Winter is coming, the season is almost over. And the harvest will be soon.

As I watch the season coming to a close, all of the evidence is there. The days become pale, trees sway in the wind grasping to its last leaf, gardens get thin and tired. Even the air smells different and the sunshine gets weary.

Winter is coming, the season's almost over.

In each of my seasons I see blunders, conquering feats, blessed quiet, and some increase. Every garden gets a little growth, you would think. Even with the best of intentions and love, sometimes that garden just will not thrive. I thought I could farm this wee bit of land that was given to me. I tried to raise the most beautiful garden the best I knew how, I prayed for guidance, I hoped for the right amount of rain. To my utter bewilderment, my wee farm will not thrive.

Then, it's time to get my hands into the soil again. Winter is coming, the season is almost over.

One day my wee bit of land was taken away. The more I tried to till and fertilize, the worse it got. I thought I was a failure. I believed that all the love I ever had just would not thrive in my wee farm, or anywhere else.  I cried at the disbelief of it all. And one day I realized it was never mine, I was only borrowing it until mine was ready.

Inconsolable. Still prideful. But winter is coming, the season is almost over.

I miss that bit of land. I loved it more than it loved me. I tried hard, I really did. But one day, when I would have never expected it, I was given another wee farm to till. It was different than the first, it seemed much harder to work and love. I barely liked it. So I asked the Giver of the land, "Why me? What can I do? This land is hard and barren." All the Giver told me to do is to keep tilling, keep planting, and there will be increase.

Even so, winter is coming, the season is almost over. And the harvest will be soon.

As hard as this soil is, I continue to till and furrow the rows, to plant the seed, and wait for rain. I'm thankful the Giver of this land loves me so much that He trusts me with this wee bit of a farm. It is mine for a time, the seasons are almost over, and the harvest is very soon.

Don't lose heart, do not be grieved. Till your land, make your furrows, plant the seed. And the harvest will be great.

v35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. v36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. v37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. v38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:35-38

The Death Song of the Proabort Pundit

This morning I saw a quote from a prochoicer that stated 'abortion is a sign of failure'. That person is absolutely correct. But who's failure is it? With me, it was my failure as a 17 year old to not stand my ground with my mother. It was also my mother's failure as a parent and grandparent trying wipe her hands of the financial responsibility of her grandchild. It was the failure of the Church to say nothing about abortion, it's silence deafening. It was the failure of a nation that allowed Roe to be law. It was the failure of the Supreme Court to side with Sarah Weddington who seems to know what's best about unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy.

Yes, abortion is a dismal failure. And we see it everyday on the faces of women and girls who think abortion is their only option. Experts in addiction say that there is a 'rock bottom' that addicts have to get to in order to get clean, to survive. I do not agree, and I've been on the other side of addiction. On this side, you see misery and hatred and emptiness and just one step from death. Then, are we to just wait until death is imminent or intervene with love and Jesus NOW?

Then, shouldn't we acknowledge that abortion is rock bottom and that an intervention could have saved BOTH the mother and the child's life? Jesus is always the answer to every question. But they need ears to hear: "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" [Rom 10:14].

In ministry, everyday is an adventure, everyday is an opportunity. Probably the most prayed prayer for me is asking God to send us someone to witness to, someone who needs a word from the Lord, someone who needs to hear that she's important to God.

But every once in a great while, a proabort pundit will show up on the sidewalk. They think abortion is the answer to every question. They scream at women entering that chop shop with pathetic 'I support your choice' rhetoric. Does the proabort pundit know that most women don't make this choice for herself? Does she know the order of command that forced her there that day? I wonder if this proabort pundit thought that her words would get her the high five she wanted. I'd say NO. Rather, she gets stunned looks of grief because of her failure who believes the only answer is to kill the unborn life within her.

This whole Planned Parenthood issue has brought out the demons that surround the Pink Palace of death. Every blog I read or comments on news stories are laced with filthy obscenities and lies. I expect this to happen on the sidewalk but when I'm out shopping while wearing a prolife tshirt OR proabort drivers hating my life and God affirming stickers on my car? How dare I save lives and show the love of Jesus!

The Word says: "For your sake, we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter," [Rom 8:36].

Take a breath, take one for the team, show the love of Jesus.

Dear Proabort Pundit - This is a public sidewalk. You may come here just like we can! ABSOLUTELY! But I challenge you with this: Offer real help and hope to pre-abortive women and post-abortive women because your usual I SUPPORT YOUR CHOICE vomit will not pay her rent, will pay for groceries, will not get her a ride to work, and will not help her support system. Abortion won't pay her bills, so will you step up and help her when she finds out you're a LIAR? Abortion kills unborn children. Never has abortion paid one bill. Never has abortion made her more powerful. Never has abortion been there in the middle of the night when she cries. Never.

Proabort Pundit, sing your song somewhere else while us grownups are sharing the love of Jesus with the lost and dying. Women come to this facility over her own failure. Their lives depend on a living Gospel, not proabort rhetoric.

Just ask the woman at the well [John 4:4-29], the woman caught in adultery [John 8:3-11] and the woman with the issue of blood [Luke 8:43-48].

Praying the Distance

I'm watching a church service this morning and it's time to pray for the sick. I remember standing in for members of our families for healing all the time. Somehow I kept  it up, though I saw no results with my human eyes. Maybe their healing is on the other side, maybe they will get the miracle they hope for.

But what the church doesn't see anymore are miracle healings; people stacked up at the altar praying through, waiting, expecting, sometimes for HOURS and DAYS. I've read books and stories of these miracles; blind eyes opened, deaf ears hear, a shorter limb lengthened, even the dead brought back to life.

Why doesn't this happen anymore?

Prayer is like running. When you start running, it's not so bad. You start to huff and puff a bit, time goes very slow, after a while your lungs feel like concrete and that searing pain in your side is crippling. Most people stop running. They just stand there knowing they have to get home, at the very least. Some people start walking instead. But very few run through the pain.

The pain is there to make us stop, turn around, go back, go no further. But runners know that when the pain starts, it's just the beginning of a long, long run that has no pain, only results, because the pain does stop.

We don't 'see' results when we pray because no one goes the distance, prays through the hard part with expectation. Yes, we petition the Lord, but we do not run the distance with prayer. Imagine the results, the MIRACLES, if we did!

Faith. Have faith, pray much, expect more!

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." John 14:12