Author Bobbie Shafer Has New Release - Miracle At Sycamore Grove

Bobbie Shafer, tell us ten things we don't know about you!

10. I love supernatural/ghost stories
  9. My favorite color is green.
  8. One of my favorite songs is Old Time Rock and Roll
  7. One of my favorite movies is King Arthur with Clive Owens
  6. I am adopted.
  5. One of my favorite authors is J. K. Rowling
  4. I lived in Guam for a while
  3. I was in the United States Air Force & served in Guam
  2. I love chicken and dressing.
  1.  Many of my characters are based upon my parents and grandparents.

Secrets of Eagle Creek: Book One

Love's Golden Dream

Book Two:

                 The Legacy of Eagle Creek                  

Book Three:

Miracle At Sycamore Grove

Welcome Award Winning Author Marilyn Helmer

I was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, grew up in Montreal and moved to Burlington, Ontario where my husband Gary and I raised our family and lived in the same house for thirty-six years. When Gary retired from teaching, we traded city living for a house in the country in an adult lifestyle community. One added benefit of moving to this busy, friendly community is that we are closer to our children. Our son Chris – soon to be married - is a hydro geologist and our daughter Sandra, happily married to Jeremiah, teaches grade five.

I love to travel and have gone on several mother/daughter trips with Sandra to the British Isles, France and the Mediterranean. Not to be left out, sports-minded Chris and Gary share their love of skiing and snowboard on father/son trips to Utah and western Canada. Gary and I have been to Ireland, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and the Caribbean as well as many trips across Canada and to the United States.

When I’m not writing, my interests include photography (every once in a while I manage to get a good shot), reading (more children’s books than adult), gardening (more weeds than flowers), scrapbooking and card making. I walk every day to keep fit – love that 10 000 step program! I’m a member of the local Red Hatters, known as the Scarlett O’Hatters, and belong to a very fun book club.

Website:  www.marilynhelmer.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/marilyn.helmer 

     

1.      Why did you become a writer…was it a dream of yours since you were younger or did the desire to write happen later in your life?

As a child I loved to make up stories, sometimes just to get myself out of trouble.  I was an avid reader with a penchant for mystery stories. My favorite books were the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys series and British author Enid Blyton’s Adventure books. A couple of like-minded friends and I started a mystery story club.  We loaned each other favorite books and began making up stories of our own. Our clubhouse was a park bench where we told our stories, complete with “… to be continued” breaks to add to the suspense. Little did I think back then that one day I would actually become a published author.

2.      What was the inspiration for your latest work?

My latest book is a picture book called “That’s What Bears Are For”.  It was inspired by my  children’s love of sleep-buddies, those well-loved and often well-worn stuffed toys children   take to bed with them at night. I wrote a poem called “Old Ted”, which was published in Spider Magazine. It is a tribute to my own childhood teddy bear.  

As children, we love to hug and cuddle our teddy bears but when we grow older, we put them aside. They no longer get the hugs and cuddles of childhood.  Aha – inspiration! How about a story of a bear who misses the hugs and cuddles he had long ago?  I rushed to my computer and began to type.  As the story goes, after years of loneliness, Bear is found at the bottom of an old trunk by a young girl named Jenny.  Bear recognizes a kindred spirit when he sees one and becomes a bear on a mission. He is determined to once again enjoy days of hugs and cuddles, because, after all, that’s what bears are for!

 

3. What was the most interesting research you had to do for any of your books? 

That would be the research I did for my middle grade novel, “Dinosaurs on the Beach”. The story is about a young girl named Josie who shares her grandfather’s fascination with fossils and prehistoric creatures.  Josie makes a fabulous find – tiny bones which may be from the world’s smallest dinosaur but she must deal with many stumbling blocks in order to prove the value of her find.

To get the setting just right, I visited the Parrsboro-Joggins area on Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy coast. Scientists and geologists have made major discoveries of fossils in this area, dating back 300 to 350 million years ago. It was amazing to walk in their footsteps, visit  the museum and see some of the amazing finds these dedicated scientists have made.

