Update!

UPDATE:  I have great news worth sharing tonight!  An old friend of mine contacted me this morning wanting to know more about Jesus. By the grace of God I was able to lead that person to Christ tonight!  The angels in heaven are rejoicing over another person being saved!  Help me celebrate with a new sister in Christ!  All praise goes to God!

Close Talker

Are you a close talker?  Do you know a close talker?  I think everyone has come across someone that has been a little too close to us while we were in a conversation with them. The TV sitcom “Seinfeld” had a whole half hour show about a close talker.

What makes us so uncomfortable about someone being right up in our face like that?  Is it the possibility that we might smell their breath and what they just had to eat?  Or is it that we feel we may not have enough time to dodge a sneeze if it was to happen?  I don’t know about you, but I just don’t feel comfortable with someone that close up to me unless it’s my beautiful bride or kids.

I do know someone that loves close talkers: God. When we pray to God it’s almost as if we are face to face with Him and there is no one else in the world but us and Him. Picture your prayer life as being a close talker with God. Like you are right there nose to nose with Him telling Him all things as He intently listens. He has no concerns with you being that close; in fact He loves it. The closer the better.

I have to be honest, I wish my prayer life was better sometimes. You could probably say the same thing about your own prayer life at times. What I do know, is that when my prayer life is where it’s supposed to be, I feel like I’m closer to God. I feel like I am in step with everything He wants me to do. But when my prayer life is lacking it feels like I’m miles away. I know He hasn’t moved; it’s me.

I need to do a better job talking with God, how about you?  Let us all work on be close talkers with God.  Let’s get face to face with Him on a more regular basis.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12

Have a great day and God bless.

Celebrate Good Times

“Celebrate good times, come on!” (I bet you’ll be singing that song for the next hour now). It’s that time of year once again to get together with friends and family to celebrate the holidays. It starts with Thanksgiving and then moves to Hanukkah or Christmas or Kwanza or even Festivus(whatever you celebrate), and it comes to an end on New Year’s Eve. All these man-made holidays give us a reason to celebrate.

We have so many other things to celebrate throughout the year: little things that deserve celebrating. These events can even be daily accomplishments that need to be celebrated. Things like losing that last pound of weight you’ve been trying to get rid of for the longest time. That promotion you’ve deserved for years. The daily victory of overcoming some addiction you’ve been battling all your life whether it’s food or alcohol or drugs or something else. Celebrate those little things, those little victories that keep us going for the next day.

By celebrating those milestones, we open our hearts to joy and thankfulness for the small things in our lives. The Apostle Paul told the believers in Philippi to “rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice!” Celebrate all things and praise God for the things He allows in your life.

As Christians, we have things to celebrate every day: our salvation first and foremost, and the fact that we are one day closer to the return of the Lord to take us with Him so that “we shall forever be with the Lord”. If you can’t  celebrate at least those two things every day, then you better check yourself.

Have a great day and let me know when you stop sing that song lyric “Celebrate good times, come on!”  God bless.

Walking the Walk

If you’re going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk!  How many times have you heard that phrase before?  It could never be more true than in the Christian life. The way you live your life better match up with the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ when you share it.

The story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 reminded me of this truth when I taught it this past Sunday at church. Just the first five verses show us how important our walk is when we want to share about God.

Naaman was the main commander of the Syrian army and the text emphasizes how great a man he was. But he was dying from leprosy with no cure for this disease at that time.

In the same text is a young Jewish girl that was a servant, or maiden, to Naaman’s wife. She was probably captured during one of Naaman’s military events and she was made a servant in his household. She was evidently privy to conversations between Naaman and his wife about his disease. This maiden tells her master that she wishes he was in her homeland of Samaria because there was a man of God there (Elisha) that could heal him of his disease.

This must have been relayed to Naaman because he goes to the king of Syria asking for permission to go to Samaria to find Elisha. This is what made me think of walking the walk and talking the talk.

Why would this commander, the second most powerful man in Syria, take the advice from this little Jewish servant girl?  It had to be because they had seen the life she lived under their roof. I assume she did all she was asked to do and probably some things she wasn’t asked to as well. She lived a life of service to the God of Israel that Naaman and his wife did not worship.

When it was time for her to speak up, her life gave additional credence to the words she spoke. They saw in her a faith in God that had an effect on these two non-believers. So much so that they were willing to take her advice and seek after Elisha.

Naaman found Elisha and he gave him instructions to be healed. By faith Naaman followed the instructions and was healed of his leprosy. All because a little servant girl lived a life faithful to God and was willing to speak up when the opportunity showed itself.

Do people look at our lives and see that we are different?  Do they see that we don’t follow after the things of this world? Do we speak about what Christ did for us when the opportunity presents itself?  The power of life and death are in how we live our lives and if we share the Good News of the Gospel when we have the opportunity.

Have a great day and God bless.

Too Young to Die

It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 years already since my father passed away. I remember getting the news and I was devastated. My dad was much too young to have died this early. The thing is, we never know when our time here on earth will come to an end.

My dad was always a great man in my eyes. He was a high school athlete in football, basketball and baseball. He was a military man that served his country in the Vietnam War. He received the Purple Heart and Silver Star for his injuries and valor. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He loved to joke and pick with the people he loved and cherished as friends.

His service to our country is what ultimately cost him his life. He contracted leukemia from his exposure to Agent Orange and fought the good fight all the way to the end. It had gotten so aggressive that they were trying experimental drugs on him to see if they could slow it down. In the end, the disease won and he passed away.

I miss my dad dearly every day and wish he was around for his advice and to just talk about life and baseball. Life is precious and we need to love our family and friends while we still have the opportunity to do so.

I pray that you share with your family and friends that death isn’t the end. We have all of eternity to spend in one of two places: heaven  or hell. Make sure your loved ones know that the only way to heaven is by accepting the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. God loves you so much He sent His Son to die in your place so that He could spend eternity with you in His presence. If you don’t know Christ as your Savior, contact me and I would love to share with you how you can be saved.

Have a great day and God bless.

White Knuckles

White knuckle driving. I had my hands wrapped around the steering wheel so tight that the knuckles on my hands were white and cramped. The rain was coming down so hard and the spray from the tires of all cars and tractor trailers made visibility almost zero. Of course that didn’t matter to some drivers as they weaved in and out at eighty miles per hour.

I admit, I was pretty nervous driving in those conditions. I had a lot of valuable items in the minivan: my wife and two kids. I was watching what was going on in front of me, on all sides of me, and behind me with intense scrutiny to make sure we were safe.

As we were driving through this mess, I looked in the rear view mirror and there was my daughter on her iPad and my son watching a movie. They did not have a single concern of what we were traveling through. They completely trusted me that I was going to do everything in my power to get them to their destination safely: home!

They never once told me how to drive, never told me what lane I should be in, never told me that I was going too fast or too slow, and they didn’t give me any instructions on what exits to take. They trusted me to do what was best for them.

Do we trust God the same way my kids trusted me?  Do we live life fully knowing that He is doing everything in His power to get us safely to our final destination: Heaven!

Or do we constantly offer our suggestions on how He should be doing things, or what lane we think He should have us in, or maybe that He has things going too slow for our liking, or maybe even telling Him what exits we think we should be getting off?

God has our best interests in mind. He created us and knows every hair on our heads. He knows our past and already knows our future. If we can trust our eternity to Him, why can’t we trust our present to Him as well?  Trust that He knows what’s best for you and let Him be God.

Have a great day and God bless.

Stuck in Traffic

There is nothing worse than being stuck in traffic when you are trying to get home after being away all week. We had just left the hotel and we hadn’t been on the highway for more than five miles when we hit the first accident and came to a dead stop.

After about three more accidents along the way and inching along behind tractor trailers, we finally reached our destination. But it was definitely frustrating having to just sit and wait. It was pouring rain outside and being stuck behind the tractor trailers, you couldn’t see anything that was going on up in front of you. You just had to WAIT!

So it is in life!  Sometimes we feel as if we are just stuck; sitting in life and feeling like we are not making any progress. We live in an age where we want everything done quickly. We want our food quickly, we want our coffee quickly and sometimes we want answers in our life quicker.

Maybe it’s a job or a relationship; whatever it might be, we want things done quicker. We hate to have to wait. We want a microwave God; one that answers our prayers on our timing. We don’t have time to wait!

But God wants us to wait on Him. He wants us to trust Him and His timing. You may be waiting because there is something up ahead that He wants you to avoid. He may be having you wait to teach you to be patient and trust Him. Being stuck may be for our benefit.

You may be stuck because there is something in your life that is keep you back from moving forward. God may be keeping you where you are because you are not ready to move yet. Whatever it may be, be patient during this time of waiting and trust that God will have you move when the time is right.  Keep praying. Keep trusting. And keep being patient.

Have a great day and God bless.

The Way of the Cross

“The way of the Cross leads home!”  That old hymn came to mind yesterday as we drove back to North Carolina from New York. When you come into the state of Virginia on Interstate 81 after leaving West Virginia, there is a huge iron cross on the property of a church right along the highway. It has to be five stories high and looks like scaffolding. It is painted white and is lit up at night for all to see.

As we kept traveling south, about thirty minutes after that first large cross, there are three huge wooden crosses up on a hill that can once again be seen from the highway (the picture shows these three crosses).

I was further reminded that we were back in the Bible Belt as church after church could be seen along the side of the highway as we continued traveling south through Virginia towards home. As we were traveling, that old hymn came to mind, “The Way of the Cross Leads Home”,  and I’ve been singing it ever since (and I’m not a good singer):

I must needs go home by the way of the cross,
There's no other way but this;
I shall ne'er get sight of the gates of light,
If the way of the cross I miss.

Chorus:
The way of the cross leads home, (leads home,)
The way of the cross leads home; (leads home;)
It is sweet to know as I onward go,
The way of cross leads home.

I must needs go on in the blood sprinkled way,
The path that the Savior trod,
If I ever climb to the heights sublime,
Where the soul is at home with God. [Chorus]

Then I bid farewell to the way of the world,
To walk in it nevermore,
For the Lord says, "Come," and I seek my home
Where He waits at the open door. [Chorus]

As Christians, our eternal home is a place called heaven and the only way we get there is by way of the Cross.

Have a great day and God bless.

Black Friday Deal

Best. Deal. Ever. That’s what all the advertisements will try to sell you on today. Black Friday: the biggest shopping day of the year. Everyone out shopping for deals for all of their Christmas presents. The roads are packed, traffic is terrible, you can’t find a parking spot and the checkout lines are a mile long. All for that advertised deal to save some money.

We are currently on our way back to North Carolina from New York and celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. We pick this day every year to travel back in hopes that most people will be shopping and not on the interstate. That’s what I think is a good deal.

If you think that the Black Friday deals are good, I have the best deal ever for you. Imagine if someone would take the penalty on themselves for all of the bad things you have done in your entire life. Imagine being sentenced before a judge for some crime you had committed and all of a sudden someone you don’t know says, “I’ll serve the punishment for him/her.”  What would you do?  Would you argue with them and tell them that wasn’t necessary and that you will serve the time yourself?

About 2000 years ago, on a Black Friday, Jesus Christ did just that for you. He hung on the Cross as payment for your sins and not His own. He was willing to take your punishment even though He had not committed the crime. But man is so hard hearted that he is unwilling to take the gift. Instead of accepting the free gift of Christ, man is more willing to say “no thank you” instead of humbling himself and accepting the free gift of Christ.

What is keeping you from that free gift?  Is it pride?  Is it that you don’t believe that it could be that easy?  Or maybe you have never heard this Good News. Please message me if you want to know more. I would love to explain to you the free gift of accepting Jesus Christ.

If you have already accepted Christ as your Savior; AMEN!  I look forward to spending eternity with you in the presence of God.

Have a great day and be careful out there. God bless.

Be the One

Be the one!!!  Be that one person that stands out from the rest as being a person that is thankful and grateful for all the things you have in your life. It doesn’t matter if the things or events that occur in your life are great things or if they are just small events; be thankful and grateful for them.

Luke 17 tells us a story of ten lepers that were living apart from all of society because the Law of Moses forced them to. They were in a community filled with only other people just like them, sick with not possibility of being cured. They were pretty much sentenced to a slow death among others that were slowly dying as well. But by God’s grace, Jesus passed through that area.

As you can imagine, they called out to Him, asking Jesus for His mercy on them. They knew that He was the only answer to their death penalty. He went to them and healed them of the terrible disease. As they went away so extremely happy to have their lives back and able to go back to their families and society in general, only one turned and went back to Jesus to thank Him for what He had done. Only one!

Be the one!  Be thankful for all that God has done for you and all that He has blessed you with. We have so much to be thankful for!

I’m thankful for my family: my beautiful wife and kids, my family in New York and my family in North Carolina, my friends in both places and my brothers and sister in Christ. But most of all, I’m thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ, that took the penalty of this sinner and accepted me into the family of God even though He knows me better than anyone. He still thought I was worth dying for. Thank you Jesus!!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow and God bless.

The Narrow Road

“Those are some seriously narrow roads!”  I have never realized how narrow some of the roads are in the middle of town in my hometown in New York. I was remind yesterday as we drove through. My wife mentioned how nerve wracking it was to drive through that short stretch.

The road is barely wide enough for two cars to park along the curbs and then two more cars to pass each other on the street, especially if one of those vehicles is a tractor trailer. The locals don’t seem to even think twice about it and neither did I growing up; it was all I ever knew. But now coming back only once a year it really drew my attention.  I’m sure that truck drivers try to avoid this section of road whenever they can.

It got me thinking about what the Bible says about the narrow way.  "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  This Christian life isn’t easy and the way can be hard at times but the reward is great. The road the world wants you to follow is wide and easy to follow and the world just follows along but the path leads to destruction.

When I wasn’t a Christian, I really never thought about the road I was on; it was all I ever knew and the same road everyone else was traveling as well. But now that I have been away from that life for quite a while, it stands out rather dramatically as I look back, just like the narrow roads in my hometown. Sometimes it just takes a different perspective and some time to see things how they really are. I never knew I was on the wrong road until I got off and looked back at it from the correct road; the narrow road.

What road are you traveling in life?  The wide one that everyone else is on that ultimately leads to destruction?  Or the narrow road that is hard and not as well traveled but leads to eternal life?  The choice is yours. You need to decide today.

Have a great day and God bless.

Why Does God Allow Evil?

Traveling almost 700 miles over two days from North Carolina to New York for the Thanksgiving holiday will really show you the good and evil in people. Watching how people drive and interact with other drivers will show you the evil in people’s hearts. God forbid you pullout in front of someone to get out from behind a tractor trailer or if you happen to be going a bit slower than they want to be going.

It got me to thinking, “Why does God allow evil into the world when He could just get rid of it so easily?”  I mean you watch the news and that’s all that they show. People killing other people, people hating each other and because they believe something different, or just the fury of nature with the fires in California. Couldn’t He just fix all of this?

Of course He could. But God created us with free will which allows us to choose between good and evil. If God wanted there to be no evil in the world, He would have had to create us like robots that are programmed just to do as they’re told. God didn’t want robots, He wanted His creation to actively choose to follow Him and by doing such, He gave mankind free will to choose.

However, with free will, man has the ability to choose evil instead of good. Even the created angelic beings have the free will to choose to serve God or not to. Satan and a third of the angelic host chose not to follow God and instead revolted against Him and were ultimately cast out of heaven. If angels, who served God directly and had access to Him, were able to freely choose evil over good, so man, who hasn’t seen God directly, can also choose the same path.

Evil exists because God loves us and wants us to choose to have a relationship with Him. How weird would your relationship be with your spouse if they were forced to love you instead of choosing to do so. I don’t believe that would be a relationship worth being in and that’s not the relationship God wants to be in with us. He wants us to actively pursue and love Him just like He actively pursues and loves us.

This free will has a negative consequence called evil. Evil exists not because God can’t get rid of it or cannot control its existence, it exists because God loves us so much He wants us to freely choose good (Him) over evil (Satan). What, or who, have you chosen?

Have a great day and God bless.

No one sees the Wizard

“No one gets in to see the Wizard. Not nobody. Not no how.”  As we drove from North Carolina towards New York yesterday, the kids were watching videos on the DVD player and our daughter watched the Wizard of Oz. I could only hear the movie as I was driving and this part of the movie really stuck out to me as I listened to the interaction between the Wizard and Dorothy and her friends.

After they finally got in to see him because of Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, they all make their plea to the Wizard to get the things that they were missing in their lives. Dorothy wanted to go home to Kansas. The Scarecrow wanted a brain. The Tin Man wanted a heart. And the Cowardly Lion wanted courage. The Wizard sends them out to bring back the broom of the wicked Witch of the West and he would grant them their wishes.

The world, and sometimes Christians, see God in the same way. They feel that if they complete some task or some set of works that God will be pleased with them and finally accept them and give them their hearts desires. Unfortunately, God doesn’t work that way. There is nothing we can do within our own strength or anything we can complete that would make us acceptable to God. Even all the works that Mother Teresa did are considered dirty rags in the sight of God.

We can never “do” enough to earn access or favor with God, the Bible makes that clear. We can only come to God in faith and belief in what His Son, Jesus Christ, did on the Cross of Calvary.

The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians that “by grace we have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast.”  Heaven would be hell if we had to spend all of eternity listening to how much good everyone had done to get there. Instead, everyone will have the same story, they got their because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and that’s it. All praise will go to God and not ourselves. Oh what a day!!!

Have a great day and God bless.

Run Your Own Race

“Run your own race!”  Or as my sister tells my nephew all the time, “Drive your own bus!”  We spend too much of our time comparing our lives and the things we have to others around us. We try to “keep up with the Joneses” or what the world tells us we should be doing, what we should own or what we should look like.

Jennifer and I had the opportunity a few weekends ago to run in the Rugged Maniac mud run in Greensboro with a great group of friends. It was cold and wet and extremely muddy. We had been preparing to complete this 5k and 25 obstacle course for quite a few months, but there was really no preparing for this.

We left off with a large group of people of all shapes and sizes, of all ages and of all different physical abilities. An hour and a half later, our group of 11 runners finished the race together. We stuck with one another and made sure everyone made it through each obstacle. We cheered each other on and we lent a helping hand when needed.

As we were about halfway through the course, I started noticing that groups of runners that were released in heats after ours were starting to pass us. I realized that some of the runners were not running just to finish like we were, they were running to compete against a time or a personal best. We were just trying to finish with no injuries!!!

My competitive spirit from long ago started to rise up inside of me and I started to think “I need to run this again some time and just try to do my best.”  Then reality came back to me and I said, “I’m 46 years old and I don’t need to show my long lost athletic ability any longer!”  I was worried about the other racers and not my own race.

As Christians, we need to worry about our own race. We need to concentrate on what God has called us to do and not compare our Christian walk with someone else’s. God doesn’t want us to race someone else’s race, He wants us to run our’s.

Our race contains obstacles and trials that are meant for us. Some of us go through cancer, some go through divorce, others go through death of a child or a spouse or a parent. That is our race and those are the obstacles that God has for us to overcome. We look at other people and usually have no idea what obstacles they have overcome in their lives or what obstacles they are currently tackling.  We shouldn’t judge our lives to others and we shouldn’t judge their lives to ours.

The Apostle Paul told Timothy in his last letter to him, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  Paul had his own race that God sent him on and he was imploring Timothy to run his own race. Timothy’s race was not going to be the same as Paul’s, he was going to have his own obstacles to overcome. My race is not your race. Your obstacles are not mine. We may go through similar things, but never exactly the same. We must continue to pray for one another for strength to finish our race.

Have a great day and God bless.

Change

CHANGE!!!  This word has been on my mind so much this past week as I’ve been sharing my story. As I wrote each post, I notice how many changes took place in my life through each part of the story. Change is not always easy and not always clear in which direction to go.

Change usually comes about in two ways: either we make the choice to change something in our lives or circumstances force us into the change. The first one seems easier because we feel we are in control of the decision while the second one seems scary because we have no control. The fact is that both can be scary. “Did I make the right decision to change?”  Or, “why is this happening to me?”

Sometimes God wants us to change but we are reluctant to follow his calling because we are too frightened to leave our current state of  familiarity. God may patiently wait on us to finally trust him and make the change on our own or He may cause events to happen in our lives to make us change.

It reminds me of the story of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 17. He had just given King Ahab the bad news that God was going to cause a drought on Israel because of their idolatry. God instructed Elijah to go to a brook called Cherith and the ravens would bring him food daily and he could drink from the brook.

Elijah must have felt that life was great. He was safe, well fed and well watered. He was content with his current location and lifestyle. But God had more work for him to do so that the idolatrous nation of Israel would know the power and glory of God, so He dried up that brook forcing Elijah to move on out of his comfort zone.

Have you felt (or maybe you are going through it right now), that God has dried up your brook. Maybe He feels distant and not working in your life. Have you not done something He is leading you to do and now He is forcing you to go?  Maybe it’s a job, a relationship or a move to a new location. You know in your heart what He is asking you to do. Have you responded?

God has work for each of us to do. He doesn’t want us to stay in our comfort zones for long periods of time. Sure, there are times He allows us to rest but He doesn’t expect us to believe our jobs are done here. There are no retired Christians. What has He been calling you to CHANGE?

Have a great day and God bless.

That’s My Story

“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!” is what country artist Collin Raye sang back in the 90’s.  Many of you have been following along as I shared my story. I didn’t tell you all of my story but just enough for you to understand how God was in control of the whole thing even if I wasn’t interested in Him. It’s so much easier to see now looking back over my life.

That’s the great thing about sharing your own story; people can’t argue what you went through and what you experienced. They can argue your interpretation of the Bible, they can argue your doctrine and they can argue your theology. But they cannot (and will not by the way) argue your story of how God changed your life.  People listen to your story as was evident by how many people started following this little page since I started telling my story.

Your story creates a connection with people because they see themselves in parts of our story and they can relate. They become part of the story and they start to feel what you felt. Have you ever been scared to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people because you felt you didn’t know enough about the Bible?  Share your story!  People don’t want to be preached to, they want to know how it will change their lives.

What’s your story?  Have you ever just sat down and thought through how God changed your life?  How He was there when you needed Him most that people would see how God worked in your life. Our story should never focus on our triumphs but should focus on God’s glory. We use our story to point others to His story. This life isn’t about our story it’s about His and it’s a pretty simple story.

Man was separated from God because of our sin. God wanted to restore that relationship but needed someone to pay for our sins. Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and lived a sinless life. He was crucified, died and rose again as payment for our sins to satisfy the wrath of God. If we put our faith in Christ that he is the Son of God and He took our place on the Cross, we can be saved from our sins. It’s that simple. No rules, no works, just faith and the grace of God.

Message me if you want to know more. If you think my story would bless your church, or your Sunday School class, or your group, I would love to come speak for you; just message me.

Have a great rest of your day and God bless.

My Story - Part 5

Failure. Fake. Fraud. All thing I felt like after I made a major mistake in my life. I was a new Christian and an even newer husband. How could I let something like this happen to me?  Had I really become a Christian or was I just playing a game?

All these questions went through my mind after making a major mistake in my life, an almost catastrophic mistake. My whole life was falling apart and I was questioning my new faith in Christ. Was it real?  How was I going to get through this?

It was hard, I’m not going to lie. I lost people that were in my life that I thought were friends but they were just acquaintances. My wife showed me what it meant to be a Christian and so did her family and a handful of friends (they know who they are) as they stood right beside me during this difficult time.

It changed my life. It changed my relationships. It change my relationship with Christ. I had accepted Him as my Savior and I knew that I was saved, but I had never turned my life over to Him as Lord, to use it as He saw fit. I wanted to still hold on to my old life (that life in Egypt I wrote about), but still try to live this new life as a Christian.

It doesn’t work and I found that out the hard way.  I don’t think I’m the only Christian that has gone through this, especially living so long not being a Christian and now starting this new life that was foreign to me. It was this event in my life that really made me look at what being a Christian meant. I think a lot of people get saved and then that’s it. They have their security blanket that they are going to heaven and they are fine with just that, but they never really go to the next step - that was me.

There came a point in time that I finally gave my entire life to the Lord and submitted to His will and not my own. Once I did that, my life really changed. My marriage changed. My priorities changed. My goals changed. I don’t live like I used to because I’m no longer the person I used to be.

My pastor made me a teacher of the adult Sunday School class at church. I started filling in for him when he wasn’t available for services. I went back to school and got my Masters degree in Theology. I fill in at churches when they need someone to speak. God has blessed me with the ability for my wife to stay home with the kids and homeschool our daughter. All these things are not for me to brag about but to give glory to Him who provides these thing because of finally giving over my life for His glory.

Is my life perfect?  No, but it is better being in His will than trying to follow after my own. This life will never be perfect, but as a Christian, this life is only temporary. My home is in heaven, I’m just here to glorify Him until my time is up.

Even when we are not faithful to Him, He is always faithful to us.

Have a great day and God bless.

My Story - Part 4

Yadkin Plaza Restaurant!  Who would have ever thought that would be where love would start?  This is where a young lady first caught my eye and later stole my heart.

It was a teacher work day and I had been going through some rough events in my life and was not looking for a relationship of any sort. I walked in to the restaurant and saw her across the room. She was sitting with my former teaching partners so I had an instant “in”. I went over to their table and was introduced to Jennifer, my future bride. After we left the restaurant I immediately called over to the school to talk to the teacher she was doing her student teaching under to find out about her relationship status; she was single.

We went on our very first date the next day and I also met her parents that day when I went to pick her up. We went to lunch and a little shopping because school was closed due to snow. We’ve been together ever since that first date.

She was a lot different than I was. Her and her family were very much involved in the church and I was as far away from the church as one could possibly be. But Jennifer and her family accepted me just as I was with no pressure whatsoever to change or conform to their standards. They just accepted and loved on me.

I remember meeting them at their house for lunch on Sunday afternoon after they had gone to church and I had not. Still no pressure from them to join them but I saw something different in her family that I had never experienced before. It was a love that I just couldn’t put my finger on.

The more my relationship grew with Jennifer, the more time I wanted to spend with her and that meant church. I started meeting them at church on Sunday morning services only. Then it progressed to Sunday School before service too. Then it was Sunday night service and finally Wednesday night service as well. Still I was never pressured by Jennifer or her family to go but the more often I went the more my eyes were opened to my need for a Savior.

I don’t remember the exact day, but it was during the Christmas season, and I was laying in my bed one night and it hit me like a ton of bricks. If I were to die tonight, I would have to spend my eternity paying for my own sins in a place called hell. The message was clear: I needed someone who had already paid for my sins at the Cross of Calvary and His name was Jesus Christ. That night, laying in my bed, I accepted Christ’s death on the Cross as payment for my sins and cried out to Him to save me from the punishment of my sins that He had already paid for.

That night I got “saved”.  All I had to do was put my faith in what He did and that it was sufficient for my sins (it is!). Praise God my eternity is sealed in heaven.

I am forever grateful to my wife and her family for being the example of what loving Christ means in a nonjudgmental and loving way.  It was them leading me to Christ instead of pushing me to Him that I am thankful for. They patiently waited on me “to come to myself”, like the prodigal son, and see my need without pressure. Thank you!  I can never repay you for praying for me.

I was now saved and a born-again Christian, but that didn’t mean life automatically became perfect. I’ll tell you about my rough start to this thing called Christianity tomorrow.

Have a great day and God bless.

My Story - Part 3

I got a phone call late one Tuesday night. I had spent all summer sending applications down to NC and heard nothing, and then all of a sudden I got the call. I packed that night and left Wednesday morning. I interviewed on Thursday and start teaching first grade on Friday.

What a whirlwind that week was. From starting a fill-in teaching job in Massachusetts Tuesday morning to leaving on Wednesday and teaching in North Carolina on Friday. I left with only my clothes and my car.

I was in a strange new world with people I had a hard time understanding what the heck they were saying. Looking back now, my new teaching partners were some of the nicest people I have ever met. They took in this northern boy right from day one, but I soon realized I was living in a whole new world.

I can’t tell you how many times in the first few weeks of moving here that I was asked if I had found a place to go to church or if I would like to go to church with someone. As I told you in my last post, people didn’t do that in NY. Your religious life was your personal life and you didn’t ask people if they went to church or if they wanted to go to church with you.

This concept of being asked to church pushed me even further away from wanting to go. I did try a couple times just to be nice but it never “stuck”.

When I started teaching at the high school the invitations changed from other teachers asking me, to now my students were asking me to go or where I was currently going. I used to make fun of them for asking me. I was downright mean sometimes. I remember one girl in my class witnessing to me about my spiritual condition and I made fun of her that I must be better than she was because she was the one that had to go to church three times a week and not me. Oh how I feel for that girl now and how I treated her, and she was one of the sweetest students I ever had. She was just concerned about me and I must have made her feel horrible. I’ve never had a chance to apologize to her for that, but if I see her again that will be the first thing I do.

I was going on with my life in my own little happy world until it was turned upside down. As most stories go.......I met a girl.

I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

Have a great rest of your day and God bless.

My Story - Part 2

I told you about my childhood and teen years in yesterday’s post and how I grew up in a moral home but not a Christian home. I’ll continue my story with my experience in college.

I ended up going to a Catholic college in Albany, NY called the College of Saint Rose. I didn’t go because of its religious affiliation but because it was a school that offered me a chance to play both soccer and baseball at the collegiate level. It also had a nationally recognized art program that I was able to get into.

More than 50% of my college professors outside of my art classes were nuns. I had professors that went by the names of Sister Tess and Sister Agnes Rose.  The school used to be an all girl school until the late 70’s or early 80’s.

For three of the four years that I went to college there, I lived within 200 yards of the Catholic church on the corner. There were students that went to church regularly, but I was not one of them. I did not step foot in that church one time in my four years there and really had no interest in anything “religious” at all. I went to school there for art, sports and girls (probably in reverse order).

The nuns that I mentioned, Sister Tess and Sister Agnes Rose, we’re both huge sports fans. They came to the soccer games, the basketball games and the baseball games and would talk to me about games I played in that they attended. However, they never once asked me about going to church or my religious beliefs. Looking back I find that kind of odd that my spiritual well-being wasn’t as important to them as my athletic well-being.

After four years of college, I received my degree in elementary education and moved back home. After a year of teaching I got an opportunity to interview for a teaching position in North Carolina.

I’ll continue my story tomorrow about my move to the Bible Belt.

Have a great rest of your day and God bless.

My Story - Part 1

What’s your story?  Everybody has one. We have stories about all sorts of things that have happened in our lives: becoming parents, buying a car or a house, going through a divorce, battling addiction, the loss of a loved one and so on. We have a story of our lives only we can tell and personal stories have a deep impact on those who hear it because it somehow draws them in and connects you to them.

Over the next series of posts I’m going to tell you “my story” of how I came to know Christ and accept Him as my Savior. Each one of us who are Christians have a different story on how we have received the grace of God and it’s your story that only you can tell. The advantage of sharing your story is that no one can argue with your personal experience. Here goes!

I wasn’t born into a family that would be considered a Christian family. I would say it was more of a moral family. We were taught the difference between right and wrong, we were taught how to be respectful and how to be the best people we could be. But there was no Bible in our house, we didn’t bow our heads in prayer and thank God for His blessings on us or our food, and we weren’t drug to church every Sunday.

I don’t know if it was because of my grandparents urging or because of the fact that friends of my parents were doing it with their kids, but we went to Sunday School every once in a while at the local Catholic Church in our hometown. We went through all of the ceremonial practices of the Church: first communion and confirmation. I would even go to mass sometimes after Sunday school after begging my parents to come back and get me an hour later because some of my other friends happened to be going that Sunday. Most of the mass we just messed around in the pew and didn’t pay a bit of attention.

After I made my confirmation in eighth grade, I would say I maybe went occasionally on Easter and Christmas (usually because a girl was going too).  Religion was not a big part of my life and it wasn’t something I was interested in. Looking back I don’t remember it ever being a topic of conversation amongst any of my friends nor did I ever remember my parent’s friends talking about church. It was something that was very private to people.

In my next post I’ll share my story of my college experience at a Catholic school.

Have a great day and God bless.

Hide and seek

I find it funny to watch little children try to hide something that they did wrong. Having a two year old allows me to watch first hand how far a little guy will go to try to hide something that he knows he did wrong.

It amazes me to see the depth of their knowledge as to what is right and what is wrong. Some of it is learned from past experiences but a lot of it is intrinsic to their nature. We are all born with that sin nature and leaning to break the rules before we learn to follow them.

It’s no different when we grow up and learn to better hide our sins as teenagers. We think we have become masters at keeping things from our parents but as I’ve gotten older I have learned that my parents knew more about what I used to do than I thought they did. As adults, we continue to work hard to hide certain sins in our lives and other sins are now labeled as our “personality”.

The events of Calvary show us two main things. First, it shows how far man is willing to go to protect his sins. Second, Calvary shows how far God is willing to go to save man from his sins.

Jesus, the perfect Son of God, who committed no sin, was willing to sacrifice His own life to pay for the sins of the world. Man was willing to crucify Christ in order to satisfy their own pride as religiously superior.

Are you holding on to your own pride so hard that you are willing to sacrifice the love of God, and what He did for you through Jesus Christ on Cavalry, or are you willing to humble yourself and call out to God for salvation?  It’s the most important decision you will ever make; eternity depends on it.

Have a great day and God bless.

Been there, done that

This guy is walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.

A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, “Hey you. Can you help me out?”  The doctor writes out a prescription and throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a priest walks by and the guy shouts up, “Father, I’m down in this hole, can you help me out?”  The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a friend walks by, “Hey Joe, it’s me can you help me out?”  And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, “Are you stupid?  Now we’re both down here.”

The friend says, “Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.”

We go through various things in our lives that God allows us to go through, good or bad. Sometimes those things are to discipline us, sharpen us like iron or maybe refine us like precious metal. Other times the things we go through may not even be for our benefit but for the benefit of someone else that has yet to go through it.

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church in his second letter to them, that we serve a God of mercy that comforts us in our affliction so that we may comfort others going through that same affliction in a manner similar to how God has comforted us.

Who’s going through something in their lives right now that you have already been through and know the way out?  Reach out to them and comfort them through these difficult times.

Have a great rest of your day and God bless.

What happened to our Parents?

What happened to our parents?  The same people who ruled over us with an iron fist, that kicked us under the table, pinched us on the arm or leg, or gave us that death stare straight from Satan himself when we misbehaved. All of a sudden they became grandparents and all rules seemed to go out the window.

It amazes me the things that our kids get away with at our parent’s house that we wouldn’t even imagine doing when we were young.  Now our kids are allowed to jump on the furniture and eat chocolate whenever they want it. What happened to the response “you’re legs ain’t broken” when we asked them to get us something?  Now when the grandkids ask for something they jump off the chair like it was spring loaded.

Why couldn’t they be our grandparents when we were growing up instead of our parents?  They’re much more laid back now then they used to be but I guess they thought the same thing about their parents when we were little.

As Christians, sometimes we expect God to act like our grandfather instead of our father.  We hope that He will just shrug off our sins or look the other way. When we willing choose not to obey Him and instead choose to sin, we can expect consequences for our actions. If we have accepted Christ as our Savior, the consequences won’t be eternal, but there will be consequences for our actions here on earth.

God has no grandchildren, only sons and daughters, so we need to stop thinking that God will treat us like our parents treat our kids. We have a Heavenly Father and not a Heavenly Grandfather.

Have a great night and God bless.

A Love that’s Multiplied

When I first became a father to our daughter over ten years ago, I never thought I could ever love something more than I loved that little girl. We tried for years to have another child and thought maybe I was just too old and it wasn’t in God’s plan for our lives to have more than one child. We got to the point that we sold all the baby stuff we had held onto in hopes that another one may come along soon.

I now know that God has a great sense of humor because on Father’s Day, after almost everything was sold, my wife told me she was pregnant and we were going to have another child. I couldn’t tell you how excited I was to find out we were going to have a little boy to go along with our beautiful daughter.

In all honesty, I was quite scared as well. I had never experienced that type of love that you have when you become a parent for the first time and realize through God’s grace you created another human being.  Now I was going to have to share that love with another child. It scared me that one child may receive more love than the other and that my love for both of them would now have to be divided.

When our son was born I learned a great lesson; my love for my two children was not divided, but it was multiplied. God’s love for us works the same way. As people accept Christ as their Savior, God’s love for His family is not divided but it is multiplied. What a great Truth we have about the love of God!  Don’t be afraid to share the message of Christ because in doing so, and making converts, God’s love is multiplied into the lives of the new believer.

Have a great night and God bless.

Rescue the Perishing

Even though Jonah is an Old Testament prophet, as Christians we can use his life as an example for our own. Jonah was full of religious pride feeling that the grace and salvation

of God should only be for his people, the Jews. However, God had a plan for the Gentiles that lives in Nineveh and Jonah wasn’t happy about it.

We can learn three things from Jonah that sometimes cause us as Christians to keep the message of Jesus Christ and his work on the Cross for our sins to ourselves.

First, Jonah didn’t have a Godly love for those in Nineveh that were perishing.  Jonah thought God’s forgiveness was only for the Jews and he didn’t care that the people of Nineveh were going to be judged if he didn’t share God’s message. Do we look at people and think that God’s forgiveness isn’t for them because of how they are currently living or things they did in their past?

Second, Jonah wasn’t right with God himself. He ran from God as far and as fast as he could not to share God’s love. Do we find ourselves feeling unworthy of sharing the Gospel because we ourselves aren’t in fellowship with God?  Are we ashamed of what those we witness to might say about our own lives or be surprised we call ourselves Christians?

Finally, Jonah felt he had to have his own message to bring to the people of Nineveh when actually God just told him to “go” and he would provide the message when he obeyed. Do we feel inadequate because we don’t know what message to share or we don’t think we know enough about God’s Word?  It’s not about our message, it’s about God’s message!  The Holy Spirit will give us the words we need to share when we obey His call to do so.

Do you see people without Christ as perishing?  Are we in fellowship with God ourselves and living right?  Are we ready to share God’s message and not our own?

Have a great night and God bless.

A Second Chance God

Everyone knows the story of Jonah and the great fish, even unbelievers. However, Jonah being swallowed by the great fish isn’t the point of the story, in fact, the great fish is only mentioned in 3 verse out of four chapters.

The point of the story is that God is a God of second chances. He gave Jonah a second chance to go Nineveh as he was commanded after he came to himself in the belly of the fish. (That phrase “came to himself” is the same phrase used with the prodigal son).  God could have given up on Jonah and just let him die in the belly of that fish and sent someone else.  But God had a plan for Jonah and He had a plan for the people of Nineveh.

Jonah isn’t the only person in the story to receive a second chance, the people of Nineveh were about to get their opportunity at a second chance as well. In the end, both Jonah and Nineveh took advantage of the second chance God had provided them.

I don’t know about you, but I am glad that my God is a God of second chances!  If we are honest, most of us would probably admit that we are all far past just our second chance and have seen God give us more chances than we probably deserve.

Maybe you feel you have done too many things in your life for God to give you another chance; the Bible would prove that to be wrong. If you cry out to God, He’ll hear you and give you another chance to follow His will for your life!  We can’t go back and change things we’ve done, but we can keep going forward looking toward that future Tree of Life awaiting us.

Have a great evening and God bless.

Satan Provides a Boat Too

Jonah, the prophet of God, was called to go to Nineveh to warn an evil generation that they were going to be judged. Jonah had a high disdain for them because they weren’t Jews like him, but God called him to warn these people whether he liked it or not.

Jonah ran from God and made his way down to Joppa to find a boat that would get him to Tarshish. Satan made a ship available to him when he arrived and off he went in the opposite direction from where God had called him to go.

As Christians we need to be careful when we pray for God to open doors for us that they are actually from God and not Satan. Satan will make things available to us that we have been praying for that in reality take us from where God wants us. The opportunity looks just like what we’ve been praying for but actually takes us further from God or the things God wants for us.

Maybe it’s a new job or a new house or something else we’ve been praying for for a long time. It looks great on the surface but if we really search the opportunity it’s not from God at all. That new job may mean less time with your family or for church, maybe that new house takes away all your money to do the things your family loves or the money you used to tithe to church.

Searching for God’s will in new opportunities will let you know if they are from Him or if they are meant to draw you away from Him. Let the Holy Spirit have the freedom to work in your life and trust those little nudges from Him that something may not be right. God will never put you in a position that takes you away from Him.

Jonah quickly learned that the ship heading for Tarshish was not God’s will for his life (and so did the other sailors on that ship).

Have a good evening and God bless.

The Pleasures of Egypt

After more than 400 years of living in Egypt, the nation of Israel saw the miraculous power of God as He sent the ten plagues and then parted the Red Sea to save them from Pharaoh and the Egyptian army. Not long after, they lost their faith in the power of God as they wandered in the wilderness and times had gotten tough. They longed to go back to the pleasures of Egypt even though they were once in bondage there, but God had a better place ahead for them.

I completely understand their desire to go back to the familiar even though God has better plans for us up ahead. I didn’t come to know Christ as my Savior until I was in my 30’s and that time after becoming a Christian was hard. Just like Israel, I had spent so much of my life in “Egypt” it was hard to let go and I made some big mistakes early in my Christian life, but God had a better plan up ahead for me.

There’s a difference in knowing Jesus Christ as our Savior and knowing Him as our Lord. It was many years after accepting Christ as my Savior that I made Him my Lord also and the difference was outstanding. Not only did I trust him with my soul, now I trust him with my life, this life I’m living between the Trees.

Maybe you’re in the same position I was, you accepted Christ’s saving power but haven’t turned your life over to His lordship. Maybe you’re wondering why this Christian life seems so hard and why you keep being drawn back to Egypt. Turn your life over to Him as Lord and see the difference it will make.
Have a great night and God bless.

This is Paradise

We’ve all had those vacations, whether on a tropical island or a cabin in the mountains, where we thought to ourselves “this is paradise”. We’ve also faced the disappointment of having to pack up and leave on that last day. Imagine the feeling Adam and Eve had that day they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and access to the Tree of Life from was taken away and guarded by two angels with flaming swords. They were never going to be able to go back to their original state and could only turn around and move forward.
It’s hard not to look back on times and things we once had and find comfort and joy in those things only to know we can never have them back. Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom against God’s command and lost her life. The nation of Israel wanted to go back to the pleasures of Egypt while they wandered through the wilderness, but God had better things for them up ahead in the Promised Land.
As Christians, we can’t look back at our old lives and fall for the lies that this world has something better to offer us. As the Apostle Paul told the Philippians, and what we should do as Christians,  “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead”.
Our Tree isn’t back in the Garden, our Tree is up ahead in the New Jerusalem and it’s there for our nourishment and healing.
Have a great rest of your day and God bless.

Between Two Trees

I’ve heard many times that the symbol “~” found between the date of someone’s birth and someone’s death on their headstone represents their life. I’m pretty sure you won’t find that explanation anywhere in the Bible. However, all of humanity from Adam and Eve until eternity future will live between two trees. Genesis introduces us to the Tree of Life in the Garden and Revelation reintroduces us to this same Tree is Life in the New Jerusalem. We’ll look into what happens between these two Trees tomorrow. Good night and God bless.

Introduction

I created this page to offer some daily inspiration for this thing called life based upon Biblical principals. I would love for you to follow my page and comment when you feel led to.