DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE

A Challenge For American Intelligence

2011-03-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

In the USA today, many of the citizens are busy with life in general, including getting to work, paying their bills on time, putting food on the table, taking care of family, and nowadays, even struggling with unemployment and a bad economy, where all of the above is becoming more difficult.

So it does behoove us to know other ideas from people about what is going on in this world today, outside our own land. It is all inter-related, so if we can be aware of other issues in other nations, it would help us to learn to protect ourselves here in this nation.

As mentioned before, there is a book that I have been reading, "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL," by Nonie Darwish, who is the daughter of a man who was a high-ranking Egyptian military officer. She chose to move to America during the late 1970s or early 1980s, to start a fresh life. She has a web site now called "Arabs for Israel" which you can find at www.ArabsforIsrael.com. In her book, even in the last chapters, she shares a huge amount of information about what she truly knows regarding the Middle East mentality. I would like to encourage anyone to check out her book, or order it on-line, because you would be amazed at how much is in this one memoir. The book is entitled in full: "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL -- Why I Renounced Jihad For America, Israel, and the War on Terror." (by Nonie Darwish).

Let me share some quotes from her book, just to give you an idea. She explains a trip to Israel for a speaking engagement during November 2004. Here is what the book states on page 234-235: "I was invited to speak at the second annual Jerusalem Summit held at the historic King David Hotel overlooking the Old City. Visiting Israel is a major taboo in all Arab countries and part of the boycott of Israel. Israel's neighbors, the twenty-two Arab countries that oppose the Arab League, forbid their people to visit or do business with Israel and its citizens. Even Arab Christians have been forbidden to visit their holy sites in Israel."

This is true, from what information I could gather from my own experience also. At one time, I was looking up the possibility of job openings as an English-speaking Medical Transcriptionist in Saudi Arabia, where the beautiful hospitals use many doctors, nurses, and other personnel from the English-speaking nations to provide health care for their citizens. So I located job openings, and discovered that they do prefer medical employees who have been trained in the USA and Canada. Women Medical Transcriptionists must be single, with no children and no husband. The salary package includes their apartment. There are many perks, including going on vacation to some of the most fabulous places all over Europe and the Middle East, which most Americans can only dream of going to visit. We can see those photos in the travel magazines, places like the Taj Mahal, or a possible trip to Paris, France, or getting to go see London, England, perhaps visiting Stonehedge, as well as the chance to go see the Great Pyramids of Egypt, and other opportunities.

However, if one has ever been on a vacation to Israel, for any reason, the Arabs will check your passport and will not approve of you entering their country, from the information I could gather from my own Internet search. They will assume that if you have ever been to Israel, even merely on vacation, that you are some kind of a "spy" and this will put you under a great deal of suspicion in the Arab countries.

In her book, Nonie Darwish goes on to explain on page 235: "I flew to Israel on El Al airlines because I wanted to have the total Israel experience from start to finish. El Al has always needed to be very security conscious, and the employees of El Al were very thorough, very polite -- and somewhat apologetic -- when it came to searching my luggage. I told them to please do their job and that searching my luggage thoroughly did not bother me in the least."

Continuing on in "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL," she goes on to say: "My trip to Israel began on the beautifu Mediterranean coast, at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, one of the most beautiful airports I have ever been in. My heart was pounding with excitement after landing in Israel; a land that was so close physically, yet so far mentally from where I lived as a child in Gaza. Here I was, a fifty-six-year-old woman, the daughter of a man who died fighting Israel, now extendng my hand to this country in peace and love. I sat in a taxi for the half-hour it took to travel from the east side of Israel to Jerusalem, the ancient holy city. In the taxicab, I looked around me. This is Israel! The forbidden country, I said to myself. I lived thirty years of my life on the other side of the southern border with Israel. Gaza was just a few kilometers to the south, and Cairo, less than one hour's flight. I thought about how incredible it was that this country had survived, let alone thrived, with my homeland and the whole Arab world doing all they can to blame, boycott, spread propaganda, attack militarily, and terrorize this small country. It must be God's protective hands over this little state, I thought. The sight of a sign on the road that said JERUSALEM gave me chills in anticipation. As we drove into the city, a sense of awe came over me. I felt a deep sadness for everyone in the region."

At this point, the author of "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL" goes on to explain further: "When I was growing up I did not know the history of Jerusalem. We were taught that it was a city taken away from the Arabs by Jewish invaders. I was never taught that Jerusalem was the ancient capital of the Jews, that King Solomon built the first temple in 957 B.C., that it was destroyed in 586 B.C. and the Jews taken into exile in Babylon, that the temple was then rebuilt seventy years later, that the city was conquered and reconquered over the many thousands of years, until finally, in A.D. 70, the Romans utterly destroyed the second temple and dispersed the Jews, scattering them to the far-flug edges of the Roman Empire -- Spain, Arab lands, and Europe. Jews everywhere, over the ages when they celebrate Passover, have said the words, "Next year in Jerusalem," longing for their homeland. Furthermore, historically, when things did not go well between Jews and Arabs in Arab countries, Jews were often told by Arabs, 'Why don't you go to Jerusalem, your holy land' -- a fact now conveniently forgotten."

Nonie Darwish explains even more on page 236: "Many Arabs also ignore the fact that the land of Israel is also the birthplace of Christianity, the land where Jesus walked and taught. Jerusalem was the site of his crucifixion and resurrection. Therefore, indeed Jerusalem is the historically pivotal holy city for both Christians and Jews."

By the time we get to page 238 of her book, in "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL," the author writes: "Israel is not perfect, but it has passed a test of amazing endurance, surviving and thriving in a sea of hatred, violence, and terror. Its people remain optimistic, but they desperately need relief from the fear and violence that dominates daily life. I wish the Arab world could see what I saw in Israel -- a harmless state that just wants to live in peace with its neighbors."

She goes on to write: "As I traveled across the small country of Israel and met its people, I continually asked myself: What are the Arabs afraid of? Why are Arab governments going to such extensive efforts to conceal Israel from being seen for what it is in the eyes of regular Arab folks? Furthermore, why does the world stand by and do nothing to stop the terrorism against Israel? Worse, why do they condemn Israel when it attempts to defend itself? Even during the worst of times, Jews never flew airplanes into German buildings; they never terrorized the world even when they were being expelled, tortured, and exterminated. I cannot understand how Israel tolerated all this abuse without completely losing its moral standards, faith, and optimism. After my visit, I am even more committed to supporting Israel, a country that has been terrorized since its existence in 1948 and yet has refused to be dragged into the evil and darkness surrounding it."

There is also an author named Mike Evans, who supports Israel and has written a number of books regarding the Middle East situation. You can look up his web site. His latest book is "CURSED," regarding how he feels about the people who are against the Israelis, in the eyes of God. I have donated to his organization, and have received follow-ups through the mail. The photos he sends of the older Jewish citizens from Israel who receive his assistance reminded me of one thing: They are people, just like us! The picture of him handing a coat to an older lady was moving, because all these women in that little group reminded me of my own grandmother! With their white hair, and their expressions of love on their faces, they are people just like us! And there, if not for the grace of God, it could be us!

On page 239 of the book "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL," the author continues: "In September 2005, I was invited to speak in South Africa. In Johannesburg I was stunned to discover one of the most radical and anti-Semitic Muslim groups I have ever encountered. When I was interviewed by a radio show, I was angrily attacked by Muslim callers who accused me of loving the enemy of Islam, the Jews! I stood firm against a barrage of lies and provocations the callers threw at me, answering each question honestly. I did not flinch from defending Israel. The truth is the world is getting increasingly more anti-Semitic. Decent people should speak out against those who perpetuate these lies. To this day, Arab agitation is reviving anti-Semiticism in Europe and around the globe -- even in Africa. What are we afraid of? We have elevated a fear of Jews to a level that has never existed before in the history of the Middle East. Why? What is so difficult about accepting the presence of five million Jews in an ocean of a billion and half Muslims?"

She goes on to write, "As an Arab, I often feel deep sadness and shame over what my people have done and are still doing to Israel. Islam should symbolize generosity and aiding the needy. Jews are not alien to our culture. We are connected through history, language, culture, and religion. Our cousins needed protection after World War II; we were obligated to give it to them. We had a golden opportunity to show the world that Islam is truly a religion of peace, compassion, and tolerance by doing the right and gracious thing in 1948, and that was accepting the UN mandate and welcoming the tiny state of Israel to our region. But instead, my people chose to emulate Hitler's defeated monstrous mission to annihilate the Jews. We rejected Jews and denied them any right to their historical homeland. Even Middle Eastern Jews, whose culture and language are Arabic, and who now compose the largest proportion of the population of Israel, apparently did not deserve our sympathy or kindness."

At this point, on page 240 by now, the author of "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL," goes on to state: "For more than fifty-eight years, Arabs have been blinded by hatred, arrogance, envy, narcissism, and groundless fear. In the process of destroying Israel, their perceived enemy, they are also destroying themselves. I sincerely want to bend on my knees and apologize to the Jewish people on behalf of my people. I am only one person, but I am encouraged by the many e-mails from Arabs who are also sickened by Arab wickedness toward Israel."

At this point, it is necessary to say that the readers must pay attention to their own ideas and prejudices, regarding what they think or what they have been taught, back when they were young. My own mother always made rude statements about the Jews. However, by the age of fifteen, when I got my birth certificate, I noticed that the doctor who delivered me at my birth had been a doctor with a Jewish last name, actually from the Tribe of Levi. Even though I was born in a Catholic Hospital, the physician was Jewish, and I have been grateful to that man for his effort. My mother was a real "piece of work" who had worked as a nurse's aide at that hospital, Madonna Hospital before I was born, and there is no doubt in my mind that those Catholic nuns at that hospital really had their hands full, keeping her in line.