I also benefited greatly in my research from the geology and paleontology courses my son Chris took in university. We went fossil hunting with our cousins along the Blue Beach area in the Annapolis Valley. At that time, collecting fossils was permitted. Although I didn’t make any ‘fabulous finds”, Chris did and generously loaned them to me to take along on school visits.   

4.      I know you are an award winning children’s author, Marilyn. Tell me about the awards you’ve won, and the books you won them for.

My picture book, "Fog Cat", won four awards and although I greatly appreciated all of them, the one that I remember best is the Mr. Christie award.  It was the tenth year the Christie book awards had been given out so a gala celebration was planned. The recipients and their families were invited as well as a number of school classes and local celebrities. The date of the ceremony was to be June 4. Unfortunately on that date, my daughter would still be in Hawaii finishing up a work program and my husband would be away at a conference. But my son assured me that he would be there. Then, oh glory day, the date of the award ceremony was changed to June 7. My husband was coming back from his conference on June 5, my daughter from Hawaii on June 6 and June 7 that year was our 30^th wedding anniversary. My whole family came to the award ceremony. Afterward we had a lovely lunch with my publisher and that evening celebrated our joint wedding anniversaries with my daughter’s in-laws and their jolly extended family. The good times don’t get much better than that!

"Mr. McGratt and the Ornery Cat" was named an Ontario Library Association Best Bets selection. This book was a delight to write. The inspiration for the story came from the experiences my family had with our very ornery cat, Star, who lived to be twenty years old. Although Star was basically an indoor cat, every once in a while she would make a great escape and terrorize the other cats in the neighborhood. I always read this book when I visit schools to talk to primary children.

"Funtime Riddles" received a Canada Toy Testing Council Great Book award.  The six riddle books I wrote for Kids Can Press was one of the most fun projects I have ever done. My contract stipulated that 30% of the riddles should be original. Coming up with original riddles is not easy – they have all been done before!  But I had a terrific editor to work with and we had a lot of laughs putting these books together.

"One Splendid Tree" received the Rotary Club of Hamilton Children's Book Award. For years my dream was to have a Christmas book published and “One Splendid Tree”, set during WWII, made that dream a reality. I have done a number of events at libraries during the Christmas season where children make the decorations described in the book and use them to decorate their own splendid tree. I was delighted when two years ago The Hamilton Academy of Performing Arts turned “One Splendid Tree” into a play. I have also discovered online that several schools and libraries in the U. S. have featured  it in their Christmas programs.

5. How did you decide to write books for kids? Have you always wanted to write children’s books, or did that come about later on? 

I didn’t start seriously writing until I became a stay at home mom when my two children were born. My children, Chris and Sandra, are only fifteen months apart in age and a very active pair they were! Getting them to sit still was nigh unto impossible but when I brought out a book, magic happened. They would sit quietly (well, relatively quietly!) cuddled up on either side of me, listening and begging, “Just one more story, Mom. Please!”  That is when my dream was born. Maybe I could write stories myself, stories that would inspire that kind of joy and pleasure in children.  What satisfaction it would be to write a book that might become a child’s favorite, that might introduce them to the wonders of the written word and instill in them a life-long love of reading.  And so my writing career began. The road to success was paved with many rejection slips but I hung in there. Eventually I was blessed with success and my dream to be a children’s author came true.

As an extra bonus, I have had the opportunity to visit schools and libraries to talk to children about the writing process. My penchant for entering writing contests has brought me recognition in the field of adult short fiction too.

6. Have you written any books for adults (I don’t mean “adult” as in erotic romance, just non-children’s books)?

I haven’t written any books for adults but I do enjoy writing short adult fiction.  I may one day self-publish a collection of my short stories. However, I will need to have more stories before I seriously start to compile a book.   

7. What’s your writing schedule like?  When do you find time to write?

When I first started writing, I wrote haphazardly in my spare time, tucking my poems and stories away in a drawer, thinking “maybe, someday I’ll try to get them published.” Then I took a course in Creative Writing and on the advice of the very encouraging teacher, I joined CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) and signed up for their annual day of workshops. In one workshop a published author talked about her initial hesitancy in submitting her stories to publishers and facing the dread rejection slips. I felt as if she were talking directly to me because that is exactly what I had been doing.

