“The eyes of the Lord”

 

 

The concerned and compassionate eyes of the Lord are always on us, penetrating even our darkest night. From the moment we are conceived and every day thereafter, He sees us .The Lord keeps His eyes on His children to protect and preserve them and lead them home. May we pray daily for the Lord to equip us “with everything good” so that we “may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ” Hebrews 13:20-21

 

“Do good and forget, Serve Others and You will be comforted” As You Find your Way!

 

The above quote prompts me to show love to a former mentor who brought me so much joy by introducing me to a world of different literature genre like, “The Bridge Builder”. A specific type which I didn’t much care for, unless it was from the likes of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni or Maya Angelou.

 

 You see, I’m sitting here crying bittersweet happy tears reading about how coach Campbell  football coach at Iowa State University, gave a goodbye to his senior players by reading that same poem, “The Bridge Builder, by Will Allen Dromore which is a simple poem with a clear moral message about caring for others when there is no obligation to do so. The poem depicts an old man who, close to the end of his days, decides to spend his time building a bridge he does not need. 

 

Often, I think of this type of caring spirit, which is the idea that “love is of God” that’s expressed as “love is from God” and “love comes from God” . In 1 John 4:12 we are taught by John that ,“but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” . This is why it is so easy for me to serve even though; I do not need to.

 

That poem, the Bridge Builder along with “Invictus”, “If We Must Die”, and “If”, woke up that passion for me as a spiritual servant,  as a High School coach. Often when I read those poems to my former players in High School. I spoke about having a, “one Heart Beat” as a team.  Meaning you should always treat your teammates never simply as a means but always at the same time as an end with love in mind, “brotherly love”.

 

What a great concept in today’s world as we hear the question What does it mean to flourish or be the best You, each day as we respond to our feelings and desires towards various situations, “To the sounds of a heavy street”, in this world. Character, “the excellence of moral beings.” 

 

By nature, human love is selfish and conditional. We love those who love us. We love people who are kind to us and who offer some benefit to us. But Jesus taught, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. . . . Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” 1 John 3:16. 

love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? 

 

Even sinners do that” Luke 6:27-33. Can you love selflessly, not expecting anything in return?  I sometimes struggle with what Jesus teaches us .That we should not give to our friends and rich neighbors who can pay them back but instead to the needy and poor who cannot repay Luke 14:12. He also said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13. Serving others requires this kind of love. Mercy, compassion, and selfless love are not easy—in fact, humanly speaking, they are impossible to do with a completely righteous attitude  and a Positive-Mental-Attitude. Romans 3:10-11. But God is faithful to provide strength, joy, and cheer if we ask Him; 2 Corinthians 9:7 ,With His strength make a poem sing in your heart in other words ,“Love others”. The essence of  Love is agape love a goodwill, benevolence, and willful delight in the object of love. Agape love involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. It is distinguished from the other types of love by its lofty moral nature and strong character. Agape love is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13.

 

The type of love that characterizes God is not a sappy, sentimental feeling such as we often hear portrayed. God loves because that is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable and the unlovely, not because we deserve to be loved or because of any excellence we possess, but because it is His nature to love and He must be true to His nature. We are to love others with agape love, whether they are fellow believers  John 13:34 or bitter enemies Matthew 5:44.  

 

This love does not come naturally to us. Because of our fallen nature, we are incapable of producing such a love. If we are to love as God loves, that love—that agape—can only come from its Source. This is the love that “has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” when we became His children Galatians 5:22. “.

 

WoW, Happy Birthday for the prize awaiting us in eternity, so we can endure earthly difficulties while remaining full of hope  2 Corinthians 4:17. 
Recognizing there is “a time to keep and a time to throw away” means living with an eternal perspective. We may acquire things while on earth, but we must always be prepared to let them go.

 

When our joy and hope are based on that which cannot be taken away, we have found true happiness, and God is pleased. In God We live, move and have our being!

 

God Bless You and This Ministry!

 

 

“Pulse… Click ... Pulsate ,God will sustain Us”

 

 The sensibility of the Christian life to me is one lived by faith in the God who saved us, empowers us, seals us for heaven, and by whose power we are kept forever. 

But the day-to day sociology sometimes try’s to  affirms that the theory-of-knowledge concerning toils and struggles predicts that our community often times fall prey to intellectual conformity, descending down a kind of epistemic rabbit hole, with so much of a “spiral of silence.” This was a result  of  my individual “self”- wanting everything about “Isolation existence“ without acknowledging God

 

 My mind of Poetry Echoed indulgence:

Pulse… Click ... Pulsate

Can’t do it All in the playbook
Life is counting down on your internet night-light 

Burning inside are Memories that occurred days gone by
shadows upon my walls turn to ticks of  seconds flashes

Illuminating that seem to dwindle away the laughter, the pain

Societies you once knew, the knowledge I seek
walk by means of a clue this era of mystique.

misled by times you crossed over once. 

shared  a diffable hue of memory.
subsist as if you were never there. 
Year’s fly...co-players die...and darkness will befall
and you never know when you'll sing your last shine of ta-ta.

Oh, how I wish I could turn back time, for light is life difficult
spend it with loved ones and cherish this sacred journey called Life 

what once was a candle of mine.

Or to go back even more,
being a kid in an orange slice candy store.

How I miss the way I used to feel makes me ponder
when Father Christmas was real.

But back to reality...back to today, a mindset of PMA
family is scarce and memories continue to fade away.

My Ocean is not just a “teenage” melodramatic as is.

Tick tock...tick tock...open your mind

Push… Push… Give My every Thoughtful Swag
How I wish I could control this Heart.

That timeless destiny found only in God Himself.

 

 

It is sometimes a disconcerting truth for many Christians that even though we belong to God through faith in Christ, we still seem to experience the same problems that plagued us before we were saved. We often become discouraged and bogged down in life’s cares.

 

But as children of God our faith is one that grows and strengthens as we seek God in His Word and through prayer and as we unite with others that are Christians whose goal of Christlikeness is so similar to our own.

 

The Christian life is also supposed to persevere to the end. “Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” God is not pleased with one who “draws back” from Him after making a commitment, but those who live by faith will never draw back, because they are kept by the Holy Spirit who assures us that we will continue with Christ until the end . Ephesians 1:13-14 

 

So why are more people motivated by the quest for pleasure or money? Some center their entire lives on a goal, a job, or even their families. These things are not wrong in themselves; however, that which we center our lives on can become our god. The human heart was designed for worship, and if it does not worship God, it will worship something else. If we are not Christ-centered, we will be centered on something else. Like worries are difficulties.

 

 

Difficulties abound in life: with relationships, jobs, health, and day-to-day activities. Christians are not exempt from these difficulties; in fact, they may experience even more than their fair share: earlier in the same passage, Paul described some of the troubles he and others faced as “jars of clay” in this world.  2 Corinthians 4:7 When difficulties arise, they might seem monumental, and they have the ability to incapacitate us. However, believers have hope that even the worst suffering experienced on earth is only “light and momentary troubles” compared to the glories of eternity in heaven. Life here on earth is but a vapor  James 4:1), but our eternal life in glory, yet unseen, will make the affliction worth it all. In fact, the troubles we have today are achieving for us a lasting benefit: “They produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”  2 Corinthians 4:17.

 

Life is hard. Disease, death, and difficulties abound on this side of eternity. Sin has marred what God originally created perfect. While difficulties are rarely enjoyable when we experience them, these hardships are only a “momentary, light affliction” 2 Corinthians 4:17 for the Christian. Our difficult circumstances have the ability to produce good fruit   in our lives and to remind us of what matters eternally.

In reality, feelings come from thoughts,

 

In Colossians 3:2, we are told to “set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Therefore, as we do this, our feelings of guilt diminish.

So, each day, taking one step at a time, we should pray for God’s Word to guide us, read or listen to God’s Word, and meditate on God’s Word when the problems, worries, and anxieties of life come along. The secret to giving things over to Christ is really no secret at all—it’s simply asking Jesus to take our burden of “original sin” and be our Savior ,John 3:16 as well as submitting to Jesus as our Lord in day-to-day living.

 

God Bless You and This Ministry!

 

 

 

 

 

“Engage God”

Have you ever encountered difficulty with different groups? Perhaps a boss, friends ,family members dealing with political polarization or an intuitional policy. What about working on a home association board it can be challenging as well in your life. 

You see lately these things have tainted my reaction to God’s unlimited power. As the music plays, I hear my Christian voice say, “I’m I putting God first” or am I “making sure God has first place in your/my life.” Such expressions of the mind are used so often they run the risk of becoming a Christian cliché. But there’s nothing trite about the idea of putting God first; in fact, it’s thoroughly biblical.

 

Everyone has priorities. We arrange our schedules, budgets, and relationships according to perceived importance. Putting God first means we give Him top priority over everything else. He is the principal figure in our lives and central to all we do and think. When we choose to put God first, we determine that He is more important than any other person or preoccupation. His Word is more valuable than any other message, and His will is weightier than any other imperative.

 

When we learn that God’s control is absolute, our first inclination might be to resist Him. God’s perfect and complete authority is vastly different than the imperfect and delegated human authority we experience. A proper understanding of God’s nature helps us understand how He exercises authority. God is gracious and good. He delights to save people from destruction and distress. He sent His own Son into the world to do that . So why don’t we have a proper submission to God’s authority  and why aren’t we “transformed by the renewing of the mind”? 

 

To understand and submit to God’s unlimited authority as we find a safe place to rest and thrive, we need to, “study his word” often and engage the gospel as you gain that wonder which leads us into a fullness of life.

 

The study of God, which is “theology” being simply an attempt to understand God as He is revealed in the Bible. No doctrine will ever fully explain God and His ways because God is infinitely and eternally higher than we are. Therefore, any attempt to describe Him will fall short Romans 11:33-36. However, God does want us to know Him insofar as we are able, and holiness is the art and science of knowing what we can know and understand about God in an organized and understandable manner. Some people try to avoid dogma because they believe it is divisive. Properly understood, though, it is uniting. Proper, biblical religious study is a good thing; it is the teaching of God’s Word  2 Timothy 3:16-17.

 

All Christians should be consumed with digging into God’s Word. But are they? You see the intense, personal study of God needs you to know, love, and obey the One with whom we will joyfully spend eternity. As a  believer in Jesus Christ sometimes I wonder do we fully understand the words, “simply in the world”? Simply, it means a physically presents but not of it and not part of its values. We are not to engage in the activities of the world that promote bad intentions or insipid, a corrupt mind that the world creates. So why do we sometimes retain our selves, stuff and our minds above that of Jesus Christ?

 

I do not want to live, think and act like those who do not know Christ but sometimes , I want to have the final say and not live up to being checked as a fallibilist. Is that Pride?

I often listen to conversations about the lack of engagement in the study of theology or the word, saying,” I haven’t been digging into God’s Word to discover what He has revealed about Himself for Months”. Ah, Life is hard. It is harder for some than for others, but we all must cope with being imperfect people in an imperfect world. Then I’m reminded, “How’s Jesus messing with me”? You see even Jesus agreed that life is hard, but he didn’t stop there. He said, “In this world you will have trouble . But take heart! I have overcome the world”. John 16:33

 

As we travel on this journey to get to know God in order that we may glorify Him through our love and obedience. We understand that Life was never supposed to be hard. Because when he created the world and placed the first man and woman in its life was perfect. Then Sin entered, perfection was marred, and life became so hard. As a result of humanity’s disobedience, God cursed the perfect world he had made. It ruined everything now” the whole creation groans”, and we groan with it .

 

But remember even though Life is hard, Christ is our advocate our intercessor who pleads our case to the Father. He knows what it feels like to struggle through difficulty, and the host of human situations that make life so hard. Life is hard, but the Holy Spirit is our comforter who helps us and stays with us forever as we are reminded that this world is not our final destination.

 

Let us endure, engage, grow, learn faith, develop compassion for others who are struggling, and wait for our final reward, at that time, we will hear our Savior say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord” . Matthew 25:21

To study theology is to get to know God in order that we may glorify Him through our love and obedience. Notice the progression here: we must get to know Him before we can love Him, and we must love Him before we can desire to obey Him. As a byproduct, our lives are immeasurably enriched by the comfort and hope He imparts to those who know, love, and obey Him. 

 

Poor theology and a superficial, inaccurate understanding of God will only make our lives worse instead of bringing the comfort and hope we long for. Knowing about God is crucially important. We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about God. The world is a painful place, and life in it is disappointing and unpleasant. 

 

Those who put God first will stand out from the rest of the world. They will obey God’s commands (John 14:15) they will take up their cross and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23), and they will not forsake their first love  (Revelation 2:4). They give God the first fruits, not the leftovers. The Christian life is characterized by moment-to-moment selfless service to God that flows from love for Him and His people. In all things, the believer trusts, obeys, and loves God above all else. Putting God first becomes easier when we take to heart the words of Romans 11: “Everything comes from the Lord. All things were made because of him and will return to him. Praise the Lord forever! Amen”

 

God Bless You and This Ministry!