The Eyes Have It

I have to say, after a number of days being basically off the Internet, it’s been an amazing experience in not being exposed to all the mind trash that’s out there. This goes for “social media” (which is making us mighty unsocial), YouTube and everything else that’s been created and “gifted” to us as a way of turning us against one another, spying on us, and putting propaganda in front of us in more subtle and never before imagined ways. Which as it turns out has been one gigantic ongoing “social” interaction experiment by the powers that wannabe. Also designed to get us used to no more direct Human interaction, but everything must be done by way of “the great all seeing A.I. machine god” being the interface of all human relating. Ludicrous.

Not for me. I’ll take “old normal”. I may even opt out for a flip phone. Not because I’m technologically challenged, because I’m not and have always tried to embrace these “advances.” But because it’s become obvious that human good is not the object of most of it. It may be those good intentions that pave the way to hell. I’d like to believe that, but the deceptive character of technocrats and what they stand for does not take good intentions for others into consideration. So I must reconsider whether to proceed. Leaning towards not for now.

Time to turn away. Yeah, I am gonna go a little “preachy” here. The Lord Jesus said, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Matthew 6:22. (Although I’m not KJV only by any means, KJV knocks it out of the park on this one, in my opinion.)

Focus and simplicity are is being brought to my attention a lot lately, and I’m saying it as a sort of personal confession in this department. Somewhere along the line, the truth came to the surface that where the focus goes the energy flows. So I needed to figure it out: where do I want my focus to “flow”?

Where’s the eye wandering to? Darkness? Lies, half truth, and propaganda? someone’s morbid agenda? What do you want in your body? That is the question. Do I want to provide that to someone else as well?!

There’s a connection! He goes on to say, “But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:23. Whoa! Do I want that in my very body and soul?

Might the mind trash be making us not only spiritually but physically sick? We are after all embodied souls and ensouled bodies. Let’s not lose track of this!

It boils down to, How seriously do we take Him? He’s not just blowing smoke here. Where’s the focus? Where does it need to be? “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.” That last part seems forgotten a lot these days. Is my being up in the air and harping over things going to change some things on levels way above my pay grade? I doubt it.

Instead my best “shot” is that I can pray for the bigger cosmic guns to come in and take care of it. Lord, have mercy! (Oh no, did she say guns? We can’t use that expression… See how this works? It’s all gone to turmoil and confusion.)

There’s always a solution! It’s where my single eye needs to be focused.  “Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Berean Study Bible) Colossians 3:1-3. “Set your mind on things above…” Sagest of the sage advice well worth contemplating, and a sight for sore eyes as it were – the place where we need to put them, and refuse to look away.

As a friend I used to know, of whom I’ve regrettably lost track would say, “That is ponderable.”

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View From The Window

I’m looking out beyond the parking lot at the corner (it used to be a nice grassy field) to the wooded (thankfully protected for now) area southeast of here. I’m struck by the beauty and abundance of nature in the late spring – so full and green as the wind moves around the leaves – against the gray sky beyond it.

 

Squirrels and crows provide entertainment in the foreground. Last night there was even a frog out by the little “cement pond.” I’d never heard a large one before; there are always many of the little ones. It’s an in ground glorified bird bath put in decades ago by the patio, about 3 feet across, shaped like a lop-sided heart. We have a pump in it in the summer that shoots pleasant sounding bubbling water gurgles into the air. This time of year it’s always plugged with soft maple whirly helicopters and has to be cleaned once a day at least.

God must love soft maples, as He gives them a lot of reproductive capability. And He loves squirrels too, because they’re well fed by the maple seeds. Nature reflects His generosity. It witnesses to His truth. Everybody is cared for. The flowers of the field and birds of the air. There’s enough to go around. Are you not worth more than they? asks Jesus.