I came home that day, a woman on a mission. Never mind finding the time to write, I would make the time. With steely determination, I set myself a program – I would write in the mornings when my children were in school, five days a week, 8 a.m. to noon. Every month I would send out a minimum of three submissions.

During the first year, I collected a lot of rejection slips but eventually persistence paid off.  I had a poem published in a children’s magazine and won a home computer in an adult short story contest. I stuck to that writing schedule for many years, taking summers and March breaks off. Now I don’t find as much time to write but I still keep at it and for me, mornings are still my most creative time.

8. Do you have any writing idiosyncrasies?

In an attempt at being organized, I have way too many files and notebooks sliding around on my desk. One notebook would likely work better – and not be constantly lost in the shuffle.  But that tottering pile of notebooks looks so impressive …!

I always have more than one project on the go in case I come down with an attack of the dread writer’s block – or writer’s blockhead as my daughter calls it.  That way I can switch to another project for a few days and come back to deal with the problem with a fresh mind.  Oh, and I always have a cup of tea handy.  

9. What’s the most challenging aspect of writing for you?

That would be getting the initial first draft completed – it’s like pulling teeth! Once I have a beginning, middle and ending though, I feel encouraged to forge ahead.  I don’t mind self-editing and revising until I believe the manuscript is ready send out. When (if!) the manuscript is accepted, there will likely be more revisions to do with an editor. Speaking of editors, I have been so fortunate. I have worked with many and have yet to meet one who I didn’t feel had the best interest of my manuscript at heart.  

It's May 3rd All Over Again

Here in Oklahoma all you have to say is May 3rd and everyone knows what you're talking about. It was May 3, 1999 when an F5 tornado ripped through central Oklahoma killing 36 people and doing more than a billion dollars in damage. May 19, 2013 will be remembered along with that date from now on. Another F5 tornado ripped through central Oklahoma leveling Moore, OK and severely damaging Shawnee, OK.

 

 

You cannot imagine what looking at a tornado can make you feel. They are magnificent in one sense, such raw power sucking up everything in its path, as long as that path is on the open prairie and no homes or lives are in danger. They are also the most fearsome power on earth. I was born and raised in Humboldt County California, about 300 miles north of San Francisco and I've been throu9gh earthquakes. My youngest daughter and I were in San Francisco in the 1989 earthquake that brought down the bridges and leveled the Marina District. It was terrifying to say the least. But I've been through many dangerous earthquakes while living in California, but moving to Oklahoma in 1988, and then again in 1999 after being back in California for about eight more years, I will still take a tornado over an earthquake. At least we have warning systems for tornadoes, while earthquakes just hit without notice.

 

 





There are days remembered throughout history like Pearl Harbor, D Day, and the Twin Towers. Here in Oklahoma, we remember April 19, the day Timothy McVeigh changed lives in Oklahoma City, May 3, and now May 19. The one thing I can say about these types of disasters is that whether it's in California, New York City, or Oklahoma, we are Americans and we come together to help one another, to rebuild, to offer our money, our help, or our shoulder so that whatever is needed to get people back on their feet and through the nightmare life has thrown at us, we are there for one another. America is like that, and always has been since people first set on this land. We get knocked down, but we get up and go forward, and that is what makes us the greatest land in the world.

 

 

Thank you, God for this country and bless those who are working today to rebuild their lives and homes. Thank you for those who survived and bless those who lost loved ones, give them comfort of knowing You are with them and help them to move forward stronger than before. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Abortionist Gets 3 Life Sentences

Abortion doctor Kermit Goznell received three life sentences for the lives of "aborted" babies that were still alive when born, and were then murdered by the doctor when he snipped their spinal cords with scissors. He was also convicted of killing a woman who had come to him for an abortion, as well as hundreds of other abortion law violations.

Personally, I cannot imagine any woman wanting an abortion for any reason, especially, just the fact she doesn't want to be pregnant. There are so many people who are looking to adopt and because of the adoption laws in this country, it makes adoption costly and lengthy. However, private adoption is a trend that that works for both the pregnant woman and the adoptive couple. Even in situations when a woman might give birth to a child with genetic problems or disease, I still could not abort that child. I could not abort a child for any reason, even when I was a pregnant sixteen year old and my mother encouraged me to consider abortion, it was not something I could bring myself to do.

With that said, I would never want to see abortion illegal. That statement has caused me problems with people in churches I've attended. "How can you call yourself a Christian and support abortion?" I am a Christian and I do not support abortion per se, I simply support the legal availability for those who choose abortion. While I whole-heartedly believe that life begins at conception and there are no mistakes when children are born, and I believe Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." and Psalm 139:15 "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth." We are made by design by God and are precious in His sight. But I remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade, when women had to sneak around to back alley abortionists and often died from hemorrhage, infection, or wound up unable to ever bear another child because the "doctor" didn't know what he was doing. I remember the stories of women using knitting needles, wire clothes hangers, or other implements to perform their own abortions, and wound up dying or injuring themselves for life. I would never wish that on anyone, no matter my own beliefs.

If this was a perfect world and there was no sin, and no one had sex until marriage and there was no such thing as an unwanted child, then sure, abortions would not be needed or wanted, but until that point, I do want to see women counseled about options like adoption. I would like to see all high schools teaching abstinence, but knowing that not all teens are going to be abstinent, I would like to see schools also teach birth control options for both boys and girls, and for boys to learn that pregnancy IS their responsibility just as much as it is a woman's.

The world has many significant problems that need addressing. Abortion shouldn't be one of them. No woman should die for wanting an abortion, and no baby should be aborted, or killed because an abortion failed. I pray in Jesus' holy Name that those who read this will pray for anyone they know who might be pregnant and seeking an abortion to consider adoption instead and give life a chance.

It's a Crying Shame

As I read posts from Christian news this morning, I was so heartbroken, sad and just sat here in disbelief, yet I was able to find one thing that wasn't evident in the articles.

China has performed over 356 million abortions in the past forty years since instituting the one child only law, and a good portion of those were performed by force and the women then sterilized. 355 million babies murdered. In America, 55 million babies have been aborted in the past thirty years, many of those were aborted at a gestational age where they could have survived out of the womb.

And now a "doctor" and his nurse is under arrest for murdering babies in the doctor's abortion clinic. I cannot even type what they did, so I am posting the story:

Assistant Admits to Killing 10 Babies With Scissors During Trial for 'House of Horrors' Abortionist
As the trial for notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell proceeded this week, one of Gosnell's employees testified that she had personally been involved in the murders of 10 newborn babies, the Christian News Network reports. Adrienne Moton told the court the babies who were born alive had their spines "snipped" with scissors. "I learned it from Dr. Gosnell," she said when asked by prosecutors where she came up with the idea. "I never asked why. ... I could remember a good 10 times that I did it." Moton has been incarcerated since 2011, and has pled guilty to third-degree murder, along with other charges, for her participation in Gosnell's late-term abortion operation. She is the first of at least two employees who are set to testify against the abortionist in the trial. Gosnell, 72, faces seven counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of babies who were born alive but had their spinal cords "snipped"; he also faces one count of third-degree murder for the death of an abortion client who was administered a lethal amount of medication, in addition to approximately 20 other charges. Gosnell was taken into custody in 2011 following an investigation into his practice, called the Women's Medical Society. Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams, who initially leveled the charges against Gosnell, described the clinic as a "House of Horrors." In addition to several babies found with their spinal cords severed, investigators "found jar after jar after jar of fetal remains and specifically severed feet in jars" and "medical waste bags just strewn everywhere," according to Williams. Gosnell, if convicted, could face the death penalty for his crimes.


I cannot feel sympathy for either of these people, and I believe they should receive the death penalty. "House of Horrors" is not even close to what these people have done. And it is far beyond me to understand people like that.

What I did come to see after I cried over these poor, innocent babies, is that each one of them is in Heaven with the Lord and I am thankful for that. I can't even imagine what over 400 million (and counting) children in Heaven looks like, but I can't wait to get there and see them all.

