Blessed Magazine October/November, 2015

October/November, 2015

M A G A Z I N E

When You’ve Destroyed a Life

Seeking the Advice of Demons Go Ahead: Defy God and See What Happens

How to Get God’s Attention

The Best Kept Secret For Healthy Hair, Radiant Skin and Strong Nails Spiritual Growth: What’s Holding You Back?

Diane Waltman (My Story)

25 Best Hair Tips Ever

Southern Recipes To Try This Thanksgiving

The Self-Help Deception: Seeking Cures Apart from God Are You Unintentionally Offending God?

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Contents OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015

On the cover The Self-Help Deception:

15 Seeking Cures Apart from God 23 When You’ve Destroyed a Life Seeking the Advice of Demons 29 Go Ahead: Defy God and See What Happens

36 Spiritual Growth: What’s Holding You Back?

42 How to Get God’s Attention Are You Unintentionally 49 Offending God?

53 25 Best Hair Tips Ever Southern Recipes To Try This 59 Thanksgiving

69 Diane Waltman (My Story) The Best Kept Secret for 73 Healthy Hair, Radiant Skin and Strong Nails 06 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

23

Also in this issue‌ 67

A Word from the Lord by Evangelist Nancy Turner

11

Dear Blessed Magazine

13

We Heard You!

08

Letter from the Editor

One of the strongest foundations on this earth is FAMILY Steps for a Strong Foundation in Jesus Read the Bible Together Pray Together Go to Church Together Communicate with Each Other Blessed Magazine

Letter From the Editor

Praise the Lord My Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

First giving all glory and honor unto the Lord Jesus Christ for without Him in my life, nothing I could ever do would amount to anything!

And, I would like to render a praise report for the many souls who have accepted Jesus into their lives these past months.

Continue praying for this ministry as it is all done to the glory and honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!

I am so excited to bring you another issue of Blessed Magazine filled with articles to spark your interest as well as provide insight for your walk with the Lord!

God is the center of our lives and with this ministry of producing Blessed Magazine, we encourage you to seek the Lord with your whole heart, mind and soul and allow Him to be your everything As with every issue, I encourage you to read each article with an open mind, open heart and if at any time you have questions or need to contact the author, please reach out to us here I also want to thank our many subscribers and readers of Blessed Magazine as well as our contributors.

Again, please enjoy this issue of Blessed Magazine and if you are not a subscriber, subscribe today by visiting www.blessedmagazine.org Yours in Christ,

Laraine Turner Editor in Chief 08 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

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What You‘ll Find Inside‌.

Packed with inspirational articles to educate, encourage, inspire and uplift, recipes, diet advice, health, beauty, nutrition and fitness, Blessed Magazine is the ultimate companion for individuals who want to look great, feel fabulous and enjoy the benefits of a healthy, spiritual life.

Subscribe for yourself or give as a gift to be blessed all year-long!

www.blessedmagazine.org

Will Never Give Up On You!

Dear Blessed Magazine…

Dear Blessed Magazine, I’ve been a member of Facebook for over 10 years and never came across your page until recently. I am so grateful to have found you guys because I’m learning so much about the bible. I can’t thank you enough.

God bless you for what you do – Learning Alot Learning Alot, We are blessed to receive your email and blessed to know we are encouraging you to get to know your bible. We can only humble ourselves and say to God be the Glory for without Him, we could do nothing of our own. Stay blessed and again, thank you for your email – Blessed Magazine Dear Blessed Magazine, I’ve noticed your fan-ship is growing tremendously and I would like to begin my own ministry page. Any tips on how to engage individuals to like and participate? – Really Encouraged Really Encouraged, Thank you for contacting us and we are excited you would like to begin a

ministry page, but we caution you on one thing. Ensure this is of the Lord.

Seek His guidance through prayer and fasting. We struggled in the beginning because we kept telling people it was our ministry, but God had to show us that without His blessing, what we were trying to do would amount to nothing. When we finally realized God had to be first and foremost with this ministry, God began to bless us. Seek Him and your ministry will grow abundantly. Remain blessed of the Lord Jesus always! – Blessed Magazine Dear Blessed Magazine, A lot of pages on Facebook claim to be Christian and their actions speak the opposite, but not your page. Your content encourages me everyday.

When I get off work, I know I can find something on your page to uplift me and give me encouragement to face another day. God bless your ministry and God bless you all – Single in Mexico Single in Mexico, We are blessed to be a channel God uses for His people. We appreciate your email and your words of encouragement for us.

Please continue to pray for us as we endeavor

to continue doing what He allows us to do in Jesus name. Remain blessed of the Lord Jesus always! – Blessed Magazine Dear Blessed Magazine, You may chose to not respond to my inquiry, but this needs to be said. Not everyone is a Christian and your posts are always about how a Christian is supposed to act and talk. Why can’t your posts talk to everyone as a whole. I’m not a Christian and feel as though your magazine doesn’t think about us non-Christians and I feel that is discrimination – Sinner Man Sinner Man, We really don’t want to call you a sinner man, but nevertheless, we are a Christian based publication and although our posts talk about Christians, it applies to all. We don’t discriminate and apologize if you felt we were, but we do encourage nonbelievers to get to know Jesus and we would love to help you as well. Again, we do apologize for any inconvenience our posts may have caused you. Remain blessed – Blessed Magazine Want to write us? Email us at contact@blessedmagazine.org

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 11

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Kim Davis Standing Up for Christ?

Sherry L. Thurlow Verdini I totally respect and understand Kim's position. I also think she needs to quit if she can no longer fulfill her duties.

Demi Ortega - If she can't do her Job, she has no business being there! She's a hypocrite, she Never had a problem collecting her check! If you can't do your job, move on!

Your marriage background is darn hypocritical, and you're one to judge!

Michelle Mason - She should have resigned. You cannot accept a paycheck and then say I refuse to do the duties of that job. It may not be fair to have to make that choice but neither is agreeing to.

Perform duties, accepting pay for them and then refusing to do the job.

Mike Breeden - Oh but you can.

Even a solider can if it he know its wrong. Only you can't Michelle Mason. We are all individual and make decisions on our beliefs. If I suddenly said hey let us all put our

children in prison with harden criminal because there out of hand. You be telling me how wrong I would be. She is well with in her rights to say no to wrong just as you are Johnna Hadaller - I agree we as Christians should stand up for God Patricia Smith - She should have never been in jail...

Karen Smith - Jesus always wins Kelis McCormick – I’m not understanding how a judge could throw her in jail for her belief, but I also agree that if your job duties interfere with your religious principles, then you should resign. I always thought God was about peace and not confusion

to assist, but I agree with Kelis McCormick and others, resign Jacqueline Turner – So many people have their opinion of what she should have done and many stand with her decision. I’m sorry, I can’t stand with her because like many have said, resign to not be in this predicament, but she has stated in a press conference that even though she has been ordered to not interfere with issuance of marriage license to same-sex couples that she will and to me that’s open defiance.

Are Christians to act like her? I was taught we are to initiate peace at all costs even in the face of obstacles, but she is creating chaos with her actions…ijs

Please note: the views and expressions expressed are not necessarily the views of Blessed Magazine or its affiliates

Marcus White – If her religious rights tell her not to sell marriage license to samesex couples, she could have asked one of her co-workers

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 13

The Self-Help Deception: Seeking Cures Apart from God

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 15

Today you can find scores of books, seminars, and teachers who all promote the idea of self-help. As the term suggests, self-help is when you help yourself by yourself. While they completely discount God‘s reality, self-help teachers urge you to buy into the lie that you can take charge of your own destiny. They tell you that you can use the principle of ―mind over matter‖ to remove physical, emotional, and psychological burdens from your life. They say that you can control the quality of your life and health by wielding the great power of positive thinking. It‘s all a bunch of irreverent rot.

If you are serious about pleasing God in life, you need to discard this ridiculous notion of self-help. While people say you are a powerhouse of potential who just needs to learn how to flip on your own switch, God says you‘re an impotent dot of a creature who can‘t do bumpkus without Him. Self-help encourages a mentality of self-reliance and autonomy. Such a focus is going to lead you far astray from where you need to be.

The truth is that you don‘t get any say about how sweet your experience of this world will be. God is the One calling the shots in your life whether you acknowledge Him or not.

He is the One controlling your circumstances, health, and overall comfort. God says that the only choice you really have is in deciding how much you‘re going to submit to Him in life. He doesn‘t make any promises that if you submit to Him, He‘ll respond by making your life one big bowl of pitted cherries. God isn‘t into this tit for tat game that we humans are so fond of. He doesn‘t say, ―If you toss five bucks into the offering plate Sunday morning, I‘ll respond by giving you $500.‖ He says, ―I‘m the King. I give commands, not suggestions. If you defy Me, I‘m going to make you very sorry.‖ God says that He created you for His own personal benefit and that He has come up with several options for how your life can go. He isn‘t going to sit down with you and review each of those options in detail, nor does He say there are infinite possibilities. here aren‘t infinite possibilities—there are only the possibilities that God has decided to create. You see, every soul is like a man walking through a forest.

There are many paths through the forest, but those paths don‘t begin to cover all of the area. As the man

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moves through the forest, he is restricted to staying on the paths which someone else created.

That someone else determined ahead of time how much of the forest the man would see by where he laid down the paths. There are whole sections of forest that the paths entirely avoid. There are many places where the paths intersect with each other. When the man comes to those intersections, he can choose which fork to go down, but he never gets the option of leaving the path entirely and exploring on his own. His experience of the forest has been limited by the one who created paths for him to walk down.

God is the path maker in your life. Ego pleasing statements like ―You can make any dream come true if you just believe‖ are just a bunch of guff. You do not have infinite options. You don‘t have infinite potential.

You are a creature with extreme limitations. You can only ever choose between the options that God presents you with, and there are countless options that He will never give you. In this world, the number of doors that God opens to you will be vastly outnumbered by the ones He shuts in your face. You can dream all day about being some Olympic athlete, but if God hasn‘t given you the physical abilities you need to thrive in your dream sport, then you‘re just wasting time beating your head against that closed door. You can pine after some perfect job, but God is the One deciding whether your resume is read or ignored. Self-help theories make you the captain of your own ship. They teach you that you have infinite

options in front of you, so just choose the course that pleases your ego the most and set sail. But God teaches that He is the Captain of your ship—you‘re just the dude swabbing the deck. If you try to get mutinous and throw God overboard so that you can start calling the shots, He‘ll cause a large tidal wave to come along and wash you overboard into a sea of Divine discipline.

You are not in charge. God is in charge. If your ship is currently getting tossed about in some storm of hardship, be it mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual, you need to realize that God is the One who steered you into that storm. If you don‘t like the way God is running your life, He‘s the One you need to talk to. To just go sneaking off in some corner with a self-help manual trying to figure out ways to make God do what you want is a waste of time. If you‘re going to listen to the theories of people who don‘t even revere God, you‘d better be involving Him in the experience and asking Him to show you if there‘s anything of value being said. Pleasing God means involving Him in our lives, not ignoring His existence while we try to operate without Him. It is our soul choices which God cares about. It is our soul choices that He judges us by. Soul choice is a very simple concept—every choice boils down to the same two options: submission or rebellion. When we choose to submit to God, we acknowledge that His will is not our own, and we choose to embrace His will over our own. For example, the Holy Spirit convicts you to apologize to the friend who you just offended with some snarky comment. In this moment, you make a soul choice. God‘s will is for you to apologize. Your will is to not apologize. When you choose God‘s will over your own, you have chosen submission. When you tell God to stuff it and decide that what you want is more important than what He wants, you‘re choosing rebellion.

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Submission is the central theme of every soul‘s life whether they acknowledge it or not. Every hour of every day, we are all choosing between submission and rebellion. The problem with self-help theories is that they treat submission to God as an irrelevant concept when it is actually the foundation upon which everything else is built. It is your soul‘s submission to God that keeps you out of Hell, not your good works or your nice smile. It is your degree of submission after salvation that determines what your initial experience of eternity will be like. Submission is vital. You can‘t possibly help people in life while you totally avoid the issue of their submission to God. When you teach people to rely on themselves and to choose what they want in life, you are not teaching them submission.

God says that we are totally dependent on Him for all things. When we reject this truth and say that we are actually self-reliant creatures who can take care of ourselves, we are practicing a soul attitude of rebellion.

Anytime we adamantly reject a truth that God has presented us with, we are refusing to practice submission. Submission says, ―You‘re King, I‘m not.‖ Rebellion says ―I‘m king, You‘re not.‖ On this site, we address many problems and struggles which Christians deal with. We then present you with prayers and exercises which we say will help you gain something positive from your struggle. But why are our methods helpful? Because we are not just teaching you some mind over matter idiocy, we are teaching you to practice submission to God. Let‘s take the Christian who struggles with the fear that God doesn‘t really love her. Fears are driven by underlying false beliefs.

Before you can arrive at the conclusion ―God doesn‘t love me‖, you must first accept many other lies as truth. God says He does love you—clearly you are rejecting this truth because you say He doesn‘t.

Rejecting what God says is the opposite of submission.

When we tell the fearful Christian to start rehearsing the statement ―God loves me‖ in her mind, we are teaching her to practice submission, not just positive thinking.

Submission is when we embrace God as the Supreme Authority in our lives. We decide that what He says goes simply because He is the One saying it. His claims might sound false to us, and we might not be able to emotionally connect with them, but in spite of these things, we choose to practice submission by

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 17

embracing what He says. ―God loves me.‖ When our fearful Christian keeps rehearsing this statement, she is choosing to practice submission to God. It is the practice of submission, not the reciting of mere words, that is going to drastically improve the quality of her existence. Soul joy, peace, and satisfaction are developed through continuous submission to God. When we hold back in the submission department, God retaliates by causing us to spiritually languish.

Submission is vital.

Our submission is so important to God that He responds to it in very extreme ways. Consider Heaven and Hell: both of these places are God‘s response to the submission of His creatures. Demons and humans and who knows what other kinds of creatures end up in Hell because of insufficient submission. Humans are only allowed admission into Heaven if they meet God‘s minimal submission requirements, but then their experience of Heaven will vary widely depending on what their total submission to God was.

Acknowledging who your Creators are and agreeing that you needed Jesus to atone for your sins is an entirely different concept than total surrender. Most Christians are only submitting to God to some partial degree. The apostle Paul is a good example of this.

While he aligned with certain basics of the New Covenant, Paul rejected many other truths about God, such as His sovereignty over all things and His involvement with evil. When we examine the way that Paul prays—all of those bossy little commands for God to do this and that in the lives of other Christians, we are not seeing a picture of submission, but an effort to dominate and direct God. Most Christians practice a form of submission to God that is far from complete. We admit that we need Him to save us, but we refuse to accept the fact that He is in absolute control of the universe. We‘ll take His saving grace, but we don‘t want Him to tell us how to run the ministry we‘ve just started and we‘re not about to let Him write our sermons. Such partial submission is far from pleasing to God. The fact that God saves someone doesn‘t mean that He is thrilled with them.

God is extremely generous with His grace, but He is also very disgusted with the way most of His kids are treating Him like their Servant instead of their Master.

When you‘re looking for help in life, you can‘t just go

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plucking any ego-pleasing statement out of the air and think that rehearsing it a thousand times will make you into a better person. You can‘t just immerse yourself in a bunch of pride stroking mental imagery and think that‘s going to solve all of your problems. Look around at all of these arrogant self-help teachers who are patting themselves on the back for discovering the key to perfect health and then charging you a bunch of money for access to their secrets. Is it really an improvement if we go from being chronically depressed to being arrogant know-it-alls who stand around taking the bows for the way we can make the universe conform to our wishes? Does it please God when we crank out books and seminars that teach people to totally ignore His involvement in their lives and act like all that matters is how happy we are in this present moment? Is physical health more important than spiritual health? Is pleasing ourselves more important than pleasing God? Any theory which encourages you to find answers within yourself is a pile of rot. You don‘t have answers. God does. If you refuse to seek Him in life, He‘s going to bring you plenty of answers that are going to end up making you quite miserable in the long run. Don‘t fall for the common lie that ―if it feels good it must be good.‖ Many of God‘s most devastating forms of discipline come in some very pleasant packages.

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We list truths for you to rehearse and describe images for you to focus on, they are things which have been specifically chosen because they align with God‘s truths. God is always with you—this is a fact, not a theory. When you then focus on images of God being

with you in your mind, you are practicing submission to Him by embracing His description of reality. You might not feel like God is with you. You might feel like He‘s a thousand miles away totally ignoring you. But God says that He is with you. In life we are constantly deciding who we will acknowledge as the supreme authority: God, or someone else. If we want to thrive in our relationships with God, we must be practicing submission to Him, and that means treating Him as the Supreme Authority even when our emotions aren‘t able to resonate with the things He is saying.

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God is constantly putting us through submission exercises in life. These exercises come in such a wide variety of forms, that we often don‘t recognize what they are at first. Why does God bring fear into our lives? Why does He have us struggle with doubts and theological crises? Because these things are fabulous contexts in which to practice submission. God says that everything comes down to submission. He says you can trust Him to take the best possible care of you.

Maybe you say that you can‘t trust Him because He‘s a creep. Who are you going to choose as your supreme authority in life? Are you going to say that your view of reality trumps God‘s, or are you going to say that His view trumps yours because He is the King?

Rehearsing God‘s truths is a very powerful and productive exercise only because we‘re really rehearsing submission, and God says that we were designed to thrive only when we are living in total submission to Him. Now does this mean that our lives will be perfect and cheery the minute we lay it all down? Not at all. When God talks about us thriving,

He‘s looking at the big picture. A baby can be thriving, but that doesn‘t mean he can walk yet. It just means he‘s moving in the right direction—that his growth is right on track and everything‘s happening at an ideal pace. As Christians, we want to experience God‘s definition of thriving. We want to be constantly moving down the path of maturity, developing at His ideal pace for us. God‘s ideal growth plan for you isn‘t going to look the same as His plan for someone else.

But His ideal plan for you is one that He says you can experience if you are not holding anything back in the submission department.

There are four essential soul attitudes that God constantly works on developing in us: reverence, trust, submission, and dependency. Every trial He puts us through in life is about pushing us down one or more of these roads. God doesn‘t put us through difficult experiences just to persecute us. He always has some positive spiritual goal in mind. We align with those goals by asking Him to help us learn everything He wants to teach us through the trial. This is a form of submission, and by His own choice, God always rewards submission. Self-help theories teach you to greedily grab at all kinds of goodies in life that randomly exist in the universe and are yours for the taking. God teaches us to see Him as the One who rewards us in life and then He says His rewards must be earned through submission. We don‘t get to go Heaven just because we are alive and breathing. God says there‘s a price for admission, and that price is a form of submission which He defines. It is only by submitting to God that we end up being rewarded by Him. This is His game, and when we play by His rules, He rewards us. When we try to play by our own rules, He punishes us. God is the King and He will not just sit back and smile while we ignore Him, mock Him, and try to pretend we can go around Him. So anytime you are looking for help in life, make sure you‘re involving God in the process. It doesn‘t mean you have to live in your prayer closet and never make a move until He speaks from the sky. God communicates to us through a wide variety of forms. There‘s nothing wrong with doing some research and reading through material that people have put out on a certain subject. But you need to be depending on God to guide you and acknowledging that He is your only Source of wisdom in life.

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God will always point you back to Him. He will always lead you down roads that increase your focus on Him and there will always be spiritual lessons somewhere in the mix that He wants you to learn. God is not interested in giving you a blissful life, He‘s interested in walking you through a carefully orchestrated series of experiences which will strengthen your personal bond with Him. Developing a deeper relationship with your Maker is why you exist. Whenever that goal drops out of view in your pursuit of solutions, you‘re getting sidetracked, and it‘s time to ask God to help you get your priorities back into alignment with His.

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When You’ve Destroyed a Life How Can We Embrace The Love Of God When Our Victims Are Suffering In Front Of Us?

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 23

Sin has two components. First there is the actual deed, and then there are all the ramifications that deed has throughout time. God mercifully shields us from ever seeing the full ramifications of our sins. We fling out sharp comments and then move on, never seeing how deeply we wounded another heart and how long it takes them to recover. We‘re rude to the police officer who pulls us over for a ticket we deserve and we never see how discouraged he is after we drive away. We yell at a customer service rep on the phone because we‘re frustrated with the company they represent, and we never see them flushed faced and teary eyed after we hang up in their faces. Human beings are a sensitive lot. We all get our feelings hurt easily in certain contexts and we are very affected by how others treat us. It‘s easy to ignore the sensitivity of others when you have limited interactions with them, or when you only see them in a context like work where they are expected to hide their feelings. But sometimes we find ourselves forced to keep interacting with someone whose life is publicly displaying evidence that they‘ve been royally trampled on by someone else—and we see that someone else every time we look in the mirror.

When God is over something, He‘s over it!

Perhaps you were the pusher who got your little brother hooked on drugs and now his brains are permanently fried and your parents are broken with grief. Maybe you took advantage of desperate young girls so that you could make money off of their prostitution. Now you see them all dying from horrible diseases and getting beat up by the creeps that you introduced them to. Or maybe you were the father who molested his young kids and now they‘ve grown up into molesters and pedophiles who refuse to admit they have a problem just like you used to. Or maybe you were the unfaithful wife who ran off with her lover and totally abandoned your kids. Now your ex is a depressed alcoholic and your kids are looking for love in all the wrong places. It‘s hard to connect with your freedom in Christ when you played a key role in destroying other lives. It‘s hard to read about God

saying, ―Vengeance is Mine; I will repay‖ and not think He‘s going to be gunning for you one of these days. After all, He is extremely protective towards the helpless and trampled on. And it‘s not like you can claim that you didn‘t know what you were doing. You knew you were hurting people and wrecking lives, but you were too selfish to care at the time. Now you‘re walking around forgiven and your victims are crawling around in such broken states that it seems like they‘ll never be able to connect with the concept of a loving God. When we can see a clear cause-and-effect relationship between our actions and someone else‘s suffering, Satan rushes in for the kill. While you‘re being forced to face the damage you‘ve done, he will do his utmost to convince you that God might well have forgiven you for your action, but not for all of its ramifications. He will try to get you to separate the two components of sin and argue that the cross only covered one of them.

But we know that everything Satan says is a lie.

On the cross, Jesus fully atoned for all of your sins: both the actions and all of their poisonous effects. So when you see your brother shooting up and hear Satan telling you that God is blaming you for his condition, you need to reject this. God‘s forgiveness is not partial.

He doesn‘t smile at you in church and then turn to glare at you when one of your victims comes into view.

He doesn‘t say He‘s over your sin one moment and then act shocked at your failing the next. When God is over something He is OVER IT. Unlike us, God does not have to keep forgiving someone over and over again because His emotions keep undoing His internal peace. He doesn‘t struggle with negative flashbacks and He doesn‘t ever second guess His decision to be merciful.

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There are several critical points that you need to get straight in your mind. One is that Jesus actually PAID for your sins, He didn‘t just talk His Father into forgetting about them. Sometimes we slip into a mindset of thinking God‘s forgiveness is like a company who declares bankruptcy and sends out notices to all the people they owe money to advising them that they‘re never going to get their money. If you‘ve ever received such a notice, your feelings towards the person shirking on their debt are not very positive. You feel ripped off and cheated. When we do something that we consider particularly awful, Satan tries to convince us that God feels ripped off by forgiving us and so He reverts back to an angry state and starts demanding atonement from us. It is this kind of mentality that leads Christians into self-harming practices like whipping their own backs in order to earn God‘s forgiveness. Yet God is clear that we NEVER have to earn His forgiveness, for Jesus already paid our debt in full. Instead of sending God a ―too bad, You‘ll just have to eat my debt‖ note, Jesus gave the Father payment in full on your behalf. Because of this, the Father has no bitterness whatsoever in forgiving you. On the contrary, He is extremely happy to do it, because He does not want to see the efforts of His Son going to waste.

to the Father.. Their rejection of Jesus is such an incredible waste and something that His Father considers unforgivable. After going to such lengths to enable us to be reconciled with Him, the Father is not about to look the other way when souls are too prideful to appreciate what His Son did for them. The horrors of Hell express how outraged the Father becomes over the rejection of His Son, and the joys of Heaven prove how delighted He is to lavish love and mercy upon those who submit to Him. When it comes to all of your terrible deeds, the Father is one hundred percent over it. He has been fully compensated by Jesus for all of the damage you did and He will never, ever suggest that you should do something more to complete His Son‘s atonement for your sins. He may call on you to play a role in helping some of your victims receive His healing, but anything He asks you to do will not be about atoning for your sins. Jesus paid your debt in full. There is nothing left for God to be angry at you about.

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As humans, we struggle to understand the notion of a love that is not based on behavior. It‘s wired into us to assume that when we act bad, God‘s love for us decreases, and when we act good, His love increases.

When souls reject Jesus and go to Hell, they miss out on the benefit of having Him fully pay their debt of sin

Another helpful focus for you to have is found in Romans 5:8: ―But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.‖ Notice it is the Father who demonstrated His love, just as it was the Father who sent His Son to die for us. The Father is often the One we get nervous about post-salvation. We see Jesus as our loving Intercessor, but we worry that His Father‘s acceptance of us won‘t last. The Father makes it very clear in His Word that our salvation was His idea and that we never need to worry about Him having second thoughts.

Romans 5:8 really becomes powerful when you stop to remember that God saw all of the nasty things you would do before you were even conceived. God does not dwell in time and space. From His eternal vantage point, He sees our entire lives at once. This means that chose to embrace you with His love even as you were molesting or drug pushing or whatever horrible thing it is that you did. It is a good exercise to remember yourself at your lowest point and realize that God‘s love for you in that moment was every bit as enthusiastic as it was on your best day.

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But this is absolutely incorrect. God‘s love is a steady constant which does not care in the least what our behavior is doing. It‘s like the sun which rises faithfully every day in the sky regardless of what the people on earth are doing. The sun never looks down and says ―What a bunch of creeps! They don‘t deserve any light today!‖ The sun shines because it‘s a star and shining is what stars do. Likewise, God loves us because it is His Nature to do so. Unlike a star which just glows without thinking, God chooses to love because He wants to. But our behavior is not a factor in why He chooses to love us. He just does. It‘s hard to get our minds around, but we must keep trying for it is a critical truth which helps us grasp just how different God is from us.

God was pleased to forgive you and He never feels like your sins were not fully atoned for. He chose to love you before you even came to Him and He chose to embrace you and all of your ugly sins before you even knew His Name. Dwelling on these truths is the way that you will be able to stand against Satan‘s constant refrain that God is still holding your past against you or that He‘s still disgusted by some aspect of you. While you may have memories of your own behavior that make you feel sick to your stomach, God does not have the same feelings of repulsion. It is very easy for Him to talk about your ugly deeds and twisted intentions— far easier than it is for you when Satan‘s got you choking on shame. Don‘t miss this point: it is very important that you do not have any closed subjects between you and God. Satan will not hesitate to discuss all of your most shameful memories with you, and if he‘s the only one you‘re willing to talk with, you‘re going to end up despaired and suicidal. If there are currently any subjects you‘re avoiding between your soul and God, now is the time to break down those walls. The Holy Spirit is ready and available at all times. He wants to help you process the past and learn to see it from His much more positive perspective. Refuse to let Satan keep you cowering behind closed doors in your heart—this is his way of cutting you off from the support and help he knows you desperately need. Seeking outside help from human counselors is all fine and well, but it is not enough. God is the only Source of healing and you must learn to see Him as your primary Counselor in life. God does not need human mediators to help you

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heal—if you are willing to have no closed subjects with Him, He can make miraculous changes to your insides and free you up from every form of shame.

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But what about your victims? Is it your job to try and rescue them since you‘re the one who messed them up in the first place? This is where it is vital that you don‘t let Satan lead you. Remember that redeeming the past and healing present wounds both fall into God‘s realm of responsibility. Apart from Him, there is absolutely nothing you can do to help anyone, and if you go charging out ahead of Him and start trying to wing it with your logic, Satan will make sure you only end up doing more damage. This is God‘s world: let Him run it the way He wants to. He might give you some part to play in helping your victims find healing, or He might tell you to stay back. Realize that God is fair and merciful. While Satan wants you to think that you singlehandedly prevented people from ever finding Christ, this is simply not true. No matter how badly you injured someone else, God is infinitely greater than you are and He will never allow you to block a soul from coming to Him. It is one of Satan‘s favorite games to heap on the ―you‘re the reason they‘re going to Hell‖ routine whenever he can get away with it. But God says that no matter how tough a time we‘ve had down here, His Spirit gives us all the illumination and opportunity needed to receive eternal salvation through Christ. No one is going to have anyone but themselves

to blame for ending up in Hell. You do not answer to God for the decisions another free will makes about Him; you only answer for your own behavior. No matter how monstrous your behavior was, it was fully atoned for by Christ. Do you see how glorious the cross is? No matter what argument Satan tries to throw in your face about how your past is creating a problem between you and God, you can always go back to the cross.

If I accumulate a million dollars in debt and someone comes along and pays it for me, do I sit down and start reviewing how I ever added up such a sum? Do I fuss over every bad decision I made and keep recalculating the figures that ended up totaling a million? Of course not. I breathe a great sigh of relief and express my gratitude towards the one who saved me. It‘s the same with God. Now that your debt is paid in full, He doesn‘t keep going over it with you, reminding you of every wrong move you made. Satan is the one who has an endless fascination with your past. God is only interested in the bottom line: your debt is paid. Your past, present and future sins are all paid for. It‘s time to move on.

There are no excuses for rejecting Christ. Resist the temptation to take on the burden of another soul‘s eternal decisions. Remember that God is your primary focus now and He is the One who is taking care of every single soul on this earth. We are all in His care, which is far better than being strung out with just each other. You cannot force others to heal, you can‘t undo your past or make people accept your apologies. The effects of sin are very complicated and far reaching— no mere human can succeed at untangling the mess of damage they do to others. You must be willing to leave the mess you‘ve made on this earth in God‘s capable hands and trust that He will do what is best with it. No matter what Satan tells you, God does not want you taking on the responsibility of any other life but your own. Be willing to do whatever He asks, but don‘t try to put words in His mouth or you‘ll undoubtedly end up trying to punish yourself for what you‘ve done.

Satan is the one who promotes ongoing punishment.

He‘s the one who tells us to keep repenting for the same sins over and over even when God says just once is enough. Satan is the one who tells us to keep beating our bodies, cursing ourselves, and reminding God of how terribly we‘ve treated Him. God says He doesn‘t care about the past, He cares about the present. God says we‘re His dearly loved children and there‘s no mess we could ever make that He couldn‘t clean up with one word if He wanted to. God wants to cut us free from the anchors of shame, guilt, and selfloathing, and come sit on His lap with our heads resting against His chest. Satan calls us by our failings—to him we are not souls, but ―molesters‖, ―murderers‖ and ―despicable sinners.‖ But God calls us by our names and says we are His dearly loved creations who He is delighted to spend an eternity with. When it comes to experiencing freedom in Christ, so much depends on our deciding who we are going to listen to: Satan or God. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see yourself through the eyes of your loving Father and He will. You are not just the sum of your past mistakes. Remember that to God, you were worth the cross.

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You are a child of God. He is now your primary focus in life. Your victims may or may not come to Him— that is a decision which is up to them to make. If they try to use you as their excuse for not coming to Christ, God won‘t reroute them to a nicer version of Hell.

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Seeking the Advice of Demons

Go Ahead: Defy God and See What Happens Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 29

Demons have a very different perspective of reality than you do. They know a lot of things that you don‘t know.

They‘re able to do a lot of things that you can‘t do. An understanding of these basic facts lures many people into trying to contact demons for advice in life. Even Christians get sucked into this, figuring that demons might prove easier to talk to than God. Let‘s face it: God can be one aggravating conversation partner. He is notorious for going silent on you right when you really, really need an answer. And then of course there‘s the issue of us not wanting to have to work at learning to recognize God‘s leading in our lives—that causes us to miss out on many messages from Him. But biggest of all is our unwillingness to trust Him. After all, we humans are lazy. When we want guidance, we want it to come according to our schedule in a form that we choose. We don‘t want to settle for silence. We don‘t want to have to trust that God is handling things while He intentionally keeps us in the dark. When we reach out to a nonhuman being, we want that being to answer now. If God won‘t cooperate, or if we don‘t like what He has to say, then we start looking around for other options. This is when we start viewing demons as potential advisers in life.

What metaphor can we use to help you understand how utterly foolish it is for you to seek advice from demons? Would you tap a psychotic gunman on the shoulder and ask him to please turn around and shoot you? Would you put your trust in the words of a chronic liar? Would you ask a thief to hold your money for you?

Demons despise you. They‘re like a sadistic little boy with a magnifying glass and you are like the bug he‘s getting off on frying.

Demons delight in your misery. Your suffering is their party. So when you ask demons for advice, it‘s like begging them to mess you up. Why, of course—they‘d love nothing better. If demons had their way, they‘d always come running whenever you call and they‘d give you all kinds of advice that was sure to lead you into a mess that you couldn‘t possibly get yourself out of.

Before you consider turning to demons for advice in life, you need to understand a thing or two about their character. Demons are sadists: they delight in cruelty. Look through those Old Testament Photo credit by Shutterstock

records and notice how demons instructed humans to worship them. You‘ll find a lot of references to idol worshipers making their children ―pass through the fire.‖ This was a ritual that involved setting live human infants down on the super-heated arms of a metal statue until the babies were scalded to death—that‘s a demon‘s idea of satisfying worship. Slashing your body until you‘re covered in burning, bleeding cuts that heal into grotesque scars—there‘s another ritual that demons delight in. Demons are into pain. They are way into torture. Torture is about inflicting extreme pain on someone for as long as possible. The torturer doesn‘t want to kill his victim quickly—he wants to keep him alive as long as he can just so he can enjoy the show of watching the guy writhe in anguish. This is how demons operate. They love inflicting misery of any kind on you–emotional, physical, psychological, or spiritual. They love stringing you along with false hopes and then shoving you down hard and howling with laughter. If people really understood how demons view humans, they wouldn‘t want anything to do with them. But instead, people stubbornly cling to the absurd lie that there‘s such a thing as a nice demon—one who might actually help them out of the goodness of his heart. Well, no, there are no nice demons. There are only nasty demons who are stellar con artists and quite willing to show you a good time today if it will double your misery tomorrow.

A lot of people who mess around with demons report getting actual help from them at first. This is like the testimonials of people who get on those strange liquid concoctions that come with the guarantee that you‘ll ―lose a million pounds in just five minutes once you start drinking this.‖ At first, the weight really does drop off, and the

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user is singing loud praises about the product they‘re trying out. But then the honeymoon period ends and suddenly they develop all kinds of scary health problems that they never had before. All that weight they had lost comes roaring back only we never hear about any of this because the person has retreated into some miserable corner, too upset to let anyone know what happened to them. It‘s the same with positive demon stories. Now and then you hear about some miracle cure that comes through demonic channels. What you don‘t hear about is what happened when the miracle reversed a short time later. Or you hear about somebody having their spirit guide tell them what the winning Lotto number was. What you don‘t hear about is how that person‘s life was utterly ruined later on by their windfall of money.

Demons despise you and they delight in seeing you suffer. You mustn‘t lose sight of this fact, because it will prevent you from being sucked in by their seemingly nice gifts. When you‘re desperately lonely after your spouse dies, demons are more than happy to help your aching heart by showing up as the ghost of your loved one. Later on when you‘re full on possessed and going out of your mind with torment, you end up seriously regretting all of those times you called out for some spirit to come visit you. Demons are like terrorists who wrap bombs up in pretty packages. Some of the things they do for you can seem truly nice at first—but always there‘s a trap that is waiting to spring down on you if you try and take the bait. Demons are very clever at devising traps for humans. We‘re really not hard to trip up, because we‘re so shortsighted and so fixated on instant gratification. So often we only care about feeling good now and we refuse to think about the long-term consequences our actions will have.

Demons use our foolish priorities against us all the time with great success. Then once they have us where they want us, the fun comes in watching us suffer.

In life, you have two sources of supernatural guidance Photo credit by Shutterstock

available to you. You can either look to your Creators, or you can look to demons. Be aware that if you try to look to angels or dead people, you‘ll end up with demons. Dead people can‘t hear you, and angels are loyal to God, which means they aren‘t going to encourage you in your idolatry. Praying to any being other than Yahweh, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit is a form of idolatry. God says He hates idolatry. When you know this and you do it anyway, you‘re being a defiant little rebel. How does God respond to spiritual rebels? He disciplines them.

Here‘s a critical point that demon chasers always lose sight of: there is no direct pipeline from you to demons. You can pray to them all day long, but God is the One who controls the activity of demons, and they won‘t be allowed near you until He decides. Let‘s use a metaphor to see how this works. Suppose you‘re standing in a zoo in front of the tiger cage. Inside the tiger cage, there are four hungry tigers who are all growling and snarling and glaring at you. Those tigers represent demons. The cage they‘re trapped in represents God‘s continuous protection of you and the zookeeper represents God Himself. Now as you stand in front of the tiger cage, pulling at the locked door and trying to find some way to open it, you‘re totally disrespecting the zookeeper who has told you to keep your distance. The longer you stand there defying the zookeeper‘s authority and throwing your little hissy fit about wanting the tigers to be let loose, the more the zookeeper‘s patience with you is wearing thin. Eventually, he gets fed up with your antics and he comes over and unlocks the door. The hungry tigers immediately come racing out of the cage straight for you. hey pounce on you and start tearing into you with their razor sharp claws while the zookeeper stands there watching. Now you‘re in a real spot, aren‘t you? You can‘t begin to compete with four tigers.

You‘re getting turned into bloody pulp and if the zookeeper doesn‘t intervene, you‘re going to die a very gruesome

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death. Happily for you, the zookeeper has pity on you, even though you don‘t deserve any. Before the tigers do too much damage, he comes over, hauls them off of you, and tosses them back into their cage. This is what we call mercy—when God is nice to us even though we‘re being total punks. Now you‘re safe again, but you‘re badly injured. How fast should the zookeeper call an ambulance? Maybe he decides to take his sweet time—you certainly don‘t deserve any help after you so intentionally defied his authority. You‘ve gotten what your actions deserve—this is what we call discipline. But because the zookeeper is such a gracious fellow, he comes over and patches you up so that you‘ll be able to heal. Now you‘ve gone through a very frightening experience that has done serious damage to you—but did you learn anything? Are you now going to respect the zookeeper‘s rules or are you going to head right back over to that tiger cage and start fussing with the door again? Amazingly, many people take the second option. No matter how much demons claw at them, they keep pursuing a relationship with the little rats. But while such people usually try to pretend that God is not a factor in their games, God is always involved. It is God who sics demons on you in the first place—He‘s always the One opening that cage door. How the demons will respond to you is quite predictable: they will always try to make the most out of any opportunity God gives them to do you harm.

Demons will always try to mess you up—they will never offer you any genuine help in life. Real help is that which focuses on what is best for your soul in the long-term, and that kind of help only comes from God. Given all of this, are you seeing how stupid it is to try and seek advice from demons in life?

Why would you intentionally try to provoke God into disciplining you?

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You simply can‘t go around God to get to demons. He hears every prayer you pray, He sees everything that you do. So there‘s no sneaking off to a medium in secret to see if she can channel you a little advice from that spirit guide. If you try and pull this kind of garbage as a Christian, you might as well drop your drawers and get ready to get spanked. God disciplines rebellion. He doesn‘t smile on brats. Defy His Authority without repenting, and you can count on Him to nail you for it.

This is how it works when you mess around with a God who says He‘s so jealous by nature that He likens Himself to a consuming fire.

Your Creators say there is no room for you to be seeking out relationships with any non-human beings other than Themselves. Demons, angels and dead people are all out of bounds for Christians, so don‘t go there. But if you‘re like the kid who refuses to believe that fire is hot until he personally sticks his hand into the flames and gets personally burned, then go ahead: call on your precious demon buddies. Just don‘t expect God to rush in and save you when things get out of hand. Why should He?

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Spiritual Growth What‘s Holding You Back?

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The more you care about pleasing God, the more Satan is going to try and stress you out over the concept of spiritual growth. He‘ll try to tell you there are a million ways that you can go astray, and there are—but at the same time, there‘s only one way.

Spiritual maturity comes down to a war of wills: yours versus God‘s. The more you try to protect your right to disobey, the more trouble you‘re going to run into. Satan (and a lot of teachers in the Church) want you to think that it‘s your actions that will lead you astray. And there are plenty of handy verses in the Bible that they can throw at you to try and back this up. Because our brother James was so spiritually young at the time he dashed off his epistle, we can always count on his book to be good ammo for guilt.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (Jam. 2:14-17) Now here‘s a famous passage which has caused undue stress in many sincere Christians. According to James, we all have to prove our faith in ways that other people can see and nod their heads at.

What absurd advice. You don‘t need to go through life trying to prove your faith to other people. God is your Judge, and He sees your heart. He knows if you are obeying Him or not, and you‘re going to experience plenty of periods in life when you don‘t hear God giving you any specific instructions.

When other Christians around you are working their tails off at the homeless shelter and you stay home because you know in your soul that the Holy Spirit doesn‘t want you to do a bunch of busywork, you‘re going to hear James rattling around in your head and feel guilty. But you don‘t need to feel guilty, because you‘re not doing anything wrong.

When God isn‘t giving you an assignment, He wants you to wait on Him. Waiting is one of the toughest assignments there is because while you

wait, you look like a spiritual slacker to the rest of the brothers and they‘re going to find subtle and not-so-subtle ways of letting you know that. But here‘s where you need to remember that you are God‘s servant, and God is a different kind of Master. He doesn‘t want servants who run around like busy little ants, He wants servants who sit patiently beside Him until He sends them out on a specific assignment. And before God sends His servants out, He equips them with the maturity they‘ll need not to run amuck, and that often takes time. There‘s a whole lot of waiting that happens along the path of spiritual maturity. Sometimes it feels like you just move from one bench to another.

It‘s good to realize this up front so that you don‘t fall for James‘ very erroneous suggestion that God looks down on inactive faith. There‘s nothing inactive about the faith of a Christian who is waiting on God. Quite the contrary—it takes way more faith, devotion, and courage to wait on God in the face of a bunch of busy Christians who are calling you a slacker.

Spiritual maturity is a war of two wills: yours and God‘s. Are you going to submit to Him or not?

There are a million ways you can express your rebellion, which is why there are a million ways you can go astray, but really it all comes down to one simple thing: submission. It is submission that counts—not how well you listen, not how well you obey, but how well you SUBMIT. Now let‘s explain.

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Submission is when your soul says to God ―I see that I am hopelessly consumed with pride, that I‘m powerless to control my flesh, and that I have absolutely nothing I can add to You. My body, my mind, my emotions—they all run amuck on me and do what I don‘t want them to do. I find within myself an endless attraction to sin and everything that I know You hate. In my soul, I desperately want to please You, but I am incapable of following through on that desire with any kind of consistency.

If You don‘t keep me true to You, I cannot keep myself. If You don‘t force my feet to walk in the center of Your will, I know they will run astray.

God, please take me over in a way that will prevent my freewill from ever coming between us. I loathe the idea of turning away from You, but I am powerless to keep myself faithful. Just as I couldn‘t atone for my own sins, I can‘t give You the faithful obedience that You deserve. But I want to. I know You are God and what is impossible for me is possible for You. I know You say I can be pleasing in Your sight and that it is possible to stay faithful to You no matter what. I‘m asking You to do it in me. Take my will and put it under Yours for all of eternity. In both this life and the next, make me always faithful to You. Make me all that You want me to be. Change me, mature me—do whatever it takes to make me pleasing in Your sight. I put all that I am into Your hands and acknowledge my absolute dependence on You. You are my only hope of pleasing You. I permanently surrender my freedom to rebel against You. From now on, have Your total way in my life.‖

Once we‘ve prayed a prayer like this, we‘ve done everything we can do. And just as salvation permanently changes God‘s acceptance of us, permanent surrender eternally alters the course of our lives. If you are serious about not going astray, you have to get to the point of permanent surrender.

As long as you are avoiding a prayer like this, you are trying to protect your freedom to rebel. We are not our own, we were created for God‘s pleasure, and He designed us to be utterly depraved and powerless apart from Him. As long as we are clinging to our right to rebel and squander our lives and tune out the Holy Spirit, then the concept of spiritual maturity will seem to be a threatening, negative topic. But when we cross the line of total surrender, suddenly all the pressure shifts off of us and onto God. He is the only One who can mature us—we cannot grow ourselves. Once we‘ve cast ourselves entirely into God‘s hands, there is nothing else we can do. Now we become His possessions and He starts moving in us in a way that He will not move in those who refuse to fully commit to Him. So you see, locking yourself onto a path of success with God is extremely simple. He demands absolutely everything that you have, but once you give it to Him, He is thoroughly pleased with you.

When it comes to surrender, you get what you pray for. If you‘ve been taught that daily surrender is the right habit to be in, you‘ve been taught wrong. It‘s time to think much bigger. You are going to live forever. Think beyond today, this year, and this earthly life. See all of eternity stretching out before you and give the whole thing into God‘s hands.

God demands everything. If you want to be close to Him, you have to give it all up. But this isn‘t hard to do—it is a simple choice of the will.

So what happens after we surrender? We start learning to relax. When Satan comes along with his accusations that we‘re not doing enough or we‘re not striving enough, we come right back at him with, ―I am not my own. I belong to God and He is making me all that He wants me to be.‖ Satan then retorts with, ―Oh really? If you‘re so surrendered, how come you still have all these flaws? If you‘re so pleasing to God, how come you‘re still sinning?

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How come you‘re not looking more like Christ?‖ And we have to learn to say, ―I trust God‘s Character and His faithfulness to me. He promises that I will have whatever I ask for in His will. It isn‘t natural for fallen humans to want to surrender their wills to God—the Holy Spirit put that desire in me. He prompted me to pray like I did, and He told me to ask for something that He was already willing to give me. I have asked for God to have His total way in my life. This is unquestionably in His will, so I will have it. God‘s ways aren‘t my own, and His priorities are different than mine. If He‘s not turning me into the clone of Christ, it‘s because He is alright with me as I am. I don‘t care about anything but God being pleased. Whatever shape and form that takes, that is what I want.‖ The post-surrender life is one that focuses on trust.

We practice trusting in God over and over and over again. The Holy Spirit creates countless opportunities for us to practice that trust by presenting us with ―evidence‖ that God‘s perfect will might not really be happening in our lives. But then we just keep going back to what we prayed and we stand on the Character of our Maker. The fully surrendered Christian is not one who is clocking a billion hours down at the church house and reading his Bible every day. The fully surrendered Christian might not go to church at all, he might have forgotten where his Bible is and he might not be hobnobbing with a bunch of likeminded believers. Like-minded believers become very scarce once you cross the line of total surrender and you start living a life of trust. The fully surrendered Christian‘s heart is focused on God, even if he doesn‘t have any religious activities happening in his life. The fully surrendered life is one of increasing freedom and peace. God never intended for us to go through life feeling miserable and uncertain about our standing with Him. When we obey God‘s command to give Him everything, we step into a world where everything is extremely simple. Is there temptation in our path? We trust that God will have His way, and we leave room for Him to make us stand or fall. The fully surrendered Christian slowly learns that he no longer has to feel threatened by his lack of perfection. NOTHING MATTERS in this life except God being pleased. Once we know we have

that, we are free—free to enjoy our relationship with God as He walks with us through our earthly journey.

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For surrendered Christians, the answer to every dilemma is to look back to the day that they surrendered and to reflect on how secure they now are in God‘s hands. Satan wants us to think our walks must be terribly burdensome, yet total surrender ends up making our load lighter and lighter. The more we understand the implications of what we have done, the more fearless we become.

After all, once Satan can no longer threaten you with the possibility of God being disappointed in you, his arsenal is reduced to a set of water guns and paper balls. Once you really understand that God has invited you to give everything to Him in a permanent way so that you can be totally released from anxiety and striving, you find a peace that truly defies description. You can‘t explain it to Christians who haven‘t surrendered, for they will hear your confidence as arrogance and accuse you of carnal slacking because you are looking far too relaxed. After all, truly devoted Christians stress over daily devotions and drag themselves to church three times a week, right? Wrong. Truly devoted Christians throw all control out the window and invite God to have His total way in their lives. If He takes them to church, fine. If He doesn‘t, fine.

If He prompts them to read the Bible, fine. If He tells them not to bother, fine. Fully surrendered Christians end up really knowing who God is because they stop trying to limit Him. They let Him

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define Himself and they let Him constantly adjust and correct their thinking about Him. Fully devoted Christians don‘t need to argue with other Christians about what truth is, because they understand that it‘s a waste of time. Plus, they really don‘t care about how well other Christians understand things in life, because they know that the Holy Spirit is quite able to handle our spiritual development.

It is a truly glorious thing the day you wake up and realize that you are entirely in the hands of God, and that He has promised He will be pleased with you as surely as He‘s promised that your sins have been atoned for

by Christ. If you‘ve totally surrendered to God and you‘re still stressing about your growth—don‘t worry, the freedom will come. Take one day at a time with the Holy Spirit. Remember whose idea it was for you to ask God to totally take you over in the first place: it was His idea, not yours. He extended you an invitation—one that would shift the entire burden of faithfulness and maturity off of your shoulders and onto His forever. You took Him up on that invitation, and now it‘s just a matter of realizing what you already have. Surrender is like a second salvation for Christians—the first salvation frees us from eternal damnation, the second from the fear that we will fall short of pleasing God. Of course we‘ll fall short if we don‘t give Him everything He wants, which is everything. But if we do, well, then it‘s a whole different story. Then it‘s never a question of ―Is God pleased with me? Am I doing enough? Am I still on course?‖ When we take God up on His freeing invitation, we are truly set free. ―I know God is totally pleased with me. I know He is having His total way in my life.‖ These are the claims that the fully surrendered Christian can make.

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Real People

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How to Get God‘s Attention

42 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

How can we get God to pay more attention to us?

We are convinced that there must be a way, we just have to find it. Some of us pray other people‘s prayers, convinced that God loves some of us more than others and that if we use the prayers His favorites prayed, He‘ll pay more attention to us.

Others of us try to buy His attention by sending money to charities or dropping extra bills in the Sunday offering plate. Still others try the repentance route. We go to church out of guilt and confess our sins to priests. Or we routinely injure our bodies to convince God of just how serious we are about wanting to please Him. Still others of us try fasting, prayer retreats, and long vigils in some dark closet.

We figure if God sees us sacrificing our time and comfort on His behalf, He‘ll reward us with some special appearance. Or we figure He won‘t come unless He sees us fully focused on Him. Some of us try to hear His Voice speaking through the Bible, while others of us exhaust our adrenal glands at worship concerts trying to manufacture the sense that He is near. If God stays silent for too long, some of us get desperate enough to send Him an ultimatum. ―If You really love me, don‘t let me die,‖ we pray before jumping off a bridge or swallowing a handful of pills. But do any of these things really work? Not at all. The reality is that there is absolutely nothing we can do to make God pay more attention to us than He already does. When we try to get God to notice us, what we‘re really doing is refusing to believe that He is already giving us His complete attention.

But I sit down in a huff and say, ―I really thought you‘d like it. I don‘t know why you‘re refusing to read it.‖

Suppose I give you a book. One day as you‘re reading it, I walk in and say,

What can God do to convince us that He is paying attention to us? Well, we think He should show up in some way that our senses can detect. We think that if we can hear, touch, and see God, our minds will be put to rest. We‘re wrong. Why do you have to eat multiple times in a day? Why can‘t you just eat once and be satisfied from then on? Because your body consumes the energy from your food and needs to be refueled. Sensual experiences from God are like eating a good meal: they bring us real delight for a very brief period of time, but shortly afterwards we feel dissatisfied and hungry again.

God doesn‘t want us to go through life constantly searching for our next high. This is a miserable way to live, as any drug addict can tell you.

―Have you started reading that book I gave you yet?‖ You hold it up and say, ―Yeah, it‘s right here. I‘m really enjoying it.‖ But then I say, ―When are you going to read it? It‘s a good book.‖ ―Look, it‘s right here in my hands,‖ you say. ―I just started the third chapter.‖

At what point do you get tired of this conversation?

No matter how many times you tell me what you‘re doing, I refuse to believe you. This is how it is for God when we insist that He isn‘t paying close attention to us. He is holding us in His hands and giving us our every breath. He hears all of our thoughts, knows all of our feelings, remembers every moment of our past, and is directing every step we take. Yet we say He doesn‘t really care about us or pay much mind to us. We even say there are times when He forgets that we even exist.

Photo Credit by Shutterstock

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 43

Being dependent on sensual rushes in order to function in life is no good. God wants to give us something much more solid. Jesus once told a woman that He had a water that could permanently quench her thirst. He was referring to the kind of deep soul satisfaction that comes from living by faith instead of sight. When we learn to live by faith, we no longer need warm fuzzies to feel close to God. We don‘t need to get our pulses racing at a worship concert before we can be sure that He is with us. Strong faith is what makes you confident in your relationship with God no matter what your circumstances are. Strong faith abolishes the need for religious rituals and emotional hype.

as if He is another human being: we try to understand Him by comparing Him with ourselves and other people we have known. When He doesn‘t talk to us in a way that we can recognize, we assume it‘s because He has negative feelings towards us. We assume this because that‘s what WE do. WE would never intentionally not answer someone we liked, therefore we assume that if God is not answering us, it must mean that He doesn‘t like us. From the very beginning, we are interpreting God all wrong by expecting Him to behave in ways that make sense to humans. God doesn‘t make sense to humans. He only makes sense to Himself.

How do we get strong faith? Well, first we have to be weaned off of sight. This is very uncomfortable.

We humans are lazy and we don‘t like to have to work at things. When our faith muscles are all weak and flabby, we have a hard time using them. But with the Holy Spirit‘s coaching, those muscles will get stronger. How does the Holy Spirit get us there?

By turning our focus onto God.

It is because God knows how different He is from us that He intentionally gave us some very clear evidence of how much He loves us. He came down and walked among us for a while, then died for us on a cross. He specifically told us that He was dying for us because He loved us so much. For centuries before the cross, He spoke through the mouths of many prophets describing in great detail how much He loves us. He described our behavior on earth in great detail—proving how closely He was paying attention to us—and then He described His feelings about our behavior in order to demonstrate how emotionally invested He is in us.

Then He preserved records of many things that He did and said in what eventually became the Christian Bible just so we can constantly refer back to all this evidence of His great love for us at any time. In countless ways, God has proven over and over again that He loves us dearly, that every soul is equally precious to Him, and that He is intimately involved in our lives. Yet today most of us still don‘t believe Him. Sure, we quote verses like John 3:16 in church and pretend that we believe He really loves us, but when trouble comes, our behavior proves how shallow our beliefs really are. As we cry out for God to be with us, we prove that we don‘t think He really is. As we cry out for Him to help us, we prove that we think He has abandoned us. Every human struggles with the same core fears, we just express them in different ways. These fears are the reasons we don‘t believe the good things God tells us about who He is and how He views us. When we come to Him for salvation, God makes it His goal to begin lessening the fear in our lives by teaching us to live by faith.

Photo Credit by Shutterstock

Why don‘t we believe God when He says that He is intimately involved in every single one of our lives?

He is telling us the truth and He is trustworthy. He is not the problem. The problem is that our ability to trust is broken. We all have fears, insecurities and internal wounds which make us hesitant to trust God. When we first start a relationship with Him, we have a long list of preconceived notions about who He is and how He behaves. We try to relate to God

44 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

The next time you feel tempted to try and get God‘s attention, imagine Jesus standing right in front of you with His eyes fixed on your face. Imagine that He looks eager to listen to anything you have to say.

This is how things really are. You don‘t need to go through extra motions to try and make God notice you. Instead, you need to believe that you already have His complete attention and act accordingly.

Our prayers to God should sound like parts of an ongoing conversation. We don‘t need to introduce ourselves to Him or apologize for interrupting His work day. We need to talk to God as if we really believe He enjoys listening to us. Instead of asking ―Lord, please be with me today,‖ we should say, ―Thank You, Lord, for being with me today and always.‖ Instead of saying, ―God, please show me what to do,‖ we should say, ―I know You‘re going to guide me through this.‖ Instead of updating God about our needs as if He‘s been out of touch for a while, we should be remembering that He is intimately involved in every aspect of our lives. The language we use when we pray has a powerful effect on our faith. Depending on how you currently speak to God, you are either practicing faith or reinforcing doubt. The more you practice faith, the stronger your faith will become.

strong foundation of faith don‘t worry about whether or not God is paying attention to them.

Instead, their souls are filled with assurance that God loves them very much and is with them every moment.

Don‘t just focus on what you want right now, but think about where you want your relationship with God to go in the future. You can either spend your whole life as a spiritual baby—so dependent on sensual experiences that you never get past the basics—or you can mature into a mighty tower of faith that nothing can topple. God wants you to have His best. Choose His plan for your life. Ask Him to teach you how to live by faith and He will.

Read the comprehensive series outlining what it truly means to wear the 'Armor of God' and Make No Mistake: WE ARE AT WAR! Available for download or online reading

It‘s hard to feel confident that God is paying attention to you when you don‘t receive any sensual confirmation. It‘s even harder if you‘re around other Christians who are always talking about their spiritual highs and all the ―words‖ they‘re receiving.

But before you get too envious of them, remember that living by sight is a miserable way to live.

Christians who refuse to do the work of faith end up cowering in fear the minute their steady stream of warm fuzzies gets interrupted. They panic when they have to go too long between worship sessions. They feel spiritually drained and discouraged when they have to go a few days without getting a bunch of attaboys from other Christians. In short, they are addicts who are always looking for their next sensual fix. This is not the way God wants you to live. To experience His best for you, you must cooperate with the Holy Spirit and let Him teach you how to live by faith. It‘s tough at first, but it gets easier as you go along and the spiritual payoff is well worth it. Christians who are anchored on a

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 45

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Listen, If God is not glorified in everything we do, then we are simply wasting our time.

God must be glorified in our walk and in our talk. If this isn’t happening, well‌what’s the point in existing?

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Are You Unintentionally

Offending

God?

If we are maturing in the faith, the day will surely come when God opens our eyes to see that we‘ve been treating Him really rotten in some area of our lives. Perhaps He shows us that we‘ve been talking to Him very disrespectfully or clinging to some offensive theology. Perhaps He‘ll point out that we‘re engaged in some activity that He thoroughly hates.

48 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

Whatever it is, the news comes as a shock because this is the first time we‘ve seen this particular issue from His perspective. If we sincerely care about His heart, we will naturally feel terrible when this sudden revelation comes to us. Of course we‘ll rush to apologize, but words will hardly seem like enough to make up for the damage we‘ve done. In such a situation, it is vital that we understand what God expects from us and how we can get back in a good place with Him, for it can feel like there is now serious damage done to our bond with Him—and it‘s all our fault.

When people are deeply wounded by us, restoration of the relationship is not always possible. Humans are frail and they have memories like elephants when it comes to remembering who hurt them. There‘s nothing more devastating than being told by someone we love that it‘s too late for us to make amends. Here is a point you must fix in your mind: if you sincerely care about God, He will NEVER tell you that it‘s too late for you to make amends. There is enormous comfort to be found in this truth if we can just grasp it with our souls. But like so many things about God, this just seems too good to be true. After all, He has just shown us that we‘ve been seriously mistreating Him all this time and now we‘ve got a long record of terrible mistakes hanging between Him and us…or do we?

It‘s critical that we get a proper understanding of how God relates to us. First of all, He thoroughly delights in this whole Creator-creature dynamic for reasons that we can‘t begin to fathom. Secondly, He intentionally began our relationship in a fallen world where He knew our hurting Him would be inevitable. The most sincere among us will be guilty of treating God terribly on countless occasions before they leave this place. The more we understand who God is and how generously He treats us, the more horrific our treatment of Him will seem. It is simply not possible for selfish humans to treat our glorious God with the reverence and honor that He rightly deserves. The closer we get to Him, the more this impossibility will torment us and the harder Satan will work to make our failings the central focus of our souls.

All of God‘s kids are mistreating Him constantly and most of them aren‘t all that concerned about it. As a Christian who sincerely cares about God‘s feelings, you need to understand the compliment it is when He points out some specific area that He wants you to improve in. Because God does not force intimacy on us, He gives us the option to choose to keep Him at arm‘s length throughout life. The more we ignore we the Spirit‘s convictions, the less we will hear Him speaking to us. The concepts of ―numbing out your conscience‖ and ―quenching the Spirit‖ are very real. Many Christians foolishly value their ability to engage in worldly activities without feeling any uncomfortable prick of guilt, yet these Photo Credit by Shutterstock

souls are really in a very sad place. They have resisted God so much that He is increasing the distance between them, like a fisherman who allows the fish on his hook to swim further from the boat. Once we are His, God never lets us go and He never leaves us, but He will let us squander our lives in prodigal son type rebellion if that is what we desire. To these rebellious souls, God stops sharing His heart for He can see they don‘t care. Don‘t miss this point: it is a great privilege for God to communicate some specific way that you can honor Him more in life. When

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 49

He comes to you this way, He is giving you a personal invitation to draw nearer to Him and publicly honor Him in the spiritual realms by how you respond to His conviction.

When you respond to God‘s complaint with shock and distress, you greatly bless Him. Suppose a friend accidentally wounds your feelings and when you point it out to them, they gasp in horror and rush to apologize.

Would you not feel highly complimented to see evidence of how much they care about you? In the same way, when you are grieved to learn how you have mistreated God, your clear love for Him greatly blesses His heart.

None of us realize how many of His convictions are responded to with rolling eyes, huffy sighs, and snarky comments. God‘s kids constantly accuse Him of overreacting when He tries to share some insight on His sensitivity. Yet the fact remains that our God is extremely sensitive and reactive to how we treat Him. Remember that it is your heart God is focused on, not your external actions. When you really care about pleasing Him, He is extremely pleased and His convictions will not be delivered with a tone of harsh criticism. Let‘s be clear on this point: God doesn‘t spank kids who are obeying Him. If a father asks his child to do something and the little brat screams in protest, a whack on the butt may well be in order. But if a father knows his child is anxious to please, he will pull him onto his lap with a pleased smile and gently point out how some behavior needs to change. God is infinitely more discerning than the best of human fathers. He treats His children very differently depending on their heart attitude towards Him. If you are anxious to please God, you can be sure His tone with you will be very gentle and encouraging. Any harsh voice which enters your mind to emphasize how terribly you‘ve stumbled or how deeply you‘ve wounded God is not God at all, but a demon trying to discourage you.

Nothing makes Satan gag more than watching God‘s eyes light up in delight when His kids show sincere concern for His feelings. When your heart is troubled by the news that you‘ve been treating God badly in some area, Satan can hardly stand the enormous compliment this sends resounding through the spiritual realms. If Satan had his way, every Christian would scoff at their convictions and tell God to get over Himself. But, you are not every Christian, you are one of the rare ones. You are a soul that God can trust with specific requests because He knows you will rush to try and do whatever He asks. There are no words that can describe how precious such a soul is to God. He doesn‘t care about how many times you‘ve stumbled before or how many times you‘ll mess up in the future—what He cares about is your heart‘s response to Him right here and now. Do His feelings matter to you? Do you sincerely desire to please Him? If you can answer yes to both questions, then you couldn‘t be in a better place with God. The fact that He has made a request of you is not at all an indication that there is some permanent damage done or that He now expects you to grovel.

God has intentionally made it very simple to Photo Credit by Shutterstock

come back into alignment with Him: agreement with His perspective and a willingness to change are all that He ever requires. But don‘t miss this point: if you sincerely care about pleasing God, you never fall out of alignment with Him. Alignment is not about perfect obedience, it is about heart attitude.

In the Church we‘re often taught that our external actions are more important than our internal choices, therefore

50 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

porn addict who claims to really care about pleasing God yet keeps looking at dirty pictures is clearly a hypocrite.

Not so from God‘s perspective: your heart tells Him the real truth about your devotion to Him, not your behavior.

Notice that in the Bible God reserve the term ―hypocrite‖ for those who claim to please Him when they secretly don‘t, and for those who go through righteous externals with rotten hearts. In the Church we do just the opposite: we label these fakers as sincere while we label the truly sincere as hypocrites when they stumble into sin.

We all sin every day. We all stumble and constantly fall short. God wants it this way, for sin presents a perfect opportunity for us to honor Him by how we react to His convictions. Consider how dull it would be for God if we all went around acting like Jesus‘ clones. God is already perfect, He doesn‘t need more perfection from us. Far more exciting is the current situation in which His children are caught between a strong desire to sin and a desire to please Him. It is quite on purpose that He‘s put us in a context where honoring Him is the harder choice. Those of us who really want to please Him must continually fight against the carnal current of this world that is trying to push us into a state of rebellion. God has given us a wonderful opportunity to greatly exalt Him by setting us down in a fallen world. Without sin there would be no conviction which means no chances to do the hard thing for God.

If you really care about God, you naturally want opportunities to prove your devotion to Him in a public way.

Nothing speaks louder to God than a heart saying yes to Him. This world is like a dark corner compared to the huge brilliant stage of the spiritual realm. Make no mistake: a world traveling evangelist who is raking in thousands of converts a day can‘t begin to compete with the ruckus you‘re causing every time you show concern for God‘s feelings within the privacy of your own soul. As always, it is the things we label as insignificant that matter the most to God: what is unheard on earth speaks loudest in His realm—the spiritual realm. When He points out to you some way in which you can improve your treatment of Him; when He gently reveals something you‘re doing that upsets Him, He is really asking you to publicly honor Him by acting out the devotion He already knows exists. Be clear about this: God never doubts your feelings about Him, nor does He ask you to prove your devotion to Him. It is only blind humans who need external actions to convince them of internal realities that they can‘t see.

God knows exactly where He stands with you and anytime He asks you to do something specific, it is largely to show off to others. God loves being glorified and exalting Him in the eyes of others is one of the greatest compliments we can give Him. Realize that it is Satan‘s hatred of God which makes him try to leap upon you in these moments and convince you God is terribly wounded by your past treatment of Him. Of course just the opposite is true: God is so pleased that He can make such a request of you and know you‘ll actually care.

Christians who sincerely desire to please God are the greatest treasures He has in this world.

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 51

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25 Best Hair Tips Ever

By Jo Fairley

When it comes to hair tips, I‘m a sponge. Which has been very useful, over the years, spending time in the (salon) chair with some of the greatest names in hairdressing, from John Frieda to Nicky Clarke, Frederic Fekkai to Philip B., Charles Worthington to Adam Reed (of Percy &…) My aim, always, in whatever I do, is to walk away from any encounter with at least one invaluable nugget of info that I can use in life, moving forward – so here, I‘d like to share some of the tips and tricks I‘ve learned over the years that I hope will help ensure every day is a Good Hair Day, from now on.

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 53

1. Give hair a blast of cold air to set the style and seal the cuticles to add shine. If you need extra staying power, spray lightly with a light hold hair spray that will give hold without weighing the style down.‘

5. When most people get a new dryer, the first thing they throw away is the nozzle – but in fact, it‘s the most important part of your hairdryer, because it concentrates the heat and directs it where you want it.

6. If your hair is naturally very curly, apply a serum to wet hair and, using your fingers, twist random-sized sections into a ‗rope‘ and leave until completely dry. This will give a rippled wave effect.

2. You only need to wash hair twice a week – if you feel that‘s not enough, you‘re not using the right products, not rinsing them out properly or using too much. If you want to freshen up hair, just shower and condition it – you don‘t necessarily need to shampoo.

3. When hair is around 80% dry – in other words, it is just starting to feel dry – start using a brush to style. If you use it before then, you‘re wasting your time.

4. When drying your hair, always start with the fringe. This is the focal point of the cut, so it needs to be right. Once your fringe is dry, the rest of the style will fall into place.

7. What you eat can affect the overall condition of your hair and you can‘t expect to have shiny hair without a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. If you want to boost your diet with supplements to help your hair health then take vitamin B complex, zinc and Omega 3 to provide essential fatty acids. I swear by Ideal Omega IdealOmega3, as well as BetterYou B12 Boost Pure Energy Oral Spray.

8. The major cause of dull hair is too much shampoo and not enough rinsing. That dollop of shampoo takes about four minutes to rinse out properly. So use less and rinse much, much more.

9. If you‘re coloring your hair at home, toothpaste is great for safely removing any hair colour stains from skin.

54 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

10. Hair and scalp should be treated with the same TLC as your face and body. Give hair deep treatments in addition to regular shampoo-and-conditioning – up to twice a week for really damaged or dry hair. For maintenance (all hair types), deep treatments should be anywhere from once a week to once a fortnight. In addition, treat hair a day or two before having colour, a perm or relaxant, to minimize potential damage and help deposit the chemicals evenly.

11. Whatever method of drying you choose, when you‘ve finished, turn your head upside-down and, using your fingers, gently shake hair from the root. This can also be done to refresh an existing look.

12. Styling is all in the wrist action. But try switching the hand you hold the dryer in – you‘ll find it easier to make both sides look symmetrical, if that‘s what you‘re after. It feels tricky at first but practice soon makes perfect.

15. It‘s great to finish rinsing hair with a really cold rinse – it‘s not an old wives‘ tale: cold water really does help seal the cuticle, so hair is smoother.

16. Go with your hair. If it‘s curly, keep it curly. If it‘s straight, don‘t go for a perm or spend ages roller-ing it; you‘ll save yourself a hell of a lot of maintenance. The effects will never look natural if you try to fight your natural hair type.

17. When you have dried and styled your hair entice people towards it by spraying a cloud of perfume into the air and then walking through it. Hair holds scent really well, so this seductive little trick should create wafts of gorgeousness every time you flick and turn your head.

13. It‘s an old trick, but using beer as setting lotion gives tremendous volume – and no smell. Light ale is best.

14. Always get your colour and cut done at the same salon, and be sure the stylist and colorist are working together. Ideally, have the cut first, so the colorist can see what the stylist is trying to achieve. Besides, otherwise you may spend time and money having hair colored, only to see it snipped away immediately.

18. The best person to talk you through which products are best for you is your hairdresser; ask him or her to recommend the type of styling product which will maintain maximum shine on your individual hair – a mousse, gel, serum, or a spray – and Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 55

then demonstrate exactly how to use it: how much to use, how to work it through the hair, and at what precise stage of the blowdry to apply it.

19. You may not be aware of this, but you probably carry a lot of tension in your scalp.

Regular massage makes the scalp move much more flexibly – and increases blood flow to the hair follicles, boosting hair health. Use the fingers, pads and palms of your hands to make circular movements over the scalp, for at least three or four minutes, two or three times a week.

22. Avocado is great for healthy, shiny tresses. Mash an avocado with a tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of baking powder. Mix well and then work the mixture through the hair; wait 15 minutes and rinse off. This is an excellent deep moisturizing treatment for your hair.

23. Always pat your hair dry – don‘t rub it.

This causes less friction and encourages shine, because it keeps the cuticle (which reflects light) smooth.

20. Use an intensive conditioning mask every week and leave the treatment on as long as possible. Put it on, then paint your toenails, do your eyebrows and any other beauty treats before rinsing the treatment off. This gives time for the treatment to penetrate deep into the hair, and is the biggest single thing you can do to maintain gloss, shine and overall hair health.

24. Take a break from heat styling every now and then and let your hair dry naturally – especially if you‘re just staying at home, to help its overall condition.

21. Use a wide-toothed saw-cut comb to detangle – never a brush. Brushes are for styling purposes only.

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25. For instant volume when hair‘s gone flat, simply rub the hair between your fingers, almost like rubbing butter into flour to make pastry. It fluffs out each individual cuticle. It‘s something I‘ve often used in the studio for fashion shoots.

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6 Southern Recipes to Try This Thanksgiving

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 59

Southern Cornbread Dressing Ingredients 8 cups coarsely crumbled corn bread 4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped 1 medium green pepper, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

Directions

2 celery ribs, finely chopped Turkey giblets, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 1-1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350째. In a large bowl, combine first 10 ingredients. In another bowl, whisk eggs and broth. Add to bread mixture; stir until moistened.

2. Transfer to a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, 40-45 minutes or until lightly browned and a thermometer inserted near center reads 160째. Yield: 10 servings.

3 eggs, lightly beaten 3 cups chicken broth 60 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 40 min.

LONNÉE‘S COLLARDS Ingredients 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 2 tbsp. unsalted butter 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped 2 small yellow onions, minced 5 cups chicken stock

Directions

freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat oil and butter in a 6-qt. pot over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and cook, stirring often, until soft, 6–8 minutes; add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add collard greens, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until very tender, about 1 hour. Season with salt, pepper, and Chile flakes and serve immediately..

crushed red Chile flakes, to taste

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 10 min. Cook: 60 min.

1 1⁄2 lb. collard greens, stemmed and roughly chopped Kosher salt

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 61

Pecan Cranberry Salad Ingredients 1 12 ounce package fresh cranberries 1 cup water ½ cup sugar 1 4-serving-size package sugar-free low-calorie cranberry- or raspberryflavored gelatin 1 15 1/4 ounce can crushed pineapple (juice pack) 1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted

Directions 1. In a large saucepan, combine cranberries and the water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 3 minutes or until berries pop.

2. Remove from heat. Add sugar and gelatin, stirring to dissolve. Stir in undrained pineapple. Transfer to a serving bowl. Cover and chill about 6 hours or until firm. To serve, sprinkle with pecans. Makes 10 (1/3-cup) servings.

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 10 min. Chill: 6 hours

62 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

Baked Ham With Simple Peach Mustard Glaze

Ingredients

Directions

1 large ham, ready to cook, about 10 to 12 pounds

1.

2.

1 cup peach preserves or peach jam 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard

3.

4.

5.

Heat oven to 350째.

Place the ham on a rack, fat side up, in a large baking pan or roasting pan. Score the ham lightly all over with a sharp knife. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to the pan and cover tightly with foil.

Bake the ham for about 18 minutes per pound, or to an internal temperature of 148째.

Meanwhile, combine the preserves and mustard to make the glaze.

About 20 minutes before the ham is done, brush the ham all over with glaze ingredients.

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 10 min. Cook: 60 min.

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 63

Southern Pumpkin Pie Ingredients 1 (14.1 oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts 1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. buttermilk, divided PARCHMENT PAPER 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin

Directions 3/4 cup sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large eggs 1 large egg yolk

Total time: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes 64 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

Preheat oven to 425째. Fit 1 piecrust into a 9-inch metal pie pan according to package directions, pressing excess dough onto rim of pie pan. Cut shapes from remaining piecrust to use around pie edge. (We used a 1/2-inch round cutter.) Brush 1 Tbsp. buttermilk around pie edge; arrange shapes around pie edge, pressing to adhere. Brush shapes with 1 Tbsp. buttermilk. Prick bottom and sides of piecrust 8 to 10 times with a fork.

Line piecrust with parchment paper, and fill with pie weights. Bake 15 minutes.

2. Whisk together pumpkin, next 6 ingredients, and remaining 1 1/2 cups buttermilk in a large bowl. Pour mixture into piecrust.

3. Bake at 425째 for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325째, and bake 35 to 40 more minutes or until edge of filling is slightly puffed and center is slightly jiggly. Cool on a wire rack 1 hour. Store in refrigerator up to 2 days.

Southern Peach Cobbler

Ingredients 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions 3/4 cup milk 1/2 cup margarine, melted 1 (29 ounce) can sliced canned peaches, drained 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x9-inch baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Pour milk into dry ingredients, and then stir in melted margarine. Mix thoroughly.

3. Pour mixture into prepared baking pan.

Arrange peaches on top and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 15 min. Cook: 30 min.

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 65

A Word From the Lord

by Evangelist Nancy Turner When you are feeling lonely and seem like no one cares You don't even feel good about yourself you need a word from the Lord‌ My Brothers and Sisters we are on our way to the Holidays and there's so much pressure: We have to be careful not to get caught up but stay focus on the Lord: We have so much that we have to do to keep our life going in the right direction: Where to stay Focus (GOD'S WORD) Psalms: 119:11 thy word have I hid in mine Heart that I might not Sin against thee: How stay Focus to keep our direction toward God and his will: Luke 9: 23 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me: And I will fast pace world, it is easy to get caught up in the daily grind and Lucite about your purpose in life the worship of God. Each believer, is driving to remain focused upon God has his or her own way of keeping the focus. Each individual needs are different. One person might minimize the scripture verse each week another might have a private Bible study each morning in another might have a sharing the gospel message with at least one person every week each of these things keep Christ at the forefront of one's mind.

Do not let any part of your body become a tool that we could we wickedness to be use for sinning. Instead give yourself completely to God since you have been given a new life and use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. Remember God is your God even doing the time of pressure and in the holiday this is: THE WORD FROM GOD. My Sister and my Brother that is a Word from the Lord‌..Amen

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 67

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Diane Waltman My Story

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 69

I was sexually, mentally, emotionally and verbally abused by my grandfather as far back as I can remember. Most survivors have been taught to keep their abuse a secret. This silence has been in the best interest only of the abusers not the survivors. Now does it protect the children who still have contact with the abuser? Many survivors have a compelling desire to speak out. Yet whenever you consider breaking the code of silence, you are putting yourself in danger of feeling fear and confusion. In order to understand the strength of these feelings, you must remember that you are emerging from a context of severe cultural and personal repression.

You are exercising your power, which you have every right too. There are three rules in a violent and abusive home: ―Don‘t tell,‖ ―Don‘t trust,‖ ―Don‘t feel.‖ To break any one of these rules means punishment, rejection and alienation. Children do not instinctively know how to suppress feelings.

When people especially children, as I was at the age of five, their minds, wills and emotions may be tremendously damaged.

They may become negative, suspicious, critical, judgmental, worried and unsettled. They may also become what I call mentally deep, always reasoning, always trying to figure everything out, always asking why me? I put my trust in him; after all he was my Grandfather. If I couldn‘t put my trust in him, who could I put my trust in? How can I take care of myself? How can I keep life under control so I don‘t get hurt anymore? The problem with such a deep thinker is that he or she never gets to enjoy life. In almost every case, an abuse victim like myself, will be deeply rooted in shame and will develop a shame-based nature. Because of my Grandfather, I felt shame and rejection during the next five decades. During my abuse, I built this wall around me; and I would never let anyone in.

Who would ever want me? In my mind I was damaged goods.

When I think about where I was and how God rescued me and brought me through all of my pain and misery, I want to help as many people as I possibly can to have hope and believe what God can do for them. If you‘ll trust God to write a

70 Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov 2015

beautiful story through your life, you‘ll find purpose in your pain as God takes your mess and turns it into His message. I‘m sharing my story because many people have been through similar struggles.

God wants to share my story so you may be restored by God‘s mercy and grace.

Hope is a powerful, spiritual force that is activated through our positive attitude. I have been assured and know that God being a partner in their labor all things work together and are fitting into a plan for good to and for those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose (Romans 8:28). What Satan means for harm, God intends for good. All things work together for good for those who love God. Satan wants to hurt you and have you spend your life distrusting everyone because somebody hurt you when you were a child, while you were in school, in your marriage, on your job.

The list of who, what, where and how you can be hurt is endless.

My story was written with a prayer that the truth of God will be known in your heart as you reflect on Jesus, in everything He has done for you. "For He knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you." It's only by Faith that I can begin to comprehend how you can take someone like me and declare me righteous. Your mercy overwhelms me. Your grace is beyond anything I have ever known. Thank you for clothing me with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and freeing me from

the bondage of trying to earn my way to You. I do know, if there's anything that comes from my life, it will be you doing it through me. I thank you my Jesus, for the power of my salvation keeping me close to your heart. You are my hope, my fortress and my strength. I take everything that I'll ever be in my life and release it all to You, My Savior.

That‘s why I‘m telling you my story. You need to know how good God is and that your struggle is worth it.

One of the strongest foundations on this earth is FAMILY Steps for a Strong Foundation in Jesus Read the Bible Together Pray Together Go to Church Together Communicate with Each Other

If you will give your life to Christ and really trust God, you can be completely healed and restored so you can live the life Jesus died for you to have. ―Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.‖ Romans 15:13

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The Best Kept Secret For Healthy Hair, Radiant Skin and Strong Nails

by Shabir Daya Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 73

Is It Possible To Get Healthy Hair, Skin And Nails From A Pill?

Your hair and skin are one of the first things that people notice when they see you for the first time. Equally important are your hands including your nails since these tell a lot about you and your life. It is for this reason that it is vital to take care of these and yet many people simply do not acknowledge that that their daily lives are influenced by their hair, skin and nails. But did you know that the health of our hair, skin and nails are all connected?

Our skin is a unique organ that can tell us what is going on within our bodies. Perhaps we may have a vitamin deficiency or an illness and that is reflected through our skin‘s appearance.

As a natural extension of our skin are our hair and nails. The condition, dryness and texture of our hair again reflects what is occurring within our bodies and likewise the colour, brittleness ,and the general condition of our nails is indicative of our overall health. For example, sudden hair loss may be indicative of a new drug use, stress, mineral deficiencies including iron and illness. A bluish tint of nails is indicative of oxygen deficiency caused by poor circulation and a reddish cherry tint is often associated with iron deficiency.

So who does not want to have healthy hair, radiant skin and strong nails? If you are looking to achieve radiant skin, healthy hair and strong nails then consider silica as your new best friend.

So what is Silica and just what is its role in the body?

Silica is a relatively unknown mineral which is absolutely astounding bearing in mind what it does for the body, which is nothing short of miraculous. Also known as Silicon, it is a combination of silicon and oxygen, the two most abundant elements on our planet. It is within the grass that herbivores eat whilst meat eating animals have much less of it within their bodies. Silica is found in many vegetables including leafy greens and onions as well as whole grains.

Silica is absolutely essential to bone growth and for the development of the body. When you are young, your body has abundant levels of silica which is why children normally have beautiful silky hair, soft skin and perfect nails. We are born with large amounts of silica and low amounts of calcium and as we age, we lose silica and our bodies deposit calcium in our glands which leads to what is termed ―calcification‖ of our tissues and the eventual loss of gland functions. Calcium requires vitamin D3 for its absorption but it also requires silica for the utilization of calcium into building strong bones and teeth. A calcium deficiency is invariably associated with a deficiency in silica. Several studies have indicated that people with broken bones heal a lot quicker when silica levels are high irrespective of their calcium levels in the bloodstream. In fact, without silica your body could break apart!

Silica also promotes proper mineral balance between calcium and magnesium within the body. This mineral balance in turn helps with hormonal balance. This hormonal balance in turn is important because it is precisely hormonal imbalances that lead to osteoporosis. By achieving hormonal balance and its ability to enhance bone mineralization, silica is invaluable in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis and ideally every good calcium supplement should have some silica within the formulation.

Silica energizes the immune system and it is thought that its action on alkalizing the body may have a lot to do with this property. The alkalizing property of silica is important because an acidic environment within the body

often as a result of poor dietary choices, results usually in a compromised immune system and illnesses. Silica is also required for the manufacture of antibodies and antigens both of which are essential components of a healthy immune system. Consuming this mineral along with healthy dietary choices and an exercise plan will help to restore healthy pH levels within the body.

Silica is used by every single cell and every internal gland within our bodies. Silica has an impact on strengthening the cardiovascular system as well as the central nervous system which relies of calcium and magnesium for the optimal transmission of nerve impulses. Silica also may be of value in the elderly for offering protection against Alzheimer‘s since it counteracts aluminum's effects on the body by aiding its removal.

So how is Silica of benefit for skin, hair and nails?

Silica may be of great value when the skin begins to sag which obviously makes us look prematurely aged. One of the biggest components of collagen is actually silica. Since collagen is the connective tissue that makes up most of our skin, it is not difficult to realize the importance of adequate silica levels within our bodies. Having sufficient and well toned collagen will make our skin look soft and young which in turn helps with suppleness and an increased capability of being moisturized.

Whenever collagen is damaged in skin, and incidentally this is occurring all the time due to free radical damage, silica is required to take care of this by rebuilding and regenerating this connective tissue. Incidentally, silica is also an excellent supplement in combating mild to moderate acne. It does so by firstly enhancing collagen production which ensures healthy outer cell layers of the skin which are less likely to get inflamed from the hormonal waste that is connected with acne. Additionally, silica supplementation is great for the removal of toxins which arise as a result of digestion. These toxins normally seep into the bloodstream and cause inflammation leading to acne and dull lifeless skin!

Silica is a vital mineral when you are shedding your hair excessively leading to hair loss and it also helps both women and men for lack luster and thinning hair. It is important to understand how silica works to achieve healthy looking vitalized hair.

Silica‘s role for hair health appears to be twofold. Firstly, as mentioned above, silica helps to achieve hormonal balance. An imbalance in the female sex hormones is one of the biggest single causal factors for hair loss and the thinning of hair. An intake of silica will most definitely help to prevent hair thinning, restore vitality to hair and may even address hair loss without the need for hormone mimicking herbs. This property is particularly suitable for those with cell mutation associated with excess estrogen.

Secondly, silica bonds with many minerals in the body as mentioned above. Aside from removing aluminum from the body, silica takes many nutrients to the peripherals of the body, namely the hair, skin and nails, and thus ensures that the hair follicles are supplied with all the vital minerals necessary for hair growth and vitality.

Your nails are one of the hallmarks of beauty in modern culture. If you are not happy with the state of your nails, whether they are brittle, have spots on them, ridges or simply are not happy with the way they look, then silica supplementation may be beneficial . As mentioned above, silica takes all the nutrients to the nails helping not only to impart strength but also feeds the nail bed with all the vital nutrients for encouraging healthy and strong nails.

Blessed Magazine Oct/Nov. 2015 75

Aside from its role in hair, skin and nails, silica‘s much wider role throughout the body means that we really have to ensure that we do not have a deficiency in this important mineral. Silica is found in numerous vegetables and fruits and very little research has been carried out as to the possible deficiencies that exist in the general population though it is generally accepted that with silica‘s wide role of activity, deficiencies are more than likely.

Sources of Silica Animal sources provide much lower levels of silica than plant sources. The refining and processing of foods reduces the amount of silica content, and soils are often depleted of this mineral. Good food sources of silica include unrefined cereals, apples, cherries, almonds, oranges, fish, oats and seeds. Unfortunately, most of the silica rich foods that are consumed provide silica as alumina-silicate or silica in a non-bio-available form again accounting for possible deficiencies.

Supplements are the best deficiencies and these are herb Equisetum arvense, Springtime Horsetail, or referred to as Bamboo.

source of correcting silica generally derived from the commonly referred to as Bambuosa vulgaris, often

Most silica supplements supply this important mineral by using Horsetail extracts which unfortunately only supply between 5% and 8% of organic silica depending upon the brand. Supplements containing Bamboo Extract are the richest source of silica containing 70% of organic silica which is roughly ten times more potent for a more prominent effect on healthy hair, skin and strong nails.

Bamboo Extract helps: To build healthy bones, teeth and nails, helps prevents wrinkles and keep skin beautiful, helps promote growth of thick, beautiful hair.

Bamboo Extract is not a supplement for the young who have an abundance of silica. If you are in your forties then it is very likely that you will be deficient in silica. If you care about the state of your hair, skin and nails, then ensure that you obtain your silica from one source – Bamboo Extract!

Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by a clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner.

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