Perspectives

How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?

After being a child of emotional abuse, along with being neglected. My early adulthood was tough. I allowed the effects of my abuse to almost destroy my life. I was mentally weak and easily gave up. The nightmares and flashbacks were horrible.

I learned to make myself a priority and be kind to myself. I built up an emotional resilience and inner strength. I learned coping skills to be able to adapt to life challenges and stressors.

I learned through trial and error to see problems differently. Because of my childhood experiences, I can see a more complete picture of any situation.

Practicing mindfulness and meditation techniques has positively changed my life. And having a good support group around me, I heal more every day.

Through everything I’ve been through I’ve developed a positive perspective on life. I’ve become a strong person. I have a greater appreciation of life. I have more self-esteem and a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.

I have developed an increased personal strength and sense of spirituality which has allowed me to produce self-efficacy which has leaf to perseverance in the face of obstacles I face in life.

Life Can Hurt But God Can Heal

Life can really hurt sometimes, can’t it? Whether it’s something we bring on ourselves or it’s something that just happens, there are times when life just really hurts.

Even though we know that life can sometimes be a painful struggle, we also know that there is help for the pain. Life can hurt but God can heal. God can do amazing things in our lives and heal us from our hurts.

All through the Bible we see examples of God miraculously healing someone from their physical ailments. And probably most of us can attest to seeing someone who’s been miraculously healed from a physical ailment.

In 2014 I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. The Doctor gave me 1 year to live. After I had surgery to remove a grapefruit-size tumor from my bladder, I was sure I would die. I began seeking God more than ever. I decided that I was going to give satan the fight of his life. And I would end up winning. I listened carefully and obeyed God’s every word. The doctors said they couldn’t even see a trace of the cancer. And I was the closest I’ve ever been with God.

We have all read about healing or we’ve seen them with our own eyes. But I think that many times we miss the point of the miracles that God had done. We seem to think that the miracle was about freeing someone of their physical discomfort. But we need to understand that when God works a miracle of physical healing it’s most to present a picture of spiritual healing,

This is deemed true for several reasons. First of all physical healings are selective. Not everyone gets healed of their physical problems. The Apostle Paul himself asked God to heal his disease (the thorn in his flesh) but God kept saying “no.” Obviously there was a bigger purpose from His plan other than immediate healing.

If you think about it physical healings are temporary. Every person in the Bible who was miraculously healed in some way eventually died. People throughout history who have been healed by God died. Physical healings are temporary.

But when God does choose to physically heal someone, the reaction of everyone who saw it or experienced it shows us that when God works a miracle of physical healing it’s mostly to present a picture of spiritual healing.

Too often we focus on the miracle when we should be focused on the message of the miracle. The message that spiritual healing is available to us.

Yes, we should pray for miracles to relieve the suffering of sicknesses. It’s biblical. Many times God works as a result of our prayers. But when He does work a miraculous healing of the most, look at the picture of how He can heal our souls.

There are many people who need healing, but many people also need spiritual healing. Our souls, our spirit, our lives are plagued with sickness and even death. Life can hurt, but God can heal.

Whatever the sickness is God wants to heal us. Maybe our sickness is because of our sins. Our thought life is sick with impurity. Our attitude is sick with negativity, Our self-discipline is sick with weakness. Our relationships are such with unforgiveness.

I completely believe that my bladder cancer was because of my unforgiveness i had carried all of my life. Sometimes we don’t deal with the spiritual sickness in our lives. And if we let them go untreated for too long than that sickness kills the area of our lives in was infecting.

Untreated illness can lead to death -physically and spiritually. If there’s an area of your life that seems to be dead, trust God for a spiritual resurrection. God can resurrect the dead areas in our lives, we must simply have to trust Him.

To-Do-Lists

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

Over the course of the day, it’s easy to get caught up in the little things that come up. I start my to-do list with the most important tasks of the day and determine how long it will take to get those tasks done.

The problem with to-do lists is we optimistically assume most of the day’s tasks will take less time than they will actually take. It’s easy to sociable a lengthy list of things we “think” we can get done in z few minutes.

To-do lists are never quite done because we always roll them over to tomorrow.

