Hebrews 13:2

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."

I believe i met an angel today....

A New Identity

There was a point when God asked Jacob his name. Jacob replied "Jacob". In one translation of the Bible, it says that Jacob spoke "in shock of realization, whispering" (Genesis 32:27 amp) Jacob could not escape the truth of his own identity a that point. In coming face to face with God, Jacob came face to face with himself.


God responded "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel" (Genesis 32:28) The name Israel literally means "contender". Contenders have power. The word contender is translated in some Bible versions as "one who prevails."


What does it mean to prevail with God? Success with God always means that you choose to do things God's way, not your own way. God's ways are not meant to be harsh and difficult, as some might think. You can trust that God has designed an abundant life for you that is released through your obedience to Him.


Choosing to do things God's way means that we accept God's plan for forgiveness for our lives, knowing that it is a great plan to lead us into His promises.


Choosing to do things God's way means that we see ourselves as He sees us, and we begin to take our identity as His beloved, righteous and forgiven children, no longer living under guilt, shame and punishment.


Choosing to do things God's way means that we ask Him for help in everything, from giving up a bad habit to adopting a positive new discipline.


Choosing to do things God's way means that we present ourselves to others as people who love God, and therefore love others with life transforming love.

The person who does this becomes a person who not only prevails with God, but who is a winner to herself and to other people. 

She rises above daily circumstances and even the most negative of situations. She finds a way to meet ends, soars above verbal assaults and lives a life of genuine integrity and authenticity.

When you know that you are a contender and a prevailer, you begin to adopt the stance - Emotionally spiritually and mentally - that "I am a valuable person, successful in the eyes of the One whose opinion truly matters." Your shoulders go back, you hold your head high, your eyes are focused and direct, your handshake is firm and your walk is confident.

Jacob didn't have to strive to gain power. God already saw him as worthy of accomplishment and success.


Jacob didn't have to struggle to prove himself. God already granted him status.


Jacob didn't have to scheme to acquire what he desired. God already saw him as a person deserving of life's best.


And so it is for you! :)

Philippians 4:6-7

"Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests) with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God's peace (shall be yours, that tranquil state of soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing form God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace) which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

A loud "Amen" from heaven

We often say "amen in church services, meaning in essence "I agree with what the preacher is saying." The true meaning of the word, however, is a declaration that we desire what is being said to come to pass. To say "amen" is to say "let it be so".


When we declare ourself the best and highest statements about who we can be in Christ Jesus, when we admonish ourselves to obey God with our whole heart, mind and soul, when we affirm to ourselves what God has done for us - all the heaven replies "Amen!" May it be so! May it come to pass! May it be the reality of our life!"

So today  i really need to preach to my self! haha - ADMONITION.

I think just as we affirm each other, we should be able to admonish ourselves also.


To admonish is to advice, usually in a mild but earnest way. At times to admonish is to insist. When you admonish yourself, you are preaching what you know you need to hear! Speak to yourself what you know to be the truth of God's Word and His commandments for your benefit.

My Admonishments to myself

Fideliz, pick yourself up and give your cares to GOD! Trust him today Fideliz, and see His promises come to pass. I admonish you right now Fideliz, to believe with all your heart, mind and soul that you are blessed, valuable, beautiful, strong, smart, favored and fabulous :)

Fideliz, you WILL walk in these TRUTHS all day today! :)

And today I declare to myself;
To take care of and nurture myself
To find and stay in that place of peace i have discovered
deep within
To never lose the dance in my step
To never lose the distinctive things that separate me
from the masses and that have made me who i am
To never cease to believe that i am great
because of who I am in Christ Jesus.
God forgive me for allowing anyone or anything
To become You and to rob me of life.
I love you Lord.


And to that I say AMEN & AMEN!!!


Go on! Declare today who you are and who you resolve to become :) Speak admonitions and declarations to yourself what you know to be the TRUTH of God's Word and His plans and promises to you :)

Be Still & Know God

Many people today run from one thing to the next. Because their mind don't know how to be still.

At one time i didn't know how to just stop! I felt i had to find something to do all the time! I had to be involved and  on the go, being a part of everything that was going on. I thought i couldn't afford to miss anything that happened because i didn't want anything to go on i didn't know about. I couldn't just sit and be still, look at a tree out the window, or drink a cup of tea. I had to be up and doing something.

One of the main reasons why so many of us are burned out and stressed out is that we don't know how to be still - to "know" God and to "acknowledge" Him.

When we spend time with him we learn to hear his voice. When we acknowledge Him he directs our paths. If we don't spend time being still, getting to know Him, and hearing His voice, we will operate from our own strength in the flesh.

One of the most important things we can learn in this day and hour is how to be STILL.

Are you stressed? Just be still and know that He is God :)

I thank God that he reminds us in Psalm 46:10

"Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth"

"Father, I set as a priority spending time with You. To hear Your voice clearly and to obey You. Help me to keep my priorities in order. I know that as I place You first by spending time with you, You will cause me to do supernaturally all the things that i need to do. I know that you want me to have peace in every area of my life and have made that peace available to me. I thank you that when i ask for wisdom, you give it to me. I ask that You guide me and give me wisdom so that i know clearly the commitments to make. I thank you Lord, that i use my energies in the way You want them used. In Jesus' name i pray, Amen."

A Poetic LOVE

For most, the highest ideals of love bring to mind moonlit serenades, dozens of roses, and ardent rhymes that troll the depths of a lover's feelings. These pictures of romance are wonderful, but they barely scratch the surface of what is possible with God's version of LOVE.

God invented marriage, romance, and sexuality, so wouldn't He naturally know best how we can maximize these things in our lives?


God designed the beauty of romance to stretch through an entire life, not to sputter its final breath after the honeymoon ends. God's version of love goes the distance - He's a fan of things that last FOREVER. And to help us in such a forever kind of endeavor, he offers us a version of love that can withstand the hardest winds of time. Its not a pop-culture love but a poetic love - 

so fabulously beautiful that it is  nearly impossible to describe.

In the morning whilst getting ready for a day out with Erik, we found this light reflection coming from our window shaped as a heart :) It was the day before our 2nd Year wedding anniversary! Wow! God is so romantic! one of the many many creative reminders of HIS love for us :)

Think of These Things

"For the rest brethren, whatever is true, what ever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things" Philippians 4:8

Magnify the Positive

I love my husband very much. But i confess, for years i kept mental lists of every fault he has ever displayed. One of the faults i found in Erik was that he played his computer games about 3 times a week! I thought he was extremely selfish not to realize how hard it was for me to come home tired from work and find him playing away. I felt that we didn't have much time together. I was not spiritually intelligent enough to understand that we both need our "me" time. I was always wanting to be with him 24/7. 

I was the one that was selfish.

I never considered that Erik worked all week, and that on the weekdays, when he plays this is how he unwinds. I didn't realize how important it was for him. I tried to get him to quit. I was angry almost every time, which made him want to play even more!


I also complained that Erik did not talk to me enough, that he goofed around too much and wasn't serious enough, and that he wasn't aggressive enough. The list i kept of his faults went on and on.


In short i overlooked all his positive characteristics. I was so busy meditating on his faults and trying to correct them and i did not even realize what a blessing i had in my life.


When God finally taught me - to magnify the good in life and people, it was amazing how great qualities i discovered in my husband. Of course those qualities where there all the time. I could have been enjoying him all those years.


I discovered Erik is flexible and adaptable. He is very easy to get along with, very sweet, he is not demanding at all, it doesn't matter to him if i want to go out and spend time with my girlfriends, he allows me to buy anything i want for which we have enough money, anytime i want to invite a group of people in our house it is fine with him, if i want to go out for dinner it is fine with him, and i always get to choose where i want to go! he is an amazing worship leader, he sings amazingly and plays the guitar and keyboard like no other..... he cooks me spaghetti (his specialty) :)


Erik also takes good care of me, and makes sure we pray :) the list of his good points are lengthy - longer than the list i kept of his negative qualities.

Are you majoring in someone's faults when you could be magnifying the persons good points? Be positive with who you have relationships. We all have faults and if magnified those faults become bigger than they really are. But when we magnify the good points in people, they become larger than the things that irritate us.

Today if someone ask me what my husband's faults were, i would have to think hard to come up with some. Nobody is perfect, and Erik has his faults, but i don't pay much attention to them any longer, making them hard to remember.

I make an effort not only to think of Erik's strengths, but also to compliment him about them. When we verbally magnify people's strengths we edify and encourage them. We are helping them to be the best they can be. 

We pull the best out of them by magnifying the best.

What a difference it makes in our relationships when we magnify and bring our the positive in people. It not only helps the other people improve, but also helps us enjoy them more, right where they are.

"Lord help me to magnify the good in others and not to focus on those things that are negative - I commit to allowing others the freedom to change. I trust you to mold and shape others into the people you want them to be. Please give me the grace to be gracious and positive in all my relationships. Help me to see the positive in everyone around me to speak in a positive manner, even when i must bring correction. Thank you Lord"

~ personalized - conflict free living - Joyce Meyer ~

The Nature of God's Love

The bible tells us that God's nature is love (1 John 4:16). Because God is unceasingly forgiving, His love "covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). Because God is all-powerful, all-knowing and eternal, His love is unconditional - nothing can keep Him from loving. No other person or power, no situation or circumstance, can cause God to stop loving. Because God is perfect, His love is the purest, most sublime form of love we can ever experience.

Our hearts desire love that is true and authentic. God alone has an unlimited supply of true, authentic love to pour into our innermost being (1 John 4:16-18)

Furthermore, the Word of God tells us that God is continually reaching our to is with His love, wooing us to Himself (John 4:19). God loved us long before we were lovable!. He loved us when we were a mess. He loved us at our worst (Romans 5:8)

This is an almost incomprehensible, unfathomable thought to many people. I have seen the look in the eyes of people than i can count. "God loved me when i was at my lowest point. Engaging in the worst sins, and denying His existence?" The answer is a resounding joyful "Yes!"

"But why" you may ask. "Why would God love me in that state?"

God loves you because He made you. He fashioned everything about you. He gave you your personality, your talents and abilities, your opportunities, your mind and your intelligence, your heart and your emotions, your dreams and creativity. He gave you every bit of strength and energy you have. He gives you air for every breath He causes your lungs to breathe. He gives you your every heart beat.

God loves who you are and who He created you to be. He loves you because you are his craftsmanship. His "creation".








You were designed by a loving heavenly Father and made for Him to love. Nothing you can do can add an ounce of love to the infinite love God already has for you. Nothing you do can subtract one once of love from His overflowing heart.

The Greatest Lover of All Time

How should you love your spouse? Just as Christ loves His bride. Selflessly. Sacrificially. To love as Christ loves is humanly possible; His version of love is our of our reach. But when we enter into covenant with Christ, He makes his heavenly version of love available by demonstrating it in and through our lives. So we too can love like the greatest lover of all time.

~~~

Princely honor set aside

As He washed the feet of His humble bride

Pouring out His breath and blood

As a sacrifice for the one He loved

And this love that spills out everything

Is the love that i pledge to you

Like the One who gave it all to me

I will give my life to you

All i have, all i am

I give you in covenant

Like broken bread and poured-out wine

I'll love you like

the greatest Lover of all time

Heroic love that led a King

To choose the road of suffering

Selflessness that just begins

Where human understanding ends

And this love that takes the lowest place

is the love that I now choose

Like the One who gave His life away

I will give my life for you

His love gave without holding back

So i will love you like that

His love paid the ultimate price

So i will lay down my life.

~~~

Our Model

Of course there are times when we should speak up and confront people, but its vital that we are sensitive to the Spirit of God in each situation. Sometimes I am fired up and want to tell someone that he or she will not mistreat me or take advantage of me any longer. But no matter how much I want to confront that individual, The Holy Spirit persistently tells me to leave it alone.

Other times I do not want to speak with a person about an issue, but God lets me know i must.
When this is the case i choose my words carefully and so that I speak out of wisdom rather than emotion. I am cautiously aware of the impact of voice tones and body language. I have learned that even when wrong words ignite a flame, right words can put it out.

"There are those who speak rashly, like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" (Prov. 12:18).

"A fool's wrath is quickly and openly known, but the prudent man ignores an insult" 

(Prov. 12:16)

~ Our Model ~

Follow Jesus's example. He was accused of wrongdoing regularly, yet never once did He attempt to defend Himself. He let people think He was wrong, and it did not disturb him at all.

He could do so because He knew who He was.
He did not have a problem with His self-image.
He was not trying to prove anything.
Because he trusted His father to vindicate Him and we can do the same.

"Lord i surrender to You the need to defend self, explain self, empower self, and to always be right. I acknowledge that You alone, you are the only one that is right. And even if i feel right about some situations, it never justifies strife. I submit my life to you completely, and i choose to let you alone be my defender."


~ Conflict free living - Joyce Meyer ~

You are Beautiful

When a designer sends a model down a runway of a fashion show, he or she is concerned with the total look of the model. The model isn't just wearing the designers garment. The designer, in nearly all cases, has spent a great deal of time and effort to make sure the model is wearing the right accessories - the right jewelry or shoes. They also tell them how to walk and turn and carry themselves and they create the overall environment in which the models are to model their designs.

And so it is with our great God. He created you as a composite. He put certain talents and features together with specific personality traits, and then he added various emotional responses and spiritual gifts. He was concerned with the overall, total you. He designed you to be a vibrant, thinking, feeling, fully functioning person who has a unique attractiveness. He adorned you with far more than physical appearance.

What we need is balance.

God made us with flesh - an outer appearance. God has blessed us with creativity and an appreciation for beauty. We can and should recognize our appearance as an area in which we express ourselves to the glory of God.

God also made us with inner qualities - gifts and talents and traits and personalities -that are also intended to be developed and displayed for the glory of God.

It is the inner demeanor that should dictate and define how we adorn ourselves.

Everyone of us must recognize that the greater part of our attractiveness cannot be bought, taken off a rack or shelf, applied like a lipstick or put on like a necklace or shoes.

The greater part or our attractiveness lies within and it wells up from the inside and finds creative and appropriate expression on the outside.

That's what Peter meant when he wrote that "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit" is what has a "great price" in the sight of God. ( 1 Peter 3:4)

God sees what no one else can see. And it's that part of you that He values the most.

~ Women thou art loosed - TD Jakes ~

Look at yourself in God's mirror. He sees all of who He made you to be, from the inside out.

Philippians 2:9-11

"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!"

Amen.

The greatest of these is Love

"Be ambitious for the higher gifts, and now I will show you a way that is better than any of them.

If I speak with human eloquence and that of angels as well, but speak without love, I am nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, knowing and understanding all of life's mysteries -- and if I have faith great enough to move mountains; but am without love, I am nothing.

If I give away to the needy all that I possess, and if I even suffer martyrdom, but am without love, I gain nothing.

This love of which I speak is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. It is never boastful or conceited. It is never possessive or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. It takes no pleasure in the failings of others, but rather delights only in the truth.

This love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading to its hope. It will outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen away. This love will not come to an end."

(1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8a)

Erik

With a heart of deep gratitude and words unable to articulate my love and appreciation, i thank the Lord everyday for you. I love you more and more each day :)

I confess my love for you....

xox

I Confess....

I confess I have cried huge salty tears.

I have felt the bitter pangs of rejection and criticism.

I admit there were times that i rocked my worries to sleep in the middle of the night.

Know all this and understand that i have not yet seen a day that made me regret the decision to run my course.

How far or how fast you run in comparison with others doesn't matter.
Whether you win trophies or receive great accolades doesn't matter.

What matters is that you stretch your legs and run in the wind.

It is only your shadow that you run against.
It is your own destiny that you stride beside.

"Thank you Lord for the strength" :) - "Your strength is made perfect in my weakness" :)

~ From my notes Nov 30 2008 ~

These are my confessions...

Confession - The act or process of confessing. An admission of one's faith or belief. A formal public statement of opinion. To disclose, to acknowledge, to make known or to admit.