A few years ago, within a matter of a few months my world was completely turned upside down. I had just started a new job in September when the New Year came around, I had ruptured the Achilles tendon in my left foot. I was out of work a few months being in a cast and having to stay off my foot. I did eventually lose my job because of this, but 2 months later after going for a checkup, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Then two days later, when I went for my sonogram, before I even got home, I received a call from the Dr’s office to come right in. I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. I remember asking the Lord how much more am I going to take? I know without a doubt that God is sovereign and in complete control and I started praying and telling Him I know You are allowing this to happen for a reason, and I am trusting You to get me through this.

A few months earlier I woke up and the first thing I remember was God telling me “Even though your world is in turmoil, I am in the midst of it all”. I didn’t understand what it meant at the time but I did then. This is what I clung to along with Romans 8:38-39, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I also kept repeating Philippians 4: 6-7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.

I say this because if I had not gone through all this, I would not have seen the full power of God in my life. Romans 8:28 says, And we know all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Through all this I have learned to fully rely on the Lord for everything. I already knew this, but it truly has taken on a whole new meaning. Jesus promised to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), which I clung to. As I was going through all this, I clung to that promise, especially when I felt alone in all this. When I was in the hospital, outside of my husband and son, I had no visitors. Not friends or even family, but I knew I had Christ and that was all I needed.

Everyday I would ask the Lord for His strength and grace to get through this. I didn’t realize it at the time but God did give me life more abundantly (John 10:10) The thief wanted to steal and destroy my life but Christ gave me grace upon grace beyond whatever I could ever have hoped or imagine.

If it had not been God’s power or grace in my life, even while going through all these things, He gave me the grace to break the bondage of smoking after 38 years, with no withdrawals whatsoever.

Things do work together for good to those who love God. I never would have experienced His love, His power, His grace, His strength, His closeness, His provision had I not gone through these things. I am so humbled when I think of His love for me and I truly will be forever thankful. Whatever crown or crowns I may get, will gladly be laid at Jesus’ feet because without Him in my life I never would have made it. To think differently would be very foolish on my part. Thank you Lord.

Whose life are you living and for what purpose? If you hadn’t figured this out, you’ll never have peace or joy because no matter where you go, you’ll still be lost. Having said that, let’s get to the meat of this note.

Over the years, I’ve been on the giving and receiving end of relationship advice. Sometimes I listened. Others I did not. I’ve given life advice, taken it, ignored it, pretty much the same as anyone else. The challenge for everyone is hearing God, not people. More directly, the challenge is hearing God through people. Thus, sometimes we listen to what we shouldn’t and discard what we need. After so much of that, a person can become insensitive to all voices, including their own inner voice. It becomes confusion and it shows up in every area of life.

What’s my point? I truly believe we offer too many opinions and too much advice. The wise men of the Bible, the judges and even the kings did not speak as much as we do. There are times when silence is golden and prayer is the only advice, opinion, action and answer. We don’t need to wrestle with a thousand carnal opinions. We need to hear the still, small voice of God. We need solidarity in mind and spirit to feel the gentle tug of the Holy Spirit. We need to exercise our patience, our faith and our love. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, nothing stretches our love, faith or patience like genuine love for another person. God is easy to love. He’s perfect! People, they present a challenge to us, but you’ll never encounter a person who God hates so if He can love them, He can teach us to love them too.

When it comes to other people’s marriages, we must be even slower to speak. Marriage was instituted right after creation and way before church. It is sacred, but yet we invite people to quit on their spouses way too often. Just because you would leave does not mean they should, or even that you should. Just because biblically you can get a divorce, mercy may be asking you to try again. I don’t know who I’m speaking to tonight, but please hear this word in your heart.

I know you’ve always been told you can do better. This isn’t how things should be. REAL men don’t do that. REAL women don’t do this. There’s always another fish in the sea. What one person won’t do another one will. But discard all of that for one moment and look at life through the eyes of time and outside of the scope of emotions. Crucify me if you must, but let me get tough with you. In 20 years, most of the stuff you deem dire won’t be. The arguments and what they were about will fade. In time, life takes us all through cycles where money doesn’t matter, friendships fade, our bodies weaken and seems the ONLY IMPORTANT THING IS WHO IS HOLDING OUR HANDS.

