Thursday update - Today's Battles : How they affect our future

Life has been a mixed event lately... I will try scheduling this post so I can make sure you are updated.  Not that my life is the thing to know about, but I am on a path to the future and still learning how to build this thing we call an "online presence."   :-)

I am in the middle of several project paths so I feel kind of out of sorts.  It's still moving forward, but slowly.  This week I have been trying to get my plan into an organized and printed list.  

I have been thinking a lot about GOD, and what He means to our daily lives... not the invisible parts, more about the things we can see, the way He moves in our individual lives, how we can say He is real and he still loves us even when we don't get the things we want from Him.  I often try to see what GOD looks like to the people who don't know them.  Our current problems and battles and wars are part of that thinking as well.

It makes everything else kind of "foggy" so I tend to operate on autopilot when things get really "deep" in my thinking time.  We are facing so many serious problems these days, with even greater issues ahead of us.  I get consumed by the place GOD and Christians hold in the history that is to come... especially when I include what GOD has already told us about in Bible Prophecy.

In the practical spaces of my life, I made it to the grocery store finally.  I was trying to live on what I already had for as long as I could, but it got really tough when I ran out of coffee, tea, and other options besides water to drink.  :-)  Wouldn't you know it, the one thing I forgot at the store was coffee.  It seems to be a pattern these days.  Still, we know that GOD works through the attacks of our enemies, and is always the main power.  So we need to ask ourselves, "Why?"   I think it is to show us what the world is becoming... and a part of what He is doing in the people who are our enemies.

• I've been working on my notebook system, been waiting on crafting supplies I ordered, been thinking about Christmas for me and Christmas selling online, and a lot more.  
• I got behind in my prayer journaling so I am still catching up with that.  
• I was so happy to find yeast at the store!!  I now wonder how they make it because it took so long to replace with the shopping restrictions we have had.  
• I was also so excited to see eggnog available... I grabbed it up!

I spent almost all of my financial resources this month... I'm not use to being able to buy anything, so I always feel like I have been going crazy with my purchases.  Mostly all things I have wanted for some time, and there's a lot more to buy!  :-)   

• I am also getting my workspaces figured out for now.

Thinking about GOD and Life and our way of doing things in America, I have discovered some strange realities.  I don't know why they matter, but we often just assume many things so we don't really look into them more deeply.  I haven't finished this quest with GOD so I don't want to share everything yet.

I have also become a prayer advocate for some of our public personalities.  I think it may be a bigger issue than I would like it to be because I am in the senior citizen group and spend too much time online and don't have a good way to get around for other activities.  

Online is my "work" now, so I can't avoid all the contacts with posts and photos and times to wonder how these people I am seeking GOD for get into their life choices.  We all become the product of our choices, so the problems are different but we all have our battles.  I wonder why they do the things they do... and if they really understand the difference GOD makes in our lives when we are truly committed to Him.

Another thing that happened this week was at YouTube.  I somehow discovered songs I hadn't heard for years and added them to my MUSIC folder.  In the process of trying to find more that day, I listened to songs from the past... they reminded me why I only listen to Christian stations now... sermons and Klove... well, and now CDs as I build up a collection.

The themes of the Enemy's music are all about "love" - mostly sexual love. They are beautiful songs, but they don't lead you into what GOD's best is.  They lead to easy sex for men, desperate sex for women, and the consequences of sex outside of GOD's Plan... which is part of the reason ABORTION is such a battlefield.  There are so many consequences to sins we think are "harmless" but become lifetime effects.  Following GOD's way of life leads us to real and lasting happiness, sin will not.  We all want to find LOVE in our lives... and compromise our faith in moments of weakness.  People without faith don't even see the battle, they just pass through the attacks on their lives without the benefit of moral guidance.

So, I put them in my folder for now, but I am not sure that is a great idea.  I am seeking GOD about it and thinking about the damage they can cause... about the step that can become a crash in faith.  This is actually a very real test of faith, a choice that is typical of Satan's forces. When we repeatedly hear, see, think about anything, it becomes a part of our daily thought life.  Like choosing a friend.  These "friends" can ruin our lives.

I need to get going.

Think about the small choices you make every day... they lead you into your future, good and bad.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

and more... 

Spiritual Battles and Daily Life

My internet disappeared as I tried to write this,
so I finished it on my computer and then transferred it to my blog later,
when the internet was working again.... such a pain !!
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Monday, 20 June 2016 - about 6pm my time


The days of our spiritual battles are long and busy.  I wonder how difficult these battles would be if I was able to do what I really want to do.  When I think about how my own spiritual battles increased as I tried to do things in Christian realms, I begin to look at my favorite preachers and others in ministries differently.  Now I wonder what battles they face, how they deal with them, how GOD helps them, what I need to know, how I can fight better, what it looks like when GOD helps them, and more. 

Christians, ordinary people who are Christians, like me, are not prepared for these kinds of spiritual battles.  When they happen, we just think life is really bad and don't understand why.  I know that is what happened to me in the beginning of my efforts to create some kind of ministry.  It was a long time before I realized that something was going on and all these problems weren't happening by "accident" or without purpose. 

The spiritual realms are an unknown field to me.  I understand the possibilities that the Bible teaches us, but the real life details are beyond my ability to figure out.  I wish I was one of those mighty warriors of the faith, but I am not.  I just keep doing my best and plead with GOD to protect us.

When I was searching for answers about Christianity and salvation and what the Bible teaches, I went to a lot of different churches... across the long spectrum of Charismatic and tongues-speakers to Conservative Southern Baptists.  I tried to understand cults and how to know if a particular church actually is one.  I explored groups that said they were helping the homeless and poor... and found some of them to be predators of those desperate and trusting people who are searching for GOD and heaven.  I eventually decided that genuine believers are everywhere, even in the cults as individuals grow into future evangelistic believers.

"There are Christians in every denomination,

but every denomination isn't Christian." 

The Body of Christ became more real to me as all of this was being discovered and reflected on.  I wondered if we are weak because of our separations... if those differences that divide us are meant to be our place in the ONE Body of Christ... some for power in prayer, some for mercy, some for teaching, some for evangelism, some for helps, some for each of the gifts and ministries we know about.  Big churches may be a reflection of personality... little churches may be critical to the neighborhoods they serve... but all of us suffer because we are not "working together" as a single Body of Christ.  This is a spiritual battle that has existed long before me.  I still hope that GOD will provide a way to bring us together, especially for the hardships ahead.

Knowing about spiritual battles doesn't help me fight mine.  I think this may be because my personality is part of my army.  I count on the power of GOD and His promises to help me, and the angels that do His work, and the plans GOD has for my existence.  I am just one cell in the huge Body of souls that are saved by Christ.  I don't have to become like everyone else, and they don't have to be like me.  Knowing all this helps me to focus on what matters as I search for answers to my problems... and the problems of the world.



The future of America is being fought for this year.  We have a serious election ahead of us, and four years of whoever wins.  The battles for America's soul are growing.  Franklin Graham's Decision America 2016 Tour is part of my hopes for America and my prayers for Christians who live here.  I receive their updates through the mail, I joined the Oregon group on Facebook, I have the dates marked on my desk calendar, and I ordered one of the Prayer Journals they created for the event (with a page for all 50 states)... and I try to find a way to share my concerns for America whenever I can. 

We are at a difficult time in prophecy... what we pray for may be impossible for GOD to honor because some things have been destined for centuries.  I think prayer helps us, though... and helps us to look for GOD's solutions to our problems.  If you have read any of my blogs, comments on Facebook, or other writings, you will know that Working Together's mission is to prepare for the End Time struggles we know are coming.  Someone will face them, and there may not be a refuge for them if we don't make one.  Our wayward children, grandchildren, and loved ones, might one day decide that GOD is the right path.  Will there be a place of refuge for them... I don't know.  I just think it would be good to build them.

I hope you will join me in this effort.



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Finished about 7:30pm
Posted about 8pm