How do you Define Faith??

How do you define faith??  What does it mean to you and how has it changed you?

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  -Hebrews 11:1

First off two phrases that jump out at me is “being sure of” and “certain”.  We are sure of God’s word being The Way and truth.  We are also certain that God has the last say and will ultimately defeat Satan so that he has no say in our life.  So faith is believing is God is who He says He is.   As Pastor Waxer from One Love Ministries in Honolulu, Hawaii says, “God is not just His name but His job description”.  In knowing that we have that comfort and in turn our faith grows.

The New Testament uses the word faith as a word to describe our comfort in His knowing or in His truth.  I felt it was needed to check my concordance as well and the greek word for faith in this scripture means, “firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing” (The New Strong’s Concise Concordance & Vine’s Concise Dictionary of the Bible).

Faith has a huge impact in our Christian community.  

It serves as our foundation in how we live our life as Children of God.  Faith has a huge importance on every day life because it helps to guide us and keep us on the right track. I believe it also helps our fellow brothers and sisters to deter them from making sinful choices. We must stick together as children of the faith and really encourage others like what Romans teaches us to do.  

Faith is one of the biggest roles in my own life both personally and professionally.  Through trusting God during some difficult times I can see now how those times have molded me into a much stronger person .  In turn, God has shown to give me more faith by showing me miracles in my life that further prove His goodness and His love.  Without faith I would be nothing because it holds me together.  God holds me together and that is the only way I am able to live.  Faith is His promise to us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. 

Who is Meant to be Courageous?

How unnatural is it for the single Mom to stand up and fill in for the courageous parent (Dad).  Those shoes were not meant for her to fill.  God has not equipped her to do this job like He has equipped men.  What is happening to our society that we allow the Dad to bow out of the picture all together and put all this responsibility on only the Mother.  The woman can only handle so much.  If Dad isn’t in the picture than what is expected of him?  What are his responsibilities as a Dad?  No wonder we have outspoken women mainly single moms who either turn into divas or think they are some top advisor to the world.  We have created this chaos because what else is the woman to do.  She sees no one else taking the initiative so she feels inclined about doing something.  After all she has little mouths to feed and characters to build.

Granted there are some outspoken women who are married and just don’t know when to let their husbands take the lead.  For the most part I feel this all stems from a reaction somewhere in their personal life where a father figure has left and now they feel no one else will fill that job vacancy so they better get on it.  When will this vicious cycle stop?  God created us for a particular job.  He equips, mentors, and gives us discernment for that particular task.  He does not do that for everyone.  We must humble ourselves and realize the job we have been chosen for.

Corporate America Meets Apostle Paul

Recently I had the opportunity to start working at a large corporate office in telecommunications.  I cannot state any more details of my job since I would probably get fired due to confidentiality.  Anyway, this job has been a hard switch from what I am use to.  There are about 500 employees at my particular building.  At first I thought God why in the world am I here with this company.  What possible good can come out of this?  I am way outside of my comfort zone with this company and it is a daily challenge to learn what I need to know for my job.  My ideal job is working in the church either teaching or writing about biblical related topics to other women or some sort of encouragement.  This current job was a complete curveball and one I though God you must not be paying attention to how this job isn't an ideal fit for me.

This week at work a co-worker mentioned a particular product line available to certain customers but added she did not agree with it because it was unfair to the customers.  It was another example of companies just wanting to make an extra buck or two.  She then proceeded to say. “Well I believe all of us will have to answer to our actions”.  That particular statement stuck with me the rest of the day and here we are at 11pm at night and I cannot go to bed because I am still thinking about her statement. 

We all will have to give a statement of why we did certain things the way we did them.  Did we just follow someone else’s orders over fear of losing our job??  Not this lady.  She has a tenacious spirit for making a statement like this in a large corporate company that is worth billions of dollars.  She is always seeking the truth about a product line and giving us way more knowledge then we really need.  However, I admire her drive to get to the truth and not accept half answers. 

Customer service is such a huge part of our job where we work but what if we took this one step further.  What if we treated all our customers and clients as if we really were interested in their personal life.  Afterall, in my opinion I believe inherently we all want to feel needed and validated in life.  It does not matter what background you come from we all have some very basic needs.  What if we treated these people with real love as Apostle Paul teaches in the New Testament. 

As I was contemplating what my platform is for God to use to me I discovered it is right here.  This is my platform (at least for now).  To make people aware of how when we serve one another with getting these basic needs met how satisfied customers and clients would be with these large corporations (our boss).

What if these large corporations realized the meaning of hope, faith, and love, but the greatest one of these is love.  What if we started treating these customers with this great love?  Do you think they know what they are missing?

These large companies are realizing to compete in the Corporate world they need to have the best service.  Well how about if they treated their customers so good that the customer felt like they were as close as friends or better yet, family.

Now this does not mean sucking up to your client or making false promises.  It means taking a real interest for what is happening with your clients.  We all have issues going on in life and through these issues we can create kindred spirits. 

Many times I have prayed for God to break my heart for what breaks His and this time not only has he broke my heart but He is showing me the solution.

Reactions and Rejection

Some times I am not quite sure how to put my feelings and actions into words.  Since I started this new blog I've never experienced so much resistance from people who are not Christians.  They read my posts and then they find it appropriate to tell me if I am feeling this "down" than I must not have any faith in my God.  I've been told that I just need to tell others about my true feelings instead of a blog.  Hello, these are my true feelings!!!  Writing is just an avenue in which I feel most expressive when it comes to my gifts.  And to retract an earlier posting about not knowing what my gifts are.  Well I know I was created to share my life experiences with others.  I love writing so if I can help or encourage just 1 person then my job is done.

As a child of God I find it very important (and wise) not to gossip or slander others in my life because I'm having a moment of anger or discontentment.  Feelings can be very fleeing and I don't want to be just living in the flesh holding onto anger or unforgiveness.  I know I've mentioned it but I live with Galations 5: Life by the Spirit posted at home so I become aware of how my actions are lining up with the flesh vs. the spirit.

It does not matter what obstacles are thrown in my path I will always pursuit God with all my mind, body, and soul.  No lies, tricks, or negative comments will stand in the way of pursuing my beloved Abba!!!

The Garden of Eden

Can you imagine was it must of been like to be Adam and Eve knowing you were being forced out of the Garden of Eden never to return again?  The thought alone overwhelms me.

We all have faced this "Garden "of Wholeness, Perfection and of Innocence.  Only to find out you are being forced to leave because of someones actions.

This idea of leaving the Garden is so frightening it makes me sick.  Like so physically sick I have to stop reading, to listening, praying, etc.  I believe that is where the proverbial wall has laid it's foundation separating us from the freedom, the comfort, and the love we can find in God.

It was the beginning of this horrific separation and oneness with God.  Knowing HE took care of everything and not worrying.  Total comfort!!  There was no fear because God was always there like an army ready for battle.  Knowing He would always be the Victory!

There is no place as perfect, as loving, as comforting as when we are in constant communion with our Heavenly Father.

However, what happened when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden and also what consequences are we facing today because of it?  There are a lot of similarities with the Garden of Eden and our comfort of things like our parent's home.  Some of us  may say that was our Garden.  Of course nothing can ever replace the real Garden of Eden.  For those of us who say our Garden of Eden was the comfort and loving life of a parents house or what we thought was a loving life.  How are you able to walk away from this Garden?  Do you want the closeness you once had with God or are you content with walking away and never turning back?

I Deserve!

What do you feel like you deserve?  I constantly hear the selfish words "I deserve..." coming out of peoples mouths.  I am no better I have moments where I think I deserve something I do not have.  However, that is exactly the problem in our society of takers.  We are taught in The Bible not to covet what we do not have.  I find myself constantly teaching my son this lesson when he tells me he wants some new toy he sees another child playing with.

I hear the words "I deserve" from a lot of adults and sadly most of them are my Christian friends.  I am going to be brutally honest when I tell you in love that you were not born into this life to "deserve" a certain lifestyle society deems good.  Is it fair for us as children of God to demand that we deserve a better situation, spouse, friend, or even child?  

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”  

Are we treating people the way we want to be treated or are we just taking and expecting more?

We all face disappointments but that does not mean we should turn around and start commanding others to do things you want.   As a person who decides to live with using my heart before my brain I am saddened we treat our dear Brothers and Sisters this way.  We were born to serve Christ first of all and to follow His commands.


Matthew 16:24 says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Alone

Today Isaac and I tried out a new church.  It is a very large church for our area so I was surrounded by a lot of people but honestly I have never felt so alone.

Moving 3,000+ miles to our current home has been some what of a culture shock.  We lived on an island that felt more like an isolated Asian country far removed from the average American life.  It was a culture shock when we moved to that island and now I'm experiencing another culture shock.  It's weird I cannot just go get some of my favorite Pho Ga on a rainy day.  It's also weird that everyone I talk to speaks English as their first language.

I sometimes feel alone because I don't have friends here yet.  Other times I feel so alone within the body of Christ.  I feel like I don't fit in anywhere.  It's especially hard to explain when people notice how much I stand out in their community and they know I'm not from here.  I don't fit in a nice little package of what a nice Christian woman is.  I have my own style and I'm not about conforming to fashion in order to fit in.  God made me different, very different.  Both in the Spiritual/Intellectual and Fashion sense.

Honestly, my home is technically I suppose where I was born (Michigan) but that does not feel like home either.  It never really has.  I always felt like the black sheep of the family.  One of my Aunts has wanted me to come home and get into a normal life routine but in actuality that will never happen.  You can't cage a bird who wants, who NEEDS to fly.

Societies view of normal was not my idea of normal.  I didn't like the "normal" I saw so I wanted to created my own normal.

People think I am crazy for following my heart but I don't care at this point.  I'd rather be seen as crazy but have a purposeful life given to me by God than to live a stagnant life that leads to unhappiness, discontentment, and pretty much living in the Flesh as stated in Galatians 5.

Galatians 5:16-26

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 

¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[c] you want. 

¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 

²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 

²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Following my heart, my love of Jesus Christ is the only way I want to live.  I want to love as it states above loving in the Spirit and not the flesh.

"He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."  (Luke 10:2)