The Valley of Baca

I can remember being about twenty-five.  That time in my life was like being invincible.  I could conquer the world.  I am convinced that I did not really have faith either.  I had the kind of faith that you could see because I had my life before me and I had hope.  I did not understand that one could live in a hopeless situation and that faith in a hopeless situation would be difficult.  I am writing this from a place of losing so much that is impossible to get back.  Even if my life becomes filled with people and things, they will not and cannot replace what I lost.  You could not have told me that I would hit the valley of Baca.  It is the valley of weeping or the valley of Lamentations.  It is the place that you come to that even righteousness does not deter.  Christ hit the valley.  God hit the valley.  I hit the valley.  The solace that I take in the valley is that it is a passageway between two highlands.  The only way to get to higher ground is to go through the valley.  It is a place that you just past through.  If you are not careful, you will pick up depression and find yourself living in the valley.  If you are not careful, you can make the wrong decision and find yourself stuck in the valley.  You can make the wrong decision at the wrong time and find yourself dying in the valley.  I then make it a point to find out if the situation I am in is one for which I am simply passing through.  I would not want to trouble myself by trying to make “happily ever after” concerning a place that I should have left a long time ago.  The understanding that you were not meant to stay is hope in itself.  If I just hold on for change, it will come.  Even if I stand in one spot and do nothing, change will come.  Now, when I go through the valley for I am sure that I will again return someday, I understand that this too, will pass.

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Innocence from a guilty place

If he would have been in church on the altar, or parking cars or even singing in the choir, there would be seventy five accounts against the word of the liar, but he was not there.

If he would have been on this job, his seven to three or three to eleven, he would have been alibied when the enemy lied, but he was not there.

If he was at home tucking in his children and shelving the book he read, he could not possibly be shooting someone dead, but he was not here either.

If he had been at the bowling alley, or at the show, or grocery shopping,  or shoveling snow. 

If he had been cleaning his car, or doing his hair, or running a marathon , I swear,

No one would have thought he would have a gun.

No one would have thought that he was shooting and hiding, drive-by riding, and throwing the gun in the weeds.

No one would have thought he was clutching the bullets in his chest and firing on the nation’s best.

No one would have thought, but he was not here

All I know, is that he had a gun, he was not here, he was in the night.

How can I proclaim your wrong was really a right.

I would, but you were not here.

---

New

Over the past year, I have found it necessary to reinvent parts of myself.  The essence of me does not change, but the look definitely has. I began to think about salvation and the newness of it.  Sometimes, I think that we shortchange the newness that God can do after salvation.  If God created the mechanism to invent you, than surely he holds the key to reinvent you.  In this way, God can always produce a more beautiful you.  I am liking the me that God is recreating.  I am enjoying having the age to produce something that would have been questioned if I were younger.  What is God trying to do with you ?  Are you holding on to something out of tradition?  Maybe it worked fifteen years ago, but is obsolete now.  Maybe he made you new in 2001.  Ask him if it is time to make you new again.  It can really be a fun process.

I'm New
http://youtu.be/XT08zi4YeWQ

What you hoped for has come.

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

I can remember laying in bed as a child in the midst of poverty and despair.  The only thing I wanted in life was a cozy home in the western edge of town and to be in a “nice” neighborhood .  I wanted my family to have a car so that walking was not my only option and I wanted a beautiful wardrobe.  That was all a dream.  I did not have any of those things at that time, it was all just wishful thinking.  At the time, I was not built up to believe that my life would be any more than getting married to someone who worked at the tire plant and maybe having a couple of kids by age 25.  That was all that was handed to me.  Now, here I am at age 40 and what I always hoped for has come.  I live in the nice part of town in my own home.  I own a reliable car.  I have two closets full of clothing and I am the most secure that I have been in my life.  To forget what God has already done, is just to keep me living in the state of poverty that I grew up in.  No, some of my desires are sitting in my living room and in my driveway.  I am not in the same place that I was before and I am grateful.  To keep your eyes peeled on what you don’t have is to live in a state of poverty all your life.  At some point, you have to say that it is finished.  God has kept his promises to me and I now move into a place of simple enjoyment.  I may not be where I want to be, but thank God that I am not where I used to be.  God has greatly prospered my way.  The best is yet to come.

Why don't you take a praise break and raise your hands for the dreams he has already made come true.  God is still a dreamcatcher. 

---

Pharoe

Today, I thought about Pharoe.  When asked when he wanted to be delivered, he said, “Tomorrow”.  I find it odd that locust have eaten your crops, flies are in your hair, frogs have taken over the city and your water source has been defiled with blood yet you want to be delivered tomorrow.  I guess, for some people, things have to get worse before they can get better.  They are not really prepared for deliverance.  They aren’t prepared to be free.  I notice that they will come to your house and vent about their frustrations, but become angered when you make suggestions.  Even a battered wife, will find a good reason to stay with her abusive husband.  The moment you say, “leave him”, she thinks you want him for yourself.  She accuses you of trying to make decisions for her life and she rejects you.  That person is not ready to be delivered.  For this I say, just walk away.  It may take some stitches before she or he gets the hint, but this situation cannot clog up my joy and peace.  I have problems of my own.

Friendship

Whether in the urban jungle or

In Bum Fly

Whether hidden under rocks

Or dropped out the clear blue sky

A friend is a sanctified sounding board

I could only hope that life would award

This takes time, don’t run too soon

Some turn to werewolves on the full moon

Yes, I often mistook

A disciple for a crook

The smoke reveals the plume

The masked man in the costume

Real friends come of the stock

Who walk the walk and

Talk the talk

In my life I have only had a few

But I swear I’ll fly to Timbuktu

To this world there will be no end

To what I will do for a real friend.

A Christmas Present

General Sherman began his famous march to the sea.  When he came to a town that resisted him, he shot everybody shooting at him.  He took all the livestock for provisions.  He destroyed the place of their munitions.  He pulled up the railroad tracks and when he was done, he barbecued it.  Atlanta was a sprawling southern town made mostly of wood and it was feeding the southern war.  General Sherman’s fame reached Atlanta and when he arrived they had blown their own gun powder up.  All that was left to do was to burn it.  Sherman did just that, he burned it to the ground.  As he continued his march, he headed for Savannah only to find that they had surrendered.  General Sherman offered the city of Savannah to Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present.  Four months later, the Civil war was over.

At the end of his victory, there was an offering.  When God brings you through a battle like the one you have been going through, commemorate the occasion.  I like to mark my victories so that I will never forget them.  Sit around the old oak tree and tell the story of how we got over.  There is nothing wrong with bragging on the God you serve.

Sherman's Plan/Don't Back Up

General Sherman offered this solution to his superiors.

1.        He would take no provisions.  He would live off the land.

2.       He would only take the ammunitions he needed.

3.       He would fight confederate soldiers, and anyone who took up arms against him.

4.       He would take possession of any farm animals and provisions from the enemy he conquered.

5.       He would burn down everything he did not want.

6.       He would destroy the railroad.

7.       He would wrap railroad ties around trees.

In other words, he killed everybody, stole everything and then burned it all to the ground.  Many people thought that General Sherman was crazy.  They even told him that they did not believe he was going to make it.  When you look back at it, it was a brilliant plan.  The spoils of war kept the cost low, and the damage he left behind made you think before fighting him.  He was not one to wait until you saw him coming to wave your flag.  He was one you sent a message to with your white flag in it.  Once he was engaged, he did not stop until all your pigs were in a wagon, all your belongings were in a flaming heap and all your sons were six feet under. 

Total warfare is about follow through.  Once you are engaged, you must follow through.  You can’t back up and look like you are changing your mind.  When you are fighting a strong enemy, hesitation can signal a chance to defeat you.

Total warfare

My Hero

William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–65), for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States.^[1] Military historian B. H. Liddell Hart famously declared that Sherman was "the first modern general".^[2

It takes a strategic plan to create a war campaign to end a bloody war.  General Sherman was a man who understood that the ordinary way of fighting just did not do.  One thing I strongly dislike, is when people don’t know how to get off the merry-go-round and try something new.  I have sat on committee’s that want to implement something new, but reject everything new.  General Sherman was tired of the war and he was willing to try something different.  I believe that you have to get tired of doing what is not working in your life.  If you keep fighting a battle with the same mentality, you will be defeated simply because there is no element of surprise.  The enemy knows exactly what you are going to do.  He does not expect you to praise God in the midst of cancer, or break out in singing in your loneliness or dance in the aisle when you lose your job.  You have got to do something else besides, hit the bottle or grab the pipe.  General Sherman was willing to take chances.  General Sherman employed a strategy called "total warfare".  He would not only strip the land of it's soldiers, but all it's resources rendering them helpless and waving a white flag.

Guerilla Warfare

When the British came over to fight the Revolutionary war, we were a young country with little munitions.  We were unskilled and we were outnumbered.  In Britain, they learned how to fight formally by lining up in  a line.  Someone said, “Fire” and they all fired their guns.  When they got up, the next group got on one knee until they fired their weapons.  As they fired, they advanced.  The colonist knew that they could not fight that kind of war, they weren’t trained for it.  They used a method of warfare made famous by the Native Americans already on the continent.  It is called Guerrilla warfare.  It is a type of guerilla warfare that involved shooting, running, hiding, and tricking.  It was winning by any means possible.  The Britain’s were no match for this type of warfare.  They were not used to having to find their target hiding in the swamps.  They also had bright red uniforms with a big white “X” telling us where to shoot.  It is no secret that we won.  I think that we try to formally fight the enemy.  We try to gain strength from just coming to church on Sunday and Wednesday.  We try to gain strength by just doing the conventional.  When the enemy is more powerful than you or simply just wiser, you have to get crazy.  You have to go and find a revival, call up a friend and have a shut in, pump Christian music in your home all day long.  You have to go to every service that your church offers and make a friend out of the strongest person you can.  This is not a cute fight.  It is a nonconventional battle.  This nonconventional battle requires nonconventional means.

Manuever War

This war strategy is a strategy where the enemy hits you so hard that you become disoriented and confused.  This is the blow  that has you seeing stars and catching your breath.  It is the kind of hit where you may have to stop and think about how to recover before you move on.  In December of 1941, the Japanese army did just that at Pearl Harbor.  They hit us so hard that it took us a while to recover.  In Germany, they called this, "The Blitz".  I acknowledge that the enemy can punch you and leave you heaving, but the key is in how you get your wits about yourself.  After Pearl Harbor, it was like awakening a sleeping giant.  America came back and ended the entire war by dropping two bombs on two cities.  Now, all over the world people talk about why we did that.  I remind historians who question our ethics that we did not start the fire.  They bombed us first.  The blows of the enemy can shake us, but we should get up with the resolve to take them out.  We have the power because we have God.  The Father, the Son and the Holyghost is a deadly combination.  Japan may have won the battle, but America won the war.  You need to come back into the ring swinging until the bell rings.  I know that the blow will knock you off your feet, but it should not knock you out the ring.

Shut Up

A war of attrition can come upon you from people you would not think are attacking you.  When the enemy is trying to wear you out, he keeps coming at you in an area that you are weak until you just give in.  This is the couple trying to have a baby, who has to put up with meddling relatives asking them every five seconds if they are expecting.  This is the mother who crosses the line to remind her son or daughter that they really should lose weight every time their feet push under the table.  This is the meddling father who constantly reminds the daughter, that she is not getting any younger and she needs to get married, despite the numerous failed relationships from which she needs a break.  This is the church mother who is trying to hook you up with a husband while trampling on your right to privacy, like you need her help.  This is the person who constantly reminds you that you don't have the finances you need.  If they said it once, it may have been a constructive.  When they said it twice, it was irritating.  When they said it three times, it was an attack.  The attack was to make you jump up and do something without thinking just so you can get the enemy to shut up.  I can remember when many people seemed to violate the privacy of my life with their notions of how they think it should have ran.  When I got tired of the voices, I shut them up.  I told all them married women who stayed in my business to go to their own homes, jump in the bed with their own husbands and leave me alone.  I told my relatives that my weight was not their problem nor their concern.  I cut off a whole side of my fathers family because they could not accept a woman in ministry.  I have stopped folks in mid sentence.  I have addressed them while the words are oozing from their mouth, not because they were trying to help me, but because they were trying to attack me.  The problems for most of us is that we don't know when we are attacked.  We get confused because the attacker is our mother or our father or our friend.  Sometimes, you got to look folks in the eye and rebuke the devil if they are acting like the devil.  I love my relatives, but they ain't above God, so in the name of Jesus, get off my back.



An Attack
http://youtu.be/feK8DO8t-Ow

Not an Attack
http://youtu.be/TEmhq6tgY9Q

War of Attrition

War is not pretty, but it is necessary.  One day, while studying something for a class unit, I began to take a strong look at the strategies of how man fights man.  If these strategies work on man, then they may be strategies the enemies uses to defeat us.  As we know, Lucifer tried to exalt his throne above God and I read no where in the Bible where he still is not trying to do it.  He is trying his best to get the best of God.  One example of military strategy is a War of attrition.  In a war of attrition, the enemy attempts to wear out his opponent.  The Vietnam war was a war of attrition, the North Vietnamese were sure that they could tire the South Vietnamese.  It worked.  In a war of attrition, you have to make the enemy think twice about repeated attacks.  As long as America was in the conflict, we gave them everything we had.  It is only when we left that the South Vietnamese were overcome.  While we were there, the enemy thought twice about attacking.  If the enemy wants to keep attacking, you have to show him that it is not worth his while.  Bothering me makes me go deeper in God.  I run to the rock quicker.  I call for help sooner.  I get on the altar earlier.  I want the enemy to think long and hard before he attacks me, it just may make me go higher.  Don't let this tactic wear you out.  The enemy only backs off when the strategy is not working.



War
http://youtu.be/bX7V6FAoTLc

Shoutin time

The process of becoming something great is a great thing.  I like the ending but I love the process.  Sometimes, if you just stop and think about where you are versus where you were, you will run in the aisle.  I may not be where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be.  I don’t have to run from elephants in the living room and I can shut my door on every kind of confusion.  You have to have an appreciation for the desert.  It sure ain’t Egypt.  I keep a scrapbook of different events in my life, so that I can do just that.  I like the to take that stroll down memory lane and then burst out into a shout when I see how far the Lord has brought me from.  If God has brought you from a mighty long way.  If God has turned your life right side up, here is your music.  Find some space and let loose.

Karen Clark Sheard 101 Convocation

http://youtu.be/A5XBNJ6lMyU

Pray

When I was a child, I remembered senseless praying.  The saints would pray for people that I wrote off in my mind as useless.  They prayed for people so close to death, that even the doctor had given up and went home.  I can remember a time when you prayed until there was no need to pray.  I miss that time.  Now, people pray until the odds are against them, but they don't pray against the odds.  They pray until God makes a decision but they then don't pray for mercy.  They pray for God to fix the problem, then don't pray for God to fix the problem maker.  We need to pray until there is nothing else left to pray for.  Hope against hope.  Until God gets me off my knees, I am praying.




I know what prayer can do.
http://youtu.be/ZE4QRK9Qr8o

Intent

God knows the heart and the intent of it.  We all tend to think that if we talk a lot, we can hide intent, but the sad fact is that intent is hard to hide.  Whenever I am with a person for whom I am looking for deception, they seem to follow the same pattern.  Private people, like myself, let you know from the beginning of the relationship that I will not tell you everything about me.  I have nothing to hide, but my life is not a museum.  I am pretty forward.  Liars are different.  Most of them try to find something to say.  They have spent time making up excuses and rehearsing lines so that when the subject comes up, they have a quick and easy answer.  it is almost, too convenient.  Many liars resort to the answer that they think makes all their problems go away.  "I don't know".  I have heard this in so many forms."I blanked out and when I woke up, I was in handcuffs", or "I hit my head and I can't remember anything" or "I got confused because of a medication I was on".  Intent is rarely said through the mouth, but if you watch what they do, it becomes as apparent as the sun at noon.   Behavior speaks louder than words.

Don't Know Why I Didn't Come
http://youtu.be/tO4dxvguQDk