The Time Has Come

Then He said to me, "These words are faithful and true," and The Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servant the things which must shortly take place.  "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." ~Revelation 22: 6-7.

As I was asleep last night, The Lord spoke to me and said those exact words that I just shared with you all above in the book of Revelation.  The time has come for us to reach the lost and bring them to The Lord, before it's too late for them.  This is seriously the last effort in winning the lost to Christ.  How are we supposed to do that you might ask?  Well, the answer here is to pray about it and ask The Lord to show and tell you what to do regarding these things.  Are you ready?  If not, then you need to get yourself ready for it, before it's too late.  My advice to you all is this, you need to seek The Lord in all that you do before anything else can happen and take place, you need to pray, read the Bible, and do your daily devotionals everyday or night for it, don't have time for it? Well, you need to start making time for it, if I can do it, then so can you.  You also need to write, reflect, and fast on it all.  It's really not easy, but I know that you can do it all.  With God on your side, anything is possible. Trust and obey Him, you can do it, I know that you can. 

If I have learned anything from this past year, it is this, be content with what you have, no matter how much or how little you have, and share it with others that may need it more than you.  Where it's dark, shine your light, where there's sadness, be an encourager, and share the word of The Lord with others, because they need to hear it.  Otherwise, how will any of us become healed and saved if we don't  do these things for The Lord?  It isn't going to happen, unless we go out and do what The Lord is asking us to do.  He will never send you anywhere that you and Him cannot handle, because remember that, where ever you go, The Lord has already been there and He will help you through it all.  Because yes, that's how powerful and great He is! This year has been a really rough year on all of us, but because we have The Lord with us, He will help us heal and become closer to others because of all that we've been through lately.  He puts us through these things because, He wants us to be able to reach out to others the way that He's reaching out to us and so that we can help them realize that through it all, He's always been there for us.  All we need to do is ask Him for certain things, and He will make it so.  

It may take time, but that's okay, because all good things happen to those who wait and call on The Lord.  It will be in His perfect timing, not on our time, but His.  I want you all to make this next new year the best year of your life, because it may be your last.  Ever think about it that way?  I didn't do it until recently, and honestly it does help to put some things in perspective for me, I hope that the same thing will happen to you, because it's worth it, just trust me on this.  I have been walking with The Lord as a born again Christian for eight years now and it has been some of the rough, but best years of my life.  It sounds crazy I know, but it's the utmost truth.  He tests us to make sure that we are really ready for that next step in our relationship with Him.  Perhaps, I should also mention that when The Lord tests us, He wants to teach us how to rely on Him more than we do ourselves.  More of Him, less of us.  It helps us to have a much closer, more intimate relationship with Him.  So, if you want this, then say this prayer of Salvation with me, "Lord, I love you and I receive you, please come into my life and into my heart, and change me to be more like You, and less like ourselves.  Please forgive us and deliver us from our sins, we are not perfect, but we know that You are,  and we have come to the end of ourselves, and cannot go on like this any longer, please Lord, come save us all before it's too late.  We want to come home and be with You, and we do not want to spend the rest of our lives in eternal damnation, Amen and Always Praise The Lord, in Christ, Amen."  Thank you and God Bless!

~With Love and In Christ,
     Emily

Silence

  "And Saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" "For this is He was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of The Lord: Make His paths straight."  ~Matthew 3:2-3.

    These will be what my thoughts and reflections are for the Bible Verse above; Basically, sometimes it just takes one voice from one specific person that is crying out to The Lord in the wilderness, to make a drastic change.  So then I thought to myself, why can't I be that one voice that is crying out to The Lord in the middle of the wilderness where ever it may be at the present time? That would make sense wouldn't it? Yes, indeed it does make sense.

     My next point here will be this: I feel like I have been silent for so long, that I've forgotten about how to speak up for The Lord as well as myself and others.  To me, this is God telling me that it's time to speak out more so for The Lord, rather than just for myself at this present time.  If The Lord is telling you to do something, then you best do it, because The Lord needs you to stop being so selfish about specific things, so that you can move on and obey Him.  It needs to be less about you and a whole lot more about The Lord.  It is the smallest of voices that can make the biggest of changes, and that's us as Christians.

    Seeing that it is a brand new year, why don't we all put our selfish desires aside, and start speaking up and working for The Lord? It is scary and uncertain, but it is The Lord's biggest desire for this fallen world.  He wants us to work together as a community and win the lost for Him.  We can do it with The Lord's help.  Nothing is impossible for Him. 

    Now, whose with me? If you have God, then you have all you could possibly need and want and even more for that matter.  He loves you and He will protect you, no matter where you go.  All you need to do is to repent of your sins and come to The Lord before it's too late.  You need to let it all go and place it in The Lord's hands, and He will take care of the rest.  Proverbs 3:5 says to put all of your trust in The Lord with all your heart, and to lean not on your own understanding; but in all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths, and make them straight before men.  Do you see how easy it could be if you would just decide to follow The Lord?  We can have all of this, if we could just stop being so fearful of what might happen if you came to The Lord.  He will not leave you, nor forsake you, He loves you so much, and it hurts Him to see that you are lost and not fully His yet.

   We do not belong to man or this world, we are His and we belong in heaven with Him and His Heavenly Father.  We are temporarily living down here on earth to win the lost to The Lord.  We are here to make a difference in this world for Him, and not for man.  We could make a huge difference in someones life, if we could just show that person God's love and if we taught them how to be more like Jesus and less like themselves.  We actually need to be the change that we want to see in this world.  Don't you agree with me? Thank you and God Bless! Amen and Praise The Lord!

 ~  With Love and in Christ,
      Emily

What is Modesty?

https://fashionablychristian.com/2016/04/14/what-is-modesty/

Blameless

http://fashionablychristian.com/2016/03/04/blameless/

Putting on the Light of Christ

http://fashionablychristian.com/2016/01/06/putting-on-the-light-of-christ/ 

http://fashionablychristian.com/2016/01/28/the-worst-christmas-of-my-life/

Baptism

     "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him and He saw that the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him and suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." ~Matthew 3:16-17.
        This Bible Passage has an amazing message in it, and I am here to share with you all what The Lord has been saying to me through this Matthew 3:16-17 Bible Passage.  This Word came upon me during our church service last week.  It was during our announcements toward the end of the church service.  Anyway, it was announced to us last week that our church will be having six if not seven baptisms this coming Sunday on July 5th.  I've been thinking about that and being all fired up about it this entire week! I can't wait, I'm so happy about this because this is a huge leap of faith and in the right direction for our growing church.  When a person becomes baptized, that means that they are rededicating themselves to The Lord and to our church.  It also means that these people are getting rid of their old ways and are inviting in their new ways. 
        This is going to be awesome for me to see and to be a witness of because I was in the exact same boat as these people currently are about five years ago today.  That was when I decided to change my life for the better and to die to all of my old ways and fully give my new self to The Lord.  It was one of the best feelings that I could have ever had in my entire life.  I was cleansed from the inside out on that great day and it is all because of The Lord and what He's done in my life so far on this very day! This was the first time in a long time that I was finally at peace and in full agreement with The Lord.  I look forward to the plans that He has for my life in the near future.  I do not know what they are yet, but The Lord does and I have a feeling that I'm going in the right direction as to what The Lord has planned for me.  It's going to be astonishing and super exciting.  My life with The Lord is never dull because He always has an intriguing adventure planned out on a daily basis! 
       Especially since He knows that I'm in retail.  To those who used to work and still are in retail, you all know exactly what I'm talking about here.  Correct? I'm sure that all who are reading this blog at the moment are curious as to where all of this excitement will be taking place next week?  Well, lucky for you, I'll be sharing this information with you on this particular blog: We are going to have our usual worship and whatnot at the church and then directly after church we'll be going to the YMCA in Reading, MA.  That is where all of these baptisms will be taking place.  Here's the address of the Church: It is called, Christ the King Church 4 Railroad, Avenue, Suite 309 Wakefield,Massachusetts 01880.  The Church service starts at 10:30 am sharp and please do not be late! This is quite the important day in history for Christ the King Church.  The music is amazing and really hits home for specific people, so please come and enjoy the service and just listen to some soothing and comforting music.
      Should you decide to come on Sunday, I promise to you all that it will instantly be worth it.  But on a side note, I'm also stepping out in faith and starting a Young Women's Group, so please come and join us, we'd absolutely love to have you.  All are welcome and just remember that none of us are out of God's reach.  We all have a past, but it's okay, you are loved and have been forgiven by a loving and gracious God.  Thank you all and God Bless! I will talk to you soon and I hope to see you in church on Sunday.

In Christ, Emily

Struggling

   "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and A time to die; A time to plant, and A time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, and A time to heal; A time to break down, and A time to build up; A time to weep, and A time to laugh; A time to mourn, and A time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and A time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and A time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain, and A time to lose; A time to keep, and A time to throw away; A time to tear, and A time to sow; A time to keep silence, and A time to speak; A time to love, and A time to hate; A time of war, and A time of peace." ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
     Is anyone else struggling at the moment just like I am? If the answer is yes, then please come and join with me as I go to write and pray about the experiences that I'm currently having.  I feel like I'm struggling because I am trying to start a whole new ministry and a whole new young women's group and I gotta tell ya that it has incredibly difficult for me to do thus far, especially because I'm not one to go out and talk to complete strangers about this new group that I intend to start at my church.  I'm what you would call, "anti-social" and "Socially Awkward."  Lately, I have been getting the word out about this new group, and I'm also in a lot of prayer about it recently.  It seems like every time a person from the church, asks me about the Young Women's Group, I tend to get aggravated and annoyed.  Then in my own head, I'm questioning if I should even bother doing this thing in the first place.  I'm trying pretty hard to get this group up and running, and soon.  I don't really know what's going on at this moment and especially in regards to this group.  Maybe I'm just not ready for this yet.  But I am hopeful and optimistic about it in the near future.
     The reason why I wanted to start this group in the first place is because I feel in my heart that God is calling me to do this for Him and I cannot disobey Him.  Another reason for starting this new group is because I was a teenager once and I know how life was like back then.  It was never easy for me because I've always tried to fit in with the others and it just never worked out that way for me.  I want to be a good, strong, Christian role model for all of those girls out there who were not really raised in a Christian home like I always was.  These young women need to know that God loves them and that they are not alone in this fight.  They need to feel accepted, loved, and empowered in this otherwise challenging and unforgiving world. 
   Both God and I do not want any one of them to suffer like I did in the past.  These young women could be the ones who make a really big difference in this world, just like God wants them to do.  The smallest act of kindness can instantly change this world around and reach out to those who are lost and unsaved.  How great would it be to see the lost come to God? There are times when I just want to give all of this up, but I know and trust that in God, all of this struggling, will be worth all of the fighting for what is right in the end.  But we need to get to that point first and foremost before anything else can happen. 
    Yes, it is a monumental task, but you just need to remember that, "With God all things are possible."  Amen? Let's join together and say a prayer to conclude this blog entry. 
      "Father, how grateful I am for Your Holy Spirit's work and Your precious Word, both of which You use to set me free from my pain and suffering.  Thank You for always loving me and never giving up on me.  It is a great comfort to know You will never leave or forsake me.  You know the wounds of rejection that have marred my heart.  You know how useless, helpless, and worthless I feel when yet another person casts me away.  So many of these feelings originated long ago and have deep roots.  But I am grateful for how You have set me free from these feelings; how You have given me a sense of belonging in Your eternal, heavenly, family as Your own child; how You have blessed me with a sense of worth through Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection, and how You have empowered me to accomplish all You call me to through Your indwelling Holy Spirit.
    "Father, I know I must make a decision-either I can believe what others have spoken about me, or I can trust what You say about my character and future.  I know what You say counts in eternity, Lord, so I choose to listen to You.  Thank You for Your unfailing love and for creating me with a good plan and purpose.  Help me to keep my eyes on You.  In Jesus' name I pray, Amen." (The Prayer that is in this blog is written By Charles Stanley in his prayer cards.)

