WHO ARE YOU?

It may come as no surprise to you that you know yourself better than anyone, right?  But like an onion has layers of skin, how deeply do you really know yourself?

Some of us are fixated on the physical representation so that others will accept us based on how we look.  Billions are spent on plastic surgery yearly because they put on permanent masks to maybe hide the person underneath.  Looking like someone who had plastic surgery does hide the years that they have lived but masking it to try to look youthful yet it fools no one and the attraction is not because they're actually beautiful but because they look pretty much synthetic.

To be able to dig deeper, why do people go through this type of masks?  What is it they're trying to hide?  Moreover, society starts to see this as normal and now everyone thinks that they have to go under the knife as well so they could be accepted to the group.

But what's wrong with aging gracefully?  There is a reason why our looks don't stay intact while the years pass.  It is so we can experience the height of life as a young person with looks that can attract others, body strength to be able to do for ourselves but all to prepare for the weakness and physical aging.  It teaches us that there is more to this world than ourselves and it prepares us for the eternal life that God has prepared for us which has nothing to do with the outward influence of this world.  This is a promise from God.  The promise that in eternity we will regain the youth we had and never change because our souls will live in perfection forever.

You see, no matter how much we tweak our physical looks in this life from whatever we are hiding behind, there is but one person who knows us inside and out, and yes you know it, God!  There is one person we can never hide from.

Until my next rant... LOVE one another!

GOD'S BEAUTIFUL YOU

Did you know that Americans spend 426 billion dollars a year on beauty products?  As of late, even more for plastic surgery and reconstructive surgeries.  Do you ever stop and wonder what it is that compels someone to physically change themselves only to realize another thing needs to change and then another and then another?  Are they doing it to gain self-confidence?  To impress others, maybe a husband or maybe even to land a rich husband?  Is it because they feel the need to be competitive with others?  These types of insecurities are indications of discontent.  Most of the time our discontent stems from a deep search for God.  We are looking for something to fill the God-sized hole in our hearts that only God can fill.  

The reason why the hole exists is because we were born belonging to a God.  Although He has freely given us our own will, just like a homing pigeon, we will never be fulfilled unless we live in His grace.  The world is not our permanent home by any means, and our home is obtained after we leave this world.

But ya gotta think... why change the way we look when this is really not our forever home.  Why are we changing ourselves so others will accept us when we should impress only God?  Don't get me wrong, I am not against make-up, nice hair, and the like.  Of course we should look clean and neat.  It is our obligation to society.  However, if we do synthetic changes to ourselves to mask a deeper longing to fill that empty space in our hearts, wouldn't it just be easier to fill it with God so we could feel whole again?

This reminds me of a story in Genesis 29:31-35.  Taken a devotional  from The Women's NIV DEVOTIONAL BIBLE

This Time. . .

Leah

Rachel, her sister, had always had something she didn’t. Rachel had beauty, Leah didn’t. Rachel had Jacob’s heart, Leah didn’t. However, with the birth of her first child, she finally had something Rachel didn’t: a son.

“Surely my husband will love me now,” she recalled thinking after Reuben was born. What she desperately wanted would finally belong to her and her alone. She had bargaining power, and she planned to use it.

This is the way that Leah considered each of her children. They served as a strange sort of currency, each one “buying” her a certain level of emotional security and social standing. However, whatever dividends she gained depreciated all too quickly. She had to have another baby, and another, to keep her emotional security afloat.

Unsettled in her own skin for most of her life, Leah longed to feel comfortable around other women. She would never be the prettiest. Never the smartest. Not even the wealthiest. She knew that. But a baby gave women reason to envy. “The women will call me happy,” she recalled fantasizing at the time of yet another son’s birth. She thought every eye would be on her. The odds would finally be in her favor.

After five strapping sons and with one on the way, she imagined herself becoming a queen among her princes. As she contemplated the next birth, she thought that surely her husband would finally look at her with eyes of love. This time, her peers would approve of her. This time, she would earn everyone’s respect.

The last time hadn’t worked out like she’d hoped. And the time before that, well . . . the rewards had been short-lived at best. Every “last time” was, after all, last time. She needed something new in order to feel good about herself today. As she looked up and saw her husband coming in from the fields, she absently stroked her pregnant belly. This time. . .

One more thing that is for sure... God will not disappoint!  Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

LIVING IN THE REALM OF THE HOLY

What is a realm?  It is described as a dominion, a kingdom.  You are your own realm.  You have dominion over yourself.  God gave you the right to your own will.  Only God has dominion over all of us, but yet, He does not impose His Will on anyone's realm.  You alone are the author of your own earthly life.  Whatever you do in this life will dictate the judgment you receive at the end of it from God.

