Take the kids along...

Many parents struggle with how to teach their children about God, truth, morality, and how to be selflessly Christ-like. Raising kids is a difficult challenge today with the pervasive influence of a “worldly” culture.

I remember a friend I had in elementary and Jr. High, who lost his faith. He had gone to church each week. He even went to a "Christian" school through the 8th grade. By the time he was in high school, he was smoking pot, getting drunk, watching porn and sleeping with his girl friend. What happened?

I remember a sticker on the refrigerator at his house that said, "Families that pray together stay together." They prayed together, but didn’t stay together. His parents had trouble in their marriage. They had tried "family devotions" and “family prayer time,” but studying the Bible doesn't help if you wont obey it.

His dad got caught cheating and the parents split up. His mom quit going to church and had a live-in boyfriend. His parents still sent my friend to church and Christian school, but they did not go themselves. They didn’t live out the Christian life.

He watched whatever he wanted on cable, looked at Playboys found under his dad’s bed in boxes. His dad had alcohol in the fridge, which my friend tried when his dad was gone. His dad was constantly bringing home various women for the night. My friend’s parents told him not to smoke, drink, or commit fornication, but they didn’t abide by those rules themselves. All the family devotions and family prayer time in the world will not teach a kid to do the right thing when he is getting a different much stronger lesson from his parent’s example.

In contrast, I didn’t go to a Christian school. My dad didn’t have organized family devotions with me. He never forced me to go read the Bible each day. We didn’t have a set prayer time each day. We didn’t have a rigorous Bible study schedule. We never gathered the family together for prayer time. He never “preached” at me at home about serving others, visiting the sick, having a prayer time, or studying the Bible. So how did I learn to love all those things?

How did I learn to pray? How did I learn to trust in God? How did I learn to serve others? How did I learn the Bible stories inside and out? Where did I get this love for the truth and hunger for the Word of God? I’ll tell you where I got it from… My father’s example and the examples of other sincere believers I was influenced by from our church.

I would come home from playing outside with my friends and guess where I would find my father. He would be studying God’s Word. Most kids came home to find dad asleep in the easy chair in front of the TV. Not me! I would find him asleep at his desk with the Bible in his hands and a yellow legal note pad next to it with notes scribbled about what he had learned. He constantly studied and meditated on God’s Word.

And he would discuss the Bible with me. Even when I was very young, he included me in conversations about the Bible and asked my opinion. He taught me to meditate on a subject and critically think about it. He taught me to challenge his ideas and take a fresh look at what the Bible teaches to be sure what I was taught was right.

He would even allow himself to be taught by me at times. I was a mere boy, but he would change his view if I was right (This was very rare! It was always a difficult thing to move him from a long held belief, but, he would admit he was wrong and change his view if I had logical Biblical evidence.) He taught me to be a thinker, a student, and a teacher by including me in the conversation.

I remember going out to eat with some famous preacher or Bible College professor that was visiting our church or visiting my dad. He would include me in the conversation if they were discussing some finer point of doctrine. I was encouraged to meditate and debate to sharpen my own point of view. I remember at 9 or 10 years old, he would give me a paper and pencil and tell me that I would get a reward, if I would listen to his sermon and write down his outline point for point. I remember how he would praise me and how good I felt when I could recite the outline to him as we drove to lunch after church. It was like I had hit a home run or made a touch down in his eyes.

Much of my learning happened in the car. In modern times, we do a lot of driving. As we drove, we would talk about the Bible, listen to sermons on tape, or sing. I have cherished memories of riding along in some big old 1970’s tank of a car singing praises to God with my dad. He didn’t sit me down like it was a school class room to teach me about Jesus. It was a journey and he invited me along for the ride. Sometimes, I miss those days of being discipled by dad. Jesus didn’t say to the twelve apostles, “Come sit down in my lecture hall.” He said, “Come, follow me!”

I learned by following my dad’s life. I would walk in his bedroom to say good night and find him praying. Once he told me, “I fall asleep each night praying and wake up the next morning praying.” Sure, we would pray before meals together, but prayer for dad was always something mostly personal. Today, I am a prayer, because of his example.

He took me with him calling on visitors, going to the nursing homes, or even visiting people in the hospital. I knew how to do a hospital call long before Bible College because dad took me along. I learned lessons about how you don’t stay too long in a room with someone or they will wish you had not come because they need privacy and rest. “Never stay over 10 to 15 minutes unless asked to,” he would casually say. I didn’t even realize that I was being trained. I was just hanging out with dad.

I learned about benevolence from watching him help people through the years. I saw him give to those in need and give money to people secretly who were in financial trouble. I learned to give 10% of my allowance to the offering just like he gave 10% of what he received to God. He didn’t ask me to do anything he wasn’t doing. In fact, he just taught me to do what he did. There was no contradiction between what I was taught and what he did.

When I was older, I heard a sermon on tape that my Dad preached about parenting years before. He said that when he would parent, he tried to follow a principle he learned from the Old Testament. God didn’t command them to teach in a “family devotions” or a set time of teaching. They were to teach during the every day things of life.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." And again Deuteronomy 11:19 says, "Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

I realize now, that is how my father taught me. We talked sitting at home, as we drove down the highway, as he put me to bed by telling me Bible stories as a little boy, or when we got up and talked about the beauty of God’s creation. I saw him walking-the-walk and following Jesus. I saw the devotion, the love, the truth, the way of Jesus in him. And I wanted it. It was the path of Jesus love. It was a path of personal sacrifice and dying to self. It was the path to eternal life. I saw all that in Dad and it enticed me to “Come, follow me!”

Psalm 78:5-7 says, “He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.”

I realize my responsibility to teach my children the path of God. My eight year old daughter sits and tries to write out my sermon outline to get a reward. My son loves to hear Bible stories at night. I prayed with them and for them and now they pray for me. I didn’t teach the mindless memorized rhyming prayers. I taught them to have a conversation with God. They have heard me do it. Their prayers are simple, direct, and heartfelt, as they should be. Now they instinctively pray on their own for friends, family and fears. When a strong thunderstorm rolled through, my daughter said, “Daddy, I prayed for God to protect us.” She was not forced to. She learned that by example.

They both have been to the nursing home and hospital with me to visit, encourage and pray for the sick. My daughter now goes with friends every Wednesday after school with a lady from our church. She is a minister of God’s grace. I even have the children offer the prayer for people at the hospital.

I’ll never forget my son praying for Hank not long before he passed on and how Hank thanked Drake for the prayer almost in tears. Both kids invite their friends from school to come to church. They see me invite people and figured they should too. My children are learning to minister to others, not by class room lectures, but by following my example.

And that can be a scary thought, because I know my example isn’t perfect. I have to set an example in repentance and say" I am sorry" sometimes, too. Even people with a sinful pasts can repent and set an example to their children of how Jesus changes lives. The Apostles Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:16, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”

Your example is your most powerful lesson. Words are important, but they had better match what you do. Hypocrisy destroys your ability to teach. Titus 2:7 says, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness.” Our example and teach must match up. That is integrity.

Jesus came to set for us a perfect example. We learn about character, endurance, and holiness through him. 1 Peter 2:21 says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” Jesus said after being a servant to the disciples in John 13:15, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

The Bible teaches us in 1 Timothy 4:12 to, “…set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” Are you doing that for your Children? Are you setting an example worthy of following? Are you following the ultimate example of Christ? Are you sending them to church, VBS, camp or a Christian School to learn values you don’t follow yourself? Do they see the life of Christ lived out in you daily?

Could you say to your child what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1? “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Or Philippians 3:17, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.” Or 2 Thessalonians 3:7 “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example.”

Don’t lecture your kids or force them into boring “family devotions” or forced prayer times. Set an example. Walk the walk of love and take them along on the journey. Soon, they will want to walk it on their own. I know I did.

Is any one of you sick?

Most Christians expect the preacher to come pray with them before surgery or when in the hospital. However, the Bible teaches us to call the elders when we are sick and desire to be prayed over.

James 5:14 says, “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him.”

Notice also, it is the responsibility of the Christian to ask the Elders to come pray for them. Elders don't have ESP to know when anyone is sick and in need of prayer. If you don't ask them to come, don't be mad if they don't.

Also, I believe it's not just Elders responsibility. A church may not have elders yet, or may not have enough to cover the number of needs in the community. We should all be visiting the sick. It's not some paid preacher’s job. We all should be ministering to each other. (see Ephesians 4:11-16)

It’s our privilege to show them love. When we do, we are serving Jesus himself. What we do to the least of these, we do to Jesus. What an honor to serve Jesus! I thank God I get to serve him in his hour of need and visit him when he is sick.

Matthew 25:41-46 "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick or in prison and you did not look after me.’ "They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ "He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

What if we focused on who we were praying for ourselves rather than expecting the preacher to do it all? What if churches had members who realized we are all to be ministers and went to the sick on their own? What if our churches reached out to hospices and hospitals? What if we witnessed and prayed with AIDS patients and cancer victims? What if we went to the sick with the good news and love of Jesus as the whole body of Christ? What if we obeyed what Jesus taught? What would happen?

