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!