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Saturday, Feb. 11th, 2012 A Happy Life Together
When a person decides to get married they are deciding to leave their old life of singleness and venture forth into a new life of togetherness. It’s at this point that it’s important that both people are on the same page about what it means to be married. If they are not, watching their marriage could be like watching a rerun of loony tunes.
Jesus said that you can’t put new wine into old wineskins nor can you patch an old garment with a new cloth. Why? Because new wine is aging and new material is shrinking and they both need room to move. Marriage is all about change and if you really don’t want to change you shouldn’t plan on getting married. When you buy a bag of trail mix there are different things in the bag and you can add some m and m’s to make those nuts and fruits taste sweeter but marriage is not all m and m’s.
Marriage is what it is but the question is, do you want to preserve your marriage until death do you part or is it until divorce do you part? I tell people that success is not about what you can get out of a marriage but it’s about what you are willing to give to make your marriage work.
The Bible is God’s handbook on how to have a successful marriage and it is all about developing your character. If you are a person that gets angry quick here’s a word from God for you.... change. If you are full of pride, change. If you have to always be right about everything, change.
Here is one powerful truth that you need to understand about marriage; marriage is a journey through life and not a destination in life. People say some vows and conclude as they walk down the aisle of the church that they are now fully married. No, no, no you have just begun the journey. Talk to me in two or three years and then we’ll decide if you are fully married or not. They say a mom cries at her children's wedding because she knows that the smiles of the wedding day will soon run into the sorrows of life.
Marriage is meant to bless you more than singleness ever could, if you willingly obey and follow the Bible. Proverbs 31:10-11 “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain.”
A good marriage requires the word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit to transform your life. If you have suffered the pains of a divorce it doesn’t mean that you are a bad person but it does mean that you have experienced a bad relationship. Seek some help to become fully healed before you venture forth and begin looking for another mate.
Having a healthy marriage will require you losing yourself and discovering each other. It will mean growing up and allowing two single minded people to become one. A good marriage is truly a mystery and some days it’s nothing short of a miracle. For more help on how to keep love in your marriage, start to attend a good church together. God bless you all.
Saturday, Feb. 4th, 2012
I Was Just Thinking
The inner thoughts of the soul are something that we all have to deal with. Sometimes our thoughts can be positive, uplifting, and bring peace to our heart and at other times our thoughts can be negative, nasty, and turn our world into turmoil.
Proverbs 15:13 “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”
Proverbs 15:14 “All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.”
If you have a merry heart then your thoughts can be like a happy playground in a field of daisies but if your thoughts are evil then your heart can become a bloody battlefield that allows no rest. Someone said that their mind was a dangerous place and they didn’t want to go their alone. The truth is it’s not just trouble in our mind but it’s what we allow our mind to think about.
We can become tormented from within, even when our outside world is not in all that bad of shape. All we need is one drop of poisonous doubt over a decision that we made and our mind races into the land of, ‘What If!’ What if I can’t pay my bills? What if my spouse decides to leave me? What if I do lose my job? What if that pain I feel in my stomach is cancer? We grow weary and give ourselves a headache trying to answer the questions of the future with the limited information of today.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things...”
Most people understand that if they think and think about something that hurt them, the emotions behind that event will revisit them. Some people keep hurting for years because they won’t derail that train of thought. I know where these thoughts will lead me and I refuse to go there again.
Proverbs 25:24 “It is better to dwell in a corner of a housetop, than in a house shared with a contentious woman.”
How does anyone become contentious? I mean someone who is always picking a fight because they are never happy. How do I know if you are a contentious person? Well you are already upset with me for even bringing this verse up. The truth is if you were happy on the inside then you wouldn’t be brawling on the outside.
Contentious people are usually the result of being hurt by contentious problems. It’s when you allow the sour in your circumstances to leak into your heart and sour you.
If you are a contentious person or you have a real battle in your mind and you want to get yourself fixed, then be open and honest about your problems. Seek the Lord and ask Him to help you renew your mind with the washing of His Word. Find a good church to attend and go there looking to be changed. God bless you all.
Saturday, Jan. 28th, 2012
The Hardest Person To Change Is Me
Most people will work very hard trying to change themselves for the better. There is a normal amount of work that all of us should be doing to improve who we are but the trouble comes when we go overboard and drown in the sea of wanting everything to be perfect. When that happens we make our life impossible to live and we move the happy life beyond our reach. If this problem is not solved we will not only drive ourselves crazy but we will try to change all those that we are close to.
Most will admit that no one is perfect but some are not ready to accept that fact. If they did they would stop being a controller while giving the excuse that they like everything to be right. If you know that no one is perfect and yet you strive for perfection you’re going to give yourself a headache.
I have told people that their biggest problem is not some outside voice that puts them down but it’s their inside voice that keeps beating them up. If some outside voice tells me that I’m no good, my inside voice says God is good and He created me, so He made me good. I did not say that I am perfect but in God’s eyes I am good and still under construction.
The question is, is there hope for you? Can you let go of the way you are and become the person you should be.
Psalm 27:13 “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.”
Jesus gave us hope in the land of the living when He taught us how to pray to His Father which art in Heaven. Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in Heaven.”
The normal world around us is messed up and if our only input is this world then we are going to end up messed up and thinking wrong. Jesus lived and walked in this world but this world was not His home. He came from Heaven to prepare us for Heaven.
Are you trying to make your world perfect? Are you frustrated ninety nine percent of the time? Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
If you judge every word you say, second guess every decision you make, and take the blame for every mistake that happens, then we don’t need a devil messing up your world, you are doing a great job all by yourself. I tell people in church to relax, calm down, lighten up, and chill out.
Why do I encourage people to go to church? It’s the place that informs us all on how we can bring Heaven to earth. With the proper information and God’s help, you can live a normal stress free happy successful life.
Church is not the be all and end all of all things, but it is what it is and you may benefit from going. Why don’t you find out for yourself and go to a good church this weekend. God bless you all.
Saturday, Jan. 21st, 2012
A Power That Changes You
Our actions speak louder than our words, even when we’re shouting. Some people feel that the louder they speak, the more serious they will be taken. The level of their emotions is reflected in the loudness of their voice.
The trouble is, our emotions can cause us to become loud and say things that we don’t quite mean. Later, after we calm down, we have to apologize for the way that we reacted towards the person that upset us. If we don’t apologize the relationship develops a crack. Enough cracks and the relationship is broken beyond natural repair.
A friend of mine said that he was cured from getting upset. I asked what happened? He said that after he reacted wrong he had to go and apologize and he hated to say that he was sorry. To avoid saying that he was sorry he controlled his temper.
Before I even accepted the teaching of Jesus, I encountered people that said that they were followers of Jesus. I believe that we all determine what we will follow in life based first on the way others behave. I remember one man named Neil who picked me up and drove me to Sunday school. I don’t remember what they taught in the Sunday school class but I do remember the actions of the man that drove me there. He was easy going, happy to see me, and kind. His actions spoke more to me about the love of God than the doctrines I was trying to understand in the Holy Church.
Neil made being a Christian doable. I have often prayed to be more like the man that drove me to church than some of the scholars that I have encountered within the church. Some people seem to know such deep truth about God and yet live such shallow lives before people.
They understand the words of the Gospel without receiving the power of the gospel to change their lives. 2 Timothy 3:5 “having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
I believe that the gospel is more than mere information that we can learn how to behave but it is a transformation that we can experience. People today are looking for something real because they are smart enough to know that something false has no power to change their life.
If there is no power to empower people to change their bad behavior, then there is no need for even one church. If the gospel has no power to effect a life, then the last one out shut of the lights.
The good news is, I talk to people every week who are now living transformed lives. They were acting and reacting the wrong way for years but now have totally changed by the power of gospel of Jesus Christ. If you need to change how you are acting then let me point you to the power in God that can empower you to help you change. There are lots of good churches in our community, find one this weekend to attend. God bless you all.
Saturday, Jan. 14th, 2012
What Do You Do When the System Lets Us Down
Our world is made up of many systems and we learn to depend on the different systems to keep us safe. We have our government, our law enforcement, our schools, and our religious systems. We place confidence in our leaders and believe that they will act with the highest moral values. The question is, what happens when a leader that we trusted fails?
When a politician, a police officer, a school teacher, or a minister fails? The problem is, we can deal with a person letting us down but we lose confidence in the system that they were representing.
Within the religious system when we discover a moral failure it effects our faith and how we view our relationship with God. The leader was one who would help us to commune with God and their unfaithfulness reflects on the entire system that they represent.
A minister friend of mine I discovered was hooked on pornography. Another minister friend left his wife for another woman. It caused me to stop and think, is anyone really serving God?
I was hurt and I didn’t just judge the guilty but I judged everyone including God. As I prayed or I should say as I complained to God, I heard a still small voice say, ‘has God ever let you down? Has God ever failed you? Has God ever mistreated you? Has God ever hurt you?’ I stopped complaining about the problem as I learned a very valuable lesson that day. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” Psalm 118:8
Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
I had to separate the guilty from the just. We have all sinned and if perfection is the requirement of heaven then none of us get to go. The system called the church is still working and there are thousands of faithful Priests, Ministers, and lay workers who are serving the Lord to the best of their ability. Jesus is still the right answer even if others have wrongly used His name.
I was throwing the baby (the church) out with the bathwater (moral failure of a leader). I was allowing the failures of some to become my excuse for distrusting the whole.
Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 “…. you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Don’t allow the gates of hell, a bad apple, a bad experience, or a bad day work to ruin everything that you trust in. Yes people do fail us but let it be said that Jesus and His church are working for us.
If you have been hurt by a spiritual leader then shame on them. If you were hurt you need to forgive them and in so doing you release them from hurting you any further.
Jesus came to help us and He was crucified and from the cross He said Luke 23:34 "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Jesus gave us the right example of what to do when we are hurt by the actions of others, forgive. Find a good church to attend. God bless you all.
Saturday, Jan. 7th, 2012
Niceness Is A Better Place To Live
The shortcut to the good life can be found by taking the path of niceness. It’s not always the path of least resistance but it becomes the path that will bless you with divine favor. The doorway towards your future success can often be opened by being nice. In fact there are some places in the land of favor that are set aside for nice people. Places of joy and places of peace and if you refuse to be nice you’ll never find yourself in those places.
At the opposite end of niceness is meanness. The closer you live to being nice, the better life becomes. The meaner you are the less you enjoy life. Meanness or niceness is not how you were born but it’s a decision that you choose to make. There are a lot of excuses for a lot of things but there’s no excuse for meanness, coldness, and rudeness. You may be hurt and frustrated with your life but that’s no excuse to take it out on other people.
Some people say if they had more of whatever, then they would be nice. I have discovered that nice people can be rich and nice people can be poor. Nice people can be healthy and nice people can be sick. On the other hand mean people can be rich and mean people can be poor. Mean people can be healthy and mean people can be sick.
You can’t say that you have the right to be mean to others because of something that happened to you. If that idea were true then everyone has the right to be mean. No one I know has travelled through this cruel world without some bumps and bruises.
Proverbs 3:3-4 “Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.”
The pathway to favor and high esteem with God and man is in our ability to walk in the fullness of mercy and truth. Can you show mercy towards someone that hurt you? Well… maybe not on the day that you were hurt but mercy requires that we learn to forgive.
Mercy is the voice that cries out, ‘you need to forgive and give the person another chance.’ Our Heavenly Father in His very nature is full of mercy towards us. People that think that God is somehow out to get them and make them pay are wrong. Our Father which art in Heaven wasn’t trying to make you pay when He sent His only begotten Son Jesus into this world.
Jesus came and offers everyone mercy and I am a person that has accepted His offer. A Christian is not someone who is perfect but it’s someone who has been forgiven. Try niceness this year and watch the Lord bring good things your way.
Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.”
So be nice and on your journey towards niceness find a good church to attend. God bless you all.
Saturday, Dec. 31st, 2011
A Race Is Set Before Us
As we approach the threshold of a new year, we stand at the crossroads between an old 2011 and the new 2012. The question is, what luggage will we leave behind and what luggage will we carry into the future? What bad things will we never do again and what good things will you strive to do even better?
A new year is an opportunity to start to write a new chapter in your life on pages that are blank. It will be the words of your lips and the deeds of your body that will become the pen and the ink that will fill in the lines. I have said that it’s too bad that life doesn’t come with an event eraser. We could go back and erase harsh words, wrong actions, and bad decisions.
The truth is we are all stuck with our past but the good news is we don’t have to be all stuck in our past. Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
The race of 2012 is set before us and there will be bumps, lumps, pot holes, ditches, stormy days, and slippery sections that will test us to see if we have learned anything from our past. Yes we can make our long list of resolutions but the proof of success will be in the pudding of good choices that we make in 2012.
Hebrews said that we need to run with endurance this race that is set before us but first we need the wisdom to lay aside any weights that will hinder our progress. The old story of the race between the rabbit and the turtle tells us that a race can be won by endurance and determination and a race can be lost by distraction and pride.
Will you carry your anger, your pride, your hate, your jealousy, your bitterness, and your addictions into 2012? If you do then the weight and the poison of those things will weaken you and work to cause you to lose the race.
The good news is Jesus offers everyone the power of His forgiveness and when we ask to be forgiven He breaks the glue that binds us to the guilt and the shame of our past. We are no longer stuck nor are we weighted down by our past mistakes but we can be free to run life’s race.
The decision is yours to make, you can run another year with weight and hate or you can run the new year with love and joy. I will be fasting for three days starting on Monday for a prosperous new year. I know that an apple tree always has a harvest but this year, 2012, shall yield a bumper crop.
Amos 9:13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” I pray that you will find a good church to attend and that this new year will become very prosperous for you. God Bless you all.
Saturday, Dec.24th, 2011
Waiting For Christmas Day
Here we stand with baited breath, waiting for Christmas day. Some people are good at waiting and others are not so good. There will be those who can’t wait until tomorrow and will have to open their gifts tonight before they go to bed. One more sleep we tell the children. Some of the letters to Santa are cute. Dear Santa, ‘I’m not going to ask for a lot. I want an etch-a-sketch, two packs of #2 pencils, some crayons, a new bike, a computer, and a big flat screen TV for my room. Well, maybe you could drop the crayons, I don’t want to be too selfish.’
I wonder what it was like to be waiting for Jesus that first Christmas morning? The Bible tells us that the Jewish nation had been given dozens of promises about a Savior, but the trouble was they had been waiting for over four thousand years. When I think about that it makes me feel not so bad when I wait an hour for my wife as she shops at the mall.
The Bible reveals that most people had given up on the idea of a coming Messiah and they decided to make do with trying to serve God according to all the rules that are found in the Old Testament. That was mission impossible to obey all the laws but it did give them lots to do while they were waiting.
The first Christmas arrives and Jesus the Son of God is on time, in the right location, and born to the right parents. The trouble is, where are the waiting crowds? If it wasn’t for the Father sending a choir of Angels and some shepherds, no one would have been there.
I know that God being God, He could have had the biggest crowd ever to witness this great event. So why didn’t He? I believe that God is saying that you don’t need a crowd following you to be someone important. Jesus was fully the Savior our Messiah all by Himself and He needed neither the approval or the applause of others to affirm Him.
Crowds can be like a river and we can be like a log that is moved by the current of the crowd. The truth is many people discover who Jesus really is when they have to walk through some lonely hours or quiet times. Yes, in the big picture He’s God’s gift to the whole entire world, but you need to see that He’s also God’s gift to you.
In Luke 2:11 the Angel proclaimed “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Jesus came wrapped up as God’s perfect gift in the perfect size to fit every heart. Have you been waiting and waiting and waiting for some help to come your way? Have you all but given up that a real Messiah would come and make a real difference in your life?
Take a moment right now and make a prayer trip to visit Jesus. He’s still the Savior and He’s as close as the mention of His name. May I say that I love you all and may you have a very Merry Christmas.
Saturday, Dec.17th, 2011
The Great Hope Of Christmas
Do you have any hopes and dreams for Christmas? Having a good hope for a better future is truly a wonderful thing, and on the other hand being without hope is an awful thing. I have seen people who have had hope for a better education, a better job, a better marriage, or even a better life and their hope was the driving force that caused them to succeed. I have also tried to help people who had lost their hope and they would resist change, blame others, avoid work, and complain about the present.
If you look at history it has really been those hopeful people that have been the world changers and history makers. If you look at yourself it’s been your future hopes that have made you willing to change your present circumstances. Once you lose hope for the future you will stop adjusting the present and become content with living in a rut.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Hope for someone who is trying to follow God is like a three leg stool. We need to see that success is connected with healthy thoughts between the past, present and future. I have in my past accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord. I have in this present moment a faith that believes that God is good. I have a hope in my future that everything is going to be alright based on my present faith and past experience.
Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred (to remove or delay) makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”
If you remove hope from a person’s heart, it has the power to make that person sick. If you have no hope for Christmas then the thoughts of Christmas can make you sick. If you have no hope for your future then the thoughts of your future can make you sick. Could it be that even now some present sickness has been brought on because someone or something has stolen your hope? The good news is you can hope again, Jesus came to restore your hope and renew your faith. We all need hope for if we have nothing to live for, we can inwardly stop living and begin to think, what’s the point of being here.
Christmas is all about God giving us the gift of hope. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
The story of Jesus is the greatest story ever told because He came wrapped up in the greatest love, to bring us the greatest hope that we might live with the greatest joy and peace. This Christmas hope of Jesus is not meant to be just temporal and earthly but it is also Heavenly and eternal.
I pray that the gift of His hope be yours. God bless you all.
Saturday, Dec.10th, 2011
The Principles Of God Never Change
Have you ever been having a normal day and then suddenly an abnormal thing happens? I thought about Mary the mother of Jesus and how an Angel shows up and for her in that moment everything changed. This young girl who was engaged and planning to be married receives this angelic email from Heaven, ‘look out Mary, things are about to change.’
Luke 1:28 “And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
Mary was likely very glad to be highly favored by the Lord but what would her boyfriend think of the news and what would mom and dad say? Mary had great faith in the Lord to believe that something so outrages could be true but every truth comes with a price tag if you want to own it.
What is faith? Faith is the trust and confidence that a person puts in a hope, dream, or promise, that even in the midst of an impossible situation, they are persuaded to believe that everything is going to be alright. Faith is a Bible principle and the principles of God never change even when circumstances do. True faith is not tested when everything is going in the right direction but real faith is found in the person who believes that even when everything is going wrong, everything is going to be alright.
We could say that the Christmas story was really a faith story. Would this Mary blindly trust in an invisible God that His words were true no matter what that trust would cost her personally? Would her faith in what this Angel was saying pay off or would she be sadly mistaken?
We can read the Bible and look at things from the finished side of faith. We see Mary and how she held onto truth and everything worked out. We applaud her, honor her, and even envy her for doing all that she did. We think wouldn’t it be nice if we could believe like she did. Yet having personal faith is not when you merely see what God did for someone else but it’s when you believe that God can do something great for you.
Would you believe that God is good and that He loves you very much? Would you believe that He wants to bless you, help you, heal you, fix you, save you, and deliver you out of every bondage? Would you believe that the Almighty Father which art in Heaven is no respecter of persons and what He has done for someone else He’ll gladly do for you?
Mary revealed her faith as she spoke in Luke 1:38 “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word...”
It took nine months for the promise to come to pass as we see faith working with patience to produce a miracle. Would you work your faith and trust that the word of the Lord will work for you? Can you say, ‘Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.’ I pray that you find a good church to attend and that you put your faith in the Lord Jesus and receive a Christmas miracle. God bless you all.
Saturday, Dec.3rd, 2011
Nothing's Wrong If We Remember What's Right
It’s only early December and we’re already seeing the rush and push of Christmas shoppers. As we drive though the community we find that many homes have found their hidden boxes of Christmas lights and beautiful decorations. For the children our school concerts and church concerts are in high gear. Office parties are in the works and remember all those gifts must be purchased and wrapped as plans are already in place for where each person wants to be on Christmas morning.
With all the stuff that we do concerning Christmas, could the true meaning of Christmas get lost in the wrapping paper? What was it that those Angels said to the shepherds? Luke 2:11-14 "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"
Sometimes I think that we need to stop and catch our breath if we ever hope to find peace on earth and goodwill towards men. The real truth about Christmas is if we had no gifts to give nor lights to light nor songs to sing nor parties to go to and even if we didn’t have one special person to visit, we still have been given the greatest gift that Heaven could afford.
So whose birthday is it again? Matthew 1:21 “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Yes Jesus came with the ability to take away your sins but He also came to empower you with an inner strength to live a better life. He came to bring peace on earth and we are an earthen vessel that needs peace. He came to bring us joy to replace our grief and sorrow.
By faith I accept that Jesus has forgiven me and by faith I believe that His power is working within me today. This greatest Christmas gift is not someone that I get to open once a year on Christmas morning but He is right now my strength and power that causes me to rejoice.
There can be nothing wrong with all the things that we do at Christmas. It’s good to be busy but let’s not be so busy that we forget what Christmas is really all about. Take a moment each morning this month and before you face all the tasks of the day, turn to Jesus and give thanks for He is still the reason for the season.
Find a good church to attend and celebrate this joyous time of year with like believers. May you and your family be kept safe from harm. God bless you all.
Saturday, November 26th, 2011
You Are What You Think You Are
Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…”
We may be all different in how we think, but we are all the same in the fact that we all do think. Thinking to a person is what a seed is to a plant. Just as a seed declares the type of plant that will grow, our thinking sets the course for the type of person that we will become.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:17-18 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”
In the same way a bad thought produces a bad action and a good thought produces a good action. The psalmist is saying that the whole character of a man is wrapped up in how he thinks.
Victories are won or lost in the battleground of the mind. The lethal weapons of thought have the power to destroy you or destroy your enemy. If you allow your mind to run wild you will become unstable but if you can become the master of your thoughts, you can become the moulder of your character, and the maker of your environment.
That’s why I can say that circumstances do not make the man but circumstances reveal the type of man that you already are. An opportunity to drink doesn’t make you a drinker anymore than the opportunity to steal makes you a thief. Now if in your mind you are a thief and you are given the opportunity to steal, you’ll act like a thief. Opportunity only reveals who you are on the inside but it does not make who you are.
Remember the Proverb, ‘for as a man thinks in his heart so is he.’ I would say that its a very rare thing for a person to become something because they had a moment of temptation.
Love or hate is birthed and processed in the mind, long before words of love or hate proceed from the lips. We do not attract to us what we want, but we attract to us those things that we think that we are allowed to have. If someone offers you something greater than what you think you are, you’ll refuse it. If someone offers you something less than what you think you are, you’ll refuse it. As a man thinks in his heart so he will become.
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
If you are thinking good thoughts then you’ll be walking on a good path. If you want to improve your walk then improve your thoughts, read good books, watch good things on the TV and the internet. With the Lord’s help and you doing your part your mind can be renewed. Find a good church to attend and have a super week, God bless you all.
Saturday, November 19th, 2011
Self Inflicted Pain
Psalm 7:15-16 “He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.”
When I first read these verses I thought about all the people that made problems for others and how it backfired and caused problems for themselves. They went out and dug a pit for somebody else to fall into but ended up falling into the pit themselves.
What do we say about these people? Good enough for them. Serves them right. If you spit into the wind, it will likely land back on you. They made their own bed and now they have to lie in it.
The truth is, whether you shot yourself in the foot, or somebody else shot you in the foot, you’re still in pain. The trouble is it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who got hurt when they were trying to deal violently with somebody else. A person who gets caught stealing and then says to the judge that it was an honest mistake or an accident is not being truthful.
The Bible says that you reap what you sow and people who plan evil deeds will end up living evil lives. Is it God’s fault that evil falls on evil people? No, I don’t think its God’s fault as much as it is the natural reward for those that practice bad behavior. If you stood under a waterfall and got wet, was it God’s fault you got wet? You can’t blame God for your problem but you can change your location. If you have a mixed up mind with evil thinking then you’ll need someone with a sound mind to help you change.
Change is always possible but unless you enrol in the class of change, you’ll never graduate with a diploma from the school of hard knocks. Unless you start acting right towards others, you’ll never receive early parole from the prison you’re in.
You are not just a product of your environment but you are a product of your attitude towards God, yourself, and others. You may feel like a helpless hopeless case because you played a role in causing your pain. The question is not who shot who but now that you’re bleeding, do you seriously want help to get out of the problem?
Psalm 40:2-3 “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth; Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.”
Try adding the Lord Jesus to the equation for He doesn’t look at your past to determine your future. He forgives you and gives you a clean slate and He helps you to begin again. Find a good church to attend and start anew your journey back to wholeness and happiness. God bless you all.
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
And The Middle Is Where?
So where did they put the middle of the road? I have talked with lots of people who seem to have gotten off the beaten path and have ended up in the ditch. In some cases they have taken a real good quality and turned it into something bad because they took it to the extreme.
Protect yourself. That’s a good quality but when you become so over protective that you need to control everybody then that’s bad. Mothering, that’s a good quality but when you become smothering, you won’t allow your children to grow up. Being private about your life. Another good quality but you can become so private that you are paranoid about someone asking you your name.
How do we get off in a tangent or so far out in left field that we are no longer in the game? We can know for sure that something’s wrong, but we are certain that the problem has nothing to do with us. Note to self; the hardest person to help is the one who can’t see that they have a problem.
One woman said that her marriage was better after receiving counsel and yet her husband hadn’t changed. I said, ‘maybe your husband wasn’t the problem.’
Until you can get your inside world back on track, your outside world will always be going from ditch to ditch.
Hebrews 10:23-25 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Paul is saying to consider others if you want to stir up love yet many only consider themselves, what they think, what they want, and what they need. Once you focus only on you, you become self centered and ditch living will become your way of life.
I’ve talked to people about considering the other person and received the reply, ‘why is it always about them, what about me!’ Self centered answers seldom solve collective people problems.
Jesus set the example of giving, sharing, caring, and loving others as the way to find your way back on the road of life. If you’re in a ditch and you want help out, don’t be stuck in your own opinion but ask someone on the road for advice.
Don’t forsake going to church but look for a good church to attend and become a faithful member. I pray that you find your way onto the road of success and I know that the road is not always perfect but it is a lot better than living in the ditch. God bless you all.
Saturday, November 5th, 2011
Ropes Can Help to Keep You Secure
How many good friends do you have in your life? I mean when you have a serious problem, do you have anyone that will help you no matter what? Eccl 4:9-10 “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.”
If you never have a serious problem, then you’ll never need a serious friend. Problems are like storms and friends are like ropes in a boat. The more ropes tied onto something solid, the less chance there is that you’re going to sink in the storm. Many people fall down but you never hear about it because they have friends that help them get back up. Others who fall who have no friends to support them in getting back up can remain in their fallen state for years. They are those who are never able to get beyond the childhood storm, the teenage abuse, or the messy divorce.
It’s sad to see a fallen down person who sits in a pit of despair with no one that they trust enough to help them out. Overpowered by something that is bigger than they are, they sit in gloom and doom hoping for a hand up but unwilling to trust anyone enough to grab a hold of their advice.
Eccl 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
I have found that loners make the worst decisions when faced with a serious problem. You may be able to do life in calm waters but every problem creates a shock wave that can sink your ship if you are unprepared.
Proverbs 24:6 “For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counsellors there is safety.”
Do you have anyone in your life that is like a solid lifeline? A spouse that you are one with. Good parents that you can turn to. A trusted best friend who will help in your midnight hour. A brother or sister that will help bail your boat. A God relationship that allows Him to speak peace be still. A church that will give you sound advice and a helping hand. A doctor that will anchor you to wisdom about your mind and body?
Your life was never meant to be lived at the bottom of some pit. Note to self; ‘never buy real estate in your wilderness.’ Stop decorating your pit and calling it home. Psalm 40:2-3 “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth; Praise to our God...”
The Lord Jesus is reaching out to you with a wonderful gift of love. If you need help then stretch your hand and your faith in His direction. Find a good church to attend, God bless you all.
Saturday, October 15th, 2011
Is Your Oven Clean?
Have you ever baked a pie in the oven and it overflowed and the overflow got burnt to the bottom of the oven? Now it needs to be cleaned right away but you don’t have the time. You put it off and put it off and keep saying to yourself, ‘I’ll have to clean that oven tomorrow.’
If you fail to clean the oven then sooner or later another problem will arise. The taste of everything else that you cook in the over will be effected by a former accident that you didn’t get fixed. You may excuse yourself and say, ‘it’s that pie that overflowed two years ago.’ No that’s really no longer the problem. It’s not that pie that got burnt but you never got around to cleaning up yesterday’s accident.
You make fresh bread but it has a tainted burnt odor. What happened!? Did you overcook the bread? Was it on too high a heat? No it’s just the results of a dirty oven. If you fail to clean your oven then you can begin to think that smoky is the way that all food is suppose to taste.
Lets say that you are like an oven and the real you gets burnt by a past accident, a childhood abuse, a friend cheated on you, or a nasty divorce. These overheated problems can spill over and get baked into your spirit and now everything else gets effected and tainted with the odor of the past.
Proverbs 20:27 “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.”
We are all created by God and we were created clean on the inside as a place that God would live. The trouble is we all got burnt and we by ourselves can’t fix our inward problems with our outward deodorants.
Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
You may be doing the best that you can but the truth is when we have inward problems we need the Lord Jesus to come in and work on the inside. You may have your master’s degree about outside stuff but Jesus is the Master of inside cleaning, cleansing, and healing of the human heart.
You can wear a mask like most people do and pretend that everything is okay. You can become an addict and point to the burnt issues in your past as the reason for your current problems. You can pretend that you don’t care because caring is too painful or you can ask God for help.
If you do ask God for help get ready to go on a journey towards your healing. It’s not ask God and boom all better but He promises to lead you and guide you into more and more freedom while healing and removing the burnt on grime of your past.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
If you are looking for another chance to do life better then Christ is looking for you. I hope you find a good church to attend. God bless you all.
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
Finding My Best Days
Would you like to live in some of your best days right now? Would you like to find your sweet spot, your happy place, a place where you’re living the dream? Would you like to finally get ahead rather than always falling behind? Well, take a good look around, are your hopes and dreams for a better life even possible?
It’s not rocket science to understand that if you keep hanging out with trouble, you’ll soon be courting danger, become engaged to problems, and end up being married to sorrow. If you ever want to change your future then you’ll need to make some better choices. Often it’s not that we don’t want a better life or that we can’t have a better life, but we refuse to work to make the changes that would give us a better life.
Here’s a question that I ask myself when I am living below where I think that I should be, ‘Is it God’s will for me to go higher?’ Let me ask you, ‘Do you think that it’s God’s will for you to be hurt, abused, addicted, broke, busted, and disgusted?’ As long as you think that your problem is some cross for you to bear or somehow God’s way of punishing you, you’ll never ask Him for help. Your wrong thoughts keeps you handcuffed to your problem
1 Corinthians 9:26-27 “Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
Paul is saying that it’s one thing for him to give you Godly advice but it’s another thing for him to live his Godly advice. Someone telling you the right thing to eat will not benefit them unless they also eat the right thing. Someone telling you all the proper ways to exercise will not get them into shape unless they follow their own good advice.
Paul said that he works on himself to do things correctly lest he tells others the right way to go and then ends up missing it himself. No one is perfect, in fact the hardest person that I have had to work on is me. If I can ever get me changed, the problems in me will be a snap.
The Bible says in James 2:20 “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”
We all have faith but where have we put it? I ask people to go to church but I also work on making sure that I go to church. Church is not always visions of rapture as sweet angels float around the room singing hallelujah but it’s the right place to be if you want to learn more about God.
You say you want a better life but where will you be sitting Sunday morning during church time? I ask you to add a little work to your faith and things could really get better for you. Jesus loves me this I know, so it’s off to church I go. Jesus gave His life on the cross so you could have a better life, come visit the house that He’s still building. God bless you all.
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
I Need Help With My Struggles
How do you do when you are faced with one of life’s struggles? The struggle to grow up, get an education, and then find a job. You in good faith have a family but then you have a teenager who won’t listen to you, a spouse who wants to leave, a sickness that wants to stay, and a bill collector who won’t go away. You know that there must be a light at the end of the tunnel but some days it seems like you must be going in the wrong direction.
What has helped me has been the revelation that struggles don’t last forever. Psalm 30:5 “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
Also if you can learn the Godly why to handle a problem, it’s less likely that you’ll become overwhelmed by your problem. Some people become over focused on the negative issue and less focused on everything else in life. It’s like nothing else matters and the struggle becomes everything.
I know that struggles can be in your face so here’s what I have done, moved my face. Focus on something else and read something that may help you learn how to handle your problem. If your marriage is a mess find a message in a book or a DVD or someone who can help you fix the problem. Struggles become destructive when the problem you face is bigger than you can handle but you’re too full of pride to look for help.
Proverbs 16:18-19 “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”
Some have lived this verse as they have divided their spoils in divorce court. Too proud to ask for help, with a haughtiness under their collar, the struggle brought them down into the valley of shame, bitterness, and despair. The problem is not that you have struggled and lost, join the club, no one has ever won all their battles. The problem is, after a loss you can’t have a victory party and now you must battle the fear that tells you that you are not good enough to try again. That’s a lie, for I have found that my past defeats have worked in me to prepare me to do better in my future battles. I may not yet have learned what to do, but one thing is for sure, I certainly learned what not to do.
You can’t do life and avoid every struggle. I look ahead believing for victory by following the Bible and putting my faith in Jesus. I have won some battles all alone but there have been other battles that I needed help. The wisdom to having a good life is knowing when you can win alone and when you need help. If you live long enough, life will provide both kind of battles. You may be facing a battle that’s too big for you to win alone and without help you will be defeated.
Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Don’t let the battle beat you but find some friends and a good church to attend. God bless you all.