Reading in 2nd chronicles today, about Jehoidah, a priest, who saved Joash's life when his grandmother Athaliah tried to kill him, as she had killed all the other grandchildren so she alone could rule Israel.  Joash was only 7 years old when Jehoidah annointed him king, as his grandmother cried "Treason! Treason!" as the levite guards removed her from the temple and executed her.  Jehoidah and his wife had hidden Joash for 7 years. He riegned 40 years.  And the Word said he did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoidah. Jehoidah even found him a wife!

And then...

The "big important men" came to him and talked him into forsaking the LORD and he too became an idol worshiper

Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Zechariah, who was Jehoidah's son.  And he came to the king, Joash, and said "Why do you transgress the commandment of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD , He has forsaken you."

This angered Joash - how dare he rebuke the king!

So he had Zechariah stoned to death.

He did not remember the kindness that Jehoidah had done for him.  He killed Jehoidah's son - who said, as he died, " The LORD look on it and repay!"

 And a bit later Syria came against Joash and shortly thereafter he was killed by his own servants as he lie sleeping.

Amaziah was the son of a Jerusalem woman, so he had learned God's ways, and did what was right in God's eyes but "not with a loyal heart." He followed his father's example.

It always amazes me when I read this part of the Word. Joash owed his very life to Jehoidah, yet he has no qualms about killing Jehoidah's son.

So Joash didn't give a rat''s hiney about the fact that Johaidah had hidden him and raised him and found him a wife so he had an heir to take the throne. Power corrupt's and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Father, please never let me be ungrateful like Jehoidah.  I thank you for parents who tried to obey you and taught me to love You.  Please bless all who read this, bring them closer to You and fill them with Your Holy Spirit. Amen

Life here in the Mojave desert continjues.

We are in the 90s already, which is a bit higher than normal.  We are getting monsoons already, and the thirsty desert drinks it in. The hummingbirds are parched.  I have about 9 coming @ different moments, the majority are females - the males are probably finding plenty of flowers, as everything is still blooming. The Palo Verde, a green tree - trunk, foliage, and bright yellow flowers.  The agave are bursting into bright red flowers and the Mexican  Bird of Paradise are beginning to bloom.  Their lacy flowers begin bright yellow then turn orange and finally bright red.  I love them. They don't look the least bit like the blue BOP or even the white ones - but I love them anyway.  Our hedge, which is sickly and "stickish" in the winter has "reforested" itself into lush foliage and will burst into fragrant mauve flowers soon - and the rosemary, which has bloomed all winter, will reset and re-bloom again soon.

We are supposed to get high clouds by the end of next week, but I'll believe that when I see it. Our summer temps reach a high of about 116 - to 120 in the full onslaught of summer, so that's when we hit the A/C every day and the monthly bills until Sept. hit $300+ .It is worth it tho - there is no state tax here so we recoup at tax time - CA's state tax was exorbitant.

So desert life goes on.  The Las Vegas STrip is busy all year round, but esp. in the summer -  but then, we seldom go into that part of town, preferring our local stores and restaurants.

So, wherever you are located, I wish your Spring will continue much longer than ours, and your summer has a large quantity of " high clouds".

Soooo, I've not been on here very often.  I apologize.  I have not been doing all that well, and may Maker has given me a recall slip. It's usually 1 - 5 years when you start dialysis, but my doc said I should last at least 5.

It's a little unsettling - but My days have been counted since before I was born, so there's really nothing new - God just let me know too.

I am so grateful for His mercy and grace ( and you can't have one without the other)And His Word  is revealing layer after layer.  It is so very amazing how HIs Word is new every morning, isnt it? I am constantly finding new stuff - or stuff I think is new - then I find the notes I made in the margins and it's about what I've already discovered.

New kitty on the block (MINE) She's 2 1/2 years old, part Maine Coon, with a ruff coming in already - she looks like a lynx with lthose gorgeous ear tufts - only on the left, however. Her pre vious owner cut the top off her right ear, slapped her face and kicked her stomach.  So she's nervous about petting her head, and she has given notice about not touching her tummy.

I would like 5 min alone  with him in a dark alley.

But vengeance belongs to the LORD so he gets to live.  I hope God gives him a taste of his own medicine, and for petes sake, he should learn about cats before he tries another one! He turned her in @  only 6 mo old, she has been languishing  @ Petsmart for 2 years. She was pretty touchy when I found her = picked her up and got clawed. Now that she's figured out no other cats are on the premises and she has a kitty condo all to herself, she's decided to trust me. She no longer claws me - she does, however, "bop" me - a thump on my hand without putting her claws out . She has the huge  paws of a Maine Coon, so soft.

I think she was raised with a dog in her past.  She comes when called, she sits up and begs when she hears me open a can (without asking her to do so) and runs down the stairs ahead of me each day.  And follows me around.She also lays down with her paws in front instead of curled up under her. She has those big paws wrapped around my heart.

So while I'm around I will try to be more regularly here. I know several people in Russia come on here frequently, so I'm sorry if you kept seeing the same post when you visited.

Please feel free to comment :)

I'm not usually political....

Am I the only one who finds the Democrats embarrassing?

They have investigated President Trump for 3 YEARS now and found NOTHING, yet they pull  another rabbit from the hat (or lower place in their anatomy) to start another investigation when , time after time, they find nothing.

Meanwhile, Ms Clinton accepted over a million dollars from the Russians. She has lied, cheated and accepted bribes. She has turned away women who were raped by her husband; she ridiculed them, she obstructed justice in a big way, and spewed vitriol when she was not elected. 

And the poooor Democrats can't figure out how to pull up their big boy panties and get on with it.

You lost the election. Get over it. And while you're at it, Grow up!

Or did they think that little demo of a "spontaneous dance" on the Capitol steps was hip? Smart? A way to convince people that they should have elected Ms. Clinton?  It was because of Ms. Clinton that you lost, geniuses.

And what happened to all the people who said they would leave the country if he was elected?  Like Whoopi Goldberg, for instance?

And I get nauseated when I hear of the brazen hate-mongering the Dems are spouting. One female Dem said, openly she hoped Mr. Trump was assassinated. nor does their unbelievable anti-Semitism do bother them one bit. 

These folks are plain embarrassing - and they are supposed to represent US!

I am an independent.  I am neither Republican nor Democrat. But I must say, I have never heard of Republicans acting this way when they have lost an election.

Burning cars? breaking into stores? Rioting in the streets?

What a mature, adult reaction.

I have lost what little respect I have had for that party - I don't think there are even any tattered pieces left.

And in the next election, I hope people react to the behavior of  these Imbeciles, and vote them all out.

I don't know about you, but I feel that the time for term limits has arrived: the senate/house of representatives was never meant to be a career. The initial groups were unpaid citizens with a willingness to serve. Can't you hear the whining if they were to be forced to serve without pay?  It would certainly thin the ranks!

The twits who now hold those positions make over $300 thousand bucks,/year and still they claim they aren't paid enough (the last time they whined like that, they called a session in the middle of the night and voted themselves a raise!)

They get free health care, paid vacations, a pension of $100s of thousands of dollars - good grief they even get free haircuts!

I think they should have to live within every law they pass - they vote in a bill about health care, they should have to have the health care they voted in. They think the seniors are "greedy" for expecting the money they themselves paid into  the system to be available.

Did you know that in the 60s there was plenty of money to carry Social Security through to the late 2000s. And what happened to that money that was gaining large amounts of interest and compounding the amount?

Congress happened to it.

They saw all that lovely money just sitting there unguarded and stole it! Oh, they didn't call it stolen.
They left in its place worthless IOUs.

I think the present congress should repay it. Each congressman and Senator needs to take 1 IOU per person and cough it up.

And no whining.

Israeli Springtme

I was watching the UN on TV, the most useless organization  made by mankind in this universe.They make up the most  blatant lie against the nation of Israel, and continually manufacture new ones . it's  embarassing ro watch.

When they are so obviously blatantly WRONG,  They lie as the different men hand them a paper to read. Not a single one looked confused or asked a question: they just sat and read their annoying little papers like the little lap dogs they have become.

And then....

And then stepped up a man of character,  a retired from the cia type man who had heard enough.
and he began by saying, "Mr Chairman, all the stories we have just heard are lies. I have just come from what is considered to be the heart of the fighting and there is no one and not one thing to all these accusations.

And not a soul listened.

For those of you who have swallowed all the lies and are happily boycotting Israei  goods: Has it ever occurred to you to do some actual research on the issue? Too much work.? Just listen to the hate-mongers and get all up in self-righteousness.

"But they are hurting the poor Palestinians."

Give me a break.

Those "poor Palestinians" are hate mongers.

Read "Through Time Immemorial" written by a civil rights leader who can't stand the injustice.  So... she flew to Israel, determined to expose the Israelis.

Only she discovered that the Palestinians were the ones lying.  She has documented everything.

I dare you to go to Isreal yourself You would find a calm country with big-hearted people. Of course, with all your research you have discovered that Israel has offered numerous times to build housing for the "poor Palestinians" But Hamas has refused every time.  If they can keep their"poor Palestinian" brothers from getting comfortable, they can capitalize on their growing hatred.

One Palestinian in Gaza, was badly burned by shelling - from their own people - so the Israelis rushed her to the hospital and took c/o her.They kept her from scarring.  They fed her, nursed her back to health.

And what did she do? She was stopped at the border because she had outfitted herself as a human bomb.

Where was she going? to the very hospital who had healed her, to blow up the people in the burn clinic, including the doctors.

If you support  the Palestinians, you are ignorant, and what's worse, you are willing to remain so.

And, for what it is worth, I think you are pathetic. Do some research.Until you do, you are just ignorant little snots.



































thinking about  Spring

My sil was in a serious accident. She makes my life possible. And she will be in the rehab for quite awhile.  Just getting thru the day has been difficult. I treasured her, I realized how much she did. She has the gift of helps, and she is always ready to help someone. I am praying that when she is released I can do something for her, take c/o her for a change! But Father, I don't have much strength.  Would You please strengthen me with whatever I need to be useful?

It is difficult for those of us who do not have a lot of physical strength. She will be in a full body brace for the next 4 months.  She cannot bend at the waste or turn/twist/roll over in bed. She also broke her arm in 2 places.

But she is alive, and I am thanking God for that fact.

Her car was so totalled and twisted and crushed if you saw the picture you would surely doubt that anyone could come out of that car alive.

Thank YOu LOrd for letting her live. Please give me the strength and courage to return to her the kindness she has shown to me.

Amen.

It's That Time of Year...

It is monsoon season in the high desert.

That means that storms can blow up literally in 5 minutes - first, we usually have the warning  of distant thunder, flashes of lightning here and there, and, if we are fortunate enough, we get rain.

Most often, we get verga, which is rain that evaporates before it reaches the ground. It seems to be a gray veil that trails beneath  the clouds.

But every now and then, the virga touches down and we get a drop.

Not a sissy bit of drizzle, I am talking a DROP. Then another DROP. Pretty soon, there is no dry spot between the DROPs and the wind whips in - I have seen it strong enough to blow flying birds backwards over the rooftops - and literally within 5 minutes the water is so deep on the roads that cars flood, and the water reaches to the tops of the hubcaps.

We call that "a flash-flood" here. They. Are. Dangerous.

Within a few minutes the roads have turned into raging rivers and cars begin to slide sideways, the inhabitants trapped in a moving object that is out of control and colliding with other moving objects, seemingly without warning. Once, we left the house with dry roads and blue skies and within a mile the rain had begun to fall and turned into a deluge that  obscured our vision and we could feel the current pushing against us. Happily, we escaped without damage, tho we passed collision sites as we carefully, ever-so-slowly picked out way through.

