Tag: truth

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:

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Churches, Christians, Depression & the Truth

Ever think some events happen for a reason? Several months ago, maybe a year ago, I came across someone through social media who challenged my belief in God and the Bible. Having read the Bible for the first time a year ago, I’m obviously not a biblical scholar, but I knew of resources with scripture that could “prove” the Bible is truth, outside simple logic (from understanding the purpose of the Bible). That person believed the Bible was created for manipulating and controlling a population (which doesn’t make sense because if that was the purpose, then there wouldn’t have been killings of Believers in the Bible). This person rejected what I sent because the person wasn’t open to exploring and understanding the Bible (being spiritually blind is talked about in the Bible), but their mind was so strongly convinced of this mis-information, it puzzled me. Their belief was SO strong against the Bible, it didn’t make sense to continue the conversation for very long, Faith is a choice: believe or don’t believe, but there are consequences for either choice.

From the Church to Atheism

It turned out this person had multiple negative experiences in their church, so they left the church and things weren’t going well in their life, but since they left the church they said “life is so much easier.” (This makes sense too when you understand spiritual warfare). When I first came across this person, they were promoting atheism after formerly being in some kind of a church. Finding that out was very sad to me because I know the truth found in the Bible (and if they would only consider it, it would BENEFIT them), but they had so much resistance due to their experience, they weren’t open to even viewing those resources. They didn’t believe what was written in the Bible. I see that with many people lately: strong resistance to biblical information and truth. (Is this part of spiritual warfare?)

Lack of Trust

The unfortunate reason many give is “a church experience” which I completely understand, having had that experience myself. Most often the reason given involves lack of trust. Lack of trust is what holds people back from numerous experiences in life, for good reasons too: based on experiences, but it’s not good when it holds people back from something GOOD. That needs to change. This is one of the reasons why I believe it is so important to read the bible individually. Each of us needs to know what’s in the bible so that we are not misled by anyone distorting the information in the Bible. Reading the Bible isn’t a quick read, so if you hear someone say something, look it up, read the entire chapter or the book if necessary so it’s not taken out of context, that way you’ll eventually get through some of the Bible, a little at a time. A little is better than none.

Christians

Christians also turn people away if there is a negative interaction. I’ve seen this first hand from both sides too! Meaning I’ve been just as bad as a Christian of not having a good interaction with those closest to me. So I’d like to explain what happened in my experiences. BEING PURSUED: A person who has never read the Bible may not fully understand a scripture quote, so the scripture doesn’t seem relevant to that person, there is more needed context in the Bible before the quote is clearly understood. (That was my experience) Or maybe the person simply has no interest because they don’t understand the Bible’s purpose, so they are not ready to hear it? Or they are afraid there are too many rules they may need to abide by (I think this is many people) PURSUING: From a “newly” Christian’s perspective, when I found out the purpose of the Bible, I especially wanted to tell those closest to me, and I felt an urgency too. I’ve finally realized I have this internal drive to “protect” people. Most ‘person to person” contact about Christianity isn’t from a selfish, self-serving or self-centered motivation, it is because the person truly cares about the other person, but needs to learn a more successful way of communicating.

Depression/Anxiety

This is something I haven’t seen very often mentioned, but something people should know. Depression, anxiety or sadness can bring us to God, but it can also separate us from God. Often when we seek God, it’s a response to something bad that’s happened in our lives. We look to God to “fix it” for us, as the last resource. In reality, God should be our first resource, but initially He is often the last resource in a time of hardship. Reaching out to God (through prayer) is the best solution because He certainly has the ability to “fix” it for us. But we have to remember: He’s not a “vending machine” or a “genie” there to “grant our wishes” either. He wants a relationship with us first and foremost. Think about how we feel when someone just wants to take from us but never wants to give, it makes sense when looking at it from that perspective, doesn’t it? Depression/Anxiety/Sadness can also separate us from God if we are angry with everyone and God. Identifying the underlying source of the anxiety is the most important part in dealing with it. (see image)

Based on my personal experience, I thought if I simply surrendered to God everything would get better, but it didn’t, it started getting worse. I didn’t consider, or know about, the underlying sources of anxiety when it happened unfortunately or I could have dealt with it much more quickly. Little by little parts of this information was revealed as I was studying/reading the Bible. Ironically, my first start to reading the Bible, I opened the Bible to a random page and decided I would start there. It was the book of Job- and it explained a little bit about the spiritual warfare. What better time is it for something evil to “hit” a person then when the person is first surrendering to Jesus, right? That could easily turn a person away from God. The book of Job is good in understanding this because it showed these bad things can be a “test” of faith. Also the Bible often tells us there is a battle for our minds, so negative thoughts, fears, anger, sin, depression can be present to try to separate us from God. Please understand this so if it happens to you reject those “attacks” and pray to God to overcome them.

The Truth

Each of us was created by God, out of love. No person is accidently created; God is the Giver of Life and intentional in giving life to a person. God wants us to seek Him and communicate with Him through prayers, building a relationship. Once we have a relationship with God, He also wants us to help others. God has a purpose for each person He creates, each of us is valuable to God, it may take us awhile to figure out our purpose, but that’s just part of the growth process. The Bible is a resource, a guidebook for life, with the “secret” to eternal life for those who read it and take action. Eternity is not just about life, it can also be eternal pain, if we don’t choose to have a relationship with God. The Bible reveals some aspects of the spiritual realm. It contains thousands of prophecies that happened already, but also has prophecies regarding the future. A “Believer” is more than someone who simply believes Jesus, the Son of God existed, died for us, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven after His physical death so that we could have eternal life with God. “Believer” means someone who understands that and out of immense gratitude decides to live in a godly way, choosing Jesus as the role model of how to live. The Bible is a resource showing us how Jesus lived and what He taught. The Bible is wisdom and essential for every single person.

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God and Relationships: Healing, Forgiveness and Love

Last night before I went to sleep, when I prayed, I asked God if He would inspire me with something meaningful to share because I haven’t written in this blog since June, I wanted to write, but I haven’t felt inspired for awhile. Well, God answered that prayer at 6 am this morning when the title of this was the first thought I had as soon as I woke up.

It amazes me how the Bible shares wisdom with us “scattered” throughout the book, through different messengers, but all giving the same message.

This topic is consistently timely because we interact with people on a daily basis and need God’s help “dealing with” people, and more appropriately “dealing with” ourselves. I’ll explain the image for this article and how it relates:

We need God in our relationships: any relationship with God as a part of it equals love.

God is love.

MAKING EXCUSES

I believe in being accountable for my own actions, not making excuses (understanding what leads me to something, but not blaming my actions on someone or something else). I’m responsible for my own actions no matter what happens around me. I personally choose to react the way I do. So why is it that I allow different standards for others? I allow excuses for them. Excuses justifying other’s actions or behavior, when I wouldn’t allow myself to act that way. I made excuses because I thought trying to be a Christian meant accepting other people as they are, and not being judgmental of others, which it does, but there is more to this:

A Christian should help others be aware of the wisdom from God through the bible (awareness only -not judgement nor retaliation- that’s reserved for God) – don’t be silent, speak up, but don’t do this in anger, do this in a loving way to build up the other person, in the knowledge of God, not tear them down.

DO NOT JUDGE:

GO TO THE BIBLE AND IN PRAYER GO TO GOD FOR ADVICE, STRENGTH AND WISDOM:

HEALING

I had to think: which comes first: healing or forgiveness? It’s a challenge to forgive someone if we haven’t healed from what happened. But we also can’t heal from it unless we forgive it (let it go). So maybe it’s a combination of healing and forgiveness, but first and most importantly seeking God. This is where we NEED God: to heal and to forgive. There is no question about that. I often think of this simple statement which is so true:

Hurt people hurt people.

Pastor Rick Warren

It’s something I keep in mind whenever someone hurts me. It’s important to have that perspective, it makes it easier to accept someone for who they are. We can’t know everything that happened to someone during their life. If someone was loved throughout their life, they wouldn’t hurt. So because they have been hurt (and haven’t healed), they hurt other people. So it’s so important for all of us to heal from the hurt other people caused in our lives.

FORGIVING

If we want a great relationship with anyone, we need to be able to forgive, regularly! Forgiving someone doesn’t mean allowing what they did to continue as if it doesn’t affect us. But if the other person who hurt us is truly sorry, that person will do their best to not do it again and ask for a second chance. If the person truly wants forgiveness and tells us how they have changed and why they have changed, then we need to offer forgiveness. (If this is an abusive situation, we may need to offer forgiveness but not remain in that person’s life for safety reasons. This type of situation requires other qualified individuals’ assessment of the situation.)

WHY WE NEED GOD FOR HEALING, FORGIVENESS AND LOVE (and Eternity):

HOW WE GET THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

On our own, we are going to fail, that’s the truth, but if we have the Holy Spirit in us, we will succeed. So how do we receive the Holy Spirit? God sends the Holy Spirit to us if we ask and OBEY God:

And this is why we need God in all of our relationships. We need a relationship with God so that we can have good relationships with other people through the strength of the Holy Spirit in us.

Once we have a relationship with God, he will protect us until the end of times.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN TELL IF SOMEONE HAS A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (these qualities will be evident in that person’s life):

We obviously need God as the priority in our life, so the rest of our life can fall in place. As in any good relationship, there is an exchange of giving and receiving. This is no different with God, we aren’t going to receive the power of the Holy Spirit unless we obey God’s commands (sin keeps the power of the Holy Spirit from us). God always loves us, but the power of the Spirit is reserved for those who obey Him. The power of the Holy Spirit makes our lives more peaceful, provides joy, wisdom and enables us to love in a more godly way than we could on our own.

I hope you found this helpful for your relationships!

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Sacrifice?

Here we go again! It’s early morning, on a holiday weekend, but does it feel like the ones from the past? Not to me. Real life experiences and early morning thoughts inspire what I often write. So how appropriate to all of us is the topic of sacrifice right now? I’m betting this topic’s relatable to most of us.

Some words get overused, so while the meaning is known, it’s original meaning is diluted, or no longer thought about. So here is the definition:

sac·ri·fice/ˈsakrəˌfīs/ sacrifice; plural noun: sacrifices

  1. an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure.”they offer sacrifices to the spirits”
  2. Similar: ritual
    • an animal, person, or object offered in a sacrifice.
    • an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.”we must all be prepared to make sacrifices“

So the “sacrifice” concept is something that NEVER made sense to me in the Bible, until now. I seriously struggled with this, it didn’t make sense to me, but it does now. Anyone who truly believes there is a God, will understand this after I explain, but if you don’t believe in God, you’re going to have a hard time comprehending this. While reading the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, there is a lot of ugly, disgusting, repulsive stuff that happens and some of it, I don’t want to read again; it’s that bad. It’s historical “Netflix”, documented in the Bible, for real. At least on some of Netflix, a person can think: “it’s just a movie” or a “show” but this was real life and really happened.

I had so many questions: Why would God do this? Who made this “rule/ritual”? Why is “sacrifice” required? Why would God, who created everything and told us “not to kill” be okay with “sacrifice”? It certainly seemed to contradict the messages and made it confusing: “don’t kill”, then “slaughter this specific animal, in a certain process”…What? I think many of us who get that far, may stop and say…”Well I don’t believe in a God like that, so I’m going to ignore that. It doesn’t make sense.” I did that for awhile, but covering up your eyes and ears doesn’t make something go away. So then “why”?

First, let’s start with those who believe in God. If you truly believe in God, you believe in a spiritual being that you cannot see. Let that sink in. Sounds crazy, right? If you believe in God, you need to acknowledge that believing in God, to those who don’t, does sound primitive and crazy. And yes, I personally believe in God, but let’s be honest about it from the world’s view today. Then if you know the Bible, and even if you don’t, I’m telling you right now: The Bible is about a loving God, but a spiritual war that commenced with us in the middle shortly after God created people.

The Bible doesn’t explain, in detail, why this war started, it only tells us there was a dispute and Satan (the devil) was thrown, cast, hurled from Heaven down to earth.

So as I write this, I think, uh this sounds like a fictitious story we tell kids to make a point! I thought that for a long time. There is so much today that makes fun of those who bring up Satan, and maybe solidify or perpetuate the thought this is fictitious, like the “church lady,” which I personally find humorous, but disrespectful at the same time because it presents people who believe in a laughable way – and I’m one of those people, but I always thought we can’t be too serious all the time, it’s okay to laugh at ourselves, others might disagree with me about that? I disregard that comedy, just like it disregards Christians. But as soon as you realize the Bible lines up with history and historical events were predicted in the Bible by prophets and actually came true, and the people in the Bible are real people, with a documented lineage, ancestry; then that concept of “story-time” fails. You have to not only read the Bible, but study the Bible and compare to history books for this proof.

Anyway getting back to the explanation: Satan (the devil) is real, is part of that history and has a role/a place in the Bible from the beginning until the end. We need to acknowledge that, as weird as it sounds; it has a profound impact, back then and today. If you don’t comprehend that, you’re missing the warning for all of us given throughout the Bible. So this dispute between God and Satan occurred and I don’t know why God didn’t just immediately destroy Satan, but knowing God’s character from the Bible, it could be that He allowed Satan to continue in existence possibly because God is loving but just. He doesn’t act impulsively, He is patient, He gives people time, but in the end, God is just.

To put this into a modern day concept: think about a business leader/boss, who has a star performer employee and this star employee is phenomenal, but then pride takes over for the star employee and based on pride, selfishness, and love of money, the star employee starts thinking they are better than their leader – for this example, it is important to use the assumption here that the leader is a good one, a caring one, a fair person, honest, looks out for the employees, provides for them, etc. (because there are many leaders who don’t exhibit those qualities today) – but this star employee is no longer a team player, just out for their own personal benefit. So the star employee leaves and competes with the former employer to prove their superiority. The leader has been around a long time, with a loyal customer base and a proven business, so the leader just lets this former “star employee” have its own way. knowing eventually those character flaws/qualities of pride, selfishness and love of money will self destruct the former star employee. The leader doesn’t even need to fight it, the former star employee’s own motivation and actions will end up bringing the star employee to ruin. Haven’t we seen that today? Does it make more sense now? This leader is like God and Satan is like the star employee. Is fighting or immediate destruction even needed, for God to prove He is right? No. Also, knowing God’s character from the Bible, do you think maybe He loved Satan/Devil/Lucifer at one time? I do. Have you ever loved someone that turned on you? If you really loved them, then you wouldn’t want to destroy them, you’d be more hurt than anything.

Getting back to sacrifice. Sacrifice plain and simple is for atonement.

a·tone·ment/əˈtōnmənt/: atonement; plural noun: atonements

  1. reparation for a wrong or injury.”she wanted to make atonement for her husband’s behavior”
    • (in religious contexts) reparation or expiation for sin.”an annual ceremony of confession and atonement for sin”
    • CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY the reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ.noun: Atonement; noun: the Atonement

The presence of sin (starting in the Garden of Eden) caused death, pain and sacrifice. Sacrifice leads to atonement. Sin is also referred to as “death.” There is no death for God; he is eternal. Those who make it to heaven will also become immortal/eternal too. These are concepts given to us in the Bible through prophets and through Jesus. When people choose to sin, people are ultimately choosing death. Death is the experience for sin; sin separates people from God. Satan is competing with God. What better way to separate people from God, than to entice people through sin, separating people from God. Sin is deceptive: it might be fun (for the moment) but isn’t there a time when we look back on sin and realize maybe it wasn’t worth the consequence? If it were this clear to people, people wouldn’t choose sin. But Satan is also known as the ultimate deceiver and then the accuser. Has anyone ever deceived you before? You didn’t expect it, right? When someone is good at deceiving, it’s a surprise when we figure it out. If it’s something no one wants (death), wouldn’t you have to be deceitful to gain people, coax them into death? Then after you deceive someone into sinning…don’t let them turn back “repent” to repair their relationship …keep reminding them (accusing them) of their sin so they feel so worthless and like they can’t go back. (which is also a lie) That’s exactly how Satan operates with his ultimate goal of separating people from God. This was shown to us in the book of Job; Satan was using all he could to get Job to turn away from God!

I’m going to assume that most people would choose living over dying, because people are sad when someone dies. So what better way for Satan to separate people from God, than through death? A sacrifice is exactly that: death of something. Sacrifices started because of sin. God put an end to “living being sacrifices” through Jesus’ death on the cross. That was the ultimate sacrifice: “Jesus/God dying” and what Satan wanted from the beginning, “the ransom” as we understand from the Bible. But that wasn’t the end as we are told through the Bible by prophets and Jesus himself; there is more to come. (Read more about the future in this link).

In summary, God created the earth and everything on it out of love. He created people to love Him back. We all know that forced love is not real love, so God doesn’t force people; He lets people choose. We ended up in a spiritual warzone without knowing this when we were born, but at some point in life, we will figure this out. When we figure it out, then we have to make a choice. Satan is opposing God and working hard to separate as many people from God as possible through deceptive ways. God was not pleased with the living sacrifices and responded to that by offering Jesus as the ransom, the ultimate sacrifice for us, no one has the value Jesus has, so that is what made Jesus an acceptable sacrifice, more valuable than any of us. Jesus’ sacrifice saves those who want to be saved from eternal Hell. But we still have a choice. Do we believe in Jesus? Do we have faith in this? Do we accept this “gift” from God? If you said yes, you are “almost” saved. I felt strongly about making this clear to people, because I think there is a larger number of people who think when they answer this “I believe”, “they’re good to go!” but that is not the full truth based on what I found in the Bible, and I see many churches appeal to people in this way and it’s sad to me, because they are misleading people and possibly keeping them from heaven. It is true that by faith we are saved, but faith alone is death – Jesus’ brother James told us that in the Bible. We didn’t get “off the hook” that easily, there is something more required of us by God: we are required to be obedient to his commands. We can’t do enough good things to earn our way to heaven; that would cause pride and God hates a prideful person. So it is by faith, but proving our faith by our actions. Becoming obedient prepares people for living in eternity with God and shows God we mean what we say. How many people are good at “lip service,” telling us what we want to hear, but not supporting what they say by their actions? Well this is the same between us and God. Are we giving God “lip service” or are we proving it by our actions? The obedience part is probably the most challenging part for all of us. It is not natural for us to be obedient, but God requires it. Thankfully, God is forgiving, so it doesn’t matter what we’ve done; He promises forgiveness, but with forgiveness, He also requires us to change our future actions and not do whatever it was anymore. None of us will be perfect, even after we commit to changing our ways, because we are human, so making mistakes requires us to take personal responsibility for them immediately, apologize and change. If we don’t, then we are going against God, we are just giving God “lip service” and He’s not fooled. He knows our intentions; He created us! So not taking action is not going to be a “success story” for those who give God “lip service”. Sacrifice today is still required though not through the death of a living being, thank God for that, but it still requires painful decisions for us personally. It won’t be easy, change isn’t easy. We want the immediate reward “here and now,” but the reward God has planned is promised to be greater than what we sacrifice “here and now”. What do you chose?

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I hope you read this and it makes a Difference!

I woke up early this morning with this on my mind: in the midst of “social distancing” and “isolation” caused by this rapidly spreading #coronavirus …you’re like me right now, if you don’t want to see or hear that word again, and feel “exhausted” by it, wanting to “social distance from that word!” but yet learn from experts, it’s a mental tug-of-war between the two: avoidance and seeking information to be informed.

Getting back to the thought I had this morning: “FOG”…”Emerging from the Fog” We are “in the fog” right now: things are unclear, uncertain, we can’t see what’s ahead of us, we are fumbling while trying to move forward, we aren’t quite “blind,” but are having trouble seeing ahead. There is no doubt, in my mind, that this is an unprecedented situation for something even greater than what our current focus is on.

When was the last time the ENTIRE WORLD came to a “halt” at the same time?

Pay attention to this! It’s more significant than you may realize right now. Have you ever focused so much on a detail, that you didn’t get the main point? What we are experiencing right now is exactly that: the virus is the detail, but it is not the main point. The virus will pass, just don’t miss the main point of why we are going through this now. History repeats itself; we have the same experiences in life when we don’t learn from them. This is where I may loose you….

But I hope you read this and it makes a difference:

Let me first explain, I am not a “religious” person. I’ll define that by example: I grew up with a religion, went to a faith based school, but honestly, I rejected that religion. I never felt connected, struggled with the religion, but I did have faith in God somehow. I became “affiliated” with that religion, and then defined myself to others as a “non-practicing” ….this is not something to be proud of; it’s embarrassing, but true. I tried to participate more because that was “the right thing to do,” but I failed often yet believed (what little I learned from) the Bible; this wasn’t an intentional rejection of God, but in a way it still was rejecting God, because I didn’t have God as my priority, and I didn’t realize that at the time (I was in a fog). So as I say what’s next, try to understand coming from my perspective.