How to be righteous (Romans 3)

Romans 3:10-18 “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Oh the dilemma! God is a just God who demands justice. How then will we be saved when “no on is righteous” and when “all have turned away?” Everyone is accountable to God. No one has a good defense. We are ALL guilty before him.

Romans 3:19-20 says, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

None of us will be declared righteous because we kept the Law or observed it. What good was the Law then? Why do we bother reading it? I though all scripture was useful for teaching, rebuking and correcting in righteousness? Well, it is but the Law doesn’t save us. It merely makes us conscious of what sin is and isn’t’. It shows us our need for a righteousness that comes apart from the Law, which saves no one.

Romans 3:21-24 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Praise God! He has provided another way to righteousness. It doesn’t involve perfectly keeping God’s law. It’s a righteousness that comes by faith. We all have done wrong. But by faith he redeems us or buys us back from sin and death. He paid for our souls with the death of Jesus on the Cross.

Romans 3:25-28 “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”

God didn’t just forgive us our sins. He paid the debt. His grace and love made him go to the cross for us but so did his justice and wrath. It’s a paradox. How can God be both just and merciful, vengeful and graceful, giving what is deserved and not giving what is deserved? He did it in the cross! He is just and the one who justifies. Praise God nothing is too hard for Him! So we can’t boast about how good we have been. We can’t proudly say we were saved on our own power. We all must repent. We all must confess the truth of who he is. We all must humbly admit that it is only by the grace of Jesus we have overcome sin and death. We must die to sin and be buried with him in baptism and then be raised to live a new life. Now we learn to live transformed lives that die to sin by the power of his death and resurrection.

We are NOT saved by obeying the law but we are saved by our faith in what Jesus did on the cross. And in this salvation we find the power to be transformed and in the grace of Christ fulfill the law and prophets.

To learn the core message of Christianity click here!

What is the ONE HOPE? Click here

Surrounded by what could give life

One of the many who died climbing Mt. Everest on May 11th, 1996 was Andy Harris, one of the expedition leaders. He reached the peak, but he stayed past the deadline and on his descent, he was in need of oxygen.

Harris radioed base camp, alerting them to the crisis. He told them that he saw all kinds of empty air canisters in the snow around him.

Those who had already made their descent knew that the canisters were NOT empty, some were nearly full. The climbers dropped them since they didn’t need the oxygen and the canisters were just extra weight as they came down the mountain.

With his mind starved for oxygen, Harris mistakenly assumed the canisters to be useless. Regretfully, Harris died surrounded by the oxygen he needed as he heroically tried to go back up the mountin and save another climber, Rob Hall. Andy died surrounded by what could give him life.

Jesus said in John 6:63, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”

Bibles are everywhere. The Bible is the number one best seller of all time. Most homes in America have multiple copies. You can purchase them for very little money. Dozens of organizations give them out for free. There is a copy in every hotel room. They have them in prisons, libraries, and book stores. We are surrounded by the Word of God which gives life.

Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.”

Andy Harris didn’t realize the canisters all around him contained the life giving oxygen he needed. Similarly, millions today do not realize the Bible contains the life giving Word of Christ which produces saving faith in our hearts. Their minds are clouded with unbelief. Sadly many in America today die unsaved while surrounded by what could give them life, the Word of Christ.

Tell someone today how Jesus loves them, died on the cross to forgive them, and longs to have a relationship with them.

Learn more about the power of the Scriptures by clicking here.

Postitive and Negative

In order for a car to run, it has to have a battery. The battery has a positive and negative coupling which allows the power of the battery to be used. The negative coupling goes to the frame of the car to ground out the battery. If only the negative is connected the battery will not work and the car will not start. There is no power in just the negative.

If only the positive is connected, the battery will not work and the care will not start. It needs grounded. There is not power in just the positive. You need both the positive and negative sides for the power to be released.

In the same way, we need to understand both the positive and negative side of the Bible's teaching. If all we preach is negative, then we won't know of the love of God who sent his son to die for us and offer us forgiveness and eternal life. If we only preach the positive, we will not recognize the sins which separate us from God nor our need for repentance or grace.

Before a doctor can get a woman with cancer to take the extreme step of having her breast removed, first he must diagnose cancer of the breast and prove she needs to have this procedure. But if the doctor only tells her she has cancer and never gives her a prescription to remove the cancer, she will know she is sick but not ever do what she needs to remove the cancer.

A doctor must give diagnosis and prescription so a person understands where they are sick and receives the appropriate treatment to heal them.

Likewise, if all we do is preach against sin but never give them the hope of the good news of Jesus, they will become despondent and unrepentant. If we only tell them of the grace of God without ever preaching against sin, they will assume they are forgiven without repenting of the sin, which is required to be forgiven. (see Luke 13:3-5).

So, like a battery, we must have both a negative and positive side to preaching. When we preach against sin and about how God forgives us when we repent and turn to him in faith, then the power of the full message of Christ will lead people to repentance.

People who do not think they are sinners’ will not repent nor be thankful. People, who don't think God loves them or that he cares, will never put their faith in Him. We must preach against sin and preach how Jesus loved us and provided a way to overcome our sins.

If they don't understand the bad news, they won’t think they need the good news. If they don't hear the good news, they will give up because they think they can't make it to heaven or arrogantly try to earn their way by being good, which is impossible. We need to preach all of the Word of God, which contains bad news about sin and death and good news about how Jesus provides salvation from it.

Click here to read more about fearing God.

Click here to read about the importance of the Word of God.

Click here to read about how the Loving thing is sometimes the painful thing.

Environmental wackos Don't Value Human Life

The Bible teaches that the world was created for our use. God made it for the purpose of being inhabited by man (Isaiah 45:18). Man is to work the earth and protect it (Genesis 2:15). He is to subdue it (Genesis 1:28) and cultivate it like a Garden. The Biblical view of environmentalism is one of stewardship. The Earth belongs to God (Psalm 24:1) and we should take care of it stewards placed in charge of caring for it. The Bible teaches that animals are for our use and food (Genesis 9:3) but we are to care for them (Proverbs 12:10) and consider their needs (Deuteronomy 25:4). Like an animal, we care for the earth, are to be kind to it, but also harness it and use its resources to live, work, eat and produce (Genesis 3:23). The world is a garden which needs tended and guarded not a perfect habitat to not be destroyed with our presence or inhabitation.

Rather than a productive environmental policy that encourages land management and use, people today wish to banish man because of sinful excess and the lack of stewardship of our resources in the past. Because of the greed of some and lack of good stewardship of the earth of others, the excuse is found to say man shouldn't inhabit the earth. This extreme eviromentalism is exaggerated with psudo-scientific theories based on ideology not science. So they run from one extreme of pollution and ecological abuse to a total hands off policy which makes our economy and present way of life unsustainable. They wish to destroy all mechanization and technology which they believe will destroy the planet. They hope to destroy our way of life. Some wish to destory the majority of human life on earth.

Environmental wackos today believe we have no soul and we are but one more type of animal and no better than other animals. Therefore, they have no special regard for human life. Why should they? To kill a human is no different than killing a tree or animal. In fact, because humans live off the resources of the earth, they should be exterminated or the human population should be drastically lowered (people killed) to save the trees and animals.

The Following quotes documented in The New World Religion by Gary H. Kah, clearly illustrate that modern leaders in the environmental movement place no value on human life at all!

"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels." -Prince Philip (Duke of Edinburgh, leader of The World Wildlife Fund" and father of Prince Charles)

"I got the impression that instead of going out to shoot birds, I should go out and shoot the kids who shoot birds." -Paul Watson (founder of Greenpeace).

The world has cancer, and that cancer is man." -Merton Lambert, (former spokesman for the Rockefeller Foundation).

"We, in the green movement, aspire to a cultural model in which killing a forest will be considered more contemptible and more criminal than the sale of 6-year-old children to Asian brothels. " -Carl Amery (German Greens).

"The human race could go extinct, and I for one, would not shed any tears." -Dave Foreman (founder of Earth First!).

"A Total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal." -Ted Turner (media mogul and United Nations advocate).

The first task is population control at home. How do we go about it? ...some sort of compulsory birth regulation would be necessary to achieve such control. One plan - the addition of temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size." -Paul Ehrlich (population control advocate, author of The Population Bomb).

"Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. ...All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing." -David Brower (first executive director of the Sierra Club; founder of Friends of the Earth; and founder of the Earth Island Institute).

"Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?" -Maurice Strong (U.N. environmental leader).

Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau was quoted in the UNESCO Courier in November 1991, “The damage people cause to the planet is a function of demographics-it is equal to the degree of development. One American burdens the earth much more than twenty Bangladeshes... This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it's just as bad not to say it.” (“The Population Controllers,” New American Magazine, 6/27/94, p. 7)

Find out what Al Gore believes: Click Here

How did I get here?

Ever wonder how you got to where you are? I have. Sometimes it seems I have lived many lives. I know I have only lived one, but I and my circumstances have so changed, it seems like many. Who am I to that scrawny 2nd grade latch key boy who ran wild, stole from the drug store, smoked cigarettes and set the new neighbors yard on fire.

Some of my lives came to an abrupt stop with a dramatic change in my life, such as my parents divorce and my mother moving my 500 miles away from my home. It seems other times my various stages of life bled together so that there was a metamorphosis from one to the other rather than an abrupt change.

I try now to plan my life according to God's will. Though I didn't always and stuggle to sometimes even now. Click on the picture above to learn more about that. However, I know this. I am not the same person I was all those years ago. A small few, who have stayed with me the second half of my journey, see it less due to the slow change at some points. Others, who knew me well but dropped out of my life for some time and then drop back in notice it most and mention to me how I have changed.

One thing has not changed. God is guiding my life. Even when I was not his, I felt his pull and as I look back I see his handy work. I would guess that God is calling all mankind in such a way. He is baiting and tugging, pulling and caressing, beckoning and enticing who so ever will, may come. That is why men will be without excuse on the day of judgment and speechless.

As for me I answered the call and started my journey. I was called by grace, stand on mercy, and walk in his love. And as I work out my salvation with fear and trembling, I have stumbled in many ways. I do not even have the right to be his servant, except I have been bought back and redeemed. I am the chief of sinners but in his wisdom he has placed me where he has placed me. I would guess, to show the exceeding riches of his grace and the awesome power of his death on the cross to save even the proudest of men.

I often come close to drowning in a sea of self-pity and my own doubts (or those which flood me from Satan himself) but I am kept aloft by the promise of his Word which cannot be broken nor shaken.

And so I would say I got here by God’s grace which was poured out on my through my faith. I know he was working on me while I was yet a sinner. My guess is he works on everyone the same way. He does not play favorites. So we all have the same chance (Though our chances come in different forms and various means.) To those who are blessed to know him young, they are cursed to carry their cross longer. To those who are cursed to know him only late in life, they are blessed with a short walk with the cross on their back in this weary world. To those whom much is given, much is required. To those who little is given, less is required.

Many who are first to believe in God and brought up in good homes become proud and haughty, thinking they are better than “wicked sinners” and end up being faithless conceited hypocrites who think they earn their way to heaven. And some who were last to believe and brought up to hate God and all that is good, see the evil they have done and in fear turn to the mercy of God which is the only hope for any of us. Ah, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

But God sees it all from beginning to end. He sees the start to finish. He made it and he owns it. He gave us free will. He bound himself to his own doings, for he will not lie. It’s not in his nature, and in that way, he can’t do it. Many ask if God can make a rock so big he can’t pick it up. Why make up such a paradox when you have the real one in front of you. He can do anything but He can’t lie.

But that is not to say he doesn’t hold our destiny in his very hand. Remember, he knows all and sees all from beginning to end. Don’t you think he was wise enough to right the rules in such a way as to him winning in the end? Don’t you think he was wise enough to leave a gaping loophole of grace for the sincere heart to jump through in faith?

It’s no wonder we can’t see him face to face with all we have done. It’s no wonder he doesn’t answer us with audible words. Not with how wicked we have been. Not when each of us has violated our conscience and brought death to our selves and others. We are all collectively guilty for the death in the world and the curse on creation. It’s no wonder he has prepared Hell for Satan and all who have joined in his deadly rebellion.

The wonder is that he loves us so to send his Son to die for us. The wonder is that he left us any Word at all much less 66 books declaring his will. The wonder is that he died for us while we were yet sinners. The wonder is that though we are still not perfect, because of our faith he is constantly working on us and improving us. The wonder is that His very spirit lives within us. The wonder is that, weak as we are, he chooses to use us to display his majesty, grace and love. The wonder is that we will see him face to face and dwell with him eternally as our God, King, Father, Husband and Friend.

I know how I got to where I am. God has been there in the dark keeping me from falling into deep chasms I couldn’t see. He has carried me through the sickness of my own lust and anger. He has raised me when I was dead in my sins. He has disciplined me many times over for sins I keep committing until I stop. He has taught me hard lessons. He protected me from sin and hell by allowing me to suffer short temporary pains of earth to escape the eternal pain of Hell. He has forgiven me twice time’s infinity. And He has welcomed me into an everlasting kingdom of his grace and love.

Click on the picture above to read about how to make plans in your life.