"Channel or Vessel", which one am I?

good day beautiful people.          I hope and pray that you are all doing well these days.         I'm sorry for being absent for a while, but I needed a break.         I don't know if I'm back for the long haul yet or not.          I think I have decided to just take it a day, week, or month at a time and see what I have to share.         I do have several things that I can share about different things and I'll try to start that soon.

for now, the weather in my neck of the woods has finally started turning towards spring weather.         but yesterday the temps got up to 87*.           it was hot but it felt good and my seedlings loved it.         I have a lot of gardening to try to get done over the next 3 or 4 weeks.           I hope I can do it all.         it seems like it gets a little more difficult each year.           I'm sure it has nothing to do with age!!!         hahaha

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the title of this post is where my heart has been for quite a while.         "Channel or Vessel", which one am I?            which one are you?          what does it mean for us and those around us?

I had to take a serious look at this.         time for some soul searching and seeing where the Lord leads me in this.          some is good and some is actually ugly.         the ugly is what I've got to try to get rid of.         

we live in a world of instant technology.         in your face technology.         we're constantly bombarded with that said technology.          we was promised early on, 40 to 50 years ago that it was good and that it would makes our lives better.         boy was they ever wrong.           you know what, with all the instant bombardment of whats going on around the world, that's why our hearts are always racing, our blood pressure is always off the charts high and our health is failing.         you know what, human beings weren't designed to carry the weight of the whole world.         Jesus has done that for us.          we weren't designed to sit in front of a tv screen, or cell phone, or computer  and watch all the world events taking place 24-7.           we just weren't.         that's why home life is suffering, that's why we have children that don't know whether they are boys or girls.          that's why grown men and women that don't know what gender God designed them to be.          that's why this world has gone to hell in a hand basket as quickly as it has.           that's why no one knows who they are; who God made them in their mother's womb to be.         are you bucking the system so to speak, by denying yourself to be the male or female that God formed you to be while in your mothers womb?          if so, you are hell bound.        that's as simple as I know to put it.          that's not my opinion.           that's what the Word of God says.          if you don't believe me, read His Word.        you'll be quite astonished at what His Word says.         so when you're reading this, if you get upset, that's fine,  just make sure that you know that the Word of God says this and it's not just my opinion.          if I tell you it's just my opinion, then I'm part of the problem.      because when we go against God's plan and design for men to be men and women to be women, we are going against His will and that makes us the problem.         so I need for you to understand that this in not my opinion, but Gods Holy Word.

so as I struggle within myself to even find it within me to care about those out here that are living worse than animals and indoctrinating those that don't know any better, I have found it very frustrating and  hard to be a voice of reason while living is such an insane world.        this is insanity.         it can be described as nothing else.         insanity!!!!       

we murder babies on a daily basis!!!           insanity!!!!!!!            claiming mothers rights.      insanity!!!!         what about just going to the vet and getting spade or neutered.         that's what people do with their cats and dogs.            if you can't keep your legs closed, then maybe you need to see a vet.      people have more care and concern about dogs and cats than they do about human beings.         call it a blob of cells or a fetus or what ever you want to call it.        it's still a baby, created in the image and likeness of God, in the womb and it's a human being.         if you don't believe me, read the bible.         it's in there.       

all of this backwards insanity has just about taken it's toll on me.          something else that's just about pushed me to my limit is the state of our health care, or lack there of and the fact that no one actually cares.        everyone is of the mind, as long as it doesn't affect me, who cares?           well, I care and always have.         one person can't do much, but lots of people can.

we live in the day of indoctrination.           what ever evil and wicked action and behavior that one wants to participate in, they can and they have the right to indoctrinate those around them at the same time.         but Christians don't have those rights.           do you realize that we can get thrown in jail for telling someone that what they are doing is evil and wicked.            yeah, it's getting that bad.         we can't tell anyone that killing their baby, just because they didn't have enough self control to keep their legs closed can get us in trouble, all the while it's perfectly ok to kill a human being.    

when I think of all the crap that we have been indoctrinated with and are constantly bombarded with, it actually makes me sick.          sick enough to step away from my blog for a while.         it make me sick enough to try to even decide if I want or need any of this so called technology any more.

so that's why I took some time off and started to think about "Channel or Vessel, which one am I?"

lets look at these 2 words.          I haven't done any looking in the dictionary for any formal descriptions of either word.          what I'm going by is my uneducated definition of both words.         I figure my life experience can speak well enough for me in my descriptions of both words.

what is a channel?         when I envision what a channel is, I see a stream, or creek going from place to another.          water running from one area to another.          water in a running tributary stays pretty fresh and free flowing and most of the time, it's a very pleasant sight to see.        sometimes after a flood, it's not so pleasant to see.       a channel can also become blocked on one end and then it's a hazard and becomes a problem to others.      another description of a channel, to me, is something like a moat.          a ditch or trench with standing water to keep something in or to keep something out.          usually the water standing in something like this kind of channel, it will get stagnate.           it stinks, the soil and ground holding it is rotten with foul smell.        a channel can be full of good stuff or bad stuff.      

what is a vessel?           a vessel is something like a boat, pot or a bucket or a vat or large container to hold or carry stuff.        from liquids to grains to rock.            I most generally think of water again.         a water bucket holds something essential to life.             water is one of the essential elements we can't live without.            but when that vessel of water becomes stagnete, it's not good for sustaining life anymore.         it can be full of sickness.          a vessel full of soup is a wonderful thing, but when it's set out on the counter for 2 weeks, what ever was in that vessel is not healthy for consumption.          vessels can be full of good stuff or bad stuff.

a channel and a vessel are very similar in most all ways.           when I really look at what each are, they are very similar.         looking at our lives, which are we?           so, are we a channel or a vessel?            I've come to the conclusion that we are both a channel and a vessel.         but what I really need to decide about myself is, am I a good channel and vessel or am I bad channel or vessel.    

I want to be a  good vessel and manage the life that God has given me as well as I possibly can, with His help.        I've made a ton of mistakes along the way.         my vessel has been filled with life saving water that has turned stagnate at different times in my life and I think I'm in one of those stagnate times right now.        but the Lord is working on me and I know it.         so I really pray that it's short lived.         I want to be a vessel that is full of life giving, life saving love.          whether those around me want it or not.     

I also want to be a good channel and be a good steward of all the life giving and life sustaining blessings that God gives me on a daily basis.         I want the love of God to flow freely thru me to share with others as He so freely shares with me.          at different stages in my life, I have given of myself and shared more than I actually had to give.        and that's not being a good channel or steward of what God gives us.         we need to keep enough for ourselves so as not to get burned out and just falter at serving the Lord.

how can I continue to be a good channel and a good vessel?         I don't want to become stagnate and rotten and I don't want to let all the good that God does for me slip thru my fingers without clinging to a little for myself.        I pray for God to fill me up as His vessel and to help me share what He fills me with and be a channel for someone else to experience the blessings of God.      

just for fun, goggle the great hymn of faith, "Make Me a Channel of Blessing"  and read that hymn paying careful of the wording in the song.        I'm here to tell you and me both, that we can't ever be that channel of blessing for God with know sin in our lives.          yes, we all sin every day and we should all be repenting every day too.          the known sins in our lives are those sins that God call abominable and actions and behaviors that He says over and over in His word, that these actions and behaviors will not enter into the kingdom heaven.          they will not be found in heaven.          God is holy and He will allow unholy in heaven.  

so, this is why I've been struggling so much here lately.         I'm being bombarded by the evil and wickedness of this generation on a daily basis and I have grown hard hearted.        I've always been pretty much straight forward and blunt about things and not beat around the bush.          so when a person like me calls out sin and those around me look at me like I'm crazy, well, let's just say that all the insanity has just about caused me to not care about others anymore.        my head says, "let them go to hell, I'll hold the door open for them!!!!"          but my heart weeps and breaks because they can't see the seriousness of it.         I don't want anyone to go to hell.          and I think the Lord is showing me that it's everyones own individual choice and I can't make that choice for them.       

so my prayer for myself and for anyone else that dealing with this on a daily basis is for the Lord to hold us close and keep reminding us that the choice is for everyone to make and it's not mine/ours to make for them.  love them where they are and be a willing vessel for Him.         if I make myself a willing vessel for Him, then He'll make me a channel of blessing too.         

I don't know if this is where I was really planning on going with this post today or not.         but it is what it is and this is the struggle that I've been having.          how do I love those that are persistent in wallowing in sin when it feels like I'm casting pearls before swine.        Just like Jesus consistently loves me.           I can't love anyone in my own power, but I can love others thru the power of Jesus.         it takes a lot prayer to be a willing vessel, ready to be a channel in which the love of God can flow thru to others.        a lot of prayer.         it takes being in His word consistently.         it take a lot of forgiveness of self, on my part to let God use me as a channel of blessing to help fill other vessels with good stuff.

I still have a lot to sort thru in my head.         I don't mind telling you, it's been a struggle.            but again, the word of God says that following Him is not easy.           and it isn't.         the enemy will attack you.        the enemy will attack you!!!            THE ENEMY WILL ATTACK YOU!!!!!!!!          just know that.          we have to stay strong and in the Word and call on Jesus with every inhale and exhale of our lungs.  

I don't know if anyone else besides me needed this today,  but I know I did.         I pray that if you are having any kind of struggles like this that you will stay in the Word of God and ask Him to give you  clarity of mind and ask Him to help you stay faithful to His call in your life.         ask Him to help you know that people purposefully living is sin can NOT truly be Christians, even if they call themselves such.          when we have an experience with Christ, our lives change for the better.          killing babies and living in Sodom and Gomorrah are not actions of true Christians.         just remember that.      they call themselves that to make themselves feel better, but they are not Christians.        I have to remember that and ask God to help me remain faithful to the calling that He has over my life.

I pray that you can gain clarity over some of this.         I pray that I can gain more clarity over this and the only way to do that is to stay in the Word of God!!!           It cannot and will not fail either of us.

Father God, I pray that you will protect our minds and our hearts from all the wickedness that is in our world today.        I pray that you will give us clarity of mind in all this.        the enemy is running rampant and destroying lives in record numbers.           Your Word has told us that good will become evil and evil will become good, according to mans ways.           we are now living in that upside down world and I pray that You will protect us, Your people from this destruction.         please give us peace in our hearts and joy in our souls as we try to continue to serve You in this wicked and perverse generation.         Your will be done in our lives.         in Christ's Holy name I ask these things, amen.

be blessed and have a wonderful day, hugs, love and prayers for you all, patty