Omniscient Choices
not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Ephesians 6:6 NASB
Will of God – Doing God’s will is doing exactly what I would do if I had all the facts. God’s will is the most reasonable choice I could ever make since it is in perfect alignment with the universe, the ultimate purposes of the Creator and the final destiny of who I was designed to be. God’s will is perfect for me in all my relationships. If I had all the facts, I would instantly see this—and make the right choice.
But I don’t have all the facts. And with the little bit of facts that I do have, I often make choices based on my comprehension of the situation rather than on the omniscient understanding of the Creator. This is the ultimate human predicament. But there is an answer (just wait).
The second, and more serious issue, is not lack of information. The second issue is insanity. You see, even if I have all the facts, I can still choose to do what the facts do not suggest. This is insanity. It is the deliberate disregard for what I know to be true and the willful decision to do what I know to be false. The first human predicament is epistemological. I just don’t know all that I should know. The second is volitional. Even if I know what I should know, I choose insanity instead of alignment with the truth.
So how do I solve the first issue? How do I choose when I don’t know all the facts? Simple. I listen to someone who does know it all. Recognizing that I am epistemologically limited (that I don’t know everything) should propel me to take the advice of someone who does know everything. It’s just common sense. If I don’t know how to fix my refrigerator, I don’t hire a carpenter. I hire someone who knows how to fix refrigerators. I don’t know. He knows. I follow his advice. When it comes to life choices, God knows what to do. In fact, knowing that we don’t know, God provides both an manual and personal guidance—and a community of others who don’t know it all but know some things better than I do. Reason suggests that I should listen and act accordingly. To do anything else is simply crazy.
But crazy is the real issue. We may acknowledge that we have the manual. We may even hear the personal life coaching from the one who invented life. We certainly could avail ourselves of the community that seeks to understand what the manual means. But far too often we don’t. Why? Well, technically, it’s because we are insane. We choose death rather than life. We ignore all that could benefit us in order to claim personal freedom (which we know is just another form of slavery). But mostly we pretend. We deny. We rationalize. We justify. We do anything but confront our insanity. We think that as long as we live in an asylum, we will be considered normal.
The truth is that men don’t need omniscience in order to do what is true. They need shock treatment. They need a very big dose of reality. They need to wake up to their own madness. This is a much bigger problem since if I believe I am perfectly normal I will discount all the evidence that I am not. If we want to reach the insane, we will have to find a way to expose their insanity so that they will see it. God help us!
Topical Index: insane, omniscience, will of God, Ephesians 6:6
Preach it brother! How much clearer can you make it?
I know that I cannot “expose their insanity so that they will see it”. I married it and tried for decades to do exactly that. I think I now know most ALL the ‘ways’ it cannot be done!
But, but. I know a few other things, I think, now, too.
I know that I cannot reason with insanity.
I know that insanity is stronger than I am.
I know that if I try to deal directly with insanity in my flesh the only net result is that I become insane too.
This is because I think I now know that insanity believes it is already ‘ok’; therefore, I have nothing to offer it that it would think it wants. What insanity THINKS it wants is that list Skip outlined: pretense, denial, rationalization, justification. And it wants me to agree. In fact, what insanity thinks it wants more than anything else is to NOT HAVE TO CHANGE ALREADY! You want to make an insane person mad? Suggest that they may need to consider doing anything differently! Above all, I think insanity is the delusion of present perfection. (Yep, I know, I know, that sounds absolutely crazy! But, isn’t that today’s topic?!)
I think functional insanity – which is chosen insanity – is, essentially, a sort of defense mechanism; a human reaction to accusation and condemnation, which a human cannot bear. I watched my precious mama go crazy in front of my eyes because she could not bear the guilt and loss. She saw no other ‘out’. All insane people have a bottom of fear that you cannot touch with anything else but love. I think we are afraid of the insane to the extent that we do not have that depth of love necessary to reach out and touch. That is because that spirit of fear that infects all the lost does not come from above. 2Tim. 1:7 tells us that. I think that is why we are afraid of fear (hey, that fear does not come from above, either!). 1John 4;18 tells us what to do with it, though. It is “perfect love” that casts out that spirit of fear that haunts all the insane; all the lost. What the world really does need is love. If we are to reach the insanely lost, we are going to have to do it the old-fashioned way: love. Only love can reach around all the defense mechanisms, all the mental games, and all that fear. Only love can communicate that the accusation and condemnation are WRONG, and that is is ok – safe – to come out. Only love can expose those lies of the devil that the lost are listening to: that they are already condemned rebels, doomed to die. Radio Satan spews awful propaganda!