However, back to the problems in the Middle East, there will actually come a time when the Catholic Pope does have to set up shop in Jerusalem someday, to make peace in the region, due to the violence and the antagonism and the terrorism that so many of the Arabic people do have against the Jewish population in that region. This is just my own idea, based on what I have learned over the years, from my own studies.

There is a CD that is produced by a minister, called "Culmination of Prophecy," and it goes over many of the issues regarding the Middle East situation, and what it holds for OUR FUTURE! Yes -- US here in the USA, the ones who are living here safely in America at this time! That web site is for the Garner Ted Armstrong ministry, and you could see his web site at www.GarnerTedArmstrong.org. If you do order that CD, it would not hurt if you could give a donation to that ministry, even though the information is free of charge, because they can use all the help they can get, but they will send it to you free anyway. This situation in the Middle East is something that could blow up in ALL OF OUR FACES. Please do not just sit back and rest on your laurels, and fool yourself into complacency, believing that it will never happen to us. It is all inter-related. I have been studying much of this information since the 1960s, when we first got THE PLAIN TRUTH magazine, which I started reading at the age of nine, and I encourage all the readers to please be aware of the danger of "getting too comfortable." At this point in time, it is NOT the time to "just relax." There is too much danger on the world scene now. No one is completely safe. I am up at 3 a.m. in the morning typing this, because I cannot sleep. I am not doing this "just for drill." Thank you for letting me share some of my strength, hope and experience with you. I encourage you to PAY ATTENTION and USE YOUR HEAD, regarding what is going on in this world today.

Saudi Arabia is spending a lot of money, which they have plenty of, paying for these religious fanatic leaders of the mosques to come to the USA and teach hatred and religious fanaticism, here in our own country. Due to all of our laws on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, they get away with this. Please do not be fooled. I have learned about the hypocrisy of the oil-rich nations from the Middle East. They sit back and watch the Palestinians live in a ghetto, and they do not lift a finger to help them, and then they turn right around and criticize Israel, no matter what the Israelis do. Let me tell you, many of the Arabs do NOT WANT PEACE in the Middle EAST! And you cannot GIVE A DEMOCRACY to any people who do not WANT IT! We have had to work for everything we have, here in America! Nobody just gave it to US! I was picking cotton in the fields at the age of eight years old! They did not have child labor laws then!! So please, just pay attention. God gave us the ability to be able to think and figure things out for ourselves. Use your Own Intelligence. Thank you again for letting me state these opinions.

Our Predistination and Our Future

2011-02-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

At this point, many of our young people today have no idea of our heritage, our history, our predestination, or our future. They are a bit lost, without a clue as to who they are, what their heritage has been, or what their future holds for them in the context of the "big picture" regarding what is going on in the world today. We have tried to take the word "God" off our money, out of our school systems, and out of the hearts of our young people today. Even so, many of them are still searching for an answer to life.

The fact is that our ancestry gives us the answer to who we are, and what our purpose is, in this world today. If we do not live up to that expectation, it will be forfeited to some other nation or group of nations to fulfill the role, and take over as the next World Superpower. The USA and the British Isles, as well as Canada and Australia, have led the world for quite some time now, and have shown the vast majority of the peoples in this world a better way to live. However, we are now at the crossroads, in the process of "selling our birthright" as it were, and forsaking the belief system which has put us at the top, thus far, on the world scene.

We have many enemies in this world today, who absolutely hate us and are extremely jealous of us, due to the fact that our systems of government have been very successful. Our forms of free government have provided an amazingly prosperous lifestyle for the people in our nations. The enemies are out to destroy us, if they can do so, and if we continue having the false sense of security that we are prone to have, this is not doing us any favors in our own self defense.

Who are we? Well, in the Bible, going all the way back to the book of Genesis, it identifies who are are today. Joseph was the father of two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim was the father of the people who are located in the British Isles and are The United Kingdom. Manasseh was the father of the people who have become the Americans. Canada and Australia also share the ancestry of the English-speaking peoples. In the book of Genesis, when Jacob (Israel) was getting old, he put the biggest part of his blessing on the two sons of Joseph, for the future. This did not exclude all the blessings which would go to all the other tribes of Israel, the ones predominantly in northwestern Europe at this time, but it named his name to be used to describe the offspring of the two sons of Joseph: Ephraim and Manasseh, who now compose the English-speaking nations of the British Isles, the USA, Canada and Australia at this time. Many individuals will not want to believe this, but the facts speak for themselves. No other nation or groups of nations, have been as completely blessed with prosperity, a free system of government, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, as the nations of the USA, Canada, Australia and the British Isles. All the promises have come true, which God had said he was going to carry out, regarding our nations, thus far.

Genesis 48: 14-21: "And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said until his father, Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn, put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh; and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold I die, but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers."

As a result of this, the predestination was set into play, which eventually led to the British (Ephraim) becoming the "company of nations" which they are to this day, and the USA (Manasseh) becoming one very great nation, in and of itself.

God had promised Abraham many years earlier that he would carry out this promise. In Genesis 22: 15-18, the Bible states: "And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time. And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; That in blessing I will bless thee; and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; beause thou has obeyed my voice." This is not just referring to the Jewish people. It is also talking about us.

At this point, our people are all over the world. We can travel, go to other nations, and cause good events to occur, wherever we go. But what does it mean, posses the gate of our enemies? Well, we must take into consideration how we have been able to do that. To name just a few, our nations have had control of certain key areas in this world, places such as Hong Kong, the Rock of Gibraltar, the Panama Canal, and the Hawaiian islands. These ports have at some point or other been in the control of the English-speaking people. We have also caused blessings and benefits to go into many of the nations that we have traveled to, even including nations that we have gone to war with, as well as the nations that we have sent missionaries into.

There is not a nation on this planet, that has not in some way received some benefit from the United States, or the British Isles, even if it was in a roundabout way. All the nations of the world have been blessed, by the generosity of the people from the United States, the British Isles, Canada and Australia. Yet many of these same nations will turn right back around, and vote against us in the United Nations, every chance they get.

People in other countries look at us, and they see us with our blessings that we have in this nation, and how we flaunt our more comfortable circumstances. They see us with our microwave ovens, our refrigerators and ovens, our washers and dryers, and all the commercialism that takes place each Christmas, and they literally hate us because of all the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. When they see pictures of happy American families celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, they are so envious of us and our good system of government that they want to destroy us. Instead of realizing that they too could have the blessings of God, they simply want to make sure we do not continue to have these blessings.

This is why I want to encourage the reader: Please be aware of the world scene. Do not just limit yourself to happily going about your everyday life, with all the advantages we have here in America today. "Just because you are paranoid, does not mean they are not out to get you." Do not forget where all your blessings have come from. Thank God for all that you have, but just remember, we have many enemies in this world today, who would like to take it all away from us. We are at a turning point in this country now, which will determine whether we keep our birthright, or whether it will possibly be lost in the future. There are other nations just waiting to take over the helm as the next World Superpower, with the Europeans leading the way to fulfill that future role. Do not let yourselves fall into a false sense of security. We have been blessed. However, we have failed to keep our thoughts on the teachings of God, which has kept us at the top ever since we won World War Two.

Now is the turning point, for where our nations will go from here, and whether we will continue to lead the world into a better way to live. Pay attention to the world scenario, and the international geopolitics as they continue to develop on a daily basis. Do not get too comfortable. Do not be complacent. Watch and Pray.

Tia Tephi, Jewish Princess, and Queen of Ireland

2011-02-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

When I was going to school with the Baby Boom Generation in the 1960s and 1970s, very few of us studied very much information, other than what was taught to us in the classroom, but there were a few of us who did learn to study some other subjects on our own. The generations of young people going back to right after World War Two have not been taught to think for themselves, and try to learn information on their own. Now with so much information available on the Internet, this can make a huge difference in our ability to gather extra information, about who we are, where we come from, and where are headed in the future. . .

The history of our ancestors actually goes back much farther than just when we came to the United States, Canada, Australia, and the British Isles. When the royal family of King David was attacked during the days of Zedekiah, during the Babylonian takeover of Jerusalem masterminded by Nebuchadnezzar, all of the royal family was killed -- well, almost all. . .

Of note, there was one little Jewish princess by the name of Tia Tephi, who was able to escape, due to help from an Old Prophet by the name of Jeremiah. While portraying himself to be her grandfather, Jeremiah escaped the fallen city of Jerusalem and took Tia Tephi to Egypt, where they then boarded a ship to head towards ancient Ireland. When Tia Tephi escaped from Jerusalem, she carried in her own person the blood line of the throne of King David with her.

Later in Ireland, a royal wedding was arranged between Herman, who was heir to the throne of Ireland, and Princess Tia Tephi, the princess from Jerusalem. They married, and she became the Queen of Ireland, and produced a family. The royal throne of King David at this point, had then successfully traveled from Jerusalem to Ireland. Later on, the royal throne of King David went to Scotland, and then on to England, where it remains to this day. Therefore, the royal family of England now carries on the blood line of the royal family of King David of Ancient Days.

King David had numerous sons and daughters, with numerous wives, so we are here only talking about the royal family itself. There were many offspring of King David who are alive and well in this world today, even though they do not sit on a throne. It is true, however, that many of the royal thrones in the European nations have the Jewish heritage in their background, even though this is not discussed.

In Ezekiel 21:26-27, the prophet discusses the royal crown of King David, and how it would be moved three times during the course of world history. Ezekiel states: "Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that his high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more; until he come whose right it is; and I will give it to him."

The "overturn" phrase refers to when the throne of David moved, rolled over, or changed location from Jerusalem to Ireland, from Ireland to Scotland, and then from Scotland to England. It will not "overturn" again, until the throne of King David goes back to Jerusalem, after the Second Coming of Christ.

How can this be? Well, according to God's own words, he told David that his throne would last forever. David was a man after God's own heart, and even though he made mistakes in life, he always kept his faith in God.

So according to Jeremiah, God made the statement in Jeremiah 33: 14-15: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land."

God went on to affirm what is possible for the royal family of David. In Jeremiah 33:17 it states: "For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel."

Now please try to understand, whenever it uses the phrase "man" in the Bible, it is referring to "mankind" -- both male and female. It is not always just the "men" who have the power here. That is where great evil-doing can come into play, by both the men AND the women, who are not trying to stick close to God's will. Many women believe that they are "off the hook" with their own sins and evil behavior, simply because they are not MEN. In the Judgment, the women will also be held accountable for their own sin and evil behavior.

This also shows that it is true that a woman could without a doubt sit on the royal throne, as obviously has been the case.

In Jeremiah 33:20-22, it goes on to state: "Thus saith the Lord; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me."

The Levites, by the way, were the priest tribe, and wherever they go even in this day and age, in whatever work they do, even though many of them are no longer priests, they always rise to the very top of whatever business or industry they go into. Any time you see the name Lewis or Levi, or any similar name, they are the offspring of the priest tribe.

The point here is that our heritage goes back much farther than we give ourselves credit for. Not only the royal family is discussed here, because David had many offspring, and there are many offspring of all the ancient Israelites, especially those from the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, who are alive today. It is not just "the Jews" here that we are referring to, as they were only one tribe. When referring to the Jews, we generally refer to the Tribe of Judah, and also some of the Levites, but there were Ten Other Tribes of Israel, conveniently forgotten down through the ages.

I would like to encourage you to go to the web site of any search engine, and type in your family name. Look under your family name, and search for your "Coat of Arms" or your "Crest" and just see how far back your ancestors go, as far back as they have a record.

Your heritage will actually go back even farther than that, all the way to the days when Jacob had a family together with Rachel and Leah, and the two handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah.

All Twelve Tribes of Israel originally came from that first original family. For example, the Irish and the Danish originated out of the tribe of Dan, the offspring of Jacob and Bilhah. This would be my ancestry. This goes all the way back to the book of GENESIS!

So for all those other people in other countries who want to pretend like our nation is only 200 years old, I would just like to make the statement that our HERITAGE goes back for THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Please look up your own Family Coat of Arms, and see for yourself.

Profile of the Jewish Ideology

2011-02-12T06:23:00.000-08:00

Why do I favor the Jewish people? Growing up, I had a mother who criticized and condemned the Jews as dirty and dishonest people, even as she committed horrible welfare fraud, and cursed and screamed and beat us children. (We were cursed by her, going back to the time when we were very young little toddlers.) She would accuse the Jews as being "dirty," while hundreds of cockroaches were crawling up and down the wall just behind her head, beside the door leading into the kitchen of our delapidated and filthy four-room shack where we lived in Hendrix, Oklahoma during the 1960s. I had already learned how much she lied on people, starting with condemning her own children, and then working outwards to anyone else who crossed her path. So when she started on the Jews, I told her off. By the time I got through with my own statement, she got up and gave me a whipping with a belt, but I did not even care. I had already said what I believed, and the whipping from her did not change my mind.

It was 1969 at that time, and I had been reading THE PLAIN TRUTH magazine by an organization in Pasadena, California, which explained the situation the Jewish people are in, especially in the small, brave little nation of Israel, which is surrounded by the Arabic nations that are so jealous and hate-filled, that they simply want to destroy the only Democracy in the Middle East. The hatred and the jealousy and the filthy-minded accusations against the Jews from the other Middle Eastern nations simply reminds me of the poisonous and nasty, foul-mouthed, hate-filled attitude that my own mother had against ME from as far back as I could remember.

My mother did not have any creativity or any positive plan in her mind, except to cause my downfall and death. In the same way, the Middle Eastern nations do not have any better ideas on how to create a good government, and lead their people in the right direction, so they simply place all their blame and accusations of evil onto the beautiful little nation of Israel. That is absolutely pure jealousy and hatred at the foundation of everything they do and say, in regards to Jewish people. They are so hate-filled and so angry, just foaming at the mouth like a dog that has rabies, in their wretched attitude towards the Jews who live in any nation.

They will use the nation of Israel as the beginning, as the scapegoat for their first assault, before they finally begin their attack on the United States, in full force. As people do realize, they refer to Israel as "The Little Satan," and the USA as "The Great Satan." After all, they have to blame all their problems on someone! The men in their countries always start with blaming everything on their women, and then branch out from there. It can never be their own fault, for the predicaments they are in. They can never admit that their own form of government is not working for their own people. So they have to blame the ones whom they see are actually being successful in the forms of government that really work. They rape their maids, kill their wives, discriminate against their own young men who are unemployed, and have such a double standard in their nations, in so many different ways, that it is impossible for us to comprehend, here in America.

Here in this country, I have been the victim of a double standard and of dishonesty and unrighteous judgment, but I have been able to move forward in my own life, by avoiding the people who are against me, and by continuing to work, and by staying focused on my own goals in life. This is something that required the first 40 years of my life, to learn. Now, at the age of 54, I have more wisdom to work with, than the younger generation of young women have, and so continue to move forward with my goals in life. However, in the Middle Eastern nations, none of this would have ever been possible. The condemnation would have been carried out by the double-standard hypocrites who live in THEIR countries; whereas, here in America, I just walk on by, and continue on my path for the goals that have been set for me, in my own mind.

As far as the Jewish tradition goes, they have the basis of The Ten Commandments. Then the British Common Law used those Ten Commandments as the foundation of their own legal system, which then also became the foundation for the laws here in the USA.

It was a fair system, developed and instituted in order to bring about a decent civilization for people who could live together in peace, and have the kind of government and life for the people which God had in mind, until He can finally set up the true Kingdom of God on this planet. There has been no other system of government set up, in the history of human civilization on this planet, which has worked as successfully as the governments which have based their laws on The Ten Commandments.

The Jewish legacy goes back for thousands of years, and even Jesus Christ himself was a Jew, and many of his followers were Jewish people, who then became "Jewish Christians" after his death and resurrection. The original disciples of Christ, who were Jewish Christians, kept all the major Jewish Holy Days, including Passover, and they did observe the Seventh Day Sabbath. Jesus Christ had brothers and sisters, who had children, so there is no doubt that there are descendants of the family of his earthly father Joseph and his mother Mary, who are now alive in this world today.

There has also been proven to be Jewish DNA in the African American people who are here in America, so they are not left out.

From the time that our ancestors first left Egypt, getting out of slavery, we left with a "mixed multitude," so there was intermarriage and an intermingling of the culture, with the peoples we had dealings with, during the time that we were slaves in Egypt.

The remainder of many of the Americans, as well as the people in Canada and Australia, and Britain, actually have descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who moved North and WEST throughout Europe, eventually settling in Western Europe, the British Isles, and then traveling to the United States, and Canada, and to Australia. We are saved by RACE, not just by GRACE. Also many of the European royal families are of Jewish ancestry, but this is something that is not discussed in polite society.

The point is, we are all in this together. Like a stack of dominoes, when one starts to fall, we are all going to fall. This is true what they say, "It is all inter-related." And this is why I do defend the Jewish people, because they are people just like us. They are not "monkeys" or some inferior race. No one is. All the humans on this planet are human beings. God created all of us, all races, all nationalities, to help to fulfill the true will of God, and if we do not do that, we have just wasted our trip, here on this planet.

So to quote a sentence from the book in the Bible about the Queen of Persia, Esther, who helped to save the Jewish people a few thousand years ago: "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" -- Esther 4:14, NIV.

I simply urge anyone reading to look at the "Big Picture." There was so much complacency and compromise going on, in the days just before Adolf Hilter came into power. Hindsight is 20/20, and it is easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback, but the people in this world need to start using their wisdom and insight, to be able to detect the evil that is building up in this world today, before it takes place. The Middle Eastern nations are NOT RIGHT in their hatred of the Jews and the Christians.

Begin by paying attention the international geopolitics, and please do not get all your information from the bleeding heart liberals who own the major news broadcasting networks. Use your head! Get on the Internet, and study for yourself, to find out what is going on in this world today. Pay attention to Europe, to the Middle East, to Japan, China, and Russia. Stay up to date on the financial markets, even those of other nations.

There is a prediction from years ago from Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong that there is going to be a financial collapse of all the industrialized nations, all over the world, at some point in the future, and that those nations who rise out of the ashes of that economic disaster are going to be the leaders in the future. Do not let this occur, while you blindly go about your own life, as if you had no idea. Start paying attention! Get your heads out of the sand, and off some of the silly ideas that you have had about the past, and start looking toward the FUTURE. Do it now.

