The Reality of Life

Good evening sisters in Christ!

Let us sing and rejoice in the Lord for all He has done and the hope of eternal life that He offers us.  This world is so sad and dark, let us shine the joy and peace of the Lord that others might see.

Last night was peaceful and relatively quiet but this morning turned into something else.  There was a small car a little ways away from us and we noticed it because the woman walked right by our van to go into the store and the man was out fixing and arranging their bedding.  I went in the store to get something and brother Jim text me a bit later, saying he moved the van because there was an incident with a man strung out on drugs.  You can watch the video brother Jim made HERE. (And he made an audio about sorcery and drugs in the last days, you can listen to it HERE.)

Turns out it was that same man we watched organize their vehicle.  Brother Jim said that as the police came for the man and the ambulance was arriving, the woman was yelling for them to give her his cigarettes.  Sad, the snares of the flesh.  We were there once, ensnared by the addictions of the flesh, but we have overcome them through Christ. 

Romans 8:10-14

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 

 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

It's one thing when you read about such things yet another thing entirely when you sleep in amongst them.  Brother Jim uses wisdom when we park and will not intentionally put us someplace that is obviously not wise, but how does one know?  As we walk around, for exercise and to see if there might be someone to witness to, we see the beggars on the corners, some hiding behind barriers as their partner tries to con people out of money.  Yes, they should be working and not strung out on drugs but they are no different than the rich guy who works hard and is committing adultery on his wife after getting drunk at the bar or the woman who is a feminist to her husband and spends all his money on foolish things.  They will all be in the same spot if they don't repent and therefore the gospel goes out without partiality.

Romans 2:11-16 

For there is no respect of persons with God. 

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 

 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 

Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 

In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Sometimes in my flesh I don't want to be out here, but that's the reason...because I allowed myself to be in the flesh. Just as a soldier does in battle, if he looks to the casualties around him he will be weakened and distracted but if he looks to the goal and the instructions given, he will push through.  Us too sisters, we should endure hardship like a good soldier, setting our minds on Christ, doing the work of the Lord, knowing His will be done.  Each day we take a rest from it all and begin it again the next day, if the Lord allows us to live to see it, that is.

Speaking of rest, we have a nice spot for the night.  

Our door opens to a small field and even though there's trash in it, it's peaceful:-)  Goes along with the video we posted the other day about finding peace in your situation.

For those of you who may travel, just to let you know, Cracker Barrel welcomes travelers overnight in their parking lots also. (Most of them anyway.)  That's a fancier sign than normal. 

There are a couple semi trucks here and other types of rigs like vans and even homemade ones like this.

Brother Jim made a little one like that a couple years ago, to sell.

It sold the very day before we were heading out for our summer mission trip then.  They are cute but very tiny...I like tiny but I don't do well in that small of space, just sayin'. 

Brother Jim saw a 'homeless' person walking by the van all bundled up the other day when we were a bit more north where the weather was cooler.   He jumped out of the van to go witness to him, turns out it was a woman (she was covered head to foot in a big jacket, mask, sunglasses etc so it was impossible to know). When I heard the woman's voice, I hurried to finish what I was doing so I could go out there.  You can hear the audio of us witnessing HERE.  Just a note to those of you wondering why we audio record our witnessing instances.  Well, for one, we do it because sometimes people get mad and then tell the police that we are harassing them and we have an audio of it for proof that we weren't.  (Most often people approach us.)  Another reason is for us to listen and test ourselves.  One more reason is for other brothers who might want to learn how to street witness and see what it's like.  And for sisters to see how it all goes.  Quite honestly, anyone could record us and we'd rejoice over it as our 'yea is yea' and 'nay is nay' and we love when the truth is shared.  

We took a bit of quiet time today, or so we thought, by moving way over to the edge of a parking lot to do some things with the van and ended up having some smiles over it.  Check out this video...

Anyway, we had a very productive day today and I got a lot organized inside while brother Jim worked on his stuff. We are enjoying a cool evening outside in fresh air, how nice after being in cold weather that's not conductive for being outside at night.  

Brother Jim got this video last night.

The crazy things people do with their time.  It looks like the hood sits about 6 feet high, brother Jim said 'How can he even see out of that, a child could run in front and he'd never know'.  If only people would take that time and effort in the things of God. But if we all shine our light, we will sparkle around the world where they all can see.

It's another day tomorrow but the world is making a big deal about it tonight,  all because we will be using another number at the end of the year.  There's nothing sinful about marking the end of a day or month or year but to the world it's just another opportunity to be festive in all sorts of sinful things.  I know, we used to be the biggest partiers this time of year. Praise the Lord we were set free from all that.  Now we have the peace of God...

2 Corinthians 5:17 

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: 

old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

I pray that all of you who are reading this are truly my sisters in Christ, having become a new creation, repented and forsaken all for the Lord, striving in obedience  as a new creation and enduring through this life until we are called home.  See the biblical gospel HERE.

As the town is super loud with all their fireworks, racing vehicles, sirens going off etc...we're looking at the moon that our Father created, shadowed behind the clouds, doing what He created it to do.

The reality of life is pretty brutal when you 'see' it and experience the depths of wickedness, but we sister soldiers press on and look to our leader, our Savior and diligently follow after Him.

And I leave you with some well worn flowers as they had a bit of a cold snap here that they don't normally get.

And a little palm tree.

All the different plants, flowers trees, grasses etc are just astounding and mind boggling when you think of them being created by the Word.  You can see a simple children's post HERE about creation day 5.

Romans 15:13 

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, t

hat ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Love in His mighty name,

Sister Deb