Sometimes, God is … GOD!

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blessings, challenges, difficult life, faith, God, GOD’s love, hardships, Laura Story, life, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, purpose, trials and tribulations, trust

Many people quote this verse at various times and sundry situations in their lives. It is a vital truth! “Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Is 55:9 CEV) God’s priorities in our life are different than ours. He uses anything and everything we ALLOW Him to use as teaching tools for our growth in Him. That means He uses our prayers and answers them as He sees fit. It means he uses Nature to teach us His Ways. He uses other people, knowingly or unknowingly, to work His purpose deeper into us. There is nothing God cannot or will not use, as we pay attention. But it is His purpose He is working out in us, not our own!

We generally seek our own comfort, ease, or wealth. God, on the other hand, is changing us (with our cooperation) into the likeness and image of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 3: 17-18 CEV) Our Spirit is regenerated and new, but we live in corrupt bodies with unhealthy and unholy desires and habits. We all want our own way! We pray for healing, for smooth roads through the “wilderness,” for easy answers to life’s deepest questions, and we panic or revolt when we don’t see the responses we seek. Right?

There are times when God gives us exactly what we want or need. There are also times when, thankfully, God doesn’t give us what we ask for because He knows where He is taking us and what He is building into us. We seldom know.

Remember Paul’s story? He was a passionately religious man raised in the height of the traditional Jewish knowledge and traditions. So fervent was he that he chased down and murdered new Believers until God confronted him personally, like He does each of us. In that moment, Paul saw Jesus as his Messiah, and he never looked back. ACTS 9: 1-22 CEV Some believe Paul was visually disabled for the rest of his life. Paul gained a deeper revelation of God’s grace. “My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you.” (2 Cor 12: 1-10 NCV)

Years ago, I was a single soldier stationed in Alaska. It happened that I was the ONLY single girl in the small Christian fellowship on the base. I remember fervently praying for a Godly husband. A single man began to show interest, and we dated a few times. One night while praying again for “my husband,” thinking of this young man, I felt God say to me, “You can have this man if you wish, but He is not my BEST for you.” WHOA! The ball was in my court! Reluctantly, I yielded! I wept for days after I explained my feelings to the guy. We continued to be friends, and a few months later, he reunited with his fiance. Last I heard, they were living happily ever after!

We can pout and throw our tantrums, but if we are truly surrendered to Christ, we must acknowledge that He knows best. His ways are best. His plan is best. When we are securely nestled under the shadow of His wing, we can hear His heartbeat of devastating love for us and know that everything … EVERYTHING that we encounter comes through His fingers and is laced with His love to accomplish the purpose He intends. Even the traumas and tragedies that we each face at times, will produce good fruit as God redeems the situation.

Don’t hear me saying that God creates bad or difficult situations for us. That is not what I’m saying. He permits them for His purpose. Some difficulties are simply a result of our own unhealthy attitudes or behaviors, and we are simply “reaping” what we “sowed.” Some hardships are simply part of living in this corrupt world. We also have a very real enemy but, GOD is in CONTROL, right?

Do you love God? Are you “called according to His purpose?” If so, then trust that even the most painful and challenging situations that face us are meant to build the character of Christ into us, and for that, we can be eternally thankful!

MEDITATE on THIS: Psalm 139

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Is END TIME Prophecy Unfolding Before Our Eyes? [VIDEOS]

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9 Harbingers, blessings, economic collapse, END TIMES, gratitude, Ground Zero, Isaiah 9: 10, Left Behind, liberty, moral-decay, prophecy, Social enmity, Tree of Hope, US Constitution, WARNING

No single human being, or even a small group of humans, could possibly be behind the chaos that is growing across the globe. Economic collapse has begun in Cyprus, Italy, Greece and other EU nations and is heading toward America. Moral decay is rampant globally. Social enmity is at its highest point as government and social leaders prompt one group (collective) against another.

Those of us with a passion for LIBERTY must find a way to unite our various positions if we are to survive. I can think of no better rallying point than the US CONSTITUTION.

Uniting Around the Constitution

Immigrants arrive at America’s shores hopeful of New Beginnings. 1843.

As Americans, our heritage is rooted in Judeo-Christian ethics/morality. We were established as a Christian nation with our arms open to all under certain conditions. People flocked to America in the 1800’s to flee the various forms of tyranny in other nations. There was an understanding, though, among these immigrants that they were not coming here to recreate their homeland, but to build something better! They learned our language. They learned our Godly American history. They learned our customs while having the freedom to celebrate LIFE in whatever ways were comfortable to them. They became AMERICANS, not Lithuanian-Americans, Irish-Americans, or German-Armericans, but AMERICANS. Proud of their individual ancestry, and grateful to be New Americans. But this is gone.

