A Candle in a Room of Darkness

Imagine being in an unfamiliar room in complete darkness.  How would you feel?  What would you do?  Would you walk forward or look for some sort of light?
Ok.  Now imagine someone offered you a lit candle that would never go out.  Would you receive it or reject it?

Let us say you accepted it.  Now you can see everything near you, like the toy on the floor you would have stepped on or the wall in the room you might have ran into.  This is when you notice other people around you.  They are walking aimlessly and stumbling upon the objects you can clearly see.  They believe they are doing a good job getting around the room by themselves.  They rely on no one to move forward, ultimately facing an object that causes them pain.  You see that in each of their hands is an unlit candle; you discover that this is a perfect opportunity to share the light in your hand. 

The first person you approach rejects your offer and continues walking forward without delay, more or less in a rush to something.  Does that person not know that two more meters forward leads to a wall he will hit?  If he does not walk just right, he will step on or trip over a piece of splintered wood on the floor.  You leave disappointed and walk faithfully in the light, earnestly avoiding the obstacles that will hurt you.

 One person nearby notices how easily you evade objects and walls.  The person approaches you and asks how you are able to walk in such a manner.  You tell the person that in her hand is an unlit candle and that in your hand is a lit candle.  You continue to explain that you can share the light in your candle with her.  She smiles as you share the light from your candle with her.  Now she is able to see what is going on around her.

 What happens if you walk to fast, though?  What happens if you stop paying attention to the light in your hand and go on your own through the darkness?  Will it be easy to maneuver around the room, especially if you decide you do not need the candle and cover its light with your hand?
 This is just the same.  If you are of Christ, you have been given a candle that will never go out.  If you pay attention earnestly to Jesus, your light, you will be able to avoid many sins that cause you pain.  And if you raise your light up so that everyone can see, this is like becoming a beacon for Christ.  Let everything you do glorify God.  People will notice the light in your hand whether they are fond of it or not.  And when people come to you and ask, “Why are you so different?”  You answer, “Because I have Jesus Christ, the light of the world.”  You are representative of Christ, so represent him properly.

 When you start to ignore the light in your hand and ignore the Word God has given you, what happens?  Chances are you start to sin and stumble.  You stopped using the light to help you through the darkness.  Not until you rely on the light to see– rely on Christ to live, will you be able to walk properly again. 

I cannot promise you a perfect life in a world of darkness.  There will be many obstacles, and many people who will try to taint your light– or make your light to flicker, causing you to waver, but do not lose hope.  Continue to let your light shine, hold your light high and give the glory to God.
To those of you who do not know this light, how are you supposed to receive it?  In the Bible it says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).  Just like in the story, all you have to do is accept his gift, accept the light which has been offered to you.  Believe and accept that Christ died for you.  Instead of you receiving the ultimate punishment for the sins you committed, Christ received that punishment for you.  Pray and truly ask God for the gift Jesus Christ has offered you.  Once you have Jesus in your heart, you have his light.  To make that light stronger, in order to use that light, so that you can come closer to him, pray- talk to him, and listen to His teachings.  Open the Bible and learn about God, the Father.  He already knows you, but He wants you to know him.  Open up your heart and accept the gift of Salvation.

Someone who was willing to accept the punishment of the world is someone I would like to know more of.

Climate Change: Where Did Global Warming Go? The Deep Ocean

Ok…  I’m going to breath, think about it, and get back to you.  Meanwhile you can read this…

Where did Global Warming Go? The Deep Ocean

Alright, I’m back.

I feel this is all an excuse.  If you have read my two past blogs (Links here and here) on the stuff, you should know I’ve done plenty homework on this Global Warming/Climate Change foolishness.  I’ll probably be repeating topics from my past posts, just so you know. 

For those who are not aware, scientist are not all knowing gods.  In fact, they are often, and more than often wrong.  They tend to change their minds (hypothesizes) more than a girl changes her outfit.  Yes I do hyperbolize, but to make my point:

About 40-50 years ago, scientists were hyped up.  They were running around like headless chickens exclaiming that the world was going to go through a second Ice Age.  Of course, it was obviously our fault, since humans pollute the world.  They predicted it would peak right about… maybe 4-5 years ago?  The media ran with it so everyone else naïve enough to believe would start running around too.

Around 10-20 years ago, they changed their minds… Instead of the world icing up, they were now claiming that the world was going to heat up, Global Warming sound familiar?  Al Gore, you cheeky person… running with this idea helped your wallet quite a bit, no?  (How’s that profit from selling to the oil-rich nation going for you?)

I’d like to say about 5-8 years ago, they attempted a name change since the world wasn’t warming up like they thought it would.  Freezes in Florida kind of spoiled it as well as the literal freezing of the Antarctic ice—it wasn’t melting like they said it was.  So INSTEAD they used a little magic and started crying Climate Change.  This leads us to where we are now.

Of course they have thrown out many foolish claims like…

•   Cows, camels, and other livestock cause Climate Change through methane (AKA gas from eating too much grass -_-#)
•   Hurricane weather
               o   A few hurricanes pass in one summer, then they claim that there will be an increase number and stronger hurricanes; next summer: ZERO hurricanes
               o   Claims that the plethora to zero hurricanes is extreme weather, and claims that weather will be more extreme; next summer: average number of hurricanes
•   Same thing for freezes and hot weather
•   Poor polar bears being forced into the water by melting—not so melting—ice. (Why yes, they do like the water; why yes, they do float.)

Pretty much everything caused or was the cause of Climate Change.

Now that they are looking like fools for their every single prediction being wrong, they now have to come up with something new. 

"The warming at the surface hasn't stopped, but it has been less than most of the climate models have been predicting"

—BUT— 

"So, some of this heat may come back in the next El Niño event … but some of it is probably contributing to the warming of the overall planet, the warming of the oceans. … It means that the planet is really warming up faster than we might have otherwise expected"

The ocean is going to take in all the heat that, when it can’t take it anymore, will throw all that heat right back up causing massive Global Warming.  Everybody run!  Panic!  You know the scientists are ALWAYS right, that their predictions are ALWAYS right…

Support Dream Builders!

Hello everyone!  I would like to promote a team that recently contacted me to you!

The team is called Dream Builders.  They are a group of 6 UCF (University of Central Florida) students trying raise funds for New Hope for Kids to grant the wish of a little 6 year old girl named Kaley. 

New Hope for Kids is a organization that relieves the hearts of grieving children and grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.   It is an non-profit organization local to Central Florida.  You can learn more about New Hope for Kids at their website.




The Dream Builders Logo

The little girl that Dream Builders is supporting has a condition called a Right Proximal Focal Femoral Deficiency.  They told me that Kaley will soon be going into a surgery that will involve high risks of infection, but they wanted to do something for her and her family to help get their minds off of such a stressful thought.  The Dream Builders team needs everyone's help!  If you want to contribute to Kaley's wish, you can contact Dream Builders through their email address:  DreamBuildersUCF@gmail.com

You can also find them on:
Official Dream Builders Webpage
Twitter
Facebook
Google+

Every little bit helps!

A recent tweet from Dream Builders to finish off this post: "#MakingDreamsHappen One smile at a time :)"

Tolerance is not Love

Those of you who say, “Be loving and tolerant,” What is that?  You just told me to love, and then to not love.  Tolerance is not love.  All you are saying is, “I don’t love you enough to tell you the things you are doing are hurting you.” 

There is a mother and her child in the kitchen.  The child wanders to the stove that is beaming red with heat.  The child becomes intrigued and touches the heated metal.  He screams, but touches it again, and again, screaming in pain every time.  All the while, the mother just stands there, doing nothing and saying nothing.

Would you say she is a loving mother because she lets her child touch the hot stove as many times as he wants without telling him to stop? 

Religious Leaders & Homosexuality

The issues I present to you are sensitive subjects.  I tell you this story not to condemn, because I am also a sinner of many many sins.  I tell you this story because a sin is something not good for you, mentally or physically.  I experience the consequences of my sins.  Along with the lesson presented, I would like you to understand as well as you read, the words that come from the mouth of religious teachers will not always be Biblical.  So, to ensure you are following God’s commands properly, read the Bible instead of just listening to what you are told by me or any religious teacher.  One more warning, my words may be blunt.  Without further delay: 



The teacher cringed when I asked, “Isn’t homosexuality wrong?” 

Don’t be shocked when I tell you we were in a church youth group as he explained this to me, “You see.  We are supposed to love these people.  Some are naturally born this way.”  I kid you not at this reason, hearing it so many times.  “We should accept that.”

At the time I was too young, with not enough confidence to respond.  Everyone in the small group at the time seemed to agree with him.  I was beyond frustrated.  If you ever had a moment in your life where you replay a conversation in your head and how you would have responded if the situation ever rose again, then you will know what I am doing now.

I ask again.  “Isn’t Homosexuality wrong?”

His response as told.

“Does the bible not teach that this is wrong?  Did he not create man to be man and woman to be woman?  Did he not create man to be with a woman and not another man?”  First I decide to set the playing field.  He should have already known this was in the Bible. 

I am in no place to predict his response here but I would guess he would say that “We are Christians and we should love them.  It is not our place to say this is wrong.”  I can only assume this would be a very sensitive and uncomfortable subject for him to discuss. 

Now here I introduce a silly hypothetical situation, “Let us say Bob (a generic name to signify a person in the small group) had a hammer in his hand and he hit himself with the hammer over and over.”  Getting more graphic and saying blood was spurring out of his head might not help the situation.  “What would you do?  Would you continue to let him hit himself in the head even though you know it was harming him?  Or would you tell him to stop what he was doing?”

If the small group leader had any sense, he would see where I was going and disregard me then and there.  But I want the leader to pursue my scenario more so I’ll have him say, “I would stop him.”

“Blasphemy!”  I shout, only to make a point.  “Do you not love him?  You should love him and let him do as he wishes.  He was born this way, to hit himself in the head with a hammer.”

According to the maturity level of the small group leader, at this point he would smile and nod, understanding my point OR he was become frustrated and try to disband the topic.

But for you, my readers, how do you think we should respond to homosexuality?  Would you have Bob, the guy happy to hit himself in the head until he bleeds, become a preacher telling you to be tolerant of people who hit themselves on the head– to accept their actions?

I’ll give you my answer.  Of course we should love Bob, but we should not love what Bob is doing.  I know what Bob is doing is bad for him and I tell him so.  Do you think it is very Christian-like to allow and accept sins and allow people to continue to hurt themselves even though we very well know that it is bad for them?

And don’t think I speak only of Homosexuality.  Brothers and sisters, if you are glutens, you fall in the same category as Bob as well.  Not to hurt your feelings, but if you are fat, lose some weight!  Don’t eat so much!  The number one killer in America is heart attacks and one of the prime causes of heart attacks is because we have way too many fat people in America.  Understand that I don’t say this to condemn you but to protect you.  We are God’s temple– God’s spokesmen.  We should be setting an example for the world, not following an example of the world.  Food in itself is not bad, but the abuse of food is bad.  God made food to be good.   Just like anything God has created, He made it to be good, but Satan has found a way to defile it.  Same goes for the music we listen to.  Music itself is good, but if we are listening to music with bad lyrics, we are not glorifying God, but we are exposing ourselves to bad influences. 



As Christians, we must set ourselves apart and become a good influence in the world.  If we are living a sinful lifestyle, we are not being good representatives of God, nor are we doing ourselves a favor.  Before you take my word or the word of any person, read the Bible and see what it says.  If you are looking for a place to start read the book of Romans, chapter 1.  After that, I hope it gives you enough intrigue to finish the book and read other books of the Bible.

Rusty singing 어려워

Just thought I'd share. I like his voice and the song is pretty. Enjoy! : )

Lady of the Moonlit Field

DeannaRaquel Photography

In a night that shines brightly in the moon, she lays gently on the grass of the open field.  A kiss of the wind to her cheek and the glow on her skin invite the eyes of all.  Her irises are like that of a forest and her eyes are the size of the moon.  A dream-like atmosphere surrounds, but the air is all too real.  Listen to the whippoorwill and owl calling with their respective songs.  A tree dancing and with leaves that fall around the girl.  Her white dress is silky and smooth, gently caressing her curves.  A kiss would be just enough to sway the strongest man, but her heart is cold to most.  Her silent voice whispers to the wind, carrying her words farther than the stars and fields at which she lay.  The wind comes stronger, blowing her dark hair behind her.  The words that she had spoken were, “Let the secrets of the night be revealed.”  What her words may entail is a mystery to all until you stand for hours and hours in the night, listening and watching for the whisper she spoke to the wind.  When her words are revealed, you might be able to see the Lady of the Moonlit Field.