The Cost Of Obedience

Has God ever asked you to do something, that lit a fire under you; only to loose or fail? Well… it looked like you had lost or failed, in the eyes and ears of your family, friends or peers.  The emotional and spiritual devastation is amazing…

You were so sure you were doing what God wanted, that you sacrificed everything, gave up a career, or even let that relationship walk away. 

90% of the time, God does not reveal the miracles and victories you uncovered, and lives you touched, while obeying, loosing or failing at a task ordained by God… yet judged by culture, community, the church, family and peers.

Then, like a steam roller, the health, finances or relationships are crushed;  right in front of the world; adding fuel to the condemnation and judgment of others.  It isn’t long before you are getting sick of “You just have to…” whatever.

My favorite is, and its said in many ways…“God is punishing you, so I am stepping away until He has finished, and you are prospering again”.  Oh yes… I’ve been there… and lived it… it is amazing, the horrible things people say, and even make up; after the great fail or loss. At least in their eyes, it is a fail or loss… but great battles and victories were achieved during that time, that no one knows about… yet. 

Then every sort of evil, comes out of the woodwork, to kick you, while you are down. You want to runaway, get away from everyone that knows about this.  But that still small voice says, Stay Put… We are not done yet… But the devil can see the impact you are having, just being there.  He will do everything imaginable to get you to run… heck, your own humanity will start screaming RUN get out of here. I cannot take it anymore…  But the Holy Spirit says STOP… stay put… we are doing far more than you realize. 

Well, I guess I’m suppose to stop there.  Please read on, to the devotion that inspired this… or lit my fire this morning.  

I receive these devotionals on a daily bases, and every once in a while, one jumps out at me; and I am compelled to forward it or repost here. It is usually something that has already been on my mind, and I had not written it down.

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The Cost of Miracles
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Sunday, December 30 2012

"Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit'" (Matt 1:19-21).

There is often a cost associated with a miracle. Mary carried a miracle in her belly. No other woman in history had the distinction of birthing the Son of God. It was a one-time event in history. However, for 30 years she was viewed as a woman who was often judged, shamed by public opinion, rejected by her own, and thought to be an adulteress by her townspeople.

I can only imagine her cries at night, "You are God, you can help them understand I am not an immoral person. I am doing the will of God! Why must I be shamed and judged the same as a prostitute!" God's silence must have been difficult. She would not be accurately viewed for years to come. In many ways, she was called to the same path as Jesus was. He was rejected by His own people too.

Her finance Joseph was going to break off the engagement when he discovered she was pregnant. Had he not had a visitation from an angel, he too would have rejected her. However, he married her and also carried the stigma associated with a pregnancy that most assumed was immoral.

Sometimes we are called to experience rejection for the Son of God living in us. When we carry the cross of Christ, the world and even our families sometimes look at us as though we have a few marbles out of place. Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace. Even our families would judge us and think wrongly of us.

Yes, a miracle often has a cost. But that miracle is the seed for something imperishable. It is the seed of eternity in our hearts.

Your Social Security

Social Security Broke?

THEY FORGOT TO FIGURE IN THE PEOPLE WHO DIED BEFORE THEY COLLECTED THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY!!!!

WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO????

This was sent to me, I am forwarding it because it does touch a nerve in me.
This is another example of what Rick Perry called "TREASON in high places" !!!

Get angry and pass this on!
Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500.

If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.

If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.

The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.

Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!

Congressional benefits ---- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?

We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey.

And now Pakistan......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!

They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place?

Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.
Sad isn't it?
99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.
I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did.

A Little Bit About Greg

Okay, I will put it in writing, though I have always said I wouldn't... But It will be easier to point at this blog than to tell it over and over again.  I'll be 55 in a few days... and hopes of ever being in a relationship have faded away.  I've been told over and over to not post or tell anyone I'm disabled as long as I can cover it up... especially if I ever hoped I would date again. But what the heck... here is a brief overview.  So I will just let it flow out... here we go! 


Over and over, my entire life, I begged God for a single profession. So I could establish an identity. So when people asked I could say.. I'm a carpenter... or a program coordinator... But no, every time I tried to lock into a profession, something would happen and I was into something new. Maintenance and remodeling worked good because I could use a multitude of gifts and talents all at once... then the accident... and bingo !  

NOW.... I'm into the computer and the internet. Just as my web business started taking off... BINGO!  Heart attack... then infection... boom.. another heart attack... open heart surgery... another infection... just as I'm starting to feel better BINGO!

Cut cut cut ... I loose half my colon to what they thought was cancer. And something happened to my leg along the way, and I now need a mobility scooter. All this since 2007... and the kids club is now gone, the computer lab gone, my website business.. POOF! gone.  

And Here we go again...

I'm not even counting the 9 surgeries I had before 2006... and the unidentifiable auto immune disorder. Yet, the CAT scans and tests, say I'm doing pretty darn good; and I'm not even on any heart meds anymore. Never did have high blood presure, or any of the usual heart stuff that tends to bring on an attack. 

I live it pain everyday. My skeletal structure, by bones, do not look real good on xrays. After I had put on 40lbs from the RA treatments I finally get into see a rheumatologist and I do not have RA... but I have Fibromyalgia and Polymyalgia ... Sucks Hey !   I still think the doctors just reach into a bag and pull out a name when they just don't know why your SED rate hovers between 60 and 90... and life hurts...

My life has been more like living four different lives in 10 year increments.  When change would come, it did so in a big way, completely changing everything.  Keeping me 100% dependent on God and his provisions.  Now it seems my creative side, poems, photography, writing... ect... just turned off. 

When I pray and ask God why I have to know so many things, he replies, "For a day that has not come yet..."  Thats it.. no details...  100% faith... in a day that has not come yet.  LOL.. Never imagine that God does not have a sense of humor. 


It feels really weird posting this... 


Greg