I believe what is happening is a “wake up” call. Only God could manage to DISRUPT/HALT THE ENTIRE WORLD in a very short time frame (a matter of weeks). I’m NOT saying God CAUSED this; but I am saying God is USING this, turning something bad into something good for us. None of us have seen anything like it in our life time. It has global reach and is affecting each of us individually.

So how is God using this? He is using this to turn our attention to Him. Our world has (we have) become so corrupt, we don’t even realize it, we’ve begun to accept things that are completely against the Bible as normal and believe those things are “right,” “justifiable,” in our minds and we are headed on a path of destruction, but don’t even realize this. I was in a fog about this too, going in the same path; BEFORE reading the Bible for the first time recently, late summer 2019. This statement isn’t only my opinion (that God is trying to turn our attention to Him), it is biblically based. There are many historically documented times, where God used natural disasters, events, plagues, healings, miracles, angels, etc. to get people’s attention, this is His REPEATED mode of operation, documented in the Bible:

  • The flood and Noah’s Ark (growing up, I thought this was a fable to teach us something, but I realize while this was to teach us something; it isn’t a fable). There are well educated archaeologists, historians and scientists who can back up this statement; believe me, I had to find them before making a statement like this because of my initial belief!
  • The plagues in Egypt during Moses’ time in the Old Testament
  • The destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
  • Angels sent by God to warn people or inform people, messengers, protectors
  • The miracles Jesus (and the Apostles, through God performed)

I don’t think this is the end of the world; I’m not an extremist. Just like all those times thousands of years ago, it was not the end of the world, but it was a wake up call. This virus is something that will pass, in my opinion, but right now, we don’t know if someone we know will get this, or if we will get it? Will we recover? Or will God decide: “your time’s up”?

Are you prepared for this?

What we are experiencing right now is enough to cause concern in me about people who haven’t been “fortunate” enough to have some event in your life “wake you up.” Take advantage of this downtime to connect with God. This is personal between each of us and God; you will learn the significance about this, if you read the bible. It affects every person’s future.

Long Range planning? This is where our long range planning needs to be, everything else is short term planning, don’t be misled by distractions in life.

Remember: you don’t take it with you. In the end, it is just your spirit that God breathed into you when he gave you life. You get to decide where your spirit ends up; it’s your choice. If you haven’t thought about that, now is a good time.

My personal note to you: As I began to read the Bible, I started an Instagram account (link here) to save things I read that stood out to me, things I didn’t know before reading the Bible, to help me remember them, and for future reference. I thought if anyone else reads them and it helps someone else that’s even better. The only people/accounts that I follow are people who have contributed (unknowingly) to the growth of my faith. I’m hoping that if you read this and you want to learn more, maybe these accounts will be a good resource for you too? There are a variety of personalities, you may connect with some, and not others. I’ve watched these people/accounts I follow for awhile and over time they have been authentic, teach from the Bible and seem to have integrity too, and seem to be “servants” of God with good intentions. As for my account, it has now become a “responsibility”/”accountability” I gave myself: to make me read something from the Bible every day, and create a post, truly thinking about what I just read (journaling) which I never did before. I know it’s important to stay connected daily, or naturally, our priority of God will be replaced with something else. Whatever we focus on becomes our priority. The greatest commandment is to keep God as our #1 priority. When I first read the Bible, it was a “race to the end” for me to “get the main point” of it, but now I’m getting into the details. I’m relatively new to this but learning more every day from committing to daily reading. Doing this truly has transformed my beliefs/thoughts/priorities, in ways I never thought possible.

Other resources:

For Hope/Positivity: I rarely have anxiety about anything now, but occasionally if it starts, it ends quickly by listening to a YouTube video, specifically by Rick Warren on that topic and how the Bible addresses the subject matter. He has an incredible library of helpful topics to get through anything in life, based on the Bible. His stated intention is to give people hope. I’m actually reading his book right now, The Purpose Driven Life, and even though it’s been a #1 Seller that topped the Wall Street Journal’s chart, Publishers Weekly chart and was a New York Times Bestseller with 32 million copies sold in 85 languages as of 2019, for me, his videos have more personal impact and daily application of Biblical teachings, but everyone responds to different things and different people.

For Historical and Scientific support of Biblical information along with real life application: Greg Holder and the weekly YouTube online broadcast of each and every service of The Crossing is a great resource.

For the honest biblically based truth: If you have pride, or think you are “good enough,” don’t need to change, you should listen to Marcus Rogers for a wake up call. He talks raw truth about the bible, doesn’t “sugar coat” anything, doesn’t care how people react to what he says, he says things most people are afraid to say because it is not what people want to hear, isn’t
“politically correct”, afraid because they will be looked at like they are crazy (talking about the spiritual world) when this is actually in the Bible, people don’t want to accept it as truth because it makes them uncomfortable. His style is not what I grew up with, yet I appreciate what he is doing and like him because I believe he has good core intentions and he does make me think or research something, reflect on my short comings.

For reading the Bible on your own: (this app reads it to you also); you can search any topic, find reading plans based on what is applicable in your life at the time, download the YouVersion app available in ios or Android versions. This app was created by Life Church.

For questions about anything in the Bible: www.GotQuestions.Org offers an app resource which answers different questions people may have coming from different faith backgrounds into the exploration of Christian faith and provides the scripture references for questions, so you can read them for yourself and decide.

My hope is that this helps at least one person! #faithoverfear #trustGod

by Categories: Face Fear, FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Love, Make It Count, RELATIONSHIPS, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Real Love – from the #1 source, best seller

Growing up our thoughts about love and relationships are formed based on what we see in other relationships of those we are closest to as well as our personal experiences and just like first-time parents, we may, or may not, have been given the best instruction book for success due to this. People are obviously not perfect in example or in relationships in general.

I believe everyone at some point in their life wants a real “love” relationship experience, especially after getting hurt. But many of us don’t know what “love” truly is, we think we do (again based on what we see or experience), but that could be wrong. We may end up seeking advice from from friends, from books, from music, from others; but often that advice isn’t the best because it is based on other’s personal experiences and personally drawn conclusions, so it might not be applicable to us.

So there is honestly only 1 trustworthy author, who is a guaranteed, reliable source for real love knowledge, because none of us are perfect, or act perfect all the time, so we are not the best sources on love; we are imperfect sources. But God is. God is a trustworthy, guaranteed, eternal, reliable source for love and because of the following reasons:

  • The Bible is inspired by God (through the Holy Spirit, the source of Wisdom) (2 Timothy 3:16) (Isaiah 11:2)
  • The Bible is truth, so that’s the only resource for trusted information. (John 17:17)
  • The Bible tells us: “God is Love” (1 John 4:8), so going straight to the source of Love is the best place for information.
  • According to the Guinness Book of World Records as of 1995, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed. The bible has sold billions of copies and is the best selling book of all time- according to World Atlas as of 2018 also.

So what does the Bible tell us about real love?

  • First God is love and loves us. (Deuteronomy 23:5, Romans 5:5, John 1:17, 1 Thessalonians 1:4, 1 John 4:9 and hundreds of more verses in the Bible) God is perfect, so love described in the Bible is the ONLY perfect, real love.
  • Secondly, Jesus told us the most important choice we can make is: Loving God and loving others (Mark 12 29:31) so we should understand what real love means because it WILL affect us.

So how do we know (recognize) real love and how do we show real love to others?

  • Love is Patient (1 Corinthians 13: 4) – someone who loves shows patience is calm, forgiving, gentle, quiet, tolerant, submissive, persistent, understanding, accommodating, composed, easy-going, even-tempered, untiring, willing to endure, lenient, mild-tempered, persevering, serene
  • Love is Kind (1 Corinthians 13:4) – someone who is kind: affectionate, amiable, charitable, compassionate, considerate, cordial, courteous, friendly, gentle, gracious, humane, kindhearted, loving, sympathetic, thoughtful, tolerant, humanitarian, understanding
  • Love is NOT jealous (1 Corinthians 13:4): it is calm, content, undoubting, unworried, confident, satisfied, trusting, unresentful
  • Love is NOT boastful (1 Corinthians 13:4): it is humble, modest, unconceited
  • Love is NOT proud (1 Corinthians 13:4); it is humble, meek, modest
  • Love is NOT rude (1 Corinthians 13:5); it is decent, gentle, nice, polite, refined, sophisticated, mannerly, respectful
  • Love does NOT demand its own way (1 Corinthians 13: 5); it is easy, flexible, nice, simple, tolerant, yielding, unchallenging
  • Love is NOT irritable (1 Corinthians 13: 5); it is happy, pleasant, cheerful, nice
  • Love keeps no record of being wronged (1 Corinthians 13:5); love forgives and doesn’t remind someone of the past
  • Love supports justice (1 Corinthians 13: 6): it is honesty, integrity, truth
  • Love never gives-up (1 Corinthians 13:7); it compliments, praises, helps, initiates, cares, maintains, continues, fights for, holds on, accepts, embraces, joins, stays, remains, pursues, encourages, grows, builds, defends, treasures, guards, protects, validates, builds up, stabilizes, strengthens, remains, waits, supports
  • Love never loses faith (1 Corinthians 13:7); love has belief, confidence, hope, loyalty, truth, allegiance, assurance, certainty, constancy, fidelity
  • Love is always hopeful (1 Corinthians 13: 7); confident, cheerful, comfortable, eager, enthusiastic, trusting, upbeat, calm, content, faithful, reassuring, forward-looking, serene, encouraging, exciting, uplifting, enlivening, inspiring
  • Love endures through every circumstance (1 Corinthians 13:7); it bears hardships and survives, it sustains, weathers, withstands, supports, is patient through circumstances, copes, hangs on, puts up with, persists, remains, stays, lasts, has no end, love lasts FOREVER

Love is NOT:

demanding, pushy, loud, rough, troubled, violent, wild, frustrated, impatient, intolerant, unwilling, aloof, antagonistic, cold, cruel, disagreeable, discourteous, hard, harsh, hateful, inattentive, inconsiderate, indifferent, inhumane, mean, merciless, nasty, rough, rude, thoughtless, uncaring, uncompassionate, unfeeling, unfriendly, unkind, unsociable, violent, bitter, jealous, anxious, apprehensive, envious, intolerant, possessive, skeptical, suspicious, doubting, grabby, guarded, mistrustful, monopolizing, possessory, questioning, boastful, arrogant, cocky, pompous, pretentious, big-headed, conceited, egotistical, hifalutin, know-it-all, hot stuff, loudmouth, self-applauding, smart-alecky, snooty, stuck-up, swanky, imposing, feeling pleasure or satisfaction over something regarded highly valuable, feeling of superiority, abusive, blunt, crude, impolite, insulting, intrusive, obscene, vulgar, abrupt, bad-mannered, discourteous, inconsiderate, savage, challenging, urgent, critical, difficult, exhausting, hard, onerous, pressing, strict, taxing, tough, troublesome, trying, nagging, wearing, bothersome, dictatorial, fussy, grievous, insistent, oppressive, annoyed, resentful, testy, cantankerous, complaining, dissatisfied, easily offended, gloomy, grouchy, grumbling, hasty, huffy, hypercritical, moody, ill-humored, oversensitive, quick-tempered, sensitive, tense, touchy, corrupt, dishonest, lawlessness, unethical, unfair, partiality, abandoning, leaving alone, quitting, dropping, deserting, backing out, avoiding, keeping from, withdrawing, leaving hanging, calling it quits, backing off, copping out, holding back, getting “cold feet,” letting go, discarding, dumping, aborting, ignoring, disloyal, dishonest, doubtful, inconsistent, uncertain, rejecting, skeptic, apathetic, depressed, disinterested, down, hopeless, pessimistic, sad, unenthusiastic, unhappy, desperate, despondent, fearful, gloomy

After reading about real love from the Bible, was it what you thought it was?

Love was defined differently than I would have described it. It was enlightening for me the first time I read it. After reading it, I don’t think any of us are born being truly loving people, it’s not natural, we are much more self-centered (think about babies) Love is something we learn overtime by practicing it and choosing it over what real love is not. Real love is a choice we make, not a feeling we feel. The “feeling” by itself is lust; it’s not love. Love is a choice of compassion.

This knowledge is helpful when evaluating “love” and evaluating ourselves in life- how loving are we? And definitely knowledge we need to comprehend before we make a life time commitment to someone; both parties deserve that.

by Categories: Dating, Entertainment, Face Fear, FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Letting Go, Love, Make It Count, MUSIC, RELATIONSHIPS, Sex, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments