God bringing a family together......

Everyone throws out the common saying, "You can't pick your family."  This is very true, however, as we all know family is not always the easiest to deal with.  Bitter rivalries, dissension, back stabbing, and many other issues arise throughout the course of a familys' story.  Not everything is lost though.  A storm may be overhead, but God is always there to bring together what no man can.  From simple issues and distance, to major times of hurt and grief, God is the only power I have seen that can bring a family to church and heal the wounds of battle. 

Tonight I sat in church looking down the phew and thanking the Big Man upstairs for the courage to ask my in-laws to come to church with us.  By my words I hope you can tell that they accepted.  Tonight the sermon ended on the topic of relationships, with an emphasis on strength and healing.  I listened to every word and hoped that everyone in our row was hearing the same thing and taking in every word as God spoke masterfully through our Worship Pastor.  I find it hard right now to recreate the feeling in my writing that I got as I listened to the cascade of strength, conviction, and grace that God brought forth tonight.  Whether it be the body of the family or the body of the church, God has the strength for us all if we can work as one.  The message in this one is to lift one another up. 

Being Challenged by Fellow Christians

Today was an incredible day because God laid it upon my heart to be challenged by other Christians.  In the past whenever someone challenged me in life I was offended because it made me feel inferior.  How easy it is to fall into that trap of the inferiority complex.  I was a slave to it for many years.  Today I read in the bible how important it is to be transparent with other Christians so that sin has no place to hide.  Get that sin out in the open so that others may help you flee from sin. 

For a while I lived in the shadows of life thinking I was a perfectly average person living life the way I wanted.   While all of this may be true, I was sadly mistaken.  All of these things were true in the eye of the world, and as we know all too well the world can be a harsh and cold place.  Growing u I had an incredible youth pastor who challenged me constantly to grow closer to God and have more of a relationship with Him. Now 15 years later I am blessed with his voice in the back of my mind and all of the incredible advice that God spoke through him.  Now I come to my point in all this; be challenged by other Christians so that you grow in God and always follow the path to righteousness.  I wish I had a long time ago!  I am glad I have finally arrived.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Life brings such crazy trials our way, and yet God sees fit to bring us through them.  Although we don't always come out unscathed we definitely learn from the experience.  This past week I thought for sure that I had a pretty serious disease.  My prognosis was something far from anything serious.  However, through my microcosm of an ordeal I was able to find a greater strength in God's word.

For the longest time I felt as if I was a christian, but I was just an actor showing up to church events and going home afterward.  I longed to feel engaged by God and have that fire that I saw in everyone else.  I also wanted to hit that incredible plateau where I found God's purpose for me.  God truly has incredible timing.  This last week I found what God had meant for me for so long.  My light at the end of the tunnel is finally in sight!

The Remains of The Day

Often I find that the hardest part of the day is the end.  Through the hussle and bussle of daily activities I have survived to face the unknown of tomorrow.  The only thing that gets me through this time is my wife, the thought of my sleeping kids, and a merciful God right next to me.  To say I am a worry wart is an understatement, one my wife can attest to.  Humility and perseverance come to mind. 

The story of today is Job, from the bible.  Job's story amazes me because he had to endure such hardship at the hand of the devil.  Yet through loosing all of his wordly possessions, his children killed, and ravaged by disease, Job still thanks God in the face of adversity.  When asked by his wife as to why Job maintains his faith in a God that would let all this happen.  Job responds by calling her a foolish woman, and proceeds to ask her why should we accept only the good of God and not the bad?  We as people often expect so much from each other, and yet we never want any bad in return. 

Good message, yet kind of a weak post.  Stay tuned for follow ups coming soon.  God Bless!!!