What does the Bible say about us deserving to be happy?  

Happiness is often a temporary illusion. It’s a feeling. It fades quickly.   

If we are joyful, we are fully loved, fully cared for and fully redeemed.   

Proverbs 14:12 NIV / 2 Timothy 3:12-13 NLT  

#Jesus  #JesusChrist  #FirstFriday  #God  #Christian  #ChristianLife  #Love  #Truth  #FFFellowship  #Fellowship

When we live a life that is focused on all the things of this world; We create a separation between us and our God. When we separate ourselves from God, we turn off the flow of wisdom that comes directly from Him.

Wisdom is the treasure that we should pursue.

If we seek HIS wisdom, then the true riches of this life, and the life to come, will follow closely behind.

If you follow Him, and you love Him, and you bend your knee to Him in those darkest moments, when things seem their bleakest, THAT’S when He shows up. THAT’S when He reveals Himself.  

When we finally say, “I will come to you on Your terms, not on mine. I truly surrender all.”  

And that’s when we get to know, what GRACE really feels like.

We have this amazing tendency of taking all the credit, for all of the good things in our life.

But, God knows our inner-most thoughts, and He loves us enough to pull us into a truer, deeper and fundamentally more rewarding relationship with Him.

And do you want know how He does it?

Pain!

Pain is how He reaches AND teaches us.

Pain is the greatest teacher, and unfortunately, the more stubborn we are, the more pain we get the honor of experiencing.

If you are going through some stuff right now, if the pain is getting real, and you love the Lord and you are on your knees, know that He loves you, and that He is going to use these experiences, to teach us the deep truths about ourselves.

And I pray that whatever lessons that need to be learned, you or me, we get the opportunity to learn those lessons, quickly, and get through the pain fast.

AMEN!

Since the dawn of man, we have worshipped everything from the sun, to the moon, we have worshipped trees, weather and big statues made out of precious metals. Literally, we have made our own gods, and done everything, from bow to them, to sacrifice our children to them.  

We have a heart bent on worship but we seem to be addicted to worshipping everything, except the one, true God.   

Being a believer in Christ is a bit different.  

We’re not different because we are special.  

We are different, because HE is special.  

The work was done for us. 

Christ already paid the price. It is not possible for us to earn a place in His Kingdom.  

With Christ, it is about what He did.  

The grace that He gives is unwarranted, undeserved, YET, it is available to everyone.  

And when we are saved, God moves into our heart, and amazingly, we change and begin to choose to live a life that glorifies Him; Not to earn our place with Him, but to show our gratitude for the price He paid for us.  

Until next time.   

#Jesus #Christ #Christianity

For many of us that will listen to this, the world would call us believers; People who firmly believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is.  

Somewhere along the way, someone shared the story of Jesus, whether that was a minister or a parent, a close friend, or a perfect stranger… We were told about Jesus; We were told about His birth, His life, His death and His resurrection.   

We were told that He came here for us. That He came here because He loves us, and He came here to save us.  

The facts around the story of Christ, His life and His resurrection, are virtually unassailable. But, none of it matters at all, if the story never would have reached our ears.  

The reason we can have these discussions, and debate whether or not Christ was who He said He was, is because somewhere along the way, we have been told the story of Him.  

It is not enough to believe and keep it to ourselves.   

Jesus is the antidote to eternal death.   

He is the cure for the poison of sin.   

And to keep this cure to ourselves, while we watch others die, is not possible, particularly, if we love them.

We’ve all heard of the phrase, “The writing is on the wall?”  

Being able to read the writing on the wall has come to mean understanding the signs of the times; Seeing things before they happen.   

Can we see the traps that are beginning to ensnare us?  

Everyone of us will face death. We all will be judged, and only Jesus will be found worthy.  

He has told us, that He will stand in for us on that day of judgement, if we are only willing to repent, claim Him as Lord, and bow to His throne, alone.  

For me personally, I have read the writing on the wall.  

I know Jesus is King, and I bow at His throne alone.  

Until next time.

Our faith in a Sovereign God, a God that has our best interests in mind, diminishes, our hope for a future outside of this world also diminishes, as we begin to fearfully hold on more and more to this life, and believe less and less in the life to come.

To walk in faith is to know that the master of life and death, the King of this world and the world to come, loves us, watches over us and has a plan and purpose for our lives.  

We, as believers, are called to model this to those around us that may not believe.  

If our faith in Him is real, then it will be easy to see in how we live.  

I wish each and every one of you, watching or listening to this, a long and healthy life, full of purpose and faith.  

I pray each and every one of you, live fearless in the knowledge that God has us all.

And when our time is over, He has a place prepared for each and every one of you.  

Live in Faith… until next time!

We have all seen the movies where the ancient peoples of this earth would build golden calves, half men half animals, golden demon gods, etc… and they would worship them, make sacrifices to them and pray to them.

We’ve all seen that. But, we don’t that anymore… do we?

This particular little sin, might just be the biggest thing we battle against in our culture today.

What is idolatry, really?

Idolatry is in creating a god, in an image that we're comfortable with.

Today’s Idolatry says: “We define you God. You don’t define us.”

It says that the Bible is good, but it has to change with the times.

Today, idolatry is really about making God in OUR image.

It is making a god that we are comfortable with.

If we can create God in an image that we are comfortable with, then, we can live with that god.

That god won’t put any demands on us, that we are not already more than willing to fulfill.

That god works for us.

But, the God of the Bible? The God who revealed Himself to us over 5,000 years? The God who sent His son to die for us?

That God has already told us who He is. He's already told us, what He expects of us.

We have no right to redefine Him.

He created us.

If we look at God as the creator of all, then we bow our knee, and we accept what he says.

But, if God nothing more than melted gold, that we can mold into whatever we want, well then, THAT god, will do what we say.

Idolatry, says that our culture defines right from wrong; That our culture, our comfort zones and our language define what’s good and bad.

And we will make a god that supports that.

And that’s sin.

Until next time.

When you wake up and realize that everything you believed about something has been a lie or is false, the incredible toll on your psyche is a concept in social psychology called Cognitive Dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance occurs when our behavior is in direct conflict with our deep seated beliefs.

As we challenge our beliefs, as we look to life, and try to determine what is true and what is not, when we do this absent God and absent God‘s word, we can end up anywhere.

Oftentimes, these very events, can actually put your life on course. These very events, can lead you to ask the hard questions.

If those hard questions take you to a scripture like John 3:16, and all you read is… “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, should not perish, but she’ll have eternal life.”… and if that’s a new beginning of a new journey for you, then I promise you this: That those words in that book, talking about the man Jesus, God incarnate Jesus, if you believe in that, He will never let you down.