So Much Change

 

I love it when other bloggers say things that I've been wrestling with because it helps me find my words. This morning I read Debbie Hudson's blog and the words came flying out of my head onto my keyboard. Whew!

Thanks Debbie!

When You Don't Want Things To Change 

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Charles Dickens has been attributed as saying there is nothing constant in life except change. A simple, profound truth.

While some folks resist change with every fiber of their being, I am more inclined to embrace the new and unknown, especially if it portends to introduce a learning curve, regardless how tough. Certainly I don't mind change when it comes as relief from being held down in a rut or stagnation.

There are other kinds of change, though, that has to be dealt with. Not always easily. 

I have embraced and endured a plethora of kinds of change across my 74 year stint on this planet. Some think of their life experience as chapters in a book, I see my life as completely separate books - a four volume set.

Book One was my childhood with my original family. Book Two was all about my life creating a new family, raising three kids, quickly scribbling down and editing the good the bad and the ugly when there was a rare free moment. Book Three was my middle-aged adventure with grandkids and the rewriting of the meaning of tribal traditions. 

Book Four is now in the first draft stage. It began with me adjusting to all the things I used to do and slowly had to abandon because of the natural human aging process. Full disclosure, that took a couple of chapters of whining and complaining that had to be seriously edited for uncouth language.

I am now in the final stage of making peace with this unstoppable revision process, this inevitable rewriting of our once well-established tribal traditions of how we have gathered to celebrate, commiserate, live, love, laugh, and eat together.  I concede to all the change that being human demands that we have no choice but to make peace with because life must keep moving on and cannot stay the same. The new books being written can't be copies of old books.  They have to come from new experiences and fresh perspectives. 

So. Change. It happens. Ultimately we have a Chief Copy Editor we have to answer to. I hope that when my final paragraph is punctuated that it makes Him smile and maybe even say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

For Him,

Meema 

So Many Questions

 

The world has suffered not a few periods of what can only be described as tribulation in the last 2000 years. War, famine, tyranny, genocide, plagues. I conclude that satan has been very busy trying to destroy us for a long time. In fact, when Christ told His disciples that no one knows the hour or the day (of The End) accept the Father, not even Christ Himself, that meant that satan, who is in no way equal to God, doesn't know either. 

Let that sink in - if satan doesn't know, then why would he wait 2000 years (or longer) to seek to bring about our end? He has been at it without ceasing. Only God's own timing has allowed it to continue. 

So,  what if...

... as part of satan's long-game playbook, false doctrines have been inserted, over eons, into what we refer to as Christianity to confuse and distract us and keep us from being able to recognize the signs we have been given in Scripture? 

... we read the book of Revelation for ourselves, with an open spirit to receive, without influence of a dogma based on cobbled together verses pulled from the old and new testaments, that then created a whole new religion (that also made the authors multimillionaires)?

... as you read Revelation, you wonder about the saints the angel told John were those who refused to worship the beast or receive the mark and you want to know how they knew to refuse something they were not on earth to refuse? 

... you begin to wonder if the beast of Revelation 13 might not be a man but a global system? Like a One World Order made of a cabal of huge global corporations that seeks to reduce world population into two classes, the elite who rule the servants, and replace anything Godly with all things worldly and godless?  

... and the smaller beast might not be an individual man but a system of technology, (inconceivable in 90 AD), operated by individuals in league with the first beast, that makes it possible for everyone on earth to see imagery, even on handheld devices, that they can be in awe of and therefore idolize and obey without even realizing they are? 

What if I am wrong about these trying times being too Biblical to ignore? The world has survived some pretty epic conflicts and challenges. At any one time it was likely easy to point to current events aligning with Scripture.

What if the book of Revelation has been unfolding for 2 millennia though? 

So many questions.

But... given that one thing is absolute, the day does finally come...

What if we are way closer than ever before to the time when we have to say no even if we can neither buy nor sell, or we are outcasts from friends, family and society and cannot live normally, cannot leave our homes lest we be harassed and arrested by agents of the ruling government... or be incarcerated or even lose our lives for saying no to the mandatory shutting down of society and an experimental vaccine? 

Would that not then be a strong confirmation that we chose correctly? 

What if God decides to honor the prayers of the saints and give us more time? Would we recognize this, repent and actively change our wayward civilization? 

Or... what if there is a point of no return when lawlessness, depravity, greed and the worship of all things godless cannot be reversed? Can we stop pedophilia, abortion or sex slavery? 

So, what if this really is it then and we are indeed in the edges of the final countdown? I can't even begin to claim to know or even guess how long it will take or even how to determine what exactly to say no to. Is it a thing like an implanted chip, a false religion, edicts by political tyrants that demand I obey the god of 'SAFETY' instead of trusting my own faith? Whose mandates obliterate constitutionally guaranteed personal freedom of individual, health, speech and worship? 

Maybe all of the above? A package deal then? Is the long game a sum total of centuries of slow mind and soul control? Not just a few things that align with ancient prophecy but a long list of things that have come together like the perfect storm?

I'm not inclined to tell anyone else what to do or believe. All I can do is listen to the still small voice, obey and trust. I may have to live in this world but I do not have to be of this world... even if I die for choosing thusly. 

What if I simply choose to die standing... for Him... no matter the outcome or cost?

Meema