Gimme a Revelation

To my crhp group, my bible study group, and my St. Ignatius Prayer group: Remember about five years ago when I would pray for God to send me billboards cause I was so thick and I couldn't hear Him very well? Yea. Well, you know times are changing when in prayer last night I said to Him "enough with the billboards already!" lol

He has been calling me. So, I picked up the bat phone and He still keeps calling. It's like you're talking to someone on the phone and call waiting beeps in and it's the same person!!!! I went to church last night and the song was Here I am, Lord! I cried all the way through. Dude! I get it! You're calling me!!! Then, was it this week I think, Isaiah 43 kept being brought to me. And, here I am this evening working on my paper for crhp and a scripture came to me but I couldn't remember where it was "I have called you by name." I'll give you three guesses where it comes from! Yea, I had to look it up. Isaiah 43:1-2!!!!

So, after the PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES WON THE 2008 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHI I told George I was gonna work on my paper and zone out with my music. I heard a song from one of my all time fav groups Third Day a little while ago. It's from their new album Revelation. It was the title track. So I found it and played it. Sigh. Yea, more billboards. Here it is for your enjoyment.

Thank you to all of you who have ministered to me this week. Thank you for being billboards. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for our little inside jokes. Thank you for making me feel so remarkably special and so unbelievably wanted. To Carol who asked for a favor with "please? For 'your' Carol" as if I'd ever say no to her; to Julie and her infinite wisdom; to Sharon for sharing her courage; for George for all his love and support; to my sister Tina who is having my niece Katie as we speak! To Tina (Myers) for your unwavering support; to Tina (Scheckel) I miss you terribly. You have been such a witness to me this week. I have been talking to you and calling on you. To Suzanne (Endress), you ROCK! You are so strong and so funny and so unbelievably cool. When I grow up I want to be just like you! To Jeff, for being one of the girls. To Evelyn for being there just when I needed you. And to my Adam who thought I wasn't talking to him b/c of something he said. Dude! You're my Adam! Ain't nothin' in this world gonna change that. And Dude, seriously, me stop talking?! The only time was at Monserrat on the silent retreat! It's all good!

So, without further ado, here is Third Day's Revelation.
Until next time,
Have a beer and celebrate the Phillies win, say a prayer for my sister whose having my baby Katie, and if I don't talk to you before then, have a happy halloween!
Love,
Me

Father Corapi's Eleventh Hour Election Alert

Posted in three parts. Please pass on!
Until next time,
Hug your children, thank your mom for not having an abortion, and vote on Tuesday (or before).

Love,
Me

Catholic Vote

Cult of Personality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmocxeN24Yo

Let the little children come unto me

For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Please, please, please pray for the unborn! Remember when I picked up the bat phone last week? I feel very strongly that I am being called to pray for all those considering abortion and for this election. I have a very dear friend, Sharon who ministers to me without even knowing it. Yesterday, she was called to go to Pittsburgh (woohooo!) to silently protest at an Obama rally. She described the poster she held up. It was the Malachi poster. Malachi meaning "witness". It is a picture of the poster you see here. This was way out of her comfort zone (cz) and she asked for prayers since this was out of her cz. So, I am taking a page from my Sharon.

If obama wins this election, it means an untold number of murders against the unborn! While I don't mean to offend anyone with my political views, the benefit of having your own blog is you can say what you want. Obama scares the you-know-what out of me. What scares me more are the catholics who believe that they can vote for him. As Catholics we cannot in good conscience vote for him. A vote for obama is a vote for murder. I must admit to you that I was once one of these Catholics. You know the type. We go to church on Sunday. If we eat meat on Friday's during lent, well, it's okay, we forgot. Confession is a once a year occurance if that. And, we never, ever get involved in the parish. And the bat phone? You can forget about that, we don't answer. In my twenties, I was pro-choice. "but it's my body! Who are you to tell me what to do with it!" But, it's not my body. It's Christ's. Then, as I got older, I got a little wiser. And, I went to crhp and my light turned on. My Christ light. It's a light that cannot be extinguished!

Look, I don't claim to be elloquent. I don't claim to be politically correct. I don't claim to be a Rhode's schollar. And, I don't claim to know all there is to know about my Catholic faith. However, I DO KNOW that life begins at conception! I DO KNOW that the bible says 'Thou shal not commit murder'! I do know that Jesus said 'Bring the little children unto me'! Some of you will find this hard to believe, but this post, this topic, being this vocal about a cause, is WAY out of my comfort zone. But, God chose to call ME, and I chose to pick up the bat phone. I chose to say 'YES'. Please pray with me and for me. Please, please pray for those Catholics who don't know any better to read and listen and learn. For a conversion of their hearts. Please pray for McCain to win the election. Please pray for those MILLIONS of unborn.

Some of my favorite signs I've seen I'd like to share:

If it's not a baby, you're not pregnant!
I survived Roe vs. Wade
Did you ever notice that all the people who support abortion have already been born?
Your lack of planning is not my emergency.
As a former fetus I oppose abortion.
Legally, if someone kills a pregnant woman, it counts as two murders.
and my personal favorite...

