Church rocks on as usual...people come, get excited and they are going to be wonderful supporters and get people in, etc, heard it all, after all look how long I have been in church work, since before I was born! People leave..and when they do there is always sour grapes for some reason. I heard not long ago that I, yes I..Harolene, was a "Spiritual Bully"! If that were true things would be different, I can tell you that for sure! Here's the deal, if you walk out on me in a relationship, whether you are a friend or a lover..I am going to assume that you no longer want to talk with me so I will not be punching your numbers in on my little cell phone, ever, so get over it and quit saying that you have been "black listed"!  How many times do YOU call someone and find out how they are when they have left you ,and never even let you know why! I don't think you would do that either! I am not going to call someone to be insulted...I can go anywhere for that, don't have to ask for it!  In cleaning out my closet, looking in an old purse, I found a letter that someone sent to me and it was dated 1/31/95..I read the letter that stated how much they loved me, how I had honored them by doing a certain thing for them publicly, and how much I had ministered to them through the years, how special I am...oh I could have gagged...you guessed it...it is one of THOSE people...the mean part of me (yes there is one) wanted to put that letter in an envelope and mail it back to them...no comment...just let them see how wonderful they used to think I am...was...which is right?

So how does this rant relate to the title of this Blog?  If you have been reading me, you know I will get around to "bringing it home"! Actually it came to me as I was watching the DNC...not because I wanted to but because I am in prayer for our country and needed to...When someone is being treated like a SuperStar with 75 thousand plus people applauding and giving great praise..it just made me wish that I could be in the middle of a crowd like PRAISING GOD...raising the NAME of JESUS...telling everyone that they need to be COVERED in HIS BLOOD!!! If that happened, I believe the blind would see, the lame would walk and the dead would be raised! JESUS CHRIST Who gave His life to save ME...ugly, resentful, mean, ME!!! Yes, read the first paragraph to see how mean I am! He still loved ME! When He was on that cross dying...He looked into the future, through the ages right down to a hospital in Greenville, S.C. on a Christmas morning and loved ME! I would love to take credit for all His love...but that would be having a bigger ego than any one of the politicians, well maybe..(interject mean again here) could ever have! He loves us all! Now whether we all go to heaven is another matter entirely!

Luke 3:6 says And ALL flesh shall see the salvation of God.  It says all shall SEE it, not have it... Acts 2:21 says And it shall come to pass that whoever CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL be SAVED! Also in Romans 10:13 For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  So we find that we actually call on His name to receive our Salvation! BUT He loved us ALL so you don't have to be a special gender or race, if you are a WHOSOEVER then you definately qualify! Then why is it that we don't give Him the praise and applause and adulation that we are willing to give our rock stars OR our politicians?

Maybe you think you don't have a reason to praise (you have to know I have a scripture for this or I would not have said it!) Hebrews 13:15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the SACRIFICE of praise to God,that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.  No one's perfect,call on His name, PRAISE HIM!

Since I was a young girl I have had dreams that would "come to pass" just as I dreamed them. Then there have been the dreams that were symbolic of something that seemed obscure, but upon thinking and wondering it would become clear...exactly what it meant. I asked my dad once why it was that I would have this type of dream...he told me that sometimes it for us to gain wisdom in having to pray over it, or think about it. Sometimes God just cannot talk to us when we are wide awake because we have so many important things on our mind.."what just happend on Day's?" So God has to take a second seat...behind TV,cooking,reading,shopping, anything that keeps our mind on our daily affairs instead of taking time for a conversation with Him.  So He has to catch me sleeping and tell me things that I need to know.

I had one this morning that sat me straight up in the bed and wide awake!  We'll just have to see whether this one is a symbolic vision of something that is to come or the result of what I ate before I slept! I saw three heads, men's heads, they were coming toward me but didn't seem to see me. Yes, they were on the floor, looking around, seeming to be looking FOR something but I didn't know what. I asked someone "How did they lose their heads?" No one answered....they kept going, they were even with me...I tried to look under them to see how they seemed to be walking with no body to support them...it seemed I was more concerned about that than how they were ALIVE with no body. I was asking the question again and woke up feeling that something significant was about to happen but what in the world would it be? 

One thought was that there are political candidates that have no party backing..maybe they think they do, but the strength of the body isn't there. Right before I had seen the heads,in the dream, I saw a man who was formerly one of the church's great leaders..with thousands in his church and more by television, so I wondered if these three heads represented church leaders that are on the verge of disaster.

I am not putting any defined interpretation to this, only wondering "outloud".  God does work in mysterious ways and sometimes it is just to get us still and listening..if that is the case here, He wins, I am listening!

So, what's new with YOU today? Have a conversation with God and find out!

Isn't it wonderful that we have warning systems set in place to tell us that bad weather is on the way? I heard it raining all night long! My bed is on an outside wall with windows on the east and west sides of the room...so I hear everything! The wind blowing through the trees so hard, laying there with my eyes shut it sounded like the crashing of the waves down on the beach in Panama City Beach, Florida!

Suddenly there is no programming more important than the weather people with that worried look on their face telling us to find an inside room, such as a bathroom with no windows, or go hide under a stairwell! Take caution, don't leave the house unless ABSOLUTELY necessary! (Hey, you  know I am going somewhere with this...right?)

