The Fourth Week of Advent: The Star

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

Matthew 2:10

The Star

The star was present through the night 

A shining ray of guiding light

They saw the shimmer in the sky

Knowing for a reason why.

A promise that so many knew

But countless thought that it not true

How can God come down as man

Live on earth and take a stand?

A booming blessed trumpet blared

For those who listened and prepared

It was no secret if truth be told

But man assigned a lie so bold,

Kill the firstborn, that will save

A world of people from all He gave

Have them look not at the sky

But in the hearts of those who cry.

Dim the star, the breathtaking Light

That guided man this wondrous night.

Every mother, father, daughter, son

Will behold this Glorious One.

As we grieve the world that shatters

For man consumed with earthly matters.

Remember the Gift, the glorious start

Of Christmas day found in your heart! 

Luke 2:11-14 (KJV)

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Gateway to Health: Spirituality

 John 4:24 KJV “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Some people are defined by the religion they practice whether Catholic, Methodist, Baptist etc., the list goes on and on. I like to think I am defined by my spirituality, not a religion.

A healthy spirit is needed to get through the muck and mire that life deals you. Just as a healthy body gets you through illnesses attacking you and an unhealthy body has your immune system putting you on notice that, guess what, you’re not healthy.

One might ask how to obtain a healthy spirit and I can honestly wholeheartedly say, this is one thing on earth you can’t get with the almighty dollar. You can’t tithe and donate your way into a healthy spirit, you can’t buy candles or stones and think your way into a healthy spirit, you can’t get a vaccination against the evil spirits lurking the wild; a healthy spirit needs to be tended from within every second of every living day. Hard work but not impossible.

I’ve heard people call me a ‘Jesus freak’, a ‘bible thumper’ and even ‘a hypocrite’ all because I nurture my spirit in ways maybe no one else does. I like to think we’re all the same but just as this disease that has taken up a home in my body is unique to my body, no two believers are the same. We are all unique in our own way.

When you attend church, are you there to worship God or are you there to see who else is attending? Do you look at the shabby clothes one is wearing and compare the suit and tie guy to him? Are your eyes fixed on the extremely short skirt that Mildred is wearing compared to your ankle length skirt? Or are you there to praise and worship God?

Read this story and let me know if you fit in here. 

I realize I don’t fit in anywhere. I am a homeless person among onlookers. I am a leper among the unscathed. I am a fellow sinner among men. I am Spirit-filled to the end. My spirit is full of God and that is why I don’t fit in. I love all that He created, I love my fellow man even the ones who don’t seem to be wanting or in need of love, I love them anyway. My spirit is full because of LOVE. God is my breath in the morning, my lunch in the afternoon, a delectable filling dinner, and my companion at bedtime.

2 Cor. 6:17-18 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

We cannot all be the same, God never intended us to be that way, we’re unique. When we are filled with the Spirit we sometimes look the same and are like magnets drawn to one another but we soon realize while we are like-minded we are all different on different paths, different roads, different purposes and different completion. God wanted us different but united by one thing… by our love!

We become children of God when we drink in His Holy Spirit. One can be an avid reader of the Bible, attend church weekly, wear the garments of being a Christian but still not be filled with His Spirit.

Deut. 30:1, 6, 19-20 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

Did you read that? Obey His voice, cling to Him, He is your LIFE and the length of your days. This is no small fete. He’s not asking you to passively get to know Him, He’s asking you to LOVE, LISTEN, and OBEY! He is the only one who gets to choose whether you live or die. So many humans are riddled with selfishness that we don’t quite comprehend this. We cannot hold fast to the materials of this world, the food, the books, the clothes or the money, it is not ours to cling to and if you say, “I worked for it!” Yes, you did but let me ask, when God calls you home, are you going to take your money with you and tell Him how you can’t leave it behind because ‘you earned it’?

Our spirit doesn’t know money. Money is of the materialistic physical realm. God is not money, God is Spirit! Spirituality is a connection, a relationship with God IN you not God outside of you. Meaning, God is not bits and pieces of the religious you. That is the physical you and what you’ve shaped in this physical world. That is your way of trying to connect to the Spirit of God. Remember what I said earlier, God is love? The Spirit of God is already in you and your free will allows a choice to stray from Him, embrace Him, or become ONE with Him. When your spirit is so full of LOVE that breathing hate is no longer a part of your being, you are becoming one with the Spirit of God.

You become one with everything living and breathing. Your soul opens to nature and all the natural beatings of the rhythms of the sound of the earth. The vibrations awaken in you a sight of God that you formerly never saw because you were too busy with the physical aspects of loving your Father. Spirituality is the meditations of the soul connecting with the Higher being dwelling within you that has now been awakened, God.