The Vision and Deer's Feet

Good Evening to all,
   I have a word from The Lord to share with you all on here and the message is based off of Joel 2:28-32.  "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.  And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.  And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of The Lord.  And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of The Lord shall be saved.  For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as The Lord has said, among the remnants whom The Lord calls." ~Joel 2:28-32.

     Basically the message from The Lord will be this: Right now we are in a season of repentance and with repentance, comes cleansing, and with cleansing comes miracles and new beginnings! We are going to see some incredibly amazing things start happening and soon!  The Lord says that we are ready and to bring it on!  I say Praise The Lord and God Bless! Before I heard from The Lord and was lead to read those above passages, I had just had a dream about The Lord and this is what happened to me in the dream: The Lord was holding me and carrying me in His arms over to a big window and we were looking through the big window at something specific together.  It was in a room that was filled with endless light.  Then shortly after this dream took place, that is when The Lord told me to wake up and get out of bed and look up visions in my Bible, so I did and  He lead me to read the following Bible Verses: Acts 11:5; Acts 11:9; Acts 26:19-20; Acts 26: 22-23; Joel 2:28-32.

    In addition to all of this, The Lord had given me another word to share with you all last night during my Bible Study time.  He told me to look up Salvation in my Bible and so I did.  He directed me to this verse: "Yet I will rejoice in The Lord, I will joy in the God of my Salvation.  The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills." ~Habakkuk 3:18-19.  After reading this Bible passage this is what The Lord's message was to me: He basically wants to deliver us from our sins and to make us swift like Deer's feet.  God is unchangeable and He is training us through all of these tough times that we have been put through recently so that He can teach us that He is our strength, He always has been and always will be.  So, don't give up and keep fighting the good fight and continue on this long unending journey with The Lord on Your side.  He wants us to approach these things with swiftness and gracefulness like the feet of a deer.  Do not faint, always run swiftly, give all the glory to God, and don't stop praying.  

   In conclusion, he is helping us to learn how to be strong in our Spiritual warfare and work, We shall be swift for our Spiritual race, and We shall always be successful in each of our Spiritual enterprises.  He is making us Spiritually strong, He's making us (His Church), spiritually swift, and is making each of us spiritually successful! How cool is that?  I say Amen and Praise The Lord! 

He Will Be Exalted!

Hey all,
   Here's the new link to my new blogging website:  I hope you enjoy it!

http://fashionablychristian.com/2015/02/14/he-will-be-exalted/

God Bless!

In Christ,
  Emily

How to Stay Pure

   Good Evening all of my fellow bloggers,  
     I apologize for being non-existent for a couple months now, it's just been a busy time of year and will most likely get busier as the Christmas season approaches.  Anyway, here's this Bible Verses that inspired me to write this blog for you tonight: "How can a young person cleanse his/her sinful ways? By living according to Your Word, Lord." ~Psalms 119:9.  and "I will meditate on Your precepts (commandments) and contemplate (think about; reflect) Your ways.  I will delight myself in Your statutes (rules;law); I will not forget Your Word." ~Psalms 119:15-16.
        My thoughts and reflections on the above Bible Verses will be this: In a society where modesty no longer seems to exist especially in certain younger people, this Bible verse couldn't be more fitting.  Honestly, I wish and hope that the younger people of this generation would actually turn to and read the Bible a whole lot more than they currently do.  That is exactly what God wants and prays for always, day in and day out.  I feel that this is My Christian Mission.  It is to go out in this world and try to win more of the young people to Christ.  God has laid this feeling on my heart for quite some time now and it is my fears of rejection that is holding me back from fulfilling this call that God has gracefully placed on my life.  The truth is that this situation scares the heck out of me and I cannot do this all alone.  This is also the specific reason as to why I started the "Fashionably Christian" page on Facebook about a year and a half ago now.
       For the longest time I had very little "likes" on that page and all of a sudden in a matter of a few months, I then received over 300 "likes" on this page; I'm so thankful and full of gratitude for all of the fans on that page.  We all know that I couldn't have done that on my own, but with God's help, He made all of this very possible for me.  So, praise The Lord and Amen to that! Agreed? The fans on this page must truly appreciate and understand what that page actually stands for.  I'm thankful for that too.  I just randomly started that page to be for fun,  but that page means so much more than just that as I'm thinking about it now.  God works through me to bring lots of encouragement and joy to those that need it the most, especially during this time of year which can be quite difficult for a good amount of people during the whole Christmas/ Holiday season.  So, that gives me all the more reason to keep going even when I'm feeling down on my luck recently.  If in the future that I decide to make, "Fashionably Christian" a small, non-profit business, I can only hope and pray that both God, my family, and friends will help me to get through this and to make sure that it will go and succeed to much greater heights than any of us could have ever imagined it to be.  This will be for the future of God's Holy and Eternal Kingdom.   I once read somewhere on social media that "if my dreams don't scare me, then my dreams aren't big enough."
          Well, this is my dream and it does scare me, so I must be doing something right; am I correct? God must think so because He keeps testing me and putting me through certain things that I don't normally do on a daily basis.  If this is truly God's Will for this life, then He will make it possible because He always does especially if it is to further grow His Eternal Kingdom and His Word.  It will be for the good of His Children and their Eternal life.  "Your life will always start at the end of your comfort zone."  Amen? God certainly thinks so.  In conclusion, we should always reflect on God's Ways because that is also exactly what He wants for us too.  As a matter of fact, God wants a lot for us.  We just need to abide in Him and He will abide in us.  We need to have some faith and some trust in Him and He will reveal more of His Perfect Plan for us in His good timing, not in our bad timing.  Now, let's join together in a closing prayer for this blog entry, " God, thank you for revealing and sharing this powerful message with each of us because we in one way or another desperately needed to hear this Word from You, to otherwise make these minor set-backs for this diversely dreadful storm a more bearable time to get where we needed to go no matter how scary or how slow it may currently be to get there from here.  Thank you, Lord, We love You, In Jesus' holy and precious name we pray, Amen." 
 https://www.facebook.com/Efashionstyles

~Emily P.

Ask and You Will Receive

"Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name, Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full."  ~John 16:23-24.

       Okay, so my thoughts and reflections on the above Bible Verses will be this: Recently, I've been applying to better job opportunities and have had many interviews in this frustrating process and none of them wanted to hire me, and I really cannot figure out why these things are happening.  Is it because I'm too old? Do I not interview well? Am I saying all the wrong things? Is it because I have two jobs already? Are they intimidated by me? I really have no answers to any of these questions, but I do know that God does.  God must be preparing me for something much bigger and better than any of these jobs down here on earth.  It is killing me that I'm stuck in retail and nothing is telling me why I'm still there.  I strongly dislike retail.  I've been in retail for seven plus years and I'm getting fed up with it.  It's time to move on from there and have several new beginnings and experiences.  

    All of this is up to God and I guess I'm just here waiting for the right opportunity.  God's timing is perfect, but His timing at this present moment is taking a little too long and my strength and patience with this is growing very thin.  I'm pretty much at the edge and am about to fall over.  So, God any time you're ready, I'll be here waiting for you to guide me in the right direction for the right career opportunity.  I just need you God, please send me and I will go.  All of you are probably wondering what on earth does any of this have to do with the Bible Verses that I shared earlier in this blog.  I'm about to tell you how they are related to the previous Bible Verses.  I'm thinking that God is putting me through all of these setbacks because I'm either disobeying Him, not listening to Him,  or I'm just not asking for the right thing for God to give me.  In order to know what this thing or these things are that I need to ask God for what He needs and what He wants me to do for His kingdom.  I really just need to take the time to listen and to receive what He is guiding me to do for Him, and not for myself.

      Maybe He wants me to "Write for Hope" or maybe not.  Maybe He wants me to take lots of pictures and then write special stories about them.  But then again, maybe not.  I'm really not entirely sure what I'm called to do for Him.  Maybe He doesn't think that I'm ready for what He has planned for me yet.  Maybe He wants me to do my own business for Him and I'm just not ready to hear and receive at the present moment.  Maybe He even wants me to do something in regards to nature and the changing seasons.  I guess that whatever it is that He has planned for me; I'm able to do it with all of His divine help and endless grace, mercy, love, and strength.  At this point in time, my opportunities are endless but have to be within reason.  I do love working at Michael's but it's only part-time and the hours can be very limited, so that's not easy at all.  For example, I have this friend and I never would have imagined that she would be travelling all over the world, just like she has been lately.  She seems to love it, so good for her. 

     She lives without fear and that's exactly what I admire the most about her.  If you tend to be the one who lives without fear of the future then all of your possibilities can be endless.  Whatever you decide to do in the future, you need to make sure that you do it with a joyful heart, for The Lord, and really make sure that you have complete peace about it.  Because if you don't have any peace about it, then don't do it.  Trust me, you will not be very happy about it.  When you do any type of job, you first need to make sure that it's all according to God and His plan for your life and second, you've got to be happy doing it because this is most likely the job that you'll be doing for the rest of your life and straight through until you retire and then when you are called to go home and be with The Lord.  Do we all agree with that?  Okay good.  Let's all join  together and say, "Amen! All the time God is good and God is good all the time!"  We're all incredibly blessed.  So, amen to that! How awesome is that? Pretty awesome right? I agree. Once again Amen to that!

~Emily P.

Breaking Bad Habits

  "But His delight is in the law of The Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth it's fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."  ~Psalm 1:2-3.  Prosper means to be successful and fortunate.

   "Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified or afraid of them.  The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness you saw how The Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.'  Yet, for all that, you did not believe The Lord your God, who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day." ~Deuteronomy 1:29-33.

  What do each of these Bible verses have in common? Well, the answer is that they are both about breaking bad habits and forming new ones, and also that if we obey Him and do His will for our lives, then we will be very successful and fortunate too.  But first, you must obey Him and have a faithful relationship with Him. It's a lot of hard work and dedication, but in the end, as I always say, it will definitely be worth it and paid off fully.  I have been a faithful follower of Christ for four years now and it absolutely, positively has been worth it every single step of the way.  It was the best decision I could have ever made in my entire life.  No, it's not always easy, but I'm going to keep doing it until the day I die, and even after I die, I'll be in heaven still doing it.

   You guys can have the exact same relationship with The Lord, if you will just let go and give it all to God.  He knows exactly what you are going through and He will help you through it all, just trust Him and have an open mind and an open heart too.  Yes, I do have two imperfect retail jobs that I'm really not too fond of, but I am truly grateful to have those two jobs because without them then I'd absolutely be screwed, especially when it comes to annoying bills every single month.  They will not disappear, so we have to deal with them until we go home to The Lord.  I know and trust that God has a large vision for my life, I just don't know what it is yet; but what I do know is that when He's ready and I'm ready, He will reveal it all to me at the right time.  For example, the current situation that I'm in is only temporary and not permanent.  It's hard for me to remember this at times because of a bad day that I might have at a certain time.  For those of you who have and still work in retail knows exactly how good or bad it can be on a daily basis.  Agreed?

   I just want you all to know that no matter how good or how bad your present situation is, you need to remember that it is only temporary and not permanent.  It is just a stepping stone to something bigger and better than any of us could have imagined, just be patient and wait, because I have a feeling that God is starting to shift things in our favor.  Big changes are coming so be prepared, because I sure am.  We need to be ready, willing, and waiting to take on whatever it is that God has planned for us.  I'm excited! Are you? Let's hope so and let's be ready to move full steam ahead!  If God tells you, "yes" about something, then there should be nothing stopping you and nothing will stand in your way, Amen? I can't hear you! Come on, let's say Amen! Praise The Lord! God is good all the time and all the time God is good! Amen and Amen!

~Emily P.

Revival

Good Evening my Blogger friends,
     I know that it's late, but I need to share this with you.  "How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?"  ~Proverbs 6:9.

       My thoughts and reflections on this verse will be this: Basically what this is telling us is the fact that until America wakes up, revival will not happen anywhere any time soon, so we've got to keep praying, trusting, and believing that the longer, more intense that we pray for revival, the sooner and quicker that it will happen.  How can we not be desperate enough to make a revival happen?  Look at all these things that are going to keep happening until we just give it all up and come to God.  Why are we so stubborn? We need to work together as Christian's to make this revival happen; Now whose with me? Are we going to stand up for what's right or are we just going to sit back like fools and let all these unspeakable things continue to happen?

      I'm not sure about you guys, but I sure as heck cannot just sit back and let these bad experiences happen, I feel as if I need to do something soon, I just have no idea what to do or or where to go to make these good experiences start happening.  "Lord, I need your guidance and direction on this particular topic, please Lord, can you help me? I need you so badly right now.  Thank you, Lord, I love you, Amen."  It's like every single day that I put on the news, there's more bad news to hear, well guess what? I'm so sick of all this bad news, it's really about time to start hearing some good news around here instead of always bad news.  Do we agree? Let's move on now, I feel like The Lord is calling on me to become an encourager instead of a prayer warrior.  However, maybe I'm called to do both of these things and I just fully don't know that yet, but in His timing, He will tell me exactly what it is that He needs me to do for Him. 

     After all, The Lord is The One Who will always direct my steps; Whatever He tells me to do, I will surely do it because if I don't do it, then that is considered being disobedient to The Lord and I cannot and will not be the one to disobey Him.  He is The One Who created me and I cannot picture myself as being the disobedient one to our Creator.  God made me special for a reason and I'll soon find out why He made me so special.  The time is now, so let's start moving forward, step-by-step, come on, let's go! I'm ready are you? If not then you need to get ready and be ready like we as Christian's are.  In order to be that encourager, I have took it upon myself to make a separate Facebook page to fulfill that duty that God has placed on my heart so graciously, and it is called, "Fashionably Christian."  Makes sense right? I will place the link down below and I'm going to encourage you all to go and please "like" that page.  I truly believe that it will help those of you who are reading my blog currently and are struggling in any aspect of your own lives that really need to hear this today or tonight depending on where you are currently.  Yes, there may be some particularly disturbing pictures on there, but don't let that stop you.  It's all just a part of what I'm trying to do here for The Lord.

    I really am just trying to help those who cannot help themselves, so please will you join with me in helping those who can't help themselves? Please? Thank you and God Bless!

~Emily P.

P.S. Here's the link:  https://www.facebook.com/Efashionstyles

Living Sacrifices to God

Good Afternoon all of my fellow bloggers,
     I would like to share with you a very powerful Bible Verse that I had come across while I was reading my devotionals last week at some point.  

   I chose this Bible Verse because it jumped right out at me the other night as I was reading this.  My thoughts and reflections on this Bible Passage are this:  when I was reading this particular passage, I had quite a strong and powerful experience that overcame my entire body, this probably sounds crazy, but the truth is it's not.  When God speaks to you it is an enormously powerful blessing and gift coming down from The Lord.  Let me ask you a question; Do you want to hear The Lord speak to you on a daily basis? If the answer is yes, then I'll be the one to tell you how to actually go about doing that.  Here it goes: First, you have to be ready and willing to hear God speak and you must always have an open mind and an open heart that is fully ready and fully committed to The Lord, did you get that? Okay, let's move on.  In order to receive His Word, you need to find a quiet place to get closer to Him, He often speaks to us through His Word, through another person, and pretty much any possible way that He can actually speak to you.  Sometimes, He'll just come and talk to you in General, you won't see Him, but you will hear Him, trust me.

     When I was a lot younger than I am now, He was speaking to me in my quiet and calm house, there was nobody home and it was just me, the cat, and a muted TV.  Mind you this was way before I was saved.  He kept trying to talk to me in person and I didn't want to listen to what He was saying, so I just completely ignored it and unmuted the TV.  But boy was I regretting not being able to accept His Word, had I been saved back then, I would have really enjoyed being able to hear specifically what His message was trying to tell me.  However, now that I am saved, I'm forever grateful to Him for saving me before it was too late.  Back then both my heart and my mind were closed to so many things, it was pretty sad, believe me.  I just wasn't having it and I could not understand or even try to comprehend what it was that He was trying to share with me.  

So finally one day, I came to my senses and I let Him save me.  I let Him save me because I passionately hated what my life was like back then, it was just a disaster waiting to happen.  I just wanted to be done so that I could feel good again and have a happy, healthy, life full of love from Him and from everyone else around me too.

    I dedicated my body and my life fully to Christ.  A few years after I was saved that is when I met Derek and knew that he was the one I'm going to marry one day.  Here we are two and a half years later and still going strong.  I just can no longer imagine my life without Him, my family, or Derek.  Anyway, we're getting off the subject here, let's get back on topic now.  I began doing daily devotionals, having long conversations with The Lord, going to church, singing with the praise band, etc.  In addition to that, I started to really focus and listen to what Father Mike was and still is preaching about to this very day.  Since I've become saved, The Lord has been and always will be good to me, I just have to remain faithful to Him in order for these things to continue to happen to me.  I'm proud to say that Father Mike has and will always continue to teach me all of these new things about God that I never could understand before.  To this present day, I still don't fully understand some of the things that we've been talking about recently, but that's not going to stop me from continuing to learn them and to understand more about Him in the future.

     It brings me great comfort and joy knowing that He will always provide for me; for us rather, no matter how complicated certain things get.  He has always been there for us through good times and bad, richer or poorer, and through thick and thin too.  Please trust in Him, He knows precisely what He will do for us in His perfect timing.  We need to pray and listen, Trust Him fully and completely, be dedicated, and pray, pray, pray.  Then and only then is when our real revival will come.  Amen? God Bless!

~Emily P.

Maintaining Your Life With God

   Good Evening All,
               I'd like to share with you some words of encouragement that came to me through my Devotional readings a couple of weeks ago.  "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." ~Jude 1: 20-21.  "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.  For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered." ~Romans 8:26.
 
            I think that what Jude 1:20-21 is trying to say this, we have to build ourselves on our faith, and we must always pray in the Holy Spirit, we have to always make sure to keep ourselves humbled before God, no matter what.  We must look to Him for our rewards in our eternal life that will be spent with Him.  Let's be honest here, I'm having a pretty difficult time trying to understand these two Bible Verses, so please bare with me here.  I think that the second Bible Verse is a little bit easier for me to understand here, than the first one does.  So, we'll definitely come back to the first verse later on in this entry.  

               To those who don't exactly know what Intercession means this will be the definition or definitions if you will, a prayer to God on behalf of another.  I'm not sure if I even fully understand what intercession means even though I've been a born again Christian for about 4 years now.  There's still a lot more to learn about God and what He can help us with especially if it is in His will for our lives.  Anyway, Romans 8:26 is basically telling us this, "The Holy Spirit will also help us in all of our weaknesses, if we don't have the words to say or pray to Him, He will already say our own personal prayers for us."  He already knows what your needs and desires truly are.  He can listen to our prayers through our hearts, because He was the one who created us.  You know, sometimes it's just really good to sit there in silence and to just listen and reflect on certain things that you feel God may be telling us, whether it be during our devotions, during your prayers, or just in general.  We always need to be ready and willing to listen at what He's trying to tell us through His word. 

                  God can use our weaknesses to help us to grow in that certain area.  For example, I love to write, even though I'm not the best at it, but God can take this passion that I have and making it work out greater than any of us could have imagined.  We all have different talents and passions, and The Lord can take these things and make it greater than we could ever dream of.  If this is truly God's will for your life, then He will make it work out for the future of this world.  He put us all down here on earth for a reason, and I truly believe that that reason is to change this world and make it a much better, and happier place to live for those that need it the most.  

                     Let's go back to the very First Bible verse: " But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in The Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life." ~Jude 1:20-21.  I know that I already posted this Bible Verse previously, but it is just a lot easier for me to look at down here, so that I can try and write about it again.  First, we must be humble before God no matter where we choose to pray and what time we choose to pray at.  When you are down on your knees, and humbled before God, that is when He will speak to you the most, but you've got to be willing to listen to what it is that He's trying to tell you before you go and do something else.  If you pray for strength, He wants you to stay seated or bent down so that you can receive His strength, before you start your day or end your night.  Second, you have to try and make Christ the center of your life before you go to make any type of decisions whether they be difficult or not so difficult.  Third, don't be a fool and make sure that you make real wise choices.  Fourth, we have to be able to surround ourselves with good, Christian people, who will build you up and not pull you down.  It is so important that we surround ourselves with the love of God and His people, because if we are around bad, negative people, then you'll feel horrible and dragged down.  I'm pretty sure that none of us will want to feel that particular way.  Honestly, I'd much rather be surrounded by people who love Christ and want to be like Christ, because when you are around them, you feel amazing and you have common ground to talk about.  What you should do is make sure that you get rid of those negative people in your life and start to find friends who you will have common ground and beliefs with.  That's why I love going to young adult group at my church, they are all great people and we have known each other for quite some time now.  We always have fun, and it's great to just get together in that group and talk about common interests, prayer requests, and just things in general that bug us on a daily basis, or maybe a not so daily basis.  Know what I mean? 

          We are just a group of friends who are having similar issues in our lives and it's just great to be able to let it all out and talk to someone who is willing to listen.  And finally fifth, you need to always look to Him for His mercy upon our own personal lives and He's the one we look to for eternal life that will be spent with Him.  You see, we don't need to look for approval from certain people down here on this earth, we need to look to Him for our eternal rewards awaiting for our arrival in heaven.  Yes, it is nice sometimes to get recognition down here on planet earth from someone special or maybe not so special, but to acknowledge us anyway, but just imagine how much better your reward in heaven will be.  People may not see what you do down here, but God sees everything, and He knows everything.  You have to be willing to let Him in to your heart and into your life, and trust that He will fulfill your every need.  Trust in Him, let go and let God, Amen? 
                  
~Emily P.

How to handle criticism in a godly way.

Good Afternoon Everybody,
   I hope you're all having a good day so far.  I'm sharing with you all a message given to me from God last night during my prayer and devotional time.  I hope you enjoy it.  Here it is: "Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out.  And when you go into a household, greet it.  If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it.  But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.  And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet." ~Matthew 10:11-14.

     To me, this first passage of that Bible verse means that where ever you go, you have to figure out who in that area is worthy of His Word and if you feel comfortable there then you'll stay until you have to leave.  Also, when you go into any type of people's houses, you need to greet it.  If this particular household is worthy then let the peace you feel inside of your heart, come out.  If it is not worthy then let your peace return to you and to remain in your heart.  The last passage of this Bible Verse means that if a certain person or group of people are not willing to receive you nor listen to what you have to say then it's time to leave that house or place, agreed? When you go to leave this place, you just need to shake off the dust from your feet and you need to just move on to some place else that is full of people that are worthy, ready, and waiting to listen to exactly what it is that you need to say.  It's also trying to encourage you and to gently let you know that you should not give up and that you should keep on trying and moving forward until you find the correct place for you, where you are meant to be that was led by God.  Do not get discouraged and to keep your head up remaining confident in God's plan for your life.  Stay positive like the disciples did and had to deal with at Sodom and Gomorrah. 

     I would like to add one more thing before I conclude this entry.  Whatever issue you are faced with on a daily basis, you have to trust God fully with all of it because He knows us all better than we know ourselves.  After all, He made us and designed us in His very own personal image.  This is to help you to do His Will for your life that He has carefully planned out for us.  You must always seek Him first, and then He will work out all things for our own good.  He already knows what your future holds, so why worry?  He'll take care of it, He always does. Amen? I think so.  Thank you, God Bless, and have a good rest of the day.

~Emily P.

Inner Beauty

  Good Evening all,
      I think that I'm just going to jump right into the blog entry here rather than say a whole spiel about why I'm writing this blog entry.  Here goes: "Do not let your adornment be merely outward- arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel- rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." ~1 Peter 3:3-4.  

      I never really understood the concept of the above Bible Verse until Joyce Meyer explained it all in full in her "Trusting God; Day by Day" daily devotional.  I'm still not sure if I'm comprehending it completely like I should be.  I'll admit that it's very difficult to read and understand the context of all that I've been reading recently.  Time and time again I've got to read it over and over once more until I can actually understand any of it.  To be completely honest here, it seems like no matter how much I read any of these passages, I still don't get it, and it really tends to bother me when I'm having a difficult time reading it.  So, I pray every night for Him to help me to read and understand all that He is trying to say to me through His Word and daily devotionals.  Sometimes He helps me to understand all of what I'm reading and other times He just doesn't help me at all and that can be quite frustrating to me at certain times.  I could be reading these Bible Verses a year later, and I'm still not comprehending what He is really trying to tell me through these words. 

        My point is that if you don't succeed the first time, then be persistent and try and try again.  Don't worry, it'll eventually come to you and then you will finally understand what He is fully trying to say to you.  Please don't give up and please keep trying for it, especially if it's something that you really love and are so passionate about.  Remember: "Anything that's worthwhile is never easy." You can do it ! God knows that you can do it and so do I.  

       I know that this is a little bit off topic, but let me just ask you this: "What is the work that God has put me on the earth to do?" As soon as you figure out what what you are mean to do, then you need to decide what amount of attention you should pay to how you look and feel to get the maximum energy, health, and charisma you will need to do that work for The Lord as successfully as possible.  To this very day, I'm still not exactly sure what it is I'm meant to do for The Lord on this earth.  I'm constantly asking God what it is that He wants me to do for Him, down on this earth.  For example, I thought that I was meant to do dog grooming, but I quickly found out from Him that I was not meant for that.  I also thought that it was writing, but I guess not.  I thought He wanted me to be a personal stylist, but probably not.  I think that I'm slowly finding out from Him that I'm meant to be a fashion designer, because for Christmas, I received from my sister two different design books and when I'm working on them, it just feels right.  In addition to that, it just makes me feel liberated, happy, excited, and like a kid again.  

     There's actually a saying that's going around on social media that says this: "If you love what you do, then you'll never work a day in your life."  So, that's how I feel when I'm doing work in those designing books.  It is so fun and awesome! Now, all I need to do is to learn how to sew, and to perfect the art of fashion design.  That can be a lot to do, but if it really is God's Will for my life, then He will help me do it.  He will help this business to grow and succeed as well.  But like always, it has to be His Will, and not my own, Amen? I think so! Goodnight and God Bless.  I hope that you have an amazing God-filled night and day everybody! 

~ Emily P.

Be Still

  Good Evening everybody,
      I know that my last blog entry was a little less cheerful than it usually is.  There's just a lot of stuff going on around here, that isn't much great news.  All we can really do is pray about it and wait on The Lord to provide for us all that we'll need.  We have to learn how to be content with what we have, even if it isn't very happy news.  Anyway, we're going to move on now.  So, last night I was up late and studying God's Word like I usually do, I wasn't expecting anything to happen to me last night, but God proved me wrong once again.  I was reading the Bible App on my phone, and this was what the daily Bible Verse was telling me last night:  "Hear, O Lord when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me."  ~Psalm 27:7.  

    As I was reading this last night, it suddenly became very clear to me, that God was speaking to me like he always does, but this time around He was speaking to me in a different way than ever before.  God lead me to share this word with you all:  This is how I've been feeling lately, I'm beginning to wonder if He hears me at all; I'm really starting to get desperate for His answers here, I'm having tons of unanswered questions going on in my mind right now; this is especially based on the series of current events taking their place in my life currently,  I'm legit grasping at straws here and He already knows that; He also knows that I'm at my breaking point right now! This could mean two things: 1.) He's preparing me for something new and different or 2.) He's going to put me in a "fire," to test my faith and to see how well I'm to deal with whatever the outcome of this certain thing will be.

   So, once that I'm able to prove myself to Him, it is then, when He will give me His reward for being His good and faithful servant.  However, I won't lie, but I am a bit scared to see what this, "fire" will bring and How I'm able to handle it according to His Will; Whatever it is, He will help me or us get through it together.  He will always provide for us no matter what.  I'm hoping and praying that it will be number one and not two.  He's the only one who knows what this something will be.  We won't know what it is until He reveals it to us on His time and not ours.  He needs and wants us to learn how to, " Be still and know that He is God; He wants us to know that He will be exalted among the nations, that He will be exalted in all the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.  Selah!" ~Psalm 46: 10-11.  

  I truly believe that what God is trying to tell me in the above Bible Verse is this: He's telling us to rise up and to raise our voices among all the nations  and in all the earth to prove to them that He is real and that He will be coming back stronger than ever in His Second Coming, and it's going to be sooner than we think.  He needs us to be prepared for His triumphant return, but if we aren't, then we better start and it has got to be quick and incredibly soon, so start today! Today's a new day and it is another second chance to turn over a new leaf and we have to start fresh.  He gave us a new day and a different chance to change our own lives for the better so that we are able to change the world in order to make it a Holy Place once more.  Agreed? Thank you Lord, I love you, amen! Goodnight and God Bless!

~ Emily P.

Love and Faith

  Good evening all,
      I know that it's kind of late, but I feel led to share with you all what God spoke to me through His Word last night while I was reading my Joyce Meyer Devotional.  It's based off of Philemon 1:4-7.  This is what it says: "I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward The Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.  For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother." ~Philemon 1: 4-7.

    When I read these verses last night, I said to myself, wow, amazing!  Thank you, Lord!  They spoke to me loud and clear last night.  Here I go into my rant about how I've been feeling lately and how these verses had spoken to me.  Recently, I've been feeling all stressed out, overwhelmed, anxious, and like I just can't keep doing what I'm doing anymore, it gets to be quite exhausting.  I need a vacation away from everything going on in my life currently.  It's been quite a struggle actually and I just can't deal with it anymore.  All of this pressure has been placed on my shoulders and I don't like the way I'm feeling because of it.  I just keep hoping and praying that something brand new, big, and good will happen to all of us sooner rather than later; I'm sure that you all can relate to this specific topic.

  I'm way in over my head here, and that needs to stop immediately.  "God, I need you, please help! Amen"  I have so many prayer requests coming my way and I try to pray for all of them in one day, and it takes a lot out of me.  I know that the power of prayer will always work.  It is just way too much for me to deal with at this time, but I will try my best and do what I can to pray for others.  I have some unspoken prayer requests of my own and I'm just so busy trying to pray for everyone else, that I just forget about myself.  I wouldn't consider it a mid-life crisis, but it is just getting to be too complicated to deal with at this time.  I'm beginning to wonder if my prayers are actually working and if He hears them all.  Will he ever answer me or will I be stuck like this forever?  It's taking quite a long time, and I'm not a very patient person when it comes to something that I really need and want.  I know that it is all on God's timing, and not my own.  But I'm really starting to get sick of waiting.  I want these things done with yesterday, I'm sorry but that's just our human nature.  I'm not perfect by any means, I still have a lot of work to do and God already knows that.  So, I'm desperately seeking His help and hoping He will do a new thing soon in all of our lives, mine especially.  

    I've been so busy with working that I barely have enough time to do anything anymore.  I just need a break, and God is the one who will either give me this break or not.  All of this is up to Him, not me.  It is His Will, not mine.  The biggest dream that I have for my life is to get published and to become a Christian writer.  I recently received an offer to get published by a friend of mine, and it may take a while, because this friend of mine has her own things to deal with right now, so I'm asking you all to please pray for my friend to get the miracle that she needs and also that she deserves, because she's had a rough life and she deserves the world.  She is such a great person and she is doing such great things to help all of those kitties in need.  Please, God, bless her and give her the miracle that she's been waiting for.  If you're interested this is the link to her page, please go and "Like" the page and help her to raise the money that she needs to find a good forever home that she can take her cats with her, because she's dealing with a very dishonest and disrespectful person, so please go and help her out, she desperately needs it, thank you: https://www.facebook.com/JakieTheCat
   God Bless and I hope that you all have a good night!
~Emily P.

This is a poem I'd like to share with you all

We furry ones want to thank God above
for the human hands that show us love.
For the loving hands that stroke our backs,
rub our bellies and give us snacks.

For once we were afraid and alone.
No one to love us, no place to call home.
Some lived in the street, looking in trash
for food to eat.

Some of us had humans who used to hit.
We trembled in corners afraid of it.
But someone reached in and touched
our paw, held us in their arms
and that old life was no more.

They worked with us and loved us through,
showed us something that we never knew.
That humans could be gentle, loving and
kind and if we were naughty, they didn't mind

Because they knew we were acting as fur
kids do and didn't mind that their home
was a zoo.

Somehow these humans looked in our
eyes, seeing the life that to them was a
prize.

Our spirits may have been broken,
battered and bent, but we responded
to the love that was heaven sent.

So this Thanksgiving Day, we thank
God above, put our paws together
and thank him for the love.

(c) Heidi A. Dietrich
(Dictated by the kitties of course!)

(This is for all the hoomans who lub furry children and have given us homes! We lub you!)