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When God Speaks

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

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

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

Matthew 11:28

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

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

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

John 1:1

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

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

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

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

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

Psalms 139:17-18

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

God loves all.

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The Flaw of a One World Religion

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In the Persian Gulf, on Saadiyat Island of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, a center of worship for three different religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam is being built, to be completed this year. There are three buildings, one for each religion and at the center, an educational center for all. This complex of buildings is called the Abrahamic Family House, designed by architect, David Adjaye , set to be completed this year.

The Abrahamic House Family is not just a center with buildings, but a fraternity where members move towards global interfaith. Pope Francis and the Grand Imam Ahmad el-Tayeb signed a document to establish a human fraternity of religions.

You’ve probably seen the co-exist bumper sticker that spells out co-exist with symbols that represent different faiths. The Abrahamic House has a similar logo, only leaving out some faiths and enclosing it with a roof with chimney.

https://www.abrahamichouse.org/

The idea that religions can co-exist is nothing new at all in America since it’s something that’s been happening for so many years. We have buildings for all faiths where people from different religions come to worship their god and we’ve allowed it. This religious right is protected under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the freedom for one to exercise his or her religion.

This is one of the things I love about the United States of America, our freedoms. Although my faith is in the salvation of Jesus dying on the cross for my sins, which I can never save myself from, I still hold strongly to the belief that people should freely practice their own religions. This might sound a bit crazy, but I believe that the God I worship, would want people to be able to choose their own religious path. If you read the Genesis 2: 15-17 in the bible. God tells Adam not to eat from the knowledge of good and evil. It wasn’t an apple tree, which most believe. It doesn’t say even say fruit, it just says tree and if you eat from it, you will die. God was not speaking of a physical death, but a spiritual death. The death that one feels inside due to sin, guilt, shame and most of all, separation from God. This sin that has the potential to lead one to eternal damnation.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2: 15-17

Even though God told Adam not to eat from the tree, he still did and he also blamed Eve for it. After Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they realized that they were naked and hid from God. However, God already knew they disobeyed, yet He still went looking for them. He still wanted to connect with them. One may ask, if God did not want them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then why did he allow it to stay in the garden in the first place? Adam and Eve had the freedom to choose to obey or disobey. God knows the way we are wired, He created us. He knows what will bring us joy and what will bring us to emptiness and devastation. When we don’t listen to His commands, we hurt our-self. Sometimes when things are used for the wrong purpose, they can break.

Having being raised catholic, that was my religion. I went to church on Sundays religiously, dressed up and tried my best to pay attention to what the priest was saying. I thought that kissing the feet of a Jesus statue would earn me brownie points with God. I prayed almost every night, the rosary, in repetition or memorized verses, but I didn’t find out until later that God wanted to hear me speak my heart out to Him. I always knew that God existed. I just could not fathom the fact that He actually knows my name and loves me and created me to be loved by Him. It wasn’t that people told me, but I experienced His love through reading the bible that speaks of His love and His voice that spoke to my heart. That inner voice inside that saves you, brings conviction or brings hope, joy and peace is the still voice of God.

The effort of a one world religion is pointless. God is not a religion. Kissing a statue of Jesus is not worshiping God. God does not live in statues nor does he live in a stone. The bible says that God is spirit.

24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 4:24

This fraternity of all religions may lead to the compromise of beliefs of each and although it sounds like it would bring unity, which it may, it can evolve into a new religion which combines the beliefs of all faiths into one. The scary part about it, is that if it becomes a one world religion, everyone will be forced to follow it, which negates the whole idea of ones freedom to choose. Although, Jesus in the bible says that there is only one way to God, the Father, we have the freedom to choose whether we want to believe what Jesus said or follow Him.

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

We can choose our own path to finding the truth. With all honestly, after finding God through the bible and a real spiritual life-changing experience of God’s love, I’ve found the truth and there was no reason to look any further. When truth comes, doubt does not exist. God already loves us, His creation and He will never force us to love or follow Him. It is our choice whether we want to receive His love for us and love Him back. It is also our choice whether we want to follow His will and His ways. If God knows what will destroy us and tells us to stay away from it because He know what it will do to us, why not follow His voice?

Love Defined from the Source

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Depending on the source, the idea or definition of love can vary. From childhood, to being a teenager and into adulthood. From inside our home to outside of it, the depth of what love is can be so broad leaving one forever seeking out the true definition.

As a child growing up in America, I was exposed to many Disney movies and for those familiar with it, most of those movies were about a princess and a prince who met, had “love at first sight,” then got married and lived happily ever after. All those stories plant a seed in us to carry on in life believing there’s that love at first sight and happily ever after, neglecting the dynamics of two people that come from different backgrounds coming together and trying to become one.

It is usually a walk-in-the-park at the beginning, smooth sailing on the intense curiosity of the other person, but after most of the mystery is gone, things begin to change, reality sets in and you begin to look at your life rather than the other person. Maybe some personal issues start to come up, then the past, then you begin to see the bigger impact that the environment that you grew up in has on your view of what love is.

Maybe that environment was full of anger, bitterness, sweeping things under the table or never coming to resolutions, but silent treatments, temporary or permanent separations or maybe love in the household had conditions attached to it. Then, stepping outside of the house, the source for defining love may have been through movies watched or music listened to with friends or in the car. If it’s not happily ever after with Disney, maybe it’s defined through the explicit lyrics of a song making some believe that love has something to do with, on clean terms, sleeping.

Sometimes lines are drawn when it comes to loving someone, which is usually followed by, “I will or won’t love you if…” told by a significant other or by a parent. I can still remember getting off of the plane with my sister and my Mom telling us that she didn’t love us because we were misbehaving on the plane and not listening to her. There were other times that my parents would make us feel unloved because we did or didn’t do what they wished so I grew up believing that love was conditional. With all the movies and music around me, my definition of love was all the more tainted.

It wasn’t until Jesus came into my life, that I finally found the meaning of love. As I read His word, the Bible and spent time with the Lord in prayer, the meaning of love became clear. His love is unconditional, pure and so powerful. He is merciful and gracious. Nothing we do can ever separate us from His love.

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?…..35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…. 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.

Romans 8:32,35, 38-39

He is the definition of love and the expression of it was when Jesus was nailed to the cross for our sins. He gave himself fully to us, nothing held back. Although we may not see the value in ourselves, God sees otherwise. Who better to know us than the Creator who created us for love. He is the pure definition of love.

He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:8

The act of love is defined in 1 Corinthians. In most versions, the word, “love” is used, but the old King James version uses the word, “charity”. It is a good source to compare our own acts of love and where our heart stands.

4 Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; 6 Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Charity never fails: ….. 13 And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7,13

Without knowing what love is, who love is or how to love, how do we love others? It starts with finding love. With all the laws, Jesus says that the greatest commandment can fill all. When you love God, He will begin to fill you with His love, then you will be able to love others. His greatest commandment is this:

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40

We are all valuable in Christ as He deemed us worthy to die for all of us. All of us, including what the world thinks is the worst. This is love, that He gave His all. If God is love, then the more you get to know Him, the more you know love. The next time you find yourself feeling unloved, look up at the sky and know that God is there and that you are loved by Him. If you want to know Him, just ask Jesus to show up. Believe and receive.

Come Just As You Are

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Whenever the word religious is used to describe someone, it usually implies that he or she is good or strives to be a good person. If I tell someone I go to church or if I talk about God, they label me as religious, but I would disagree. I would disagree with someone calling me a good person. I’m just a sinner saved by grave. I don’t go to church to be a good person. As we need food, air, shelter and water for our physical bodies, the spirit inside of us needs an encounter with God that brings healing and fulfillment.

If we think we can’t be in His presence if we’re sinners, it’s God’s presence that delivers us. I remember going to a miracle crusade in Anaheim, California back in 2003. The stadium was packed and before the doors opened, the line wrapped around the entire building. When the presence of God grew so thick, people were falling out in the presence. The youth were so hungry to get on stage and experience a touch from God. They ran up there, racing with each other. My cousin’s friend who never shed a tear, started to cry as soon as the service started and could not stop for entire four hours. When God’s presence comes, healing comes.

That lack of love can do major damage to someone. Failed by the ones that we expected to love us unconditionally and keep us safe, some rebel and carry around hatred in their heart or a lack of confidence. God can heal those areas. Parent’s don’t always say the right things to their kids. I didn’t understand the depth of unconditional love until Jesus stepped into my life and experienced the love of God. He gave His all on the cross as in taking a bullet for us.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:7-10

Whenever the topic of God comes up, we want to run away. When it comes to drawing close to God, some feel that they need to be good in order to do so. Adam and Eve, feeling ashamed, hid themselves from God after they ate of the tree that God told them not to eat from. That didn’t stop God from wanting to be in communication with them. It seems as if some feel that they need to be good, perfect or pure in order to come to God, but the Word says, to come as you are. You don’t need to change yourself before you come to God, rather, come to Him and He will change you.

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

God says come as you are. You don’t have to be perfect, good, pure or innocent. God heals the broken and brings restoration. Give God all your burdens, anger, shame, guilt and pain. God gives beauty for ashes. Come as a sinner and He will wipe you clean. He is a gracious and merciful God. In His presence, it is safe to be vulnerable and messed up. It is safe to surrender your burdens into the hands of God. Let His love heal the very depths of your aching soul.

The King Within

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Transformation of Jesus painting by Vange
Transformation by Vange L.

If you’ve ever watched the movie, The Gladiator, that is one of my favorite movies. What I like about it, is how it focuses on a character by the name of Maximus who went from a commander of an army to a slave; yet although he became a slave, he still had the same ability to lead a team in a fight to victory. He did not loose his identity because he was no longer a commander. He was still the same man that a dying emperor had chosen to take his place. Although Maximus was not a prince nor in the blood line of one, the man on the inside had what was needed to rule a nation and being a slave did not take away what was already embedded inside of him.

Watching the movie jogged my memory back to a story told by my pastor at church. Occasionally churches do outreaches, where they distribute many items to those in need, within or outside of the country. It takes money, volunteers, preparation and time. Sometimes people choose to volunteer their time, others donate money or personal items. The need was announced at the beginning, then at the end of service, a man who wanted to financially help out requested to meet with the pastor. When the pastor first saw the man he noticed his rundown looking clothing and his scruffy facial hair. He could have passed for a homeless man so when he told the Pastor about the amount of money he wanted to donate, it was an absolute shock. The homeless looking man wasn’t just rich, but he was a King from another country.

Before Jesus came into the world, He sat on a throne as king, but He chose to come into the world as a peasant. He did not come dressed as a king with gold and expensive clothing or with a palace. Some came to the realization of Jesus as King by being around Him. Some experienced His miracles and others, His love and grace. He came for everyone: the rich, the poor, the lame, the sinners, even the ones that the world would consider scum. He hung out with a few people that society abhorred, like a tax collector or a woman who once sold herself for money. He touched and healed lepers or what society considered, the unclean. He did not live extravagantly, although He could have by turning water into wine, healing the sick or by being all knowing. He did not need riches to accomplish His purpose, nor clothing to get people to realize that He is the Son of God. People saw that He is Lord, when they looked at His heart. He took the cross as a criminal would and along with it, the sins of the world: the hatred, anger, pain, bitterness and everything else that needed to be washed away in order for us to be clean and right before God. The sin that would have killed us, He took it upon Himself on the cross. With that powerful love comes surrender and worship.

Isaiah 53: 4-5 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Love than Religion

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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.”

Understanding the Bible

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Many years back, in middle school, I was handed a tiny New Testament book, which is the other half of the Bible, beginning with Jesus coming into the world and God’s message that spread like fire after the death of Jesus. Although, I must add, the other half of the Bible, the Old Testament, written before Christ was born into the world, foreshadows His birth and purpose.

I kept the New Testament in my room, not intending to read it. We had a Bible at home, which was gigantic and heavy. It seemed to just serve the purpose of decoration for the coffee table. No one ever read it, just opened it to look through, the rest of the time, it collected dust.

There was a time when I opened up the tiny New Testament sitting on top of my radio. It was a hard time for me, one of those emotionally heart aching times when It felt like things were never going to improve. It was a King James Version, the hardest version to read with the old English. After trying to understand the few versus I read, I got frustrated and just threw it, and questioned, “Why God?”

My recollection of Bible reading was just watching both of my Grandmas read it. I always thought it was something to read when one gets closer to potentially passing away. I didn’t hear a testimony from either of them about what it does for them and just assumed it was preparation for them before leaving this earth.

Many years I spent without knowing the treasure it contained, that it is like a guide for life. It has been said that the BIBLE stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth and that it is. It reveals who God is and answers life’s questions. Although it’s been written decades ago, the words still apply to life today.

The Bible holds the message of faith hope and love, which remains. There are many theories and philosophies about life, but the Bible holds the truth. When something it true, it can never be denied. Of all books, the Bible is the only one that actually reads the reader. It goes hand and hand with a relationship with God. I’ve heard many say that they’ve read the Bible so many times and they cannot understand it. It’s not just any book. It doesn’t matter how intelligent someone might be, the message speaks to the soul, not so much the mind.

When I first started reading it, I had others interpret it for me, but I questioned their perspective of the message behind the words. I question what sounded contradictory. I question Jonah being eaten by a fish and the donkey speaking to a man. There are many stories in the Bible of the miracles of God, but from a world that looks at a dependency on God as a weakness, pride and self-righteousness can be a blindfold to the truth.

It wasn’t until I restarted my prayer life and kept seeking God and His truth and who He is, that the Bible, the Word of God started to seek me. The situations in my life, the confusion or trouble I was facing would be eased as I opened up to the perfect verse in the Bible. When the eyes of my soul started to open up and I started to realize that God is actually speaking me through His word, it started to make sense. Over an over again, consecutively, I would open up to the few words I needed to read at that exact moment. I could no longer deny His existence. I could no longer deny that God didn’t know me by name.

It took me walking out of a totaled car, after God was telling me about it two weeks before it happened and even that morning, that I finally realized who He is. That He loves me. God loves the world as said in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” A year later I fully surrendered my life to Him and was baptized. That day I opened up the Bible and for the first time, I could clearly understand the scriptures. Although some passages can be straightforward, there are many that can only be comprehended by the spirit and not the mind.

I pray that anyone questioning the meaning behind the scriptures will start on the path to finding the truth, to seeking out who God is and eventually come to the point of realizing that God is love and He knows your name. I would suggest finding a Bible study to join. I pray it would have a good leader strong in interpretation of the Word. The book of John is usually a good starting point, then there’s the book of Romans and Psalms. There are churches out there with small groups/Bible study groups to sign up for through their church website. May this is a a starting point for many to start walking in the truth and the light of God.