Do you know how powerful you are, as a servant of God? As a follower and disciple of Jesus Christ? He gives us the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. And everyone that that old serpent sends our way as a stumblingblock...
One day I was left alone with Toney. My mum had to go somewhere. I suspect it was to clean a house. Instead of going with her and helping her, her husband Toney decided to stay home and do nothing. I was left and for some reason he was making me wash the dishes. And so there I was at the sink washing dishes. He was doing something or another to my left. He was yelling at me on and on about how horrible a person I am. And whenever I would get angry with him, he would smile and enjoy it. The man had no idea that a few weeks prior I decided to follow Jesus Christ. I had just learned and understood the peace of God, that Jesus Christ gives. And so my mind wandered off. And I thought of a joke. Something funny. I had the peace of God. And I couldn't hide it. The countenance that eminates from the spirit of someone that has this peace is enough. I started laughing as he was yelling at me. In shock, he turned and gave me a long look in dead pause. Then he murmurred, "Are you on drugs or something?" I told my mum what he said when he got home after the incident, and that after that, he walked away and left me alone, and she was surprised. I just had to remember that it's written: do what Christ would have done and in doing so, you'll heap hot coals on their head. Overcome evil with good. My love is stronger than my enemy's hatred. And I couldn't help being me at that time.
There was another time when we were in the living room and after God told me that He is my heavenly Father, I couldn't bear to call this man, "dad," even out of respect, because he took after satan. And months after, I avoided directly referring to him with a name somehow in manner of speech. So we were in the living room and I called him what I used to call him when my mum first met him: Toney. He was angry and said, "You're not a man yet," after a long pause. But he didn't know that the Lord made me in the image of Christ and when Jesus Christ picked me up that one day in August, told me what being a man really meant.
All of these things, and God gave me a sword to use so that at every confrontation, I would remember the peace that God gave me and use the sword of the Spirit to defeat his evil. We have a year's restraining order against him from when he broke into the house cracked out now. He had a knife that day. But the sword that I protect my family with is stronger and sharper than any knife anyone can use against us.
"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Luke Chapter 10, Verse 19.
I just wanted to highlight the scripture on the side of this blog. It changes every day, but I want to look at this one longer than that.
And if you want a real zinger, turn to Jeremiah Chapter 4 Verse 23. Amazing!
Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34
'The time is coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.' [v. 33-34] 'This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the LORD. 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the LORD. 'For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'
Our heavenly Father wants to give us a new body. One that wasn't born with the inherent nature of sin. All in His plan.
Lately I've been hearing of a lot of propaganda about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. The propaganda is often left to open interpretation, in order for the person hearing it to sully Christ's name in their minds. This is a great deception and an ill-conceived cognitive notion.
To Set the Record Straight: Jesus Christ spoke about marriage: The Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 19, He went from Galilee to the coast of Judaea beyond Jordan, and was followed by many people, where He healed them. Verse 3, "The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" Verse 4, "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female," Verse 5, "And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" Verse 6, "Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
What does this mean? Marriage is an institution that God placed for man for man to become one flesh, the man's body belonging to the woman and the woman's body belonging to the man. God brings them together. Also, marriage is fleshly, and has nothing to do with the spirit. So, marriage ends at death. At the resurrection when Christ returns to gather His anointed, there will be no one married or given into marriage.
They claim that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene. They were never married. It's our heavenly Father that does the marrying. When we take communion, we eat the flesh and blood of Christ. We don't eat the blood and flesh of Mary Magdalene. Jesus Christ's entire life, from the way He would be born to even His crucifixion and right up to what He would say on the cross (Psalms 22) were prophecized 400-700 years before His birth. In no way and in no place will it mention a marriage between God's Son, our Lord Jesus, and any woman. Why? Because the marriage that Jesus Christ will receive doesn't take place on earth. Or in the flesh. It takes part in heaven. And it's a marriage between Jesus Christ, the head, and the anointed born and washed clean in His blood, the body.
