Freedom To Me

What does freedom mean to you?

Life, Liberty, and pursuit of happiness. All people are created equal. We all have our own, thoughts and ideas. I have a right not to have anyone shove their ideas and thoughts down my throat. I don’t do that so I expect people not to do the same to me. I believe in free speech.

The government should not have the right go infringe on my God-given rights. I have the right to defend myself if I am being just or in danger. Many great men have lost their lives defending this nation for us to be free. Today these freedoms are in endanger of being taken away.

It comes down to this as human beings we should treat others how we would like to be treated.

Having Oil In Your Lamp

In the busyness of our daily lives, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the world and forget to take time to think about our spiritual readiness. We often forget to ask ourselves we have oil for our lamps.

This question is simple yet holds profound significance in our relationship with God, and our faith in Him, Matthew 25 says, “For the foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them; but the wise tool oil in thier vessels with their lamps.

In Biblical times, lamps and oil were essential sources of light. They provided illumination and guidance in the darkness. Oil was the fuel that sustained the lamp’s flame. Without oil the lamp would flicker and go out.

In a spiritual concept, the lamp represents our faith, and the oil symbolizes our relationship with God and our spiritual preparedness. Does your lamp have oil? Our answer to this question should challenge us to examine the state or our faith and closeness to God.

Not having a faithful relationship with God could leave us in a desperate situation in the times before Jesus comes back. Matthew 25, and the Parable about the foolish virgins and their unpreparedness caused them to miss out on a joyful celebration because they neglected to be prepared and have oil in their vessels.

Regularly immersing ourselves in Scripture and seeming a deep relationship with God through prayer and worship is essential to keep our lamps burning brightly.

It’s easy to become complacent in our faith journey, allowing our lamps to run low on oil. Life’s distractions, busyness, and worldly temptations can lead us astray if we are not vigilant. Proverbs 4:23, says:

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Guarding our hearts means prioritizing our relationship with God and nurturing our faith continuously. We must be intentional about seeking Him, studying His Word, and surrounding ourselves with other believers who can encourage us on this journey on earth.

The good news is that no matter how depleted our oil may be, God always gives us an open invitation to replenish it. God’s grace and forgiveness are boundless. Revelation 3:20, extends an invitation to us:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door then I will come in to him, and I will dine with him, and he with Me.”

This verse reminds us that Jesus is always ready to rekindle our faith and restore our relationship with Him. All we need to do is open the door of our hearts and invite Him in.

Disagreeing With Someone

What public figure do you disagree with the most?

We all disagree with someone in this life. Just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean you have to insult me or belittle them. It seems like most people have forgotten that these days.

Treating people right is important and the number one way to treat people right to is respect them as fellow human beings. We don’t have to agree or even support a person’s views.

We need to start agreeing on what we both want, and not disrespect the things we don’t agree on.

Just because I don’t agree with a person doesn’t mean I hate them. or want to ruin their life or reputations.

Light That Dispels Fear

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear” – Psalm 27:1

There is nothing more unsettling than finding ourselves in complete darkness. Our mind can begin to play tricks on us. Our imagination runs wild. We walk carefully, trying no to bump into objects searching for a flashlight or candle (or phone) that will bring a little light to us. And we find that light. The relief if undeniable.

The world can be a dark place, and we all long for something to enlighten us in the darkness. Some listen to news or go to social media etc…

Psalm 27 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear.” These simple words teach us that the most light. The light that is able to cast out all fear, is the light of God.

The Bible teaches us over and over again not to be afraid, and that God is with us. And “if God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31). Jesus says “He is the light of the world“ (John 8:12). He is the light that no darkness can overcome (John 1:5). He is the light that casts out all fear. Why? Because He is always with us. Jesus is our Good Shepherd, who walks with us through the darkest valleys, and if He is with us, we don’t have to fear.

Psalm 91 reminds us, that when we live in Him we will not fear the terror of the night or that arrows that fly by day. As the world becomes darker we don’t have to be afraid, no matter where life takes us. 2 Corinthians 4:6 says

“Seeing it is God who said Light will shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Yeshua the Messiah.”

The next time you find yourself in a dark place, let God’s light shine in your heart and let this divine light cast out your fear. Jesus is the light that we all like ng for, and the only light we will ever need.

Career Plan

What is your career plan?

My career plan is being a housewife. Society tends to tell women if they aren’t doing something outside if the home they aren’t successful.” I don’t believe that’s true.

I am very blessed that I don’t have to work outside of the home. Most families have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to survive these days.

Putting Emotional Walls Up And Tearing Them Down

We all do it. Putting up walls around our heart to protect ourselves from the pain. And we think we’re doing it to be safe.

The walls that we put up sometimes become our prisons.

What we think we’ve done to protect ourselves has, in reality, caused us to hide behind the walk, curl up in a bank and waiting while we fret and worry and fear the worst.

“Guarding your heart” is a biblical principle but if we don’t gain the right perspective on what that means, we may likely end up with a heart that is controlled by our emotions and feelings. While it’s normal to isolate ourselves from the world out of fear or agitation that feels normal Then pain, sorrow, fear, anxiety and grief can creep in behind that walk of isolation and keep us captive.

So how do we break those walls down? I can tell you from experience that once the walls are up it is hard work to break them down. It’s a constant battle.

How do we guard our hearts when our life depends on it? What is the remedy when emotions and agitation don’t just stop by for a visit but barge in and take over our hearts, and minds?

Ephesians 6:12-13 tells us:

“For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rules of the darkness of this age, and again against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

The enemy we fight is not one to be fought alone. It’s impossible without God. God is the creator of our emotions, and though Satan would love to use them against us (as he sometimes does), this battle that rages in us has a Victor. His name is Jesus, our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Friend. He is the one who conquered evil. He is the one who opens the door to the spiritual realm so He can help us in this battle we face on earth.

Fighting to break down the walls we put up to protect us has to come down to get the prison we so eagerly put up. But breaking the wall takes hard work, preparedness, commitment and stamina.

Jesus told us how to use His armor against the enemy in Ephesians 6:14-17:

“Start, therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace; above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”

  • Truth –Your belt. It holds you together when your world is falling apart. We have to stand on the promises of God’s Word, even when we don’t understand why, or when the world tells us something different, (see Philippians 4:8-9).
  • Righteousness –The idea of the breastplate of righteousness is for this armor to protect us when satan throws his fiery darts at you. The key to guarding your heart is to know God’s Word. It is our righteousness that gives us the boldness to stand against Satan (see Romans 3:26).
  • Preparation – having your sandals on, ready to go at any minute. We often let our guard down or get lazy in our relationship with God and satan tries to take advantage of this. I can neglect to clean my house and it won’t do any physical harm, but failing to clean my spiritual house can prove go be detrimental to my spiritual, emotional, and even my physical health. (see 1 John 1:6-9).
  • Faith -While this seems an obvious necessity for battle, the shield of faith is more than that. Why do you think the emotion of fear can creep in so easily and consume us? It’s when we lay down that shield that protects us, we allow fear to move in. When we are grieving the shield of faith will surround us and protect us from being consumed by it. Worry retreats when faith takes over. When we walk in faith we quit allowing our feelings to dictate our actions. With faith, we believe God is truly in control. This doesn’t mean we won’t have emotions, it means that our emotions won’t have us. (see 1 John 5:4-5).
  • Salvation – The battle begins and ends in our minds. When we choose to believe what Jesus did for us on the cross we recognize that the victory has already been won. No circumstance in this life can change the fact that He saved us. He loved us is much that He died for us. If He loves us that much, we can trust us with whatever life throws at us. The Helmet of Salvation protects our brains from getting out of focus when life gets tough. Our thoughts, actions, and feelings come into alignment when we keep our focus on what really matters. (see Romans 5:7-8).
  • God’s Word – Our sword. Our weapon in this spiritual battle. Our words mean nothing. His Words mean everything. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have the Holy Spirit, and He will correct you and guide you, but knowing and applying God’s Word is our fiercest weapon. (see 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5).

