My heart is breaking....

Hello dear friends. Please parden the moroseness of this posting...after what happened today, I'm just so distressed. For those that didn't hear, there was a mass killing just down the road at Ft Hood Military Base. This is the base eldest son was stationed at until this past May. (Thank you Papa for sending him to Colorado last May!!!!) When he was transferred out, I was quite dissappointed....I wanted to keep him nearby. But now I'm so thankful he was transferred out!!!! And my little heart is just breaking all over the place for the families of those that were shot today. My heart is even braking for the family of the shooter. Can you imagine turning on the news and finding out your son/brother/cousin had opened fire on a building full of folks he worked with and killed 12 of them?!?! Bless their hearts. I realize they are Islamic, but I feel certain their shock is just about the same as the families of those who got calls saying their child/brother/sister/wife/husband had just been shot while on base. This is just SUCH a mess.

Torah tells us that in the last days the world will be upside down and backwards...well, OK. It says people will say right is wrong and wrong is right. That appears to be what we're seeing today. Apparently this shooter felt it was right to plan to go down to the most crowded building on the base and just start shooting because he didn't want to be deployed overseas later this year... I can understand his not wanting to have to go overseas to where the fighting actually is. No parent wants their child to place themselves in harms way. But when you join the military, you have to know there's always the chance that you'll have to fight! So I'm angry with him for inflicting so much pain to SO many people. But at the same time, I also feel a bit sorry for him. Being Islamic, he doesn't know the wonderful peace and joy of our YHWH. And because of what he's done today, he's shamed his family, himself and shed a poor light on his fellow Islamics. Even those that are not radical, but are simply the folks next door. I have friends that are Islamic....they are wonderfully kind, sweet folks who accept us as we are just as we accept them the way they are. Now all Islamics look like folks you need to beware of. That's not right....he didn't have the right to do that!!!! Now he's killed his military career, and most likely any civilian career also. In fact, I think it's fairly safe to say he's now a 'dead man walking'. If he's not sent to prison for the rest of his life for the deaths of those 12 soldiers, he's a walking target for someone angry enough to kill him for what he's done. Here in Texas, we take the 2nd amendment seriously and most everyone has a gun in the house, plus you don't forget your manners when you're visiting from out of state...we'll happily send you home! So he's not only forgotten his manners, he done messed with our military! That's not wise when you're in a state that still remembers the wild west....if you get my drift.

On a brighter side, (I always have to find that brighter side you know!Grin) immediately after the shootings, as soon as the area was no longer on lockdown, there must have been 47 churches that opened their doors for any and all to come for counseling, prayer or just to be with someone else. Schools stayed opened and kept kids until parents could come get them (many parents were caught in the lockdown on base), civilian counselors began offering their services for any that needed them, the whole town and even the surrounding areas all joined hands, closed ranks and began working together to ease the shock, horror and fear of what was going on on the base. It was incredible to see. Even the hospital that Dodi used to have to go to for his bloodwork, took in 10 of the injured and then closed the hospital to the public so the famlies of the injured could have some privacy. Now for a major hospital to close themselves to the public (they had a couple check in doors you could enter after screening if you had someone already in the hospital) and deny the press access to the hospital is pretty awesome. They shut their doors to extra money and respected the families of those injured. Judging from what I saw on my facebook page, there were almost immediately prayers going up from all over the country for all involved as soon as the news broke. So I am thankful that so many folks from so many places who had no involvment or really even interest in what was going on here in Texas took the time to pray for all involved. I'm  so thankful to YHWH that neither of our boys were there.....and that I was safely here at home with my darling Little Critter, that so far as we can tell none of our friends were on base at the time so weren't involved, and that instead of shrugging shoulders and saying "It doesn't involve me, why should I care?!" all the surrounding towns jumped up to help in whatever ways they could. It was almost like 9-11. For a few hours, everyone forgot about religions, politics, race...we were all just Americans and we'd been attacked. We joined together to help each other, to pray for each other, to listen to each other. So while my little heart is breaking, it's also rejoicing. HaSatan may think he rules this world, but for a few hours, I got a glimpse of what heaven would be like. Everyone working together to help each other.

Well, my friends, be sure you take the time today to tell those you love how you feel, hug those close to you, share your heart with those not nearby and don't forget to thank Papa for all the blessings He's given you. Life is short....the times are hard....and the night is on us. But we also know that joy comes in the morning! Shalom, Spitfire

More "new" things from Torah.....

Is it just me or are others seeing things in Scripture that they've never noticed before?! I'm beginning to think I've never read these verses before....except I know that to be false! I've read these repeatedly for several years!!!! Sigh. Perhaps my eyes were just not open. But let me continue.....

This week Little Critter and I were reading the Torah portions for this week....We were reading Genesis 12-17:27. Now I divide the readings up into a couple chapters a day for the week. So we read Chapters 12-13 Monday and I noticed something I've never noticed before. It was like Papa had highlighted it to tell me something....In Chapter 12:1 it says " Now YHWH said to Avram, (Abram), "Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you." Ok, now jump down to verse 4, it says "So Avram went, as YHWH had said to him, and Lot went with him."

Did you see that? YHWH said go away from your kinsmen and then it says Lot went with him.....hmmm. So does this mean Avram disobeyed? Now I understand that Lot was Avram's nephew and that Lot's father had died young. So presumably Avram had jumped in to be a father figure for the young nephew...so did Lot go along as a member of Avram's family? I don't have an answer for this. But if you know the story of Avram and Lot you know that by Chapter 13 verse 6, there's trouble between Lot and his herdsmen and Avram and his herdsmen. Now, call me silly, but it would seem to me that if my father had died, my uncle took me in and treated me like one of his own kids, let me travel all over the countryside with him while providing for me and then found a nice place for me to live nearby his place, that I'd see to it that my 'herdsmen' kept a civil tongue in their mouths!!! I mean after all, from what the Torah tells us it appears Lot really had it made. Just hang around with his Aunt and Uncle and grow fat and wealthy. But there's trouble and Avram tells Lot to choose which side of the property he wants so that the two groups of family won't fight. Lot, of course, chooses the river property that was the more fertile for himself. Avram goes to the less fertile area. But then has to keep going back to rescue Lot and his family. Now, what's wrong with that picture?! Well, it appears that Lot didn't learn the lessons Avram had tried to teach him about Papa and didn't teach his children better either. So he repeatedly makes poor choices and Avram repeatedly has to save him from himself and his poor choices.

The point I got from this was that we do the same thing! Papa tells us how to live and be pleasing to Him and have all His blessings in Torah. But we repeatedly make poor choices and choose to do things that are not pleasing to Papa or we compromise what we know is the right thing to do and then have to be rescued from our poor choices. We refuse to 'leave our kinsmen' and go where Papa tells us to go. He's called each believer to be 'a called out group' and 'a company of priests' in His service. But do we do that? Are we really different from the world around us? Or are we indistinguishable from heathens all over the world? Hmmmm.

This may get me in trouble, but I'm going to say it anyway...and if I offend someone, I'm sorry. Truly. But all around me there's all sort of Halloween junk. Is this something we as believers should have anything to do with? Or is this another example of  not 'leaving our kinsmen'? Let me explain. What is Halloween? Its the evening of All Hallow's Eve. A night of remembering the dead...any light bulbs going off yet? Ok, I realize most of us dressed up as kids and went trick or treating. But look at what is going on today and compare it to 20-30 years ago. Is it the same? Of course not! Everything about Halloween is now uglier, more gruesome, more bloody and just overall dark. Does that sound like something that Papa would be encouraging? Would the One who created all life suddenly be all in favor of celebrating the dead?!? I don't think so. I know many churches and "Christian" groups have changed the names to Fall Festivals or Harvest Feasts, but isn't it still just a Halloween party with a different name? If you want a feast or a festival, Papa gave us several to choose from in Leviticus 23. Sukkot is a wonderful festival. It's fun, it celebrates the end of the harvests, there's TONS of food, (always healthy in our house, but that's just us) lots of singing, dancing, playing games....awesome family time. So why would believers feel that a celebration of the dead is better than Sukkot? Hmmm. I don't know. Perhaps they haven't been taught about the feasts of YHWH. Perhaps they've been told they don't HAVE to celebrate those feast/festivals anymore. Folks, those are lies from the same heathen who says Halloween is the best holiday to celebrate. He's also the one who is the father of death, ugliness, and darkness. Now, I realize someone will say that Leviticus 23 was for the Hebrews (or Israelites) but where do you think Christianity came from?!?! Yeshua didn't come to create a new religioin....He wanted to create relationships! So I feel it important, especially at this time, to make sure we're in relationship with Papa and that we're willing to 'leave our kinsmen' and follow where Papa tells us to go. It's time all believers (irregardless of religion or denomination) join together and become that 'fellowship of believers', that 'company of priests' and that 'holy and set apart nation' that we've been called to be. It's time to 'leave our kinsmen' and return to our Father's house...a house of prayer for all nations.

So as we get closer and closer to that awful night called Halloween, I pray you each choose to 'leave your kinsmen' and follow instead the steps of the Father. May each of you be blessed this week. Shalom, Spitfire