How many of us live in the past. We make mistakes, we sin, some big and some small. But we believe that our mistakes and sins are unforgiveable and that we are stuck in them and cannot move on. We believe there is no future for us because of our past. But here is the good news, God through Jesus will meet us right where we are. He will forgive us of our past sins with an unconditional love and grace that is beyond our understanding. We can move forward in his grace. FROM NOW ON we can live a different life than our past. We can accept the love and forgiveness of Jesus and begin our life anew. FROM NOW ON we can live a life of purpose and meaning. We can change the way we have been doing things. We can start living with the Holy Bible as our blueprint for our future. FROM NOW ON can be the three words that change our life. We have got to believe that Jesus really is God. He is The Way and The Truth. Our salvation and redemption come through Jesus and only him. We need step out in faith and believe!!

Galatians 6:17 – From now on, Let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

Society has a poor attitude towards losing and failure in general. Many, many young people do not participate in sports anymore because they are afraid of losing and being branded a failure. Even our youth in schools are failing tests because they just don’t want to try. If they fail a test or class they are scared to death that they will be labeled a failure.

The legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant believed, “You have to lose to know how to deal with losing”. A lot can be learned from failure. Many of our greatest scientists throughout the world failed time after time. But they never quit…..thank goodness. They then went on to make the world a better place. We need to experience losing as a step to success down the road. We need to compete, lose and get up and try again.

One of my favorite sayings sums up what I believe. “Success is never final, failure is never fatal, it’s courage that counts”. We need to teach this to our young(and old) people every chance we get and quit believing what the world is telling……that we are a failure.

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

God Bless you and have a great week…….

The birth of Jesus Christ was the most significant event in human history. Only fools deny the birth of Jesus for it has been historically recorded. Our modern calendars are based on the birth of Jesus so its pretty factual that it happened. The big debate, of course, is “Who is Jesus”. The Holy Bible, thousands of writings, hymns, and songs, attest to his birth and life. The greatest artwork known to man paint a picture of who he is and his impact on mankind. He was simply the greatest person who ever lived. He claimed to be God and I believe him. His life is living evidence of his Divinity. I know many people do not agree on who Jesus is, but I believe that each one of us have to answer to Jesus. We need to make our peace with him. We cannot avoid him. He will never go away. He is our Lord and Savior. The king of Kings, the Alpha and Omega. The great I AM. The Creator of Heaven and Earth. Our Lord and Savior.

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

Merry Christmas and I wish you peace and prosperity as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

The problem is us, not the constitution, not the laws of the country. It is us and our leadership in this country. Mankind has historically, from the dawn of time, screwed things up. Just read about Indian Wars……one screw up after another by both sides lead to a mess. What a disaster through time with Native Americans. Both sides share the blame, both sides are humans. The world wars…..the same. All through history we have peace then war. Mankind is so, so broken. The solution begins with Jesus. Yet mankind cannot and will not even agree on that. So we continue to repeat our mistakes. And the beat goes on. Will it ever end. Will man’s march to self-destruction ever end……I doubt it. But for you and me it can end today thru Jesus. One needs to find out who Jesus is and what his teachings say. He is The Way and The Truth. Our lives can have purpose and meaning and our mistakes can be forgiven. Redemption is through Jesus. We can’t figure it out on our own. We have proven that time and time again.

Romans 8:28 – And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I would like to share a writing by James Bryan Smith with you today. It is not only proof of God’s Love, but also proof of the work of His only son Jesus. It reads as follows…..Out of love Jesus was conceived, and out of love he chose to die. There is something in us that God finds loveable. It is certainly not our sanctity, nor is it our fidelity. When I look at my own baseness, my incredible ability to sin at a moment’s notice, I wonder what God sees in me.

But if we doubt God’s love, all we have to do is consider the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. For centuries that has been the clearest sign of God’s radical acceptance. In Jesus we hear God saying to us , “What you cannot do for yourself, I myself will do. Your sin stands between us, and you cannot remove it, so I will do it for you. My blood will cleanse your sins, and I will remember them no more. Nothing will stand between us. I will rise from the dead so you can live. My love is too strong for death to conquer. Once alive, I will invite you to die and rise with me. Eternal life is now available. It is in my Son.”

Romans 5:8 – God demonstrates his own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God Bless You and have a great week……

“Imagine a world without condemnation. If we would really help those close to us and dear, and if we would learn to live together with our family and neighbors in the power of the kingdom, we must abandon the deeply rooted human practice of condemning and blaming”. Those are the words of writer Dallas Willard. They still ring true today. We are a generation that criticizes, blames, and condemns others. Everyday we see it and participate in it. The social media platform is awful for blaming and condemning, and rejecting others. Just today a well known, good person was condemned on social media for his opinion. The person condemning him said, “I don’t respect him anymore.” When we do that we sentence that person to exclusion. I am guilty of this too. I judge people too often and need to stop. I need to accept all people. Even when it is really hard.

Jesus loves everyone always and I need to follow his example.

Matthew 7:1 – Do not judge so that you will not be judged.

God Bless You and have a great week.

In 1948 writer and famous author C.S. Lewis wrote an essay titled, “On Living in an Atomic Age”. It was the dawn of the Atomic Age when there was a lot of fear of nuclear war. Here is what Lewis wrote:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage of our ancestors–anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added on more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things–praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts–not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs, They may break our bodies [a microbe can do that] but they need not dominate our minds.

Now replace “Atomic Bomb” with covid-19. Sounds like exactly where we are now with this current pandemic. I don’t think things are ever going to be the same again. C.S. Lewis is basically saying we have to live with a future full of uncertainty. There will be more viruses to deal with. There will be more deaths. There will be other diseases and disorders and who knows what else. Thats the reality and we need to trust and believe in Jesus Christ. We need to give all our fear and uncertainty to him who defeated death on the cross 2000 years ago.

The following is a prayer from an author unknown: Lord Jesus, set us free from the fear and anxiety that reign over our world, our culture and in our own hearts right now. Help us to take our anxious thoughts captive and to put on the your mind; the one in whom we ultimately trust! Help us to demonstrate that trust in our lives by living out the reality of a non-anxious presence in our neighborhoods, our work places, and most especially in our homes. We can only do this with your help! As always, we are utterly dependent upon you to speak your peace over us and to calm our souls! May we be a walking display of the hope that lives within us through you and by your spirit! Amen!