Conquering Hindering Spirits

Have you ever found yourself distracted and disorganized? Or do you feel like a failure going around the same mountain year offer year?

Hindering spirits that distract you can delay and disappointment. These demons are assigned to hold you in bondage to steal your destiny.

Revelation 12 talks about the dragon (Satan) falling to the earth with little time and great fury. He came to gather as many souls for his kingdom as possible. But he ran into a roadblock; the blood of Jesus. In Revelation 12:11 they overcame Satan by the “blood of the Lamb“ and by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives unto death.

Satan cannot take our souls because of the blood of Jesus so he aims at hindering us. That’s the vulnerable area where Satan uses distraction to take us off course to delay us and then bring in hope deferred and disappointment.

If Satan can delay you long enough you may begin to hear mocking spirits whispering:

  • “You’re a failure.”
  • “You will never amount to anything.”
  • “Nothinh is ever perfect enough for you.”

These words can distort your self-image and cause you to agree and repeat them over and over in your head until you start believing them:

  • “I am unworthy.”
  • “I not able to…”
  • “You’re so stupid, no one will ever love you.”

Negative word curses that you agree with allow hindering spirit to set up shop derail you.

My mother used to say all these things to me so much I began believing them. It allowed satan to come in and literally destroy my life for years.

There are 3 steps to begin conquering hindering spirits

1. Break the word curses that are believing. Pray: Father God, I cancel every word curse of (list them) that I have spoken over myself or that others have spoken over me. In the name of Jesus Amen.

2. Replace the wrong self-image with Gods image of you.I used to have a defeated self-image. I was afraid to go after dreams. Thankfully God got a hold of me and the ungodly self-image didn’t line up with me anymore. I recognized that what I allowed to hinder me was my agreement with that fearful cowering child. I had to change the picture I saw of myself and let the word of God paint me a new image.

We cannot become who God says we are unless we can see ourselves as He sees us. We will become what we imagine whether that image is positive or negative. If we think we are failures, we will be. We have to deal with our thoughts and imaginations and get them in-line with God’s image of us. We can’t let what others define or identify or our future.

3. Spend time in God’s Word daily. The only way to know who you are in God is to read His word. The book or Ephesians and Colossians are good places to start. Ask God to reveal His truth to you through the power of the Holy Spirit before you begin reading.

These are real steps to starting your journey in conquering the hindering spirits.

Don’t spend anymore time dancing around the same mountain. Make a plan to do something different.

Cooking

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

My favorite things to be in bakery items, cookies, and cakes. But my favorite meal to cook is crackling biscuits (Toportyus Pogacsa) from my Hungarian heritage. And Chicken Paprikash.

The Cost Of Following Jesus

Prosperity preachers teach that coming to Jesus will bring financial blessings, a life filled with ease, and freedom from worry and hardship. Sunday after Sunday, their churches are packed with unsuspecting people who think they that following Jesus will make their lives easier. Ultimately, they will walk away disappointed because the promise of Christianity that they were promised is not the Christianity they experienced. But Jesus didn’t teach that Christianity would make our lives free from struggle. In fact He said the opposite.

Many blessings come with being a Christian, but there are also important costs that come with following Christ Jesus. I write this not to scare you away from Christianity but to tell you that the benefits outweigh the cost.

When you build a house, wouldn’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you had enough money to complete it? If you lay the foundation and weren’t able to finish it. Luke 14:28-29 tells us,

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to build it? Or perhaps when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him”

Many people today fail to understand that following Jesus comes with a cost. They don’t consider that Jesus would ask them to give up their greatest possessions.

If you want to start a project or work on an idea, wouldn’t you first consider how much of your time and resources it would take before beginning? Likewise, if we want to follow Jesus we should be aware of how much it will cost to follow Him.

To be a true follower of Jesus you have to carry your own cross. Luke 15:27 says,

“And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

The cross represents the suffering that Jesus endured. Carrying our cross means being willing to endure our own hardship for the sake of Jesus. If we are not willing to carry our cross, there is no point in following Jesus.

Just also says something in Luke 14 that’s a little difficult to hear,

If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life, he can’t be my disciple.

