No limit for God

Hey guys 💓 

Today i want to share something that kinda has been hovering in my mind for a while and its the topic of being useful to God. When can we truly say with certainty that we have been useful to God? Are there limits that impede God from using us? What are the rewards of being obedient and listening to his calling? And i began to look into it and found some things i want to share with you guys. 

In the scriptures, a perfect example of a calling is Jeremiah. Jeremiah was called at such a young age that he found himself not capable of serving God at great lengths. Jeremiah 1:6 easy  "Sovereign Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” Many time, like Jeremiah, we may find ourselves intimidated by our calling, maybe feel unworthy, or simply afraid to go out and do what the Lord tells us to. Our own fear or pride might get in the way of Gods purpose but we must look beyond what we see. He says to Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” As shown in Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us. He says But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uprootand tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Furthermore, if the Lord calls, he will back us up. We must never think that the Lord will call us to leave us ashamed. Romans 10:11 says "For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame" The Lord gives us confidence and reassurance that if we believe in him we will not be put to shame because he will be by our side. 

One thing that can be noticed throughout the scriptures is that the Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. In many instances, we can see that the Lord chooses those who seem to be in the lowest positions to be of use to him. As mentioned in a post a while ago, the samaritan women is a clear example of how God has no exception. He's not looking for the most intellectual or for the one with the most money to serve him, what he's looking for is a humble heart who is willing and accepting. The Samaritan women wasn't the best role model yet she was of use to God and he was able to have her serve him water. As well as David. He was the least favored in his family, he wasn't qualified. He was simply the keeper of the sheep but God found him capable. He then became of great statue to the people; he was king. God will not give you a manual or steps on how to be a good singer or a good preacher, its all in your relationship with him. He will guide you and he will qualify you! Moses aswell felt unqualified to guide the people of Egypt it says in Exodus 4:10-12 "But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is  it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.” The Lord makes it clear that it will not be us, but him instead. 

Psalm 40:2 says "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand" The Lord lifts from low places and sets us high like kings.

Heres a little story. My congregation is part of this big council and they have churches all over the place. Theres an annual youth camp during the summer where all the churches come together and there are 500+ youth who attend. In my church i sing all the time, i am part of the choir and hold a pretty important position in it (to God be the glory). There is also a national Choir which is composed of a bunch of people from all the different churches and they sing in big events like the camps and conventions. My music leader had signed me up (honestly didn't want to be a part of it) and this meant that ultimately i have to sing in events like those, yikes! In order to sing in big event you must be promoted by the choir director otherwise you just sing with the whole choir (100+ people) in special ocassions  I had never attended one rehearsal and the choir director doesn't even know me but by the grace of God i was promoted. I was asked to sing at camp and i was terrified. I had to lead a song that I've sang so many times but it felt like the first time. I felt like saying no but God gave me the talent of singing and i will use it for his glory. I was scared to death but when i got up there and began to sing, i was confident because i wasn't doing it for my glory but instead to lift his name higher. He backed me up through it all and all my nerves ceased as i stepped on the stage. I was able to praise him with all i have and see the consequence of that reflected on the crowd. GOD IS GOOD!

Dear God, please help me to trust you and to know that even if I'm scared that you will be with when you call me. Don't allow for my fear, my own plans, desires, and pride, get in the way of the plan you have in my life. I want to be useful to you, mold me, clean me and allow me to come to you just as i am, so i may be transformed by the power of your name and make myself useful to you. In the Holy name of Jesus i pray, Amen. 

Getting to Know God

Hey darlings ❣,
Hope you guys are having a good day so far. So my question is, Does one every fully get to know God? Well its something I don't have an answer to but I'll tell you this much, there are ways to communicate with God and to become more aware of who he is and what he does.

Prayer!!!

Prayer is Key. The key to like everything in ones Christian life. Literally think of prayer as a key, when the door is closed what do you use to open it? a key. And what is the key? Prayer.
Prayer is essential when getting to know God. Why? Because prayer is communicating with God, speaking not to him but with him. What other way would you get to know a person in your secular life than by communicating with them. Communication is Prayer and Prayer is Key.

