~The Darkness gets Darker

I use to be someone who loved to watch horror movies all day long…literally…at one point I only watched horror movies and nothing else, not even regular television programming unless they were about ghosts or paranormal activity…I have been able to be freed from that dark addiction through Christ.

This year has introduced such graphic and demonic films and television shows than any other year that I can remember! Television shows have made it normal to talk about ghosts and look up to psychics. It has even come to a point that celebrities on these shows downplay the severity of “playing” around with Quija boards, listening to ghost stories and trying to communicate with spirits through various other means. Vampire popularity has hit an all time high, psychics have become everyone’s best friend, yoga spiritualists have become increasingly more popular and so on.

The cinema has been inundated with films revolving immortality and attaining or maintaining youth. Usually there’s always a theme that the media follows for each season and for it being just days away from Halloween of course they’re going to capitalize on the fear, partying, gluttony and unsolicited sex that usually occurs during this time amongst teens and young adults. After years of watching horror movies it had really desensitized me…I attribute my ability to watch graphic surgeries, graphic images of all sorts, and so on to my past years of watching disturbing films and becoming so use to it that it wasn’t a big deal for me to see a dead body or see a murder attack their victim. Of course film is dramatized, but what most parents don’t know is that just because the acts committed in the film isn’t real, the content of the film can easily be recreated and does happen…It always begins with seeing it, then hearing, thinking about it, recreating the scenes in their mind, changing those scenes around, making themselves apart of the situation and then get the uncontrollable urge to act on it…

To be continued……………………………

CONflicted

The news stations have been constantly airing footage of the ‘Occupy’ protests in various parts of the country as well as all over the world. Lately, Oakland has been in the forefront of the news because of the sudden violence that had broken out during the “peaceful” protest, unlike what was going on in other parts of California and New York at the same time.

I know we are to stay informed and be watchful of the changes in the world, but like I have said before in a previous post, there seems to be a fine line between staying aware and getting anxious about what’s going on as you watch the news. I’ve noticed that for a while I would constantly watch the news and read headlines online, in the end it would end up making me feel neurotic. I remember experiencing the same thing a few years back when former President George Bush was in office and there was speculation of Martial Law being implemented and thus causing millions of people to be killed or imprisoned…However this is not necessarily farfetched for where we are headed now a days, there is still no reason to panic over ANYTHING… Just repeat that to yourself, lol

All joking aside, the upcoming presidential race, the ‘Occupy’ protests expansion, celebrity deaths, the wars in the Middle East, stock market decline, jobless claims will continue to try to take away your peace and distract you from the things of God and how God is manifesting all over the world. Don’t let your television, your chain emails or YouTube get you office track, anxious, nervous, worried, stressed or sad about the state of the world. The Lord told us that the world would get darker and darker and will seek man before the Son. The world has to close out the light sooner or later, but that just means that we are that much closer to the coming of Christ and the ending to this conflicting life and the beginning to eternity with Christ…..tell me, which is better…..staying focused and keep your mind on God and doing the things of God for whatever years we have left and reach the point of complete freedom of the attacks of the enemy… or spend the rest of your life in emotional torment and then eternity in even worse torment by Satan?  

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!

I have noticed that a lot of Christians have been giving excuses one after another to get out of attending bible studies, church duties and fellowship opportunities. I would know about this topic because I use to give excuses for not wanting to go to a get-together with other members in the past. It seems that after I “sucked it up” and just did it I realized that I had been wasting my time giving excuses in the past. Of course there are times when you may not feel well or have other obligations, but for those times when you have nothing constructive to do or just don’t want to be around certain people, you have to just go anyway or find another church fellowship. It shouldn’t be a constant fight with yourself to decide to go to your church’s bible study every such and such day or to get up and go to Sunday service every week.

We all need some consistency in our lives, being sporadic prevent us from receiving whatever God wants to give us on a regular basis. We can’t be hopping from one church to another because we didn’t feel like driving out that far or don’t want to listen to that kind of worship music anymore.

Stop being picky! It’s one thing to move to a new church if you feel or know that the word that is going forth is not of God or if there is a lack of Biblical behavior going on, but it’s another thing when you leave because you don’t like so and so, don’t care for the worship music, don’t want to make the time to go there or feel like it doesn’t matter if you don’t stay put anywhere. 

Over the past year I have watched people come in and out of the church in such a short period of time. Sometimes I would wonder “Why do they come and express their enjoyment, cry tears of happiness, get healed and then walk away?” After a few comings and goings, I stopped worrying over it. It took a few months, however, by the beginning of this past September I have realized that it’s nothing to worry over. People come and people go, it’s up to them to realize that they are slipping up for not staying put for any season and instead hop around drifting with the wind to wherever it takes them.

Many of the excuses I have heard usually involve the reasons why they need to stay at that specific church, such as, “I won’t be coming back because my son or daughter is in the hospital” or “My parents go to this other church”…when days earlier they have mentioned that their parents weren’t being fed the word or weren’t getting the opportunity to use their gifting…These very excuses I have heard a few times now and yet we have to realize that some of our reasons for leaving a church, unless the Holy Spirit has told us, is the very reason why we need to stay put and pray, worship, get the word from the Pastor and be around other Christians who can give you that extra support to get through whatever rough patch you’re going through. 

There are excuses for stepping out of their church positions, such as leadership roles. Some Christians don’t want to make any sacrifices in their schedules to plan something for the church or do outreach activities, yet they were eager to take on those leadership roles. If you are caught in a leadership role that you did not want, felt that it was not your calling, or tried fulfilling the role but realized that you could not do the role justice, just let the Pastor know. Do not run away or give excuses for why you can’t do it, just be honest with yourself and others, because the Lord knows why you detached from the situation. 

To be continued……………

~Finale pt.1

Every day there’s news about casualties in Iraq or Afghanistan or in the middle east. This is been going on, as far as I am personally aware of, since September 11^th 2001 when every day after that was announcements of new bodies being found. Of course throughout the times since 9/11 we have heard some positive reports, but the “bad” seemed to always out rank the good. Things have rapidly begun to shift focus since the preparations for the upcoming presidential elections. Now, the candidates’ faiths have been the only focus. This isn’t the first time a politician’s faith has been looked at, but “the people” seem to be more concerned about the faiths of these presidential hopefuls, rather than their political stance on specific issues. 

The rise of anger and intolerance in Greece, Libya, Israel, Egypt and others have been moving and spreading rapidly in the past few weeks.~~Watch Israel~~ The end times are very near. 

Even though we are not get anxious or scared, it is admittedly hard not to get a little anxious about how dark the world is getting at such a rapid pace and to be reminded of it every time we turn on the television , pull up the news on our smart phones or listening to the radio. We have to remember that we are not to be scared, make sure we have forgiven everyone and asked for forgiveness and repent for sins. It’s now more than ever more important to get into a bible believing/living church and stay connected to the things and people of God.

You never know when someone in the congregation might bring a word of knowledge forth or a prophetic word for the church or even just for you. You have to be there yourself in order to get that information. No man knows when the Son of God will come back, not even the Son himself, which makes it pertinent to be prepared and get in line.  

I can honestly say that I am glad that the Lord didn’t reveal at date and time when Christ is to comeback because I believe there would be less lifelong Christians in the world or even those who have recently become born again Christians. If we knew the time, I guarantee most of us,if not all, would be living like the rest of the worldly people today because we would know when to “convert” ourselves and ask forgiveness and repent just before His coming, meanwhile His will wouldn’t have been done through us as the body of Christ.

~Sexual Purity pt.3

Start a dialogue with one another.

Like Pastor Drew had said in bible study this week, there needs to be communication between the younger and older generations. More so, older women should be sharing relationship and sexual experiences, within reason, without vulgarity, with their daughters. The conversation is needed because every woman’s sexual experiences are different yet as females, we all have been tempted and felt the same emotions at one point or another.

Experiences such as rape, being pressured in to having sex earlier than they wanted, being tricked in to doing sexual acts, lured by strange men into dangerous situations and locations, waiting to have sex after marriage, and so on need to be shared! 

Unfortunately, many women from the older generation have been generally raised to keep certain “information” secret in order to “protect” the family name or to “protect” the children. In all actuality it just harms the person who has to keep those secrets and others who can learn from those experiences. I can personally relate to the secret keeping issue in my family, involving the elders in my family. There is an issue with the elders in my family who like to keep everything hush hush, such as women’s ages, weight, height, affairs, and certain medical issues-illnesses and so on. Thus, resulting in many of my family members living with crippling medical issues, cantankerous personalities, and deep depression.  

I am thankful that my mom broke that bondage off of herself. At one point she decided that she wouldn’t hold back anything that she feels needs to be shared. When I think about it, there aren’t any secrets that she withholds from me, from the good to the bad. I feel that because of that, I haven’t felt the need to “explore” or “experiment” with anything because she has already been there and dealt with others who have.