Good morning and happy Thursday. Faith, where to begin? This is from a Christian view of faith in God and in our lives. First, faith is the belief in something not seen.( Church way version ). I think you could add and not known. Not everyone knows God, but they still have a nagging in the inner being of something bigger. It's trust on steroids. So we've heard the phrase living in faith, or walking by faith. One and the same. From old text walking meant our life journey. So how do you live in faith? It can be a two edged sword for some. " I have faith that God will take care if this". Sure but what is your part in "this". If its the bills being paid your part is working and writing the check. He gave you a job to work at and trusts you to do what He needs you to do there. " I have faith that God will heal him and make him well ". Yes He can, but the healing may be on the other side of this life and not in that hospital room. When we lose our faith in God we're no longer trusting His word and then we are headed for doom. Again, faith is in what we can't see or don't always know. We're trusting God to be who He tells us through the prophets and scripture He is. That's really as far as you can take it. Just because you have faith doesn't mean the check is written and mailed for you without you doing something. Faith in God is the same thing, you have to be living for Him. Humble yourself and serve. Serve others needs and let them see God in you and then they have hope which leads right to faith. That's why they are together in the Bible with the biggest gift of all, love. He loves us no matter what. He has faith in us no matter what. He has hope in us no matter what. We feel His presence enough to know He's there. Have the faith to know He is who He is. He will never forsake you and never leave you. It's us who walks away from Him. And sometimes it's because we've lost our faith in Him. It is a daily ordeal for some an hourly one for others and that's why it's living, walking, in faith, it's all the time. You never saw Jesus and you never saw Him die for you, but have faith in Him that that is exactly what He did out of love for you. Your eternal life depends on it. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. What does it mean to be in God's way? I'm in the way of God sounds good on one side but terrible on the other. Sometimes we have before us a task at hand that we feel God has presented to us and we begin to work, as good followers do. But what happens when it's not getting anywhere? You feel like nothing is working and the end is no where in sight. That's when questions begin to arise like, " why isn't this working" " why is there no progress" " is God really in this or am I seeing it for something else". Doubt of wether or not God brought this to you., really. We're good followers of Christ, we know when it's God. (Sarcasm in the tone above). I think that sometimes God puts things in our life to simply be a witness to His work, not to fix it. My wife once told me a very profound statement. " I don't need you to fix everything, I just need you to listen". No babe I haven't forgotten. Sometimes God just needs us to "listen" to Him as He works in the lives of others. You'll know when it's time for your role in it. So don't feel guilty or despair because you didn't do it for them. Be glad there's a God alive in all of us today and has not forgotten a single detail in our lives. He may be making someone stronger for you to able to lean on or draw from later. And when you find yourself as the project, don't let things hinder you from finding what God has for you, and most certainly don't begin to try and find blame. It's a test and only a test. It will make us all stronger and better able to serve God. So you, bystander, get out of God's way and let Him reveal Himself to the world through this mess. Stop trying to fix it and listen. Glory to God. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Monday. Crippled, lame, deaf, mute, unclean and any other thing one could point out about someone, was considered an outcast in their society a ways back. Today they are called handicapped or disadvantaged. Whatever, the point is not the label  put on them. In Jesus' day these folks would be near be city gates or roads and other places that people passed by. They were seen daily and helped or not helped everyday by someone. Today we've built ramps and such to help make things as easy as possible for them to live a normal and independent life as possible. A good thing. How often do you see someone in a wheel chair in need of help? Imagine if there were no ramps or ways for that person to get up onto a sidewalk. Someone would have to stop and help. There would be a need in the life of a brother and a chance for us to help. Did we make all the things easier so we wouldn't have to deal with them? To make it easy for them to be out of mind? I don't think so but it's a thought. Have we built ramps in our lives to make it easier for us to not have to help Jesus? Are we making it "easier" for others to find Jesus without our help so we don't have to be involved. Out of sight out of mind. It's sad that we are becoming the Pharisee of our day. We are walking past those in plain sight and in need. Take down the ramps and the easy way and the idea that it will get done without you. It will, but you're needed to do your part, and start reaching out to those in need and those who are lost. We are the ramps God built for the world to use to get where they need to go, Home. Become useful to our Father, that's how He made us. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Well, you've heard me say before that I feel like God has an amazing since of humor. Still undecided as to how to vote yesterday and torn about a lot of issues on both sides, I was still asking God for a clear choice. Well, I get to the polling place and it seems I've been purged from the system. "No vote for you. " so after a lot of face booking in a lot of places last night it became clear to me. He was keeping me neutral for a reason. We are now split literally 50/50 in this country. Who knows their Bible here? Well this country and Gods people had better get together and work out their differences. And there are Christians and non Christians on both sides. This isn't about party lines. Just like religion, man divided itself into groups. He's done blessing us and will leave us to our own self serving ways if we just keep going. Now, the neutral in me sees both sides good and bad, but all people were  doing last night and today are bad mouthing the whole thing. That's not the answer. It doesn't solve a thing. We are to love each other and I don't see that coming out of anyone's mouth. What I do see is anger and bitterness. That's poison. Our enemies are watching at the door step of our collapse. As long as we are divided this bitterly, we will collapse. And it won't be the presidents fault but we'll blame him, no matter who's in the office. "Jesus open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers. Let our hearts be, lead by mercy". There are three fingers pointing back at us when we point out someone's mistakes or issues. He will bring us to our knees one way or another. If you voted great, if you didn't, hush. If you're not ready to give all to Jesus, get ready. Nothing stops the roar of a crowd like the painful truth of who reigns. Who will stand up and hush the crowd? Stop complaining and get about fixing instead. Unite as one nation and take it back for God. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Election Day. I look back at the people of the Bible that God has used for His work here among us. It's easy to point out the obvious, David, Moses, Noah, and so on. But what about Pharaoh, Pilate, Judas, Herod, what about the part the bad guy plays in our lives? If not for some of these guys, those others may not have been pushed into the spotlight. Sometimes we need a look at how bad things are before we get to doing the right things. The Ten Commandments are not possible to keep. So why did God hold those as His standard? To show how much we need Him and that we are not able to do life apart from Him. It's not the only reason, we are to try and do our best to live by God's word, but the point is, if you feel like your life is not where it should be or this country isn't headed where it should be, do something about it. If called into the spotlight, answer. If called to help someone there, answer. I hope that when all this is done we can pull together as a UNITED STATES. Not the divided ones. We need God now more than ever. Evil is perched at our door and waiting as we grow weaker. Stand up and be heard. Bring God back to this land as our leader. In love always. <><

Good morning and happy Monday. God bless America. Can He really?  He has before but seems to have slowed it down a bit. I really feel like its just those following Him and not the nation as a whole anymore. We, the country have asked Him to leave. Why would we expect Him not to. We pray for miracles and expect those to happen. Why would we not expect Him to leave us alone? We've attained great wealth and power as a nation. We are a world leader. All of this by the hand of God but we have claimed the success as a our own. No glory to Him at all. When a Christian person comes into the spot light, i e Tim Tebow, everyone sees it as weird or odd instead of as the norm. He becomes a parody on SNL and made fun of. I believe that's what Jesus said would happen to us when we followed Him. So is God gonna bless the heathens mocking His people? I think not. The answer doesn't lie in tomorrow's election results. Do go and vote, but take a look at your inside and see what you can do to make Jesus the norm in this country again. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Friday. I love how God reveals Himself in our lives. Either in our own or through others. I had very good talk with a very dear friend, brother, last night. He's in a bad way and stuff is going on with his kid and it's a tough spot he's in. He knows God is with Him but has hidden himself away from His people. Now as much as God is with us all the time, He as us doing work for Him. Being there for each other, lending whatever hand we have to help out. He's made us communal. Our reliance on Him is found in service from others. Now I can't help you if you go hiding and withdrawing away from me. And that's what satan wants us to do. Stay away from one another and not have trust in each other or faith that help is on the way. Sometimes when we become the person in need our pride, the part satan uses, keeps us from asking or seeking help, especially us men folk. All this to say, God will at one point get done what He wants done with or without you. He gives us opportunities to serve and yes be served. But we have to be present and willing to give and to receive. I learned the giving part from my mom. She gives of herself everyday and gave to her kids all she had. I wish I could be more like her in a lot of ways. But the giving is a little easier than the receiving. Receiving requires humbleness. Letting go of what we think we have a hold of. When Jesus came into the world, love, true love came with Him. He left it here for us today. Serving others and allowing people to serve us brings us all together under His love. That's what we need today. Love each other today like never before. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Nothing sucks worse than losing in the first round of the playoffs when you're an athlete. You've worked hard all season and made it there when some said you wouldn't, then you get there to prove them wrong and then lose the first game, leaving you feeling like they were right the whole time. Well, what do you do now? Sit around and let them have the last laugh or get ready for the next sport and working hard at that? What do we do when the world, and especially our family and friends, make us feel that way? Who, more than anyone wants us to feel bad and isolate ourselves and turn inward with our head down? The devil himself. When we allow the glory of God to shine in our life we learn to become warriors. Fighting satan is a daily endeavor and we must be prepared through Christ to succeed. "In the warriors code there's no surrender. When the body says stop, the spirit cries, NEVER," I love Rocky movies. But we have to know that our strength is in our weakness because that's when we depend on God. If we would just do that all the time it would be a lot better. We're driven to win, but we will lose some battles along the way. It's what we do next that makes all the difference as to how we keep our relationship with God first and Him leading us to the real victory. While the other team may be laughing now, it is only temporary celebration. In love always. <><

Good morning and happy Tuesday. Show of hands of who likes to be frustrated. Anyone? Didn't think so. So when we get frustrated with God, and we do, what do we do? That's what keeps many away from Him. It's just too hard. I can't keep this up. He doesn't hear me or care. Things along those lines are what I hear people say sometimes. Remember when you were a kid back in the days of parental discipline? When you had done something wrong, real wrong, you got a spanking and a grounding. If it was wrong but nobody got hurt, you just got a grounding. At first it all seemed harsh but as time went by and you lived through such a traumatic experience, it got easier and you understood the love behind the punishment. Maybe you're frustrated because of what you're doing and not liking the punishment being handed down from God. It's certainly evident in our countries state of affairs. God is the giver of all things and He is the most just of all. But if you find yourself angry with Him or frustrated cause life doesn't seem to be going well, maybe a step back and looking at ourself will supply the answer we're looking for as to why He's not acting on our behalf. He's holding back a flood gate of a blessed and more meaningful life, but He's waiting on our surrender  to Him. So get through the grounding and take the time to look at where you are in your walk. Then proceed with great joy in knowing that if He didn't love you He'd just let you be and not show Himself to you at all.  Frustration is a tool of the devil and He's been defeated. Stay on the winning side and let God have control of your life. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Monday. I don't care how many times you say it, happy Monday just doesn't sound right. How much is one degree? Not a lot. If you drew a straight line and then from the same starting point you moved out one degree and drew another line from the starting point and the spot one degree off the first line, way out down the line the two would be a long way apart. We'll call the first one God's plan for our lives and the second one we will call our actual path in life. I don't know about you, but when I look back I see a line that's about as crooked and all over the place as one can get. The main thing in that is realizing when the line went back to the original. It doesn't take much for us to get off track. And at first it doesn't seem like its that big of a deal because we can still see and feel some light from  God, so we're good. Until we check back in and see how far we've move from center. It's like falling asleep on a float in a lake and waking up on the other side. How did I get here?  This isn't what I wanted to happen. And it did take a little while to get there. The good news is it doesn't take as long to get back. God is faithful. He doesn't want us lost and separated from Him. He wants to bless us and keep us for Himself in heaven for all eternity. Just go back. It's not too late and you're not too far away. Don't let the devil tell you otherwise. He's the deceiver. He will make you feel unworthy and unloved and then keep you for himself in eternity. Where do you want to be?  Move back to center. One degree is not that far but it can mean the difference between heaven and hell. In love always. <>< 

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. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday. I'm sure it's the technology of the day and social media we have now that has made the groaning's of this nation more audible. The questions and half truths and out right lies and the desperate place we find this great country is sad. It also should be expected. Just open your Bible to Galatians 6:8. Our harvest from what we have sown is here to be stored in the lofts. When we boast of great things we do or claim our success as what we've done and not given any glory to God, it will fail. If it does not fail and continues to prosper without God at the head, then it's destruction will come with eternal judgement in hell. I think God has been telling this nation to get it together for some time now and we have not done so. I know my parents only warned me a couple of times and then the hammer dropped. Father God is done warning this country. It's demise is eminent if it doesn't come back to Him. Don't take this as a political endorsement, but if Romney wins and the nation sees no benefit or better outcome, do you think the people will get it? The answer is no because the then the other side will say "see we told you" and the process continues. It's not so much as to who the leader is as much as it is who we follow. Until we turn around and head back to where we came from, it won't be better. "Take me out of your schools, homes, buildings and gathering places and I will take away my blessings". I can hear that so clearly being said by God. Where has His church gone? Where have they gone? Why aren't they leading people to Him?  A Revolution is in order. It's time to come out of the hills and caves and from behind our safe doors of home and church and go be a church for our God and this country. In love always. <><