The Radical Christian

So I said I would tell you what I believe to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and so I shall!

I call myself a radical Christian, because I don't follow any organized religion and yet feel very close to our heavenly father. His name is YHWH, we put in vowels so we may pronounce it.  Did you know at one time the Bible had his name in it but superstitious man took it out, even though He said to do all things in His name.  That will be in another blog.  For now, I will tell you what I believe.

The commandments, hard to follow, I try very, very hard, sometimes I fall, but He is faithful to forgive when I go down on my knees and ask Him to.

Exodus 20:1-17

King James Version

 ¹And God spake all these words, saying,

 ²I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

³Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

 ⁴Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

 ⁵Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

 ⁶And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

 ⁷Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

 ⁸Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

 ⁹Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

 ¹⁰But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

 ¹¹For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

 ¹²Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

 ¹³Thou shalt not kill.

¹⁴Thou shalt not commit adultery.

 ¹⁵Thou shalt not steal.

 ¹⁶Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

 ¹⁷Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

James 4:11

 ¹¹Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Proverbs 6:16-19

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 

I'll tell you all about love, next time.  Did you know that I was born on Valentines day.  While I do not subscribe to any pagan holidays, I do believe that nothing happens by accident.  God is in control, and he can use anyone or anything for his purpose. I don't think it was an accident that I was born on the day my countrymen celebrate love.  

Revisions, Done, Sent, and Waiting

I finally finished making revisions to my book early this morning;  I was up all night doing it! If everything goes well, and I am satisfied with my new proof, I should have my book on Amazon.com in 8 days.   

Temporary Traveler: Remember the Sabbath

Temporary Traveler: Remember the Sabbath: Remember the Sabbath. That's what the Fourth Commandment says in Exodus 20:8-11. The Bible reminds us constantly throughout its contents of ...

Jose

Today I finally got my first follower on this site, Hallelujah!  So in honor of my dear first follower, today's blog will be about my friend, Jose.
I met Gloria in my first class on the first day of Jr. high school. They had given us a piece of paper with our class schedule with six or seven classes on it, in homeroom.  Luckily my first class was gym and I knew where that was.  Sitting on the bleachers with a bunch of other scared and confused 12 and 13 year old's I said to no one in particular, "I'm never gonna find all these classes in the three minutes they give you to get there.  With that, a chubby hand came from behind me, taking my class schedule out of my hand. "Here, let me see that," the voice belonging to the hand said.  "This is your lucky day, we are in all the same classes, just follow me."
 
Wait a minute, this is supposed to be Jose's blog, not his mother's!  We'll just have to save Gloria for another day!
Jose was born 12 days short of being exactly a-year-and-a-half younger than my daughter.  This is important because had they been born in the opposite order, I am sure they would have been a perfect match.  Sad to say, that year-and-a-half only mattered long enough for them to get involved with the wrong people.


Like his mother, Jose has this off -the-wall sense of humor and he has always kept my daughter and I in stitches.  Like me, this was cause to get him into way too much trouble, way too often. The masses just don't get us.  I don't know, maybe it was his mother's influence on me, maybe it was my influence on her, or maybe a combination of both, but get the four of us together and there is just no coming up for air.

Dear, sweet Jose, has always hugged me whenever he saw me, even when he was a teenager.  My nephews never did that!  I've always had to force myself on them to get a hug, but not Jose.  One time I was waitressing a wedding at the Catskill Elk's club where Jose and his wife were guests.  When Jose saw me, he jumped up from his seat and hugged me, touched my heart!  And look here at who's my first blog follower, see what I mean about Jose?
Heavy sigh, Imagine how much fun the four of us could have had together had Gloria had her baby before I had mine.  And then there would be the grandchildren......  I don't know, I guess God in his wisdom knew that the world just couldn't handle all of us nut cases concentrated in one area. 

My Friend Richard

From first to sixth grade, I went to Miami Shores Elementary school.  During baseball season our gym class was all baseball and everyone had to play.  No matter how hard I tried, I never could hit that stinking elusive ball.  Fortunately, I was in class with a boy who had had polio and had to wear metal braces on his legs and walked with metal crutches.  On the first day of baseball season, I had a scathingly brilliant idea and put it to the boy,  "Hey since you can hit the ball, but can't run very fast, and I can run fast but can't hit the ball, why don't we team up?"  We did and both got A's in gym that quarter.

In sixth grade, my mother married her husband of 49 years and we moved to Catskill, rather visa-versa.  She got pregnant the night she was wed and Julie was born exactly 7 months later.  No wait.... Julie was 2 months premature and weighed in at 4.5 pounds. By the time I got to jr. high, six months later, the rumor that Julie was mine, had begun and so my reputation was already besmirched. 

