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Posts Tagged ‘Repentance and Confession’

“THIS IS MY COUNTRY”

Posted in A Nation Divided, tagged , , , , , , , on May 25, 2020| 8 Comments »

“This is my country, land of my birth.
This is my country, grandest on earth.
I pledge thee my allegiance, America the bold.
This is my country, to have and to hold!” Becker Road 2016 1

How long has it been since you’ve heard or sung this patriotic song written in 1940 by Don Raye? I can’t remember hearing it in years. Why? Could it be it’s been buried so you won’t be reminded of all we’ve lost? Could it be we allowed people to govern who would choke on these words? Could it be we are living in the nightmare of a treasonous take-over and can’t wake up?

Whatever and wherever the truth is, it’s time to throw off the covers, splash the water of reality in our eyes, and own up to what’s happening in America. Time to remember where we came from, and where we’re going before the burnt beans on the bottom of the pot inflict all of us with their nasty taste, attitude, and texture—or is it already too late?

“What difference if I hail from North or South
Or from the East or West?
My heart is filled with love
For all of these.
I only know I swell with pride
And deep within my breast
I thrill to see Old Glory
Paint the breeze.” Hot in the Kitchen.jpg 1

Does it make a difference where you come from? No, it shouldn’t, not if you were born here. But if you were born in any other place on the globe, the attitude was, until recent years, you assimilated, or became a naturalized citizen of America by placing your hand on the Bible of God’s Truth, and pledged to be a citizen of the United States of America, full of joy to be part of the home of the free and the brave.

But not anymore. Our leaders today have been allowed to pick and choose which truth they want to place their oath in and upon—and for many it’s not The Lord God Almighty’s truth. Their physical presence is here in America, but their heart and mind insist upon bringing all the stuff they allegedly left to come to America. My question is why did they come to America? And the truth screams in my heart and head they came to hijack America and make our nation become like the one they left. That is called treason!

We have watched in our lifetime news reports of Old Glory being ripped down and burned in most every country in the world…even here in America…without there being any consequences for this vile act of treason. And as I write this, I’m not sure the pledge of allegiance is still recited in America’s classrooms? And we wonder how we find ourselves in this horrid place in time?

The Word of God says: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it” Proverbs 22:6(NAS). But we’ve kicked God and His Word out of our schools, our homes, and even out of some churches. So, should the state we’re in be a shock to us? The majority of those attending churches in America today have a very limited knowledge and understanding of the Word of God and you can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t possibly consume enough of the Word in an hour on Sunday morning to carry you through life’s difficulties…many church members are suffering from malnutrition of the Word. We have a generation of children right here in America who don’t have a clue who Jesus is—and we wonder why? Or maybe you don’t even wonder anymore…

“This is my country
Land of my choice
This is my country
Hear my proud voice.
I pledge thee my allegiance
America the bold
For this is my country
To have and to hold” DSCF2348

As I read God’s Word, I’m so grateful that our Jehovah Elohim is a merciful God and He still offers His grace when we truly repent and return to Him. We see that over and over in the Old Testament as He disciplined His children, Israel. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever—until Jesus comes again, His mercy and grace are still available when we acknowledge our sins and return to Him.

This awful virus might have been used or allowed by Him, as are these enemy agents embedded in our government, to rattle us to attention and return to The Lord God Almighty. But there are also examples in the Word of part of Israel…the northern kingdom…that never learned and they were assimilated into Assyria…never to be part of Israel again because there was no faith in them.

We stand at a crossroad—truly God’s way or the highway to hell. We have an opportunity in November to purge the enemies from this land. To demand of our government leaders they will serve The Lord God first and then serve the citizens of this land of our birth.

In our lifetime we have watched as other countries received a right to vote. We watched as people lined up to cast their ballots, some paying for that privilege with their lives. Yet we have become so calloused, in this land purchased with the blood of our fathers, that we fear or are too lazy to go to the polls, show proof of who we are to prevent those who have no right to vote in our nation, in order to cast a legal ballot for the candidates we believe will serve this country in the way our forefathers purchased with their blood.

