ILuvJohn

One of my friends wrote a book and I created a small, simple website for him to sell his book and refer people to. I thought that I could help spread the word a little bit by writing about his book.

It is titled, Audacity of Common Sense and Scripture By Joseph Russo. As one might think at first, yes it is in a sort of sarcastic reference to Obama’s book, Audacity of Hope.

In Joseph Russo’s Book he uses common sense and scripture to show and explain where we should be headed in our lives and in our government.

The quotes he uses are unforgettable and meaningful - Something we can trust. Of what I know of the author, his personal strengths and courage outweigh that of most men I know as well as my own. So I am not so hesitant to listen to what his book is sharing.
Quotes such as:

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms, disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.”
- Cesare Beccaria, quoted by Thomas Jefferson

“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty not safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
- Ronald Reagan

If you are interested in reading his book, please check it out at http://josephrusso.net/ and tell others about it to! If you have read the book please comment below!

I decided to go to church on Saturday. I went to a Seventh Day Adventist church, actually.

Not even a full 24 hours after my fiance left me, I was feeling horrible. I wanted to hate her and I wanted everything to end, and for an eternity my life was worthless. I was crying and angry, and I hated the world for cursing me with the lack of foresight into the depths of a relationship working in today’s society. I was out of it. Mentally I could not focus. I was numb. I was confused. I teeth ached. My head hurt. Most of all, my heart hurt. I was angry because of the pain and I thought I wanted revenge.

But the answer isn’t found in hateful thoughts like those. I fought the pain, and I lost to it. Fighting it only made it harder. Going to Church expecting a bland of “proper” sermon, I was surprised and mistaken. The sermon I heard was given, by complete chance mind you, on that particular day. The woman I loved with all my heart left the day prior by chance on the day before. And I decided to go to church for the first time in a long time as I was longing to escape the fear of sitting at home, alone, with the absence of so much that I was accustom to. I find that things, in a small way, lined up just perfectly for me to hear that one thing that I have NEVER understood before, and is something that is seldom brought to attention for those people out there trying to find the Lord. I believe that the lack of this information is what causes newcomers to give up - because they didn’t understand where to start.

So, what is it not?

Let me tell you that it isn’t just prayer. It isn’t just going to church (going to church doesn’t get you into heaven and you don’t go to hell if you don’t go to church….more on that later). It isn’t just being nice to people or sending out your donations.

It is about breaking down our personality to mold it into the same quality of person that Jesus himself was.

Here is what I learned: It is about being meek, and I highlight the word being because it is misleading. To be meek isn’t just a decision and an action. To be meek, or to become meek, is more of a process. What does meek mean? If you look into the dictionary and find the word meek you will not find the accurate definition as the Bible’s intended meaning. When the Bible was translated, there was no English word that accurately represented what the meaning was. Meek isn’t even in some dictionary’s, even online, it is strange. Satan must not want us to understand this cause it should be common knowledge, but it is hard to figure out if you don’t know what you are looking for to begin with. The word meek as we see it today is defined basically as: Not strong.

Current day Synonyms For Meek:

anemic, debilitated, decrepit, delicate, effete, enervated, exhausted, faint, feeble, flaccid, flimsy, force-less, fragile, frail, hesitant, impuissant, infirm, insubstantial, irresolute, lackadaisical*, languid, languorous, limp, makeshift, out of gas, powerless, prostrate, puny, rickety, rocky*, rotten, senile, shaky, sickly, sluggish, spent, spindly, supine, tender, torpid, uncertain, undependable, unsound, unsteady, unsubstantial, wasted, wavering, weakened, weakly, wobbly

The Bible states that Jesus was Meek, yet has was able to carry a huge wooden cross up a hill? He was not weak, was was strong. He was in top physical condition. The thing is that

Why do bad things happen to us? Why do we fall down? We can pick ourselves up only so many times……but we fall down because we are not able to do anything without God…..we are designed to depend on God. So God picks us up once we have had enough, but he can’t help you unless you ask for it - when we are tired of trying to do things on our own, all we need to do is ask. It all depends on how hard we fall down and if we are willing to let God help us up.

So a few days later I receive a call from the “ex” Fiance. I agreed to meet with her and at least get some answers for myself, and find out what happened. She told me that her being pregnant was really hard on her and that she felt it was stressing me out too much, it broke her heart to see me frustrated with life - so she wanted to make things easier. On the other hand, she has a habit of running from her fears and problems. She was missing me a lot, as I was her, and I told her that if she wanted to take a step in the right direction, to a place that she had been ignoring our entire relationship, then I would be open to help her, but she needed to be willing to do it. She stated that she would do anything. Right after that she prayed with me with an open honest mind and heart. She didn’t know how to pray, so I walked her through it with closed eyes right there in the park. To acknowledge the noises we could hear, clear our mind, then speak to God as if he was right in front of us….she repeated after me and we asked for forgiveness and a clear direction. We maybe sat there for only a few minutes as she repeated the words I spoke….but this great big blanket of relief and happiness over came us. She stated that she felt “peaceful”, and that she could hardly describe it. We decided to meet up the next day or so and talk about our relationship more. She ended up coming over the next night, and planned for a second night. On the second night my sister came over and we had a little bible talk for a little while, just having some one else who we could talk to and trust in. We ended up having a misscarriage 5 minutes after she left. Se came back and we went to the hospital.

