Armed Kingdom - PART 1

THE BATTLEFIELD

In a faraway place, Light reflects from afar. Life looks honorably good and virtuous. Those of the living reflect devout unity. From a distance, the living shines the most beautiful thing ever imagined. They glow so bright from the outside of this place. Light shines majestically into the horizon. No darkness can be seen. The angelic attraction of it all draws you in. Drawing nearer to these righteous apostles and warriors, this place becomes unfamiliar and not what it seems.

Stepping on its ground, knowing the cold and barren place is a battlefield of darkness. Inside the battlefield hideous villain’s hearts unveil extreme ugliness. There stand “false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). A war takes place on this rootless soil. “The land of darkness and the shadow of death, a land as dark as darkness itself, As the shadow of death, without any order, where even the light is darkness” (Job 10:21-22). The land wars of good and evil over one’s soul.

LOST IN THE DARKNESS

The Commander in Chief, Deceiver, calls for Sh^ebuwth (she-booth). Since birth, Sh^ebuwth served Deceiver in servile submission, but he never understood why and how it happened. “You have been a great asset to our sect Sh^ebuwth. You have chosen the right side,” Deceiver told Sh^ebuwth. “If you stay with us, you will never go wrong!” Deceiver told Sh^ebuwth this many times, but Sh^ebuwth always felt alone and unfulfilled in life. Lost in the Darkness, Sh^ebuwth doesn’t understand who he is. The warrior division he belonged to held banners in their hands. Written on them, it read, “BLINDED”.

War began, and Sh^ebuwth cries out in confusion. Many thoughts brainstorm through his mind and the only thing he does is -- nothing. “I will fail,” Sh^ebuwth whispers to himself. So he complacently concludes life holds nothing greater than this. “Whoever I am, life will always be the same,” Sh^ebuwth speaks. He slowly begins falling asleep near the edge of a fruitless tree. For, often times it took an extreme amount of time to fall asleep. He remembered when his last division held banners that waved, “INSOMNIA”. He eased himself when he knew tonight’s rest would refresh him. Sh^ebuwth needed sleep, for even his physical body, became wrinkled and old from being in war for so long. How this world he was a part of aged him so. But soon enough, Sh^ebuwth fell into a rest of unconsciousness.

THE VISION OF THE CALL

“Sh^ebuwth… Sh^ebuwth, ” a small voice carries. “Sh^ebuwth.” Sh^ebuwth stood before a

Royal festival. “Are you coming to the wedding feast?” the children asked. “The King will be there!”

“Who? King Lieth? He is the only King I know of. This does not sound like something he's do,” Sh^ebuwth analyzed.

“What will you do in the appointed day, And in the day of the Feast of the King?” a small child named Worth asked (Hosea 9:5). “The wedding is ready, but you who were invited are not worthy. For many are called, but few are chosen” (Mathew 22:8+15).

“What does this mean?” Sh^ebuwth asked. “Who is the King? Whose wedding is it? Why was I invited to this feast?”

A little girl named Grace answers, “Avoid foolish questions, genealogies, contentions, and strivings; for they are unprofitable and useless.”

DISORDERED BEWILDERMENT

A whistle blew in Sh^ebuwth’s ear and he sprung out from underneath the fruitless tree at attention. “You were talking in your sleep again Sh^ebuwth!” Captain Pride yelled. “We have no questioning of such things in this land. Pick yourself up and move on with yourself boy! This is life, right in front of you. Live like you own it!”

“Huh? Where am I?” Sh^ebuwth asked?

“You know perfectly well where you’re at you petty little, no-good pile of manure! You are as stupid as a sheep. Your banner is right beside you, idiot!” Sh^ebuwth looked down to where he had been sleeping and saw His banner that read, “IGNORANCE”.

“Aha…but Sir Pride, I swear I fell asleep at division 'BLINDED',” Sh^ebuwth explained.

“Enough of your babble. You are not worth my time! Complain to someone who cares you dirty fool!”

