This Is a “sick” Post

Today I am writing this blog from my bed.  I have been sick with COVID for the past four days.

Yes, COVID is still a thing.

No, it is not a hoax.

Yes, I had the vaccine.

It came out of nowhere.  I was working and suddenly my body was on fire.  I had a raging fever that took me down.  

I have been quarantined to our bedroom while my wife is forced to sleep in the living room. 

She has taken care of me and endured my endless coughing, sneezing and groans.

I am not a good patient.

She knows I hate asking for things and being helpless.  

I thought I was making progress yesterday.  No fever or pain but then another wave hit and my temperature spiked again with a vengeance.

  

Yes, I have prayed.  I never really prayed for my own healing much before so I tried it. 

No, I am not healed.  I am still sick.

I don’t know why God didn’t heal me but I still believe He could if He wanted to.  These are things I really don’t understand and won’t waste my time trying.

When God doesn’t heal you, you just push through it the best you can. 

That’s what I am doing now.  

I lay here in bed angry at our politicians for making this virus a political issue.

Remember when they said it was a political thing when it was a WORLDWIDE pandemic?  We have these morons trying to take away the vaccines from us.  I can’t imagine how bad this would have been had I not been vaccinated.

I remember all the idiotic things that went on during the pandemic yet we elected the SAME president who was in office then. How did we let that happen?  

Right now I am sick of being sick. My nose is running constantly.  I have to stop typing so I can cough.  

This is the second time I have had COVID.  It is just as bad this time as it was before. 

When you get COVID one of the first thoughts you have is wondering how you got it.  I wondered how it got me this time but there isn’t anything I can do about it now.  I just want to get over it.

It’s a good sign that I am typing this blog since I couldn’t do anything for the past four days.  Maybe I am making progress.  

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) - since we can’t trust the idiots in our own government - there are currently 27,000 cases of COVID worldwide.  According to the WHO website, the United States is not providing any data to them.

Although our country wants to bury its political head in the sand, cases of COVID are growing in 16 states and likely growing in 14 others, plus in Washington, DC.

Over the past week, test positivity for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, rose from 10.2% to 11.2%, with levels as high as 17.9% in the south-central part of the country, followed by levels in the 11.3% to 14.3% range in the West and 11.6% in the Southeast.

You won’t hear about this on the news.

Do you know how we are getting this data?  They are testing wastewater in cities to get these numbers.  Can you believe that crap (no pun intended)?

What a responsible and honest government of the people would do would be to admit it still exists and find a cure for it.  Wouldn’t that be the thing to do?  Instead, they choose to ignore it, stop testing and end vaccinations.

Remember when Trump said:  “If you don’t test, you don’t have any cases.”

And some of you actually voted for him.

Sad.

Bottom line is that I am sick.  This is day four and the real experts say I have about 10 more days to get over this.  

So be warned.  COVID is still out there waiting to strike.  At least carry a mask with you and if you are in a crowded space at least wear it while you are there.  

I’m not going to get started on masks either.  I don’t like wearing them either and I’m not going to go crazy and wear them everywhere all the time again.  

Okay, enough of my ranting.  I have COVID and I just have to get through this once again.  It just would have been good if we had taken it seriously when it first started spreading.  

Don't Be Deceived About Being Deceived.

I don’t know what to say about Charlie Kirk. I am not an advocate of violence and in no way do I condone what happened to him. I also did not agree with his message or his tactics. What saddens me more is the venom of hate that I see coming from it. 

Sadly, we live in a time when people call evil good and good evil even the people who are supposed to know the difference. The great deceiver is actively working in our world and he is even deceiving people who we would consider the very elect among religious leaders.

It’s a crazy world right now. It’s very nasty and ugly. We used to be able to disagree and respect the opinions of others. I may not agree with you but I’m not going to attack you and I’m not going to waste my time debating you. I will just go my separate way.

We make heroes of people who have a message that is contrary to the Gospel. What is wrong with us? I am disturbed that many have been deceived by political activists who claim to support the message of Jesus Christ.

There are many warnings in the New Testament to be vigilant against deception.

Jesus cautioned his disciples to  "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many" (Matthew 24:4–5). He further warns that false messiahs and prophets will perform signs and wonders to deceive, "if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).

The Apostle Paul gave warning that, "I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3).

The Apostle John advised, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

Peter also gave warning that "there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies...and many will follow their destructive ways" (2 Peter 2:1–2).

Many people assume that anyone who speaks positively about Jesus is of God. However, false teachers can present a different version of Jesus or the Gospel that is not biblically accurate. The Bible also warns against seeking out teachers who say what people's "itching ears want to hear," which can lead to rejecting sound doctrine and chasing myths (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

So if the Bible gave us these numerous warnings then we should probably pay attention to it and not jump on the bandwagon of people who appeal to our political views.

Crabby Attitudes

Overlooking the Sea of Galilee is the Church of the Beatitudes. This is thought to be the location where Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount. Many years ago, I visited this site, our guide told us that the nuns at the Church of the Beatitudes do not like having tourists. In fact, they are known as the “Nuns with the crabby attitudes”. Ironic, isn’t it? The very location where Jesus preached a sermon on the attitudes a believer should have is the place you would expect to see it lived the most.

It isn’t that surprising when you see the attitudes of people today - even people call themselves Christians? There is a nastiness like we've never seen before. We need a serious attitude adjustment.

What did Jesus really say about our attitudes in the Bible passages which commonly referred to as the Beatitudes?

He said:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Believers are supposed to be people who know who they are in Christ and not seeking the fame and fortune of a ministry. There are too many today who are promoting themselves and their own "righteousness" while hating others.

"Blessed are they that mourn."
This isn’t only referring to funerals or grieving the dead, this about someone who has true Godly sorrow. Those who mourn are very sensitive about offending the Spirit and very in tune with the Spirit. Are we concerned about others? Are we desperate enough to pray and mourn for them?

"Blessed are the meek."
Meek doesn’t mean weak. This isn’t about turning the other cheek when someone slaps us. Pride often gets in the way of our ability to be meek. We must be willing to surrender our will to His will and let go of our pride.

"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness."
We should be people who want to do what is right. We should be the model of integrity. Today there are those who call evil good and representing that good is evil. This means we must be careful of the friends we hang out with. We need to prefer people with the same goal of seeking after righteousness.

"Blessed are the merciful."
We should be experts in forgiving people. When someone wrongs us, we shouldn’t be plotting our revenge or allow bitterness to take root in our hearts. We should not be easily offended. Unfortunately, some people also seem to be looking for ways to be offended.

"Blessed are the pure in heart."
The only way we will experience God’s presence in our lives is to get rid of anything that will hinder us from having a pure heart. No hidden sins or making excuses for things that are not of God. 

"Blessed are the peacemakers."
We need to be people who seek peace and not desiring to stir things up. Instead of looking for ways to be mad at someone, we need to look for ways to make things right even if it requires us swallowing our pride and making the first move. We should give people the benefit of the doubt and not that everyone is against us.

"Blessed are the persecuted."
If we boldly identify ourselves with Christ, we will not be popular. Now is the time to take a stand. This is not a popular message today. Evil people do not want to be held accountable, and we will not be accepted for opposing them.

"Blessed are the believers."
We have to make a choice to either believe or not believe.  Our nation is attacking those who believe in the true meaning of being a believer. 

Have you ever seen a bunch of crabs in a basket? Put in a basket, crabs pull each other down in their attempt to climb to the top, which makes getting out of the basket an almost impossible task. In the same way, our negative attitudes can affect other believers. If we offer no hope, no encouragement to each other, we will not achieve what God wants us to do. Certainly, we all have our bad times or when we are going through trials. I’m not saying that we will always be sugary sweet all of the time but when our attitude is always negative, we must recognize the need to adjust our attitude back in line with the beatitudes.