BREAKING NEWS…(from the mainstream media)

A little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings the girl to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter addressing the Harley rider says, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and bravest thing I've seen a man do in my whole life. The Harley rider replies, 'Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.'

The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page. So, what do you do for a living, and what political affiliation do you have?' The biker replies "I'm a U.S. Marine, a Republican and I voted for Trump".

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

"U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT & STEALS HIS LUNCH"

And THAT pretty much sums up the media's approach to the news these day's. H/T Mike Hewitt.

New Year’s Resolution 1

For me this is the Genesis of a new year; a new beginning. Each year I start anew with new goals to achieve. God says in Proverbs 29:18 “where there is no vision the people perish.” That verse goes on to say that … “but he that keeps the law (God’s Word), happy is he.”

I have a strong desire to achieve and the beginning of the year is no exception. I want to become a better me. I need to grow in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom from the LORD. At the end of the year I want to look back and examine the progress I made. I don’t want to be the same person that I was at the beginning of the year, have the same problems, have the same desires; I want more.

I have to admit though that some of my goals have been on my list for a very long time but that’s only because I didn’t have the fortitude or a strong enough desire to accomplish them.

I remember reading years ago that every life changing event required a decision. I tried over and over again to make decisions and that never seemed to work until a couple of years ago I decided to be happy all the time. Sadness, depression, discontentment were no longer going to be a part of my life.

I was firm and determined to make that happen and sought the LORD for help. What I found is that is the key to accomplishing goals that we cannot seem to attain. They take more than a wish. They take more than a desire. They take more than a decision. They take determination with no turning back and help from God. Without Him there are somethings we can never achieve on our own. Since it’s God will for us to be happy and have joy, He gladly joined me on my endeavor to make it happen His way. And I must say His way was far better and easier than my way. I quickly accomplished that desire and have easily been able to maintain it for going on three years.

This years goal is monumental; one that I cannot achieve on my own. The good news is that the Bible is full of scriptures to support my goal. Therefore, God will be with me on this journey to assist me in making it happen. I had a similar goal the year before which I have partially achieved that will contribute to making this year’s goal possible.

Since it is so colossal my expectations are realistic. I know that with God all things are possible. Therefore, the goal is in the realm of having the potential of being accomplished this year. But if it isn’t, I’m not going to be discouraged. As long as I don’t give up, I know that what I seek I will find.

Now, hopefully this year’s blog postings will be sharing with you my progress and what I discover along the way. My number one goal in 2016 is to follow God’s and Jesus’ example throughout His word of “God said”.

The past couple of years I have been able to catch myself each time a thought or word proceeded from my mouth that I didn’t want to see come to fruition. This year’s focus is to only allow the thoughts and words that I speak be of those that I want to happen. Instead of the not words, I’m going to focus on the have, want, desire or do words.

In the first chapter of Genesis God repeats “and God said” then what He said happened. It’s repeated for a reason. He’s telling us that what He said happened and what we say will happen as well.

This past year I have seen this happen repeatedly myself by saying what God’s Word says. So I know this is true. Now I’m going to take it a step farther. I want it to become natural. Just like my happiness is now natural for me. Sure I have to correct myself and get back on track but it’s easy and quickly done with less frequency.

The tongue is a very dangerous member of our body but to tame it we need God’s help. The tongue can destroy a person just by words spoken to them. I want the opposite. I want my tongue to always be a blessing and never a curse.

Okay God, let’s do this. My number 1 desire for 2016 is to be a blessing to other’s through the words that I speak and the thoughts that I think. I desire more for my life that I cannot achieve on my own. I know that with You we can make this happen.

---

“A man without a vision is a man without a future. A man without a future will always return to his past!”

I wrote this on January 1, 2016 but never posted it. This has been sitting in my blog as a draft all year. This past week I made my 2017 New Year's Resolution. I found this in my inspiration journal I have been keeping all year. Remarkably, this is the same goal I decided for 2017 with the same thoughts.

The desire for this resolution remained all year but the vision wasn't my focal point. The commitment somehow became lost in everyday living.

As I take a look over the past twelve months I see that I made progress on my goal. Therefore, 2016 wasn't a complete loss in fulfilling this desire. Countless times I declared "God said." statements followed by scriptures to combat thoughts that entered my mind. God was my Helper. I successfully faced challenges that in the past would have resulted in a way I would not have desired.

Today, I decided to take my art journalling to a new level. I have an index card taped to our front door as a reminder of the favor of God whenever we leave the house. I decided to purchase a pack of square canvases to paint including the saying to hang on the door instead of the card. For 2017, I will paint another canvas with the words "God said." to hang where we can see it often and not just when leaving the house. Hopefully, this will keep the vision in front of me all of 2017 until it becomes routine in my life stopping any potential negative thoughts from coming into my mind by continually thinking "God said" thoughts instead.

I have visions of our doors (front or back) full of "God said" statements in which we can pause to read before exiting the room.

With renewed determination I know 2017 will be even better than 2016. And 2016 was a GREAT year!

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God spoke to my heart regarding a certain matter over six months ago. Each time I saw a tweet, an interview, a news story, or anything that contradicted what He told me I said to myself "God said" choosing to believe God rather than man. I never gave up. What God told me came true. If God has placed something on your heart do not lose hope with contradictions that the world would tell you differently. Stand on His Word and never stop believing.

Prepared

Ephesians 6:10-13
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Four years ago, I started a great adventure with the Lord, greater than any other in my past. I made a decision and I stuck with it. Never did I realize the full impact that decision would have on my life.

There were truths that I knew at the time. Deep inside I knew that I had to be prepared. That preparation has served me well.

Mind you, I had been growing stronger each year, maturing over time, so I wasn’t a clean slate. I had truths but I also had baggage that was weighting me down.

At times I felt like I was in a race against time. I was running away from my past into the future. Not that my past is horrible or anything of the kind. My past like most contained old destructive thoughts that were preventing me from enjoying the present. I had to stop looking back and focus on where I was and where I wanted to go.

As it turned out I was running from my past into the loving arms of my Lord. My Comforter, my Redeemer…My Loving Father.

Through this wonderful journey I learned how to squelch the deceiving thoughts that were robbing me of this wonderful life that the Lord had given me.

I learned how to remain happy even though the world wanted nothing more than to destroy that happiness.

I read the Bible every day multiple times from cover to cover each year. I studied the Bible from teachings I discovered from Bible teachers across the country. I allowed God to take control and teach me showing me the truth. At times it was overwhelming. God was flooding my brain so much so that I often had to tell Him that I needed sleep. Then we would begin again the next day before my eyes even opened.

Never did I expect when I made that decision that I would be witnessing the world out of control as insanity is taking over the minds of so many. This insanity is quickly spreading throughout the world. We see it on the streets with the paid protesters trying to insight riots dividing our great nation and ruining towns and cities, sex-trafficking rings in Washington D.C. praying on small children and so much more.

I see people whom I have grown to love say some of the craziest things and they actually believe the deceptions without using sound judgment or reasoning.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

A sound mind comes from God. The people who are saying and acting out in an insane manner are void of the truths of God in their lives.