This doesn’t mean to hate our loved ones in the way it is thought of today. In this context “hate” is a Semitic idiom that simply means to love less. What Jesus was saying is that in order to follow him we should love Him more that anyone else.

In Matthew 16:24 Jesus explains that following Him also includes self-denial. This means that we need to be willing to lay down some things we deeply love and enjoy for the sake of following Him. Just like Jesus followed the Father’s will and went to the cross. Sometimes this comes easily, and other times it can be difficult. Following Jesus means preserving and doing God‘s will whether it is easy or difficult.

Believing in Jesus doesn’t promise that everything will be perfect. It doesn’t promise that everyone will love us, or that things will always work out just as we hoped. Jesus’s disciples all had to endure hardship for the sake of the cross, and we will too.

Following Jesus isn’t all hardship and pain. It is filled with so much joy and beauty. And any hardship we endure is absolutely meant to lead us toward a beautiful future in the presence of God.

Believers are freed from the power of sin. It can no longer weigh on them like a burden. It also gives them access into the presence of God and unhindered fellowship with our creator which leads to eternal life with God.

Accountability To God

The Bible teaches that everyone is accountable to God. We have “all sinned and fallen short” of the perfect standard He requires of us (Romans 3:24). One day everyone will stand before the judge of all the earth, and “each one of us will give account of themselves to God” (Romans 14:12).

Accountability to God is inescapable. People may be able to deceive other people, Hebrews 4:13 says, “There is no creature that is hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him to whom we must give in account.

Our sin, exposed before a Holy God, is bad news because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That same verse continues with the good news that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ our Lord.” Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross to bear the judgment of God against sin. He rose again defeating sin and death. So we can receive forgiveness and walk in newness of life.

All are accountable to Him,

“Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Messiah (Jesus) that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” – 2 Corinthians 5:9-10.

Knowing we must answer to God should compel us daily to turn away from sin and pursue purity. And when we stand before God at last, we want Him to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

I would much rather hear God say “Well done good and faithful servant” rather than to hear, “I never knew you, Depart from me, you who work iniquity” -Matthew 7:23.

The Bible is not about “me and God.” The Bible teaches that we are part of His body, the church, and individual members one of another (Romans 12:5). Being accountable to one another is part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Some people say “I don’t need the church to follow Jesus. But the truth is being part of a church helps us stay accountable to Jesus.

Biblical accountabiliirequires committing to a particular group of fellow believers. Being a member in a church is the context for fulfilling the many “one another’ commands in scripture. These scriptures include,

  • Romans 12:10
  • 2 Corinthians 13:11
  • Galatians 6:2
  • Colossians 3:13
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Accountability in the church is not meant to be a one-way street. All believers are individually accountable before God and should also hold each other accountable, helping each other to bear burdens and grow in holiness. Mutual accountability is a key function of a healthy church.

How To Heal Emotionally

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to emotional healing, just like there is no right ways to grieve after loss. But in my experience, emotional healing comes in stages. I didn’t move through these stages in a straight line, but passed through them all on my path to healing.

I learned of these stages as I passed through them, and a therapist helped me along the way. But if you an understanding where you are in your healing journey you can reclaim your inner peace and continue to move forward.

I thought I would share the information that I have learned so that maybe someone can learn to recognize these stages also.

Here’s what happens at each stage:

1. Awareness

The first step in emotional healing is recognizing that you are experiencing pain, distress or grief. Acknowledging the existence of your feelings and there impact it’s having on your life. Awareness brings your inner struggles into focus, and gives you starting point to begin healing.

2. Acceptance

Acceptance means embracing your emotions without judgment or resistance, it requires allowing yourself to feel what you feel, no matter how uncomfortable or painful those emotions are. Acceptance is an important step in emotional healing because when we resist our feelings they persist for longer than necessary.

3. Processing

Processing your emotions means engaging with them consciously and actively. This stage causes us to explore the don’t causes of our pain, or distress. This stage includes unresolved issues or past trauma. There are ways to process your emotions through self-reflection, journaling, therapy, or conversations with people you trust.

4. Release

Releasing your emotions means letting go of past experiences, pent up feeling and all the energy they consume. This stage may involve expressing your feelings in a healthy manner, which helps free yourself from emotional burdens and makes a space for healing. If you’re using all your energy on past experiences, you have no room for healing.

5. Growth

There is no doubt that painful experiences change us, but not necessarily for the worse. There is a thing called “post-traumatic growth which means people who have passed through emotional healing often emerge with new wisdom and strength they didn’t have before. Emotional growth empowers you to make positive changes in your life based on what the difficult experience has taught you.

6. Integration

At this stage of healing, you begin to integrate the experience, your feelings, and the lessons you have learned a long the way into your daily life.

7. Transformation

This transformation represents the final stage of emotional healing, where you come out if your experiences as a stronger, more resilient person. This is a fundamental shift in your emotional and mental outlook on life. It leads to an adaptive approach to your life. This gives you the ability to get through hard times and maintain a healthy outlook on life.

It is possible to get stuck in a stage of emotional healing. These stages don’t always progress in a smooth manner. Sometimes it feels like you are getting stuck on a stage of healing or another. This is a normal part of the healing process. Sometimes we need some support to get out of the stage you are in.

Emotions are supposed to be temporary -unless you feed them. Our emotions can take on a life of there own when we fuel them by ruminating, or by catastrophizing them about our future, or beating ourselves up about our past mistakes. These habits create painful thought loops that keep us from moving forward.

We have to have to treat ourselves with compassion because judging our feelings will keep you stuck. If you treat yourself with empathy, validate your feelings, and engage in emotional self-care it will help you move forward.

I used to feel bad about not allowing my mother to be alone with my children. Everyone needs to know their grandparents right? But, because of my lack of trust, I couldn’t do this. There is no sense beating me up about it. It was a reaction to the situation I was put in.

Move through your feelings, when we are in pain it’s only natural to try and shut our feelings down, deny our experiences or do things to numb or remove ourselves from the pain you feel. However, these avoidant coping strategies stop long-term emotional healing.

Doing mindfulness practices about your inner experiences and noticing your thoughts, feelings, and body sensations without judging them or trying to change them. Can help the healing process along.

If you need emotional healing, You probably have some unhealthy coping strategies. Those strategies will not go away if we don’t replace them with healthy coping strategies. My coping strategies when I needed emotional healtning was taking prescription pain pills or drinking alcohol and sleeping. I replaced it with hiking and supportive friends in my life. Any positive activity that helps you regulate your emotions rather than avoiding then can be a healthy coping mechanism.

Help yourself manage your emotions in a way that brings you back to your original state and empowers you to choose your actions. You can do this with a few timed breathing exercises like holding you breath for 4 seconds and then exhaling that breath over 8 seconds, mindfulness techniques, going for a walk.Building a toolbox for yourself of emotional regulation skills that are effective can help you feel your feelings and move through them in a way that leads to emotional healing.

I hope this will help someone that needs emotional healing.

The Thing That scares me

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

The thing that scares me the most is traveling to the Middle East. Especially during these turbulent times. Where I believe you would have to keep your head on swivel anywhere you do. It would be more so in the Middle East right now.

What would it take to get me to do it? That would be peace, people need to stop killings each other. I don’t care who’s side your on the bloodshed has to stop.

Faith, Hope And Love

Faith sees beyond space and time and knows that everything is already as it should be. Hope dwells with the expectation of seeing in the physical reality what faith sees in the spiritual. And love is the eternal dimension that remains forever.

Faith, hope and love are not just durable and precious virtues or character. They are eternal, transcendent, powerful driving forces in human life.

Without these 3 things humanity will fall.

For believers of Jesus these 3 virtues are linked to Jesus as a source of personal image. It is Jesus who has initiated and perfected our faith in God. Jesus is and remains our hope that one day everything will come into perfect order. Jesus is our hope when all other hopes have faded away.

Jesus is the source and the engine of divine, unconditional love. It is in Him, we understand God’s love for us. By faith in Him, we gain access to this love, and through His power, we learn to live as fully beloved and accepted. Through Him, we become capable of giving love, and we learn to love in action and reality.

Faith is an attitude of the heart.