This battle isn’t easy, and it’s bigger than us. God-given emotions are a natural part of this life but this gift of emotions was never intended to control us. God wants to fill our hearts and our minds with His truth, but He places that responsibility on us to absorb the truth.

Now you can see how “the armor” that He talks about is for our good. For our protection.

It All Begins With Faith

Live Performance

What was the last live performance you saw?

The last performance I saw was by Eric Church. It’s one of the few I have seen. He gives an country amazing show.

Eric Church

Two Fathers, Two Kingdoms

Understanding Spiritual Identity In A Divided World

Deep Study

Everyone we meet has two fathers. Everyone. They have a biological father and a spiritual father. Biblically, their spiritual father is either God or Satan. The Pharisees, incorrectly thought they were children of God and said to Jesus, “The only Father we have is God Himself” (John 8:41). Their perceptions were not equal to reality. Jesus refuses them, saying. “You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). And “you are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44). William Hendrickson who was a New Testament scholar wrote:

“Identity of inner passions and desires establishes spiritual descent: they are constantly desiring to carry out the wishes of the devil; so he must be their father. The devil desires to kill and to lie, and so do they.”

We live in a divided world where “the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom and the tares are the sons of the evil one” (Matthew 13:38; 1 John 3:10).

Those who are children of Satan are called “sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), are under “the dominion of Satan“ (Acts 26:18), and reside in his “domain of darkness” (Colossians 1:13; Romans 2:19). These walk “in the futility of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17), and are “darkened in the understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, be of hardness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18).

Paul said that Satan, “had blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the Image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). But these are not unwilling victims; for though they are born into Satan’s kingdom and held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26), they also enjoy what he offers and are said to love darkness rather than the light” (John 3:19).

The Greek word for love is agape (agapao), which is in the active voice and means they willingly love the darkness of Satan’s world system and all their affections are tied to it. They continue as residents of his kingdom by choice and not by chance. Freedom awaits them if they want it. Freedom in Christ. But they don’t want freedom, and when given the opportunity to be liberated from their captor, they prefer to clutch their chains of familiar pleasures and practices than to step into the unknown freedom and responsibilities of liberty in Christ. Jesus said to them, “You are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:40).

Paul described them as “men who suppress the truths of unrighteousness“ (Romans 1:18), are “without excuse” before God (Romans 1:20), and professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and foot footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:22-23). Of those who are negative and set their wills against God, three times it is written that He “gave them over” to “the lusts of their hearts” (Romans 1:24), and “to degrading passions” (Romans 1:26) to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper” (Romans 1:28). Once God permits a person to operate by his sinful passions, that person is given a measure of freedom to live as he wants, but not without consequences, both in time and eternity. God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, so that they may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

To say that Satan is someone’s father also means they are his children by imitation. Jesus said of Satan, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks it’s a lie, he speaks from his own nature, he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). By his actions, Satan became the murderer of souls, directing the first humans into sinful acts that ultimately led to their spiritual death and the enslavement of all mankind (Genesis 2:17, 3 1-6, Romans 5:12, 14, 19, 6:23). This is according to the William Hendrickson.

From the very beginning of the history of the human race the devil had murder in his heart and he plunged the human race into an ocean of death, physical, spiritual, and eternal (Romans 5:13, Hebrews 2:14, 1 John 3:8). The devil is a wellspring of lie, the creator of falsehoods (Genesis 3:1, 4, Job 1:9-11, Matthew 4:6, 9, Acts 5:3, Thessalonians 2:9-11). When he lies, he is original. When he does not lie (Acts 16:16-17), he quotes or even plagiarizes , even then he gives the borrowed words a false setting, in order to create an illusion. He strives to lie and deceive, and he does it in order to murder.

Those who are children of Satan are spiritually deceived, and belong to Satan’s world-system, share Satan’s desires and have murder in their hearts. They practice lies and deception to promote their agenda. These people are incline to harm others spiritually, physically, emotionally, and psychologically, which endangers the wellbeing of those near them. (we are seeing this happen in the world today). We as believers are called to show them love and grace when possible (Matthew 5:44-45)m but also guard ourselves against their attacks (Acts 20:28, 2 Timothy 4:14-15).

Satan is a master strategist who seeks to plant his ‘minions’ into all organizations where they can have a destructive influence on others, such as government, education, media, entertainment, military, sports, and society in general. Especially if the can promote the departure from the Bible and its morals. Satan’s ‘minions’ promote lies, deception, violence, and murder to obtain and retain their places of pride and power. The value and morals we once had is diminishing, and the trend toward evil will only get worse.

As a follower of Christ, I make it a point to study God’s Word every day, walk-in faith by the Spirit, demonstrate grace and pray for others. I believe there will come a time where persecution will come and we must be ready. The more time we spend learning God’s Word and walking in faith the more equipped to stand against those who make seek to silence us in any way they can.

We need to realize that we live in a fallen world. Walking with God is total devotion to Him, and world will reject us, Jesus said.

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this world hates you” -John 15:18-19.

The gospel of grace and a solid foundation of the Bible’s teachings will, on occasion threaten other people’s pride and power, and we should not be surprised when they act negatively with hostility. If it is possible we are to get along with others and pursue peace (Romans 12:18), but never at the price of neglecting our assignment to tell people about Jesus (Mark 16:15).

Because we live in a fallen world there will be times when we must choose whether to serve God or man. “We must obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29).

As believers, we are supposed to both be realistic and optimistic about the world and the future. Realistic that we will not win the world to Christ and optimistic because we know Jesus is coming back and making everything right.

We must keep our focus on God and His Word because it provides mental and emotional stability when trouble comes (and it will). Adversity is inevitable and we must be able to handle it in wisdom and faith if we are going to finish the race.

Cling To The Lord

The temptation to forget God is always present. It’s easy to take your eyes off God living in the world. We might see our friends doing worldly things such as going to the club and whooping it up. God says in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God.”

God never blesses disobedience. If you fill your mind with scripture you can critically evaluate society and can see through the empty values of the world and resist assimilation.

If we look at the world and its abandonment of God we can see the diminishing respect for the authority of His Word. A disregard for God and His wisdom is always the first step toward spiritual rebellion. We can see this in everything that’s going on in the world today. Keeping and doing what’s in God’s Word is not simply giving tacit consent to its claims. We must be strong to keep it and do it and not deviate from it to the right or the left.

There will always be a temptation to think the world has it better than you (Exodus 23:13). But if you have the scripture on your lips and the praise of God’s name in your mouth, you won’t have room or time for acknowledging anything else.

To cling to God is to trust in His promises, to seek His favor, and to only crave for His approval and not other people.

We should never lose hold of God or allow anything to tempt us and draw us away from God if we are to be blessed by Him. When we cling to God if can enjoy peace of conscience and peace with God. If we can look at God through the cross we will see a gracious Father, a loving friend, and a glorious portion for ourselves.

When we cling to God everything to inspire, feed, and strengthen our confidence will be found. When we cling to God fears die, doubts are quickly dispersed, and joy and praise will spring up in its place.

Helping The Community

What do you do to be involved in the community?

I helped the community volunteering to help veterans by helping gather food and delivering food to home bound veterans by delivering food to their homes during Thanksgiving and Christmas.. I did this for about 7 years, and then 7 Yerba before that by helping veterans and their families with fundraising for food and for the research of cancer.

Currently I been recovering from a few surgeries I’ve had. So I’m not helping the community at this time.