***There is no FEAR in LOVE***

This post is part of the 'friday verse series.' Today, may you be free to love without boundaries...free to soar on the wings of love.

“She was afraid to love. She was afraid because she was not sure whether he would love her back. She was afraid to love because she was skeptical of the love of friends. She wasn’t sure if it was real, or if it was just a figment of her imagination. She was scared to soar high on the wings of love. Maybe she loved too much, and maybe they were going to take her for granted. Maybe she gave too much and they took her gifts for granted. Maybe she smiled too much, and they began to take advantage of her. Maybe she was beginning to look like a clown in a circus. Was this how love was supposed to feel? She felt like she was a prisoner of love. She felt like a captive in her own house and with her own people. She felt like a reject in the midst of the norms of society. She felt she gave too much and her favors were not returned. She felt like she was giving discounts on something that was priceless. She felt she was a shadow in the midst of alarming greatness. She felt she could love, but she felt strange about loving. She was afraid to love…”

I read a scripture this morning (1 John 4:18) that said, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

What is there to fear in loving? God is LOVE, and so by loving freely you are emancipating the power of God on the inside of you. By loving so freely, God’s attention is drawn to you like a father is drawn to his son, because anyone who loves is born of God (1 John 4:7). If you love freely, God abides in you and you abide in God. If God becomes a part of you, then God definitely dwells on the insides of you. So if God dwells in you, do you know that the bible says, “if God be for you, then WHO can be against you?” So what’s to FEAR? People are afraid of giving their love to others because they feel the need to be reciprocated. But when Jesus died for our sins, He was not thinking about reciprocation, He was thinking about how much He loved us. He wasn't waiting for us to confirm that we will love Him back after His death. He just gave His love to us freely, and it was timeless and priceless.

There’s absolutely nothing to fear in loving freely. When you love, love will come back to find you! When you love your soul-mate, he or she will love you back in multiple folds. When you give, it shall be given back to you pressed down, shaken together, and running over. When you sow, you shall reap a thousand fold. So when you love, you shall reap love in a thousand ways.

***There is therefore no fear in love.
So love that you may also be loved***

***Living a Fake Life***

This post is part of the Friday Verse Series. Today, may you be a discerner of the times and seasons, and may you be able to distinguish whether you are living in the truth right now, or if indeed you are living a fake life.

What do we mean when we say "living in the truth"? No, let's start with the phrase "living a fake life." What does it mean to live a fake life?

A fake life is unraveled when God has no place in one's life. Have you ever wondered why humans are on a critical search for spiritual freedom? Many people are looking for God somehow, only they are looking for God in the wrong places. People are looking for God in objects, trees, mountains, oceans, and other inanimate objects that can't speak. Have you ever said "Good morning," when you know inside that your morning is really NOT good? You are living a fake life when you smile and there is nothing to smile about. You are living a fake life when you use caffeine to cover your pains and sorrows. You are living a fake life when you hang out with friends, and at the end of the day, you do not gain anything substantial from their company. You are living a fake 'make-belief' life when your co-workers feel like you are the best thing since sliced bread and butter, or when they feel you are the 'light' of the party,' yet when you get back home at night you feel you are at a loss, all alone and sunken, with no soul-mate lying next to you at night. In other words, your life is fake when you place priority on the wrong things. People search for a God because they know somewhere within their hearts that there must be something bigger than all of this. After experiencing all these fake things, they come to the realization that those things have a limit as to what can make them happy.

Today I present the truth...the truth that no man is an island, and no man can truly obtain happiness in all truth unless they obtain it from someone or something else. Following that sentence really closely, I say that no man can derive happiness from any other man or thing. Happiness comes from God. The bible records that God is the 'joy of our salvation (Habakuk 2:17),' that He has the ability to turn our 'mourning into dancing (psalm 30:11).' This is why God says, 'cursed is the man who puts his trust in another man (Jeremiah 17:5),' because guess what, if you trust in man who has a lot of flaws, then your life is built on sinking ground. Man is bound to disappoint, but when you trust in God, God never fails. That's why the psalmist joyfully declares that 'some may trust in horses, and some may trust in chariots, but we will trust in the name of our God.'

When you place all your trust in God, then your house will be built on a solid foundation. How do I know this? When you trust in a friend to do something for you and they don't do it, disappointment creeps in, and you start to be miserable. But when you know that friends will have flaws, regardless of how close they may be to you, then its easier to forgive them, because you trust in a much higher authority that is bound to work all things together for your good. This, my friends, is living a life of truth...because when you trust in God and say 'Good morning,' then you truly and honestly mean that your morning is good, and you have nothing to hide. When you smile to a co-worker, you are not smiling because they expect that from you, but because your strength comes from your Creator. When you stand in front of people and give a wonderful testimony, you smile because you know that it was not man that brought you out of the miry clay when your feet got stuck in the mud, but it was God who used His mighty right hand to pull you out.

***When you think about the fact that ALL power belongs to God, then your life will no longer be superficial, but you will be transformed from living a fickle life to living in the truth that God loves you, and you were created to make His praise glorious. When you know that 'all things work together for your good,' then your smile will no longer be superficial but real, and when you say, "good morning," you say it in all honesty.***

An Extra Burst of Sunshine: Welcome to God's Massage & Spa House

Today, I got an extra burst of sunshine. Today, I saw extra rays of light. I got up from bed, rolled off to the side and ran downstairs. I stepped outside into the backyard...I felt like God was preparing me for greatness...I may not know exactly what for, but He's definitely preparing me for something greater than this...

I began to sing, I began to dance. Have you ever felt days like that? Scriptures swooning around your head. "For who is like unto God?" Who is like You Oh Lord? No one and nothing can ever be like You. Who owns the treasuries of snow? Who has seen the depths of the sea? Who was there before the earth was formed? No one can say they were there...no one knows what "being there" meant or even how it feels to have been there before the world was formed....only You Oh God... So this story is about a girl that was transformed...

Transformation takes place in an unseen place. It takes place where there are no eyes, in the insides of minds, hearts, and souls. That's how God transforms us...God was teaching this child that she did not have to see to believe. You can believe in those things that aren't seen, because the unseen controls the seen. She opened the book of Esther. She didn't know Esther was soaked in oils for a period of one year, in preparation just for her to go and see the king. She was first of all soaked in myrrh for six months, and then for the next six months she was soaked in perfumes and beauty preparations. It takes time for a person to prepare to see the king. Preparation takes place in your heart before you see the king. If God has prepared something for your future (something great), it won't take just one day for you to prepare for this great thing. It takes time to prepare. You will need to be fully prepared for the assigned task ahead. Just as one has to go through an orientation period before starting a job, so also there is an orientation period before each of us can accomplish the purpose God has destined us for. It took patience for Esther to actually sit there and let her custodian bathe her with preparation oils. Just imagine how she sat there, allowing servants to pour oil on her head and her body. She must have been wondering when the oil bathing would stop. There must have been at least once during the entire period where she would have thought inside her, "am I not smelling lovely enough already? Am I not beautiful enough already? I must be ready to see the king by now...or shouldn't I be ready?" But she still endured not seeing the king for an entire period of one year...she resisted from running straight into the king's chambers, until her name was called...

If there is something great that you feel God is preparing you for...just wait and be soaked in oil...God may not want you to enter into your assignment yet because you are NOT ready. Don't ask too many questions about why you aren't there yet. Just wait and be soaked in oil, this is the time for you to obtain more wisdom, knowledge, and understanding...just wait for the fullness of time to come...only then will your name be called, and you will answer...

It takes patience and time for you to be completely soaked in oil... Will you endure the wait?

**The Four Candles**

Hey Blogsville, whataguan? I have been under the bushel for a quick second, but the light of God can never be hidden under a bushel. My summer has been pretty busy as certain "school stuff" came up and appeared on my schedule. I'll be back hopefully pretty soon:

But guess what, in the mean time, here's a little gift that a friend sent me yesterday, check these four candles out: 4candles