Practical Matters: Houses and Writing Stories

These past several weeks have been productive. I decided awhile back that it was time to move into a larger home, so I’m focusing on a few upgrades for this house before I sell. Finally the deck is finished, the landscaping completed and the shower retiled.

Mike did a fantastic job! He is the best at what he does and wow, an incredibly hard working carpenter.

I need to stain the deck now but I’m thinking I may hire a professional to do it. I don’t want to ruin it!

The shower tile was also completed.

Halloween Fan Fiction Stories

I think I shall do a small October story series this year on the blog. It’s a fan fiction story I wrote for fun in 2020. It is a retelling of the film, The Shining. There’s no magazine or online publication I’m aware of that publishes fan fiction. Or I couldn’t find it. So I might as well share it here.

The problem is, I want to post each small portion of the story throughout the month but this makes anyone coming to read at a later date view it backwards. Oh well, not sure how to manage that, lol.

Professional Publication Headwinds

Speaking of stories and publication, I’ve been working on submissions for the better part of this year and at least seven months back in 2021. I knew the landscape was quite dicey as far as ideology and political affiliations went. Some of the larger magazines I think are less concerned with pushing a political narrative though they will kill a story if it is a radical activist who wrote it (and it will be the publisher/editor who decides what side of radical that is).

So needless to say, they check blogs, social media and previous affiliations. I was worried about this for most of 2021/22 so I stayed off social media or was anonymous. It was exhausting to be honest. Now, I just post whatever I choose to post, share my thoughts on matters and get on with life.

What else can one do?

Sometimes you just have to give up being accepted in order to gain some small amount of success. The landscape politically, culturally and spiritually is so divided, I just gave up on it.

What really bothers me though is this: now I’m not sure if I’m being rejected due to how bad the writing is or due to my political and spiritual beliefs/affiliations. Ugh….

Future Focus

I’m still submitting but I’ll also submit to some of the Christian sci-fi magazine publications as well. I’ve found a few these past couple of months while using social media sites. And I always have the novel I’ve been randomly working on. Once I get bored of submitting to publications and writing short stories, I’ll switch back to the novel.

Another focus will be finding place to live that’s a bit bigger. And it’s a difficult real estate landscape out there right now. Prices are crazy considering all the interest rate hikes. My price range seems to be a sweet spot for inventory so for now it’s OK. But I’d say in 2024 things will likely change.

Have a great week everyone~

Featured Image by Josh Olalde

The Power of Discernment and God’s Agape Love

Harmony Throughout the Body

The Lord’s Agape love works in harmony with the gift of discernment to change people’s lives for the good. But if discernment isn’t used in tandem with God’s love it can become critical and negative instead of insightful and positive.

Look at Paul the Apostle who one minute is writing to his beloved church to ‘kick the man out of the congregation’ who was sinning with his stepmother, and the next letter writing, ‘have some mercy, he’s repented, let him back in’. (1 Corinthians 5)

Discernment is a powerful gift and Paul used it well because he was in the presence of the Lord day and night.

The Anointing to use the Gifts Comes Through Time Spent With God In Prayer

We live distracted lives. When we are not walking as closely to the Lord as Paul, we can often get ‘in our flesh’ as it’s called. Our minds shift from spiritual to worldly things, lower elements of life, mundane daily routines and our mind frame shifts from spiritual to carnal.

We can get spiritually lazy when we don’t make time to pray and meditate on God’s word. This is when the gift of discernment can be misguided and become critical and harmful rather than a force for good.

Prayer makes God’s spiritual gifts work optimally for the building up of the Body of Christ. 

Listen to Correction, It Will Lead to Positive Good for All

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12.11

There is a balance that is crucial to master or the Lord will not be able to trust us with more responsibility in the Kingdom of God. What’s worse, we can end up doing harm to the body of Christ instead of good.

And I’m thankful when there is anyone kind enough or brave enough to call me out on my ugliness and lack of self-awareness should I find myself operating in the gift of discernment without the love of God. I see this as God working through others to realign the body of Christ, to which we all belong, and this can only be a good thing for all the body, once corrected.

So that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 12:25-27

Should the Gift of Discernment Be Used In Any Other Capacity Than Spiritual?

This is a good question. I think it can be used in all areas of life but it shouldn’t be used as a defense mechanism or as a means to win an argument. It remains a spiritual gift. If we use it outside of its God-given power, it can become a force that tears down instead of a force that gives insight and direction.

It is a powerful gift given by the Holy Spirit that breaks the chains and destroys the yokes of the enemy off of people’s lives.

