Hugs of Dreams

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_OWXs5yjmX/?igsh=MXJ1MDJsaDNqNXl2dQ==

... Sometimes, a hug is more than I can ask for, further than a dream, grander than a fantasy. The ones I do receive, pass all too quick, cherish as I may, it's no great desire to show such longing in something so ... simple. 

Now, if only I could fathom telling... no, I dare not think such mockery. For there is much yet to fulfill. 

*I enjoy being for others, encouraging and intentionally determined to ensure they know they are needed. Lately, I have been lacking, I know this, yet I also understand I have been running dry myself. A spring without water is useless to others, and disregarded by any passerbys. All the while it needed only to given time to refill and rendered as meaningful*

A Father's Letters

There are few people, in comparison, that if given the chance to know their father they would take every chance they could. To know what he looked like, what he sounded like, what kind of man he was, what did he stand for, how he became the man he was/is, and how did he become a father. Whether or not the father was present or not, whether he was a good father or not, most individuals want to know THEIR father. 

As of late I'm been given a new perspective on our Father, as the image and identity of a father becomes distorted and even rebuked the more I revere and protect it's integrity. Not all of us know our father sometimes for what some consider better, but it's never better to not have or know our father. As the essential role of a father has been proven and explained in great detail throughout history and even ammist the very defilement of their place in society and families. To no degree does take away the pivotal role to make a father's role complete, a mother is just as essential as the father, for without one or the other, the roles are not fulfilled. Try as one or the other may, they will never be the fullness they were intended to be without the other.

Regarding the new perspective, and with keen focus on the desire to know one's father, it comes as this: with all the desire to know one's father of man, we are gifted greatly with the very letters written by our Father in Heaven and compiled into one binding book, The Holy Bible. 

This new perspective is not to deminish the significance of the word of our Father God, rather to engage it with new mind and understanding, that God, our Father, provided these letters, this book that recalls His presence, who He was, who He is, what He values, how He became our Father, and why He wants you and me to know Him. 

If we were to examine the Old Testament, we will find it expresses our Father's heart, who He is, and what He values. Much like reading the recounting of our Father creating relationships, establishing convenants, and holding to His word. Building great recognition throughout the lands and nations far and wide, those that did not know our Father came to respect and revere His authority. The stories tell of how our Father, God took upon a people that no others knew or feared and made them great. Like a King, He went before His warrior's in battle, and a kinsman He listened and yearned for the hearts of His people. 

As time goes on, His children rebel against His word and the convenants they made with God, our Father. With patience and love He allows them to follow their hearts desire, only to have them call on our Father again and again, to save and restore their place with Him. Which He does, for our Father has always loved His children, even if they do not love and keep their word, our Father remains true to His word.

Furthermore, in the Old Testament, we are given insight to the way our Father communicates with other's. With both metaphors, parables, stories, as well as direct literal statements, we are able to here the fullness of who our Father is and what we might expect to be a conversation or even some light hearted moments to enjoy one on one, or as a gathering with our Father, God.

Such letters from the Old Testament, are much like talking or hearing about our Father from old friends, business cohorts, political officials, and older brothers and sisters regarding a time before we were born or aware of the Father our God was.

Reading into the New Testament, we are giving more insight to the Father our God is and why He wants us, His children, to know Him. Not only that we are told by many brothers and sisters how our Father, God, sacrificed His only begotten Son for all of His other children, even before we knew our Father, He have up His only begotten Son. What Father does that? What Father will give up His only begotten Son for another one of His children who does not even know either of them, and may not even want to know them? 

If we continue reading we are told how our Father, God always knew we were good, that He Loves us, and that our Father God is keeping His convenants with our brothers and sisters even though they are no longer able to keep theirs. These letters of our Father share both His word, as well as His heart for His family. For you and me to know who we are and how we will take our place in our Father's House. Our brothers and sisters of the New Testament also share further how we are to live as our Father has, as our God instructs, and as our King provides that we may take part in His kingdom. 

Throughout both the Old and New Testament, we are given different perspectives on our Father God, and the example we are to follow, that we may be as blessed as God our Father desires to pour out upon us. This compilation of letters are for our Father God's children to have and become intimately aware of their Father, as He desires to be close with you and me. May we read them with a heart of a yearning son or daughter that seeks to know and be with their Father, not in this life, rather for all time. 

I pray, as we read our Father God's letters that we begin to hear His voice, see His face, and follow His will, for it is for our good that we listen, we believe, and we obey. Amen.

To Another Time

Does anyone else believe we are missing a lot of insight and understanding that made ancient cultures far more advanced and prosperous than any culture today? 

To give examples from even the most basic aspects of living:

- We are taught that forgiveness is a gift to give others, when the reality is it is a gift to ourselves that we offer another to take part in.

- The power of one's true name, most no longer offer any assurance by their own name anymore, yet before it was not only your name but your father's name that provided assurance and demanded respect.

- The benefits and vitality of grounding, we are told that more comfort, cushioning, and insulating is good for our body's and will help us feel better. Before, though, the people would walk barefoot or with mere leather sandals and not have the joint issues, inflammation, and even muscle problems we have today with less contact with the ground, when there's even decades of science to prove this.

- Frequency; between the audible and inaudible, we have insanity and chaos all around us in the sounds of so many kinds and volumes. Yet in the ancient worlds there was not such sounds even in the midst of chaos, and not nearly were they so constantly overwhelming. From Nicholas Tesla, to the Mayans, to the Romans, and in Asia the abilities of frequency has been well documented, to both well-being and harm.

- Numbers, the relationship and understanding of numbers has been severely lost in recent generations, so much so the actual desire to learn math and all that it explores is all, but lost. Yet, the cultures long ago, far and wide, used great and in-depth understandings of numbers and their relationship to everything they see and experience in order to draw conclusions and understand the world and space they lived. Such significance has been lost, but just as they had done it can be done again.

The cultures of long ago were able to do things that today the best minds and even historians cannot comprehend doing even with our own advancements, the people of the past took better care of the body even in harsher and despairing times, yet with all the ease and comforting conditions cannot. I wonder the things often in hopes that maybe I am not the only one and a new way of living, thinking, and interacting with each other, the world and the space we live may become better and blessed.

To Like & To Love

~ To Like & To Love ~

For ages the history of humanity has survived with an infants understanding of 'love'. Yet, in the last century it has lost all understanding of what it is to like and what it is to love. While many different languages and cultures carry more than one definition even multiple words to describe how and one likes and loves, since English seems to change it all with one word of each it is the most confusing and misunderstood.

Seemingly, many merely like something, someone, a feeling, a situation, or a result, yet when there because a great dwelling of intense liking, we automatically go to thinking it's love. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of vocabulary and words to express this jump is now not even a baby step, in implication or context, one will throw love to another, to which at one time was a heavy and intentional weight to pass much like a ton of gold, while now it's no more than a text of a catchphrase or passing suggestion. With this the significance of the vast difference between one's liking and loving has become nearly void of differentiation, but there are those who still feel the weight and intention of loving not simply liking and need to know the difference.

-To prefrace myself, I am no expert, I have lived, I have loved, and I had learned, my understanding comes from these gifts of experience and the understanding from God's word and his example in my life-

If one was to make a simple distinction and attribute a clear difference between liking and loving it would be; selflessness. Anything less than for which one would not lay down not only their life, but also their own desires, their own well-being, and their own understandings, is to 'like' someone, something, a feeling, a situation, or a result. And yet, to love is still even more limited than the opposite of what it is to like. 

For one could be so distraught and give up their own life in selfishness. One may also allow another to control them in a relationship to which their own desires become forgotten. One may be addicted to drugs, food, perversion, greedy, or other things that take away from their own well-being. One may acknowledge lies and deceit on place if their understanding of the significance of life and happiness due to appetizing promises. These are not love, so as simple as selflessness may be too address the difference between to like and to love, there is far more that most be understood and these can be found in God's word: 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:1‭-‬13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

- https://bible.com/bible/59/1co.13.13.ESV 

This is given by the author of love and the example to which we should strive, anything beyond or less is for personal attribution. And with selflessness we see the details encompassed by God's word and clarity defined.

The Truth and Where It Lays

 ~ The Truth and Where It Lays ~

As truth is being ravaged, feared, and pulled apart for each to disguise as their own, The Truth lays as defined and steadfast as throughout all time. With the scarcity of definitions being upheld many simplistic words, understanding, and dialogues are refuted as overwhelming and even lies due to so many forgetting or not knowing the meaning and intention of the words they cast from their lips. A truth is still part of The Truth, and without an consistent communal definition and understanding this pure foundation then no words, phrases, understanding, lessons, or dialogues are to gain only to depart our real desire and connections. 

The Truth is significant in many ways whether for an individual or a group, but especially a community. As it is The Truth that harmony, order, and consistent understanding is communicated. Without The Truth we are all speaking in tongues to which no one cannot communicate to any other even if they use the same words the understanding and intention is gibberish and disassociated. Upon The Truth great nations are created, families are formed, and lives are built throughout history. The Truth must be laid to rest and remembered without question and beyond doubt. 

Much like a puzzle piece The Truth can have various points, it can connect from different directions, the details in each aspect can be different, and what each mind that puts it together may see and point out unique understandings, yet the puzzle The Truth remains one in the end, even if some pieces are lost or overlooked the puzzle, The Truth, is and will remain absolute no matter who puts it together, what point they start, how they decide to view its entirety, none of it changes the reality and intention of the puzzle, just as The Truth. Even if one puts the incorrect pieces together altering the process, the image, causing a rift in the uniformity of it in the entirety, the puzzle has only one real end result, The Truth is always one no matter how distorted another may make it, no matter how long it takes for someone to realize there are pieces and details overlooked or misplaced, the puzzle only has one outcome, The Truth was, is, and will always be. 

Who knows The Truth? Only those that have partaken in the puzzle. One of the hardest parts of knowing The Truth or understanding 'your truth' is the devaluation and disrespect for who knows the truth. In one common instance, how someone feels is The Truth only they can know, whether they know the entirety of how to put the piece together, in detail, understandings, or means of conveying does not deflect the value and respect others should have for The Truth as only one can know. Should others want to guess, make their own connection, or draw their conclusions, this does not change the fact only one owns and knows The Truth of what's inside them.

When reflecting on situations in which one or more directly or indirectly partake in the puzzle (or ratehr the situation at hand) only of these, that are actively seeing the puzzle and putting it together for others to see and understand are to be valued and respected, even when in conflict with what others are doing and seeing. For The Truth is full and vast, unique yet carries a wide variance, so when we are seeking The Truth, no one can tell 'their truth' there is only one, yet they can provide their piece of The Truth with due value and respect. 

Should any decide to lie in the midst of providing for the desire of The Truth, all who have no part in The Truth must be far more diligent when facing false understanding, or perhaps their own limitations of understanding. Lies are everywhere, yet so is The Truth, and while lies can remain and spread more devastation than wildfire or disease, in the end lies will be known for they are, and so with The Truth. Even better yet, The Truth is the one that will set you free. 

Again upon The Truth history has been reveal and passed on to us and the future. Upon The Truth individuals are to be valued and respected for The Truth they hold and provide. Upon The Truth we will building understanding, lessons, and dialogues with wonderful intention and meaning. Upon The Truth we can rest as it lays assured that it was, it is, and it always be, whether you or anyone else believes it, but remember only The Truth can set you free. 

Intention of Marriage

It is intriguing that so many that profess not to be religious continue to partake in the most intimate act of being with Christ. 

Many of you know that the followers of Christ are also called the bride of Christ, and the coming of Jesus is to be the act of Jesus taking his bride as his own.

If we also look back to the tradition of marriage throughout time, it has indeed changed in the arrangements before the ceremony, but until recently the understanding of what it means after has been very consistent. It has remained that a man and a woman become one. And as one, they become the fullness of God's image and love upon the earth. 

For those that do not believe this, nor wish to live this example, you are not getting married, you are signing a legal document, having a drunker's party, and become the next statistic of why the false union did not work, nothing more than a criminal in court, a undisciplined individual on a Saturday night, or a lost soul commiting death upon their life.

By understanding the foundation of what "marriage" means, what it was created and continues to be for; as two become one, to leave their father and mother, to create a home and family under God, as a living example of God's fullness on earth, extraordinary blessings and joys will abound. 

Marriage is not legal or religious, it is an intimate union created and maintained by God, for His Son and his bride, as they bear the image and love of God for each other and the world. 

Maturity

~ Maturity ~

Growing up with an older brother and our dad, it was a gift to spend so much time with them playing sports, wrestling, and teaming up trying to beat our dad. Thing I became aware of very quick was the fact we had all this energy and were ready and wanting to use it to out run or even just out last or dad. Thing was while we may have gained an upper hand at some points, even with it being 2 to 1, our dad would constantly win.

As I observed, even though we had all this energy and would be running circles around him, he would stand still, being aware, and only moving or speaking when needed. Using his mind, body, and energy with intention and control. Even though it caught me off, I could see the benefits of what he was doing and how it played out as a kid growing up. 

As I grew up and learned more I started to realize that the manner in which my dad was playing, was a direct example of how maturity is used as understood. As children we have an abundance of energy, of thoughts, of emotions, yet little to no idea how to control any of them. As we go through life, we learn from interacting with other's, from trying different ways of control and freedoms. Essentially even without knowing or thinking about it, we are constantly going through extensive trial and errors. Even as adults some find a good balance of energy and control, the initial expression of maturity. 

As we have more experiences and lose our energy we began understand the things and people worth using the limited supply of energy we have, yet at the same time being mindful of where and when to use it. This is the next level of maturity that I have observed and experienced. I used to waste do much energy and time, yet recently I am becoming surprisingly aware of the ability I have to control my energy and use it in more appropriate times and manners. 

I recall me and I my dad playing basketball one on one, I was a grown teenager and actually about the same size or bigger than my dad at that time. I still had more energy than he did, and as I thought I had more strength than he did, so I continued to try to drive in for layups. To no avail. Even though I was bigger, stronger, and had more energy than my dad, he used his body with control and intention, he didn't waste it chasing the ball, or going for fakes, he stayed in the lane and stopped me from getting to the hoop. If there's one example I know of maturity it was my dad keeping me from the hoop. 

People are going to try to get past your own understandings, their going to try and get your goat, their going to want you to use up all your energy chasing lies and empty statements, but with maturity you know this and you know what you need to do to stop them from getting to the hoop. They may have more energy and try running around in chaos, they may be bigger and stronger in their attempts, but with maturity none of that matters. What others say and do is not worth your energy and the determination to achieve your peace in life. 

I still await the last piece of maturity I have be able to observe, the ability to not care what others think or say about me. It's a maturity that is carefree and enjoyable.