One thing
 

Everything around me is so steeped in change. Things that most people, in or out of church thought were wrong are now so much a part of our culture that if we don't accept it, we are thought to be mentally disturbed. Am I really supposed to not only approve of but fund sex changes, and abortions?

I was in third grade when the president was shot and killed, and I can remember crying and mourning because the "most important man in America was dead." It seemed the greatest tragedy to me. But now I understand that presidencies are bought with money since the days of Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie. Some presidencies were funded by crime organizations even. It may be that no one in the deep echelons of our political system is morally pure.

Even the heart and soul of my faith is being battered by winds of change. It was such a pure thing as a 5 year old child to talk to God when I was in distress and get a simple answer to prayer. I was an 11 year old when my Dad served in Vietnam. My mother drew closer to God at that time and we attended church. The first service, first altar call, I walked to the front, repented with tears at an old wooden bench and was filled with the Holy Ghost. A few years later, a street preacher invited me to the Pentecostal Lighthouse, and baptized me in Jesus name.

For years my faith was strong, my hands were raised, I walked in the Spirit with purpose and knew that God was directing my path. Life seemed pure, simple, and meaningful. I don’t know why all seems so complicated now. I’m troubled by the failures of so many who I looked up to. I’m disturbed by my own failures as well.

I mistrust government, religion, people in general. I feel dry, barren, abandoned and broken.

I watch everything and everyone around me with a sort of trepidation. I’ve lost so many things. I walk my dog down the country road near my house and wonder at the ground under my feet, the dew on the grass, the preciousness of everything in my sight. I know how transient, temporary, and fragile all is. My family and friends, home, and possessions are gifts for today. My tomorrows may bring untold pain.

My prayers are tears of pain mixed with songs of praise in my confusion at the brokenness I perceive to be all around me, but at my core is still an unshakeable belief that “my redeemer lives, and I will stand with him on that day.”

The world around me may shatter and break, but I know One who will never change. The way we perceive our world and our God may change. But He does not change. One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after . . .

Re: One thing
 

Sis Amanah, I believe you have spoken the thoughts of many of us.
As you said, the world around us may shatter and break, but we
know One who will never change. Amen.
He won't leave us nor forsake us.
I woke from a dead sleep the other night after fretting over many things.
It was as if I heard God speak audibly to me......."Trust Me."
I lay there with tears streaming down my cheeks, thanking Jesus
and telling Him "I will trust in thee oh Lord"

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Time is filled with swift transition,
Not of earth unmoved shall stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand.

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Amanah, Great post!

I also agree with Lacey that you have spoken the thoughts of many. Just a few days ago, I was praying, having your thoughts, including, disturbed by much and my own personal failures as well.

The Lord answered me with two scriptures in Ephesians and Hebrews. He impressed the thought that if I keep these two things in perspective and remember the things I have already been through, I can keep life in balance for the future as well.

I like the NLT in Hebrews -And, of course, I want to always remember Psalm 93.

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Amana / Litton,

I think we are seeing an acceleration of the decline of Western Civilization much like what happened to ancient Rome and Greece. This does not mean that I will give up or not fight for making society as good as it can be and try to slow the speed of this decline. It does mean it seems to be gaining speed.

Look at the speed at which Americans have gone from greatly opposing gay marriage to the percentage today who support it. Unbelievable to think that kind of swing could happen in a decade. That is just one example.

I would have never dreamed Americans would have stood for any branch of government legislating what size drinks they can buy but Bloomberg in NYC has outlawed soft drinks larger than 16 oz. Truly Big Brother has arrived a few decades sooner than I dreamed possible.

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I have always taken myself back to Alters that exist in my heart, that are with God and me alone. I have a place free of person's, places, things. ideas, politics, change, fear, trouble, and the confusion of this world. Have that mental picture and burn it into the hard drive of your heart, mind, body and soul. Whenever things get out of sorts, I step back directly into that place of reserved in my heart and mind. No matter the situation I rest on the importance that Faith in a God with a reaching hand is all I really need...

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God is God everywhere. People are different, but God just IS.

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Amen

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Amanah,

At first I thought agreeing with you might get a bad backlash.......but I see most here who have posted agree with you. My faith used to be pure and simple too. Now, it is complicated. However, I think that not only is the world changing around us, we are older and wiser and have seen a lot of tragedy.

We also used to live in a simpler world, one where we had more privacy etc. Just think, we could be under constant surveillance if they wanted us to be. Everything we do can be recorded, our phone calls, our conversations etc. Weird world we live in. Add to that the up and coming generation is raised not so innocently.

Sometimes, it would be nice just to fly away. I guess at some point, we will.

Until then, I guess we just need to hold fast to the faith we have, knowing that it is priceless and can't be stolen.

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:thumbsup

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Amanah, your words speak such truth that really is in all our hearts. When one first meets Christ and is supernaturally changed, it is an experience that is so life changing that you look at everything with "rose colored glasses."

Then, as time, and life experiences and our journey through life continues, things we may have looked at before without really seeing, now are made more clear to us, and as such, may not make any sense at all.

However, Christ within us is always leading us forward, to new experiences, new heights and depths. We will never attain, or reach the end of our learning until the day that we are changed into immortality. Each day is a day where Christ is still teaching us, and disciplining us, much like the potter and the clay. We are the clay on the wheel until the day we reach immortality. We will constantly be undergoing change and discipline from the Lord, until one day immortality becomes our final destiny.

So don't be discouraged by where you are now. You are still on the potter's wheel, and as long as Christ is molding, and shaping you, and your heart is still tender to Him, and you are still hearing His voice, you are in His hands, and you are in the place you are at now... for a reason.

"Be still... and know that I am God."

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Amanah and others, you spoke the words of my heart. Our very foundations are being shaken. And many destroyed.

I have been told several times in the last few yrs. “You are the only one that believes like you do,”
Not being a person with a quick retaliation, I don’t say anything, or say, “I suppose that is true.”
But I thought of something, that I will tell anyone that says that in the future.

“Sometimes we have to learn to stand alone.”

Psalm 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Although our foundations are being destroyed, we must keep one foundation sure, and that is the foundation of salvation. Even if we have to stand alone.

God is getting ready to shake the earth, physically as well as Spiritually.

Hebrews 12:26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

We must set our face like a flint, for the Truth and only the truth.

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Great post. You've captured the heart and thoughts of many children of God who are struggling today but are determined to go forward with Christ.

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Love that old song!

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Oh, the times the Spirit has whispered, "Be still, and know that I am GOD!

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Lacey,
I recall going through a very trying time a number of years ago. Praying, fasting, trusting, I told GOD, "LORD, I don't know what to do but to trust you! I have to TRUST You, LORD, I don't know anything else to do"! There were many other times through these many years we trusted HIM. He has NEVER failed us....and HE WON'T! JESUS NEVER FAILS!