"Hear My Cry, Oh God, Give Heed to my Prayer. From the Depths of the Earth, I cry to thee, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. For you have been a shelter for me, a tower of strength against the enemy. (I will praise your name forever)

For Thou God hast heard my vows, Thou hast given me the inheritance of those who fear Thy name. Thou wilt prolong, the Kings life, and for as many generations.

I will abide before God forever, let mercy, truth and strength preserve him!

So I will sing, praises to Thy name, forever, that may I pay my vows day by day.”

God gave me a tune to put to these words. It was only ever recorded in rough copy in order to perform one time. This was after a time of illness when everyone I knew thought I was dying. God gave me this song in response to the pain and suffering of not knowing if I was to live or die while awaiting a dire diagnosis. During that time, I had to live off my savings account. A nest egg of almost $6,000 dollars I had worked almost 10 years to save! I had taken a new job--one that allowed me to have weekends off, so that I could finally attend church on a regular basis! I no longer had to work graveyard shift, and every single weekend! I thought I was doing what God wanted me to do. Yet after just 2 months on the new job--in a doctor’s office--I was struck down and ill, turning yellow as a sticky post-it note!

I did not want my new employer to know I might have a communicable disease, so I never said what I was being tested for: AIDS, hepatitis, and of course, a terminal illness with my liver. I was losing weight rapidly and could not eat. My parents were afraid to come see me, and would set food on the porch. My friends from church were afraid to visit me. My neighbors were scared. My existence became very, very lonely. At this time in my life, I was very social. New church attendance several times a week! New friends, which I saw daily! I was always busy on the phone. I saw my folks several times a week. Now, all of that stopped. No social contact at all. I became a social outcast. I knew what it was like now to be a leper in the times of Jesus! Just one hug would have meant so much. The pastor of this church came to visit me with his wife, an RN. They told me that while "the two of them" would pray for me, they would not tell the rest of the church. They were afraid that I would be excommunicated because most everyone "knew that the ONLY way to get hepatitis and AIDS especially" was by fooling around or to be cursed by God. Like the pharisees of Jesus' day, anyone who was ill was cursed and not allowed in the temple.

Going to the doctor and to the lab at the medical office was humiliating. The lab techs would snort at me. I was judged to be some drug addict, a needle freak, or very actively promiscuous. How else did I wind up exposed to hepatitis, AIDS and all that stuff? I finally shared my testimony, that I was a virgin, a Christian believer in Jesus Christ. I was alone one rainy night in the emergency room, all the staff was summoned to help a heart attack victim to the 2nd floor in ICU, and we had lost our power. Into the ER walks a person, bleeding to death, having walked through his patio door. I never asked what happened to him, just slapped my hand over his arterial wound, and helped to stop the bleeding. It was a full 10 minutes before any staff responded to my call for help!

It was later that I realized that I had an open wound on my hand, a cut from his wound that contained broken glass! I had indeed been exposed to his blood. Subsequently, as he came down from his drug-induced high, and began to fight staff, they received accidental needle sticks. This poor man had hepatitis B and AIDS, and Guillain–Barré syndrome. Now it was 1991 and those other staff members by this time had all died from their contact with this man which occurred in the early 80's. I was the last one still standing, but in fact, very ill.

I turned to God, and to the scriptures. Daily I prayed, and cried for His mercy. I turned everything over to Him. I was thankful for the money I had saved up, and wound up using the entire amount to live on. My new job did not have sick leave. My old job did. In the end, I had a bad gall bladder, which I would not have removed until 2013. I would be forced to wait that long by the medical community. However, through this experience, God taught me to call on Him--and He heard my voice. He heard my prayers.

I remember that time so well, as I would crawl on my hands and knees to the bathroom, get sick, crawl to the living room, pick up my guitar, sing Psalm 61 and later Psalm 23, and read my Bible. I was sometimes too weak to hold it, so it would lay on my chest and I would just open it up to random passages. I will never forget how God brought me through, and just when the money was about to run out, I was able to return to work.

Never again have I been able to save money like that--and today I live check to check. However, no matter how close things get--God always makes sure that I have enough to pay the bills, get the food we need, and medicine. He is gracious and almighty. He is good and He is awesome. He hears our cries, especially in the darkness of our lives.

Deuteronomy 24

Law Concerning Divorce

1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, 2 when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, 4 then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Miscellaneous Laws

5 “When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

6 “No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in pledge, for he takes one’s living in pledge.

7 “If a man is found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die; and you shall put away the evil from among you.

8 “Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy, that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you; just as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt!

10 “When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 And if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight. 13 You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you; and it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God.

14 “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. 15 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.

16 “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 “You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge. 18 But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing.

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.

Deuteronomy 25

Laws of Social Responsibility

1 “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, 2 then it shall be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence, according to his guilt, with a certain number of blows. 3 Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight.

4 “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.

Marriage Duty of the Surviving Brother

5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6 And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 But if the man does not want to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, ‘I do not want to take her,’ 9 then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal removed.’

Miscellaneous Laws

11 “If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals, 12 then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her.

13 “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. 14 You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. 15 You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the Lord your God.

Destroy the Amalekites

17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, 18 how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.

Deuteronomy 26

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

1 “And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, 2 that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. 3 And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’

4 “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. 5 And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. 7 Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. 8 So the Lordbrought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. 9 He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; 10 and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’

“Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. 11 So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

12 “When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, 13 then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. 14 I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15 Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

A Special People of God

16 “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. 18 Also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, 19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”

Deuteronomy 27

The Law Inscribed on Stones

1 Now Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying: “Keep all the commandments which I command you today. 2 And it shall be, on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with lime. 3 You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you. 4 Therefore it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ebal you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, and you shall whitewash them with lime. 5 And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them. 6 You shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God, and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. 7 You shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. 8 And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.”

9 Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying, “Take heed and listen, O Israel: This day you have become the people of the Lord your God. 10 Therefore you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.”

Curses Pronounced from Mount Ebal

11 And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, 12 “These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; 13 and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

14 “And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel: 15 ‘Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’

“And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen!’

16 ‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’