God is not willing

It’s down to the wire folks. There are people in Washington who don’t love America … who want to make Americans melt into their burned pot of beans that have been simmering in Satan’s fire since the world began. Is that the legacy you want to leave for your children? Many of your fathers and grandfathers fought in World War II…gave their lives so you could live free of fear in the greatest nation to have ever existed on this earth…and one three month bout of a man-produced virus has sent you cowering inside, willing to risk this great gift of freedom from our God. It’s a good thing your grandfather was willing to fight two men and their countries who exterminated multiplied thousands upon thousands of Jews and people who helped them. Men who destroyed Pearl Harbor, and slaughtered thousands upon thousands of our brave soldiers on foreign shores. Soldiers we honor today.

VOTING IS A GIFT, A PRIVILEGE, AND A RIGHT you have as an American…paid for by the blood of the patriots…don’t squander that blessing or wilt in cowardice…do it to the best of your ability, remembering those who came before you, and who will live in this land after you’re gone.

What will our legacy be to them? Will they have the privilege of singing….

“THIS IS MY COUNTRY, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD?”

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ATTITUDES ARE CAUGHT…NOT TAUGHT!

Posted in A Nation Divided, tagged , , , , , on April 9, 2020| 4 Comments »

As we are well into April, 2020 will go down in history as the Corona Virus year…the worldwide Corona Virus Year. Three months that have shaken the world scene from political, to personal, to theology, to educational, to…you name it. Confined at home with a “shelter-in-place” order, what have you learned? What troubles you the most in those wee hours of darkness, when you can’t sleep?

I’ve long since turned off the local and national news at night. About one news broadcast a day plunges my brain into overload. Instead, I’ve turned to the Bible and my Lord Jesus Christ.
Hot in the Kitchen 4
One of the first lessons I’ve learned these past months is God keeps His promises to widows. Yes, after losing my husband in August of last year, I’ve learned God promises in Isaiah 54:4-5 He will be my husband. And again, in Proverbs 15:25, God promises “He will establish the boundaries of the widow.” Because I belong to Him—He holds onto me and I hold onto Him—regardless of the sorrow and pain death and separation have brought into my life, some way, somehow, God will bring good out of this too. I have already learned to do things I never thought I could do…and I give my Lord glory for those things.

Talk about an attitude adjuster…I am His, He is mine… that’s a fact! But the last few days of attempting to fast and pray found me distracted and discouraged. I know it’s a spiritual battle, but it’s been disconcerting. I feel like a failure and I wonder how many other brothers and sisters in Christ find themselves tossed about by all this discord and uncertainty? Finding it difficult to carry all their burden to the Lord…what would He say? What would He think about me? I have a shocking truth for you…He already knows what your burden is and how you’re reacting. I can almost hear you asking… “Why do we have to carry our burden to the Lord if He already knows?” None of us are good burden carriers. And Jesus wants you and me to recognize we are carrying needless burdens. Burdens we weren’t meant to carry, but Jesus is.
Truth stumbled in the street
I’m concerned far too many in the church have allowed themselves, conscientiously or unconscientiously, to wander from the truth of the Word of God. We’ve become a dial flipping generation that chooses what we believe about God, ourselves, and the devil—and sometimes we’re just plain wrong in what we choose to believe. False prophets abound these days, and seem to grow more and more brash, provocative, yet convincing…and you too can be trapped in Satan’s snare. That’s why your attitude is so crucial.

With the majority of the Church limited in their knowledge of the complete truth of the Word of God, Satan is having a heyday! Oh, we all can pluck a memory verse or two we can quote on demand. Some of us have even committed several passages to memory…but how few of us truly know and can connect the scarlet thread dots of scripture from beginning to end? And if you’re answering my question with a so-what-attitude do you see how this could be a problem?

As I crawled from the covers this morning a gnawing in my spirit called me to read the 9th Chapter of Daniel. I knew this chapter happened at the end of Jewish captivity in Babylon. You see God had given them over for their continued disobedience to the King of Babylon—for seventy years. King Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the holy city in three sieges and taken God’s people captive. But now, they were about to go back to Jerusalem…at least some of them…and Daniel “observed in the books” the number of years for the completion of their desolation was about over.
Crandall Sunset 2
In verse 9:3, God’s finger of conviction pressed sore on my heart as I read… “So, I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” I winced as I thought about my own failure at fasting and praying the prior day.

The thought came to my mind, that’s right where Satan wanted you. So real was the voice I looked around, but I knew the Holy Spirit breathed those words to me. So I asked, What did Daniel do?

“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8 KJV).

Daniel refused to blend in. Daniel purposed in his heart he would remain true to His Jewish faith even far from home in a pagan land, and faithful to the Word of God. And now I’m reading, seventy years later he remained true to the principles and precepts of his faith. If you’ve never read the twelve chapters in this powerful book of the Old Testament, now might be a great time to sit down and read Daniel’s words and God’s message back to him…and to us.

Having lived such a righteous life, you might think Daniel would have approached God with a higher-than-thou attitude. He had kept the faith. He hadn’t taken up the ways of the pagan Babylonians…as a matter of scripture, it appears Daniel was the lone voice of truth to King Nebuchadnezzar and it may have been Daniel’ attitude that brought that king to faith and trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Daniel’s prayer showed his attitude.

And when Daniel knelt to pray, in Daniel 9:5 this servant of the Living God said:

“O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments:”

Daniel’s attitude was humility before God. He owned the sin. He didn’t point a boney, self-righteous finger at those Jews who had adapted to Babylonian ways…he repented for the actions and way of life he and the rest of the Jewish nation had participated in that caused God to shake their world and send them into captivity in a strange, pagan land. He accepted God’s judgment as right and acknowledged their sin was wrong.
sunset-on-the-bay
So where do you believe Daniel’s attitude came from? Could it be Daniel had God fearing parents who taught him to worship and serve Jehovah YHWH? We know Daniel’s name means “God is my judge.” Could it be his parents were told by God he would be a man of honor before God? We know he was taken captive in the first group in 605 B.C. Daniel 1:3 tells us the king ordered the chief of his officials to bring in “…some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect…” Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah or as we’ve come to know them, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego were part of these young men, righteous young men who knew and practiced their faith in God—even in a pagan, foreign land.

I’m sure you’re asking, “How does this apply to me today? What’s your point, DiAne?”

America has become like Daniel’s rebellious nation. My grandparents would not recognize today’s America. And until the church folk rent their arrogant attitude and adopt an attitude like Daniel’s, God cannot and will not hear us. Until we humble ourselves and recognize how like the world we’ve become and repent, God cannot and will not hear us. Until we repent and turn to walk according to the principles and precepts of Our Living God, He cannot and will not hear us. Does that mean we have to be different? Oh yes, but isn’t that what God called us to be—a peculiar people?
Colors run into sea
At this moment America hangs in the balances. It only takes one look at history to see God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. “Judgment must begin at the house of God.” This nation who once proclaimed to be One Nation Under God, has plunged off the cliff into Satan’s clutches. Much of the church has been neutered.

It’s up to us…to you and to me. Which way will we turn? Do your prayers typify a nannie-nannie-boo-boo tone as you point your finger at others’ sins? Finger-pointing time is over. Or will you and I be like Daniel? Will you and I accept we are all part of the problem and fall on our collective faces before Him pleading for His mercy and grace? If God depended on your attitude, or mine, to usher in the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit, what would be the result?

Deliverance or judgment? God is faithful…are you? Am I?

We may be standing on the precipice of America’s destruction. Our attitudes up to this point have spoken volumes to our children. The majority of our heritage are racing down that broad road because our attitudes and our actions have been out of line with the Word of God. We’ve worshiped the things of this world…the want more, get more, and then multiply that more has prevailed. We’ve replaced evenings with the Word of God with the latest technical entertainment. We’ve sent our kids to high ranking, expensive, ungodly colleges and universities with money we didn’t have. We’ve played church…and a majority of these highly educated kids have seen through the hollowness of our phony faith.
Spring Tornado
The sands in America’s rebellious hour glass are draining away. If the Church doesn’t repent and return to the Lord our God and faith in His only Son, Jesus Christ, those trickling sands will evaporate in the swish of a moment! And like Jerusalem…. America will be swept into the tornado of God’s righteous judgment. Remember Abraham’s pleading with God over Sodom and Gomorrah? Are you confessing your sin and pleading with God to wash and cleanse the polluted soil of your heart and your nation with Christ’s blood?

“O my God, incline Thine ear and hear! Open Thine eyes and see our desolation’s and the city which is called by Thy name; for we are not presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Thy great compassion. O Lord hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name” (Daniel 9:18-19 NAS).

Are we still One Nation Under God? One former president and many of those in His White House and in this Congress today say “America is no longer a Christian nation.”

As we spend these next three days pondering the impact of what Jesus did for each one of us over 2,000 years ago—What does your attitude say?

HAPPY EASTER! HE IS RISEN…HE IS RISEN INDEED!

DiAne

DSCN2934

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…AND EIGHT DAYS LATER

Posted in A Nation Divided, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 17, 2016| 9 Comments »

Two weeks ago I replied to a political post on Friday and my reply was shared and agreed to by a multitude, but apparently the social media police didn’t share my followers’ opinions. The next day, with no questions or warning, social media shut me out—for eight days.

I was in jail.

sunset-on-the-bay

There was no email address or phone number I could contact to reason or discuss the situation. Someone without a face, or voice, or identity, controlled my access to cyber life. It was if a thief sneaked into my house and sliced my communication to the outside world.

For the next eight days I ping-ponged between irate and grief stricken. My world shaken. I’m a writer. What would I do if I lost all those friends I had worked to gather into my circle of friends? My career would be diminished. And anxious anger multiplied.

Until God spoke to my rebellious, haughty heart and reminded me the number of times I repeated I. Really? Oh my, yes I had. I had taken credit for everything God had set before me. And then the learning part of difficult began. Thoughts rushed through my mind as reality settled in.

This stuff is small potatoes. Five years ago you didn’t know what social media was. If you’re this emotional and out of control over small stuff, what are you going to do when real persecution arrives? Will you deny your testimony? Will you cave? Will you forsake Me?

ridges-in-the-clouds

I confessed my sin of idol worship and my ignoring the fact God is even in control of cyberspace, and I thanked Him and vowed to take my hands off the whole situation. Eight days after being shut off social media returned to my computer and nothing was lost—after I relinquished control and placed myself in the hands of my Father in heaven.

But in the quiet of the moment that still, small voice in my heart asked what are you going to do now?

I’d love to pontificate some marvelous response and lessons I’ve learned, but every day I’m listening and seeking and hopefully understanding God is sovereign over everything in my life—even the bad stuff. The chaotic crisis. But I don’t like bad stuff or chaos, do you? Strange isn’t it, we only learn when the difficulties grow beyond our ability to manipulate.

I whispered, “Help me, Lord.”

“Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:2-8 NAS).

This morning as I prayed for revival to sweep across our land and turn our nation back to God, He again stirred my heart.  Revival can’t come unless your cold, hard, disobedient heart is shattered and melted to repent of the evil you are doing.

ridges-in-the-sky-2

Unfortunately, we don’t identify evil as God does. But God’s definition is all that matters.

He reminded me when He brought Ancient Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the promised land. A trip that should have taken a few weeks or month—but it took over twenty years. Why? Because they had cold, hard, disobedient hearts. He called them stiff-necked people. I wonder what He calls our American hearts today?

When Israel stood on the banks of the river about to enter this land of milk and honey, God instructed them to utterly destroy the enemies of God. Why? Because the inhabitants of the land were wicked idol worshipers and He was jealous for His people. He knew they would cave, and they did—desiring to be just like those idol worshipers.

The Israelites had several battles, and as long as they followed God’s instructions they were victorious in battle. But they grew weary and decided it would be much easier to dwell with these idol worshippers rather than destroy them. After all, how wicked could they be? And again we all know the answer and the consequences—Israel adopted the ways of God’s enemies. And to be safe, they worshiped the idols as well as God.

 

And so have we! Their perversion didn’t end well for Israel and our perversion won’t end well for America either.

Jesus gave us one instruction after He suffered, bled, died, and was raised by the power of The Living God. “Go and make disciples. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” But we have decided it’s easier to live with the enemies of Christ than to go make disciples of them.

We’ve adopted their idols. Idols that leave us too busy to care about our spouses, children, or neighbors. But like Israel, we pick up our Bibles and go to church every Sunday, don’t we? Like carrying a Bible is our ticket in Heaven’s door. But have we opened The Word during the week? How do we treat our neighbors? Do we even see them? Or speak to them?

“Oh,” but you say. “We’re both so busy—”

Do you even hear Jesus’ command anymore? “Go and make disciples?”

ridges-in-the-sky-3

Yes, it’s much easier to just live with ’em. No fuss. No bother. No love or ability to think about their future destination—separated from God forever—because we don’t really care. Cold, hard hearts can’t care. If you and I gave serious thought to the eternal reality and torment of living separated from God forever—if we could even grasp that fact—wouldn’t we be banging on their doors, dragging them from the flames to salvation? Or have we grown so comfortable with the message we don’t really believe that stuff about flames and separation anymore? Or the darkness?

Sad thing is, it won’t take but a split second of hell’s fire to change our minds, but then it will be too late.

God tells us in Jeremiah, “If we haven’t given them the message of the truth of the love of God and the message of the gospel, their blood is on our hands.” We are guilty of their deaths.

And folks we’re at that time in America.

We are no longer the land of the brave and the home of the free. Our leaders are corrupt. Our churches are preaching their own version of truth. Our homes and our lives are filled with the lusts and lures of the world. We’ve forgotten or perhaps never known God calls us to love and to be holy.

We have forsaken God. We have decided we’d rather live in the middle of the squalor of the enemy camp than to obey Jesus’ command.

Cold, hard, hearts, Lord, so deceived we don’t even realize we don’t know the Word of God, and we’re too busy with our idols to care or spend the time reading, learning, and applying those Ancient Truths that cost the prophets and disciples their lives. But I’m thinking we’re about to find out.

 

While it’s been so much easier to live with the enemies of God than to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, some are beginning to recognize we’ve given the reins of control to the enemy of God. We’ve looked the other way and overlooked the screaming signs. We’ve paid the bill and looked the other way as our children were sacrificed to the ways of the ungodly. And we’ve become more ungodly than the world…because we knew and held the truth. Knew the truth, but rejected the truth of the necessity to be holy and blameless. And that only comes by faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the price He paid for you and for me.

We’ve allowed lies to petrify the dark caverns of our hearts. Like icebergs of cancer, slowly inching numbness, as the penetrating cold creeps, covers, and steals our heart’s affection from the living God.

What will you do to stem the flow of lies washing over us like a tsunami? Stand firm in the Word or drown?

ridges-in-the-sky-4

“Now hear this oh foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see; who have ears but do not hear. Do you not fear Me? Declares the Lord. Do you not tremble in My presence? (Jeremiah 5:21-22 NAS).

“An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority, and My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?” (Jeremiah 5:30-31 NAS).

 

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