We Have A Trust Issue!

This morning I was having breakfast and thinking about trust.  I believe our biggest issue we face is trusting others and God.  Our “self reliance” has reached a level of personal dependency that we believe we can do everything without having to trust anything or anyone, especially God.  Call it selfishness if you will, but people, beg, borrow and steal to maintain self-control of things in life rather than rely on God and others for anything. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Question: Do you trust the Lord in your life?

Being Skilled for the Battle

After reading the Daily Diary about the “Tip of the Sword”. A good friend of mine sent me a follow up Question:  “To win games or be a master swordsman, you need to be skilled.  What does it mean to be a skilled Christian?  What are the skills of a Christian?”

First of all we have no ability to fight the enemy and also no skills without God.  He is the complete source for our strength as Christians!  We fight the good fight of FAITH!

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

We Need Truth!

It is our nature as people to seek peace. This is difficult when society is telling us to do whatever we want and its “OK”.  It also is forcing us to accept "Everything" as truth.  

When this happens it causes everyone to live by “His or Her” own foundation while creating confrontation and conflict because a selfish foundation is not rooted in God's “Truth”. 

Psalm 52:2-4 You who practice deceit,
   your tongue plots destruction;
    it is like a sharpened razor.
³ You love evil rather than good,
    falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
⁴ You love every harmful word,
    you deceitful tongue!

2 Timothy 4:4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Press On!

When we grow in Faith we begin to want more and more of God’s plan because we have discovered that it’s better than ours.  Some questions I began to ask are “What is important in Life”?  How can I obtain everything God created me to have?

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thingI do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

God is good and to have all that He has for us we must press on!  The bible tells us that we will have tribulation.

Are You Complete?

When Jesus finished the work of God at the cross our salvation was complete.  It became our responsibility to seek and walk out this finished work.

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;¹⁰ and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Break Free

We live in a world of people that is primarily lost and deceived.  This implies that if we are seeking God we are not in the “Norm”.

Webster’s Dictionary

normal |ˈnôrməl|

adjective

1 conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected

Question:  Are You Normal?

Matthew 9:35-36 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Confession of Christ

As we go through life our actions and thoughts are either displaying our confession of Christ as savior or displaying our fleshly nature.  If we are walking in humility and in faith that Jesus is our Lord then we are an example of Him who is righteous, and we are not trying to portray righteousness from our own selfish nature.

Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Perfect Game

As baseball season unfolds I was led to repost a chapter from my book called "The Perfect Game".  We need to remember the value of sports and how it relates to life and what we truly learn during the process of a season.

As the author of this book, it is my goal to send the message that at times we all fail. I have failed many times, sometimes miserably. By coaching the sport of baseball, I have been able to look at the substance of this game and what makes it special. “Special” is often a hard word to define. I believe the word “special,” when it comes to the sport of baseball, refers to the difficulties of the sport.

Power in the Name of Jesus

In the day of Jesus people worshiped so many things including idols and names of different self proclaimed God’s.  Whether we realize it or not we are guilty today of some of the same things. We also don’t understand the consequences of our choices.  We worship money, houses, cars and especially success.  None of which will bring us eternal gratification.

Jesus came to bring us a relationship that would give us power from our true heavenly father.  This power would be complete and our source of strength throughout our lives.

RECONCILED WITH GOD

Romans 5:9-11 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. ¹⁰ For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Webster’s Dictionary

reconcile |ˈrekənˌsīl|

verb [ trans. ] (often be reconciled)

restore friendly relations between : she wanted to be reconciled with her father | the news reconciled us.

• cause to coexist in harmony; make or show to be compatible : a landscape in which inner and outer vision were reconciled | you may have to adjust your ideal to reconcile it with reality. 

THE OUTWORKING OF LOVE

As we go through our day do we show our love to others by our deeds and from the “TRUTH” of God. 

1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

The deeds and actions, which we display today, can come from a root of love if we choose the Godly path. 

QUESTION: Do we love in truth of God or with selfish intentions?

WHAT WILL YOU EAT?

When it comes to kneeling during the National Anthem, I have my opinion just like everyone else. I am still not certain what the “foundation” of the protest even is. I have heard it change many times and no one takes time to truly explain it.

Maybe deception is taking place.  Is the foundation of the protest hidden in darkness and continuing to change? 

Are we protesting “Racism”, “Police”, “Confederate Flag”, “Tebow”, Robert E. Lee”,  “statues”, “KKK”, “Trump” or just everything that makes us offended? 

I truly don’t know what the protest is.  LOL!  I see grown men who are commentators on TV being so sympathetic to the protest and they can’t even explain it.  LOL!  I am sorry but its sort of humorous.

I assume we are simply “OFFENDED” because we are simply spoiled and want everything OUR way.  If we go back to the BIBLE in the book of Genesis we will see our selfish nature at work when Adam and Eve ate the apple. 

Just Do It!

As the world tries to conform us to the normal standards of “Society” we are faced with decisions to do what’s normal or to make Godly choices based on spiritual things.

When Jesus performed miracles in the bible it required people to do what “He” said. 

John 2:1-5 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.³ And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

⁴ Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”

Are We Deceived?

The more I study the Word and seek God, I learn that we all can be deceived at times.  A lot of the time we actually deceive ourselves.  How you might ask?  People’s pride that comes from their good deeds or works starts to deceive them into thinking they are exempt from sin, or that their reliance is not on Jesus, but on themselves. 

1 John 1:8-10 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

THE REWARD IS WAITING

When the struggles of life seem to get you in a corner its time to move forward.  Your reward is waiting.

Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel?  This saying came from the sport of boxing when a person was getting destroyed in the ring the manager could throw in the towel and end the match.

Philippians 3:13-15Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.