Every morning there’s that first decision of the day. What is the first thing that I should do? Although the first decision or action of the day may not seem so important, there’s one action that sets the arrow in the right direction, which to me is, reading the word of God.
I can’t count the amount of days where I’ve waken up on the wrong foot, looking at the wrong things on my phone, like the stock market, emails or googled something on my mind; then spent the rest of the day putting God last. Those days usually result in very little focus, getting not much done and feeling…eh.
But when I give the first time of my day to God, somehow, I get so much done, I’m very focused and more chipper than usual. There’s more to giving God the first tenth of your paycheck, but giving Him your first few minutes of the day really pays off. Days even seem much longer as if time was extended.
1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Matthew 4:4 says, “But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
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.”
My daily food menu growing up wasn’t too different from other Americans. I had my days of bologna, frozen burritos, cheese hotdogs and of course, Mc Donald’s. All so good at the time, until you find out what it’s actually made out of, even worse, when you find out what it does to your body.
Sometimes food is so good, you don’t want to know what’s in it or where the meat comes from, but even after finding out, we still go back to it or continue eating. Like bologna, Vienna sausage or Pâté, made of meat scraps, including organs and other parts of a pig or cow, but together with other ingredients, like bread and cheese, tastes good.
Aside from the scrap meat, the more unhealthy part are the additives, just to name a few: modified corn starch, sodium erythorbate, mono-sodium glutamate, sodium nitrite, wheat flour. Other lunch meats or bacon typically contain nitrates.
Table salt contains more than sodium chloride, but other ingredients to prevent it from sticking together like sodium aluminosilicate. Sea salt is less processed and typically does not contain additives.
Flavored coffee contains antifreeze which is used to get the flavor into the beans. Flavoring added to brewed coffee is typically artificial and contains corn syrup for sweetness. Coffee creamer usually contains highly-processed ingredients and chemicals, including the powdered version. Half in half from the grocery store’s refrigerated section usually contains only milk and cream, but some have additives for flavoring for longer preservation, like sodium citrate or disodium phosphate.
It can sometimes be a nuisance to constantly check ingredients, but to have a food allergy, it becomes essential. It seems the easier way to avoid food with preservatives or harmful chemicals is to eat food that’s closest to its raw state, unprocessed, organic and fresh.
If you live in California, most likely you’re a Democrat and if you live in the city, most likely you’re a liberal. Then there’s the oddball like myself, that out of everyone in the office, I’m the only Conservative. If you don’t hate Trump like everyone else, then you’re wrong and there’s something wrong with you. It’s expected that I’m supposed to see everything the way MSNBC or CNN tells the story. I’ve learned long ago that CNN is fake news. If I search for the word “news” on YouTube, MSNBC pops up, secondly, CNN. I have to type in the news channel I want for it to pop up.
I admit that if I were to the only watch MSNBC & CNN, I would seriously hate Trump and think he’s a complete fool, racist and believe that he has control over a virus. Most of the media is very biased and wants to steer people’s opinions.
Facebook and Twitter censor information. They delete it before many people can see it. They’re filtering what they want people to believe.
Fortunately, there’s other news out there that tell another side of each story and a unfiltered version of Trump.
The news blames Trump for the number of people killed by Covid, which is the stupidest thing. First of all, it’s a novel virus, in other words, “didn’t see it coming.” These type of viruses come every decade. Each state has their own mandates. Trump doesn’t mandate covid restrictions at every state, but people act like he’s supposed to have full control over the virus and believe that Biden would do a better job, but look at how he handled H1N1, not so good.
Even before Trump won in 2016, while he was running, I thought he was an egotistical, sexist man who was mean and enjoyed firing people. Okay so he still likes to fire people, but the more I watched and listened to him and the more I heard about the way other people that personally know him talked about him, my perspective started to change.
Yes, he’s like a loose canon sometimes or in other words he’s harshly blunt. He’s not politically correct and he probably doesn’t care about offending people or trying to look like a perfect guy. He’s a harshly blunt man who’s actions for the people speak louder than his words. Whereas, there’s the politically correct, despite the creepiness or not making any sense, Biden who seems like a nice guy. So sad that people would vote for someone because he’s seems nice an non-offensive or that he’s safe. Although, he seems nice, after all those years in the government, didn’t do much. He’s a nice but no actions man.
I’ve always trusted actions over words. There’s always the charming speaker but a snake on the inside. For someone to cheat to win an election, that person should never lead this nation. It’s a disgrace. Why else would he be in his basement instead of campaigning? Why else would they ask if Trump would leave peacefully? He knew he couldn’t beat Trump so he had to cheat and now there’s way too much evidence to deny it. This going to the Supreme Court and if proven guilty for cheating, why the heck would he be sworn in as President. We can’t shame our country and say it’s okay to cheat. Corrupt politicians need to start going to jail.
Biden is not for the people of this country. It would’ve been obvious after being in government for 47 years. He’s a puppet for the elite. Why else would they have been paying him hundred of millions of dollars to run against Trump, it’s for their own gain.
One of the very important things to think about is that Trump is pro life. Harris & Biden would allow late term abortion, even after birth. Hitler saw no value for the life of a Jew, in the same sense, abortion is in no regard for the life of the un-born that doesn’t have a voice to speak. Sacrificing babies was an occult ritual for some ancient tribes in South America. They would kill babies on an alter, sacrificing them to their false gods. Trump’s goal is to fully defund abortion. No tax payer should have funds taken off their paycheck to fund killing babies in the womb & Hollywood loves abortions. They feel that it makes them powerful and that it’s feminist to have a choice to kill. There’s nothing feminist about it. Women are to nurture not be cold-hearted killers or a life living inside of them. I admire any woman who would give their baby up for adoption rather than end its life. Now if you’ve already had an abortion, God can forgive you and I hope turn to be pro-life.
Trumps team, is fighting human trafficking, cracking down on criminals and drugs coming into our country by getting the wall built. There are many against him that want all that to come into our country. He protects the freedom of religion & the freedom to own a gun.
One of the biggest things is the fact that Trump wants to take power away from the government and give power to the people. Biden is supported by people who want a socialist government. They want government healthcare and to get rid of private healthcare, which means that if the government mandates chips for healthcare, we would be forced to get chipped. Same thing if they cause a recession and most people end up on unemployment, they can mandate a chip for purchases. A corrupt politician that can be moved by money for unethical purposes, should never lead, most especially, our nation.
I admire Trumps continuous getting up and going to work after all the utter disrespect that everyone has spoken against him, all the lies and mockery. I admire how he has not become a bitter angry person after what he’s had to go through.
Why does Twitter and Facebook block him? Why do most people in Hollywood hate him? Why is the media against him?
They’re not supporting Biden because he’s a nice guy or they think he could do a better job, he will support their agenda even if it’s unethical and will take away our freedom. Bill Gates wants to push a digital certificate for everyone to regulate covid cases, which could mean that we would all get chipped.
I’m glad that he cheated in the election with Trump because only Trump would be the type of person to not walk away from something that was so obviously rigged. This is not just revealing corruption in our country, this is about revealing corruption around the world. For someone to cheat in the election, it defies our democracy. It takes away everyone’s right to vote. If Trump got the majority of the votes that are valid, he won.
But regardless of the count, someone that cheats on an election should never lead our nation. It’s a shame to our nation, our freedom and our democracy.
I’m praying that this election will be over turned because this is about our freedom, honesty and dignity of our nation. I hope that corruption will be exposed and justice will be done to those involved.
I’ve been thinking much about the flesh and the soul. There’s this movie called, “God is not Dead,” where this professor turned his back on believing in God because his mother died. I’ve heard many times, people questioning, “If God exists then why did He let a specific person die,” under various circumstances.
Truth is God loves all of us. His love for human kind is unfathomable to the human mind. Our love is so conditional, based on looks and performance or maybe who someone is from the inside, their heart, mind or stature, but God can love the person that our human heart and mind thinks is the most disgusting person alive. It’s hard to grasp.
So why does He allow certain people to die and leave our lives, going further into how they die, maybe a brutal death. Life is but a square sometimes with defined boundaries, but beyond the square there’s something greater. It’s like getting so close to a huge picture, you can’t see it from up close, but when you take a few steps back, you see how it all comes together.
