Bitter or Better?

Happiness is a choice so let's start the day with a renewed attitude!

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."

As adults, we must pave our own path and stop blaming our parents for our shortcomings. The Bible says to “honor thy father and thy mother.” Honoring our parents may not fix all our shortcomings, but it usually works well as an overriding principal to those of us who blame our parents for everything. Let us love and honor the people who did the best job of raising us given their own shortcomings and circumstances. When we honor our parents, God sees our obedience and He will honor us and grant us the desires of our heart and erase all the bad from our past.

I was reading someone’s comment on the internet... she stated that she finally found peace with her parents when she read a bumper sticker while waiting at a stop sign: “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” This lady further stated that for her, following the Bible commandment “Honor thy father and thy mother”, is what changed her outlook on life. She could not change her childhood, but she chose to remember the good things. She said that her parents have passed away for some time now, but she likes to think that even today when she remembers the good things, no matter how small, she has a positive and honoring connection with them.

From the time we are born into adulthood, we know the right from wrong. God has placed that instinct in us. That instinct is nurtured by our parents during our formative years the best way they knew how. We grow up knowing the right from wrong and we make our choices. Everything in life, good or bad, we choose what to do with that knowledge and we continue to live by learning from our mistakes. Therefore, there is no need to blame our parents or anyone else. They did what they could with the knowledge and resources they had at the time. And no matter how much we want to blame others, there comes a time when we are responsible for our actions. Instead of blaming others or denying the problem, we need to change our direction and focus on correcting what’s not right so we can do better for ourselves and for our children.

We have to recognize our shortcomings and strongholds and attack them one by one. Only then we can proceed with the right attitude for a better future. Nobody is perfect. Our parents are also products of their own parents. We have to realize that when we become parents one day, we will make mistakes too no doubt. You have to step out into action to live your life to the fullest. You cannot step back into safety and dwell on past regrets because you will miss out on your God-given opportunities.

Yes our parents have something to do with who we are today, but not everything. We are also influenced by our teachers, babysitters, friends, environment, co-workers, and last but not least our own coping mechanism with each battle we are faced with. The devil is very much alive and he works overtime to steal, kill, and destroy our strength, hope and joy. He magnifies our little shortcomings and erases the good from our past. My pastor used to say ‘we use the same amount of energy to think negatively as we do positively; so why not use our energy towards positive?’ God can wipe away our tears and our hurts and give us a new beginning, but we have to be willing to change.

Isaiah58:58 "Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side."

I would like to share a short story about my childhood. When I was 2-years old, my dad passed away from severe allergy reaction to Penicillin. Soon after that, my mom abandoned me and my two older brothers. My aunt (my dad’s sister) had a big heart and adopted us even though she had 7 grown children of her own. When my two brothers came of age, they decided to move out and be on their own. In their minds, they were doing this as a favor to my aunt. Before they moved out, they told my aunt that it was best if I stayed with her since I was young and I needed a mom. Their decision to move out and leave me with my aunt tore me apart. Not that I didn’t love my aunt and her family or not that they didn’t take care of me and love me, but I was going to be separated from my two brothers (the only two things I could hold on to from my past). However, my brothers did what they thought was best for me and my aunt at the time without realizing how their decision would affect me emotionally. Yes, it was hard in the beginning and I could have held on to my ashes and make myself miserable forever, but I chose not to because I knew they had my best interest at heart. We can't cry over spilled milk, we have to move forward and when we are willing to move forward then God, who sees our willingness, will replace our ashes with His beauty.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

In our life experiences, not everything that happens to us is good, however if we are obedient to God, He can change our bad experiences to something good. We can overcome our hurts by using our own experiences to help others overcome theirs. As long as we stay obedient to God, He will not waste our burdens, instead He will use them to promote us and to turn them to our greatest ministries. God knows our flaws, limits and capabilities, therefore He won't give us more than we can handle and He won't forsake us because He is a covenant God.

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. When we do our part, God will do His. His grace is sufficient for everyone. When we are weak, He is strong! His joy is our strength!

Our shortcomings that we often over-magnify, somehow become embarrassingly minute after we watch the video below. In this world, we will fight our share of battles, however "how" we fight those battles depends greatly on our attitude and the choices we make. There comes a time when we can no longer blame our past for our present! Here’s the challenge: "Do you want to be Bitter or Better? It is a choice!

God Bless,

Lucine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZuKF3dxCY or http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/

How do we worship God?

Worshipping God is not about how we worship or where we worship. Worshipping God is substance over style. It is not about us or our emotions and what we get out of it. It is about what God gets out of it. God looks at our heart and He knows our motive.

We start being critical in church when we see someone worshipping God in a different way than we do. Who are we to judge? Each person’s worship method is between that person and God. God sees the heart and not what style worship we are offering or where we are worshipping. Worshipping God in my closet, in the privacy of my home, is just as effective as worshipping God in a mega-church with fancy musical instruments and famous worship leaders as long as my worship is in spirit and truth. This does not mean that we should not go to church, on the contrary, we need to go to church to get connected with other believers and to get charged.

God is interested in what is in our heart when we worship. He is not interested in our outwardly appearance, or whether we are clapping, raising our hands or dancing. True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. During our worship, we have to focus on God alone and exalt, honor and glorify Him. Our attention should be totally on Him and not on us or other people in church.

John 4:23-24 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship.”

Worship period at our churches should not be like going to a concert for our own entertainment. It is not for us to get something out of it! Worship time should be for God alone! People get upset and say “I don’t like their praise and worship style, it’s not for me”, or they say “those people are too wild or too loud for my taste”, and so forth. Well, worship was never meant to be for our own entertainment. It is for God alone! God is the audience here, not us! Worship time should be holy and sacred to God and it should be God-centered.

Hebrews 13:15 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name.”

Matthew 10:37-38 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

Our worship should be 100% focused on God. We have to clear our minds of off our family situations, bills, chores, work, and all other worldly issues and make time to just focus on Him - that’s the least we can do during our worship for our great God who is the giver of ALL good things - life, peace, health, comfort, and even riches.

Isaiah 29:13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”

Our worship should not be in vain, it should be according to ‘His Commandments’ and not by rules made up by pastors or church members.

Mark 7:7 “They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”


Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

So let us come together in His Name and “Worship Him” in spirit and truth because where two or three come together in His Name, there HE is among us :-)

God Bless,
Lucine

Evil exists in this world, so don't blame God...

It is our human nature to blame God every time things go wrong in our lives. I hear “why would a loving, compassionate and forgiving God allow something so terrible to happen?”

God planted the tree of knowledge of 'Good and Evil' in the center of the Garden of Eden and told Adam and Eve to eat from every tree in the garden, except for that one tree. God gave Adam and Eve a command which they chose not to follow. They made a choice to disobey God and ate the fruit from the tree of life.

Due to their disobedience, they were exiled from the Garden of Eden and sin/evil entered into the world. God will take care of all our needs when we stay obedient to Him. Obedience always brings us His blessings. However, due to greed and fleshly desires, we get away from God's Word and try to quinch our desires through worldly things which gets us in trouble.

God told Adam and Eve that they could stay in the garden and enjoy everything in it as long as they obeyed Him and did not eat from that one tree. When we make selfish decisions based on our fleshly desires and end up in a mess, it is not God’s fault, it’s ours! God’s will for us is good and not evil, but we bring on the evil because of our own free choices.

God commands us to love one another as ourselves. How often we truly abide by that command? God wants His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, but do we choose His will on a daily basis?

We have a choice to run to the light or to run to the darkness. We run to the light if we want to please God or we run towards darkness (separation from God), if we want to please the devil. It is a choice we make and thus we reap what we sow! So let us not blame God for the evil in this world!

God Bless,
Lucine

Are we truly in Christ?

"John 3:16" from the New Testament of the Bible is the most used verse... This verse is the "core" of the Christian Faith. However, do we truly understand the depth and meaning of the verse or do we apply it to our daily life and live sacrificially?

We claim to be Christians, but are we truly in Christ? Faith is not something we obtain in an instant. It's a slow transformation from the old to the new us in Christ. First, we have to start by truly believing that Jesus is the Son of God, that He sacrificied his life for our sins so we can have eternal life, and that He rose from the dead on the third day and that He is the only way, the truth and the life. By believing that, we begin our journey towards the effort of being saved. We slowly start surrendering our old ways to God and start our new walk with the Lord. Then we continue to live by yielding constantly to His ways. Once God sees our willingness and effort to please Him, He starts the cleansing process and will continue to purify us. When we are purified, we are transformed into His image at which time we start reflecting Him in everything we say and do.

If we really believe in Jesus, we would desperately seek Him. We would want to receive His blessings daily, we would become eager to continue to live a sin-free and righteous life, we would thirst and hunger for more of His presence in our life. We would allow Him to take total control of our thoughts, etc. When we are truly in Christ, we would do everything and anything to please Him thus bringing Him honor and glory - it's always about Him, not us!

1 Peter 1:4-9 "...and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 John 5:3-5 "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

To overcome the world means to fight the good fight of faith by believing that we have victory over sin because He has overcome the world!

2 Timothy 1:8-10 "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

Titus 2:11-14 "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

"Jesus said "not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the Kingdom of heaven..."

Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Hebrews 12:14 "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy - without holiness no one will see the Lord."

1 John 3:2-3 "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure."

John 6:40 "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Hebrews 5:9 "...and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.."

John 11:26 "... and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Galatians 5:19-21 "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Ephesians 5:5-6 "For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient."

1 Corinthians 12:3 "Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit."

Unless we allow Jesus to be in control of our life whether it's at home, at work or amongst our friends, then He is not our Lord. Unless we acknowledge Him without worrying about what people might think or say, then He is not our Lord. Jesus doesn't want a bunch of hypocrite Christians who behave one way with certain people and differently when with others. Jesus wants us to honor and acknowledge Him with our lips, our actions, our heart, mind and soul!

Mark 7:6 "He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

To inherit the Kingdom of God, we need to beleive 100% that Jesus is the only way to God! Going through the storms of this life is part of our journey from sin-to-pure. We will be faced with trials and tribulations no matter what. During these afflictions however, because of our selfish nature, we’ll become angry and denounce God (look at what the Israelites did when God brought them out of Egypt from their bondage. No matter what God did for them, they still complained and whined to Moses. Their ungratefulness and sinfulness angered God and extended their stay in the wilderness to 40 years...) However, if we keep our eyes focused on the non-temporary things instead of the temporary things of this world, then we will be able to stay on the right path. Jesus suffered for us so we should participate in His sufferings in order not to perish, but to inherit the Kingdom of God which is eternal.

1 Peter 4:12-13 "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."

1 Peter 2:21 "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."

2 Timothy 2:11-12 "Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us..."

1 Peter 4:1-2 "Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God."

Galatians 5:22-23 "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:24 "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."

Therefore let's live like Christ did! Let us strive to be more like Him and less like the world! Let's apply the 'fruit of the Spirit' to our lives so we can say with 100% assurance: "we are in Christ"

God Bless,
Lucine