What "Love IS" is to me....

"The kind of people you follow will determine the kind of person you become, and ultimately the people you will lead. Let me say that differently. You imitate and try to duplicate the people you follow, because you want to be like them. You feel they are most like who, what and how you want to be. By imitating them, you are becoming like the way they are in acton and spirit. You get to pick who you follow, but you do not get to pick who will follow you. Remember who, what, and how you become, those that follow you will also become. Be sure you are following the right people, a lot of people behind you are counting on you to help them become better." 

**Leadership Thinking: Doing the right things for the right reasons because I'm a Leader.

**Normal Thinking: I do what I want because that is all that is important to  me.                                                                                                                                                        
 
Rick Woolever

Such a great word of wisdom this morning from Rick Woolever!! This is so true, and something I'm very blessed to have learned before my kids were born. I know i'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I try to be INTENTIONAL about what I say and do around my family; because I know they are all watching me and I am the example of who they want to be like when they grow up. Most people go through life just selfishly thinking only of themselves, using the famous Popeye copout "I am who I am." They think that it doesn't matter how they act, because that's just who they are and everyone else just needs to deal with it. I imagine that's how most people live their lives in the world, unless they have received this special download of wisdom. The main part of this "Thought" that I adopted before Christian was born has to do with LOVE. Pastor Keith Craft puts it this way, "Great LOVERS aren't great just because they were born that way. Great LOVERS are GREAT, because they CHOOSE to love people the way THEY NEED to be loved." Most people just show love the way they naturally feel love. If I feel loved when someone buys me a gift and that's what makes me feel special, the normal person will buy people gifts or things or give them money THINKING that, because thats what makes THEM feel loved, the other person will feel loved and special too. The problem with this, is that not everybody feels special and loved the same way. Some people like physical touch like a hug or a kiss, or they need words of affirmation or to be encouraged that they are special and loved, and some people don't want anything except your time and the only thing that really says I love you to them is when you make them feel special by choosing to spend time with them instead of doing something else. A GREAT LOVER finds out what says I LOVE YOU to the other person, and they are intentional about doing whatever that is; and they intentionally do it consistently on a regular basis to build the other person up and fill up their "Love Bank." This is the basis for great relationships, especially a great marriage. Being intentional about making sure your partners "Love Bank" is full is the solution to so many of the stupid problems married people have, especially the petty fighting and bickering about every little thing. I can say with full confidence and authority that this statement is true because I have been experimenting with it since the beginning of February of this year. I've been practicing this for years now, but it was more sporadic and not as consistent as i've been doing it for the past 4+ months. I learned a long time ago that Vanessa's top love language was words of affirmation and the 2nd is physical touch, she loves to get her back scratched every night (Christian does too, go figure). She has always loved the "Love Is cartoons" for as long as i've known her. So every day, since the beginning of February, I've sent her a text message with 1 of these Love Is cartoons, along with a sweet message saying I love you and thanking her for everything she does. I post sweet things on her facebook page, write her little poems, etc... My life has never been so good as it has been over the past 4 months, and all of her friends husbands are probably hating me right now too because she is always telling her friends everything I do. I just set a reminder in my phone that pops up everyday at 9am to remind me to do this simple thing that takes about 2 minutes out of my entire day, but lets her know that I'm thinking about her and I love her enough to make her a priority. If everyone would do something like this consistently every day, everyone would be a lot happier and relationships would be much better. It's when people get selfish that relationships break apart, doing something like this everyday is like pouring concrete over your marriage, it will never break apart and will only get stronger over time. The hardest part is getting over doing something like this without expecting anything in return. You can't start something like this and expect the other person to do the same things back, or anything for that matter. There's always 1 person in the relationship that is naturally a better "Lover" than the other, you just have to choose to be that person and know that you aren't doing this for you; you're doing this for the other person to make them feel special and loved. You have to be secure enough in your own heart and mind to be able to give love without receiving anything back in return. It might not happen right at once, which can be frustrating if you think selfishly.  But over time, whatever walls that had been built up for whatever reason, will begin to be torn down little by little, until they're completely gone and their heart is exposed again and it begins to fill up with love. This principal can be applied to just about anything and any type of relationship, all it takes is a desire to: be your best, have a great relationship, put others before yourself and the heart to follow through and be consistent. Any simple gesture, done consistently, will have the same effect. It just shows that you care enough to take time every day to prove your love for that special person in your life. Take the time to find out what their love language is, and start speaking it to them every day and see what happens. I promise you, you'll be happy you did!! 

Set the example in your house of what love looks like, lead by example especially if you have children; they're looking up to you to show them what a healthy relationship looks like. Choose to be a leader, take the first step and keep moving forward, little eyes are watching everything you do and it's up to you to lead them in the right direction.                                                                                          

This post is dedicated to my parents, I love you guys!! Thank you for being great examples of what a marriage should look like!! I'm so blessed to have 2 parents who have been by each others side through thick and thin, sickness and health and everything else. You are the reason I am able to give and receive love so easily and I have a healthy view on relationships too. Thank you for staying together for all these years and for being such great role models in my life!! I love you!!!

God Bless,

Brandon Hayes

Keep believing No Matter What!!!

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will provide you with everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. - "The THING is never about the THING, but EVERY THING is about EVERYTHING." - Pastor Keith Craft - Whatever "THING" you're going thru or dealing with is a stepping stone or lesson in life that can either make you stronger and help you get to your next level in life (God will work everything together for your Good for those who believe) or tear you down & break you (the enemy of your soul's mission is to steal, kill & destroy you in any way possible). To see your life as God sees it, is to see the big picture and not focus on the "Thing" that's happening right now. "If you will grow thru what you go thru, you will have a break thru in your life." - (Pastor Keith Craft)
There is always a lesson to be learned from difficult circumstances, and God wants to use those "Things" to mold you into the man/woman/family that He created you to be, if you will choose to see the big picture and do your part to learn the lessons in life instead of allowing the enemy to break you down and make you feel sorry for yourself. Our God is the God of the impossible, put your trust in Him, have faith and do your part in the situation to learn what God is trying to teach you. If you will do this, you will come out the other side of the valley stronger and with increased FAITH because you trusted in The Lord instead of believing the lies that the enemy has told you. God's plan for your life is not for you to be constantly needing a miracle. He wants to bless you (teach you through trials and refine you in the fire) so you can be a blessing to everyone around you. You will become the person who will lift others up when they're going thru the valley, and strengthen them through your testimony of Gods faithfulness in your own life. This message is just as much for me as it is for anyone else who reads this because my family is going through a rough time right now as well, and this is what I am believing for myself and my own family. God is going to use this trial to strengthen us, teach us the lessons we have neglected to learn over the years; and once we get it and it "clicks" in our minds and the plan has been put into action, everything is going to change. It's going to be like someone just turned on a water faucet, and the blessings that we've been believing for are going to start raining down on us. It's going to be a dramatic change that will be a milestone in my families life, that we will look back on and say ,"that's when everything changed." We have been faithful and believing for a long time for things to get better, and I believe that once we learn this lesson that we've overlooked in the past, everything will change and our prayers will be answered. There's always Something for You to DO when you're needing a miracle, you have to do your part and once you get your part down and be found faithful in the little things, God will entrust you with the greater things. This is what I believe in Jesus' name and I give God all the glory for any and all success I have in my life because every good and perfect gift comes from above. Thank you God for your love and for knowing what's best for us. I put my trust in YOU!!! Amen

Brandon

Listen to New songs

What does it mean to really repent?