When I was young, I had this world by the short hairs, but the older I get, the more I realize I don't understand much about it or the people who inhabit it. And the less I want to be here. I want to hear the Lord call me home, and I look forward to that day.

The End Times

The end times, the rapture, the war, and the election between Obama and Romney are the topics of nearly every TV news show, Internet blogs, newspapers, and every other type of media. In fact, I think we've been inundated with it to the point that it's difficult to think of anything else.

Top news--is Obama the anti-Christ spoken of in the Bible? No, I don't think so, but he could be the forerunner since he has all ready accepted a position with the UN. (Which it is illegal for a sitting president to accept any paid position. However, "legal" has never been a word in Obama's vocabulary. Or apparently, Cong-resses either, and I suggest whenever they are up for re-election, they are replaced too. Lack of action on their part has allowed a sitting president to completely ignore the Constitution and the law in general.) But Obama may be the one who ushers in the person referred to as the anti-Christ. The UN is most certainly going to try and be our one-world governing entity, and probably for the rise of the one-world religion, Muslim, which is certainly Obama's religion.

I was raised in church when I visited my grandmother in the summer. She was "old" at the time of my birth in 1958, so I only had her until she was 82. She was the love of my life, and I still miss her every day. My grandmother taught me about Jesus and the Bible. She taught me what it meant to be "saved" and how to serve God. She also taught me that Jesus would return in the clouds one day, and this was called the "rapture". I was taught that the rapture was broken into three parts: The Pre-Tribulation Rapture; The Mid-Tribulation Rapture; and The Post-Tribulation Rapture. I was always taught the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, in which Christ will return just before the world is so bad no one can survive, and take all of His children home.

In the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, the world has completely turned from God, and are embracing foreign gods, like when the children of Israel were crossing the wilderness, they begged Aaron to make them a god from the gold they brought out of Egypt. Prices are sky high, jobs aren't available and crime is on the rise. The world is slowly going to ruin but Jesus arrives just in time to save the Christians from going through what is to come.

The Mid-Tribulation Rapture says that the world is in even worse shape. Food is hard to find, the world has turned from anything good. Crime, sex, pornography, and a lackadaisical way of viewing the world has arrived. There are those who will say this is impossible because God will never poor out His wrath on the righteous. However, if you read the Bible, you will find that the Lord did allow His disciples to be stoned to death, boiled in oil, beheaded, hung, nailed to a cross upside down, and other horrendous ends of life. So what makes us so special some 2,000+ years later that God is going to keep us out of any type of danger? We are just human like the rest of the world, and I believe we are going to be tested through at least half of the tribulation, the last days before Christ returns to rule and reign.

The Post-Tribulation Rapture is believed that Christians will go through the entire tribulation just like non-Christians as a test of our faithfulness to God. If we survive the tribulation, and miss out on being beheaded for not confessing and giving our lives over to the new world religion, God will rapture us and take us to Heaven.

Even though I was raised to believe in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, shortly after I was licensed as a minister in 1995, I received three visions from God about the end of days that led me to believe in the Mid-Tribulation.

The first vision was of Japan. There was a massive earthquake, and Japan was no longer there. Then a chain of earthquakes went up the west coast of South America and North America to Russia. While these earthquakes were opening the earth, I could see San Francisco, which was in ruins. Fires from broken mains spewed into the sky, it was just a wasteland. There were so many dead, there weren't enough alive to dig for any who might have lived, and the National Guard was trying to help, but it was useless because there was a Tsunami from the Japanese earthquake, that rolled over the west coast, putting out the fires, but leaving the entire west coast, parts of Nevada and most of Arizona, and some of New Mexico as ocean view property.

The fire has gone on and was spreading over the mid-west. I kept looking for my children, but my husband, (who was Bear at that time), was no where to be found. When I told him about this vision, he said it must be because he was helping people. Later I knew why I didn't see him, he would pass away before this event ever occurs. I found a type of bunker made from cement, and my youngest son and I got in it, and the fire blew over us but we were unharmed. When we came out, there was a dark-haired woman with a large, blue school bus, filled with boxes of macaroni & cheese. I actually laughed and said, "Lord, you know if mac & cheese is all there is to eat, I'll die from starvation!" I absolutely hate the stuff.

