God’s Work: Deliverance

In this time that we are living of staying home orders due to COVID-19, social distancing and wearing mask, a new norm has surfaced in the U.S. that is affecting everyone. In the isolation of our homes, it has given many people pause to reflect on life and for me it has been a time of reflection but more of purification.

To use the word purification is appropriate because it’s a word that has the meaning of being a process that removes what is contaminated and making it clean. Wow that’s a strong definition to compare to my life to because on the outside my life isn’t contaminated based on the fact of my right living as a Christian woman but what is contaminating within me is the problem. Jesus calls us to be right with Him mind, body and soul and if I’m honest with myself I have a lot of cleaning up to do from within.

As I continue to walk with the Lord, my eyes are opened more and more each day so much so that I’m now ready to be honest with myself about what needs to be cleaned. Deliverance is a very important part to the spiritual walk with God but in order to be delivered, we must know what needs to be delivered or removed. In my own strength I do not have the capacity to remove all that is unclean in me but with God by my side, I am able.

This time of COVID living is serving different purposes for different people and for me it’s serving as a means to an end that is a time of reflection that ultimately frees me from what binds me within.

Summer Sabbatical:Change, change and more change

Wow it has been several years since I've last written in my blog and lots has happened since. First things first though, I have missed writing in my blog. I have missed sharing my thoughts and feelings about anything and everything that had touched my life; I have missed exploring those areas of my life that had caused me great pain and hurt and being able to come to terms with resolute outcomes of those experiences. Instead, for the past several years, all of my writings have been dedicated and used in pursuit of the Masters Degree at Lancaster Bible College but God knowing the passion that I have for freely expressing my deepest insights, thoughts and feelings in writing, He has once again given me the opportunity to start up my blog again this summer so that I can share how different life is for me today since the last time I've written in my blog. 

The only word that I can use to express my life since my last blog entry in 2015 is change! Change has affected every aspect of my life and at the center of that change has been a greater understanding and spiritual maturity in my relationship with God. If you've read any of my blog entries, my relationship with God goes way back and can be compared or likened to Erikson's stages of growth into adulthood. In hind sight, it's amazing how God has been slowly but surely chipping away at those "blind spot" areas of my life and has opened my eyes to the truth that can only be found in Him. 

This summer I will explore those areas of change in detail with the hope of sharing with you the ability of living in this world with a freedom that brings inner peace and outward joy. I never thought that I would find such stillness in my life but let's not get it twisted, it comes with a price. With these changes, I have learned that to live in this world with peace and joy requires hard work of "choosing" the truth found in Jesus, the Word, and renouncing, giving up and even surrendering my will that is my actions rooted in assumptions, biases and pre-conceived ideas of what life is "supposed" to be. 

I look forward to taking this journey with you this summer and I pray that the Lord use these words to spark thought and insight into your own life so you too can experience those changes that will be bring you rest that is inner peace that's expressed outwardly with joy. 

To God only be the Glory! 

PS: As we journey together, please feel free to express your thoughts as well. There may be a word from you for me as well. I love the expression that it takes a village to raise children so too I believe that it takes a community for us to grow and mature in the Spirit.  

 

   

From Creation to New Life: Who are we?

From Creation to New Life: Who are we?: Identity is the most important aspect of our humanity because it’s at the basis of real human peacefulness and freedom. It’s been said t...

Who are we?

Identity is the most important aspect of our humanity because it’s at the basis of real human peacefulness and freedom. It’s been said that happiness doesn’t exist on this earth because it’s an experience that’s transitory in that it provides us with passing moments of emotional pleasure.

On the flip side of that coin, what is possible to experience in our humanity is a real sense of peace and freedom that only comes from living the truth about ourselves. Living with the knowledge and wisdom of truth enables us to be at peace within ourselves moment by moment so even when someone thwarts or plots against us, we cannot react because we have the peace and freedom of truth that keeps us planted firmly. Once truth is discovered then life comes together as the pieces of a puzzle.

The ultimate truth that is innate in us is God. As the Creator of life, we are given the gift of grace to see Him as the ultimate truth and when we believe and accept Him in our life, He provides for us to help us grow to know more and more about Him within the scope of our humanity. Our identity is part of God’s creative order thus without understanding who we are, we are not able to understand our purpose in life from the perspective of the world in which we live in nor are we able to understand the people around us.

 Thomas Merton stated it so perfectly “others can give you a name or a number, but they can never tell you who you really are. That is something you yourself can only discover from within.” [1]

So I ask myself … who is Brenda Diaz?

As a child, I was a girl whose family environment had taught me to hide behind negative feelings because if they were expressed, I was to be made to feel “guilty” for those feelings thus the outcome of that family experience is that of division and disconnection.

Now as a woman of God, I have been blessed to have been able to see the truth in my family situation and because I have made the conscious decision to accept its brokenness, I have found freedom from it emotionally. We cannot change the family dynamics but what we can do is to find freedom from its dysfunction by choosing the truth that’s found in the Lord.   

As a young woman, I had searched for truth in all the wrong places but always within me I battled between right and wrong. I understand now that that battle I waged, came from God who from the moment of my conception, had chosen me to love Him as His elect.    

As an adult, I know the power of sin. For many years, sin had ruled my mind, heart and actions but truth always trumped my deviant behavior; then the day came when I consciously choose to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and that’s when I was saved and delivered. The battle of sin continues everyday but the difference is that I now consciously choose to do His Will making those battles stronger because I’m no longer in ignorance of wickedness but through the blood of Jesus, I am given the power and authority to rebuke the devil and fight my spiritual warfare! Oh the power in the name of Jesus!

SOLI DEO GLORIA!  

 

 

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[1] Merton, Thomas. No Man is an Island. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing. 1983. Print

From Creation to New Life: Salt of the Earth

From Creation to New Life: Salt of the Earth: Matthew 5:13   “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good fo...

Salt of the Earth

Matthew 5:13
 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."

The definition of salt paraphrased is a substance used for seasoning (flavor) and preserving food so what does it mean that we are the salt of the earth?

We were created to bring our own uniqueness to this world as a means of preserving God's plan and purpose for our life here on earth. Being unique denotes distinct; only one of a kind and that's what flavor does with food ...it creates a one of a kind taste that no other food has replicated; therefore being the salt of the earth is allowing God to show Himself by way of all His characteristics through us His beloved creation. 

So if the salt loses its taste what happens? The taste become usual ... the same so if the world is filled with individuals who are the same then it loses all those elements that make up humanity's purpose ...ultimately its ability to reveal God as poor in spirit, meek, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers, all qualities that God has created in the uniqueness of humanity. 

Once an individual loses its uniqueness, the road back to restoration is a hard climb back up but we are encouraged that Jesus' redemptive work has given us the authority to rebuke the devil's deceptive schemes and thus re-direct us to restoration of our plan and purpose which is ultimately to praise and glorify Our Creation, Redeemer and Sanctifier, Jehovah Elohim. 

And yet, if the individual choose to remain lost and allow the enemy to deceive them then they will "no longer be good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."

I want to the salt of the earth only to praise and glorify you, O God!!! 
I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen 

Awakened

Being born and raise within a Catholic family environment, God has always been a part of my life. I received formal education from the Catholic school system from grade school to college. Being Catholic for so many years, I understood God as judge and jury and that through long litanies of prayers and the rituals of sacraments, I would be able to be made right …justified in God’s eyes. When I became an adult, according to the Catholic faith, sin in my life represented that I was no longer able to receive the sacraments thus I felt unworthy in God’s eyes. Sunday church was the worst because if I didn’t walk down that aisle for communion, I felt all eyes were on me as if I was being judged by the whole community which deepened the feeling of guilt that I had with God. And yet, throughout all that time, deep down inside I believed that no matter how terrible of a sinner I was,  that God still loved me (as ironic as that sounds). The doctrine of justification by way of my Catholic experience can only be compared to a mice running in circles with no end in that no matter how strongly intended I was to be righteous in God’s eye, I was always faced with the reality of my sinful nature and how I could never measure up.

In hind sight, I believe that God had a calling unto my life and connecting to an evangelical church completely changed things around for me. In the past 5 years, I’ve learned so much about the Lord (and most especially myself) within an evangelical church than I did in 30 years within the Catholic religion. Learning the doctrine of justification within my own church allowed me to understand the love of God for all of His creation and allowed me to accept His call in my life, convert, repent and finally feel the blessing of living a life of righteousness and truth. As Erickson states “he (Jesus) saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Erickson, Christian Theology, pg. 873).  My theological understanding of the doctrine of justification has left me even more humbled and committed to a life of prayer, fasting and the Word. I feel exactly as Erickson stated “justification is God’s action pronouncing sinners righteous in his sight. We have been forgiven and declared to have fulfilled all that God’s law requires of us.” (Erickson, Christian Theology, pg. 883)

All Praise and Glory to you, My God!