Good morning and happy Thursday. Can God bless America? Should God bless America? All the politicians say it as their mantra. " God bless America ". God destroyed cities for their wicked ways and not following His ways and turning their backs on Him. What is this country doing? He's being taken out of everything. We're trying to get Him off our money. He's already out of the schools and the halls of justice. Our founding fathers came here to be able to worship Him in peace without a government trying to run them through the church. So don't believe the rhetoric of the idea that those guys back them didn't build this nation with God at the head of it. So if God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there were no righteous people in them, the only reason I can see us still being here is the righteous that are left. How long then till He's had enough and even the righteous will perish? We have to begin our stand to take this country back to where it was, at least with respect to God in our everything. It's only gotten steadily worse as we "progress" forward. We're not that great any more. We were great not because of what we did, but because we loved God and He blessed this nation just as He promises. This place is now full of itself and everything is me me me, I I I, look at what we did, see how great we are. We will reap what we've sewn and of late it hasn't been that good. For those who are following God and loving that Jesus saved them, look at their lives compared to the country as a whole. They have peace and are much happier. It's time for the Christian tide to roll. If God offends you, it's probably because you're not doing what you're supposed to. Lets bring back the blessing of God to our nation. Speak louder and make yourself be heard. It has to change, and soon. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Sad news yesterday about a girl here killed when her car was hit by a train. People began posting prayers for the family and stuff and then there were some that made some assumed comments about what they thought. I got to thinking about those people. Assuming they know something but really don't. How do they get this? How do they think they're right about something they have no idea about? Is it from some past experience or just figuring that's what it always is in these cases so it must be what caused this one too? How many people are hurt by Christians in the world and so they figure all Christians must be like that? How many Christians assume they know God and His ways? Spew out a bunch of stuff that really makes Christians look bad. Westboro Baptist comes to mind. More on them later this week. How about you, what are you assuming about God and His plans? Who do you make assumptions about that you really don't know much about?  Are we judging without thinking we are? Of course we are. We do it all the time. It's hard not to.  So how do we fix it? We have to build our relationship with God the Father through His son Jesus. The only way to function at optimum performance is to be so like Jesus. The only way to be like Him is to be with Him. Proof is the apostles. Uneducated fishermen and tax collectors and we read their writings today. What changed them from assuming men of the world into loving men of God; an interlude of time with Jesus and they were changed forever. How much time will we take to change that way and make an eternal impact on others? Choose now and stop wasting time. Go out and love on those you may have made an assuming thought about that has kept you away. Those are the people real stories come from most of the time, I assume. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Monday. So when you're waiting for something to happen and them it does, what do you after?  Feels like there's nothing else going on and just back to what you were doing. Makes me think of all those people following Jesus and thinking something big was gonna happen. Some great kingdom set up here for them to have power and reign over their oppressors. I wonder how let down they felt when they saw Him nailed to a cross and dead not knowing what had just been done. So then I wonder about those following Him that we're sort of getting it but not fully and how they felt waiting on the resurrection. Back to their lives they went. Let down and feeling worse than ever not having a clue of the huge impact of all that has been done. They could not see the big picture because they were focused on the single pixel of their lives. We do that a lot still today and we've read the book that tells us the big picture and what it looks like. Why aren't we living like we know it? Why aren't we living like the family of royalty we are? We heirs to a Kingdom no one can imagine and we don't act like it. Do we not because we can't see it or have seen Him? I don't know, but its worth eternity to me to start seeing a little better of how great our God is and know all that has been done for me, for all of us. I live in anticipation of the next big thing coming my way. With the blessing of God all over it. It's never just done. It always continues on. We have to live for that next moment He has for us. Just because its not what you wanted doesn't mean it's not the best thing to happen to you. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday. I'm sitting in the lobby getting ready to head home. As I have walked and seen this big ole city, I have seen so many faces and wondered about so many lives. I came here alone and did things by myself. It was a great trip and all but it would have been really great to have had my wife with me to share the sights and the memory. God made us to be together. To be communal and relational. We can't close ourselves off into isolation. We need Him and we need each other. We are all family. And on the train rides around town I met some up close. Life is so much better when we have and enjoy one another. But it's really out of this world when we have God. Even alone here I still had Him with me to talk to. Those family members on the train must think I'm crazy for talking to what they saw has no one, but He was there with me and talking to me and hearing me as I navigated a city I know nothing about. So really you're never alone, it's just about realizing He's there and wants to be with you. I hope that all those faces that looked so blank have someone and know He is with them. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. When the apostles were in the storm on the sea and beginning to lose faith, Jesus showed up. In an instant there was calm. The storm was over. The memory of the storm, the feelings of helplessness of the storm, and the doubt of a future from the storm still remained though. The point is, we're human and can't help lacking trust in God. But when we do and the storm is calmed, remember what it felt like while He was there calming it. Hang on to that and learn to make it what you want to feel all the time. Then those storms won't seem so bad any more. His calmness and peace come in an instant when we're open to it being possible. The hurt and pain are what we hang on to instead of Him. I'm at peace and feel so good today because I know He calmed the storm and today I finally realized it. Instant peace. Thank you all for your prayers for this day for me. For all your words of encouragement and faith in God that we as brothers and sisters need to help one another with. Proverbs 27:17. In love always. <><

Good morning and happy Tuesday. It's funny how when the things you wish for and pray for, finally get here and you just can't seem to let it be and let God. I have no say or control over anything that is about to take place tomorrow, so why is it that I just can't let it be? I play golf, used to play a lot, and I'm not the best but play awight. I can how ever help someone with their swing when it goes bad all of a sudden. I can watch and study and then usually get them back on track. May not be all the way but it's better than it was. Now when my swing goes south, why then do I not understand I need someone to watch and help me? Thing is I know it, I just keep trying to fix it myself. The same is true with God. We are always trying to fix it ourselves and not letting God show us what to do. We just have to hang on to a little control of some kind. Is it so we can say we did it?  We had a hand in it. I don't know but it's hard to turn loose. But I have found that council from your friends and family always seems to help.  A lot of you have been praying for me over this ordeal which was my first step in letting God because I never ask for prayer. That saddens me to write that. So to honor God and all of you, I'm gonna relax and let God do His thing. I'm gonna sleep well tonight because I didn't last night. Keep watching my swing and tell me where I'm off. God keep guiding us all and help us to get out of your way as you move us to where you want us. I'm sure as I sit in the hotel tomorrow morning, I will need to re read this to help remind me to let it be. Thank you all for all you've done for me. Thank you God for all you're doing for me. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday. Do you believe in the devil, Satan?  Do you think he has powers? Do you think he has reign over this world today? Satan knows God better than we do. He talks to God about us. He bears false witness to God. He's seen God. He mirrors his ministry after God. To look like God but with a very different motive behind it. He knows how to raise the sidewalk just enough in front of us that we don't see it before we trip. It looks harmless at first so we go along the path he has tried to lay down to look like its God's plan. No offense here, but it's kind of like leaving Texas roads and entering Oklahoma roads. As soon as you get into OK, the roads are nice and smooth and pleasing. Then after you've gotten comfortable on it, the real okie road shows up and you need to hang on and your car will need some work done when you get home. Satan works on us so smoothly. His cunning is his subtleness. You never know when it's really him, unless. Unless you have and maintain that relationship with Jesus. Let Him stand before the Father for you and cancel out what Satan is saying. Let Him be the One who took your place. He's already done it, we just have to receive and accept it. Then we have to live it. Father forgive us of our past, but thank you for letting it make us who we are today. That we can see where the evil one was in our lives and recognize him easier now because of you. You lead us and we follow. No matter where and no matter what. Thank you for saving us and going before the throne for us today. Let our lives being lived be a reflection of you to the world around us. Let them see you and not us and most definitely not the evil one today and everyday. Thank you God for this day to be reconciled back to you for the things we've done yesterday. Help us to be stronger in our weakness as we approach you today. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Tuesday. God said to take care of the poor, the orphans, and the elderly. I think we're doing a poor job of that. What does it say about the state of our culture if the biggest news in Texas, for some, is the cowboys win? Did you know that the government's emergency system issued a warning against zombie attacks. It was done as way to get the countries emergency system operators to look at preparedness plans. But yet it took zombies to get their attention. The news of the day is about the very things God told us to care for and we've become so numb to life we can't see it. Moreover we can't feel it. We're losing our contact and relationship with people. We pull into our drives and go inside and shut the door and call it safe. I know it's not all of us but it's most of this country. We're being cornered and fenced off so that Satan can have his control over us as well. Who's gonna stand up? Who should be standing up?  We fall on our knees to fight Satan. We have to stand up after the amen and do what God is directing us to do. It's to love each other and to take care of each other. Every four years we divide up sides and tell lies and deceive to get what we think we want. It's got to end with a revival of the Christian nation taking back what we've sat around and let go of because we didn't stand up. It's easy to pray for guidance. It's hard to follow the trail He laid out before you. Let's make a difference in this country with or without a government you like. They don't do it anyway, we do. Love on someone today and tell them you love them. Let people in your life know they matter and then go matter to people who don't know you. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Monday. And yes it can be if you just let it be. God designed us to walk with Him in perfect peace and harmony, so what's kept us from being full of peace and harmony? We have. Ourselves have done it to ourselves. With a little help but mostly us. It's a choice we make. It's the things we do or have done. Even the past keeps us from harmony and peace. So what's the point if even the past holds us down. Again, it's a choice. We can let our past go and give it over to God and it's done. But it has to be done in you too. He let it go, why can't you. It's because of that little devil in your ear that keeps reminding you of it. Two things need to happen; we need to ask for forgiveness and stay away from those sins from now on, and we have to accept the forgiveness and know we are truly forgiven. Guilt and shame are what the devil uses to keeps us down. It's our choice to stand up to him by being on knees to God. It's not hard and doesn't take a lot of time. Once you get going it may, but if we keep a daily vigil going it will be brief enough. The point is, we have to make the effort to be with Him, He's already with us. And if He can create all this stuff in the world, why wouldn't He be able to bring peace into our lives. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Friday. If Jesus walked into the room you're in right now, what would you do? How would you change the way you're doing everything right then? How would your worship of Him change? What are you doing that you would stop doing that instant? Why are you needing Him to walk in the door to change it all? Satan is good at what he does. He's always in our ear with the, " It's ok, it's not hurting anyone else" line. When we let Jesus stand for us in our lives just as if He's standing in the room at the moment, Satan loses his power over us. When the Holy Spirit is let loose within us to become the way we live outside, Satan has no power over us. He will flee from you. But if given even a hint of a chance, his attacks on you will intensify greatly. This is where young or new Christians loose their battles the most. "Why follow God if it's gonna be this hard all the time?". I agree, who wants that in their life when they're trying to turn it around, no one. This is a mature, stronger Christians call to arms to help a brother in need. By living our lives as if Jesus is right there we have strength through Him. And just a reminder, He's in the room right now. He's with us always. Live like it the best you can. Talk to Him daily, hourly, whatever it takes to weather the storms of life. He is with you always. Joshua 1:9. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday.  Perspective, we all have a different one on the way we see things. Some are similar but still have differences. Sometimes those differences are pretty far apart and off the mark all together. With a large crowd of people and a crime committed, how many different stories of how it happened do you think there will be? A crowd was gathered around a cross one day as a man was being hung on it. The ones behind the cross didn't see the love and compassion on a beaten face, they only saw the back of the cross and a little bit of the man. As saddened as those who were in the front and at the foot of the cross, they had to feel His love for them and everyone else pouring out of Him, literally. So how do those people tell the story of that day? How did they see it go down? In order to see and understand better, we have to be willing to move and see from someone else's point of view. To know what they have seen and been through to understand what they feel. If just one of those from behind the cross moves to the front, their whole world and life is changed forever. We have to stop hiding behind the cross and move to the front and start seeing the world from there. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Tuesday. What a great get a way weekend with the family. It was so good to just enjoy time with them and talk about old times. The mountains are a great place to go and see God's beauty and love for us. It was nice to let home and work be out of our minds and refresh ourselves, even if only for a long weekend. We all need a reboot once in a while because we're humans and don't lay our worries and troubles down like we should. We keep trying to get them handled and before too long they've become a bigger pile of stuff. It just feels refreshing to starting this short week fresh and new and nothing as a distraction. It's been laid down and handed over to the One who handles that stuff for us. Thank you God for the fresh start to a new day, week, month, and year. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and and happy Tuesday. You've heard the adage about its not how you start the race but how you finish. That can can only come from a God of mercy. And no one has any excuse for not getting in the race to begin with. Deep inside I guess some people feel they've fallen too far to be loved and that even if someone did, God wouldn't. It's funny how we can find all the reasons in the world not to follow after Jesus but don't have many for doing it. Christians can sometimes be the meanest people, and most not intentionally, but mean none the less. It's no wonder more and more are turning away from Christianity and to the world instead. The world takes them in no matter where they've been. Well so does God you might say, but we're the ones they see in front of them. We're the front lines. We're Jesus to many for the first time ever. Welcome them into the race, even if it's the last lap and you've ran a million miles and their gonna go 400 meters. Love them has if they've been with you the whole time. Jesus gave a parable about this a long time ago about the workers in the field. The ones who worked at the last of the harvest received the same amount of pay as the first. Nothing has changed over all this time. We have to make the decision to act with love and not human feelings. Unless we've got those feelings in line with God's. Put off the world and love and welcome others to the race. They may be the one that helps get you to finish line. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday. Forgiveness. How many times a day do you think you make a judgment about some one by how they look or act when you see them? How many times do you do that with people you know or have known for many years?  You hold on to an old memory of that wrong they did way back? How many of us look at ourselves in that same light? So why is the light cast differently for us than them? Borrowing from Casting Crowns, " open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers". The same way we want to forget what we've done in our past is the same way we need to forget others of their past. When this action takes place, we begin to be more like Jesus. When the people of His days here were about to stone a woman to death, Jesus bent down and wrote in the sand. Many dropped the stones they held and left. He then asked for those without sin to cast the first stone. The rest left with that. Jesus had compassion for us that we will never get, but it's not too hard to begin to peruse that way of thinking and behaving. How different would life be if we stopped looking at the outside and got to know the inside? Just think, just as we look at others in that other light, others are looking at us in it. We're just as messy as everyone else and some of us are messier than others maybe. Fact is we are all messy. And when we're pointing at others, three fingers are pointing back at us. I think there's a reason for that. I don't know what Jesus wrote in the sand that day, but it came from love for a sinner about to be killed. He knew her heart and forgave her of the wrong she had done. It was done and over and she was never seen that way again by Him. That's the perfect example of how we should be. Forgiveness. The toughest thing to do and receive but still the greatest thing we can do for each other. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Seems like anyone you talk today will tell you their opinion on the how bad of shape this country is in. From the economy to the kids today, it all looks hopeless. We sure need to do something to fix this. I just don't know what's wrong with these kids today. You've all heard those things or even said them yourselves. Thing is, we all know the answer. God is slowly and surely being removed from the fabric of this country's make up. What's happens to a well knit article of anything when you remove a thread from it? It then begins to unravel. It has been a slow start but slowly the very thread of God has been being pulled from the cloth that sets us apart from the world. What's wrong today is that we are seeing the unravel begin after the many washings we've tried to give it. This cloth is ruined. It's time to begin anew. To resew the fabric of the values of the Lord into our family. We do that one family at a time and as we do we refuse to ignore the problems of this country any more. To make a stand and be bold in it.  To love our neighbors but not excuse the sins. To not just put it off as its their life not mine. It's like keeping the cure to cancer to yourself and not letting the world know about it. Well, we have the cure for the cancer killing our country. God and salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. But it has to start with each of us. We can't wait till someone else starts it. Move. Move now. Do what's right for your family and friends. Don't support another immoral movie, sitcom, law change or anything that goes against God's laws. But continue to love on them all. Don't be hateful but kind in your rebuffing of the ways of the world. Put Satan behind you and move forward in the name of Jesus. In love always. <><