Matt. 22:37-40 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Until you live and breathe these commandments, you have not soulfully or spiritually connected to the Holy Spirit. God is LOVE! Once you connect to the Father-board, boot up your system, you will feel the love course through your veins; for all those around you, your enemy, for those you formerly hated, and for those you disagree with. LOVE becomes your new way of living a spirit-filled life. You will now find yourself full of the Spirit

This is what God intended when He created us. He wanted us to be so full of love the world couldn’t view the hate. Instead what’s happened is the world is so full of hate it can no longer see the love. Sure we go to church, view people, see the steeple, hear a message but how many times in a week do you carry the message home with you, and actually LIVE the message of LOVE? Well, let me just say if more people carried the word, the world would not be the train wreck we have in front of us. You’ll find spirituality underneath the rubble.

Jer. 1:16 “And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

May the Word of the Lord bless you all! 

My D-Day

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! … And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4, 7 (NIV)

My D-Day

It was a life-altering diagnosis, to say the least. January 25, 2017, will be forever ingrained in my head. My D-day, the day of diagnosis; the pain-filled moments, the buckets of tears, the burden of fears. But wait, out of the somber ashes rose life, promise, hope, and change. What happened? How did I do a 360-degree shift in my ways and thinking? 

I read an email this morning and this is a pastor who received news that his father had the dreaded C. He buckled, he caved but then he prayed and praised. What comes over people in the midst of grief that they feel the need to turn to God? I can’t speak for anyone else but I know why I turned to God because He is my life. He’s not just a pie in the sky man in the clouds, He is my Father and the one I turn to when life seems to be going wrong and even when everything in life is going right. 

Pastor Chris on his father - “His treatment successfully eradicated the disease from his body. However, the cancer returned the following year, and my beloved father passed away a few months later.”

Just like the Pastor, I relied on God then, now and always. My Father’s Words showered over me to comfort me, to carry me, to strengthen me and yes, to heal me! I came home on that brisk cold January day with God pressing on my heart. As the boxes of used Kleenex filled the trashcan I was being comforted in a way I can only describe as a mystical experience because it didn’t feel like a normal everyday event if felt supernatural from a Holy Spirit I had come to depend on, know and trust with every aspect of my life.

2 Tim. 4:18 “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (KJV)

As I read the email I kept hearing in my head, eradicated but returned. Over and over the truth of the matter was the very essence that kept me strong when I myself was diagnosed and going against what the doctors wanted for me. Many of my aunts and uncles, lost their fight with the battle because it was eradicated only to return until they eventually succumbed. This was not going to be my battle.

My D day was not my death sentence day, not my diagnosis of death, it was my Day of Deliverance! I was set free from the chains of toxicity. I gained intimate insight of the traumatic illness that had taken over my body. Life was breathed into my nostrils as the tears dried and the fight became a war that was attacking from inside and out. Someone else in my family was not going to war on this ailment; I was chosen to go into battle because God knew I was little but I was the chosen one to handle the life-altering battle that came knocking on my door. I felt very much like the way David must have felt coming face-to-face with a giant and his only arsenal a slingshot.

1 Sam. 17:45 “David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

The BC group I’m a part of says not to use words like war or fight because they have negative connotations but to me, they are the Words that God gave me to use on this journey. I’m not playing poker here. I’m not skipping through daffodils. I’m fighting for my life and everyone else that comes after me who is scared and shaken into submission by the Giant Doc/Pharma. I have to keep in mind that not everyone is serving the same Lord that I listen to and serve. I’ve also learned in ten months not to listen to other people and all of their protocols because every single one is different. Opinions are different, protocols are different and each disease is different. We have to differentiate what supplements and health food work for us individually.

Ex. 14:14 “The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”

That would be the same group of ladies who said not to bring God to their facebook page. While I like reading what protocols they are using in their journey, I respect that they are all healing in their own way and worship different entities. I’ve come to realize that I have something more powerful in my arsenal than most of them have and that is a bag of rocks and my Almighty Father's Healing Words. 

Josh. 23:10 “One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.”

I have impassioned friends who support me on this journey and those that have turned their back. Does that sound familiar to you? If you’re a believer it might, if not, then you are nothing short of the doubting Thomas’ in today’s society. To me the words war and fight doesn’t hold negativity, it holds promise! The very promise that my God filled me with on My D-Day and every day moving forward.

All praise and Glory to God my Healing Savior

Living Water

John 7:38 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

The Living Water

A few weeks have passed since the butterfly event when we changed the mower blade. As I stood there firming up the mower for Hubby who was doing the hard part, changing the blade, I was leaning the mower back so it made for an easy blade change. As I stood there my shadow was cast, and as I looked I saw the shadow of a fluttering butterfly landing on what looked to be my shoulder. I slowly turned my head to the left and to my amazement a butterfly was sitting on my shoulder.

I don’t know how many times you’ve had a butterfly land on your shoulder but to me, it sure was a spiritual experience. As my head turned and he was in my field of vision he realized where he was and took flight. After little squeals of joy, I went about my day thinking of the experience. I love butterflies and with the changing of the season, there are many fighting for their last days collecting pollen from the flowers. But for the fragile beauty to land on my shoulder? I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

I’m always driving my family crazy with my interpretations of events. I’m always saying that was a God moment or something like, that’s Jesus doing His work, more creatively mind you. It happens daily, almost hourly that I’m seeing God in everything so much so that when talking to my son I pointed out that I didn’t even bring Jesus into the equation that time. His response was something like, “You always brings Jesus into the equation.” I smiled ear to ear and said thank you! That is the best compliment someone has ever given me.

