What I discovered today.

News.  I find it's a mixed "blessing."  Since the Democratic Convention I haven't watched a lot.  I noticed the "headlines" at YouTube and haven't wanted to hear the liberal themes.

The media has been pushing Harris pretty hard.  One "poll" result I found said she was ahead by the margin of error percentage.  That is amusing.  I wondered if they used the margin amount for her and the non-margin amount for Trump.  

It is a very sad topic for me... the media and our information sources.    

I studied Journalism in college because I wanted to write.  Not writing you would do with an English major, which I would think was books.  I am really bad at grammar.  I have never been able to overcome this problem.  I didn't pass a required test the first time, and I lived in fear of taking it again.  You couldn't continue in Journalism if you didn't pass it in two tries.

I wanted to do more magazine style writing, so that made Journalism as a major the best option for me.  Then LIFE happened, again.

I think the integrity of Journalism has always been an issue.  We depend on our information sources.  It use to be the media was our watchdog, protecting us from the government and from criminals.

I grew up with news personas that had large reputations.  It's hard to remember names.  I was more interested in the news when I wanted to watch it.

I wasn't political or discerning about truth and media issues when I was young.  I formed my current opinions over the years of my life by seeing how topics I knew about were handled.  

We all know that our world has changed.  We are not the same people or nation we once were.  Our media sources have also changed.

I don't think I have missed a lot.  I check the descriptions of some of the YouTube news channels to avoid the bias.  I haven't chosen to watch too many of the stories listed.

I have found other videos to view.  One I discovered today was about a private corporation using Eminent Domain to legally take the land of farmers from Missouri eastward.  It seems they want to build power lines.

Later I watched a "Yanasa TV" YouTube channel video about Eminent Domain being used by the government to take more small farm lands for water issues.

I think it is a warning bell for all of us.

This week I have been discovering clay and pottery videos.  I never realized the small and the big of making pottery - globally.  It is so amazing what we can discover at YouTube.  Food channels, art channels, pottery channels, from people everywhere.  I wish I could do all these things right now, but I am not young enough anymore.  I also need my own property to do both personal and business goals.  If I won a BIG lottery prize, I would try to finish all the things I have wanted to do over my life.  It's a very long list.

Lots of food issues today.  I am going to try to make it to September using what I have right now -- my back-up foods, my garden foods, my regular foods.  Figuring out what to make has been quite a challenge.  The side-effect of being ill and recovering, too weak to walk to the store or even get a ride, then the challenge to make it through... this is what I am doing this month.  It has been helping me with making menus.

I tend to start each day asking myself what I have to eat first, so I don't have to waste any food.  I still do that, but I am more focused with my challenge.  I am using up foods I need to go through and replace, getting more organized, and trying to make a list of what I will need to buy in September to get my pantry back in shape.  It's a good thing if you look at it that way.

I find that aging is changing a lot of my food options.  It's hard to change.  This will let me rethink my food choices.  

The last time I did this, I ended up spending way too much the next month.  I MUST NOT DO THAT AGAIN!  This is why my shopping list is so important.

I am beginning to feel better.  September may be a great month for me.  I hope so.

A lot seems to happen in a short amount of time these days

I spent a long time today going through my ETSY listings.  (https://etsy.com/shop/work2gather)  I have been trying to decide the direction I want to go, changing my content, thinking about a better future.  

I deactivated all my listings except for four of them.  Then I updated each of them.  Then I explored some of the suggestions ETSY has for its sellers.  I will have to return to my shop and look at my keywords again.  

I can see how I need to review my listings, not just put them up and leave them.  How often to do that is the question.  

I am seeking GOD for money to change all the things in my life that need to be changed.  I have been praying for the way to do that.  My part: to do what I can.  GOD's part: to bless my efforts.  (I hope.  After all these years of trying, it is hard to have a strong faith that GOD will provide what I think He should.)  

I have been listening to Joel Osteen sermons.

I have been listening to old books about faith issues.

I have been thinking about what I should do to change the way things are.

I have been seeking GOD for direction. 

This is another starting point for my efforts to make things better. 

We will have to see what the rest of this month brings.

I watched some of the news programs for today after working on my ETSY plans.

Kamala Harris is now officially going after the Democratic bid for President.  It is the expected path, but I am not sure what it means.  I don't follow all these politicians that closely.  I think about our nation, about the battles between the main political parties, about the needs of the poor more than other income groups.

I suppose we will all find out where our nation is heading now.

What the news showed us tonight was an ordinary woman calling the police for help and ending up dead because of the policeman that answered the call.  Video in our lives is filled with real pain in the lives of others now.  Her life is over.  She has no option to recover from what a policeman has done.  She was murdered, he was not protecting himself from a dangerous person.  