"Since 1973 1/3 of my generation has been slaughtered by abortion at the rate of 4000 babies per day. My friends...My classmates...My generation compromised by the selfishness of others. As a survivor I will not let future generations be slaughtered in the name of convenience. I will not be silent. I will not forget. I will not compromise!"

Feel free to pass this blog or particular article to anyone and everyone!

Until next time,
Take time to stop and smell the flowers in awe of the wonder of God (thanks, Tina!), vote for McCain, and pray for an end to abortion.
Love,
Me

Stretch Armstrong

Do you guys remember Stretch Armstrong? He was this toy or rather 'action figure' I should say. lol. You could stretch out his arms and legs and they would go back into shape. You know when you've chewed a piece of gum so long it has that hard feel too it? Yea, he was kinda made out of that stuff. We'd pull his legs and arms really hard as far as we could (usually an inch or so, hey, we were young, not strong, lol) and they'd pop back into place.


God kinda does that with us. He stretches us. Makes us uncomfortable. Helps us grow. But, instead of us going back into shape, we stay in the new form. Actually, that's how it's suppose to go. Lot's of times as He stretches me, I go right back into shape but He keeps pulling and pulling, and pulling, and eventually, I listen and am stretched into the new shape He created.

A good friend pointed out something to me a few weeks ago (thanks, Kim!). Basically, I'm the Father's Loving Care witness for the St. Mark's CRHP in January. I should not be this bitter towards my father, Joe. Wow. I don't think I've ever said his name to you guys. I've said 'my dad', 'my father', but I don't think I've said Joe. That's gotta be progress, right? Anywho, I prayed a couple of times since then that God would do whatever He needed to to help heal the bitterness or help me deal with whatever it is so that the witness will be what He wants it to be. Here's what happened.

I called my dad tonight. He was just back from one of his trips with his wife, Sarah to the Panama Canal. In the course of the conversation, I was being a smart alec (kind of hard not too) and said I learned it from my dad. He said "Sure, blame me for everything. Your past. Everything is my fault." And, he was serious. What surprised me was my response. I told him I didn't blame him for anything. Wha? Where did that come from?! Surprised, he said that was nice to hear. And, I jokingly told him I spent a ton of money on therapy to be able to say it, lol. He laughed a little. The truth, as you all know, is I did blame him for my past. For my childhood. For not letting me do *anything*. For not being there. Being present. For not being the dad I needed him to be. For not loving me the way I needed to be loved. Is this what the road to forgiveness looks like? Is this me being stretched yet again?

I prayed (and still do occasionally, hey, I'm working on it) to love my father for who he is right at this moment. With no expectations. That's hard b/c he is my dad, and I am his child. I will always have expectations. Although, I went from being a child and expecting him to be there always (he never was), to being an adult and expecting him to constantly let me down (he always did) to now. Now, I don't know what to expect or rather how not to expect anything. This is new territory. Scary.

This passage came to me twice today. It's incredibly beautiful and the whole thing is my favorite but there is a special part that speaks to me I'd like to share. If you have time, read the whole thing...Isaiah 43:1-7..

...6 I will say to the north: Give them up! and to the south: Hold not back! Bring back my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth: 7 Everyone who is named as mine, whom I created form my glory, whom I formed and made...

God is so awesome! Chapter 43 is so beautiful. It talks of God's love. A father's love for his sons and daughters. He has paid a ransom for me. For you. For each of us. He loves us with His very being. He named us as His. He created us for His glory! Doesn't that just give you chills. You were created for His glory! Man, if you ever feel unloved, the bible is truly the place to go (also for other good nuggets too! lol). He is the ultimate father! And, since He's the ultimate father, a little stretching every now and then really isn't too much to ask, is it? (okay, some days it is. We're human, but that's okay!).

Until next time,
check out Isaiah 43:1-7, hug your spouse and pray for all the men who went to Rockin C!

Love,
Me

97 Seconds with God

Okay. Most of you get my updates through email. I don't know if any of you actually make it to the blog site (chrpangel.blogspot.com). On the site there are links to other cool sites (St. Jude's, Mike Howard etc). There is one site I am asking you, pleading with you to read today. It is 97 seconds with God. In fact, it is the very first link under My Favorite Sites.

97 Seconds with God is written by a new friend of mine, John. I say new friend b/c while we don't know each other well, yet, God has placed him in my life as yet another vessel. Remember how I wrote last night how He puts people in my life for a reason? John is one of those people and how can you not call those people your friend?

This morning, I was on my site rereading my post (I do that occasionally) and I realized I hadn't been on 97 seconds with God in a while. Did I not say John and his site were a vessel? When you go to his site and read his posting from his journal about Matthew, you will understand. (I would post it here, but I'm not sure how blog sharing even though giving credit to the writer works.)

Go read his post. It ties together so well with mine from last night. And, guess where I'm going this morning (*before* Ikea with Tina)? I'm going to go pick up the phone (henceforth the 'bat phone' lol) that keeps ringing and I keep ignoring.

Until next time,
GO TO http://97secondswithgod.blogspot.com/
And pick up your own Bat Phone. I know mine can't be the only one that's been ringing off the hook.

Love,
Me