Words of Encouragement

"You are a special precious child of God. He created you sharing a spark of the Divine; which he placed inside you. We should only know Joy and Love. Our God loves us so much He has shared a part of Himself. It is by dwelling in that knowledge that I am lifted up and know that I can again be well. By Loving myself enough to care for me I show my love to God. By dwelling in Joy and Love I cannot dispare or be depressed. We can hardly imagine the depth of the Love our Creator has for us. Rejoice and Know the He is God." -Rev. Jeffery Nemeth

This was the response he gave me when I asked him for prayer regarding my depression. He and his wife have been such an encouragement to me in this walk with our Lord! No matter what the struggle they always find time for me to assist in educating me and putting me in a positive mood! Praise the Lord for such wonderful selfless people!

We Are ALL Bullies!!

I found this great article from a friend on facebook. It talks about religion in all forms but more about the aspect of using our belief's even when we have no God, to lift ourselves up and be better than other people. We often do this subconsciously, but we do it! I am posting the link to this wonderful article not to insult religion or a faith, but to make each of you who read it realize how subtle things you do throughout the day can be and are hurtful to others. As a Christian I am often ashamed to admit my faith because of the HATE campaigns run by so many churches and "religious" people. I do tell people I am Christian and because of my belief in Jesus I am often teased or judged by my family who will happily admit that they have no god. Leaving me feeling like I am the odd one out.

So, all I ask is that you read this article. You think about your life. You mediate or pray or do whatever it is you do and you come to terms with LOVE and placing it dead center in your life. Think about  this LOVE like the Earth and the Sun. The Earth rotates around the Sun, making the Sun the center of our universe. As a human if we can revolve around that one word --LOVE, we will be better in all that we do and we will even have more respect for ourselves.

I'm Christian Unless....

Please read this article. Don't close the window because you don't think you will like the topic. Read it, and when your done, if you get nothing from it then don't look at it again. All I ask is that you read it.

Thanks Everyone! Don't forget to click on my post for the 10th regarding prayer!

Praying

I had a very sweet discussion with a friend about the differences in the way we pray comparing our own ways to one another. She said that she often asks for things directly, for example: “God please help us with money this month, you know what we need”. Whereas my prayer for money would be more like “Heavenly Father, You created us, You promised us through Your multiple covenants with man and Your ultimate sacrifice –Jesus, that we would be cared for. Scripture tells us that you care for each of us even more than the Ravens yet You provide for them shelter and food, thank You Father for Your many riches and blessings. In Jesus name I Pray.” Now, am I more right or is she? The answer is neither!

We are both praying to God in the best way we know how. We are both forming a relationship with Him by speaking to Him. We are both trusting Him with our problems and giving them to Him. It does not matter how you pray or what you pray for, as long as you are forming a relationship with God on the good days and the bad. His ear is always open to your voice, whether you pray out loud or in your head. Some of us even keep a prayer list and write it down, like a journal to God. It does not matter how you go about this as there really is no wrong way. The only wrong thing is to not do it at all. The more you pray the more riches and blessings you are stocking up for use in daily life! 

Jesus gives us an example on how to pray when He recites for us the “Our Father”. In it, He tells us to give God praise and honor, He tells us to forgive others and treat others how we want to be treated, we are told to confess our sins and to learn from them, best of all we are told that no matter what we do God will always lead us through the hard times. If you have never prayed or don’t know what to pray for that day saying the Our Father is a good way to begin and a good filler for the days where you just can’t think of anything. 

Depending on your faith, you may also be told to recite the “Hail Mary”. I personally LOVE this prayer as I was raised catholic and we often sang it in school with little actions. It is giving thanks to Mary for being the mother of all mothers and giving us Jesus! We often don’t realize all that she must’ve went through being pregnant before marriage back in those times. We read in the bible that many women were stoned for adulterous acts, so for Joseph to accept Jesus and Mary and not allow her to be persecuted by the outside world was really a feat in itself! Had the wrong person found out that Mary was pregnant with Jesus and that this child did not belong to her husband she would have been killed! She risked a lot by accepting God’s challenge for her life and this prayer is to recognize the challenges she must have faced as well as the honor she received from doing this. I doubt that when she gave birth to Jesus that she realized she would go down in history as the mother of our Lord and Saviour! I doubt she thought 2000 years later people would still be praying to her in thanks. She has become an idol of sorts in the Catholic faith because of her selfless act and her supreme faith in God’s plan for her life! 

Our Father “Our Father Who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day Our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

Hail Mary “Hail Mary Full of Grace The Lord is with Thee Blessed are thou amongst women And blessed is the fruit of thy womb –Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God Pray for us sinners now And at the hour of our death Amen”

A Belated New Years

I have been struggling to come up with a new blog post for some time now. I was having major anxiety for the weeks prior to Christmas and that has continued on into the new year. I don’t want to say happy new year because that seems pretty cliché especially since I have received so many prayer requests over the last couple of weeks. Everything from broken bones to cancer to death itself has hit my prayer list and the prayer lists of those whom I am close to. I think the world, well many of us anyway, have heard the story of Ben Breedlove and his youtube video (you can access it by clicking his name, be sure to watch part 1 and part 2). If you haven’t heard of Ben he was a young man who had several experiences with death and decided to document his story via youtube using cards and the melody of “Mad World”. From what the news reported he uploaded these two videos talking about his life and went to sleep only to be found on Christmas day no longer alive. I found this very prophetic but that’s for each of us to decide on our own.

