Joyous Living

So....It's been a while since I've blogged. Life happened. It's like you think you have a busy life and then all of a sudden you're twice as busy as before!! :) There are not enough hours in a day anymore to do everything! But, I decided to take a minute to share what's on my heart today. So what is on my heart? A lot. And now I can feel you staring at me. :) Last weekend I had the privilege once again to do "Light Of Hope's" Prison Crusade. I went in as a singing team with my siblings and a few friends. And yes, we had an amazing time! We all left feeling so blessed. (I'm sure I can speak for the others on that.) My Dad was the Evangelist in our group and the one message He preached was on the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon. I'm sure you all know the story there... But if you don't, read Song of Solomon. It's a love story yes, but allegorically it pictures Israel as God's betrothed bride, and the church as the bride ...

Winter. Spring. Summer. Fall. These are season.  And just like these seasons, whether they are cold, warm or hot, we have seasons in our lives. You might be going through an incredibly amazing season in your life right now, or maybe it's a season you'd rather not be going through. Whatever it is, we've all been there, right?! Don't say no because then you would be lying! :) SometimeS God takes us through these seasons so that we learn to rediscover who He is. I've noticed that when life is incredibly awesome and joyful, I can quickly lose sight of what's important. [God].  You might be like, how is that possible?  I would tell you this. Short. Simple. Reply. When life is comfortable, I tend to relax and sit back. I start taking God for granted.  What do I mean by that? Like, I know who God is, and I know what He's done for me. But I start to think life is good (which it is by the way) and I don't prepare myself for attacks from th...

I've been asking myself this question...Why are people just so negative? I don't have the answer for that.  I can only look at my life and wonder why I am just super negative sometimes. Yes. It happens to me...one day life is incredibly awesome! The next day, BAM! I am all about me - my problems, my failures, my mess-ups, my life. And everything seems to spiral out of control in like a few minutes! It's unreal! It's incredibly insane, actually. And during those times, I find myself drawing back from people. Becoming more of a loner. (I am very much a people person!) There are so many times when we are captivated by the thoughts of negativity in our mind, that we end up in deep, deep bondage, because we don't shift our focus to the main and only thing we should be looking at, which is Christ. Negativity brings those closest to you to a state of misery. Being negative all the time is also very demoting to those around you and makes that those people you...

So I've been thinking..... So may times we see miracles and answered prayers and just incredibly amazing things happen. And then when things stop happening (or so it seems) and prayers don't seem to get answered when we want them to, or bad things happen in a persons life....the first thought is, God must have forsaken me! (And by the way, not everyone thinks that..just clarifying here). And then they proceed to say God never really loved, cared about me and wanted what's best for me. That of course is all lies from the enemy and definitely not a cool place to be in. See, back in the time when Jesus walked this earth, he did miracles and wonders and the people believed in him. But they believed and trusted in him only when they saw the miracles and amazing wonders Jesus did. But you know, Jesus did not entrust his life to them because he new their hearts. He knew them inside out. He knew they believed him only because of the miracles he did, not because he was the Messi...

So Easter is coming up in a few days, and I've been thinking about the resurrection of the Savior. You know, we hear a lot about Jesus dying on the cross and then we also hear a lot about the resurrection of Christ. But one thing we don't seem to hear too much about is the time in between those two events. The part where he went down to hell. The part were Christ rendered the grave, ransacked hell, defeated and conquered the devil. He took those keys to death, hell and the grave to be victorious of that when He rose from the grave. So as believers to know that Jesus has paid that price for us, and that us believing in Him, not only do we have access to heaven, but we have authority over the enemy because of Jesus' death on the cross. We have authority to rebuke the devil in the name of Jesus, and when we do that the devil trembles. Not only does he tremble but he flees as well. Mark 13:34 NLT The coming of the Son of Man can be illustrated by the story of a man ...

Wow!  Well, March has decided to show itself pretty quickly this year!! I think. Maybe that's just me. :) All I can say is I am SO ready for Spring!!  Like right now! But then again, patience is a virtue, yes?! Ah, so God is super awesome tho, isn't He?! :) He's been doing a lot in my life. One thing He's been showing me is that I am not alone. I don't walk this journey alone. He is with me and goes before me and never leaves my side. Deuteronomy 31:8 Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you, He will neither fail you nor abandon you. When you are going through a season in your life that looks incredibly uncertain and super freaky, trust that God has you there for a purpose.  It may not make sense at the time, but there will come a time (maybe) when you can look back and see that what you went through was to strengthen you and beautify your relationship with Christ.

Lately I've been thinking about the slavery that exists here in the States. Yes, in todays world, slavery still exists! What is slavery, you may ask? Slavery occurs when one person completely controls another person, using violence or the threat of violence to maintain that control, exploits them economically, pays them nothing and they cannot walk away. So i decided to write a little bit about it. A few X Slavery facts X Slavery occurs where one person exercises the 'right' of ownership over a person. They are held against their will often under the threat of violence. Physical, emotional, and mental abuse is often part of their enslavement. Slavery still exists. It 's estimated that there are anything between 10 million and 27 million slaves in the world today. The reason for this broad range is that those people being counted are largely a 'hidden' population. It is estimated that human trafficking alone generates annual profits of arou...