Tag: Jesus

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge: Day 19

January 19,2012

For the next few days I’m posting photos of my neighborhood. This blog challenge inspires me to grab my camera and take it with me everywhere I go. Last Sunday I went for a short hike with my daughter Elena. I decided to put on my “tourist eyes” and challenged my self to look at my neighborhood as if I was on holiday, just passing through. It’s amazing how much a place can grow on you, then you take it for granted and it ceases being special anymore. During my self guided tour I found out what a rich little community I live in and I’m so glad I moved here. These images are part of  large a mural that is on the wall of the 7-Eleven convenience store…amazing right? 🙂 Challenge yourself to put on your “tourist eyes” and view your surroundings as if you’re seeing them for the very first time. You’ll be surprised!

 

 

 

 

 

-EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2012

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge: Day 16

January 16,2012

Dare to Look for the Sacred in the Ordinary

I spent a week a couple of summers ago, with a childhood friend. She would go to work while I’d relax in her cozy condo. One morning I took my cup of tea to her outside porch. She lived in a heavily wooded place which I welcomed because where I live there aren’t any woods, just miles upon miles of tumbleweeds and cactus. That morning I dusted off her rattan furniture, I could tell she hadn’t been out there in a while. I settled into a comfy chair and as I took in the serene scenery, I happened to look down from her 2nd story condo. This is what I saw and it delighted me. I thought, gee, I wonder if my girl friend is aware of this pretty little oasis practically right under her feet? So I photographed it because I wanted to capture the feeling of peace that it brought me as I sat in my spot for the next few mornings. Sometimes you DO have to slow down enough to see the extraordinary in what seems ordinary.

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge: Day 14

House of Ghosts

This is the house I finished growing up in. 2 summers ago I went back, not sure what I expected to find. I’m not one to take a stroll down memory lane. My husband on the other hand, is one to go back to all the old neighborhoods of his childhood every time he has taken me to his home town. I always found that a bit tedious, so when I did it, I came away with the same detached emotion. Personally, it’s better to reminisce about the past in my mind and forget about going to the actual places.Things change true enough; however there are things that remain intact and when I showed up at this house,  I felt like I did back then, nothing. I meant nothing to the people I lived with in that house, and I still am nothing to them. Hence my lack of emotion for the place.

Eva Santiago copyright 2012

January 14,2012

365 Snap Shots of Life Blog Challenge Day:13

January 13,2012

In Your Face!

Weddings are so much fun to attend! I went to this one when I was in college; the couple in this photo are dear friends of mine who were there for me at a time when I had no one. At the end of the wedding when the bride threw the bouquet, she aimed it at me and I ducked. I sure didn’t want that experience  in my life yet. I’ve been to several weddings, this was by far the most enjoyable. Cheers to T & M!!

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2012

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 18

Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. :)

Day 18 Question # 18: What is the earliest lesson you can remember learning as a child that you have followed throughout your life?

Answer: I just had a talk with my kids about embracing their Latin roots and  my answer comes from this talk. I was explaining to my kids that I love the Latin culture because we always seem to find the positive in the negative. That way of thinking permeates everything including our music. One day when my second daughter was younger I was listening to a ” EL NIAGARA EN BICICLETA“, a merengue by Dominican born star Juan Luis Guerra. She asked me to translate the words for her and when I did she was amazed and she said, ” Wow! Such happy music but the words are so sad.” I told her that our Latin music is a lot like that because we stay joyful even when things aren’t all that hot.

When I was in the 4th grade Sister Mary Valentine, my teacher was reading to us about some of the miracles of Jesus. One day she read to us how Jesus healed 10 lepers and out of the 10 only one came back to thank Him for his miracle. I remember thinking.’ WOW! I want to be like that guy! I want to say thank you all the time.’ And that’s what I’ve done my whole life. I go out of my way to say thank you to God, family, even the cashier at the grocery store who rang up my groceries.

I believe that when you have a thankful attitude, it shows up in all you do. That is what I wanted to impress upon my kids the other day regarding their Latin roots. Latin music is happy because no matter what the lyrics say, no matter what you’re going through in life, we always find something to be thankful for and we sing and dance about it!

IT’S A MAD,MAD,MAD WORLD!

A girl at school was just kicked off the soccer team because another class mate complained to the school officials that said girl would not be friends with her. Now the school officials are accusing the swimmer for being a bully. Who is the real bully here?

I just recently was kicked out of a church. Yes, you are reading correctly! My family and I are not allowed to come back to a certain church because I refused the pastoral counseling being offered to me. That was the main reason for our having been banned from this church. The other reasons are of no lesser significance: I was also told that the pastor did not like some of my views on this blog. Hello! The 1st Amendment guaranteeing my rights to freedom of speech were infringed upon. Lastly I was  told by this same man that my husband and I had to meet up with some key people he had already designated for us because we needed to learn from these people how to be “Godly parents”. Apparently this pastor is under the impression, that after  raising 4 great kids together for the past 22 years that we’ve been married, we haven’t a clue as to what we’re doing. 

