Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Ordinary Is Good!

I am just a man!  Sometimes I still act like a little boy and I still enjoy doing childish things.  I want to be more than a man, but I usually end up messing that up.  I am learning that I need to be comfortable being a man, because that is who and what my Creator has created me to be.

I don’t have to be extraordinary, I can’t save anybody and a running around with a red cape will just make me look silly.  I just need to be the man - I was created to be.  A husband to my wife, a dad to my kids, a friend to my friends, a faithful worker to my calling and an open vessel for my Creator to use as He sees fit.

While I am often a boy trapped in a man’s body, I also realize that I am God’s creation and He has an amazing plan for my life.  The really beautiful and amazing thing is this:  He has an amazing plan for your life too!

Step outside of the busyness of trying to be whatever it is that you are trying to be and enjoying the simple being of who and what God created you to be.  Ordinary is good and by the way, ordinary is what God uses to make extraordinary!  Blessings!

Psalm 51:10-13  10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

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Create In Me A Clean Heart!

Clean My Heart!

The Bible is full of men and women, who had blown it when it comes to living holy lives.  Some of these men and women loved God with an amazing love, but found themselves in a constant and continual battle between the flesh and spirit.

King David was one of these people.  He loved God and was a man after God’s Own heart, but David messed up, not once or twice, but again and again and again.  The beautiful thing about David’s mess ups, his sins, is that even though He messed up – God continued to love Him, care for Him and use Him.

God did not use David because He was perfect and sinless.  God used David because, while He did not have a clean heart, he wanted one!  In Psalm 51 we read these heart spoken words:

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.  5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.  6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.  7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.  9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.  10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.  14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.  15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.  

Keith Green sings a beautiful song that has become a prayer in my life.  It reflects the heart of what I believe David was feeling and trying to express.  It reflects what I am a lot of times feeling and trying to express to our awesome God!  If you want to listen to it, then you can find it on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_4b_9l3GpE

“Create in me a clean heart, oh God
And renew a right spirit within me

“Create in me a clean heart, oh God
And renew a right spirit within me

Cast me not away from Thy presence, oh Lord
And take not Thy holy spirit from me

Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation
And renew a right spirit within me.”

 

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3 Steps To An Amazing Life!

What Do You Expect?

1. Expectation!  We all have desires, what we want, what we wish, but we need to learn that there is a very big difference between what we desire and what we expect.  Desire can be a good and powerful thing, but only if we learn to fix our expectation, so that it rewards our desires.  If your expectation is wrong, then everything else in your life will be thrown in the wrong direction.  Desire is the spark, but expectation is the fire.  Expectation gets it’s power from faith.  God created you, loves you and has an amazing plan for your life.  Expect great and miraculous things and your faith will manifest the incredible.  Set your heart on the things of God and expect His blessings to flow and they most certainly will!

What He Has Is Best!

2.  Acceptance!  When God begins to move in and through your life, it is an incredible and amazing thing.  God plants a desire in your heart and gives you the faith the expect that desire to become a reality, but you still have to do your part.  Many times in life, we cannot possess what our Creator has for us, because we do not accept what our Creator is offering us.  The heart of expectation created by God will lead the soul to accept the mighty and amazing things of God.  Spiritual blessing is yours, but you have to receive it, take it and use it!

A Leap Of Faith!

3.  Trust!  Our Creator is the great promise maker and the great promise keeper!  As we learn to live in obedient surrender to Him, He gives us a life abundant and everlasting that is greater than anything that we could dream or imagine.  When we learn to live a life of trust, God gets glory.  Our glorified God is worthy of our trust.  Sometimes in order to trust Him, I have to get myself and my will out-of-the-way.  Sometimes the choice is between me and Him!  Do I trust myself or do I trust Him?  It should be a no brainer, but it’s not always so simple.  Trusting in Him is an act of faith, which allows me to say with my actions and reactions that His will is better than mine!

Expect, Accept and Trust!  These three steps will begin a wonderful and amazing journey, which will allow you to live an amazing life, not just for today, but for all eternity!

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Want Less Worry And More Peace?

Do Not Worry!

Worry is a lack of trust in the God who loves you with an unconditional and amazing love.  He has promised that as we love Him, He will work all things together for our good.  When we allow worry or fear to consume us, then we are making the choice to believe the false information brought about by the lies of the enemy.

When we allow ourselves to be consumed by worry and overtaken by fear, then we express that our real belief is that our problem is too big for God to take care of.   We would never say this out loud, but the actions and reactions of our lives and living say it for us again and again. Fear causes us to think that our sin is so great that even God can’t forgive us.

God does forgive and God has forgiven.  Lay your anxiety, sadness and fear aside.  Your life out of control will never get bigger than God’s power to bring order, direction and purpose to your life. Worry steals the gift of joy that God wants to fill your life with.  Peace flows into and through a Believer’s life as we trust God.

Can you trust Him?  Sure you can!  Will you trust Him?  It starts right now in this moment.  Shout it out loud:  ”Jesus, I trust you will all of my heart, because part just want do!”  Nothing is impossible with God, Who has “better than good” plans for your life!

Stop listening to all of the negativity of the world.  Instead saturate your mind and soul with the Word of God and enjoy the freedom that He brings!  When you really believe and genuinely confess Who God is and what He is able to accomplish in your life, worry and fear will disappear.  Joy will begin to grow and you will start to be who you were created to be!

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Compelled!

Your love compels me!

I looked into their eyes and saw they had no hope.

You gave me grace and told me to share.

I obeyed with the help of my friends and You amazed us.

We look into each other’s eyes and now we see hope and so much more.

You give us grace and we share with one another and even others.

We obey and the stuff of God flows through our lives like a mighty river.

Thank You for love, hope and grace.  Thank You for opportunity to receive, share and give!

Thank You that we can thank you!

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Shocked!

There are times in your life, when the words leave you.  You just don’t know what to say or how to say it.  You know what you are feeling, thinking and living, but it’s almost impossible to communicate.

The Spirit has really been talking to me, teaching me and growing me in the last couple of years.  And just when I think I’m beginning to really get it, the Spirit just keeps on bringing it!

For well over a year now, the Spirit has been growing a burden in my heart for the lost.  Especially for the lost that think they are found.  I have met, talked and ministered to at least a thousand people in the last year that are spiritually homeless.  These are very special people, they look, act, talk, love, and live just like you and me.  The difference that we often preoccupy ourselves with is how they live, but the difference we really need to be concerned with is how they die!

Here is the burden that the Spirit has been growing in my heart:  “If I miss the opportunities that God is giving me to share His amazing grace with others, then they very likely will die without the gift that God has for them of a Heavenly home.”  Many would say to me:  ”You are putting too much pressure on yourself!”  And I have to respond:  ”No, I am not allowing enough of the right pressure to shape and direct the focus and actions of my life!”

A big problem for me is forgetting the obvious.  I get so distracted by life, that I sometimes miss the many of the opportunities that the Spirit provides for me to share with others.  I could feel this burden growing inside of me, even though I had no idea how to express it.  At one point today, as I was trying to think my way through it, I felt the Spirit leading me to go out with my camera to a certain place.

So I headed out and was taking a few moments to walk through the woods with my camera.  Spending a little time with my Creator in His creation and snapping shots of things that caught my eye – here are a few:

Hard to find this style!

Beautiful New Life!

Not My Cup Of Tea!

As I was walking on through the woods, listening to the sounds of nature and actually allowing my mind, heart and spirit to rest, something caught my eye that I had not ever noticed before.  It looked like someone had built a building of some sort and this really surprised me, because I knew this property and was pretty sure that no one would be or should be building on it.  I moved in for a closer look and discovered that it was more than a building or a club house!

I thought some kids had built a club-house!

This was not a kid's club-house!

As I moved in closer, I could see that this was more than the work of some kids!

This was someone's home!

Someone was or had been living here.  I walked up very slowly, wondering if someone might be at home.  I moved around the shelter quietly and could see that there was no one inside.  When I looked inside, it was obvious that someone had been or is currently living here.

No one is home!

Clothes in a box and a makeshift bed!

A wall divider and little fire pit!

As I looked inside, I halfway felt like someone might be looking back at me.  I actually was a little scared, but looking forward to possibility of meeting someone.  There was no one home, but it was obvious that someone had made this their home.  There was a box of clothes, a makeshift bed, divider wall made of dried bamboo canes, a fire pit, a bottle of water, a torn up cooler and a bucket.

I was in shock!

I was in shock and I did not want to leave, but knew that I could not stay.  I walked back through the woods and made my way back to my truck thinking to myself:  ”Even though I know this is a reality, because I have talked to and ministered to some of these very people, it is still hard for me to believe that people live this way today in the United States of America.

In my heart, there was something even bigger eating away at me and it wasn’t until I had spent a few hours in prayer and contemplation that it really started to come together and make sense.

Physical homelessness is a very sad thing, I don’t like it and I want to do all I can to help in any way that I can.  But worse than physical homelessness is spiritual homelessness and the spiritually homeless are dying everyday and heading into eternity without the benefit of their Heavenly home which God offers as a gift to anyone that will receive it.

If I, if we don’t do something about it, then multitudes are going to be spiritually homeless, not just for their life here on this earth, but for all eternity.  The really sad thing is – we are not just talking about strangers here, we are talking about family, friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors and acquaintances.

Lord, Please forgive me for all of the time and energy I have wasted and please help me to make the most of whatever time I have left on this earth and in this life to reach out to the spiritually homeless with Your precious gift of amazing grace so that we all might enjoy the gift of Your Heavenly Home for all eternity!

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You Will!

You Will - He Says So!

When I read about the early church in the book of Acts, I am always amazed and excited about the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of such ordinary men and women.

In my life time, I have caught glimpses of the Holy Spirit working in this amazing way, but I long to see it, like I read it in Acts.  Ordinary men and women totally changed their lives and world in the span of one generation, all because of the vision of Jesus and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 1:8 Jesus tells His disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The really cool thing about what Jesus is saying us in this verse, is that it is both a promise and a command.  There is the promise of the Holy Spirit and the command to be His witnesses.

It starts with “you will”, not “you might, but “you will!”  Jesus is saying:  You – ordinary will be – extraordinary.  And what Jesus said became reality.  We are the testimony that shouts out to the world:  ”Jesus Was Right, Because Here I Am!”

Now, here is the big question that you and I have to answer – “WILL WE?”  Do you believe that when Jesus said in Acts 1:8 “you will”, that He was talking to you and me? I believe He was and if you believe the same thing, then that brings you to another question.

How will you live out the reality of Acts 1:8 in the world, time and space that you are living in right now?  This is a question worth asking and worth answering, so take a little time, think it through and let the Holy Spirit guide and grow you!

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A Work Of Art!

A Work In His Hands!

What would happen if you really believed that God created you to be His witness, so that you could change this world for His glory?  Would that change the way you live, the things you say and the things you do?  You bet it would and it does!

We are ordinary and this is what allows God to be extraordinary in and through us.  There are social needs all around us crying out for a touch of the supernatural.  There are growing spiritual needs that challenge all of us to be and do more of what we were created for.

God is our Creator and we are His work of art!  God takes what is ordinary, lifeless and often ugly and does what only He can do – turn us into something extraordinary, alive and beautiful.

God is into raising eyebrows and opening people’s mouths.  God is into taking hopeless and turning it into hopeful.  God is into chasing away the darkness with the bright light of His presence.  God is into making death come crashing out of the grave alive and well.

When God steps into our lives, despair, darkness and depression must step out!  What looks like the end to most people, is really just another beginning with God.  You are more than just a work of art, you are a masterpiece.  Stop living in the limitations of man and start living in the grand expectations of Almighty God!

Isaiah 64:8 says: “Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

Lord,  You created me, formed me from nothing into something.  You redeemed me, took my life of no value and gave it value beyond comprehension.  You took what was dead and made it alive.  Please help me to see, understand, believe and realize that I was created in Christ to do good works that change this world that I live in for Your glory.  Help me to grab hold of what You created me for and to never let go.  May my life lived in submission to You, bring blessing to others and glory to You!

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How Big Is Your God?

Change Your World!

What is your definition of success?  Now think about God’s definition of success, really think about it – is there any difference between your definition and His?  If you are really honest, then I bet there is!

God created you and He created you to be successful, but it is probably not success in the terms that the world has got us used to thinking in.  God created you and me to change the world, so let me ask you – how are you doing with that?

Do you think of yourself as a world-changer?  Most of us think way below this high expectation that God has created us for.  But there it is – the reality of our Creator:  We were created for this!

Our being small is not really the problem.  Our failure to understand and believe how big our God is, is the problem.  God is God and He can do anything He wants to do.  He invites us to join Him and faith is our ticket to get on the most amazing ride of all time.

You have a choice to make – will you respond with the optimism that unleashes the hope that defeats despair and the faith that conquers doubt, or will you let the task at hand become bigger than your God?

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says:  ”23 This is what the LORD says:  “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, 24 but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.”

Lord, You have created all things and I know and believe that You have created me for such a time as this!  Please help me to live a life of faith that allows me to change this world for Your glory!

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This Is It!

Don't Miss Your Opportunity!

This idea that God has created us on purpose for His purpose has really taken hold of my heart and is growing me to a whole new place of understanding and living.  I was created by God on purpose, I am not an accident.  I was saved by Jesus for a purpose, that I might be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, so that I might be a witness of God and His incredible and amazing power!

In Acts 13:36 it says:  ”After David had done the will of God in His own generation, he died and was buried.”  Wow!  After he had done what he was created to do, he died and was buried.  That’s it.

The fact that we are still here means that God is not finished with us yet.  We have not fully accomplished what we were created for.  Time is running out.  None of us are getting any younger and there is still a lot of work to do.

Lord,  I do not have any idea what amazing things you have to unfold in front of me, but I know that whatever they are, in them there is an amazing opportunity to make a difference for you by reaching out with Your love and relationship to a desperately lost, hurt and dying world.  Please help me to see the need and to react with love and grace that gives glory to You and blessing to others.  Help me to be Your hands and feet.  Help me to let Your Spirit flow into and through my life as I seek to fulfill the plan that I was created for.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.