I can honestly say that right now and throughout this past year that I am probably going through the worst storm of my life, and I know that’s saying much because I’m young and still have so many years ahead, but this is something I’ve been feeling and I feel this way because of everything that’s been happenening to me at once. I know I’m not the greatest person and I don’t know much about blogging, in fact I feel as if I’m doing a horrible job sometimes and the only reason I keep coming back is because I think of how maybe I have something that may be of a blessing to share with others. And with this post I just want to share how Jesus has been a light in my dwelling place. My new pastor, Pastor Ross had recently preached on the topic of never letting our lamps go out and it just really hit a soft spot with me and got me to thinking how my light has been getting dimmer and dimmer. My first thought was how can I get my dim light to shine again, Pastor Ross quickly answered this when he went on to say how in order to have a lamp, you must know the light. At first I thought well of course I know the light it’s Jesus and I’ve been faithfully going to church like I’m supposed to, but then the holy spirit started getting onto me about my devotion and bible reading/study time and how I’ve been lacking and yeah I can blame it on the fact that I’ve been busy with work, but that’s not even good enough of an excuse. This could very much be one of the reaon of my light getting dimmer. I really need to be on top of these things, maybe even setting a reminder in my phone. But I wanted to share with you how having a light is in important not only in my life but maybe yours too. Not only do you have to have the light, you have to be the light in the darkness, because their may be someone watching you to see how you react to a problem. And how you do react to things can say a lot about your character (2 Corinthians 5:20). Having a light means you are complete in Him, no matter what happens and what comes your way, you are humble and complete in Him. Just the thought of knowing that I’m saved through His blood gets me everytime, because having that part of Him in me means so much to me. I know there will more problems and trials to come, but knowing that I can lean on and depend on Himm, makes me joyful. And you can be happy in the darkest of times if you just turn the light on.
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Here are just a few goals that I have come up with for my family, but keep in mind that some of my family members have never went to church with me, which brings me to my first goal: 1. To start going to church
Maybe if they started going to church, I wouldn’t feel so left out sometimes or it would be easier for me because I wouldn’t have to depend on another church member to come pick me up, not that I’m grateful to whomever does. But I don’t want them to go just for my selfish motives, but so that we could go as a family like other families do. Ephesians 2:19 2. Salvation I want nothing more than to see all my family to be saved. Acts 16:13 3. To build a foundation of faith in God I always pray that whatever my family goes through(problems) would bring them closer to God, but honestly going through any problems, you have to have faith in God. And I can see that a lot of my family has either lost faith or have no faith in God whatsoever. Proverbs 12:7 4. To be more involved Not only more involved in God or the ministry, but involved in each other’s lives. It hurts to know that my parents have no idea what major I’m studying or what the name of the college that I even go to is. Proverbs 22:6 5. And last but not least is for all of us to love each other as God would want us to. 1 Peter 1:22 / 1 Peter 4:8 I had the greatest oppurtunity three years ago to attend North Valley’s Youth Conference, but what happened there was beyond a blessing. Monday Night on June 24th my life changed and for the better, before it was filled with pain and doubt, but now that’s all gone. All because of one person, I was lost and alone but then my Jesus Christ came into my heart and made me whole. I did not grow up in a Christian home but God was still able to get a hold of me, with the help of the bus minsitry and others investing their time and money in me, which allowed me to the option to go to Youth Conference in the first place. It started that night with gaining the knowledge that I needed Christ in my life, the Pastor that was giving the word that night haad invited us to willingly come to the alter, I was scared, but my Youth Pastor wife was there to help lead me to the alter where there I proffessed my sins and ask for forgiveness. After the conference, the whole ordeal had seemed surreal, as if it couldn’t be true. But slowly day by day, I started to see God’s mighty hand upon my life and now I am a sophmore at bible college. Sure I still struggle with a lot of things, but I’m not alone through any of it, and God has been good. I stopped doing a lot of things, it was hard, but God made it possible and I have been blessed through it all.
–Charmaine Washington Who is Deborah? Is she some famous lady? Should I know her? Why should I be like her? All questions that probably passed through your mind as you read the title of this blog. I’m in the middle of doing my bible study, and thought it would be great if I made this particular subject into a blog. I have to be up front and tell you though, this blog is mainly for the ladies, so I guess this is goodbye to all the confused men who are still reading this despite the title and the fact that deborah is a girl’s name. I mean you could probably make Deborah into a man’s name, but I don’t see how that would work out. My bible study is in the book of Judges, chapters 4 & 5, if you haven’t read the story, than I suggest that you should. I will give a brief overview of what it’s about though. The main characters are Deborah and Barak, at a time where Ehud dies and Israel turns away from God and falls into sin again, and is conquered by Jabin, the king of Canaan. Deborah, a prophetess and one of the twelve judges – Girl Power! – tells Barak, that God commands him to build up an army and fight Jabin’s army. She promises that God will give him victory. Barak then goes on to say that he will only go to battle if only she comes along. Do you think she agrees?
