My reality

bible-heart-1178881-640x480When you read the Bible over and over, the themes and dominant concepts become clearer and more cemented in your heart and mind.

Then sometimes, you pause at one small section and it’s like light floods your heart in a new way as you gaze at a collection of a few small words, words that you have read many times, but this time, you receive them as a lightening bolt from heaven.

This is my weak attempt to demonstrate what God showed me in this passage from John 17:25-26 which is found in the left column, with my thoughts in the right column.

John 17 v 25

DSC_0043 - Version 3Author: Becky Hastings, wife, mother, grandmother, passionate follower of Jesus Christ and truth seeker, especially in the areas of health and children. Facing a world quite different from the one in which I grew up, I seek to research and understand the true route to health, freedom and joyful family living!

 

Prayer for Justice

Faith surrenderI have adapted this prayer from Psalm 35 for all families who have experienced unjust treatment and are suffering. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, I urge you to dig deep into your faith and find the hope He has for you. If you are not a follower of Jesus, I pray you will seek the strength and comfort He desires to give you during your time of suffering.

 

O Lord, You know all about this family’s situation.

We implore You,

Do not stay silent.

Do not abandon this family now, O Lord.

Wake up! Rise to their defense!

Take up their case, my God and my Lord.

Declare them NOT guilty of all false accusations,

O Lord my God, for You give justice.

Don’t let their enemies laugh about them in their day of trouble.

Don’t let them say, “Look, we got what we wanted!

Now we will eat them alive!”

 

May those who rejoice at their troubles

Be humiliated and disgraced.

May those who triumph over them

Be covered with shame and dishonor.

But give great jot to those who came to their defense.

Let them continually say, “Great is the Lord,

Who delights in blessing His servant with peace!”

Then we will all proclaim Your justice,

And we will praise You all day long.

 

Based on Psalm 35

 

 

Creative Designer

EarthLiving in Harmony with our Creative Designer

Some people openly balk at the idea of a Creator. That’s understandable. Many, from their earliest cognitive days, have been taught that there is no God, man (and all the rest of what we see around us) evolved through a series of steps over millions of years in a random manner to become what it is today.

Cognitive DissonanceTo me, that approach takes a lot more faith than believing in a designer, but I can certainly understand that there is a lot of cognitive dissonance involved in considering an entirely different point of view.

But, perhaps there could be a Creative Designer.

I love to walk in nature. I prefer mountains, or at the very least, hills, but trails will do in a pinch. As I’ve experienced many different trails in many parts of the world, I always notice fallen trees and sometimes I like to test my balance by walking along the tree. It’s also a great core building activity.

Logs in forestWhenever I see a pile of logs, or brush, it is apparent that it was placed there with a human plan. Sometimes a whole section of forest is being cleared and the trees have been cut and piled together. It is easy for even the smallest child to recognize that the trees didn’t jump into place, but were put there with human intervention.

In the same way, observing the complexity of the human body and all its intricate systems, points to a specific intervention. We don’t have a complex immune system that works in conjunction with various microbes that aren’t even part of our body, yet live in our gut, by a random process. The complexity of each cell in our body is absolutely astounding, containing molecular parts that are machines and have been copied by modern engineers because they perform their work so brilliantly.

Understanding the details of our biology is one way that convinces me of the absolute certainty of a Creative Designer. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and our God knows us thoroughly – even our inward thoughts.

Maybe that is why there are so many who resist accepting the fact of a Creative Designer. If one exists, it might mean there are other facts that should be considered.

But we don’t need to fear. God’s magnitude of love for us is equal to His matchless design of us!

I invite you to explore the idea of a Creative Designer that LOVES YOU!

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
    He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
    in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
    and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
    and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the church,
    which is his body.
He is the beginning,
    supreme over all who rise from the dead.
    So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness
    was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
    everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. Colossians 1:15-22

Day 27 of Encouraging people to Seek Jesus: 30 ways in 30 days

If you have been helped in any way through my musings, please give glory to God. If you find anything disappointing or offensive or just have a question, please leave a comment below.

Where are the WARNINGS?

needleEvery person in the USA is completely acclimatized to hearing and seeing marketing of all sorts of drugs on TV directly targeting consumers – AND very frequently! It has become so commonplace that most teens and twenty somethings think it is just the way life is. It probably doesn’t occur to most of those exposed to this continuous outpouring of pharmaceutical marketing (known as DTC – direct to consumer), that there is ONLY ONE OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WHERE THIS IS LEGAL.

That being said, what about all those dire warnings? How can people hear them and still want the drugs? Don’t they take the warnings seriously?

Maybe hearing the warnings over and over again desensitizes people to the seriousness of the warnings?

Imagine if there were advertisements for vaccines which included ALL the warnings at the end? It might read something like this, (with information based on the vaccine inserts supplied by manufacturer of the DtaP vaccine), this is the disclaimer:

This product is not suitable for anyone who:

  • has had a prior adverse reaction to the DTaP vaccine, or other similar vaccines;
  • has had an encephalopathy within 7 days of a previously administered similar vaccine;
  • has a progressive neurologic disorder.

Additionally, the aluminum adjuvant in the vaccine, used to stimulate the immune system, may

  • leave a hard lump at the injection site, which may be hot to the touch – this will typically dissipate in a few days, but
  • has been known to affect muscle pain and chronic fatigue, and, though rare,
  • may trigger development of autoimmune disease, such as multiple sclerosis (Multiple Sclerosis i.e. MS) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease);

Consult with your doctor at the first sign of any such reaction.

  • The vaccine recipient may also experience an involuntary, extended, bone-chilling cry for several hours sometime within the twenty-four hours following injection, often repeated over the following few days, which indicates brain inflammation, and may be followed by a lengthy period of regression – consult with your doctor.
  • The DTaP may cause a bulging fontanelle in infants – this typically subsides after a few days, but may indicate brain damage; be alert for unusual behaviors, and call your doctor should you detect any.
  • In infants, there are reports of associated SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) with the vaccine; do not place your infant face down until sixty days following the last of the three scheduled DTaP shots.
  • And, you may experience any combination of the following reported reactions, some of which may require hospitalization:
  • Hey!abdominal pain;
  • anaphylactic shock;
  • apnea;
  • autism;
  • bacterial/viral infections;
  • convulsions;
  • disintegrative disorder;
  • coma;
  • abnormal EEG;
  • blood disorders;
  • diabetes;
  • eye movement disorder;
  • fever > 105 degree F;
  • hearing loss;
  • trouble walking;
  • narcolepsy;
  • pain, swelling and redness at injection site;
  • paralysis;
  • pneumonia;
  • impairment of psychomotor skills;
  • screaming; and
  • speech disorders.

This vaccine has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility, and there are currently 8150 reported associated deaths. It has not been tested or approved for use in pregnant women.

Additionally, each 0.5-mL does of this vaccine is known to contain

  • aluminum hydroxide as adjuvant (not more than 0.625 mg
  • aluminum by assay) and 4.5 mg of sodium chloride.
  • Each dose also contains ≤100 mcg of residual formaldehyde and
  • ≤100 mcg of polysorbate 80 (Tween 80).

The above disclaimer is based on the information provided in the manufacturers’ own inserts.

It really is important to be FULLY AWARE of EVERYTHING in a vaccine given to your child and of EVERY contraindication (i.e. reasons for which the vaccine manufacturers recommend NOT giving the vaccine). We all expect our doctors or nurses to know this information, but it is simply TOO much information and the responsibility for any possible vaccine injury will be completely ours.

You can find all the vaccine inserts for every single shot you are thinking about giving to your baby, your child or yourself. Please inform yourself of what are the possible outcomes.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not very comfortable absorbing eating or injecting aluminum hydroxide, sodium chloride, formaldehyde and polysorbate 80 – even in minute quantities. It just can’t be good.

Our #1 role is to protect our children. In order to do that, we need to be fully informed.

We need to know the warnings.

30 ways in 30 Days, Exploring Vaccines: Day 21

Faith in the midst of Adversity

Hope StreetWe faithfully preach the truth.

God’s power is working in us.

Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.

We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others.

We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

There are many stories of challenges and difficulties experienced by those who followed Jesus in the Bible. As a follower of Jesus Christ we are not promised great riches and a perfect life. We all want good things in life. We want health, happiness and security. Many believe that following God should bring all the good things we desire in life. It doesn’t always work that way. But, following God always brings His blessings in His way in His time. It also enables you to respond to the challenges you face with confidence, peace, and joy, despite the circumstances.

Paul and Silas were beaten, bruised and bleeding and locked in chains in a prison in Philippi. They couldn’t move, they hurt and they might have been getting some infections! Yet they choose to sing praises to God and pray in the midst of that suffering.

Our response to our suffering can speak volumes to those around us. In the case of Paul and Silas, the other prisoners, the jailer and the jailer’s entire family ended up listening and hearing about the gift God wanted to give them – all as a result of the suffering they had cheerfully endured.

I don’t know what your suffering is. I know many have suffered beyond my understanding. I do know that God never wastes a hurt and He can use your suffering to bless you and bless many others.

Will you surrender your suffering to the power of God to bring transformation?

A person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not people. Romans 2:29b

 

An indication of whether God has changed our hearts is our willingness to seek His praise rather than the good opinion of the people around us.

It is very easy to allow the opinions of those around us to influence the choices we make. I seek to surrender my heart and make choices to seek His praise and commendation rather than the commendation of men.

I pray you will be granted wisdom to know the next step God wants to lead you to in your current situation. God is generous with giving wisdom to those who ask.

Day 9 Encouraging people to Seek Jesus: 30 ways in 30 days

 

Intentional Authentic Leadership

Leadership

Leadership begins with leading yourself.

You might think that if you are a mom at home you aren’t a leader. Actually, you are one of the most powerful leaders around. Everyday the decisions you make, the words you say and how you grow as a person powerfully impact the next generation. You may only have one child, yet you could be influencing thousands. Don’t take that position lightly.

So, how are you creating an environment in your home that encourages everyone to be the best they can be? Do you feel like what you are doing at home is not important, but the work you do outside of the home – whether it is paid or volunteer, is the really important part of your life?

You might be considered a huge success in other areas of your life, but if you are not creating an irresistible environment at home, where your children and your husband (if you have one) want to be, then you are failing at the most significant role that you have.

Tips for creating an Irresistible Environment at Home (by someone who struggles a lot with this concept)

  1. Make healthy foods a priority. Everyone feels and acts better when their nutritional needs are met and they are not experiencing ravaging cravings for sugar, chemicals and carbs.
  2. Be aware of your own stress levels and seek healthy methods for stress reduction such as exercise, EFT, journalling, talking, etc.
  3. Prioritize intentional fun. Figure out the different things each personality in your family finds fun and join in – even if it is not your fun thing. Celebrate your differences.
  4. Seek to grow your family towards an emotionally and spiritually healthy foundation.
  5. Affirmation. Everyone needs affirmation. Give it liberally. It might not come back to you, so find ways of giving it to yourself.

Parenting is a very long-term commitment. It is similar to one of those very conservative stocks you invest in and leave it for a long time. The dividends in parenting can be much better than the stock investment, but you might only reap the richest rewards at 10, 15 or 20 years in.