Who is Love?

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1John 4:8

So often we hear statements like this: I love my food, I love my clothes, I love this movie....etc.

I am as guilty as anyone. Why do we us the word love in this context? Because we feel the need to express how fond we are of something. But to use the word love is inappropriate for such things.

Agape Love: the Love of God the Father, the Love of Jesus.

Eros Love: Well we all know that one.

Brotherly Love: And that one.


Paul tells us that we need to not conform to this world but to renew our mind to live in the truth of God. Changing our vocabulary appropriately is one way to do that. The Book of James has many things to say about the words we use.

 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1John 4;16

HE is LOVE. Why would we then not want to be in Him and invite Him to be in us? If love is such a strong expression which we often use wrongly; let us express the true Love of God by living for  Him and allowing Him to do His will through us. What a privilege.

To love one another is the highest gift we can give each other. To love and serve each other in Christ produces the so yearned results we are all looking for in our lifetime.

Growing up in a household without God's Love, I know first hand how miserable this is. I never knew love until I found the Love of God. He truly satisfies my heart and soul. And I am not using this phrase lightly. We often do not know what we are missing, but there is still this longing in our hearts. It demands fulfillment and satisfaction. And living without God's Love is such a terrible loss.

Paul in a nutshell says: If we have the most wonderful gifts of God but we do not have Love...we are merely a screeching noise to God's ears. Let us be a harmonious church, pleasing God in distributing HIM/LOVE.

My prayer today: God we need to understand that we cannot separate You from love and teach us exactly not to do that. Father, show us Your marvelous Love and teach us to love each other in this wonderful gift.

Until next time, live well and good bye.

Dying to self means living in abundance

Today, I would like to give God all the Glory for my life.

As I woke up this morning, something itself to be thankful for, preparing my breakfast toast. I had this glimpse of other people getting up somewhere in this world, just like I am at that time. And I thought: "Isn't it amazing that there others in this world doing the same I do. Getting up, making breakfast and so on. It just gave me a sense of how big this world is and how much we are still connected. So, it sparked my longing to go out there and make a difference.

Then, I checked my bank account, well yes one has to do that every once in a while. Just to see that I had abundance left after paying all the bills. It made me feel like Simon Peter, who fell to his feet after catching the miraculous amount of fish. I was thankful. It sank in then, that I had overcome the spirit of poverty completely. God had delivered me from fear of not having enough and relying completely on myself in regard of money and what I could bring to the table. Delivered from the lies of the enemy that I would never have enough. When we die to our flesh and allow God to take over our lives, He creates the most beautiful life for us.

Being able to see God's faithfulness in this matter is amazing. I do not have to spend every dollar I have on me. I can give first to the Kingdom (Matthew 6) and then God will ad everything onto my life, what I have need of. And make my cup overflowing (Psalm 23)

This freedom is so amazing!.

Now, I can freely give here and abroad, knowing that my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches and Glory in Christ Jesus. And I shall NOT want.

Coming back to the first part of my blog today: I can now distribute the money God provides for me in Missions here and abroad. And that is exciting to me. And hopefully, get to go in person too and have breakfast somewhere else in this world. :)

My prayer today is: Father, deliver us from evil! Restore our trust in Your faithfulness and instruct us how and to whom to give.

Until next time, good bye and farewell.

 

Emotions, where is God in all of that?

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

Lately, we come across different movies, expectations, interpretation on how God deals with people in crisis and therefore we ought to do it also etc. It is not new to our age that God is viewed by men in different ways in regards through our emotions. What we need to remember is that we are made in God's image not the other way around.

Image means representative likeness—which tells us at once that we should be reflecting, at our creaturely level, what Genesis 1 shows God is and does.

So who is God and what does He? Well, we know He is Love. We know He is patient in long suffering. We know He is angry at times. We know He is a wonderful provider. We know He is powerful. These are just a few characteristics of God. But they show some form of emotions. God has created us with emotions. He has created women with this ability to be emotional which is good for empathy, teaching children , bringing comfort etc.
Not to say men don't have that, but we know that women are more gifted in these areas for specific purposes. The purpose of reflecting God is (after the fall of Adam and Eve) to help bring people back to God. In the process we are blessed to enjoy the provision and characteristics of God, all of them!

We serve first and receive second. That is the principle of God's Kingdom. He served us by giving His only son to die for our sins and in return we serve people by reflecting God and bringing people back to God. This is all being done by Love as the stabilizing foundation. Love is what motivates God to have mercy, patience, long suffering etc. toward us. So in turn, we need to reflect that and do/be the same.

Lets get back to emotions. Of course God can relate to us. Jesus has suffered every imaginable sin, pain and emotion we could ever experience. So Jesus can relate to our emotional roller coasters.

Will He speak to us through our emotions? I would say yes. But this is not the only way, we comprehend in our mind/brain. That is also the place where emotions are formed. So there is a connection. God knows how to reach us and how to communicate with us the best way. After all, He has created us. So, I personally think it is important not to put limits on how God will and can communicate with us. Not to make a judgement in this matter out of fear. Fear of sudden chaos in God's Kingdom here on earth. It is the over all picture that forms in our mind when we believe that God is speaking to us that can be dangerous or positive. It depends on what our foundation is build on.

As mentioned before God's love is the foundation for Him to even want to communicate with us. Also the Word of God is given to us as direction. But it is alive and powerful all by itself. Whether we validate it or not, whether we agree with or not.

Let us then combine the Love of God and His written Word to assure that we are led into the right direction in life. So, yes there is room for God to express Himself through emotions to us. But not room to build a foundation on emotions. To know the difference can take some time.

Today my prayer is for us to combine His Word and His Love and being led by His Holy Spirit into the Truth of God.

Until next time, farewell and good bye.

Wake up and arise

Having ideas and intentions are not enough to accomplish anything in life. There is actual action involved. I wonder how often, I have missed an opportunity to accomplish something because I did not wake up and arise?

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison \

As a follower of Christ there is another aspect of this matter. There are times when God asks us to labor, and of course we do that daily to provide for our families. And there are those times when we labor to accomplish an opportunity. We have a strategy and plan. And it better be His strategy and plan. Otherwise we may find ourselves building on sinking sand.

But then there are other times when we do not labor in the sense of physical work but we receive blessings anyway. Prayer is not so much a physical activity but speaking with God and that is a strong weapon. We may also receive blessings through the prayers of others.

Either way, the important thing is to learn to know the difference. If one is so focused on doing rather than being, one can miss opportunities presented by God to advance in His plan for us. Listening and reading the Bible is a great way to understand who God is and what He wants for each individual person. There are principle matters such as: love God, love your neighbor, go to work, teach your children, do not kill, etc. But then there are the individual actions such as prayer times, serving others, following God's plan for you/me personally.

It is sometimes hard I think, to listen and understanding what God wants from us daily. And to see which opportunities He presents to us to bless others.

My prayer today: Lord help us to be......and to see your table which you have set before us even in the midst of our enemies. AMEN

That is all y'all until next time.

Overcoming is possible!!

You know when you have a day from.......not a nice place, and you just want to crawl into a corner and let life pass you by.

I had an afternoon like that yesterday. It has been getting worse by having yet another nightmare. Two nights in a row.

So this morning, I just wanted to call off work and disappear. But wait, that is not God's way, most of the time anyway. I heard His still small voice saying: Wait and see! And in an instant my joy and peace has been restored. I proceeded with work and it has been a wonderful experience.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Galatians 5:22

God says: Call on me and I will answer. Well, I needed some help in calling upon the Lord this morning, in shape of a wonderful friend. But He heard us. And He turned my sadness into joy and peace. This means that Jesus is giving of Himself, because He is Joy and Peace.

And also, it creates thankfulness and gladness to know that God can, will and wants to turn our dark times into something beautiful.

My heart today is overflowing with His goodness.

My prayer today: Father help us to turn to You in times of need and pain. Help us to trust ourselves to others who are Your followers as well, so that they may pray and intercede for us. Jesus, thank you for giving Yourself to us.

Farewell and good bye until next time.

True Freedom

My experience with Freedom through Christ has always been a special one.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

Often, to receive Freedom in Christ, I had personal encounters with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit Himself. Which always ended in knowing the truth of God's Word. That is where Freedom comes from. The Word of God made flesh, which is Jesus. He is Truth and He has revealed Himself to me to set me free.

How does that practically look like? Well, different ways, but I will list some.

Since I have been going through a lot of abuse and neglect in my childhood, Jesus took me step by step back into some of those experiences and literally was present. Giving me the "Truth" side, His side of the story/moment. And that changed my heart and mind. Because He reveals the truth about where He was when these unspeakable things are happened and who I was despite of them still, makes the difference.

I was able to change my mind, as Paul says.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

Jesus removed my unbelief and doubt by speaking the truth on what He thinks toward me and by shedding His blood for me on the cross. I was then able to accept the truth and speak out of a renewed mind.

Sometimes it took the prayers of others who have been there and have already been free in the areas I still struggled. That is one major reason why we need to be in fellowship with other believers. To support and pray for one another.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16

Other times, I was reading scripture and it became alive, on the page., jumping right at me. When God speaks to us, He speaks to directly to our spirit and our heart follows eventually.

Either way, we know that we are free indeed. We know that Jesus died for our sins and we know it  when temptation has no longer  the upper hand. God says that He makes a way out for us from every temptation.

After being free, it is crucial to testify. That is another way of victory obtained, by speaking to others about what God has done in our lives. This in connection with the blood of Jesus is overcoming and gaining ground.

God never took more than one layer of struggle at the time from me, but those layers can have sublayers. I am mentioning this to caution. Sometimes, I thought I was free from something big, when in fact it had been a sublayer (symptom) not the root. Only by removing the roots of doubt, unbelief, shame, fear, anger etc. can we can live a peaceful, free live in Christ.

The great thing is though that God doesn't wait for us to be all cleaned up, nice and tidy. He uses us on the level of freedom which we have already obtained. So go out there and help others to become free, snatch them from the claws of the enemy and rejoice with them when Freedom in Christ is manifested in their lives. He has already paid the price for our Freedom, now we just walk it out. Step by Step!!

Freedom does not come apart from Christ, He is Freedom.

My prayer today: Father, grant us total, complete Freedom in Christ. You know how and we know to follow. Give us the courage to examine ourselves in your truth and allow ourselves to be free.

So long until next time.

What witness do we have?

The times when I connected deeply with God and felt the presence of Jesus filling my room, my heart are the most precious moments in my life.

Knowing who I once was and who I am now, is mind boggling. To be honest, I have been very selfish before my commitment to walk with God and let Him take the reigns. God appealed to my sense of loyalty and responsibility (which he has given to me) and gave me children. Because they are a blessing of God

This walk has been a process and it did not change over night. Having suffered a stroke after giving birth to my youngest child, has been very difficult to handle. But today, I honestly can say that I have seen the mighty Power and Love of my God. Healing me over time and caring for me like a mother, father, husband, beloved, brother would do. There have been so many times when I was just overwhelmed by His provision to us.
For example, I remember one month I could not pay the electric bill. It had been during the heat of the summer. Fearing the worst, I called the electric provider to see what could be done. Only to hear the voice on the other side of the phone telling me that the bill was paid. Wow, it was paid. I have no idea by whom, since I did not tell many about my struggle that time. But God knew and He cared!

This stroke effected my whole body not just one side, especially some of my brain functions. Throughout the years, I experienced healing in stages. As the word says

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8

Some people along the way to healing may have thought, why does He not heal her completely in one time? Not that He couldn't. He could have spoken a word and I would have been changed in an instant. But there is a reason why not, which I started understanding along the way. He was more concerned about my soul and my mind than my body. To heal my mind and soul took some time. All the layers and layers of tragedy, neglect, trauma, rejection and wounds of the heart had to be healed in order for me to be able to change my mind.

To this day, I still experience healing in areas I didn't even know how much damage was done to me. And of course after healing and restoration has come, we are responsible to maintain that by living in His presence, reading the word and surrounding us with good, godly counsel. Which is best done within a local church congregation.  He has truly taken my ashes and has turned them into beauty.

And what witness do we have of this change in Christ. Well, ask my children. They had to come along the ride, the adventures, have seen the miracles and have heard me tell them what happened every time God stepped in and cleaned up the mess of life.

Good friends who have been by my side catching me when I was falling. For you, it may have been family. Either way. There has to be a witness of change in our life when we profess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. It is inevitable because He causes the change to come. That is the great thing about being a Christian, a follower of Christ. We just have to follow and change our mind (often) to become the manifested redemption of Christ.

Never to compare our life in Christ to another person's life is important. We all have our own pace, directed by God, knowing what we need and how.

My prayer today is for us to never resist change to become more like Christ. To accept the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit and to follow as children, trusting and believing in His Love for us.

So long for now until next time.