Finding Hope in Hardship

Tragedy is never a good thing, but sometimes, at the end of a dark tunnel, there’s light. We don’t often see the big picture or the orchestra below the pit, but something beyond our understanding is happening and in the near or far future, we find that light, that one good thing that comes out from disaster.

The pandemic was heart breaking for those that lost loves ones, it caused depression from isolation from many, for some, they end of a marriage. Many negative results that may have been life changing, but the one good thing for some, would be that it brought in more opportunities to work from home, especially good for those that live far from work.

Not taking traumatic situations lightly, but we may not see the bigger picture until later, keeping in mind, that no one lives forever, there’s a time for all of us to leave this earth and that being with God is heaven is a much better place. I didn’t understand why the Lord took my Mom early. I was really close to my Mom and had a bad relationship with my Dad. We always argued, he never heard me out and it was like that for a very long time. Knowing that I had a really good relationship with my mom and that I spent precious time with her while I was able, I didn’t feel any regrets, but had it been my dad, it would’ve been different. Just shortly before she passed, questioning God “why,” I tried to see the bigger picture and I thought about how me and my siblings were always closer to my mom. Years later, we’ve had good times and good moments with my dad. My relationship with my dad is much better and the things that my mom would suggest like, playing golf with my dad, had come to pass after she passed away. It’s almost like she’s praying in heaven for that very thing to happen.

The sorrow from the big loss in my life, brought me to humility. Sometimes God brings the hardships to humble us, to refine our heart. For some having gone through trauma and have healed from it are helping others in that very situation.

I was watching a short video of someone retired who was struggling to pay for everything and needed to find a roommate to get by, which resulted in good companionship. Not only did she no longer struggle financially, but now, not lonely with a new good friend sharing life with her.

There was a testimony of one of the Jewish ladies held hostage in Gaza that was released. Rather than seeing nothing but darkness in the situation, she found her purpose in the dark tunnel as one to comfort a young girl and to help bring light to others.

The difficulties of relationships, we sometime hate the very thing in our spouse that is there to stir us up, but some traits as we may see as hang ups are there to shape us into a person with more patience or children that bring our own issues up to the surface until we realise the things we need to work on in ourselves like control or rage. These are things that we need to give to God and ask Him to help us. Years later, we see the good results from the hardships that have shaped us.

We may never understand why we had to experience certain things at the moment and may live through life on earth without knowing, but at the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold, no, but let’s just ask God to show us the reason. At the same time, being prepared to die any day, loose someone of something any day, which requires knowing where you’ll go when die and having a strong foundation while on earth that when the strong storms of life comes to knock you down, you won’t fall.

My prayer for others…”Lord, I pray that you will reveal yourself to others through the good and the bad, helping others see the light in the most difficult situations, trusting that there is hope in you as they continue to move forward in life, through the darkest and hardest times in life, let your light shine, leading them to a more blessed path of love, joy, peace and happiness. I pray that for your healing upon their heart and that they would receive you into their life. Be their firm foundation through life until the day comes from them to leave this earth.” In Jesus name! Amen!

Apocalyptic World Agenda

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

Leaders of the world play a vital role for the current and future state of society. The values that leaders hold play a significant role in their decision making, but what happens when a leader is mentally absent? Is he really making the decisions or is someone else working behind the curtain?

We all know that money can empower and should a leader’s decisions be compromised by selfish gain, morality is at stake. Without the fear or God, a good moral compass, dignity and courage to stand up for what it right, the followers of any leader, may be in danger. If the corrupt lead as an incumbent, hardworking tax money may become the means to fund corruption and a plan that will hurt us in the end.

I once worked in a business park that had pedestrian paths that would continue from one block to the next, ideal for a good run after work, which I ended up doing. After a week of running around several block, I took a different path and came across a shrine of flowers, candles and a cross next to the sidewalk. I told my co-workers about it the next day and they told me the story of how a business man who was shot dead in that location. This man was involved in a company that started off legit and slowly got involved in illegal business. He wanted out and told his partners. To prevent their illegal acts from being exposed, they shot him that day. As we live in an imperfect world where there’s greed, corruption and pain in some households, if look at the actions of some leaders and question it as self-gain dealings that are against society, it’s labeled as conspiracy theory.

Should the richest group of elites in the world fund the decisions made by the leaders of our country, what will become of society? It depends on the agenda of the elites or what some call, the deep state. If we read the articles that support the agenda of the United Nations (UN), World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Government Summit, Environmental Social Governance (ESG) or any other World Governing Organizations, many goals sound very beneficial to society with a significant emphasis on preventing climate change. After all, who would not want to save the earth, but what if it meant significantly cutting food production, eating fake meat or even bugs? What if it meant reducing the population by significantly decreasing the birthrates? Even more horrific, what if the agenda required all of us to be tracked in the name of climate change for the reason to track carbon emissions? Sounds crazy, but it’s happening. Take a look lectures at the WEF about hacking and tracking humans or the UN’s article on how we should eat bugs for protein.

Our current leader, the man who hold the highest position in power, seems to be half asleep most of the time. He often looses his train of thought and forgets where he’s supposed to go, yet many people are still voting for his second term. If the current leader of the country is loosing control over his own thoughts, then who’s making these decisions for our country? The border is wide open. When he took office the first thing he did was to stop building the wall. The laws allow people that come in here illegally to be released into our country, while some with a clear record who apply for a tourist visa legally get rejected. Not only do we let people who come to our country illegally, stay, but they are rewarded with free healthcare, lodging, education, and money, while all the hardworking tax payers are paying for all of it. Although humanitarian aid is a good thing, you wouldn’t want to take 10,000 people into your house and feed them because, you just don’t have the capacity or the means for it, just as our country. An open border means easy access for drugs, criminals and human trafficking to come into our country and the fact that our president has widened it since he’s taken office, makes one wonder how he’s benefiting from it.

Bill Gates, who is involved with the WEF, has invested heavily in the fake meat business and had bought out so much farm land that he may actually be the one who owns the most of it in this country. He believes in the integration of technology and food beyond genetic modification, but to a point where it may change our own DNA. These WEF leaders want to push this fourth industrial revolution which involves integration our own human biology with technology hoping to get us to a point where we can live for a thousand years. With nanotechnology, this infusing of technology can be done via injection. The UN had an article that described the benefits of eating bugs for protein.

Farmers around the world are being told to cut back on production and are protesting. All in the name of the environment under ESG, Sri Lanka cut back on production and it lead to starvation and a revolt against the leader of the country. They stormed his house, trashed it and took some belongings.

Many companies are going for the ESG rating now a days. You see it on the websites of many companies. I’m not sure if they get paid to follow ESG requirements, but they do get some type of rating. Elon Musk had spoken about the ESG rating, saying that the S stands for Satan, after they gave him a low rating when he started supporting the right. The social part of ESG is associated with a transgender agenda, just look at Bud Lights commercial that led to a loss of billions of dollars. Parents are fighting school boards for allowing books with pedophilia and graphic material to be in their libraries and taught in class. All the while, gender-surgery hospitals are popping up all over the nation profiting off of the woke curriculum taught in high-schools. These hormone blockers given to children for transitioning can lead to impotence further leading to a decrease in birthrates.

One of the slogans of the WEF for society is “you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy and you’ll have no privacy.” Why is it that the thinkers of the WEF believe they should be making decisions for how we should live our lives. One of the speakers believes that freedom is not a human right. Another spoke about how everyone’s carbon footprint can be tracked. We are already being tracked with our phones and can be listened to by our devices, even our smart TV. If we use Siri, our information is being collected, what we watch, search, go, and with Apply pay, what we buy. China took this several steps further with facial recognition to access almost everything, most importantly, bank accounts. Cameras on the streets record faces and people are given points. If you have a low rating, you may not be able to fly anywhere.

China is already on a digital currency, but our country, as well as others are also working to get there. Although it may be convenient for transfers, if the power goes out it can be an issue, but what’s far more worrisome, is the ability of the government to easily freeze accounts within seconds. It would be a great tool for a dictator.

All it takes is one corrupt leader in this country to get us to the same communist ways where everyone will be controlled and the media used as a tool to convince us that what is morally wrong is actually right or even further, what is trending. The massive spending in our country is hurting our country, degrading the dollar. With high inflation, poverty increases and with financial struggles comes crime. People escape from other countries to find refuge in another, but what if there was a one world government, where would one flee? Elon Musk had mentioned once at a WEF meeting that one government for all nations is a threat to the survival of humanity. If one country falls, others will still stand, but if the only government in the entire world crashes down, then we are all doomed.

Arizona Road Trip

Driving North to South

Starting from Flagstaff, Arizona with snow on the side of the road, we drove up to the Grand Canyon. Snow covered the top of the canyon. From there, further north to horse shoe bend. Many tourist were present speaking different languages.

The next two days was driving south to Phoenix, stopping at other sites along the way. Then further South to Tuscon and Tombstone. As we drove further south, cacti started to appear scattered throughout the terrain below the mountains. Stepping into the historic street in Tombstone took us back in history.

Praying to Statues Instead of God

Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com

Statues that represent a god of one’s religion is common throughout many beliefs. Some Catholics have a shrine of figures that represent various saints, along with Jesus and Mary. In India, there are white, black and blue figures that represent some of the gods in the Hindu religion. In China, the Buddhist carved enormous sculptures of figures into the mountain. In Greece, they had enormous statues of their Greek gods carved from stone.

Although these statues or carvings represent different religions, people would interact with them in a similar fashion, such as, bowing down, kneeling and praying with the thought that their god is living in the statue or starring down observing and listening to their prayers.

Considering God’s creation of all that is living and His glorious majesty, if we were to create a representation of Him, it would have to look divine, massive like the universe, a royal shimmering gold, but what or who does God really look like? The bible says that we were created in His image. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27 . We are a representation of God’s and His creation, not that we should worship ourselves or other human beings, but there is a shared connection. Not only did God create us, but He was pleased with us as His creation. In the book of Genesis, it reveals God’s reaction when He gazed as the humans He created. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:30

If God created us in His image and was pleased, what would He want from us humans? The greatest commandment given by Christ is written in by His disciple Mark. “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-34

If we want to worship God, this is what the bible says in the book of John, Jesus says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24. No where in the bible, does God tell humans to make an image of Himself and worship it.

It can be hard for some to speak, worship or pray to something unseen so it’s more familiar to do so with a physical object that looks semi-human. But if we want to hear our prayers or questions answered from God, He will not speak or move the lips of a dead object. If He did that would be scary. When He speaks, it’s from within. God is everywhere so we don’t need to go to a church to pray, although Jesus typically went up to the mountain to pray out in nature.

Oregon Road Trip

On the Road for 4 Days

5 and 2000+ miles of driving

Day 1: Downtown Chico, Sundial Bridge in Redding, then arriving in Oregon at Klamath Falls
Day 2: Crater Lake, Painted Hills
Day 3: Ogden Canon, Riverfront Park in Salem, Willamette Falls and Multnomah Falls in Portland
Day 4: Canon Beach, Tillamook Factory and other Beaches going south towards Trinidad
Day 5: Agate Beach in Trinidad and Eureka

A few things I noticed about Oregon: beautiful parks, tall evergreen trees, Dutch Brothers Coffee and gas was $1 cheaper than in California.

God’s Faithfulness in the Small Things

Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com

Since June, I have been searching for a new car. It took a while for me to make up my mind on which car to buy. I must have test drove at least 7 cars. I then narrowed my list down to 3, then 2 and finally, after almost three months, I was down to 1. I was taking my time to look because my car still took me from point A to point B. As I wrote about last week, my check engine light turned on when I was on my way to the bank, which I’ve been meaning to ask about a car loan from for a long while, but kept putting it off. A few days later when I got really serious about buying, the light stopped showing.

I needed to search for the best price and I thought I found it in Los Angeles and that I had to drive down there, but of course I’d rather not do the long drive. I began to be interested in a newer model and couldn’t find a similar car close by, then all of a sudden I felt that I should expand my search by $3k and lo and behold, the same exact car, same color on the exterior and interior, around the same mileage, was an hour and a half drive away from me and, it was almost $2k less than the one in L.A. So I drove over there and they gave me a great deal on a trade in. I had to drive to the bank for the deposit and drive back. When I arrived to the bank, there was no one in line. Then I needed to use the bathroom, my cell phone was dying and I didn’t have a charger. The teller told me that the store next door had a bathroom so I went to the neighboring store and close to the bathroom was a rack of phone chargers. What perfect timing and placement!

It was a long drive and by the time I got back I was tired, hungry and they were about to close. I filled out the paperwork quickly on a tiny screen and thought I saw some numbers that seemed off. I kept thinking about it, started to feel anxious so I prayed, “Lord, I don’t feel good about the numbers, I think something is off. The fees seem way too high. If the numbers are really off and I’m being charged for something that I shouldn’t be changed for, please clear it up. Have the numbers person catch it and let me know. Amen!” My prayer was something like that. Anyhow, the day after, someone called and told me that I was charged for something I shouldn’t have been charged for because my down payment was large enough to not need it. Then I asked him if there were other fees included that were optional and he disclosed another add on. So sad that this place didn’t ask me about adding these additional options, but God bless the guy’s soul who called me about this. If it weren’t for him, that company would look so terrible. Overall, the optional fees taken off totaled to almost $5k.

Even if it’s just material, a car, God was along my side, opening doors, guiding me and after the phone call, wow, I mean…how often would you find someone that honest to do such a thing? I believe the Lord really spoke to him. God’s has been showing me His faithful hand over my life. What may seem like such a small thing, is really a big thing when it comes to the way the whole sequence of events come together and prayers get answered along the way.

Finding Joy in a Desolate Season

Life is great when all is well, but we all know that it’s not always happiness and joy. There are seasons of rain and drought. The passages of scripture in the Bible in the book of Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for everything :

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven: 2A time [a]to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.

There have been times of sadness and joy, times when I feel like I’m in a desert, a place with no water to fulfill my thirty soul. There have been times of rejoicing when hopes come into fruition, but in the dry season of life, should there never be any joy?

Moreover, the rain in life that satisfies the thirst for dreams, wishes or goals, doesn’t always quench and coming to realizing once again, the joy inside me.

It’s been a long while, walking through life, trying to put my faith in Christ, when things seem to not go as expected, a waiting pattern that seems to strip hope away day after day. The ever so common question arises, “why God why?

Feeling distant as if God is silent, doubt starts to settle in. Where is He? Is He still listening? Then a series of events within two days happens, each resulting from the next. First, receiving a notification of a compromised account, led to having to get a new card and finally, after searching for a new car for the past month and a half, I finally inquired of a car loan, she told me I was approved and granted the exact amount I was thinking in my head.

In addition, since searching for a car for so long, I wasn’t under pressure because my car was still doing fine, mechanically. Then for the first time, when I turned on my car before going to the bank, my check engine light came on, which was the first time ever.

I had mentioned this to the teller and she told me the exact thing I was thinking, that, “the Lord is telling you to get a new car.” I had been taking my time about purchasing and she mentioned something about having to be under pressure to finally do it, like with the check engine light.

Maybe to most this might not seem like a big deal or coincidence, but having been in seasons of hearing His voice inside of me, then being in a desolate silent desert for long, then once again, the rain comes and that very clear message that God gives, satisfies my soul.

It is like rain drops in the desert, an instant thirst quencher.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4

It is the confirmation of His love, undoubtedly letting me know that He’s listening. He’s with me and has not forgotten about me & that alone, is all I need for joy.