BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLIES SIGHTED

                                  BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLIES SIGHTED
                                                                 T. Wieland Allen
      The most amazing thing about appearances from the heavenly dimension is that they happen all the time but people are blind to them, or maybe they see them but do not relate them to reality.  I was blind to them for many years, choosing instead to only believe what was material to this world, what I could touch, feel, smell, hear or taste.  Even when things appeared to be from another dimension, I chose not to be "spiritual" or "mystical" as is the label attached to people who are aware of heavenly occurrences.  When I began to appreciate the messages of hope and faith that come from the heavenly world, I found that their appearances became more and more frequent and much more apparent to me.

      Such an occasion happened to me recently at the home of my daughter and her family.  Their home is a loving home with an appreciation of the uniqueness of every member of their family, my daughter, her husband and their daughter Edan.  They are a family of many talents and varied interests.  It is in such a setting that messages of hope and faith come easily because of the lack of conflict, drama and chaos.  Heavenly visitations frequent the homes where an atmosphere of heaven is already present, homes where love, peace, joy, kindness, goodness and patience are already well established.
       I must lay the background for the message of hope, assurance and faith that came to me on a recent visit to such an earthly atmosphere, the home of my daughter and her family.  The background involves the life of my husband Steve who fought a valiant battle with a rare form of cancer and lost the final battle, which broke the hearts of every member of our family.  After his death, our grand daughter Edan, at six years old, told me that she used to be afraid to die, but now she's not afraid to die because she will get to hug Pop-Pop again.  The reality of the heavenly dimension around us is very real to children.  Often as adults we lose that childlike faith.  I think that Edan's secure belief in the heavenly dimension is part of what allowed it to be manifested to me so easily in their home.
      Three years ago, during the last months when Steve was fighting an especially difficult battle, we had the occasion to be at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for his treatment.  Things were beginning to look pretty grim, though we were riding on a high wave of faith for his eventual healing.  I was perusing a gift shop while he was having tests and my eyes were drawn to a journaling book whose title was "Just When the Caterpillar Thought the World Was Over, It Became A Butterfly."   I knew that Steve was entertaining a little hint of defeat so I bought the book for him to journal the rest of his adventure toward becoming a butterfly, free of the cancer.  He loved the image of the caterpillar becoming a butterfly.

      When we arrived home from Houston, I emailed a friend about the book and she immediately sent a cartoon via email to us of a blue morpho butterfly attempting to fly up a flight of steps with a large stone trailing underneath it which was attached to the butterfly by a thin cord.  That picture was the exact way that Steve felt at the time.   He felt like he was dragging a boulder up a hill, knowing that at the top he would be able to release the boulder and become as free as a butterfly.  The blue morpho butterfly became a message of hope and faith for my friend and me.  We began to send blue morpho butterflies to each other in jewelry, in pictures, in anything, just to remind each other not to give up.  Steve bought into the blue morpho butterfly obsession, too, appreciating every time we shared the butterflies.

      Even after Steve went to heaven, blue morpho butterflies have continued to be a mutual obsession between my friend and me.  Any time we see a trinket that resembles the blue butterfly, we send it to the other person.  I never knew anything about blue morpho butterflies until Steve's illness, but now I see them everywhere.
     That is the background for my story.  Currently it is now Christmas time and I spent four days of the Christmas holiday with my daughter, her husband and my grand daugher Edan who had recently recovered from strep throat.  Edan had never been sick enough to have an antibiotic in her nine years of life, but there is always a first time for everything. With strep throat, antibiotics are standard cures.  She took her medicine like a trooper and had a ten day supply, which the doctors said she must complete to effect the cure.  I arrived on the fifth day of her taking the medicine and she was tolerating it nicely, also having a big bottle of a probiotic drink to ensure the replacement of good intestinal bacterial in her digestive tract.  She was full of Christmas excitement and holiday cheer. 
     On the seventh day of antibiotic intake a small indistinct rash appeared on one of her cheeks.   By the next morning, which was Christmas Eve, the rash had traveled onto her entire body, even causing a fever of two degrees.  Edan began to be lackadaisical, not the excited and energetic nine year old who was so active when I arrived to visit.  She laid on the couch off and on, slept a little, and only ate a little bit of food.  There was still a little bit of excitement about Christmas but not to the degree as on previous days.  Her face began to swell and turn bright red.  Even her ears were swollen and bright red.  The rash was also on her scalp and all the way down, covering her toes.  After a call to the doctor, which was accompanied by email cell phone photos of the bright red rash on all of her body, it was determined that the antibiotic should be stopped immediately and Benadryl should be given to relieve the itching and discomfort caused by an allergic reaction to the antibiotic which was given to cure the strep throat.  Her temperature had climbed to 103 plus, and so the doctor said to also give her Tylenol to lower the temperature.

      She had a restless night but on Christmas Day she felt like opening a few gifts.  Then she ran out of the energy necessary to complete the task of opening gifts and went to bed to rest.  We had been warned that we should watch for labored breathing or her throat swelling closed and a temperature of 106 degrees because those symptoms would be a sign of anaphylactic shock, which can lead to instant death.  She slept peacefully for several hours and I volunteered to sit with her because her parents had already had ten days of her sickness in recovering from strep throat after having been misdiagnosed originally by a nurse who did not administer the test properly.  They had already spent emotions and time caring for a sick little girl with strep throat for ten days and, here again, she required watching for worse symptoms of the allergic reaction to the antibiotic which was given to cure the strep bacteria.  I volunteered to sit with her while she slept.
     Grandmoms just know how to pray because of our years of practice while raising our own children.  I sat on a chair beside Edan's bed and watched for a change in her breathing or a sudden rise in temperature.  I prayed and prayed for the disappearance of the rash and prayed that the temperature would not climb any higher.  It kept coming into my mind that patience would produce a good result. 
     As I felt her chest for any sign of labored breathing and watched her throat for any sign of difficulty swallowing, my eyes suddenly landed on her sheets, which I had not noticed.  There was a blue butterfly imprinted amidst the flowers on her sheets.  How did I miss it previously?  I didn't need the faith previously when I saw her in bed, but I needed the hope and faith now that she was so sick, so red and so swollen. 
     I continued to pray for her but with a new sense of hope for a complete healing without the possibility of the serious shock to her little body.  As she slept, I became chilled and reached for one of the four quilts on her bed.  She was wrapped in three of them and I grabbed the only one that was loose and available.  It was a quilt made for her by her mom's best friend, a brightly multicolored quilt.  I threw it around my legs and noticed something that I had never noticed before about the quilt, although I had seen it many times.  The lining to the quilt was imprinted with hundreds and hundreds of dark blue butterflies and the edging around the lining was imprinted with larger blue morpho butterflies.  They were everywhere. 

     I got the message loud and clear that she was going to be fine.  How could I not believe that God and her Pop-Pop had not provided the butterflies as visual images to me that our precious grandchild was going to be fine as soon as the antibiotic was out of her system.  It was as though the butterflies had been spotlighted to me so that I would not miss them.  All fear left me and I was at peace.
    That evening, Christmas night, I took a notebook out of my luggage, a notebook  that my daughter, Edan's mother, had given to me several years ago in which to write the miracles and revelations from God.  As I got it out of my luggage, I saw what I had missed seeing in the past.  Among the many kinds of butterflies on the cover of the notebook were five blue morpho ones.  I had not noticed them in the past.  Where had those blue morpho butterflies been all of my life? I never knew they existed and  I had never seen pictures of them until the last few years.
     The miracle continued.  When I arrived home from the trip I picked up the large journaling book from the gift shop at M. D. Anderson that I had given to Steve that had as its title, "Just When The Caterpillar Thought the World Was Over, He Became a Butterfly."  I wanted to move it closer to my bed.  A clipping fell out of the book.  It was a cartoon that showed a butterfly emerging from its cocoon and it is saying, "I'm free."  The cartoon had been sent to me over three years ago by..... guess who?  The friend of my daughter who was the maker of Edan's quilt.
     I know we are all connected in a supernatural way and the blue morpho butterflies are the earthly and visual representations of the heavenly visitors who come to help us in our time of need.   There is something really thrilling and encouraging about that!  When I looked up the word "morpho" I saw that it means to change forms.  Yes, now I understand.  Angels can change forms and become strangers in our midst, coming to bring us faith, hope and healing.
    Thanks to God and Pop-Pop for giving me faith and hope for the complete healing of Edan.  I don't know how many angels it took, but they were adequate for the task. When I think about the migration south of the millions of Monarch butterflies, I can envision the angels that were sent to do the job.  In fact, the butterflies on the lining of Edan's quilt are probably only a small representation of the angels sent to do the task of healing her without the dreaded shock. 
    Until three years ago, I never knew anything about blue morpho butterflies.  Now I see them everywhere, in reality and trusting in their being present as angels in the heavenly spiritual dimension around us to do God's great works in our lives.
    We must pray for eyes to see and ears to hear the wonders of God's miracles.  They are everywhere.  He even sends them to give us faith and hope.  We must have eyes of faith to recognize every one of the zillions of them.   
       

