beauty

Beautiful

This world searches and longs for beauty. For both men and women, there are hair care, skin care, body care, make-up, etc., notbeauty2 to mention clothes, shoes, and accessories all designed to create beauty. The problem is that we have become so dependent on these things that we tend to cover up our authenticity and block our true light from shining through, conforming to how the world thinks we should be, suppressing and denying our weaknesses and faults, and or putting blame on others. We try so hard to cover up our blemishes and scars, but we forget that diamonds have flaws and scars are our beauty marks. It’s those imperfections that make us perfect and genuine, yet still, we try so hard to cover them up. These emotional, mental, and even physical scars and or flaws prove not only our existence, but our very strength and livelihood.

Solomon says that beauty3everything has been made beautiful in its time. This means that those things you call anything but beautiful, if you let the great Artist work, in its time it will reflect His beauty and majesty. Peel away all those layers; remove your veil; take off the mask; wipe off the make-up, and see yourself as God sees you, beautiful, because God don’t make no junk. God called everything He made good and David explains how the Creator actually took time and thought into forming us, and did so wonderfully. Though we have our “unattractive” things about us in whatever aspect, God knew what He was doing when He formed us; He didn’t make a mistake, though we make them constantly, because of our flaws, often times resulting in scars.

He made it beautiful in its time, which proves He already has a plan of how He willingly desires, with His grace and mercy, to transform those “ugly” things into a gorgeous masterpiece. If you are bold enough, I dare you to trust Him and lay it all at His feet and watch Him work. He is beauty. Don’t believe me? Read about the accounts of Heaven and the new Earth, or just look at the vast variety of nature in its richest and rarest forms or within humanity alone. If He can initiate all that within a matter of six days using only His words, if you allow, I think He has every ability to in His time, take all of your mistakes, imperfections, scars, flaws and all, emotional, mental, and physical, and turn them into something majestic and marvelous, full of life, color, and dimension.

Be beautiful. Be you for a purpose and let your beauty radiate.

Proof of God’s Existence

 Have you ever just walked outside felt the breath of the sun, or just looked outside and were serenaded by the melody of the rain? Have you looked in amazement at the beauty of a flower, or witness the growth of child from birth? Well I have and you know what? I refuse to believe in evolution. Now let me say, the purpose of this post is not to debate evolution versus creation using all the studies and scientific hooplah. Rather just from what I have seen and been exposed to on my short time here on Earth, the majesty of a Great Designer astonishes me.

Recently, I have seen documentaries and videos on big cats and flowers. To see how they live and operate, gaze into their instincts, and understand what they are and perform accordingly. It amazes me that people can really believe that the intricacies of their survival is proof of a big bang billions of years prior. To see the migration of the monarchs, the pollination of flowers by the hands of hummingbirds, bees, and bats, or the hunting mechanisms of a cheetah, lion, or leopard, is nothing short of beauty to behold. To see the metamorphis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, the transformation of the green summer leaves to reads, oranges, yellows, and browns as a sign of the season change, or the loveliness of icicles covering winter trees after a storm, I can’t help but fall in love all over again with the God that created them.

I see a lot of pictures on Facebook and from time to time I look into travel magazines and see the variety of beauty in other parts of the world, places I can help but dream to visit one day. For example go to El Rosario, Mexico to see the butterfly sanctuary, the Netherlands to visit the tulip fields, Mindanao, Philippines to behold the vivid colors of a rainbow eucalyptus tree, or to Montana to pick up a colored stone from Pebbles Stone Lake.

Furthermore, over the last year, I have had the opportunity to fly, and let me say it is so breathtaking to be side-by-side the majestic white clouds or fly amongst the brilliant stars of the night sky. Likewise, I am a lover of fresh fruit, and I am always so anxious to eat and to taste new fruits and embrace its sweet taste and unique texture, and be mesmerized by the deep and rich colors. Even still, just considering the abilities of the human brain, there is no way that it could have evolved from some blessed ape or that I just came into existence by chance.

When I consider all this, it’s proof of God’s existence, not His absence. Over and over in Psalms, the write speaks of how creation displays the glory of God and Paul claims that anyone who looks at nature has no excuse for not believing in God, and I couldn’t agree more. I’m thoroughly convinced that believing in evolution requires more faith than creation. I mean seriously, there is far too much detail in the existence of each and every life form or millions of species of plants, flowers, insect, fish, animals, even the plethora of variety of people, that is all could come from one random cell billions of years ago.

All in all, if you ever doubt God’s existence, or you wonder if her cares about you, I challenge you to walk outside and take hold the nature, the birds singing, the water rushing into the stream, the feel of sand or dirt beneath your feet, the coolness of the wind that you can’t see, or sit beneath the stars. God over and over has shown me His love for me through His creation; let Him love you too.

To Be a Woman

Being a woman, there is nothing like it. For so many reasons I can say that I am so happy that God created and chose that I be a female, although I can’t lie, because there are times I wonder what my life would be like if I was a man. Nonetheless, as a woman, we have so much at our feet. Just on a superficial level, I am proud to be a woman because of all the option in make-up, hair, accessories, clothes, shoes; men don’t have those option to choose flats or heels, short or long dress, studs or chandelier earrings, or a bronzy or colorful eyeshadow look.

As a woman, we are what the man is not, soft, delicate, feminine, tolerant, the voice of reason, nurturing. We were made differently, we think differently, we give and receive love differently, we feel differently, and we operate just in a whole other dimension than men. Now is that to say that sometimes things don’t overlap, of course not, because we are each unique, various personalities, cultures, education levels, desires, interests, strengths, weaknesses, gifts, and talents.

In today’s society, women are often times scene as sexual beings with little intelligence or intellect, but I beg to differ. Yes, we are sexual creatures, and done in God’s design, we are to use our sexuality to bring pleasure to our husbands. However, God gave us a mind, reason and emotion to make up for what a man can’t produce. In ministry alone, it is said that a 75% of ministries that fail, fail because a man didn’t listen or take the advice of his lady. James Brown wrote the lyrics “it’s a man’s world, but it would be nothing without a woman or a girl,” and I’m sure you heard the statement, “behind every good man is a great woman.” You see, we are women, we hold so much power that many of us fail to realize. The insight we have to offer, the wisdom, the finesse, the awe factor, the extra something, the “it” factor, that’s who we are. God created us to keep this world going. What we are given we turn it into something great, whether taking a sperm and making a baby, a house and turning it into a home, or a smile and create a love that won’t falter.

In the same breath, we are the backbone. We are the neck, which means we have the ability to turn the head any way we want, with discretion of course. I just love being a woman. God has a special place in His heart for women, just look through the Song of Solomon. God has a special purpose for his princesses, his daughters and he wants them to stand up and rise up for what He wants to accomplish that requires a woman’s touch. Have you noticed that even in prayer, yes it’s great to heat men pray, but it’s like the heavens open when women cry out to God in only the way only they can.

As a woman, there are perks that I love, like having doors opened, having meals paid for, being pampered because that is a lady. If nothing else, if God allows, we have the opportunity to give birth, that in and of itself is a miracle.

I just want to encourage women to be proud and confident in your womanhood. There is enough bad press going around, it is time for women to be bold and release the power locked inside and break free from the chains and bondage so many of us are trapped in, which was not God’s intention. God created you for such a time as this, recognize your place and acknowledge your womanly role and function at home, in work, in ministry. It’s all worth it. You are worth it. You are the gem of man, and to let any man or any other person or thought to creep and tell you otherwise is destroying what God purposed and undermining what He feels for you and what he has called you to be.

Ugly

So I started speaking about it on Facebook, but this is the better medium to get out all I wanted to say. Anyway, today has been very dramatic for me, although it is more internal than external, specifically because nothing happened to me directly. Still, my heart is heavy.

As you may have heard, the new Miss America is Indian. Yesterday I saw her and I thought she was pretty and kept it moving on to the next story. Then today, I hear that her ethnicity is some big controversy and people are calling her Arab. First of all she she is Indian (whether that is India-American or Native American I don’t know), which means she is NOT Arab, but even if she is, so what!. It’s disheartening to see the hatred people have in their hearts even in this day and age just because of skin-color. I’ll be honest and say that I am very sensitive, so to be her or any celebrity at that I can understand why so many succumb to drugs, alcohol, and move from one bed to the next so quickly. People are mean and ruthless and whoever said “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words do not hurt me,” was disillusioned. Words penetrate deeper and hang around longer than any punch or bullet. All in all, the heart of the matter is the heart of the matter, and some people are so lost in their own bitterness, hate, and ignorance it’s discouraging.

Then on top of that, very rarely do I watch the news, if for no other reason, it’s 97% negative and national or local, given the area I live in, and it’s easy to get depressed just hearing all the conspiracies, violence, wars, death, broken children, and so forth. This world is so dark, just considering all that is going on in Syria and then the Navy Base, things are chaotic and and just crazy, so much in so it’s hard to live and feel safe.

Also, I have already done a study on world religions, but today I was in a class of the same thing. The Bible talks about the wide and windy road that many travel, but there are few on the straight and narrow. Today that truth was again magnified, in that so many are lost and blinded. The enemy, the Father of Lies as Jesus called him, is on the prowl as he has been since the garden. He is pouring his lies into whoever chooses to listen. As an Angel of Light as Paul calls him, some of his lies sound so close to truth, but as children of God we have to be equipped enough to know his lie and know the truth of God’s Word, but most importantly be able to share it with others.

More heartbreaking than those, are all the stories I’ve read about, seen, and heard about children and youth, between abuse, abortion, suicide, teen pregnancy, lack of educational resources, and the filth in a lot of mainstream media, television and music. One could easily say my generation and the one behind me is dying emotionally, mentally, and physically. These young lives are conditioned to feel they aren’t loveable, they aren’t worth anything, they don’t matter, they have no purpose in life, and they look for truth, belonging, and love in all the wrong places. Their dreams are laughed at and trampled upon and aren’t given a chance to succeed or the hope of a bright and meaningful future.

This world is dark and this world is ugly, which only makes Jesus breathtakingly beautiful. Purpose, love, acceptance, and identity come from Christ alone. As one of my favorite songs says “Jesus is the answer for the world today,” and that’s what purpose is all about. It’s about a willing heart of a person making him or herself available to use the gifts,talents, dreams, and visions the Lord has given specifically to you to share and promote the light and beauty of Jesus Christ. So if you are reading this, know that the world so eagerly needs you and that your purpose is bigger than life. If you allow Him, God will take the very least you may have and do something remarkably wonderful if you say yes. The harvest, just from what I said prior, is plenty, your purpose is to be a laborer in whatever form God wills to gather the harvest for His kingdom. Wake up!! There is no time to waste on frivolous things and matters that won’t matter one year from now. We can’t live selfishly because this world is perishing right under our noses and for those of us that know the love of Jesus, it is sin for us to do nothing about it! The world is eagerly waiting for the sons and daughters of God to stand up and rise up (Romans 8:19). We have the remedy to the world’s sickness, so go give it away.

So I encourage you, live on purpose. Speak on purpose. Learn on purpose. Share on purpose. Give on purpose. Love on purpose. Do on purpose. Be on purpose. There is no better time than now.

I pray God burden’s your heart for the condition of the world and your respective communities.

Jewel of the Garden: Woman

The more I hear and think about the story of creation and consider all the characters and flowergemthe events that took place, the more I am fascinated by the creation of women. I’d like to think of us, women, as the Jewels of the Garden. Unfortunately, in today’s world it’s hard to feel that beauty and value, when it is often times measured by the superficial. However, God knew what He was doing when He created woman. He had a special purpose for woman that makes her so unique, which is why as women, we have to find our identity in Christ alone, so that our greater purpose can be fulfilled. He already has proven his love, in that he loved us enough to die for us, therefore, we should love him enough to live for him. Nonetheless, the whole story of the creation of woman shows what David meant in Psalm 139, and how we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

To start off, I read a book by a great author named Donald Miller. In this book he laid out the events that took place before God brought Eve to Adam. First, He created the world, then He created man. However, the point he made was that right after God created him, He put him to work. He told Adam that he was to work it and watch over Eden, and on top of that to name all the animals…ALL of them (Genesis 2:15-19). Can you imagine how long that would have taken. Think about all the animals, in the land, water, and sky. More so, all of them had mates…except Adam. The interesting thing is that even before God told him to name the animals, He promised Adam that He’d give him a suitor, because it wasn’t good to be alone. I don’t think Adam quite understood the significance of what the Lord had promised, until he began to see the mates of each creature and how they complemented each other. Thus, seeing pair after pair, and watching their interactions, he was probably more excited to receive his. It had to be a very long process. Think about it, naming everything, then after a while you have to make sure you don’t use the same name, and then having to classify the types of creatures.

gems5So, when Adam was finally finished working, God put him to sleep. It was then that He took from Adam’s side, his rid, not the ground, and formed Eve. I heard my dad preach one time, that in pulling out from Adam, to created Eve, He took all that was feminine out of man and produced woman. This explains why there is such the connection between male and female; the very make up of a woman He took out of man. As a result, how do you think Adam felt when He first saw and met Eve? I would think excited, in awe, but most of all appreciative. I think he recognized the undeniable value and irreplaceable blessing of the gift God had given him, and the uncompromising purpose he saw within her. So if Adam felt this way about Eve and appreciated her ever so much, why would a woman settle for a man that treats and feels about her any differently? God’s purpose was never that a woman be abused, taken for granted, mistreated, and or neglected by any man. You are the precious jewel of the garden, God knew it and Adam knew it. David O. McKay said it best:

“Women were created from the rib of man to be beside him, not from his head to top him, nor from his feet to be trampled by him, but from under his arm to be protected by him, near to his heart to be loved by him.”

God already called you beautiful (Song of Songs 4:7) and truly takes delight and sings about you (Zephaniah 3:17). You are like a jewel in His crown. Do you know your worth?