Tag: Religion and Spirituality

Posted on

There is no guarantee we have tomorrow


jesus-christ-0206 Too many times we take those we love for granted, expect them to be there tomorrow and forget to show them how much we need, love and care about them. There is no guarantee we have tomorrow so we should show how much people mean to us today, we should never put off something as important as how we feel for one another till another day. God gave us the ability to love, care for and to help one another and we should use those gifts daily. We need to learn how to put our self and our ego’s behind us so that we can fully show our love and compassion for others.

We should live our lives, love others and be the best we can be for God and Jesus each day.

Raymond Barbier

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

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

Related articles
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

You and you alone are responsible for your actions


viddark2SMALLYou can make your own choices and decisions or you can be a victim to the will and desires of others. Even when you surrender to the will of others you are responsible for the outcome of your life and behavior. You and you alone are responsible for your actions, words and the influence you have on the world you live in.

charie4The only will I would surrender mine to is that of our creator and his son, for they wouldn’t lead me astray. But even when you surrender your will to God’s you still can choose things wrongly because your own will still exists within you and tends to try to take control from time to time. This is why you should be ever aware of your actions and words so you do not make poor choices that influence or affect you or others negatively.

time

Regardless of your religious / spiritual beliefs or if you even believe or not, you are responsible for your own actions and words. Therefore you will pay in one form or another for all that you do within your life.  Life has a funny way of bringing back to you the fruits of your labor, the things you do will come back to haunt or to reward you within your lifetime.

Just some Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Half awake and Half Baked Ideas on a Saturday morning


p10110Sometimes you have to get over your self, you have to put behind you the Ego you have accumulated through your lifetime in order to move on and find the real you that is buried deep beneath. We have two or more personalities, our mind creates many variations of our persona to deal with the multitude of different experiences and situations we had in our life. They connect to the core personality which is the real you, they are like extensions or sub programs made to make it easier to deal with the experiences in life. The problem is through time our situations change and those old sub programs / sub personalities are still there. It is hard for the mind to adapt an old persona and sometimes old values and old ways of dealing with things are no longer viable or acceptable. That is why we need to learn to strip ourselves of the other personalities or facets of our ego so we can start fresh and create a better version of who we are perceived as by others.

tpl0016 We all hide behind the many masks we have created through life, we rarely see our true self because the masks are our self-created filters and defense  mechanism. Most of us  will always have masks, but some masks need to be thrown away in order to make newer and improved ones.  Those of us who are brave and strong enough may be able to walk unmasked in this world, those are the ones that become visionaries, healers, spiritual teachers and bringers of great change in the world.

Half awake and Half Baked Ideas on a Saturday morning

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Just some Thoughts on a Friday night 9-21-12


026Smile, be at peace with yourself, your family, your friends and even those who choose to be your enemies. For we all are human and are prone to be imperfect in thought, emotion and action. We all have problems and we all have our shortcomings as well. We should remember how hard life is for ourselves when we look at others and begin to judge. For the bible teaches how we judge others is how we too will be judged in the end time. So if you must judge do so with compassion, understanding and mercy. It is so easy to point a finger or cast blame on others especially when it keeps your own faults hidden.

Worry not about what others think about you, say about you or try to accuse you of. Just worry about your words, actions and how you treat others. For what is truth always is revealed and you will be remembered by how you treat others.

just some Thoughts on a Friday night

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

we are the masters of our own thought, actions, words and emotions


65241To be happy one has to learn not to worry and stress over the things that we can not change. We should only worry over the things we have control over and change them if we are able. The things out of our control are going to be what they are destined to be so no reason to fret or worry over them. Those are the things we leave in the hands of God and have faith that he will take care of them or help us through them. Life is far less complicated than we humans make it out to be. We complicate our lives by over thinking situations and overreacting to circumstances. We should learn to be a little more carefree and definitely a lot less stressed out.  We need to learn happiness or the lack of happiness is all in our own hands. No one but our own selves controls if we are happy or not, it’s all within our own perception and our reaction to reality that makes happiness and/or any other emotion. We choose how we feel in reaction to the circumstances around us, no one else can choose for us how we feel. Others only can throw things at us we tend to react negatively to and from there we choose to be sad, angry, happy or even indifferent.  Though a lot of our reactions to external stimuli are programmed in us from our youth we can change the programming so we react differently. The bottom line is that we are the masters of our own thought, actions, words and emotions and we alone can choose to be happy or not.

 

Ray Barbier

Related articles
Posted on

Writing, The Gift of Freewill and our path in life.


006 Ever since I was a kid I loved to write songs, poetry and even some philosophy. I do not know what drove my mind to be so contemplative but it has been that way all my life. Some of it was probably my low self-esteem  or poor self-image I have had to battle throughout my life. Some of it was from my disappointment in how our world works, the unfairness and the lack of balance this world has. A lot of it was the hopefulness within my inner self. I have always sought out the silver lining in every situation and for the most part I still do. With age comes wisdom but also age brings cynicism and doubtfulness. Don’t understand why but the older I get the harder it is to keep the positive attitude and hopefulness within me alive. it could be the fact as we grow older we face our own mortality and therefore we become bitter or jaded because we think we have been cheated in life somehow. This of course isn’t true, we were the ones who chose the path we have been on and how and what life brought to us up to this day. There are some things that we didn’t have any choice on in life but for the most part we are what we made ourselves to be. So being bitter or feeling jaded in the end is nothing but self-pity and useless. We can always change our path, our minds and our life if we put our heart and soul into it. We can’t undo the past but we can make us a new destination and path to walk as well. This is the gift of freewill God has given humanity, we have the freedom to choose and the option to allow his will to guide our choices as well.

Writing is the expression of my heart, soul and mind. It is the sum of what I feel, think and believe. It is like a map to my future that changes and grows with each word I type and eventually it will become the signposts I had left behind for others to follow and/or view. It is my freewill being expressed through my thoughts and emotions.

We only have a short time on earth to experience all its wonders and to find our true path in life. We should be kind to others and seek out harmony with all life and walk our path we have chosen in peace.

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
Website Built with WordPress.com.