The Bible warns us that there will be deceivers of the truth with wrong doctrines that will come as light. There are people attending churches or listen to the doctrines of their church rather than the doctrines of God. The only way we can know if we are being deceived is by knowing the truth. We won’t find the truth in the world. In fact, it’s the opposite. The only truth comes from God.

Last night, as every night, I thanked the Lord for the day and for His protection having tremendous gratitude for His loving kindness, grace, and wisdom.

I can only imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn’t made that decision four years ago and I shutter at the very thought.

Because the Lord lives and I walk with Him every day, I know I can face today and tomorrow with joy, peace and a sound mind.

The Fight

John 14:1
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

So often lately I’ve been noticing people trying to instill fear into our lives causing me to work even harder than normal to remain happy.

I have become more cynical and grumpier in my thoughts than normal and want to make it stop. Last week, I remembered two teachings I heard many years go called the Christian Survival Guide and Christian First-Aid Kit. I found them and have started to re-listened to each of the teachings in the series. The teachings center around this verse as well as others in John 14, 15, and 16 which were Jesus' last instructions on how to live until He returns.

As I was cleaning the kitchen this morning, I was thinking about this verse then realized how great a sin it is when we allow our heart to become troubled. I understood that letting that happen removes joy in our lives. As a result whenever I start feeling troubled I immediately shake it off since I don’t want my thoughts to take away my happiness.

However, I never realized how great a sin it was to become troubled. It’s like saying I don’t trust you Jesus. Or telling Jesus He’s a liar and I don’t believe what He’s instructed me how to live. That I know more than He does and I don’t care. It’s turning my back against God which is the last thing I ever want to do.

God is the only One who I trust these days as well as my family. But even with my family, they have their own lives to deal with. But God’s main priority is me and you as well. His main reason for choosing us to exist is for us to be His child and for Him to be our Father. To provide everything we need to survive. He is the only One who really knows us and who loves us unconditionally at all times.

I’ve tried to love others like 1 Corinthians 13 and it’s difficult. Not impossible, but difficult since we’ve been programmed to believe what the world thinks.

There is a radio program I have found myself listening to that I stopped several years ago because it got on my nerves which it is once again. It’s based on fear-mongering with no trust in God. Don’t get me wrong this program is like so many others. They instill fear with the promise of having an answer.

Even the commercials on this show do the same. If we stand back isn’t that what commercials often do? They produce a fear in us then they make it sound like they are the hero that has come to our rescue. Isn't that what politicians do? For some ungodly reason they don't believe God has given us the ability of providing for ourselves. The truth is that they want us to become slaves to them.

Quite frankly, I’m fed up with all of that. I love my life now, like I never have in the past since I know and understand the Word of God and how the Bible is our guide for successful living.

We live in difficult times but God wants us to be happy in spite of what is going on around us or to us. We are only on this earth for a short time in comparison to eternity. We never really die, we just leave this realm for another one.

God’s intention was for us to live for eternity here on Earth until Adam messed that up. Our bodies were meant to last forever until Adam messed that up. He lived for almost a thousand years. He ushered in all the things that cause death. He had everything and was able to be deceived into thinking he was missing something. There was only one thing that God instructed him not to do and he allowed his mind to drift away from trusting God and he did the vary thing that God didn’t want him to do and he lost everything as a result. That's what a troubled heart will do. It causes loss in our lives.

Every day we do the same thing. We are never content with what we have and we are never content with God’s instructions. For some reason we feel we know more than God. That we know what’s best. What fools we are.

Jesus told us not to be troubled. If we would meditate on it for a few hours we will realize how dangerous it is for us to be trouble-minded. Being troubled no longer gives us the ability to make rational decisions. It clouds our minds. It’s takes away the ability of God handling the situation for us. He cannot intervene on our behalf since we’ve decided to take His place.

It took me getting sick and tired of the life I was living each day. I am still sick and tired of what the world tries to do to my thoughts. It tries to rob me of the truth and I refuse to be deceived any longer. God told us when all fails to “stand.” When we are about to give up and have tried everything we can, to “stand.” Well, I’m standing. I’m standing on the Word of God. I’m standing against the deception in this world. I’m standing against the lies of the enemy.

We are at war and I’m a warrior. Our enemy isn’t people. Our enemy is satan and his demons. There is a real spiritual war going on and we are the “spoil” so to speak. Well, I’m nobody’s spoil. I’m standing against evil. I will fail now and then but just like a fighter in the ring, I might go down for a few seconds but I will get up time and time again. I will win this war. I will win the fight. God told me I would if I follow His ways and I believe Him.

I am more than a conqueror. Satan may count me as a sheep for the slaughter but this is one gal who will not be slaughtered by him. Jesus has given me dominion over satan and I will not relinquish that dominion back to him. He may get it for a brief second but I’ll grab it back from him and kick his sorry ass back to hell where he belongs.

Romans 8:34-39
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 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.

I’m a warrior. Thankfully, God has instill that into us so we have the ability to “stand” against evil. To “stand” against the robbers who come to steal, kill and destroy us. To “stand” against those who want us to make them lord in our life. To “stand” against those who say they will “save” us. Yeah, right. There is only one Savior and that is Jesus.

It’s remarkable how our lives change the instant we have that attitude. It’s remarkable how excited God becomes when we “stand” with Him. He floods us with knowledge to be a conqueror. He arms us with the weapons we need to fight off the enemy, who is satan. The power that comes to us is remarkable.

I’m am so grateful, I made that decision several years ago to listen and obey God to the best of my ability knowing that it would be an every day challenge. But it’s a challenge I’m willing to accept to enjoy this wonderful life that God has given to me. Thank you, Lord for always being by my side so I no longer have a troubled heart or walk alone.

A Loving Father's Guidance

Today I reflected once again on conviction vs. condemnation as a sense of conviction stirred within me.

So many people today avoid God because of either condemnation or conviction only because they don’t understand the difference. When God convicts us, it is out of His love for us. It is His way of guiding us away from potential trouble. Condemnation on the other hand is from satan. It's critical that we can recognize the difference so that we can retain joy in our life.

Conviction is God’s way of speaking to us. For example, if a thought comes such as “I really need to…”, “I shouldn’t have…” that is from God. It’s His way of trying to show us a better way of handling a situation. It isn’t meant for us to feel badly about ourselves. It’s His way of saying we can improve. How often have we spoken too quickly only to regret what we said. God will convict us of that so that we can avoid that regret in the future. He will try to urge us to take a few seconds before reacting to see if what we are about to utter is appropriate or necessary or even possibly to allow Him to coach us in a better way to handle the situation or give us better words to speak.

Condemnation on the other hand is from satan who tries to tear us down. Words such as “you’re such a loser”, “you’ll never get it right”, “what makes you think you deserve…”, “you always say the wrong thing”, “no one likes you.” He will personally attack you. Those thoughts we need to chase away with a stiff warning to satan that you are not about to fall into his trap.

Satan will try to bring to your attention your weak areas. Especially those things which you regret doing. He will bring things that happened years ago back to your thoughts to make you hate yourself, or cry, or become angry. Those are not from God. God doesn’t remember your past mistakes. God only cares about your future not your past. That is extremely important to remember.

Granted we will be judged on everything we’ve done in our life on the Day of Judgment. However, if we are born again our sins are forgiven and we can come boldly before God’s throne. As long as we have repented of the sins we are aware of committing all will be good. It’s impossible for us to repent on all the sins we’ve ever committed since we often aren’t aware of all of them. God knows our heart. He knows whether we are repentive or not. God knows if we’ve make Jesus Lord of our life, or if we’ve made ourself lord and savior.

Don't get me wrong, sin is deadly. Sin will rob us of God's best for our lives. Convictions are areas where we are committing sin which we need to take seriously.

I saw a tweet that started to arise anger inside of me. Instead of reacting immediately like I would have in the past, I waited for Jesus to bring a scripture to my attention. It didn’t take long before a minister tweeted a sermon "What Kind Of Christian Are You". I listened and immediately the minister quoted a verse from the Bible which was a direct answer to the situation. There are times, God brings to my attention where I'm wrong. Or gives me a different way of examining the situation. We never know where the answer will come from but we will always know when it is God speaking to us through other people.

I’ve learned to trust the Lord more than myself and He always comes through. What a wonderful Father we have that He is always present in our lives to guide us, comfort us, teach us, and shower us with His love.

The Race

attributed to Dr. D.H. "Dee" Groberg

Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.

But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
“I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”

But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
“If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
“There’s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.

“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all,
for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place!
You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!”
So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.

They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
“To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”

And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”

Never Alone

Last night I went quickly to sleep thanking the LORD for another day only to be awoken several hours later by a dream. I was at a convention with six other women, three of whom separated from us to go off on their own leaving the remaining three seated waiting for the event to start. None of us knew each other.

The event coordinator came by and started talking to us. As I looked down there was a strange looking bug that I believe I have seen in a picture or gif which she almost stepped on. As her foot brushed the bug, with it’s see through tail and head, another one appeared then two more each time her foot moved by them.

As she walked away, a grasshopper landed within inches of the four bugs which was immediately pounced upon by a large number of flies which started eating the grasshopper. The four other bugs, which were elegantly formed (if you like bugs, which I do not) joined the flies.

I quickly turned away in disgust at the sight as the other two women continued to look on.

This caused me to awaken. Yuck. I thought. I laid there briefly and felt so alone like that grasshopper must have felt. Then I felt helpless like the three of us watching the grasshopper be devoured unable for any of us to come to its aid.

The feeling of being alone is not a pleasant feeling. That feeling can happen anywhere even in a large crowd of people or in our household among our family. We can be surrounded by people and still feel alone.

These days I often feel helpless watching evil slowly invading my world an those I love and care for.

I am so thankful to have the Lord in my life. I immediately remembered that I am never alone. First, I have myself. God has given us the ability to speak to ourselves. Second, I knew that God was there with me as well as Jesus and the Holy Spirit within me. I was not alone. They were awake ready to give me comfort and reassuring me that I will never be alone or helpless. The angels surround us as ministering spirits to protect us at all times.

I quickly went back to sleep comforted and the memory of the grasshopper put to the side.

I’m not sure what brought on that dream or where dreams come from. I do know that when dreams stop is the day we die. That means our mind has ceased to function.

That dream has many lessons about life if I were to meditate on the events but I will save that for another day.

I thought about that crazy lady attacking Mr. Donovan leaving him maybe believing he’s all alone in fighting a battle against crazy fans which caused me to remember Rebecca Schaeffer, whose life tragically ended when she was only twenty-one by a crazy fan.

We are all in a battle in this life and our enemy is satan and satan only. He is here to steal, destroy and kill. That is his only mission in life— to separate us from God. If he can deceive our thoughts he can take away anything that is good in life.

Last night I won another battle against the devil. I am never really alone in life. I may fall over and be devoured by the enemy but I will triumph even in death as I leave this world into a new one for eternity with the Lord.

Daylight always brings clarity to a situation but last night I quickly triumphed over darkness. It’s going to be another wonderful day.

He Knows

He knows it all, He knows it all
My Father knows, He knows it all,
The bitter tears, how fast they fall,
He knows, my Father knows it all.

I read this hymn from one of my Smith Wigglesworth books and my heart was quickened when instantly the thought of my childhood came to mind. How often did I sit on my bed weeping, feeling alone in a house full of my family, trying to understand life and not wanting to burden others with my problems and also to avoid criticism for the way I was thinking.

How often do we as children face problems only for others to expect us to understand, not realizing we are just children. As children we need to be taught how to become an adult. We need to be taught how to deal with life’s burdens. Our problems often seem small and insignificant to others but they are large to us. We need others to be kind letting us know we are magnifying them larger than they really are.

And sometimes things happen to us that only God can understand. They are huge that no one should have to experience and we often feel we have no place to turn.

God knows it all. Jesus experienced it all while He was on earth. Why didn’t I trust God to show and teach me? He is the only one who knows it all. He knows everything I’ve been through and He knows how to handle each circumstance that I encounter. He is a loving God with only my best interest at heart.

Today, it is different. I’m so grateful to have reached a place where I know that God knows everything and He is the only one whom I can put my full trust. He miraculously brings me knowledge each day teaching me the ways of life. Today, I know when I ask Him a question, He will answer me. Maybe not immediately but in the matter of a few days.

Today the tears are gone as understanding fills my mind and my heart. Today the tears of sadness are replaced with tears of joy knowing that I am no longer alone. He is always with me and will be for eternity.

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NOTE: As I continued reading Wigglesworth's message he said: "We may enter into things that will bring us sorrow and trouble, but through them, God will bring us to a deeper knowledge of Himself. Never use your human plan when God speaks His Word. You have your cue from an Almighty Source who has all the resources that never fade away. His treasury is past measuring, abounding with extravagances of abundance, waiting to be poured out upon us." What a glorious Lord we have looking over us, and providing for us when we trust in Him and ask.

A Present

I wrote a piece earlier this morning in which I wanted to say more. However, I believe that is all the LORD wanted me to say in that posting.

The “Rest” the LORD was speaking about since the beginning of time, was for us to put to “rest” all of the troubles we experience every day. Put to rest our anger. Put to rest our worry. Put to rest self-centeredness. Put to rest hatred. Put to rest fear. Put it all to rest. Lay it down.

We shouldn't revisit times of hardships we’ve experienced. Put it to rest. They are in the past. The only things in the past we should revisit are pleasant memories and put down the sadness, regret and wishful thinking. Be grateful for those times instead.

When the LORD was finished creating the earth He said it was "good". The only things we really need to focus on is what is good. If we are to magnify anything it should be the good. The bad never really lasts very long. Just moments in time. Even in the midst of the most terrible times in our life there is gladness if we are willing to allow ourselves to see and experience it.

We often grieve over what we have lost. Our family members that are no longer with us, the friends, and so on. It’s hard but that’s life. Death of any kind is a part of life. We don’t like it but that’s the way it is.

I miss my mom and dad but not like others do. When I think about them it brings me joy with gratitude that God chose them for me. It is just selfishness missing them. “Poor me” syndrome. Instead I choose to honor their memory and be grateful I had them in my life as long as I did. I know they are both in heaven and it would be cruel to wish they were back here with me, to endure the hardships of life when they now live in glory never to face pain and suffering again.

We often look at work as if it were a curse and not severing the LORD. Even work can be fun when we know that God is behind the scenes. Murmuring and complaining about our job or work to be done will keep us in the wilderness instead of allowing God to take us to the promise land. We will be stuck in what we don't want if we are ungrateful for what we have. Why would God give us something better when we aren't grateful knowing eventually we will only complain to Him once again if He gave us something else?

I didn’t always feel this way. I looked at life like so many others and actually thought earth was a living hell until I saw the light and a new way of looking at life. Now every day is as if I’m already in heaven living life to the fullest at least the fullest I can in my current situation.

Today I’m obedient to God’s Word. It’s a marvelous way to live. Sin seems enticing but actually eventually it brings us misery. God’s way of living is like being on a natural high without the need of drugs or alcohol to bring me down.

My only regret is that I didn’t trust God and live this way my entire life.

Today I do what I can and leave the rest to God. I seek His advice always. I know whatever comes my way I will get through it. I have always in the past. But this time is different. I go through it with happiness of heart knowing I’m never alone and God has provided everything I will ever need to go through. I refuse to get stuck and remain in the troubles even though they have ended.

I now understand why my mom refused to have a past. She only lived in the present. A present is a gift to be enjoyed. Today, I like her will enjoy the gift of today that the LORD has given to me. I will give all of the problems to Him to work out on my behalf.

It’s really kinda fun laughing at the things that come my way knowing they have to face God and not me. God is more powerful than I am so why not enjoy His power so I can live in peace.

I am truly blessed and honored to be a child of God. An heir of the most powerful Being in the universe. A universe He created with me in mind. Therefore, I will live today in the "rest" of the LORD.

Mark 2:27
And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

Put it to Rest

Last night before retiring, I started reading a message given by Smith Wigglesworth on January 14, 1924 “Possession of the Rest” in which he referred to Hebrews Chapter 4.

I love Hebrews 4 now that I have a better understanding of what it means. I recently listened to a series of messages on the subject which I had never heard the way he approached the subject which I could back with hundreds of scriptures bringing my understanding of the Sabbath Rest to an entirely new and exciting level. Many of my questions about life were answered by the message.

As I got into the welcoming, warm bed last night, I realized I now live in His Rest. What a wonderful, glorious place to be. I urge you to read Hebrews 4 over and over again until it hits you what it means. You will never look at life quite the same.

Satan is real and he will cloud our mind to prevent us from enjoying the wonderful life God wants for us by keeping us in darkness, never seeing the light of truth.

This morning I was reading Exodus when I was reminded once again about murmuring and complaining keeping the Israelites from entering into the Promise Land. We experience the same as the Israelites when we murmur and complain. Exodus 16:8 tells us:

Also Moses said, "… for the LORD hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD."

When we complain and murmur it is against the LORD and not our situation. We think it isn’t but it is. We are driven away from the promise land into the wilderness. We become miserable, angry, sad with all the emotions we do not enjoy.

Paul tells us to “Rejoice in the LORD always, again I say rejoice.” He said this while in prison and prison during those days make our prisons look like palaces.

Rejoicing even in times of trouble keeps God in our presence helping us through the difficulty with a smile on our face and hope in our heart. Even the tribulations that satan brings against us can be a time of joy letting us continue to live in “God’s Rest” allowing Him to handle the stresses and worries of life while we live Jesus’ abundant life.

When the Light Bulb is Finally Turned On

One of the most eye-opening experiences of my life was the moment I understood God’s love not only for me but for mankind. That’s when the doors were opened and God’s love washed over me like a raging flood of water softening my heart to the true nature of God.

I’ve always known that God loves me since I was a child. I learned early in church “Jesus loves me. Yes I know. For the Bible tells me so.” Through my child-like mind I reasoned that if God came to earth as the man Jesus then God loved me just like Jesus did. It was just as simple as that. No one since has been able to convince me otherwise.

We are told to come to God as a child. I’ve discovered to just believe in Him as a child believes. A child believes their parents before the world starts to corrupt their thinking, disillusioning them through deception.

As teens or even as pre-teens, we slowly start believing that our parents don’t really love us; that they are mean and uncaring. When in fact they do love us more than anyone in this world. That’s why they can be harsh with us out of frustration that we don’t understand that what they are doing or telling us is for our own good. It isn’t until we become adults that we start saying and demonstrating the same thing they did and realize how right they were.

I think we all can recall that feeling… that moment when we were shocked to hear words come out of our mouth that our parents said which were immediately followed by “I sound just like my mother.” It’s a kind of horror that goes through our body until we think about what we said and truly believe she had been right.

Like I said earlier, I always believed that God loved me. However, I didn’t really believe that He loved me as much as He loved overs. It was an overwhelming experience when I discovered that God loved me just as much as He loved anyone else. I was no exception.

I have a feeling that maybe what I felt that day was the Holy Spirit finally being able to get through to my heart that had been partially hardened through time by accepting some of the wrong beliefs of others. Once He could get through to my heart, it opened my eyes to a new revelation of God that unfortunately many will never experience.

Now when I hear a message about God involving His love and what He has done and provided for me, I once again am overwhelmed and receive new insight into God.

I also have a feeling that He reveals this to us slowing. Otherwise, we most surely would instantly die if He revealed all of His love for us at one time. It would be too much for our physical body to experience.

Having experienced the knowledge about God’s love to the extent that I now know, it has changed my understanding about so many things. Creation is no longer merely words written. The first few chapters of Genesis are some of my most favorite chapters of the Bible since I see the love God poured out through the creation of our world and our lives. It changes everything once we grasp how much He loves us.

God has provided everything we will ever need to have a successful, fruitful, and happy life until we are joined with Him in heaven. Who has ever done that for anyone? No one. Just God. Mankind tries to steal what God has freely given to us.

God is love. The Bible repeats and shows us this from cover to cover. That’s why it is so important for us to love others whether we believe they deserve it or not. By loving others we know that we are a child of His. When we don’t, we know that we are lost souls.

However, it’s important for us to know what love is. Love isn’t acceptance. Love isn’t always agreeing with each other. Love isn’t tolerance. Love can even involve hatred towards the behavior of others. But we must separate the person from their behavior. Love doesn’t mean we allow everyone into our lives on a personal basis or even into our country.

There is a thing called “tough love.” Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone is to reject them out of love by letting them know their behavior is unacceptable. Allowing their bad behavior to corrupt our children is wrong and is a sign that we don’t really love our children like we ought to. Accepting other’s wrong behavior or wrong ideas is hatred towards that person. It shows that we don’t really love them. If we loved them we would help them out of their destructive lifestyle and let them know that what they are doing is unhealthy for them as well as for society.

The most loving thing we can show to other people is God’s love for them. We can’t change a person but God can. Love is the answer to all the world’s problems. But first we have to understand what love is and it’s importance. God is waiting for you. He desires to show you His love. He desires to show you the truth so that He can bless you beyond anything this world has to offer.

I’m not sure what your trigger will be to soften your heart enabling you to receive the understanding of His love. I believe for me it was when I confessed Romans 12:1 with my whole heart and began living it on a daily basis. It was the day I sincerely turned my life over to Him to use me as a living sacrifice to work through me to help others. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

There’s no turning back now. I have experienced a high like no other. Joy like no other joy. Peace and most importantly love like no one other than God can give.

An Abundant Heart

This morning the bed felt so inviting with its abundance of comfort and warmth that I curled myself tightly to embrace the wonderful feeling of being alive as I started worshiping the LORD for the wonderful day that He had arranged for me and thanking Him for all of the wonderful things He continues to bless me with and provide.

I have been enjoying a Charles Capps message over and over again as I accomplish my tasks throughout the day. It is an uplifting message full of God’s Word.

While I laid in bed a scripture came forth from Luke 6:45:

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

This scripture tied into Charles Capps’ message about taking care of the words that we speak.

This is one of my New Year’s resolutions for 2016 is to work more diligently on the words that I speak and to work with the LORD to control the thoughts that enter my mind.

If I do as Jesus instructs and fill my heart with only good life producing thoughts then the words that I speak will bring forth good things.

James tells us in James 3 that the tongue is an unruly evil that man cannot tame and how it steers the course of our life. The good news is that with Jesus all things are possible. With God on my side I know that He will assist me to be able to control that tongue of mine so that I can bring forth even better things in 2016 than ever before not only for myself but for all the people who hear my voice and for those to whom I direct my words. I encourage you to study James 3. They are very powerful scriptures once you understand their importance and significance.

Words are like seeds. They produce after their own kind reaping a harvest of either good or evil. We don’t realize but over time if the same self-defeating words are spoken they become a prophesy that comes true. Word like “nothing good ever comes my way”, “I think I’m coming down with the flu”, “I always get in the wrong line at the grocery store”, “I bet I won’t find a close parking spot”, “I know with this traffic being so bad that this is going to be a bad day”.

The Bible has dozens upon dozens of scriptures about what we say is what we get. If God has to repeat Himself over and over again, we know that these scriptures are very important.

Proverbs 18:21 tells us:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

The words that we speak are either death or life. We can speak death to something or life to it. We can use both to our advantage. But if we aren’t careful about the words we speak, over time they will accomplish the same thing with results that are opposite from our desires.

God’s Word is final. Not the doctors, not your best friends, not your bosses. Only God’s word is final. If someone tells you something don’t believe them. Believe what God has to say about it and start confessing His Word over your desires.

Psalm 23 tells us that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. Start saying it and believing it in your heart. Never give up until you see it manifest in your life. The first time you say it you might not see it come alive since satan immediately tries to steal your words. He knows that if he can steal them you’ll give up believing. You have power over him so refuse to give up instead believe God will hold true to His Word.

God loves you and wants nothing more than to please you. He didn’t place you on this earth to be miserable. He placed you on this earth to enjoy life and share that goodness with others to His glory.

So then, my New Year’s resolution #3 is to fill my heart with only good things so that out of the abundance of my heart my words will be those of encouragement, love, kindness, gratefulness, thankfulness, abundance, and only the seeds that I want to sow.

Armed for Battle

After reading the scriptures this morning then saying a brief prayer these words came out of my mouth "Prepare the way for the LORD" which gave me pause. I hadn't been thinking of those words at all. They just were uttered.

The other night I felt that I had lost my purpose– that my purpose had suddenly vanished. Or had it? I just went back to sleep trying to remove the uneasiness I had been feeling.

Isn't that the purpose for all of us? We should all be preparing the way for the LORD's return. We should be preparing the way for the LORD to help us in time of need. We should be preparing ourselves on a daily basis as well as others. There are so many people lost today as evil is trying to overtake all of the land once possessed by Christians and those who feared God.

We see on a daily basis the horrors Europe is experiencing. By preparing the way for the LORD we could stop that from migrating here. We can literally arm ourselves with the strength of God. God will battle alongside of us. He brought us to this land many centuries ago and established this land for us to preserve. It's now up to us to take this land back with all the weapons He has given us through His word and those that our founders have given to us through the documents and laws they established.

Once we return to a Christian nation, we cannot be overcome.

I had a hard time getting the video of the mother and daughter being beaten in Germany and the car coming to their rescue hitting and disabling many who were trying to rise up against them. Those thoughts and what I would do filled my mind. What would I do in a similar situation? Hopefully, I wouldn't stop. Hopefully I would just plow through a mass of men knowing they only meant trouble. And never open my door to them.

Those thoughts filled my mind until I realized that satan was filling my mind with hate keeping me from falling asleep.

God is my rescue and in times of trouble. If I trust Him, He will direct my paths. Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 tells us:

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.

Some would say this is naive thinking. But no it isn't. If God said this then it is true. He surely wouldn't want me to stand idly by letting someone kill me and my child. God has instilled in all of us the desire to defend ourselves. It is natural to defend ourselves but we should allow Him to tell us how and by what means. If I put my entire trust that He will tell me what to do, He will send people to my aid just like He did that other woman. He will instruct me how to behave. He will protect me as long as I don't do anything foolish on my own.

Thankfully, we live in a country where it is our right to bear arms. I feel we are approaching a time where it is vital for all Christians to carry a weapon. If the enemy knows we are all armed they will not try anything against us. I don't believe it's just a gun we should be carrying. We should arm ourselves with knives, baseball bats, golf clubs, cattle prods, Tasers, bacon grease and pig's blood.

Our nation is different then most. We are strong and we our conquerors and the defenders of freedom. It's time we arm ourselves for battle with the hope that we will never have to use our weapons. But if we do they will be readily at hand and our families will be prepared to battle the enemy: both in prayer and by physical means but always with God.

That's what our founders did. They knew the Bible from front to cover. The bible was their way of life and it directed all of their paths. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights and many other documents of that time were solely based on God's Word. They were arming future generations from tyranny. They were preparing the way for us through God's Word.

A small portion of the population armed themselves with the Word of God and weapons then defeated the greatest nation on earth: England. We can do the same with ISIS. They are a defeated foe in the eyes of the LORD. It would only take the true believers and followers of Christ to arm themselves for battle to take back this nation making it strong once again driving the enemy away from our shores frightened.

God is strong and when our nation was strong in God no enemy dared come at us. We have weakened our nation from turning away from God's protection. But all is not lost. There is an army out there preparing for battle. Now we need to prepare our minds with the Word of God. His Words will direct our paths. Without Him the battle is lost. With Him fighting alongside of us as He did when our country was formed, we will win.

Remember what we were told in Colossians 1:27

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We are God's hope on earth. We are His hope to show glory to us in our lifetime and for those that follow after us. It is through us that God can work so that our world will not be overtaken by evil.

So now, it's up to us to "prepare the way for the LORD". Study the scriptures, get to know God, get to know His nature, and allow Him and His words to live inside of us. We are to prepare ourselves mentally and physically. Wherever we go we are never alone. He is there with us along with His angels. We are not to fear but to be strong. God's Word is our strength in times of trouble. He is our strength throughout the day. He is also our strength in times of peace. He is peace. He is love. He will fight our battles for us if only we believe.

The Art of Asking

I am so often awestruck how God surprises me each day with new revelations into His word. Scriptures I have previously read numerous times suddenly pop out bringing new or renewed insight. This morning was no exception.

I believe that every word in the Bible is true and placed there by God for our benefit. Not every word in the Bible is God speaking but it is placed there for our benefit. For example, some conversations are included that are not what we should believe but are there for us to learn from as not to think, speak or do ourselves.

