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Breathing
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Breathing

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In….out…..in

Breathing. Have you ever considered breathing? I don’t mean doing it, that’s required, I mean the action of breathing. Breathing is one of the few things that absolutely everything alive does. Bugs breathe, plants and flowers breathe, animals breathe, fire breathes, we breathe, I have heard it said that water breathes- though don’t ask me how. Everything-that is alive-breathes. Why? No idea. There is no reason that the human body should require air to breathe except the fact that God decided that that was how it should work. Truly. Scientists say:

   “Breathing is part of a process called respiration. During respiration, a living thing takes in oxygen from the air and gives out carbon dioxide. This process gives animals and plants the energy to eat, grow, and live life!” -10 interesting facts about air-NASA

That is correct, obviously, but that doesn’t explain why that is necessary. Why do we need a respiratory system? Why does the body need to take in oxygen to produce energy? Why not make it produce energy without air? ( Let’s not get into the energy produced by the sun or this post will be too long.) You may ask my point for this line of questioning, here it is. What is the most constantly ignored and taken for granted function of life, until it is gone? Breathing. God made a complex and masterful design when creating the living organism and we need to remember just how amazing our bodies are. So how about right now we sit for 10 seconds and focus on breathing, and just how amazing breathing is. 

Believed in
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · searching · True Joy

Believed in

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Everyone says that the person you need to believe in you is yourself. That is sweet but is it true? Maybe for some people. I recently have realized that having others believe in you is an amazing motivator. If no one else thinks you can do it that doesn’t mean you should give up, it simply means that no one else gets your vision. That said, the people around me have always been really supportive. I mean, I’ve dealt with haters, but the people who matter, my friends, my family, especially my parents, have always been supportive, even when that support is a critique or correction to push what I am doing into a better place. Because I know that they support and believe in me then I can take them at their word and not be too offended when that word stings a little. Knowing that when you doubt yourself someone else feels that you can keep going forward is amazing. You all knew that I was rounding this back to this statement so here it is. God believes in you more than anyone else can. He sees EVERYTHING about you. He gave you your gifts and talents, He gave you your drive and He believes that you can do it because He knows that He can do it and He will be forward guard for your every step.
Don’t give up! Your father believes in you!

The Huguenot
Blog · Devotional · encouragement · guidance · Jesus · lent

The Huguenot

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Lent devotional 10

Today I ran across this painting by John Millias. The name of the painting is
‘A huguenot.’ You may not find that very interesting, but looking closely at the painting I found it intriguing, I wondered what was up with the white sash and why was the man pulling it away from his arm. When I did some reading on the painting I found out that it is a love story about a Catholic and a Protestant in Medieval France. The Catholic woman was tying a white sash around her protestant lover’s arm so he would be assumed Catholic and not be killed. The man is looking at her with love, but gently pulling the sash away, refusing to deny his true beliefs.
That was a long explanation I know, but I am getting to my point, though it is probably obvious by now.
We as Christians, find ourselves in positions often where we can either proclaim or deny Jesus as our savior. We are traitors if we deny Him, and we do not love Him. Jesus died for us we must be willing to do the same for Him. We must not hide and pretend to be someone we are not out of fear. Yes we may be ridiculed, in some countries we may even be killed but we must stand up and say, “I am a Christian.”
That is easy to say in the safety of Canada I know, and we may never know truly if we love Jesus enough to suffer for Him until we experience such a situation, but acknowledging Him in small things also shows how much we care. At work, at school, on the subway, on Facebook.
Don’t hide, proclaim.

Lent devotional 6
Blog · Christianity · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent

Lent devotional 6

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Civered by His feathers

Covered by His feathers.

Recentally I watched ‘After Earth’. The scene that caught my mind and caused me to cry was of course the scene with the eagle. I think she was an eagle at least. When she takes the boy and hides him from the overtaking sudden earth freeze, then he wakes up to find she has died because she covered him with her body to save him. It reminded me of the stories my grandpa tells of times on his farm as a boy, several times he witnessed a mother bird cover her babies with her feathers and fend off fire, rattle snakes, even large cats, sometimes dying in the process, but her babies always came away unharmed because of her sacrificial love. There is a reason God says He covers us with His feathers and shelters us with his wings (Psalm 91:4)
Because the wings of a protecting parent are warm and strong and secure, even when stretched out to cover their young to protect them from a death that the parent takes willingly in their place, the wings never fail to be a safe place of hiding. Find shelter in His wings dear fledglings, they will always be there to shelter you, they took pain and death for you before, don’t ever doubt that they love you enough to sheild you again.

Are we being Deciples of Christ
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Are we being Deciples of Christ

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But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1 Peter 3:15‭-‬17 NIV
There is so much packed into this verse that you almost have to take it piece by piece to make sure you heed it properally. Lately. And I don’t mean the past month, I mean the past few years. The word ‘Christian’ has lost it’s meaning. Christian used to mean Christ follower, like Christ. It used to mean changed and a better person, yet the word has lost it’s meaning as people have claimed it as an excuse for un-Christlike behaivior and speach. We are under a banner that used to represent the living Church and the living Word of God. Now we are being strangled by a banner that people have crawled under to hide their sins but have not repented or changed from them. To verbally assault people on the internet and then spew a Bible verse is heracy to say the least. To rebel against and speak offensively about our police and military who are trying to do their jobs and protect us is wrong. We are to live in a way that cannot be brought up before a court. We are to be humble and kind yet unrelenting, unrelenting in our belief in God not in our own opinions. We are seen as evil because of false christians who don’t even try to be like Christ. People then claim that they are right because Jesus was a rebel against injustice. That one makes me slap my forehead. Who was Jesus a rebel against again people?
If I randomly choose a raised hand in the crowd the answer will be the same as every hand out there. He was rebel against the Church leaders and the government.
Okay. You mean the leaders who were making it so that they were seen as higher than God and were opressing those who were already suffering? (Quick disclaimer: We have to realize that not all the church leaders of Jesus day were like this and when He chided them He was speaking to the ones who were being sinful and caliming it as God’s will, like what we have been seeing in our own ‘Christian’ people over the past several years)
You mean the government who was beating and slaughtering His people? I see a wave of nodding heads. Okay.
How did Jesus respond? Please don’t mention the table throwing thing, that was a one time event. How did He respond the rest of the time?
With words of rebuke some days, with shows of His might as healed people and spoke the thoughts of those who stood against Him, but mostly He responded with love. He loved them. He loved the begger by the pool of Bethsaida, He loved the guard who was raising a whip against a slave, He loved the phairasee who was praying out of habit but no substance for the million time. Thier siffering, the suffering they caused, and the indeferance broke His heart but He still loved them. All of them. All of us. Jesus wasn’t burning people in the comments section and then claiming to be praying for them, He didn’t hate one people group and love another, if He had He would have only saved the Jews and we as the gentiles would have been left in the cold, He certaininly didn’t cause violence and claim it as His right to stand against opression. He caused healing and generosity and, wait for it, LOVE.
You can be bold and powerful and meek and gentle at the same time. The Holy Spirit fights for us. The devil got into the church and made us become our own worst enemy. Take it back to the Bible. What would Jesus do?

Where does the money in the bucket go?🤔
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Where does the money in the bucket go?🤔

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Where does the money in the bucket go?🤔

Once again I saw a person who decided to complain about the 10% tithe that is asked for in Church, they stated- as so many do- that God is only after your money. I then realized for the first time that most people probably don’t know where the money from their tithe goes and that that is why they get so upset about it. In truth I did not know myself until until my family took a temporary position as the pastoral staff of a small country church that presently boasts a whopping ten people. We used to be bigger but over the past two years several people passed away and others moved and that left us a little barren- we are praying for more people to come so our church can be a larger community again so if you wish to join us in that prayer we thank you. Let us start with the most commonly misunderstood thing about churches, churches are NOT funded by the government. I don’t know if they were at one time, but they are not these days- at least none of the churches my friends, family or I am in connection with are. All the money the church has comes from tithe and donation. Where does that money go? To the rental or ownership of the church building and land, to taxes (yes churches have to pay taxes too), to heating and cooling the building, to hydro and electricity, to the staff (if the church has a staff), to missions, to random people in need that church is asked to help, to the insurance company and if there is any money left that goes to paying the pastor- who often has a second job because he or she doesn’t make very much unless he has a crowd of several thousand in attendance, yet he or she went to college from anywhere between four to eight years like most people with a degree so they would make much more than they do if they had a different job, but they aren’t in it for the money, they are in it because they love people.
Why do you not simply go to online only church services and save money? Great question, I know pastors who have done that. Do you want to know where your tithe goes at a church like that?
To- wait for it- insurance, and licensing, to site rental or ownership, to missions and the random person in need that the church is asked to help, to taxes, to paying the filming squad and the website managers, to the renewal of your domain name which your site requires, to the cost of air time, and last but not least to your pastor.
God asks for tithes, not for Himself, but for His church- literally. Tithes keeps the building standing, the hungry family in apartment building C fed, a roof (however humble) over your pastor’s head, it pays for you to watch your favorite minister speak for free on youtube, it pays for the new well in small country’s poorer section, your tithe doesn’t go into a piggy bank that God empties for candy every weekend, it goes to the people, to the community, to the coffee and sugar you take for granted in the lobby of your church. That’s why we tithe. For the people who choose not to, that’s your right, but please stop fussing at those of us who love God and our Church and want to give to keeping our building heated, that’s our right.

Pain
Blog · Devotional · encouragement · guidance · Jesus · Prayer · searching

Pain

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Stormie Omartan once said that after a dear friend of hers had died she came to a point in her grief where no one wanted to talk about it anymore because she had gone beyond the acceptable time of mourning. That’s ridiculous. Not how she felt but the fact that people treated her that way, and you want to know something? It’s true. I recall feeling that way after one of my friends passed away, my mom felt that way after her mother died, eventually people want you to move on, not for your sake, but because they are done hearing you talk about it. Come on people! Grief has no time limit. You will move on and then a sound or a smell will send you right back into it, and you know what? That’s okay. That is totally okay! When you are ready to move on you will, don’t feel rushed by other people, this pain is yours and they can never understand it nor can they feel it for you and of they could wear that pain for you they probably couldn’t bear it. But there is someone who can bear the pain for you, who understands it and has felt it too, His name is Jesus and He never grows tired of hearing you cry and mourn over loss, He never gets irritated when you bring up your agony, He will listen forever if you want Him to, because He loves you more than anyone else, and He will lift your pain and heal you. And if the pain comes back He will lift it again.

More
Blog · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · Prayer · searching · The Bible · True Joy

More

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More

We all want to be more. More than we are at this moment, more than we dreamed we would be, more than enough. And it is not easy. All you can do is what is in front of you at this moment. Striving to be the best YOU you can be is not a bad thing, but the person you are right now might be the person you are meant to be. God often has to remind us to be still and to trust in Him, when things are not progressing or going the way you expected, when you are not reaching beyond your own expectations it can be hard to calm down and remind yourself that you are okay as you. God will grow you when He feels you are ready to grow. Trees don’t complain when they are a few branches short of how large the wished to be or when they have a smaller ring count than the tree next to them, they simply grow in God’s time and that is what we have to do. Wait on the Lord. Be still and know that I am God- Psalm: 46:10

Just one of the legion
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Just one of the legion

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I am just one of the legion.
Legion -if I recall correctly- is an army of more than 1000. The Bible speaks of legions upon legions of angels in Heaven, waiting to come down from Heaven and battle for us. We have people around us empowered by the Holy Spirit who are here to fight on our behalf also, somedays we are the soldier fighting on behalf of others, somedays we we are fought for- we are all part of God’s army.
Dark skies loom, daylight doesn’t exist as the shaking of armor is deafening your forces. You look around and see others who look like you, frightened, a dull glow flowing around them. Then you focus on the blinding white lights of the angels around you. No dull glow of a soldier of Christ being held back by human weakness but the powerful light of the fully acknowledged Christ warriors. You look at yourself and feel the power of God’s glow in you growing and connecting to the glow of those around you until you are one body of light. Your weak human glow empowered by the Holy Spirit, its not by our power, but by the power of God through the Spirit. If we could see the battle around us and the forces that fight with us and against us, I wonder if it would look like this.
We are just one small light in a legion of soldiers- angels and people standing together serving God. I hesitate to speak on angels because they have developed an odd reputation, even to the place where people worship and pray to them, which we are not supposed to do, only God is to be worshiped, the angels themselves said that. That being said we must not forget them. They are God’s special soldiers who are empowered by God to do amazing things. We are part of an army that is made up of God’s Heavenly army and His earthly one. I once heard two powerful preachers being called generals of God’s army, I like that. We are soldiers fighting for one cause, we are part of the legion. Angels came to the shepherds and the light grew, this was the two fellow sectors of the army of God coming together. The glorious angels and the lowly shepherds. Both serving God’s army in similar ways but by different methods. The angels came to the shepherds and the light grew. We are just part of the legion, when we look around afraid we need to open our eyes to the army that surrounds us, fighting for the same cause. We are not alone. Pick up your weapon and fight for your family, your friends, your neighbors and yourself! You do not battle alone, your light is attached to the light next to you and to the one next to you is attached to the one next them until it is a blinding light of Christ, because we are one body in Christ, standing together- bold.      

Love like you have never been hurt??
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Love like you have never been hurt??

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They say to love like you have never been hurt, and generally we feel like that is about romance. However, I think this love can apply to all four loves. Romantic, Brotherly, Friendship, and the Agape love of God. I gave each love a capital beggining letter because we often forget that love is alive and needs care and nourishment. Some may go ‘hang on, what do you mean you can apply the love like you have never been hurt quote to God’s Agape love if you believe that God doesn’t hurt people?’ That’s a good question. And it is not easy to answer. But if I am honest, I have been hurt by God. The problem is that we see the word hurt to mean something intended to be painful toward someone, yet the hurt I am talking about is not a mean or angry hurt that God caused, sometimes it’s the hurt of an unanswered prayer, the hurt of losing some of the people you love because of your Faith, maybe something happened that you feel God should have spared you from? We have all been there. Some of us don’t forgive God either. Don’t get me wrong, God never does or does not do anything without our best in mind. I lost a really close friend once, it hurt…. actually it was agony, but I did not know at the time that there was someone out there who needed me to be their friend and to give them 100% of my attention because they had been hurt and needed an undivided friendship to help them. I didn’t even notice this was God’s purpose at the time until I came across a photo of my old friend over a year later and had a bitter moment of being mad at God for not permitting me to keep this friend that I had known since I was little, that was when I saw why God had taken them away, then I saw the new friend who was happy and no longer lonely and I knew what God had done. God is not always going to show you the ‘why’ but He does always have a reason.
Oh sure, some will say ‘a loving God would let you keep both friends’ but the insecurities that my new friend had would have made that impossible.
God gives and takes away, He says no sometimes, He sometimes lets bad things happen so that we grow and learn from them and have a grounds to help others in the same situation that we were in. Like the boy attacked but not killed by the shark, he wondered why God had let that happen to him, then several years later he was surfing and a shark attacked another man near him (understand that later it was found that this beach was near a shark puping ground, sharks do not go around looking to hurt people, mostly shark incidents are accidents) the boy was the only one who went toward the man and the shark and he helped get the man to shore, possibly being the reason the man’s life was saved. That was when the boy knew the ‘why’ because of his own attack he had empathy so he went toward the danger and helped an injured man to shore. It’s hard to get over things when we feel God should have done something, our should have stopped something, but until we can learn to love like we’ve never been hurt we may never have the pleasure of seeing God’s purpose and reason, we have to remember that he is God and he knows what he’s doing.