Category Archives: faith

Blogroll, Church, Discipleship, faith, Family, Fellowship

Sunday Night Rewind – 10/10/21

The old joke is that pastors only work one day a week, but the truth is we work all week preparing for one day and that is why Sunday is such an important day for all of us, because your pastor has been praying, studying, ministering, writing, planning, organizing, scheduling and the list goes on and on and on, for this day. On this day, your pastor hopes to challenge you, encourage you, grow you, inspire you and motivate you to the higher life that you were created and gifted for.

I love everyday and all the different things that add up to make Sunday such a special day in the life of church and the ministry. Our Sundays at Eureka just seem to get sweeter and sweeter every week. I love getting to do life with the fine folks that God has given me to shepherd at Eureka and I count it an blessing, honor and privilege to be called “pastor” by each one of them.

I usually get to the church early on Sunday mornings way before anyone else. I like to spend a little time in prayer, asking for God’s blessing, direction and guidance upon all of our lives as we assemble together. I then do a last minute look over my notes and begin to greet folks and enjoy some sweet conversations.

This morning I got to spend a few moments with the kids from Kid’s Church and I always love spending time with them, probably because I am a big kid at heart. Last Sunday one of the little girls came up, tugged on my pants leg and when I looked down at her, she looked up at me and said: “I love you!” It was one of the sweetest and most pure gifts I’ve ever been given.

We had a very sweet time in worship. A young man that was in my very first youth group and his family were visiting with us this morning and it blessed my heart to ask him to open our time of worship up in prayer. So proud of the man of God that he has grown to be and blessed to see him and his family with us today.

Our morning service was built around the theme of WINNING WORSHIP and we focused on the truth that we need each other, that God created us to do life together and that when one of us is blessed, we are all blessed. We talked about how we like to think we are smart and some times get full of ourselves, but if we are honest our only real satisfaction comes in Jesus and a growing relationship with Him. We know we are on the right track when our life is a life of worship that worship God in Spirit, truth and Jesus.

We enjoyed a great time of fellowship at lunch with some friends and then I spent a little time in my Pastor’s Study just getting ready for the next week and resting a few before Sunday evening Bible Study.

At Bible Study we were challenged from the Word to “Watch Your Walk!” We talked about how our attitude is almost constantly needing an adjustment and that we desperately need the wisdom from God’s Word to help us use our time on this earth wisely and make our days count. We discovered that the best way to do this was to: 1.) Enjoy what ever time you’ve got. 2.) Learn from your mistakes. 3.) Remember there is more to this life than this life!

It was a great day and a great evening and I am home now and almost ready for bed. Thank you God for loving me so much that you bless me with the opportunity to do life with such amazing and sweet folks. I love what you let me do and consider it the greatest blessing of my life to get to serve You by serving others… I pray everyone has a great night and an extra blessed week!

affirmation, appreciation, Blogroll, enemies, faith, God, grace, Gratitude, Growing

What Doesn’t Kill You, Makes Your Stronger!

There have been times in my life when I have had to go through some very hard stuff. Some of the stuff was of my own making and some of the stuff was because of the evil doings of others. I know what it means to live in the light and I totally understand wandering around in the darkness trying to find your way.

Live your life long enough and all of us are going to have struggles, challenges, difficulties and set backs. I’m not talking about just having a bad day. I am talking about trying to figure out if you even want to continue on with this day or not?

I decided a long time ago that if I did not have something positive or encouraging to say, then I would just keep my mouth shut, but don’t let that make you think for one minute that I have not had more than my fair share of dances with the devil.

For most of my life, people have seen a guy that is happy, fulfilled and excited about life and most of the time that is who I am, but there are moments when the dark clouds roll in, when I begin doubt everything that I thought I was sure of and this is when the real battle of faith takes place.

I’m not going to get into the gory details, but trust me when I tell you that I know darkness, fear, the loss of desire, sin, defeat and depression. I know all to well about the long dark nights of the soul and had more than my fair share of times that I did not think I was going to make it back from that trip.

Why would I tell you this? Because I want you to understand that the guy you see, so full of life and sure of himself is a guy that has to battle to get to that place and stay on top of that hill. I tell you this, because when I talk about God the difference he makes, it is not from story that I learned as a boy growing up in Sunday School, it is from personal relationship, an up close and very personal experience of struggles made up of victory and defeat.

I tell you this, because I am only here today by the GRACE of GOD. I understand what it is to lose it all. I know how it feels to think that everyone has left you and you are all alone. I know the excitement of being celebrated one minute, only to be cast aside and forgotten the next. I know the battle of getting lost inside of your own head, of getting beat up and beat down by your own thoughts. I know pain and can tell you that there have been times when she was my closest friend.

That is why when I say: “God’s Grace Is Sufficient!” I know what I am talking about. I have always loved motorcycles and back in 2008 my dream of having my very own Harley Davidson came true. A fresh off the showroom floor 2008 Heritage Softail. Apart from my family, it is about the only thing of any monetary value that I have left from the first half of my life. There have been many times that I threw my leg up over the seat, grabbed the handle bars, started the motor and rode into the wind, not knowing if I had a future. But after a little time of seeing the pavement flow past my feet, hearing the strong rumble of the motor, while smelling the freshness of the air I breathe, I could feel the touch of my God, reminding me that He will never leave me or forsake me and I could taste and remember that “GOD IS GOOD!”

Blogroll, Control, emotions, faith, Growing, Healing, judgement, life, mindfulness, Miracles, self help, self improvement, vision

The Only Person You Can Change Is Yourself!

We live in a world that is always trying to shape us into what someone else thinks or says we should be and the real problem with that scenario is that the shape is always changing depending on who happens to be holding to loudest bullhorn at the time.

Most of us have things we would like to change about ourselves and most everyone at some point in their lives can come up with a pretty good list of things they would like to change about others, but if you live your life long enough, you will learn pretty quickly that you cannot change others, no matter how much you think you love them and/or how much you think they love you.

There have been times in my life when I have convinced myself that I could love, encourage, inspire, educate and motivate others to change to be their best self and live their best life, only to eventually come to the realization that the only thing that can change another person is themselves.

If a person does not want to change, then they won’t, it is as simple as that. There is nothing you can do to change someone else, so stop trying to fix everyone else and work on yourself, because we all have enough of our own stuff to deal with.

If you don’t like or love someone the way they are, then that is your problem, even if they are wrong and even if they are cheating or hurting themselves, because their life is their life to decide for themselves. You do not have the right to change anyone else, just like no one else has the right to change you.

Think about it for a moment: God has the ability to change anything and anyone He wants to, but He does not do it. Instead, He gives us time and space to learn and grow through the ups, downs and sideways of life. If and when we are ready to make a change, then God is ready to empower us to do what we need to do, to live the better life we were created for.

“Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” -Ephesians 4:22-24

Stop blaming others and quit getting caught up in the delusion that you can fix others. If you are honest with yourself, you have to admit what a hard time you have fixing yourself. In fact, take your eyes off of others and give your life and living a hard and honest look. Determine what you need to change, decide what you can do about it and get to work.

It is true that we can’t change anyone else, but we can change ourselves and the change in our lives can serve as motivation for others to think about changing themselves too…