Ignorance is not bliss

I’m sure we’ve all heard the expression “ignorance is bliss” at some point, or ”What you don’t know can’t hurt you.”  I wish this were true, but unfortunately not only what you don’t know can hurt you, but even what you know, and what you think you know, can and will hurt you.  The whole world, in fact, is designed to hurt you.  The only thing we have on this earth that is guaranteed to protect us rather than harm us is the Word of God (Yahweh).  And the only being in existence who is guaranteed to have our best interests at heart at all times is Yahweh.  Everyone else will betray us at some point, despite their best intentions.

Why is this important?  Because everything is about perspective.  If you don’t have this basic understanding of the way things work, your perspective will be skewed and very little of what you see or what happens to you will make sense to you.  Here’s the thing… God is good. Period.  Everything and everyone else will judge himself according to the degree to which he agrees with that statement.  If you know that you know that He is good, you will seek to know Him better and you will make wise decisions more often than not.  If you doubt Him, you will be worthy of doubt yourself.  No matter how “good” you try to be, you will fail unless you believe that only He knows what good is, and that only He can teach you to be good.

Here’s another little, not-so-secret secret: You are DESIGNED TO FAIL without Him!  There’s absolutely nothing you can do about that… haha.  And I include myself in that.  We were created to flourish in a loving relationship with Him — that is the essence of our nature — so the further we stray from that nature the faster we will fail, a.k.a. die.

In all your getting, get understanding.  Get the proper perspective, now.  You may not like it at first, but just accept it.  Trust (not me, but) Him.  If you want to succeed — to live, love, laugh, flourish – this year and beyond, you have to start off with the right paradigm.  You are not your nose, or your hair or your elbow… you are a spirit, which was born out of His spirit.  You “live”,  frankly, even if you are Beyonce or Michael Jordan, in a pretty limited albeit beautiful body.  But despite your limitations you were created to do something AMAZING, not by yourself, but with your Creator’s help.  (And the help of others He brings into your life.)

So get acquainted with yourself this year.  My pastor said something that struck me as so profound the other night: “You don’t want to live your whole life without ever having met yourself.”  Shazzam!  That was such a powerful revelation to me.  We are so limited on our own that we have no idea who we truly could be — who we truly are now, even — without getting His perspective and looking at ourselves through His eyes.

I have so much more to say but you are not able to bear it now…   We’ll save it for another time.

Your best year yet

Ok folks, a new year means a new start.  Now is the time to declare that it will be your best year yet.  Say it, believe it, then describe what it will look like — spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and financially.  The more detail the better.  I’ve done this for the past 8 years and I’m doing it again this year because it works.  Be excited.  Don’t worry about the economy or who the President is or when we will be out of Iraq… just be positive and make good decisions for your own life.  Everything is going to be alright.

new addiction

I originally joined Facebook strictly for my job, believe it or not.  I’m the online communications manager at a nonprofit, so I have to stay abreast of all the latest technology trends.  At first I hated fb, as its members affectionately abbreviate it, but now that more and more of my friends have found me there, I think it’s time to admit I’m hooked, to my own chagrin.  It’s just so darn convenient… and even fun!  Worse yet, I find myself at several points throughout the day contemplating what my next status update will be — it’s madness, I tell you.  

The reason I bring this up is because I think my blogging has suffered in proportion to my growing fb addiction.  I get my “reach out and touch someone” fix in little snippets throughout the day and then don’t have as much incentive to come back here and write a possibly lengthy blog that may or may not be read or commented on.  Interesting.  I’m not saying I won’t continue to blog — I’m a writer at heart and always will be.  I just go through phases like we all do, and many of them are technology driven because of the world we live in. 

Now I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t get all deep and leave you with a soul-searching question or point of meditation:  Who is navigating your course and determining how you spend the hours of your days?  Is it the media?  Technology?  Your friends?  Your boss?  God?  Whoever yells the loudest?

I confess and trust that my steps are ordered by Yahweh, the lover of my soul and the creator of the universe.  That’s what His Word tells me, and His Word is bond .  But it’s still important to examine myself daily and make sure that I’m not allowing myself to be steered off course.  Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.  I walk with humble purpose and confidence everywhere I go.  There are no accidents or coincidences for me.  What about you?

Thankful

So I know this is totally unoriginal at this time of year, but I just wanted to take some time to be aware and grateful of the many wonderful blessings Yahweh has given me.  Here are just a few.  Feel free to comment with your own thanksgivings and we can all celebrate them together.

I am thankful for…
- My relationship with my Creator, Yahweh, and the revelation of His Name… He breathes, I breathe…
- That I have been made a little “c” creator in His image and likeness, and that I’m beginning to take ownership of that.
- Ahava/love — I will give, I will serve.  Yahweh is ahava, and there is no ahava outside of Him.
- Yahshua (Jesus), the Master, the visible Yahweh who went before me and demonstrated for me how I am to live and love and operate in this life.
- My wonderful husband, who loves me completely and unselfishly, and who is growing into an even better and more attractive man every day.
- Our extremely satisfying marriage, our intimate conversations, our two amazingly beautiful and sweet children, and our bright future together.
- Our truly dedicated pastors and all the teaching and training they’ve poured into us.
- Our wonderful church family, FEF, and the great friends we’ve made there.
- Our excellent health.
- Our natural family, who live a little too far away but still love and support us in so many ways — and the time we do get to spend with them during holidays, vacations, and other special occasions.
- Our “cozy” apartment right on the beach, yet just 45 min. from Manhattan by car!
- My flexible work-from-home schedule and great favor with my supervisors and coworkers.
- The dreams and visions Yahweh has placed in my heart and the continually unfolding adventure of walking them out. 
- Freedom.
- Hugs & kisses.  Laughter.  Good food.  Family traditions.  Diversity.  The joy of learning new things.  The great outdoors.  Sunshine.  Music.  And so much more…  Ahhhhhhhh.  Contentment.

I’m back

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last wrote.  You know what they say: time flies when you’re having fun.  Our trip to FL was wonderful, if a little cold.  The kids so enjoyed seeing their Grandma Jules, and their two uncles, …and Shamu, again.  O and I had two date nights — one of them included probably the best meal I’ve had in about 10 years at this place called Seasons 52.  And we’ve even been keeping up with the date nights since then — not every week, but about every other, which is much better than we were doing before.

Other than that, I’ve thrown myself into the discipleship program at our church, and we’ve been celebrating early holidays, new babies, and more with friends and family.  My job has also been very busy.  I just helped launched a brand new social network for people with diabetes, and it’s pretty cool if I do say so myself.  So I guess it’s easy to see how I let the writing slip for a few weeks…

But now that we’re caught up, I’m going to be writing more than ever.  My pastor has been teaching a lot lately about the importance of getting alone with Yahweh and asking Him for instructions.  It’s so important to know exactly who He created you to be and where you fit into the larger vision/plan for the Body of Moshiach (Messiah).  Although I’ve received plans from Him before, I always like to check back in from time to time as I grow to see if I’m still hearing the same things and to get more specifics on exactly what I should be doing for this particular season in my life.  Yahweh has so much more in store for us than we can even begin to fathom, so He can only show us small pieces at a time in order to not freak us out.  Sometimes the pieces may not even seem to fit together, but the larger our view point becomes with time and steadfastness, the more it all begins to make sense.

Wow, I’m psyching myself up for that alone time with Him even now as I’m writing this.  I just noticed as I was reading in Luke yesterday that Yahshua spent entire nights in prayer alone with His Father — not just at the very end of His mission, but throughout.  Doesn’t seem like that huge a revelation, but knowing my own great love of sleep, I feel pretty convicted and challenged by that knowledge.  More amazing yet is that even after those sleepless nights, He still never sinned!  Yes, He got angry w/the Pharisees and Sadducees, and exposed their hypocrisy publicly, but He still was able to master His tongue and His anger and refrain from sinning.  He remained compassionate for the leaders and the people they were misleading even in the midst of His anger.

That same love and self-control has been given to me.  Righteousness actually means mastery, so Yahshua has been made unto me mastery, along with wisdom, holiness, and redemption.  I’m accountable for all of those things.   I am wise, grateful, anointed, and increasing.

Five years and still going strong

Yesterday Orville and I celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary… ok, actually we started Saturday and will continue through this Friday night.   We’re going to Orlando with the kids (but Grandma will babysit for a couple of the evenings – yes!).  I could go on and on about how wonderful our marriage is, but suffice it to say that after 5 years, O is still my favorite person on the planet by far — and I think that’s pretty awesome.

Harden not your heart

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the Hebrew language before?  It is so rich and deep; there is no other language like it.  Whenever I get stuck on certain concepts in the Word, I look up the Hebrew meanings of the words and it opens up a whole new understanding for me.

Yesterday I was chewing on the idea of a hardened heart, asking myself what it meant exactly, and how a heart could be hardened.  I never understood how Pharaoh could be so astoundingly stupid in the face of those 10 plagues.  But after researching it in the Hebrew I now see what it’s all about.

The main Hebrew word used for “harden” and “hardened” is chazaq, spelled chet, zayin, kof.  It means “to fasten upon; seize, be strong, cleave, obstinate; to bind, restrain, conquer; courage; encourage; force; lean; play the man; become mighty, wax mighty.”  The gematria of this word boils down to 7, the number of completion, perfection.  This seems to be the word most often used when referring to Yahweh hardening someone’s heart — it’s a complete hardening, that cannot be withstood until Yahweh lifts it.

Another Hebrew word for “harden” is ammiyts, spelled alef, mem, yud, tzadde.  It means “strong, strength, courageous, might.”  The value boils down to 6, the number of man.  This word is used in Scripture where it says, “Harden not your heart…”  So this hardening is voluntary and not yet complete, unless you choose it long enough in spite of Yahweh’s attempts to get through to you — then He will “give you over” to your wish and you’ll be solid as a monument… to idiocy.

Seeing these definitions really helps me to see how easily we can be hardened and miss the truth.  It’s all about loyalties.  It’s so easy to “fasten upon” or cleave to an exciting new idea, or an old, comfortable one.  Our loyalty to various ideas, teachings, traditions, etc. ends up blocking our ability to connect with Yahweh if we are not careful.  Especially when we are strong in the flesh, it’s easy to draw courage from the wrong sources — and this courage feels great, we feel powerful — but it is false and empty in the long run.  We need to draw strength from and cleave to the Word, and the Word alone.  All else is vanity.

We live in an extremely hard-hearted society.  Most people get their information everywhere but Yahweh.  They are loyal to their flesh, and ultimately to the father of lies.  I pray that this hard-heartedness will not infect me.  Yahweh, let my heart always cleave to you.  You alone are my rock and my deliverance.

Mark 13

Ok, this is a direct quote from my Bible, which requires no commentary; it speaks for itself.  I did not seek this particular passage or topic out, I just “happened” to be reading the book of Mark and came across this today.

Mark 13: 21-23
“And if anyone then says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’, or, ‘Look, there!’ do not believe it.  For false messiahs and false prophets shall rise and show signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.  And you, take heed.  See, I have forewarned you of it all.”

Back on track

Hi all,  I only have a minute but I just wanted to say that I am no longer going to discuss politics on my blog.  I never intended to do so, but when I read that article from two posts ago I just couldn’t contain my outrage. 

Still, I respect everyone’s right to make their own choice and have their own opinion.  And in the end, no matter who wins what election, God’s purpose is going to be accomplished and only His truth will remain.  So, as originally planned, I will from now on stick to talking about the Word of God, and how it relates to my life and marriage.

And then there’s this…

http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/joe-the-plumber-its-socialism/