Category Archives: Holy Soap Box

First Blush!

I am eager to open and use this Daily Planner. img_0478I am hopeful that I will do better in the coming months than I did with the last one.
Thanksgiving Day is just a week and a day away. In some windows of the houses on the streets we turn to get here, I have seen some lighted trees. Already!

I anticipate we will enjoy Thanksgiving Day. LORD willing there will be family, love, laughter, food, and prayer. Yes, I will enjoy that immensely.  And then Black Friday as it has been known for a while now will be attended by many.

By the late 1980s, it had caught on around the U.S., and retailers began to market around it. Specifically, the event became associated with the idea that stores operate at a loss (or are “in the red”) throughout the year, but are able to earn a profit (or, go “into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, as it’s when shoppers are most likely to spend money on gifts. source

You may read more about Black Friday HERE.

From now to the end of the year, is not my favorite time of the year.
I do treasure time with family and friends, happy get-togethers, special treats, and the like, but the excitement ends about there.

Little that will go on til the end of the year is GOD-honoring. It does not exalt JESUS or His coming to earth to save sin-lost people. Christmas, and I hesitate to use the word is about making money for merchants, lying to children, and having obligatory parties.
Sounds harsh I know.
It took me many years to admit it to myself and to muster the courage to walk away so far from just about all of it.
For one thing, walking away makes you different, and different in this society is not acceptable unless your difference is anti-Bible, then you are applauded.

So, my Friends, as secular as it sounds at first blush, 😊 my favorite holiday is NEW YEARS!
We eat what used to be considered poor man’s food, we pray seeking the LORD for new beginnings, and new visions of service, and we make once-a-year phone calls – well, J does.
And it is super special if I get to spend some of the time with my oldest in PJs, eating popcorn, and watching an old movie. That doesn’t happen every year — but when it does! 😊

Mainly, I just want to be surrounded by family, friends, good food, laughter, prayer, and the PEACE OF GOD, within.
Who am I kidding?! I want this every day!
So I guess we could say every day is a potential holiday!!

Nothing wrong with that, right?

“This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24 KJV

Psalm 145:17-18
Kathie Whitestone Thompson

Wrong, Following

Hello Friends, What a lovely Tuesday it is here in Lower Alabama and I hope it stays lovely to the end of the day and this post.
With that said, I offer this caveat: if this post goes as I suspect it will it shall not be a favored one for persons easily offended.
Blunt and to the point is on its way to this page I think.

Every day, day after day and night after night the people of this world shout with clenched fits thrust upward that GOD is wrong, and they are right.

How do the peoples of Earth do this?
Sin.

Every act of adultery says GOD, You are wrong!
Every act of fornication says GOD, You are wrong!
Every act of homosexuality says GOD, You are wrong!
Every act of gender confusion (as it is termed) says GOD, You are wrong!

Every lie, every theft, every covetous thought, every murder, every rape, every malicious word, every calloused action, every unholy thought we entertain, and every ungodly act we perform says GOD, You are wrong!

GOD, You are wrong!

How could we?!

How could HE?!!
How could He not immediately drop us all into Everlasting Torment?
Do you ever wonder that or are you still of the mind that your sins are not that bad?

That was me for many years.
So I can’t fault you for it,  but I can tell you it is wrong and deadly.

What’s the answer?
Repentance and FOLLOW JESUS.

And that my Friends brings me to another convicting string of thoughts.

The Disciples of The Gospel, found in Scripture, FOLLOWED JESUS. Even when they were not physically in His Presence, they followed Him because they did what He instructed them to do. Read the Gospels and you will see what I mean.

What Would JESUS Do? Do you remember that saying? It was written on bracelets, plastered on billboards, and voiced from pulpits. Even today we are told to “love like JESUS”.
But are we given practical steps to do that?
And how could “man” give us practical steps to love like JESUS anyway?
What does man know about loving like JESUS?

The Disciples FOLLOWED JESUS.
Are we getting that? They FOLLOWED.
What does follow mean?

Let’s look at this:  1.a. To come or go after; proceed behind: b. To go after in pursuit c. To keep under surveillance
2. a. To move along the course of; take b. To move in the direction of; be guided by

What do you take away from this?
I see the Disciples literally following JESUS around all over Judea, wherever He went they went.
featured-upper-room-jesus-riding-donkeyAnd when He gave them instructions to go and do they went and did.  i.e. get the colt. Prepare the upper room.

And we might say, Well, we don’t have JESUS physically here with us, we can’t follow Him around.

Is that true?
Do we have HOLY SPIRIT living within us?
Can we not follow HIM? Can we not be guided by Him?
John 14:26 and Acts 1:8

It’s a NEW picture playing on the screen of my mind too.
But I like it!
I am eager to see how He helps me consistently FOLLOW JESUS.
I figure it will take some time to get this revelation seated and consistently operating but I want it!

That’s it. That’s what I came to say.

Oh wait, I need to tie these two points together, don’t I?
In SIN we say, GOD, You are wrong. This means one thing: we are NOT following JESUS.

Terribly offensive, isn’t it?
BUT GOD has made a way —

Until next time ~~~ Shalom, Kathie

It Hurt

I am not here to publicly embarrass anyone. If I were, I would send this directly to Facebook, front and center on my personal page, because it was on my Facebook that the (unmodified) picture below was posted.
I checked out the original Poster’s page – it hurt.  I won’t return there.

It bleeds my spirit that multitudes of people today give testimony that they believe they can have GOD’s favor and forgiveness and live any way they choose, disobeying His Word daily.

It’s not so, People. It’s not so.

GOD commands His Children to practice holiness and obedience to His Scripture, and if we are not doing that, we need to REPENT immediately and we can be sure of this:
HE is NOT number 1 to any one of us if we are not practicing Biblical obedience, consistently daily.

Here’s the subject Facebook post.
I redacted the Facebook page names, wrote the caption, lettered in white script, and added a couple of flowers for covering.
img_8966

We must be careful how we live. 

Shalom, Kathie