Good Afternoon everyone,
I just wanted to share what The Lord has been laying on my heart lately. He's speaking to me louder than ever before through these Bible Verses: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." These verses are found in Philippians 4: 6-7.
I didn't choose these Bible Verses, it was God who put them on my heart and brought them to my attention. Anyway, I've been feeling quite stressed out and anxious lately because of all that's currently going on in my life. It seems like it's just too much to handle at times, especially right now. I don't even know what to pray about anymore, there's a lot and where do I even start? I feel like I'm drowning in my thoughts and there's no way out. I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I'm just not really seeing the reasons for why this is happening to all of us. "Jesus, if you can hear us, we need you and more answers, you are the great physician and only you can heal the sick and raise the dead in us. Please help! Thank you, lord, I love you amen." "Lord, please take these burdens off of our shoulders, we can't handle this anymore, I'm letting go and letting you take control, I give up, I can't do this anymore, enough already, thank you, Lord, I love you, amen."
The Lord lead me to share this with all of you, and I hope you enjoy these blog updates as much as I do. So, I guess my thoughts and reflections on the above verses will be this: I'm thinking that God is trying to tell us to not be anxious and let him take care of these current situations. There is a reason for all of this, but I just don't know what it is yet. None of us know the reason for this yet. What can we honestly do here? All we can really do is have faith and keep praying about these tumultuous occurrences in our otherwise peaceful lives. All we really want is answers and a cure, there's just nothing else we can do at this point. It's out of our hands, it's in God's hands now. Thank you and God Bless! Have a good rest of the day.
~Emily
"Has The Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through you also?" ~Numbers 12:2. Here are my thoughts and reflections on the above Bible Verse: The Lord always speaks to us through His Word, or at Church, basically anywhere there's peace and quiet. However, we don't always want to listen to what He has to say, and sometimes we don't even make "time" for The Lord, so to speak. But the truth is that no matter how busy you might be, you should always find some time to spend in The Lord, and in His own Word. If we all made time to spend with The Lord, think of how much better this world could be. I'm not perfect, I'm far from it. I had to learn the hard way, on how to
clean up my mess of a life. I was probably one of the absolute worst sinners of all, but by the grace of God, my life was saved, and I'm trying to turn into a better person because of God himself.
Believe me, this is not an easy task by any means, but it will really be worth all of the trials and tribulations at the end of your life: when your sitting at the judgement seat of God, we're all going to face the harsh judgement day of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There's absolutely no possible way to avoid any of it, so don't even try to get out of it, because it's not going to happen, especially because The Lord will not allow it, got it? I hope so.
Let's move on to the second Bible Verse here: "They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "you take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and The Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord." ~Numbers 16:3. There's absolute truth in the Numbers 16:3 passage because as Christians we often get persecuted in foreign countries for what our beliefs are. It's pretty stupid if you ask me, there's only one God and only one way to be saved, and that's through the one and only Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. "You come to the father only through me." Read the Bible, that is Jesus speaking to us through His Word. If you like it, great, and if not, then go away, we don't need you in our life anyway. Never ever put yourselves above God, you must always put God first in your life, not the other way around. Amen?!? I think so. God is so much stronger than all of us put together. He's not weak at all. "Don't judge a person by what they look like on the outside, you should take the time and get to know this particular person." You must love others as God has first loved us. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It is what's on the inside that counts,not on the outside, got it! Now go and try it. Heal the sick, raise the dead, and preach the Gospel of our Lord. He wrote the Bible for a reason and that is why. Amen?!? I say, Amen! Thank you and God Bless!
~Emily
P.S. If your interested in fashion, here's the link to my fashion blog: http://mymissionforfashion.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-blues.html
Good Afternoon All,
The idea for this blog came to me when I was reading a facebook post the other day. It's weird how all of a sudden, when on facebook, some people's posts really speak to me and they begin to make me think about certain things and in specific areas of my Christian life. Let's just jump into the Bible Verses that I chose for this particular blog topic. "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." ~1 Peter 1: 8-9. In other words, the Bible Verse means this: "Faith will be rewarded and evil will be punished. But what should we do until then? The Bible's answer is very simple, but definitely not easy: Because we know the future, we must faithfully serve God here and now. If today that means resolving a conflict, mending a hurt, working a real dull job, confronting a belligerent child, rebuilding a marriage, or just waiting for guidance-you have to do it all with the joy of God, who will return with his reward!"
This brings us to the title of this blog: "What has God been laying on your heart and mind lately?" My answer to that, is quite a lot actually, I'm sorry but I have to vent here, please forgive me. Anyway, there has been a lot of crap going on lately and I really hate it, especially when it involves my family. I'm not going to go into detail here, because it's way too complicated to write about. I'm just going to share my feelings and reflections on this topic. I'm not the one to judge anybody, but God is and when he does, you better be prepared because it will not be pretty, you can trust me on that. If you have faith in God, you will be rewarded, but if you don't then your in big trouble, all this evil will be punished on judgement day, if you repent now and want to be saved before it's too late, you better do it, because The Lord is waiting to hear from you so that he can forgive you and bless you abundantly with a better life. Recently, the Lord has spoken to me, and I would like to share with you all what he said to me, through his own words. Here we go: "My child, you are going to do great things." That was it, that was all he said to me. Now, when I heard that I was shocked, because lately i've been struggling with myself about this online styling business that I started exactly 3 months ago; I have not seen any orders yet, but there are tons of people viewing my website and I appreciate that, but I can't help but wonder about how will I do all these things and why aren't certain people buying from me? Is it because I mentioned Jesus on my profile page for that website? Is it because they don't trust me? Are they skeptical about anything being ordered from online? I have all of these unanswered questions constantly going back and forth in my mind and on my heart. But the bottom line is that I need to learn how to trust God with all of those unanswered questions, and I need to understand that God will answer me in His ever so perfect, timing. So, until then, I'll keep praying and keep trusting that God has a plan for me and when he's ready, he will unveil it and bring it to my attention, I'll be waiting Lord.
I also chose a separate Bible Verse earlier to go with this blog too; here it is: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." ~1 Peter 1:22. In addition to what I've already posted, this Bible Verse is telling us this: "Sincere love involves selfless giving; a self-centered person can't truly love. God's love and forgiveness free you to take your eyes off of yourself so that you are able to meet others' needs. By sacrificing his life, Christ showed that he truly loves you. Now you can love others by following his example and giving yourself sacrificially." Does everybody understand what this is telling us? I hope so. I'm still trying to understand what exactly it is that The Lord is trying to tell me through this one verse. I think what he's trying to say is that we all must learn how to give to others' selflessly. There are way more people out there in this dark world who are worse off than we are, and we should be willing to look out for them and try to help them with certain aspects of what any of them may want or need. I'm not really a people person as you can probably tell because I'm the shy one and keep to myself, but if I ever saw anyone that wanted or needed help, I would try and help them because I feel really bad for them. But the truth is that that particular thing scares me, and I'm not at ease about that as you can tell. However, I'm switching point of views here, if I were a homeless person, I would want somebody to reach out and help me, with high hopes that they could possibly help me to have a better life. The current experience that I'm going through, isn't a fun one, but it has been quite the humbling experience thus far.
You see, we all need to really realize that we are very lucky, and we have been very fortunate and abundantly blessed so far. You should learn how to love and accept things as they are and you need to try not to change them. We all should be incredibly thankful for what we have and we need to learn how to be content with what we have and not be a greedy, self-centered person who always will want much more than what they already have. You all need to learn how to focus on what you've been blessed with so far, and keep it at that. You have to stop focusing on what you don't have, and just trust in God and have a strong faith that God will always provide for us, no matter what the issue is. You have to ask God for what he wants to do with your life and you will have to receive it with an open heart and open mind. As soon as He tells you what His will is for your life, you better do it. Do not disobey God, and do not use Him casually, or only for when you need Him for some foolish thing, don't even bother, because he doesn't want to hear it. Yes, He is a very gracious and loving Father, but you cannot go to Him for any type of selfish thing. You must have a humble heart when you bow before God. We were made to be His servants down here on earth, he doesn't care if you want to do it or not, it's not about you, it's all about Him. He has to be the center of all of our lives. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all else will be worked out for the best." God has to be the foundation in everything from your business, your family, your relationships, everything. If you do that, then you are all set. All we need is God, Amen?!? I can't hear you, let's say it again and together, Amen!?!? Thank you and God Bless!
~Emily P.
Good Evening Everyone,
I know that it has been quite a while since I've updated this blog and I'm sorry for taking so long to update it as well. Anyway, when I wasn't updating this blog, I've been busy trying to promote my online styling business blog instead, and it hasn't been easy, that's for sure: however, it'll be worth it in the end. This brings me to the inspiration of tonight's blog, it has been inspired by something on my facebook page called, Jesus Christ Savior by Beliefnet. This is what the Bible verse said: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." ~Jeremiah 29:11. In other words this Bible verse is trying to say this: "We're all encouraged by a leader who stirs us to move ahead, someone who believes we can do the task he has given and who will be with us all the way. God is that kind of leader. He knows the future, and his plans for us are good and full of hope. As long as God, who knows the future, provides our agenda and goes with us as we fulfill his mission, we can have boundless hope. This does not mean we will be spared pain, suffering, or hardship, but that God will see us through to a glorious and victorious conclusion.
This verse couldn't have come at a more convenient time as I am trying to promote my online styling business with Keaton Row. During this time, it hasn't been an easy task as I have mentioned it above in the previous paragraph. I've been feeling greatly discouraged with the online business because there are a few people viewing my web page, but none are buying anything and I still have no clients either, so I'm trying to expand my customer base at this point in time; that definitely isn't easy either because I'm not a real laid back type of person who likes to talk and socialize a lot, I'm known as an introvert whose shy and has very little confidence in the things that I do. I'm putting my full faith and trust in the Lord on this particular subject, it is on His time and not on mine. He's the one who knows exactly what his plans are for my life, that he has abundantly blessed me with. It does take a lot of time and patience for these things to start succeeding, this is a very difficult goal for me to achieve, as you can probably tell. The Lord has provided me with a great opportunity here and I'm trying not to ruin it, if this is God's Will for me, then I will reign victoriously after all is said and done, do you see what I'm saying here?
There are certain people in my life who don't exactly have confidence in what I'm trying to do here, they think that I'll fail, grow discouraged, and give up. But I'm not going to give up on this business that easily, this is something that I truly want to do and am passionate about, but I cannot do this alone; I cannot do anything on my own, I need God's help with this big task at hand. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. This is a learning process and I know that there's a lot that I need to do before anything specific happens. However, there are also a few people in my life who support me fully in this task and they would really like for me to do well with this business, and I don't want to let God or them down if I should fail. I decided to give this a try and to see what will happen. It's only been a few months, but I am hoping and praying that I'm doing all the right things in regards to Keaton Row. I've been posting my looks on my own facebook page, twitter page, on blogspot, google, and even random people's facebook pages and I have received mixed comments on this styling subject. I've been told that I need to become a better writer, I need to have more confidence, and that I'm a religious freak, and then on a more positive note, I was told that my writing is good, but I need to work on my punctuation a bit more, and I need to have a different way of writing when it comes to this consulting job. It's really a challenge to keep my Christian life separate from my business life, because being a Christian plays a big role in my life with both my religious life and business life; so I need to learn how to balance both aspects of my life and that will not be easy, but I can do this. So, I just want to share a big thank you and appreciation for those that are both supporting me and criticizing me in this next large part of my life, I look forward to hearing further comments in the future on my styling business and my writing. Thank you and God Bless!
~Emily P.
How can we trust in God during these difficult times? I find myself asking this question more often than not, especially lately because as you all know, I've started my own type of fashion styling business online through Keaton Row, and honestly, I'm really starting to get pretty discouraged,
I have been with Keaton Row for about 4 weeks now, and I still have no clients, even though I've done everything that they told me I should do to get these clients, still, no result, it really stinks, as you can probably tell. I'm also constantly asking myself, " am I doing something wrong? why is this taking so long?" So far, there are no answers yet, I'm still waiting patiently, and trying to listen. Anyway, this brings me to the Bible verse that I used for this blog today: "and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." This was Jesus speaking to His people in Jeremiah 32:40. In other words, Jesus means to say this: "God uses His power to accomplish His purposes, through His people. God doesn't give you power to be all that you want to be, but He does give you the power to be all that He wants you to be. The people of Israel had to learn that trusting God meant radically realigning their purposes and desires with His. He gave to them "one heart" toward Him (32:39). We must develop that singleness of purpose to always love God above anything else." ~Jeremiah 32:36-42.
Here are my thoughts and reflections on the above Bible Verses: I feel like God is using His power through me, to help pull in more people to my church, that's why I'm writing this blog, I'm trying to reach the lost and win them to Christ. It's not easy, but I do it anyway, because that's what The Lord wants and needs me to do through Him. This brings me back to my styling job, I guess that the reason for me having this job is because I love fashion and style, and The Lord probably feels like since I have this job, and the fact that I'm a born-again Christian will help me to win the people to Christ, but how can I do that, if I don't even have any clients to do this for? I strongly believe that this whole styling thing, is a big part of God's plan for me and my life, I haven't seen the results yet, but I trust in The Lord that he will reveal all the results in time, I just need to be patient, wait, listen, and keep praying about it, the more I pray about this, the better the results will be in the end. I need to continue to be persistent with God, because that is what He wants and needs me to do. I have to trust and have faith that if this is the Lord's Will for my life, then he will make it happen, and when it does happen, I'll be so excited and grateful to Him for having this styling business be a great success like my sister's photography business is and will continue to be, The Lord just has to be in the center of your life and your business for it to be a great success, know what I mean? This brings me to the next object of this blog entry, I happened to come across this post on facebook, by someone that I don't even know, but she is a born again Christian just like myself, and she has a successful business, do you Know why? I do, it's because she has put God first before herself and her business, and that's why it's a great success, and I hope that it will continue to be. This was what her post said the other day: "Pay attention to those pictures, numbers, songs, patterns, and ideas that you're always getting. It could be God downloading to you a brilliant biz plan!" It was written by Sandi Krakowski, and she made a good point. I couldn't agree with her more, and that's the reason I decided to do my online styling business through Keaton Row with high hopes that it will be a great success like her own business, and other people's businesses as well.
She mentored to another person through facebook about her own business as well, and that is also a great success. So, I know that in the end, The Lord will always provide no matter what you may need or ask for. But you have to ask for it in His will, and not in your own will. It has to be what God wants, not what you want. Do you understand this? I sure do. This brings me to my next subject, during church and through the Sermon yesterday, these words came to mind: "I'm just a born-again Christian whose living in a world full of sin and hate. What can I do to make a difference in this world? This I do not know, but since I trust in The Lord with all my heart, I know that he'll help me to somehow make a difference in this world, even if it's something as small and as simple as a smile, or a hand shake, know what I mean? Where there's a will there's a way is what I always say, do you agree? I hope so. I really don't how I'll do all that The Lord has planned for me, but whatever it is, he'll give me the strength and the power that I need to fulfill his purpose for my life. After all, I'm living my life for Him, and not for myself. If it were up to Him, he would have this entire world living for Him and not for ourselves. The sad truth is that this world is a very selfish place to live in, nobody cares about The Lord or if they keep sinning, if they like it, they'll keep doing it. The people in this world think that we should worship the ground that they walk on, but that isn't so. If anything, we should worship the ground that The Lord walks on, not what other people walk on. It makes me sick honestly, can you blame me?
I know this sounds biased, but I hate the world that we live in, it sucks, and it isn't fun to live in. I'd rather be with The Lord in paradise, than in this hateful, ugly world. I can't wait for the day that The Lord comes back, can you? As soon as he does, those people that I hate and wish would disappear, full of sin, will be shocked and feel like absolute selfish jerks and idiots, people need to change, or I'll make them change. I've had enough of this crappy place and some of the people living in it, know what I'm saying? Yeah, you do, and don't deny it, got it? Thank you, Lord, I love you, Amen!
~Emily
