SHUT OUT

    Today it appeared I had been shut out of my blog. It has been months since I posted an article .

That wasn't too surprising. With the pandemic, I only went out among crowds three times in a year.  But I didn't intend to drop out of society.

I love people, especially friends and family. I missed seeing them and being with them all.

Yet, we were able to get our immunizations, one shot and a booster, and we haven't been ill. Praise the Lord! Our children and grandchildren were spared from the virus as well.

Our special friends in Pueblo, Colo., came down with it though. They feared the vaccine because they'd had an effect from a flu shot years ago. The flu shot, as well as the vaccine, are made from killed viruses, so what affected them must have been a mild form of the sickness, or something else.

Whatever the case, they became seriously ill from Covid. I'm thankful they didn't pass away. But they were totally unprotected from from the virus because they hadn't received the immunization.

One of them had to go to the hospital in an ambulance and the other was flight lifted  to Denver, if I remember correctly.

They and we are thankful friends and relatives know how to pray and we all are thankful God answers prayer. We also are thankful for medical blessings we enjoy  in the United States, for the people who studied and learned how to take care of people who are sick, and for the miracles that come from the God who created us, gave humans knowledge about what to do for the sick, and loves all of us no matter who we are and what we need.

The Lord doesn't always give us miracles, but he never leaves or forsakes us. He said he'd never forsake us, and that includes everything we may go through.

Scripture tells us Jesus died on the cross so that we can accept him as our Savior and never die. Even though our body may die, the spirit goes to  God who gave it. When the thief who died on another cross beside Jesus repented and said, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom," Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in Paradise. "

He also told the sisters of Lazarus, "He who lives and believes in me will never die."

Jesus showed his power over death when he raised Lazarus from the dead!

But the most tremendous testimony to the world and everyone in it was when Jesus, who lay in a closed and sealed tomb after the crucifixion, his hands and feet bloody and his side still bleeding and sunken where the sword entered, walked out alive three days later--alive forevermore!

He showed himself to the doubting, to five hundred people at once, ate with them, and walked into a closed room and stood before them.

Then he went up in the clouds, and promised to come back again.

Who will come out of their graves and meet him in the air? Check it out at 1Thessalonians 4:14-18.

INSPIRING BOOKS FOR LAST-MINUTE GIFTS

 

By Ada Brownell

 

SQUEAKY CLEAN NOVELS; Suspense; Humor; Spiritual Payload

The Lady Fugitive (60 Reviews)

Peach Blossom Rancher

Love’s Delicate Blossom

Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult

 

 

FAITH-BUILDING NON-FICTION:

 

Swallowed by Life, (You're more than a body)

Imagine the Future You,

Following the Tracks (Life with the Railroad);

Confessions of a Pentecostal

What Prayer Can Do--(55 reprinted articles

From The Pentecostal Evangel)

 Amazon Ada Brownell author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

 

JESUS IS COMING? ARE YOU READY?

By Ada Brownell

Centuries before “Beam me up Scotty” became a common phrase from the television sci-fi show Star Trek, a well-known person stood on a mountain in Israel and went up through the clouds and out of sight. No space ship, no airplane, no parachute, no rockets, no fuel. Just a blue sky and a few white clouds. Not even a huge eagle taking on passengers.

The event was witnessed by a crowd of spectators, who craned their necks until he was out of sight. Mouths dropped open, hands shaded their eyes as they stared. Some stood on tiptoes. Others ran on the dirt road surrounding the peak and tried to see higher into the blue sky.

A few young men swiftly tucked their robes around their legs and tried to climb up on a boulder, but two huge figures dressed in white stood in their way.

Chatter died down. Women wept, and a few tears tricked into the beards of men.

Everybody knew the Roman government voted for the death penalty after the Sanhedrin, the highest court in ancient Jerusalem, carried out the sentence. After all, he claimed to be the Son of God.

Then in three days witnesses said he was alive. The guards at the tomb reported his bloody body stolen by his disciples. But how could they do that with so many soldiers guarding the tomb? If there was a body why didn’t someone find it?

Reports kept coming in that people had seen him alive, talked to him, and even though he performed miracles, some didn’t believe. While eating with his disciples, he vanished from their sight (Luke 24:31). He appeared to them in a closed room with the door shut (Luke 24:36-40).

For forty days he taught about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3), and showed them by many infallible truths that he was alive.

 “But how did he go up like that?” a loud voice demanded.

The crowd shoved their way toward the two men dressed in white. Shoulders wide and strong, the huge creatures stood their ground. “Silence!”

Immediately you could have heard an olive leaf drop.

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing into heaven?” one of them said, while the other kept the people back. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11 KJ).

The creatures in white disappeared, and Peter moved to where they stood.   “We have a command from the Lord. Let’s go into Jerusalem like Jesus said and pray and tarry for the Holy Spirit!” Peter shouted.

“Yes!” John answered. “He said not to leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.”

Jesus had been teaching them that God had something special for them. “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

A dunking in the Holy Spirit? What would that be like? But they thought he was going to establish his kingdom.

He had said, ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

That was when gravity let loose of him. His scarred feet with bare toes wiggled in his sandals, and he started going up. The crowd watched in awe, but he disappeared before their eyes.

No matter how long they stared at the sky and the place on Mount Olivet where their Lord had stood, he was gone.

“He’ll come again,” someone said. “The angel—or whoever he was—promised.”

Amazed people walked around and stared up at the sky from a different angle. They touched the ground where he stood and somebody pointed out his footprints.

“We may as well go home,” one of the women complained, but then a man stood on a rock before the grumbling crowd.

“Jesus said not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.”

“Wait?” a shrill voice inquired.

When the sweaty group arrived in the city, about one hundred and twenty people remained. They likely had five hundred people who saw him go into the clouds because 1 Corinthians 15:6 says Jesus was seen by up to five hundred brethren at once. It could have been more, counting the women and children. In those days they usually counted only the men, but some evidently went home instead of going into Jerusalem. Yet Acts 2 mentions women. Mary, the mother of Jesus was there with his brothers.

They named Peter, James, John and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James.

By now they had a noisy crowd in the upper room. They waited, and then began to pray.

Whispers echoed. “He said he’s coming back!”

“How can that be?” a loud whisper filtered from ear to ear. “The man clothed in white said Jesus would come back like we saw him go.”

Similar to a family at the airport today, whose relative hasn’t arrived despite waiting and watching, Christians have studied the Bible and tried to figure out exactly when the Lord will appear in the skies, ready to pick us up.

Some think the flight is on a schedule and they can figure out when they depart for heaven. Their faith is built on many scriptures such as 1 Thessalonians 4: 14—18 KJ.  ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

“How can that be?” a loud whisper filtered from ear to ear. “The man clothed in white said Jesus would come back like we saw him go.”

Similar to a family at the airport whose relative hasn’t arrived despite waiting and watching, Christians have studied the Bible and tried to figure out exactly when the Lord will appear in the skies, ready to pick us up.

Some think the flight is on a schedule and they can figure out when they depart for heaven. Their faith is built on many scriptures such as 1 Thessalonians 4: 14—18 KJ.  ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

NEXT : How do we get ready for His coming?  

                                                                                                       :          ;

FOLLOWING THE TRACKS

 

FOLLOWING THE TRACKS SUMMARY

By Ada Brownell

 

Ever wondered how trains going different directions on the same track arrive safely at the destination despite rock slides, derailments, a fire burning a trestle bridge, and other hazards?

How in the era before Centralized Traffic Control railroad employees communicated and prevented accidents?

Lester C. Brownell was age eighteen when he started working for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, after earning a certificate from Gale Institute’s telegraph school in Minneapolis. He was one of many employees who helped transport people, animals and mammoth loads from coast to coast, around the clock. For years, telegraph was about the only means of communication.

