THE TIKBALANG

Back in the day, as a little girl, my siblings and I used to get terrorized by stories about this Philippine mythical creature by our uncles.  When spending the weekend with my grandmother, we would sit out on their candlelit patio in the dark of the night and the stories will begin.  

The tikbalang is said to have been from the earth and guards their territory in the woods from intruders.  They stand watch leaned up against a tree smoking a cigar all night long.  They would devour anyone who crosses the line.  The only way to tame such creature is to steal one of its thorny golden strand of hair without its knowledge and it will do whatever you want for the rest of your life.  It is also believed that if you walk in the woods with your shirt worn inside out, you would go undetected.

As a child, I was terrified of this and other creatures that lurk in the night.  Imagine if I could sleep that night.  Uncles are great, aren't they?

In life, there are no Tikbalangs at all.  I think that this folklore was conjured up so that people can deal with the reality of their lives and tikbalangs are merely symbolic to their own.  There are fears in each and every one of us that we face each and every day.  Notice that my uncles never mentioned God and how we are protected?  They never once said well if you prayed, God will protect you from these creatures' harm.  

I believe there are principalities out in this world running amok and their chief is satan.  They don't roam around the earth scaring us with their images, although I believe they are as ugly as tikbalangs, but they feed us the lies, talking down on us so that we could not forget that even though are sins were washed away by Jesus' sacrifice, we are made to believe that we are not worthy of it so why even try?  Well, there is some truth to that, we are NOT worthy of the life of God's only Son, but do we have a choice in the matter?  Jesus did it, He died for our sins!  Whether we like to admit it, accept it, or stand on it or not, He did.  My reasoning is, why fight it?  It's there for the taking.  It's there for FREE! We didn't have to work for it.  He loved us so much that to this very minute He is up there standing guard from God's mighty wrath!  He's all, "Not yet, Father.  Give them a chance."  But instead of recognizing this, most people ignore it.

So why not pluck that strand of a tikbalang's golden hair?  The acceptance of Jesus in our lives and in our hearts?  It is the only antidote from being devoured by satan and his principalities! When you have Jesus, you tame satan, et al. and they will stay away from you forever.  Sometimes the stories of our childhood translated into the truth of God is a lesson to be learned.

Until my next rant.... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

THE PERFECT SQUARE

So you may wonder, how connected are we to God?  The answer is your everything is!  

You are made up of Body and Spirit.  When you die, your body dies but your spirit is removed from your body and stays alive.  You have a soul made up of Will, Mind, and Emotion.

Your Spirit feeds on spirit food (the Bible, God's Word), which produces a spiritual force that is called Faith.

Your mind feeds on the Word of God as intellectual food and produces an intellectual force called Will Power or Power of the Will.  A physical man eats physical food that produces physical strength or a physical force.

Jesus said that those who are of the spirit are Spirit, and those who are of the flesh are flesh (or satan's - because satan rules this world)

God is a spirit and those who worship Him do so in Spirit and in Truth.  Therefore, we contact God in our Spirit and not our mind.  He is not in our mind, He influences our minds but He is in your spirit.  Your mind is in your Spirit but so is God.  The Bible says we have to renew our minds according to the Word.
Mark 11:22-23
Ephesians 1:16-20 and 2:14

Till my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

Acrylic as oil study

Experimentation

TRUST -- WHY NOT?

Trust of this world is overrated in my opinion.  The reason is because majority of what or whom we trust daily is laughable.  Seriously, we trust people more often than not.  People who make our cars that we trust to get into every single day of our lives only for it to break down eventually.  Do we know when it will break down?  The answer is usually, No.  But nevertheless, we trust it to take us from point A to point B, no matter how long or short of a distance it may be.  We trust restaurants, even though time and again, we hear of horror stories about disgruntled employees taking out their frustration on their customers who trust them with food handling.  We trust the government to keep us all protected from haters who want to kill us or diseases like Ebola to enter into our country and wipe out as many in its path as it can.  You may argue that we need to have a certain level of trust for each other or for people who make this world go round, and I may agree with you in your stance.

The thing that I have trouble with is that we, in our daily lives, fail to trust God.  Why?  Because we don't see Him in the flesh?  Ok, to see is indeed to believe but only if you have no faith.  This world is full of people who are out to hurt others.  We have no control over them.  But trusting in a God that time and time again has shown his strength, power and love has been proving Himself daily, in miracles that happen to terminally ill patients surviving from the disease, in all the world tragedies that tug at our hearts showing kindness by giving aid.  In missionaries who trek to other countries to help the poor.  Anything in your own life that's good is all a result of God's love.  But yet, because you don't see Him you pretend He's not there.

We are all guilty of such distrust.  Christians are not immune either, in that, just because we're Christians we sometimes fail to give God the power to work our problems out.  We advise others to "give it to God" but yet when we are faced with the problems of the world, we stress.

Instead, why don't we trust God like we trust that our car will take us to work everyday, people we are married to will love us forever, none of our friends will betray us  etc.  The only difference between God and the rest is that God will never, ever, ever, in your existence (which is a long time) eventually disappoint us or FORSAKE you or turn your back on you.  Everything else... well... will.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!

Sketchbook Entry

Some nights I am an insomniac.  This helps me sleep.  My two poms relaxing while my jack russell is about to pounce.  Cheekah has the watchful eye on Deedee.  Mango watches me intently in case there's a snack on the horizon for her, lol!

CHANNELING THE MASTERS - VAN GOGH SKETCHES AND MODIGLIANI

 Pen, ink and Copic

The Ladies of Plimouth

In a day trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts, I was inspired to sketch The Ladies of Plimouth Plantation.   The actual village the pilgrims inhabit during the 17th century after arriving from England to escape the tyranny.  They reenact how they lived by very humble means when life was simple, struggles were high but the determination of these people who stand for God were on fire!  They live by the tenets of the Bible and somehow built the strong country, free and powerful which we now enjoy.   In our time today, we are veering farther and farther away from the teachings of the Bible and this is why our country is beginning to get weaker.  Although I was born and raised in a totally different culture, I can relate with the Pilgrims because we have God in common.  Since I am a naturalized American citizen, I am proud to be and American and proud of my country, the country that the Pilgrims built.  

So I believe it is only apropos to draw these two ladies in the style of Van Gogh's sketches in his letters to his brother because like Van Gogh, emotions are high, he for his art, me for my country and my art.  I hope you feel the same emotions I aim to invoke with these two ladies.  

It began when I asked the lady with the book what she was reading.  She said it and the subject quickly turned into how the ladies presented a song they all sang for a couple who was getting married.  She said the song was the wedding gift.  Imagine that?  A wedding gift of song.  She went on to say that whether they were good singers or not, the couple appreciated their song.

I think that I could give up my modern conveniences if it meant that I could live in a world where simplicity was grandeur.  What do you think?

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER! 

WHAT DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT GOD?

How much do you know about God? Did you learn about Him from faithfully attending church your whole life?  Maybe read the Bible from cover to cover?  Three times over? Or even got a degree in theology?  A pastor?  A Christian advocate?  I could go on and on.

Did you know that you can be adroit in the subject of God but still be in the dark on the things that matter?

Paul teaches us that NO ONE knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.  What that means is that no matter how much we spend learning and  knowing about the subject of God, the Spirit of God or the heart of God is the only factor that will truly reveal to us who GOD really is.

What does the Spirit of God reveal to us?  It reveals that the only thing in me that glorifies God is God in me.  It's that Spirit of relationship, the Spirit of favor, the Spirit of faith etc. that can show you what is worth living for, which is what is in His heart.  If you fail to understand God at times, it is because you have not tapped into that Spirit that He is trying to reveal to you.  There is something that is hindering Him from emanating in your heart.  It could be a sin that you have forgotten to ask forgiveness for.  It may be a guilt or fear that you haven't relinquished to Him.  Search your soul and define that something that is blocking the Spirit of God.  

What I fear is that you have never really experienced Him, truly, truly in your heart!  Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and everything will be given to you.  Remember that verse?  Only God's Spirit can show you your place within His body, who you are in Him and the service to which He has called you.  Try as you might to fight that, as long as you know God, every detail in your life will lead you back to your purpose.  Know that.  

We can never figure things out on our own, only the Spirit of God reveals the heart of God.  The Spirit of God knows the things of God.  Since this is true, then it's not about you.  It's about God.  Ask God to reveal His Spirit to you so you can find your purpose in this world.  Live outside yourself and focus on what God wants you to achieve in this world for Him because the prize is not from this world.  It's like playing the tv game show the prize is right... you pick a door and the door you didn't pick reveals a better prize than the one you chose.  That's what God has for us.  It's a better feeling than the best feeling you've ever felt in your entire existence.

Lead your heart to His heart and your life will be the brightest you've ever felt!  

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!