Faith is the starting point. The Bible says that without faith no one can come to God and be able to please Him. Faith acknowledges that there is God and that He rewards those who seek Him. It is the attitude of seeking Him in the small things that brings big things in life.

Faith is capable of seeing God. Faith is trust in a wise, holy, and loving God. It is a choice to trust God’s love and wisdom. Faith is an acknowledgement of one’s own limitations and inability, the need for forgiveness, redemption, and healing. Faith gives us complete assurance and certainty that God is with us and works to redeem our pains and s brings blessing to our lives.

The cross has not accidentally become a symbol of faith. It point to Jesus and symbolizes the life of faith in which we can live by God’s power and do what is good and acceptable to Go.

God has already solved the problems and has already worked everything out. We just have to be willing to accept it. He has already provided everything for you and me in this life on earth as well as for eternity. We just have to be willing to accept it. God’s provision is for every single day of our lives.

Hope is the anchor of the soul.

Faith cannot function without hope. Faith alone is not enough. We must have the expectation of good, and the confidence that we will experience the goodness of God in our lives. I don’t think it’s accidental the hope is likened in the Bible to a firm and secure anchor for the soul that penetrates behind the curtain, into the invisible and eternal.

“This Hope we have as an Achor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil“ – Hebrews 6:19

The guarantee of our hope is God Himself, who is not changing. His intentions and words are unchanging and permanent. No matter how our feelings and circumstances change, God’s Word stands unshakable.

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” – Matthew 24:35

The voice of Hope says, “I know things will work out, I just do not know how or when. The how and when I will leave to God. But I am convinced everything will have a good end. Everything the happens from the worst to the best, God will make it work for good.

Love is the greatest of all.

Why is love the Great of all? The answer is that when faith and hope fail and fall away, love remains. At the time of complete restoration when God makes everything new. We will not need faith because we will see things as they are. We not need hope because everything will be already done.

God’s love, as well as our love for Him and the people who we carrying our hearts, remain forever. Love remains with us in eternity. It is the meaning and center of everything.

Even though some things will not work out on earth, nothing can separate us from the love God has for us. And nothing can change the love we have for God.

If we are willing to accept Him.

Garbage In Garbage Out

A good person produces good things from a treasury of a good heart, and an bad person produces bad things from the treasury if a bad heart. What you say and do flows from what is in your heart.

My son was in the service and in training they were told they could eat whatever they wanted during meal times. He said they had a table with all kinds of desserts. My son loving his sweets went and got a few extra helpings. That night they were to go on a 2-mile ruck (running with a 50 lb backpack ). All the guys who ate dessert had to run 3 miles the sergeant told them garbage in garbage out. A powerful lesson.

This concept of garbage in garbage out is even powerful and telling in our spiritual life. If we allow garbage into our hearts and minds, out will come anger, hate, grudge holding, immortality, stealing, lying gossiping, backbiting, jealousy and more bad character and conduct. But if we allow God ti dwell in our hearts and we follow His Word, and seek His help in prayer, and are sharpened by Christ like people everything can be different. Our attitudes and actions will show the fruit of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. No wonder Jesus sent Paul to teach us,

“Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whenever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me -put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you“ -Philippians 4:8-9

Paul tells us to ponder and practice godly things, he’s really telling us to focus on Jesus who embodies these virtues . Following Jesus in our thinking, being, and doing. He wants followers and not a fan club. Focus on the Lord and His ways helps us to develop spiritual muscles and a good mental filter. When we focus on God, we can avoid life-sapping, love-sapping habits. We can steer clear of behaviors that are dishonest, sinful, or impure. Paul tells us our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who you have received from God. Jesus bought us with the price on the cross. We should honor God will our bodies.

Complaining

What do you complain about the most?

The only thing I complain about is the weather. I am a fair-weathered human. I like the sun shining on my face and my body warm.. But, my complaining is in vain. It is not in my control. Complaining stems from bad moods or personality traits. Which can make you feel worse, and lead to a negative outlook on life.

Philippians 2:14-15 says, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God.”

Complaining is a form of selfishness. No one likes to hear someone complaining all the time. Philippians tells us to think about the people we are complaining to.