Egyptian President Mubarak Resigns Today

2011-02-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

Today, Egypt starts a new chapter. Whether it turns out to be hopeful and creative, or whether it turns out to be an even worse regime than the one they have had before, remains to be seen. According to the statistics, over 12,000 young Egyptian men have committed suicide over the last four years, due to poverty, unemployment, not being able to get an apartment, and not being able to even dream of getting married or having a family.

The Egyptians have been living in abject poverty for so long, that many of the people in the USA have had no idea how bad it really was. Many of their citizens are living in poverty. Even the ones who are considered to be well off, have still had to live under the injustice and the unfairness of the Muslim ideas, regarding civil rights.

The Christians and Jews are discriminated against over there in ways that would be a nightmare here in America. In this nation, when these different Middle Eastern nationalities come to our countries, they are afforded all the rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion HERE, which we would immediately be denied to have the right to, if we were in THEIR countries. To use the word "double standard" is a gross under-exaggeration of how bad it really is.

They come to this country and teach religious fanaticism with their fellow believers, even while they enjoy all the blessings and the advantages and the freedom that we have to offer in our free nation.

So I am truly hoping for a better life for the people in Egypt, but there is the realization that if the religious fanatics of the Muslim religion start to take over, all bets are off. Thus far, none of the Muslim nations have really been able to develop a good government for the peoples in their parts of the world. They criticize the USA and throw stones at the Israelis every chance they get, but I have noticed that they do not have any solution to the world's problems.

When it comes to that old theory, "Be part of the solution, not part of the problem" -- I have noticed that many of the Muslims are "part of the problem." I do not want to discriminate against anyone, and do not want to condemn people. God loves all of us.

However, this is something that the Muslim faith does not understand. Their idea of "Allah" flies in the face of the Good and Loving God that I have been taught to believe in, even when nobody else ever really liked me! On my worst day, when I knew nobody else in the world was ever going to be on my side, I still always knew that God loved me. (Me -- a female.) In the Muslim world, this is unheard of!

This is why I am beginning to detest their religious fanatical beliefs, their suicide bombers (who are really mass murderers) and their discrimination against women, whom they always blame for everything, because they are not man enough to admit that their own form of government and their form of religion does not work. So they have to resort to terrorism, because they lack any form of creativity.

All "destroyers" will have to stand before God in the Great White Throne Judgment, one step away from going into the Lake of Fire. So their ideas of "going to heaven" and having "70 virgins" is a fantasy that will never be realized.

In the meantime, let's just hope for the best, for Egypt, because they are going to need it. And let's stand behind Israel, which is the only DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST, surrounded by a bunch of low-life Middle Eastern countries that simply want to destroy them, if they get the chance to do it. May God Help Us ALL.

Working In America

2011-01-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

In many countries, being a hard worker is considered a sign that a person is "less than." Only in a nation like America, has it been proven that if you work hard, there can actually be a rewarding outcome, if you do not give up. Many of the Americans have worked so hard, for everything that they have, to the point where it is just expected of the Americans, to have our buses, trains and planes running on time, our taxis getting us to the airport on time, and all the employees who work for many different companies showing up on time, ready to do their jobs.

This country has existed now officially for a bit over 200 years. The first settlers began making a civilization in New England in the 1600s. So a person could either make the argument that our nation is about 400 years old, or only about 235 years old. Either way, this is a very young country, compared to many of the European nations, and to the ones in the Middle East. Our ancestors, however, have been on this planet for thousands of years, but they were not settled in this particular nation yet.

When the first arrivals from the different European countries began settling in America, they saw a really good opportunity, and they made the most of it. There were immigrants who were German, Polish, Irish, Italian, British and Scottish ancestry, French, and from many other national identities, also the African Americans, who saw an opportunity, and decided to make the most of it. The chance at freedom in this country was something that no other nation had, which could even begin to compare to what we had a chance for in this nation of ours.

As a result of this line of reasoning, many people went to work, and it was never easy, but it was worth it. Only in this country, could working so hard actually pay off for people, to the point where they could literally have a decent life, with some luxuries thrown in, for good measure. Children were able to get an education. This nation took off, economically, politically, and militarily, to the point where were rose to the top in comparison to the entire rest of the world. We have been admired and respected all over the globe, due to our ingenuity, our hard work, our drive and determination, our faith, and our principles of a free government. During the days of the 1950s right after World War Two, New York City was the most prosperous, the largest populated, and the most wonderful city in the world.

After all these years, there are many people all over the world who are now extremely envious of the USA, and of all the success that we have had as a nation, and they want to destroy us, take over the good society that we have, and infiltrate their own belief system into our society. They have not been able to be successful in their OWN nations, so they want to come and take over OURS.

The Muslims are one group who are desiring to take over each country that they live in, and to infiltrate with their own religious beliefs, so that they can take over the societies they move into, and make the whole world become Muslim. They have proceeded to do this in the European nations, and they are proceeding to do this in our country here in America. They have no tolerance of the Christians or the Jews,and in THEIR nations, the Christians and the Jewish people are not afforded the same Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, that we allow them in our country. As a matter of fact, the Christians are starting to be persecuted now more than ever all around the globe, and especially in the Middle Eastern nations. Recently I have read that a person can be locked up in jail in Saudi Arabia for carrying a Bible in their country.

Today in Egypt, there was a terrible bombing just outside of a Christian church, as the Christians came out the door after having a worship service to welcome the New Year 2011. The Christians have been persecuted in Egypt for quite some time now, with attacks, bombings, murders, and discrimination from their unfair, hateful, unsympathetic and discriminating Muslim neighbors. The Muslims are so jealous of all the good that the Christians and the Jews are able to accomplish, with their religious beliefs, that they only way that they can compete with us, is to blow us to smithereens with bombs, or murder us in some other filthy, hateful way. They cannot win against us in any other way, except to destroy us with their perverted way of thinking, and their jealous and envious feelings towards us, for all the GOOD that WE have caused to come to pass, in this world. The governments of the Middle Eastern countries are as guilty as SIN, in allowing this to come to pass. They encourage the Muslim faith, and want to get rid of the Jews and the Christians.

The Muslims in the Middle East do not work as hard as we do in this country. They hire outsiders to come in and do the work for them. Their system of government has never been as successful as ours is, because we are a democracy and a Republic that has succeeded amazingly well over the centuries, based on the fact that we reward the people who are able to work and get their jobs done. The Muslims treat people who actually do the "work" like they are nothing but DIRT, and they enslave people. The men who have maid servants from other nations, actually have the right to rape their maids, without any consequences. Rape of their women servants, and murder of their own wives, is justified, because everything is always blamed on the women. They are the lowest form of people who could ever pretend to believe in a good and just God.

You can tell a lot about a country by how they treat their women. We are people in the eyes of God, TOO, and we are human beings who have the ability to do a lot of good in this world, and in our work, and in our own homes.

When you see women being treated like they are of less value than somebody's camel, that is how you will be able to determine what kind of people you are dealing with here.

In the meantime, let's pray that God will bless America with a Happy and Prosperous and Enlightening 2011.

Middle East Double Standard

2010-12-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

In the Thursday edition of the Tulsa World newspaper for December 23, 2010, page A6, there appeared an article regarding the Saudi King Abdullah who has undergone two back surgeries successfully at New York Presbyterian Hospital and will stay in New York to complete his physical therapy. The king is 86 years of age, and has obviously come to America for his medical care.

In a book written by an Egyptian lady, Nonie Darwish, "NOW THEY CALL ME INFIDEL," she also describes how two of her close Egyptian relatives became ill enough to die. Given the choice of either going to a hospital in Cairo, Egypt, where they would surely die, or going into an excellent hospital in Israel, where their lives would be saved, the choice was obvious -- Go to the hospital in Israel. At that point, the Israeli medical personnel gave these Egyptian citizens the best of care, and they survived, and returned to Egypt. Even though they were related to her father, who had been a very high-ranking Egyptian military officer, they were given the full medical treatment needed to save their lives.

The fact that the Christians and Jews give the best medical care, even to our enemies, speaks volumes about what we believe in, when it comes to practicing our faith.

Due to the fact that I do work in the medical field as a trained Medical Transcriptionist and take my job very seriously, it is a daily challenge to keep up with new medical words, procedures, and new drugs, but I also realize that the Western medical personnel are lightyears ahead of others in many ways, when it comes to our health care beliefs. The system I work for believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ, in regards to healing and believing for a positive outcome, if at all possible, up to the bitter end.

Sometimes I do joke and act irreverent, but when push comes to shove, I take this work very seriously. I believe in miracles. I believe in saving someone's life, if at all possible. Because once our life here in this particular trip is over with, we have nothing to face but the Judgment. I believe in an old beer commercial, which stated, "You only go around once in life, so go for all the gusto you can," or something to that effect. There is obviously going to be another life in the Kingdom of God for "some people," but it is very important to stretch this life out as long as we can, in this particular life that we have now. Everything in that "next life" depends on what we do in this one.

This brings us to the idea: Where would we be without the teachings of Jesus Christ? The fact is that as bad as the state of the world is in today, it would be so much worse, if it had not been for Jesus Christ and his appearance on this earth, to teach people the good and right way to carry out the will of God.

Everything good that has happened on this planet has been because of the teachings of Christ, sometimes in a roundabout way, and the belief that someday we will be able to live in a Paradise, therefore setting up the belief that we also need to make the demonstration of a Paradise at this time, if at all possible.

Growing up originally as a Southern Baptist, I overheard many times someone saying, "I have the best of both worlds," meaning that they had a good life at this time as an American in the best country of the world, and they also expected to go into the Kingdom of God, in their next life. This is pretty much the true underlying desire of all Christians.

