Yesterday President Obama issued a proclamation declaring the month of June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month!  You can read the full proclamation on the White House website.

Outrage doesn't begin to cover the emotion I feel right now. This from a man who professes to be Christian.  Yes, we should love people regardless of their sin.  However, we are not supposed to condone, let alone praise, their behavior. 

As an aside I’d like to point out that he elected to give the homosexual community a month but was the first president in 50 years not to celebrate the National Day of Prayer.

As someone who is an aspiring writer, I am always looking for ways to improve my vocabulary.  I sometimes pull words from a dictionary and try to use the word in conversation for a week until the meaning is burned into my brain.  Well, I have recently found a tool that claims to help with that.  Before I go on, I want you to know that this a paid review.  I’m telling you this because I know my readers trust me and I want to keep it that way.

As far as I can tell, Vocabulary Builder is a tool geared primarily to students preparing for standardized tests such as the SAT.  I have explored the site and they provide some sample quizzes on the site as well as screen shots of the program in use.  In addition, a free trial is available.  I don’t vouch for the quality of the product, but for those that have students getting ready for college entry tests, it sounds like a product worth investigating. 

For those that decide to download it, I am anxious to hear how it works for you.  Please, let me know.

Greetings friends!  I’m so sorry for my long absence.  I really have missed writing and mingling.  A lot of interesting things have been going on with me these last few months.  The biggest thing is that I have enrolled in classes with the University of Phoenix.  I’m getting my Associate in Business Administration, which I plan to follow with my Bachelor in Business Accounting. 

Needless to say, being a student for the first time in seven years keeps my quite busy.  I’m also actively pursuing my dream of being a writer.  I have been working on a few freelance projects, but I’m not making any real money yet.  I remain optimistic. though.  In an effort to further reach my goal of becoming a paid writer, I am in the process of creating two additional websites.  One is about me and will be solely for the purpose of promoting myself as a writer.  I was surprised to find out how many people won’t even take you seriously unless you have a professional website.

The other site will be an extension of what I have been doing here.  I plan to discuss various areas of Christian living such as prayer, fasting, temptation, suffering, and the like.  As part of that, I would like to get some input from all of you.  If you have time I would like for you to answer a couple of questions:

1. What do you think makes for an interesting Christian website?

2. What topics would you like to see covered or discussed?

3. What do you think I got right and wrong with this site?

I really would appreciate any feedback you can give me.  You are not limited by these three questions.  When I get ready to make my debut I will be offering a free resource, created by me.  And as thanks for your help, I will forward you a copy before it is released on my new page.

I look forward to hearing from you.  And in case you are wondering, I am not abandoning this page.  I have a lot of good friends (including you) and I really like it here.  Until next time (which will be soon) take care.

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been out of regular circulation for a while.  A lot has happened these past months.  Some good and some bad.  In case anyone is interested, although I can’t imagine why you would be, here’s what’s been going on with me.

Let’s start with the bad.  First, I have to give you a little background information.  Although I have only been a born again believer for the past few years, I grew up in the church.  Most of what I learned about religion during those years was false theology.   I know now that some of  these falsities were the result of ignorance on the part of the pastor.  They were teaching what they had been taught.  Other times the pastors were corrupt and intentionally misleading people for their own gain. 

I tell you this because I have recently experienced something that I didn’t believe possible and I didn’t believe it because I had heard so many things that were not true.   I just threw out the good and the bad and let God teach me anew.  Now when I hear someone speak of godly things, I know when it is truth and when it is not.

I am sharing this experience with all of you in hopes that you will be on guard and not find yourself going through the same thing.  I also realize that I am not the only one who has experienced this, and there are some who didn’t know how to explain what was happening to them.  And if they could explain it, who could they tell?  We should be able to go to our brothers and sisters in Christ, but that isn’t always the easiest thing to do.  They may be critical.  They may shun us.  They may spread the word.  They may make us feel worse than we already do.  The list of things that could go wrong goes on and on.

What is this experience you ask?  I have been engaged in a spiritual battle with the enemy of our souls.  I will not say how this battle manifested in the physical.  I will say that I was SUDDENLY OVERTAKEN with the desire to do something I would never ordinarily do and that I knew with every fiber of my being was in contradiction to God’s will.  By suddenly I mean one day I was walking closer with God than I ever have and, literally, the next day this sinful desire had me bound. 

Please don’t think that I believe that anytime we are tempted it is a spiritual attack.  I can tell you that every time I have intentionally sinned against God it was premeditated.  It would begin with a passing thought that I would then nurture until it was a full blown temptation.  And more often than not I would give in to the temptation, eventually feel my sinfulness, and repent.  That is not what I am talking about here!

SUDDENLY this thing was all I could think about.  I thought I would die if I didn’t act on it.  I felt like it might be okay if I gave in to it.  My vibrant prayer life was cut off.  I couldn’t even pray for myself other than to briefly plead with God to help me and to have mercy.  I stopped going to church.  I stopped talking to people who probably would have been able to help me break free.  I had to force myself to read my bible.  I was burdened while asleep or awake.  Everything revolved around this overwhelming urge that I knew was not pleasing to God.

My relationships were of course affected.  I felt isolated and alone and believed that the only way I could be myself again and be happy was do the thing that consumed all my energies regardless of consequence.  This went on for over a month.  Day in and day out.

Now, I have hundreds of books.  There isn’t a room in my house that doesn’t have books in it.  One day, about 8 days ago, I walked past one of my many bookshelves and saw a book entitled “When Godly People do Ungodly Things”.  Mind you, I wasn’t looking at the bookshelf to see what I might read next.  I was walking past it and turned just in time to see this book that I’d never read or even noticed since I put it there.  I picked it up and read the first few pages and it described everything I just described to you.

I was so relieved!  I could see clearly what was happening to me.  As a believer, I am filled with the Holy Spirit (as all believers are) so the enemy and his minions can’t possess me.  However, they can influence me from the outside and sometimes without my cooperation.  Satan knows that, and he can’t take me from God by force.  So the only thing he can do is get me to do something sinful and convince me that my right standing with God is irreparably damaged.

I am able to tell you all this today because despite my weaknesses and my unfaithfulness to God, He is All-Faithful.  After reading those pages from that book, I went to bed and I woke up FREE!  God had delivered me!  All the weight, burden, desire, isolation, everything was gone just as suddenly!  I can’t even fathom how it was possible for me to feel they way I had the day before!  He delivered me! 

I was miserable in the midst of that thing, but I have learned a new thing about my God so it was worth it.  Actually, I didn’t learn it.  I already knew and believed that he was faithful based on day to day life.  And I believed He was a deliverer because the Bible says so.   But now I know Him as my deliverer.  Now I know He is mighty to save.  He kept me from doing what could not be undone and then He lifted me out of the pit the enemy was digging around me.  All praise to God our Father!

And He will do the same for all of you!

If you are blessed in any way by this story, please leave a comment.  If you have questions or would like prayer please send me a message.