Have you ever woken up from a restful sleep and the first thing that enters your mind are “way/ways you went wrong” in your past? Well that is totally what happened to me last tonight, and it was a particular event that happened before I even reached high school, so like 23 years ago.

What-the-what I found myself questioning as I tossed and turned at 1:45 a.m., trying to go back to sleep, however, nope that was not how it all played out. Instead, I came, sat at my computer and started watching Youtube videos, pinning, and all the while reminding myself about forgiveness.

I must write to share that I give God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit many thanks, praise and adoration for everything, for being with me, and keeping me around (in this world) even though I fallen many times. There have been times in my life when I sought death, lived like I did not know God (even though I 100% did), and just royally messed stuff up. However, God is a mighty God, and as we are told in, 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” The Creator knows us better than we know ourselves, and has a purpose and plan for you and I, Psalm139.   

As I have shared, this whole pandemic – house locked time has allowed me a lot of time to reconnect and refocus. However, with that has come a fair bit of condemnation for things in my past. Even though I have repented, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know at the time (in regard to some teachers / preachers I used to listen to), it still happens.  We all grow, change and evolve during our lives (or should), and not only do we need to ask God for forgiveness, but we need to accept it ourselves, and extend that forgiveness to others. Also I write condemnation, because I sincerely believe most (if any) of this is not coming from God, because there is normally a small after echo that tells me to “stop doing all things for God and the Kingdom because you are not worthy and it isn’t worth it”, so yeah …

This is not saying I am never brought under conviction, but there is a difference. I found a post that sums it up pretty well :

• Conviction is from God (accept it); condemnation is from Satan (reject it).
• Conviction leads you to repentance; condemnation drives you to despair.
• Conviction inspires you to keep striving; condemnation tells you to quit.
• Conviction says God will help you; condemnation says there’s no hope for you.
• Conviction shows you the answer; condemnation only shows you the problem.
• Conviction helps you change; condemnation says you’ll never change.

Also, we are told in the Bible, that God doesn’t remember our sins (Hebrews 8:12, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”) and an article (audio and text) by John Piper can be found here in more detail on that topic, should your desire further study.

Yet, we are told multiples times that we will be attacked by the evil of this world (spiritual warfare), and to be honest, all I want (and I will say it on repeat for years to come), is that people come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and develop a personal relationship with the Trinity (Creator God, Son/Savior Jesus and Helper Holy Spirit). I’ve always written in hopes that I can encourage, plant a seed, water what has already been planted, but in no way think myself higher than anyone, and surely not better than the Redeemer of this world, for only by His sacrifice can I be called worthy.

I conclude with this, no one knows the time or place of Jesus’s return (rapture and/or 2^nd "official coming" aka anti-Christ dethroned), but what I do know is that there isn’t a better time than now, to accept that Jesus Christ is the risen Son of the Holy God, and give your life over to Him.

This is why I write. This is why I design pins. This is why I help and do everything else that I do.

I know where I am going when I take my final breath, do you?

Love, peace, and blessings to you through the Savior, Jesus Christ. 🖤

(Day 6 from 31 Rays of Hope)

One of the hardest life lessons that I have been taught is that you must always be prepared for change. After all it is the only thing constant in this world, aside from God’s love.  Well, I write taught but continuously learning this with each and every day (we all are works-in-progress, you know).  In an instant your circumstances can evolve into something that you did not foresee, whether it is pleasant or dreadful. The only way to truly be prepared is to have accepted  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  risen  Son  of  the  only God and have the Holy Spirit reside in your heart. Why? Because it is only God who knows the past, present, and future; only He can guide you and direct you in the path you should go. He provides strength [1 Chronicles 16:11], direction [Psalm 37:23], security [Proverbs 1:33], and knowledge, and understanding [Proverbs 2:6-9]. He alone has promised “never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, NIV).

To those who are reading this that have not yet invited Jesus in their hearts:
“For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,  but  have  everlasting  life”  ( John  3:16,  KJV).  I pray that the Holy Spirit calls out to you and you answer His call…that you one day know this verse to be true.

To  those  who  are  reading  this  and  have  accepted  the free gift of eternal life:
May you seek the will of God in your everyday lives and walk in His light. May you know what His will for you is and be eager to spread the knowledge of Jesus’s saving grace to all that you meet.

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for providing peace through the storms of life. Though there are just a handful of noted verses above which are meant to invoke the Spirit and mind, there are so many more in Your holy Word, Your letter to Your children.  May  we  find  rest  in  You,  Father, during all times, knowing that as Your children You always have our best in mind, and You rule, always have and always will, in Jesus's name we pray. Amen. 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Know someone in need of a little hope? Send them a Loved and Blessed box today!

Happy Holy Week Everyone! Might I start off by first flipping the normal script with a prayer …

Dear Heavenly Father,
We come to You with thanksgiving in our hearts, full of joy, humility, humbleness, gratefulness and a host of other emotions as we celebrate (or are in preparation to) the foretold death and glorious resurrection of Your Son, Our Savior, Jesus Christ – Son Of Man, without which we would not be reconciled back to You. We thank you Father for forsaking Your Son, Your Beloved, for the benefit of all of mankind (Your creation) – past, present and future. We thank You Jesus for following through to what the Father commanded, though we know, it could not have been easy, as You were for a time separated from the One which holds all things. Thank You Spirit of God for since the time shortly after of Pentecost You have been present on Earth and in the heart of believers, being a helper, charging us to carry out the Father’s will, equipping, preparing and sustaining us. May we draw close to the Trinity, may we be shown the truth of things to come and be in preparation for what we must all face, both individually and as a family. We ask these things, by shed blood and broken body of the perfect One, Yeshua, ><>

“You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 10:28

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” John 7:7

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.“John 15:18-25

Perhaps I should start off with a question … When you look around at the world, what do you see? Does it please you? Do you agree with the evolution of mankind, the decent of (well) decency? Well, of course the later is more than just my opinion, as it was foretold to us in the Word of God, but more-so my thought is on what the above verses, what Jesus spoke, touches on.

There was once a time; I do remember in my childhood, that it seemed it was “the cool thing” or rather the acceptable or even normal thing, to be a believer. Bible drill teams had to break off into separate rooms to study, because so many wanted to participate, crowds of children would wear their WWJD bracelets and sing along to DC Talk’s Jesus Freak to the top of their lungs on the way to vacation bible school. However, in my lifetime, I have seen Christianity, or rather belief in the Bible, to become almost a sin (negative action) itself. As a result of this negative view point, we (as believers), have ran from being hated and in turn shut our mouths to the truth (well sharing it at least). Now of course, this does not apply to everyone, but for writings sake I am lumping us all into one big family pot.

This generation strives on acceptance, feeds off of celebrity status, craves to be some ultra-unrealistic idea of perfection (both in image, action and status); all the while, we fail to see we are creating mini-monsters which think it is more valuable to be “16 and pregnant” in hopes of a chance to get on TV, don’t understand the value of an object (with constant upgrades), find their humor from seeing those less fortunate fight to the death for $5 dollars and (literally) huff excrement to get high. Face-Palm!!!

Of course, I understand that all generations have had their ups and downs (with fads and fandom) and I am in no way spotless or pointing a finger (without having more even coming back at me), but the alarming rate of which wrong is now right, and bad is now good is overwhelming and quite off-putting and quite frankly, sad and scary. Of course, as I said above, I KNEW it was going to happen, we all KNEW that mankind was going to go down a downward spiral unlike anything imaginable, and it has been foretold that we have only begun to see the tip of the iceberg, but I can’t help but wonder, if we weren’t afraid to be HATED for the TRUTH, might we be able to help someone (if only just one more) person along the way, to led them to the Lord, so they might be reborn in Christ and henceforth, become a part of the family of believers?

The temporary hatred of this world, in no way compares to spending eternity with the Creator (as Father, Son and Spirit). 

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

SiC <3