Sitting here this morning after trying to get in some exercise and take care of the bizarre infection and allergic reaction to my arthritis pain patch. The doctor put me on some antibiotics and steroids to drive the infection out, which does seem to be working. The most painful area seems to be centered over my left hip now and is finally coming to the surface which is good.
While I'm not a fan of shoving medicines down my throat willy-nilly, there are times in which I am extremely grateful for the blessing of modern medications that relieve the pain, the itch and the infection from this twist of fate all from trying to make arthritis less of an enemy.
I rode my bike as an attempt to get in some exercise today because I just didn't feel up to pushing the punk around in his chair outside. Jared's pretty good natured about it all and is watching a program on yo-yo's right now. It all brings back memories of the Duncan Glow Imperial yo-yo of my childhood. It's around here in the house somewhere, perhaps in my keepsakes cedar box. It was a thing of wonder, joy and amusement that sometimes was tried out in weapon form. That handy little gift got the yo-yo confiscated until I promised to never bust someone in the butt with it again. Which I was glad to promise because the yo-yo was both fun and an excellent bedside night light.
We are now sitting here, Jared and I, watching Yo Yo Ma, the cellist. The wonderful way which he plays is both beautiful and expressive. I so appreciate the gift of good music and the peace it speaks to my soul to hear the lovely and lyrical notes that fill the air with beauty and happiness. Even when the music is poignant and deep, it is a message that even in the darker times of life, there is a pathway to God through the passionate refrains of good music.
I have ice on my hip and it is helping with the swelling and localized fever over the area. It feels better with a few minutes of ice now and then. Hopefully, we are coming to a climax on this unpleasant diversion from pain patches. I won't be using them again any time soon. Sad really, because before now, they had been most helpful.
But I have to say, if they are going to break me out like a victim of some horrible poxy illness or leprous withery mess, I can live without them happily.
God bless and onward to whatever the day holds!
September 18, 2015
May 5, 2015
Crumbling Decay
The 9 unelected judges of our land take up the case for what has been abominably called "gay marriage".
There is no such thing.
God has ordained that marriage is between a man and a woman, and in rare circumstances and for His purposes, between a man and several women in order to bring to pass the family of righteousness.
Now these 9 judges, who most assuredly are not acting upon scripture or even on long standing tradition, are altering the fundamental meaning of marriage to suit political convenience as given by the devil himself.
Satan of course is the author of this diabolical and wicked injunction to bow, yield, kneel in the dust to worship the "right" to violate God's laws.
What a misunderstanding of moral agency!
We have been granted a gift that stands in a powerful slot of those gifts granted severally and singularly by Almighty God. We have been given life, we have been provided a Savior from before the foundations of the world, and we have been given the ability to choose our path - whether we will, as a third of our brethren did and walk away from all that God has so lovingly offered to us and follow the pied piper to destruction OR whether we will, at any and all hazards, choose to follow God and Christ.
The issue here isn't that we have choices. The issue is that while people are chanting about "their rights", not one of them is talking about accountability OR consequences for the moral choices or immoral choices that they have made.
That is apparently (to borrow a political phrase) "an inconvenient truth".
Who wants to know that there will be a follow up while we are busy eating, drinking and being merry? That ruins the party to consider the inevitable aftermath that isn't as pleasant or exciting as the host Satan has made it seem to be.
Satan is a miserable and mean and lowly dictator of his realm. Right now, he and those who previously followed him are able to tempt us and offer what appears to be a reasonable and fun path.
We decide - WE decide - not him.
And when we give up the guidelines, rules, laws and commandments of God for what appears to be a lush green pasture Satan cultivates, we do so at our own peril, for he will never tell us the truth about that place. It's not a pasture and he is no good shepherd.
He offers us wilderness and sorrow in place of what could have been ours - safety in the arms of the True Shepherd.
He doesn't know our name. He authors our sins.
Christ knows who we are and offers with blood and scars to redeem us even from the willful choices that have taken us from a pasture of safety and locked us into a thicket of danger, fear and potential death.
