No Healing

We don't want the be healed. A lot of us can't be healed or delivered by God because that very thing He's trying to heal us from, we keep going back to!  

A lot of people doubt the power of God when it comes to Him healing people because they can't fully comprehend how it works. For one, doubt hinders God from healing. How can you expect the Lord to heal you when you doubt that He can do it?  Faith as small as a mustard seed is all you need but some people don't even have that. So, if you don't believe it, He can't do it. 

Secondly, we continue to bring illnesses on ourselves. I'm not talking about chronic illnesses per se. Smoking cigarettes is a proven fact to cause cancer. Liver disease is caused by people who drink heavily. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is proven to be the result of people who have unprotected sex. Where is the wisdom in doing those things?! 

Exodus 15:26 NKJV

“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

I Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

If you have a drinking problem, smoking problem (not just cigarettes) or a sexual addiction and deep down you want to quit, there are some things you have to change in regards to your lifestyle in order for that deliverance to take place. Don't deliberately put yourself in temptation situations! If you know alcohol is going to be all around, don't go! If people are going to be smoking, don't show your face! If there's going to be provocativly dressed men or women or just a strong sexual environment, don't you dare walk out that door!

I Corinthians 10:13 NKJV

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

I believe this scripture is for when we don't willingly put ourselves in such situations. Where we weren't prepared and are cut off-guard. If you have your regular circle of friends, you pretty much already know what kind of festivities they'll be getting into. If it's going to cause you to suffer and hurt yourself physically, morally and spiritually, you needn't to be there. 

Some of us end up missing our friends, the lifestyle or just that atmosphere and put ourselves in those environments before the Lord has completely healed us. Even when He does, it's not wise for us to go back to such things. 

I Corinthians 8:13 NKJV

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

If people are really, truly your friends, they'd support and encourage you. Now, if they start acting funny towards you and give you a difficult time and make light of the situation, maybe you don't need them in your life like you thought. Lung disease isn't cool! Lung cancer isn't cool! Going into a drunken sprew and having blackouts isn't cool! Having chlamydia or AIDS isn't cool! 

These are serious, real LIFE & DEATH matters that we can't worry about people no longer being our friend. 

Romans 14:21 NKJV

It  is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do  anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

When JESUS died on that cross,  He paid our debt of all things! So, not only did He heal us from those examples I mentioned, but also from lying, stealing, cheating, adultery and thousands of other things! God can and DOES want to heal us! But at the end of the day, the choice is ours. Either we'll stay in bondage to our illness or we can be FREE, healthy and alive in the Lord! 

Be Blessed & Encouraged in the Lord today! ♡♥

Fears and Doubts

Fear will cripple you. Doubt will restrain you.

Fear of living or trying, or allowing fear to have any control over your life and what you do will cause you to be enslaved to it. Jesus came to set us free and says in John 8:36 NKJV

"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

Doubt will box you in, which is another form of enslavement! Jesus can't move in our lives when we doubt. Doubt actually hinders our blessings. Doubt hinders God. "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind." James 1:6 NKJV

We have to walk out on faith and not what we see or hear. Faith and doubt are the opposite of each other. Don't allow the troubles of this temporary world get you so down that you doubt the power of God's love and His promises. Don't let the sadness and disappointments of people and situations cause you to live in fear and be afraid of going on and continue to strive for your dreams & goals. We can't hide or run away from the world. It's going to keep turning whether we get out and live it, or lock ourselves away in a room somewhere.

The Bible says in II Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

This was definitely for myself first, but I pray others are encouraged and inspired as well.

Life can be so wonderful and so beautiful. At the same time, it can be a very scary and sad place. Death happens. It's inevitable. Disappointment happens. We're all human. Things and people change. That's the cycle of life. Despite the hard times, we have to stay or get reconnected to the ONE True person who will see us through it all! That person is the Lord Jesus! He knows our pain; He knows our fears, hopes, doubts and struggles. All we have to do is commune with Him and give Him our burdens. It won't always be easy to face our fears and let go of any doubts we may have, but little by little and day by day, we'll start to fill whole and alive again! By the grace of God, we can make it! 🙌 

Romans 8:37 NKJV

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

**This blog post is a dedicated memorial for James Jones. I'm still having a difficult time accepting your sudden passing and my subconscious denial to the fact. But I'm trusting in the Lord for my healing to help me with all the feelings and sadness I've been carrying within me. I miss you..Thank you for being part of our lives for over 25 years!!!♥***

The Beginnings - GET EXCITED AGAIN!!!

Genesis 1:1 NKJV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Hello, Luvs!

'The Beginning' title crossed my mind some time last week. (draft from 3/12/13 I started) Last night while at work, that title and Get Excited Again stayed in my mind. I didn't know which one to use, but I realized both go well along with what I'm going to write about.

The Beginning of relationships was the main focus I wanted to revolve around. As we all know, when we first enter into a relationship, we're on cloud nine! We spend all of our time talking this new person in our life; we are with them every minute we have free; we think and dream about them all the time. Basically, no one else seems to exist or matter at this stage. We desert our friends and family and rarely want to go to work. It's just you and this new luv of your life.

For those of us who KNOW the Lord and have been reconciled back to Him, I believe we all can remember almost for verbatim exactly how we felt when finally accepted Christ as our Lord & Savior! That fire and desire we had to live for Him and please Him! We were EXCITED about the things of the Lord! We LOVED reading our Bible regularly, loved going to church regularly and just fellowshipping with other brothers & sisters. When the Lord started sharing and speaking to us, we'd have this glimmer of awe within us as tho we were the first ones He revealed Himself to or the first person He'd ever spoken to.

Psalms 100:1-3 NLT

"Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the L ord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture."

When we're baby saint's, we're supposed to eat baby food. We strongly need to be spiritually guarded. This is also a time when the Lord's grace seems to never end. When you're a baby and don't know any better, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. A lot of the times we can become full of ourselves with this new knowledge we've discovered.

Outspoken actor and fellow Christian, Kirk Cameron instantly came to my mind when I was thinking about that last statement. When he first got saved, he started acting differently on the set of the hit show, Growing Pains. He wanted to change some of the script writing regarding his character; he distanced himself from his castmates. He didn't even invite his castmates to his wedding. There was definitely a change in him. He was a baby saint. He was still learning. He knew what the Bible said and took it literally. Which is what we are to do, but we NEED WISDOM & UNDERSTANDING behind it.

Now, back to the beginning of our personal relationships. Say after the first three months, maybe six, things start to slow down. Maybe you aren't having those long, late night talks as often as you used to. Maybe you can't meet up for lunch everyday anymore. Maybe you can only see each other on weekends now because of work, school or other obligations. When you two finally get that one-on-one time, the excitement and thrill seems to have died. You don't joke and play around the same; you don't have much to say to one another during dinner. It seems already, the relationship has become stagnant...

We can and do become stagnant in our walk with Christ. We go from baby saints to maturing in the Lord to becoming seasoned. We have been hit with trials n storms back-to-back. We've probably been put through the ringer our first year in Christ. Maybe we were whooped so bad spiritually, we started losing focus, desire, and all hope. We stopped praying as often as we did. We only read our Bible whenever it felt relevant. We start attending church and church functions less and less..

We have to go back to that memory, that feeling of excitement we had in the beginning of this new and exciting chapter in our lives! We need the Holy Spirit to revive in us what's been slowly starting to slip away. We need to get excited about the Lord again and the things concerning Him! Remember when  you couldn't stop talking about Him and sharing all the things He'd done for you and how much he loves you. We need to get refocused and not let the light that's within us die!

As far as our newly personal relationship, we need to do and treat it the same way we're supposed to treat our relationship with God, but only secondary. No communication equals no relationship. No matter how busy life gets and it will, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS COMMUNICATE & MAKE THE TIME FOR ONE ANOTHER! The longer we put off not talking and making time for our special loves, the harder it'll be to rekindle what once was so beautiful. I'm not saying it can't be done, it just makes the process much harder.

Thank God for always being there, waiting with opens arm to accept us once again! His love is never-ending and He never leaves nor forsakes us! We may leave and forsake Him, but He's so merciful and so forgiving that after we get back on track and repent to Him, His love is still the same as it was the day before.

Lamentations 3:23 NLT

"Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning."

2 Peter 3:9 NLT

"The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent."

