It’s Thanksgiving Day and something is resonating within me that’s pulling me in completely opposite directions, faith or fear. Despite the distress in my soul, I’m thankful with hope for the future. About ten years ago, I thought I might die. I remember crying out to the Lord in my distress. That night I had a dream that I was carrying a backpack full of currency from around the world, later realizing that I was an old lady in my dream, around the 70s. God knows I’ve always had the desire to travel the world before I leave this earth. That dream was a confirmation that I would be fine and soon after, physically, I was fine.
There’s been many times in my life where I’ve felt so blessed, walking on clouds with everything working out for me, but life always has it’s storms, some that can drive one to the ground just waiting to die, but I can honestly say that if God’s hand wasn’t there to pull me out, I’m not sure where I’d be today. Even in the toughest times, I know that I’ll get through it because my life is in the hands of a good God.
I’ve had my share of lonely times having spent some holidays alone, feeling like the world is against me or completely misunderstood. Even though harsh seasons come, the sun will eventually come out. At times it feels like the hard season will never end, but I have to trust God through the season, even if it doesn’t make any sense. I know He’s shaping me through the flame as fire pulls out the impurities of gold making it rise to the surface.
What I’m most thankful for today is my Lord and Savior Jesus, without Him, I would be dead on the inside, lifeless, empty and without hope. Because of Him, I don’t have to fear the future as He will give me the strength and tools that I need to take on the storms of life as they come and always be my backbone. I’m thankful for life and good health. I’m thankful that during uncertainty, I can put my faith on a faithful God full of mercy and grace.
I pray that HOPE, JOY and PEACE will come to anyone struggling to be thankful today, but to have hope for the future and to know that they’re not alone, God that you let them know that you are there with them and that they are loved by you, God that you would let them see the light after the storm and bring healing to their soul. In Jesus name.
My daily food menu growing up wasn’t too different from other Americans. I had my days of bologna, frozen burritos, cheese hotdogs and of course, Mc Donald’s. All so good at the time, until you find out what it’s actually made out of, even worse, when you find out what it does to your body.
Sometimes food is so good, you don’t want to know what’s in it or where the meat comes from, but even after finding out, we still go back to it or continue eating. Like bologna, Vienna sausage or Pâté, made of meat scraps, including organs and other parts of a pig or cow, but together with other ingredients, like bread and cheese, tastes good.
Aside from the scrap meat, the more unhealthy part are the additives, just to name a few: modified corn starch, sodium erythorbate, mono-sodium glutamate, sodium nitrite, wheat flour. Other lunch meats or bacon typically contain nitrates.
Table salt contains more than sodium chloride, but other ingredients to prevent it from sticking together like sodium aluminosilicate. Sea salt is less processed and typically does not contain additives.
Flavored coffee contains antifreeze which is used to get the flavor into the beans. Flavoring added to brewed coffee is typically artificial and contains corn syrup for sweetness. Coffee creamer usually contains highly-processed ingredients and chemicals, including the powdered version. Half in half from the grocery store’s refrigerated section usually contains only milk and cream, but some have additives for flavoring for longer preservation, like sodium citrate or disodium phosphate.
It can sometimes be a nuisance to constantly check ingredients, but to have a food allergy, it becomes essential. It seems the easier way to avoid food with preservatives or harmful chemicals is to eat food that’s closest to its raw state, unprocessed, organic and fresh.
Living a life of dependence on another is expected for a child, but once we get to a certain age, the idea of dependency is something to turn away from. I still remember when a friend told me that living my life for God meant living a life of prayer and dependency on Him. After all my friends at the time we’re working on becoming completely independent, the thought of having to dependent on someone was discouraging to hear, but the ways of this world doesn’t often match up to God’s ways.
I realized later that being dependent would become the blessing in my life when it comes to depending on the One that can move mountains and bring miracles. Being dependent on God means letting go of trying to control a situation after realizing that you are powerless over it.
With a false perspective of thinking that God is around to only punish or control, it’s hard to see that God would want us to have faith in Him. In order to depend on anyone, you have to trust that person. Trusting someone is also having faith in him/her and it takes a relationship and time to build trust, although sometimes trusting in something or someone can be done blindly.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
From the day I surrendered my life to God, it’s taken much time to learn to trust Him, especially when times are tough and nothing is going the way I expected it to go, at that point of my life. I have to keep remembering that it’s like trying to see a large painting when standing so close to it. We don’t see the whole pictures until we step far enough away from it. I have to let go and stop trying to control the situation, especially when I find myself running around in circles with nothing changing. I have to let go, surrender, realize that I don’t know and that I need to depend on God to help me. Almost every time, He answers immediately, although other times, I have to wait for His time & just trust Him.
