life

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.”

Emotionally Vulnerable In the Right Hands

vangelifeblogLeave a comment

Some may believe that life is about accumulating saying, “whoever dies with the most toys wins,” yet the Bible says otherwise, it’s the bold truth that never leaves your face. You can run and hide from the truth, but it always seems to catch up and find you.

The truth of the matter is that life is more than collecting tangible items, as God’s greatest commandment is in Matthew 22:36-39 KJV, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

For some, emotions are like a volcano waiting to explode, yet others, like the ice sitting in Antartica, frozen for millions of years slowly melting away. Being vulnerable can be scary sometimes as it can bring about two extreme opposite results. If you can’t handle the worst result, you may hold yourself back to receiving the best. But my oh my, it’s a sad thing when our emotions get attached to the wrong people or things as they are here today and gone tomorrow…or maybe just eventually. Even if someone stays in your life for so long, no one lives forever. So why attach ourselves? We are bound to love our neighbor, basically, be in communion with other beings.

However, there can be seasons where people have failed us, for some that season never ends, and so we’ve placed our faith to bring about happiness in our lives through things or other non-human beings. Although pets bring much joy, entertainment and companionship, human interaction is still a part of the livelihood of our soul.

For many without pets, money or other tangible items become the reliance for joy, like that new car, new watch or purse, but we all know, that high doesn’t last for too long. We know material items can never love us back.

Then there’s money, probably the number one on most of everyone’s list. It can be the fuel to fulfilling the emptiness inside of us with material items and if that’s not enough, mind or mood altering substances.

After toiling trying to fill that empty hole inside that seems to grow larger, we repeat the same actions, only to realize for the hundredth time that it still leaves us all the more empty.

So why keep doing it? For the many things or people we can loose, we can never loose God and He will never leave us. Which is why, above all things we can subject our own vulnerable emotions in the hands of God and who better than the one that lives forever, the incorruptible, the one who will never leave us or forsake us who’s love for us is always unconditional. He never changes.

So the next time you think you can’t live without someone or something, ask yourself, is your heart in God’s hands? That is where it will be protected. Scared of your emotions? Let God have all of it and give a small portion of it to whom the Lord chooses.

Hard Times for Preparation

vangelifeblogLeave a comment

I try to recall the times I felt like life was beating me up, when times got so tough I’d try to not allow myself to stay beat down and now just getting off another roller-coaster. With Christ, I can lift up my hands and know that He has me grounded.

When times get tough, I try to remember that it’s just an obstacle course. There’s falling on your face and being humiliated and sometimes emotionally crushing, but the hand that pulls me out of it is the saying, “God is good all the time.”

If I had to climb a 70 foot mountain, days later, a 30 foot mountain would not be a big deal. I have to remember that God’s love is also allowing us to go through hardships, only to make us better fighters, being able to take on harder circumstances thrown at us.

The Bible says in Philippians 1:6 NKJV
[6] “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”

As sometimes we may walk away from where the Lord leads because we may feel we can’t, unable or may not identify ourselves with it, but to remember that there’s one that knows us more than we know ourselves, our creator. As a way to prepare you for the blessing He has for you, sometimes it requires hardship. Then & years later looking back and saying, “I get it.”

Thankful in a Storm

vangelifeblogLeave a comment

It’s Thanksgiving Day and something is resonating within me that’s pulling me in completely opposite directions, faith or fear. Despite the distress in my soul, I’m thankful with hope for the future. About ten years ago, I thought I might die. I remember crying out to the Lord in my distress. That night I had a dream that I was carrying a backpack full of currency from around the world, later realizing that I was an old lady in my dream, around the 70s. God knows I’ve always had the desire to travel the world before I leave this earth. That dream was a confirmation that I would be fine and soon after, physically, I was fine.

There’s been many times in my life where I’ve felt so blessed, walking on clouds with everything working out for me, but life always has it’s storms, some that can drive one to the ground just waiting to die, but I can honestly say that if God’s hand wasn’t there to pull me out, I’m not sure where I’d be today. Even in the toughest times, I know that I’ll get through it because my life is in the hands of a good God.

I’ve had my share of lonely times having spent some holidays alone, feeling like the world is against me or completely misunderstood. Even though harsh seasons come, the sun will eventually come out. At times it feels like the hard season will never end, but I have to trust God through the season, even if it doesn’t make any sense. I know He’s shaping me through the flame as fire pulls out the impurities of gold making it rise to the surface.

What I’m most thankful for today is my Lord and Savior Jesus, without Him, I would be dead on the inside, lifeless, empty and without hope. Because of Him, I don’t have to fear the future as He will give me the strength and tools that I need to take on the storms of life as they come and always be my backbone. I’m thankful for life and good health. I’m thankful that during uncertainty, I can put my faith on a faithful God full of mercy and grace.

