Getting up and Moving on...

Psalm 71:1-4 says, "In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness; turn your ear to me and save me. Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of evil and cruel men."
Jesus is there in lives trouble in lives ruggedness, Jesus is there in times of difficult situations, Jesus is there in the good and in the bad. WHY? Listen, Because He cares! Jesus Loves you, more than you and I can even imagine! When you think of having a refuge it is an awesome thing to think that Almighty God longs to be your personal refuge. God longs to keep you and hold you out of shames reach. God longs to deliver us His children the sheep of His pasture. God turns His ear to us and listens to what we have to say! The Psalmist says, GOD be my rock of refuge that I can always go to. Are you running to God or are you running away from God? Are you longing for the things of God or are you longing for the things of this world? Get up and move on in Jesus! You can't do it by yourself and you won't do it with out the empowering love of the Holy Spirit! Remember Jesus prayed saying, "Father take this cup from me, yet not what I will but what you will." Jesus did not take the easy way out, he took the difficult road, the road of danger, of risk, and even death! Friends today, may the hand of God reach out to you, and be the refuge that today you are so needing! May you today be encouraged, empowered and moved to live for Jesus, not self! Be my refuge!

Living in the Comfort of the King...

Isaiah 54:10 says, "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on YOU."

To live life in the shadow and care of the King is the best place in all the world to live! Just to know that even though life is tough and very hard at times in fact I would go as far as to say life is even heavy, YET no matter what life may be like God remains steady, strong, and unshakable! Today I am moved after reading a blog that was written by a very good friend of my family! In this blog she talks about how life is extremely hard and tough and the mountains around her seem to be falling and crumbling around her. Instead of soaring on wings like eagles she is wondering around with the wild turkeys! This makes me wonder as a pastor how many people are trying to live life and the mountains are crumbling right before their very eyes. She goes on to say that she is having some time just to cry, and I mean wail before God, just falling down on her knees before a Holy God who she knows loves her and is trying to surrender her all to Jesus Christ! The first step I believe in getting past the very difficult areas of life is to fall down before God in total submission!

The bible says, "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed. STOP! EVEN when not if but when the mountains and the hills of your life and my life are shaken, friends hold tight to Jesus! For he goes on and says, YET, my unfailing love for you will NOT BE SHAKEN! No matter how hard life shakes us and even hurts us, Gods love for us remains steady, alive and real! God says that he will keep his covenant of PEACE! God continues to amaze me, because he is always keeping his end of the bargain and more!

Today friends wherever we find ourselves on this journey called life, let us find ourselves approaching life with our chin up, and our knees down! Living life fully with the grace of Almighty God, and knowing that He who knows all, and sees all, loves us unfailingly! For the WORD says, that God is for us not against us. Jesus said, I am putting you out like sheep among wolves! Life is going to be tough, hard, and painful, but Jesus is going to remain FAITHFUL! Be strong, Be very Strong, and don't allow the winds of Life to knock you over and keep you down! GET up, and fight the good fight, and run the race that is marked out for us to run! Be encouraged and take a leap of faith and believe! Living today, moving beyond yesterday, and fully relying upon Jesus! The good life!

Living out the Desires of the Heart

Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." The longer I live for Jesus the longer I become aware of the fact that He is longing to bless me with the very desires of my heart! God is so loving and so compassionate and sometimes we only can see God who is Holy, who hates sin and who is longing for people to love him with our everything! Yet so quickly we forget that our God, God Almighty, The Alpha and Omega loves us and is longing to pour out into our lives blessing after blessing that flows from the desires of our heart! Some people believe that when God says that He will give us our hearts desire this really means spiritual issues! Friends today I believe that to believe this is to keep God in a little box and underestimate the God we serve who is Holy, who hates sin and loves the sinner, and who is longing for us to love him with our all daily! We underestimate the God who created the heavens and earth in 6 days! Delight yourself in Jesus, and your hearts desire will be given to you! Trust the Lord! Hears a story a little food for thought. My best friend from back home, years ago was praying for a 1969 SS Chevy Camaro, with blue racing stripes, owned by old people who had it in the barn. Guess what after praying for 10 years about a heart desire he had, God blessed him with a 1969 SS Chevy Camaro, with blue racing stripes, owned by old people, and they had it in the barn! Some people thought this is crazy to even pray, Lord bless me, But friends understand God is just longing to bless those who daily delight themselves in Jesus Christ! Jesus Bless me with a 4 door, 4x4 short bed pick up truck, as I delight myself in You! Jesus is able and today I trust and believe in the Holy Word of God!!! Delighting in Jesus.

Behold the New...

Isaiah 43:18 - 19 (message) says, "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands." Almighty God who is the creator and sustainer of all life, the one who knows and all and sees all and yet loves me unfailingly is doing a new thing in the life of his people! In the midst of an economy that is struggling to keep a float and moving upward, we have God who loves us so much that not only did he put flesh and die, and then rise again victoriously, but friends we have a God who knows you and who me by name, and get this, HE CARES! I believe its really time for the church of Jesus Christ throughout the world to forget about what's happened, to stop looking over the old history. It's time to be alert, be present. Jesus is doing new, in fact a brand new thing, it's bursting out! DO we not see it, are we not watching? There it is! God who makes no mistakes, who never fails is making a road in the desert, rivers are coming alive in the badlands! Let's get excited, let's start dancing, and start lifting our hands in worship and surrender to the one who has called us, who knows us, and who cares!

Making the Most...

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
I believe that God wants us to make the most out of life with what we have! Life is so full of all kinds of mishaps, all kinds of busy items, from basketball games, church events, what to have for supper, where are we going for vacation, and where should my 4 yr old go to preschool! Just recently we just found out that my oldest daughter Kailey would not be able to go to the preschool we had picked out because there are not enough kids signed up! Then my wife found a school for Kailey that she is checking out today, where Kailey will go 5 hours a day four days a week. All of a sudden life hit me with a wait a minute my little girl is growing up and way to fast, well to fast for my heart! Doing what you can, with what you have, where you are, some times is a very challenging process of events. Life is tough, life is full of life happening events that makes it very tough, but in the midst of it all here we have so close a God who remains closer than ever and loves us through it all! I pray that God will help me to do what I can, with what I have, where I am right now! I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose!!!

In Everything...

Living life knowing that Almighty God is in everything in my life, first and foremost because I want Him there! Just to know that God is in every little detail of my life, He's in every large detail of my life gives me peace just knowing that He who knows all, and sees all, loves me unfailingly! Today I am reminded just how much I am loved by the King of Kings! I am confronted by the unfailing love of Almighty God whenever I go to Walmart, or any public place where people are present! I see people with all different kinds of scars from life. Scars from a divorce, from the loss of a child, the loss a parent, the loss of a job. People who have no food, no money, no bed at night or even a place to call home. I see people who have no idea how much Jesus Christ loves them! I see people who don't realize that God is longing to be involved in everything in the life of His creation but to often people remain caught up in sin and living the life of emptiness! My hearts prayer and passion is to some how have this amazing love, this perfect love that Jesus has, to just push out through me, and me magnified in me! To be open to the Holy Spirit and being obedient to what he calls us to! God is in everything in our life IF we will just open up the door and let Him in! To God be praised...

Living with Joy...

You know to live with Joy is where God has called us to live! The world looks as though there having a lot of fun, but they have NO joy. Joy only comes when one has completely surrendered to Jesus Christ! You can't get joy by having lots of money, or not having money at all, you can't get joy by having a big house or nice car, but YOU can have joy by knowing and living for Jesus Christ daily! We have just moved to Sedalia MO, to start a new assignment that Jesus has given me, and I am full of the joy of the Lord, because He who has called me, who has enabled me, has also empowered me and given me Joy, Joy, Joy! Jesus is the Joy giver, when life hits hard and it does it hard, Jesus is still here to give freely His joy! It reminds of me of song I learned a child in church, I have got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, WHERE, down in my heart, WHERE, down in my heart, I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down heart, WHERE, down in my heart to stay, and I'm so happy, so very happy, I've got the Love of Jesus in H-E-A-R-T, so very happy, so happy, I've got the joy of Jesus in my heart! Jesus is faster than high speed internet, He stronger than the worlds strongest man, boat, car, truck, tractor, and He is the Joy maker and giver of all life!