We have seen what can happen when people are slow to listen. People who have heard the warnings and with nothing actually happening, as the worried weather people said it would, just go on about their everyday chores, holding umbrellas and plastic bags and newspapers over their head to keep the water off their un-worried head. Makes me think of a little story that my mother has told us, often. When she was about three years old, her mother was bed ridden having just delivered mother's little brother. Mother was being her usual rowdy self when her mother told her that she was going to spank her if she didn't settle down. At this thunderous warning, little Myrtle placed her hands where her hips would one day be, and smartly replied "No you won't, you've told me that a lot of times and you didn't do it!"  Hear it! Thunder growing louder, lightning flashing, Addie Mae calls for reinforcements! "BRING HER TO ME!" This being done, Myrtle was placed on the bed close enough for the fingers of her mother to soundly spank her on her exposed rear!

Attention, Mr., Ms.,Miss or Mrs. reader, there is a storm coming...storm clouds are gathering and we are going about our eveyday chores just thinking that life will go on as usual, nothing new, we have seen this all before! We have heard the preacher's preach Luke 21:25 all our life! [Luke 21:25,26, And there will be signs in the sun,in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 Men's hearts failing them from fear and the EXPECTATION of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.] Yes and I have heard it too, sitting on the front row of any church my dad ever preached in, not sending text messages as I have seen some young people doing in church lately, but actually LISTENING to what was being said, but I can clearly see now that ALL these things are happening at ONCE! So,heed the warnings that you are hearing, things are happening, we need to read and pray 2 Chronicles 7:14 If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, AND PRAY (emphasis mine) and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then i will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land!

To read this properly expounded,as I did Saturday morning by Pastor Janet, go to her web site at Voiceofthelastdaysministry.com and read it!

Come on now, it is going to take more than a  plastic bag or a newspaper to cover us from the spiritual and physical storms that are coming upon this land...get a REAL umbrella, the Word of God! AMEN!

I haven't checked out my Blog or Forum hits this morning yet...so far the Blogs are getting hits but not a lot of comments. I did get one NEGATIVE comment on "Being a Responsible Citizen"...but on the positive side...I got two really positive ones...thanks for those!  My point in telling you that was this...one of the subjects is FAITH. I was hoping to get some feedback on what different people think it is and if they "have" it...kind of like when people are praying for the Holy Spirit to inhabit their life...they wonder if the "have it"...well to speak to that (kind of rambling this morning)the Holy Spirit is not an "it" HE is the third person of the Trinity...we will talk about that later. But as I quoted yesterday...Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...this is from the Bible, Hebrews 11:1. That whole chapter is called the Faith Hall of Fame!

I will give you one of many personal examples of faith in my life: My first baby was ( and still is) a beautiful baby girl. There was never a prouder moment than when they put her in my arms in the Crawford Long Hospital (downtown Atlanta) and I looked at her and sang "Come By Here, dear Lord, Come By Here"..so she nuzzled into my breast as I sang to her and that was a wonderful moment of bonding. Before she was born I had referred to her as "Sydney" and almost named her that..but Sydney went and Cherita was there in the flesh in my arms. As she grew she had long, shiny hair,beautiful brown eyes and little pearls for teeth..but something terrible happened,her teeth began to turn black. When I asked the doctor he told me that something had happened during my pregnancy that had affected the tooth buds and that not only were her baby teeth this way, but that her permanent teeth would be that way also. I cried and prayed and asked God to do a creative miracle for us. I had the most faith and every morning I would lift her little lips as she slept and look to see her new teeth. Morning after morning I was disappointed but continued to believe that God would do this miracle for us. One morning her mouth had blood all in it and covering her teeth...I was so excited because I KNEW her new teeth would be under that blood...as it happened one of her jaw teeth had broken through and that was why the blood was there...explanation of the dentist and the doctor. I decided to get caps for them and after several disappointing consults found a dentist in Sandy Springs,Dr. Janko, who put those little caps on her teeth and when she walked out of from the procedure my mother and I both jumped and cried...she smiled and her little teeth were white pearls again! Shirley Temple had nothing on her (by the way, Shirley Temple's teeth were also caps!) The doctor had XRAYED her mouth and had told me, before looking at the XRAYS that her permanent teeth would be the same way, but the caps would be permanent once they all came in. He came to the door as we were celebrating and told me he would like to see me in his office. I went back there and he had Cherita's XRAY on the light board. He took his pointer and showed me her permanent teeth as they lay in the roof of her mouth (I never knew that you would be able to see them that way) and told me...THERE IS NO DAMAGE TO HER PERMANENT TEETH!!! He couldn't explain it because it was obviously damage of the tooth buds...perinthetical statement here...I had helped a girl plan her wedding in December..the sixth month of my pregnancy, who was very sick with the flu...I started having labor pains and Cherita moved into the birth canal on December 17...I nearly lost her...my daddy prayed for me and the process stopped and when it was time for her to be born, she was not only late...labor had to be induced!  So when Dr. Janko showed me the pictures I had to tell him WHY her permanent teeth were not affected! God had performed the creative miracle that I had asked Him to do! He recreated her teeth in her gums and as a bonus we got the beautiful little caps that were there until those teeth fell out in the natural course of things.

I could have been discouraged...but I honestly was NOT ever..I KNEW that God COULD and WOULD because I asked Him to, in FAITH believing!

Again, Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the substance of thigs hoped for, the evidence of things not seen! By the way, next time you see Cherita, ask her to smile for you!