 One can see many times in the bible that with prayer many things happen, when we pray we express our love, thanks, and need of having him. Matthew 7:7-8 shows that when we call he will open and how do we call? Through prayer. Prayer opens doors. Philippians 4:6-7 also shows that prayer is a way to getting to know God. When we pray and we set our anxiety on him he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7
) In this verse we can see two things. Cause and Effect. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Cause). ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Effect). We can see that when we call out to God we get to know him. Here we can see that God cares for us and that he will give us strength, this is us knowing him, knowing he cares for us and he will guard our hearts and minds from anything that can harm it. He is our protector.

Always remember, that in this world everything seems to be going the wrong way. This world is displeasing God in almost everything they do and there has to be a strong a faithful remainder that seeks him and get to know who he is. Many times we may question the existence of God or even if he listens to our prayers but we must have a conviction and always be sure that our God is and that he rewards of those who believe in him! Whenever you find yourself doubting or feel like you don't know him as much as you need to, dive on your knees and pray and talk with him and he will give revelation at his time.

Dear God, Please allow me to get to know you more and to be able to understand how you work. I ask you to give me conviction and revelation, as well as wisdom to know that you are real while being surrounded by a world and a society that doesn't always favor you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Dress Code for the King

Good Afternoon lovelies,
So I've been thinking, its actually kind of hard to dress appropriately when you're a server of God. There are many things that we shouldn't wear because of immodesty but take a look at this.

In the bible God many times tells us (women specifically) that we should dress modestly and appropriately. He says in 1 Timothy 2:9-10  "Also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God." so lets break this down for a sec, shall we...

The first part is pretty clear "I also want women to dress modestly"

What is modesty?
          Modesty is a mode of dress intended to avoid encouraging sexual attraction in others. In this use, it can be considered inappropriate or immodest to reveal certain parts of the body. A modest person would behave so as to avoid encouraging the sexual attention of others.

Now that we know what that means we can see that God calls us to be unrevealing of the members of our body. We as women, shouldn't display the intimate body parts that God has given us to provoke men or to draw attention to ourselves. Its hard sometimes because sometimes the most attractive things to the eyes are the immodest ones but that's something God has to work in so one will no longer desire to wear things that don't please God. Modest clothes are very hard to find sometimes but they're not impossible. Later on I'll leave some suggestions of stores that sell pretty cute modest clothes :)

When we dress immodestly and reveal too much not only are we sinning but we are also causing others to sin. In Matthew 5:28 God says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." If we walk around the streets with inappropriate clothing men will be attracted and with just one lustful look he has committed adultery in his heart. This then becomes our fault of dressing that way and his for having such thoughts and desires.


Next... "With decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes "

Decency is behavior that conforms to accepted standards of morality, meaning we must carry ourselves as respectably and with good behavior (which is what propriety means). So what does this mean? We must not let ourselves be touched or treated as something that we are not. We are severs of the king, a royal priesthood and we must treat ourselves and let others treat us as so.
God also tells us that we mustn't adorn ourselves with elaborate hairstyles or gold or peals or expensive clothing. You may be thinking "Hold up, you mean to tell me that buying expensive clothing is a sin?!" No, lets break it down a bit.

In the next part it says "but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God"

This makes it clearer. Here God is saying not to buy expensive clothing, not to wear gold or pearls or elaborate hairstyles but this is when referring to drawing attention to ourselves. He's saying that instead our attention should come from the good we do in his name. If one professes to worship God it means she states or claims to do so. It isn't appropriate for a women who claims to worship and serve God to want attention coming from the wrong places. Those expensive clothing or pearls and gold or showing cleavage or a tight short skirt, shouldn't be a source of attention, instead our praise should come from the works we do in his name and from the testimony that we display because of who we are in him.



I know it may be hard sometimes to be the only one in school or at work who dresses modestly, with skirts and unrevealing tops but this is what God has called us for. We need to follow his commandments and let him be the one to draw the attention to us, we my be teased or treated differently but that's okay because we aren't called to fit in but instead to be the difference. Romans 12 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Its al under God's will and he will help us through it.

Dear God, thank you for making me understand that you want me to be different from the rest of the crowd. I know that I have to please you in everything that I do; even in how I dress. Help me to be modest and to not be tempted by the trends of this world. In Jesus name, Amen.


Stores where modest attire can be found:
h&m
Cotton On
Forever 21 !!!!!!
Banan Republic
Zara
Express
New York and Company
Old Navy
Gap
Loft
Hollister (very few)
Juppe de Abby
Pkidchics

Dont be Ashamed!

Guys I am so extremely sorry, once again I haven't posted consecutively because I've been caught up in other things but I'm back for good :) I would really like it if you guys left comments on whatever you think I should write about next, just if you have suggestions, or just saying whatever you want to say :)

Yesterday I was at work. There's a lady that works with me and she kept asking me questions. She knows I'm Pentecostal but the things she was asking me made me feel intimidated and kind of ashamed. I was talking to her and she asks me "What are the things you cant do?" and I began to list them and I realized that there are a lot of thing. It doesn't please God for us to smoke, drink, wear the wrong attire, curse, listen to worldly music, adultery, fornication, lying...and so on. As I listed them I started to cut them short because I felt ashamed and it made me remember this time I was in school. I was sitting outside my classroom waiting to go into class and there's a kid there and he starts to look at me and asks me if I'm religious (because of the skirt) and since that's one of he words I dislike the most I say no. I don't like the word religious because what I believe in isn't a religion, its a God, THE God. Its a relationship with him not just another imagination or fantasy. So I told him it was more of a lifestyle which it is and he began asking me the same questions about what I can and cant do.

At that moment when I was feeling ashamed I remembered what God said in Matthew 10:33 (But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.) and I thought about how sad it would be to be before my king and to have him disown me because of my ashamedness of him here on Earth. This makes me want to talk about him to everyone as we were called to do. We mustn't be ashamed of who we are in him because we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, we are his chosen people to announce the praises of him who has called us from darkness to his admirable light (1 peter 2:9) so if he has done so much for us, why must we do so little for him? He took us out of the miry clay and has gave us value, he has placed us in high places and made us his children so the least we can do is not be ashamed of him and freely speak of who he is and who we are in him.

Dear God, I know that its hard to speak of you to those that don't know you or love you but I ask you to help me and give me strength and courage so I may not be ashamed of my identity in you, instead may I freely proclaim that I am yours and that you are my savior. Allow me to be clothed in valor to walk as a representation of you in my daily journey. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

God Listens!

God bless guys, so my last post was about how I was feeling kinda distant from God well guess what? okay no let me back up lol so initially (initially being like 2013) I wanted the Holy Spirit so bad! but it seemed so hard for me to connect to God in services and I would see how other people would speak in tongues so easily but I wouldn't then one day the summer of 2013 I was finally gifted with tongues. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Then it took me forever to speak again and I knew there was something wrong because God says that he doesn't deposit of his wine in an old vessel because then the wine would go to waste Matthew 2:22 (the wine being the holy spirit) so I knew I had to fix something but I didn't know what it was. Recently (this year) I have felt the Holy Spirit so many more times than ever before. Every time I would be worshipping during service, the Holy Ghost would come upon me and I would be completely swayed by it. Then as i stated in my last entry, I began to feel distant.

Yesterday, I felt God hugging me (not literally). I felt God right by me. I was in service and while listening to the sermon I felt God speaking to me. He was talking directly to me as I had asked him to do in the prayer before the preaching. His words were so comforting and they gave me courage. Soon after, I was worshipping him and crying in his presence and it came again. I found myself speaking in tongues. There's nothing more than that, that makes me feel closer to God. That is a sign that God abides in you.

This just proves how active God is and how he actually listens to our prayers as he declares in 1 John 5:14. When I had written my entry, I was praying to God asking him to make me feel close to him again and to help me be where I once was. There, God clearly answered my prayer so he can do the same to you. One thing you must know is that you need to seek him in order to find him, you need to call in order to have the door be open to you as it says in Matthew 7:7-11.You cant expect God to give you without you asking, yes he knows our hearts and he knows the intentions of our hearts and is able to discern our every thought, but we must confess that we need him. Try to separate yourself from what doesn't allow you to be close to God and instead ask him to give you his spirit.

Dear God, I am now aware that you listen to my prayers and that I must seek in order to find. I ask you please to allow me to grow spiritually and may I not be deceived by the devil, instead give me wisdom in order to know what's good and what's bad. In Jesus name, Amen.

Jesus Friend of Sinners

Hey guys!! many blessings,
Sorry I wasn't able to be on here for a while, had a lot going on with school but that wont be an issue anymore.

Kinda excited to be out of school, not only because of the amount of work that I no longer have to worry about but because of the amount of temptations and trials that are out of my way. While being in school, one is more susceptible to be tempted by the devil, whether its to get asked to attend a party or to simply be "put on" to the latest rapper, whatever the case may be, school is a major factor in ones spiritual life.

I don't know, but lately I feel myself feeling kind of far from God and I try to ask him to bring me back to him and to allow me to be engaged In this first love that I once found myself in but it seems to be coming to me slowly, very slowly. Then I try to think back and trace all the things i have done that could draw me away from God and well there are a lot.. Even the things that seem the smallest like a tiny lie or borrowing a pen, knowing you want it and wont give it back (aka stealing),the things that seem minor have the same weigh as any other sin. An example of this can be seen in Mathew 5:22. The Lord says that simply by being mad at your brother or sister is constituted as killing them, and well we all know killing is a sin (Exodus 20).

Many of us have been longing to have an experience with God and yearning to feel him once more, but there's something that doesn't allow you to get close to him and be found in the place you were once in but just ask him to embrace you and wrap you in his arms. He will take away every fear and everything that forbids you from becoming close to him again. Ask him and he will listen. Many times we are faced with things that will separate us form God and it may seem impossible to get back on track but he is listening always and will always be by our side despite how many times we may push him away or fail him. The love of God is endless and he promises to be with us.

This is seen in the bible when there is the Samaritan women. She can be a representation for some of us. Not everyone is facing the same difficulties or coming upon the same stumble block but as humans living in the flesh, we will ALL face a temptation and an obstacle to overcome. The Samaritan women wasn't the one with the best reputation around town, she even had her own time for getting the water from the well so that she wouldn't come across others. When God came toward her, she was surprised that he was interacting with her because they weren't from the same places so they typically don't associate with each other but because of Gods unfailing love and compassion this wasn't a factor influencing his nobleness. He asked her to get him water and promised that whoever drinks from that water will soon be thirsty "but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14. The Samaritan women had many men and was full of sin however the Lord extended his loving hands of mercy and still forgave her and interacted with her, why wont he don the same with us, sinners?

Dear God, please help me to become close to you once more, I want to feel your presence once more and be filled with your Holy Spirit. I want you to wrap  me in your arms and I want try feel the warmth of your presence again. Don't allow me to ever be separated from you again, instead help me to know you more and be able to get away from the things that draw me from you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Sharing the Gospel

So today i felt great!!!!
I was sitting with some friends of mine in the cafeteria, when we began to speak about religion. Although i wouldn't call this a religion - its instead a relationship with God - i was reminded of who i am in Christ and began sharing my point of view. Some are Muslim and some jews and although there are a minimal amount of things that each of those has in common with being Apostolic, they differ greatly. I felt so great to be able to share out my belief and to even cite the bible and make them aware of the greatness of God. One of the topic we came upon was revenge.

Previous to lunch i had math class. There was a guy sitting next to me (who looooves to bother me) and he kept hitting me (playfully ofc) and bothering me and ill keep telling him t stop kindly. There came a point where he said "How come you never hit me back". When we were talking in the cafeteria, i brought that up and i told my friends "remember when ____ asked me why i never hit me back?" and i told them that its because revenge is not something i should do. Even on something a simple as that, i don't feel the need to hit him back simply because he did it to me first. Just in doing things like that i was giving testimony of who i am and how i aspire to be like Christ. Ephesians 5:1 tells us to follow Gods example so that's what we must do :)

Soon after, i walked over to the vending machine, and there was a teacher sitting in one of the tables near the machine and she calls me over and asks me what religion i'm from and i told her that i'm Pentecostal. Then she started complimenting me on how i carry myself in such a respectful way and how i'm not like the others. This made me feel so so good because that's what i want. I want to be set apart and not be like the rest because we weren't called to blend in with the crowd but to stand out, representing our creator. So remember, its never bad to be the difference. Instead be proud of it. Never forget that revenge is for the Lord to take and not for us to put into action, God is watching us at all times and we must live to be like him. God bless <3