I Refuse to Play Church

Nursing Injuries

2012-02-08T13:02:00.001-06:00

This past week as I have been taking care of sick kids I have also been nursing a nagging knee injury. I have been training to run a marathon in April. It was a goal of mine to run a marathon when I was 40. I am running out of time to reach that goal. The last time I was training I injured myself playing softball and missed that race.

Okay. I can hear all of you saying it, "maybe, I am too old for this stuff." I am not too old I just need to take care of myself. I am not a teenager any more. I can't recover like I did in my twenties, but I can still do things. That is why I am training and it is why I am taking special care this time to take care of myself.

This has me thinking about how often we neglect taking care of ourselves spiritually. We get a few bumps and bruises and if we don't stop and really care for the bumps and bruises before you know it we are missing out on the things we really want to do. We want a deep, committed, real and authentic relationship with Christ. We want to love and live like Jesus. Yet, the stuff of life comes in and cripples us from doing that. The problem is not the troubles of life. Jesus says in this world we will have troubles. The problem comes when we don't treat our hurts and hangups. We get our feelings hurt or we do something that we wish we had not. Instead of stopping to care for the pain that it has caused us spiritually we ignore it. We have a relationship with a brother or sister that is fractured and we ignore it and don't care for the pain that it is doing to us and it drags us away from what we really want and effects our relationship with God. We cant say that we love God and not love our brothers and sisters. We want to live in relationship with God yet we continue to do things that we know are not Godly. Instead of working on our behavior that is unhealthy for us we try to do more "good" things yet the unhealthy behavior is dragging us away from what we want. We need to stop and care for the hurt because it is effecting our relationship with God. If we ignore it or try to cover it with a mask it will rob us of what we truly want. We have to really are for our hurts and hang

When our hearts are hurt it is hard to love. We have to take care of our hearts. When we are spiritually empty we are not being led by the Spirit. We have to take care of the bumps and bruises that we get along life's road because if we don't it will keep us from what we really hope for. Don't let things fester. Do what you got to do as soon as you can so that you can heal and be whole. When we do this we understand more fully what grace is and we understand more fully the power of the resurrection for our lives. We grow to be more like Jesus.

I am going to finish the race. This means that I will take care of my injuries along the way and not ignore them.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Prayer

2012-02-07T15:12:00.001-06:00

Father God, you are my life. Help me to live today for you. Help me to decide and stick to it that today I want to become less and you become more. May I be so connected to you that your love flows through me to others and may they not see me but see you. May they only recognize the pieces of my character and my heart that bring you glory and honor. Help me to get out of of the way so that others wont trip over me on their way to you. No matter what I encounter, no matter what happens, may I praise you and bring you glory. This is the day that you have made. It is a gift to me. May it be for your glory. May I make it about you and not about me. In Christ name. Amen.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

TGIF

2012-02-03T12:48:00.002-06:00

Thank God today.

The last three days I have been home with sick kids. Being sick is no fun. But, feeling bad or bad situations does not eliminate the good. We can still find good and be grateful.

I am grateful that my work is flexible enough that I can be there for my kids. I am thankful that God is always here for his children and that he comforts us and brings his healing to our lives. I am thankful the time spent with my kids. We have had fun with each other even as we have been sick.

Make sure that you look for the good in your day today and take time to thank God.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Live like that- Sidewalk Prophets

2012-02-01T12:34:00.002-06:00

Here is the title track to Sidewalk prophets new album. I got this in my email the other day and it just reaffirms the desire of God's heart that we be real about loving like Jesus. Give it a listen, be blessed and be a blessing.

Love like that today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Look up

2012-01-31T14:01:00.000-06:00

Take a moment today and look up.

Often times we get so caught up in our situation and circumstance that we see nothing else but that. We get consumed by what is going on. it is important that we take time to look up. I don't mean that we need to actually tilt our head backward and stair at the ceiling. I am talking about stopping and looking to God. Be intentional about looking for God. Do n't allow your situation or circumstances to distract you so much that you don't take time for God. Time with God is what we need. It helps us to recognized that God is not removed form our situation. God cares. God is at work. Take a moment and look up. You will see.

In Christ love and mine,
Doug

Loving God

2012-01-26T11:55:00.002-06:00

Every day we have an opportunity to express and show our love to God in real and tangible ways. We love God by loving His people. In Matthews Gospel Jesus said, "whatever we do to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you do to me." John says in one one of his letters that "we cant love God and hate our brother. If we love God we will love our brothers and sisters who we do see."

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Self-Control puts God in Control

2012-01-25T12:33:00.001-06:00

I have been thinking about what it takes for us to give up control to God. I think, I have discovered the answer and it seems to be different than I expected. I know that it requires God working in me to give up control but, interestingly I believe the fruit of the Spirit that leads to giving control to God is self-control.

There is a direct link between self-control and giving God control of our lives. Letting go requires self control. We have to get ourselves out of the way. We have to get out of the drivers seat. We need to get ourselves under control so that we can let God have us.

The Good news is that this is a fruit of the Spirit. This is what Christ will produce in us when we surrender and let him work in us. God will do this. If we want to give God control of our loves we need to ask him to give us self control.

I know it sounds easier than it is and that is because self control is not something that we are good at it is not from us it comes from God. One day, one opportunity at a time.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,
Doug

In a Funk

2012-01-24T11:30:00.001-06:00

I am in a funk today. I did not sleep very well last night I was up thinking about people. I was thinking about how we can so easily hurt one another. I was up thinking about how much it hurts when are feelings are hurt by people whom we love and respect. I was up praying for relationships that I know have been hurt and are hurting. Today, I continue to pray. I am praying my way out of the funk. I am praying that God's love, grace, and forgiveness become all the more real in our relationships.

God created us as people with feelings and emotions. Jesus shows us that feelings and emotion are not a bad thing. Jesus wept, he got angry, he was hurt emotionally, because that comes with love. Love hurt when the rich young man walked away. Love hurt when those He came to save nailed him to the cross. Love hurt when we hurt and and are hurt by others.

Love also heals. Love reconciles. Love forgives. Love keeps no records of wrongs. We are created for each other that is why when we do things that damage relationships they hurt so bad. We are made for relationship with God and each other. It is in these moments of hurt that we can most grow in our capacity to love. It is the moments that offer our greatest opportunity to understand what grace is and to live by it. It is in these moments of real, raw, emotional, relationship crossroads that we can understand more fully the cross of Christ and grow to be more like him. Now, I don't wish relational hurts on anyone. I pray that we can learn and grow like to be like Christ without causing emotional hurt and pain to one another. I wish that we did not do things to hurt one another, but the truth is we do, we all fall short of the glory and a result of that is that not only do "bad" people do "bad" things but "good" people do "bad" things. But, there is a bigger truth! God can and will work to use these situations to help us to be more like him. It begins by praying our way out of the funk. Pray it all the way through until our hearts are like His. Be reconciled.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Heart of Wisdom

2012-01-20T12:34:00.001-06:00

This past week I have continued to think about one scripture. It is not a scripture I will be preaching on. It is one I think God is giving me for my life. (I know that is a scripture that God has given to each of us for our lives. That is what all the scriptures are. Sometimes we forget right?) I have been meditating on this one verse from Psalm 90 and it keeps making it way into the situations that I have been in this week.

Psalm 90 verse 12 says, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

What does it mean to number our days?

I think that having a heart of wisdom is to be truly wise. A heart of wisdom is not just street smarts or book smart it is wisdom. Wisdom of life. Wise about what really matters and make for living. I want to be that kind of wise. I want to be wise not to win games or trivia contest but to experience and enjoy and gain life and love of and in God.

I believe that is what the psalmist is writing about here and they say if we want to gain a heart of wisdom than we need to be taught to number our days.

What does it mean to number our days?

The 90th Psalm is talking about how eternal God is and how short our lives are. I was with a young man who was in a car accident and needed surgery this week as well as a with a friend who lost their childhood friend at age 57. I lost a neighbor who was 58. Life is short it is very precious. When we start to understand that we start to gain a heart of wisdom. When we are taught to see that each day is a gift from God we begin to gain real wisdom.

When we start to understand that this life is brief and for just a little while we can begin to gain the wisdom that we should not take anything for granted. A heart of wisdom says I will not take this day for granted because I only get so many. I will not take my time with the people I love for granted. I will not take God and my relationship with God for granted. I have understood that number of my days and I am going to make the most of this day, because this day is a gift from God.

Wisdom says thank you to God and others. Today.
Wisdom says I am sorry to God and others. Today.
Wisdom says I love you to God and others. Today
Wisdom serves God and others. Today.
Wisdom stops and smells the flowers. Today
Wisdom listens to the birds sing. Today
Wisdom treasure what is really important. Today.

A person with a heart of wisdom makes the most of each breath, each moment, each word, and each opportunity because they have been taught by God to number their days.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Freebie

2012-01-18T12:00:00.000-06:00

It is one of the toughest concepts to grasp and actually live. I am refering to grace. Yes. Grace. This is central to our relationship with Christ. Grace means that God does for us what we can't and offers us his favor even though we can never earn it or ever deserve it. We can do nothing to reconcile our relationship with God. Sin is a terninal illness that ends in death. Christ dies our death so we don't have to pay the price for sin. He gives us a freebie if we will recieve the gift of his salvation.

Here is where it gets tough for us. We have knowledge of this and in our heads we agree and understand grace, but, we live like we have to work for it. We tell ourselves that we are not good enough or we are too bad. We work hard to try to live up to it when all the work has already been done.

When we do this we are actually saying we don't believe in grace. We really don't live like God is a loving God. Instead we live like we can control God.

The Good News is we don't have to work harder to earn God's love. You and I have done nothing to lose God's love. It is not about us it is about God. God is love. He loves us and pays the price to be in relationship with us for all eternity. We have to take the freebie. Believe. This means we live what we believe by faith. Stop trying to earn it. Just live in relationship with God.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Flow

2012-01-17T11:34:00.004-06:00

I have been thinking a lot about Jesus being living water lately. We are talking about Jesus as The Well for our lives at church so I am sure this is causing me to reflect about how I allow Jesus living water to flow in my life.

Yesterday, got me thinking about how Jesus wants his living water to flow through our lives. We are to live in the overflow. I pulled into my driveway in middle of the afternoon. The weather outside was beautiful. It did not feel like January in Missouri at all. The sun was shining and a breeze was gently blowing and then I noticed something that seemed out of place for the scene. There was water crossing my driveway. This was odd because there were no puddles anywhere else. For the most part the ground was dry. Yet, there was this patch of water that appeared to flow all the way across my gravel drive. I got out of my truck and noticed that the water seemed to be coming from the old house that is at the front of our yard. Last year we moved from the old parsonage to a new parsonage just behind the old house. We have not yet removed the old house and I discovered that all though we had cut most of the utilities from the old house we had forgotten to cut the water off. It seems that in our recent cold spell the pipes must have frozen and burst.

When I entered the house I could hear water just gushing forth from the pipes. I noticed that the carpet was wet in one of the empty bedroom and ran down stairs. All that I could hear was water rushing through the pipes and splashing against the walls. When I got to the basement the floor was covered in several inches of water finally I made my way to the shut off and turned the handle until the sound of the rushing water finally stopped.

Rushing, flowing, water, that is what Christ wants his living water to be in us. Water that flows from us and makes an impact on the world around us. Water the is noticeable. Out of the ordinary. Too often though we just act like that old basement. We get filled with the water and then we shut the tap off. We had a great experience with Christ that filled us but we stopped going to Him as our well. Something stopped the flow.

Do you have a flow of living water into and out of your life?

If we don't have a continual inflow than we will become like that stale, musty, mildew growing basement. We will eventually dry up and deteriorate. Sometimes our "pipes" get "clogged" or they "freeze up" and the flow that was once there is stopped. We need to continue to seek God as the source of our lives to sustain us and to provide for life.

How is your flow? Is it just trickling? Is it a drip? Or is the flow all that you can hear?

The good news is that Jesus want his living water to burst through and flow like a river in our lives. He wants to continually fill us with the water that will never leave us thirsty. This old house reminds me that it is important that I keep an eye on how the water is flowing.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

TGIF

2012-01-13T10:51:00.001-06:00

In the Great Thanksgiving (this is the prayer that is prayed during a communion service) of the United Methodist tradition we say "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise." It goes on to say "It is right, that we should always and everywhere give thanks to you almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who rose victorious from the dead and comforts us with the blessed hope of everlasting life."

Why am I thinking about all this? Why do I write it in this blog?

Not so that everyone knows what the words of the Great Thanksgiving are or that people know that I know them. As I began my day today these words where brought to mind. "It is right always and everywhere to give God praise." We are called to live lives of thanksgiving. To be thankful in all circumstances. Followers of Christ should be marked by their love and an outflow of love is gratitude.

I know that in life we good through things that we are not thankful for but we can still be thankful. WE can be thankful that God is with us. We can be thankful that he created us and loves us so much that he overcame sin and death for us. We can be thankful for his comfort. Thankful for the hope that we have in him and thankful for everlasting life. All of these things are true no matter what is happening and no matter what we go through. These things are just barely scratching the service of all that we have to be thankful for. It is right always and everywhere, all the time no matter what, to give thanks.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Set the Prisoner Free

2012-01-12T11:49:00.001-06:00

Jesus, using the words of the prophet Isaiah, while in the synagogue in his home town said that he had come to set the prisoner free.

Now, I am sure that the first thing that comes to mind when we here these words is someone who is an actual prison as we know it. Someone behind bars and serving time. But there are other things that imprison us in life. Some are imprisoned by thoughts, regrets, what if, words that people say, unhealthy habits, unhealthy situations and fears. The list could go on and on but what ever they are, they keep us locked up and keep us from experiencing the freedom of life that God desires for us.

