Tag: Christianity

Posted on

Fear, Faith’s Greatest Enemy


English: A cross close to the church in Grense...

Fear, faith‘s greatest enemy. If we let fear get the best of us, we are putting fear before our faith in God and his promises and we are also putting fear before our savior as well. We are not meant to be full of fear, we are meant to be full of faith, hope and joy as Christians. Living in constant fear is not living at all, fear consumes ones mind, time and energy leaving little for life, love and serving God. If we believe in the promises of the father and the grace given through Christ we should not fear anything but God himself.

Related articles
Posted on

The greatest gift one can get


Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglica...Ah the Christmas shopping season seems to start earlier each year, Seems Christmas has become more of a shopping experience than an actual celebration of the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. Commercialism of Christmas has slowly dragged our minds and hearts further away from the reason for the season. Though we all still celebrate Christmas and are thankful on that day for our savior, there is way too much emphasis on the presents.  Who will buy or get the biggest and best gifts seems more important to some than the actual meaning of the day we celebrate. Nothing wrong with buying big gifts, all I am saying is the greatest gift one can get we all have received on that historical and holy day of the birth of our savior. We should remember to be thankful and celebrate the fact we were blessed on that day so many years ago. Remember the Manger, remember the life and remember the death along with the resurrection. Remember Our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. And try to remember the lessons Jesus taught us all.

Hope, Faith and the acceptance of God’s will is the path, Acceptance of Jesus as our savior is the way.

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

it was a pretty good year that God blessed me with


008 In a few days another birthday comes around to remind me that I made it through another year of life. So much left undone and so much unsaid, but still it was a pretty good year that God blessed me with. Each birthday I reflect upon my past and think of what I could have done better and how I am going to do better in the future days to come.  For I am but a work in process and I am not ready to throw in the towel on improving who and what I am.

I pray that I will get to see many more birthdays and that I can keep improving myself through Jesus and through the will of God. I hope I can continue writing posts on my blogs that readers can enjoy and maybe give them something to think about.

Thank you God and Jesus for the followers, likers and commenters both positive and negative. Thank you for helping me to continually grow spiritually and mentally. And most of all thank you for this life I am getting to live.

Amen

Related articles
Posted on

The only one standing in the way is your self and you know it.


eyeSo your middle-aged and wonder what the heck am I doing here and why am I not somewhere better? Well one reason for all of it, you chose the path your on and you didn’t choose to change it yet. So what you’re in your 40’s you can change your path at anytime in life as long as you have the desire and determination to do so. Yeah your brain isn’t as quick as it was at 18 but it is a lot better at prioritizing than it was back then. Plus the brain is amazing, the more you use it the better it works. So stop using excuses as a way to avoid making a commitment to making a change that is definitely needed. The only one standing in the way is your self and you know it. Stop thinking life is over because your older, start realizing it isn’t over till we go home to God and Jesus.

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Just as Jesus taught us to do, He will do for us the same.


English: Jesus Christ - detail from Deesis mos...

When we learn to put aside all our worries and stress we find that happiness is such an easy thing to obtain. As my mom always told me, let go and let God, thus let God handle all the stressful situations and let him be the source of your strength. Jesus taught if we see a neighbor or even a stranger carrying a heavy load that we should help that person carry the load. If they ask you to carry it a part of the way, you should carry it all the way. The compassion, fellowship and kindness in your heart should always inspire you to help others. Just as Jesus taught us to do, He will do for us the same. Jesus will help carry your load when you need it and he will counsel you when you are unable to discern which way to go.

We should practice compassion, understanding and kindness every day, for if we do not show any compassion, kindness or try to be understanding towards others how should we expect the same from God? The same goes for forgiveness, God through Jesus has forgiven us all and we should forgive others through Christ as well. If a person sins against you just remember you are a sinner as well, forgive him and pray for both his forgiveness as well as your own. Love the sinner and hate only the sin, we all have sin in us and none of us are worthy to enter the kingdom of God without Jesus. We also need to learn to forgive ourselves as well, we can not carry the weight of our sins and be forgiven at the same time. Christ died on the cross and was resurrected to wash or cover our multitude of sins. So you pray to be forgiven and truly repent then forgive yourself and forget your sin.

 All our strength, help and forgiveness comes from God through his Son Jesus Christ. We must remember this and thank God for that he has given, will give and even that which he has taken away.

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Give the battle to God and Begin serving God.


MP900321192 The Job, The Kids, your favorite TV show, even your battle with sin can be distractions from serving God. We allow ourselves to get consumed if not overwhelmed by every day life and the challenges we face each day and that makes it next to impossible to serve god. If we are devoting all of our energy, time and mental abilities to the world we leave very little to give to serving God. Of course we have to deal with everyday life and the challenges it brings, but there are a lot of things we could let go of or that we could hand off to others if not to god himself in order to make time to Serve God and help others.

jesus-christ-in-prayer_w725_h725 This world is stressful and can be quite exhausting, the enemy always tries to keep us occupied with what ever he can so we are to consumed by life to serve, worship or know God. Not only does the enemy use distraction he also tries to deceive you into believing there is no hope for you and that you can not be saved. He wants us to be lost and confused so we can not find our salvation and or serve our father and our savior. Through faith, prayer and serving God we strengthen ourselves and through reading the scripture we learn to focus on the will of God not our own.

MP900427741 (1) If you are in a battle with sin in your life stop fighting it on your own, Give the battle to God to fight. Begin serving God by helping others and being kind to others. The more you focus on doing things that are good the less you think of the things that are sinful or that you lust for. The more you dedicate yourself to serving God and doing his will the less hold on you the sinful nature will have. It is a life long battle that we must wage against our sinful natures but the war was already won upon the cross and by the blood.

 If serving God is your first and last thought of the day, then Serving God you will do throughout the day.

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

God’s love is limitless and unstoppable


MP900426559 God gave all of us some pretty good gifts, Love being one of the better ones, the ability to care about one another and to put someone else above your own self. The happiness of your mate will become your first priority and your own happiness will seem less important. When the love is shared then there is never a worry about happiness because both partners are striving to make each other happy. Sometimes love requires some work to keep and maintain, both sides have to compromise at times and work with each other. Love shouldn’t always be a chore to keep, for the most part it should be pretty simple to maintain but there will be rough patches to keep you busy from time to time.

Compassion, an expression of a brotherly/sisterly love for others, a love that is unconditional and unlimited. This is a more of a spiritual love that God blessed us with and should be one of the loves we should share freely and abundantly. We should strive to show compassion on people and all other living things. Forgiveness is also an expression of a spiritual type of love, to forgive yourself or others is to express that you love them enough to overlook their shortcomings and mistakes.  This kind of love is one of the kind of loves that God through Jesus showed us upon the cross. He loved us so much he gave his only begotten son as a sacrifice for our sins so we could be forgiven and be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.

God’s love is limitless and unstoppable, from his love is where all love springs forth from. God is the source for all the love we feel, express and give to one another. We always should remember where all of our blessings, gifts and help comes from, God is the source of all that is good. We should remember to give thanks for all that he has blessed us with and that which he will bless us with in the future.

We can choose to accept his gifts and blessings or we can choose to stand alone in this world of darkness. The choice is ours and ours alone, what we reap will be that which we have chosen to sow. Choose wisely my friends and may God bless you and guide you through the darkness of our world.

Ray Barbier

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.
Related articles
Posted on

Change our focus back on God as well as the family.


There are so many unhappy, lonely and lost people out in the world. Some have the perfect mate, job or financial situation but still they are searching for something or someone. They get caught up in the illusion something external is going to make the happy or fill the emptiness inside. The only one who can make you happy or fill that void within besides yourself is God. You have to make the choice to be happy before you can find happiness, you must choose to love yourself before anyone else can love you. You must accept the love of God and start a personal relationship with him before the void will be filled.  You can have the perfect husband or wife and still feel the loneliness and the emptiness of the void within. It isn’t that your mate isn’t the right one, It more than likely the lack of a personal relationship with God. Even people who go to church every Sabbath and read the bible each day can still need to have a personal relationship with God.

God will help those who help themselves basically says that you have to make the first move in faith and God will be right beside you helping you along the way. In this modern world we focus too much on how much money we can make, what kind of clothes, gadgets and toys we can buy for ourselves and our children. We lost the closeness of family and we need to change our focus back on God as well as the family. The stress of keeping up with the Joneses or the Smiths keeps us so distracted from God and the family. We must remember we should live our lives for God first then the family and lastly for ourselves.  When we put other things and people before God we cease to worship god and begin worshiping materialism and the self. God wants us to be happy and have things but he wants us to do so in his honor and for his glory not our own.  This is where the emptiness comes from, when we tend to put other things before God, when we do that we close the door inside our hearts and minds to God’s love. That’s the pit, the emptiness, the lack of his love within us.

God, Family then the self.  The order in which things are needed to be done.
Ray Barbier

Related articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.
Posted on

I am worth no more or less than any other


eye Sometimes I find I am way to sensitive and get hurt too easy, it is because how much I care about others and some of it is my desire to be accepted. Though I have come a long way in the insecurity department, I don’t rely on other people’s opinions about me or if they accept me or not as much as I used to. A lot of the reason I don’t get bothered by it as much is I have learned to accept myself as is and realize my family, friends and love of my life are the only ones that matter in the end. Not everyone will like me or accept me, but those that do I will cherish and embrace as a part of my extended family. Self confidence and self-worth have been issues I have dealt with since my teen years. Now 44 I am finally getting a grip on reality and the truth of it all. I walk in faith now instead of fear and know God accepts me and loves me and so do those I love.

I am worth no more or less than any other and I am as confident as I need to be. I can do what I need and want and that is all that matters to me now.

God’s love heals, builds character and inspires all.
Ray Barbier

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.
Related articles
Posted on

A Letter to my self : Self-Compassion


018 I am writing this to let you know how special you are, I know you have a lot of shortcomings and you’re struggling each day with things you don’t like about yourself along with a few bad habits. I know sometimes you feel sad and lonely and I want you to know that everyone goes through that from time to time. Stop trying so hard to be perfect, for no one is perfect. Just know no matter how bad it gets, how hard life tries to be on you and how bad you think you are everything is going to be ok. You may not be perfect, but you are a pretty good person. Try to forgive yourself for those things in the past you regret and then forget them for they belong to yesterday. Just remember this most of all, no matter how alone and unloved you feel there is always one person here on earth that will love you and be with you. I will always be there and will always love you. Even if I fail you know for certain Jesus and God will never fail you, they shall love you no matter what.

Sincerely you friend

Me, Myself and I

Raymond Barbier

Related articles
Website Built with WordPress.com.