Many Christians are being persecuted horribly in other nations around the globe, especially by the Muslim nations! Here in America, we are allowing the Muslims and their radical beliefs to run roughshod over all of our Christian teachings, just because of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion, but as Nonie Darwish states in her true memoir, the same courtesy and respect would NEVER be afforded to us (the Christians and Jews) if we were in THEIR countries!

So the Middle Eastern nations and the Muslims do have somewhat of a double standard, and that is putting it nicely! They come to the Western facilities for their medical care, if they can afford it, and then return to their countries to plan how to "do us dirty." They know that we will travel the high road, with our dealings with them, and that we will do our best to "play fair," but they themselves do not play fair! We have a Code of Honor that we use, even during a time of war, which they themselves do not feel that they have to observe! They are deceitful. They have been taught that being deceitful and lying is acceptable, when it comes to the Jews and the Christians, because the end justifies the means! In their belief, it is not exactly a sin, as long as they are furthering their own agenda, to win and take over the world, and have the Muslim religion all over the globe.

You can tell a lot about a country, by how they treat their women. When I was growing up, I had a very diabolical older brother who was out to get me. He expected me to just eventually give up and commit suicide. He even told me once that was what I should do. I was the scapegoat for the whole family. Everything got blamed on me! In the Middle Eastern countries, this would be perfectly appropriate, because they are never man enough to admit their own shortcomings. In their structured environment, everything gets blamed on the women!

However, I was in America, not the Middle East. I studied magazines, and realized that many women in other nations did not have any advantages whatsoever. I knew that I was in America, and that if I could just get to be a bit older, I could get a job and learn how to take care of myself. I was already selling GRIT newspapers door to door, in our little community, along with my younger brother. This was in the 1960s, and I would see magazine articles showing women during a famine in Africa, holding their starving babies. I would also see women in India, kissing the tail of a cow which they worship, while people were starving, but it was against their beliefs to use the beef for food. So after thinking about many ideas, I realized that with all the disadvantages, coming from a poor unfortunate welfare family that was becoming very negative towards me, there was still a chance to survive, if I played my cards right. None of this would have been possible in a Middle Eastern country.

Another point is that the Middle Eastern countries have devious governments, and many of their people live in poverty. Even in the oil-rich Arab nations, not everyone is rich. They discriminate against many of their own people, including their own young men, who then become willing to become "martyrs" because they have nothing else going for them. The Middle Eastern people are simply taught to hate the Israelis and to hate the Americans, because they are so jealous of our success in many areas. They really do want to "do us dirty" every chance they get. The moral to the story is, that Christ taught us to love our enemies, and to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. This was actually how I myself survived a very diabolical family, and am still alive today, but it can also be used to survive much worse hardship, especially when it comes to a very evil enemy.

Once other statement: The Middle East is NOT going to win. No matter what happens with the war that is going on there now, their tactics are not going to work. Eventually, even the Europeans will begin to realize that it is going to take some tough measures against the Middle East, to make them realize that their form of government, their form of enslavement, and their form of tyranny, is not going to work in this world today.

We do have Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech in this nation, and we should speak a little bit more clearly about our own Christian beliefs. The Judao-Christian foundation has been the root cause of many good things in this world today. We cannot and must not give up.

It is just like an old saying where I come from down around Northern Texas, "If you give them an inch, they will take a mile!" This is already been doing in this country. For example, in early November, we went to the poles here in Oklahoma to vote, and one of our decisions was to vote against Sharia law in the State of Oklahoma. It was voted AGAINST!

Now a Muslim man has started a lawsuit, and there is an Oklahoma Judge who is taking his lawsuit into consideration, to allow Sharia law in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma citizens do NOT believe in Sharia law. It allows the men to have up to FOUR wives, all at the same time, and it allows them to abuse and kill their own wives, without any consequences. The problem of wife abuse and child abuse in their culture is not even discussed. They just assume that they have the right to do it, and that is all there is to it. Once again, you can tell a lot about a culture, by how they treat their women and children.

There is more for later, but Jesus Christ did teach that he is the right way to enter the Kingdom of God, through the door. Anyone who comes to God through the true doorway, is a true believer in God, a good and just God. However, anyone who tries to enter the Kingdom of God any other way is a liar and a thief, coming in through a window, instead of coming through the door. Just think about it for a minute. God is a merciful God, going all the way back many thousands of years ago, and he did not condone injustice, even though it has been done down through the ages. The Bible does state," Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy." I do not see this happening with much of the Muslim culture today. They are not going to win. God Himself will make sure that they do get taught a lesson.

Three Main Religions in Jerusalem

2010-10-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

Everyone no doubt understands there are three predominant religions in the city of Jerusalem. Judaism, which began and dates back to the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; then Christianity which dates back to the time when Jesus Christ walked and taught on this earth; and then Islam, which began with Muhammad and all of his followers, many of whom are actually the descendants of the particular son of Abraham named Ishmael, the son of Hagar the concubine. Ishmael did go on to have 12 sons, and these were the beginnings of tribes of people who now make up much of the modern world today that follows Islam.

One time in college, years ago, I knew a young man as a friend only, who came from one of the Middle Eastern countries. I told him the story of Ruth in the Bible, and also the story of Esther, and used those two examples to explain his own heritage, because these were two stories in the Old Testament relating to WOMEN who were heroes. He wanted to propose marriage right away, because he said I was the first young woman of our age group that he had met in the United States, who understood his ethnic background, and the history of some of his ancestors. Well, if I had been wanting to marry anybody at that time, it would have been a different story, but it was surprising that no other young women of our age had studied their Bibles enough to know the identities of certain key nations mentioned in Bible history or prophecy. I was by no means an absolute genius in anything, and had to study very diligently to learn anything knew, so this was why I kept my nose in a book all the time, and it worked for me! Over the years, it has become rather amazing that no particular church organization, no single church congregation, no denomination, and no minister has all the answers to everything. So this is why God gave us a mind to use, so that we can discern for ourselves. All I do know is that I follow certain ministers, and then study on my own. I listen to Joel O'Steen, and also to the ministry of the organization of the late Mr. Garner Ted Armstrong.

However, the very bottom line is that our core belief, as anyone who believes the Christian beliefs, must return at some point to our foundation, which would be based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. We can talk all day about the Jews, or the Muslims, and what they believe (or don't believe), but at the end of the day, we must return to what we know and have been taught. So it turns out that Jesus Christ is really our Savior, whether this be in a life where we live right up to the end of a very ripe old age, or if we die during a bitter war, or as a prisoner taken captive by the enemy, or if we die of a disease that we could not find a cure for, or in a horrific accident. As a matter of fact, Christ said he would be with us to the very end, no matter what the circumstances might be.

For example, it is clear that down through the centuries, all Christians have always believed that Christ would return during THEIR lifetime, and this faith has kept all Christians going for the last 2000 years! Even though the second coming has not occurred yet, it has occurred in the hearts of many of God's people. Not only that, but when discussing the resurrection, I do believe that God will know how to resurrect my body for the Great White Throne Judgment, even if my body has been cremated, or even if I were thrown into the bottom of the ocean and eaten by the sharks. God will make a way. He always does.

So for those who are doubtful, spiteful, unbelieving, and skeptical, this is all just a bunch of malarkey, but for those of us who truly do believe, nothing is completely impossible. There are so many people who would immediately relate to Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Great Pumpkin, the Fairy Godmother, and to the Good Witch Wanda, and to many other "myths" that we are taught growing up, who would then turn right back around and be skeptical when it comes to God Himself. God was the originator of "White Magic," and I believe he is able to perform miracles. So as life goes on, and the world continues to change, Keep the Faith! Life is going to be a challenge, as we go into the future, and we need to strengthen ourselves spiritually, for what lies up ahead.

Controversial Bible Prophecies

2010-01-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

First of all, 2012 is NOT going to be the end of the world. It may be the beginning of a New Age of some kind on this planet, but the people who forecast the "end of the world" are mistaken, and this false belief could be to the detriment of everybody on this planet. It is my firm belief that any religious person from any of the fundamentalist religions, no matter which religion this is, can be an extremely dangerous individual, simply because they are looking forward to what they call the "end of the world."

Let's do a little homework here. In Zephaniah 1:14-15 (KJV) the Bible states: "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness." Just blow the dust off your own Bible, and read the rest of it.

Also in Amos 5:18, the Bible states: "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light." So as one can plainly see, even the Prophets of Old describe this as not being a good day to look forward to. Therefore, a person could look forward to many things in life, going on a cruise or some other nice vacation, the birth of a child or grandchild, a family reunion, or snow-skiing trip in the winter, or any number of events, but the Day of the Lord is not something that a person in his right mind would want to look forward to.

As for the Antichrist, there is not going to be any one human being who personifies the Antichrist. There is the "spirit of Antichrist" which is all over the world, in many forms, in many people, but there will not be one person who totally personifies the "Antichrist." As for people who believe that this entity will come out of the Muslim countries, this is a falsehood. According to the Bible, the person who stands up in the Holy Place and says "I am God" will be attempting to take the place of God on earth. This would not be a Muslim, because they believe in only One God, and it would be blasphemy to say, "I am God," for a true Muslim. It is against their religion.

The word "rapture" is never used in the original King James Version of the Bible, and is a myth. No one is going to be swept away into a place of special privilege while everybody else on earth goes through Tribulation. We are all going to go through Tribulation together! There is no way out, short of death.

The good news is that there will be the situation where the destroyers will be judged in the Great White Throne Judgment. Destruction is not the way of God, and everyone who has taken this approach will stand before God in bitter and devastating judgment, in great danger of their end being in the Lake of Fire.

There will be a 1000-year reign on earth, after the Second Coming, during which this world will be made into the paradise it should have been, all along. So rather than the end of the world, it will be a paradise on earth with the Throne of God finally being set up on this planet. These are all events to look forward to in the future.

As everyone well knows, ever since the crucifixion of Christ, every generation since then has always looked forward to the return of Christ, and every generation has died without their wish being fulfilled, but this has been the faith of the Christian religion.

Nevertheless, there are more and more signs which show that there may be a time when we really do see the events take place described in Bible prophecy, regarding the so-called "last days." And the "end" will turn out to be the "beginning." This world will have to be cleaned up, made into a paradise, and all the ways that we have evolved will be used to make this world a better place to live. All the technological advances we have developed will be used to further the Kingdom of God.

We will then be able to live 1000 years in peace and safety on this planet, before being allowed to venture out through other parts of the universe, without destruction following in our path.

Promise of Blessings

2010-01-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

There is a story in the Old Testament regarding the prophet Jonah, who went to give a warning to Ninevah to change their ways, but in the process, he ended up in the body of a whale, and went through great trials and tribulations before he was finally able to deliver the message of warning to Ninevah. Then Ninevah repented of their sins, turned back to God, and Jonah became a bit frustrated that the condemnation had not been carried out on that city-state, after all the trouble he himself had to go through to get the message across. He questioned God Himself regarding this decision, and God basically stated he had the right to change his mind: "And should not I spare Ninevah, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" (Jonah 4:11, KJV)

Now that leads the way for all the doom and gloom prophets who are predicting the downfall of our country, but this is still America, and we still have time to get back on the straight and narrow path. Time is short, but it has not completely run out. Many of the good grassroots people of America who are living decent lives are the ones who never speak up or say anything when they see the wrongdoing of others.

There is much violence and utter nonsense being broadcast in the entertainment industry, and so many of our young people are unable to separate fact from fiction. Also many of our young people do not know the history of our country very well, including the wars that have been fought in the past, and the reason for fighting them. I met the husband of one of my fellow Medical Transcriptionists at a conference once, and he was a school teacher. He told me that many of the young students of today will see information about World War II, for example, and say, "Did that really happen?" They are totally oblivious to how much sacrifice has been made so they can have all the advantages that they enjoy today.

If we are not careful in this country, we could actually lose all the freedoms that we hold so dear, and that is beginning to occur as we speak. Many of our country's leaders have basically sold our birthright already, as a nation, right from under us, while we were blissfully unaware that this was happening. We have been so busy as a nation trying to help other countries, and to bring up the standards of living of many third world countries, and we could end up like a third world country ourselves, if we do not take warning before it is too late.

In Deuteronomy chapter 28, (KJV) here is what God promises us in the Bible: "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command these this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

"And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

"The Lord shall cause thine enemes that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto: and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he has sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.

"And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

"The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

"And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them;

"And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them." (Deuteronomy 28: 1-14, KJV).

Now, no country or countries has epitomized this large an amount of blessings as has the United States, Canada, the British Isles and all their Kingdom, and Australia. This blessing was bestowed upon the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom the Jews, the tribe of Judah, are only one tribe. There were 11 other tribes besides Judah, some of which had traveled very far away from the area of Jerusalem, by the time this Blessing started to be carried out. Because God Himself had made this promise to Abraham and all his offspring (during the days of Moses), it was just a matter of time before the prophecy could be carried out, and we have lived in a time where we have seen the Blessings that God had to bestow on all our countries. However, there is a downside to the possibility. Once we forget where all these blessings come from, we are in very great danger of losing all these blessings that we have been granted from Almighty God -- and you can rest assured that all the other countries are watching right now, to see if we will lose our birthright completely. Now is the time to take a really good look at where our nation has made mistakes regarding all the advantages that we have had bestowed on us.

Yes, wars have been fought and sacrifices have been made, which have also helped us to be where we are today, but let us NOT leave God Himself out of the equation! Other countries all over the world are just waiting to see if we will turn into a laughing-stock in this country, and this should be a very dire warning that we need to get back on the path of belief in Our God, and not lose our faith, and our foundation which this country was built on.

Life Is Too Short

2009-08-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

One of the most recent books on my reading list is THE PERFECT LIAR by Brenda Novak, and I cannot wait to see what the plot is for this suspense novel. The title reminds me of several members of the family that I was cursed to grow up in as a child. When young, I was idealistic and so believed that if we just behaved ourselves and were good, then good things would finally happen to us. So we kept our mouths shut while other members of our family propagated a lie against us, in favor of other people who were actually evil perpetrators, when it would have been so simple just to tell the truth of the situation, and clear the air.

Nevertheless, it turns out that I must have been a little bit more worldly wise than they realized, because there was always a back-up plan of survival, just in case being good and doing my best still did not work out in my best interest. And so I persevered through thick and thin, for years after getting away from that particular family, in the solid determination to continue on, and defy them simply by continuing my own life, to the best of my ability.

The point is that it did cause a break-up in our family, but our particular family had never been that close to begin with. As young children, the kids in our family had never been taught to look out for one another, and so it was a situation of "every man for himself," and the sibling rivalry that myself and my younger brother did not even believe was true, was actually much stronger than we had ever begun to realize.

So after all these years, there are two brothers that I have not seen in about 35 years, and I sometimes wonder how they are. They turned their backs on me many years ago, when they knew assistance was gravely needed, and so there are not too many regrets involved in my own decision to move forward with my own life. At the age of 53 years old now, I still do not feel a strong desire to go back around the aunts, uncles, cousins, and two brothers who turned their backs on me when all that would have been required would have been a simple visit while I was in jail, just to get my side of the story, and a motivation to step up to the plate and do the right thing, at the perfect time when this could have easily been carried out.

Now, you may read the first book DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE to discover the sordid details of our past, and the sequel to that is the memoir entitled THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH which will soon be available. After this, a third and final memoir will be TO HAVE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE.

Times are hard now in America, many people have lost jobs and are having to re-invent themselves. Families are circling the wagons and learning how to cope with an economic situation that they never saw coming.

The purpose of writing these memoirs is to help reinforce the need for other American families to learn how to stick together and look out for each other, and not to end up in a situation of estrangement like the family that we had originated from. It does matter a great deal if people are having to live on welfare, on disability, or in a situation where money is scarce, but the worst kind of poverty is the poverty of the spirit.

The primary goal of the negative forces in the world is to destroy the human family. Anything that can interfere with the human family will eventually destroy a society. Everything from abortion to divorce, and every other possible stumbling block that can destroy the family is being condoned in the USA today, and this is nothing but pure evil. A society is only as strong as the family unit, and once the families are destroyed, it will not be long before the society itself is also completely destroyed.

Life is too short for me to not speak up in my own way, using the written word, to explaine about what has truly been my own experience of life, thus far. To put all these experiences on paper for the world to read is truly sticking my neck out, but it is absolutely essential that this be done. This is not my absolute dream of life, to write these books, but it is a calling that I have to answer, and a role that I must play at this time of my life. This is not a dream, and it is not a fantasy. It is a chore, requiring a lot of extra hard work, and yet it is something that is required of me at this time.

For anyone who has to work with the American family, as a parent, a social worker, a person who has to deal with juvenile delinquents, personnel who work in the jails and the prison systems, school teachers, military personnel who have to deal with new recruits coming on board from different backgrounds, doctors, lawyers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and members of the legislature, I urge you to read and learn anything you might be able to glean from this personal story, while there is still time to save our society from going the way of the ancient Roman Empire.

Psychiatric Problems, A Taboo Subject No Longer

2009-03-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Two of the latest books on the subject of the mental health system were awe-inspiring. The memoir, MANIC by Terri Cheney is one highly recommended about bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive disorder. Terri was an entertainment attorney in California, a graduate of Vassar, who does not miss a beat in telling the story of her life and her illness.

Another memoir, THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD by Elyn Saks is a true story from a patient who suffers from schizophrenia, and it is an absolutely mind-boggling true story of a woman, also an attorney who had attended school at Oxford and Yale, who went on to survive the ordeals of suffering from this mental illness. I have studied both of these true stories, and each book now has underlines and check marks in the margins from similarities that I have seen in my own life, either with myself or with others that I was in the mental hospital with.

As for myself, someone who was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, who works in the medical field now as a Medical Transcriptionist, I can only say that I am grateful that the insurance companies are now planning to recognize mental illness as a true disorder, just as they would recognize a physical disease as a medical disorder. The chemistry in the brain is a factor that causes some of the worst mental illnesses, and that is a physical disorder. Many people think when someone starts getting mentally ill, they should just "snap out of it," but it would be interesting if they could use this same phraseology with someone dying from cancer or experiencing a heart attack. There are some illnesses that one cannot just "snap out of," and the mental illnesses are no different.

Also one other item of interest was that in the Tulsa World newspaper for Saturday, March 14, 2009, there was an article on Page 5A, "Female Incarceration Not Just Urban Problem." It seems that the rural counties of Oklahoma do have some very high incarceration rates per capita. I remember when I was in prison, the girls who were the most popular, and considered to have the most money were the ones from Tulsa County. After that, the ones from Oklahoma County were the movers and shakers. Last but not least, it seemed like all us women from the rural counties were at the bottom of the totem pole, but there were still a lot of us also. There is probably just now beginning to be a study done on the statistics. I was incarcerated in the early 1980s, but I have read newspaper articles on some of the women I knew back then being sent back to prison because of additional problems, because there was not a safety net for these women when they were released from the system the first time. When they go back to the same habits and the same neighborhoods, it is hard to break the cycle. It is also very hard to make a clean break and just get completely away from the people they were associated with who helped them get put into prison in the first place.

What do the statistics show? According to the article in the Tulsa World, Oklahoma is the #1 top state for female incarceration. Mississippi is #2, Louisiana is #3, Kentucky is #4, and Idaho is #5. It seems like the good old boys from down south certainly have high standards for their women, and are having a little trouble cutting us any slack. If you don't believe me, read the rest of the story (so far). Go to http://www.ebookomatic.com/ and download the free sample chapters of THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH, my second Memoir, outlining what it was like in the toughest women's prison in Oklahoma in the 1980's. (This Memoir will be completed by the end of the year, but you will get a head start if you start to read it now.)

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

Hello, Readers -- Last night I was already asleep when the fireworks starting going off at the Cherokee Yacht Club right up the road from where I live at Grand Lake, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack -- plus it scared all the cats!! So now it is the New Year 2009, and this is the start of another chapter of our lives.

When I was at a Convention in Boston in 2006, we had a motivational speaker there who normally gave talks for Fortune 500 companies, but he was addressing the American Association of Medical Transcriptionists at that time. He informed our group of medical transcriptionists that the government was already "broke" and that the most significant goal any individual could have for himself/herself at this point would be to stay at the top of one's game and keep current on the latest technology and the latest skills that a person needs to be able to do in order to stay employed and not be a burden on others. This is general knowledge that sometimes we forget in our day-to-day lives, but I tend to take it a step further.

Rather than thinking about what it would be like to be competitive just in a rural area, or in a city such as Tulsa, I tend to think in terms of being competitive even if we were working in a foreign country, somewhere in Europe or the Middle East. So this is a thought process that is always in the back of my own mind, as I go to work every day. I speak no other languages except English. I have met others who could speak five languages, but were not fluent enough to write a paper in English.

So as we go on into the next chapter of our lives in 2009, try to think of ways in which you can be a value-producing individual with something to offer, that would help make the world a better place to live, but also remember this: taking care of your own self is your first and foremost obligation. You cannot save the world, if you are not able to take care of yourself without being a burden or a hindrance on others. Your first obligation truly is to yourself, and to God. Only then can you help others survive and do better in the world we live in today.

Two Weeks Before Christmas

2008-12-16T07:15:00.000-08:00

The last blog was on Sunday, December 7, 2008. It somehow got the date wrong and is posted as October, the same date as the blog before that. This is Tuesday, December 16, 2008, and there are icy roads and a lot of treacherous weather conditions in this part of Oklahoma, plus a terrible ice storm in the northeastern United States. It is amazing how just last year here in Oklahoma, we suffered from the worst ice storm in quite some time, even though there has been an ice storm or a snow storm, at least one, every winter since I moved to Grand Lake of the Cherokees in November, 1998. The weather conditions in the United States are becoming more and more treacherous.

With the weather changes, the economic collapse of the financial markets in the United States, the lowering of standards of basic human decency all across America, and the fact that believing in God and making use of prayer in our schools is being called unconstitutional, I am beginning to wonder about something that has been on my mind ever since I was 12 years old.

It is a sign to me that God is no longer blessing this country the way he did before. I remember attending school with the Baby Boom Generation of the 1960s and 1970s, who all believed the world was their oyster and that no matter what their behavior, they would always be blessed no matter what, because they knew we were living in the best country in the world. I wonder if God is trying to tell us something.

Look Who's Talking

2008-10-12T07:45:00.001-07:00

On Friday morning, October 17, 2008, Jeannette Walls, author of THE GLASS CASTLE, spoke at the Tulsa Town Hall 74th Season 2008-2009 Lecture Series, and received a standing ovation. The Tulsa audience is a conservative bunch, and they absolutely adored her. The attraction to someone who has overcome adversity and gone on to be a winner is irresistable to this part of the country.

Then on Friday morning, December 5, 2008, Tina Brown, author of THE DIANA CHRONICLES, spoke on the topic of "The Culture of Celebrity in the Tabloid Era," in regard to the paparazzi and the death of Princess Diana. Ms. Brown knew Princess Diana personally, and gave a first class lecture (speaking the King's English, I might add) regarding the events of Diana's life, from childhood, when her mother left the family, to the time of Diana's death in the infamous car wreck in Paris, while being pursued by the paparazzi. Tina Brown received a long round of applause, and it was evident that this audience truly loved Princess Diana and will always remember her and her work, as well as the work of Tina Brown herself, who has a new web site at www.thedaily beast.com, keeping up with current events on the national and international scene today.

The next lecture in the series will be on March 13, 2009, with Rick Steves speaking about "Europe Through the Back Door." I have been intrigued by the Europeans as a teenager, so will attend this event also. Then on May 15, 2009, the speaker David Lampton will give a presentation on "Chinese Power and What It Means to America." With the economy in disarray at this time, it behooves us to discover how other countries are continuing to manage during this global economic crisis.

There was a minister years ago, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong from Pasadena, California, who had mentioned that there would someday be a global economic and financial collapse that would be worldwide. I believe we are entering that phase at this time. Let me just quote an article in the Tulsa World newspaper on page E4 of the Thursday, December 4, 2008 issue: "Deep Economic Downturns Just Natural Cycle."

According to this article, "there have been 9 depressions spaced about 60 years apart, since the 16th century. The waves in the United States have been 57, 54, and 53 years apart with the depression of 1836-43, 1893-97, and 1929-42, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal."

It goes on to state, "So here we are 66 years later with the predictable economic crisis." Here is what I have learned when working in the commercial real estate business as a secretary before going into the Medical Transcriptionist field. A lady business executive who was my boss, Donna, once advised me that "there are booms and there are busts." When it is a boom time, you have to get prepared for the time when there is going to be a bust. What goes up will eventually come down, and a balanced person will be prepared for both the ups and down of the economy.

Now why have our younger generations not been taught that information, in order to be more prepared for the economic times ahead? Nevertheless, it is still necessary to keep things rolling, and to continue to work and persevere. The entire world is facing this crisis, not just the United States, and we will see which countries pull out of it and excel, and which ones will stagnate if unable to rise back up out of the mire of the collapse that is obviously in the future for the entire globe. Let us continue to move forward as we face this challenge in our futures, but let us also look much further ahead so that we can be prepared to be more competitive on the international world scene. It is urgent that we look at the big picture now, rather than our own little small-town views of what we think the world is all about.

The "Get Motivated" Seminar

2008-10-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

On Monday, September 22, 2008, (the first day of autumn), it was a privilege to attend the "GET MOTIVATED!" seminar at the new BOK Center in downtown Tulsa. There were 3 speakers who had already given their presentations before 9:30 a.m., so they hit the ground running! The most influential speakers were not all famous, but they all gave excellent demonstrations of their knowledge and beliefs. The ones who were the most well-known included retired General Colin Powell (who spoke in the morning), and then for the afternoon, included the motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, the minister Dr. Robert Schuller, the football star Joe Montana, and for the last speaker of the afternoon,the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Guilliani.

This seminar was one of the best events I have attended in all my years of living in northeastern Oklahoma. When I left that day walking along the streets of downtown Tulsa among groups of other pedestrians, I did leave the event with thoughts of what my hopes and plans were in the future, and Yes! a spring in my step, and a feeling of motivation! Add to that the fact that the BOK Center is fabulous, and can hold a huge number of people all in one colliseum. The rumors floated that this one event was attended by approximately 18,000 people. The seats were full in all 3 balconies of the stadium.

Several of the speakers made it clear during their presentations that even though the economy has gone sour at this time and times are hard, we should look for the positives in life, and find ways to use this downturn to our advantage in some way, which will be a win-win situation for everyone we are dealing at this point in our lives. America is still a great country in which to live, and there is still a lot of opportunity out there.

It was a wonderful event, and for any of you who might wish to attend this event in the future in your area, you may go to the web site of "www.getmotivated.com" and find out more information regarding where the next "Get Motivated!" seminar is to be held. It can help change a life, make a person stop and think about exactly what their dreams, hopes and plans are, what one is planning to accomplish, and how to do so in the future.

At the present time, I am working my way through the recent book by Wayne Dwyer, CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS, CHANGE YOUR LIFE (Living the Wisdom of the Tao). This is based on the moral and spiritual guidance from the thoughts of Lao-tzu in ancient China 500 years before the birth of Christ. For any information on Dr. Dwyer's teachings, his web site is at www.DrWayneDwyer.com.

The latest WRITERS DIGEST magazine, December 2008 edition, contains an article, "E-Books Rise Again" and discusses the future potential of digital books (E-Books) which are once again on the upswing. For any of those readers who are interested in publishing a book, and do not think they will break into the publishing industry very easily, consider an E-Book as a possible method. My opportunity came when the Tulsa World newspaper ran a story about Ebookomatic and I proceeded to www.ebookomatic.com, and was able to find an answer to my dilemma. There are other E-Book companies that will also help you with your project of becoming published. So do not limit yourself or become discouraged due to the fact that you have not been discovered by a huge publishing company or an editor or agent just yet.

Once again, thank you for those friends who read this blog. May you have health, wealth, and the time to enjoy it.

Tulsa Town Hall 2008-2009 and The Maui Writers Conference in 2007

2008-09-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended the first event of the Tulsa Town Hall series at the Performing Arts Center in downtown Tulsa for the 2008-2009 74th Season of this event. Tulsa Town Hall is a non-profit educational cultural organization, which brings speakers into town who are of profound interest.

Mr. John Stossel, co-anchor of ABC's 20/20 program, spoke in regards to the topic: "Pandering to Fear: The Media's Crisis Mentality." Of course, being a reader, I did purchase a signed copy of one of his New York Times Bestsellers, GIVE ME A BREAK, (How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.) He was a wonderful speaker. I already happened to have a hardback copy of one of his other books, entitled MYTHS, LIES AND DOWNRIGHT STUPIDITY, (Get the Shovel--Why Everything You Know Is Wrong).

Mr. Stossel mentioned the three areas where he usually gets to speak at these type of engagements which include places like Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If more people could only take their heads out of the sand and try to discover more about the current events that are going on in our own world and our own country, the knowledge and power it would give us would be invaluable.

The following speakers are on board for the 2008-2009 season, and they include Jeannette Walls (THE GLASS CASTLE), Tina Brown, (THE CULTURE OF CELEBRITY IN THE TABLOID ERA), Rick Steves (EUROPE THROUGH THE BACK DOOR), and David Lampton (CHINESE POWER AND WHAT IT MEANS TO AMERICA). Therefore, I have set a goal to become more aware of current events from both the East Coast and the West Coast, as well as overseas in other countries. It is a small world, and we are not isolated, so it is urgent that people make it a point to gain as much information about other cultures and parts of our own country as possible.

On the Labor Day Weekend of 2007, I was in Maui, Hawaii for the Maui Writers Conference. Even though it looked like paradise, it was a lot of hard work. Each morning, I was up at 4 a.m. making plans for the day, ordering breakfast to have while on the balcony overlooking the waves washing in from the ocean, and taking pictures of the beautiful mountain across the bay. Yes, we did have an ocean front hotel room, and it was wonderful to be right next to the water, but I urge anyone else who makes that trip to be sure and set aside some time to also enjoy the sites of the islands. Since the plane trip itself is a 10-hour flight from the Tulsa area, a 5-day weekend simply is not enough time to be able to really enjoy the islands. When I finally do go back for the next writers conference in a few more years, the plan is to also provide more time for going on a glass bottom boat, and going to see Pearl Harbor. It is a beautiful experience, but also rather lonely and bittersweet and at the same time, it is exciting and exhilarating to know this is a fabulous tropical paradise that one might return to visit again in the future.

The 2008 Writers Conference was held in downtown Honolulu. For anyone who is interested in writing a novel or a screenplay, or making a book proposal to the agents, editors, and publishers who attend this big event, you may look up the web site at www.mauiwriters.com and make your plans for the future. I hope to see you there.

Also the latest findings in the search for good books to read include the following, which I can only recommend because they are on my desk at this time: HONOR THYSELF, by Danielle Steel; FOREIGN BODY by Robin Cook; DUMA KEY by Stephen King; END OF DAYS (Predictions and Prophecies About the End of the World) by Sylvia Browne, and THE LOGIC OF LIFE (The Rational Economics of an Irrational World), by Tim Harford.

Many thanks to those friends who read this Blog.

The Best Reading Material At This Time

2008-05-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

While there is never enough time to read, I make time in snatches, a couple of minutes here, a few hours there, sometimes in the bathroom while drinking my morning coffee and sitting on the edge of the bathtub, and sometimes on the back deck of my house overlooking half an acre of woods, where the deer are eating the green shrubs and vegetation and the birds are singing.

Let me tell you a few of the latest treasures I have found from the book clubs. EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert provides a woman's spiritual journey around the world while she prepares for the next chapter of her life.

SAGE'ING WHILE AGE'ING by Shirley MacLaine is another valuable text to read from a wonderful actress who has survived Hollywood, Broadway, Las Vegas, and everything in between. It has much metaphysical information included as food for thought.

HAPPY FOR NO REASON by Marci Shimoff seems to put into words the very reasons why I spend most of my waking hours acting like a cheerful Pollyanna, rather than a woebegone, sad, depressed, unfortunate victim of circumstances, whose life could have ended long ago, had I not simply refused to just give up and die.

Next, AWAKENING THE HEROES WITHIN by Carol S. Pearson is a masterpiece of information covering all the different personality types that inhabit each individual. For each person who reads this volume, there is a questionnaire they take which determines their high scores and low scores for the different personalities. Just briefly, my own personal 3 highest scores were Creator, Sage, and Seeker, and my 3 lowest scores were Innocent, Caregiver, and Destroyer. For anyone who reads the book and answers the questionnaire, you will see the reasons for your low scores and high scores. The other 6 personality types you will be scoring on will include Orphan, Warrior (I tied on those), Lover, Ruler, Magician and Fool. For anyone trying to psychoanalyze oneself and find the motives behind why you do what you do, I highly recommend AWAKENING THE HEROES WITHIN.

Last but not least, I cannot say enough about OPRAH magazine. She has some very good writers helping to publish this magazine, and I read a LOT of magazines. Nothing compares to OPRAH. The next one to recommend is MORE, for women over 40. Please take time to read. It will give your mind something to think about when you are having a quiet moment. And just one more thing. For ESCAPE, let me suggest a Harlequin Romance of some description. Sometimes we need just a little romance in our lives, and if you can read it in a book, it will sometimes be just what you need to remember what romance was really supposed to be all about. Harlequin Blaze is one category (with the Red Cover) which is the most erotic, and provides a nice escape for just a short time, before we have to go back to work and face the world, and get our jobs done in a world that many times does not have anything going on except for business as usual. -- So for all the readers of this blog, I wish you Health, Wealth, and the Time to Enjoy IT!! -- And also TAKE TIME TO READ!!

Freedom from Captivity of Body, Mind and Spirit

2008-03-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

When Joel O'Steen the minister of the mega-church in Houston speaks of God's favor in his latest book BECOMING A BETTER YOU, I truly believe that there are people who do receive God's favor. However, in my own life, I had a lot of bad luck following me like a dark cloud ever since I was a little kid. Nevertheless, there was something in my spirit that wanted to survive and persevere, and I learned later that God's people, even in the worst of circumstances, will find a way to keep going and do the best they can.

The first movie I ever saw where a "good girl" went to jail was THE BALLAD OF JOSIE starring Doris Day and Peter Graves, back in the 1960s, and it was the only movie I ever saw where Doris Day went to jail. If she ever went to jail in any of her other Calamity Jane type movies, I do not recall. The moral of the story was that her character "Josie" also got OUT of jail, and that fit what I believed in.

This may be unfashionable, but the Bible clearly states in Isaiah 61:1: "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

The fact is that 99% of the people in prison will get out. Very few of them will be there forever. They may be sent back, but they all get out sooner or later. Even the people on Death Row sometimes get out. This is the fallacy of the reasoning of the people who lock them up. Some people die in prison, some do become old in prison, but many will be released, and what is society going to do with them then? How to rehabilitate them while they are in the System and give them something to live for, to work for, to get them motivated in the morning, should be the goal. A life free of drugs and alcohol, and a productive life with a work that they really believe in should be the goal.

Many of the women in prison go to the chapel services on a regular basis. I was even baptized in prison (twice) due to the belief that my original baptism at the age of 9 in the Southern Baptist Church was not sufficient. I now realize that my original baptism at age 9 was enough. The thief on the cross was not baptized at all, and Christ still bestowed salvation upon him in the Kingdom of God.

When it comes to people who believe in their God, Daniel 11:32 states: "And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." This includes people for many generations, over thousands of years, who believed in God, and continued to do the best they could. Many prophets of old ended up in captivity of some kind, and were always able to find a way out. Sometimes that "way out" is just mentally putting your mind in a better place, even though one has to complete the prison sentence.

Jail can be a good place to get the body into good physical condition, while getting the mind into good spiritual condition. I have always believed in a way of escape in the form of keeping control of one's mind. In I Corinthians 10:13, the Bible states, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it." This is the answer, to free their minds and their spirits first, and give them something solid to believe in and work for, and then the release from prison will follow.

Life is difficult. It is a challenge. It is almost like going to war every day. It is necessary to put on the whole armor of God each day in order to face the world. In Ephesians 6:13-19, the Bible gives the valuable words of wisdom as follows:
"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

If you hear that song, "When the Saints Coming Marching In," just remember, WE are the saints. Our ancestors have fought and died for the freedoms we have now, continually moving west all across the European countries and then across the ocean, continually moving west across Africa, and then across the ocean. We are the children of God, WE are the SAINTS, and it is time to behave like we are.

DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE

2008-03-11T17:01:00.001-07:00

The latest update on the number of people now incarcerated in the United States from an article in the Tulsa World states that now 1 out of 100 people in the America are currently in prison, the highest number of people in jail in history. How many of these people are in for crimes such as possession of marijuana, or some other drug, who could have performed Community Service and attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings as a way to stay out of prison?

Many women are in prison who have children, and their children are at high risk of someday also going to jail. They need their mothers, and their mothers are not receiving the help to get back out in society and raise their own children.

See my web site at www.brendapartington.com for more information about my E-Book available on the Internet, plus a free 13 chapters of the SECOND book entitled THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH, about what it was like in the toughest maximum security women's prison in Oklahoma. I am speaking for many women who did not need to be there.