I heard the song “Love Never Fails” by Brandon Heath and instantly loved it. Below are the words of his song. I hope you love is just as much.

Love Never Fails

Love is not proud..Love does not boast..Love after all matters the most..Love does not run..Love does not hide..Love does not keep locked inside..Love is the river that flows through..Love never fails you. Love will sustain..Love will provide..Love will not cease at the end of time..Love will protect..Love always hopes..Love still believes when you don’t.. Love is the arms that are holding you..Love never fails you. When my heart won’t make a sound..When I can’t turn back around..When the sky is falling down nothing is greater than this. Love is right here..Love is alive..Love is the Way the Truth the Life. Love is the river that flows through..Love is the arms that are holding you..Love is the place you will fly to..Love never fails you.

1 Cor 13:13 – Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully know. And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

God Bless You and have a great week……

Life comes at us. Its relentless at times. Fast and furious at times and what we all share in common is the way we deal with it and its victories and defeats. Some people do pretty good at, others utterly fail at it. Still others turn to alcohol and drugs to numb themselves to it. Some try self-help books and others the newest book on human psychology. So is there an answer? Each one of us has to find their own way. The way I chose is Jesus. In the Bible Jesus says, “I am the Way……” I have found many answers, much inspiration, purpose and meaning in trusting Jesus with my life in this increasingly crazy world we live in. It isn’t magic and it doesn’t happen over night. Its a long journey in which I am still traveling as I write these words. I think differently, see differently and feel differently since I began this journey. I make it a point to pursue Jesus everyday through learning about who he is and what he is about. I just keep trusting him with my days (which is hard for me because I am a control freak) and just trying to let go, Below are some of the books that I truly believe in.

The Holy Bible

One Way Love by Tullian Tchividjian

Faith That Matters by Fredrick Buechner and others

Have a great week and remember there can by Joy in the Journey….Find your way. God Bless you.

Our faith does not demand us to be perfect. We are going to make mistakes, say the wrong things at times, do the wrong things at times, etc. Of course it would be better for us if we listened to what Jesus is encouraging us to say and do because it will make our lives better. It will make us better and give us hope and a future. What God really wants from us is our hearts. He wants us to have faith, to believe in him and his word. He wants us to trust him. To be still and know that he is God. To be the branch on the vine. To stay attached. There were a lot of ‘Bad Boys’ in the Bible that Jesus used to do great things. And I think the more one grows closer to Jesus the less ‘sinning’ he probably does. But we will never be perfect and there is no condemnation in Jesus. He is all good. People just put words in his mouth and say things that are not true and all of the sudden people get negative attitudes towards him. Like I said before, we need to just have faith and believe. Personally, he is everything to me.

God Bless you and have a great week.

You read the Bible and what is clear is that Jesus (The Word) spends a lot of time talking about our need for redemption, forgiveness, grace and unconditional love. It appears to me that the word of God would not be addressing this so much if there wasn’t a great need for it. Stop and think, the fact that Jesus would die on the cross to redeem us is over and over telling us through his word in the Bible that we have a great need for this redemption. We are broken, plain and simple. I used to think we were all born good and some of us went down the wrong road and messed up our lives. Now I am more and more sure that we are born broken, sinners, and through Jesus Christ can redeem our lives. I know a lot of people who don’t believe this and I find it hard to believe also……but I am afraid it is true. This is not a condemnation, its a warning that only through Christ can we truly find truth and redemption.

John 14:6 – I am the way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

God Bless You and have a great week.

One of the greatest and well known scriptures in the Bible is 1Corinthians 13. Verses 4-7 goes as follows, “Love is patient; Love is kind; Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth…..” So if we can be patient, kind, and not envious or boastful or arrogant etc., then God will find our actions Godly. Writer Dallas Willard has a little bit different idea on what’s being said here, Willard feels that what is being said is “that it is Love that does these things, not us, and that what we are to do is to ‘purse love’. As we ‘catch’ love, we then find that these things are after all actually being done by us. These things, these Godly actions are the result of dwelling in Love”. Thus we become these admirable traits or behaviors.

Thank you Dallas Willard for once again shedding new light on centuries old writings—-The Holy Scriptures. They are the writings that just keep on giving. Amen

God Bless You and I hope we all “catch” some love this week.

Success is never final, failure is never fatal, its courage that counts.

So what is courage?

Rudyard Kipling writes that courage is “filling the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run”.

Henri J.M. Nouwen writes “the word courage comes from the latin word ‘cor’ , which means ‘heart’. Heart in this instance refers the center of your being, the center of all thoughts, feelings, passions and decisions”. Thus a courageous life is a life lived from the center. In the Bible scripture from 1corinthians 16:13 tells us to “Be on our guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.

We are all somebody. We all have a purpose. We all need to believe that we count. We need to have hope. That God has plans for us. God does not throw away anybody. We need to be courageous and stand by God’s word in the Bible that encourages us to live the life that God has chosen for us.

Be Strong and Courageous this week as you begin this new year……God Bless you.

Christian writer Max Lucado put the importance of Christmas in perspective when he wrote the following words……”when it comes to goodies and candy, rosy cheeks and red noses, go to the North Pole. But when it comes to eternity…Forgiveness…Purpose…And Truth…go to the manger, kneel with the shepherds and worship the God who dared to do what man dared not dream. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb…God became man…the Creator of Life was created. AMEN

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS YOU ONE AND ALL.

What are teenagers like? What drives them. I was one once long ago. I think we all are trying to find ourselves in these years, looking for our identity. Teens are kinda wild and crazy. Quiet sometimes, rebellious at other times. But I think, like myself, we are looking for “who are we?”. And you know what, as an older adult I feel like I’m still looking. However, since I have found Jesus I think I have found my identity. It’s in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I have much more peace and understanding of myself and the world around me through my relationship with Jesus. He has opened my eyes to who I really am and what the world is really like. I feel at peace now. But I have much more ahead of me. I am not finished or do I have all the answers. Everyday can be a beautiful mystery if I will only “be still and know that Jesus is God”. That’s what I want to do and that’s who I want to follow.

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future.

We all want good outcomes to the things that we do or say. Even when our behavior is poor or we do or say something dumb, we hope for a good outcome. We want to do what we want and then have a good outcome. We get upset when we don’t get that outcome. Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. The Nike slogan “Just Do It” doesn’t always lead to a good outcome. You can’t go through life “just doing it”. There are consequences to our actions. So where do we turn for advice or help to direct our paths? We might try the Holy Bible. Think of the Bible as an instruction manual for living. God created us and has given us the Bible to help us make good choices and decisions in life which leads us to good outcomes. Obviously you would not use a car manual to fix your washing machine. In this respect it is probable not as wise to go to the thousands of self help books for your problems when you have the greatest book every written…….the Holy Bible. Try it, you might like it.

Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

God Bless You and have a great week……..

I believe that we all are searching at some point in our life for something better. We are like a computer that searches…..searches….searches…..for information. Often it comes up blank and we are frustrated. That’s how life is. We are never really satisfied. Always we are looking for something better. Something that will fulfill us. Something that will indeed satisfy us. But we search in the wrong places and feel lacking. I believe we should turn to God to fulfill our yearnings. I believe we were created by God and He and only He knows what we are searching for. It amazes me that so many people who feel unfulfilled don’t give God a chance. Its the last place they look. Its crazy to think that when we are down and feeling empty that we don’t turn to the Creator of Heaven and Earth. The Great I Am. Give Him a chance. Talk to Him(prayer), read some scripture from the New Testament in the Bible. Its surely a better idea than the temporary escapes common to us like stuff, money, drugs, alcohol, etc……GIVE HIM A CHANCE!

Matthew 7:7-8….Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks it will be opened.

God Bless You and have a great week.