This morning I was sitting in court with a friend who is facing some time in actual prison and I was reminded of Christ words to all of us who are imprisoned in this world. Whether, are prisons are actual cells in a state facility or cells that have been created by us, Christ comes to set the prisoner free. Free from the things that imprison us and rob us of life. Free from the "cells" that trap us and keep us from the joy that God has for us. Freedom from the internal prisons that are holding you and me captive.

We need to be honest about what we need freed from and then we need to hear the words of Jesus and receive the gift of His love and grace that frees the prisoner. We don't have to be imprisoned any more.

"Amazing grace, my chains are gone!"

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,
Doug

Read and React

2012-01-10T12:25:00.000-06:00

I am coaching an 8th grade basketball team at the YMCA this year. I was asked if I would help and even though I don't know a great deal about basketball, I said yes. I enjoy helping the kids. This has led me to try to learn more about basketball. I talked with people that I know who know about basketball and I looked for resources that I could use.

I have now become interested in a style of offense called read and react. The idea is that you are always reading what is happening and then reacting to it. The premise is that you stop thinking and about what to do and your body just naturally reacts to a given situation. If this happens then automatically without thinking you react in a certain way. When all five players understand these reactions than all five players react together and work together harmoniously because they naturally react in the same ways. I don't know if I explained it as well as it should be explained but it did get me to thinking about how we react to the things of life.

Turning to God ought to be our natural reaction. He is our strength. He is our hope. He is our security. He is our Savior. If Jesus is the Lord of our lives and our shepherd than our natural reactions to anything that happens ought to be turning to God. When live causes questions-- we should seek the answers from God. When times are hard we should turn to God. When times are good we should turn to God. Prayer should not be the last thing we do, it should be the first thing as a natural reaction. When we read what is going on around us we need to react by giving it to God. This is the best offense for our lives. Give our lives to God as a natural reaction. This is how we make him our shepherd and allow him to lead us in our lives. We make offering it to him our natural reaction to what happens in life.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Self Care

2012-01-05T12:02:00.002-06:00

How is your soul?
How are you doing at taking care of you and doing the things that help nourish your soul?

Take time to connect with God today.
Take time to see what he is doing around you and let him do something in you.
Take time to just be in his presence and allow him to recreate you.
Pray.
Be still.
Ask him to fill you up.
Lose yourself in a praise song. Feel and mean every word.
Look for what God is doing and join Him in it.
Read your Bible as if God is speaking each word to you --because He is.
Take time today for your soul. You need it. We need it.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,
Doug

Honest Prayer

2012-01-04T10:25:00.000-06:00

Honest prayer is what God wants. He doesn't want fancy words or cliche' speech. God wants and deserves the honest cries of our hearts. He wants us to cry out from the depth of our being as we are and without falsehood. If we are mad, confused and don't understand the things we are going through than it does us no good and it is an empty prayer to pray and act like we are happy and understand. A sincere prayer comes from the raw, real, us understanding that God knows our hearts and our hurts and we don't need to hide them to come to him in prayer.

Having said this, I don't want to get caught up in seeing prayer as only something I do when I need a "favor" from God. If I am honest about my prayer life, too often, my prayers are "God I need something prayers." There is nothing wrong with prayers of petition or intercession. However, I think it merely scratches the surface of prayer. I have discovered that I connect most deeply to God in my prayer life when I change the way that I perceive what prayer is and "use" prayer.

I have heard it said, and have said, that "prayer is conversation with God and we should talk to God like would any of our friends." However, this can confuse us into seeing prayer as making a phone call to God. But God is not like our other friends and he is not on the other end of a phone when we call him and only knows what we tell him or wish to share. He is with us always. He knows our thoughts. He knows our situations, our need, and our circumstances. He is going through everything with us. 24/7 God is there. If we want to stay with this phone analogy than God is not a "phone call away" when we decide to bow our head and close our eyes to connect. Life is a conference call that we are on with God that never hangs up. God is always there prayer can and should always be happening. This very moment is a moment that you can recognize that you are sharing with God or you can ignore him. This moment is a moment that you spend in God's presence and acknowledge it from the depth of your being or you pretend and act like he is not with you. Honest prayer recognizes and shares each moment, each emotion, each event and happening with God and places it in the context of our relationship with God whose mercies are new every morning and whose love is never failing.

We are not alone. Prayer taps us into the energy source for our lives, it is deeper than words it is a connection at the depth of our souls and an awareness that we can and should 24/7 place our lives into the hands that have made us and continue to shape us.

One final note, just so no one thinks I am against formal prayers. Prayer is about recognizing and taking our lives to God. Formal prayers are great at helping us do that because we stop and say now I am going to recognize my need for God in my life. Prayer as I am suggesting still requires taking our lives in each moment to Him. It is suggesting on ongoing conversation and a perpetual crying out to God. The stuff that we have running through our mind we are running by God and listening for God recognizing that he hears our prayers and is working on our behalf If we never recognize God's presence or offer ourselves from the depth of our being we are just pretending.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

New Casting Crowns

2011-11-16T15:51:00.001-06:00

God has a a way of using music to speak to me. I have always been a fan of Casting Crowns because their music helps me to think about what it means to live out my relationship with Jesus. My wife got me their new CD and I seem to be listening to it whenever I can. The song that God is using right now to talk to me, and convict me about how I live, is called "Jesus, Friend of Sinners". I want to share it with you today. The words are powerful and help us to think about how we live our lives can either draw people to Jesus or be a stumbling block. I pray that I can be more like Jesus and that he would break my heart for the things that break his.

Love today.

In Christ's love of mine,
Doug

Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth's become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I'm so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours

Yeah...

Jesus, friend of sinners, the one who's writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring Your people to their knees
No one knows what we're for only against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours

You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet

'Cause You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks Yours

And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
Yeah...
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet

Take a day off

2011-11-15T11:50:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I did something that I had not done for a long time. This is a confession moment for me. I have not been taking a day off. I say that Monday's are my day off but each week it seemed that I found myself working on that day. There were things that I felt had to be done. There was ministry that I had to take care of. What was happening to me however, as I failed to take the proper time away and time off, was I was being drained of energy. I was beginning to take on the hurts and the pains of everyone that I was ministering with. I was getting drained day after day and I was not stopping to be still and know that God was God.

Someone told me that in the work of the Kingdom there are no days off. But, I realized that if I didn't take a day off I was not going to be any good for the Kingdom. I needed to unplug and reconnect to God and have Him do some Kingdom work in me. God was making this very clear to me and so I made sure that yesterday I took my day off. I turned off my phone. It seems that some days all I do is go from phone call to phone call. Many people complain that they cant reach me on my phone and it usually because I am on it. I avoided text messaging and email and opted for face to face communication. I took my wife to lunch and I did something around the house I wanted to do for my children. I rested in God's presence and that God was in control, not me.

Here is what happened my in box for my cell phone messages got full. I got 67 emails. Life still happened. Nothing fell apart. The world did not stop because I did. Somethings waited for today. Somethings where fixed without me. I did not stress or worry. I felt the Spirit renewing me and gently humbling me to my place in the universe as a creation of the creator.

I am going to try to be much more disciplined about my day off and my Sabbath (this is topic of another post but these are two different things). I have to be if I want to be any good for the work of the Kingdom. I can't get caught up thinking that the world cant do without me. The truth is they did before me and they will after me. I need to connect with God so that I can make the most of the time that I have to do the work of the Kingdom. If people need to reach you they will and they can.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Veterans Day

2011-11-11T10:04:00.001-06:00

As I drove into town today I saw a lot of flags. They decorated the court house. They lined the drive at the school where they were serving a breakfast for veterans. They decorated different businesses throughout the town. I listened on the radio as people called in to honor and thank people for their service to our country.

Today is more than a holiday. It is more than just a day to close offices and take time off. It is more than a day to decorate and feel patriotic. Today is ultimately about showing gratitude towards those who serve and have served. It is a day to pray and thank God for men and women who have served us by serving our country. It is a time to pray and ask God to protect our service men and women who are serving right now as we read this. It is a day to recognize and honor that we need to have a heart and care for one another. That is what makes us great. It reminds us that there is something noble and honorable about laying down our lives for each other. Today is a reminder that we are greater when we care for each.

Today I thank God for all of the men and women who serve and have served in our military. I pray that God would provide for and protect all of our veterans everywhere. I pray that we all might learn from ore veterans valuable lessons that will make us better people of God.

If you are a veteran, I want you to know that I a grateful for your service. I am praying and thanking God for you today and always.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Do we say, "That settles it!"

2011-11-09T11:42:00.002-06:00

““Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 NIV

This morning as a I read these words it hit me that sin is something that is very unsettling to God. However, it is not unsettling to God for the reasons that I would most often think. You would think that it would disturb God because it is disobedience to him. We would be unsettled because someone outright defied us. Yet, it seems that what is most unsettling to God is that sin keeps us from Him. Sin separates us for Christ and living for ever in a close relationship with the one who created us to love us. So God is unsettled because he wants no separation in our relationship with him.

Jesus enters into the world to settle the matter. We cant do anything to settle the sin problem but Jesus can. Through the prophet Isaiah we hear the words of our Lord saying he is going to settle the matter. There is some wonderful imagery that points to the works of Christ on the cross. Our sin is like scarlet, red as crimson and the Lord is going to settle the matter and make us white as snow and the purest of wool. Jesus scarlet, crimson red blood is shed so that you and I can be forgiven of sin and we can be made new. Washed clean. We don't have to be unsettled anymore. Jesus has settled the matter. We just need to come to Jesus and receive his forgiveness. We need to stop trying to settle the matter on our own and through our own strength because we cant do. We need to accept that Jesus has done it for us and that the work of Christ on the cross is enough.

We need to settle the matter be giving our lives to the one that has already settled the matter. We need to live in, and live out, the relationship that Christ died and rose from the dead for us to live in. We need to live like it is settled.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

2011-09-27T11:03:00.000-05:00

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 NIV

What am I looking for today?

This morning when I read this scripture. I have to admit I went on autopilot. I have read it before. I can quote it. I knew what it is saying. The trouble is that it is an easier scripture to memorize than it is to live. Today, each of us will seek after many things. We are seeking people. The questions is what will be the thing that I seek after first? What will be my priority today? What is it that I seek after most?

Often times, it's the "things" that get first priority not God. Often times, we put God seeking on auto pilot and seek after other things. Often times, I don't give my relationship with God the time, attention, and careful search that is needed because I am busy seeking selfish, self centered things.

Matthew's gospel reminds us to seek the one and only thing that can really satisfy us and to seek it it as first priority above all other things. This is a choice that we have to make each and every day. Moment by moment.

What are you seeking today?

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Out There

2011-09-23T11:49:00.000-05:00

I have been accused of being out there.

I am not sure what they mean by that. I hope it means that I am a person who tries to live out there. Outside of my self. Live out my faith. Live on the outside rather than live on the inside, isolated and alone. I hope that they mean I am out there when it comes to my love for others. Out there in terms of compassion and grace.

Jesus was out there. Many thought he was out there because he healed the sick, caressed the leaper, and ate with sinners and outcasts. Many thought Jesus was out there because he lived different than the world around him and he called his followers to build a new kind of community of love and grace. Many people said Jesus was out there because he said I want you to love the ones you find hard to love and wont love you back in return.

I have decided that I want to follow the way of Jesus and live my life in relationship with him. I want to be out there. I want to take my faith outside of my comfort zone. Outside of my home and my church. I want to be out there. Because, out there is where Jesus is.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Not a re-verb

2011-09-16T10:43:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about love and what real love is. I have heard it said that love is a verb. This is correct love, when it is true and real, has legs. It motivates and moves us. As I was pondering that aspect and reflecting on my own capacity to love it hit me that too often my actions are reactions. I love because. In the case of our relationship with Christ, our love is always a reactions because first loved us. So, our love in that since is a re-verb. However, God's love and the love that he calls us to with one another is not, and should never be, based upon the action of anything or anyone else. It is a love that acts first. A love that has no condition of action before or after. It is a verb not a re-verb. It is a love because. Let's try this today. Love without condition. Love just because. Let's love unconditionally because Christ's loves us unconditionally. Love your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, strangers not because they have loved you are done something to warrant love. Just love. I bet it impacts our day.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Smile :)

2011-09-15T14:06:00.001-05:00

Serve.
Minister to.
Inspire.
Love.
Everyone.

Have you shared a smile with anyone today. It is amazing the power that a smile can have. There are times that we can communicate with someone we are close to just by giving them a smile. They know us and know what we are thinking in that moment. A smile between friends and people we are close to is so valuable. It communicates love. It can sooth us when we are hurting. It can calm our nerves. It can inspire us for a moment, even days.

A warm smile from someone, even if we have never met them before, can have an impact on our day. Smiles can be contagious. They are a random act of kindness. It is something that we can easily share.

Serve, minister to, inspire and love everyone today. :)

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Flower beds

2011-09-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

I was able to spend my day off yesterday helping my mother and father in-law with some landscaping projects around their house. It was a beautiful day to be outside. Doing yard work can be a very meditative thing and being outside on such an awesome day really aided in reflecting on my relationship with God and the work that God wants to do in my life.

We planted flowers. I hope they will grow.

It was a lot of hard work to plant these flowers. We had to get the soil ready and then prepare the the bed with weed guard to keep the weeds out and then plant the flower bundles. My wife Nicole and I had a system I dug the holes and then she would place the bunch of flowers in the hole and pack them in. This is work that you have to get your hands dirty in order to do it right.

After we planted the flowers we then had to spread river rock on the beds to cover the weed guard and make the beds look pretty. I can't tell you how much we shoveled but it I do know I can feel it my muscles this morning. It was a lot of hard work. It was also fun and meditative.

In order for the flowers to grow it takes us getting our hands dirty and it takes hard work. But, it also takes God sending the rain and shining the sunshine.

This is true of our spiritual growth. If we want to grow spiritually we have to be willing to get our hands dirty sometimes. We have to be willing to do the hard work that it takes in order for us to grow. Growth doesn't just happen. We have to do those things that prepare the soil of our hearts and lives to be receptive for God's word to be at work in us. We need to pray, worship, study, fellowship with other Christians, share our faith, and serve others. We need to do the hard work. But, we cant do it with out God. God makes us grow as we place our lives in his hands. As we give to him our hurts, hangups, struggles, hopes, dreams, fears, insecurities and vulnerabilities he grows our trust and our love. We have to get our hands dirty and work hard and he will bring about the growth.

I planted some flowers yesterday.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

TGIF

2011-09-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I have done a "Thank God it's Friday" post. Not that I have not been grateful or had things to give thanks for, I just haven't been making the posts.

It is funny how we can get in the rut of taking things for granted. We can get in auto pilot and fail to recognize or remember that we have so much to be grateful for. This is why I use to always make sure that Fridays where a post that would cause me to count my blessings. The truth is that everyday I can and should be grateful. Each day I can and should take time to thank God. This is why I shifted away from the Friday thing because each day I should give thanks. Each morning I wake up I can and should awake grateful. Gratitude is a choice. It is my choice. Each day I need to make that choice and express my gratitude.

I am stopping right now, I hope you will too, to say "thank you God!"

What are you thankful for today?

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Looking Back So We Can Move Forward

2011-09-08T12:53:00.002-05:00

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and we were talking about the tendency that we have to not want to have things change. We like things to be the way that they were. We remember the good old days and wish things could just be like they once were.

We know that God is always asking to grow and to step out in our faith but we are comfortable with the way things are so we just wish and hope and hang on to a past that is just that--past. Yet, this tendency of ours keeps us from living the present and experiencing the power of God for our future. It keeps us from receiving anything new and it never helps us to grow in our faith and trust in God.

In the scriptures every time that people were called to look back at their past it was not to glory in it but to encourage them to take the next step of faith. They looked back at the past to remind them of what they knew about God and to remind them of what God can do when they trust him and walk by faith. They looked back so that they could move forward.

God wants us to live today and to trust him with our future. Maybe today you are in a place or a situation that has you out of you comfort zone? Maybe you are in a situation that you don't see a way out and you just wish things could be like they once were? Maybe you are in a struggle and it seems hopeless? No matter what you are going through I encourage you to trust not in what you know about your situation, but what you know about your God. It is time to take a step of faith. It is time for you to grow Spiritually. Look back at other times in your life that you have trusted God and remember God's faithfulness and that God got you though them. Look back and remember that God is faithful and has never let you down. Look back. Not to hold on and wish you could go back or just stay, but to take the step of faith that is needed to move forward. Look back to be encouraged. Look back to be inspired. Look back to reminded of the power of the God that is with you and leading you into what lies ahead for you.

Each time that we take a step of faith, trusting God, we are blessed. Each time we grow. Each time God is faithful to keep his promise. Each time we are able to do what we could never do under our own power. Each time we discover a future that we never even dreamed was possible.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

More Inspiration from Music

2011-09-02T14:53:00.000-05:00

I am currently wearing out a CD from Sidewalk Prophets. Every moment that I spend in my car here lately seems to place them as the background music of my life. I enjoy listening to their music because it makes me think and reflect on whether I am living for Jesus or I am living for myself/ playing church. It is good to have something that constantly directs your thoughts in the direction of God. Music does that for me. So, I have been listening a lot lately and taking an inventory of my life, my motivations, and my actions.

The song that has really been speaking to me is called "You Can Have Me." It begins by asking the question, "If Jesus was to walk up to me on the street right now and ask me to follow him would I really let go of my life and follow him?"

"Do I love him enough to let go?"

Is my love for Jesus the type of love that consumes me? Is it all that I want? Is he on my mind all the time? Do I want to make him smile? Since I met my wife and fell in love with her, my love for her consumes me. I want to make her happy. I want to spend my life with her. I want to please her. It is an all consuming that moves me to live out that love in my life as her husband. The same is true for Jesus. My love for Jesus should consume me. Love is not really love if it doesn't consume us. Jesus says love lays down it's life for the other. Love is not really love if it doesn't move us to live in a new way, out of the love that we have. Love moves us.

So, does our love for Jesus move and consume us? I pray that mine does. I pray each day that I become more consumed by my love for Jesus and surrender more fully to Him and the life he has for me. He can have me! It is worth it! To give up my life for Christ's sake is to gain! That is what the scripture says. And that is what we discover when we let go and let him have our lives and our consumed by his love for us and our love for him.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Heritage

2011-08-31T11:42:00.004-05:00

My 8th grade son has been given and assignment to trace his family linage. This school assignment has got us interested in finding out more about our heritage and the different people in our family tree. There are some parts of the family tree that we have been able to go back several generations. However there are other parts that we can only go back a few generations. We have discovered on one side of the family that the kids are related to James Wilson, one of our founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence. He was appointed by George Washington to serve as one of the original Supreme Court justices. My kids are heirs to a founding father. That is pretty cool and exciting for them.

I think that when we trace our history and search out the many branches of our family trees we always hope that we will be an heir to someone who is famous. We all hope that we will find a connection to someone from the past or in the present that is significant or at least well known. There is always the hope in tracing our history that we will be an heir to someone special.

"Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." John 1 :12-13

"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Romans 8:16-17

You are an heir to someone special. You are an heir to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! There is nobody more significant or special. This relationships makes all the difference in our lives and it comes with an inheritances to which nothing else can even compare. You are a child of God.

Love today.

In Christ's Love and mine,

Doug

In the path of the storm

2011-08-26T10:52:00.002-05:00

Today Lord, I am standing in the gap for all of the people who are in the path of the storm. I woke this morning with a burden on my heart to just pray for those people in the Bahamas and the people on the east coast of the United States. I pray that you would protect them from the storm. I know that you are a God that cares for them and loves them and you stand with them in this storm. Just, as you stood with the boys in the fiery furnace I know that you are present with them in this storms. I lift them all to you and pray that they would be aware in a real way of your presence with them.
You know Lord, that there are also others in our world that are in the path of storms. The storms that they face may not be tropical, or weather related, but they are storms none the less. They are devastating and they are raging. I stand in the gap and pray for all everywhere who feel they are in a storm of life. Be with each of them and hold them in the palm of your hands. Raise up you followers everywhere to step in and stand with people in storms to be a tangible sign of your love and presence with people in the storms of life. I thank you that you are the God who loves and cares for your people. I thank you for being the God who speaks to the storms of life and says "Peace, be still!" I thank you for the calm that comes form knowing that you are a God who is with us always and leads us through the storms of life. I thank you for not staying far off but entering into the stuff of our lives. I thank you for the calm that we can have even in the path of a storm because we know you love us and are with us. I thank you that we can call upon you and you hear our cries. I pray all of this in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,
Doug

Love and the Cross

2011-08-25T10:49:00.002-05:00

Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for sin. However, why Jesus dies on the cross is not sin. Jesus didn't give his life on the cross because of sin he gave his life on the cross because of love. He died for sin but he did it because he loves you and and me. He loves us so much that he is willing to do what is necessary for us to be in relationship with him. He loves us so much that he is willing to lay down his life so that we can have life.

I have a cross that hangs in my office that has a yellow scroll unrolled and nailed to it. The scroll reads, "When He was on the Cross, You were on His Mind."

First and foremost the cross is about love. "For God so loved..."(John 3:16)

Our response? Love.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Undefined

2011-08-24T14:33:00.006-05:00

Why do we allow the wrong things to define who we are in life? There is only one thing that should define us in life and that is the creator and giver of our life. God is what should define us. However, it seems that we try to be defined by other things. We let the words of others define us rather than the word of God. But, I am/ YOU, are who God says we are. You are his precious child. You have been formed by God, just the way that you are in you mothers womb, and you are his beloved. God loves you because you are you and you are his. God will never stop loving you. God has a plan for you.

Here is the heartbreaking thing for me. Everyday I speak to people who think that are stuck in a definition that someone else has given them. A parent, a spouse, a past relationship, someone has come along and told them that they are something other than what God says they are and they have let that define them. Others have allowed past mistakes, or addictions, or behaviors to define who they are and they say, "this is me, I am my mistakes, my addictions, my behavior, or my diagnosis." It is not true. You are who God says you are. And God does not define us in those ways. Others give themselves a definition or seek to be defined by someone else or something else. They define themselves by their jobs or by their relationship.
God loves you as you and for who you are. God does need you to have a certain job or need you to be someones spouse or significant other. God loves you. You are his beloved. You are his handy work.

What is it that defines who you are? Are you letting the words of others, your job, a relationship or non-relationship, or your past define you? In what do you have your identity? That stuff and those things do not make you who you are. God does. You are who God says you are. If we will stop letting other things define us and allow God to define us we will become what God says we are. It is time for us to be really honest with ourselves and with God about letting him and Him alone define who we are. Today might be a day to get undefined by the other stuff and redefined by God.

You are loved by God and by me.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Maybe we should slow down

2011-08-19T11:00:00.002-05:00

I think God might be telling me to slow down. He might be telling me to take time and see His handy work, smell the flowers, listen for him and hear the birds sing. There has not been an audible voice. There have been no flashing signs that say this. But, as I have been hurrying through my day to try to get things done I have gotten behind a truck that was not in the hurry that I was. When I got my son to the orthodontist we got to spend time waiting for the Dr. that we had hurried to be on time for. We got the new technician who is training at a slower pace than a seasoned pro. I am being giving all kinds of opportunity to slow down. I have a tendency (please don't judge) to allow these things to frustrate rather then hear them as God speaking to me. But, I think Gos has a few words for me today and those words are "slow down".

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Song Stuck in my Head

2011-08-18T13:19:00.002-05:00

My soon to be three year old daughter has got a song stuck in my head. We had vacation bible school about three weeks ago and since then she has been singing.

"When your jumping, jumping up and down.

When your spinning, spinning round and round.

God's seeing everything you do

because God is watching, he is watching over you!

“God is watching, watching over you.

Twenty-four-seven, watching over you.

My life is in your hands, whoa!

He’s got great big plans ’cause He’s watching over you.”

This is an important truth to have stuck in our heads and written on our heart. God cares about us. He is watching over our lives and holds us in the palm of his hands. He has a plan. So, I invite you to sing along with the truth that my daughter is singing about. God is watching over you.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

The last day of summer

2011-08-16T11:09:00.002-05:00

My kids start back to school tomorrow. This means the it is time for us to get back into our family routine around the house. It means that we will have to be more scheduled about the time we get up and the time we go to bed. It means we have to be more scheduled about time for dinner and time to study. We will have to get into a routine that makes the whole family more productive and able to do all that we need to do with the new much more rigid school schedule.

Summer offered us more time in the day and more flexibility so that we could enjoy time together and time to have recreation. Now that summer break is over it is time to get back into the routine. It is time to establish a routine that still encourages time together and recreation. It is important that we make sure to keep the important things as part of our routine. It is necessary that we make the time in our now busier, more rigid schedule for those things that connect us to God and each other. We need to make sure that we take the time to connect to God through his word and through prayer. We need to make sure that our routine contains time for worship and time with our family (the family of God and our family of birth).

There is a statement that I always think of at times like these. "Too busy not to pray." The busier we get the more that we need to make sure and be intentional about our relationship with Christ.

Make time for your relationship with Jesus.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

What would you do for another?

2011-08-12T18:04:00.005-05:00

Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their lives for their friends." (see John 15:13) He also says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? (see Matthew 5)

It is easier to read God's word than it is to live it. It easier to talk about love than it is to love. Jesus calls his followers to love like no one else. He calls his followers to love like crazy. He calls us to follow him by loving everyone with the same radical, life changing love that he has for us. A love that says it is not about me it is about you. A love that says I will lay down my life for you.

He says what will make his followers different is that they will love everyone. No exceptions. Love everybody. Love like crazy. Love unconditionally. Love freely.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

TGIF

2011-07-22T17:20:00.002-05:00

Lord, thank you for loving me anyway. Thank you for loving me when I am not very loving. Thank you for loving me when I have done nothing to deserve it. Thank you for loving me when I don't love you in return. Thank you for always loving me. Help me to show my gratitude for your love by loving others as you love me. Amen.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Control

2011-07-21T09:37:00.000-05:00

Luke 22:42
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

John 6:38
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

Can you imagine how different things would be if Jesus had been a control freak? What if Jesus would have said, "I want it my way!"? What if Jesus had wanted the control?

Jesus is our example. We must give up control. Let go and let God.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

All We...

2011-07-20T12:53:00.001-05:00

Why is it that we tend to think that we are the only one who struggles? Why do we think that nobody else is going through or ever dealt with the stuff that we are going through and dealing with?

Somehow, we convince ourselves that everyone else has their stuff together. Everyone else is normal and we are abnormal. No one else understands. No one else can relate.

I think these thoughts are exactly what the devil wants us to think.

The truth is that none of us are normal. We all struggle. We all go through difficulties. Every one of us is flawed and imperfect.

The problem is a kind of a circular problem that feeds itself. If we think that we are the only ones with struggles, difficulties and problems than we try to pretend that we don't have them because we don't want people to know that we are different. This makes others think that we have it all together. So, they now think they are the only ones with problems and difficulties and struggles so they pretend they don't have them so that others don't think they are different. This just keeps perpetuating itself until we are all just pretending that we got it all together yet behind close doors and deep inside we wonder why we are the only ones with these difficulties and struggles.

What we all have in common is our brokenness. What we all have in common is our struggles and difficulties. We all are imperfect and abnormal.

I am convinced that what we need to do is stop hiding. Stop hiding for our sake and for Christ sake. We need to be honest about our struggles and difficulties because it frees us and others to see that we are all in the same boat. We are not alone. God is with us and cares about our struggles and difficulties. If we are real about our lives, our love and our relationship with God then wee can share how God has helped us through the difficulties of our lives . We need relationships in our lives that God can work through. Relationships where we can know and be known by others. Love and be loved. Relationships where we don't have to pretend and can support one another and carry one another s burdens.

You are not alone.

I struggle too.

We all do.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Not one of us has it all together.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Vacation Reflection Part 3

2011-07-15T12:10:00.003-05:00

One of the places that we visited while on vacation was the US Olympic Training Center. This center is where Olympic athlete hopefuls train to be a part of the US Olympic team. It is an amazing place with top of the line, state of the art training facilities.

What was amazing about this place was the dedication, discipline, and commitment of the athletes themselves. They move to Colorado Springs and give their lives to training for their sport. They set aside everything else and make this pursuit their top priority. They are dedicated, committed and very disciplined. They spend day after day training themselves up. They follow strict diets and strict training schedule. They give up everything else to devote full time to being the best that they can be at their sport. They literally give their lives to their sport and live it 24/7 at this training facility.

It makes me reflect upon my discipline and my commitment as I give my life to Christ. To really give our lives to Christ (and not just play church) requires discipline and commitment. It is a 24/7 devotion that is needed. We need to continually nurture our relationship with God by doing spiritual disciplines of meditating on the Scriptures, prayer, fasting, worship, spending time with other Christians, Serving and sharing our faith with others so that we can be trained up and grow deeper and deeper in our love and relationship with Christ.

We, I, need the commitment, discipline, and dedication of these Olympic athletes in regards to my relationship with Christ. Then he can build me up into the person that he wants me to be.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Vacation Reflections Part 2

2011-07-14T10:39:00.002-05:00

This was my first time in the Rocky Mountains. The only other time I have ever spent in any mountains is when I was in the Holy Lands a few years ago. I have noticed something about mountains that was even more apparent in the Rockies on this trip. As you drive up the nineteen mile trek to the summit of Pike's Peak you travel through a few different climates. At the start of the road where you pay your fee to climb to the summit you are 7000 feet above sea level. At this point the temperature is nice, maybe even a little warm. But, here the river is flowing the air is warm, plants and trees are growing there is life happening. As you make your way towards the mountaintop you pass through different regions. We went to a subarctic region and an arctic region. Passing through each region it seemed to get colder and what was able to grow in each region seemed to get less and less. The higher we climbed toward the mountaintop the less green stuff we saw and the rockier it got. We travel up above the tree line. Nothing was really growing in the altitude and the cold climate of the mountaintop. When we reached the summit it was cold and rocky. The summit at 14,110 ft above sea level provided us with a great of the journey that we had taken and it allowed us to see further than we had ever seen before. But, it was not a place that we could stay. The road closes at 7:00 and everyone must return to the valley. In fact, as breath taking and as wonderful as it was, we could never live there. Life cannot be sustained on the mountaintop. Nothing grows in that climate and at that altitude.

All of the growing happens in the valleys. Life takes place down in the valleys. We have those mountaintop moments in life that help us to see the journey we have come from a new perspective and to see further than we ever seen before. We have those mountaintop moment with Christ and they enable us to go into the valley and live and to journey to the next mountaintop. Our growth through the valleys leads us to mountaintops with Christ. New perspective. Richer fuller life. Streams of living water running through us. Deeper love. Deeper commitment.

Jesus took three of his disciples up on a mountaintop and there he was transfigured and they saw him in all his glory. They also saw there with Jesus on the mountaintop Moses and Elijah. Peter wanted to build tents and stay there but Jesus told them they needed to go back down the mountain because that is where live happens.

Don't get discouraged in the valleys of life because that is where growth happens. Keep journeying to the next mountaintop. Draw on the energy of your mountaintop experiences to lead you through the valleys and give you new perspective on the journey.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Vacation Reflections Part 1

2011-07-13T10:39:00.001-05:00

I once used Pike's Peak in an illustration to help people think about where they are in their relationship with God. I said to imagine that the top of Pike's Peak represented that they where very close to God and that they where in constant communion with God and there life was fully committed to God. Pike's Peak represented, in this illustration, the closest that one felt they could be to God. At the other end was where we lived in Missouri. Our town was the beginning point on our journey to God.

If we where to map our relationship with God on a map from our home town to Pike's Peak, in terms of our growth and commitment to God, where would we be on that map?

That was the question that was derived from this illustration.

My family and I on our vacation this year made that drive. The actual drive from Trenton, Missouri to Pike's Peak in Colorado is a long trip. The distance between here and there is an impressive distance. It is a long drive across a flat Kansas (I am not knocking Kansas just stating a truth). It is a long drive across Missouri, Kansas and Colorado. In fact the final climb up to the peak of the mountain, while only being 19 miles total is a very long drive. But, the view is amazing and worth the climb. The journey itself is amazing. The journey I think made the destination all the more powerful.

Had Missouri and Kansas been filled with mountains I don't believe the Rockies would have taken my breath away. Had it been a quick and easy trip I don't think the memories would be as special and powerful. My guess is that I would have just taken everything for granted.

In our journey with God, sometimes we just focus on the destination and think it is all about the destination. We think is all about getting to heaven. It is about a life that we can have in the next life and we just let this life pass us by. Jesus wants to use this journey to transform us and to change the world around us. It is all about the journey.

Often times, even when we see the destination as a close relationship with God in this life time, we get focused in on that destination and the gap between where we would like to be and where we actually are. Let's be honest. We all want to be closer to God. At times on the journey, we get overwhelmed by the journey rather than seeing the journey as an important, necessary, and valuable for our relationship with God. It is about journeying with God. It is about allowing God to do a work in us and through us as we go through the ups and downs and the highs and lows. It is about understanding and living that God is with us and never leaves us. It is the joy of the journey as we day by day grow closer and deeper in our love and relationship with God.

So, no matter where we are in the map we can is at work drawing us closer to him. God is using the low places and the dry places to grow us and get us to the destination. Enjoy and take heart in the journey.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Cup Overflowed

2011-06-24T14:17:00.001-05:00

I think it was the song writer & sausage mogul Jimmy Dean who said it best, "I am drinking from my saucer cause my up overflowed."

I am a saucer drinker.

Oh, sometimes I forget that. Sometimes I get focused on the wrong things. Sometimes I get to thinking, "poor little old me." But the truth is if I just will stop and look I will see that "I am drinking from my saucer because my cup is overflowed."

I have so much to be thankful for. I am blessed. I am too blessed to stress. God provides me with everything that I need. He gives me way more than I deserve. My cup is so full of things for me to be thankful for that it overflows.

I am a saucer drinker. I thank my God for that because he is the one who fills my cup to over flowing.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

DRINKING FROM MY SAUCER aka MY CUP RUNNETH OVER; DRINK FROM THE SAUCER

Jimmy Dean

never made a fortune and it's probably too late now

But I don't worry about that much, I'm happy anyhow

And as I go along life's journey, I'm reaping better than I sowed

I'm drinking from my saucer, cause my cup has overflowed.

I ain't got a lot of riches, and sometimes the goings tough

but I've got kids who love me and that makes me rich enough

I just thank God for his blessings and the mercies he's bestowed.

I'm drinking from my saucer, cause my cup has overflowed.

I remember times when things went wrong, and my faith got a little thin

but then all at once the dark clouds broke, and the sun peeked through again

so Lord help me not to gripe about the tough rows I hoed

I'm drinking from my saucer, cause my cup has overflowed.

And if God gives me strength and courage, when the way grows steep and rough

I'll not ask for another blessing, I'm already blessed enough

And may I never be too busy to help another bear his load

I'll keep drinking from my saucer, cause my cup has overflowed.

Love is HARD

2011-06-23T10:23:00.000-05:00

The love that Christ calls is to is not easy.

He calls us to love unconditionally. Just like he does.

He calls us to love everyone. Just like he does.

He calls me to love my enemies. Just like he does.

He calls me to love those who are mean to me. Just like he does.

He calls me to love those who say hurtful things and do hurtful things to me and the people I love. Just like he does.

He calls me to love without expecting love in return. Just like he does.

He calls me to love with my actions. Just like he does.

He calls me to love always. Just like he does

He invited me to have my heart transformed to be like his by doing the hard work of love.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Hanging Out

2011-06-21T12:37:00.003-05:00

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1 NIV

The Psalmist reminds us that we can find rest when we dwell in the shelter of God. The word dwell conjures up images for me that are more than just temporary moments with God or now and again thinking about God, but long term hanging out with God. Spending time in God's presence. Spending time with God. Spending my days and my night drawing near to and offering my life to God. It is not a one hour a week thing. It is not a when I am in trouble thing. It is when I hang out in the shelter of God that I will rest in him and find rest in him. It is when I hang out with God daily that I have a rest and a peace in the midst of the troubles that come my way. It is when I dwell with God I then see that he works in all things for good.

Life is about dwelling in the shelter of the most high. Each day we have the opportunity to hang out there or hang out some place else. The reality is that God is will us all the time and is there for us but we must choose to seek our shelter in him every day.

Choose today to find rest by hanging out with God.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

God Morning

2011-06-17T10:53:00.001-05:00

"God Morning"

This is not a typo. I did not mean to right good morning and forget an "o". I meant to say "God morning.

As I woke this morning I wanted more than anything for today to be a God day. I woke with what seemed to be an invitation from within my soul inviting me to have a God day. A day that I seek to be aware of God working all around and me and allow him to work in and through me. An invitation to live today for God and for no one else but God. An invitation to live by God's will and not by my will. An invitation to seek first God's kingdom and righteousness. An invitation to lay down my life for him.

This invitation is whispered by that still small voice every morning to each and every one of us. Too often we settle for just having and hoping for good mornings or good days rather than reaching and striving to have the day that God desires for us and that is truly good. My prayer for me and for you is that we will have a God Day! A day where we encounter and live in the presence and power of the living God. A day where we die to ourselves and live for God.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Aaron Brown

2011-06-15T14:41:00.001-05:00

During our service on Sunday, I told you about a friend of mine, Aaron Brown, who lives in Joplin and is the pastor of St. Paul's United Methodist Church. Aaron brought the message at the community memorial service for the community of Joplin after the devastating tornado. As I mentioned on Sunday, his message is worth the time spent listening to it and I just wanted to share it with others. Please pray for the people of Joplin and all of those who have been effected by the spring storms. Pray also for God to reveal a way to come along side those that are need and to be a tangible visible sign that God is with them. If you would like to watch the video of Aaron's message please click the link below.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

click her for Arron's video

Thank God it's Friday!

2011-06-10T13:43:00.003-05:00

God,

I thank you that you have made me. I am thankful that you are forming and shaping me into the person that you want me to be. I am thankful that you are a loving, caring and forgiving God. I am grateful that you are full of grace and mercy and that your grace is wider than I can even imagine. I thank you that you are a transforming God and that you are at work transforming my life. I am grateful that you are a generous God. I am awed to think that you care for me and humbled to to be called your child. Thank you that you are always with me and that your Spirit is working in me to make me more generous, more caring, more loving, more grace filled and merciful. More like you. Thank you that you never give up on me. Thank you for being with us through out all of life. Thank you for being with us in the storms and the troubles and thank you for leading us to places of peace and rest and joy. Thank you for your comfort. Thank you for taking our punishment for us. Thank you that death does not win but life does. Lord, my list can go on and on and on. I am overflowing with gratitude to know that you are with me and care for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Amen.

Tell God how much you are grateful today.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

I think I am back

2011-06-08T11:54:00.002-05:00

If you are a regular follower of my ramblings you have probably noticed that I have spent some time off from writing since Easter. This has been a season for me that I just felt that I needed to step back from daily posting and be recreated in other ways.

I have always felt that this blog was about me being intentional about my own personal relationship with God and about me continuing to do daily disciplines to connect deeper with God and think about what it means for me to follow Jesus and not play church. It is a blessing that people also receive some inspiration and may grow deeper in their own relationships with God through reading my (often times grammatically incorrect) writings. I have taken time away to make sure that I still am using this for the purpose that God has for me to use it. I do love the way that it connects me to others and that others do read it, but for me, it is important that I always stay true to using this forum to help me stay intentional about being real about my relationship with God. I am humbled to know that people have missed it while I have taken this break and I am grateful for anyway that God might work through me to connect others to Him.

I intend to be back writing on a regular basis for as long as this continues to be a means for me to practice spiritual disciplines in my everyday life.

It is important that from time to time we evaluate and re-evaluate our spiritual life to make sure that we have not moved from living in relationship with God to playing church. Have the things that we do just become empty ritual or are they still connecting us to God? Do we need a fresh start? Are we doing things out of habit or obligation or are we doing them as followers of Jesus? Are we growing? Is Christ bearing fruit in our lives? Are we going through the motions? Who are we lifting up? Who is being honored and praised by our practices? Am I being real about my love of God? Am I being real about myself? Am I being real about my love of others?

Take time to evaluate your relationship with God and what you are doing to invest your time and energy--- your life in that relationship.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Sidewalk Prophets

2011-05-13T13:30:00.002-05:00

I have a new music group that God has been using to inspire me lately. I saw them at Winterjam in January and I am hoping to get a chance to see them when they come to Bethany, MO in June for the Lifelight concert. Anyway the lyrics to their songs have been a wonderful source of meditation about what it means for me to follow Jesus. They have a way of helping me to think about what it means to be real about our love for God and our love for others. Today I thought I would share a couple of those lyrics that have been continually rolling around in my mind.

The first is a line from their song "You can have me".

If I saw You on the street
And You said come and follow me
But I had to give up everything
All I once held dear and all of my dreams
Would I love You enough to let go
Or would my love run dry
When You asked for my life
When did love become unmoving?
When did love become unconsuming?
Forgetting what the world has told me
Father of love, You can have me.

