God has a plan!  God has always had a plan!  God’s plan is the best plan!  I have a plan!  I like to think that my plan is the best plan, but I have lived long enough to discover that my plan almost never works out exactly like I planned for it to work out!  God’s plan is much better than my plan, so I have decided to throw away my plans and my plans to plan and just work to adopt and live according to the amazing plan of God!

If I am going to lay my plans aside and live according to God’s plan, then I must get comfortable with REPENTANCE!  I think that we church folks are scared of repentance.  But repentance is the only way to lay your plan down, so that you can pick up the plan of God!  When I repent – I change direction!  I repent when I come to a place of realization that I am headed in the wrong direction and I need to turn around and away from that wrong direction and head in the right right direction.  We don’t need to be afraid of repentance.  We need to embrace repentance, because it really is an amazing gift from God that takes us to a place that we could never take ourselves.

Take a little time to look at your life and plans today!  Are you where you need to be and are you doing what you need to be doing?  If we are honest with ourselves and with God – we probably need to do a “u-turn!”  We often start off in the right direction, but get distracted by the frustrations, disappointments and challenges of life and get off of the track that God had for us.  If you have gotten off track, don’t beat up on yourself.  Just admit it and let God help you to repent – turn around and head back toward Him and His amazing plan for your life!

Come back tomorrow and we will take a look at some of the blessings and benefits of repentance!  It really is a good thing, because it is a God thing!

I am so thankful for all of the friends that I have been blessed with!  God has blessed me with people that are always there for me.  Some are there for me everyday and some just seem to be there just when I need them!  I don’t think that I could do life without my friends and I don’t really want to have to try and find out.

Proverbs 17:17 says “A friend loves at all times!”  That is the great thing about a real friend – it does not matter if you are having a good or bad day, they are there for you.  A real friend loves you in all of life’s circumstances!  A real friend loves you on the mountain tops and through the valleys!  Jesus is the greatest friend that we have had or will ever have.  

To all of my friends:  Thank you for being there for me and please know that I am here for you!

I am a little late writing today, because I have had a killer headache!  I am now going through what I call the after-effects!  Your head does not hurt, but it does not feel normal either!  I know – some of you are thinking:  ”Does your head ever feel normal?”  And believe it or not, yes I do have my moments – where even I feel normal!  Even though I am walking through the “after-effects”, I did not want to let the day pass without sharing a few words and thoughts.

First, I want to thank all of you that read, leave comments and send messages!  It is great to know that there are people out there that I can encourage and I want you to know what a blessing it is for me to be able to be an encouragement to others!  This motivates me to take the time to come to this page and write!

Second I want to share a few thoughts on the message that I am going to share at the Northwood Campus tonight!  We are currently walking through 1st Samuel and are in the last part of the second chapter!  Eli has grown old and in many ways ineffective as the Spiritual leader of God’s people!  And everyone has more than their fair share of problems!

Do you ever have problems?  I mean really serious, “don’t know what I am going to do next” problems?  As we get older – life should teach and equip us to have less problems, but it would seem to me that the problems often get bigger and harder to handle.  If we are honest with ourselves and those around us, we would have to admit that we have problems.  Pretending that they don’t exist, does not make them go away, it actually tends to make them bigger!  The time to face our problems is now!

As the Spirit of God moves in our lives, we need to make sure that we are learning to listen and follow what it is that we are hearing from Him.  It is God’s desire for each one of us to grow.  And as we grow, God is always faithful to bless our growth!

Here are three quick suggestions for getting into the growth that God has for you:

1.) Stop denying God and His presence in your life!  God is real and God is relevant.  He is all around you and pretending that He does not exists of that He does not matter, does not take away from the powerful truth that God is real, powerful and involved in your life regardless of what you feel, think or want!

2.) Yield to God and be amazed at the growth and blessing that you will experience and share!  When you and I get out of God’s way – He will come through in amazing ways to use us, grow us, bless us and allow us to be a blessing to others!

3.) Make the choice and make it now!  We all have a choice to make!  You will follow God and His plans or you will try and make something happen yourself!  Get in God’s way and we will mess it up every time.  Get out of God’s way and He will do in, to and through us what only He can do!

Don’t be a headache and don’t give yourself a headache by fighting against God and His amazing plan for your life!

James 3:9  ”With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.”  We have a decision to make right now!  Our tongue can be a destructive weapon for tearing down or a powerful tool for building up!  I cannot control your tongue!  The truth is:  I have a big enough battle with my own!  And if we are all honest, we would have to admit that we all have a very big battle that we need to engage in with our own tongue!

Be careful how you use you tongue!  Take some time today to listen to the conversations that are going on all around you.  Are the people that are talking – using their tongues to build up or tear down?  Don’t judge other people or their conversations – this is not your focus today!

Now take some time today to listen to your own conversations:  Is your tongue building up or tearing down?  Try to discipline your tongue to build up!  You will become a much more popular person – other people will actually want to listen to what you have to say.  God will be glorified and He deserves to be with our speech and actions.  And you will be blessed – more than you realize!

During the past weekend I have been trying to update this blog!  I am trying to change the theme and I have to upload a file on-line and I am messing in an area that I have very little knowledge of.  I have read a lot about programming, file transfer protocol and I am – more lost now than when I started, but I will not give up, because I want to make this site better, so that it might be more of a blessing to more people!

While working on and through this challenge, I thought about how many times, so many of us give up and fail to follow through, when things get difficult!  Life is not easy and anything in life that is really worth anything is usually hard, but it is always worth the effort, if we will just follow through, stick with it and stay faithful!

Think for a moment about the calling that God has placed upon each of our lives!  Luke 4:18 puts it this way:  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

You don’t have to do this thing called life by yourself!  God is with you!  His Spirit is on you and in you!  You have His anointing and power flowing to and through your life so that you might preach the good news that there is hope and a future.  Our job is to proclaim that freedom is available for every man, woman, boy and girl – through a relationship with our amazing God, Who has an incredible plan for each of our lives.  Open your eyes and encourage others to open their eyes and see all that God has done, is doing and is going to do!

Don’t give up and don’t give in!  God has freedom and He wants this freedom to release you – so that you might tell everyone about the Lord’s favor and blessings!

Thought you might enjoy this video!  This is the real way to do an infomercial!

Listen to this word from Joshua 22:5  “Be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you:  to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and soul.”  That is some Awesome Advice!

Doing God’s will is not always easy!  And we have to be very careful, that is work extra hard to make sure that we are living according to His commands and laws.  When we live according to His plan – blessings flow!  God’s will is always right and always best!

We are to love God!  This is about more than talk, much more than just a word that we throw around.  To love Him means that we put Him first.  When you love someone, you want what is best for them.  When we love God we want our lives – lived to bring glory to His name.  Love is so much more than a Word!  Love is action!

We are to walk in all His ways!  We don’t get to pick and choose!  Following God is not about doing just what you like, whenever you want to.  Following God is about denying yourself, taking up your cross and following God everyday!  What ways are you not walking in His ways that you need to be?

We are to obey His commands!  At times the commands of God may seem a little bit like a burden, but the longer you live, the more you come to realize that His commands are here for our protection, guidance and blessing!  Try looking for a new command to make a part of your life everyday!

We are to hold fast to Him and serve Him with all of our heart and soul!  God deserves every bit of you and me!  As we look to Him and trust in Him to be our strength, we will find motivation to serve Him with so much more than half-hearted service!  We will serve Him with all of our heart and soul, because He deserves our service and so much more!

I have been reading, studying and thinking a great deal about DISCIPLESHIP!  We know the word well and we like to think that we are making a really good effort of accomplishing discipleship – that is being and making disciples, but the truth is, while we have some really good programs that we call discipleship, much of what we do is programming and it may or may not accomplishing the making of disciples.  

A disciple is a person who has a relationship with God through Jesus and because of that relationship chooses to follow Jesus and live as He lived!  As we live the way that Jesus lived, we will affect others in the same positive ways that He did.  Our faith in Jesus has to go deeper than our simply believing that Jesus is our Savior; the evidence of our faith is our following Him.  And following Jesus is not automatic; we must make a choice!

In Luke 9:23 Jesus says:  “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  What do we do with this verse?  If we read it and take the time to think about it, then it has very serious ramifications, that is, it changes our life and the way that it is lived.  

When we deny ourselves – we say no to self, so that we might say yes to God.  What gets in the way of your saying yes to God?  When my will is in conflict with His will, it is through my denial of self that makes His will become possible and victory a reality.

When I read and think about this verse, I can’t help but to think about the sacrifices that I need to make, so that I can truly follow Him.  I will tell you right now, that taking the time to think through this verse has helped me to realize that there is much that I need to let go of and there is much that I need to grab hold of.  My problem is this:  I am often tempted to grab hold of the wrong things and to let go of the right things!

This is my prayer!  Lord, I want to come after you!  Help me to deny myself, so that I choose your will over my will at every opportunity.  Help me to take up my cross and make whatever sacrifice is necessary to live in your perfect plan.  Help me to follow you step by step every moment of every day!