Good times and bad, companionship is important. People who once claimed to have an undying love for one another are now walking away from one another based on speculation, rumors, the court of popular opinion, because of boredom, because of unreleased and wayward passions, because of lies. This list is extensive. Where is our prayer life? Where is our fight? Where is the sacrifice? It isn’t my place to say stay. It isn’t my place to say go.

Tonight, my place is to remind you that it isn’t anyone else’s place either. This is your life. You choose who you will fight with and for until the very end. But if you’ve walked down the aisle, and if you aren’t being raped, beaten down and your children are not being molested, then you may want to stop long enough to remember yourself, what you feel and what you want before walking away. I vote for marriages. I vote for couples standing up and daring anything to separate them. I say the hand you held on the altar can still be the one you’re holding at your last breath if you want it. What say you?

Keep holding on!
Lacresha Hayes

Question: “What did Jesus mean when He said ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’ (John 11:25)?”

Answer: “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25) is the fifth of the seven ”I am” statements of Jesus. Lazarus was dead. Earlier, Jesus had heard that His good friend was sick, but instead of going to visit Lazarus, Jesus “stayed where he was for two more days” (John 11:6). He explained to His puzzled disciples that the sickness was “for God’s glory, that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (v. 4). After Lazarus died, Jesus began a journey to Bethany, Lazarus’s home. Significantly, when Jesus informed His disciples that Lazarus was dead, He simply said His friend was “asleep, but I am going there to wake him up” (John 11:11).

Outside Bethany, Lazarus’s sister Martha went out to meet Jesus. “If you had been here,” she said, “my brother would not have died.” Such was her faith in Jesus’ power to heal. Jesus replied by assuring Martha that her brother would rise again. Martha responded again in faith: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” At this point, Jesus makes His fifth “I Am” statement in John’s gospel, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and He follows it with a call to faith: “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:21-24).

When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” He was claiming to be the source of both. There is no resurrection apart from Christ, and there is no eternal life apart from Christ. Beyond that, Jesus was also making a statement concerning His divine nature. He does more than give life; He is life, and therefore death has no ultimate power over Him. Jesus confers this spiritual life on those who believe in Him, so that they share His triumph over death (1 John 5:11-12). Believers in Jesus Christ will experience resurrection because, having the life Jesus gives, it is impossible for death to defeat them (1 Corinthians 15:53-57).

The grieving Martha wished that Jesus had arrived earlier so He could have healed her brother. And when Jesus spoke of resurrection, Martha assumed He was speaking of “the resurrection at the last day.” In both statements, Martha reveals that she considered Time an insurmountable obstacle. In effect, Martha was saying, “It’s too late to help Lazarus (the time is past), so now we must wait (allow more time).”

Jesus shows that neither Death nor time is an obstacle to Him. Outside the tomb, “Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ The dead man came out” (John 11:43). It’s one thing to claim to be the resurrection and the life, but Jesus proved it by raising Lazarus, who was four days dead. Truly, with Christ, death is but “sleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Death has no dominion over Him who is Life itself, nor does death have dominion over those who are in Him (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). Because He lives, we live. Because He is Life, we have life eternally.

Jesus’ statement that He is the resurrection and the life provides a godly perspective on several spiritual matters. Martha believed that the resurrection is an event; Jesus showed her (and us) that the resurrection is a Person. Martha’s knowledge of eternal life was an abstract idea; Jesus proved that knowledge of eternal life is a personal relationship. Martha thought victory over death was a future expectation; Jesus corrects her, showing that victory is a present reality.

After presenting Himself as the resurrection and the life, Jesus asks Martha an all-important question: “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26). May Martha’s answer be ours as well: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world” (verse 27).

Source: GotQuestions.Org

“I WILL NOT LET AN EXAM RESULT DECIDE MY FATE” -Suli Breaks

I am so happy the election is over! I voted and I must admit that the more I researched the candidates and issues the less I was truly impressed. I don’t blame the candidates as much as I suspect that the general populace wouldn’t elect the type of candidate that would truly appeal to me. I keep wondering why the type of person that I would love to see elected would not be electable. I am not the smartest guy in the world, so I decided to write about the president I want and have others rip my thoughts apart and get educated.

