What can I say? Fish were biting. Pix to come. Besides fishing, I worked a little on needlepoint, read parts of a powerful book called "Touching the World through Prayer", and did some praying, one of them today with instant results (not to say they all have instant results, but all are answered according to God's will and in God's time). Micah had a headache today in the car. I prayed in the Shed Blood of Christ for healing, laying my hand where the pain was, and the headache went away. His half Tylenol had not helped. I believe God was using that experience to help reinforce things to him. He didn't want to say it to me, but a little while after praying I saw him "test" his headache by shaking his head. I saw the illumination in his face knowing that God had healed him. When I asked him if the pain was gone, he said it was, but I guess felt strange in pronouncing that information. I said to thank Jesus for this and remember this moment.
I prayed several times over my niece and nephew. Sierra aged almost-5 and Hayden aged almost-3. I layed my hands on Hayden's head as he was sleeping and asked God in healing and development of his speech and communication according to His will. I asked for protection for both of the kids during this time of uncertainty and vulnerability considering what my brother and his soon-to-be-ex are going through.
None of my brothers or parents are Christian. My uncle who was there is a Christian. I had to do a lot of praying in secret. It doesn't matter. I know and have seen its effects. I can testify. Some people are blowhards and have much doubt about it. They laugh at it and think it's a crutch. Or for the weak. Sorry. This is not true. I'm not even very "religious". Get the word "religious" out of your head. You all know who you are. Some Christians are religious, and some are not. "Religious" does not mean "believer", nor vice versa.
It's a very different world for the believer who has set him/herself apart from the mainstream school of "educated" thought, which in this day and age embraces: Moral relativism ("Well if it's right for you, that's fine. But don't tell ME what I can and can't do."). Relative truth ("I'm glad for you, really. I think your faith is great. It's OK for you but not for me."). The belief, almost a mantra, that all religions are pretty much paths leading to the same end. ("They are just different flavors of ice cream....I'm not going to bring my child up in a 'religion'. I'm going to let him/her grow up and choose his/her own." What? You're just teaching your kids you don't know anything!) Or frustration with and negation of the whole thing, including simplistic resolutions. ("Let's not discuss this....imagine there's no heaven...it's easy if you try....all we are saying....") From political liberals: "Christianity is a 'white' religion." This is the silliest of all. WHAT the....!! uh, newsflash: Christ wasn't "white." (White/Black/Asian- sorry, there are not three or four "categories" of people, anyway, either scientifically or Biblically, it's just a function or identity of culture.) Anyway this is certainly news to many Christians I know!! LOL! Anyway look up Jack Hayford and racial categorization- he explains it very well. DNA. Even classifying people on the basis of race, class, social status...for marriage, for example...is unbiblical. God has no color or ethnic group set aside for the kind of person He requires you to marry. God just says a Christian should marry another Christian. If you prefer to marry from a set of people (like Michael Chang, who says unless God directs him otherwise, his future wife will be of Chinese origin)...that is OK, but God Himself does not have a racial profile. Sorry. I digress. Anyway, go to a Spanish-speaking church, or a Southern Baptist black church, or a house church in China (evade the police, of course), in India, on a reservation, in Japan, Honduras, in Ethiopia (oldest churches there...Ethiopians were starting up churches in Acts, beginning with...a eunuch..., yeah tell those Copts how WASPS are destroying America...anyway... sorry. You get the idea.
Anyway, this whole list is endless. And all these phrases thrown out by the cultural elite, in their many forms, are tired and shopworn.
I think many in the mainstream listen to Christians in the media and are instantly turned off because, knowingly or not, they are hearing someone in their own personal life, not Christ. (Jerry Falwell looks like your smug old dad who preached Jesus but beat you every day.) Are you rejecting Christ or rejecting Pat Robertson? The Pope? President Bush or some other yappy Texan? Your father who was harsh or preachy? It is OK to reject those people. Don't reject Christ. My gosh there are so many other people behind the scenes working in the trenches and doing the work of warriors and laborers for Christ. They are out there feeding the poor and the poor in spirit. I wish these people were more in the limelight because they are such a testament. Christians are routinely tortured and executed in China and parts of Arabia. Politically shafted in the "western" world. (By the way, the "western" and "eastern" separation of the world, to me, have little meaning.) If you want to hear God, stop. Turn everything off. Just listen to God. Only His voice. Ask Him into your life. His presence is free and eternal.