Love should move us and consume us. Do I love enough to let go of everything else and be consumed and moved by my love of God?

The next is from their song "Show me How To Love".

Passed by you today
Why is there a war between us?
Are you not my brother?
Are you not my sister?
Something’s got to change
Stood by you today
Why is there a wall between us?
Are you not my sister?
Are you not my brother?
Well something’s got to change
I confess that I’ve been blind
Open up this heart of mine
Show me how to love
Farther than this world I know
Take me where You want me to go
Show me how to love

Our love of God is revealed in our love of our others. There should not be hostility, hate, and walls between brothers and sisters in Christ. Something has to change. Our hearts have to change. Our love has to change to be the love of Jesus.

Some things to meditate on from the Sidewalk Prophets.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

I'm Back

2011-05-11T10:44:00.002-05:00

I took a little time off after Easter from my daily posts. I felt like I needed to spend some devotional time with just me and God. Not that I mind sharing my personal devotions with whoever wants to read them on the world wide web, but I needed to just take a break from posting for a while and just be me and God. I hope you all understand. I did miss it.

Inspiration. I think that deep down inside each of us is a little voice that if we are quite enough and still enough we can hear crying out. That voice is saying"inspire me." We all want to be inspired. We want to be filled with a passion to do something bigger than ourselves. We want to be motivated to something that would seem impossible or to reach for something that seems unreachable.

This is why we seek out entertainment and why we read books and blogs. We all hope to catch some inspiration that changes us, moves us, motivates us, and compels us to experience life and and to live it abundantly. We want to be inspired. "Preacher give me a good word." "Coach tell me something powerful." Teacher blow my mind with something I don't know." "Inspire me."

The word inspire comes from the root word "in spirit." What we long for is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We cry out to be filled with the Spirit in such a way that we are moved and motivated to do something that seems impossible on our own. We long to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to compel us and change us. We can cry out to people for this but they can not really inspire us because what we need can only come from the Spirit. It can only come from God. Only God can truly inspire us. The good news is that this is exactly what God does. He says he will put his Spirit in us. He promise to give us His Spirit to comfort us, lead us, fill us, change us, and inspire us. Cry out to God. Say, "God Inspire Me."

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Revelation

2011-04-22T12:52:00.004-05:00

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” - Romans 1:20

If we want to see God's eternal power and divine nature all that we have to do is look around us at his creation. Everything that we see points to the divine creator of the universe. The sunrise, sunset, blooming flowers, budding trees, massive oceans, enormous mountains all display his power and beauty. The face of your neighbor, the laughter of a child, the air that we breath, the balance of the ecosystem, the beauty of plants, trees, flowers, animals and people all point to the beauty of the divine. The sound of the birds singing, the smell of a fresh rain, the awesome wonder of the human hand and the human mind all point to the truth of God.

Look around this doesn't happen by chance or accident. The perfect tilt of the earth axes, the sun to light the day and the moon to reflect the sun to give light to the night, the plants giving off oxygen and taking in carbon dioxide while human take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide all tell us that this is no coincidence it is a GODcidence. This was all created by an amazing, powerful creator who desire us to know that he loves us and cares for us and wants nothing more than to spend every day in an intimate relationship with you and me.

WOW. That is all that I can say.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

God cares about you

2011-04-21T11:45:00.002-05:00

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”” - John 10:28-30

Do you ever feel like no one cares?

Do you ever feel unloved?

Don't be fooled by your feelings.

The God that created all things loves and cares for you.

The truth is God cares about you. God loves you. God wants to spend all of eternity with you. Each moment of every day for ever and ever God loves and cares about you. He shows his love in that he does for us what we can not do for ourselves. He shows his love by doing what only he can do by coming to earth as Jesus and dying on the cross so that we could live eternally with him. He wants us to place our lives in his hands. He desires that we would just rest in the palm of his hands and trust him with our lives. He cares. He wants what is best for us. He loves us. When in his hands no one can snatch us out of his hands he will protect us.

However, God's hands are not clenched fists holding us hostage unwillingly. Because he loves us and cares for us, the choice is our to rest safe and secure in his hands or to walk outside of his loving embrace. No one can snatch us from him. He will protect us from that ever happening when we place our lives in his hands but his arms and hands are always open so that we can know his love and care is real and we can choose it or reject it.

It does not make since to reject it, but we can and some do.

But, if you want to know that you are loved and cared for and that each and every moment of all eternity God wants nothing more than to love you and for you to be able to love him in return than rest in the palm of God's hand and the truth of God's promise that he will give you eternal life and you will not perish. Rest in knowing that he and he alone is capable if this and that he will not let anyone snatch you away from him. He loves you. He cares. He desires only the best for you.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Living

2011-04-19T10:48:00.002-05:00

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” - 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Are you living?

My dad when he was diagnosed with cancer said a profound thing to me that has stuck with me to this day. He said, "I am going to spend he rest of my life living not dying."

That is an awesome statement.

Too often we go through life without living. We spend our days dying, or dead, rather than living each day to the fullest. In our spirits and spiritually speaking we stay stuck in Adam and in sin rather than living the new life that Jesus offers us. We live on thew other side of Easter rather than on this side of Easter. We spend each day as if it is only Fridays doom and gloom and death that reign. But, Christ is Risen! Christ has indeed been raised from the dead so you and I can truly live. We can spend the rest of our lives and all eternity living.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,

Doug

Give what is owed

2011-04-15T14:42:00.002-05:00

“This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” - Romans 13:6-7

I think that when we read the passage from Romans we get focused on the paying taxes part. Even though today is April 15 and tax day is approaching I want to look more deeply into what Paul is saying here.

Paul is just using taxes as an example for a deep truth that he is trying to convey. The scripture instructs us to give to everyone what is owed.

Do you owe someone respect? You should show them respect. Do you owe someone honor? than you should honor them. Is someone worthy of praise? You should praise them.

Today, everyday, it is time to give people what we owe them, because today is the time we are sure that we have. Do you need to tell someone thank you. Do it. Do you need to offer forgiveness? Do it. Do you need to tell someone you love them? Do it. Do you owe someone your respect? Do you owe someone your honor? Do it today. It is time to give what is owed to others. Respect, honor, love, and forgiveness. In this way we give God the glory, honor and praise that is due him.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,

Doug

What do you take your stand on?

2011-04-14T09:14:00.002-05:00

“[The Resurrection of Christ] Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” - 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4

I think it was a country song that had the words, "you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything." Paul says that the most important thing to take a stand on is Christ death, burial and resurrection. Paul is saying the one thing that I will not waver from, the one thing that is central and key to my life, the one thing that I am living for, and the one thing that I willing to die for is that Christ lived and died for my sin, was dead and buried and was raised on the third day. This is the gospel. This is the good news. Sin does not win. Jesus does. Death does not win. Jesus does. New life. Life everlasting. Jesus wins for me because he loves me. All he ask is that I love him in return.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

We are all in the same boat

2011-04-13T10:29:00.002-05:00

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” - Romans 3:23-24

Romans 3 is pretty clear that each and every person, without exception, is in the same boat. All of us, the best and the worst, fall short of God's glory. All of us are sinners. We all are in the same boat and without Christ it is a sinking ship.

Every person that you lay eyes on today is just like you. You, me, everyone we see are sinners in need of Christ. Everyone that we lay eyes on today are also precious and loved by God. God has not played favorites. All of us, even the ones that we struggle to love, are loved by God. Each and every person that you will look at today is loved by God so much that Jesus died on a cross for them. It is helpful at times to be reminded of this truth.

Love today. (Because He loves each and every one of us.)

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Selfishness

2011-04-12T11:22:00.002-05:00

“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” - Luke 9:23-24

Quite possibly the biggest obstacle that we face to living in relationship with Jesus is our own selfishness. It is impossible to be selfish and follow Jesus at the time. Jesus says the the first thing that we have to do in order to follow him is stop being selfish. Stop being self centered. Stop caring only about ourselves and what is in it for us. First thing we must do is deny ourselves. As followers of Jesus we each and everyday, if we want to follow Jesus, we have to get ourselves out of the way.

It is not about us if we are following Jesus. Whenever we catch ourselves acting and living selfishly, with an "it's all about what I want and feel" mentality, we can be assured that we are not seeking after Jesus but ourselves. Followers of Jesus are not selfish people. Followers of Jesus lose their lives. They give up their lives daily to follow Jesus.

And Jesus tells us that this is when we begin to live.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Easter People

2011-04-11T13:10:00.002-05:00

““He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”” - 1 Peter 2:24

"By his wounds you have been healed." This is what it says. Did you catch that? Did you happen to notice the tense of the statement. It does not say that we will be healed. It doesn't say that healing is coming. It says that what is necessary for us to be healed, our healing, has come. When Christ was wounded we were healed. Nothing more needs to happen. Sin has been put to death we no longer have to live in it. We are not stuck in sin. We can live for righteousness. It isn't coming--it has come. The healer, the one who has healed us has won the victory and overcome so that we can live for righteousness.

Yet, too often I/we live as if it is a future reality not a present one. When Lazarus was raised from the dead and given new life by the power of Christ we are told that Jesus told the people around him and Lazarus to take of his grave clothes. Lazarus had been healed by God and had walked out of the tomb but one more thing had to happen. He needed to take of the grave clothes. He needed to live in the new reality. The reality of his healing meant he no longer should be wearing grave clothes and he/we are responsible for taking off the grave clothes.

I think that too often we fail to recognize the truth of 1 Peter 2:24, that we "have been healed" because we fail to take off our grave clothes. We continue to be dressed in our old way. We don't live as if we have overcome sin, instead we keep wearing our old "sin clothes". We never clothe ourselves in righteousness. We live like healing is coming some day not that it has already come.

But here is the truth, you have been healed. All that is necessary has already happened. It happen on a cross just outside of Jerusalem over 2000 years ago. By his wounds we have been healed. It is time to live this reality. Take off your grave clothes. Stop living as those who are dying but live for righteousness. Live as Easter people. Christ has died. Christ is Risen!

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Enemies

2011-04-08T09:53:00.002-05:00

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” - Romans 5:10

Paul reminds us that when we live separated from God and live by our own rules and standards as our own god. We are living as God's enemies. Yet, God doesn't hold a grudge against us. God does not hate us. God loves us. God lays down his life for us. For his enemies. So that we can be put back into a right relationship; no longer be enemies, but live a new life. Live a reconciled and saved life. Not as his enemies but as his friends, as His children.

God doesn't hold grudges and either should we. God loves. So should we. "It is easy", Jesus says, "to love those that love us back. But I say love your enemies."

God does.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

The Key to Success

2011-04-07T11:36:00.002-05:00

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” - Galatians 2:20

Have I died today? Have you died today?

The writer of Galatians says that they have been crucified with Christ and they no longer live, but now the risen Lord lives in them and through them. Following Jesus begins by being crucified with him. We have to die to our old ways, old habits, old desires, old behaviors and ways of living. Jesus said that anyone who wishes to save there lives will lose it. If we want to be saved by Christ we must begin by dying with him.

This is the hardest part. It is easy to ask for forgiveness. It is hard to let go of the pain. It is easy to say "I believe." It is hard to love our enemies. It is easy to spend an hour a week in the church building. It is hard to be the church. It is easy to talk about what it means to be a Christian and what Christians ought to do. It is hard to live as a follower of Jesus. It is hard because to move from the easy to the hard we must be crucified with Christ and we must give up our lives to him. For us to be transformed by Jesus so that the life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son who lives in us.

The key to success is to every day die to self. The key to success is to allow Christ to live in us and through us. Apart from Christ we can do nothing but in Christ we can do all things.

Each morning we have the opportunity to live for ourselves or to let the risen Christ live in us and through us. Each morning we have the opportunity to say i am living for Jesus today and not for myself. Each morning we can choose the easy way that leads to spiritual and physical death for all eternity or we can choose the hard work of being crucified with Christ so that we can live in him and through him for all eternity.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Response

2011-04-06T12:12:00.002-05:00

“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” - 1 John 3:16

We love God by loving others. Our Love of God is an action and is shown in our willingness to love others like he loves them and he loves us. John 3:16 tells us the action that God takes because he loves us. 1 John 3;16 tells us the action that we must take because love God.

We ought to do what God does because he loves. We ought to lay down our lives for each other. Love puts others first. Love puts God first. Love lays down I for we. Love lays down mine for yours. Love lays down self for someone else. Love doesn't forget about self or loath self, but it does put others first. We show God how much we love him by how much we love the people that we are in contact with everyday.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Living for Christ Sake

2011-04-05T21:53:00.002-05:00

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” - 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Have you ever been compelled to do something?

It is as if there is nothing else you can do. You must do it. A home run hitter hits a home run and you are moved to jump to your feet and shout for joy. A gifted singer sings a song and you are moved to tears. A speech is given by a great orator and you stand to your feet and applaud. Compelled to do something out of the ordinary because of what we have experienced.

Paul says, that when we understand just how much Christ loves us and we experience the love of Christ in our life we are compelled to live. Christ's love is worth living for. When we understand and experience the love of Christ we are compelled to stop living for ourselves and to live for Christ sake. Not our sake and our pleasure but for Christ's sake and pleasure.

God steps down out of the comfort of heaven into our world as Jesus. He comes into our world because he loves us. He lives a perfect, sinless life as an example to us. He doesn't condemn us. He loves us. He takes on the punishment for sin and dies our death on the cross so that we could be set free and forgiven our sins. Because he loves us. He dies for all of us so that we can live. Because he loves us. He is dead and buried in a tomb. A stone seals the tomb shut but it doesn't keep him in the tomb. On that first Easter morning he rose from the dead and is alive today. He overcomes death. He defeats sin. Because he loves us.

We cheer like fools for home runs, touchdowns, and great performances. We are moved to tears by beautiful words and incredible experiences. We are compelled to respond.

