours.  It depends on what the days are like.

I usually play them in order, and know what song comes next.  Lately I have been doing the song shuffle.  It changes the order.  Makes it random, kind of.

Every now and then I search for new songs to add.

I'm thinking of making different lists for Christian listening.

Sometimes, lately, I turn on my small radio and listen to a pre-tuned Christian station.  When I first set it up, I think I left it on for two entire days.

All this is background music.  I go about my day with this music playing.  It is amazing how certain songs come up when I am in range of the device I have on.  

There are old Christian songs I haven't found yet.

I think about life without money, without electricity, without the internet.  I think of people who would destroy everything we care about.  I wonder how to save these treasures of our lives.  I can't imagine my life without music.

If God had blessed my efforts, I was going to collect as many as possible from the Body of Christ, sort them, create a library of them, find a way to make themed playlists... like worship, prayer, family, dancing (?), and whatever other lists that come up.  It was meant to be a way to save and protect and replay the best of our history in music.  

I remember the lessons of history where all the books were burned.  Now we have the internet as a single consuming source for all our information... with censorship, hacking, and altering the details.  It's not much different than burning books.  Easier, actually.  And no one really knows what has been changed unless they are an authority. 

We are heading into the rule of the Antichrist.  Imagine what he will do to our history.

This battle has been going on for all of life here on earth.  It's a spiritual war, with unseen warriors on both sides.

What will we do?  I don't know.

I remember the part in the Bible where the Jews found the scriptures again and it was read aloud to the people.  I wondered how they lived before it was found again.  I wondered what God did in the years when their Bible was not available.  I wondered how they might be judged in the future judgment we all face... except the martyrs.

Keeping our focus on God can be very hard without daily reminders.  We get busy with our needs.  Slowly we forget about God and what He has told us.  It is a tool of the Enemy to keep us from His Word... slowly getting it out of our lives, our focus, our world.

What can we do in these last days before the Antichrist rises and destroys us?  Who will still be left?  How will they remember all the things we have learned over the many years of out lives?  How will God keep Himself alive in their daily existence?

I wonder if there is anything we can do to leave our history in ways and places they might be able to find it....  We are becoming a 100% surveillance world.  Will there be any hope to reach anyone that lives beyond us?  

I really don't know.  I imagine the forces of Satan will have kept a record and will destroy all our efforts.

A world without godly people is not going to be a good place to live.

 

Monday, 2 July 2018

I just spent a long time at christianbooks.com looking at their sale items... linked to from an email I decided to check out.  I am a sucker for sales, but I am also getting better at resisting them... most of the time.  I like to put all the things I might want to get into my cart, then I go through them at the end and decide how much I can spend, if I want to spend anything, and then go through the re-evaluation process.  This did take me some time... there were 9 pages of 50 items there... and I made the decision to go through all of them to see what they had available.

If I didn't have a budget to deal with, I could have ordered quite a few items there tonight.  I discovered they have "product videos" about the books, which I liked... good idea.  One was the author, another was more of a narrated story... but, I decided I like that idea.  I also discovered their version of a sneak peek... and checked out the table of contents for the books, and the text sample on some.  It also helped me to see if I REALLY needed to have that item.  :-)

Some of the things I noticed along my way were the topics shown, the number of pages, the years of publication, and the titles.  I really became aware of how important the titles are... in the process of choosing which ones to explore, the titles were about all that I had available unless I knew the author.  I didn't know too many of the authors because I never buy new books and don't follow all things Christian in the world.  Now that I am working on my own first book effort, these things had a lot more meaning to me.

I suppose it was more like research into the Christian market.

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I didn't really browse the BANKER TO THE POOR book over the weekend.  It became something I didn't feel I needed to know in total.  I am kind of still in the process of exploring it randomly.  I found something called the SIXTEEN DECISIONS on a page and liked them.  I want to explore them more... I got "distracted" by other things today.  So I keep the book in view to prompt me in the direction of my goal for the book.  I think I want to copy the list of 16 items so far.  They seemed interesting.  I may go ahead and share them with you on another day... after I read that section of the book at least.  :-)

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Time gets away from me when I get focused on something.

I do think I have a lot to get done. So I will get to bed now and see if I can do more tomorrow!

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us


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May GOD hear my heart and answer my prayers.
May the world find its way back to goodness.
May our lives mean something more than selfish consumption.
May we find our happiness in helping others with less than we have, with more needs than we have, and within our abilities.
May the days be warm and not too hot.
May we have the food we like to eat.
May we always share.
May our minds grow, our time be enough, and our hearts full of love.
May GOD help those who look to Him for their survival.
Amen.

Monday, 16 October 2017

Another Monday...  I seem to catch up with household duties on Mondays...
I went food shopping yesterday, so there is a lot of food prep to do.  Things like washing veggies like carrots and celery, making them into things to eat like salads and veggies for eating with cream cheese, freezing what I can for later.

I worked on my menu plan before I left for shopping, and now the situation is even worse!  :-)  I still need to eat the old food I made (chili and veggie soup), which don't freeze well.  Plus I have new perishables that have to be watched, made into things, and eaten before they spoil.  Buying food means I have food items I haven't had in awhile, which I want to eat up right away and mess up my plans.  The chickens are going to be feasting for a few days!  (haha)  Today I have to make a list and figure out how fast I can use it all.

We went to an asian market yesterday.  I found a melon I haven't ever seen before, so I have to discover that.  I saw a Jackfruit, whole and in pieces!  So amazing.  I have no idea how they eat it, cook with it, etc.  I am still remembering the size of the whole fruit, and the size of the seeds in the open pieces!  I may never be able to grow one of those, but I want some of those seeds for my collection!!!!!

I could have spent a lot more time and money there, exploring all the shelves and foods that would be strange to me, but we weren't able to do that.  I did find the bags of sesame seeds I wanted, and some spices in small bagged portions, and some new things to try out.  I found a bag of small bok choy in the produce section, so I decided to try it out.  I am now trying to figure out what I can make with that much bok choy, or I will have to freeze it for later.

Going shopping once a week is really a better plan.  In my menu planning I am trying to figure out how many servings of the food groups I already have so I can make sure I just buy enough to get to the next shopping day.  When you don't have control over the details of your shopping efforts, it changes everything.  I bought everything I could yesterday, breaking into my savings for more bus tickets, more postage stamps, and household items I need.  I feel broke now, and I still haven't finished my list.  I forgot the canning jars I wanted for my food storage plans.  Such a pain!

In my record-keeping, I made a new list of the things I still need to get.  By the end of October I will have a better idea of how much I can recover of my savings.  I have a few dollars left of my food stamps, and some farmer's market money for fresh veggies and fruit, so that will help cover any needs I have until I have my funds for next month.  It's an ongoing process.  I keep getting better at it, but you still have to find a way through today.

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I found some great quotes in my reading this morning, but don't have the time to share it here.  I may make a Facebook post later.  Finding the best way to share these things is what I am working on right now.  I know how I would like FB to work, but I don't know if it is possible. 

I may get this book finished by the end of the week, or sooner.  I am looking forward to starting a new book, and to reading the Joyce Meyer book on how our battles start in our mind... in our thoughts... in what we put into our thoughts.  As I get better at this process, I will be able to share more details about my spiritual discoveries, how I see the topics I come across, and what I think matters in godly issues.  I live to share my thoughts... I wish I would have started writing books so many years ago.  It just never seemed possible, now it does.

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My Christian programs are still on.  I have a hard time doing anything that requires mental processing when I have my programs in the background.  Some days I turn it off, some days I wait until they are done.  I am learning that I need my favored silence to do what I like to do... but that seems to be impossible to find anymore.  So I pray... sometimes for GOD's judgment of the guilty parties, sometimes for the ability to understand what it means to our world.  Technology is heading further into the realms of pain and suffering for innocent lives.  I don't know how we will survive, if GOD has a plan to help us, or if this is something we have to endure because of the free will choices of those who choose to hurt others.

I hope to re-start my daily Bible time soon... soon... very soon.  One day at a time, right?  Right!

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My survival duties are calling me... I'll be adding posts as needed, but working to make one post a day on Monday thru Thursday.  That is my plan right now.  It is an ongoing process... changing as my life changes.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD bless the day of those who love Him, who seek after His Will for their lives, who want the world to be a better place and glorify His Name more.
May our hearts be pure and wholesome and godly and ready to see GOD.
May we all reach out to those who are suffering.
May our lives have balance, finding the place where we have neither too little or too much, being content with GOD's desires for our lives.
May today be the first day of our happiness.
May all those we love be saved by grace and find us in heaven.
Amen.

26 September 2017

Another day is over, and I need to journal my thoughts about it. 

I actually am missing this process over the weekends... it's like a diary for the world to see my simple life and goals and efforts and challenges and faith in Something Bigger than me for all the things I cannot control (or fix). 

Trusting GOD for these things can really be a big challenge at times... we want everything bad to go away in a minute and everything good to stay forever... if God doesn't see these things happen, well... we think it's His problem, not ours.  It isn't something you learn once and then you have it conquered.  Every new problem brings a new path through this process... a new thing to learn about God and how we fit into His plans instead of Him fitting into ours.

I keep praying about the same things, it seems... wondering when the answer will get to me... wondering how other Christians fight their enemies... spiritual and human.  I try to find people in the Bible that have struggled in similar ways to help me find out how God deals with these issues, what I may need to do, etc.  I seem to think about things I haven't heard sermons about.  I don't know when an answer will come when I am searching for it, I just keep searching.