Even the long lists of genealogies, the sacrifices of animals, how they are to be preformed, and the descriptions for building temples or tents of worship have significance to each and every one of us at some time in our life when our hearts are open to hear from God.

My One Year Bible is marked with a rainbow of colors denoting significant passages that stood out to me. Today I was not excepting to add more highlighting and underlining to new revelations from the LORD... but I was wrong.

This year I want to make 2016 the year of the LORD. I want to spend more time with Him and learn even greater insights into His nature and His person. I wasn't sure at the time those words came out of my mouth what that would entail. I didn't have a foresight as to what that would mean but I was sure as time went on that it would become more defined each day.

Yesterday I watched "Foundations of Freedom" which contained a wealth of information that was too much to take in during one sitting so I didn't delete it from the DVR. Instead I will take a portion of it throughout this year to mediate on or implement into my personal life.

As a result from watching that show, this morning while I was reading the January 10th scriptures I kept in mind to look for a scripture to memorize today with the hopes of finding two. A number of scriptures started to stand out as God revealed more about how life operates.

I have always desired to write each day what God shows me, mediate on those scriptures throughout the day and implement them into my life. Sadly, I have allowed life to deny me that desire. Hopefully, in 2016 I will start to do that on a regular basis.

They say you can create a habit over a 30 day period of time. Today if I don't read the Bible every morning I feel an emptiness, or a lack like I'm missing something. That's because I have made it a habit of reading one, two or three day's readings from my One Year Bible first thing every morning. It has become a habit.

Okay, back to the topic at hand. Petitions.

The first scripture that jumped off the page was in Genesis 24:12:

Then he said, "O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

Abraham's servant was sent to find a wife for Isaac, Abraham's son and this is the prayer of that servant.

For us to have greater success in our life we should be asking for success from God instead of trying to rely solely upon ourselves and the mercy of some other person.

My first thought was that I should say this out loud to God (if only in a whisper) before I even get out of bed each morning along with the other words I speak upon first waking up.

"God grant me success today." It's a simple thing to remember but oh so powerful when we petition this to God and believe in our heart that He will do as we requested.

Jesus tells us in John 15:7:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Genesis 24:7 are the words that God inspired to be included by the writer of Genesis. Therefore these are words ordained by God. I will place this passage into my heart so that it will abide with me always. Therefore, I will experience greater success everyday than I would have experienced if I hadn't "declared" God's word.

Job 22:28
You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.

You can see the importance of knowing God's word. You can back your thoughts by the word of God so that you know what is possible and what is true.

John 8:32
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 17:17
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

The second part of Genesis 24:12 tells us to pray for others. Abraham's servant was sent on an errand for his master. He prayed that he would have success and for God to show his master kindness.

If we want success we should be seeking it not only for ourselves but to bless others with that success as well. The two go hand-in-hand.

James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

God wants us to be successful so that He can bless not only us but others as well. We are not to be selfish with His gifts. The more we sow the more we reap. The more we bless others the more we are blessed in return. The more success we receive and use that success to help others the more success we will have in life. Do onto others… The Golden Rule applies to every area of our life. The parable of the sower is how this world operates. Once we get our life in line to how this world operates the more blessed we are.

If you are miserable then spread some joy so that joy will come back to you. It applies to everything. Don't wait until joy finds you. Don't wait until kindness comes your way. Start tossing that boomerang out there so that it returns back to you. Start rolling that ball up that hill so that when it rolls back it's larger than the one you sent.

The second scripture in Genesis that popped out was in Genesis 24:21 when Abraham's servant thought he might have found what his master had requested (success).

And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.

This is excellent advice. Instead of instantly grabbing hold of what we perceive as success we should remain silent and wait until we know all that we need to know.

How often have we jumped at an opportunity too soon and missed out by not waiting to think it over requesting God for further revelation or insight as to how to proceed. Or as soon as we grabbed hold and accepted it a better opportunity presented itself to us that we've missing out on.

Once we accept that we have found success it's vital to immediately thank God and worship Him.

Genesis 24:26
Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the LORD.

The more thankful we are to the LORD, the more the LORD will give us to be thankful for.

God surrounds us at all times. We should never place our success in our hands but rather give credit that it came from the LORD and believe that He will establish that success and give us more by putting our trust and faith in Him.

The final scripture I highlighted in Genesis was:

Genesis 24:40
But he said to me, 'The LORD, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and prosper your way;

Abraham declared to his servant that the LORD would send His angel with his servant to prosper him. When we make known our requests to God, He sends His angel with us to fulfill our request. We are never alone. Not only do we have God on our side but we have His ministering angels with us that take the words that we speak directly to God then get to work into making our words visible or manifested.

Hebrews 11:1 and 3
¹ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
³ By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

For this very reason we need to be mindful of the words that we speak. They need to be precise. We shouldn't be throwing out random words carelessly. Our words are more powerful than we realize. Too many bad things are manifested in our life that we don't even realize we requested by the words we spoke.

Thank you LORD for sharing Your Word, giving new insight, renewing our mind to Your Words and for guidance and direction for our life. I pray this blesses those who take the time to read and meditate on Your word.

KISS

Yesterday I spent some time writing in one of my novels trying to allow the words to flow without much thought. Last night I joined into a Wednesday night service but only watched a short portion of it.

The LORD has a way of influencing my thoughts. The thoughts of one of my characters in my book and what the minister said triggered new deeper insight into God.

I have a deep desire to make 2016 spectacular. That’s my goal each year but this year I mean it in a different way.

The character in my work has too many things going on in his life making things complicated. I suppose that is the result of me wanting to focus on just a couple of priorities to accomplish in 2016 besides all of the daily necessities and who knows what else will come along.

Men seem to have a wonderful way of just focusing on one thing at a time. But I believe God made women with desire to handle multiple things since she is generally the one who takes most of the responsibility of the children, the home and her husband. This is not a bad thing since God created women for that very purpose. He created man to provide for his family. That’s why most men can go to work and not get irritated with traffic, coworkers or the assignment given to them. Whereas women struggle with those issues. Men often have a hard time dealing with screaming kids, routine household tasks, shopping and so on. But women seem to be natural at dealing with it all.

So, now I’m finding myself in a dilemma of wanting to focus on just a couple major things I want to accomplish this year which will require most of my attention.

I figure if I can just select two things each year that over time it will be a significant change to the positive. But now how to accomplish that. I have made significant progress over the past few years but there are a few areas that are still lacking and that is due to the fact that I haven’t figured out a way of keeping my mind focused on them for more than a few minutes at time before I’m distracted just like my character in the book.

I think that’s why I love writing so much. It makes me evaluate the situations that come into my character’s life with the hope that I don’t make the same mistakes they do and also in the process of writing I learn more about how to deal with life. God gives me insight that helps me.

There are a number of old sayings like: “Keep it simple stupid. (KISS)

I believe that is part of the answer to life. Keep it simple.

That’s what I’ve discovered on my journey to know God and what He desires of me. It’s just a few simple things that He asks of me. To love Him. To trust Him. To get to know Him through His word. To mimic Him.

That’s what Jesus did. He only did what His Father did. He didn’t try to invent a new way of doing something. He didn’t invite anything into His life other than what His Father wanted. He kept things simple.

