You make me sick.....

It makes me sick to my stomach whenever the topic of God is brought up and someone says "I don't believe in God"

Now, I don't know how you just read or interpreted that sentence, but let me take a minute to clarify. It means I know someone - often times someone I care about very much - who has yet to experience the unconditional love that I've felt before. They likely hang on to anxiety and worries which means they have never experienced peace that passes understanding. And they don't know the comfort of turning things over to someone and trusting that everything will be ok no matter what. THAT, my friends, is what makes me feel the way I do. Knowing that someone I care about is hurting and there's nothing I can do that will help.

"With God all things are possible" - With friends, all things are 'fairly manageable' at best.

So answer me this - What kind of Christian would I be if I didn't believe with all my heart what I say I believe in? I mean, I can't pick out the good stuff and leave the bad stuff behind. So when I say I believe, it means I believe what the bible says is true. It means that I believe that God is real and I believe that one day he will return. Unfortunately, that also means I believe that those who have not placed their faith and trust in Christ are destined for a place I would never want anyone, not even my worst enemy, to go.....You know what I'm gonna say and yes, it ends with 'double hockey sticks'.

Forget the rules - forget the 'religion' behind everything. Forget what you're supposed to wear or that you're supposed to go to church once a week. Forget the foods you were told to eat or not eat, forget the rituals or the songs you are supposed to memorize. Forget all of that -

"Religion is your PERSONAL relationship with God."

That's it....nothing more, nothing less. 

In Matthew 22 verse 34-40 one of the Pharisees asks Jesus point blank "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replies "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is, love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments"

If you're reading this and you don't know God, I beg you to step out of your comfort zone and give it a try. For some of you the correct sentence might be "Give it ANOTHER try".

The bottom line is this - 

• If I'm wrong and there is no God, worst case scenario is that I'm dead and I don't know any differently. 
• If the unbeliever is wrong, and God IS real, then they have a problem. A REALLY big eternity sized problem filled with undying misery and anguish. I don't want that for anyone...

Make your New Years resolution a little different for 2013 - Develop a personal relationship with God. If you already have one, then please help someone else along the way who may be struggling. 

Love & Blessings to everyone who reads this ~ I pray you find what you're looking for. 

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" ~ Matthew 7:7

"Come near to God and he will come near to you" ~ James 4:8 

Not MY Problem...

Meet Greg - He's a hard working father of two married now for 10 years. He has a decent job, takes the kids to their games, and spends his spare time hanging out with his family and golfing when the weather is nice. Greg, like most of us, watches the news and reads the paper. He sees the people who are less fortunate than him but to be honest with you he thinks "Someone else is taking care of that" so he goes about his day not giving any additional thought to helping.

Throughout the course of a few years Greg loses his wife to cancer. He never thought much about donating to the "Cure for Cancer" fundraisers he'd seen until it struck his family. He wonders what he could have done to help - Could he have been more encouraging to those who lost a loved one? Could he have participated in the walks or made a small donation? It wasn't important to HIM at the time but it was important to others...why didn't he see that?

Gradually the loss of his wife takes a toll on him and he begins drinking heavily. Soon, he loses his job and custody of both kids. With no money and no incentive to wake up each day, he eventually loses his house and all his possessions. As he wonders from shelter to shelter occasionally sleeping on park benches or side streets, he reflects on all the times he saw others in this situation but did nothing. Honestly, he used to think they deserved it because they did it to themselves. Judging from what he'd seen they must be drunks who are just too lazy to work. Now he wonders how many of them are just like him - Who have fallen on hard times due to the loss of a loved one, a lay off at work, or some other financial hardship. And then he wonders, what could he have done to help? Could he have offered food, given money, volunteered at a shelter, or simply prayed for them?

Greg's heart begins to change and he starts to see the world with different eyes. He starts to see that "someone else" is not taking care of these people and that HE could have been the someone that helped but didn't. He is now painfully aware of the lost opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others and now he's the one who needs help and no one is there to help him get his life back together.

To be quite honest with you, Greg could be any one of us - How often are we focused solely on our own lives that we overlook the needs of others? How often do we judge someone else's situation without really knowing the journey they've been on? How often could we "give" - whether that means money, time, prayer, or simply offering kind words - but we don't? 

The bible says "God will give to each person according to what he has done"- Romans 2:6

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not saying that good deeds alone will reserve you a comfy place in heaven filled with all your wants and needs. But God does look at what He's given us and he expects that you will give to others according to what you have. So what do you have? Time? Money? An encouraging spirit? Are you giving it? When the day comes, what will God give YOU according to what you have done?

Whatever it is that you've been blessed with, GIVE it to others. You never know when you might be the person on the receiving end.....

The worst kind of illness.....

Michael, a man in his early 30's became incredibly ill. It didn't happen overnight, it was more of a gradual decline over a number of years. It started with small pains here and there but as time went on the pains got worse and so did his health. Every time a new pain showed up he moaned and complained. Each time the response from family and friends was "Why don't you go see a doctor?" His reply was always the same, "I'm not going to a doctor! He probably won't know what it is anyway, I'll just take care of it myself"

As the years passed the illness eventually took over his life. He was miserable all the time, his energy was gone and his quality of life was non existent. Still, even in his last days he refused to see a doctor for advice or treatment.

Towards the end, he became very bitter and angry. When family and friends asked him why he was so angry he replied "All these years I've been sick and that stupid doctor never did anything for me! I thought doctors were supposed to care about people! How can someone who just leaves me to die and lets me feel all this pain care??" His family was confused - How in the world could he be mad at someone that he never went to see? How could a doctor that he didn't even know help him? Still, the man blamed the doctor insisting that he was responsible.

The truth is, had the man just seen the doctor he could have been saved. He could have easily helped him manage his pain and given him back his life.

I see this situation all the time - not necessarily with illness but with anger, frustration, worry, and anxiety. And at the end of the day, who do we blame? God.  

 Why didn't God help us? How could he just leave us here to be miserable? 

The truth is, we never asked God for help. We never prayed, we never trusted in him, we never turned things over to him. So answer me this....How can we blame a doctor we never went to see?

Life or Death?

What is truly in your heart is projected when you speak. What do YOUR words say about your heart? 

"The tongue has the power of life and the tongue has the power of death" ~ Proverbs 18, Verse 21 

 Did you know...

• The average person has 30 conversations a day 
• 1/5 of our lifetime is spent just talking 
• If you were to record a persons words for 1 year, it would be enough to fill 132 books, 200 pages each

What are you posting to Facebook or Twitter? What do your texts say? What about your emails? When you go out with friends for lunch or dinner, are you speaking life into the conversation or are you tearing someone else down with your words? Have you encouraged someone today or have you focused only on their deficiencies? 

It's easy to convince ourselves that everything is ok and that we don't need to make any changes. So I want you to picture the person you respect most in this world..... Now I want you to imagine them pulling a book off your shelf and turning to a random page from last week. What would it say about you?

Free Gifts

I want you to close your eyes and imagine for just a minute that you have it all - Two cars, a house (maybe even a vacation home) a boat, a house full of nice things, money in the bank, and cabinets full of food. The list goes on and on.....

Now I want you to picture a life with little to nothing - A car that you can barely call reliable. An apartment (for now) that you're a month behind on in rent. A few things here and there that you acquired such as a couch, a table, and a used mattress that sits on the floor. The cabinets are anything but full and you're not sure where your next meal will come from. The kids complain that their feet hurt because their shoes don't fit and the littlest one is crying because the kids made fun of her dirty and torn clothes today at school.

Now in your head, I want you to ask yourself a serious question....You're only asking yourself so there's no one to judge, no one to argue your thoughts, no one to question your honesty - 

Ask yourself:  If you were in the first situation, how much would you give to others? Are they even your problem? I mean, you work hard for what you have - why is it your fault that others have needs? And if you did give, is it anywhere near what you COULD give? Could you spare more?

Take a minute and think about your answer and then ask yourself this question ~ 

What if you were in the second situation? Not of your choice, of course, but some things went wrong somewhere along the way. Maybe you lost your job, made some bad decisions, fell on some hard times, or had some medical issues that set you back. How grateful would you be for the help of others? Or how disheartened would you be to see others who obviously had more than enough just pass you by and get more for themselves?


We have each been blessed with the ability to give - Some of us financially, some spiritually, some physically. Whatever your gift is, GIVE IT. I would hate to think any of us would purposely live a life knowing we could have helped but didn't.

Above all else, try to live a life where everything you do is a reflection of God and continues to provide hope for those who do not yet know Him.....

There's always room for one more...

Today is Thanksgiving, yet there are people all over the world who will fail to recognize anything to be thankful for. They will focus on things that have gone wrong in their life, the things they DON'T have, the imperfections in their life, past mistakes, and what they feel to be a lack of promise for the future......

The truth is, every day you wake up it means God is not done with you yet. If you can't find anything else to be thankful for, be thankful for a God who is full of love, grace, forgiveness, and second chances.


"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest" 

"Fear not for I am with you" 

"I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me" 

"Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day"



Man to his Friend: "You should come to church with me"

Friend: "The church is full of sinners and hypocrites"

Man: "You're right.....but we always have room for one more"

You don't have to be perfect to have a relationship with God - you just have to be willing.....

This little Piggy paid more taxes and now he's mad....

foun·da·tion

 

[foun-dey-shuhn] noun

1.

the basis or groundwork of anything

Provided you haven't been living under a rock all your life, you've likely heard the story of the Three Little Pigs. One built their house of straw, one built their house of sticks, and one built their house of bricks. Spoiler Alert for those of you who haven't heard the story.....The big bad wolf blows down the houses made of straw and sticks and everyone runs to the house made of bricks (which incidentally the wolf is unable to blow down).

The moral of the story? Besides the fact that 2 out of 3 pigs cannot built adequate houses.....A house built on a strong foundation - solid, dependable, built to last - cannot be shaken. 

This years election has me thinking about what OUR foundation is, meaning us as individuals. Let me start by saying that I am one of the least political people you will ever meet. I'm not here to argue about who should or shouldn't have won, who had the best stance on what issue, or the state of our economy for the next 4 years. I'm here to ask you where you have put all your faith and trust? I'm here to ask you what drives the foundation for your day to day life, your family, and your thoughts? 

I'm sad to say based on the comments I'm reading on Facebook, Twitter, and the internet,  the foundation seems to be driven on one of two things for a lot of people....It's either hate or money. 

When I read things that include the sentences "I don't think I should have to give MY money to xxxx group of people" or "I'm not working hard so xxxx can take MY money" it makes me sad. Truth is, none of it is OUR money. The bible is clear when it comes to helping others and allowing God to be the one who judges....

• "If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles" - Matthew 5:41

• "Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink - even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk - It's all free!" - Isaiah 55:1

• "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink" - Romans 12:20 

• "Freely you have received, freely give" - Matthew  

• "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" - Timothy 

• "For God will bring every act to judgement, everything which is hidden whether it is good or evil" - Ecclesiastes 12:14

• "Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love" - 1 Corinthians 13:13

• "Whoever wants to be the most important must take the last place and be a servant to everyone else" - Mark 9:35 

• At the gates of heaven God will say "Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters (no matter how unimportant they seemed) you did for me" - Matthew 25-40 

So I will ask you again....Where is your foundation? Have you put all your faith in your paycheck? Is money causing you to stir up hate or have hate for others? 

Or are you putting your faith in God and asking him to guard your heart and guide your actions? Are you allowing him to be the one to place judgement when your kindness or generosity is abused or have you taken that role into your own hands? 

I can sum it up with one verse from the bible: 

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. There are no other commands greater than these" 


Rich or poor, on welfare or not, from this country or from another country, lower class, middle class, upper class, on disability, working 50 hours a week, etc - It doesn't matter. We are all God's children and we should love one another. Let God handle the rest...