But what about Mary Magdalene? The ill-conceived notion of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene being one is from the gospel of Philip. One line in the gospel of Philip. It says that Jesus Christ kissed Mary Magdalene on the lips. I'll spare the large textual explanation on where the gospel of Philip is an inspired text or not, but Jesus Christ was affectionate with the rest of His disciples, aswell. He'd hug them when necessary. He was their best friend in the gospels. And concerning women, He has always been a complete gentleman. He called them, "Woman," which would be equivalent to calling them, "Lady," in present day speech, a respectful name. If you don't understand Christ's relationship with Mary Magdalene or other people that He was close to, read the Gospel According to Luke Chapter 7, Verse 35 to the end of the chapter, and the parable He says about those that love Him. Then think back to when Mary was being stoned.
How many Mary's? There has been a recent publication called, "The Two Marys." The name "Mary" means rebellion, it's Mariam in Greek, and there weren't two Marys, there were six (6). Don't believe me? Don't believe me! Check it out! There was Mary, the mother of Jesus and the woman that the Holy Spirit put Christ in under God's direction and prophecy, Mary Magdalene of course, Mary the mother of James, Joses, and Salome, Mary of Bethany the sister of Martha who wiped Christ's feet with her hair and tears, Mary the mother of John Mark who was one of Christ's first disciples, then the Mary mentioned in Romans Chapter 16.
Be weary of propaganda. We're living in the last days.... My ellipses can run on and on forever. But keep up in the scripture. You can always spot the false from the riff-raff by knowing God's truth. Jesus Christ's grace be with you all, mates. :-) Isaac D.
I'm listening to Clair De Lune right now. Peaceful song. I'm half-way rested up from last week. The problem will be that every week will be this way, maybe!
So I started the spring semester at the University. Blahs. I have 6 classes this time around, and slippage of any sort isn't an option. Last week I had a day... a dreadfully long sunrise-to-sunset.
It started out with my mum and I going to the court house over the restraining order. It took forever to find it again and then when we got in there, we waited forever. The judge was seated there with petitioners to his right and respondents to his left, sort of mimicing (I need to figure out how to spell that word) the right and left gulfs that we will be in when we're beyond this present age. So after some time, the judge finally gets to us after hacking and serving through a lot of people with a mean expressive grimice to his manner of speech. I walk up with my mum. The Bailiff, sadly asks, "Is this man 18?" She said yes.
So we go to the podium to the right. Toney, who was invisible the entire time, seemingly, walked up to the one to the judge's left. My mum nervously replies to the judge. "We want it in place, indefinately, if possible." "And how long is indefinately?" "One year." I could hear her nervousness. "Respondent, is that okay with you?" Toney replies, "Nope. I don' hab a prawblem. Yoroner." He looked terrible. Bald. Long socks. Funny-looking clothes. I tried not to look at him because he was displeasing to the eyes. Then I wandered off a little bit imaginatively and when I came back, I heard Toney say, "I had already cawed my attorneh and tried to get da papers through him, yoroner, numsayin..." He was lying.
He'd called for months and aggravated my mum to yelling and screaming, often ending in tears, demanding the housepapers. Then, at the last resort, attempted to break into the house to get the mortgage papers. God stopped him and we caught him and got them and her gold rings he stole that night back. My mum tried to record every time he called in a book, which made it into the report. But I made a big mistake.
I turned to my mum and I whispered, "That's a lie. Tell the judge that the night he broke in the house was the night he tried to get the mortgage papers."
My mistake was that the judge could hear every whisper over the microphone. So he disregarded what Toney said, and asked if he would agree not to come within 500 yards of the house, no contact, for a year. And he said no problems. The judge said, "Are you sure?" And he said the same thing. The judge said it three times, with the same reply. He granted it for a year. Then she sat down for a while and I got a chance to hear some of the other nasty little domestic violencing. Lots of people didn't show up. Then after what seemed like forever, my mum got up and took the papers, and we were allowed to leave.
----- Then... afternoon... x_x I was burnt out already. I drive 28 miles to get to Tampa to get to school, and 28 miles back. So it makes it feel like forever. I had to drive to school and wait in a line to get my books bought back and they could only take one of them after all of that, and then another line to get money-in-hand. After that, I went back to my car, but the greatest part about that was that there was a nice lady that drove a mini-van that was leaving and saw me at the machine and gave me her visitor's parking ticket. I was most appreciative, because they cost $3! ----- Then the rest of the day... X=( I had to take my sister to the emergency room. She sprained her ankle. They fit an air cast on her, but the x-rays took forever. Then they taught her how to use her crutches. And I spent the $3 I would have spent in Tampa there at the hospital parking garage. God blesses me, you know. :-) Today, she can walk without her crutches and she's feeling a lot better. That took forever. So it felt like it was a week, but it was only one day!
