A Blog of Thinking Allowed

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,

just as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesian chapter 4 verse 32 of the New King James Version

I’m really saddened by Oprah Winfrey’s decision to follow the New Age movement.  

She follows the path of two other women who as young ladies, vowed -as she had- to follow Christ: Shirley McClain, and  J Z Knight.  Oprah’s most recent avenue of promoting this “new age” cult is her online book studies “A New Earth., Are you ready to be awakened.”  Her other promotion,  “A Course  of Miracles” is equally dangerous reading.  Though there are a few Scripture verses used, (incorrectly and out of context) her website declares that (this online course) is not for or against any religion. What I and other follower’s of Christ say is: on the whole, this book (including the text, workbook, and teacher’s guide) is blasphemy!

 Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth,  writes of words of faith from any religious figure, “To a large extent, therefore, their deeper meaning is no longer recognized and their transformative power lost.”  Tolle also writes, ” there is no need to go elsewhere for the truth.”   (oprah.com)

I urge all Christians to not only stop following Oprah in everything she promotes, but also to write her and tell her you are not going to watch her any more.  She has left the faith. For those of you who are confused in your faith, I urge you not to study these books, as there is just so much “wrong” with them,  and using common Christian terms incorrectly is just one of them. You might think and even feel that these books have your answer, but you will be farther from the real Truth than you already are.

The “New Age Movement” is anything but new.  It’s just new to America being based in ancient eastern religions.

Followers of the “A Course of Miracles” book decide they are God.  They use the very phrase of God’s name: I am that I am with reference to themselves!  The Bible book of Matthew, chapter 24 verses 4 and 5 give Christ’s words: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”   In chapter 7 and verse 23 and 24 also of Matthew, Christ words are:  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in they name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.”

Cult expert Russ Wise states, according to the author of Miracles: “In 1965 a Jewish atheistic psychologist from Columbia University began to channel messages from a spirit she believed to be Jesus. She ultimately produced, or she says Jesus revealed to her, well over a thousand pages of revelation during the next seven years.”   ((http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/thcourse.html)

  Marianne Williamson quotes and warns about The Course of Miracles thusly:  According to The Course, sickness, hate, pain, fear, guilt, and sin are all illusions.… “The only way to dispel illusions is to withdraw all investment from them, and they will have no life for you because you will have put them out of your mind.” And,  “The Course sums it up this way, “There is no life outside of Heaven. Where God created life, there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion.” There you have it! It is perfectly clear–murder, rape, and other forms of evil do not exist because they do not come from “love.” Try explaining to a mother who has lost a son or daughter that their loss is the result of an illusion.

She continues: “The integration of psychology and spirituality becomes a lure that pulls them deeper into the web of deception and ultimately suffocates them. The biblical teaching of original sin is dismissed for the more palatable “original goodness.” ((http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/thcourse.html)

Dr Jack Van Impe succinctly lists the false beliefs this way:

“They say there is no such thing as sin.

They say there is no need for the cross, atonement.

They say that Jesus is just a word symbol.”

That is enough for any Christian to steer clear of such cultist promotion of satan’s  push, and Oprah Winfrey’s compliance, to draw so many away from Christ and the Truth, and I strongly plead that you steer clear also.

This week’s verse to memorize:

II Corinthians 5:21 (KJV)

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,

that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

I met a homeless woman recently.  I blogged about it.  She made me ponder, once again, the plight of the homeless in the area.  South Florida is abundant with homeless men, women, families.   This last week, after hearing  a religious program about the slave trade in the States, and then watching a few programs about hungry children, and also the homeless in the USA, I wanted to do more than throw money at the problem.  I think I may have even asked God to show me to a family that was down and out, or a homeless one, and then show me what to do.

A little more background to the story today: This week I determined to remove as much plastic from my home as possible.  I always had issues with it, and once I removed the microwave from the house, much of the plastic use stopped too.  But then the warnings about possible cancer connections to plastics came and I figured that was enough!  (I always suspected something from our environment was increasing cancer.  The nitrites in the packaged meats are a part of the problem, being that labs use nitrites in lab rats because it grows the tumors the fastest, so they can use the drugs on them…)  A plastics connection makes huge sense to me.  I have issues with petroleum-based products due to an allergy.  Ridding my home is just logical.  Anyway, I digressed.

There’s a home product store going out of business locally, and I planned on shopping there for my replacements of glass, wood, and metal.  I ended up at Goodwill, where I found some good glass products like measuring cup and plates, drinking glass.  Then, in spite of my intent to go to the liquidation, I ended up at Target.   Guess who was sitting outside on that store?  The homeless woman!

I greeted her, stopped to talk.  I asked her if she remembered me, that I gave her the meal ticket for the restaurant. Yes, she had the meatloaf and it was really good she said.  She smiled.  I realize why she had something soft to eat: she has no teeth to speak of.  I asked where she lives…she looked around and said she generally stays in this area.  Yeah, ok, I nodded and said that I would look for her more often.

Now, to follow up and see how well I can respond to God’s answer to my request. : ) I’ll keep you informed.

Is there such a thing?  A “small” miracle?  Just what is a miracle anyway?  To me, a miracle is anything that works out due to unexpected, unusual, and/or humanly impossible means or methods. 

My small miracle?  Due to a recent encounter with fire ants, my feet and ankles are quite bitten and causing some suffering.  I’m sure the effect would be worse if I had full feeling in them, but then, if I had that I wouldn’t be suffering from so many bites; I would have stopped them at the first one, not the first one felt.

I decided a hot, epsom salt bath would help.  There I was, enjoying the bath and healing nature of the epsom salts, when I accidently rubbed body wash into my eye.  I sloshed water up onto my face (eyes closed of course) until the sense of soapiness was gone.  When I tried to open my eyes, I remembered the water had epsom salt in it, felt the burning, and closed my eyes again.   So I sat, and decided what I needed, as I put my hands out to the sides in a “what shall I do” fashion. “What I need, God, is a wash cloth,” I thought.  At that very moment I felt a cloth in my left hand.  What???  I opened the good eye and saw my dog standing there, with cloth in mouth putting it into my outstretched hand!   He hasn’t been taught that, and I didn’t say anything audibly, only to God,  about what I needed.   I don’t even know where he found it.

Of course, God and animals -and man before the fall- all spoke with each other I believe.  Just because man fell out of fellowship and quit talking with God doesn’t mean God quit talking with His animals?!

I dried my face and opened both eyes.  Good ole Caleb laid there on the rug, patiently waiting for me.  Maybe some of you wouldn’t consider that a miracle at all.  I have had much greater happen to me in my life.  I believe that you need to acknowledge and thank God for even the small things before He trusts you with the larger.  For me,  this was one nifty little miracle. : )

God made

Adam bit

Noah arked

Abraham split

Joseph ruled

Jacob fooled

Bush talked

Moses balked

Pharaoh plagued

People walked

Sea divided

Tablets guided

Promise landed

Saul Freaked

David peeked

Prophets warned

Jesus born

God walked

Love talked

Anger crucified

Hope died

Love rose

Spirit flamed

Word spread

God remained

If you read my blog from yesterday, you will see where I received a free meal.  Today, I dutifully helped my mother with her grocery shopping, as the Commandment “Honor your mother…” tells us to.  I had to wait for her to arrive by bus, as she uses a motorized wheelchair.  She had never used an ATM before, and at 88 she now needed to, so I met her to show her how.  While waiting the half hour (as it turns out) for her bus, I stood in the a/c section by the door.  One of the shoppers, a man, looked at me, grabbed his bags from the cart, and left.  The next thing I knew, a store employee who was collecting carts, picked up a paid-for Boar’s Head sandwich from the cart and put it into my hands saying something about having left it there.  ‘OH!” I exclaimed, looking around for the man, long since gone.   God gave me a free supper yesterday. Then today, to prove it was Him, He gave me another free supper tonight.  God’s miracles are all around us, even when we aren’t looking for them.

I had a great experience today.  Well, it included some angst.  I was driving over to the local health food store as I have determined to work on becoming healthier physically.   Sitting on the curb in the shade around the corner from the store, was a woman with a beat up backpack and wiping the sweat and dirt off her face.  Of course, she’s homeless, that was quite evident.

My mind began to work on what I could do for her, and as I parked the car and went into the store, I obtained what I wanted and looked over the food stuffs (it is a small shop.)  Nothing came to mind, nor eye.   As I paid just a few minutes after going into the store, I realized there are fast food shops on the same strip mall, I’d get her something there?

As I drove the car back around the corner, she was gone. :(  Oh no!  How long did I take?  Only a few minutes… she must be around here closeby.  I drove around the back…trash dumpsters etc.: nothing. I drove around one side, down the front and around the other side.  Gone!  Was she an angel?  I talked with God about that, and realized I couldn’t have thought any faster than I did…whether I was buying the things I needed first or not.

 I realized I had a card for a free dinner with beverage in the pocket of the car, given to me when I volunteered at the Super Bowl the other year.  I told myself I would remember that next time, I hoped.

As I drove out the side street, and waited at the light, there she was, all the way out to the street sitting on the bus bench.   :)  I turned and pulled into the pre-bus lane and put down the window.  I called out to her… are you hungry?  She was eager to respond…and I gave her the card through the window, telling her what and where.  She said, “God bless you!”  I told her the same. The bus was coming up the lane and I had to pull out quickly.

I thought that was it, you know?  God was good to let me find her after all!  After I found the card! I was on my way to eat also, and knew I could do so without feeling regretful.  I did have a small problem with my meal as it came cold, and I sent it back to be heated up. They wanted to remake it and I insisted no, it’s good food, just make it hot, which they did.  When the check came, they didn’t charge me for my meal…due to their error.  I gave away a free meal, and received one in return also! That’s a miracle from God folks.  I’m glad He blesses me so!

God loves you.  Let Him show you His love.  Ask God to show you His love and He will!  Peace.

” One evening, Sir Harry Lauder, the famed Scottish humorist and comedian at the turn of the twentiteth century, told this.

He said, ” I was sitting in the gloomin’ a’ a man passed the window. He was the lamplighter. He pushed his pole into the lamp and lighted it. Then went to another and another. Now I couldn’t see him, but I knew where he was by the lights as they broke out down the street, until he had left a beautiful avenue of lights. Lauder continued, “Ye’re a’ lamplighters. They’ll know where ye’ve been by the lights ye have lit. “

“Character” is who you are when no one is looking.