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Job teaches us it is possible to have great grief and maintain our integrity with the Lord. The first two chapters of Job spells out his fate. I believe the saying, “When it rains, it pours,” is very fitting for what happened to Job. He loss EVERYTHING that was meaningful to him except his wife and his life. Ironically, his wife encourages him to curse God. So, in retrospect, maybe he loss his wife too as she was no support to him. The Bible describes this at the end of chapter two, “Job suffered great grief.”

Job loves God. He does not understand what was going on and why all hell breaks loose in his life, but he still loved God. What an example for us. Job’s life was not put in the Bible by accident. It is purposely put there to encourage and inspire us, that no matter how hard it gets, no matter how bad it gets, no matter if all hell breaks loose in our lives, at the end of the day, WE STILL HAVE GOD! In essence that is all that we need. We sometimes forget that. We cherish our treasures, things, people, family and friends in our lives, but at the end of the day, they are all temporary. What is lasting is our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We all this building your hope on things that are eternal.

If you are living and breathing and happen to be reading this, you will have great grief in your life. It will be different for each of us. It may come in multiples like it did for Job, but you will have it. What will you do? Will you take Job’s wife advise to curse God and die? That death does not have to be a physical death. It can be a self-imposed separation from God by denouncing your faith or having a pity party of what has happened to you. Or, will you maintain your integrity before God?

This is not to say you do not hurt, you do not cry, you are not baffled. You experience the great grief that you are in, but your comeback is, “Lord, I trust you; Lord, I love you.” Grant it, Job did not say these exact words in the Bible, but it is implied. God knows Job’s heart; therefore, He allows Satan to wreak havoc in His life. The story of Job is an example of how we should handle our great griefs in life. Love & Blessings!   

Back in the fall I had the pleasure of visiting, The Ark Encounter! It was AMAZING! I am sharing some of the pictures. The picture of the ark is a true size replica of what Noah built. You walk through the ark as it was closely laid out during Biblical days. I hope this will peak your curiosity to visit. Of course these pictures do not give its true splendor, but it is so worth your time to go and see!

The Ark Encounter truly brings the Bible to life. It gives a deeper perspective of what was going on. The Holy Spirit will meet you there to impart to you what He wants you to know. I was always curious about how Noah got the dinosaurs on the ark. Well, my questions were answered about that and more! God’s word is TRUE and it is wonderful how he imparted to the creators of this venue to share The Ark Encounter with the world. You may click on a picture to open up the picture gallery… Enjoy! Love & Blessings!

Valentine’s Day is this week! Invariably, it is the day of LOVE. Amazingly, God has commanded us to love each other. Therefore, we cannot say we love God if we cannot love each other. Certainly, that love loves good people and bad people. It loves friends and foes. Surely, it loves strangers, too. Ultimately, it loves all creatures and things.

This love that God has asked of us is called agape. This is the highest form of love. Furthermore, it is a supernatural love. We know what is like to love in the natural. We love people we know and people we like. However, God asks us to love beyond that. This is why it is supernatural because in the natural we cannot love our enemies. In the natural it is difficult to love people we do not know called strangers.

The Holy Spirit ushers us into the love God has asked us to do. It is a beautiful experience when you cannot look at people you do not know and know you have a God-given love for them. Wonderfully, you care about their well-being and want the best for them. It is humbling when you have a love for your enemy. For people who have hurt you in any form. You know it is the supernatural power of our God that allows you to do this. Thankfully, it is the kind of love Jesus sacrificed his life for us for. It truly is a beautiful love. Love & Blessings!

AARP has a wonderful program called Virginia Treasure Series. It spotlights historic landmarks in Virginia. For those of you who love history and fashion, watch this presentation with guest presenters from the Living History Museums at Jamestown Settlement and American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.

Chris and Samantha are experts on the 17th and 18th century fashion at Jamestown for the three cultures of that day, Europeans, Indigenous, and African. It is fascinating and very interesting in seeing and knowing how these three cultures influenced the development of Virginia and each other. There is a surprise host, too! (Wink)

Click on the link and with the passcode and go to the site… Enjoy!

Passcode: 2B&c4NPU

Love & Blessings!

Where in Virginia is the country’s oldest African American Museum? Hampton University!

Join me for another AARP Virginia Treasures on Wednesday, February 15 from 1-2 p.m. to find out about this wonderful historic museum.

 Use the link below to register and join us live for this event. You do not have to be a member of AARP to attend… I’ll see you then!

Love & Blessings!

Gwen

We are starting the New Year with a BANG! Shockingly, we have had several mass shootings, school shootings, and Tyre Nichols has been murdered by the police. Unfortunately, none of these things are new, but in the first month of this New Year it has been ratcheted up! Something is WRONG!

I believe we all can agree that these heinous acts are EVIL. It is a spirit of evil that has caused these unmerciful acts. Furthermore, it is quite disturbing. On the surface we contend we need better laws, better policies, better supervision, etc. However, we need to go deeper. When we go deeper, we realize we have a SPIRITUAL problem in the world. This is nothing new. The Bible says there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

While JESUS walked the earth he talked of things in the SPIRIT world. Many, even the disciples, had a difficult time understanding what He was talking about. So much so, they beat him unrecognizable and then hung him on the cross. Basically, it was a political act against Him. The bigger picture it was God’s will to save man from their heinous sins. Consistently, in God’s eyes sin is sin is sin. Invariably, it is all heinous to Him. That is why He sent Jesus to die for those sins.

The answer to all of these heinous acts lies in Jesus Christ. It goes far beyond knowing Him and who He is. Having a genuine heart for Him is a game changer! It changes how we respond to Him and others. Our love for Him pushes us toward obedience. goes to loving Him and being obedient to Him. It causes us to crucify our flesh EVERY DAY so that God gets the glory out of our lives.

Sin will always be with us until Jesus returns. We know this from the Bible. Still, through it all, we can have the abundant, victorious life God has promised us on the earth. It is in the spirit world where there is the love, peace, joy, goodness, kindness, patience, self-control, faithfulness, and generosity God has offered us. It is God’s prescription to the abundant, victorious life He has promised us. Amen! Love and Blessings!

Ezra leads the Israelites back to Jerusalem after being in captivity in Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.  So, for many years the Israelites were living in a different land with different customs, and they mingled with the people.  Of course, the Babylonians did not believe in the most high God. The Israelites had to be oh so careful not to take on the customs and beliefs of another nation.

One of the things God asked the Israelites not to do was to marry into this God forsaken land. Why? It is because they worshipped idols. Repeatedly, God has warned Israel over and over and over again to not have any other God before Him. Even if you are in a foreign land, you should not have any other God before me.

This is a wonderful illustration and reminder for us as we live in this world. Although we live in the world we are not of this world. Sometimes we forget this as we go about living our lives. We think we have to take on the beliefs of the culture when culture is not always with our God. We get caught up in the passions of this world and forget about the passion we should have for our God,

In Chapter 9 of Ezra as the people are preparing to move back to Jerusalem, we see many of the Israelites disobeying God and marrying daughters of sons of this foreign land. When Ezra hears what the Israelites are doing, he rents his garment and plucks the hair off of his head and beard… Ouch! This is a symbolism of how awful sin is. We forget that sin destroys us. Ezra is astonished that the people did this because it will present problems for the people as they move back to Jerusalem with their foreign families.

I do not believe this is an indictment on mixed marriages. As we know in our society, we have mixed marriages. I do not believe God is against mixed marriages. I believe He is against people who are unequally yoked; people who are not believers of Him.

God still gives us free choice and free will. It is up to us if we decide to be obedient to him or not. However, being the sovereign God that He is, He already knows it will present problems and challenges for the believer. It does not make Him love them any less for He wishes ALL would come under His saving grace. However, because we do have free choice and will and because we do live in a fallen world, unfortunately, Satan will try to take as many people with him on his doomsday. And for those of us who decide to marry nonbelievers it is not the abundant, victorious life God has promised us. Love & Blessings!   

The descendants of David were good and bad. We see this theme throughout the Bible. Upon Hezekiah’s death, his son Manasseh takes over. The Bible describes him as evil in II Chronicles 33:2. Again, a reminder of just because you may have a mom, dad, sister, brother, relative, heir, to serve the Lord does not necessarily mean everyone related to you may be connected to our God. Sometimes we assume because we were raised in the same family we all believe the same. That is clearly not the case as we see repetitively in the Bible.

Manasseh tears down what his father, Hezekiah, built and started worshipping Baalim. He is using witchcraft and building all kinds of alters NOT unto our God. Once again, this makes God angry. He carves idols and causes the people to do worse than what the heathens have done (v. 9).

Out of God’s graciousness and mercy, he tries to appeal to Manasseh. He speaks with him and the people over and over, but they will not take heed. Then the Assyrians come knocking again. The Lord sends them! They kidnap Manasseh and take him to Babylon. There he suffers much affliction. Finally, the bad boy becomes humbled. He humbles himself to the Lord and prays to him. The Lord delivers Manasseh and he is returned home. Because of this, Manasseh becomes a believer of the Lord God Almighty! Two significant lessons, God can change anyone’s heart if they want to be changed even bad boys. Learn the lesson of not putting other things, people, places, and stuff, before God… He HATES it! Love & Blessings!   

So God saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem and Judah from King Sennacherib and his psychological warfare against them. This elevated Hezekiah even more with his people and surrounding kingdoms and nations.

Presents and gifts were brought to our God and Hezekiah, II Chronicles 32:23. Unfortunately, because we are in this fleshly body, we still have to be on guard against it. Hezekiah became prideful for a minute and it drew the wrath of God.

God does not hide what makes Him mad. He tells us over and over and over again HE HATES PRIDE! So we have to be all so careful we are not operating out of pride because it will draw the wrath of our God.

Hezekiah quickly corrected himself and humbled himself, once again, before the Lord. The lesson is, WE NEED GOD! Don’t forget it. We need God for everything in our lives. The Bible says once Hezekiah humbled himself it kept the wrath of the Lord away from him and the people.

Hezekiah had much riches, treasures of all kinds. Storehouses were increased with all manner of beasts, herds, and flocks. His cities increased, too. II Chronicles 32:29 says “… God have given him substance very much.”   

This was all God’s doing. Hezekiah knew where his blessings, abundance, favor, and substance was coming from. He dare not trample over the goodness of the Lord. Hezekiah prospers in all his works (v. 30).

We see here an example of what it looks like when God magnifies you. If you are struggling for success could it be it is because you are trying to magnify yourself and not God? Love & Blessings!

The image above tells you what God will do for you. Moreover, it is through Jesus and the Holy Spirit we experience these things in life. Again, a mystery, but this is how it is done. Satan, on the other hand, will attack you on many levels that are also listed. Contrast the things we experience with Satan. There is a clear distinction of what we experience with God and Satan. Let’s examine a little closer.

God brings us light. Graciously, he sent his son Jesus, born to save the world! So, Jesus is the ultimate light! Furthermore, he is the beautiful example God sent us His Son on Earth. Invariably, we receive many things from what Jesus did for us along with the Holy Spirit, the comforter, who ministers to us today. For example, we have PEACE and CLAMNESS in the midst of our storms. We have REVELATION and ENLIGHTENMENT into difficult situations in our lives and how to solve them. These are just some of the things we have with Jesus.

Satan brings us darkness. He is a counterfeit, too. Sometimes he may try to appear as an angel of light. However, we know if what we see does not come in line with God’s word, it is a counterfeit. Satan will HARASS and PUSH us into things that are not of God. He loves to FRIGHTEN and CONFUSE us which produces unnecessary STRESS. Satan is DOMED and he constantly LIES to us about the TRUTHS of God. ETERNAL life with God is ours, but not his… His is eternal DAMNATION and FIRE.

So, we have a choice. The BEAUTY of this choice is God has a tailored made plan for each of our lives. It is ours to find the path and walk the journey. God’s love for us and what Jesus did for us on the cross should empower us to do better and be a HEART follower, not a fan of Jesus that we should be. Love & Blessings!