A Father Everywhere!

Friends, I want to tell you a little secret! I want to share with you something that I have recently discovered. While watching a movie last night, I was struck with the fact that God wants to be a father to us. Yes, it's true! No matter what you're doing right now, it is no accident that you are reading this blog. I want to encourage you that there is a father out there who loves you and thinks the world of you. One reason that so many of us struggle with our concept of God is that our earthly fathers were imperfect, but we are not to look to our earthly fathers for our support as much as to our Heavenly one! He loves us and cares for us like no one else could. 2000 years ago, He sent His one and only son, to this earth. He became a human, just like you and me. He lived in our world and knows better than anyone, the struggles we have to go through. God sent Jesus to our world because He cares about us sooo much. Two nights ago, a friend shared with me some amazing news. You and I do have a father, Yes, I said you. Whatever your name is, you have a father. Even if you don't have a name, He knows your name. When you are laying in your bed all by yourself at night, He is with you, and you can talk to him. He wants to let you know how much He loves you, and to let you know that He will change you. When you go to work, you have a father, who loves and affirms you. When you loose a loved one, you have a father who is understanding and caring. When you fail a test, you have a Heavenly father, who does not scold you for your failure, but embraces you and strengthens you for the next one! When you get fired from your job, you have a father, who lovingly takes you into His arms, and lets you know there are other options out there for you. When you go for a walk, you have a father, who wants to show you all the different things He has made. When you get a christmas gift, you have a Heavenly father who wants to share in your joy in recieving that gift. When you get into an airplane, you have a father, who wants to talk to you and cheer you up and let you know that He is with you. When you are talking with your friends, you have a Heavenly father, who wants to be a part of your conversation, don't leave Him out! He has feelings just like you and I do. He cries and is sad, and He knows what that is like. In John 14:7 Jesus says "If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

You see, Jesus came to show us what our Father in Heaven is like, and to give us eternal life! Wowee! When we are having a hard time, and a low opinion about ourselves, let us read what Jesus has done for us, and How much He loves us. I want to encourage you to well... let me show you what Jesus says:)

7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

You see, God wants to hear from you! He wants to talk to you, and He has been working to win your heart for a long time, even though you may not be able to tell all the ways right now. But go to your heavenly Father and ask Him for Help, He will be more than willing to help, affirm, guide,strengthen, encourage, compliment, share time with you. You see, we as humans can not always do this with one another, because we are so busy with our lives, but God can!!! And He wants to share that time with you and tell you how much He cares about you! He wants to heal those wounds that you have recieved in your childhood, and adulthood, and any hood you can think about :) I want to encourage you to talk to Him after reading this, He really really really really wants to talk to you, honestly, just give Him a chance:) I am starting to, and He has been such a friend, and I must say, I like my new daddy! He's amazingly awesome!!!! I want to encourage you to talk to Father, He wants to hear from you, and He has allowed me to share this with you! He wants to see you! Brother, or sister, it doesn't matter, if your still living at home, or on the road, He is looking desperately to see you, He wants to be a part of your life. Run to Him. Open your arms wide, He will give you the biggest bear hug you have ever had! He's waiting for you! Don't wait any longer! Go to Him, talk to Him, ask Him teach you:) I know you have areas in your life, you are unprepared to meet, we all do! But the wonderful thing about Our God and Jesus is that they know what it's like to suffer, and they know what it's like to be called failures, but Father and brother Jesus want to help with the help of the Holy Spirit. Talk to them please! Don't make your earthly parents a substitute for your heavenly ones! Your heavenly ones care about you a million bizzillion, trillion quadrillion, infinity times more than your earthly ones ever could. And the neat and amazing thing about this is, that God cares about them, more than you could :) You see, God is the only one who can really reach someone's heart, and He is the only one they really need. You and I could never hope to meet their needs, but our Heavenly Father, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, can and will meet those needs. WE ARE NEVER ALONE, Always remember that. No matter what WE ARE NEVER ALONE! God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. So we can throw off those covers and look at ourselves, and know that we are God's children! We belong to the King of the Universe. Jesus gave His life so that we could belong:) Always remember John 3:16,

For God so loved the World that He gave His only Begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

A taste of the Ressurrection!

I believe that when Jesus comes again, it is going to be a very exciting time! About a week or two ago, my brother was unloading an ADRA truck, when he got the news that one of the truck drivers ( his name is Mac) for them had died. The truck driver happened to be a good friend of ours, and so the news hurt us deeply. As time passed, we began to run low on ADRA boxes. On Monday my brother answered the phone, and talked to someone who was delivering the load of boxes. His face went pale as he talked on the phone, and then, he said "ok" and hung up the phone. He looked at me and then with a chill said "it's Mac" "I thought Mac was dead!" I answerd in surprise. Our minds began to wander and we began to think this might be an evil angel, but we brushed the thought aside, and waited for our next load of ADRA boxes. Thursday (that's today) rolled around and, sure enough Mac was here with a load of ADRA. After unloading the truck we went and told him what had happened. It turned out that there had been a misunderstanding. Seeing Mac, alive, after I thought he had been dead, really brought something home to me. In this life, we are guarunteed to die, and to lose those we love, if time lasts. That's all this life really has to offer. The amusements of this life, can not, and will not satisfy. However, a day is coming, when all those who love Jesus will be reunited. There really is no more important goal than to be with Jesus. In this life you and I can be assured that there will be losses, but we need not be discouraged if we have Jesus in our life, because He will write the endings. In 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 we read:

"According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

Life Directions

Wow! When God says He wants to take us for an adventure, He isn't kidding. I'm really starting to like this adventure stuff to be totally honest. I think it builds character and makes us into deeper people. Today I learned about the importance of being transparent with people. A lot of times we as people try and hide our motives about why we do things and who we are. We are ashamed to admit to the mistakes that we have made, because we feel that we will somehow be so different that no one will like us. Yet Jesus encourages honesty! If you look at John 4 you will find the story of the woman at the well. Jesus tells her the truth about herself. So few people today want to be honest with themselves and who they are. They are rather content to live a certain way to gain favors from those around them, but this is not how Jesus lived. He was honest with those around Him, no matter what the cost, and I believe that is how God wants us to live today. We should be honest no matter what the cost. So.. what is the truth about you?.... Can you answer that question, or do you instead try and bury it deep within yourself, because it would be too hard to admit, because you know within yourself that you are trying to hide the truth, and don't want the consequences of admitting it.

Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

The Shepherd Goes Before Us

Slowly I pull the covers off of my body, and begin the routine of getting up. My half groggy stare catchs the pale blue light coming in from the window that sits in front of my bed. Moving my arm with my other free hand, I pick up the nummed object and shake it up and down a few times. There is no movement, and all I can do is raise it up and let it fall. After about a minute the feelings begin to prickle back into my arms. I'm tired and it's morning, time to get up and face another day of life. For some reason, this day seems to be very monotinous. I walk over to my desk and pick up the Bible, forcing myself to kneel, I breath out a quick prayer to God and begin to read. "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate.." I continue to read and then finish the chapter, setting the Bible back on the desk. Then I throw some clothes on and head out the door to work. All through the day the monotony continues, and I begin to wonder, if what I had this morning was really worship or some ritual. As the day drags on, I begin to feel condemned and depressed. Still I struggle through the day, until finally I can take no more, and I humbly ask God for help. I then feel impressed to read the reading I read for my devotional. All day today I have been full of a feeling of inadequacy. Just feeling like I just don't have the energy to keep going. Now as I sit here typing, I realize the problem. I read my devotional, but I did not "Read" it. I spent all that time in the morning just trying to read my devotional, just so I could check it off the list. But this evening as I READ my devotional a new thought entered.

John 10: 1 says "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber."

I now realize that I was trying to climb up some other way, instead of letting Jesus be my sufficiency. In all honesty I did not spend time pouring my heart out to God. I know that this seems like a small thing, but without this, that is all that reading the Bible is. We need to be honest about how we are feeling and how things are going in our lives for Jesus to be able to talk with us.

In John 10:9 Jesus says

"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture"

Jesus promises us that when we come to God through Him, we can find pasture. Good pasture is a must when you are a shepherd, it means there will be food.

In John 10:11 Jesus says

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

It is interesting that this is said. Friend, Jesus says He lays down His live for us. He is willing to save us so we can be with Him forever.

The question is now begged: Who is your Shepherd? Who gently leads you, if it isn't Jesus, then you will be disapointed. Please allow Jesus to be your Shepherd, He wants to be, He doesn't care what you have done! It doesn't matter! You can be saved! Jesus wants to save You for His kingdom, and someday soon, when He returns He wants to take us all home to live with Him forever, where there will be no more sorrow or tears, but only Joy and life forever. Why don't you ask the the Divine Shepherd in your heart as I ask Him in mine, to be Your Shepherd:)

Realizing to Realize

Well, today I made a decision not to go to TN this weekend. I decided that it would be best if I stayed, so that's what I have done, and while I stayed I thought I would update my myspace blog. This morning I was reading my Bible and after I had my worship I realized something. The words of Jesus, were actually spoken by Him! His disciples merely recorded what He said, and not to get into too big of a debate about whether text was inspired word for word or not, I want to say that it is really neat that we have God's Word in our hands! How awesome is that! We don't need to be discouraged, and if we do get discouraged the solution to that discouragement is not far away!

Today I am at work trying to work on selling scrapbook paper again, but I don't know if it will work or not, but I pray it does!:) That would be really cool. Well, that's about it:) TTYL :)

A new lesson I am starting to learn

Last night as I was driving home from prayer meeting, a thought occured to me. I had not forgiven a lot of people in my life. I knew I had said that I had forgiven them, but still forgiveness is a lot harder than most people would think. I find my words and actions getting ahead of my heart sometimes, and I don't think that is good, especially when inwardly I resent the person I am forgiving, which means, in a sense, that I haven't really forgiven them in the first place. I believe that forgiveness is a gift from God, and it does not come naturally to our sinful human hearts. Oh, I believe that a lot of times I would forgive people just so that I could go to heaven and be right with God, but the truth is that there is a deeper reason to forgive people. I think that we have missed the true point of forgiveness. I believe true forgiveness is a way of letting go of the pain and the hurt a person causes in heart, and is what Jesus is talking about when He says that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Last night I went to sleep, and as I slept I had a dream. I saw my pastor talking about his fears and failures up front. He was being totally honest. Then the lights went out in the church, and he kept speaking. He said "I'm drowning, I can't breath, the water is covering me and I can't stay above, Lord please save me. Just then the whole church was filled with light, and I saw a man step out and pick up a cross. This cross was life size. My heart sank as I realized all the bitter feelings that I had been carrying and the anger in my heart, and I could only imagine what the rest of the audience thought in that church. Then the most amazing thing happened. As I sat on the pew in my church. This man picked up the cross, looked into my eyes with a look, that said "I'm going to give you the victory you don't deserve!" He then proceeded to pick up the cross with His big muscular arms, and threw it down in the middle of the platform where those who are having the sermons stand. Immediately a feeling of victory swept over the whole gathering. We were cheering and jumping up and down, and in our hearts we knew that the Lamb of God had conquered whatever problem we were facing. I was totally amazed at what I saw, though, I had failed... and yes I did fail big time! Jesus had won! Don't you see, friend, Jesus died on the cross and won the victory over sin, it is a defeated foe, and has no power in our lives, because Jesus beat it, and He shows us how we can beat it! That same method He used we are to use in our lives. We must always remember that when we end up on a cross in life, we are not being defeated, but being declared victorious, because of what Jesus has done for us! I think to be totally honest, letting go of the anger, on a continual basis is the cross that I have to bear, but Jesus showed that it is possible to do, and He promises to go with us all the way in bearing our crosses, whatever they may be. You see Jesus loves people continually, even though they are hurting Him, and we are indebted to Him, because He loves us even when we are messing up and hurting those around us, and ourselves. Jesus loves us still! Even while we were yet sinners, Jesus hung on that cross for us and was declared the victor for us! Don't loose hope, Jesus still loves us, we must continue in our faith and hold onto His hand!

Learning to Relax about things :)

I am starting to learn that all things do not always work out like I anticipate. That can be either for the good or bad. I guess that's the whole point of trusting God. He is God and can see the end from the beginning and we cannot. So, when He says I will never leave you nor forsake you, we can trust what He says:)

Taught Through Trials

Lately God has been teaching me a very important lesson. I am learning that no matter what the circumstances are that it is good to obey God. Sometimes they don't seem like they are the greatest, but if we will just trust Him things will improve. I also learned that one person's happy attitude can make all the difference. I guess I always thought that a person had to say something, but last night I learned that just being there and being upbeat can change a person who is not upbeat into someone who is. That's why it's always good to talk to Jesus, so that we become more and more like Him, and are happy:)

Dissapointed Hopes

It seems like life is really terrible for me right now. I guess when I really look at things they aren't the worst that they could be, but I still am in a state of uncertainty. Maybe that's you. Maybe it's not. All I know is that no matter what happens God is in control. Last night I had a dream that I was walking along, and then caught in a net and taken. The real fear that hit me hard was the fact that someday we will all have to appear before the judgement seat of God. We may be able to hide all the bad things that we have done from everyone else, but we cannot hide them from God. Which ties into the events that have happened to me in these last two days. The reality that we are walking on a thin sheet of ice over either eternal life or, eternal death is really something to contemplate. Most definately I want to have Jesus as Lord and Savior of my life. There is no time when it is more important to make that choice than right now friend. You see, right now may be all that you have, so please choose to let Jesus be Lord and Savior of your life, He promises that He will recieve you with open arms if you will just let Him into your heart. Lately God has been working with me on being honest with Him. He wants me to tell Him the truth about what has been going on in my life, and I believe that its the same way for you the reader. He wants to be apart of your life right now, but if you will not let Him, then you will miss out on all the great things that He has in store for you. Like Joshua, choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I believe that it has never been more important, and as the time of the end escalates, I am faced with the ever increasing reality that someday soon, everything that we have on this earth is going to meet it's firey end. There are no exceptions, if we hold onto something that we think is "fun" that God does not want us to have, then we are keeping Him at a distance from us, and that is not what He wants. Many of us are so satisfied with the life that we live and are content and distracted by the things that present themselves to us. For example, I got caught playing computer games all night, and then the computer errored up, so I went to bed. God wants honesty, and He can't get it until we are honest with Him. When we are dishonest with God it causes confusion in our relationship with Him. In Isaiah 29:10-13 we read: "10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets
he has covered your heads (the seers).
For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I can't; it is sealed." Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I don't know how to read." The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.



God wants us to be honest with Him, otherwise the Bible will be to us like a sealed book. We will never come to know the author and finisher of our faith until we are honest with Him about how we feel and our situation. This is how we connect with God, then we can be ready for His advice and instruction in the way that we should go. We need to be humble and teachable, and we all are capable of that, there is no excuse, it just may take some longer than others. I know this to be the case for myself especially, it takes me a long time to come to that place and a lot of discipline from the Lord, because I am a stubborn human, but please know that the Lord loves us, and that is why He disciplines us. In Hebrews 12 Paul Says:

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Prayer is not the "easy button"

Well Im truly exhausted right now. I just got done unloading a container and it was very hard work. I had two friends to help me so it was not as hard as it could have been. As I arrived at the place where we were supposed to unload the container my friends had already gotten a head start. Walking up to into the container I quickly joined in and began to pick up the heavy bales of clothing. Each bale was surrounded by a plastic wrapping and then banded together by a bailer. The cylindrical tumblers ranged in size from about 100 to 115 lbs. As we continued to unload the bales from off of the skid I began to get a little winded. The heat was not excruciating but the tight space and the closeness made things a little more than stuffy. Some bales were grabbed and stacked on the bottom of the container and the rest that were on the top took two people. As time went one, I began to get so tired that I decided to pray. I asked God for supernatural strength, but my friend suggested that I ask for supernatural endurance. So I asked for both, then my brother said that I should ask for supernatural wisdom in order to try and bring me back down to earth. I would have none of that and decided that I was going to watch God prove my brother wrong, but that is not what happened at all. At first I could feel a burst of energy and strength, but as time went on, my arms began to tire and then my energy dropped. By the time we got the container about completed, I found myself taking a small break to recover from the lack of energy I was experiencing. This is not supposed to happen! I thought. I was sure that when I asked God for something that He would give it to me, but that is not what ended up happening. Instead I found myself exhausted and barely able to finish. Sometimes its easy for me to wish for that easy button that you see on those tv commercials. I guess thats what I thought prayer was. A simple push of the prayer button andBlamo! The container is filled and the work is done, but that is not how things work. I dont use prayer to make life easy. I pray to be able to make it through life and to get to know Jesus as a friend. In John 16:33 Jesus says:

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Don't be afraid?

Ok,

so where do I begin, I really don't know where, except to say that right now my life is in mid air. I am working on growing and learning. Last Sabbath our pastor gave a sermon on how it is important to know Jesus and to rely only on Him. I believe that in this day in age when fear is raging that it is important to trust in the only one who holds tommorow, or so I thought. That's the crazy part about it! Sabbath I learned that I can still be jealous and selfish, and sunday I learned that I have problems with managing my time. These are things that I thought I had worked out... oh, and that fear of thunderstorms I have always had still is in my life. Last night was a perfect example of that. I went to bed and was awoken, by a huge clap of thunder. I got up to hear rain pelting the side of the window and leaking through our roof falling on the TV. In my mind I could remembered the words of the Pastor, that it is important to trust in God, but for some reason, I could seem to grasp on, and the storm seemed to get worse. Finally I found myself regressing back to an old pattern of behavior that I seem to have and hiding in the basement. While in the basement my eyes caught a book that was up on a top shelf with cob-webs on it. I opened it up and began to read. The book turned out to be a devotional, and had to do with fear. The devotional was by H.M.S. Richards and it talked about how, even when the sun is behind the clouds and life does not seem to be working out the greatest, we need to hold onto our faith in God. "Hold on!?" I thought "Hold on when life seems to be falling apart around me, when I don't know if I'll ever get back to college to continue my life, when I'm unsure if I'm even going to be in the Kingdom, when my mind is driving me crazy and I can't seem to make sense of my thoughts, when my rebelious heart keeps pulling me away from God, when I could die the next second. The devotional for the day ended with a talk about Martain Luther and his death. Martin Luther woke up terrified one night and was afraid that he was going to die, and went into a depression for a while. After a while, a friend came to see him and asked him if he still had faith in God. Martin gasped out a faint "Yes I do" and then fell asleep in Jesus. Faith was what got him through. Then the devotional ended, and fear still held on, but somehow a thought began to repeat in my mind, "I need to have faith in God even when things are not turning out the way that I want them to, even when it is unsure if I will go to college, even when my mind is driving me crazy and I can't seem to make sense of my thoughts, even when I am not sure if I will even be in the Kingdom of Heaven, even when I am afraid that I am going to die, I need to hold onto faith in God. Maybe it's the same way with you, maybe your life is uncertain and you aren't sure what's going to happen to you next. Please have faith in God, ask for faith, pray for it, the Lord will give it to you, He never turns down anyone who comes to Him. Don't worry about how bad your life may have been up to this point, have faith! Have FAITH when life is uncertain because God is not uncertain!!!!!!!! HAVE FAITH IN JESUS:)

Confused

Hi everyone:)

I can oficially say that I am confused again. Of course confusion has been part of my life for the longest time. The interesting part about this is that I realize that God is never confused, so I am sure that He is working on a way to get me out of this situation right now as I type. I guess it just seems like things are being torn in every direction. My very identity is being pulled apart, and it is a very painful process. Today has just been one of those days where I am going to hold onto God's hand and hope:)

Not the Most Exciting Thing in the World

Well, it's a new fact that I'm going to be staying home for the semester instead of going to college. I sometimes wish that life would go better, but it doesn't always do that. I realize that there will be no more expanding my mind at an incredible rate anymore, because I will not be in an environment to do that, but maybe I can expand my muscles. In my mind I am tempted to feel a little like a failure, but I realize that there are lots of people who are in the same boat. You know, the kind with holes in every part of it, that is sinking filling with white foaming water from the waves all around. The only thing is, Jesus is in that same boat. He is with us when life is sinking into uncertainty and knows what is ultimately best for us in the end. Even though I do not like the idea of staying home for a semester, I realize that it is all part of God's refining process in my life. But enough about me, what about you? How about your life? Are there things going on in your life that make you feel like you are going to sink into oblivion? If that is the case, please cry out to Jesus for help, and He has promises He will come to your aid.

What will you do for Him?

When you ask God to show you areas that need working on, be prepared for Him to do it. Yesterday was an incredible experience. That morning I was thinking to myself, "if God wants me to work on areas in my life, he would have someone talk to me about it. Well, that is exactly what happened yesterday. I got a real reality check, as I helped the mechanic at our company. I decided to talk to him about legalism, and it turned out that he told me about a major problem in Christianity today, and that is that people are talking the talk, but not walking the walk. I talked to him about how I was just going to... well... relax on Sabbath. His reply caught me off guard because he said "Did Jesus relax on Sabbath?" As I thought about that question I realized that He did not, He was helping other people and doing good. What an idea! To be honest it makes selfish me a little uncomfortable, but that is what God calls us to do. He calls us to be witnesses for Him and to help those in need, to share ourselves with others.

Get rid of the facts and give me the TRUTH!

For some reason I find myself getting so caught up in trying to do everything right so that I can go to heaven, while I totally miss the real truth: The only way we are going to get to heaven is by faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for us. I guess that's what it boils down to. Last night I sat in the kitchen with my cell phone on the table, and as I began to wonder about why things were so miserable for me, a thought came to my mind. "Brandon, I don't want the things you have, I want you!" As I layed down to go to sleep that night, the real truth came down hard and began to press upon my mind the importance of knowing Jesus as a personal friend, otherwise, all I am doing is trying to follow the rules so that I can get to heaven (which never ever works.) See the story of the rich young ruler to find out for yourself. That man wanted to follow Jesus, but He had no real relationship with him, so when God asked him to give his things up, he turned away. With men following God is impossible, BUT WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. :)

A Day With a New Lesson

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Yesterday was an incredible day! It was one of those days that started out like it was going to be a monotonous one, but ended up being an awesome display of the power of God. He is concerned with our problems and things that concern us everyday. So today I would like to write about that experience.

The day started out like most days with the sun peaking it's head above the horizaon shooting rays of orange onto everything in its sight. I lazily rolled myself off the bed and walked slowly toward the family room, where an ice cold leather couch awaited me. However, this custom was not to be as I noticed my little sister sitting watching cartoons. "Oh well," I thought. "I guess I'll just go back where I came from and read there." When I got back into the room, I grabbed the Bible and the My Utmost for His Highest book, that was laying on the desk and started to read. The story out of the Bible that I read was about Jacob, Joseph and his two sons: Ephriam, and Mannaseh. In the My Utmost for His Highest book, I read about how people like to see in other people the image of them they have in their mind, but instead, they should look at people as God does. The interesting part was, that Joseph was doing this when he wanted his firstborn son to be blessed more than his second born. Jacob however, looked at people out of God's eyes and not out of the image that he had of who the person was. After reading worship, I went upstairs to look at the mess in my room. I could barely get the door open. Piles and piles of clothes filled my room; like a vast mountian range of things as high as the bed. To say I cleaned my room, would not be true, because it would take me more than 20 years to clean that mess! Ok, so I might be exagerating just a little, but you get the idea. After that, I moved back down to my brother's room and asked what we were going to do. The suggestion that day was that we go and help someone out. When we did, we ended up sitting around watching tv at their house and enjoying recees peanut buttercups and gateraid. After a wonderful meal we headed to our next house to continue our campaign for good, after not doing anything there either we went to the lake, where our dad was waiting for us, with the boat in the water. Now, at this point, in my mind, I wanted nothing to do with the water, or anything it had to offer. Instead, I wanted to sit back and relax on one of our two hammocks that overlooked the lake. However, after much coaxing by my dad, I finally submitted to the idea of getting in the boat, and I must say I was not the happiest on the inside. I quickly went up to the front of the boat, past the driver seat and sat in the seats that were at the tip of the boat. Grabbing onto the medal railings that were on either side, I held on with a pretty tight grip, as the boat started to speed up. My day was totally boring, I thought! Still thinking, I thought: Why does it seem that all the exciting things happen to me when I am in TN? Oh, well, another day down the drain! As we moved along, we passed a speed boat, with some police men in it, and continued on drifting down the lake. The wind blew in my face creating a rushing sound that drown out all other noises, and all I could hear was the occasional yelling behind me, because it is so loud. After we got down near the dam, toward the end of the lake, we pulled into a little inlet. As we boated our way down the inlet, we reduced speed to idle, and drifted quietly down the inlet commenting on the nice housing, and making suggestions where we could about the houses. The clouds were drifting along in an ocean of sun-tinted blue and there was a slight breeze. The radio played 80's music in the background. After drifting a ways, we decided to turn around. As we went to leave the outlet, there was a decision made to go for one last swim. So the boat was shut off and my brother threw himself into the water with his back hitting it first sending water in every direction. Pretty soon, it was time to move on, and so my brother got back into the boat. After he got into the boat, the key was turned one the engine, but... nothing happened! "Yes!" I thought to myself, "Finally some fun! Thanks God:)" (As we had been driving I talked to God and told Him how I was feeling.) As the boat sat stranded at the other end of the lake, I suggested we say a prayer. So we prayed, and not three minutes later the police boat that we passed came drifitng up, so I quickly flagged them down, and in no time we were on our way back to a marina, where we could get the battery replaced.

That day taught me an important lesson, and that is, that we should not always look at God the way we think that He is, because He is soo much different than we are, and it is exciting to know that we can't predict Him. He has shown us His character in His word, but that is as far as we can for sure know. God is an awesome friend, and like our relationship with people we can sometimes judge God by our ideas about Him, but this is not the case, He is soo incredible that we will be learning about His love through eternity. We will never truly know everything about God, and I think that is sooo awesome:)

Sunday

When I got up this morning the first thing that I did was have worship. Yesterday was an awesome day, which consisted of laying in a hammock, and eating to my heart's content. Now it's sunday and I am sitting here typing my blog. Well, today I learned that you can't always see just the good or bad in the people that you hang around with. In order to see the best in people you need to have Jesus Christ as the only one you can truly totally confide in. As I was cleaning my room, I got a whole bunch of feelings of lonliness that hit me and I was not sure what to do, so I called a friend on the phone to try and talk to her (hoping that this would solve my neediness). In the end I felt just as needy. It was not until I realized that the neediness I was feeling was not going to go away until I gave it to God and asked Him for help, that I asked Him. When I asked God to take it away, He did, and not only that, He helped the person I was talking to realize the same thing. There is a that my church puts up, and they change the message every week. It says: A truly happy person will enjoy the detours in life. I guess I need to look at people through Christ's eyes, as well as the events in my life. Well, that is about it for now.

Happy Sabbath

You know, it is an amazing thing when God grabs a hold of your life. I am so amazed at the fact that He would take the time:) What an awesome God!!! Truly Amazing. Well, as you know it's Sabbath again, my most favorite day, a day when I can sit down and talk about the amazing love of my Heavenly Father, and all His goodness:) Yesterday I learned that sometimes the problems we face in life are only problems until we allow God to be in control and face them with us. The only way to get true love is to pray for it. That's what I did last night, and God gave me the love and encouragement I needed. I was able to relate with my earthly dad on a much deeper level, by asking him a simple question, and that was: What was it like growing up in this house. (I was at my grandma's house). Jesus is teaching me that there are hurting people all around. Our own families can sometimes be the most neglected, but with the help of Christ, we can recieve that love we need to love someone. That night I also talked with my sister and we shared our thoughts about a lot of things, and truly the Lord is behind it all. I believe that God wants us to connect with one another in ways that we never even dreamed of being able to connect with them. In my own life, He showed me that yesterday, and even though I am a sinful terrible person, Jesus can help. So friend, if you are despairing right now, don't worry, Jesus loves you!:) He wants to give you a big hug right now, why not ask Him into your heart right now. I know that I am. :)

Right Where I Need to Be

I must admit as I sit here typing that I am starting to feel a little bit nervous. Sometimes I wonder if things will ever get better. When I was reading my Bible this morning I read about Jacob and how when Pharoah asked how old he was, he said that his life was short and trouble filled. When I look at my own life, I think, if that's how my life is going to be, then it would be best to put it into the one who can hold all my troubles. God never promised us a problem free life, problems will come. When we are in problems I am learning that this is where God wants us to be, because we are most apt to rely upon Him and not ourselves. Yesterday seemed to be a long day filled with all kinds of exciting things. That is kind of strange though for a day, since we live in Indiana. But it was still interesting. I ended up spending all my time on the computer all day, and did not get much done. By the time lunch came around, I was more than ready to go, and my brother and I went to taco bell. After that we headed over to best buy and looked at the computers for a while, because my brother needed to get an optical mouse for our dad's computer. After finding the cheapest mouse we could find, we headed over to Meijer and went to look for a suitable vaccume bag. As we walked our way down through the massive store filled with all kinds of items for the buyer to purchase, we went to the back and ended up in the vaccum section. Now a lot of times I think that I know what I am talking about so I decided to let my brother know that I knew where the vaccumes were, and that he did not need to ask someone. When it came down to it though I still did not know where I was going, I could only guess and that's how it is with our lives, we can not truly know where we are going, we can only guess. Only God knows!:) Finally we asked for directions and the vaccums ended up on the opposite side of the asile that I thought they would be. As we stood and looked at all the vaccumes, we laughed about which was the best and biggest. The biggest vaccume turned out to be the Dyson D14 Animal. Its cost was an astounding 529 dollars. After choosing an obviously cheaper model we made our way toward the counter. Where I greated the lady who worked at the register. She smiled, and I carried on an innocent fun conversation. Before we finished our conversation I noticed a sign that said "If the cashier does not ask if you want to buy a fountain drink, then you can have one for free." So I continued the conversation with her until she had paid for the goods, then I quickly responded "Where's my free drink?" Now to be totally honest, I don't think it was the nicest thing for me to do, but, I did it anyways. She turned bright read and handed me a white plastic drink cup, then she looked at my brother and asked him if he wanted a drink and said that he could not have one since she asked. I politely returned my drink and continued on out the door with my brother. When we got back, I played more computer. At the end of the day we went back to the building and then invited some friends over to watch a movie with us. In the end it turned out to be a good day. As I watched the movie there was a scene where the people were working in a graveyard, it was a comedy and the people were scared stiff. But the movie kind of brought a point home hard to me, and that is: That is where we end up in the end forever, without Jesus. Jacob said his days were short and full of trouble, even though he lived 130 years. Life that is not eternal is short, no matter how long it may seem at first, but with Christ, we can enjoy life forever. Friend, my prayer for you today is that you will see just how short life can be, and realize that you need Jesus. I need to realize that each and every day, and sometimes I forget. It is at those times when God taps me on the shoulder and reminds me:) No matter how we look at life, it is best to spend it in God's hands.

Back in Indiana

Well, the first day of my mission trip to Indiana has consisted of getting up and going to work, and now as I sit here on the work computer typing, I wonder what things God has in store for me during this time. I know that He is the one who orchastrated my return here, and I am sure that He has great plans! I had an awesome ride back up to Indiana yesterday. The reason that it was so awesome, was because of constant prayer. My only hope is that today can be just like yesterday as far as prayer goes. I need to be honest, lately I haven't been "feeling" very spiritual, but I know that we are not to go off of feelings, but on God's promises. When I got back I decided to go and see my dad. He was busy working on stone last night so I didn't get to talk to him much. I invited him to come to the lake but he was too busy. Last night I ended up staying with my brother and his friend as they ate fish, I layed on a hammock that was nestled between two trees by a lake on our property. As I watched my friend and my brother just talk to each other, I was struck with an overwhelming sense of the futility of materialism, and where it will take us. Without God life has little meaning to it, and I have slowly begun to realize that more and more. Even though it is not easy being back here, I know that this is where God has called me to be and He will help me through the rough times in my life. No matter what, constant prayer is a must. Friend, if you are going through a rough time, just remember that God loves you and wants you to get through whatever you are going through. Sometimes the things that God calls us back to are not the easiest to deal with, but if you and I put our hand in Jesus hand and talk to Him, He will get us through.

Just Ask

How do we become more like Christ? The question has been on my mind for a long time and I really have not understood the answer, but God has been lovingly showing me His character. I know that I am no where near perfect, but I do know that all I need to do to get the comfort and understanding that no one on earth could ever give me is to ask. All I need to do to be able to love others is ask. Instead of being so afraid, just ask for the peace of Jesus. Ask to be like Him:) He will do that in your life. In my mind, I was afraid this morning, and then I asked God for those things I need: Peace, Love, Joy, Happiness, Kindness. The fruits of the Spirit. We cannot get them by an act, we need to accept that they are a gift from the Father, Son, and Spirit. In your life, you cannot attain them, because you are imperfect, but... ask God to give them to you. When you fail, don't be discouraged, Jesus still holds out His loving hands to you and wants you to know that He cares and accepts you.:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we areyet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:15-17

Sabbath is So Special

Do you know why I like the Sabbath so much? I like the Sabbath because it is a time when we can have one on one time with the Man Himself, Jesus Christ. Hey, if anyone is reading this, I would just like you to know that you have a Savior and constant friend who can help you through all of the difficulties that you are going through. As a pastor friend told me today: Just call out to God and He will get you out of your confusion. It takes a while to be able to recognize God's voice, but if you are willing, He is willing to teach you to listen. I praise His name for that. This morning I was having my devotions and at the end of my devotions I had a prayer where I was pouring out all my desires before God. At the end of the prayer I prayed for peace of mind no matter what way things went. As soon as I said "Amen" I hit my head on the top of the bunk bed as I went to lay back down. My head still throbbing, I asked God why this had happened. During the course of the day I was listening to a radio program called "Down Gilead Lane". The story was about a girl who was a missionary. To her it seemed that everything that could go wrong was going wrong. In the end though, she realized that God was merely helping her rely upon Him. Sometimes bad things in life happen, but it is no reason to give up on God. He never said it would be easy, but He did promise that He would be with us through the storm. Reader, you can know that today! You can know that He will be right next to you all the way. Just talk to Him right now and ask Him to be your friend, and He will. Life has sooo much more meaning when God is in it. That is why I love the Sabbath sooo much. I believe that the Sabbath is a time to worship God as the creator of the universe. Exodus 20:8,9 talks about that wonderful day. If you are contemplating whether or not to keep it, know for a fact that Jesus kept it, just read the Gospels to find out:)

Have a Happy Sabbath

Be content with what you have :)

Well it's independence day already, and as I sit here at my computer, I am wondering how to get through the pain of being single. The last relationship that I had with a girl turned out not so good. I knew that we were just not meant for each other to begin with, but I kept trying and trying to make it work... oh well, I guess things don't always work out. Now I'm trying to get used to the grind of working and consuming myself with other activities. I really like people and interacting with them, I think they are very cool! So I guess that is what the answer is. As I was reading my Bible this morning, I was struck with the thought that I should be content with what God has given me right now, and not worry about the rest, because He knows already what He has in store for me... still I must admit it can be hard to wait. Sometimes I just want the person in my arms right away. It is so easy to get caught up in all that, and I do realize that this is not going to solve the problem. Well, that's about it for the day:P