It sounds like weakness and it is, but what’s weaker, is not admitting my weakness and continuing to live in denial. I have to keep going back and tapping into the source, which is asking Him for strength. The continual turning to Him becomes a blessing as it strengthens our relationship with Him and our trust when we see His hand of faithfulness and grace come into every difficult situation. This is when our own weakness becomes the blessing in our life & sometimes what seems to be a horrible thing is just the beginning of a turning into something good.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 says : [7] And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. [8] Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. [9] And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I don’t have everything figured out. When life doesn’t make sense I can trust Him, knowing that God is cooking something good in the kitchen. It smells really good, but I don’t know what it is. But when it comes out, it’s going to be amazing because I know that He is amazing, that He loves me and He has good plans for me. I trust Him & that’s what gets me through the tough times.
Without ever turning to our friends or relatives, we would have no relationship. In the same sense, without ever turning to God, we would have no relationship. The more we turn to Him and eventually see His answered prayer, the more we realize that we can depend on Him. The prayer may not come the way we expect or when expected, but to keep hope alive, we just hold on without knowing, trusting and letting go of our own understanding of it.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
I pray right now that anyone that this blog/message has spoke to will come to full awareness of how much God loves them and wants him/her to depend on God for all difficult situations in life, that they will realize that God doesn’t want anyone to be burdened by hardships, but to give the burden to God and let Him work out their difficult situation so they can live with peace & joy knowing the God is faithful. I pray that they will learn to depend on God and their lives will be very blessed by it. In difficult situations that they can let go and trust you, knowing that things will get better and trust that God will work everything out. In Jesus name I pray. Amen!
Usually if someone says, “I believe in something that is invisible,” you’d think they’re crazy. But why is it not as crazy to some people if one bows down and worships a statue? It seems it’s very difficult to believe in something that we cannot see. We’re used to having relationships with people that exists, living, breathing, alive that we can hung, pinch or kiss. Some kiss statues, thinking that God is in the statue. Some feed their statue fruits or milk. It’s pretty sad. I’ll admit though, when I was catholic, I kissed a baby Jesus statue and thought that God was starring down at me smiling. Maybe he was, but now, I think, God was watching me, thinking…hey, I’m right here, not in the dead statue.
Well if it’s not a statue that is idolized, it can easily be something else, like money, power, a girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, kid or ourselves. Pretty sure God didn’t create us to worship anything other than Himself. As the first commandment says in Exodus 20: 3, “You shall have no other gods before me.” What we idolize can become our God. Some boys make their girlfriend their world that if she breaks up with him, he kills himself, visa versa as well. It’s sad. Prayers to loved ones that have lost someone in that situation.
What I’m really trying to say is that the only one we should worship is God. Anything we worship on earth, we can loose. Think about it, people don’t live forever. Some dead objects can live longer than people, but they can never love you back.
Even though we don’t see God, he lives forever and when we leave our bodies, we will finally see Him face to face. It’s like never seeing your Father, but before you were born, He left a book of letters to you so you can get to know Him and you can get to know how much He loves you and where to find him when you leave this earth. Those love letters of His is also known as the Bible. It’s hard to believe that such a big God that created the universe has such a powerful undying love for us, that no matter what we do, He will always love us. Even more hard to believe is that God loves us so much that he sent His Son from heaven to become a human being for the very purpose…to die for our sins by getting crucified on a cross. There’s no greater love than laying down your life for the one you love so that he or she can live, sort of like taking a bullet.
John 3:16 says,”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Why would Jesus have to do that? Think of it this way, we have laws in our country that were written long ago. Imagine if there were no rules in this country and anyone can do anything they want to do. There would be chaos everywhere, people would not know when they’ve crossed the line. There would be no line. Rules help bring order along with those that enforce the law. If one breaks that law, they can serve many years or a life time sentence in prison. In comparison, for someone who’s no longer in their body, it’s either heaven or hell. The sad thing is, is that some of us put ourselves in our own prison, sometimes it shows when we keep repeating the same thing and find ourselves in the same situation over and over again as if we can’t break out of the box or prison.
God has already set the rules long ago and when people break the rules, they go to hell, but it’s impossible to not break the rules as we are so flawed and live in an earth full of corruption. So Jesus came down, sort of like our advocate to stand in our place. Punishment was coming for us like a bullet and Jesus took the bullet for us. Through that we can be set free. It starts with faith the size of a mustard seed. Faith to believe that God love you & when you finally believe, that’s all the love you need to get through the hardest times in life. He becomes your strength, foundation, counselor, healer, shelter and many other things. Just believe. He’s waiting for you to receive His unconditional & powerful love.
I pray that if this spoke to anyone, that they will reach out and receive God’s love and forgiveness, that they will never again feel unloved, forgotten, unimportant, insecure, not good enough and especially imprisoned by the mistakes that have been repeating in their life. I pray that they will reap the joy from worshiping the one and only true God and nothing else. I pray that God will set them free from the bondage in their life…in Jesus name.
When I was at that age of having friend sleep overs, we would sleep in the living room with our sleeping bags and tell each over ghost stories. We had a thick book of ghost stories at home to read from. No one really believed in ghosts, we just like to believe for the moment only to feel the thrill of getting scared.
Years later when I was almost out of my teen years, I worked for a small marketing company. On a typical day, I worked by myself in the office. The suite was upstairs so anyone coming in would have to walk upstairs. There was no elevator or other way in. A few people would come in everyday, typically someone delivering a package or a DJ picking up records. Every time someone opened up the door downstairs, I would hear the bells hanging from the door handle swing back and forth.
My desk was out in the open office area, while the main boss’s office had a full height wall with a door that can fully separate his office from the rest of the space. The door to his office faced out to the top of the stairs and beside the door was a full height window with blinds that were always turned open.
On a typical day of being in the office by myself, I was making marketing packages in my boss’s office. It was near the end of the day and the last person expected to come to the office had just left. I continued making marketing materials in my boss’s office sitting in front of his couch, faced out towards the door into his office, which was wide open. As I looked out past the door to the top of the stairs, all of a sudden a dark shadow shaped as a silhouette of a person passed by in front of the door. It happened so fast. I couldn’t think fast enough to figure out what it was before I already got chills. I new at that instant that it was a ghost. I knew there wasn’t anyone in the office.
Right after seeing the ghost and getting goosebumps, I stood up to look through the window and couldn’t see anything, then I stepped out of my boss’s office and walked around the office to make sure no one was in the office. I even checked the bathroom and still, no one. I wasn’t so scared. Just thinking about it, it almost seemed like the ghost in the silhouette of a tall and big man, did not want to be seen, almost like when he passed by, he was hoping I wouldn’t see him. It wasn’t what I expected or what I’ve heard with ghost stories where the ghost is purposely scaring someone and is crazy and wants to kill and destroy. It was nothing like that. This ghost wasn’t trying to be seen.
After a few days, I spoke with a few guys a that worked two suites down from my office. I often spoke with them as they were in a similar type of marketing business. Low and behold, I wasn’t the only one with a creepy experience. Both guys I spoke with had a ghost experience as well in their office suite. They believe it’s the same one and that some guy was murdered somewhere around that office suite a long time back.
It’s hard to face pain. It’s hard to forgive someone who hurt, corrupted, manipulated, stole…etc. from you. How rotten that person is to do such a thing! Or if it’s not a person, sometimes it’s anger toward God for allowing it to happen. Whatever the case, as much as we feel some person doesn’t deserve it, we must let go and forgive. We may not forget or let that person in our lives again, but we need to forgive. Matthew 6:15 says, “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Bitterness or un-forgiveness is like plaque in our heart. In a similar way, bitterness is like the plaque, not so much clogging up our arteries, but when it sits in our heart and keeps storing up, it blocks up all the love inside of us. We become angry inside for so long that we begin to loose remembrance of why. Instead of thinking about how someone doesn’t deserve your forgiveness think about someone who needs to forgive you. If you want to be forgiven by that person and or by God, then you should also forgive others, even if that person does not deserve it, but do it for freedom in your heart.
If it’s too hard to forgive, pray for a miracle, that God will give you to ability to forgive that person/s. Sometimes in doing so, He will help you understand that person & things will change. I pray that anyone who’s been harboring un-forgiveness will find the strength in God to release it and be set free.
If you read though the news, you’ll find that many news sources talk about how President Trump downplayed the virus. When you’re shutting down flights into this country, that’s obviously something big, sometime actions speak louder than words, but society these days would rather have words (Biden) than action (Trump). We had a shelter in place & had to wear masks, but why are people still acting like he didn’t say enough? He didn’t need to emphasize and focus on it as done by many news channels.
Many people don’t understand this. They think he’s killing people because he didn’t emphasize how contagious is it, but why would anyone rely on Trump for that information. He’s not a doctor! He’s not the news. Dr. Fauci said enough about the virus already. If that wasn’t enough, MSNBC was already working hard to scare the hell out of everyone. Doing all they can to make everyone think they’ll die from it no matter your age or how healthy you are, as if the odds are that high. According to COvid-tracker there are about 6 million covid cases. Almost 3 million that have recovered and almost 200 thousand that have died.
I’ve heard it one too many times coming from the mouth of others that, they stopped watching the news because they didn’t want to live constantly afraid. So why do people expect the President to be a news source or Doctor to scare the hell out of everyone? Wouldn’t people want a President who’s hopeful of things getting better rather than a Doomsday President? Either way, it’s our duty to take care of ourselves.
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