James 5:19-20 NKJV

"Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins."

Get back to THE BEGINNINGS AND GET EXCITED AGAIN!!!  

BE BLESSED & ENCOURAGED IN THE LORD TODAY! ~Raven J. XOXO

Showing Love

"You don't know everyone's story and today I understood the story of a person who has been through more than I could imagine. There are so many people walking around hurt and wounded. I challenge you to hug someone you thought was rude, mean, inconsiderate, etc. I guarantee they are hurting on the inside. Love on them for five seconds.  You might just change their life! THINK ABOUT IT!" (via Janita Still Movingforward)

I just happen to come across this in my Draft emails. I remember when my friend posted this sometime last year and I saved it to send to someone else. It stills stands very true today. We all have seen pictures or heard the statement how there's always someone else who has it worst than you or how we all are fighting a battle. I have no doubt about that for a second. We all are fighting through something and trying to make it to the light!  I also think there are some people who are just plain rude, inconsiderate, selfish and don't have any respect for anyone, let alone themselves! BUT..STILL show them love! Don't allow them to walk over you and disrespect you or try to do harm to you. Just always show and have love for them and PRAY for them!

Romans 12:20-21 NLT

Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

Matthew 5:43-44 NLT

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.  But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!

It's truly a learning process that only the Lord can give us the strength to do in turning the other cheek and walking away and not always having something to stay. We are a work in progress! We all need to be transformed and broken to be restored on a daily basis! So, the next time that rude co-worker or bothersome neighbor or inpatient and uncaring Sales Rep gets lippy with you or just tries to disrespect you and have no compassion or sympathy for you or your situation, take a deep breath and count to five and Thank God for STILL showing you Love throughout all your faults & imperfections! OUCH!!! I KNOW SOMEBODY SAID AMEN ON THAT ONE??!

BE BLESSED & ENCOURAGED IN THE LORD TODAY!!! XoXOXo

~Raven J.

Forgiveness

Some people hurt you unintentionally. Some people hurt you deliberately. Forgive them both! The anger, resentment, stress & worry you put into it will have a long-lasting effect on your body and more than likely, they've moved on from it, or didn't care from the beginning. Now, whether or not you choose to continue to deal with them is another story. LIFE IS WAY TOO SHORT!

Growing up, I think every generation was told to "Forgive and Forget." Then as we got older, people started saying they forgive the person but they don't forget what they did. Which expression is correct? Jesus plainly tells us in:

Matthew 6:14-15 NLT

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."

None of us are without sins or faults. The world's views on sin(s) is judged extremely  different than what God teaches us. We often compare some actions being greater or lesser than the other, such as a fib or  small white lie versus a lie. At the end of the day, a lie is STILL a LIE whether we're lying about something huge or something very small.

James 2:10-11 NLT

"For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law."

Romans 3:23 NLT

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

We are human with a fleshly body and are going to continue to make mistakes and have faults.  Thank God for his mercies being new everyday and for his AMAZING grace! We as a people need to learn and work on being more merciful to those who have wronged us (using wisdom of course).

Matthew 7:6 NLT

“Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you."

*"Neither cast ye your pearls before swine," advice that Jesus gave to Peter. It means: Don't waste your advice, intelligence, good words (basically, anything you could provide of value) on those who are too naive or ignorant to appreciate it.

I love the way this user broke down that scripture. So, when I said we need to be merciful to those who have offended us, there are alot of people we will have to love from a distance even tho we have forgiven them. Some people may continue to hurt us, put us down and are just not healthy for us to be around, and it's up to us to choose whether or not we're going to be around that negative environment. Letting them go and choosing to not to talk to them or hang with them anymore doesn't necessarily mean we no longer love or care about them, just that we love and care about ourselves more and those individuals need to get themselves right first and learn to love themselves in order to be a better and kinder person to the people that are in their lives. Only then, when we know they're attempting to change for the better and do right, then we can obtain that same grace & mercy Jesus has when he said:

Isaiah 43:25 NLT

“I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.

We will truly have such a LOVE and FORGIVENESS in our hearts towards those who have committed the most unbelievable offenses and earth-shattering evils towards us that we, too, will remember their short-comings NO MORE!
THANK YOU JESUS FOR FORGIVING US WHEN NO MATTER WHAT WE SAY OR DO, WE'LL NEVER BE DESERVING OF YOUR GRACE & MERCY! PLEASE BE BLESSED & ENCOURAGED IN THE LORD TODAY!!! XoXoXo
~Raven J.

Our gifts are for others

1 Peter 4:11 NLT

Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening, luvs,

I hope everyone has had a very blessed and safe weekend. Firstly, My heart and prayers goes out to those effected by the tornados. May the Lord be with everyone and give them strength during this time. This is a very exciting blog post for me because although it's being posted here on my own personal blog, it's my first blog entry for The Reading Group Ministries. I was brought on board Saturday afternoon.

I'm so excited and sooo grateful to the Lord for this opportunity!!! God truly hears ALL of our prayers! Whether they're vocal, written down, or just our thoughts or what we're feeling in our heart. HE..IS..LISTENING!!! AND He truly cares!!! People can say what they want about social networks, but I have met many people from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter who have been such a GREAT inspiration to me, who have been AWESOME at encouraging me - half the time, not aware of it, and just a HUGE blessing in my life on a daily basis!! ♥♡

So...with that lovely introduction, I want to say that the way God blessed me Saturday, inspired the title of this blog and all that it regards. As always, I pray that you are blessed & encouraged in the Lord today! No matter what you're going through, try to stay encouraged! I know it's not always easy, but I'm often reminded, especially as of lately, that IF we take our eyes off our situations and storms and put our eyes on the ONE who can help us with our circumstances, then we will have peace and no more stressing and worrying. I honestly believe that's why this door of opportunity opened for me the way that it did because I just let go and realized that my circumstances are what they are and I will only make things worst trying to fix it myself doing something out of desperation. But that's another Blog.. 😉 ENJOY!

Our gifts are not for ourselves. The Lord has blessed all of us with many gifts and talents. Some of us have the gift of management, the gift of event planning, very good with numbers, good at encouraging, the gift of sewing & quilting, good at singing, dancing, acting, writing, very good at cooking, applying makeup, doing hair, or good with technology.. and thousands of other talents! A lot of the time the passion we have for our gifting, it started off as just a hobby and developed into something more. Also, we may find ourselves interested in things we didn't think we'd ever have an interest in. The Lord places those desires within us, and then it's up to us to go out and put them into use for His glory alone! A lot of us including myself need that reminder from time to time. It's Okay to love with you do! It's even OK to want to make a career out of it, but in all that we do, it should glorify the Lord and we should be helping others. Those two are the main things.

There are people who are struggling so bad financially it's like they're buried deep in their debt and don't know how to get out of it. Somebody somewhere has an awesome testimony about a financial hardship they've endured and the Lord gave them a vision on how to manage money better. That person or persons needs to let their story be heard! Forget about the shame and guilt you may have. The Lord brought you out of it and turned it all around for your good! The world is full of resources! WE ARE THE RESOURCES! WE all are a gifts to the world for the world! XoXoXo ~Raven J.

STILL MY PASSION

Good Morning/Evening Luvs!!!!

I haven't blogged anything in over two months. I kinda regret it ,then again, I do not. All of my thoughts, inspirations and ideas are written down; they're also buried deep within me. I have SO much in me that I want and need to share with all of you!
Like any career (YES - STILL NAMING & CLAIMING THIS! NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES NOR THE SETBACKS & STRUGGLES I ENDURE).
As I was saying, like any career, it's OK & healthy to take a break from it and venture out into some other areas. We all have many gifts and talents. Some of us are more stronger in some than we are the others. It's good to strengthen and improve on all..although I believe there will always be that ONE you have the stronger passion and desire for. That's writing for me!!!!

In closing on this brief and halfway informative update, I'd like to share a few lines from one of my new writings. These thoughts came to me earlier THIS work week. Although, part of this writing is connected to and goes along with another inspiration. ;-) As always, I pray you are BLESSED & ENCOURAGED in the Lord today! XoXoXo

"No matter how many times a person encourages you or tells you something positive about yourself, until YOU believe it to be true, it really doesn't matter. A person can tell you all-day long you're beautiful and smart, BUT..until you see and believe those things about yourself, you won't have that confidence to push and act it out."
~Raven J.