Author: vange

Seeking The Ultimate Refuge

vangeLeave a comment
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

In a playground, there’s usually some type of spinning wheel. Someone standing outside of it pushes it to get it moving and those riding on the wheel, hold on tightly to a bar so as to not fall off. As life continues steadily, there may be events that happen that could through off the balance in our mind and emotions. It may be so drastic that it can wreck havoc inside of us. In this circumstance, what can keep us from being completely thrown off of the wheel which can badly injure us or others around?

Where do we go to seek refuge? What or who do we turn to? That one decision and or others following can impact the rest of our days going forward. I still remember running into a man who was homeless and searching for someone in the store to help buy him undergarments. We had two things in common. One, we were both artists and two, we both lost our mom not too long ago. From the traumatic experience in his life, he turned to follow a path of darkness involving drugs, satanism and who knows what else. Maybe there was some rebelliousness involved or anger towards God for allowing his mom to pass away.

Like the homeless man, I also found myself turning to morbid things after the passing of my mom. I was drawn to scary movies, videos of scary ghosts. It became a daily thing to watch those type of videos. If it weren’t for my foundation in the Lord, I would have easily been thrown of the right path. Who knows where dwelling in darkness would have led me, but in the midst of it, the Lord told me, “enough, ” and helped me to realize that my focus was being pulled in the wrong direction. It may have seemed like something so minor, but what is small, can grow into something so big that it can take over.

Life will always have its up and downs and storms are always on the horizon. But when you are prepared, knowing where to find shelter, it can save you. Even when everything around you seems to be chaotic, seeking refuge in Him, hope and peace remains.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”

Psalm 91:1-2

The bible reads, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.”

Psalm 46: 1-3

Death is inevitable and it can happen to anyone we are attached to. So when something throws the wheel off from spinning in one direction, it’s important to be able to have something steady and grounded to hold on to as to not fall off into an abyss that seems impossible to get out of.

When my mom died, I thought I would loose my mind. She was like a best friend to me, a good listener, so warm, loving and selfless. I enjoyed hearing her voice and especially her laugh. Having gotten used to seeing her almost everyday as she would always invite me to her house for dinner on my way home and I would share stories of work with her, it was hard to all of a sudden, not see her face or hear her voice anymore. But having the Lord in my life for many years, God has been my solid ground. Weeping heavily on my knees, I cried out to the Lord, please don’t take her, not yet, but He still took her.

The bible says “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Matthew 5:4

Death is inevitable and it will happen. In this case, I know I will see her again in heaven when it’s my time to leave this place. I know because I have experienced God’s goodness, faithfulness, that He has met me, comforted me and gave me peace in the most heart wrenching times in my life where I felt like life was completely out of control. God has been the person, outside of the spinning wheel, standing on solid ground that starts the wheel into spinning and has the power to stop it.

There are many outlets to rid thoughts in our mind or feelings in our heart, but people can fail us and things can never fulfill or heal a bleeding heart so our search for peace continues and the thoughts or emotions continue to run rampant. Some turn to alcohol, drugs, food or other and continue to seek refuge from pain through things or people often numbing or ignoring the pain only to find it manifesting itself again and again. To run to the Lord for refuge, means taking the pain and laying it down on the cross, placing it in His hands and allowing Him to heal you.

The bible reads in Psalm 18, “…The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:1-2

It may seem like God is not there and is not listening, but sometimes, we need to sit in silence and listen to what He is speaking to our heart. I’ve turned to friends for advice, but as clear as day, when I turn to God, things happen. I may not get a pray or question answered right away, but I do receive a hint that it’s on the way or He’s working on it.

The bible reads in the book of Psalms, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.”

Psalm 34:4-5

The bible reads in the book of Psalms, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.”

Psalm 118:8

God is not burdened or troubled when you call out to Him, in fact, He wants you to turn to Him, to seek Him. He wants to turn your mess into a blessing. He is a restorer. When you turn to Him, you may not see a change, but the process of change begins.

In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.

