A-1GAL: I am 14. How old R U?

  

      Megan typed her message and waited.

Why was she taking so long? She was so eager to see me online again. Oh, no. She’s the only friend I have in the world and now she’s not even answering me back. Maybe I should TWITTER her.

     Someone moved in the kitchen. The refrigerator opened and closed. “Megan!”

     Oh what does she want now?

      “It’s just a matter of time before they take over!”
      Jared reached out to change the station. He swerved and missed the car coming down on his side of the street. He honked and quickly rolled down his window. “You’re on the wrong side of the street, Pal!”
      Valley of the Shadow blog - Part 2 - from author, Pola Muzyka. Escape the Hezbollah

Miriam always walked down that street. She remembered the smell of the bread coming out of the bakery when she walked by as customers opened and closed the door with their purchases. The temptation to go inside was almost always greater than her desire to lose a few more pounds.

Be still a minute. Be quiet and imagine an area where there are no shadows. Imagine that everywhere you look there is brilliant color, exquisite beauty and immeasurable love. You feel the love permeating the atmosphere around you. You try to breath deeply and your heart skips a beat cause you can't take in as much air as you desire from this breathtaking place.

God took a speck of dust and created a human being. Did you ever wonder why? I did. I just don't understand why we keep ignoring that. The rest is insignificant. How big was the dust? Where did it come from? Was it space dust? Did it smell? What did it smell like if it did? The important part is found in Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Four words can be the hardest words in the English language to say. But these four words can change everything.

It's hard for us to conceive in our loneliest times, that God is still with us. In fact, in our most fearful times, God is with us and even in our sinful times, God is with us. He is with us in the storms of life, when we walk away, when we are angry, bored, passive, and when we are passionate. There is not one single day, hour or minute that goes by when God is not with us. He hears all, sees all, and knows all -- even our thoughts. Nothing escapes Him. Nothing crushes Him, nor eliminates His expectations that one day we (those of us who's name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life) will choose to walk in His footsteps, get off the path to destruction, and be filled with His Holy Spirit.

In Escape the Hezbollah our hero went from one trial to another. Each time he went through another trial he had plenty of opportunity to accumulate resentment. The only thing that seemed to keep him going was love. Love makes the world go round. Literally. God's love does keep the world in motion.

In Escape the Hezbollah, Joseph had faith that he would somehow get out. He had faith in his own desire to get himself out no matter what it took. He forgot to have faith in God. Whenever anything went wrong he assumed God was not with him. He was sure God left him, particularly when he chose to conform to what he knew was wrong in order to carry out his own will (to save himself and warn his fiancée). 

In the world we're told that knowledge is power. In the Bible we're told that the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.