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RANDY TRAVIS

                                     THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RANDY TRAVIS
                                                                                    T. WIELAND ALLEN
     Everybody wants to hear good news.  Nobody wants to hear bad news except a few people who are addicted to bad news and get an adrenaline rush from hearing it.  Good news gives a different adrenaline rush.  It gives a joyful rush that comes from the joyful adrenaline in the body.
     Gospel means good news.  Anywhere we hear good news we are hearing portions of the gospel.  Good news can come through testimonies, through the news media, through reading stories, through movies and through the good news shared by people who have experienced a production of the good news of what God has done in their lives. 
    A wonderful friend told me a testimony not long ago which sent a rush of joy through my mind and body.  She had been emotionally wounded by a person in authority in her church and she was disappointed in the person as well as wounded emotionally.  She prayed and prayed for the person and herself, but still had the soreness of a wounded heart that remained.  She heard a song on the radio in her car and it was a song written by Randy Travis, also sung by him.  The words to the song that she heard were ,"Don't sell your saddle 'cause life's a long, long ride."  My friend knew by that song that she should never let anyone rob her of her peace, because she will need it eventually on the long, long road of life.  That good news did the work in the mind of my friend so that the burden lifted from her and she was able to forgive the person and move on.  I immediately called it The Gospel According to Randy Travis because of the immediate working of a miracle in the mind of my friend, changing her thoughts from negative and judgmental to positive and forgiving.  She was unburdened, which is what good news is meant to do. Little did I know at the time that the Gospel According to Randy Travis would help me in my life and also help other people in their lives.
     I was so thrilled with what the song had done in the life of my friend that I used the story to teach at a Bible Study that week.  I used the words of the song to emphasize the truth that we should not let anyone be the lord of our lives by allowing them to steal our peace.  It was a huge lesson to all of us and all of the ladies grabbed onto that truth fiercely.
     On the way home from teaching about that spiritual truth on that particular day I started down the small incline in the street that leads to my driveway.  At the top of the hill I started to look at the back yard cater-cornered across the street from me that has been in disarray for at least five years.  The fence had once been downed as a result of a tree falling on it, and the neighborhood association had paid for that to be fixed.  We appealed to the owner of the house, asking him to reimburse the association for the cost, which he graciously did.  After a few more years of looking at the horrible mess in his back yard, I began to plan to buy eight feet long and six feet high fencing sections, just enough to hide the debris that was the result of an ice storm five years ago which had been piled high in the corner of the yard for that entire time, which included downed trees, limbs, overgrown grass, etc.  It was an eyesore.   I am so glad I did not purchase the sections of fencing because there was a better plan in the working because of the Gospel According to Randy Travis, the truth in his song about not allowing anyone to rob you of your peace. 
    Coming home from teaching my friend's story and the truth in the song, I was meditating on the truth in the song.  While driving home, as I started to look again at the debris which was piled high, as was my regular habit to do, the thought came to my mind, "Why are you looking at all of that debris when you can turn your head just a little bit to the left and look at your own beautiful yard?"  That thought didn't originate with me because I had never thought of that solution before.  I had regularly been thinking bad thoughts about the doctor who owned the house, but I had never thought about refusing to look at the debris and instead looking at my own beautiful flowers and well trimmed lawn.
      Also, the thought crossed my mind that if I should bless the man who owned the house instead of having bad feelings for him because of his back yard, and if I would pray for him instead of being impatient with him, in a very short time the man would be influenced to clean up his yard.  Somehow, in my mind,  I began to believe that would actually happen, all because of the Gospel According to Randy Travis, never letting anyone rob me of my peace.  Yes, I had actually allowed the debris in the yard to rob me of peace of mind every time I glanced at that yard, which was several times a day.  After hearing the story told to me by my friend, I knew that I would need the peace that I had lost many times in my life. 
      I obeyed that still small voice of wisdom that had spoken truth to me, and I did not look again at the debris in the neighbor's yard; but, instead, I gazed at my beautiful flowers in my own yard every time I drove up and down the street.  While mowing my yard, every time I started to look across the street at the debris I stopped myself and looked at my own flowers.  I also regularly blessed the owner every time I chose to look at my own beautiful yard.  Somehow, it wasn't hard to do because of the truth in that song by Randy Travis.  I was enjoying my peace of mind and was determined not to let that debris rob me again.
     Interestingly, I was kind of excited at the prospect that maybe the thought in my mind was right and because I had changed my attitude toward the owner of the house, choosing to bless him and pray for him instead of entertaining judgmental thoughts about him, maybe, just maybe, the day would come when the huge back yard with the piles of debris would be cleaned completely.  I had an excitement along with the peace that came from not looking at the debris.
     After blessing the owner several times a day and refusing to lose my peace of mind over the five year long collection of debris in the yard, one morning I rose from bed early and heard a strange sound.  It was a beep, beep, beeping sound, Thinking it might be my smoke alarms, I tested them and they were fine.  The thought came to mind to go outside and check to see if the sounds were coming from outside.  Sure enough, they were.  Even thought it was seven o'clock in the morning it wasn't difficult to follow the sounds.  They were coming from the doctor's yard, the one filled with debris.  There were two front loading tractors in that yard scooping up all of the piles of debris and depositing it into huge trash receptacles that had been moved onto the property.  I was astounded.  I was elated.  I was dumbfounded.  I was grateful.  It had only been a week since I had stopped thinking judgmental thoughts about the owner and had started blessing him.   The debris had been there five years and after I stopped judging the owner, started praying for him and blessing him, the cleanup process had begun. 
    I was in awe of God.  I was in awe of the Gospel According to Randy Travis.  I was in awe of the Spirit of God who gives us wisdom and insight into how to let go and let God do His work instead of us trying to do his work in our own meager, ineffective ways. Obviously my previous ways had not worked since the debris had been there for five years.  But, after only a week of letting go, refusing to look at the debris and instead looking at my beautiful yard, praying for the owner and blessing him, it only took God a week to start with the cleanup of the yard.  It was so simple and yet so astounding.  One week of being positive instead of negative had paid off with a huge reward.
     There was so much work to be done that bigger tractors were also brought in.  It took two weeks to completely rid the yard of that debris.  I was so excited that I wanted to go stand and watch the work being done, much like a little boy watching and imagining himself driving the tractors.  I didn't, but I sure wanted to. There is a new fence already installed.  I don't know what the owner has planned to do in that huge expanse of a lot, but it looks beautiful to me just cleared out and cleaned up.
      The lessons I learned were big ones.  One is that God cannot answer our prayers when we are judging someone for something that is none of our business.  I also learned that I have a choice of what to gaze upon, either something good or something bad and if I constantly gaze at something bad I will lose my peace of mind and eventually get into conflict with someone.  In addition, I learned that God can work so much more efficiently and expeditiously when we forgive people and bless them instead of judging them in our minds.  I learned that I had bound the debris to myself by thinking judgmental thoughts about the owner of the property, but when I let go of it and stopped judging the man, God took it into His own powerful hands and accomplished what I wanted all along, which was to get the property cleared out and cleaned up.  He gave me the desires of my heart after I let go, regained my peace of mind, and allowed God to do His work without my negative help. 
     I love to call those truths the Gospel According to Randy Travis because it is good news, good news that started with the words to one of his songs dedicated to his daddy, "Don't sell your saddle, 'cause life is a long, long ride."   I will remember the truth of it and will endeavor not to let anybody or anything rob me of my peace of mind.  God works so much better when we get out of the way and  give him permission to do His mighty, powerful works.  How God moved on that owner to begin clearing the property is not any of my business.  That's God's business.  I'm just enjoying the peace of mind that I am determined never to lose again.
    Life is a long, long stretch of time within which lots of things that will happen.  Don't let anyone or anything rob you of your peace of mind.  Keeping your mind at peace with everyone while strolling on the paths of life releases the power of God to work in your behalf.  Just think, you'll retain your peace of mind, plus you'll have the benefit of receiving the answers to all of your prayers, as proven by the Gospel According to Randy Travis.     
   
      
            

THE ULTIMATE PROMISE KEEPER

                                            THE ULTIMATE PROMISE KEEPER
                                                                                        T. Wieland Allen
   Very few people are known to always keep their promises.  Parents often promise things they will never be able to keep.  Children promise to do things for their parents that they can't do.  Wives and husbands promise to love their partners the rest of their lives but end up divorcing.  Business managers promise raises for their workers that they cannot give.  Everyone breaks promises as a regular part of life. 
   I have found through the years that God never, ever breaks His promises.  A few things in the earth depend upon His ability to keep His promises, one of which is our following his request for us to clean up our thoughts, attitudes and actions. Recently I was overwhelmed with His promise to me and how He kept it so quickly.
   I previously wrote a story regarding the situation and God's instructions to me, but I will repeat the pertinent facts in order for you to understand His recent promise and His keeping His promise to me.  It involved a silly thing of a neighbor's unkempt yard.
   The corner of a neighbor's yard had been the dumping ground for all of the broken, rotted trees, huge stumps, broken tree limbs from the past years of storms and high grass.  Unfortunately, that corner of his yard was in view of my home.  I could see some of the unsightly scene from my windows but when I drove by the yard I got a full view of the portion of the neighbor's yard which his workmen used as a dump for debris. The neighborhood association had fixed the chain link fence when it sagged and pulled the posts out of the ground.  That helped, but the piles of huge limbs and stump was an unsightly mess and cheapened the image of the nice area in which I live.
    I had decided to buy some sections of wooden fencing and pay someone to put the six feet high fencing onto the existing fence, hoping to conceal the mess from eye view from the street.  I had even priced fencing and was willing to pay for the eight feet long sections of fencing.  Now, mind you, it was none of my business, but I made it my business by being perturbed about it.  Every time I drove by the area my eyes immediately were drawn to the huge piles of broken limbs and stumps in the yard of the neighbor.  
    A friend of mine had had a situation come up in her life that was causing her much mental turmoil and one day a song came to her mind that said "Don't sell your saddle 'cause life is a long, long ride."  That song put into her mind by God had encouraged her not to let anything take away her peace of mind, the result being that my friend eliminated some responsibilities from her life.  I even taught a Bible study lesson on her testimony, warning the other ladies to also not allow anything or anyone to take away their peace. 
   On the way home from teaching that lesson, as I drove my car onto the section of road that passed the corner of the neighbor's yard that had become a problem in my mind, that still, small voice of God inside my mind said, "When you pass his yard, don't look that direction at the debris; but, instead, look to the left at your own beautiful yard."  I had never thought of that before.  I did it.  I merely turned my head and looked at my well manicured and beautifully planted yard instead of looking on the debris in the neighbor's yard.  What an easy solution.  That is what I did every time I drove down that section of road, looked at my yard instead of the corner with its mess.  It's interesting that when the instructions came from God to stop looking at that yard, I knew that if I would do what God said to do, that I would have peace of mind; and it also occurred to me that some day I would look over there and the yard would be completely cleaned up.  I got real excited about that, and every time I drove by I diverted my attention from the neighbor's yard to my beautiful yard,  I had an excitement in my spirit about some day looking over there and seeing that all of the debris was gone. 
   Little did I know that God's promises can quickly be fulfilled when we do what he asks us to do.  Was I ever in for a surprise.
   A week after God told me to stop looking at the yard in question, I rose early one morning and kept hearing a loud beep, beep, beep.  I checked my smoke alarms.  Their batteries were okay.  I opened the door and the beeping was loud.  I stepped out the door and followed the beeping.  Lo and behold, the beeping was coming from the neighbor's back yard, the offending corner in particular.  There was a tractor picking up the giant dead stumps and dead limbs, depositing them into huge commercial trash bins.  The tractor was also digging up old, dead trees, scoops of dead grass and also depositing them into the bins. 
   God's promise was being fulfilled.  It came to me that all of my efforts to fix the problem took it out of God's hands and put it in my hands.  When I stopped being concerned about it, stopped looking at the yard and praying all the time to bless the owner of the land, then God was able to do His mighty works.  AND IT WAS SO SOON, much sooner than I anticipated. 
    Sure enough, in one day, the entire large back yard was completely cleared of all the yard trash and the ground has been sheered of all the dead grass.   After I got my attitude right toward the owner and the yard, God was able to quickly solve the problem that had been an eyesore for five years.  All of my concern and efforts to solve the problem myself were useless because it wasn't my yard.  It was none of my business. When I stopped making it my business, forgave the neighbor for allowing his yard to become a dump yard for broken trees, dead stumps, etc., it didn't take long for God to do His mighty work.  That little tractor was like a mighty angel, scooping up cares and depositing them into the trash bin. 
    I learned my lesson of never allowing anything to rob me of joy and peace.  It all came through a song that translated to mean to me, "Don't let anything rob you of your peace of mind because in the future you will need it."  I was blocking God's ability to do His work by making something my business that was none of my business.  Loving the neighbor and doing good to him was my only business.  It took my friend to alert me to that admonition by God. 
    Today there are two tractors in that yard looking like two huge angels completing the work they started yesterday.  That yard will be, to me, a testimony to God's keeping His promises.  I can look at it now with joy and delight that My Heavenly Father does all things perfectly.  AND SOONER THAN WE IMAGINE.        

SNEAKY JUDGMENT
                                                       T. Wieland Allen
   Judgment sneaks into our minds silently like the snake that it is.  Once, it had silently and slowly invaded my mind, hidden from my realization, for almost a year.  It involved something that was none of my business.  Things that we judge are rarely any of our business.  We disapprove of someone's actions, beliefs, customs, looks, etc. and we form a judgment over something that should not even concern us; that is, should not be any of our business if we are God's kids.
    The situation was a normal situation that goes on in the lives of everyone.  No wonder when Jesus taught His followers His ways He taught so much about forgiving our neighbors, doing good to our neighbors and loving our neighbors.  Sometimes it's our neighbors that give us the most trouble.  Courts are full of disputes between neighbors.  Sometimes they even escalate into fights and killings.  Thank God, the unjust judgment that I made against a neighbor did not result in anything other than robbing me and me alone.  However, God loves me so much that he alerted me to the problem within me before I really became either mentally or physically sick.  The judgment only caused me distress and anguish over something that was none of my business.
    The problem was that a man had bought a deserted house, one that had been glorious in its prime and for years afterward.  The original owners had died and you know how that plays out sometimes, the children of the owners had not seen that the property was sufficiently maintained.  The sale price was too high for the area but eventually it was lowered enough that a buyer was found for it.  The buyer was a doctor who was building a clinic at the time and his time was spent on the problems that present themselves when building a huge building.  As he gave more time to the building of the clinic, the residential property that he had bought lay in disrepair.  After the completion of the clinic, the doctor gave some time to the house he had purchased.  He hired a few men to cut down trees, dispose of them, and clear the area around the house.
    The problem was that the men dumped all of the dead trees, the dead limbs and stumps onto the corner of the property, far from the house.  Unfortunately, that corner is visible from the street where I live. Also, throughout the year, grass grew up several feet high and some of the chain link fence fell, parts of it detached from the posts. 
    Our neighborhood is an old neighborhood and our neighborhood association has worked hours and hours making sure the area stays manicured and presentable to visitors and potential buyers to the area.  We got busy and hired a person to fix the chain link fence, asking the doctor to please share with us in the expense, which he was graciously willing to do. But, there was still the problem of the dump ground in the corner of his property which is visible from the street.
    I am very motivated and goal oriented.  Okay, to be truthful, I am too motivated and goal oriented sometimes.  I knew the situation with the doctor and didn't want to add to his burdens, so I decided that I would find a way to screen from view the area of concern with its dead trees, branches, stumps and tall grass. I tried several things which did not work.  Slowly, thoughts crept into my mind of disappointment at the doctor for not having the large area of concern hauled off and the grass mowed.  Like the snake that it is, concern turned into judgment of the doctor who probably doesn't even know what that corner looks like.
    I thought I had found the perfect solution. I was going to purchase three sections of six feet high, eight feet long wooden fencing and have someone attach them to certain parts of his chain link fence at intervals.  It would not cost much, and I decided that I would pay part of the cost and ask the neighborhood association to pay the rest of the cost.  My attitudes of concern, as I gave too much thought to the horrible looking corner, grew into an attitude of judgment toward the owner of the property.  I was oblivious to the slow and sneaky growth of the snake of judgment.
     One day, a friend told me a testimony of how she had gotten too involved in something that totally consumed her time.  She lost her sense of peace and her loving attitude toward everyone.  She became consumed with her new responsibilities and soon became burdened with them.  She told me that a song came into her mind that started, "Don't sell you saddle, cause life is a long, long ride."  Through that song she knew that God was telling her that she had allowed the added responsibilities to rob her of her peace, which affected her love toward others.  In other words, she had sold her peace, and in giving up her peace she was deplete of emotional power to endure something that might happen in the future.  She began an exit move from some of her responsibilities in order to regain the peace that comes from being in unity with God.  I thought that was a fabulous testimony and even taught about it at a Bible study.  It was filled with wisdom.  I had no realization at the time that I had lost my peace to the spirit of judgment of the doctor who owned the property. 
    When I was driving home from that meeting, I passed the fence.  Instead of looking into the chain link fence and seeing the ugly sight, I heard God tell me in my mind not to look at that area behind the fence but, instead, to look at my own beautiful yard which is visible across the street.  In doing that, I didn't have the same thought pattern of judgment and thoughts of wondering how long I would have to endure seeing that messy sight.  Refusing to look at his yard was an easy cure for me.  It was an easy way to stop the judgmental thoughts I had for the doctor. 
     God showed me that I had allowed that yard to rob me of peace.  He impressed upon me that that particular yard is none of my business.  He told me to pray for the doctor and that that yard would miraculously be manicured soon.  In other words, God wanted me to stop handling the situation and allow Him to handle it.  He told me that somewhere down the line I would need the peace that I had lost.  In fact, he reminded me that that same scenario had happened to another house which had been a matter of concern.  Instead of complaining to the owner, we had prayed and one day there it was, cleaned up neat and tidy.
     The way we "sell our saddles," or lose our peace, is by assuming responsibilities that should be none of our concern. As a result of God counseling me on that troublesome matter, His ways took all of the burden off of my back.  I can look at the owner with new forgiveness.  After all, he still probably doesn't even know that that area of his yard is so unsightly.  I could feel the difference in my mind after I followed the thoughts that God put in there of not looking on the debris, but instead to look at my own beautiful yard. 
     I am determined to remember this lesson and that I will not allow myself to be robbed of peace again, because I will certainly need it somewhere down the line; like tomorrow probably, the way things happen in the world. 
     God's peace is too precious to lose and too valuable to allow ourselves to be  robbed of it.
     Keep on the lookout for when problems invade your peaceful thoughts.  Kick them out quickly and ride God's saddle of peace into the future.  There's an absolute guarantee that you'll need it.           
       

THRILLING SPIRITUAL INTERVENTIONS

       A powerful way for a family to influence a drug addict or an alcoholic family member to get help is by having an intervention where the family members call the addict into a meeting of members of the family where the individual members tell the addict what his or her addiction has done to ruin their lives.  In that scenario, the addict is forced to view what the addiction has done to other people.  Because of the sad and heartfelt testimonies of family members, most of the time the addict is influenced to get help for his or her addiction.  There are many thousands of success stories of the power of intervention.
      There are spiritual interventions that take place that are not visible to human eyes.  I was privileged lately to hear the end results of the power of spiritual interventions.  The story goes back several years for a complete understanding of the events leading to the freedom caused by spiritual interventions.
      Several years ago a young woman from Mexico named Blanca came to our town and stopped by a local church, inquiring where she could find a woman's charismatic prayer meeting and Bible study.  The secretary at that church knew about the one to which I belong.  She gave to Blanca the name of Marcia, at whose house we met at the time.  As a result, Blanca became a member of our weekly meeting to pray and study about God.  She sent emails of our study material to her sister in Mexico named Dora and Dora began to send the material to other women in Mexico.  Another group member, Dorothy, also sent to Dora a tape on how to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  She followed the teaching on the tape and was blessed with her prayer language, just like all of the women in our group have been.  She would pray in Mexico while we prayed in the United States.
      A situation began in Mexico where Dora's husband. Eduardo, a very prosperous businessman, was harassed by a drug cartel and was forced to pay monthly sums of money as protection for his businesses and for the privilege of continuing in his businesses.  As the cartel began to require more and more money, Eduardo began to deduce what were the plans of the cartel, which might possibly be to kidnap him and ransom him for millions of dollars.  Edwardo, in anticipation of that plan, began to spend nights at different locations in the city, only coming home once a month to see his family. 
      We prayed regularly for Dora, Eduardo and their family because of the threat of his being kidnapped by one of the drug cartels.  During one of our times of intercessory prayers, Marcia, a member of the prayer group, said that while we were praying that the word "sopa" kept coming to her mind but she didn't know what it meant.  Blanca and I immediately said it means soup in Spanish.  We didn't know what real meaning that word had until months later. 
      The next day after that interesting word, "sopa", was given by God to Marcia in her mind, Blanca heard by phone from her sister Dora in Mexico who said that her husband Eduardo came home from his seclusion for one night and said that he had a craving for Dora's soup, which she happened to be making at the time.  He gobbled up her soup while hearing her tell him about the incident at our prayer meeting in the US about "sopa," and the coincidence of that happening before his intense craving for soup.  After leaving his house the next day, he resumed his habit of avoiding the cartel by sleeping in different places every night.
       Eventually Eduardo was located by the cartel and kidnapped with instructions to his family to provide huge sums of money to insure his release.  His son was able to come up with the money and delivered it to the location where he was told that his father would be released.  The cartel took the money but did not release Eduardo.  He was imprisoned someplace, stripped of all his personal clothing.  His head was shaved and he was tortured.  That same scenario went on for a year and a month, with the cartel demanding more and more money and promising that Eduardo would be released.  That never happened.  As time went on, more money and properties were demanded and were delivered to the cartel with the hope that he would be released.  The family found out that some government officials were in cohorts with the cartel on the kidnapping.
       The prayer partners here in Oklahoma were constantly praying for his release.  As doubts would come into our minds, we would pray in God's prayer language more and more.  On one of the occasions when we were together praying for Eduardo and his family it came to me that Dora, her family and the prayer group needed to bless the members of the drug cartel, like Jesus said to do when He told us to bless our enemies.  God told me to pray for them and to do good to them, just like Jesus commanded us.  That was hard for us to do, but we knew that God's ways are not always our ways, so we prayed for them with genuine love for the cartel, even during their evil deeds toward Eduardo.  
       Another member of our prayer group named Jane told us that she had a dream over and over one night about us cooking huge vats of soup to be shipped out.  In the dream she wondered how in the world we were going to ship out all of that soup that we were making.  We laughed over her dream without having an interpretation of it.  Still, we continued to pray daily in the words of the Holy Spirit for Eduardo's release.
       After a year and a month, Blanca received word from her sister Dora that the family had managed to contact another governmental official who had agreed to deal directly with the cartel in hopes of getting Eduardo released.  This was the last hope of his being released alive.  That official did negotiate with the head of the cartel and agreed to pay more money for Eduardo's release. The odds of his being released were only 10% because more than 90% of the people who are kidnapped by cartels are killed.
       Eduardo's son had instructions from the government official to meet the cartel with a satchel full of money on a certain day with the promise of his release.  When his son went to the appointed place, a van pulled up and he saw his dad pushed out of the van with a black hood over his head.  The son walked slowly toward the gun carrying cartel leaders who were leading Eduardo to his son for the exchange.  The son handed over the satchel of money and the leaders of the cartel pushed Eduardo toward his son.  The son instructed his father to back up toward their car and do not turn his back for fear that both of them would be shot in the back. They made it to their car as the cartel leaders sped away in their van. The only item Eduardo had in his hands was a Bible.   
       Eduardo's son had made arrangements for a plane to be ready to fly Eduardo and his wife Dora to a distant country where they would be safe.  They are in that country now, working with doctors to bring Eduardo back to normal from the beatings and starvation that he had endured while in captivity.  He said he had only been provided one meager meal a day for over a year.
        Our prayer partner Blanca could hardly wait to tell her prayer partners the good news.  When she was finally cleared by her sister Dora to tell us, she came to Bible study/prayer meeting and announced the good news to us.  We immediately started crying in awe of God and His perfect ways.  We cried tears of joy like babies.  It was a humbling experience, knowing that God performed a miracle in an evil situation which was meant to lead to death for our brother Eduardo, whom we had never met but whom we felt like we know because we had prayed so often and so long for him. 
       Dorothy's son, Doug, joined us for prayers that day and when we gathered our grateful emotions together we told him the story from beginning to end, about Blanca looking for a prayer group years ago, miraculously finding her way to us, and then our being dedicated to praying for Eduardo and his family because of the terror of the situation in Mexico.  We told him about the "sopa" word that Marcia heard and the soup dream that Jane had.  Then we all said we didn't know what that dream meant, but we were sure it had something to do with the situation. 
      Doug, as convinced as were Daniel and Joseph in the Bible when they interpreted dreams, said that he knew immediately what shipping out the soup meant.  He said that our intercessory prayers in God's language during that year sent words of encouragement to Eduardo's mind while he was in captivity and, as a result, faith was infused into him for his release.   Per God's orchestration, it came to pass eventually. 
      Needless to say, after hearing Doug's interpretation of the dream, again we all cried tears of joy at the reality of God's love and His perfect plans for the release of Eduardo.  We are so in awe of God and His orchestration and his letting us know never to give up. Unbeknown to him, Doug came to pray with us that particular day just so that he could interpret Jane's dream, giving a huge boost to our faith and more praises to God.
      Later it came to me that, because of our prayers in the Holy Spirit, that there are spiritual interventions happening all the time as a result of our prayers.  Hearts are changed, situations are changed, circumstances are changed, all by the words of God who goes into troubling events and brings His perfect will into them.  He uses His kingdom workers in heaven to intervene in dire and dangerous situations when we bring Him into them through our praying in the Holy Spirit.  He provides His words -- in this instance identified to us as His sopa, His soup -- and sends them into the mind of a person in need.  He also invades the minds of people who are operating in evil actions and changes their destructive plans.
      We are in awe of this story and will be forever while we are in this earth, until we become in spirit a part of that family intervention group in heaven which carries out the will of the Father to rescue people from the works of evil.
      This is a true story and worthy of being repeated in order to encourage others to never give up on their prayers.  God can even overrule the plans of an evil drug cartel and change their minds which are set upon killing a man, changing the plans into releasing him to his family.
      Sending forth God's words into the earth which change incidents, situations and circumstances in obedience to the instructions of God through His Holy Spirit is called praying in the Spirit.  It is the most powerful intervention known to people because it brings God's perfect will into a matter. 
      All we did was sit here praying in Oklahoma, with agreement in Mexico from the prayers of Dora and her friends and family, doing what the Holy Spirit said to do by praying in the Spirit at all times.  It's the least we can do, after what He had done for us. 
      Praying in the Spirit is giving God complete authority in a situation.  His ways are so much higher and effective than our ways.  What a wonderful plan He had, to get His spiritual words into the earth to change things according to His will. 
       His "sopa" words did the wonderful work they were meant to do in this story, and they always bring awe to us in the earth because all of the glory goes to God who wants all of His children to live the abundant life.  Being rescued from a vicious drug cartel and being saved from certain death in order to live with his family again is worthy of praising God for His love.
       Homemade soup always warms our bones and satisfies our taste buds.  In this scenario, God's soup freed a desperate man who needed liberty.   
         
      

AND THEN JESUS WALKED IN THE ROOM

It's a rare occasion when we can observe someone who appears to be Jesus in the flesh. Jesus said that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father. On a recent trip I felt like I had seen God, Himself, walk in a room. The person didn't announce that she was God or some creature worth adoring. She merely walked in the room with an unbelievable presence of peace and love accompanying her. Her name is Jennifer and she has the spiritual ambiance of an angel or Jesus or God Himself. Why do I describe her that way? Certainly it was her calmness upon entering the busy circumstances she walked into, which was a family gathering. She had been at work all day, having traveled an hour to work, worked eight hours at a difficult job, traveled again an hour to the gathering. Yet, she had no appearance of being tired from her long day. She appeared fresh and eager to see her many family members in attendance. Jennifer's family consists of her husband, a five year old son and twin baby boys who are seven months old. Her extended family present in the house included lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins, etc., of which there were 18 present at the family gathering. Upon her entrance into the house, Jennifer's eyes searched for her babies, the objects of her motherly love. She greeted all of the other relatives with kind regard and grace, telling them she appreciated their part in helping take care of her children that day. But her eyes searched for her children. It appeared that she could hardly wait to embrace them and speak loving words to them. Her long drive to and from work and her long work day caused her to deserve some time by herself before becoming an attentive mom again. Not Jennifer. She had spent all day without her babies and she had stored up love that longed to embrace her offspring by touching them and speaking loving words to them. Her eyes spotted one of the twins in a baby seat and she ran over to him, focusing her entire attention on him. She put her warm hands on his bare, chubby legs, running her hands up and down his legs while speaking sweet "somethings" to him, looking admiringly into his eyes. Then she cupped his face in both hands while uttering more soothing, love filled words to him. The twin Jacob was visibly moved by the unconditional love of his mother so his eyes lit up like a beam from a spot light and his mouth broke into a big toothless smile. His little legs began to bounce up and down in the baby seat. Jennifer lifted him out of the seat and cuddled him against her chest, continuing to speak love words to him, genuinely validating his existence. The rapid relaxation of his body was visible to everyone in the room. He was sheltered in the arms of complete, unconditional love. That scene of adoration continued for about five minutes. Then Jennifer asked the location of the other twin. He was sitting on the lap of one of the adult cousins in another room. The loving mom handed Jacob to an aunt to hold and walked playfully but stealthily into the adjoining room. I heard her begin her loving litany delivered to Jason, the other seven month old twin. I peeked around the corner and observed her doing the same thing, running her loving hands up and down his little legs while validating his existence with her assuring words. Then she cupped his sweet face in her hands and continued with gentle words of love while looking directly into his eyes. His reaction was the same as his twin, complete elation at seeing his adoring mother. As she picked him up, his little body did the same things as Jacob's did, it relaxed completely as he was cradled in her arms while she spoke of his value to her life. All I could think was that Jesus was still in the room. After assuring her twins of her love and their value, she asked where her five year old was playing. She was told that he was upstairs with his teenage girl cousins playing video games. She walked to the stairs and called his name, Anthony. Anthony ran down the stairs, leaving his game willingly, and was embraced by his mom who told him how much she had missed being with him that day, telling him that she wished she could have been with him but that they are together again and she was so glad. Neither did she ask him if he was a good boy that day, putting him to a test, nor did she ask him or a report about his day. She merely told him about how much she missed his smiles, his funny stories and how she missed being able to read to him that day. That five year old boy soaked in her love like a sponge. My thought was no wonder Anthony is the picture of how a five year old boy should be. He is blessed with good looks, good manners, kindness, a maturity beyond his years and the ability to talk to adults like he's an adult, without fear of rebuke or disapproval from the listener. Anthony ran upstairs to play with his cousins and Jennifer came into the kitchen to converse with her aunts and me. She picked up one of the twins on the way to the kitchen and he placed his head right under her chin as she hugged and hugged him. She was being refilled with the love and adoration of her child and the baby was experiencing the building of a firm foundation in his psyche. . Jennifer began to tell us about the twins and their differences, said one was a leader and one was a follower. The boys were only seven months old and she already knew keys to their personalities. She explained that one was definitely an adventurer and the other one played it safe. I asked how she can tell them apart since they are considered identical twins. She said that one has a little red tiny birth mark beside his nose that the other twin doesn't have. Not once did Jennifer utter a word of exhaustion from her busy day at work. Not once did she gripe about having to come home to more work. Every word from her mouth brought another assurance of her calm and sweet disposition. Later, the information from my son was that her background is not the background that would lend itself to her present calm disposition. Her mother abandoned her when she was small and her dad was a drug addict, so she was raised in foster homes. Either some of her foster mothers taught her how to love her children or it comes from God. Jennifer knew that being with twin babies and a five year old had been difficult for her husband James, even though he had had help part of the day. Cradling one baby on her hip, she took a cup of coffee to her husband. Not one word of, "You think you have had a bad day. Think about me. I had to be on my feet all day in the lab." No, not that young wife and mother. Instead, she gave her husband the attention that he badly needed after his day of full responsibility of the boys was ending. She knew the labor that is necessary for caring for twins and another child, and she was refilling the tank of her husband which had grown empty of affirmation. She was a jewel to watch. I went to bed before they left but I was amazed that the calm, loving composure never left Jennifer. Yes, it was like Jesus was there in person. His love filled the rooms of the house through Jennifer. That must be what He meant when He said that we would be His witnesses. I know that I had witnessed the true personality of Jesus that day through a human vessel, Jennifer. If all of God's children had the same issues of peace and love emanating from their beings that Jennifer has, there would be no more wars, no more family dramas, no divorces, no killings, no suicides, no seductions, no abuses and no conflicts. There would be peace on earth. I want to be the same witness that Jennifer was that day, where people think Jesus walked in the room. Don't you?

