Tag: truth

Discernment vs. Deception: Good vs. Evil

We are in a deception transition period from what I see happening in the world where good and evil are mixed up, creating confusion about right and wrong. Our warning about this came almost 2,000 years ago, if we don’t express and support the truth, soon the younger generations will have a difficult time identifying good from evil. This is what we were told:

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 1:32 (Paul)

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

Romans 1:28 (Paul)

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people….They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.

2 Timothy 3:1-9

We are seeing truth distorted on a continuous basis and anyone speaking against the lies is called “the enemy” and is publicly “shamed”. There is a tremendous pressure for all to “comply” with this new “untruth/lie” deceivingly packaged as “compassion and love” – a strong deception, but “marketed” as something opposite, completely confusing many. There are many opinions, but there will only be Truth remaining in the end.

HOW TO AVOID DECEPTION- WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Know the messenger! Don’t trust anyone you don’t know very well. Find out who they truly are. They may be charming, convincing, appealing, etc. BUT:

Though their speech is charming, do not believe them, for seven abominations fill their hearts.

Proverbs 26:25

So what are 7 abominations? Possibly the 7 things God hates:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty (proud) eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood (murder), a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Proverbs 6:16-19

If the following surrounds their life, do NOT trust them:

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (intoxication), idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galations 5:19-21

WHO TO TRUST – WHAT TO LOOK FOR

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galations 5:14

God is love. When a person has God’s spirit (Love) residing within them, you will notice the following surrounding their life:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Knowing this information, we can “test” the messenger and know if this is a trustworthy or untrustworthy source of information, despite the delivery of the message.

If we want to be known as “good” we should remember that Jesus said there is no one “good” but God, however, God is kind and compassionate and with our “surrender” to Him, Jesus said if we ask, he will send the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) who, once we are open to receiving the Holy Spirit, will begin to work within us. The Holy Spirit provides wisdom, guidance, protection, understanding of truth, peace, gifts (Romans 12:6-8) (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), power, love, discipline, and God’s eternal seal placed on us for our resurrection, redemption at the time of Jesus’ return.

11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[a] his Spirit who lives in you.

Romans 8:11

USE IT OR LOSE IT!

So remember these verses and use them to evaluate people better knowing who is trustworthy, use it to make future critical decisions in life, and most importantly, get to know Jesus through scripture (read the Gospel of John) If you believe what John writes about Jesus, what Jesus said, pray and ask Jesus for the Holy Spirit to come to you; we all need the Holy Spirit for all the reasons mentioned above.

by Categories: bible prophecy, bible study, FAITH, FRIENDSHIP, God, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Love, Make It Count, priorities, RELATIONSHIPS, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Why Don’t We Care More About God?

It’s easy to not deeply care about someone we only know by name (a stranger), but not someone we truly know (an important person to us).

Think about this for a minute: think of someone you know: that person you see occasionally (it could be someone from work, or someone living in the neighborhood, this person should be someone you see occasionally but don’t interact with much), you know their name, but you might not know many details about them such as their life story, stories of their struggles, or stories of their favorite memories in life. You know them primarily by name only, the depth of your knowledge about this person is limited. Let’s refer back to this person as “stranger” going forward.

Now think about someone you love (it could be presently or in the past) but pick someone that you believe you truly love, someone whose “well-being” you truly care about, someone you take time to be with regularly, you know their struggles, you know their life story, you know what makes them happy. Let’s refer to this person as “important” going forward.

Take a minute to think about both these people, you “know” both of them, but one you know primarily know by name, the “stranger.” and the other you know many more details about them and they are the “important” person to you. This is how most of us are with God (until we seek Him), we know OF Him, but we don’t truly KNOW Him. If we don’t truly know a person, we can’t genuinely love that person- the same holds true about God. How can we love God or make Him a priority in our life, if we don’t genuinely know Him? We can’t.

The best way for us to get to genuinely know God is by reading scripture (the bible) daily, here’s what I’ve learned about God and us over the past three years of doing this. Let’s start at the beginning: Creation. God’s creativity is so much more impressive than anything mankind can create. Think about our bodies, the intricacy of our unique DNA coding, the systems of the body, how they work together, the ability of our body to “heal”, the intricacy of our eyes, the complexity of vision, all the tiny blood vessels, nerves, and muscles, throughout that provide what’s needed for various components of our bodies to function as designed. Think about our minds, the capacity to think, ponder, analyze, feel, etc. This didn’t just happen by “accident”- there is a complex, well- designed system that even the doctors today don’t have full understanding, often treatments are still trial and error when doctors try to fix something. God made us. He intentionally made everyone of us (we are here because He wanted us here): each of us is unique and has special gifts, created by God. We were created to relate with Him and with others in this world. God wants to be known and sometimes uses supernatural means to be discovered by us. Think, for a minute , about that “important” person brought to your thoughts earlier. You love that person, now imagine this: what if that person didn’t know you? You knew them, you love them, yet they don’t react to you, they ignore you, they don’t respond to you. Wouldn’t that be frustrating? Now think about how God feels when we ignore Him. God has feelings and emotions. We were created in His image and similar to Him, we also have feelings and emotions. How would you feel if the person you love responded to you as a “stranger”?

Creating us is what God did, but there is more about who God is. There is a mystery about God, revealed through scripture. There is one God, but a triune God: God the Father, the Son of God (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. All three were present during the creation. This is a detail that can be supported by the original Hebrew scripture with the word: Elohim This is very interesting because the word is “plural” and the singular form is Eloah and both are used in scripture, but the creation as well as other pats of scripture use the plural version. Explore this if you doubt. Why would God be referred to with a plural reference if He is not triune? Genesis further describes God’s Spirit hovering over the waters during creation and the bible also says “let us make make mankind in our image” (Genesis 1:26) It is not until Jesus arrives that we fully understand this “triune”, when Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist all are present: the spirit descends visibly when Jesus comes up out of the water during baptism and God speaks audibly telling those present that Jesus is His Son (Matthew 3:17). But even further back in scripture, about how Jesus came became man, we learn from God’s messenger angel, who visited Mary (Jesus’ mother). The angel explained that it is God’s spirit who makes this pregnancy occur, not by man, the angel also visited Joseph who was engaged to be married to Mary and was thinking about secretly departing from her due to the pregnancy, but the angel explains what happened to Joseph and Joseph follows through with Mary. (Matthew 1:18) The three (triune God) are present at the very beginning of Jesus’ human life. Something else to think about: throughout scripture, no one technically sees God, Moses gets the closest to seeing Him, but then hides his face. When Moses returns to the people he is described as “radiant” (Exodus 34). Scripture often tells us God is Spirit, so it’s hard to comprehend His presence, is He pure light or does He have bodily form? Scripture mentions the throne of God and Jesus is seated at the right hand, so it does seem like there is a form of some type and if mankind was created in God’s image, then it would also seem likely. If we look back in scripture again, in Genesis (Genesis 3:8), God is walking in the garden (all three are present: Elohim) it is written about God’s voice being heard, and then the singular version Yehova (Jehova) is also used and so is Ruah (which means spirit or wind in the Old Testament, in Hebrew; ruah is used used 378 times) and is interesting to discover. Could it have been Jesus who was walking in the garden? (I don’t know the answer to this question but it crossed my mind after reading this verse.) Jumping forward, in the book of Revelation, Jesus reveals that he is the beginning and the end (Revelation 21:6), he also reveals this in the gospel of John when Jesus tells the Pharisees that he existed before Abraham who was born around 20 BC (John 8:58). It is believed that Jesus was born sometime between 6 BC and 2 BC. In the New Testament, pneuma is the name for Spirit, it refers to either God’s spirit or other spirits and is referred to 385 times in the New Testament. When we explore the original words of scripture like these: Elohim, ruah, pneuma, and the words of Jesus documented in the New Testament Gospels, our eyes begin to open and the Bible gets interesting by exploring and discovering “who” God is through scripture we begin to learn.

But there is more to learn about God than “who” He is. There is the personality and character of God that we discover through the Bible. This is best discovered gradually throughout the entire bible, so this following summary will not be complete, but is an attempt to summarize some of what I’ve learned about God’s character through studying scripture. Since God made us in His image, I think we can comprehend a little bit of His character is because God is the only one who is good; we are not, so we can’t fully relate to a perfect God. (Jesus said this documented in the Gospel of Mark 10:18 – also explore the word Jesus used for God “theos” in Greek found here) So we are imperfect beings trying to understand a perfect Being, therefore we are limited in our comprehension of God and in what has been revealed to us through scripture. Here are some characteristics of God found through scripture:

LOVE: God loves us greater than we currently have the capacity to love. Our love is often conditional. God’s love is unconditional. He loves us even while we are broken, separated from Him by sin. He created us to experience a loving relationship with Him. When any human relationship fails, it is different from our relationship with God who’s love remains, unfailing. We can’t comprehend God in exactly the same way as we experience human relationships: God is perfect, humans are not.

FORGIVENESS: God sets the standard so high on forgiveness. When we comprehend His capacity to forgive we are amazed, especially when we think about betrayal. How hard is it for us when someone betrays us, then comes back? Some of us may be forgiving yet others struggle with it, but not God and He wants us to be like Him in forgiveness to others. He wants us to understand how often He forgive us (which is whenever we truly mean it and ask Him for forgiveness, He forgives). Aren’t we grateful that He is like this? How many times do we mess up and then regret it? What if He wasn’t forgiving? Do you realize what that would mean? We would never have a relationship with Him again. Think about that for a minute: what if you hurt that “important” person you love and you never had the opportunity to be back in a relationship with them because they didn’t forgive you for what you did against them. How much greater would that hurt us when we know what God has planned (Revelation 21 and 22) for those who love Him back and those who have a relationship with Him?

MERCY: God see us as His little children, He lets us make decisions (even ones that aren’t good and ones that go against Him, the Commandments He gave us Exodus 20)- He is not controlling (He let us have free will), but then He will discipline His children, the ones He loves Revelation 3:19 (for our benefit to learn from our mistakes and turn back to Him) He cares for us and wants the best for us. Jeremiah 29:11

JEALOUS: Yes, God gets jealous. There are different types of jealousy: one type is “coveting” something someone else has; wanting something that is not ours, being envious of someone else. This is not the jealousy of God. God made us, God loves us and God is jealous when our love is shown to someone or anything else more than Him. In fact it is in the beginning of the commandment He gave us (Exodus 20). Whatever we love more than God is our idol: it could be money, it could be a false god, it could be ourselves through self-centeredness, fame or pride, it could be things we may obtain, it could be any person we hold on a pedestal, it could be our “important” person. We should know that God is meant to be our priority, He gave us everything we have and He can take away whatever we prioritize over Him to teach us this lesson. It’s much better to make God the priority now so we don’t have to learn the lesson the hard way.

ANGER: Yes, God gets angry. The anger that God shows is against evil. This is righteous anger. He is not “hot-tempered” and scripture tells us to avoid “hot-tempered” people– that is not God’s character. God is slow to anger, scripture tells us that too. God actually hates 7 specific things Proverbs 6:16 (link here): included are pride, lying, harming innocent people and those who contemplate and choose evil.

JUSTICE: God is just, God is perfect, therefore when he subjects anyone to wrath or to death, it is justified. God is patient (2 Peter 3:9), he gives people opportunities and time to repent, but if God sees there is no repentance, at a certain point (only God knows that timing) He takes action and destroys evil. Yes, God destroys evil. Sometimes He does it now, but He will also do it later to the evil that remains during the Judgement of all Evil (sin) separates us from God, so God destroys it according to His timing, but we can trust that He will do this, even when we don’t see it happen immediately when bad things happen in our world. It will come. Scripture tells us, God says “it is mine to avenge” Unless a person repents, they will perish. Scripture tells us this.

POWERFUL: God is powerful and can make supernatural things happen. With God all things are possible. Scripture gives us insight to God’s power through God’s response to Job about who He is: Job Chapter 38, 39, 40, 41 Jesus foretold that he has overcome the evil within the world through his death and resurrection. (John 16:33) We overcome evil when we choose to be “born again“, become the spiritual children of God, when God’s spirit resides within us. (John 5:4).

God will be respected; all people will end up bowing to Him when Jesus returns and Jesus will rule from that point on through eternity. Those who make fun of God or mock Him have a horrific future ahead- the irony of this is that the ones who are doing the mocking right now are the ones who are currently deceived and will be the ones in the future who will be known as fools in the end. But those who turn to God, get to genuinely know Him and remain in relationship with Him through prayer have nothing to fear because God loves and protects His children. He has an incredible amazing future planned; it’s only a matter of time before we experience it. Take this to heart and take action now: make God your “important” person, your priority, don’t leave Him in the “stranger” category, get to know Him and experience His goodness, His blessings in your life. Click here to see who is blessed by God, there are multiple pages so scroll to the end to see the various pages in scripture that mention “blessed”.

When we think about “success/advancing” in the world, so many of us do well getting to know those at the top who can make a difference in our future, but at the same time many of the same don’t know the ultimate God who WILL make a more substantial difference in our future (eternity). This is called blindness until people are made aware and short-sightedness if they don’t take action that matters for eternity, people don’t understand, but desperately need to understand and need to know God. Not for selfish gain in this world, but for our future, for Life. Once we truly comprehend the truth about Life and Death, we can break from what enslaves us by calling out to God, helping others do the same (we’re not to be selfish), then rest in the grace and eternal blessings from God. Remember it all started with God’s LOVE for us. Jesus made the WAY for us (John 14:6). We simply need to seek God, repent and place our faith in Jesus to save us and help others know this Truth.

by Categories: bible prophecy, bible study, FAITH, FRIENDSHIP, God, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Make It Count, RELATIONSHIPSTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Viewing the Bible as Truth?

I was thinking about various beliefs and why people may have the beliefs they do. It seems that culture may be a reason: what was taught, passed down generation after generation. The belief becomes something we don’t question, we just “know” because we heard it from when we were children, so we adopt the same belief as those around us. At some point growing up we realize other people have different beliefs because of their culture. For some, that can be when the questioning starts: What is the Truth? When we start asking this question, we can be influenced by people in our lives, by the friends we make. We can be influenced by religious leaders who are well spoken, interesting and tell compelling stories, or we can be turned away from a belief by religious leaders and people who identify themselves with a certain religion if we have a bad experience with them. We can abandon every belief and claim to be “scholarly” and believe in nothing. Belief, or unbelief, is a choice we make.

People have said to me: “You can’t trust the Bible, it was made and edited to control people.” People point out “contradictions.” But every point someone has made about it, after looking into it further, the point made doesn’t stand up. Most of the people who made these comments to me hadn’t ever read the entire Bible , they were repeating something they were told that seemed to make sense to them, or they heard an excerpt from the Bible out of context. In contrast, I’ve also heard many people say that it was reading the Bible that finally made them believe it is the truth and after reading it, they began changing their life because of what they read. Reading the Bible isn’t a small task; it’s a lengthy book, and many people don’t make the time it to read it for various reasons but it will have an impact.

When we truly believe something, we are compelled and take action because of our belief. This isn’t only regarding “faith”; it’s about anything in life that we believe, we take action according to our belief.

So what is it about the Bible that made me believe it?

  • The Bible answered many “why” questions about life for me, such as: Why do we exist? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things even happen? Why do people die? Why do people become addicted to harmful things? Why do people still feel empty when they have so much in life? Why are relationships so hard? Why do so many marriages end in divorce? Why do people experience fear and anxiety? Everything finally made sense to me.
  • The Christian Bible incorporates the Jewish beliefs (the Old Testament), it doesn’t deny the foundation of Christianity which is Judaism. Jewish and Christians both believe what is found in the Old Testament Books of the Bible. This was affirmation to me from another faith that added validity to what is found in the Bible. The ability today to see the original Hebrew text (www.blueletterbible.org) provides additional insight and clarity. The main difference in Christian and Jewish beliefs is who Jesus is believed to be.
  • The New Testament of the Christian Bible has similar prophecies to what I’ve read and heard is in the Quran about what happens in the world leading up to Judgement Day, about Mary the mother of Jesus being a virgin, about Jesus being a respected prophet. The main difference is the belief in who Jesus is. But the fact that there are some similarities by different faiths seems to validate those similarities as truth.
  • The Bible was written by significant historical people and the main message is consistent throughout the Bible. This message is: God’s love, compassion for people and people’s rebellion and repentance (sometimes) or rejection towards God. There are times when God punishes people for their actions (to wake them up/cause them to change for the better) and there will be a day when justice will be served to all people by God for all of mankind’s actions (Judgement Day).
  • The Bible is partially a history book which adds to its validity. The collection of books by various authors in the Bible explain life, document the history of leadership and genealogy of Jesus, the books of the prophets told of events before they happened (warning people) and the events actually happened exactly as they were predicted to occur and some remain unfulfilled, but remain expected sometime in the future (especially because these future prophecies were told by prophets thousands of year ago who told other prophecies that occurred), and document the life of Jesus and what happened with his followers after he was killed.
  • Within the Bible it tells us: it is “supernatural” information inspired by the Holy Spirit. It isn’t just one person validating the information assembled into Bible, there were hundreds to thousands of people who validated much of the content. Eye witnesses documented and others interviewed people about these “supernatural events.” This Bible continues to be read today. Think about how long this book has lasted. It’s interesting because Jesus said that Heaven and Earth will pass away, but the word of God will remain.
  • People who knew Jesus personally wrote books: Two of Jesus’ original followers: Matthew and John, each wrote a book (the gospels) in the Bible that tells us the same thing (validates the story) but also provides a unique collection of events that happened.
  • Mark, who was another author of the Bible (gospel) was an acquaintance of Peter who was one of Jesus’ original followers. Peter also contributed books to the Bible about how people should live and what will happen in the future; Peter personally knew Jesus and was taught by him.
  • Luke who was another author of the gospel and was believed to be a medical doctor which probably gave him some credibility. He interviewed people who were still living from Jesus’ time, those who had witnessed Jesus’ life to assemble the book he wrote.
  • The 4 gospels tell similar stories but have additional accounts, yet all are consistent regarding the character of and the message from Jesus.
  • The Bible also has books from two who are believed to be Jesus’ half-brothers: Jude and James – family members of Jesus’ household. Family members certainly add credibility and validity.
  • A significant portion of the Bible contribution, primarily letters written to communities by a person who was persecuting Christians, but then had a life changing conversion after a supernatural experience with Jesus. This was Paul (originally named Saul) his name was changed when his life’s direction was changed. Think about this: the most drastic life change after a supernatural experience: becoming a person who supported and grew the believers community by his preaching but before he had been on the opposing side and was targeting and persecuting those same people, until his life was changed.
  • There are a wide variety of sources, people, authors, prophets who all tell the same message repeatedly over thousands of years, after having a vision, an angel visitation or revelation from God or experiencing life in person with Jesus. Multiple sources all telling the same message is what supports this as truth.
  • I personally had experiences that reinforced my belief in the Bible. After praying and asking God questions, I opened the bible to a page or book that answered by specific question numerous times. One question was about the future and what I understood did happen. When I’ve asked about the future, I regularly end up opening to a page that talks about the end times. Believe me, I didn’t want that to keep happening, but it did and it does, so I do think we may be closer than anticipated or God is wanting people to prepare and take this future event seriously.
  • In 2020 when things started happening, I personally saw the connection to the end time prophecies and was alarmed because the Bible foretells of these things and there are so many happening at the same time: the global pandemic and its effect on people, the on-going and escalating conflict in the middle east, the persecution of Christians today, the alliances of nations that appear to be forming, the growing anger towards Israel from surrounding nations and world leaders, the desire of nations to unite into a global governance, the removal of references to God, the rise in crime, the “all inclusive, “anything is acceptable” direction of some religions, the deception and corruption, the growing acceptance and encouragement of things the Bible identifies as immoral, the growing focus on “peace and safety” when the Bible tells us there will not be peace and safety leading up to the end, but that people will say that. All these things are prophesized in the Bible. We have been warned.

I don’t want to focus on this, I would rather just go about life and experience happiness and laughter. I miss feeling “carefree” to some extent, before when I was ignorant to what appears to be happening, before my eyes were opened to the reality of these times. But I have these thoughts sometimes when I wake that I can’t seem to ignore because they don’t go away until I take action. The thought I had for a few days now that prompted this was: people need to know and comprehend what is in the Bible, explore it for themselves, seek God, pray to God, so that He reveals the truth about all of this and then decide if you believe it or you don’t. If a person doesn’t believe the Bible, the main message won’t be known or taken seriously and a person may end up eternally separated from God. When a person understands this clearly, the Bible will have a positive impact on that person’s life. I want people to know Jesus because knowing who he is, why he was here and what he said will have a significant positive effect on our lives and our future. I want people to truly comprehend this and take action, not for my benefit, but for yours.

Please consider reading the Bible, then decide for yourself. God gives us the freedom to choose to believe or not believe.

by Categories: FAITH, FRIENDSHIP, God, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Make It Count, priorities, RELATIONSHIPS, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Eyes Opened after Looking Back

The end of the year is a logical time to reflect on life: What did we learn? Do we notice a pattern? What good happened? What are we grateful for? What do we want to change? What will our goals be heading into the New Year?

If you’ve read any of my prior blogs, you will understand this: our lives have a purpose, we are where we are for a reason. Do you know your purpose? Do you know the reason your life is the way it is right now?

I went through most of my life not thinking about this until my life was “shaken” in 2015 by an untimely death. That caused me to question everything in life: purpose, reasons, etc. I had no answers, only questions. I was confused about life and wanted answers, started searching. It led me to evaluating and making significant changes in life, taking action, but without knowing my purpose or the answers to the “reason.” I was lost, but moving, aimlessly, seeking, wanting life to be better but not knowing how to make it better.

2016 was continued seeking, transitioning to a “changed life.” I began praying more than I ever did in the past and in 2017 “surrendered” my life to Jesus, wanting his guidance. I was lost, I needed guidance, I didn’t have the answers, but I knew my way of doing things wasn’t effective; it was lacking. 2017 was a year of mild turbulence: ups and downs and I was wondering why since I surrendered but I kept my trust in God. 2018 seemed to be the turning point, everything seemed to be falling in place and I was grateful. 2019 brought a noticeable “dark cloud” into my life but I still trusted in God and went to Him for answers. I was led to the Bible and read it front to back for the first time and it literally made me want to change my life even more. My eyes were opened. I realized I was not living as God wanted me to. I decided to try to live better. I was hopeful heading into 2020. (LOL) I don’t need to explain 2020 to anyone; I think we all had the same year! But that’s when I “woke up” I realized what was happening in the world. I continued to go to God for answers to my questions and He revealed the answers in the Bible. It was amazing to experience this “communication” from God through prayer and the Bible.

2021 in summary was probably the worst year I’ve experienced in life, but not in every way: God was all I had to help me through it and He did. God is truly all I needed. When the Bible says God is faithful, God provides, God protects – all that is true. Throughout these past 6 years, I’ve learned to fully trust God. I’ve learned the answers to most of my questions (through the Bible). I have a different outlook on 2022, than I have in past years. In past years I looked forward to the hope of a better year. I don’t have that outlook this time. I don’t expect a better year. I actually expect a more challenging year, but I have all I need: God.

I have a mindset very different from a few years ago. I foresee the years ahead as getting tougher, but I KNOW (not just guess) this is only a transition to the greatest years of all time ahead, and I look forward to that with much anticipation. This is a time for endurance and perseverance. I don’t yet know how many future years ahead, but my intuition is that it won’t be too far away. Stay strong, stay connected with God and we will make it through.

by Categories: Face Fear, FAITH, God, Improvement, Make It Count, prioritiesTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Secrets of the Universe

…this is meant for you.

I woke up compelled to write about this because you may not hear this from someone close to you, maybe not even your local religious organization, for many possible reasons that may become obvious to you after reading this. I intend to condense 4,000 years of history into a brief summary hoping it will be relevant and worthwhile for you and answer many “why” questions. This is the truth, not a fictional story.

CURRENT TIMES

You and I are caught in the middle of, and and are living with the residual effects of a war continuing today, that started approximately 4,000 years ago, or maybe even before then. Unfortunately and unknowingly we have been brought into this war, as participants, and we don’t have a choice in participating. There is no way to avoid being involved; we can’t “opt out.” This is one of the most challenging types of wars to succeed in because it literally is invisible, so if we can’t see it, how are we going to defend ourselves?

THE BACKGROUND

We are not the only beings in the universe: there are angels (both good and bad ones), demons, cherubim, and other creatures and spiritual beings that have not been revealed to us yet and most importantly, there is a God, who created all of this. Despite the intelligence of many in this world, the human race is not all knowing or as wise as some want to believe. Just think of the “food chain”- the rank that exists in nature, we are part of a rank as well, different than the food chain. I don’t know where we rank relative to other beings in the universe, but since angels and demons can travel back and forth and we can’t, that may indicate we don’t rank that high compared with all that exists.

The hardest aspect to comprehend is God, probably because we don’t know anyone or any thing that has “no beginning and no end, is omnipresent, all knowing”- again we have limited knowledge, limited comprehension. It is hard to comprehend a divine Person who created everything, because we didn’t see it happen and haven’t seen God. That’s an obvious reason why many “logically” don’t believe this.

WHAT CAUSED THIS WAR

We aren’t given all the details, but there was a rebellion in heaven by Satan, by name, and some of the angels who began to think they were as good or better than their Creator. God had blessed them with beauty, limited power and limited knowledge (in comparison, more knowledge than the human race has) and they evidently felt they had the ability to be as good as, to compete with, or be better than God. We can easily see this reality in our everyday life if we think about our business world: we have creators of a product or service and we have people who help the creators. Some of those people who help the creator begin to think they can do something better (sometimes they can and other times it’s not as good as the original) but they venture out on their own. Same concept, but there is much more to gain when we are talking about the level of God and His Kingdom. Satan was given limited authority over the air and the earth, I’m not sure if this was before or after the rebellion; but it would make more logical sense if this authority was given before the rebellion, when Satan was in God’s good grace. Satan apparently didn’t start out evil, but something happened: pride occurred. In this rebellion, Satan is attempting to take away or gain a following from God’s created children, probably out of revenge, proving his ability to do this to God. Historically, Satan has been, and will be successful in doing this with many people, but not all.

THE ULTIMATE PLAN

God creates everything that is good and has good intentions for it, but when He gave “choice” to the beings He created not every thing or everyone chooses to love Him back, obey Him or recognize their “rank” in the Universe. God is going to get rid of everything that has turned bad, that doesn’t love Him, that doesn’t want to obey Him, that doesn’t recognize their rank. God created the universe with an order in His design and that order will prevail, despite efforts by any other being. Only God knows the timeline for this because he designed it. He has a new kingdom that will be revealed in the future, it will be on Earth (but it will be a new earth; this existing earth will be destroyed) and He will live among the people in His kingdom; but none of those who turn against Him will be part of it.

THE HISTORY

In the beginning, God was both physically (walking in the garden) and spiritually here interacting with humans, but when sin occurred, He could no longer be physically present and the earth was cursed at that point. That’s something else which is hard to comprehend: the law surrounding Holiness: not being able to be present where sin exists. Only God knows why He made the law this way. Perhaps this was part of the knowledge Satan had from being in God’s presence: if Satan created sin, God couldn’t be present and Satan could gain influence and rule?

Without God’s physical presence it obviously was a challenge for people to believe He exists and since the earth was cursed once sin was present, everything on earth was then under the influence of Satan. Other beings in heaven that rebelled against God came to earth too. In fact there is a very brief mention of this in the bible; these beings came from heaven because they became infatuated with, lusted after some women on earth. They had physical connections with these women producing children called Nephilim. There is a book of Enoch that is not certified as completely without error or incorporated into the bible, but IF this part is true, the angels who rebelled against God, took some of the knowledge they had and taught humans- that is where astrology originated and much of the occult. The bible is very specific about astrology being something bad that God does not want the human race to get involved with, it actually separates us from God. Just think about that, doesn’t this all make logical sense now?