I remember years ago watching “The gods must be crazy.” It’s an old movie but it struck me at the time that was the answer to life. It showed this young boy tossing a coke bottle up to God. I saw what an uncomplicated life he lived and actually became envious. We’ve complicated our lives to the point that very few people actually find joy or peace.

I have found that the happiest times of my life are when I’m thinking about God, loving others and keeping things simple. My life gets out of control when my focus is turned away from God and put on worldly activities. That’s when sadness, discouragement and all those other negative traits surface.

When my mind is focused on God, it’s focused on the truth and it’s the truth that sets us free from all of the negative thoughts that are thrown at us. When we know the truth we can put life into its proper perspective. We know what’s important and what isn’t.

So, I suppose that should be number one on my list for 2016. Keep things simple. Keep my priorities to a minimum and in their proper perspective and focus only on what is important.

Wishing you all the best in the coming year. God bless and thank you for joining me on this wonderful thing we call life.

Farewell 2015

I was just thinking about 2015 and immediately my thought was that I’ve had better years. My first thoughts were on the losses I experienced this year.

Isn’t that the case we often find ourselves in. We look immediately at our losses instead of our gains.

The truth is that 2015 was a very good year. If I were to be completely honest with myself and if I could examine the gains in their entirety, I would come to the conclusion that 2015 was one my best years ever… if not the best.

The wisdom alone that I gained this year is priceless. The panicky feelings that I would sometimes get when things went wrong are gone. That is priceless. The anger that arose inside when I saw a stupid comment on twitter or facebook or from family or friends is gone. This is priceless. The worry over what is happening to our world is gone. That is priceless. It’s impossible to buy peace but I have peace. I could go on and on with all the blessings God has granted me over the year. He gives us more blessings throughout the year than what life throws at us. I pray that in 2016 I focus more remembering the blessings and quickly forget any loss.

I may not have what I started 2015 with but I’ve gained so much more.

Farewell 2015. Thank you LORD for your kindness while You guide me through the year and I trust You will make 2016 even better.

My Christmas Wish

I was recently blessed when I saw this picture and immediately saved it then created an avitar.

This week I tried to catch up on the dozens of Youtube videos that have accumulated in my Inbox to view when I was reminded that the Bible is God’s love letter to us.

The more I study the Bible and allow myself time to reflect on what God is trying to reveal to me, the more I’m overwhelmed by the knowledge of how much He loves me. And He loves you that much too. His love is for us is outside our capacity to fully understand since we live in a different realm then He does and sadly, we have been deceived into thinking otherwise by earthy beings. Through indoctrination, many people don’t even know what love is.

1 John 4:16 tells us:

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.

1 John 4:8 also tells us that God is love.

When we accept Jesus as our LORD and Savior, He abides in us. The Holy Spirit comes and lives in us to guide us to the truth.

Once we understand God’s love for us, then we can love others unconditionally. God’s love towards us isn’t based on anything we did. We cannot even earn His love. God cannot be bought. He gives us His love freely just like He gives us salvation freely. The only thing we need to do is accept it with our entire being.

He is my LORD and Savior. Not the world, not the things in the world, and not any one person or group of people. There is only one LORD. When we put anything above Him, that’s when our life starts going amok. That’s when we lose our peace, our joy, our happiness, our contentment with life.

Once we set our priorities, our beliefs, our behavior in line with God’s that’s when our world becomes almost as perfect as it ever could.

I love that time of night when I get snuggled under the covers with the lights turned off. The stillness and quiet allows me to reflect on the past twenty-four hours and give thanks and glory to God for granting me another wonderful day full of blessings including His love and peace.

I’ve gotten to the point that I can feel Jesus’ love deep inside of me. He is so close that I can feel His love and peace. It’s an amazing feeling that can only be felt and not described.

Philippians 4:7

and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The terrors of the night disappear when we keep our minds on God.

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

I used to recite this at night whenever my thoughts roamed keeping me awake. Now, I focus on the LORD, feeling His love and knowing that He never sleeps so that I can.

Christmas is upon us. It’s a time to reflect and be thankful that God sent His Son to bring peace between Him and us. It’s a peace and love that the world will never understand until they get to know Him.

My Christmas wish is for everyone who reads this to experience with a greater understanding God’s love towards you and what amazing happened to the world the day Jesus was born and the day He died, so that in 2016 you will have an abundance of love and peace that only comes from God.

Seek and You Will Find

Proverbs 4:23

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

We all have concerns. However, from experience we should never allow them to dominate our life. Take it from me, when we do they become larger and larger to the point, if unchecked, they will cause anxiety and panic.

In high school, I started worrying about something. It started off small but over the years I allowed it to get out of control. We do that not understanding what we are doing to ourselves and the affect that it will have on our lives.

I understand that now but satan still uses that against me and my mind and body still try to respond to the thoughts he places in my mind.

It always amazes me how awesome our God is. He has a way of reminding me of the truth. I no longer have any anxiety or panic even though from habit my body wants to start that process once an old thought comes to mind.

I know the truth now. The truth does set you free. Knowing the truth will stop satan’s control and it will also make you wise so that you are not controlled by him or the people of this world that feed you with lies to manipulate you to their advantage.

Christmas Day I was reminded of an old fear I had and even though I put a stop to it, my mind kept trying to return to it.

I trust God now more than ever before and I know from experience that everything will turn out okay. It always has.

Yesterday God brought my mind to this tiny book I purchased that was placed inside a stack of other books practically hiding it from view. When I looked at the stack that small book was all I saw. It gnawed at me until finally late last night I removed it from the stack and started reading the first chapter.

God was speaking to me through that small, tiny book reminding me that with Him I would be okay and not to worry.

Then this morning I read Psalm 145 and underlined the entire Psalm. It was God speaking to me directly reassuring me that He would take care of me and that I need not worry. That He was my Father and that was His job.

When we were small children we didn’t have worries or concerns. We trusted our parents. God is like that. He is our Father and we are His children. Jesus mentioned that we are to come to Him as children. Oh, how true that is.

I have discovered that I must have the faith I had as a small child, “Only believe”, before the world changed me with its lies and deceptions. When I put my trust in God, He does amazing things.

We are only on earth for a short while in the perspective of eternity. God wants to take care of us so that we can live on earth in love and peace. He wants us to be happy just like most earthy fathers desire for their children. But that requires trust and belief.

Even when we were children we saw what happened to our relationships with our parents when we lost trust or belief. Now, even when I look back at my parents, who are both gone, I see how much they loved me and tried their best to provide for us. My father wanted nothing more for his children than for them to be happy and have the best life he could give them.

It saddens me at times that I cannot tell them how much I appreciate all they did for me. Everyday I thank the LORD repeatedly throughout the day for everything that He has done, doing and will do. I may not be able to make it up to my parents but I can make it up to my Father.

Seek the LORD with your heart and you will discover His truths and wisdom to get you through each day as this world’s lies try to take away your joy. God will magically bring you the truth before your very eyes as long as you are open to receive.

The joy of the LORD is our strength. Keep your joy and don’t let anyone or anything take that away from you. You can overcome anything this world throws at you. With God all things are possible. Only believe.

A Perfect Life

I saw this yesterday and my first thought is that I want both. Then my second thought was that I have both. Then my third thought was that life can never be perfect since evil exists. However, we can have our own perfect life.

Too many people are waiting for life to be perfect before they can be happy. I hate to break this to you, but life will never be perfect.

Jesus warned us in John 16:33:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation (trouble); but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Jesus told us to be of good cheer even through the troubles of life. He wouldn’t have said that if it were impossible.

There is a blessing that comes with age. We can look back and see these truths if we are honest with ourselves. Some of the worst times I’ve been through I found myself laughing the most which puzzled me at the time. Other times I found peace and comfort that couldn’t be explained.

When God is the center of our life then life isn’t as hard as others experience. Sure we still have troubles but knowing God’s Word gets us through those times. Trusting God and knowing that He’s with us and we are not alone is comforting in itself.

God promises in Psalm 91:14-16

"Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation."

Trusting in the LORD and knowing His Word will get us through the troubles in life.

We often wonder why didn’t God prevent this from happening to me. We’ve prayed, begged and more trying to force God to do what He is unable to do. He wants to but He cannot go back on His Word. If He did the entire world would evaporate killing everyone. The LORD is true to His Word.

He gave us dominion over this world. He gave us free-will. He gave us the ability to choose. He cannot force us or anyone to do His bidding. However, there is good news. He gave us His Word to help us through trouble and to prevent most of the trouble we face. We can avoid much of the trouble we encounter by following His teachings. Most often, the trouble we face is trouble we brought on ourselves. Not that we intentionally did it. But nonetheless, we choose to disregarding warning signals, or we did things we knew we ought not to do, or we put ourselves in a dangerous situation.

Happiness is a choice. It is an attitude we choose every day. Every day I choose to be happy regardless of my circumstances. I no longer wait until everything is perfect to be happy.

What I found in my pursuit to be happy every day is that I had to eliminate those things that made me unhappy. I had to choose to love people and realize they were struggling to get through life just like I was. I realized that they were only acting like they thought they should. I also knew they were listening more to the devil then they were to God and didn’t even know it. I knew that I have been guilty of the same thing. Maybe not in the same way but I have angered people too.

I realized I had to forgive and that including most of all to forgive myself. I realized that forgiveness is a gift that I give myself. It releases the bondage of unforgiveness. It released the weight from dragging the past around with me all of the time. It set me free.

That’s life. Everyone finds different things offensive. It’s based on our philosophy of life. It’s how we see the world.

I changed my philosophy to align more like God’s. That’s when I found true happiness. That’s when I found my perfect life. At least as perfect as it can get here on earth at the present moment. The more I understand and learn about God’s way, the more perfect my life becomes.

The world thinks the opposite of God. They believe that to be happy everything must be perfect. But in fact it’s the opposite. To have a perfect life, first you must choose to be happy and get rid of the thoughts that make you unhappy and realize that troubles are never permanent but happiness can be. Happiness causes the troubles to become just a speck in time which are quickly forgotten. Most often, the troubles of last week are not the troubles of this week. They come and they go. But happiness can always be with us.

The next time you find yourself unhappy realize that you chose to be unhappy. Shake it off and decide you're going to be happy no matter what is going on around you. You are in control of your happiness. So take control and see your world change in almost the blinking of an eye. It's a wonderful journey that you'll be glad you decided to take.

New Year, New Beginnings

The new year is approaching. For me, December is a month of reflection and a time of setting goals for the new year.

It’s fun looking back seeing the accomplishments I made throughout the year and where I could have improved. It’s also fun setting goals and making plans for the new year. I dislike saying goodbye to the old year so making plans for the new year helps me try to look forward to what is to come.

God tells us where there is no vision the people perish. I love having a vision of the new year with goals to achieve hopefully that will improve my life and those around me.

When my life comes to an end or when I’m old, I don’t look back and see a life of watching TV, complaining, or doing the same thing day after day. I believe that wanting to make a difference or making our life meaningful is something God places inside of each of us.

I realize most of what we end up doing is meaningless other than the good we do for others and the time we spend with God. Busy time, like my mom used to say. I just hope my busy time is time that God can use to make me a better person and which is often pleasing to Him.

One of the events of the new year in which I want to participate is Burn Notice Club. The club will be starting to watch the complete series again from the beginning. With this in mind I have two options. I can continue to document throughout the week the dialog and narration and take screen caps or I can revisit my book on the life of Fi and start writing something each week that involves the time line of the episode.

At the end of NaNoWriMo I purchased writing software with more features than Word offers. I still prefer using Word but with Scrivener I can add index cards on my thoughts, motivational pictures, research material, character information and so much more without it interfering with the actual novel.

Most likely the following years will be a combination of all of the above. But with this new software I can now add index cards for ideas or memories that are triggered each week watching each episode with my dear friends.

I love writing about Fi and Burn Notice. However, my version of Fi and her life with Michael is quite different than on the show. My version of Fi starts when her parents meet, when Fi was conceived, her life when she was born, as a small child, her childhood, early adolescence, her teen years, as she became a young woman, the death of her sister, how she acquired her skills, her involvement with the IRA, how she met Michael, their adventures throughout Europe and Africa, how she came to live in New York and the time she spent there, then her arrival in Miami. My book covers the scenes not seen in the show. What her and Michael’s life was like as a couple. In my book Fi was never an ex-girlfriend. She never belonged to the IRA. She had involvement with them but not in the traditional sense. How she was used by the CIA and the cost she paid for her involvement with both groups.

My book involves the characters from White Collar, Simon Baker from the Mentalist, Matt Passmore from the Glades and many, many, more people than what we see in the show.

It includes how she met Seymour, how she became involved in gun running, where she lived. And no, it’s not as glamorous as depicted in the show. I put her though many trials and tribulations along the way.

In my book of Fi, Michael isn’t the only hero. Fi is a hero as well.

Fi is softer than the Fi in the show. She doesn’t go around hitting Michael, yelling or storming out leaving him. She is loving, supportive, and sacrificing her wants for his with the consequences that result.

She is funny, and always surprising Michael. He thinks he knows her but he only knows what the CIA has told him about her which isn’t the truth. The CIA hid the truth from him making her a mystery that he gets a glimpse of every now and then often leaving him and Sam speechless.

As with all of my books, God plays an intricate part in the life of the main character. With my book on Fi, God’s involvement is the major factor as to why she and Michael met. A divine union of two drastically different individuals brought together to complete each other.

God also uses Burn Notice to speak to me; to make me grow in the knowledge of Him, to understand life, and to be hopefully a blessing to others.

The following is an excerpt from the beginning of the story of how Fi came to Miami...

Chapter 1: Leaving New York

“Irish, you’re packing.” the dark haired, physically fit man in his thirties said after opening the apartment door instantly seeing what he had been dreading. He took off his black leather jacket tossing it on the couch by the door. He had seen this same image in his mind for the past few weeks but had been hoping it wouldn’t come true.

Neal had called her Irish since the first day they met on the sidewalks of New York as Fi contemplated robbing the First National Bank of New York to survive. After hearing part of her story he decided not to call her by her given name but rather ‘Irish’ because of her nationality and thick accent. For some reason that name seemed to fit her better than ‘Fi’.

Now, I have to finalize my decision about Burn Notice Club as I continual to define my goals for 2016.