Tag Archives: Evangelism

Put away those excuses for they are weightless and empty.

p10213God is calling his people, Jesus is pointing the way. Answer the call to compassion, the call for forgiveness and for love. Be the loving, compassionate person God has planed for you to be. Stop letting the ways of the world keep you from your potential and put away those excuses for they are weightless and empty. Make time to be the dad, mom, brother, sister, child and friend you are supposed to be in Christ. Do your best to be what God has set before you to be. Be the teacher, preacher, advisor, thinker and/or healer he has prepared you to be.

God has set plans for your life and so have you. Are your plans compatible with God’s? If not then better make new plans and follow God’s Will.

Ray Barbier

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be their helpers in every way possible

MP900427738  Helping those who are in need and that are unable to help themselves is not only feeding, clothing, housing or caring for their physical needs it is also caring for their spiritual and emotional needs as well. We are supposed to be their helpers in every way possible. We are to be their best friend, mentor, brother / sister and so on. They are fellow human beings and fellow children of God so they are a part of our great extended family through God and Christ. It all boils down to having and giving the same kind of love God and Jesus has given us. We should take care of each other as if we were family, we shouldn’t see others as separate from our family in Christ. Christ taught compassion towards all people, regardless of race, sex and even religion. How are we to win the hearts of those who don’t know Christ if we shun them for believing differently. That just closes the doors to their hearts and minds to us and to Christ as well.

 We are supposed to be good examples of both God and  Jesus’s  love and their mercy not Judgmental and hurtful.

Ray Barbier

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we can not achieve perfection by any means

2Perfection, something many strive for but none truly ever reach. The illusion that we can achieve some form of perfection is nothing but a vicious trap. The more we work to be perfect the more we seem to find fault in ourselves. There is no man or woman who can achieve perfection and to try is to waste precious time and energy. We can achieve great and miraculous things but we will have many mistakes involved in the process. Mistakes and faults are what makes us who and what we are for through them we learn and grow spiritually. I believe many are perfectionists out of their fear of failure or some kind of desire to be accepted. Many overachievers and perfectionist are driven by the dreams and expectations of their parents, partners and peers. They haven’t realized that the only dreams and expectations they need to worry about is their own. God has given each of us talents and gifts and a purpose for them. We should be concerned about What god wants and set goals by what we know we can achieve. To set too low or too high of goals for our abilities is only setting us up for either failure or wasting of the talents and gifts God has given us.

Through God and Jesus we can achieve anything that is within the will of God. God knows we are not perfect and that we can not achieve perfection by any means on our own. So why should we expect perfection of ourselves or others if God doesn’t expect it of any of his children? God only expects us to do our best and to do it for his glory. So give up on perfection and embrace the idea of doing the best you can and for the Glory of God. In the end God and Jesus are the ones that matter the most in life.

 The hardest part of following God’s Will is the part where we have to surrender our will and give up our own selfish desires. Putting God before everyone and everything else.

Ray Barbier.

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how much a blessing it is to have life

020Yet another morning is beginning and another night has come to a close,I made it through another day of life and I have blessed with another day of life. Sometimes we forget how much a blessing it is to have life, without it nothing else would matter because you wouldn’t exist. Life is a wonderful and wondrous gift god gave humanity, he gave us the ability to create or destroy, to love or hate and to follow our will or his. He gave us life and the freedom to choose how we live it and for whom we live it as well.

So we should show thanks each morning for another day of life and give thanks in the evening for that day we were blessed to live.

God gave humanity life, freewill and salvation. We have the choice to accept salvation and to follow his will or not. Thankful I am he gave me the life and the freedom to choose how I live it.

Ray Barbier

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We become self-absorbed and immersed in the hustle and bustle

p10027 Sometimes we get way too wrapped up in everyday life and it makes it hard to remember that there are other people out there around us. We become self-absorbed and immersed in the hustle and bustle of the fast paced world around us. We forget to either say or show how we feel to those that matter the most to us. We tend to take those same people for granted because we are too engulfed by our busy and stressful life. When we allow work, bills and everyday situations to distract us from enjoying time with those we care about and take us away from our spiritual feeding we become very stressed and weaker in mind. We need rest from the world and we need refuge from all of its stress. Jesus and God are our first refuge and our family and friends are our second refuge. We need to make time for God, Jesus, family and friends. We need to turn off the world in our mind and turn on the heart and make the time we share with God, Jesus, Family and Friends Quality Time.

The bills,our Job and all the stress will be there after we are finished spending quality time with those that matter. We will be more at peace, recharged and ready to face it after spending that quality time. Once we learn to get our priorities straight, life will be a little easier to deal with. God is the source of all our power and Jesus is the source of our healing. Friends and family are the source of our peace of mind for they are both blessings and gifts from god. We still need a little time to our selves to reflect upon the day and to center our selves.

God is the foundation, Jesus is the blueprint and our family and friends are like the building materials.
Ray Barbier

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.

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Being Content With What You Have

3rd quarter of 16th century

I feel so happy, with what the Lord has given me. He has given me so much more than what i deserve. He has given me salvation, through His precious Son, Jesus. He has given me family, and friends. He has given me a roof, over my head. He has given me food, to eat. He has provided for all my needs, and given me many blessings. He has also made my cup of joy, runneth over! I have been blessed with contentment. So much so, that it makes my heart sing!

When i was young,…like most young people,…i thought i needed “things”, to be happy. Through the years,…i found what true happiness meant,…and it was certainly not about “things”. It is about being loved, and cared for by my Savior, and loved by precious family, and friends. Family, and friends, are our treasures God gives to us. It makes our lives so full! It makes me cry sometimes, because i feel so happy! So many gifts that the Lord, gives to us.

My life is not perfect,…there are still struggles along the road of life,…but i truly could not ask, for more than i have now. When you have been given the very best,…what more COULD you ask for? I thank, and praise God’s holy name, for being happy and content with all that i have!

 

 

Family, and friends, are our treasures God gives to us.

Cathy Ann Adams

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My Mother once told me, My Dad taught me

The Transfiguration Lodovico Carracci 1594

My Dad taught me to love everybody without judging them, he taught me that even if someone is a sinner or is different that they too are human and deserve love as well as respect. I may not agree with the choices a lot of my friends make but I still love them for the beautiful people they are inside. God is the only judge far as I am concerned and no man or woman has a right to judge another. This is not referring to the court system for we do need law and order or the strong would prey on the weak.  I have learned on my own that being a man is not being macho or being in control, to be a man is to be kind, compassionate and to try to live a respectful life. Forgiveness is another thing I give easily but sometimes it is easy to forgive but hard to forget. Usually it is my own mistakes I have a hard time forgetting but that’s where Letting Go and Letting God comes into play once again.  God gave me not a spirit of fear, though I fight the fear the world taught me. God gave me the power and a sound mind and I try to remind myself of that daily.

May you forgive an forget, may you let go and let God.
May you embrace the spirit of power and of sound mind god gave you.
Raymond Barbier

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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

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

Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber ... 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

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It’s your choice and your life So Live well

The Ladder of Divine Ascent or The Ladder of P...

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Some people can bring out the demons within us all.
Some people know the right buttons to push to get us upset.
Some people are never happy and want everyone else miserable with them.

Some demons we carry within can be expelled and or transformed.
Some demons we carry within are reflections of our life.
Some demons we carry within are not of our own making.

Some thoughts we think can change our lives.
Some thoughts we think can destroy us from within
Some thoughts we think can become reality while others will remain fantasy.

Some People bring out the best within us all.
Some People Know how to make your Day.
Some people are always full of hope and joy and spread it freely.

Some paths can lead us to hell
Some paths can go in Circles
Some paths can lead us to Heaven

We can choose which people we associate with.
We can challenge the demons within and win.
We can choose the thoughts we think.
We do choose the path we follow.

So which ones will you choose?
It’s your choice and your life So Live well

May God Bless you all…

Raymond Barbier

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