If my son and husband see me as always bringing Jesus into the life equation then everyone else must see it too like a crocheted blanket, I weave the warmth and love of living water to everyone who comes in contact with me. Some are open to the interpretation; some roll their eyes, while some must sit in wonder. They wonder just what is this living water I speak of.

From the moment we’re pushed out of the womb to join in this world we thirst, which is just the way God intended. From the moment the nurturing umbilical cord is snipped we long to find the living water that sustained us for nine months. We don’t quite know at the beginning but we begin searching for God from that very moment we breathe life and we seek out the peace and serenity that carried us into this world. 

Jesus explained, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13b-14).

Eternal life. We don’t know it yet, but that is what we all pursue from the minute we take our first breath. It’s not about living and obtaining materials. It’s not about being rich and successful. Life is not about you, you, you, or me, me, me, it has and always will be about Him.

When you’re walking along a stream crunching leaves and watching as the river flows, you thirst, you want to bend over, cup your hand and drink from the flowing water. It’s only when we bring Jesus into the equation do we really comprehend what it is we’re thirsting for in this life. 

You can look at a river, swim in the stream, but you can never really drink in the eternal life that God has offered you unless you make your life about Him. The living water taps you on the shoulder, lands on your shoulder, presents truth and you either see it for what it is, or you continue swimming in life blind, consumed with selfishness and greed, not even close to being awakened by drinking in the Spirit.

I’ve thought a lot about life and death over these past eight months, more so than usual and I’ve come to the conclusion, it isn’t about my illness or how or what I do to heal, it has and always will be about Him. When I pass on, it won’t be about me, again, it will be about Him. You’ll weep for yourself, for all you did or didn’t do, you’ll weep not for me because deep down you’ll know I have eternal life, not because of what I did in this life physically but what I drank in spiritually and that is and will continue to be, all about Him! No longer thirsty, my life is about drinking the Living Water into my body, reconnecting the umbilical cord that grants me eternal life.

MTOC ~ Day Three ~ Choice

“When faced with senseless drama, spiteful criticism, misguided opinions, walking away is the best way to stand up for yourself. To respond with anger is an endorsement of their attitude.” ~ Dodinsky

I have laid my past to rest and crawled out of the darkened pit with my fingernails intact as well as my dignity. While I could have lashed out at my sister for her insensitive ignorant remarks toward me, my son and my husband, I CHOSE the higher road and continue on with my life that I have built for myself. Not with the help of any blood family members who remain anchors that weigh me down. I now look to my Spiritual family to lift me up on a daily basis. 

We ALL have a choice and while some will cling to the bitterness that shapes their life, I CHOOSE not to allow anger and bitterness to define who I am now. THAT my friends is God in me. It isn’t any scientific psychological mumbo jumbo, nope it’s that God mumbo jumbo that I keep telling people about. 

I have a friend who over reacted to something she had seen. Apparently Kirk Cameron is doing a tour giving HIS testimony of Christ. While he has the star quality that I don’t have, his words are going to be faced with pretty much the same criticism I’m faced with in my testimony. Us God people are just freaks of nature. I along with millions, and possibly billions are all wrong and all freaks of this ‘God’ we speak of. 

What did Kirk Cameron say that ticked my friend off? 

He said, "Wives are to honor and respect and follow their husband's lead, not to tell their husband how he ought to be a better husband," he says. "When each person gets their part right, regardless of how their spouse is treating them, there is hope for real change in their marriage."

She raged on, (I won’t share her entire post for privacy reasons) but this is some of what she said:

“If this is what being Christian means, then I don't want any part of it.” 

What she said, loosely, is that she heard Cameron say that women are to be servant slaves to their husband. His sister Candace said that she agreed with Kirk and is submissive to HER husband but what my friend missed was the CHOICE of the entire message. I think she missed the point that we, men AND women, are to love, honor, respect and cherish one another. Not be slaves but to honor one another.

I don’t judge her for her opinion on the matter because it is what I see as a national problem with the message that Jesus was trying to convey. People mix the Old Testament with the New Testament and make confetti of the words and dish out what suits them. They dissect the word to fit into their little world, they use the words like wet clay and try to form those words into a belief system that suits or doesn’t suit them. To ME, it looks like they’ve made an ashtray out of the Word of God.

They try going to church but again, they’re met with confetti and don’t understand what is being said. They’re looked over, gawked at and made to feel like an outsider so they flee from the church never to return. They hear people TALK about the Word of God but for some reason, they don’t SEE the word of God working in people. Is that because the Bible bearers ACTIONS are not equal to what they are saying? 

It’s a fine line sure, but also, it is a matter of CHOICE. When you look at the starry sky at night lit up like diamonds scattered on a sunny beach do you see a disorderly array of stars or do you see things like Cassiopeia, Orion or the Pleiades hiding within the astrological signs? This is the same thing when people hear the Word of God or people speak of the word of God. Others hear a disorganized message or they hear a divinely orchestrated message hidden in there. 

