Anticipation

Anticipation Anticipation is waiting on something that we know or expect to happen. As a kid we waited on Christmas, summer vacation, getting our permits and stuff like that that we knew was on the way. We have anticipation in our lives as adults as well. A vacation that’s almost here, a baby on the way, or whatever it is that gets your motor running are all things we anticipate happening. The thing is we can’t help it. We know that when what ever it is we are anticipating finally gets here, we have that release that we crave. We have good times, we have good feeling, we have a happiness about us. That long wait is justified at that time and we never stop to think about how long it took to get here. We simply enjoy whatever it is that we were waiting for. How many folks do you know that are actively anticipating the return of Christ? A lot of folks are but even more are not. Why is that? Is it due to fear that they have not lived a life worthy of the kingdom of heaven? Is it due to shame out of how they have lived and conducted themselves while He was gone? Is it due to some other unspoken thing they have in their lives? Who knows? We can not know what is in peoples hearts. What we can do though is share the peace that we have in our lives with them and maybe they too can eagerly anticipate His coming back to us. No one knows when He will return. Scripture says he will come like a thief in the night. He can come at any time. That’s why we can have that anticipation. We know that He is coming back so as a result we expect His return. We are ready to meet our maker and see His face because we know that at that time, there will be no pain, no suffering, no more need to wait for our greatest wish is here. Ask yourself, are you ready for His return? Have you been saved and know that you have a place in the Fathers house? If not, now is the time to make the decision to follow and live for Him. It is not too late, you too can have that joy in your lives that other Christian’s have. Please do not put it off any longer. I am anticipating His return any time now.

Luke 8:16 - Let your light shine

Luke 8:16- No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. I work with kids a lot in my ministry (I am a youth leader at my church) so I get to see kids grow and develop in their faith. I notice the “stages” they go through from kids just learning about God, to the teenagers fighting with God, to the adult that follows God and lives for Him. It is really neat to be able to see the stages. The one that I enjoy the most though are the teens as they have the most going on in their lives. I see the light of Christ in them. I know the hearts of my kids and I know that God is working in them. For some reason though, some of those kids will not let God shine through. They fight it to keep up appearances. They try to prove they are cool and remain hardheaded and stubborn. Too often those same kids can find that their way is not working and they end up lost or hurting. They are hiding the light that God has provided them so that no one can see it in them. The problem is, sometimes they can not see the light either. We all have a tendency to do that at times though. It is easier to see in kids but it happens with all of us. When we laugh at a crude joke, when we talk about someone behind their back, when we curse, we are hiding our light. God did not give us His light and expect us to hide it. We are asked to let His light shine through us to the dark world around us. We need to fight against the urge to hide our light. The light of Christ is nothing to be ashamed of, it is something we should embrace. Let Him and His word be a light onto your path. He will show you the way and once you see the way then you can help light the way for those behind you. Let your light shine, the world is to dark a place as is for you not to.

Exodus 4:10-14 - Excuses, excuses, excuses

Exodus 4:10-14 - Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. We have excuses for everything in our life. We have a reason for a bad grade, a reason to cheat on our taxes or a reason why we are speeding. We are quick to give a reason to not do something or to explain why we did something we know we should not have done. In the end though, its just our attempt to justify ourselves and our actions to others. Moses tried this with God. He gave reason after reason as to why he should not go. Every time the Lord gave him a reason why he could go. The lord had already anticipated all of Moses needs and had prepared to meet them as needed. All Moses had to do at that point was to go and do the will of God. If we stop and look at stuff in our own lives, we see that we give God the same type of lame excuses as Moses did. We can tell ourselves that we can't do something because we do not have the time, or the money, or the skills needed to accomplish a task. That may be 100% right. We do not have that on our own. What we forget is that God can meet whatever the need is. He can find the money needed, He can give you the skills, He can free up the time in your life. All we have to do is to be willing to go and do His will. We have no excuses is what it all comes down too. We can give excuses to one another and hope that folks will not see through our crap but we can't do that with God. He knows better. He knows that He can meet any and all needs that we can every think of. So knowing this, He knows we have no excuse. Stop giving Him reasons why you can't do something and let Him show you the ways that you can.

Jeremiah 17:7 - Trust in the Lord

Jeremiah 17:7 - But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. A friend of mine has a job interview today. They spent all this time preparing, picking out the right outfit, going over notes and all that. In their mind, preparing to best of their ability gives them confidence. There is nothing wrong with preparing to do your best, but the source of our confidence should not be in our own actions. As Christians, our confidence is in and through the Lord. We are confident in all things because He will never leave us or forsake us. We are confident because we know that God can handle all that we give Him. We are confident because we know that no matter what happens, in Him we have the hope for better days. We are confident because we have salvation and an eternity with the maker. We trust in the Lord. When you do so you will see that trust is never misplaced. We can put trust in man or in deeds and actions but the will never be as unfailing as God will be. Put your trust in God and then go into the world with the ultimate confidence. He will never let you down!

John 14-6 - "Decision - Eternity"

John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I was watching the news recently and they had stuff on the next election on. The station was giving its take on what the issues and candidates were for this election in a segment they called "Decision 2010". That got me thinking, not about the elections (I already know who I am voting for) but about the biggest decision in my life. The decision I made to give my life to the Lord. It is an easy decision to make once the Lord has touched your heart and you have heard His words, but too many of us are unwilling to open our hearts, minds, and eyes to Him. Too many are unwilling to make the decision in their personal lives so they are lost. Others do not believe and think what they do while they are here is enough. They think that all they have to do is be good people and live a good life and thats it. Well, its not. Look at our passage again. John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That does not leave room for doubt, it spells it out very clear. We can never be good enough to get to heaven on our own, only through Jesus' sacrifice and our belief in Him are we allowed access to the Father. Do not take a chance, make the decision in your life today. You can know God and His love. You can have life eternal with the father, you just have to choose to do so. If you do not know how, reach out to a pastor, another Christian, write me if you have to (jasonporter75@gmail.com) but do not put the decision off any longer than you already have. For those of us that already have decided to live for God, my question is this, are you living up to your end of the bargain? I do not feel that I am. If you are like me I challenge you to make the decision now to recommit to Him. We can decide if we want to be better people or not. We can decide to cut sin from our lives, we can decide to be better Christians. Saved or unsaved, we all have decisions to make in our lives. Now is the time to make up our minds as to who we want to be. Decision 2010 has nothing on "Decision - Eternity", so make sure you make the time to make your decision today. Tomorrow may be too late.

Deuteronomy 13:4 - Serving with a willing heart

Deuteronomy 13:4 - It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. When you think of service, what comes to mind? Do you think of military service, church service, food service, etc? Whatever you think of, it all boils down to one simple thing, one person doing a deed for another. In our passage today we are called to serve God. The question is what does that mean? We can not do anything on our own that God can not do Himself, so how do we serve Him? We serve Him by allowing Him to use us to His will. We serve Him by following His teachings and letting His light shine through us into the darkness. We serve Him by loving Him. But in order for us to truly serve Him though, it has to be done with a willing heart. We all have had stuff that we had to do against our will. Go to a play, visit relatives, work longer hours, or something along those lines. When we do it against our will, it shows. It shows on our face, in our body language, and in everything we do. We have a tendency to do that with service at times to. God wants a willing heart, not one serving him based on guilt or a feeling of being obligated. That is not serving God with all your heart, that’s just going through the motions. Keep in mind, He knows our hearts, He knows when we are really serving Him. This service is a full time job. Serving God is the absolute necessity and expectance of being a Christian. This is not an option. There is no such thing as spiritual unemployment or retirement. He does not stop doing for us so why would we ever want to stop doing for Him? God's people do not serve him in order to be forgiven but because we are forgiven. The child of God works not for life but because of life, not to be saved but because we are saved. We serve to show our gratitude and love for all that He does for us. Serving God is a joy and should be done with a joyful heart. Look into you own lives, are you serving God in your life? If so, are you doing so with reluctance of willingly and with joy? We have a great and mighty God, it is my honor to be able to serve Him. How do you feel about serving Him today?

Romans 5:3-4 - Rejoicing in our sufferings

Romans 5:3-4 - Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. As I was reading this, I thought, how can anyone rejoice in suffering? I know that when I am suffering, I am not usually in a rejoicing mood. I have had issues in my life very recent in fact that I had to go through and I can say without a doubt that there was no partying going on at my house. When I read this passage and think about it though, I understand. We rejoice because we have a loving God that will see us through whatever it is we are going through. We have His Holy Spirit to guide us through to greener pastures in our lives. We rejoice because through Him, we have the hope and promise of better times. It is in these times of suffering that He shows us who we are. We learn we are able to persevere through whatever it is the outside world throws at us. It is these times in our lives where we are drawn closer to Him and Him to us. These rough times, these bumps in the road, they help to shape us. It builds and strengthens our character and allows us to be the people that we are. Think about it, if you are going through horrible times in your life but yet you are always saying how blessed you are and have a joyful heart in the Lord, what do you think others will see? They might see a crazy person, but I bet when they take a better look they will see someone on fore for God and someone that God is doing great things with. That is what gives us the hope we see at the end of our passage. Regardless of what this world gives me I know that I have a home better than I can ever dream of when I get where I am going. I have been promised salvation and a life with my creator once all this has passed away. I know I can make it through anything because I have the promise as given me through the Bible. Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. What an awesome message. It is one I needed to hear recently and I now understand. Take a step back from your situation, see the bigger picture, and then rejoice. Rejoice because you have a loving God and He is going to use whatever it is in your life to His glory and rejoice that He is willing to use you to that end. We do not have to suffer much if you are rejoicing all the time. Give it all to God and watch Him do great things in your life. Its better than sitting around being miserable and just suffering alone!

Matthew 9:37 -Help wanted, harvest workers needed

Matthew 9:37 - Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”. I am sitting here at work and I am thinking to myself “man, I have a lot to do today”. It seems that I can work 24/7 and still have stuff left for me to do. The problem is that we have more work than we have people to do the work. So much for the summer of recovery I guess as was promised by our politicians. Now apply that to a farm. A farmer goes out and plants his crop, waits all year, and then when it comes time to harvest, no one is there to bring the crop in. Not an effective way to do things. That crop could wilt on the vine and go to waste. No one would ever be able to receive that goodness or get any use of the crop. Jesus saw this as well. We are the harvest that He mentioned. He knows that in order to bring the world the good news that workers are needed to go out and get the harvest. It is up to us to go and share the news to the world. We are the helpers that He was referring to. Knowing this then, what are you doing to bring the harvest in? You do not have to have the fancy training or be a great speaker, you just have to have a willing heart. God can use you even if you can’t see how He ever could. We all have talents that He can utilize, but if you do not give Him the chance to use them, then you are letting them going to waste. Do your part, give yourself to God for His use and let Him do great things with you. The harvest is out there, waiting. He will give you all you need to bring it in. You just have to be willing to put in the time.

Corinthians 15:33 - Bad company corrupts good character.

1 Corinthians 15:33 - Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." I am a father of a great 13 year old daughter. I love her more than anything in this world and I happen to think that she is a great kid. She has a good heart, a sharp mind, and has great character for someone so young. As her father though, I know that she is still developing into who she is going to be and it is my job to make sure she is surrounded by people that can be a positive influence to her and will help her grow into the woman I know she can be. I do this because I understand that bad company corrupts good character. In today’s society, more than ever before, perception is reality. So it is more important than ever to watch who you associate with. You can go to church every Sunday all that you want, but what good is that doing if you are hanging out with those bent on doing wrong and living a sinful life the other 6 days of the week? Which is going to have more influence over you? The one hour a week you are at church or all the hours hanging with “bad company”? Sooner or later that negative influence will start to work its way in on you, regardless of how strong you think you are. Do not get me wrong, we are supposed to go out into the world and convert non-believers so we will be around those that are “bad company” from time to time. We just can’t allow them to change us and corrupt our character. In order to combat that you have to have a support system in place that you can turn to that will provide stability and keep you grounded in the faith. You have to understand that you can’t do it alone. If you lay down with dogs, you will get fleas. So surround yourself in His light and with those of the faith. Reach out to those that are in need and bring the light to them whenever you can, but guard the company that you keep. Do not be misled by bad company, let the Lord lead you instead.

Slaying Your Giants

Slaying Your Giants Most all of us have an issue in our lives that seems to be a giant to us. Some are real giants (addictions, abuse, etc) and some are just things we allow to feel like giants (money issues, stress, etc). If you do not, then great for you but even then you can relate as I am sure you know someone that does. My “giant” is usually finances or the frustration I have from work. These are not huge issues compared to someone fighting an addiction to drugs, but it is what I allow to consume my thoughts and drive my actions most days. The first step to fighting your giant is to be aware of it. Our giants are not like Goliath stepping onto the battle field and calling us out like we see in 1 Samuel 17:4-9, so we have to be able to call them out instead. We can point out others giants pretty easy as a rule but we have a hard time coming to grips with our own for some reason. Even when we have someone point ours out to us we tend not to see them. We think that they just do not understand or are jealous and are just trying to tear us down. As long as we do not acknowledge it, the longer it has power over us. Once we are aware of our giants, we need to take the steps to fight it. We do not have a slingshot like what took down Goliath so we have to find our own ways to fight them. In order to do that you have to understand that you are not alone. You are not the only one that is facing the giant that you are. You can not be afraid to ask for help. It does not show weakness, if anything it speaks to your strength. You are saying that you are strong enough to take a stand and that you will not allow your giant to keep you down any longer. We have God we can call on for that help. He is our armor, His word is our shield, and His Spirit our guide. Through Him all things are possible. We can take on the biggest giants in our lives with God on our side and if we just allow Him to take control and do His thing, we can defeat any issue in our lives. We do not have to live in fear of our giants, we can conquer them. If a small Sheppard boy can take out a giant of a man in full armor with a sling shot with the Lords help, why do you think He can’t help you defeat your giants with all that we have to work with now? God is with us always. He can take on any fight and He will win. You do not have to fight alone, you do not have to go through stuff alone. Give it to God and let Him work in your life and slay your own giant.

God is my GPS system

I got a GPS system for Christmas last year. This is one of the best things ever made for those of us that are afflicted with directional deficiency syndrome (that’s the politically correct way to say people that get lost easy). All I do is put the address into the system then I can sit back and let it guide me right to where it was I wanted to go. If I take a wrong turn or hit a detour it will route me around and get me back on track. My GPS can even help me to avoid trouble spots along the way where traffic is backed up and keep me moving on down the road to my final destination. Simply put, I do not have to worry about how to get where I am going anymore and that is a very comforting thought. We can have that same comfort available to us in our every day lives as well. We have the ultimate GPS guide ever given to man at our disposal. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us. Once we accept God into our hearts we are given this gift. Once our destination is known (heaven) we can rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us to where we want to go. It will keep us on our path even if we take a wrong turn from time to time. It can help you avoid the trouble spots in life as well by reminding you of the teachings from the bible and helping you to see the world through new eyes. If you just listen, He will keep you on the path to our final destination. How awesome is that? It may not be as dramatic as the pillar of fire that God gave His people during the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 13:21) but it is no less real. Just as He guided His people back then, He is guiding us today. We have the Holy Spirit as well as the word of God, the Bible. We can get to where we want to go if we are just willing to listen to the will of God. He gave us all that we could ever need to reach our destination. The Bible says “all things are possible through Christ who strengthens me”, but we can’t get there unless we know the way. He is the way, and the Holy Spirit is our GPS. All we have to do is accept it into our lives and listen to the directions. He will guide us all the way home from there.

John 14:23-24 - Show God you love Him

John 14:23-24 - Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me”. I have a dog, a little cocker spaniel named Zoey. We got her as a puppy and have trained her the best that we can. Zoey can’t speak to us to show us her affection but we can tell that she loves us. She always wants to be close to us or be where we are. She will follow us all over the place wagging her tail. She gets real excited to see us when we come home and jumps around and all that stuff. Most importantly though is that she obeys our commands. She knows that is she obeys, she gets rewarded and it is her may of trying to show us further love, by trying to make us happy. Apply this same thought now to our lives as Christians. We can talk to God and we can tell Him we love Him. We do not have to wag our tails our anything like that, but we need to understand that words are just words. Our actions speak louder than any words we can ever say. What good is it to tell God you love Him if your actions don’t match the words? Our passage says "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him”. We show our love to God by obeying His teachings. Through this God will come and be with us in our hearts and in our lives. It also goes to say that “He who loves me not will not obey my teachings”. We can say whatever we want to say to God, but He knows our heart. If we do not obey His teachings and try to live life our way then we are telling Him we do not love him but more importantly we are showing him we do not love Him. If we follow His teachings, then our rewards are great. We receive the Holy Spirit into our lives. We receive a peace that passes all understanding. We receive a real relationship with God. I challenge you to read the word of God so that you can understand His teachings. Once you understand the teachings, follow them. Remember, we can show God that we love him better than anything we can ever tell Him. So show Him you care, show Him you love Him and just obey.

John 1:5 - The light shines in the darkness

John 1:5 - “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” Have you ever blamed God for something in your life? When something bad happens that you can not explain do you sit back and shake a fist at Him and yell out “HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!!!”? I will admit, sometimes it is hard not to. We see so much evil in the world that sometimes it is hard to see God in it at all. So we start to let doubt creep in. Understand this though, if you believe in God, you have to believe in a devil. The devil hates you. The devil wants to turn you from God and into darkness. The darkness is the absence of light, absence of the light of God. Turning from God will never make a situation better, only worse. Satan’s job is to tempt you, to lie to you, to get you to doubt your faith and relationship with the creator. He is great at his job too. He will use whatever doubt, grief, weakness, etc. that he can to accomplish this goal. We can fight him though. We have the ultimate weapon. God gave us His word, the Bible. Psalms 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”. We always have a means to fight the darkness with at our disposal. We do not have to try to fight the fight all alone. God also gave us His Holy Spirit to help us and to guide us. We do not have to go into the darkness. There is nothing for us there but emptiness and sorrow. John 1:5 says “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it”. Meaning that no matter what, the light of God is shining on us. We just choose not to see it. We choose not to accept it and let it comfort us in our times of need. God does not stop loving us when things are going bad, that’s when He loves on us the most! Next time things are starting to go bad, give it to God. Next time you feel that darkness creeping in, get into His word. Next time you feel like you are falling, reach out to other believers to catch you and encourage you. We do not have to go through this life alone. Darkness can not overcome the light. You have the light of God inside you. Let it shine through the darkness at all times.

Romans 7:15 - Why do we do what we don't want to do?

Romans 7:15 - I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. I am sitting here at work and I find myself dealing with one frustrating thing after another. It seems like everything that I pick up or every call I take is worse than the one I had just addressed. I am at the end of my rope and the knot I tied to help me hold on is stating to come loose. Needless to say, I need a break. Why do I do this? Why do I come in every day and do what I do not want to do? Looking at our passage today it looks like this question has been out there a while. Granted, its not the same context that I was talking about but the question still rings as true today as when it was written back then. What is it in our lives that we hate to do most as Christians? The answer is (or should be) sin. We know when we do it for the most part and it eats at us. We feel bad about what we have done and we repent or we ignore that feeling and we turn from God all together. Life is really nothing more than a series of choices and relationships when you break it down to the basics. God gave us free will but too often we choose wrong. We follow our own desires instead of what we know to be right and good and make bad choices as a result. We allow the relationships that we are in influence us as to how we live our lives and that can lead us wrong as well. The problem is that it is just too easy to allow ourselves to get off the path. Satan makes sin attractive and exciting. If sin were something ugly and horrible and held no appeal at all, no one would sin. The thing that we have to keep in mind is that we have the choice as to whether we sin or not. We have to purposely choose to sin. You know right from wrong, so you can’t say that sin just happened or that you did not know. We always know when we sin or do bad. Its that nagging feeling in your gut that tells you. You do not have to choose to live in sin. You can choose to live in Christ. You can choose to live in the word of God. You can choose to live a life as free from sin as possible. We are not perfect, we will sin and God knows this. He also knows that if we just ask, He will forgive us. We might not always understand things the way we want to, we may not always do what we want to. But we always will have a choice. I say we choose to live for God.

John 6:35 - I love bread!

John 6:35- Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. Have you ever had a craving for something good to eat? I do, all the time. Pizza is my food of choice. It seems I can eat pizza seven days a week if my wife (and waistline) would allow it. We all have our own “comfort food”. My suggestion going forward: We all crave Bread! I am talking about “The Bread of Life” as seen in John 6:35. We should go at God’s word just as we do our comfort food. It is much more filling and you will not have to break out the baggy pants if you get too much of it. One of the best things about the Bread of Life is that once you have it, you will never go hungry spiritually. If we allow ourselves to follow God and we give ourselves to Him, He will nurture us and feed our soul. Just as we need all our basics daily (fruits, breads, vegetables, and meat), we need God daily too. You would not skip a meal, so why are you not feeding your spirit daily with God’s word? Feast on the Bread of Life. Build it up (like fat) and use it to sustain yourself in time of need. Have you had your Bread today?

Ephesians 5:18 - Do not get drunk on wine ... Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. When I was a younger man and in my college days, I admit I used to drink more than I should at times. I would get drunk and act a fool and thought I was having a great time. Only thing is I would wake up the next day with a headache, broke, and have an upset stomach. The day after was never as much fun as I thought the night before was. That’s why what I am about to say may strike you as odd. I think we should all get drunk. Now before you start to think that I already am, hear me out. I do not mean to go out drinking or to consume large amounts of beer or anything. I am saying lets get drunk in the Lord. Let’s consume massive amounts of His word. Let us give into the love that He has for us and let it take us over the same way that the booze does when we have too much. You can have a much better time living in the word than you can in a bottle, I promise you that. You do not have to worry about where you have been or what you did or have to try to remember what went on. You will not have to have a massive hangover the next day or have to apologize for what ever it was you did the day before. You can just wake up and start all over again praising God and living for Him. It says here to “be filled in the Spirit”. Do you have any doubt in your mind that being filled with the Spirit would be any less satisfying than being filled with wine and getting drunk? The wine will wear off, then what? That temporary feeling that you get will fade and you will feel the impacts of it the next day, trust me I know. I am saying is you can avoid all of that. If you are filled with the Spirit then you can have an everlasting happiness in your heart. You can have joy like you have ever known. You can have peace in your life without having to run to a bottle to find it. If you feel like you have to get drunk, then get drunk in the Lord. Get drunk with His word. Get drunk with His love. You can have highs like you would never believe without the nasty hangover afterwards. Trust me, it is better than the wine any day!

Luke 5:1-10 – Lets go Fishing!

Luke 5:1-10 - One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." I used to go fishing with my dad when I was a kid. I would sit on the dock and cast my line out and then reel it in as fast as I could. When I did catch something dad would have to come over and get the fish off, get the fish back in the water, bait the hook again and get me ready to fish again. I had a blast. I never knew the other side of it until I had a kid of my own. Now when I take my daughter out, I have to do all the work and I realize that I do not have as much time to fish as I used to. In our passage today we see Jesus out doing some fishing. After he gives a lesson He takes some men out to deep water to fish. They had been doing this all day with no luck but were willing to obey. When they did they had more fish than they could hold. So many that they had to call for help. They ended up filling up 2 boats to the point they almost sank. I can tell you I never had that type of haul fishing off the dock with my dad. But when you think about it, it’s not like they did not have the best fish finder in history with them. Jesus told them what to do and led them where he wanted them to go. The fishermen obeyed and the catch was great. He then told them "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." We are asked to be fishers of men even today. We have the Holy Spirit as a guide and he has put us amongst the masses. We should have no trouble what so ever in finding “fish” we can reach. If we obey and go where He leads us, we too can have a catch like they had way back then. What holds us back from doing this? Too often it is the one thing He told us not to be, we are afraid. We are afraid of rejection, afraid of leading folks wrong, afraid that we might not be well received or liked, afraid of what it might cost us. If you read the word you know that He is always with you and through Him anything is possible. Philippians 4:13 says “I can do everything through him who gives me strength”. You do not have to be afraid. You do not have to doubt that you can go be fishers of men. You have the truth on your side. You have God on your side. What better bait can you possibly have? Beats a worm or the stink bait I used to use any day of the week.

Matthew 11-28 - Come to me and I will give you rest

Matthew 11-28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Its Monday so that means back to the grind for most of us. The weekend has passed and we have to get back to the grindstone once again. I do not know about you but I have a harder time with things when I have to go to work. It even seems that the personal issues in our lives are worse during the week too doesn’t it? I am not sure if it is the stress or what but I know in my own life that I have a harder time dealing with the world Monday through Friday than I do on the weekends. We are all weighed down in this life by what the world puts on us. What we do not keep in mind though is that we allow ourselves to carry that weight needlessly. Our passage today says that we can come to God and He will give us the rest that we need. God can handle all that we have going on. Matthew 11:30 says “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. What He is saying is, He knows our limitations. He knows that we were designed to have a breaking point at some time. God has no breaking point. He can handle all. We are called to come to Him and He will give us the shelter that we need. God meets all our needs if we let him. If he can give His people manna from heaven daily for 40 years while out in the desert, why do we think that he can not help us get through the week? Romans 15:13 refers to our God as the God of hope. So we know that we have the hope that we need in Him to handle what comes our way. It also says in the bible that He is the Good Sheppard, meaning that if we trust Him He will lead us to calm waters in our lives. He is out there, calling, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All we have to do is be willing to answer His call.

Ephesians 4:26-27 - Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry

Ephesians 4:26-27 - In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Recently I had events in my life that made me more than a little bit mad. I was ticked off in a bad way and I found myself stewing on it more and more. I was falling back into my old life and thinking of how I WANTED to handle something instead of how I SHOULD handle something. I was doing exactly what the devil wanted me to do. I was taking my focus off what I knew to be right to feed my own wants and needs. I was allowing myself to lose my focus on what God has taught me to do. If I had gone off and done what was in my mind at that time, I would have sinned thus failing Him and His teachings. If I choose to allow that anger to fester in me then I am giving the devil a further foothold in my life. I am giving him a tool to use against me so as to turn me from what I know to be right and good. I give him the chance to steal my joy the peace in my life. I give him the opening to make me miserable, which is exactly what he wants. Satan does not want me to be happy. He hates me as he does all Christians. I understand that God will carry me through all trials and tribulations if I just trust in Him. If I choose not trust in Him then I am on my own and on my own I have proven time and time again in my life that I am not big enough to handle it all. I am not trying to say to you never be angry. That is not a realistic expectation. God knows that we will have anger in our lives. The key is, how we handle that anger and what do we do with it. I could have gone off and done something stupid and ended up hurting my family and myself, but I didn’t. I put it on God and asked him to help me through the situation I was going through and asked Him to lift this from me and to set me free from this anger. I am not 100% over it, there is still some issue there that I have to address and deal with. The difference now though is that I am choosing to give it to God up front now and work it out through Him. It’s a much better place to be.

Psalms 143:10 - Teach me to do your will

Psalms 143:10 - Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. Think back to when you were a kid. Did you know how to tie your shoes right off the bat? Where you able to read and write before ever being exposed to it? Of course not, you had to be taught. Once you were taught though, you were expected to be able to do whatever it was you had been taught to do. Same is true for us as Christians. If you have never been to church, never heard God’s word, never had someone to bring you the good news, how can you know what God’s will? The answer is, you can’t, you have to be taught. We are born into sin and if we are never told any different, sin is all we will know. But when we are exposed to the truth, when hear God’s word and know what His teachings are, then we are expected to obey and follow. His teachings can lead us to the level ground. More important though, is that once we learn the teachings and can live by them, we need to be able to take those teachings out into the world. The great commission is not over, we still have to do our part. You had to be taught. Someone had to bring you to the truth or bring the truth to you. We have that responsibility to those that come after us. We were lost until we were found so it is up to us to seek out those that are lost and bring them into the light. Ask God to teach you to do His will. Ask Him to lead you to the level ground. Then ask Him to send you to where He needs you. Then hang on, it might be a rough ride, but man is it worth it!

Romans 15:13 - Find joy and peach through God

Romans 15:13 - May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Where does joy in life come from? Is it from true love, a job well done, good grades in school, or something like that? Those might make you happy for a short time but its not an everlasting joy. Our passage shows that God can give you all the joy and peace that you can ever need if you are willing to trust in him. Look at the disciples; by all accounts they should have been miserable. They were tortured, ridiculed, and persecuted just about everywhere they went. Yet, Acts 13:52 says “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”. How can this be? Through all the pain and all the suffering they still were filled with joy. I would love to know that level of joy in my life. I have a hard time sometimes dealing with things in my day to day life. Stress at work, bills, a busy schedule, house work, all these things I allow to frustrate me and I can tell you I do not always feel the joy in my life. That’s just the world getting in the way I know, it is Satan trying to pull me back to him. Once I clear my head and reconnect with God though I know the joy that He intended me to have. That joy never leaves us. We choose not to connect to that joy at times but that does not mean that it ceases to exist or is no longer available to us. Once things start to get out of hand or go bad we have a tendency to shake our fists at God and ask why He forsake us in our time of need. Why did He allow this thing to happen to us? We forget that He is with us the whole time. We overlook the fact that He has a plan and that it is not for us to understand. We are just too wrapped up in our own lives, our grief, our feelings to see that He is still there. That if we just give it to God, He can handle it even if we can’t. The disciples knew this and as a result were never separated from the joy they found in God. If we trust in Him and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us, we too can be filled with joy for all time. Happiness is temporary, joy, the kind that we find in God, is eternal. I will take joy any day of the week, how about you?

Building a house

When I came out of the Air Force, I needed to find a place to live. We knew we wanted a house of our own so we looked at all the options. One of the options available to us was building a home. Before I could even consider building a home, I was told the things that had to be done first. I needed to find a piece of land that I could build on. Then, the land had to be surveyed, zoned, check the sewage system, and graded. All of that was before any construction could take place. After all this was done and checked off on, then and only then could I start to build my home. I ended up going another direction on my home, but the process did bring some perspective in other areas of my life. Now, how does all this relate to faith? Becoming a Christian and building a house are very similar. In order to be saved and to live a Christian life, there are certain things that need to be done up front. First you have to find the land. Basically you have to find a way to make time to allow Gods word to reach you and you have to be willing to listen once it does. Just like you had to find the right place for the house, if you do not allow yourself to be exposed to His word and do not take the time to open your heart to Him, nothing can go forward. He is always knocking at the door. If we do not open the door and let Him in, then we can not expect to receive Him and have Him active in our lives. Next we have to clear the land, meaning we need to get rid of the reasons holding us back from Him. We have to clear away the excuses and the distractions that we allow to get in the way. I have heard so many folks say “if I ever set foot in a church I might burn up”, or “with all that I have done, no way God would take me back. But that’s the great thing, that sinner, that lost person is exactly who God is looking for the most! If we just humble ourselves and come to Him and get rid of all the junk that is holding us back, He will rejoice as we have come home to Him. Without this step, we can not build. Now that we have the Word of God, now that we have the foundation in Him, we can build our house. If we build our house without that foundation, it will fall. It will not have the strength to stand against what the world will throw at it. But, if we build our house on the Rock that is our Lord and Savior then we can stand up to anything. He will be that shelter in the storm that we need. But it takes work. Just because our house is built, does not mean the work is over though. You still have to do the upkeep. For Christians that means staying in the word and following its teachings. It means spreading the name of God as we are commanded to do. It means that we have to guard ourselves and keep from back sliding into Satan’s grasp and allowing him to destroy the house that was built. God is the rock on which I choose to build my life on. He is the foundation I know I can count on at all times. He is the reason I have joy in my heart and hope in my life. Through Him, all things are possible. I know He is active in my life. He can be in yours too, but you have to be willing to allow it to happen. Are you ready to build your house yet?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - What are you worth?

What are you worth? Ever think about it? If I were to assign a value to you, what would the cost be? Several factors would have to be considered. Your age, your health, your physical attributes, and intelligence would all have to factor into the equation. As would your potential to earn me back what I had to pay for you in the first place. Take me for example; I am 35 yrs old, in decent health, of average intelligence, fairly strong, and should have many yrs left here before I am called home. If I were to be assigned a value, I would probably fetch a good price. The thing is though; I have already been bought and paid for. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own: you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body”. We see here that we are no longer for sale. We were valued at such a high price that the only payment that could cover us was the sacrifice of God’s only son. He was made to suffer more than we could ever know in order to pay the price for us. But why did He pay that steep a price for us? John 3:16 tells us “"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. He paid the price because He loves us. He paid the price because He knew we are worth it. He knows that we are capable of great things; after all, we are made in His image. Through us, through our lives he is able expand His kingdom. My body is a temple in which the light of God is carried out into the rest of the world. It’s a gift that we can never repay. It’s a price beyond what we can comprehend. In no way can we ever replace what He had to give. All He asks is that we give Him our all and be willing to trust and obey Him and to follow Him to the ends of the earth. That we be willing to love Him as He loved us. Think of the alternative, if He had not bought us. We have no future, no hope, no way for salvation. I am not worth the price He paid. But I am glad He loved me enough to buy me anyways.

Matthew 8:7-8 - Seek and you shall find

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened". Matthew 8:7-8 should be a familiar passage to most of us. We have heard this in some fashion both through the church and in the world around us. The part I would like to focus on today is the "seek and you will find" portion of the passage. There is good and bad in this world. We will find what we look for in this life. If we go out looking for trouble, we will find it. If we go out and look for the worst in people, look for the worst in society, look for the worst in the church, we will find that too. We get accustomed to seeing the worst so we come to expect it. But, when we change how we look at the world and look at things as Christ would, we can see all the good that is around us. We no longer have to expect the worst because through God we know that we have the best to come in all things. Instead of looking for racism in everything, we can see unity and brotherhood. If we are not looking for corruption and deceit, we can see honesty and integrity. We can choose to seek a better world around us. Life is too short to be miserable and angry all the time. God wants us to have life to the fullest. We cant do that if we are looking for evil all the time. Ask God to change the way you look at things. Ask Him to show you His world in a way you never looked at it before. Seek a better world and you will find it.

Mark 8:36 - Who are you working for?

Its Labor Day! Most of us are off work for the long weekend and have nothing planned. Its the last weekend of Summer and we just plan to relax and let the day take us where it will. I know that is my plan for today anyways. Tuesday will come soon enough and the grind will crank up again and we will be back doing whatever it is we do to earn a living. The bible tells us in several places that we are to work for what we get. Paul wrote in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 about this. He said that no one should be idle and always work for what they get. We are not meant to be lazy or not to work. Its how God intended for us to provide for our physical needs. So todays question is, who are you working for? Are you working only for yourself, or are you working for God? You can work your fingers to the bone, climb the ladder of success, achieve greatness in business, but what good is any of that if God is not in your life? Mark 8:36 says "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul". You can have all that you ever dreamed of but if you do not have Christ in your life can you ever know true joy? Your money and power and status on this earth can not buy you salvation, it can not buy you a enduring peace in your life. Only God can do that for you. So when we go back to the office, the shop, school, or wherever on Tuesday, work hard, but keep your eyes on the bigger picture. Put Him 1st in all things that you do. Make sure that the work that you do is for his glory and that He is the foundation on which all else is built and all will be fine. I choose to work for God. Who are you working for?

Hebrews 11:1 - Who are you putting your faith in?

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. If you are a sports fan like me then you know this is the start of the college football season. My team is the North Carolina Tar Heels. We have not been a very good football team over the years but with so many returning starters and a good coach I have high expectations for this season. You could say that I have faith that my team will perform even though I have not seen them do anything to justify that hope as of yet. That is what is so outstanding about God. The hope that we have in Him has been justified so many times. We see this in our own lives as well as in the bible. We are told that where ever 2 or more are gathered in His name and we call on Him, he will be there with us. When we are in trouble or at our lowest, we have Him and as result are never without hope. One of the hardest things for people to believe at times is something they can't see, something they cant fully grasp. Thats why religion is sometimes called "the faith". They can not understand that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. They are too blinded to the spirit, too focused on what they can control to allow for that hope to take root. Who are you putting your faith in? A pastor? A spouse? A job? All these are temporary things in the grand scheme of things. Not that we do not see them as important in our lives but its just that we can't place our faith in these things. But, if you have your faith in God, and you use that as your rock on which your life and all is is built on, all those other things will fall into place. Believers have hope for a better day. We have faith that God will fulfill His plan. We are certain that the Holy Spirit is with us and working in our lives. And we know that when we leave this place that we have an eternity to spend with our maker.

Acts 1:8 - Spread the word

Acts 1:8 - But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Ever have good news that you just could not wait to tell someone about? It could have been a good grade in school, a new job, or something big like a baby was on the way. We can't seem to tell folks fast enough can we? I have seen perfect strangers sit and show me pictures of new grand kids before while waiting at the doctors office for example. All we know is that we are happy and proud and that we just want others to know about what is going on in our lives. In this passage we are asked to go out and be Christs witnesses to the end of the earth. Just like that proud new parent or new bride to be, we have great news to share with folks. That we have a risen Saviour that loves us and is preparing a home for us as we speak. That if we just believe in him and ask him into our lives we can have eternal life with the creator of all. So why don't we tell folks about him? People can talk about all kinds of things easily for the most part, except for politics and religion. We are too concerned about offending someone or being politically correct, or being labeled as a Jesus freak or something. What I am saying is, who cares? I do not need to be approved of on this earth by man because I was already accepted and approved by Christ. So I know I do not have to worry about telling the good news. Besides, it also says in this passage that I am not alone. That He has sent the Holy Spirit to be with me and that together great things can happen. Not all of us can travel to the ends of the earth to spread His word but all of us can do our part in the areas we are at. We do not have to be preachers, or priests, or rabbi's, or missionary's to far off places. We do not have to have any type of formal training either. All we have to do is be willing to be used and He can do something with us. I am a repair manager with Verizon. I have 2 associates degrees, 1 in communications and 1 in teaching. I never studied the bible growing up or anything else like that. But I felt that I was being called to do something, so I started this blog. I trusted that He would give me the words and that though me somehow His will would be done. So far we have had close to 1000 hits from 24 different countries. No advertisements, no fliers, no mail outs. None was needed. God was and is in control and he will see His will be done. We do not have to be something that we are not is the point I am trying to make. Just be who you are. We all have a talent or a tool that we can use to help spread the word. Look for yours. Understand, that all we do will be for His greater glory.

Sorry no post today. Have a safe and Blessed holiday weekend!

We do not have to run from God. We need to be running to Him.

Have you ever tried to run from something but just couldn't seem to get away? You ever have a job to do but tried to put it off or ignore it and just hope that it would get done? How did that work out for you? If you are anything like me I know the answer is probably "Not too good". We all have done it at some point in our lives. We usually have to learn our lessons the hard way. We can see examples all around us of what not to do but it seems we have to go and do it for ourselves anyways. What I want to look at today is the story of a guy that tried to run from what God had asked of him. We will be looking at the story of Jonah. Scriptures say that Jonah was tasked to go to Nineveh to preach to the city as they had sinned before God. This was a bad place to be so Jonah said "no thanks" and took off in the other direction. He did not want to do what was being asked of him so he ran. But when he was on the ship, God sent a storm over the boat and the folks were scared. Jonah knew that it was God coming after him, to get his attention. Once Jonah was given back to God (people threw him into the water), the storm passed. Jonah prayed to God to forgive him and the fish came, swallowed him and took him back to shore. Once free, Jonah sang a new song. He was more than willing to go and do what was asked. Do we need a fish to come swallow us before we start to carry out God's will? He gave us His word that tells us what he wants from us. At times, He can even put specific tasks on your heart, but we do not seem to follow through on stuff. We get scared. We get lazy. We think, what good can I do, I am just 1 person. The thing is, that through the Holy spirit we can do amazing things if we just trust in Him and allow His will to be done through us. We do not have to run from God. We need to be running to Him. If He wants you to do something, if He calls out and puts a task on your heart, He will see His will be done. I would rather just obey and follow the first time I was asked. The idea of spending 3 days in a fish is not my idea of a vacation, how about you?

Proverbs 22:6 - God is still teaching us. Are you listening?

Proverbs 22:6 - Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. I have a 13 year old daughter that I love more than life itself. As her dad, it is my job to teach her what she needs to know in order to grow into the woman I know she will be. Her values, her morals, her outlook on things will be shaped, for good or bad, based largely on the influence we have on her while she is at home with us. If I do not hold up my end of the bargain, how can I expect her to know what to do or how to act? How can I expect her to go for greatness and to be the best she can be if I do not push her? How can I get her to do anything if I am not a good example, if I am not practicing what I teach? I can’t. God sent Jesus to train us. During His time on earth all He did was teach and preach to all that would listen. He spoke in ways we could understand, and was the example for all to follow after. We can’t sit back and poke holes at His teachings because He lived what He taught. We can’t sit back and question His character, he was the son of God, He was perfect. He was an easy example to follow. We also have the bible. Some folks refer to it as basic instructions before leaving earth. This is a great way of looking at it I think. We do not get to see Jesus daily as the people of His time did but we do have God’s word to teach us. All we need to know is in this book. All we need to do is read and we can learn what our father wants us to know. What an awesome resource to have. Think about it, wouldn’t you love to have a manual for your kids to follow? Wouldn’t you like one to follow yourself? I would. Just be able to go and find a book from my dad about how to handle asking for a raise, or how to cook the perfect French toast or something like that. It would be awesome! So why do we dismiss the bible so easily? After all, this is an instruction manual from our father right? God never leaves us. He is always trying to reach out to us and keep us on the path. He still is teaching us daily. Some lessons we might not want to learn but he his still teaching none the less. We are ordered by the bible to obey our parents, so why do we fight God so much. We are His children and He is our father. He took the time to get His word out to you. You have the training manual available to you daily. All you need to do is pick it up and start reading.