The Origin of Love

We believe that the love we feel is genuine, especially when we have no real understanding nor CONNECTION to its true ORIGIN (defines as the point or place where something begins). We confuse the feeling that starts out as a chemical reaction as being REAL, only to watch it dissipate and disappear in the light of certain events, or actions of others, or lack of physical contact or visual referencing (out of sight, out of mind).

When we actively feed into our relationship with God, we then experience what TRUE LOVE IS. Love IS God, and God IS love, so it shows itself everlasting and NOT based on the actions of others (i.e. whether they do what we want, what we say, act like we want them to act, or even reciprocate love.) The beauty of Divine or AGAPE love is that it doesn’t require replenishment from man… it is always connected to its eternal ORIGIN.

1st John 4:7-12

The New Years Choice

Every year, almost everyone makes a choice to do better or get more of something in some way, whether it be more money, better relationship, better health, etc… Unfortunately, the choices made are usually only honored for a short time, and can sometimes benefit us even less. Joshua brought the people of Israel together to give them a summary of the events of their lives and the lives of those before them. He spoke upon the promises made between the ancestors and God, the trial and tribulations they endured, the battles fought, the foolish choices made in the midst of them all, and in the end, God kept them in spite of themselves.

In the end, Joshua requested them to choose whom they would serve; the gods of the world, or the Lord God in entirety. he also made it clear that whatever they choose would be on them and Joshua’s choice was already clear… he and his house would serve the Lord. Why? Because that was the choice that would last. It was the choice that would take him through any and all situations and circumstances; keep him in times of doubt, confusion and sorrow, and guarantee success no matter how the outcome. 
If you are going to make a choice for the new Year, make sure it is the one that will stand the test of time, trial and tribulation… choose God.

Reference Joshua 24:14-15

The Act of Love

The term ‘love is an action word‘ does hold truth, yet what actions should we take? in this season, the focus on love gives way to the desire for ‘things’. We spend great amounts of money on stuff for each other, yet these things rarely last. The things that do are usually ignored, and we further settle for these things as proof of love, yet they are no where near proof of anything other than an instinctual following of the times.

Christ showed the greatest example of love with the sacrificing of his physical life for the salvation of us all. Each day, God shows love for us by going ABOVE AND BEYOND that which we deserve, and asks, can we do the same for each other? Can we go above and beyond the physical gifts, remedial words, and show love to others in a way the LASTS? Yet, how do we achieve this? First, we MUST establish and build our relationship with God, and since GOD IS LOVE, we then build pure love within ourselves, thus allowing us to share this with others. And the best thing about this… IT DOESN’T COST A DIME.

Referencing 1st John 3:16-18.

Okay God… Convince me!

The marketing industry spends billions of dollars annually on ways to convince you and me that the product or service they are trying to sell is worth buying. This is done through billboards, television, radio and Internet advertisements which are among the most popular. We expect this to occur and in this, push the industry to be more creative and more convincing as time goes by. We are creatures of short attention spans and smaller levels of satisfaction, so this signifies why we would need to be convinced to spend our money, or our time on anything nowadays.

Thomas, in the story, who was shown the power of Christ on many occasions, still did not believe that He was able to overcome the finality of death, so he needed to be convinced. He needed to have his senses satisfies through touch; needing to feel the holes in his hands and the piercing in his side. Then once convinced, he believed, yet Christ made it quite clear that his belief was hollowed because it lacked faith.

How many of us consistently seek proof of God? We have all asked for a sensual convincing, usually in the form of a sign of some sort, or most commonly, a financial issue be resolved in our lives, and even then, we are still skeptical. Our FAITH should be our assurance, yet because of our reliance on our physical senses, we seek an earthly way to validate The Heavenly Father in our limited and insignificant lives, thus placing God on a marketing platform that we continue to push to reinvent and resell.

Only when we are able to lean on our faith that God CAN and thus TRUST that God WILL can we get past the worldly lack of faith and distrust that comes with our inherent need of convincing.

Referencing John 20:18-29

What is given, can be taken

We must never forget where our lives and all the possessions we take for granted in our lives come from. By the grace of God we are provided for, yet sometimes we can forget and slip into the ‘it was my will and my skill’ way of thinking real quickly, especially when our egos are fed by the world.

Many of us have prayed for things to come into our lives, or change in our lives, and once God provides, we, a first, will thank God for blessing us. As time goes on, and what we asked for starts to benefit us, or increase for the better, we can get caught up in the feeling of accomplishment, especially when the results begin to show to others. In time, if not careful, we have convinced ourselves that we are in control of the outcome and even boast of our magnificence, only to ultimately be stripped of all that we believed to be of our making.

Remember, our lives are gifts, not privileges, and never to be confused with being deserved or earned, thus it is imperative that we keep in the FRONT OF OUR MINDS that it was not OUR will, but God’s.

Referencing Deuteronomy 8:11-20

The beloved enemy

To betray someone, that is, to hurt someone by not giving help or doing something morally wrong, has levels of intensity depending on the amount of love, trust, and commitment invested into the relationship.

As the Word of God explains, when an enemy shows deception, it is EXPECTED. That level of betrayal is hardly felt and the emotional strain from it can be avoided altogether BECAUSE of the expectation. However, when the enemy is loved by you, trusted by you, and you are committed to this person for WHATEVER reason, and have fully invested time and resources into this person and they betray…. the results can be devastating. How do you recover? How do you get through? How do you find forgiveness? So much has been burned and since trust is a VERY DIFFICULT THING TO REBUILD, this can become an aftershock that can last a lifetime.

Now how does this relate to us and our relationship with God? Many of us have this delusion that God can be walked away from AT WILL, vows can be un-kept (that was me), games can be played, we can get tired of God and try the enemy for awhile and leave God as an afterthought, we can play church until we get what we THINK WE WANT and then just ‘dip out’; not just ONCE, but OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN… we reproach God and expect that it has NO effect. Unfortunately… it DOES.

Ask yourself, how would you feel if someone you LOVE, CHERISH, AND HAVE SACRIFICED FOR did that to you? Would you be okay with it? Would you brush it off? Would you continue to show them forgiveness and understanding and love as God has for us in our continued betrayals? Is this FAIR to God? And would God be justified in turning God’s back on us when we reproach God? I wonder…

Referencing- Psalms 55:11-14

The unearned ‘gift’

The saying ‘what’s worth having is worth working for’ is how we usually validate the value of what we desire. The thought of giving something freely, is in so many cases, unacceptable to the majority of us, because we have been taught that if is not worked for, it is not worth anything.

As parents, we give gifts to our children, only to usually watch them show little to no regard to the gift, yet the same child will cherish that thing he or she earned. This is something that we take with us through our lives… we use this in every aspect of our lives, ESPECIALLY love. Many have been emotionally scarred because of the given not earned concept of love… I gave them my love and they threw it away. Why? because they did not do anything to EARN it. This example connects with the Word of God in that we are spiritually spoiled and rarely appreciate what God gives to us everyday, and what Christ gave to us many, many years ago. Not counting the events that lead to is crucifixion; the beatings, ridicule, mocking, disrespect and desertion of those who vowed to be by Christ side through it all… all of this so that we would have life, yet what do we do with the gift? many of us take the blood shed for our transgressions, and spit it right back in God’s face.

The point is to appreciate the gifts of God. Appreciate the sacrifice of life so that we ALL could continue to live, and always be reminded that this gift, honestly could NEVER BE EARNED.

Referencing John 3:16-17

Spiritual Arsonists

When a home is constructed, it will usually take between three to six months to complete, not counting changes, unseen issues and the like. A fire, on the other hand, can destroy that same building within hours.

At the bottom of this posting there, is an image which illustrate what is needed for a fire to begin. What I also found interesting in my research of fire is that it is looked at as an EVENT, rather than a THING, which in the case of our lives and how we approach things, makes perfect sense to me.

Fire needs three elements to ignite: HEAT, FUEL AND OXYGEN. If either ONE of these elements is missing, the fire will not start. So many of us who call ourselves, ‘CHRISTIANS’ or MEN AND WOMEN OF GOD‘ are experts in the committing of spiritual arson. We can and HAVE burned down relationships, friendships, marriages, careers and the like because of our inability to control our tongues.

The Word of God warns us of the power of the tongue; being it a small muscle, it has more power than almost ALL the muscles in the body with the exception of the heart. it can bless and curse in the same breath and many are very capable of being blessing and curses to anyone and everyone with their words.

So how does it occur: first we need HEAT- usually that is our emotions that have boiled out of control because of something not going our way, or someones actions or even their words. Next, we have to be FUELED by something or even SOMEONE, this comes in the form of instigation from others or from the enemy itself (i.e. Who does he or she think they are, or do they know who they are talking to? etc…) this brings the ego into play and since so many of us are ego -driven, this is the common fueling element. Lastly, we take in OXYGEN, and let it flow! Before we know it, we have caused fiery destruction all around us, burning all in our paths, yet we then try to ask for forgiveness for something that we CLAIM we have no control over… when it is in fact that we don’t WANT to control it. We think that it makes us powerful, yet it shows how truly WEAK we are. This is another common and widespread trick of the enemy that we ALL have fallen for one time in our lives.

What’s ironic is that all we have to do is take ONE of the elements out and the fire of our tongues will never ignite. How do we do this, you may ask… the answer is in God.

Referencing: James 3:5-10

Thought for the Day- The Universal Occupation

The occupation of FOOL is one that is easiest to master; ironically, for it requires no degree nor other educational achievement, it is free for all to pursue, has many levels of advancement, un biased to previous educational background, gender, sexual preference, color, demographic, religious affiliation, political standing, culture or creed, and can be learned from the youngest of ages and kept throughout ones life.

I believe this is why SO MANY PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD have pursued this as a life-long career choice.

(Ecclesiastes ch.10:v.2, Proverbs ch.18:v.2)

Thought of the Day- One of my favorite topics

Time to think!

Back in the 80’s, the Reagan administration started a campaign that was designed to resolve the injection of illegal narcotics into the minority communities; they called it ‘The War on Drugs’.

While this was a great effort to resolve an ever-growing problem, it was only a band-aid to the ORIGIN of the issue. You see, it was not the drugs that caused so much death and destruction in the community… it was the DESIRE FOR POWER. The drugs were a catalyst to the true source; the IF, AND IF, THEN scenario that IF you sell drugs, AND IF you get money from selling drugs, THEN you will have the POWER you seek.

Of course, this illusion of POWER is what also caused then, AND NOW, the relentless bloodshed that plagues the minority community to this day, yet no one is trying to get to the ROOT OF THE PROBLEM, so to speak, because man STILL FOOLISHLY BELIEVES that solving the END RESULT of a thing will solve the WHOLE thing.

Ask yourself this: do you think that a person who kills another person does it for the sole sake of taking a life? Remember, that taking something from someone else, especially by force, brings a sense of POWER to the taker… the more valuable (i.e. someone’s LIFE), the more POWER they feel. (The movie ‘Highlander’ depicts this very well).