Already Dead

You know what? I love Florida. No, really I do. It is definitely my home and I don't plan on moving until God says I must. But I promise you, If I ever have to see one more Palmetto/Evil-Skull-Capped-Flying-Relative-to-the-cockroach-why-are-you-up-in-MY-house-Dear-God-Where-is-my-husband-when-I-need-him-bug it's already too soon! Um, I don't normally disclose that kind of information to potentially everyone in the world, but let's not front: Everybody has some sort of pest from the outside that keeps working around traps and sprays, and crawling through spaces and places to get into their environment. For some odd reason, that particular bug clan has a secret gateway to MY bathroom. MY bathroom. Did I mention that the gateway is in MY bathroom? They come to the one place I can normally go to have some peace and quiet with out husband and children. The one place I can read, pray, dream, etc. And that poor good-as-dead creature has the un-sense to come in MY bathroom. Uh uhn. No, no. It's on now! Dialing numbers and creating distance between myself and IT "Baby? Um, how soon before you get home from your thing? Huh? What's wrong? Um, nothing really. I just need you (please, please, please) to take care of something for me. . .when you get here. . . please?" Desperate housewife am I! And truth be told (but don't tell my husband I said it) I am the one that usually ends up killing stuff while my husband conveniently loses something in his office. Punk. Seriously though, about that pest thing, I literally cried out to God about it because I didn't want to have that invader in my home another second, but I was too afraid to do anything about it. You wanna know something? God told me what to do. He told me to spray in the bathroom and wait. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Him a little funny but I did it. I didn't even see the bug anymore (I assumed he was lurking in the shadows waiting for me to return) but I sprayed some Ant Killer (Ha! It wasn't even the right spray!) between the open door and I left. I sat on my sofa and I cried out to God a little more about it because my husband wasn't coming anytime soon and I just didn't know what to do about my situation. Little did I know, God was working that thing out while I waited. God's ways are so past finding out. It's a bug ya'll. God took the time to work out the dismissal of a bug. For me. I love a song I heard by Dietrick Haddon called "Love Him Like I Do." It sums up my whole relationship with God. He keeps doing all these totally awesome, yet, teeny weeny things for me like a father does for his baby girl even when they are completely ridiculous. Daddy, kill this bug for me. Daddy, I need your wallet. Daddy, pick me up. Daddy, I want you to serve justice to that company for swindling me out of my college fund. Daddy, I need new clothes. Daddy? And like a father who pities his child, he does just what I need/want even when I know that sometimes those things border on extravagance. Okay, so back to the bug. I was sitting on my sofa and thinking, God, I don't think I can do this by myself. What am I going to do? I can't let that bug run all roughshod over me. It's a bug! Then, God speaks again, "Go to Your bathroom and close the door." I knew that whatever He was sending me back for was actually the moment of truth and sure enough I saw it. That bug was dying and trying to escape and I got my broom. I smote my enemy; for the Lord had delivered it into my hand! Ha! Ha! That's why I love Him like I do, hey! Isn't that also how it is with our adversary, the Accuser of the Brethren? A real pest that belongs on the outside and yet he finds his way in through some little crack or gateway in our homes and our own minds? He then uses it to come in and wreak havoc all over us mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. We have absolutely no way to get rid of him on our own. We just sort of sit in shock or whine to people who can't fight for us until we realize that if we don't find a way to get him out of our homes and lives, he will not only move in but he'll bring his "buddies". He's a bug ya'll. A fly on the wall or a nasty Palmetto, but we don't want to touch him. We recognize that our only hope lies in God. So we cry out to Him and God tells us to apply the weapons of our warfare (What do you have in your hand? The Name and Blood of Jesus, His Spirit, His grace, The Promises and Power of His Word, and His Strength for our weakness). Then all we have to do is sit and wait for His signal. Break the pots and sound the cry (Gideon)! March around 7 times and blow the trumpet (Joshua)! Rise early and go out to battle with the praise team (Jehoshaphat)! All God wants us to do is announce our victory to the enemy, and while we're breaking, and marching, blowing and praising in the beauty of holiness, God is fighting, breaking apart, ambushing and destroying our enemy. We just go in later as the clean-up crew. Hallelujah! God already defeated our enemy, even while we are in the midst of our crying out to Him. Isn't that all the more reason for us to love him like we do?

To My Friend The Atheist

I'm a Christian. No bells, no whistles, no spinning doves or covert hymns on my blog. Just me. Whatever is on my mind and heart. I've really had to re-evaluate my stand as a follower of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (That is who Christians are supposed to be following by the way). My journey of rediscovery has caused me to wobble like Weeble (though I didn't fall down) and boy did I shake when the reality of who and what I am and am supposed to be came into view. I'm not saying that all of the sudden I found myself a grand hypocrite (a great actor in a play pretending to be someone I am not). It is actually quite the contrary. At this point in my life I have found myself to be more real. Real about the reality in which I live. Real about people and their individual souls. Real about what being a Christian is all about and how that lifestyle should be lived. Real about not trying to "fake it until I make it". Real about really standing with Jesus and on his principles. With the way this world is going there really isn't much time for facades. No one has the monopoly on longevity (except God himself) and there is no guarantee of today and much less of tomorrow. Ask any soldier anywhere in the unstable world. Ask any cancer patient going into and coming out of remission. Ask anyone dying of AIDS. Ask the most recent surviving heart attack victim who just made it out of high school. So if life is but a brief encounter, why not live the way I want and throw caution to the wind? Shouldn't I do what I want if this is all there is? No one wants to think I wish. . . Oh, if only. . . If I had to do it over. . . Well,remember that discussion on truth? No matter what the "evidence" states there is something so elemental in each and everyone of us that cannot hide from the truth. I believe there is One Truth that was realized in the beginning of this world and has always been. . . God himself. I am not out to prove that there is a God. If there is anyone who chooses not to acknowledge God I do not argue with you or try to convince. I just believe. Honestly, I believe that fact has been established with more proof than anyone can shake a stick at. Look at a tree, heck, a leaf. Perfectly simple, yet remarkably complex. Neither you nor I can make one, but Someone did. The probability that it happened spontaneously is so astoundingly low that statistics are not even used as proof. We can replicate Amino Acids but we can't make a person or even a single-celled amoeba from scratch. The odds are pretty near impossible. Those thoughts aside, what would trying prove anything prove anyway? Does proving that there is no God suddenly mean your life is worth living because you are right? Does it suddenly bring happiness? Does it really give you a newfound sense of purpose? And on the contrary, does proving that there is a God all of the sudden make Him Sovereign in your life? Does it now mean that you will believe in Him? There is no point in having the knowledge of Someone superior to yourself unless you are willing to acknowledge and accept it. It would be better not to believe or have even known in the first place. I just believe and let the chips fall where they may. In every country in the known world (I'm certain in the unknown world as well) there is some concept of deity and someone or something to be worshiped. I believe the need to worship is in and of it self primal and intentionally placed by God because this life is not all there is to life and it should be lived with a sense of purpose. Without purpose there is no real reason to live and suicide (by method fast or slow) seems the most fitting alternative. To be continued. . . .