The miracle of my mama was that, on her deathbed, we finally got to a place beyond the fear. By the grace of G-d we got to the place where the fear that drove the psychosis was exposed, and by His grace I knew what to do with it. On the other side of that fear, where she felt SAFE, we could address the original issue that she could not handle before, and we handled it. The next morning, she woke up in her right mind, and she remembered who she really was, and that included Who her Redeemer was. She died in the peace of His love, beyond the condemnation and beyond the insanity created by that condemnation. I know that I will see my mama again. The grief of all those lost years is resolved, because I know she is no longer lost. Halleluah!
Yes, all sin is insanity, but that is because all sin is based on lies. Why do we listen? Because we need love. Sin offers us an alternative to love; a way over the wall to the Promised Land. Why do we listen? Because we already listened to the voice of accusation, and when we believed the Accuser, we felt condemned. I think sin is, basically, what I do when I feel condemned already. It is a reaction of fear to fear. Pick a sin – any sin, and tear it back down; all the way back. What do you find at the very back: at the very beginning? Accusation that you believed, subsequent condemnation that you then needed relief from, and an alternate substitute of some sort for the love that you felt you then had no other way to get. This is the profile of insanity. This is the profile of sin. Looking for love in all the wrong places, because we did not believe that we could get it in the right ones. This is what I think we need to keep in mind when we go marching out that door to reach the lost.
When I sin, my mind (which I believe was created to run on Things That Make Sense) goes into fear, which is basically pain in the brain that is supposed to signal to me that Things Are NOT Making Sense, so DO SOMETHING ALREADY! But if I am listening to Radio Satan, I am going to be reacting to accusation of some sort, because that is what he is offering, and so I am listening to lies, which is going to be driving my brain crazy– literally! To reach behind that fear – that INSANITY – then, is to find a way to speak the TRUTH back in. What truth? The truth that there is a place where no condemnation exists: where it is safe to come back out: a place where love is possible. Want to give a person a place where they do not feel compelled to sin? Give them a place where they feel loved already, because this is what we are all looking for. If we weren’t looking for love, I think we would have no reason to sin. (Did I sound a wee bit crazy just then? Well, we do happen to live on Planet Insanity, with the Liar!) May we all ask for the blessing of enough Love and Truth (sanity) to reach the lost. Amen!
Thank you, Skip!
Like!!!!!
oh goodness Laurita I married insanity too….for decades too…..annddd still am…………….
this rings true
“And I know that I cannot “expose their insanity so that they will see it”. I married it and tried for decades to do exactly that. I think I now know most ALL the ‘ways’ it cannot be done!
But, but. I know a few other things, I think, now, too.
I know that I cannot reason with insanity.
I know that insanity is stronger than I am.
I know that if I try to deal directly with insanity in my flesh the only net result is that I become insane too.”
and all the rest , so on target !!!
would you pray for me for wisdom………………………………..
I am praying right now! I also know that we are not meant to go it alone! We need each other! So, speak up and let those around you know what you need. That is what I did not have for a long time. There is not only strength in numbers; there is sanity, too!
Also pray for discernment to be able to stay in relationship when things are not matching mentally. I found that you can still find a way, if your heart is right. Above all, pray for discernment to be able to see where you are either reacting to insanity (engaging; which only feeds it) or, worse, contributing to it, either by giving it a ‘reason’ (instigating the condemnation and fear it feeds on), or by playing along with it, which gives it the validity it lacks. All these, by the way, are fear-based places where love should have been, but you just might not know how to put it there. These were all hard, good lessons for me, anyway.
May YHVH bless you and your marriage, and keep you.
this is my current choice dilemma : 4 churches ,over 20 years ,various denominations ,with many pastor and wifes counseling & christian counselors all told me ; pray more for your husband , forgive him more, get friends & hobbies, grace, honor, submit to your husband more,focus on positive more , know God as my husband more , love more, these are all wonderful of course – but not once did anyone confront my husband are you abusive to your wife? After I share his treatment of me.
