Category: LIVE

A Brighter Day Ahead

The world seems like it is getting progressively darker. It seems that wherever you look there is just bad stuff happening. It’s tough to look through the gloom of darkness and find the light. But there is always brightness ahead if you really look for it.

My brightness right now is my new granddaughter. Whenever the gloom surrounds me I pull out the latest picture of her on my phone and the brightness comes through. But there is always the brightness of God that breaks through any darkness. Jesus is there to save us and the Spirit to empower us through the darkness. They are always a constant in life breaking through the doom and gloom.

If you feel there is nothing that breaks through the gloom just reach for God. He—Father, Savior, and Spirit—are always a constant in your life. You just need to call out to God for a helping hand to lift you through the gloom. God is always there, less than a heartbeat away.

Enjoy the weekend breaking through the gloom!

Power of Negative Thinking

You have heard it said that there is power in positive thinking. Think positive thoughts and positive outcomes follow. Well, I’m here to tell you that there is power—and a LOT of it!—in negative thinking. Negative thinking is like a cancer that spreads until… well until you are in a figurative hole, at best.

The devil (or whatever you call evil in this world) loves to whisper negative thoughts into your ear. The negative thoughts build on each other until you are paralyzed in hatred, fear, or any other negative outcome. Again, negative thinking is a cancer that keeps growing until it crowds out any positive thoughts.

There is a very simple, easy way to stop the negative thoughts. Simply turn to God. He is less than a heartbeat away, always. You just have to turn to Him and ask for help. It’s that easy. Trust me. There is no complexity here. Just simplicity.

Don’t let the negative thinking and its power drag you down. FIGHT it. LISTEN for/to God because He is always there to help. Trust me. Try it. No, try Him.

Have a POSITIVE week ahead. And prayers for all those impacted by the wildfires! My heart goes out to all.

Resolutions

It’s that time again for New Year resolutions (that typically fall by the way side a week or two out!). All the usual things like dieting, eating healthy, etc., etc., etc. Yea, I’m already pretty good in the exercise category but in the healthy category I need to drink less soda (I don’t drink coffee; hi-test soda is my coffee) and more water. But my number one resolution is to stop looking at people from the outside—what they look like, what clothes they wear—and look at them from the inside.

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

This is my guiding light for my 2025 (and beyond) resolution. I want to look past the outward person and look at the inward person. It’s actually a pretty simple concept but sure is difficult to implement. I’m sure I will screw up time and time again but I will go back to this Bible verse about God telling Samuel to look past everything in selecting the unimposing David as His king.

I wish you the best in following your own resolutions.

Here’s to the very best for a blessed, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Is Christmas Over?

No. Every day is Christmas if you wake each day celebrating the birth of Christ in you. A new day is a new birth. It’s that simple.

Regardless of what you did the day before, if you repent what you did wrong and ask God for forgiveness, you are forgiven. And the next day will be the birth of Jesus in your heart, if you just allow it.

Christmas is not over if you celebrate the birth of Jesus in your heart each day. And New Year resolutions are meaningless if you approach each day as the New Year, resolving to put sin behind you and Jesus in front of you.

Celebrate Christmas today, tomorrow, and every day in the New Year!

Unload Your Burdens

What a great New Year’s resolution: Unload all your burdens in life. How and where to unload? The answer is on whom to unload them.

David said, “Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.” (Psalms 55:23)

Jesus underscored this to Himself by telling us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

I wrote the other day about surrendering to Jesus. Completely and totally. When you surrender to Him you off lift your burdens to Him. You give Jesus your burdens and He gives you peace and joy in return. The burdens are gone as long as you really and truly surrender.

If you are bogged down with burdens in life, make this your New Year’s resolution: Unload your burdens on Jesus. Surrender to Him. Your burdens will be gone and in their place will be peace and joy. Don’t believe it? Try it.

Don’t know how to surrender to Jesus? Simply open up to Him and tell Jesus that you surrender to Him. True surrender means you are walking in love. Just as Jesus commanded.

I’ll be back before Christmas but in the meantime start unloading those burdens.

Enjoy the week ahead!

Sin, Repent & Move On.

You sinned. We all sin. We’re human. Sinning is a part of life. We may try to be perfect but we are imperfect, even though a perfect God created us. So, when you sin, repent. Then, move on. I’m not making light of sin. But dwelling on your sins is like quicksand—you will never escape. Sin will suck you under. So, you have to repent and move forward.

When you repent, it has to be the real deal. It’s not just a “Hey God, I’m sorry.” It’s deep in your soul sorry. You truly repent and do everything to sin no more. But we do sin, and often commit the same sin over and over again. But you have to call for God to help you stop sinning. Repent. For real!

When we wallow in our guilt we just get stuck and can’t move forward. The devil loves to whisper in our ears that we are bad and need to feel guilt. He wants our hands tied, and feet as well, stuck in place. That’s why we need to truly repent and move forward.

When you repent, understand that Jesus has already died on the cross for your sins. They are gone. But you have to repent to close the deal. Jesus didn’t die for all sins—past present, and future—on a whim. He did it to remove sin from the world—when we repent. That’s the trick.

So, repent and move on. Repent and move on. You’re free.

Enjoy the week ahead as we approach the birth of our Christ!

Satan Laughing All the Way to Hell!

There is so much hatred in this world that surely Satan/Lucifer/devil/whatever (you call evil) is having a field day. If it’s one war or another, or the U.S. elections, hatred is being spewed all over the place. God must be shaking His head thinking it’s as bad as it gets. Satan is saying to all those fighting, mocking others, lying, etc., “Come on down!” And down they will be going.

I don’t even know what to say. God commanded us to love. Jesus’ last commandment was to love. We are doing the exact opposite. That’s why the number of true Christians in this world are a vanishing breed. It’s that simple.

Where this goes is not good. Trust me. You’ll see. There will be a lot of suffering with all this hatred. Nothing like this in history turns out OK.

I’d like to be more upbeat but this is what it is. You’ll see. We are going down. Way down.

I’m doing my best to stay positive. Any negative thought, situation, or person is out of my life. I’m doing my best to buck the trend.

I hope you too are bucking the trend!

Don’t Beat Yourself Up!

When I do something wrong—and that’s often—I tend to beat myself up. Call it Catholic guilt or whatever but I just beat the daylights out of me. I’m now determined to stop the beating. That’s because once I review what I did wrong, confess it and am really sorry, and pledge to don’t do it again, I move on. Jesus died for my wrongs and left them hanging on the cross. So, by asking for forgiveness I receive forgiveness.

Yes, it’s that simple.

Let’s face it. We are all humans, which means by nature we are all sinners. We make mistakes. We are far from perfect. But the trick is knowing when you did something wrong, really understanding it, and asking for forgiveness, it’s time to move on.

There is a simple message in all of this. Don’t beat yourself up. Jesus doesn’t want you to beat yourself up. He just wants you to know what you did wrong and ask for forgiveness. Your sins are already forgiven when you do that. No beating necessary. That doesn’t solve the problem.

And I have a news flash. The devil wants you to beat yourself up. Over and over again. He doesn’t want you to ask for forgiveness and to move on. He wants your stuck in the mud beating yourself up. He wins, you lose.

Have a great week ahead and DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP!!!

Hope Springs Eternal!

If you lose hope you lose life. But you never should lose hope because God hardwired hope into each one of us. It truly springs eternal in us, for now and forever.

If you lose hope you simply need to turn to God and you will have hope. It’s the hope that you can overcome anything in this life, do anything. That’s the message of hope. It springs eternal!

I know this all sounds too simple but it is. God made us to have simple lives but we complicate them. He is always there for us but we are most often now there for Him.

“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” Revelation‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬ ‭

Keep your hope alive. Let God into your life. He keeps the flame of hope lit. Hope that you will realize your purpose in life and the hope that eternity awaits when you depart this earth.

Hope! It springs eternal to eternity.

Talk About Yourself, Not Others

There is too much pointing fingers and talking about the other person, rather than looking inward and talking about ourselves. Regardless of whether its on the political campaign trail, in the media, or in the neighborhood, the amount of finger pointing and talking about the other person is at an all time high. No one does anything wrong anymore. It’s always the other person. I’m always the victim. Not!

We all need to stop talking about others and start talking to ourselves about ourselves. What are we doing wrong? How are we sinning? How are we putting ourselves before others?

Paul said it all too well in his letter to the Ephesians (4:29)…

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

News flash! Don’t expect God to forgive your sins until you forgive others. That means no talking about others. The only person you should be talking about to you is you. Look inward as to what is wrong. Not outward.

Enjoy the weekend and the week ahead!