Inspiration

Where does inspiration come from for you? I can think of a lot of things that inspire me. My kids, my relationship with my wife, family, church, sunrises, and sunsets. These are all good things but if we look a little deeper, all of these things come from God. Too many times we will see our kids playing something and get so proud of them for who they are, we do not take the time out to see how God is working in them. Sometimes we will see a beautiful sunrise or sunset and never look at it more than what it is. Sometimes when we get together with families we have such a good time being with them that we do not see past that time.


I have been blessed to have been touched by God's grace in my life and see that all things are made by God. The sunsets, the good times with the family, that moment when my kids tell me they love me, even the the time spent with my wife going down the road in the car not saying anything just looking at each other and knowing everything is good. I believe all of these moments are from God. We should always look at each of these times and be thankful for them, but also know that God is behind each of these moments.

We should take the time to thank him for these moments. We should look beyond what we see , so that we might see the hand of God and how he gives us these times.

Have You Ever Felt Lonely?

Psalm 23 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. I was in the valley this last week. I felt I was all alone in everything I did. It did not matter if I was at work, driving to or from work, or spending time in my hotel room.

One thing you really never hear about, that came to mind for me this week was you hear people teach or you will hear pastors preach about being on top of the mountain or down in the valley, but never here about the in between. I think a lot of times we are in between. I saw myself trying to climb out of the valley this week. I know that we are not alone, God is always with us. A good friend told me once, even when you are in the valley you are not alone, you have the river of God flowing under your feet. That really stood out to me, because you know the water of life flows from high on the mountain down into the valley and can cover all, and can even go into a crevice in the ground. Either way you are not alone, the water is still all around .

I find that sometimes when we are climbing out of the valley, I think we find ourselves halfway out looking down and then looking up and thinking I do not know if I can make it! That is the beauty of it. You do not need to do it all by yourself. All you need to do is lean over and take a drink of the water that is flowing down the mountain and it will help you get a little closer. The water is the strength of Jesus.

Journey

Webster's Dictionary defines a journey as a travel or passage from one place to another. I have been on journeys in my life. I am not talking about getting in a car and going somewhere. I am talking about the journey in life. We are all on our own journey going from place to place but when do we ever arrive at our destination?

For me it seems that a lot of people, including myself, head out on a journey but do not know where they are going. I think sometimes we get tired of the day to day lives we try to live. We get so busy and run so fast that we do not realize what we are doing and then on the spur of a moment we try to make a change. For me, I know in the past if I did not like the way things were going I would start something new; hobby, work, lifestyle or some other extreme change. I was always looking to go on another journey, wanting to go somewhere different, wanting to see something different, hoping that there would be something new and exciting.


One of the biggest problems with that was that I never finished the journey I was already on. Sometimes it seems we are always looking for the next journey the one that might be more exciting the one that might bring meaning.

If we would take the time to look at our lives and see where we have been and trust in God and truly seek Him out to help us on the journey we are on right now, we might be able finish the journey in the way God wants us too. He will open the door to the next one. You will not need to jump from one to the other he will make it known to you.

Prayer

Have you ever said to someone "I will pray for you"? How about someone saying they will pray for you? I have been guilty of saying I would pray for someone and then didn't and then sometime down the road that person would come to me and say thanks for all your prayers...ouch!!!! What do you say when that happens? Do you tell them you really didn't? Do you try and say you tried but forgot?


I thought about this when someone asked me to pray for them back when I was walking with God the way I am now. I told the person sure, no problem I am here for you, anything you need.


I will never forget it when that person came to me almost a year later and said thanks for praying for me. All I could do was look away and say sure...no problem and ask how did it turn out? The worse thing that could have come out of their mouth came out. After the person told me how all the things that he had asked me to help him pray for didn't happen, I was ashamed, felt guilty and just down right disgusted with myself.


I never told this person that I never prayed for them. I should have told this person I was not living in a time were I felt like I had the right to be praying for anyone, but instead I just said ok, I'll do it.


With all that being said I am so glad that I have come to a place with my walk with Christ that when I say I am going to pray that I can honestly say I do it. Sometimes if I feel I might not or the need is so great I will say lets pray right here and right now.


Have you ever read the verse in Luke when Jesus is talking to Simon? In Luke 22:31-32 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked you to sift you as wheat. 32 but I HAVE PRAYED FOR YOU Simon that your faith may not fail". WOW!!! Jesus said he is praying for him that Satan will not get to him. I have really spent some time on this and I realized that he is also praying for us just as he did for Simon Peter. Jesus does not want us to fall to the lies and deceivement of Satan's evil ways.


I don't know about you but if I have people praying for me and I say I am going to pray for you and you know that Jesus is praying for you and me, how much more do we need?


If anyone comes to me and asks me to pray for them, know that my heart is right and that your need will be prayed for. If anyone that reads this needs prayer and wants me and anyone else that reads this to pray for them just post your need and it will be done. You can even stay anonymous if you would like.

Hitting the Ceiling

I know that this sounds like a strange title, but if you read through it you will understand why I chose it. When we are inside our homes we never really think about our ceiling. We sometimes run through the house and jump and see if we can touch it (don't think you haven't tried it our thought about it).

I have 10' ceilings through most of the house and no matter how hard I try I can't touch it. In the bedrooms I can jump a little bit off the floor (not like I can jump that high anyway) and touch the ceiling. I have often wondered what would happen if I could jump high enough to go through. I know on the other side there are wide open spaces that seem to go on forever.

I think a lot of us hit a ceiling in our lives. We are only able to go up so far. It seems to me its because we do not practice jumping. We do not believe we can so we just keep at the same height we have always been and not ever try busting through to see what is out there for us.

I know it might sound strange but that is one way I see our walk with Christ. We have gotten used to jumping up and touching the ceiling that we can touch because its easier. It doesn't take as much effort and it makes us feel like we have accomplished something.

That is not what we are supposed to do. We need to get out of our comfort zone, take a chance and see if we can bust through the ceiling to the other side and see what God has for us. Too many times we get caught up in going to church, bible studies, study groups and not looking for more. All of these things are great and we need them but if we do not do these things we are hitting the ceiling. Not doing more on our own for him like prayer, listening for him to speak to us and just spending time with him. That would be hitting the ceiling but not going through. Maybe we feel we can't, were is the faith? Maybe we are scared. We are not supposed to feel scared. Sometimes we feel that with all the sin in our lives we do not feel worthy. Take a look at these guys and tell me why they were asked to follow Jesus.

What about the disciples? Where they all scholars? Did they all come from well known families? Did they hold some kind of paper that said they would be better at serving God? No, they came from all kinds of backgrounds. Simon Peter-fisherman, follower of John the baptist, James- fisher man from Galilee, John-the brother of James, Andrew also followed John the baptist, Philip, Bartholomew who was thought to be a friend of Philip according to John 1:45. Matthew the tax collector, Thomas who was a twin and sometimes referred to be the one that had a hard time understanding what Jesus was teaching. James from Galilee, Thaddeus son of James (not Iscariot), Simon-occupation guerrilla warfare fighter/assassin, Judas the only one that was not from Galilee.

I think I got most of them right. The point is they were not anything special to you and me if we passed them on the street today but Jesus saw something in them just as he sees something in you and me. He wants us to bust through the ceiling and see what is out there. Stop living in a box and thinking there is a limit to our learning about him, thinking that there is only a certain amount of mercy and grace.

Get out of the comfort zone take risks on Jesus behalf, he did it for you.

Broken

What does it mean to be broken? I like to look at it when a horse has been broke it has been tamed. Have you ever been broken? Broken from drinking, drugs, pornography, lust, or even the occasional curse word.

Stick with me, this may sound weird to some of you but I think you will understand when I am finished.

When a horse has been broken properly it will not buck no matter how hard you pull on the reigns, no matter how bad the bridle hurts, it will not buck.

I had the opportunity to help break a few horses when I was younger. The first horse we rode until he was too tired to buck anymore. It took several of us to do it but we finally did it. The next horse an older man showed me a different way. We didn't pin him up and get on him and try to ride him. We simply got in the ring with him and just sat there with him day after day until he would come over by us and stand there. After a week or so we put a bridle in is mouth and let him get used to it. After he got used to having it in is mouth we put a bag of seed on his back and led him around by the rains. Several weeks later, after truly earning his trust, we pinned him up and sat down on him and talked while we sat there in the pin. Finally after about a month, we opened the gate up and rode him out into the arena. He was a little unsure what to do but he never bucked.

The first horse we broke later was turned into a rodeo horse because he would not stop bucking when someone got on him. He never settled down, he never changed just simply stayed wild. The other horse never learned how to buck even though it was scared.

We are a lot like a broken horse if we take the time and read our bible, pray, seek God, and wait for the instructions. When we are learning maybe we wouldn't buck and maybe we can learn to be led by the Holy Spirit and not always rebelling and not trusting Him.

Game day

Have you ever been apart of a losing team? How about a winning team? Which one did you like the best? I would bet most of you would say the winning team. With that being said, did your team ever lose? How did you feel? Did you cry, get mad, maybe scream out loud? I have been on a losing team most of my life.


The team I was playing on was the worlds. It was a good team of wealth, pride, freedom to do what I wanted anytime I wanted. The only problem with the team was that most of the time I was doing it by myself. I had no one that shared in my victories. I found that as long as I was on that team I would be alone no matter who was around me. This group of people so called a team of people that say they care is a LIE!!!


I found a new team. The coach is Jesus and the captain is me picked by the coach. The team players are brothers and sisters. The key players are my wife who is there to help me call the plays and helps me come up with plays to attack the other team so they do not attack anyone on my team. Next would be my kids who are there to encourage me to carry out the plays called by God.


Having God as your coach and looking at your play book (the bible) will help you win this game called life.


I do really think life is a game but think a lot of people look at it this way and I hope that more people would look at how serious it is to play the game of who has the most money, biggest house, nicest car, or best job. If they do not look at it differently and put all of those things aside then they will surely lose in the end.


I think it would be neat for us all to know how many team players we have. If you want to let me and someone else know you are on there team let us know by commenting with your name.


We face the other team everyday and some day the coach will blow is whistle and THE GAME WILL BE OVER. The team that you are on when that whisle blows will determine if you win or lose.