Because the world was getting so corrupted by this and filled with sin, God decided to flood the earth, and destroy the majority of life, saving only a small portion of humans (those God determined were the most obedient to Him) and animals, and there was an opportunity, a new beginning for humans once again. In the beginning of the human race, people had much longer lives (hundreds of years), but after seeing the bad choices and sinful nature of humans, God changed the average life span to 120 years. After this “cleaning up” of the world through the flood, God promised the survivors He would never do that again and as a symbol of this promise for people to remember, He created the rainbow which appears after rain.

Due to the law surrounding holiness not being able to be in the presence of sin. God had to use other means to reach people, so He did. He used other people (prophets, and those who had faith and believed in Him) to reveal Himself, through miracles, supernatural events, letting people know that He truly exists, even though they don’t see Him. Remember this is part of a spiritual war, as it has been from the beginning: Satan is trying to take people away from God, gain them for Satan’s purpose. Both Satan and God use people who are willing to be used. This is where we only have two options: either we are being used by God, or we are being used by Satan. This is the participation we can’t avoid. From history, we see that despite these supernatural events, people were still skeptical and didn’t believe. Satan has much more influence in a cursed earth environment and easily manipulates people through money, greed, lust, perversion, pride and self-centeredness. None of these things have any value at the end of history, but somehow people are blinded by the deception, perceived value. We are not the most intelligent beings created! Satan uses temptation, lures people into thinking they are getting something of great value, for people only to be disappointed after a period of time. One of the supernatural events God used was giving Moses the 10 commandments (a collection of 10 rules that God wants His people to live by); people still didn’t keep them. Within a very short time, people were back to their sinful ways.

Finally God sent his son, Jesus to be a physical presence here on earth, interact with people, do supernatural things and fulfill in real life the events that the prophets told people about, so that this information would be believed. Still some people didn’t believe, but others did. Jesus told those who believed, he wanted them to spread this information to others, to save the others. When Jesus was here, he gave insight into the heavens and tried to give humans a better understanding of God, God’s nature, God’s expectations, God’s plans and to let people know how they will be able to be a part of God’s future kingdom, when Jesus returns again. This continues today, in an effort to save people.

WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN

One misconception that people have is that if we are “good” nothing bad will happen to us. That is not true, unfortunately the earth has been cursed and there are two reasons bad things will happen to us: spiritual warfare (Satan’s power against God’s people) or a consequence of our sin. God does give blessings to his people and God will use the spiritual warfare to make us better people. He turns something bad into something good and promises us even more in the future. God stays true to His word. He is trustworthy.

HOW WE CAN BE A PART OF GOD’S FUTURE KINGDOM (A NEW EARTH AND HEAVENS)

  1. Seek God. Learn about the bible, study the bible, pray/talk to God, ask God to reveal Himself to you. Pray as often as you can.

2. Make a decision, but don’t take this decision lightly, because your intention matters: Are you willing to surrender to God and let God lead you? This means a willingness to give up the “valuable” things in this world, which are ultimately meaningless in the eternal world, but are very valuable to people in this world. A willingness to make God your priority, your #1 priority. A willingness to admit ‘I don’t know it all, I need God to provide. Admitting it when we are living differently than how God wants us to live and then committing to change that. A willingness to trust God. A willingness to let God use you, to serve God in some way with your abilities and help others. A willingness to accept God’s commands and do your best to obey them, knowing you won’t be perfect, but that you will keep trying. A willingness to put others first, rather than yourself. The honest intent is what matters, if you’re afraid you can’t do all these things, don’t be afraid of that, God will help you; you just have to be WILLING and give it to God. God has seen throughout history how hard it is for humans to be “good” he knows it’s impossible, and that is the main reason Jesus first came to earth: to save us (He became the required sacrifice to release Satan’s hold on us) when he was crucified, died on the cross and was the first to be resurrected (given a supernatural humanlike body, but better). That supernatural body is what all who surrender to God will be given in the future, because of Jesus. And we will be living with God in eternity, doing things/enjoying a NEW physical life on the new earth, not just floating around “in heaven” as some imaginations/teachings may have you thinking.

3. Get baptized. This is symbolic, but Jesus said it was required (baptism of the Holy Spirit) to gain eternal life and get this supernatural body. It symbolizes a “rebirth”: a death to our sinful natural self (old ways) and a new life (living according to God’s commands) This is where “born again” got its name, from a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus.

4. Ask for the Holy Spirit. God’s spirit is what enables a person to be resurrected and live in eternity. When you have God’s spirit residing in you, you will know you are saved. You will feel like a different person, and the following character traits in you will be seen by others: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. God will be working within you. God’s spirit also give you courage, strength and power. We will need all these things to make it, endure until we are in God’s future eternal Kingdom.

5. Remain connected to God by prayers. The bible is also a way that God can communicate with us; so reading and studying the bible has many purposes: teaching, letting us know right vs wrong, correcting and training people in God’s ways.

I hope this makes a positive difference in your life! If you think this might be valuable to someone, please share it. Thank you.

by Categories: FAITH, God, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Love, Make It Count, priorities, RELATIONSHIPS, Sex, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Should We Trust our Feelings?

Should we trust our feelings? My guess is anyone reading that question will have a number of reactions, such as: “YES!!!!“or “NOOO!!!!” or “I have no idea; I’m confused, help!” So what is the Truth? How do we know which answer is the correct one? These answers are provided below.

  1. Should we always trust our feelings? The Truth is NO.

2. Are there times we should trust our feelings? YES. Then, when? See below.

3. What if we are confused? How can we determine the correct answer? See below.

When Trusting your Feelings is Wrong:

Let’s be honest. Since the day we were born, we started out selfish, self-centered, right? All of us were born that way. If and when we grow and mature (emotionally, not in years), we become less self centered/selfish, but it takes intention and effort to grow and mature, it doesn’t come naturally, just like growth in anything else (such as working out, eating healthy, growing a business, relationships) : “no pain, no gain.”

So a simple question to ask ourselves is: Is my feeling motivated by self-centeredness, selfishness? If the answer to this is “yes” then trusting your feelings is wrong. Spend time being honest with yourself about the answer to this question. Don’t lie to yourself, be honest.

When Trusting your Feelings is Right:

With the same question above, we can know if trusting our feelings is right. Is my feeling motivated by selflessness, driven by loving , contributing to or helping others? If the answer to this is “yes” then trusting your feelings is right.

What if the motivation behind the feeling is selfless, driven by love, contribution or helping others but FEAR is holding me back? Fear can a blocker to something good or it can be something that protects us. If the reason behind the fear has to do with a life or death situation then trust your fear! But if not, do not let fear guide you, it is BLOCKING YOU from growth. Say you are motivated for the right reasons and you don’t submit to fear, you proceed, then something doesn’t work out as you planned? That was still the right thing to do because it is growth. We grow when we go through tough times, we come out better! As many say: if we’re not growing, we’re dying! We can’t be doing neither, think about it. Don’t let the wrong kind of fear hold you back.

When your Feelings are Confusing you:

This is the hardest one! Confusion is telling us to: WAIT, HAVE PATIENCE, but most of all PRAY! If the answer isn’t clear after reading the above testing question to know if trusting our feelings is wrong or right, then our situation is more complicated (based on the bible, confusion occurs when unrepentant sin in involved) and we need may need forgiveness and guidance from God. Waiting does not mean do nothing, it means slow down, pause, be patient but take action in prayer right away. Talk to God about it from the deepest most honest, vulnerable part of ourselves. This is between you/me and God alone, no one else. God will give us clarity eventually. But don’t “do nothing” during this time of “waiting and patience” pray about it often until clarity is received, not “a feeling,” but unquestionable clarity. Confusion is due to sin, according to the Bible. So where do we get this clarity? From God’s word, the bible. This is the coolest, most awesome thing to discover! It seriously has all the answers to the complicated questions and it is the truth.

I wasn’t taught to go to the bible for answers to questions until recently. I didn’t use it as a resource (ever) quite honestly, but once I discovered this, I am so thankful because it answers so many questions. Today, there is no excuse for not having this resource, if you have access to the internet. Some of the bible is hard to understand the first time reading. To truly know the meaning behind a quote you see, you need to read it in context so you get the full understanding. Even when you do that for the first time, there may be questions. This is where other people can help. Not necessarily by giving their interpretation of the bible, but by directing us to other passages that answer our questions. Be VERY cautious of people who interpret the Bible, don’t take their word, but ask questions, pray about it, then you will know. There are many people today who give their opinions, don’t trust “opinions” only trust facts. Facts are found by reading the bible and through prayer. Many people are misguided but can be convincing so they will give us the wrong information and lead us down a path of destruction. Sometimes people truly have good intentions, but are still not correct. Look for answers in the bible and through prayer.

I hope considering these simple questions helps. I’ve added resources and references next:

RESOURCES

A few different FREE online bible resources (check them out to see what you like best):

Selfishness “Wisdom” from the Bible:

THE “RIGHT” FEELINGS TO FOLLOW ARE MOTIVATED BY SELFLESSNESS AND LOVE- FROM THE BIBLE:

FEAR ADDRESSED IN THE BIBLE:

HOW TO DEAL WITH CONFUSION AND TIMES OF CONFUSION (CAUSED BY SIN) – FROM THE BIBLE:

FIRST SEEK GOD – FROM THE BIBLE:

by Categories: Dating, Face Fear, FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP, God, Improvement, Letting Go, Love, Make It Count, Marriage, priorities, RELATIONSHIPSTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment