Tag: love

Series: Decor-Eclectic Style

Myrnaly

The second style of decoration that we will study is eclectic. It is a style that has the impression of being easy to decor, but it is the opposite.

The meaning of eclectic is “deriving ideas, styles, and tastes from a wide variety of sources.”

It is also said that we can apply the definition to describe a type of person: “it is a person who derives ideas, styles, and tastes from a wide variety of sources.”

Based on that, eclecticism is spoken of as a philosophy of life. It is said to denote membership in a class of ancient philosophers who did not belong to or were founded under any recognized school of thought but to collect doctrines from various schools of thought.

All that philosophy sounds great because it draws the best ideas from different sources. In our case, Christians are going against the tide of the diversity of this world because our foundations, doctrines, and principles are based on the Scriptures and they do not expire or go out of date. The one who wrote the scriptures is eternal and knows all times. God knows the times that we have not yet lived. With such knowledge in his omniscience and wisdom, he is the only one who can give a word that applies to all the times that human lives.

The color palette in the eclectic style is very varied since it is about including variety in the style. It is not only about mixing a variety of colors, but a variety of textures, ethnic elements from different countries, and decoration materials are used.

It may seem very easy to create this style and many people lead the concept to a misperception since the difficult thing about achieving a successful style is being able to create a harmony that can bring together all those colors that collide with each other, those different styles and those. textures that are superimposed on each other, to achieve a beautiful room in its cohesion of elements that could be on the cover of a decoration magazine.

This leads me to reflect on how God creates the church of sinful people with different cultures, social classes, ages, levels of education who come to Him repentant through faith in Jesus Christ, whom He places as the head of this body made up of different parts. And not only that, we have people with different temperaments and personalities, different childhood backgrounds and experiences, hurts, grudges, and battles that through God’s love can coexist in perfect harmony and reflect beauty and light.

It is through the head, which is Christ, that the body can function cohesively since the rest of the body has the struggles of emotions, desires, and impulses. In a style where such diverse parts must come together, each part cannot seek to shine by itself but must flow in search of the whole picture.

As a result of the great diversity that exists in people, God in his wisdom gave us different gifts to exercise together. To meet different needs, different gifts are required, all guided with the same purpose. God has thought of everything! I must delight in the grace that he has showered on me that leads me to serve him in specific tasks, necessary for the edification of the church, and to carry the message of the Cross to those who should listen to it.

The eclectic style is one of the most difficult but when it is worked with skill, it is a true work of art. Each piece of decoration is not seen as isolated, but rather contributing to the room that holds them.

Let’s learn to appreciate and love our differences by seeing it as one work, the work of Christ in this world. From that perspective, we can only surrender so that it is God who places us in the place where we will be best seen, and we make the decorator shine and not each individual piece.

Let us pray to the Lord giving thanks that his wonderful work includes us, uses us for his glory, and makes us part of his family and his church. May it guide us to know our gifts and the use that we must give them so that we do not clash with our brothers in the faith, but on the contrary, we work together with the same goal, and others can admire and praise the Creator.

Need for light in the dark night

Myrnaly

I think we all agree that these times of pandemic have changed all of our plans and our routines. The physical distancing has made it difficult for us to do some tasks, to be able to share quality time with those we love and we see how the churches have also been affected.

Meditating on the Lord about these times, it came to my mind the times when the apostle Paul was locked up, in jail, and isolated from the plans he had about his missionary trips. But did Paul put his ministry on pause because he was isolated? Definitely not.

From prison, he influenced people, continued to cultivate his relationship with God, and wrote letters that are part of the Bible as we know it today. The power of God and his work does not stop at four walls. It only took a man called by God, who in complete humility and disposition placed himself in the hands of God.

We read verses like the ones I shared in the beginning and we often raise praise to God telling him to use us, to do his will, but do I make myself available? I am willing? When they call for volunteers for an assignment, do I volunteer?

The world is full of people who go with the flow. The world needs people who remember that they are the church of God and that the church is not made up of a building or a meeting place. Can those who see me say that they understand what the church is? Do you see the character of God in us? How have the lives around me been impacted on a daily basis?

These times call for creative, special measures. All we can accomplish is by the grace of God. What prevents me from serving? What prevents me from saying “here I am”?
Our ministries don’t stop. If I have stopped my ministry and am not doing anything, I must present myself in complete humility and transparency before God and ask him to help me and direct me to act according to his will. What we lack is probably direction, because training is always from God. All the good we can do comes from Him.

In times of greater darkness, the stronger the church must shine, reflecting the light of Christ. It is at night that the moon shines the brightest. The moon has no light of its own, it reflects sunlight. Although we can see it during the day, in the presence of the sun it doesn’t make much difference. It is in difficult times that the church must consecrate itself and be a reflection of God and not the world. If my drawback from serving is my job, my entertainment, my economic situation, that I hope others will do it or that I do not feel qualified, the root of everything is the status of my relationship with God.