ANGEL GROUND

“Well, glory be,” used to be a popular phrase when a person was amazed at a current event. In today’s world it’s not such a popular exclamation. I kind of like it, so that’s a good phrase for me to refer to relating to an event that happened in my life lately. Several months previously to the “glory be” event I was standing in my front yard talking to the agent for the company I employ to spray my lawn three times a year hoping to eradicate weeds. He has done a good job, so I thought I would inquire of Clayton, the man who does the spraying, if he had any knowledge on how to get rid of the hive of bees which took up residence in my huge oak tree. The bees chose a knot in a limb that had previously been cut off, deciding that their new home would be in my tree. One man had previously offered to remove the bees for $800 but that ridiculous price made me laugh. Another man told me that, unless they were bothering me, to just leave them alone and they will move to another location soon. Sounded good to me, but I thought I would ask Clayton’s advice. He didn’t have anything to offer me relating to bees except a few bee stories. Clayton is always full of stories. While we were standing in my yard discussing the bees with me listening to one of Clayton’s stories, a pickup stopped in front of my house and a young, well groomed young lady got out and came up to me and asked if I needed help in cutting the limb off from the tree that was visible from the street. I told her that I needed to get rid of the bees in the tree because they live on the same limb but closer to the trunk. She admitted that it might be dangerous to disturb the bees since it was summertime and they were enjoying their many sources of nectar from the colorful blooming summer flowers in my huge yard. The young lady handed me a card and told me that when I decided to have work done on the tree to call her for an estimate. She got back in the pickup with her husband who was driving. A few days later Christy, the tree trimming young lady, called and said that she had called the County Extension office and talked to a person who knew about bees and he gave her the names of three men who are bee keepers who might want to collect my bees to add to their collection of hives. She told me that the County Extension manager had said that I must not pay the bee keeper whom I chose to collect the bees because it’s a service of the agency. Sounded good to me. So Christy read off three names and I wrote them down. One of the names sounded familiar. I looked through my notes and the name was the same name of the man who wanted $800 to collect the bees. Needless to say, I didn’t call that guy. But I did call another name on the list and he said that if the bees were high in the tree and they had not reacted to my mowing under the tree already that they would not be a problem for me. I chose to believe him because I had moved under and around the same tree for months without incident. I was impressed with Christy and her business tactics. She didn’t need to go to the trouble to get information for me about the bees, but she did. Right then I decided that when fall came that I might use her and her husband to do the trimming work on several of my trees. When time came to get the trees trimmed, I thought seriously about whom to call. In the past I had used a popular local tree trimmer and knew he was good. The only negative was that everybody uses him and it might take months for him to get around to me. I thought about Christy and her husband and their Helping Hands business and decided to call them for an estimate. Christy and Tony came a few days after I called them and gave me an estimate for trimming four trees. The estimate was low and I was tempted to accept right then but I thought I might be wise to get other estimates. However, I had noticed something very unusual about Tony. I noticed that he was so respectful and loving toward Christy that it was a shock to me. He looked at each tree, told me where he would cut the offending limb and then he would ask Christy’s advice about his suggestion. Most of the time she agreed. Two times she had other ideas and Tony acquiesced to her suggestion, admitting that she was right. He was gentle and loving toward her. It was such a pure and trusting love toward her that I was in awe. It was like a scene out of a "chick movie," as my hubby used to call them. After they left, I fully intended to call two other men and request estimates. I just couldn’t make myself call other men because I was so astounded with Tony’s love and respect for Christy that I kept thinking that they deserved to have the job. Christy’s idea to call the County Extension office for me was beyond the call of duty, too, so that graciousness toward me was impressive, also. I called them and told them to come do the job. They came exactly at the time certain that she said they would be there and they came on the day she had said. They came, did a great job and proceeded to clean up after their work. While they were cleaning up the limbs, leaves and other debris created by his cutting, I wrote a check for them and walked to the yard and handed it to Christy. I told her that the reason I had decided to hire them was the way Tony treated her, told her that the gentle love and respect were impressive to me. Tears came to her eyes and she said that she had been in two very abusive marriages and that now she’s married to Tony. She said that he is what she had always wanted in a husband. I asked her if he is as kind and loving in their home toward her as he is in public. She said yes and that he is just as good a father to her four children as he is to his own daughter. I stood amazed. I asked her if she minded if I told Tony the reason why I had hired them. It was fine with her. She was still teary eyed and mellowed by my conversation with her. I told Tony the same thing that I had told Christy. A big smile came to his face and he freely said, “It’s the Lord.” He proceeded to tell me that God had taught him how to treat his helpmeet and that he loves her with God’s divine love. I told him that his love and respect for her are so visually apparent that it left me amazed. I told Tony and Christy that I know the same Lord and we stood in my driveway talking about the marvelous Heavenly Father who brought us together. We shared miracle stories for a long time. Tony told me that he and Christy are filled with God’s Holy Spirit and that’s why there is a deep, loving, respect for each other. I told Tony that I would like to clone him. By the time we finished sharing testimonies about the goodness of God, I felt like we were standing on holy ground. There’s a song that says that when you are standing on holy ground that there are angels all around. I can attest to that fact. My feet hardly touched the ground and I tingled all over. We know that our paths will cross again soon. The efforts that God instituted to get us together the first time were so orchestrated that I know He is orchestrating another encounter. In fact, we agreed that they will come back when the temperature is below freezing and they will cut the end of the limb off while the bees will be taking their winter rest. There are no coincidences when you know God. There are what I call God-incidences. The one He orchestrated between The Helping Hands of Christy and Tony when He brought them to my house produced my feeling that I was standing on holy ground and there were angels all around. I think they felt the same way because Tony kept saying, “Awesome. This is Awesome.” I agree, Tony, and I am in awe of the ability of God to bring them to my house to help me but to also let us stand on holy ground with angels around. It was angel ground. I asked God one time what He meant when He said that when two or three are gathered together that He is in their midst. He said to me, “I never miss a family reunion.” He certainly didn’t miss the family reunion where Christy, Tony and I stood on angel ground right in the middle of my driveway! It was hallelujah time for sure.