#holyspirit
God has beautiful plans for your future but you’ll never get there if you keep looking at the past.
I have times when I feel very lonely and depressed. I’m only human and sometimes my emotions take control over my life. When I start to feel that way I usually move away from God. And then I feel even more depressed and lonely. Satan wants us to feel that way. He wants to separate us from God’s peace but God is bigger. When you struggle with doubt don’t move away from God but come closer to him. Tell him about it. God is bigger than our doubt and our bad thoughts about ourselves. He knows our pain and our dreams. He is the supernatural God, he knows everything that’s in your heart. Don’t let emotions control your life. Open your Bible, speak to him and worship. He cares about you. He loves you.
Amen ❤️
ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 9
Watercolor painting by Maud Petersham, from Woodstock, New York (1961). Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, PA, 07.WC.1225.
This watercolor painting of the Presentation in the Temple, an early episode in the life of Jesus Christ, was made by Maud Petersham, an artist from Woodstock, New York. According to the biblical account, after Jesus was born Joseph and Mary traveled to Jerusalem to present their newborn child at the temple, as required by law. While they were at the temple, the Holy Spirit visited a man named Simeon and revealed to him that Jesus was the Messiah. Simeon then took Jesus into his arms, said a prayer, and blessed them (Gospel of Luke 2:25–35).
Maud and Miska Petersham, a husband-and-wife artist team, were well known in the first half of the 20th century as illustrators and authors of children’s literature. Their illustrations were a special favorite with Mildred Pitcairn. This painting was commissioned by Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn in 1961, and was sent from Glencairn as their Christmas card that year.
Every day, from December 1 through December 25, a new work of Nativity art from the Glencairn Museum collection will appear on the home page of our Advent calendar (Follow the Star: A 2021 Advent Calendar. To receive these in your newsfeed, follow our social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr).
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I’m not a great sleeper…. I’m sure many of you can relate. Between academics, extracurriculars, and relationships, sleep is hard to come by… even for those who sleep like rocks. Sometimes, It’s just really hard to turn your brain off, and lying in bed for hours awake and worrying, processing, or just thinking can become a nightly routine.
I have tried sleeping pills, hot showers, long walks, and everything else in the book, but none of them seemed to solve the long-term problem.
Here is the #1 thing that made a significant difference: I had to actually prepare myself to go to sleep. About 30 minutes before I want to crawl into bed, I found that I need to go through a routine of preparing my body, mind, and soul to rest.
Here’s the thing: I had been either doing homework or talking to my roommates before quickly (and stressfully) throwing on pjs so that I could be in bed at a certain time with my heart pounding from all the adrenaline. That made the time before I was supposed to rest very un-restful.
Instead, I trained myself to go through a routine before I lie down to sleep every night. My body is able to recognize this nightly order as the “resting routine”—a time of preparation that switches my mentality from “go do” to “be still.”
When we think about this simple ritual that prepares our bodies for a physical night’s rest, it raises another question: what do our souls need for a true spiritual rest?
I have recently realized that just as I don’t prepare myself for physical sleep on a weekday night, I also don’t prepare my heart for Sunday church services, weekly school chapels, or daily devotions. I jump right in, expecting to get an emotional high. But the truth is, I don’t really learn anything of value or worship my Lord fully when I don’t prepare myself to come before Him.
Priests in the OT had to prepare themselves extensively before coming before the Lord—they had to be completely ritually and spiritually clean with the proper garments on their body and the correct sacrifice in hand. Why do I have the right to do anything less?
When I come before the Lord, I have realized that there are a couple things I need to do:
1. Set myself apart: I need to find a place and time that allows me to focus and be able to truly express what I need to say to God. That may be in my room, in a church, or in a bathroom stall. Just somewhere relatively solitary and still.
2.Confess:I need to spend a moment bringing my sins, anxieties, praises, and thanksgivings before God before I start reading His word or asking Him questions. I need to unload my heart so that He can fill it up in the right way.
3. Ask for understanding: This is especially important before reading God’s word. We should always stop and pray for understanding from the Holy Spirit. God himself dwells within us—don’t you think we should ask Him to come into our hearts and help us interpret and apply scripture?
So when we come before the Lord, we need to have a heart that is ready to receive what he offers. Just as I need to train my body when it is time to sleep, so I need to be trained when it is time for worship.
-31Women (Beth)
Alright internet, it’s confession time: One day, I was stressed and felt overwhelmed by my seemingly never-ending to-do list. One of the things on that checklist was to put-away my laundry, so, when I came into my room and my roommate asked how I was doing, I put on my almost-in-tears face and explained that my clothes being all over the place was making me anxious, but I didn’t have to fix it because I had to go to several meetings that night. When I got back to my room later that night, my loving roommate had folded all my laundry and put it away where she knew I would want it. However, I didn’t feel relieved, I felt guilty
Why would I feel guilty? Because I know my roommate, and I know that she loves to do things for people, especially when they are struggling. When I came into the room earlier that night, I intentionally phrased our conversation in a way that suggested I needed my laundry folded, without actually asking her to do it. When I got back to the room that night after she had done such a nice thing for me, I pretended to be in shock and acted emotionally touched that she had took notice of my stress. In short, I manipulated her to get her to do what I wanted, and then put on a show to convince her that I had nothing to do with her decision to do that for me.
When I read Psalm 51, I remember that story, along with many other examples of my sinful motives corrupting a moment showing the beautiful heart of love and service that others have towards me.
Psalm 51 was written by King David after he sinned by sleeping with Bathsheba and covering his scandal up by having her husband killed, then marrying her after the time of mourning. When David is confronted by his own sin against God, he writes this poem of confession, lamentation, and repentance, asking for God’s mercy to come upon him to forgive his sins and make his heart clean.
“Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach wisdom in the secret heart…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me.”
I once had a friend explain the message of this psalm as “clean heart, pure motives.” It became one of my life mottos after that. You see, God does not look at the actions of humans, but rather sees the heart motivations behind what we do. The Bible tells us that “it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come.” (Mark 7:21). If we have a clean heart, we will yearn for good and not evil. If we have pure motives, we will love and serve others from a place of love, rather than exploiting them.
So back to my example: If I had just come to my roommate with a clean heart and pure motives, I could have been straightforward and simply asked her, “Syd, would you mind folding my laundry? I’m not going to have time to do it tonight and I’m feeling very overwhelmed right now.” I know that she would have joyfully accepted and appreciated having a way to show love to me, in the same way that I care for all the time when she’s stressed.
Instead, I let my prideful heart win over and refused to ask for help directly, using manipulative motives to exploit her loving and sacrificial character.
I have long since sought my own forgiveness from the Lord and asked that he give me a clean heart and pure motives every time I speak to others. But, I think there could be more to this message.
What would it look like if we actually lived our lives with clean hearts and pure motives? What if we ended exploitation? And manipulation? And lying? Hurting others with our words? If we didn’t look for selfish gain? If we put others before ourselves?
Clean Heart, Pure Motives. It changes everything.
-31Women (Beth)
(Imagevia)
Objectification. We’re all guilty of it. Men get blamed for it most of the time, but women do it too. Instead of approaching each person we encounter as a three-dimensional human person, made in the image of God, we reduce others (and ourselves) to a word, a body part, a sin, an ideology, or an occupation. Suddenly, the man or woman we see on the street or meet at the cocktail party or work alongside or go to class with becomes flat and one-dimensional, a caricature that we can perfectly understand and therefore easily dismiss because, well, he or she is (a)
Conservative
Liberal
Secular
Idiot
Jerk
Meathead
Asshole
D-bag
Man-Boy
Wreck
Crazy
Slut
Fat
Skinny
Traddie
Protestant
Catholic
Atheist
Muslim
Hot
Weird
Boring
Holy
Pro-life
Pro-choice
Divorced
Single mom
Single dad
Intellectual
Hot Mess
…or what have you. Objectification is a perennial temptation for us because it’s SO MUCH EASIER than acknowledging the truth that we are allmulti-dimensional, mysterious creatures, made in the image of a Mysterious God. No one can be reduced to a single word, even if that word happens to describe them (or some aspect of who they are) well. Even if that word is one that they would use to describe themselves.
What happens when we objectify? I can only speak from my own personal experience, so please allow me to share with you the areas into which I’ve noticed objectification rearing its ugly head.
1. Objectifying myself
This is perhaps the most common form of objectification (for women anyway), and the most difficult to avoid. Most women, myself included, could probably come up with a list of ten things they’d change about themselves faster than you can say “Kate Middleton.” When we look at the mirror, instead of seeing ourselves as beloved daughters of God, we see acne or wide hips or a belly or too-muscular legs or man-shoulders or huge pores or sucky nail-beds. It doesn’t take a psychological genius to figure out that this is a recipe for misery.
Idon’t think the answer is to continue to scrutinize your reflection until you can force yourself to acknowledge something in it that you like. Focusing more on yourself in such a reductive way is not the answer. In my experience, the best thing to do is to give thanks for the way that God created you. If you can’t do that (I definitely couldn’t for a long time), ask Him for the grace to do it. Praying in thanksgiving for my body (often in front of the mirror) coupled with exercise, therapy and God’s grace has truly changed the way I see myself. The Lord still has lots of work to do on me in this regard, but I can honestly say that real change has happened, and the root cause is gratitude. (Also, not having too many mirrors around doesn’t hurt.)
A less easily-recognized form of objectification happens when we reduce ourselves to our job (I did this during my first few years as a teacher) , talents, state in life (single, married, mom, etc.), number of “likes” on Facebook or followers on Twitter, etc. But that is a subject for an a whole other post.
2. Objectifying other women
Part of the torture of my eating disorder and body image issues, particularly when I was in college, was that I was constantly sizing up other women: in the gym, on the quad, in class. Her thighs are thinner than mine…She has better skin…I would kill for her tiny waist…Why doesn’t my hair always look that good…Why is every guy into her? So ran the hyper-critical conga line in my head. It was awful; not only because I was looking at these women as a set of body parts that I coveted instead of as sisters in Christ, but because I began to see other women as competitors, which is 1) not true and 2) not helpful for developing friendships.
Thanks be to God, after lots of therapy and healing, my eating disorder faded and I developed a healthier body image, which in turn made it much easier for me to avoid objectifying other women. But, I still had the bad habit of visually sizing up pretty much any woman I encountered on a daily basis. This was completely involuntary and drove me nuts. So, I began to pray a Hail Mary each time I caught myself, and after a few months, the habit was broken. Truly,nothing is impossible for God.
3. Objectifying Men
No, I’m not talking about staring at photos of a shirtless Ryan Gosling (although that can certainly be a temptation to objectification of a certain kind). I’m talking about reducing any man we encounter to a one-dimensional type, usually through our thoughts and words.
How much easier is it to reduce a man who’s obviously checking you out to “d-bag” or “lech” than it is to pray for him, that he would come to know his own dignity and that of each woman he encounters?
How much easier is it to reduce a man who has rejected you (or one of your friends) or led you on or treated you poorly to an “asshole” or a “hot mess” or a “man-boy” than to acknowledge that perhaps there’s more to the story of this guy than your experience with him?
How much easier is it to go through a mental “future husband/boyfriend” checklist in your mind when talking to a guy you just met than to actually listen to him and get to know him?
Answer: a lot easier. But it does horrible things to your heart. This was (and sometimes still is) something I struggled with, particularly when it came to men who had disappointed me or treated me badly. Due to my habit of objectification, instead of being inspired to forgive them or to love the men I encountered as brothers in Christ, I found myself becoming more bitter, angry, and distrustful toward men in general. No bueno.
When the Holy Spirit convicted me of this, it hurt. Badly. I felt sick knowing that I had been reducing some of the men I encountered in this way, denying the fullness of their humanity and their being beloved sons of God. But after the initial sting, the Lord began what will no doubt be a long healing process, and thanks to Confession and a newfound awareness of habits of speech and thought that tend to objectification, I’m hopeful that I’m on the road to truly seeing, not reducing, the men I encounter.
In conclusion:
Objectification is the easy way out. It saves us from having to deal with the gray area, with the mysteriousness of one another’s humanity, with imperfections in ourselves and others, with the messiness inherent in living in a world marked by sin. It also prevents us from truly knowing the beauty and glory inherent in each Image of God we encounter. Put simply: objectification is a flight from Reality. And you know how I feel about staying rooted in Reality.
If you’re reading this and find yourself nodding in agreement, please join me this year in praying for the grace to resist the temptation to objectify ourselves and others. Let’s make 2014 the year of seeing and loving. What do you say?
I’ll let CS Lewis take us home:
“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour…There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.Andour charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy almost in the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.” (from The Weight of Glory, emphasis mine)
No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God
1 Samuel 2:2
For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.
Titus 2:11
He who created us from the beginning, He love us so much that He wants to live in us, even live out through us #shine #god #jesus #holyspirit #christianrepost #typegang #blessed #brushlettering #lettering #christian #biblequote #typematters #handmade #handtype
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Summertime Sunshine!
Look, here comes my Archangel!
Hello October
Welcome into the month of October. Drumroll . It’s been ten months in the years but by God’s grace, we are still standing. I absolutely love the month of October because of the change of season and that gentle reminder that the year is drawing to an end. Also, so many people I know are born in this month and it’s a time to celebrate the amazing people that God has placed in my life.
October is…
The Believer’s Conduct
The Believer’s Conduct
Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope that you are all doing well. It’s yet another day in the month of August. In today’s blog post, I will be sharing some Bible Study notes with you all. I pray that as you take the time to read these notes, that you will be ministered to in Jesus name.
Theme: Believer’s Conduct Part 1: Addressing our Walk
The Contemporary Culture: Our culture today makes it…
The Instruction
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19-20
Repentance is a word that is so often used among believers but yet still misunderstood. We interpret repentance as saying “I’m sorry” or turning away from a particular sin. According to scripture, true repentance is urged by “godly sorrow,” and it…
The Gathering
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. -Hebrews 10:25
It all began one Sunday in May when a member of my church and I were talking after service. It was my first time talking to this brother in my church by the name of Tobi. We were just talking about our journey with the Lord as he…
The Journey
Scripture: As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” -Luke 9:57
One of the greatest yet life changing decisions, we will ever have to make in this life is accepting Jesus as Our personal Lord and Savior. Accepting Jesus as our Personal Lord and Savior is a choice. Scripture tells us in John 3:16 that “For God so loved the world that he gave his…
Peace Like A River
Peace Like A River
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. -Isaiah 26:3
Happy Sunday everyone. I hope that you are doing well on this beautiful day. It’s been quite of a day because I was celebrating someone special in my life. God gave me this gift of a sister some years ago and I am grateful. I was glad to celebrate the life of my sister today. It’s been an…
Hello July
Welcome into the sweet month of July. I am so excited for all that the Lord has in stored for this month and the rest of the year. For now, let us just bask at mere fact that we have crossed over to see yet another month. I am grateful to the Lord for His goodness, love, mercies and continuous kindness upon my life. So we are in July and there’s a song that has been springing forth from within me…
The Crossroads
Today I cried at exactly 10:53am. Interestingly enough, the sun shined but the rain poured to show consolation; reminding me that I wasn’t alone. I woke up filled with joy amidst this blazing heat that wouldn’t even introduce the slightest breeze my way. Still yet, I still sipped on my water and carried through the early morning until I read a text message. You see, I received this text message…
The Journey ♂️
It’s been seventy-two months and 2,192 days. A whole six years to be exact when I made the decision to get baptized on a faithful Wednesday. My heart is full and I can’t help but smile. I remember this day like it was yesterday when I got dressed and ready for church. I was excited but a little nervous because I didn’t know how the experience of my head being held in water would feel like but the…
Hello June
Welcome into the month of June. I don’t know about you but I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and filled with so much joy, I cannot even explain it. The birds arose with a new song as early as 4am as the wind blew. My day was great and spent serving my awesome customers at work. There is something sweet about new beginnings and on days like this, I can’t help but smile and give thanks to…
Dear Graduate
To the graduating class of 2021, I salute you. A big congratulations . You have made it this far and it is an honor to celebrate you all. Eleanor Roosevelt once said “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” The truth is, you believed, and soared high like an eagle despite the challenges you faced. Today, I rejoice with you. For the day you long awaited has…
The Comforter
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 2 Corinthians 1-3-5
When I think of the word…
Immeasurable Love
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither 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 8:38-39
When I think about the love of God, I am so amazed at how God loves us so much. What a joy it is to be known…
Days Like This
Welcome into Day 17 of 365 days. It’s a new week and I hope that it has started off on a good note for you all. Earlier in the day, someone shared this message with me and I thought of sharing it with you. I pray that as you read, that are encouraged.
What is your day like today?
There are days when we feel like Paul; we just want to write letters and strengthen our brothers.
There are days…
Hello January
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” -Isaiah 43:19
Happy New Year . Welcome into day 1 of 365. It’s a new day. It’s our year of new beginnings, plentiful harvest, overflow of testimonies and all things are working for the children belonging to the Lord. It is also the year where the Lord will…
The Map
The Map, written by Aderonke Awonusi and produced by Seun Adejumobi was released on December 24th, 2021. The movie starring Kayode Owojori, Toyosi Salako, Seun Adejumobi, Ayo Folabi, and Oluwaseyi Pedro tells the story of a professor who is in urgent need of the cure to a disease know as Lakuma, that has spread rampantly, killing so many souls. Professor Dan, has tried to find the cure, working…
Last night’s @datekg36 sharing was about getting to know the “Helper” - God has sent to us (the “Comforter”, “Advocate”, “Intercessesor”, “Strengthener”, “Standby” ~#John 14:26), whom we know by the name: #HolySpirit.
Christians’ challenge is no longer on how to differentiate what’s good or bad; instead, to know exactly which idea is our own idea, and which is God’s idea. What would God’s idea be like?
Lead night message shared by our leader, @paulleeman, taught us several characteristics of #GodsIdea:
1. It is never about our own selfish goals,
2. It is not opposite of the principles of God’s Kingdom,
3. It is not opposite of God’s plan and purpose for us,
4. It is not always easy,
5. It is achieavable and possible to happen,
6. It takes our own #faith to pursue,
7. It does not have to be liked by everybody,
8. It is for the long run (not for the short-term purpose), to the point of afterlife.
(at Kondominium Menara Kelapa Gading)
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Heavenly Father,
Thank You for being rich in love and being slow to anger. Help us to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness and patience, Humble us so we become meek, help us so we may be gentle.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for being with us, thank You for comforting us with Your rod and staff. Help us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to You. Help us to worship You in Spirit and in truth for this is true and proper worship.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