There is, however, another realm that exists within us.  It is the one that you gladly share with God when you become a righteous or God-obedient thinker.  It is the one where your will is in conjunction with God's Will. It is called the spiritual realm.  In this realm, you forget your worldly self.  It is where you have the complete protection of God's armor.  This is where you are able to distinguish in your heart's mind the difference between God's truth and satan's lies.

Let me give you an example.  In this realm, when you think of tithing, you don't try to scrutinize what happens to your 10% after you drop it into the collection box.  That money belongs to God.  Whatever human beings do with it is between them and God.  Your job is to be obedient to God's Word.  Another example is when you cast your one and only ballot.  Living in this spiritual realm you trust God that He is manifesting His plan for this world.  But in your spiritual realm, the act of casting that ballot is not self-serving, it represents your focus outside yourself and into the country as a whole.  You trust that your ballot will land into safe hands, one who will use it for the good of ALL people.  

Living in the spiritual realm means living for others, not for yourself.  Making your actions and your life in sync with God as His true servant whatever His assignment is for you.  Using your talents to further His kingdom.  God wants us to succeed.  God wants us to live with Him in this spiritual realm now, not as a practice stage but to transition into our heavenly self.  God invites us to live in our spiritual realm constantly and daily through compassion.  With true compassion for other human beings, we slowly become transported into the spiritual realm and live our life here on earth with God.  This becomes the beginning of a chain reaction when others witness such compassion and pays it forward, and on and on and on.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

TRYING TO FIT GOD IN OUR BOX OF HUMAN EXPECTATION

Trying to fit God into our box of human expectations is in and of itself a danger to our existence.  What I mean by this is that our faith and trust in God diminishes when our brains and our hearts are disconnected in that we see God through our sinful and flawed human eyes.

We doubt it even when the Bible says that as long as we believe that we can move mountains when our will is in line with God’s Will.  With God, nothing is impossible.  We hear it over and over again.  We even repeat it to others when we want to help them feel better when a tragic event happens to them.  But the question is, do we believe it ourselves?  Do we actually believe that our words, through God’s intercession can actually move Mt. Shasta over 2 feet?  I believe so.

Gone are the days when I question God’s power and strength.  He is a very personal God to me.  I’m certain most people think how can God help each and every one of the millions of people who believe in Him.  He must be very busy.  Even the movie where God manifested Himself into a man heard several voices in his head from so many people praying.  Sure it is for comedic purposes but this is how most people understand it.  Because we are human.  We think like humans.  We don’t think like God.  No one can possibly think like God.  Instead we need to just understand that we will never ever comprehend how God works.  That is a mystery about Him we should just accept to be true.  

No matter how much we try to shove God into our tiny little box of expectations and understanding, we will never be able to fit Him in there.  God is too awesome, too powerful, too majestic, I can go on and on, but there can never be enough words to describe Him.

God is omnipotent, meaning He has unlimited power.  He is omnipresent which means that He can be in millions of places at one time, at any time, at any unlimited dimension.  That is His power, and then more, much much more.  More than our brains can conceive.  We shouldn’t even try lest our brains explode!  

Just think about this… If God was small enough to figure out, He wouldn’t be big enough to worship.  So quit trying to shove Him in your box of expectations.  Know that no matter how big we can perceive Him to be, He is limitless, ageless, powerful and HUGE!  Never forget that Jesus is God with skin on, and no matter how big and awesome He was, He still sacrificed His earthly life for all of us to benefit from.  

Until my next rant… LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

THE CONFUSION OF THYSELF

Self-deception is a very dangerous and tricky thing.  A wise man once said, "When you stick your hand in a pot of honey, what do you get?"  This phrase resonated with me since.  Whenever I look at something and it smells like a rat, this phrase comes up in my head.  

When we denounce self-analysis according to what God teaches us, it becomes sort of like a drug.  We shrug and dismiss something small in the beginning, but then over time, it becomes a callous in our psyche.  The longer it is ignored, the worse it gets until one day, we find we have been desensitized.  What do I mean?

So pretend you love to sing but singing doesn't really love you.  Most of the time, people's sensitivity to the reaction of the people around them after they sang a song becomes telling on how they did.  If they are not met with enthusiastic and thunderous applause, it is an indication that you probably didn't do too well.   When people shut up about it to spare your feelings, you begin to think well maybe I wasn't that bad.  

You start to believe this and invest everything in you to become a famous singer, only to be told in your face at the American Idol audition that, hey you really should give up singing!  If you have an ounce of sensitivity in you, you will agree and give it up.  However, if you are in the state of "callousness" about yourself, you ignore them and get mad and storm out of the studio.

This is the same as sin.  If you commit a small sin,  and you consider it as such, overtime you will slowly lose that consciousness that sin is wronging God.  You become calloused and desensitized until you have become a full-blown denier of God.  All along the way, satan has coaxed you, telling you it's a small sin, it's not gonna matter.

On a larger scale, we have government politicians who have gotten away with so much that the level of desensitization have reached its fever pitch.  Meaning, they begin to craft their lies and deceit so well, with other little satans assisting them along the way.  They have become so numb to the results of their ways becoming demonic, inhuman and robotic.

We all have to keep our hearts, minds, and bodies focused on God's word.  His word will guide us through this world of evil and disgusting desensitized people.  Let's not be confused about the fact that God is out for our common good.  

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

LOSING YOUR MORAL COMPASS

Physical nerve damage is that most difficult to treat, like spinal cord injury and diabetes.  The nerves are the most sensitive part of our physiology and deserves the utmost care.  It is imperative for us to preserve the matters of our physical touch.  When one loses the sense of feeling in certain parts of the body, it becomes a huge problem because pain is no longer felt.  Without the feeling of pain, there would not be an alarm to the brain to correct the condition.  Without such an alarm, bedsores, footsore, and the like will develop because the body no longer has the ability to warn itself of the danger.

In the same token, people can develop a similar kind of moral insensitivity because of our  politically correct society and the presence of those who promote them as if they are what should be the norm.  Acceptance of everything and tolerance of ideals that, even if conflicts with our Christian faith, yet choosing to conform to the world's ways become discombobulated in our hearts and our minds that we can no longer distinguish what is right and what is wrong.  The muddy waters begin to silence our conscience and then harden our hearts.  

This condition can prove fatal because we forget the fundamental righteousness that God has taught us which leads us directly to sin.  The devil is the author of the creation of this mud and he will confuse us to the point of succumbing to such a trap.

Let us not forget that Love is what matters.  Love is how it started by God's love for us and how we have to keep our focus on Him so that we can do the same for each other.  Don't get suckered into the alternative.  There is no alternative to love.

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

ATONEMENT

Non-believers are quick to point out how God often punished sinners in the Old Testament as if it is still going on today.  If God used the same methods in today’s world, the atheists would not even exist.  There will be real fear in the hearts of men before they even think about committing a sin.  God was being true to His own provision of giving us our own wills, which is why Jesus was sent to us to pay for our sins and lift the veil that separated God and humankind.

Can you just imagine if the Old Testament punishments were still true?  I mean, we would have to have land to tend sheep just to offer blood sacrifice to atone for our sins with God.  We all sin intentionally and unintentionally because it is in our nature.  But God remains the same.  His standard of perfection cannot be attained even by the best of us on our best days.

The ultimate sacrifice is Jesus Christ who foreshadowed the sacrifices of the Old Testament.    He paid the debt of sin in full.  Yes, from the most egregious, to the simplest of lies.  Jesus paid for all of it.  It’s like having a partner that paid for all your basic necessities, Jesus’ treat for the things our souls need is free.  However, we have an obligation to deny sin because we are talking about respecting the fact that He died for us to be forgiven.  The only gift we can give back to Jesus is to live a life that will glorify Him.  We no longer need a sacrificial lamb to cleanse us from the sins we knowingly commit or the sins we unintentionally commit.  No other blood sacrifice will ever be required.

Instead of blood sacrifice, we can make offerings of gratitude:  Repentance, praise and service.  This blog is my service.  God has revealed this feat for me.  It is not easy to come up with messages every week and visualize it in a creative and artistic manner.  That’s always been a challenge for me.  Majority of the weeks God reveals to me what message to impart to you.  But sometimes I feel far removed from God, for maybe a sin that I have not atoned for.  So His presence is also far removed from me.  But the magic happens again when I ask Him to forgive me and I atone for my sin.  This is how our powerful and almighty God is.  He has the power out of all put together but yet acts like a true and loyal best friend when you need Him.  I am in awe of Him, always and forever.  I long to see His face everyday and finally be with Him in the most glorious way!  His love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Despair has no place here, only LOVE!

Until my next rant… LOVE ONE ANOTHER!