I grew up in church, Southern Baptist, and I have never strayed too far from God in my lifetime. I have always had a relationship with Him and I have never stopped talking to Him though at times it has been only when I was in trouble. I have always known that I was going to do great things in my life and that I have a special future. My mom has always told me that and I have never forgotten the words that she said to me and continues to say to me about my future. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, made some really bad choices and I have allowed the devil to gain a foothold in my mind in more ways than one over the years. I knew right from wrong, I didn't want to do the wrong thing because I knew the consequences but somehow I ended up right where I didn't want to be. It's just like Adam and Eve. The only thing God told them not to do was to eat of the Tree in the middle of the garden; and wouldn't you know right where they found themselves standing when the moment of truth came. Staring into the beautiful fruit at the foot of the tree in the middle of the garden. Once they stepped foot in front of that tree it was already over.
Adam and Eve committed the first sin, they ate the fruit that placed a curse on everyone from then on that has caused a lot of pain and suffering over the ages. We now have a war going on within our minds at all times between good and evil; or sometimes good and God's best. We struggle and fight within ourselves when it comes to our hurts, habits and hang-ups. We oftentimes know what the right thing to do is but we find ourselves at the foot of the tree just like Adam and Eve did staring into the fruit that we know will destroy us.
The beautiful thing about the God we serve is that His mercy is never ending and His Grace and Mercy is New every morning. We can fall into traps all day long and if we bear His name and believe in Him we will be forgiven and our sins are as far from us as the East is from the West. This is where my thinking has been every since I was a little boy. I believed that no matter what I did I could always ask God for forgiveness and my slate would be wiped clean and I was free to go about my business guilt free. It's like a get out of jail free card that all Christians had in their back pockets at all time and it has worked for me for a long time. Now when I screwed up I honestly didn't want to screw up like that again and I truly didn't want to upset God by doing the same thing over and over again but after a little while the same things started happening again and I was on another lap around the mountain ending up at the same place; on my knees asking God for forgiveness and help to get out of the mess I had made. I never understood Repentance.
Repentance literally means to Turn away from your way of thinking, being and doing life and turning toward God, wherever He may be. It means to stop and literally turn toward God and change your actions forever. To choose a new path that is based on God's way of doing things, or righteousness. I only recently have learned this TRUTH and it has opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. I have learned that because I am a Christian, I believe that God sent Jesus to die for my sins as a sacrifice and because of Jesus' obedience and love for me I am released from the sin that would have sentenced me to DEATH and a lifetime, an eternity separated from God. And because of this belief no matter what I have done, do or will do I will never stop being God's son and I can never do anything to change this. Because I am God's son I have a Blessing on my life, I am blessed to be fruitful and to prosper and to take dominion over anything I wish to have dominion over. I actually have to UNBLESS myself by the actions I take that block God from that area of my life. If I have sin in my life or something that I have let tangle me up into my life I am allowing a wall to be built between me and God in that area of my life and I cannot receive the blessings that God has planned for me. The revelation that I have received recently is this: God has a special future for me and plans to make my tomorrow better than my yesterday but I have to do MY PART in order for God to do His part. In order to receive the blessings that God has for me I have to Order my life and accept Personal Responsibility for my actions and actively seek GOD and His Way of Doing things or God's Righteousness. It doesn't matter if I believe that God has a plan for my life or not; if I don't do my part and seek after Him I will never reach my full potential and receive all of the blessings that He has in store for me.

Showing honor to the one's you love...

I don't naturally think about honoring people nor did I really know what it meant up until a couple of months ago. I understand respect but honor was new to me. I've learned that it's possible to respect a person but not honor them because respect is an internal thing whereas giving honor is external. Honor is SHOWN not felt. This was a revelation to me and as I thought about it more I started to think about ways that I could show honor to the people I love and really to everyone I come in contact with. The definition I chose for honor is To dignify; to raise to distinction or notice; to bestow honor upon; to elevate in rank or station; to ennoble; to exalt; to glorify; hence, to do something to honor; to treat in a complimentary manner or with civility. To honor somebody is literally to elevate them and to dignify them; showing them how much you appreciate them for what they bring into your life. This is the highest form of love in my opinion.
One thing that I have had on my mind recently is how I prove my love toward God. How am I honoring God daily and what do I do that proves God's place in my life? There's many ways that you can honor God with your life and I believe that consistency is the key to a strong spiritual life no matter what you choose to do to show honor to God. Two ways that I am working on honoring God is by offering my first fruits to God regularly by returning a tenth of my increase to Him every time I get a check from work. The other way I am working on proving God's place in my life is by spending time reading His word daily and meditating on it throughout the day. There's something about reading the bible that brings clarity to my day and joy to my life that nothing else comes close to. Meditating on the word of God and constantly thinking about it and speaking it keeps you focused on God and helps to elevate your thinking. One of the biggest enemies I try to overcome during the day is being so busy that I stop thinking about the word of God, I take my mind off God and focus on all of the work I have to do. When this happens I get frustrated, worn out, tired and I don't enjoy my day nearly as much or get as much done as when I focus on God all day and work as if I am working for Him and not just doing my job to get it done.
Showing honor to the ones you love is one of the highest forms of praise and love. To honor someone means that you raise them up and humble yourself before them. You do whatever it is that you can do to make them feel special without asking for anything in return or expecting them to do anything back because the deserve to be honored and treated this way just because they are who they are. If we can act like this to everyone we know and act this way toward our Father in Heaven we will be blessed beyond imagination. The bible says that whoever exalts himself will be humbled but whoever humbles himself will be exalted and raised up high. Whoever wants to be the greatest will be the servant of all. God help me to show honor to you and to the ones I love. Increase my knowledge and wisdom and give me the faith to understand how to be the man you created me to be. Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!!! Amen..

What do we do when we fall down...

The saying goes What do you do when you fall down, you pick yourself back up again. That makes sense and everything but what does it really mean to the person who has fallen down over and over again and has to keep picking up the pieces and trying to make sense of it all? What does the person do that has made mistakes, the same mistakes, over and over again and keeps taking laps around the same track? What do you do when you find yourself in the same situation that tried to claim your "life" before and you just don't know what to do? They say that God doesn't put you into a situation without a sufficient amount of willpower to overcome it but in the midst of the situation it sometimes doesn't feel like that is true because you are in the middle of a war between your mind and your flesh and unless you are prepared for the battle you will lose to your flesh everytime. I have done a lot of things in my past that have almost cost me everything I had but by the grace of God I have been spared the pain of losing it all on more than one occasion yet I still struggle with going back to the same old habits that caused me and the people I love so much pain and suffering. How does this happen and what can I do to prevent it from ever happening again? The first problem or obsticale that I have to overcome is to get past the guilt and negative feelings that are looming in my mind and body from the failure that has just occured. I keep going over and over the situation that I have put myself into again and it just depresses me and my conscience has kicked into overdrive and I feel like a worthless piece of crap because of the poor choices I have made that could be the undoing of all of the hard work that I have put into this process up until this point. I keep going over the consequences of my actions and the shame that I feel because I know what I have done and what I could lose if I don't make the right choices from now on. The only things that are going on in my mind are negative and it's hard to focus on anything but the situation that I am in no matter what is going on around me. Habits are funny things that only take a few days to form, especially if it is a habbit that you had for a long period of time before and you have just fallen back into it; it's like an old pair of jeans that fit just right and you don't want to take them off and put the new pair back on because they feel so good. No matter what period of time or length of time you spend in the old pair of jeans it's still hard to take them off and wear the new pair because it just doesn't feel the same. The first order of business is to get rid of the negative thoughts and put together a new plan of action, a routine that will be your new pair of jeans that you will just have to put in the effort to break in. It is going to take some time, maybe a couple of weeks before they start feeling better and easier to wear but it's just a matter of time before you don't even remember the old pair because the new ones fit just right for your new lifestyle. Once you have your plan of attack and your new routine that you have put together you have to set your mind on other things and stick to the plan. You need to set goals for yourself and keep focused on the goals of the day or the goals of the hour or the half hour, whatever you need to do to keep focused and get a sense of accomplishment to drown out the negative thoughts and to get some form of positive thoughts going in your mind. Keep setting goals for yourself, continue to work the new plan and don't let anything stop you from accomplishing your goals becuase once you slip one time it gets easier and easier to slip the second time and the third time and before you know it you are right back where you started. The road is long and hard and it takes a long time to repair the damage in your mind and in your life after the disaster strikes but you have to put it behind you and use the anger that you are feeling inside to drive you towards your new goals and you have to use whatever positive things you have in your life to focus your drive to create a better, healthier you for the people you have around you. You can do it, I can do it and we can do it together if we just believe that God has already seen our whole life and He knew that you were going to make the mistake that you made before you even made it and He forgave you anyway. Now it's just up to you not to keep making the same mistakes and to learn from the past so it doesn't repeat itself again.
One thing I have come to realize in my life is that the further along in my walk with God the shorter my leash is getting. Even though I slip and fall all the time still I don't fall as far away as I used to and it's getting easier to snap out of the rut that so easily entangles me. That's something that has really helped me especially lately because when I first became a Christian it was really hard for me to get back on the horse again when I fell off. I think that's one of the hardest things for me, because I am so hard on myself, to look at myself in the mirror again and believe that God loves me and He will give me the strength to pick myself up AGAIN and get back on the right path. After you make so many mistakes and pick yourself up again and again you just wonder if you have the strength to do it again and I can tell you wholeheartedly that you will always have the strength available to you through Jesus Christ, you just have to want to access it and believe that God is for you so who can be against you.
No matter what you have done in the past or in the present, how bad it is or how many times you have failed God loves you because you are His son or daughter. You are the object of His affection and it is His Good Pleasure to give you the Good things of the Kingdom. You just have to believe and obey His commands which are there for your own well being. He is the Good Shepherd and if you will just follow Him and Obey Him He will lead you to the clean refreshing streams where you can thrive. The only drawback is that you will have to go through the Valley to get there. Have faith that God loves you and will be with you through the valley. He won't leave you there, He is leading you to higher ground. Get ready to be Elevated!!!

God's blessings

Brandon

Commitment...

I don't know about you but sometimes I feel like I am lacking commitment in many areas of my life. I have grand ambitions and dreams and I know that God is going to take me higher than I have ever been before but sometimes I just get tired of pushing myself and pressing forward. My commitment lacks passion becuase I have pushed myself so hard for such extended periods of time that I just want to stop and relax. What do people do when they are lacking commitment and drive to keep pushing onward towards their goals? What is it that makes a man relentless and tireless when their body is telling them to quit or to take a break? I can only tell you from my own experience what causes me to slow down and what makes me have a spirit of lazyness. I feel most run down when I stop doing what I know I need to do which is staying in the Word of God. When I stop having my quiet time and stop reading God's word on a daily basis is when I feel most tired and also when I am tempted the most in every aspect of my life. Getting God's word on the inside of you inspires you to keep pushing forward and it gives you the spark of passion that you need to keep up your commitments whether they be to someone else or to yourself. Just from my own personal experience I can tell you that if you stop feeding on the Word of God and ingesting the truth and passion that comes from the pages of the bible you will Lack commitment to whatever you are trying to accomplish becuase it is God who sustains us and gives us the Power, Determination and Discipline needed to keep pressing on when we feel like we can't take another step. The days that I don't feel very powerful are the days or weeks that I have been depriving myself of the Word of God. Lately I have been so tired in the mornings that I can't make myself get out of bed for anything and I have been sleeping as late as I possibly can to get every last minute of sleep before I have to get up and get ready for work. I used to get up at 5AM every day and spend an hour and a half reading my bible and other Christian books; filling myself with the Word of God and preparing myself for the day that is ahead of me. It was something that motivated me and gave me passion to work as hard as I could and truly be a blessing to someone that day. I have also committed myself to working out 4 times a week and getting up 2 days a week and working out before I go to work and I just haven't been able to motivate myself to do that either for various reasons. As I look back over the last 2 weeks I can see that my level of committment has gone down and I can directly corelate it to my daily walk with God. My favorite bible verse that establishes this principal is Isaiah 40:31 which says, "But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint." This verse is the principal and promise on which we should govern our lives and our daily activities. I only wish that I would have remembered this over the past 2 weeks and many times before that because I have lost sight of what my committments are and where I draw my strength from. I need to trust in the Lord and he will renew my strength. He will give me Power and Discipline to push forward when I feel like sleeping in and strength when I feel like I can't go any farther. To soar on wings like eagles is a magical picture of the true power of God and the power of resting in Him and relying on Him to renew our strength and committment when we feel like giving up. Eagles can soar at amazing heights, up to 10,000 feet in the air and because of their enormous wing span they can ride the wind without having to use any energy which greatly increases their territory they can cover to hunt. Eagles are at the top of the food chain and one of the most beautiful and elegant birds on this earth, yet they are also one of the most powerful and agressive birds as well. To soar on wings like eagles gives us the power to save our energy for the real fight that we are going through, we get to conserve our energy and rest in God's mighty power that He gives us to sustain us when we feel weak. It's an amazing picture of the awesome power of God and the necessity to be connected to His power through the daily reading of His Word.
Committment is something that is hard for us naturally. It's easy to say you are going to do something in the heat of the moment and for awhile you stick to it because it's something that you are determined to do. But after awhile the emotion of that moments wears off and you have to re-evaluate the choice you made and decide again in your mind that you are going to reapply yourself to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal that you set in the past. Everyone gets tired and everyone lacks in committment and discipline every once and awhile, it's just part of life. The real test is to see if you can stick it out and achieve the goals that you set for yourself in the face of adversity and if you can muster up the discipline and strength to do the hard things when you don't feel like doing it anymore. Discipline is the WORD of the new year for me. I am going to explore every meaning of the word discipline and figure out what it means to me and I'm going to take that meaning to a new level. I have to be disciplined in every area of my life because that's what God has called me to be. I want to strive for Excellence in every area of my life because it's my destiny. It's part of the Glory of God that Jesus has given me through His death on the cross and resurection from the grave. So if you are lacking committment and discipline like I am I invite you to take the challenge with me. Figure out what discipline and committment mean to you and what you need to apply yourself more to this new year. Once you figure out what you need to do find the passion within yourself to see it through to the end and rely on God to give you the strength needed to make it happen. Like my pastor always says; it's our job to BELIEVE, it's God's job to do the IMPOSSIBLE!!! I have learned that it's not by my strength that I am able to achieve my goals but my strength comes from staying in the Word of God. When I spend time with God daily in prayer and in the bible I find the strength to stay on course and I am in a position to win. I am committing myself today and from this day forward to spend time daily in the Word of God; I hope you will join me in this challenge, it will change your life. God's blessings for you today and have a Merry Christmas!!! Take time to read the Christmas Story in Luke with your family. I'm going to do that tonight and it's going to become a tradition in the Hayes household to make sure to remember the Reason for the Season of Christmas which is the birth of Jesus our savior. I love you JESUS!!!!

If God is the CEO...

My thoughts on the way to work this morning while I was driving and talking to God turned towards the thought of what Jesus said when he was 12 years old when he stayed behind at the temple to confront the teachers while his parents left to go home with the rest of his family. His parents were worried sick about him because they couldn't find him for 3 days and finally they went back to the temple and found him there talking with the teachers of the law. When they asked him why he had done this to them, caused them so much pain and grief by abandoning them and making them worry about him and where he was Jesus simply said,"Why did you seek me, didn't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" Just the thought that we are son's and daughter's of God, and brothers and sisters of Jesus is an amazing thought that our little brains really can't fully comprehend kinda like eternity and living forever in heaven with the angels. It's just a little over my head. But to think of Kingdom business, working for God and doing things His way and living your life for Him is a little easier to understand with our human brains. If you think of this world like a business and God as the CEO then we are walking around wherever we are as the Bosses Sons and Daughters; what a great feeling. If you are the bosses kid then you have every advantage there is and nothing is impossible for you, you are an heir to inherit the family business and you have the privilege that goes along with being the CEO's child. Just knowing that the God of the Universe is your father and you are His beloved child is something that I know I need to think about more often because if I think in terms of being the bosses kid then I will have more confidence in every step I take and in every move I make because I know that I am blessed and if God is on my side I can't FAIL. If you think of God as your father, your loving Father then you will realize that if you are doing what you are supposed to be doing then you have every advantage in the whole world at your disposal; all you have to do is ask and believe that He will provide everything you need because He want's you to succeed and He delights in our faith in Him as our Father. That is His role in our life, our Father.
God is my CEO and I am his son; nobody can stop this train from heading straight to the TOP. Anything is Possible with God on my side and I am going to start believing that in every situation that I come across and every moment in my life. God's blessings on your life today. Thank God for everything He does for you today. He made the sun come up this morning just for you...

The Promised Land...

I've been struggling with something lately that I want to get off my chest. Since I started my new job I have been struggling with a spirit of insecurity about my ability to do my job well and that I can and will be the best at what God has given me to do. I have been feeling weak and insecure for some reason and I am fighting against this spirit everyday when I get to the office. It is getting better for me, I am believing in myself and my ability more and more everyday and believing that God put me here in this place and in this position for a reason but it's still hard. I know I am in a war for the battle of my mind and that this spirit that I am dealing with isn't from God but just another attempt from the devil to distract me and make me miss the promise of God for my life. I am reading and studying how to overcome the storms of life, I am learning how to be better at my job by studying and constantly educating myself and I am listening to motivational messages from my pastor on the way to and from work everyday to get myself in the right mindset to be the best I can be. I know I am on the right path it's just hard fighting this battle everyday and I know that everyone is fighting some kind of battle so I'm not alone.
Some of the things I am learning about and putting into practice I would like to share with you and reinforce them in my own mind as well. I have had the revelation from God that He has put me in this job, at this point in my life and at this time in history for a purpose and His purpose for my life is for me to be the BEST and to achieve great things. I have put my story up against the children of Israel after Moses led them out of Egypt and before they were about to enter the promised land. God told them to go spy out the land and bring back a report to all the congregation and tell them what they found out. God already knew what was there but He wanted them to see for themselves and trust that God would provide the way for them to receive the land that He had already promised to give them. They saw that the land was filled with giants and they lived in great cities; they were afraid and they brought back a bad report. Out of the 12 spies, the leaders of the 12 tribes, only 2 men said that they were able to overcome the obstacle and believed that since God had already told them that He would give them this land they believed that God would provide the way to overcome the giants and their fortified cities. This is how I feel sometimes. I see the huge mountain ahead of me, the trials, the number of other sales people and companies out there, the people who have been doing this longer than I have and who are better naturally at it than I am. I see all of this and the huge mountain ahead of me and I can easily get discouraged and I actually started to about a week ago when God reveled this to me and it opened my eyes to the Truth that God wants us to know. GOD brought me to this place just like He brought the Israelites to the promised land; He gave me this job out of His own good pleasure and I have to believe that He didn't give me this job for me to fail. There's a reason why I am here and He wants me to succeed and be the best. He wants me to bring His Supernatural Power to this place and change not only my business but my industry. He wants me to trust Him and His Power that is within me to be the best; I just have to believe and put in the work and effort that is needed. He will show me the way and if I do my part and work as hard as I can unto the Lord I will prosper. That is what God wants for every one of us in everything we do. He wants us to Trust Him and have Faith that He has given us His Supernatural Power to do what He has called us to do in our lives. We are all special in His sight and He has plans to use us for great and mighty things if we will just believe in Him and also believe in ourselves. That is where a lot of us fall short, we don't believe that we are the BEST at what we do. We might believe that we are good or that we know what we're doing but God wants us to be the best at what we do and He wants us to succeed. With God on our side whom shall we fear? If God is for us Who can be against us? With God all things are Possible and we need to put that in our hearts and believe that with every fiber in our bodies because it's the TRUTH from GOD Himself that He wants us to believe.
I have been struggling with this spirit of insecurity and it is still in the back of my mind but I am going to keep telling myself and believing that I am the best at what I do and I have every hope that God is going to provide for me what He has promised and that is a hope for a future and an expected end. Things are going to be great, in fact things are already great in my future because I am believing that now and seeing it happen in the future. I am hearing what God is saying and He is saying that I am His son and He wants me to be the best so that's what I'm going to believe and that's what I am going to think from now on. Put the spirit of insecurity on the shelf and never pick it up again because you have a Heavenly Father that wants the BEST for His children, He wants to see you succeed and He will make a way for you to achieve your goals if you will just believe the promise that He has given you. The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. Just don't forget to say thank you when God gives it to you. God's blessings on your life today.

