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i figure there are sometimes you do not want to read an entire essay to feel blessed, maybe you want a quick pick me up, follow me on twitter my name is @ghavinnc.

Have a blessed day, may God enrich your life and put his had of love on you this week.
Ghavinn

The Joy of the Lord

The Joy of the Lord

          Have you ever realized that Joy comes from the Lord? If this is the case then why is it difficult to see that Joy when we all meet together as a family? I understand that families notoriously have that weird uncle or the black sheep siblings that know how to stir things up especially around the holidays. Do we carry this over to our spiritual lives also? I have noticed more and more during my almost 10 years in ministry now that it seems more people are having to drag themselves to be in the presence of other Christians instead of celebrating it, and running in to see if they can even get a seat because they are so excited to be there.  Could you imagine what the church would be like if everyone had a joy in their heart of longing to be together with one another, after all isn’t that what we are longing for in heaven? I will speak honestly and say that not everyone I worship with I get along with, some I may have a hard time even “liking” but I love them greatly and I have a joy within me that wants to celebrate something that is bigger than us, and my joy is in doing it together. Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say REJOICE!”  

          I was talking to someone I grew up with and they were telling me why they left the faith, they stated that it was getting depressing that every Sunday when they would arrive into the parking lot it seemed as if people were looking as if they would rather be doing anything else than being at church. Imagine if you were someone that didn’t know God or did not have a relationship with him and your first impression of the church were people that didn’t want to be there, it would make you think twice I’m sure.  I have traveled the world and seen many cultures, in one of my journeys I ended up in a small village in Honduras.  This town at one point because of a hurricane was shut off to the rest of the country for over a year, there was nothing coming in or out people had to rely on living off what the land could provide. There were many that still lived in mud houses with thatch roofs and had nothing (at least in the standards of our overly blessed country). When we arrived at the church to worship with the family out there I was overwhelmed with their excitement and connection with Christ. The gathered early and stayed late, they sang with their hearts (not caring of their pitch or tune) and would blow the roof off of the church because they were excited to be there. In this society the Church is the only thing that gives them hope, and through their hope they have such great Joy, even in the hardships and the great poverty they find richness in the word of God and celebrate is as a family. sometimes i feel that the simple and difficult life they have creates in them the desire to be close to the creator because the need the help, and we as a country dont understand poverty and we see church as another person trying to sell us something or another thing taking up our time, we become stagnant and settle for being mediocre unhappy Christians. 

          Questions to end on, what is taking your JOY? Are you always comparing yourself to others, or wanting more in material items, relationships, are you looking for approval,  or are you feeling like you don’t belong? There is joy in Christ but you have to be opened to receiving his love, hope, and spirit… you will be blessed and you will be joyful.  My hope and prayer is that we as Christians can lay aside our personal feelings, our baggage, and our pride at the feet of Jesus so we can have perspective on life and maintain a JOY in him knowing that our futures are so bright because they are illuminated by the holiness of God. May God bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace!

I will leave you with the lyrics of a great song

The Joy of the Lord

The joy of the Lord
Will be my strength
I will not falter
I will not faint
He is my Shepherd
I am not afraid
The joy of the Lord
Is my strength

The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord
Is my strength
Thy joy of the Lord
Will be my strength
He will uphold me
All of my days I am surrounded by mercy
And grace
And the joy of the Lord
Is my strength

The joy of the Lord
Will be my strength
I will not waiver Walking by faith
He will be strong
To deliver me safe
The joy of the Lord
Is my strength

Attitude

 “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes (Chuck Swindoll).”

            Our attitude is huge in the way we live our life and the way we are perceived. As Christians even in the worst of times we should be able to look someone in the face when they ask us how we are doing and we should be able to tell them that we are blessed. That doesn’t mean that we are having a good or bad day that you aren’t feeling sick, or depressed, it just means that you have God in your life and you understand that with each passing day you are truly blessed. I am reminded of the story of Joseph. Joseph was loved by his father, he was loved so much that his brothers were very jealous of him. They became so jealous that they sold him into slavery.  The brothers keep Joseph's coat of many colors, kill a goat, and dip the coat in the goat's blood. They then explain to Jacob how they found the bloodied and torn coat and ask him if he recognizes it. Meanwhile, the Ishmaelites (or Midianites) travel to Egypt and sell Joseph to the household of Potiphar "one of Pharaoh's eunuchs, the captain of the guard." (Gen.37: 36) The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered. (Gen.39: 2) Eventually, "thus Joseph found favor with his master, and he became his personal servant. Indeed, his master put him in charge of his household and entrusted him with all that he had." (Gen. 39: 4)