CONSTRUE INTERPRETATION

Sh^ebuwth began sharing his dream with the animals. “What do you think this means?” He would ask. The sheep were too stupid too know their left from their right. The lion’s pridl never took the time in helping a wreck like Sh^ebuwth. He even asked an owl but all he said was, “if the truth always changed, it isn’t truth.” None of them could give him a direct answer, until he told the serpent. Again Sh^ebuwth asked the serpent what he thought it meant.

The serpent told Sh^ebuwth, “Don’t worry about it. I will take care of it, and make sure a conclusion is met about your dream.” After affirming Sh^ebuwth the serpent went into the campsites of every division on the battle line and told them of Sh^ebuwth’s dream. This caused an uproar in the battlefield. The whole army broke out in panic and chaos. Trumpets sounded in the air, and the army called for a Warfare Counsel’s meeting.

ENEMY UNDER ATTACK

General Enemy raged furiously about useing his leviathan and burning half his crew of sinister wickedness to charcoal. “This cannot go on any longer,” he said at the Warfare Counsel’s meeting. He prepared the other leaders for their worst. Anger and strife filled the camp. General Enemy broke in, “If King Lieth finds out, we are done for! This cannot happen again. We will keep moving Sh^ebuwth from site to site in his sleep, as we did last night. This will cause confusion in the fool’s head. With his stupidity he’ll never find out the Truth. Don’t worry wicked warriors! We will have victory!”

TO BE CONTINUED...

My Dearest Husband,

I love you more than yesterday
Because my love is growing
I admire everything about you
Without you even knowing

It's like the Lord proofs His faithfulness in all that you are to me.
It's wonderful watching you grow into all that God created you to be.

Admiration fills my being. You have come so far.
Now full of life and liberty, how beautiful you are.
Being all that God has intended for you,
The sky isn't even your limit,
The possibilities are endless
When the Spirit of the Lord is in it.

I am completely in love with you, you are my best friend
I promise to walk with you until we reach the end.
For I do not know what heaven looks like, or even if we'll be wed,
but this I know is true, loving you forever is what I intend.

Thank you, my love, for setting yourself a part
Putting Jesus first and giving Him your heart.
It truly shows in all you do, In every inch of your being.
Allowing God and humbling yourself to see what He is seeing.

Thank you friend, for all that you are to me.
You provoke me to be more, to live as if I am free.
Free to be myself was your best advice.
No matter what the cost, no matter what the price.
Because in Christ i can do all things,
It's how you've shown me to live.
You've done it by example,
It's absolutely what you give.

How extravagant your love is for the deepest things of God.
Your desire to know and love Him I have always awed.
So know, my husband, how deep my love is for you.
And I am committed to you in whatever we decide to do.
In choosing to walk together, side by side in life
I am happy to be with you and honored to be your wife.

Wilderness Outcry

READY FOR BREAKTHROUGH?....I AM.

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Grow Food not Lawns! (when all else fails, plant a garden PART3)

Anyone need soil? We have soooo much left over!

This is the finished bed! We'll let you know what we plant when we get seeds in....

Abigail was having a blast in the dirt!

here's a great video to encourage you to start your own garden and how to do it!

and another great organic gardener who is very helpful!

when all else fails, plant a garden PART 2

So here's the intended spot for our garden

and we finished half of the preparations

for it yesterday.

Brandon helped me get started. It was a lot of work, but was so happy we were able to remove all the large cement slates. There is no way I would have been able to do it without Brandon! More pictures to come and we show you the transformation.

If you didn't see my original blog on this it can be found here.

Eviction

The other day we were standing outside Planned Parenthood. Those who are ignorant may drive by and see a facility promoting family planning. Those who have been exposed to the truth of planned parenthood see this organization from a different perspective. Standing before us was an altar of death. An altar that has sacrificed the innocent, the young, the pure, the unborn. An altar that sheds innocent blood. A blood that curses the land. For scripture makes it very clear. The shedding of innocent blood brings a curse to the land.

As we stood there we made a prophetic declaration. Planned Parenthood was receiving her eviction notice. According to the definition of eviction, eviction comes when a party breaks the law. Planned Parenthood has broken the law of God. An ordinance that has been set in place since the beginning. "Do not shed the blood of the innocent." Planned Parenthood was receiving her eviction notice that day for there is bloodshed on her hands.