As far as prayer requests go I want each and every one of you who has asked me to pray for you to know that I have been. Even at my darkest moments I have prayed for each of you. I have been struggling a lot this holiday season, as I do each year and maybe it was the fact that I was needed so much through prayer that I was able to keep going this year (although I haven’t been effective at life my spirit has only swayed a bit). 

I think that praying for other people has helped me in a sense to pray for myself without my knowing it. Having that continuous communication with God and the other realms has helped my negativity to stay positive and at worst at neutral. No, I am not perfect. I am actually quite far from it. My house is a tragic mess as is the majority of my life but my relationships with each of you, ordained by God himself, have kept me from rolling down into the depths of this slump and although I am not floating on high in the sky I am for the most part content right now. Sure I have too much to do and no desire to do it. You have become my family. My prayers are more important than image right now.

So, I guess I have rambled long enough here. The fact is, you are all my family. You are the ones I think of when I go to bed at night and the ones I think of when I wake up in the morning. You are the ones I pray for and you are the ones who pray for me! We have a wonderful God! A God who gives us unconditional love, a God who sacrificed His only begotten son so that we may have eternal life! A God who bore our sins, took our illness and our pains just so that we could experience His riches both here on earth as it is or will be in Heaven! 

I plan to get back to the proverbs one of these days. In the meantime I think anyone in need of prayer, or finding joy in life should begin to read proverbs. Study it, learn it, love it. The Proverbs are a guide to daily living and everything you ever need to know is in that book! Praise the Lord daily. If you haven’t come up with a resolution this year try writing down three different things each day that you are grateful for. It’s a lot harder than you think, and soon enough you will be seeing your own world through the eyes of our Lord and Saviour! This year, don’t strive to be or achieve something you’re not. Instead, strive to live each day in thanks to our God! You are His child and creating and nurturing your relationship with Him is the best thing you can do for your life now, and always.

The Jinn

Islam recognizes the existence of the jinn, which are sentient beings with free will that can co-exist with humans and are not all evil as demons are described in Christianity. The creation of Jinnkind preceded that of mankind. They exist in what is known as the Al-Ghaib (unseen or unknown) realm or world, they have the ability to see us but we can not see them. Angels also exist in this realm, as well as the human soul (hence why it can not be seen leaving the human body in death). The Jinns are made from the smokeless flame of fire and both angels and the human soul are made from light, whilst the human body is made from clay. Though this "fire" and "light" is beyond matter, whatever exists in this realm is made from matter. In Islam, the evil Jinns are referred to as the shayātīn, or devils, and Iblis (Satan) is their chief. Iblis was one of the first Jinn (he is not considered an Angel in Islamic Cultures) who disobeyed Allah (God) and did not bow down before Adam.
Angels are servants of Allah who do not possess any freewill, whilst Jinnkind and mankind do. It was because Adam possessed freewill and the ability to choose (to do either good or bad) but instead chose to submit his will to the will of Allah, that Allah loved him so; so much so that mankind's status was elevated higher than that of Angelkind because the Angels have no choice but to serve Allah. According to the Qur'an, when Allah created Adam from clay, all the angels and Iblis himself were ordered to bow before Adam. Iblis became very jealous and disobeyed Allah, holding that jinns were the superior creation, as they were made of fire, while humans were made of clay.
Adam was the first prophet and deputy of the human race, and as such was the greatest creation of Allah. Iblis could not stand this, and refused to acknowledge a creature made of "clay" (matter). Allah, thus, condemned Iblis to be punished in the hellfire. But Iblis asked for respite until the last day (judgement day) and this is when the devil and God made a pact and the devil claimed that if he was given the chance, he could make mankind fall and vowed that one day he would even have Allah's beloved creation (mankind) denying the very existence of their creator, to which Allah's agreed, but warned that he and all who would follow him in evil would be punished in hell. Allah also stated that Iblis would only be able to mislead those who have forsaken Allah and not the righteous believers.
Adam and Eve (Hawwa in Arabic) were both together misled by Iblis into eating the forbidden fruit, and consequently fell from the garden of Eden (allegorical) into a state of degeneration.
Jinns are not the "genies" of modern lore. Like man, there are good and bad, believers and non-believers amongst them. The evil Jinns have been known to possess human beings or enter a humans life in order to hinder it. Their actions are similar to that of a poltergeist in Western understanding. Contrary to the evil Jinns, the good Jinns (servants of good) and can enter a human life in order to help them in numerous ways. The entry to our realm is forbidden without Allah permission. Both the Angels and Jinns can enter in the form of a human being or an animal. As Angels do not posses free will and the good Jinn are obedient, they never enter without Allah's permission. However, the same cannot be said for the evil Jinn who enter as they will and have been known to take the form of many animals (especially black Dogs and Snakes) and human beings.



This was given to me by a converted Islamic women who came from the Lutheran faith. The source is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon