Tag: Naty Matos

Keeping the Sabbath

On By Naty MatosIn Inspirational ThoughtsLeave a comment

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work,10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8

In the passage above we read that we are supposed to rest. Our modern life goes totally against this principle. When God created the world including humanity everything worked inside a principle of balance.

Do you remember that ecosystem science project in school? You needed certain elements for everything to function properly. The same way our lives were designed to work, to have fun but also to rest. The Word of God doesn’t call us to exhaust ourselves and wait for a week vacation once in a while to recuperate, it says that out of every seven days we need one to rest.

Society works against this principle. Our “days off” are usually the weekends, and what do we do with those? Some people work, some people spend both days running errands, doing housework. And like a good friend of mine would say, How is that working for you? How is your body functioning on little rest? How is your relationship with God when your mind is cluttered with business? How is your relationship with those around you when they don’t have down time with you?

Like I said before, everything in God’s perfect plan has an order and a purpose, so aside from obedience conserving the Sabbath is about the balance in our lives to fulfill God’s purpose.

Be blessed

If you want to read about some of my own life lessons in my walk with Christ, check out my book Growth Lessons.

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In Growth Lessons, I was reminded of this beautiful truth: Our walk with the Lord is a process of growing up into the image of Christ. P. Yates

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like some common sense and light added to their life. C. Cunningham

Great for meditations and daily devotions. N. Thames

WF: From Sunset to Sunrise

On By Naty MatosIn WorshipLeave a comment

Today during our worship time we should remember that we need God every day. That every day we have new mercies. We need to acknowledge that without Him we are nothing. Let’s keep our eyes on his glory.

WF: Worship Friday

4 and 5 Stars Reviews. A Powerful Story of Redemption

clip_image002[1]“Aimee is a constant positive influence in Desiree’s life, gently demonstrating God’s love and mercy. ”Mary Anne Benedetto

“Very well written. ”Emme

“I would recommend The Road Home to any romantic, any lover of books, anyone struggling with forgiveness, anyone. ”cynthia

Idolatry

On By Naty MatosIn Inspirational Thoughts10 Comments

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:4-6

The first time I read this scripture I was like, wow pictures may get me in trouble. In careful look of this scripture then I realize that if I bow or worship such picture then it would apply.

As civilization has evolved we think that we don’t encounter on idolatry as this was written in a time where people would bow to golden and wooden gods believing that they had powers. There are still active religions who place worship to sculptures, stamps, pictures or unanimated objects. People bow before these, pray and believe that their prayers would be answered.

However, even Christians can also enter in some forms of idolatry. In Colossians 3:5 we read “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” So, if as a Christian you are engaging in sexual activities outside of the covenant of marriage, including pornography. If you are envious or jealous of your neighbor’s blessings. If your passions are towards sports, entertainment or your work, you are engaging in a form of idolatry.

Let’s look into our hearts and search sincerely where our passions are. Let’s look at what struggles we have that can be interfering with us having a pure life in the Lord.

Discover how Desiree was able to navigate the process of learning how to live a Christian life?

clip_image002“Aimee is a constant positive influence in Desiree’s life, gently demonstrating God’s love and mercy. ”Mary Anne Benedetto

“Very well written. ”Emme

“I would recommend The Road Home to any romantic, any lover of books, anyone struggling with forgiveness, anyone. ”cynthia

God First

On By Naty MatosIn Inspirational Thoughts1 Comment

When God spoke to Moses in the desert about the things he required from us, the first thing he sais was for us to always consider him first. God wants our love and our affections without competing with anything else in our life.

The scripture says, “You shall have no other gods before me” Exodus 20:3 We may think that as Christians we are already serving the right God, therefore this is already covered. Think again.

Jesus tells us in Mark 12:30 ” Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

David shows us in Psalms 73:25-26  what that love would look like. When we realize that God is all we need. “Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

A love so powerful sometimes is hard to comprehend. Do not give up. If we allow God to take over our lives he will show us how to live that love.

Let’s pray today that we can have our heart after God, that we can surrender from our selfish ways, shedding all our other passions for a passion for him.

Talking about passions. Check out my new book, The Road Home and learn how Desiree went after the wrong passions in her life and her struggles to find the right passion to follow.

 

clip_image002“Aimee is a constant positive influence in Desiree’s life, gently demonstrating God’s love and mercy. ”Mary Anne Benedetto

“Very well written. ”Emme

“I would recommend The Road Home to any romantic, any lover of books, anyone struggling with forgiveness, anyone. ”cynthia

WF: Burn for you

On By Naty MatosIn WorshipLeave a comment

I like this song a lot. We sometimes think that worship music needs to be mellow. We forget that there are many times in the bible where the music utilized to worship God was very animated.

Exodus 15:20

Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing.  Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.”

What better way to end this week than burning for the love of our Lord?

WF: Worship Friday

Check out my new book!

clip_image002“Aimee is a constant positive influence in Desiree’s life, gently demonstrating God’s love and mercy. ”Mary Anne Benedetto

“Very well written. ”Emme

“I would recommend The Road Home to any romantic, any lover of books, anyone struggling with forgiveness, anyone. ”cynthia

WF: Hold me

On By Naty MatosIn WorshipLeave a comment

Have you heard people say that they are in love with love? I think that phrase tends to be misused. If you’re in love with love, then you are in love with God who is love itself.

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God,

because God is love.

He deserves all our affections and this song really inspires me to shout out of the rooftops how much I love the Lord and how blessed I feel that he loves me

Happy Friday

WF: Worship Friday

If you want to read about a woman’s journey to finding that love, pick up your copy of The Road Home. It’s available for your Kindle and Nook.The Road Home Cover (1)

Are You Weary?

On By Naty MatosIn Inspirational ThoughtsLeave a comment

Have you ever felt like you’ve given everything you have to give? Have you ever lost hope, not because you don’t think that good things can come up, but because you’ve poured out so much that you believe that you won’t have the energy to even receive the blessing?

The good news is that we serve a God whose well never runs dry. His mercies are new every morning and what is dead he can bring back to life. When all hope is gone, when our energy has been used and wasted he says to rest in him that he will give us the strength like eagles.

Do you know how strong an eagle is ?

  • It can lift a full grown Fox from the ground
  • It can fly at high altitudes.
  • It’s almost like a flying human with sharp senses and a lot more strength.

Yes, you don’t have the strength, but he’ll be strong for you. Yes, you don’t have hope, but he provides you with faith. You may feel dead inside, but just like Lazarus he can bring you back to life, and since all you need to move a mountain is a mustard seed size faith, trust in the Lord, speak to the mountain, speak to the pain that in Jesus name what’s been dead will not only come back to life, but he will make brand new.

Blessings!

If you want to read a powerful story of redemption and hope in how God can get us out of the wildest situations, pick up your copy of The Road Home today! Available for Kindle and Nook. If you want to have a chance to win a free Kindle copy enter a comment in our Topic of Discussion post. The winner will be announce this Friday 27th.

Milestone Birthday…

On By Naty MatosIn Inspirational ThoughtsLeave a comment

Tomorrow is the designated day to celebrate another year gifted by the Lord to me. As those who have followed me from some time I do inventory twice a year. For my birthday I do inventory of my life and at the end of the year I do inventory of my career.

This year, it’s one of those milestones birthdays, I’m turning 18. Naty why are you lying to your readers?, LOL! Tell the truth, it’s the big 4-0. Milestone birthdays tend to place in perspective where you are in life. In the past couple of weeks I looked at where I thought I would be when I got to be this age. Although the answer was, no life didn’t turn out how I expected, I actually like where I am right now.

My life experiences have given me the wisdom to know that if I would have gotten the things I wanted on my timetable I would probably not be the person I am today. Those same experiences have allowed me the relationship with God that I have today and I wouldn’t change that for anything and actually gives me the opportunity to grow closer to HIM in this relationship.

No, I’m not living my dream, but once I surrendered to Christ I’ve started to live the dream He had for me when he created me and it was a dream more beautiful that I could have ever dream. For that I’m grateful. I’m grateful for another year of life. This has been a year of growth and good lessons.

Be encouraged my friend, he always has a better plan.

Bookrix: A great place to start

On By Naty MatosIn Writing Happenings2 Comments

When I was giving my first baby steps toward becoming a publish author, I knew I needed a lot of help and useful feedback. I had a lot of friends who could read my manuscripts, but I was afraid they would be partial due to our relationship.

I also liked the concept of writing contests. As a writer, I know how important is to be organized, meet deadlines and make sure that you present the best of your work to your readers. Bookrix is always hosting some contests for their writers to participate. The winners are selected by votes from others in the community. Winning is always more fun, but the times I competed was more for the training experience and that is worth it, especially for those aspiring to a writing career.

At the time I ran into Bookrix, I was already blogging, but I had not shown my fiction writing to other peers. This is a large community that gives you that opportunity. The Bookrix community is very diverse and you can obtain feedback from readers, writers with minimal or extended experience.

I found a very supportive community and great information to better my craft and my writing style.

One of the questions that beginning writers ask frequently is where to start their careers. Bookrix is a great place to write, to start building a platform and improving their The Road Home Cover (1)writing.

Read the first Chapter of my new novel “The Road Home” for free at Bookrix or if you have decided that you want to read the whole book, you can obtain your copy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

WF: God of Wonders

On By Naty MatosIn Worship2 Comments

The desired Friday has arrived. As we all get ready to enjoy the weekend, regardless if you have big plans or not, don’t ever forget He who created you and allows you to enjoy every breath. He who provides everything you have around you and allows you access to it. He who created the sun to warm us up ( a little too much last week) but then sent us the rain to water and refresh us this week (at least where I am)

Let’s worship the Lord, the God of Wonders.

WF: Worship Friday

Looking for a weekend read that will keep you in suspense but will inspire you,The Road Home Cover (1) get your copy of my new novel The Road Home. It’s available in Kindle and Nook. You can also win a copy of this book by commenting on a hot topic: How do Christian Parents Deal with Sexually Active Teens? Enter your comment and you will be entering for a chance to win a copy of The Road Home on June 27th here at The Rising Muse.