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An Equation For Happiness

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I actually got this off of Dennis Prager’s website at http://prageru.com; where his motto is “give us 5 minutes and we’ll give you a semester.”

It’s called the Happiness Equation:

Unhappiness=Image-Reality

The reason most of us are unhappy has to do with our image of ourselves versus or view of reality. The majority of people are negative by nature but then again it would stand to reason that anybody that doesn’t know God would be as they are without any real hope.

Negativity is listed as a major symptom of depression; but is it just a symptom, or the cause?

A Christian Psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Meier, said in his book “Blue Genes” that with the right amount of Serotonin in your brain (the neurotransmitter that affects moods) you will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

So do we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit or just the right antidepressant.

To some degree, maybe both. However as you grow spiritually you should become less and less dependent on anything man-made to produce genuine happiness.

It’s also noted that 80% of people who spend three weeks at Dr. Meier’s outpatient clinic in Dallas actually learns how to balance out their brain chemicals through spiritual principles and proper diet & exercise.

Does this include Bipolar & Schizophrenia?

I met a guy on the streets of Fort Worth that proclaimed how he overcame Bipolar Disorder (as well as a Charismatic preacher at Riverwalk Fellowship in the same city). I knew they were both going to say it was by the grace of God because that’s the only way to conquer a lifelong illness. The guy said you have to be willing to face your fears.

I pray he runs across this so he can get the proper recognition.

Back to the happiness equation. Many of us have high images of ourselves. These images are not necessarily unrealistic. Although, when we have setbacks it can make it seem like a far stretch. Either way, we become disillusioned with ourselves and lose hope and end up settling for the Status Quo.

Got big dreams? You have a Big God who can add His purpose to your goals and dreams for Jesus taught that apart from Him you can do nothing.

He is also quoted as saying, “what good is it for man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit His soul.”

Giving up your image can cost you your soul of you fall into despair and depression/anxiety.

As with all major issues in life, give it to God and seek His will above all else.

-Seek first the Kingdom of God.
-Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you
the desires of your heart.
-Without faith it is impossible to please God for to
have faith you have to believe that God is and that
He is a rewarder to those that diligently seek Him.

Paul also notes that godliness with contentment is great gain.

In the pursuit of your goals, focus on the Kingdom of God. God’s will is for you to be conformed to the image of His Son. The only thing worth conforming to in this world.

Enjoy the journey.

Be content with what you have until you get what you want; that is if what you want is “good” for you. Psalm 84:11-no “good” thing will He withhold from those that walk uprightly.

Word Digestion & Instant Grits

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Hungry? Jesus said “man does not live on bread alone buy by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” The only food you need is the Bread of Life that’s found in the Messiah as well as the Living Water He offers that will fill you up to everlasting life and overflow into others enabling you to show your  love for God by the way you love them; thus fulfilling the Law of God.

Many churches talk about devouring the Word of God (not literally like my rat terrier did one time). Even charismatic Baptistcostal preacher Charles Stanley said you can study the Bible and miss God. The question is why do you study the Word of God? Many people, especially in America, have enough head knowledge about the things of God to enable them to miss heaven by 18 inches (the difference between your head and your heart). Do you study the Word to get to know God personally? Are you seeking His Face? Are you you guilty of be a gnostic, or worshipper of merely knowledge?

Full Pentecostal preacher Steve Hill of Heartland World Ministries Church in Irving, TX. declared one time “it’s not how much you get into the Word; it’s how much of the Word gets in you.” There’s truth to the Prosperity Gospel. However many fall away because they expect God to deliver on demand; making  Him sound like a Sear’s Catalogue. First off you can’t just pray for whatever you want and expect God to cater to your every whim. That’s trying to manipulate your Heavenly Father. You seek Him and His Kingdom and all else will be added; including the desires of your heart or what God wants you to do with your life.

Do the desires of your heart glorify God and line up with His Word? Are you asking amiss if you aren’t receiving? God won’t bless you with anything on your timetable. If He did there would be no need for faith that perseveres. You would just be seeking God for what He can give you rather than what you can give Him; which is only your heart and life in exchange for Him giving His life for you.

America is a fast paced society. We want everything now! We are willing to settle for what’s right now rather than what’s right for us in the long term; I.e.; instant grits (actually gratification but grits fits the title of the Blog). God’s timing may line up with your timing but that’s still not exactly when you want it and it’s not exactly what you want. You should be thankful He doesn’t give you everything you want for it might destroy  you. It all depends on how close you are to God; meaning how Christlike you are.

Shabat Shalom in the name of Yeshua Mashiach

 

 

Our Unmet Need

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It’s true we will always have an unmet need in life. However whether we have unfulfilled desires depends on our drive, passion, and where we’re at with God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Spiritual hearing comes when you open your heart to the one true and living God, which is Him drawing you to the Cross of His Son; the more you seek after the things of God the more He fills you and you know what you truly want out of life. Then the Holy Spirit will empower you to git er dun. 2 Peter says God adds to faith virtue; this is moral excellence or a striving for holiness, i.e.; to be made whole. If you are not striving for this you are out of fellowship and your faith is small. To virtue He adds knowledge which leads to temperance. Knowing how to live right and having the self-control to do so by keeping your focus on Him. These lead you to steadfastness and godliness which leads to brotherly love (Phileo) and Charity. As we become more humble and dependent on the Holy Spirit for His Life we are filled to overflowing and able to supernaturally love God and others unconditionally. So the only unmet need we really have is for more faith which is where it all begins with the size of a mustard seed. Also when you do step out in faith God and receive His blessings He is going to continue to draw you to a deeper level of faith and dependence which only serves to enhance your ability to do the other things that follower; namely leading to a greater love of God and others which makes you more Christlike and fulfills the Law of God given to Moses.

Jeff Deyo/More Love, More Power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3GmSupatEs

Hide & Seek

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Remember back in the garden when Satan tempted Eve to eat the apple? What motivated the original first lady to eat of the forbidden fruit? Some say pride. A desire to be independent of God. Or unbelief-not trusting what God says and obeying Him. That leaves fear. Later on it says her and her husband were afraid of God, for they were naked and tried to hide themselves. How many of us hide when we do something wrong? Everybody knows the ever popular John 3:16. A few verses down it says (v. 20) that many will not come to the light for fear that its deeds will be exposed. There it is again. Fear. The one thing that keeps us from trusting in God. 1 John 4:18 says that perfect love casteth out fear. When you’re not living by faith, you are living in fear; thus you end up trusting in yourself because you have to have in something. The only way to increase your faith is to realize how much God loves you. Either by remembering where you came from or where you would be if it weren’t for the Lord (for those that grew up under biblicial teaching). The only thing God asks of us is to seek His face. Come out of hiding. Your sins are forgiven. You don’t have to punish yourself with guilt and shame. Thought for today: Are you seeking Him or hiding from Him? My new years resolution for the year after a life of struggling with anxiety and depression is to live life to the fullest. In return God has practically restored the years I lost due to them by reconnecting with friends through Social Media. You can’t enjoy life if you are constantly bound by fear.

The Straight & Narrow

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“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

Despite that Frost was an Agnostic, although we shouldn’t judge where he’s at now, this poem describes being in the minority in life. Jesus taught that narrow is the way and few there be that find it. You can’t be full of the Spirit and full of yourself. Just doesn’t work. People that want to make a difference and strive to live about the Status Quo are always in the minority and will always have people trying to shoot them down. Truthfully, in reality you have about as much chance of making your dreams come to pass as you do of taking over God’s job; i.e.; saving yourself. Jesus was the one who coined the phrase-”with God all things are possible.” However your highest goal should be to know God and make Him known to a lost & dying world. Without that vision, any goals & dreams you pursue will leave you unfulfilled and empty because it will have no meaning to it and you will be doing it solely for personal gain of some sort.  So, to close, are you following the crowd, or willing to stand out and risk the costs? Remember, if God be for you, who dare be against you. Are you in the minority?

Ghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDBlqu6KF4

Green Day/Minority

 

 

 

The 80/20 Rule

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It has been said that 80% of people hate their jobs. So what are the other 20% doing? Also, 20% of people do 80% of the work. 20% of the world is said to be right with God by christian perspectives. Rather ironic don’t you think that 80 & 20 come up quite frequently.
80% of people hate their jobs because more than likely they either aren’t doing the work God has for them or they are trying to find fulfillment in their work apart from God, making it an idol. The remaining 20% have found true fulfillment out of their work out of their relationship with God or they chose to “settle”. The latter isn’t good because it leads to repressed emotions which lead to depression and other mental illnesses.
The 20% that do most of the work are the ones who have all the motivation because the other 80% are unmotivated; either because they are living defeated lives because they have been beat down and burned by society or they are confused and don’t know what they want out of life. This group is also likely to suffer from repressed emotions which contribute to the rise of mental illnesses today. In proverbs it says the desires of the heart will kill the simple. (E’s paraphrase). It’s good to live simple, unless you are doing it because you don’t any get up and go (which comes from being either fully spirit-filled or fully replying upon yourself).
As far as 20% of the world being right with God-how do we know this? Because we are doing what man does and assuming that a person is right or not right with God by what they do. A person who appears to be doing God’s will may be self-reliant and the person who appears to be living in sin maybe just be struggling but may be more in love with God than the “righteous” person.
Either way, true fulfillment comes from finding purpose in your life which flows from a vibrant relationship with your Creator. People with no zest for life are deemed “losers” by society and can’t be in fellowship with God because God calls you to make a difference for His Kingdom. The first two words in Gospel are “Go.” You think Jesus is the most influential man who ever lived because He just sat around “waiting upon the Lord” and “resting in His work.”