Psalm 62:7

He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Psalm 23:3

Of all things or people we can turn to in times of trouble, the Lord brings results. Not to rule out therapy, but there are many instances where the answer can only be found in Him. As one would create a robot and know the ins and outs of it, how it was made, its weaknesses, its strengths, what can destroy it and how to restore it to properly function once again, so as to our Creator knows us as no one else. God knows what can destroy us from the inside and is able to restore us to proper functioning once again so if not in the morning, one day you can rejoice in what He’s done in your life and how He has delivered you. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

But I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.

Psalm 59:16

God is the ultimate refuge. He is like no other. In Him you will find answers. You will find peace and not condemnation. In Him there is hope, peace and restoration so that hopefully, if not the next day, soon the light inside will shine brighter than ever and your joy will be restored.

You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.

Psalm 119:114

As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

Psalm 18:30

The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.

Nahum 1:7
Advertisement

The Chosen Goes Deep

vangeLeave a comment

There’s a series of shows about Jesus and the disciples that has come out called, the Chosen. It’s bible based, but there are parts that are not in the Bible that have been added, mostly conversations between the chosen disciples.

The creator of the series must have thought very deeply about everything. Watching the series broadens the way of looking at the life of Jesus.

There’s one thing I’ve started to really understand and think about is how difficult it may have been for Jesus to tell others who he really is without people calling Him a blasphemer. Even when He performed so many miracles, healing people, even raising some from the dead. Still, it wasn’t enough for some to believe that God is in Him.

Throughout the Old Testament in the Bible, there have been many prophesies foreshadowing the savior to come into the world, God in flesh. There were signs to look out for, like the brightest shining star in the night. The prophet Isaiah wrote about about these upcoming events of a savior.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Then, in the New Testament, it follows the prophesy of Jesus’s birth.

Matthew 1:21-23 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Whenever there’s a big event coming up, we look forward to it in anticipation, especially when it is something that has been foretold decades prior. In anticipation, the three kings knew about the savior born into the world and did not want to miss one of the greatest events in history. An event talked about amongst many before Christ, B.C.

Every time I watch the parts where Jesus calls on someone by name or speaks to them as if knowing everything about them that no one would know, it always reminds me of the times when God has spoken to my heart.

There’s the part, which is in the Bible, where Jesus calls Nathaniel. He knew everything about him and Nathaniel was uneasy about it, until Jesus spoke to him about the time of his distress. Knowing that no one else would know about what he prayed that hour, Jesus knew. That was when Nathaniel realized that He is the Lord and that the presence of Gods was with him. This is like, the times, if ever you cried out and wondered if God was listening, then you get the answer in front of your face.

It’s very fascinating because God speaks to the heart. Some hear and others don’t. This gets me to wonder how it would’ve been for God to speak to me in person as a human being standing in front of me rather than inside my mind. Then seeing how God works through some of His people to have insight into other peoples lives or His healing power flowing through a human being.

The next episode won’t arrive until the next several days, but I’m waiting in anticipation. This is definitely helping my faith walk and understanding the dynamics of the stories in the gospels. It makes for a much easier understanding for those that struggle to understand the gospels.

Decreasing the World’s Population

vangeLeave a comment
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Located in Elberton, Georgia are the Guide-stones, a set of large granite slabs, roughly cut into rectilinear shapes, vertically placed and positioned to face in each direction: North, East, West and South. The stones have inscriptions on them with several messages in many languages, including ancient scripts. One may think the messages infer positive ideas to live life, yet the first one sounds apocalyptic, stating “maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” With the current world population at 7.9 billion people, per Wikipedia, that would mean 94% of the population would have to be eliminated to meet five-hundred million. No one is fully certain who placed the stones on the site, but some speculate that it was a man who was part of a secret society. The idea of depopulation is nothing new and has been spoken about and orchestrated by crooked dictators in the past.

In the bible, just the opposite is what God commands: And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.

Genesis 9:7 NKJ

The WEF and other organizations believe that overpopulation is destroying the world and resulting in climate change, thus discourages reproduction and encourages abortion.

In a speech by Bill Gates, who is a part of the WEF, he states, “The world has 6.8 billion people that’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services (aka abortion), we could lower that by perhaps 10 to 15 percent.” This is the guy that talked about a pandemic years before it happened and as a computer guy, was involved with the mRNA vaccines.

Some believe that Covid was created in a lab. About four years ago, way before anyone got Covid, Bill Gates had an interview with STAT and made an estimate that a global pandemic could cause about ten million deaths. According to the World Health Organization, there has been a count of 6.5 million deaths worldwide. If not for the Covid, there have been reports of healthy people suddenly toppling over and dying shortly after receiving the vaccine or booster.

Since 1973, there have been over 63 million unborn lives that have been terminated via abortion. After the Supreme Court left it to the States, many are still fighting to keep abortions widely available for any cause and any trimester, even after birth.

Some have read Elon Musk’s tweet about depopulation being a threat to the world. Although the world’s population is still increasing, the rate has been decreasing from pre-Covid and even greater, post-pandemic. Birthrates are significantly decreasing in countries like Japan, Italy and Hong Kong with the lowest birthrates in the world at 0.008%. Some sources state that the low birth rate is due to lack of finances or time to start a family or a relationship.

The year 2021 is the first time since 1937 that the U.S. population grew by fewer than one million people, featuring the lowest numeric growth since at least 1900, when the Census Bureau began annual population estimates.

U.S. census

Some countries are now promoting sterilization to reduce population growth. One sign reads…

There are many products in the market and even, technology in our hands that come with a proposition 65 label, which informs the consumer that the product can lead to cancer or reproductive harm, but it is still allowed to be sold for consumption.

Although companies that profit off of gender therapy or surgery are claiming that it will help prevent the child from suicide, some that have transitioned have testified of regret and greater feelings of depression after surgery. Hormones taken to transition can cause permanent reproductive damage and some laws permit the underage child to make these life changing decisions.

If not for health problems, there are other causes on the rise, mostly in urban areas like drugs that can kill with one little pill. These drugs are pouring in through the open border by illegal immigrants and citizens and are not being held in prison but released back into society. For the past two years, there has been close to 900 pounds per month coming in from the border. Just 2 pounds of it can kill as many as 500,000 people. People that are controlled by an addition to drugs are left in the streets, given money from the government, only to buy more drugs and eventually pass out and die. Any addiction that leads to homelessness is apparently out of the person’s control and requires the intervention of another. Many previous addicts that have sobered up testify that getting arrested and put behind bars was the best thing that ever happened to them, yet leaders in the state leave them to die and continue to enable their addictions.

From the year 2021 to mid 2022, there have been over ninety-seven instances were some part of food production was destroyed. Some farmers have been ordered to significantly cut back on production for climate change reasons, even though the impact is very minor compared to other industries. There have been talks about a massive shortage in the food supply and famines to come. Some commercials were put out that showed people eating bugs. The United Nations put out an article on the benefits of eating bugs, stating that it can address global food insecurity. Documented in history, extreme hunger has at times caused people resort to cannibalism during a severe famine.

A report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, doctor-assisted death could reduce annual health-care spending across the country by between $34.7 million and $136.8 million. “The take-away point is that there may be some upfront costs associated with offering medical assisted dying to Canadians, but there may also be a reduction in spending elsewhere in the system and therefore offering medical assistance in dying to Canadians will not cost the health care system anything extra,” said Aaron Trachtenberg, author of the report and a resident in internal medicine at the University of Calgary.

CBC

With everything happening around the world, the question comes up, is this a part of a grand scheme to drastically reduce the population?

Sources:

A Sung Prayer for All

vangeLeave a comment

I feel like this is a sung prayer for the multitudes. It definitely touches my soul. The artist, Katy Nichole started off with singing the chorus as a prayer and posted it on Tik-Tok and now has reached over 80 million viewers. There’s more on the story behind her song below. I hope this blesses your day, month or year.

In Jesus Name by Katy Nichole

I speak the name of Jesus over you
In your hurting, in your sorrow
I will ask my God to move
I speak the name cause it’s all that I can do
In desperation, I’ll seek heaven
And pray this for you

I pray for your healing, that circumstances would change
I pray that the fear inside would flee in Jesus name
I pray that a breakthrough would happen today
I pray miracles over your life in Jesus name
In Jesus name

I speak the name of all authority
Declaring blessings, every promise
He is faithful to keep
I speak the name no grave could ever hold
He is greater, He is stronger
He’s the God of possible

I pray for your healing, that circumstances would change
I pray that the fear inside would flee in Jesus name
I pray that a breakthrough would happen today
I pray miracles over your life in Jesus name
In Jesus name

Come believe it, come receive it
Oh, the power of His Spirit is now forever yours
Come believe it, come receive it
In the mighty name of Jesus, all things are possible

I pray for your healing, that circumstances would change
I pray that the fear inside would flee in Jesus name
I pray that a breakthrough would happen today
I pray miracles over your life in Jesus name
I pray for revival, for restoration of faith
I pray that the dead will come alive in Jesus name
In Jesus name

When God Speaks

vangeLeave a comment

Whether you are Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, agnostic, atheist, etc. , God can or will speak to anyone. The Lord’s reach is not limited to a certain group of people, but if you hear from God, how do you know that it’s really God?

I just heard a story on the 700 club about a Muslim lady who became and atheist. She went through many hardships that she stopped believing in God. When she got to a point where she felt like killing herself, she kept hearing, “come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” She ended up sharing what she kept hearing to her Christian friend at work and her friend opened up the Bible and showed her that what her Muslim friend was hearing, is an actual scripture in the Bible.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

In can relate to that story because when I was seeking the Lord and I was questioning, God spoke to my heart like he did with the Muslim lady. God would speak to my heart about something, then I would randomly open up the Bible to any page and end up reading a scripture that followed what the Lord was just teaching me.

There is a reason that the Bible is called the Word of God. I know not everyone believes that Jesus is Lord, the Son of God or part of a triune God. It’s hard to understand the three in one idea. The Bible does associate Jesus with God in the first book of John. The Word is Jesus.

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

It can sound confusing, but essentially, Jesus is the Word and He was with God and Jesus was God. It goes on to creation and the beginning and Jesus or the Word coming into the world. Thus, He did and the first four books of the New Testament are stories that tell mostly about the last years of Jesus before He was crucified. Written by the disciples of Jesus, they have included words directly from Him. In some bibles, these word of His or in red text.

So how does one know when God speaks? Knowing the word of God is a major part of discerning. But one does not have to know the Bible for God to speak to them. There’s this guy named John Ramirez who was a warlock and he heard from Jesus. He heard from the devil everyday until one day he heard the voice of God asking him, “what are you going to go when your time comes?” This guy was adapted to hearing from the devil so when he heard the voice of God, he knew it wasn’t the same voice nor was the atmosphere in his house the same. It ended well and to make a long story short, he gave his heart to God and now he’s bringing many people in the dark, into the light of Christ.

I’ve heard many testimonies of atheist or Muslims who see Jesus in their dreams or who have had near death experiences and have seen or heard from Jesus. People in prison who have had visions of Him and their life gets changed forever.

When I was a practicing Catholic I never even touched the Bible. I thought it was for the older generation to read before meeting their creator. I tried to find flaws in it, but I was missing the big picture. So maybe the Old Testament has a some boring stories in their like the genealogy or the family tree, but if you are discovering the love of God, but having doubts, thinking, “why would God even care about me or know my name?” you might want to read the book of Psalms. There’s plenty of scriptures that reveal His love for us.

How precious are your thoughts about me,* O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

Psalms 139:17-18

Another book to read are the gospels, especially when Jesus gets crucified. That is a show of His love for all man kind. So maybe you feel like the God is speaking to you about something, you may want to check out the Word of God, aka, Bible. It is difficult to flip through pages and find stuff, but there are websites that have searches which make it easier to find things, one good one is Bible Gateway. Searching for the definition of a word in the dictionary is like searching for who God is in the bible.

God loves all.

The Destructive Power of Anti-Matter

vangeLeave a comment
Photo by Pietro Battistoni on Pexels.com

Around three-hundred feet underneath the surface between the border of Geneva, Switzerland and France is a 17 mile tunnel with pipes and other scientific equipment built for scientists to explore the most basic components of matter with hope that it can lead to a greater understanding of the big bang.

Inside the tunnel is a make-up of equipment that accelerates particles, known as a nuclear or particle accelerator. There are other particle accelerators in other parts of the world, but not as large as the one in Geneva, known as the Large Hadron Collider or LHC. The European organization and lab known as CERN is a particle physics laboratory used by scientists for Nuclear Research seeking to find what the Universe is made out of and how it works.

They use particles of matter, like hydrogen, which has the smallest atomic mass on the scientific table. The hydrogen atom is made up of one electron with a negative charge circulating around one proton with a positive charge. These opposite charges attract each other. Hydrogen is found in all living things and is used on rockets for fuel as it reacts with oxygen, giving it the power to lift off.

https://science4fun.info/hydrogen/

Inside the lab, they take hydrogen atoms, accelerate them in the hadron collider and as they travel in the 17 mile loop faster than the speed of light, they reach a point of collision where the atoms split, creating new matter. This new matter is the opposite of the original hydrogen atom, which scientist have named anti-hydrogen or anti-matter.

The main idea of making anti-matter is just getting enough energy in a collision to allow the particles to be made. If you get electrons going fast enough and throw them at a piece of material called a target, preferably made out of atoms that have a large atomic number, you will have a shower of electrons, positrons and photons.

https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1172
https://www.life-and-matter.com/matter-and-antimatter.html

The newly created anti-hydrogen atom from the collision has a positive electron, also called positrons and a negative proton, also known as anti-proton. This new anti-matter does does not shed light and is very unstable and destructive, unlike matter. Scientist have to trap the anti-matter by means of a magnetic field to keep it from touching any matter around it, otherwise it will explode. Since negative charges are attracted to positive charges, anti-matter will be attracted to matter and when they come into contact, they will annihilate each other, causing an explosion of energy and emitting radiation.

Scientists say that one gram of anti-matter dropped on earth can cause an atomic explosion four times larger than that of Hiroshima. There’s not enough anti-matter produced thus far and it would cost trillions of dollars to produce just one gram. If enough of it can be produced, the energy that is created between matter and anti-matter annihilating each other can lead to new energy as 1 gram of anti-matter is enough to produce to about 180 trillion joules. If it can be contained and controlled, the energy produced can send a rocket into space and travel almost at the speed of light. This may even lead to space travel.

Scientist are puzzled at the fact that there is more matter in the universe than anti-matter, as 1 part in 10 billion. The big bang should have produced equal amounts of each; however, if that were the case, there would be no existence of the universe because anti-matter and matter would annihilate each other into non-existence, as an equal balance of anti-matter and matter equals zero.

These new findings are leading some scientist into believing that there is a spiritual world or another dimension, leaving some feeling like they’re still far from reaching an understanding of the big bang, where gravity comes from and the glue that holds everything together. Knowing how destructive and unstable anti-matter is, which is the opposite of matter, has led scientist questioning what keeps everything together, stable, almost like a force shield is around the earth keeping matter from being destroyed. This is bringing scientists into thinking spiritually.

There is also a dark side of anti-matter. Some of the anti-matter created in the lab was contained in a vessel and placed at a college, where the name of the school has not been revealed. There were reports of students that were around the vessel that started to hallucinate, gone mad and experienced paranormal activity. Thus, some have concluded that anti-matter brings out the darkness of a person’s soul.

Some scientist in the lab who were studying anti-matter have also experienced hallucinations and paranormal activity in the lab, even seeing visions of Shiva doing a dance of destruction. Coincidentally or not, CERN has a statue of Shiva Nataraja in front of their facility. At night, in front of the statue, there was a few people wearing dark robes that performed some type of occult ritual where they had some lady lay down in front of the statue and stabbed her. From the video, it does not look like she died or bled, but it went viral and CERN claimed that they had no part of it and it was a hoax.

https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Nataraja-Shiva-2004-bronze-2-meters-installation-view-CERN-Meyrin-Switzerland-3-800×1067.jpeg?ezimgfmt=ng:webp/ngcb36

When the lab recently reopened after some major renovations to make it more robust, there was a photographer who captured photos of the sky above the 17 mile tunnel. He captured mysterious looking clouds above CERN filled with thunderbolts and lightning. The base of the cloud extended all the way to the surface right around the rim of the circle.

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/06/photos-of-strange-clouds-over-cern-causing-concern/

There was also unusual cloud formations during the day that looked like a circle with a vortex in the center sucking up the clouds around it and a drop of light being pulled into the center. Some news sources presented the idea that the distant light going up to the center of the vortex was a UFO.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3388097/What-going-Large-Hadron-Collider-tourists-claim-filmed-mysterious-vortex-clouds-UFO-orb-light-flying-Swiss-facility.html#v-6102233985050559742

Some say that this could be the finding of a new dimension or that CERN is creating a gateway for travel into another time or dimension. Others say that CERN could end up creating a black hole that can completely annihilate our planet. The famous physicist and atheist, Stephen Hawking said that the God particle can wipe out the universe. Because some have claimed that anti-matter brings about the dark-side of the human soul, some have called the Hadron Collider, the gateway to hell and believe that CERN’s logo is made up of three numbers, 6, 6, and 6 rotated. There’s so much more to learn about anti-matter, let’s just hope it goes towards a more beneficial rather than destructive direction.

Sources:

Love than Religion

vangeLeave a comment

There are many types of religions in the world, most commonly: Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Judaism, Mormonism, Hinduism and Christianity. Most involve prayer, worship, bowing, singing or offerings. Others have rituals, which they believe would set them up to a higher level of spirituality. All these efforts to make one believe that through certain actions, they will become holy, a good or better person or pleasing to the eyes of God. There’s usually a set of rules or boundaries that set a line not to cross or actions that must be carried out tied to consequences.

The continual trying to be perfect on our own humanly efforts can turn into our religion and trapped us into residual traditions often wondering where is revival? Without knowing our Creator, how do we know where He has placed the true switch of joy? Do we keep believing that our religious traditions will save us? Of all religions in the world, how do we know which one is true or which God is real or fake?

The truth lays inside of each of us, mended into the fabric of who we are created to be. God placed it there before we came out into the world. Unfortunately, when we get older and corrupted by our environment, it eventually gets hidden. Truth is found when there’s no way of denying it. Sometimes it’s hard to know if it’s God speaking, especially when so many lies spoken have been dwelling inside for many years, yet He still speaks.

Aside from the bible or religious books, there are stories of people who had encounters with God, some that wrote about it and have become the basis of a religion, but what about the time when there were no books published in the world, yet there were still stories of God’s mighty hand or visitations from angels or God? People spoken about in these stories had a relationship with God. They knew God and were in communion with Him. God spoke in dreams, visions, by an angelic messenger or a burning bush. Still to this day, God speaks in dreams, visions, angelic messengers, by audible voice, a voice inside and sometimes through events, strangers or friends, but not a burning bush.

Religious traditions are mostly good practices, as the bible says in James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” However, besides doing or not doing certain things to keep ourselves feeling a certain way, what’s more important is our relationship with God. Think about all the things you do for the one you love, imagine never spending time with that person just caught up in the job of trying to please them, but never spending quality time, opening up your heart, talking to them and telling them how thankful you are, how much you love them or sharing your sorrows. Spending time talking to someone will get you very antiquated with their voice and character. Similarly, building a relationship with God is spending time in prayer, thanking God for the littlest things, sharing your sorrows and requests and worshiping Him. Sometimes, it’s a matter of just sitting and listening.

How do we know it’s the voice of God? He speaks to our heart and the bible confirms it. Image God speaking to different people and revealing who He is, then all of those people wrote it and down and just so happened to write the same or very similar thing about Him. Similar to the stories in the bible, God appears to people, there are different people spoken about that had a relationship with God and wrote about it. The stories reveal His character as a Father in Heaven. The book of Psalms 103:1-5, reveals God the Father’s love for us,”Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The book of Romans reveal the Christ, the Son of God’s love for us. Romans 8: 35-39 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There are many other scriptures that speak of God’s love and throughout the bible we see His character. God is love. Romans 5:8 says,”8 God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Of all the many religions in the world and gods that people worship, Jesus is the only one that came down to earth from heaven, in human form, to be nailed to a cross and die for the sin of humanity so that we can once again, have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. As Adam and Eve hid from God in the garden after they sinned, we no longer have to hide from God as our sins our taken away from the blood of Jesus on the cross, we can come face to face with Him again, unashamed. We don’t have to go through a ritual or run miles making efforts to be good or right with God, salvation is a love gift from God and having faith in His love, goodness, mercy and grace is what frees us and makes us more like Him. It’s a relationship, not a religion. It starts with inviting God into your heart, confessing and believing. Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”