When you watch the video, you can sense his need to kill someone, anyone.  I don't know what they call that, but it happens all the time.  I think it could have been a Black issue or a GOD issue.  He got mad when she called on GOD to help her.  The policeman was agitated, she sensed the need for protection.  He is charged with murder.  He should be. 

It's a very sad situation.  We see what happens in the video, but we have no idea what made these people the way they were at this moment in time. We don't suddenly become a killer.  Our lives change us into good or bad people.  Every day, every month, every year.  We slowly become different people.

What keeps us good people?

What makes us turn into people who do things that hurt us and others?

In my life, it was my faith in GOD, my salvation, my hope for the future that kept me from becoming a person that would hurt others.  I looked toward GOD in my hard times, in my pain, in my struggles to become better. 

The death of this innocent woman made me think about my own death.  We never know what a day will hold.  GOD warns us that the only time we have is right now.  

I hope for much, but I don't know what GOD is going to provide.  GOD provides for His Will, His Plan for us and for the world.  GOD lifts one up and lets another fall.  Everything is heading toward the fulfillment of prophecy in small and large steps. 

This is a very important election year.  It will decide the direction of our nation.  The goals of the Republican and Democratic Parties are very different.  This election is now, what happens after the election may change everything again.  

I can't support the Democratic agenda, but I don't agree with everything the Republicans stand for either.  Mostly, I hope America survives.  Mostly, I hope I survive. 

Prophecy and Politics, Religion and Culture - what we are becoming

 

I have been thinking about this post for the past several days, since my last post.  I see things, read things, think about things, and wonder what (if) I should say about them.  There are too many issues within the church and outside of it to comment on.

I recently watched a video or videos on the Southern Baptist Convention voting on women as ministers.  The Bible says women are not to be in that position, so it is a win for Satan when they do.  I always think about the judgment of Eve in the Garden.  GOD told her we would always strive with men in this way.  

And the Women's Movement is a very powerful force that has seeped into every church and pushed us into these leadership wars.  GOD doesn't mean women are not good leaders, good people, valuable in ministry, or any other viewpoint.  It just means that GOD said it would be our forever judgment.  

I prayed about this issue a long time.  I decided it is acceptable for women to operate businesses as an option for supporting the church.  This was part of the reason I started Working Together.

When I was young, I thought about becoming a nun because I was so focused on GOD.  But I wanted to have a family more.  Later, I read the Bible for myself and became a Christian.  I never wanted to lead a church, but I did think of other ways to become a blessing to God and others.  Bible Growth Groups was one of those other ways.

It's hard to think about the ways my life strayed from the path of GOD, but it did.  The teen years are so vulnerable.  The Enemy knows this.  Now the Enemy is going more and more into the younger years of kids.  And then there is abortion - killing kids before they can be born.  I think this is the modern form of child sacrifice, in spiritual terms.  We don't think of these battles as spiritual, we call them political, human rights, discrimination, oppression, healthcare, and more.  The government sees the costs of caring for another body and the inability of the budget to do so.  Women see their future destroyed instead of seeing other possibilities that might be even better.  I remember one woman who had a baby that had physical issues and then aborted the second pregnancy she had.  I thought she probably killed the person who would have cared for the first child when she was gone.  God says our babies have a purpose.  They are not just an inconvenient problem.    

Today, just before starting this post, I watched two videos about Pride Month.  One was Cissy Graham Lynch, the other was a street preacher at a Pride event.  

Cissy's post was the more acceptable format.  And some of the points she made hit me.  She said we all know someone in the gay community now.  The numbers have grown that much.  I thought about the End Times and us.  

The latter video showed how hateful the gay community is, while it claims the Christian community is the voice of hate.  It is amazing to me how they act.  The Bible tells us their eyes/minds are blinded by the Evil One.  This can be true of Christians on any topic they don't want to deal with.  We all want acceptance of our sin, not judgment.

The truth is the world is becoming the place it is prophesied to become.

I don't know how to watch someone I love choose evil.  I think about their eternity.  I pray to GOD for mercy, to find a way to reach them.  GOD has until the moment they die.  Maybe my prayers will keep them alive until they do change their path.

There is so much deception in sin.  Like all those young people who were hating the street preacher.  They are only surrounded by people like them.  There are no real conversations about God and salvation. 

It's like countries where the main religion forbids any individual choice about where their citizens want to spend their own eternity.  Women in those countries are mistreated, abused, and killed for reasons I cannot comprehend.  What would we do if we were born in one of those countries?  I often thank GOD I was born an American, and in the time that I was born.  My childhood was very different than the world now.

The next election is frightening for our nation and the world.  We have two people who represent very different paths forward.  I don't know how committed either one is to the principles GOD has shared in the Bible.  I don't know if they have ever read the Bible.  I don't know if they were recently saved or think they are saved.  By their words and actions, we have to wonder about both of them.  I wonder what the next President will do to our country.

I hope the Body of Christ can prepare for what is ahead.

Pray for all of us.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us 

How do we disagree without violence?

I got a new library card last week and came home with 12 DVDs to watch.  They were mostly documentaries.  

One was from Prager U - called SAFE SPACES.  It came out in 2020 but I was never able to see it.  I grabbed it up when I found it at the library.

I plan to watch it again to see more of the details, but I have to say I was shocked by the examples they shared about reactions to simply speaking on college campuses.  

I wanted to go to college since I was a teen.  It took me many years to start the process, and I never made it to an official graduation.  I kept trying, but never found my way to the end.  I have about three of the four years done.  I'm not sure I could remember what I learned in all those classes after all this time.  I think it was around 1980 that I left the University of Oregon, but I did try again in about 2004 at Portland State University - one term.

I wanted to share that to let you know I have seen college and university campuses as an older person...and liberal climates.

It seems our "conversations" are getting more and more violent.  I think violence is a way to silence people, keep anyone from speaking, controlling the topic, etc.  I suppose it is Domestic Violence in community form.

Some of the examples in that DVD (I hope it isn't something I remember from one of the other videos I watched, but I don't think so because of the topic in my memory.) was the violent LGBT group forcing a college girl to make a statement from a paper on video.  The girl was frightened.  I hate to think what was done to make her do this.  It doesn't seem much different than a prisoner of war being forced to make a statement for publication to news agencies.

I would not call this winning anything.

We are becoming a police state, a dictatorship, a country ruled by violence.  All the damage that is done hurts all of us.  It costs money to repair.  Some of the damage can never be fixed.  People are hurt or killed.  None of this says we are a free country.

I wish I understood the motives behind all this force.  I don't think it is about LGBT rights.  I think it is something bigger, more hidden.  Young people are so easy to manipulate.  They don't have the ability to understand the deeper issues behind those "leading" them into actions they think are helping others.

I see the prophecies of the Bible becoming our reality.  

I cringe at all these issues because they say a lot about us, about where our nation is heading, about what the future will become.  Violence controls people.  Fear controls people. Freedom is about everyone's rights, not just those who use violence to force themselves on the rights of others.

I also think about all the strains our nation is under.  Economic pressures are making it hard to keep living as if we are the richest nation.  It is costing jobs, houses, cars, education, fun.  We are becoming afraid.  Fear doesn't create good solutions.

Saving America is on my mind too.  

I don't see many real solutions being created.  Actions that will keep us from bankruptcy.  We can't seem to find solutions that are for America - they are all about the political parties and what they want.

The government is looking for income.  Taxes, fees, tolls, fines, and whatever else it can get.  The government needs money to survive as much as we do, the people who pay the charges they create for us to help them survive.  I doubt Obamacare was about us.  It was a way to help reduce the medical costs the government might have to pay, and a way to move toward government control of medical services.

The Great Depression is all we have as a historical perspective of economic collapse.  I can't imagine living through that kind of event, especially now, in my senior years.  How can we find a way to avoid it?  Some say it's too late to fix this economic collapse.  What will we do then?  

Violence doesn't help.  People who are afraid try to find someone to blame and someone to fix the problem.  People who are afraid get violent - or are easier to move in that direction.  I don't want to live in the kind of country that I saw in SAFE SPACES.  How can we stop this way of "solving problems?"

PLEASE, let me know what you think is a better way.

America - Election 2024

This week I have been thinking about all the money issues we face as individuals, as a nation, and as a global economy now.  

Today I decided to go shopping to get out of the house and then watched my budget get destroyed for this month.  It was a reminder for me about government budgets.  I have to do without for the rest of the month when I make a mistake with my money, the government seems to print more money when they overspend - which is like using a credit card and causes inflation.  

This is the crisis we face.  It seems to be the same cycle major civilizations in history have faced and lost over and over again.  We don't seem to learn not to do this path.

I have been watching a lot of videos at YouTube on government budgets, spending, and survival.  

• One highlighted how the government manipulates the statistics they use to make us think everything is just fine.  I have known this was happening but had no way to prove it.  Unemployment and jobs is just one example.  (Noted below.)
• One video was on how the government manipulated new job creation and unemployment.  It seems that when an unemployed person gets a part-time job of any kind they are removed from the public statistic on unemployment and may be moved to the list of underemployed people who never get counted for the public statistic.  People who have been unemployed for five years are also dropped from the counting process.  These people are considered not looking for work.  --  This means many people are not counted so we don't really know how bad the situation is.  
• One video was on how over fifty major US cities spend more than they take in through taxes.  This puts them in danger of bankruptcy, but on the way to bankruptcy are all the social problems not having money creates.  (Like trash pick-up and police/courts/jails and transportation and libraries and public healthcare and any other services provided by the government.)  The list of cities included the city where I live, Los Angeles and San Franciso areas, Chicago, New York, and Houston.
• One video was about the gold standard.  I did discover one interesting perspective from this one.  I always thought people were promoting gold and silver purchases as a simple way of prepping.  This video said governments all over the world are buying up gold to prepare for a new financial system after the collapse of what exists now... to have funds when they start over, when gold returns as the foundation of money. 

There were more videos than this, but it would take too long to share every important detail.  The main idea was our nation, and other nations, are in trouble.

===========

Who we elect as President this year will be the man behind saving our country from financial collapse, or leading us through it.  We have to choose, either Trump or Biden, unless something changes our options between now and then. 

Every election will matter.

I keep wondering what GOD is trying to tell us.

If you know, please share it with me in the comments.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Politics as a weapon

 

There seems to be a liberal uproar over Arizona keeping an abortion law from the 1860's.  I am wondering why the law was necessary in that time of history.  I was never that great in history classes.  I remember a few things, major things, things that mattered to me.  I wasn't collecting details about abortion when I was young.

I have heard my whole life that abortion is about "saving" women from all the things that will be lost if she has the child she conceived.  The outcry is always about the adults life, not the childs.  No one in media or liberal politics talks about how a child can make a woman's life better.

When Trump was first running, the life of an unborn child was part of his campaign promises.  Now it is about "compromise" and finding a way to win.  I thought this was an important point in his platform.  I have been pro-life all of my life, not just because it is the murder of an innocent child that cannot protect itself, but because I was conceived out of wedlock.  

This is one of my designs for the statement it shares.  We can never know the impact a single life can have on this world.

I remember someone saying that when we kill an unborn child we may be killing a person who would have saved our world.

Many are aborted because there is some disability discovered through sonograms or blood testing.  It is true some children are born with physical or mental disabilities, but it is also true some become disabled during their lives.  We don't have a guarantee that any life will be without changes in health, struggle, pain, or unexpected events.

There is a verse in the Bible that says the weak are more important than the strong.  It took me many years to figure out why GOD would say something like that.  I realized the weak are GOD's tool to keep our hearts, as individuals and as societies, kind and caring.  They keep mercy and compassion alive in our world.

The Bible also says the love of many will grow cold in the Last Days.  We can see that happening more every day.  When I thought about this prophecy in my younger years, I decided it would be because of the media, which now includes the Internet.  I have been watching the topics on the internet becoming more and more frightening as the years pass.  There are so many stories of need because they are coming from all over the world.  We are becoming numb by the constant bombardment of all these tragedies.

The Universe is a very big place.  We like to think our planet is the only one that matters, and our lives the most important thing on the planet, but we are just a speck of dust.

It is important what we do as individuals because our lives affect others.  Abortion doesn't just happen to a woman or a child, it happens to all of us.

Once pregnant, there is no path back to not being pregnant.  There is a consequence, sometimes more than one.

The woman who gets pregnant has to choose between keeping the child, giving it up for adoption, or killing it through abortion.  They all have a lifetime consequence for both the mother and the child, and the father, and the rest of the family, and the world.  Abortion is not a simple solution to a difficult problem.

The Bible tells us that our lives have purpose.  Letting a child live, and find their purpose in this life, seems to be a better choice than killing it to avoid the consequences of our choice to sin.  Adoption is a better choice for an unplanned pregnancy than abortion.  It will be a blessing to the parents who want it and allow a child to find its purpose in GOD's Plan.

I hope you will always choose life for your child.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Busy with my designs...

 I had to sign in with my CANVA account and rediscovered my posting designs there.  I hope to post some of the better ones over the year, especially my political opinions.  :-)  Here are a couple of my favorites. 

I believe this was one of my mug designs when Trump was running the first time.  Maybe.  I also discovered the quote by Charlton Heston and really became motivated by it.  

This was created in the fashion of my original AMERICA writing, which can be found on the Working Together website  ( work2gather.us ).  I don't know why this copy has a greyish line in the middle of it.

This one was inspired by the battle over the rainbow.

I have thought about this issue for many, many years.  This is the solution I came up with.  We all know the government will not want to give up the endless search for income through taxation... but, if I could, I would try to change it.  I heard an old recording by Paul Harvey about taxation called FREEDOM TO CHAINS.  I have added my social media posting graphic about it.  It is worth your time to find it and listen.  The government has the legal right to tax us to 100% -- which will be implemented some day... maybe by the Antichrist, maybe sooner.

We don't really think about what the world will become without the influence of godly people.

Already there are many in power who have chosen themselves over the people they govern, in money, in power, in laws, in mandates, in desperation to survive the problems that have been created over time.

The Bible warns us of man things, we just don't take the time to notice.

I will close with this graphic I created.

No matter how bad we become, or have been, Jesus is the path to salvation and a new way of living.

It's hard to describe the way our lives change and how thankful we become as we realize this change.

We have to make that decision individually.

When we stand before GOD in the final judgment, no one will be with us.  

No wives, husbands, children, parents, friends, or pastors.  

We stand alone.

Make sure you are not doing things you know are wrong to please anyone else. 

I will be busy with more creating in the days to come.  I have a lot of ideas to turn into reality.  Lots of hope that GOD will provide for all the needs I have and you have.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

FAITH FRIDAY :: 28JAN2022 - Leadership

It's hard to know what this year will bring.  I listened to a really scary speech by Ronald Reagan in 1964 (I think that was the year) on YouTube tonight.  It was so scary I decided to share it on Twitter.  I think he was a Democrat back then because it was for a Goldwater event.  The main think I noticed was how many of the issues he talked about are still issues today - only worse... especially the deficit/national debt.

"A Time for Choosing" by Ronald Reagan - YouTube

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I am not sure how these work after posting so I will just let you choose.

Let me know what your impression is of the similarities.  

I haven't heard any campaign speeches like this in the ones I have heard for many years.  I didn't follow Reagan that fully to know what was going on at that time.  I would have been in elementary school I think.  :-)  I have a t-shirt with one of his quotes that I really like.  In the past several elections I have heard him referred to by the GOP.

I am late posting because I got involved with watching OF Mice and Men - the Gary Sinise version of 1992.  After starting the movie, I realized that I had watched it before but didn't remember what the story line was.  I discovered some parts I didn't recall, so maybe I didn't watch all of it.

For me, it had a lot of different thoughts... on how people were treated, how they survived, what you had to put up with to have a job, abusive and power-relationships in families and jobs, to lack of law and order, plus the lives of those with developmental disabilities when there was no one who cared.  It was filled with a lot of topics. 

I have never read the book, so I wondered how true it was to the original story.

2022 is becoming quite a year.  I will try to find some photos I have taken recently.  I am working on my posting graphics. 

I found this while I was goiong through my boxes as I downsize my room to make spaces to craft.  It is part of a larger writing I did called "Curiosity."  Not much, but the statement is very important to me, and maybe one of the best from that writing.  I hope to create more inspirational graphics that I can reproduce to sell and create the income I need.

This week I moved some of my art supplies to the desk space I have.  I am trying to make it easier to craft. 

I guess we will see how it works this time.  :-)   I had my supplies on my desk before but the spaces got taken over by notebooks and office duties.

I will find a way!

This is the new photo station I have now created.  Going to see how it works.  

I moved my tripods over there.

White is suppose to be the best background, but I also have a black piece of foam core if I need it.  I watched a video once about someone who used poster board to paint the background she wanted for different items.  I have some to try that out one of these days.

Finally made my caramels today.  GOOD!  How to price them is my next quest.

Let me know what you think of the Reagan video.  Listen for some of the examples he provides about debt to GDP.  We are so far beyond the levels he talks about.

In Christ,  Deb  <3

 

FAITH :: Prophecy is happening in our lifetimes...

It is like the death of all things godly... I can't even imagine what the next four years will bring.  I believe GOD is trying to get our attention, to bring us to a new vision for OUR futures.  We know the Antichrist is nearly a reality because the INTERNET is all that will be needed to control the ENTIRE WORLD.  So, what does the Bible tell us about those days?

I've been posting at my POLITICS blog all week... you can read them at this web address ::

https://political-rehabilitation.blogspot.com 

So many serious things to think about.

This is where we are... waiting on GOD to show us the next step for our nation, for our families, for our churches, and for our survival.

If we think about the stories the Bible shares, we see a lot of persecution, a lot of struggle, and the only real "winners" are those who keep their faith in GOD.  So we need to do that.

Whatever happens, it is our place in history to be living.  We will find our way forward.  We need to see ourselves as ONE BODY in Christ... not separate groups of people who believe in the salvation of Christ and the Bible.  We need to gather to help each other survive as things get worse.

We don't need to spend all our money on making our churches bigger, we need to focus on making sure all our people are safe, have food, won't lose their shelter, are not alone, and have fellowship with other believers.

I think this election is GOD's way of telling us it's only downhill from here.

So, what can we do to become ONE BODY of Christ  --  near, far, everywhere we are?  

I hoped to make Working Together into that kind of ministry, but GOD didn't provide for me.  If He has blessed you, it's your job.

Let me know what you think we can do.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

http://work2gather.us

and more...

 

Monday, 18 June 2018

My goodness... what a long weekend...  I get busy with reading and research and one thing leads to another...   I was going to post several times, but always got distracted by something else.

This morning... a long emotional ride on the gay political express...  there seem to be stories all over the internet news, at least the ones I see,  There are lots of programing issues with content control... it can work a lot of different ways.  If you are against something, it seems you can be automatically "sensitized" with tons of content about the thing you dislike, especially if it relates to homosexuality and the causes related to it.

I browsed through a story about public people with kids claiming their status in the gay community.  I found it sad.  I know there are forces beyond my ability to deal with that work to push my sons into the gay lifestyle, including prison, but I continue to pray that GOD will win this battle.  Because my children make bad choices doesn't make them not my children.  I have to find a new normal when they are addicts, when they go to prison, and when the world of those who hate GOD (and my faith) leads them into things that are not godly.

What is a hate crime?  Based on my personal experience, I would say it is when someone goes out of their way to cause damage to another person's life and family because they disagree with their views.  They are purposely causing harm... whether it is a gay person against a person of faith, or a Christian against someone they disagree with... which could be more than just the gay issue.

I understand that domestic violence lives in the gay community as well.

I guess we all have seen that adopting when you are gay is not a guarantee you will be a good parent... murder / suicide happens to many families... is it a gay issue or a personal issue?

I know addictions happen in the gay community as well.  Addictions cause problems beyond our ability to deal with... including sexual prostitution, deviance, rape, and more.  Are these consequences because they are part of the gay community or because they are a Christian or because they are human beings with problems?

It's an impossible space right now.

Children are influenced by those around them, by the people who mean the most to them, by manipulators, by those who want to hurt them and not be found out, by media, by books, by conversations, by all the things that make up their lives.  The normal of a Christian home is a different normal from a gay family's home.  When we have conversations about what is normal and what is a crime (abuse), those conversations are different.  Homes with addiction issues have characteristics that appear to be normal, but are not.  If often takes a long time to recover from our childhoods, no matter what the individual problems were that we faced.

What is "normal?"

It is a hard word to define because there is a wide range of activities and perspectives that are normal for the human being... and that is not even taking into account the religious and cultural details of what would be called normal in different groups of people.

I found that the Bible held more answers about what is healthy for human beings, and that seemed like a great "normal" to me... healthy, good, balanced, reasonable, mutually beneficial... if you can find others who also see the wisdom of GOD and are growing in those directions.

I didn't become a perfect person when I became a committed Christian... my life began to grow into a better space.  I discovered right and wrong, and tried to become more of what was right.  I believe this growth process continues until we die.

We can look at our natural body and see that it was created to be united as male and female.  We can see that procreation requires a male and a female.  We can see that the differences are important in creating and protecting the natural family unit.  Men have certain traits, women have certain traits, and when they perform their duties in the family, the family is helped to survive... to create new generations of families.  This makes the world continue.

We find out from GOD that monogamous relationships are best... one man and one woman for one lifetime.  This protects us as individuals and as families.  We can see that our other adaptations away from this have caused great harm to society and history and generations.  Because we choose to do things differently does not make the original plan wrong...  GOD gave us free will, and we suffer the consequences of our choices.  All the broken lives create what we have as a world right now... and that isn't even part of the other effects of humanity... greed, lust, power, sex, violence, addictions, etc.

So, what is a hate crime?  If a gay person does something to hurt my life, isn't it still a hate crime?

Let me know what you think... are Christians the only ones doing hateful things?

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

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May the GOD I love find a way to provide for the protection of His people.
May the world become a better place to live.
May the forces of hate and evil be made public so we can deal with them.
May the love of GOD be seen in the media.
May we find a way to protect the future and the rights of each person.
May our lives become better than we think they can be.
May Truth become our goal.
Amen.

Monday, 23 October 2017

What a weekend!
My son and his wife were gone so I ended up parking myself in front of the TV, watching documentaries, and a few free movies... I guess you would call it binge watching.  I watched them on Saturday, then again on Sunday, and today (when I was trying to make a list of the ones I watched) I discovered some more and watched them!

I like documentaries.
I have a hard time with movies.

I watched one movie (CRASH) that was on race issues in Los Angeles, where I come from, and it was rated R...  I really regret seeing any of the parts that made it an R movie.  Some of the race issues were new to me. I hate to think of anything like that really happening.  It's hard to judge a movie when the situations seem so hard to believe.  I may be in denial, but I hope not.  Our police authorities are powerful over us as a people, we can hardly wage battles against them if they go bad.  It's a huge historical reality.  The Bible talks about what happens when evil is present in the leadership of our lives... it's not good.

Some other movies I decided to watch, for the first time ever, were ::  Earth to Echo, La La Land (another one about Los Angeles), and Remember the Titans (another film about race issues, but from the difficult days when the government first tried to change the southern school systems).

I guess the bussing issues of that time are a bit familiar to me.  One of my sons had to be bussed from a downtown Hollywood neighborhood to a better neighborhood in the Valley.  It was a difficult burden, not just a matter of getting on a bus and getting off a bus.  California (Los Angeles, again) isn't quite the same as the deep south, but Los Angeles is where the Watts riots happened... a big race conflict.

In the years of my struggles, I have come to see that surviving takes up all your time and energy... it's hard to keep up with all the events that happen... the history that is happening in our lifetimes.  In poverty there aren't too many options to change the status quo.  Every month was a struggle to survive.  Not much else mattered.

One of the documentaries I watched (all of them were on Netflix) was about happiness... it was even called HAPPY.  Other documentaries were on food issues (something on Kid's Menus and another on finding Israeli Cuisine), drugs (Heroin(e), Resistance), the environment (A Plastic Ocean), free speech according to the media (Nobody Speak), and one about photographers (Refugee).  That's all I can remember.  I may have watched more.

You really need to watch "A Plastic Ocean" and start thinking about the ecosystem we call Earth, your food supplies (I think they said the oceans provide 70% of our food supplies, more for some cultures), and how we can save what all of us depend on for life.  I think it was too long, but I was binging so that may not be a good review.  I remember thinking that 30-minutes would be enough to show to kids in their classrooms, maybe on TV, and would get a better audience for the topic.  Maybe a series of the many important topics they touched on... like chapters on a single disk.  I cried, more than once.

The film on kids was great for me to see.  It had a project for the kids to plan their food for the day based on the Food Plate they were learning... 10 foods they would eat in a day, with 6 being from the fruit and veggie group I think.  I thought that would be a great idea for me.  I have been seeing that the number of foods we need to eat are not that many, and the true portions are not as much as we are used to eating.  I thought this would be a great challenge for my own eating efforts.  I plan to try it ASAP... this week at some point.  This documentary had some other ideas I liked, but I can't think of them right now.  It's late, and I binged on so many documentaries.  (sorry....)

Another very important documentary to watch is the one called RESISTANCE.  It is about how our favorite medicines are rapidly evolving into new strains that are resistant to the diseases we depend on them killing.  It takes death to make us aware of this problem, and it isn't going away.  GMO foods are another perspective of this same issue... how are they affecting our bodies.  The chemicals in plastic (from the ocean film) are also another part of this same issue.  We are killing ourselves without realizing it.

The humanity of refugees are seen in the film on that topic.  It is hard to see why we fault people who are doing what we would... just wanting to be safe, wanting to protect their children, wanting to be with their families and loved ones.  The horrible poverty they are forced to live in, the death that is forced on them by neglect, the ability of people to rise above the horrors and keep going...these are the facts of their survival.

So... that is what I did this past weekend.
What about you?  What did you learn that you didn't know before?

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

14 August 2017

Today... my first real journal-like entry.

I was trying to decide this morning if this should be first of the day thoughts or whether I should wait until later.  I get much more emotional when I'm tired, so that isn't always good.  I didn't really have anything to say this morning, so here I am... after a nap, after the day, before the very exhausted evening.

The news that I do hear is filled with Nazi's and terror groups and Charlottesville.  On Facebook there are lots of posts on who to blame, with the liberal-owned media always trying to blame Trump and other Republicans so they can keep government from solving problems.  The conservatives... I haven't decided about them yet.  We are in a war of money sources I can't begin to understand. 

I just want the earth to be made better so all of us can survive. I want poor people to get things they need to find their own dreams.  I want prisons to help people to change instead of making them worse.  I want Christians and Jews to be protected from the growing anti-God perspectives.  It isn't easy to watch good people suffer, for any reason.  Hidden hatred is hard to fight.

America's freedoms have been unique in the history of the world, but there is always the minority that doesn't get their way... no matter what the topic is.  Free speech is difficult to endure when the words aren't what we want to hear.  Do people have a right to do what we don't agree with?

Iran is a sovereign country... they have a right to pursue their goals.
North Korea is a sovereign country... they have a right to pursue their goals.
We don't like their goals.  We want to stop them from reaching them.
How do people, how do countries, live with different goals?
This is just as essential a question when Nazi supporters utilize their free speech in America as it is when the countries who inhabit the same earth have opposing goals that include killing others, innocent others.
So how do we live together without taking away the rights of someone else?

I don't know... it may not be possible. 