Earth is like a waiting room where we wait to be called. We wait for someone to call our number. Amongst billions of people on earth we all have a set number, a set time to be called. The important thing is being ready. Some of care so much about our flesh, but forget that it doesn’t last forever, like a machine that eventually stops for long years of use so our bodies retire. The sufferings of old age, pain and struggle prepare for exit. There is no warranty for the shell we live in.
On the inside, there’s our soul, immortal, everlasting, full of life. Between the flesh, something that perishes over time and the soul, that last forever, which one is more important to take care of?
We never know when our time may be, the importance is preparation. Who’s hands will your soul fall into? Where will you be when your body decides to retire, in heaven, in hell or wandering the earth?
It is known that the #1 fear is death. I truly believe as the word of God says, aka, the Bible, that when that time comes, I’ll be in heaven seeing the glory of God, not because I earned a ticket to heaven, but because God bought the ticket for me through Jesus Christ on the cross, that all my junk and issues have been washed away as I accepted His gift of salvation. * JOHN 3:16
Getting the soul prepared is a higher priority. It is not our flesh that goes to heaven, but our soul that leaves the body after we pass & that is the part of us that will be on the judgement seat, which is why the death of the flesh is not as important as the condition of the soul. So the question of why someone died is not the important part it’s whether they are in God’s presence.
Life on earth is a passing, even as Billy Graham said. There is another dimension that we have yet to see. Whatever condition this finds you in, just remember God is all around and His love reaches to the greatest depths. No one is too broken for God to fix. Nothing is hidden from Him.
Hebrews 4:13 NKJV [13] And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
God knows everything about your past, nothing is hidden and His hand is never too far to pull you out of the pit. He is quick to forgive. Don’t leave this earth before getting right with God. He’s gone a long ways to reach you. The Lord is there when you least expect it. All you have to do is call on Him & ask Him to come into your life & show you His ways to eternity. He’s waiting for you to ask.
For as long as I can remember I always felt in my heart that God exists, but my thoughts of who He is changed throughout the years.
My first experience of God’s answered prayers was when I was five years old. We were locked out of our house and as my Dad went to try to find the way of getting the spare key, it started to rain. As we were all standing underneath the eave outside in the rain, I felt a push to pray for it to stop raining so I looked up to the sky and I asked God to make it stop raining. Shortly after, it did. That could’ve been a coincidence, but interestingly, I can never forget about that moment.
My parents were Catholic and forced my siblings and I to go to church. I felt like it was a waste of my time, as I could be at home watching my favorite cartoon TV show, the Simpsons. Eventually I was forced to go to Saturday school at church for classes that would lead to being “confirmed.” I went religiously, but instead of learning, I slept in class. I never got confirmed. Actually, I stopped going. Somehow I convinced my parents to stop bringing me.
Even if I stoped and my “confirmation” didn’t happen, I still reached out to God, but not with repeated prayers or what I read from a book. It was a normal conversation. It didn’t make sense to pray in repetition it’s like talking to someone repetitively…that’s annoying, that’s not a real conversation. I kept on having conversations with the Lord for years until my freshman year in college when I started an anthropology class. I didn’t realize that my faith was dwindling and I wasn’t praying much. That same semester I met a girl named, Yanni who asked me if I know what the meaning of life was. She invited me to church and from there, I met other women and studied the Bible with them. I was so surprised at the words in the Bible. I’ve always read the King James Versions and never understood the old English, but studying with others helped make the meaning behind the words clear to me & started to gain an understanding of it.
They seemed to emphasize sin and confession and to me it seemed like I needed to submit my life to Him because I was too weak to stop myself from sinning. I started to hide myself from theses women as I felt they were pushing bible studies on me without even asking if I wanted to or not. So I ran away from them and as I continued to read the Bible, I kept seeing contradictions. I made an attempt to not turn my life over to God but looking for words that I can use to justify not following Him. Living for God in my perspective was about living a tight path with dos and don’t rules. I didn’t want to live like that. I wanted to stick to the idea that I have full control over my life, but not too long after, I realized that I don’t.
I went to University in the South Bay, but lived in the mid-Bay Area. My commute to school took about 30 minutes. For two weeks I felt that I was going to get into an accident. Every time I felt that I would pray for God to protect me. Then one morning I woke up to take a placement test at school. As I was getting ready to go, I felt a push to dress with sturdy clothes so I wore my denim jeans, a hooded sweater and most importantly, my boots with a thick sole.
As I merged into the freeway, there we’re a few cars closely surrounding me. As I turned the wheel back and forth, my car spun around with each turn. It wasn’t raining but somehow, I seemed to have lost control of my car no matter how I turned the wheel. There I was, thinking I had full control over my life. When I realized that I didn’t have any control over my car, I reached out to God, surrendered control to Him and put the protection of my life into His hands. I saw my car going straight to the tail end of a van and letting go, I prayed, “God, please protect me,” then shut my eyes.
I don’t remember feeling much after that except my car tumbling around and a heavenly embrace. All sounds disappeared around me except for the sound of chimes. When my car stopped tumbling , it landed upside down and when it stopped moving, the sounds around me came back, the traffic and everything else. I opened my eyes to shattered glass everywhere and hanging from my seatbelt upside down. I moved my legs to step on all the shattered glass on floor of the freeway. With sturdy boots, my feet were heavily protected. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I was able to release the seat belt I was hanging from.
Shortly after I got out of the car, there were people that came asking if I was ok. A man put a blanket over me to help with the shock. Eventually the paramedics came and the people that were there to help me disappeared. I don’t even remember them leaving, but as soon as the paramedics arrived, they were nowhere to be seen. I still wonder from this day if some or all where angels.
I remember being in the back of the paramedic van. There was one man in there, telling me how my condition was a miracle, that car accidents similar to the one I’ve just been in, usually result in death or in critical condition, usually an eyeball or brain left behind on the freeway.
When I got to the hospital, they tested my urine for internal bleeding. The results showed that I was completely fine. The only marks I had were tiny red dots on my hand from the broken glass and small bruises on my knee that hit the steering wheel. The doctor said it was a miracle, as did many other people involved. My car was totaled. The van that my car hit flipped to the side. The couple inside was perfectly fine. Thank God!
This was a turning point in my life. While I was on the freeway being interviewed by highway patrol, that was my first proclamation that I was going to follow Christ from now on. That moment helped me to realize that God does not want me to surrender to Him so I can live a life of do and do not, but the truth that was made clear was that He loves me and that I don’t know what’s best for me. My surrender meant God taking my hand at times I’ve gotten off the wrong path and leading me back to the path leading to life, joy, peace and love. Who am I to doubt the one that created me. He knows me more than I know myself.
Several months later, I gave my life to God through baptism & I’ve never been the same. After I got baptized, I see, feel and hear the Lord with me. I’ll never forget sitting at the park the day after and instead of my mind being filled with life’s troubles, all I could hear around me was nature: the birds singing, the water moving and the leaves swaying in the wind. That was the first time I felt God’s peace and when I stepped out of the totaled car that day, that was the first time I felt God’s love for me & my faith came that day as I realized that what the Bible says about His love for us…is the truth. His love is as a Father to His child in a pure and incorruptible way.
Life can be frustrating when hard-times rain down. Sometimes devastating events in life happen cause a turn in our direction, possibly in ways of doubt, fear, anger or self mutilation in one form or another. Most of the times the pain spills out and hurts others around us. As everyone hates the person gone mad at a public gathering and needs to be punished for life.
Believe it or not, God loves everyone, even a psychopath gone wild. I’ve never come across a perfect person in life and I am 100% sure I never will as we live in a world where there are people in pain, children being ripped apart on the inside by people that are acting out in pain, having also been hurt. It’s a cycle or sometimes known as a curse that runs down the family waiting for a breakthrough.
Life will always throw fast balls and if you don’t move fast enough, you’ll be hit hard, bruised, maybe never heal, toppled down, never able to stand again.
With the best outfit and hair style, we can look like a million bucks from the outside, but bleeding on the inside or empty with nothing to keep us grounded.
What is your foundation? What keeps you grounded? Acceptance is a good thing to an extent, but how far do we go? Sometimes limits can keep us from falling off the edge, from losing ourselves or our path in life. What keeps us from crossing over into paths of destruction?
Matthew 7:24-27 says, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
A strong foundation will keep one grounded during the storms in life and wisdom from the God’s Word sets the boundary to keep one out of a life of darkness. Generation after generation a curse can be broken at the cross.
vange 
You must be logged in to post a comment.