BEFORE YOU BELIEVED IN JESUS, HE BELIEVED IN YOU!

 I remember years ago watching the movie, The Count of Monte Cristo. Dante`s is betrayed by his best friend and unjustly placed in prison.  He falls into an unlikely friendship with a priest, Abbe` Faria.  Dante`s is drawn to the priest but turned off by his faith in Jesus.  My favorite scene is in Faria’s dying breath, Dante`s says, “I Don’t believe in God!”  Then the priest replies, “It doesn’t matter.  He believes in You!”

Reminds me of Brennan Manning saying to Carol, “Father is very fond of You!  His gaze is always upon You!”

John Mark says, “Jesus believes in You!”  He believes you can come under the loving hand of the Father.  Loving and joyful and full of peace, patience, and kindness.  You can grow into a person of happiness, even in times of suffering.  The kind of person who is not afraid of suffering or even death, who is free of the emotional need for things to go your way.  You can fulfill your purpose.  You can learn to do many of the incredible things Jesus did.  To see signs of His kingdom manifest in your ordinary life.

May Jesus shine brightly through You today!

I Will Not Allow Chaos Control Me!

 Good Morning My Favorite Gifted People,

Years ago I read the book called, Chaos Can’t.  Here we are right in the midst of Thanksgiving.  How do we respond to the chaos of this year?

Must remember we have the imagination of our Creator Father flowing through us.  Because of His Love, our belief in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes in as a Rushing Wind and Consuming Fire of Freedom, igniting our hearts to dream spacious expansive possibilities!

God’s Presence empowers our creativity to reshape chaos.  As Sons and Daughters we are invited to co-create with Him in this uncomfortable year of chaos.  Why?  Chaos Can’t rob  steal and destroy our future.

That Reality gives this Thanksgiving Purpose and Pleasure.  With a fresh start within us, we become agents to bring relief from chaos.  A Hope for the Future.  A New Beginning.  Turning disorder to order.  Thank You Father for Ruling and Reigning in and through Us as Partners in Crime!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't Let Darkness Consume You

 Being alone in the dark can be the most terrifying moment in a child’s life.  I remember lying in bed at age 4, paralyzed by the dark.  I cried out for my father, and he comes running into my room.  There’s only 2 things he can do to calm my emotions: turn on the light or stay the rest of the night with me.

I think children are more perceptive than adults.  As adults we pretend to be ok and ignore the darkness until it consumes us.  If we ignore the darkness, it consumes us and takes us to a place many times of making horrible decisions.  Possibly the darkness is fear, greed, despair, or bitterness.  

David yields to the darkness of battle fatigued and sends his soldiers off to battle without him.  Then he finds himself all alone, consumed by the darkness of lust, and then faces the consequences of the worst decision of his life.

One of the great lies is that darkness tells us that we are alone.  Convinces us that there is no one else who has ever been there.  

Jesus was not exempt from loneliness, experiencing the dark night of His soul. We can draw from His example.  Not wanting to be alone in the Garden, He asks 3 of His best friends to be with Him and pray.  In breathtaking vulnerability, He says, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.  Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Ever wonder what could happen to cause you to lose your light?  It’s not usually because of failure.  Could it be the deep wounds of betrayal, rejection or unexpected abandonment?  

Darkness finds a way to steal our light.  Life is not meant to be lived alone.  Refuse to run from people you need in your life.  Guard you Heart and respond to hate with love, betrayal with forgiveness, despair with hope, and darkness with light. 

Don't Miss Divine Moments

 Over the years I’ve loved the adventures of the unknown.  To Miss the possibility of an ordinary moment becoming a divine moment haunts me.

I hear people say all the time, “I wish I had done that!  If I could have only chosen differently.”

Years ago I taught my youth group, “Anytime You Neglect the Present Moment, You get Passed By, and then Drown in Personal Regret!”

So today let’s Refuse To Stay Behind!  Never Opt Out of an Opportunity!  Why?  You are Moving toward Your Dreams, Your Purpose, and Your Passions!

Decide today: I will Not Allow Myself to be Paralyzed in the moment of indecision!

Know What You Are About!  Know What Your Life Is Given To!  Know What Matters To You And Move Forward!

Bless You Today With The Power Of Our Loving God!

Great Awakening

As I read this by Philip Yancey I thought; this is so many of our stories.  I discovered early in my adult life that the God I was taught, didn't exist.  But meeting Father God through Jesus not only changed my life, but called me to chase Him every day knowing I'm not loved because of my behavior, but because of His affection toward me.  Paul

What do you think?

 In churches of my youth, we sang about God’s grace and yet I seldom felt it.  I saw God as a stern taskmaster, eager to condemn and punish.  I have come to know instead a God of love and beauty who longs for our wholeness.  I assumed that surrender to God would involve a kind of shrinking - avoiding temptation, grimly focusing on the “spiritual” things while I prepared for the afterlife.  On the contrary, God’s good world presented itself as a gift to enjoy with grace- healed eyes.

Philip Yancey

Good Morning Lovers

 I was told recently that I’m leaving a Legacy here on earth.  I responded by saying, That’s Our Family!   I could never do that alone!  We’re Doing that Individually and Together.  We are Stretched Out All Over the Place!  It’s not that we agree on everything, but there’s a catalyst that empowers us.

In this day that we celebrate our freedom, that ingredient is the outrageous Love that God has embraced us with.  He has filled us, where it spills out as we live out the tasks of each day.  It’s a Love that looks beyond opinion and finds truth in the most unlikely places.

In reading and rereading 1 Cor. 13, this Love doesn’t allow us to be small by focusing our lives through the lens of self or a few people who agree with us.  This Love captures us, and grabs ahold of us.  It enlightens the eyes of our understanding where us are given the chance to find Truth from not only common sources, but most unlikely places of inspiration, wonder and awe.  

Yes!  Many  times it’s challenging and uncomfortable!  But this Love doesn’t allow itself to be stuck.  It pushes us to discover this Huge Loving God.  At this point in my life, I’m thrilled that He never allows  me to be narrow and small minded.

In the end, this Love is so convincing that nothing….. nothing can separate us as a Family from creating and bringing change to people who are stuck in smallness.  We are rooted and established in a Love that surpasses all knowledge, and fills Us with the Fullness of God through Jesus!

Might be asking, How wide, long, high and deep is this extravagant Love?  

Just follow each of us individually or collectively and you’ll find us being led by the Holy Spirit where Truth is calling us, waiting to empower us, to establish the beauty of the Legacy of the Kingdom come to Earth as it is in Heaven.

Blessings Upon You Today

What If!?

 Growing up I thought my life was one of ease, a life of self in which I tried to control everything, and a life spent living out the moment.  As I grew up…..So much changed!  As a friend of mine once said, "How's that working for you?"

I had to embrace difficulty, care for others and surrender to a greater cause, and learn the life of the eternal instead of the temporary.  I was searching, hoping that one day someone would call me to an adventure worth dying for.  I wasn't searching for God to take me to heaven, but hopes that there was more to this life, than just existing.  I was looking for someone I could follow.  It wasn't until I found Jesus at age 25 that I found the One I wanted to be like.

In becoming more like Jesus.. the Shift from who I thought I was became much more dramatic than one could imagine.  What If!?  Is that possible!?

Jon Tyson explains so well: Jesus left the ease of Heaven to embrace the difficulty of earth and of the cross; Jesus humbled and emptied himself, and he lived for others, not just himself; Jesus moved into a life of obscurity for us; Jesus surrendered, not trying to remain in control of his situation; and Jesus lived for eternal rewards, not a temporary reality.

Wow!  As Mary said, “May it be done unto me!”  

Father, empower me today to surrender to Your Will, Discipline Grace and Joy of Living fully Alive!  Amen.

The Genius of Grace

If God, who has every right to find us guilty, refuses to do so, how can we not forgive one another?  If God, who sees everything we’ve ever done and could easily drown us in our guilt and shame, seeks only to make us whole and give us freedom, how can that not be our intention toward one another?

Even in our current environment, we have what is now known as “cancel culture.”  We ransack the history of every tweet a person has ever written, every statement a public personality has ever made, any joke a comedian has ever delivered, or any mistake a person has ever made in the past, looking for ammunition to end their careers.  We do not allow for change, or growth, or simply the imperfection of being human.

Condemning is easy.  It’s also ugly and inelegant.  Grace makes both the giver and the recipient more beautiful…. Grace believes in your future.

Erwin McManus

The Resurrection and Justice

 When Jesus rose from the dead, he came as the first installment of the power of God, which will renew the world at the end of history.  The Bible tells us that, at that time, God will not just save individuals and discard the world as if were an unimportant shell or chaff.  Rather, "the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God" (Ro. 8:21).  All the effects of sin - all the decay - of the world will be healed.  Not only will there be physical liberation from disease, aging, and death, but there will be social liberation from the poverty, war, racism, and crime that infest our world now, as well as psychological liberation from the fear, guilt, shame, and despair that infect us now.  All things will finally be mended, put fully right.  We ourselves will be made new, but we will also receive a renewed world in which to live with Christ in our resurrected bodies......  In the new creation we will know Jesus, the infinite fountain of love.  We will love one another for his sake  and for their sake.  All relationships, then, will finally be right and just.  So 2 Pet. 3:13 says, "But God has promised us a new heavens and earth where justice will rule."

So, the resurrection means that the liberating, repairing power of God is here now, through the risen Christ and His presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit.  We have not been saved just to be safe, but saved in order to serve.

NT Wright says, Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence, and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things - and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all.  Take away Easter and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring problems of the material world.  Take it away and Freud was probably right to say Christianity is wish fulfillment.  Take it away and Nietzsche probably was right to say it was for wimps.  

But if Easter happened, it is the secular theories of Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche that will eventually find themselves in the ashbin of history.

Tim Keller

Beautiful Paradox of Jesus’ Great Reversal

 He was sold, to buy us back; captive to deliver us; condemned to absolve us; he was made a curse for our blessing, sin offering for our righteousness; marred that we may be made fair; he died for our life; so that by Him fury is made gentle, wrath appeased, darkness turned into light, fear reassured, despisal  despised, debt canceled, labor lightened, sadness made merry, misfortune made fortunate, difficulty easy, disorder ordered, division united, ignominy ennobled, rebellion subjected, intimidation intimidated, ambush uncovered, assaults assailed, force forced back, combat combated, war warred against, vengeance avenged, torment tormented, damnation damned, the abyss sunk into the abyss, hell transfixed, death dead, mortality made immortal.  In short, mercy has swallowed up all misery, and goodness all misfortune.

 John Calvin