There’s a lot of speculation floating around the news and social media about how a certain group of people mainly from other countries come to other christian nations for sole purpose of globalizing their religion. They believe that this is the goal given by their prophet. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to share a belief with others, but when you do it in a way where your religious book tells you to kills others that don’t submit, then that becomes a problem.
Typically, people turn to religion thinking that it will make them a better person or for community, but for the sake of overtaking by violence, fear and dictatorship…that becomes an issue. This is an idea that very controversial to the teachings of the bible. In the new testament, written during and after the death of Christ, letters to the church from the apostles, encourage others to set an example for people to see the love of God through Christ, no where does it say to kill someone if they don’t submit.
The idea of forcing someone to convert out of fear, clearly, does not display the character of God written in the bible. The early beginnings of the United States and the writings of the constitution followed the ideas of God granting freedoms to all humanity, that we were born with unalienable rights. The ideas that follow the character of God in the bible granting us the freedom to choose.
Some wonder why God would allow bad fruit to be present in the garden amongst Adam and Eve. God told Adam not to eat of the fruit in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil even if God could’ve just eliminated the tree. Without the tree being in the garden, there would be no choice. It gives all of us an opportunity to obey God or not to obey. We have freewill to do what we want on this earth and we suffer bad consequences or if we choose a good path, we reap the blessings. If you love someone and that person tells you, don’t do that because it will grieve me, you have a choice whether you want to hurt that person or not. Choosing not to hurt him or her is a show of love. It’s a show that you are choosing to love and not hurt.
The freewill to choose is a freedom in itself. The need to be free to choose is embedded into us. God’s character in the bible shows that He’s patient and allows people time to repent from their wrongdoings. He is the Father of all and as a Father who disciplines His children that get out of line, only to bring back to the straight path. He allows us to choose to listen to Him or ignore what He is tells us to do or not to do.
When these principles of freedom and unalienable rights are within the governing body of a country, people from other countries where those freedoms are not given, want to escape and come to a land where they feel free. Our U.S. Constitution protects some of these unalienable rights, such as the 1st Amendment, which protects our freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition and the 2nd Amendment, which protects our right to bear arms.
To force someone into submission is not God’s ways so for a certain religious group of people that’s slaughtering Christians if they don’t convert, that’s not the ways of God. They are misled, not knowing the true God of all humanity, the God that gave Adam a choice. When Adam made a bad decision, to disobey the one who created him, Adam died on the inside by feeling separated from God, but redemption was there. Through the blood of Christ, there’s redemption for our sins. Those are acts of love, mercy and grace. God never forces anyone into submission. It’s a choice and when we choose Him, blessings come. It’s not rocket science to know that God is not a controlling God, just think about the things that are required for humanity to thrive, for fulfillment, peace, joy and happiness.
Imagine being placed in a position of authority to judge the entire earth. Whatever you say goes. At one word, you determine who lives or dies. You know the law more than anyone on the planet and the law never changes so you have to judge everyone based on it. You know that if a person violates the law, which has been unchanged from the beginning of time the punishment is death. You also know that everyone that you will have to judge is flawed and imperfect because the environment they live in has a 24-hour a day, 365 days a year temptress that works against the weakness of your flesh, killing you slowly inside every time you take the bait, but even worse, blinding and deceiving many. As a judge you understand that living in that type of environment, no one would be able to perfect the law, with the exception of innocent babies. Violations of the law are punishable by death, but what if the law said that there is something that can be done to prevent one from dying, like someone taking the death penalty in place of the one that deserves it?
Imagine if all those people that you are ordered to judge have a special place in your heart, but most of them don’t know you or believe that you exist, some reject you or use your name profanely. You know that they’re all going to die according to the law. You also know that there is something that you can do to prevent them from dying and being separated from you, but it would mean that you would have to take the death penalty in their place and the process would involve getting whipped, scourged, nailed and hung to die. Would you do it?
When we think of God, we might get a picture in our mind of an enormous being sitting on a throne so enormous that looking up, we only see his feet and hands. We might have a vision of being in a line to the throne to be judge by this enormous God known as the Father, but the bible says that the Father has given his Son Jesus, the judgement seat.
For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgement to his Son. John 5:22
Jesus the Christ, the one that has the authority to judge whether we are banished to hell or forever with Him for all eternity, decided to come down from His throne of glory in heaven, humble himself by becoming flesh with all the sufferings that come with a physical body, live for a short time on earth, suffered major physical and emotional pain, nailed on a cross and hung to die.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:4
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. _Isaiah 53:5-12
He came down to earth, took the punishment for our sins as if taking a bullet, being whipped, beaten, lashed, spit on, nailed to a cross, left hanging to die, falsely accused and betrayed by his disciples. This was not just any death, but a payment for our sins should we decide to receive it. We can choose to take the payment freely given to us or suffer and die in our own wrongdoings. We are given by grace, a gift which we did not earn nor do we have the capacity to.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
All of this, so that we have a way to with Him in heaven. Since we can’t save ourselves from our own sin, we can never be perfect or holy enough to enter into God’s holy presence that in order to get to heaven, we have to be covered by the blood of Christ, not literally, but spiritually. It’s either receive the gift of salvation that He gave us on the cross or end up separated from Him, which is hell in itself.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13
Imagine living for a hundred years with the same beliefs, some given by others and the rest, superstitions or ideologies that we’ve made up. To avoid rehearing the pain of the past, our unconscious mind can take us on vacation where we escape from reality. If we come to the right stop, we can finally get back to the right path, if not, we can live a lifetime in confusion, fear and denial.
When truth is unknown, masked, hidden, astray, we are in darkness. Some may live through life never discovering truth, but if discovered, it’s like the sun coming out and revealing the most picturesque landscape that had been hidden by dark clouds, finally feeling warmth after being in the cold.
What lies in life keep us from moving forward or what truth do shun away from facing, only to find ourselves ten years later, turning the same wheel that’s prevented us from moving forward? What are those lies that we hold on to and what is it that’s keeping us from letting go of a plastic shield that’s been withering away, only to one day, leave our pain exposed?
There are many lies that leave us blind and sometimes it’s easier to believe the lie, than to turn and face the truth. Other times, the lie is so embedded into our lives from childhood that we wouldn’t be able to discern truth unless it hit us in the face.
There’s the big lie that seems, a majority of humanity on earth hold true, at least those that have it and are not bound by it, which is money will bring us happiness. Look at some rich people out there that are miserable, never satisfied, always wanting more. Then look at the children in impoverished communities, so happy, smiling, laughing, knowing that they’re loved. We can love money, but it can never love us back and we can never take it with us when we leave this earth.
Many people go to places like India to find spirituality or soulful fulfillment via yoga, spiritual guru, maharishi, meditation and the like. Stretching is good for the health. Finding people with the same goals to meditate with and escape the hustle and bustle of work can be refreshing, but it doesn’t quite get lead to the finish line, the experience that impacts our world forever. In these places, there’s usually a statue and offerings of fruit, flowers and incense as if the statue is alive, but if God created the whole universe and us humans, why would He live in a scary looking statue? I have seen people bow down to statues on one knee or aerate on the floor face down, but how do we know how God wants us to worship Him. The bible says, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 It also doesn’t say anything about chanting, something spiritual, in fact, it discourages repetition. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” Matthew 6:7 There’s a few factors keep forever, God made man in His image; God created us; sin separates us from God, Jesus is the bridge back to God as His blood on the cross paid for our sins so we can be reconnected to our creator. Who knows us better than He who created us? If we’re confused about ourselves, seek the one who knows us best.
Another lie, particularly in the community of females. Believing that the word pro-choice is a benefactor for women. The term pro-choice is there to keep abortion industries in business. The idea that women are empowered when given a choice whether to have a doctor kill the life inside of them or not, is deception. Deep down inside, we all know the truth, choosing to put oneself aside for 9 months for the sake of saving the precious life inside, is powerful. Choosing the right path even-though it may be tough, scary and full of unknowns is heroic and courageous. There’s nothing womanly nor powerful about choosing to take an unborn life. There are organizations out there that can support the 9 month journey. We should protect life, not destroy it.
Another huge lie, is that we can achieve perfection or that we can make ourselves holy before God if we do certain things. The bible says,“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 One of the worst lies that some of us humans believe is that we can be our own gods. Eve was alone in the garden and the serpent lied to her, enticing her to believe that knowing everything was something desirable and that she can be like God. There are fraternities that believe that human’s can be their own god, completely devoid of understanding the character and purpose of God’s creation. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Walking before God should involve selflessness, trust, dependency and humility, knowing that we are not gods, we can never be god, there’s only one God and we are here on earth to do His will, which is in His word, also known as, the bible.
Another lie is the idea that we can save our selves from our own sin. Pharaoh, the monarch of Egypt thought he could pardon Moses from his sin of killing a man, yet Moses had an encounter with the Lord in his dreams, which led him to question himself. He knew that Pharaoh was just a man, not a god and that only God can forgive sins.
One of the biggest lies ever is what atheists believe, that there is no God and we evolved from from monkeys. Who created life? Having studied design, there’s a purpose for the way elements are put together. Spaces are set up to function a specific way, to cause people to interact, flow and move through a space as designed, but that’s nothing compared to the way God designed everything. It would be too much to dissect everything from biology, to DNA, to life underneath the sea.
One of the biggest lies that can hurt our lives is the fact that we are too broken for God to fix or that we are not worthy to be loved by God or can never be forgiven. There is one grave sin that the bible, in several scriptures mentions, is the blaspheming again the holy spirit. It is the unpardonable sin according to Mark 3:28-29, Matthew 12:31-32, Luke 12:10, Hebrews 6:4-6 and 1 John 5:16. Other than that, I don’t recall the bible stating something in addition to. To go through life believing a lie that God can never forgive us will hinder blessings to flow into our lives. If you feel that you can never escape from your sin, that it has a hold on you, that you are a slave to it and don’t have the strength to break free it could be a demonic stronghold. These strongholds enter at times of trauma, rejection and or abandonment often requiring spiritual deliverance, therapy or an encountering the love of God. It’s never too late to turn. There’s hope in Christ. You are loved by God, your creator. You are never too broken to fix. God knows your past. Jesus hung on the cross with two criminals. One of them did not know Christ and challenged Him to come down from the cross if He is the Son of God, but the criminal on the other side, knew who Jesus was and told him, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:42-43. In the criminal’s last hour of death, he accepted and believe in Christ, the Lord, the Son of God, God in Him. Just believing and knowing is all it took. Jesus forgave him in an instant. The criminal on the cross next to Jesus got saved at his hour of death. God knows all the crazy you’ve done, just believe and accept Him into your heart.
Prayer for the reader: Lord, I pray for those that need this word to find it and be set free. Change their life around and bring others into their life to lead them in the right path. In Jesus name.
If light equals the truth, when there’s no truth, one can’t see a thing. Then how does one know which direction to go without hitting a wall. If you can’t see your hand in front of your face, how do you know what you are doing? How can you do anything at all. Although many decisions are black or white, no gray areas, which can make decisions easy, but in the gray areas, confusion can arise. Some decisions in life can impact the next day, week, month or year and the the choices that have the most impact are probably the most important ones. Without seeing the light of truth, we can think we are in the right place, smiling, yet disaster and devastation lurks around us.
Without clarity as to what’s really happening or the truth of the situation, it can be hard to make the right decision. When not knowing what you’re really dealing with, it’s hard to know if the result from one decision will go south. The choices we make at an early age or even later on in life, like what and who to get involved with can set one up for a hard habit to break, possibly even falling into a pit we’ve made for ourselves.
Who is speaking into your life and will you keep believing the words of that person? Will we keep believing what society brings to our view, that our value is based on our net worth, what brand we wear, what car we drive, what job title we have. When we’re stripped of everything, what are we left with? Take someone with very little in his or her pocket, making it to the top, being stripped of everything, yet being able to do it all over again.
We all have great value, which starts from the fact that we were born winners, we out swam millions to get to an egg and we won. Then we were formed before we birthed into this world.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16
We are God’s creation, all with a purpose, all fearfully and wonderfully made. God created us and said,”it is good.”
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31
Not only did God create us, but when we fell into sin, He sent His Son to die for our sins so that we can be free and reconnected in fellowship with our Creator/God. God loves us and values us so much that He brought us into this world and died for us when we were captivated by sin.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:9
Our creator loves us. We are deceived to think that we are worthless, of no value or have no purpose to live. It’s a lie to believe all that. The word of God, aka, the bible reveals the truth about who we are to His who created us. The one who created the universe loves us. Hard to fathom, but faith is believing without seeing. Where truth is found, there is not room for doubt. The truth is that God loves us, we are valuable and the words of others, do not matter. Embrace the truth.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
If you don’t feel loved or feel that you don’t have a purpose, remember these words from the bible (God’s love letter to His creation). Memories these words from the bible and don’t let the whispering words from the devil tell you otherwise. Break out of deception and embrace the truth of God’s love, written in the bible. He loves us all.
PRAYER for reader: “Lord, I don’t know who I am or my purpose. I know you brought me into this world for a reason, please show me your love for me, show me your purpose for me life, break off the many lies that the devil has bombarded my mind with and let your light and truth shine in my soul. Jesus come into my life, help me to know you more and this love that you have for me. Lead me into the right path, the truth, your light and a life full of blessings, surrounded by love..in Jesus name I pray. Amen!”
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!
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.
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.
vange 
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