Devotions Growth 6/15/21

I am very mature yet I still have a lot of “growing” to do. Thank You, Lord, for Your patience with me…!

Ever tried to grow something but it took forever?

I don’t think I would do that. I just don’t have the patience. I love that there are many people with “green thumbs,” but to do that would require way too much from me!

People who garden are wonderful. I am amazed when I found out more and more that there are others who do that. Some people will grow tomatoes right outside their windows, or found ways to “scrap” food pieces where they place them into the earth and a new sprout comes forth.

As long as they have the tools and the ability to do so, something will grow…!

But just how can we grow in life…? Is there a way we might not be used to doing?

The bible has two verses that I feel have been laid on my heart today.

The first is from the Old Testament! It is from the prophet Isaiah.

Just what does it take to grow? I know it simple but yet sometimes simple images make a huge impact to the life wanting to follow Him.

Water. Water is a giver of life. Here imagine life where water flows freely like a spring.

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness. And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

Water brings life. Did you know water also exists in the desert?

Cacti or “cactuses” that exist in the desert do hold water.

There is another thing about deserts you probably don’t know. Did you know in many arid lands of desert that it can go from extremely hot in the scorching day to very cold at night?

How can that happen? I just wanted to mention that. There are so many things in life to find interesting.

Ooh I just found something:

The temperature in the desert can change drastically from day to night because the air is so dry that heat escapes rapidly at night. Source: earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Even if you feel that God is not doing stuff in your life doesn’t mean He isn’t? Have you responded to the call to know Jesus? We are very impatient creatures but we are important to the call to Christ and we must know what we were made (or “recreated” by the Holy Spirit) to be!

Another verse that is more clear to anyone that wants to simply read His word and also live for God.

This verse is about the knowledge from His Word and growing through His Son.

Here is the verse from the New Testament below:

..but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3: 18

Hmm, so in order to live for Christ, we must also have a personal growth in Him?

How can we all do that? Is there a special way to grow in a way we might not know about?

That was first by the blood of Jesus! He paid the way. It is through the love of the father that it happened. He willed it, we must accept it! Like a gift from a loving friend we must accept the gift of eternal life.

Maybe that is too late for you? Maybe you feel that spiritually you can’t even cry out fo the one who loves You so much…?

I know of spiritual warfare. It is awful and sometimes deadly stuff!

Know that I know Him and I love YOU. I might not know you but I hope I do.

I also know some things that happen if I surrender to the Will of God because it is He that does the changing, not I!

I am like a farmer who spreads the seeds in hopes of one day a spiritual harvest.

Will You follow the ones who know Jesus? I hope so. May God protect you if you so do!

Just follow and you will see amazing changes in your life you did not know could be possible!

Because Christ can make the impossible possible. He makes things that seem impossible happen only if one gives in to His will, and He glorifies Himself so that it is possible! And it is fun to live in Him. Believe me.

Devotions Matthew 5:44- 6/14/21

I’m rushing to cook for about two people. For fun and for a person from my church who is not well physically. And he’ll never be well again sadly…

Isn’t it tough to love people who are against you? How about people who flat out say they hate you? Or one person, in an example, who wanted to curse me (she did it secretly though. It was my neighbor who lived with her family right next door to where my family lived)?

So even if it might be just in our hearts or even briefly if we want to get revenge, we do that, right? WRONG.

Being a true Christian means living truly uncomfortable, and that means we should follow commands we wouldn’t in our sinful heart normally do. We must not do things our old self has done either (if you still are, you need to get right with God now or adjust your attitude and then ask Him for forgiveness). If you are actively pursuing things that are not good or are wrong and you know it…. that is scary. I don’t know what to say about that besides: Do you truly know the Lord?

You probably don’t. And that is scary!

Anyway before I digress, we must love the people actively out to “get” us. I know that sounds paranoid, hahaha….

Believe me, it is true.

The bible in Matthew 5:44 says we must bless those who “curse” us. We must do good to those who hate us. And pray for those who persecute or, more lightly, use us spitefully.

But aren’t we supposed to care about our own needs and live for our lonely growth?

Why do we do this? Isn’t that saying true that “God only helps those who help themselves?”

That’s such an untrue saying. it’s like a nice sounding “Christian” so-called line straight from the devil’s lips himself!

That is a saying from the prince of lies, THE enemy, would you listen to that statement…?

We must live for own personal growth yes (devoting time with God’s word every day or any moment we spend time with Him) and also learn every day to love and see our knowledge and how we can apply it (wisdom)!

In a world of “hate” we must love. In a place where people protest or are secretly against what we believe but won’t say so in public we must be kind back. In a world where thieves can get away with things but consider themselves “right” or “honoring,” we must show them the limits of the law yet be patient.

Being a real Christian means fighting our “old selves” whether one who was rage-filled or even vengeful and be counter that, not in just fleeting word but in genuine heart.

Being a true follower of the Lord means even praying for people who were once mockers of you, who slander-ised you (yet you know the truth) or hopes you fail in life.

If you are going out of your way to do that to wreck other people’s lives, what does that say about you?

Stop and be love. If you can’t then learn to love dammit because we don’t know if we have tomorrow! Do you know we’re not even guaranteed anything on this earth?

We must not just plan to love tomorrow but at least try to love today. Christians, be love because as one guy I know said “You’re the only ‘book’ they’ll ever ‘read.'”

They see YOU as an example of a follower of Christ. They see YOU as the one who though they don’t understand your view or even say that it is “stupid” in their eyes, they might show you respect at the very least if you follow through and not just “talk the talk.”

Let’s be love to our so-called enemies today. Love as Jesus loves. That is all.

Psalm 139- 6/9/21 Part 2

Continuing on, I hope you checked out Part 1, dear reader. Otherwise this post will make little sense…

After being moved by God’s definite love for me and for the people who He dearly loved, I was eventually sent home. I had an after-care program and went back home and went to church again.

I wish I could say I was quick to proclaim the amazing things that just happened! Sadly I was very emotion-based and didn’t want to say much of anything because I was depending on feelings after I got home and it “felt” like the Lord had left me entirely.

I was however not forgetting what He did for me though. I was baptized the month I got back!

So what did this all mean? Was that just a happy ending and I should just dust myself off and be done with living my life? One might see that as just an experience and look back on it like a pleasant memory but not move on or have new ones.

Is that all to my story? That would have been nice but God does things through all good and bad. He is there for us, He makes ways for us, and we might not see those blessings or the pure endless love of Him but it is there whether we might want to believe it or not!

We could dive high into the clouds and He is there. But what about if we went say… “underground?”

As long as we walk this earth could be be with us even if we think we were in “hell?”

The year after experiencing a happy joyous time, as if in time, there was the opposite. I was really feeling excited about living for the Lord.

But the prince of lies (a.k.a. satan) loves to deceive, bring painful memories from far back into fruition, and keep us feeling that we can’t and shouldn’t do what God wants us to do.

He loves telling partial truths but will have His servants on their knees feeling they should give up feeling deep guilt which leads to depression.

He also uses your experience for “his” gain! Now you can’t be at church. Now you can’t be this so-called “blessing.” He will remind you of so much from before you will wonder if this god is true in your life at all.

“It’s true you’re a so-called “believer” right? Or were you just deceiving people….?”

I was uncomfortable not understanding what the people were talking about as I was learning about how to serve in ministry in the summer that year. I pondered about things deep in my past because there was an awful situation, I didn’t know the details then as people were going over that which made me end up feeling discouraged.

I lost sleep it bothered me so much. Then I was daily burdened by it so much when I was driven to church, I was like a stick in mud as people drove me there. I just could not move!

As if my fellow brethren were trying to remind me of His love or at least the beauty of His creation they told me with tears in their eyes how the flowers that sprung up looked. There was new flora and it seemed as if God had been showing me His love yet… I still felt paralyzed. What in the world was this???

My personal demons continued on with their game and after a while I didn’t know how to feel. I thought maybe I just didn’t deserve God’s love. Maybe I should “go to hell” instead.

Hell is not a good place by the way, just sayin’! I felt like in the event I will share that it seemed to happen to me, just know you should never feel you should be there. That there is no path but that place. It’s endless and it will be your only place after the first death if you choose to live without God!

I didn’t like that ultimately in sin I was the way I mentioned earlier. I thought I deserved to “burn” because I couldn’t do things that apparently, I found out later could only be done through Christ.

Then I stopped eating. When my mom gave me a tv dinner she heated up in the oven it somehow tasted like ashes (I swear at least a little bit like my taste buds were shot). Then after more days and awful situations (I was going to lose my insurance soon and there was no way to stop it, it seemed) I lost grip on reality.

I thought I was still doing my movie project (but somehow only while I was sleeping) since I tried to get back to it before all of this happened. I was over a friend’s house and after hoping the worst on myself I felt like I was attacked and “sent” to hell.

Screams and fire and brimstone I heard all around me. It smelled like sulfur was kept just below my nostrils every time I took a breath!

My friend’s mother (who was alive at the time) grabbed me and tried to bring me upstairs.

I heard a strange voice then I thought I “heard” her tell the voice to “shut up” and I also realized I couldn’t move well at all.

My legs felt like they were stripped of their skin and every step I took in the midst of the burning sounds and scream noises felt like the stairs I was moving up I was sinking into lava.

By the time I finally opened my eyes I was staring into hers and the screams the sounds of flames, everything then dissipated. She kept me in a quiet dark room and held me to herself.

As if it was a huge trauma I woke up the next day with some kind of mental “reset.” If I remember right the mom and dad were looking at me like I was their “baby” and showing love that I didn’t deserve. I responded back like a child.

(Sorry I had to take a moment to cry; the father also recently passed.)

So to keep this somewhat shorter, I probably didn’t see myself still as “redeemed.” I went my own way like a possessed person who believed now he was possibly the only person on earth to ever lose their salvation.

I was now dead on earth. I was gone. All because of self-judgement.

More hallucinations, more smelling of sulfur and this time I ended up at a few hospitals, not just at two (including the psyche building) like the year prior.

Eventually I ended up at the hospital. I probably would have perished if not for this special “dwelling.” But you know what was neat? It was the same hospital as last time. I was in the adult ward this time!

Then of course Satan did his things. More challenges and scary stuff. One night I saw two people outside my window by I’d say twenty feet away or so…? I knocked and they turned around. Two demonic looking men looked me in the eyes.

They had strange smiles as they immediately sprinted towards the hospital and headed straight for me. I was not hallucinating this time: This was now real!

Somehow they got into the hospital and went towards my location.

I stood turned away from them as they headed for me. There were some firm but gentle shouts as the staff immediately kicked them out.

And like that they were gone…!

But as I speak of hell, remember when I said that Jesus is like a “firefighter…?” Well that’s coming up.

On Sunday I was so blessed to find out that in a smallish room a bunch of people were waiting as one man was not just a staff member on the medical team but also a pastor.

He shared about the bible. And He told of God’s love.

Here I was on the pit of seeming hell and then I heard a bunch of words that changed me after that moment. A spiritual refresher that could only come from a reverend filled by the Holy Spirit. A chance to know that there was renewal in the midst of hardship. Life in the midst of personal sadness and regret.

Out of all the terrible stuff I had done God’s love was there. He was there no matter what I thought I deserved genuinely.

God still loved me.

My eyes overflowed with tears.

I had no idea. I did not know that it was possible.

So much of this touches on Psalm 139. Where can we go from Him? Is it possible while in this life to “get away” entirely from Him?

How great does He think of us too. It says in a following verse that if we were to count of His thoughts for us they would be greater than the grains that exist of sand!

What love. What compassion that He loved us so much that He also sent His son Jesus to die for us!

We should not take that punishment if there is a way out! In God there is a way and that is in Christ Jesus.

Grace is like being given a gift we did not deserve. It was given selflessly with love for men and women, that we should not die before we find that answer.