Last year when my dad passed away, I couldn’t make it back home and it gripped me for months, the guilt, the hurt, the suffering pangs I felt. My sister in her obvious dislike for me (I’m not going to pretend otherwise) had said, “Well YOU made the choice to leave here!” I rightfully said, “Yes, yes I did, I chose LIFE over death.”

I had suffered back home and nearly lost my life on more occasions than one, so leaving my husband WAS a choice of mine, a CHOICE of survival. Those people enslaved me and kept me bound by their misfit whims of dysfunction and I just assumed that that is how life was supposed to be. I prayed often for deliverance from the hell I was entombed in. 

It wasn’t until I found freedom in the land of Texas was I able to see the outside world and after months of suffering anxiety attacks nightly, running off hyperventilating on the dark streets of Texas, I slowly got a grip on what reality looked like. My years and years of prayers were finally answered; I was free from enslavement. 

God put me on a path and only because my choice was Him did my world start to turn around and I saw the light of day. When I tell people of Christ, it isn’t from a high and mighty pedestal, it isn’t from a wealthy sculpted upbringing, it isn’t from being shaped by a defective family, no, it is from a woman who CHOSE God over living to the conformity of man. Yes, the same men who wrote the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments. 

I live for the mysteries of God. You’re right people, the Bible is a bunch  of words, supposedly the divine intervention of God Himself, but it isn’t until you CHOOSE the Holy Spirit to live IN you will you ever grasp the meaning of one word or message from the Holy Bible. 

Acts 15:7 “And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.”

The Myth Factor

Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

I hear over and over again that the Bible is a myth. Why would some people believe this is beyond me but I do see why they’re misguided. After all, the book does have dragons and giants, Behemoth’s and rising dead people along with a virgin giving birth. That can all seem too ‘out there’ and a fabled myth for some folk.

I can go through hundreds of comments in a day and over and over when God is brought up, the unbeliever shoots him down quickly. The recent conversation of comments was on the subject of the Church denying gays and placing them outside as sinners condemned. The church tries to ‘change’ them and oftentimes they feel so left out that suicide is better than living.

One commenter states:

“It always amazes me how much hate people practice because they found it in a thousands year old book and insist on calling it love.”

Another Comment:

“Christianity has been peer reviewed for two thousand years and has done far more good if followed in spirit. Religion is merely a formalized moral position on various subjects that is voluntarily followed by a group of people. The same definition could be made regarding politics. And no, religion does not need a God, it simply needs a moral lawgiver. Something the world is in dire need of.”

I do believe that the world is conflicted because since the beginning of time there has been the war of good and evil and it looks to me like this day and age, evil is winning out in record numbers. The everyday news reports of killings, bombings, slaughtering makes the news but I wonder if what is going on and IS reported, what is seriously going on and NOT being reported?

I often read/hear, “Where was your God when [such and such] was happening?”

“Where’s your proof of this ‘God’?”

I’m so sick of people blaming God for bad things happening. Who can forget 9-11? Was that God who flew the plane into those buildings? No, it was evil that struck the nation and God saw the heartache and tried salvaging what evil had done.

When a plane crashes and kills four of five of those aboard, was it God who so heartlessly killed those people? No, it was HUMAN error! When God saw that one seven-year old child alive, His child, He led her to a safe house where she could receive assistance. Braving a rough terrain, almost freezing temperatures, and walking over a quarter of a mile, barefoot and in summer-like clothing, this child became the sole survivor of a devastating plane wreck.

Miracles happen and people will still blame God for the things He ‘didn’t’ do. I can see why the world is so confused. We have people claiming to be Christians but not acting like Christians; we have a ‘politically correct’ nation so hung up on technical jargon; we have a nation that hates God, and will spew anything against Him because He hasn’t shown Himself physically in many-a-year or done anything for ‘them’; we also have an entire group of people claiming to be Christians but needing scientific proof to be sure where exactly they stand. An extremely confused world we are.

Well people, I don’t have proof of anything; don't need it. All I have is my testimony, just as the men in the bible preach and write about. You see, the Bible is just a testimony, albeit divine, from man handed down through centuries. The Bible is comprised of them documenting certain events. They documented what THEY saw/heard and thus you have all the testimony in one book for you to discern as fact or fiction.

I CHOOSE to see it as fact only because of what God has shown ME. Whether He has shown YOU anything is up to you. If He’s shown you nothing, of course you’re going to doubt and need some sort of PROOF of this God.

Just today I was reading about ‘Scientific Proof’ of Jesus teaching in a synagogue. Scientific proof, that’s cute. One commenter said that WE people only believe this stuff because of a “mythological” story we read.

Let me tell you straight up, I don’t believe in God because of something I read. I do not base my faith on a book written and documented by men thousands of years ago. My faith comes from God himself. Sure, my moral compass was guided by the Word of the Bible; Yes I live a moral code set by the Bible but my faith is not just because I read a book called The Holy Bible.