In my seventh grade homeroom, I sat in the first desk in the second row.  During that first week of school, I noticed that the boy in the wheelchair who sat in the back of my row, didn't speak to anybody. Another scathingly brilliant idea was forming. The next time the boy came rolling down the isle next to me, I put my leg up so he had to stop. The ensuing conversation went something like this:

Richard: "Why are you doing this?"

Me: "Why do you always roll right past me without so much as a hi, how ya doin?  I have feelings too ya know!" People think they know something about me and they don't know anything!"

Richard: "I can relate."

I believe that was the first time I ever heard that expression but I knew instinctively what it meant.  I really only meant to be light-hearted, to engage him in conversation but somehow it became deep.  We looked at each other for a few moments before he broke the silence.

Richard: "Hi, how ya doin?"

Me: "Well, I'm just fine thank you very much, and how are you?"

Richard: "Well, I'm pretty good, but I really need to get by."

Me: "Oh, OK, well, don't be a stranger."


                      CHS 1966 Yearbook   Ninth Grade

                  

From then on, I would always stop Richard in the same way and he would always begin with, "Hi Kathy, how ya doin?"  Sometimes, when life was particularly hard, I wouldn't stick my leg out to stop him, he would stop just briefly but wouldn't say anything. Other times, I would stop him and if he didn't say Hi, I would let him go. We had this connection, like we always knew when the other was just not up to it. I didn't see much of Richard after seventh grade, we might see each other in the hall once in a while, and just say hi as we passed by. Our seventh grade homeroom teacher who had observed our little interactions, took me out of a study hall one day when I was in ninth grade, and told me of Richards passing.  She had tears in her eyes as she passed me one of the tissues she had brought with her, knowing how I'd react.  I had lived with this teacher for three months when I was in seventh grade, while my parents vacationed in FL.  It's in the book!

Richard was a special boy and I feel blessed to have known him. I have pictured him playing baseball with that boy in Florida, no one has to run the bases for either of them any more.

Introducing: Castle Michael Alexander Stough

On September 1, 2011, I became a published author, and my baby sister, Julie became a Juma, (Grandma). Julie's youngest, (Michael)became a daddy, and his Starr, became a mommy.  

Baby, Castle Michael Alexander Stough made his debut Thursday September 1, 2011 at 10:59 AM.  He weighed in at 6 lbs 7.6 oz. and is 18 inches long.

The night before he was born, Julie called me at 11:00ish.  She had just gotten home from the hospital where Michael and Starr were laying in her bed, so the staff could monitor the baby.  Starr has very high blood pressure.  After giving me the update,  Julie said she was going to bed and we said goodnight.   Three hours later,  Julie wrote on her face book page that she was back in the hospital.  I got worried and messaged her and she called me.  

Starr had called Julie to tell her that Michael had fallen asleep and she couldn't wake him up, she was bored and lonely and in lots of pain.  I love my little sister!  She's the kind of person who you just know if you send up an S.O.S., she'll come running,  Starr knows!  She spent the rest of the night at the hospital and the next day as well.  This after putting in a 9 hour day at work.  God bless you Jewels. 
I always did tell you, you were the best thing Mom ever did for me.

 

Thank you Mr. Piers Anthony

After writing my first blog this morning, I thought perhaps I should thank Mr. Anthony for all his hard work on his            Hi Piers site.  Below is the letter I wrote him and his response I received this afternoon.  What a nice man! 

From: Kathleen Hiatt

Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2011 7:47 AM

To: PiersAnthony@hipiers.com

Subject: createspace.com

Dear Mr. Anthony,

After studying your "Hi Piers" page, I was encouraged to send my story to www.createspace.com.  Their tutorials and templates were so easy to follow I was able to complete the whole process in a day or two.  I sent it in late Tuesday night and heard back from them early Thursday morning.  My proof copy is on it's way and I am delighted with everything so far.  I opted not to use their services since their tutorials were so easy to follow.  I did pay the $39.00

for their pro plan as it made more sense.

Thank you so much for "Hi Piers"  I'm gonna miss you when you go into retirement.  You have been such a blessing.  My whole family loves your work and all your anecdotes.  We were especially touched by the one about the little girl who got in trouble for reading your stuff.  My granddaughter was 10 when we read about that, and was already a big fan.

Again, Thank you,

Love,

Kathy Hiatt

Thank you for your note. We have printed it for Piers Anthony and he gave us the following answer for you:

    You're welcome.

    Remember,. you can publish electronically also, at Kindle, free. It's a good deal.

    I'll die before I retire.

Piers Anthony

PiersAnthony@hipiers.com

www.HiPiers.com

http://piersanthonyblog.blogspot.com/