The last Resort

I had the chance to talk with a friend the other day about something that has been bugging me for the past few years. Honestly this isn't something that I've really cared about until lately, only because it has come up a lot. We are going to talk about prayer today. or like, this month, Cause I only blog every so often. 

But lately, I have become and expert on prayer. No, I haven't. But one thing I have noticed lately in this time of day is followers of Christ saying "Well, all we can do it pray" or "I guess we can only pray now..." 

This bugs the snot out of me, *blows nose* but really, since when has prayer become a last resort instead of our first line of defense? Who was it that said 

"we can do all things by ourselves, unless things go wrong, then start talking to God." 

Yeah! Nobody said that! So I'd just like to take a few moments to press a few verses about prayer on you so that you leave this blog feeling like 

Lets take this seriously now though, look at Psalm 145:18 "The lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."

In truth. Is the truth that we should live in prayer? I work in the fast food industry and I see lots of people come and go, daily. And I often see someone who seems like they are having a rough day, I don't judge them for being grumpy with me. I just pray for them, their day, and their loved ones. I'm not writing this because I'm a perfect example of how to live life. I only say this, cause it's different from what most would do. after all, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray continually" 

Take a glance at Romans 8:26 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pay for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." This one is beautiful. I don't even need to expand on this. 

lastly lets look at Colossians 4:2 says "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."

That last one is so simple. Just, flat out basically saying that we should pray no matter what, in the darkest of nights, in the hottest of sunny days. whether we are made of money or we are gather pennies to keep food at the table. We can always have prayer, it should always be our first line of defense. 

Thank you for reading, my name is Jonathan, and I belong to him. 

Is it really this simple?

I'm sitting here at 10:30pm writing this because I cannot find sleep in my consciousness. My life is before me and I seem to not be able to do anything to get myself forward. I just get motivated, and then suddenly I get hit with this wave of whispering consciousness, that's telling me I'm stupid, that I can't do anything, that I'm worthless.

But I know this is far from truth. I know that God has greater plans for me, and I know that he loves me more than I could ever comprehend. I love him so so much. He uses me as a tool in so many of my friends lives, and it's been so amazing to see them grow in faith with him, as they walk the road with him.

But here I am, stuck, and my feet are stuck to the ground, I'm to nervous about my future that I can't do anything about it. It's sad butt true, I'm week in the area of integrity. But in me I know one thing I love. Is preaching God's name, telling people the truth, and showing compassion where other's wouldn't. I love to represent forgiveness as a whole. I love who I am.

Is that my problem? Do I love who I am so much that I'm to scared to move forward in my life? That might be the case. but one thing I need to remind myself, is that I have a spiritual gift. And I know God will utilize that, for his greater glory. And I'm very happy to oblige.

I've come to the conclusion that the only thing holding me back is doubt. Because I want to go into pastoral studies, but the thing holding me back is not any part of me. It's just the demons inside of my soul telling me that I'm worthless. Why would they do that? Because I know that I have the capability to reach out my long, clumsy arms, and touch so many people's lives. That is why the devil would be working against me. It explains a lot.

I'm only wrote this for my own sanity. I just needed to clear my mind. I do apologize about this.

My name is Jonathan, and I belong to him.

I belong to him.

Last night was my last performance of my last show I will probably ever be in. And I look forward now to college, or I'm trying to at least.

As I'm singing the last song, I look out into the audience and see my mom, almost in tears, as this is her last curtain call from her line of six kids. I made her proud, I can tell cause she was crying. Looking around at all my friends I've made in the past four years here in this drama group. They are all smiling and rejoicing God's name.

As the song finishes, the lights go down. I look over at my friend, who played the main character. I give him a hug. He doesn't see the tear in my eye, but I let him know that he is going to be missed. Walking off the stage two of the girls who played big parts give me high fives, and a pat on the back. This just sent me through it all.

I felt my lip curl over and my eyes start to water, i quickly escape to the bathroom and pull myself back together. Leaning over the sink I look at myself, and suddenly I see a man before my eyes, It was a moment of realization for me, that I had grown up, and I have responsibilities now. My life was before me, and it is up to me, to follow God's plan and glorify his name along the way.

I have faith in myself to follow God. Now I know I'm not very good at writing, science, or math. But one thing I absolutely love is helping people, talking to people, and encouraging people. I have no idea where i would be be without God guiding me, and my words, when my friend come to me for help.

Another thing I'd like to talk about is my parents. They home schooled six kids willingly. And I was a surprise child, being born five years after my next youngest sister. And my parents have home schooled for 26 years. That very well could have been 21 when my sister graduated, and put me in school. But thank God that they didn't. I don't have anything against the public school system. I just like home schooling better. And it has given me time in my own life to invest in my friendships, music, family, and photography. All things I love.

I must say, to God. I can't thank him enough for all he's done for me. And a line from the play that strikes me through the heart, is that "I belong to him" It gets me every time. He's given me his life on the cross. And it only makes sense that I'd pay him back with my life as well. I can't even express how thankful I am for my King, who has done so much for me. It makes me emotional just thinking about it. My life is before him, as well as it is before me. It's just that he knows more than I do. Which, if you think about it, is pretty freaking awesome.

My name is Jonathan, and I belong to him.

For the boys.

Now a very common argument between men is manliness and what is considered "Manly" and it's understandable, honestly the only reason men argue about this is self confidence as to whether or not they have a chance at getting a girl or not.  Personally I find insecurity about being a man, very un-manly. I'm sure that looks so mature that we get into Facebook debates about who is the manliest. But lets just step back, forget everything we know about manliness and just look at what it means to be a man.

You may say that being able to tame a grizzly bear family, on your own, is manly. If not you may also say that being able to wrestle a giant squid in the ocean, is manly. I must say, being able to do either of those would be very impressive. Though impressive is not what manliness is, and if it was, there are a lot of very manly woman in this world, I must say.

But you take those ideas away, stop showing off you mad guitar skills...basically stop being an idiot. And look at the origin of men. Men were the first people to wear tights in the middle ages, and that was considered very "Manly" and lets be serious, that doesn't make them gay in any way. That just make them perverts, there is a reason they wanted wore tights, and wore make-up, to impress the ladies. And lets be serious, the root of it is impressing the ladies. And that is what was considered manly at that point.

Your probably like "So whats this have to do with being manly?" and patience, I'm getting there.

Have you ever been swing dancing? Or maybe even ballroom? If not then I'll give you a secret. If you are the man of the couple, you are leading. You are the one who is leading the woman into all kinds of tricks and stuff. And if you are good at leading, great, woman find that impressive. You know why?

There is nothing more manly than being a good leader. 

Now before you get a team together for capture the flag, and become today's playground tyrant. I'm going to let you in on a few...A lot of secrets to being a good leader. Cause there is nothing more harmful than power. You can interpret power however you want, whether it being money, strength, knowledge or if you have all of those. You may win immediately, but the long term win turns out to be a loss. I've seen this for like...a every guy I know, including myself. "Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight in airing their own opinion."


Now here are a few things you will need to have down in order to claim ultimate manliness. My Pastor spoke on this a couple weeks ago, and gave me these ideas.

1: You should always be above reproach.

2: You need to be a faithful husband/fiance/boyfriend. Cause loyalty and honesty are the most important things in a relationship.

3: Balanced, make sure you are balanced in every number on this list. It's hard, but worth it in return.

4: Self Control, this is where the power is to be challenged. You might say "I don't have issues with power" but that's exactly what you would say. Right?

5: Respectable, this is also to be applied to every number on this list.

6: Hospitable, no, this doesn't mean you should be able to clean your house, though that would be nice. But this means you are to be able to interact "Politely" with people. the actual definition for this is "friendly and welcoming to strangers or guests" 

7: Able to to teach, this is my hardest. You are able to teach, I know this for sure. But you might not be a big group teacher. One on one teaching might be more your thing, Or the other way around. 

8: Not a drunkard. Yes, I said it. And you know who you are. 

9: Not violent. Yes, I said that too. You know who you are as well. I hope that if you struggled with abusive situations in your life, that you can slowely get over it. Not by gaining power on your own, but just becoming okay with it. and perhaps helping people in similar situations. Imagine being able to be hospitable, loyal, and able to teach, at the same time. 

10: Not quarrelsome, "given to or characterized by quarreling" Basically don't be a jerk. This goes with 8 and 9. 

11: Not a lover of money. This is a place where people struggle with balance. Its okay to have lots of money, just don't obsess about it. 

12: Good father. Leader, teacher. Teach family to respect, and be hospitable. 

13: Be a mature follower of Christ. You are just now realizing that this is all bionically based. And some of you may be rolling your eyes. But if I had you up to this point, then why stop now? Maturity is an amazing thing, as long as you have come to realize age has never made anyone wise. 

14: You must represent Christ well. In favor with God, and Men. 


That's all I know about manliness. Now I quoted something above the list. "A fool finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions." I would like to take this time to say, that was from the holy Bible. That was Proverbs 18:2. In fact if you read the whole book of proverbs over and over again, you will start to uncover some serious truth. 

Thank you for reading, and I hope you can take as much out of this, as I have. 

When Death is Crowned: Dream.

The deep depths of snow filled the dome with snow. It was filling up fast. What is going on? Black slowly approached the snow and caught it on fire. Soon everything was on fire. The depths of Heather’s subconscious looked just like this. She was happy here. This was her home. And it was.

Everything had taken form, it molded into her house, she knew not of what was going on. But her first thought was to run to her bed, and that is what she did. This was strange. She is controlling her dream. Could she control other things in her dream? She picked up a vase full of dead flowers and dropped it “Don’t break!” It fell to the floor, clattering around spilling the flowers on the floor. The noise echoed down the rustic looking hallway, with pictures hanging on its sides. She noticed something bazaar about the images that the frames closed in…

…Taking a step toward them, in one she could see a man pulling her up a cliff, into a white room. She looked to the image opposite. It was crooked, shaking actually. It held and image of her running away from the missile strike. Pieces of rubble flying everywhere, missiles raining from the sky, as far as she could see. Everything was being destroyed. A security van outside exploded right next to her, she didn't seem to feel the pressure of the explosion, in fact she seemed protected from it. The house was leveled behind her; there is no way that anyone came out of this alive. When the tremor hit, she watched herself fall to her knees. She couldn't help. The yellow school bus was flying toward Heather at an alarming speed. She knew what was about to happen. Heather reached her hands out and the bus lifted up.

A Helicopter she hadn't noticed flew over her head, It opened up, a man showed his face, He had a dark complexion, he was strong. He pulled out a rifle of some sort, got heather in his cross hairs, and fired. She watched as they flew away. She watched Heather’s eyes roll to the back of her head. Heather was fighting this, and making it worse. Her eyes closed at that moment. She lay there. The bus fell sideways to a horrifying stop.

She was startled back into reality with the sound of the door behind her opening. The light was shining. She only saw the shape of a female walking into the house. Wind blew from behind, as the door was forced shut. Leaves were rustling around the foyer. She was looking at the shoes of the woman in front of her. She wore Black converse with white laces, green corduroy skinny pants, and a white t-shirt. This woman had a nice sense of style.

It took her a moment. The face of the woman was familiar. She had darker toned skin, with longer face, a nose piercing, and a smaller sized pointy nose. What made her realize what she was looking at was the brown, wavy hair. She was looking at herself.

She asked the obvious question, “Where did you come from?” She didn't want to sound stupid.

Heather replied with exactly what she thought she would say “Hanging out, you know.”

“I really have no clue actually. I was just watching me, or you, or whoever it was, in a memory of mine. As though it was a movie! That’s not normal” She wondered if wherever she was sleeping, if she was sleep talking.

The other heather walked over to the kitchen, and opened the cupboard, “Why is the tea always gone?” She was disappointed with this, well, they both were.

“I need some coffee, or something to get me thinking.” She walked over to the coffee maker, conveniently already brewed fresh coffee. “Would you like some?”

The other Heather nodded, “Yes please, with cream, no sugar.”

“I know how you like it.” She said, smiling. She kind of liked this whole idea. She looked out the window, there was a field covered in tall grass, all leading up to a dead, tree.  There was someone next to it, a man, in a black tux, bow-tie, and a mask?

“Heather, hand me the camera, please.” She said this with urgency. She wasn't sure about this.

The camera was in her hands, in no time. She zoomed in on the character, who seemed to be getting closer to the window, seemed to know she was there. She focused on the mask, the white mask. And diagonally painted in red was the word “Fear.” It was working. The masked, man seemed to be moving toward the window at a slow pace, but he wasn't moving his legs. He was gently moving over the ground, as though hovering. This scared Heather, and Heather. They both panicked.

She felt a pull, a tug, as though she was on the end of a rope, a dog collar. She started to get dizzy beyond belief. Actually, everything that’s happened has made this dizziness feel refreshing, a normal feeling. Everything started to fade out. The other Heather was in a corner of the kitchen, sitting on the floor hugging her knees. She was crying. Banging on the window is the last thing she could take. Heather started screaming “GO AWAY! PLEASE!” She was sobbing. The sound of shattered glass behind her was the sound that queued her.

She was lying on the floor of a dark void of emptiness. There was nothing she could do to assist Heather with the horrors from above, or down below. Where was she? Where is she? Who is she, Heather? Who is Heather? She had so many questions, and as far as she knows she is lying 50,000 feet above sea level, on a cliff in Sweden. She knew so much about Heather, but she knew nothing about herself. She needed questions answered now. And she didn't’t know who to trust. Not even herself. 

When Death is Crowned: Incorporating circles of circular knowing.

Aton knew he only had a few seconds to react. Grabbing his grappling gun, launching it into the floor. Was she escaping? Did she know? Or is this simply a mistake? Either way he needed to save her, and he needed to do it fast. Wind was rustling through his hair, he jumped.

 She had about twenty feet on him. He needed to make this quicker. He was slacking. He folded his arms and made himself as dynamic as possible, and began his hot pursuit on Tracy. That was her name. He remembered that just now. That’s what they told him to call her. But he knew better. You don’t capture an American woman, erase her memory, and then call her by her real name. This woman was going to be an assassin.

His thoughts were racing as he finally caught up to her. He threw his arms around her. She was cold, lifeless. Was she dead? That’d suck. But either way he needed to save himself. He wrapped his legs around her, and took ahold of his grapple. And suddenly…

…It jerked. HE ran out of slack. And of course, He dropped her in the process. He reached into his coat and pulled out his whip. As quickly as he could he roped her up, and started pulling his weight, and her weight up the grapple. He heard voices from above. He was in trouble. And so was she.

“Where is she?” Trevor demanded while leaning over a table, maps sprawled out. “I know that she isn’t dead, she’s way too powerful to die by a simple missile strike like back in New York.”

It had been weeks since the incident. Nobody knows where she is yet. They already had an identity scan through the nation. And she hadn’t shown up. They suspected the Chinese. It’s almost too obvious. They are arming they’re submarines with nukes and surrounding the United States as they spoke. They were prepared for total warfare. And America was not prepared at all.

One of the Analysts spoke up, “Sir, maybe it’s the Russians. They haven’t communicated with us in weeks. We tried contacting them and there was no answer.”

That had to be it. He had no leads at the moment. He was getting desperate. He had a paint brush, a canvas, and a deadline; but he was missing paint. “Get a satellite pointed at them! We need to get David here immediately!” He pulled out his phone and dialed the number.

Ringing, Ringing, Ringing, and more Ringing. He yelled into the phone “DAVID YOU BETTER PICK UP THE PHONE OR I’LL HAVE YOU ARRESTED!” He took a deep breath.

The phone clicked, a soft voice said hesitantly “Hello?”

“David. This is Trevor Volting. And we need you to the headquarters immediately. We need you to hack Russia.”

The voice spoke again with a little more confidence, “Hold on. I’m working on something…”

Trevor could hear button mashing, Video games. This made him furious. “PAUSE YOUR FREAKING GAME, PUT THE CONTROLLER DOWN, AND GET YOUR SORRY BUTT DOWN HERE AS SOON AS YOU CAN! Got it?”

He heard clattering. David picked up his phone off the floor. Probably scared him out of his mind, chicken, “Y-y-yes sir! I’ll be there as soon as I can, Sir!”

Trevor spoke with a soft polite voice this time, “Thank you.” then hung up. Slipping his phone into his pocket he looked around at everybody in the control room. They were all motionless, literally, except for Timothy. Things were getting strange around here. And he knew then, how great each decision he makes, will impact the life of humanity. Little did he know though that every decision he makes will greatly impact the fate of the galaxy, and the stars beyond it.

When death is crowned: Intro to Aton Bowden.

Aton Bowdon was a tall, well-built, dark, and incredibly handsome young man, with a terrible sense of humor. He was trained by his father in martial arts, when he was only seven years old. He had no memory of his mother, but he has heard from his father that she was American, and he only met her once. At the age of 15 Aton’s father was murdered by Chinese hit man. He had no place to go. So he only sought out revenge. His skills acquired over a span of 6 years put him to the age of 21. He was then shipped to Constantinople as an assassin working on contracts. His skills were recognized as one of the top Marksmen in the world. Not to mention he knows how to use his hands as weapons.

People often hear his name and think of him as a supernatural human, something that only exists, merely through stories. No one realizes that he is a living legend. But the one thing that often catches people off guard. Aton Bowdon is blind. He works alone. Relying only on his sense in smell, feel. And what he lacks in vision, he makes up for in hearing. He is the Ultimate Assassin. 

                                                       ____________________

“So what do you think? She’s hardly dangerous herself. It’d be a piece of cake for you.” Said a low voice across a table from Aton.

“I’ll take the job, I just charge more than five million dollars for a contract, especially overseas. I will do it, for free. But only this time, because it sounds fun.”

“Excellent”

That was all that needed to be said. That was all that Aton needed to know. He was ready for a vacation. But what he didn’t know, is that he just excepted an invite to his greatest challenge yet. He would not see what was about to go on around him. But he will hear every bit of it. This is going to be his downfall. And will fail. And he will die. 

When death is crowned: Heather's beckoning

Rushing through the dry grass of the valleys, she realized then she should’ve taken her car. She had been running for at least an hour now. She stopped to check her cell phone, battery almost dead, she had only been running for ten minutes, of course. She couldn’t keep running. Her heart was beating like a tribal drum, and the cramps were getting to her head. She knew they’d be on her tail in a couple minutes. Maybe if she stayed low, they wouldn’t see her.

She her heard loud thumps coming her way. She kneeled down into the towering grass, hearing the thumps getting closer and closer. She could hardly see through the grass. But she could see one of the men coming straight for her, oblivious. She had a moment to plan for retaliation, she already decided she would. She had no idea what she was doing, but whatever it was, it needed to be quick, swift, quiet, and she knew none of those.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP…

They stopped. She couldn’t see them, she had no idea where they were. But the silence is worse than the loud thumps pounding down her spine. She was breathing loud; she held her breath, hoping to be able to hear them. Her heart was beating louder than ever, that was a bad idea. She let go and started breath, apparently too loud. Cause one of them had his arms around her neck, and had her hands tied up before she could resist. They put a ragged white cloth over her mouth, chloroform. She was out in a split second. She was in trouble.

                                                                _____________

Heather was hot, sweating, and suffocating. They took the brown paper bag off her head, she was on a metal folding chair in, small, dark, kitchen.  There were two men sitting in the living room on the other side of the house. She spoke.

“What’s going on? Why did you take me?”

One of them stood, and breathed. He wore a Flanner checkered shirt, tucked in, boot-cut jeans, He was your stereotypical cowboy impersonator.  After he slowly made his way around the kitchen table, he stood in front of her. He spoke.

“Heather is your name. I know who you are and I know you’re past, far better than you do. My name is Trevor Volting. And I will be your best friend, and protector.”

She had no idea what he was talking about. He is Honest at least. She figured she’d say something or ask a question,“Protector, from what? And why are we here? Where are we?”

He halted her just in time for the door to creek open. A man walked in, he seemed about as lost as her. She read his name tag, it said “Timothy Shelfer”  He’s short.

Trevor spoke “Timothy, I am not your enemy, I’ll assure you that. This is your cousin.” He motioned at her. She was more lost then ever.

She panicked, starting to fidget with her necklace “Cousin? Answer my question. What are you protecting me from?”

“He’s your cousin. Trust us. But first we need to focus on getting out of here. Heather. Stand up. Long story short, our country is about to get into a war that is bigger than we bargained for. They don’t know it yet. But you will be the key to victory for the United States.”

“A key,  Great. I've lived my whole life I had a future. And here I learn from complete strangers, that I’m a freaking key.”

Tim spoke up for the first time, “Heather, calm yourself. The country is going to be forced into a situation where they will need you. It’s a supernatural thing. I know you don’t believe in super powers. But you have them. I have them. It’s in our genes”

Yeah right. These guys were loaded with a bunch of crap. This so called ‘cousin’ of hers is sitting here trying to convince her that she has superpowers? This whole thing is extremely crazy. Then again, it sounds pretty fun. If they think of her as some kind of God, She might be able to make a fortune. What the heck. She might as well…

She put on her best negotiation face “How much are you willing to pay?”

Trevor spoke without hesitation “You’re life, how does that sound?”

With that, it’d be stupid to say no. So she said with hesitation “…Sure, what the heck. I have nothing better to do.” 

He sighed deeply while turning around and looking at one of his guards. He had a gun in his back pocket. Who does that? She stood up and went to the sink, to wash her hands. No water, great. She turned around and looked at Trevor, who was now in the living room, talking to both of his little henchmen.

She spoke loudly, annoyingly, and with power, “So when do you start?”

He turned and stared at her with eyes of hope, “We start as soon as we get a hold of the government, I’m hoping we can get these things figured out before the Germans come to capture-“ But she couldn't listen to his words anymore, she couldn't keep her eyes off the glowing orange light that was just outside. Before she knew it, the house was caving in on them, and the ground was falling beneath them. She couldn't see Trevor, but she didn't care. All she cared for was her own safety.  She could only come to one conclusion while she was running outside of the house. The world had declared war on her, and she can only choose one side. And that side right now, was herself.

A tremor shook the earth underneath her while she was running across the street. She fell to her knees. A school bus was driving right for her. Getting closer, and closer, everything around her was going wrong all at once. And she couldn't do anything. She only wished that she could survive this, or did she? The school bus had no intention of slowing its terrifying pace. She reached out her hands in a last ditch effort the save herself. The bus was nothing short of ten feet from her, when it lifted off the ground.  It was floating along with her hands, as though she was controlling it. Everything around her seemed to have paused. No noise was being made, as though time had been completely stopped. She looked around to see Trevor under a pile of rubble. She hadn't seen Timothy since a few seconds ago in the house, when everything was normal, or more normal. Something struck her neck. She felt no pain, but she blacked out. There was an empty hole in her head, a gap that was incompletely filled, a massive void of subconscious. She was watching herself run out of the house; a straight path of blue light was circling in front of her, shielding her from harm.  She was supernatural.  And then, black. 

When death is crowned: Intro to Timothy Shelfer

Timothy Shelfer, was one of the of the United States best undercover agents. At a towering five feet, five inches, he was pale as a vampire.  Weighing in at 260 pounds, makes up for it in muscle. He put down his pen, signing his name for the hundredth time this morning, he’s only been clocked in for half an hour. Leaning back, thinking about his tiny office, he just moved into it from a cubical a week ago. His phone startled him. Strange, He wasn't easily scared. He reached forward and picked the phone up out of its cradle, took a breath, and spoke.

“Timothy’s office, this is…Timothy”. He said this awkwardly. Somehow he made it to be a field agent. 

A lower voice spoke “Tim, we have your cousin captive. We know what you do, and we know what you’re capable of. Find us and we can negotiate” this voice was muffled. He had no idea who this was. So he asked the obvious question.

“Who is this?”

“Timothy. We know your intelligent, so just find us.”

Tim had no idea what was going on. He had control of his life. Everything was going right, he had a girlfriend, Susan. Who was an amazing girl, always lifted him up, and moved him forward. She was beautiful in his eyes. He had a well-paid Job. A Running car, it was paid for. Everything was going for him. This phone call pulled him out of his comfort zone, threw him in some mud, and kicked him in the face a few times. He forgot he was still on the phone.

“Look I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t have a cousin. And-“

The voice interrupted “Her name is Heather Shelfer. Ring a bell?”

Timothy was speechless, this made his skin crawl. “I don’t have any cousins…that I know of”

“Look Tim…” This bothered him. No one calls him Tim. “… We've done the research. What did you Mom tell you about your Dad’s murder?”

Timothy thought this was getting strange, but he answered. “My mother told me that My Dad was murdered alongside my uncle…why?”

“Your uncle’s name was Teddy Shelfer. He was a private investigator. He worked for only those who offered the right price. He was a bounty hunter. But Tim, your uncle was married, he was murdered during his wife’s pregnancy, who died during the birth. But the baby survived.”

This was news to Timothy. He has a cousin. He was starting to question the evil in this phone call. “So how old is this cousin? Is it a ‘He’ or a ‘she’? are you going to hurt-“

The voice interrupted again, how rude, “You have exactly forty-eight hours to be walking in this room, or we will pump her full of cyanide. It will be easy. The clock starts now” Timothy sat there in his suit, lounging in an office chair, realizing he has a cousin in captivity. He needed to save her. He spoke back into the phone 

“I’ll be there, you can count on it” But he realized that he was talking to nobody.  “How rude!”.

Just then his secretary walked in, she looked nice today. Sandra was a short, darker toned, brunette. She walked smoothly up to his desk, with an envelope in her hands. She set it down gently.

“Someone just delivered this, for you. They said you’d better open it, its ‘urgent” She said it in quotation marks, in a lower voice.

Reading it out loud he was taking it all in “You will find us in your home, we made sure your girlfriend won’t be coming for the dinner date. So you can come in with no one else. Sit down at a table with us and we can discuss the matters.”

Sandra had a puzzled look on her face, he tried covering it. “It’s just a joke from a friend. Don’t worry about it. But I need to go.” He stood grabbing his suit coat and putting it on, trying to stay cool. He started making his way past her. Once he got past the wooden door he started running, down the hallway, to the elevator. He smashed the ‘down’ button enough times to please his conscious. The doors opened finally, and he got in and pressed the ‘Ground Floor’ Button. He was whispering under his breath.

“I am Timothy Shelfer. I am five foot, five. I am a 38 years old. I don’t have any parents, I don’t really care one way or another. But one thing I do care about, is this cousin of mine, that I have never met. And I hope that I will be able too. Cause I am a good person.”

                                                 

                                                                       1.2

Timothy was wrong. He was not a good person. He spent his childhood in foster homes bullying the kids in school, two of the kids committed suicide. Once he got to high school, he got involved with Drugs, drinking, and sex. When he was 19, he robbed a convenience store with his friend. When the cops showed up, he grabbed the money, shot his friend in the knee, and took off running. He spent that night in an alley along one of the side roads in New York City. He made a hobby out of making friends and then betraying them. He made money while doing that. And that’s all that matters.  At the age of 23, his reputation came back to bite him. A group of friends who he betrayed found him, raided his apartment, and beat him. A few of them stayed up later to turn him into the cops, where he stayed for 8 years. He was released early for good behavior.  When he got out he was 31 years old. He then joined the military. He quickly worked his way up the ranks. They saw potential in him; at the age of 34 they asked him to be a field agent. He agreed. He had organized a few, clean, successful, assassinations on terrorists. He had become something great. He is a hero. But one thing he had learned, is that you’re enemy’s define who you are. But he, Timothy George Shelfer, had crowned death herself. 

Our world vs. God's word.

Yes most of you know that Christianity is hitting an all time low. But for those of us that are, are not doing enough about it. Notice of facebook you can post some really profound nonsense and it gets like 30 likes. But you post somthing about Christ and people are like...

"Oh...yeah well-"

..Shutup! Well don't shutup. Take those words you were going to say, and use them on someone who doesn't know christ. Its easy to preach to the chior, and yourself. Please get out there. I probably won't. It's not my strength. But i strongly encurage you to get out there.

If your going to say "I don't have any non-christain friends" then go.make some. And then turn them into warriors, just like you. Its easier said then done. But thats no reason to not do anything. We should be doing everything. We can do all things through Christ. He will lead you the right way.

Now your probably wondering "what if he isn't leading me to evangelize?" and I say "Thats fine. Though everyone could say that, making this post irrelevent. Make sure you can tell the difference between your own wanting, and what he wants"

The world isn't safe anymore. But God's word is, and always will be safe.