The firestorm has started

Our white dove is a daily visitor now. Such a strange phenomenon, a white dove with no fear of us, and that the dogs leave alone. Is it a sign from above?

Proverbs 24:10 If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! 11 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. 12 If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

7/26/11 Tuesday
The firestorm over my being escorted out of church has started, with the perpetrators working to justify their actions, and ignoring the inconvenient fact that they did not follow the scriptures in any way during all of this. Such is the way of self righteousness, of the spirit of the Pharisees, who were blind to the truth before them in the person of Jesus Christ. For me, it was no surprise. Jesus promised that those who stood up for the truth would be persecuted and explained that that persecution would come from religious leaders in many cases as He described being drug into synagogues and beaten. A synagogue was the best word He had to describe church, for the word “Church” really didn’t exist then. The synagogue was the place where people who worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our God, gathered. And so it is now. Jesus’ main commandment was to Love the Lord your God, and your neighbor as you love yourself.
Today's picture of the dove.

Not a single person spent any real time with me, with the exception of a brother named Ricardo, who has been exemplary in his behavior and whom I love with the love of the Lord. So with that one exception we have a whole church that said “We love you” but never put the words to action. Oh, we were given $500 towards fixing our bathroom, and that has already been thrown up as evidence of their “love” as they squirm to ignore the reality that there was no real fellowship, no communication, and little truth. I am sad, and will continue to pray that they come to see and understand the truth of their actions. The latest angle now is an accusation that I am paranoid, as if that makes things better. I laughed when I read that in the comments of yesterday’s post. Of course they are bringing up the fact that I have a brain injury too, an expected tactic of denial and justification. But the sad fact is this, if I was paranoid, Why didn’t you talk with me to help me understand I was loved and there had no reason to worry about gossip? If my brain injury was to blame, why didn’t you practice what is found in 1 Corinthians 13 where it says “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous ; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly ; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth ; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

The truth is, this was not practiced, period, not in any way I could see. The scripture describes sin as knowing what is the right thing to do, and not doing it. But pride, and arrogance, blinds the eyes and those who are enslaved by that false sense of “I’m so holy, look at me” are treading dangerous waters as they refuse to recognize any fault within them. We have all sinned and we all fall short of the glory of God, but the truly righteous are the ones who recognize this and humble themselves before the living God, knowing they must rely on His grace and mercy. Proverbs 24 says “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” So I know we all fall. The key is to recognize when you fail to do what you know is the right thing, repent of that, get up and work to make it right. But to do so would require admitting you did something wrong, and that is where pride rears it’s ugly head. Pride, you understand, was and is the source of all sin, and is what displeases our Lord most. Pride is a deadly thing to allow in, and if allowed to flourish opens the door for satan to enter and wreak havoc with all that is good in your life.

Among the accusations leveled against me, not to my face but revealed in the one letter Jannie, the pastor, wrote, was that I was nit picking everyone. Not to my knowledge and at no time do I recall purposely nit picking. Coupled with that was the statement that I know the word of God and because of that talked down to everyone. What this sounds like is that as I read the word of God and expounded on it, conviction would set in. For the Spirit of the Lord is with me, I am His servant, raised from the dead and called to serve His will. The pastor accused me of using the bible at every bible study to attack and manipulate her. Sounds like conviction to me. My only desire was and is that we all do what is pleasing to the Lord, who died to set us free from the sin that so easily befalls us.

Nuff said about this. With great sadness I said to the Lord “They are yours God, do what is pleasing to you, let Your hand come down so that they may see the error of their ways, repent, and be restored. But be merciful.” What they don’t seem to know is that I have been interceding for them for almost a year, praying morning and night for their eyes to be opened to themselves, and thus staying the hand of God.

Back to the farm. Rabbit still cause lots of damage but much has grown past the point they can destroy. The rabbits seem to prefer young tender plants and haven’t seemed to mess with the ones that have grown past a certain point. We bought some live traps at Harbor Freight and have caught six rats so far. Some of those rats are big and bad enough to force their way out of the traps, bending the metal as they do so. Horned tomato worms, really caterpillars, are out in force, devastating some of the tomato plants. We picked off a dozen or more and today I will take some of our bottled water and spray the plants so that the BT dust will stick to the leaves. We can’t use the well water as it is so salty it will burn the leaves. Thus it is with farming, always a struggle with nature. So the battle goes on. I got up at 5:30 this morning to go out and work and pray. Turned the drip irrigation off that I ran all night long. That way less salt gets deposited on the surface. It will be another 103 degree day so enough of this writing. Time to get to work. Those that judge have talked about how I don’t have a job but I work from day break to after dark building this dream of having a farm we can live off of.