The Peter principal...

Peter was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus and was a part of Jesus' inner circle of friends that He shared everything with. Peter was completely obedient to Jesus even though he was only a fisherman and didn't always Get It when Jesus was trying to explain things to the disciples. He loved Jesus and said that he would die for him even if every other man left his side. He had the guts to step out of the boat and come to Jesus on the water and God revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God. Peter was special to Jesus and He told Peter that because of his strong faith and conviction God had appointed him an apostle and told him that He would build His church through his testimony. Peter's original name was Simon but Jesus changed it to Peter which means Rock and He said that he would build His church upon this Rock.
I give you this background because something has been on my heart today and I wanted to share it with you. Peter was the one whom Jesus said that He would build his church through and Peter told Jesus that he would die for him and that no matter what happened Peter would never leave Jesus' side. Yet this same man, the one who told Jesus that he would die for him, denied the Christ 3 times like Jesus said he would on the night of Jesus' capture and must have felt the unbearable pain and suffering of failure and disgrace that night like nobody in the world has felt before. I was thinking about this on the way to work this morning. How easy it is for us to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves when we screw up or when we do something we know we shouldn't have done. When we let our families down and our friends down we feel ashamed and even if they forgive us we have a hard time forgiving ourselves and we let the burden stay on our backs for much longer than God wants us to. I got to thinking about poor Peter. How do you deny knowing Jesus even though Jesus forgave him and told him that he was going to do it in the first place? How do you get over that feeling of shame, disgrace and overall self-loathing that comes with denying Jesus 3 times on the most important day in all of history? Yet Peter went onto be one of the greatest apostles of all and did wind up dying for Jesus on a cross upside down because he didn't feel worthy to die the same way as his King. What must have gone through Peter's mind those days following Jesus' death and resurrection? Can you imagine the pain and suffering that he must have put himself through during those days? The guilt and shame of abandoning your best friend and savior must have been almost unbearable. I can understand Peter's thought process and the feelings he must have been having, the thoughts that must have been going through his mind all of those days. I know that when I have done things in the past I didn't want to talk to God because I was so ashamed much less go to Church and worship Him or Praise Him. I didn't feel like a son of God should feel because of the guilt in my heart and soul. But the funny thing is that God has already seen everything you and I will do in our lives and He has forgiven us before it even happens. God Loves us and He doesn't want to see us live in unforgivness of ourselves because it will eat us up. We have to realize that we are forgiven and move on in repentance, learning a lesson from it all so we don't do it again in the future. Peter must have had an awful couple of weeks, reflecting on the things he said and the way he spoke about his best friend and teacher but when Jesus appeared to the women and to the other disciples He told them to tell Peter specifically that He was alive. Before Jesus was arrested He told Peter that the devil asked to sift him like wheat but for Peter not to lose his faith. This is how I feel right now and the promise that I am keeping in my heart from now on. I am going to do everything I can to keep from sinning but if I do I will always come back to God and ask forgiveness, repent and receive the forgiveness that God has promised me as a child of His. He is our loving Father and He has forgiven us of all of our sins past, present and future. When Peter saw Jesus sitting on the shore while he was fishing in his boat Peter jumped out of the boat and swam as fast as he could to see his friend. It must have been the best time of his life because he got to see the love in his friends eyes and feel the forgiveness in his smile. From that moment on Peter was a great and mighty Warrior for God and as far as I know he never lost heart again because he knew that he was forgiven. We should feel the same way. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you today. God's blessings to you.

When do I get to take a break???

I have to live everyday on guard, ready for the fiery darts of the enemy to be shot as soon as I let my guard down. That might sound like a pessimistic statement to you but if you believe that you have everything under control and you are covering all of your bases you have believed the lie that the enemy wants you to believe and he is stalking you right now waiting for the opportune moment to strike when you least expect it. From my own experience it's been the times when I was on top of the mountain and everything was perfect in my life when the enemy attacked me the most because I was vulnerable and naive. I thought that since everything was going great nothing could hurt me and no matter what I did everything would be ok; famous last words!! I have learned that you can never take your guard down no matter what because we are in a spiritual WAR and we are here to DECLARE WAR against the enemy not just react when he comes to our temple looking for trouble. Once you realize that you are in a WAR, a daily war that will not end until you go home to be with the Lord, you will begin to take things for what they really are. You will see the guys from work going to the strip club as a potential battlefield because the devil wants to destroy your marriage to your wife and destroy your credibility with your children; and the same goes for pornography on your computer, it's all a trap to destroy you in due time. You will see the guys going to the bar for drinks as an attempt to hook you and debilitate you with an addiction that creeps up on you like a stalker in the night who puts a hood over your head right before you get into your car and carries you so far away from reality that you wonder how you ever got there. When you put on the whole armor of God you are equipped and ready for battle and you have the God of the Universe on your side who has already won the final battle so all you have to do is just fight until it's time to go home and then your Warrior days are over. Waking up with the Warrior attitude and mindset is something that Men are naturally equipped to do because we are supposed to be the protectors and providers for our families. We were told to take Dominion wherever we go and we can do so because we are Sons of the Most High God of the Universe, we have royal blood flowing through our veins and if God is on our side who can be against us? NOBODY that's who!! So that's how I'm living my life and it makes me feel good to know that God has my back and to be able to wake up in the morning and prepare for battle.
Now for those who think I'm talking crazy this will probably not make any sense to you but just think about it for a minute. Can you explain why certain things happen in your daily life that make you mad or cause you to get off track? Why the person cuts you off on the highway or your neighbor does something to tick you off? Why that person at the office stole your idea or is talking bad about you or making up rumors that you did something wrong? These are all battles that the enemy is trying to break you down through and if you just look at them as coincidences then you can get frustrated and mad which is exactly what the enemy wants you to be because it takes your focus off God and in turn gets you out of God's protection when you try to retaliate on your own. Everything is a TEST and that's something that we all must learn. We are tested daily with different things and the way we react to them is a testimony to our faith and trust in our God. BE on GUARD and put on the Armor of God so you will be ready for battle and you will have the strength to overcome any challenge and the wisdom to be able to see when the enemy is trying to attack you. Just because you have overcome something that was trying to destroy you, like an addiction or if you have repaired a once failing relationship, don't think that you have won because the battle might be over but the war is just beginning. The enemy will try to take you down a different way so you have to always be on guard and be on the lookout because the enemy is walking around stalking you like a roaring lion waiting to devour you anyway he can.
The second that you understand that you are in a WAR your perspective on life changes and you realize why things happen around you and in your life; you are being tested. But don't get discouraged because if you are a Son or Daughter of the Most High God the WAR has already been won and you are on the winning team. God will give you the strength to fight everyday, you just have to choose to put on the Armor of God and get ready for battle. God is a Warrior at heart and He's got your back so prepare for battle like the men from 300 everyday and realize that your Profession is a WARRIOR; it's what you do and you can never lose!! Bring every negative thought into captivity and don't let those negative thoughts take any root in your heart because you are Royalty and you are a Winner based on your Blood that is flowing through your veins. Just think about that the next time you feel beat down or discouraged; you are a winner and you have the God of the Universe as your Father, who can mess with you and actually think they can get away with it?
So don't let your guard down, stay alert, put on the Armor of God and take Dominion wherever you go because you are a Son or Daughter of God himself and you are a winner. May God make His face to shine upon you today and have a blessed week!!! Amen...

Elevated...

To be raised from a low place to a high place is a definition of the word elevated. Today I was elevated to a new height and raised up out of the ashes if you will. Out of the place that had the ability to hurt me the most I have found new meaning in this life, new strength that I didn't know I had and God has turned a situation that could have brought me down in many different ways into something that has given me new hope for the future. I don't know where you are at right now in life or in your walk with Christ but my only thoughts for anyone who is struggling with something that has the potential to bring them down is to just have faith in the Lord and believe that He will provide for you. Believing is more than just asking for God to do something for you and praying for something to happen. Believing is knowing in your heart that you are a son or daughter of Almighty God and that He is on your side and has your back no matter what and that whatever you ask of Him, if it is in line with His will for your life, He will give it to you because He wants to see you prosper in every aspect of your life. Believing that God will take care of you and that He wants you to be happy because it makes Him happy when you are happy is something that can be hard to do when you are looking down the barrel of a gun or just got laid off from the only job you have ever had but it's all a TEST and an opportunity to grow your faith and for God to show up in your life and do something amazing; that's how I look at it. So no matter what you are going through just turn to God, even if you haven't been that close to Him lately and ask Him what you should do. Get focused on the things that you can change like yourself and your relationship with your heavenly father and once you get those 2 things lined up everything else will fall into place. The best gift you can give anyone is a healthy you; and when you are healthy physically, mentally and spiritually you are unstoppable. Don't give up on the dream, do the hard things now so you can change your future and be ready for God to show up at the time that you least expect Him to and pour out His blessings on you. He wants to bless you beyond your wildest imagination; He's just looking for someone out there to dream as big as He is.

How do you climb the biggest mountain in the world...

The best way to describe the task that is on my mind constantly is to relate it to climbing the biggest mountain in the entire world. Now I think it's safe to say that most men don't look at being a Man as the most important task in their lives but the essence of being the Man of the house has so much tied to it that I believe it's the most important task that a father and a husband takes on in his entire life. Being a man encompasses so many different tasks that it's almost overwhelming when you really sit down and think about it. It you are like me you've never really thought about what it means to be a Mighty Warrior which is essentially the role of the man of the house. As the head of the household, the man of the house, it's your JOB to take care of your family through protecting them, providing a home for them, providing food for them, being the leader of the house by setting standards for living and speaking words of wisdom and love over them. These are all things that good men already do for their families if they are committed to their role as the head of the house and if you do these things then you will have a pretty happy family. But what I'm talking about here is not just having a "good" family life or a good standard of living; what I'm talking about is living a Godly life and striving for God's BEST in every aspect of your life. This is such an abstract thought for most people and it is for me too because I never really thought about it before just recently. I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading over the past year about living a God centered life and enjoying the best of God's blessings in my life and it's brought me to this point in time where I finally GET IT. But as soon as I GOT IT I realized that I have barely scratched the surface and I have an ENORMOUS mountain to climb because I am nowhere near close to being the best Man that I could be and that scares me quite frankly.
At this point in my life, at age 27 I am closer to God than I have ever been in my whole life. My life is going great and my relationship with my Lord is stronger than ever. My family is comprised of some of the most loving people on the planet and they have all come to have a relationship with God and have accepted Jesus as their personal savior. I have seen miracles happen in my mom's life by beating breast cancer twice, my brother has been saved from death numerous times along with my brother in law getting past something that could have killed him and I myself have battled with addictions and through the grace of God I have come through the fire without being burned. Miraculous things have been happening in my life and it has strengthened my faith beyond belief and I trust God with my life and with the lives of everyone in my family because He is always faithful and just. My wife and I have a great relationship and we have made a beautiful, smart, handsome little baby boy who is perfect in every way and he is healthy. Life is going great and I could sit back and seriously be happy and content with the way things are right now and live a great life and have a good relationship with God and my family but this is where things really get tough to swallow. I am not content at all with where I am at in life. I am not content at all with my relationship with my wife or my son and I'm certainly not content with my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I want more than just this, I want to be more and I want to have more. Now this isn't a selfish plea to be rich in the natural sense it's a plea and a CRY on my knees to God to give me the ability to be more than I am, to go farther and deeper than I am right now. I don't want to be average, that's the LAST thing I want to be is an average Christian and an average father/husband. Average is failure to me and at this point I am failing because I have been content with being who I am. Most people would kill to be me right now. Yea I lost my job and I don't have much money at the moment and I don't know what the future holds in that respect but that means NOTHING to me; what I'm concerned about is my relationship with my Lord and Savior and being Kingdom Focused in everything I do. I want to be better than I am right now across the board. I want to be the Man of my household and speak love and wisdom into my son's life and provide a model for my whole family on living a Christ centered life and what it means to be sold out for God. I want to be a GREAT and MIGHTY warrior for God, helping change the world and bringing people to the throne of Almighty God where they can be saved and forgiven of their sins and transformed into a new person through the love of Jesus Christ. I want to focus on my relationship with God and building my character to become the Prophet that God created me to be for my family and for everyone I know and will know in the future. The biggest obstacle in my path right now is my own stupid self, the idiot that I wake up and look at every morning in the mirror; because he's lazy and wants nothing more than to be comfortable. I have to discipline my body and die to myself everyday, looking to God for the strength to fight the battle that is before me and to focus my mind on things that are above and not the things that are average and normal. It's such a daunting task that seems impossible and it really is. To be the kind of man that I am talking about is Impossible in the natural but I am not looking to do natural, average things. I'm looking to do the Hard Things that I don't want to do Because they are hard and they involve me making sacrifices in my life that I don't want to make. Sacrifice is a nasty word because it goes against our natural way of thinking and our selfish human nature. If you can get past the selfishness of your flesh and your mind and reach the point where you want nothing more than to bless others with your time, talents and treasure that's where you will find true happiness. This is the kind of Man that I want to be! I want to be a GIVING MAN, generous with everything God has blessed me with. I have seen it before in other people and I have felt it myself when I have given something of value to someone else; the transfer of LOVE between two people is describable.
So to answer the question I posed in the title of this blog,"How do you climb the biggest mountain in the world?" It all starts 1 step at a time just like anything else but the biggest obstacle, other than the enemy of your soul prowling around you like a roaring lion waiting to pounce on you at the sign of any weakness, is having the self-discipline to stay focused and keep working no matter what happens. The word discipline means to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control. This is where most people fall short because they don't have the will power to do the Hard Things that they naturally don't want to do. Reading is hard for some people, getting up and going to church on Sunday morning is hard for some people and giving up things that you like doing like playing golf or watching football to serve up at the church or help someone else out is hard for everyone in one way or another. Forcing your body and your mind to do things that they naturally don't want to do and rewiring your brain through repetition and a new way of thinking is what it takes to achieve what I'm talking about here. It's what makes people Great, the determination to follow their dreams no matter what happens and the self discipline to keep working harder and harder everyday, striving to be better today than you were yesterday. That's how fortunes are made and companies become great in the natural; but take that same enthusiasm and self discipline and put it into a Follower of Jesus who is Kingdom Focused with the God of the Universe as his Father it's unimaginable what kind of Awesome Things can be accomplished and what kind of a Man or Woman you will be if you will devote your life to this way of thinking. This is what's on my mind all day long and to be honest I'm failing miserably as it stands right now but I am on the rise and I am not going to let anything hold me down. I am reading more of God's word than I ever have before and equipping myself with the whole armor of God everyday preparing for BATTLE as a mighty warrior in the spiritual war that is going on around me. I have gotten plugged into an amazing church filled with people who are on the same path I'm striving toward and most are where I want to be. So I have many role models in my life and it gives me the sense that what I am trying to do is possible if I will just get focused and take the time to do the things I need to do instead of all of the other things that come up and try to take my attention away everyday. With God on my side whom shall I fear, nothing can stop me if I really want this and it's the only thing in this world that will last forever. I hope and pray that I can stay the course not only for my sake and my wife's sake but for the sake of my beautiful son. This is the kind of man that I want to be his father and this is the kind of man I am going to be. SO how do you climb the biggest mountain in the world? One step at a time, going all the way to the TOP and I can't be stopped.

Mighty WARRIORS...

This weekend was one of the best weekends of my life. I spent Friday and Saturday up at my church Celebration Covenant with a group of about 500 mighty men worshiping and praising God. It's one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. A room full of mighty men worshiping God Almighty, singing and shouting praises to Him and leaning on each other showing honor and love for their brothers in Christ. It's something that I have never seen before yet wished I could do every weekend because of the raw power and electricity that was flowing through that room and throughout the entire group of men present. Seeing that many men talking to one another, teaching each other and growing friendships and bonds between each other is something that this world is missing in the day to day. We learned together how important Christian leadership really is and what a Warriors spirit is all about. I wish my son was old enough to understand so he could have been there with me and shared the experience of the love and power that was flowing in that place through those Mighty Men. Oh how I want to be a Mighty Warrior for God not only for myself but for my wife and for my little boy. I want to wake up everyday with the mentality that I'm a Warrior for God and taht I am in a battle because I really am. We all are in the middle of a dangerous war for our souls battling not other people but evil spirits and powers of darkness. I know that might sound like something out of a science fiction novel or a little crazy but it's the God honest truth. If you choose not to believe that you are in a war for your soul then you are seriously mistaken and you are never going to understand the things of God or why things happen in this world and to you. It's your choice because God gives us a choice to believe whatever we want but understand that it's exactly what the enemy of your soul wants you to believe. He wants you to believe that Hell isn't a real place and that there's no way that a Loving God would send people to such an awful place. The devil wants you to believe that he doesn't exist so he can do whatever he wants and you will just think that it's God punishing you for some reason. The devil believes in God and he knows what's coming at the end of the world. He hates humans because we are made in God's image and we are the objects of His divine affection and love. He will stop at nothing to destroy us and make us turn against God anyway he can. It's important that you look at yourself as being a warrior in a battle everyday. It's important to your survival and success as a Christian man or woman that you wake up every morning and put on the whole armor of God and prepare for battle because you are in a war weather you like it or not. When you became a Christian you made a decision to go against the ways of this world and the ways of the enemy; you took a stand against the evil powers of this world publicly. At that moment you put a huge Man Sized bullzeye on your back and you entered the war zone fighting against the powers of darkness. The enemy of your soul is shooting fiery darts at you all the time, testing your weaknesses and prowling around you like a roaring lion waiting to catch you when you least expect it. This is the reality that I want you to understand and see for yourself. The things that happen to you in this life, the things that test your patience and have the ability to send you into a state of depression are from the enemy of your soul. They are shots that he's taking to get you to focus on your problems and lose your faith and trust in God. He want you to get as far away from God as you possibly can so you never have the ability to be an active Christian and touch the lives of others around you.
Being a Mighty Kingdom Warrior is actively taking a stand with brothers and sisters in Christ and locking arms in battle daily for each other. Being a Warrior is all about keeping your focus on God and Kingdom work and spending your time serving God on your knees in prayer for yourself and for your brothers and sisters in Christ. It all starts by realizing that you are in a battle for your life and learning the weaknesses that you have that your enemy can exploit and doing whatever you can to strengthen yourself for battle. Putting on the whole armor of God is spending time in His word and reading your bible along with devoting yourself to daily prayer. This is how you fight against the evil one for yourself and for your Christian family. I hope this makes sense to you because it's something that I am really taking seriously from now on. I realize that I am in a war and it's not going to be over anytime soon so I need to Man Up and fight for my life and for the lives of the people I care about. Wake up everyday with the mentality that you are going to be a warrior and take that everywhere with you; because you are a warrior and a warriors profession is WAGING WAR. So be on guard and take a stand the next time the enemy tries to take you down with one of his old tricks that used to get you every time with. BE aware of what's going on around you and make sure that you are fighting with your brothers and sisters. Strengthen your people in their time of need and they will be there to step in for you when you are in trouble as well. God's blessings to you today everyone! Let's DECLARE WAR together, the battles are ours for the taking because if God's on our side whom shall we fear?

You never know what you have until you lose it...

What do you do when tragedy strikes? When you get that pink slip at work and your boss tells you that they appreciate everything you have done for them but they no longer need you anymore. Or you get your results back from the Dr. and you get told that you have cancer or someone you love gets that bad news? How do you prepare for a situation like that? What can you do to make yourself ready for such sudden change and immediate shift in thought? I heard a saying from my pastor Keith Craft that goes,"You never know what you think until you see what you say." You never know what you will do until it happens and you see how you react or what you will say to your boss when they tell you that they no longer need you there at the office anymore. You never know how you will react until the Dr. tells you or your loved one that they have cancer and you find yourself asking the question WHY? That's the question that tells us all more about ourselves in 1 moment than everything leading up to that moment in time. How you deal with the WHY question shows you what you are made of and what your life stands on. If you can stand there in your office as you clean it out or stand in that Dr's office after the devastating news and not be bitter or mad and not blame anyone for what is happening you learn something about yourself that you would never have known. Or if you get angry or depressed then you also learn something about yourself and you realize that your whole life as you knew it wasn't reality. Basing your life on a job or financial security will ultimately disappoint you because you can't control what goes on around you at all times. Everyone loses a job at some point in time and everyone knows someone who gets an awful disease or has to go through one themselves but you can't prepare yourself for that trauma or set ahead of time what you will say and do. You can make all the plans you want but in the end you have no control what will happen and if your expectations and your happiness is based on security then you will not be able to move forward and you will be crippled by the loss.
This is where faith enters the picture. This is where faith takes center stage and begins it's beautiful solo performance in the lives of it's owners. Without faith in God and His divine grace and power, at the moment of trauma when the cards come falling down, if you are without faith then you are without hope and the world becomes a black hole of despair. Uncertainty has it's benefits and it's hard consequences depending on how much faith you have in yourself and in God. Uncertainty can be a place of freedom or feel like you were just dropped out in the middle of the ocean at midnight without a life jacket. As Christians we were never created to lead a completely comfortable lifestyle on this earth. Comfort and stability can breed a life of stagnation and can puff up a man's pride in himself and give a man a false sense security. Being too comfortable can cause a man to relax to the point where he loses his passion for adventure and trades living life to the fullest for the pursuit of maintaining stability where he currently is in life. Everybody loses a job at one point in time or another and everybody goes through the loss of a loved one; sometimes it takes things like this to make us realize that nothing ever stays the same and that the pursuit of stability is a futile game. Change is all around us, it's waiting in the wings in our blind spot at all times without our even knowing it. We wake up every morning the same way with the days activities on our minds, knowing the daily routine we have grown so accustomed to is about to start and the schedule that we set yesterday for today is about to be set free. We all know that tragedy is always around the corner in the back of our minds yet we push it back and suppress it, never giving it any thought. Fear is a weakness that must not be given a foothold in our minds less we live in a constant state of dread for fear of calamity looming in the darkness waiting to jump out and choke us to the ground at any given time. We have seen it in the lives of people all around us; people who have lost loved ones to diseases or sudden tragedy like a car accident or divorce or job loss. These things are written about in thousands of books and portrayed in movies everyday; American's love of the theater and entertainment stems from the obsession with drama and the feeling you get from seeing someone be broken down by an unseen force and watch as they pick themselves up and cope with the trauma or lose their minds and destroy themselves and everyone in their path along with them. Our minds are filled with these images of movies and novels yet when the tragedy happens to us we act like we never saw it coming and that we never could have prepared for such an awful thing because we never thought it would happen to us. The truth is people love to watch a drama unfold but when the drama is their life some people just can't handle it because they don't have the strength of character or the faith to get through it or past it.
From faith stems hope; it's the only place you can find it. It is grown through difficult times not sunny carefree days of luxury and leisure. Faith is the unseen part of a person's character that is the X factor when it comes to matters such as these that we have been talking about. It is the only thing that, when tragedy strikes in your life, will give you the hope necessary to pick yourself back up again and begin to move forward. Faith gives you the courage needed to face your fears and to give comfort to those around you that are going through dark times as well. Faith can't be bought but it can be borrowed and it can be given away to others; sharing your faith with someone who is struggling can be the best gift they have ever received. One of our greatest faults is that we live our lives like nothing bad is ever going to happen and we do everything in our power to control situations to prevent change from occurring. We have our hopes and dreams set on eventually retiring from the workforce and leading a happy life doing nothing or rather not having anybody tell us what we have to do. The goal of most Americans is to retire at 60-65 and just rest in front of a TV or travel the world without any responsibility to have to work anymore. That is the goal that the "world" has set forth and everybody believes is what will ultimately make them happy; financial security is the key to a happy life they say and that is what people spend their whole lives trying to accomplish yet few people ever reach that goal. The point is that you will never be secure or shielded from the possibility of something tragic happening, it's inevitable that tragedy will strike in your life or in someone's life very close to you and you will have to deal with it whether you want to or not. If you put your trust in financial security or your health or any other worldly thing you will be disappointed because all of these things can be taken away from you and you have no control over if and when it happens.
The saying goes you never know what you have until you lose it. I lost my job this week and it is one of the most difficult things that has ever happened to me because I now have a son who just turned 6 months today and a wife who were both counting on me to provide for them financially and to provide health insurance for them in case anything were to happen. In the tough economic climate of 2009 and with the rate of unemployment higher than it has been in decades it would be very easy for me to go crazy with worry and despair but I have something that most people don't have. I have the X-factor or in this case it would be called the F-factor; the Faith Factor that gives me the strength to stand tall and to tell my family with confidence that everything is going to be ok. In fact everything is going to better than it was before because we have the God of the Universe on our side and if He is for us who can be against us? We are trusting God to provide like He always has and we are thanking Him for what He is going to do for us. We know that His timing is perfect and that He has a plan for our lives, a plan that we cannot see or fathom but I know that He is making our paths straight for us and He is leading us to a place that we could not have gotten to on our own. Sometimes change is something that we have to be pushed into because we are so determined to stay in our comfort zone that it takes being Fired from your job to get you outside on the road again where God can lead you to the place that He has been preparing for you all along. I learned that one of the definitions of Passion is taking something that could hurt you the most and turning it into the thing that can help you the most. Losing a job can be the best thing that has ever happened to me because I know that God created me for great things and that He is leading me to the exact place at the exact moment in time where He is going to use me for Mighty Works and I am believing that in Jesus' name because I know I am a son of the Most High God and His hand of favor and blessing is on my life.
So when tragedy strikes, and that's a When not an If, you must have the faith that everything happens for a reason and that God is orchestrating His master plan to bring you to a place where He is going to bless you and make you prosper more than you could where you were before. If you don't have that faith right now ask God for it, and if you don't have a relationship with God start one because He has been waiting to hear from you since you were born and He is ready to forgive you and give you everything you need. Just like an earthly father has love for his son and gives him everything he needs so your Heavenly Father will give you everything you need and He already knows what you need all you have to do is ask Him for it and believe that He will provide. I thank God today for the faith that He has given me in my heart and the ability to look past a time that could stress me out and break me down knowing that He is already working out a plan to bring me to the BEST that He has in store for me and that's what I want more than anything. I know you have to walk through the valley to get to the mountain top and that there is always a valley in between each mountain so I expect to go through another tough time again in the future; but with each valley you gain wisdom and strengthen your faith which makes you stronger for the next valley and next situation that comes along. Life is a roller-coaster ride in the sense that you are always going up one side to get down the other and you never stay in one place forever so to try to make being comfortable and secure within your own man made boundaries is futile and you will only be disappointed. Put your faith in God and no matter what happens in your life or in another person's life you will have the courage to face it with your head held high and the faith to believe that something better is coming. If you put your faith in God you will realize that everything you need you already have and all the other things are just possessions that can and will be replaced in time. You will realize that you are blessed beyond your imagination and nothing can take away the joy you have in your heart and the love you feel from being a son or daughter of the Most High God. This life is but a vapor in the wind, a grain of sand on a beach and a passing breeze on a hot summers day. It is all here today and gone tomorrow. Make your treasure something that will last for eternity, put your faith in God and watch as He transforms your life into something bigger than yourself and your physical needs. You were put here for a purpose and if you are living your life according to God's will He will always provide for you and give you everything you need to accomplish His purposes He set forth before the beginning of time.
Maybe you need to rethink what's really important in this life...

God's blessings for you and your family. Remember you are a son or daughter of the Mighty God of the Universe; nothing is too big for Him all you have to do is just ask Him and He will answer you if you believe.