Good morning and happy Friday. Oh how good it feels to see a light of hope begin to burn. From the smallest ember into just a flicker of a flame. For someone lost in a canyon or forest that little bit  could be the difference in life or death. Being found or staying lost. It's the same with our spirituality, if that little bitty flame isn't tended to when it first starts it dies out quickly. A roaring fire can can go a little while without some attention and be ok, but not the new flickering light. It needs to be loved and given some attention to show that it's good and needed and valued. With that nourishment being given to it, that soul learns to return it and give it to others. It spreads like a wildfire if we let it. Don't give up on anyone or anything that God has before you or in your life. Don't be a fire extinguisher to someone trying to catch on fire for the Lord. Help them to be strong and you will grow stronger too. Tending to their flame will put fuel to yours. Keep the flame of hope alive in the people around you, today and everyday. In love always. <><

Good morning and happy Thursday. We see it on tv all the time, courts being too lenient on criminals or not giving them enough prison time for what they have done. Stays of execution, appeals that drag on forever (said in your best Squints voice). We want justice quickly and to be painful to the one who wronged us. I'm glad "The" Judge is slow to anger and will listen to my appeals. We're funny people. Flawed in more ways than we will admit, and want things to just be our way. The way we see it, they should be concerning us and not even considering anyone else. Designed to be in community with each other but today we separate ourselves. Why is it about us now? What changed over all the years that brought us to a point where we think of ourselves first? What do we do to get rid of that mentality? How do we get back to the root we came from? Daily commune with God. Not for yourself but on the behalf of others. When we begin to go to Him in prayer for others, and I mean really pray, we begin to see others needs before ours.  One, because we put God first and when that happens a lot of things fall into place. Two, we see others and not just ourselves. When you look into the eyes of another human you see a soul in the image of God. Now they have meaning to you. When we see the people of this world as God in them, it should change our view and our ideas. When we are doing life His way we don't have to be so concerned about the justice to be poured out on this earth. And who knows we may have had a hand in saving someone else from the death penalty. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. When a child dies it seems to effect more than just the family itself. It seems to hit with a lot of people outside of the family as well. A community bonds up with a family in its time of grief. This child, not long on the Earth, but effecting people none the less. How will people remember you when you're gone? What impact are you leaving? And you are leaving one, good or bad, you will leave on mark on this Earth. Most of us have not led the life God intended us to but have come to a point of reconciliation. It's not about what we've done or where we've been, it's what we do next that is most important. As much as I would like to have thousands of people show up to my funeral because I was such a "good guy", I would rather have one person just tell me " thank you for showing me Jesus". The world we live in tells us to look at ourselves and boost our own selves first. The world is ruled by Satan and that's exactly what he wants us doing. Live for God and give all glory to Him, and don't worry about what return you get on that investment. When we live like that, our impact on others will be like that of a baby. Give your life for others to know Jesus. You then are living just as He did, serving others and giving of ourselves. Now you are reconciled. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Tuesday. I love music. I love really good, written from the heart, music. It doesn't matter what kind when it comes from the heart, unless it's just pure evil. But I really love when a Christian artist hears the Lord speak to them and they simply pour out His love on the pages. When the words seem to have meaning to anyone at any stage of their life. It crosses all lines and barriers of protest and ridicule. That when you hear it, you can't deny it's truth. You can't dispute that it's real. When we sing of love it transcends all judgement. Now only faith hope and love remain. And the greatest of these is love. Everyone loves. They love others or even love to hate but we all love. And without true love of God within us, nothing we do or say will matter. Only when we can allow His love to be our love will we really understand. Approach each day and situation and moment with God's attitude of love. His kind of love. The kind that forgives and forgets our sins. The kind that watches His kids hurt Him and still loves them more than anything. The kind of love that allows mistakes that hurt us so that we can grow and be better, all the while hurting Him as we continue to reject Him. We can only have this love from first loving Him. Fall in love with Him and then let your life be the proof of His love. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Monday. I kinda took a week off from here, not on purpose but became an on purpose thing later. I had nothing to study for or get ready for last week. Wednesday night class wasn't going because of the 4th and I already had Sunday school ready. No reason to be in the good book last week. So I got a little lazy and didn't do any reading or digging and found myself having a really cruddy week when it was all over. I hate routine, over and over stuff that becomes a habit instead of holding meaning. I need my morning time with God no matter what. I need Him every hour of every day or it seems like I'm just wondering through a day. And then to top it off, I really needed a boost this morning to get it going again. I can't imagine what it would be like to be away for any length of time any more. It gives me motivation to help those you have wondered off a helping hand. Those who don't even know are really in for a shock. But sometimes we get so lost in the colors, they all turn gray. It's good to stop the spinning wheel and really get back to what we know is good in our lives. God has yet to show us all the colors of His pallet, but in the mean time we, I, need to focus on the ones He has shown me. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday. I love the twilight zone shows. I like the way they take ordinary stuff and see it from a whole different angle. I grew up being drug to church and not liking it much as I got older. But what I realize now is that I was given one mans view of things. Our preacher could put the most wired up ten cups of coffee in ya person to sleep in ten minutes. I like knowing how vast God is. I see how we've kept Him in a box so that we can relate to Him. We try to make it all black and white when the only thing that is are the pages it's written on. It's nice to know that God can't be fully understood yet. But that we are given just enough to keep going. I see His love now like never before and it's because of other views and digging deeper in the word instead of having it talked to me on a Sunday morning. It's about allowing God to lead us to those places and grow us in our maturity. You just can't eat on Sunday and expect to be healthy when you're hungry every Friday and Saturday. It's up to us to find our way to that personal relationship with Him so that it is personal and not someone's else's way. When you're feeling kinda blah in your time with God, you're probably in a rut and need to back up and regroup and get a fresh look at the direction you're going. It's hard to follow with your head down. Look up to Him and see Him in a whole new light and follow where He leads. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Monday. A very dear friend of mine had to have his leg amputated yesterday because of an infection to his artificial knee. This would've been the fourth time he's undergone the replacement only to have it return. He could've gotten very sick and died from the infection, and I'm not so sure he wasn't close the last time, to just that. It got me to thinking about what Jesus said about sin and poking out the eye or cutting off the hand that is causing one to sin. Delbert is going to be better off without his knee problems in the long run, but for now he's sad and confused and didn't really want to lose it. How much do we hang on to our things that cause us to sin? How bad do we want to not give it up? How big of a hold does it have on us? I would say that its about as bad as losing a leg. Sometimes we really don't realize how bad it is until it nearly kills us and we have to get rid of it. And by killing us I mean removing us from God. Delbert made a huge decision to let go of some thing that could and probably would kill him. His life will be different now. So will ours when we make the same hard choice in our lives. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Friday. Busy busy busy. No time this morning to talk to God. Slept in and took a long shower. Played a game on phone and just let time slip by. My day is going ok so far but I can feel the difference. Now I have taken some time to at least stop and listen and let myself go to Him and already better. He is awesome. Why are we not in utter awe of Him daily? How am I letting these moments with Him slip by? I'm lazy in my devotion to Him. We are studying Revelation on Wednesday nights and it has finally sunk in that He is the Sovereign Lord and as I see John describe Him on His throne, it just gets to the core of me. Even still, feeling that power, I still slip. My humanness is weak. The more and faster I see it, the closer I will get to Him. John saw a glimpse of Heaven and the Lord in all His Glory. He then relays the message of that visit to us today so we can get ourselves to that place. It is real and it is coming. God is all that is written of Him. Prepare the way home now and don't let time with Him slip by. Thank you God for loving us all. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday. How do you squeeze the the tube of tooth paste? From the end or the middle? How does your toilet paper go on the holder? Over or under?  Does it matter? Not really. The business gets handled and the day moves on without much more thought of it. We are all different and have a different way of seeing things. The problems in this world and in our lives are that we focus too much on the minor things and forget or lose sight of the major ones. So do we have God out front as a major and not squabble over how someone worships Him? There are a lot of ways of interpreting the Bible into our lives. The one thing to count on is that the Word of God has not nor ever will change. It's the same for us today as it was for those you wrote it down so many years ago. But we have divided ourselves over the minor things and lost our vision of the major. I don't think God had in mind all the different denominations that man has put up. When this is all over there will be only one church, just like it should be now. In life and in God, discuss the minor hang-ups, but don't let them be the cause of decisions you make about the bigger picture. Go to the Major, ask Him to lead you and then follow His direction. The teeth still get brushed no matter how the tube is squeezed, but the tube has to be bought to be squeezed in the first place. Give your heart to God and stop worrying about the small stuff. In love always <>< 

Good morning and happy Wednesday. You ever try and listen to a conversation you're not a part of? Aka eavesdropping. You will tune out everything and and hold your breath and be quiet and not move a muscle. Even to hear something faint in a recording or movie or what not. The point is, the extremes we go to listen to something we want to hear or know. How about when God speaks to us? What about that conversation? How much do we lean in to hear from Him? How often do you stop what you're doing and just be still with Him. It really is that easy. When I think that He's just not talking to me today, it's my reminder I've gotten to busy for Him and not paying Him any attention. Busy can't be the excuse. That's the devils tool against us. That's giving him power over our lives and our time with our Father. Take back what is yours from him and give your time to God. Hear Him speak and guide you through all this mess in life. He's the one that can see what's ahead for you and lead you to the place He needs you to be so you can then serve Him by serving the ones He's brought you to. Be still and know that He is God. In love always. <><

Good morning and happy Monday. Heard a great skit/sermon Saturday that still has my brain spinning with thought. You've heard the phrase waiting on the Lord. What does it mean to you? Think about it for a minute before reading on. Are  you passive or active in waiting?  Well if you're waiting aren't you then a waiter?  What if God is at your table and you're His waiter/ waitress? How often do you check on Him and see what you can do for Him or get Him? What kind of tip will you get for the service you rendered? Think about how you tip your waiter if the service is bad and how well you tip if it's been good. What a beautiful picture of our dedication to Him. Jesus came, not to be served, but to serve. Everything He did was for God and His glory. When you go to eat out next, think about your waiter and how well they serve you and then ask if your serving the Lord in the same manner or not. Will He be satisfied with your service or not? Do your best to self evaluate and be honest in what you do for Him. By the way, He's a great tipper. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Friday. I had a really bad day yesterday. I mean the worst in a while. All work stuff and just a bunch of mess. To the point of just leaving and calling it a day and if it was more than that then so be it. After I got home and got some things done at home and away from the problems of work, my day got better. Watched the Heat win and it got great. Came in today and feel better and moving on. But it got me thinking about how as I got away from the thing causing my problem the better I felt. And even to a point of facing it again. What if we do this with all our worldly problems and dealings with God. Move away from what pulls us down and closer to what picks us up. I hate that I keep losing the sight of that and fell into the traps of this world. I acted horrible yesterday and am making amends today to those who saw me act very un-Christian like. Satan won a match and I chose to let him. I know God is there with me all the time, but like the good Father He is, He is allowing me to grow through my mistakes. Learning to move closer to Him when the world moves in on me. Thank you God for all you do for me. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday. How come we're so amazed by stuff that happens?  That when something seems so coincidental and the toast landed butter side up so you can still eat it, we just stand in amazement. "How cool is that"? "How great is that"?  When the right person with the right tools shows up to put the radiator hose back on. Why are we surprised?  We'll say something like, "Man I can't believe you came by just now as I needed some help. Must be my lucky day". You know you've said it in some form or another at some point. When do we get to the point of saying, "Thank you God for sending this person at this time to help me". And say it out loud so the person helping knows it too. They may be the reason you broke down in the first place. It may be you they needed to run into. Thank God always. For all the things good and what we might see as bad. You just know what work He is up to your life and someone else's. In love always. <><

Good morning and happy Wednesday. I met a lady yesterday that really put  thoughts in my head about who and what God brings into our lives. She is a very bitter woman about her divorce and what the "Protestant" church said to her about it. She grew up and has gone back to being Catholic. Nothing wrong either way. It has nothing to do with it. The point is she is blaming everything and everyone for her suffering and too proud to take a job of anything below what she "wants". She's been divorced since 1989. Now you can feel my frustration as she would not hear the advise she was asking me to give her. So if she is not listening to me when asking, do you think she is hearing God when He talks to her. It's really a sad state and would ask that you pray for her, Geraldine. But the point is, how many of us are not hearing God and looking for the other answer we know He'll give us? She has been bitter and unhappy and unforgiving for a long time and missing the fact she has been all over this country and seen a lot of things and met a lot of people. Missing her blessings while in her misery. It doesn't mean the blessings come only when you're going through something. It's when we let the something rule our lives instead of God. Seek first His Kingdom. Be still and hear Him lead you to the next place He has for you. Go there or do that with a grateful and loving heart that serves Him. In love always. <><

Good morning and happy Tuesday. I love the end of a sports season. When the finals are on and those who's teams didn't make pick one to root for in the end. Then all the fans of the two teams start calling them "bandwagoner's". The hard part is when you've been a fan and they just catch you up in it and you're a bandwagoner too. But wait I've been a Heat fan for a while now. My daughters little dribblers team was the Amarillo Heat. Maybe it's because I haven't shown I'm a fan all year long. Maybe I haven't been living the Heat fan way. Hows your spiritual team doing this year?  What team, of the final two, are you pulling for? Do people see you as a bandwagoner because it's the thing to do now? Are you living your teams fan way?  You get what I mean? We choose sides sometimes when it's down to a smaller choice. We really like one more than the other and God is who we want to be with, but people who haven't decided yet see you as a bandwagon fan of His because you're not really wearing a team jersey or acting like that's your team. We are all guilty of it. That's why there is grace in a true loving God. There's always a place on His team for all of us. We have to decide to join. And by the way, God's team wins. Should be an easy pick. Go live like your team is in the super bowl and everyone knows you've been a fan a long time. In love always. <><