THIS WEEK'S ARTWORK AT MY HAPPY COCOON

Be Yourself

Random Acts of Angels 1

Original Stamp Creation

Random Acts of Angels 2

A DOZEN LONG STEMMED-RED ROSES

I’m pretty certain that by now you get the picture of how much I love God by what I have shared with you.  The following story is one that I have not shared so openly with a lot of random people especially ones I’ve never met.  However, I did promise that I would share the story when at the height of my doubt of God’s existence; He proved to me that He is indeed very, very real.  If I may warn you, this story is not for the faint of heart or those who emphatically disbelieve that God is real.

It was an early and rainy Friday morning, dreading the long hour and a half commute to Oakland from Antioch which features a drive to the BART station and a three block walk to the office.  I dragged myself through the whole routine already disgusted with the monotony that was my life.  Do you ever have those days when you just don’t feel like you ever get a break?  That was me.  I felt like a failure, a loser, down on myself, waking up day after day, struggling through life, financially and emotionally.  As much as I thank God for my two beautiful kids, they are now grown, and I was an empty nester.  There was nothing to keep my mind busy and to suppress the monster that I now have to face.  Today. 

As I drove to the train station, I realized that it wasn’t only rainy, high winds were whipping mercilessly as well.  I could have driven to work, and paid the $8 a day parking but I knew the traffic would make me late and I would get the all-day evil eye from my lady attorney boss.  I had to take the train.

After driving around for at least 10 minutes, I finally found a parking space at the very end of the lot.  I took a deep breath to gather up enough patience to speed walk to the station entrance.  As I sped walked, my umbrella could not handle the strength and folded inside out and actually snapped its joints to its demise, deeming it useless.  It then went straight into the trash.  I realized the dilemma I was in knowing that before my clothes even dried completely, there would be another block to tackle after I got to the destination station. 

Mental conversation:  “Great!  What else could go wrong?”  By this time I was letting it all out to God. “Is this all there is, Lord?  I mean, my life was just one disappointment after another.  I can’t catch a break!  I’m going to die miserable.  I have no one in my life, one shoulder to cry on, no one to care about how my day went.”  As soon as this thought played in my mind, there was another voice that was trying to overlap the negativity and it chanted, “I AM ALL YOU NEED”  I tried so hard to silence it and make the “whoa is me” voice louder and louder to overpower it but the louder the voice became.  My eyes were closed the entire commute that I didn’t even care who was watching me or what my facial expression looked like.  The voice kept going on and on until the negative voice was finally hushed but the other one kept going.  I started focusing on it and started to feel better.  Suddenly, the pre-dreaded walk to the office no longer mattered.  I thanked God, and apologized that my faith even wavered.

Mindlessly, I walked into a building which connected into the raised parking lot connected to our office building.  I seldom walked this route because it was barely taken, but it was better than walking the extra 3 blocks in the rain.  I felt a sense of happiness, blind faith and trust that God is true to His word.  He always had been, now is not the time to start doubting. 

As I walked through the exit door, I looked to my left where I was about to throw my breakfast wrapper away when I noticed something.  The trash bin had been lined with a brand new liner and the only thing in it was a dozen red roses!  I stopped and looked at it for a bit and thought to myself, who would throw these beautiful long stemmed roses?  Instinctively, I pulled them out of the trash can.  One rose had wilted, so I decided to discard it, feeling bad for it even.  Wow!!!! These will certainly make my Friday, something beautiful and alive sitting on my desk and make me feel happy all day. 

And then it dawned on me!  My mind was racing… trash can with a brand spanking new liner, the first thing tossed are a dozen long stemmed roses!  Humbling!  These flowers were from God!  I realized how humble this is.  He kept saying “I’m all you need” the whole ride, I never took this route, if He was to send me flowers, how would He be able to get them to me?  The humblest way, that is!  How else?  Now I felt bad for throwing away that wilted one.  But hey, 11 out of 12, not bad! 

I got compliments all day.  They knew I didn’t have a man in my life but when asked where they were from, I said “Someone who loves me.”  All throughout the day I counted 11 still feeling bad for the one that was discarded.  I took the flowers home, said a prayer, vowed it would be my testimony.  As I was arranging them in the new vase, still feeling bad for the discarded one, I started to count them again. I kid you not, I had 12!  GOOSEBUMPS!!!!!!!

I do regret one thing.  Although I have a photo of 11 roses on my desk, I wished I took another one at home with all 12.  God is simply and utterly AWESOME!  Now, you can believe this story and you can also doubt it, you are so entitled.  However, it is a testament that GOD IS ALIVE!! You do not have to seek Him outside of yourself because He is IN YOU.  Tap into that, maybe one day you will get a miracle such as I had.

Till my next rant… Love One Another.

SLAYING THE GIANTS IN YOUR LIFE - PART 4 - Conclusion

                     

     Wouldn’t it be nice if we can overcome our giants that easy?  But the truth is, it takes an awful lot of time to knock our giants.  Has anybody ever fought an addiction before?  Expose the giant in God’s light and truth and he will set you free.  Write it on a piece of paper, a journal, whatever… My giant is __________.  You know what it is, the thing that creates the most fear in your life.  What is it that is causing you to sleepless nights, that’s depressing you, disappointing you?  What’s hurting your heart?   Then underneath that sentence, write down these words, “But my God is bigger!”  Get your focus on what God says is the answer because lastly:

     Giant slayers give credit where credit is due.  Praise God when you've slain your giant!  1 Daniel 17:46 Look at how strong God is!  How great He is.  This will show the character of humility.  That is what WORSHIP is.  When we sing and we magnify God’s name we make it bigger!  Why magnify the Lord… because this is the best way to stop looking at the problems.  It’s a godly ritual to magnify the name of the lord so that every demon around you can know and understand that yes we’ve got problems that our  5 sensors recognizes there but we got a magnified God who is bigger than it all!


     Until my next rant... Love one another!


P.S. Hello and thank you also to my Russian, Latvian, Canadian, Italian, Malaysian, Chinese readers!  Don't think I didn't notice... :)

SLAYING THE GIANTS IN YOUR LIFE - PART 3

     Giant slayers can see what can be, not what is.  Did you know this is what the definition of FAITH is?  (Heb 11-1) Faith is believing what you cannot see.  God is bigger than your problems.  God is bigger than your giant so that giant doesn’t seem as big anymore.  What is your giant?  Is it financial, broken heart, illness?  They seem to be impossible to beat.  The question is NOT can you see your giant right now, the question is, can you see God?  J. Oswald Sanders wrote this, “Eyes that look are common, eyes that see are rare.”  


     It’s important that when you are facing your giant, that you start seeing God and stop looking at the giant.  That’s not denial, it is bringing reality in the situation that other people are dealing with, they’re only dealing with what they can see with their physical eyes, you also need to see with your spiritual eyes, don’t ignore the giant, just put it in perspective to the spiritual presence YOUR God.  


     We’re not talking about living in denial, we’re talking about living with all our senses alive.  Don’t disregard your five senses, just give God the opportunity to vote on what happens in your life.  Because the bible says, “greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world!”  Let’s bring God into the battle when we go against the giant!  Why go on our own? Why only deal with the five senses, why not do what David says, you come against me with all of the things everybody else depends upon and is afraid of, I have full knowledge of what you have but I also have full knowledge of what I have but I come against this giant in the name of the almighty God, and I’ll knock you down!”  David saw the target, not the giant.  When you’re afraid, you can’t think clearly, but when you put your confidence in God you will never be afraid.  (continued tomorrow)

Until tomorrow…. LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

** I see a few readers from Russia... Hello! :) ***

SLAYING THE GIANTS IN YOUR LIFE - PART 2

     All giant slayers are learners.  Leaders are always in student mode all their lives.  They’re always ready to learn and all giant slayers are learners too.  They don’t just stay and get comfortable where they are because who they are is measured by what they do when no one is looking but God.  B.F. Westcott says, “Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards, they simply unveil them to the eyes of men.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Westcott The occasion doesn’t make you, the occasion says this is who you are silently and imperceptibly as we wait or sleep, we grow strong, or we grow weak and at last some crisis shows us what we’ve become.”  So if you’re not a Christian today, there is going to be a time in your life where you will want and need God’s help.  Mark my words, you will, all of us do.  I would suggest that rather than wait for God to have that crisis come to you and THEN go looking for God, to get ready now and start getting the Lord into your life so that you’re ready for those giants when they come.  Some of you have gotten ticked off because you did something in the name of God in a church someplace and it seems like nobody cared and you didn’t get strokes for it.  You’re frustrated, but God was preparing you for something bigger, getting you ready for something greater than you’ve ever dreamed of that God can do for your life because the best is yet to come.

     Moses told God all he had was a stick, God said ok, I’ll use the stick and he did.  He used it to part the Red Sea, he used it to get water out of a rock, it’s really cool! 


     We need to do what God wants us to do using what we have.  You don’t need what somebody else has.  We often think, if we had something else we can get though this, or if we had more money, but do you know the more money you have the less you have left over?  The grass is greener where you water it.

     God said, stop telling me what you don’t have, tell me what you do have and I will use all that you have, your background, your training, who you are, those gifts, those talents, your ability.  He’s given those to you and wants to use you for his glory.  You don’t have to be somebody else, you just need to be someone who surrendered to God.  Amen?

     Everybody needs help in life, we all face different giants.  The question is how are you going to face it? With just your five senses? Or are you gonna start looking at God to help you?  If you decide to be a giant slayer, you will be able to pass what you thought was impassable. (continued tomorrow)

Until tomorrow... Love one another!

SLAYING THE GIANTS IN YOUR LIFE - PART 1

Due to the length of this message, it will be written in parts.  Each part will be featured for four days.  The purpose it twofold.  One is to practice patience, the other to soak in every step.

Picture this.  He was 9 feet tall and 400 pounds.  He got up at the crack of dawn and goes to the top of the hill overlooking your city every day and verbally bullies you, breaking your spirits down because you are one of the survivors our of 30,000 already annihilated by him and ones like him.  His armor weighs a ton.  The head alone of his spear weighed 16 lbs., not including the pole.  His name was Goliath.

He was a teenager, probably no more than 95 lbs., 4’11”.  He had 4 rocks and a slingshot in his pocket.  Not very long ago, 30,000 of his people were killed by the giant Philistine and his people.  His name was David. 

Imagine this kid asking King Saul to give him permission to kill Goliath.  Even the king did not want to go up against him.  But David had God’s strength.  He knew that someone needs to do the job of shutting down the giant.  So with his humble ammo in his pocket, runs up towards the battle line to meet Goliath.  Then David flung a stone that sank in the forehead of the Philistine who fell face down to the ground.  David then walked over to the fallen corpse of the giant, removed the giant’s sword and decapitates him with his own sword.

Whether you are sitting there and reading this or not, we all have giants in our lives.  No, not actual giants or people who give you a hard time, but giants like fear, addiction, etc.

How can you become that kind of a courageous person?  How can you have that lion’s heart of valor well up inside of you instead of becoming a shrinking violet when you come up against a giant in your life? All of us have big dark things that blot out the sun in our day.  Our giants usually have names.  Maybe a financial or career giant, an addiction, an affliction,  whatever the giant may be, we come to a decision, and when you are in that moment, you ask yourself, will I stand or will I fall?  Will I advance or will I retreat?  I believe that in the crucible of decisions, is where we really see who we are and even more so, what we’re becoming.

Now some of you have faced your giants for a long time, and it taunts you and maybe it is time for you to face that giant and it is time for you to do something about it… enough is enough!  If giants are faced, they can be defeated. 

The first characteristic of a giant slayer is that they live with the perspective of preparation. 

We must be faithful in the lonely places and in the little things when it seems like nobody else is watching.  David had fire in his eyes for God when he prepared to fight Goliath, and the king knew that it was their only chance.  If he lost, it was over!  But something was so animated and intense in David’s eyes when he stood before the king that he even had Saul believing in him.  Saul who was the chosen one to become king of Israel because he was the tallest man, the giant of Israel, who was looking down at this little teenager who convinced him to allow him to be the man for the job.

Have you been allowing God to prepare you and to teach you the things he wants to teach you so you will be prepared to whip the snot out of your giant when you’re ready to go do it?  In the quiet times when it seems like nobody else is looking, have you been preparing yourself so that when you face the giants that you’re facing right now you look at it square in the eyes and say, "I’m gonna do to you what was done to the last lion and the last bear when no one else saw what I was doing, I took them on because what I did was not in my own strength, but in God’s strength through me."  I believe God wants you to be ready for any giant that comes your way but for you to be ready you’ve got to be willing to be one of his students. You’ve got to learn the lessons in the quiet place, we’ve got to be faithful in the little tasks, responding to the little challenges along the way that don’t seem to be any big deals but maybe reading a daily devotional in your bible, that’s getting prepared.  Christians don’t even do that.

(continued tomorrow)

PRIDE

Pride has both positive and negative connotations.  Imagine a line, on the left the positive, and on the right end is negative, with the middle the balance, where we hope to be.  But sometimes, the magnetic field pulls stronger on one side because of our free will.  I don't mean control, but it could be part of our makeup that we have gotten used to, what we've learned throughout life, and how people respond to us.  Here's what I mean.  On the positive side, growing up, our doting parents thought the world of us, give us praise of every achievement no matter how small, and we get used to it until they're no longer there to continue to do it.  Then all of a sudden, we crave it from maybe the real world, who is not so impressed by us.  Now it becomes our mission, to get approval.  Then there is the negative side.  We never got approval from anyone especially our parents, so we strive to do things perfectly.  When someone corrects us, we tend to resent the correction lest we were viewed to be imperfect and vulnerable.  


I read somewhere in the Bible that God hates pride (remember I don't memorize verses?).  If I'm not mistaken, it is also one of the 7 deadliest sins.  Not deadly in a way that if you are prideful, you physically die.  It's more like a spiritual death.  We all need to be careful to listen closely to what God says so we do not fall into these traps.  So let's dissect...


In my opinion, all fall-outs are stupid.  I say that because nothing in this world matters except God, right?  So if that statement is true, you and I don't really matter in the grand scheme of things.  Ok, that's a little harsh maybe because my kids matter to me.  But at the end of the day, it really isn't about us, and all the negative and petty issues we argue about don't really matter.  So why even waste our time?  


So let's just say you had a falling out with a sibling.  At the end of the day, you're still related.  But pride separates people.  Neither one wants to forgive the other and start hashing things out.  This is why God hates pride.


We're only human you say?  Hmm, that's true but think about this.  When you've had a falling out with someone, you go to sleep with a heavy heart, or even worse, lose sleep over it.  Even if you did finally fall asleep, you wake up  still thinking about it, and get that heavy heart back.  And for what?  Oh he/she hurt my pride.  What???  Pride is the pain, without it, nothing gets hurt.  I can't sit here and say I am perfect, I let everything negative bounce off me like a racquetball wall.  Far from it.  But I do realize it later and make the move I need to make to fix it.


Look at this painting.  Eeek!  Even I had qualms about painting it and confused because I only like to paint beautiful things.  This one was a real challenge.  But that's exactly how pride makes you feel inside.  Unpretty and unattractive.  Be this way enough and you start physically killing your own body.  Blood pressure goes up, wrinkles start to form, focus start to fade, and the list goes on.  Simply said, rid yourself of pride.  God doesn't like it, oh wait, actually, He HATES it!


Shy of perfection, pay attention to yourself enough to determine if pride makes you a better person.  Before it gets you down the path of death, get rid of it.  It won't be easy because being the "bigger" person, or turning the other cheek is so hard but is also such a pride killer!  But think about it.  The Bible says, you reap what you sow.  Just think about how the other person reacts to your unexpected apology, or even maybe an onlooker who sees it.  You can be such a blessing to them.  Easier said than done?  Well, maybe, but you may be surprised by the lifting off of the heavy weight from your shoulders and instant balance you will feel.  Your choice.  


Till my next rant... Love one another.