"God Kisses"

Joy Bundles

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 16:43:00 +0000

                                                    JOY BUNDLES
                                                                   T. Wieland Allen
   One of the greatest things about our knowing God is that He sends bundles of joy into our lives, incidents that could only be orchestrated and commissioned by Him.    By human means it would be impossible for certain incidents, situations and scenarios to come together to form the bundles of joy that thrill us and give us overflowing joy that is what we know as joy unspeakable, meaning the miracles of the situation are so rare and impossible that they are hard to put into human words. One of those incidents happened to me recently and I will try to put into words the phenomenon and trust that you will follow the succession of events, believe them and that they might give you a chuckle and a thrill.
    I had reason to call a plumber because both of my showers were inoperable. That's the only way I can explain them, being ignorant of all areas of plumbing.   One shower in the blue bathroom had worked one day and the next day it not only did not work but when I tried to force the handle to the faucet to allow water to come out of the spigot, the handle broke. Well, there was no shower being taken out of that bathroom that day. I went to the yellow bathroom and pulled on the handle, which always resulted in water coming out of its spigot. Nope. It wouldn't even turn or pull out. No one had used it in two years so my guess was that the stem was the problem, which my favorite plumber, Robert, had cautioned me against if I did not occasionally turn the faucet on in that bathroom in order for the stem to stay workable.   I had, for a year or so, neglected to take Robert's advice.
    So I had two showers that didn't work. I had another bathroom with a bathtub but no one had used that bathtub in years, so its slow release of water from the spigot was so slow it would have taken all day to get enough water in which to bathe. I quickly called Robert, the plumber, who had been faithful to my family for years. In fact, when my husband had cancer, Robert, who is also a minister, was the only person whom my husband Steve had personally asked to pray for him. Robert obliged and Steve had an immediate sense of peace come over him. So Robert was our go-to guy in many ways.
    I called Robert and he said he would be able to help me with my multiple plumbing problems, which he did. He was able to fix both of the showers in the two bathrooms and went on his way after I had told him about my husband Steve's dream about going to heaven in a dream before he actually went to heaven. Robert was thrilled with Steve's dream, and Robert remarked that it was so wonderful of God to give Steve a sense of the love, peace and comfort of heaven before his body died. I had told that testimony to many people and many of the people had told me that Steve's dream had taken away all fear of death from them. Robert was equally excited because he had known Steve and he knew that God was the only originator of that dream . I also told Robert about God's dream for me before Steve died, a dream that helped me deal with Steve's death with great expectations of my having a wonderful life after Steve went to heaven. Robert was equally as thrilled for me.   Robert had fixed my two showers that day and we had shared the marvels of God giving dreams to His children when the need arises which prepares them for an unhappy event. Our dreams had made an unhappy event turn into a glorious event.
    That is only part of the joy bundle.   There was more.
    The next morning after I took a shower in the newly operating shower in the blue bathroom, I stepped out of the shower, dried off and all of a sudden a strange loud noise came out of that bathroom that was certainly a matter of concern for me. It was loud and my immediate thought was about a man who said that a pipe had busted behind his wall in his bathroom but because he had so quickly heard it, he was able to get to the pipe and fix it before it did much damage. That was good news for me to remember but I was ill equipped to turn off the water. I ran all over that part of the house to see if there was water pouring out of any wall, did the same downstairs in the basement and the garage, ran back upstairs and the sound in the blue bathroom was still as loud and menacing as it had been from the moment I had stepped out of the shower. I wondered if some of the work that Robert had done the previous day had caused an old pipe to break loose at that inopportune time.
    I called Robert and told him about my dilemma, that I was convinced that a pipe had busted behind the sink in the blue bathroom. Robert said he would be right over, which he did. I only had time to get dressed because a large towel had only been my mode of dress since I heard the sound of water running behind the wall in the blue bath immediately after I had taken a wonderful shower the previous day in the blue bathroom that Robert had fixed. I barely had time to dress and clean out under the sink in the bathroom where I could hear water rushing forcefully behind the wall. Thankfully Robert, the plumber, was able to rush quickly to my house. I'm sure he had visions of having to knock out a wall, etc., the same image that was running through my mind.
    Robert and I rushed into the blue bathroom. Robert said yes, he did hear a loud voice. He got down on his knees in front of the open cabinet door of the sink, looked inside of the door and then he looked up onto the top of the cabinet to the sink. He picked up my portable electric toothbrush which was sitting in a plastic glass next to that wall of the cabinet to the sink and Robert said to me. "It's Mr. Steve telling you good morning is what it is." The electric toothbrush which had been inoperable the previous night had suddenly decided to become operable and the plastic glass containing it was beating against that wall behind the sink with a furry, making the loud noise that I thought was a busted pipe behind that wall.
   Did I ever feel like an idiot. Not in all of my previous investigations of furiously looking for the source of the sound of running water did I ever look on top of the sink cabinet and see my portable electric toothbrush shaking vigorously enough to make the plastic glass in which it sat to vibrate enough against that wall to sound like running water behind that wall.
    Robert was so kind. After I apologized over and over to him for bringing him out on a plumbing job to discover that the problem was a vibrating electric toothbrush, Robert was so kind in saying that I didn't need to apologize for my dead husband telling me good morning through that toothbrush. He said that I should savor the moment, which I was already doing because when he held up the vibrating toothbrush the first thing that came to mind was that Steve had caused the nonoperative toothbrush to suddenly become operable again without my putting new batteries in it, which I had intended to do later. It had plenty of power left in the batteries to cause a loud enough sound to scare me into thinking that it was a busted pipe. It had started vibrating on its own with no human help close by.
   Robert was a prince. He would not accept any money for his time. I had to almost chase him down to make him take what he charges just for an estimate.   Robert and I spent a few extra minutes with my telling Robert another testimony about Steve which thrilled Robert. He had never heard such a miraculous story as the one I told him about Steve's experience in becoming a child of God.   Robert went on his way back to his other job, I'm sure chuckling about the 85 year old lady who had mistaken a vibrating toothbrush for a broken pipe.
   Later that night my loving daughter-in-law Rhea had initiated a Facetime call with me so that I could see her darling 16 month old baby boy eating his evening meal. While we talked, I told her the story about the toothbrush which was really Steve telling me good morning. We shared the truth of that miracle and she told me that immediately before she had called me that Cruz the baby had been sitting in his favorite kid's chair and he had looked into the kitchen, waved vigorously at somebody he was seeing there and then laughed like he was seeing someone make funny faces. Rhea did not see anyone but she was convinced that Cruz had seen somebody spiritually and he had waved vigorously at the person and even laughed at some antic the spiritual person had done. Rhea told me that she was convinced that the person that Cruz was interacting with was Great Grandpa Steve in the heavenly dimension making contact with his first great grandchild on the same day that he had made contact with me at my house by the vibrating inoperable electric toothbrush.
   There was no doubt in either of our minds. Rhea said that Cruz had definitely seen somebody that was invisible to her eyes because he had waved vigorously and then laughed like he had seen somebody make funny faces.
The Bible says that we are surrounded in the heavenly dimension by a cloud of witnesses and it names the spirits of the people who have been made perfect as being in that cloud of witnesses. It also says that children behold their angels who are in the presence of God. Great Grandpa Steve made two appearances that day and both were appreciated.   I still had a foolish feeling for missing the toothbrush being the reason for the loud sound, but after remembering what Robert, the plumber, said, I genuinely appreciated the message from Steve in saying good morning to me from heaven.
   What a lucky lady I am to be able to have a Heavenly Father who allows us to witness miracles abounding in bundles that produce joy unspeakable and full of glory.

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 17:31:00 +0000

MIRACLE
                                                               T. Wieland Allen
    On February 11 and 12, 2021, my refrigerator began to die. I started to fret but was reminded to count it all joy when something bad happens. I would say that I counted it all joy but not with a very joyful attitude. Suddenly, from heaven, came the thought, "Think about this event as having all of the ingredients for a miracle" Okay.   That was a much better thought for me to entertain as the fridge continued to work and then die for hours which caused the food in the freezer to start defrosting. I kept referring to every inconvenience that it was it was an additional ingredient necessary for a miraculous outcome. Sometimes I said it to myself ten times a day, sometimes only two times a day , but I kept up the image in my mind that God was going to make a miracle out of it. I knew there was predicted to be an ice storm on the night of the 12th, and then large amounts of snow was forecast for several days. I envisioned being weeks without a fridge, so I went to the Sears store in late afternoon on the 12th to see about getting a fridge delivered the next day if my old one continued in its erratic manner.
     When I entered the Sears store the owner was waiting on a couple who was contemplating buying a very large fully contained exercise machine. I located the fridge that I wanted to buy and waited patiently on a stool while the couple talked back and forth about whether to buy or not. I was very patient and noticed the couple always looking back and forth from the machine to me, probably because they felt pressured to make that decision because I was waiting so patiently. I kept assuring the owner of the store, Chris, and the couple that I was not in any hurry, for them to take their time. Suddenly a man and his son came into the store, went right to a display of tools, located a very large metal case containing multiple large tools, and they talked about whether to buy it or not.
     The couple looking at the exercise machine had additional pressure from the man and his son waiting to buy the case of tools, plus me waiting on the stool. The couple hurriedly decided to buy the exercise machine with all three of us customers waiting, after which the owner checked them out and came to wait on me. I told him to go ahead and write up the man and his son's purchase of the large case of tools, which Chris did while I waited patiently on the stool.
    After Chris wrote up their purchase for the man and his son, he came to help me. I told him about my 18 year old fridge and its current problem of going on and off many times, to which Chris told me that it was on the way to dying which could happen in a day, a month or a year. I told him that I would go home and if the fridge continued in its erratic behavior that I would call him and I would purchase the new fridge which I had chosen.
   On my way out, I jokingly told Chris that he needed to thank me for my timing in being there because it's possible that neither the couple nor the man and his son would have decided on their purchases if I had not been sitting patiently on the stool. Chris acknowledged that I was right, thanked me, and asked me if I would come back regularly to replay the event so that he would make more sales. We both had a laugh over that. There seemed to be a real spiritual connection between us with that realization.
   My fridge died that night so I called Chris the next day and purchased my new fridge. The anticipated ice storm arrived during the night so it was impossible for him to deliver the new fridge the next day. He told me that if the predicted huge amount of snow came in that night that it might be the next week or longer before he was able to deliver my new fridge.   I told him that I would manage by putting my frozen food in large plastic bins, put them outside and they would stay frozen, which I did for the next week. I put the fresh food, milk, etc. in a small office fridge which I keep in the home office and that sufficed for the next week.
     A week later the snow was so deep that I had visions of the scenario going on for another week after that. However, only a week and a day later Chris from Sears called and said that he was going to deliver the new fridge even though there was still 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. Since it is impossible to get into my split level house without coming up 8 to12 stairs, I told him to park in the adjoining neighbor's driveway and bring the dolly containing the new fridge through the snow and onto the sidewalk leading into the house that only had two steps on which to maneuver the effort to get the new fridge in the house and the old fridge out of the house. I had already called my neighbor and asked if the deliveryman could park in his driveway to which he remarked that he had a furnace repairman coming to his house and that that repairman needed to also park in his driveway. We agreed that it would work out somehow. In ten minutes my neighbor called me and told me that the furnace repairman had already come, fixed the problem and left. It was definitely miracle number two.
     Chris took my advice and parked in the neighbor's driveway, pulling in just as the furnace repairman pulled out. Yes, that was miracle number two.   Miracle number two happened the day before. As only God can plan, the day before Chris came with the new fridge, God had sent a friend to clean off my front walk and front porch, which facilitated Chris in his effort to bring the new fridge into my house and take the old one out. Having the front walk cleaned off which leads partially to the street was necessary for sure on which to rest the new fridge while Chris removed the old one. That cleaning off the sidewalk on the perfect day, the day before delivery of the fridge, was miracle number one in the scenario.
    Chris is a man about 5'7" and maybe about 160 pounds. I assumed he would have someone in his truck to help him with the large fridge. As I peered out the door, that small man appeared in my sight pulling the dolly the last 30 feet or so through the deep snow and he fell right before my eyes into the snow, he picked himself up, and he finally pulled the dolly the last 30 feet in the snow and stopped at the cleaned off sidewalk leading to my front door. He looked exhausted, brushed the snow off of his clothes and shoes, and he placed the new fridge at the end of the sidewalk leading to my front door while he came into my house, took off the front door to the house and moved several furniture items which impeded his way to get the new fridge in and the old fridge out.
    There were three sharp turns after getting the new fridge which was on the dolly into the house and into the kitchen and, of course, the same three sharp turns for him to get the old fridge which he had placed on the dolly wheeled out of the house. Chris would stop occasionally and I could see him contemplate his next move. I prayed silently for wisdom for him to figure it out. At one point as he pulled the dolly-laded fridge in the front door, I commented that it had previously looked impossible for him to accomplish his feat of getting the dolly through the snow with the heavy, bulky fridge on it, but I said that I had confidence in him.
    Chris quickly replied that at one point while pulling the fridge on the dolly through the snow that he was unsure if he could accomplish his feat. He could certainly at that point not push the dolly and huge fridge back through the snow the 30 feet to the neighbor's driveway where his pickup truck and trailer were parked, so he said that he prayed for strength and, sure enough, extra strength came, so he was able to pull the dolly the last 30 feet to the sidewalk. He commented that without the extra strength from God that he could never have done it.
    Chris and I talked about God supplying our every need if we ask him when it appears that we need extra help. I told him that I noticed his contemplating every move before he made it and that I had prayed for divine wisdom for him for him in order for him to succeed in his task. Chris said that the job was a huge challenge for him but he has found that God will always supply everything necessary to complete every challenge. He told me that he looks at everything in life that is a challenge as an opportunity for God to intervene in the situation and give to him whatever is necessary to accomplish the solution to the challenge. I assured him that I am a person of faith, also, with a family who always looks on the positive side in every situation. Christ was amazed at that confession. I complimented him again and again on his drawing on God's help in every part of his challenge that day, in which there were many. There was a spirit of harmony between us, two children of God sharing our confidence in Him and His ability to supply every need that comes into our lives.
    It took Chris another 45 minutes to get the old fridge out alone and the new fridge in its proper place in the kitchen by his strategically making the three sharp turns that were necessary with the dolly and heavy fridge. I did not watch him because I felt like watching him would interfere with his obvious communications with God on how to accomplish the huge job. I have never, ever seen a man keep such a good attitude and have a patient, endearing faith in God's ability to supply everything he needed when faced with such a huge challenge.
     Chris was finally finished and we shared again the experience of God supplying everything that Chris had needed in getting that huge fridge on the dolly through the snow and into the house and then accomplishing the three sharp turns it took to place the new fridge in its final resting place in the kitchen and then his making the three sharp turns again with the old fridge in taking it outside to load onto his trailer. It was a beautiful thing to behold after he accomplished it.
    As we stood by the front door when he was ready to leave, Chris noticed a wooden replica of angel wings hanging on the handle of my front door. He asked if he could take a picture of the wings because he does wooden crafts and he wants to copy the wings to make gifts for women in his church. We talked about real angels and their place in God's entire scheme of things in accomplishing His will in the earth. Chris used his arms and hands to indicate to me where God's angels are all around us in the spiritual dimension called the kingdom of God. I was reveling in the unity of God between us which I was experiencing with Chris. There was such faith, peace and tranquility coming from Chris which matched my peace and faith.
   Sudden, as he was leaving, I asked him a question that I never ask anyone because there is a tendency to size up someone's level of faith after knowing the doctrine of their church, or lack of it. However, I broke my tradition and asked Chris what church he attends, eager to know what church teachings have introduced him to such a life of peace, total dependency upon the guidance of God and a wonderful knowledge about the kingdom of heaven in the spiritual dimension around us. I was astounded by his answer. He told me that he attends the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I knew that was the Mormon church.
     I had heard from other denominations that the Mormon church is a cult with many false beliefs. Boy, was I ashamed to have ever accepted that belief at one time. My experience in knowing other Mormons was that they are very ethical, kind, peaceful and loving people. However, I had never shared spiritual truths with a person with Mormon beliefs like I did with Chris that day.
   After Chris left my house and I watched him place the old fridge on the dolly, instead of pulling it back the 60 feet through the snow, he got in his pickup truck which was parked in the neighbor's driveway, pulled it with the trailer onto the street in front of my house, which was also deep in snow but not as far as the neighbor's driveway. In his taking the dolly with the old fridge down the hill to the street, I was afraid that the fridge would fall off of the dolly onto him or slip away from him and careen down the hill into his truck. I had no reason to be concerned. He didn't just push or pull the dolly down the hill. He walked the dolly from side to side, one wheel moving six inches or so at a time and then the other wheel moving six inches at a time, down the hill onto the snow laded street. The dolly didn't slide or fall because one wheel at a time was deep in the snow anchoring it as he moved the other wheel six inches. At the street level, then he loaded the dolly and old fridge onto his trailer and off he went. I am certain that Chris was praising God all the way back to his store for all of God's miraculous maneuvers that He facilitated for Chris through every step in his challenge for that day.
    I was overwhelmed by the calm, peaceful, faith filled, gracious demeanor of that man, and I was surprised, I hate to admit, to hear the name of the church he attends which I had judged from the opinions of other people. After I sat down in my recliner, I told God that I was astonished that the man was a Mormon. The answer from heaven came immediately into my thoughts. The thought came, "I told you in the Bible that you belong to the entire body of Christ in which every joint supplies what is needed." I suddenly thought about the Baptist church supplying a born again experience, the Pentecostal churches supplying the truth about being baptized by the Holy Spirit, the Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ supplying the truth about Jesus Christ's sacrifice for the world, about the Methodist church teaching people to become servants of Christ, about the Catholic church being built on the forgiveness of God, about the Episcopal and Lutheran churches supplying the truth of the grace of God, the Unitarian church teaches on the entire church being universal and for all people, the Jehovah's Witnesses teaching on God's kingdom coming to earth, and now I know that the Mormon chuch is firm in the knowledge of the actions of God's angels in fulfilling His plan for His children in the earth and the possibility to become completely dependent upon God for guidance also. Each church has found a truth and built a denomination upon that truth and most have not gone on to more truth. The truth that is found in each church supplies a large portion of truth although no church has all of the truth.   At least those functions have become apparent to me in my experience of becoming exposed to the real Body of Christ. So each church has a portion of truth and supplies what is needed to someone who is seeking that truth, each church only being a portion of truth found in the full gospel of Good News.
   Sure enough, that word of truth from God erased any prejudice that I had for the Mormon church and its believers. God was able to peal off a layer of religious prejudice from my own mind that day in my walk with Him. His invisible body of Christ that is called "the church" is just like any human body with beautiful parts but also there might also be warts, pimples, sores and bruises on the other parts, just like with us and our bodies. We must look on the spirit of a person instead of his flesh is what Jesus Christ said. It was easy for me with Chris. God's Spirit was visibly apparent in his life.
   Later this thought came into my mind from God. "Getting rid of that prejudice in your mind leaves room now for Me to fill it with more truth."
   God knows just what to say to change our mortal minds into the mind of Christ where there is no prejudice. That is necessary for having complete freedom from the demonic spirit of bigotry.
   I must always remember this as being God's truth: "During trying times the difficult incident has all the essential ingredients of becoming a miracle." Now I know that as being a portion of divine truth.
   First God gave me the faith to believe for it, and then God proved it to me by producing several miracles all tied together in one huge miracle, freeing me from a religious prejudice.
   He always knows just what to say and what to do because He is Our Father.

GRACE ALWAYS WINS

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 16:48:00 +0000

                                          GRACE ALWAYS WINS
                                                                      T. Wieland Allen

   Do you remember the old saying, "If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?" My answer to that many years ago when I was a child was yes, God hears. That tidbit of information came from one of my grandmothers, one who was quick to remind us sisters that God is always present watching to catch us in a sin. She was my grandmother on my mother's side, and she is the one who always gave my sister and me a look of disapproval when we went to the movie on Sunday afternoons after Sunday School and morning church and before we went to Training Union, choir practice, night church and fellowship after that. That grandmother was the member of a fundamentalist church who takes the Bible word for word, without any spiritual interpretation. Her looks of disapproval were usually saved for when she visited us for the weekends from her home 60 miles away when we could hardly wait to go to the movie after morning church and lunch on Sundays. She never scolded us or chided us for doing something that was so obviously sinful to her as spending an hour and a half at the movie theater even though we had already been to church for two to three hours in the morning with the anticipation of going back to church in the evening and being in some kind of service for another five hours. That was our usual Sunday routine, so she only gave to us a disapproving look, not any lectures with words that stung. I was grateful for that. However, she made her feelings known.
   We had another grandmother who was raised in a liturgical church which is more liberal, one who believes in God's forgiveness, so they just have fun in life without any emphasis on guilt for sins. They just go tell the priest that they have sinned, he tells them that they are forgiven and that's that. That grandmother was the fun one. She lived in a state on the west coast, which is thought of as being more liberal, which to some people unfortunately means sinful. That grandma would visit occasionally and she would play poker with her adult sons, and then at 11:00 p.m. they would all get up from the poker table and go to mass and get forgiven, going on their merry way with no guilt and no lingering condemnation. There was always laughter when she was around, lots of talking, laughing and even some beer shared with her sons. They were a happy group for sure.
   One of the many times my sister and I went to the movie theater after attending morning church and then having a large Sunday lunch, when we left the movie theater, lo and behold, there was a priest from the same denomination as my fun loving grandmother coming out of the movie theater. I'm sure he had officiated at his church on that very Sunday morning. I wondered how he could go to a movie on Sunday, which was sinful to the other grandmother with the disapproving look. You think I wasn't conflicted in my young mind, wondering who was right, the disapproving grandmother or the fun grandmother?   I struggled with that conundrum for years.
   On one occasion that the fun grandmother was visiting in our home, my sister and I were playing outside before going to a Sunday movie. I had my dime for the movie in the pocket of my church dress since the movie was only nine cents. I had been doing cartwheels and I suddenly remembered the dime in the pocket of my dress. You guessed it, when I felt inside of the pocket the dime was gone. I looked all around the place where I was doing cart wheels and there was no dime to be found anywhere. My fun grandmother saw me looking under blades of grass and she asked me what I was so seriously seeking. I told her I had lost my dime, that I needed the dime to go to the movie. She told me to pray to Saint Anthony, who is the saint of lost things.
    WHOA, wait a minute! That grandmother was telling her little fundamentalist granddaughter to pray to somebody other than Jesus? That didn't compute in my narrow denominational mind which had been listening to preachers and teachers for at least three or four hours on every Sunday and very often of Wednesday nights for all those years as a youth. Nobody ever told me to pray to a saint. Somehow I knew, even at eight years of age, that that would not fit in with my own church training.
   After continuing to search and even silently praying to Jesus to help me find my dime, there was no luck. The fun grandmother told me that I might just try asking Saint Anthony because finding things for people who lose them is the job that God gave to him in heaven. Reluctantly, I prayed to Saint Anthony kind of silently because I was fearful that I might be struck dumb for betraying Jesus. I opened my eyes, looked down in the grass under my feet, and there was my shiny dime staring at me like it had been waiting for me to find him.
   Was it a miracle? Of course, even though, in my church at the time, praying for miracles was never done because those kind of phenomenons went away, we were taught, after Jesus Christ went to heaven to live with God. Going to heaven after we died was the only miracle we were taught that we were going to ever experience, and that was a great reward for going to church those many times every Sunday for all of those years.
    As you can imagine, my mind was thoroughly confused after that event. I kind of weighed things in my childish mind about who was right, the God of the grandmother with the disapproving look or the God of the grandmother who had faith in what I thought was a dead man helping me find my dime? My religious thinking was fighting to get outside of its rigid enclosure, all of that over a dime.
   Anyway, that is my history about wrestling with the difference between forgiveness and judgment. Now being an octogenarian, My spiritual walk is strictly along the freedom loving lines of forgiveness and definitely not judgment. However, occasionally the mindset of judgment secretly creeps into my thoughts because it was so effectively and numerously drilled into my mind as a child.
   Now for an example that relates to the saying that I wrote about the tree in the forest and if it falls and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Not too long ago, I had an incident happen to me where that old judgment from years ago spoke a loud condemning thought into my mind. After my loving husband died, I determined to live in my home for many years, at least as long as I can. I decided that there are things that are preventable that can save me from problems if I will be careful and not take any unnecessary chances. One is that I decided that I needed to always turn on the light in a dark room before entering it, even though I know where everything is located in every room in my home. By experience I learned that things do get put out of place easily and if there is no light in a room then there is a danger of stumbling over something, falling and breaking a bone. So that has been my self made rule for myself, to always make sure before entering a dark room that I turn the light on in the dark room. I can truthfully say that I am usually very faithful to my self made rule and I have saved myself lots of problems by just always taking a few seconds and turning on a light before entering a dark room.
   Also, adding to that tidbit of wisdom, I had also decided during the Christmas holidays to turn on the outside lights before going into an even slightly darkened outside yard from the house. At Christmastime I had put some lights up on some low places so as not to have to get on a ladder. I have been true to my cautious rule and I have turned on the outside porch light before stepping outside on the porch to turn on or off the outside Christmas lights so that I don't stumble over something and have a bad fall. (I can feel that you're ahead of me on this story.)
   One particular night I did not turn on the porch lights when I went outside to turn off the decorative Christmas lights, surmising that I was only going to the edge of the porch in order to turn the lights off. Sure enough I safely turned off the decorative lights and then I noticed that a neighbor had put up some beautiful lights so I quickly decided to take a few steps off of the porch to enable myself to more easily see the neighbor's full display on his house. I walked the eight steps to the end of the sidewalk and carefully stepped down off of one step to see the beautiful display more clearly. It was beautiful. He had done a great job with multicolored lights twinkling everywhere on his house.
   Remember, the problem was that I had neglected to turn on the porch lights, only intending to walk to the end of the porch, so in returning to the porch in the dark I forgot to step up onto the one step that I had so gracefully and safely maneuvered which enabled me to see the neighbor's display. Suddenly down, down, down I went onto the sidewalk, landing on my left knee, the accompanying elbow and my left hip on the rock studded sidewalk. I yelled a word that happens to only occasionally escape from my mouth under trying situations when I am alone. As I not so graciously fell, I yelled, "OH, S--------------------------T," very, very loudly into the peaceful darkness and pristine stillness of the night. The second word seemed to hang onto every molecule of moisture in the cool air on that quiet December night, growing louder and louder as it reverberated in every direction. Somehow, that particular word did not seem to fit with the Christmas card perfect appearance of our street with houses that were beautifully decorated and smoke pouring from the chimneys straight up to heaven, like a painting. Nada, no fit, not one bit and not at all. The word was so loudly yelled and with such perfect eloquence that I fully expected every door to open and people to come pouring out with disapproving looks, like Grandmother's, to witness who had said what is commonly regarded as a curse word on a night in a world where the birth of the Prince of Peace was being widely celebrated.
   I laid there on the sidewalk waiting, only mildly injured with a few scrapes on my knee and I was thankful that all of the Christmas lights on the houses around me remained steady with no bright porch lights suddenly appearing and people rushing to find out who had blasphemed the perfect picture of a peaceful world with such a loud "S--------------------t" piercing the peaceful Christmas card picture that our neighborhood presented to the world. I carefully and very slowly, considering my age, raised myself up off of my sidewalk and walked slowly up the sidewalk, onto the porch and into my house, thanking God all the way that the grandmother with the disapproving look was not there to again judge me with a disapproving look. I somehow knew that the fun loving grandmother would have laughed. Maybe not when we were outside but she would have collapsed in laughter when we closed the front door and left the world in its picture perfect condition with that word still hanging somewhere in the atmosphere.
    Now, I tell you this in my own defense when I tell you that I read an article in a magazine several years ago that said not to feel guilty when you say an inappropriate word during stressful times. The article quoted a scientist who said that he hooked a few people up to brain machines, put the people under a stressful situation, and coached them to, at the proper time of approaching danger, say their favorite inappropriate expletive. He found that when a person occasionally says a profanity during stressful times that it showed up on the brain waves in a positive way, as if saying the word robbed the flight or fight syndrome of the ability to flood the person's cells with negative hormones.
   So that article solved a problem for me. I no longer feel guilty because when there is no one around to hear me in stressful situations. It's just God and me. He understands and He acknowledges that science of the human body gave me permission to relieve the stress that accompanied my misstep. Even though the loudly screamed "s-----------------t" word reverberated in the still, quiet night, it was like when the tree falls in the forest, there was no one around to judge the tree for falling and there was no one around to judge me for falling and screaming a word that is a slang word for the product of a necessary body function. Like I said, I felt calm and peaceful, free from guilt because there was no one there to judge me with a disapproving look. God forgave me immediately and I forgave myself immediately.
   I am a little sore from the fall and I only have a slightly swollen kneecap with three small abrasions where I fell on the rough sidewalk. My body is aching with soreness as it had absorbed the shock from falling. There are no broken bones and no one to whom I have to apologize, just like the tree in the forest. That experience makes me wonder if the tree in the forest on the way down shouts, "Oh---------------My------------God."
   It's so freeing not to be judgmental of myself or other people. I have always said that I don't do guilt and I don't do windows. I truly learned that lesson from my two grandmothers. I know that God's ears can take a few inappropriate words if saying them during stressful times helps relieve the human body of the hormonal output that can do damage to the body of the speaker.
   I can thank both grandmothers. The one with the disapproving look was only mirroring her own church's teaching of guilt just like the other grandmother always mirrored her church's teaching of grace which she mirrored in her life.
    May we all be full of grace with ourselves and with each other on every occasion. Grace extended to everyone, however it's expressed, always negates that damaging hormonal output of the human body when we are tempted to judge someone or feel judged. Extending grace to everyone adds healthy years to our lives if we don't allow those looks of disapproval to emerge from the past and continue to condemn us. The grandmother with the disapproving look never intended to leave that as her legacy with me. I saw the contrast in the other grandmother, the one who taught me about love and grace. Judgment stops with Me. I intend to never leave it as a legacy with my own grandkids. I intend to be the fun grandmother to them, always giving them looks of love and approval. I want that to be my own legacy. After all, it's God's legacy to His children

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 16:55:00 +0000

THE GRINCH WHO STOLE THE HEART OF A NATION
                                                              T. Wieland Allen
       He is not green and he is not an imaginary animal/person. He is a poor man whose own father was neglectful in his fatherly skills and he denied the young Grinch the love, kindness, guidance and training in how to honor and treasure all human relationships. Instead, his father had taught him that money would buy him the love and compassion that the heart of the Grinch craved. That emotionally afflicted father programmed his child to bully, cheat, rob and deceive other people in order to get what he thought that the Grinch needed, which was the same as the attention and love of which Grinch's own father had in the same way been robbed by his also loveless father. It was a curse to the third and fourth generations.
      Grinch's father and mother cherished money, houses and cars that they erroneously thought would buy them respect and praise from other people. Instead, their robbing and cheating other people that caused them to achieve great wealth had dug a hole in their own hearts which was never filled with love, so they taught their "special" son to walk in their own footsteps which unfortunately had tread on the lives of their workers, business associates, women and minorities without a pang of guilt for their lack of compassion.
     Their "special" son grew into his parents' flawed image, the reflection of their coldhearted, cruel, morally bankrupt, cheating, vindictive reflection of their own personalities. As a child he showed no pity for anyone. Stomping on the hearts, lives, finances of working people and especially on minorities brought joy to the Grinch as he matured into a man with no scruples, no moral compass and no value for other human beings, even in his own family, his parents or his siblings.
     Every business opportunity was based upon the elementary teachings of his parents whose tutoring of Grinch was paying off as the Grinch amassed a fortune built upon the broken hearts of workers, abused women and tainted money. He left behind him broken promises to associates as the owner of his company, workers' bills unpaid, unpaid salaries and other moral crimes against the poor and working classes of people.
     Delusions of grandeur took over a portion of the brain of the Grinch. He began to visualize himself in a position of greater importance where he could be in charge of huge amounts of money which he hoped would do the work of amassing even larger sums of money for himself and possibly filling the hole in his heart which had grown into a huge chasm by this time as he matured physically but not emotionally, spiritually or morally. Nothing had filled that huge chasm, neither his three wives nor his three children. They were all dispensable.
     The hunger and thirst for power over a huge group of people presented itself quickly as the Grinch saw the opportunity to exert power over an entire country of people whom he considered inferior to himself, inferior in power, inferior in intelligence, inferior in physical appearance and inferior in the evil art of manipulating people into doing his will in their lives instead of their following their own wills. He considered manipulation to be a gift and a positive personality trait.
    Narcissism had taken over another area of his brain many years before, and paranoia had become his constant mindset when he encountered people who had opinions, morals, and intelligence contrary to the Grinch. He hired and fired employees almost as quickly as when they came in the front door because many of them were soon ushered out the back door if they had unique opinions of their own. People continued to be dispensable to him, even his own children whom he put in government positions which they were completely unqualified to perform.
     A problem soon arose inside of the Grinch's political headquarters that stemmed from the fact that he demanded 100% loyalty from everyone in his large circle of associations at the headquarters of his country. Their personal opinions were detrimental to his goals in the eyes of Grinch because he, himself, only pursued narrow minded pursuits that made him look capable, always in charge, more knowledgeable and better looking than anyone else.   None of those characteristics were actually located in the personality of the Grinch except by his worshipful followers. He refused to share the limelight, which he voraciously craved, with anyone.
     Very quickly the Grinch used his cultish gift of persuasion on the multitude of followers in his position as head of a country. He was gifted, as if from hell, in melodiously speaking lies that elevated him into the position of becoming a savior in the eyes of the mass of his followers who became his slaves and forever admiring lovers of his bullying, cruel, manipulative personality. Even though his personal financial empire had fallen years ago, his self exalting lies about his unproven accomplishments were convincing to half of the people in the land, especially people who had a lack of success in their own lives. They covered over their own failures by identifying with the arrogant and domineering character of the Grinch. They deeply admired the Grinch which, in their own minds, elevated themselves to his level of pseudo-success, even though tales of his success were all a lie that he had formulated in his own mind and he had repeatedly laced his lectures with the lies. He called his lectures "press conferences", but they were lectures that included his self gratifying lies which became reality not only in his own mind but also in the minds of his multitude of followers.
    The Grinch's manipulative maneuvers over people that he learned from childhood from his own father worked on the masses of people just like it had worked in his business dealings. His lies were believed by his followers. He controlled his own children and his administrative staff with fear resulting from his frequent tantrums. Fear of having to endure more of his tantrums molded them to him even more tightly because of his constant melodious speeches about his pseudo accomplishment which became truth to them because the lies were played more and more frequently on TV in his efforts to control the masses by the sound of his own voice which seemed so calm and caring but there was no caring in his character so that was a lie, also. There were no other voices allowed into his conversations with his staff and his followers. So consequently they found his bullying and name calling, his sarcasm and his lying to be normal because they wanted a domineering and strong king to claim as their savior. They wanted to be dominated and controlled so that they wouldn't need to chart their own courses in life. They adored him and each person allowed the Grinch to become his or own substitute "self".
   The followers of the Grinch saw in him the personality that they sought to be, seemingly self assured, seemingly wealthy, a man who appeared to be a friend of kings and the wealthy while, in fact, he was to the outside world a foolish, self promoting psychopath who had been trained by an expert in manipulation, that person being his own father. His followers were blinded to his failures because of his constant braggings which were all lies, his self exaltation, his outlandish claims to fame and his pitiful need for attention and adoration. All of his character flaws had become normal to his followers while the rest of the country and the world identified him as abnormal, classifying him as the Emperor Who Wore No Clothes. He was naked of a moral compass, compassion, respect for others, love, kindness, pity, goodness and mercy but his followers were blinded by his self exaltation and they could not see his moral nakedness.
    The endless words that poured from the mouth of Grinch were like honey in the ears of his followers while in truth they were sweet tasting, poisonous elixirs. Some followers even followed him to their own death, believing him instead of believing trained doctors and scientists when a medical plague entered into their country. The Grinch then, in his narcissism, refused to follow the advice and guidance of health specialists, convincing his loyal followers that he knew more than the scientists with 12-15 years of medical training.   The Grinch's claim of being smarter than the medical personnel was based on his premises that he had an uncle who was a scientist so he had the uncle's vast knowledge transferred to the Grinch simply by osmosis, just by being around his uncle on occasion. The truth was that the Grinch had paid people to take tests for him all of his life instead of his personally passing difficult tests in most of his educational pursuits. Even though his lie about his gaining scientific knowledge by being in the same room with his uncle was probably the most absurdly bizarre form of a lie and it was completely impossible, the masses continued to follow the Grinch because he was convincing, filled with pride and arrogance, and he constantly told them that he would save them. He became their god, which was his desire all along.
     The Grinch even polluted an entire generation of people who called themselves by the name of Christ People, their having been convinced of his godliness by the Grinch himself in his constant press conferences called by the Grinch in order for his voice to spew more lies in an effort to overcome the voices of logic and wisdom that his followers might glean from other sources of real truth. Those people called themselves Christ People and he used his manipulative talents to lead them into abandoning their own fundamental evangelistic beliefs and bind themselves to the Grinch by his influencing them to abandon their own search for spiritual truth and instead to become emotionally empowered by his captivating, toxic words. The tight bond between them was his promise to the Christ People that he would guarantee the passage of legislation for the entire country that would establish their narrow views of morality. That toxic relationship was one person manipulating an entire class of people and vice versa, that group of people excusing his character flaws because of his promise to pass their moral prejudices, making them into laws. In other words, it was as what commonly occurred in government, you scratch our backs and we'll scratch your back.
   The Christ People gave to the Grinch their adoration in exchange for his promise to legislate morality for the country by instituting their narrow, legalistic religious laws. Instead of their continuing to be Christ People, his followers became non-Christ-Like People, remade into the image of Grinch who had become their idol; therefore, he became their lord and savior, which was his goal from the beginning. The people who previously were called Christ People became Non-Christ-Like People by their allowing themselves to be recreated into the image of the Grinch instead of their God. Their new personalities distributed into the world his lies, division, discord, hatred, fear and prejudice, all in the name of legalistic religion and factious politics.
    The political agendas of the former Christ People's many ministers and evangelicals caused them to slowly become reprogrammed into Grinch People as they became more and more grilled by him on his ability to assure them that he could make their political policies become moral laws for the entire country. Their narrow minded political policies had become their new religion as the Grinch became their god and savior.
    There were many other people in the country who were not deceived by the divisive political and religious rhetoric of the Grinch. They instead recognized the evil in the lies that the Grinch spoke about everyone outside of his huge circle of worshipers. Outside of himself and his followers, his identifying everyone else as being demonic had begun to be the daily propaganda contained in Grinch's teaching sessions of lectures which he called his press conferences. In addition, almost every day he sent frequent social media messages to his constituents in order for his toxic words to constantly occupy the minds of his many followers to guarantee their being accepted as being normal and convincing.
   No one in his inner circle of worshipers was capable of reining in the Grinch from the constant spewing out of his outlandish accusations and lies, not his family, not his political constituents, not his followers, not federal judges, not the higher court justices. Everyone cowered in fear at the likelihood of being present during one of his wild and unhinged tantrums which were frequent with ever increasing vengeance pointed toward a large percentage of people in the country. Someone with governmental power such as the authority of the attorney general for the entire country needed to stop the childish tantrums of the Grinch but unfortunately that elected official had also been a Christ Person who became a dedicated follower of the Grinch, so he became the attorney for the Grinch instead of the general attorney for the country, which was illegal and immoral; but you must remember that the Grinch had no moral compass and he passed that trait on to his followers.
   An election was called and the Grinch lost the election because more people voted against him because they saw his cruelty to minorities, children, immigrants and his opponents. More voters voted for his opponent than voted for the Grinch. His followers continued to be blind to his ungodly character, his pride, his self righteousness, the pompous display of his bullying, his name calling, his mocking of his countrymen, his refusal to keep the constitutional laws of the country, and his willing associations with criminals and cruel dictators of other nations.
   In his falsely created reality that he himself had espoused and eventually also believed, his overblown ego contended that it was impossible for him to lose the election; and so the vengeful nature of the Grinch resulted in his stubborn refusal to give up his position as leader of the country even though he had lost the vote of confidence of his country by several million votes.
   The devotion of the Grinch's followers accelerated instead of decreasing as they swallowed his continuing claim that he was cheated by illegal balloting in the vote even though he had lost by several million votes. Of course they continued in their adoration of him as their savior because they had fallen hook, line and sinker for his lies that he knew more than educated scientists about the plague that had sickened many millions of people in the country. The Grinch had convinced his followers early on in the plague that because he had an uncle who was a scientist that he attracted the uncle's scientific knowledge to himself just by being in the same room with his uncle on occasion. The blind devotion that caused the followers to accept as truth such a farfetched lie falls in the proven category of cult leader and cult followers.
    The Grinch began to fall from power in the minds of a few of his political associates who had been his devoted supporters in the past. When they no longer saw any political benefit to themselves by being associated with a loser who had refused to accept defeat by demanding recount after recount, they began to call his resulting behavior childish and ridiculous along with a large percentage of the country. One by one his political supporters began to disassociate themselves from his paranoia, his narcissism, his self created reality, his lies, his infantile behavior and his stubborn denial that he had lost the election. His insistence that he had won the election was soundly based upon the evangelists and ministers of the Non-Christ-Like People who had told him that God said he would certainly win the election, no doubt about it. One of the ministers told him in front of a large audience that God told her that he was the apple of God's eye and that he would win the election. The false prophesies to him from the evangelists reinforced his own lies to himself that he was special to God and that he could not have lost the election. Obviously, the prophesies by the evangelists were just that, false prophesies.
    Still, even with some of his administrative staff beginning to abandon him, the Grinch remained the Grinch, mean spirited and self consumed. He continued to sue in different courts again and again for recounts, insisting that the election was illegal, a fraud and a hoax. All of the lawsuits were denied by different judges over and over again. Most of his cultish followers refused also to accept defeat. They hated to give up their flawed, cruel tyrant with whom they were willing to associate because they worshiped his various flaws as if they were virtues.
    This sad situation is also reflected in many stories in history books about flawed dictators whose fragile egos would not allow them to accept defeat. Without the endearing devotion of his political base that was made up of his children and his factious political party as well as the previous Christ People who had become Non-Christ-Like People by taking on his personality flaws and prejudices themselves, without their adoration of him the Grinch would not have been so convinced that he was the savior of the country and he probably would not have made such a spectacle of himself after his loss. Their worship of him turned him into a much more flawed personality than his own father had originally created by his own adoration of the Grinch.
    In the words of a prophet concerning another sad and tragic situation from centuries ago, the tried and true prophet's final warning also applies here:
     The prophet wrote this:
    "The oppressor has reached his end,
     and so the turmoil is stilled.
     The rod of the wicked has been broken along with the staff of the tyrant
        that struck the people in wrath with relentless blows;
     That rod beat down the nation in anger while the oppressor went unchecked.
     But the earth rests peacefully now and song breaks forth.
     Yes, the people, as trees, rejoice saying, 'Now that the tyrant is gone there
         is no one to cut us down.'
     The nether world below is all astir, preparing for his coming.
     All of the other cruel leaders before him wait to greet him.
     They all say, 'You, too, have become weak like us
         because you are the same as us.'
     Down to the netherworld your pomp is brought
         along with the words of your mouth.
     Men of power, be ready to stop his sons in the pursuits of their father
         lest they rise up and possess the earth again,
     Filling the breadth of the world again with tyrants.
         (Isaiah 14:4-11 and 21, The Bible, New Jerusalem translation)

ALMOST TOO MIRACULOUS TO BELIEVE

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 22:52:00 +0000

               ALMOST TOO MIRACULOUS TO BELIEVE
                                                           T. Wieland Allen

    What a Brother we have in Jesus and what a Father we have in God. There is an old song that says, "What a friend we have in Jesus," but I have come to know Him as my Brother because we have the same Loving Father. It is by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that I have come to personally know both Jesus and God. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual umbilical cord through which revelations of spiritual truth, spiritual wisdom, spiritual knowledge and His love are fed into us so that we can intimately know God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
    Early on in My adventure with God I had read that the apostle Paul wrote that his divine purpose was to become intimately acquainted with God until he knew the fullness of His divine power and His suffering for us. I determined at that moment that I would have that same purpose in my life, to become intimately acquainted with Our Heavenly Father. I spoke that phrase again and again while meditating, praying and reading scriptures. I remembered a song from my childhood that says, "Open my eyes that I may see visions of truth you have for me. Place in my hands that wonderful key that shall unlock and set me free. Silently Lord I wait for thee, ready My God thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine Me, Spirit Divine." I would sing that song over and over again as an appeal to God to open my spiritual eyes so that I would know him intimately and recognize His works in my behalf.
    I was committed to praying in the language of the Holy Spirit and meditating with my mind on My Heavenly Father until I finally knew Him one on one and face to face. It wasn't long until the Holy Spirit opened the scriptures for me. It was like a barrier had been taken off of my human mind and revelations began to pour into my understanding about the loving personality of God. It took a while for the old vision of a judgmental, vindictive God that I had been taught in childhood to be erased from My mind and a revelation of Him as being Unconditional Love flooded into my human mind by the tutoring of the Holy Spirit.
    From that time forth in my life, I have led an exciting, fruitful, joyful and exhilarating life in the earth. Almost unbelievable miracles have increased daily and for me every day has been a marvelous journey in this earth.
    The previous two miracles have been breathtaking for me and everyone with whom I have shared them. To prepare you for them let me tell you that my oldest son lives in the same town with me. That son is God's caretaker for me. He definitely is an extension of God's love in my life. He gives me great joy and peace as he and his family share their lives with me. He works for the regional VA office in our town and he works in the claims division of the VA office authorizing the giving of grants to veterans for educational purposes. I also have a son in San Diego, California and a daughter in San Francisco, California. That son has a degree in biomedical engineering and worked for years for the company that does most of the DNA testing for the US. My daughter works for a nonprofit organization which gives large sums of money for grants to help individuals and nonprofit groups to better the lives of people.
     At the beginning of the pandemic of the Covid-19 virus, I had joined with some intercessory prayer partners in praying every day in the language of the Holy Spirit for Our Heavenly Father to reveal to scientists an effective treatment to cure the virus and a vaccine to prevent the spread of it. We were committed to praying every day for discoveries which will relieve the suffering of mankind all over the world, knowing that the will of Our Father is the healing of diseases and preventing diseases. We have prayed many hours every day for miraculous discoveries for five months.
    My son in California who had previously worked in the medical field for 25 years was looking forward to retirement from his last job of doing general engineering for the past eight years and he was looking forward to retirement in two years. That engineering company had a cutback in management and he was left without a job, which was fine with him because of his anticipating retirement in a few years. He enjoyed semi-retirement by playing golf almost every day but he had begun to check an internet site for openings for engineers in case he decided to take a contract job just for a few years in case he got bored. A friend from his job in the medical field called him and asked him to go to work for him for a year. He was pleased. For a month I did not inquire about what he would be doing in the new job. One day while talking on the phone to him, I asked what he was doing in this company. He said that the company was going to do clinical testing for a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus and he was helping set up the lab plus eventually working in the lab in the clinical trials.
    I almost dropped the telephone when he told me that news. My prayer partners and I had been praying for months for God to provide knowledge to scientists for a vaccine and an effective treatment for the virus and here my son was going to be participating in a clinical trial on one of the vaccine discoveries. That news put me into a state of complete awe of God, just like other miracles He had performed for my family.
    In my job of working in the legal fiend for 60 years preparing court transcripts for federal and district court cases I had read about the inequality in the court systems of the USA for people of color, those being Native Indians, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians. I had often cried while preparing court transcripts at the lack of justice and equality portrayed in policemen, district attorneys and often judges in courts where there is supposed to be justice for all people. Living in the South, a large part of the injustice was toward Black people.
    When George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a long time police officer and it was recorded and the video was played on medias many times a day, to the disgust of the American people, I was hoping that the stark display of one police officer murdering a Black man without any look of compassion on his face would start a new movement of justice for people of color. I had ordered a book on the Best Seller list a couple of months before the murder of Mr. Floyd and the book was called, America's Original Sin by Jim Wallis. The book is a look into extreme racism in America and it contains Mr. Wallis' suggestions on how to solve the problem, which is based on training police officers on the supreme value of every person and also changing the punitive methods that the police departments, courts and prisons have been operating under that has not worked for 200 years, so maybe the new effective way of reformation and rehabilitation of lawbreakers and also police officers needs to take place. The book excited Me, giving me hope about the legal system in America because the old ways have caused unjust killings, beatings and injuries instead of reformation and rehabilitation.
   I was elated with the information in the book by Mr. Wallis about his suggestion of going into Black and White churches and working with the youth and young adults and training them on peaceful ways of instituting a revolution in the court systems that will result in changed lives of lawbreakers, police officers and entire police departments.
   I was so excited about Mr. Wallis' ideas and I was wondering how to get his book into the hands of police departments and the Black population. Then Mr. Floyd's murder happened. In just a two days Black young people and White young people began to peacefully protest together in cities with the Black Lives Matter theme. I was impressed with the media interviews of the Black young people who seemed to be in charge of the peaceful protestors in the cities of New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Minneapolis and other large cities in the USA but also some foreign countries. The leader/organizers were calm, orderly and peaceful, and when interviewed they all seemed to say the same thing, that there needs to be reformation and rehabilitation in police officers, police departments and in jails and prisons with prisoners. They all sounded like they had all read Mr. Jim Wallis' book about America's Original Sin.
   I was amazed that they all had the same attitudes that I had read in the book. I was so astounded that I began to wonder if God had blown a trumpet and all of those wonderful, peaceful but determined young Black and White people had obeyed the call for JUSTICE and had begun a peaceful march at the same time with all of the leaders of the marches saying the same solutions that I had read in Mr. Wallis' book about America's Original Sin. I was perplexed, wondering how someone had made it possible for Mr. Wallis' Sojourner movement to begin and quickly become organized at the event of the murder of George Floyd.   The peaceful marches were joined by millions of young people. I was elated with the peaceful protests but I was also perplexed that all of the leaders of the peaceful demonstrations were united in speaking the same rhetoric that was in Mr. Wallis' book about racism and his ideas for the cure. I wondered if someone had sent his book to people all over the world.
    My own daughter, 14 year old granddaughter and son-in-law had joined a youth march in San Francisco and we talked later about their being so exhilarated about the peaceful march and the quality of the speakers at the event that they attended. I told my daughter that I wanted her to read the book that I had just finished about how to cure the inequalities in the legal system caused by racism in America. I mentioned the name of the book to her and the name of the author, Jim Wallis.
   After a long pause my daughter asked if the Jim Wallis who is the author of the book is the same Jim Wallis who started the Sojourners movement?
   I said, "Yes."
   Again after a long pause My daughter remarked that Mr. Jim Wallis was one of her grantees and that she had given him a large grant to start the movement in Black and White churches to not only train the young people on how to have peaceful demonstrations for racial equality, how to reform the legal system that was unjust to minorities and also challenging them to encourage people to register to vote.
   I almost dropped the phone again at the encouraging information, as amazed as I had been with my son when he said he was working in a company who was going to do clinical trials on the covid-19 virus, for which my intercessory prayer group and I had been praying. In this instance with my daughter I had been praying for years for another 1960 revolution against racism and for equality in the entire legal system, plus I had a month ago read a book outlining Jim Wallis' plan for what I had prayed for years. And to hear out of My own daughter's mouth that she had granted a large sum of money from her philanthropic nonprofit group for Jim Wallis to further his vision of a cure for racism was a miracle that led me to sit down and cry tears of joy at the thrilling information I had just received on the telephone.
   I asked my daughter how she had convinced the Jewish family for which she worked to fund a Christian evangelistic movement on how to train future demonstrators in the peaceful way that Jesus Christ taught and how to train police departments on how to value the life of every person they arrest, treating them as children of God as taught by Jesus Christ. She told me that when Mr. Wallis' appeal letter landed on her desk she had researched the organization and Mr. Wallis to affirm the authenticity of the Sojurners and also the reputation of Mr. Wallis. After determining the efficacy of Mr. Wallis' organization and the need for the money, she had presented it to the Jewish family for whom she works which grants large sums of money for viable appeals. She had focused on the need to register voters, for which her boss was particularly interested. The funds the nonprofit granted to Mr. Wallis' vision for registering voters also benefited his vision for bringing justice to people of color and their cry for equality in treatment for all races in the police departments and the courts across the country. The miracle is that the information in the book relates to the teachings of Jesus Christ and His desire for justice for all oppressed people.
   As the saying goes, the miracle "blew me away." However God did it in His miraculous way was so encouraging. That night when I was meditating on the possibility of the incident, I asked God how He was able to involve My own daughter who lives 1500 miles away from me in His answer to my prayers and His own desire for justice for all people. I wasn't naive enough to think that I was the only person praying for justice for all people, of course there are many, many more. But I was perplexed how God arranged it without my daughter knowing that I was praying for justice for people of all colors of skin, and without my own knowledge that she was presented with the opportunity to arrange a large sum of money to grant the money for a project seeking for equality in the legal system was puzzling to me. That is why I asked Him how he did the miracle. His answer to my question came into my mind immediately.
   These words came to my mind, "I arranged all of it on one of those nights when you woke up from a deep sleep, couldn't go back to sleep, so you started praying in the language of the Holy Spirit and you prayed for hours in obedience to My commission for intercessory prayer warriors." He said, "It was one of those nights that you were wondering if your prayers in the Holy Spirit were doing any good. That's when I arranged all of it, through My words in your prayer language of the Holy Spirit."
    Tears flooded from my eyes again in my feeling of being overwhelmed with awe of God. Many, many times when I pray in the Holy Spirit, doubt in my human mind tries to rob me of the joy of allowing the Holy Spirit to solve problems and find solutions to problems by the devil giving me doubt that it's not doing any good at all to pray, but I'm going to continue praying anyway. Praise God that I continued on with praying anyway that night, even with doubt in my human mind. God did a miracle through the Holy Spirit's words that He spoke through My mouth and He spoke through the mouths of others of God intercessors which now puts me in absolute awe of Our Heavenly Father all over again.
    What an exciting life for a person to have when the person knows about the full gospel. I learned a valuable lesson, too, that no matter how much doubt is in my mind on whether I am allowing God to pray solutions to problems and answers to prayers into reality or not when I pray in the language of the Holy Spirit, I am going to continue to pray anyway. My Father told me how He does it and he said that I must persist even when doubt appears. I believe Him and I have experienced the wonderful results of it.