We can only find some kind of order with majority rule, which we call a democracy, and the rule of law, and public safety.  Those who lose any fight have to submit to the authority of the ones who won, willingly.  We have also seen that doesn't work either... the fight just changes.  Problems never get solved.  We all suffer because of the constant power struggles.

These are the things I think about and seek God for answers.
What do you seek God about?

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

The Way Forward

I spend a lot of my time thinking about the problems in the world... mine, America's, and global issues that affect us.  We know about every disaster and tragedy that is reported, but we cannot solve every problem, as individuals or as nations. 

How do we help as many people (and other living creatures) as we can?  The previous charity models will not work for the future.  We can only reach out when we have enough to give.  We have to be financially healthy ourselves to reach out to those in need.  This is true for our own citizens as much as it is for the requests of other nations for financial assistance to deal with their problems

Without realizing it, this endless outreach has moved us into a government intervention model.  We have come to think of the government as the solution for every problem, especially the ones we cannot afford ourselves. 

Many think it is the poor that cause this imbalance in our financial status, but I think we would see a different picture if we really looked at government spending, if we connected the dots between elections and contracts, if we explored the supports for legislation that should never have been funded, and if we followed the trails of controversial court decisions.  Ending Welfare is not going to solve the core of our problems... attacking innocent immigrants is not going to solve our financial crises... and printing more money to meet our debt needs or fund generous commitments to other countries or programs will not make the threat of bankruptcy go away.

The taxes we pay collectively cannot support the desires of every organized group in the nation, it cannot support the healthcare we want it to provide, and it cannot support all the unfunded legislation that gets passed... taxes already cannot support the services they have been committed to.

Why is this important to the people of GOD?

Because all of these issues are leading us toward the Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast, which is really just a money system, like a credit card. 

Those who don't know about prophecy, about the Antichrist, or about the Mark of the
Beast, have no idea what technology is heading into.  Computers seem to offer the way to the future.  The Mark will seem like a safety issue, a logical way to do business, a great way to function in a world of too many passwords, increasing crime, decreasing morality, and the ongoing effort to pretend GOD doesn't exist.

This election is showing us how far we have fallen from the values of the Bible.  Neither candidate is a model American or a committed Christian.  We can see the media controls our political conversations.  The issues we currently face are more than any party, or individual, can solve.  No matter who wins, the next four years are going to be dramatic, and critical to the survival of the US and its effect in the world.

Our biggest problem, in my view, is the debt.  As a new recipient of Social Security, I was alarmed to recently discover my very small allotment of less than $400 a month is paid to me as a credit expense... meaning that it is paid like a credit card withdrawal of cash, adding to the debt that threatens to destroy us.

How many more Social Security payments are made with a credit card every month?  It is my understanding that Social Security is broke, there is no more funding in the ransacked trust fund... so all of the funds paid to any Social Security recipient every month are cash withdrawals from the government's ATM machine.

The debt takes away our ability to meet the many crises that happen every year, like fires and floods and tornados, and unforeseen events like 9/11, Katrina, and the housing/bank crisis.

How can we hold the government accountable for its own bad decisions?  If we rise up and pay the debt down to a reasonable amount, what will keep our financially desperate government from replacing our efforts with another escalation of national debt?  We have to find a way... soon!!

Changing the mindset of government is the one thing I hope Donald Trump will accomplish if he wins the presidency.  We need to change from a government totally reliant on tax income to a government limited to ONE TAX that is invested for ongoing and increasing profits and savings and growth.  We need a government that is self-sufficient instead of always desperate for more money.

Our government has become a tax addict and withdrawals will be painful for everyone.

Reducing its tax income, reducing government paychecks and benefits, eliminating jobs by eliminating departments and programs, limiting its outreach to those most in need, will force the government to save money and eliminate wasteful legislation.

Changing to income-producing investments with tax dollars instead of grants and repeated program funding, organizing for rapid changes in jobs and industries because of increasing use of technologies that replace humans, moving social intervention efforts back to the community level, and bracing for the consequences of changes in laws concerning drugs like marijuana, will also take us into major social upheaval.

We must deal with these issues as Christians, as citizens of our country, and as global outreach providers.  Lives are in danger... near to us and beyond our borders.

I keep remembering something about the Great Depression that motivates me to prepare as much as I can for harder times than we have ever known.  I remember the stock market crashed in a relative moment in time... without any acknowledged warning.

I also keep remembering the Dust Bowl, caused by our ignorance and our belief that "science," or maybe it was progress, was infallible.

And I keep thinking of biblical prophecies about these days... wondering if there is anything we can do to stop this downward trend... if there is any way to prepare.

I wish the media would search for these kinds of answers, for solutions that will work for America and not just those with the power to manipulate the system.

We are in grave financial peril... who will be able to steer us through this swamp of debt and politics?