So make sure the anointing is strong (keep up our prayer life) and that God is behind it. Otherwise it can become a destructive force without God’s love infusing it. Don’t be the stream that runs both fresh water and salty water, as it can spoil the entire flow.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Philippians 4:8

Discerning the Spirit of Transhumanism

Just a quick but heartfelt post to those of us who are seeing increasingly more clearly into the closing of an era and the darkness that’s looming on the horizon. We must rightly discern the spirit of Transhumanism.

As we close this dispensation, expect to see more mixing of the spiritual and religious language of the biblical text into worldly principalities and demonic agendas. Discernment is crucial as many will fall prey to this principality working its way through God’s creation.

The Great Lie will Deceive Many

AI will be be the melding point of transhumanism. It’s already set in motion, the lines bluring between male and female biologically. How can it not be just as easy to blur the lines between artificial human and biological human? Even now, are we not calling ourselves ‘genderless’ and using mere language to define what is reality? This is the foundation of a much greater, more powerful Lie to come.

See how the world so easily accepts this and how biblical truths accurately discern this lie. The Word of God is of supreme importance. Satan is working to dilute the Word’s potency by integrating all manner of other language into it immediately rendering it a false copy of the truth. Artificial language. Artificial existence.

It deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast…

Revelation 13.14

Listen to the words: predestined, (don’t need to be) humble, walls of Jericho, heavenly

Discernment between the language, the expression of the language (through darkness or by shining light) and the visual is of utmost importance. 

Ask God for discernment. Listen to those who have been given the gift of discernment. Weigh their insight against the word of God, like the Bereans. Don’t be misled by a world who worships their own, Jesus made this clear to us. If they hated Him, they will hate us. If they loved Him, they will love us.

We must learn to let go of acceptance. The Apostle Paul was left be everyone. All but Timothy and a handful of others remained true. The Good News is, Jesus has overcome the world so let us take heart. We have already won the war, we only need endure to the end. Remain faithful and persevere saints. The only way to do this is to pray and stay in His word.

All God’s best to you~

Featured Image by Erick Butler

Critical Mass

Hence comes a point where nothing more can be managed or added to a situation, no unexpected surprise or additional responsibility because all that was going to crescendo has done so already. Now there is only the Falling Action, the decrescendo where each rung of the ladder is managed carefully and with increasing relief until solid ground is underfoot. That is, until the next Crescendo begins.

The worst, at least for this show, is over.

I’ve learned a few things, things I wish weren’t so, but they are. And I must deal with them.

So, I took a nice Sensory Tech Deprivation moment and began unraveling the gnarly knots. This will take a few posts.

The Covid knot.

The Loss knot. (Will write about later.)

The Shattered Routine or Chaos knot. (Later…)

The What in Hades is on Fire in Here knot.

The Piping Propagandists

All throughout 2021-22, the malevolent players were stitching their Scarlet Letters onto my person one propaganda spew after another. It was increasingly clear, my government was no longer a shelter for me. By consequence of going unvaxxed – and in no way was I going to be – I had become the stigmatized Inferior, stripped day by day of privileges which otherwise were my right as an American citizen. I not only read about the daily erosion of my rights, or witnessed it happening to others, or thought about it…no, I was experiencing it real time. No vax card? No entry. What I believed to be true about reality was crumbling and this new narrative world was closing in on me.

This did something to me, you see, the narrative always starts in the mind then it’s enacted. Take control of the narrative and you control the speed and direction of a thing. I’d liken my mental state during this time to the Precognitives in Minority Report who saw the crimes before they were committed. I sensed this to an alarming, jarring degree – call the after effects of it ptsd or something of the like, but it was unsettling, disquieting, and felt as if reality itself was crumbling beneath my feet. Everything I had ever known to be true and stable was absolutely upended and being destroyed within the context of the Covid and Woke narratives.

What made it worse was the censoring of all other voices like my own. So the isolation tactics were accurately wielded. Another blow to the constitution of reality and truth. Everything that is good is exactly opposite of what you believe to be truth! And alas it is YOU who are the Inferior menace to society, now go be vaccinated!

Just recently has all this come out and still these sinister forces fight, denying, obstructing and pushing a non-reality as if it were truth. Where were the critical thinkers? The truth-seekers?

Oh, right…censored. I wish I could better explain it, but I felt the greater, darker power of what was happening behind the facade. I’ve heard it put like this: it is a war against the Logos. This is perfect. It is the invisible war, the spirit of anti-Christ manifesting in the earth. The image behind the image. And its manifestation, concerning Covid, nearly prevailed. Though in other areas, it’s still devouring truth.

(I must confess: in God there is peace. I have to take responsibility for dropping my end of the relationship equation: Prayer. It’s the equivalent of not communicating with your partner and it’s not sustainable in any relationship. This communication, or time in prayer with God would have kept me grounded and unshakable. I missed the mark here.)

I have an uncanny ability to extrapolate seemingly innocuous behaviors and/or details into a complex future outcome. Sometimes I’m wrong, but when I’m not….

