What Counts

If you have ever heard the saying, Make your dash count, you will understand this. We all are born and then we die.....what happens in between is what matters. I was brought into introspection this past week as a good friend went to be with the Lord. His UNwillingness to be negative was an inspiration. He was always upbeat and thankful for those around him who were lifting him up in prayer and was always thankful to God for his provision. He really invoked in me some examination of myself. Am I willing to submit to being that faithful, even unto death? We always point to Jesus and his sacrifice to be an example as we should, but all around us daily are those here on earth that are going through struggles with grace and dignity. From another set of observations, also was witness to something that we should all be aware of. I was talking to someone about another person very close to me. They were extolling the virtues of that person highly and said they were always positive and never down. While we all know that to "never" be down is impossible we must realize there are those around us that need to vent sometimes. That person I am close to I have cried with many times and cried for privately many more times. Although we see the strong exterior of a person, be aware that we all have the need to let go of the armor and let down the wall sometimes. I pray I can be available when someone needs a shoulder or an ear. I can point to many individuals in my life that have made the dash count. I can also look to those in my past that are no longer with us and see their influence even in my life today. I can also see in hindsight those I have come into contact with that never seemed to get on track, always doing want seemed to be irreversible things that did them and everyone around them no good at all. Some doing major harm to people long after they have left their lives. The two are in stark contrast to one another. Have you ever been to a funeral of a person that by all assumptions is not spending eternity in Heaven? I think that is the hardest funeral a pastor will ever have to do, yet I have seen may get saved because they don't want to be where that person is. Giving of our selves in this life, is giving to the Lord. Writing about virtues and giving is easier said than done in this world I know. We all have a plethora of distractions and built in excuses to side step integrity. We all have moments where we look back and wish we had said or done something. While in reality a choice to do nothing, IS an action in and of itself. You make the choices to not do the right thing. I urge all of us today to look deep inside and see what we can do (as the song says) Live like we were dying. One of the greatest testimonies I have ever heard was one sentence long. My brother in law died of cancer. He was more than an in law, he and my sister were married prior to my birth, he WAS my brother. As he lay dying some of his very last words before he went to hug Jesus, he looked at my sister and said "I Love you....but I Love Jesus more" What a testimony to a life that had come full circle, for a man that realized many years before his death, that God was more important than earthly things. That we are called to make this life count. That we are called not unto ourselves or unto our own desires, we are called, we are equipped, we are blessed to be able to do What Counts every day until; Jesus, our one true Love comes and takes us to be with him. Amen

The Heart's True desire

Often times we sit back and try to remember the good ole days. We examine in our minds eye those times when we were most content, when the small things mattered, and the world seemed good. We create within us a memory of the things that were important, we forget the hurt, we forget the inconsequential failings of others. In a way we quietly forgive. They say times heals all wounds, and I believe that has some merit. Time gives us pause that we sometimes don't have otherwise, time passing gives us a reason to look back and to examine our motives, our hearts true desires. And isn't it just that? Our hearts true desire or it's true nature? Long ago before I was a Christian my hearts desire was that of any other sinner, worldly by any standard,  inherently sinful. But after the transformational power set in and given me by God's grace through the shed blood of Jesus dying for the sins of all mankind, it became new. My heart had a new nature, a new desire. Sometimes we tend to ruminate on past decisions and to place blame on others for their past mistakes. I was once reminded as to what happens when you hold something against another, it is like squeezing broken glass, it leaves you bloody and hurting, but does nothing to the other person. I am reminded daily to shed myself of the broken glass, throw out the hurt, and embrace the newness that comes with Christ Jesus. And yes I said daily, since we walk by faith and not by sight, we must continually put off the things that might push us away from our new nature, to try to see through the cloak that Satan changes every day that tries to snare us into believing that we can do it alone. Listen to me here, your heart knows nothing but what you place inside of it. We are built as people to worship God. We are designed with his purpose in mind, but we are born sinners through our (man's) selfish failing.  Although the path we walk as a Christian will sometimes be hard and rough, know that our heart when populated with God's grace will will allow us to fervently walk with faith the path laid before us. But take time today to be quiet. Take time to listen to your heart, it is in those quiet times that your hearts desire will be revealed to you, and if it is not what it should be, right then and there is the time to bring yourself back to a heart of worship. As the song reminds us that it should be all about him and not about us. A heart of worship brings about the contentment talked about in the bible, even through persecution. A contentment of daily contrast from the world because we know where our peace comes from. We know that our hearts desire is to walk with God daily through faith unto his Love everlasting!! And that is what a true heart of Love is all about!

All IS Well...God is Still in control!

I wrote this on the morning after the election. I made no bones about my stance, as I beleive there is a moral obligation for Christians to follow biblical values when voting so I do not apologize for being anti Obama when it comes to politics, but I just thought I would share some feelings and revelations I had right after the election was over....

 

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I woke up disheartened. I love to write so I sent a few emails. In most of them I talked of how God may be letting us walk the path we made. His plan may be for us to see the edge before pulling us back. He may use this to call us to himself. And a funny thing happened, I felt his voice, his calming reassurance that on an individual basis, he is still there, he is still in control and will still guide us a Christians through what could be a very trying time. Folks this may be a time of revival for this country, the silver lining is that when people search, God has the answers. We need to be proactive in getting this country on the right track, but we also need to use this as an opportunity to tell folks why we can go on(2Cor 12:9, Psalms 91:15). To tell them that God will give them rest (Matt 11: 28-30). Tell them that God will supply and not to worry (Phill 4:19) but most of all Do not be afraid, 2 Tim 1:7 says, "I did not give you a spirit of fear". Stand on those promises, give them out like candy to anyone depressed, because God may be allowing us walk this path, but he is also walking right beside us. I pray for peace on everyone that is despondant today, I ask that God gives you wisdom in your words, but most of all I pray contentment in knowing where you will spend eternity. Amen

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If this gives you encouragement good, if it shows you where God is in all of this good, but be advised, sometimes he lets us stew in our self pity,  he is still there beside us, but letting things ruminate for a while. Many times in the bible we read of men who were perplexed by what they saw as God being absent from their lives, but later on after much lamenting they find out that he never left, and the path they trod was in preperation for another one down the road. So do not farsake your time with God, he alone is our leader, our guide, our comforter. He alone is everlasting, uncontainable, all knowing. He alone gives us true peace, and contentment. He alone is what matters.

An Irrelevant Christian

I am often taken aback by the amount of people decrying that we as Christians are losing our freedoms and that government is taking control, while that may be true let me lay another take on you. Would you rather be thought of as a nuisance, or be so utterly inconsequential that you have become irrelevant? Kind of the Commodore 64 of religions(if you are young, search in on the internet). I know, God will not let Christianity become that, however, we as Christians are allowing ourselves to become so marginalized that in a lot of areas we have become irrelevant. We are now known as right wing Christian extremists. We are losing battles that Muslims are winning in this country and others. We sit back and use some scriptures out of context to explain away our apathy. We seem to want to do the right thing, but the right thing is hard and not the easy road so we sit back and watch the fringe elements in this country garner more rights all the while our silence is allowing ours to erode. Complaining about something serves only one purpose, to bring to light an issue, but without action it turns into a dead flame. I love a good sermon on civic responsibility, but the lazy people just point to Romans and say to pray for our leaders and woe is me, there is nothing we can do. While we are remanded unto prayer for those over us and to submit, we are not remanded unto being quiet, we are not remanded or charged with silence on the issues that Christians believe in. We should shout from the mountain tops that Christ has the answer and that without him, this country is doomed. We MUST be the salt and light to open the eyes of this nation and others to what is going on globally and THAT my friends is the global desensitizing influence of Christians because of our unwillingness to be heard. Our silence is making us irrelevant. Our hiding in the bushes on issues makes us seem like a fringe element in this country even though we outnumber the actual fringe elements 10000-1!! It is time to stand up as one voice, bring the good news of the gospel to the world, To cease being irrelevant, become the Christian soldiers in the war against Satan that we are meant to be. Our silence is deafening, our apathy is shrinking our influence, our capitulation is destroying our credibility, and our tolerance is taking away our values. If you do anything today, ask God to instill in you his virtues, his heart, his power, because in and of ourselves we will continue to lose this fight. Go with us in this struggle for it has been a struggle as far back as the early church. We must become relevant, we must be bold like the first generation Christians who were willing to die for their faith in order to not become.... an irrelevant Christian.

Don't be Selfish

Ok, we are inside of a week before the most important election since Abraham Lincoln was elected as President. Yes I said that. Our founding fathers and every other president until lately has espoused us as a strong country and governed as such. But we have a president now that believes we should be a country full of people beholding to the government and to the president as some kind of King. But...ALL of his Czars across the board are extreme liberal activists and some are communists, but the common ground is that they are all Anti American. So to keep it short, if you love this country vote him out and Romney in. Its our last hope to save this country. If you need a comprehensive list of who the Czars are what they believe and stand for let me know, I have it, it will blow your mind, unless your Kool Aid drinking liberal mind has you too drunk to see the truth, be Good, and vote for the country don't be selfish!!