Others were not so fortunate.

Because rain is rare in the desert (which, of course, is why it is desert!) the ground becomes hard as stone. So when the rain does fall, the ground can't absorb it, and the flash-flood occurs. The cities prepare for this event by creating drainage ditches - called "arroyos" - that empty into one another, the same as natural creeks and rivers do, and what begins as dry concrete becomes 5 foot wide raging rivers of water that sweep away huge boulders (and anything else) in their way.

And in this city, the arroyos that have an overpass - providing a morsel of shade in our 99 9/10% of the time dry as a bone over 100+ degrees average summer temperatures - become home to many homeless folk.  The waters rise so quickly that every summer some are swept away and drown.  They try to help each other reach safety - in the process losing what little they have accumulated as possessions.

And sometimes kids think the waters would be fun to surf in (I kid you not) or even just to swim in. And every year there are PSAs warning people to not try to drive through moving water, and yet every year someone will decide they can handle it, it doesn't look that bad, and surprise surprise every year it *is* that bad and their car is swept away. So every year, some policeman/fireman/good samaritan will have to risk their innocent life trying to save the person who watched the PSAs over and over and *still* decide it doesn't apply to them.

Why do we do this?

We figure we are the exception to the rule and go merrily on to destruction.

This happens also when we look at God's rules - we try to bend/stretch/excuse our way and head straight for destruction until God in His infinite patience and mercy pulls us out of the destruction line and straightens us up a bit (sometimes a lot) and puts us back in the "to glory" line. And I know He erases the skids and turn-arounds and black heel marks where He had the scruff of my neck and pulled (hard) to keep me from falling over the edge coming up just around the bend.

The last hospitalization I had, the pain was so bad that I was reduced to moaning for 18+ hours (I thought I  was screaming but family assures me I was only moaning.)

I thought of Paul and his thorn, and how Paul ever after rejoiced in his infirmities.  I told God I really really needed  to see His "strength made perfect" in my present infirmity - And I was honestly infirm, helpless before this onslaught of pain.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I read that part about Paul's thorn, I always thought God *did* something to ease the thorn or whatever his thing was.  I thought He eased it, or decreased it or *something* to make it bearable.

But, just like Paul, God did nothing - nothing but reassure us we were in His hands, and He would get us through this with His power,

Oh, and power can't be seen.

So His strength is made perfect in weakness.

And weakness can't be seen either. At least not by human eyes. So, like Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."

Shortly thereafter, within an hour, give or take, a nurse called a palliative care doctor and she took care of the pain.

Would I have lasted much longer? I am sure I would have, according to God's will. His present choice was to keep me around for awhile, and for that while, His strength carried me.

No, the pain didn't immediately decrease. No I didn't "feel" stronger (I was actually complaining, as a matter of fact blush) I felt that I couldn't bear it any longer and finally kept saying. "Just let me die".

I am not a stoic example of a Christian. I am a wuss. When the pain finally went away, I savored the absence. There were other complications, but none that even vaguely approached that level of pain.

And the still, small voice said, "Was My strength sufficient for you?"

Ummmmm, yeah. (Said as I hung my head.)

But it leaves me in awe, Wondering how Paul did it. In an age where relief from pain was non-existent  How?  Paul took his eyes off of the pain and put them on God. I couldn't tear mine away from the pain. And yet Paul and Silas were imprisoned and in stocks after having their backs ripped open with a whip, ***singing Psalms*** They were physically unable to even shoo a fly away from their bleeding backs.  Obedient to what the Holy Spirit laid upon their hearts. Amazing enough for the jailer to also be in awe - and wonder that they didn't seize the opportunity to run from the jail when the doors miraculously opened. The jailer knew that he would be tortured and ultimately killed if he let any prisoners go free - he was preparing to kill himself. But Paul cared enough about the man who imprisoned them to call out, "Don't harm yourself, we are all here!"

In awe.