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My new business cards arrived today.  :-)
I posted photos at Facebook groups, Twitter,  and ??? can't remember where else.
Now I have to get my website updated... new links ready for December... prices and payments figured out, and benefit structures.  It's getting "real" now, my December effort on social media and wherever else I think of by then.  I hope God blesses this effort.

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An old friend that is on Facebook had a post about needing to get back into the gym for exercise.  I don't go to gyms but I have been trying to get back to a schedule on my son's eliptical machine.  I was trying to do five minutes at a time, starting with one session and building up to my 30-minute goal.  Winter is indoor season... even more now that I live so far from the bus and am getting older, with health issues.  I have been planning for a long future through being homebound, but aware that I may not make it to tomorrow.  I am still not ready to die, but I am getting the details figured out.  Exercise is part of my long-term effort.  Losing weight, getting back to my normal range, is part of my long-term effort.  Soon I am going to have to get on a scale and see where I am at.  I hate the thought of finding out I barely lost a pound...  :-( 

One of my food control efforts is to learn menu planning for my calories.  It isn't an exact science for me, but I am getting better at it.  I found a grocery shopping form at Every Dollar (daveramsey.com) and wound up using it for a meal planner.  Now I have created a better one for myself on my restarted old computer, not attached to the internet... or wi-fi.  I am working on more fruit and veggies, less fattening foods, and (right now!) I am struggling to stop eating the caramels I made!!! 

I wasn't able to coat them in chocolate and bag them up yet, because I need more chocolate I think.  I wound up eating 2 or 3 more... they are thick so they are lots of calories... and SO GOOD!  I can see this is going to be a problem that needs a solution.  I am thinking :: a separate kitchen for all my products, health department approved, where packaging and shipping are taken care of... far away from my personal space!  That will work for me.  Now, how to get to that solution...............   :-)

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I think it was Dr. Lustig, or Dr. Amen, that said "salad is the meal."  I discovered balsamic and olive oil as a dressing that I like, and they are my current dressing choice.  I know it was Lustig that says "a calorie is a calorie..." so you have to make sure the calories you eat are good for you.  Salad is good, caramel is not so good.  They are part of my inspiration for increasing my veggies.  I guess fruits are full of calories as well as health, but veggies are low in calories and big on health... so I am working at increasing my veggies.

It is hard to get away from the meal concept... big meals three times a day, plus snacks.  I am working on smaller meals as a calorie measure.  When you start to see the calories in what you eat, it is amazing how little you can fit into 400 calorie meals.  The 21-Day-Fix teaches this small meal perspective... and has lots of ideas... lots of veggies, too.  Their materials state that 1200 calories are the absolute minimum for ongoing health needs, and I agree.  I have a book by Rocco DiSpirito that says you can go down to 850, I think, and still be OK if you eat the right foods.  I think that seems low, too low.  Even at 1200 calories you have to spread the meals around.  I think I can reach my goal of two meals and a snack at the 1200 calories... that would let me have 500/500/200 as breakfast/dinner/ mid-day snack.  I think that might work.  I'm looking for food ideas to fit into the calories I want to limit myself to.  Pinterest has some great links for that, so does YouTube, I think.  It's all in the search terms.  I can flex if I want to, like my Friday Free Night.  It is getting to be a good thing, but I still have to be careful one exception doesn't turn into a continuous treat.

This caramel binge is really messing up my food challenge!  That's why food is so big on my mind right now.

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If you have seen my Facebook posts, you know I finished my big easel chalkboard painting project and posted photos.  My second item is almost done.  My sanding task has a wait on it so I can figure out how to sand it withing ruining it.  I may find a buffer and see what that does.  It is such a mess... tons of bubble holes.  My effort to make a chalkboard gift from recycled materials is also still in progress.  After I get the little easel done tomorrow, I will be able to get on to the FIMO molds I want to do.  I want to get my molded projects listed first... they will be more achievable for orders.

It is all beginning to take shape.  I have so many directions to move in that it takes the whole process longer to move forward.  I have often said I have "conflicting goals" or that I can't decide where to focus first... because it all connects to each other.

I have to pray through every day... and then leave it to GOD.

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Well, that is enough for today. I like the new book I am reading so I will try to take notes on the best things to share from it. I tend to get carried away with the moment, the happenings of the day, and then forget to share the deeper thoughts I process about spiritual issues.  I have lived by faith alone for so many years that I consider everything part of my process... trusting God... getting from here to there.  It is probably boring for you, so I hope to find other things to write about.  :-)

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD help me to overcome the spiritual battles I pray about often.
May GOD show His Power in these battles and glorify His Name through the things He does.
May GOD be the One I cling to, the One I remember, the One that matters more in my decisions.
May GOD protect the innocent, have mercy on those who need it, and judge the ones who cannot change.
May GOD bless my efforts, provide what I need, and help me to walk toward His work in my life.
Amen.