Good morning and happy Friday. I woke up with a terrible headache yesterday and made it through noon at work before going home for the day to die. It got me thinking about our prayers over the sick for healing, which was brought up in Wednesday night Bible study. The verse brought up and the part of that that stands out is the key to it all. 2 Chron. 7:14. if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. The key word is humble. If His people humble themselves He will hear. We all can seek Him we all have turned from our sins but have we really humbled ourselves. That's a tough one. What does it mean to humble yourself? It might be different for all of us but I don't think so. In our group it wen from putting God first to various other things. Jesus was our example as He walked this earth. He was humble. Note that it obviously doesn't mean weak or powerless. He had no home, no food of His own, in today's terms He would be a bum. That's sad that we've moved that far away from Him. But being a bum doesn't make us humble either. He relied on God for everything. He trusted Him with everything and He gave up everything to Him. Now it doesn't mean we sell off our stuff and go giving it away but it does mean to realize its not yours anyway and to just let go of this worldly mind set and think and live through Jesus. When He is our filter we can't go wrong. When we step out from under His protection and trot out on our own, we will fail and we will find ourselves humbled as we scurry back to Him. Good news; He won't say I told you so but just take you in and give you comfort and rest because He loves you. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Success without God? Yes it's possible. Yes it's done and seen. We've all seen a movie or two with selling your soul to the devil. Tombstone and Crossroads come to mind. But can that happen? I don't know about a physical exchange between a person and a persona of the devil, but we choose to give over our souls to him through a number of ways for exchange of some sort of improvement in our lives. Remember this is about yesterday's post about how God is in our lives and successes daily. Satan is a very smart creature. He copies the ways of the Creator in order to disguise his true mission. What may seem to be of God is not. It's in us to be filled with God but our world pushes us in so many other directions, that we can be lost in who we really follow. Very crafty of the devil. I've seen myself people with great wealth and success and know how they are living, because I was living it with them, and it just made me wonder why I couldn't get there too. Well that's part of the trap. Satan knows he's not gonna win against God. What he can do though, is take as many of us as he can away from God. That's his victory. To hurt the very heart of God by having His creation not be with Him anymore. Jesus wept in the garden because He knew He would be out of the presence of God while on the cross taking on our sin. As God looked away from Him hanging there, I can't help but feel that He shed a tear too knowing that people would not follow His son home and some would be lost from Him. I don't know where you are in your walk with God. I do know that each of us has a duty to God and to Jesus, for what has been done for us, to spread His word and bring as many with us as possible. And by the way, Satan only has success because God has allowed him to, by giving us free will to choose. Even God is satans God. So really there is no success without God's permission. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Tuesday. A friend and I were discussing the upcoming election. Subjects varied some but his focus was on his job. He's worked twenty years there and is now a partner that is about to own it himself. He talked about how he worked hard to get there and such, which I don't doubt at all, but lots of people do. The thing that stuck out to me was the fact that no glory at all was given to God for this taking place. Lets look another way. If for some other reason, a weird turn of events or some strange happening took place that made him partner, people and him might say that it's a "God thing". God would get the credit for something outside the "ordinary".  Why do we then claim it ourselves if its plain ole hard work?  Aren't we a miracle ourselves for even being here? There is nothing that is ordinary, normal or weird about life, there's just life, and God made it so I guess it's extraordinary. The point; give God glory for the next breath you take because you're not promised it or the one after that. Sure people work hard and are successful, but it wasn't without the help of God in their life. We'll discuss the opposite of this tomorrow, but from this day forward, God gets the glory. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Monday. Sticking with the political parties and the riff we're going through as a country, why can't we be as passionate for our Lord as we are for our parties candidates, both sides?  The thing I've seen this time around is the gaping hole between both sides. We are so far apart we could never really hear each other and come together on the good things offered by both sides, and there is and if you're nodding your head in disagreement, that's exactly what I'm talking about. The Pharisee knew that what they were doing to Jesus was wrong. They knew they made up the charges, but put just enough truth with it to convince the people they were doing right. They stood so far away from the truth Jesus was speaking that they simply refused to listen at all. Why? Are we all in such good high places on the social ladder that we don't want to be brought down and shown to be wrong. I have more respect for someone that can say they are wrong and take another look at an idea and then get after something that has been brought to light than anything else he does. When do we admit we've been wrong about the way we see the world and our country and get down to the ground and become servants to one another. I knew a man once that told me if a jackass, literally, ran for president, he would vote for it instead. Really? That's how set in our ways we've become. I know it's not all of us but it says something about our culture. We have been a lost nation for a while because of turning our backs on God. Things just don't seem as good as they used to since we did. Oh it's still the best place on Earth to live, just ask all those trying to get here. But we've lost some blessing from God and don't kid yourself into thinking we haven't.  We will not make a turn around with the vote of man but only by the power of a nation devoted to God. All this has happened with some godly men in the Oval Office, so it's not them that makes the change we want to see. It's us, We the People. God's people. In love always. <><