God

Love Defined from the Source

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Depending on the source, the idea or definition of love can vary. From childhood, to being a teenager and into adulthood. From inside our home to outside of it, the depth of what love is can be so broad leaving one forever seeking out the true definition.

As a child growing up in America, I was exposed to many Disney movies and for those familiar with it, most of those movies were about a princess and a prince who met, had “love at first sight,” then got married and lived happily ever after. All those stories plant a seed in us to carry on in life believing there’s that love at first sight and happily ever after, neglecting the dynamics of two people that come from different backgrounds coming together and trying to become one.

It is usually a walk-in-the-park at the beginning, smooth sailing on the intense curiosity of the other person, but after most of the mystery is gone, things begin to change, reality sets in and you begin to look at your life rather than the other person. Maybe some personal issues start to come up, then the past, then you begin to see the bigger impact that the environment that you grew up in has on your view of what love is.

Maybe that environment was full of anger, bitterness, sweeping things under the table or never coming to resolutions, but silent treatments, temporary or permanent separations or maybe love in the household had conditions attached to it. Then, stepping outside of the house, the source for defining love may have been through movies watched or music listened to with friends or in the car. If it’s not happily ever after with Disney, maybe it’s defined through the explicit lyrics of a song making some believe that love has something to do with, on clean terms, sleeping.

Sometimes lines are drawn when it comes to loving someone, which is usually followed by, “I will or won’t love you if…” told by a significant other or by a parent. I can still remember getting off of the plane with my sister and my Mom telling us that she didn’t love us because we were misbehaving on the plane and not listening to her. There were other times that my parents would make us feel unloved because we did or didn’t do what they wished so I grew up believing that love was conditional. With all the movies and music around me, my definition of love was all the more tainted.

It wasn’t until Jesus came into my life, that I finally found the meaning of love. As I read His word, the Bible and spent time with the Lord in prayer, the meaning of love became clear. His love is unconditional, pure and so powerful. He is merciful and gracious. Nothing we do can ever separate us from His love.

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?…..35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:32,35, 38-39

He is the definition of love and the expression of it was when Jesus was nailed to the cross for our sins. He gave himself fully to us, nothing held back. Although we may not see the value in ourselves, God sees otherwise. Who better to know us than the Creator who created us for love. He is the pure definition of love.

He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:8

The act of love is defined in 1 Corinthians. In most versions, the word, “love” is used, but the old King James version uses the word, “charity”. It is a good source to compare our own acts of love and where our heart stands.

4 Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; 6 Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Charity never fails: ….. 13 And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7,13

Without knowing what love is, who love is or how to love, how do we love others? It starts with finding love. With all the laws, Jesus says that the greatest commandment can fill all. When you love God, He will begin to fill you with His love, then you will be able to love others. His greatest commandment is this:

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40

We are all valuable in Christ as He deemed us worthy to die for all of us. All of us, including what the world thinks is the worst. This is love, that He gave His all. If God is love, then the more you get to know Him, the more you know love. The next time you find yourself feeling unloved, look up at the sky and know that God is there and that you are loved by Him. If you want to know Him, just ask Jesus to show up. Believe and receive.

Come Just As You Are

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Whenever the word religious is used to describe someone, it usually implies that he or she is good or strives to be a good person. If I tell someone I go to church or if I talk about God, they label me as religious, but I would disagree. I would disagree with someone calling me a good person. I’m just a sinner saved by grave. I don’t go to church to be a good person. As we need food, air, shelter and water for our physical bodies, the spirit inside of us needs an encounter with God that brings healing and fulfillment.

If we think we can’t be in His presence if we’re sinners, it’s God’s presence that delivers us. I remember going to a miracle crusade in Anaheim, California back in 2003. The stadium was packed and before the doors opened, the line wrapped around the entire building. When the presence of God grew so thick, people were falling out in the presence. The youth were so hungry to get on stage and experience a touch from God. They ran up there, racing with each other. My cousin’s friend who never shed a tear, started to cry as soon as the service started and could not stop for entire four hours. When God’s presence comes, healing comes.

