"Fear Not Only Believe"

I have avoided this article because it seems whatever I decide to write about, I am usually challenged about it.  Now some may say I may be  superstitious, well, if you follow me at all,  there some common threads that  persist in my writings.  Because I believe there is power, "in them there words,"  I must also believe, "there is power in them there words."  When I write an article about a particle subject, I am subject, (excuse the pun),  to  sort of a test.  Yikes, hate tests, love God.  Anyway, here we go again.

Fear is a horrible thing.  I really don't know what it is good for.  Well maybe, it prevents us from doing a dangerous thing for fear of pain and suffering, or because we learned the hard way  it can harm us, or maybe it prevents us from not protecting ourselves from potential  threats.   So, okay, fear in some forms is not all bad.  What I am talking about, is the kind of fear that paralyzes you.  This fear, has no benefits.  This fear destroys your life, it controls all of your decisions and leaves you helpless.  I really didn't realize to what extent I was being led by fear, because,  I pretty much stayed in my comfort zone.  As I got older and decided to receive unconditional love, I began to go out of my comfort zone, I realized, oh my gosh, what have I done.

It is a horrible thing to think that for most of your entire life, you have been controlled by fear.  Decisions you thought that were of you own free will, were not of your own free will.  Yikes, it is sobering.  I realized that fear is not only the kind  that makes you hold your breath until it is over, but the kind that makes you stop experiencing  the present, that is the one that is so harmful.  Let me explain.

When your fear is such that the present is just not bearable, so that you either go back to the past to where you felt something familiar,( thus relive it), or go so far into the future that the present is over, then that,  is the kind of fear that paralyzes you.  Now I understand that sometimes, we must do these two exercises for survival, I really do.  However, doing this all of the time, only brings you back to the same experiences, where we do the same things we've done over and over again.  Nothing will change or get better.  Like the dictionary says in it's definition of  insanity.  "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again and expecting a different result."

In conclusion,  Luke chapter 8, tells about a man named Jairus who was attacked by fear. He knew who Jesus was, so he asked Jesus to come to his home to heal his daughter who was deathly ill.  Jesus agreed to go and while they were on their way, they were stopped by some of Jairus' servants, telling them that his little girl had died.  Jesus' response to it was to tell Jairus, "Fear not, believe only."

Now, from the account of the story, I think we can assume that Jairus must have already known of Jesus and of his healing power.  Sometimes when we are standing in faith Satan will try to interrupt that flow of faith with an attack of fear.  Now  fear can be different things for different people, jealousy, rejection, loneliness, pride, lack of self worth or plain old, "what will people think of me?"  What Jesus is saying is, "Don't doubt what you've already been believing."  In other words, "Keep on believing!!"  Do not give into fear, keep moving forward in faith, believing God's Word and expecting our miracle.  Jairus continued to believe Jesus and his little girl was restored to life!  What do you need restored?

I 'am The Blood Bought Child of the Most High God

Let me repeat that, "I am the blood bought child of the most high God."  "I am joint heirs with Jesus. I have access to the throne of our God,  Jesus' blood declares me righteous in the eyes of God.

Jesus said to the woman being stoned for adultery , John 8:7, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  Then in John 8:10-11, "Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you ?"   "No one sir," she said.  "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared.  "Go now and leave your life of  sin."  Jesus says to me everyday, "go and sin no more."

As a parent when our children do something wrong, whatever it may be, I know in our house sometimes there was chastisement but all times there was the familiar saying, "try not to do that again."  The most amazing thing was that with children, after the ordeal is over, it is over.  The children are able to move on, like it never happened.  I believe God does that for us.  The only one who remembers our sins after we repent, is ourselves.  Sometimes we just hang them around our neck, letting them weigh us down, just in case we should forget them.  When Jesus shed his wonder working power, of His blood upon the cross,  we were not only forgiven of ours sins  but we became joint heirs with Him, we gained access to the most high God.  The receiving of His deity and proclaiming that we are the blood bought children of the most high God is our testimony.  Joint heirs with Jesus, think about that.  Jesus shed His blood so that our names could be written in the lamb's book of life.  So that we could have eternal life.  Even when Jesus was hung on the cross, one of the thieves said in Luke 23: 42-43  "Then he said, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom."  Jesus answered him,  " I tell you the truth today you will be with me in paradise."

Blood bought child of the most high God, yeah, that is who I am.

Faith, Hope & Love

Never in my life have these three words become so profoundly the foundation of my very existence.

1Corinthians  13:13 says, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love."  But the greatest of these is love."

Though I have felt and believed in these words the correlation of them is another realm all together.  I now believe you cannot accomplish anyone of these commands without the others.  Let me explain.

Faith is how we tell God, we believe in not only Him, but also in Jesus.  John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so  that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  Faith is leaning on God's words like they are nourishment to your soul. James 2:26 says, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead."   The works James is pertaining  to, is  our actual walk as we have faith in God's word. So our belief system does not rely on what is necessarily seen, but mostly on what is unseen, and totally on God's word.   Without it I do not believe we can have either hope or love.  I cannot imagine where else a person would put their faith. I know of nothing  that can compare to God.  He has never changed, He loves unconditionally, His arms are opened 24 hours a day.  He is gracious and kind, He is the beginning and the end.  If you travel to the deepest darkest part of you soul, He will meet you there.  He has prepared a mansion for you.  Look at God's artistry when you travel or look through a book, can you grasp the majesty of how carefully He cares about even the most remote places on earth.  If He puts so much care and value on us and our environment, can you even imagine what heaven is like.  His concern about every little insignificant detail, every hair on our heads.

Faith is how we obey God, hope is strength to our bones, love cannot be achieved without it.  I must admit I am still working on the love part, so, "fake it to you make it".  Whatever you gotta do.  I didn't even know what love was until I pressed into God's word.  Love is so different to so many people.  It is used and abused I don't even think is recognizable in today's society.  But when you press in to God's word, where the truth lies, you will not be able to except the watered down version anymore.  I will caution you to be prepared because once you know the truth you can never go back.  You no longer go on an escapade searching for love because you will be love.

Now I can say, yes the greatest is love. Faith literally moves the hand of God.  Without faith God will not move.   So when you have faith then there is real hope, with real hope you can move forward to not only receive God's love for you, but you have the ability to love others, the joy you are feeling is God's love. Until next time!!

The Power Within

Our identity is determined on how we think.  "As a man thinks so is he".  I suppose most of us do not micromanage our thinking and yet there are those who over analyze and well, where do you run, where do you hide.   So I challenge you, before you capture a thought and make it your own, ask yourself, where is this coming from?  It is so easy bringing things in, whether it be food, possessions, friends and so on.  How difficult is it to let go?  Before you can trust  what is coming in to be the truth, do not capture it .  Test it, be conscious of it.  How courageous do you feel to compare what you are thinking to the bible.  Our thoughts are what directs our steps, our future our destiny.  It is not to hard to figure out how physics can read the future based on how a person speaks.  We believe 70% of what we say, if we do not watch our words, our words will become our self fulfilling prophesy.  

Now having said that, let me say this, God's words are so powerful, that even when spoken by a nonbeliever, His word cannot return to Him void.  His word never loses it's purposed mission.  Isaiah 55:11 says "God's word must accomplish that which God sent it forth to do."  Satan the great deceiver can probably quote the bible better then most of us.  Though his efforts are in vain he can sure make people think he is coming from the right place.  There is a belief that con artists always mix in just enough truth to make what they are saying seem like the truth.  So again, I challenge you, watch out what you bring in.  Watch out what you call the truth.  All destiny starts in your mind and it sealed with your tongue. Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue".  The power within can determine your entire life.  Whose power are you allowing to control you?

You Can't Forget What You Can't Forgive

"Peace Peace Wonderful Peace."  I am not sure this will be a one article subject.  I have had to personally, fight off my own demons on this one.  But this is a subject I am passionate about so though the journey has been a long and winding road, I am determined to venture onward and upward.  You know none of us want to be controlled, however, if you are not  being controlled by God then most certainly you are being by the devil.  Yeah, I said it he is alive and well, but so is Jesus.

When I go through my old journals I see that forgiveness has always been the continuing thread that got perfectly woven into  my tapestry. It has been a royal pain in the butt, a thorn in my side.  Sorry, anyway, the bible says that as a follower of Christ we must forgive those that have hurt us,  at least 70 x7 times. When it feels like you can't possibly forgive that person one more time, give it to Jesus.  Our perception of our world can be very one sided, what is real to one person may not be real to another.  The only real truth we have is the word of God, "God is not a man so He should lie."  God cannot lie, God does not change.  Satan is alive and well, when he knows something  hurts you, he's going to keep going after that area of your life until you are so beaten down you just give in.  Satan is just a spirit, who can't influence us, without our permission. So if we know that be prepared for him.  Do not open the door for him to enter, the entrance way is through our minds. What you can do when you know it is his handy work, is to laugh.  Praise God and let Satan know he needs to go somewhere else, you just don't have time for him.  Next, stop trying to get even with people who have hurt you.  Romans 12:19, "I will have vengeance. I will repay."  Don't take over God's job.  Matthew 5:44 says to pray for those who hurt you.  Pray for them as if they were someone you loved.  There was a time I thought that to pretend to care for someone, was being a phony.  I just couldn't handle that, it was as if I was being untrue to myself.  Well, I am starting to figure out that whenever, "Myself," gets into the mix, we got a problem.  So what I learned is that faking  is like the training ground for changing the way we think.  Just like any other bad habit, you need to replace the bad habit with a good habit, "Fake it, till you make it."  Take it to God let Him validate you, He will comfort you, tell Him of your pain and suffering He will not leave you.  After receiving His love, refuse to be offended, laugh it off, replace it with a prayer to God to bless them, yes bless them. Love to the unlovable.  Then leave it at the foot of His cross, the place where He shed His blood for you.  If we cannot trust Jesus to do as He says He will do then we do not have faith and without faith we ourselves hinder the hand of God. The one prayer that Jesus left us was the, "Our Father," and  He says, "forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespass against us."

In  conclusion remember this we cannot do this alone we need the power of the Holy Spirit, He is our helper, Jesus sent Him to help us until He returns.  When you ask for the power of the Holy Spirit you will receive new understanding which will allow your to to be able to set free all those who you have kept captive.    It is freeing, it is flying without fair of falling. Just surrender the offense you feel from that person that hurt you, at the  foot of Jesus' cross where He shed His blood for you.   God will validate your hurt, He will comfort you and you will be able to hold no offense towards anyone.  Before you know it you can forget and move on because you made that conscious decision to forgive.  It is a journey, but one that will the most exciting one you will ever encounter because remember, we all fall short of the glory of God but oh that, "Peace Peace Wonderful Peace" Amen