I love my husband I want to be an honoring wife. Each time I just listen and set out to be those things but no change for the verbal crazy abuse. My husband is anointed and used by God in the church .I believe the motives are kinda pure to stir up and edify his gifts and invest in his leadership as a man of the church. Than I come in & share our abusive / walking on egg shells cyclic crazy marriage and they don’t want to believe me , or they kinda listen and than look to me for his sin,,,,,,,,,,, So what do I do ? I keep asking God for wisdom do I confront? do I keep silent .? I want to tell people ( or better him tell them, but I asked if he would do that 8 months ago) about the domestic violence in our home & let God atone & redeem it. I don’t want to hide or gloss over it , I also want to be a submissive honoring wife , but I don’t want to pretend. The turmoil of trying to reconcile my 2 husbands the one at church and the one at home………. Or do I just trust God will work it all out?? ??????????????????????I keep praying hoping for a miracle because he grew up in an abusive home , but it seems so dishonoring to God and dishonest to myself to even go to church . How can I most honor God in this moment…………….???????????????????????????????
Dear cbcb, YHVH bless you for asking the right questions. May He bless you with the answers! I also pray that this community may bless you too, with their prayers and their care. I admire your courage!
May I testify?
I think generational abuse is a legal right that someone in the generations gives to the devil to bless (curse) subsequent generations with the PROPENSITY for. It is like a door that is opened. Now, each generation has to choose to indulge in it, but, unfortunately, I think this stuff comes in a package that includes triggers, or setup points, justification, and the blindness that makes it all appear either invisible, or someone else’s fault (most often, the victim’s fault), or it morphs over in the head to become some kind of weird form of ‘righteousness’. Yes; someone can stand there acting like the devil himself, and, in their head, they can be playing this insane tape that assures them they are somehow fulfilling G-d’s will! They can even believe that they are ‘loving’ the victim! How can that be? If they were abused, but either told that it was love, or, because they needed love at those points, but got abused instead, they can just have told themselves it was love. At that point, the abuse can stand in as a representation of the love of G-d. Yes. I just think I described insanity, but, none of us can sit back and point the finger, because we are all doing this in some form as I speak. Just some of us are being extra egregious!
What to do as a true follower of the Meek and Lowly One? Well, in my marriage, I tried all the righteousness in the flesh I could possibly think of. None of it worked, of course. I was about halfway to a decent heart attack when I finally staggered into Al-anon. There, I learned all kinds of eye-opening things. I will try to share a few of these things.
First, I learned that I was playing the KEY role in the abuse, but the abuser was wrong when he blamed me for it, so just accepting his blame was not going to fix it. The reason being that he was not telling me the truth. I was holding the key to the abuse, but I didn’t know it. What was that key? Well, if you get abused, but go back for more, it is the same as if you were getting beat up by the devil with some sin, but you went back to do it again. Why do we go back again? I think we are all sin addicts. Sin has this addictive quality to it. It sets us up to do it again. In Al-anon, we did not use the word “sin”, but I sure did learn a whole lot more about it than it seemed those folks in church knew! The collective wisdom of hundreds of thousands of people who have loved alcoholics and addicts, and had become “willing to accept their powerlessness” over everything I think gives G-d a lot of room to manifest! I learned that insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Me. Insane. Well, I sure felt insane! I learned that when you hit a brick wall, you should “try turning left”, instead of continuing to run into it! I learned that the abuse requires secrecy and compliance, and the abuser gets all the help of hell in securing that secrecy and compliance from society around him. He or sherelies on the tendency of people to want to ignore the people in ditches. It works. BUT, I want to tell you, that within three weeks of starting Al-anon, and NEVER talking about it, or blaming him, or changing any of my behavior, my husband could no longer stand it, and gave me an ultimatum: either I quit, or he move out! Well, I could not see anything I was doing wrong, so I told him I was doing something right for me, and he moved out! I didn’t have to do anything, but stand there and do right! Abuse thrives on secrecy and isolation. You need a community at your back, girl!
You see, I think shame is the single most loaded topic on this planet. Abuse relies on the victim taking on the shame of the abuser, so they don’t have to experience that shame, but ungodly shame must have secrecy. It cannot stand exposure! As long as the victim agrees to ACT OUT that shame, nothing will change. They remain as a key player in the problem. BUT, if that victim becomes VISIBLE in that victimization, which is to say, they reveal the problem, and someone else SEES the problem; acknowledges it; denounces it; but above all, takes responsibility for calling it by its right name, then the victim is no longer alone, and so the shame has to shift back to the abuser, who, of course, is acting out because he or she could not handle it in the first place! Now, this will do one of two things: either they will step up the abuse, in an effort to get the victim to agree to put the genie back in the bottle, or they will have to pull back the abuse, for the shame of it. BUT, the shame of having been abused is overwhelming. We do as we are done by: that is the Rule of the Flesh. The grace it takes to Do As We WOULD Be Done By takes a supernatural override from heaven! None of us can overcome shame in our flesh. We run from it, and hide. The shame of being abused can hide behind passing that abuse on to the next victim. This is what I think you are up against.
I was addicted to an addict. That is the definition of co-dependence. I had to acknowledge that addiction: acknowledge that I had put fear of a person where G-d should have been in my life, and admitted that the situation was bigger than me, before anything could change. I learned that I was believing all kinds of terrible things, and those beliefs held me in my part of the problem. I had to become willing to examine, and to change, my beliefs (paradigm shift, I think this community calls it). I had to learn how to turn around my role as part of the problem, and learn how to become part of the solution instead. It was a massive overhaul. I went to Al-anon for four years, religiously, and worked HARD to assimilate it all. I ‘graduated’ the day I was able to successfully put into practice what I had learned, which was the capstone of the program. I had learned HOW to “detach with love”. I was no longer addicted to my abuser. And, as he chose to continue to hide in his shame, we parted, but everyone lived to tell the tale, because I had learned how to defuse the situation successfully. Halleluah!
Agreeing to be abused is NOT righteousness! I will repeat, you have to love yourself before someone else can love you. Part of loving yourself is standing up for yourself as a precious child of the King. As adults, we give permission to others to do us wrong. We establish patterns of helplessness in childhood, and repeat them in adulthood, but we don’t go back and change those patterns, typically. So, as adults, we still are sending out those signals of helplessness, and the ungodly radar of others picks that up, and the cycle continues. To break ourselves out of this hellish pattern, we have to learn how to send out new signals, and those signals are based on self respect; and based on the confidence that you have a community at your back; and based on, most importantly, knowing HOW to let the love of G-d shine in that dark corner. I finally realized that I was ashamed, and that shame was a key part of keeping me from the love of G-d. It sounded ridiculous, as I knew I had done nothing wrong, but I decided I had nothing to lose but the shame, so I repented for it. I could tell that the shame did not come from G-d, so I didn’t think I had to continue to walk in it, so I repented for the shame of being abused. AND IT WENT AWAY! I was delivered from that shame, and so I no longer walked in it. My abuser relied on my shame. That was the key I held. When I learned how to love myself enough to require others to love me, too, I became my own champion of self respect, and self respect sends out the right signals. Halleluah!
I am praying for you, girl, and I bet a whole lot of other people here, are, too! You are no longer alone! Please continue to include us in your life, so YHVH can continue to bless us with unity! Amen.
Love, Laurita
Thank you for confirming and sharing ,I have been on that same journey , learning the same truths now to take a greater stand & step for truth & Jesus in me, I cried & felt a cyber – hug from your letter thanks laurita 🙂
Hey, girl, now you know how to get one of those from me any time you need one! And you are now on my prayer list, too. I am so very sure you have so much that others need; look at all the years you have been collecting it! I learned to go ask to learn all the lessons I was supposed to in the places I found myself in, because my mama told me that you didn’t get the next lesson until you learned the last one. Some of them I have been motivated to learn real fast! But the biggest one of all is how much He loves me. I learned to go ask Him for that one, too. “How much do You love me in this place?” And then He will say sometimes “Well, do you REALLY want to know?!”
Keep the faith!
Truer words are rarely written. Both Skip and Laurita thank you. What a blessing it had to have been to see your mother restored to sanity, Laurita. Ain’t Yah good? Yes, love does conquer all-including insanity, sin and death. Shalom, Michael
I like you, too Luis, I’m sure.
