The Sun, The Son

I don't think it's any accident that we love the days where can feel, and see the sun. The sun seems to give us a renewed energy, we feel better under its light, and it embraces us with warmth. Nobody ever plans to go on vacation to a dark place. So it is with our Jesus, God's son. He is the true light of the world even in the darkest spots. He can instantly fill us with joy on a bad day. He provides us with His warmth.Enjoy your Son today!

Long Story Short

Painting and Poem by Samarazone

Long Story Short

God created the earth and the seas.

He brought forth Adam then he made Eve.

They messed things up and now we all die.

So He sent Moses to help us see why.

He gave 10 commandments, to all of his people.

They built up churches and threw in a steeple.

They made more rules and called it religion.

God shook his head and knew he'd forgive them.

Then He sent Jesus who lived without sin.

He died on the cross, and now lives again.
Yet, there is one catch, it's a bit of a shift,

You can accept Jesus,  He is your gift.

After you do you'll be known as a Christian.

You won't be perfect, but you'll be forgiven.

A change will take place deep in your spirit.

You'll want the kingdom, it's what you inherit.

You will try to be good, helpful and kind.

People may hate you with God on your mind.

You'll still have free will, and use your own brain.

The choices you make may cause you some pain.

But when your life ends and you stand before God

Jesus will be there and towards Heaven he'll nod.

Where's the Love?

To Believe or Not to Believe

Photo Copyright of Sue Lamos

Used by permission

My friend took this photo while spending time in New York. At first glance, the flower appears to be incorporated into the building, but in reality, it was stuck in the concrete. This picture is an illusion, a depiction of something that is not true.

Many people today have come to believe that the Holy Bible is untrue. When one states this, are they calling the Bible an illusion? When I think of illusion, magic is the first thing that comes to my mind. Some magic is for fun or entertainment purposes,  and is harmless, but the magicians/illusionists in the Bible were ones who gained power from the demonic, told fortunes or made predictions. So I have to wonder if those who claim the Bible is no longer true, are they stating that it is for entertainment purposes or evil?

God's book, The Bible,  provides us with some hard to pronounce names, spanning many generations, and going through various experiences. The connections within are genius.  His book contains wisdom for all the ages, until the end of time. His truth is solid, firm, and unchanging. People's ideas may change, but it doesn't mean God's do. Most invaluable, He gives us the greatest gift we could ever receive as he invites us to accept that his only son, Jesus, who died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins; past, present, and future. To accept the gift of Jesus gives us hope that one day we will be with our Father in Heaven. How much better does that sounds than to spend our eternity with the Master Illusionist; Satan.

If you are questioning whether the Bible is outdated, untrue or an illusion, do yourself a favor before making a final decision, ask the One who inspired it for His opinion.

Love on Assignment

Do you have a person in your life who just always seems to yank your chain? You know, that person you try to be nice to, but they are so difficult to be around.

Mean people and easily offended people are hard to be around. No matter what you say they never seem to like you. Some of the ones I know would probably find something wrong with Jesus himself. If you attempt to be happy or pleasant, they seem to have a need to put you down. If you are having a sad day, they accuse you of feeling sorry for yourself. If you ask them questions, they are overly suspicious. If you give them an honest compliment, they think you want something. If you speak of something good in your life, they think you are bragging. There is no end to the contrary responses they will give you for trying to be a kind, caring and well, just a friend.

In John 13:34, NLT,  it states, "So now I am giving you a new commandment. Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. As Christians, we should take this very seriously.

The saying that hurt people, hurt people, is true. Many responses from others come from a place of pain. Instead of letting these people infect our hearts I believe Jesus would want us to pray for them. We could ask God to wrap his loving arms around them, fill them with his love, and give them peace. It's a much better way to handle difficult people than what our natural instincts would have us do.

Love is an assignment God has given to all his people. He never said it would be easy, but as we all know, it's always worth it. 

In the End

It's my hope and prayer that we all come back to the place where we put God first in our lives. I pray that His voice will be heard over all others. Our nation is a mess. The world is a mess. So much of that is our own fault. We have tried to please others before pleasing God. We have made man more important than our Lord.

The video I'm posting was made by me. I hope that it will inspire you to make a choice for love. May your new year be full of Peace and Blessings!

Blessing or Curse?

Have you ever felt as though you were like Daniel in the lions den? That no matter how hard you try to do things right they just seem to be going wrong?

Perhaps it's during times like these that our faith is truly tested. How much are we relying on God? Have we surrendered?

Christ lived on this earth with so much faith in God He was willing to trust that God's plan was perfect. He allowed himself to be hung on a cross because he believed, he suffered and then he died. He went to the depths of Hell and told Satan that in the future. anyone who accepted his death, as a gift of forgiveness, would be with him in Heaven forever. He then rose again and now waits for us to join him.

We who have accepted Christ have our salvation and we have our faith, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have our faith grow? Maybe instead of seeing all that has happened to us as a curse, we could see it as a blessing, an opportunity for our faith to grow and to become closer to being as faithful as Jesus.

The Shoes

I walked through life in my own shoes and finally wore them out.
I was told that God had loaners, so I could see what He's about.
They felt comfortable and forgiving, I stepped in hope and love,
I ran with purpose and passion; then rested like a peaceful dove.

When trials began to come my way and I had to make a choice,
I chose to put on God's sandals and I swore that I heard His voice.
As the sand came trickling in, I sensed something going out,
I was walking along with confidence, unhindered by any doubt.

I soon came upon a mountain  which looked rough and hard to climb,
God knew that I wasn't young anymore, I wasn't in my prime.
I decided to let God chose for me, the shoes that I would wear.
He knew my size for comfort and I trusted that he cared.

Then a storm came rolling in and I thought that I might die,
Lightning struck both right and left and smoke filled my eyes.
With my bare feet needing some cover, all I could do was wait.
Death was coming after me, I had to rely solely on my faith.

Then came a breath of wind and the storm began moving out.
A path had been cut through the mountain, exposing my new route.
As I took my very next step I could see that I was no longer alone,
Jesus was standing on stones of gold and my shoes were safely home.

Peace

      There is something about the old hippie in me that will never tire of the word, "peace." I no longer hold up my two fingers while saying this, well, maybe I do, but I really think the word is cool.

      Peace is something that we all hope for. Back in 60's and 70's we had Jesus freaks. They tried to spread peace by way of Jesus. I have to admit that I tried to avoid them, but I liked the message they were sending.

      So much of my life has evolved around this thing called peace. I use to try to find peace with my parents as a teenager, I try to maintain peace with my husband and I'm always praying for peace with my children. I find it's an important word and a valuable thing to seek. Most days I am very blessed to have peace in my heart even when things seem crazy in the world around me. But that peace isn't something I have learned how to have along the way. No, it is a blessing I've received from Jesus.

      In order to carry on with the hippie, "peace" tradition, I would like to encourage everyone to pray for peace and prosperity within their nation. In Jeremiah 29:7, NIV,  it states, "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because as it prospers, you prosper too. 

      Our nations and governments will never be able to provide us with the peace that we are hoping to find. We need to seek out our peace in Jesus.

     

Hearts and Love

I wonder how much of our lives are spent in an attempt to get others to love us, to accept us, to appreciate us? Do you think it's ten percent, fifty percent; more? If I had a dime for every time time I let someone get to me and take away my feelings of being valued and loved I'd be rich. If I had a dime for every time I allowed myself to become offended I'd have even more.

People talk about loving their families, but I don't know too many families that are very loving. I did not come from a particularly loving family and I certainly did not marry into one. But inside my heart I felt love, and I always seemed to have enough to give out. So this being the case, where did all my love come from?

We tend to associate love with the human heart, don't we? For the most part we believe that hearts are red. Red is also the color of spilled blood. We mostly think of spilled blood when one is hurt or wounded. When one is hurt or wounded is it generally because of an accident or incident, both of which lead us to believe that the spilling of blood is not good. So if all this is true then why do we associate the human heart, with being red, and with love?

There can only be one reason. Because God sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us, to shed his red blood in forgiveness of our sins, because He loves us from His very big heart.

If you are not loved by a single soul on this earth, you can always know that God loves you. He fills your heart with His love even if you don't ask for it and refills it as you need it. It doesn't take another person to fill your heart with love. It only takes God and Jesus!

Reasons to love being a Christian

Reasons to Love being a Christian

I love being a Christian because we can believe in what the bible says. It never changes and never will. Because it never changes we can rely on it. If it changed to satisfy us, it would be no more dependable than the daily news or our government. We may not always understand it, but it does have the answer for everything. It shows us the character of God and allows us to decipher His voice from ours, and from Satan's. We may not like what it says, but if that's the case, we are not seeing it from the heart of God's love. God's word always has our best interest at heart.

I love being a Christian because we can know how much God loves us! We can really know this! He loves us so very much even though we're so imperfect. We make so many mistakes. We do so many things wrong. We hold on to so many wrong thoughts. If I was Him I would be disgusted by all the things we have done. But He loves all his children and wants to save us from ourselves. That's why He gave us His son, Jesus. God wants to see us in Heaven! I truly believe that he leaves a whole in our heart that can only be filled up by Him.

I love being a Christian because we can know and love Jesus! He died on the cross-for us! He took all our sins with Him when he died, and He gave us the opportunity to accept his death, as our gift, as our means to get to Heaven. It's the only way to get there. And when we arrive, because we accepted Jesus gift, we will all arrive sin free!

I love being a Christian because God gave us Jesus who understands our human experience. Jesus lived in this world, but was not of this world. Some people didn't like Him, Jesus was tempted, some rejected Him, some betrayed him, some didn't understand Him, some didn't appreciate Him, some were downright cruel to Him, some wanted to see Him dead, some killed Him. Jesus understands what we go through, so I love it that as a Christian, we can all get through this life with Him.

The Holy Spirit! Oh, how I love The Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit tells our hearts when we are doing something wrong and it prompts us to do many things right. We as Christians benefit so much by listening for this voice. The Holy Spirit is powerful! The Holy Spirit gives us gifts! The Holy Spirit lifted up Jesus and transported Him up and into Heaven. The Holy Spirit is a powerful friend!

I love being a Christian because God allows bad things to happen so that we can learn good things from every bad situation. This helps strengthen our character. Being a Christian is not for the weak because you will come under Spiritual Warfare with the dark side. For anyone who thinks that only weak people believe in God, they couldn't be more wrong. Satan doesn't come against those who are already his. Satan comes after Christians. We are only weak in that we allow God to aid us in fighting Satan; in this, God becomes our strength. Jesus defeated Satan at the cross! Jesus has already won! Satan had already been conquered! Now, Satan is just a big nuisance!

I love being a Christians because there is so much to know and understand about God that it would take more than just this one lifetime to get it all. Christianity is an exciting journey of learning and growing and becoming better than we were yesterday.

I love being a Christian because God is all about Grace. Grace is God's goodness and kindness, directed at us, as undeserving people. He doesn't want us to live in condemnation. He gave us the 10 commandments to show us that none of us could keep them, on our own strength. He gave us the 10 commandments to show us why we all need Jesus. Jesus was sent to provide us with forgiveness for our sins! Jesus is the only way for us to get into Heaven! It's because of God's grace that we were given Jesus! As Christians we have the abundance of God's Grace everyday and we have the gift of righteousness through Christ blood on the cross.

I love being a Christian because I am living in this world, but I am not of this world. This can be difficult at times. It encompasses everything we encounter in this life. Each of us will have to fight our own strongholds such as addiction, anger, fear, jealousy and offense, but the Trinity is here to help us. It should be our goal to proceed in life with faith, and to become as Christ-like as we possibly can. This makes the life of a Christian exciting!

Sadly, I know many who have given up their walk with God. They felt their prayers weren't being answered during trying times and they lost faith and gave up on Him. But giving up on God is never the answer. It is never okay just to quit! Just because you quit God doesn't mean that he doesn't exist, it only means that you quit! God will see you through your tough times, but you have to keep your faith and your hopes upon Him. Don't blame God if you give up before he chooses to help you. One more day of faith could have made all the difference!

Afterlife

Someone recently posted this on my Facebook wall. At first I felt very offended, then sad for the ones who believe this.

This is hard for me to understand. If there were only a chance, a slim chance, that God exists, and that there is an afterlife, wouldn't it make sense to strive for the best life possible? Isn't this a truly perfect opportunity? Isn't hell on earth enough for them?

Kathy Lee Gifford recently referred to how we will all become dust one day. This is so true. No healthy living plan is going to keep our bodies living on this earth forever.  We are all going to die.

Some people believe at death we will all turn into nothingness. But, just wonder if this is not true. Is it really worth taking a chance on? 

Why is it that some folks put all their eggs in the earth basket, which is profoundly limited? Why wouldn't they strive for the life that lives on forever, and offers them the best of everything?

These and other questions I can never answer. But I believe God has. In His book, he calls them Fools.

The what ifs...

What if you only had one chance to go somewhere exciting, but you were not given the details about how long you would be there? Would you go?

What if you had the opportunity to meet and interact with many different kinds of people; some you would like and some you won't. You are told that at times you may feel alone, but you will always know that you are not. Would you do it?

What if you could be in a place where you could appreciate all the colors of the rainbow and more. You would be surrounded by various textures and enjoy an assortment of scents. It would be yours to chose if you like them or not, and the ones you dislike you can ignore. Would you like that?

What if you could wake up feeling secure with all you have, grateful for who you are, and on the look-out for ways in which you could help others. Does this sound like something you'd want to do?

What if you were told that sometimes you may feel afraid in this new place. It will take a lot of courage to be there. But you will have with you a book of examples from a man that was once there before you, and in this book are all the answers to everything you might feel. Do you think that might be helpful?

What if once you are in this new place you long to go back home. You don't feel as though you fit in anywhere or with anyone and nobody seems to care. You have tried over and over to be successful, but many times you have just failed. Then a man tells you that he has a gift for you and has paid for your fare to get home. He even guarantees that all your failures will be forgotten. Would you take his gift?

If these ideas appeal to you then I'd like to welcome you to the wonderful world of earth. I hope you enjoy your stay here and don't forget to thank the one who was sent here before you. He has provided a special gift just for you and he is known by many as, Jesus. Peace and Blessings with all Thanksgiving!

Messed up.

God gave man and woman the Garden of Eden.
-Messed that up!
God provided sex to be enjoyed between a married man and woman.
-Messed that up!
God gave us the 10 commandments.
-Messed that up!
God gave us food to nourish our bodies.
-Messed that up!
God gave us eyes to see the pure beauty in our world.
-Messed that up!
God gave us language.
-Messed that up!
God provided us with beating hearts so we could fill them up with love.
-Messed that up!
God provided us with work, so we could produce, and then we could share it with one another.
-Messed that up!
God gave us a book, that we could believe in, and it showed us how to live.
-Messed that up!
God provided us with America, the land of the free.
-Messed that up!
God gave us his only son, Jesus Christ, who died for all our foolish sins.
- Are you gonna mess this one up too?

Never Alone

Photo taken At Grand Valley University by Ben Teunissen

Here on the bench I sit all alone

waiting for someone to join me.

And if they happen to call me by name

Their heart will be filled and set free.

They can tell me they're sad, feeling afraid,

been rejected by those they call friends.

As I take hold of their hand, they'll understand

that I've felt their same pain, but it ends.

We talk for a while, I give then some strength,

they begin to feel Spirit again.

Then they get up and go and I say hello

to the next one who seeks to tune in.

Written by:Samarazone

The Cry

When times of trouble come, as they often do,
We find ourselves in worry, trying to get through.
Looking for solutions to help us win our fight,
Longing for some peace so we can sleep at night.
We think to ourselves, I have done my best.
There are no more answers, I have no happiness.
It seems that all is lost, my heart is broken too.
I have no more answers, I don't know what to do.
My problems overwhelm me, I can barely think what's right.
I'm ready to give up, I have no strength to fight.
With my head down on my pillow, I can not get to sleep.
The darkness hides my face and allows me time to weep.
All I feel is sadness, hopelessness and pain.
Why has this all happened? Why does misery reign?
I need so much help, I don't know what to do.
Please, God, just help me, help me to get through!
Then I hear this voice speaking in my head,
I wondered when you'd ask for me, you know, I'm not dead!
You thought you were alone, but I was always near.
I waited for your call so I know you're thinking clear.
You're world has many troubles, but I know what to do.
Great changes are coming, I've arranged them all for you.

You're faith must be tested, is it great or is it small?

Some have given up and they have no faith at all.

I want you to be strong and I want you to surrender,

I can do amazing things, don't you remember?

I hold all your heartbeats in my gentle hand.

Have faith and be patient and know that I AM!

Written by Samarazone-Eyeseeu

,

The Book

The abandoned house

where lessons were taught,
waits, in stillness and silence.
A Book on a table with answers inside
for the curious, questions about us.



The Samaritan Woman
For more information on women in the bible... "http://www.womeninthebible.net"