Life, Liberty, & the pursuit of Happiness

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Happiness? What is it? It’s so alluring and so far away to most people. We all have our desires as to what it would take to fulfill us but we go about it the wrong way in trying to reach them. We were created for a purpose and we try to find our purpose in our work or our relationships. Then when we come up empty we become addicted to our idols and end up self-medicating by trying to fill the void and stifle the call of God on our lives. God gave us an independent nature so we’d come to Him on our own, However we can’t come to Him on our own unless He draws us because we are so enslaved to our passions. Until you have a proper understanding of who God is you remain in bondage to your idol, which could be your religion and church involvement. If you don’t seek God for yourself you will become brainwashed by society’s views, even from your own church. However God won’t reveal anything that goes against His Word or denies His Son becvause they are essentially the same person in Spirit. We were created to find fulfillment in all these things because my two life verses (Psalm 84:11 & Psalm 37:4) say that if we delight ourselves in Him He will give us the desires of our heart and that He won’t withhold any good from those that walk uprightly. We can only find fulfillment by offering ourselves as a living sacrifice in response to His sacrifice for us. That’s what marriage is. Sacrifice for the one you love. He may make you give up some desires but most are the ones He gave you before you even knew Him and tried to go after in the flesh. Ultimate fulfillment flows from a personal relationship with Him and when you “awaken yourself to consciousness”, as New Ager Eckhard Tolle puts it, you surrender yourlife to God and the blood of Jesus washes over all yur sins. Only God can awaken your consciousness through being born anew-the ability to see God at work in your life and consequetly Satan too.

No Earthly Good? Not Likely!

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You know, it’s been said among some christians that you can be so eternity focused that you are of no good to anybody in this life. To put it in human terms. . .B.S! Was Jesus any earthly good? He was popular but misunderstood, therefore people withdrew from Him. If was was rich from His vocation, He likely gave away all His money, even His home if His neighbor was in need. Of course a friend on Facebook commented that He paid His taxes out of a fish or something like that so I doubt He had much money. Depending on how they paid their taxes back then. He may have gave away all His money first. Either way, if Jesus was no earthly good, then why is He so influential? That’s what draws me to the faith. He stands out above the others. That and when you receive Him the Bible comes alive because He’s the Living Word incarnate. Also the closer we get to God, the more like Him we become. We’re also accomplishing thru Christ what the other religions seek to accomplish on their own. He’s establishing us in His righteousness by His Grace thru our trust in Him. We will have more of an impact and be just as influential. However, people won’t understand us therefore they will pull away from us. Remember the prayer of Jabez. Enlarging your territory was one of them. We are called to make a difference but to bring glory to God by denying our sinful urges. Our thorns are the messengers of Satan, or the sins we struggle with that we are to renounce. Most “sins” aren’t bad in and of themselves it’s just that we try to get it without trusting in our Great Provider-Jehovah Jirah. He promises in Psalm 84:11 not to withhold anything good but He’s mainly referring to Himself because He is all we need. But the closer we get to Him the more we realize what we truly want out of life. We still have to pursue them because God is not going to drop a good job or a mate into your lap just because you rested in Him. You just have to pray, seek divine wisdom, and know what’s worth seeking and what’s worth giving up. Proverbs 3:5,6 says when we acknowledge God, or trust in Him, He will direct us accordingly. In closing, I’ve also heard many believers say that they are only ambitious for the Lord. Again. ..BS. Just an excuse to not accept responsibility and be lazy in your approach to life. Americans choose the path of least resistance. No wonder we’re all overmedicated and go on disability because we’re too drugged to work so we take what’s supposed to go to actual retirees. Proverbs says the desires of a slothful man will kill him. God gave you those desires for a reason, He just wants you to trust Him to provide them. Still have to do your part.