I pray that HOPE, JOY and PEACE will come to anyone struggling to be thankful today, but to have hope for the future and to know that they’re not alone, God that you let them know that you are there with them and that they are loved by you, God that you would let them see the light after the storm and bring healing to their soul. In Jesus name.

Blessed by Weakness

vangelifeblogLeave a comment

Living a life of dependence on another is expected for a child, but once we get to a certain age, the idea of dependency is something to turn away from. I still remember when a friend told me that living my life for God meant living a life of prayer and dependency on Him. After all my friends at the time we’re working on becoming completely independent, the thought of having to dependent on someone was discouraging to hear, but the ways of this world doesn’t often match up to God’s ways.

I realized later that being dependent would become the blessing in my life when it comes to depending on the One that can move mountains and bring miracles. Being dependent on God means letting go of trying to control a situation after realizing that you are powerless over it.

With a false perspective of thinking that God is around to only punish or control, it’s hard to see that God would want us to have faith in Him. In order to depend on anyone, you have to trust that person. Trusting someone is also having faith in him/her and it takes a relationship and time to build trust, although sometimes trusting in something or someone can be done blindly.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

From the day I surrendered my life to God, it’s taken much time to learn to trust Him, especially when times are tough and nothing is going the way I expected it to go, at that point of my life. I have to keep remembering that it’s like trying to see a large painting when standing so close to it. We don’t see the whole pictures until we step far enough away from it. I have to let go and stop trying to control the situation, especially when I find myself running around in circles with nothing changing. I have to let go, surrender, realize that I don’t know and that I need to depend on God to help me. Almost every time, He answers immediately, although other times, I have to wait for His time & just trust Him.

It sounds like weakness and it is, but what’s weaker, is not admitting my weakness and continuing to live in denial. I have to keep going back and tapping into the source, which is asking Him for strength. The continual turning to Him becomes a blessing as it strengthens our relationship with Him and our trust when we see His hand of faithfulness and grace come into every difficult situation. This is when our own weakness becomes the blessing in our life & sometimes what seems to be a horrible thing is just the beginning of a turning into something good.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 says :
[7] And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. [8] Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. [9] And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I don’t have everything figured out. When life doesn’t make sense I can trust Him, knowing that God is cooking something good in the kitchen. It smells really good, but I don’t know what it is. But when it comes out, it’s going to be amazing because I know that He is amazing, that He loves me and He has good plans for me. I trust Him & that’s what gets me through the tough times.

Without ever turning to our friends or relatives, we would have no relationship. In the same sense, without ever turning to God, we would have no relationship. The more we turn to Him and eventually see His answered prayer, the more we realize that we can depend on Him. The prayer may not come the way we expect or when expected, but to keep hope alive, we just hold on without knowing, trusting and letting go of our own understanding of it.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

I pray right now that anyone that this blog/message has spoke to will come to full awareness of how much God loves them and wants him/her to depend on God for all difficult situations in life, that they will realize that God doesn’t want anyone to be burdened by hardships, but to give the burden to God and let Him work out their difficult situation so they can live with peace & joy knowing the God is faithful. I pray that they will learn to depend on God and their lives will be very blessed by it. In difficult situations that they can let go and trust you, knowing that things will get better and trust that God will work everything out. In Jesus name I pray. Amen!

The Bondage of Unforgiveness

vangelifeblogLeave a comment

It’s hard to face pain. It’s hard to forgive someone who hurt, corrupted, manipulated, stole…etc. from you. How rotten that person is to do such a thing! Or if it’s not a person, sometimes it’s anger toward God for allowing it to happen. Whatever the case, as much as we feel some person doesn’t deserve it, we must let go and forgive. We may not forget or let that person in our lives again, but we need to forgive. Matthew 6:15 says, “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Bitterness or un-forgiveness is like plaque in our heart. In a similar way, bitterness is like the plaque, not so much clogging up our arteries, but when it sits in our heart and keeps storing up, it blocks up all the love inside of us. We become angry inside for so long that we begin to loose remembrance of why. Instead of thinking about how someone doesn’t deserve your forgiveness think about someone who needs to forgive you. If you want to be forgiven by that person and or by God, then you should also forgive others, even if that person does not deserve it, but do it for freedom in your heart.

If it’s too hard to forgive, pray for a miracle, that God will give you to ability to forgive that person/s. Sometimes in doing so, He will help you understand that person & things will change. I pray that anyone who’s been harboring un-forgiveness will find the strength in God to release it and be set free.

Flesh Before Soul

vangeLeave a comment

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.