A person’s Attitude is the most deciding factor affecting one’s Destiny and their being satisfied with life.

Destiny is the end-result of a lifetime.

The ultimate attitude is Being Satisfied.

Every human has three Basic Needs; 1) The need to be safe & secure, 2) The need to feel valued & loved, and 3) The need for physical health.

A person’s Character is manifested through one’s behavior which is a direct reflection of their attitude.

Behavior is acts during social interaction which is manifested verbally and non-verbally.  Isolation is a form of social interaction.

Attitude is determined by a person’s Thought Process and Emotional Feelings; Thoughts + Feelings = Attitude.

Thought Process and Emotional Feelings reciprocate.  They each influence and affect the other.

Being satisfied leads to Joy which is the ultimate attitude.  Joy and Being Satisfied are synonymous.  Being satisfied is a perception while joy is a feeling resulting from that perception.

Physical Health affects our attitude (thoughts + feelings).  Attitude (thoughts + feelings) affects one’s health.

A BETTER WAY is Constructive Criticism vs Destructive Criticism.  Trinity Living Lifestyle Counselor’s approach is to direct and point others to a Better Way.

 

When what a person is saying or doing is inappropriate or “wrong” and brought to their attention, they tend to feel criticized verses being affirmed and validated (value).

 

Jesus is our best example of how to show others a Better Way.  The story of the woman at the well found in John chapter four of the Bible is a good example.  Here, Jesus, during his travel was passing through Samaria, considered an area of “bad reputation” whose people lacked social skills and were considered “crude” by religious leaders.

 

While in Samaria, he went to a well for a drink of water because he was thirsty but had nothing to draw from the well with.  A woman happened by the well to draw water for herself.  Jesus, noticing she had a pale to draw water with asked her if she would give him some water to drink.  She responded with surprise that a Jew, who was considered of good reputation would ask her, a Samaritan of poor reputation, for a drink.

 

Jesus, however, was kind and gracious to her.  During their conversation it was revealed that the woman was divorced, in fact, five times from five different husbands and the man she was currently living with she was not married to.

 

Notice, Jesus neither “Condemned” her nor “Condoned” her behavior.  He did not rebuke her, but both he and she knew her life was a sinful mess.  What he did do was point her in the right direction to have everlasting life, a better life by showing her a Better Way.  The Better Way was to repent and follow him.

 

Another story found in John chapter eight of the Bible again shows how Jesus interacted with those caught in sinful behavior.  An adulterous woman was brought to him by religious leaders who were about to stone her to death for her sin.  The religious leaders, testing his religious savvy, asked him if they were justified in executing her for her sin.  Again, Jesus neither condemned her nor condoned her behavior BUT he Forgave her AND told her to Go and sin no more.  Essentially, he told her to 1) Repent and 2) Trust him (God in the Flesh) to forgive her.  Repenting AND Trusting the God who Saves to save is what salvation is all about.

 

In both stories, Jesus placed Value on the lives of those who have sinned and were sinners.  Placing value on their lives validated their existence.  He showed them they were important to God BUT he Never denied their sinfulness.  What he did was show them God’s willingness to forgive if only they repented and trusted the God who Saves to save them by His Authority, His Action, and His Grace.

 

We, as humans, are not God nor are we God in the Flesh, but we are to behave like God in the Flesh, Jesus.  Jesus is the Second Adam.  Our life is to be lived just like him.  Currently, we humans are not perfect, but the Bible tells us one day we will be given sinless physical bodies AND live with Jesus as our king in the renewed kingdom.  Until then, we live in faith with our hope and trust in the God who Saves to save us from the curse of death unto a life everlasting with Him.

God is sovereign having the highest authority possible.  He is creator, sustainer, and provider of all that exists.  There is nothing greater than He.  He is I Am!

 

With God being creator of all that exists, he and he alone has the right to decide what is right and what is wrong.  Fortunately, for mankind the created, God loves us and cares for us.  Creation is his joy and pleasure.  Genesis 1:31 says, “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was Very Good…”.

 

After God created the earth and mankind, he commanded mankind to enjoy the land and the fruits of the land, BUT only one thing was to be abstained.  That one thing was the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

 

The tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil has been the subject of debate among many.  If one considers the temptation by the serpent, the implications of the tree and the reason God died comes to light.

 

The serpent, when tempting Eve explains the value of the tree.  Eating of the fruit of the tree gives enlightenment.  The enlightenment is described by the serpent as having the knowledge of God knowing good from evil.  This knowledge of knowing good from evil is “knowing how to live with God, which is good, and knowing how to live without God which is bad.  We all know how the story ends; mankind chose to learn how to gain knowledge to live life independent, without God.  We also know and are experiencing the outcome and consequences of that decision as we are living it today.

 

God told mankind what the consequence of eating of the fruit would be…death!

 

God is sovereign.  He made the rules of law.  If death was the consequence, then death must occur to satisfy his law.  Unfortunately, God loved mankind whom he created, so much so, he wanted mankind to escape the consequence and suffering of death; but how?  The flesh he created must die by his own edict.

 

God is Almighty, Sovereign, and True.  He is Truth.  He and he alone is and was able to create a way to fulfill his law while simultaneously creating an outcome that was Good!

 

Mankind was created flesh, but God was not flesh.  Mankind was the created while God is the creator.  One is pure while the other tainted with sin.  The two, creator and created, could not be the same, or could they??  The answer is yes, they could.  God in his sovereign wisdom was able to accomplish this.  He, the pure became the tainted in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (Phil.2:8).

 

Jesus of Nazareth was both God and Man.  How is this possible?  The answer is, Only God Knows!  He is creator of everything.  He is wise and all-knowing.  We are the created.  He is the creator.  Who has the right to even question the one who created?

 

It appears that God wanted to fulfill his own law by miraculously becoming the sacrifice for the penalty of sin because what he created was Good and it was his pleasure to save his creation from death.  This is what the reason appears to be.  This is confirmed in John 3:16.

 

What we need to do is embrace his embrace with thanksgiving and praise.  There is no need to scientificate his reasons.  We don’t need to have the knowledge for why.  We need Simple Faith.  God is Great.  His thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways.  We are the inferior while he is the Superior.

 

Flesh had to die, so God himself became flesh so flesh would die to fulfill his law.  We don’t have to understand it.  We only need to believe it.

 

Thank you, God!!  God Saves!!

God spoke to man and said, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2: 16,17).  God himself proclaimed the penalty of death as the consequence of the crime he described.  This was His law.

 

Sin is the opposite of God, an exact 180 of his essence and character. Sin is repulsive to God.  There is no gray area with God.  With God, there is only right and wrong.  You either did wrong or you didn’t do wrong.  You are with God, or you are without God.  Mankind, unfortunately, crossed the line God drew in the sand.  With that crossing, the sentence of death was required.

 

Almighty God is sovereign with nothing or no one greater or having higher authority than He.  He is supreme.  He does not lie.  If Almighty God said death would be the penalty of sin, then death would surely be the penalty.

 

God is life (John 1:4a), satan is death (John 10:10).  Satan is the exact opposite of God.  In fact, the name satan means the opposer.

 

In the book of John chapter 10 verse 18, Jesus says, no man takes my life!  “I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again”.  In fact, Jesus laid down his life; he died by choice (John 10:15).

 

Arising from death indicated God is ALL POWERFUL and there is nothing or no one greater than He.  This proves God to be True and Faithful.  God did not just Tell us who he is, He Showed us who he is. He is Almighty God!

When Jesus gave us the “Lord’s prayer, he expected us to pray it thoughtfully, sincerely, and with conviction.  In other words, he expected us to mean it from our heart’s desire.

On the surface, when we pray, “Thy will be done” it sounds good and easy since we assume we will only reap blessings and gain treasure, but if we thoughtfully consider what we are asking, we may have second thoughts.  Jesus, prior to being betrayed and led off to trial to be sentenced to death prayed to the Father “if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but, thine be done”.  With that prayer to the Father, Jesus suffered and died on the cross (Luke 22: 41-43).

If we thought praying to the Father for His will to be done meant pain, suffering, and death like Jesus received after praying for God’s will to be done, we would be more hesitant.

Does this mean God, the Father is bad and may have evil intentions and a desire to see us suffer for our sins?  Absolutely NOT!  God is all-knowing and full of wisdom way beyond our comprehension.  He sees from an eternal perspective while we see from a temporal perspective.  God also tells us “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways” Isaiah 55:8.  Keep in mind that Jesus did die on the cross BUT, He arose from death by the Father’s power to an eternal life of glory and praise.  As you can see there was MORE, much MORE.  Jesus’ suffering was temporal BUT his glory and kingdom is ETERNAL.  This is God’s perspective.

When we are told by Jesus to pray to the Father “Thy will be done”, we need to be comforted that yes, there may be pain and suffering, But the outcome will cause us to forget the suffering that may have come our way. 

I don’t want to be negative or cause anyone to question Almighty God, our Father.  He is good and He does care for you and Remember,  He knows what we are able to bare.

Too often we try to “know God” instead of getting to “know God”.  This is a problem with the English language; some words are spelled alike but have different meaning or connotation.

 

With the statement “to know God” there are some who study to understand God’s existence, purpose, nature, character, thoughts, motives, plans, goals, and behavior.  There are schools and seminaries that are expert in breaking down the bible verse by verse and word by word for the express purpose of understanding the above “topics” as they relate to God.

 

Knowing the “topics” of God is not what God wants from us.  He wants us to know him emotionally in the spirit not in the mind.  He wants the emotional feeling of agape love to flow reciprocally from our being to his being.  He wants a relationship with us through simple faith where he is our father and we, his children.

 

Scientificating God is when we attempt to comprehend eternity and how it is possible God has no beginning and no end.  We scientificate God by trying to understand and be able to explain creation and our existence.  We scientificate God when we try to understand why God allows death, sickness, suffering, and evil.  We scientificate God when we try to explain unanswered prayer.  We scientificate God when we attempt to interpret the bible to explain God’s timeline and the end times.

 

God never asked us or commissioned us to get to know him so we could explain him.  He has always wanted us to know him the same way Adam and Eve knew him before the fall following the temptation to live our lives without him.

 

God is very clear.  “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” Is. 55:8.

 

God wants us to have Simple Faith in him as creator, provider, and sustainer, AND after our sinning, our savior.  God is the great I AM!

 

Learning to understand and know God and his existence, purpose, nature, character, thoughts, motives, plans, goals, and behavior is not evil or sinful.  Knowing God in these ways however leads to head knowledge but it does not lead to peace and contentment.

 

Debating evolution or creation doesn’t matter.  Believing the flood or Jonah doesn’t matter.  Baptismal sprinkling or immersion doesn’t matter.  A relationship with God DOES MATTER!  Childlike Faith DOES MATTER, and REPENTANCE DOES MATTER!

 

We need to get to know God.

Following Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first thing that happened was they recognized they were naked (Gen. 3:7).

When the serpent tempted Eve, he told her that God knew if they ate of the fruit, they would gain KNOWLEDGE.  The knowledge they would gain would be knowledge to know how to live independently without a need for God, his provision and protection.  There would be no need for God’s sustaining power to give them a peaceful and satisfying life.

Some have misinterpreted the knowledge of good and evil as man gaining knowledge of what is good and what is bad; this is not the case.  The knowledge they would gain is learning how to use the mysteries of God’s created world to create technology that would help them build a world that would meet all their physical needs independent of God.

Lucifer and a third of the angels were cast out of God’s heavenly kingdom after they attempted to overthrow Almighty God.  Lucifer was the intended ruler of this overthrown heavenly kingdom.  Almighty God was more powerful than those rogue angels.  He is All Powerful not simply stronger.

When lucifer and a third of the angels were cast out of the kingdom of heaven, where did they go?  Is it possible, this is the time in eternity Almighty God created the physical heaven and earth?  God’s heavenly kingdom is a spiritual world.  At this point in time only God and the angels know for sure.

It is possible lucifer and the fallen angels, upon being exiled, took residence in the new created physical heaven and earth.  Some religious scholars would disagree since they believe the physical heaven and earth were created in seven days and Adam and Eve were the first inhabitants of our physical earth.  This belief however may not be true.

If we take a closer look at the biblical record of creation, we learn God planted a garden on earth eastward of Eden (Gen. 2:8).  This garden was the garden of Eden located in the land of Eden.  This means Eden was a territory on the earth.  What other territories could have existed?

This idea sounds anti-god and anti-creation but if one reads further, they will learn that after sinning, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden.  If the whole earth was the garden of Eden as many believe, and Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, what land or territory were they now inhabiting?

If one continues reading the book of Genesis they learn after Cain killed his brother Abel, God exiled him from the land where he and his family were residing into another territory.  Was their residence in the territory of Eden, however outside the garden God planted?

Cain’s greatest fear was being murdered by others if they found him.  Who were these others who lived in territories outside the territory of Eden?  Were they also created by God or were they lucifer and the fallen angels or were they a combination of the two.  Were they the “giants” known as Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6?

At this point in time and history, Adam and Eve had gained knowledge to farm and raise livestock.  Their son Cain was a farmer while their son Abel raised livestock.  They had gained knowledge to provide for themselves having food to eat, clothes to wear and housing.  There was no need for God in their new life, so they thought.

If we read further in Genesis, we learn there were others living on the earth, some of which were rogue, posing threats of murder, looting, rape, slavery.

The conclusion is that upon partaking of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first thing Adam and Eve realized was that they were naked, having nothing apart from God! 

We all need to draw the conclusion and recognize we are naked without God.

The gospel of Luke tells of Messiah being kicked out of His own synagogue. He went outside; He left. They went on with their services, rituals, routines, and their social lives, but everything was dead, empty and lost. God’s presence moved on. His miracles went on, outside the synagogue, rituals and routines. The healing and the good news went on outside. The release of the captives went on, freedom to the prisoners, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, all the miracles that His own synagogue couldn’t contain. His own religion could not contain Him, and neither can ours. You want miracles, blessings, the presence of God? Then you have to step outside of your routine, your rut, even the rituals in your life. You have to break out beyond the walls that contain your faith. The walls of Messiah’s religion couldn’t contain Him. He had to go outside for the miracles to keep going. We too need to step outside our narrow walls and walk with the King in the excitement of the newness and adventure of Him. The blessings He has for you are so big, they cannot be contained indoors.

*The above is from Sapphires@hopeoftheworld.org

Jesus is the most controversial person in history.  He is the most loved and the most hated.  He is loved by his followers and hated by his opposers.  He is the most embraced and the most rejected.  Frankly, this long-standing controversy makes it more likely that He in fact is God in the Flesh.

Most religions acknowledge Jesus was at least a teacher, prophet, or good person but the controversy is mostly with acknowledging he is God.

I am not all-knowing, but I have embraced Jesus as God, but I have also been trying to understand exactly how he should be viewed.  I have made the following observations and have drawn a conclusion I am satisfied with, but I am open to God’s revealing to me the best way for my simple brain to comprehend it.  What I have concluded to date is below.

I believe there is One Almighty God who is creator, sustainer, and provider of all that exists.  I have been taught that God is a trinity, that being God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. I believe this to be true, but I don’t fully understand it.  I say that because I want you, the reader, to know that I am willing to admit I do not understand everything about God. 

What is good is that God has NEVER expected me to know Him in a “Scientific” way or the history of His existence.  God has NEVER expected me to understand His substance or His mind and motives.  What He has expected of me is that I Trust Him, Believe Him, and Have Faith in Him; that I have done to the best of my human capacity.  By saying my human capacity, I am admitting weakness and imperfection BUT thankful for my Heavenly Father’s understanding of my weakness and need for Him AND His Love for me.  Amen and Thank You Almighty God.

What I have learned about Jesus is that, from a scientific and human perspective, he could not be God.  Why? Because even though his Father was God, his mother was Mary, a human and a sinner, so how could he be perfect and sinless if his father was God but Mary, a sinner, his mother?  I now know!  God is God and He has the power to do whatever He wants and has the full and complete right to be pleased with anything He, Almighty God chooses.  Because God is Holy, if He says Jesus is Righteous and Holy and Worthy to be the Sacrificial Lamb to satisfy the death penalty for sins I have committed and die in my place, I believe God and Accept His will and provision.  Why?  Because He is God!

God also has the power over death AND He manifested this power when He gave power to Jesus to arise from death.  I don’t completely understand it BUT I believe it and have FAITH God can Do It!  Why?  Because He is God!

I don’t fully understand how to view Jesus, but I know he is referred to as the New Adam, the Second Adam or Last Adam.  Why?  I may not have the full correct answer But remember the First Adam was sinless as his wife Eve was sinless before the fall when they decided to attempt to live life without God by learning secrets from Satan that would give them some understanding of God’s mysteries of nature, creation, and science so they could use that knowledge to provide their every need without God.

An interesting side note is that Adam and Eve and even Lucifer (satan) had to use God’s stuff (creation, matter, dirt, elements, water, air, etc.) to help them live life without God.  Why didn’t they simply create something from nothing like God did?  Answer: They didn’t have the power God has!  AND neither do we.

Jesus is the New Adam.  He is the First Fruits of a world to come where, once again Heaven and Earth will be united as One as it was before sin entered civilization.  When sin entered (man deciding to attain knowledge to live life without God), Heaven and Earth separated.  Jesus became the sacrificial lamb to die and arise (overcoming the curse through God’s own power) to become the bridge that will once again reunite Heaven and Earth as One as it was before sin’s devastating power.

When God finally reveals (meaning of apocalypse) Himself Again to the world and destroys the evil satan has planned, we will live with Him in Heaven and Earth again forever and ever.

Remember, Jesus Never called attention to himself.  He ALWAYS pointed to God the Father.  It was God who pointed to Jesus and said “This is my son in whom I am well pleased”.  It was God who lifted Jesus and told us to “hear him”.  Jesus is the son of man (the new Adam) BUT he is also the son of God.  I don’t understand it But Thank God for Jesus, the Lamb of God.