Happy 2024!

It’s a wonderful new year as we start reading the Bible in the book of Genesis.  With the book of Genesis comes new beginnings, we see God’s creation of what we know as earth, His creation of all living creatures on earth, His creation of man (which includes woman…remember when there was a time that was automatically understood?) 

We also find the fall of man, sin entering into this perfect world that God created.  Why?  Because they were not content with living in the perfect environment, having everything they would ever want or need, having a close relationship with the Creator Himself.  Can you imagine?  Not content and they just had to disobey God’s instructions to find a more perfect environment. 

Now, let’s think about that a little further.  What are the environmentalist saying?  If we drive electric cars, give up our gas stoves, stop eating meat, and the list goes on, then we will have a perfect or, if not perfect, a better environment?  But let me ask you this, if Adam and Eve were not satisfied with the perfect environment, how do you think sinful man will be when man is the one who messed it up.  Through sin…the sin of not being content!

So, Adam and Eve listened to a serpent and fell for his deception.  Believing the lie that they would be better off.  How God was holding out on them.  And all too often we listen to those who are more educated, more deceptive than we can ever imagine.  We have the Word of God at our fingertips with all the answers and yet, we want to believe the lies being told to us.  Deception doesn’t look much different today than it did with the serpent but because we are not walking with God, we are so willing to believe the lie and fall into sin. 

Words the experts use today—self-actualization, self-confidence, self-seeking, self-will—we can solve the worlds problems by our self but they are all knowing and will tell us how to do it.  Really? Don’t fall for the lie. 

As we go through the genealogy of the first few generations after creation, we see that Cain followed his parent’s footsteps by having his feelings hurt (self) when God accepted Abel’s offering and he kills his brother. 

Things go so bad with sin everywhere that God was sorry that he’d created mankind.  Genesis 6:5, the “wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thought of his (man’s) heart was only evil continually.”   The earth was full of corruption and filled with violence (see Gen 6:11). 

Noah was chosen as a righteous man, blameless.  I can hear some of you reminding me that Noah sinned too.  Yes, God has always used imperfect people to fulfill His goals.  As you read the Bible this year, notice this fact and then know that He can also use you, an imperfect person as well. 

And after the flood, God makes a promise “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”  (Genesis 8:22)   With this promise from God, we can be made aware of man’s deception that we are experiencing right now…man will not destroy the earth.  We are to follow God’s commands, the first of which is “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1) And who can be fruitful?  Man and Woman, which God told Adam and Eve the exact same thing in Genesis 1:28.  He created male and female and no matter how people are trying to deceive us today, it is only male and female who can “be fruitful and multiply”. 

The other thing that struck me is the lie we have been hearing since October, that the land of Israel has belonged to the Palestinians since…when?  Actually, the book of Genesis give us a history of Abram’s calling to this very land.  “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:8

Get an old map out, one from an older Bible and you will see exactly where Canaan is…it is being occupied by the enemy.  The very ones who want the Israelites in the Mediterranean Sea.  The lies of evil go deep!

Another thing that struck me this year as I started my journey through the Bible once again, is that Lot chose to live in Sodom, an evil place, shown by their behavior.  Again, we are seeing the same thing today.  But after Sodom is destroyed, we continue to see disobedience first from Lot’s wife, who was instructed not to look back—she did and was immediately turned into a pillar of salt.  Then Lot’s daughters chose sexual immorality with their father to get pregnant.  Tell me that living in such an evil place as Sodom didn’t have its influence on Lot’s family! 

And today, how we raise our children and allow them to be exposed to so much evil will have an influence on them as well. 

We now jump ahead to Jacob and Esau, the two brothers who God promised their mother that “the older will serve the younger”. (Gen 25:23) 

It seems that Esau was more interested in quick, self-satisfaction rather than being honored as being the oldest and fulfilling God’s wishes.  But God knew that from the beginning, that’s how He could tell Rebekah this before she even had these boys. 

Life Lessons from Charles Stanley’s Life Principles Bible, p 39, helps us to understand Gen. 25:34, “In despising his birthright, Esau proved himself “godless” (Heb 12:16) because he considered filling his empty stomach more important than the spiritual promises of God to Abraham.  To avoid making Esau’s grave mistakes, always remember the H.A.L.T. principle.  Whenever you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, be very careful because you are especially vulnerable to sin.  Before making a decision, stop and seek God.  The more you give in to your feelings of weakness and look for ways to fill your needs apart from God, the more you’ll reap the terrible consequences of it.”

Now, those are words to ponder! 

I look forward to God blessing you as you read the Bible daily.  I look forward to hearing from each of you, whether you are reading the Bible from cover to cover for your first time or more times than you can count.  God will teach you each step of the way.  I am excited for you!

It’s That Time of Year

I don’t know about you but I have been super busy, not sure if I am coming or going. Last January I came up with an idea—to scan my paintings and then make notecards to sell. Sounds easy enough but it has been anything but easy. Now, to all you computer wizards, I am sure you are wondering ‘how can that be such a hard task?’

I am anything but a computer wizard so it was indeed difficult for me. I started immediately working on making these cards. Failure at every print! I even gave up for a while. But the end of October, I took the challenge once more. For over a month now, I have been trying to merge my picture onto a template. In my frustration, I gave up and started printing the pictures on a plain piece of paper and gluing them onto the cards. I figured I was going to call it good.

One last thing, I’d put out a plea to anyone who would listen to my predicament and of course, people don’t call or talk face to face so we went back and forth in text messages. I don’t speak computer language so much of the time, I wasn’t sure what they were asking. That is, until Wednesday, when my wonderful daughter (and very smart, I might add) sent me a text asking for one of my paintings. I emailed her one and she started playing around (that’s how she explains it) and within a short time, she had it! So, she emailed the finished product back to me, minus the printing…I have the art printer (or whatever it’s called).

We went step by step and before long I had my first notecard that I was satisfied with. We continued to tweak it until we both liked the finish product and did a “save as”. One painting is now a notecard. Just so you understand, I used to give all my little card paintings away but I was sure that very few people valued all the hours I put into painting it so I had decided to come up with these prints.

Are you ready for this? So, Dawn said I needed to take another painting (that’s scanned into the computer) and make another notecard. She was watching me from her home on Team Viewer or something like that. We went step by step and when I tried to merge the painting onto the template, it did the same thing that it had been doing for me. Dawn was shocked…but she’s a smart cookie and a good trouble shooter. Since she was able to maneuver this task from her end, she figured out that my mouse is misbehaving. She is bringing me a different mouse and now I will have notecards to sell along with my books.

This fall I have gone to a few craft fairs along with a couple of book signings and have been happy to be selling more books than ever before. I would say I am not good at marketing my own products so this has been a learning journey! At one point I was finally in the black until I realized that I needed to order more books so back in the red once again. I am very excited to introduce the cards either at the next book signing or at a craft fair.

If any of you are interested in either buying books or cards, please get in touch with me through my email (manager@afaeoriginal). I can mail products but postage is about $6 for one book or four cards. I am sure we can figure something out.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written but I thought you would like to know all the glamour that goes with being a writer and painter. Now that’s funny! I realize that the things I say aren’t always as funny as I think they are.

I have totally enjoyed meeting new people at the craft fairs and look forward to seeing you all soon! May God watch over you as He gives you His rich love and joy!

Sex Trafficking, Domestic, Violence, Pornography (Deviant and Perverted-Degenerate Behavior)

Profile of Evil

Sin is sin!

Pornography, rape, sex trafficking, domestic violence, pedophilia, slavery. Abusers come in all social economic groups, both male and female, rich and poor, all ethnic groups, all ages, all sexual orientations and religions; they can be whatever you want them to be so that they get what they want. They can be charming, they can be funny, they can be intelligent, they can be talented, they can make you believe that they are hard-working, they can make you believe that they are not into drugs or alcohol or sex. They are controlling, they are master manipulators, they are deceptive and crafty, although they make you believe that they care for you, they only look out and care about themselves.

When a society becomes so perverted, so evil, so hard-hearted, that they can kill their own children and then later brag about it, you know we have fallen far from God’s grace into the pit of hell.

At times they can be kind, you think they love you. Actually, you long to be loved so badly that you see hope, love and kindness where there really isn’t any. They will call you horrible names one minute and then the next tell you how sorry they are, just to draw you back in.

They can be a lawyer, a doctor, a banker, a farmer, a factory worker or even a family member (mother, father or siblings), or a trusted friend or can even be the President of a country, a corporation or a non-profit, someone so important that it never crossed your mind that he would abuse you in any way. He may call himself a Christian and use Scripture against you or he may be an atheist and ridicule you for your beliefs.

When they cannot control you or don’t like what you’ve done, they will call you horrific names, they will hit you, push you, choke you and the list goes on and on.

These sins can often go from generation to generation. It seems that the father teaches his son how to keep their victim in control. The girls learn that their daddy treats their mother a certain way and it must be acceptable so they end up in an abusive relationship too.

This abuse (of all kinds) can go far beyond bruises, scars and broken bones; it can go into the heart and mind of the victim. Those are the scars you don’t see. The victim goes into a survival mode and people around them will blame them for what is happening. The mind games are almost unreal! People looking on cannot even comprehend this sort of abuse because it doesn’t seem logical. The abuser beats the victim down when they try to use logic, there is always something wrong with the victim and soon the victim believes those lies.

Now imagine that you are married and your husband is stand-offish. Where he once made you feel loved, you now feel useless, a nothing in his eyes.

Has he taken on a new love? A mistress? Or is it beyond understanding as he sneaks away into the dark to get on his computer or phone to watch pornography.

Or perhaps you don’t suspect a thing and walk into a room where he is watching TV and, there he is, masturbating. The shock you feel! The betrayal! Unbelief and then wondering what you have done wrong that he would do this? And when you gain your voice and ask “what are you doing?” (Really, you see it, you know but you can’t believe it!) And the first thing to come out of his mouth is blaming you for not fulfilling his ”needs”. Blaming you! Can you imagine?

In disbelief we can only go to God and His Word for comfort.

“When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Gen 3:6) Understand that as early as Adam and Eve, God intended for the man to be the woman’s spiritual covering, to protect her, to provide for her and to always be there for her. As we can see, Adam failed miserably. And realizing they were naked, they made some coverings out of leaves.

In walks God, coming to commune with His creation. Why do you suppose God asks, “Where are you?” God not only knew where they were but He knew what they had done. He asked this question to give Adam (and Eve) a chance to repent. To fall before God in humility and ask God to forgive them.

But instead, Adam starts making excuses but in the excuses, he admits that he’s naked. Leading God to ask the second question, “Who told you that you were naked?”

And immediately the man said, “The woman You put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

So, the man blames the wife God has given him and the woman blames the serpent. No one takes responsibility for their behavior and they really are blaming God and, it seems that Adam forgets that God had told him “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Adam was given a helpmate, they were in perfect unity, walking in integrity in serving God. But as it was with the first couple, we today don’t seem to stay satisfied for long—this is unless we keep our eyes and heart on Him who created us. Husband and wife, both are always vulnerable to satan’s tactics of leading us into sin.

Sin is painful among families. Sin is deceptive. Search your heart and mind to check yourself. All sin seems to start out so simple, so innocent but sin is sin. It separates us from God.

Find help if you are in the midst of such deviant behavior. If you are the victim of someone in your household taking you down to the pit, find someone to help you. It’s a slippery road, look for stability in Jesus Christ alone.