teddwebb

Shit happens every day, but it can always be wiped away…

Archive for the category “An Idea”

23 May 2011

Thank God That God Has Two Hands!

Thank God That God Has Two Hands!

Dear Heavenly Father, You are so Gracious, so Merciful,
so Forgiving, so Wise, so Loving, so Bountiful in Your Blessings.

So Tender is Your Touch and yet so Mighty and so Powerful is the Strength of Your
Comforting Hands…
Carrying His tiny, delicate children across the dangerous abyss of darkness they
so often face,
taking on the woes, burdens, worries, troubles, and difficulties of His People as
they freely turn them over into His Hands, into Those same Powerfully Gentle hands.

And even when the tiny children perceive that they have slipped through the fingers
of Your Hand because this or that has gone wrong and not in their way, and they
feel they have been made to suffer in the flesh;

They fail to realize that Your OTHER Blessed Hand is beneath them in the end to
catch them after all! They fail to realize that God’s OTHER hand was there all along,
right there protecting them, ready to “save them” should they fall.

Perhaps they doubted. Perhaps they did not reach out to catch hold of, to grab,
to touch God’s Hand, but be Firm in your faith in God tiny children, for He will
NEVER let you down. You must ALWAYS TRUST GOD!

So if you did not quite make it on that first trip, you can Trust that God will
use his second Hand to catch you in the end before you fall because God really is
always there for you.

If you perceive that you are or have been made to suffer, add to your perception
that this is only a temporary, earthly life, and once you are caught by God’s other
hand, a whole new beginning awaits you, free from all the sorrows, pains, and burdens
of this earthly life.

If you perceive that you missed God’s first hand, think back through your life of
all the times that God’s second hand HAS intervened, at all the possibilities where
things could have been worse but weren’t.

Just think of all the wondrously amazing perceptible possibilities that are opened
up, just by letting God have not One, but TWO Hands!!!

When all the rhetoric gets boiled down though, simply remember that relationships
are based upon Love and Trust. You must Always Love AND Trust in God and in that
God will take care of you, and not let you down, and that God will “save you,” that
God will “catch you” in the end when it’s all said and done.

God simply says, “I gotcha” with you safely in His Loving, Gracious, Merciful, Blessed,
Trusting Hand.
I thank You God of All Creation for having me as a friend.
I Love You God.
I Trust You God.
I Love and Trust You God unquestionably.
You Truly are an Awesome God!
Amen.


God has The Universe in His Hands

 

>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea, Higher Power, Poem | Leave a comment
03 Apr 2011

That Old Man Devil Comes a Creeping

That Old Man Devil Comes a Creeping

This is a Devotional that the United Church of Christ sent out to everyone who had
signed up to receive their daily devotionals. This is a repost of their April 02,
2011 posting:

“I Met Jesus and My Life Is Not Better”

Excerpt from John 9: 8 – 9

“The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this
not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were
saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’”

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

What happens to someone who is touched and changed by Jesus?

When I watch a religious TV show or listen to some personal testimonies, it seems
that after meeting Jesus everything is better. “Jesus came into my life and now
business is great, my wife and I are super in love, and the kids, who were on drugs,
are getting straight A’s. Thank you, Jesus.”

It may be that way for some people. But I’m struck by what happened to the blind
beggar, in John 9, who was touched and healed by Jesus. He got healed and his neighbors
no longer knew him. His parents disowned him. And he was kicked out of the church.
If he’d given a testimony it might have been, “Yes, I was healed by Jesus and my
life turned into a mess. People I’d known for a long time acted as if they didn’t
know me, my family didn’t want anything to do with me, and the authorities threatened
to arrest me.”

I imagine his testimony might continue. “Yes, since meeting Jesus my life is harder
in many ways. But, you know, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because now I see.
I see how afraid many people are, how afraid I was. Afraid to tell the truth, afraid
to live, afraid to take any risks. It’s like we’re blind. It makes me sad. But I
don’t want to go back.”

Being touched and blessed by Jesus may not mean our lives are suddenly successful,
as society defines success. Jesus may make life harder, but in ways that matter.
He gives us problems worth having. And when we experience hard things on his account,
that is when we come to really know him.

Prayer

When you open my eyes to see by the light of your truth and grace, Lord, grant me
the courage to keep ‘em open. Amen.

Author: Anthony B. Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister

For the past 3 weeks, I’ve been having a tough spiritual time. When I say, “tough,”
I mean that “the devil” has been tempting me, trying to get at me, trying to distract
me, trying to draw me away from God. When I want to read my Devotional, a little
thought will pop into my head to try to distract me to do something else. Sometimes
a strong urge to go off and do something else will enter my mind trying to draw
me away from picking up my Bible to read The Word when I feel The Holy Spirit calling
to me to pick it up. When I wake up in the morning, I hear the tender, gentle, quiet
voice of The Spirit calling me softly to pick up my study Bible and read John 9,
or James 2, to just randomly flip through 2 Corinthians, or to read Habakkuk (and
I don’t even know what Habakkuk is!), and then I will feel that old man devil trying
to distract me and pull me away.

Sadly, I have to admit, he sometimes wins. I am human and I am weak. I pray to God
for strength. I pray to God for wisdom. I pray to God for help to discern The Word
from the pen of man. I pray to God for guidance and perseverance. I pray to God
to help me follow Jesus, to follow The Word, to be a Good Man, a Disciple of God.
I pray for my family, friends, church, and others as well that lay heavy upon my
heart. I pray to give and offer thanksgiving and to show my gratitude to God. I
pray to let God know that I really do appreciate everything that He’s done for me
and my family and friends. I pray to give praise to God. I pray to worship and give
glory and honor to God. I pray. I pray.

I have fallen from the grace of God and have returned into the light of God several
times over my lifetime. I know that when I am close to God, the devil attacks and
tries his best to distract me and draw me away from God. He does his very best to
throw everything he can in my way to prevent me from staying close to God, and from
getting closer to God. When you are in a relationship, ANY relationship, you have
to work at it in order to keep that relationship alive, flourishing, active, and
growing. In order to grow that relationship even deeper, you have to put even more
effort into it and the same thing goes for your relationship with God. Once you
pull your head out of your ass and see the light of God and form that relationship
with God, you have to keep working at it, daily, hourly, just like a marriage, EXACTLY
like a marriage, EXACTLY LIKE A MARRIAGE!