Let us pray to the Lord to help us to be the church that the world needs and not people who get confused with the current of this world. May we make ourselves available before waiting for others to come and we can understand the privilege of being used by the Lord to carry his message. May we recognize that there is nothing in us that enables us to produce spiritual fruit except the Holy Spirit who indwells us and convicts and directs us according to God’s Word and his will. May we finally surrender to the Lord and say: “Here I am.”

Looking upright

Myrnaly

I have an infection in my left ear that urgently needed a doctor. Yesterday I finally got an appointment and the doctor prescribed treatment in ear drops and antibiotic pills.

For the drops, he instructed me to put 7 drops in the affected ear, and for several minutes to be with my head inclined so that the drops would stay there. After three minutes or so, I had to turn my head to the other side to remove the excess fluid from the ear.

For that purpose, I lay down on the sofa in the living room to be comfortable. While I was waiting lying on my side, I began to observe the house. Everything looked different from that perspective. I was staring at the ceiling, which I didn’t normally see while walking.

I was thinking about how when we are young children, we see everything from another perspective and everything changes as we grow up. Likewise, when we are spiritual children, recently converted to the gospel, we see everything differently.

I remember that time when I did look up a lot because I longed to follow God’s will in everything. I wanted to have that communion every day, to pray frequently, to read the Bible with that thirst for knowledge. But as we walk, we lower our gaze to what is in front of us. Circumstances, problems, changes in life occupy all our attention and we stop looking “upwards” where we can find in God all the answers we need, the forces that will support our weaknesses and the peace to be able to bear the trials.

Many times we are overwhelmed and we only have to look to God, who sees us as his children and wants to guide us. We must set our sights on enjoying the presence of God in our lives and giving glory to God in the midst of all circumstances.

Let us pray to the Lord presenting every situation that overwhelms our minds. Let us humbly acknowledge that we depend on Him and cannot carry everything ourselves. May his Holy Spirit guide us and we seek to cultivate that communion with Him.

Knowing true justice

Myrnaly

My husband and I were talking last night about a young man who passed away at an early age and how his mother would feel, who was praying for a miracle.

He used to tell me that many things in life look unfair and for that reason people get upset with God.

Seeing that the designs or will of God seem unjust is a thought that frequently circles in the minds of many and that inevitably collides with the truth in Scripture.

I told my husband last night that we have been indoctrinated from a very young age by the beliefs and postulates of this world and the apparently “democratic” laws of our governments.

We have been taught that justice is that the good win and the bad suffer the consequences. However, we have given rights to criminals over victims.

We are told that equality and equity is that everyone has the same and is treated the same or we enter into discrimination. However, those who proclaim the love of God and the salvation of God free by faith to all who believe, call it a day crime against those who do not believe.

We were taught about a constitution based on faith with a straight playing field and strongly believed by all citizens. However, it was written in a time of slavery and those same governments discriminate against certain types of citizens.

Those of us who have believed the gospel and want to live by it, find ourselves in the dilemma of which of those to renew our minds as recommended by the apostle Paul in Romans 12. It is only guided by the Holy Spirit that we can discern things spiritually.

We evaluate things backwards. We want to filter the Bible through the sieve of what we have learned in the society we live in, when we must filter everything we believe and think through the Scriptures in order to live pleasing God and enjoy the peace and joy that has been given to us .

God’s justice is greater than our justice. The justice of man is of appearances and statutes that in the long run corrupt the very ones that created them. God’s justice is perfect and does not conform to anything. In his justice, the wicked pay. We are all bad, there is not just one good. God fulfilled his justice by sending Jesus Christ to pay the price of our punishment on the cross. The good, the just, pay the price for sinners. His justice is infused with love, mercy, and grace.

I prefer his justice. I prefer his law. I want him to show me my misconceptions that don’t pass the scriptural filter. May I give his commandments as justice and they are rooted in my heart so that my life is governed by them.

Everything I have learned in this world is corrupted by sin and man’s selfishness. That it is not my truth, and it remains not my creed.

Let us pray to the Lord presenting ourselves with transparency and humility so that we can receive his truth and we can live by it. May we meditate on his law day and night so that we may be like the tree planted by the waters that bears its fruit in its season and its leaf does not fall.

Myrnaly, please be still.

Myrnaly

To live a happy life, we are required to be in peace. As they say, you can have a bed valued at a million dollars, in a room with the perfect atmosphere and temperature and if you do not have peace, you could not sleep.

It is popular these days to have stress and so many worries that often don’t allow us to have our minds at peace.

We do not want to be alone, or in silence, because our thoughts and anxieties overwhelm us. If you think about it, there are always so many things we can worry about!

If you have a choleric temperament like mine, you always have in mind what you are doing right now and what you plan to do in the days to come, in the future. And when we are like that, we want to solve everything, thinking that this will help us to have control over all things.

But life shows us over and over again that we have no control over anything. You may have a lifetime planned about how many years you are going to work, how much you want to earn and when you want to retire to enjoy the profits, and a simple virus arrives and changes your reality.

Do you know how many businesses have been affected by this pandemic even with the aid that governments have provided? How many people have had to live without a hug because of the physical distance they have imposed on us? How many are living in anxiety and have not been able to let off steam with anyone?

But I share with you one of my favorite verses from the Bible. “Be still”.

God spoke to me through this verse last year when I lost my long-standing job. Amidst the anxiety that I may have felt, God gave me peace. God reminded me that He is the one in control of all things and He was saying to me “stay still.”

It doesn’t mean that I didn’t do anything, but that I should have calmed down, that I shouldn’t worry. In the process, I had to pray to strengthen my fellowship with Him, ask for direction, and lead my soul to trust in His will.

In the process, I had to continue reading the Scriptures in order to feed myself spiritually, to listen to the voice of God, and to strengthen my life’s foundations, also to remember his promises for me.

In the process, I applied to jobs and on the advice of my husband the idea of creating a consulting business came up. And while I was looking for information we presented everything in prayer so that it would be God who would direct my steps.

We were able to develop the business and now I have time to serve Him while working relaxed hours.

But the difficult time came when in January there was an earthquake in Puerto Rico and the economy was paralyzed in many sectors. Now my business was not going to have any activity. What was I going to do? “Be still”.

A company hired me for a temporary job in a position that I never applied for. That was my livelihood for these past months, even in the pandemic because I could do the work from home, remotely.

God has taken care of me. He glorifies himself when we leave everything in his hands. It is not just being still, the remaining part is also important: “and know that I am God.” So when I saw the mug I bought it, just to remember every morning when I drink my coffee, everything will be fine.

The message applies to you too. If you know that He is your God, you can be still.

Let us pray to our God recognizing that he is the one who has control of all things and we decide to trust in his will and that he helps us to be still in the midst of the difficult circumstances that we may be experiencing. He is greater than everything and we are under his care.

The one who did it first

Myrnaly

I was reading an article about the first black woman to fly a plane for the Navy.

Our history is full of logs that record who was the first to perform this or that accomplishment. So from childhood, we are taught that the good thing is to win and to arrive first.

This way of thinking puts us in a position of competition with all those around us, including our family, our brothers, and cousins.

We want to be the first and the best. So we live watching very closely to what others do. We spend lots of time judging and measuring what they do before the reference standards that society has set for us, and before ourselves.

We are programmed to judge others. The problem is that we are not the ones to judge.

Jesus Christ confronted those who judged the woman, making them pass judgment on the first and each one realized that they did not give the degree, that they were sinners. When our standard of comparison is the holiness of God and the way of Jesus on earth, we can only be confronted with our sin and understand that only God is perfect.

Then we can only exalt him, recognize him as our God and Lord and lead a life of gratitude because he conquered on the cross what I could never achieve. He came first.

Surely I am not the first to know the message of salvation. Many already knew him before me. I am not the first to share it with others. Many have already shared it.

But I can be the first to get the message across to someone who needs to hear it. But I can be the first to show God’s love to someone who needs it.

I can serve the Lord and even if I am not the first to do a task, what we do is for eternity. I am unique, with special gifts that can be wonderful in the hands of God when we make ourselves available to Him in humility and wanting to be guided by Him.

Let us pray to the Lord giving thanks for his sacrifice on the cross. We surrender our lives at his feet to enjoy ourselves being instruments for his glory.

He loves me even after knowing everything about me

Myrnaly

If anything surprises me about God, it is that He knows everything, absolutely everything about me, and yet He loves me and continues by my side.

This world has taught us zero tolerance towards others since we are children if we want to survive in a society that is driven by sin and walks towards selfishness.

Even with the people we love, we often put conditions, we want them to act in a certain way, to treat us in a certain way, and if they do not meet our expectations, we then ration the love that we are going to give them because they have taught us that we must earn it.

Even when we deal with our brothers and sisters in the faith, we carry our conditions to negotiate them. With the “difficult to love” siblings, we use a very different meter and we feel we have the right to criticize, reject, and even get spiritual while judging that they are not up to us.

But God knows everything about us and still loves us. It has nothing to do with the fact that God disciplines, guides us along the way, and instructs us.

If something always breaks all my barriers, all my defenses, and arguments, it is knowing that God does not give up on me. His patience and mercy towards me have not been exhausted. It is not exhausted even in times of trouble and difficulty that tend to bring out the worst in us. It is not exhausted even when I have failed it. He is not exhausted when I really do not deserve anything from him and he follows me with his grace, love, and mercy.

He also knows everything about you. He hasn’t given up on you either. His love has no conditions because we could never earn it.

We must treat others as He treats us. We must see our neighbor as He sees them. It is not our function to be that accusing finger or who makes them fall. We must be the ones who help others to get up because God raises us every day because without his help we could not stand.

Instead of criticizing the one who sins different from us, we are going to bring them the hope of salvation and restoration in Christ. Let us be instruments of the Holy Spirit to bring unity and healing in these times of so much uncertainty and affliction.

Let us be humble and bear witness that all the good that is there only comes from God.

Pray to the Lord and ask for forgiveness for the times we have not seen or treated others as He expects of us. May his Holy Spirit help us not to condition our love for others and help them to rise up and follow the example and direction of the Lord.