Tag Archives: personal

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Just Like Dad!

I was talking with my oldest daughter Gracie on the way to school one day this past week and was amazed at how much she is just like me.  Her observations, horse sense, opinions and judgments.  There are some things that I see her do, or hear her say that rub me the wrong way, until I realize that those things are some of the same things that I continually find myself battling with.

I like to think that I am a good man, but the truth is that I am a sinner saved by grace.  My goodness is not from myself, but from my Creator, Savior and Friend.  Sometimes I find myself getting less tolerant of my family and friends, in what I perceive to be their challenges or weaknesses, but then the Spirit helps me to look within myself and I know that I have more than enough work to do on myself, so I am learning to let the other go.

I was created to love and be loved.  Judgment is above my pay grade and I am not really any good at it any way, so I will leave that to the Creator, Who sees all, knows all and is in control of all.

Father,  Thank You for reminding me that I am just a man, but I am not just any man, I am Your man.  Help me to grow into these big shoes that you have given me to fill and help me to walk on the path that you have marked out for me.  Along the way, as I encounter others, help me to love them as you have loved me – without condition.  Help me to help and bless others with no expectations.  Help me to remember that my service to others, is really my service to You.  Help me to love at all times, be patient in all situations and yielded to you in not just some things, but in everything.

I pray that one day, when You are looking at me as Your son, that You will see some of what makes You so great in me!

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Filled Up!

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”  Romans 5:3-5

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Fillerup!

No one likes trials and troubles, but everyone has them and while we don’t like them, it helps to know that when we do, there is a purpose.  The Scripture teaches us that we can rejoice and be happy when we face the challenges of life, because the challenges are helping us to develop and grow endurance.

Endurance is the ability to remain active and productive even when facing adverse conditions.  It is the picture of something that lasts, regardless of time.  As we face trials and troubles, God is using the problems to develop endurance in our lives.  We can rejoice because this endurance develops character.

Character is the moral and ethical traits that make you uniquely who you are.  Someone has said that character is who you are when no one else is looking.  As we endure trials, we develop character. And our character as it grows and develops produces hope.

Hope is a feeling that things are going to be better.  Our hope is in our salvation and the relationship that it makes possible with our Creator.  This relationship is based in the love of a Creator for His creation.  This love is grown in the relationship of trust, which is strengthened in hope of an even brighter tomorrow.  This day and every day after this, is possible, because of our relationship with, to and through the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with the amazing and blessed love of our most awesome friend and Creator…

Take some time today, even in the midst of challenges to let Him fill you up with His Spirit!

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Living Is Giving!

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”  Mark 8:35

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That’s LIfe!

This is one of those powerful lessons in the Scriptures that we often fly over and miss.  ”If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.”  Life is not something that we hang onto,  Life is something that we live and in the living of life, we experience life.  Life with all of it’s ups and downs is living and living is much more than just existing.

The key to really living is not trying to live life, but trying to give life, because when we give our life away to love others as we have been loved, then we really begin to live.  The good news is that God loves each of us and has an amazing plan for our lives.

Don’t miss life, because you have gotten distracted by trying to make a living.  Live life by giving your life to your Creator by serving and making life better for others.  You will find that life is a whole lot more fun, when you focus on more than just existing…

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Living Love!

“If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.”  I John 3:14

What Is Love?

What Is Love?

I have talked about this before, in a several different places.  There are many different definitions and ideas about what love is.  Most people in our world now a days, seem to have made themselves very comfortable with the idea that love is something that we fall into and can fall out of.  This idea believes that love is some magical feeling we get when we meet the right person.  If this is what you think of when you think of love, then you are probably right about it being something that we can fall into and out of.

A better word for that magical feeling that we get when we meet that person that makes us feel really special is probably attraction.  Love, real love is appreciating the goodness in another person.  When the Bible speaks of God’s love for us, it is God appreciating the goodness is us.  You may think, but there is nothing good in me compared to God, and you would be right, but we can’t forget that God created us and we are made in His image.  God sees what we can’t see and His attraction to that good in us allows him to appreciate the good that he can see and that is love.

Love is active and we can create it, just by appreciating the goodness that is in another person.  This is why love really is a choice.  A choice that each of us make many times and in many different ways every day.

There are in existence, what I like to think of as different flavors of love.  There is “eros”, where we get our word erotic.  When we accept and appreciate the beauty of the physical in another person, we experience this “eros” love.  Eros love is often the next step after attraction, but it does not have to be.  ”Eros” love is about physical passion, gratification and fulfillment.

There is a love called “storge”.  This is the love that parents share with children and children share with parents.  It is only natural to look at your blood and appreciate the goodness, often of yourself that is in them.  This is a love that flows almost naturally and without effort.

There is also “phileo” love.  Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love.  This is a love of affections, a love that takes delight in being in the presence of another.  This is often that warm feeling that seems to come and go.  This is a love that cares about another as if they were blood.

And then there is “agape” love.  This is the love that our Creator loves us with.  This is love that seeks the welfare and blessing of the other person.  This is a love that flows regardless of the feelings or emotions that we often get tangled up in.  This truest of loves is a choice that we make, regardless of how we feel and that is why this love is so powerful.

When we love others, it is proof that the love of God has found its way into our lives.  Proof that we are not dead, but alive to Him and His power that flows into and through our lives. We should seek this love and share this love, because it means that we are alive and being alive, really alive is a good thing!

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Fight The Mind Battle!

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”  Romans 12:1

I Ain't Got Time For This!

I Ain’t Got Time For This!

We know what we should do, but doing it is often the real challenge.  We know what we should not do, but keeping ourselves from doing it is the really hard thing to do.  I have noticed that most of the battles that take place in my physical life, take place in my mind before they manifest themselves in reality.

Learning to fight and win the battle in the mind, will save us a lot of heartache, time and trouble in the long run.  What we give to God, God can take and use in amazing ways to move us to a place of blessing and fulfillment.  The beautiful thing is that this allows us to give to God glory, which He is due and it allows God to give us blessing, which allows us to give Him even greater glory.

Take some time today to think about the battles you are fighting in your mind.  Fight those battles and win – you will be glad you did!

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It’s Under Your Feet!

What Are You Standing On?

What Are You Standing On?

My Grandfather loved his land.  He bought it from his Dad and had worked it for the major part of his life.  We used to walk the property lines every Sunday and he would tell me stories of things that had taken place on this sacred piece of earth.

He knew that bounty was not something that you kept in a bank, nor was it a job that you worked nine to five.  Real bounty was the gifts and blessings that flowed into your life through the generosity of the ground under your feet.

The green hills provided a place of shelter, a place to belong and call home.  The fertile soil with the smell of life gave fruits and vegetables.  The thick forest offered retreat and comfort, while the wide open plains offered opportunity for adventure.

The land, as my Pa called it, has already provided us with all that we need to live a life of peace and joy.  Our Creator, created the Heaven and the earth and they are perfect creations, doing everything that they are supposed to do.  From the Heaven comes wind, rain and the bright sunlight of day.  While the earth gives us a place to live, nourishment for our body, minerals for our growth, jewels for our decoration and somewhere to go and something to do.

Everything that we need is either just above our heads or right under our feet.  Stop looking past the horizon, when what you need is within your grasp.  Bend down, pick up some dirt and think about the significance of what you are holding.  Now think about what you are walking on, claim what you have been blessed with and be careful not to miss what your Creator has given you!

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Random Acts Of Kindness!

Give It A Try!

There are small things that you and I can do that will have a big impact on our lives and in the lives of others.  These things do not have to cost you any money and will only take just a moment of time.

It really is not that hard to be kind to others and when we are kind to others, it opens up tremendous opportunity to grow, share and be blessed.  I want to encourage each of us to think about EXPRESSING KINDNESS and then do it.  If we ever start to think right, then we can begin to put into practice this amazing gift of our Creator that allows ordinary to become extraordinary.

Ephesians 4:32 says:  ”Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  Below is a short video that gives you some ideas about this small thing that can make a big impact!

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A New Journey?

I am on a bit of a new journey.  I started doing some meditation exercises a few months ago and this opened my mind and spirit to trying to learn new things.  In fact, I have developed a hunger for learning new things and trying to take the best of some of the old things that I had learned and put them into better practice.

I had set my hand written journal aside for a while, but have picked it back up and intend on it being a continual companion on my journey.  I plan to share via this blog, some of the things that I am re-learning and learning, so I hope you will join me here everyday as I share just a little of what is going on in my world.  I hope that it might be an encouragement in your world.

Today, I want to take just a moment to focus on an older book and throw out a few of the principles that it teaches for us to think about and maybe try to put into practice.

The Seven Habits By Stephen Covey

The book is “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey  I actually read this book many years ago and have re-read it a couple of times.  I have decided to work my way back through it again, because I do believe that it has some good direction for our spiritual, mental and physical lives.

Habits can be good or bad and this is why we need to make sure that if we have a habit that it is a productive one.  Covey gives us seven habits of people who are effective in life.  Here are the seven:

1. Be Proactive Rather Than Reactive!

2. Begin With The End In Mind!

3. Put First Things First!

4. Think Win/Win!

5. Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood!

6. Synergy!

7. Sharpen The Saw!

Below is a video of my talking about the seven habits – enjoy and live blessed!

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Chasing The Heart!

Chase It - You Might Catch It!

In the Bible we find that King David was a somebody even when everyone else thought he was a nobody.  As I read through his life, both the failures and the successes, I cannot help but notice that he has a huge passion – a passion for things of this world and at the same time a passion for God.  Often these are in conflict with one another and this gets David into trouble.   The good news is that this trouble ultimately always ends up bringing David back to where he needs to be.

David is described in Acts 13:22 in this way:  “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.”  This is God talking about David.  Only God knows the inside of a man’s heart, but know this for sure:  God knows and it matters!

David chased after the heart of God.  I can relate!  I don’t always feel like I’ve got God’s heart, but I know that I am I chasing after it.  I sometimes head in the wrong direction, but I ultimately turn and head back, because there is nothing in this world that can be compared to the heart of God.  David so wanted the heart of God that he would often run off half cocked and do something totally crazy, that would get him in a big ol mess, but the big mess eventually took him even closer to God and the things of God.

I think I might be beginning to understand what Paul was saying, when he said:  “The things I want to do, I don’t and the things I don’t want to do, I do!”  I don’t always do what is right, but I want to!  I sometimes do wrong and I don’t want to!  This is why I am thankful that God loves me and gives me His amazing grace.

Another thing Paul said that I think I am just beginning to understand is:  ”Not that I have already obtained all of this, but this one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the High Calling of Christ Jesus.”  I have not got there yet, I still have a long way to go, but I love God and I am chasing His heart and I am thankful that He let’s me catch up every now and then.  G3!

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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!