When we understand Christ's love it will moves us to give thanks. It will move us to express emotion we may have never felt or expressed before it may move us to tears of joy. It will compel us to live, not for ourselves, but for him.

Love today. For him.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

According to Who?

2011-04-04T10:21:00.002-05:00

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” - Ephesians 1:7

"According to who?" That is the question I heard a lot when I was a teenage know it all. It is funny how we think we know everything at a time in life when we know very little. Just enough to get us in trouble.

The refreshing thing about this passage is that it give us the answer to the question when it is asked regarding forgiveness of sin and redemption. Forgiveness and redemption is not according to our knowledge. Forgiveness and redemption is not based upon what we have done or what we didn't do. Forgiveness of Sin and redemption are available to us because of who God is and what God has done through the work of Christ on the cross. It is not according to me or my works. It is not according to you and what you do. It is according to the riches of God's grace. This means that forgiveness of sin and redemption are a free gift for us to receive. We can't earn or deserve them. We don't have to. God offers them to us because he loves us.

But, and this is important, we do have to receive them. A gift is not a gift until we receive it. It is not ours until we open it. Open the gift and live the new live. Live as the redeemed. Live as the forgiven. Live a new life in Christ. Because it is not according to me or you it is according to HIM.

Live according to HIM. Forgiven. Redeemed.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

April Fools Day

2011-04-01T09:13:00.001-05:00

“For the director of music. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.” - Psalm 14:1

Don't be a fool today.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

That's what Love does

2011-03-31T08:00:00.003-05:00

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” - Isaiah 53:5-6

Love is an action. Love does. Isaiah 53:5-6 tells us what the love of Jesus does. Do we want to know how much God loves? Read these two verses and we can see what love does for us. Do we want to know if God loves us unconditionally? The answers is in these two verses and it is a resounding yes! Want to know if God's love is "fair"? Isaiah will tell us that it is not by our standards of fairness. But, God's love is unfair by our standards.

Pierced for our transgressions-- not his--that is what love does.

Crushed for our iniquities-- not his-- that is what love does.

He gets punishment and it brings us peace--that is what love does.

He is wounded so that we can be healed-- that is what love does.

We run away from him and he runs to us-- that is what love does.

He does nothing wrong but takes the punishment for all the wrongs--that is what love does.

God loves you and he puts that love in action everyday. How about you?

Love today. Not out of obligation or out duty, but because you love and you cant help but do the things that love does.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Pain and Suffering

2011-03-30T10:22:00.003-05:00

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” - Isaiah 53:3-4

Are you suffering? Feeling rejected? Are you in pain? You have a God who loves you and understands your situation. God is not unfamiliar with what we are going through and he certainly does not hide himself from our pain and suffering. God takes it on. He takes on the pain that you and I are feeling. When we suffer he suffers with us.

We often think when we are going through something that no one has ever experienced and knows what it is like. God does. Your God does. God is going through it with you. You are not alone. The God that is with you is the God that took the heat out of the flames when three boys entered into a fiery furnace. He is the God that took on the pain and suffering of the world and nailed it to the cross. He is the God that defeats death and takes away its sting. He is the one who is with you right now. He is the light that shines in darkness and darkness cannot consume it. He is not a stranger to you or what you are going through. He is walking in the midst of the storm and can and will quite the storm as only he can do.

Surely he has taken up our pain and bore our suffering. God understands.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Becoming

2011-03-29T09:20:00.002-05:00

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21

Saved for...

Saved so that...

Often times I think we look at the idea of a Savior as saving us from something. I am a sinner and I need saved from my sins. This is true. Yet, it is not the whole story. Jesus dies on the cross to not only save us from our sin but to save us so that we might become something else. We are saved for Christ sake. We are saved so that we might become the righteousness of God.

You and I are saved for a purpose.

You and I are saved so that we can become something new.

New Creations. New Lives. New people.

So that the world might be transformed by the righteousness of God that we are becoming.

We have been saved from sin for a purpose so that we might become the righteousness of God.

What are you becoming since you have given your life to Christ?

We are saved for not just from.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

2011-03-28T10:25:00.003-05:00

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” - 1 Timothy 2:5-6

Mediator. That is an interesting understanding of the what Christ does. Mediators are kinda neutral third parties that help work out disputer or differences. Mediators help resolve conflict. In fact in law when they try to work things out, out side of court before it goes to a suit, it is called mediation and a mediator works with the parties in involved to resolve the conflict and come to a settlement. When Paul writes to Timothy he describes Christ as the mediator between God and mankind.

Conflict resolver. Christ resolves the conflict between us and God. Christ helps us to open up the dialogue and to talk to God. Christ makes it possible for our relationship with the God who creates us and loves us to be restored.

It is important that we not miss the three letter word "all." Christ gave himself as a ransom for all. He did not just die for the good people, or for Christians, or for a certain race or economical status. He did not pay the ransom and mediate for a certain country or origin, or a particular gender. He "gave himself as a ransom for all people." Christ is your mediator. Christ is my mediator. Christ is every one's mediator. He did for all so that all can be restored into right relationship with God.

The part I am wrestling with in the description of Christ as mediator is the "neutral third party" understanding of a mediator. In mediation as we understand it in our world the mediator is to be unbiased and neutral about the situation. I don't see Christ as either neutral or unbiased.

Jesus is God. Christ is the Son, the second person of the Trinity. Jesus says, "I and the Father are one. If you have seen me you have seen the Father." Jesus is resolving a conflict that we have with him. He is restoring a relationship with him. He is paying the ransom that is owed to him for what we have done to him. That doesn't sound neutral. Maybe he leans in the favor of God?

But wait.

Jesus is in love with you. Jesus is in love with the whole world. He says, "No greater love has anyone than this that they lay down their life for their friends." Jesus gives his greatest love to all of us. Jesus isn't mad at you he is made about you. He loves you. You are the apple of his eye and you are precious to him. He loves you and me so much that he mediates for us by giving himself as a ransom for all people. Neutral? No way! He is very much connected to the outcome of the resolution. The deepest desire of his heart is that all of us would love him in return. He wont force us to-- because that wouldn't be real love. He loves us too much to make us love him. He wants you and I, he wants the whole world, to know what true love is. So, he opens up the dialogue with the words "I love you." He shows that he love us when does what is necessary in order for the reconnected us to God and he says come to me. The choice is now ours. We have to enter into the mediation with the mediator. We have to love him in return. Fall in love with him. Live in love with him.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

You are forgiven

2011-03-25T11:05:00.002-05:00

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9

Guilt is a heavy bag to carry. Shame is just as heavy.

Do you know that we don't have to carry that load. God does not want you and me to be weighed down with guilt, shame and regret.

So, Why?

Why do we hang on to our guilt? Why do continue to weigh ourselves down with past mistakes and regrets. Why don't we just ask for God's forgiveness? Why don't we accept that He forgives us? Why do we continue to drag the baggage around?

Stop!

Let go!

Don't allow the baggage to weigh you down!

Ask God to forgive you for what you have done and let it go.

In the name of Jesus you are forgiven!

Today, lighten your load. God is not holding it against you and neither should you. Let go.

Love today as a forgiven child of God.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Grace

2011-03-24T11:04:00.002-05:00

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23

Grace is the unearned, undeserved, unmerited free gift of God's favor. We have not earned, deserved or merited God's favor but he gives it to us anyway. We find favor with God because is a God of mercy. God loves you and me. God cares about us. Even though we can never and will never earn, deserve or merit his love he loves us anyway. God gives us what we don't deserve. This is grace. "The gift of God is eternal live in Christ Jesus our Lord." God's gift to those who give themselves and make Jesus Lord of their life is eternal life. It is a gift-- not something we can earn, or deserve, or merit. It is ours if we will just accept it.

Grace is also that we don't get what we do deserve. All of us have earned, merited and deserve death. Physical death and spiritual death. The wages of sin is death. What sin earns us is death. What sin deserves is death. What sin merits is death. This is what everyone has earned. This is what is deserved for every person in the world. This is what I merit. But, "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believed in him should not perish but have ever lasting life." (John 3:16)

God is also a God of justice. The price still had to be paid. What sin had earned was still required. Sin still merited death. But, God loves us. So, He does for us what we cant do for ourselves. We don't pay the price. We don' get what we deserve. He does. He didn't earn it or deserve it. We did. But he is the God of grace and mercy and justice. He dies our death on the cross. Paying the price for my sin. For your sin. For all the sin of the world. It is paid in full. And he offers us a gift.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23

The gift is not ours until we open it. It is not ours until we receive it. The gift is our in Christ Jesus our Lord. When we give our lives to Jesus he gives himself to us. He doesn't give us what we deserve. He gives us what we don't deserve. Life in him forever and ever.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

James 1:12

2011-03-23T09:30:00.002-05:00

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” - James 1:12

God turns our test into testimonies. Persevere because God is working. Keep leaning on Jesus. Don't turn away or lose faith. God is going to transform the situation and when it is over you will have a story to tell of what God has done. Persevere and let God turn your test into a testimony.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Stand

2011-03-22T12:34:00.004-05:00

“[The Armor of God] Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” -Ephesians 6:10-11

When God is at God's best that is when the devil works the hardest. The devil is not like God. The devil is not all powerful or all knowing. The devil is not capable of being in all places at all times. The devil is limited.

We sometimes give the devil too much credit. We also sometimes do the devils work for him. This being said, the devil is still real and the devil is still working in our world and working against God. But, because of the devils limits the devil can only do so much. It has been my experience that when we are running from God and being disobedient, the devil is not working on us because there is no reason to. We are doing just fine on our own ignoring God and living by our own plans. Since the devil cant be everywhere he is not going to work on people when they are far from God. It is the people close to God that the devil is going to work on. When God is as his best that is when the devil works his hardest. It is in these moment that we must be prepared to take our stand against the devil. We prepare ourselves to stand against the evil one by "putting on the full armor of God."

What jumps out at me in this passage is that it is not by our power and might that we are able to stand up to the devil's schemes. It is by God's. It is by leaning on and trusting in God. In God's word. In God's salvation. In God's protection. In God's strength.

Don't give in to the devils schemes. Don't do the devils work for him. Do give the devil more power or credit that he deserves. Say, "Satan get out of my way." Take your stand in the power of Christ.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

When the Heat is on

2011-03-21T09:38:00.002-05:00

““But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”” - Jeremiah 17:7-8

What we really trust and have confidence in is revealed when the heat is on. When life's storms hit us is when we reveal what is our hope and our strength. It is not what we say when things are fine but how we live when the drought comes that speaks to what our confidence is in.

This being said, I wish that we never had to go through hard times. I wish we would not have to have those moments when the heat is on or that all things dry up. I wish we could learn the truth that Jesus is all we need before the moment when Jesus is all that we have.

Jeremiah tells us that the secret is to plant ourselves by the water (the living water, Jesus) and to send our roots out. Plant ourselves deeply in our relationship with Jesus. Connect deeply to God. Grow deeply in love with Him. Grow deeply in our trust of Him. Grow deeply in the the good times so that when the bad times come, and sadly they will come, you will be blessed when the heat is on. When the drought comes you will continue to bear fruit. There will be no need to worry because our confidence and our trust is not in the situation or circumstance it is in the Lord. And the Lord promises to bless us, to work for our good, no matter the situation or circumstance.

Dig in deep.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Joy and Peace

2011-03-18T10:57:00.002-05:00

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13

Joy and peace. This is my wish for you. I pray that God will bless your life with joy and peace. I pray that your life and my life with overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God fills our lives with joy and peace so that they might overflow from our lives and other might experience the power of the Holy Spirit and hope in their lives.

May we all live in the overflow today and everyday.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Take a New Look

2011-03-17T09:45:00.002-05:00

“A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” -Psalm 23:1-3

The 23rd Psalm could possibly be the most well known psalm in the Bible. In fact, people who never read their bibles are familiar with the words. Even people who don't believe in the bible are probably aware of David's words.

For many, it is the King James version that we are most familiar with. "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

One problem that comes with familiar passages is that we get in a rut of thinking that we have already heard the word that God has for us in this passage, we know what it says so we fail to hear it with new ears or read it with new eyes. This is what is great about different translations. Sometimes a new word helps us to understand more deeply the Spiritual truth of God's word.

For those who know this psalm as "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want," the NIV throws us a curve ball. It says that if the Lord is our Shepherd is means we will "lack nothing."

Not want.

Lack nothing.

Do you want. I want this. I want that. It is not need it is want. I want more. I want bigger. I want better. The problem with want is that wants tend to only lead to more wants. Wants tend to never be satisfied. What the NIV helps us to understand is that to not want means we lack nothing.

When we allow the Lord to be our shepherd we lack nothing. The Lord provides everything. Nothing is lacking. That is what want is-- it is this feeling that something is lacking. Maybe, if I get more of this than I want be lacking? Maybe, if I get more of that I won't be lacking? What we are missing is a shepherd. What is lacking is the Lord. As long as I make anything else my shepherd, as long as I allow anything or anyone else to lead me in my life it will be lacking. I will always be in want.

Freedom from the wants come when we allow Jesus to lead us and shepherd us in our lives and then we lack nothing. Contentment comes. The Message translation puts it this way when God is our shepherd we "don't need a thing." God is all you and I need. God is the only one that can and will fill all of our needs and desires. Everything else will leave us lacking.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

The Clothes We Wear

2011-03-16T09:05:00.003-05:00

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” - Colossians 3:12

Did you put any thought into what you are wearing today? Some days, I look in the closet and try to pick out the perfect thing to wear to match my mood or match what I am going to be doing to be doing that day. Some days I just grab the first I see and put it on. Some people put a lot of thought into what they wear each day-- they have to have the latest fashion or the hottest designer name. Some people could care less they are just cloths. But, as I was thinking about the passage from Colossians I realized that no matter what the day or what type of people we are, we dress to fit the occasion. For the most part, we don't wear suits to work out or dig in the garden and we don't wear our "nice" clothes to play in the dirt. We dress to fit what we are doing. We understand that we need to clothe ourselves properly each day. Or at least, most of us, understand that we need to clothe ourselves each day.

The writer of Colossians tells us that there are also characteristics, virtues, and attitudes that we need to put on each day. Interestingly, the writer tells us we are to clothes ourselves in these qualities. What we wear should fit whose we are. That is not a typo. Whose we are. God's people should clothe themselves with the qualities of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

The other thing that interest me about the use of the word clothe is that it suggest that this is not something these are not just internal qualities. Our kindness, gentleness, compassion, humility and patience should be visible to others. They should be noticeable to everyone as much as the other stuff that we wear.

I just had a vision of the Emperor in "The Emperors New Clothes" The story of the Emperor running around naked but he thinks he has on the best clothes. He is convinced that he is wearing clothes but he is not. What everyone sees is that he has not clothed himself in anything.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” - Colossians 3:12

What are you wearing? Does it fit whose you are?

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

2011-03-15T10:39:00.002-05:00

“then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”” - Acts 4:10,12

If I didn't know any better, I would think that I was the man that Peter was talking about in the scripture passage from Acts 4. I have been healed and transformed by Jesus. I am able to stand before you today (at least figuratively as I write this) as one who has been cured of disease, freed from imprisonment, released from bondage and given new sight by the power of Jesus.

Peter is speaking in defense of healing a man who had been crippled from birth and had spent his life begging at the temple gate called Beautiful. The religious leaders of the day had brought Peter and John in to question them about this healing and Peter speaking boldly in the Spirit gives the credit to whom the credit is due. This has happen in and by the name of Jesus Christ.

We can't heal ourselves and we can't save ourselves. So, why is that so many of us try so hard to do both of these things on our own? Healing, true healing, God's healing is done by God. It is by God's power that we are healed. It is in and through Jesus that our lives are made beautiful, whole, well. It is in the name of Jesus that we freed and released from those things that imprison us and hold us captive. Not by our doing but by the power of God.

I know this not because I read it in a book but because I have experienced it first hand. I spent many years trying to "heal" myself. Trying to "fix" myself. Trying to safe myself. I discovered that I could not do it. It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was crucified and God raised from the dead that I am able to stand today. God alone gets the credit because it is what God did. I am so very grateful for what God has done in my life and through my life. The credit is all his. I am saved by Jesus I can not save myself. There is no other name by which we must be saved. Did you notice that Peter used the word must. I must be saved. We are all in need of a savior and there is only one that is capable of being able to save us. It is not us. It is Jesus.

Give God credit today for what he has done and who he is. Don't try to do what you are not capable of doing. let God do what only God can do. Are you in need of healing? Turn to the one who heals. Are you in need of a savior (Peter said we must)? Turn to the Savior.

Love today.

In Christ Love and mine,

Doug

Always Growing and Climbing Higher

2011-03-14T20:35:00.003-05:00

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 2 Peter 1:5-8

It is said that the alternative to growing is dying. As soon as we stop growing we begin the process of dying. The same is true in our relationship with God. We are to always be growing. We are to always be "adding to" Peter says.

I sometimes visualize it as a mountain climbing experience where we are alway climbing higher. We don't want to go back or down, we always reach for the mountain top. It is sometimes easier to think of this way than growing and dying. Our relationship with God is one that take us higher and higher up a mountain, the peak or apex, is a constant and deep relationship with Christ. We are called to reach different "base camps" or "spiritual summits" as we climb toward the mountain top. Faith is the first step and all other things we add to our faith as we continue to live in and live out our faith.

Faith is not where we stop. It is where we start. We add to our faith as we continue to grow in our relationship with God. This is what I hear Peter saying in this passage. Don't stop at faith keep going! Don't stop at goodness keep going! There is more to be added. There is a higher calling. We have not got to the final destination. Keep going! Don't stop at knowledge, add to it! Don't stop at self control add too it!

All of these qualities, as we grow in our relationship with Christ, should be constantly increasing. Peter says, "process these qualities in increasing measure." Always be growing in faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. Keep climbing! Keep Growing!

What are you striving for? What are you adding to? Are you growing? Are you climbing?

Don't look back. Press on. Keep growing. Keep going. God will add to your faith these qualities in increasing measure. Just don't stop reaching up and out to him.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

God is faithful

2011-03-11T08:58:00.002-06:00

“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” - Deuteronomy 7:9

God is faithful. God never has to say, "I promise" because God is always faithful. When God says he will do it he will do it. When God makes a commitment he keeps it. God is faithful. He will never fail you or forsake you.

People fail. People break covenants and don't keep there promises.

The Lord your God. Did you hear that? Your God. Yours. Mine. Is faithful. He will never break his covenant of love with you and me.

Covenants are two way streets. We enter into this commitment and relationship by loving God and doing what he wants us to do in our lives. He will always be faithful to us. We are called to be faithful to him.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

The Hope That You Have

2011-03-10T11:08:00.002-06:00

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” - 1 Peter 3:15

I have always liked this passage. I have often said to people, "always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who ask you the reason for the hope that you have."

This quote is actually the middle of verse. It is important that we be prepared to give an answer but we need to really understand the context of that statement. Peter says it begins in our hearts.

In our hearts we are to revere Christ as Lord. This is where the hope is for us. It is not about knowing about Jesus and being able to tell people four spiritual laws or walk them through the Romans road. Peter says first thing we need is to have hope in us. Revere Christ in our hearts. When we do this we have hope. A relationship with Christ is our hope. Loving Christ and experiencing his transforming love is our hope. In a nutshell, I think Peter is saying that if we give our hearts to Christ, hope will be evident. People will see those who revere Christ in their hearts as hopeful people and will be asking, "Why are you so hopeful?" So, be ready to tell them.

Peter then ends the verse by taking us back to a matter of the heart. I think he must have been given some foreknowledge about how people would beat people up with the Gospel. How people in telling others about the "hope" that they have would use the gospel as a hammer to beat them down or to say I am right you are wrong. Peter says, "but, do this with gentleness and respect."

When our hearts are transformed by Christ we cant help but be hopeful. We are compelled to tell others so that they too can have the hope that we have. Also, we are moved to love others like Christ loves them and treat them with gentleness and respect.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Ash Wednesday

2011-03-09T10:17:00.004-06:00

Today is the beginning of Lent. It is Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time for us to focus. It is a time to concentrate on our relationship with God. It is a time to be intentional about working on and growing the most important and life changing relationship we can have.

Throughout Lent we might be encouraged to fast from something or take on new things but whatever we do it should be done to help us grow in our relationship with Christ. That is what this time is about. Me and God. You and God. Do we have the relationship with God that we desire? It is time to focus in that relationship.

Ash Wednesday calls us to understand and recognize that we need God. We can't live without God. Our lives our empty without him. I need Jesus. He doesn't need me I need him. He wants us. He desires a relationship with us but he doesn't need us. He loves us We need Him. Lent is a time to focus on loving him. Lent is about moving from need - to want - t0 desire of Christ.

Today, I recognize that I need Jesus. I need him to save me. I need him to lead me. I need him to live now and forever.

Have a blessed Ash Wednesday!

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Satisfaction

2011-02-18T11:06:00.002-06:00

Do you ever feel like the old Rolling Stones song "Satisfaction"? The song says, "I can't get no satisfaction."

We all have a desire to be satisfied. We search out satisfaction through money, food, relationships, entertainment, jobs, hobbies, exercise, and all kinds of things that are both good for us and bad for us. We have a need to be satisfied and we try different things to satisfy the feeling of being unsatisfied. No matter what we try we are left singing with Mick Jagger, "I can't get no satisfaction." This is because there is really only one thing that can truly satisfy us. The things of this world may give us temporary relief, temporary happiness, temporary highs but, they will never totally satisfy us. The emptiness that each of us have can only be filled by God. There is nothing in all of creation that can satisfy us completely, the stuff will always leave us unsatisfied. Satisfaction comes from the Creator of everything.

Psalm 17:15

"As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face;

when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness."

There is truly only one thing that can satisfy us forever and always. All other things leave us wanting more. They leave us empty. WE will continue to sing over and over, "I can't get no satisfaction. But, I try. But, I try. I can't get no satisfaction."

The emptiness that you feel can only be filled by God. You and I will be satisfied, fully and completely by Christ. Seek him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

God Pleasing or People Pleasing?

2011-02-17T09:05:00.002-06:00

Gracious, loving, merciful God,
Forgive me for all the times that I get caught up trying to please other people and not focused on pleasing you. Forgive that I try too often to be all things to all people when I know that I cant. It is all for you and your glory.
Help with the frustration that I feel from trying to please people and help me to feel the joy of living for you alone. Help me to love, forgive, and serve for you and in your name. Amen

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Quick Connect

2011-02-16T14:43:00.002-06:00

I heard this song this morning as I started my day and it has been speaking to me all day. It was not the first time that I heard the song but it was the first time that I heard the words. It is so right on. Following Jesus is more like falling in love. It is falling in love. It is not rules. It is not religious thinking. It is being in love and living in love with Jesus.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

What do you do?

2011-02-15T12:45:00.005-06:00

Do you ever have those moments when you feel like you need to connect to God and you need to do it right now. Moments where you want to, need to, draw close to God and be inspired, or encouraged, or comforted, or just be in the presence of God. Maybe it is in a time of turmoil, or a time of tragedy? Maybe it is a time of celebration or a time of joy? Maybe it is just a moment that you recognize that you have strayed away and you are disconnected from God.

What do you do? How do you reconnect? What is you way of getting connected to God most easily?

For me, it is worship and nature. In those moments, and yes we all have them, when I need to withdrawal to a place and seek God it seems that if I will just worship, put on some music and praise God and meditate on his word, I can reconnect quite easily. I also have discovered that if I will get out in nature I can't help but be drawn into an awareness of God and to place where I can listen for his still small voice.

There are other ways we can do this. Traditionally they have been called spiritual disciplines. Solitude, fasting, spending time with others, participating in the sacrament of communion, scripture meditation are other means that we can use to reconnect with God. The important thing that I am thinking about today is that we know and understand what works for us and in those moments that we need to get to God and we need to do it right now we can do those things. So, what do you do?

Are you right now in one of those "dark nights of the soul" and in need to know that God is there and listening o your cries? Take confidence in knowing that God promises to never leave you us or forsake. Even if he seems to us to be far off, and we feel disconnected he us with us. Do the simple things that have helped you to encounter God previously. Don't avoid the things that can help you connect to God. He tells us that if we seek him we will find him, if we seek with all our heart. God has not left us. We can reconnect. He is there find the way way that you can connect and seek, seek, seek.

I would love to hear what others do in those moments. Maybe your sharing might help someone else connect to God in one of those moments of need.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

Decision Making

2011-02-02T12:27:00.003-06:00

I am trying to make a decision about having our Wednesday evening activities or cancelling them. I will admit, I don't like having to make this decision. Sometimes it is so difficult to make decisions. We fear we will make the wrong decision and others will laugh at us or tell us that we made the wrong decision. We fear that we will make the wrong decision and then we will be left to deal with the consequences and the fall out of making the wrong decision. Sometimes, we just get crippled by having to make decisions and we just freeze up. All this from me thinking about if the roads are too bad for people to travel to church. You all must think I am nuts.

How do you make decision. Each decision that we make is really an opportunity to be led by God in a real way. We can take each decision to God. We can listen for his still small voice. We can allow the Spirit to lead us in our decisions if we are tuned into the Spirit. We must pray about the decision we make. Even the ones we think seem insignificant. What would Jesus do if faced with the decision we are faced with? I believe this is a very real way that we follow Jesus with our lives. When we know what Jesus would do with the decisions that we have to make and choice to do that and not what we would do then we are following Jesus.

I still don't know about church tonight. But, I am seeking God direction on this decision.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Option or Opportunity

2011-01-27T11:32:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine shared with me about a two months ago what God had been laying on his heart about church. He told me that "church is an opportunity not an option." For these past couple months my friends words about church participation have been resonating in my soul.

Too often we see participation in the live and happenings of the church as an option. Church attendance, church worship, and fellowship with other Christians are just some of many options we have to choose from in our day. Church or something else it is our choice. Someday it is a choice that we want and we will participate and sometimes we choose something else.

Church is opportunity not a choice.

Church is an opportunity to encounter and experience God in the midst of of our lives. Church is an opportunity to worship, to love, to find meaning in life. Church is an opportunity to share our lives with Jesus and other followers of Jesus. Church is an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Church is an opportunity to live out our faith in relationship with Christ and in community with other followers of Jesus. Church is an opportunity to be transformed from self-centered "what is in it for me" choices to a Christ centered joy filled live of service to God and others.

Church is an opportunity to know God and his forgiveness. Church is an opportunity to find a shoulder to cry on, a friend to lean on, and a God to love on. It is an opportunity to love and be loved, to know and be known, to serve and be served.

We can choose, that is what free will is all about. But church, is more than a option that we have to choice from. It is an opportunity. In fact, as those seeking to follow Jesus and live out our faith, it is no longer an option, it is necessary for us, we cannot follow Jesus alone, in isolation. We need the church. It is not an option it is our greatest opportunity.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Snow Day

2011-01-11T09:49:00.002-06:00

"Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow."

Psalm 51:7

As I sat and looked out the window this morning at the pure snow that has fallen for the past 24 hours, my mind was filled with this verse from the Psalms. There is something beautiful about freshly fallen snow. No footprints, no snow plow residue, no slush or mud created by traffic-- just pure, white, snow. Untouched, unblemished.

It makes since that David would use this as the image for the cleansing that he desired from God in his life. He had made mistakes, he had sinned and he knew that he was dirty and he needed to be clean. He also knew that he could not do it. I m sure he has tried. I am sure he tried lots of things. He tried pretending that he was not dirty. He tried comparing himself to others who seemed dirtier so he "at least was not like them." I am sure he tried to clean himself up. But, he has come to an incredible discovery. He can not get himself clean. He needs God. He also knows that if God does the cleaning he will make him as clean and as pure as the freshly fallen snow.

As I sat and look out the window, with my mind full of God's word, I think about the areas of my life that God has washed as white as the snow. I give him praise for the way that he has cleansed me from my sins. I am also mindful of the tracks in the snow. The slush that I have made, the places that remain unclean and I ask God, knowing that he does the cleaning and not me, for his forgiveness and for his cleansing. "God, wash me and I will be whiter than snow."

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

New Life Part 5

2011-01-07T06:30:00.000-06:00

Mark 2:22

"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

This might sound strange or too simple but the biggest obstacle to change and experincing new life and new beginnings is an unwillingness to change. We say we want things to be different but we don't want to be different. We desire a fresh start and we want a new life but we are not really wanting to let go of the old life. Jesus says, you don't put new wine in old wineskins. If we want new life we cannot keep doing the same old stuff that we have always done. New wine won't stay in an old wineskin it will burst the skin. It won't work.

This means that if we want to make a fresh start we will need to stop trying to do things the old way. If we want to make a new beginning, if we want our lives to be changed, we have to let go of our old lives. As long as we are holding onto the old way we don't have the ability to embrace the new. This year allow God to make all things new. This year claim the promise of God to transform and change your life from the inside out. Let go of the old and let God fill your life with love, joy,peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. God wants to fill our lives with the fruits of the Spirit. But, you cant put new wine in old wineskins we have to be willing to allow God to change us.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,
Doug

New Life Part 4

2011-01-06T06:23:00.000-06:00

Jeremiah 21: 11 says, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Let me ask you this as you think about the plans that you might have for this coming year or for you life in general. Do any of the plans that you have come with a guarantee to prosper you? Do any of your hopes or your dreams or your plans for your life come with the promise that they will give you a hope and future. I don't know about you but the plans that I make for myself don't come with such guarantees. My plans often fail. My plans usually don't work out perfectly. My plans sometimes succeed but always leave me wanting more. There is only one plan that I can follow that comes with that kind of guarantee. That is God's plan for my life.

God has a plan for each of and he says, it is a plan that will prosper us and give us a hope and a future. The tricky part is that God is not going to force his plan on us. We can choose to live his plans or ours. He will allow us to live our plans as reckless and as crazy and as empty as they might be because he loves us and wont force us to do something we don't want to do. We have to want to live his plan for our life and seek his guidance for our lives. We have to give up the controls of our life to him so that it is no longer I that life but Christ that lives through me. Then we can live his plan and not our own.

The choice is ours. We can live our lives by our plans with no guarantees or we can choice to live a new life by giving up our plans and accepting the only plans for our life that come with a guarantee to prosper us and give us a hope and a future. Seems like a "no brainer" doesn't it.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,

Doug

New Life Part 3

2011-01-05T06:05:00.000-06:00

When God makes a change in our lives he does it from the inside out. Real change begins in our hearts. In Ezekiel 36 we are told that God promises to give us new hearts. It says, "I will take from you your heart of stone and give you are heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you and cause you to live according to my laws."

You see we live in a world that is so caught up in the outward. We want a change and we look for quick fixes to the outside. We get a new outfit, or a new haircut, or new shoes. We seek out plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery. We make efforts to change the outside in hopes that it might change who we are but we are still the same on the inside. We will change jobs, change relationships, change houses, but nothing really changes because these changes are only outside changes. You see God knows that the only way that things can really be made new is from the inside out. This is why David prays "create in me a clean heart oh God." Change begins in our hearts.

If we want to really experience new life this year, it is not going to happen because we get a new car or a new body, the life that we all long for begins when we are given a new heart. Only God can transform a human heart and he has promised that if we will let him he will take from us our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh so that we can experience real and lasting change in our lives this year from the inside out.

Love today.

In Christ Love and mine,

Doug

New Life Part 2

2011-01-04T06:30:00.000-06:00

If we want to life a new life in Christ and claim the promise of God to have a fresh start and be made new, the question is what is it that you and I need to do on the first day of this new beginning? What do we do on the first day of the rest of our lives. Well, I want to share with you a prayer that is found in Psalms 51 that helps us to understand what we do to begin a new beginning. David is the writer of this prayer and it is a prayer that he prays after he has been confronted about being a murderer and an adulterer. It a prayer that helps David begin to live a new life in Christ.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

blot out my transgressions.

² Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Often when we want to make a change we just start doing the new thing. We say I want to live this way so we pretend that that is how we live. This usually ends with us not sustaining the change because we are just acting, we are pretending that we are something that we are not. We can't maintain the change because it is a facade that we are hiding behind rather than it being the product of being changed by God. It is something we are trying to do rather than something we are becoming. David shows us the place to begin is with being honest about who we are and being honest about our inability to change ourselves. It is about being real about the stuff that we do and don't do. It is about understanding that only God can really make things new. Change begins when we are honest about ourselves and our need for God and we ask him to make the change. David says, God this is who I am, I am sinner, I am dirty, I need you to clean me I need you to create in me a clean heart because I am not capable of doing it-- you know and I know what I am capable of. I need you to change me.

A new beginning for you and me begins when we stop pretending and start being real about who we are and our need for God. The truth is God loves us just the way that we are, we don't have to pretend that we are something we are not, but he loves us enough that he wont leave us that way. He promises to change us and to give us new life in him.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,

Doug

New Year- New Life

2011-01-03T06:19:00.002-06:00

One of the things that I enjoy about the start of a new year is that at least for a little while people are filled with optimism and hope. The new year finds us thinking about the possibility for things to be new, to be fresh, to be restored. The new year begins and we are hopeful that this year things might be different, that this year things can be different. Some will make resolutions to help them strive toward a goal that they will set. Some will take on new habits while others will try to break old ones. The new year offers up the opportunity to drive a stake in the ground and say"this year things are going to be different." "I am going to be a better me." "I am going to get in better shape." "I am going to do good things more and bad things less."

The new year offers us the opportunity to at least for a little while dream that things can be made new. That we can have a new beginning. A new start. Usually though, by mid January, if we are honest, the hope and the optimism of the new year fades. Resolutions are broken. We fall back into the same routines and we live life in the same ruts. Optimism turns into what we will call realism to justify no change and our dreams and hopes of things being made new are forgotten. We just settle for things as they are. This year my prayer is that we don't settle for anything less than what is promised to us by God.

You see the promise of the bible is that we can live a new life. That all things can be made new. You and me can be made new in Christ. God wants each of us to have life and have it to the full. God wants us to have hope and optimism and to be better people. And God will make it possible for us to have a new beginning, a fresh start, a new life. Each and every day. Because that is what God does. We read in Romans chapter 6, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 say, "Anyone who is in Christ they are a new creation the old is gone and the new life comes." Jesus in Revelation 21:5 says," I am making everything new." You see we are not stuck in the ruts that we find ourselves in. We have a way out. Our past and our present circumstances do not define who we are we and can have a fresh start and new beginning through Christ who is in the business of new life. You see God truly wants each of us to life lives of hope and optimism lives that are being renewed every morning. Lives that are being transformed and changed by him.

If we want things to be different, we might have to do things differently, we might have to stop trying to change our lives on our own by making resolutions and instead trust God to do what God says he will do. Trust God this year with our hopes, our dreams, our insecurities, our fears, and our habits. Trust God with our lives. As this New Year begins I want you know that God has plan for your life a plan to prosper you and not to harm you to give you a hope and a future. God wants to make all things new for you. Trust God for a new beginning this year.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

New Year

2011-01-01T06:30:00.002-06:00

My post this week will also be appearing, in some form, on our local radio station as devotions for our daily community devotion series "Christ in the Community." It is my understanding that they will run each morning of the week at 9:10 AM on KTTN 92.3.

I am grateful for the opportunity that God has provided me to share with our community. I pray and claim the promise that God's word goes out and it does not come back empty. I pray that God will minister to someone though the words that he shares through me.

I will be focusing this week on the promise of a new life in Christ as we start a new year.

Love today.

In Christ Love and mine,

Doug

God does hear our prayers

2010-12-30T14:42:00.003-06:00

I believe that God hears us when we pray. I also believe that God answers every prayer that is prayed. I wish that I always understood his answer but I don't. I wish that I could always say that I see exactly what God's answer is, but I can't. I do however believe and I am assured that God does hear and answer all of our prayers. Maybe not how we want him to or even how we can understand but he does answer. Every time.

I trust when I pray that God hears.

I trust when i pray that God knows best.

I trust God knows, better than me, what is really needed. What healing is needed. What comfort, what strength, what-- whatever it is that is really needed.

I trust God answers every time. God's way not mine.

God does not ignore us when we pray he listens and he answers.

When my prayers are not answered the way I hope it does not mean that God didn't care or listen or answer me. It just means I don't understand. I pray that I can become more comfortable with not leaning on my own understanding. And I know God hears that prayer and is answering it.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine, Doug

Hello

2010-12-29T13:48:00.002-06:00

I could not believe it when I saw that Christmas eve was the last time I had posted. But time flies when you are having fun!

We had an awesome Christmas Eve Service at Dockery Chapel. I spoke about how we hear the same story each year and the story never changes but we should. Everyone in the story of the first Christmas goes home a different way than they came. We are told that the wise men after being warned in a dream didn't go home like they came they went home a different way. We hear the same story every year and we encounter Christ in the sacrament of communion and we have the opportunity to go home a new way. We have the opportunity to be changed and made new each time we encounter and worship Jesus.

We had a great Christmas morning with the kids and than we got to spend time with friends in the afternoon. We worshiped again on Sunday and I shared about how we don't want to miss God. We don't want to let another Christmas go by and miss what God wants us to get out of Christmas. We need to make sure that we receive the gift that has been given to us in Jesus. Many people that first Christmas didn't understand or notice that God showed up in their world. I don't want to miss God.

After church we traveled to spend some time with family and celebrate with them. It has been a blessing celebrating through worship with the church family and with my blood families. I am thankful for Jesus and what he is for me in my life. It has been a good Christmas. And there is still more days to go in this Christmas season!

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T11:59:00.002-06:00

Outside it is snowing. It is the beautiful kind of snowfall. Big flakes softly falling on undisturbed snow covered ground. It is a beautiful sight. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." I have to admit that I am one who likes a white Christmas. I don't want it to snow so much that people can't get out and come to worship on Christmas Eve but, I like for it to be white. I don't want it to stick around too long but some snow on Christmas Eve makes for a beautiful backdrop to celebrate the birth of my Savior.

Today, as I get ready for our worship service to celebrate Christmas I am grateful that God comes to me. I am grateful that God is not far off or distant as I once thought before encounter Christ in my life. I am grateful that his light shines in my darkness and that I am warmed by his grace, love and presence. I am grateful for the beauty of Christmas.

It is Christmas Eve, as my friend Jeff always says, it is a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good. I hope that you can make worship part of your Christmas celebration. Attend the church of your choice and celebrate the beauty that is Christ in your life. If you don't have a church home and you are near by i invite you to celebrate with Dockery Chapel at 7:00 pm.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

Christmas is Coming

2010-12-22T10:16:00.002-06:00

"Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat.

Please put a penny in the old man hat.

If you haven't got a penny a hay penny will do.

If you haven't got a hay penny God bless you."

This little saying was on my mind today. I am sure it is because Christmas is coming. In just a few day we will celebrate Christmas. I realized today, that I never really paid attention to what this poem was saying in all the years that I have recited it. The poem seems to be saying that Christmas is a time of blessing. It is a time to share our blessings with each other. It is a time to be a blessing and to be blessed. It is a time for those with fat geese to car for the ones who have no geese and no pennies. It is a time for blessing for everyone.

Blessing is not a financial thing. Too often we equate finances and blessing like they are equal. Money does not equal blessing. "If you haven't got a hay penny, God bless you." God enters into our world and spends his first nights sleeping in a cattle feeder. Jesus as an adult, had no home, no place to lay his head. Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit, those that mourn,those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, the meek, the peacemaker, and the merciful. Blessing was not equated in finances. Blessing comes at Christmas. Blessing is God with us. Blessing is that for unto us a child is born, a savior is given. Be blessed this Christmas. Be a blessing this Christmas. God bless you.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug

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Nursing Injuries

Prayer

TGIF

Live like that- Sidewalk Prophets

Look up

Loving God

Self-Control puts God in Control

In a Funk

Heart of Wisdom

Freebie

Flow

TGIF

Set the Prisoner Free

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Read and React

Self Care

Honest Prayer

New Casting Crowns

Take a day off

Veterans Day

Do we say, "That settles it!"

Out There

Not a re-verb

Smile :)

Flower beds

TGIF

Looking Back So We Can Move Forward

More Inspiration from Music

Heritage

In the path of the storm

Love and the Cross

Undefined

Maybe we should slow down

Song Stuck in my Head

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What would you do for another?

TGIF

Control

All We...

Vacation Reflection Part 3

Vacation Reflections Part 2

Vacation Reflections Part 1

Cup Overflowed

Love is HARD

Hanging Out

God Morning

Aaron Brown

Thank God it's Friday!

I think I am back

Sidewalk Prophets

I'm Back

Revelation

God cares about you

Living

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We are all in the same boat

Selfishness

Easter People

Enemies

The Key to Success

Response

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April Fools Day

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Pain and Suffering

Becoming

You are forgiven

Grace

James 1:12

Stand

When the Heat is on

Joy and Peace

Take a New Look

The Clothes We Wear

Always Growing and Climbing Higher

God is faithful

The Hope That You Have