Folks, when your kids were younger did you ever try to pick out their friends for them? That’s crazy right? So how can a school and a pastor even think that they have any say in whom a child or two adults choose to associate with? It’s a MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD and that madness has creeped into some churches.

Perhaps the best thing this pastor did by banning us from attending his church was to spare us any further hurt by him. Now THAT’S a silver lining on my cloud!

The Evil of Fatalism

 

Dear Warriors,

Reflection and foresight assure success and freedom. Therefore it is important for me to reflect on our days gone by and their lessons, but also to apply prophetic foresight in order to lead us in the right direction. I understand the importance and value of contrasts. Let the one who is excessive join with the one who is conservative, the impulsive with the restrained, and the intemperate with the rational. Contrasts make the world beautiful and if they bring such harmony in the physical world, they will accomplish greater harmony in the moral and spiritual world. As a prophet, I have availed myself to such contrasts by my choice of friends and associates because through the meeting of these extremes there may emerge a meaningful path of untold possibilities. The one thing that I face being a prophetic voice is the accusation of being a lunatic. Maybe for a period of time I am seemingly crazy because of the word that I give in season, but the true lunatics are the voices of those who cannot budge from their stand on the judgment of God…The fatalists; the determinists.

The force that is connected to this religious “luna” is the spirit of materialism, which we can observe by simply watching certain “Christian” shows. The Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe. The materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism. The materialistic person is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation.

Of course there is some truth to this, but what about destiny and our choices to make history? I’m going to use a word that I kept thinking about during my time in Israel, as God was dealing with me about the future – that word is determinism. I looked up the definition and this is what it means. Determinism is the doctrine that all facts and events exemplify natural laws. It’s the idea that human actions and choices are fully determined by preceding events and so freedom of choice is illusory or misleading. In theology it means “lack of free will.” The word “determine” simply means to come to an end and to settle, and from the Latin word “determinare.” Let’s break it down:

DE – OFF
TERMINARE – LIMIT
OFF LIMIT, LIMITED.

We are all acquainted with the word terminate. One of the greatest enemies to the prophetic is predetermination. What is this? Predetermination is the belief that something was decided in advance, and in the case of the many prophetic words being spewed out against our nation, the belief that God ordained sorrow, death, sickness and such for an individual/nation in advance and nothing we say or do can change that. This is a lie.

Determinism leads to fatalism. Fatalism is the acceptance of all things and events as inevitable. An example, “Her fatalism helped her to face death with stoic calm.” In other words, all events are predetermined so that man is powerless to alter his destiny, which ultimately causes a lack of effort or action in the FACE OF DIFFICULTY.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE IS THEREFORE REDUNDANT, AS THIS WILL NOT CHANGE ANYTHING.

The determinists come to bind, not to loose. These people do not believe in appealing to the will, but they believe in “changing the environment.” They will say to the sinner, “Go and sin no more,” because the sinner cannot help it, but then they will put the sinner in boiling oil because boiling oil is an “environment.” So many of today’s prophets believe that God is creating an environment so that the sinner will sin no more. This environment comes in the form of hurricanes, earthquakes, famines, droughts, pestilence, etc. So let me state categorically that this particular method of “environment” isNOT in fact causing the sinner to sin no more. America has been troubled with hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., and yet I see no sign, not even a glimpse, of acknowledgment of sin (from the sinners and rulers) and only the church is screaming at the world demanding them to change their ways, and threatening even more judgment.

In John 8, the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in adultery. Jesus wonderfully deals with the hypocrites by challenging them with these words, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” Once they had all left, HE ASKED HER IF SHE HAD ANY ACCUSERS LEFT TO CONDEMN HER. THEN HE SAYS, “NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU…Go and sin no more.” So, she DID have the power to make a change.

Another time in John 5, Jesus heals a man who had been crippled for 38 years, waiting for his miracle at a pool. Jesus heals him on the Sabbath and the Jews condemned him for carrying his bed on the Sabbath. Forget the fact that a miracle took place on the Sabbath. When Jesus finds him later in the temple, He said to him, “See, you have been made well. SIN NO MORE, LEST A WORSE THING COME UPON YOU.” So he DID have the power to make a change in his future. His choice of will would determine whether a better or worse thing would come upon him. Surely Jesus knew that there was a power of choice to do right that could be attained from within?

Gilbert K. Chesterton wrote, “It’s amusing to notice that many modern day mystics have taken as their sign an eastern symbol, which is the very symbol of a miserable mean infinity. It is a serpent with his tail in his mouth, eating away. The eternity of these material fatalists is indeed very well presented by a serpent eating his tail – a degraded animal that destroys even himself. The image of a very unsatisfactory meal.”

So what is it that many of these prophets of judgment have left out of their message? MYSTERY. Mysticism keeps men alive. As long as you have mystery you have health. When you destroy mystery, you CREATE MORBIDITY.

Let’s compare the church to the world. The ordinary non-religious man has always been a mystic. He has permitted twilight. He always had one foot in earth and the other in wonderland. He has always left himself free to DOUBT GOD, but also free to believe in God. The world’s spiritual sight is three-dimensional. The carnal man, one who is not influenced by religious fatalism, believes that there is such a thing as fate, but such a thing as free will as well. What I’m saying is that there is more openness on the part of a “sinner” than many saints. In John 4, Jesus gave the woman at the well an opportunity to see further than her fatalistic view, which caused indifference. She said, “A Jew shouldn’t be speaking to a Samaritan and especially a WOMAN.” She argued about where the correct place to worship was, whether in Jerusalem or on the mountain in Samaria. Jesus said to her, “If you knew (spiritually perceived) the gift of God and whom it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” Even then she remained determined not to shift from her materialistic thinking and to entertain the mystery of living water. Chesterton writes, “The whole secret of mysticism is this, that man can understand everything by the help of what HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND.”

As Christians we must permit free will to remain a sacred mystery. He continues to say, “Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out.” Let me explain. ISLAM IS CENTRIPETAL – MOST RELIGIONS ARE CENTRIPETAL. Centripetal means, “developing from the outside toward the inside; developing inwardly not outwardly.” CHRISTIANITY IS CENTRIFUGAL. Centrifugal means, “moving outward from the center; developing outward from the center.” Another great definition is “developing or progressing outward from a center as in the growth of plant structures.” For example, in a centrifugal inflorescence such as cyme, the flowers in the center tip open first while those on the edge open LAST. IT BREAKS OUT!!

The fact is that organized religion, including dogmatic Christianity, is like the serpent eating its own tail. The meal is atrocious. And unfortunately it is a vicious circle of the church catching its own tail for a meal. Religion is a circle. The circle is perfect and infinite in its nature, but it is fixed forever in its size. It can never be larger or smaller. But the CROSS-, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms forever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its center, it can grow without changing. The circle returns to itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds and is a signpost for free travelers.

Isn’t that beautiful? I’ve been speaking about this subject on my From the Matrix teachings on Tuesday and Thursday nights on www.kimclement.tv and I hope it’s helping and freeing some of you. God has a promise for our nation and for us and it’s a promise of abundance, prosperity and breakthrough. We are His destiny. We are His future.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 5

Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. :)

Day 5 Question # 5: What are some of  the very first things you can remember teaching your children to do?

I smiled when I read this question because it brought back a lot of good memories. Being that I began reading to my kids even when I was pregnant with each one of them, reading was one of the very first things I taught them to do. When my 2nd daughter was 4 years old, she picked up an early reader dating from the 1940’s which I had been using to teach them from, and she just started reading it to me as if to say,

“See mama, I’ve been paying attention all along and now I can do it by myself.”

Not only that my first daughter who had been kind of lagging behind on her reading saw her younger sister advancing in her reading, so that was her incentive to apply herself a bit more. My other two kids picked up reading simply because they saw how much their older sisters enjoyed it so they were both eager to try it out for themselves.

I also taught them to cook; I don’t know why  parents shoo their young kids away from the kitchen.  Teach them how to work  with knives and kitchen utensils instead of  over protecting them. Cooking is a necessary life skill that they’ll need when they go out on their own. I am amazed at the number of kids who come to my home and they always tell us that they wish they were allowed to cook when they see my kids being in command of our kitchen.

My faith in Yeshua is of top priority in my life and I taught my kids about the importance of having a relationship with God’s Son, Yeshua  from very early on. I remember a time when I had 4 kids ages 6 and under and we would play Christian music and dance and sing in God‘s Presence. I also showed them how to pray and that praying is simply asking and talking to Him.  

 

Love, Serve, Let Go!

Life goes on and on. You go where God‘s Spirit leads you; you love, you serve, you give it all you have and then you let go. Yeshua said  that The Spirit comes and goes; no one knows where He came from and no one knows where He’s going to show up next. So are those of us that are of His Spirit. We MUST learn to flow with The Holy Spirit‘s current.

Hover where He hovers. Hover signifies a sort of floating as a cloud that then lifts and moves on after a little while. We get too comfortable way too quickly. We always long to put down roots. The Spirit of God is so opposite of this; He hovers, He lingers, He moves on. And so must we if we are to stay true to His nature, true to His ways, true to His character…true to His LOVE. I don’t ever want to live one single day out of sync with The Holy Spirit.

Eva Santiago Copyright 2011

 

Somebody better look out for me
Although I stand alone
I’m more dangerous than I seem
But in this smoking gun world
Our lights don’t last
They’re over fast

Life goes on
Goes on and on
On and on
Life goes on
Goes on and on
On and on

Although I really don’t know
Your time is fading fast
I wake up in a wasted world
How long is it gonna last
Under pressure and pain
What may be right may be wrong

-Andy Taylor “Life Goes On”