My stepfather took the couch and the living room TV with him when he moved out. This seemed impossible last week. Or even a few weeks ago. But the Lord has proven it.
I never thought I'd be transfered to One-Switch at work. But I prayed and asked to have the load that that job put on me lightened, and the Lord did it for me, and I was transfered.
I asked Him if I could go to Indiana to see a friend I love. He's shown me many signs that say to go ahead and go. But right now, it seems impossible for me. All of my funds might be going towards supporting my mother and sister, and college which starts in less than 4 weeks. How can I afford the trip? Where would I stay? Would work let me take the time off, considering you have to work there 90 days to take a sick day, and a year to take a vacation? But what's impossible with me is very much possible with God. This I know for sure. The Father, if it is His will, will help me in this. I have faith that He'll send me to Indiana, but if not, I will continue to love my friend, who sees that it's impossible.
I've had this fear since I came to this country that coch roaches will crawl into my ears and lay eggs in my brain when I'm asleep, and so I formed the habit of sleeping with the covers over my head, which stays with me, in a sense, to this day. But I'm afraid this time it might be true...
I have an ear infection in both ears and I can't feel my left ear. It can't hear very well. At this time I have peroxide in it, and I'm typing sideways. I don't know what happeened, but this is usually the result of not changing my toothbrush for a while. So, I changed it. You never really notice the blinking cursor, or how fast you type, until you type sideways... Anywho... I can't go to the doctor because the place where I work is very rigid. I can't take a sick day unless I've worked there 90 days... So, peoples, please put me in your prayers. I want to keep my hearing. :-X Thank you very very much.
I was fighting with the bokken I received for my birthday, when I hit with it, and it snapped in two! It was green instead of black, and it looked like it was made from some sort of soft wood. Strange dream.
Between the time of 9:30 and 10 AM this morning... It is my mother's 50th birthday. She has a garden that laces around the edges of the back and front yard. She's kept a garden since when we were in England, and with her new, 2-year-old American home here in Saint Petersburg, FL, she keeps a small garden with flowers and plants that bear fruit such as tomatoes, strawberries, and some strange green fruit.
I saved up $800 to buy a car to get me to Tampa and home when I go to USF, and my mum put in $300, and we bought a new used car from a friend of a friend. I didn't check out the car yesterday, on Saturday, because the Sabbath fell on that day. Before the sunset, I was studying the Word to write the next bible study. Then, when the sun set, I showed it to my sister. This morning, after working on a bible study started on the Sabbath day, before my sister and I would get ready to buy my mother her 50th year birthday present, I decided to commit 15 minutes before I went to shower to getting to know the parts and the details of the car from its manual. It is hot outside, so I was running the car's fan/air conditioning while having the driver-side car door open. I removed the seat covers so that I could take it out and give it a wash.
As I was reading the pages of a manual, sitting with my legs hanging out of the seat, there appeared out of my mother's garden, at the front of the house, a long black snake, along with two doves that came and sat on the edge of the neighboring fence, the one near me pointing towards the house and the further one away pointing towards the street, but both with eyes that seemed to be fixed on me. The snake itself had shiny coils, and slithered against the red-painted pavement with its head up. A large, sand-colored frog jumped to my mum's bright red car, then over it, and landed on the brightly white bird bath's trunk. The snake, supposing it was not as wise as the frog, went and touched my mum's car, probably thinking the frog was still on the car. The house faces to the east, where the sun does rise, and the car is parked on the house's left side. There is a fence on either side. The car I had, with me in it, is parked on the other side. So, leaving the car with the fan on, I raised up and I ran through the closer gate to the back of the house. I was searching for the machete. It was a rusted, black-handled machete with a blunt edge that my mother's husband stuck at the back of the house to warn the neighbours that my mum uses in her gardening. I found it leaning against the wall.
I went to the other gate. I was ready to kill the snake, machete in hand. (I remembered a story of my grandmother waiting for a bus slaying a snake with something sharp, slicing it in two, but the two pieces of the snake still being alive; And a story of her killing a snake on the sidewalk, but it seemingly springing back to life after she had killed it.) As I went to the gate, I opened it and found that the snake had gone. I looked along the car. I saw the frog sitting in the same position it was in. The snake had vanished, it had seemed. I dashed to the back of the house and placed the machete back into its position, after searching around the gate for the fence. I saw the doves, and my younger sister came out to see what was going on. I pointed out to her the doves and the frogs. Then she went into the house, and we had mum come and see. She saw the doves walking about in the grass, where there were brown straws and a moist area left from the rain two days ago and the morning dew. The frog was still there. She went to get the machete aswell. We were talking about it in the back yard, and then I went to get a stick to go through her car. I took a stick and ran it under the seats and checked the inside. The started the car up to kill the snake if it were in the engine. I checked underneath. I went into the house, then came out to watch my mum water her garden and wash the area. By the time my stepfather was out to see it, the doves were gone, and all that remained was the frog. He was saying what my mum already said, that the snake might have been hiding in the thickets of grass that were cut on Friday.
I closed up the car I had and went into the house. I went to type this note, and before the beginning of this paragraph, my mum and sister came in and said that they'd figured it out and that the two doves were like her children, my sister and I, the frog was her and the black snake was her husband. Then she began to sing a song that I can remember her listening to when I was a toddler that had a message about two birds on the doorstep. The message was, "Don't worry about a thing, because every little thing is going to be alright."
We were talking about how the two doves lived around the area and how they came when my mum put up the bird-baths, and how I gave them two pieces of bread one morning, not to waste it (I suppose she saw the doves eat the bread after I had left for school that morning). We all had a hug. My mother's husband was in the garage at that time.
Though I was the only one to see the snake, my family did believe me. And they saw the doves and the frog. I have been given eyes to see, and ears to hear. And the mind of Christ, that understands.
Why does the Lord choose the poor? We see in the Epistle of James Chapter 2 that the Lord chooses the poor because they can be rich in faith: Verse 5, "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chose the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?"
God created both the rich and the poor: "The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all." The Book of Proverbs Chapter 22, Verse 2.
When God spoke to Job, our Father told him that He respected no authority, under all that He created, and takes no regard to either rich or poor, but sees His creations seeing all of their ways and goings (Verse 21). The Book of Job Chapter 34, Verse 19, "How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands."
The First Epistle of John Chapter 2, Verse 15, "Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." In the first sentence in this verse, the word love in both instances is the word agapaO which means to love in a social sense, with strongs concordance number 00025:
25 agapao ag-ap-ah'-o perhaps from agan (much) (or compare 5689); to love (in a social or moral sense):--(be-)love(-ed). Compare 5368. see GREEK for 5689 see GREEK for 5368
The second sentence uses the word love as agape, with strongs concordance number 00026:
26 agape ag-ah'-pay from 25; love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast:--(feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love. see GREEK for 25
The First Epistle of John Chapter 2, Verse 16, "For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." In this world, it's said that the sin of this world, in lusts and pride, are of sin, which the Father didn't create for this world. The Father is certainly against sin, so a servant of God MUST NOT bear these things in his heart. Lust here is the Greek word epithumia, and means to set the heart upon or long for, with Strongs concordance number 01939:
1939 epithumia ep-ee-thoo-mee'-ah from 1937; a longing (especially for what is forbidden):--concupiscenc e, desire, lust (after). see GREEK for 1937
Verse 17, "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." In the last verse, the words 'for ever' are one word in the original Greek, aion (like, eon), which means 'an age' (or, a really really long time) and is strong concordance number 00165:
165 aion ahee-ohn' from the same as 104; properly, an age; by extension, perpetuity (also past); by implication, the world; specially (Jewish) a Messianic period (present or future):--age, course, eternal, (for) ever(-more), (n-)ever, (beginning of the , while the) world (began, without end). Compare 5550. see GREEK for 104 see GREEK for 5550
My name is Isaac D. At the time of this writing, it is 1:37AM and I just finished working with someone on their website project. I wanted to unformally testify that I am a poor man.
When I was 17, I gave my life to Christ, believing by reading the truth with my very own eyes that Jesus Christ is the son of the almighty God. Months have past by, and I have opportuned to study the Word more closely, and have only found that my faith in Christ has been reinforced 7-fold.
When I was searching for Christ, I was wondering for a way to measure myself. I found that my salvation was my success. That the desires and lusts of this world are transitory, and that since I had salvation, my salvation through the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, was the success that I could hang on to and through Christ all doors were opened, all mysteries revealed, and all knowledge accessible. There isn't anything that I hadn't wondered that the Lord hasn't answered for me.
I say that I am poor in spirit, not because I don't have the money or the things I'd like to have. I don't measure up in this world. But that in this world, I am free of wants and desire nothing, not having any lusts in my heart for the things of this world. I am dettached. So now matter how much or how little I may have, no matter where I am or where I'm not, and no matter how many responsibilities or lack of duties I may have, I will always be poor in spirit. Not wanting anything.
If I'm a rich man, I apologize, because you have mistaken me for someone that I'm not. I'm a poor man. I may have many duties and cares, but the trials and tribulations are never enough to defeat what God has given me - not in riches, but in spirit. The treasures found in this world may be well within my grasp, but willingly slip through my fingers as I bear no lust in my heart over them. And I will always put the Lord before every other duty or care.
If I am a bumb, I apologize. Because I'm a rich man. With the salvation of Jesus Christ over my head, I have the son of God, at the right hand of God, inside of me, and I am raised to a sphere of power with Him and His Father's elect. I have within me the kingdom of God. I may be carefree, as a bumb, but the tasks and duties the Lord gives me are more important than any vain duty I could ever be given as a rich man of the world.
If you're looking for your measure. If you're looking for something actually real in this world to hold onto. If you're seeking success. Jesus Christ is the way to salvation. Follow the Word. I did. Marana tha, Isaac D. Written on Friday, July 09, 2004 ending 1:53AM.