 

Then I heard these strange noises on the other patio. I went out to see about it and found 6 squirrels (5 black ones and a gray one) arguing over some pumpkin seeds I threw out the other day. They looked up, assessed the situation and then scattered. I brought them more. Note to self: Go to Tractor Supply tomorrow and get some mix or peanuts for the critters. Someone might ask, why feed them with everything nature provides so well in the warm seasons? Purely selfish I guess. I love to see them come up and have lunch with us – on the other side of the window. Life can be good with the simple things.

I bet it could be even better if we realized that the Good Lord put a very special “law” right into the fabric of everything: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.“

 

This is really the way things work harmoniously and without harm – by the fearless exercise of generosity – not by force, fear, extortion, cunning, conniving, and destroying things because you have been taught to regard yourself as a victim, and feel that others have what you want so you hate them.

That is the lie and the behavior of the evil one and those “at the top” given over to him. His minions use people who don’t know the truth to do their evil bidding. But in the end those used people will only be cast aside. They won’t get a piece of that pie as they were deceived into thinking. Those “seeds” will also bear their own rotten fruit, by the way, in the lives of those who sow them. Others will be blamed for the crop failure of course.

The bottom line is we’re always sowing and reaping, for good or for destruction. That’s just how it is. It’s what we do.

 

I’m not sure how exactly to best spread that good truth, except to put it into practice and share it with anyone who’s looking and listening; but it’s a message that needs to be widely spread and to bear fruit; and by the looks of things, it needs to be a clear alternative that happens fast.’

For now, ponder and pray about that. Listen. Practice generosity.

From the Shire

Leave No Stone Unturned

We went for a neighborhood walk on this beautiful spring day. Quiet conversation emerged, as we pointed out the trees budding, birds singing, fallen trees, and how well the bakery seems to be doing in spite of what has happened. Well, sure – it’s carryout.

GB picked up a stone someone painted and left by the wayside. It says, “Keep moving.” I will try to be mindful of that sage advice.

Slower than usual, we walk along, me with my walking stick, as I fancy myself among the quietly pensive companions in the Shire, as they realize how things are not what they were. Nor will they ever be. Not only politically, but physically too. Back trouble, knee trouble, foot trouble. Effects all sides and parts. Sometimes it moves to my right thumb. Sometimes I get a Charlie Horse in my left hand. That’s especially interesting when driving or playing my guitar. Never know what’s going to hurt first or give out when anymore. Living in hope I will see the “missing parts” of my far flung beloved family and relatives once more. Somehow. While still in this life.

No special triumphs to boast about here. Sinner still in need of a Savior in a besieged land. But, it is what it is, and God has been, is, and always will be Good. Life is good too because it is a gift of God. In spite of what physical senses and the news tell us. Perhaps He asks us to look beyond what we see with new eyes, into higher purposes. Beyond the darkness, into the dawn.

“Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my soul, Therefore I have hope in Him.
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD.”

~from Lamentations 3~

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Rethinking Much

One day at a time. It’s all we can manage. The evening and the morning of any day God called “good” – right from the beginning.

 

I don’t care if the predictions are made by wannabe prophets, preachers, politicians, prognosticators, potentates, or profiteers. Jesus’ directive, as King of kings, Lord of lords, and the Prince of peace – to Whom all authority is given in heaven and on earth – is applicable to any day. Whether we call it good or bad in our perception.

 

Consider the birds of the air how they toil not. God cares for them.

 

Consider the lilies of the field, more gloriously clothed than the great King Solomon. God cares for them.

 

Now one greater than Solomon is here. This is His take on things:

 

Take NO THOUGHT for tomorrow.

 

Be anxious for NOTHING, but in EVERYTHING, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus… whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -think on these things.

 

It requires pulling away from the darkness and saturating our mind and heart in whatever is light and right! A concerted effort.

 

Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

 

Where do we “live” in our consciousness as believers? Do we believe the foregoing with our heads, or do we KNOW it – having received it – in our hearts beyond the shadow of a doubt?

 

Who or what possesses our hearts and affections?

 

I heard someone say yesterday, and it makes perfect sense in the light of what’s been happening, that “anxiety is the litany of idolatry!” Wow! Yes! This begs the question, what are we rehearsing and repeating most of the day every day?

 

Mostly, “Ain’t it awful?” Right?

 

Where is the mind set in that worry modality?

 

(Guilty as charged. Trying to repent and amend my ways.)

 

Let’s pray for one another to let our hearts and minds be centered in Christ Jesus, in our remembering that God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

 

Let’s kick doubt and fear to the curb, and walk that highway of holiness!

 

PS: I didn’t include any of the references. Thought it might help if you look them up yourself, and that will give you more time to explore and absorb His Truth, the only Truth, and nothing but the Truth.

 

We need to remember that the nature of discipleship doesn’t change just because the times do.

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Absurdity

Yesterday’s adventure took me to the grocery store. Which now has only one entrance, inconveniently and dangerously leading up a step significantly higher than is normal for any curb or a staircase step. The lady in front of me (I was still crossing the drive between parking lot and the entrance) tripped and fell. I called out to her to see if she was OK. She sat there rubbing her knee. Said she was fine, got up, limped into the store.

For Pete’s sake, if you’re going this route, grocery stores and “essential” businesses, at least put the entrance by the wheel chair accessible part of the sidewalk, which cannot even be accessed by those in wheelchairs, or those motorized grocery carts, so people don’t trip! Even people who can walk have trouble getting up that spot on the sidewalk! Especially with a mask on their face which they cannot see around because that’s not something they’re used to. There is a certain amount of reduced access to fields of vision around these masks. I know, as I wore surgical masks day in and day out for many years. And there’s a “learning curve” believe it or not to seeing around them.

I had a cart with me, which I usually try to do, taken from the cart coral. A courtesy I’ve maintained over the years. So I had to juggle to get it onto the sidewalk. Then you get inside and this recording keeps playing. Over and over it’s the same thing about how we are “keeping you safe” with our protective shields at the checkout. And maintain your social distancing. Dystopian brainwashing. I thought I was on some dark futuristic sci fi set. Too bad you don’t care as much about your unsafe roped off entrance! My mood of course steadily improved, keepin’ it on the sunny side. Right. Guess again.

The lady who fell had a mask on. As did many others in the store. There were also glove wearers. Here’s my take on this absurdity, as someone who worked in O.R.s for 43 years, military and civilian, – until I retired in 2011, based on what I was seeing juxtaposed to what I know to be proper usage.

First of all, these things are meant for specific uses under controlled conditions, where everyone involved understands the protocols for wearing masks and gloves. People are trained to do this. There are techniques for donning them and for removing them, so that you don’t add to the contamination problem. None of which the public understands. These practices also occur within controlled environments to which the public has no access, so I am not blaming them. However…

Out there on the street it’s anything but controlled. Homemade masks made of t-shirts that looked like dirty underwear, gloves of the winter variety – not even exam type or food handler rubber or nitrile gloves – were being worn. People will get sick just from having wet filth from their own breath, rolled up around their mouths and nostrils and eyes that grows bacteria in warm, moist growth medium. A fly could crawl through the weave of many of them! The protection these masks provide the wearer is dubious, and their gloves certainly don’t provide any protection for others, after they handle door knobs, car doors, the family dog, grocery carts, produce cans, and cereal boxes! One is better off simply washing one’s hands, or carrying along hand sanitizer. (Oh I forgot, we ran out of that.) Especially anyone who is not wearing gloves so you don’t get a disease from the glove wearers! These uneducated practices are setting up more disease than they prevent. It is also self protectionism without regard to anyone else – due to ignorance.

The postal carrier came by the other day with 2 packages, which she handed me. She had on “exam” gloves, which were filthy with dirt and ink that came from the packages I watched her rummage through before she got out of the mail truck. I pled the Blood of Jesus, and took the packages with a smile anyway. That might protect you, honey. But you’re sure not doing anyone on your route any favors with all that filth on the outside of your gloves. And of course your hands are not getting washed much either, because you are under the illusion that this protects you. But guess what? Your hands are growing their own little animal farm underneath those gloves.

Then I had a friend tell me she wears 2 masks and her winter gloves in the store. I saw a lot of that. Filthy wool or leather gloves. This IMO is due to the fear porn over no one coming up with any verifiable evidence on a consistent basis as to what the coronavirus is, where it came from, its nature, or frankly if it even actually exists. Much nebulosity IMO. Or any viable knowledge about PPE. People are grabbing at straws.

This is all reaction, not emergency response. The best idea is, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then don’t try to help or be part of the solution. Get out of the way! Or better yet – educate yourself on the Internet with mask and glove protocols. And it’s pretty clear no one knows what they are doing! It is fight / flight reptilian brain response all wrapped into one. The fear is palpable. One is likely more at risk from being attacked by the Toilet Paper Snatchers than a disease!

Incidentally, I’d also like to ask why – since there is reportedly a shortage of medical masks – the US government is reported to have sent one million medical masks to Israel, and then our government reportedly turns around and asks our US military personnel to just make do. They are reportedly told that they will have to make their own masks out of whatever they can find. Where’s the respect for our military’s needs, when this thing is being handled like it’s an enemy? Don’t they need the proper “protective shields” that have been given away to this little country, which for some reason reportedly seems to have such a strong say in whatever goes on in the USA. Or outside of it.

One wonders if the war model is always the best solution. War on drugs. War on cancer. War on terror. War on, war on, war on… Well, most of us are war out (pardon the grammar)! But which of these wars is ever won? Yet every time something comes along, it’s the same old modus operandi. Did you ever wonder why that is?

It’s time to cast aside these outmoded models of relating to everything by reacting. Supposedly, it’s reported, we have all these defense organizations designed to protect us. Remember 911? How well did that go? Remember Katrina? How well did that go? You name your favorite disaster… But we have TSA keeping us safe at the airport, right?

Who is running this show from behind the curtains, backstage? We need to stop going to the theater. In fact maybe the “theater of war” needs to be closed down. We’re all fed up with these reruns!

Follow the money. Who benefits from all this bungling in a big way?

By the way, anybody get that stimulus check yet?

Tree and Trail

Getting out of the artwork slump. 8×10″ mixed media consisting of watercolor, ink, Conte pastel, and a smidge of acrylic.

Prints available here:

https://yvonne-blasy.pixels.com/featured/tree-and-trail-yvonne-blasy.html

A Present Cross

Suffering, grieving, death, illness, restraint put upon us… Some things that happen to us can be mighty difficult for a very long time. We undergo these strange times, where – with our Burger King, instant gratification, have it your way mentality getting in the way, we have forgotten the meaning that is always behind times of testing. It is not meaningless.

The following paragraph is from T. Austin-Sparks on: The Cross and the Way of Life – Chapter 1

“Yes, we pass into a time of excruciating spiritual and soul suffering. We do not know what the Lord is doing, what He means by this, what He is after, but we know the features of our experience and know what it is that we are suffering, and it goes on. We, of course, ask the Lord to stop it, to bring it to a quick end, to deliver us from it. He takes no notice of us, and it is only those people who get out the other end who say, ‘Thank God, He did not take any notice.’ In the meantime, we think He is anything but kind and good and doing the right thing, but as we get on under His hand, we begin to see and to sense that He is dealing with something. Maybe He is dealing with our pride, our independence, or our irresponsibility, for example. That is the issue that comes up, and we are faced all the time with something about ourselves that is almost devastating. We would not have believed that that was so strong in us.”

