Author: Russ

Posted on

We are the gateway to the heart of Jesus

AUTHOR: Gary Fishman

I have been looking at snippets in the Song of Solomon which is a love story between King Solomon and his bride the Shulamite woman, which on a greater level paints a picture of the love relationship we have with Jesus as the Heavenly Bridegroom.

In Song of Solomon 6:1 the friends of the bride approach her to question her:
Where has your beloved gone,
most beautiful of women?
Which way did your beloved turn,
that we may look for him with you?

Her friends had seen the passion and deep love of the bride for the King and they now seek to find him too. When people see the fire in your heart, and the depth of desire and joy you walk in, as Romans 11:14 states you will provoke others to jealousy.

The greatest form of evangelism is to allow others to see and experience Jesus through you. You are Heavens portal. Its wonderful to present Jesus to people with words but a heart overflowing with peace, desire, excitement and radical devotion will cause others to feel a spark inside of them.

Don’t just point people to Heaven’s door but instead you become Heaven’s door, the gateway to the heart of Jesus the Bridegroom.

Posted on

Who are you seeking answers from?

AUTHOR: Roger Fields

So… what exactly can I say, that would be powerful enough to cause any person to really believe that they could experience a royal life? What could I tell you to change in your beliefs, that may be keeping you from the amazing promises of God?

Here is today’s focus for living a Royal Life.
Psalms 24:4
I have asked the LORD for one thing; one thing only do I want: to live in the LORD ‘s house all my life, to marvel there at his goodness, and to ask for his guidance. (GNB)

When I read the Old Testament, I realized that people centuries ago, then and now, were instructed by the actions of their ancestors, in how and what God they should worship in order to have a life filled with peace and safety. They had their spiritual leaders advise them as to which God they should believe in. So, they ended up with many gods. One god for this and another for that. These gods came through the traditional ways of their family and homelands. They were taught that every land and its people has its own gods. So, to continue to have everything they needed to live free of curses. They needed to know what the name of the god that ruled over the land they were now living in and what this god expected of the people in worship and protection. No one ever taught them that there was only one God. God wanted Israel to reflect this to the world, so the world could see that they only needed to know him. But the world did not know any better. To worship one or many really did not matter. They had never experienced the power of the one true God, only the everyday idols of the false gods of their ancestors.

So why did they have so many gods? Because, they were made to believe it took many gods, not just one. How could one God be enough, to provide for them everything they would need.

This Royal Life starts with one God. An all-powerful, all knowing, omnipresent God. It is because he is all these things and is aware of everything affecting not only me, but the world.

And if any of these other gods were real. Why would they be willing to let you worship another god? I would think exalting other another god would acknowledge to them that they are not all powerful. They have limited power and the other one may have more power than them. Sounds like a war waiting to happen! So, if this is true, then why serve these make-believe gods, who is limited to do only one thing? Why wouldn’t anyone want to know the one true Supreme God, who can do all things.

The word of God states, is there anything too great for the Lord to do? So, to live and have a Royal Life, means to do away with all your family traditions and the gods that they served and seek to know the one true God. He is the only one who died to give you eternal life. The one who says, I will never leave you or forsake you, ever. I will go with you all the way, even to the end of the ages.

So… whom are you seeking for answers, in how to obtain and have this type of Royal Life?

Focus thought:
Psalms 24:4 I have asked the LORD for one thing; one thing only do I want: to live in the LORD ‘s house all my life, to marvel there at his goodness, and to ask for his guidance. (GNB)

Hey! Why not try the Holy Spirit? You know he is amazing and finds great joy in guiding and telling you everything you need to know. Just, do not be in a hurry. He knows, what you need. Just relax you have a personal invitation to This Royal Life. You have been invited by the King himself!

If you want to live a Royal Life, you need to connect to a Royal King. No other God ever said, they wanted every nation to experience His royal blessings. You can have this amazing life that will gain the attention of the world through you to make them want to know him. Our lives should reflect a Royal Life of living, this is what will cause people to consider forsaking their ancestral traditions and gods.

They will stop being divided in their opinions of what god to serve. This decision determines who can have this royal life that our God offers. Because, God says, he will always reflect goodness to his children through love and always revealed, that you can have a This Royal Life in him. Hey! Come and see and be amazed like I am!

