DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME

Of all the ways we choose to adopt, God's way is the best way.  Why, you ask?  

For one, wouldn't it be easier if we just had a little pocket speaker that told us what to do?  If there is a decision we need to make, we usually agonize over the right one so we could end up with doing the least work or the least trouble, right?  Some people even ask their parents which path to take because they put stock in their wisdom with life's experiences.  We try to convince our children to choose the way we think is better for them because of a similar experience we may have learned from in the past.

With all the worries, with all the decisions, with all the trials and errors we had to experience, we wonder, is there possibly an easier and less painful way to go through life?  

The answer is a resounding YES!  Most people mock others who say that God has spoken to them.  They ask, what was God's voice like?  Was it booming?  Was it soft?  There is no right way to answer this.  God's voice is that push in your heart, that little tug, followed by a lightbulb moment!  A suggestion that makes the most sense and one that has not occurred to you because you didn't pray about it first.  Pray about it.  That sounds so cliche'.  Well, it is more complicated than that.  Praying about it is not asking God to give instant response.  Sometimes He is instant, but sometimes He takes longer.  Perhaps it is because His plan for you is such that the events leading up to it have not happened yet.  God is not a puppet master.  But He does know how your life will end up and the events that occur leading up to that end.

The best way to stop wasting your time is to really talk with God and ask Him for His input.  In one way or another, He will give you the answer and the answer is such that it will make so much sense that you can only surmise it is His handiwork.

Wouldn't it be so much better to just put your life in God's hands to do His will rather than playing a tug of war with Him?  Where you give Him the charge of your life and then immediately taking it back away from Him.  It's really not that complicated.  Once you have tapped into that priceless flow of grace, you will never use anything else.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

YOUR FULL TRANSPARENCY TO GOD

God is the ultimate know-it-all.  No one on this earth can claim that stake and only embarrasses themselves if they do.  

Despite the fact that He is all knowing, His grace is still freely given as a gift to our unworthy selves.  Jesus also paid a high price for it, so we didn't really get it for free, but He wanted to give it to us nonetheless because of His perfect loving nature.

In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul says "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast."

Humans cannot fathom God's grace because in our world, nothing is given to us for free.  There is and always will be a catch when dealing with our fellow human beings.  Just imagine how awkward our feelings are knowing that we cannot offer God anything of enough worth that will match His gift of grace.  Grace is the perfect way of God based on His deep love for us.  This deep love will also never be felt from any human being no matter how much they love us.  It is intense and overwhelming, a love that we can never ever give back no matter how much we try.  That's who God is, He is too good and His love is too much!  He is overwhelming LOVE.

There is, however, a way to be able to give it back to Him.  God does not require much other than when we sin (because He understands we will sin), we need to repent and return.  Remind yourself of what Jesus did in order for you to do so.  Then, no matter how difficult, lift your sin and guilt to God and be prepared to receive that love from Him in exchange.  Sit in the intensity of the moment and don't run from it.

As you experience all the different types of feelings, know that you're experiencing the intensity of God's love.  How lovely and glorious it is too feel His heart?!  Let it sink in to yours of how incredibly good God is.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

WRESTLING WITH GOD

According to a Montana cowboy, the secret to being a good bull rider is that "You've just gotta want to hang on more than the bull wants to throw you off."  

Have you ever found yourself wrestling with God?  I have.  In this latest match, after musing over my year anniversary working as an art instructor for the Michaels Store in town, I began to hear God's instructions telling me it is time to let go.  Although I heard it loud and clear, I tried to chuck it off as maybe it's just a suggestion.  Over and over, my situation with the store worsened.  I could not possibly justify that God was asking me to let go of something He himself offered to me a year ago.  After all, it wasn't the $200/month I was making, it was my students I didn't want to give up on.  To make a long story short, an event happened which pushed me to my limit and forced me to cut ties.

That same night, I received a Facebook message from a Principal of a school in Napa, offering me a part time job teaching children from K-5.  Praise God, what a gift!  

A few days later, I received another message from a company in New York asking me to submit 3 photos of my artwork to be given consideration to exhibit my art in their gallery in San Francisco!  Only God can bring blessings like that!

There are two ways we wrestle with God.  One way is to turn back to Him and our backs to our sins.  The other is after we become Christians and we resist His blessings which are always bigger and better than the ones we refuse to let go of.  

Resist the urge to fight.  Let God be the boss of you!  You will find that your life will be a much happier and fulfilled one.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

LOVE OUT OF THIS WORLD

Love takes on different forms.  There is the love of a child to a parent and vice versa, there is a love for friends and family.  But those types of love pales in comparison to a love that your heart seeks throughout life.  That is romantic love.  Love for another person seems to trump all other types of love.  This type of love is something majority of us work for.  It is the one that also breaks our hearts when the love is unrequited.  Weaker people become obsessed and some even weaker feel their world is ending when a spouse of a lover leaves.  It is the most hurtful type of love or betrayal of that love.  

Most of these types of love is conditional.  We expect the other person to love us the way we want to be loved but more often than not, we are disappointed with what we get instead.  Some people are difficult to love perhaps because they don’t really know how to love in return.  

Everything in the media will revert back to love.  Love makes people create movies, write songs, in relation to their own individual experiences that may be no different than what millions of others have been through.  Generation to generation, it stays the same.  Humans like us will always disappoint other humans no matter how careful we are.  

There is but one type of love that never ceases, it is the easiest love to acquire.  People who are so imperfect have many conditions.  The one and only love that is unconditional is God’s love.

How is that even possible?  God, the most powerful being in the entire universe and beyond loves so unconditional and what boggles my mind even more is that it is US that He loves!  Some people are selfish enough to require love 24/7 without giving the same in return but God loves us whether we love Him back or not.

God asks for so little.  A mustard seed-sized faith.  That’s it!  Do you know that a mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds?  He asks for no more than that.  But a mustard seed, as long as it is alive and well in our hearts can’t help but grow bigger and bigger until it consumes our imperfect hearts!  If God can love one person who has a mustard seed sized love and faith for Him, how much bigger can that love from God be for a person who loves Him back with all of their heart and how favored are they?

With this type of love, if given to one another, drama and heartbreak songs would cease to exist and matter less and less.  The Love for God is the most awesome love story you will ever encounter or experience.

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them.  “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move.  Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20 NLT 

SELF-DISCIPLINE - A Dying Trait

Our parents were ordained by God to guide and care for us.  In turn, we do the same for our own kids.  We mirror our parents' teachings to our children which is why most of us stay within the character traits of our family as a whole.

In the beginning, God set the rules of humanity and how we ought to treat each other.  Those rules are good today as they were in biblical times.  When Jesus came to walk the earth and died for us, some of the guidelines changed.  Jesus had one guideline, one rule, one commandment and that is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.  Loving one another encompasses all of the other commandments before Him.  

Today, discipline has been lost in the translation of humanity.  People became afraid to discipline lest the violation of someone's rights.  Concern for those rights became paramount over our children's future and that is worrisome.

The Lord disciplines us because He loves us.  He slows the granting of prayer to teach us patience.  He teaches this to us so we can teach it to our children as well and so they can pass it on to their own.  In doing so, we show our children that we care.  Children will impose their own wills on us.  If we give in, the chain will keep going until we can no longer control it as parents.  When that happens, the responsibility will unfortunately be passed on to non-parents such as teachers and educators.  As parents, we must embrace and accept this responsibility.  Teachers, neighbors, educators, etc. are just part of the support team.  Good discipline starts at home.

Enforce discipline by establishing structure at home, setting boundaries for your kids.  When boundaries are crossed, have a specific plan of action and have them suffer the consequences.  Make sure that they understand that the consequences go hand in hand with the punishment which are a direct result of their behavior and not your behavior.  This will teach them to develop a sense of responsibility.  It also helps enforce your own continued self-discipline for everyday situations.

If these things are held in place, the future generation will be a more responsible and loving one.  God has to have His place in all parenting and in all households.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

HEAD HELD HIGH! Nothing to see here, Live your own life!

During election years, emotions run high.  The party which was not represented during the years in office are always involved in the campaign for their party candidate to win the presidency.  People simply endure what they were dealt with and they just look forward to the next election hoping that their candidate would win.

People become divided.  Politics and religion are two of the sorest subjects that would even sever friendships and I heard, even marriages.  During these times of division, satan runs amok.  He is there waiting, ready to pounce at any and all opportunity to be able to spread hate and ire.

I cannot say I haven't fallen prey to his wiles.  After all, my DNA says human and like it or lump it, I have no choice.  However, I will be the first to say that I am not a staunch anything.  During my years of living in the U.S., I have not labeled myself either a democrat or republican.  When I could vote, I vote for the one who is most likely, in my own view, to be the most qualified.  I never did any research in the past.  I was young and carefree, felt invincible to whatever politics was around me.  I felt I was never a victim of what the government was doing.

As I became more mature, I suddenly realized that my voice does count.  I no longer had the irresponsible attitude in who I was going to vote for.  I began listening to the pulse of our country.  I began to piece the puzzle together, not mired by the agenda pushed or shoved down my throat by the mainstream media.  I looked past the fantasy that hollywood has created as a smokescreen to what goes on behind closed doors.

The media has successfully diverted people's attention to themselves.  Technology did the same thing.  Both are a double-edged sword.  God is no longer the focus, He has been slowly plowed out of the hearts of His own people, His own family.  It saddens me to realize that the time is near.  No longer are the predictions of prophets even sewn into the mix of reality.  This is our reality.  Jesus is coming very very soon.

Does it bother me that former friends break up with me over a post and a back and forth argument?  NO!  Only God's opinion matters to me.  I DO NOT and WILL NOT please others, it doesn't matter who they may be.  I please God.  He may not be pleased with me right now because I fall in satan's traps.  he gets me at my worst, dealing with people who do not and will not even try to understand.  I let people live their lives and I ask they let me live mine.  I am not apologetic to whomever thinks I should shut up, because I will not shut up.  America is in dire need of fresh blood to run this country. I am willing to give a newbie the chance to prove himself.  I think everyone should as well.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

LIFE COMES FULL CYCLE - A Poem

Till my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!