When I was a UAW member, they would have these plant wide elections and all of a sudden people that I never knew or spoke to me would want to shake my hand and have me wear their button.

Tip O’Neil I believe said “all politics is local”, and I can tell you that even an election with less than 10,000 people voting is full of deceit!

I just wish that a candidate could tell the truth. I wish that a candidate could/ would say: “I did say that five years ago and I have since learned a few things and have come to a more complete understanding and that has led me to a new position”.

Why do candidates have to be without flaws? Maybe it starts with our religious leaders having to be flawless? Again I don’t know.

I personally would love to see a candidate that came from a family that you wouldn’t necessarily think that a candidate would come from. A person that comes from a background a lot of us could relate to. I would love to have a leader that went to a community college for a year or two, took some 090 classes and then went on to a state institution and did all this while working .

A whole lot of people fit this profile, why aren’t they running?  I would love a commander in chief that once was an enlisted individual that worked their way up to a warrant or went on to Officer Candidate School. A person who had a light come on and a fire got in the belly from being a single parent or having made some bad relationship decisions.

A person who has to pay child support or even better has had to deal with a lack of alimony or child support. I would find it easier to accept a declaration of war from a person who has had to leave a child with a family member or has been shot or at least shot at. A person who has had to be on a submarine, a ship, or a Coast Guard cutter, a person that has spent so much time in the field when they come home they just burn their underwear and uniform.

A person who has done a year of isolated duty, or at least a couple Temporary duty assignments, a person who has come home different than they left to people who aren’t even physically aren’t the same as when you left. Not to mention differently mentally and emotionally. A person who loves this country so much that they reenlist for more years of food stamps and working extra jobs or having been a surrogate so they can have a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food for their belly.

This is the can of stuff I want my President to be made of. I would like a President to have gone from being on government assistance or income to have become a business owner. A person that has been entrusted with making sure that a paycheck doesn’t bounce, that has provided healthcare and educational benefits. It was nice that a candidate had some student loans in their past, let’s have more of that!

I want someone that has been socially isolated, that has been the one that is moving their family to a place that it has not been in the past. A legacy builder, a transformational individual; a visionary that can make a dream into a doable plan of action, we did have a bit of that in some candidates. I would like a candidate that has a diverse group of friends across all sorts of demographics, you pick some.

A person with a mind subtle enough that they can be won over; yet with a mindset that is able to thoroughly go through all points and counterpoints and appreciate both sides of an argument. A person that can appreciate that there is both an art and science to life.  Therefore, I am not against a person with a legal background because a good understanding of the law is highly beneficial when talking to lawmakers, but City Law School works for me and if it took a few times to past the bar, that’s o.k. too.

I like tenacious people. Might as well be a Certified Public Accountant since we are dreaming here, although there are a number of people who hold both degrees. I wouldn’t mine that my president has had some life altering experiences, has overcome some addiction or habit. I would think that representing people, it would be good to have some people skills.

I don’t really care if the candidate is an extrovert or introvert, just mature enough to know how to relate to others, aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their personality type and know how to  deal well with other types of personalities anyway.

It is my hope that above all things that candidates be authentic and at peace, albeit a hard earned one, nothing like knowing the ins and outs of oneself, so that they can stay stable is the midst of the chaos and crisis that is the daily existence of a President.

I finally would like to see the President have someone in their life who they love and trust. Someone who gets them and can get to them even when they are full of themselves, I just believe every President will have a least one of those moments.

You can’t have faith without trust and you can’t have trust without faith. I remember when God was molding me through the trails of afflictions, being a somewhat new Christian, I was unaware of why it was happening. Somewhere doing those trails I realized how weak my faith was because I doubted the moment everything seem to go in the opposite direction.

As I watch my life go from bad to worst, I felt like God abandon me and I could not understand why. Little did I know God had a plan for me. He was building a faith in me that would move mountains. He was building a faith in me that would conquer fear. He was a building a faith in me that defeated unbelief. He was building a faith in me that would teach me how to walk by faith and not by sight.

God was building me. He was cleansing me through the fiery trails of affliction. I was decreasing, while He was increasing. (John 3:30) It was a bitter, sweet suffering. Remember, long-suffering is actually a spiritual gift. It sound a bit strange that God will use suffering to mold us but He does. God works best in our weaknesses. (2 cor 12:9) It’s through our weakness that we begin to trust in him.

If you have ever read the book of Psalm, you know that King David stayed in constant prayer and fear. He constantly cried out to God in distress but in every situation, no matter how difficult it was, God was always there. Just as God remained faithful to King David, He will also remain faithful to you. For the bible tells us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)

Although the battle before me was big, the biggest battle was in my mind and it wasn’t until I began to have faith in God that I found peace. I can’t remember when, I just remember the day. One day I got very tired of doubting, being in fear and worried so I stood up to the enemy and I spoke very strongly in faith, that regardless of what happens, regardless of the outcome, regardless of how bad things gets, GOD IS IN CONTROL!

From that day on, my faith grew! It got stronger and stronger until I reached a point in my life where I no longer worry about anything. Whatever the outcome is, I know it’s within God’s will. When you begin to, “Let go and let God” you will be surprise the difference it makes in your life. Shortly after, blessings began to pour into my life and I no longer live in fear nor do I worry about anything! I trust God and I have faith in Him.

TRUST GOD!
Trust the plan He has for your life
Trust His guidance and His word
Trust that He knows what He is doing
Trust that He cares and wants the best for you
Trust regardless of your own understanding
Trust regardless of the obstacles and hardship

You don’t need to see it, you don’t need to feel it, you don’t have to figure it out, you don’t need to know all the details, when you put your situation in God’s hands just trust him. He will work it out! I now walk in a faith that everything happens for a reason. When you think like that, fear holds NO hold on you! What a difference faith makes in your life, for it is impossible to please God without it. (Hebrews 11:6) Trust in his plan and let go of your own and you will be surprise what kind of doors God will open for you.

Have a bless day!

Love Yvette

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Who Is Your Father dedication was a poem written by the Lover of Words. The Holy Spirit gave this poem to him while he was in the shower trying to think of a positive rap verse to go on one of his brother’s songs. Turns out he could never catch the beat but was left with a poem that was his very life and spirit written in words. He decided to dedicate this poem back to his Father. Enjoy!

Dr. Eben Alexander has taught at Harvard Medical School and has earned a strong reputation as a neurosurgeon. And while Alexander says he’s long called himself a Christian, he never held deeply religious beliefs or a pronounced faith in the afterlife. But after a week in a coma during the fall of 2008, during which his neocortex ceased to function, Alexander claims he experienced a life-changing visit to the afterlife, specifically heaven.

What is Christianity ? A visual explanation by “What is” Media. We create simple explanatory videos for important and complex topic.

What is Christianity? Christianity teaches that there is only one God and that “in the beginning” this God spoke the entire universe into existence. On earth God creates two people, a man and woman, named Adam and Eve. They are to tend the garden in which they live, and are free to eat from any tree except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Sometime later Eve is tempted by Satan and eats from this tree. Then Adam eats from it too. It’s at this point that the two become aware, and “understand good and evil,” evidenced by a new shame of their nakedness. Disobeying God results in them being expelled from the Garden of Eden and suffering the effect of death.

Many generations after Adam, God chooses a man named Abraham to make into a great nation. A nation that will one day birth a Messiah to release mankind from the bondage of sin and death.
Our modern calendar splits time at the approximate date of the birth of Jesus who Chrisitians believe is the promised Messiah.

According to the NT, a collection of writings from early followers, Jesus is born to a virgin named Mary, lives a sinless life and then willingly sacrifices himself as the substitutionary atonement for the sins of mankind. The word atonement is used to describe an act that pays for or erases one’s sins and transgressions.

Three days later, Jesus defeats death by resurrecting from the dead to open heaven to those who believe in him and trust him for the forgiveness of their sins.
The resurrected Christ appears to many people over a span of forty days before he bodily ascends into heaven. From there he rules and reigns with God the Father and sends the Holy Spirit to teach his followers.

It is also maintained that one day Jesus will return to this earth to judge all humans, living and dead, and grant eternal life to those who put faith in Him and eternal death for those who don’t.
Christians call the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel, meaning the good news.
And that is Christianity.

Created by Jon Oleksiuk and Gary Carr