When I am not in a relationship with God, I can pick up the Bible and read it at
will and put it down and go on my way. To the contrary, when I am in a relationship
with God, and especially as that relationship buds, grows, and begins to flourish.
Old man devil begins to find increasingly and increasingly more and more of life’s
difficulties to throw in my path to prevent me and distract me from working on that
relationship. That old man devil does his best to kick good old Tedd’s ADHD into
high fucking gear, throw his dementia into a tailspin of confusion and mindless
wandering through the house looking for things and forgetting what he’s looking
for but continuing to look in hopes that he will find it anyway and just hours of
staring, lost in his own muddled muddied thoughts, and even the most hard fought,
prayer-filled attempts at reading a few scriptures become an epic battle of wills.
I feel like a battleground between God and the devil sometimes! LOL!!!

Fortunately, I have God on my side and the Power of The Holy Spirit to lead and guide me and
I am usually able to latch onto a few coherent scriptures, or if I am lucky, able
to make it through an entire book so that I can return later and begin to actually
study that book. It is slow and steady work, involving a lot of repetition, but
that’s mostly my own fault since I INSIST upon reading the same Books in the Bible
from half a dozen different translations! Ah, Overly Anal-Retentive Tedd Strikes
Again!!!

SO, I return, stubborn and bull-headed as ever. I pray more, I read my devotionals,
I pray, I read the Bible, I pray, I study the Bible, I pray, and all the while that
old man devil is doing everything within his power to destroy and inhibit the growth
of my newfound relationship with God. When “I found God” did anything in my life
suddenly get better? Nope. Did anything gradually get better? Nope. In fact, everything
has pretty much stayed exactly like it was, or has gotten worse. And to TOP IT OFF,
my quality of life has gotten a WHOLE LOT WORSE in the past 3 weeks because that
old man devil has been at full speed ahead trying to interject the speed of life,
those problems and duties of living in our Über-Fast-Paced California lifestyles,
and my myriad of illnesses into my God-Relationship-Building Time. “GRBT” 😉

Sometimes I still doubt my faith, but here recently, too many strange (for different
blogs) ‘things’ and patterns have been emerging, both from the various Bibles I
read and from the various concordances and studies I read which make me think that
I may be on the right track, or I may be stark raving mad. It is one of those two,
but definitely nowhere in the middle from the patterns I am seeing. I am a master of
patterns – it is data; I am data; we are one -> analyzing data patterns is what
I have been doing since 1986 (hacker/phreaker/cracker, then crypto Military Intelligence
National Security Agency, then data load pattern analysis for optimal “data” flow
through major hubs on IBM mainframes, then I went freelance data analysis/data workflow/complex
patterns for 4 years, then I went as in-house data/patterns/x-systems/’plausible
deniability hacker’ for 8 years)…so A LOT more of my brain is going to have to die
off before my “Bio Pattern Recognition Engine” is knocked out of commission! LOL!!!
But still, I am not the sharpest light bulb anymore, or the brightest thumbtack,
and my confidence is weakened by my current state, so I still doubt my faith sometimes,
regardless of what stands before me. This is mostly because I lack the benefit of
a PHD in Theology and am lacking the full knowledgebase, the full dataset from which
to draw my conclusions…

I see others who have found Jesus. Praise God! Their lives turn around. Their health
improves. Their marriage rebounds. They get new, high-paying jobs so they’re not
living paycheck to paycheck anymore. They found Jesus and apparently Jesus found
them and brought a bag full of “here’s an easy life for you now my Son” with him.
Yeah, I’m a little bitter over that sometimes. I’m human, but I pray for strength
to not feel that way and it helps take that anger out of my heart and replace it
with warmth and gladness and joy for them for being blessed.

I on the other hand, without fail, without fail EVER, when I find Jesus, well my
life turns into a stinking pile of shit.

It feels more different this time than it has ever felt before though. I feel hope.
I still feel blessed no matter how bad of things come my way. I still turn to God.
I still have the Love of God, the Faith in God in my heart and an unquenchable desire
to be as close to God as I can be this time. I think that old man devil is just
wasting his time. He may slow me down, but he will never break up my relationship
with God.

Praise be to God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving. Amen.

 

>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged | Leave a comment
16 Mar 2011

Five Facts EVERY Christian Should Always Remember

An Article That Everyone Should Read and Get Through Their
Skulls

This little “story” pretty much explains where I am coming from when I speak about
The Bible and how I read The Word and how The Holy Spirit leads and guides me as
I study The Word. This has also been my Achilles’ heel my entire life when speaking
with basically anyone I have ever met who is a Christian. I feel like I am alone
in the world. I sit in church and I feel like I am a Jew or a Muslim sitting in
a Christian Church because I believe, and The Spirit supports my beliefs in my inner-most
heart of hearts too, in these Five Things. However, I can never truly state out
loud what my true beliefs are for I would be deemed a heretic and burned at the
stake or excommunicated. And even the slightest tangent into the reality of time,
linguistics, politics, sociology, and cultural influences away from what is written
on the piece of paper is not met with logical reasonableness, but with fervent,
entrenched literal interpretations or repeated, long-standing mantra of the “party
line.”

Since I have returned to God, my life has changed dramatically. I am not so much
afraid to speak my mind, but I still can’t seem to find anywhere that I fit, except
in my blog writing. I can be free there. I can state my mind. I can speak freely
there. Maybe I’m not a Christian? Maybe that’s why I don’t fit in? Maybe that’s
why no one will listen to reason and their hearts and minds are so closed to reason?
Perhaps God is telling me that my faith lies elsewhere, but that His Word in Christ
is His Word, but that Christianity is not my faith and that is why I don’t fit?
I don’t know, but it is disheartening and lonely as I can only speak freely with
my Wife. I don’t know. It’s in God’s Hands.

Glory be to God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving


Five Things Everyone Should Know About The Bible

The Bible is a peculiar book, and it’s hard to get straight information about it.
If you’re one of those people with a nagging feeling that you should know more about
the Bible than you do — or even if you can recite chapter and verse (but don’t
know that those chapters and verses come from a 13th century archbishop of Canterbury
and a 16th century Parisian, respectively) — then these five basic things will
catapult you to a new level of biblical literacy. Though I might be handing you
clunky corrective eyewear instead of sexy kitten glasses, I promise that they will
change the way you look at the Good Book, clarifying and focusing your understanding.

1. Every Bible is actually a collection of books. The word itself means something
like “little library.” Many of the Bible’s books developed over a long period of
time and include the input of a lot of people (ancient Israelites, Babylonian Jews
and Greek pastors, to name a few), reflecting particular places (urban Jerusalem,
the northern Galilee, rural Judah and ancient Persia, for example) and times (spanning
as much as 1,000 years for the Old Testament and a couple of centuries for the New
Testament). Plus, the collection as a whole developed over centuries. This helps
to explain the tremendous variety of theological perspectives, literary style, and
sometimes perplexing preoccupations (which animal parts go to which parties in which
categories of sacrifices, e.g.), as well as why some texts disagree with others.

2. Not everyone who believes in it has the same Bible. There are actually different
bibles, though they all started with Jews (but before Judaism, per se). The Christian
bible includes and depends upon the Jewish bible — the Protestant Christian Old
Testament is composed of the same books as the Jewish Hebrew Bible, arranged in
a different order; and non-Protestant Christians include a few more books and parts
of books (which also originated in Jewish circles) in their Old Testaments. The
books of the Christian New Testament reflect the process of Jesus’ followers gradually
distinguishing themselves from his religion, Judaism.

3. The Bible came after the literature it comprises. In other words, the material
that became biblical wasn’t written in order to be part of a Bible. This helps to
explain the existence of a book of erotic love poetry (Song of Songs), one that
doesn’t mention God (Esther), another of intimate personal correspondence (Paul’s
letter to Philemon) and maybe why none of it was written by Jesus. The biblical
texts are not disinterested reporting of objective facts but come from people of
faith informed by particular beliefs.

4. If you’re reading the Bible in English, you’re reading a translation. With the
exception of a small minority of Aramaic texts, the books of the Old Testament or
Hebrew Bible were all written in Hebrew. The books of the New Testament were written
in Greek. Every translation is by nature interpretation. If you’ve ever studied
a foreign language, you know that it’s impossible to convert exactly and for all
time the literature or speech of any given language into another. A translator has
to make choices. There are often several ways to render the original text, and changes
in English affect the meaning we read as well.

5. Finally, this information about the Bible is compatible with belief in it. A
person can simultaneously accept these truths about the Bible and the Bible as the
Word of God. Doing so may require recalibrating assumptions, though, to allow for
the possibility that God patiently works through people and time, enjoys a good
debate and prefers inviting conversation over issuing absolutes. (Even the Ten Commandments,
which would seem to be as absolute as anything, show up in two places in the Bible
— and with some differences.)

The Bible’s endurance is astonishing. It continues to instruct and to inspire (in
all sorts of interpretations and ways) the millions of people for whom it is their
sacred and authoritative text. And it continues to ignite the imagination and enrich
the speech, literature and art of people outside of the biblical faiths, too. Knowing
the few bits of information provided here, as plain and pedantic as they may seem,
makes it possible to make sense of the Bible — its uses and abuses — for yourself.
It’s like having the kind of friend who you know will keep you straight, surprise
and delight you and encourage you to keep becoming exactly you. This information
is more than a starting point. It’s also a companion along the way, enabling new
insights, providing correctives, and allowing space for the dynamism of your own
ideas and learning.

Kristin M. Swenson, Ph.D.Author, ‘Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About
Book of All Time’ Posted: March 15, 2011 11:00 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-m-swenson-phd/five-things-everyone-shou_b_835721.html

Kristin Swenson is the author of Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About
Book of All Time (Harper, 2010; Harper Perennial, 2011) now available in paperback!
She is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

 

>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged | Leave a comment
09 Mar 2011

God Answers Prayers, but Not Always as YOU Expect!

God Answers
Prayers, but Not Always as YOU Expect!

Well, in case you’ve not read my “About” section, or if you don’t know me, or haven’t
figured it out by now, I also have mild schizophrenia. I’ve had it my entire life,
from about 4 -5 years old to present. No, I’m not some raving lunatic, running around
seeing ghoulish dead people. No I don’t think God is talking directly to me. No
I don’t hear God’s voice like some loud speaker or run around in the streets talking
to myself scratching my arms like some whack-o nut-job. (although I’m a bit of a
loon sometimes according to my wife…and all of my friends!) I have normal, mild
schizophrenia, not the paranoid delusional psychotic schizophrenia type (like what
you see on TV all the time) and have had it since I was born – my entire life (growing
up with that was a trip!). In fact, there are probably a few people that you work
with who have schizophrenia too, but they just don’t have the balls to say anything
because of the negative, ignorance-driven stigma associated with that word. GROW
UP PEOPLE!!! There are many levels of this disease, just like everyone who has AIDS
isn’t some emaciated-looking pasty dude in a hospital bed with no hair, covered
in sores, who looks like he’s about ready to die. You might have someone at your
office that has AIDS too (perhaps you have lunch with him regularly even), and who
will live out a normal, [relatively] healthy life (because of all the medical progress
we’ve made in that disease).

Anyway, yesterday, 03/08/2011, I had a “Bad One,” a bad hallucination. I don’t have
these very often. In fact, I’ve not had a “Bad One” in weeks. This one was a freakazoid!
You know those big black markers, the ones with the wide felt tips, or like the
black Eraser-Board markers with the wide tips?
Marker Striper Monster
Well if you drew a large diagonal line with one of those that was about 2 feet wide
and 5 feet tall and then suspended it in mid-air, and then played scary-ass metallic
cutting, scrapping noises as it moved around and slowly came towards you – that
is what I saw when I turned the corner to go into my bathroom to take a shower!
I stood there frozen with fear. I quickly hobbled away, but the noise didn’t stop.
So I braved it and went back to confront it. I have had schizophrenia my entire
life and I knew this was not real; it just startled me. So I had nothing to be afraid
of, but as I rounded the hallway corner and that scraping, metallic cutting noise
got louder and I saw that giant, sharp black stripe coming at me, my heart was gripped
in sheer terror, a horrific terror that grips you like right before an auto-accident
that you realize is going to happen and you know you can’t stop it – that balled
up steel bearing in your abdomen that tells you to prepare for death.

It was like my muscles were stuck and would not move fast enough. I was in agonizing
pain and I am so crippled up that I could not get out of there fast enough and I
was so scared, in so much terror. Every hair on my body didn’t just stand up; they
jumped off my body and ran away themselves! They were like, screw this shit Man,
I’m getting the hell outta here!!! I made it safely to the couch. The “Marker Stripe
Monster” was confined to the bathroom, so I was safe. I had to email Sheri. I never
email Sheri when I have a hallucination. I hate to bother her with them. They are
usually stupid small shit, like I will see the wall move, or I will see some small
object appear, like a ball, or some other stupid normal object so there’s no reason
to bother Sheri because they don’t bother me. (I also see bugs all the time, ALL
THE TIME.) I’m like, “oh, looky there, a gigantic orange ball sitting in the kitchen…no
worries, it will be gone in a few minutes…” and it is gone in a few minutes. This
one was different though. This one scared me, disturbed me and I had to let Sheri
know. Also, for some odd reason, I had to, was drawn to call upon God for help.
I’ve never felt the need to call upon God before, but here recently, I have started
involving God more and more into my daily life. I have begun making little changes
here and there that involve God, so I guess that’s why. I don’t know.

So I sat on the couch and I prayed for God to help me, to give me strength. I cried
out to God for help, to take it away, to heal me. God does not wave a magic wand
and make it go away. God does not take dead brain cells, “atrophy,” areas of brain
death, and then suddenly defy the laws of physics, biochemistry, God’s own laws
of ‘Mother Nature,’ and spontaneously regenerate neurons. No, if God did that, then
he would fix the screwed up “neurochemistry engine” in my brain that creates floods
of random proteins that cause electrical storms resulting in seizures and schizophrenia.
God did not take my schizophrenia away, but He did send His Holy Spirit to strengthen
me and remind me that God is always with me, no matter what else happens on this
earth; God is always there for me and with me.

When I got up from that couch, I still had a small pang of fear, but each time that
pang stabbed fear into my heart, I leaned on God and put myself in His hands and
trusted in Him and that pang went no deeper, and I felt comforted by the strength
of God, by having God on my side. And when I rounded that corner, that damn “Marker
Stripe Monster” was still there, but it no longer held any power over me. It was
just another hallucination, just another bug that wasn’t really there. I have schizophrenia
and I always know, ALWAYS know what is real and what is not real. The VAST Majority
of the time, I just shrug it off – if you freaked out every time you saw something,
then you would go nuts living your entire life with this disease. You have to be
grounded in reality and just accept it for what it is: a disease and just a hallucination,
nothing more.

God healed me. God answered my prayer. No, God did not actually take my disease
away, but God did take the power that the disease held over me away. God healed
the sickness in my heart that the disease had created. God cured the enslavement
over my soul that the disease had taken by its use of fear. God took my fear away.
God made me strong. God was my rock, my savoir, my comforter in my hour of need.
Did God heal me? Yep and not only did God heal me, but He reminded me that whenever
I am sick and scared and lonely, that all I have to do is call upon Him and He will
be there with me, be there holding my hand, lifting me when I can’t stand, carrying
me when I can’t walk, comforting me when I am scared, and giving me the strength
to carry on in spite of and in the face of whatever stands in my path.

The Word offers many passages of hope and strength and inspiration…

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all
your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns
you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that
your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” [Psalm 103:2-5]

“O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress.” [Jeremiah
16:19]

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” [Jeremiah 29:13]

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
[Jeremiah 31:3]

“Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and
by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” [Jeremiah 32:17]

“See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me?” [Jeremiah
32:27]

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” [Jeremiah 29:11]

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Your wound is incurable, your injury is beyond healing.
There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you.
All your allies have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. … But I will restore
you to health and heal your wounds…'” [Jeremiah 30:12-14, 17]

“Ask and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock and
the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Anyone who seeks, finds.
If only you will knock, the door will be open.” [Matthew 7:7-8]

“Your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” [Luke 8:48]

“If you abide in Me and My Word abides in you, ask what you will and it shall be
done unto you.” [John 15:7]

“…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he
went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because
god was with HIM.” [Acts 10:38]

“But we…rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope.” [Romans 3:5]

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in HIM, so that
you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” [Romans 15:13]

“God keeps His promise, and He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power
to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, He will give you strength to
endure it, and so provide you with a way out.” [1 Corinthians 10:13]

“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise
him up. If he has sinned he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each
other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” [James 5:15-16]

Glory be to God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving.

God is Great!

God is Good!

God offer’s Comforting Warmth to those who

Call Upon Him and Seek Him in Faith.

God is a Loving God.

Trust in God,

Seek Wisdom and Guidance and Salvation by Following Jesus,

Pray and Worship the Lord with All Your Heart, All Your Mind, and
All Your Soul.

Have Faith in the Lord and Love God.

God Loves You.

God Cares for You.

God Cares about You.

God Wants to Help You.

All You Have to do is Call Upon His Name, Listen for His Gentle Whisper,

Have Faith in God, and Trust in the Lord God Almighty, the One True
God.

Glory be to God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving.

Amen.

Tedd

 

>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged | Leave a comment
09 Mar 2011

Formatting Testing

Title

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>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged | Leave a comment
05 Mar 2011

We Think Too Much


We Should Love and Trust in God

I do not believe in ALL of the dogmas of Christianity because my sensibilities that
God has given me tell me so, and because The Holy Spirit guides me so, in order
to be able to separate the meddling of Man from the Holy Word of God. I am neither
Catholic, nor Methodist, nor Eastern Orthodox, nor do I drink poison and handle
snakes. Actually, there are around 39,000 DIFFERENT Christian Denominations throughout
the world. …39,000 DIFFERENT “doctrines” or interpretations of the Bible and what
it means to be a Christian and how to live as a Christian.


However, I have been praying a great deal lately. And reading and comparing scriptures
from three different versions of the Bible and a Commentary and God has blessed
me and has sent The Holy Spirit to lead and guide me through my journey of study.
Thank You God. Amen. I can finally look through the fog of Man-made religions and
Mans dogmatic interjections into “faith requirements” and focus on what has been
the most important thing all along, from the very beginning actually, and that is
the Love of God and the relationship between God and Man. If you boil the entire
Bible down, look at it from a high level, from Genesis to Revelations, the entire
Bible is about the relationship between God and Man.


Like any relationship, it is based upon Love and Trust. When that Trust is broken
and the Love wanes, the relationship weakens, often breaks and falls apart, and
many people are not interested in that relationship at all, just as some people
are not interested in building relationships with other people. However, God is
Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving, and is the Most Easy “person” to get
along with, and best of all, is always there ready to rejoin the relationship whenever
you are ready.


If you tell a funny joke about one of your friends behind their back and it hurts
their feelings and the relationship is broken and it falls apart, does not one party
approach the other party and apologize and make amends to fix the relationship?
Does not the wrongdoer admit the wrongs they have done, say that they are sorry,
and ask to be forgiven to the person they hurt in order to repair, rebuild, and
move forward in their relationship?


Well, God is much, MUCH more than just your friend. He is the DEVINE CREATOR OF
THE UNIVERSE (lightning bolts strike all around and there is a loud thunder). When
you wrong God by sinning, by wronging yourself, by hurting yourself, or by simply
separating yourself from God, He is always there with open arms and an open heart
ready to give you a Big Old Bear Hug of Forgiveness when your heart is truly repentant
or more simply put, you are truly sorry for what you did and are ready to start
working on the relationship again.


Acknowledging your wrongdoings, admitting your sins from your heart to God, confessing
to God, telling God that you are sorry for what you did, apologizing for your wrongdoings,
asking for strength to not do it again, handing the pain in your heart over to God’s
hands and telling God that this is too big for you and that you need God’s Help,
that you need God’s Forgiveness in your life, that you need God’s Love in your life,
that you need God in your life, and then accepting the Forgiveness that God was
holding out to you all this time, but that all the sin and the pain in your heart
was not letting in, and accepting God’s Love, this is repenting. THAT is what I
call, “Repenting.” There is no magic formula for it. God’s Forgiveness won’t fit
it your heart until your heart makes room. People are stubborn. It is very humbling
to bow before the Almighty Creator, The Cherisher and Sustainer of all the Worlds,
The Master of the Day of Judgment, and truly, honestly admit that you were wrong
and in your heart by doing so you are asking and inviting God’s Forgiveness and
Presence into your life, willingly, with open arms FINALLY ACCEPTING the Forgiveness
that God has been reaching out to you all this time.


YOU must be ready for God, for only your own heart can feel truly repentant, truly
sorry for what you did, willing to try to not do it again, truly wanting and Willing
to ACCEPT God’s Forgiveness. When you repent, you are not asking God to forgive
you. When you repent, you are admitting to God all of the hurtful things that you
did to screw up your relationship with God, taking ownership for all your wrongdoings,
getting them off of your chest and turning them over into God’s hands, apologizing
for your mistakes, and then you are willing to ACCEPT God’s Forgiveness because
God is Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving. God does not make you beg him
for forgiveness, dangling it like a carrot on a stick in front of you. God, like
any good friend, just wants you to earnestly say, “I’m sorry” and then to accept
forgiveness, feel all warm and fuzzy and your relationship is all good then and
restored. …and then to not keep nagging on and on with, “I’m sorry dude…man,
I’m sorry dude…I suck man…will you forgive me dude…I’m so sorry dude…” God
is “Just Shut Up Man and leave me alone! I already said we were cool and it’s all
groovy now, and I forgave you, and we’re past it, so shut up with that shit man!”
God has Forgiven you and you have accepted his Forgiveness so let it go and move
forward with rebuilding your relationship and not rehashing the past.


No, God offers Forgiveness to the accepting heart and to the soul crying out. God
does not dangle His Forgiveness in front of you on the condition of repentance.
His Forgiveness is and has always been there for you to accept. However, in order
for your heart to be able to accept God’s Forgiveness, your heart must be willing
to turn it all over into God’s hands, and that is done by repenting. They go hand-in-hand.
God is a Loving God and his Forgiveness is unconditional. Man’s ability to accept
God’s Forgiveness, however IS conditional, and that is conditional upon Man’s ability
to Trust in God, to Trust in God by admitting his sins and wrongdoings, being truly
sorry, and being truly able to turn it over into God’s hands. THAT is upon where
the “conditionality” of Repentance versus Forgiveness rests.


God does not impose the condition of repentance before Forgiveness. It is the very
heart of Man that requires Man to repent before his heart can ACCEPT God’s Forgiveness!
God is perfect. God is all-loving. God would never do anything to hurt anyone; otherwise,
God would not be a Perfect God. God does not make you repent before you are forgiven.
Your own heart makes you repent before you can accept God’s freely given Forgiveness!!!


For me, I have found that when I repent, when I confess my sins, when I ask for
strength to not repeat those same mistakes, when I Trust God and turn it over into
his hands, one of the most difficult parts for me personally, is then to ACCEPT
God’s Forgiveness! When I used to pray, I used to start out with, “Forgive me Father
for I have sinned…” but I have found that after repenting, I feel The Holy Spirit
more powerfully when I tell God that I am ready and willing to ACCEPT His Forgiveness
and then I Truly, Earnestly, with all my might, turn it all over into God’s hands,
and I receive Forgiveness. It is one of the Most Spirit-Filled Moments of prayer
that I have (and a humbling one, like kneeling before God), but it is also one of
the most difficult parts of prayer too! It is harder to ACCEPT forgiveness than
it is to confess your sins, but accept you must nonetheless. It is easy for me to
confess to God and to apologize to God and to ask God for strength and to ask God
for Forgiveness. It is hard for me to move my own ego aside and forgive myself,
and allow God’s Forgiveness to overrule any self-ego, my own “beat me up inside
because God may have forgiven Tedd but Tedd can’t forgive himself machine.” God
does not hold grudges; Man does. You have been forgiven, and you can Trust in God’s
Forgiveness. God does not take his Forgiveness back just because you start feeling
guilty over the past. Remember to turn it ALL over into God’s Hands – Trust God.


And once you have repented and accepted His Forgiveness, it is in the past. God
has forgiven you and you only continue to hurt yourself if you continue to hold
on to the past. God has let it go and so should you. God wants to rebuild your relationship
and move forward. The Love part of the relationship is taken care of once you have
repented freely, accepted His Forgiveness, and allowed Him back into your heart. Now
comes the Trust part. You must continue to Trust in God and Trust in your Relationship
with God and move forward, not linger in the past. Trust in God. Relationships are
based upon Love and Trust. Stop thinking so much and Feel more because Trust also
comes from the heart. Why do you think your heart hurts when your Trust is broken?
Your Relationship with God is and always will be based upon Love AND Trust.


A new Favorite Prayer of Mine: [Sr 2:286]


Our Lord! lay not on us


A burden greater than we


Have strength to bear.


Blot out our sins,


And grant us forgiveness.


Have mercy on us.


Thou art our Protector;


Help us against those


Who stand against Faith.

Glory be to God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving

God’s Greatness is Infinite

God is Boundlessly Good

We are Thankful for the Holy Prophets

We offer Gratitude to commune with your Holy Spirit

God’s Love always calls to us and draws us to Him

God’s Holy Spirit is always with us

Praise, Honor, and Glory be to God on High

>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged | Leave a comment
23 Feb 2011

Believe, Trust, Honor, and Have Faith in God


Glory Be To God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving, God on High


We have all heard the saying:  God is Great.  God is Good.  No, I say God is beyond greatness but we humble servants of God use our words to the best we can to offer up praise to our Lord, our One True God.  And God’s ability for good is infinite, for without God, there can be no good, and no good can come from without God.  Believe or believe not, but the source of wondrous, blessed good in the universe is a gift from God to warm the hearts of Man.


Often when a situation goes our way, or when a turn of events is in our favor, we are quick to offer praise to God, to offer thanks to God, just as easily so are we apt to cast blame upon God when things turn badly and not in our favor.  Strikingly is the stark difference of choice between the song of praise or the wicked blasphemous curse of blame over the outcome when taken into account whether or not we place our total and complete trust in God, or in ourselves.  Rarely do we mortal Men place God’s power above our own, and then take credit for our own actions; we prefer to blame God, or God’s power, or God’s intervention or lack thereof.  How many of us, how many times, can honestly within our deepest of hearts say that we have truly and utterly relied solely upon the Power of God and Trust in God to see us through a situation, and then turned FIRST to offer Praise and Thanks to God, to give Honor to God, to Acknowledge that without the Power and Help of God, Man cannot succeed alone?


I am not without fault.  I am not without blame.  I do not cast logs into people’s eyes, or whatever that twisted story was.  I recently tried to go to a morning Bible Study.  I have Narcolepsy.  My main, primary REM sleep time is from around 4AM – 7:30AM.  I went once.  It was a very bad idea.  I tried several times, but was asleep in the shower the entire time.  It’s like if a normal person got out of bed at 2:00AM to go to a Bible study after being forced to stay awake for 30 hours straight!  THAT’S the closest example to what that experience was like for me.  HOWEVER, something wonderful did come from that experience.  I got this fantastic book on Psalm 23.  It went into great detail, offering a lot of analogies and real-world examples of how they relate to biblical scriptures of The Good Shepherd.  The biggest thing that I took away from that book is that I definitely do NOT want to be a sheep – screw that.  The other biggest thing that I took away from that book is that the relationship between those who worship God and God is that those who worship God and God must build a relationship together and that relationship is based upon trust and love.


And that’s pretty much what I’ve always thought too.  But now steps in The Bible, the writings of Men, and Doctrine to screw everything all up for me.  As everyone knows, if something can be overanalyzed to death, I am The Man for the Job!!…


“Trust in the Lord”…”Love thy God”…  How many times have we heard those phrases?  “Fear thy God”…”God is a vengeful God”…”and God said go out and kill all of such and such people”…and how many times have we also read those phrases in the Bible?  We seem to have a lot of contradictory statements about God in the Bible.  I think that confuses people.  I know it has had me confused for a long time, most of my life actually.  I know one thing for sure.  I don’t want anything to do with any God that tells a group of people to go out and kill every man, woman, and child living on a piece of land just because his “chosen people” are supposed to be living on that land.  I’m sorry, but “force those people off that land” sounds like more like the God I love.  I just can’t wrap my arms around any God that says to “slay children,” just because they have different religious beliefs…and you’ve not even tried to convert them??  That’s insanity, not God!  Then I read in the Qur’an about how their God, the SAME God that the Christians worship, the SAME God of Moses, tells their people to go out and kill all the Men, but to spare the women and children, and to not harm any man that surrenders, and to repent after battle.  The SAME God in the Qur’an is a much more peaceful and loving God than the God of the Bible.


And my mind always returns to Jesus.  We have Jesus, God on Earth.  We have 2 Gods now?  We are not monotheistic anymore?  I can understand The Holy Spirit – God sends his Spirit to be with Man to touch him, to inspire him, to bless him, to change him, to turn Man into a Prophet, and to become a Living Presence or a Living God amongst Men.  So is Jesus a Prophet filled with The Holy Spirit of God sent to prove to Man the Power of God and fulfill the Prophesy of the Torah?  Is Jesus merely a highly Sprit-Filled Prophet, but filled with the Spirit of God Himself?  Did God come to Earth as Jesus to live among Men as a Man-God, but still be God, but be human, be Jesus?  There are a lot of conflicting and contradicting stories and theories and theologies surrounding Jesus and God and The Holy Spirit and even Christians argue amongst themselves over this.  No wonder other religions look upon Christians as hypocrites because we claim to be monotheistic, but we cannot even clearly define or explain to each other and to ourselves clearly and precisely how it is that we have a God, a Jesus God, and a Holy Spirit God, but we really do only have One God, really, no I’m serious, we really do only have 1 God, but we have God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but they’re all God, but we only have God, but in three formats that are different, but we’re monotheistic, no really, I’m serious…


My Dad’s favorite saying to me while I was growing up was, “much learning doth make thee mad.”  He always said this to me because I apparently over-analyzed the Bible, questioned the Bible, “bucked the system,” so to speak.  And to a certain extent, he has always been correct.  I do overthink things, overanalyze things.  It drives my wife insane, and most of my friends too!  LOL!!!  So I thought what if it is simpler than I am trying to make it.  What if God is just God?  I started thinking about the Apocrypha, Jesus’ message, and DOGMA…what if God is just God?  Put your faith in God.  God is your strength.  It’s not put your faith in this doctrine or that, it’s GOD.


So, what if God is just God?  So what if Christmas doesn’t come in a box, or from a store, but is something, much, much more?  Instead of trying to figure out the Trinity or the divergence of the Angry God of the Old Testament from the Loving One of the New Testament or the Torah from the Gentile Bible, or the Split from the Torah and the Qur’an and the Jewish God and Allah, what if I just looked at God from just a my old (despised by Sheri method) black and white method of God is just God and there is no “type” of God, no “sect” of God, no “version” of God, just God.  Man invents ways of looking and interpreting the infinitely indescribable and incomprehensible concept of God that his culture and society can understand, accept, come to terms with, and agree upon.  And it does not actually matter by what means or by what nomenclature is attributed to God because it is all the same in the end:  God is just God.


I began to find peace in my heart.  And my mind began its journey of exploring a new realm of God while my soul comingled with The Holy Spirit of God Almighty, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving.


My heart has been burdened with worry over whether or not I would be qualified for Social Security Disability or not before my State Disability ran out.  Sheri and I were going to have a very difficult time paying rent if it did not get approved in time.  We were looking at having to move into a very, very low-rent project housing area in a bad area far away from where Sheri works and in a bad neighborhood so that we could get the rent low enough for us to be able to survive.  Another option was that there was a slight chance that Sheri could get a pay advance that might be able to carry us through for a short while, perhaps it would last us long enough until my Social Security was approved, but most likely not and we would end up moving after all, and we would be on lower paychecks since Sheri would have taken a paycheck advance.  And we had also seriously considered just packing everything up and moving back to Tennessee.  My parents have a plot of land that they would let us pull a cheap mobile home on to live in and Sheri could get a job as a secretary; there have been no legal jobs open in our area in Tennessee for months now.  We’ve been checking because this has been an impending doom looming over our heads since March of 2010.


Anyway, as of March 2011, my State Disability runs out and we were going to have to take action, most likely move into a very, very low-rent housing project or just give up and move back to Tennessee…away from all of my neurologists, specialists, and doctors, and Sheri’s earning potential, and away from Central Air Conditioning – I DIE IN THE HEAT…


We have been waiting for months, and months, and months, and months to hear something back from the Social Security Department.  Each time we call, they want more paperwork that I’ve already sent them, or they keep telling me that they’ve not made a decision yet and to call back later.


I keep telling Sheri that we have to rely upon God and that it is in God’s hands.  I have turned this entirely over to God.  Yes, like any normal person, I have had worry for my family.  However, unlike in past times, I have not been freaking out, calling daily, gathering mountains of useless (but what I would feel might be of use, like I normally would in times like these) documentation, preparing for a defense battle for when they deny us, or anything.  I have just sat calmly by and let God take care of this.  I have to honestly say that God is a much, much better worrywart than I am because I wasn’t freaking out or worrying at all.  So I guess he was up pacing the floor all night and biting his nails and all that shit because I was just fine!


Today, out-of-the-blue, I got a phone call from the Social Security Administration telling me that I had been awarded full Social Security Benefits, and that I would soon be receiving my back-pay, and that my routine monthly checks had been scheduled to start to be automatically deposited into our checking account, and that everything was all fine and set up and ready to go.


The ONLY thing that I could think of was to Thank God and to Give Praise to God Almighty, the One True God for sending his Helping Hand to intervene on our behalf.


God’s Greatness is Infinite.


God is Boundlessly Good.


Glory be to God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving.


Praise, Glory, Honor, and Gratitude be to The Father.


Praise, Glory, Honor, and Gratitude be to The Son.


Praise, Glory, Honor, and Gratitude be to The Holy Spirit.


God’s Holy Spirit is always with us.


God’s Love always calls to us and “draws us” to Him.


  Believe, Trust, Honor, and Have Faith in God.


    God Believes in Man and continually reaches out to Man.  God is Most Merciful.


      God Trusts the hearts of Man to receive his Holy Spirit, and Trusted Man to receive him as Jesus.  God is Most Gracious.


        God Honored Man with life.  Glory be to God.


          God has Faith in Man and relieves the repentant heart.  God is oft Forgiving.


It’s the least we could do to return the favor Dude!


Glory be to God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, oft Forgiving, God on High


>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged | Leave a comment
11 Feb 2011

God is God, so Mind Your Own Damn Business!

One of my Favorite Phrases:

God is Merciful, Most Gracious, oft Forgiving.

Man should strive to treat his fellow Man likewise.

Believe in a zombie from 2,000 years ago or else you are going to be tortured with burning fire for all eternity when you die!

Worship the Zombie!!!

A peaceful Buddhist who has lead a good life, helped countless, been true to his faith, but knew nothing of any other religions outside of Buddhism is going to burn in hell forever because he did not worship the Zombie and was not a member of Zombianity.

Worship the Zombie!!!

For that matter, all religions and all peaceful peoples who worship God in their own way are going to have the Zombie God KILL their God and then send them off to be tortured with burning fire for all eternity because they did not worship the Zombie.

Worship the Zombie!!!

God is Merciful, Most Gracious, oft Forgiving.

How can a mere Man say the nature of God?

How can a mere Man say how God speaks to another Man?

Who is Man to limit God’s gifts to one people’s and to one religion, one dogma?

Why does each of Man’s Tribes vehemently believe that THEIR God is the TRUE God, that THEIR religion is the TRUE religion, that THEIR dogma is the TRUE dogma?

Why throughout the entire history of Man has the conqueror destroyed the God, the religion, the dogma of the conquered and replaced it with their own TRUE God, religion, and dogma?

Everyone can’t be right.  So who’s God, religion, and dogma REALLY is the TRUE one? 

Perhaps God is God and God does things the way God wants to do things and Man should mind his own business?

God is Merciful, Most Gracious, oft Forgiving.

 

>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged | Leave a comment
04 Feb 2011
1 Comment

What does “Service” Mean?

I have always had this issue with, “service.” Everybody’s always talking about service…gotta do service and works blah blah blah. Preach from that high horse! Preach it! Amen! I also have always believed and was raised in church to believe that ‘by works alone shall no man inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.’ I do know that just being a fake do-gooder, busybody is not your free ride into heaven – you backstabbing, snooty, snotty, stuck-up, holier-than-thou, Escalade-driving hypocrites! And you know who you are! REPENT!!

I have tried my hand at the “service” bit myself. It was not rewarding personally or spiritually. It benefited no one and no good ultimately came from it no matter how much of my heart and soul I poured into it and no matter how much I prayed and studied the scripture and prayed more. No fruit was born, nothing changed, stagnation continued, a weighty despair remained. It was so thick that you could almost cut it with a knife. Nope, “service” as it turned out, was not what God was calling me to do apparently, I guess. I don’t know.

For my entire life, I have felt “a pull” from God. I have fought it on and off over the years as I wrestled with life and faith and God, but still I am drawn to God for some crazy reason. Yep, they are gonna lock me away for sure now! LOL!!! God Bless Stephen King for now I have the ACTUAL name to refer to this “pull” from God that I feel. I have always felt “the drawing or a drawing” from God. There is another term for it that I have refused to use my entire life because I am not worthy of that term, and because that term is a “Holy” term and I am most definitely NOT a “Holy” person. I have felt a “Calling” from God. God has been “Calling” me to do something, but I just have never freaking been able to figure out what that “something” is specifically. Perhaps it is simply to spend the rest of my life studying the Word, questioning, thinking, praying, and being “drawn” closer to God. I don’t know.

Sheri gave me a Daily Devotional that one of our most beloved, cherished, and respected friends had given to Sheri many years ago when Sheri needed it, and now it was I who needed it and Sheri passed it on to me. The other day I read a Devotional on Service. It matched the events in my life over the past three months, especially this morning’s event.

I had to make several phone calls, one to Blue Cross, which meant long hold times each time I had to call. I called Blue Cross and I was on hold for about 25 minutes and when they picked up, it disconnected me. So I had to call back and jump through all the menu hoops, which takes almost 8 minutes before you get placed into the hold queue. And there I sat on hold again, for about 30 minutes.

I was not “tickled pink” to be on hold that long, but I was not in a rage, but I was rather upset over the entire ordeal. However, about 2 minutes before someone picked up the phone; I just got this feeling of sunshine and warmth, and well, love. All of my frustrations and anger were just swept away and I just had this feeling of overwhelming joy and love and I just talked to God when that happened and I felt great. When the poor lady picked up the phone, she was in “defensive-ready-to-speak-to-an-angry-person” mode and all tense, and frantic, and stressing-out. I think I cracked a joke and then told her how sorry I felt for her for being so busy today having to take call after call like that without any breaks in between each call. She said it was a crazy, unusual day and she appreciated my patience. I cracked jokes and had her rolling laughing for the entire 5 minutes or so that we were on the phone together.

When I got off the phone, I thanked God for taking away my stress and frustration so that I could bring some joy and laughter into this lady’s day.

I have had episodes like this for several weeks now. It is a wonderful blessing. I think of it as a Gift from God. When it starts to happen, I begin to pray and I feel as though a warm light shines down on me and washes away all of my frustrations, and angers, and worries and fills me with overwhelming love. It’s the closest feeling to love, or maybe it is love. Regardless, I become happy, and want everyone to be happy and enjoy life and look at all the good that is all around them, and I want to brighten their day.

The devotional said that when Jesus was speaking of “service,” he was speaking of them serving God with their hearts. Jesus wasn’t talking about who could feed the most homeless people. Yes, Jesus did preach to take care of the less fortunate, and of each other, to treat everyone EQUALLY, not because you feel a sense of “obligation to do your service,” but because your heart is right with God. You serve God and you feel “drawn” to feed that homeless guy, or volunteer for this fundraiser instead of being shamed or pressured into it. And you serve as many or as few as you feel “drawn” to serve, if that’s your thing, that is.

At the end of the day though, I still have no idea what God is drawing me to do and who am I to presume to know what God wants until he reveals it to me? I do know that I like to help people and if that is what God’s idea of “service” is for me, then bring on the next angry, frustrated, stressed-out person and give me a few minutes with them to brighten their day!   Smile

 

 

>ð|~@-@~|ð<

Posted in An Idea and tagged
26 Jan 2011

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Glory be to God on high,

All Good things come from the guidance of The Divine,

Let us find harmony in his Divine Presence,

Praise to God whose Grace flows abundantly which is inseparable from the Almighty One True God.

Dear Heavenly Father, I humbly present my sins before you and ask for your forgiveness.

Thank you Jesus, Lord God for forgiveness of my sins and I pray for strength against temptation.

You are the very source of all existence, of life itself,

The source of all blessings,

The source of all compassion,

The source of all mercy and who gives endlessly to me.

Please Dear God; help those suffering from the Gulf Spill, those in war-torn areas, and watch over our brave solders.

Ease the pain and suffering of those less fortunate, the homeless, and the sick.

Lord, please send your Holy Spirit to touch the hearts of the unbelievers.

I humbly ask that you would bless and strengthen my wife Sheri Dear Lord.

My Multiple Sclerosis has been a great burden upon her and through your Merciful Grace, she has been strong.

But I humbly ask Dear Lord that you would strengthen her and bless her Lord and ease her burden and sorrows.

Dear God, you are so merciful and so compassionate towards your humble servants.

I offer up gratitude for All of the Apostles and Prophets you sent to us to teach us about you, to help guide us how to worship you, and to help guide us away from our heathen, evil ways.

Glory be to God, the Father on High.


Glory be to Jesus, the Son of God, God made Man Amongst us, The Living Word.


Glory be to the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of The Lord, the Touch of God, the Presence of the Devine.


For it is in Jesus’ name we do pray and ask these things,


Amen

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