In all things we are brought up to remembrance that He is the Creator and we are the creature – fallen, derelict, in need of salvage like old shipwrecks. “We” are being dismantled and refit with Christ in us, our hope of glory. He has made us. We blew it. He is remaking us in Christ.

Times like this remind us of our need. Lost sinners, in need of the one and only Savior Who calls, enlightens, and sanctifies us by the Holy Spirit.

“The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us.” This we must remember and confess, as we give thanks always in all things. We also do well to recall the words of Jesus, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Could we say that we are to pick up what He in His infinite wisdom places before us, as He also took up His cross?

It is never without eternal meaning.

Is The Church Under Caesar’s Control?

Please read linked article first.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2020/april/01/does-the-church-belong-to-caesar/?fbclid=IwAR24hAZ6soWI4JeiTfiPI2RfqN98sspK0Gr-dSf_fDrQkNjTnZ1UEpceslg

“Don’t claim that a ‘national emergency’ renders the Constitution moot.” (Quote from article.) Or is it about the Constitution? In some respects, yes. In others, no.

Then there’s those non profit statuses which shouldn’t be there in the 1st place. If going to church is a matter of a tax deduction, it’s time to examine one’s relationship to Christ. Think what Christians did when “Caesar” commanded them to worship him, or other pagan gods. What was the cost to martyrs when the faith was outlawed? There was no constitutional republic then.

Sure, 21st century church, roll over and play dead. Oh, but we can “worship online.” Baloney! The BODY of Christ is meant to be a physical container on earth for His Spirit, meeting together with the saints and angels in heaven in Divine Service, not a digital sham. We need to rethink Whose we are, who we are, and what we are.

While I concur that God is omnipresent, what this capitulation amounts to is for the technocrats to control everything through the Internet, including whether or not we participate in Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ – which is by no means “virtual reality”. 

And there are forces unseen who know this and have attacked the very heart of the Church with these draconian mandates. Beware of “guidelines” which become “mandates” which then are made “law”.

But know that Christ also promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against His true Church. The houses built on sand will fall and tumble, however.

Or is He using these events to tear down the false so as to reveal the true? We may be seeing something entirely new going on.

 

What Time Is It?

Sound Familiar? Power, signs and false wonders, deception, wickedness – to deceive those who do not receive the love of the truth. (It’ a “heart condition.”) Do you think “he who now restrains” is being taken out of the way, so that even “virtual” or “augmented reality” will be on the loose to bring in great deception? This is the time of revealing, which is the meaning of “apocalypse”.

 

“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”

2 Thessalonians 2:7-12.

Christ Alone!

“They band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the LORD has been my stronghold, and my God is my rock of my refuge. He will bring upon them their own iniquity and destroy them for their wickedness. The LORD our God will destroy them.” Psalm 94:21-23

Times do not change. Degree of magnitude of difficulty (as in global versus regional in past) may be the only thing that is new under the sun. But the Lord Jesus Christ never changes. We call upon Him alone. We can fully trust in Him to bring us through the clouds, great darkness, and tempests in this life. There is no other! He asks us to follow Him and to trust in Him. And so the psalmists (their authors were more than just David) spoke, expressing their faith and prayers, that oppressors will not be allowed to continue their rebellion against the Lord, nor to continue their assault on those whom He has chosen to follow Him. We can follow the psalmists’ examples in praying and even singing these great affirmations of God’s love and authority.

“The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” Psalm 9:9

“The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2

“I will keep watch for You, O my strength; for You, O God, are my fortress.” Psalm 59:9

“From the ends of the earth I call out to You whenever my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2

To pray and sing the psalms in a reflective, contemplative way is a very ancient practice. As we do so, it is also an effective way to confess the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and to learn the ways of God as He guides us through life’s challenges. There is something about doing this that teaches us from the inner being, and wraps itself indelibly upon our consciousness. Then we are taught by experience that He is wholly reliable and loves us beyond imagining.

Personally I find it helpful to make art with these themes as well. Then it becomes prayer that can be shared.