May 5, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

Right now my Sunday school class is studying the book of Ruth. An orphan girl from Israel winds up becoming a king's wife, then an evil man wants to destroy all the Jews in the kingdom. The queens adopted father has instructed the queen not to tell her nationality so she does not. Then when the evil man gets the King to sign a decree to annihilate the Jews the adopted father tells his daughter that she must go to the king about the evil plan. The queen states she could be killed if she approaches the king, then her father reminds her that "she could have been born for a time such as this." This passage speaks to me often, especially when I am finding something distasteful. I am convicted to be in prayer, to call it like I see it with the evil in our land, the world. It is easy to sit around and bemoan the sad state of affairs but to make a stand, state my opinion, vote my conscious, that is another matter. Because I believe God is a God of love, judgement and wrath, I can see when His patience has worn out, I know judgement will follow and if we still don't listen wrath will come. In the last 50 -60 years we have walked completely away from God, we took prayer out of schools, we encouraged different lifestyles spoken against in the Bible and we abort children because the time is not right to have them. I read the Bible, see what God has done when Israel walked away from Him, much of Europe, the middle East have at one time chosen to follow Jesus. As America lets go of its founding father's beliefs, China is rising to be a nation of believers in Jesus. I have met a few Chinese online who are from China and they are thirsty to know Jesus. Many believe even though they are persecuted for their beliefs, are willing to be separated from the world. America once was like this, I feel I need to separate myself, be in the world not of the world. As my strength weakens I repeat this passage, I pray it, then I have a renewed sense of living more for God than for the world's opinion. Thursday was National Day of Prayer, I have been praying for our country for our President, past as well as present President's. I pray our leaders will follow God's ways more than the greediness of the world. I have prayed for years, plan on praying for our country the rest of my life. I pray we get behind the family and support them, encourage couples to stay together, not give up over petty differences. People of older generations were willing to stick marriage out, stayed with one partner their whole lives. I also believe there are some justified reasons to leave a marriage, adultery, abuse are some reasons to break a marriage up, but most marriages today divorce because they got tired of each other. We need leaders in congress more concerned with the needs of the people than getting rich off of the people they serve. They need to be paid a reasonable wage, work 40 hours a week like most Americans. I grew up learning that "Government is for the people, by the people of the people." It is not so today, this grieves me to no end which is why I feel compelled to speak my mind more and more. People tire of all the political stuff, I do as well although, if we ever want to reclaim our country, the God of the Bible, it is time to take action, speak up and be willing to be made fun of, chastised and so on. I have learned I can have an opinion, state it and not answer the dissenter who will not listen. I vote my morals which are based on the Bible's teachings. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet