Tag Archives: Evangelism

Just like faith, Love is an important part


Corcovado jesus

Love, Love of other living things and people. The love Jesus showed and shared during his years with us. Just like faith, Love is an important part of being one of God’s children. With a world growing ever more violent and full of hate, we need to focus on the love of god and the love he wishes us to have and share. Hate is not the opposite of love as some may think it is the absence of love. Do not mistake hate for anger, anger is a reaction to a bad situation, hate is the lack of love and respect for another person, place or thing. In example look at when Jesus got angry at the temple due to all the money exchangers, etc. Jesus did not hate the money exchangers he was angry at them for turning the temple into a place of greed. Jesus still loved them all but was very disappointed in them for their lack of respect for God and his Temple. Jesus taught love in many ways such as turning of the other cheek, his healing of the sick and also his forgiveness for sins. His greatest expression of love was allowing himself to be persecuted, humiliated and crucified in order to give humanity salvation. We should learn from Jesus’s teachings and put aside our hate and minimize our anger as well. All humans are prone to make mistakes and sin for it is a part of our nature to do so. We should love one another regardless of sin or shortcoming. It is sin we are to dislike, not the sinner and we should focus on helping each other to overcome the sin. Shouting hateful words or trying to put another human being down because they sin is quite hypocritical since we all bear the weight of being sinful natured creatures.

The pointing out of each others sins is useless and unproductive, Instead we should focus on study of the scriptures and being loving and caring to one another. For there is no need for someone else to point out our sins, we are all already aware of them. So love one another and be supportive of one another.

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? – Mathew 7:3”

God Bless
Ray Barbier

there is one purpose that never changes


tpl_7_pplThere are times in life we all get lost, lose direction or even lose our sense of purpose in the world. To feel you have no purpose is to feel useless and unwanted or unneeded. This is not what God or Jesus wants for us, even when we loose direction and feel we have no purpose there is always serving God. No matter what, there is one purpose that never changes and gives meaning to ones life. Even if you are not sure of how or in what way to serve God, just live each day being the best person you can be and help those in need and unable to help themselves in any way you are able. God has plans for all of us, there is no such thing as a useless person. Even those that have hit rock bottom and seem to have no hope in returning to a life with God in it are not hopeless or useless. Through Christ and God all is possible.and therefore there is no one who can not change or be changed.

No matter how low you get or how far you stray from the flock, There is a hand reaching out to give you hope and salvation. Jesus is always reaching out to us all, the choice to accept his hand is yours.

Ray Barbier

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.

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

Have faith, Trust in god and live life Christ like as possible.


Being positive is not an easy task, but it is the most rewarding path to follow. Negativity is a path that usually leads to self-destruction and the harming of all those around you. Your attitude towards life effects everyone around you in one way or another. It may not be intentional but when your negative you bring others around you down and even cause them harm sometimes. Though there is a time for negativity but it is not something that is meant to occupy your life for any great amount of time. Positivity on the other hand rarely ever causes harm, it usually lifts up the spirits of those around you, heals the emotional scars within your self and it tends to attract positive people into your life. The hard part is realizing that happiness and/or positivity is generated within yourself and is not supplied from an outside source. God gave you the spirit of compassion, love, positivity, creativity, healing and much more. He did not give you the spirit of fear, anger, envy, lust, greed or any other negative emotion or action. The negative is something you created or accepted from the world around you. The lack of faith, low self-esteem and a poor self-image are spawned from the acceptance and embracing of the negativity in your life. If you face negativity with faith in god and with love within your heart then you can not fail.

God wants all his children to be happy, healthy and live a good life, he does not want us to suffer nor to be lost in the darkness of sin. He gives us all we need to face off any enemy and to stand in the face of any storm, he planted a seed within each of us that we must cultivate. We must plant it in good soil and feed it with that which is good or positive. The only external force that can bring you happiness and positivity is God. He can work from within you and through those around you as well. Even an enemy can be a messenger or a finger-pointing the way, God will approach you in every he can to get you to see truth and to feel his love. Jesus taught us to be non violent, to love one another, to forgive and to be compassionate. All positive emotions and actions, all part of the path of righteousness. To judge is not our part to play, and to turn any sinner away from god is a sin in its self. Be positive, Have faith, Trust in god and live life Christ like as possible.

 

Though no man or woman can be without sin, all sin can be washed by his blood except blasphemy of the spirit.

Raymond Barbier

Open your eyes to see the light, open your ears to the truth


LP_product_c A man can go through his whole life feeling as is he has been walking alone. He never sees or hears the one that walks beside him. Never questioning the times he fell and he felt some one catching him and helping him up. Unaware of the many miles that he has been carried and blind to the truth before his own eyes. Looking for signs everywhere only to look past the sign right before him. Such blindness mankind suffers at times, always looking for the complicated answers when it’s the simple truth that he needs.  All his life Jesus walked beside him, many words have been spoken but not heard by him and he has been saved along with carried by Christ but unaware it was so.  Christ walks with us all and god is always with his children, it is our choice to ignore him or to embrace him. Freewill is a gift God gave us and with it we must make our own choices.

Open your eyes to see the light, open your ears to the truth and your heart to his love.

God Bless
Raymond Barbier

Letting Go , Letting God and The Magnitude of God’s Love


Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber ...
Image via Wikipedia

I have noticed that letting go is one of the hardest actions to perform, be it letting go of your mistakes in the past or the mistakes of others. I find it so much easier to forgive others than to forgive myself for the mistakes and poor choices made in the past. Seems I am harder on my own self than on those I know and care for. Don’t get me wrong I can be a butt head sometimes to others but in general I have the live and let live attitude. Even when I am able to forgive myself for the wrongs I had committed it still takes a long time for me to forget and let it go.

Though I know my mother wasn’t the first to coin the phrase let go and let God but she is the first one that told me that. Letting God take it all is easy only if I can let it all go, I know in God’s hands I am safe but still I find letting it go hard. Slowly but surely I am learning to turn over my fears, desires, doubts and the mistakes of my past to the will and love of God. As I do the past becomes just that and it is no longer having the influence it used to over my present. The grace of God is what helps me let go of the things I can’t seem to let go of and his love and mercy helps me get through this harsh world we all live in.

We all sin, we all fall short of the glory of God, But through his son Jesus we are granted  a pardon for our sins and through such grace we are shown the magnitude of God’s love. Jesus tried to teach us to love one another, to share each others burdens and to avoid being judgmental. Compassion not only towards family and friends but even those we see as enemies. He tried to show us a more enlightened path as well as a more humane way of existence. He loved us and believed in our potential enough to die and save us from the sinful nature within us all. He set an example for us to follow both in his teachings and in how he lived his life.

May God bless you all and the Light of truth guide you on your life’s journey
Raymond Barbier