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sat, 09 May 2020 15:58:00 +0000

                               LOVE SIGNS FROM HEAVEN
                                                          T. Wieland Allen
   It is so thrilling to know God, the Comforter. He is always comforting people, but some people don't have the spiritual eyes to recognize His comforting gifts from heaven for them. I have experienced the marvels of the Comforter many, many times in magnificent ways. In one instance I had been praying for My grandson Stephen, that God would get him a new job with more stable supervisors and congenial workers. He definitely needed new surroundings and new associations that would benefit him.
   Many months prior to Stephen's needing a new job, I had a wonderful dream in which I observed a young man approaching a low diving board to do a dive. He systematically did a perfect approach, jumped on the end of the spring board, catapulted high in the air and did three perfect flips before entering the water, all in Olympic style. In the dream I was impressed, and when the young man walked in front of me I got a closer look and immediately, in the dream, said, "Stephen, was that you?" Stephen shook his head up and down affirmatively and started walking toward the dressing room. In the dream I said to him, "I am so proud of you and all of the family is so proud of you," to which his smile broadened even more. Little did I know when I wrote the dream in my dream book that events would happen in Stephen's life that required a lot of prayer and negotiations on his part.
   Several months later a situation happened in his life that required hours of intercessory prayer on my part, the part of his parents and also his part. It became apparent that Stephen needed a new working environment in order to maintain a good lifestyle. Our prayers continued on and on for him.
   I took a trip during the interim between praying and the answer to the prayers. On the return trip I was in a busy airport waiting to catch my plane for the return trip home. As I was approaching the gate which led to My plane, I heard music and assumed it was from the airport's intercom. When I got to my gate I saw a young Filipino man playing a ukulele and singing. That was a strange sight. As I passed the young man to get in line to board the plane he switched songs and began to sing one of my favorites, Over the Rainbow. In my youth I had sung it many times at all sorts of venues, weddings, showers, social events, churches, club meetings, etc. As I entered the tunnel leading to the airplane I heard the young man sing the phrase, "And the dreams that I dare to dream really do come true."
    My thought was JUST A MINUTE, I had a dream about my Filipino/American grandson and here is a Filipino young man singing my signature song that says that dreams really do come true. This incident had to be set up by God, the Comforter, to give me faith that the dream about Stephen would become a reality in the future.
     After I located a good seat on the airplane, I sat down and pulled out a paper and pen and began to write down the words to the song. I was flabbergasted how much it pertained to the situation relating to Stephen. As I wrote the lyrics to the song, the phrase "a land that I heard of once in a lullaby" stood out because I was researching and teaching about the kingdom of heaven coming into our lives on earth, which I was experiencing. Another comforting phrase was, "a place where troubles melt like lemon drops a way above the chimney tops," exploded in my mind. Yes, God can make troubles melt like lemon drops. That was what we were praying for Stephen.
    I wrote that wonderful experience in my God journal, as I call it, for future reference in case I needed a Red Bull shot of faith in the future. God had impressed me to write down supernatural events in order to give credence to God's wonderful interventions in my life. I certainly documented that experience.
    A few months and many, many intercessory prayers later, Stephen got a new job. We were so thrilled and were still praying that it would be the right job for him with the perfect supervisor and God-chosen associates with which he would spend many hours a day.
     Stephen was to start with orientation early on a Sunday. On the day before, a Saturday, I had awakened at 4:00 am and prayed intercessory prayers for him and my family. At 5:30 I did my breathing exercises and then got dressed for the day. I opened the front wooden door in order to observe whether the morning papers had arrived. When I peered out of the glass storm door I saw an unusual sight. A young cardinal was hopping around in the grass adjacent to the sidewalk. I have seen many, many cardinals flying around or perched in trees or power lines way up high but I never had seen one hopping around in grass picking up things in his beak. That junior cardinal, as I call him because he was still thin, had dual colored feathers on his body and topknot but there were some red feathers on his head.
     For some reason the junior cardinal reminded me of Stephen who is very tall, thin, and his beautiful, thick, straight black hair has a little cowlick at the top back of his head that sticks up a bit, just like the junior cardinal. I automatically said, "Well, good morning, Stephen." The cardinal must have been on his maiden voyage out of the nest. That little bird continued to hop around in the grass until I quietly tried to exit the glass door. Then he hopped right into the wisteria tree next to the sidewalk. The words came to me that Jesus said He would send the Comforter. That little junior cardinal comforted me and boosted my faith that God had everything under control that I had entrusted to Him.
     The next morning, the day that Stephen was to start the new job, my day progressed just like every other day, waking early to pray, doing breathing exercises, getting dressed for the day and then opening the wooden door to see if the morning papers were there. As I peered out of the glass door my thought was NO WAY. Lo and behold, the same junior cardinal was there but he was on the sidewalk closer to the door so I got a better look at him.   His head was almost all red and his topknot had ruffled gray/brown feathers, many of them beginning to turn red. His body had the same grayish/brown feathers as his topknot. He hopped around on the sidewalk as if parading for me, and my gaze strayed long enough to see a bunny rabbit nestled in the grass close to the bird. It was a restful sight and I took it as an effort to encourage me to rest in faith.
     The junior cardinal hopped off of the sidewalk and right over to the same wisteria tree where he disappeared from my view. Of course he was comfortable in the tree because it was my husband Steve's tree that I had bought and planted for him the year before he died. Of course that junior bird who reminded me of my grandson Stephen would nest in the tree that was a gift for another Stephen, his grandfather. My faith was at mountaintop heights by this time.
     That was not all of the miraculous events of the day. I grabbed the newspapers, commenced to fix my breakfast, decided to sit in my recliner and eat the meal so I could put my feet up. Before I read the newspaper, I reached over to grab a notebook sitting there, looked hurriedly at the front of the notebook and there on the opened page was the story about the song that the young Filipino man was playing and singing, the one that was confirmation that God was working mightily in Stephen's life. I read through the words to the song Over the Rainbow and realized that bluebirds were mentioned in the song, and here I had witnessed comforting sights from God using a bird, even though it was a red cardinal. Yes, there had been more miracles apparent even then.
     Jesus told us to keep our eyes open because we entertain angels of which we are unaware unless we have spiritual eyes to see them. God had sent that junior cardinal that reminded me of Stephen as a confirmation that He is working feverishly in Stephen's behalf. He confirmed it to me in signs from heaven.
      God impressed me that the new job is Stephen's second flip off of the diving board, the first flip being the way he had handled himself in a mistake he had made. He had taken complete blame, refusing to place the blame elsewhere. His responsibility impressed the people involved which resulted in many compliments to him and about him. Per my dream, there is one more perfect flip ahead for Stephen before he lands in the waters of life in perfect form, coming out of all of this like an Olympic athlete, per my dream.
       God doesn't have to confirm His miraculous works that he does in our behalf. He does it because of His unconditional love for us. We all need to pray for spiritual eyes to always recognize the miracles that He makes visible in our    behalf. The Comforter is definitely worthy of thanks and praise for what he has done for my family. Praises will continually be in my mouth for Him.
      Now, on to the next miracle.
      Life is so exciting!

THE SHAKING LOOSE OF CANCER

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 16:14:00 +0000

                                              THE SHAKING LOOSE OF CANCER
                                                                                 T. WIELAND ALLEN
     Even though it happened years ago in 1986, it seems like yesterday because the events that transpired are too marvelous to forget. To clue you into the events leading up to the event of the "shaking," I was born of the Holy Spirit in 1944 in a Baptist church in Borger, Texas and I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1978 in my living room in Muskogee, Oklahoma. It had been obvious in 1978 that I needed some kind of extra power in my life to overcome the hell that I had experienced by being married to an angry, alcoholic husband. His verbal and emotional abuse had beaten me down into a submissive, lifeless form of a woman. God's power of the Holy Spirit in my life by being baptized in His Holy Spirit had caused me to overcome the effects of the abuse rather than be under its control. Even though my husband Steve didn't change immediately by My having the power of God in My life, I was changed into a power filled child of God who would not take defeat as a way of life ever again. In 1979 Steve also had become born of the Holy Spirit and baptized in God's Holy Spirit and was changed immediately into the man that I loved and adored the rest of our lives together. We were different people by that time, being changed by God into happy, triumphant people.
     We raised three wonderful children and had an enduring family life. In 1986 I had a dream and I wrote it down in my dream book, after being encouraged to do so after reading a book by an Episcopal priest about how God speaks to us in our dreams. After writing down that dream I wondered what it meant, thinking that maybe it meant that I needed to pray for someone who was dealing with cancer. I prayed for whoever that person was, just praying a short prayer in the language of the Holy Spirit, the language of heaven that bypasses the human mind of the person praying and prays God's solution to the problem.
    The dream was very detailed and I wrote down every aspect that I could remember. In the dream I was walking around in a brightly lighted, clean white room that was a laboratory of some kind with lots of clear plastic cubicles containing material that looked like bodily organs of some sort. In the dream I wondered what was in those cubicles. Immediately into my mind in the dream a voice said that they were human cells that had been healed by God. There was no visible person in the room, only a "presence" of some kind. I replied back to the presence behind the voice that I wanted Him to put my cancer cells in a cubicle to be healed by God. Then I woke from the dream, not realizing that I really did have cancer cells growing in my body at the time. After writing the dream down, I forgot about the dream, surmising that my short prayer in the Holy Spirit had taken care of someone's problem with cancer.
    About four months later I had been swimming, was changing back into street clothes, glanced in the mirror and saw a lump on the top of my right breast. I felt of it and, sure enough, it was large. I occasionally did breast exams but had neglected it for a few months. I did not remember the previous dream immediately, but in writing down another dream later I noticed the dream about the laboratory and realized the laboratory dream was about me. I didn't panic, but was very concerned because breast cancer was still a death sentence for most people at that time. I immediately made an appointment with my gynecologist who had insisted that I take hormone replacement therapy to keep my bones strong and my heart healthy. I reluctantly took them, informing the doctor all the time that I did not like how the hormones were making my breasts feel, enlarged and sensitive. He kept insisting that my body was just getting used to the new med and he even increased the dosage of hormones instead of cutting back on them. I had told him that I had read that the hormones could cause cancer. He disagreed.
      At the appointment with him after finding the lump, the doctor checked the lump on my right breast and said that I needed to see a surgeon right away because the lump had grown so quickly. I had some trepidation in using anyone that the gynecologist suggested because I felt that he had misled me about the hormone therapy, so I called a good friend in a neighboring large city and asked her to recommend a doctor to me. She suggested a name but I had heard a negative fact about his personal life and didn't feel like we would have a rapport. My good friend Sandy told me that she would call a man whom she knew who was the administrator of one of the large hospitals and ask him whom he would suggest for me. Remember that breast cancer is always feared by women but years ago it terrified women and I was one of them.
    My friend Sandy returned My call the next day and gave me the name of a doctor suggested by the hospital administrator. I made an appointment and saw him within a few days. He examined me and said that he was suggesting a surgeon who was innovative, was even using alternate methods with cancer patients other than surgical removal of tumors. That pleased me, and I still had the dream in mind, thinking that maybe that doctor was going to use an alternate method of curing me, per the dream.
   My husband Steve went with me to the appointment with the new doctor in the city. The doctor read the gynecologist's report about the rapid growth of the tumor, examined my breast, called my husband into the exam room and with tears streaming down his face he told us that he was going to try to save my life because the cancer had obviously invaded the lymph nodes under that arm and spread to other organs. He wanted to immediately enter me into the hospital and operate the next morning. We needed to get someone to take care of our business in our own town, so we convinced him that if he would schedule surgery for two days later it would be more convenient for us. He agreed but warned us that the obviously malignant tumor needed to be excised as soon as possible.
     Steve and I left his office stunned with the news, having gone there thinking maybe he would give me the option of some alternative method. Instead, the situation became crucial.
     When we arrived home at about 5:00 p.m. Steve called our son De and advised him of the situation and asked him to take care of our business while I had surgery. Of course he agreed. While Steve made the calls to relatives, I knew that I needed to pray in the language of the Holy Spirit, per the dream about my cancer being healed by God. It had become a life and death situation after the office exam with the surgeon in Tulsa. I left Steve on the home office phone making calls to relatives and started walking around the entire inside and then outside of the house, praying in the language of the Holy Spirit. I had read about dramatic healings and I remembered the prophetic dream, so I was convinced the Holy Spirit's prayer language was the key to my healing of breast cancer.
   A long battle began with me allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through my mouth in God's heavenly language but the devil kept feeding into my thoughts the words of the doctor while he was crying, that he was going to try to save my life. It was a monumental battle between faith and fear. I kept praying in tongues and then I would sing a new song that came to my mind with the words that said that My Heavenly Daddy is bigger than cancer. I would go from praying God's solution in tongues and then sing the song of confession in God for hours. I prayed and walked from 5:00 p.m. until about 10:00 p.m. and became exhausted. Battling the devil is exhausting but the prayers in the Holy Spirit were empowering. At 10:00 I went in the house to talk to Steve, expecting him to also be praying for me. No such luck. He was sound asleep in front of the TV. I almost got angry at him, remembering the hours and hours and hours that I had prayed for him when he was an alcoholic. Immediately the thought came to my mind that if I got angry at him, it would invite the devil to control the situation and take it out of God's hands. I immediately forgave Steve, knowing that he had escaped the seriousness of the situation by tuning into the TV. It was his way of handling the situation, escaping into the TV. I woke him and told him to get in bed, that I was going to pray some more. I resumed praying and told God that it had always been Him and me together, anyway, fighting the devil. So I went back to walking and praying.
    In just a few minutes I realized that I was physically too exhausted to walk any more and my emotional energy was depleted from praying so much, so I went in the house to go to bed. Instead of finding Steve already in bed, he was sitting in his recliner in the den/library adjacent to our bedroom praying in the Holy Spirit, too. I told him that I was going to bed but he kept praying. I got into my nightgown and fell on our bed while still praying in the Holy Spirit's heavenly words. I could hear that Steve was still praying also in the adjacent den/library. In just a very few minutes I saw in a quick vision that a streak of lightning began connecting Steve and Me in an arch of power. It was only a few seconds before my body started shaking on the bed so dramatically that the bed began to slam against the mirrored wall behind our bed. It slammed so forcefully that it sounded like a sledge hammer hitting the wall. My body was doing the shaking that cause the bed to hit that wall so loudly. My thought was, "Oh, God, I didn't sign up for this." My body was burning up and I sensed that I was laying in a puddle of sweat on the sheets from the heat of my body's high temperature.
   Immediately I said in my prayer thoughts to God that I didn't want to do things that the crazy Pentecostal ladies did that we used to joke about, but I prayed these words in my mind, "If this is of you, Father, give me scriptures in my mind so that I know it's you." I had always asked God to give me confirming scriptures when he told me something so that I would know it was Him and not some deception. That night in those, shalI I say, unusual activities I really need his reassuring words and confirmation. Immediately the words came to my mind, "I will shake what can be shaken so that what cannot be shaken remains," and also the words, "For My God is a consuming fire," came into my mind. With those confirming scriptures from My Heavenly Father directly from the Bible I knew I should relax and enjoy the ride, which I did.
    Steve was alarmed by the sound of the bed hitting the wall and he thought I was having a seizure and came running into our bedroom to hold me down. I told him not to touch me because I was burning up and that his hands would be burned if he touched me. He took my advice, but he didn't know what was taking place because I had never told him about what I finally knew was a prophetic dream. The shaking stopped and I was so thrilled to be in the presence of God's healing power that I didn't move a muscle, afraid that it would all be over. Steve got ready for bed and when he came to bed he crawled in the bed the farthest away from me in the bed as possible. The rest of the night I was immobile, having been healed by God in a very dramatic way, per the prophetic dream. God covered all bases.
    The next morning when I woke I heard Steve in the bathroom getting ready to go to the federal courthouse to let them know about the events of the previous day, meaning the doctor's diagnosis and letting them know that he might be preoccupied for a few days. We planned to leave for the hospital at 1:00 to be checked into the hospital for a breast biopsy and possible removable of the tumor, removal of lymph nodes and other surgical things in order to save my life, which would happen the next morning. I knew that my life had already been saved, and it was saved right there on my bed when God burned out the demon of cancer and it shook my body dramatically when it left. Steve was a part of the heavenly drama and later told me that while we were praying at the same time that he saw a vision of a ball of light enclosing my breast, but the next day he still thought I had had a seizure. He said he would be back later for our trip to the hospital. I continued to lay in the bed, enjoying the presence of God. In my prayerful thought I told my Heavenly Father, my Healer, that I was afraid to get out of bed because I was enjoying His presence. These words came to my mind, "Today consider yourself an only child with all of My attention. You are in a cocoon of My love." That did it, gave me the knowledge I needed to know that wherever I was that day that He was also there.
   I showered and dressed but when I walked out of our bedroom a sense of fear struck me. I called my prayer partner, whom I had not told about the cancer, told her that I needed her to pray for us, that I had just been healed of cancer but Steve was confused and his unbelief was filling the rest of the house. She told me she would be at my door in five minutes, which she was. When she rang the doorbell, I opened the door and she stepped in. She said immediately that unbelief was so strong in our house from Steve that she needed to go back to her house and intercede for us. I knew I could count on her to be a prayer warrior for us.
   At the appointed time Steve came home and we loaded up in the car and drove to the hospital in Tulsa in silence. I felt like I was in a cocoon of love, like our Father had told me. When we entered the hospital admitting office and told the lady that we had an appointment for surgery, we heard a male voice tell another admitting lady that when a lady named Tommye Allen checked in that they needed to call him. The lady admitting me called out to him that I was at the moment being admitted. The man behind the voice was the administrator of the hospital who had been called by my friend in Tulsa. He came into the room and said that he was going to personally usher us up to my hospital room, which he did. When we entered the room it looked like a hotel suite. It was on the top floor of the hospital with a living room, a bedroom and a huge bathroom. Sitting on top of the table next to the bed was a bouquet of flowers from the hospital for me. I knew at that moment what God meant when He told me to think of myself as an only child. I was relishing in His personal attention, although I knew He was busy with others of His children, too.
    The nurse waiting in the room for me made us comfortable and asked what kind of surgery I was having. It told her I was having a beast biopsy but also told her that I had been healed by God the previous night. The nurse raised her hands to heaven and thanked God for His healing power. Yes, I was God's only child for a day. I slept that night in that suite at the hospital with the lights of Tulsa shining in the floor length windows on two sides of the room. Oh, the love and blessings of God were magnificent.
    They wheeled me into surgery early the next morning after I had met with the surgeon and an obstetrician who was also going to remove an IUD birth control device while I was anesthetized. I said nothing about the healing, somehow knowing that the surgeon needed to find out on his own with his own eyes that I had been healed.
    I woke in the recovery room after surgery by the surgical nurse who told me that the doctors had taken three biopsies of the tumor. She told me that the surgeon had taken a slice out of the center of the tumor, sent it with the pathologist to be biopsied, and he had come back into the operating room and said, "It's benign." The nurse continued with the story and said the surgeon said, "That's impossible." He took another slice out of one end of the tumor and sent it out of the room with the pathologist, who returned with the same news, "It's benign." The surgeon took another biopsy out of the other end of the tumor and sent it out for a final biopsy, thinking the cancer was certainly in that part of the tumor. The pathologist came back with the same finding, "No cancer."
    God had told me the night before the surgery that the operating room would be full of angels, so for me not to be afraid. After the three reports of the three biopsies the surgical nurse told me that she witnessed something she had never seen before in an operating room. She said that after the third finding of the biopsy was no cancer, that the entire room of doctors and nurses yelled hallelujah and cheered. She said they knew the prognosis had been one of an aggressive cancer so the operating room staff reacted with joy. I knew they were responding to the presence of the angels in the room.
    That night was the culmination of my feeling like being God's only child that day. I was not given a hospital meal that night. The hospital chef had prepared the dining table in the suite for a feast for us. The chef wheeled a white clothed serving table into the room on which he had the vegetables for a huge salad for both Steve and me. He mixed the salad in our presence as if we were in a five star hotel. While we ate the salad, he wheeled the cart away and returned later with appetizers of shrimp and huge lobsters accompanied with a bottle of wine. It was dark outside and the lights of Tulsa were strikingly beautiful as viewed from the dining table, adding to the ambiance of the evening. The next course was steak, a delicious cheese encrusted potato and asparagus with another bottle of wine. We were in paradise, with God joining in with our celebration. The final course wheeled in by the chef was bananas foster. The chef prepared the dessert at our table with the addition of the blaze of fire which makes the dessert bananas foster. It was a glorious celebration, all at the cost of the hospital, having been arranged by the administrator of the hospital -- or rather shall I truthfully say Our God.
   The next morning God impressed upon me not to tell the surgeon the entire story about the healing, that he had witnessed a miracle and he needed to meditate on it for a while. I only told him that God had healed me to which he said, "If I ever need prayer, I know who to call."   The doctor who removed the IUD during surgery confirmed the surgical nurse's comment about the cheering and high-fiving each other of all the people in the operating room after the pathologist returned with the third finding of no cancer.   He told me that he had never seen or heard of that happening in an operating room.
   On the way home that afternoon, I had the car seat laying back and was trying to assess the events of the previous 48 hours. I was talking to God in my thoughts and I asked Him if the tumor had been benign all of the time. Speaking firmly and emphatically in my thoughts he said, "I don't waste that much of My power on something that is benign." My weak reply to Him was, "I understand, Father." I had allowed unbelief to minister to my mind for a few minutes.
    I noticed that the doctor had not removed the tumor when I got home. When I had the two week post surgery appointment with the surgeon, he remarked that he did not remove the tumor because my body was consuming it and he wanted to see how long it would take for the tumor to disappear. It was a large one. He said that my body had consumed a small portion of it in the two weeks post surgery. When I had the six week appointment with the surgeon, he remarked that my body had completely consumed the rest of the tumor. He was delighted. I knew not to comment about praying and the miracle of the healing and the shaking and the extreme heat in my body. He had observed the miracle and needed to keep it in his heart and meditate on it.
    A shaking and a burning had definitely happened on my bed at home. I didn't know where to find the scriptures in the Bible but when I found them in the book of Hebrews I saw that they were related to God's shaking out of our lives the demons and their activities. The scripture says, "In times of old He made created things shake but now he had given us the promise that He would make the earth shake even more, and not only the earth but the heavens also, as well, so that the shakable evil things would be changed but the unshakable things of God would remain. We have been given an unshakable kingdom of God. Therefore, let us hold on to the grace that we have been given and worship Him in the way that He finds acceptable, in reverence and awe. FOR OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE." (Hebrews 12:26-29) We had participated in the miracle of the "shaking" of the devil's cruel works until they left me, and I experience God burning the cancer demon out of My life.
   It all started as a dream and culminated in a miracle. And I got to be God's only child for a day as a way to calm my fears and celebrate God's victory.
   The documenting of this story is to prove the love of God for His children. Now you know why I adore, revere and am in awe of Him for all of My days in the earth. We are so blessed to be called His children. I experienced the totality of His love and can tell you that He deserves all of our reverence and awe because He is LOVE.
   Seek to know Him and His love and you will find Him. I can attest to you that HE IS LOVE.

PRAYING AHEAD

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:36:00 +0000

                                                       PRAYING AHEAD
                                                                               T. Wieland Allen
   A lesson well learned is worth passing on to other people in order for them to also glean an excellent result from their actions. A Christmas trip to California was the necessary occasion for the happenings which could have been catastrophic time-wise as far as the result but instead turned out to work in my favor.
   My son De had planned to take to catch a commercial airplane in another town 50 miles away in order for me to ge to Sunny California for the holidays. He is always punctual and I was ready two hours and 15 minutes before the flight for him to load my two large pieces of luggage into my SUV and then we would drive the aforementioned SUV to the airport. We were well on our way in order to get me to the airport an hour and a half early in order to safely maneuver through security and get me to the gate where my flight was to depart. A problem had presented itself that morning in that fog was very dense and it was difficult to see beyond a few lengths of cars.
    A few days prior to our leaving for the airport I had checked on my flight schedule and notice that an early bird check-in was available for extra charge of $15 per flight. Since I had purchased my ticket for a little over a mere five dollars because I had so many Rapid Rewards points, I decided on a "whim" to go ahead and give the extra money to the airline since their Rapid Rewards credit card which I had purchased had resulted in my taking flights to California almost free for several times a year. Yes, I felt like I owed it to the airlines for allowing me to use my credit card for only a fee of $69 a year and I received four to six flights for five dollars per flight.
   I always thank my markdown angel who goes ahead of me and marks down everything I buy. The Rapid Rewards purchases go above and beyond the reason for which I got the credit card. In return, of course I did not have to wait and check in 24 hours before my flight in order to get a good number for standing in line for the flight. I would get an A number and be able to be at the front of the line at boarding time. Little did I know that that decision would be pertinent to my making it to the flight on time.
    The day of the flight my son De and I were on our way with plenty of time for me to check in, get through security and line up for the flight, even driving in the dense fog which had formed very early in the morning. However, as we left the state highway and my son De drove my SUV onto the turnpike which takes us very close to the airport, De commented that the engine light on the car had come on. That had never happened. The power in my car slowed down but then De could get it up to 60 mph for a short time. As I said, this had never happened to me before. In fact, the car had never had any corrective maintenance in the 13 years I had owned it. We were on a turnpike with no place to turn around and go back to my house and exchange my SUV for De's pickup, so we decided to make it to the toll booth slowly since there was no real speed to the car, exit there and drive on the other side of the turnpike back to my house and hurriedly exchange cars. The SUV did not cooperate with our plans because a couple of miles on the return trip to my house the car lost all power and refused to start again. The engine light continued to proudly display on the dash.
    That new situation left us with quite a dilemma, that being what to do since I had the purchased tickets to two towns in California and I had to notify the airlines within a certain time or I would lose the price of the tickets. There we sat, on the turnpike shoulder going in the direction of my town, not in the direction of the airport. I had, neglectfully, left AAA card in my wallet at home and the towing number for the Lincoln company didn't answer since it was Sunday. I started to call the airlines and cancel my flights but De insisted that he was going to get me to the airport in time although we were sitting in an inoperable car on the shoulder of a turnpike and time was flying by. We surmised that if we had been able to call AAA that it would probably take an hour for the tow truck to get there and I would never make it to catch the flight because if we went all the way back to my house by then, since some time had passed, it would be too late.
   After discussing the matter a few minutes, I suddenly told De that we should call his wife because she might have a suggestion. He agreed, to which he called her and told her about our dilemma. She said that she would call a local tow truck, send it on the way and that her adult son Drew would drive their second pickup to our location on the turnpike, give us their pickup, and Drew would wait for the tow truck while my son De took me in their pickup to the airport. It was a workable plan but Drew had to drive from their house to where we were, which was 40 minutes from their house.
   While waiting in the inoperable SUV for Drew in their pickup, a patrolman stopped to see if we were okay. We told him about our situation and I jokingly asked him if he wanted to take me to the airport. He laughed and said it was not legal for him to do that kind act.
   Finally our rescuer Drew arrived in the alternate vehicle. The only problem was that we were a good 30 minutes from the airport and 30 minutes from our town. When Drew arrived he was amenable to waiting for the tow truck while my son took me to the airport in their pickup. We threw my luggage into the back of their pickup, jumped into the pickup after giving to Drew a credit card to use for the two truck and the keys to my SUV. We were on our way, but in the wrong direction.
   De put the pedal to the medal and at least we were in an operable vehicle even though we were headed in the wrong direction. De was determined that he would get me to the airport on time, so he decided to use the emergency exit used only by the highway patrol and ambulances in order to get onto the other side of the turnpike. He pulled over onto the shoulder of the turnpike, allowed all cars to pass us, watched for a clear path in the opposite lane of the turnpike and drove his pickup so that it passed safely through the emergency exit with caution. After all, this was an emergency, not what the highway patrolman would consider one but it was a emergency to us.
    While speedily driving to the airport De admitted to me that several times while driving to my house that morning the thought had come to him to take me to the airport in his pickup instead of taking my car. It was too late for me to lecture him on listening to that inner voice of God because the fog had not lifted so I wanted to avoid any conflict which would interfere with his safe driving. We could see the highway directly in front of us and we could see the lights of oncoming traffic but De still had to be very cautious.
    We arrived at the airline entrance 15 minutes before the plane was supposed to leave the terminal and I still had to get my boarding pass, check my large luggage filled with gifts and go through the long security line before running down the long lengthy hall to the gate, which is not easy for an 84 year old lady to run that distance speedily, although I am in great shape.
   I quickly lifted my large heavy luggage onto the appropriate place and told the young man at the counter my name and my destination. He told me that it was my "lucky" day, lucky in that I had gotten the early bird check-in but also lucky that the plane I was to board was delayed 25 minutes, just long enough for me to get to the gate. He handed a paper boarding pass to me, even though I had it electronically on my phone. Having observed in the past that sometimes the electronic boarding passes are hard to register at the gate, I took the boarding pass and ran to the escalator which took me to the crowded security area. The line was long, but at least the plane was going to be a late in taking off, so it finally looked like I was going to make it. De had dropped me off at the airline entrance while he parked the car because he didn't want to leave me there in case I hadn't make the flight. As I started the run down the long hall to the gate, I heard him calling my name, "Mom," and saw him outside of the security entrance waving at me. Every other mom in the airport was looking around to see if some offspring was calling her.
   When I arrived breathless at the scheduled gate, the other passengers were lined up at the proper place and I slipped into my spot in line with the A31 numbered boarding pass for which I had paid for have early bird check-in four days earlier on a "whim", not knowing that it would be pertinent to my being able to leave on the flight. Also, I thanked God that, for the first time in the many, many years of flying that same flight that it had never been delayed except for the one time that I needed the extra time.
   I made it but it took divine intervention to get me there and a son who was determined.
   I had been a stressful situation but while waiting on De to pick me up that morning these words popped into my thoughts, "Don't fret. Don't worry. Have faith and take your hands off of the situation."   When those words came to me that morning I had no idea that there would be a stressful situation that day, but there was, and those words kept going through my mind like a ticker tape, cuing me not to fret, not to worry, to have faith and to take my hands off of it. What else could I do anyway? I couldn't sprout wings and fly to the airport so I had to take my hands off and trust God.
     Our Heavenly Father came through, as always. Now He gets the credit every time I tell the story. After all,, He wanted me to manage to take the trip to be with other loving family members to celebrate His Son's birthday. I felt like I had an engraved invitation. My own son had participated in the solution and his determination kept me calm and steady, even sitting on the turnpike.
    The entire scenario reminded me of a scripture that says to pray for one another so that you will be healed. I belong to a Prayer Posse in which we pray intercessory prayers for other people. Lo and behold, God performed a miracle for me according to His Love.
   He is truly the Best Dad!

REMARKABLE AND UNBELIEVE INSTANT TRANSFORMSTION

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 19:08:00 +0000

      REMARKABLE AND UNBELIEVABLE INSTANT TRANSFORMATION
                                                             T. Wieland Allen
     I used to marvel at the story in the Bible about Saul who met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascas and immediately became a new creature in his spirit, soul and body with the new name of Paul. The fact that he had harassed, abused and even killed Christians in his vocation didn't keep God from completely transforming him supernaturally and using him in a mighty way to bring the Gentiles into the body of Christ.
    In my early marriage to my husband, Stephen Allen was a drunkard and often proud of it. That demon of drunkenness created havoc in our marriage, in our finances, in the lives of our children and in our family life. Our children and I lived in hell on earth but to the outside world we looked like the ideal family because we hid the abuse and Stephen's intense anger that caused us to walk on eggshells, constantly fearing his outbursts for every little infraction of his ideals and expectations of us. We lived many, many years in that horrible hell.
   Eventually, however, Stephen had a miraculous encounter with Jesus Christ also, like Paul, and his story is worth telling. The most marvelous part of the story is that I had nothing to do with the miracle, I just prayed hours a day in the intercessory language of the Holy Spirit, praying for peace in our lives. The prayers of the Holy Spirit in His prayer language was my retreat from the reality of the hell in which I lived.
    First I must tell you that My salvation from the hell of living with a drunkard was that I had heard about experiencing the reality of God by being baptized in the Holy Spirit and that the experience was still for today, hearing about it from a well known and respected weather man in a large city adjacent to us. That weather man named Don Woods had sent to me a book on the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of praying in tongues after I heard him and his wife Jane speak at a small church gathering. The book was written by a married couple who were Episcopalians, like Stephen and me. I read the book and recognized that it related to the power of God of which I had read in the Bible but had never heard that it was real for today. The story in that book and the joyful lives of Jane and Don Woods convinced Me that the power of God through the Holy Spirit was what I needed to combat the emotional and verbal abuse, the harassment and the constant fear in which our children and I lived.
   After consuming the thrilling book about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, I did what was suggested in the book. I asked God to baptize me in his Holy Spirit and sure enough I began to pray in a heavenly language, one I had never heard before. I was fascinated, but in a few days I stopped praying in the language of God, even though I was constantly reading the Bible while Stephen was at work.
    One day while we were visiting my parents at Christmas time I was observing our young nephews Jimmy and John playing on the floor with their toys amidst the wrappings. I saw the youngest boy, who was still a toddler, engrossed in something else while his toys laid on the ground. As I looked closer, he was playing with a piece of cellophane tape that he had evidently pealed off of some wrapping. He was transferring it from one finger to another as it stuck on his fingers, totally engrossed in the tape. As I observed his purchased toys lying on the floor while he played with a piece of tape, the thought came to my mind that I was doing the same thing with a gift that had been given to me, a gift for which Jesus Christ had been crucified so that I would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to come live inside of Me with His prayer language. I had shoved God's gift to me aside also by stopping praying in the Holy Spirit, just like our toddler nephew was doing with the tape while his gifts from his parents laid on the floor.
   Needless to say, after that experience with our nephews I began to pray every day after I sent Stephen off to work and our children off to school. The more I prayed, the more powerful faith in God began to grow inside of me, the belief that God had a better plan for our lives. Little did I know that it involved an almost unbelievable miracle. Unfortunately, Steve's drunkenness became more frequent and his anger became more intense. Consequently the hell in our lives became more destructive.
   My spiritual friends constantly advised me to leave tracts around for Stephen to read or to invite him to attend charismatic prayer meetings with me. I knew that if I did all of that, that more and maybe even worse anger would erupt, which I feared. Every time I prayed I told God that I didn't want a green apple, that I wanted a ripe, sweet apple when my prayers were answered and that I was willing to be patient until that happened. I prayed hours and hours at a time, not knowing what was happening in the spiritual world around me at the time. I was just enjoying the gift that God had given to me.
   At Christmastime Stephen was in the habit of attending the after office Christmas parties of his attorney friends. Alcohol flowed freely at those parties. Stephen, of course, was invited to all of the parties because of his charming and entertaining personality. He was the life of every party. His habit was to return home often while drinking at any time from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. However, after one particular Christmas party that year he had called me after work and told me that he would be home at midnight. I didn't believe him because he was never in control of his actions after he started drinking. I spent hours and hours that night praying for him because he had previously wrecked his best friend's car while he was out in the wee small hours of the night doing whatever it was he always did. That friend was his banker, so no report was made to the authorities, I guess. I was concerned the night of the Christmas party that if he did the same thing that he might kill someone, so I prayed all night until 5:00 a.m. and then I went to bed. He had not arrived home yet.
   I woke with a start at 7:00 a.m. knowing that Stephen had to be in court that day to work so I ran downstairs to see if his car was in the driveway since he had not come to bed. When I walked into the sunroom of our home, I observed him passed out in his recliner but his car was nowhere to be seen. Later he told me that he had gotten so drunk that someone had brought him home and placed him in the recliner and then left. He had no idea who did that good deed.
   As I looked at Stephen passed out in the recliner, I was overcome with the love of God for him because he was so pitiful, his being a drunk with an important position in the legal system, but he was completely enslaved by alcohol. Instead of getting mad at him, I gently woke him and told him to shower and change clothes while I fixed breakfast for him. I started cooking a good breakfast for him, assuming he didn't eat during the partying the night before, only having consumed vast amounts of alcohol, as was his habit.
   Stephen came into the kitchen after showering and told me that he didn't have time to eat breakfast because he had to walk downtown to find his car. He had no idea where it was. It was a cold winter morning, but he insisted on walking to find his car. Downtown was at least two miles away. He said he needed to walk. I didn't know why but later I found out.
   Much later he told me that he had called out to God on that cold walk downtown and told God that there had to be a better way to live than what he was living. We were Mr. and Mrs. Church, involved in every facet of the church, but he was completely consumed with a dependency on alcohol and our family was ruled by that demon who enslaved Stephen, and through him it had enslaved the family.
   Stephen found his car and tried very hard for the next few months to refuse the call of the demon of alcohol but was powerless under its enticements. I just kept praying in the Holy Spirit for hours and hours every day and poured the love of God onto him, knowing the struggle that was going on inside of himself.
    After a few months it happened, the culmination of all of those hours of my praying in the Holy Spirit for Stephen, and it was miraculous. He was at his office in the federal courthouse and an attorney friend named Al called him because they both were knowledgeable about a mutual friend who had marriage problems. His attorney friend named Al said that they needed to talk about how to help their friend Mike, as if they had no problems themselves. They were two drunks trying to fix another one. So his attorney friend came to pick up Stephen at the federal building and they drove around for about two hours in Al's car trying to figure out how to help their friend Mike with his marriage problems. It was the blind leading the blind, two drunkards trying to help another person. But, it was all part of God's plan.
    After they drove around for about two hours without mutually finding any real solution to Mike's problems, Stephen told his attorney friend Al that he guessed that Mike needed to turn his life over to Jesus Christ like Stephen had. Then Stephen looked around to see who had said it. When Stephen realized that he, himself, had said that astounding confession without intending to say it, he started crying in front of his friend Al while they were in Al's car. Needless to say, his friend Al hurriedly drove Stephen back to the federal building and let him off at his office after Stephen apologized for crying so uncontrollably.
    Stephen immediately called me on his office phone and told me what had happened. When he told me that he had said he had turned his life over to Jesus Christ he started crying again on the phone and in the midst of the sobs he asked me what that meant, because in the Episcopal church that term is neither discussed nor is it ever talked about. Salvation in that church is believed to happen when a person is baptized as a baby. Stephen was sobbing as he asked me on the phone if I knew when He had turned his life over to Jesus Christ. He started sobbing even more when I told him that he had just done it when he made that confession in Al's car because he had confessed Jesus Christ as his Savior. I told him that we would discuss it when he came home that evening. Somehow I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not going to the clubs to drink that night after work.
    While we talked later about his confession to his friend Al and the glorious events of that afternoon, it came to me that he needed to seal his conversion experience. There was a couple of speakers I had heard about who were speaking the next night in a nearby town and I asked Stephen if he would like to go hear them. He miraculously said yes. I kept thinking, "God, how in the world did you do this?" My prayers had been answered but it was in such a miraculous way that I had trouble believing it. I had never heard of a person professing to have turned his life over to Jesus Christ without intending to do it.
    We had children who needed adult supervision while we left town to hear the speakers, and God prepared that part of the miraculous story, too. There was a student from ORU who was helping with the youth at our church and he had eaten lunch with us after church a few times. That young man called me the night Stephen made his confession to his friend. The young man said that was coming to our town the next day and asked if he could spend the night at our house before his Sunday meeting with the youth at the church. God miraculously provided the sitter for our children without my even asking Him. It was all part of God's plan.
   We went to the meeting of the evangelist husband and wife the next night in a city about two hours drive away. There was glorious praise and worshipful singing while we found a seat, and every time I opened my eyes and peeked at Stephen he had his hands in the air praising God and crying like a baby. My husband was a changed man. I was crying, too, at the miraculous event in Stephen's life. His having never heard a salvation message, never hearing about the need to turn his life over to Jesus Christ, he did that very thing with no inner desire to do it. It was an absolute miracle!
   During the meeting of the evangelist couple they asked for people to come up for prayer who wanted to be free of dependency on alcohol and tobacco. Stephen told me he would like to go up for prayer if I would go with him. I was still thinking, "God, how did you do this?" I did go, and a minister prayed for him. He neither smoked another cigarette nor drank another drop of alcohol the rest of his life. He was miraculously, supernaturally changed from the inside
   After a short Bible teaching at the meeting the ministers asked for anyone who wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit to come to the front. Stephen asked me what that was about. I didn't have time to explain so I told him that he might as well go up and get the whole ball of wax that God had for him. I was still in shock at the events that were happening. Here was a man who always make fun of signs that said that Jesus saves. Here he was, saved in a miraculous way, and going alone without me to the front of the meeting to receive another gift from God. He prayed with the evangelist to be baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and God gave him a double portion of his gifts. Stephen came back to where I was seated and told me that all of the people up there were praying in beautiful languages but his language sounded like a retarded gorilla. I told him that it was a beautiful language and the devil was trying to nullify in his mind the miracle that had just happened to him.
   At the hotel the next morning I woke and saw Stephen sitting on the edge of the bed in his pajamas with the Gideon Bible from the hotel in his hands. He was crying tears of joy again and said to me, "Listen to this: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that anyone who believed in Him would not perish but would have eternal life.' " Amidst his sobs he said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. He asked me if I had ever heard that scripture before. Of course I had many, many times, but it was the first time that Stephen had really heard it that it meant anything to him because the Holy Spirit was giving him joy from having experienced the events that that very scripture promised.
   Our lives changed dramatically, of course. Stephen apologized to me and our children for being such an abusive, horrible person and we forgave him. One evening soon after his conversion experience the devil tried to get him enslaved again to cigarettes by a strong temptation. Stephen asked me what to do. The Holy Spirit told me that we needed to pray in the Holy Spirit's prayer language together, which we had never done, and He said that the temptation would leave. We prayed together for the first time and in a few seconds, sure enough, the temptation left him, never to return. From that day forth we prayed together on every occasion in the Holy Spirit and we experienced the love and joy of the Lord in every minute of our lives.
   Stephen became a new creation in Christ Jesus in the twinkling of an eye. He became a new person instantly before my very eyes and it was God's doing completely. He had never heard a salvation message, had never read the Bible, had never heard the phrase "turn your life over to Jesus," yet he did it without intending to do it.   The liturgical church, to which we belonged, does not teach about salvation. They only teach about doing good works for the church.
   Over and over again after his conversion I kept asking God how He did it so miraculously because I had never heard of anyone turning his or her life over to Jesus Christ without intending to do it. Much later God told me that it was the hours and hours and hours of my praying in His prayer language of the Holy Spirit that the entire scenario was planned, set up and performed by the Holy Spirit. I had no idea that it was happening in the spiritual realm before it happened in the earth. I just knew that I needed to use the gift that God had given to me, as revealed years before when I had observed my two nephews playing on the floor, with the younger toddler playing with the cellophane tape instead of the newly bought toys. When God instructed Me to pray in the gift of the prayer language of the Holy Spirit that he had given to me instead of playing church, that is what I started doing, never dreaming that Our Father had miraculous plans for Stephen and my lives together in absolute unity with God.
    Every conversion is spectacular. Because the devil had such a strong hold on Stephen's life, he needed a miraculous conversion experience. He had one and he told his story many times at churches, retreats and to individuals. In fact, about two months after Stephen's miraculous conversion he didn't come home after court like he had always done after his conversion. My faith in him was not fully developed yet and the thought came to my mind, "Well, it didn't last.   There he is again going out to drink again with his drinking buddies."
    In a couple of hours he called me from his office and said, "You'll never believe who I just spent two hours giving my testimony to." Sheepishly I asked him who it was. He told me that a senator acquaintance who had heard about Stephen's new spiritual life-change and the senator had come to his office wanting to hear all about it. He had given that senator his entire story beginning with the night he couldn't find his car after a drunken episode all the way to his being baptized in the Holy Spirit, to which the senator was delighted with his new life. I have to admit that I had no faith in Stephen that night but I still had faith in God.
   Stephen's story needs to be told again and again so I decided to write it down so that it will live in posterity. It's worth hearing. I hope it was worth your reading it.
   When God has permission from us, he gives us ripe, sweet fruit that endures forever. He did it for Stephen and me and he will do it for you.
    Praying in God's Holy Spirit's gift of His supernatural prayer language accomplishes what God desires in the lives of everyone who dedicates themselves to praying. I just sat in my bedroom and prayed for hours at a time and God did the work. A person cannot pray for hours in his or her natural earthly language. Only with the Holy Spirit's prayer language is it possible. The scriptures say that we have the treasure of the Holy Spirit in earthen bodies so that the miraculous works of God will be of Him and not of us. I will praise God forever for doing the miracle.   All I had to do was pray.
   Isn't that absolutely marvelous!!!!!!! It's still a wonderful miracle to me and everyone who hears it. I hope it thrilled you, too.
   What He did for us, he will do for you. You just need to ask God to baptize you in His Holy Spirit. Jesus said that if people, being evil, know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to everyone who asks Him.
   Like I said, He did it for me and He will do it for you. It is through God's Holy Spirit living inside of you that precipitates all of your prayers being answered.
   I saw a man change from a drunkard to a loving son of God in the twinkling of an eye by merely confessing that he had turned his life over to Jesus Christ.
   It was an absolute miracle!

FOLLOWING THE MUSIC

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sun, 03 Mar 2019 23:36:00 +0000

                       FOLLOWING THE MUSIC
   T. Wieland Allen
   As we walk in this thing called life on earth, things can change quickly from the normal cadences of life and all of a sudden we are plunged into unfamiliar territory which can be either glorious or frightening. As we age, it seems like we can adjust to the changes more easily because we have experienced so many disruptions and eruptions in the many preceding years and we have found that the incidents did not kill us, although at the time there was an alarming fear that many of the incidents would be catastrophic.
   I just walked though such a situation, but this time it was different, very different. First you must know the incidents which unfolded almost ceremoniously.
Four days ago I had noticed upon dressing for bed that my ankle and calf on my right leg was a little swollen, not dramatically, but the affected ankle and calf was a little larger than the left one. I was puzzled, but the next morning the swelling was gone. I had no pain in that leg. That's interesting, was my thought, so I ignored it.
    The next evening, the same thing happened. My right ankle and calf was again slightly swollen, plus my right calf seemed warmer than my left one. I was puzzled, but since I had no pain I decided to give it another day before seeking medical help. The next morning the swelling was down and the ankle was almost equal in size to the left one. It was a strange situation, one I had never heard of. I surmised that maybe I had been bitten by a spider and could not locate the site of the actual bite, or it could be cellulitis, but there was still no pain, only the swelling and the feverish calf.
    The next morning, a Thursday morn, did not duplicate the previous two mornings. In fact, I guess the swelling persisted throughout the night because in the morning my calf and ankle were still swollen, plus my calf seemed more feverish than the previous two days. I didn't have any anxiety about it, no fear or panic, just the realization that I needed to be diagnosed by a medical professional, surmising that it would take a simple fix for what seemed like a minor malady.
    Was I ever wrong.
    After eating my breakfast I made the decision to drive to the Urgent Care facility close to my house instead of going to my primary care physician whose office is 15 miles away.   Realizing that I could be in and out of that good Urgent Care medical facility faster and then be on my way to complete three errands, I was at peace with the decision. My experience twice in the past two years had proved that I would get a good diagnosis at the Urgent Care and be on my way speedily.
    Was I ever wrong about the time element.
    It was 10:30 in the morning and I remembered that it was flu season and there were many people being diagnosed with the flu in our town, so I was surprised that there were only two patients in the waiting room. That Urgent Care facility was voted the most efficient in town and the doctor was voted the best doctor in emergency situations in our town, so I was lucky it wasn't crowded. It was only a few minutes before the nurse called me back to be examined by the doctor. A new physician greeted me and looked at my ankle and calf on my right leg, commenting that he needed to call in the other physician to also examine it, which he did. Dr. Shaun walked in, looked at my leg and said that he wanted me to have a sonogram on it to rule out a blood clot. He said for me to go to a cancer treatment center five blocks up the road and he would call ahead to alert the staff there so they would be ready to do the sonogram.
   I drove to the cancer treatment place, walked right in, filled out the paperwork and was immediately called by the technician into the sonogram room where she did a very thorough examination on my entire right leg which took about 20 minutes.
   When finished, the tech said that the attending doctor at the cancer clinic just happened to be in the building and she took the sonogram to his office to be examined by him. She said she would be back to tell me the results soon. I still had no panic, no anxiety, as if I were walking a path that had been peacefully prepared for me. The efficiency of the staffs at the two medical facilities was impeccable, for which I complimented them. It was reassuring to know I was in good hands.
   The sonogram tech came back to the exam room and told me that I needed to go back to the Urgent Care facility and see Dr. Shaun for the results of the sonogram, which I did. I got in my car and drove the six blocks back to the Urgent Care facility, still with a sense of peace and tranquility which seemed to envelope me. I waited a few minutes in the waiting room and then was taken back to a conference room where Dr. Shaun entered in about five minutes and told me that I had a blood clot in my right leg and I needed to be immediately admitted to the hospital which was a block away. He informed me that there was no room available for me but the hospital was working to arrange a room for me, so he instructed me to go home, to put my leg up and wait for his office to call and let me know that the hospital had a room ready for me.
   I left the Urgent Care, got in my car and wondered why I was so tranquil and peaceful when I had just heard such bad news. While driving to my house, I got a text from the Urgent Care facility, so I pulled over and read it, which said for me to turn around and get to the hospital immediately, which I did. I pulled into the front parking lot of the hospital, parked the car, began to get out of the car but remembered that there was a big hill that I had to climb to get to the entrance to the hospital. Since my leg had begun to hurt a little since the sonogram, I decided to call my son who works a couple of miles from the hospital, arrange for him to pick me up in the parking lot of the hospital, take me to the entrance and then park his car before meeting me at the admissions room. I texted him, told him I was being admitted to the hospital with a blood clot in my leg and asked him to meet me in the parking lot. He didn't question me; instead said he would be there in ten minutes, which he was. As God's orchestration had planned, he had just returned from an early lunch.
    These words came to my mind, "It's called God's orchestration, and you are merely following the music."   I looked at my watch and it was 12:02, an hour and a half since I had walked into the Urgent Care facility. I had been to two medical facilities, been examined, had a sonogram, been back to Urgent Care and I was in the hospital in which a room had already been assigned to me. It was as if time had stopped and I was walking a path that had been carefully laid out by God.
    It almost took longer to fill out the paperwork in the admissions office than the previous hour and a half at the two medical facilities. The kind woman in the admissions office got a wheelchair for me and escorted my son and me to my room on the third floor. Just as we exited the elevator on the third floor, the kind admissions woman said, "Well, look, there's your new doctor waiting for you at your room." She was as amazed as we were that there was a doctor waiting at my room for me, a cardiologist whom the Urgent Care doctor had called into the case. Following the music of God, the Great Conductor, was allowing me to experience a miracle every minute.
    As she pushed me down the wing, the cardiologist, met us halfway, called my name and asked if that was me. I said yes, and he told me to go ahead into my room and he would be right back because he had to sign in at the nurses' desk. The admissions lady was still in shock that a new doctor had met me at my hospital room instead of my having to wait for him for hours and maybe an entire day. In the room she allowed me to get out of the wheelchair and sit in a chair. As she exited the room, she said, "I know that Jesus is going to give you peace while you are here." I replied that yes, He already has and I told her that I know Him well. She was thrilled with my statement.
    It was 1:30, only three hours since I walked into the Urgent Care facility to be examined for what I thought might be an insect or spider bite and there I was with a diagnosis of a blood clot in my leg, and the protocol for the hospital treatment was already in the computers. It was a miracle after a miracle, after another miracle and after more miracles.
    How Our Heavenly Father did it, I'll never know the steps by steps until I get to heaven. However, that night after I conferred with the doctor about the protocol which would happen at the hospital, after I had an IV hooked up, after I had a shot in my stomach and was settled in for the night, I asked Our Father how it was all orchestrated so perfectly even before I knew what the problem was.
   Immediately the scripture came to mind, "Pray for one another so that you might be healed." Then these words came to my mind, "Because you have interceded so diligently for so many other people for so many hours and so many days lately, I orchestrated these miracles for you through your intercessory prayers also, as well as sending solutions to problems for the people for whom you were praying."
   That is what He meant in that scripture when He caused it to be written in His Book, that when we pray in the Holy Spirit's intercessory prayers, if there is any evil assault planned by the devil for us, Our Powerful Father speaks the solution to our problems out as well as the solutions to the problems of the people for whom we are praying.
    What a wonderful, efficient orchestra conductor He is. I witnessed His perfect orchestration in my behalf to supernaturally and speedily get me into the hospital where they know how to treat the problem because He has trained the physicians with His wisdom also through medical schools.
    No one else could do that kind of supernatural intervention in the life of one of His children, no one except a Loving Father.
    My mind is still in awe of Him, but I lived it and I witnessed it. It was the actions of a Wonderful Father who loves His children and meets our needs before we even know what the need is. That is what is so magnificent about it. He said he knows our needs before we do. He can only meet our needs when we pray; and the most powerful prayers are spoken when we pray in the Holy Spirit because they are God's solution to our needs and problems.
    These miracles are even more powerful reminders to Me to pray in the Spirit at all times as led by Him. After following the music of His orchestration, I understand His will in a deeper way. Praying in the Holy Spirit brings heaven to earth with all of its excellence.
    His prayers and His praise will continually be in my mouth. I hope this testimony brings praises to your mouth, too, so that you will pray in the Holy Spirit at all times and in all places which meet the needs of people in the earth.

BLESSINGS FOR KIEFER

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 15:58:00 +0000

BLESSINGS FOR KIEFER
                                                                                T. Wieland Allen
      There is no way to even anticipate or design or plan the wonderful ways that God works in our lives. My granddaughter Lindsey and her fiance Major have raised his brother Kiefer for two and a half years, rescuing him from an unpleasant home situation which was not conducive for a young man who is high on the autism spectrum to ever become self supporting and independent. Kiefer went from making failing grades in high school in his former environment to making A's and B's under his new environment, was inducted into the vo tech National Honor Society and received a certificate of honor from the Masonic Society of Oklahoma for being Student of Today. The promise of living independently became more and more possible as time went on and Kiefer's real talents and determination were unleashed in his newly structured and love enriched environment.
   As graduation from high school came nearer, Major and Lindsey began to investigate further educational possibilities for Kiefer and decided that Job Corps might be a good avenue for training in a vocation and also training in independent living. They were informed that Kiefer could not apply for Job Corps until after he graduated from high school. As only God can arrange situations and circumstances, one of Kiefer's high school teachers took an interest in him, decided to help Kiefer with his application because the teacher had taught previously at Job Corps. That teacher was God's first educational angel sent to assist Kiefer in being accepted into Job Corps.
   Knowing that it would be at least two weeks before Job Corps classes began, after sending in his application they believed that it would be a few weeks after graduation from high school before Kiefer would begin classes there if he were accepted. However, God had other plans, knowing that a student with certain learning limitations would need a more intensive orientation, God arranged for early admission into the Job Corps program for Kiefer. Only a few days after applying, Kiefer received a phone call asking if he could report to the Job Corps residential campus at 8:00 the next morning.
   It was a complete surprise for all of them. Sure enough, before 8:00 a.m. the next morning they were on their way to the Job Corps campus, transporting a very quiet and fearful young man into new surroundings and new educational training. His guardians were also a bit fearful, not knowing if Kiefer would fit into the program and if he would find friends who would be beneficial to him in his time of living at the campus.
   Another miracle awaited them. When they took him to the admission office there were three students congregating there who immediately welcomed Kiefer to the campus and said they wanted to be his friends. As Lindsey described it, they were all just like Kiefer, a bit nerdy but friendly and kind. The new friends, provided by God for Kiefer, told him that they were going to go to the RA and have Kiefer changed from his assigned dorm into their room in another dorm because their quad in a dorm had room for another guy. God had immediately provided new friends as well as new roommates, all perfectly suited for Kiefer.
   For years, since early childhood, Kiefer has always been fascinated with wolves, draws them, reads about them, researches about them, etc. As only God could arrange it, at his first introduction to Job Corps, one of Kiefer's new roommates at Job Corps was wearing a tee shirt with a picture of a wolf on the front. It was a tailor made reception for Kiefer, arranged by His Heavenly Father to make him feel comfortable and accepted. Who else but God could do that?
   After saying a quick goodbye to Kiefer and leaving him at the Job Corps campus, Major remarked to Lindsey, "Kiefer has his wolf pack at Job Corps." They felt they had left him in good hands with kind friends and an attentive administration who had arranged the whole scenario.
It was still two weeks until classes began, but the administration had used the time to acclimate the students to the new environment. They have taken field trips and just had loads of fun, which was necessary for those mildly challenged students to adjust to the new educational facility and new surroundings.
God relieved Major and Lindsey, and all of us who love Kiefer, of any anxiety that he could adjust to his new surroundings and living conditions. God provides all good things for His children. Kiefer has a special relationship with God. He enjoys the counseling from God that has allowed him to overcome bullying all of his life. Kiefer is a special young man and He is special to God also. Only God could arrange the entire transition from a protected home environment to a college type campus of learning for a young man who might be a bit limited in emotional and mental abilities but is hugely gifted in love, spiritual insight and kindness.
   It will be exciting to observe the other gifts from God for Kiefer especially orchestrated by Our Heavenly Father in the future. God is certainly able!

FLYING MESSAGES FROM HEAVEN

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 00:17:00 +0000

FLYING MESSAGES FROM HEAVEN
                                          T. Wieland Allen

   Heavenly blessings manifest themselves in many different ways. Several years ago My husband Steve was at MD Anderson Hospital being treated for a rare form of cancer. He was in his second year of chemotherapy and while waiting for him to have some tests I visited a bookstore and saw a ledger that I felt would be perfect for him in which he could write his experiences about his treatments. The title on the front of the ledger was "Just When the Caterpillar Thought Life was Over, It Became A Butterfly." It was perfect for the situation.
   I bought the ledger and gave it to my husband. The name on the front was meaningful to him. Even though the ledger only had one entry in it at the time of his death, because my husband Steve was not a person who liked to read or write things, the importance of the name on the front of the ledger still lingers on. Soon after I gave the ledger to him, a friend emailed to us a cartoon of a butterfly flying low while attempting to pull its heavy cocoon up some stone steps. The butterfly was a blue morpho butterfly. That particular butterfly with the name "morpho" was significant because Steve was struggling at the time with chemotherapy and he later changed from being a spiritual man in a physical body into a spirit in a new heavenly body.   He morphed from being merely a physical man into being a spirit in the presence of God in heaven.
   The color of that particular butterfly became a symbol of my husband Steve after his body died and his spirit, the real Steve, went to heaven. So you can see why the reason the blue morpho butterfly means so much to me, because Steve had actually morphed from a physical body into a spiritual body after getting rid of that old diseased body, which was represented by the cocoon in the cartoon. There have been several miraculous instances where pictures of blue morpho butterflies have appeared out of nowhere on things as encouragement to members of my family and to me. They were merely pictures, not a live butterfly.

    A few months ago when I was going to a doctor for some tests that were unfamiliar to me, I was a bit anxious. I was not really worried, but just a little anxious because the tests were unfamiliar. The morning of the tests, I just happened to look out the kitchen window and there was a real, live blue morpho butterfly drinking pollen out of the many hundreds of red periwinkle flowers in a hanging basket that stretched at least three feet downward. That butterfly went from flower to flower all the way up and down and all around the hanging basket taking its slow, easy time, as if waiting to be recognized. I knew immediately that it was a message from God and Steve for me to relax, that the doctor's appointment was no big deal. I went to the doctor's office very relaxed after seeing the live blue morpho butterfly for the first time after only seeing pictures of them for five years. Sure enough, everything turned out fine in the tests. It's been at least three months and no butterfly of any color has been back to that hanging basket since that event. The appearance of the blue morpho butterfly was especially for me as a cure for that anxious feeling that day. Its appearance did what God intended.
   Several months later my granddaughter Lindsey told me that she, her boyfriend Major and Major's brother Kiefer were at the boys' grandpa's house in another city and while they were around the pool a blue butterfly landed on Kiefer's arm and stayed there. It walked up and down his arm. The butterfly was so sedate that Linz was easily able to get a great picture of it. The blue butterfly stayed on Kiefer's arm a long time. Lindsey put her hand close to Kiefer's arm and the butterfly walked right onto her hand and stayed there a few minutes, then flew back to Kiefer's arm, staying there a few minutes flittering its wings as if to say, "Notice me. I'm sent to give you faith." Lindsey texted to me a picture of the blue butterfly. Yes, it was not just a blue butterfly, it was a blue morpho butterfly, a symbol to me that good supernatural changes are on the way.
   Lindsey said that they could see the underside of its wings and they were orange and green. It was definitely a supernatural experience for them. It was God and her Grandpa Steve telling her and Major that Kiefer's future is going to be okay. Kiefer is high on the autism spectrum and as an 18 year old he is having normal problems just like other 18 year old guys, but he also has the additional problems of having some limitations from being on the autism spectrum. His hopes and their hopes for his future is that he will be able to live independently. Decisions need to be made that will enable him to fulfill his dream of living independently, able to support himself, live alone and have a normal life with some supervision.
   Linz said that the blue morpho butterfly stayed around them a long time that day, flying around their heads and then landing on either Kiefer or Lindsey's shoulders for a while that afternoon. There did not seem to be any sign that the blue morpho wanted to be anywhere else. There is no doubt to me that the event was sent to encourage all three of them. Major has guardianship of Kiefer so he is faced with a lot of decisions for both of their futures.
   Kiefer is a very spiritual young man. He loves God and is a very loving person, even to people who bully him because of his limitations. Some of his writings have wisdom and insights well beyond his years and abilities. He has that extra faith and sensitivity that enables him to perceive spiritual things that other people his age and many of his elders don't perceive or understand.
    God told us to be on the watch to recognize when we are entertaining angels, that they are always around us even though we are not aware of them. There is no doubt in my mind that in both instances, the blue morpho butterfly on my red periwinkles and also the blue morpho butterfly that visited Lindsey, Major and Kiefer, that they were sent from heaven to be an encouragement to us. That is what the events produced, faith and encouragement when both were needed.
   Both supernatural events are worthy of our praising God for sending messengers from heaven to bring good news to us and give us peace.
That's what God does, always sends peace and love to us. He uses what is important to us so that we recognize His presence.
We have a lot of faith now for Kiefer's future. God's sending the special butterfly did what it was sent to do, give faith and encouragement to all of us.
Both supernatural events resulted in My giving thanks and praise to God, who always meets our needs. He knows our unique and special needs and He supplies what we need, even unusual butterflies to hang around until we recognize their presence as a supernatural visitation from heaven sent from a loving God to encourage us that He loves us and will meet our needs. How fortunate we are to have eyes to recognize the special gifts. Kiefer has always had had eyes to perceive and ears to understand spiritual things. That's why he is so blessed. He writes about them and spreads the good news.

FORGIVING AND FORGETTING

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sat, 10 Jun 2017 22:48:00 +0000

THE STRATEGIES OF FORGIVING AND FORGETTING
     The first time that I met Kiefer, who is my granddaughter's fiance's youngest brother, he had a spiral notebook in his hand ready to share with me some of his writings. He is high on the autism scale but at 16 he was able to communicate at his age level with a few restrictions. One of the restrictions is that he is impulsive and if a thought comes into his head that he thinks needs to be shared, he interrupts the conversation and insists on speaking his mind or give his opinion. Sometimes his interruptions have nothing to do with the topic of conversation, but suffice it to say that he has a lot to comment, no matter who is present.
   At our first meeting Kiefer asked me if I would read some of his writings. I was astounded by the first writing in the notebook. It was about forgiveness, which to me was a subject that I thought would be the last one that he would have any insight into. The subject was about bullying and how he learned to deal with forgiving bullies, which to a person of limited mental and physical abilities is a daily occurrence. He did not tell about any specific instance of being bullied in his writings but the important subject matter was how he learned to forget an incident after forgiving someone for hateful words, demeaning words, physical abuse, mental abuse, fear after being shoved into lockers at school and other horrible instances that he had suffered every day of his school career.
    The writing related to a particular day in which he had suffered a cruel event from a boy at school that not only hurt him emotionally and physically but also caused him much embarrassment in front of a gymnasium full of male and female students. He wrote that people were always telling him that he just needs to forgive the bullies and then forget it. With his limited knowledge relating to psychological strategies, he wrote that he was confused about the forgetting part because it was impossible to erase from his mind the events that injured him so deeply. After several people again told him to forgive and then forget, he needed some insight into the action of forgetting when the event was indelibly imprinted upon his mind, along with the mental pain and the physical pain. He was determined to find out how to forget, which adults insinuated to him was so easy to do.
   He wrote that in his prayers that night he told God that he didn't understand why he was supposed to forgive and then forget when he had been so hurt. Suddenly these words came to him, FORGIVE, ASSESS, LEARN and then FORGETt. His insight into the strategy astounded me. He wrote that it came to his mind that first he must as an act of his will decide to forgive a bully. He said that it is a decision that he needed to make, just make up his mind to forgive the bully without feeling forgiveness.
   Then it came to his mind that after he decides to forgive a bully that he must assess the situation, think about the bully's objective, the bully's intelligence level, the bully's personality and anything else that comes to his mind relating to getting inside of the bully so as to understand him and his motivations, such as maybe the bully is just plain mean and bullies other people, people with disabilities and people without disabilities. He wrote that assessing the situation brings understanding and will cause Kiefer to learn from the situation, learn not to get around the bully, learn how to react in a kind way to the bully so that Kiefer will win in the situation.
   Kiefer wrote that then after forgiving, assessing and learning, the next step is that he would have the ability to forget the bullying because what he will remember is the lesson that he learned.
Kiefer's final paragraph in the essay proclaimed that the way to forgive and to forget is to first forgive merely by choosing to forgive as a decision, then assess the situation, learn the lesson that comes from the assessment, and then forget the incident but remember the lesson learned. So the process is really to forgive, assess, learn and forget, not just merely to forgive and forget.
   I learned a lesson from reading his heartfelt essay. When I read about the assessing part, I was reminded of the scripture that says to reason together with God about everything in order to gain wisdom and insight which brings knowledge. Combine that with the scripture that says people perish without knowledge. Kiefer was perishing without knowledge of the real way to forgive and forget. God explained to him that there are two other steps on the way to forgetting a hurtful incident after forgiving the bully. Those two steps are assessing and learning.
    It's said that a little child will lead us. The simple little child inside of Kiefer allowed him to do what he instinctively knew would help him, first go to God for His explanation. When you hear truth from God, then you are free because truth makes you free.
    Remember Kiefer's formula: FORGIVE, ASSESS, LEARN AND FORGET.
    It works.

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 15:24:00 +0000

                  A SYMPHONY PLAYED IN PERFECT TUNE
                                                         T. Wieland Allen
    God's orchestrations continue to amaze and thrill His children with surprises and harmonious events. He never ceases in His ability to orchestrate situations for His children which work to answer their needs and solve their problems. For the participants in all of His harmonious works that He performs, it often takes their breath away because the events are so supernatural in their perfectly designed schemes which are performed with such love and specificity.
    Such an orchestration happened recently in the lives of a group of ladies who meet weekly for prayers and studying God's Instruction Book. We are used to magnificent happenings from Our Father which cause delight and joy. Each event produces emotional results like it was the first time that we have seen His supernatural help appear so effortlessly in our behalf. All that we do is believe that he is the designer of all good things and that He proves Himself as the great orchestra leader.
    We were asked by a friend to meet at her house and bless her new house. The husband of our friend is a minister and we were complimented to be asked to lead the house blessing. The first thing we did was go on line and search for house blessings. There are hundreds of them, Catholic ones, Protestant ones and ones from other religious organizations. All of them had the same type of blessings and prayers but they just didn't seem to fit this particular couple. The ones that were on line seemed kind of cold and impersonal. It kept coming to my mind that we should only depend upon the Holy Spirit to provide His words of blessing for the beautiful home. While waiting for the appointed day to arrive, we occasionally would consult the printed blessings but there was still no feeling that they were right for this occasion. It began to be exciting to see what the Holy Spirit was going to do when we arrived at the home on the specific day.
    A week before the event, I was in Hobby Lobby buying yarn to send to my granddaughter and while there I saw a large gray satin throw pillow upon which the words "Bless This House" was printed in white lettering. The pillow had white satin piping around it and the lettering was encircled by a wreath of white cotton bolls. It was provided by God for sure. The only thing that concerned me was the presence of the cotton bolls, but the pillow was so beautiful and it had the right message on it, so I overrode my concern about the cotton bolls and bought it for the hostess of the home.
    The night before we were to gather and drive to their home in another city, as I was going to bed I was talking to God about the blessings of the house, telling Him that I was excited to see what He was going to do to bless the particular new house. As I laid down to sleep, words began coming to my mind relating to each room of the house, the husband's study, the wife's study, the den, the entry hall, the kitchen, the laundry room, the garage, the yard and even the front door. I began to write on paper with a pencil the blessings that came to mind. Even though I knew that God would provide the right words the next day, I surmised that maybe those blessings for each room that came to mind were the guidelines for the blessing.
     I slept like a baby that night, knowing that the guidelines were provided. Waking early the next morning was no problem for me, it's my waking time in order to write a God blog, as I call it, every morning. Instead of writing the blog, it came to my mind to type the blessings on the computer, the ones that had come to mind the night before, and I felt that I was to print out enough copies for the ladies and the homeowners. I did it, typed them and printed copies to be used as a guide that day in blessing the house since it was a new experience for us to be asked to participate in blessing a house.
    About an hour after printing the copies, a gastrointestinal flu hit me, one which had been making its rounds in our town. I began to have horrible symptoms, running back and forth to the bathroom as the symptoms progressed. I knew it would be impossible for me to go with the ladies to bless the house. They are spiritually astute ladies and are well able to carry on the work to which we were called. I put the special pillow in a large gift bag, added the copies of the blessing for each room of the house and put them in a place for some of the ladies to pick up before leaving for the home of the friend who was anxiously waiting for us to help her bless her new house.
    The orchestration continued with a little confusion because of the change in my plans, but several of the ladies were able to join with the hostess at noon. Later the report came back to me that the individual room blessings that the Holy Spirit had given to me the night before were perfect in every way as the group of ladies entered each room and read God's blessing for that room. As an act of celebration and generosity, the hostess had provided a banquet of delicious food for the ladies.
    When the hostess opened our housewarming gift for her, she was overwhelmed with the light gray satin throw pillow. Her couch is dark gray and the pillow enhanced the beauty of the couch.   The biggest surprise for me of God's perfect orchestration was that the hostess had been raised on a cotton farm and so the cotton bolls on the pillow were God's signature that the hostess needed, her sign from God that her house is definitely abundantly blessed. Only God could design the perfect pillow and then send it to her with His signature on it that only she would recognize. That's the way Our Heavenly Father does things. He puts his signature on each personal symphony that He creates for the harmonious and miraculous events in our lives.

     The blessings for each room of her house and the personally designed pillow are Our Father's confirmation to our dear friend and to us that He cares about every little detail in our lives.   His personally written blessings provided God's "amen," His "so be it" to the day, one which was very, very special for the hostess, for her husband, for the ladies who were in attendance, and for me. I received the good news later about the success of the personal house blessings written by the Holy Spirit and the love of the hostess for the unique and special pillow which was personally designed for her without my knowledge of it. It is a loving Father who creates that kind of harmonious orchestration.
     He wants to orchestrate every decision that we make, every step that we take and every word that we speak. When we allow Him to do his designing and his orchestration, He creates heaven on earth for us.   Now, that is a loving, spiritually artistic Heavenly Father who is well tuned to our needs.
     Let Him lead and orchestrate your life. He does a superior job!

AMAZING ORCHESTRATIONS

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 16:52:00 +0000

                                            AMAZING ORCHESTRATIONS
                                                          T. Wieland Allen
    How does God do the things that He does? It's just too much for the human mind to even explore. I don't doubt that He is powerful and loving. He has proved that to us over and over. My problem is that I don't know how He gets humans to cooperate with Him in being at the right place at the right time. We can't even arrive someplace when we need to be punctual, so my amazement is in the fact that He can get six women to be someplace at the same time so He can work one of His magnificent miracles in a time of need.
    The Prayer Posse, as we were labeled by a friend, meets every Tuesday for lunch, testimonies, praying and studying about our favorite subject, which is Our Heavenly Father. We have experienced miracles after miracles too numerous to name here, and some are so supernatural that they have "blown our minds", as we often say.   We often just sit in awe of His magnificent works because words are inadequate to express our thankfulness and amazement at His wonderful ways. Tears fall from our eyes because our hearts are too full to speak our gratitude but the awe that we feel has to be expressed some way, so tears of joy fall from our eyes as we reflect on His love and kindness.
      His latest divine orchestration is fresh on our minds so the story needs to be written before the next one occurs and we forget to give value to His mercy and love in the present one. The actual first act of the heavenly appointment began a week before the situation arose in which God manifested His ability to gather six ladies together in order to be part of a divine appointment. At the previous meeting the week before the divinely appointed gathering, we were discussing where we would meet the following week. The lady whose turn it was to host us at her house was recuperating from a bad fall, so we asked her if she would like to host us next week at Jim and Em's Coffee House where we meet every fourth Tuesday of the month. It had only been a week since we had met at Jim and Em's Coffee House, but we knew that we would be welcome again at that wonderful establishment. Jim and Emily, the father and daughter owners, graciously let us meet in a special room so that we can be alone to pray. That loving act of kindness on their part has resulted in a harvest of blessings from God for them and for us.

    Yes, we decided to meet the next week at the coffee house instead of in the home of one of the members. On the day of the next meeting, there were six ladies in attendance, one from far away in another city. We ate our delicious quiches for lunch and enjoyed flavored coffees and teas to our hearts' content which were served to us by Jim. We had given testimonies of answered prayers and were ready to pray when the door to the kitchen opened and Jim entered the room with tears streaming down his face. He said, "I need you ladies. Mary was just found dead."
    Mary was Jim's wife and Em's mom. A more loving and kind family cannot be found in the earth, and Mary's passing was much too early for her 58 years. As Jim stood there sobbing after just learning about the death of his dear wife, we sat in shock for a few seconds, but then as if being called by Our Father to the ministry of consoling a brother in the Lord, we all rushed to surround Jim with love, hugs, prayers and our own floods of tears. All seven of us stood there in the room as a unified cluster of heartbreak and unbelief at the news of the passing of a beautiful and loving wife, mother and friend.
   Prayers flowed from our mouths for God's peace to minister to this wonderful man whose wife of many years had been snatched out of his life. After a few minutes, Jim broke free from our embrace and went into another room to tell Emily that her mom was no longer a part of their earthly lives. It was a beautiful, yet horrible, sight to see the two of them locked in a loving embrace with each other, grieving from the depths of their beings. It will be a long time before we stop hearing in our minds the heart wrenching, "No. No. No," that came from Emily's mouth which broke our hearts. I know the words of agony reached into the ears of God, breaking his heart also.
   There were things to do, and so their embrace released as Jim paced for a minute deciding what to do first. Emily was immediately surrounded by the praying ladies and she was covered with God's love in the midst of the prayers for Our Father's wonderful mercy to comfort her.
    We told the two of them to leave and we would clean the establishment and lock up. They took our advice and left to go on to their unpleasant, sad, but necessary duties ahead of them. We stood for a few minutes in awe of God that we had been there when we were so badly needed, even though we weren't supposed to be there in the normal course of events. We could hardly move because we were in such awe of God, knowing that we had been afforded the pleasure of representing Our Loving Father God in the lives of people who love Him also and who had been so good to us for so long.
    Eventually we attacked the work at hand, washing the dishes, cleaning the premises, emptying the trash and leaving our blessings there for a wonderful family who has incorporated us into their own family and has always given us special treatment by allowing us to meet and pray at their business. Nobody else would have done that for us.
    We have needed Jim, Mary, Emily and Jimmy in the past, and they have graciously supplied our needs. God arranged it so that we would be available to be with them when they needed solace, encouragement, prayers and, yes, communal tears when they received the horrible news that their beloved Mary had passed on from this world. It seemed too soon to us, but the fact that He called us to be with Jim and Em when they needed special love was enough to comfort us. We knew that Mary was in God's beautiful garden of love, but we also knew the burden was heavy for the family at the time.
    Being part of God's perfect orchestration and divine appointment put us in such awe of Him that we were almost speechless.   That's unusual for our group, being speechless, but God's awesomeness makes a person void of words because no human words are adequate. In those wonderful times, our spirits worship Him in spirit and in the truth of His majesty. Yet, no human words suffice at those times.
    We will all miss Mary but our loss is nothing compared to the family's loss. We hope that Jim and Em are comforted in the realization that God supplied six ladies to love and comfort them when they were so much in need of His comfort. We merely supplied the hugs, kisses and loving words on a day when we weren't even supposed to be there. It was the least we could do. They have done so much for us.
    God sees that everyone is reciprocated. Love seeds produce love plants. We can attest to that.   Mary is present in God's garden where the love plants grow. We will see that her family is loved abundantly, maybe not as much as she was able to love them, but we will do our best.
    How does He do it? How does He get six ladies who are never punctual to be at an appointed place at His appointed time to be part of His divine plan?   I don't know how He does it, but we are so fortunate to have been included in it so that we can continue to be in awe of Him. It's the awe of Him that is the beginning of wisdom. We should be the most wise women in the world because we stay in awe of God and His love continuously, He is an awesome Father.

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 23:31:00 +0000

                                               HOPALONG CATHI
                                                                T. Wieland Allen
       I know, I know, the old cowboy hero was named Hopalong Cassidy but my friend who just went to heaven to live with God will, from now on, be referred to by the name Hopalong Cathi. It's quite a story and one worth putting in black and white to memorialize her wonderful life and the sunshine she brought to so many people.
      It begins with a ladies prayer group who began meeting many years ago, over 30. We are from different denominations, Baptists, Catholics, Assemblies of God, Episcopalians and Methodists. We were supernaturally gathered together by God in various ways, each one unique in its orchestration. We don't have any doctrine because doctrine separates people rather than gathering them together.We get together every week to study to get to know God better and to pray for the problems of people. I got to know Cathi and her many talents in the group called the Prayer Posse. All of us became close friends, more like sisters.
   Years later a terrible tragedy struck Cathi's family. She had a massive stroke, a terrible thing to happen to a person. Later on in the week Cathi had a series of other strokes. Until hearing about the last series of small strokes, we were planning on her recovering completely and going home to live with her loyal and loving husband Steve. So, rather than getting her flowers for her return home, it came to me one day that her prayer partners, her spiritual sisters, should get her some form of yard art since she was a constant gardener of flowers and small patches of veggies. Most of her days previous to the stroke had been spent outside with her hands in dirt.
   Yes, I surmised, yard art would please her more than a hothouse plant. Our praying friends agreed wholeheartedly. Fortunately a large display of Mexican style yard art was located close to our city. I ventured to the area outside of town where a man had set up quite a large display of brightly colored and very intricately designed tin yard art. As I stepped out of my car my eyes landed on a huge grasshopper, very realistic in its design and painted a dark green on the underbelly, the legs and the antennae and bright green/dark green on the upper belly and back. It was over three feet long. The thing that caught my eyes at first were the bright red eyes. Cathi had to have it. To tell the truth, I wrestled with the decision for a few minutes; then, yes, I knew that it was something that she would enjoy. I gleefully purchased it for our precious friend who was having difficulty holding on to life at the time.

    I genuinely thought that I had purchased the large tin green grasshopper with the bright red eyes to give to Cathi from her prayer sisters, expecting to take it to her house and leave it on her front porch so that she would notice it when she returned home from the hospital. I took it to my house to keep it until I heard good news that she was going home. As I placed the large grasshopper along my front walk in a flower bed at my house to show our friends when they came for Bible study and intercessory prayers, I looked up in a tree bordering the flower bed and there, perched on a lower branch, were two giant green live grasshoppers. They were four inches long. They were so big they looked fake. They had large red eyes, also, just like the tin one I had been drawn to buy. I had never seen such huge live grasshoppers in my life as the ones who were perched in my crepe myrtle tree. For some reason I immediately said to the grasshoppers, "Well, hello, Cathi." Those large grasshoppers stayed in the tree for a long time, as if it was their tree and I had better get used to it.
     I texted a note to the Bible study/prayer posse ladies and sent them a picture of the grasshopper that I had bought. They were in agreement that it was a perfect gift from us to Cathi. That evening as I was reading the local paper I noticed in the computer section an article about a new online business whose name was The Happy Grasshopper. I was beginning to sense a theme, as is often said when similar things happen in succession. Later I found out that one of our prayer posse members who lives in another town, and who had not been privy to the news about our buying the tin grasshopper for Cathi, had had two huge dark green grasshoppers come onto her patio every day for a short time. Not knowing about the grasshopper that we had bought for Cathi, she had swept them off of her patio every day, but they kept coming back. It's as if Cathi was sending the grasshoppers to check on her friends.
     Do I really think that Cathi was in those large live grasshoppers? Of course not, but I know that they can be symbols of something sent by God into our lives to encourage us to pray and to pay attention to those miraculous happenings. To prove that to us, Marcia, one of our ladies in the prayer posse, consulted Google and found that grasshoppers are a symbol of complete freedom. Oh, my word. That discovery gave me God chills. The reason for the grasshopper in our lives was to prepare us for Cathi's complete freedom from earthly sorrows and her entrance into heaven.
     After Marcia's discovery that grasshoppers symbolize freedom, I decided to find out more about them so I went to a different website and found that grasshoppers in African folklore symbolize having one foot in the earth and one foot in the breezes of heaven. That was another "wow" discovery. Cathi at the time was partially conscious and then for periods of time she was unconscious. Having heard many testimonies about out of body experiences when a person is very ill or about to die, I knew that she was, for sure, part of earth for a while and then part of heaven for a while. Often, that is a gift from God, allowing people to choose which they wish at that time, whether to stay on earth or whether to move on eternally into heaven.
      Cathi's daughter Melissa and I had been texting back and forth every day since the first stroke. In fact, Melissa had originally informed me about the stroke. Knowing that Melissa is also a spiritual young lady who loves God, I had clued her in on the grasshopper that we had bought for Cathi and the two huge live grasshoppers which had appeared in my tree. Melissa informed me that she has a small grasshopper statue in her house to which her mom, Cathi, was always attracted, often picking the grasshopper up and caressing it. Melissa texted to me a picture of her grasshopper statute. It is very dark green in color. A coincidence? No. We choose to think of it as a God-incident.
      God told us to welcome strangers because they are often angels in disguise. Jesus entertained guests from heaven, Moses and Elijah, when he walked in the earth. His disciples saw them and tried to build a tent for them. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus in water, a descending dove appeared above the head of Jesus signifying the Holy Spirit's help in His life.   God is not limited to anything. So the grasshopper being an image to us of our sister Cathi who has gone on to live with God is no small coincidence. It's a personal symbol to us that she is part of the cloud of witnesses in heaven around us that is spoken of in the Bible. It says all of the spirits of our loved ones are in that heavenly dimension, along with God and Jesus.   They have access to the earth and they have access to heaven. They are one with God as He works with us to improve our earthly lives. Their desires for us continue when they enter heaven and they are "as the angels", meaning spiritual beings, is what Jesus said. I figure He ought to know.
     The more we know about the spiritual dimension of heaven that surrounds us the more faith we have. Our loved one, Cathi, will always be known to me as Hopalong Cathi from now on, able to leap from heaven to earth with God's permission and orchestration to help her family and us in our daily lives.   If that were not true, God would not have influenced Me to buy the grasshopper yard art while being ignorant of Cathi's being fascinated with the grasshopper statue in her daughter's home.
     Since Cathi joined the saints in heaven, there have been other instances of grasshoppers becoming highlighted in the lives of her family. Her daughter had a live grasshopper appear on the steering wheel of her car after she stopped her car. Her daughter's boyfriend saw one on the wheel of his car and later on the white wall of his building. Those were not normal grasshoppers. They were huge green ones about four inches long. Cathi is making calls from heaven to check on everybody before she goes on to complete rest in heaven. On a tombstone next to where Cathi's ashes were to be scattered, a huge grasshopper perched itself so close as to be noticed by everyone in the family.   After being recognized, it flew off into the sky. Upon seeing it, her granddaughter immediately said, "Hi, Ma'am." They are everywhere, but not in large groups, only one at a time or a pair. We joked that Cathi was always late at Bible study so as to make her grand entrance. We loved it.
     Hop along, Cathi, my love. Enjoy complete, everlasting peace. We won't forget you. We know you will never forget us. You have manifested your heavenly life to all of your earthly family.
     God never ceases to amaze us. He used a grasshopper to give peace to her family and her friends before her exit from this world. That tin, brightly colored yard art grasshopper is a symbol to us of the magnificence of God's orchestrated plans and that He cares enough to use His supernatural abilities to send grasshoppers to symbolize Cathi's entrance into complete freedom, which is God's promise to us after the death of our worn out earthly bodies.
     We are keeping our eyes open to God's other messages that bring peace to us. They will come hop, hop, hopping into our lives when we least expect them, much like Cathi's grasshoppers which were sent to calm our fears and give us joy. Those grasshoppers that symbolize complete freedom caused us to concentrate on God's promise to us of complete peace by keeping our minds on being happy for the new life of the real Cathi, as her spirit is happy in heaven, rather than our thoughts focusing on the death of her temporal body. We were, and still are, focused on her freedom in Our Loving Father's presence. Can you imagine what she is experiencing? She is being engulfed in pure unconditional love. Cathi spread love while in the world. Now she is the recipient of all of God's love, the Ultimate Love!
     Knowing her, the minute she saw the Lover of her soul, she hopped right up into His loving arms. Yeah, that's Cathi. First off, she probably asked Him, "Heavenly Dad, please explain to me about quantum physics. It's always intrigued me."   Yes, that was definitely her first question to the Creator of the Universe. I know for sure that's what happened because I heard her musing about that question many times,
     Get ready, Heavenly Father. She's full of questions but You can handle it. She will be picking your magnificent brain for a long time! Oh, yeah, there's no time in heaven. That's fine. She has enough questions for eternity.   It might be better if You just flood her mind with all of Your knowledge first thing.   Then you can get on with gracing the lives of others of your children with gifts from heaven which give them peace, faith and joy.
    Thank you, Father, for the grasshopper gifts. They fulfilled their intended purpose of making your spiritual dimension called heaven a thrilling reality to us. You always do things perfectly. That's why your children love you so much. Your love is powerful and overcomes everything, even the death of the earth suit of a loved one, sending beautiful green grasshoppers to cause us to focus on a person's spirit and her complete freedom from earth. You keep life exciting and thrilling! You are so clever! Cathi was kind of quirky in a good way. Of course you would use grasshoppers to comfort us.   They have hers and Your signatures on all of them.

CREASES AND WRINKLES ASIDE

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 00:22:00 +0000

                                                CREASES AND WRINKLES ASIDE
                                                                 T. Wieland Allen
    Laughing at myself gives me the greatest joy a person can have at my age. Maybe that is a benefit of growing older. The older we get, the more forgiving of our own actions we become and also the more experiences we have in life which free us from getting upset at either major or minor situations.
    I took a trip to the west coast recently to see two of my children. In planning the trip, I wanted to first stop by the residential complex into which my good friend Dorothy had just moved. The building is in the same nearby town as the airport.   I left three hours early from home before I needed to get to my plane to check in and go through security. It takes an hour to get to the Tulsa Airport but I needed extra time to have lunch with my friend in Bixby which is in the far south end of the Tulsa area from the airport. I figured that two extra hours would be plenty of time to spare, other than the time needed to get to the airport, check in and go through security.   Maybe I should have considered the "catching up" conversation time that is necessary when good friends get together. I arrived at her apartment with two hours to spare before I needed to arrive at the airport.
   We ate lunch at her facility, had good tuna and potato salads. Then we went to her lovely two bedroom apartment on the bottom floor which is beautifully decorated because she was a professional home decorator. After my viewing her apartment she wanted me to teach her how to text on her cell phone. I told her that I needed to leave at 2:00 to get to the airport on the north side of Tulsa so I would get to the check-in counter at 3:00 before the plane left at 4:00. We agreed that I needed to leave at least that early.
     Dorothy had a terrible time learning how to operate her phone, as did I in the beginning of my experiences with IPhones. It took us much longer than expected and I should have set the alarm on my phone in order to have the right amount of time to drive to the airport an hour earlier than the departing time of my flight. During our tutoring time, I looked at my watch and it said the time was 2:45. I should have left 45 minutes before that. Oh, dear. I wasn't even sure what route to take to the airport.
     I rushed down the hall of the complex, ran to my car, praying all the way, asking for a favor from God that the plane would be late and I would get there in time. That took great faith on my part, but I know about God's goodness so I knew I wasn't asking for something frivolously.
     The thought came to me about a short cut I had heard about, so I got on a loop around Tulsa, hoping it would take me to the airport in plenty of time. Glory be, it did, although not in "plenty" of time. I pulled into the long term parking lot at 3:30 instead of 2:45 or 3:00 which was my original plan. I quickly unloaded my two suitcases and boogied as fast as I could to check in and get my boarding pass, dragging my two suitcases behind me, one which contained a small sewing machine for my daughter's birthday.
     I made it to the Southwest check-in counter at 3:40 and breathlessly said that I was going to San Francisco. The lady said I was fortunate because the plane was 15 minutes late. Thank you, God. I knew You would do it for me. Praise You forever!
      Then she asked for my ID. Oh, my gosh, I had left it at home in my other purse. I had no identity except for my Medicare card, my Blue Cross card, plus a credit card.   I needed a card with a picture ID, driver's license preferred. After giving her an excuse why I had forgotten to grab my license, she apologetically informed me that I would have to go through a thorough search and pat down in order to board the plane. That was okay with me. I knew that Southwest had to let me fly because I had a ticket, but Homeland Security might be a problem.
      Sure enough, when I got to the check-in at Homeland Security, the attendant looked at me like I had robbed a bank. He called a supervisor who drilled me about the reason I did not follow instructions and bring my picture ID. I joked with him about my age, suggesting that he give an 80 year old lady some leeway since I was so late in getting to the airport. He was not swayed by my jokes and logic.
He informed me that I would have to take off my jacket and shoes, jewelry, etc., and be personally patted down by a female security guard. Considering that that was the only way I would be able to board the plane, I willingly yielded to the instructions.
      I have traditionally carried on airplanes a large fabric bag which fits underneath the seat in front of me and it has always been filled with things I really never need, but thinking that there might come a time when I will need them, I stuff them in that bag. Problem was, the Homeland Security supervisor had to go through that 2 1/2 feet by four feet fabric bag completely with its six compartments, wiping down everything in there with a swatch of material containing something that identifies explosives. He wiped my three lipstick tubes, my three magazines, my hand wipes, my tissue case, my address book, my hairbrush, my compact, my small wallet containing money, and other total nonessentials that I always think I might need. Not only did those things have to be wiped with the swatches, but also my shoes, jacket, my jewelry, and my compression sleeve that I have to wear on my arm for lymphadema. After each item was wiped down, he put that swatch into a machine which tested for explosives. None were found, of course. I was glad that they are so thorough. Then the blue gloved young lady patted me down from head to toe, front to back, inside legs and under arms with my arms stretched straight out. That entire ordeal took a good 20 minutes.
    After they decided I was no threat to society, they released me to go. I quickly got into my jacket, walking into my shoes at the same time, grabbed my large fabric bag and ran to the proper gate. The line to board was beginning to walk onto the plane. I made it. God saved me again! Thank Him forever!!!
    Because of the stringent time consuming but necessary extra activities, I did not have time to go to the bathroom to empty my full bladder before boarding the airplane. Dorothy and I had had two big glasses of peach tea, plus a glass of water. Fortunately for me, the connecting flight was in Dallas, so I knew it wouldn't be long for the flight to arrive there and I could find a restroom in that airport. It was an uncomfortable flight to Dallas, full bladder and all.
   When we landed in Dallas I was desperate, needing to empty from my bladder all of those liquids that I had unwisely consumed. Fortunately, I was in the front of the airplane, and when it was my turn to exit, I ran to the closest ladies restroom, threw the door open, quickly hung my fabric carry-on bag on the hook on the door and crouched down over the toilet, straddling it because I didn't have time to get a paper seat cover applied. I jerked my black trousers down to my ankles, pulled down my black panties to my knees, pulled my shirt up to my shoulders and started relieving my bladder into the toilet.
   I was so glad to make it there without urine running down my leg. All of a sudden the weight of my carry-on bag somehow was able to swing the door to the stall outward. I evidently had not securely locked the latch and so the weight of my bag caused the huge door of the toilet stall to swing outward, revealing me straddling the toilet in my crouched position with my bottom exposed for all the world to see. There was a long line of ladies in front of me who were waiting in line to use the toilets and there I was, fully exposed. The two ladies who were closest to the door had a birds eye view.
    I said loudly, "Well, hello," without stopping the flow into the toilet because I couldn't.   One nice lady stepped over and closed the door and held it until I could grab the bottom of it and hold it until I finished my business. I would have been so embarrassed if it hadn't been so funny.
    Fortunately the two ladies who observed my entire bare lower anatomy in that crouched position while straddling the toilet had made it into a stall and I didn't have to face them. I laughed at myself for an hour and decided it was material for a short story to put on my blog.
     I had to be patted down two more times for different flights so I got use to it. All three times the Home Security officials treated me like a bank robber again. How dare I go off without a picture ID was the attitude behind their stern looks. I joked with them and they softened up a bit. I had to be careful about the subject of my joking because they are very sensitive about that.
    It was an enjoyable adventure. My son at home took a picture of my driver's license and texted it to my daughter in San Francisco and she printed out a big replica of it. That got me through the two other Southwest check-ins, plus the first security check, but not the final Home Security ones. I had to be patted down and the contents of my carry-on bag had to wiped for explosives again two times. I became use to it. I was just glad to know they are so efficient. I thanked them for their efficiency and all three supervisors acted shocked. Maybe no one has thanked them before.
     Getting older means that one loses all sense of embarrassment. We elders laugh at ourselves because nothing is that serious to us anymore. Life is an adventure to be lived with joy and I have arrived at that point.
     I have to give credit to God again for seeing that my flight was late and that the loop around Tulsa that He impressed me to take was the right one, getting me to the airport barely in time to get all of the extra duties done by Homeland Security.
    I remained calm the whole time. Hey, I had a ticket for a Southwest flight so they had to honor that ticket. The problem was Homeland Security and their rules, which I appreciate because it makes me feel safe and secure. Believe me, nobody will ever get anything dangerous past those supervisors.
    The experience has taught me never to leave my driver's license at home in my other wallet and also when in a ladies room to always lock the latch securely. When in line waiting for a stall, I learned to look straight ahead in case one of the ladies in a stall has the same experience of the stall door swinging outward, revealing her complete lower anatomy. I would be willing to close the door for her, like the nice lady did for me, but I would not relish the unpleasant sight of gazing on her exposed lower anatomy.
    Preparation is always the key. I must remember to be fully prepared next month when I fly to the west coast again. My anatomy is not what it used to be. It has all slipped down several inches with lots of creases and wrinkles that I, myself, refrain from looking upon, even in mirrors. Also, my driver's license will be in my bag along with money and necessary cards.
    "Always Be Prepared" was either the Boy Scout or the Girl Scout motto when I was young. Great advice, no matter what your age is. I wasn't prepared this time but God saved me from my mistakes, like He always does. I think "Be Prepared" is one of the instructions in His book of wisdom called the Proverbs. Of course He would think of it. He's God. He knows the mistakes that people make and He saves us every time from our own forgetfulness. Where would we be if He didn't?
     People only give each other three strikes and you're out, like in baseball. Not God. So far, I'm up to like four million strikes and he hasn't declared me out yet and He never will. It's called forgiveness. I think I'll practice forgiveness more. As much as I've been forgiven, I owe it to Him for me to forgive others. Forgiveness from Him and forgiveness for others clears our arteries and gives us things to laugh about.
    Hey, getting older is a blast. Refusing to fret about mistakes and misdeeds is a plus to a person's health and attitudes. You've lived long enough to appreciate your own quirks and you don't sweat the small stuff, the medium stuff or the big stuff. Why should we? God doesn't.
     I wish you happy traveling but don't forget your ID. I didn't mind making the Homeland Security ladies work for their pay, as unpleasant as it is for them. Be sure and appreciate their efficiency like I did. They acted glad to be appreciated instead of being the subject of insults for causing delays.
    Elderly people enjoy spreading sunshine around. I do and it got me to my destination and home in a joyful and jolly mood. Maybe I left a little sunshine at the security line. They badly need it!

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 16:10:00 +0000

"WE NEED TO PRAY"
                                                        T. Wieland Allen
     "Praise God," "Glory to God," "Thank you, God" and "You are the greatest Father, ever," are exclamations of thanksgiving and joy that fell from the mouths of six ladies who had gathered together for our weekly prayer and study session. We are used to having reasons to praise Him from the heart and we had just experienced another miracle that almost left us speechless.
      We always meet at noon on Tuesdays and are often referred to as the Tuesday Girls and at other times as the Prayer Posse, having been named the Posse by a friend in Wisconsin who knows about our penchants for going after healing and other solutions until we get the answers. We rarely miss meeting together and, come hell or high water, we do manage to meet together, even if it's only one or two in attendance.   We know that Jesus told us that where two or three are gathered together, He is in our midst. We regularly have six ladies with varying ages, from 55 to 85. It makes no difference how many are able to come, we are called to eat lunch, pray and then study, laugh and occasionally cry when we marvel at His wonderful orchestrations in our lives.
    Such was the case when an unusal miracle happened. It started with a mistake on my part. The past Tuesday I had misunderstood that we were meeting at Marcia's house instead of Jane's house.   On Monday before the next meeting I called Jane and found that we had decided last week to meet at Marcia's house. Even though it was Monday morning, I knew that Marcia would be amenable to meeting at her house.   I called her and she said what I knew she would say, "We will meet at my house. We need to pray." It was so gracious of her to offer, but that meant that she would have to fix a full meal for eight ladies who like to eat.
    I suggested that she order pizzas and get a pizza dessert also. She was delighted with the suggestion and said that she had an engagement on the east side of town the next morning and it would be easy for her to swing by the pizza place and pick up the pizzas before going home. The plan was for her to collect the pizzas at 11:30 in order to get across town in time to welcome the prayer partners into her house. As they say, everything was copacetic.
    You also know that good plans can fall through. Well, suffice it to say that God knows all solutions to all problems.
     Early Monday evening I felt compelled to make an entire meal to take to Cathi, whose daughter had had hip surgery. I knew that they would appreciate a meal and I had time to cook, so late in the afternoon I went into the kitchen and saw that I had spaghetti, two bottles of spaghetti sauce and a large package of meatballs in the freezer. I had eight large cheese and garlic buns in the freezer also left over from last Tuesday's meeting at my house. I remembered that I also had some tangerines in the fridge, too. I had two packages of peanutbutter cookie mix and also had some icing I could put between two cookies and make special cookies out of by layering them. There was the full meal and I didn't even have to go to the market.   In thirty minutes I had the full meal put into gallon ziplock bags, and placed into a large decorative basket to be taken to Cathi's home the next day after Bible study. Yes, copacetic again!
       On Tuesday I had a busy morning so I had loaded the basket of food for Cathi's family into the car to be delivered later. At 11:45 I had finished loading my Bible and the teaching material that I was teaching that day and I was on my way to Marcia's house for our Tuesday ritual. My cell phone rang and it was Marcia who very calmly said, "Some man took our pizzas."
      She had arrived at the pizza place at the appointed time only to find out that a man had picked up our pizzas. She asked me if I could stop by the market and get some shaved ham and turkey and a loaf of bread and we would just have sandwiches.
      I had just passed the market so I said to Marcia, "I have spaghetti and meatballs in the back of my van to take to Cathi's family. We will have it for lunch." I must say, she uttered a sigh of relief.
      When I arrived at her house, I saw that another Posse member named Kathy had arrived early and she was able to help with hostess duties, warming up the spaghetti, meatball and the bread while waiting on the other ladies to arrive. I needed to bring into the house my teaching material and Bible.
      It had all been orchestrated by God, who knew that the pizza would be gone when Marcia went to get it, so he compelled me the night before to fix a meal for Cathi's family so that we would have a new main dish delivered right to the door with no trouble. It had been so easy on everyone, except maybe Marcia, who did have to handle the inconvenience at the last minute of not having a main course to feed six hungry women. She had already fixed a salad, hot tea and cake for us. She was so gracious to offer to be hostess at such a late time and she knew the importance of our gathering together to pray, so God just obliged her by sending her a main course to serve.
    He is such a wonderful Father. He sends answers to our [rayers to us from no where. Dorothy said she thought maybe ravens from heaven had brought it.
When we expect the unexpected, it will show up. It's called faith.
     Cathi's family did not miss out. Marcia called the pizza place and had two large pizzas delivered to Cathi's house. God meets the needs of everyone.   He's a great Dad!
     And speaking of God being a great Dad, I am so glad that He is not the kind of dad who just waits until you mess up and then pounces with judgment and condemnation on you. If He was, I would have been dead long ago. In fact, human beings would have vanished from the earth by now if he was the judge. The opposite is true. He is the Father who helps people who make mistakes,   He helps people who miss the mark, He is the rescuer, not the judge. He is the problem solver, not the condemner. He is the Blesser, not the judge.
     I messed up by thinking that Jane was having the Tuesday meeting. Instead it was supposed to be Marcia. My mistake caused a problem for Marcia, who had to rearrange a few things in her life to be able to host our meeting. It also caused some confusion for her, having the center piece of her meal bought by the wrong person. BUT, never fear, God supplied the spaghetti and meatballs before the confusion set in by compelling me the night before to fix them for the family of another Posse member. Cathi.
    That's the rest that he calls us into, knowing that He solves our problems and fixes our mistakes. That is what it means when the scripture says that He knows what our needs are before we ask. When we are in unity with Him with no strife, the problem is solved before it's apparent to you that there is a problem.
    Isn't that the most wonderful, loving, kind, generous, problem solving, solution providing Father! I am so glad that we have that kind of a Heavenly Father, one who is completely involved in our daily lives. That knowledge just takes your breath away. Well, not really. If we had no breath we could not praise Him. His miracles are enough to praise Him continually. That's what the songwriter David said, to let His praises be continually in your mouth. The Posse has no problem doing that because His goodness to His children is everlasting.
    I thank him forever for fixing this problem before it began!

ANGELS IN THE RED ZONE

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 16:15:00 +0000

     Here I go again with a miracle testimony that is, again, difficult for me to believe, and I saw it develop with my own eyes. It is about sports, which I had somehow previously determined that God did not really care who wins a game since he is no respecter of people. He doesn't cheer for any team to win except in battles against the devil and then he always cheers for His children to win. But in sport games, I was, and still am, convinced that He does not care who wins any sports game.
    So I have some theories about why he helped a certain team win in a nationally televised game. I think that more insight will come to you as I write the scenario of how the thrilling game ended. It was a game against two very well matched teams, one which had, unfortunately, had a stroke of bad luck two days before the game.
    The game was between the Oregon Ducks and the TCU Horned Frogs. It took place at the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. It doesn't matter which team was favored because in this college sports battle it involved special help from heaven.
     My sister and her family were at the game because they have special interest in TCU, hoping that their grandchildren will some day attend the college. That will be a few years in the future, but the game took place not too far from where they live so all the people in her family who lived close by attended. I had no knowledge that they were in the stadium because I had been on the West Coast at the time and was not apprised of their plans to attend the game.
    Speaking of the West Coast, two days before the Alamo Bowl game, I was sitting in a classy breakfast restaurant in San Diego with one of my grandsons and one of my sons. It was early in the morning because my plane left early in the morning headed for Phoenix and then on to Tulsa. We had already ordered very creative and delicious breakfast meals when my grandson looked at his smart phone and announced to us that a young man whose name was Trevone Boykin, the quarterback for TCU, had been arrested at a bar fight in the early morning hours and taken to jail. He reported that the quarterback of the TCU team had also assaulted a police officer and was still in jail. Of course we came to the conclusion that Boykin would not play in the bowl game.
     Sure enough it was all over the papers the next two days. Soon it was announced that he certainly would not play. That was a pitiful situation because he had previously been considered for the Heisman trophy.. News analysts began to draw and quarter him, questioning his morality and his intelligence and any other area they could use to fill their air time on the TV airways. I began to have compassion for the young man, knowing that everybody makes mistakes and he was unfortunate enough to be in the eye of the public so he was fair game for judgment and condemnation for doing such a stupid act in sneaking out after curfew and going to a bar a couple of nights before the big game.
     Compassion and sympathy for the young man grew heavier and heavier in my emotions so I began to silently pray for the young man whose life was ruined, as was proclaimed by the sports analysts. I began to feel the load that the young man was carrying, knowing that not only was his football team disappointed in him, but also his family, the entire college and his coaches. It wasn't only limited to the named college but also the entire football sports world was crucifying him in their minds and verbally for making such an unwise decision which not only cost him his football career but also might cost his team winning their bowl game. He was a lamb for the slaughter. I truly felt his emotional pain.
     When game time came, I watched sporadically and found that TCU was losing big time. They could not get anything to work for them. At half time they were losing 31 to 0. As I said, I did not know at that time that my sister and her family were at the game, but I had a very strong urge to text her and inquire if any of them were in attendance. Sure enough I received back a text that told me that seven members of their family were there and that it was a sad, sad affair because their team was so far behind. Since it is very unusual for a team to be 31 points behind to come ahead and win, something dramatic had to happen to help them.
      My sister reiterated how sad it was. I began to think more and more about Trevone Boykin, the suspended quarterback who was not playing and leading his team to victory, which he had done in most of the games. He had had the attention of the sports media all year and was hailed as one of the best players in the college football world at the time.   With his team losing by that huge a margin, my compassion for Boykin reached 100 on the leader board of my emotional activity. If the team lost by a huge margin without scoring a point, the crucifixion of him in the media and in the minds of the fans would be unmerciful. I could feel his apprehension at thinking about what he faced in the media and from people in the future. That unwise act would follow him all of his life.
     After the halftime was over and the teams took their positions, the announcers of the game commented that the Oregon Ducks didn't seem to come out of the dressing room with the same gusto that they had in the first half. A gift of faith began to rise in me, with the thought that with some spiritual help maybe the TCU team would be able to at least make a good showing, although it would take a while to make up the 31 points that were on the scoreboard for the Ducks. I texted my sister and said, "The game is not over yet."
      She texted, "We're hanging in here; in the stands, I mean,"
      I texted, "Praying for a miracle."
      She texted back, "Me, too."
      I must confess that my concern was not for the TCU team itself. It was for the suspended quarterback, Trevone Boykin. I knew the outcome of the game had a dramatic influence on the rest of his life.
      As we prayed, suddenly, within just a few minutes, the TCU team had scored 17 points. It was as if their opponents could not do anything right and everything the TCU team did was right and when they did they put points on the board.
      I texted, "Where two agree, 17 points show up on the board."
     She texted, "Amen."
     I began to think about the movie, "Angels in the Outfield." I began to pray for there to be angels in the red zone helping TCU score more and more points. When they did, my sister texted back, "A miracle happened again," as the team scored again and again. As the 4th quarter ended, the teams were tied. It had certainly been a miracle to behold.
     I texted back, "I knew it would. Prayer works when two are in agreement." I was in agreement that they would win for Trevone Boykin's sake and she was in agreement that they would win for the team's sake. The objects of the win didn't matter, the fact is that we were in agreement for God to do a miracle for the TCU team and He did.
     There were angels on the 50 yard line, the 40 yard line, the 30 yard line, the 20 yard line, the 10 yard line and in the red zone helping the TCU team win in three overtimes.
     TCU ended up winning the game 45 to 41. They overcame a 31 point deficit.
     I know that God's heart was also aching, like mine was, for Trevone Boykin, the young man who had made such a life changing mistake. I knew that God wanted to add energy and momentum to his team so that they would be determined to win. Their substitute quarterback was the hero of the game. He had supernatural ability and it was apparent that something happened to him in the second half that was not apparent in the first half. He seemed to be empowered.
      Was God on the side of TCU? I think He was, but only because of His compassion and love for Trevone Boykin. He wanted the team to win to take the pressure off of the suspended quarterback. I know that Trevone was praying to God to rescue him from the effects of his mistake and God did. He had apologized immediately to the team, the fans and the university, so we know that he was contrite. God merely used two ladies to agree with his prayers and prove that where two or three agree a thing is established. We had faith in God's miracles and because of the multiplied faith a miracle happened.
      It was the best game of all of the bowl games, as declared by the sports analysts. The TCU team got the attention and the acclaim instead of the media continuing to crucify a young man who merely made a mistake in his choices.
      Who hasn't make a mistake in their decision making? I have. You have. Everyone has. Our mistakes were just not visible to the entire sports world.
      I know that Trevone Boykin is grateful to God, just like we are. His failure is no longer news. The team's victory is news. That's the way it should be. That's the way God planned it. He always produces good news.

BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLIES SIGHTED

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 18:23:00 +0000

BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLIES SIGHTED
T. Wieland Allen
The most amazing thing about appearances from the heavenly dimension is that they happen all the time but people are blind to them, or maybe they see them but do not relate them to reality. I was blind to them for many years, choosing instead to only believe what was material to this world, what I could touch, feel, smell, hear or taste. Even when things appeared to be from another dimension, I chose not to be "spiritual" or "mystical" as is the label attached to people who are aware of heavenly occurrences. When I began to appreciate the messages of hope and faith that come from the heavenly world, I found that their appearances became more and more frequent and much more apparent to me.

      Such an occasion happened to me recently at the home of my daughter and her family. Their home is a loving home with an appreciation of the uniqueness of every member of their family, my daughter, her husband and their daughter Edan. They are a family of many talents and varied interests. It is in such a setting that messages of hope and faith come easily because of the lack of conflict, drama and chaos. Heavenly visitations frequent the homes where an atmosphere of heaven is already present, homes where love, peace, joy, kindness, goodness and patience are already well established.
       I must lay the background for the message of hope, assurance and faith that came to me on a recent visit to such an earthly atmosphere, the home of my daughter and her family. The background involves the life of my husband Steve who fought a valiant battle with a rare form of cancer and lost the final battle, which broke the hearts of every member of our family. After his death, our grand daughter Edan, at six years old, told me that she used to be afraid to die, but now she's not afraid to die because she will get to hug Pop-Pop again. The reality of the heavenly dimension around us is very real to children. Often as adults we lose that childlike faith. I think that Edan's secure belief in the heavenly dimension is part of what allowed it to be manifested to me so easily in their home.
      Three years ago, during the last months when Steve was fighting an especially difficult battle, we had the occasion to be at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for his treatment. Things were beginning to look pretty grim, though we were riding on a high wave of faith for his eventual healing. I was perusing a gift shop while he was having tests and my eyes were drawn to a journaling book whose title was "Just When the Caterpillar Thought the World Was Over, It Became A Butterfly."   I knew that Steve was entertaining a little hint of defeat so I bought the book for him to journal the rest of his adventure toward becoming a butterfly, free of the cancer. He loved the image of the caterpillar becoming a butterfly.

When we arrived home from Houston, I emailed a friend about the book and she immediately sent a cartoon via email to us of a blue morpho butterfly attempting to fly up a flight of steps with a large stone trailing underneath it which was attached to the butterfly by a thin cord. That picture was the exact way that Steve felt at the time. He felt like he was dragging a boulder up a hill, knowing that at the top he would be able to release the boulder and become as free as a butterfly. The blue morpho butterfly became a message of hope and faith for my friend and me. We began to send blue morpho butterflies to each other in jewelry, in pictures, in anything, just to remind each other not to give up. Steve bought into the blue morpho butterfly obsession, too, appreciating every time we shared the butterflies.

      Even after Steve went to heaven, blue morpho butterflies have continued to be a mutual obsession between my friend and me. Any time we see a trinket that resembles the blue butterfly, we send it to the other person. I never knew anything about blue morpho butterflies until Steve's illness, but now I see them everywhere.
     That is the background for my story. Currently it is now Christmas time and I spent four days of the Christmas holiday with my daughter, her husband and my grand daugher Edan who had recently recovered from strep throat. Edan had never been sick enough to have an antibiotic in her nine years of life, but there is always a first time for everything. With strep throat, antibiotics are standard cures. She took her medicine like a trooper and had a ten day supply, which the doctors said she must complete to effect the cure. I arrived on the fifth day of her taking the medicine and she was tolerating it nicely, also having a big bottle of a probiotic drink to ensure the replacement of good intestinal bacterial in her digestive tract. She was full of Christmas excitement and holiday cheer.
     On the seventh day of antibiotic intake a small indistinct rash appeared on one of her cheeks.   By the next morning, which was Christmas Eve, the rash had traveled onto her entire body, even causing a fever of two degrees. Edan began to be lackadaisical, not the excited and energetic nine year old who was so active when I arrived to visit. She laid on the couch off and on, slept a little, and only ate a little bit of food. There was still a little bit of excitement about Christmas but not to the degree as on previous days. Her face began to swell and turn bright red. Even her ears were swollen and bright red. The rash was also on her scalp and all the way down, covering her toes. After a call to the doctor, which was accompanied by email cell phone photos of the bright red rash on all of her body, it was determined that the antibiotic should be stopped immediately and Benadryl should be given to relieve the itching and discomfort caused by an allergic reaction to the antibiotic which was given to cure the strep throat. Her temperature had climbed to 103 plus, and so the doctor said to also give her Tylenol to lower the temperature.

      She had a restless night but on Christmas Day she felt like opening a few gifts. Then she ran out of the energy necessary to complete the task of opening gifts and went to bed to rest. We had been warned that we should watch for labored breathing or her throat swelling closed and a temperature of 106 degrees because those symptoms would be a sign of anaphylactic shock, which can lead to instant death. She slept peacefully for several hours and I volunteered to sit with her because her parents had already had ten days of her sickness in recovering from strep throat after having been misdiagnosed originally by a nurse who did not administer the test properly. They had already spent emotions and time caring for a sick little girl with strep throat for ten days and, here again, she required watching for worse symptoms of the allergic reaction to the antibiotic which was given to cure the strep bacteria. I volunteered to sit with her while she slept.
     Grandmoms just know how to pray because of our years of practice while raising our own children. I sat on a chair beside Edan's bed and watched for a change in her breathing or a sudden rise in temperature. I prayed and prayed for the disappearance of the rash and prayed that the temperature would not climb any higher. It kept coming into my mind that patience would produce a good result.
     As I felt her chest for any sign of labored breathing and watched her throat for any sign of difficulty swallowing, my eyes suddenly landed on her sheets, which I had not noticed. There was a blue butterfly imprinted amidst the flowers on her sheets. How did I miss it previously? I didn't need the faith previously when I saw her in bed, but I needed the hope and faith now that she was so sick, so red and so swollen.
     I continued to pray for her but with a new sense of hope for a complete healing without the possibility of the serious shock to her little body. As she slept, I became chilled and reached for one of the four quilts on her bed. She was wrapped in three of them and I grabbed the only one that was loose and available. It was a quilt made for her by her mom's best friend, a brightly multicolored quilt. I threw it around my legs and noticed something that I had never noticed before about the quilt, although I had seen it many times. The lining to the quilt was imprinted with hundreds and hundreds of dark blue butterflies and the edging around the lining was imprinted with larger blue morpho butterflies. They were everywhere.

     I got the message loud and clear that she was going to be fine. How could I not believe that God and her Pop-Pop had not provided the butterflies as visual images to me that our precious grandchild was going to be fine as soon as the antibiotic was out of her system. It was as though the butterflies had been spotlighted to me so that I would not miss them. All fear left me and I was at peace.
    That evening, Christmas night, I took a notebook out of my luggage, a notebook that my daughter, Edan's mother, had given to me several years ago in which to write the miracles and revelations from God. As I got it out of my luggage, I saw what I had missed seeing in the past. Among the many kinds of butterflies on the cover of the notebook were five blue morpho ones. I had not noticed them in the past. Where had those blue morpho butterflies been all of my life? I never knew they existed and I had never seen pictures of them until the last few years.
     The miracle continued. When I arrived home from the trip I picked up the large journaling book from the gift shop at M. D. Anderson that I had given to Steve that had as its title, "Just When The Caterpillar Thought the World Was Over, He Became a Butterfly." I wanted to move it closer to my bed. A clipping fell out of the book. It was a cartoon that showed a butterfly emerging from its cocoon and it is saying, "I'm free." The cartoon had been sent to me over three years ago by..... guess who? The friend of my daughter who was the maker of Edan's quilt.
     I know we are all connected in a supernatural way and the blue morpho butterflies are the earthly and visual representations of the heavenly visitors who come to help us in our time of need.   There is something really thrilling and encouraging about that! When I looked up the word "morpho" I saw that it means to change forms. Yes, now I understand. Angels can change forms and become strangers in our midst, coming to bring us faith, hope and healing.
    Thanks to God and Pop-Pop for giving me faith and hope for the complete healing of Edan. I don't know how many angels it took, but they were adequate for the task. When I think about the migration south of the millions of Monarch butterflies, I can envision the angels that were sent to do the job. In fact, the butterflies on the lining of Edan's quilt are probably only a small representation of the angels sent to do the task of healing her without the dreaded shock.
    Until three years ago, I never knew anything about blue morpho butterflies. Now I see them everywhere, in reality and trusting in their being present as angels in the heavenly spiritual dimension around us to do God's great works in our lives.
    We must pray for eyes to see and ears to hear the wonders of God's miracles. They are everywhere. He even sends them to give us faith and hope. We must have eyes of faith to recognize every one of the zillions of them.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RANDY TRAVIS

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 16:21:00 +0000

                                     THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RANDY TRAVIS
                                                                                    T. WIELAND ALLEN
     Everybody wants to hear good news. Nobody wants to hear bad news except a few people who are addicted to bad news and get an adrenaline rush from hearing it. Good news gives a different adrenaline rush. It gives a joyful rush that comes from the joyful adrenaline in the body.
     Gospel means good news. Anywhere we hear good news we are hearing portions of the gospel. Good news can come through testimonies, through the news media, through reading stories, through movies and through the good news shared by people who have experienced a production of the good news of what God has done in their lives.
    A wonderful friend told me a testimony not long ago which sent a rush of joy through my mind and body. She had been emotionally wounded by a person in authority in her church and she was disappointed in the person as well as wounded emotionally. She prayed and prayed for the person and herself, but still had the soreness of a wounded heart that remained. She heard a song on the radio in her car and it was a song written by Randy Travis, also sung by him. The words to the song that she heard were ,"Don't sell your saddle 'cause life's a long, long ride." My friend knew by that song that she should never let anyone rob her of her peace, because she will need it eventually on the long, long road of life. That good news did the work in the mind of my friend so that the burden lifted from her and she was able to forgive the person and move on. I immediately called it The Gospel According to Randy Travis because of the immediate working of a miracle in the mind of my friend, changing her thoughts from negative and judgmental to positive and forgiving. She was unburdened, which is what good news is meant to do. Little did I know at the time that the Gospel According to Randy Travis would help me in my life and also help other people in their lives.
     I was so thrilled with what the song had done in the life of my friend that I used the story to teach at a Bible Study that week. I used the words of the song to emphasize the truth that we should not let anyone be the lord of our lives by allowing them to steal our peace. It was a huge lesson to all of us and all of the ladies grabbed onto that truth fiercely.
     On the way home from teaching about that spiritual truth on that particular day I started down the small incline in the street that leads to my driveway. At the top of the hill I started to look at the back yard cater-cornered across the street from me that has been in disarray for at least five years. The fence had once been downed as a result of a tree falling on it, and the neighborhood association had paid for that to be fixed. We appealed to the owner of the house, asking him to reimburse the association for the cost, which he graciously did. After a few more years of looking at the horrible mess in his back yard, I began to plan to buy eight feet long and six feet high fencing sections, just enough to hide the debris that was the result of an ice storm five years ago which had been piled high in the corner of the yard for that entire time, which included downed trees, limbs, overgrown grass, etc. It was an eyesore.   I am so glad I did not purchase the sections of fencing because there was a better plan in the working because of the Gospel According to Randy Travis, the truth in his song about not allowing anyone to rob you of your peace.
    Coming home from teaching my friend's story and the truth in the song, I was meditating on the truth in the song. While driving home, as I started to look again at the debris which was piled high, as was my regular habit to do, the thought came to my mind, "Why are you looking at all of that debris when you can turn your head just a little bit to the left and look at your own beautiful yard?" That thought didn't originate with me because I had never thought of that solution before. I had regularly been thinking bad thoughts about the doctor who owned the house, but I had never thought about refusing to look at the debris and instead looking at my own beautiful flowers and well trimmed lawn.
      Also, the thought crossed my mind that if I should bless the man who owned the house instead of having bad feelings for him because of his back yard, and if I would pray for him instead of being impatient with him, in a very short time the man would be influenced to clean up his yard. Somehow, in my mind, I began to believe that would actually happen, all because of the Gospel According to Randy Travis, never letting anyone rob me of my peace. Yes, I had actually allowed the debris in the yard to rob me of peace of mind every time I glanced at that yard, which was several times a day. After hearing the story told to me by my friend, I knew that I would need the peace that I had lost many times in my life.
      I obeyed that still small voice of wisdom that had spoken truth to me, and I did not look again at the debris in the neighbor's yard; but, instead, I gazed at my beautiful flowers in my own yard every time I drove up and down the street. While mowing my yard, every time I started to look across the street at the debris I stopped myself and looked at my own flowers. I also regularly blessed the owner every time I chose to look at my own beautiful yard. Somehow, it wasn't hard to do because of the truth in that song by Randy Travis. I was enjoying my peace of mind and was determined not to let that debris rob me again.
     Interestingly, I was kind of excited at the prospect that maybe the thought in my mind was right and because I had changed my attitude toward the owner of the house, choosing to bless him and pray for him instead of entertaining judgmental thoughts about him, maybe, just maybe, the day would come when the huge back yard with the piles of debris would be cleaned completely. I had an excitement along with the peace that came from not looking at the debris.
     After blessing the owner several times a day and refusing to lose my peace of mind over the five year long collection of debris in the yard, one morning I rose from bed early and heard a strange sound. It was a beep, beep, beeping sound, Thinking it might be my smoke alarms, I tested them and they were fine. The thought came to mind to go outside and check to see if the sounds were coming from outside. Sure enough, they were. Even thought it was seven o'clock in the morning it wasn't difficult to follow the sounds. They were coming from the doctor's yard, the one filled with debris. There were two front loading tractors in that yard scooping up all of the piles of debris and depositing it into huge trash receptacles that had been moved onto the property. I was astounded. I was elated. I was dumbfounded. I was grateful. It had only been a week since I had stopped thinking judgmental thoughts about the owner and had started blessing him.   The debris had been there five years and after I stopped judging the owner, started praying for him and blessing him, the cleanup process had begun.
    I was in awe of God. I was in awe of the Gospel According to Randy Travis. I was in awe of the Spirit of God who gives us wisdom and insight into how to let go and let God do His work instead of us trying to do his work in our own meager, ineffective ways. Obviously my previous ways had not worked since the debris had been there for five years. But, after only a week of letting go, refusing to look at the debris and instead looking at my beautiful yard, praying for the owner and blessing him, it only took God a week to start with the cleanup of the yard. It was so simple and yet so astounding. One week of being positive instead of negative had paid off with a huge reward.
     There was so much work to be done that bigger tractors were also brought in. It took two weeks to completely rid the yard of that debris. I was so excited that I wanted to go stand and watch the work being done, much like a little boy watching and imagining himself driving the tractors. I didn't, but I sure wanted to. There is a new fence already installed. I don't know what the owner has planned to do in that huge expanse of a lot, but it looks beautiful to me just cleared out and cleaned up.
      The lessons I learned were big ones. One is that God cannot answer our prayers when we are judging someone for something that is none of our business. I also learned that I have a choice of what to gaze upon, either something good or something bad and if I constantly gaze at something bad I will lose my peace of mind and eventually get into conflict with someone. In addition, I learned that God can work so much more efficiently and expeditiously when we forgive people and bless them instead of judging them in our minds. I learned that I had bound the debris to myself by thinking judgmental thoughts about the owner of the property, but when I let go of it and stopped judging the man, God took it into His own powerful hands and accomplished what I wanted all along, which was to get the property cleared out and cleaned up. He gave me the desires of my heart after I let go, regained my peace of mind, and allowed God to do His work without my negative help.
     I love to call those truths the Gospel According to Randy Travis because it is good news, good news that started with the words to one of his songs dedicated to his daddy, "Don't sell your saddle, 'cause life is a long, long ride."   I will remember the truth of it and will endeavor not to let anybody or anything rob me of my peace of mind. God works so much better when we get out of the way and give him permission to do His mighty, powerful works. How God moved on that owner to begin clearing the property is not any of my business. That's God's business. I'm just enjoying the peace of mind that I am determined never to lose again.
    Life is a long, long stretch of time within which lots of things that will happen. Don't let anyone or anything rob you of your peace of mind. Keeping your mind at peace with everyone while strolling on the paths of life releases the power of God to work in your behalf. Just think, you'll retain your peace of mind, plus you'll have the benefit of receiving the answers to all of your prayers, as proven by the Gospel According to Randy Travis.

THE ULTIMATE PROMISE KEEPER

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 17:28:00 +0000

THE ULTIMATE PROMISE KEEPER
                                                          T. Wieland Allen
   Very few people are known to always keep their promises. Parents often promise things they will never be able to keep. Children promise to do things for their parents that they can't do. Wives and husbands promise to love their partners the rest of their lives but end up divorcing. Business managers promise raises for their workers that they cannot give. Everyone breaks promises as a regular part of life.
   I have found through the years that God never, ever breaks His promises. A few things in the earth depend upon His ability to keep His promises, one of which is our following his request for us to clean up our thoughts, attitudes and actions. Recently I was overwhelmed with His promise to me and how He kept it so quickly.
   I previously wrote a story regarding the situation and God's instructions to me, but I will repeat the pertinent facts in order for you to understand His recent promise and His keeping His promise to me. It involved a silly thing of a neighbor's unkempt yard.
   The corner of a neighbor's yard had been the dumping ground for all of the broken, rotted trees, huge stumps, broken tree limbs from the past years of storms and high grass. Unfortunately, that corner of his yard was in view of my home. I could see some of the unsightly scene from my windows but when I drove by the yard I got a full view of the portion of the neighbor's yard which his workmen used as a dump for debris. The neighborhood association had fixed the chain link fence when it sagged and pulled the posts out of the ground. That helped, but the piles of huge limbs and stump was an unsightly mess and cheapened the image of the nice area in which I live.
    I had decided to buy some sections of wooden fencing and pay someone to put the six feet high fencing onto the existing fence, hoping to conceal the mess from eye view from the street. I had even priced fencing and was willing to pay for the eight feet long sections of fencing. Now, mind you, it was none of my business, but I made it my business by being perturbed about it. Every time I drove by the area my eyes immediately were drawn to the huge piles of broken limbs and stumps in the yard of the neighbor.
    A friend of mine had had a situation come up in her life that was causing her much mental turmoil and one day a song came to her mind that said "Don't sell your saddle 'cause life is a long, long ride." That song put into her mind by God had encouraged her not to let anything take away her peace of mind, the result being that my friend eliminated some responsibilities from her life. I even taught a Bible study lesson on her testimony, warning the other ladies to also not allow anything or anyone to take away their peace.
   On the way home from teaching that lesson, as I drove my car onto the section of road that passed the corner of the neighbor's yard that had become a problem in my mind, that still, small voice of God inside my mind said, "When you pass his yard, don't look that direction at the debris; but, instead, look to the left at your own beautiful yard." I had never thought of that before. I did it. I merely turned my head and looked at my well manicured and beautifully planted yard instead of looking on the debris in the neighbor's yard. What an easy solution. That is what I did every time I drove down that section of road, looked at my yard instead of the corner with its mess. It's interesting that when the instructions came from God to stop looking at that yard, I knew that if I would do what God said to do, that I would have peace of mind; and it also occurred to me that some day I would look over there and the yard would be completely cleaned up. I got real excited about that, and every time I drove by I diverted my attention from the neighbor's yard to my beautiful yard, I had an excitement in my spirit about some day looking over there and seeing that all of the debris was gone.
   Little did I know that God's promises can quickly be fulfilled when we do what he asks us to do. Was I ever in for a surprise.
   A week after God told me to stop looking at the yard in question, I rose early one morning and kept hearing a loud beep, beep, beep. I checked my smoke alarms. Their batteries were okay. I opened the door and the beeping was loud. I stepped out the door and followed the beeping. Lo and behold, the beeping was coming from the neighbor's back yard, the offending corner in particular. There was a tractor picking up the giant dead stumps and dead limbs, depositing them into huge commercial trash bins. The tractor was also digging up old, dead trees, scoops of dead grass and also depositing them into the bins.
   God's promise was being fulfilled. It came to me that all of my efforts to fix the problem took it out of God's hands and put it in my hands. When I stopped being concerned about it, stopped looking at the yard and praying all the time to bless the owner of the land, then God was able to do His mighty works. AND IT WAS SO SOON, much sooner than I anticipated.
    Sure enough, in one day, the entire large back yard was completely cleared of all the yard trash and the ground has been sheered of all the dead grass.   After I got my attitude right toward the owner and the yard, God was able to quickly solve the problem that had been an eyesore for five years. All of my concern and efforts to solve the problem myself were useless because it wasn't my yard. It was none of my business. When I stopped making it my business, forgave the neighbor for allowing his yard to become a dump yard for broken trees, dead stumps, etc., it didn't take long for God to do His mighty work. That little tractor was like a mighty angel, scooping up cares and depositing them into the trash bin.
    I learned my lesson of never allowing anything to rob me of joy and peace. It all came through a song that translated to mean to me, "Don't let anything rob you of your peace of mind because in the future you will need it." I was blocking God's ability to do His work by making something my business that was none of my business. Loving the neighbor and doing good to him was my only business. It took my friend to alert me to that admonition by God.
    Today there are two tractors in that yard looking like two huge angels completing the work they started yesterday. That yard will be, to me, a testimony to God's keeping His promises. I can look at it now with joy and delight that My Heavenly Father does all things perfectly. AND SOONER THAN WE IMAGINE.

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 20:36:00 +0000

SNEAKY JUDGMENT
                                                       T. Wieland Allen
   Judgment sneaks into our minds silently like the snake that it is. Once, it had silently and slowly invaded my mind, hidden from my realization, for almost a year. It involved something that was none of my business. Things that we judge are rarely any of our business. We disapprove of someone's actions, beliefs, customs, looks, etc. and we form a judgment over something that should not even concern us; that is, should not be any of our business if we are God's kids.
    The situation was a normal situation that goes on in the lives of everyone. No wonder when Jesus taught His followers His ways He taught so much about forgiving our neighbors, doing good to our neighbors and loving our neighbors. Sometimes it's our neighbors that give us the most trouble. Courts are full of disputes between neighbors. Sometimes they even escalate into fights and killings. Thank God, the unjust judgment that I made against a neighbor did not result in anything other than robbing me and me alone. However, God loves me so much that he alerted me to the problem within me before I really became either mentally or physically sick. The judgment only caused me distress and anguish over something that was none of my business.
    The problem was that a man had bought a deserted house, one that had been glorious in its prime and for years afterward. The original owners had died and you know how that plays out sometimes, the children of the owners had not seen that the property was sufficiently maintained. The sale price was too high for the area but eventually it was lowered enough that a buyer was found for it. The buyer was a doctor who was building a clinic at the time and his time was spent on the problems that present themselves when building a huge building. As he gave more time to the building of the clinic, the residential property that he had bought lay in disrepair. After the completion of the clinic, the doctor gave some time to the house he had purchased. He hired a few men to cut down trees, dispose of them, and clear the area around the house.
    The problem was that the men dumped all of the dead trees, the dead limbs and stumps onto the corner of the property, far from the house. Unfortunately, that corner is visible from the street where I live. Also, throughout the year, grass grew up several feet high and some of the chain link fence fell, parts of it detached from the posts.
    Our neighborhood is an old neighborhood and our neighborhood association has worked hours and hours making sure the area stays manicured and presentable to visitors and potential buyers to the area. We got busy and hired a person to fix the chain link fence, asking the doctor to please share with us in the expense, which he was graciously willing to do. But, there was still the problem of the dump ground in the corner of his property which is visible from the street.
    I am very motivated and goal oriented. Okay, to be truthful, I am too motivated and goal oriented sometimes. I knew the situation with the doctor and didn't want to add to his burdens, so I decided that I would find a way to screen from view the area of concern with its dead trees, branches, stumps and tall grass. I tried several things which did not work. Slowly, thoughts crept into my mind of disappointment at the doctor for not having the large area of concern hauled off and the grass mowed. Like the snake that it is, concern turned into judgment of the doctor who probably doesn't even know what that corner looks like.
    I thought I had found the perfect solution. I was going to purchase three sections of six feet high, eight feet long wooden fencing and have someone attach them to certain parts of his chain link fence at intervals. It would not cost much, and I decided that I would pay part of the cost and ask the neighborhood association to pay the rest of the cost. My attitudes of concern, as I gave too much thought to the horrible looking corner, grew into an attitude of judgment toward the owner of the property. I was oblivious to the slow and sneaky growth of the snake of judgment.
     One day, a friend told me a testimony of how she had gotten too involved in something that totally consumed her time. She lost her sense of peace and her loving attitude toward everyone. She became consumed with her new responsibilities and soon became burdened with them. She told me that a song came into her mind that started, "Don't sell you saddle, cause life is a long, long ride." Through that song she knew that God was telling her that she had allowed the added responsibilities to rob her of her peace, which affected her love toward others. In other words, she had sold her peace, and in giving up her peace she was deplete of emotional power to endure something that might happen in the future. She began an exit move from some of her responsibilities in order to regain the peace that comes from being in unity with God. I thought that was a fabulous testimony and even taught about it at a Bible study. It was filled with wisdom. I had no realization at the time that I had lost my peace to the spirit of judgment of the doctor who owned the property.
    When I was driving home from that meeting, I passed the fence. Instead of looking into the chain link fence and seeing the ugly sight, I heard God tell me in my mind not to look at that area behind the fence but, instead, to look at my own beautiful yard which is visible across the street. In doing that, I didn't have the same thought pattern of judgment and thoughts of wondering how long I would have to endure seeing that messy sight. Refusing to look at his yard was an easy cure for me. It was an easy way to stop the judgmental thoughts I had for the doctor.
     God showed me that I had allowed that yard to rob me of peace. He impressed upon me that that particular yard is none of my business. He told me to pray for the doctor and that that yard would miraculously be manicured soon. In other words, God wanted me to stop handling the situation and allow Him to handle it. He told me that somewhere down the line I would need the peace that I had lost. In fact, he reminded me that that same scenario had happened to another house which had been a matter of concern. Instead of complaining to the owner, we had prayed and one day there it was, cleaned up neat and tidy.
     The way we "sell our saddles," or lose our peace, is by assuming responsibilities that should be none of our concern. As a result of God counseling me on that troublesome matter, His ways took all of the burden off of my back. I can look at the owner with new forgiveness. After all, he still probably doesn't even know that that area of his yard is so unsightly. I could feel the difference in my mind after I followed the thoughts that God put in there of not looking on the debris, but instead to look at my own beautiful yard.
     I am determined to remember this lesson and that I will not allow myself to be robbed of peace again, because I will certainly need it somewhere down the line; like tomorrow probably, the way things happen in the world.
     God's peace is too precious to lose and too valuable to allow ourselves to be robbed of it.
     Keep on the lookout for when problems invade your peaceful thoughts. Kick them out quickly and ride God's saddle of peace into the future. There's an absolute guarantee that you'll need it.

THRILLING SPIRITUAL INTERVENTIONS

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 23:04:00 +0000

       A powerful way for a family to influence a drug addict or an alcoholic family member to get help is by having an intervention where the family members call the addict into a meeting of members of the family where the individual members tell the addict what his or her addiction has done to ruin their lives. In that scenario, the addict is forced to view what the addiction has done to other people. Because of the sad and heartfelt testimonies of family members, most of the time the addict is influenced to get help for his or her addiction. There are many thousands of success stories of the power of intervention.
      There are spiritual interventions that take place that are not visible to human eyes. I was privileged lately to hear the end results of the power of spiritual interventions. The story goes back several years for a complete understanding of the events leading to the freedom caused by spiritual interventions.
      Several years ago a young woman from Mexico named Blanca came to our town and stopped by a local church, inquiring where she could find a woman's charismatic prayer meeting and Bible study. The secretary at that church knew about the one to which I belong. She gave to Blanca the name of Marcia, at whose house we met at the time. As a result, Blanca became a member of our weekly meeting to pray and study about God. She sent emails of our study material to her sister in Mexico named Dora and Dora began to send the material to other women in Mexico. Another group member, Dorothy, also sent to Dora a tape on how to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. She followed the teaching on the tape and was blessed with her prayer language, just like all of the women in our group have been. She would pray in Mexico while we prayed in the United States.
      A situation began in Mexico where Dora's husband. Eduardo, a very prosperous businessman, was harassed by a drug cartel and was forced to pay monthly sums of money as protection for his businesses and for the privilege of continuing in his businesses. As the cartel began to require more and more money, Eduardo began to deduce what were the plans of the cartel, which might possibly be to kidnap him and ransom him for millions of dollars. Edwardo, in anticipation of that plan, began to spend nights at different locations in the city, only coming home once a month to see his family.
      We prayed regularly for Dora, Eduardo and their family because of the threat of his being kidnapped by one of the drug cartels. During one of our times of intercessory prayers, Marcia, a member of the prayer group, said that while we were praying that the word "sopa" kept coming to her mind but she didn't know what it meant. Blanca and I immediately said it means soup in Spanish. We didn't know what real meaning that word had until months later.
      The next day after that interesting word, "sopa", was given by God to Marcia in her mind, Blanca heard by phone from her sister Dora in Mexico who said that her husband Eduardo came home from his seclusion for one night and said that he had a craving for Dora's soup, which she happened to be making at the time. He gobbled up her soup while hearing her tell him about the incident at our prayer meeting in the US about "sopa," and the coincidence of that happening before his intense craving for soup. After leaving his house the next day, he resumed his habit of avoiding the cartel by sleeping in different places every night.
       Eventually Eduardo was located by the cartel and kidnapped with instructions to his family to provide huge sums of money to insure his release. His son was able to come up with the money and delivered it to the location where he was told that his father would be released. The cartel took the money but did not release Eduardo. He was imprisoned someplace, stripped of all his personal clothing. His head was shaved and he was tortured. That same scenario went on for a year and a month, with the cartel demanding more and more money and promising that Eduardo would be released. That never happened. As time went on, more money and properties were demanded and were delivered to the cartel with the hope that he would be released. The family found out that some government officials were in cohorts with the cartel on the kidnapping.
       The prayer partners here in Oklahoma were constantly praying for his release. As doubts would come into our minds, we would pray in God's prayer language more and more. On one of the occasions when we were together praying for Eduardo and his family it came to me that Dora, her family and the prayer group needed to bless the members of the drug cartel, like Jesus said to do when He told us to bless our enemies. God told me to pray for them and to do good to them, just like Jesus commanded us. That was hard for us to do, but we knew that God's ways are not always our ways, so we prayed for them with genuine love for the cartel, even during their evil deeds toward Eduardo.
       Another member of our prayer group named Jane told us that she had a dream over and over one night about us cooking huge vats of soup to be shipped out. In the dream she wondered how in the world we were going to ship out all of that soup that we were making. We laughed over her dream without having an interpretation of it. Still, we continued to pray daily in the words of the Holy Spirit for Eduardo's release.
       After a year and a month, Blanca received word from her sister Dora that the family had managed to contact another governmental official who had agreed to deal directly with the cartel in hopes of getting Eduardo released. This was the last hope of his being released alive. That official did negotiate with the head of the cartel and agreed to pay more money for Eduardo's release. The odds of his being released were only 10% because more than 90% of the people who are kidnapped by cartels are killed.
       Eduardo's son had instructions from the government official to meet the cartel with a satchel full of money on a certain day with the promise of his release. When his son went to the appointed place, a van pulled up and he saw his dad pushed out of the van with a black hood over his head. The son walked slowly toward the gun carrying cartel leaders who were leading Eduardo to his son for the exchange. The son handed over the satchel of money and the leaders of the cartel pushed Eduardo toward his son. The son instructed his father to back up toward their car and do not turn his back for fear that both of them would be shot in the back. They made it to their car as the cartel leaders sped away in their van. The only item Eduardo had in his hands was a Bible.
       Eduardo's son had made arrangements for a plane to be ready to fly Eduardo and his wife Dora to a distant country where they would be safe. They are in that country now, working with doctors to bring Eduardo back to normal from the beatings and starvation that he had endured while in captivity. He said he had only been provided one meager meal a day for over a year.
        Our prayer partner Blanca could hardly wait to tell her prayer partners the good news. When she was finally cleared by her sister Dora to tell us, she came to Bible study/prayer meeting and announced the good news to us. We immediately started crying in awe of God and His perfect ways. We cried tears of joy like babies. It was a humbling experience, knowing that God performed a miracle in an evil situation which was meant to lead to death for our brother Eduardo, whom we had never met but whom we felt like we know because we had prayed so often and so long for him.
       Dorothy's son, Doug, joined us for prayers that day and when we gathered our grateful emotions together we told him the story from beginning to end, about Blanca looking for a prayer group years ago, miraculously finding her way to us, and then our being dedicated to praying for Eduardo and his family because of the terror of the situation in Mexico. We told him about the "sopa" word that Marcia heard and the soup dream that Jane had. Then we all said we didn't know what that dream meant, but we were sure it had something to do with the situation.
      Doug, as convinced as were Daniel and Joseph in the Bible when they interpreted dreams, said that he knew immediately what shipping out the soup meant. He said that our intercessory prayers in God's language during that year sent words of encouragement to Eduardo's mind while he was in captivity and, as a result, faith was infused into him for his release.   Per God's orchestration, it came to pass eventually.
      Needless to say, after hearing Doug's interpretation of the dream, again we all cried tears of joy at the reality of God's love and His perfect plans for the release of Eduardo. We are so in awe of God and His orchestration and his letting us know never to give up. Unbeknown to him, Doug came to pray with us that particular day just so that he could interpret Jane's dream, giving a huge boost to our faith and more praises to God.
      Later it came to me that, because of our prayers in the Holy Spirit, that there are spiritual interventions happening all the time as a result of our prayers. Hearts are changed, situations are changed, circumstances are changed, all by the words of God who goes into troubling events and brings His perfect will into them. He uses His kingdom workers in heaven to intervene in dire and dangerous situations when we bring Him into them through our praying in the Holy Spirit. He provides His words -- in this instance identified to us as His sopa, His soup -- and sends them into the mind of a person in need. He also invades the minds of people who are operating in evil actions and changes their destructive plans.
      We are in awe of this story and will be forever while we are in this earth, until we become in spirit a part of that family intervention group in heaven which carries out the will of the Father to rescue people from the works of evil.
      This is a true story and worthy of being repeated in order to encourage others to never give up on their prayers. God can even overrule the plans of an evil drug cartel and change their minds which are set upon killing a man, changing the plans into releasing him to his family.
      Sending forth God's words into the earth which change incidents, situations and circumstances in obedience to the instructions of God through His Holy Spirit is called praying in the Spirit. It is the most powerful intervention known to people because it brings God's perfect will into a matter.
      All we did was sit here praying in Oklahoma, with agreement in Mexico from the prayers of Dora and her friends and family, doing what the Holy Spirit said to do by praying in the Spirit at all times. It's the least we can do, after what He had done for us.
      Praying in the Spirit is giving God complete authority in a situation. His ways are so much higher and effective than our ways. What a wonderful plan He had, to get His spiritual words into the earth to change things according to His will.
       His "sopa" words did the wonderful work they were meant to do in this story, and they always bring awe to us in the earth because all of the glory goes to God who wants all of His children to live the abundant life. Being rescued from a vicious drug cartel and being saved from certain death in order to live with his family again is worthy of praising God for His love.
       Homemade soup always warms our bones and satisfies our taste buds. In this scenario, God's soup freed a desperate man who needed liberty.

AND THEN JESUS WALKED IN THE ROOM

noreply@blogger.com ("Dear One, Love God.........") — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 20:01:00 +0000

It's a rare occasion when we can observe someone who appears to be Jesus in the flesh. Jesus said that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father. On a recent trip I felt like I had seen God, Himself, walk in a room. The person didn't announce that she was God or some creature worth adoring. She merely walked in the room with an unbelievable presence of peace and love accompanying her. Her name is Jennifer and she has the spiritual ambiance of an angel or Jesus or God Himself. Why do I describe her that way? Certainly it was her calmness upon entering the busy circumstances she walked into, which was a family gathering. She had been at work all day, having traveled an hour to work, worked eight hours at a difficult job, traveled again an hour to the gathering. Yet, she had no appearance of being tired from her long day. She appeared fresh and eager to see her many family members in attendance. Jennifer's family consists of her husband, a five year old son and twin baby boys who are seven months old. Her extended family present in the house included lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins, etc., of which there were 18 present at the family gathering. Upon her entrance into the house, Jennifer's eyes searched for her babies, the objects of her motherly love. She greeted all of the other relatives with kind regard and grace, telling them she appreciated their part in helping take care of her children that day. But her eyes searched for her children. It appeared that she could hardly wait to embrace them and speak loving words to them. Her long drive to and from work and her long work day caused her to deserve some time by herself before becoming an attentive mom again. Not Jennifer. She had spent all day without her babies and she had stored up love that longed to embrace her offspring by touching them and speaking loving words to them. Her eyes spotted one of the twins in a baby seat and she ran over to him, focusing her entire attention on him. She put her warm hands on his bare, chubby legs, running her hands up and down his legs while speaking sweet "somethings" to him, looking admiringly into his eyes. Then she cupped his face in both hands while uttering more soothing, love filled words to him. The twin Jacob was visibly moved by the unconditional love of his mother so his eyes lit up like a beam from a spot light and his mouth broke into a big toothless smile. His little legs began to bounce up and down in the baby seat. Jennifer lifted him out of the seat and cuddled him against her chest, continuing to speak love words to him, genuinely validating his existence. The rapid relaxation of his body was visible to everyone in the room. He was sheltered in the arms of complete, unconditional love. That scene of adoration continued for about five minutes. Then Jennifer asked the location of the other twin. He was sitting on the lap of one of the adult cousins in another room. The loving mom handed Jacob to an aunt to hold and walked playfully but stealthily into the adjoining room. I heard her begin her loving litany delivered to Jason, the other seven month old twin. I peeked around the corner and observed her doing the same thing, running her loving hands up and down his little legs while validating his existence with her assuring words. Then she cupped his sweet face in her hands and continued with gentle words of love while looking directly into his eyes. His reaction was the same as his twin, complete elation at seeing his adoring mother. As she picked him up, his little body did the same things as Jacob's did, it relaxed completely as he was cradled in her arms while she spoke of his value to her life. All I could think was that Jesus was still in the room. After assuring her twins of her love and their value, she asked where her five year old was playing. She was told that he was upstairs with his teenage girl cousins playing video games. She walked to the stairs and called his name, Anthony. Anthony ran down the stairs, leaving his game willingly, and was embraced by his mom who told him how much she had missed being with him that day, telling him that she wished she could have been with him but that they are together again and she was so glad. Neither did she ask him if he was a good boy that day, putting him to a test, nor did she ask him or a report about his day. She merely told him about how much she missed his smiles, his funny stories and how she missed being able to read to him that day. That five year old boy soaked in her love like a sponge. My thought was no wonder Anthony is the picture of how a five year old boy should be. He is blessed with good looks, good manners, kindness, a maturity beyond his years and the ability to talk to adults like he's an adult, without fear of rebuke or disapproval from the listener. Anthony ran upstairs to play with his cousins and Jennifer came into the kitchen to converse with her aunts and me. She picked up one of the twins on the way to the kitchen and he placed his head right under her chin as she hugged and hugged him. She was being refilled with the love and adoration of her child and the baby was experiencing the building of a firm foundation in his psyche. . Jennifer began to tell us about the twins and their differences, said one was a leader and one was a follower. The boys were only seven months old and she already knew keys to their personalities. She explained that one was definitely an adventurer and the other one played it safe. I asked how she can tell them apart since they are considered identical twins. She said that one has a little red tiny birth mark beside his nose that the other twin doesn't have. Not once did Jennifer utter a word of exhaustion from her busy day at work. Not once did she gripe about having to come home to more work. Every word from her mouth brought another assurance of her calm and sweet disposition. Later, the information from my son was that her background is not the background that would lend itself to her present calm disposition. Her mother abandoned her when she was small and her dad was a drug addict, so she was raised in foster homes. Either some of her foster mothers taught her how to love her children or it comes from God. Jennifer knew that being with twin babies and a five year old had been difficult for her husband James, even though he had had help part of the day. Cradling one baby on her hip, she took a cup of coffee to her husband. Not one word of, "You think you have had a bad day. Think about me. I had to be on my feet all day in the lab." No, not that young wife and mother. Instead, she gave her husband the attention that he badly needed after his day of full responsibility of the boys was ending. She knew the labor that is necessary for caring for twins and another child, and she was refilling the tank of her husband which had grown empty of affirmation. She was a jewel to watch. I went to bed before they left but I was amazed that the calm, loving composure never left Jennifer. Yes, it was like Jesus was there in person. His love filled the rooms of the house through Jennifer. That must be what He meant when He said that we would be His witnesses. I know that I had witnessed the true personality of Jesus that day through a human vessel, Jennifer. If all of God's children had the same issues of peace and love emanating from their beings that Jennifer has, there would be no more wars, no more family dramas, no divorces, no killings, no suicides, no seductions, no abuses and no conflicts. There would be peace on earth. I want to be the same witness that Jennifer was that day, where people think Jesus walked in the room. Don't you?