God's Wake-Up Call

Every Christmas when we put up lights I'm reminded of my wake-up call several years ago. From my bed I looked over at the alarm clock that read 2:00 am. My mind went to the Christmas lights and inflatable snowman in the front yard the kids and I put up earlier that day. A strong sense came over me to look out my daughter's front window to ensure no fire danger from the lights. I wanted to stay comfortable under the warm covers, but a persistent thought nudged me to look outside.

Plodding down the hallway to my daughter's room I peered out the window to look at the lights, but immediately my attention went to the empty driveway. Where my large eight passenger SUV was usually parked. Shocked that my car was stolen I hurried to my bedroom to nudge my husband from his deep sleep, while I grabbed my cell phone to call the police.

Meanwhile my husband noticed that the front door was unlocked indicating that someone in my family may have left the house. Suspecting our oldest daughter I went to her room to investigate. Under her covers were pillows lined up that deceived me into thinking she was asleep.

When I called my daughter on her cell phone she confessed that she had driven the SUV across town to her friend's house. My daughter had just turned sixteen, but still had not taken any driving courses nor been behind the wheel of a car that I knew of, let alone my huge Suburban.

Calling the police back to tell them that it was my daughter who stole my car I was faced with a decision. The dispatcher asked, "Do you still want to file a report?" Upon gathering more information from the police my daughter could be taken out of the vehicle at gun-point. I thought, this might teach her a lesson. Then I considered the worse case scenario, what if she was shot on accident by a police officer.

I decided to cancel the report but give the police the address where my daughter was parked unable to start the car due to a dead battery. Two police cars were at the location when my husband and I arrived. My daughter was in the back of one car and her friend in the other. When the police asked me what I wanted to do, I contemplated sending her to juvenile hall knowing she needed a severe consequence. Stealing a car was a felony and this incident would permanently mark her record.

After careful consideration and prayer I made no official charges against her, but gave her the consequence of not getting her driver's license until she was eighteen. She reminded me over the next two years when I drove her around town that I suffered from her consequence more than she did. How often that is true, as parents the tough choice to discipline our children usually involves that we pay the inconvenience of their consequence.

Deep down I knew she paid for not having the freedom to drive where she wanted when she wanted. As hard as it was I stuck to my decision and we both paid the price for her wrong doing. She learned a lesson: her choices impacted others.

I marvel at how God woke me up to take care of my little girl. I praise Him for what He has done in her life and our relationship as I set boundaries and communicated love with consequences. I always pray that my children will get caught when disobedient. This way they can suffer a consequence for a bad choice instead of getting away with something and never learning a lesson at a young age, possibly suffering a more severe consequence later in life.

Often with my hormones changing in my mid-forties I peer over at my clock in the early morning hours. It's my wake-up call to pray for my children. I stand in front of their rooms, after checking their beds, to pray specifically for their protection, good choices, godly character, and that I will have wisdom on how to raise and train my children in the ways of the Lord.

When God wakes you up, what will you do?

Conquering Homosexuality

For twelve years James Hartline has battled the AIDS virus, a disease that he acquired in his former life of promiscuity, drug abuse and homosexuality. For ten years now, he has made a stand to declare to America that there is a way out of the destruction of homosexuality and its many diabolical consequences. James proclaims the power of God to heal, deliver and correct the soul bound up in sin and sickness. He is living proof that God's word is true and His power to transform the prisoner of sin is available to all who will humble themselves and receive Jesus Christ as Messiah, Savior, Deliverer and Healer.

James Hartline shares his story of victory:

I was formed in the darkness. I was born in the darkness. I was shackled at birth and sentenced to a very deadly outcome. From the womb I came into a world where I was beaten everyday for fourteen years. From the maelstrom of the madness of abusive parents, I was carted away by juvenile authorities and placed in a state children's home for my own protection. My path was chosen for me by those who shuffle children around like gamblers shuffle cards at a casino poker table.

Homosexuality, drugs, stealing, and depression became the constants in my life. I eventually spent nineteen years in state prison for stealing to support my wasted life. Suicide attempts and mental self-destruction would become a regular part of my incarcerations.
For two decades of my adult life I was chained in despair, a phantom life that was plundered by the devil, but preserved by God for something profound, something churning in the mystery of God's mind, something that would shake the very construct of hell's plans.

I was released from prison in 1997. That year, I would be infected with the AIDS virus. I had no formal education. I barely had a high school diploma. I had no money, no reputation, no standing in society. I was the mud on the bottom of the government's boot, an ex-con with a burned out mind and a deadly disease in my body.

Simply the Hand of God plucked me from the grip of a satanic plot to destroy the prophetic assignment that God Almighty has appointed for me. It has always been this way with God. He chooses the foolish things to confound the wise. God appoints the weakest and least qualified men and women to perform His most difficult works upon the earth. For in our weaknesses He makes us strong. When we are uneducated and impoverished, the Master of Heaven and Earth qualifies us and empowers us. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2

James has been instrumental in shutting down fourteen pornographic stores in San Diego. The most recent store had a children's video section in the front part of the business and an entire porn video section in the back of the business. Men could go into the store and look at the pornographic videos behind curtains.
The gay lifestyle which is still, by a wide margin, the leading cause of HIV transmissions in the United States. The Center for Disease Control recently released a report that shows men who have sex with other men is the only group in America that shows a rise in the rate of HIV transmissions.
As American taxpayers we gave billions of dollars to homosexual activists under the naive ideas of HIV prevention, education and condom use. Gay activists have pilfered the billions of tax dollars and used them to promote homosexuality, gay marriage and their radicalized vision of enshrining gay activism as a cultural stepping stone to an antichristian government. AIDS continues to spread like wildfire in gay communities, not because of a lack of scientific education, condoms and resources.

With conviction to make a difference in the community of San Diego James fights for righteousness. He consistently takes a stand at City Counsel meetings to shut down gay bath houses and adult book stores that promote immoral conduct. James said, "I don't know how long I have left on this earth, but I am determined to run my race until I leave." He refers to the scripture, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it." 1Corinthians 9:24.

James Hartline is running his race of life with an eternal perspective and he's running it well. Article was written in conjunction with James Hartline.


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