Little Brain - Great Big God

As a child that watched a lot of super hero movies I have always wanted one superpower and that power was super-intelligence.  I have always wanted to know the secrets of everything.  I wanted to know everything the geniuses knew and more.  I wanted a brain that fired on all cylinders at full power at all times.  I wanted to comprehend everything I read and retain it into my memory banks for future withdrawal.  I didn't want to know a lot about a little or even a little about a lot...I wanted to know it ALL!

We serve a GREAT BIG GOD!  His love and majesty is beyond human comprehension.  Our brains weigh about 3.3 pounds and we only use a small fraction of them.  We can’t wrap our little brains around our Big God.  Isaiah 40:12 tells us that God held the oceans in the palm of His hands.  Why do we try to put Him in a box that we can explain?  God is OUR Creator, He explains us to us!

As I was meditating on this God revealed to me that our limited use of our brains wasn’t always the case.  When Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden, Adam was perfect, mind, body and soul.  God breathed His breath of life into Adam - GOD’S DNA – Adam was PERFECTION personified.   

Adam TALKED with God, he UNDERSTOOD God, he communed with God.  It took Adam’s entire brain to be WITH GOD.

No burning bush, no cloud, not in a dream…They walked and talked WITH GOD AND ALL HIS GLORY!   Adam and Eve understood fully the realm of the supernatural which was the way God intended.  The Supernatural is the natural way of living God intended for man.  The natural way things are today are the complete opposite than the original intention of our Creator.  Our normal natural is so abnormal that we should be ashamed that we have settled for less than the best of God.

The fall of man was the greatest tragedy this world has ever faced.  God said when you eat from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall surely die…they did eat of it and the death surely came. 

It just took time.  They were walking in the Garden with God, in HIS GLORY!!!  Man was never intended to die; he was made PERFECT and was meant to live forever.  However sin caused Adam and Eve to be removed from the Garden and the presence of God. 

Sin cannot exist in the glory of God.  Adam and Eve had to be removed from the Garden.  

It took hundreds of years for their bodies to succumb to death because the Glory of God is just so awesome it took that long for the process to take place.   The Glory of God past through them generation to generation. 

The further and further man got from God, the less and less of His Glory was running through man’s DNA. 

The less man’s brain was needed…this world does not require our brains to be running at full capacity as it was intended and that is why over the generations we lost usage of it.

Can you imagine what it will be like after the rapture, going to Heaven, being in the Glory of God…we will be perfect again just like He intended before the fall.   We all will have the power of Super-Intelligence...Divine Intelligence.  We will be whole in the presence of our God.  

We will be able to comprehend just HOW GREAT our GREAT BIG GOD really is! 

Until Next Time, God Bless!!!

Fear is not our Portion

I happened across this quilt pattern when my memory went to my first quilt. 

My friend Betty taught me how to quilt by making a placemat. It had all the principals needed but in less than two hours, I had a prototype for a quilt. That little lesson sparked a fire and I wanted to make MORE.

I had gone to a yard sale and for $1.00 I had bought a bag that had some hand-sewn quilt blocks and was full of fabric pieces to make more blocks. I went home to work on my first solo quilt. (Pattern was SHOO FLY - pictured)

I didn't know anything about the fabric having bias or straight of grain...I just used what I could find to make the blocks. 

Betty came over to visit and I showed her what I was doing. She said, "Girl, could you have picked a harder block?!?" More lessons ensued learning how to make the block correctly. I ended up making a HUGE king sized quilt.

As I look back 20 years ago, my lack of knowledge didn't stop me from jumping in with both feet - going for it, making a block that was beyond my skill set.

How many of us let our lack of knowing something from moving forward. "I'm scared, you do it!" or "I don't know how and I am afraid to mess it up!"

When I was a young teen, I knew I was to minister the word of God. However my fear of messing it up, caused me to run from my calling. 

For decades because I didn't know how to answer questions about my faith, I kept my mouth shut. The more I kept my mouth shut, the more I drifted from God. The more I drifted from God, the further I got from Him. The further I got from Him, I ended up going down a really bad path.

After 20 years of running I came back to God, still hiding from my calling. Another 10 years later, I have finally accepted what God wants from me. 

Am I scared, not anymore. Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world, right?!?!? 

I pray that I continue to be as bold and brave as I was when I made that first solo quilt. So what if I make mistakes, I find that I learn the most when I do. Perfect the once mistakes so that they don't happen anymore.

As fear tries to buzz around my mind, I will SHOO it away like the pesky FLY that it is. SHOO FLY, shoo. If it ends up becoming a big pest, squash it dead. 

Is there something that you have been wanting to do or try that fear is stopping you in your tracks? 

Pray, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to use that boldness that He has already put in you. Ask for guidance, He'll show you. 

When the enemy whispers doubts in your ear, tell him to GO. God gave you authority over him, he is under your foot, squash him, the doubt and the fear.

Until Next Time, God Bless!!!

Blood is Thicker Than Water

Last night I taught on the book of Joel.  The name of Joel means Jehovah is God.

As a child I was told that Joel meant Proclaimer of God – you can probably guess why I remember that.  I remember that day vividly.

It was a Sunday like every other Sunday back when I was in Junior High.   I attended Northeast Assembly of God church in Fresno.  In order to get to go I had to ride the church bus.  Henry Tong was the bus driver and had been since I started attending during the summer before the 5th grade. 

I remember being one of the oldest kids on this bus and was proud when Henry let me assist in leading Sunday school songs to younger passengers.  I got to be his helper until he got married to the lovely and sweet Laurie.  At first I missed being the bus helper but when Laurie started teaching us wonderful things of God, I quickly got over myself. 

That day’s lesson was not the typical lesson.  Laurie taught on the meaning of names and brought a Baby Name Book to tell each of us what of our names meant.  I was not particularly excited to participate in that particular activity as I never could find my name on anything that kids with normal names could. 

I really didn’t want to hear how she couldn’t find my name in her book. 

However that wonderful lady must have read my face, or maybe she felt that icy wall of attitude that I immediately built, as she looked up my name without waiting for me to ask. 

That day I learnt that my name Joela derived from the name Joel meaning Proclaimer of God.  That was the day that I fell in love with my unique name.  

(Later I ran from the calling that my name prophesied but that is a story for another time)

The great thing about what the prophets had to preach in the Bible is that it is not just for God’s beloved people Israel. 

Because Christ came to this earth,

lived out the plan of the Father,

lived a sinless life,

was a living example of how we should live this life,

died for our sins

and through the dunamis power that raised Christ from the dead…

we have the chance to live a life that is full of God’s glorious blessings. 

That we may be apart of His family by being adopted into the Royal Family of God.

If any of you know my family’s history you know that my family is not all related by blood.  Some of my closest relatives were adopted into our family.   Related, Not Related, Adopted, Not Adopted, everyone in my family is my family and i love everyone of them – blood or no blood.

I find it rather amusing that my family had a saying of Blood is thicker than water…Did you know that Blood is a mixture, not a compound, and therefore does not have a chemical formula?  Water’s chemical formula is H²O.  So even though my family may not have been blood, they considered everyone blood that entered the family. 

Isn’t it great that when God adopts us, we become related by blood?  The powerful blood of Jesus is stronger than the biological blood that runs through a family’s pedigree.

Some people think of adoption is just someone took in unwanted children.  But it is so, so much MORE than that.  Children may not be wanted or properly cared for (or whatever reason) by their bio-parents but they are GREATLY DESIRED and CHOSEN by the adoptive parents.

It is the same way with God, HE CHOSE us.  The world may have cast us aside not thinking much of us.  But God Loves us so much, that He chose us to be in His family, He chose to send His only begotten son to this world to die for our sins so that we could be worthy of His Royal Pedigree.

Becoming a child of God is as easy as ABC:

ACCEPT Jesus into your heart

BELIEVE that Jesus died on the cross for your sins

CONFESS you are a sinner

Once we become children of God, we are members of His family.  HE LOVES us so much that He forgives us for all past sins.  We are accepted into His ROYAL FAMILY, we regain our Royal Status and our Royal Inheritance.  All we have to do is say yes…then our names are in His Book of Life.   

If I was thrilled to have my name found in the BABY book of names, I can just imagine the emotions to be felt when He reads off my name in the book of life as I enter Heaven. 

It is our job as members of His Royal family to make sure that the lost find their way to Him.  No matter our calling the assignment is the same, the Great Commission was not the Great Suggestion.  We are to proclaim the word of God and spread the Good News.  We help the lost be restored back to God’s family and get their names in HIS BOOK of LIFE.

You would have to hate people to not tell them about the best thing that ever happened to humanity...JESUS.  Jesus is Love.  His message was love.  He told us to love God and love others.  Don't think that you could love all people?  Start by loving God with your all.  When you love God first and foremost you are able to love others more than you can if you put them first.  

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  His blood was shed for us to live.  Living a life that is full and abundant because when we accept Him we become HIS BLOOD and nothing can beat that! AMEN!

Until Next Time, God Bless!!!