Talent From Both of my Fathers Part 2

In my last blog I wrote about my father David and how he inspired me to write. Today I am going to discuss my other father, my Heavenly Father, God.

I am writing this on Thanksgiving 2020. I just watched a PBS documentary on the Pilgrims. I last watched it 5 years ago. Since then I got into ancestry and found out that I have ancestors that were at Plymouth Colony. William Brewster who signed the Mayflower Compact and Katherine Marbury, the sister of Anne Hutchinson who was banished from the colony and her husband Richard Scott helped found the Providence colony. More about that later.

My 12th great grandfather. Pilgrim William Brewster

As a Christian I believe that Bible to be the inspired word of God. And he had great writers working for him. My favorites though are the prophets. Isaiah and Jeremiah in particular. They were writing in times of great strife and political corruption. They were not afraid to speak truth to power even if it meant persecution, imprisonment, or being thrown down a well.

Now Samual, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel all talked to God and God talked to them. They were prophets in the truest sense of the word. I have never had that honor but I do believe that God gives all of us talents to use. Gifts of the spirit and prophecy is one. There have been many people with prophetic voices throughout history.

This is I think one of the best writings of any prophet. It sums up the struggle against corruption and how false religion abuses the poor and makes a mockery of what God wants https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+1&version=NIV

Actually when I spoke up from the gallery when the Wisconsin Assembly was trying to pass a Bible Recognition week resolution I quoted from Isaiah 1. It wasn’t just that it was a flagrant violation of the separation of church and state. It was flagrant hypocrisy because Robin Voss and his ilk voted against the poor, the homeless, and against expanding Medicaid . So I read

^{Isaiah 1 12} When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
¹³ Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your

I couldn’t get any more out because Robin Vos pointed his gavel at me and asked the police to escort me out. The irony of being kicked out for reading the book that he wanted to be recognized may have been lost on him. But it wasn’t lost on me.

The proudest day of my life was when he kicked me out of the Capital’s Assembly gallery. His face was read and he pointed his gavel like it could kill. But all I was doing was reading the book he so cherished.

I sometimes wonder what would the prophets do if they lived today? Would Isaiah have a blog? Would Jeremiah have an Instagram account? Would Ezekiel have a YouTube channel. Social media is the public square of today.

Jan Hus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox and the other leaders of the reformation were not perfect people but they had a prophetic voice. They spoke up when they saw corruption in the church. They lead a revolution eliminating road blocks that the ancient Catholic Church put between man and his God. I have a joke about Martin Luther but I will post it at the end of the blog.

This comes to my genealogy. My family has a history of speaking truth to power. My 11th Great Grandfather was a character. He was arrested not once, not twice but three times. He spoke out against the corruption in the Anglican Church and in his trial in November 1578 the Bishop of London John Aylmer called him an “ ass, an idiot, and a fool” he sent him to Marshalsea Prison. Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshalseat was a notorious prison and he was sent there for speaking up. He knew he would go to jail and he did it anyway.

My ancestor and inspiration Frances Marbury

I wonder if facing the prospect of jail would I be willing to speak out against corruption. But when trolls call me names like idiot, a moron, or a libtard, I know that I am in good company. He had two daughters. One would be embroiled in a controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomian_Controversy#Anne_Hutchinson.

The other was my 10th great grandmother who with her sister and her husband Richard Scott would found the Providence Plantation colony. And their great grandson would become governor of Rhode Island, and revolutionary Stephen Hopkins. He was not the drunk portrayed in the musical 1776 but he did like his hat. He would not even take it off for a painting.

Guess which one of the founding fathers is my ancestor.

When I write my blogs or make videos under the handle AVoiceCrying33 I feel the Holy Spirit at work. Most of the time I am a nervous anxious person obsessing about everything but when I am writing about God and about the Church and politics. I feel calm and alive. I thank God for this feeling and this gift.

I promised a Martin Luther Joke and I will deliver. Historians say that Martin Luther had irritable bowel syndrome. One day he had 95 feces. But what do you expect with a diet of worms.

God Bless you