Stanley, I am so happy to have something to rejoice with someone about! It was such a slam to the gut to watch her go from 100% to I don’t even know. My whole family tanked and it is so hard to hold the faith in that place. What has really been an epiphany for me lately, though, is the comfort in realizing, like Skip says, that the family is the smallest unit that YHVH recognizes. That gives the Lord’s Prayer a new meaning for me. When I pray, I know feel I am praying for all those I hold in my heart, and He hears for all of us together. Its not just me and my little lonesome sweating it out for all those others that are just dropping off the planet if I don’t personally DO SOMETHING about it any given minute. When He sees me, I now think I have the assurance He is equally looking at all those I love. What a comfort. It also gives that whole prayer in the middle of John entirely new meaning for me. So, I guess that also means that now all y’all here At God’s Table are included, for better or worse, in my representations before the throne, so, if it starts to get a little bit funny, you might want to consider that Laurita may be praying some strange prayers! But, seriously, it also gives the injunction to pray for my enemies new meaning, too. When I pray for them, I am including them in my unit, and they then look like me to that Throne? I guess this acting like One takes practice!
What It Is
The Be Attitudes.. Attitudes That Ought To Be
Remember this? It all depends on what “is” is.. In other words, – I plead insanity. Our last defense before the Judge. But we, (the sane ones?) must call this “aberrant behavior” by its rightful name – it is (what it is) “sin.”
All have sinned. We all fall down. There is (How many?)- “NONE”- righteous.. NO. NOT. ONE.
Look around. We are in good(?) company. You see that man “over there?” He is a sinner. And that woman over there? She is a sinner. We might even have a touch of the Isaiah syndrome, preaching and proclaiming with fervent passion: Woe unto YOU, and you.. and you..- Ahh.. but then..
But then, Isaiah saw someone. He saw his reflection in the mirror. Isaiah, what about that guy? The Man in the Mirror? Is he “rightly-related?” Is he righteous? And.. (according to Isaiah’s confession) he said, “Woe is me, for I am undone..” Isaiah, who once (seemingly) “had it all together,” – now comes apart. “Is there not a Cause?” There is.. Isaiah saw the LORD.
We too, need to see the LORD. It is not me, laying down next to the guy in the gutter, “measuring” myself and saying, “O look! How much longer I am than him,” but it is me measuring myself against the ONE who is holy. If we are to measure or weigh ourselves we must not compare ourselves against each other (as we often do) but against this One (and only) standard of righteousness,- our LORD Jesus (who is the) Christ.
~ Let (a word of permission, – allow, this mind (phroneó: to have understanding, to think) to be in you which also was in Christ Jesus.. ~ (Philippians 2.5)
5426 phronéō (from 5424 /phrḗn, “the midriff or diaphragm; the parts around the heart,” J. Thayer) – properly, regulate (moderate) from within, as inner-perspective (insight) shows itself in corresponding, outward behavior. 5426 (phronéō) essentially equates to personal opinion fleshing itself out in action (see J. Thayer). This idea is difficult to translate into English because it combines the visceral and cognitive aspects of thinking.
Yes. “think on these things!..” ~ We [now] have the mind of Christ ~ (1 Corinthians 2.16)
~ Who has become to us..
A.) Wisdom from God?
B.) And righteousness?
C.) And sanctification?
D.) And redemption?
E.) – All of the above?
Who else can it be? It is our resurrected Redeemer! He is alive! Have we (the distracted sheeple) forgotten? We serve a Living Savior!!
and?
~ You [will] keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in You ~ (Isaiah 26.3)
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends You,
[or pleases You!]
and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Amen.
Thank you so very much for the phroneo exposition, Carl! I appreciate it very much! And the rest, too!
So true. What is left for YAH’s children but to recognize the insanity, take responsibility for it, repent for the problem we recognize, fall completely out of agreement with the insanity and move on to rejoice and help others to recognize (if they so choose). Halleluyah that our Father is not finished with us yet and that is not because of us but because of what Yahshua has done for us.
Shabbat shalom
Laurita-what a blessing to see your mother released from her pain-I thank Him every time your story comes to mind-which has been several times today. I’m afraid there are so many held prisoner to fear, pain and emptiness in this day and time…it will take a truly miraculous move of God in His Mercy and Love to do what we cannot. Telling them what we know or believe doesn’t make an impression to a society that has been, in many cases..wounded by the very ones that were to protect and love them. Purity, truth and love doesn’t seem to exist for many and my heart breaks for them. It is really overwhelming when we look at it for what it really is. The enemy has made huge headway in the past few generations on this battlefield…the insanity he reproduces has grown in leaps and bounds. We need the Father’s help – He needs to come, expose the deceptions and pour out His Grace, Mercy and Love so captives can be released. I am earnestly asking Him to do just that…rightly aligning myself to His Heart and pleading for Him to come and repair what we have lost. Lord, teach us to pray…Your Will on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaking of insane, and please excuse me that this is a little off track, but several weeks ago as I was doing my morning devotions, I got “stuck” in Judges chapters 17-21. Several things kept bugging me. I read and meditated for days on the passages but just couldn’t “get it”. Then a few weeks later, a friend in another state emails me and says that she is perplexed regarding Judges 17-21 and asks me if I can help her understand! My husband told me to ask you if you had any insight into these chapters and if anything “jumps out” at you.
