When I see Christ

I was watching "Amy Goodman: Occupy the Airwaves". Amy Goodman is the most respected journalist in the world (in my book). She gives the news as honest and detailed everytime I see her on Democracy Now or giving a speech.

I was completely ignorant of the her stories of massacres in Cambodia, conflict in Indonesia, etc. For example, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was an environmental activist from Ogoniland in Nigeria who spoke out against corporations like Chevron and Shell who work with the Nigerian government and cause extreme environmental damage to the land. He was arrested and executed by the Nigerian government in November 10, 1995, causing the nation to be removed from the Commonwealth of Nations for three years.

So inspiring.
So how come I am first learning about this man?

So what does this have to do with seeing Christ?

I believe Christianity in this nation is becoming something overly spiritual. Christ does not call us to live as though we have already crossed over into the next realm, exuberantly high and ignorant of issues around us. He called us to be right here on planet Earth.

His prayer was,
"¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by^[d] the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. "

(-John 17)

So Christ wants us to be right here, right now and experiencing life, with all of it's pain and discomforts. The worldly numb themselves of reality with "reality" television, alcohol and stimulants. We are to actively look conflict in the face and do something about it.

There is a world full of political instability, war, genocide, disease, and destruction to which nature is not to blame. My luxuries make it impossible to relate or even care. I run to my riches and gadgets for comfort when life gets hard and every night ask "Where is Christ?"

Here's the kicker: he is in the middle of conflict, never too far from it.

I'd be a fool to think I know everything. In my few years, I am beginning to realize I am just beginning to understand very little. There is a giant world with giant sufferings that needs hope, perseverance, to be heard...that needs Christ. And I want to be there.

Thanks to Link tv and Democracy Now that is giving news around the world that is making simple folks like me aware of most things.

Verses on addiction

After watching Celebrity Rehab, my heart wanted to reach out to the addicts and give them words of hope. I felt their pain. We've all been addicts to something at one point or another so we have no right to judge. We're fools to think we can only overcome it in our strength. It is only through Him all things are possible.

Romans 8:1
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (KJV)
Psalm 121:1-2
“I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (NIV)
2 Corinthians 12:9a
“But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (NIV)
Isaiah 41:10
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” (NLT)
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (NKJV)
Psalm 103:12
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” ~ KJV Ad.


Hebrews 10:25a
“Let us not give up meeting together, …but let us encourage one another.” (NIV)
1 Thessalonians 5:11
“So encourage each other and give each other strength, just as you are doing now.” (NCV)
Isaiah 43:2
“When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.” (NLT)
Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (KJV)
2 Corinthians 12:9
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (KJV)
Psalm 34:5
“Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” (NIV)
Psalm 34:15
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. (KJV)
Philippians 4:6-7
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (KJV)
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. (KJV)
John 5:14b
“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (NIV)
2 Thessalonians 3:3
“But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.” (KJV)

**jollynotes.com**

I have always loved this analogy that Christ uses. (His wisdom is awesome!)

Matthew 12:43-45
43  "When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
44  Then it says, "I will return to the house I left." When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put inorder
45  Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."

The Gospel

The simplicity of the gospel is what always gets me...ALWAYS! Not some intellectual deductions surrounding the crucifixion of Christ and the transaction that occurred. Just the sheer gospel with nothing fancy. Raw.

Rainbow River

You have to see this beautiful spot I just recently found out about in Florida:

http://www.floridastateparks.org/rainbowsprings/

Becoming all things to save some men.

1 Corinthians 9:19–23

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. 20 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. 23 And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Get it?

What do Nicki Minaj and Dorian Grey have in common?

 

Phanatik speaks on my two favorite subjects! (Not that I love Nicki Minaj. It's just she is the MC who reigns right now in the videos and on the airwaves and she is offering nothing to contribute to these little girls.)

REVIEW: Are Woman Human?

I don't want the title to fool you into thinking that this is an actual review on the essay by Dorothy Sayers. It just helps me to keep my posts organized.


A little bit about Dorothy Sayers...
She translated Dante's Purgatory into English. She was one of the first females to attend Oxford, she was a Christian humanist, and she was close friends with C.S. Lewis. Also, this book was recommended by Ravi Zacharias!

Some things I didn't know.
Introduction:
Sir Thomas More was exceptional , though not unique, in providing a classical education for his daughters, and they, though exceptionally privileged, were not unique in receiving and using their education constructively.

To aim directly at serving the community and serve the work...If your heart is not wholly in the work, the work will not be good-and work that is not good serves neither God nor the community; it only serves Mammon. ("Why work?")

Are Woman Human? address
What, I feel, we ought to mean is something so obvious that it is apt to escape attention altogether, viz: not that every woman is, in virtue of her sex, as strong, clever, artistic, level-headed, industrious and so forth as any man that can be mentioned; but, that a woman is just as much an ordinary human being as a man, with the same individual preferences, and with just as much right to the tastes and preferences of an individual. (p.24)

What is unreasonable and irritating is to assume that all one's tastes and preferences have to be conditioned by the class to which one belongs. That has been the very common error into which men have frequently fallen about women-and it is the error into which feminist women are, perhaps, a little inclined to fall about themselves. (p.25)

When the pioneers of university training for women demanded that women should be admitted to the universities, the cry went up at once: "Why should women want to know about Aristotle?" ....What women want as a class is irrelevant. I want to know about Aristotle. (p. 26)

The fact remains that the home contains much less of interesting activity than it used to contain. What is more, the home has so shrunk to the size of a small flat that -even if we restrict woman's job to the bearing and rearing of families-there is no room for her to even do that. (p.32)

I am always entertained...by newsmongers who inform us, with a bright air of discovery, that they have questioned a number of female workers and been told by one and all that they are "sick of the office and would love to get out of it". In the name of God, what human being is not, from time to time, heartily sick of the office and would not love to get out of it. (p.35)

What we ask is to be human individuals, however peculiar and unexpected. It is no good saying: "You are a little girl and therefore you ought to like dolls"; if the answer is, "But I don't," there is no more to be said. (p.39)

...The woman's point of view has no value at all. In fact, it does not exist. No special knowledge is involved, and a woman's opinion on literature or finance is valuable only as the judgement of an individual.

"Man is willing to accept woman as an equal, as a man in skirts, as an angel, a devil, a babyface, a machine, an instrument, a bosom, a pair of legs, a servant, an encyclopaedia, an ideal or an obscenity; the one thing he won't accept her as is a human being, a real human being of the feminine sex." (P.44)

Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross.

Wicked man

Ezekiel 33:8
When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

The eye is the lamp of the body

Matthew 6:22-24

22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/the-eye-is-the-lamp-of-the-body

**taken by yours truly

Some pictures

Here I am chilling in my room. I should be studying.

 My Jesus bracelets!

I thought this was a nice and cozy picture. I like the way the shadows fall.

 

 

Yours truly!

-C

REVIEW: Schindler's List

So Schindler's List is #8 on the 1998 version of AFI's top 100 list.


From the beginning of the film, I was unaware of how ignorant I was in a lot of the history and geography behind the Holocaust. The first half of the film takes place in Poland and the second half in the Czech Republic (Schindler's home country). Many of the European countries approved of the anti-Antisemitism (which is not what I learned).

 In the film, I admired his character in that even thought the world around him seemed to be going crazy, he put his foot down and refused to flow down this river knee-deep in murder and blood.

What I liked about the movie:
1.) It was very true to the real story.
It does not paint him into this perfect figure. The story is about Oskar Schindler, a womanizing, black marketeering, member of the Nazi party. He was not to be glorified as a "holy" figure but he was in heroic in that he stood up to save the lives of 1,000 Jews. It does not end with him receiving many awards. In fact, after the war, he fled the country, his marriage fell apart, and he built several unsuccessful companies that went under. It wasn't really your typical Hollywood tale. I suppose that is what makes it a classic. 

2.) Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes...enough said.
These are phenomenal actors. They are still making awesome films. Liam Neeson was in Les Miserables and Taken. Ralph Fiennes played Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and starred in the film The Constant Gardener.

They played their characters very well. I never doubted that they were there characters for a minute. They truly embodied their roles. I was happy to see that they were in this film!

3.) The current political climate in the U.N. makes it a good film to watch.
They say hatred of Israel is the politically correct way of being anti-Semitic. This film illustrates the most recent extreme genocide of Jews in history. It shows you the length that hatred of Jews can go and where it currently is. Nothing is new and history tends to go into this perpetual repetition. I fear growing tensions in the Middle East due to the Palistine vote but the legislation could end in no action. (I digress.)

I loved the story, how someone who was not Jewish could have sympathy with those at a time when the world thought them to be worthless. It is not my favorite film (because I feel like I've seen it before) but it is a great story. I suppose when it first came out, it was one of the first of its kind and I've just been watching the poorly made copies of the original. Lol.

REVIEW: Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing

My sister and I have started watching the films on the AFI's top 100 movies of all time (the 1997 version). We started with #99: Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing".

The films on the list are often chosen because of their cultural impact to society at the time. I can see how Spike Lee's film broke into the Hollywood stratosphere with it's presentation of cultural and racial tensions presented in a way that it hasn't been presented before. I was not even born when the film came out so I can't begin to pretend that I would know what racial tensions existed in society at the time, but watching episodes of the Donahue talk show recently has helped me to gauge the mindset.

From what I understand, civil rights had only occurred only 10-15 years before and society decided that racial equality issue was finally resolved. However, the film illustrates racial strains still existed between races in New York.

For now, I'm going to pretend that you've already seen the film.

My sister and I agree that Spike Lee's films are sometimes confusing but he does establish his own identity as a director, evident in his color schemes, subliminal messaging, dialogue choice, camera panning, etc. The character he plays, Mookie, is not something new. Some could argue that he was a typical lazy young Black male, but that would oversimplify his character. Despite the fact that he lived a simple life, no real high aims, his character was still rich and had depth and complexities, as a human being should! In more recent films, it seems Black men are too restricted into bland, shallow individuals which is not true. So, I love the fact that Spike Lee still gives Black men a voice, a face, and complexities.

I like the way the film developed so quickly. It's hard to believe all of the events occurred in a period of 24 hours! Spike Lee took a lot of situations from the films from events occurring in the media: the slaying of Michael Jerome Stewart, the rape of Tawana Brawley, the Howard Beach incident, on and on. Names that would soon be forgotten with the next generation but forever immortalized in this film.

All in all, I see the cultural impact of the film at the time, but it would be less impactful if it came out today. I liked it, but I favor Jungle Fever before this film.

Ravi Zacharias' Book Club

Okay, so Ravi Zacharias does not actually have a book club, but he should! I was learning in my media class that Oprah has helped to shape book sales and popularity because any book selected in her list automatically becomes a bestseller. Her list was great and even helped me to discover a Haitian author, Edwidge Danticat, who's books have helped to mould my identity as a Haitian-American during my high school years.

I've listened to many of Ravi Zacharias' lectures for a little over three years and he is different than most Christian apologists in that he has an astute knowledge of literature that has helped him to be more open-minded in his discussions. Below are the beginnings of a list that he has mentioned that I have selected to be a part of his fictitious book club:

The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Are Woman Human?, Dorothy Sayers
Letters to Malcolm, C.S. Lewis

I can write reviews on each as soon as I get the opportunity. I'll include good sayings and quips that I have highlighted in each novel. The stories are often rich in dialogue and character development and they never disappoint!

The Video Vixen

When I was a little girl, my main role models were the women in my family and the women in music videos. They always had the fly clothes, long hair and all the attention from the guys. A part of me said, "I want to be just like that!" But even as a little girl, I had my concerns with the video vixen: she never spoke. And any noise she did utter was either a moan or a groan. She was not human to me. She had been reduced to a dumb animal and I said not me. I want to be able to say something.

The journey from then to now has been to discover what beauty is and measure myself to it. Everyone has their own definition of beauty. I had a guy tell me in high school that if I wore my skirts a little shorter, lost my glasses and made my hair skinny straight and flowy like the white girls, I would be beautiful. Other guys told me if I put out, I would be beautiful. If I talked less, dumbed myself down, and all that, I would be more beautiful.

None of these are really it.

How does the Word define beauty? You have Proverbs 31: "Charm is decietful, beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised." And true beauty throughout the entire Bible is defined as this: holiness. Consider this, our Christ came on this Earth and had nothing that would make anyone take a double look. He resembled average Joe (Isaiah 53:2). Yet, he drew crowds and all marveled at Him.

I remember hearing so much stories about Mother Theresa and how awesome she was and all she did. I recall my first time seeing an image of her and I said, "wow". She had nothing in her appearance that would make the world say, "look at her beauty!". But she had devoted her life for the cause of suffering and for this she was commended.

True beauty is holiness. It always has been.

Count the cost

Luke 14:28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?"

In any endeavor, whether it be career-related or simply following Christ, count the cost. It sounds simple but seriously. For example, when I decided to study electrical engineering, I never would've imagined what it would've cost me, the repercussions that come with it. I never would've imagined that I would have to make decisions between studying and attending a social event or party at someone's place, and by choosing the former, being called an overachiever. I never thought that the more I would succeed, the more different I would become from those around me.

Even in following Christ, I never would've imagined that I would grow distant from those I considered close. That I'd be boxed in to a super-religious, mystical image that doesn't really identify who I really am. That conversations would be curbed when I enter the room. The assumption that I haven't seen the recent R-rated film because it doesn't seem like my style. The assumption that I don't listen to music! That I don't party because I went all-Christian. (In actuality, I couldn't never stand the smoke and darkness.) That the people I would gossip to would gossip about me.

If you told me all of this, everything I would've lost, I would've called you crazy and say "No way! That will never happen to me". Count the cost of everything you may lose (and you may just lose everything) and see if it is worth it to you.

Of everything I have lost, relationships, time, the old me, what I have gained in return has been more sincere and valuable than anything I ever possessed before. My relationships after following Christ has been more meaningful and authentic, the opportunities more rich. I lost time but gained patience and an inner awareness of mortality, how precious time is and where it should be spent. It has been worth it but oh-so-painful shedding the old life.

Image credit: http://www.friendship-quotes.info/motivational-quotes/its-going-to-be-worth-it/

Six signs of a fallen society

     "Sir Arnold Toynbee, in his famed analysis of the rise and fall of world civilizations, A Study of History, outlines six unmistakable evidences for the disintegration and collapse of a world civilization:

	Civilizations committing a "cultural suicide" and self-destructing;
	Escape from reality and retreat into thrill seeking;
	Have a sense of helplessness and powerlessness;
	Feel self-loathing and guilt;
	A prevalent sense of promiscuity;
	Disregard for morality and a pervasiveness of lawlessness

Psychic twins

These psychic twins remind me of the girl in Acts 16.

^"16As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. ¹⁷She followed Paul and us, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." ¹⁸And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour."

I actually didn't really fully believe in the story in Acts because I had never seen psychics who made multiple accurate predictions until I watched these ladies on a Tyra episode and was surprised on how they were making accurate predictions and saying hidden things about members of the audience (like the one thing towards the end about the girl smoking). Even Tyra was  surprised. (They predicted on National Radio that 9/11 would occur two years before it happened.)

These ladies have said that they have these spirits that tell them the future, which they channel them through thoughts. Based on biblical text, I don't deny this. The slave girl in the scripture could tell the future but this was because of a demonic spirit. When Paul cast this spirit out, she could no longer tell the future. Now, do the people of God have this gift? Maybe not in the same way. But everything that Satan provides, the Father provides and it's usually more authentic. We have the Word and in the word are prophecies.

*  Spirit to be poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28)
*  Universal apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)
*  The watering down of the gospel, teaching the doctrines of man rather than those of God.  Even priests will be led astray.  (2 Tim 3:5, Matt 15:9)
*  False prophets and false Christs (Matthew 24:24)
*  Good will be called evil and evil good. (Isaiah 5:20)
*  Restoration of all things (Acts 3:19-21)
*  Gospel to be preached to all the world (Matthew 24:14, Revelation 14:6-7)
*  Worldly knowledge to increase (Daniel 12:4)
*  Israel to be restored as a political state (Deuteronomy 28:64, 30:3 Jeremiah 29:14, 30:3 Isaiah 43:5-6, Ezekiel 36:24, Amos 9:14-15
*  Earthquakes, floods, famines, plagues and diseases such as the world has never seen.
   (Matthew 24 and Luke 21)
*  Peace taken from the earth.  Wars increase throughout the earth until war is on every land (Matthew 24 and Luke 21)
*  Increase in the wickedness, murder and crime among men.  Increase in belief in the occult. (Matthew 24, Luke 21, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 4:3-4)
*  People will not believe the signs (2 Peter 3:3-4, Matthew 16:1-4)
*  Increase in persecution of the Christians (Matthew 24:9, Mark 13:9) 
*  Christ will come suddenly to His temple. (Malachi 3:1)
*  Signs and Wonders in heaven (Mark 13:25)
*  Mountains made low, valleys made high (Isaiah 40, Ezekiel 38)
*  Christ to receive his dominion from the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9-14)
*  Two prophets preach in Jerusalem for 1260 days. They have the power to bring famines and plagues.  They are killed and lie dead in the streets for three and a half days while the wicked of the earth rejoice in the streets and exchange gifts in celebration of their deaths.  On the third day they arise striking fear in the hearts of the wicked. (Revelation 11)
*  Armageddon.  The nations of the earth gather to fight Israel at Jerusalem,  at Armageddon in the valley of Jehoshaphat. (Revelation 16:16) 
*  Sun darkened, moon becomes as blood (Joel 2:31, Acts 2:20, Revelation 6:12)
*  Jerusalem is taken captive, the houses riled, the women ravished. (Zechariah 14:2) 
*  The Lord appears at Mount Olivet leading his people to victory (Ezekiel 38, 39, Daniel 11, 12, Joel 2,3)
*  Christ appears to all the earth. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. (Phillipians 2:11)
*  The righteous caught up to Christ, the wicked burned as stubble.   (Malachi chapters 3-4)
*  The judgment and first resurrection (Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 20:5-6)
*  The thousand years of peace ushered in, Christ to reign personally on the earth (Revelation chapters 20-21)

 All in all, these psychic twins are one of the many ways that I see God through the evidence of the existence of a spiritual world. We already know the full picture of the future, and it's free! (in the Word). What will we do about it? 

Where beauty comes from

1 Peter 3:3-4

New International Version (NIV)

³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Bible Promises

"Having therefore these Promises, dearly beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God"
(2 Corinthians 7:1).





"No promise is of private interpretation: it belongs not to one saint but to all believers. If, my brother, thou canst in faith lie down upon a promise and take thy rest thereon, it is thine... Come, weary one, use thy LORD's words as thy pillows. Lie down in peace. Dream only of Him."



"The promises were made to be used--they were made to be used by God's children, by all who will believe them and appropriate them. They were not made to lay concealed in a gilt-edged Bible, but to be read, understood, and used. The fact is, the Bible is like a book of checks put into the hands of the needy, and we are to use them when we want anything: thus God has given promises to every class and description of persons; and these promises were given not to be hoarded up, but to be used--we are to draw liberally and freely upon the divine bounty for all the blessings that we need... If Christians will but understand and get the impression deeply imbedded in their own minds, that these promises are regarded by God as their inheritance, given them to be used by them under all the circumstances in which they find themselves placed, they would often much better understand the meaning of the apostle, when he says, 'whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.'"

-from "The Promises of God" ---New Window by Charles G. Finney. A "PENNY PULPIT" sermon.---New Window



Care of Our Feet
"He will keep the feet of His saints"
(1 Samuel 2:9).

"The way is slippery and our feet are feeble, but the LORD will keep our feet. If we give ourselves up by obedient faith to be His holy ones, He will Himself be our guardian. Not only will He charge His angels to keep us, but He Himself will preserve our goings.

1. He will keep our feet from falling so that we do not defile our garments, wound our souls, and cause the enemy to blaspheme.
   
   
2. He will keep our feet from wandering so that we do not go into paths of error, or ways of folly, or courses of the world's custom.
   
   
3. He will keep our feet from swelling through weariness, or blistering because of the roughness and length of the way.
   
   
4. He will keep our feet from wounding: our shoes shall be iron and brass so that even though we tread on the edge of the sword, or on deadly serpents, we shall not bleed or be poisoned.
   
   
5. He will also pluck our feet out of the net. We shall not be entangled by the deceit of our malicious and crafty foes.

With such a promise as this, let us run without weariness and walk without fear. He who keeps our feet will do it effectually."

- excerpts from "Faith's Checkbook" ---New Window SEE TODAY'S ENTRY ---New Window by C. H. Spurgeon


"Fluctuations in income and apparent prosperity
did not take George Mueller by surprise.
He expected them, for
if there were no crises and critical emergencies
how could there be critical deliverances?
His trust was in God,
not in donors or human friends or worldly circumstances:
and because he trusted in the Living God who says of Himself,
'I am the Lord, I change not.'"
--from George Mueller of Bristol , chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving"


According to your faith, be it unto you!




There would be times where my father would promise me something (a day at Disneyland, candy, some clothes) and I would have to remind him of his promise and hold him to it. Now, did my father ever forget his promise? I highly doubt it. I think it was a matter of testing whether or not I had remembered. Likewise, our Father in heaven never forgets his promises. How could He? But He will be more than willing to fulfill them if we would boldly go into His presence and say "Your word is sure and you said...." Like my father, He would just smile and deliver whatever he promised me.



 

Praise & Worship

John 4:23 ESV 

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

Psalm 100:2 ESV

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Sickest line ever

"thought the bible was full of contradictions, then i read it & got confronted
by the fact, the contradictions
were like weapons of mass destruction in iraq, "

God of Love: Church of Arrogance?

The very blessings that God gave them, they used to replace Him. When we have successes, we rely on our own strength and use God when we get stuck rather than relying on God and using the gifts He gave us.

We tend to rely on the gifts He gave us and use Him rather than relying on Him and using the gifts He gave us.

-Michael Ramsden

Animals and sixth sense

Do you know that God told the animals to go to higher land before the tsunami in Asia? (Visit: http://www.back2cradle.org/tsunami2.htm )  He didn't even tell the religious leaders or anyone else (or maybe we weren't listening). If only we could actually hear the voice of God and (get this) listen to it. The message may sound crazy at the time "Run for the hills!" but He'd really be having our best interests in mind. None of the animals that ran out of the Khao Lak National Park in Thailand perished back when the tsunami hit in '05.


Also, a fun fact: there are dogs that can warn it's owner that the owner's sugar is low. Crazy! What God has instilled in His creation to do never ceases to amaze me.

Network

Three speeches from the movie "Network".The guy in the guy in the movie is known as the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves. Though the movie is 35 years old, the truth remains unchanged.

Wow is us! We're in a lot of trouble.

Beale: Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition! And woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble!!

So, a rich little man with white hair died. What does that got to do with the price of rice, right? And why is that woe to us?

Because you people and 62 million other Americans are listening to me right now.

Because less than 3 percent of you people read books.

Because less than 15 percent of you read newspapers.

Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube.

Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube.

This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation.

This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers.

This tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world.

And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.

And that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died.

Because this company is now in the hands of CCA -- the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new Chairman of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what sh*t will be peddled for truth on this network.

So, you listen to me. Listen to me!

Television is not the truth. Television's a goddamn amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players.

 We're in the boredom-killing business.

So if you want the Truth, go to God.

Go to your gurus.

Go to yourselves!

Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth.

But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you wanna hear. We lie like hell. We'll tell you that Kojak always gets the killer and that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry. Just look at your watch. At the end of the hour, he's gonna win. We'll tell you any sh*t you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night -- all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know!

You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here!

You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal.

You do whatever the tube tells you --

You dress like the tube.

You eat like the tube.

You raise your children like the tube.

You even think like the tube.

This is mass madness, you maniacs!

In God's name, you people are the real thing.

We are the illusion!

So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now! Turn them off right now! Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I'm speaking to you now.

Turn them off!!

 It's the individual that's finished.

Beale: Last night, I got up here and asked you people to stand up and fight for your heritage and you did and it was beautiful!

6 millions telegrams were received at the White House!

The Arab takeover of CCA has been stopped!

The people spoke!

The people won!

It was a radiant eruption of democracy.

But, I think that was it, fellas. That sort of thing is not likely to happen again, because at the bottom of all our terrified souls we know that democracy is a dying giant, a sick, sick dying, decaying political concept writhing in its final pain.

I don't mean that the United States is finished as a world power. The United States is the richest, the most powerful, the most advanced country in the world -- light years ahead of any other country.

And I don't mean the communists are going to take over the world, because the communists are deader than we are.

What is finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it.

It's the individual that's finished.

It's the single, solitary human being that's finished.

It's every single one of you out there that's finished.

Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some two-hundred-odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods.

Well, the time has come to say, "Is 'de-humanization' such a bad word?" Because good or bad, that's what is so.

The whole world is becoming humanoid -- creatures that look human, but aren't. The whole world, not just us. We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first.

The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things....

 I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell,

and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

The harvest is ripe!

Revelation 14:48
"Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth's vine, because its grapes are ripe."

The mark of a disciple

John 13:34-35
  ³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Persistence!

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

 ¹ Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’    ⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
 ⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

LUKE 1:1-8 

BLAM!

Psalm 37:4

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Take delight in the LORD,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Why I'm abstinent

It's a long story but I'm deciding to write it. I grew up a Christian. I was even a Sunday school teacher and youth president at my church. But the issue of sexual purity was always a sensitive and confusing issue for two reasons: 1) the pressures of the world around me (high school, the media, my friends) made abstinence seem out of the question 2) I had no real role models around me that were living pure lives (not just with their mouths, but their lives and their bodies). So I always thought that I would follow the world's way and save it for that right guy. ;-) *rolling eyes*

Until I met this lady....

Do you ever believe that God sends people in your lives at the right time for a purpose? Or that things just happen as a coincidence? I like to believe the former. I used to work at a hair salon and I would always meet interesting people and here their stories. I met this one woman some years ago while I was in high school. She was a little old frail woman who identified as black but looked white and spoke Haitian Creole even though she wasn't Haitian. She told me her life story. She used to be a doctor, worked in a hospital in one of the northern states for some years before she retired here in Florida. She told me that she married her first boyfriend! Can you believe that? She dated one guy and that was the guy she ended up marrying. She was telling me about her daughter and how her hair curled over her face when she was born. It was quite a story now that I think about it. To think: a black female doctor who got married to the first man she dated.

I remember her stressing me to wait on things for my life. That they'll happen in due season. Her tale could've been complete farce but it did encourage me to do something: wait. I would love to say that I waited but I didn't. I had to do it my way. I had my first boyfriend freshman year of college.We broke up by summer's end when we realized we were on two different roads going different directions. Mine's ended at the Lord's feet, his at the feet of another girl my age.

I did learn my lesson though. I (by the blessing of the Lord) was able to keep my physical purity for the most part and I was inspired to keep on keeping on my path to purity. It's a daily decision. Every morning, I have to wake up and think:

• I will not pursue a guy just because I am bored
• I will not pursue a guy just because he is gorgeous
• I will use discernment to do things the right way

Plus, on the real: I want to see how God is going to show up. I like to do this thing where I put God to the test on something. It's awful but I do it anyway because I trust He will do what He says He's going to do. He's faithful. Just as long as I am, too.

Go purity. *fist pump*

Ephesians 5:3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Hebrews 12:16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

Numbers 15:39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.

Psalm 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.

************************
I just recently got encouraged by a woman named Dr. Lindsay Marsh. She was a 30-year old virgin, keeping her purity as God intended for it. She started a movement called Worth the Wait revolution. Dr. Lindsay recently got married at 33 to a gorgeous man of God. (Go Lindsay!) And what did she say? God is faithful.

Seeking the approval of men - what did Christ say?

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
Luke 6:26 NIV

What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds, for their ancestors also praised false prophets.
Luke 6:26 NLT

Fear of failure

This summer internship has stripped me of my confidence and instilled such a fear in me. Fear of failure: you've just been identified. This is war.

Voice of Truth - Casting Crowns

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
To the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out his hand

But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. 'Boy, you'll never win!'
"You'll never win"

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
And the voice of truth says "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

 ___________

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually who are we not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people
won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And when we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

----------

 

God answers prayer

 Judges 6:36-40:

   ³⁶ Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, ³⁷ prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.” ³⁸ And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water.
   ³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” ⁴⁰ So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.

Keep yourselves pure

2 Timothy 2:21-26 (New Living Translation)

21 If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. 22 Run from anything that stimulates youthful lust. Follow anything that makes you want to do right. Pursue faith and love and peace, and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. 

Yours to own

All of my life is Yours to own
You orchestrate it all alone
And if my life is a cup, come fill it up
So the whole world can see what You've done.

-"Yours to Own" by Jimmy Needham ft. Trip lee    d[-_-]b

I am my beloved's and He is mine...

Song of Solomon 7:6 NIV

verse 6 How beautiful you are and how pleasing, O love, with your delights!

^{verse 10} I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.

God delights in you! - David Wilkerson

GOD DELIGHTS IN YOU! by David Wilkerson | February 25, 2011 [May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]

Print

The Holy Spirit gave David a revelation that is the key to all deliverance. David could say, “The reason God delivered me from all my enemies—from all my sorrows and the powers of hell—is because I am precious to him. My God delights in me!” “He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19). Do you need deliverance? From lust, temptation or trial? From a problem that’s mental, spiritual, emotional or physical? The key to your victory is in this verse. God delights in you. You are precious to him!
In Song of Solomon, the Lord says of his bride, “How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!" (Song of Solomon 7:6). Three of the Hebrew words in this verse are synonymous: fair, meaning “precious”; pleasant, indicating “pleasure”; and delights. These words describe Jesus’ thoughts toward his bride as he beholds her. He looks at her and says, “How beautiful, sweet and delightful you are. You are precious to me, O love.” In turn, the bride boasts, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me” (7:10). The meaning here is, “He runs after me with delight. He chases me because I am so precious to him.” These same thoughts are found throughout the Psalms: “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Psalm 147:11). “The Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation” (149:4).
I can try to convince you of God’s delight in you by telling you, “You are precious to the Lord.” Yet you may think, “That’s sweet. But it’s only a lovely thought.” No, this truth is much more than a lovely thought. It is the very key to your deliverance from every battle that rages in your soul. It is the secret to entering into the rest God has promised you. Until you lay hold of it—until it becomes a foundation of truth in your heart—you won’t be able to withstand the trials of life.
Isaiah had a revelation of God’s great delight in us. He prophesied, “O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isaiah 43:1-2).
Isaiah wasn’t talking about a literal flood or fire. He was talking about what people go through spiritually and mentally. Israel was in captivity at the time; their floods were trials, their fires were temptations, their rivers were testings. These were all Satan’s attempts to destroy and overwhelm God’s people. Isaiah’s words were a message of pure mercy to Israel. The people were in captivity because of their own stupidity and foolishness. But God sent them a brokenhearted prophet who said, “God wants me to tell you that you belong to him.”
Right now, you may be in the midst of your own swirling waters. You may feel overwhelmed by a trial or temptation that threatens to consume you. You’ve got to understand from these biblical examples that the Lord does not always calm the waters. He doesn’t always keep the floods from coming or put out the fires. Yet he does promise this: “I will walk with you through it all. This trial or circumstance will not destroy you. It won’t consume you. So, walk on. You’ll come out on the other side with me beside you!”

All You Are

•  
  Cause all you are, is all I want, always
  Yes, yes, uh, yeah
  
  You're so good Lord, uh
  
  Yeah, uh, uh, uh, you're all I want, uh, yeah
  
  You see I been hit with some hard blows but I keep on standing
  When the opposition gets heavy I keep on jabbing
  Cause my towel I ain't just gon' hand in
  I gotta keep advancing, move my feet, keep on dancing
  If life is a test, yes, I'ma keep on cramming
  And if life is a game, I guess I'ma keep on gambling
  But I hate to be misunderstanded, understand this
  He didn't just put us here for just the average
  We were placed here to touch the planet
  To help those dealing with famine to embrace the masses
  So I'ma do everything within my power to meet with the standards
  Even though I'm as big as a man gets
  This racist deficience this is as much as expanses
  Should've been a blind white boy the way that he got me in hands
  And it's enough to leave my mind blown
  He's the only one that I see better whenever my eyes are closed
  
  Cause everything you are is all I want, and all I need
  I gotta stand strong, I gotta proceed
  I gotta keep moving, and I gotta hold tight
  I gotta run the race, and fight the good fight
  
  Cause everything you are is all I want, and all I need
  I gotta stand strong, I gotta proceed
  I gotta keep moving, and I gotta hold tight
  I gotta run the race, and fight the good fight
  
  Cause everything you are is everything I'm not
  So I stop to ruminate on everything I got
  Then I fall back, and sing a lot
  Cause you put a song inside, in this beautiful music, the way the sinners can abide
  In a brokeback mountain of a culture full of have-nots
  Chasing illusions of redemption in a stash box
  I feel it in my chest, I feel it every day
  The way my people relish in the feeling of a penny saved
  Tough to bear it, but there's no eternal merit in things that man made
  Souls full of band aids, trying to shake the pain
  Can't escape the chains
  My knees falter when I'm fed up and expressed as dame
  My little brother's back split I nearly lost my brain
  See the son of God came to give him a name
  Look up and embrace the change
  Tell your friends God mends the broken life
  Not to mention flat lined to rise again
  
  Cause all you are, is all I want, always
  
  Cause everything you are is all I want, and all I need
  I gotta stand strong, I gotta proceed
  I gotta keep moving, and I gotta hold tight
  I gotta run the race, and fight the good fight
  
  Life is a journey, and as I begin on my mission
  I've caught a glimpse of your vision and now my life is in remission
  A little more folks now reaching that broken child
  With words that emerged to heal the hurt I speak them loud
  You've called us tenacious but we've started right here
  And life as we know it needs to change right here
  While some chose to leave I took heed to the call
  In the midst of these storms to my knees will I fall
  These generations damaged, they've been programmed and
  They walking through this world in a spiritual famine
  It's time to examine, take a look at my heart
  Search me father God I want to be where you are
  My praise is genuine I aim it at you daily from the moment of your sunrise back to the moment of your sunset
  Don't fret I say to you your debt's been paid in ways forget your past embrace the change
  
  Cause everything you are is all I want, and all I need
  I gotta stand strong, I gotta proceed
  I gotta keep moving, and I gotta hold tight
  I gotta run the race, and fight the good fight 
   
   

We live and die for the Lord

Romans 14:7-9

New International Version (NIV)

⁷ For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Open Letter to Chris Brown

Hey Chris,

I saw you on the B.E.T. Awards show in a white tee and faded jean shorts with a color dyed cut and bandanna around your neck. You barely smiled the entire show and it worried me.

You've changed.

The industry is something, huh? It's ruthless. Look around you as you sit in the higher tier of celebrity status. No one has made it out alive. The world loved Michael Jackson and by the time he died, his reputation was marred with the molestation allegations and his lifetsyle left him bankrupt. This is the same guy that everyone in nearly ever country can recite his lyrics. If they do that to him, what more would they do to you? The industry shows no mercy. Your sins forever plastered on newspaper headlines and blogs. Though you choose to move on, the world won't make it go away.

Changing your image, your lyrics, your musical style will not make a new you. It's not a new you. It's the old you with new troubles. Through the blonde hair and white tee is a troubled man. We see you. God is loving and forgiving. This is a tumultuous season in your life. Cling to the Father who truly washes all your sins into the depths of the ocean and restore you to the joy and peace of mind you once had (if you want it). Live again. Smile again. Live life as if you never lost it at all.


Your friend,
Chelsea 

Random listenings at my desk

Ravi Zacharias sermons:

4 Questions that has to be answered that are necessary to any worldview:
Origin
Morality
Meaning
Destiny


I am so amazed by the simple but prudent answer that Ravi Zacharias quoted in his message from the mother of John Wesley. One day, she was asked by John Wesley “Can you give me a definition for sin?” This is what she said:

“Whatever 

• weakens your reasoning, 
• impairs the tenderness of your conscience, 
• obscures your sense of God, 
• or takes away your relish for spiritual things, 
• in short if anything increases the authority and the power of the flesh over the spirit,  

that to you becomes sin, however good it is in itself.”

---
Sin has a crippling effect. You never sin alone.
--
There are many angles you can fall but only one where you can stand straight.

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Bizzle songs d[-_-]b

We're fishermen. Never [urinating] in the same water we're fishing in. -BMF (Bizzle)

Nicki, if they followed in your footsteps, where would those footsteps take them? -Letter to Nicki (Bizzle)

If two rappers are both dope, then who do you sign? When one will lie for the loot and the other's true to his kind. (Bizzle)

Give 'em guns, step back. Watch them kill themselves.

What you ain't smoking? I know at least you drink. Huh? What? Is you joking? I know at least you beat. Huh? No? You ain't poking?

You made your bed. This here's for your kids.

We eye money but never see people.

We forget about the Lord when the plane flying. But how fast how do we remember when the plane diving?

------

Ayo Jin:

Some people found it so odd when all I did was let go and let God. -True Religion 

I will do whatever it takes but ultimately I rely on His grace.
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