Greetings and Salutations,

    Snow is gone, in our neck of the woods.

    Trees are being cut down due to the Pine Beetle damage – expensive, but has to be done.

    Raining off and on this week, right now, as I write, there is actual sunshine out there; which is slowly submitting to the clouds.

    Carla is doing her transplanting right now and placing the plants in the green houses to mature – we are about 6 weeks later than normal getting things going; it has been hard for Carla, she loves it outside and it is almost like she is trapped inside.

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    I was considering that very issue this morning as I began my devotions; why is it so difficult to feel alone, trapped and away from the things we loved – especially other people?

    One of the things most of us want a few minutes of our own, free from modern technology, other people.  Just a quiet place to rest and gather our thoughts, and have some peace.

    As a matter of fact God encourages us to find a quiet place to converse with Him:

Mathew 6:6  KJV  “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

    That time is valuable, it gets us much closer to our God, and while not truly alone, we are much better than when we went into the room.  We are revitalized and ready to take on the tasks He gives us.

    While being alone, at times, is nice, one of the worse tortures that can be inflicted on man is solitary confinement.  Just a few days, in a small room without human contact can make a strong person crumble.

“Solitary confinement is too terrible a punishment to inflict on any human being, no matter what his crime. Hardened criminals in the men's prisons, it is said, often beg for the lash instead.”  -- Emmeline Prankhurst

    We had a young lady in our jail.  Unfortunately, the cell was just one of those small rooms.  We didn’t have any other area to place her.  We didn’t like it, but she was indeed in solitary confinement.

    We had our female clerks making contact with her at least every hour, but there was not a real connection, she was truly alone.

    I watched her deteriorate, it was not pleasant for her and heart wrenching to see it happen.  While I don’t remember just what we did to get her out of the room (either releasing or transporting to another facility) we knew we had to do it for her well-being.

    All over the world Christians are being persecuted and many are tortured and one of the main ways is isolation from people.

    The way things are going in our nation today, we may very well be seeing what is happening in other countries – happening to Christians in America.  In some ways it has already started.

    Christians are losing their businesses, their ability to have freedom of speech.  Some State and local governments are doing all they can to not only limit a citizens freedom of speck but what the preacher in the pulpit can and cannot say.

    How far away is incarceration for those violations?

    The world is doing all it can to point to Christians as the evil doers and the world as the defender of social inequities making sin legal and any conversation that says otherwise is consider a phobia and/or hate speech.

    We are being isolated and the world is trying to set us aside, not for our righteousness, but for their promotion of the world’s/satan’s agenda.

    But, no matter how bad it gets, we, as Christians are not alone:

Mathew 28:19-20  KJV  “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

    Millions of former Christian prisoners have proven and testified to that for centuries.

    It is a time tested and God assured promise that He is with us always, even unto the end of the world.

Later, Art (-: