Living-By-Faith-Is-Living-In-Miracles

 The testament of your faith is your "trust" and "obedience." Knowing about faith is just the beginning of your belief, and it must be followed by acting in faith with trust and obedience .       God gives everyone a gift—which is your deep understanding of what to ask, where to seek, and when to knock. This gift is also your “freedom of will.” But it comes with a price: you must follow His commandments. That is, you must also show your trust , and obedience to God through your faith .         If you truly believe in God and in His presence, then you must trust and obey Him. Trusting and obeying God is never easy because you’re human  with many human flaws and shortcomings innate in your flesh .       Trusting God also means giving up your control of the happenings in your daily life, as well as your freedom to choose whatever you want to do.      Like everybody else, you’re controll...

Accountability and No Accountability to God       For a "true" believer, accountability is to God . When a believer sins, God forgives only with genuine repentance from the believer.      With no remorse and no accountability to God, a believer only distances himself or herself from God. Today, many so-called believers have become unbelievers due to their “no accountability to God.”      For an unbeliever, accountability is to the conscience , which is the spirit born with the body that lives in the flesh in the secular world. Repeated wrongdoings will sooner or later sear the conscience and ultimately cauterize it.   A hypothetical "accountability" illustration       Say, you were one of the last two persons at a bar. You were sitting close to each other. The person finished his drink and left the bar after leaving some cash on the table for the bartender, who, at that moment, was away with your credit ...

Fighting Demons Demons are delusions and hallucinations seen by some while growing up; they seem to be seeing images and hearing voices that’re “real” only to them . They not only hear and see their demons, but also feel their presence. Demons can be caused by isolation, loneliness, lack of sleep, overuse of drugs, and daily stress. Demons are just not their “conscious realities.” An Illu stration David Cassidy , a famous American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, had experienced his demons throughout his successful careers. Ho w and why ? His fans, mostly girls in their teens, screamed and chased after him wherever he went; so, he had no freedom or choice except to be a loner staying in isolation most of the time when he wasn't performing. Another of David Cassidy's demons was his failed relationship with his father, Jack Cassidy , also an actor and a singer, who abused and neglected David when he was young. David Cassidy's fame and success only worsened his...

Money comes from doing, earning, and saving. Money wisdom comes only from God, and not from the financial wisdom of the church. So, if the pastor of a church lives in an expensive house, drives a luxurious car, or even flies a private plane, the attendants of that church will probably be inundated with "secular truths" of money, rather than the holy truths of the Bible. An Illustration The "prosperity gospel" (also known as the "health and wealth gospel") rewards those with an increase in faith with their increase in health and wealth. But that's a perversion of the gospel of Jesus, who said, "You cannot serve both God and money." The "prosperity gospel" has increased its popularity among many American Christians because it teaches that God blesses those whom God favors most with "material wealth" and "good health." Joel Osteen , the head of the Lakewood Church in Houston, has a tv ministry that reaches more than...

Human relationships are complex and difficult. Jesus ’ parable of the king settling debts with his servants (Matthew 18: 23-34) attests to the complexity and difficulty of interpersonal relationships. The major source of conflicts in human relationships is the inability to fully comprehend God’s mercy -- which is His gift of grace -- something freely given, something totally unearned and undeserved, and something never to be repaid. Due to the lack of understanding of the mystery and significance of the gift of grace, or the refusal to believe something that is too good to be true, many of us, ironically enough, cannot and will not receive that gift of grace, although it is freely given to each and every one of us. Indeed, many Christians, read about grace, hear about grace in Sunday sermons, sing about grace in their hymns, and even believe grace in their heads, but they never fully live in the gift grace. They simply do not have the faith to live it out. We need living by fai...

Judgment      Judgment is for God, and not for humans. “Thou shalt not judge!”      "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will       not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37 Perceiving wrongs Perceptions are based on attitudes, beliefs, and habits, which may be biased and distorted because they’re derived from the unique past experiences of an individual. They’re all processed and interpreted by the thinking mind of that individual. Wrong predicting In 1901,  Wilbur Wright said that man would not fly for fifty years. Henry Ford 's banker was told by a lawyer: "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad."  Just as the Wright brothers and Henry Ford were not afraid to go forward with their own visions, instead of relying on the opinions of the skeptics. These so-called experts all had their "wrong" predictions. Judging and executing Judging others a...

Here are some words of wisdom to help you live by faith. Meditate and memorize them: "I take delight in the Lord, and He will give me the desires of my heart." "Help me to remember the brevity of life, and to live well today." "I am You say I am" "Help me to know and embrace my calling that I might better love and serve You." "Holy Spirit, fill me afresh today and make me a person of virtue." "Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love." "What no one ever saw or heard, what no one thought or ever thought could happen is the very thing that God prepared for those who love Him. Enlighten me with Your Spirit." "The Holy Spirit, fill me with love, gentleness, and kindness toward others." "I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind to be more loving, more hopeful, and filled with inner peace." "I honor the Lord. I will find favor with Him, and He wil...

Anger is one of the most-damaging human emotions.  Anger or rage is an ineffective and inefficient way to resolve any issue or to make any problem in your life go away. Instead of anger, ask God to help you with your negative emotion of anger. Remember: Anger is a disruptive and destructive emotion that may often lead to mental depression, the breakup of a marriage or a love relationship, and, worst, physical violence, if the anger is not properly addressed and controlled. So, how to change your emotion of anger or rage? Take a deep breath, and just feel your anger as you breathe in. Look at your anger in your mind. Then review the situation, and ask yourself one simple question: Can your anger somehow “change” the situation or anything at all, such as solving the problem? Accept that you are now angry, and then slowly breathe it out. If necessary, use your arm like a sword cutting through your feelings of rage, while saying: “I can see my anger: it is as it was!” Don't hold your a...

Your life is never pain-free or sorrow-free—that's life, whether you like it or not. Your emotional pain is intensified by your thinking mind, which seeks to deny and to avoid it. To alleviate your pain, focus your mind on the present moment. Accept and cope with it, instead of fighting against it. Your suffering, pain, and misery are necessary for the co-existence of your contentment, pleasure, and happiness, just as sickness and health are at the far ends of that same phenomenological spectrum. According to TAO wisdom (the ancient wisdom from China ), these extremes in human experience are not only temporary but also unnatural; they are just the cycles of nature in which the pendulum swings back and forth from one end to the other. So, it's your folly to attempt to avoid or to resist experiencing these swings; by doing so, you just throw yourself out of balance with nature, and thus not only intensifies but also unduly prolongs your suffering. According to the TAO, ...

Lack of accountability to God for what you’ve been doing to your marriage and your marriage partner is one of the reasons why divorce is rampant these days. You’re living in a world in which injustice and vengeance are rampant. Living in the midst of this storm of unfairness may cause you unhappiness and even your own lack of faith in God. But seeing the lack of accountability in others should, on the contrary, enhance your own accountability not only in your marriage but also in your everyday living. God is forever just and will bring judgment and justice to all—at His own timeline. An illustration In 1984,  Archbishop Valerian Trifa  was deported from the United States after being accused of being a Nazi supporter, who not only had incited attacks on Jews, but also was responsible for executing many Jews in World War II. After World War II, the former Nazi supporter came to the United States as a refugee immigrant. He assumed the name of Valerian Tri...

The Beginning of Wrongdoings Being spiritual, an individual must have been accountable to God, that is, not doing “all” the wrong and unrighteous things in life. Unfortunately, the reality is that any individual, irrespective of the intensity of spirituality, must still have done “some” of the wrong and unrighteous things at some point in his or her life simply because that individuality has been living in the flesh . So, how do humans begin to sin? Many begin to sin while thinking that they’re “committing no crime or wrongdoing with no victim.” A hypothetical illustration Say, two men were sitting close to each other, and they were the last two persons at the bar. The man had just paid the bartender who returned with his credit card. Now, the other man paid the bartender who just left with his credit card. Then, the man, who just got back his credit card, left some cash on the table, said goodnight to the other man, and left the bar. The other man looked at the cash close to ...

Gratitude Is Everything Reconnect your soul or spirit to gratitude. If you are grateful to the Creator for what you have, you may look at the behavior of another individual with more tolerance, or even with a totally different perspective. Blessings in life, such as the gift of life, are generally overlooked or even taken for granted. For example, if someone takes advantage of you, do not become angry immediately; instead, be grateful that you are the victim instead of being the person who victimizes others. Gratitude enables you to develop the mindset for a positive outlook toward your soul. Smile more often. Keep complaints about people, things, and life in general only to  yourself —unless voicing them will help bring about positive changes in others or in society. Gratitude helps you see the good in others, letting you give them the benefit of the doubt. Try to remember that all people are created in the image of God. Focus on the individual as a person, rather than on the beha...

Controlling external events is futility because control is but an illusion based on expected results projected by the thinking mind into the future. Concentration on controlling makes it difficult to concentrate on doing the right things to make you live longer. The TAO, which is the wisdom of Lao Tzu , the ancient sage from China, looks upon the world as something to be accepted, and that involves invoking the profound but paradoxical wisdom of “action through inaction”—which is action based on acceptance of nature or the natural turn of events in life. “Whenever we try to control, we separate ourselves from our true nature. Man proposes; the Creator disposes. Life is sacred: it flows exactly as it should. Trusting in the Creator, we return to our breathing, natural and spontaneous, without conscious control. In the same manner: sometimes we have more, sometimes we have less; sometimes we exert ourselves, sometimes we pull back; sometimes we succeed, ...