The Light of God

This was wrote November 22nd, 2006

The Light of God

            What is light? It is the opposite of darkness. It is something that illuminates things that are surrounded by darkness. Where does light come from? There are many sources of light. Some are man made such a flash light and some are made by God like the sun or a fire fly. Then you have the light of God. The light of God is unlike any other. It surpasses all others. The sun or even the brightest light made by man can only spread light in an area. Darkness is still there. It exists in shadows, around the other side of things, under them, behind them. The light of God removes darkness completely. The light of God fills the smallest space or even the largest.

            God is the light of the world. That statement has many meanings. He is the light of the world because He is the hope of man who struggles in darkness and evil on earth. When a man has God in his life then he is filled with God’s light. The darkness, the evil cannot exist where God is. God fills that mans soul and heart completely. A man who doesn’t have God in his life has a heart and soul filled with darkness where evil runs rampant. Only through God can a man find his way down the narrow path. There are those who think they can do it on their own. I tell you that only the light of God can show you the way to avoid the snares of the evil one that lie before you.

            God is the light of the world because when the new heaven and the new earth are created there will be no night. There will be no darkness. The light of God will illuminate the world so that darkness cannot exist and evil will be found no more. We will be wrapped in the light of God, always with him, always surrounded by his love.

            God is the light of the world because he is righteous. God is everything good and pure. He is the opposite of darkness and evil. God’s light can exist anywhere but darkness can only exist where God’s light is not. Evil can only exist where God is not.

            When you have God in your life and have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior then you have the light of God. The light of God will shine through you so that you can be a beacon to those who are still lost in the darkness. We continue the work started by Jesus. Rejoice that you can be a part of God’s plan.  

 

Absolutely Amazing

This was wrote November 19th, 2007 when Nikki and I had moved back to Winnsboro and I had lost my job. To say that we were struggling financially doesn't do it justice.

Absolutely Amazing

Why is it that we doubt God? How can we get up each morning and see the sun rising and not know that God is there? How can we see the stars at night fill the sky and not know that God created that? I am so ashamed of the doubt I have felt at times. It is even worse because God has made His presence known to me in so many ways but yet a little twinge of doubt remains. I struggle with this as I know many of my Christian brothers and sisters do as well.

My wife and I are going through a difficult financial situation. We are facing tough times with Christmas fast approaching and three little boys wish lists that grow each day. My wife was struggling with this today and the worry had overcome her. I found her crying when I came home for lunch. She was so upset about me losing my job and what are we going to do. As for me, God has blessed me with this inner peace that could only come from Him. I told her to trust in God and He will see us through this. With Him we can make it, without Him we are surely lost. Please understand that the gravity of the situation we are facing is enormous and I realize it all to well but I also realize that God can move mountains with a simple thought.

After we talked for a minute, she had pushed the dark thoughts from her mind and had set her focus back on God. She had to go to Shreveport and take one of our boys to the doctor. This also creates a struggle since we now only have one vehicle. I am helping my dad with his store so she dropped me off on the way.

My job search has been less than productive. I had been talking to McKee foods about a Little Debbie distributorship. I had talked to the district manager and he said he was going to talk to me but then I called and called and he wouldn’t return my calls. That has been over a week now. Well, guess who came in my dads store after I was dropped off…the district manager. We talked and he apologized for not calling me and said he was so glad that he ran into me. Hello God! So now I have an application in my hand and am moving full steam ahead. I called my wife and told her and the news made her day so much better. It is times like these that we must hold onto God with all our strength.

So this evening, I am waiting on my wife to get home and thinking about the days events. I wanted to write but then I thought about our computer and its software problems. I have tried and tried to get Microsoft Word going (I must have tried a hundred times!) but this evening I sat down and clicked it once…Hello God! It loaded up just like there has never been a problem! I know God is smiling down from Heaven. It is a small thing but I sure love how my God shows up!

God is with us. He surrounds us. He wants to help us through this life but we have to do our part. We have it easy…all we have to do is to love and be faithful to God who created the heavens and the earth and who has built a place for us in eternal paradise. Think about it from God’s point of view. He loves a much less than perfect sinner, who forgets who created him, sees miracles on a daily basis but doesn’t give credit for it, who gets caught up in daily life and forgets what happened on the cross and the list goes on and on. God loves me anyway. He loves you. We all have our faults but they are forgiven. The price has been paid. Jesus laid His life down so that we could be forgiven and accepted by God. How great is our God!

Father, hear this sinners plea. I am so unworthy of Your love yet You sent Your Son to carry the burden so I can be with You in Your kingdom. Forgive me Father. Forgive me for the doubt that swirls in my mind. Forgive me for wandering through my life thinking I am in control. The glory and the honor are Yours Father. Only You can make things wonderful. It is only through You that things can be wonderful. I long to be in Your presence. I long to hear You call my name. Your Blessed Word fills my heart with hope and strength to carry on until that wonderful day.

Absolutely Amazing

Thoughts of Heaven

I awake to find myself lying on a beach, the waves gently rolling up on the shore. A breeze so light and fragrant swirls softly around me. Wisps of white clouds lazily drift by across a brilliant blue sky and speak of serenity. My mind wonders at where I am at but yet I feel a peaceful calm throughout my being. In the distance I see Him walking towards me down the shore. His robe, His hair wave in the breeze and then I see His smile. My heart leaps. I try to stand before Him, but I fall to my knees. Jesus reaches down and pulls me to my feet. As I rise and look at the face of God, I hear the most beautiful words I have ever heard. With a smile He says “Welcome Home”.

…can you imagine this? Hold on to God and one day you will hear Him tell you “Welcome Home”

I pray that God will hold you and keep you and forever call you His.     

New Life

This was wrote May 7th, 2007 while Nikki and I lived in Bossier City, LA and attended First Baptist Bossier.

New Life

When did this happen? How did this happen? Where is it? Ever find yourself asking those questions? They seem to come when you least expect them and if you are like me, they come when you can’t answer them.

Where did the money go?.....

Why did this have to happen?.....

How did this happen to us?.....

I don’t know how we came to this place but here we are. Gut check time. How is your faith today, hmm? Is it Army of God strong or Judas weak? I have found that my personal problems like to hit me when it has already been a bad day. I woke up late. My boss is being a jerk to me. My wife said I had to take out the trash today! My internal ‘spirit’ tank is dangerously close to empty. And then it happens. My beautiful wife will ask me a simple question. It will be something along the lines of “Will you handle the kids tonight, I am stressed out”.

Tick tick tick……….BOOM!

But that was the old me. In all reality it wasn’t that long ago, but you know what? Jesus can change you in the blink of an eye and you are changed. He changed me. The funny thing is I am sitting here now wondering “when did this happen?” It happened in God’s time. It happened according to His plan. It happened when He wanted it to. I am sure my wife’s prayers for me to be a better man helped out with the timing.

Since this change happened, I have begun volunteering in the media department in the church. I have never been better spiritually. The feeling I get from serving God and the church is amazing. It is such a blessing to know you are actively participating in God’s plan. This is the blissful beginning. The true test is can you hang on when things aren’t perfect? Let me explain.

My wife (who is wonderful by the way, love you Honey!), has a friend who is a Christian and she is struggling. The small church she belongs to has become infected with fighting among groups. She is caught up in it. The fighting is tearing them all apart. It is destroying the small church. The devil knows his task well. They have lost sight of the true goal. In their attempt to get closer to God they have wound up farther away. They are frustrated with the situation and it affects them deeply……how did this happen to us?

Can’t we all just get along? The sad answer is no. The painful answer is no. Even though we try so hard to live like Christ did, the answer is still no. We try so hard to follow His teachings but yet the answer is still no. We think we are above petty fighting and then we find ourselves right smack in the middle of it. We look down on someone in the church because of what they have on. We talk about people because of the answer they gave to a question in Sunday school class.

Why? First because we are sinners and we just aren’t able to live above sinning. Now whether we sin little or we sin BIG is controllable, but we find there is lots of gray area and it is just a little sin we are doing today or so we think. What we are not thinking about is the person we told this to will go tell someone else and soon the person we were down on gets hammered. What we don’t see is that that person was already struggling and then comes the KO punch from us. Great Christians we are. Keep thumping that chest and walking around with a greater than thou air. The devil is like an excited movie producer screaming “Fabulous! Just as I imagined it!” Jesus looks at His hands and weeps “they know not what they do…” Can you imagine the depth of His sadness? Now would be a good time to hit your knees and ask for forgiveness. You may not have done this exactly, but we are all guilty of not living as we should. So next time the choice presents itself, what will you do?

Second is because many of us like to choose when we are going to be Christians. Whatever do you mean by that? Come take a walk with me to camera 4. Working in the media department has shown me things I had never seen before. Camera 4 is up on the stage and behind the preacher. I see what he sees. I see the head nods, the cross eyed daze right before snoring, the gum smackers, the eye rollers and the generally just not impressed. I felt so sorry for our pastor when I saw this. How hard must it be for him to stand up there and do his best when this is what he sees? Can you imagine standing before that many people and they all have one of the above expressions on their faces? The pastor can do it because he knows there might be one in the audience who is lost and this is his chance to bring them to God. This might be the last chance. They could walk out of the sanctuary and get in their car and get into an accident. So close to knowing Jesus but forever lost.  

I have to admit and my wife would tell you that I was pretty hard on the audience about their faces. I just couldn’t believe it. How dare they! Holier than thou was in full bloom! It didn’t take long for God to make it clear to me that it is not my place to judge them. It is my place to love them and to do what I can to help them stay on the path because sooner or later it will be me that has wandered off the path. It just might be one of them that will guide me back to the path. Maybe the cross eyed, eyes rolling back in your head, right before you snore guy will be the one who helps me. He who has not done this can throw the first stone but I can tell you I won’t be picking up any stones! My wife says Amen.

Anyway you want to look at it, we are going to face the why, where and how of things as we go through life. The most important thing to remember is who and that is Jesus. Who will save me? Jesus. Who will lead me through this? Jesus. Who cares what is happening to me? Jesus.

There are so many that don’t know Him. We are the lucky ones. We know Him. We have eternity with Jesus to look forward to. It is like when you know you are taking a trip to a wonderful place and the weeks leading up to it, you are so excited. You can’t wait to go. The catch with the vacation is that you have to come back. When we go to Jesus, we will be there forever in paradise.

We have been given the New Life. We should do everything we can to help our brothers and sisters in Christ stay on the path and together go into the world bringing the lost to Jesus.

Jesus died for us, let’s live for him.  

Living In Faith

This was wrote on May 3rd, 2007 while Nikki and I were living in Bossier City, La and attending First Baptist Bossier.

Living in Faith

It has been sometime now since I have written anything in here. That is sad to me. The sad part is all the wonderful experiences I have had with God and haven’t put them on paper. What’s even worse is that I know I will forget them. God has touched my life like I can’t believe. It is amazing. I am not rich in worldly sense or anything like that but I am rich in spirit. I feel so alive inside. More than I have felt since I was a young child. The empty space inside of me has been filled with the spirit of God.

I recently began serving the church in the media department. So far I have directed one service (me…can you believe it!) and I have operated several of the cameras in different services. It has been the most rewarding thing. I have never felt better about my choices in life. Choosing to serve God and getting to be part of His ministry is absolutely amazing. Last night, I operated camera 3 and we filmed a DVD for the kids. They put on a program. There were lots of moms and dads along with a bunch of grand parents. My kids weren’t up there but I was just as proud of them as everyone else. You see, we are all one family in Christ. That is a wonderful feeling.

What I would give to have back all the years I have wasted wondering lost, blind to the things that are really important. How many blessings have passed me by? How many times have I not heard His call? How many people could I have witnessed to and who would be serving the Lord now? How many have since gone on and it is too late for them now?

 Every second is important. It only takes a moment to win a soul for Jesus, to open the doors of Heaven to them. I fully plan on making my remaining days here count.

God has been so good to me. He has used my faith to build a bridge back to my wife and my children. With his guidance I am finally becoming the husband and father I should have always been.