That lack of love can do major damage to someone. Failed by the ones that we expected to love us unconditionally and keep us safe, some rebel and carry around hatred in their heart or a lack of confidence. God can heal those areas. Parent’s don’t always say the right things to their kids. I didn’t understand the depth of unconditional love until Jesus stepped into my life and experienced the love of God. He gave His all on the cross as in taking a bullet for us.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:7-10

Whenever the topic of God comes up, we want to run away. When it comes to drawing close to God, some feel that they need to be good in order to do so. Adam and Eve, feeling ashamed, hid themselves from God after they ate of the tree that God told them not to eat from. That didn’t stop God from wanting to be in communication with them. It seems as if some feel that they need to be good, perfect or pure in order to come to God, but the Word says, to come as you are. You don’t need to change yourself before you come to God, rather, come to Him and He will change you.

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

God says come as you are. You don’t have to be perfect, good, pure or innocent. God heals the broken and brings restoration. Give God all your burdens, anger, shame, guilt and pain. God gives beauty for ashes. Come as a sinner and He will wipe you clean. He is a gracious and merciful God. In His presence, it is safe to be vulnerable and messed up. It is safe to surrender your burdens into the hands of God. Let His love heal the very depths of your aching soul.

To Worship or to be Worshipped

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There’s a man in Australia who claims to be a reincarnate Jesus and calls his girlfriend a reincarnate Mary. However, he’s not the only one who’s claiming to be Jesus. There’s another man in Russia also claiming to be Jesus. The worrisome part is that people believe and follow these guys.

The whole “human being acting as if their god” doesn’t stop there. If it’s not pretending to be Jesus, it may be some man with a long white beard with long white hair wearing an orange robe speaking non-sense to a crowd. Maybe the non-sense sounds philosophical at first, but if you were to record it and go back and listen to it, it makes no sense at all.

Some of these spiritual teachers speak out ideas that sound legitimate, maybe it’s something simple as letting go of greed or not being obsessed with money or materialism or having a balance in life. But it’s very surprising to see so many people following someone who pretends to be a god, meanwhile the guy might be a perv manipulates women into sleeping with him.

I think that the main lesson here is that human beings can never be god. There’s only one God. Remember in the book of Genesis when the serpent in the garden tempted Eve into eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent tempted Eve into eating it by telling her that it would make her like god.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:5

Even in heaven, Lucifer was a beautiful angel who lead the choir of angels. Filled up with pride from the praises of others he thought he can take over God’s throne. Lucifer was thrown down to earth. Thereafter, his name changed to Satan and ate dirt. The book of Isiah in the Bible ushers his former name as “Day Star, son of Dawn.”

Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. 12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

Isaiah 14:11-15

Secret societies like the Illuminati believe in the illumination of man or the exhalation of, as so do Satanist believe that human beings can be their own god.

Maybe we’re not trying to be gods, but possibly wanting to be worshipped, but sadly, humans worship other human beings. A little admiration shouldn’t do any harm, but when it’s taken to a point of worship or idolatry, it starts to become unhealthy. Maybe idolizing a famous person could still be safe being that they’re far out of reach and it’s admiration from a distance. But if you start trying to follow a famous person who’s life is destructive, you might fall into a pit.

Maybe we don’t idolize a famous athlete, singer or actor, but a person who we may think is a symbol of holiness. Then we assume that person to be perfect and whatever he or she says goes. Take for instance the Pope who’s a symbol of religion and holiness, one that speaks to God on behalf of his followers. We may think that since he’s the Pope he’s perfect and never sins. We would be forgetting the fact that he’s still human, meaning he is still tempted and is still capable of being corrupt.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:19

Even televangelist Pastors can be a disappointment. Some may start out with the right intentions, to serve God and serve others, but after all the praise, fame and prosperity can loose their direction and forget about the original purpose for the church. They are still in human flesh living in a world full of temptation and corruption.

It’s important to take a step back and reevaluate. Sometimes the Lord allows certain events to happen to humble us because as human beings, we are incapable or being in a position of worship and not loosing our minds over it. Pride takes over, then the fall happens, just as what happened to Lucifer.

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

Putting so much faith in a human being to be perfect, good and walk up right, all the time, can lead to major disappointment or straying into the wrong path. Humans make mistakes, no one is perfect, which is one of the reasons why forgiveness is so important.

Worshipping someone or something to a point that it revolves around your life or makes you dependent on it for your identity can be hazardous. Imagine if that one thing or person disappears, like money or an emotional tie to a person leaves you, you might feel left with nothing. You’re identity is stripped away and you might feel like life is no longer worth living.

Giving one human an immense amount of power can be dangerous if their heart is not in the right place, like the dictators of the world that take away the freedom of the people or even their lives due to their religious beliefs.

Only God, Jehovah, meaning, the great “I Am” deserves the worship and praise of His creation. He’s never been a dictator. He allowed the bad tree to be placed in the garden. Without it, there’s no ability to choose between right or wrong. He doesn’t force anyone to change their ways. Every human being has a choice to repent and follow Him or live for Him. We all have a choice to surrender the control of a situation in our lives to Him. His heart is as the love of a Father with nothing but love and good intentions, even during hard times. He never dies so He will never leave you. Worshipping God is like filling the empty tank in your soul, it replenishes and strengthens.

Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.

Hebrews 13:5

What are you worshipping today?

Gut Feeling for a Miraculous Healing

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About nine years ago I became allergic to wheat. I could not eat bread, cake, donuts, pizza and many other foods that contain wheat flour. If I ate just a tiny amount of those foods, I would swell up on the inside, have a headache, vertigo, IBS, or a rash for two weeks.

For someone who’s allergic to wheat, what happens is when it enters the colon, it makes the villi swell up for two weeks, which blocks it from absorbing nutrients. The body then becomes deprived of what it needs from food. For someone who’s allergic to wheat to continue to eat it can end up with diabetes or cancer.

If I had not spoke to a friend of mine who is allergic to wheat gluten, I would have never known what was happening to my body. She had been diagnosed with cancer twice and survived. After she recovered the second time, she withdrew from eating wheat gluten and afterwards, felt like she’s had been sick for so long. She has been cancer free ever since. It’s been nine years of gluten free eating for me. Although, here and there I get surprised when I unknowingly eat food with wheat flour.

Just to a make things more complicated, I started getting pressure right below the center of my rib cage. This would typically happen when I would eat or drink cold sweet dairy or spicy food. It would sometimes get really uncomfortable at night as I’m trying to sleep. After experience this on and off, I finally saw a doctor this Monday and she had me get an x-ray done just to make sure I’m free and clear of anything alarming and thank God, the x-ray was clear. She prescribed some pills that would decrease my stomach acid.

Two days later, I still hadn’t had a chance to get the pills. It was about that time of the day, time for the news and as I sifted through I saw the 700 club news. Thinking about how they pray at the end of the show and at times, they get a word from God for someone watching to be healed of anything physical, mental or emotional. For some reason, I felt that maybe tonight or some night they would have a word for me.

I casually thought about it and when Gordon started speaking, I heard him say, something about someone with problems with stomach acid, he went on about getting bloated, not being able to eat spicy foods, bread and pizza. Then he said God is healing your digestive system. At that moment, it wasn’t even him anymore as I felt the Lord in that moment. What timing! I had just been tested for wheat allergy and prescribed pills for stomach acid and now God heals me.