After all is said and done, we are back to normal….kind of……Except now we want God in our lives. We had a taste of his grace….and we both desire it again. Our walk with the Lord has begun a new and we want to share this gift of great news with others because it was such a drastic change to be single for one second, then to be back together for just moments, then feel like God was standing next to us, then a miscarriage, now we are about to have our phones shut off, loose our apartment, and we don’t even know what we are going to do. But we trust in the Lord as he has given us a second chance at love with him and between ourselves. No matter what happens, he leading for good or for bad.

I am not one to accept anything without questioning it first, or seeing it first hand. I find that every day we as humans struggle to fulfill our own needs and desires. But what we want isn’t always the best thing. In fact, if we do things ourselves we will end up falling again and again and again. There is no way to prevent it, except one.

I believe that there is an absolute truth. Weather it be the Big Bang, or a Loving Creator, we should spend our life in all we do searching for the truth. You don’t want to live a lie, and you don’t want to be mislead, So let’s change. There is nothing stopping us from starting right now.

In our lives we get hurt from many different things. Falling down, Car accident, break ups, hurtful words, loved ones passing away…….they are all painful things. But why do we feel hurt? Why are we cursed to this fate? Because we choose to let those things take advantage of us. I don’t mean we intentionally went out and asked for it, but in a sense we do.

I found in my own life that there is a GOD, there is a Loving, Caring GOD. We, even as Christians, don’t know how to talk to God, or how to start a relationship with him. We don’t know where to start, and we don’t know what we are doing. Sure we go to church and sing and pray, but there is one huge missing element. And without this element, we turn out being the Christians that mislead others and give some of us a bad name.

We should go to church to learn and grow with God, but we can’t do that if we haven’t meet him yet. So how do you meet God? I’ll tell you right here:

Once something bad happens to us sometime in our lives, we hit rock bottom, or close to it. We become selfish and needy in our time of suffering. The Bible says to Take Joy in sharing in the suffering of Christ…..But why be happy about suffering - Don’t we follow God so we don’t have to suffer? But we blame God for all the bad that is happening. We need to go through a time of suffering so that we can find God, so to say. We hit rock bottom and grab at even the tiniest string of hope, and we follow it until we climb our way out. But now we are following Jesus, not just relying on ourselves. It’s not like God does you wrong, it is that he wants you to follow him, and he knows you want to follow him, and we don’t know how to follow him unless we are desperate, suffering, or in need of God. Otherwise we wouldn’t look twice. If life was perfect all the time, then there wouldn’t be a need for God in our world today.

So something bad happens and we are in pain. Pray to God that he will give you direction, joy, and peace. Tell him that you are in pain. He knows what is going on…..but he can’t help you unless you are willing to help yourself. You have to want it, and you have to ask for it. Do those things and then wait for God to show you an opportunity. When you see that opportunity then ask God if it is the right way to go. You are not going to hear God say, “Yes! Go for it!”….but you will feel that you want to take it or that you don’t….you will think of the outcomes of your decisions, and you will make the one that is right for you, even if it is the harder path to take. Trust your heart when speaking with God, that is how he speaks to you. When I was younger, and even sometimes now, I ask God a question and then answer it myself. Then I laugh a little because I know what God wants and I know what is right and wrong. I don’t need to check with every single little thing. I know that I should not run away from my problems, but confront them head on with all my strength! But I had to take the time to pray to God and ask just so that I can get that answer.

When praying to God for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, or when we are in pain, we should ask for forgiveness, and we should forgive those who have done us wrong. Ask God, right now if need be, for Peace of heart, Guidance through your life, Courage to do the right thing, and Wisdom to know what your next step it. Other things like Hope and Faith will come of that. You will instantly feel relieved, just speaking to God and telling him that you want him in your life is a dramatic experience. You will never understand why you didn’t do it sooner.

A similar experience has come to me recently, and I am finding that life isn’t so bad. I almost went out and did things I would have regretted, but now I am finding that the story I was told from the beginning wasn’t entirely true, in fact, what happened was kind of a good thing. I just need to pray about it and in the end, and along the way, I don’t need to worry about anything. Because God will take care of it - And that is what Faith is. It isn’t believing in something that you can’t see or that might not exist. Faith is simply letting God take your burden off of your back. You don’t need to worry about everything. Even if you loose a job, get kicked out of school, loose your home - anything - don’t worry, just keep going.

America is the richest place on the planet. Even being homeless in America is rich compared to the homeless anywhere else.

Look this up and pray to God about all of it. Pray before reading the Bible, that God would send his holy spirit down so that you may understand any lesson that you need to learn. Pray when you are done reading, that you would show Christs Character in all that you do so that others may learn of Peace and Joy that is the Lord. Something worth noting is that it is not easy to share the Lord with others who are not exactly “desperately” seeking him unless we have gone through hard times ourselves. We should be happy when going through hard times just for the fact that we will be able to share these experiences with others in the future, we will be able to ever so slightly ease their pain and help them find God.

Dealing with a Lover:

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling (1 Peter 4:8-9).

Our love must not be a thing of words and fine talk. It must be a thing of action and sincerity (1 John 3:18).

Loosing your house or car:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. [Matthew 19:24]

Do not let yourself be mislead:

Great men are not always wise [Job 32:9]

Being in the likeness of Christ, we should not complain about the little things:

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult [Proverbs 12:16]

Do not worry about helping others, you will still make ends meet:

Give, and it shall be given to you. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return. [Luke 6:38]

Why we trust the lord in our time of suffering:
I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4).

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all things acknowledge him, and he shall direct your way. [Proverbs 3:5, 6]

The Parable/Story of the lost sheep:

What man that has a hundred sheep, if he losses one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness to go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing that he has found it. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons, which need no repentance.