Spirituality Guide

The word “Islam” means submission or total submission to God/Allah. Islam has over one billion followers in various sects.

Origins: Islam was ‘revealed’ to Muhammad, known as the prophet and messenger of Allah, during his life between 570 CE to 632 CE. By the time Muhammad passed away, many people had already begun to follow Islam. It has since then spread throughout the world.

Beliefs: Muslims hold six articles of belief: There is only one God without limit, called Allah. Muhammad received the Qur’an as a copy of the eternal Qur’an which is inscribed in heaven. God created heavenly beings called angels to serve God and they are opposed by evil spirits. God sent his prophets to the earth at their appointed times, and the Prophet Muhammad was the last and greatest messenger of God. There will be a last day of world history called the Day of Judgement. Good and evil will be weighed in the balance. The wicked will be punished and the just will enjoy eternal life in Paradise. Everything in the universe has a predetermined course. Nothing happens without the will or knowledge of God. [Source]

God: Islam teaches that there is only one god, known as Allah, and that Muhammad is God’s messenger.

Principles:
The practice of religious faith is also built on the five pillars of Islam:

* Shahadah (declaration of faith): “I bear witness that there is no god, but God; I bear witness that Muhammad is the prophet of God.” By reciting this, one enters Islamic faith.

* Salaah (prayer): Muslims are required to pray five times a day, washing themselves before prayer and facing in the direction of Mecca while praying.

* Zakat (charity): Muslims are required to give away a percentage of their earnings to those less fortunate, regardless of their religion.

* Saum (fasting): Muslims fast for one lunar month each year, a period called Ramadan. During this time, Muslims reflect on their behaviour and strive to purify their thoughts.

* Hajj (pilgrimage): If it is financially possible, Muslims are required to travel to Mecca once in their lifetime.

* Ijma means ‘the agreement of Islam.’ It is an important mechanism for resolving theological conflicts because it is embodies a sense of past community in present action.

* Sharia is the sacred law of Islam, based on the divine revelations contained in the Qur’an and sunna.

* Dietary requirements. Animals have souls and so need to be slaughtered in a special way. This is the meaning of halal (permitted).

Other sources of information:
Islam @ Wikipedia
Islam @ Religious Tolerance
Islam.com

Sometime back, I wrote a post about listening and then today I read where Jummy had written about the same thing. Both of these posts started me wondering about listening and what it means exactly.

Too often, in an effort to get our point across, we fail to listen exactly to what someone is saying to us. Such is the case also with God when he is talking to us and trying to tell us something. Do you ever miss His voice and do the wrong thing?

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution only to find that you’re breaking it before it even gets started good? Maybe it’s to lose weight, grow your business or spend more time with your kids. Maybe you need more time to yourself to do the things you need to do. Maybe it’s all of the above or maybe it’s just some things. Whatever they are, you have possibly made a resolve to resolve.

It happens to us all at one time or another. We decide to do something on the first of the year, first of the month or right away. Then, we find ourselves not doing it but not only that, we have totally abandoned the idea because we get distracted. And therein, my friend, is the key to our inability to complete. Distraction.

In our spiritual lives, distraction is the key thing that keeps us from doing what we need to do to grow our spiritual lives. Whenever you kneel to pray, do you find yourself distracted from prayer? Or do you find that your mind wanders and thinks on things OTHER than what you’re praying about? What’s that? Was someone knocking on the door…?

If you want to make sure that you’re not distracted every time you attempt to spend quality quiet time in prayer, let’s work together and try some things until we succeed. Together. Trust me. I’ve had that same problem too and it’s very disheartening.
Here goes:

Before you begin prayer, take five minutes and worry about EVERYTHING that’s on your mind. Give it your full, undivided attention to worry or thinking. This satisfies (partially) that distraction and gives it the energy it needs for, well, five minutes. After that, that’s it. You do not need to think about it anymore during prayer. It had its worrying session earlier.

Use the restroom first. Eliminate that distraction before it starts.

Get comfortable, be it on your knees, standing or sitting. You don’t want to start shifting around right when you start.

Turn off the house phone, cell phone, radio, Ipods, etc., etc. Eliminate all “white noise”.

Also, when you begin, ask God to eliminate and help you ignore any other distractions that may attempt to invade your time with Him. With diligence and perseverance, you will be able to follow through on this small but important issue of distraction.

Later this week, we will also look at other infringements on our time with God. Share with me any other things you consider to invade our quiet time.

Day in, day out, it’s the same old thing. Go to work, take the kids to practice, go home. Hum-drum. Hum-drum.

When your life is full of nothing-ness, you tend to get bored with it and may even develop a wandering eye. You know. The kind that wishes you had what someone else had or could go somewhere where someone else has been/is. When this happens to you, it’s time to count your blessings.

