~Deception~

John 10:10-11

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

I talked to the kids in children's church this past Sunday about the way Satan deceives us and tries to put constant fear in us, how he wants us to become weak from that fear so he can have control over us and cause our minds to become clouded with fear!

All Satan wants for us is to take us down with him but we don't have to settle for that fate, we have authority over him in Jesus name! There is power in that name!

Halloween is just a few days away and there are a lot of things out there that are scary, I don't know about you but I've never been too crazy about being scared out of my mind!
But lucky for us because of Jesus..we don't have to be afraid of anything!
I want you to remember that this week and realize that because of Jesus..we don't have to surrender to that fear, it has no hold on us! Because of Jesus we don't have to allow that fear to cripple us anymore!

Psalms 23:4

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.”

~Dani

~To Love and To Be Loved~

There are many in this world nowadays who have misconceptions of what it means to love someone.
For some reason many are receiving instead of giving like they should be doing, it seems like there are too many around these days who want to know what's in it for them instead of wondering what they can do for the person beside them.

The reason why so many relationships end in this day in age is because we have lost our love for people, we no longer use our social skills and we don't have meaningful conversation but instead we think only about gaining things for our own selfish pleasure and we don't develop a deeper relationship but want to skip past getting to know someone from the inside out..now all that is desired is to get to know someone by skipping the bases and making it all the way to third base but we no longer make it to the home plate  because in this world it's not about making a beautiful family life in a lovely home anymore..it's about getting everything you can out of someone and then walking away when you think they are getting "Too Serious" or they are getting "Too Close" and that scares many nowadays!
The American Dream isn't the same anymore and our world isn't safe like it once was because we have put so much sin and evil into it!
We have done it to this world, we have corrupted it with sin and now the innocent children are having to deal with it! But what do we do? Nothing.
We just close our eyes to the fact that we are the problem and if we only realized it..we could change this world for the better!
Unless we surrender and admit that we have sinned and unless we turn to God once more.. our society, our schools and yes, even our churches will continue to dig deeper into the things of this world and instead of changing..we have suddenly decided to accept things of sinful nature in our homes, schools and even behind church walls and that means that we have welcomed it into our sanctuaries and that means that there isn't a refuge to run to if we don't stop it from happening! Without that refuge..there can be no peace and one thing is for certain..sin causes us to lose our peace and not only that..it also causes us to lose sight of our dreams as well!
We have to return to God, we have to get on our knees again in prayer, we have to remember where we came from, not only for ourselves but think about the innocent children out there who are having to live inside the world that you have shaped around them!
Do it for the benefit of a better world for your future family, because like it or not..what you do today will effect them also, if you don't realize that what you're doing is wrong and start getting involved in church again!
Take control of your life now so something bad doesn't take root in your heart and control your life for you!
If you'll surrender everything to God..Then God will give you everything that you'll ever need and most of all you'll have peace in your life and a smile on your face even when bad days come..because you'll have the joy from the Lord that no one can ever take away!
This verse reminded me of the world we live in and how we need to choose God once more because we know that we cannot survive without him leading us in every area of our lives!

Joshua 24:14-16
“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods!”

~Dani

~Don't waste your time..~

Have you ever stopped and wondered what your purpose was?
The fact is that if you have to stop and wonder about it..you probably haven't discovered what that is yet.

First of all, We were made to worship.. so if we aren't worshipping our very creator..then what are we doing?
The answer is..we are wasting our time, precious time.

Second, We have a wonderful imagination..but we are filling it up with things like porn and things that we see with our eyes instead of seeing with our hearts!
We try to satisfy ourselves with temporary pleasures that only feel good or look good for a season but when they fade away we wonder what we are missing in our lives..But what do we do? We go back to the porn and all the temporary fills that brought us to that place more than once in our lives and instead of changing..we remain the same and we refuse to admit that it's us that's the problem and that our hearts need to change!

What is wrong with us? We are starting to waste away, we no longer apply the bible to how our lives should be, but instead we go on reading the verses that we are "okay" with and refuse to apply the whole word of God toward changing our lives for the better simply because we are afraid to be different and to be separated from the ideals and temporary fills of this world!

What would happen if we gave God our all? How many more people would we help! If only we'd admit that we want to change into something better..we would also understand that we can do anything with God and we could benefit others around us by walking in His truth! We could shake this world and wake it up to realize that they need Jesus!
Our vision would be clearer and we would start to dream beautiful dreams again, if only we would surrender our minds and our eyes to God again!

Let's surrender our everything to God! Our every thought and dream so we can strive to be something better for the world to see and along the way we will bring others to salvation just from seeing our faith turned into actions!
Don't waste today, choose today to make a difference in the world by showing them the love of Christ and by showing them the difference that He's made in your life!

~Dani

~Verse of the day~

Psalms 57:9-10
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.”

~Dani

~Thank God~

Psalms 33:1-5
"The Steadfast Love of the LORD
Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
For the word of the LORD is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD."

I simply love reading from Psalms, in fact most of the inspiration that goes into my writing comes Psalms!

Today, I have a question for you.. How long has it been since you've felt an overwhelming feeling of thanksgiving unto God?
Sometimes we allow ourselves to become so busy or we allow our minds to overly focus on the negative places in our lives instead of focusing on the good things in our lives!
Don't do that! Don't allow your focus to become clouded by all of life's negatives, No matter how hard it may seem..it could be that God is the one holding onto the very last string keeping that situation from being much worse than it is! I know it's hard..believe me, I know! But God is there holding you together from falling completely apart and He is not going to abandon you! There may be times that you have walked away from God or even that you've walked away from His will but God didn't give up on you because He loves you and He knows your heart!

So, no matter what you're facing, no matter who you are dealing with, no matter what you're fighting through, no matter how hopeless it may feel..God is with you and He isn't going to leave you! No matter what..Have faith and that's what will get you through ANYTHING in this life! Don't ever give up..keep going and always thank Him for the good things purposed for your life..it's on it's way!

~Dani

~Verse of the day~

Colossians 3:14-15
“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”

~Dani

~What am I not seeing?~

Many times as Christians we simply "miss it" or we "overlook" things because it wasn't at the time that we were expecting it to appear but worse than that many times we forget to close our eyes and see what God thinks, instead we somehow think that we know ourselves better than our creator and that's how we miss out on so many things!

What if we could have a dream like Mr. Scrooge and see all the moments that we have missed along the way? Would we still think the same way or would we suddenly have a change of heart like that of Mr. Scrooge's change of perspective on life!
God could give us dreams like that but the reason why He doesn't do it very often is because He is simply testing us, seeing if we are going to listen to His voice or that nudge from Him.
But when we don't..most of the time that was our only chance!

We ask so many times "God show me a sign.." But why is it that when it comes our way we don't realize it and we allow our heart to become hardened to it?
If we would only allow God to put things in our path more often, we wouldn't miss out on so much in this life!

Let's make a commitment to listen more this year, to not focus so much on the outer things but to look at the core of things instead! God's love is deep, so why do we always try to find something beautiful on the outside first off when there are many much better things out there if only we would focus on the heart instead of the physical appearance of people?
Let's try to change that frame of mind this year, let's dig a little deeper, because unless we truly understand that..how can we say that we are thinking like Christ? Or maybe it's just me but It's something to get you thinking nonetheless.

1 Samuel 16:7
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

~Dani

~How far would you go?~

"How far would you go past your convictions just to be seen by this world?
Is it worth it to been seen by them if you are no longer showing them Jesus?
If it comes to a point where you are the only thing that they can see and they have to dig deep to find Christ in your life...does that mean that you're more obsessed with yourself than you are with God?"
I had these questions running through my mind today and I wanted you to ask yourself these questions as well.

~Dani

~When you can't understand~

The misunderstanding of other people's actions makes us to better understand our own actions,
it makes it all seem much more simple when we focus on the betterment of ourselves than it does trying to understand and explain the decisions and actions of those around us.
If we can somehow focus on becoming a better person everyday then that alone will lead us into our purpose and turn us into the very best that we can be!
So when you can't understand what or why your neighbor is doing things the way they are doing them..put it out of your mind, focus on what YOU need to do..focus on WHO you need to become and PRAY for your neighbor that they will have their eyes opened to those things in their life!

~Dani

~Battles:How to be an overcomer~




There are many things that we all face from time to time, some things that we feel inside ourselves are from scars of our past, some from mistakes that we've made, oftentimes we don't know why we wake up and feel a certain way..
When we don't have the words to describe the way we feel..I call those days melancholy moments.
Although we don't always have the answers for the way we are feeling, it's going to be alright,
I know how it feels to be in a place of silence where you simply cannot explain why you are sad or sometimes we cannot tell anyone the reasons behind that sadness..it is in those times of sadness though that we reach out to God for his healing!
When we cannot speak,
when we need comfort!
King David had many moments in the bible when he felt so overwhelmed that he would cry out to God in such urgency and distress!
You are not alone in this feeling! Everyone has a battle going on,
one that can only be won when you realize that you need help to make it through!
It's okay to have days when you're not okay..just don't close yourself off when someone wants to be there for you!
If you need to be alone however that is fine too..just find the best way that fits you and when you begin to feel sad out of nowhere again..go to your place of refuge and most of all give that to God and just let go of it all!
God is there at all times and when no one is available to offer help to you..reach out to God and he will comfort you!
There are also times when you are hurting that God will send someone to offer you help..don't push them away when they come to your aid!
It's hard sometimes to talk at first but once you do..the pain oftentimes subsides and you can smile again!
I feel like this may help someone else, so I feel that it's time for me to tell you something about myself..
I am the kind of person that is happy most of the time, but with that being said..it's not easy because I still have battles going on from time to time,
Like admitting when I'm hurting and I need help, I don't want anyone else's day to be ruined just hearing about something I've gone through that day so there have been many times when I just dismissed my problems because I wanted to make others around me smile but that's the hard thing about being an optimist is that oftentimes we will ignore our pain and problems or even put off our sadness because we want to somehow reject the feelings inside us at that moment!
I've realized that I don't want to live that way through the years, I've realized that it's not worth it to pretend that everything is "fine and dandy" when in reality..you are everything but "okay"
I've realized that everyone needs someone at some point and it doesn't make you weak..it makes you grow and people admire you more for being honest about what you're going through..it brings people closer together and allows you to have a deeper desire to reach out to help others as well!
Talking about your pain doesn't make you inferior to anyone..on the contrary, it allows people to relate to you and come to realize the reason behind why you choose to smile and serve the Lord!
I cannot make it on my own..no one can and that doesn't make any of us weak..it only makes us human!
So when you are going through something..allow someone to be there for you if they want to be but if there isn't anyone..remember that God cares about your sorrow and your battles and he wants you to trust in him and to seek him until you are able to smile again!
As for the way I was feeling today, I know that the purpose was so I could write to you and offer you hope that it's going to be alright and that you are going to get through this day and the good news is that tomorrow is a new day full of hope and the joy of the Lord! Don't worry..the pain won't last forever, pain is only for a moment and someday when Jesus returns..all our tears will be wiped away! Keep looking up..God is with you even when it feels like you're alone!


Psalms 42:11
"Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God."

~Dani

~Hold us together~

Have you ever gone through something difficult in your life and you kept thinking that somehow this should be a breaking point for you but when it was coming to an end of that difficult time.. you couldn't help but to feel stronger somehow?

Well, that's God my friend! 

God comes through just when we need him to, he never fails and gives us the strength we so desperately need to make it through all of life's difficulties!

What an awesome God that we serve to have such a support system and to know without a shadow of a doubt that God is for us and not against us! That he would reach down to us when we cannot get up, that we can cry out to him when we are hurting, that we can depend on him when we are confused! Whatever we need.. he provides and he promises to never leave us!

I wanted to remind you today of his great faithfulness and his promise toward us, most importantly that he loves us and has this amazing purpose in mind for each and every one of us!

Our God is with us and he is for us! He wants us to prosper and succeed in our lives! He wants to walk with us the whole time, through all trials and storms..God is going to be there through it all if only we trust in him and we serve him!

Trust in his plan today and even though some things seem difficult right now..know that you do not walk in those things alone! God is with you through every valley and through every storm! Keep holding on to him.. just like Peter did when he was suddenly sinking! Allow God to reach down and pull you up!

Romans 8:31

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"

~Dani