A few nights later, Bear & I went to a worship and deliverance meeting and I met this woman I had never seen before. We talked a bit, but later she asked for my phone number, (yes, this was long before email), and she called me the next day. I invited her over. I write down everything the Lord tells me, or things I think are from the Lord, and have all of this written in longhand in notebooks. We sat down to talk and she starts telling me about a dream the Lord gave her in 1975 about the end of times, and they were nearly identical to mine. I began to shake and told her about the bus and macaroni & cheese. She looked like she had seen a ghost, and told me she had a bus, it was blue and had 600 pounds of macaroni & cheese on it. God always confirms what He tells us so that we will know we aren't just dream-ing.

The last of the dreams dealt with the aftermath of these earthquakes and tidal waves. It's not a pretty sight but one I constantly pray about so I will never forget, and will always be ready when the Lord is.

I also believe in the mid-tribulation rapture because the Bible says we will never see the wrath of God, which in the book of Revelation 14 is also the verses that those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture use to deny the mid-tribulation.

But this is what I believe. The Bible is very clear in chapter 14 that the following happens:

There is much preaching to every tongue and nation so those who have never accepted Christ as their Savior still have a chance to.

In 14:7-The angels announce that God's wrath is about to come and this is like a last call to Christianity. And the announcement that Babylon has fallen is made.

Then comes the Mark of the Beast. Revelation 14:9 warns those who take the Mark will drink the wine of God's wrath. 14:11 says they will be tormented day & night with fire and brimstone forever.

Verses 12 & 13 calls for the patience of the Saints. (Those who know the Lord.) And those who have remained patient and died because of their belief in God will be rewarded.

Verses 14-16 calls for the harvest of the Saints. The angel with the sickle goes among the Christians and brings the living Christians home for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The rest of chapter 14 goes on to tell what happens to those who turned their backs on God and worshiped the beast.

While the Bible says that only the Father knows the exact time and hour when any event in the Bible is going to occur, especially the rapture and the end times, we are told to be on the look out for the signs of Christ's return. It's kind of like earthquakes. Geologists can read the rumblings underground and know an earth-quake is going to happen, they just can't say exactly when it will happen. Some of the things we can look for are:

Matthew 24:5 "For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will mislead many."

Matthew 24:11 "And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many."

We have seen this all over the world. People claiming they are Christ, or sent by Christ to save the world. Jim Jones, David Koresh are but two I've seen in my own life. They are but paving a way for the real anti-christ who will come saying he is Jesus, and do marvelous signs and deceive many.

Matthew 24:6 "And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end."

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

I was born in October 1958, just in that time, 54 years, look how many wars has occurred. Korea, the Middle East always at war, Ireland, the attacks on our Marines, and our warships, just to name a few. And the earthquakes. I can't even count the number of earthquakes there has been that I was in, much less, the number of earthquakes all over the world.

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

We've seen the wars and earthquakes, and now the famines. Look how many countries are starving, and how many organizations are trying to feed them just a little rice so they won't starve to death. They have no crops because of droughts, no medical care, AIDS is out of control in African countries, and those who do find work, is generally out of their own country and in places where they harvest poppies or other drugs just to feed their families.

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

Although I used this earlier, you can go to this link to see the current number of earthquakes that happen every day. http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

Matthew 24:8-9 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.  Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name."

Who is Jesus talking about in this verse? Christians. Yes, the believers in Jesus will be killed and hated for believing in Jesus. It happens to missionaries all of the time. In China, it's illegal to possess a Christian Bible, the penalty is death. In Muslim countries, death is also the penalty for preaching Jesus. And it's going on right now.

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."

Even though they may be killed, there are people who work to fulfill the great commission of preaching Jesus to the whole world. Even here in the United States, people are pulled away from the Gospel by stupidity. Vampire Clubs, Werewolf Clubs, Satanic worship, to name a few. There is no other name under Heaven by which you will be saved. (Acts 4:12)

The apostle Paul tells us-
II Timothy 3:1-5,7 "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Apostasy is also another sign of the end times. This is the falling away of 1) the gospel by individuals and 2) the church falling away from the gospel and preaching "good time" messages that do not point out sin, nor does it point to Jesus as the only One who can save us.

So, like the seismologists who can't say exactly when the earthquake will strike, they can give an approximate time. The same goes for us. We might not know the exact time of Jesus' return, we can look around at what is happening in the world and see that the time is getting close.

If you are not ready to meet Jesus face-to-face, accept him with a thankful heart and ask Him to forgive your sins and lead you in the way He wants you to go. Find a Bible-believing church, such as a Pentecostal or Assembly of God, and go. Go to both of them and see which you belong in and are comfortable with the pastor, and has new Christian classes, or something along those lines. Get a Bible. The NIV is a good Bible for new Christians because it's written in current day language that makes it easy to understand.

God bless you and keep you until we meet in Heaven!

Think About It...

Hebrews 12:1-3  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

I have often wondered about these verses and this “great cloud of witnesses” who “surround us.” Who are they? What are they to us? What do they have to do with “the sin that so easily entangles us?” They can't save us from sin, only Jesus can do that, and we are told in these verses to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” So why are they mentioned here?

My pastor in California once said, “When the Bible says 'therefore', pay attention and find out what it's there for!” So let's explore these verses a little bit and find out what it's there for.

“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses...” 

In much of Paul's writings, he encouraged the congregations of the churches to remember those who came before them. He reminded them of the Israelite's who wandered the desert, forgetting how God delivered them from the Egyptians and moaned about their situation. They moaned about the manna that came from Heaven every morning, and they moaned about the meat the Lord gave them later. They moaned about everything, and while Moses was on the mountain with the Lord, they called for Aaron to make them a god, and gathered all their gold together for that purpose. They failed to keep their focus on the God who delivered them. They failed to keep their focus on the promised land, and most of them died before seeing it.

But if we go back to Hebrews and take a look at chapter eleven, which is generally termed “the faith chapter,” we find a list of names of people like Abraham, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Moses' parents, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, and the list goes on of those who persevered and obeyed God receiving the prize, which is a place in Heaven.

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us...”  

The tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife comes to mind when I read this part. Genesis 39:6-18 tells us that Joseph was a handsome man and Potiphar's wife came onto him, wanting him to go to bed with her, but Joseph was a godly man, and did what was right. When she put her hands on him, he ran, leaving her holding his cloak. Then, she told Potiphar that Joseph had attempted to rape her, and poor Joseph went to prison. Joseph had to physically throw off his cloak in order to run from a sinful situation. If he hadn't, he could have easily been entangled in sin. Joseph knew God personally, and refused to allow anything to come between them. He knew that no matter how things looked from a jail cell, God had a path marked out for him and Joseph persevered and followed God. Two years later, Joseph became the ruler of Egypt. A much different fate than what would have happened had he succumbed to Potiphar's wife's wiles!


“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...”

Really, there shouldn't be anymore to say than that. Jesus Christ, who gave up Heaven to be born of a virgin birth, to live the life of a Jewish man, to be ridiculed, arrested, beaten beyond recognition, and hung on a cross with a crown of thorns shoved into his head, until he died. 

And for what?

“For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him, would not perish, but have everlasting life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17

When life isn't going the way you think it should, or seems to get worse the more you pray, just pray some more. Keep your focus on the One who holds you in His hands. Christ is the author and perfecter of YOUR faith, so don't lose sight of what He is doing in your life. And remember all of those people who have already lived this life and gone on to Glory, and not just the ones mentioned in the Bible, but all the praying grandmothers, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, and friends who prayed for you, and maybe they never saw your salvation before they went on to Heaven, like my own grand- mother, but nevertheless, they see your life now and know you are saved and are now running the race set before you. They are there, cheering you on so that, like Paul, you can run with purpose in every step. (1 Corinthians 9:26)