It’s easy to get tired of the same old thing day in and day out. Life is very routine like that, but we must be careful to not fall into the habit of monotone thinking and acting. There is so much in life to be grateful for that we must literally take time out of our busy schedules and count our blessings. Let me show you how:

When you open your eyes first thing in the morning, before getting out of bed, say “thank you” for another day, eyes, ears, presence of mind and a healthy body.

If you have a spouse or kids, say another “thank you” for them being in your lives. Smile at them when you see them as you go to the washroom or start readying yourself for work or school. This small act will guarantee a smile back if not even a hug.

When you sit down at breakfast (or grab it as you’re running out the door), that’s another thank you for food to eat. A small thing to be thankful for considering that there are hungry children in Africa right now who would give anything for that Pop tart or muffin we sometimes begrudge.

As you’re driving to work, another thank you for an operating, in decent shape vehicle to get you to where you need to be. Considering that there may be someone who awoke to a stolen car today, that’s a small thank you.

Before you even get to work, you have been thankful at least 5 times before your day even gets started good. When you develop a habit of thankfulness, you ensure that your life is always in gracious mode and that you will never get bored or tired of the same old thing.

The pastor told an interesting story today during the sermon, and I just wanted to take a moment and share it with you. It seems that even when we’re afraid or lonely, God has always got an answer for our problems, if we just keep our eyes and our hearts open.

Dad had just put his daughter down for bed for the night. She couldn’t seem to settle in. She kept asking for water, for the bathroom light to be on, for Dad to come back in and check on her just “one more time.” It seemed she was calling him every five minutes to do something for her. Dad finally told her to settle down and go to sleep. She answered him in frustration saying she was scared and couldn’t go to sleep. Dad told her that Jesus was with her, He would protect her and there was no reason for her to be afraid. The little girl’s answer is priceless. She said to her dad, “I know Jesus is with me. I know He protects me. I know He’s looking over me and watching over me. But, I need somebody with some skin!”

Whenever we feel afraid or lonely (because even as adults, yes, we do get afraid), God has people all around us who can help get us through tough times and dark days. He said that He would never leave nor forsake us. He’s with us always, even until the end of the earth.

So, when you’re afraid, find somebody with some skin.

The way to learn the fear of God is to understand and implement respect. Know that God is powerful, but more importantly, act like He is too. Let’s not try to bail ourselves out of our own situations or to fix someone else’s situations that we feel strongly about. Take each and every situation to God, pray and ask His guidance on whatever the problem is. He wants to, will and can fix it a whole lot better than we can. He’s God. And when we are at a loss as to what to do, just do nothing. Respect God by honoring Him as such and being mindful of the power that His abilities carry. Remember parting whole oceans? That’s what He did. And remember droves and droves of bugs and the sun standing still for periods of time? God did that. And, He does things like these in our everyday lives too. The sickness that just disappeared without a trace. God. The bills that went away and you know you didn’t pay them. God again. There’s just no way around it. And I for one am inclined to not only respect that but to see that no matter what I do and how I try, I can’t fix things myself. Only God can. And I am in awe of Him for it.

God’s love is so amazing and so inexplicable, He doesn’t want to see us fail or falter, never. He does not enjoy seeing us unhappy, nor does He get satisfied with “gotcha’s”. That’s just not God’s way. So, with the knowledge of knowing that God is going to love us no matter what, that He’s on our side no matter what poor choices that we make and that He answers us no matter good or bad, we can walk assuredly and safely in the knowledge of GOD IS. When we begin to know Him and establish a relationship with Him, we learn then that His power is so overwhelming, so far beyond our control that it’s hopeless to try and be any other way but in awe of Him. Or in fear of Him. Not trembling fear, but more like a ‘wow’ fear. We can’t change our situations if our lives are predetermined. We certainly cannot change God’s mind. So the only thing that we can change is how we reverence God and the relationship that we have with Him.

What’s funny is that I also remember as a child, I very rarely if ever got away with anything. My folks usually found out what I was doing even when I didn’t know that they knew. I was just a child and I actually thought I was fooling my parents - - adults who had been living and experiencing things a whole lot longer than me. But that’s the mind of a child and how a child thinks. We as adults are not children. We are far beyond the immaturity and simple thinking of “God won’t find out if I do this”, or, “God doesn’t see me so it doesn’t count”, or even worse, “God loves me so much, He would never do anything to punish me”. Yes, God is love. Yes, He is merciful. But He’s also fair. If we do something that warrants consequences, we will suffer those consequences. The same thing that we would do or impose upon our own children whom we love dearly, are the same or similar consequences that we can expect for God to have on us. Don’t expect too little or nothing because He’s God.

I am amazed every day of His awesome power and his merciful spirit. I am humbled by the idea that a God who created the heavens, the earth and created life would think so much of me that He loves me and wants me to be His no matter how raggedly I live.

That’s awesome.

I can remember as kids, we used to try and get away with stuff when our parent’s weren’t looking. I’m sure all kids tried this. It’s nothing new, really. Whenever we do something that we shouldn’t, we hope no one is looking or no that no one finds out what our not-so-good deed was. As I was thinking on how we try to outsmart God sometimes, my mind went to the text in Proverbs 1:7 that says, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Does that mean we are to tremble and be afraid of an almighty God? Absolutely not. What it does mean is that to fear God means that we have realized that our abilities are limited, finite while God is a powerful God whose knowledge and abilities far surpasses ours. We would do well to honor him as such.

Now God is not a bully on the playground, beating you up every time you do something wrong. He’s not concerned with trying to make you feel bad or to be afraid of Him. What God’s point is this: He wants you to realize that your life, your destiny is already predetermined. If you are going to do His will, walk in His way, then just allow Him to lead you and show you the way through His spirit. Too often, we don’t understand what’s happening to us, so we want to take control of the situation and do it our way. The majority of the time, we may be doing something wrong and need God’s help to get us out of a bad situation. That’s usually always me. Is there anything about God that you’re fearful of or that makes you afraid?

I’ll tell you mine tomorrow.

A life where everyone gets along, where everyone is happy and where life is one big peaceful bliss. That life that may seem to some to be elusive can be had. All we need to do is to change our thinking and the way we approach life every day. When we just exist for the sake of existing, we open ourselves up for disappointment and grief. When we fight against life, fight each other and go against the grain of things, we open ourselves up for disappointment and grief. When we can’t find the positive in anything, think everything is horrible and ugly, we open ourselves up for disappointment and grief. I for one want to be happy in and with life. To be satisfied with myself. Therefore, I have made a vow, a conscious attempt if you will to not only be happy and peaceful, but to get along with those around me as much as possible to ensure my peace and sanity in this life. That’s my vow and that’s my goal.

What’s yours?

Gambling your relationship with God is no different at all than gambling at the dog track or the casino. If you place your relationship with Him on a chance - a chance that He will answer when you call, a chance that He will provide a way out of that situation (again), a chance that no matter what you do or where you go, He will always be your out.

Having a meaningful, full and productive relationship with God requires three things:

1. Diligence - If you are diligent and focused in your relationship with God, you will see results. Being consistent and determined will become glowing characteristic in your Christian lives. Be determined in your prayer life. Be determined in you service towards others.

2. Faithfulness - Practice increasing your faith each day with an emphasis on learning more about Him through His word. Set a schedule that is flexible with your busy life and spend a few minutes each day in quiet time or in reading time. the rewards of this will be seen in years to come.

3. Honesty - Be honest, open and frank with God. He knows and has all of the answers anyway. You can’t fool Him ayway. Tell God your fears and concerns. Tell Him everything that is on your heart heavy. He really is there for us.

These are just some suggested things you can use to find that meaningful relationship with God. But, whatever you decide to do to honor God, just do it with your heart. Don’t take a chance.

Do you know when to say enough is enough? As a Christian, do you sometimes feel like you have to take everything that people do to you? What about when you know and it’s obvious that someone is doing you wrong…should you take it because as Christians that’s what we’re “supposed” to do? I feel sometimes that the body of Christ is taken advantage of and that the “saved” card is played a little bit too much. We’re told that we should act and be a certain way because we’re Christians. Does that mean we’re to be stepped on and trodden upon all for the sake of being named “the saved”?

What’s interesting to me is how people will react to you when you react, to anything! They look at you as if you’re from another planet, or they look in wide-eyed disbelief that you could “say” such a thing or “do” such a thing. What’s really amazing is that they can do and say anything they want to do to you, but they don’t want you to react or say anything back that would indicate that you don’t like what they’re saying.

As Christians, we do have a duty to hold up certain standards. My sister-blog over at lifeasachristianwoman.com agrees too. But, we do not, and I do mean we do not, have to take any kind of bullying from anyone. Just because we’re Christians doesn’t mean we’re doormats. Bullying and abuse are just un-acceptable.

Do you agree?

Sometimes my son will ask what is it like to see Jesus. He wonders if Jesus is ready to see him. Or, he’ll say he’s ready to see Jesus. Very often, I’ll shush this kind of thinking, saying to him, “when Jesus is ready to see you, He’ll come and get you. So, He’s not ready!” Or at least, I’m not.

Just recently, I lost a loved one that was near and dear to me to a prolonged illness. I was so saddened and disheartened to see them leave. Life just would not be the same without them. I thought about how different things would be now that they weren’t around. I thought about how different things would be because I wouldn’t be able to see their faces, hear their laughter and feel their presence. But even though life would not be the same, I have to take peace in nowing that they have found peace, eternal peace, through dying. Death brings peace. No more pain. No more sorrow, heartache or discontentment. Everything will be erased. There will be peace.

If you have ever lost a loved one to a debilitating sickness, take a moment of joy in knowing that they are now at peace. Never do they have to suffer, be in pain or angst, or be uncomfortable any longer. Peace has found them because death has come.

Have you ever wondered what you should be doing with your life? What is it that God wants you to do? Don’t worry, a lot of people have this puzzling question just about every day of their lives. Whenever we are still “searching” our souls looking for what it is we should be doing, anything we do can turn into a monotonous, robotic act. I know that there are a ton of things that God wants me to do in service to Him and with my life. Aside from the honor, respect and obey Him as The Deity, I should also be performing acts of service in ministry to the Most High God. But why am I not doing them? I’ll share with you why. 

Loving God is easy, but living for Him is a challenge. If anyone tells you otherwise, they’re not being honest. The world we live in is full of challenges and distractions that can bombard our physical, emotional and mental spirits a great portion of the time. Remember when Paul declared in Romans 7, “When I would do good, evil is ever present.” Paul is saying EVERY TIME he tries to do good, there is always something struggling against him, trying to get him to do the other thing or go the other way. Evil. A powerful thing. Although we can find ourselves at these crossroads on more than one occasion, there is hope that we can make it. But more on that…tomorrow. When we are given a task to do by God, why does it feel so hard to do? You see, we have a nature within us that wills us to do the opposite of what God wants. Has he commissioned you to minister His word? Has he given you a specific task to do concerning a needy family? Is there anything in your life that you know God wants you to do and you’re trying to find the strength to do it? Let me help you by showing you how you can be successful at it: 

Acknowledge first that God is all-knowing and wants only the best for you. He will not give you a task to do if He did not feel certain that you could do it. Just trust Him. Research in the Bible and in any pertinent outside materials the job that God is assigning to you. Find out what the assignment means and what’s required from you. 

Pray and ask God earnestly for His leading and guiding as you do what it is He has assigned to you. Keeping yourself aligned with His will constantly will be invaluable. When God assigns something, He does not error. Once you become comfortable in this, knowing He doesn’t make mistakes, you will be able to perform your task with peace.

The late-night talk show, Baisden After Dark, created quite a stir with me the other night while I was watching it. The topic: Is Pornography Becoming Mainstream? The topic is not what stirred me up but rather it was the panel and their response.

There was a minister on there who was on the panel and was asked his opinion about pornography and its place in a traditional marriage. There were a few others on the panelwith varied views, but I was quite curious about the minister’s freedom-of-porn-with-the-Christian stance. Now by default, most Christians are fundamentalists and believe fully in the sanctity of marriage. God ordained and fashioned the marriage after the church. Sex within the Christian marriage is good, right and the bed undefiled, right? Right. But, where is there allowance for multiple parties in that undefiled bed?

The minister on the panel was clear in his view of allowing pornography to be a “healthy” part of marriage and fixing any ailments the marriage may have. WHAT!!! Since most marriages experience a 50% divorce rate, why on earth would you introduce other elements into an already potentially bad situation and increase the likelihood of the marriage not working?

I submit to you that in order for there to be a healthy marriage, God has to first be the center and focus of it, faith-based in Him. Secondly, there doesn’t need to be any outside elements or distractions introduced into a unit that was only designed for two. What is pornography? More than those two I guarantee.

Is Pornography Becoming Mainstream? I certainly hope not!!

How do you keep it real? By being true to yourself. By being honest and doing everything that you vow to. When you are true to yourself and keep it real, you can sleep good at night. When people look at you, what do they see? Do they see someone who is honest and fair? Or are you (as my grandmother would say) a “shyster”, someone looking for the easy way? Keeping it real is important.

I try to take on that philosophy when dealing with people in my life. It’s very interesting to me to watch how I interact with people. Let me give you an example:

I was asked to be a part of a non-profit organization’s program where I would serve as the mistress of ceremonies. The ceremony was over three weeks away and I could not get things settled. I was behind in my freelance writing work, the children’s schoolwork was overwhelming, the house was a MESS and I had multiple projects going on. In addition to all of this, the company was about 45-60 minutes from my house and started at unreal time of 8:00 on a Saturday morning. Since this invitation was not going to bring me any new business and limited exposure, I decided it was best not to take it. That settled things. I wouldn’t go.

What did I do? At first I wasn’t going to do anything and just not show up on the day of program. But that’s not keeping it real. Got to keep it real. So I did.

I called the client and just explained how much I had going on and how it didn’t look like something I needed to do right now. That’s it plain and simple. After I said this, the client thanked me and assured me that they WOULD be calling on me again to be on their program. All because I kept it real.