Category: Abundant Life

Abundant Life

Spiritual Fads Are a Waste of Time

Karen

Breathwork, really? I guess this is the newest “fad” to try and find inner peace.

I have a theory – people are constantly searching for peace, meaning of life, purpose. I feel like “restless souls”, or people who feel the need to constantly move, whether that’s in their daily lives or physically move locations, are simply searching for … something.

I think that “something” is different for everyone and maybe most people can’t define it, but it makes me sad. So when I see videos like this one, I can’t help but roll my eyes because to me, it’s simply another “fad” where people are trying to once again, SEARCH for the elusive SOMETHING.

I believe that “something” is spiritual, in essence. People who don’t believe in a higher being, or have faith in something outside of themselves, are generally unhappy with themselves, with their lives and dissatisfied by life in general.

This is simply my opinion coming from a Christian who likes to observe people and analyze motivations. For example, why are some people into tarot cards? Or Scientology? Or witchcraft? Or any other beliefs outside Christianity? To me, the essence of those beliefs are not any more strange to believe in than the “fate” or messages from cards that a person randomly flips over, or from aliens or from a super natural power than it is to believe in a kind, loving God who started all of this by creating humans to inhabit a world He specifically made for humans. I just don’t understand – if people are willing to put so much FAITH in these alternate beliefs, then why NOT believe in God?

To me, people who participate in alternative rituals or beliefs are almost making a conscious effort NOT to believe in Christianity. As if they are saying, “Nope, I’m not believing in Christianity because it’s an old and antiquated way to believe and the majority of people are Christians and I’m enlightened and different and there MUST be something else out there that I will work hard to try and find just so I can prove EVERYONE else wrong.’

I’m not saying this to insult anyone who is not a Christian, believe what you want, it’s called free will, but as an observer of life and looking at these various “fads” and “religions” from the outside, it truly baffles me that people put so much time and effort into something other than Christianity.

What’s the end goal here? If you’re looking for peace or the meaning of life, or the purpose of YOUR life, the Bible has those answers. Are the answers not good enough? Do they not satisfy a deeply embedded need? Is it not enough? Is it too simple? Do people think it can’t surely be this simplistic and reject it to pursue new and different?

I truly want to know.

Matt talks about “hallucinogenic’ effects of breathwork whenever he would participate. Could it be simply that you’re depriving your brain of oxygen and that’s why you’re feeling this way and it has nothing to do with any spiritual experience? And the fact that he admits to feeling emotional at the retreat, where his wife was present, and not having that feeling when he tried it at home by himself. Could you have had that emotional experience because you heard your wife cry out and empathized with her struggles because you love her and that’s what we do when we love someone? Perhaps it had nothing to do with a spiritual experience and more to do with the fact that you were forced to still your mind and body and be more aware of your surroundings, your thoughts and feelings.

I think breathwork is bogus, but I do appreciate, yet again, an attempt to MAKE people stop and disconnect with technology and appreciate stillness. I think anything that makes us do that is important, especially nowadays where it’s trendy to be “busy” and “connected” through all of these crazy social media outlets.

Don’t you find it ironic that we’re more “connected” than we’ve ever been in the history of man and yet so many people are lonely, sad and unhappy?

We are more connected to “each other through electronics” but more and more people are being persuaded to get away from God because it’s not “cool” to be a Christian and you must be crazy to believe in an invisible, all-knowing, and all-powerful creator.

You don’t think there is some correlation there? Because I do.

All I’m saying is, why not forego these crazy new spiritual “fads” and desperate attempts to create something that brings people peace and fulfillment and just go back to what has been available this entire time: God?

Just a thought.

Abundant Life

Freewill Explained

Karen

This teaching touched my heart at Bible study yesterday. I feel like a lot of people don’t understand freewill and how important it is to our every day lives, not just our spiritual lives.

Freewill is REAL and it’s IMPORTANT. Don’t blame God for the things that go wrong in your life. Own your decisions, whether they are good or bad, and accept that when bad things happen, they don’t stem from a loving God, they come from a dark, evil place.

Despite what some Christian circles preach, free will does exist; God doesn’t control the clothes you wear, the food you eat, or the decisions you make, whether good or bad. He also doesn’t pick and choose who gets saved, who rebels, who accepts Jesus and who doesn’t. If He did, everyone would be saved—because, as Scripture tells us, God “wants everyone to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim. 2:4) But because He respects the freedom of man to choose, God doesn’t force salvation on anyone; this is a pretty good indication that God isn’t controlling our lives. We’re calling the shots ourselves.

God is definitely involved in people’s lives, but He isn’t dictating everything that people do. He watches us, and sometimes He intervenes—but He isn’t controlling every movement of our lives.

Abundant Life, Daily Prompts

My Life: Day Seven

Karen

I’m attempting to force myself to write in my blog every day. I’ve gotten SO BAD at keeping up these past several years and someday I’ll be dead and then what?

I’ll be gone but hopefully not forgotten. (Feel free to use these prompts for your own writing).

Today’s prompt(s):

Prayer

How the Devil Derailed Prayer

For many Christians, prayer is not as important as it should be. Many Christians only pray before meals, before bed (when they are children), or in emergency situations. The concept of “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17 – ESV) is not a part of the lives of most Christians. How did the average Christian lifestyle drift so far from what the Bible says to do? The short answer is that most Christians are taught that everything that happens is God’s will, or “God is in control,” and that even Satan (if the Christian believes in Satan), has to ask God’s permission before he can act.

We all hate meaningless work, and that includes meaningless prayer. Good, solid, powerful, focused prayer takes a lot of work, a lot of time and mental energy. No one wants to make that effort if his or her prayer does not really make a difference. Unfortunately, that is what the teaching that “God is in control” does; it teaches that our prayers really do not make much, if any difference.

If everything that happens is God’s will, then God’s will gets done whether or not anyone prays. If prayer does not change anything, then what purpose does it serve? We have been told it demonstrates a person’s humility and obedience to God’s command to pray. Also, it has been used as a punishment for sinning (such as in the Roman Catholic Church when prayers are assigned as a penance for sin). Also, it has been said to be therapeutic because confession and prayer are “good for the soul.” It has also been taught that we pray to help align our own thinking with what God is doing, and to humbly accept the will of God.

The teaching that “God is in control” has, knowingly or unknowingly, adversely affected the prayer lives of millions of Christians. Many people are not motivated to pray because they have been told that God’s will comes to pass whether they pray or do not pray, while many others do not pray throughout the day simply because they have never seen that modeled for them by other Christians. Prayer changes things dramatically, and God needs us to ask in prayer, so He tells us again and again to pray. God is willing to do His part if we will do ours. Let’s not sit around complaining about how bad the world is; let’s do something about it! God wants us to do something, and a powerful thing we can do is to pray [Source]

Do you believe in prayer? Do YOU pray? What is the purpose of prayer? Does it help? Is God even listening?

I suppose, if you’re not a Christian, or believe in a higher being, this post is not for you. But if you’re grappling, reaching for something you can’t quite put your finger on but know it’s juuuust out of reach, let me see if I can help with that.

I’ve been a Christian for a very long time. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was in middle school.

However, I haven’t always understood what Christianity is/was. And a large part of that reason is due to the chaos and confusion that Satan has bestowed on our civilization over the many 1000’s of years. The more confused people are, the further they will get from Christ and the closer they get to Satan and his evil ways.

I don’t think people purposefully set out to live evil lives, I think everyone, on some level, either consciously, or subconsciously, wants to lead a good, wholesome life. But outside influences are sometimes too hard to resist.

The media is a huge one. Everyone takes everything they read/hear as gospel truth. Oh, so-and-so said it so it MUST be true. But, this big news site wrote it so it MUST be accurate.

That’s not even close to being true. Which is why I HIGHLY recommend that people stop and ask questions. THINK for yourselves. Do not be led around by the nose like a bunch of sheeple.

But that’s a post for another day.

Loved ones, friends, “successful” people who appear to have it all together and make unwise decisions but always seem to come out on top anyway – it’s just too tempting to mirror that person’s decisions in the hopes of obtaining the same things, are outside influences. Trying to emulate these people often leads to disappointment and resentment, which only leads us down yet another wrong path.

Prayer is necessary in that it helps guides us, it helps purge our souls and cleanse our consciousness. Prayer is a line to God – He’s someone to talk to, to vent to, to ask for guidance. But just like when we’re in a crowded room, with a ton of people, all talking at once, it’s hard to hear one individual voice. So we have to continuously pray and make our voice heard.

This crowded room could be unholy decisions you’ve made, or being around someone who is influencing you and directly you down an ungodly path. It could be evil spirits purposefully blocking your voice from being heard.

The more you live outside God’s commands, the further you get from God and the less God can protect you.

I  know that sounds all “hocus-pocus” but we ARE in a spiritual battle, every day. It’s real.

Are you lost? Do you feel hopeless? Is no one listening? Do you need help? Then pray to God. There is no right or wrong way to do it, you’re having a conversation with God. Unload on God, allow him to guide you and comfort you. Pray continuously. He may not hear you right away because of all the spiritual noise surrounding you, but don’t give up, He will hear and He will answer.

I hope this post blessed you in some way.

 

 

Abundant Life, Life

Christians Rejoice, There is a Life-Size Noah’s Ark

Karen

Have you guys heard about the life-size Noah’s Ark??

If not, watch this:

ark-beyond-lake

I LOVE that there is potential for more Christian-based structures/museums/educational opportunities in their future.  I just pray it happens.

And honestly, fellow Christians out there, we need to pray for this to not only happen, but to stay open. Because if you take the time to read some of the Facebook comments, or watch videos about this project either for/against it, they will make you both sad and alarm you.

The sheer hatred for this project is astounding, though not surprising, I suppose. Would the backlash be as severe if this was a Muslim-type structure? Why is Christianity such a BAD thing to so many people?

Because the Bible said this was going to happen. Are you really surprised? Christians and Christianity will only continue to grow more and more unpopular – this is exactly what happened in Noah’s day and age. And this is exactly WHY God flooded the Earth – to get rid of the evil and start over again. Only, we won’t start over with a flood, it will be Jesus Christ coming back to save us from ourselves.

In the meantime, there will be hatred. There will be insanely opinionated people who will try their best to make you feel stupid for believing in God, who will attempt to spout all sorts of nonsense about alternative beliefs and how they are so much smarter and believable than Christianity.

To which I say? YOU’RE WASTING YOUR BREATH. Go spew your ugly, hate-filled vile words to someone who cares what you think, because I don’t. You don’t like this Ark Encounter project? DON’T GO. You want to build a monument, or some historical project museum to your spaghetti monster or god(s), be my guest. It’s still a free country (somewhat). Will I like it? No. Will I care? No. You want to bow down to false idols and kiss Satan’s ass, I guess that’s your prerogative.

And how SAD would your life be if you DIDN’T believe in a higher power or have some hope to look forward to? I can’t even imagine how lost some people feel without Jesus Christ in their hearts.

But personally, I’m REJOICING in the fact that fellow Christians had the guts to build something like this and you bet your sweet tea we will go at some point. I’m tempted to wait until they build the Temple of Babylon and the other structures mentioned in the above video, but then again, I’m afraid that if I wait too long, something will fall through and they will be forced to close Noah’s Ark. I think it would be a fun road trip though – it’s eight hours East of where we live – doable but it will definitely take some planning.

Here are some interesting facts about the structure and hypotheses on how it might have logistically worked out.

I also found it highly interesting that the creator of the Ark Encounter, Ken Ham, invited Bill Nye “the Science Guy” in for a tour and together, with their own film crews, toured the Ark and had “lively” discussions/debates with lots of “regular” folks along for the ride. I bet that was interesting as all get out. Because if you’re truly looking for the truth, then you NEED to hear all sides of an issue before coming to a foregone/logical conclusion. And maybe Mr. Ham didn’t do a good enough job of convincing some folks there about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or then again, maybe he was able to save some lost souls, who knows, but I love the fact that two sides of an issue came together, spoke their piece and there was no violence, just mutual respect for the other person’s beliefs.

I wish that would happen more often in our country, but it’s all about shutting each other up – it’s all about “free speech” and “free thinking” even though if you don’t believe the same as the people who spout this nonsense then they work very hard to belittle you and sometimes, use physical violence to bully you and silence you and your beliefs.

Yeah. That’s what “free speech” and “free thinking” is all about. It’s free as long as you think like they do, otherwise, SHUT UP, PEASANT. *snort*

There’s also a Creation Museum about 45 minutes from the Ark Encounter. If/when we go, I would like to visit that museum, too.

I LOVE that this type of stuff exists in our country, especially nowadays when Christianity has been whipped so many times in the past decade. It gives me hope that maybe it’s not as bad as the lop-sided media portrays it and that there are still believers out there not afraid to stand up and be Soldiers for Christ.

May God bless everyone, both believers and non-believers, and if you’re not a Christian, I challenge you to visit these places, find out what Christianity is about then make up your own mind – don’t listen to the naysayers and the lop-sided media, God created your mind and granted you the gift of free will, exercise those gifts and decide for yourself.

Abundant Life

The Heart is An Idol Factory

Karen

Idols – what do you think of when you read that word? Gold Academy Award statues? Stone structures that people bow down to and worship? Someone famous? Someone you look up to?

I mean sure, it’s all those things, but idols can mean anything that takes your focus, your energy away from God. I like when he talks about people’s reactions when they take something away that means something to them – I’ve seen what happens to people when you try and take something they highly value away from them – I’ve also experienced an unrealistic reaction in myself whenever we lose Internet, or something I’ve worked on doesn’t turn out the way I think it should.

For example, our boys. There was a time period when they were doing poorly in school, all they wanted to do was focus on their video games. We took their video games and computers away from them with the stipulation that they could get all of those things back after they brought their grades back up to an acceptable level. It was HARD. I felt so MEAN. And the boys HATED MY GUTS for about two months. But you know what? They brought their grades back up and they never allowed themselves to fall into that trap again.

But what I found most disturbing was their utter devastation when we took their stuff away from them. I had destroyed their worlds. They walked around like zombies for DAYS after we took their stuff – they simply didn’t know what to do with themselves when their entire (virtual) world was taken from them.

We had LONG talks about becoming obsessed with things, with STUFF, and the importance of forcing yourself to step back, take a breath and a break and to rejoin the human race.

They are both still very heavy into their virtual worlds today, but they aren’t quite AS obsessed as they were when they were younger. I would like to think some of our lectures sunk in but it’s most likely they have matured and grown and realized they have to participate in real life if they want to make a living and/or possibly, maybe, hopefully, some day acquire girlfriends/wives.

I find myself at an absolute loss when the power goes out and we lose Internet connection. I’m not into games like the boys, but I am pretty obsessed with my computer. I love to watch YouTube videos and spend an unhealthy amount of time watching videos. I do it for a few reasons: I like to shut my brain off and simply EXIST for a bit without having to think, two, they are entertaining and make me laugh and three, I love to people watch and watching videos is the perfect people-watching activity without coming off as creepy. lol

I have to FORCE myself to shut off my monitor and step away from my computer so I can get my chores done, cook dinners for my family, spend time with my family.

And that bothers me – when you have to FORCE yourself to stop doing something that’s a pretty good sign that that thing has taken on far more importance in your life than it should.

I’m a person who likes to be in complete control of my life and when I realize that some new hobby, or event, or activity has control over me, the stubborn part of me jumps out and I MAKE myself either stop doing that hobby, event, or activity or at least stop participating as often. It’s just not healthy to put all of your energies into one or two things.

Especially when it takes your time and focus away from God. Nothing is more important than God and if you can sit there and honestly list things that you do that takes your attention/focus/time away from God, then it’s time to reassess your priorities.

*Update: I found out today that the boys have been without Internet for four days now. Apparently, their Internet provider got struck by lightening and they lost their server, or whatever Internet providers have/do. I was surprised the boys were without Internet for so long and not over at our house mooching off our connection. In fact, when they came over for Sunday dinner, they both seemed very calm about the whole thing – accepting, in fact. I’m weirdly proud of them because to me, this means they are growing up.

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

Thanks for watching.

Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:

Truth or Tradition Website
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iTunes
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Abundant Life

Heart Disease is a World-Wide Problem

Karen

“The prescription for heart disease is to love the way God intends us to love. Heart disease, the lack of love, causes us to be cold hearted, hard hearted.”

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39 NIV

God asks you to love Him with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL your strength – do not put your faith in idols, tokens that you assign meaning to – like a lucky rabbit’s foot, or a lucky hat, or choosing to put all of your energy into a video game, or a relationship … anything that takes your focus away from God.

This is why I have dedicated Sundays to God on this blog – to force myself to take a step back from my personal life, my work life, my hobbies, my distractions and remind myself there is a bigger picture here – and it’s wonderful, and loving and gives me hope, especially when bad things happen, like wild animals attacking small children.

Your happiness, your peace of mind, starts with your heart. What do you believe? How compassionate are you? Do you stop and make yourself see the other side to a story? Do you try and put yourself in the other person’s shoes for a minute?

Having the ability to empathize with people goes A LONG WAY toward feeling more compassionate about your fellow man.

So I ask you, take a moment and examine your heart. If you’re not happy, if you have little peace in your life, look to God. He’s there waiting for you to reach out to him. What do you have to lose by trying?

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

Thanks for watching.

Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:

Truth or Tradition Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
iTunes
Online Store

More from Write From Karen

Abundant Life

God is Love and Sacrificed His Son for Atonement

Karen

This teaching is a little more technical, if you will. John explains how Romans 3:25 has mistranslated propitiation: appeasement of an angry God should actually be translated into atonement – which means bring taking two entities and making them one. It’s a better translation and depicts God as a loving God, not as an angry, wrathful God, which is how many people think of God nowadays.

That thinking/assumption is incorrect.

It’s a great teaching on how God is love and wants to love you, if only you will allow him.

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

Thanks for watching.

Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:

Truth or Tradition Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
iTunes
Online Store

More from Write From Karen