I prayed and prayed, and God helped us afford to be there to get the restraining order, and now if he shows up, he goes to jail. But we think that he might turn up on a least-expected day because he might want to go to jail. He's a crackhead and an alcoholic so he doesn't really want to support himself and might want to go so that they'd take care of him there. He'd get 3 meals a day, exercise... everything. So I'm still on watch, to a degree. The Lord is watching out for us, though. Our heavenly Father loves us, and we do everything to please Him. As I told that man over the phone, Jesus Christ is the man of this house, and if you want to get in, you'll have to go through Him.
Teach your children to love their heavenly Father.
My mum is taking care of 4 children tonight. I made the 3 year old and the 7 year old two hash-browns each. I sat them at their kiddie-table with forks and then told them to say grace. My mum said they probably don't know how. I said grace with them, asked them to fold their hands and close their eyes, and then afterwards... 7 year old: You're funny! Me: You have to say grace before you eat...! 3 year old: Grace! They didn't understand what saying grace was or what it meant. It is thanking God for the meal you're about to receive.
When I grew up, in England and here in America, I had maybe 6-7 brothers at a time, and we always said grace. We'd say the same thing, but when I became a Christian, I voluntarily picked it up again and began praying more personal prayers to Him before the meal I receive. (And it's by His strength that we have this food, we're on foodstamps at the moment.) But it's important to teach your children these small little things. They're like seeds. So one day they'll wonder why we always say grace before we eat or what it means, and that's when you can tell them that it's by God's strength that you got up to go to the place of work God provided for you in order to get the meal, and it's Him you thank for providing it. That's how they will grow to know our heavenly Father intimately, and on the same personable level that Christ was talking about. So don't skimp out on saying grace! You'll feed both your children's bodies AND their souls. And when their soul is full in Christ, they will neither hunger nor thirst. Teach them how to fish and they'll feed themselves and their families until the end of their days under the sun. Teach them the Word early and how to eat the bread of Life (Jesus Christ) and they will neither hunger nor thirst for their days here on earth and beyond that. Your heavenly Father wants it. Shouldn't we, as parents? (Well, I'm not exactly a parent yet, but with all the kids in my mum's daycare, it certainly feels that way sometimes ^_^.) Today they eat to live another day. But tomorrow...they could live to eat forever. And I'm a living testimony, trust me, it will help them!
Proverbs Chapter 22: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
She was really Mrs. Azziza. But I was always inclined to call her Ms. Azziza. She left behind a husband and a son when she died. She was like a sister to my mum. And she was spiritually older than us both. My mum still misses her and wants to talk to her the way she did before.
With Ms. Azziza, you could always have a spiritual conversation, she said. She calls her a friend. When I was younger and not yet born from above, she would always encourage me to become a doctor. "Calling Dr. D., calling Dr. D.," she would say mimicing a receptionist over intercom. I can still hear her today, even though I can barely remember her face. I loved Ms. Azziza.
And she saw me as her son's brother for a while. I remember one day when I was young, my mum called her on the phone about her planting a seed a seed in her. It's how I know where she is today.
And I can't wait to meet her. Because though she died of cancer, my mum and I might be spiritually older than she was when she died when it is the end of it. Now I have to be the Azziza to many other people. I really want to talk to her again. So does my mum.
But I still have a long journey ahead of me. In these people...you can always spot Christ's touch in them. It's good to be made in Jesus Christ's image. I long for the day... I'd like to see the hope of glory.
Please include me in your prayers... my days are spent in physical, fleshly, exhaustion. My eyes are pink. My right eye is red. My body aches. I try to work, but I'm easily distracted sometimes. There's always a lot going on. If I can finish this programming job by Friday sundown, I might have enough money to pay the car insurance and pay for my return to school. Thanks for your concerns. If two agree on earth, it will be done in heaven, so do please include me in your prayers. Thanks.