Even though Potiphar was a Eunuch, he had a wife. The wife kept trying to lure Joseph to bed. Joseph was an honorable man and did not betray his master. Potiphar's wife tries one last time to get Joseph to bed by grabbing his cloak; he runs away, leaving his cloak in her hands. She falsely accuses Joseph of trying to sleep with her and Joseph is thrown in prison. Even in prison "The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in everything." (Gen.39: 23) Joseph became a supervisor of other prisoners.

While in the prison, the pharaoh's butler and baker offended the king and they were thrown in jail. Joseph was responsible for them and helped them to interpret their dreams. The baker was hanged and the butler got his job back, just as in the interpretation that Joseph had given them. The butler forgot all about Joseph until about two years later.

Pharaoh had dreamed and no one in his court could interpret the dream. Then the butler remembered Joseph's interpretations in jail and informed the Pharaoh who summoned Joseph. Joseph interpreted the dream as a vision of the future where there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Joseph recommended that Pharaoh put someone in charge of food management. Joseph got the job. Joseph became second only to Pharaoh as he began laying aside crops for the famine.

When the famine came "the whole world came to Egypt to buy corn from Joseph"¦" (Gen.41: 57) Eventually Joseph's brothers come to buy corn too. They do not recognize Joseph and he makes them go back to Israel to get their brother Benjamin, Joseph's closest brother, also born of Rachel. After an emotional meeting Joseph reveals his identity and there is a tearful reunion.

The sons return to Israel to get Jacob. After Jacob meets Pharaoh, the land in the area of Rameses is given to the Hebrews. Joseph continued to monitor the food during the famine. After the famine "Israel settled in Egypt, in Goshen; there they acquired land, and were fruitful and increased greatly." (Gen.47: 27) This was how the Jews came to be in Egypt until Moses would lead them out hundreds of years later.

He was loved and hated, favored and abused, tempted and trusted, exalted and abased. Yet at no point in the one-hundred-and-ten-year life of Joseph did he ever seem to get his eyes off God or cease to trust him. Adversity did not harden his character. Prosperity did not ruin him. He was the same in private as in public. He was a truly great man.

Joseph could have easily entered each of these tough situations with an attitude that was full of defeat, or loneliness, or anger, but instead he put his eyes on God. With his eyes on God joseph understood that while glorifying God continually through all of his struggles that God would guide and protect him. His attitude was so fixed on glorifying God that when given the opportunity to completely give payback to his brothers who were so cruel to him he chose not to but to instead give them the mercy and grace that was given to him from God.

Apply this to your life, are there times when life sucks and you totally let it affect the rest of your day, week, or even month? Are there times where you lose sight of the great plans God has for you because you are too busy worrying about the tiny road blocks that Satan puts in front of you? Take the time today to find the attitude of worship that can view the road ahead of you and can look at all the ups and downs of life and be able to exude the life and words of being a truly blessed child of God. If Joseph could do it with all of the hardships that were thrown at him then we too should be able to take the life we have and make it a glorifying statement of faith for our savior!

Limitless

Limitless

SO in my blog writing I hit heavily on the scripture at first, today I will start with one powerful scripture, and then share a story of inspiration. The scripture is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” I wanted to talk with you about being limitless. We as people will put a limit to what we can do before we even try something, why is that? Is it because if we set our expectations to a lower standard anything above that will make us feel good about ourselves? It reminds me of the story of a fish that is kept in a very small aquarium will only grow to the limits of that aquarium, but a fish that is out in the open waters has no boundaries and that fish has the potential to grow in full. Our limits are only what we make them to be.  In my own life I have been inspired by someone that is not even three years old yet, about how to persevere and push yourself beyond what the world thinks you can do. The year was 2008; my lovely wife and I decided to try to have a baby. With relatively no trouble we conceived and became pregnant. Later into the pregnancy we had our first ultrasound, we were so excited for the whole experience, to see the baby, maybe find out what its gender was going to be Etc... While we were there we noticed that the demeanor of the ultrasound tech changed, he became really quiet and focused on trying to find something.  He left us there to wait for what seemed to be an eternity and went to get a doctor, we figured something was wrong. Later the doctor came in and said he would like us to get a second level ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong. This put so much stress and strain on our lives at a time where we wanted to celebrate and be excited about the newness of life we were bringing into the world.  Later through all the tests and procedures that had to be done on my wife we were told our baby was going to have trisomy 21 or what most of us know as Down syndrome. The worst part of all of this was that when meeting with the genetics department and our doctors they all wanted to ensure us that it was still early enough to terminate the pregnancy if we wanted to. It was almost as they felt they were trying to save us the burden of raising this “kind” of child. It was as if they had already put a limit on what my child was going to be able to do. I remember them saying so many things that put a negative spin on what we were in for. After all the tears and fears of what to expect my wife and I knew we would never terminate the pregnancy and I knew we were the BEST people to give this child a “normal” chance on living.  January 27, 2009 Makaiya Grace Crutcher came into this world, and was absolutely beautiful! However, she had some problems and was going to need to spend time in the NICU. Turns out that our daughter had heart impairments; she had two holes in her heart and a faulty valve. This is a common issue with many infants with Down syndrome.  She also had a hard time with eating and we had to supplement food through her NG tube (feeding tube that goes through her nose to stomach). After 16 days we were able to finally take our precious baby home, and couldn’t wait to show her the world! What we did not know is that we would be getting very familiar with Kaiser'e Women and Children's Hospital in Roseville. In our daughters first six months of life it seemed as if we spent two weeks of every month in the hospital.  Makaiya would aspirate on her bottle or because of reflux and would go into heart failure and we would become nurse mommy and daddy, never leaving her side while at the hospital, we even learned how to use their machines and everything. It was pretty intense, and then the biggest challenge came into our lives, heart surgery. We opted to have Makaiya's heart surgery at UC Davis because we wanted family to be close and we really trusted and respected our heart surgeon there. What we weren’t expecting is that we would come seconds away from losing our daughter because of (in my opinion) poor after care by the UC Davis nurses.  Like always I spent every minute, maybe even second by my daughter’s hospital bed. It was hard to see her with wires and tubes all over her, and I felt so helpless when all I wanted to do was to fix everything. One day the nurses and doctors decided it was time to remover her breathing tube and have her start breathing all on her own, even though they spent all night removing plugs (Mucus from her aspirations) from her lungs. The next morning as we were in there I was checking on my daughter holding her hand and I noticed she was turning blue and I told the nurse who shrugged it off at first, then I said NO she is turning blue…. They called a code blue within seconds it felt as if over 100 people were in our room shoving us out. My heart sank and I broke down crying, I thought I was going to lose my baby girl, my wife and I were devastated. We found out that they had to do compression for 15 minutes; we immediately thought that even if she made it she was going to be so brain damaged that she would be a vegetable. My wife was destroyed but we prayed and prayed for God to intervene. We put limits on what she was going to do if she made it but God had bigger plans. They got her stabilized and after an hour had past we were able to go in. she looked so out of it from all the medications her eyes were all over the placed and she looked like the lights were on but no one was home. My wife couldn’t take it so I asked her to go home and spend time with Micah our son.  I didn’t trust the staff enough to leave my daughter for a second so I wasn’t going anywhere. The next day Makaiya was in a better state she was a bit more alert and the staff there couldn’t believe she was the same girl that hours earlier they were giving compressions to. She was our miracle, already breaking down limits of what people thought of her, she was not only a survivor but a thriver. Makaiya was going to be ok and not just that she would amaze us daily, with her fun personality to her vocabulary. Just when we would think she may never get something she does and goes even further. Makaiya is been not using her feeding tube for almost half a year, she was hundreds of words she knows and she working harder and harder on walking. She throws balls across the house while playing catch and she loves being around other kids especially in Sunday bible school. This girl is incredible and she will soon be in the school system where she can once again take what someone tells her she won’t be able to do and blow their mind with her perseverance and tenacity.  What can we say we push her like she is a “regular” kid and she is, no matter, her diagnosis or title our daughter would be special, not in a bad way in a way that all amazing people are. She has the twinkle in her eye the face that says meet me and I’ll turn any bad day around. I wanted to share this story with you to think about your life, put it in perspective with the many gifts and blessing you are given, how are you using them. Are you putting all your effort into things that are bringing you down or that are uplifting? God has great plans for you if you rely on his wisdom and guidance he will remove the limits we set on ourselves and make our potential limitless.

Here is a video of my daughters first year of life and another video of her fun personality now at age 2 ½ please enjoy and be inspired like we are every day.

FEAR

What are you afraid of? I’m not talking about spiders, snakes, horror movies, clowns, or even going outside without your make-up on (ladies you know who you are). I am talking about what are you afraid of, what is giving you fear that you are limiting yourself from greatness. There are times in our life that we hold back to be safe, not made fun of, comfortable, or plainly to be mediocre. If we don’t draw too much attention to ourselves then maybe we can slide by in life and not have to deal with failure because we are not searching for success. Dale Carnegie stated, “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” In essence if we aren’t vulnerable to fail and understand that it is through those failures that we can find success we will never see our true potential. This quote I feel should truly strike the nerve in you to reach for more, “Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” Put your all into what you love and success will follow. How many are you are in jobs you don’t like, have bosses you hate, and co-workers that annoy you? Have you ever stopped to think about how the heck did I wind up here? Maybe you have a passion and love for something but you put it to the side because you couldn’t risk it, why? Sometimes we have to take a step of faith to understand that god has blessed us with talents and those talents are to be used, and more importantly used to glorify him. The bible says “whatever you do in word or deed do it all in the name of the lord.” Can you glorify God where you are at? Sure, and I hope that you do, however, wouldn’t you like to take a step out that and not handcuff yourself to mediocrity. If you are fearful to take that step remember this verse, “be strong and courageous and do not be afraid the lord goes with you each and every day he will never forsake you.” I don’t want you all to get what I am saying to you twisted, I am not saying you can’t be happy where you are at or that you are a failure because you are not a professional baseball player, but instead a garbage man, that’s not it. I am saying why not reach for the stars, success is measured differently by different people. For me I love time with my family, and I love helping people and sharing Christ with others. I prayed that God would lead me and at first I was shocked at how he closed doors I wanted and opened doors I needed to achieve those goals. I put trust and faith that he would guide and provide for me and my family. If success was based on money for me, I would be a failure, but since it is not I haven’t worried about money or had concerns of money since I put my trust in Christ. What are you looking for? How are you looking, and what do you need to get there? There is this great song by Switchfoot, a line from the song goes something like this, “This is your life, are you who you want to be, this is your life are you everything you dreamed that you could be when the world was younger and you had everything to lose.” In psalms 32:8 the lord says, “I the lord will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” If we put our trust and faith in the lord He will guide us to greatness (greatness that only comes from the Lord). Proverbs 3:6 states, “In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and he will direct and make straight and plain your paths.” Recognize the Lord is there waiting for you to turn to him for help and he will make plain your path. This reminds me of the story of how I met my wife. When I was working at an afterschool care in Folsom, I was asked to go help at one of our sister schools down the street, that was solely pre-K and under in age. I dreaded it, but, nonetheless I went and did my best. I was sent to the 2-year-old class, all of you who have children understand the age of 2 is extremely difficult, now imagine 20 of them. Yet as I worked, I noticed through the diaper smell and the many noses that needed to be wiped, i got a glance at an amazing woman that was beautiful and more importantly she handled the chaotic realm of 2 year-olds with such grace and ease. I knew I needed to know more about this person, so like the mature adult I was at age 22, I ask a friend to get me the 411 on her. I went out of my way to try to keep our relationship going leaving her notes and trying to let her know I was interested. My wife told me at first she didn’t really get me because I was shy and didn’t talk to her much (those who know me that is as far from my personality as possible) but I kept going. The school stopped needing my help and I went back to my afterschool care, I was both relieved and bummed, I know I really liked this person but didn’t know how to go about it, so I prayed. I prayed God if you want this person to be in my life not just for a while but forever make it obvious to me, help me to see without a doubt that this is who I am supposed to be with for the rest of my life.” I prayed this prayer after not seeing or talking to my (now) wife for 2 weeks, and out of the blue she calls me at my work to ask me if I wanted to go to lunch with her, I had to decline because of scheduling but promptly scheduled dinner. It was God answering a prayer, what I was not able to do on my own God made so clear for me, and I am very grateful for his guidance. So if you are struggling to put yourself out there to know that the answer from God to me could have easily have been NO but it is ok, God is there HE wants your concerns and he wants to guide you to a successful life in Him. Success where all the treasure are stored in heaven waiting for us, a success where you go home happy because you know your life has meaning and purpose. Success where you can say at the end of the day I am blessed because Jesus is in control and I am just enjoying the ride. God is great, there will still be struggles and suffering along the way but that is our way of showing our trust and dedication to God that we know and believe that he will put us “on the path that is direct, plain, and straight (Prov 3:6)”

Why so STRESSED!?

Stress, what is it? In our world we have made stress a daily part of our lives, in our jobs, in our homes, in our schools, in our churches, in pretty much everything we do.  Researchers are now finding that stress is a more serious to our bodies than just being a little irritable. According to the American institute of stress, “The incidence of heart attacks and sudden death have been shown to increase significantly following the acute stress of natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis and as a consequence of any severe stressor that evokes "fight or flight' responses. Coronary heart disease is also much more common in individuals subjected to chronic stress and recent research has focused on how to identify and prevent this growing problem, particularly with respect to job stress.”  We have been allowing ourselves to become so overwhelmed with stress that it affects how our bodies function. How do you deal with sudden change in your life, for example the sudden loss of a loved one, or being fired from a job, or have a toddler in your home, or a middle schooler? How do you manage your time if you are a parent that has multiple children that are all involved in different extracurricular activities? For the younger readers out there, are you stressed because you are trying to fit in, because you don’t have enough money, or the right clothes? The world wants us to feel less than sufficient, why do you think we have the phrase “keeping up with the Jones’?”  Stress if we allow it will kill us. Where can we find peace and contentment in our lives? There are plenty of answers if we open our bibles.

            Let’s start with discussing the story of Job. He was a just and good man, who always strove to please God throughout his life. The Lord rewarded him for his piety with great wealth. He had many hundreds of large and thousands of small cattle. His large and close family of seven sons and three daughters comforted him. But the Devil was jealous of Job. He began to vilify him before God, "Does Job fear God for nothing?... But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face." Then God, in order to reveal to all how faithful Job was to Him and in order to teach people patience in their sufferings, permitted the Devil to take away all of Job’s possessions. One day robbers came and drove away all his cattle, slew his servants, and a terrible tornado from the desert destroyed the house in which Job’s children had gathered together, killing them all. Job not only did not complain against God, but he said, "God gave, and God has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." The Devil, put to shame, was not satisfied with this. Again he began to slander Job, "All a man has will he give for his life. But put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh (that is, strike him down with disease), and he will curse You to Your face." God permitted the Devil to deprive Job even of his health, and Job was stricken with the most terrible disease — leprosy. Then even his wife began to persuade him to complain against God. His friends, instead of consolation, only further grieved the innocent sufferer with their unjust suspicions. But Job remained firm, did not lose hope in the mercy of God and only begged the Lord to testify that he was suffering in innocence. In his discourse with his friends, Job prophesied about the Redeemer and of the future resurrection: I know that my Redeemer lives and on the last day He will raise from the dust this my corrupted skin, and in my flesh I shall see God. I shall see Him myself; mine eyes, and not the eyes of another, shall behold Him (Job 19:25-27). After this, God, having shown to all the example of devotion and long-suffering in His servant Job, appeared Himself and commanded his friends, who had regarded Job as a great sinner, to ask for prayers from him for themselves. God rewarded His faithful servant. Job regained his health. He had seven more sons and three daughters, gained back twice as much cattle as he had before, and lived another one hundred and forty years in honor, quietly, piously and happily.

            Wow! Talk about true events to be utterly stressed out about, to curse God and be genuinely angry. But instead Job says, “God gives and he takes away, blessed be the name of the lord.” Job found peace and comfort through his relationship with the father. When his wife and friends finally gave up on him he still continued to glorify the lord. Even when is body was weakened and he was in absolute agony he did not falter but understood that his suffering would ultimately be taken away on the day our savior calls us to judgment, and for job that brought him peace. In our lives when bad things happen we question everything and try to find blame. We say things like, “why do bad things happen to good people,” Job was the ultimate good person that tragedy kept striking. For job when it rained it didn’t just pour it became a full on natural disaster. Yet he did not waiver he did not grow weary, because if God was with him he would be able to endure.

            Below is a video I created using the song from Casting Crowns, I will praise you in this storm. It is an inspirational video that can help us to see that God is worthy of praise in good and bad times and that his love is the ultimate comfort we need to rely on him and to not stress over what is out of our control.

After watching this video we can address some other stressors by looking into Matthew chapter 6:25-34,

“Do Not Worry

    ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?

   ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

            This is God stating, If I take care of all these other aspects of life that are pretty insignificant wont I surely take care of you as well, my creation my chosen people. God has a love for us it is when we put our pride in the way and hinder God from working in our lives that we stress over our issues. For if we surrender to Christ and allow him control we are not fixed on good or bad things we are fixed on Him. As Paul said, “we have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live but Christ lives in me” if we have that mentality we know that all we are, and all we will be, is the body of Christ reaching and working for him. We then will truly understand that we don’t have to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough trouble of its own, and focus on today because after all that’s why we call it the present, it is a gift from God. If you think about it today is the best day you will ever have today, can’t change it embrace it and enjoy another day of life, God has great plans for you allow him to work in your life and trust in him on sunny days and days that may be full of rain.

Finding Love

What do we know about love? The bible says that "4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8Love never fails."(1Cor.13:4-8) I think we as normal functioning humans don’t always see love in this same capacity. What do we see love as? If we were the ones writing this scripture it would probably say something like this, "I'm in a hurry to find love, love hurts, if I was only loved like ______, love is lust, love is a broken heart, love is temporary, and love is not what I expected...." We are flawed. We often view love as a behavior, attitude, or action that is layered with expectations. There is probably a time in your life where you have said (hopefully to yourself) I will love you if you do this... Or if someone would love me my life would be filled with... What if I were to say love is so much greater than this.

 To get to the root of love I think we need to view the way God loves us. Let’s take another peak at the scriptures, the bible talks about love like this, "For God so loved the world he gave his only son to die for us, so that you ever believes in him will not die but have eternal life (John 3:16)", or "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8)." Think about that kind of love, knowing that we were the reason His Son was to die he loved us enough to send him anyways. God’s love is unconditional, everlasting, and sufficient.

 Let's break down what we are learning about love into steps. We just learned this STEP 1 God LOVES you regardless of who you are or what you do he is in love with you! So much so that he made you in his own image. WOW it is like when you have your child and the baby is born you look at them and see yourself and you get so overwhelmed with love it brings you to tears because you created them and want the absolute best for them. God is our father and loved us even when we were still sinners, he sacrificed himself for us!!!!! 

              So now that we know we are loved unconditionally and that God is LOVE, what comes next? Let’s once again look to the word of God for some inspiration. In Matthew the 22nd chapter Jesus said "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your entire mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself." When searching for love Christ wants us to look for love in him first. Not just to see how much he loves us but to give him our love as well, we are called to love him with our whole being (heart, soul, mind, and strength). Then we can understand and know how to put that love towards others.

So STEP 2 is for us to LOVE GOD! We have established that God loves us and we know now how to be loved, secondary to knowing how to be loved is how to show love. Jesus explained in order to show true love you have to put your all into it. Your all includes your mind, soul, heart, and strength. To get a better grasp of this we should break each of these attributes down.

         Mind: To love with all your mind is to be thoughtful to the person you love. In the case of loving God we are putting every thought into service and worship to him. How thoughtful are you in your relationships? Do you go out of your way to find new ways of making a special person in your life feel loved? Is your mind wandering when they are talking to you? When we love something with our entire mind we are focused on them and give them the attention they need, not for our gain but so their needs may be met.

            Soul: There is a verse in the bible that says, “What would it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?” Our soul everything that is within us is called to love our creator. God wants your body to be filled with a desire to be a part of and love him! Put that into terms of a personal relationship you may have in your own life, do you find yourself waking up and every ounce of your being is so excited to be with the person you love? Or have you waivered and fallen into the trap of being tempted to look elsewhere? People are always looking for greener grass on the other side but I am telling you this, it is the person that has pride of ownership of their lawn that keeps their grass full and green. A well cared for lawn requires fertilization, watering, mowing, and aeration. Your relationship may need to be watered and fertilized when you are putting your soul into everyone takes notice, because it will be a lawn that is beautiful.  When your all is being poured out into your relationships both parties will feel loved and trusted.

            Heart: Matthew 13:14-17 states “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. ¹⁵ For this people’s heart have become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” God is letting us know that it does not matter how many things we have lined up for healing if our hearts are not their we will never be fulfilled. God wants all of our heart dedicated to him, striving for closeness, where our heart beats in accordance to the will he has preordained inside of us. Think about this in your own relationships, if your heart is not in to it, it doesn’t matter how many therapy sessions you go to, or how many hours you pray for God to intervene, it takes an open heart to receive the healing it needs. Think about how in love you were when you first saw your significant other, the butterflies, the heart racing, how you would do anything to make that person happy because you were so “in love”…. That may not have been love completely but the feelings were important to your union. Those feelings don’t have to go away, if your whole heart is into your relationship you will find time to create that experience again, you will find a time to leave the kids with a sitter and go on a date, you will find the time to surprise your spouse with flowers at work, or to take them out to lunch, put your heart into the experience of loving, without it love does not exist…. There is a reason we use the heart as a symbol for love.

            Strength: Ecclesiastes 4:12 states, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Think about this where does strength come from? What makes you strong? If your relationship with your spouse is grounded by the love of God, that is a triple threat, you love for one another (2 strands) plus the love of God (1 strand), creates a cord of three strands that is not easily broken. However, in order for that to truly work you have to put all your strength into your part. Don’t be easy to give up, or waiver because of superficial concerns, justify ungodly actions, or trivial issues that Satan puts forth to weaken your cord. Lean on the love of God and put your trust in his guidance to overcome the issues in which the devil wants you to stumble and fail.

            God truly does want you to find that person he has set out for you but as he said in scripture love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and then love your neighbor as yourself. Learn to love through building a relationship with God, and through that process of learning you may have a better idea of the wants and needs God has in store for you. Be a person that loves your mate with all your heart soul mind and strength, creating a bond that is not easily broken. Allow healing in your life, and lean on the strength of Christ to pull you through Satan’s strongholds. 

What is Healing

Many of us have been hurt at some point in our lives and are in dire need of some healing. The question that never really gets asked though is what do we need healing from? Some of you may say that you were abused (physically, verbally, emotionally Etc...), others may say from grief or trauma of some sort. I like to believe that there is one true source in which we need our healing from and that is SIN. Don’t let me lose you hold on for a little longer and hear me out on this, our issues our neglect, our hurt, every negative source in our being is held there by the stronghold that Satan has over us. Think about this, "29“Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house." (Matt. 12:29) In order for us to receive what God wants for us in our lives we need to bind up Satan so we may have the ability to have our lives free. Christ did this for us, and gave us the platform in which we can bind the devil. In Matthew chapter 4 it tells us of the first thing that Christ did in his ministry. After being baptized Jesus was led to the wilderness and he fasted for 40 days, there he was met by Satan. Satan came at Christ with temptations and Jesus could have easily have said be gone!!! or ZAP!!! Your history, he is after all the son of God. However, he didn’t.... Why??? He didn’t because this would be a perfect opportunity for him to understand "Flesh" temptations and to give us a template of how to bind Satan using "weapons" God has given us. Christ answered every temptation with the preface of "It is written..." We have such an amazing tool it is to word of God. The word cuts through Satan and exposes him for what he truly is. When the knowledge of scripture is joined with the power of prayer you have now become public enemy number one on Satan's watch list, because now you are POWERFUL! so let’s view it this way, if you are searching for answers, healing,  purpose, hope, love, connection, mercy, reason, or understanding the bible says this, " 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33) Christ wants us to seek him FIRST, and all these things will be given unto you... and when we do that we can understand that. "28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^l

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, ^m neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:28-39) 

               Christ wants us to have a life that is free from mental illness, free from grief, free from baby mamma drama, he does..... but, we need to seek him first and understand this world is not our home we are passing through; we are living our life here gaining our treasures in heaven. Paul said it best when he said to die is gain to live is Christ. He clarified this by saying I have been crucified with Christ never the less I live, not I but Christ lives in me, therefore the life that I now live by the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me!!

    If you are having trouble in your life, if you are struggling, God wants you to surround yourself with Godly people and rely on his word and the power of prayer to get you through, as it is written "if Christ is for us who can be against us." Shutdown your pride and give it to Christ, stop being a victim but instead be enslaved by the love of God, stop being addicted to worldly hurt yet be overwhelmed by the renewing of your heart and mind. Christ has a love for each of us that is why he gave his son so we may have a chance to be with him, let’s celebrate that and put our trust and faith that he will guide us on the path that he has set before us.