You have just been given a gift. It was paid for by Christ Jesus who died for your, mine, our sin.

Do you know how much God loves you?

Anti-Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8255

Father, I thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Without being given that we would have no hope that we might see within us someday. May the reader understand that to live on their own leads to endless hardship but the way to live with joy and feel a great reason is in Christ. Father God I pray that this reader comes to the knowledge and faith that is in and through your Son. No matter what we go through You are there. Let that not be too late for this reader. May they understand that there is no religion but love from God but by the way that You made happen. Thank you for the privilege of prayer.

Note: Hope you enjoyed the debut of the new category Testimony. God bless you today!

Devotion Psalm 139- 6/9/21

Am going to help out another friend. Hopefully he won’t get kicked out from his place he’s lived so long in, he is such kind and sweet person to everyone. I hope that he will be fine after this!

Here is a number in case you ever feel what I will share about my testimony.

Anti-Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8255

Struggle and the worst days in the midst of hardship. Is it fun? No. Is it worth it? It…. might be? But it’s too easy not to think about it needing to happen because it is too hard to believe it!

Sometimes we struggle. We have worry, pain, sadness, depression, and loneliness. Then there are even “bigger” obstacles. Losing a job, alcoholism, losing loved ones, losing the house that one lived in for so long!

That’s not all the struggles but there are many things that happen every day. If you are rich enough though that is great. I hope you are able to help spread the word and share this free blog to people.

Anyway off of that tangent, I and my family have struggled ourselves with possible homelessness. My dad was working many jobs as we lived in a single house (it was a rental though) and faced some huge problems. An unforeseen problem where a person took advantage on a house he was trying to sell and led that to a lawsuit. My dad lost that case because the judge, allegedly, just wanted to be on the other’s side. To be on “their” side just to look good? That’s discouraging.

My dad lost that then the rent piled up and he could not afford it anymore. He also lost his one of two jobs as one place laid him off.

We had nowhere to “go.” No plan for a vacation house that happened to be somewhere else on coast by the beach. Nothing rich to be able to relax and not be so deep in worry.

Then a sweet “angel” a family member willingly gave up her house so we would live in, just so we wouldn’t become homeless and be out on the streets!

The house that as of now is the shelter, the dwelling… is the house this very day.

I hope one day they will be able to live for just each other one day…. because my parents deserve to have peace and be able to be happy either in retirement or just to be active in some capacity.

But anyway I honestly wasn’t trying to say all that either, haha! I just wanted to say this. Deep in our stresses, our hardships, and even in seeming trials and tribulations, the Lord still loves us! God has love that permeates and penetrates deep. It comes to all who want simply to live for Him, serve Him

…and be led by Him.

Now I will get into personal testimony. For years I “lived” within the walls of church. I was in a church around the time I was born too! But I was torn and struggled with my own life.

Bullying, verbal/some physical abuse from my mom (I forgive you though Mom, and I love you so much!), and other things from elementary school all the way to the beginning of high school came on me making life almost impossible to keep going.

My freshman year was a day in which I contemplated suicide. Yes it was wrong to think that but if you can imagine the daily toil I had of people constantly pummeling me with jokes and tearing apart any happiness and self-worth I could have had, it was a way out. Worst off before that moment came to be I saw people who tore into me show seeing “grace” to others. I was somehow still an exception.

That’s it! Was I guess my heart’s motive. I was going to die a painful, awful self-inflicted death and all I asked was that I would be dead at the end of it.

What God’s grace did for me probably not even halfway through that day was that I forgot about that. All of it. I must have had a great day because I didn’t have that cross my mind again until I took Psychology my senior year where I found out it was a repressed memory.

Speaking of my senior year I somehow saw God’s deep love, how He was against abandonment, and to live for Christ with all my heart.

After my hardship and in effect then becoming “activated” by the Holy Spirit, I wanted to gratefully acknowledge His love to every place I would go!

I say this only because God is good. Christ saved me from so much and it was like I saw a hundred blessings all at once.

I went to school with an oomph to show God’s love and proclaim the gospel! My personality, everything in my life was turned around and like puzzle pieces fit into His glory. As I felt not just the love towards others but such a deep intimate bond with Christ (I do miss that…) there were hurdles too.

Some light hardships came. My school project being redone meant I had to not graduate with my class and repeat my senior year; though my project was just a screenplay I was determined to do a full on movie project and asked our local “News station” to recruit people for the movie and was told not to do that and my suggestion got filed away; I instantly learned in my heart as if in discernment that anything I planned to do for Jesus, Satan seemed to be right behind that action to stop it;

Then those “hardships” became bigger ones! After seeing a ghostly place with a friend sometime later an elaborate thing happened. It was like Satan sent evil and it dropped down right next to me in my bed (a demon). I screamed my head off! But at the same time it seemed like it was in reaction by the Holy Spirit.

Then one night I was lying in bed and was woken up by the Lord. “No. Not yet. Please. Don’t let ‘the end’ happen… not yet!”

What happened was I was shaken back and forth in my bed twice, then it felt almost like two fingers went under my ribcage to lift me up! The fear of the Lord then was definite and a reality!

The Lord was coming. And I had to warn people!

So I continued work on the project.

Then after some more situations other things happened and eventually I ended up hospitalized. I felt like Paul in that situation because here I was feeling scared and seemingly alone and all I wanted was to see my church’s happy faces again.

The place felt like a prison. You couldn’t even open the window to get fresh air because it was locked shut and the handle to open it had been removed!

I felt discouraged. And also (sorry Mom and Dad, forgive me) I became not homesick, but church sick. I asked my dad to get the directory and looked at the pictures.

Then after a while of being in a psychiatric hospital, I began to notice something. People in my group and even some of the staff looked familiar. Were they familiar? Yes, they really were!

God answered my hope to be with church to when I was away from church to bringing an old church to me! The people I was chatting and would fellowship with were from my old church when my dad lost the rental house!

How could this be? Does God really exist now, reader? I believe so and He is there for you whether you will believe it or not!

Part 2 coming

Just Be Love- 4/27/21

Three people died in my life over a period of about two years; I had another mental breakdown. I have had too many to count by now… sigh

Sometimes I’ve thought I’d known it all. I think I’ve gotten it all together yet God proves me wrong.

So many times I’ve thought I’ve unlocked the mysteries of God but then hardships happen that are beyond hard-to-take…

But we aren’t supposed to have all the answers. God is mysterious. There are things so mysterious about Him people try to comprehend them and don’t succeed. A pastor well-known on tv and has many books believes whole-heartedly in God yet doesn’t believe in the trinity. Another …. wait, I should say, and a so-called “pastor” I personally call an “over-comforter” only focuses on the good stuff in Christian life to the point I’ve found his way about things excruciatingly simple. Yet these people are human, people that are focused to do all they can for the glory of God. Maybe they are good at guiding anyone who loves Him or wants to improve themselves.

But hear this: God has mysteries we aren’t supposed to comprehend! I believe that is because He doesn’t want us to depend on ourselves or any worldly logic or even many “intellectual” discussions going from assumptions (science calls “theories” which according to a worldly intellect that has the highest I. Q., means something based on fact) etc. Scientific analysis that is proven to be a true about whether or not there is evidence in it, is still “but we believe THIS instead cuz this we believe is factual.”

God has many mysteries. Some people dubbed crazy religious nuts are the ones that are claimed incorrect and wrong. They might even be claimed “biased” or “incorrect based on data.” It’s not “fair.” Either thoughts, God is still the truth! Whether you think the world was founded by God or a huge round of trillion to one, hugely unfathomable circumstances.

God wants us to live for Him, and that’s that! God wants us not to have all the answers because we’re supposed to not have “everything to know” about the world and it’s many grand mysteries.

There is even a song I love. It’s an old hymn. It goes “if every stalk on earth a quill,” and a paper stretched out across the sky. Then in the tune you can picture ocean filled with ink, and if He wanted, could write about the love of God for anyone, for any people groups, for people just hurting for people suffering for people just wanting a friend, for people who just happen to label themselves “straight” or “gay” for people who struggle constantly fighting their drug habits, for people weary and sick of life giving their bodies away for people just sad they can’t do anything in life, for people who just want an ear to listen, for someone who listens to the news and is scared to death about Black Lives Matter and Antifa (Antifa though is worse. The founding of BLM has flaws but at least at the core of the people who are frustrated by it there is a people who are hurting, people sick of the horrible atrocities that happened during slavery, people sick of the injustices that they face in the world, awful prejudices and hate, being insecure to go out because they don’t want to be treated differently. That is understandable. But Antifa is just whiny bull-poop, haha!). God wants to show love to everyone, regardless of skin, creed, religion, even any form of struggle- to “drain the ocean dry.”

The love of God is vast and amazing. We’ve got to love not hate. We need to be for each other not be alone, we need to just love each other!

Lift up another in prayer. Show mercy and not judgement or seeing condemnation. We should not assume and think to judge, to condemn, before knowing each other but keep finding just how wonderful God, His people, His word, His majesty, His excellence, His patience, all things that are God’s that from whence He is, was, will work through and guide us, and many we just show love to one another.

Be a good example and love not hate. Be good to one another, not drive a stake in the middle of things, not shake things up when things are going well or to stir the pot and play things a certain agenda. Just be love!

Just please let’s all avoid the dern politics too, hehe! I myself became convicted of that. I’m a little ashamed more than I am about talking of things that really matter. I am a little ashamed to be a republican. Fanatics in the party sometimes drive a wedge between ones and not know someone by shouting at them before they truly know the issues. I am however not ashamed to be a Christian.

Just be love. Be love to and for each other. That’s all that God wants from us. And be love now because the world is ticking.

Leave what’s not needed behind- Poem below 12/22/19

I just made a personal, spiritual declaration today! What more good timing than to give this poem I was going to post when written but became afraid because I thought it was too personal.

And hopefully I will give a Christmas type of post here but just in case my own timing is bad, here is a verse I just heard in church: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. ~Galatians 4:4-5″

Here’s the poem:

Title: Burning Bridges

Some paths one should not return
Some places could be dangerous
To go back over a place one thought they were to stay away
A treacherous test to play

I thought I had gotten past it
To burn that bridge was once enough
But to feel the pull to go over it, singed it now is
Still thought just one more go would be good

But I might not make it back this time
I must not take the risk
To plan to demolish, destroy, to build anew
I should say “Goodbye” like to a cruel comfortability

And I will. Time to go and do it
And finally be free from its easy straying walk…
to endless good possibilities

Written 11/23/19

Quick Quip- A Pit 3/11/19

A good chunk of this sprang from reading a book that my church has been getting into lately by a great writer. Maybe in a future post I will speak about this and the other book we covered that is about the Christian life but how we might get the wrong idea about how to live it.

Believe it or not but just moments ago I was feeling like I was in almost a pit of despair. For some time now, depression and complicated things in my life were feeling like they had power in tearing me down.

It wasn’t until I found a glimpse of a purpose; I saw someone I never thought of to pray for and feel like that began to open my eyes. I realized that the person had little to no self-worth and prayed they would find that in God. It didn’t strike me that something that was seeming self-seething banter was actually not that but a real reflection to how he saw himself.

It seemed that God has done this with me a few times maybe more. Where I had to feel lower than usual to realize that God wanted me to see HE was doing the work and not me! Too often I thought to live for God but telling others about Christ felt almost like a burden or something that would be too difficult. As my pastor has once said all as believers are called to tell and testify of Christ but there are some who think of this as a chore or with the wrong attitude.

For a while now I have also felt like I have a burden toward certain people and though I don’t exactly know the know-how to speak and reach these people in Jesus’ name effectively yet, I will still at least strive towards that as well as want to share the gospel with the people around me.

I hope that you reader will realize something greater than this life seems to offer. Sometimes life has to get us into a pit before we find out there is a way out and a path in life that is greater than we would ever expect. I hope in Jesus that He shows you the way as well.

Quick Quip-Restoration

Sometimes God will do things beyond what we expect. I even think of my testimony where God had transformed a part of my life that I thought only I could do (or at least try to succeed at it- I failed) and He did the impossible because of the change I had through Jesus Christ.

But actually God can if you know Him do things you can’t expect. He can restore Your life if you live for Him! But not everything is instant in happening in your life though; in fact sometimes you have to wait on Him for certain things (while that happens, build up your character in Christ) but it will be worth it.

I have not reached certain parts of my life I hope to achieve yet. I thought I was going to be married to someone, have kids, etc. but a lot of things in life got in the way (mainly my fault). In church just this past week, all I could think of was that I probably had a few things to give up: things I needed to bring to God and lay the burden on Christ (mainly using bad language even when I’m alone. I don’t like to admit that). But up until then I was seeing God doing many things in my life leading me up to Sunday and felt the tugging in my life. That was when I poured my heart out to Him in tears praying I will live for Him with all my heart. I want to give my all to Him.

I wasn’t going to just only give up little things while other things I knew were not good would just be like a hobby. I wasn’t going to half-“donkey” it. (You know what word I mean by that….). No but instead I feel that I should give back to the Lord, everything as much as I realized the day I was completely transformed by Christ.

Even believers need to be refreshed in the spirit and be restored to what God wants them to be at that point in their life. This is not saying that in one day you will be pretty much 100% like Christ (that is where sanctification comes in. Also it’s a process only we will never be perfect, not until we are gone from this earth).

I was reading a devotion by Max Lucado recently and one thing caught my eye. The title for that day was “A Complete Restoration” (just to note I wasn’t going in order like one would normally with devotional stuff like this). It says that God “has” to change us. If we aren’t changed by Him what can He do in your life? He must take down walls of hatred and replace them and other things with His goodness. We need to be transformed and restored or else what can we be when it comes to showing the light of Christ so that others can seek Him?

Quick Quip- More than just a Fan

Some churches have a strange agenda. They think it’s a good idea to take in people unchanged by the gospel and then have them a part of the ministry. This is only to increase numbers and to also tell people on the outside that “Hey, we are not like those judgemental church people. We’re the cool ones!” But what they don’t realize is how dangerous that is.

What is the point of the gospel? It is the good news!

It is where the holy spirit after initially saving someone eternally they will then try to learn grow in that life and be changed from the inside out. But some churches like I previously referred to act like they are more of a fan club. They only skim a person’s comfort zone like they are hoping the person will be okay and be on their side.

Doing that is not only halting Christ’s kingdom but is not lasting in the long run. There is a huge difference with having something like a fanclub which can easily end in a month but an eternity is forever no matter where a soul ends up going. Ultimately there are only two locations at the end of life: There is to be in Heaven or hell.

I choose to be more than just a fan. This is for me and the people around us not because I’m “judgemental” as people would accuse but because what God’s word says is in contrast to what we may expect; but it is also beneficial if we want to go to heaven and also on this earth guide people who will disciple others in leading them towards Jesus.

Quick Quip- Do you love?

I was just reading a book speaking and defending Christ and the Holy Bible versus a cult group. It is a common cult began around the 19th century and is still common to this day. It has got me wondering, do I love people around me?

I mean as in a person commanded by God, do I really care if I avoid witnessing? Too often is it easy to avoid something if one doesn’t come across teasing, spiritual attack at times, and even serious persecution. But the Lord has commanded us.

I think of so many people even ones I have contact with on a daily basis. Do I really love them if I avoid sharing during at least one moment Christ to them? It’s worth it even with all the name-calling and negative responses I might get.

In my country a lot of Christians avoid talking about God because its too easy but ones should think of this. Do you want all the people you don’t know if they know Jesus to go to hell? I think not!

If we don’t we should all love first… then pray and depend on the Holy Spirit as the Word will help us with the rest. Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness… it’s all good to the great God who is love.