YOU ARE VALUED

For the past couple weeks I have been doing a lot of thinking. A LOT of thinking. I've really allowed the Lord to speak his will into my life, to direct my paths and show me His way - the right way. I have grown more dependent on the Lord. That makes me really happy. *smiling*

The Lord never changes, he is always the same. His truth is eternal, that too never changes. I want to encourage you that in this walk with Christ, it is so very important that we set our minds to know the Lord and set our hearts to understand Him. It is through this, that we gain wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. It is by this that our faith increases, and our trust deepens. For the Lord is my sheppard, I shall not want (psalm 23:1). I shall lack nothing because the Lord is my portion (Lamentations 3:24).

I'm like Ezra. It was written in Ezra 7:10:

KJV - For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do [it], and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
NIV - For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.

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It is such a blessing to understand that on our own, and by ourselves we are nothing. Blessed is the man who the Holy Spirt reveals this truth to. Without God, our Saviour, our Lord, we amount to nothing but dust. We have nothing to hope in. We have no hope. The Lord alone is our hope. He is our light. He is our salvation. The Lord is everything we need and an infinity more.

Look at your life and evaluate it's worth. Without God, without the knowledge of God, what is your life worth? For you bare no good fruit. You do not advance the kingdom of God and you will be thrown into the fire. But again I ask, what is your life worth? A hundred dollar bill, whether it is used to by a blackberry or thrown into the garbage, it is still worth the same. The value of your life is the same whether you choose to waste it or fulfill the Lord's will/purpose for your life. In fact, you are extremely valuable. So valuable that JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, was sent by your HEAVENLY FATHER to reedeem you from a life that leads to death and give you eternal life. ... um, maybe you didn't hear me.. but I just said, that the GOD of this Universe, LOVED YOU AND I even while we were living a disgusting life of sin soooooooo much that he sent his ONLY BEGOTTEN SON WHOM HE LOVED EXCEEDINGLY TO EARTH, TO BE CRUSHED BY HIM ON THE CROSS SO THAT WE WOULD RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE!!!! He did not send Moses, He did not send Abraham, he sent his only son. That tells me, that the Lord greatly values us. Therefore, there is hope. Because you are still breathing, you must be confident that the Lord is with you. My friends, my loved ones, do not test the Lord for you know not your last day. Put your hope in the Lord now. Put your trust in the Lord today. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him the Lord of your life. Love the Lord by obeying his commands and receive eternal life.


peace y'all.

Athiests... are they believers?

TODAY IN CLASS I was paying close attention to what the lecturer was saying. I take a Diaspora and Transnational Studies course and I sometimes find it rather interesting since it teaches me about human behaviour on a global level. However, there are less than interesting moments in this class. For instance, today, after the prof defined a list of less than interesting terms, he then moved on to philosphers and their less than interesting bios. blahh. Anyway, the bio of the philosphers are very relevant to what I'm about to tell you since one of those philosphers was the infamous Karl Marx. The man who all of my professors get excited talking about. The man who refers to religion as the "opium of the masses." He was undoubtably a very intelligent man andgreat thinker but sadly, he lacked all wisdom. The teacher was explaining one of his theories called "Marx's theory of History."

(I'll try to sum up the basis of the theory in a couple lines at the most)

Marx believed that history begins, has a middle and eventually has an end. He believes that in the beginning, society was at peace, then conflicts began and are still continuing due to the inequality between classes. However, he believes that society will reach a point where all class conflicts will be resolved and since he believes that that is the only source of real conflict, society will become perfect and "history" would be a term of the past.
(*I really really dumbed it down into my understanding of what I believed the prof was trying to say, but if you want to know the nitty gritty of Marx's theory, click this link. >> Click here! << *)


Now when the teacher finished explaining all that good stuff, I raised my hand and he called upon me and this is what I said.

"Sir, wasn't Marx an Athiest or Agnostic?"


He was an athiest although he came from a Jewish and Christian background blah blah blah

"That's interesting considering that his entire theory seems very religious."

Well he was not a religious man. He called religion the "opium of the masses" blah blah blah

"Well the reason why I said so is because what I understood from Marx's theory of history is that he believed that there will be a time where man kind will no longer have conflicts between classes and what not and people will all live in perfect peace with each other in a perfect society. I don't understand how he believes that that is even possible since I don't see how imperfect beings can obtain AND sustain a perfect society unless there was a supreme perfect being involved."

CLASS please settle down.

"I'm just saying... for an Athiest, Marx seems like a pretty religious dude."

Holy spirit 1 | Lame philosphers 0


Not to mention that his theory resembles bible history and prophecy. Adam & Eve in the garden (In the beginning was perfect) ->  Eve and Adam ate the fruit they shouldn't have and society became imperfect with conflicts (good vs evil) -> Eventually the Lord will return (perfect supreme being bringing perfection).
Chea!

sry, haven't blogged for about a week!

Hello hello,
I would first like to apologize for my inconsistent blog posts. Christmas break is officially over and school is increasingly becoming more burdensome. However, as time consuming as school may be, I have held back from posting for another reason. For the past couple days I have really centered my life(body,heart,mind,soul) around God. Of course this should be an everyday thing but hey, give your saint a break! I'm practicing spending time in God's presence and I pray that this continues till the Lord's glorious return. During this past week, the Lord has been teaching me SO much about forgiveness, his eternal promise of salvation, his omni-presence, humility, patience, trust... the list goes on. It's been a deep week and I've got tons of cool insights to share so look out for more ;)

I had my nails done last week and sad to say, the dude did a horrible job.
Kiz is disappointed.
Hard.
*SMH*

Praying in your mind and Praying out loud. What's the difference?

Hello brothers and sisters,
             What I am about to share with you is a simple thought I had while I was taking a cool mid-day nap in between classes. It pertains to prayer and the manifestation of prayer in our lives. I'll start off by saying that the Lord can hear and respond to our thoughts. He is the creator of our conscience and His Holy Spirit dwells within us, therefore, it is only natural that everything we have ever thought and ever will think is known by the All-Knowing God. :) Let's move on to prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is communication between you and God. A sometimes one-way conversation, you asking for something or it can also be a two-way conversation, God answering questions on your heart and ministering to you.  We are called to prayer without ceasing [1 Thessalonians 5:17] and sometimes that means you'll be at work, or standing at a bus stop when you're supposed to be engaged in prayer. If you were to speak out loud, people would think you were a little crazy and the last thing we want is for people to think badly of our good deeds. [Romans 14:16] So we pray in our minds because 1. God will hear us and 2. We will remain dwelling in the Lord presence.
          A slight problem occurs however, when a person ONLY prayers in their mind. The Lord still loves you and His Spirit will guide you in all truth so please do not take my word for it. Test what I say. However, the point I am trying to make is this - praying in your mind is good sometimes but there is a level of authority that is taken when you decide to prayer your prayers out loud. People who are used to praying in their mind have a many reasons for doing so. It could be that they are afraid the Devil will hear their prayers and try to stop their blessing. Or it may be that they have grown accustomed to doing so because of their religious upbringing. Or it may even be that they are very shy and prefer to speak to God in their mind. Whatever the reason, it is a habit that must be broken. Spoken prayer is extremely powerful and sometimes very necessary to bring forth blessings in the spirit realm into the natural. I'll try to break down my point as simply as possible.


What is sown in the spirit is reaped in the spirit. What is sown in the natural is reaped in the natural.

Praying in your mind = Spiritual fruit
Praying out loud = Natural fruit


You can't buy a train ticket then try to board a plane with the same ticket. Train tickets are for trains just like spiritual prayer are for spiritual things.


The power in spoken prayer lies in the power of spoken words. WORDS ARE POWERFUL. Why would the good Lord judge us on every word we have spoken if they weren't of any value? They hold the key to life and death. [Matthew 12:36]

Another example can be seen in the following. The Lord sometimes awakes His servants at night to pray for certain people or things. However, one must remember that the Lord's Spirit is over the entire earth and He witnesses all things, both good and evil. He sees when that 5 year old is getting raped or when that gang member is being murdered in an alley. So why does he awake His servants to pray if He's right there? His will and desire is that those evil things do not occur, but His will lingers in the Spirit realm until His child utters His will into the natural realm and thereby creates a manifestation of His spiritual will. Only then can help come to the child being raped or the gang member who's in critical condition at the hospital after being stabbed several times. Spoken word is critical to affecting natural change and manifestations of the Spirit of God.

However. ..

The Lord is infinitely great and He is able to do all things according to His good will which is why, even prayer prayed in the Spirit is answered. However, it is more effective and powerful to speak natural things into existence by the power of the Spirit living within us. Prayers are brought forth quicker and one gains a greater understanding of the authority we have been given by Jesus Christ to bind and loose things on earth and have the same be done in Heaven. [Matthew 16:19]

Secular author proves why God is real

I found this in my "Social Thought into the Twenty First Century" book.

"Let us begin by establishing two fundamental and realistic principles. The first of these is that social influences, though not directly observable, produce observable effects. We cannot, for example, directly observe those ideas and involvements that lead people into wars, but we can observe the aftermath of a bombing raid. We can say, then, that even though social forces remain hidden, they are nonetheless "real." They are real because they are real in their effects. If the invisibility of social forces appears to deny validity to the efforts of social scientists, the real consequences of social inolvement gives their work a scientific justification." 

Umm, this secular author just proved why God can be invisible but yet real at the same time. The effects of His existance are evident in all of His creation.  I won't say much more, take a second to really take it in.

How does one walk blameless before the Lord

This is a lil something I learned today during my morning devotion/bible study and I thought that I'd share.

Psalm 19:12-13 (NIV)

¹² Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

Genesis 4:6-7 (NIV)

⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."



It concerns being 'blameless' before the Lord. There were men in the Old testament who's walk with God were considered blameless such as Job, David & Noah. But what exactly did it mean to be blameless? Is it was being without sin? The Bible says that no man is without sin. John 8 teaches this. Not to mention that David was an adulturer and Noah got drunk. So that couldn't be it. So why were they called blameless if they were clearly men that sinned?

I believe that it is because they mastered willful sin. David asked the Lord to keep Him from willful sin and he also asked that willful sin would not rule over him. The Lord advised Cain not to commit wilful when he told him that he must master the sin that is crouching at his door. There are certain sinful acts we are ignorant of and althought they are still considered sin, the Lord, if we ask for His grace and forgiveness, will be leniant on us. However, there are certain sins that we are VERY aware of. Who hear doesn't know the 10 commandments? Do not lie, do not steal, do not commit adultury are all familiar to us. If we commit those sins, understanding that it is an act of hatred against the Lord, then that is considered a willful sin, or in other words, a great transgression. That's not cool. I'll give you an example.

If Jane walks into a Chanel boutique and sees a pair of shades that she really likes. Someone took it out of the display and left it on the counter while the person working in the store went to the back room for something. No one is watching her and if she wanted to steal the shades, this would be her opportunity. As she becomes aware of this opportunity, she begins to think about what she should do. *Should I steal it... no ones looking.. it's really nice... nah that would be bad.. thou shalt not steal.. but its so clutch.. like i really like it.. no one will know.. i can ask for forgiveness later.. but nah, God wouldn't be pleased..* [Sin is literally crouching at her door as she ponders to herself] MASTERING SIN is if she stops meditating on stealing the glasses and puts her thoughts back on things that are good and pure. WILLFUL SIN is if she decides, *what the heck.. I'll do it!* and she takes the shades.


Be masters of willful sin and your walk with the Lord shall be called blameless. For the Lord has commanded us to master willful sin.

Take care Love

What drives me

I heard a Paul washer sermon a while back and I remembered Him saying that heaven didn't motivate him and that God motivated him.

Naturally I agreed with his statement because it made some sense, but it was only today that it clicked.

I had a thought.. "Would you want to go to the most beautiful place in the universe?...I answered sure.. why not.. Then immediately another thought followed.. "Would you want to go there even if you were alone." My answer was no. Then another question popped up right after.. "Would you want to go to place with nothing and nobody around except for God." My answer was immediately yes!

That's why heaven couldn't drive me. Only God. He is my only motivation. He is the only One who sustains me. Everything I have and need is in Him. Without Him I am nothing but with Him, I need nothing.


Take Care Peace Yall!

God's dicipline is like a detox program

Hey folks! I know I was M.I.A for the Christmas break but I was celebrating Jesus' birthday with food, drinks and my fam. He totally blessed this holiday time and He has faithfully brought us into 2010.

mmmmm. I feel like I just opened a new copy book. Fresh sheets, no dog ears, no marks, *sniff sniff* BRAND NEW! 2010 is fresh y'all and I plan on making the very most out of it.

A thought came to me while I was driving - It's when I do most of my deeper thinking.

The thought was about spiritual growth and the pains that it entails.

We were pagans when God chose us as his people. That's when we entered God's detox program. I call it a detox program because when we were pagans we were addicted to sin - many different types of sin. (anger, lust, greed, envy etc) Addictions are harmful and a lot of times the lead to an early death. Like any detox program, going cold turkey is hard. It involves side effects (stomach aches, nausea, vomitting) The same is involved when you decide to go cold turkey for a particular sin. As we deal with each sin, and our addcition to it, we go through trials and pains. (God's discipline) At the end of our program we are clean and free. However,during the process it is hard. Thank the Lord that we have a trained doctor who is specialized at cleaning people out. Our doctor is God, and he is totally specialized and he is absolutely loving.It is an honour to be a part of his detox program because it means that we are part of his family. :) Love itttttt!

Read Hebrews 12:1-13 for deeper insight.

Love you. Love God. Peace.