Put me in coach, I'm ready to play...

So many people in this country call themselves Christians. They call themselves this because they believe in God and they might go to church from time to time and they always make it for Easter and Christmas services. God has some very harsh words for people who live like this because He demands a full commitment from a man or woman to be devoted to Him and to live this life fully for the kingdom or fully against the kingdom; to Him there's no in between grove that you can ride.

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

This is Revelations 3:16 and it's talking about people who are fence sitters with one leg on one side and the other on the other side of the fence. They want to be called a Christian but they want to live their own life the way they want to. They don't want to be obedient to God and follow all of His commandments because it's hard and they will have to give up things they want to do or be. Whether it's a drug habit, the love for money, sexual addiction or any other thing people decide that they don't want to give up they are making a choice to walk down their own path instead of walk with God on the path to heaven. It doesn't even have to be a bad thing you are doing it could just be that you don't want to read the bible because you don't like to read or you don't want to take time out of your weekend to go to church or serve God in whatever way He is calling you to serve. Living the life of a Christian follower of Jesus isn't easy, we weren't designed to live the comfortable life. We were designed to follow wherever God leads us and to be ready to go when He calls us. Everyone can look at their life at any point during their life no matter how old or young you are and see something that they know they shouldn't be doing because it goes against the will of God. It's a never ending struggle of sacrifice and suffering being a Christian because it goes against Human Nature to be a Christian. We are naturally selfish people who want to do things our way. We dont want to be told what to do or how to live because we can take care of our selves; right? Wrong. We think we can take care of ourselves but what we might think is good God has something Better in mind and as a Christian you should always want God's Best in your life not the Good that you can do on your own.
The example of this came to me this afternoon when I was just sitting and thinking for a minute; I know that's a dangerous thing for me to do but it happened so I'm telling you about it. You can call yourself a baseball player all you want but if you never practice and you don't ever get into the game what are you really? Can you really call yourself a baseball player if you never play baseball? The same goes with being a Christian in this life. You can call yourself a Christian until you are blue in the face but if you don't live the Christian life by studying the word of God, getting plugged into a church and serving God in whatever way He has blessed you tallent wise then what are you really? Just calling yourself a Christian isn't going to get you into heaven because you can't fool God. He knows your heart and Jesus said where your treasure is there your heart will be also. If you find your treasure in helping people, reading the word of God and getting plugged into your church and serving the people God has put in front of you then your heart will be focused on God. If you are following after the things of this world like money, power, lust and greed then that's where your heart will be which is far away from God.
Jesus said that because you are lukewarm he will spit you out of His mouth at the end of your life. You will not get into heaven with a half hearted attempt to be a Christian. You will not impress God by coming to church a couple times a year or being a good person. He wants YOU, all of you everyday. He wants your thoughts, your time, your treasure all to be on Him and His will for your life. He wants a relationship with you and a relationship is like a flower that takes time to bloom. It needs constant watering and care to become fully grown. Such is the Christian life and the water is the Word of God and spending time in a church that teaches the word of God and surrounding yourself with people who believe the word of God. This relationship is the most important thing in this lifetime and it's not something that you can just do a couple of times a year. It takes daily devotion and all of the time you have to spare. It's not easy but its the most rewarding thing you could ever do in your whole life and you will get to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus your savior. Not only that but you will get to have God work through you and touch the lives of everyone around you; all the people you care about and even people you don't know can come to see God in you and have a relationship with Him themselves. It's the hardest / easiest thing you could ever do. Just trust God and have faith in Him to save you and ask Him to change you from the inside out and just watch what happens. Put me in coach, I'm ready to play...

The hand of God...

Once you make the decision to follow Jesus and live your life according to biblical principals you become more aware of what's going on around you in your daily life. You begin to see things happening that you might not have seen before and you notice God working in areas of your life and in other people's lives that you were oblivious to before you became a Christian. I know this is true in my own life and everyday it's becoming more apparent to me as time goes on.
I became a believer when I was very young. I came forward at my parent's church and accepted Jesus as my savior, I was baptized and I was attending Sunday School every week like a good little boy. As I got older though I drifted away and lost sight of the commitment I had made to God but He never forgot about it and He never left my side no matter how many stupid things I did growing up or how many times I tried to get away. God never forgot about that day that I gave my life to Christ and He worked in my life daily to get me back through trials, hard times, disasters and many close calls along the way. About 8 months ago, with my son on the way and just getting over a really tough time that tested my faith I re-dedicated my life to Jesus 100% like I have never done before and my whole world has changed in that short time span. My mom had just gotten finished with her breast cancer treatments at that time and it seemed that she was going to be cured which was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and Christian was getting close to being born when I realized that even though I believed in God and I called myself a Christian I wasn't living the life that I needed to live. I realized that I needed to get closer to God and have a closer relationship with my heavenly father in order to live the life that I needed to live and to be the man that Christian and Vanessa deserved to have as the leader of our house. I have done some very selfish things in the past year that really caused me to take a closer look at the man I was becoming and I didn't like what I saw. It scared me to think that I was about to be a father and that I was going to have a son, a little guy that was going to look up to me and want to be just like me. When I looked at myself I didn't see anything in my character that I wanted anybody to take for their own and emulate much less my own flesh and blood son. I was disgusted to say the least and that's when I prayed to God to help me change and to do a mighty work in me and give me wisdom so I could become the man that my family needed to lead them. I started to read Christian books about getting my life on track and how to become a better Christian man. I forced myself to get up early to read and have a quiet time so I could get myself focused on God and start my day off right so I could be ready for whatever the day might bring forth. Vanessa and I decided to start going to church again once Christian was born because we hadn't gone in a long time and we were in between churches at the time when he was born. It was a hard process, to look at yourself in the mirror and not like what you see and have the courage to change not only for yourself but for the people who depend on you in this world. I have been through a lot of things in my life, a lot of them bad and some good but honestly it wasn't the bad things that happened to me that made me want to change; it was the thought that there are people all around me that depend on me and look up to me in whatever capacity and I was letting them down.
The hand of God is all around us in everything we do. Everything happens for a reason and nothing happens unless it's ordained by God. We are all put here on this earth with a specific purpose and destiny with people strategically placed around us by God that we are to influence to further the kingdom of God. As followers of Jesus we are supposed to live our lives a certain way to express the love and grace of our heavenly Father and if we are living according to God's commands and being obedient to Him then God will work through us to change the lives of people around us. We are not worthy of this honor and God doesn't use Christians because He needs us to do things; He uses people who are willing to be used and who are serving God to fulfill His will on this earth as a blessing to them and a blessing to those around them. Everyone has people in their lives that were put there for a reason by God himself and He wants to use YOU to point them toward the path. He wants to use YOU to show them what a follower of Jesus looks, acts, and sounds like and He wants to use YOU to bring them to church to feel and see the power of God so they might believe in Him. Our call as Christians isn't to SAVE people or to make disciples out of other people; it's to point people, our friends and family and the people we work with to the God of the Universe through our own lives and the way we serve Him everyday in everything we do. Everyone has someone they know that's going through a hard time or that is lost in this world. You don't need to go to Africa to be on a Mission for God all you need to do is look outside your own front door. It's hard to do don't get me wrong because we are so afraid of what someone else might say or think if we open up to them about our beliefs. We have been trained that we aren't supposed to OFFEND anybody and that if we talk about Jesus to someone who doesn't believe then they will get us in trouble or who knows what might happen. You never know what will happen until you give it a try and you will be surprised what kind of a reaction you might get from someone you thought would never be caught dead in a church. Who knows, they just might never have been invited to church before but they have been searching for meaning in this life and God has prepared their heart for this very moment in time and it is your job to bring them to the house of God where He can work on their heart and speak to them.
God works in mysterious ways they say and I know it's true. I never knew the power of God until I started living the life that God expects and requires us to live, if we are really to be called Christians, on a daily basis. Spending time talking to God anytime I can, reading His word on a daily basis and encouraging my friends and family with the hope and joy that comes from having a relationship with God. Trusting God has changed my life and I can't believe I lived so much of my life trying to do things my way instead of letting God take control and following where He leads me. It's so exciting to see God work around me in the people he brings into my life, the conversations that pop up out of the blue about God and the opportunities to share my story with people or invite them to church to experience it for themselves. It's refreshing to see God work the way that He does when I am at church. The electricity and excitement that happens in that building is remarkable and it energizes me and makes me want to tell everybody about it. That's the love of God and the hand of God at work.
Once I decided to live my life for Jesus and follow Him everything changed. Just knowing that the God of the Universe is on my side and is watching out for me makes this life so much easier to deal with. I still have bad days and things that bother me. I still have hang ups and I do stupid things but I know I am on the right track and I am walking in the right direction. Nobody is perfect, and I am certainly never going to achieve perfection but I want to live my life striving for excellence and being the best I can be. I want to live my life according to what is right and good in God's eyes and be a good example of what a Christian man is supposed to be for my son who will follow in my footsteps one day.
The hand of God is all around us all you have to do is open your eyes and really see. It's so easy to just look past what's going an around you because you are so busy doing whatever you are doing. Don't live your life in the fast lane all of the time because you might miss God along the way. He might put someone in your path that He has placed there specifically for you to talk to and if you aren't looking then you will just cruise right on by and you will never know it. Be on the look out for God to show up and you will see Him. The hand of God is everywher.

Becoming a Mighty Man of God...

What does being a man really mean? Does anybody even really know anymore? When you look around you in your current life what makes a Man stand out as really being a Man today? The world has many different views on what a Man is in this day and age. If you are in the business world a man is a cut throat deal maker that will do whatever it takes to get ahead of the game and get the deal done; by any means necessary. If you watch TV the typical man on most sitcoms is a passive and lazy guy who goes to work at a job he hates, comes home and pops the top of a beer while sitting in front of the TV thinking of ways to get out of helping around the house. He's usually fat or over weight, doesn't help his children do anything or his wife and he has a bunch of friends who are exactly the same way that he drinks beer with on a regular basis. The role models our children have today are celebrities and athletes who entertain them either in movies or on the radio or playing a game making millions of dollars. Most of these people are self absorbed and spoiled trying to out do the other one as to who can party the most or be the "baddest." Now I'm not against pro athletes because most of them make good role models for the most part. Many NFL players have charities and perform public service to kids who look up to them; for that we are grateful and I look up to them as well for that. They use their wealth to better others lives and use their celebrity to influence kids to work hard and never give up. It's a great message and I just want to let you know I'm not knocking these people, it's the ones who get the spotlight and live like hell that concern me and I want to shield my son from them as much as possible or at least teach him how to see past the celebrity to what's truly on the inside of a person, their heart and motives.
With all of this said we now have a good picture of what this world portrays a "Man" to be. The man is usually a really funny guy who is likable and his family all gets along and he has a nice house but what we laugh at and think is funny is really degrading and depleting how boys see what a real man is supposed to be like and it's a facade they use for themselves when they get older. I want to talk about what I have learned from my father, other men in my life and what the bible says about what a Real Man actually is and does.
My father was always there for me as a boy. I can remember him getting home from a long day at work as a mechanic on heavy machinery, a very labor intensive job mind you, and I would ask him to throw the baseball with me. Now I can't remember a single time in my life that my father didn't go change clothes, get his glove and come outside to play with me. He was just always there for me. He coached my baseball teams, he was at all of my games, he was at all of my functions at school and he came home every night from work and didn't stay out drinking with his friends or anything like that. In fact I never saw him drink at all until after I was out of high school, he just never did anything like that around me. Just in passing, I think I had a lot to do with his drinking some after I got out of high school because I was a pretty bad kid at that time so I don't blame him for having a stiff drink every now and again to relax; I'm sure I will probably do the same thing if my son is anything like me when he gets older. My father was always good to my mom. I can't ever remember seeing them argue or fight in front of me or my brother or have any problems when I was growing up or to this day and they have been together for a long time. He was and is a good man and one of my best friends and role models. He is exactly the kind of man I want to be for my son and if I can be half as good as he was to me Christian will grow up to be a great man. I have had other good role models in my life who have showed me what being a man is all about and what it means to be compassionate and show love to others. My church's pastor Keith Craft and all of the Mighty Men of Celebration Covenant Church are perfect examples of what it means to be a man and just being in their presence every weekend, even though I don't know many of them yet, gives me hope and makes me strive for excellence in my own life because that's the kind of man I want to be. The bible is the best place to look for what a real man is supposed to be and I have learned what being a man is all about through reading stories of Great Men of God and how they acted in every situation known to man. Stories of King David are some of my favorite because he was a man after God's own heart and he is the perfect example of a loving, caring, compassionate, strong and brave man that I want to model my life after. I want to go over a few characteristics of what the biblical man looks like to me and my thoughts and feelings of how it relates to my own life.
A man is supposed to be Strong and Brave, full of love and compassion, God fearing and reverent and overall a servant to those around him. Jesus was and is the only perfect man this world has ever seen and all throughout the new testament are stories and examples of how He acted and responded in situations that we should use to mold ourselves to be more like. The love He showed everyone He came in contact with and the servant spirit that moved Him to do the things He did for us and everyone in the world is the love that comes from the Holy Spirit which has been given to us as well. Jesus stood up for what was right and just; He didn't back down from the powerful men of His day because they could kill His body. He stood up to them and exposed them for what they really were and showed the world their hypocrisy. He exposed the leaders of His day for taking something that was Good, the Laws of God given through Moses, and adding their own "laws" and "commandments" of men to the laws of God and calling it tradition which caused people to stumble. They took the 10 commandments and added their own traditions to it causing people to feel that they couldn't live up to the standard that God required which in turn caused them to run away from God instead of bringing them closer to God. The hypocrites of Jesus' day, the teachers of the law and the religious men of that age made the "law" of God seem like it was too hard, too many things that people couldn't do or were supposed to do that it just became overwhelming for the common man which made people run away from God and caused them to stumble. Jesus says that He is the Light of the World and that nobody comes to the father except through Him by believing in Him and asking Him for forgiveness of their sins. All who ask will be forgiven and Jesus will testify for them to the Father in Heaven and they will have eternal life. It's the breaking down of the human Ego and the Pride that is in a man that will allow him to drop to his knees and accept that he isn't in control of his life and ask God to forgive him of his sins. If the man will humble himself in this way and ask God to take control of his life then the humbled man will be exalted higher than he ever could have gotten on his own. God will raise that man up to be a Mighty Warrior for His kingdom and will do many great and mighty things in and through him. This is the kind of man that I want to be and that I want my son to be; a man who can be found on his knees praying and also a man who is strong and fully armed ready to do battle at a moments notice. Armed with the word of God and the sword of the spirit and through Jesus Christ I can do all things and nobody can stand in my way because if God is for me who can be against me?
My Pastor gave a sermon on Power last weekend at CCC and he posed a question to us all that really got me thinking. He asked us who we were following? He said that everyone is following someone or some ideology whether you know it or not. You are either following the world's do whatever feels good ideology that is fully against anything that has to do with the God of Israel and that says that there are no right or wrong answers that everyone gets to decide for themselves what they think. This is what people have adopted to be "politically correct" so as not to offend anybody in this country with their own personal views on Anything. So you can either be of the "World" or you can be of God's kingdom, living for Jesus everyday and furthering the kingdom of God through your thoughts, actions and the way you live your life everyday. You can't serve 2 masters and this isn't something that you can be on both sides about; you are either for God or you are against Him, it's that simple and God takes it very seriously.
Becoming a Mighty Man of God is something that should be a top priority for all men who call themselves followers of Christ. It's something that isn't taught anywhere but in the church and you can only understand the concept by surrounding yourself with strong men of God who spend time in the word and serving others. You can't learn how to be a Mighty Man of God by just going to church on Sunday you have to read the stories of the bible and be around men you can look up to and model your life around the principals you learn. You have to take time to spend time with God and ask Him for the wisdom to become the man that He wants you to be and put His hand of blessing on your life and the lives of your children. Desiring to be a better man, a Mighty Man of God is something that God is looking for and it's a prayer that HE WILL ANSWER because that's the kind of man He can use to do miracles through and change the world with. A man who is passionate about his devotion to God and devoted to raising up followers of Christ everywhere he goes especially in his own home. Yes becoming a Mighty Man of God is something that I pray for everyday and it's something I pray for my son for as well because I know that God is going to do Mighty works through him and I just want to raise him up in the eyes of the Lord, knowing that God's hand of blessing is on his life and that God is going to give me the wisdom I need to teach him everything he needs to know. A man is someone who loves the Lord our God, spends time praying and reading the word and storing it in his heart, cares for and protects his family and serves the people around him with open arms and a heart full of love. That's the kind of man I want to be and the kind of man that Christian deserves to have as his father. I pray that I can rise to the occasion and that you can too...

May the Lord make His face to SHINE upon you...

What a beautiful picture this sentence creates. I can picture seeing our Lord Jesus Christ in all His Glory and Splendor, looking on His beautiful face for the first time when I get to heaven; such an amazing thought, it's hard to imagine. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you. It's a picture and description of God's blessings upon your life figuratively and on your body literally. It's like waking up early in the morning and being outside when the beautiful majestic sunrise takes place. It's feeling the first rays of sunshine splash across your face and knowing that it's your heavenly Father that created that moment just for you and Him to share. It's such a powerful statement yet it's gentle and soft at the same time. To think about having the Lords face shine upon you is frightening to say the least because nobody can look upon the Lord's face and live to tell about it. Yet as a Christian Jesus has bridged the gap between us and the Father so we can have His face shine upon us freely and be showered with Grace and Mercy not fear and trembling. It's still reverent to be fearful of THE great and powerful, all MIGHTY God of the Universe because of who He is. It shows respect and honor to fear God because of who He is but He is not a mean God whom you should only fear, He is a God of Love and Mercy.
I feel the Lord's face shining upon me all the time. Sometimes more than others; but I feel it when it happens because I get a sense of peace and I can enjoy the moment in whatever I'm doing or wherever I may be. Whether I'm putting my son in his crib and saying good night to him or when I'm curling up with my wife right before we go to bed and I am putting my head on her pillow and my arm around her waist just listening to her breathe. It's in these moments that God is shining His face upon my life because He has blessed me with so much Joy and Happiness. If we just spend a little more time looking and listening for God we will see that His beauty is all around us everywhere we go. It's in the beautiful flowers in a garden, in helping a friend who's going through a tough time, in playing with your son and just acting silly and in the simple moments of just enjoying the presence of someone you love. God is everywhere and He is in control; He makes His face to shine upon us daily we just have to stop going going going long enough to realize it and appreciate it. It's in those moments where you see His face in your everyday world that you can stop and thank Him for His love for you. Thank Him that He would actually be thinking about you and care about you enough to brighten your day by shining His face upon your life.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon you is a blessing that is almost too good to be true but it is. The Lord looks upon you daily and makes His face available to you anytime, anywhere and for any reason. He doesn't just want to hear from you when you are going through a tough time. He wants to hear from you through everything you are going through good or bad because He wants to have a relationship with you and for you to get to know Him. God is a God of blessings, that's His business. Like any good father He likes to shower His children with blessings and see them happy. He wants to make His face to shine upon you and smile at you and see you smile because He loves you more than you could ever know or understand no matter what you have done, are doing or will do in the future. The hope you have in Jesus and the saving Grace of God because of what Jesus did for you is enough to make you smile no matter what you are going through. I pray that I would stop and see the beauty in my life all around me every chance I get because I don't want to run through this life and miss something God created for me or miss His face in a certain situation that could change everything. I pray the same for you today. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you today and may you have the eyes to see and not look right past it when He does. God Bless you all.

The 23rd Psalm

I have this lamanated card on my desk at the office that I got at the hospital where my son was born that has the 23rd Psalm on 1 side in the King James and a picture of Jesus with some sheep on the other side displaying him as the good shepherd. This card holds a lot of personal value and meaning to me because I found it when I was going through one of the most difficult times in my life which was preparing for the birth of my little boy. I understand that I wasn't the one who had to push the baby out and go through the intense labor pains but the situation for me was very agonizing because of the ramifications of what was about to happen; I was about to become a father to another human being!!! That thought entered my brain first when we found out Vanessa was pregnant and I was excited but the reality of the situation hadn't set in yet. Over the next few months we went to dr's appointments and got the ultrasounds with pictures and videos of the little squirt, we heard the heartbeat and saw him move around but for some reason it still hadn't hit me yet what was about to happen to my life. Now I want to pause right here for a moment and make a statement that I don't know the answer to but I have a pretty good idea that it could be a generality in the male population. I don't believe that men can really understand the enormous responsibility of being a father until the baby is here or at least until really close to the delivery date because we are not carrying the baby in our bellies nor have we been thinking about being a father our whole lives. I had never been around babies before ever in my life, I hadn't even held a baby of any size or age before I held my son on the day he was born; so I had no idea what I was in store for or what was about to happen. My only concerns when Vanessa and I started talking about having kids were financial concerns. I was afraid that we weren't ready to support a baby or that we couldn't afford for her to stay home with the baby instead of having to go to work. I didn't want my baby to have to be raised by someone else at a daycare and I knew that she really wanted to be able to stay home and take care of our child too so I had my doubts. These are all valid concerns that I had and if I didn't have those concerns I would be worried about myself or anyone else who is thinking about having kids because you don't need any additional stress; just having a baby in the house is stressful enough. I got over all of those concerns and I was trusting God to take care of our needs like He always had so I put those in His hands and watched Him work in our lives by providing us enough money for Vanessa to stay home by helping one of her friends out from work by taking care of her baby too during the day. So those issues were solved and prayers were answered but about a month or so before Christian was scheduled to be born I had a whole NEW wave of insecurities blow in that almost floored me and gave me a nervous breakdown.
Up to this point all I was worried about was being able to afford the baby and the financial aspect of everything; I was married to a professional when it came to taking care of a baby so I didn't really feel uncomfortable about that and everything else was taken care of. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks; this little guy is going to call me his FATHER and I am going to have to raise him. WHAT??? (imagine my voice really loud and in a high pitched tone)
I am going to be this little guy's role model and his hero, he is going to look up to me for everything and he is going to rely on me to teach him everything I know. What am I going to teach him? How am I going to raise this little man up to be a man of God and teach him how to fear and reverence the God of the Universe? How am I going to steer my son down the right path which leads to a saving relationship with Jesus and keep him from falling into the traps and pitfalls that I fell into which have caused so much pain and disappointment in my past life? How am I going to be all of this for this little man when I can barely take care of myself sometimes? You can see the flood of questions that hit me and knocked me down to my knees wondering how I can ever measure up to be the man he deserves in his life as his father. These questions are still on my mind to this day and they always will be. That's where the little card with the 23rd Psalm comes in.
We were at the hospital a week early because Vanessa was having blood pressure issues and the dr decided that we should just go ahead and get our son out so we don't have any complications. I was not prepared for this to come early because I thought I had a whole week before I had to be ready for this so needless to say I was a little more than flustered. I was walking around mumbling nonsense trying to get out of my office and home so we could leave to go to the hospital and once we got there I never really calmed down because my wife was already in pain and the whirlwind had begun. We made it through the night with a lot of interruptions because Vanessa was in a lot of pain and couldn't sleep so I was pretty tired the next morning when I got up and had to get my game face on for the fun filled day of excitement that was ahead of us. When it was time for Vanessa to get her epidural I immediately left the room because I couldn't stand to see the size of the needle they were about to use on her so I took a walk to clear my mind and get ready for what was about to happen. I was scared out of my mind at the possibilities of what could take place over the next couple of hours; all of the different scenarios were playing through my mind like they always do, thinking about the worst possible things that could happen. The complications she could have, something happening to her, something happening to my son, wondering if I was going to pass out during the middle of it all and wind up in a room myself; the list goes on and on. I was about to start hyperventilating when I found myself in the hospital gift shop looking at a row of cards with bible verses on them. I started reading through them and I came across the 23rd Psalm. The 23rd is Vanessa's birthday and her lucky number and it was my baseball number in high school so the number holds some meaning for us both. I had never read the Psalm before that I could remember, I knew what the Lords Prayer was but I had certainly never seen it before in the King James version so I was intrigued. There's something about the King James version that gives things a certain spark and a little more meaning than some of the other newer translations. I don't have a King James bible because I find it a little hard to read, especially the old testament; but I love this verse in the KJV. I purchased the card and began walking around the hospital as many times as I could to calm down. I must have been outside for about an hour it seems just reading and re-reading the card and speaking every word in a prayer to God completely opening myself up to Him with every word. I read,"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. AMEN" It seems like all in one moment my fears were put aside, my mind was relieved of the pressure and tension I was buckling under and I felt a peace come over me that everything was going to be ok and that I didn't need to worry anymore. I knew that God was watching over me and my family and that everything was going to be ok so I could go back into Vanessa's room and say that with confidence and support her with the knowledge that God told me that everything would be ok and not to worry. I honestly can't tell you that this has ever happened to me before but I really do feel like God spoke to me through this card because I have never had a scripture speak to me or influence me like the 23rd Psalm did for me that day. It was like God was speaking to me directly in my situation through this little card that I could have never seen if I wasn't walking around the hospital aimlessly. This Psalm will always hold a special meaning for me and my family and it will be a reminder that God is always watching over me and He is always here for me anytime I am in need or whatever I'm going through.
I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death in the sense that I was losing my mind with worry and I was afraid of what could happen and what was going to happen. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to be there to help Vanessa and that everything was out of my control and that there was nothing I could do if there were any complications. The thought of there being nothing I could do to help her and the uncertainty of the whole situation was tearing my brains apart not to mention the thoughts I was having about not being ready to be a father or not measuring up for my son. It was the darkest valley I had been in but God shown His light into the situation and showed me that I didn't have to be everything all at once. He was going to show me the way, He is going to point me in the right direction and give me the opportunity to grow in my faith and stature as a man and if I will walk with Him and ask for His wisdom then my God will provide. That was a prophetic statement for my life because I was really getting scared and I was afraid that I wasn't going to be good enough for my family but God let me in on a little secret that nobody changes over night. It takes time and effort to change and to become more like Christ, it's not something that happens just because you want it to. The fact that I'm so concerned about it shows that I am on the right track and I will not stop ever. I am determined to live my life striving for Excellence in every area of my life but especially in my relationship with my heavenly Father so I can show Christian what being a man of God is all about. I want to portray the image of what a Christian is for my son because he is going to look up to me and I want him to have a role model worthy of following. It's a daunting task and it's one that I have to ask for strength from God for everyday of my life. I am making an intentional effort to change my life from the inside out not only for myself but for my son and my wife because they are my responsibility and they deserve to have a man who is respectable to lead them into the future and that comes from me first humbling myself before God Almighty and having Him raise me up to be a MIGHTY WARRIOR for my family.
Psalms 23 holds and will always hold a special place in my heart because this little card symbolizes a turning point in my life that I see more clearly in retrospect than I did at the time. I was on the verge of defeat and God raised me up and elevated my mind to see Him and hear Him at a point of weakness in a very crucial hour. I struggle everyday with self doubt and a fear of failure for myself and for my family but I ask God to strengthen me and to give me wisdom and He always comes through. I will continue to trust God all of the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever because that's where my strength comes from. I know the next years of my life are going to be challenging and everyday will be an uphill battle but Christ Jesus didn't have a walk in the park kinda life and as Christians we can expect the same but that's what grows our faith in our God. I challenge you to find your strength in God no matter what you are going through because God will LEAD you THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death and you will have hard times but He will never leave you in the valley; you will always be lead through the valley to the other side where you can stand upon the mountaintop and see what you went through and how your heavenly Father helped you and appreciate the good times that much more. God bless all of you my friends today and thank you for being a part of my life. I am the luckiest man in the world today and I am blessed beyond imagination. God's blessing to you...

God has been good to me...

When I look back over my life I have been through a lot of ups and downs, twists and turns and my first thought is that I have a lot of regrets. My mind automatically goes to the things I wish I could change or choices I wish I had never made; we all have things in our past that we wish never happened and looking in retrospect we see how stupid we really were to even think about doing some of the things we did. I don't know why we automatically think about the things we did wrong or the things we wish we could change because in reality if we did things different or if we didn't make some of the mistakes we made along the way we wouldn't be the people we are today. I know that's true for me personally in more ways than one.
I made a lot of mistakes and I wasted a lot of time doing things I know I shouldn't have with the mindset that you only live once and to live it up while you're young. I hurt a lot of people, missed a lot of opportunities, wasted a TON of money and stunted my growth and lost a lot of time in my relationship with God. Now that my life has been changed, transformed, by my new relationship with God and the saving Grace He has blessed me with things look a little different when I sit and think about my past. God works in mysterious ways they say and I know that's a true statement because He has been directing my path the whole time whether I knew it or not. Through my stupid times growing up I learned a lot about love, caring for people, responsibility, patience and grace. If I didn't go through those difficult times I wouldn't be the person I am today and I certainly wouldn't be as happy as I am at this moment in time. God leads us down the paths of hurt and shame not to punish us but to teach us and to mold us into the people He wants us to be. We go through the trials of life so He can use us to accomplish the purpose He created us for in this world. If I didn't get into some things when I was younger I wouldn't have met my wife or my best friends and my life would be drastically different in many ways. I have hurt others and been hurt myself but these situations and circumstances have given me the opportunity to do one of two things and that's what I want to talk about today because that's what's on my mind right now.
We can only make 1 decision at a time, we can't sit on the fence with one leg in and one leg out; we can only make 1 decision to do one thing at a given time. A favorite saying of mine comes from the movie Sweet Home Alabama where a southern girl moves to the big city and gets engaged to a rich man who's mom is the mayor of NYC. She comes home to spend some time with her backwoods family and to get her high school sweetheart to sign the divorce papers that he never signed so she could get married to the city boy. Long story short she is caught between the man she is engaged to and her high school sweetheart and she has to decide who she wants to be with. She can only make 1 choice and her father makes the enlightened philosophical statement," You can't ride 2 horses with 1 ass darling." This is our predicament when things happen in our lives that are out of our control. We have the choice to make to either become a victim and feel sorry for ourselves or we can choose to trust God. That's the choice we have in just about every situation and circumstance that comes our way. We can let the circumstances rule our lives and dictate to us what we do and how we feel or we can choose to give it to God and trust that He's in control and live for Him. The choice is ours not only in situations that are out of our control but every morning when we wake up we have the choice to make to live for God or to live for ourselves and do what we want to do. My pastor Keith Craft calls this the CBC, the choice behind the choice. It's the choice that we make every morning as soon as we get out of bed, the choice to give our lives to Jesus and let Him lead us and to conciously follow the direction He gives us. It's this choice that directs all the other choices we make throughout the day in one way or another. If we are following Jesus and we make the decision to take up our cross daily we will make different choices during the day than the person that is living for themselves. This concept is so hard for me to get my mind wrapped around for some reason but I'm getting there. I want to live like this. I want to wake up in the morning and have the first thing that comes out of my mouth be "I love you Jesus, I'm dedicating this day to you and I want to live for you today not myself. Help me focus on you today and speak love through me so I can be a blessing to someone else." God how I wish I could live my life like this everyday. I wish I could focus my life and my mind on 1 thing and that's living for Jesus. If I could just do that my entire life would be turned upside down and everything would change. I want to live my life on Mission for Christ, everyday spending every second focused on Him. How do the Mighty Christian Men do that everyday day after day? I want to be the man that God wants me to be so He can use me the way He has planned. I want to focus my life on Jesus so I can become who I was destined to become. I want to break out of the box, break free of the chains of mediocrity and ignite my life with the fire burning in my heart for Jesus. The Unquenchable smoldering fire in my heart that isn't ashamed of Jesus and can't keep my mouth shut about the miraculous mighty works that He's done in my life. I don't want to be luke warm, I want to be on FIRE for Jesus. Revelations 3:16 says,"So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth." This is not what I want Jesus to say about me. This makes me want to tear my clothes, throw myself on the ground and cry out to the Lord for forgiveness and beg for mercy from Jesus because of the price He paid for the hope and joy I have today. I take this priceless gift for granted and I shame the Lord with my words, actions and thoughts everyday. I hold back telling someone about Jesus at work, I laugh at a joke or look at an e mail that I shouldn't, I curse or think bad thoughts about someone who has wronged me, I spend more time watching TV then I do reading Gods word or spending time with the author and finisher of my faith. I have all of my needs met in this life, I am comfortable and happy, without a care in the world yet I am poor and broke spiritually; I am damned to the pits of hell if I don't repent of my sins and turn from my evil ways. I need to turn from the way I'm going right now and take off running in the opposite direction full speed ahead and never look back. I know this decision to follow Jesus with reckless abandon is going to cost me a lot. It's going to cost me my life yet I am going to gain a better life, it' s going to cost me my family yet I will have a stronger family unit because of it, it's going to cost me my time yet I will free up more space in my schedule than I ever thought I had before and it's going to cost me my money but I will be rich and blessed more than I could have ever imagined. The price tag is huge on following Christ, it will cost me more than I thought I had to give but the rewards are better than anything I could ever imagine or create for myself. This decision is one of the hardest choices I have ever had to make. It's going to be one of the hardest choices I will ever have to keep also because I know the devil is going to be on me like white on rice because he knows I'm serious and he also knows what God can do with someone who is on fire for Him; there's no stopping a man on fire for God because if God is for you who can be against you. That's the gospel, God honest truth right there.
It all boils down to 1 choice, 1 moment in time that can affect the rest of your life; what are you going to do with Jesus? That's the choice we all have to make and it's one of the easiest and hardest things in the world to do and keep. As American Christian we have everything we could ever want right at our fingertips. Our worst day here in America is anyone elses best day anywhere in the world; we are blessed beyond belief yet we feel like we are poor if we don't have the best or better than someone else. WE are SELFISH and SELFCENTERED, we spend more time watching TV then with God, more money on Air Condition for our houses then we do in the offering plate on Sunday morning and more time talking to other people about sports scores than all of the wonderful things God has done for us in our lives. This country has bred a generation of selfish people who are only concerned about making money and being comfortable and that is the opposite of what God tells us to do in His word. God doesn't want you to be comfortable, He wants you to be out on the edge pushing the limits working for His glory and His cause giving everything you have and trusting only in Him for your every need. When you are comfortable you are resting in your own power and strength but when you give everything to Him, everything you have you give it away and all you are left with is God then you are right where He wants you to be because that's the life that God can use. Someone on Fire for God, ready to go at a moments notice anywhere HE calls us to go, ready to give anything He calls us to give and ready to say anything He calls us to say for His glory and for His names sake. We should shame ourselves for His glory, put aside our own wants and needs and the comfort of ourselves and our families for the glory of Christ. We should count ourselves blessed to be able to say that we are a part of God's family and that He is our heavenly Father but we look at it like it's just any other thing. We take it for granted everyday, the son of God dying on the cross for our sins so that we could have a relationship with the heavenly Father; dying for us as if we were the only person in the world and taking on the shame of the entire human race past present and future so we could have everlasting life and spend eternity with Him in heaven.
How do we live our lives on Fire for Jesus? How do we not take what we have been given for granted and live everyday to the max, focused completely on living our lives for Jesus. A life full of love and compassion, characterized by joy and hope and a presence that captivates people around us. How do we do this in such a dark and evil world like the one we live in? It's so easy to get caught up in what is going on around us, the daily grind of life and our busy schedules; how do we find the time to spend with God everyday in order to get focused to live a life like this? We just have to make the time. We make time for what we want to do. We make time to watch the big football game, to work out, to wash our cars etc. It's all about making it a priority in our lives. It's something that is so easy and yet so hard because we have been conditioned by this world to live for ourselves. We have to go against human nature to live like this but the secret is this; you aren't on your own. God is always with you. He is never far away, He is always with you no matter what you have done that day or how long it's been since you last spoke with Him. He is with you from the moment you accept Christ as your savior and ask Him for forgiveness of your sins. But it doesn't end there. So many people let the story end there. They get their fire insurance card and go back to living their lives in the fast lane not changing anything. Jesus says wide is the path and high is the gate that leads to hell but narrow is the path and small is the gate that leads to heaven; not many people find the gate to heaven because they follow the ways of the world and live for themselves only, not giving their life to Jesus to live through them. I don't want to be luke warm. I don't want to have Jesus vomit me out of His mouth because I had one foot in the door and one foot outside in the world. I want to live all in, 100% on fire for Jesus in everything I do everyday for the rest of my life. I want my son to have a father who is passionate about Jesus, who is passionate about loving other people and passionate about forgivness. I want Christian to grow up with a father who models what Love really is, I dont want a day to go by where I don't give him a hug and a kiss and tell him how much I love him. I want to show him what a real man is, full of love and hope and joy; compassionate and caring, taking care of the people who can't help themselves and looking out for justice and peace. I want Christian to grow up with a father who models Christ's excellence, a picture of strength and compassion and love. I don't want him to have to ask me what I believe I want him to know what is most important in my life and I want him to be able to see what it means to be a Christian first hand so he can grow up in the strength of Jesus himself and go on to change the world because I know God is going to use him for something amazing and I will tell him that everyday of his life. I want to be on fire for Jesus. What is your answer to that question? What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with the son of God? You can only make 1 choice and that CBC, the choice behind the choice, will affect everything else you do in your life. SO what's it going to be? Will you trust your life to Jesus, will you give your life to Christ and devote yourself to a life of service and love? Jesus died for you, what have you done lately? Trust Him today, don't live in a rut of mediocrity, break the chains of the daily grind and lift y0ur hands to the sky and tell God you are giving your life to Him to do what He pleases. Vow to love like you have never loved before, forgive like you have never been hurt, dance like nobody is watching but God, sing like nobody is listening but God and live your life to the fullest because you only get 1 shot at this life then it's over. You will have to stand before the God of the Universe and give an account for how you lived the life He gave you; what do you have to say for yourself? Take off running right now in the opposite direction, turn from whatever has got you hung up and never look back; Jesus is waiting for you to let go so He can take over. You won't be sorry you did...

Shake them Haters off...

I've been trying to get back on a steady workout routine for the past month now and I'm making some good progress as far as I'm concerned. I'm building some muscle back that I have lost over the past couple years and I am working towards a goal of being in shape by next summer; at least that's the basic goal in the back of my mind other than the fact that I just need to get in better shape for myself and my son who is getting bigger everyday. I realized I needed to get stronger and in better shape when I was having a hard time carrying Christian in his baby car seat from our car up to church about a month or so ago. He is getting heavier everyday so I needed to make some changes and sacrifices to be able to keep up with his chunky butt. I am working out at least 3 times a week, I'm back on some supplements to rip muscle faster and I am trying to watch what I eat on a small scale by cutting back on some of the things I have been eating and eating smaller portions. I am trying to get Vanessa on the same page as me so we can both get in better shape but that's another story altogether.
Getting into a workout routine is harder than you would think even though I have a gym in the room out in my garage which is air-conditioned and has a TV in it. Forcing yourself to go workout after a hard day at the office where you have been sitting all day is easier said than done but I have been managing to muster up enough strength to do it and it is getting easier every time. Pushing myself to the limit and expending all the extra energy that I have to in order to get the workout I want and need is taking a toll on my body and I feel more tired during the day than I used to before I got back into my workout routine. I get up extra early to read and take care of Christian in the mornings and it's getting harder to get out of bed and stay awake while I'm reading at 5:15AM; I have actually fallen asleep in my chair with my book in my hand. The extra energy I used to have in the mornings is being spent the night before during my workout and my days are getting tougher but I'm hanging in there and I'm not going to quit. Finding the motivation to workout is also hard to come by because I am having to give up quality time with my family to do it and I only get a small amount of time a day to spend with them so not only is working out costing me energy and making me tired during the day but I have to sacrifice time with my family in order to get in shape.
I have asked God to help motivate me to get in better shape for my son and for myself and He has provided the energy I need and what motivation I have needed up to this point. I had an incident this week that initially made me really mad but looking back in retrospect has actually made me think. A guy at my work told me I needed to get some bigger pants because I looked like I had gained some weight and that ticked me off to say the least. I was mad and I couldn't believe it because he is 3 times the size of me and it just blew my mind that a fat guy was calling me fat. What's going on in the world? I also remember another guy in the office telling me that I was getting fat about 2 months ago and looking back on that now is what made me realize that I needed to get back in shape because at that time I was happily fat and comfortable and I wasn't thinking about it at all. I wonder if God uses these RUDE people to get my attention and give me the Motivation I need to get my butt in gear? Because that's what happened, I was told I was fat and it triggered something in my brain that I hadn't been thinking about but was true. I could have gotten my feelings hurt and gone and eaten a whole freakin tub of ice cream but instead it got my mind thinking on the right track and even though I didn't start working out for another month and I did take some shots back at the guy who said it I eventually started working out and I am feeling better and looking better. Back to the guy this week. He said that my pants were too tight and if I got some bigger pants it would look better. So again I got mad and called him a few names but last night it was all I could think about and I did 75 crunches and I am going to do those every time I workout and include them as a part of my routine to tone up my abs because that was one thing I wasn't doing because I hate doing sit ups. Let me rephrase that, I LOATHE doing sit ups; I have never done many sit ups because I really can't stand them but with the proper motivation I will do them everyday to feel better about myself and look better.
Now I am not a vain type of person if you don't know me. I like to look good and be strong but I'm not a body builder or anything like that and I don't stare at myself in the mirror while I flex or wear tiny little t-shirts everywhere I go. I used to work out all the time and it's been something that I have liked to do since I got out of high school but since I got married and especially since Vanessa got pregnant I haven't had the time or motivation to get back into the routine. Now what I'm talking about could be translated into anything that happens around you like someone talking bad about you at work or not getting enough attention at home or feeling under appreciated in general wherever you're at. The incident this week pertaining to my workout routine just got the ideas flowing through my brain and got me thinking that my ways are not Gods ways. God can use anything and everything to get our attention because He's God for crying out loud. He could write it in the sky if He wanted to but He is more subtle than that; He wants you to really be looking for Him and take the time to get to know Him so you can know when it's Him talking to you. I believe, through much thought and many difficult situations, that God uses the daily everyday things in life to get our attention. God uses people, circumstances, things, places and anything else you can think of to speak to us and give us clues to point us in the right direction down the path of life. God knows what's going on with us on the inside. He knows our stories and our past experiences and what we need to have happen to motivate us to act in one way or another. God is constantly giving us these clues which in turn still gives us a choice to make whether we act or feel sorry for ourselves or ignore the whole thing. God's plan for us is fluid and constantly in motion changing with the decisions we make everyday. He is always working things in our life for our overall GOOD even though sometimes the things that are happening to us are bad we think, in the end it's the painful things in our lives that have the most lasting impact on who we are and what we believe.
God uses the things in our lives to get our attention both good and bad to direct us and give us clues on what path to take. We still have a choice in the matter though. We can choose to ignore Him and do whatever we want or we can be constantly looking for God to show up in what we are doing and what we are going through. If we are looking for God in every situation we are asking ourselves What is God trying to tell me through what is going on? What is He trying to teach me? Seeing these things going on around you increases your faith and increases your senses because you sense God around you all the time and in everything you do; and the funny thing is that HE IS ALWAYS NEAR!! God is always right next to you and in every situation and in everything you do He will always be there so be looking for Him because He is always testing you to see if you are paying attention. That beautiful sunset or sunrise; that was for you, God painted that especially for you because He knew you would look up from your breakfast or dinner table at the right moment and He wanted you to see His masterpiece. IF ONLY We could live every moment of everyday like this how happy would we be? God is doing things around us all the time to get our attention but we are too busy to notice. Kinda like us working extra hard at the office and nobody noticing or saying anything at all except he created a beautiful rainbow or sunset and nobody thanked Him for it or even noticed it because they were caught up in their own little bubble.
Love life, love the life you have and what God has given you. Don't let the little things that usually agitate you get to you, think about what God might be telling you or showing you before you fly off the handle. God is always testing you through everything that happens around you. You have to decide whether or not you are up to the test or if you are going to just put your head down and ignore it, going on about your own business. Live life to the fullest and try to take time to stop and smell the roses.