Going Away For A Little While...

Hello y'all! I have just a quick post and a quick reason for why I won't be posting for about 2 weeks. I am flying out of Europe tomorrow....yes, I'm quite nervous and yet have the voice within my mind telling me to be calm and still and know that I am with you. God is near me and will guide me all the way on this trip. I am going with my oldest brother, and will be visiting my grandparents for the time. I have traveled alone before, but never to a different country! So, this is all a bit *new* for me and a little bit scary. However, God is by my side and Satan is trying to imprint thoughts of worry, fright, and fear within me. I know better to fight against those fears, it's not easy because I do have thoughts of, "What if...?" My God is with me and will guide my footsteps along the way. I would appreciate the prayers, because I feel real scared at the moment. Thanks friends and till then....

Seeing God through a Poor Man's Eyes

When God mentions being poor in spirit, he does not mean what we think, however, he holds a different perspective on this phrase. When hearing the word poor, many of us will more or likely think of a beggar, or perhaps a homeless man, in addition, one who is in lack of money. Nevertheless, the Lord sees the poor with a total better analogy, a man; woman or child who is in definite need of God's help. In other words, we need to humble ourselves to the lowest point, and realize that we are nothing without Christ.

A man or woman who is full of pride and an attitude of "two good for anything" also carries the mentality of not needing a God. When a situation as such occurs, no person can understand and see God's holiness because their mind is supposedly too high for such an imagination, as some may call it. Nonetheless, a man or woman with a poor spirit can see God's beauty, His holiness, His perfections, His goodness, and His unconditional love. The Greek word for poor is thus, 'ptoe-KOSS' which simply means, "Life is difficult" or perhaps even a better and clearer definition, "I am not going to make it without help."

We need to acknowledge that we are wretched creatures, and our life needs to depend solely in Christ alone. The lowly run to their God, however, the foolish say there is no God. The only ones, who can see God, are the poor in spirit, the ones who are just and lower themselves lower then dirt, as to say. A boastful person sees no one and no necessity of relying and asking others for help. All they see are themselves and have a "my" vision. They also picture life as going solo, alone and therefore are totally fine without God.

Often, we may find ourselves perhaps being a bit too prideful, thus we need to ask Christ to humble our boastful spirit, so that we can have the wonderful gift of seeing and grasping God's holiness. Sooner or later, the arrogant man will fall, and by God's grace, he will notice the importance of Christ and an attitude of gratitude!

How to Praise Others and How to Receive Praise

The Bible commands us to not be prideful of our own selves and also not boast about our actions. Proverbs 27:2 says, "Let another man praise thee, and no thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Many times a man, woman, or child will boast of how wonderful they are or how talented they are. Nevertheless, our mouths should not say how "good" and "righteous" we are, because the Lord is looking for a humble spirit. In the first book of Corinthians, chapter 26:31 clearly states, "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord." Therefore, we are encouraged greatly to be prideful and boastful of one very important subject, Jesus Christ! We can blamelessly talk of Jesus every second, although with a low spirit. If someone were to praise our character, then we should not just accept those words of kindness, however, say something in return and praise the one who taught you that character quality. Nevertheless, we need to be careful and alert on how we use our voice when we praise the character and or the attitude of family, friends, or others. Proverbs 27:14 wisely states, "He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him." In other words, if we were to purposely praise others with flattery because we want a word or two in return, then those words which we spoke are actually striking as pain like a snake whose poison hurts the inner soul. "At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder," thus says Proverbs 23:32. If we want to praise others, then it should be done with a humble heart and not expecting words in return. A humble heart and character will the Lord praise! "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit." (Proverbs 29:23)

What Will Your Choice Be?

This past week as I went shopping to a children's toy store, I was quite ashamed and appalled at how the media is introducing our young nation of children with immoral books and toys. To my surprise, I saw books for girls perhaps as young as 7 or so titled and all about 'boys, boys, boys.' One of the books was so sensual and a rather waste of money. It was titled, "Boys, boys, boys...." Then under the title, I saw what the book was all about, the top 50 or so cutest boys in Hollywood know all the insights from them. As I saw this, I was just thinking to myself, "How awful!" What a waste of ink, paper, and money. How sad and yet very disgusting at how our world is getting. Books as such are just causing girls to think of immoral thoughts. It is actually promoting sin! It makes girls wish to be with a guy as such, and to feel sad because perhaps they are not pretty enough. Another book which I spotted was, "How to make a guy attracted to you", that is just WRONG! And I am talking about 10 year old girls! That is even more shocking to me. A 10 year old needs to just stay pure, not worry about her looks, and not to be concerned what guys are thinking of her. The book titled, "Boys, boys, boys...." also including all the thoughts which guys think about girls and so forth!

When I see immoral things as such, my heart cries....it aches! I think of how awful and far our world is getting. This world is sucking up little girls, girls who are 8-10 these days are acting like 15 year old girls! All this foolish talk of who likes who, or my boyfriend, or all the insides of clothes and makeup and how to really get it on and make this cute guy look at me! Why, why do we want to impress a guy? We should not dig into all the celebrity gossip, or the 'talk' and 'secrets' of this world. Jesus is not looking for that, he is NOT interested in any of it! I have to remind myself of that ALL the time. I fall too, believe me. It is so sad how girls will feel inferior of themselves and will try to look so perfect and in the inside they are hurt and torn. All they want is the attention of a guy! They want his eyes on their body. I have spoken to many girls and most of them will say this, "I will know if I'm pretty if this guy just takes one look at me!" The world, my friends is terrible, it is an abomination to my eyes....if it hurts us Christians so, just imagine and think how it hurts our Father God in heaven?

There are many games out there which are selling and which many girls are buying because it tells who your 'crush' is. Or it will tell you how to get popular in school, or how to be the seller in your group of friends. Why....why all this foolishness? What is the purpose? What will it bring? NOTHING! Honestly, a lot of that silliness just brings pain to girls because they want what the teenage pop star girls of this world have...the money, the fame, the clothes, the looks, the guys, and all that worthless stuff. God does not want your money, He does not care if you are the most popular girl or the lowest girl ever. He wants that heart of yours. And He does not want it used, He wants it new! How many of you can give him that? Have you wasted your heart for someone else, perhaps a senseless guy? Please, please, please, do not sell your heart to anyone, but God alone! He needs it, and He WANTS it! Reading sensual books, articles, magazines, or whatever it is, is, to be honest and bold with you, wasting your time! All it is doing is creating this emptiness within many and this envy of wanting to look like this girl, and it is bringing you further and further away from Christ. I want to enter heaven with the words approaching, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!" Not otherwise, "I know you not, depart from me you worker of sinful deeds!"

Will you read all the gossip, or try to make a guy stumble just because you want it. That is being selfish! My heart is ALWAYS being convicted because of my sinful attitude and mind, and Christ is showing me more and more who I am and who I am to be! Make your choice with God's word. You cannot redo a mistake. However, you can recommit your life to Christ, now is your time to do so! You have control of who you are, your thoughts are just like a taxi, "Once in, it drives you where you want to go!" That is just like the mind, you can have that control of what you will think of! What is your choice.....