Faith First

I had anxiety all day yesterday - a cold spot in the center of my stomach. That is a rare occurrence for me so I couldn't tell if it was something my spirit was concerned about as relates to something close to home or in regards to a bigger stage - like the world. While I don't experience anxiety very often, for the past year plus I wake up every morning with a bit of dread. I get my coffee and pull my computer onto my lap and take a deep breath - what will the news be today? Bad or worse? Today was not so good. War.

The past couple weeks, while working on a book project, doing a bit of research, I've had to take some time to reread a decade of my blog posts. I was shocked to see that for quite some time I've been pushing out words of warning that I don't think even I understood when I typed them. I'm not a prophet but I am intuitive and have a hard earned maturity of spirit. I certainly can't see the future, but I can study history and then read Scripture and put the pieces together to come up with a picture that needs to be paid attention to. 

Forewarned is forearmed. 

I've come to accept that any good news is going to be on a personal level, God is good and answers prayer, but it seems the world, as a whole, is headed for hell in a hand basket. What kind of collective petitioning would it take to stop the madness - this time?

I've often posted commentary pondering whether we have reached the point of no return so that keeps nagging at me. Now I'm just calling for prayer that each of us is able to listen to the still small voice, obey and trust.

Be of good faith and courage will follow.

For Him,

love,

:)meema

From March 2014

http://bagsallpacked.blogspot.com/2014/03/imagine.html

From March 2016

http://bagsallpacked.blogspot.com/2016/03/war.html

 

All Things Old Are New Again

 

One doesn't have to be an expert on history to have a working knowledge of how civilizations rise and fall over time. Once we had printed books gathering dust on shelves in libraries and only those who had an interest in historical facts bothered to check them out and read them. Nowadays we get history tidbits shared and posted in social media, forums and podcasts. Even those who aren't predisposed to be interested in how the world works, how history keeps repeating itself, get opportunities to be informed - even if the knowledge is subliminal. 

The question is - how many pay attention to the similarities of present day history in the making to past atrocities that caused death and destruction by the will of tyrants? Apparently, the reason that history repeats itself is because humans prefer to believe that what was once defeated, what appeared to have been killed, can never rise again.

But it does.  And each time it gets worse. 

When will we know that we have run out of chances to pay attention to the repeating signs? 

For Him,

Meema

The Beast out of the Sea

Revelation13 

The dragon[a] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 

2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 

3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 

4 People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 

6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.

7 It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 

8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.[b]

9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.

10 “If anyone is to go into captivity,

    into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed[c] with the sword,

    with the sword they will be killed.”[d]

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

The Beast out of the Earth

11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 

12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 

13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 

14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 

15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 

16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 

17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.

Forgiveness

 

The things we know, as humans, with our minds, are only part of what we could know and that which can only be fully learned through a mature spirit. We can declare, with all good intention, that God wants us to be forgiving and that is truth.  But someone who has been abused by another might sink deeper into the dark waters of guilt without the life raft of the 'why' offered. Based on interactions with others, it is not difficult to conclude good words are not quite enough.

On the positive side, embracing the act of forgiving in mind and spirit also overrides other toxic, soul-shrinking obsessions like being grudge-bearing. But how do we get to that place where we can let go and let God? The great accuser, satan, is always challenging us with well-crafted oppositional arguments using Scripture. We can push back though by knowing the greater context.

We aren't supposed to harm others (thou shalt not murder) but we can defend ourselves. Some have interpreted Scripture, like 'turn the other cheek', to mean we must be conscientious objectors. but history is replete with the heroism of God's people who dared to stand up to evil oppression and thus people died in the conflict. How do we reconcile this? 

How to bridge the conundrum between self preservation and submission in the name of forgiveness? The short answer on the big 'why' is - we are admonished not to judge others, to leave vengeance to Him, to ask Him to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, even as we are granted the life preserving skill of discernment. 

The secret is - we need to want to learn how to hear the still small voice so that we can Do or Don't as the circumstances present. To know when it's okay to stand up against tyranny rather than submit.

It comes down to learning how to listen, obey and trust. Sometimes the act of forgiving is more for the health and well being of the forgiver than the forgiven. Put the heavy thing down and walk away. Unfortunately, the infinite variety built into the universe by our Almighty Creator is difficult for our limited minds to grasp. We want absolutes to define how we must be. 

That is why we need to be tuned into the spirit, not just the word. 

Sometimes, forgiveness is about choosing to love others from a safe distance, and that is okay. Sometimes forgiveness is about actively overcoming that which seeks to keep us silenced and without purpose. 

Discernment is the life raft that keeps us afloat.

For Him,

Meema