My Newest Motivation

For the two to three of you who actually read this blog, thanks! As you have noticed, I haven't been blogging lately. A few reasons:

1. The holidays are very active for our business and I really didn't have time.
2. The political rigormarole, while very interesting, is not really something I choose to blog on. Truth and Life is more about the real Messiah and His Word. (oops, there I go again).
3. My thoughts and convictions are a little strong for this world at-large. I know that shouldn't matter, but I try to avoid the conflict whenever possible. You should see some of the comments I get from some ridiculous people out there.
4. I haven't really had any inspiration.

Number four brings me to this:

Thank you to Mama and her rants for this kind award.


As I understand it, this award is given to blogs that show great attitude and/or gratitude.

I am now to bestow said award upon 10 other blogs that meet that criteria.

Give me some time to think about it, but thank you for the inspiration. Mama, you are, in fact, my favorite American sister-in-law. ;-)

I think I will, out of respect for the new incoming President, hold off until after his big day.

Please pray for him. Every President needs it.

Your J. O. B.

The following post was taken from an Ol' Broad and edited for content:

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see us as free and self-employed. You’ve imagine us in a big house; dining out with our children. I’m sure all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about our life.

However, what you don’t see is the back story.

We started this company 10 years ago. At that time, We lived in a run down apartment, someone's basement where, as my 8 month pregnant wife and I laid on our mattress on the floor, we could hear the tinkle of everyone in the toilet over our heads, and an unkempt friend's rental for 5 years. More than half of our living room was converted into an office so we could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you at a wage of WELL OVER the minimum.

Our diet consisted of Macaroni and cheese on Monday, white rice on Tuesday, white rice with beef bullion on Wednesday, white rice with chicken bullion on Thursday, Spaghetti on Friday and leftovers on the weekends because every dollar we made went right back into this company. If we had any meat to eat, it came from the food pantry in town. We drove broken down, third hand cars with defective transmissions & may-pop tires. Our children sacrificed time with their parents. We didn’t have money to go out. Often times, we stayed home on weekends, while our friends went out to the movies and dinners. While everyone else was secure in their HMO coverage, we depended solely upon the Mercy of God and favor of man.

We lived our business - hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. You can not POSSIBLY tell us how difficult it is to make ends meet. Do not even try.

Meanwhile, our friends and relatives got jobs. They worked 40+ hours a week and made a modest $100K plus a year and spent every dime they earned. They enjoyed good health coverage. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, we were trolling through the clearance racks at Wal-Mart extracting any clothing item that would fit our children. Our own clothes we never bought, but depended on the kindness of wealthier clients to give us their hand-me-downs. Our friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. We, however, did not even own our own home until recently. We put a lot of time, money, and our life into a business with a vision so that eventually, some day, we too, would be able to afford these luxuries our friends supposedly enjoyed.

So, while you physically arrive at to work at 7am, mentally check in at about 11, and then leave at 2pm, we don’t. There is no “off” button for us. When you go home, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. We unfortunately do not have the freedom. We eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to our family like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden - the house, the cars, the trips … you never realize the back story and the sacrifices we’ve made. But we wouldn't have had it any other way. It was our dream; our vision for our family's future.

Now, the economy is falling apart and we, the couple that made all the right decisions and saved our money, have to bail-out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that we earned and sacrificed a decade of our life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price we’ve paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

We are being taxed to the brink and the government thinks we don’t pay enough. We have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. We have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. Sometime between now and April 15th, I will clench my teeth as I find out if I can even break even with our personal taxes or will we have to pay even more.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Us, the couple who has provided all of you good people with good paying jobs servicing homes and offices in 2 states and 9 counties with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don’t understand … to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to us that we didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing over $100,000 into the Washington black-hole, we would spend it, hiring more employees, start new business outlets and ventures and generate substantial economic growth. Our employees would enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the new power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you you will get.

So where are we going with all of this? It’s quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on us, or our company, our reaction will be swift and simple. We will sell off our business assets. We will fire you. We will fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child’s future. Frankly, it isn’t our problem any more.

Then, we will close this company down, sell most of out possessions and move to another country, do mission work and eventually retire. You see, we're done. We're done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. Our motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, the dream we worked so hard to achieve.

So, if you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find us teaching some foreign children the Word of God, being appreciated simply because of what we have to offer and not the tax base we can provide, and with no employees to worry about …

Signed,
your employers.

Jason Upton

Marvia Providence

So Glad!

I am so glad that I know Jesus Christ. If not, I may have missed His Birthday!

Our business, a cleaning service, is soooo busy during the holiday season, Thanksgiving through New Year's, that we hardly have time to breathe. We work sometimes 13-14 hours a day.

This is the main reason why I haven't posted anything lately. Certain things have to take the back burner during this season. Truthfully, the celebration of the Baby Jesus is not the foundation of our faith. As our pastor says, Jesus grew up! It was the work completed on the cross of Calvary that changed my life.

But, see, He is with me every day. He healed my body, saved my soul and baptized me in the Holy Ghost.

If you do not know Him personally, then you need certain days to recognize Him. My personal prayer time did NOT take the back burner during the holidays, so I got to celebrate Him every day; He was with me all day.

We apologize if you didn't get the card or gift you were expecting. This post is your card; the gift is Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

John & Perla


Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4

2e

My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change: For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?


Proverbs 24:21-22

Forwarded Emails (Sowing and Reaping)

I received the following text recently in a forwarded email. DISCLAIMER: I have not checked any of the facts, just posted it as I received it....

DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?

I SURE DIDNT TILL NOW

Death is certain but the Bible speaks about untimely death!

Make a personal reflection about this.....

Very interesting, read until the end.....

It is written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7):

'Be not deceived; God is not mocked:

or whatsoever a man sow,

that shall he also reap.

Here are some men and women

who mocked God :

John Lennon (Singer):

Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said: 'Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him' (1966). Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.

Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil ):

During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency. Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.

Cazuza (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet):

During A show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ), while smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said:'God, that's for you.' He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner.

The man who built the Titanic

After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be.

With an ironic tone he said: 'Not even God can sink it'. The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic

Marilyn Monroe (Actress)

She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said:

'I don't need your Jesus'. A week later, she was found dead in her apartment

Bon Scott (Singer)

The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang: 'Don't stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell'. On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.

Campinas (IN 2005)

In Campinas , Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend.....The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: 'My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You.' She responded: 'Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here.....It's Already Full ' Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none was broken

Christine Hewitt (Jamaican Journalist and entertainer)
said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written. In June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle.

Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus.

Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and he is still alive.

'Jesus'

PS: If it was a joke, you would have sent it to everyone.
So are you going to have courage to send this? I have done my part, Jesus said

'If you are embarrassed about me, I will also be embarrassed about you before my father.'

You are my 8 in 8 seconds. I am not breaking this. No way!

I'M TOLD THIS WORKS!!!!!

Bishop T.D. Jakes '8 Second Prayer.' Just repeat this prayer and see how God moves!!

'Lord, I love you and I need you, come into my heart, and bless me, my family, my home, and my friends, in Jesus' name. Amen.' Pass this message to 8 people {EXCEPT YOU AND ME}.You will receive a miracle tomorrow. I Hope that you don't ignore and let God bless you.

Yes, God’s truth is that we will reap what we sow. This is as much a truth as it relates to a prosperous harvest as it does a cursed harvest.

OK, so I 'replied to all' on this one with a link to this blog entry with two intentions:

1. To provide the recipients with a true yet not exhaustive teaching of the Word of God on sowing and reaping & witchcraft.

2. To draw more regular readers to our blog.

So here we go...

The email quoted Galatians 6:7 correctly. However, the Word of God also states this:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

I highlighted the word ‘witchcraft’ in verse 20 because that is one thing I want to address here.

WITCHCRAFT

I receive many forwarded emails. I read most. I forward very few. A majority of the forwarded emails out there have a tag-line at the end similar to the one this had, i.e., “if you send this to x amount of people in y amount of time, something will happen”. This is witchcraft. It is not the law of sowing and reaping as God has set forth.

The concepts in this email are true. If you have forwarded it because you wanted to share the truth of God’s Word with someone, and believe that the Word of God has touched you in such a way that it has changed you or the way you think or the way you live your life, then take God's Word at its fullest and at least take the time to delete the crazy ‘spell’ at the end. To do otherwise, now that you know the truth, would be hypocritical. I challenge you all, knowing God's view of witchcraft, to delete the little encantations from here on with whatever emails you get, and then send them. If you send me one with a curse or a promise at the bottom, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I wasn’t the one who sowed witchcraft.

SOWING AND REAPING

God’s law of sowing and reaping is that, as this email stated,

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Galatians 6:7-8

The email was unclear in that it appeared to say that if you mock God, you will reap a curse for it. That is not what the scripture says. When the Word of God says God is not mocked, it is refrring to this:

Look, God has set up order in this world, both natural and spiritual, that follows the law of sowing and reaping. This will NOT change. You will reap that which you have sown.

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22

Whatever you sow, that’s what you will get!

Take a look at the Word...

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:11-12

And again,

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Matthew 7:18

And yet again,

For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

Luke 6:43-44

God ordered that each grass, herb, & tree brought forth fruit ‘after his (its own) kind’. Have you ever seen oranges on a grape vine? Have you ever seen a snake birth a horse? That is how God set everything in order.

If you sow kindness, you'll reap kindness. If you sow hatred, you'll reap hatred. Anger=anger, spite=spite, love=love, money=money, violence=violence. Yes, I said money. And if you forward a lot of emails, what will you get? OK, I know that’s funny and all, but it’s true nonetheless.

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Someone Please Tell Them it's Not April Yet

The atheists are at it again. They are trying to steal another holiday. Why is it that they are not happy with their own holiday? Why do they have to take ours too?

Nonbelievers' sign at Capitol counters Nativity


Does this mean there will be no egg roll at the White House next year? If you are reading this hungry then you may have read that last sentence wrong. Try again. Ooops, that will be the Obama administration, right? He's gonna have to do all that POTUS stuff! How funny, seeing as he is not even a christian.


OK, so some of you are probably trying to figure out when National Atheist Day is....

April 1st, every year.


The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.


Psalms 14:1

Obama is NOT a Christian

Here's proof.



*clarification - that is his grade school registration, not his birth certificate. In order to register, he had to take on Indonesian citizenship. In order to take on Indonesian citizenship, he needed to be a muslim.

And if he is a christian now, then he is a converted christian. But Mr Obama has never once been able to pinpoint the moment of his conversion, as any true believer can.

And then there's this: If PE Obama has converted (muslim to christian), it would greatly affect his relationship with the muslim world.

From wikipedia:

"In most interpretations of Sharia, conversion by Muslims to other religions, is strictly forbidden and is termed apostasy. Muslim theology equates apostasy to treason, and in most interpretations of sharia, the penalty for apostasy is death."

So, not only now will the islam-extremists be out to get all of us, but particularly our exalted leader personally. The Secret Service better get ready.

2e

Will a man rob or defraud God? Yet you rob and defraud Me. But you say, In what way do we rob or defraud You? [You have withheld your] tithes and offerings. You are cursed with the curse, for you are robbing Me, even this whole nation. [Lev. 26:14-17.] Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. [Mal. 2:2.] And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.


Malachi 3:8-12 AMP