Choosing

 Image by Aline Ponce @Pixabay

The prayer meditation in my morning devotional used the description forever-home for heaven. If heaven is our true home, why did God create us here instead of heaven? Why go through all this human rigmarole? To develop good character?

Adam and Eve were born into a Paradise, one step below heaven. They spoke with God face to face. If they were that close to God, why did He not just put them in heaven and skip Eden altogether?

Then I realized one big factor. True love requires choice. It can’t be forced.

If God plopped us down in the middle of heaven, there would be no choice. God’s love is so complete He gave us a free will. God would never force us to choose Him. But in order to have a choice, there must be something else to choose.

In the case of Adam and Eve, God placed the Tree of Life in the middle of Paradise. He told them not to eat of its fruit, giving them a choice between Him or temptation, Satan in disguise. Their choice caused us to be born into a world of temptations.

We can’t lay total blame on their shoulders. We lean toward temptation by our very nature. But through the birth of Jesus, God not only restored our relationship with Him, but He also became a physical presence. Jesus’ disciples could see, touch, and hear Him, much like Adam and Eve. Still, they too fell into temptation, but repented, and chose God over everything, even their earthly lives.

Through Scripture I see and hear Jesus. I feel his presence when I open my heart to Him. Even so, like the Apostles, I often make the wrong choices. But also like them, when it comes to Whom I choose to give my life to, the choice is easy. 

Merry Christmas! May the peace of Christ be with you throughout this season, through the New Year — always!   

 

Just Two Words

Just these two words He spoke changed my life. “Enjoy Me.”   

St. Teresa of Avila

Those two words change my concept of faith.  

Enjoy Me.

Not just joy but enjoy.

Enjoy Me.

Enjoy life, family, friends, passions, home, country.

Enjoy Me.

Enjoy His unconditional love, compassion, and forgiveness.  

Enjoy Me.

No wonder St. Paul described heaven as a paradise and why so many who have had near-death experiences say they wanted to stay and not come back.

Enjoy Me.

For eternity.

These two words shifted my world, changed my faith, changed my life.

Enjoy Me.

Yes!

What the Devil Doesn’t Want Us to Know

The Devil encourages us to cling to this life with a ferociousness capable of hurting, maiming, or even killing others. Even if we aren’t harming others to survive, we are praying fiercely to preserve our lives and those we love.

God answers our pleas to heal and protect, but selectively. Not everyone wins the heavenly lottery. We mourn for ourselves and for them. They will miss the family gatherings, watching loved ones grow, sunsets and sunrises, walks along the beach, Christmas and the Fourth of July. 

Or will they?

Last Christmas, God granted me a vision. As our pastor read the Gospel, I saw angels surrounding him with Jesus in their midst. The Church disappeared, replaced by my living room. I lay on the floor, dying. Jesus took my hand, lifted my spirit from my body, and with his arm around me, escorted me into Paradise.

I cannot describe what I saw, except to say there are wonders beyond our earthly senses waiting for us. 

With each exclamation of delight, Jesus responded with the same enthusiasm, much as a parent or older brother showing marvels to a younger sibling. 

The Devil doesn’t want me to remember that.

He prefers I worry and fret, believing there is nothing better than this flawed, sorrowful life, and I am an unredeemed, lost soul.

But I am saved, and I need not fear death and what waits for me beyond this life. God has prepared wonders beyond words to describe them. 

When a death occurs, I mourn for the ones left behind, suffering with the physical and emotional pain of separation.

But that’s not where it ends, as the Devil wants us to believe.

The separation is temporary, and our loved ones are not missing out - or suffering.

Accepting their absence does not mean I won’t continue to miss them, but rather than desiring they come back to earth, I will look forward to joining them. After all, God doesn’t want me to live in fear.

The Devil may not want me to know that, but God certainly does, and He will step in with compassionate encouragement through a scripture passage, a word from a friend, or a vision — and sometimes even a miracle. 

Dark Places

Research for my series, Lions and Lambs, has taken me to some dark places.

The first book, And Then Came a Lion, took me into the horrific world of pedophiles. I was shocked at how much goes on, especially the amount of human trafficking. I discovered a wonderful organization working with local law enforcement to find missing children. Posting photos of missing children has led to the rescue of thousands.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

My second book, Lions Among the Lambs, deals with a serial killer, the leader of a cult belonging to the amoral religion of Palo Mayombe. The crimes and cult details were taken from a true story. I can't imagine people capable of this kind of violence.

Adolfo Constanzo Synopsis

The third book in the series, The Lion, the Lily, and the Lamb, explores the world of psychopaths. These characters are as frightening as the pedophiles, human traffickers, and cults.

Portrait of a Psychopath

Now, the fourth book goes into another series of horrific crimes, Medical Fraud and Health Care Serial Killers. If the other books didn't give me nightmares, this group might.

Michael Swango | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers 

Farid Fata, Doctor Who Gave Chemo to Healthy Patients, Faces Sentencing - NBC News 

The redeeming theme of these stories (and mine), God brings good out of evil, and good people work diligently to stop them.

After hours of research, it is good to come back to my own world, which is relatively safe from these predators. I am thankful they are a small part of humanity when you look at the billions of people living on this planet. 

God seems to emphasize this during my devotions, offering extra consolation, and hope., which I include in my stories. I want my readers to know God is everywhere, in everything, and not a single thing escapes his notice. 

There will be justice, and forgiveness, at the end of our lives. We who repent will be welcomed into a paradise where there will be no killings, violence, hate, or fear.

Rough Night in Paradise

My husband and I have made five major moves in the eleven years we have been married, and literally lived on the road for five months in the RV, looking for the proverbial Paradise, the greener pastures, or whatever you want to call it.

We lived in our first house only three years when he decided he would rather live in Arizona. We left Oregon for Sierra Vista. We stayed one year in that city.

Wanting to travel, we bought an RV, put all of our household goods into storage, and hit the road as full time RVers. We passed through Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in one month, We loved Idaho, and stayed in that state for four months. I wanted to move there, but we instead went back to Arizona. My husband felt it was financially prohibitive at that time to relocate such a distance.