Even though it felt like God presence was in the room at that moment, I still had some skepticism so I decided to test it out the next day and today. I had cheese bread, focaccia bread, flour tortilla, semolina noodles and a hamburger with a regular bun on it. Each time, I did not get a headache, nor did I get stomach pains, bloating or a vertigo. I had been praying for the longest time for God to heal my digestive system and God has answered my prayer. It’s hard to make sense out of what has happened to my body, but it’s not supposed to, it’s a miracle. Miracles defy science. God really healed me. Hallelujah!

For those that have a similar request for healing, I ask that God will heal you as well. In Jesus name! Amen!

The King Within

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Transformation of Jesus painting by Vange
Transformation by Vange L.

If you’ve ever watched the movie, The Gladiator, that is one of my favorite movies. What I like about it, is how it focuses on a character by the name of Maximus who went from a commander of an army to a slave; yet although he became a slave, he still had the same ability to lead a team in a fight to victory. He did not loose his identity because he was no longer a commander. He was still the same man that a dying emperor had chosen to take his place. Although Maximus was not a prince nor in the blood line of one, the man on the inside had what was needed to rule a nation and being a slave did not take away what was already embedded inside of him.

Watching the movie jogged my memory back to a story told by my pastor at church. Occasionally churches do outreaches, where they distribute many items to those in need, within or outside of the country. It takes money, volunteers, preparation and time. Sometimes people choose to volunteer their time, others donate money or personal items. The need was announced at the beginning, then at the end of service, a man who wanted to financially help out requested to meet with the pastor. When the pastor first saw the man he noticed his rundown looking clothing and his scruffy facial hair. He could have passed for a homeless man so when he told the Pastor about the amount of money he wanted to donate, it was an absolute shock. The homeless looking man wasn’t just rich, but he was a King from another country.

Before Jesus came into the world, He sat on a throne as king, but He chose to come into the world as a peasant. He did not come dressed as a king with gold and expensive clothing or with a palace. Some came to the realization of Jesus as King by being around Him. Some experienced His miracles and others, His love and grace. He came for everyone: the rich, the poor, the lame, the sinners, even the ones that the world would consider scum. He hung out with a few people that society abhorred, like a tax collector or a woman who once sold herself for money. He touched and healed lepers or what society considered, the unclean. He did not live extravagantly, although He could have by turning water into wine, healing the sick or by being all knowing. He did not need riches to accomplish His purpose, nor clothing to get people to realize that He is the Son of God. People saw that He is Lord, when they looked at His heart. He took the cross as a criminal would and along with it, the sins of the world: the hatred, anger, pain, bitterness and everything else that needed to be washed away in order for us to be clean and right before God. The sin that would have killed us, He took it upon Himself on the cross. With that powerful love comes surrender and worship.

Isaiah 53: 4-5 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Love than Religion

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There are many types of religions in the world, most commonly: Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Judaism, Mormonism, Hinduism and Christianity. Most involve prayer, worship, bowing, singing or offerings. Others have rituals, which they believe would set them up to a higher level of spirituality. All these efforts to make one believe that through certain actions, they will become holy, a good or better person or pleasing to the eyes of God. There’s usually a set of rules or boundaries that set a line not to cross or actions that must be carried out tied to consequences.

The continual trying to be perfect on our own humanly efforts can turn into our religion and trapped us into residual traditions often wondering where is revival? Without knowing our Creator, how do we know where He has placed the true switch of joy? Do we keep believing that our religious traditions will save us? Of all religions in the world, how do we know which one is true or which God is real or fake?

The truth lays inside of each of us, mended into the fabric of who we are created to be. God placed it there before we came out into the world. Unfortunately, when we get older and corrupted by our environment, it eventually gets hidden. Truth is found when there’s no way of denying it. Sometimes it’s hard to know if it’s God speaking, especially when so many lies spoken have been dwelling inside for many years, yet He still speaks.

Aside from the bible or religious books, there are stories of people who had encounters with God, some that wrote about it and have become the basis of a religion, but what about the time when there were no books published in the world, yet there were still stories of God’s mighty hand or visitations from angels or God? People spoken about in these stories had a relationship with God. They knew God and were in communion with Him. God spoke in dreams, visions, by an angelic messenger or a burning bush. Still to this day, God speaks in dreams, visions, angelic messengers, by audible voice, a voice inside and sometimes through events, strangers or friends, but not a burning bush.

Religious traditions are mostly good practices, as the bible says in James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” However, besides doing or not doing certain things to keep ourselves feeling a certain way, what’s more important is our relationship with God. Think about all the things you do for the one you love, imagine never spending time with that person just caught up in the job of trying to please them, but never spending quality time, opening up your heart, talking to them and telling them how thankful you are, how much you love them or sharing your sorrows. Spending time talking to someone will get you very antiquated with their voice and character. Similarly, building a relationship with God is spending time in prayer, thanking God for the littlest things, sharing your sorrows and requests and worshiping Him. Sometimes, it’s a matter of just sitting and listening.

How do we know it’s the voice of God? He speaks to our heart and the bible confirms it. Image God speaking to different people and revealing who He is, then all of those people wrote it and down and just so happened to write the same or very similar thing about Him. Similar to the stories in the bible, God appears to people, there are different people spoken about that had a relationship with God and wrote about it. The stories reveal His character as a Father in Heaven. The book of Psalms 103:1-5, reveals God the Father’s love for us,”Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The book of Romans reveal the Christ, the Son of God’s love for us. Romans 8: 35-39 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There are many other scriptures that speak of God’s love and throughout the bible we see His character. God is love. Romans 5:8 says,”8 God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Of all the many religions in the world and gods that people worship, Jesus is the only one that came down to earth from heaven, in human form, to be nailed to a cross and die for the sin of humanity so that we can once again, have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. As Adam and Eve hid from God in the garden after they sinned, we no longer have to hide from God as our sins our taken away from the blood of Jesus on the cross, we can come face to face with Him again, unashamed. We don’t have to go through a ritual or run miles making efforts to be good or right with God, salvation is a love gift from God and having faith in His love, goodness, mercy and grace is what frees us and makes us more like Him. It’s a relationship, not a religion. It starts with inviting God into your heart, confessing and believing. Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Foreshadowing of Dreams

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I had a dream a few weeks back. It was one of those dreams that was vivid. The clarity was like I was really there. I was riding in my sisters SUV, either passengers side or the seat right behind. We were driving through winding roads. The car was very close to the edge on the right side of the road. Beyond that, a very steep drop. Trees covers most of the side of the mountain. At a point we were going very slow and again, I looked outside the window and looked down at the valley very far down from the car. I could see the water below us. It was crystal clear. I could see the colorful rocks underneath the water. In that moment, we lost my dog. When woke up and saw my dog in the morning, I felt relieved and thankful that she was still there, cute as ever.

Few weeks after I had that dream, I find myself riding in my sisters SUV on winding roads, trees all around on a steep hillside. We were driving to Yosemite. I sat behind the passengers seat and to the right side of me, I look down, very close to the edge of the road, I see an extremely steep drop. We were about 3000ft above sea level and I can see the valley, streams and a lake as we move along.

When we arrived to Yosemite, we walked straight to the river. I sat on a rock surrounded by crystal clear water, while dipping my feet in to feel refreshed. The rocks were colorful. The river was shallow and the rocks beneath can be clearly seen. At that moment, I received bad news, like in my dream, I lost my dog. In reality, my dog had passed away.

Sometimes it seems as though God forewarns of future events in a dream or a still voice inside as a preparation for the future. Although painful, sometimes heartbreak can bring us closer to God. When life is a party, God is forgotten, but in the hard times, we draw near to Him. God is close to the brokenhearted and as the tears fall, I feel myself drawing close to Him once again.

Psalm 34:18 KJV
[18] The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit.