If every there has been a time to be awake, to pay attention, to speak up for the Church of Jesus Christ, it is now.  It is not a time to be asleep, to turn away from what is being mocked, or to keep silent.  In my 68 years, I cannot recall a season quite like this one across our world.  Persecution of Christians is taking place in numbers reminiscent of the days of the days of the Roman Empire. Whole communities have been slaughtered, others driven from their homes to live as refugees.  Here at home, our rights are eroding even as name calling and bigot branding are used as effective weapons to silence preaching basic Bible beliefs about life and marriage.

We must not be in a stupor nor give in to our human frailty of growing tired quickly when confrontation is the call of the day.  We do not match ugly rhetoric, nor get drawn into tit for tat arguments that only lead to heated shouting and relentless frustration.  It will be necessary for steadfastness to truth and focused responses that do not compromise but remain compassionate.  Our firm tone must originate from humble hearts and minds.

Our message should be clear, concise and deliberate: not spin or self-righteous defenses are necessary.  If we speak the truth in love, bow to no unholy politically correct idol of man's creation, we will have heaven's defense that will ultimately break the chains that are choking the very life out of our world.

We must recognize the true enemy and not be led into needless skirmishes that suck our strength and render us defeated.  Our fellow human beings who spew false accusations and irrational arguments are not the ones at war with us.  Our enemy is the same one who taunted our ancient ancestors Adam and Eve with questions steeped in envy, pride, and falsehood.  He is the one who makes irrational puppets of those he lures into his mindset.  He tricks them into believing htey alone are the masters of their own creation...gods, if you will.

The only way to defeat this true enemy, the devil, known also as 'the father of lies' and 'the accuser of the brethren' is with the truth and wisdom of God's Word and His supernatural weapons of warfare.  It is not enough to be schooled in the Bible: we must live from the Bible.  Our eyes and ears must be sharp to discern the presence of the real enemy from decoys and pretenders.  Our mouths must be trained what to speak and when to speak.  If we will pray in private, we will know what to speak in public.

Next, it is significant to know what our position is and how to hold it.  Our fist position is made privately: it may be prone, bowed, or prostate...to our Father God.  We will be dressed in the humility of a broken and contrite spirit, lifting our hearts in prayer and praise to the Only One who deserves glory.  Our public position, however, is a standing one, dressed from head to toe in spiritual armor, wielding the supernatural weapons God has provided in the training room of His presence.

We are ready to face our enemy when our internal soul is surrounded by the belt of truth.  We cannot dress in any righteousness, no matter how good it looks, other than the robe of righteousness God provides.  It is the only garment He will recognize.  It is precious because of what it cost Him to botain it for us through His beloved Son's death on the cross.
Further, we are ready to go into the public arena when we are well-soled in the gospel shoes of peace that never wear out.  The bring 'good news' wherever our feet go.  The shiled we carry to defeat every inflammatory lie, each intimidating accusation, and all cleverly designed arguments is victory prone and fail-proof; it is our faith. 

I took time the earlier today to play 2 of my favorite music boxes, to look at mementos gathered while on past  vacations. Those mementos include my antique inkwell and pen collection.  One of the joys of owning them is to realize that in another time, someone dipped his or her ancient pen into ink to record thoughts, feelings, and responses to their assigned days just as I am doing today in mine.

In a few days, I will be sixty-eight years old (or young if you view things from an eternal perspective as I do!) I am mindful of all the beauty and great blessings God has permitted me to enjoy  My heart is in a celebratory mood despite the decisions that my country has just made through the Supreme Court that will affect every area of society.  "Freedom " is the banner waved, the slogan spoken over tv, the internet and radio. I fear there will be greater bondage to the human soul than America has ever known in our collective history.

How paradoxical this age is to live in:  a day of clearly the greatest of human achievements ever made and a day of the confusing results of man's self-guided ways.  We are experiencing the marvels of man and the madness of man.

It is a moment of starkest contrasts of belief.  Absolutes based on time-tested Judeo-Christian laws have been publicly abandoned in favor of what every man deems correct in his own eyes.  In this atmosphere, there is no limit to moral decline.  We vilify the guardians of order in our society while lauding the lawless.  We are presently stirring up a hornet's nest in a place of well documented 50 year progress of race relations.
Of the several incidents of terrible tragedy we have experienced this spring and early summer, two come to mind that had decidedly different outcomes. Baltimore's reactions led to a travesty of destruction-Charleston's monumental display of spiritual unity and forgiveness left a bridge of justice and forward-moving discussions to yet unsolved problems. How strange to me that not everyone understands what they view when the comparison should be so obvious.

On one hand, Godly wisdom  offers solutions with a map clearly marked  to begin at the heart level. On the other, assorted, often open-ended thoughts launch out in rafts headed in a thousand directions that seem to do little more than add waves to our problems.  Futility for sure.

It is strange to be both disturbed in my soul over the mindless acceptance of evil for good and yet to be at peace in my spirit.  That is because I know the One who is ultimately in control no matter how things may appear now.  Although humanity's wisdom is bankrupt, God's will never be.

Now, I look forward to actually seeing the great signs of God's promises manifest in these most unstable days of great uncertainty.  Even the smallest flicker of His light will be seen across acres and miles of darkness.

Among the beauty, the mementos I started considering earlier today, nothing is as beautiful , nor more memorable than this hope I

Will the Real Parents Please Stand Up!

By: Sharon L. Patterson

Most of the time, I write things of a more affirming nature.  Today, my heart is in a more trumpet like mode, so what flows from my fingers is still affirming, but truly summoning serious thought of a stance I believe we must take.  The news has been full this past month of “trouble on every hand” not just in our own country but all over the world.  I am concerned about my children and my grandchildren maneuvering this present time.

If you noticed, I used an exclamation point rather than a question mark for the title of this blog.  I am speaking of parenthood of our children even symbolically of our nation at this crux in our nation’s history.  It is a sobering time for child rearing, a difficult era requiring hearts that are brave and resolute. We must find purpose based on unflappable principles, beliefs founded in absolute truth that passes more than the present test of political correctness. We are in the “standing time” spoken of in Ephesians 6:13: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”  (NIV)

Opinions are bellowing “hear me, read me” over all available communication waves of the air.  More and more, parents are being told that they need governmental help in rearing our own children.  What they eat, what they learn, what they can and cannot say and where they can and cannot say it is subjected to restrictive new measures penned at the hand of a power grab unprecedented in my remembrance of 67 years.  Could it be that the government believes it is the rightful guardian, the REAL parent of all our society’s children? REALLY?

It is time that we stand our ground as Christian parents, grandparents, guardians of our American Constitution, teachers of her true history, not the remanufactured , redacted politically correct  copy now being forced through texts into the formative minds of our children .  We have truth to teach, and Godly principles to instill.

  Political correctness is enforceable but it is not based on the truth of God’s Word. It is built on the shifting sands of double-mindedness. Surely it is heavy pressure, enforced with verbal bullying.  It is not absolute, but it is powerful. It can cause me trouble. Hence, my dilemma as a parent and a grandparent: Will I stand in broad daylight and be obedient to God’s truth or will I bend to the demands of man’s laws made in the shadows of political correctness. 

 My allegiance is to God’s laws first and man’s second.  I have Biblical examples  that offer firm ground on which to stand. One of my favorites that comes to mind is Daniel. He stood in his day against a politically correct law written in the shadows of evil jealousy that demanded the only recognizable object of worship was to be the king. The penalty for disobedience was death. Daniel continued as he did, faithfully, several times a day, to worship and pray to God alone.  He faced the full penalty of the law but God delivered him.  Because Daniel stood in his time, so I can stand in mine.

Government is not the parent…that is a position given by God alone.  The times are difficult and that may increase, but God’s faithfulness to His children, His parenting of us makes us able to “stand our ground, and after we have done everything, to stand.” So, will the real parents please stand up!  Another exclamation, not a question.

I do not think that any other generation spoke about love, experimented with it, exploited it and tried to define it more than mine.  The all-inclusive 60's Hippie culture of love offered its off-beat, anti-establishment, contractless, drug-enhanced, mind-bending philosophy to everyone-freely, with no retraints or obligations.  You could drop-in or drop out.  It was at its zenith in my late teens and early twenties.
My response today is no different than  when I first heard its offerings well over 50 years ago.  You see,  love clearly defined itself to me me at age eleven when I found the love of God personified  though His Son, Jesus.  Love continued to be defined as I grew in my Christian faith.  I found love to be freer than anything offered by those who wore long hair, love beads, lived in communes and traveled in psychedelic-colored volkswagen buses.  Under its tutelege, I dropped mean-spiritedness, jealous striving, confusion and  bad choices. I found a forgiveness for my ways that I extended toward those who needed it from me. It is a commodity that never runs out.
Jesus' love does operate within retraints: it taught me to obey laws and fulfill my contracts ; encouraged me to pray for and love  those who believe differently from me; and caused me to recognize and turn away from evil. It's obligations include loving God first and others as much as myself.  The love of God has a much longer track record than any popular cultural philosophy.
So, standing on an ageless love, this now aged Christian woman wants to  pass it on, not only to my children and grandchildren, but to this generation in which I am presently living.  I encourage you to remain obligated to love God first and others as much as yourselves.  Recognize evil by knowing what God says it is so you will not compromise with it. Pray for those who may not only disagree with you but try to persecute you for it.  I send you my love...from one generation to the next.

One truth we Christians seem united on is that our faith is navigating very controversial times.  We may differ in our responses to the controversies of this age which often clash with even our most basic beliefs held for generations, but there is no disagreement that these are testy times indeed.  It is no longer enough to have faith but it is necessary to live in the courage of our simple faith in order to navigate these controversial times.
  I have personally lived in six different decades and experienced undeniable changes in every one of them.  I became a Christian shortly after my first decade of life at age eleven in 1958.  Personal family struggles happened in the middle of the cold war, civil rights struggles, the Vietnam War, and the dawning of the hippie culture. No matter what challenged our lives in the sixties and seventies, we Christians based the hope of our lives  and the convictions of our hearts on God's Word.  Laws were still centered on the absolutes of our Judeo-Christian heritage: the Ten Commandments were  posted on the walls of our schools and public buildings and prayer was the unashamed invocation at our cultural events.  At that time, they were part of the fabric and interactions of society.  They were the boundary markers that we all understood no matter our age.
Then, the mounting pressure of political correctness, always a contender of simple faith, grew bolder as we Christians fell prey to fear and complacency.  The courage of our simple faith waned more and more.
Political correctness became the substitute teacher in place of the real teacher of truth.  It took down the laws from our public walls through legislative challenge adjudicated by liberal judges. They rewrote laws from the bench not in the halls of Congress where our Constitution originally determined that action to take place.
Political correctness hatefully shouted down true freedom of speech with techniques reminiscent of backyard bullying. It taught contradictory irrational thinking  by disallowing true debate. It boldly introduced subject matter in  school books that robbed the innocence of our children. In short, it became a giant.
  But we Christians know what we need when there are giants in the vicinity don't we?
No, it is not louder rhetoric, or bigger giants of our own.  Surely, we have not forgotten.
It is what a young boy showed up with when he heard a big-mouthed giant taunting his nation's entire army.  It is what a young Jewish captive who had been elevated to a high political position in ancient Babylon did in response to an unjust law passed by jealous men  who wanted him out of power. They stood courageously in their simple faith.  They continued to pray, to stand, to verbally respond in truth that was part of their entire soul. Their convictions did not diminish...they were demonstrated through the actions of doing right no matter what was going wrong.  So must we. Let's live the courage of our simple faith in these controversial times.

I laugh as I glance around my den area and take a look at my shelves. Once, I saw any little unoccupied nook or corner as being desperately in need of something to fill it. That, of course, would validate a need to shop to find just the perfect thing for that spot.  Now, I see the thing I bought for such an auspicious spot as simply a dust catcher.  Oh, the thing is still  "cute", or" precious", or whatever exclamation I may have made at first glance.  It's cost never changed whether it was a bargain or not so much a bargain.  What changed is my attitude about these once prized possessions.
I find that I cherish the things that relate me to experiences with friends and family, The mementos are mere conductors of memories.  The ones that were particularly gorgeous for gorgeous sake are simply not as valuable as they once were. Neither is the activity to obtain them.  Now, I am not dead and buried, so shopping is still an enjoyable activity...just not so often.
My prized possessions are not always gorgeous.  Some are not yet finished, nor embellished.  But, oh, my, are they important!  They have found the perfect spot, reserved just for them.  They were not purchased by me at all.  They are gifts given to me by my father...my Heavenly Father. He looked on the vacant shelves of my heart and soul.  Then, He placed some of His prized possessions on those shelves at just the right moment.  They will never be mere dust collectors for they are my prized possessions.

What an exciting week this has been: a medical procedure to help my aging esophagus a bit and a brand new website that literally happened in a day due to a phone call from a dear Christian sister and fellow-writer, Marisa Rickerson, who asked if I had one.  My reply was, "No, it is on my need-to-do list for someday!"  She made it happen.  Did I say, "In one day??"

I am not certain why technical things are such a scary challenge to me, but a website seemed way beyond my ability.   Throughout my writing days, the Lord has always sent those much more gifted in the areas where I am weak.  Every time there has been a new road, there have been new answers to prayers for how to maneuver the needs on that road. All the professional photos on my site  and in my last two works (Where Is Happy? and Wisdom from the Rearview Mirror)are the work of my wonderful graphic artist/photographer, Lynyia Ledbetter. She is also a technical genius who can read the mind of her technically ignorant friend!

I do not know what this new road ahead is all about, but I know the One who has called me to it is answering prayers faster than I can pray them.  ("Before you call, I will answer")  The prayers are answered with the dearest of people, generous in spirit, heart, and time.  I want to encourage all who find this site and read this opening blog (you can read the archives of my older one) to walk the new road ahead God is calling you to. He will provide what you need and if He surprises you with the incredible friends He has me, You are in for something greater than the new road ahead...