This is a pandemic of the Unvaccinated.

President of the United States of America, Joe Biden

For You, The Scarlet Letter! Filthy Unvaccinated Leper

Second rate citizen. That’s what I was, or so the narrative ran. From late 2020 until just the last few months until all the decaying rot that is Fauci’s little black heart puked itself up for the world to gawk and gaze upon. The wicked monster of deceit, that Shadow of Babel’s Tower, the U.S. Government under Biden et al., the WEF and the CDC were all working together with the mammon Ravenous Rat which jabbed its victims in the arms, injecting its teeth and devoured the health of many. May the light of its Rat life go out, like a spindle of inconsequential smoke from its eyes. And may those who danced like loosed, fiendish puppets around this false narrative trip up and entangle themselves in their own puppet strings….

You think I’m over-exaggerating, don’t you? But here’s what almost no one sees: the vaccine failed, but had it not, the false narrative would have manifested in full array, because there is something else going on.

Before our eyes we see the scales of truth are not weighted properly, but the sinister underlying narrative, that image within the image, speaks without moving its lips summoning full conviction that what is evil is good and what is good is evil and all things are equal. This goes far beyond only Covid, far deeper.

The persecution and stigmatization would have continued against those of us who refused to be coerced and I’ve no doubt, I would be in need of food at some drawn out point in the future as I would have no vaccination card to gain entry to pubic spaces. Eventually, they could make it illegal to be free if unvaccinated. Oh, the fever pitch of tyranny! The unvaxxed would have been refused medical support if needed because unlike ‘responsible’ citizens, they had no stamp on their vaccine cards. Social Credit scores are just around the corner.

Sometimes it’s no fun doing that extrapolating stuff….

“Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right on in, we’ll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy.”

Jimmy Kimmel

Don’t you know comedians ride and shift the winds of culture?

The cover up and lies were egregious, this article attempted to push back against the narrative but the sticky wickedness prevailed as the vaccine had yet to be exposed as a failure: Questioning A Catchphrase There is a divisive spirit, that anti-Christ spirit, pervasive and unrelenting. It forces unity by coercion and force. It is wicked.

Think of all the things we still wouldn’t know today had Twitter not changed captains – the ship of wickedness would still be sailing, censoring, devouring reality, building a chaotic dark tower. They were taking out some of the most out spoken and powerful voices for truth, one by one.

Shake It Off, There Are Important Things To Do

Now, after all the waves of horror have somewhat passed, being unvaccinated is like the Golden Unicorn of the Forest. But I remember those who danced, ready with self-righteous contempt in their eyes to stitch that Scarlet Letter into my flesh and shake their heads as the Monster moved closer…the fear and anxiety was all too real. And though I’m thankful that the tables have indeed turned to truth and a light has been shone on the whole rotting show, I can’t but accept that this was a Dress Rehearsal gone wrong. The costumes of the next Act are being laid out, the scenes being sketched before the curtain has even met end-to-end on Act I.

What am I going to do the next time something evil this way comes? Either I make a point to determine that now, or the powers that be will determine it for me.

Most of what you need in life will be brought to you, but most of what you want you’ll have to go get. Your survival is ensured, but for you to come into your destiny – that one will not be brought to you on a silver plater. There is a fight that must be gone through; one of persistence, one of diligence, one of knowing how to face loss, knowing how to bring strength and courage to yourself in the middle of confusion – those things are so essential in building us as [His] people in order to contain and continue to hold on to the very answer once we get it….The Lord has called us, like a David, who killed the lion and the bear when no one was watching…laying on our face before God when no one knows…crying to God that we cannot live with the theory and not seeing it demonstrated. It’s those kinds of nights where the lion and the bear get killed. And once you kill the lion and the bear in private God will trust you with killing Goliath in public.

Bill Johnson

You and I have things to do. As small and insignificant as these things may be, if God is asking us to do it, then out of love – not regarding any failure – we should do as He asks. If it’s writing a book no one reads, a blog no one visits, a song no one listens to…if God asks, because He loves us…we should do as He asks. He knows the future, He knows all things. Nothing God plants remains insignificant.

If you’ve picked a timeframe of evaluation that makes what you do appear irrelevant, then maybe you should shift your timeframe of evaluation.

Dr. Jordan Peterson

Everything has grown in importance – this present darkness grows – but the Light is shining more brightly than ever.

While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

John 9.4

Living my life like nothing profoundly wicked has rapped upon the psyche of each and every one of us is too disingenuous. We’ve reached Critical Mass. We can only work to make this world a better place right now while it’s still daylight. Night is coming…so let’s build while we have light by which to work.

So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun. For He will come in like a narrow, rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives long.

Isaiah 59.19

“Open Your Mouth And Eat What I Give You”

That’s from Ezekiel 2.8. Let me not act like the prophecy below is just a guess. It’s terrifying. Mainly because one part has already come to pass and another seems to be in progress.

What else can be said? I have published it, tagged it private, published it again….hid the light under a bushel….the responsibility of prophecy can be cumbersome.

This prophetic word is underway: The Prophecy June 5, 2020

A New Day

The dawn of 2023 is upon us, all the inhabitants of the earth. Something new is riding on the air, an anointing to shift all things. God has been listening, and I sense He is going to show up like the still small voice after the raging storm. The world isn’t going to notice at first, they can’t discern the language spoken between Christ and His Bride. He’s nudging her to awaken from her slumber and it’s going to be an interesting year prophetically.

The power of music, the joy and expression of song. Let’s take a moment to admire the marvelous talents and gifts given only to humans. I love the playfulness here. He’s not afraid of the note, the score or the melody. He inspired me today. It’s my kind of happy introvert song too: leave me alone for a moment, come see me later if you want to, and know that I need you either way, darling…

“All At Sea” performed by Jacob Collier (live at Cambridge)

The Process of Unearthing

Rummaging through the art room I dug out the digital piano. (I told you I was inspired.) I found it nice and preserved. Back in 2019 I had the privilege of taking piano lessons. I learned a great deal. Then came notice of grand jury duty, every weekday eight hours a day for the entire month of December. That beast ate my schedule. I had to drop the lessons….then along came 2020 and suffice it to say, the pursuit was abandoned.

Finding a place for it will require moving out other things, a long chain-reaction process of buried parts of myself it would seem.

Random person: What do you do for a living?

Me: I’m an archeologist.

RP: Oh wow, where’s the excavation site?

Me: My life.

RP: …

Winter is a great season to clear things out and get organized during the cold winter months. I love snowy days, everything is quiet and peaceful. It’s symbolic of the dormant phase of nature where things die off, energy is conserved and I discard what I don’t need in order to prepare for the spring growth. April babies find great joy in this process. We just tend to get distracted during the growing phase and wander off somewhere else…

Looking onward into 2023 when something is enriching to the soul, when we are curious about it and we have the opportunity to explore it, then why not take it? We need to be less perfectionistic and more exploratory; have some fun, you know? Who knows how far we can go in our calling if we allow ourselves the freedom to play and have fun~

Might as well find out. Time is short.

Putting Those Things Behind Us and Pressing Forward into the New Day

2022 will soon come to a close. Let’s take the opportunity to ‘close out’ a few other things with it, shutting the door behind us as it goes. The defeats and losses can be laid to rest satisfactorily. Perhaps in the death of those seeds, life will spring up.

“Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”

Present your heart to God and watch Him anoint you with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The world will be changed, even if it’s quiet and simple in the beginning. Making a positive change in one person’s life changes everything for them for the rest of their life. It’s not a small thing.

“No eye has seen, and no ear has heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

I hope this has encouraged you in some way. Have a beautiful New Year everyone, may God bless and prosper and keep you always~

Twilight of Summer Long Past

I’m glad to see this summer pass on into the infinite past. It hasn’t been an easy one. It’s strange when circumstances become, all at once, tragic and blessed. It can be hard to reconcile two opposites with the same energy – each remain two entities traveling along parallel lines, absent of each other, with the silent burden of trying to reconcile.

Loss is hard to bear and I find myself lingering needlessly in survival mode, doing only the bare minimal to make it through. Except I’m already through it, Fall is heavily upon us and Winter soon approaching. How long am I going to linger here?

It’s not so easy to do a thing if necessity isn’t fueling the motivation. So I find myself just here. Wistful, processing; blessed with a great many roads to take, cursed with a great many roads to take….

Maybe it’s time to choose one path…but I hate the idea of losing all the other roads.

I hate the idea of loss.

I need to unfix my position on the map. Perhaps if the one path doesn’t satiate then I can find my way back through the woods…perhaps not. Either is better than just standing here. Right?

I know, I know, marriage would alleviate so many multiple movements forward, clear the peripheral to some extent and bring the benefit of ‘2 putting 10,000 to flight’, albeit, there is the complexity of the human being which then must be taken into account. Nevertheless, I feel the approach of one to share my life with drawing nearer. Whether he is before me on one of these paths or behind me moving at a quicker pace I cannot tell. Maybe I’ll hide as he passes me by–

God will lead the way forward, opening doors I didn’t know existed and closing all the peripheral distractions. He remains steadfast beyond the confusion of the season stirring within my soul.

I’ll find the path His light is illuminating and forsake all the rest. What credit would there be in following my own path and losing my life? So instead I’ll lose all my paths and gain His life. That’s a better proposition.

Featured Image by Ales Krivec