Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
This week I was in my TV room and I heard a basketball bouncing on concrete. It is amazing how that type of noise travels through walls. It has happened before but this was very noticeable.
I went into the bathroom and was surprised it was even louder there.
I decided to go to bed and rest (I often do that in afternoons) and the noise from the basketball was so loud in the bedroom that I decided to get up.
I went into LR and lit a fire in fire place. The noise was there also.
This was a real problem to me.
I decided to see where the basketball problem was coming from.
I was really amazed at what I found. The people next door had put a portable basketball goal in the curb area in front of my house at the corner of their property line at the mail box. I sometimes have to drive my car to mail box in winter to get mail and this was blocking the street on one side of mail box so I wouldn't be able to pull up to mail box any longer without heading in and backing car up.
And then I realized as we move into spring and days get longer, teenagers would be attracted to the basketball goal and the noise would increase. And most likely boom boxes or car radios would be turned on while they played basketball in the street. (With this the severity of the problem increased dramatically.)
Of course, I was seriously praying ... I could see how this could drive me off my property and even cause me to have to put the house up for sale. And would anyone really want to buy this house if they saw all this happening on the street in front of the house?
It was amazing to me that this could be happening. I've never seen anything like it.
I continued praying and the next morning I had great peace about the situation. I knew it was somehow going to be taken care of. I was reminded of the scripture in Isaiah 65 ...
21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat:
for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.
24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
At one point, I thought maybe this basketball goal was part of the Martin Luther King holiday in USA for these neighbors are black people and I noticed a lot of cars at their house on Monday during this one day holiday and that is also the day the basketball goal appeared. I thought it might be rented for that day and it might only be temporary.
But when I went to the garbage later that day, several boxes filled the dumpster and there were cartons from the basketball goal so I knew this was not a temporary situation.
I called the police. I was pretty sure it would be illegal to put a basketball goal on a public street this way. The police said they would send officers to investigate.
Then I decided also to go to these neighbors and explain the problem and to ask them to move the goal away from the mail boxes and to put it at the other end of their property where it might not be so noisy.
As I was going to their house, I noticed the mail man's vehicle parked at the mail box. He had headed in toward the mail boxes because the goal also blocked his path to the mail boxes. I saw him coming from the neighbor's house. I realized he had been talking to them about this. A man was walking with him. This was a man I've never seen before but he seemed to be responsible for the basketball goal. I spoke with him about the problem. He was very polite. Immediately he moved the goal down the block away from the mail box but still in the curb of the street where cars park.
A few minutes after this, I opened my front door and two police officers were in the street in front of the basketball goal. Within minutes, the goal was gone from the front of the house.
I don't know what the end result will be. The man moved the goal to his garage area which is even closer to my bedroom than it was. But I doubt it will attract the numbers of teenagers that it would have attracted to the front of the house for there just isn't room in the back for larger number of people.
One thing I wondered is did I violate I Cor. 6 in calling the police.
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. 5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? 6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
I asked God to show me ... and I felt led to go back to I Cor. 6 and judge the situation.
In I Cor. 6, Paul is speaking of "brother going to law against brother" ... That would be like my going to a court of law and filing suit against Pam. Unthinkable!
I was convinced I Cor. 6 did not apply to this basketball issue. I was being driven out of my own house. I would not be able to do my work here nor rest here under the circumstances. These people were using very bad judgment to set up a basketball goal on public property as they did. They were in fact breaking the law of the city by doing this as they soon learned. What they did is unimaginable to me.
And it is also the type of thing Paul spoke of in II Tim. 3 ... 1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
They showed no consideration of their neighbors nor of anyone other than their own desires and their own pleasures.
Lawlessness is one of the main things that happens in the end and the spirit of antichrist who works in the heart of man is "a man of lawlessness". II Thess. 2
We certainly see lawlessness in our church groups as doctrine is set aside and "another doctrine" other than Bible is set up to allow lawlessness to reign. How much more will lawlessness and lack of justice take place in the world ... Mt. 24 ... Jesus speaking of end times ... 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
And we read ... And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Mt. 24:22
Lawlessness, injustice, unfairness will be key marks of the end times.
But God will not allow us to be destroyed with the people of the world. So we remember to turn to God strongly and know HE will make a way of escape for us in everything that comes our way.
The small troubles now are just examples of the wickedness.
Romans 12:21 ... Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (doing that which in good in the sight of God)