Can you honestly say you have faith then seek out PROOF? I, in good conscience cannot. Faith is seeing and believing in the unknown; no proof needed. I don’t need scientific proof that the sea was parted. I need no documentation of Jesus’ footprints being found in the sand. I don’t need to know the exact spot the Ark was grounded and I sure don’t need a man (or woman) telling me what I’m doing right or wrong in MY belief.

I’ve been struggling a lot lately with religious division. It seems like what so many of the non-believers feel is that if the Bible is so true and proof-worthy, why are so many religions divided? If we all believe the same bible, the same Word, why are we so divided? Because we’re human! Humans have egos and a person with an ego always needs to be right; thus, a divided religious system.

I think I’ve figured it out. There will be debates on the proof, the non-proof, the truth and the non-truth until the end of time, until He comes back and wipes the smirk and ego right off your shoulders. I’ll keep MY faith tightly wrapped in the arms of the Holy Spirit.   

A Naked New Year

Acts 5:20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

Well as many spent their New Year’s Day sitting on facebook, tweeting on twitter, wasting a new day and the beginning of a new year, I was being productive and dismantling Christmas.

New calendars were hung and the first picture of the New Year? A Cardinal. That glorious red bird that visits me when he can is now on my wall for at least a month. That brought a smile to my face.

I sure get a lot done working with my disabled body. As I wrapped ornaments, snowmen and all, to be put away while Adam was unstringing lights from the tree and Christmas was slowly being sucked out of the house. By the end of the day my body was screaming in pain, not because Christmas was melting into the boxes not to be seen for another year, but because I try to do too much in a crippled body.

I woke thinking the day was going to be something special; that all the revelers knew something that I didn’t. I realized that I’m alone in the world of zombies. I woke to find it was a new day, the same as the day before, just a new calendar. The only thing that is going to change is me. I have to make some changes this year. This is not a resolution, this is a part of my continued soul searching and where it is leading me. There sure isn’t anyone going to do it for me.

1 Peter 4: 16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

The scripture above says a lot to me. While I’m not ashamed of my Christian beliefs, what I am ashamed of is how loosely based the term Christian is used. People who fear Christ, fear salvation, fear being born again call themselves Christians. I have to laugh out loud when I hear/read “Christians fear Christ” in the same sentence.

The reasons people fear Christ is because they haven’t opened themselves up to the POWER of the Holy SPIRIT of Christ. They call themselves Christians without even knowing what spirituality is because that’s some far flung belief from old.

My path is leading me away. Not that I sit in judgment of man because I know full well I am not one to judge people for misunderstanding, I’m just done with justifying and excusing them for not having the strength to seek out and find the spirit within them. For all intents and purposes, they seek what is on the outside. They will have to answer to their god one day, too.

Life after death. My new calendar year, as so many others in the past, will have me seeking. What will become of me in my life after death has drawn interest in me. I am not focusing on the here and now because all of this will be gone in a blink of the eye. What will be left of us? Our bare naked souls.

I’ve opened a wounded soul and seek out healing. I cannot pretend that my popularity and friendships will walk me through the gates of heaven. I will not put on a show of wondrous works to walk me through the Pearly Gates because I KNOW, nothing of this earth is going with me when I come face to face with God Himself! The only thing that will be exposed is my conscience.

I will walk with no guilt or shame when the portal opens. My clothes will be peeled from me, my skin shed and I must stand in front of God exposed. You know, I try to live every single day as if I’m standing exposed in front of God. Maybe if more people believed in God, and more people took the seriousness of their life after death, the world would not live in fear of Christ or His words, they would fear their eternal life.

No scientist is going to verify any fact that hasn’t been granted to me by knowing the Spirit of Christ. When we walk in the Spirit, there is no room for doubts and fears. And when people wake up and realize that being a Christian is MORE than just a name to call yourself, more than just a religious faith, more than any human mind can comprehend, then and only then will they be justified in calling themselves a Christian. A Christian is a disciple of CHRIST. Nothing more and nothing less.

May the Spirit of God be with you all!

Acts 11:23 Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
[24] For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.
[25] Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:
[26] And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

 

 

 

Lent: Day Thirty-five ~ Salvation

Joshua 24:15 (NIV) "But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Salvation

I have good news for you, people. The past couple of weeks I’ve written about the renewal of your spirit, I talked about serving the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, praise and worship of the Lord and so many other richly rewarding posts, but today I bring great news, Salvation! It is free, not earned, nor bought or achieved by any works that your physical body can do, it is FREE, given with the blood of the cross.

I may come off a little crass in saying serve, praise, worship and be a part of a church. I think I make it sound like that’s your only way into heaven. It is not so, all these posts are for the committed Christian who understands what it means to serve our great and mighty God. We don’t serve because it will BRING us closer to God; we serve because it helps us FEEL closer to God.

Jesus calls us to be more than a mere Christian in word. If you call yourself a Christian you need to know what it means to be Christlike ie. a Christian. But if you’re a non-believer and searching for the peace within your body and feel that there is a higher power governing you, you need to meet my friend Jesus Christ.

I’ve have a few friends who say they won’t serve such a cruel God, who maims and kills and destroys but they see all His blessed goodness and would rather call the goodness by another name. Can I ask you something? When you were a kid and you defied your mother and she disciplined you, did you hate her? Did you turn away from her? Stop loving her? No, not often.

God is like that. When we sin, sure He disciplines us but by His saving grace we are forgiven. That is not to say that once you become a Christian you carry on like nothing has happened spiritually to you. You don’t drink booze, lay around reading and believing, sin and keep on sinning some more because God will save you.

I know a few people who will believe in God and all the testimony in the Old Testament but won’t believe Jesus is the Son of God. They’ll believe God parted the sea, they’ll believe he wiped out humans on the earth and saved the animals via Noah, they’ll believe a man resided in the belly of a whale, but they won’t believe in the Immaculate Conception?

“Since no man is excluded from calling upon God the gate of salvation is open to all. There is nothing else to hinder us from entering, but our own unbelief.” ~ John Calvin

To be Christian, you believe that the blood of Christ was shed for you, a sinner among men. You’re not going to become a Christian just because it is a phase you’re going through. You’re going to become a Christian because you feel empty inside; you feel like something is missing and you sense that there IS a power out there that can fill the emptiness. Salvation! You become saved by grace from carnal sin by the hanging on the cross of God’s Son.

Christians are called to serve the Lord. We feel a need to do good, help others, attend church, praise and worship; it is part of our spiritual Christian growth. But to others who don’t know Him who want to know Him, salvation is yours for the asking and receiving. God extends His hand out to you, sends a comforter by way of the Holy Spirit, and washes you in the Blood of Christ so you too feel changed spiritually.

When this happens to you, you no longer hang onto just reading and believing. You want to take ACTION, not because it brings you closer to heaven, or brings you closer to God, but because you can sense the power of God in you and this new spiritual growth calls out to you and propels you into action. You crave being closer to God! All the reading and believing in the world will not bring you into a closer relationship with God, action FOR and TOWARDS God, will.

Through salvation, the will of God becomes evident. You won’t miraculously stop sinning, but you have a clean slate FROM your sin to begin anew. You will STRIVE to be Christ-like meaning you recognize any and all of your sin and bring it to Jesus. Only He can wash away the unclean sin.

Yes, we are all sinners and fall short of the Glory of God but salvation is the saving grace, through Jesus Christ. Read and believe this, you CAN taste heaven and see what awaits you. You CAN drink from the cup of salvation and walk eternally with Christ himself. You can take this to the heavenly bank and cash it; God awaits YOU!

“If you have to be reasoned into Christianity, some wise fellow can reason you out of it! If you come to Christ by a flash of the Holy Spirit so that by intuition you know that you are God’s child, you know it by the text but you also know it by the inner light, the inner illumination of the Spirit, and no one can ever reason you out of it.” A.W. Tozer

Lent: Day Twenty-nine ~ Coincidence?

Pss. 104:2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

Coincidence?

Was it coincidence I was born on my mother’s birthday? Was it coincidence that has been the ruler in my life throughout the years? I can’t name ALL the things that people would deem ‘just coincidence’ but like ‘luck’, coincidence holds no weight with me.

I think people blame coincidence on things they can’t explain. God forbid should they think that the Almighty God reigns supreme in their life. Sure the great universe works in threads, threads that tie instances into happenings, weaving a blanket called life that covers you.

Nature plays a part too. Some call it Mother Nature I call it Father God. The only Great Spirit out there with a needle and thread is the Master Creator himself, God. There isn’t a slew of gods out there in the cosmos directing your paths. There is no Mother Nature or Father Time there is only One true God. Coincidence? I think not.

Now a lot of times people accept explanations of the scientific nature because they have been so absorbed with finding the truth (or proof) of a situation that they never find  real answers due to blindness. If you don’t believe in the trinity, you might not get my meaning.

God the Father is the Son and dwells in your life daily via the Holy Spirit. There it is, the word Spirit. In the bible it states, “No one comes to the Father, except through Me”, (John 4:16) Not believing in the Son of God as man flesh, you’ll never come to know the Holy Spirit and will always be searching for some great scientific truth whether it is in Astrology, Astronomy, prophets or religious leaders; you’ll search endlessly seeking some great Spirit all because you don’t want to accept God, Jesus and the HOLY Spirit.

It is not some grand coincidence that the world was formed. Not one ounce of coincidence knows you by name, knows the hairs on your head and calls you blessed. It is not by coincidence that we exist and seek continually to find an answer as to why we are here and where we go afterwards.

I love to think of us as a blanket put together one thread at a time making us all different but all part of the same blanket. Each seam brings us together and this is why people, certain people, enter your life. Whether through friendship or a divine draw that places you as a thread to make up ones blanket in life.

I am a part of your blanket as you are a part of mine. You read me so then you too become a thread tying together the quilt that makes for a comforter to cover you when you’re cold.

We are all part of the collective conscience that brings together two beings. God is the weaver of this blanket, Jesus is the thread that knits us into each others life, and the Holy Spirit is the warmth of energy we feel when relationships are formed. We become a blanket for each others soul connected by the One and only master Creator, not by coincidence.

If you are bound to trees, to animals, to love, to compassion then it is not a coincidence that we have met or have been woven together. God is the force that binds us together through the love of nature, animals and all things created. Did you ever wonder why we’re friends? God saw to it that our lives intertwined. He saw to it that we formed a square in the blanket.

Was it coincidence when Steven and I needed a place here in Nebraska, this house, totally affordable, was available? Was it coincidence that two years my man was blind and he finally got his sight back? Was it coincidence that found him a job that was willing to work around him not being able to drive in the dark? Was it coincidence that an affordable car was right there on the parking lot where he worked? Was it coincidence that two weeks later his truck would be totaled and he’d walk away without a scratch?

I think I have the secret to what people call ‘luck’, I have the key that will open the door on the mystery of coincidence and it is simply defined as blessings. If blessings don’t fill your cup to overflowing then you believe in coincidence. If you do not feel rich beyond all meaning (and I don’t mean money) then you are wrapped in the belief of luck.

My cup over flows, I’m rich beyond all measure, and my Spirit is filled with the love of God! I am a part of a blanket that is here to offer you warmth. My friends, we are one with the Spirit of Christ. Whether you believe that it is just a coincidence that we met, I’m here to tell you, there is no such thing as coincidence.

God be with you all!

Pss. 91: 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Isa. 3:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

 

 

Lent: Day Seven ~ Offended by Christ?

Matt. 18: 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Offended by Christ?

I have encountered many in my life who were offended by Christ. They say they believe in God but seem offended when I say the words, “So, you follow Christ?” Almost as if I spat phlegm on them, they retreat, “You’re not gonna push that bible stuff on me now, are you?”

What? Bible stuff? They said they were believers, so why are they offended when I say the name Jesus Christ? Many try to put a political spin on this but if you think about it since our first president, man spoke their feelings, their opinions and their desires for a New World, our elected officials heard the voices of the many and moved to make it so.

Each and every president has heard the voices and when you say ONE man or however many sit in congress make laws, remember they are listening to the many people who are offended by Christ, offended by this and that. MAN and WOMAN have shaped this world for millennia. (I say world because not just the USA is involved in fearing Christ.)

When I say the name Jesus Christ, and you are offended, you are only reacting to what other men have tried to feed you. You say that the bible is a fairy tale and it is full of lies, and you do everything in your power to prove it to be truth. Why? Because you too have doubts; you SAY you believe every word in the bible to be truth but there in the back of your mind as you’re digging for proof, there resides doubts. If you believed (meaning have FAITH) that everything in the bible is truth, you would need no proof.

Since the beginning of time, Jesus resided in God. He was there at the creation and will be here at the end. “How do you know that as a fact?” Let me tell you.

Yes men wrote the bible. They physically wrote, in stone or with pen, every word in the bible and events that were taking place in THEIR time. The difference in their writing and that of men who told a fairytale was a spirit that consumed them. Their stories were handed down to each generation and then compiled to make the bible, thus becoming the Holy Bible because the Spirit of God was divinely inspiring the words. Many translations later, the Word still holds truth to believers.

How do I know it was divinely inspired? Well let me tell you. As I’m sitting here writing this Lenten Season of posts, they are not just my thoughts, they are being Divinely Inspired. Meaning, I FEEL the SPIRIT moving in me and inspiring every word I write. I’m not just making stuff up out of my head as I go along, I am being driven by a Divine FORCE that is compelling me to write!

I imagine this is what the very first men felt when they were writing the Bible. They were being driven by the POWER, the SPIRIT of God. to write these things down. Mighty arrogant of me you say? To compare myself to the biblical authors? Well, if you believe in every word in the bible, then you MUST know and FEEL the truth I am conveying in my words, right? God did not die and stop inspiring people.

I am not forcing Jesus down your throat. I am not telling you that if you don’t read my words you’re going to hell. I’m just conveying a message that God has placed on my heart. Take it any way you want it. THAT is exactly the way the bible was intended, for you to read and walk away with what YOU believe.

Did you know that atheist read the bible? Yes they sure do. How do I know this? If you speak to an atheist, they’ll tell you “The Noah story isn’t true.” They’ll go on and on and point out inconsistencies (in their eyes) in the Bible. How would they even know to view these as inconsistencies if they hadn’t sat down to read the bible? Hmm…

Jesus offends them because the story is remarkably unbelievable! A virgin, pregnant by some Spirit God; Jesus, God as MAN. Yeah, remarkable and unbelievable. But to believers who read and BELIEVE the words of men from thousands of years ago, these two events ARE remarkable AND believable and prophesied about since the very beginning of time!

Man fears the unknown. Can you hold air in your hand? No, but you know it is there. Through every breath you take, you know it exists. Science can dissect the elements and show you what it is made up of. Can you hold a star in your hand? No, but science can tell you what a star consists of. And because science can PROVE this to you, you believe and put your faith in man because it all makes sense. This Bible stuff don’t always make sense, so you fear.

