Hell is Real, Christianity is not an emotion

I think homosexuality is a sin. No, I don’t think, I know.  If you believe the Bible, and every word contained within it, you must believe also that homosexuality is a sin.  Beating your wife, pride, arrogance, lust, sex before marriage, drunkenness, laziness, and so on and so forth are also sins.  A baby is born into sin, and one must be born again to attain salvation, righteousness, and be one with God.  There are other truths I know.

God is not an evil person that wishes us to live joyless, loveless lives.  On the contrary He calls us to a greater joy and a greater love.  He created mankind to walk and be with Him.  Mankind was the one to screw it all up, and even after they messed it all up, God saved them from death and gave them (and me) hope through His son Jesus Christ.  One must be called by the Holy Spirit (as we all are at some point in our lives), and adopt sonship or daughtership of the one true King.

I also believe (no, not believe…know) that hell is a real place, and it isn’t going to be fun despite some pictures I have seen recently.  There are no alcoholic beverages or raging parties.  It is a sad and dangerous place where people go that spent their lives rejecting Jesus Christ and His teachings.  I believe that a lot of people (especially those growing up in the American church culture) will find themselves in hell, and that makes my heart-sick.

I live in America, and all of the before mention make me counter-culture.

America… I used to cry on the Fourth-of-July.  I would cry tears of joy that I was born in a country that openly loved God and didn’t persecute you for believing in Him.  Fourth-of-July was my most favorite holiday as we sang National Anthems and united during times of struggle and hardships.  I could, as a girl from the South, travel to anywhere in the country and be accepted for my differences, my language, my love, and the joy that God placed inside of me.  America… stood for something.  Now, I stand back and watch as we crumble.  Outsiders probably laugh a little or feel grieved that the so-called land of the free is turning into mush, and insiders either quiver in fear or anger.  The Church isolates itself or throws angry comments to those that do not believe.  We should be grieved for the lost, and we should lovingly and biblically discipline those that are living within the bondage of sin SO THAT they find freedom through the love of Jesus Christ.

All that being said, I am so glad that Christianity is not about emotions (nor marriage for that matter).  Yesterday, I found out that I lost my job that I LOVED!  I cried tears of sadness for many hours after finding out that the school I teach at didn’t need me for the coming year.  I quickly gathered myself together for the longest doctor appointment of my life, saw the life that is growing inside of me (which brings on so many fears), found out that in addition to our new house payment we were going to owe around $3,500 to deliver this little bundle of joy.  After eating at a friend’s house, I came home early to surprise my husband who was home picking up the house, to find that he was not home because he had forgotten.  My husband has spent the last three months working around the clock because of this little evil thing called shutdown that is explained to only last a week.  And if one more person reminds me that he should be making bank right now, I am going to stab you with a spork!  He really isn’t making all that much more because of taxes.  Lonliness, fear, disappointment and did I mention that I lost my job and pregnancy hormones are raging through my body right now?

Bring on the emotional break down. However,  Christianity has very little to do with emotions and a whole lot do with truth.  Because reality is, our emotions lie to us.  However, the truth of His word does not lie.

I read these verses this morning and was encouraged.

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your sould.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they acuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”  1 Peter 2:11-12

One Day Soon

Where is my heart today?

One Day Soon…

 

One day soon the three mile runs, the detox tea, the passing up pizza, the extra crunch, the time on my knees in prayer, the tears of defeat, the getting rid of sugar, the headaches and the pains will be a distant memory.

One day soon the there will be little gigles and sleepless nights.  Bedtime stories, sibling fights.  There will be “It’s not fair” and walks down the aisle.  There will be footy pajama tip-toeing down the stairs and long conversations over cups of tea.

 

 

 

 

One day soon the wait will be over, and we will look back and think it was all worth it.  Because when that day comes, and God finally allows life, this beloved man will finally hold his child.

 And on days like today, where tears come too quickly and reality is a little too harsh… I quietly thank God for that one day soon.

Love Covers Everything

  I have been struggling so much with hatred the past few months.  Since our last miscarriage I had some confusion arise about heaven and began to hate God for the ideas I had about Heaven.  I lived through months of torture but really clinging to the Word of God and His voice for comfort to get from one day to the next.  At the end of my struggle, I learned much about Heaven and really got a lot of comfort from His voice.  My sister-in-law and a couple of close friends prayed against the enemy, and the result was freedom.  However, in the midst of this hatred the re-election of Obama and the impact of social media have basically torn America into two groups.  I have now came to a point where it is hard to be kind to either conservatives or liberals.  I find myself staying angry at both groups.  At liberals I think, how could you devalue life that much and at conservatives I throw insults about going against the Bible and trying to feed your own selfish needs and desires!  In the car headed to my Dad’s house I find myself admitting, I am really no longer a conservative.  I am really not a liberal either.  I am kind of a “Don’t-Care-itive.”  Why?  Because behind the veil of conservative or liberal there are real people who are hurting and in need.  Give me the people!  Put them at my kitchen table with a glass of hot cocoa or tea.  Let me make them cookies and discuss their needs and their hurts!

 

So back to my issue with hate.  I became frustrated with my husband after my work to fight human trafficking became too much for my mind and followed my husband and me back into our home.  We are, thankfully, seeking wise Biblical counsel this week on how to put work in one area and my relationship in another.  However, the hate became so suffocating after a horrible group rape scene in the play West Side Story I woke a dear friend from her sleep to cry and explain my anger at my husband.  She helped me see so much the clarity of the situation (I was becoming the girls that I help, and my husband was becoming the world that continued to enslave them).  There was a release of hatred as I crawled into bed that night next to a sleeping husband and prayed outloud against the enemy attacks, for the girls who were lost, for the men who were in a very serious type of bondage, and for my own love for a husband who would carry the world on his shoulders for his wife.

 

  Coming out of this all, I have prayed for deeper understanding of why people hurt, and more than that, I have prayed for a deeper understanding on how to appropriately share the gospel with the hurting.  I can’t become another person and carry their hurt or burden for them, but I can intercede for them, and if I can figure out the balance then God becomes unstoppable in my life and in the life of others through me!  While I am praying I keep hearing the words:

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”  1 Peter 4:8

I am almost in tears now because I just want to cry out to God… what have I become?  At what point does hate win a person’s heart or life?  At what point did hate become the conversion tactic used by Christians to win people?  I despise that word “win.”

Now don’t get me wrong… there are good things to HATE!

I HATE murder of all types.

I HATE rape.

I HATE slavery.

I HATE divorce.

I HATE child abuse.

I HATE poverty.

I HATE racism.

I HATE enslavement to sexual bondage of all sorts.

I HATE that a woman feels like there is no other way but to sell her body.

I HATE adultry.

I HATE sexism of all types (not just against women).

However, all of those things come from the enemy.  The real enemy because see, we have a real enemy who comes to seek, decieve, and destroy.  He comes to destroy lives, and God is fighting a major battle by enlisting people to fight on the side of truth and love.  Let’s take a minute and observe the issues between men and women.  I wish the Bible would give more clarity on what happened to Adam and Eve after they left the garden.  I mean, at some point they had to get over the whole eating the fruit and being kicked out of the garden because they made love to have Cain and Abel along with a multitude of other children.  However, we don’t really get an insight to what happened directly after.  Did they have a huge fight?  Did Adam continue to blame Eve?  Did they walk away from each other for a while?  Did they eventually forgive one another and come back together?  Am I the only one who wonders about their personalities and actions?  Anyway, fast forward a few hundred years, and you have the good ole country days where men and women worked the farm.  I wondered what caused a man to hit a woman the very first time.  Did she smart off to him, or was he just angry because of a hard day of work and she wasn’t fast enough with dinner?  Either way, a man hits a woman, and the woman becomes the “lesser sex” because she is not as strong as the man.  Fast forward to a time when men tried to keep women silenced and women finally had enough.  They fought back with feminism because that is what they had, and now, we are so cruel to men.  We treat them like children and depower them.  We use manipulation in sex and words.  Our men need us, and we continue to shut them down!  Since, they crave respect they listen to the enemy’s lies and seek elsewhere to find it!  I wonder when the first rape occurred?  Did the man feel bad after?  Did he go into a room and cry?  Did he feel like he had power?  Maybe he got a little power trip out of the whole deal.  Maybe he got a huge power trip… what if he had more women?  What if he could sell them?  Then he could have money, women, and power!  That is the only thing important nowadays since women have no respect for themselves and sell their bodies because they don’t really know how valuable their lives are!  Now you have pimps, slavery, etc.  Now you have a world of destruction.

STOP!

   I wish someone had been there to love one of those people back to freedom, back to the Father, back to Love!  I wish someone had been there to say, it will be okay.  You will have consequences to your sin, but we are going to LOVE you out of this; after all, love covers a multitude of sins.  Does it matter that the men of our world have really dropped the ball as the woman’s protector (in general)?  No!  Does it matter that women have fought back with pride, insecurities, and fear through manipulation? No!  All that matters is that it stops, and we as believers dig in our heels and LOVE them out!

I hope this was sort of logical.  I have been thinking about loving people into freedom all weekend long.  I will leave you with two ideas.  The first is this (directed at believers):  Before entering my first brothel I had to read this manual (huge manual) about how to treat the people (both male and female) we would find inside.  One of the first major and reoccuring points they made was this… there is no REASON at all to tell a girl that what they are doing is wrong, bondage, and dangerous.  They know all of this!!!  What they need to know is this:  you are a real human, a person, a beloved child of God created for a purpose, no this is not that purpose, but until you see that I am going to love like mad!  I am going to love you out of this!  I am going to love until it hurts, and you have to respond.  Let us cover our lips with the love and truth of the gospel of God and clean up the reputation we have given the God of the universe!

The second is this (directed at unbelievers or those struggling to forgive): A good friend of mine was trafficked at an early age, and after years of being prostitued out eventually accepted her position.  I am not totally sure of her redemption story, but the idea is that she was redeemed!  She came out and found her voice.  It took her almost 30 years to be able to speak about the bondage she was placed in at such an early age, but since she has been healed she has done major work for the Kingdom of the Lord!  She is amazing, and she is opening a shelter for men and women who are found in enslavement right here in Arkansas.  She told a story the other night of the first day they got to work on their new shelter.  With tears in her eyes she made comment that the first group that came into the shelter to work was none other than a group of recovered Johns.  A group of men that have spen many years purchasing sex from children and women came into the shelter, looked my friend in the eyes, and said… “We owe it to the women we have taken advantadge of for so long!”  I am crying now.  Just think!!!  A survivor of prostition who has now finally found her humanity, her freedom, and her savior working along side men who are also survivors of prostitution who have finally found their humanity, their freedom, and their Savior!  Only God and love can do that people!!!

My Man Deserves the Best: Michael Do not READ!

  There really is not a worry that Michael may read this.  He doesn’t read my blogs, but I wanted to make extra sure!  Sorry for the warning.

That is my husband!  Man is he HOT!  He is the most amazing man who walks this earth, and he really deserves the best of the best!  However… he is forgetful.  I think one of the worst things a woman can do around the holidays is place expectations on their husbands.  First, they do not think the way we do so they can definitely not read our minds.  If they had the mind of a woman they would know that you need flowers at least once a week and chocolate to stay sane.  They would understand that if they don’t do something big on Valentine’s Day you will have nothing to brag about the next day making you and your marriage feel like crap.  However, if they had the mind of a woman… they would be way too emotional and our relationship would be boring.  I like the fact that we are so different and that sometimes… he just doesn’t think!  My sister-in-law and spiritual momma are always telling me to release my expectations.  That way, anything Michael does will be totally unexpected and amazing! Like last year for Valentine’s Day he took me dancing at the old folks dance hall!  We had a blast!

CAUTION… BRAG SESSION: SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH TO GET TO THE VALENTINE IDEAS!  Of course he really is amazing!  He is my very best friend!  He is a great leader, a wonderful friend, a great son, a caring brother, and a most beloved uncle to five precious girls (almost seven!).  I have never seen ANYONE love the way he loves!  He is not afraid to lay it all on the line.  His heart gets broken, but he continues to love despite the fears I would quickly have built in my heart.  Oh my word!  How did I get so blessed?  Not only all of this, but he also goes to war for me constantly when it comes to spiritual warfare (something that has been a heated battle the past few weeks).

OKAY VALENTINE STUFF: So since my husband deserves the best, and I am trying not to build expectations, I have decided to bless the socks off this man this Valentine season.  It brings me great joy to love him, and I will be so busy loving him that if he totally forgets, it will not stress me out at all!  I will be too busy blessing another to focus on myself.  So here is the plan:

In his lunch box (I pack his lunch every morning).

Feb. 1: “I’ve got a huge CRUSH on you.”  Crush Soda

Feb. 2: “Glad I SKORed a man like you.” Skor Bar

Feb. 3: “I’m totally STUCK on you.” Chewing gum

Feb. 4: “Thank you for walking this TRAIL with me.” Trail mix

Feb. 5: “I just MELT in your arms.” M&M’s

Feb. 6: “I can’t wait until we grow up and call ourselves SWEET HEARTS.” Sweet Hearts

Feb. 7: “I just love HEARING your words.” Conversation hearts (I hate these things, but he LOVES them!)

Feb. 8: “Our life is a CIRCUS, but it is the best life I could have asked for!” Circus Animal Crackers or Circus Peanuts

Feb. 9: “Life without you would be unBEARable.” Gummy Bears

Feb. 10: “My heart BURSTS with joy when you are around.” Starbursts

Feb. 11: “The best FISH in the sea picked me!” Swedish Fish

Feb. 12: “We go together like cookies and milk.” Oreo’s

Feb. 13: “Our love is RED HOT!” Red Hots

Feb. 14: “Go AWAY with me.” Invitation to our favorite B&B and a gift card to Bass Pro Shop  (Still working on this one).

We do not have a ton of money, so I am hoping to get the B&B cheaply.  I have to call them today.  I usually wouldn’t plan a trip like this, but you know, honestly, we need to get away.  We need to escape and be somewhere without the craziness of life interfering!  Since the people at this B&B know us I am hoping for a little bit of a discount if we go on an off-season weekend.  If not, I am going to need about four people to schedule photo shoots!  Ready go! 😉

  There you go!  No worries about not being blessed on the much-anticipated and dreaded Valentine’s Day!  In addition, I can’t wait to see Michael’s face when he gets his Bass Pro Shop gift card!  He may actually cry!

HAPPY VALENTINE DAY PLANNING!  MAY YOU KEEP YOUR EXPECTATIONS LOW AND YOUR HEARTS OPEN AND READY TO LOVE!  LOVE PEOPLE… LOVE LIKE CRAZY!

The High Demand for Slavery Begins with Us

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord God has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, proclaim FREEDOM for the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to those who are bound. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn.” Isaiah 62:1-2

Information:
Walk into your closet, pantry, or living room for that matter and take a good look around. Stop thinking about how messy your living room may be, how you have too many clothes, or even that you need to go grocery shopping and think for a moment from where these products actually came. Forget about the label or the store, I am talking about the cotton that made the t-shirt that says made in America or the minerals inside your computer or television. Go a step further and think about the chocolate chips in your cupboard. Have you ever stopped and wondered, “Where did the things that I use every day actually come from?” Here is a little dose of reality that hit me way too hard during my training at the Not for Sale Academy. The high demand for slavery does not come from some scary looking mafia men; it comes from people like you and me. Isn’t that a scary idea?! There are children being kidnapped and forced to work in the jungles of Africa picking Cocoa from the trees because we like Hershey’s chocolate bars. This is not something that we can justify nor distance ourselves from any longer. There are companies all over the world trying to expose the truth that since we do not ask businesses where our items come from, they are finding the cheapest labor possible and getting away with using slavery to create things common in our society.

We fuel this demand by wanting cheap material in high quantities. We do not want to spend a large amount of money on a toy for our child. We would rather spend a small amount of money and get a wide range of variety. Companies are not ignorant, and they track our spending habits. Hasbro, Mattel, etc. see that we do not want to spend a lot of money, so they vouch for sweat shop laborers to create things so that the company can sell the item at a cheaper rate. The reality is that though sex trafficking is a horrendous act that should be stopped immediately; they actually serve a small percentage of the 27 million enslaved. Most of the people enslaved today make the clothing you are probably wearing at this moment. That sound daunting? Good! We need this to sound daunting because the only we are going to see an end to modern day slavery is decrease the demand. Here are a few more facts for you:

o Labor Trafficking is the most prevalent source of slavery.
o There are five types of trafficking: Labor, Child, Sex, Organ, and Domestic Servitude.
o Type of Work Traffickers Traffic Victims for: Sex, Domestic (nannies or servants), Marriage, factory work, agriculture, restaurant, manufacturing, home care, servile marriage, criminal activity (drug transporting), construction, hotel or motel work, housekeeping, daycare teachers, cleaning business, and domestic services for Embassy Employees: Diplomats.
o The victims are usually recruited in the following ways: a personal relationship, newpaper ads, internet, or the promise of work.
o Victims are not just women. Many come from rural villages, but that doesn’t mean that they are poor or uneducated. Many men and women who have graduated from college with Master’s degrees have ended up being trafficked. Traffickers are not just men either, and they are not just big crime involvement type people. They can be someone as simple as a man or wife.
o Victims have difficulty seeking help because of language barriers, restricted movement, fear of authority, fear of deportation, lack of accurate knowledge of rights and resources, shame or scorn from family, trauma, or attachment to trafficker.
o Many of the women getting stuck in Sex Slavery are from poor villages where there is not work to sustain themselves or their family. These women take loans to come to America or other westernized countries because they believe lies that once they get into those countries they will find work. They hear these lies from other women who work to recruit women for business. These women are beaten into submission and eventually learn to be “good” at their job in hopes of returning to their land or making enough money to send home to their families. Most of the women, even after “rescue” or paying off their debts return to prostitution. It is the only thing they know how to do, and when people find out what they are doing, even if they were trapped into the industry, they are looked at as a prostitute. The Price of Sex Documentary
o Many of the girls from the small villages mentioned above know that many of the girls that leave the village end up in horrific situations, but with no view of any type of future, they continue to trusts the men and women promising futures in other countries. I thought that this was an impossible idea until I met a girl on the bus in San Francisco. She was from Ukraine and took out a huge loan from the bank in order to come to America. She was going to college and working side jobs such as cleaning houses and teaching private dance lessons to pay back the loan. The Price of Sex
o The TVPA (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) of 2000 defines trafficking the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability. Any child being used for prostitution under the age of consent is automatically trafficking. The age of consent in Arkansas is 16.
o Made in the USA is not a safe answer to this problem. Only a small percentage of the item has to be assembled in America for it to have the Made in the USA tag.

Purpose:
I bet you are saying right now to yourselves, “Okay, great Paula. I have heard a lot of this before, and even if I hadn’t you are telling me I can’t get away from using stuff made by slaves. Thanks for the uplifting words…now what?” I will respond with please do not get discouraged. Discouragement is another tool used by the traffickers. This problem is big, but it is not too big. Nothing is too big for God right, and we are His people. The perfect question is “Now what?”

What Not for Sale is doing: NFS has discovered that slavery is a business, and the best way to fight it is business. They are building a corporation and a force of people to fight for the justice of people. They have discovered a way of doing this that is like no other. They are also trying to get out of the category of non-profit so that they do not have to wait on government grants to continue doing work. They are focused on finding ways to be self-sustaining. They are going into areas with high probability of trafficking and building business creating jobs. The jobs are being given to not just survivors but common people of the villages. By doing this, they are creating chains of fair trade products and creating job so that people will not be tempted to go into bigger cities looking for jobs. They showed up some new things coming out on their product line, and though I cannot give you details, I can say that there are exciting things coming out of NFS. While you wait for their new products, check out their Rebbl tea. http://www.causes.com/causes/597-not-for-sale/actions/1661196 In addition to creating a system to stop trafficking before it happens, they are training a force of people (like me) to be a part of the abolitionist movement.

What will I be doing now that I am trained: I am responsible for the research of cases of trafficking that have already been exposed. I research these cases and report them to slaverymap.org. This web-site is a tool for everyday people to see where and when trafficking is taking place in their own communities and around the world. In addition to this, I am responsible for bringing awareness to the community about trafficking. I now have a wide range of knowledge too in-depth for this letter, but I would love to sit down with any of you and talk logistics. I have also been trained to recognize trafficking in my everyday life. If I am in the opinion that trafficking is happening then I am trained to approach victims of trafficking so that they may reach out for help. Michael and I will be taking the knowledge that I now have to help with organizations in Arkansas. I am also trained to investigate cases of sex slavery online. This is a skill that I am thankful to have, but I ask for prayers as my husband and I figure out the best method for me to use this skill considering the obvious issues with the material I will have to be researching.

What you can do:

• Accept the reality that slavery does exist and it affects us in every area of our life at the current moment.
• Accept the reality that you are an abolitionist and your role as a believer and consumer can either contribute or fight modern day slavery.
• Pray for your community, for America, and for the world. Pray that the voices of those in bondage be heard. Pray that more organizations step up with a desire to love people the way Christ loves us.
• Reshape your view of people (especially immigrants and prostitutes). Contribute to the breaking down of stereotypes because stereotypes contribute to human trafficking. Most immigrants are too afraid of asking for help for fear of hatred or deportation. When we refuse to look at people with the eyes of God, we dehumanize them. It is easy for people to take advantage of people who people quit seeing as human.
• Become a smart consumer. Download the Free2work app (www.free2work.org). This app allows you to scan the barcode of a product you are about to purchase. Once the barcode is scanned, the app will tell you the rating of the company. High grades determine if the company is working towards a no tolerance mindset. A lower grade determines if the company is doing nothing to fight slavery. We may have to pay more for things that are made in no tolerant shops, but do we really want to get gratification from someone’s deprivation? Remember that we the consumer run the show! If begin to speak out against companies that use slave labor in their production then we speak volumes about where we want to put our money. The reality is, as well, that a lot of clothing is not made in “no tolerant factories”. As we pray for transformation, think of some ways to purchase clothing at a no profit to the company (such as buying from second hand stores).
• Open your eyes to the world around you. You go to a Chinese restaurant to eat after church on Sunday. Your waitress seems happy enough, but she doesn’t really talk to you and she looks sad or nervous. All of a sudden you realize that you live in a community where there is slim to no Chinese population. You may ask where she came from, what she is doing in town, or if she likes her job. These are basic questions that can lead you to some pretty important information. If you have a concern that human trafficking is occurring call the Polaris Project hotline number 1-800-373-7888. Memorize this number. It would be easy to write this name on a napkin. If you have any more questions about what to do in these situations, feel free to contact me.
• Be a realist but an optimistic realist. Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. Welcome to the mountain. Sometimes, I feel like we got in way over our heads when we talk statistics like 27 million people entrapped in slavery today. However, those are humans we are talking about. Each human desperate for freedom. Each human being beaten, abused, exploited, raped, etc. Each human that has an individual story. We have to feel like these people will be freed. We have to pray with faith that God will move mountains in this area.
• Let us, the church, end the issue with sex. We need to have freedom to discuss sex in the church so that people who are struggling with addictions to pornography or people who have reached the point they are buying sex can reach out for help knowing that they will not be shunned. God offered sex as a gift, and he meant it for good. It is the world that turned it into something perverted, and then the church decided that sex was bad. I read a portion of a book while I was in San Francisco that stated sex is a big deal. God intended it for married couples as a gift and a way to reproduce. However, sex is not as big as a deal as we think. The idea that sex sells needs to be destroyed and we need to start opening our hearts to the idea that struggling with some sort of sexual issue is fairly normal. We also need to speak out against pornography and teaching our sons and daughters about purity. This is so important because in my work, I have to research cases of sex slavery online. There are so many men that treat buying sex like they were going to see a new movie.
• Get involved with your community. I would love if you joined a group such as P.A.T.H or Not for Sale, but that isn’t what I am talking about. I am talking about your neighbors, the people in the grocery store, the people at the park, etc. This goes back to opening our eyes. We, as the church, need to be opening our arms, hearts, and eyes. Thank you.