BREATHE WELL IN SUFFERING

It is natural to run from the sufferings of this life, only to find more suffering. Some work to drown sorrows in alcohol, sex, drugs, gambling, shopping, etc. Some may use weird techniques to eliminate the pain by meditating on absolutely nothing. When will earthly suffering end? The answer: The Grave. You must run through life with this understanding. Just accept that life’s suffering unites color, sex, and socio-economic status. There is a natural unity in all of mankind and that is suffering.

The moment resolution is made about suffering in this life, you can move on with faith believing and trusting in the impossible. Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered. Suffering is as natural as breathing air. Let the fire of suffering make you shine as gold.

There are two types of suffering. The first is because of disobedience to Christ and the second is obedience to Christ. You can add unnecessary suffering to your life. For all the pleasure that sin gives there is a tail that brings suffering. Ask the addict who lost everything they had in their life because of it. This suffering should be avoided and can be avoided by obeying the voice of God and understanding his will for your life. The second suffering can never be avoided. This suffering is found when you choose to obey God’s word over strong desires to sin against it.

There is a pain that develops in telling your flesh the answer is no. Ask the dieter who tries diligently to put down the potato chips, ice cream, pizza etc.  The body will fight you. The devil will fight you. Spiritual darkness in heavenly places is against your success. Why? Your success shines the light for others to see and rejoice in the fact that making it is possible.

Breathing well in suffering is found in understanding that your suffering is not strange. For the follower of Jesus Christ understands that it is common to all believers. Since it is common, sit back and trust the Lord for the roller-coaster ride is almost over. Grab the hand next to you and say we will make it. Don’t allow the screams of others to cause you to lose hope. Jesus will never leave or forsake you and in the end he will be there to bring you home.

CONFESSIONS OF LOW SELF-ESTEEM

Today is the day I get the most excited. There seems to be something in the air or something in the psychological preconditioning of my youth up until this point that makes this day special. I happen to thrive on this day and sometimes I am successful. I am the doorway to suicide.

What many do not understand about me is that I automatically exist because life is all about me. From the moment I entered the earth and suck the breasts of my mother I understood that it was about me. I exist because I willed it.

For some reason not every girl or guy understood this. I faced rejection. I exist because I willed it. This is not the life I chose. It was not until I met Jesus that I realized that this is not the life I chose because I am not here because I willed it. I am here because God did.

I soon realized my low self-esteem was attached to my desire to be accepted because my identity was in my will. Now my identity is in Christ and no man on earth can remove me from his hand. For you men, a woman can, ask Solomon or Jimmy swaggart, men must flee. Ok! Back to the confession…

We hear this all the time that what you believe you shall achieve and the premise is that you have some sort of power, as an entity, who has willed itself to be. When others, through time and chance, have the appearance of doing so, you run toward the same vain only to find they lied to you. They do not have everything. So rich/poor men have multiple men/women, drugs, alcohol, and still it is not enough and through persistent abuse they overdose, die of AIDS, or commit quick suicide.

If your identity is not fully in Christ, a Judas moment in your life will end yours. Place everything in him and draw your esteem there and you will overcome every storm that life can bring. You will also see life properly and live it properly as well.

Know All of God’s Attributes

It has been my experience within the church to come to know God and his love in an unbalanced form. The idea that God loves unconditionally and without strings attached. That God is compassionate, merciful, kind, and pleasant. After all, God sent His only Son Jesus to be sacrificed for sinners. No greater love then this. So, if I understand God’s love and kindness am I sufficiently equipped to deal with God? No. You have been offered a God that is not based on Scripture, but one fabricated by the world. Because to know God is to understand all of His attributes.

Listen: “Then Jesus said to another man, “Follow Me.” The man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You, however, go and proclaim the kingdom of God (Luke 9:59-60).”

Does that sound like a loving statement?

Listen: “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell: (Matthew 10:28).

Does that sound like a compassionate statement?

Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14).

Does that sound like unconditional love?

“Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land” (Deuteronomy 6:14-15).

If God were to destroy in his anger, do you think the soul is going to heaven?

God is love! (1 John 4:8), but God will not be mocked. We must love and fear Him or miss an opportunity of entering into His rest. The way is narrow because its easy to be deceived by all of the love talk, but forget that God’s friends obey Him or go to hell. Faith without works is dead.

Know God’s love, His jealousy, His kindness, His wrath, His compassion and His terror. Then you will have an understanding of the God of the Bible and the one with whom we have to deal.

Position Yourself For Heaven

When you canvas the Scriptures you will find a theme that will make any Christian uncomfortable. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown (Revelation 2:10).

Notice what our loving God has said about His children. Be faithful, even to the point of death. Let that soak in. When you see the prosperity ministers, promising you houses, that you did not build, when God has promised a mansion, vineyards you did not own, when Jesus is providing a banquet. Understand that God cares little of our death. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants (Psalm 116:15). He did not save Stephen from being stoned or John from loosing his head. This is our loving God.

It is important that you understand what God values. If you fail to understand what God values, you will become bitter when calamity comes crashing down on you. You will say all kinds of ungodly things & your faith will fail, because you failed to understand the God that you serve.

God cares about one thing and that is obedience unto death and his only promise to the believer is that you will spend eternity in heaven and in pleasure if you pass the tests on earth. None of us can tell when God will pull the plug on us, so we must be ready at all times. Who and what are living for? It should be God and the promise of entering into paradise. Any other main goals will only increase vanity.

People keep seeing Jesus in strange places

While the city of Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia gained international attention in 1981 when six children claimed to have encountered the Virgin Mary, there has also been a long history of religious apparitions in the United States, as well, and often in some of the most unusual ways.

Two Houston women recently claimed to have seen the face of Jesus Christ on a neighborhood oak tree.

In 1996, a Nashville coffeehouse became a tourist attraction when a customer found a cinnamon bun that resembled Mother Teresa. On Christmas Day in 2005, the “Nun Bun” was reported stolen.

Back in 2004, the Virgin Mary’s face was embedded on a grilled cheese sandwich.

A couple in Iowa in 2010 sliced open a potato that had a cross-like design in the middle of it. They later listed the potato slices on eBay.

In 2014, a Michigan man also saw Jesus’ face in a pierogi he purchased at a Parish festival. Just a year before, a man in Ohio photographed an image of Jesus appearing in a bird dropping on his car windshield.

For some this may be comical and for others these are true encounters with God. It is important to understand that we do live in a spiritual world. This means  that not only does God speak, Satan and his fallen angels speak and reveal themselves as well. Be careful that you are not deceived. God has not revealed his face. His instructions for the believer is to worship him in Spirit and truth.

Jesus said, in the last days people would claim Jesus is here or there, but do not believe them because when Jesus appears again, he will not be revealing himself to a few people, but all will see him and every knee will bow before him.

I have a tile in my bathroom that has what appears to be an image of the false Jesus that many of us are plagued with. I don’t worship the tile or believe its God speaking, because he speaks to my heart through the Holy Spirit. No images of his majesty, a still small voice, a knowing that does not contradict the Bible.