Man fears God, Christ, a Supreme being that holds ALL power over you. Science can’t prove the existence of God, nor can they disprove it, so man again, puts his faith and trust in man, not in God.

And we wonder what is wrong with society today? Christ offends man, He is superior and man in his selfish egotistical mind fears being ruled. Hate is running rampant because NO ONE likes to be ruled so they retaliate with pride and anger. That’s the will of man.

The will of God just simply asks you to accept Him, His son, the comforting Holy Spirit that rest in you. Until the Spirit consumes you, you will not understand one word I’ve said. You will continue to deny God, lash out, spread hate, share pride driven opinions and to allow your soul to sleep.

Man fears God and is offended by the mere mention of Christ. To fear one is to fear the other. As man fears the unknown, my only fear resides in what is known to ME.

Pss. 34: 11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

Holy Week ~ Holy Life

pic taken from the internet

Ephesians 5:8 “But be filled with the Spirit”

It would seem I am on a Sabbatical. This is the time I am reflective as my New Year is coming on Easter Sunday.

I’m strange that way, you know. I never celebrate the New Year on January 1^st because really all that is, is a calendar change. A man-made calendar no less. Easter on the calendar is a man-made holiday, but spiritually it is so much more to me.

I know many of my readers are not Christians, per se, and whatever you believe is fine with me. Don’t judge me and I will surely not judge you and your faith/beliefs/religion.

When I was a child, I was being raised as a Catholic. We were in no way devout Catholics, we went to Church, not as a family, but to put our little envelope in the offering plate, so we’d have reduced tuition for our Catholic school upbringing. Is THAT where I found God? I’m sorry to say, no. It is where I was introduced to Him, but not where I FOUND Him.

Later, when I was about 13 years old, I was sent to a Christian school for my high school years, this is the place I FOUND not only God, but Jesus, in action. I turned myself over to Him and became a born-again Christian, a foreign term to my family. They assumed it meant I was going to be weirded out and a ‘Holy-Roller’ in the process. By no means is that what being born-again means!

(Author’s note: I use the term Holy Roller loosely because we lived across the street from a Church of God, and the people of that church worshiped nightly, praising God.  To each his own.)

Being born-again, means turning your life over to Christ and allowing Him to live in your soul, via the Holy Spirit. In a sense, I did get weirded out, because I was no longer bound to ‘mans’ law, I was bound by God’s laws.

Did becoming a Christian make me a sinless person? Again, by no means. Instead it made me aware of being a sinner; awakened me to my sins. I call myself a Spiritual Christian, only because the Spirit lives and dwells in me, making me aware of all of my surroundings, my actions in life, my mistakes and most clearly, my sins.

I have found inner peace, I am one with nature and the universe, but note I believe that God is the driving force of inner peace, nature and the universe. These truths can be found in the Holy Bible, Old and New Testament, and while many will retort, “The Bible is man made.” I will reply, yes it is, man made, God inspired. Can you deny that? I mean really, I’m a writer with a creative mind, but even I couldn’t come up with the stuff in the Holy Bible and have ancient artiFACTS to back up the testimony, no less.

Matt. 13: 9 “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

That means, since the formation of Earth and before, there has been something out there divinely inspiring us to be better people, to be aware of our surroundings, to be awake in a world that sleeps in the closet called materialistic/consumerism/media-driven life.

So where did I find this ‘Jesus’? I didn’t find Him in a school, a church or even a book, I found Him in…my soul. He was there all the time, I just needed to awaken that spirit, to come alive in me, and practice all that He was showing me.

“…you have to be willing to sacrifice everything to follow God and to follow what He’s called you to do.” ~Patricia Heaton

Ten years ago, I did one of the scariest things in my Christian adult life. I gave up everything: my home, all the materials in the home, my husband, and many cherished belongings. I kept my most precious gift and that was my son and I swept him away because God was calling me to do something. Something against my nature and everything I had been raised to believe, and put my entire trust in Him and where He was leading me.

I could not see where He was leading me and it took a few years to grasp what it was He would have me do, but as I sit here now, ten years later, I have clarity and celebrate the New Year this Sunday as a continuation of my faith, beliefs, and trust in the only being that trusted me, 100%, no questions or doubts.

Throughout the ten years, I was brought into a church, I rejoice with like-minded people, and God’s grace showed me that not ALL churches are built on hypocrisy. Each Church, He chose for us, we attended, and found Spirit-led people, who loved and honored Christ.

In 2007: Roundgrove United Methodist Church (Lewisville Texas), Grace United Church (Lewisville Texas), to the place we praise and worship now, 2009-present: Efree Evangelical Church

As many of you will celebrate Easter in dressy dresses, new shoes, beautifully done hair and accessories, I will walk into church with the same clothes I always wear. Why? Because God accepts me as I AM!

I have changed a lot since I was fourteen and coming to Christ, but one thing that hasn’t changed has been this; I live by the Spirit and will die by the Spirit. Whether you believe or not, we are all interconnected and EVERY-THING happens for a reason.

May the Spirit that lies within you be awakened and guide you through your life. It’s a journey worth living.

Godspeed!

Luke 11:9  "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."