I have always been a fan of the KISS Theory. KISS stands for “Keep It Simple Stupid”. So I will attempt to keep the following words as simple as possible. I believe in God and I believe Jesus is God. I believe He loves us unconditionally and gives us amazing grace and forgiveness throughout our lives…..no strings attached. He basically says “here it is, I am the Way and the Truth”. Now we have a choice to make. Do we believe him or not. So if this seems confusing, try to follow this idea. If you have a instruction manual for your washing machine it would not provide information on how your car works and vice versa. If I am trying to figure out why my car won’t run then I need to go to my car instruction manual. Well, guess what. Jesus provides us with an instruction manual on how to mange our lives. How to point our lives in the direction of purpose and meaning. Its called the Holy Bible. It contains all the answers on how to manage our lives. Lots and lots of answers to problems and otherwise that plague us throughout our lives. The washing machine manual and car manual and all the self help books in the world will not provide the answers to our questions about life like the Bible will. You turn to Bible and start re-thinking your life and its pretty much a guarantee that you will like what you hear and learn. Its up to you and nobody else.

What is God’s instruction? God gave us a path of righteousness to live by, and He showed us the right path to live and gave us the instructions to pass down to our children and the society that we live in . The instructions that God gave teaches mankind how to live right, treat others, how to love, forgive and what to do and not to do.

Following I will paraphrase a reading by author James Bryan Smith on acceptance. God’s acceptance of us is not based on any qualities that we have. Its a promise and therefore received by faith. We need to trust God’s promise that he accepts us not based on performance but just as we are…..no conditions attached. We are urged to make peace with our brokenness and flawed existence. Furthermore, may we have courage not to run when the voice of our condemning heart would tear us away from God. God’s acceptance of us as we are allows us to accept ourselves just as we are. I believe this and trusting God will help me to ‘accept that acceptance”.

Romans 8:34 – Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died— more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

The problems we face in America today with social justice is not about our country or flag. It is about us. America and our flag stand for “liberty and justice for all”. Our American Constitution was written for “liberty and justice for all”. The problem is that we the people are not living up to these ideals. America is “one nation under God, indivisible….” We need to quit burning the flag that stands for the ideals that we want. We have dropped the ball. We need to embrace our country’s values instead of hating them or wanting to change them. We need to mend the divide. We need to quit hating. We need to fly the flag like we mean it and turn our eyes toward God. We need renewal. We want “liberty and justice for all” and so does the flag, God, and country. For heaven’s sake its all there in the American Constitution. We have the answer to injustice and always have. We need to recommit ourselves. And it would not hurt to pray to the one and only God that this country was founded under. Pray to him to heal our land…..AMEN! And God Bless America.

2Cronicles 7:14 – If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.

Science and philosophers have tried to figure out life for thousands of years. When it comes to just the human body one must admit that it is a miracle. The more we try to fathom the workings of the human body the more fathomless it is revealed to be. It is beyond our understanding. Take the human eye for example. The eye might be the most amazing organ of all the amazing organs in the human body. Charles Darwin, the Father of Evolution, said, ” To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection(Evolution) seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” Amen to that. Then there is the ear, heart, liver, stomach, etc. etc. And finally the granddaddy of them all–the human brain. Lets be serious, this is all above our understanding. Praise be to God and His Son Jesus Christ and Praise be to everything we don’t understand.

John 1:1 – In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

;Musing is defined as a period of reflection or thought . Today, like a lot of days I am thinking and reflecting about Jesus Christ. I am wondering how a person of such incredible value to our lives can be ignored. Not only can one reflect on his life but also on the history he left behind that is found in the Holy Bible and thousands of other books. Why do people try to erase his history? What is happing to us. He is everything that a person should aspire to be. He is the one person that loves us unconditionally and gives us a grace that is unfathomable. He is the King of Kings, the Alpha and Omega. The great I Am. Yet so many of the people on this plant earth treat him like he never existed, that he is a myth. There has never been another person that comes close to the greatness and awesomeness of Jesus. Its perplexing. However, the good news is that many people, me included, believe in Jesus. We believe every word written in the Bible about him. He is The Way and The Truth in our lives. I just hope that more people can wake up to the Gift of Jesus Christ that was given to us by the Almighty God. God Bless and have a great week.

Psalm 145:1 – Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.

In the world of false information put forth by various media outlets and outright lies, we wonder where we can find the truth. The print media and social media along with various news sites on the internet bombard us with these lies and false information daily. We scratch our heads and wonder who to listen to. Jesus claims He is the Way and the Truth. I believe this. I find peace and comfort in knowing that there is one source of universal truth–Jesus. He will never lie or be deceitful. Through the Bible He communicates the Truth to us….always. We can have no doubt that Jesus will always and has always been the truth. He is the Living God—-Amen.

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

Romans 1:25 – They exchanged the Truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator Who is forever praised…..Amen

Faith is defined as, “complete trust in someone or something”. In reference to God faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance that Jesus Christ is working, even though we cannot see it and in most cases cannot prove it. In today’s world people are constantly trying to “prove” or “disprove” God. People of all persuasions are arguing over proof of the existence of God and Jesus Christ. We all get caught up in it, yet the Bible and Jesus explicitly tell us to just have faith and believe. I pretty much decided years ago to have complete trust and confidence in Jesus. As the blind man, that was healed by Jesus, said when asked how Jesus restored his vision, “all I know was that I was blind and now I can see”. That is exactly how it is with my faith. I can’t really explain it. All I know is I was blind to Jesus and now I can see that he is the Way, The Truth and the Life.

John 14:6 -…… Jesus answered, “I am The Way and The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

I don’t think people like themselves much these days. They are trying to find love and acceptance in all the wrong places. They reach out for love and acceptance thru drugs, bad relationships and the new phrase “just look at me now”. I recently heard a wonderful song by Rachael Lampa and Toby Mac that addresses this dilemma. The song ‘Perfectly Loved” starts out with the line, “who says you are not beautiful”. It goes on with references to not belonging, never finding love, little lies, etc. Basically just not being enough. We hear this all the time today in hundreds of different ways. The answer is Jesus—-and his perfect love. The love of God is perfect. We have always been perfectly loved. Even when we “don’t see it or feel it. We are not a problem or a mistake. We don’t need fixing or solving in the arms of God’s Grace.” We need to believe that every single moment we are perfectly loved by God our creator through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Do something nice to yourself today. Listen to the song “Perfectly Loved”.

Jesus Christ is the most important, inspiring and interesting man who has ever lived. Following are two Bible passages that give us insight on who he is…..

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God and the Word (Jesus) was God.

John 1:14 – The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So as the Bible tells us, this Jesus that many of us claim to be exactly who he says he is and others that do not believe in, left us with an amazing book (The Bible) about his birth, life and death while he was on this earth. He shook mankind to his very core when he was living 2,000 years ago and shakes us to our core even today. He is the way and the truth and can make our lives far better and as writer Dallas Willard says, anyone can utilize this. Some will not accept Jesus,, some will not want to change for Jesus, and some will think they can’t afford to change for Jesus . But the promise of Salvation and an extraordinary life are just waiting to be had.

I’m onboard……How about you?

How did we get to this point that it is almost taboo to talk about or even say the name of Jesus outside the Church. We are told that we can’t or should not talk about Jesus at our schools, our workplace or even public places in general. If a person on the street corner or large gathering of people is holding a sign proclaiming John 3:16 most people think he is a “religious nut”. I have been there and seen it. Many, many people do not believe Jesus ever existed. They think He is a fantasy or a myth. They want proof! So we run around writing books proving Jesus is God. Funny thing is…..this is Not what Jesus wants. He doesn’t want someone building a “case for Jesus”. He wants us to take a chance on Him. He does not want us to lean on our own understanding. He wants us to be like the blind man who proclaimed, after Jesus healed him, “all I know was I was blind and now I can see”. He wants us to take a leap of faith. He wants us to turn caution to the wind and just believe. If we are waiting for definite 100 percent proof that Jesus and the Bible are 100 percent true then we will not be saved by his amazing grace. Take a chance on the most amazing and inspirational person of all time…..Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding….