Month: May 2021

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD
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DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? 

The Pandemic has changed us a great deal. There have been other pandemics prior to this one. There was one in 1957-1958. It did not happen as a political discussion. It did occur when most households had TV, some nightly news. It did not happen with Facebook, or TIK TOK, or IPHONES, or GOOGLE. It wasn’t broadcast on international television or regulated by the CDC. It closed schools. There was no social media to tell us how to behave, how free we were to make decisions for ourselves or whether Republicans were right or wrong or the Democrats were right or wrong. We were well or sick. The numbers from 1918 had been huge. We knew to respect it.

Today’s pandemic has affected millions. An enormous number of people have died from it and we have debated if it was real or not. When I got the Asian Flu in 1957, I slept for a week. I knew it was real. I was real sick. I survived that time. For the current pandemic I took the vaccination in it’s due course this year and have survived. I wore a mask everyday. I still do at work. Other things can make me sick now. It is called older age, Arthritis, High Blood Pressure, Cancer. There have been more debates about reality or fake news than ever before.

A question comes to mind.

If I write and tell you to Believe in GOD because GOD knows what is right or wrong what should I say to you? What will you say to me? Will you say I believe in GOD. Will I take GOD’s side when people ask me if I believe in GOD? Is your question “Is there such a thing as GOD? Is GOD fake news?
These are real questions.

Do you believe in GOD in much the same way as I believed in Santa Claus?

I used to get Christmas presents from Santa Claus, I did not attribute any Christmas gifts as coming from GOD. I new the story about Jesus and Mary, and I knew that I would get some gifts from Santa Claus. I didn’t get a card from GOD. Come to think about it I haven’t gotten a birthday card from GOD. Or did I. Maybe, just maybe, GOD had to send it via a friend, or neighbor or relative. Maybe the gifts I got from my Aunt Vera came via GOD. A world of books to read and study. Maybe Aunt Vera was an angel.

What is GOD to you? GOD never called me “Buddy”. My daughter calls me “Buddy”. I call my daughter “Budette”. I never told MOM that I got beat up by a Bully when I got off the school bus one day with a classmate in fifth grade who proceeded to beat me up because I was a skinny kid and consequently easier to beat up and then brag about it. Did I question where GOD was? Did I ask GOD for help? The book department at the local pharmacy was having a sale on self defense books the day I wandered into the department in 1962. Front and Center. My dad bought me a couple of books I asked for. GOD taught me how to defend myself. GOD encouraged me to be diligent and practice. I studied and I learned and I practiced over the next 40 some years. I’m the Sunday School kid who asked the teacher “Why doesn’t GOD just make good people”?

Do I believe in GOD? I have been told and have heard preachers say that GOD will remand me to hell if I don’t do what GOD tells me to do. If GOD told you to drive the speed limit would you drive the speed limit? If GOD told you to Love one Another would you Love One Another? Why should I believe in a GOD who threatens me like the BULLY threatened me?

GOD, through Jesus, tells me that “A Father had two sons…” and the youngest left home and squandered a fortune yet was welcome back home by his father. (Luke 15: 11-32 The Prodigal Son). I believe in that GOD.

Do you question politics? What is right and what is wrong? Do you question justice and fairness? Do you debate GOD about just what does Love One Another mean? Who does one another consist of? Do you question GOD? Do you believe in GOD? Do you want to believe in GOD? Have you talked to GOD about it? What has GOD done for you?

GOD utilizes people to implement your future. GOD spreads the messages of life throughout your life. The difficult part is recognizing them. And admitting that you recognize and appreciate them. That we all make mistakes is not news. It is what and how GOD talks to us that counts. Look over your life and see just how GOD has been there. See how GOD plans your future when you haven’t even told GOD you could use a bit of help. You have no idea what GOD has planned for you and your future so always give GOD a chance. Our present day society is questioning all things. We are debating the discussions of social media and what is real and what is fake. At some point the question will come to you.

Do you believe in GOD? Why is it important? Is GOD more like Santa Claus or does GOD have a purpose? Does GOD have a purpose for you? Just who sent my Christmas card for what purpose? Santa Claus? OR mom? Or Aunt Vera?

Ask GOD. You will discover a conversationalist beyond compare.

THANK YOU GOD
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THANK YOU GOD

GOOD MONDAY ALL

Faith is the word of my day. Too late for morning but on time for the rest of the day.

Probably the most difficult word to grasp for most of us is Faith, until we say “thank you GOD”.
Every day it happens. No matter how we feel, what we prayed for this morning, what we wish for this day.

Isn’t That Wonderful. How does it work? I don’t really know.

I can offer a clue: As a wise advertiser once said and immortalized the phrase: “JUST DO IT”. “Thank you GOD”.

Enjoy the day. 

WHAT IS BEST
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WHAT IS BEST

WHAT IS BEST

It has been one of those days.

Warm and wet day today. Wet awhile and dry awhile and wet and so on. And so it is with living. It seems that the challenges of life sometimes do not seem to stop. That is life. The challenges of today seem to ask us “what is best?” GOD seems to be giving us a break today.

“I’ll handle it” , GOD graciously offers.

When life challenges us to decide, we often try and choose what is best for us, but is it the best for others? Do we know enough to make choices?

Life is and GOD proceeds with opportunities.

I listen to the chirp of the birds or the conversation of the squirrels. Life is about living the day. At it’s best left to GOD and then GOD fills in the blanks. Enjoy the day and do not challenge yourself to be the decider of all things. Accept life is and always move forward and catch up to the future that GOD has been preparing you for. GOD has been doing just fine so far. Example has been shown to us so many times, just move forward in faith. Have a wonderful day. In the past, thanks for the memories. In the future, enjoy it.

BE safe and our CARES AND PRAYERS will be with you all day.

ME, Mack and Jake

BE THE SQUIRRELS
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BE THE SQUIRRELS

BE THE SQUIRRELS : 5-15-21

‘No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.

So there I was, the other day, walking out to my car to head off to work. There, on the wood fence were two squirrels. It just became spring in Iowa and the two squirrels were chasing each other up the fence then along the fence line as fast as they could go. A third squirrel joined in and they ran all along the fence line and up and down on the fence. They ran and laughed and just enjoyed life. Not a care in the world and a fence provided by GOD to have fun on.
Me? I was off to work. Hoping the car would make it to work and back. I was remembering the groceries for the dogs and me at home after work. It just looked like so much fun running the fence. It reminded me of playing “The Swamp Fox” and “Robin Hood” in the bushes behind the house when I was a kid with my friends. (A long long time ago).
Reality was kicking in whether I wanted it to or not. It seems so far away and so urgent and important to do the work and make the money to just make ends meet. I wonder just what my purpose was in life and just what was my goal. Like many of my senior friends, I am independently poor. Enough to get by month to month. The; will I have enough in a year or two or three to retire? It is a constant thought. Was I a slave to both GOD and of money? I have a phrase I have learned to use for most of my adult life.

“GOD watches out for the ignorant and uninformed.”

JESUS put it this way. Matthew 6: 25 – 34

25 ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing!
26 Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?
27 Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life?
28 And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin;
29 yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these.
30 Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you who have so little faith?

31 So do not worry; do not say, “What are we to eat?
What are we to drink? What are we to wear?”
32 It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things.
Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.
33 Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God’s saving justice,
and all these other things will be given you as well.
34 So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Worry less and squirrel more. Enjoy the gifts that GOD has provided to you and enjoy the life that GOD has provided to you. This is your purpose and your goal. Read all about it in the books of life. Life is meant for living, take your faith off of the shelf.

COINCIDENCE
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COINCIDENCE

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING ALL

What an appropriate Word for today. Prayers can be singled out for all of us for different reasons today and we can help each other with a simple enough prayer to remind us that GOD watches out for each one of us. Even when our prayer concerns overlap each other our prayers are each addressed individually. It may be a response from within our spirits. It may be a call from a co-worker, or a neighbor, or a relative or friend. It may come from a stranger we do not know with the right thing to say, and I am sure each of us has had that day when a TV show causes us to say “I sure did need that message today”. Coincidence is GOD’s norm. That said, enjoy today, the gifts it offers, and the opportunities it represents.

Our CARES and PRAYERS.

ME, Mack and Jake

UNORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY
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UNORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY

 

“I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH,AND THE LIFE”
JESUS, of Nazareth
FOR THE DISENFRANCHISED

Before there was doctrine,
there was Jesus.
Before there was business,
there was Jesus.
Before there was judgement,
Then there was Jesus.
 It is my belief that Jesus is enough. dw

This was the original header for Unorthodox Christianity. I had heard too many rules and witnessed too many judgements from too many Christian settings. I felt that too many people were being judged away from GOD and JESUS. Not accepted by the Church for how they expressed LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 
The power of GOD manifests itself in many ways and I have witnessed many ways before me over the years. People were judged on what they may have done, not on what they had grown up to change. We are all called to be many things in our lifetimes.

How do we know if we are being called by GOD? What circumstance do we find ourselves in when we are called to serve GOD? Often
it is a simple conversation that has much deeper meaning. Often it challenges what seems right, or what seems wrong. How do we respond
to what is real, or what is a discussion about. Do you image yourself an Angel on a mission for GOD, or are you the mission for GOD through JESUS to console you through someone else. Do you search for a place where GOD is your friend. Is a Jesus the example you wish to run into, to pray to, or to share some time with. 

From my own Psalm 23: For you: “Even now, this very day, GOD is preparing the future before you. In the presence of your enemies, even in the midst of your own personal struggles”.  GOD cares. GOD sends messages. GOD knows. JESUS is the spirit of GOD. Do not let others chase you away from GOD and JESUS. Hopefully and Prayerfully I write my messages. They may be written for you, for someone you know to share with, someone who believes in you.

GOD and JESUS will always listen and answer. You may not recognize the message or the messenger. It may be many days, weeks, or even years for JESUS and GOD to prepare the future in response. GOD has changed my future in response to life many times. I can assure you that GOD and JESUS know what they are doing. LIFE is more often a patience endeavor than an overnight discovery. DO NOT BE AFRAID of JESUS or of GOD. Life is meant for living or you would have no need to be here. Life is and always will be a gift. Embrace it, share it, and respond when called. Do not worry, you will recognize it.

IT is my belief that JESUS is enough.