Welcome Home

Hello everyone! I want to start off by saying God bless you, and I want to let you know just how glad I am that you are here. That's right, you the reader have my deepest gratitude! I'm not only glad that you're here looking at my content, although that is appreciated, I'm also glad you are here because just like me, you are a creation of God. Before we go any further, I want you to pause for a moment and think about that fact. Focus your thoughts on how beautiful that is, the most powerful, loving, kind and caring God created you on purpose, and with a purpose. He created you to experience wonderful things, victories, moments of overcoming struggles, breakthroughs! We know what kind of mood life can put us all in, but God always turns that around, and bring us right back to joy, peace, and love. That is the God that created you. The same God who created me, and I think that being among His creation, you, is something to be celebrated. So, I celebrate you being here! I know God is glad for it too! Speaking of being celebrated, did you happen to catch the title of today's blog? (a rather cheeky question, but I'm using a segue here haha) During today' read, I want you to get to know me a little bit, that way we can connect on a more personal level. Thought this I want you to see the reason why I've invited you to Lite-Thought. To begin, my name is Kazel, pronounced like the color Hazel, but with a "K". That is literally how I explain it to anyone who meets me over the phone or in person. I must admit, I enjoy it when I get the chance to explain that to someone new. It is fun, it is funny...but hey, nice to meet you! Now let us get to it, shall we!? Did you know I was not always a Christian? That is right, I was quite different when I was younger. I am still relatively young, only thirty-nine, but I am much more different from when I was a starting youth in my first Church. Sixteen years of age and I had set foot for the first time in Church as a visitor, a few years later you would find me singing, and always offering words of advice to friends. I would go to Vigil services on Friday's, in Sunday service at 6am fasting with the youth group for the Church service that began at 10am. We would end up traveling for a few engagements here and there. I would later become one of the youth presidents at my next church, join an evangelist as the worshiper for his ministry, a bible study teacher for my next Church, then I would end up meeting my girlfriend who would later become my wife, and through her I found my home church which I have been a part of for around 12 - 13 years! Today we're part of the worship ministry, I became part of the English Ministry for a year. I would preach and sing, and I have had so many incredible experiences! So, let's fast forward a few years to where I finally found myself dealing with...myself. Can I tell you; I did not have the easiest run of life? Certainly not the hardest, and I was well taken care of in many ways, and still am. God has always provided for me; however, I was struggling inwardly. I had many years of traumas to unpack, unresolved past issues, I was not always my own biggest fan or supporter. I had so much progress to make which was hard to do, especially when not putting God first. Yes, you read that right, I look back and see that I was not denying myself and putting God in first place. I was allowing myself and leaving God for last. I had found myself in some tough situations, scary situations, and some I was worried I would not make it out of. One day, I found myself on the verge of losing everything. It was certainly a grim time in my life, wondering what the future would hold. I found myself becoming so honest with the Lord. I felt like I was a far way off, that I needed to come back home, that I needed to give in to Jesus finally and truly. I needed to become totally submitted to God. It took a lot of hits, it took some scary moments in life, it took some serious self-reflection guided by God to get me to recognize that I needed to make some profound changes in my life, and it worked. I have had quite a string of Godly encounters which I hope one day to share them with you, but this one impacted me especially. I was out with my wife watching a theatrical release of the show The Chosen. Season 4, Episodes 4, 5 and 6. One scene stayed with me out of all the episodes. I won't say what it was as this season is still ongoing and I do not want to get hate mail for spoilers lol! I can say that the scene ended with Jesus hugging a man whom he had provided a miracle for. The structure and message of the scene was so powerful. I was mesmerized. We got back home, and I wanted to take a moment to simply be still, quiet, and just meditate. I shut off all the lights in the kitchen and living room, my wife goes to pray in the bedroom and there I am, with the porch blinds open, staring out into the city and the sky and I am just quiet. The township lights filling the living room, and everything is still. Before I did this, I grabbed our family Bible, which I typically never do for a prayer session, but this time I felt the need to do so. I decided to randomly open it to see where I would land. For clarity, this is commonly called the lucky dip method, where you open your Bible and see if the passage you land on speaks to you. It is a fun thing to do, but do not lean on that as a go-to, always pray to God and make sure you read the whole Bible in context. Whole Biblical knowledge is key. This night, however was a bit different. I opened the Bible, and I could not see because it was dark in my apartment. I had all the lights down, and I was about to meditate in the quiet. When I opened the Bible I had opened it to what felt like the end half of the book. I thought to myself, "Oh no, I opened it too far. That must be Revelations". I went to flip to another portion, but something told me not to. I paused for a moment, still hesitating, I went to pull out my phone to turn on the light and see what book I had flipped to, but something stopped me. I remember the thought coming to my mind as I grabbed my phone out, "You don't trust me?" So I left it alone. I began meditating, standing at my porch door, and suddenly I am flooded with the memory of the many, many issues I have faced. The sufferings, the hardships. the sad times I had been broken and so much more. I began to cry, and I cried hard. I am doubled over, tears streaming down my face. It was a total emotional outpouring at that moment. I finally start to gather myself clean my face off and turn on the living room light. I check the Bible verse which I had left open prior to my meditating, and unplanned crying-fest. It was open to Luke 15; the Prodigal Son... and at that moment I knew God was telling me "Welcome Home"... Through so many years of troubles inward and outward, I needed my relationship restored with God. I was finally saying Yes to His call, and yes to allowing Him to work on my heart and in my life. It was something I needed, something that came at the perfect time. This happened on February 21st, 2024, and I was beyond glad God gave me this experience. Ever since I had finally fully submitted to the Lord, my life. Simply put, I want you to know that I have been through some hard circumstances. I have been through hard bouts of depression to where I have felt like I was in a pit of sadness with no ladder to climb out. I have felt desperation, insecurity, doubt, anxiety, panic, uncertainties and have been on the brink of losing it all. I have broken down, gone without sleep, and have felt lost in life. I have had unhealthy habits in my life which have caused hardships for me, have made poor choices which caused me so much pain, placed myself in dangerous situations. I have been on the wrong side of certain walks in life to where I was not sure what the outcome was going to be. I grew up experiencing traumas at home, also grew up in an unstable environment. I had dealt with hatred, bitterness, anger and a plethora of challenges and difficulties. Yet, due to God's love and patience and tenderness over me, here I can say that it is the goodness of God that has sustained me, brought me out of the pit of negativity I was in and saved me from being consumed by all the pains I have faced. I have not even begun to express the hurts I have felt, but I can fully express God is a healer, and He has healed me from it all, worked on me to make me better, and brought me back home... to Himself! I'm saying all this to assure you that there is not a single situation, hurt, anguish or suffering that God cannot take you out of. He is God, and nothing is impossible for Him. For a long time, I was living day to day simply hurting. My mind was a wreck, my emotions were a wreck, I was not finding my escape from any of it, but that was because I wasn't truly looking to God for healing, I was masking my pain with worldly sources, and even that wasn't working...because worldly sources don't work. The only thing that does work is God's help, God works, and that is all that truly does work. I would like to let you know that there is a "Welcome Home" for you too. It does not matter what you have done, where you have been, what has been going on in your mind, your heart, your doubts, fears, unbelief, crazy thoughts. You name it, God can heal you! This is a love unlike you will ever experience from any other source It is perfect, God covers you completely in His love. If you think you are too far gone, you are not. If you think you are not able to be healed, you are wrong. If you think you cannot be helped, think again. God has a place for you, a purpose for you, a space for you in His house where there are many rooms (John 14:2). Your space is prepared, God is expecting you to show up and today is that opportunity, so do not delay. This is your call to head back to God. When you do show up you do not have to worry about being beaten down with guilt, shame, or embarrassment. You will hear a gentle and loving voice say "Welcome Home!" The door is open, seek God while He can still be found, your return will be a cause for celebration! Come Home!