People across the America are angry, jealous, and greedy for more! We have more than most elsewhere, but we are still not satisfied. We want more! Some are willing to work for it, but many are not, yet they still want more! We want more, but are not satisfied when we get it. Why?

We are not satisfied because the blessing rots if we “hoard” it. Blessings are meant to be shared. For decades, American generosity covered our nation’s errors and blunders, our misguided policies & politics. But sadly, while the generosity remains to some extent, the individual attitudes corrupt the blessing. We give to gain. We give with strings attached. We give asking favors in return.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3: 16-18 NIV

LEFT BEHIND SERIES, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins

There are certain principles God established in antiquity. Perhaps the most significant is …

“Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7

There are many websites and videos that present various perspectives of the things that must take place at some point. None have the whole and complete picture because we are but flesh and GOD is GOD! Some things are just Common Sense. The crime of America is defiance against God, as though we are “supreme” and able to control all things. As though we control our destiny.

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10th Anniversary of 9/11: The Lord’s Word in September 11th The details and explanation of these “harbingers,” or warnings can be found in Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America’s Future [Paperback]

The number of voices raised in warning is increasing. The urgency mounts with every passing day. The sin and effects of sin threaten to destroy our nation. God longs to restore our nation and our society, but we must turn away from our arrogance. We must acknowledge our limitations as humans and our need for GOD!

What about Korea? What is going on?
Just sayin …

Ground Zero fallen sycamore Interestingly, the tree fell in such a way that its branches protected Saint Paul’s Chapel of 1766, where newly sworn President Washington went immediately after his inaugural address to pray and fast that he might receive wisdom to lead the young nation. How different from the attitudes of our current President!

Old Testament prophecy fulfilled before our eyes?

“What do sycamore and cedar trees have to do with biblical prophecy, the tragic events of 9/11 and the imminent future of the United States?

“The roots of a sycamore tree at Ground Zero felled on Sept. 11, 2001, have been preserved as a memorial to the event in New York City. A local messianic rabbi believes it’s a visible fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy about God’s current judgment on America.

“Everything, according to a new book which says an obscure text from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah is an urgent wake-up call for all Americans in light of what happened on that fateful day in 2001.”

Read more

When Will God Judge the World?

GOD Bless America, Land that I Love …

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America, Americans, blessings, choices, citizens, freedom, God, gratitude, history, individuality, Kate Smith, nationalism, patriotism, Spirit, spiritual, USA, WE THE PEOPLE

United We Stand; Divided We Fall

“The United States Senators sang it on the steps of the Capitol that fateful day, September 11, 2001, another “day that will live in infamy.” It was sung at the reopening of the stock market the following Monday, and Canadian soprano Celine Dion sang it at the two-hour fundraiser “America: A Tribute to Heroes” on September 21. The song was God Bless America, and on NBC’s Saturday Today show, after mentioning the national anthem and Willie Nelson’s rendition of America the Beautiful, it was reported that Ms. Dion sang “the song that galvanized the American spirit.””
(The American Spirit)
God Bless America “was written during the First World War, for an army camp show where Berlin was stationed: Camp Yaphank on Long Island. The show’s producers rejected it as too jingoistic, so Berlin placed it in a trunk of rejected manuscripts.

There it lay for twenty years, until Ted Collins, manager of popular singer Kate Smith, approached Irving Berlin for a new patriotic song for Kate to introduce to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I.” Continue reading …

In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a “peace song”, and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938 sung by Kate Smith, on her radio show. Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, “to the right” might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted “through the night” instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.” (wikipedia)

God bless America,
Land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above;

From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.

Whilst the last members were signing [the Constitution], Doctor Franklin, looking towards the Presidents chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art, a rising, from a setting, sun. I have, said he, often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising, and not a setting sun. – Dr. Benjamin Franklin, September 17, 1787. What do YOU say? Is the sun rising or setting?

Let that same Spirit rise within each American citizen, a Spirit of gratitude to all who have gone before that helped define AMERICA as our HOME. May our love for our nation, and the Light she represents to other nations, rekindle in us as we regain appreciation for our remaining FREEDOMS and work to restore what has been stolen through our own greed and selfishness. May the Spirit that unites us in times of catastrophe, unite us NOW and in the days to come as we stand together against the tide of mediocrity and sameness that would disarm our individuality ~ the capstone of our FREEDOM! God, let it be so!

“I am an “American”
free to speak without fear,
free to worship in my own way,
free to stand for what I think right,
free to oppose what I believe wrong,
or free to choose those who shall govern my country.
This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold.”

Read further:

God Bless America and Kate Smith

Pledging allegiance to a new flag in ‘Citizen U.S.A.’

We are The American People

What would the Founding Fathers think of US now?

10 America-Themed Songs for the Fourth of July