Life Is An Adventure

Instead of praying for things to work out, what if you prayed to be content? None of us know what “things working out” looks like. Only God does.

Pray to be satisfied with whatever Jesus provides for you. That satisfaction will demonstrate more than anything else that you trust God. It’s called FAITH!

Faith alone pleases God and activates His best for your life.

I’ve NEVER known what’s best for me, but I’m learning to trust that God ALWAYS does. Nothing outside of God’s promises and desires for me will bring about the satisfaction I long for.

Don’t think of your life as a DISASTER, when God wants to make it an ADVENTURE.  Once you see your life in this way, you’ll look forward to it, each and every day.

You Make God Smile

God’s madly in love with you! No matter who you are. No matter what you’ve done! He loves you with an everlasting love.

Because He already knows everything you’ll ever do, either God’s always loved you, or He’s never loved you. He doesn’t just see a few random moments of your life. He sees its entirety!

God doesn’t love us more when we’re good, nor does He love us any less when we’re bad. Why? Because even in our lowest moments God still likes us and fully differentiates between who we are and what we’ve done.

He not only loves us unconditionally and forgives us eternally, but God likes us so completely His heart smiles every time He thinks of us—and He thinks of us constantly.

Heart Enhancement

If you were really sick, no doctor would prescribe cosmetic surgery. That would merely change the SURFACE, but wouldn’t touch the ROOT of your problem.

Religion has little to offer, other than a system of conscience-soothing routines, leading to boredom and spiritual numbness.

We don’t need a facelift, we need a heart transplant; and only the power of Jesus can perform that operation.

A relationship with God changes our heart, from the inside out. Only the Creator of all things can establish our purpose in life, and that’s all about getting to know Him.

Religion drove me to atheism, but a personal relationship with Jesus transformed my life. Why don’t you pray and invite Jesus into your heart today? Allow Him to be the Lord of your life. You’ll never be the same.

Time Doesn’t Heal, Jesus Does

How much of our lives are spent avoiding pain and things we’re afraid of?

In every situation God can help you mature and grow.

If we face our fears, they’ll dissolve. If we bow down to them, they’ll become bondages, strongholds, and even generational curses.

Are you in any way hiding, either from God or His people? If you want to be healed, you’ll need to walk in the light of God’s love, forgiveness, comfort, and power.

God’s love covers. His grace forgives; and His Spirit comforts and empowers us to be fully healed: spirit, soul and body.

Time doesn’t heal. Jesus does. Look to Him first in the challenges of life. He’ll never disappoint you.

Are You At A Low Point?

Are you at a low point in your life?

Paul the Apostle was in so much pain he begged God to take it away. But God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”

What was Paul’s response? He got it! He said, “Then I’ll just boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2Corinthians 12:9, NIV)

The word “weakness” refers to a feebleness of mind or body, even a physical or psychological disorder, disease or sickness.

Paul understood that God’s all-sufficient grace was being poured out upon him, even at his lowest point. God’s grace was all he needed to fight discouragement. Frankly, it’s all we need today.

Being Completely Thankful

When will you and I be completely thankful for what God has done in our lives? We don’t need God to do one more thing for us. What He’s already done, and is presently doing, is more than sufficient. He doesn’t have to demonstrate even one more time His love and care for my life. I just need to ask Him to open my eyes.

If we can just remember—if we can keep spiritual amnesia from overtaking our thoughts, we’ll be SET for life. In our right minds, we’ll overflow with gratitude: praising God for Who He is, and thanking Him for what He’s done.

With a clear view of what has really gone on in our lives, the only appropriate response to a loving God is “thank you”—a million times over.

Life Has Not Cheated Us

Life has not cheated us! And none of our regrets are worth dwelling on!

The greatest lessons in life come from learning to respond properly to what we think is a “FAILURE OR LOSS”. God alone is able to use our seeming setbacks for good—as we trust Him.

Instead of sinking me, the pressures in my life actually anchor me to the One who loves me most.

EVERY IRRITATION is a DIVINE INVITATION to go to the next level.

Whether my life’s an adventure or a disaster is in my court. I choose “adventure,” not because it’s easy or because I know what’s ahead, but because I’ve seen the faithfulness of the One who holds my future in His safe and loving hands.

Contentment Means Trusting

Blaming God is one of the greatest misconceptions in life.

Contentment means trusting Him no matter what’s happening. It’s more of a decision than a consequence. It’s the opposite of the victim mindset and  makes me responsible for my responses to life.

Paul wrote, “I’ve learned in whatever state I am, there I’ll be content.” (Philippians 4:11) He had the breakthrough of a lifetime because he was willing to accept God’s will.

When a thought comes into my mind that disagrees with God’s assessment of Himself, others, or myself I reject it, and replace it with His Word.

This requires two choices: me knowing the Word of God, and me trusting God’s Word more than my own feelings, & circumstances.

The good news is: we get a lifetime to learn this.

The Purpose of Prayer

Don’t wait for God to answer your prayers. The purpose of prayer is not to get answers, but to get to know God!

Every answer to prayer will be followed by other requests.

We think: “If this or that would just happen, then I’d be fulfilled.”

Yet, even miracles will leave you dissatisfied if you don’t turn your attention back to God. It’s a great seduction! I fell into it for years.

Only one out of the ten lepers Jesus healed came back to thank Him. (Luke 17:17–18) Nine out of ten never looked back.

Don’t obsess over what you don’t have; rejoice in every morsel God provides, and more will come. He’s a loving Father who promises to give us everything we need.

Jesus saves the best wine for last.

Seeing Needs Not Offenses

When people hurt us, we always have a choice. Either we seek the healing God alone can give, or we find ourselves wallowing in the pain of past offenses.

No one escapes the planet unhurt. It’s the price of admission to the human race: a marathon not for the faint-hearted or faultfinding, but for the faithful few who are more humbled by their own shortcomings than the faults of others.

Ask God to show you people’s needs, not their offenses.

Be a pathfinder, not a faultfinder!

Learn to forgive, not just be forgiven.

God’s perfect plan is designed to heal my past, establish my present, and inspire me to run toward a future beyond my wildest dreams.

Do you see it? It’s right in front of you.

Dying To Live

How often should we die to our ambitions, our self-will, and even ourselves?

Resurrection life is only available to dead people.

If Jesus had to die to get it, so do we.

So, how can you tell if you’re dead to yourself? When you’re asleep in a boat in the middle of a violent storm. When someone slaps you on one cheek and you turn the other. When all Hell’s breaking loose outside of you and yet you keep allowing the peace of God to rise up inside you.

Resurrection life is only available through Jesus Christ—for He alone conquered sin and death for each of us.

Trust in Jesus and you’ll never taste of death . . . only everlasting life.

Not just in Heaven, but right here on Earth.

What’s On God’s Heart?

A friend of mine went into the wilderness to spend time with God and, frankly, get away from people. One night in the middle of nowhere looking up at the stars, he prayed a tender, humble prayer, “God, I’m always sharing what’s on my heart. What’s on Yours?”

Breaking the complete silence, the sound of a small plane flying high overhead caught his attention.

Immediately, God’s Spirit shot back, “The world—the world’s on My heart!”

Jesus described the Father’s heart so clearly when He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The question is: do we love what God loves—the people in this broken world?

Losing Something to Gain Everything

A missionary I once met had spent years ministering to a remote tribe without seeing any converts.

One day, a member of the tribe accidentally electrocuted the missionary’s nine-year-old son. The tribe had a custom that when someone was killed, the victim’s relatives had the right to take revenge. They expected the missionary to take the life of the one who took his son’s life. But instead of exacting retribution, the missionary forgave him. This response sent a shockwave through the tribe. They’d never heard of anyone forgiving such a deed.

Eventually, because of he and his wife’s selfless attitude, the entire tribe came to know Jesus. His family had experienced an incomprehensible loss, but their willingness to forgive changed everything.

Forgive those who have hurt you. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Being A Doctor Or A Patient

How do you recover when someone hurts you? If your goal is to understand—with a humble heart, eventually you’ll be healed.

But, if you refuse to budge, and merely nurse the hurt caused by others, then your pain will only grow deeper.

At times, our attitude is the clearest indication of what we’re most committed to: stewing or healing, remembering or reconciling.

Am I on a journey to become a doctor, or destined to remain a patient?

The only person who can make that decision is me. I may be hurt, but I must be more committed to being healed, than rehashing my pain.

Jesus suffered and died so we could become completely whole inside.

Receiving that healing is a life-long process, but worth every minute.

Forgetting God

Have you forgotten Who God is?

He doesn’t just act loving—God is love! And if we seek Him with all our heart, we’ll become like Him: a loving person.

Jesus commanded us to love ALL people at ALL times, no matter what they may say or do to harm us. Only this response accurately models the heart of a God who’s called us to live as He lived, and even be willing to die as He died.

If we’re leaning on Jesus, no one can ever do anything to make us not love them.

I must never lose sight of this reality: all of the grace I’ll ever need to obey God is continually available to me.

All God asks us to do is reach out and receive it.

We Are As Loved As Jesus

Learning to trust God accesses the peace of mind that seems impossible to attain. Yet, it’s always within reach—with arms of faith.

Believe God for the impossible. Not with presumption, based on the desires of your own heart, but with real faith. Faith that’s grounded upon the sublime plan of the God who knows all things, loves us infinitely, and always uses His wisdom for our good.

Jesus said, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” (John 15:9)

It may be hard to believe, but we are as loved by the Father as Jesus was. And He longs for us to remain in a constant connection with His unconditional love for us.

Only then can we process life as God intended.

Freedom’s Ahead When Self’s Behind

The self-centeredness of others may have hurt you, but it will be your own self-obsession that will keep the pain alive. The greatest enemy to your being as free as God intended is not sin, but self!

Jesus already took care of your sins when He died on the Cross. Now you must learn to die to yourself, in order to be truly free.

Freedom’s ahead, when self’s behind!

Learn to rest so completely in God’s perfection that you’re not overwhelmed by your own lack.

If we refuse to accept God’s plan for our lives, we consign ourselves to a brave new world of perpetual un-fulfillment.

Waiting for a better life is like staring at your dinner, hoping to improve its taste.

The magnificent life God created for you…it’s what’s for dinner.

God Takes Pleasure In You

If we believe Jesus died and rose again, and have allowed Him to be our Lord and Savior, then the Bible says we are now God’s sons and daughters.

Though we may firmly believe this, we can still at times feel God’s ashamed of us. We wonder if He is glad or sad; grateful or disappointed in whom we have become?

How we answer this question will shape our thinking in every dimension of our lives and could not possibly be over-estimated. Jesus said to His Heavenly Father, “You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” (John 17:23b)

Ever see doting parents smile at their child? That’s how God feels about you. God takes pleasure in the very thought of you. You make God smile! Believe it. It’s a truth that will set you free.

Listen To This Radio Feature

God Likes You

For the first 30 years of my Christian life I didn’t think God liked me.

Now, if God was an imperfect human, that would make sense. But He’s not! Each of us make decisions to like or dislike people based upon their past or present actions.

But imagine being completely aware of everything a person will ever do. No longer would your estimation be based upon individual events. Your picture of them would be complete. At that moment, if you like them, it would be because you see the entirety of their lives. That’s exactly how God sees us.

If you’ve ever believed God loved you, or liked you, He still does. Why? Because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) God enjoys you! “How precious…are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)

The Right Question

Whenever you find yourself wondering why something’s happening, realize it’s never a coincidence. It’s invariably God working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him.

Actually, WHY is typically the wrong question; WHAT is the word we should be asking. “God, WHAT are you trying to show me?” The situation, no matter how bleak, is not a mere accident; it’s God at work, even using what Satan meant for evil.

If we love God and are committed to doing His will, He promises us in Romans 8: 28, that all things, no matter how much they hurt, that happen to us will work for our good, either on Earth or in Heaven.

That’s a PROMISE God will keep.

Listen To This Radio Feature

Enjoying Life with Jesus

Jesus doesn’t want to shut down your party. He wants to invite you to His. When was the last time you had a drink with Jesus? He’s promised each of us, “Let the one who believes in Me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38, NET)

Even in the final verses of the Bible, God calls us to drink in His abundant life, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let each one who hears them say, ‘Come.’ Let the thirsty ones come—anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge.” (Revelation 22:17)

We all need to be filled with God’s Spirit. Ask Him to fill you.

Only Jesus can quench the thirst He created in you.

Doctor On a Cruise Ship

A doctor was on a cruise with his family. Early one morning, while walking the deck of the ship, he saw a crowd gathered. He was told a passenger had been rescued after falling overboard and was being resuscitated.

The doctor thought about lending a hand, but decided to stay in vacation mode. But as he passed by, he glanced over and saw that it was his own son who was fighting for his life.

Frantically, he pushed his way through the crowd.

A father’s interest had risen to match the need.

I am so grateful for those, with father hearts, who came to my aid.

Having once been a suicidal atheist, the love and prayers of others aided in my rescue.

Someone is praying for you today. You will not drown.

Disappointments and Destiny

When a young married couple failed a medical exam, their dream of going to a foreign nation as missionaries was crushed. Heartbroken, they returned home and asked God for understanding.

After much prayer, they resolved that if they couldn’t go overseas themselves, they would make as much money as possible in America to help spread the gospel around the world.

With missionary hearts, the couple took over a small side business from the husband’s father, making unfermented wine for communion services, turning it into a tremendous success.During their lifetime they gave vast sums of money to mission fields around the world.

Their last name . . . was Welch, of Welch’s Grape Juice.

What response to a great disappointment will set you on the path of God’s choosing? Expect the unexpected!

Paralyzed By Fear

Many Christians, leaders included, are paralyzed by fear of failure. They’d rather debate and analyze than begin to do something—anything. It can be overwhelming to look at all of the failures in our lives.

But as Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, once said, “I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God. First it is impossible. Then it is difficult. Then it is done.

”In my own life, I’ve been amazed over the years, as I’ve seen how faithful God has been to bring calm to chaos, and understanding to the devastations of my past.

Our Heavenly Father wants our lives to be fulfilled more than we do, but only He knows what true fulfillment looks like. Trust Him!

Lost at Sea

Do you see God at work in your life?

A fishing fleet was caught in a terrible storm. When night came, none of the ships returned home. All families of those missing prayed God would bring them back safely. Things seemed to get worse when, that night, one of the homes in the village caught fire and burned to the ground.

But in the morning all of the ships sailed back into the harbor. Everyone rejoiced when they saw their men safely home—except the woman whose home had burned down.

Seeing her husband she cried out, “We’re ruined! Our home and everything we had was destroyed by the fire.”

Her husband responded. “Thank God for the fire! It was the light of our burning home that guided us.

”Perhaps the tragedy you’re feeling right now is the fire God will use to guide you to Himself.

Chippewa Indian Saying

Have you been feeling sorry for yourself lately?

I’m reminded of an old Chippewa Indian saying that my twin brother Joseph once told me that greatly inspired him: “Sometimes I go about feeling sorry for myself, and all the time I’m being carried by great winds across the sky.”

Many times, our perspective is skewed.

We fail to remember that it’s been the grace of God carrying us through each of life’s tragedies. We fail to see the hand of a gracious God. Our fixation on self, limits our awareness of all God is doing behind the scenes in each of our lives.

None of us have been short-changed. We are each blessed beyondmeasure.

“Jesus, open my eyes to see how You are carrying me . . . even now!”

Looking Back Through Healing Eyes

Whether we like it or not, we each need to look back long enough and deep enough into our past to allow God to heal us.

If we refuse, then the abused will become the abuser, and the neglected will become the neglecter. I work with people every day whose childhoods were so painful from abuse and neglect they’ve spent years blocking it out.

But we still must look back through the healing eyes of a Creator who was with us during every horrific moment. Only He can heal the years of turmoil and brokenness.

He will transform our tortured memories into bridges of healing and hope; not just for ourselves, but also for those He will send our way.

And the best news is: this is His will for you.

Past Hurts Hide Hidden Worth

Past hurts often keep us from seeing our hidden worth.

Our true value isn’t found in the high points of our life, but rather hidden under the rubble of our greatest pain. Only time, heat, and pressure can produce the most beautiful diamond. So too, the Master Surgeon promises to make all things new, while letting old things pass away.

“…if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Though our struggles will at times seem pointless, the fruit of seeing life from God’s perspective will last forever. Heaven will not miss even an ounce of our true value.

If we allow God to heal our hearts, the character produced in us will far outweigh the pain suffered.

Character Comes From Receiving God’s Love

If you hear nothing else today, hear this: character only comes fromreceiving the love of God.

All attempts to change without first knowing how much God loves you will consign you to a life based on performance—what you can do—and not accepting what He’s already done on your behalf.

Without knowing God’s love, our lives eventually become a lie, devoid of the fulfillment found only in knowing our Creator. If we reject God’s infinite love, we will try in vain to remake ourselves into the image of this fallen world; realizing only too late it was all for nothing.

“This is real love…not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent HisSon as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1John 4:10)

Swapping Soldiers For Diamonds

A young boy in South Africa once swapped a costly diamond for a few toy soldiers because he was ignorant of what he had.

Satan, the enemy of our soul, trifled away his own value, and now attempts to devalue as many other eternal beings as possible. Once known as Lucifer, the anointed worship leader of Heaven traded the priceless for the meaningless, when the love of God was all he would ever need.

In the beginning, charisma might get you going, but it’ll take character to keep you going. The real limitations in our lives are only in us and in ourcharacter, never in the heart of a loving God.

He will gladly fulfill our heart’s desire once we fully embrace what’s on His heart for us.

Georgia Tech’s Football Team

Years ago, Georgia Tech’s football team was leading, seven points to six, near the end of a game. Though his coach told him NOT to pass the ball, when Georgia Tech was within ten yards of scoring, their quarterback threw a pass that was intercepted by the fastest runner on the opposing team.

It seemed nothing could stop him from scoring a touchdown. But, from out of nowhere the quarterback who had thrown the interception tackled him.

After the game, the losing coach said, “I’ll never understand how your boy over took my fastest back.”

The winning coach responded, “Well, I’ll tell you. Your back was running fora touchdown. My boy was running for his life.

”Never forget, when it comes to eternity, it’s not a game. You and I are running for our lives.

Eternal Hope

Three things are eternal: faith, hope and love.

An empty heart leads to hopelessness. But only God, and those who trusting Him, have an eternal hope. The rest of the planet will scavenge for hope until at last they realize God owns the rights to all of the hope that’s ever existed.

It is however being freely offered, but on God’s terms.

I was empty-hearted, completely hopeless, and even suicidal, without God. For a season I was half-hearted due to a lapse of relationship with God, and thankfully, now for many years, whole-hearted.

Only now do I have an eternal hope bubbling up from the well of God’s living water.

Draw close to this well and open your heart. There’s plenty of hope for everyone.

Increasing Your Value

Avoiding pressure will only decrease your value.

It’s the difference between coal and diamonds. Did you know that every diamond starts out as coal? And the world’s loaded with coal! But diamonds are rare. We can become God’s priceless diamonds when we respond properly to the pressures of life.

But if we refuse, and give in to discouragement and fear, we’ll remain “just coal”.

Yesterday’s tests prepare us for the greater trials of tomorrow.

They help make us the person we’ve always wanted to be.

When it seems nothing’s working out; when it appears your hopes and dreams are going up in flames, will you still trust the God who promises togive you a future and a hope?

Will you allow Him to make you His treasure?

One Final Surge

Do you feel like you’re losing the battle for life?

Civil War General Stonewall Jackson once said that in battle both sides,at one point, feel defeated. But the one who rises for a final surge wins theday. Such is true in war and even the Christian life.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego prepared their hearts for one final surgeof trusting God. They fearlessly told King Nebuchadnezzar that even if God didn’t deliver them, they weren’t going to worship him.

“Put that in your fiery furnace!”Don’t ever say, “But God would never deliver me like that.”

If it’s in the Book, one way or another, if it’s in the script, it’s on the schedule.

King David trusted God and wrote, “This I know God is for me.”

Francis Testimony

Dead religion drove me to atheism!

By the time I was 15 years old I hated God. It wasn’t His fault, but I blamedhim for the hypocrisy I saw in those who claimed to know Him. I was so angry, I spent the next 7 years as an adamant, in your face, atheist.

In the years to come, I was responsible for two abortions, got lost in drugs,Eastern Religions, and wound up being suicidal for six months.

One day, when I was invited to church, I prayed, ‘Jesus, I don’t know if You are Who that man says You are, but if You are–do for me what You did for Him.’

From that magnificent day, He set me free and made me alive. He heals my heart, and renews my mind. Let Him do the same for you.

”To Be Changed,” signed Jesus

How do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?

God the Father, Creator of the Universe, wants to spend eternity with you!

When I was in my early 20’s I prayed and invited Jesus to become #1 in my life.

He came in and put a tag on each area of my life saying, ‘To be changed!’ signed ‘Jesus’. As I’ve surrendered to His Spirit, He’s done a transforming work in every part of my life.

Today, you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus.

In your own words, pray and invite Him to come and live inside of your spirit. Pick up a Bible and begin reading the Gospel of Mark. If you’re sincere, and allow Jesus to be the Lord of your life, He’ll set you free.

“Amazing Grace” Author

The captain of a slave ship, responsible for 20,000 deaths, asked God to forgive him. He then wrote these words to Amazing Grace: ‘I once was lost, but now I’m found.’

All of us have messed up. We’ve all come far short of God’s best.

Though a perfect God always knew my sins would separate me from Him, He had a plan: Jesus, God’s Son came to Earth to live a sinless life, and then died taking the punishment for each of my sins.

I owed a debt I couldn’t pay. Jesus paid a debt He didn’t owe. I’m eternally grateful.

Since allowing Him to be the Lord and God of my life, He’s continued to heal and transform every part of me.

If you let Him, He’ll do the same for you.

Faith Beyond Feelings

What do you do when God feels far away?

When I first received Jesus, I was so elated I thought I’d never come down.But within a month, the feelings began to fade. God knew I needed to sense His presence in a significant way.

But that wasn’t His end goal. When the feelings subsided, He wanted me todevelop spiritual muscles . . . to learn to walk by faith and trust Him.

If we put our FAITH in the TRUTH of God’s Word, then FEELINGS will come… and they will go. But we can never let FEELINGS lead us.

As I’ve grown in my relationship with Jesus, I’ve learned to trust Him, evenwhen I feel nothing. God’s never failed me. Learn to trust Him no matterhow you feel.

Strengthening Your Spiritual Life

How do you strengthen your relationship with Jesus?

God is a Spirit. In order for us to get to know Him, our “eternal” SPIRITUAL life has to become stronger than our “temporary” NATURAL life.

The real question is, ‘How do I strengthen my spiritual life?’

Here five ways:

• Study God’s Word, the Bible.
• Open up your heart to God in worship and prayer.
• Develop friendships with people who have a strong relationship with Jesus.
• Find a good local church where Jesus is worshipped and the Bible’s preached.
• Tell others about what Jesus has done in your life.

If you cultivate your relationship with Jesus, it will grow.

Don’t get distracted by what you see . . . the TEMPORARY. Be transformed by what you believe . . . the ETERNAL.

Changing My Desires Into God’s Desires

How do you know your relationship with Jesus is real?

I know I’m a fully surrendered Christian when my desires have changed into God’s desires. If I haven’t had a DRAMATIC change of heart, I must accept the obvious: I need to be born again.

Jesus said, “…a tree is known by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33) If I’ve been born again in the past, but my life demonstrates little fruit, then the ball is still in my court. Apparently, I need to be born again . . . again.

More and more people are claiming to be born again but fewer are living differently.

When I’m in charge, all I’m able to become is religious—going through the motions of performing for God, but not knowing Him. Only when Jesus isLord of my life, can I yield good fruit.

Jesus Is The Only Way

In 1972, I was an artist selling my wares in Lahaina, Maui, and a young “Jesus Freak” said something that infuriated me.

He said, “Jesus was the ONLY way!”

At the time I believed there were many paths to God. Jesus was “ONE” way, but certainly not “THE” way. He finally read these words of Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.”

THAT WAS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE TO ME THEN!

But now I see these words as they really are: ABSOLUTE TRUTH!

Jesus wasn’t just another option: a bright spot in this dark world. He WAS God come to Earth . . . the SAVIOR of the world.

And, if you can believe it . . . He can save you too.

Short-changed or Over-paid

Do you feel like you’ve been short-changed by God, or over-paid?

The answer to this question will not just affect HOW YOU PROCESS YOUR PAST, but HOW YOU VIEW YOUR FUTURE. Has God given any of us a RAW DEAL? Or have we merely MISINTERPRETED the OPPORTUNITIES He’s SENT OUR WAY.

God’s Word says He’s given each of us, “…everything we need to live a godly, fulfilled life.” (2Peter 1:3)

None of us have been SHORT-CHANGED. At times, we’re just SHORT-SIGHTED! We’ve missed seeing what God was really doing. Ask God to open your eyes to His plan. Ask Him to reveal the thoughts and intents of His heart. The God who sent His only Son to die in our place has ALWAYS given us His best.

Are We There Yet?

When I was growing up my family went on long car trips. I’d ask my parents, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” It’s a valid question, though when repeated every other minute, it’s a little annoying.

But, I never asked my parents “Do you know where we are going?” I ASSUMED they knew . . . I TRUSTED they knew . . . I RESTED in their knowing.

Trust is BELIEVING God has ALL the CLARITY I NEED. I DON’T NEED TO KNOW what’s going on, as long as I know HE KNOWS.

A lot of my ASSUMPTIONS about life have REALLY BEEN PRESUMPTIONS.

I’m not WALLOWING IN IGNORANCE, I’m RESTING IN A CONFIDENT TRUST that God’s guiding my life.

At times, God let’s us know where we’re going.

MOST OF THE TIME, we need to TRUST: HE KNOWS.

Shoeless And Homeless

A friend was driving on a cold, rainy day, when he saw a barefoot man walking a puppy. He said to himself, “He’s crazy!”

The he thought: “Maybe he’s not barefoot by choice?”

God encouraged my friend to go back. He responded, “OK Lord, if this is really You, his shoe size will be MY SIZE … 11.”

Finding him rummaging through garbage cans, the homeless man shared how his pup chewed his sandals, and he was looking for bottles to buy more.

My friend asked, “What size do you wear?” You guessed it, “11.”

When my friend gave him his socks and shoes, the barefoot man’s eyes welled with tears. He then reached through the window and gave him a big hug.

That moment made both their days.

Hmm? I wonder what God has in store for YOU today?

Flying High In A Lawn Chair

On a hot July day, a 33-year-old truck driver decided a change was needed in his life. He’d been sitting around for months doing nothing.

So, he attached 42 helium balloons to a lawn chair and lifted off.

Just in case he flew too high, he took along a pellet gun to shoot out some of the balloons.

Reaching high altitude very quickly, a shocked airplane pilot reported seeing “some guy in a lawn chair floating in the sky at 16,000 feet!”

Finally, he began to shoot out a few balloons and was able to land safely 45 minutes later.

Ha! Life can get pretty boring. That’s why the Bible says “without a vision, people live careless lives.” (Proverbs 29:18)

We don’t need just a change of scenery, we just need God’s perspective for our lives.

Living In A Shed Or A Mansion

Incredible as it sounds, a man lived in a wooden shed with a metal roof, 3 feet wide, by 4 feet long, and 5 feet high for decades.

He lived in this shed until he died at age 80.

Though he could afford to move, he chose to spend his life in that little space.

Are you limiting your growth in God? How big do you want your relationship to be? A shed?  A shack?  Or a mansion?

Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)

Sure, this relates to our eternal future, but it also applies to the Kingdom of God within us. May your relationship with God be as BIG as His heart for you.

Getting New Vision

Do you need vision for your life?

We all need a reason to get out of bed in the morning. A purpose to work hard! A reason to step out in faith! A fresh start, in order to experience what we’ve never experienced before.

Initiative is the ability to take the lead; to introduce change and act first.

But you can’t just try harder and expect different results. To do what you’ve never done . . . you’ll have to think what you’ve never thought.

When you’re born again, GOD gives you new thoughts; a new reason to live; NEW HOPES, and NEW DREAMS. But you have to keep asking Him for them.

It’s an “ask and it will be given to you” relationship.

Don’t be afraid to ask God. He’s got all the vision you need.

Hide And Seek With God

At the entrance of a manufacturing plant, a sign read: “If you’re like a wheelbarrow, going no further than you’re pushed, you need not apply for work here!”

God has hidden the precious things on Earth in such a way that finding them is a REWARD to the DILIGENT . . . a PRIZE to the INDUSTRIOUS . . . but a DISAPPOINTMENT to the LAZY.

The nut is hidden in its shell. The pearl is buried at the bottom of the ocean. Gold is imprisoned in the mountain. Gems are only found when you crush rock, and oil and gas are deep within the earth. Even the ground only gives its harvest to the hard-working farmer.

God says, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) Seek God, and you’ll find what’s priceless!

Love Compels Us

A missionary in Africa was asked if he really liked what he was doing.

His response was shocking. “Do I like this work? No. My wife and I don’t like dirt.  We don’t like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse. We don’t like the heat, and the disease. And we don’t like being away from our loved ones, and all of the conveniences of home. But . . . are WE TO DO only those things for Jesus that we like to do? Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We’re called to ‘Go’ . . . and we go. Love compels us.”

God is love. That’s who He is. And whatever He asks us to do will be motivated by His nature . . . His love.

What’s God asking you to do today?

The Devoted Terrier

In Edinburgh, Scotland there’s a statue of a small Scottish Terrier.

The master of the dog had died when it was two-years-old. But the dog followed the funeral procession to the gravesite. After everyone had gone and the grave was covered, the little dog crawled to the foot of the grave, as if to wait for his master’s return.

The dog waited and waited through all kinds of weather and unbelievable ordeals. People would capture the dog and take him home, but he always escaped and returned to the foot of the grave of his master to continue the vigil.  The dog waited until death—for 14 years.

(SLOW) I wonder . . . how much more you and I should be devoted to Jesus?

Fearless Fighters

The Gurkhas of Nepal are renowned as fearless fighters.

One day, during a war, they were asked if they would be willing to jump from airplanes into combat.

The Gurkhas didn’t understand what was involved, but they bravely said they would do it, asking only that the planes fly slowly over a swampy area and no higher than 100 feet.

When they were told that their parachutes wouldn’t have time to open at that height, the Gurkhas replied, “Oh, you didn’t mention that we’d have parachutes!”

That’s commitment!

It makes us brave, and willing to give everything, even our lives.

Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

He was committed. The QUESTION IS . . . are we?

I Hate Imperfection

I hate imperfection!  Don’t you?  Especially in others.

But when it’s my imperfection, I ask everyone around me for grace, patience and understanding.

The funny thing is, in life, we generally don’t receive any more grace than we’ve given. That’s why Jesus challenged us, “…whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them…” (Matthew 7:12) It’s a boomerang!

Paul writes, “What a person plants, he will harvest.” (Galatians 6:7, The Message) And…“A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7, NIV)

Proverbs says it this way, “…a man who has friends must himself be friendly…” (Proverbs 18:24a, NKJV) And finally Jesus added an even greater warning, “If you forgive others, you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37b, NLT)

Sounds, like, if I want to be loved, then I better start loving others.

Attached To God’s Preference

Being attached to MY preference can be REALLY dangerous.

Why? Because I’ve NEVER KNOWN what’s best for me. Only God does.

SURE, I’ve been ATTACHED TO LOTS OF THINGS, and EVEN PEOPLE I thought I DESPERATELY NEEDED, but they weren’t what I was really looking for. What I REALLY WANTED was God!

Now . . . my OVERWHELMING PREFERENCE in life is to FULLY EMBRACE God’s preference.

Every day, I choose to wake up excited to see what MY HEAVENLY FATHER has picked out for me. And God doesn’t make junk! His best for me is the script He’s already written. His perfect will.

The Bible says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1Corinthians 2:9–10, NLT)

I’m Perfect

I’m perfect…have NO problems…and am ALWAYS like Jesus.

Do these comments give you confidence in me? OF COURSE NOT!  I need a Savior!

Unless people SEE MY STRUGGLES . . . NOT JUST MY VICTORIES, they’ll never UNDERSTAND what it means to be a GENUINE CHRIST FOLLOWER…in an INCREDIBLY DISINGENUOUS AGE.

Everything good in my life is not because of me. It’s because of God’s grace.  Jesus loves me…warts and all! And He was the most authentic, genuine person who ever walked the face of the earth.

If we have ANY HOPE of REPRESENTING GOD WELL on this Earth, our lives must IN SOME WAY model that SAME LEVEL of HUMBLE INTEGRITY Jesus modeled.

CHRIST IN YOU…it’s YOUR ONLY HOPE of glorifying God. (Colossians 1:27)

Hot Meals Or Whole-hearted

Are you more attached to knowing God…or receiving His blessing?

When Jesus walked the Earth, many people loved to be around him for the HOT MEALS…for the loaves and the fishes.  But when it came down to being WHOLE-HEARTED FOLLOWERS…DISCIPLES…they were gone.

Our MOTIVE will always determine the outcome of whatever we’re hoping for. We rarely call someone a “friend” who only sticks around to see what we’ll give them.

If our motive is to glorify God, and not merely to benefit ourselves, then God’s blessing and favor can rest upon us.

Ask God to give you His heart to do HIS WILL, and NOT your own. God has good things to give you but the best thing is a friendship with Him.

Perfectly Positioned

The reason we DON’T TRUST GOD is because we don’t know Him . . . the reverse is also true; you can’t KNOW SOMEONE unless you first trust him.

If we knew God, we’d certainly love and trust Him; and that means trusting Him to reveal His understanding to us, in His timing, not ours.

The trusting person is the one who’s no more attached to GOD GIVING HIM CLARITY than GOD STAYING SILENT. It MAKES NO DIFFERENCE!

He KNOWS the main event is not ‘ME knowing what’s going on.’ But, “GOD KNOWING what’s going on.

The more I know God the more I trust Him. The more I depend upon MY OWN UNDERSTANDING, the LESS PEACE I HAVE. (Proverbs 3:5–6)

Trust God and enjoy your life! It’s the only life you have.

God’s Withholding Nothing

Does the God of the Universe fit inside your brain? If you think you’ve got God figured out, your God isn’t big enough. So why do we think we can fully understand what He’s doing or even what’s best for us?

Until we esteem God’s Word more than OUR OWN THOUGHTS, we’ll squirm every time something goes contrary to OUR EXPECTATIONS.

I don’t need to figure out WHAT’S GOING ON as long as I TRUST the God who already knows. If I lack wisdom I can ask God for His help…but I must ask without doubting Him.

The next time you think GOD’S WITHHOLDING INSIGHT FROM YOU, believe that it would be WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION. God will withhold nothing from us, if it’s truly for our good.

But, never forget, only He knows what’s best.

Have You Lost Heart?

Have you lost heart? God knows where it is. He will help you find it.

Earth is brief! Heaven is long! Though our time here is the shortest chapter of our endless lives, it will set the tone for eternity.

While it’s appropriate to rejoice in its brevity, it’s wise to be concerned with its finality. Let the Apostle Paul’s words lift your spirits, “Therefore WE DO NOT lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the INWARD MAN is being renewed day by day. For our LIGHT AFFLICTION which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…” (2Corinthians 4:16–17)

Don’t lose heart!

The eternal glory will be worth every pressure and trouble we’ll ever go through.

The Purpose Of Pressure

Have the pressures of life gotten to you?

The challenge comes, not in that we have pressures, but in how we view them.

If they are anchors around our necks weighing us down in despair, then we are MISSING THEIR POINT ENTIRELY.

Instead of sinking us, the pressures in our lives ACTUALLY ANCHOR US to the One who loves us most.

In eternity, we’ll thank God for each trial He so wisely designed with us in mind.

There are no accidental struggles in life; just MARVELOUSLY CRAFTED STRETCHING’S that not only bring out the best in us, but, once ours eyes are opened, reveal the BEST OF GOD’S ALL-WISE INTENTIONS FOR US.

Let life’s pressures MAKE YOU into the person God intended.

It’s gonna be worth it! It’s gonna be worth it all!

Miraculous Opportunities

Just as BEAUTY is in the eyes of the beholder, so is BONDAGE.

I always have a choice in how I SEE MY LIFE.

NO ONE, and NO SITUATION can force me to be DEPRESSED or DISCOURAGED . . . angry or bitter.

These DEFORMED responses to life are ALL in my court. I can welcome them as FRIENDS, or dismiss them as the DISTRACTING ENEMIES they really are.

EVERY situation in my life is an OPPORTUNITY to see the MIRACULOUS, saving hand of God. I can live with EXCITED anticipation of how God is going to DELIVER ME out of my SEEMING predicaments, or I can wait FRETTING for the other shoe to fall.

This is ONE SITUATION where I CHOOSE to see my life from God’s point of view.

Orphans Sleeping

Do you have trouble enjoying the present? Is it because you’re afraid of the future?

After World War II, millions of orphans throughout Europe were gathered into camps to be housed and fed. Though their physical needs were met, the orphans still couldn’t sleep.

Finally, the solution came. Every night, when the children went to bed, a small piece of bread was placed in their hands. So, whenever they woke in the night, they’d know they’d have food the next day. Soon the children were sleeping great. Their past experience had taught them there was no hope for tomorrow. But that was far from the truth.

What worry keeps you from resting? God’s promised us a future and a hope if we will trust Him (Jeremiah 29:11). Throughout your day, hold on to the bread of life, God’s Word. You’ll find the rest you’re looking for.

Impossible Helicopters

Are you facing the impossible? When Igor Sikorsky was 12 years old, his parents told him experts had proven human flight was impossible.

Years later, after Igor had invented the helicopter, he put this sign in his assembly plant: “According to recognized aero technical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of the shape and weight of his body in relation to the total wing area. The bumblebee, however, doesn’t know this; so he goes ahead and flies anyway.”

Faith LAUGHS at the IMPOSSIBLE! If we look at the storms of life, it’s hard to visualize our dreams taking flight.  But if we look to Jesus, we’ll be able to rise above any obstacle. GOD’S LIMITLESS WORD, The Bible; is FILLED with ENDLESS PROMISES AND POSSIBILITIES! Trust Jesus, for your “TODAY” AND for your FUTURE and GET READY TO FLY…

Flying By Instruments

Are you facing a big decision. Don’t be afraid! God will help you!

In my 18 years of globetrotting around the world, I flew in many small private planes, and was able to talk with the pilots about their training. One of the first things pilots are taught is to read their gauges and TRUST THEIR INSTRUMENTS, MORE THAN THEIR FEELINGS OR SENSES. I’ve been flying in thick clouds and dense fog…where we couldn’t see a thing. At those moments of flying blind, I’m glad the pilots trusted their instruments.

Unless you and I TRUST the FLAWLESS INSTRUMENT of God’s Word, we’ll MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON OUR SENSES. Don’t come to eternal conclusions based on WHAT YOU CAN SEE… TRUST WHAT GOD SEES. It’s the only way you will ever be COMPLETELY SAFE.

The Value of Enemies

Do you know your enemy? He knows you! I’m not talking about humans…they’re not our enemies! I’m talking in the spirit realm.

Your enemy doesn’t have to beat you…he only has to bluff you. He’s not looking for a fight…he’s looking for a flaw. Don’t feel bad because you have an enemy! Without enemies, we don’t have a future, because we’re only rewarded for the enemy we conquer.

Without Goliath we would never have heard of David. Every time we delay a battle, we POSTPONE A PROMOTION. An enemy can do for us in one day, what our friends could not do for us in a lifetime. So…how do we impress a God who’s seen everything? Show him something that He doesn’t see that often. Trust Him alone, and don’t give in to fear.

Your existence proves God saw a battle ONLY YOU COULD FIGHT.

(Principles extracted from the teachings of Mike Murdock.)

Focusing On Mistakes

Are you still focusing on your mistakes? What a waste of time!

Sure, it’s good to learn from them, but DWELLING ON THEM IS POINTLESS. Learn to LOOK PAST YOUR SETBACKS and you’ll discover the PURPOSE IN YOUR PAIN. If you’re FOCUSING ON WHAT YOU’VE DONE WRONG, YOU’RE STILL LIVING IN THE PAST. No good can come from WATERING LAST YEAR’S CROP. An ancient philosopher once wrote, ‘Waste not FRESH TEARS over OLD GRIEFS.’

Water your future with faith! Believe that God can redeem every mistake… every disappointment…every hurt. Don’t let your PAST PAIN DEFINE YOU! Let God’s eternal purpose for your pain INSPIRE YOU! Ask Him to reveal the TRUE VALUE OF ALL YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH. Even Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. (Hebrews 5:8)

Allow God to form you into the person He created you to be.

Gift of Pain

Are you RESISTING the GIFT OF PAIN? That’s right…the GIFT of PAIN! Why do we second-guess the PERFECT PLANS of an ALL-WISE CREATOR? Many times, it’s our shallow understanding that causes us to miss the POINT and PURPOSE of our challenges. All that happens then is we NEEDLESSLY REPEAT the LEARNING PROCESS that was TAILOR-MADE JUST FOR US. Why experience the SAME PAIN TWICE? EMBRACE the VALUE of your pain the first time!

Sometimes I NAIVELY PRAY, “Lord, if I just didn’t have so much pain, my life would be great.” But looking back over my life, it’s been MY PAIN that’s KEPT ME HUMBLE. It’s MY PAIN that’s INCREASED MY DEPENDENCY on God. I THANK GOD for the PAIN THAT KEPT ME from DESTROYING my life. Pain protects us when we choose to embrace it as a gift!

Malcolm Muggeridge and Suffering

What teaches us the most in life?

Malcolm Muggeridge, the famous British journalist and author, wrote near the end of his life, “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.” (Malcolm Muggeridge, in Homemade, July, 1990)”

What a revealing statement! Our difficulties not only work for my good, if I love God and am committed to do His will, they’ll help shape me into the person I was meant to be. As painful as your suffering might be at this very moment the Master Surgeon Himself can heal those wounds no matter how deep…

Looking For Love

Are you looking for love? Wonderful! He’s looking for you too!

God is love! And He knows only His love will satisfy you. Accept no substitutes when it comes to love. There are a lot of frauds out there!

No one has ever loved you more than God. And He knows you the best. Every day, challenge your inner man, moment by moment, to return to the One who loves you the most.

The psalmist captured the essence of soul therapy. “Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.” (Psalms 116:7, NIV) Have you seen how good God’s been to you? Most people don’t see it…because it takes eyes of faith. Are you committed to seeing God’s love today?

Look for it! It’s right in front of you!

Happiness is a Decision

Everyone wants to be happy. But happiness is more about a state of mind than having things work out.

A man in his 90′s lost his wife of 60 years. Checking into a nursing home, an attendant described his new room to him. The old man replied, “I love it.” The attendant laughed and said, “But you haven’t even seen it yet.” Without missing a beat the old man shot back, “That doesn’t have anything to do with it. Happiness is something you decide ahead of time.”

What an extraordinary response! The Bible challenged us “…BE EXCEEDINGLY JOYFUL in ALL…TRIBULATION…” (2Corinthians 7:4)

I’ve found that happiness is NOT HAVING WHAT YOU WANT, it’s WANTING WHAT YOU HAVE. That’s why HAPPINESS IS AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.  It’s JUST A NEW perspective AWAY. Today, be grateful for what you have.

Things Getting Better

Would it surprise you if I said: the part of each of us THAT WISHES things would get better is NOT our friend.

Actually, it could be our ENEMY! I have NO IDEA what “BETTER” looks like, and God has NO INTENTION of fulfilling MY EXPECTATIONS. But, if I’ll let Him, He DOES INTEND to FULFILL HIS EXPECTATIONS through me.

The only way that can happen is: I MUST DECREASE, and HE MUST INCREASE. The WORST thing I can do is be IMPRESSED by what I think, or even what happens to me!

How we RESPOND to life is far more important than WHAT HAPPENS TO US. Oswald Sanders described it in a slightly different way, “Maturity is moving from a thin skin and a hard heart to a thick skin and a soft heart.”

Sounds like a GREAT GOAL to me!

Peace With Holiness

Are you at peace with your life? True peace only comes from one Person: God Himself…the Prince of Peace.

Scripture says, “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them…” (1Thessalonians 5:3, ESV)

In fact, PEACE, WITHOUT the HOLINESS of Christ, will lead to APPEASEMENT WITHOUT PRINCIPLE. The Bible tells us to, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14) We won’t see God move, or understand His intent, unless we follow His road to peace through Jesus Christ. If we COMPROMISE on GENUINE HOLINESS, all we’ll get is counterfeit peace. TRUE PEACE will NEVER conflict with the truth of God’s Word, and ALWAYS brings us to a place of INNER REST and safety, NO MATTER WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND US.

Wishing Things Work Out

I don’t know what’s best for me—never have and never will. I don’t even know enough to have a STRONG PERSONAL PREFERENCE. So, spending my life WISHING things would work out is an ENORMOUS waste of my time.

The SMARTEST THING I can do… is to remain neutral: no bias, fully flexible, and yielding ONLY to the will of God. Have PASSIONATE FAITH, and let GOD’S WILL BE DONE IN YOUR LIFE, but DON’T BE ATTACHED to how HIS WILL PLAYS OUT.

I need the SAME AMOUNT OF FAITH to welcome the LIFE GOD GIVES ME, as I needed when I first embraced the God who saved me. We KNOW we’re trusting God when we STOP WISHING our lives would change. LOVE the life you have and joyfully receive everything placed before you. GOD HASN’T LOST TRACK OF YOU!

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Heavy Winters Bring Bountiful Summers

One of the most knowledgeable men I know once told me, “Heavy winters bring more bountiful summers.” Hmm? The harder the winter–the more fruitful the summer!

We all appreciate Spring flowers and Summer fruit, but it’s the dying of Fall and the storms of Winter that create the most abundant harvests. Our inability to fully APPRECIATE the storms of life merely demonstrates how SHORTSIGHTED we really are. An over-dependence upon temporary satisfaction usually leads to FUTURE DISAPPOINTMENT. God has NO DESIRE to give you peace FROM the storms of life. His plan is to give you peace IN the storm. Peace that comes when the storm STOPS is temporary. Learning to have peace DURING the storms of life, that’s the goal.

So, the next time you encounter a storm, RESPOND WELL…a wonderful harvest is just around the bend.

The Value of Storms

Are you in the middle of a storm? Do you feel overwhelmed?

Meteorologists say that, on the ground, every storm feels the same coming in—whether it brings two inches of snow or two feet. So, we never really know which storm will bring the most CHALLENGE or the MOST BENEFIT to our lives.

EMBRACE your storms as they come; there are NO ACCIDENTAL STORMS. An ALL-KNOWING God, who always has OUR BEST INTEREST in mind, HANDCRAFTS EVERY ONE. We were created to MEET JESUS in the middle of our storms. Frankly, few of us have time for Him outside of them. It often takes HURRICANES and TORNADOES to GET OUR ATTENTION. We should bless God for the storms in our lives, because they help us to become FULLY conscious, and more INTIMATELY CONNECTED with our EVER-CARING CREATOR.

Accept God-Allowed Pain

When does our suffering produce a positive change in us?

We only change when our willingness to ACCEPT GOD-ALLOWED PAIN exceeds our fear of pain. At times in our lives, we will ALL SUFFER a SHARP PAINFUL DISILLUSIONMENT before we FULLY SURRENDER to reality. Even Jesus had to endure a PAINFUL CRUCIFIXION before He could say, “IT IS FINISHED!” (John 19:30) As we keep our eyes on the prize, we’ll eventually see that ALL of the PRESSURE and PAIN in life PALES IN COMPARISON to the GLORY that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)

My prayer is that the Lord will HELP EACH OF US to see Him WORKING in every moment of our lives: That He will LEAD US TO TRUST that THE PLAN WE CANNOT SEE IS GREATER THAN the CIRCUMSTANCES WE CAN.

Pleasure In Your Pain

Are you overwhelmed? Can you even imagine finding PLEASURE IN YOUR PAIN? Paul the Apostle did! He ENDORSED THIS SEEMINGLY CRAZY way OF THINKING when he wrote; “I am EXCEEDINGLY JOYFUL in all our tribulation [our pressures, afflictions, burdens and troubles].” (2Corinthians 7:4)

Hmm? If the joy that Paul expresses is an example of how GOD RESPONDS TO LIFE, and if GOD IS TRULY LIVING IN US, then JOY SHOULD BE HOW WE RESPOND TO LIFE AS WELL.

Is it possible to be grieved and joyful simultaneously? Absolutely! You might be brokenhearted someone’s died yet joyful they’re in Heaven. You may be saddened your job’s ending, but joyfully confident God has something better. Here’s a GREAT RECIPE for living: ASK GOD TO GIVE YOU HIS JOY, in the middle of your pain.

Joy is a Choice

Want to ADD MORE JOY to your life? Sprinkle in…a LITTLE FAITH!

Faith is the MIRACULOUS INGREDIENT that activates TRUE JOY in each of our lives. Whereas HAPPINESS waits to see what’s going to happen, JOY blissfully opens its arms to every moment, CHOOSING IN ADVANCE to see life from God’s point of view.

Joy comes in the MORNING, before anything has happened to make us happy! We can opt to let FEAR or WORRY come in the morning, or perhaps even DEPRESSION and DISAPPOINTMENT. It’s ALWAYS our choice! If we so desire, we can invite DISCOURAGEMENT for breakfast, take HOPELESSNESS out to lunch, and join DESPAIR for a candlelight dinner.

It’s always our call. Will you CHOOSE joy today?

Accepting Your Past

Are you struggling accepting some part of your past?

When we spend our lives DWELLING ON YESTERDAY, we shouldn’t be surprised if TOMORROW seems to never come. If we EMBRACE what IS happening in our lives, our feelings from the past won’t seem as important as they once were. Because TOMORROW’S promised to NONE OF US, I’m committed to EMBRACING my life today!

Frankly, FIRM EXPECTATIONS often lead to BITTER DISAPPOINTMENTS. At some point we must accept that ON MANY LEVELS God’s given each of us the life HE KNOWS WE NEED, not the one WE WISHED WE HAD. Embrace it! At the end of the day, RESISTING what God is doing in your life will ONLY bring confusion. ACCEPTING God’s will, and TRUSTING Him to LEAD you, will give you the PEACE OF MIND you’ve ALWAYS WANTED.

Shattered

Do you feel like your life has been shattered?

If so, there’s only one cure. It’s a three-letter word: JOY! You could describe joy as “a deep sense of INNER SATISFACTION that comes from SEEING OUR LIVES FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE, and RESPONDING PROPERLY to the CHALLENGES and SUFFERING of life.”

The Bible says our lives can be “perfect, complete, and lack nothing” if we COUNT IT ALL JOY when we fall into various trials, knowing that the TESTING OF OUR FAITH PRODUCES PATIENCE. (James 1:2–4)

Things COMING UP ROSES WON’T make us perfect, complete, and lacking nothing; we must allow situations to, at times, COME UP THORNS. If we then RESPOND PROPERLY to life’s trials, it will produce the FAITH and PATIENCE that pleases God and ultimately—an eternal JOY.

Trust God in the middle of your trials. He WON’T FAIL YOU!

Abundant Life

Are you LIVING the ABUNDANT LIFE Jesus promised? (John 10:10)

We as Christians are called to live VICTORIOUS, RESURRECTED lives, but how will we know this is taking place?

You know you’re walking in RESURRECTION LIFE when you’re MORE CONCERNED about HEAVEN’S IMPRESSION of you than EARTH’S. When you’re MORE INTERESTED in TRUSTING GOD than UNDERSTANDING WHY things are happening.

Dead men have NO preferences. They bask in TOTAL ACCEPTANCE and COMPLETE RESIGNATION. It IS God’s will for each of us to have NO PREFERENCE other than to obey and be at peace with what He provides.

If we DIE DAILY to our own desires, we will experience the ABUNDANT LIFE Jesus promised. For it is IN DYING we live. And it is IN LIVING A FULLY SURRENDERED LIFE we experience ALL God intended.

Setbacks

Are you experiencing setbacks? Why do our hearts melt when tested? Is it because we fear what we don’t know, or because we fail to trust the God who knows all things?

Research has proven that no one drowns gracefully. We all struggle to stay afloat. At times, accepting what we cannot undo, with true humility, is the only good option. Being humbled by life is always awkward, even embarrassing, but if we trust God in the struggle, it eventually yields the eternal fruit of a fully blessed life.

Long ago, I settled in my heart to live as an optimist. I want to enthusiastically wade through disappointments. Paul the apostle understood this when he wrote, “now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ…” (2Corinthians 2:14a) Trust God! He’ll never fail you!

Emotional Roller Coaster

Are you riding an emotional roller coaster? One moment you’re overcoming, and the next you’re being overcome. The psalmist wrote, “I am overcome with joy because of your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.” (Psalms 31:7, NLT)

It seems that we have a choice to be overcome by joy or by despair. If there were nothing to overcome, then we’d have no reason to fight for joy. Like ripened fruit, it would just fall from the trees of life. But that’s not the case.

We’ll have to fight in order to receive the joy God has prepared for us. At times, we’re fighting fears and doubts, on other occasions it’s lies and circumstances.

Whatever it is, fight for joy…it’s absolutely worth fighting for!

Out of Control

Are your circumstances out of control? What happens to us may seem completely out of our control, but how we view life is always our choice. I can choose to see my life from God’s life-giving point of view, or be limited by the narrowness of fear, unbelief and ignorance which only leads to anger, panic, and despair.

We each have the choice to look up, past the distracting struggles that keep us stuck in the past, bound in the present, and lacking hope for our future. We must be committed to go forward, whatever comes our way, choosing to remain “…steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain in the lord.” (1Corinthians 15:58)

Look up! God sees you! He will help!

Bringing Out The Best In You

Are you facing major trials? Feel like giving up? Please don’t!

Trials are meant to bring out the best in us, not the worst. They throw the pass beyond our reach, but not beyond God’s intent and grace. It isn’t an accident when we feel completely inadequate to meet our own needs. God’s the only one who can make up the difference in every dimension of our lives.

When you’re struggling, continually reach out to Jesus to receive the grace you need. Oswald Chambers writes, “God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome.” The discouragements of yesterday don’t disqualify you, the setbacks of today can’t sabotage you, and the failures of tomorrow won’t finish you. You were created to be victorious…to overcome. Live your purpose!

Humility Leads To Success

Everyone wants to be successful! But most people miss one of the great paradoxes of life. They mistakenly believe the doorway to success is through their strengths. It’s not! Our strengths are far more dangerous than our weaknesses, providing the easiest way for us to fail. In our weakness we learn to lean upon Jesus, in order to receive the strength we need.

Humility comes from embracing our weakness, and delighting in God’s strength. It’s only when we embrace this captivating quality, the humility of Jesus, that the irresistible grace of God is released in us. ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ (1Peter 5:5b) if pride is resistible, then humility must be, irresistible.

Humble yourself! It will activate the irresistible grace of God in your life.

How God Uses Celebrities

Most people’s desires are not God’s desires. We’ll do anything to change the way we look—to change only the shell—when God wants to transform the pearl within us. Outward transformation will never make us whole. And since the kingdom of God can only be accessed from inside your spirit, it follows that the wholeness we’re looking for will come from within, when we surrender our lives to Jesus.

Don’t waste your time wishing for a new life; ask God to give you a new perspective on the life he’s given you.

One of the key ways God uses celebrities: is to show us that you can have everything in the physical world and still be unfulfilled. Embrace the life God has freely given you, not the life you wish you had.

Reminiscing Our Pain

Have you been severely wounded? At one time or another, all of us will be.

But, at some point, we’ll have to decide: are we on a journey to be healed and help others, or attached to remaining a patient? We may be hurt, but are we more committed to being healed, or reminiscing our pain?

When we hold on to a bitter perspective, we become unwilling to understand, forgive, and be healed. A far better way is to exchange your pain for his peace—to allow God to have his way.

We were created to meet Jesus in the middle of our storms. Frankly, few of us have time for him outside of the storms of life. If you let him, God will give you the “…peace that goes far beyond your understanding.” (Philippians 4:7)

Forgetting What You Have

Do you appreciate all you have?

I once read about an elderly American woman who died of starvation, alone in her apartment, because she didn’t have any money. Yet when the police examined her belongings, they found over $100,000 in cash buried inside the mattress she died on. She forgot what she had!

Amazing gifts have been buried deep inside each of us. Remember them! Extraordinary opportunities are all around us! What have you overlooked, that’s right in front of you? Ask God to show you!

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his spirit…” (1Corinthians 2:9–10, NLT)

Let God show you what you’ve overlooked!

Respond Well Department

I once heard some jolting news that could have been received as sad and disappointing. But God in his mercy quickly reminded me of my only responsibility. I am only in charge of the respond well department; because he is in charge of everything else. Wow! What a relief! For a moment, I thought I might be in trouble. Then I got my eyes back on Jesus!

The world says, “Be in control!” the word says “Give God control!” (Ephesians 5:18, NLT)”

Every challenge in life is designed to reveal our weakness and God’s strength—to make us realize not just how desperately we need Him, but how absolutely sufficient His grace is in each of our lives.

God’s given us everything we need to love the life He’s given us. (2Peter 1:3)

Living Optimistic

Are you optimistic about your life, or pessimistic?

Long ago, I settled in my heart to live as an optimist. I want to live life enthusiastically wading through every disappointment.

Paul the apostle was also an eternal optimist. He once wrote, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ…” (2Corinthians 2:14a)

There’s no aspect of our lives that’s ever been an oversight to God. The psalmist wrote, “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret…” (Psalms 139:15) God has never made even one mistake concerning our lives. “…I am fearfully and wonderfully made…and that my soul knows very well.” (Psalms 139:14) We have each been given an infinite potential by a gracious God. Let’s purpose to live our potential!

No Shortcuts

In life there are no shortcuts, only detours.

Even if we’re momentarily pleased by one of life’s circumstances, it’ll be short-lived. May we each accept the obvious: God desires to change us, not change the world around us. In life, if we can’t appreciate what we have, we’ll never be pleased with what’s ahead.

There’s actually no faster way to get to where your heart wants to be than by accepting and embracing the will of God for your life. It’s the express train to fulfillment!

The primary reason we don’t love the life God’s given us is because we don’t know God. We don’t trust Him, and inevitably we begin to play God ourselves. It always ends badly. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” (Proverbs 3:5a) Let God be God! He’s really good at it!

Lousy God

I would be a lousy God! I know this is true based on how I treat my friends when they’re in trouble. I tend to want to bail them out of every crisis they encounter. So, if I were God, I’d spoil the whole planet. Not only do I not know what’s best for me, I rarely know what’s best for others.

God’s infinitely more interested in fixing us than in fixing our problems. As a matter of fact, and this may surprise you — at times, he’s the author of our problems. While we’re saying, “God, stop the problem!” he’s saying, “stop the whining, and begin to understand what I am allowing.”

Rest in God! Trust him completely! Stand your ground! Fight to receive all he has for you, and believe that he will never, ever, desert you!

Pain Reveals Purpose

When Jesus faced the greatest trials of His life, He didn’t try and manipulate His Father in Heaven to lighten His load. Instead, Jesus realized that His pain further revealed His true purpose in life. Jesus once prayed, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour.’ But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27) He’s saying, “My pain reveals My purpose!”

Being created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) was the beginning of our purpose. Finishing that work is now our destiny. Anything that keeps us from fulfilling God’s ultimate purpose—being conformed to His image—must be disregarded and treated as a distraction. Tragically, most people live and die distracted. Don’t let it happen to you! Be committed to live only His purpose for your life.

Created For A Fight

We were born for trouble; created for a fight! Through trouble our soul is formed, shaped, and molded into the image of an untroubled God. I get a kick out of two overstated expressions, “Don’t give me any good news, it only weakens me” and “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.”

If your troubles were completely removed, you’d merely eliminate your purpose in life: which is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. “For whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Romans 8:29) defining your purpose in life reduces frustration, increases your focus, and keeps you on track to fulfill God’s will for your life.

It’s a fight God Himself will help you win!

The Easy Life

Would you like your life to be easier? All of us would!

Yet, as I look back over my life, my consistent appeals for God to make my life easier have not fallen on deaf ears due to indifference; the all-knowing, all-caring God has merely dismissed my fleeting appeals as narrow-minded, showing lack of foresight. He knows the easy life would destroy my potential; therefore, He makes my life purposefully challenging.

Only by pressing the olive is the oil poured out; only by crushing the flower is the true fragrance released. Only as Paul and his companions were “pressed out of measure… insomuch that we despaired even of life” (2Corinthians 1:8, KJV) did they experience the “sweet-smelling aroma (and become) an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.” (Philippians 4:18)

Train Your Soul

You may never train a lion, but there’s one thing you need to train: and that’s your soul!

Each day I try and train my soul to embrace every second of my God-intended life. From God’s point of view, all days are created equal. There is no best day in heaven. A perfect God has flawlessly crafted every molecule and every moment of my life. If I’m attached to my dream for my life, it will slip through my fingers. But, if I embrace God’s plan, I can begin to live the pleasures of eternal life right now.

Train your soul: your mind, will and emotions to embrace the long-term value of every circumstance in your life. A soul without self-control will blind us from seeing life as God intended.

There are no accidents, only divinely crafted opportunities!

Pleasures That Satisfy

If pleasure’s the goal in life, then everyone wins something…a measure of pleasure! The devil’s happy to give us the pleasures of Connecticut and Vermont Avenues, as long as he gets to keep boardwalk and park place. But, if you’ve ever played Monopoly, you know that Connecticut and Vermont Avenues are basically worthless, while boardwalk and park place are priceless.

The devil offers counterfeit intimacy—through some shallow, momentary pleasure. It’s pleasure, but without eternity—a forgery of what we’re created for: which is a personal relationship with God.

Only God’s way leads to life: “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of Your presence and the pleasures of living with You forever.” (Psalm 16:11, NLT)

The only pleasure that truly satisfies is the pleasure that comes from God.

Blaming God

Are you blaming God for the challenges in your life? It’s really a dead end!

When we stop blaming Him for our lives and begin to thank Him for the magnificent, daily opportunities He gives each of us, then Jesus truly becomes our Lord, and life becomes a joy, not a joke. This happens when we reign in every thought and humble ourselves before our Creator. (Philippians 4:8) when we do this, our lives are seen as a grand adventure, and not a burden.

Surrender your heart to Jesus as lord! Let him remove every excuse for not loving the life he’s given you! The kingdom of God is within you. Ask God to reveal it! Either I have the kingdom of God living in me or I don’t have it at all. I will search again!

No Bad News In God

How would you like everything in your life to work for your good? It can happen! It’s actually God’s will!

God promises that all things will work together for our good, if we love Him more than anyone or anything else—if we’re committed to do His will and purpose more than our own. (Romans 8:28)

When we completely love and submit to Jesus as Lord, we can stand on the promise that there’s no bad news in God. But this can only happen if we have faith beyond our lifetime here on earth.

If eternity is in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), then all of life’s challenges will work for our good. We will be stretched, at times beyond what we think we can handle, but all that happens to us will be for our benefit.

Purpose Of Prayer

Are you waiting for God to answer your prayers? It’s a waste of time! Wait on God, not what He can do for you! The purpose of prayer is not to get answers, but to get to know God! That’s our greatest need! It’s not even that God would heal our mind or body. Even miracles are not our greatest need, if we refuse to turn our attention back to God.

Every temporary desire will be followed by other requests. At some point in life, I must learn to find my contentment in God alone!

Don’t obsess over what you don’t have. Many people battle depression because of what’s not happening in their lives.

God doesn’t want to coddle you, He wants to comfort you.

Don’t live waiting for tomorrow to begin. Learn to live hoping today will never end.

Seeing With God’s Eyes

Are you embracing the season you are in? If not, you’re missing God’s best for you.

I’ve squandered too many wonderful days, in magnificent places, with fascinating people, because I was unable to get my heart around what was happening, and instead longed for what was not. I’ll never get those days back, but I’m committed to not repeat that mistake.

It’s dangerous to have a favorite season. People hate winter when everything they’re attached to lies dead or frozen. Frankly, our best season should be the one we’re presently in. It’s a matter of perspective! Believing yesterday wasn’t a great day, only means I missed what God was trying to do in me.

Today, see with God’s eyes! Let today be the best day of your life!

When God Uses Bulldozers

Do you feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you?

When God’s at work in our lives, He prunes away what is dead and dying! When it’s a vast, eternal work, He uses bulldozers. At times, the experience can be so overwhelming we think we’ll never recover! but don’t fear; in time, old fruit orchards are pulled up and new ones are planted. All for our good!

For a few short years you may not see the fruit you once did, but get ready, up around the bend, in God’s perfect time, your harvest will be abundant. You will be a different person, transformed by responding well to the dealings of God.

The Bible promises, “Let nothing move you…because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1Corinthians 15:58, NIV)

Mountain Moving Faith

Are you facing mountains of pain and discouragement? Does a mass of misery threaten to bankrupt your entire investment in God? Don’t let it!

It’s been powerfully said, “Stop telling God how big your mountains are, and start telling your mountains how big your God is.”

Life always comes down to a show down. A standoff! Who’s going to BLINK first! If God is God then trust Him! If God is able, then believe Him! The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV)

So what are you going to believe? How big your mountains are? Or how big your GOD is? Be encouraged, even with faith as little as a mustard seed your mountains can be moved. We serve a powerful God!

Being Successful

Are you convinced God wants you to be successful? He absolutely does! But only He knows what success looks like.

Like any good father, God wants us to experience fulfilled lives; but unlike our earthly fathers, He’s completely capable of making our fulfillment a reality. The primary problem we have is that we often fail to see our lives from God’s point of view.

Ask God to reveal what He is doing in and around you today. As you wade through life’s circumstances, resist the temptation to rejoice in only the opportunities that please you. The truly successful followers of God have learned to eat the meals placed before them with grateful hearts. The Bible says, “In everything give thanks.” (1Thessalonians 5:18)

Rejoicing forever…starts now!

The Invisible World

You and I have never seen anything eternal with our natural eyes. This world is the matrix. The real world is invisible, and can Only be seen with eyes of faith.

So, in order to change the visible realm, we must learn to see into the invisible. This world is not our final destiny. Our goal in life is to discover God’s eternal blessings, and not be seduced by earth’s temporary distractions.

Frankly, our time here is a dress rehearsal. every aspect of life on Earth is a test. As Jesus prayed to His Father, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Luke 11:2, NKJV)

His prayer was heard, and it will be answered.

Only Heaven can reveal the best in us. Allow Heaven to come to Earth in your life today.

Remember Who He Is

Are you asking God to reveal Himself to you? It’s a great prayer!

But we shouldn’t be surprised if God doesn’t give us new revelations of Himself until we are obedient to the old ones He’s already given us. If we mistakenly take our eyes off of all He’s revealed to us and in us, eventually our nature will lead us to focus primarily on our problems.

We must remember who God is, and who we are in Him.

How we feel is the greatest indication of what we’re looking at. Are we filled with faith or fear? Delight or dread? Hope or hopelessness?

Oh, that we would see Jesus! (John 12:21) Seeing and believing who He is, will help us remember who we are created to be. And this will make all the difference!

Measuring Up To God

Are you trying to measure up to God? You must be exhausted! Because you’ll never do it! Remember, He’s perfect, and as you’ve noticed, we’re not.

But, as we grow more attached to His perfection, we’ll be less stumbled by our own imperfection. The goal in life is not to measure up to God. That would be futile! Instead, His marvelous plan is that we would learn to rest so completely in His perfection that we are not overwhelmed by our own lack.

“Jesus saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.” (Titus 3:5a, NIV)

When we receive God’s perfect love for us, we begin to understand that He covers us with such love and compassion and we can then more easily focus on what’s right in Him, more than what’s wrong in us.

Smiling Back At God

Do you think God answering your prayers will make your day? It won’t! You’ll just ask Him for something else. And the merry-go round will continue!

The satisfaction you’re looking for doesn’t come from God answering your prayers, it comes from learning to love and trust Him regardless of His answer.

When you really know God, you have to trust Him. Because everything about Him is completely trust-worthy. At that point, you’ll refuse to depend on what you seem to understand. You’ll be trusting God with all of your heart, and not leaning upon your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

Once we believe God is smiling at us, the best response we can ever give Him is to smile back. Trust God today, and smile back!

Unthinkables

Are you experiencing an unthinkable situation? Life is filled with them!

We don’t mind the “good unthinkables”: we get an inheritance, we’re healed, we fall in love, or we even accept God’s forgiveness. But it’s the seemingly “bad unthinkables”: the left hooks: the sudden death of a loved one, divorce, bankruptcy, chronic pain, or a terminal illness.

These are the challenges of life that rock our world. BUT the Bible says, “Have no fear of sudden disaster…” (Proverbs 3:25, NIV)

If we respond properly to the unthinkable tests of life, they’ll bring us to a whole new level of faith in our relationship with God. It’s true: many things catch us off guard, but nothing is a surprise to God.

Believe that He is with you in the middle of your unthinkables.

Why? Because He really is!

The End is the Process

All of us think we know what’s best for us, but we rarely do.

We pray, “God, if you would just do this or that, then my life will be blessed!” As if we actually know better than God does. I don’t have enough information to know what’s best for me. So, I need to trust that God always does.

Oswald Chambers writes, “We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.”

The end goal for God is the process He’s guiding us through. (My Utmost For His Highest)

Never Be Disappointed

Have you come to terms with what God wants for your life? It’s important that you do!

All good parents want their children to succeed. Though God’s definition of success and failure are often different than ours, a continual, conscious dependence upon Him will always lead us toward healthy growth and becoming more like Jesus.

God the Father is most glorified in us when we are most fruitful in Him. That’s why Jesus came: not to give us the life of our dreams, but the life of His dreams for us. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b, NKJV)

If you and I let God determine what his abundant life looks like we’ll never be disappointed.

God of All Seasons

All of us want to hear the voice of God. The inner voice that leads and guides our life. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27, NKJV)

So, when will we hear God clearest? We hear God best in Winter seasons of life. During the more fragrant and obviously blessed seasons of our lives we are frankly, too busy, too distracted.

In winter, all we have is time. We’ve been rained-out, snowed under, or frozen solid. At last God has our attention. If we spend our time wishing winter was over, we’ll miss the best time to rest, listen, and be restored.

Adam and Eve were seduced in Summer. David fell in the springtime. Embrace your winters. They really are the best time for us to get to know God.

Keep Digging

Are you frustrated about something?

Frustrations are actually doorways to our destiny. Until we see our lives from God’s point of view, we’ll never understand the good that’s possible because of these frustrations. If we obsess over the pain and displeasure associated with the struggles of life, we’ll miss their entire point.

In 2Corinthains 12:10, the Bible even tells us to take pleasure in our pain!

Each of our lives are intentionally shrouded in secrecy; our true purpose is often disguised in a maze of problems. Complaining about our setbacks only distracts us from receiving the truth behind the mystery.

The key to life is to not stop at the surface of a problem, but to dig deep enough to uncover the reason and value behind each trouble.

Communicating With God

Every day God is trying to communicate with us—deep down in our spirit.  Are we listening? An unbelieving planet resists loudly, while the Kingdom of faith persists quietly. Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years in a communist prison for his faith. He once wrote, “The one thing you Americans are most afraid of is silence.”

There’s so much noise in this world. So many voices! So many options! We must make a concerted effort to learn to listen. As God spoke the world into existence (Genesis 1:1–3), He can speak life to every dimension in our lives.

We need to let God speak to us through His Word… in worship… and in prayer. Even as we go through our day, God is speaking! May we hear Him today.

Loving the Light

Men love darkness; yet the God who is light still loves men.

Perhaps the greatest miracle that can take place in a person’s heart, is going from loving darkness to loving light. If there’s a greater miracle than that, I’ve never seen it.

The Bible says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8, NIV)

It is the gnawing repetition of darkness that makes us crave the light. No one ever ended their life wishing they had given themselves over to greater darkness. The opposite is true.

Are you sick of darkness? If so, crave the light! Let Jesus shine His life in and through you today! Remember, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14, NKJV) Be that light!

What Season Are You In?

Do you know the spiritual season you are in? It will help if you do.

Looking for fruit in the middle of Winter, will leave you disappointed. Trying to hold on to parts of your life in Fall, when emotional leaves fall away, will make you frustrated. Look to Jesus in each season!

When God wants Spring and Summer to come in your life, it will happen. But we do ourselves a distinct disservice by refusing to embrace the season right in front of us. Spring flowers will come soon enough. Summer fruit is on the menu. In the meantime, don’t miss what God is trying to show you today.

From God’s point of view, there is no best season. Let the season you’re in be the best season of your life.

You Complete Me

What’s it going to take to make you and I the complete person we want to be?

There was a famous line at the end of a movie where a man finally admits he loves a woman and says, “You complete me!”

Wow! That’s romantic! Sensational! It’ll make you cry! But it’s just not true!

Now, I love my wife dearly, and she loves me. But I don’t complete her, and she doesn’t complete me. Unless you and I find our completeness in the God who created us, we’ll never be complete. In the Book of Colossians, the Bible is crystal clear, “We are complete in Him (in Jesus).” (Colossians 2:10)

I’ve seen people try and find the completeness they long for in everything imaginable, but there’s only one thing that works: a daily relationship with Jesus Christ.

Using God

What are you most attached to? God? Or what He can do for you?

Your answer will determine how much blessing you’ll see in your life.

Life’s all about being more committed to knowing God and less concerned with what we think we need from Him. No one wants to be used! Not even God.

Focus on abiding in Jesus–not using Him. Paul said, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10, NLT)

God knows our needs even before we ask. It merely demonstrates a lack of relationship to keep parroting the obvious. He’s already done more than enough for each of us to fully trust Him.

May our eyes be opened to see Jesus, the lover of our soul, and not just what He’s done for us.

Trimming the Dead

Have you noticed anything dead in your heart? Let Jesus prune it away.

Let Him trim off what is dead and useless. Let Him remove what has no lasting value and will only weigh you down. Soon you will rebound from your winter, basking among the beautiful flowers and sweet fruit of a fully surrendered life, reflecting on how wonderful your winter was.

God is committed to establishing our internal, long-term health. Therefore, He cuts away what we’re attached to on Earth, even what appears to be somewhat healthy, in order to produce what’s eternal: His destiny for our life.

Be only attached to Jesus. The Bible says, “As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as His own children.” (Hebrews 12:7a, NLT)

A Life Worth Loving

Are you living the life you want to live? If not, what’s missing? Maybe it’s faith!

Everything God has for us must be received by faith. In other words, we must receive God’s gifts on His terms: by faith.

I need the same amount of faith to embrace the life God gives me, as I needed to embrace the God who saved me. It takes no faith to say, “God has not given me a life worth living.”

On the other hand, it takes great faith to believe the truth: “God can ONLY give me a life worth loving.” I love my life because it’s a gift from God. But I still need to see my life through His eyes of faith to really understand why it is worth living.

Faith makes all the difference!

The Purpose of Prayer

Don’t wait for God to answer your prayers. The purpose of prayer is not to get answers, but to get to know God!

Every answer to prayer will be followed by other requests.

We think: “If this or that would just happen, then I’d be fulfilled.”

Yet, even miracles will leave you dissatisfied if you don’t turn your attention back to God. It’s a great seduction! I fell into it for years.

Only one out of the ten lepers Jesus healed came back to thank Him. (Luke 17:17–18) Nine out of ten never looked back.

Don’t obsess over what you don’t have; rejoice in every morsel God provides, and more will come. He’s a loving Father who promises to give us everything we need.

Jesus saves the best wine for last.

Seeing Needs Not Offenses

When people hurt us, we always have a choice. Either we seek the healing God alone can give, or we find ourselves wallowing in the pain of past offenses.

No one escapes the planet unhurt. It’s the price of admission to the human race: a marathon not for the faint-hearted or faultfinding, but for the faithful few who are more humbled by their own shortcomings than the faults of others.

Ask God to show you people’s needs, not their offenses.

Be a pathfinder, not a faultfinder!

Learn to forgive, not just be forgiven.

God’s perfect plan is designed to heal my past, establish my present, and inspire me to run toward a future beyond my wildest dreams.

Do you see it? It’s right in front of you.

Dying To Live

How often should we die to our ambitions, our self-will, and even ourselves?

Resurrection life is only available to dead people.

If Jesus had to die to get it, so do we.

So, how can you tell if you’re dead to yourself? When you’re asleep in a boat in the middle of a violent storm. When someone slaps you on one cheek and you turn the other. When all Hell’s breaking loose outside of you and yet you keep allowing the peace of God to rise up inside you.

Resurrection life is only available through Jesus Christ—for He alone conquered sin and death for each of us.

Trust in Jesus and you’ll never taste of death . . . only everlasting life.

Not just in Heaven, but right here on Earth.

What’s On God’s Heart?

A friend of mine went into the wilderness to spend time with God and, frankly, get away from people. One night in the middle of nowhere looking up at the stars, he prayed a tender, humble prayer, “God, I’m always sharing what’s on my heart. What’s on Yours?”

Breaking the complete silence, the sound of a small plane flying high overhead caught his attention.

Immediately, God’s Spirit shot back, “The world—the world’s on My heart!”

Jesus described the Father’s heart so clearly when He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The question is: do we love what God loves—the people in this broken world?

Losing Something to Gain Everything

A missionary I once met had spent years ministering to a remote tribe without seeing any converts.

One day, a member of the tribe accidentally electrocuted the missionary’s nine-year-old son. The tribe had a custom that when someone was killed, the victim’s relatives had the right to take revenge. They expected the missionary to take the life of the one who took his son’s life. But instead of exacting retribution, the missionary forgave him. This response sent a shockwave through the tribe. They’d never heard of anyone forgiving such a deed.

Eventually, because of he and his wife’s selfless attitude, the entire tribe came to know Jesus. His family had experienced an incomprehensible loss, but their willingness to forgive changed everything.

Forgive those who have hurt you. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Being A Doctor Or A Patient

How do you recover when someone hurts you? If your goal is to understand—with a humble heart, eventually you’ll be healed.

But, if you refuse to budge, and merely nurse the hurt caused by others, then your pain will only grow deeper.

At times, our attitude is the clearest indication of what we’re most committed to: stewing or healing, remembering or reconciling.

Am I on a journey to become a doctor, or destined to remain a patient?

The only person who can make that decision is me. I may be hurt, but I must be more committed to being healed, than rehashing my pain.

Jesus suffered and died so we could become completely whole inside.

Receiving that healing is a life-long process, but worth every minute.

Forgetting God

Have you forgotten Who God is?

He doesn’t just act loving—God is love! And if we seek Him with all our heart, we’ll become like Him: a loving person.

Jesus commanded us to love ALL people at ALL times, no matter what they may say or do to harm us. Only this response accurately models the heart of a God who’s called us to live as He lived, and even be willing to die as He died.

If we’re leaning on Jesus, no one can ever do anything to make us not love them.

I must never lose sight of this reality: all of the grace I’ll ever need to obey God is continually available to me.

All God asks us to do is reach out and receive it.

We Are As Loved As Jesus

Learning to trust God accesses the peace of mind that seems impossible to attain. Yet, it’s always within reach—with arms of faith.

Believe God for the impossible. Not with presumption, based on the desires of your own heart, but with real faith. Faith that’s grounded upon the sublime plan of the God who knows all things, loves us infinitely, and always uses His wisdom for our good.

Jesus said, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” (John 15:9)

It may be hard to believe, but we are as loved by the Father as Jesus was. And He longs for us to remain in a constant connection with His unconditional love for us.

Only then can we process life as God intended.

Freedom’s Ahead When Self’s Behind

The self-centeredness of others may have hurt you, but it will be your own self-obsession that will keep the pain alive. The greatest enemy to your being as free as God intended is not sin, but self!

Jesus already took care of your sins when He died on the Cross. Now you must learn to die to yourself, in order to be truly free.

Freedom’s ahead, when self’s behind!

Learn to rest so completely in God’s perfection that you’re not overwhelmed by your own lack.

If we refuse to accept God’s plan for our lives, we consign ourselves to a brave new world of perpetual un-fulfillment.

Waiting for a better life is like staring at your dinner, hoping to improve its taste.

The magnificent life God created for you…it’s what’s for dinner.

God Takes Pleasure In You

If we believe Jesus died and rose again, and have allowed Him to be our Lord and Savior, then the Bible says we are now God’s sons and daughters.

Though we may firmly believe this, we can still at times feel God’s ashamed of us. We wonder if He is glad or sad; grateful or disappointed in whom we have become?

How we answer this question will shape our thinking in every dimension of our lives and could not possibly be over-estimated. Jesus said to His Heavenly Father, “You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” (John 17:23b)

Ever see doting parents smile at their child? That’s how God feels about you. God takes pleasure in the very thought of you. You make God smile! Believe it. It’s a truth that will set you free.

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God Likes You

For the first 30 years of my Christian life I didn’t think God liked me.

Now, if God was an imperfect human, that would make sense. But He’s not! Each of us make decisions to like or dislike people based upon their past or present actions.

But imagine being completely aware of everything a person will ever do. No longer would your estimation be based upon individual events. Your picture of them would be complete. At that moment, if you like them, it would be because you see the entirety of their lives. That’s exactly how God sees us.

If you’ve ever believed God loved you, or liked you, He still does. Why? Because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) God enjoys you! “How precious…are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)

The Right Question

Whenever you find yourself wondering why something’s happening, realize it’s never a coincidence. It’s invariably God working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him.

Actually, WHY is typically the wrong question; WHAT is the word we should be asking. “God, WHAT are you trying to show me?” The situation, no matter how bleak, is not a mere accident; it’s God at work, even using what Satan meant for evil.

If we love God and are committed to doing His will, He promises us in Romans 8: 28, that all things, no matter how much they hurt, that happen to us will work for our good, either on Earth or in Heaven.

That’s a PROMISE God will keep.

Listen To This Radio Feature

Why God?

Have you been saying, “God, why is this happening to me?” A better question would be, “God, what are you trying to show me?” The fact is God’s always trying to show us something of eternal value. Paul the Apostle assures us that “…it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13, NKJV)

Though Paul was in prison and would eventually be beheaded, he still saw how God graciously used—for good—what Satan meant for evil. Refusing to see his circumstance in a negative light, Paul wrote, “…what [has happened] to me [this imprisonment] has actually only served to advance…the [spreading of the] good news.” (Philippians 1:12, Amplified)

What a marvelous way to view life! The way God intended. Trusting Him every step of the way.

I Will Restore

Is your heart broken? God wants to help! His healing power can smother the smoldering pain, so that even remembering it is no longer painful. It may take years for the finished work to be accomplished, but God promises, “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten…” (Joel 2:25, NKJV)  It’s the very reason Jesus died on the Cross: “…it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down…He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5) Absolutely everything we have gone through in life can be healed, if our hearts remain open and trusting, surrendered to the One greater than our pain and our problems.

Hiding

Are you in any way hiding, either from God or people?

It’s a sure way to NOT experience the wholeness you need. The Bible’s clear: “It is not good that man should be alone…” (Genesis 2:18, NKJV) In order to be healed, we must walk out into the light of God’s love, forgiveness, comfort, and power, with others—not alone. God’s love covers. His grace forgives, and His Spirit comforts and empowers us to be fully healed.

Yet, since the Garden of Eden we’ve been prone to hide. (Genesis 3:10) Even from the God who loves us, but especially from the divinely orchestrated events designed for our maturing and growth.

If we face our fears, they’ll dissolve. If we bow down to them, they become bondages, strongholds, and even generational curses.

Run to the light! Jesus will meet you there!

Would Anybody Notice?

A 43-year-old man died while watching TV. For five years, no one noticed he was gone until his automatic payments stopped, when his money finally ran out. I hope someone notices when I die. I hope my presence will in some way be missed.

In life, we reap what we sow. If we live, caring for others, at our point of need someone will care for us.

We may NOT have been treated well, but we need to learn to live well…to forgive well…to love well. “To give,” as Jesus said, “expecting nothing in return.” (Luke 6:35)

What others have done to us is their responsibility. What we do for others is ours. There is no valid reason to be self-absorbed. The God who gave His life for us expects us to do the same for others. Jesus, teach us to love like You love.

Worried?

Are you worried about your future? God isn’t! He’s got a plan.

May we never give up on God’s will for us. May our hearts and minds remain steadfastly open to live our lives as He intended. May we always believe that our best days are ahead. Pessimism is from hell. The God who makes the sun rise every day is an eternal optimist, and so are His sons and daughters.

Others may overlook us, but we’re never invisible to God. Our Father in Heaven is aware of all our needs. “… even the very hairs of your head are all numbered…so don’t be afraid…” (Matthew 10:30–31, NIV) Behind every challenge is a loving God whose victorious perspective is far greater than the trials we face. God owns the future. Trust Him!

Bored?

Are you bored? Boredom is a result of being unable or unwilling to see life from God’s perspective. The God who made galaxies isn’t boring.

If we say we are following Him and yet lack the passion and purpose He intended, then, somewhere along the way, we’ve lost touch with the God who made us. Consequently, without knowing Him, we’ll never realize who we’re created to be.

A friend of mine once challenged, “How many adventure movies do we have to watch before we begin to live the adventure God’s planned for us?” The Bible tells where to turn our attention, “Tune your ears to…wisdom; set your heart on a life of understanding… searching for it like a prospector panning for gold, like an adventurer on a treasure hunt…” (Proverbs 2:3, The Message)

Search for God. There, you’ll find your life!

A Different Life

Do you wish you had a different life? Perhaps even that you were a different person? None of us are accidents! None of us are mistakes! A loving Creator has formed each one of us. May we join the psalmist and say, “I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:14, ESV)

Every second we spend wishing we were somewhere else, or even someone else, is a waste of time and a slap in the face of a God Who’s done everything possible for our wellbeing.

We must stop waiting to live and start living! Today can be one of the best days of your life, if you’ll surrender to God, and believe the truth of His Word, more than what you feel.

Live Awake

Do you know what time it is? It’s time to wake up! The Bible is our alarm clock. It says, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (Eph 5:14, NLT)

Unless we LIVE AWAKE, our God-given opportunities are quickly slipping through our fingers. Unless we open our hearts to what’s on God’s heart, we’ll miss what we’ve never seen before, and may never see again.

I want to LIVE FULLY AWAKE! Believing the God who “only does wonderful things” (Psalm 72:18) has written the best possible script for my life.

“…no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.” (1Corinthians 2:9-10, NIV) Awaken me Jesus! Awaken me to the life You’ve dreamed for me. Far better than anything I can imagine for myself.

“No”

We’ve all had a love-hate relationship with the word “No.”

But as painful as “No” may be, it can be a lifesaver. If we don’t learn how to say “No,” we’ll eventually lose our ability to say, “Yes” to all that is eternal and good. Ask any addict, boss, or good parent and they’ll tell you that “No” can be the difference between life and death.

At times, no amount of “Yes’s” can undo the damage done by a missed opportunity to say, “No!” Unless we learn to say, “No” to the world, our flesh, and the devil, (1John 2:15-17) we’ll eventually be overwhelmed by the seductive power of their combined “Yes.”

Say “Yes” to God and “No” to the enemy of your soul. Say “Yes” to Jesus, and invite Him to be the Lord of your life.

“Yes”

In my own life, I not only wish I had said, “No” sooner and more often, I also wish I had said “Yes” to God a lot sooner as well.

Each of us can experience either purposeful pain, which always works for our good, or pointless pain that beats us up for no good reason at all. It’s our choice!

Frankly, a “Yes” to Jesus will save you a whole lot of pain as well. The Bible provides a clear remedy: “Humble yourselves…under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” (1Peter 5:6, NIV)

As the Psalmist prayed to God, “…I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against You, and You alone, have I sinned…” (Psalm 51:3-4a, NLT)

“Lord, I say ‘Yes’ to Your Spirit!”

More Faith

Do you feel like you need more faith? We all do!

Receiving God-given faith will require our full surrender. Yet, true faith is effortless; like ripened fruit, it falls into our hands with ease. It just takes the right kind of heart.

Jesus promised, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30) A partial faith in God means we distrust Him. When we are full of faith, He’s able to fill us with His life. Live a life filled with “…faith (that) comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17, ESV)

God wants to speak to each of us every day through His Word, the Bible. It’s the best way to receive the faith we need to get to know God and see Him move mountains in our lives.

Hanging On

Do you feel like you’re barely hanging on? God’s not brought you this far to fail, but to finish…and to finish well.

Paul the Apostle was “…certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6, NLT) If we are committed to live for Jesus, He will watch over our lives.

If we allow God to finish what He’s started in us, we’ll be more than pleased with the results, we’ll be amazed! If we’re willing to first trust Him, like Job, “GOD blessed Job’s later life even more than his earlier life.” (Job 42:12, The Message)

You may have had a rough start, even a troubled middle, but above all else, be committed to surrender fully to God and finish well.

Feel Like a Failure?

Do you feel like a failure? Even when we fail, it’s not the end of the story. It’s actually an opportunity for us to be humble enough to grasp the nail-scarred hand of a gracious God. The One who willingly gave His life for us so that our fellowship with Him could be restored, and never broken again.

We’ve all failed God. As the Bible states, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23, NLT) We’ve failed, but He’s never failed us…and never will.

Our failure may even be completely our fault, but it’s not a deal breaker. The Bible promises, “…if we are unfaithful, God remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2Timothy 2:13, NLT) He cannot deny His plan for us…His heart for us.

Let today begin a new season of trusting the God who never fails.

Children

Why are children so special to us? Because they are first special to God. He created their innocence, genuineness and sincerity. The more it is preserved in them, the more it captures our hearts. Children give us a glimpse into pristine qualities found in God Himself.

Jesus went so far as to say, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3, NIV)

Every doorway to our future is purposefully designed to be entered with child-like faith; with arms reaching high, captivated by our faithful God. It begins when we are born again (John 3:3). Only then can God’s Spirit soften our heart as we allow Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.

Today, pray and begin your new childlike walk with Jesus!

Blaming God

Are you blaming God for the difficulties in your life?

At times, we each misinterpret our struggles and blame an innocent God. I can understand it, because I’ve done it, but it’s a complete dead end.

It’s time to cast our fears aside, disregard past misunderstandings, and wrap our arms around the only completely trustworthy Person: Jesus Christ. Whether we realize it or not, He is the One who has never failed us. He was willing to die on a Cross in our place—for our sins.

We’ll stop blaming God for anything when we realize Jesus took the blame for everything. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2Corinthians 5:21, NLT)

No one has ever loved you like Jesus!

Power of Pain

Even if we don’t see it, God knows the potential we have if we learn to process our pain. Pain can give us the strength and power needed to motivate us for good. God can transform the worst experiences we’ve gone through to give us full lives that are able to help and even heal others.

He also never meant for us to live out our lives with gaping holes in our hearts. The miracle thread suturing these emotional wounds is that whatever happens, no matter how horrible, it will work for our good if we are willing to love and follow God.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NKJV)

Today, love God and live your purpose!

Benefit of Pain

All the wounds in our lives have extraordinary value when we allow God to heal us. They become the doorways to His one-of-a kind destiny for our lives. God doesn’t just make all things work for our good—He allows all things to mold us into the people He created us to be.

Without suffering, we will only be shallow representations of whom God intended. I used to dread the emptiness of suffering, but now I honestly value the growth suffering has brought to my life. The long-term benefit of pain far outweighs the temporary grief it causes. As the Bible teaches, “…the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18, ESV)

Trust God! Embrace the pain! Enjoy the journey!

Suffering

The healing hand of our Creator can redeem absolutely everything we have ever gone through. Jesus intentionally allowed Himself to experience and overcome every temptation possible so that we would fully know He understands each of our struggles.

The Bible tells us that because Jesus “…has gone through suffering and testing, He is able to help us when we are being tested.” (Hebrews 2:18, NLT)

God isn’t worried that my suffering will cripple me forever; He’s fully confident that my struggles will help develop His character in my life. God even allows suffering to be so intense at times that we’ll do whatever it takes to get free.

Freedom is part of our destiny—we were made for it.

But, at times, suffering is the doorway to being free.

Doctorate in Depression

Before I was a Christian, I spent six months contemplating ending my life. At that time I thought I would never get through it. I was an atheist, recovering from a failed relationship, and suffering from what I called a “doctorate in depression.”

Was there any value in all I went through? Absolutely! Now I can empathize with people who feel hopeless and depressed.

God wants to heal you so completely that He will use every sadness in your past to help someone in your present. Nothing is ever wasted in God’s Kingdom. I am absolutely convinced it’s God’s will for every person to take what the devil meant for evil and see it transformed into good. (Genesis 50:20)

The way to reverse the damage done in our past is to allow God’s Spirit and truth to heal us in the present.

Beauty For Ashes

Many of my childhood were painful!

But if I had wasted my life wallowing in the dysfunction of my youth, I would never have experienced wholeness in my marriage and the happiness of raising healthy children. If I hadn’t received God’s healing, I would have passed on the same sorrow and pain to my own kids.

They have received a healthy start, not just a mangled past. They have their own challenges, but not the baggage I was unwilling to unpack.

God wants to do so much healing in your life as well. “…He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.” (Isaiah 61:3a, Amplified Bible)

No one wants your ashes. That is, no one except God.

Struggling With Addiction

Are you struggling with an addiction? Many people are?

Society tries to make addictions a disease, which only removes our responsibility for our actions. We become victims with no need to repent, just to be understood and learn to manage our sin. All that does is increase the bondage.

Addictions are really “misdirected worship,” a false comfort! Instead of worshipping and receiving comfort from the Holy Spirit, the true Comforter, we look to things like food, entertainment, sports, drugs or shopping for comfort. It’s really idolatry…looking to someone or some thing to do for me what only God can do.

Today, spend some time worshipping Jesus or reading God’s Word.

He’ll comfort you like no one else can.

Pain, Passion, and Purpose

Each of us has a type of unclaimed lottery ticket from our childhood in the pocket closest to our heart. We will need faith and trust to fully retrieve its priceless value. It is not just death that brings pain, but the birth pangs of a renewed hope.

It always costs something to examine our hurts for the purpose of healing and not merely to reminisce our suffering. But, if we’re willing, our pain will reveal our passion, which, when submitted to God will unlock our purpose.

It is the will of God that what was stolen from us be restored, not just in our own life, but also for generations to come. May those yet to be born rise up and call us blessed for our willingness to examine the inner chambers of our heartache.

Fantasizing Fame and Fortune

Do you fantasize about fame and fortune?

8 out of 10 of 18- to 25-year-olds surveyed by Pew said getting rich is their most important or second- most-important life goal; half said the same about being famous.

If riches and fame were enough, then why does the song say, “It’s so hard to find. One rich man in ten with a satisfied mind.”

More and more, fantasy is offered as a substitute for reality. If you can’t have the life you want, get lost in the life you can imagine. But no reality-substitutes will ever truly satisfy; and only God can make the reality of our lives worth living. Jesus promised, “I have come that they may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10, NKJV) Take Him up on it!

Reality vs. Fantasy

Which is more exciting to you, your real life, or your imagination? Every day, millions of people choose fantasy as a substitute for reality—often times it’s through the use of media.

Technology offers the potential for “wonderful use” or “horrible abuse,” and not just for those of us who are very young. The average video gamer is 35. People of all ages get more excited about their imaginary lives than they do about their real lives.

This year, romantic e-books will surpass paper books in sales, making it easier for women to read them without having a picture of a hunk on the cover.

As the Bible teaches, “…each one should be careful how he builds.” (1Corinthians 3:10, NIV) What has captured your attention: the temporary illusions of Earth or the eternal realities of Heaven?

Looking For Love

Are you looking for love? I hope so, because love’s looking for you—that is, the God who is love.

Deep down inside, we each have a sense that we’re made to love someone and be loved by someone in an infinite way.

That’s the main hook behind the “Twilight” series. It’s primary audience, teenage girls, are looking for love beyond the physical. Deep down, we all know that we’re created to be “first loved” and “then to love”.

We were created first for God’s pleasure, and as we yield to His will, we experience His pleasure for us. This opens the door to experience the ultimate pleasure in life: a relationship with Jesus.

The Bible says, “…in God’s presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures, ‘delightful and sweet’, forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

Magnificence of God

Our thoughts about God will in some way determine how blessed our life is. Do we see the magnificence of God? How extraordinary He is? Or do we lose sight of Him and minimize His influence. Wouldn’t the God who made sunsets and starry nights know something about beauty?

Wouldn’t the One who created laughter know how to have fun? Wouldn’t the Prince of Peace help us rest? And, wouldn’t the One who made puppies and babies know all about cute?

God created sensual pleasure: the eye to behold beauty, the ear to enjoy music, the nose to embrace the fragrance of flowers, and taste for food. But best of all, wouldn’t the God who is love know all about relationships? That’s because a relationship with Him is what each of us is looking for.

Pleasure

Is pleasure evil? Absolutely not! Pleasure’s not the problem, until we make it a God. Money’s not the problem, until we love it more than God. Love is not the problem. “God is love.” The problem comes when we try and make “love a god.”

That’s when people become “…lovers of pleasure (fond of sensual pleasure) rather than lovers of God…” (2Timothy 3:4, NKJV)

We live in a world that worship’s pleasure, and worshipping pleasure will kill you. Worshipping anything other then God…will kill your spirit. Only God can connect us to eternal pleasures; and everything God does is designed to lead us into intimacy with Him.

God loves you and I enough to not allow us to be satisfied with anyone or anything less than Him. Therefore, the greatest pleasure in life is knowing God.

Value of Pain

Have you seen the value of your pain?

Even if you don’t see it now, God knows the potential we have because of our pain. It can be the strength and power to motivate us for good. He can transform the worst experiences we’ve gone through to give us full, healed lives that are able to heal and help others.

God doesn’t want us to live out our lives with gaping holes in our heart. The miracle thread suturing our emotional wounds is that whatever happens, no matter how horrible, it will work for our good if we love and follow God more than any one or anything else. The Bible promises, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NKJV)

God Thoughts

God’s not a God of can’t and don’t…He’s a God of can and do.

He’s not trying to rain on your party He wants to invite you to His!

The Law of Displacement states that you cannot move away from a thought, you can only move toward a thought. As nature abhors a vacuum, so nothing stays empty for long. We can fill our minds and hearts with things that satisfy for a moment, or allow God to give us what will never get old and boring.

God wants to replace our depressed thoughts with His perfect ones. That’s why we have to guard the epicenter of our affections…our heart. The Bible says, “Above all else, guard your heart (your inner man), for it affects everything you do.” (Proverbs 4:23) Give God your heart, and your life will be blessed.

Reclaiming Your Childhood

As incomprehensible as my pain once was, so now is the joy of a healed heart. Once a prisoner of tormenting memories and a desperate longing for a dad, my relationship with my Heavenly Father now provides all of the time and attention I need—showering me with every imaginable gift a son could want.

Now, many years after the battle for my childhood heart was fought, I find myself carefully examining the remains of past emotions—the relics of relational ruins. At times, all I seem to uncover are the dead remnants of an irreplaceable past. At other more hopeful moments, my efforts surface unparalleled revelations I will treasure for eternity and far exceed the value of the pain I once experienced.

French Revolution

During the French Revolution many of its leaders were determined to put an end to Christianity forever. One beautiful, clear night an atheist told one of his poor countrymen of these plans. “Everything will be abolished–churches, Bibles, clergymen. Yes, even the Word ‘God’ itself! We shall remove everything that speaks of religion.” The listener gave a quiet chuckle. “Why do you laugh?” demanded the other. The peasant pointed to the stars and replied, “I was just wondering how you and your crew would manage to get them down!”

The Bible says, “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display His craftsmanship.” (Psalm 19:1, NLT)

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers— the moon and the stars You set in place— what are mere mortals that You should think about them…?” (Psalm 8:3-4, NLT)

The Last Marathoner

During the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, as spectators prepared to leave, after the running of the marathon, suddenly the sound of sirens and police whistles were heard.

More than an hour earlier, the winner of the 26-mile event had crossed the finish line. Now, all eyes turned to the gate. John Stephen Akhwari, wearing the colors of Tanzania, was the last man to finish the marathon. Bloodied and bandaged after being severely injured in a fall, Akhwari grimaced with each step. As he hobbled around the track, spectators rose and applauded him as if he were the winner.

After the race someone asked him why he had not quit. He replied, “My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it.” Don’t give up… finish well!

IRS

Someone sent their tax returns to the IRS and wrote, “Enclosed you will find a check for $150. I cheated on my income tax return last year, and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping, I will send you the rest. Sincerely!”

Though a funny story, it speaks to us about how well we take responsibility for our own actions. Are we half-hearted in our repentance toward God?

When Jesus was here, He preached, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17, NLT)

He was saying, “Take full responsibility for the things you’ve done wrong, and you’ll be forgiven, and Heaven will come to Earth.”

May we each allow the Holy Spirit to do what He came to do: convict us of sin. (John 16:8)

Carrying Boulders

Years ago in Africa when people had to cross dangerous, fast-moving rivers and streams, they would pick up the heaviest boulder they could carry and walk across. They realized the extra weight gave them surer footing and kept the rushing waters from sweeping them away.

How true concerning our carrying the burdens of life.

In the Message version of the book of James the brother of Jesus, who was later martyred for his faith, says, “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” (James 1:2-3, The Message)

Running Without Legs

On November 6, 1986, Bob W. Ireland, finished dead last—19,413th in the New York City Marathon. So, why was this so memorable? Because Bob was the first person to run a marathon with his arms…instead of his legs.

Bob was a forty-year-old Californian who lost his legs in an explosion in Vietnam in 1969. In the race of 1986, he recorded the slowest time in that marathon’s history: 4 days, 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 17 seconds.

When asked why he ran the race, Bob, a born-again Christian, said with conviction, “Success is not based on where you start, it’s where you finish.”

Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62, ESV)

Don’t let your limitations define you. Let the limitless God inspire you.

Initiating Without God

Our failure to accomplish something we initiate for God, in our own strength, weakens our ability to fully obey Him at a later time. Peter tried to show his commitment to never deny Jesus by cutting off the High Priest’s servant’s ear. (John 18:10-11) This humiliating failure of judgment discouraged him, making Peter more vulnerable to the accuser. Don’t try and do something for God in your own strength. Obeying Him is better than the most sacrificial act.

Though humble obedience will always cost us much, there’s nothing more fulfilling than obeying God.

Peter then warms himself in the courtyard of the high priest, and denies Jesus. If the only comfort we find is connected to the safety of Earth, we shouldn’t be surprised if we miss the true comfort of Heaven.

No One can comfort us like God.

Karl Marx

Years ago, a Jewish boy grew up in Germany. He adored his father and wanted to become just like him. The family’s life revolved around their religious practices, and the boy’s father faithfully took them every week to synagogue.

When the son was a teenager, his family moved to a town in Germany where there was no synagogue, only a Lutheran church. The church was the center of town life—all community leaders belonged to it.

When the father decided to join the Lutheran Church because it was good for business, the family was stunned. His lack of integrity so disappointed his son that he became angry and bitter.

The son’s name was Karl…Karl Marx, the founder of Communism. May integrity guide each of our lives! (Proverbs 11:3) For better or worse, many are watching!

Looking For Love

We each grow up looking for perfect love. God alone is the Father we’ve always wanted. He’s the perfect parent we each longed for. Many times, when our earthly parents missed the mark of God’s perfect, selfless love, a wound was created.

Your dad may have overlooked you, but God never forgot you. Your mom may not have given you emotional support, but Jesus wants to undergird your life with His love and care. The Bible says, “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.” (Psalms 27:10, NLT)

My Father in Heaven never abandoned me, not even when I was openly denying Him.

God knows what we’re looking for—what we’re longing for. We want Him! And the best news we’ll ever hear is: He wants us to!

Lasting Pleasure

In this world, everyone experiences a measure of pleasure. Everyone wins something!

The devil’s happy to give you the pleasure of Connecticut and Vermont Avenues, as long as he gets the pleasure of Boardwalk and Park Place. Because, if you’ve ever played Monopoly, you know Connecticut and Vermont Avenues are ultimately worthless.

You’re a winner! But you’ve won nothing of real value!

The only hope we have to overcome the seduction of destructive pleasures is to leave lesser pleasures for the greater One. There is no greater pleasure in life than a personal relationship with our Creator—the One who loves us most. “…In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

Invite Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today. Nothing compares to knowing Him.

Wanting a Different Life

Something is terribly wrong when you wish you had a different life—when you don’t look forward to getting up in the morning, when you believe your best days are behind you, or that past mistakes have disqualified you from ever having a great future. If you’re rarely or never content, then sooner or later you’ll try and replenish your inner emptiness with something—anything.
You may try and fill it with fantasy, immerse it in illusion, or drown it in deception; but, as nature abhors a vacuum, nothing stays empty for long.
Our lives are designed to be fully filled with one thing: our Creator.
“I have asked the Lord for one thing – this is what I desire! I want to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life…” (Psalm 27:4, NET)

Reality is No Friend

For many, reality is no friend. Their only hope is that a future dream will replace a present nightmare. In the meantime, a vicarious life is the only life they know. Living is experienced in their imagination, through the feelings or actions of another. They substitute who they could become for what someone else already is. It may be through a sport or a TV personality, or the neighbor down the street, but it’s a surrogate existence at best.
In the long run, secondhand life is as deadly as secondhand smoke. All attempts to create an alternate ending to our present life will only confirm how much we need to submit to God’s perfect plan for us.
“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.” (Ephesians 1:11a, The Message)

The Missing Fruit

A pastor friend of mine asked his congregation what fruit of God’s Spirit they believed was most actively working in their lives. Out of the hundreds of responses, one fruit was glaringly absent: self-control.
This forgotten fruit will have to be found if we are to ever live lives worth living. Richard Nisbett, considered the world’s greatest authority on intelligence states that “he’d rather his son be high in self-control than intelligence; for self-control is key to a well-functioning life.”
The Apostle Peter agrees and writes, “…make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness…” (2Peter 1:5-6, NLT)

Chasing Fantasy

Of the 50 most popular films of all time, nearly all have fantasy, supernatural, or otherworldly themes. Most of these successful film series have video game spin-offs, so you can be an unreal person in an unreal world any time you want to.
But, why is there such a fascination in the paranormal, the supernatural, other worlds, fantasy, and super heroes?
Why do we chase after illusion? Is it because deep down we know we’re capable of so much more? We long for life beyond our wildest dreams: true goodness, supernatural power, becoming all we were created to be and do.
Only God can fulfill these longings—for He planted them in us! “It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it…found yourselves home free…” (Ephesians 1:13, The Message)

Essence of All Addictions

Every day we’re under siege. Many of us struggle with inner demons—experiencing infinitely less than God intended. We know we’re created to be more, even to dwell in a place far more pristine than this weary planet. Our Creator’s ultimate purpose has always been to give us more—more of Him.
The essence of all addictions is empowerment through fantasy—life in the unreal. Fantasy can fulfill—at least for the moment. But only Jesus can fulfill forever.
For those who follow Him, He promises “…God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4, NKJV)
Today, reach out to Jesus for the life He created you to live.

Spiritual Frostbite

One of the greatest fears I have is that my heart will grow cold toward God.
The experience of frostbite gives me a chilling reminder. When a part of our body is frostbitten, the blood in the tissue, half of which is water, freezes. The parts of our body furthest from our heart freeze first. Tissue that’s fully frozen can’t be revived and returned to normalcy. Frankly, it’s dead!
The Bible refers to individuals who have drifted so far from Christ’s life-giving blood that they are twice dead, physically and spiritually. (Jude 1:12)
This reminds us all of the greatest warning in Scripture concerning a cold or dead heart. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23, NIV)
Jesus, keep our hearts from turning cold!

Hearing God

Are you able to hear God? Not with your natural ears, but with your spirit, your inner, supernatural ear? Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27, NKJV)
And Paul the Apostle writes, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” (Romans 8:14, NLT)
It seems the days it’s hardest to hear God, we need Him the most.
I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis’ profound insight, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Jesus, open our ears to hear Your still-small voice. You are the One we need most. You are the One our heart longs for.

Imaginary Evil or Real Good

Every day, each of us fight to hold on to what is real and eternal—to not be deceived by the shallow and temporary.
Abandoned by parents, exploited by peers, seduced by society, many of us are overexposed and underdeveloped. We’ve seen so much, yet become so little!
Perhaps the greatest farce of our day is evil masquerading as good. Our age is a fashion show for evil. Simone Weil writes, “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied. Real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring. Real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” (Weil S. Gravity and Grace. Rutledge; 1999.)
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31, ESV)
Only God is truly good; and no one can fill our lives with goodness, except God!

Reality or Illusion

Is the life your living real, or an illusion? Are you putting your hope in what can never come to pass, or trusting in the guaranteed eternal realities that only come from your Creator.
In the age of fake everything, evil has many facades: phony love, false peace, and imitation intimacy run rampant. Perhaps the most undermining of all is the loss of our true identity—who God created us to be.
Can we call it thievery, when in most cases, like Esau of old; we give away our true identity and destiny for nothing? Unless we daily humble ourselves before God and submit to His will and purpose for us, our lives will merely reflect the counterfeits we have chased after.
In the end, only God’s will—will be left standing!

The High Ground

Since the Garden of Eden, the devil’s goal has been to trick us into forfeiting our heavenly wealth for earthly trinkets. Disguising himself as good, he appears to occupy the high ground, the moral superiority—a better plan than God’s.
He asked Eve, “Has God really said?” and then promised, “You won’t die!…God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)
Thousands of years later, the devil again attempted to marry good and evil by tempting the last Adam, Jesus. But this time he lost. Our Lord dismissed him with the Word of God.
By knowing God’s truth we can expose any lie.
And by believing God’s Word we are truly set free.

Numb

Why are so many people numb today? Numb to life, numb to God, numb to one another? The word numb literally means “taken or seized as by cold or grief.” It’s been defined as “deprived of the power to feel or move normally through cold or shock; emotionally unresponsive; indifferent; paralyzed.” (“numb.” TheFreeDictionary.com. 2009. Complete footnote: francisanfuso.com/numb)
Living a numb existence leaves us desensitized, powerless, unresponsive, and unable to feel fully alive. Sadly, numb defines many in our generation!
So, what will it take to propel us out of living a numb, boring existence?
A fully surrendered heart; a desperate cry to the God of resurrection, “Jesus, remove from me all that drains Your life. Replace what is dead and dying with the abundant life You promised. Let me be truly free, even as You envisioned I would be.”

Un-Conscience

Much of the numbness that people experience today comes from a conscience that has ceased to feel. In the New Testament, Paul warned against this type of dead, hardened conscience, which has been seared and become callous. (1Timothy 4:1–2, ESV) It’s even more frightening when the deadness is not caused by delusion, but by a deliberate commitment to resist the will of God.
In life, if we wait to get caught, instead of turning ourselves in, our conscience will become corrupted and polluted. Scripture confirms this. “Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted.” (Titus 1:15, ESV)
“Jesus purify my heart! Let me run to the light, and not from it, for only there will I find You and my true self.”

Clear Conscience

Is there anything sweeter than a good conscience, or more unnerving than being overwhelmed with guilt and shame?
Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said, “There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience.” The opposite is also true. Who can rest with a guilty conscience? We will find no peace in life without a peace-filled conscience! And there’s only one way to get it. Turn yourself in! Admit to a holy God that you have sinned. He is always ready to forgive, and His blood will cover any sin. Jesus actually died in order for us to finally have a clear conscience.
May we take these words to heart: “Conscience is God’s built-in warning system. Be very happy when it hurts. Be very worried when it doesn’t.”

Frostbitten Souls

We live in a world where all of us must fight becoming emotionally and spiritually numb. One of the prime causes of physical numbness is extreme cold.
The first stage of frostbite is something called frostnip. Bits of the face or fingers go numb due to prolonged exposure to extreme cold. If this frozen tissue can be thawed quickly, it can be saved.
Frozen in disappointment, loss and grief; it’s easy for a heart to grow cold. For many of us, survival means letting God warm up the places in our heart that have become numb.
One of the greatest warnings in Scripture concerns a cold or dead heart. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23, NIV)
Only God can warm a frozen limb far from a cold heart!

Leprous Souls

Do you feel like you’re growing numb because you grieve over something you’ve lost that was precious to you? Emotional numbness is often caused by grief of the soul.
It reminds me of leprosy—and the first sign of the disease, which is a feeling of numbness. Without feeling pain, people injure themselves, and when the injuries become infected they can even lead to death.
The number of people who suffer from emotional leprosy could number in the billions. Because of our deep sense of loss, over time we cease to feel and become desensitized and unable to express emotion.
Grieving is a normal part of life, for a season. But we must never allow our grief to become a way of life. Ask Jesus to heal your grieving heart, and over time, He will.

Emotionally Crushed

In life, we all suffer loss. Many of us have lived through drugs, failed relationships, economic setbacks, habits, and addictions. Because of the emotional assaults these experiences can produce, we can become jaded and crusted emotionally.
Our grief over regrets can usher in a normal and healthy season of mourning, or it can hold tormenting emotions captive. The jolt of unfulfilled expectations, devastating events, or the death of a dream can infect our soul with anguish. Eventually an emotional and even spiritual dysfunction surfaces.
But there is hope. The Bible says, “You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief, and God welcomed you back…” (Isaiah 54:3, The Message) God can forgive and heal any aspect of our past when we allow Him too. Don’t give up! Let Jesus heal your broken heart.

Identity Theft

Have you found your true identity, or are you looking for others to define who you are? So begins the charade of identity shopping: since I don’t know who I am, and you seem to know who you are, why don’t I try being like you for a while. Sadly, the shoe never fits!
If we cannot be true to ourselves, we’ve lost what most defines us: our identity.
God’s vision for our lives is the best of all possible options. Until we embrace His reality, we’ll vainly attempt to recreate ourselves in our own image—increasing our struggle with chronic emptiness.
Who are we really: a reflection of the latest celebrity—the imaginary persona of our dreams? Let God define who you are, and you’ll never regret who you have become.

Moments Define Us

When I was 19, my team won a college football game. Completely out of it, I shimmied to the top of the goal post as the crowd began to tear it down. The pole snapped and shook me off just four feet before it hit the ground.
A stranger walked up and said, “You’re an idiot!” It was a defining moment! Until then I didn’t know who I was. Now, I had clarity. I was an idiot!
This humorous image didn’t describe all of me, but it was a partial view. How many of us wake up eager to climb the imaginary goalposts of shallow recognition, not realizing we’ll soon fall?
I may have bowed to foolishness then, but I don’t want that to be my legacy. My Creator best defines who I am. I will gaze into His eyes to see my true reflection.

Chasing Celebrities

Why do so many of us care what celebrities are doing? It doesn’t require significant insight to see that celebrities can be as numb and empty as the next person.
Trying to reflect flawed humanity merely provides a distorted image of our true self. True manhood, once hard-wired to protect, has digressed into an impotent army of predators. Women, fashioned in part for beauty, have become specimens to be tasted.
Where have the great men and women of honor gone? Even the natural order of human genders wanders astray without God’s vision.
“God, You are the only Person whose life I want to reflect.” You alone promise: “When you search for Me, you will find Me; if you seek Me with all your heart…” (Jeremiah 29:13, NRSV)

Typical

In my late teens I had one date with the beautiful and bright daughter of a prominent New York City law school dean. I was 18 going on 8. She was 18 going on 28. After a couple of excruciating hours in my presence she slammed the door in my face saying, “Typical!”
Just what I always wanted to be: another slug in the rainforest of life. I can still vividly remember standing alone in the hallway of her parent’s high-rise Manhattan apartment, frozen in adolescence, feeling branded as hopelessly immature.
What causes someone, created by God to be exceptional, to remain typical? I was pursuing the wrong person. It would take a few more years before I was willing to submit to my Creator. Since then, my life has been anything but typical.

Skulls

What has deluded an entire generation into thinking of skulls as a fashion statement—to identify with the faceless symbols of death?
What potion turns a prince into a frog? Perhaps it’s just an outward reflection of emotional un-wholeness. Many in the next generation are frozen in adolescence.
A half-century of children have grown up with pleasure at their fingertips. Yet, the comforts of life don’t create growth. No one’s ever been transformed sitting in a hot tub eating Ben & Jerry’s. For many, laziness is the comfort-of-choice, and fantasies the preferred pastime.
Neglecting God will cause your teen years to continue indefinitely!
But choosing God will allow you to leave the broad land of fantasy for a narrow inheritance of promise and destiny. And it’s guarantied to exceed your wildest dreams!

Suspended Animation

Are you living a fulfilled life?
“Suspended animation” is a scientific term describing the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means.
This state of metabolic hibernation is reminiscent of human emotional lethargy. Learning to work through pain is an important part of developing maturity, and even getting healed. Yet many would rather live in a state of perpetual adolescence than deal with the wounds of life.
The pain of divorce leaves us indifferent to marriage. The wounds of face-to-face rejection leave us searching for online connection. The economic recession further perpetuates our regression.
Only our willingness to cry out to Jesus for help will lead to the abundant life He promised.

Sleepwalking

There’s a scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth where Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, tormented with guilt for murdering her father-in-law. In her dream, unable to wash her hands of the blood from the murder, she ultimately drowns in remorse and goes insane.
The corridors of earth are jammed with sleepwalkers, mangled mortals tormented by the guilt and shame of past actions—yet to be resolved. And what’s sad is that sleepwalkers often have little or no memory of the incident at all. Although their eyes are open, their expression is dim and glazed over.
I can’t tell you how many times in recent years I’ve spoken to dim and glazed over individuals and audiences.
The Bible challenges us to awaken, “Wake up from your sleep, climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!” (Ephesians 5:14, The Message)

Awakening

Many times in life people may surround us, yet we feel completely alone. It produces a numbness that can even be transferred to those closest to us. I’ve seen it spread across families and churches.
Right now, I’m so alarmed by its present effects I often find my heart screaming, “Wake up! You’re created for far more than this! Stop wasting your magnificent life!”
But people would think I was mad if I ran down the street yelling what I’m really thinking. So, I stuff it, and cry, and pray, and ask God to revive us once again.
The church in America will sink into unconsciousness, unless God sends a revival to the American church.
If you can hear this, please pray for God to revive us all!

You’re Not Bored

Do you think you’re bored? You’re not! You may actually be numb.
Everything God does is designed to lead us into intimacy with Him, to set us free from our boredom, loneliness, and self-absorbed distractions. He loves us enough to not allow us to be satisfied with less than Himself.
The Law of Displacement states that you cannot move away from a thought, you can only move toward a new thought. God wants to replace our misguided thoughts, fixed on idle pleasures, with His new, perfect ones, fixed on what’s truly eternal.
Unless we guard the epicenter of our affections—our heart—we’ll never live the life we’ve dreamed of.
God’s not trying to crash your party. He’s inviting you to His! And only His will last!

Praying for Illusions

A woman went to her pastor for prayer. She told him that a certain actor in a soap opera was in trouble and asked him to join in interceding for the TV character. The surprised pastor responded, “But this person is not real!” She quickly answered, “I know, I know, but he really needs our prayers.”
Every day people spend hours of virtual, face-to-face, TV time with media celebrities. It’s created a new form of relationship based on the “illusion of intimacy” that is both entrapping and “insidiously subliminal in its working.”
We’ve been created in the image and likeness of God, called to be princes and princesses in His Kingdom. Yet, when we obsess over celebrities and famous personalities we spend our lives trying to reflect flawed, deformed humanity, not our perfect Creator.

Vicarious Life

God is not a God of can’t and don’t, He’s a God of can and do! But only His will satisfies.
The word vicarious is defined as “experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.” When we live vicariously, we exchange their imaginary lives for our hopes and dreams—their “reality” for our reality.
God alone can connect us to the eternal pleasures. But the only hope we have to overcome the seduction of destructive pleasures is to resist lesser pleasures for the God-given greater ones.
In essence, we trade an eternity of pleasure in God’s presence for a few nights in a shabby motel called Earth. Learn to enjoy your God-designed reality. Embrace the truth that there is more than what you can see in front of you!

Morphine

Over and over again, the devil offers an endless menu of numbing substitutes for oneness with God.
Morphine was originally developed as a cough suppressant. Yet, by the late 1800s, it had become a popular recreational drug. A German drug company named Bayer believed it had found a morphine replacement. So it advertised diacetylmorphine as an over the counter “non-addictive morphine substitute.” The new product Heroin derived its name from the Greek word heros, because of its seemingly heroic affects on the user.
Unfortunately, if you’ve ever known a heroin addict, the last thing they are is heroic. As is always the case, one numb-substitute leads to another. Accept no substitutes. Only one Person can provide the peace you need. His name is Jesus!

Culture Clones

Are you struggling with an addiction?
In an attempt to fill our deep sense of un-fulfillment we all tend to gravitate to whatever means of comfort, entertainment, or even alter-identity is available to us,
If we don’t embrace what God designed to inspire us we’ll eventually embrace what the devil intends to destroy us.
Like the strongman, Samson, how many have lost their strength in Delilah’s lap? Or, like King David, surfed the Internet one too many nights, only to be enticed by Bathsheba?
Unless we allow God to make our lives exceptional, there’ll be nothing wondrous about us. We’ll be stranded in history’s long line of moral zombies and culture clones—false reflections of fallen humanity, not flawless incarnations of Christ-like morality.
Look in God’s Word and remember who you really are.

Two Immutable Facts

Everyone can see from nature’s unspoiled creation that there’s a perfect God. In addition, we all get a shot at following our inner conscience. The combination of these two immutable facts leaves everyone without excuse.
There is a God. He’s perfect, and we’re not. We’ve all sinned and come short of God’s perfect standard. Only one Person could absorb the consequence for our sin—God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We’re made in the image of our Creator, but given a free will. We must choose to reflect either the imagination of fallen man or embrace the destiny of a holy God.
The Bible says, “‘Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for Myself. I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and daughters to Me.’” (2Corinthians 6:17b–18a, The Message)

God of New Beginnings

Once a year, at midnight, a strange ritual takes place. From homes to hotels a shout goes up all over the world—“Happy New Year!”
It’s another indelible sign we’re created in the image of a merciful God—the God of New Beginnings—of fresh starts. We realize once again God’s more concerned with our tomorrow than our yesterday. That’s why He’s slated finite time for now and infinite time—the eternal—for later. The Bible describes what’s taking place down here as a vapor, a moment; in Heaven things are everlasting—never-ending. Everything up there is forever new—new bodies; new surroundings, even new names. Yet, the joys of tomorrow can be accessed by faith today.
Would you let Jesus give you a fresh start? Ask Him!

Yesterday Can’t Define You

Are you tired of your life? If you’re willing to give up the old, God will make your life new. Give up your tired, troubled perspective. Trade it in for the always hope-filled mind of Christ. Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63b) Let the Word of God give you the life your soul longs for.
Step into eternity! Let the fears of yesterday be eclipsed by the faith of today and the hope of tomorrow. A change of heart and mind is all that’s needed; surrendering to the loving will of a gracious God. Your best days are ahead, if you want them to be. That was God’s plan from the beginning. It’s His flawless will for your life. Now, you have to decide if it’s your will as well.

God Makes All Things New

All of us have needs. Are you beginning this year in need a new job, a new body, or perhaps a new outlook on life? God alone has the means to fulfill all our needs. But remember, He promises to meet ALL our needs, not ALL of our wants.
“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19)
Why are so many of us fearful of the future? Do we really believe a faithful God will not let us down? He won’t! He promises,“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” (Jeremiah 29:11)
God wants to make this your best year ever. Can you trust Him for that?

Are You Feeling Numb?

If you’re feeling emotionally and spiritually numb, you’re not alone. It’s an epidemic in our nation, our culture, and even the church.
Perhaps we’re less numb then we used to be, or more alive then many around us, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re not as fully awake as God desires us to be. We live in the age of the fair-weather Christian, the Sunday believer—the undisciplined disciple. I see in my own life how I’ve grown to accept the unacceptable—to tolerate the intolerable. I must relearn to resist the devil and submit to God.
Such was the scene when David faced the giant Goliath; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar, and Queen Esther said, “If I perish, I perish,” choosing to give her life in order to rescue her people.
Let God awaken us to the battles we’re facing today!

Are You Looking For Truth?

Are you looking for truth that will set your free? All of us should be!
But beware the counterfeit! Every day, attempts are being made to redefine what is good—to reinvent truth. Even using the words of Jesus out of context to promote self-serving philosophies, saying, “the truth will set you free,” as if any man-conceived concept of truth will work.
Either truth is God-breathed, or it’s not truth at all.
Jesus clearly defined the only truth that truly liberates. “He said to the people who believed in Him, ‘You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” (John 8:31–32, NLT)
Accept no substitutes for the Holy Bible—it’s God’s Word for all generations.

Inconvenient Faith

Have you noticed it’s getting more inconvenient to be a follower of Jesus, that, as the darkness gets darker, it takes more courage to let your light shine? Don’t be discouraged, Jesus faced the same thing, and promised we would as well. He said, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NIV)
Christians who embrace Christ only when it’s convenient won’t be ready for the subtle deceptions ahead! But, if we humble ourselves daily and receive the manna of His Word, He’ll give us all the courage we need to face our struggles ahead.
Today, may you be encouraged! May you walk in the confidence that if God is for you, who can be against you? (Romans 8:31)

Do You Feel Safe?

You may not feel safe or protected right now but never forget, God’s a perfect Father who is always ready to protect us.
When my twin daughters were 12 years old and about to enter adolescence, I took them each out on a special dinner date in which I pledged to watch over them throughout their teen years. I gave them beautiful rings to seal our father-daughter commitment. It was a very special night!
Fifteen years later, they gave those rings back to me on their wedding days, as I gave their hands to their new protectors, their husbands.
When I gave my life to Jesus, He promised to protect me from harm. Sure, at times I’ve been hurt, but in the end God’s always showed up to protect and heal me. If you’ll trust Him, He’ll do the same for you.

Are You Leading Your Family?

This is a very challenging day to lead a family. Isn’t it? But if you’re a parent, there’s still the question of whether or not you’re actually leading your family? If you’re not, who is? Are you letting strangers raise them? Are you letting amoral actors, musicians, and celebrities do with them as they wish? I think we all realize there are plenty of unhealthy people who, if allowed to, will do great damage to those we love.
Either we lead our children as God intended, or we naively hand them over to others to raise them. The Bible says, “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” (Proverbs 22:6, NLT)
Ask God for His help. He’ll give you all of the wisdom and discernment you need to lead your family.

Being Courageous

If there’s ever been a day in which we need to be courageous, it’s today.
A young lady I highly respect was trying to get her fiancé, who was hesitating, to make the right decision. As she ran her hand down the middle of his back, she asked with concern, “What’s that?”
He responded with equal unease, “I don’t know?”
Then looking him in the eyes she retorted, “It’s a spine! You can use it any time you want to!” Ha! What a great line! The good news is, they’re happily married today with three children, and he’s become a great leader.
Today, receive the courage that comes from God’s Word. “…God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2Timothy 1:7, NKJV)

Don’t Give Up On Those You Love

How do you help those you love who are resisting God’s will for their lives?
It’s hard to watch, but God provides a clear solution—requiring patience and courage, but when received by a humble soul, His remedy is always successful. “Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.” (2Timothy 2:25–26)
Frustration doesn’t move mountains, faith does! Trust God that His Word will not return empty, but will always accomplish what He promises it will do. (Isaiah 55:11)
Don’t give up on those you love. Pray their eyes will be opened to see all that Jesus died and rose to give them.

The God of Happy Endings

Do you believe in the God of happy endings? Well . . . He believes in you.
God the Father designed a rescue mission for His wayward children before we were even conceived. He planned for His own Son to make the greatest sacrifice of all: to willingly give His life in our place.
Christ’s intervention has completely changed the potential outcome for each of our lives, if we’ll receive it. God is saving the best wine for last—a victorious finale to His perfect will for our lives.
God’s Word promises, “…all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20, NLT)
I’m glad I don’t have to think it up. All I have to do is believe it!

Learning to Feel Again

Why is much of the world numb? The Bible provides a clear and emphatic answer, “the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1John 5:19a) There’s a price for this numbness. We not only forget what we know—we forfeit who we are.
Long-term emotional or spiritual numbness produces devastating results. Giving into self-imposed protection, by suppressing feelings, only creates a pattern of non-response. Eventually we are no longer able to respond at all. And when we cease to feel, in some significant way, we stop living.
“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!” (Psalm 42:11, NLT) “Jesus, awaken our hearts to believe what You believe, and feel what You feel, for only then can we be truly healed.”

Finding God’s Word Again

In the Old Testament, King Josiah didn’t just begin to re-read the Bible; he had to first find it. (2 Kings 22) It wasn’t misplaced; it had been discarded, exchanged for something more desirable.

Has something replaced the Word of God in your own life? Entertainment? Fun? Work? Career? Another person? Or just idleness?

Too many of us  sow the wind of distraction and reap the whirlwind of destruction. Personal preference replaces God-given purpose—passivity supersedes passion.

Do you need to reconnect with the Bible again? Somewhere along the way has it become a relic stored in a dusty attic? You know it’s important, but it’s ceased to be essential for your survival. Don’t continue to fill the numb places in your heart with cheap imitations.

There’s no substitute for God’s Word. Find it again, and live!

Your Best Chance to Change

If your fire has grown cold, let God rekindle your heart.  For “you will find [Him] when you seek [Him] with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13, NIV) We get to know God by feasting on His Word. I’ve found that life without the living passion of God’s Word is tedious and dreary at best.

If we allow the Word of God to die in our hearts, the truth will not only need restoration; it will first need resurrection. Our greatest enemy becomes that part of us that’s willing to settle for the way things are, whether it’s producing life or death.

Don’t pamper your passivity! Your opportunities for doing so are fading fast. Today may be your best chance to change—don’t let it slip by!

WORD COUNT: 126 words

Salt and Light

We’re created to be the salt and light of this earth. (Matthew 5:13–16) Salt preserves what is good, melts what is cold, and flavors what is bland.

Light eradicates darkness, shows direction, and reveals the truth. By blending into the world, adopting its values, and compromising Biblical wisdom, we misrepresent God and our life experience ends in regret. Eventually, we become exactly what we detest, living and dying in mediocrity.

If we, as Christ’s church, misrepresent Jesus, then we lose the essence of our purpose. Either we reflect the likeness of Jesus, or tarnish it and live a forgettable life. We must change, reflect our true Source, or accept the reality that we aren’t living up to our full potential.

The God of second chances awaits our decision.

Breaking the Speed Limit of Life

In 1850, the average American got 9.5 hours of sleep each night. By 1950, it had dropped to 8 hours. Now it’s between 6.5 and 7 hours per night, and it’s continuing to dwindle.

Many of us are chronically rushed, chronically late, and chronically exhausted. Americans work longer workweeks and take shorter vacations than other nationalities, yet struggle all the while. We are breaking the “speed limit of life!”

Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30, NLT)

You know you’ve found Jesus when you find His rest. Don’t settle for less. Only Jesus can give you the rest you’re looking for.

Normalcy Bias

We all have a tendency toward a normalcy bias—the mental state people settle into when facing a disaster. It causes us to underestimate the possibility that a disaster could occur and then hampers us in coping with its effects. We often interpret warnings in an overly optimistic way. We assume, because it never has happened to me, it never will happen. We are left unprepared and ultimately unhinged!

Are you suffering from a normalcy bias? Do you believe the need and urgency in your own life is overstated? Perhaps that’s your normalcy bias! It says, “I believe I’m basically okay, because I can’t face not being okay!”

The wonderful thing about knowing Jesus is that I don’t have to live an illusion: He actually helped me the most when I finally admitted I wasn’t OK.

Believing the Worst

Should we believe for the best, or prepare for the worst? Both!

What if government officials refused to look at worse case scenarios? If they merely encouraged the public with positive statements, but never seriously faced real issues and sought for solutions to our problems.

What if they said, “We need to believe for the best!” “Things could always be worse!”

That’s the last thing I’d want to hear them saying. I want them to be up to their eyeballs planning for worst-case scenarios!

So, what’s my point? Spend your life believing that God’s bigger then any worst-case scenario you could EVER face. The Bible says, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (2Corinthians 9:8, ESV)

Never Again

Throughout history, people have consistently underestimated their problems until it’s too late.

During World War II, the actual danger Jewish people were facing in Nazi-occupied Europe was continually minimized… Whenever the gross mistreatment of Jews was reported, many refused to believe it. When rumors circulated of death camps, they dismissed them as too outrageous to believe. Who could do such unspeakable things? They were unable to believe it was actually happening.

Thus the present Jewish Defense League’s motto: “Never again!” Never again will we be blind-sided by an unthinkable reality!

Have you been rescued by God’s grace but find yourself starting to ignore the warning signs in your own life? Can I encourage you… don’t ignore what God is saying to you…

Never again give in to the things of this fallen world.

Truly Safe

Unless the church in America changes quickly, we may soon find empty buildings standing as reminders of greater days when God once had His way.

Unless we pray for, love, reach out to, teach and train the next generation of young people, there may not be a new generation of whole-hearted followers of Jesus in America.

Unless we recognize the need to fall on our faces before a holy God and repent of our compromise and coldness of heart, we will miss our last best opportunity to see God once again transform families, churches and our nation.

God’s calling us! Do you sense it? He’s drawing us into a deeper place than we’ve ever been before. Respond to His voice and begin to walk confidently in your future with Him.

No Victims in Heaven

There are no victims in Heaven, only celebrating saints rejoicing in the price Jesus paid to purchase their salvation. If we’re not filled with gratitude for what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross, eternity in Heaven won’t change that. Our gratitude begins on Earth, and is a direct indication of our salvation.

Jesus made Himself a victim so we could be victors, but He will never force us to be grateful. He will never trick us into accepting His identity and destiny for our lives. I’ve heard it said, “The person who loves you the most is the one who tells you what you don’t want to hear.” So, please hear this: don’t live your life as a victim. Let Jesus make you the victor He created you to be.

Distorting Reality

We live in an upside down world. Our society distorts reality calling right “wrong” and wrong “right”; good “evil” and evil “good”; truth “lies” and lies “truth”, while treating lust as love, and love as hate.

When I was an atheist, I chose to believe unreality for seven years, but when I surrendered my life to Jesus, I began to believe the truth and stopped living a lie.

It’s always our choice in life: medicate the symptoms or eradicate the root. The root in each of our lives is sin. And the only cure is the God who was willing to die for our sins. His name is Jesus.

“This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’–and I am the worst of them all.” (1Timothy 1:15, NLT)

Feeling Again

I’ve spent the last 13 years meeting weekly with young men and women who beg me to tell them the truth more aggressively—to take the gloves off—to stop sugar-coating it.

What they’re saying is, “I’m numb—disconnected from my emotions. Please! Help me feel again!”

And while I strive to use words as scalpels and not swords—to unpack pain without damaging spirits, there’s great danger in soliciting someone else to uncover your destiny. Only one Person can help you become who you’re created to be, and that’s our all-powerful God and Creator.

“God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” (2Peter 1:3, NLT) Look to Jesus to show you who you really are. For only He knows. “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all of your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13, NKJV)

4D

On Earth, the rage is three-dimensional – 3D. Even the three physical dimensions consist of width, length, and height. Yet, the Bible speaks of God’s love in terms of four dimensions: “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.” (Ephesians 3:18) It sounds like deep is the fourth dimension! With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we’re now fully immersed in the age of deep calling to deep. Since God’s always deep, to commune with Him, we must go deep as well.

In theaters, it will cost a few dollars more to see movies in 3D. In the Spirit realm, it will cost everything to establish a focused relationship with our Creator—to see our own lives as God intended—in 4D.

Plans For Good

Do you know that God’s got BIG plans for you? Plans that will make you laugh and cry for joy. That’s His promise. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)
Some of God’s desires are universal, for everyone. He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1Timothy 2:4, ESV) Other plans are unique to each of us. Either way, whether they are universal or unique, we need to believe that they are plans for our good, and not for evil. They will always lead to a life filled with hope, if we will learn to trust that God knows exactly what He’s doing.

Left Hooks

Do you feel like your life is under attack? Are you overwhelmed by an unexpected life event?
Whether they’re left hooks from Hell or Heaven, how we respond to life’s challenges will determine if a situation works out for good or evil.
Frankly, I’m not as concerned about who’s behind the circumstances in my life, because I know who’s above watching over my life. I want to be as anxious about what’s happening to me as God is. If He’s not, I’m not. Why? Because His infinite plan is better than my finite understanding.
“All things work for our good if we love God and are called and committed to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) God will be faithful to make us the people that He wants us to be, and that makes it all worth it.

“Kairos” Moments

We can lose many things in life and get them back again, but there’s one thing we don’t want to waste, because we won’t get it back. Its called time! Time is one of the most precious gifts any of us have.
The Bible says, “Redeem your time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:16) The word “time” here is the Greek word “kairos.” It refers to the time in our life when things are brought to a crisis. It’s the decisive, opportune or supreme moment.
Every day we have “kairos” opportunities—they are the right time to respond well to life’s surprises. Don’t be afraid of tomorrow, for it will be filled with God-ordained opportunities that are made in Heaven and played out on Earth.
Trust God. You’ll find His script for your life is perfect.

Exact Expressions

Who has God created me to be?
Is my life engraved with the image of my Creator?
Striving to be someone other than who God created me to be is a waste of my time and a misrepresentation of His heart. In the New Testament, the Greek word for “character” is used only once. It describes Jesus as the “exact expression” of the Father.
The Bible says, “The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God…” (Hebrews 1:3, NLT) This is the word used when kings stamp their images on coins. We are each called to an exact expression of God. We’re not God, but we’re created to reflect Him as sons and daughters.
It is this image of Himself that God wants to imprint on us. As painful as it sometimes seems, it is ALWAYS worth it.

God’s Calling

The Bible says that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)
Call it providential or prophetic, sovereign or spirit-led; God only finishes what He starts. He fulfills what He alone knows is eternal. Therefore, the most important question we should ask before launching anything is:
Who’s initiating what I’m doing? If it’s me, it’s doomed to fail. If it’s birthed in my fallen heart, it’s a flighty wish upon a star!
In the most sane, lucid moments of life, the only questions that have any real consequence are: “God, what are you thinking? Only You know what’s best, what’s real, what will last? What’s on Your heart?”
The only answers that have real value will call to you from God’s deep place. May we all listen and answer when God calls!

Draining the Swamp

Are you putting up with something that’s less than God’s best for your life?
All of us at times are.
We can’t just swat mosquitoes. Sometimes, we have to drain the swamp.
We can’t experience true convergence in our lives if we continually give into convenience. Convergence is the harmony between our spirit, soul and body. It can happen only when we refuse the easy way and follow the road God chooses.
It will always cost something to not give into convenience, but if it’s God’s will, it’s always worth it.
We can’t blame the next generation when frankly the numb apple hasn’t fallen far from the numb tree! “Jesus, awaken me to this convergent moment. Drain every swamp in my life, so I can live the priceless life you’ve given me.”

Starving!

One of the most overstated comments people say, especially children, is: “I’m starving!” Invariably it means they haven’t eaten in a few hours.
In a spiritual sense, we shouldn’t whine when we’re hungry or complain when we’re thirsty, for it’s only when we feel thoroughly empty that we lean totally upon God. Jesus affirmed this when He said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NIV)
Accept, too, that our being filled will last no more than a day. We can’t live on yesterday’s manna; it turns rancid and unfit to eat. In order to keep faith alive and fresh, we have to draw from God’s Spirit and Word every day. The Bible says, “…as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word…” (Peter 2:2, KJV)
Frankly, it’s the only way to truly live.

Divine interruptions

We shouldn’t be surprised when God interrupts us. Often times, it’s the only way He can get our attention.
In my youth, I would stay up late to seek the Lord. As I’ve gotten older, I get up early, pretty much every morning, to pray and get into the Word while listening to worship music. This uninterrupted time alone with the Lord is vital for me. In these moments, I hear His voice and know His direction for my life and those I am called to lead.
Most of us are leading someone, or in time we will be. So, it’s vitally important that we learn to let God lead us. That will usually begin with divine interruptions. Today, will you let God interrupt you? It will certainly be worth your while.

Reality

Are you running to something, or from something?
Simply fleeing from darkness won’t transform us. We must run toward the light of God if we are to be truly changed. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Sunlight is the great disinfectant.” “…if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1John 1:7, ESV)
Nature abhors a vacuum. We can’t be emptied of sin, without it being replaced with something. The Bible says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21, ESV) In other words, stop filling your mind and heart with evil, but allow God’s Word and Spirit to fill you with His goodness.
Our days will be filled with something. Let God choose what that something is.

Are You Alone?

Are you alone? God wants to help.
The Bible says, “It’s not good for man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18, NKJV)
Seeking God means seeking godly community. I’m thankful that since receiving Jesus, I’ve always had a vital connection to a local church. Some of the churches I’ve attended have been healthier than others, but this act of obedience to Scripture is essential.
The Bible says: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching…” (Hebrews 10:25, NIV) This discipline has proven to be a crucial safeguard for my life. Though finding the right church for this season in your life can be a lengthy process, in the end, it’s really worth it.

Super-Heroes

Jesus was God come to Earth. He healed people of sickness and disease, delivered them from demonic strongholds, and miraculously performed signs and wonders, even raising the dead. He was the original Superhero. Yet, He never dangled these super-human feats as an unattainable carrot before frail humanity.
Jesus even guaranteed, “I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12, NET)
If we’ll let Him, God will propel our lives from subzero to superhero, from average to exceptional, from one-in-a-billion to one-of-a-kind. But never forget, without Jesus, all we’ll ever become is a mild-mannered version of Clark Kent.

Pleasures Forevermore

Unless the pleasure we find in God is greater than the pleasure we find in sin, we will succumb to the evils of Earth rather than obtain the holiness of Heaven.
A fascinating God imparted a zealous need for fascination. If we refuse to allow the Creator of the Universe to fascinate us, we will chase after pleasure imposters. Boredom, dullness, and passivity will eventually fill the void.
Unless we respond to God’s fascination, the allure of the immediate pleasure of sin trumps the fear of sin’s long-term consequence.
The secret to conquering sin is satisfaction in God.
The One who created eternal pleasure dispenses it liberally. The Psalmist knew it first hand: “In Your presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11b, NKJV)

Beware the Counterfeit

Each of us is drawn to beauty! We love to laugh! We long for peace of mind!

Wouldn’t the God who made sunsets and starry nights know something about beauty? Is it too hard to imagine that the Creator of laughter knows all about fun? Certainly, the rest offered by the Prince of Peace would compare to none. Since God offers all pleasures to us, the pleasures are ours to choose. Will they be superior pleasures that satisfy and fill to overflowing into eternity, or the shallow sensations that last for a moment, leaving us empty and filled with regret?

Be drawn to beauty—the beauty of God and His holiness!

Seek pleasure—the pleasure of His company!

Beware the counterfeit…

Deepest of All Desires

Would you believe that God wants to give you the desire of your heart? He does! But only He knows what that deepest of all desires is.

Let your heart be filled with desire—the desire to know Him more!

Deep down, we each have a longing to love and be loved in an infinite way. That’s the primary hook behind a recent book and movie series. Its principle audience, teenage girls, looks for love beyond the physical. The deepest of all desires is to be “first loved” and “then to love.”

Until we believe God is fascinated with us, we will search in vain to find someone who is! We were created first for God’s pleasure—the One who love us the most. But the admission price to this endlessly delightful relationship requires complete surrender and commitment.

Storming Heaven

If you’re like me, I’m sure your heart aches as you see the level of darkness and deception in our broken culture.

Yet, it is the storms of Earth that compel us to storm Heaven!

The history of the church of Jesus Christ has been shaped by those willing to break free from the pack—to risk it all for the sake of obeying God’s Spirit even if it costs their lives. These were the true world changers!

Who among us will stand up and become a difference-maker?

Who will inspire those who are too numb to do what they know is right? Who will pay the ultimate price and awaken the conscience of this generation?

Revival is coming! It’s up around the bend! It’s within reach!

You were made for it, and it was made for you!

Fully Awake

What would it take to live fully awake? To be wholeheartedly surrendered, all day, every day.

The great missionary C.T. Studd once said, “Preach as though you’ll never preach again. What a dying man would say to dying men.” He followed this challenge by sacrificially laying down his life on the mission field. Though I am not a perfect example of this approach to life, I have tried ever since to live every day of my life as if it might be my last: my last time to worship, to pray, and to express love, my last moment to be fully awake!

The God, who died for me, rescued me for the very purpose of living a fully conscious, fully committed life. Now it is my responsibility to live at that level of commitment.

What I Really Believe

What we really believe is shown in how we live…   the things most important to us can be found in our checkbook ledgers and where we spend our time

How I treat my spouse is what I really believe about marriage. How I care for my children is the clearest indication of my convictions about family. How connected I am to God’s Word demonstrates best of all what I think of the Bible.

When Jesus said, “You shall know them by their fruit,” (Matthew 7:16) He was saying, “Show Me your life, and I’ll show you who you really are.”

I’ve been many things in my life, some good and some not so good. But in the deepest part of my heart, I know I was created to love and represent my Creator well.

Fear

Fear is a part of each of our lives. Every day we make decisions what to fear, and what not to fear. We should fear being foolish and reckless. We should not fear doing the right thing.

When Jesus died and rose again, He broke the power of sin and death. The Bible says I no longer need to fear death: “…only by dying could He (Jesus) break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could He set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Jesus Himself challenges me, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

In the Name of Christ. Stop!

In the fourth century a monk named Telemachus heard God’s Spirit tell him to go to Rome. Upon arrival, he followed a crowd to the Coliseum.

Realizing the gladiators were about to fight to the death he cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop!” Over and over again he shouted it. Finally he ran onto the arena floor, all the while yelling, “In the name of Christ, stop!”

When a gladiator killed him with a sword, the atmosphere changed! They stopped fighting and the crowd became mute!

Slowly, one spectator at a time left the stadium, until it was abandoned. It would be the last event between gladiators in the Roman Coliseum. One man obeyed God, fearlessly doing what no one had ever done. He proclaimed, “Enough is enough! I’m willing to give my life to change this tide of injustice.”

Earth-Shaking and Heaven Summoning

Of the handful of nation-transforming revivals that have taken place since Pentecost and the birth of the church, many consider the Welsh revival of 1904 the most Earth-shaking and Heaven summoning.

It came, as revivals invariably do, during a low-tide spiritual moment. Empty churches, cold hearts, lethargic Christians, and flourishing evil. Sounds like some of the church and culture in North America and Europe today.

Up steps a 27-year-old miner named Evan Roberts with a far younger band of men and women, each eager to see God move as He did in the beginning of creation: “…and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)

Jesus, move upon our hearts to take us out of darkness, into Your marvelous light!

Don’t Despair

Are you going through a difficult time? Don’t despair! God knows, and wants to help you!

When the depth of man’s heart is filled with darkness, God shows up and says, “ ‘Let there be light,’ and there is light.” (Genesis 1:3) Did He intend this command for exclusive periods of history? Or can we declare its power now? The Bible is crystal clear. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 (NKJV)

Jesus still wants to fill our darkness with light! He still longs to remove the depth of sin that imprisons our hearts.

No matter how dark your life may seem, never forget, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37, NIV)

Jesus, fill us with Your liberating light—fill us with Your love!

Making God Smile

There is a battle going on in each of us, between who we once were, and who we are called to be. It will either fill us with light or darkness. “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8) Yet, Jesus said, “If your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light.” (Luke 11:34)

Will we face the duplicity in us, our churches, and within our culture, or will we bow to fear, doubt, and turn away?

Will I put an end to the numbness buried in my own heart?

This is the question that haunts me; may it haunt you as well. And may, at the end of our soul searching, we come to the best-of-all conclusions: that the only life worth living is the fully abandoned one, a life that makes God smile and the devil tremble.

Cynicism Is Epidemic

One of the greatest evidences of spiritual blindness in our culture is cynicism. Defined as “believing all people are motivated by selfishness,” from our music to our talk shows, sitcoms to late night monologues, cynicism is epidemic.

It’s easy for someone to be cynical until you meet the most unselfish Person in the universe. When Jesus comes to live in your heart and you allow His Word to renew your mind, something extraordinary begins to happen. God says, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT)

When we realize how much we have each been forgiven, God gives us the grace to be kind and gracious to others as well.

Don’t Be Troubled

Are you in the middle of a crisis or maybe just struggling to make it through the day? Lots of people are. But how we respond in a crisis demonstrates, perhaps better than any other situation, what we really believe about God.

Jesus promised that our peace of mind doesn’t have to be subject to our un-peaceful circumstances. He said, “Don’t let your heart be troubled.” He wouldn’t have said it, if it wasn’t possible. Frankly, if our hearts are troubled it’s because we’re not fully trusting Jesus.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT) If you can believe it, today’s a great day to trust God!

Be Thankful

Are you thankful for your life? It’s a great way to live. It’s been said when you’re stuck in traffic, think of all the people who’d love to have a car. When you’ve had a hard day at work, think of those out of work. When you’re having a disagreement with your spouse, think of how many don’t even know what it’s like to love and be loved in return.

When you’re car breaks down and you have to walk to get help, think of the paraplegic who’d love to take a walk. When you notice you’re getting a lot of grey hairs think of the cancer patients who’ve lost their hair because of chemotherapy. Every one of us has much to be thankful for. That’s why the Bible says, “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1Thessalonians 5:18, NIV)

Being Content

Are you content with the life God has given you? It’s one of the great goals in life.

Paul the Apostle wrote, “I have learned in whatever state I am in, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”

This may shock you, but emotional wholeness is a learned experience! The Bible says, in whatever state I’m in: depressed, worried, fearful, needy, pressured, or frustrated. Everywhere…in all things, whether full or hungry, we are to be content.

Perhaps you say, “I can’t do that!” Then just read the next verse, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13, NKJV)

Eric Liddell

Eric Liddell was at one time considered the fastest man alive. But when asked at the Summer Olympics to compromise what he considered biblical convictions by running on Sunday, he refused. Eric stood for principle, and God gave Him favor.

In spite of the controversy, Eric still won an Olympic Gold Medal… But this probably wasn’t the pinnacle experience of his life.

Later, he traveled to China as a missionary and died in a Japanese concentration camp. During his two years of internment, Eric Liddell emerged as the camp’s “most outstanding personality; the one with a permanent smile.”

One woman said he was “the only man who did anything for her without wanting to be repaid.”

May those around you today see Christ’s selfless humility, and not merely—selfish humanity.

Your Life is Beautiful

Many people live like they have no inherent value, no destiny. As if God was asleep at the controls when He made them. Nothing could be further from the truth. When God created each of us He said, “It is good.” (Genesis 1:21) As a matter of fact, “…everything God created is good.” (1Timothy 4:4)

The Bible says, “God has made everything beautiful for its own time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Everything includes each of us. Give God time, He’ll make your life beautiful! Eternally beautiful! It’s His destiny for you. If you’ll trust Him, He will reveal the unique grace and calling upon your life that no one else has.

In eternity, we will each see that none of us have been shortchanged. We have each been overpaid. “Jesus, open my eyes to see into eternity even now.”

Kurt Warner

Each of our lives is shaped by our priority toward those closest to us! Kurt Warner had a lot of ups and downs in his football career. When he won a Super Bowl a TV announcer said, “First things first, the touchdown pass…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

Kurt Warner corrected him and said, “First things first, I’ve got to give the praise and glory to my Lord and Savior up above. Thank you, Jesus!”

Kurt had priorities he lived by!

He and his wife Brenda have a son, Zachary who is partially blind and disabled. Speaking of his son, Kurt said, “Zachary falls down really hard ten times a day, but he always gets right back up and exudes pure joy.” Perhaps one of the people who influenced Kurt the most was his own special needs son.

Joseph

Do you believe your best days are behind you? God doesn’t!

Perhaps you feel, “Too many things have gone wrong in my life for God to ever use me” Again, not true!

In the Old Testament, there’s the amazing story of Joseph. At one point, Joseph had a big mouth. He boasted about his many dreams. All that did was make his brothers jealous and reject him. He was sold as a slave until his boss’ wife wrongly accused him. Things seemed to get worse. He was thrown in jail, forgotten by those he’d helped, but eventually remembered by God and given the #2 leadership position in Egypt.

Joseph would become the man God used to save the family that rejected him and even all of Israel. God never forgot Joseph, and He’ll never forget you.

James A. Garfield

Before the Civil War, a farmer hired a young man named Jim. Jim milked cows, chopped wood, slept in the hayloft and ate with the family. Over the course of the summer he fell in love with the farmer’s daughter and asked to marry her.

The farmer said, “You have no money and no prospects. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you marry my daughter.” The summer ended, and Jim packed his bags and left.

Thirty-five years later, the farmer decided to tear down his old barn and build a bigger one. When he did, he found, carved in the rafter where Jim had slept, Jim’s full name, James A. Garfield, by then he was the President of the United States.

This story reminds each of us: don’t judge too quickly when reflecting on the value of others.

Continental Divide

In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado there’s a place called the Continental Divide. It’s where a small stream separates on a certain rock. One part leads to the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern coast, the other goes to the Pacific Ocean on the west.

At one point the two streams were in the same place, but where they wind up couldn’t be more different. I’ve seen this happen with some of my closest friends. At one point they were both whole-heartedly serving the Lord, but later they’re gone, chasing something infinitely less than God.

Jesus is the rock, the turning point for each of our destinies. Those who reject Jesus, reject GOD and go on to be separated from Him forever. Those who believe in Him enter into eternal life and go on to eternal happiness in the presence of God.

Have You Seen Jesus?

God is trying to reveal Himself to each of us, every day. We see God’s beauty in His pristine creation. He guides us toward the joy of doing what is right and away from what is wrong when our conscience is fully activated, and we clearly see Him as a loving person in those who represent Him well.

Seeing God’s beauty and hearing His inner voice is a revelation given to each of us. It is a great privilege and yet a real responsibility.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “If you don’t walk in the revelations God gives you, you will ultimately run after something God never called you to.”

Have we seen Jesus today? His beauty! His character? His love? He is trying to reveal Himself to each of us. May we see Him.

Have To’s and Get To’s

The Christian life is not a “have to,” it’s a “get to.” I don’t have to do what God asks me to do. I get to! Yes, you can be a bird and not fly. You can be a fish and not swim. You can be married and not love your spouse.

But why would you want to? Why would you want to live beneath your potential? Because of fear? Unbelief? I choose to obey God and believe that I get to do the things He’s called me to. I get to receive the love of my Creator. I get to follow His majestic plan for my life. I get to love others as He has loved me. I get to worship Him with all of my heart, soul and strength.

Don’t make following Jesus a miserable “have to.” Make it a marvelous “get to.”

Honor Your Father and Mother

A woman was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon when she thought of how much she loved and admired her own father. She wondered, “Why isn’t there a similar day to honor fathers?”

That’s how the whole concept of celebrating Father’s Day got started. Proverbs states, “…the glory of children is their fathers.” The hero of children is their dads. Unfortunately, many times, Dads are less than heroic. Telephone Companies say they process the same number of phone calls on Father’s Day as on any other Sunday in June. On the other hand, Mother’s Day is the busiest phone day of the year.

The Bible says, “Honor your father and mother…that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:3, NIV) Wouldn’t today be a great day to honor your dad or mom and give them a call.

Going After Your Future

Sometimes you need to leave where you are in order to get to where you need to be. The Bible says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise…” (Hebrews 11:8-9a)

Abraham went after his inheritance. We have to go after our future. It’s not going to come to us. We’ll have to leave the security of the known for the unknown. Sure, it will take obedience, faith, and courage, but in the end we’ll see that what God had in mind is better than what we can imagine.

Take a leap of faith into God’s will. It’s the safest place to be.

Knowing God

The next time you think you’re really smart or powerful remember this scripture,

“This is what the Lord says: ‘don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things.’” (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NLT)

Life is all about knowing God…knowing the One who loved us so much He was willing to take the punishment for our sins and die in our place. Everything that distracts you from knowing Him keeps you from your future. Get to know Jesus. He’s what life’s all about.

God Will Provide

God will meet you in your darkest hour. Abraham had an amazing trust relationship with God and his 12-year old son Isaac. When God asked him too, Abraham laid his son willingly on a wooden altar, and Isaac fully submitted.

“Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.” (Genesis 22:13, NKJV)

When we look to God in the middle of our darkest hour we’ll see His plan is greater than our concern. “And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide…” (Genesis 22:14a, NKJV)

God will provide for you but it takes surrendering everything. And everything, at times, means the 1 thing we don’t want to surrender.

Persecution

In 1970, an 18-year old, Russian soldier knew he would be persecuted if he continued to profess Christ. For his punishment he was ordered to stand for five hours at night in below zero weather. He did this every night for 13 nights. A few days later his body was returned to his family, severely beaten. Those who were there said he died continuing to profess Jesus.

In his final letter he wrote, “Do not grieve for me, my dear parents. It is because I love Jesus more than myself. I do this because I do not value my life as much as I value Him.” The Bible says, “…everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2Timothy 3:12, NLT)

Don’t be more attached to this present world than eternity. For only Jesus can give you everlasting life.

Reject the Rejection

A high school senior received a letter of rejection from the college he wanted to attend. He wrote them back, “Dear Admissions Officer, I received your rejection of my application. As much as I would like to accommodate you, I find I cannot accept it. I have already received four rejections from other colleges, and this number is, in fact, over my limit. Therefore, I must reject your rejection, and will appear for classes on September 18th.”

A funny story! But there’s a good point. Every day we face thoughts of rejection. The accuser, the devil, tells us we’re worthless, but our advocate, Jesus tells us we’re priceless to Him. Who will you believe? Reject the rejection, and accept the love and acceptance of Jesus, the One who died so you could spend eternity with Him.

Trust and Obey

A Vietnamese Christian once said, “Suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Disobedience to God is the worst thing.”

Queen Esther knew this when she stood up to protect her people. She knew her obedience to God might even cost her life. But after much soul searching, she came to the conclusion, “…I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16, NKJV)

Faith is being boxed in a corner, but you are willing to trust God no matter what happens. For… “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him..” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV)

When we trust and obey Him, we make God smile.

Losing Your Spiritual Interest

Have you lost your interest in spiritual things? The point you lost your spiritual interest was the point you didn’t do something you know you should do. That opportunity is still before you.

There are seasons when God will talk to you, and there are seasons when He won’t. There are times when you’ll know what God is doing, and there are times when you won’t. But, there’s never a time or season when we don’t need faith to obey God.

Go back to that point of disobedience, ask God’s forgiveness, and commit to step out and obey Him. God will meet you there. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:6, NKJV) We all, at times, miss God. But the God of the 2nd chance always invites us to return and be healed.

We Are Accepted

Are you enjoying your life? One of the greatest hindrances to enjoying the life God has given us is our misconception of His heart for us.

It’s absurd to believe that God could accept or approve of you more then He already does. His death on the cross enables you to have complete peace with Him, and even with yourself. God’s at peak-approval! He’s always approved of you. Not everything you do, but everything you are in Jesus. God’s at peak-love! He’s always loved you, and always will.

Fixating on your own imperfection distracts you from focusing on His perfection. The key to enjoying life is not working harder; it’s resting more in God’s love and acceptance. “You are accepted…” (Ephesians 1:6, NKJV)

God wants us to be in Heaven with Him far more then we do.

Christopher Robin

Winnie-the-Pooh’s creator was a man named A. A. Milne. His son Christopher Robin had the privilege of having the lead character in the Winnie-the-Pooh series named after him. But it didn’t impress him.

Christopher Robin didn’t want his name in lights. He wanted his father’s love and affection. But he never got it. When Christopher Robin died in his 70’s, his obituary said that his father spent little time with him. He was too busy making other children laugh and smile.

Every day we have an opportunity to show our love and affection to those closest to us. They are waiting for us to reach out and express our love and care for them. It’s really what God did for us. “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:8, NLT)

Learning to Be Content

Why are so many people dissatisfied? Because the world wants you to be discontent. You’ll never hear a commercial say, “You’ve got to be content with what you have. Our product won’t give you contentment. Save your money and buy only what you really need.”

Trying to find contentment by buying things is like eating pretzels to quench your thirst. The more you buy the more you want: even if you can’t afford that kind of house; even if you can’t afford that kind of car: even if you can’t afford those kinds of clothes. Make it look like you can.

There’s nothing wrong with having nice things: If it’s God’s will for your life; if they don’t have you; and if you can afford them. Paul wrote, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have.” (Philippians 4:11, NRSV)

Learning To Love

Imagine if learning to love were as simple as buying a software program when your heart was empty, or upgrading your “heart drive” when you needed more love. What if we could instantly wipe away past hurts, insecurities and resentments. Wouldn’t that be nice? But learning to love just isn’t that easy.

Actually, it takes a miracle to really love—a miracle only God can perform. Thankfully, it’s one He not only wants to do in us, it’s a miracle He began on the cross and perfectly completed in His resurrection. His sinless life, sacrificial death, and transforming resurrection give us the power to love as He loved—unconditionally, to forgive as He forgave, even to love the “un-loveable”. This pure kind of love may take a lifetime to learn, but it begins the moment we let Jesus become the Lord of our lives.

Loving Your Enemies

Of all the categories of people we might consider un-loveable, our enemies would seem the most difficult to love. That’s why Jesus shocked the world when He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, for if you love those who love you, what reward have you?” (Matthew 5:43-45)

The longer you live, the more you realize that everyone gets hurt. Why? Because hurt people, hurt people. But the good news is: healed people heal people. The real question is, “How do I get healed?” And the real answer is, allow Jesus, the great Healer, to become Lord of your life.

Unconditional Love

We’ve all heard of unconditional love. But what does it really mean? In order to understand it, we have to go to the source of unconditional love; a source that emanates from only one place: the heart of God. In the book of Jeremiah God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3, NKJV)

What does that mean?—something beyond your wildest dreams! God’s saying, “There’s nothing you could ever do that would cause Me to stop loving you. There’s nothing you could ever do to make Me love you more, and there’s nothing you could ever do to make Me love you love you less. My love for you is everlasting, imperishable, unwavering.”

What could compare to receiving unconditional love? One thing: unconditionally loving others! And only Jesus can make that possible.

Mother Teresa, Speaks of “Trust”

A man visited the House of the Dying in Calcutta, India to find out how to best spend the rest of his life. When he met Mother Teresa he asked her to pray for him.

“What do you want me to pray for?” she responded. He then shared the most pressing burden on his heart, “Pray that I may have clarity.”

Mother Teresa responded firmly, “No, I will not do that.” Surprised, he asked her why. She told him, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”

“But, you always seem to have the clarity I long for.” She laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

Trust believes God has all of the clarity we’ll ever need.

Perspective! Perspective! Perspective!

In real estate it’s all about, “Location! Location! Location!”

In knowing God it’s all about, “Perspective! Perspective! Perspective!”

When we trust God, we’re able to see Him working in our circumstances, because we finally see our lives from His perspective; and when we see life from God’s perspective, at last, we see God working in our lives.

But all of this will take one word: trust, and precious few people trust God enough to believe that what He allows will work for their good. Most people spend their lives wishing something different were happening to them.

Trust Jesus! Let Him guide every aspect of your life, and you’ll learn to love the life He’s given you. Why? Because He does! “…it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13, NKJV)

God’s Wonderful Gift!

At times I’ve wondered, “God, are you moving in some people’s lives more than others?” The answer is, “Yes, but it’s not God’s desire!”

God wants to move in each of our lives equally, but He can only work in me, if I allow Him to. So, “Yes, God moves in some people’s lives more than others.” Why? Because God responds to faith! The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, “…without faith it is impossible to please God…” (Hebrews 11:6, NKJV) and then in the book of James, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8, NKJV)

We are each given an equal opportunity to get to know God. It is His greatest desire for us, and our greatest joy!

May we take advantage of this: God’s most wonderful gift!

Faith vs. Fear

Faith draws us closer to what we believe, while fear pushes us further away. Faith is what God uses to build His kingdom. Fear is what Satan uses to establish his. Both faith and fear are unknowns, but our actions will reflect what we really believe. Fear would have us draw back and merely worry about our future. Faith calls us forward to trust that the God who is calling us onward will provide all of the resources we will ever need.

The choice between faith and fear is always up to us. God has never made a decision based on fear, nor should we. Don’t react to a fear-based economy, rather respond in faith to His Word that says, “…my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19, NIV)

First It Is Impossible

Don’t be surprised if God asks you do something you’ve never done before.

Noah stepped out in faith, even though he hadn’t seen many of the things set before him.

God said, “Noah, build Me an ark.” Noah responded, “God, what’s an ark?”

God answered, “It’s the big boat you’re going to need when the flood comes.”

Noah again replied, “God, what’s a flood?”

“It’s going to rain so much that the whole earth is going to be covered with water.”

One more time Noah exclaimed, “God, by the way, what’s rain?”

God has surprises ahead for all of us. Some of them will seem impossible.

As the great missionary Hudson Taylor would often say, “First it is impossible. Then it is difficult. Then it is done.” “Jesus…said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” (Matthew 19:26, NKJV)

Do You Need a Miracle?

Do you need a miracle? If you don’t need one right now, I’m sure you will one day. Each of us will need a miracle from God, and often.

When Moses and three million Israelites journeyed through the wilderness, miracles were a constant. Every day they needed 1,500 tons of food, four thousand tons of wood for cooking, and 11,000,000 gallons of water for drinking and washing. They needed all of this, each and every day for 40 years.

No one knows your needs more than God. And know one wants to help you more than He does.

So, don’t be afraid to ask Him for what He does best: miracles.

Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7, NIV)

Disillusionment

Are you disillusioned about your life? Frustrated because something’s not happening.

Disillusionment comes when reality doesn’t match our hopes and expectations.

At times it’s because we wish we had a different life; we think our best days are behind us; we believe our past mistakes have disqualified us from having a great future, or that we’ll never be happy.

Something’s terribly wrong when we don’t look forward to getting up in the morning; when we don’t love the life God’s given us; when we believe all of the lies I just said.

The truth is, no past mistake can disqualify us from the wonderful plan God has for our lives; God has our future in His all-caring, all-powerful hands and He is rooting for us to succeed.. As the Psalmist wrote, “This I know, that God is for me.” (Psalm 56:9, NKJV)

Troubles

We were born for trouble! Frankly, our souls are being molded into the image of God when we’re in trouble! I know I don’t know what’s best because of the way I treat my friends when they’re in trouble. I’d bail them out of every crisis they’d ever encounter. If it were up to me, I’d spoil the whole planet.

But there are some problems you can’t fix, because God doesn’t want them fixed. God’s far more interested in fixing us than fixing our problems.

Sometimes, He’s even the author of our problems. We’re saying, “God, stop the problem!” He’s saying, “Begin to understand what I’m doing.”

At one point, Jesus said, “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came!” (John 12:27, NLT)

Thank God for your troubles!

Do You Know What You Have?

Do you ever feel like you’re missing out—that life has shortchanged you?

William Randolph Hearst, of Hearst Castle fame, invested a fortune collecting art treasures from around the world. One day he read about a valuable art piece.

Hearst then sent an agent to Europe to find it. After months of searching, the agent reported that he had finally located the treasure. It was found in Hearst’s own warehouse.

He had been searching all over the world for a treasure he already owned.

Do you know what you have? Do you know what Jesus purchased for you?

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1John 3:1, NKJV)

None of us have been shortchanged. We’ve all been lavishly overpaid.

30-Day Oatmeal Diet

A missionary got very ill on the mission field. Adding to her difficulties, her monthly check didn’t come. Here she was: very sick, without any money to buy food. All she could afford to eat was oatmeal.

It made her sad, that in the middle of her great need, God wasn’t helping her. But within a month she fully recovered, and money arrived. Later, back in her home country, she was speaking to a group of people somewhat disparagingly about her life. She told of the hardships she had gone through with her illness and how her funds were delayed.

After the meeting, a doctor came up and asked her questions about her illness, concluding: “Thank God your check didn’t come in! The only cure for what you had is: a 30 day oatmeal diet!”

What’s the principle? God’s never failed us, though it may take awhile to see it.

We Are God’s Masterpiece

A man was attracted to a rock he found in a stream. He brought it home and, for a long time, he made it a doorstop in his house. One day, a geologist visited him and saw the rock. He identified it as pure gold. It was the largest piece of gold ever found east of the Mississippi River.

It was a doorstop in someone’s home. Considered insignificant! Worthless!

He didn’t know what he had! Do you know what you have? Do you really believe you are insignificant to God? Worthless? Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is, what the Bible teaches, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT)

Body-Slams of Life

How would you describe yourself: a wounded victim, or a scarred warrior?

How we respond to life’s body-slams makes all of the difference on how fruitful we are in life.

The Message Bible paraphrases the following verses in Corinthians that Paul wrote after challenging the church in a previous letter. “Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain.” (2Corinthains 7:9-10, The Message)

Don’t be a victim; rejoice in each struggle that brings you closer to God.

God’s Love Never Changes

If you’re a follower of Jesus, think back to one minute before you gave your life to Him. Did God love you then? Was He smiling or frowning? Did He suddenly have a cosmic epiphany and realize He was head over heals in love with you? NO! God loved you as much one minute before you received Jesus, as He did one minute after.

God’s so excited about the life He’s given you, even your greatest challenges, He’ll settle for nothing less than you loving it too.

So, how do you learn to love your life? You’ll love your life when you know God’s always pleased with you and never disappointed; not everything you do, but everything you are. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NKJV)

God’s Thoughts About You

When God thinks of you, is He sad or glad?

God may be saddened over what you do, but He’s never disappointed in who you are. God’s not disillusioned with you, because He had no illusions about who you were to begin with.

How can you surprise a God who sees past, present and future simultaneously?

He lives in a perfect place of complete understanding of your past, total acceptance of your present, and absolute hope for your future.

How can you disappoint someone who is all knowing and ever in your favor? The psalmist describes God’s thoughts toward us so clearly, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand…” (Psalm 139:17, NKJV)

This verse makes it clear: God’s infinite thoughts about you are precious.

Finding the Will of God

At one point in my life, as a young Christian, I was really struggling with finding the will of God for my life. Because of a number of strong voices telling me what I should, and shouldn’t do, I was emotionally distraught about missing His will. In tears, I asked my pastor for advice. What he shared with me has guided my life through countless decisions over three decades. He said, “Francis, it is impossible for you and I to miss God’s will if we desperately want His will more than anything else.” Wow! What a word!

God, as a loving Father, exercises His great power on our behalf, as Paul wrote, “…I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” (2Timothy 1:12, NKJV)

Being On God’s Side

I once asked a great leader how he was able to accomplish so much in his busy life. His answer was one word: FOCUS.

Light can either be dissipated or focused…a floodlight or a laser beam. In a similar way, passion is pain, which has been harnessed. It’s pain that’s been focused. Only then can we see its true value and God’s purpose in the hardest parts of life.

We can’t change our quality of life until we change our focus. Oh, that we would see Jesus! When we focus on seeing Him in our circumstances, it changes everything! It transforms our lives from tolerable to abundant!

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10, NKJV)

Focus on being on God’s side, rather than asking Him to be on yours.

As Loved As Jesus

As a young Christian, I battled with the thought that I was insignificant to God. Why? Because, growing up, I was one of my natural father’s afterthoughts.

He was so busy in politics trying to find his identity; my twin brother and I were discarded. I thought, “If my natural father loved me, it was probably out of obligation.” I assumed God’s love must be the same.

I remember as a young boy writing letters during two-month long summer camps, begging someone to come visit me. Drawing a sad little face with tears coming down. God seemed as distant as my father was in those days.

But now I know, nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus said, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” (John 15:9, NKJV) We are as loved by the Father as Jesus. Believe it!

Receiving God’s Love

Do you believe your mistakes have disqualified you? If anyone could have thought that, it would have been the apostle Peter. He’s a perfect example of someone who blew it, just like each of us, but God restored him.

Peter thought he was disqualified, after denying the Lord three times. How would you feel if in their greatest hour of need, you deserted your best friend? Well, that’s exactly how Peter must have felt. And that’s why the angel, after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, said, “…go, tell His disciples––and Peter––that Jesus is going before you…” (Mark 16:7, NKJV) …and Peter…

Whatever you’ve done? Whatever you think disqualifies you from receiving God’s love and forgiveness? Remember, if God could forgive Peter for his sins, He can forgive you too.

We Are Beautiful To God

Do you believe you are beautiful to God…greatly loved and treasured? It’s the doorway to experiencing the greatest joy in life.

If we believe as God states, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26, NKJV) then we are each beautiful, at least to God. Certainly, the God who made all that is beautiful on Earth must be beautiful Himself.

If we say, we’re not beautiful, then we are assuming God isn’t beautiful as well. The truth is, our identity rests in the fact that a beautiful God created us and loves us. As beautiful as Jesus is, so is His spotless bride.

In the Song of Solomon God says, “You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.” (Song of Solomon 4:7, NKJV) Jesus, the perfect Groom, has set His gaze, His affections, and His adoration upon His perfect Bride to be.

Eternal Pleasures

We live in a world that worship’s pleasure. But worshipping pleasure will destroy you. Actually, worshipping anything other than God will leave you empty. The Bible says, “He who loves pleasure will be a poor man…” (Proverbs 21:17, NKJV)

All addictions to pleasure are misguided attempts to fill the void left by not being intimately connected with our Creator. Every person who is addicted to a destructive habit really needs God. Every woman who pursues romance with the wrong person is really looking for the love of God. Every teenager who is more attached to pleasing his friends over doing what’s right is looking for God.

Have you found what you’re looking for? His name is Jesus, Your Creator. As the psalmist wrote, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11, NKJV)