When he began his career, an unknown stomach ulcer ready to rupture worked on his insides, and he didn’t even notice when he stood beside the rails, his pants flapping in the breeze, meeting a train going 50 miles an hour. With a Y-stick in his hand, he delivered urgent transcribed telegraph messages up to the engineer.

When he married Ada Belle Nicholson, she became the support and companion he needed. After they married in 1953, together they conquered challenges of moving twelve times the first three of their 66 years, finding places to live in the desert or snowy mountains, and making a boxcar, a depot, and shacks into homes..

Then Centralized Traffic Control changed the railroad and the lives of workers. Enjoy the history, the humor, the romance, the suspense, the rewarded faith—a true story.

 

 https://tinyurl.com/y2w2jqyu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Socialism as I witnessed it

By Ada Brownell

The first time I viewed television news, Fidel Castro’s military was mowing down men with a machine gun in front of a trench where their dead bodies fell.

It was 1960, if my guess is right. I was 22 years old. My husband and I had two young children.

I was horrified at what I had seen. We viewed the event when we were over at our neighbors’ house. The husband was a signal maintainer for the railroad. We didn’t own a television set, and that scene didn’t help me want one. We lived in Thompson, Utah. The little town had just shy of 100 people who built a tower so television signals would come in.

A few months later we bought a television, and the news usually wasn’t that violent. But everywhere television showed the multitudes of rafts Cuban people fashioned and loaded up with their relatives trying to get to America. Many of them drowned, and that continued for years.

I think the majority of them knew the risks. At one Trump rally recently with tears a man who escaped from Cuba told how his father risked everything to get his family to the United States. He asked, “Where else could we go?”

Communism was atheistic, and controlled people’s lives, even their thinking. I felt sorry for the Cubans.

That feeling never changed in the many years since, even though television reception has improved in the U.S. and they’re no longer controlling the people with machine guns. But sad to say, the promised Utopia— first with socialism, and then Communism, never came.

Cubans still are oppressed. When I was younger most of the cane sugar that fed the U.S. and maybe the world, came from Cuba, and I think most of the people who lived there before communism were comfortable financially.

The country now is open somewhat to tourists, but it’s tight by what I heard. My brother and his wife went on a mission trip a few years ago to work on a Cuban church building and do some other charitable work.

The church had a measure of freedom, but within limits. The people were poor and their lives supervised and controlled by the government.

A talented young man in the church already had his future planned by the government: where he could get higher education, what his career would be, and where he would work, although that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

Most people in the church lived in poverty, including the pastor.

For years Cuban autos have fascinated men. All their cars are old, but the guys knew their transportation depended on keeping them running, so a lot of men became the mechanic that would keep the vehicles running, probably from parts cannibalized from junked autos.

The cars on Cuban highways and streets are so old they would be valuable to collectors in the United States.

Any America who thinks, reads, and remembers history will not trade their freedoms for socialism, no matter how much “free stuff” is offered.

Every American should think before they vote.

 

 

  

PARENTING FOR THE FUTURE

HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN GET TO HEAVEN

By Ada Brownell

One of the first things I learned about parenting was my husband and I didn’t have to do it by ourselves.

God calls others to help. Ephesians 4:10-12 says, “⁰He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fulfill all things.¹¹ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Our children had great pastors, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, evangelists, as well as wonderful Christian friends who influenced them in the choice to give their lives and talents to Christ.

To help your children make the choice to “go to heaven,” here are a few things we did when our five offspring were young. They all made Jesus Lord of their lives.

·       Attend a full gospel church where the gospel is preached and rightly divided. Full gospel churches usually teach salvation comes only when we believe Jesus died for our sins, and resurrected on the third day. (John 3:16 and Romans 10:9) .Full gospel churches believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible as God’s Word, the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of supernatural speaking in other tongues. They also believe in Divine Healing, the Catching away of the church in the rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus.

·        Scriptures for you to teach your children: “If thou will confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness “(1 John 1:9).

 Another: “But you will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me …” (Acts 1:8). “And while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. .. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel who also said, ‘This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11).

·       Become a student of the Word of God yourself. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15).

·       Teach them to become students of the Word. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God (God breated), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16)

Hopefully your church has programs for youth like Royal Rangers, Missionettes, Bible Quiz, Talent contests, and services where young people can use their talents and ministries.

·       Expose them to great people—Bible characters and adults as well as teens who are living for God.

·       Go to missions services. When they’re just forming opinions and finding people to “worship” let them know the difference between fantasy, fiction, reality, and history. They may adore Spiderman and Star Wars characters, but they should understand they don’t exist, and when God enabled David to kill Goliath, David wasn’t a vegetable from Veggie Tales. He lived, loved God and did great things in His name.

* Teach your children God loved them from the beginning of their lives. “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5).

However, when Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem, he was different from any other baby because he is God’s son. Jesus was in heaven before he came to earth. Jesus was there when the world and people were created. Jesus, God’s only Son; and the Holy Spirit were there in the beginning. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

 Buy them great books and go to movies that support Christian values.

 

MOST IMPORTANT; Pray for and with our children frequently. Ask God for wisdom. He promised to send wisdom to those who ask for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

SCREAMING SIRENS

 

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

 

 A siren’s wail penetrated the early evening air. A young mother ran out of the house. She imagined her child lying in a pool of blood somewhere in the street. But she found her toddler playing happily in the yard.

Another mother parted the living room drapes, looking anxiously toward the street. Why was her teenage son so late driving the car home from the store? Was he now breathing his last beneath the wreckage of the automobile?

A father, just returning from work, heaved a sigh of relief when there was no fire truck in front of his home.

A young fellow coming out of a supermarket chuckled. “Somebody’s getting a ticket.”

Sirens can mean many different things. They make imaginations run wild. But their main purpose is to warn. They want motorists and pedestrians to get out of the way of a speeding ambulance, fire truck or police vehicle. Those who don’t give the emergency vehicle the right-of-way often cause serious accidents, creating an even larger emergency.

Other warning sounds are evident in our world—violence, war, revolution, famine. More important the rise of atheism from our schools, and churches that offer everything but the gospel and the Word of God.

Centuries ago a physician wrote a warning about these problems. Its theme: When these things encompass the earth, a great event is about to take place—and every person should prepare for it. Dr. Luke, more widely known as St. Luke, penned the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament and the book of Acts, relating the words of Jesus when he was on earth.

One of the warnings he delivered was about the second coming of Christ (Luke 21:7-36) that came from the mouth of Jesus.

Matthew sounded a similar warning. The warnings foretold about the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 40, but then Jesus connected events that would come to pass that would precede His Second Coming.

The Lord mentioned his second coming to his disciples several times, Here’s what he said in Matthew 24: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. ⁵ For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. ^“6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹ Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

¹⁰ And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. ¹² And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. ¹³ But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

^“ And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come…”

According to the Scriptures, today’s world tensions are dovetailing into the Battle of Armageddon, described in the Book of Revelation.

Today’s warnings are largely ignored. Some people have heard about the Second Coming all their lives –and they say, “It hasn’t happened yet.”

They may end up like those who have had to run to storm cellars so many times without experiencing a tornado, they have become callous.

Are you ready for Christ’s return? Have you accepted Him as your personal Savior? ”He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

Heed the screaming sirens of the times, warning you to get ready. Jesus is coming! Whether you are dead or alive when he bursts through the clouds with the sound of a trumpet, if you’ve repented of your sins and made Jesus Lord of your life, you’ll meet him in the air, and from then throughout eternity you’ll be with the Lord. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18).

“Two men shall be in the field, one will be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know the hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:40-41 KJ).

NEXT: More quotes from the Bible about the catching away of the church and Christ’s second coming. “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.