Eviction also derives from the word "conquer" and "defeated." With this is mind we stood there that day with an assurance. An assurance that this alter of death within the city of Rochester would be torn down. I'm not sure how this will happen. Maybe God would supernaturally dry up the resources funding the abomination of abortion. Or maybe God would mobilize His church to take an active stance outside the facility; establishing a presence of prayer and peace.

I'm not sure how or when Planned Parenthood will come to a close, but I believe with all my heart it will. Not with acts of violence, nor through the good intentions of man. But I believe the alter of death will be torn down through God's initiative executed through His people.

-Brandon

...And so it begins

I had a rude awakening when visiting my parents this past weekend...."I am so out of shape," I was saying to myself as I was huffing and puffing through the butts and guts class at the YMCA. It's only been 2 months since having my little girl, but I had no idea how hard it really was going to be to get myself moving again.

To my own surprise, this second pregnancy I still gained just as much as I did with my first, even though I continued to eat right and exercise regularly while I was pregnant with my second. On top of that I was still nursing my first until 6 weeks before the second came. Both pregnancies I reached an all-time high of 210 pounds. But it's interesting to think I was that weight at one time without being pregnant...yikes! I don't know how I carried it. So...this blog is the beginning of a long journey of achieving a healthy weight after two pregnancies, the first being one I never fully recovered from. (And maybe this could help other new moms out there to having a fresh start). My starting weight before I was pregnant was 165 pounds, which was a

very healthy weight for me. Most would say its still too big, but if you saw me I looked healthy and fit. with 12 years of figure skating and 2 years of hockey, a lot of the weight was in muscle in my bottom-half.

So this may not be the best picture, but it's the closest one I have that is right before getting pregnant with my first, Abigail. There I was at 165 pounds, but it really was just the beginning of my journey of making healthy decisions. I had only been vegetarian for a couple months at this point and was still learning about making healthy decisions.

Now with my first, I admit, there was a lot of unnecessary eating and no exercise after 10 weeks.

And yes, I was huge! To the right was when I was in the hospital in pre-labor.

After having my first, Abigail, it only took ten pounds off, so i still had 35 pounds to lose. Right around the time Abigail was 6 months old,I had gotten down to 180 pounds, and then I got pregnant once again with Israel. So, never fully recooping from the former, I commited myself to not gaining as much weight as I did with the first. Well, I may not have gained 45 pounds, but I still gained 30, which brought me right back to the 210 mark. Without getting frustrated at the scale, I listened to my body and to God and felt peace about the weight I was gaining. Maybe my body needed it. Maybe my babies need the fat or the water to grow. My first was born in the week of her eta and my second was born right on her due date, so I went full term with both.

And even though I still got to 210 while pregnant with Israel, I don't think I looked unhealthy, as compared to how I may have looked with Abigail. But none-the-less, the babies are born and I have work to do. And let me tell you - DO I! Yesterday was my first attempt taking the children with me to the Y, by myself that is. But everything in me (and God) said "go". And boy, did I pray my way through that work out! Typically I do 5 miles on the eliptical, 3 miles of that being 7mph. I was barely able to get two in and my last mile was a slow recovery of 3 mph. "Back to square 1"....i was thinking to myself. It never fails to surprise me how hard it is to pick things back up once you've been off of routine.

So....i share all this to make myself vulnerable. There are so many that are sitting right in my shoes and need the affirmation to tell them they can do this. And you can! To tell you the truth, I never share my weight....to no one and anyone! It's true. BUT for the greater purpose under heaven, where we live in a world where God cares even about the small things.....If your weight holds you back or keeps you from succeeding....then God cares. I am unhealthy at the weight I am. My asthma is at its worst when I am over-weight, and my energy

and joy run out of juice at mid-day. And so it begins.....the start of a new beginning.....getting my whole-self back up to God's standards, which is ultimately a life-long commitment to being healthy.

I also chopped my hair off. I believe it was an outward act that symbolizes that its a new start and I'm embracing that new start. So, join me as I update you on my progress and blog about my experiences. Everything in my flesh wants to fight against this, but I'm praying my way through to getting healthy and staying healthy.

Live long, live free!