Psalm 91

WOW! God is so good, not only did he send His one and only Son to the Cross to die for me, but He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. God is our refuge, God is our protector, God is our Shield, God goes before us, God goes behind us, and God is right beside us! God says, that because we love him He will rescue us, because we acknowledge His name He will protect us. God says I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. What an amazing God we serve who is above all, who is robed in glory, and who knows me by name! I love Jesus!!! I wonder, do you think we give to Jesus from a heart perspective the way he calls us to? Are we falling in love with our creator daily? Wondering if the challenge in the North American church isn't because of a lack of devotion and heart commitment to our God who really does love and care for us His children! Our world is so lost and yet so often we just tend to go on our Mary way, Yet the Living God desires that all would come to believe in His Son and have life! Jesus never did ministry where he wasn't pointing to the Father first! Let us Point in everything we do to the Father First who loves us and desires for us to Love Him! Learning to Lean on Jesus, Learning to Trust in The Living God!

Psalm 23:1

The first verse of Psalm 23 says this, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." Let that sink in for just a moment, the Lord, Jesus Christ the King of Kings, David was declaring was his shepherd, and then to top it off he says and I shall NOT be in WANT! This sounds like a crazy thing to even suggest, but the more I begin to open up my mind and heart to this verse I am totally blown away by the power behind those few words! Since God is the shepherd of my life does that mean all my wants should come from and through His hands? My wants should perhaps no longer be coming through my ability to achieve those wants. My wants when placed in His hands seem to diminish little by little when I pause to think of Jesus being more than enough for me, so with this being said, IF THIS IS TRUE, then wants are satisfied because Jesus is my shepherd and my wants are in His hands, for He more than anything should be my greatest desire! Jesus is my shepherd, therefore I want nothing more, I confess I want to be at that point in my life, I want my wants to simply be for more of HIM! This seems to go back to the word intimacy for this is what the Father is looking for from us His children, and nothing less than our all! Father be more than enough for me, and be my shepherd, so my wants are for more of YOU!

Jesus is more than enough...

My prayer, has often been Jesus your more than enough, yet recently the Father has reminded me that I have not been totally depending upon Him as more than enough! I am under the realization that depending upon God is far greater than just moving your lips with the words. Our God is a relational King, and more than having a large body of church goers, God longs for a body of intimate followers, that live the life of the Father truly being more than enough. Recently I have been praying sometimes 3 or 4 times a day asking the Father to be more than enough in the right now of my life! It is so easy to get caught up in the things of the world and yet still go to church, still teach SS, still live life available yet if not careful missing out on making the Father more than enough everyday! Living out in Sedalia, MO I working on a restart of the Nazarene church, and in this process, I am reminded that God is Faithful! I can't build the church and the crazy thing is God told me just the other day, STOP working on building the church, build my KINGDOM and the church will follow. So I am really striving to being a Kingdom builder instead of a church builder. God has all the blue prints I need, I just have to learn daily to trust and depend upon HIM! Father, be more than enough for me today! Bless Kailey at school today, bless Lauryn at home today, and encourage Carly in her Beauty work! BE MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR ME!!!

New beginnings...

Well, today marked the beginning of a new day that has been really hard as my Little Kailey is growing up and today started Kindergarten! It was a very hard morning driving to the school, all of us in the car, and then to watch her until I couldn't see her anymore, tough stuff and hard to realize that she is growing up so fast! I remember when I was in Kindergarten, it was the funnest place, so cool. I loved every bit of being able to read and sing and play! This morning we all held hands and prayed for Kailey, I am still praying Lord Jesus build a wall of your Angels around Kailey to protect her emotionally, spiritually, & physically. Help Kailey to live bold and strong for you, to remember what her mother and I have taught her since she was just a baby! Jesus you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, So hold Kailey in your arms of grace, and when she is scared, empower her with your love driving the fear away, and Lord when she is upset, help her to cast her frustrations upon you and to always remember you love her! Thank you so much for my family! I am so thankful for my beautiful wife, my 5 year old and my 3 year old, they mean so much to me! Have your will in our hearts in our lives and in our hopes! I can't wait to pick up Kailey as she comes running, I will embrace her with all my heart, trying to hug her before mom does, LOL!

3 Weeks...

Well, the other day I heard from one of the ladies in our church that she only has three days to live according to the Dr. What a mind boggling thing to hear from your Dr. yet our faith in not in the hands of the medical teams but in the great physician Jesus Christ! I am praying Lord if it be your will, please reach through me and Heal my sister in Christ! Jesus said in His word you will go out and do EVEN GREATER things then I have done! WOW! I want to be so used By God to make such an impact upon the very community we live in, and even upon our world like Jesus did! What do you really do with those words, 3 days to live! It seems like lately in my life I have been wrestling with this fear that I am going to die of a heart attack and leave Carly and the girls with nothing! Life insurance is needed, but fear has a way of creeping into our lives to where we find ourselves worried and perhaps even afraid! I know that my sister in Jesus is ready to go to heaven yet, I long to be so used by my Father, to speak the words and it happens, all because it is His will and because I am standing on the authority of the Living God! Jesus be with my friend who has only been given a 3 week left on life, touch her, and heal her in Jesus Name, Amen.

Thankful for New Joy!

Learning daily that more than anything being a Christian leader is about falling more and more in love with Jesus! Having a lifestyle of great devotion to my King who died for me! We have a new Leadership team at our church and it is awesome, there is great movements of the Holy Spirit, there is unity, there is hope for a brighter tomorrow, there is peace, there is a hunger to reach lost, broken, and hurting people! After reading 1 Peter I have been praying Father renew the joy of my salvation! Living life for Jesus Christ is the only way to live there is nothing that can compare! The bible talks about Being full of JOY, well, I can say that I have much joy, yes our congregation is only 11 people but it is not the size of our church that makes the difference it is the size of our God! My hope and prayer for CCCN is that we live to bless others, we live to serve others, we live to bring glory and honor to our King, we live life abiding in Christ and His word in us, that we would be risk takers for the greater good of reaching man kind, that we would be faithful in giving, faithful in following and faithful in Leading! I love Jesus Christ more than anything, and I am so blessed to be able to be the vessel that God himself fills up and uses! All of Jesus is more than enough for all of ME! I am praying for God's people, I am praying for our love for Jesus and for others to over flow from our lives! Today I am learning to lean on Jesus and to Trust him with all of my heart, to lean not in MY own understanding, but to acknowledge Him and He will direct my paths! Today is a bright day, and today is a great day, and today is going to be good, because I am walking with Him who knows all, sees all, and loves me unfailingly! I love my wife and my two girls, I am blessed! Thankful to be able to serve as Restart leader and Pastor of Crossroads Community Church of the Nazarene.

Life goes on...

Well, life @ CCCN has been very eventful in the last few weeks! We have had 5 people decide to leave and get away from what God is so wanting! I praise God today for people who left who so needed to be gone! My heart grieves for them, but the truth is our services have been so FREE and wow does that feel good! Not real sure what I am to do as far as building the church! This is tough, and I am asking God to make clear for me His direction that He is wanting me to take! At this time in my life I am even questioning am I really supposed to continue in being a pastor, well I know that I am until God tells me other wise! My wife has been broken, hurting and even angry over the issues that have been at hand in our church! For sure what ever the Lord's will is for CCCN it for sure has not been what has been going on for the last 9 months! Well, we took a trip to Iowa just to get out of dodge and that was a real blessing because it was what we all needed! I love the church, but am really bothered by people who try to make the church fit around what they want. We must remember Life goes on, and the church of Jesus Christ is HIS bride not ours! We need the church, we need Jesus, We need each other! I love Jesus, and love the fact that Life Goes On!