No Hate for a Person, Hate Sin and Turn From It

I saw a demonstration that broke my heart and moved my Spirit. Churches teaching hate toward someone practicing sin? Jesus would be appalled. Sin is sin and only by the grace of God and His sacrifice to redeem us can we be saved.

The only people Jesus ever got angry with were the people in the temple, those supposedly there to teach people the true law, but were in service for their own gain, their own feeling of superiority, asking the common man to live and do what they themselves were not doing.

When Jesus found people in sin, he never responded in hate. Yes, he acknowledged sin as sin, but he forgave because of love and said, “Go and sin no more.”

People trapped in sin are seldom aware of that fact. They are living the way the flesh tells them to live. Jesus tells us over and over He died to set us free. It is our place to tell those in darkness about the love and light of Jesus AND His power to set us free from the bondage of sin which leads to death.

Some will respond to the truth in hate, some will yield to God’s love and some will not respond at all. HOWEVER  a believer in Christ should never respond with hate to the sinner who won’t listen. The Word does say if the person you are witnessing to turns a deaf ear to the gospel, shake the dust from your feet and move on to someone else. We are never to blast the sinner with a tirade. God is well able to do that for Himself.

Witness sin as sin yes. It is love to try to save a person from eternal loss but if it is not done with love for the soul of a person, it is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.

Not many of us like to hear what we are doing is wrong, against God’s will and His original plan for man, but as believers if we are not teaching and preaching with the same love we see demonstrated by Jesus then we are failing in our mission.

Again, sin is sin and needs to be revealed but not so we as believers can feel better about ourselves.

I would venture to say that many of the demonstrators have been forgiven for sexual sins, adultery, sex outside of marriage, divorce and remarriage and many other sins that all fall into the same category of sin as homosexuality. Sin is sin and deserves a death penalty but thanks be to God who has given us the victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. If we believe and receive Jesus’ sacrifice to remove our sins we step into life eternal. Go and sin no more.

Do I condone sin? Never, but it was love and God’s Spirit that drew me. I could not save myself and no one could force me to change my path of sin. Only God and His unending love could do that.

Our job, our mission if you will, is to present the gospel including the things that are disobedience to God’s will and plan for man. We are to do it with the Spirit of Jesus (not hate of Satan) and then it is up to God to deal with the soul.

We don’t save anyone. One plants, one waters, but it is God who gives the increase, God who forgives and removes sin. If men and women in sin do not respond to a God of love, they are the losers. We have done what we know to do, presenting the gospel in love, giving them the way of escape from the bondage of sin, trying to draw them from darkness to light. If the ‘light’ that is in us is darkness, filled with hate, we will never touch lost souls for Jesus.

Obama has Broken the Moral Compass of Our Country. What the Bible Says Doesn’t Matter?

Right off I will say from my heart this is not hate inspired. This is love inspired and though I doubt some will accept it that way (maybe respond in hate) but it is from the heart of a sinner saved by grace, who loves people, someone who knows how disobedience to God’s word can trap a person into deception, to be lured into thinking wrong is right. The liberty from that deception is believing Christ for release from sin’s bondage.

It is nice that Mr. Obama feels compassion toward all people, but he has left the truth of the very book, the Bible, that is to guide us, if he is a Christian, just so he can make others feel good? I cannot help how many celebrities, famous people, affluent people accept the practice of sexual sin, there is no half-truth. Obama is in apostasy.

The Bible is not a generational choice. Because society accepts sin as common and normal behavior doesn’t take away from the truth. You cannot pick and choose which parts you want to observe, it has to be taken as the Word of God, rightly dividing the truth from the old to the new covenant. It is neither love nor compassion to let someone live in darkness when you have the light. You can’t force, as some have tried with hateful demonstrations, but we must not let people sit in darkness of sin without giving non-believers the truth in love.

If you are not a Christian in America you of course do not believe in the moral compass of the Bible, though you may have your own traditional moral standard of behavior. We can see the results of not using the moral compass correctly in a society that is pushing the envelope to the limit.

The first of the two downfalls were prayer out of schools and legalizing the killing of the innocent unborn. Those were the beginning of accepting sin into our society. And what have we gained? Children killing children and the highest crime rates ever experience—and without any remorse—since they have no compass to gauge right or wrong. Those children are now adults with no moral guidelines.

The Old and the New Testament declare that the acts of adultery, homosexuality, bestiality and other sexual sins against the normal purpose of the body are an abomination to God. Besides sexual sins there are the others that affect good and bad behavior that are ignored in our society. Because of political correctness, not wanting to hurt anyone with the truth, it will eventually allow our fall, just as in Sodom and Gomorrah; the fall of the great Roman empire;(who had a leader that gave over to anything that satisfied his sexual perversion and danced while Rome burned), never to rise to its previous status again and other nations that forgot God. Russia is a more modern example. Denying God and his power, it took some time but the nation disintegrated. Unfortunately, there is always evil waiting in the wings.

I know that there are professing Christians in all groups, even the ones instigating hate. Jesus would never do that. He would say, “Go and sin no more.” Jesus is the new covenant to fulfill the physical law of justice practiced in the Old Testament. Sin (disobedience to our Creator God and a word people don’t like to use today) has to be judged, however in the New Testament if we accept Christ, He becomes the One that takes the judgment and we are freed from sin’s bondage. Go and sin no more. If a professing Christian is practicing what is forbidden in the Bible, they are no longer a Christian but a backslidden person. Return to your first Love (Christ) and sin no more.

Kirk Cameron was not speaking from Hate when he proclaimed homosexuality is perverted. He sees the same as the Word. Man was not made to sexually perform with a man, neither a woman with a woman so that is perverted behavior. Not for the intended purpose. And beyond that it is a behavior of bondage to Satan since God says it is an abomination.

Adultery is common place now—readily accepted today—and is in the same category as other sexual sins. When homosexuality pervades “Christian” groups how long before the next upcoming item we see more and more of, bestiality, having sex with anyone and anything just to satisfy the sin of the flesh, will be legalized?

We see it already coming out of the closet. Men and women having sex with cats and dogs, men and woman raping infants, some wanting to marry their animal, children raping children, adults raping children? Where will giving people legally what they want to feel good about themselves come to an end?

Christian morals, Godly traditions can only hold back the floodgates so long, but when a nation determines they can’t make moral laws, it is the beginning of an end for that nation.

That these things will happen is recorded in the Bible, so I can say in love (whether it is taken that way or not) I am warning those who have not made a decision for Christ to make it. When these things begin to happen we are to pray and reach out for as long as we are here. God will hold back a lot for His children’s sake, but the end will come. God help America. He will not long bear with a nation that has denied Him and His truth.

So Grateful Mom is Better

After a hefty dose of anti-biotics my mom is on recovery from the UTI. It seems though that it is becoming a chronic condition. Her doctor said that is the case in many elderly people nearing the end of life. All we can do is make sure she’s comfortable and that she has what she needs.

Life and death is in God’s control and no matter how much Mom yearns to go on to heaven, it seems that is not God’s timeline right now. She is having days when she is so weak she doesn’t get out of bed and then other days she is awake and wanting up with the sunshine. She doesn’t stay up long at a time but we put her back to bed for a nap and get her up when she feels more strength, sometime many times a day, but I hate to leave her in bed if she wants up and I hate for her to be so tired in the chair that she is exhausted.

God is so good. We have prayed that when Mom goes to Jesus she will just go, no long drawn out illness, just peaceful sleep. Even that though is in God’s control but he says to ask what we will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done (in God’s will and time if we rightly divide the other scriptures) so we praise Him for His presense in this difficult situation.

I’ve heard a lot lately about atheists and how they are trying to stop expressions of faith. Why? If they don’t believe in a higher power why do they care if the rest of us are delusional? If there is no God, how can it hurt them? I’m not blind to the fact that there is a lot of evil done in the name of God that is nothing but human anger and hate but all believers are not like that. Surely, we do obey God, but through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection only love is taught, no longer the harsh justice of the law, but a way of escape that is founded in the first love God had for his creation before sin came in. Is there a judgement to believers and non-believers? I believe the Bible tells us that yes, indeed we will be judged. Those who know Christ will be judged through the blood of Jesus. The only other choice of judgement is the justice for sin without the cleansing blood and that according to the Word is to be cast into Hell. That is the judgement and punishment to those who do not accept the saving grace of Jesus.

And that is my sermon for today. Talk to you later.

To Say Thank You to My Readers

I’d like to thank everyone who purchased and read my books. I’m writing this to let you all know I have a sale on right now for the first in the four book Norma Jean’s Mystery series (more to come) : Herpel Holler Homecoming (ebook format) $1.99 for a limited time. http://www.amazon.com/author/joannsnapp
I want to share one of the stories within the book to give you a flavor for the area and the characters (please read on)
Norma Jean’s First Day Home
There seemed to be something very stable about the land. Not like in the city where you changed jobs or homes or both every few years. And I couldn’t help but think back on my career as chaotic. Even though at the time there seemed to be no other way to go. I had to be there for everything to function. That began to change when Daddy died and my mind began to evaluate what I was really accomplishing with my life.

“Wanna take a walk down to Aunt Ida’s before dark?” Jason questioned.

“That would be nice.” We hoofed it down the road and into what could only be called a country cul-de-sac. The post office and little store used to be located there along with a few houses.

My Great Aunt Ida lived in the same old house she’d been born in above Rocky Bayou creek. She was quite a bit older than Daddy, but how much older she kept hidden with her being so spry.

When we reached the rickety porch, Jason and I found Mr. Landers sitting with Aunt Ida. Mr. Landers served as postmaster in Herpel before all the mail operations moved to Mountain View, and he also ran the small store in the same building, both closed for years now.

“Norma Jean Clark, I do declare.” Mr. Landers, by tradition, called me by my family name, not Evett “Never did see a girl loved Kits candies as much as you. Banana and peanut butter weren’t it?”

“That was it, Mr. Landers.” I came up on the porch and hugged Aunt Ida first then Mr. Landers. I sat down in one of the open chairs. It was always expected in the holler for a person to have more than a few chairs on their porch in case visitors came calling.

“Norma, how long you stayin’ this time, honey?” Aunt Ida didn’t look any older than two years ago at Daddy’s funeral.

“I’m here to stay, Aunt Ida.” I still felt good about saying the words.

“But the land? You got someone wants to buy it.” Mr. Landers’ eyes widened.

“It’s not for sale any longer, so I guess he’ll have to look elsewhere.” I knew there probably wasn’t a person in the holler that didn’t know about the pending sale, and by tomorrow they’d know about the withdrawal.

“I’m mighty glad to hear that, Norma Jean.” Aunt Ida wiped tears from her eyes. “Not much folks left that wants to hold to the land. Most everyone in the east holler has sold out.”

“Can’t make people stay what don’t want to stay.” Mr. Landers sniffed.

“Most of the land ain’t good for nothing but raising cattle, but Norma Jean has a prime piece of land for growin’ crops along with it on her five hundred acres.” Jason sat on the step.

“You and Danny sure made a go of it for a lot of years, that’s a fact.” Aunt Ida nodded to Jason. “Don’t believe my nephew would of sold like some of the old timers, if he was still around.”

“Daddy wouldn’t have survived as long as he did if he’d been off the farm.” I heard my Daddy say that many times, so I knew it to be true.

We chatted for sometime about this and that as twilight set in across the bluffs.
“Is Grandma Grady still living?” She had been the last time I came down. She wasn’t anyone’s granny that we knew, but we all called her Grandma.

“Died this winter.” Mr. Landers bowed his head. “God rest her soul. I won’t be gettin’ her dentures anymore.”

“Her dentures?”

“Yeah. Guess won’t hurt to tell now that Granny and Bart are gone?” Mr. Landers suddenly laughed. “Yeah, it started when I run the store. She’d get that government check and her son would come home just long enough to wipe her out of money, and he’d take off again. Well, she only owned one thing she held as highly valuable and that was her false teeth.”

“Oh my goodness! She sold them to you?” I knew I was back home when the old tales started.

“No, oh no. But I sometimes took things in. Like pawn shops don’t you know.”

Mr. Landers went on. “Well, Grandma Grady would need stuff before her next check and she’d bring her prize possession in and pawn those teeth for money to get by on until she got another check. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had no use for them teeth, but I give her a few dollars to tide her over. Wouldn’t take any charity don’t you know.”

“How’d she eat till she got em back?” Jason got caught up in the tale.

“Guess she gummed her food but first of the month she always redeemed the teeth, and about the middle of the month I got ‘em back.” Mr. Landers chuckled.

“What a story.” I didn’t know whether to believe Landers or not.

“That’s just the half of it.” Landers sat back in the rocker but didn’t continue.

“What’s the other half?” Jason was hooked.

Mr. Landers leaned forward. He knew he had a captive audience. “Bart found out from someone about the teeth. You remember old Bart? Well the happen stance that brought him and Grandma Grady together was connected. Bart, if you recall, had no teeth. When he found out that I had the pawned ones, he asked to buy ‘em. I of course told him no. I said, Miss Grady will be back to get ‘em at the beginning of every month. Bart insisted he’d bring ‘em back at the first of the month and argued they wasn’t doin’ nobody any good sittin’ around. Grandma Grady didn’t have to know and he’d pay me for the use of ‘em to pay off Miss Grady’s bill.”

“Oh, don’t tell me!” I closed my eyes.

“Well, I did it, and Bart was so appreciative. He could finally eat some of the stuff he’d so longed for, at least for half a month. Then he’d bring ‘em back first of the month all clean and back in the jar.” Mr. Landers ended.

“You’re just makin’ up.” Jason sat back down on the step.

“No, no I’m not.” Mr. Landers was adamant. “Every month just like clockwork until Bart proposed to Granny and the teeth stayed in the family.”

“That’s too crazy to be true, Mr. Landers!” I was laughing my head off.

“True, it’s true.” Mr. Landers looked to Aunt Ida. “Ain’t it true, Ida? After Bart died and I’d closed the store she brung those teeth back to me again, and I just give her a few dollars, held ‘em for her and then redeemed ‘em at first of the month.”

“Aunt Ida?” I was flabbergasted.

“We all knew but weren’t no one goin’ to say anything to embarrass Miss Grady.” Aunt Ida nodded and took my hand. “She was a proud woman and wouldn’t want no one to know she was bartering’ her teeth to make up for a lazy bum of a son.”

“She wasn’t cold before Mel Grady sold off her house and land to some man he met in Missouri.” Jason added to the conversation. “I know that for a fact. Some people built a vacation cabin on the land after they demolished her house.”

“I guess we better get on back to the farm.” I stood up and stretched. After that story I truly knew I was home. I reached and kissed Aunt Ida’s soft cheek. “I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.”
**Hope you get a chance to buy some of my work and that you enjoy!  God Bless you all.

A Hard Day but Grateful

Had to take mom to the doctor today. She has been staying up 24 hours and so confused I thought I would share the reasons and maybe it will be a help to someone else.

The first sign of a urinary tract infection is confusion and delusional talking. My mom is 87 and I thought perhaps she was developing some kind of dementia. We knew she had a problem, cloudy urine and some pain so we had a prescription filled for an antibiotic her doctor has used before and it seemed to take care of some of the urinary problem BUT the confusion was getting worse.

Mom kept thinking she was under the bed, on the floor when in her bed. She thought she was on the ground in a park and the bugs were crawling over her. She thought she was floating. She kept insisting she was not in her room and she wanted to go home. We’d convince her she was in her room by taking her to the living room and following the same steps we do every night to get her ready for bed. She would be fine, know where she was at and then after about ten minutes shout loud. “Come get me. I want to go home.” and the delusional behavior would start all over.

Then she thought we had taken her and left her in a hospital and she became very upset and pleading that we not leave her there. She then said “How sneaky they were to make the hospital room look like her bedroom so to trick her. We had gone through several nights of this all night long. She was worn out. We were worn out.

When the doctor met with us today she said the infection was very bad and that what we were experiencing was from the UTI infection. Confusion and delusional behavior are some of the first signs, even before cloudy or ordorous urine. And a fever, but mom had no fever which is unusual with as severe infection as she had. She said if she’s not better Friday, she may have to hospitalized (which Mom hates).

Doctor also tried to get Mom to realize how important it is for her to drink as much water as possible everyday. This is a real problem for us as caregivers and we told her that. What do you do when the patient is your Mom and she refuses to drink anymore liquids, water or juice? We force the issue but sometimes she will not drink even to the point of spitting it out.

After a strong antibiotic shot and use of antibiotic pills she is now sleeping peacefully with no confusion or delusional behavior.

On another part of this story, Mom is ready to go. She is disabled and she wants to go be with Jesus. We try tell her when Jesus calls you’ll go, but until then we have to do what we know to do to help you stay healthy. One day she looked up at me from the wheelchair and kind of laughed. “How can I die if you keep me so healthy?” she said.
I almost laughed but restrained and said, “When Jesus calls it won’t matter if you’re sick or well, but we have to care for you the best we can until He does.”
She’s not angry or upset but she just sighs. “I just want to go home to heaven.”

I have to say I can see her view sometimes. She can’t do much at all except sit in the chair. She gave up therapy after the last stroke. She had come back five times but this time (five years ago) she gave up, said she was too tired to try again. Another of the problems is the stroke affected her memory and though she tried to remember what the therapist told her, everything was new and she had to learn over every visit. She would sit and cry for hours before and after, not wanting to go so finally we relented.

If there are caregivers out there in similar situations and you believe in God’s promises, know that I am praying for you. It is hard to watch your Mom go downhill and not try to improve her life BUT I have put it in God’s hands since I can’t make it change anyway, and I say God’s will be done. I know she would be able to walk, run and do all the things she use to when Jesus calls her to heaven so I don’t begrudge her that promise. I just checked on her and she is still sleeping peacefully, praise the Lord.

The Battle of Good and Evil in the Writing World

I held off on publishing my short story e-book Three Tales to Tingle the Spine debating over whether the three stories were worthwhile to publish, but I have decided to publish them. The reason? The stories are about supernatural occurances that I hadn’t really thought about until they happened to me.

I’m a Christian (if you haven’t picked up on that with my blogs) so I am well aware that there are all kinds of spirits in the world, some I don’t understand how they interact with God’s plan. I know the things in the stories (even though fictionalized to keep anonymous the people involved) were from real occurances. I thought, why not bring up the fact that there is good and evil? We who know the scriptures are well aware of Satan, the demons and angels of darkness that roam the earth. We don’t have to be drawn into the traps of the evil supernatural but neither should we deny they exist. I want to stay clear away from any activity that is not Godly but as a Christian in partnership with God against evil, staying out of supernatural things is not really possible. With the Spirit of God and the blood of Jesus the one thing I don’t fear is anything evil because we know directly God’s almighty power to overcome sin. We are saved from the darkness by Jesus. The Bible and personal experience let me know Jesus is the light that dispels the darkness of evil and gives peace that passes all understanding and lights the pathway I walk.

If you decide to read the stories you will see the supernatural can be fearful at times but will never overcome the blood of Jesus Christ.

Thank God We Didn’t Flood

We live in a place where it may not rain for a long time and then it rains so much that the White River comes over its banks and floods people out. Thank God the latest rains got close but didn’t flood. If you follow my blog you know we were flooded out in 2008 twice, had to be rescued and lost most everything.

With the help of a lot of wonderful people we have the house raised ten feet and after four years this month, we have the house back in order. If I look for facts as how we did it financially I don’t know how but we did.

They say hind sight is 20/20 and if we had known or been more diligent on researching the area, we may not have moved here, but I believe this is the place we should be for now and if we had known we may not have come. Although I don’t like the threat of the White River, you couldn’t find a more beautiful place.

The most important thing I learned from all of this is trust. I always thought I trusted God, depended on Him but I realized through this that I had a lot of self-dependence. Not to brag, but I’d always been the giver and to be on the accepting side was hard and it is a humbling experience. I learned we can do nothing without God.

Trust comes when we realize we have no power without Christ. When we come to the end of what we can do and all we can do is curl up in the Father’s arms and depend on Jesus to meet our needs.

Some people believe that they are in control of life. They say they are successful by their own merits and don’t need a religious crutch. I pray for people who think they stand in their own power. When they meet the timeline of life they cannot control their end no matter how hard they try. No matter how successful and powerful a person is death gets us all. Tomorrow is not a promise here. That’s why salvation in Jesus Christ is so important.

We all have gifts and we can use them for good or evil. God rains on the just and the unjust so success can be to believers or unbelievers. True success however is not measured in material wealth but in how we have lived the life God has given us, what we have accomplished with peace and joy in our soul.

God does not want us to be failures. Success with Christ at the center is success for eternity.

Another Day to Praise the Lord

Yesterday and today it has be in the 80′s here and I have the garden fever BUT I will refrain from planting. I have been here too many years now to ignore the fact we usually have one more killing frost in first of April and I don’t want to put those fledgling plants through that.

I was thinking of the movie Facing the Giants where the preacher told the coach if he wanted results from his prayers he needed to begin preparing his fields for the rain.

Meaning of course that if we are asking God for a special touch we need to prepare what we can for the time when the rain of blessings will come. I am so thankful for a sister who is a great PR person for my books and we are praying together that God will make the ones I have already online to grow in success but while God is moving I am continuing on my eighth and nine book, preparing for the rain of blessings. It makes me so happy to know that I have a way to connect to readers that I thought had passed me by. Praise the Lord.

I wanted you to see the latest cover my Sis created. Isn’t it great? She is helping me prepare the fields for the rain!!!

March Update and Prayers for Tornado Victims

I am praying for all our neighboring states that were hit hard by tornado loss of life and damage. Our little town was hit in 2008 and we are still in recovery mode. The hospital reopened this year and many of the houses have been rebuilt but the effects fo the storm can still be seen in many places. In the woods, some debris still litter the landscape or are stuck in the trees. The path of the tornado can still be seen though weeds and such are coming back, many of the fallen trees are still there.

The sadness of families being separated, whole families killed in the many tornados that hit this week is just beyond measure. I know what it feels like to lose everything in a flood but we had no loss of life and we had a house to rebuilt. Henryville will have to be built from the ground up. Joplin last year was very similar. I know the word says that it rains on the just and the unjust but when you are spared you can’t help but praise God you were spared. We have had several brushes with tornados out at our place with one lifting right before it hit our place and hit on the other side of the river where there were no houses. They say storms are better than earthquakes (years in California) but I’m not so sure. Tornados have a habit of hitting at night or early morning when people are not prepared AND we have bad storms so often it is hard to decide when to take cover or just ride out a storm. Tornados come and go so quickly by the time you decide it is a tornado it is upon you. So, not so different from an earthquake.

I thank God that we can have a peace even in the midst of storms when we know Christ as our Savior. I know many of the ones that have lost homes and lives were believers and ready to go. Our time lines are not decided by how or when we want to go. Our life and death is determined by God. If we have our hope in Christ then leaving this world is just a step over into our eternity with him. Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him. My heart goes out to the parents who lost children, children who lost parents and all who lost loved ones because loss for those left is hard but the believer that has died is rejoicing in heaven with the promises of God fulfilled.

Body in the Big Box Norma Jean’s Mysteries Book Four is Now Available

Praise the Lord. I finished the fourth book in the Norma Jean’s Mysteries Series, Body in the Big Box and the e-book is now available on http://www.amazon.com/author/joannsnapp The print will be available soon.

I am so grateful for a place to publish my work. I have prayed and waited a lot of years for the opportunity. If you enjoy a mystery, a clean read and a story with a southern flavor, I would be honored if you would check out my work.