Blessings Y’all!

Posted on

Recognize Your Cognitive Distortions

AUTHOR: Julissa Ledesma

Today, I would like to point out that a major part of living a royal lifestyle is cultivating healthy thoughts. The biblical verse in Romans 12:2 instructs us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, which I believe is a continued multi-layered process.

One common misconception is that we have no control over our thoughts. This is not true: We do have control and we can purposely challenge every thought that comes into our minds, and also choose what we will accept or reject. This is crucial because our thoughts and the conclusions we make directly affect our actions in a positive or negative way.

One major factor of renewing our minds is becoming aware of what we are thinking about. The common adage “don’t believe everything you think “could be true in many instances. Often, many of our common thoughts may be irrational or inflated and we run the risk of accepting them as face value. For example, we may assume that a purely coincidental event may have been intentionally perpetuated. This is not saying that we should never trust our thoughts or perceptions but we should be mindful that we may have over time developed mal-adaptive (automated) thought patterns. These can be hard to recognize if we are not cognizant of them.

With this in mind, I would like to introduce the concept that many academic textbooks refer to as cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are biased perspectives we take on ourselves and the world around us. They are irrational thoughts and beliefs that we unknowingly reinforce over time. These patterns and systems of thought are often subtle–it’s difficult to recognize them when they are a regular feature of your day-to-day thoughts. That is why they can be so damaging since it’s hard to change what you don’t recognize as something that needs to change!

As I mentioned earlier, In order to challenge and avoid these negative thinking patterns, we must learn to identify, modify and correct them.

Listed below are the most common cognitive distortions we may all have fallen for at one point or another. Some types of distortions are:

· All-or-Nothing Thinking
· Overgeneralizing
· Discounting the Positive
· Jumping to Conclusions
· Mind Reading
· Fortune Telling
· Magnification (Catastrophizing) and Minimizing
· Emotional Reasoning
· Should Statements
· Labeling and Mislabeling
· Personalization

The images below include definitions and examples.


Posted on

God Speaks Through Our Dreams

AUTHOR: Daniela Kissell

It was a Slovak psychologist who first told me to write down my dreams. I had never before that heard of anyone who would think them important nor would ever even consider them significant. As I tuned my focus under the pressure to produce something when going for a session I have noticed that I was dreaming quite a lot. It was a truly novel observation. One of the dreams unlocked my overburdened heart and turn it towards the messenger of the dreams and my journey of learning to hear the voice of God has began.

In this one significant dream I found myself to be a simple human cell in a body, panicking as I had no organs to breathe. I was holding my breath as long as I could. Then with a deep inhale all the panic subsided. I could breathe, and as I had no hands, no legs, no mouth, I couldn’t do anything. My entire existence consisted of being the cell I was created and keep on breathing. This dream came during the time when I was being crushed under the unrealistic expectations from life, people and myself. Not to keep you long with the details of the most painful season of my life I only want to emphasize the wonder and awesomeness of learning to hear when our Lord speaks to us in our dreams as it is always to lead us out of something into something new.

In Job 33:14-15 it says

For God does speak—now one way, now another—
though no one perceives it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on people
as they slumber in their beds,

You might have been doing it already, but if you have not yet or are still in the process of learning how to interpret what you dreamt I would like to bring to you some resources that have been helping me in tuning in and learning the dream language and keep a record of my dreams.

The best dream journal that I found was developed by John Paul Jackson and I absolutely love it. It teaches you how to record the dream, how to interpret it and how to respond to it. Our own Pastor Gary Fishman’s book is another favorite go to, and James Goll’s book on interpreting dreams is a great introduction and biblical perspective on dreams.

Recently I came across another 3 books that are absolutely wonderful . A to Z Dream Symbology by Dr. Barbie L. Breathitt and Divinity Code and Prophetic Symbolism in Everyday Life by Adrian Beale and Adam B. Thompson. Available on Amazon.

Posted on

Search for the Hidden Things

AUTHOR: Frances Zambardino

Papa allows me & you to search for Him, to discover a treasure of truth that is hidden beneath the surface of Scripture. And in some cases is concealed within the physical, created realm.

As it says in Proverbs, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

We are not only kings and priests, but as God’s redeemed children we search out the truth as we read, mark, doggy ear pages, lol, and gulp the whole counsel of God… so that we mature in the faith and discover the hidden things.

For secret things belong to the Lord but the things He has revealed belong to us and to our children forever!

Almost like a hide & seek game between Father & us.

Question….What Is The Latest Thing You Found That Made You Go “Wow” or “Hmmm” Or “Get Outta Here!” (I still have those.)

Posted on

What have you always wanted to do?

AUTHOR: Evelin Acosta

Have you ever said, “I’ve always wanted to do/learn _________?”

I recently said that to my dear friend Russ Painter because I’ve always wanted to learn how to sing. In fact, there are many things I’ve wanted to learn for a long time.

One thing I wanted to learn was to speak Portuguese, and thanks to technology, I downloaded the Duolingo App and have been practicing with it. I can read it better than I can speak it but that’s only because I don’t practice speaking as much.

I am now searching on YouTube for singing lessons. The next thing on my list is learning how to play the piano. I need to get a keyboard.

I think I’ve gotten to a point in my life that I don’t want to keep putting things on hold. I wanna live a full and abundant life where I get to do the things I find fun. Tell me, what’s something you’ve always wanted to do or learn that you haven’t done yet?

Posted on

What Does God’s Love Mean To You?

AUTHOR: Robin Fields

Hello Friends!

To follow up from my last post, What does it mean if someone says that they love you; I wanted to continue on that train of thought.

I have actually been thinking about this very thing: What does it actually mean to me to know that GOD LOVES ME????

Especially on my very worst days, when I’m not feeling very Christ-like?
Does it mean that He’s gonna put me in Time Out and maybe punish me a little bit, because I wasn’t as “good “ as I thought I should be or because I was mean to someone or hurt someone’s feelings?
Or does it mean that His Sweet Spirit is going to invade every part of me until I feel so fully loved that all I can think of is His Mercy and how He’s teaching me to be merciful?

What do I expect from Him?

How do I expect my every day life to be different, all because I know that He loves me?
I don’t really expect Him to come to my rescue in every single thing.
But guess what?
HE ALWAYS DOES!!!!

And He does it in ways that I would not even think of…
…which tells me that I have not nearly begun to understand the depth of His Love and the way that He Loves.

I don’t know about you right now; but I have not lived through a time of life before that has felt more uncertain, especially regarding the future.

But can I be brave and continue to live and love just as though everything was “normal” and stable?
I love pondering these thoughts with my Papa! It’s like an ongoing mental and spiritual adventure, to know that His Love is everlasting, regardless of the situations that I have found myself in.

For me, knowing that He loves me means that He is there for me in ways that I could never even imagine, big and little. And that He is teaching me daily how to live like Royalty; like a citizen of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken to the degree that it will fail, ever.

This Kingdom, to which we belong, is one of such powerful Love that we can always know that our King is intricately involved in every detail of our lives, every single day, and the He still chooses to love us, eternally.
What is your expectation of a King who loves like this?

Posted on

Taking Inventory

AUTHOR: Michael-Janelle

Janelle and I moved this past week—which is a great story of God’s provision for another time—but this also made it difficult to record and post a video. For today, I’ll share some thoughts via text.

Anyone who has moved before knows moves can be stressful. Once the packing, coordinating, and moving is complete; there’s the unpacking, reorganizing and settling in to deal with.

One important part—which Janelle excels at—is taking inventory. What do we need to keep? What can we get rid of? When moving you have to be honest and decisive with things you keep and things you let go of. The past couple weeks have been a constant flow of evaluation of everything we’ve kept in our home over nine years of marriage.

It‘s had me thinking of things I’ve kept in myself over the years. As I’ve packed and unpacked boxes, I’ve been evaluating what’s going on in me—in my heart. What do I need to keep? What can I get rid of?

Some scriptures I feel that are a great measuring stick for this type of evaluation comes from Romans 8—a chapter well worth a full read through, but for today I’ll attach a selection for you to read. (In case you missed it, Janelle’s post yesterday is shared from verse 15!)

As you read through it, evaluate the things within you. How do they measure up? What do you need to keep? What can you get rid of?

Until next time!
——
[Romans 8:5-14, NLT]
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)
10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.