Our blog is moving

http://spiritualcatharsis.wordpress.com

We are moving this as we can update it from our Iphone via this new site which makes posting easier when God puts something on our hearts. :)

We are looking to see if there is a way to move the old posts over to the new site somehow :)

eye opener

do you ever have one of those moments where your eyes are opened up so wide that you just want to shut them and not be blinded by the bright light we call "ignorance of self?" well that happened to me today. a dear friend of mine help show me (in a very sincere and unassuming way) that i struggle with a sin that i didn't even know i struggled with.

pride. not like white pride or black pride or proud to be an american sort of pride. but the that's-great-sorry-to-hear-you-have-issues-but-let-me-tell-you-what's-going-on-in-my-life sort of pride. pride, in biblical terms, is when glory has been robbed from God and selfishly hoarded by ourselves! yeah, ouch!

let's think about this, perhaps you've said these phrases a few times:
* "i'm not as bad as somebody else"
* "i do more than somebody else"
* "i've been through more than somebody else"
* "i go to church/help at church a lot"
* "i volunteer"
* "i read my bible everyday"
* "i'm not as good as somebody else"
* "my life isn't worth living"
* "my problems are so big that nobody can help me"
* and the list can go on and on!

sure, some of these are not prideful things. but in context, are we glorifying God or are we looking for recognition from others. do we go to church for God? or because that's what we do as christians? do we volunteer to glorify God? or do we do it to improve a resume? or to feel good about ourselves?

the point is, whether in depressive stages of our lives or happy times, are we focused on what we are doing or what God is doing?

Encircled in the Arms of His Love

I was reading a talk tonight entitled "Encircled in the Arms of His Love", given by Neil A. Maxwell in 2002 and I wanted to share some of his points with you. He has so many points that are way over my own head, but some really touched my heart. Here are just a few of the ones that struck me:

• "God, who oversees the interlacings of galaxies, stars, and worlds, asks us to confess His hand in our personal lives, too (see D&C 59:21). Have we not been reassured about the fall of one sparrow and that the very hairs of our heads are numbered? (see Matthew 10:29–30; D&C 84:80). God is in the details! Just as the Lord knows all of His vast creations, He also knows and loves each in any crowd—indeed, He knows and loves each and all of mankind! (see 1 Nephi 11:17).

  Consider His tender salutations to Moses—"I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight" (Exodus 33:12)..."

• "Ignoring the revelations about God's astounding capacity is like playing aimlessly and contentedly with wooden blocks featuring the letters of the alphabet, without realizing Shakespearean sonnets were created using that same alphabet."
• These words of Anselm are thus such good counsel: "Believe in order to understand," rather than "understand [in order to] believe" (St. Anselm, trans. Sidney Norton Deane [1903], 7).

• "Mighty" changing, however, is mighty hard work, a labor made more difficult by heeding the unflattering urges of the natural man. Too often our possibilities have been muted by the mundane. We are scarcely ready for the vaulting revelations. Imagine—a spirit portion of each of us is actually eternal and that we were with God in the beginning! (see D&C 93:29, 33).

  Of course we cannot fully comprehend all this right now! Of course we cannot know the meaning of all things right now. But we can know, right now, that God knows us and loves us individually!"

Aren't those amazing quotes? I love that he says "God is in the details." I know that to be true. I am amazed on a daily basis how much I feel the Love of a Heavenly Father who knows me personally. I am so very thankful to know that prayer is a conduit for me to speak to Him and that he loves and knows me enough to influence me on what I need to do. I know we aren't all the same religion, but I wanted to share that I truly do have a strong testimony that:

• Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, and they are in charge of this world.

• They know me.

• They love me.

• They have a plan for my future.

• I will obey the commandments, work hard, and trust in their plan. Sooner or later, everything will be okay.

(Virginia H. Pearce, “Faith Is the Answer,” Ensign, May 1994, 92)

commit one, commit them all...

i know it's been awhile since my last post; partly due to my busy schedule and partly due to my own walk (or lack thereof) recently.

but i was reading through james 2 and there is a verse in there that has been weighing on my mind recently.

james 2:10
"for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all."

sin is sin, whether big or small. but God treats them the same, this what makes him fair and just. part of me is scared by this, part of me is thankful for this. as humans, believer or not, we compare ourselves to others. we feel the need to minimize our own sin against others who have "bigger" or "more" sin in their life.

as for me, i sin. i sin everyday. sure, i'm not committing murder everyday, but in God's eyes that doesn't matter. the important thing to remember is to genuinely repent! repent in our hearts to God. ask Him for a clean and renewed heart. if we do this, He will forgive us.

but stop comparing yourself against others, sin is sin; big or small. get back on the bus and start over again. even if it is everyday you fall off, get back on everyday.

what if

what if we lived for each other instead of ourselves?
what if we stopped to say hi to the person who works next to us?
what if we picked up breakfast for the couple across the restaurant?
what if we helped the old lady across the street?
what if we loved as we are loved?
what if we said the last 10%?
what if extended a hand, instead of clenched a fist?
what if acted as we talk?
what if we were the person we claim to be?
what if we read our bible?
what if right and wrong didn't matter, but it was love that counted?
what if we got dirty?
what if prayed to remember what we've learned rather than hoping to learn more?
what if success was not measured by the number of zeros on our paycheck?
what if today was your last day and you didn't even know it?
what if we enjoyed life a little more with the ones we love?

what if we lived as God intended, not as we think we desired?

how would the world be a different place? how would you make a difference with your gifts?

are you a dirty person?!

tonight i had the opportunity to listen to and meet a man by the name of josh riebok. he is an incredible man of God and taught about the good samaritan in a way that i had not heard before. he asked a question that i thought i would pass it along...paraphrased, the question went like this.

What if we got dirty to carry out God's work? Are we a dirty person, willing to get all of the blood and dirt on us, to show God's love for others? Or are we a spotless clean person?

as christians we sometimes claim we show God's love to others. but in the case of the good samaritan, the samaritan bent down, cleaned a man's wounds, picked him up and took care of him for the night. this is God's love. getting down to help people, willing to dirty our "clean" clothes, to help care for those around us.

so i ask you;

are you a dirty person?

messianic prophesies...

first, i would like to define exactly what this is...because, honestly, i didn't fully understand it myself. as far as i can tell and in my brief research, a messianic prophecy is a prediction of the coming of Christ.

i'd like to tell you a quick story about why i learned about messianic prophecies. earlier this week, during my morning prayer and reading of the bible, i was reading zechariah chapter 11. i'm not sure why, but that's where God led me. it's a story of a shepherd who watches over a flock, and God asks the shepherd to feed the flock. but the flock eventually rejects the shepherd and the shepherd. the shepherd was frustrated by the flock's behavior and said, "I will not be your shepherd. let the dying die and the perishing perish. let those who are left eat each others flesh." the shepherd is paid 30 pieces of silver for his efforts. but God tells the shepherd to throw the 30 pieces of silver to the potter...and so he does it.

last night i was at a college service and the pastor mentioned that judah was paid 30 pieces of silver for turning over Jesus. i had heard this before, but now there was a connection. was it a coincidence? or something more? i went and talked with the pastor this morning and asked him if it was a coincidence. he read zechariah 11 and agreed that it was not a coincidence. that the shepherd in the story was a prediction of Jesus' work here on earth to "feed the flock", but was rejected and "paid" 30 pieces for his "efforts."

it was interesting talking with the pastor who explained that the salvation of the "flock" was only worth 30 pieces of silver. as he explained it to me, i could begin to see that zechariah 11 was in fact a prediction of Jesus' work here on earth.

i'm sure that there are a lot more prophecies in the bible. the book of isaiah is full of them. and even Jesus himself said that He came to fulfill the prophesies. but this experience in my life, only makes me want to dive into the bible further and find those correlations. not because i want to be smarter; rather gain wisdom of God's amazing 66 book love letter to His people, so that i may go out with confidence and reach souls. i encourage all of you to do the same...