Christ brings life eternal and the safety of knowing that He alone has the power to vanquish the wolves of the world. He can vanquish even death.
Yet some would look into the glaring sunlight and declare it to be dark simply because they refuse to repent and come unto Christ.
It's not over yet and there is still yet time to rescue those who are mired in the quicksand of sin. Christ reaches out with secure and strong arms to save.
We just have to be willing to BE saved.
He won't rescue those who refuse Him.
So around us we see crumbling decay in literal circumstances as our world - the very creation of God and Christ - groans and shudders under the burdens of sin. We see the decay in the church that should be Christ's but that alters purpose to serve a different master that isn't so "demanding" and "judgmental". We see the decay crumbling the personal foundation of testimony and truth and replacing them with political correctness and outright lies that feel good for the moment but which bring with the flaxen cords the heavy chains of bondage and damnation.
We still have time to be rescued and gathered. But are we fleeing TOWARD the safety or skipping headlong into danger declaring it to be good and fun and acceptable?
We had stake conference May 2nd and 3rd. One of the speakers reference the incident of a child who had been in the room where she had been ironing clothing. In a split second, the child had pulled the hot iron down and it had fallen in the bend of the child's elbow. But rather than dropping the hot iron that was burning him, the child instead pulled it and held it to him causing extensive damage. Now grown, the man bears the scars of the incident though the healing has taken place.
In a parallel to our own circumstances, the speaker asked if we are repeating that in our own lives meaning are we hanging onto the "hot irons" of sin, destruction and decay? Are we straddling the line skipping from one side to the other rather than choosing that which is Godly so we can move forward into the very presence and Kingdom of God? Or like Lot's wife, are we looking fondly upon the firebrands of sin that we foolishly hold closely and scarring our very soul?
There is only obedience and disobedience despite what the world says. Satan wants us to believe that there isn't right or wrong, just do what feels good.
There is only ONE hope for mankind in a fallen world and that hope comes in and through Jesus Christ. He is the ONLY way. He is THE WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE and none comes to the Father except through Him.
It isn't always about doing what "feels good". Life is about learning to do what is RIGHT. Even if and especially when that contradicts what the carnal man whispers to do.
The carnal man is locked in the developmental stage of a toddler. God did not intend that we stay in that state. He created a plan and a purpose for each one of us to grow and through our choices to learn about those burning hot irons and He fervently desires that we would learn to choose not to be burned.
Sadly, we all have made willful choices that put us in dangerous circumstances.
But God knew that this would happen so He provided our Savior to bear upon himself through love all the pains, anguish, fear, loneliness, sorrow and sin of mortality so that we could have complete healing and complete fulness of joy through Christ.
In the end, it comes down to whether we are accepting a crumbling decaying ruin of what could have been or whether we are accepting the fulness of renewal and rebuilding into a palace that God has always had in mind.
The choice is yours and so are the consequences. You cannot have one without the other and even Satan knows that. He lies about it, but he knows it.
There is no such thing.
God has ordained that marriage is between a man and a woman, and in rare circumstances and for His purposes, between a man and several women in order to bring to pass the family of righteousness.
Now these 9 judges, who most assuredly are not acting upon scripture or even on long standing tradition, are altering the fundamental meaning of marriage to suit political convenience as given by the devil himself.
Satan of course is the author of this diabolical and wicked injunction to bow, yield, kneel in the dust to worship the "right" to violate God's laws.
What a misunderstanding of moral agency!
We have been granted a gift that stands in a powerful slot of those gifts granted severally and singularly by Almighty God. We have been given life, we have been provided a Savior from before the foundations of the world, and we have been given the ability to choose our path - whether we will, as a third of our brethren did and walk away from all that God has so lovingly offered to us and follow the pied piper to destruction OR whether we will, at any and all hazards, choose to follow God and Christ.
The issue here isn't that we have choices. The issue is that while people are chanting about "their rights", not one of them is talking about accountability OR consequences for the moral choices or immoral choices that they have made.
That is apparently (to borrow a political phrase) "an inconvenient truth".
Who wants to know that there will be a follow up while we are busy eating, drinking and being merry? That ruins the party to consider the inevitable aftermath that isn't as pleasant or exciting as the host Satan has made it seem to be.
Satan is a miserable and mean and lowly dictator of his realm. Right now, he and those who previously followed him are able to tempt us and offer what appears to be a reasonable and fun path.
We decide - WE decide - not him.
And when we give up the guidelines, rules, laws and commandments of God for what appears to be a lush green pasture Satan cultivates, we do so at our own peril, for he will never tell us the truth about that place. It's not a pasture and he is no good shepherd.
He offers us wilderness and sorrow in place of what could have been ours - safety in the arms of the True Shepherd.
He doesn't know our name. He authors our sins.
Christ knows who we are and offers with blood and scars to redeem us even from the willful choices that have taken us from a pasture of safety and locked us into a thicket of danger, fear and potential death.
Christ brings life eternal and the safety of knowing that He alone has the power to vanquish the wolves of the world. He can vanquish even death.
Yet some would look into the glaring sunlight and declare it to be dark simply because they refuse to repent and come unto Christ.
It's not over yet and there is still yet time to rescue those who are mired in the quicksand of sin. Christ reaches out with secure and strong arms to save.
We just have to be willing to BE saved.
He won't rescue those who refuse Him.
So around us we see crumbling decay in literal circumstances as our world - the very creation of God and Christ - groans and shudders under the burdens of sin. We see the decay in the church that should be Christ's but that alters purpose to serve a different master that isn't so "demanding" and "judgmental". We see the decay crumbling the personal foundation of testimony and truth and replacing them with political correctness and outright lies that feel good for the moment but which bring with the flaxen cords the heavy chains of bondage and damnation.
We still have time to be rescued and gathered. But are we fleeing TOWARD the safety or skipping headlong into danger declaring it to be good and fun and acceptable?
We had stake conference May 2nd and 3rd. One of the speakers reference the incident of a child who had been in the room where she had been ironing clothing. In a split second, the child had pulled the hot iron down and it had fallen in the bend of the child's elbow. But rather than dropping the hot iron that was burning him, the child instead pulled it and held it to him causing extensive damage. Now grown, the man bears the scars of the incident though the healing has taken place.
In a parallel to our own circumstances, the speaker asked if we are repeating that in our own lives meaning are we hanging onto the "hot irons" of sin, destruction and decay? Are we straddling the line skipping from one side to the other rather than choosing that which is Godly so we can move forward into the very presence and Kingdom of God? Or like Lot's wife, are we looking fondly upon the firebrands of sin that we foolishly hold closely and scarring our very soul?
There is only obedience and disobedience despite what the world says. Satan wants us to believe that there isn't right or wrong, just do what feels good.
There is only ONE hope for mankind in a fallen world and that hope comes in and through Jesus Christ. He is the ONLY way. He is THE WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE and none comes to the Father except through Him.
It isn't always about doing what "feels good". Life is about learning to do what is RIGHT. Even if and especially when that contradicts what the carnal man whispers to do.
The carnal man is locked in the developmental stage of a toddler. God did not intend that we stay in that state. He created a plan and a purpose for each one of us to grow and through our choices to learn about those burning hot irons and He fervently desires that we would learn to choose not to be burned.
Sadly, we all have made willful choices that put us in dangerous circumstances.
But God knew that this would happen so He provided our Savior to bear upon himself through love all the pains, anguish, fear, loneliness, sorrow and sin of mortality so that we could have complete healing and complete fulness of joy through Christ.
In the end, it comes down to whether we are accepting a crumbling decaying ruin of what could have been or whether we are accepting the fulness of renewal and rebuilding into a palace that God has always had in mind.
The choice is yours and so are the consequences. You cannot have one without the other and even Satan knows that. He lies about it, but he knows it.
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