Oh wow !!! I thought i was alone @ judges 19 & 20 !!!!!! This is my impression & personal notes so far: judges 19 a defiling crime /rape was done to the Israelites & judges 20 is them trying to make that right 3 times they go to war the first they go with just cause & lose, 2nd time they go in strength & power to set things right but not until the 3rd time with.burnt & peace offerings(eucharist) they were truly cleansed in Him given that God makes a way for victory ..
somehow God wants to make right our unjust sufferings , they had the strength to win & justified in their fight but only God could give power….
than less clear –
warring vs loving .
red sea crossing vs. Jordan river
entitlement/just cause vs.Yahweh power & God trying to prepare our hearts for the next season we are going to enter, that only His power is enough & a greater mature son/daughter is required…
does this relate to intimacy with God ??
And does this relate to Haman vs.esther ?????
That’s great to hear that another is being drawn to this study! I thought I was alone as well! There are now 2 others that also are experiencing the call to dig this out! The section where you mentioned preparing our hearts for the next season that we are about to enter, and that only His power is enough and that a greater more mature son/daughter is required rang true with me as well! But so far, (and I’ve just begun) this seems to be confirming that we can’t worship Yahweh any old way we want to and expect Him to accept it! And I’m studying chapters 17-21! There is alot here! Happy digging!
and also perhaps judges 17-20 is about—– choices……..
Hey Skip ~ Thanks for the word today. I appreciate the seriousness of the teaching, but it was also hilarious. I laughed hard, because it is absurd how we (I) often prefer insanity to the shock treatment of reality.
“I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed”
from THINGS HAVE CHANGED…………….Bob Dylan
I pray we will all be willing to leave the asylum, as often as we put ourselves there, and walk free and secure regardless of being considered abnormal.
For His Name Sake.
Wow again so amazed my connection with you ::::my husband & I sat at the kitchen table today discussing the power God gave us in giving the gift of choices …..the greatest choice being choosing God & how when we are immature others make choices for us & as we mature we have new responsiblitylies to make powerful choices unto Him .. As a new believer God made choosing easier … than how decisions run through processes of failure, falling, trusting, obeying God , sometimes the choice is obvious than sometimes not & being wholehearted ready to lay down my life again & again with each choice .
I had to print this word study & the comments 🙂 Skip Moen I am so thankful I get to partake of God’s expressions through your writing ! Blessings
“We certainly could avail ourselves of the community that seeks to understand what the manual means.” Herein lies the problem for me. In my experience, I have yet to find a community that does not claim they are seeking to understand what the manual means. Every “religious” or “spiritual” community I’ve ever encountered has members who believe they are seeking to understand what the manual means. You don’t know what you don’t know. I really appreciate all the comments under Skip’s very compelling post. Laurita and cbcb, I especially want to thank each of you for sharing difficult insights and experiences. I pray that YHVH will bring restoration and redemption out of what the locusts have eaten.
Thank you, Theresa. Thank you for your blessing. In my case, I am quite sure it has all been just pruning! Nothing real has been lost. Those pesky locusts just got a big mouthful of chaff and dross out of me, please God! I have faith the real stuff has not been touched…
“All that is gold does not glitter
Not all that wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken
From the darkness a new light shall spring
Forged shall be sword that was broken
The crownless again shall be king.”
J. R. R. Tolkein: Lord of the Rings
Your response is over my head; or, should I say under? I was encouraged about your mother. Is anything too hard for YHVH? Perhaps it’s possible I should be familiar with family by now. My actual experiences with those who say they love me, and/or who say they are seekers of the manual have been real confusing. I have an inkling I may need to proceed with caution until I am quite sure too. I have not made prunes a part of my regular diet so I might not be as confident about the pruning process.
LOL