HE IS ALIVE, HE IS ALIVE!

Christ Is Risen

By Matt Maher, Mia Fields

Let no one caught in sin remain

Inside the lie of inward shame

But fix our eyes upon the cross

And run to him, who showed great love

And bled for us

Freely you’ve bled for us

Christ is risen from the dead

Trampling over death by death

Come awake, come awake

Come and rise up from the grave

Christ is risen from the dead

We are one with him again

Come awake, come awake

Come and rise up from the grave

Beneath the weight of all our sin

You bowed to none but heaven’s will

No scheme of hell

No scoffer’s crown

No burden great

Can hold you down

In strength you reign

Forever let your church proclaim

O death, where is your sting?

O hell, where is your victory?

O church, come stand in the light

The glory of God has defeated the night

O death, where is your sting?

O hell, where is your victory?

O church, come stand in the light

Our God is not dead

He’s alive! He’s alive!

And He is coming again!  The words are so simple yet gripping.  If you can just imagine that loud trumpet waking you up in the dead of night.  Like a giant picture show in the sky how Jesus in all His glory will, with one WORD, begin the end of days.  satan will dissolve and scurry away like a frightened little mouse whose future is bleaker than bleak, and how he knew it all along.

How the unbelievers will be so terrorized with the sight of the truth they worked so hard to turn away from, it will boggle the mind to a point of insanity, because their human mind could not even comprehend what is before them.  How sad, I pray for them.  For the realization that Christians fought so hard to make them understand but their will just would not budge, they refuse the light.  Light refused increases darkness.  Imagine for a minute how they would now believe but it would be too late?  How sad.

But imagine yourself as one of the believers in Jesus Christ, and you were caught up, raptured, how joyful this moment will be!  To be part of the new earth, the new Garden of Eden, to praise God forever and in all eternity!!!! I am excited about that!  Praise God!

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

Prayer for Salvation:

God, I know that you want to save me, 

Jesus, you promised to save me, you died to save me if I would only trust you.

I do trust you , Jesus

I believe you’re the Son of God,

I believe that you paid for my sins with your blood

I believe that God raised you from the dead.

I receive you now, I trust you now as my Lord and Savior.

Forgive my sins, cleanse me, save me Jesus.

Thank you for saving me, Jesus.  I receive it by faith.  you are my Lord and Master!  

I will follow you and live or you the rest of my life and I will never be ashamed of you.

You are my Savior, my God, and my friend.  In your name I pray, Amen.

Marie Laurencin Study

Just wanted to share with what was on the easel today.  Have a great week!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

     Do you ever sometimes wonder why Jesus’ occupation, out of all the chosen occupations, was a carpenter?  Not only did he build things, He built it with perfection.  Perhaps it is like Father, like Son.  God created the universe and every living creature and beauty that we see down to the very atom that is our makeup.  But His crowning achievement is the human soul.

     Even the best of the best human creator in the likes of Michaelangelo with the Sistine Chapel, Mozart and his musical genius, Einstein for his contribution to science or Leonardo DaVinci, Van Gogh, and the list goes on and on.  All of these people can credit their greatness to God who created them and who alone deserves all the glory!

     But it all doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, there is no competition and in the middle of all these distractions, one thing is certain, we are God’s crowning creation.

     We can sometimes get caught in our own light.  What we have achieved throughout our life, the pinnacle of our successes can cast a shadow over God’s glory.  When this happens, we get enamored with our own abilities instead of relying on God’s power and strength to make the progress for us.

    Relying on our own abilities will eventually fall flat.  But by inviting God to work through us to impart His message to the unsaved which is peace, it will render us like a well-oiled machine ready and able to handle the task that God planned for us to complete before we are taken up.

    It is not enough that we are saved.  When you aren’t saved, it is difficult to understand.  But when you are truly surrendered to God, His plan becomes your plan, His will your own will, and then being able to do His work through you is a breeze.

     If you have not realized by now, God’s plan for me is to use my artistic talent for the furtherance of His kingdom.  At times I feel inadequate especially when I put His Kingdom into perspective of my abilities as a lowly artist can do.  But when I ask for His guidance to assist me in my task as an artist, He whole-heartedly does so.  Therefore, when I get compliments about my artwork, I graciously give God all the Glory.  The creator of all things is God, ALL THINGS.  So I am not worthy to take credit for anything I create.  It’s all HIM.

     Until my next rant… LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!!

WIN THE BATTLE IN YOUR MIND

There is a battle for your mind.  The participants in this battle is you, satan and all the demonic principalities (Ephesians 6:12).  There is an array of demonic forces and the price of this warfare is your every thought, imagination and knowledge.  satan wants to conquer your thoughts and use it as a citadel from which he can war against God.

The difference between the brain and the mind is like the pianist and the piano.  The pianist plays the piano that makes the music just like the mind orchestrates and creates your thoughts.  When you get saved, you have a mind like Christ.  Your thoughts should be Christ's thoughts.  It has a different capacity now.  It must have simplicity (purity) and a single-minded devotion to Christ.  The devil wants to corrupt that. (2 Corinthians 10:3)  It firmly entrenches a stronghold, a thought system established in your mind and your imagination to create a logistical war against God. Your mind then becomes a battlefield.

But God wants your mind as well, because it is through your mind that God connects with you.  (Ephesians 4:17- 23)  Live as a Christian and always be aware and make your mind a steel trap for all things Christ.  God also changes and renews us through our minds.  (Romans 12:2 and 8:6)

Even if you have been converted, your mind may still be corrupted from the sincerity and the single-mindedness by satan's strongholds.  These strongholds are compulsiveness, obsessions, fixations, fears, bitterness, resentment, uncontrollable lust, phobias, criticism, and distrust, just to name a few.  There is a fortress built by satan and it is taking control of you.

A controlled mind must be conquered.  But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, positive thinking, education or psychological.  The weapon to conquer a controlled mind is spiritual.  Spiritual weapons though the Spirit and the authority of God through Jesus Christ.  As soon as the devil snatches up a thought, cast it out and declare it in Jesus' name, and he will be gone!

Further, there is a surrender factor.  Bringing into captivity in the renewing of your mind.  If you are thinking what is right then you won't do what's wrong.  Screen out your thoughts.  Let the Lord Jesus Christ screen your thought life through the word of God.  Bring every thought to Jesus, if you think like Him you will become like Him!

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER! 

I thank Love Worth Finding and Dr. Adrian Rogers for the enlightenment I am sharing in my blog.

MUSINGS - CHIAROSCURO STYLE

This is how I feel today.  Just relaxing.  In the style of chiaroscuro, defining dark and light values.

Hope you enjoy it!  Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

A MOTHER'S STORY

Although I could have chosen any day to write a blog post about my mother because of her critical role in my life, it seemed apropos to do so on Mother’s Day.  

No one appreciates my mother more, IMHO, than me.  As long as I can remember, my mother has been my best friend.  As a child, she was my hero.  My mother was a hard working woman.  Although it was customary in the Philippines for the father to make a living, it was my mother who worked her fingers to the bone.

She tells a story that on one special occasion, my dad gave her a sewing machine.  She learned how to sew.  I think I got my creative nature from her.  I remember her cutting patterns she made herself and sew them into these beautiful dresses.  She eventually owned several dress shops and a restaurant.  I can remember the smell of a thousand bolts of fabric in the store and the many seamstresses pedaling away in their old fashioned sewing machines.

On the weekends, my mother would bribe me to go with her to the high end stores so she can look at the new designer or imported clothes in the windows.  She would sit there and secretly sketch the latest designs and then recreate them in our stores to sell them for a more reasonable price for those who may not have been able to afford enough its high end counterparts.

I admired her gumption.  I chuckle at the memory of her and I, at the age of 8, coming back from our excursions and discussing the dresses she sketched.  She second guessed herself as I pointed out certain things about the dresses as I remembered them.

My mother loved us all.  When dad wasn't around, it was like disneyland.  I get to sleep in the bed with my mom.  I used to always look forward to it.   She seemed so sad though during these times but at that age, I didn’t know why.  But she was always glad to have us sleep with her.  I remember kisses, lots of them from her.  It made me so proud to tag along wherever she went especially when people would say I was pretty and that I looked like her.  To me she was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen with her beehive hairdo and her little A-line 60s dresses and pumps.

All throughout my life, my mother was and still is, my rock.  She is far from perfect and there were many many disagreements but I love that she is in my life.  So today I raiser her up, high above a pedestal, because she deserves it.

I thank God everyday for being her daughter.  I can’t imagine my life without her.  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  

I hope you all appreciate your mothers today.  They truly are a gem to be cherished.

Till my next rant… LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

A Home For The Birds

Well, there I was at Michaels trying to figure out what to buy with my 50% off coupon.  I was there to purposely buy a set of Golden Fluid paints but they didn't have it.  I still need to take advantage of this coupon.  I set my sights on this birdhouse.  I thought it was cool to create this Parisian type house.  Of course, I am not very conventional so I decided to do some wood burning to make it a bit more interesting.

So I went home with this 5 dollar birdhouse (after coupon applied) and I have started by burning the one side as if it was shingled.  The front is a Tudor type and I am thinking about flowers on the window sill like the ones I saw in Italy.  They're big on flowers outside the windows.  Kinda like this:

I am thinking making it out of polymer clay so it can be put outside if need be.  I can't wait to show you the finished product!

LIGHT ALWAYS CHASES DARKNESS AWAY

No man is an island.  It is a decade-old saying that is one of my favorites.  But I would like to further push the envelope for you.  

In Isaiah 50: 10-11, God teaches us to take leaning on Him seriously in times of trouble and in our times of darkness that surely plague us humans.  He says trust in the Lord, your God and rely on Him, because it is in these times of darkness where enlightenment happens.  

When we trust our own defenses, or even trust others, oftentimes, we are doomed.  Do you know that we all have problems?  Nine times out of ten, when we listen to the advise of another, or even make rash decisions, we usually fail?  Why do you think that is?  Well, there is one distinct possibility.  It is possible that because we are human and our capacity as humans is just as faltered as the other person.  Sure, there are people who give very good advise, and I don’t banish that, but guaranteed, the same person who gave you advise surely has their own troubles they cannot solve either.

When Abraham was told by God that even though he and Sarah were so old God would still give them a child.  It took God awhile to follow through in their minds that when Sarah suggested that Abraham sleep with Haggar the servant, Abraham defied God and did so and Ishmael was born.  This angered God and he cursed Ishmael and all his children to lie down in darkness.  See, Abraham lit his own fire by sleeping with Haggar instead of waiting on God.

Moses stepped in and killed an Egyptian, buried him in the sand and God’s wind uncovered Moses’ mistakes which made him spend 40 years in the backside of the desert.

Simon Peter, regardless of his relationship with Jesus, was caught off-guard and denied him when asked if he knew Jesus to save his own skin.

There are many many more stories like these even in the present age, and in our own lives where we fail to put our trust in God which in turn put us in the midst of darkness.  But God’s promises never fail.  His light always chases away the darkness when we put our trust in Him.  Man made fire is deceptive and will surely make us lie down in God ordained darkness if we think we can make it on our own.   

Remember, if you are in darkness right now, lean on God and He will surely turn your sorrow into joy.  The world has too much of a glare, glitz and glamour which blinds us.  We need to stay upon God, in our deepest, darkest sorrow, His eyes are upon us.  Trust Him, call upon His name, and surrender to Him.  Only He can get you out!

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