Rain, although you could count
the drops. Just enough to mess up the
car windows, not enough to even settle the dust.
Starting to get some tomatoes
that are larger, won’t be long before I combine it with bacon, cheese and
toasted sourdough bread!!
We have an invasion of some kind
of insect that is hurting our squash, Carla is going to get the pesticide that
works on it today. She also had some
kind of visitor that sampled a couple of tomatoes, they had to reach inside the
cage so we know it wasn’t deer and she hasn’t found any tracks.
This is the first year pests
have been much of a problem, deer a little, but we had been lucky in not having
bugs – other than tomato worms – munching on the plants.
Dogs are doing okay, although
had to tell Wanda to leave Blaze’s dog dish alone, she was starting to become
possessive of it. We free feed all our
animals so they eat when they want.
We feed Wanda twice a day and
she eats it all. She wanted some of
Blaze’s, but I think we got it squared away.
Had to bake some more dog
cookies today, had a bit of dough left over just enough for a couple three
cookies so let them eat it, they were happy to do so.
Cats are not happy at all, tried
to explain it was only a few more days, but still get that ‘why did you do this
to us?’ look from them.
1 Peter 5:7-9 Casting all your
care upon him; for he careth for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom
he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in
the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world.
the
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour:
I have
always read these verses as individual spiritual war, each of us battle with sin
every day. We are tempted and tried.
But I realize we are not alone
in our battle and it became even clearer to me, today, as I read these
verses.
Many of our Christian brethren
across the world are suffering violent acts perpetrated by other religions;and
if not the government itself, the government is at least sanctioning those
actions.
While it is an individual
torment against the Christian, it is also a broad ax against Christ’s
Church.
We focus on the results of the
persecution of God’s Word and His people.
We pray for those that are being victimized for their stand for Christ,
but how often do we pray God will intervene in the government. Individuals
within the government passing the laws and enforcing them as they condone such
actions?
We can identify those that satan
is using for his purposes, the courts, the government in general, media, leaders
in all areas of the world – from actors, to businessmen, to sports figures and
others that have allowed satan to turn their minds over to him.
They are not only expressing
support, but reveling in the sinful behaviors of others.
Many of these are yielding to
the lion that is devouring their very soul and they don’t even know or
understand that.
How do we get to them when all
around them hail them as heroes for their ‘courageous’ stands against Christians
and God’s Word?
We can’t.
We can voice our faith – and
that is extremely important to continue to do so – but only the Holy Spirit can
touch their hearts and minds.
We often forget that the results
are not up to us. However, the battle is
– we enter into it fully armored to fight the battle but the entity in charge is
God.
He doesn’t expect us to fight
the whole world, just do battle in our part.
Now, there are many that have greater responsibilities and therefore have
a higher expectation of action, but most of us do a much smaller fight – but it
is just as important.
We may be distressed with what
we see happening all over the world and particularly what we are seeing in our
own country – but we only see what is occurring; now.
We may have legitimate concerns
of what the near future is to bring, but God knows what the total battle plan
is, we only know our small part and what we know is happening, right now, to
Christians worldwide.
When we look at the nations
where Christians are being persecuted we see a government and the majority of
the people that actively work against God.
We see the uprooting of not just those that profess Christ, but others
and the countries are being destroyed.
America is joining their
ranks. And we know that it is going to
get worse for those that profess the truth of the Word of God.
The lion is devouring men’s
souls. It is up to us to pray for them,
to ask God to intervene in their lives.
Pray that people will be sent into their midst that have the courage to
share the truth of the gospel with them.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will
work in the hearts of all people, Christian and non-Christian and start a
revival in our land.
Some speak as if this was too
late, and it may be, but with God anything can be done, at any time, nothing is
too difficult for Him.
Some believe we are in the final
hours of the last days, and we may be, but our mission is to continue sharing
our faith and acting upon it until He comes.
Let us remember, daily, those
that are undergoing persecution in their country. Let us remember that there is a person(s)
that is conducting those persecutions – and that they need God.
We need to pray for them
also.
We want them to stop the
persecution, but they also NEED Jesus in their life.
Those that are responsible for
leading others into a path of sin are treated much more harshly by God; they
need to understand that their sins are not only impacting themselves, but
thousands of others who are following their lead.
May God have mercy on them.
Later, Art :-)
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