Side Quest - Spokane

Yesterday, I spent the first part of the day driving up to Spokane from Oregon. It is another example of how the Lord orders my steps in this life and makes a way in every circumstance. My friend from high school that I wrote about a couple weeks ago invited me to come spend the night. I decided to take her up on it and then pick up my son and bring him back so he can take the van.

The drive was about 6 hours and then I arrived at my friend’s house. We went out to Red Lobster for dinner and then came back and played the guitar! She is learning the bass guitar and showed me a couple of the songs she knows and I played the song that I know.

Her husband and daughter came home from the baseball game and her husband gave me a T-shirt from the team. Then he gave us an impromptu concert that was totally awesome. It was getting late and he had to work the next day so he kissed my friend goodnight. I said, “Thanks for the concert!...and the T-shirt!” and for some reason we thought that was really funny and started laughing.

Later we just shared what was going on in our lives and I had an opportunity to share about the Lord. She said, “almost you make me want to be a Christian!” I knew then, that one opportunity was what the Lord had brought me here for. It was a very nice night.

Today we made a music video! – So this is my very first music video. I was really nervous – but my friend is a master at making videos and she did a really good job making this video. So here I am:



Blessings in Christ
Linda

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bookstore...

On Sunday, before I was getting ready to go driving around with my sister, I came across a book online. The title of the book was, "The Misunderstood God." by - I think his name was - Daniel Huffin? Anyway, I don't even remember the blog I was reading that recommended it because it was a blog I have never been to before. So I wrote down the title and decided that we could stop at the bookstore while we were out running errands.

Now there are lots and lots and LOTS of books about God out there and once or twice I have bought them and sometimes they have been beneficial and sometimes they have been fluff pieces or lies and propaganda. But the man that was recommending it was HIGHLY recommending it and I thought maybe the Lord was really prompting me to get that book.

There is a great used bookstore here in the Portland area called Powell's Books. Ultimate best bookstore ever. I was looking for that book I told you about and a book on guitar scales. I know that I need to learn all the scales in order to be a good guitarist (also improvisation is really all based on scales.) So we stopped at Powell's. It is very interesting sometimes the way the Father will order our steps.

The misunderstood God book was not at the bookstore but I found this book from the picture called, "The Kingdom of God is Within You." by Leo Tolstoy. So I picked it up and kindof flipped through it and set it back down and continued to look through the shelves of books. But I kept coming back to this book. I started to read it in the aisle and it was SO MUCH about what I am going through right now as far as seeing the truth of God that is not being taught in the churches. I realized that Tolstoy's book was the real book that God wanted me to buy.

Now, I'm only on page 57 so far but right now this book is blowing my mind. Just as a confirmation to the things the Father has already been showing me. It's really too bad that Count Tolstoy lived and wrote this book back in the 1880's because it would be so nice to email him and ask him some questions. In one part of the book he is using an example that one doctrine that is unquestionable and that all agree on is the doctrine that at no time is it ok to fornicate. He would be really shocked today if he saw the rampant fornication and adultery going on in the churches today. But the jist of the book is how Jesus taught not to resist evil by force and that He negated the doctrine of an eye for an eye. Jesus taught that if someone hit you on the left cheek, turn to him the right cheek and if someone sued you for your coat - give him your cloak as well.

Tolstoy makes the point that the churches do not teach this and that is still correct even to this day. I attended a southern baptist church on Memorial day weekend and within that 1 hour and 15 minutes we watched a You-tube video of that song about letters from the front - heard a twisted teaching on that the levitical priests gave their lives in service to the people just as our service men give their lives in service to us. They also taught about how the priests picked up the stones out of the river and the ushers had a plastic container filled with polished stones they were calling touchstones. My aunt and cousin both took one but I said, "no thanks, I'm living stone free these days." Later when they asked me about it I just said that I'm living light these days and don't need a bunch of stones to weigh me down.

Now - I know that maybe this little church I attended was not always this way, but only because it was Memorial Day. I get that.

I had a friend that was a staunch believer in the doctrine of non-resistance to evil by force, but he also went around verbally assaulting people and then would say - shouldn't you just take it like a good christian? I guess he is right about that! I, myself, may not be ready for the truth of this doctrine, but I still gotta love my friend for his ideals, if not his bad application of it.

I'll let you know more when I'm finished.

Blessings in Christ
Linda

House Update

My parents have decided to take their house off the market.

Apparantly while I was out shopping with my sister on Saturday, my mom had some sort of Nuclear Melt Down. The realtor had sent her an email with feedback from the young couple who had seen our house recently. They liked the house but complained that the master bath was "dated" and there was no granite countertops in the kitchen. I'm sure they have just watched one too many HGTV shows, but it really pissed my mother off. "I don't want people trapsing through MY house telling me my bathroom is dated! I KNOW it is dated! There is nothing I can do about that right now! WELL I have HAD IT, I don't have to sell my house right now" she explained.

My first reaction was to praise the Lord for His amazing timing in having me out of the house when said Nuclear Melt Down was taking place or my newly realized philosophy of non-resistance to evil might have gone completely out the window. My patience, long-suffering and tolerance level of adult-onset tantrum throwing has really been reached.

Then I thanked Him again for the confirmation that the door is really closing for me here as it is opening in Wyoming. Before, I was concerned that if I left for Wyoming and then my parents sold their house, I would need to come back to help them move. Now, thankfully, I can look forward to Wyoming without having to think of coming back anytime soon.

Thank you Lord.

Blessings in Christ
Linda

Arnie

I've been busy this weekend with visiting and shopping. I've done alot of driving and for some reason whenever I was driving this weekend for extended periods of time, I started to think about this person from my past.

I'm sortof in a theological vortex at the moment and it reminds me of when I left the Way International cult years ago. Maybe that is why I keep thinking of this guy. When I was in "the Way" I would go out on the witnessing trips with a group and we would go door to door, telling people the good news according to the Way International. I made a fine cult member back in those days. I knew the ministry approved doctrines and also knew what happened when you left the cult.

Anyway, I remember the day I first met Arnie. We were going door to door witnessing one sunny afternoon and he opened his door to us. I can see his face perfectly. He had flaming red hair and soft blue eyes. He was very quiet and shy and humble. He had no idea how beautiful he was. He listened to us tell him "the Word" and he wanted what we had. He really did want to know more about Jesus and the bible and he was like a sponge soaking in everything we told him.

Ok. Maybe I was a little in love with him, but I never let him know that. As an elderish cult member, I decided to take Arnie under my wing, show him the ropes and what's what and all that. We became good friends. I took him to the way functions, barbeques and get-togethers and answered his questions to the best of my way-infested ability.

I told him about how WE had the truth and those people who left the ministry were turning their back on the truth. What fellowship does light have with darkness? That is why we don't talk to those people anymore. They have turned their back on God.

Arnie continued to read the bible and learn about God. He really did have a sweetness about him and an innocence. I really enjoyed just hanging out with him. He helped me buy my first computer because he knew all about computers. He told me that he'd gotten kicked out of art school because the head of the school told him that he had no artistic ability. I told him that was stupid! What did that guy know anyway?!

I was going to school to get my Associate's degree and I talked Arnie into going to school too. We even had some classes together and enjoyed visting and working on our homework together. It was nice.

Then came the day when the Lord opened my eyes to the REAL truth about the Way International and their cultish mind-control guilt-tripping manipulations. The Lord showed me that it was time to leave the Way. When I left that ministry, I also had to leave all my friends and people that I had known for seven years.

The first Monday after leaving, I went to my class and there was Arnie. I went to talk to him and he didn't want to talk to me. I was now Mark and Avoid and he was just doing what I, ME, What I had taught him to do. I had made him twice the child of hell that I had been. So I just looked at him and said, I understand - just remember how I treated you. When that class was over, I never saw him again.

I don't know why I keep thinking about him. I feel like praying for him, that he got out of that evil cult and maybe God has healed him and he is okay now. I'm sure he is okay, God is in control right?

Pray for my old friend Arnie. Please pray for me my imaginary internet friends. Thanks.

Blessings in Christ
Linda

I believe in Universal Salvation - NOW WHAT???

New World Next Week

The Summer of My Discontent

I am not perfect on this walk by any means. I have flagrant character flaws just like everybody else. I know there are Chinese believers being tortured in prison for their faith who would think my trials are a cake walk. So I began to pray that the Lord would help me to be content in all things, whether I was abased or whether I abounded. My Heavenly Father is not without a sense of irony.

Back in the day, I thrived on chaos. Give me deadlines and 30 hours to complete a 45 hour job and I'm your woman. I was addicted to drama and stress - it was like an elixer. The busier I was and the more that was expected of me, the better I did. But give me five days off, and I would start to feel panicky.

My mom told me I was like that as a child. I loved the routine of school but long days and summer vacation used to make me antsy. Too much time and not enough to do - would wear me down after a while. I'm still like that. I can make a daily routine up, you know: walk, practice guitar, listen to Russ Dizdar live at 3pm, clean the kitchen, do the laundry, etc. That was fine for a while, but after 10 months, I was beginning to wear down some. I realized that the Father was teaching me to be content, but thankfully, He is also so tender and merciful and knows just where our breaking point is.

His timing is perfect. If I didn't know that I was leaving here in the next couple weeks, being here would have crossed the threshold of tolerance for me. It would be unbearable now, but because a way out is on the horizon, it is bearable. Thank God for the promises He has given us. That what He has started, He is able to finish and that someday, Christ will be revealed in me, and I will be content with all things.

Please pray for me.
Blessings in Christ
Linda