God’s path is simple, straight, and clear. It’s a walk in love and there is a spring in your step. Your view is outward to others. You’re not a puppet on a string but by your own free will you let God lead.

Your path is more of a maze. You’re absorbed in self and carry a lot of excess baggage. You’re the leader but you really have no idea where you are going. You keep hitting dead ends. It’s tiring.

I’ve walked my own path for a long time. It’s not pretty. You feel lost. Even today when I try to follow God’s path in life every once in a while I find myself back in my own maze. That’s because I start focusing on myself, rather than God and others. When you start looking inward you lose sight of God and his path.

Sound too unreal? It’s not. I’m writing this because just this past weekend I lost my way and found I was on the wrong path once again. I was too self-absorbed. How to get back on God’s path? As I like to say, “Let go, let God.” What that means is to get the focus off of myself and look at others. Let go of myself and let God lead. Start by feeling the love that God showers on us and let it flow to others. Smile. Do something nice for somebody today. Give of yourself, not to yourself. Contemplate some scripture and converse with God. Smell God’s roses. Follow the Real Secrets to Life—LISTEN, READ, LOVE, FIGHT, BELIEVE, LIVE, and PRAY—because they keep you squarely on God’s path.

At the end of God’s path is eternity—a heaven beyond anything we can imagine. There is no end to my path—just a bunch of dead ends and what ifs.

I hope you are on the right path today!

That describes my life—drowning in complexity—until I found what I call the Real Secrets to Life. What the Real Secrets to Life help me do is focus my life back on God, and to put him right at the center of it. Trust me—I’m not living on some idealistic cloud. I have my bad days and bumps in the road just like everyone else. However, I have found seven simple words that help me clear away the life clutter when things get tough. And at the very center of those Real Secrets to Life is God. So the secrets help me get back to God.

The Real Secrets to Life are simple—that’s the whole point. Listen, read, love, fight, believe, live, and pray. What can be simpler?

LISTEN because God is calling to you—yes, you! READ the Bible because it has life answers. LOVE because God is love and commands us to live in love. FIGHT because the devil is all too real and whispering doubt and other temptations in your ear. BELIEVE that you can do anything. LIVE knowing this life is just the opening act to eternity, And PRAY simply because it works—God is listening.

Our problem is as we age we accumulate so much excess baggage in our lives. Not just a lot of things but also mental clutter. Add some of the devil’s doubt whispered in our ears and everything gets out of focus. The path to God gets obscured and even blocked.

So, unclutter. The Real Secrets to Life help me keep my life centered and simple. And when times get tough, as they do on occasion, they help me get my focus on what should be the center of my life—God.

I hope the Real Secrets to Life help you. That’s why I write this blog and try to tweet thoughts during the week. If one other person gets something out of this then I have accomplished something. At the very least, the someone getting something out of my thoughts is me.

Have a great day and an even better week! 

If we take away the mothers we stop to exist as a people. Think about that for a few minutes. Without the mothers we don’t go on. So, let’s at least today remember that and treat our moms extra special. They deserve it.

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.
Proverbs 31:28

May all of the mothers out there be blessed this day and all the days to come. Thank you for being you!

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Colossians 4:5-6

Have a GREAT day, especially in your dealings with others! Just thought this verse would help. 

I’m not lecturing to you. In fact, I’m first talking to myself. There is nothing we can’t do in life. However, I know that as you read this you are thinking about all the things you can’t do. That’s the problem—our minds go to the negatives before the positives. We want to put down the possibilities before we even think about them.

Doubt is a true cancer. It seeps into our lives, grows, and crowds out all that is possible. God told us to have faith and not to doubt.

You of little faith, why did you doubt? Matthew 14-31

One of my top little thoughts is, Let go, let God. Meaning, let go of yourself and let God work within you. If you give into God he will clear the fog of doubt from your life. Then, you will be able to clearly see all of the possibilities in front of you.

Have a GREAT day, doubt free and full of faith. I believe in you!

Huh? What’s football have to do with anything about the Bible? A lot. Tim Tebow not only talks the Bible, like so many do, he actually walks it, like so few do. As someone who openly blogs and tweets about God, I have to be completely honest that even to me Tim Tebow’s pronouncements about Jesus Christ as his Savior can be disarming. They flow so naturally that you either question his sincerity or question your own.

Unlike so many athletes who point heavenly after scoring a touchdown in acknowledgment of God—or because it’s a cool fad—Tim Tebow praises the Lord in his actions (a knee and a prayer) and talk (after-game interview). If the NFL didn’t disallow it, you would see Tim Tebow wear the eye-black with his favorite Bible verses, as he did in college.

People get downright angry debating Tim Tebow’s ability, or lack thereof, to play quarterback in the NFL—significantly, more so than any other player. That’s because it’s not just the football, it’s Tim Tebow’s faith. Those who don’t have it get annoyed by it and those who say they have it realize inside they don’t—at least not on the same level as being able to profess that Jesus Christ is your Savior in front of millions.

Apparently, Tim Tebow has spent the offseason getting in the best shape of his life. He has lost weight and worked with quarterback coaches to change/improve his throwing mechanics. According to reports, the results are outstanding. So, will an NFL team take a look at an improved version of someone who has already proven himself as a winner in the league or look the other way because of what Tim Tebow brings in him?

It’s funny but we’re all more comfortable with bad boys who sleep around, have more cars than they can drive in a lifetime, and talk about themselves as near godly. Satan sure feels good about that because he loves negative role models for our children. All of us, especially many self-professed Christians, are more uneasy with the Tim Tebows of the world because they disarm us—as God did Job and does us. They make us reflect on ourselves, as God pushes us to do.

Think this is all about football? Think again. Sport just reflects life.

I’ll leave you with a great inspirational Bible verse. Oh yea, it’s one of Tim Tebow’s favorites.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Phillippians 4:13

Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. Job 30:26

The funny thing is that I have been prodded by God to write several articles and tweets about turning away from God. I thought I was supposed to be helping others. Now, I realize that my writings were first for me.

When we lose touch with God, or never get close to Him in the first place, our way gets lost. It’s almost impossible to put the world in context, including all of the horors of Sandy Hook and Boston. God truly is a light shining the way on a path that is too dark without Him. I have been down the dark path the past few weeks and don’t want to stay on it. It’s a road to nowhere.

We get so busy and lost in our own business that God and others around us become an afterthought, at best. This life and everything in it becomes the only reason for being. We may not realize it at first but that road becomes a very dark dead in.

God never leaves us; we leave Him by turing our backs away from the light and to the darkness. I just turned back around and the brillance, warmth, and clarity of God are overpowering and reassuring. God is always there waiting with open arms.

And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! And they began to celebrate. Luke 15:23-24

I wish you a blessed, God-filled day. If you are feeling the least bit confused or down, just turn a little to God. You’ll see the light.

O send out your light and truth; let them lead me. Psalm 43:3

“Do you love me?” John 21:17

I’m hearing Jesus’ question to Peter ring in my ears as I start this new week. You certainly don’t love someone you spend little time with, much less just thinking about during the day. Satan loves to stroke the fires under our busy lives so that we blot out all time for God. Spending less time with God is a big win for the devil. And, we may not know it, but spending less time with God is a huge loss for us.

God never goes anywhere. He is always less than a heartbeat away. We are the ones who turn our backs on God. This precious world of ours becomes way too important and more real than some seemingly untouchable higher being. That’s why so many things in this world are so very wrong and out of control. The Bible tells some great stories of what happened to the Israelites’ precious world every time they turned their back on God.

This past week was a step back for me and a big wakeup call. I simply don’t want to live a life where God—Father, Son, and Spirit—are not at the center of it. A life lived without God is a life not lived—it’s a dead end.

I’m making time for God this week. Not just pockets of time but trying to bring God back into the center of my life.

Have a great, God-filled week!

I think that deserves more than a little thanks!

In fact, Jesus didn’t save a faceless “mankind.” He saved you and me individually. Jesus lived and died for each one of us. He is our personal Savior. If you really think about that for a minute it is mind-boggling. And the more you contemplate the enormity of that the more it should drive you to give thanks. Not just once a day or on occasion, but almost constantly.

We get so busy and into ourselves that we forget to step back and look at the big picture. Jesus is in each one of us guiding us to a better life now and to eternity. We get a free pass for every wrong we have and will commit, as long as we realize what we have done and ask forgiveness. The human side of us is filled with imperfection. Thankfully, the God side within us helps us fight past the imperfect.

Get in touch with your inner Jesus, first by thanking Jesus for all that he has done for you. Feel the enormity of what he has done and is doing in your life. You’ll experience a whole new perspective on life. Guaranteed. You just need to take the time, and open up your heart and mind.

Have a fantastic, Jesus-filled day and week ahead!

Their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Luke 24:16

On the way to Emmaus two disciples were deep in discussion, in their own worlds and did not recognize Jesus when he walked up to them. That’s pretty ironic because what they were talking about was Jesus and the events surrounding the Crucifixion.

What was it that kept them from recognizing Jesus? Did he dye his hair? We certainly know he wasn’t wearing glasses 2000 years ago.

I think the same thing that kept the disciples from seeing Jesus in Jesus is what keeps us from seeing God—Father, Son, and Spirit—in every living person around us. We are so self-absorbed and into our own worlds that we can’t see past the surface in others to see God.

God is all around us. Every day. He created each one of us and is in each of us—woven into the fiber of our being. The problem is we rarely look past the surface of others. We are guided by outward appearance, not inward. It takes work to look through the surface to see God in everyone.

Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Our answer to the question should be a resounding, “Yes—I see God everywhere in everyone!” But it takes work; an effort we don’t often make.

Today, try to see God in at least one person. Just one. You’ll be amazed at the result if you make the effort.

Have a great, God-filled day!