She does! Then she goes on to say,”…notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” This is the part where I think we could learn a thing or two about Deborah, because first off there was no hesitation at all. Someone who doesn’t hesitate to call others in God’s name to do the will and work of Him, shouldn’t hesitate and always be ready to do it themselves. Secondly, a true prophet of God only preaches Gods word, notice how earlier what Deborah said, and everything before that was of the Lord. I believe in order for prophets to recieve His word, they have to be in His word. How is your relationship with God? When Deborah delivers His word to the people, she never added her own opinions, suggestions or ideas. She preached only what “The Lord hath commanded.” As godly christian women, we may often have others come to us for advice or maybe we teach a Sunday School class or hold devotions. It’s important that as role models we never twist scriptures into our own words or make anything self-centered. Especially in a world that tries to water down the Word of God. Barak ends up leading his 10,000 men against Sisera’s army, including 900 chariots of iron. Barak’s army kills every last one of Sisera’s men – except Sisera. This holds yet another lesson for us. Deborah respected God’s order for men and women. I’m pretty sure Deborah held the respect of the Israelites, as they did come to her for help (Judges 4:5). Despite being the judge and law-giver, she did not rule the nation. Barak led the army into battle, not her, she agreed to join him on the trip but she stayed back on Mount Tabor. So often we forget our places, even as a woman. We were made to stand behind our spouse, pastor, or any male leader. I know most of you may not agree with me on this, since so many fight to have the same roles as men or to work in the workplace like them, and believe me we can do that, but we must also obey a command. And God commanded us to be submissive, Deborah was jut that and she did it humbly to God’s plan and wisdom over her own. Rather seeking her own glory and telling Barak that she’ll do it herself, she allowed him to do it and encouraged him as she stood behind him. And yes it is known that other judges fought in battles. This also shows that she was obediant and faithful, she showed faith in knowing and trusting in God to bring the victory. And he did, and yet after all this Deborah gives God all the glory. Judges 5 is a song of praise and worship to the Lord. We are so quick to give ourselves a pat on the back and forget to give God praise. (Judges 5:7) I don’t have kids, shoot I’m just a single bible college student, but Deborah embraced her role as the mother of Israel, a whole nation. I don’t know if I could do that, I can barely watch my little seven year-old brother at times, but Deborah took on being the mother of Israel, again without no hesitation. Can you imagine being in charge of a whole nation, I wouldn’t know where to start, I’d be lost. Deborah though followed God and led her children, and helped them to put their faith in God over their enemies. In doing this, she is an example to us godly women and men nowadays, she had compassion and the love for the Israelites. And I’m pretty sure it took patience to take on such a role. Her strength came from God and she was able to help deliver her people. And at the end she glorified God. (Judges 5:31) Wow, can you say a true proverbs 31 lady. I would love to have even an ounce of this woman’s character. I do believe that we could learn a lot from her. Proverbs 31:25-31 Hi everyone, So I just got back from my first single’s conference and honestly it was amazing! No, I did not go looking for a husband or of any kind of relationship as you would think. I went in the hopes of learning something new, and I have to say it was far beyond my expectations. The theme of the conference was ‘Dare to Take up Your Cross’. I learned what that meant, that the cross represents self-denial and taking up your cross means your denying yourself and living to please God. Today I see in this day and world, how so many Christians claim that they want to serve Christ but are still so filled up with themselves. When people look at me, I always want them to see Christ in me, because we need to understand that through us we may be the only bible that others might see. How can we do that if we’re so filled up with ourselves? The cross means suffering, a lot of us have suffered from something once or twice in our lives, but I think as Christians it can be a little harder, not that being a Christian means we are any diffeerent or better, but that there will be times where we are tempted to give up because not serving Christ may be a lot easier. For example, I go to bible college that doesn’t accept loans, we have to pay cash out of our own pockets, sure you may think ‘get a job’, but you see I can’t because I suffer from a blood disorder that keeps me from getting a job. I could just easily drop out of bible college and go to a different college that accepts loans, but that is not God’s will for my life. Bible college is and I am tempted to give up but after this conference I am willing to suffer if that means taking up my cross, because Jesus didn’t give up on the cross either. But can you say that through your suffering, you can rejoioce? What good would come out of me moping about how my blood disorder holds me back from doing what I want in life, how would anyone ever see Christ in me? Don’t be filled up with yourself and your sufferings, focus on how God can use you for his glory. (Romans 8:1-18) The cross means surrender and victory. We must learn to give up to get the glory. Are you willing to give up your life for Jesus? June 24th, marks the day that I will have been saved for three years now, by the way if you come back on that day, I will post about my salvation testimony. Anyways within those three years I like to believe that I have given up so much, so much that it made me question my God and my faith. It made think was any of it worth it, well I’m here to tell you it is, you may not understand it, but surrendering for God means we get the glory. (Matthew 16:25)
There where a lot of other things that I learned that I hope I myself and you may take into consideration. Like how we should never ask God why, but ask Him what for. Our expectations and plans are never the plans He may have for us. (Romans 8:28) How we should ask God for a Timothy, basically this meaning be a role model for others. Another thing was how we should be patient during trials. (Romans 12:12) And how sometimes we can’t move forward as young adults because of our shame from our youth. (Isaiah 54:1-4) It was just so much to take in and it was just a big blessing to go and hear the preaching, fellowship and have fun with the aactivities. There will be one next year on May 4-6, if your interested in coming, feel free to contact me. Thank you for taking the time in reading my blog! It has been four years now since I’ve started playing the guitar and along the way I’ve started to learn to read music, play the piano and violin, and even gotten a little music theory in. I would do all this in the hopes of becoming a better musician and maybe using my talents to play for the church. I think though that I may have started becoming obsessed with it, I would compare myself with others or get mad when I didn’t progress the way I wanted to. And I think that’s where it started to become a problem, you see a lot of us have talents, whether it’s public speaking, music, art, teaching, counseling and so on. We will try to work hard at being the best we can even if we don’t realize it and that’s not a bad thing, but it could be if we don’t recognize that our talents are a gift from God. You may say, well of course I know my talent is a gift from God, but do you know that God has given us gifts to use for the purpose of serving him and others. A lot of us need to realize that our talents are not ours alone, Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25:14-30 KJV; that we must use our talents wisely, for what God has given, he can take away. Despite every thing that I have wrote about, this is not what I wanted to focus on, although you should take into account every word that I have written. The title of this blog is called, “Rooted and Built Up in Him.” Everything we have, all our money, cars and house, will all pass away one day, and none of those things will matter when you face the judgement seat. Maybe you know this already and your probably thinking what does any of this have to do with each other, using our talents wisely and knowing that our treasures on earth won’t matter when we pass away. I guess I just want you to realize that your talents too won’t matter either, do you think in Heaven we will need pastors or Sunday School teachers, so how come we all invest so much in our talents? We spend our time trying to become better musicians or teachers, when we should focus all that time on our Lord and Saviour. Colossians 2:4-7 is the bible verse that is meant for this blog, the Apostle Paul teaches us the importance of Christian living. We should seek continual growth in Christ alone. Just as the tree roots go deep in the earth, so should our faith and doctrine in our Lord, would you be ready if someone questioned you about the bible? Are you rooted and built up in Him? Do you have fruits of rightouesness to show? Are you growing in the Lord just as the branches do on the trees?
Usually when we fast, we go days or a week without food. Today is the first day of my #SocialMediaFast, I decided that instead of going without food, I’d go without social media for thirty days. You may or may not know why I chose to go without social media for a month or if I could even do it. But you should stop and think for a moment how much of your time do you spend every day on social media or just interacting on a screen? Acccording to statistics, the average person aged 18-34 spends about 3.8 hours per day on social networks. That’s just social neworks, what about texting and phone calls. I often wonder how my generation and the younger generation could survive if they were to be put in an era where there was no cellphones, computers, or wifi. Did you know that these things could be an addiction. As a Christian, I wouldn’t want anything keeping me from my Saviour Jesus Christ. So this is why I decided to do the #SocialMediaFast and I’m hoping that you would either join me or follow me along this journey to see how it goes. I will be postng every Thursday afternoon about my challenge. I’m not doing this challenge for more views or likes but simply because I don’t want to be that Christian who reaches over to check my phone first before reaching out to grab my bible. I want God to always be my main focus in life and you should too.
How is your relationship with God like? Is it good or bad? Do you spend time with Him as often as you should?
Whenever our relationship with others are struggling, it could be because of something that may be the problem, in other cases it could not be because of something but someone, it could be you, you yourself could be the problem. Our sins sometimes is not what is keeping us from having a relationship with God, but we ourselves can be the problem. You are as close to God as you choose to be (James 4:8). Well you say, how is that? I want nothinig but to be close to God. Are you doing everything you can to acheive that? Do you read your bible daily? Do you go soulwinning? Do you spend time with Him in prayer? You know our relationship with others reflects who we are, it defines us. When we tend to hang around certan people for a certain amount of time, we start to act like them, talk and think like them. Imagine if people saw Christ in us, because our relationship with Him is as it should be. But, is there enough of Him in us, in you? The defition of enough is defined as as much or as many as required. The holy spirit inside yearns and desire to live a life that is pleasing to God, the only way to do that though is if we are walking on the right path and doing what we are supposed to. So are you close enough or not close at all? You know day by day God is with us, God is for us, so why do we continue to sin? Is it because we know that our Fathter in heaven will forgive us everytime and sure we could blame it on our lustful flesh. Or can we really? Of course we are humans and with that comes the flesh, and it’s moments. But if you are saved and I hope you are, with our salvation comes the Holy Spirit. The holy spirit plays many roles in our lives, in Romans 8 it tells us that with the spirit, it helps us to stop sinning and do things that is pleasing unto the Lord. The spirit within us thirsts and hungers, are you feeding it with what it wants, if not then maybe that is why we allow ourselves to fall into temptation. And maybe you’re not saved, we are still human, and humans don’t hurt someone they love or someone that loves them. Our Father in heaven loves us dearly, so why keep doing something that is hurting him? Do you not care who you may hurt? Do you even have values or morals? If you’re reading this, just know that I’m not trying to make you feel bad, I’m just trying to make you understand. Because I do care and I may not know who you are or will I ever meet you, but I sincerely care about my readers. I can’t imagine someone that doesn’t care if peole around them are going to Hell or is destroying their lives with sin. The scripture says that sin poses a threat to us all. It deceives (Hebrews 3:13), by assuring us pleasures. Pleasures that won’t last, it may make you happy for a moment, but some moments don’t last a lifetime. Can you imagine a moment that has lasted as long as you wanted it to, sure you can try to make it last, but believe me the hype will die down. Sin defiles us and compromises our relationship with God (Isaiah 59:2). Sin deadens, I remember about a week or two ago this certain message I had heard in church, about how if we keep sinning, our heart starts to harden making the sin okay in our own eyes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a harden heart. I want a soft, caring heart that will live on for Jesus. Sin destroys, sin that is left unrepented of and unforgiven, leaves a door open for the devil to walk through and the wrath of God upon us. God being mad at me even for a second scares me much more than anything the devil could do to me, because He is the creator of all things and oversees everything. I want God’s grace in my life. Day by day and with each passing moment, God is always with us, even when you think He’s not, He loves us, He is for us. Why else would He send His only beloved, sinless Son to die on the cross for us. Ask God to give you the strength that you need to overcome any temptation or sin in your life. Reach out to Him as much as He is reaching out to you!
Hello,
How is your day going so far? Great I would hope so, but honestly is it really great or is that just something that you may say because you don’t want to tell someone how your day may really be going. I get that people shouldn’t come off as someone who has a bad day and wants everyone to know it. And I get that we all do tend to have bad days or a bad week, but your bad days shouldn’t put you in a bad mood. Times can be hard and you will have setbacks, you will get discouraged, everyone does. Failure though is only defined as giving up, not by having setbacks, difficulties or discouragements, so remain committed and trust in Him. We live each day in His grace and a lot of us tend to forget that, even I do. It is a privilege that we even get to live each day, it is through those hard times though when we really take note of God and His mercy, it shouldn’t be like that. We ought to wake up everyday with heaven on our mind and joy in our hearts, knowing that He is in control. Because He is and He is a great God who knows what’s best for us, your bad day may be a preparation for other days down the road or someone who you may inspire. God promises to make something good out of the storms in our life. (Romans 8:28) So don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is and keep on keepin’ on! Well I wish I had more to say but honestly the message of this blog is simple, trust in Him to get you through each day even the good ones! I hope you’ve gotten something from this today, I would love to know so please feel free to leave comments. |
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Charmaine accepted Christ at the age of 19, and now attends Golden State Baptist College in Santa Clara, CA. Where she is pursuing her Associate’s Degree in General Education. Archives
October 2020
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