A Christian author helping people come to Jesus, helping people understand the Bible, ministering to a lost and hurting world, and speaking truth to power.
To my Mom, my wife, my sister, and all the Moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day! You are cherished and loved beyond measure! Thank you for all that you have done and all that you do! God bless all the mothers in the world!
My wife with our daughterMy wife with our son
My wife is a Proverbs 31 wife of noble character and I am a blessed man to be married to her. She is a kind and loving mother to our kids and I am very thankful for her. I love you honey!
“A wife of noble character
who can find?
She is worth far more
than rubies.
Her husband has full
confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not
harm,
all the days of her life.”
Proverbs 31:10-12
“Her children arise and call
her blessed;
her husband also, and he
praises her.”
Proverbs 31:28
Our kids back in 2011My wife and kids in 2012Nice day with Grandma (Our kids with my Mom)That’s me at 11 months old (in 1979) playing hide and seek with my Mom.
I grew up with a kind Mom who showered me with love every day and I am forever grateful! I love you Mom!
Have a blessed and encouraging day today celebrating your Mom!
Grace and peace to you all!
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”–which is the first commandment with a promise–“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
There was a vigil in our community earlier this week for the families of the STEM school shooting, but sadly, the vigil did not go well. I am going to be very blunt in this post. Several local democrat politicians showed up and started mouthing off with their anti-gun agenda, and a bunch of people walked out in protest. The vigil was supposed to be for prayer for the families, not politics! All you politicians did was cause more pain. You don’t care about the families. All you wanted to do was pick a fight!
This is Douglas County Colorado. Did you really think a conservative county wants a gaggle of liberals coming into our community blaming us and talking about how you want to take away our guns?! No we do not! Do you really think we are going to sit their while you blame gun owners, conservatives, and the NRA? Nope, we are not! This isn’t California or New York City, so get out! You don’t need to be coming down here into our community when you have more than enough problems that your liberal policies created that you should be taking care of in your liberal “sanctuary city” of Denver.
When are you democrats going to understand that you will never take our guns? We don’t listen to you and we don’t care what you are saying! You kill babies and I’m not ever going to listen to anti-gun lectures from people who kill babies! Got that?! You just come and try to take our guns. You will have to start a second Civil War first and you will lose that fight real bad. Your horde of God hating homosexual agenda baby killers is no match for the people who fear God and we armed to the teeth. You are fighting God Himself with your disgusting sinful agenda and you are headed for destruction, and you have the audacity to point your finger at us and talk about guns?! I don’t think so!
You don’t have that right and you are never taking our right to own guns! What part of “shall not be infringed” do you not understand? Hitler was the one that said, “to conquer a nation first disarm its citizens.” Tyrants want to take away people’s means of self defense! You are tyrants and we see you for who you really are!
The Bible says love always protects and we have the right to protect our families and you will never take that right from us! Our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms comes from God, not you! I pray God stops your agenda of murdering babies and I pray God stops your disgusting gender bending homosexual agenda, which even includes trying to make pedophilia legal now! Does your depravity know no end?! God is not going to stand by while you defile our country as you try to plunge it further and further into depravity. No matter how many times you try to legalize and justify your sins, it will never be okay in God’s eyes! We will fight you and even if I am the last man standing, I will fight you all myself until my very last breath. I pray the Lord convicts you of your sin and saves your souls before you die in your sins separated from God forever.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Don’t you understand that you are the wicked?! You are wicked in your murder of babies, you are wicked in your homosexual sin, and you are wicked in your hatred of God. Don’t ever come down into our community talking your liberal filth! We know you want to take our guns, so you can dominate and control us in your new world order. It’s not about safety for you! You don’t care about our families! You don’t care about our kids–you pass laws to kill more babies! It’s about power for you! We know all about you now and you can’t hide anymore…no matter how many times Bloomberg changes the name of his gun confiscation schemes!
You want to talk about reasons why school shootings happen? How about all the psychotic pharmaceutical drugs that have been pushed on kids for decades now? Just about every shooter has been on those SSRI drugs. They make people go insane and become violent. That is a fact that cannot be hidden anymore.
Let’s talk about your sick homosexual and gender bending agenda that has warped and damaged the minds of millions of young people in our country causing rampant depression and anxiety. These poor kids are so confused, they don’t know what they are doing anymore. We are born male or female, period! Men have certain gifts and abilities and women have certain gifts and abilities and that is the way God made it. The more you try to twist God’s order into some kind of immoral depraved nightmare, the more people will suffer under your lies and sin. You think you have duped the whole country into buying your liberal garbage, but there are millions of us who believe God’s Word and we stand against you.
The problems of this world are due to our sinful nature and no amount of politics can change that. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and we all desperately need a Savior. You kick God out of your lives and you try to kick God out of our country with every political move you make, and you wonder why the country is hurting? Really?! We don’t need Big Pharma’s toxic pills and we sure don’t need anymore of your depraved liberal agenda either!
We were created to need God and we need His love and salvation! The more you kick God out, the worse it will get! You dems go ahead and keep trying to blame and point your finger at conservative gun owners and we’ll just keep saying “Molon Labe!”
Jesus is Lord! You will not win in your fight against God! Repent of your wickedness and receive forgiveness and salvation through Jesus!
God have mercy on your souls.
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:21-24
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23
“From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Kendrick Castillo (Photo courtesy of Maria Castillo via Instagram), The Denver Post
The photo before you is a picture of 18 year old Kendrick Castillo. He was killed while trying to save his friends during the school shooting here in my community yesterday (5-7-19). He was the only fatality and I am asking for prayers to be poured out on the Castillo family. The horrible tragedy at the Highlands Ranch STEM School has hurt us all and this is a time to come together and support each other in love.
I want to give you the link to The Denver Post news article about Kendrick, so you can read what his parents and friends said about him. This young man will forever be a hero. He and another young man (who survived) rushed the adult male shooter and tackled him to the ground. Both young men are heroes and they were both shot multiple times in the encounter. They laid down there lives for their friends, and their bravery, courage, and love stands as a righteous example for us all.
“He was the best kid in the world,” John Castillo said through tears Wednesday morning.
Castillo said Kendrick’s friends and the coroner told him that the 18-year-old and another boy charged one of the shooters once they entered their classroom. The coroner told Castillo his son was a hero, that the gunfire he took would have hurt other people.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Castillo said. “He cared enough about people that he would do something like that, even though it’s against my better judgment.
“I wish he had gone and hid,” Castillo continued, “but that’s not his character. His character is about protecting people, helping people.”
-Sam Tabachnik, The Denver Post
The whole community is heart broken over Kendrick and he deserves to be honored and remembered forever. This tragedy has impacted so many people we know here in our community and hit so close to home. There are teachers my wife works with that have kids who go to that school in Highlands Ranch. They ran out of the school yesterday to rush up the road to get their kids. Thank God their kids are safe. All the other kids who were injured are going to be okay. Some are still in serious condition, so please keep praying for healing for them all. Some of the people we know are friends with the families whose kids were injured. It has been traumatic for everyone and the outpouring of love and support in the community has been a blessing.
The other young man who bravely rushed the adult male shooter alongside Kendrick is Brendan Bialy. He is graduating in just a few days and he will be joining the Marine Corps. He chose the right profession and his bravery and courage proved it! My heart is lifted up by such acts of bravery and love and I pray God heals his wounds and lifts him up. May God bless his career in the Marine Corps!
“Brendan’s courage and commitment to swiftly ending this tragic incident at the risk of his own safety is admirable and inspiring,” the Marines said in a statement.
“His decisive actions resulted in the safety and protection of his teachers and fellow classmates.”
Both Kendrick and Brendan deserve to be honored for their heroic actions yesterday. Those two 18 year old men laid down there lives for their friends and that is rare courage in this world and that is true love.
Kendrick ended up giving up his life and his friend’s lives were saved because of it. Kendrick will be remembered forever in our hearts. I pray the Lord draws near to his parents and family and comforts their hearts. I pray the Lord pours out His love on them.
Jesus told us there is no greater love than laying down your life for your friends. That is true love that comes from God and that is what Jesus did for us. Kendrick’s death is not in vain and his life is already being used for God’s glory. Kendrick died for his friends yesterday and I will remember him forever. My heart is broken for his parents and my prayers will be with them for the rest of my life.
Thank you all for your prayers and love for our community here in Douglas County.
Grace and peace to you all
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
I have been watching the news for the last couple hours. We had another school shooting here in Colorado and it was very close to where we live. This is in our county and in our school district and it is very hard to hear this news. The school my wife teaches at and our kids attend was put on lock down as well as other schools in our district. The shooting happened at a K-12 S.T.E.M. charter school in Highlands Ranch, which is about 15 minutes west of us. They said they have two shooters in custody and they are still looking for a third (as of 3:40 MDT). There are multiple kids (at least 7 confirmed now) who have been injured and some of them were taken to the hospital right up the street where our kids were born. We don’t know the ages of the kids or the extent of the injuries. Please pray for all the kids who were injured and please pray for our community. Douglas County is a great place to live and we have a very low crime rate here. This is a very bad day for our community and I pray the Lord brings peace and healing to all those who were injured.
There is a lot I want to say about this shooting and the state of the world in our time, but now is not the time. Now is the time to lift this tragedy up to God in prayer.
“…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
I love how everything comes back to life in the spring. The trees and plants are blossoming and the birds are singing and it is a beautiful sight after a long winter! I love how the Lord makes everything new! When you believe in Jesus, you become a new creation too! The old you is gone and you are perfectly forgiven and redeemed! The new has come!
Hold fast to Jesus brothers and sisters! Our sins are forgiven through Him and we have peace with God forever (Romans 5:1-2)! We are saved by grace through faith in Him (Ephesians 2:8-9) and our salvation is secure through the blood He shed on the cross for us all (Romans 3:21-28, Ephesians 1:13-14). We may stumble and fall, but the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us (John 14:18, Hebrews 13:5, Matthew 28:20). He will pick us up and lead us forward in His righteousness and nothing can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:27-30)!
The sins of the past have no hold on you. You are not who you were before Jesus! When you accepted Jesus by faith, He washed your sins away and He remembers them no more! Every day from that day since and forever, you have been and will forever be brand new in Him! May we embrace the fullness of the new creations He has made in us and may His will be done forever!
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:1-2
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Jesus in John 3:16-17
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
If you don’t know Jesus, come to Him today and let Him make you brand new! He loves you and He can and will heal and save your soul! There is nothing like the power and refreshing of the Holy Spirit inside of you! The Lord will renew you day by day just as the Word says and you will be a new creation in Jesus forever!
“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Today is May 1st, 2019 and May is Celiac Disease Awareness month. As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Celiac on January 6, 2012 and it changed my life forever. The disease almost killed me and if left untreated, it can kill people. I stopped breathing on April 28, 2012 and I am only here because Jesus saved me by a miracle in the power of the Holy Spirit. Too many people still do not know about or do not understand Celiac, and many (including some doctors) even mock the disease and those who have it. My prayer is that as Celiacs around the world share their stories, we can spread awareness and bring understanding about this life changing and potentially deadly disease.
The first and most important thing I want you to know about Celiac Disease is that it is not just an allergy. It is a genetic autoimmune disorder where a person cannot digest the protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. A Celiac’s body actually views those grains as poisonous. The protein is called gliadin and that is what is called gluten. There is no cure for Celiac and the only treatment is a lifelong gluten free diet.
If I eat wheat or any of the other grains I mentioned, my body will go into a full blown autoimmune attack on itself and destroy the lining of my small intestine. That is what was happening to me for 10 years (from age 23 to 33) as I suffered from undiagnosed Celiac. It could also kill me by causing anaphylaxis. Eating oats is what caused me to go into anaphylactic shock and stop breathing. If you want to read more about that and how God saved my life, please read my post “My Lazarus Moment.” It was the most torturous pain I have ever experienced in my life and by all medical counts I should be dead, but God had other plans and He let me live.
When a Celiac eats gluten, the antibodies that are produced in the autoimmune response actually kill the villi in the small intestine. The villi are tiny hair-like structures that line the inside of the small intestine and they are responsible for the absorption of nutrients from the food we eat. If your villi die, then you become malnourished along with a host of other problems. When I was diagnosed on 1-6-12, I weighed 128 pounds. I am 6 foot 1 inch tall and my normal healthy weight was around 160-165. Like I said, Celiac almost killed me…and that was before the anaphylactic shock.
Undiagnosed Celiac disease presents itself with a variety of symptoms and it can cause massive damage to the human body. Before I was diagnosed, the first major symptom I had was acid reflux. I even took pharmaceutical pills to stop that, but it just made it worse (because only going gluten free would stop it). As time went on, it got worse and worse. I was having incredible gut pain, severe weight loss, low blood sugar, racing heart, my finger nails were brittle, under my eyes was very dark, my spine, muscles, and bones ached, severe nausea, chronic fatigue, and it attacked my brain causing headaches, depression, anxiety, extreme mood swings and irritability, irrational anger, panic attacks, short temper, and suicidal thoughts. When a Celiac eats gluten, the protein gliadin actually breaks through the lining of the small intestine and ends up spreading wildly throughout the body. That is how it can affect every part of the body, even the brain. The protein gliadin can actually collect on the brain and attack it much like someone with the protein on the brain common to the football injury called CTE.
The best way I can describe what it was like is that it felt like I had a swarm of wasps inside my head stinging the frontal lobe of my brain. It causes the section of the brain responsible for fight or flight to be at peak levels all the time and it was insane. Before I was diagnosed, I didn’t know what was happening to me. I thought I was losing it and I was going to die. All of that stopped once I went gluten free, but it took years to heal from the damage and my body is still not fully healed. Celiac is so much worse than people know.
Also, it is a very hard disease to detect and it is misdiagnosed and mistaken for many other diseases such as lupus and even cancer. The most effective way to test for it is by using a simple blood or stool test or simple diet elimination. They do not recommend doing an endoscopy as it is less than 50% accurate. My doctor did not recommend it for me and she actually told me it would have just caused me more pain. The problem with doing an endoscopy is that they go into the small intestine and take a sample (scrape some tissue), but if they hit an area that is healthy, then they say the person doesn’t have Celiac. The damaged villi are patchy and there can be healthy tissue right next to dead patches. If they don’t take a sample from a damaged area, then they give a misdiagnosis and the person keeps suffering. Blood testing and diet elimination are becoming the go to tests for diagnosis of Celiac disease.
Having damaged villi is not good. Due to malabsorption, I now deal with a separate condition known as Cachexia or more commonly “wasting syndrome.” Due to the damage in my small intestine I can’t gain weight properly anymore. I go through an up and down weight gain and loss cycle every few weeks where I get to 140 or 144 tops, then I drop back down to 134 and the cycle repeats. I call those episodes, and the days I am at the bottom are still hard days. The years of lacking the full nutrition my body needed hurt my muscles and bones and I am not as strong as I should be at my age of 40. I also deal with blood sugar issues now, especially when I get down into the 130s. Remember this: your entire health is in your gut. If your gut gets messed up, you get messed up. It’s that simple, so eat good and take care of yourself.
Celiac is very dangerous and I have to be very careful of cross contamination. I have not been out to eat since I was diagnosed 7 years ago. Even one tiny crumb of wheat bread is enough to cause severe suffering or even anaphylaxis. If my gluten free food was cooked in the same pan as gluten food, I would get sick and I could die. If gluten food touched my gluten free food, I would get sick and I could die. My food has to be certified gluten free from a gluten free facility to prevent cross contamination and that is not easy to find. I once ate some gluten free flavored almonds and afterwards I became violently ill again. We called the company and asked them about the facility and we found out they also make oat based products in the same facility. I could have died eating those almonds! Oats are not gluten free and they should not be allowed to make oat food on the same line as gluten free food. If you are a Celiac, you must do your research! Gluten free doesn’t always mean gluten free!
Mainstream companies like General Mills are NOT gluten free! Cheerios are NOT gluten free–they are made with oats! Frito Lay is NOT gluten free! Neither are all the other cheaply made mainstream foods that are made with GMOs and gluten. Their facilities are not gluten free either as they make a ton of wheat and oat based products. If you have Celiac disease, please do not be tricked by the mainstream companies! They just slap some fake gluten free label on their products, so they can make more money. The food must be certified gluten free!
I like this pin, but it should specify that a Celiac will damage their body if they eat 1/350th of a slice of wheat, barley, rye or oat bread.
Celiac disease goes beyond gluten free too. After my initial diagnosis, I soon found out that I was also no longer able to eat dairy, soy, eggs, or coconut either. I learned that through painful trial and error. The tips of the villi are what digest lactose, so when a bunch of villi die, the body can’t digest it anymore. I also cannot have caffeine, coffee, or alcohol. I don’t care about the alcohol, good riddance, but I do miss coffee. Celiac took away all of the foods I loved and the lifestyle I loved and the life I live now is very restricted.
I eat good, but everything has to be organic, Non-GMO, and gluten free and be dairy, soy, and egg free too. It is very expensive and very restricted. I can’t even eat animals that have been fed gluten grains or GMOs. We eat free range bison from South Dakota, free range Coleman chicken from Golden, CO (or Rosie’s chicken in California), and wild halibut from the ocean. If I ate chicken or fish that was raised eating soy, I would get sick. I can’t eat beef because they finish the cows on gluten grains and GMO corn to fatten them up. That would make me deathly ill!
Please do not eat GMOs either! They are made by Monsanto, which makes glyphosate (the cancer causing poison in their product Roundup). The “Roundup ready corn” actually has glyphosate in its DNA and it rots your gut and causes cancer. Would you pour Roundup on your food before you eat it? Then you don’t want it secreted from the inside of the food into your gut either! Monsanto is evil and they are killing people! Their BT toxin has killed many in India and glyphosate is making people sick and killing them all over the world. Their chemicals have been linked to autism, cancer, infertility, many diseases, and death. I could say a lot more about Monsanto and GMOs, but that will be for another time. Just do your research and don’t eat their GMOs!
We even have to bring my food with us when we travel and make sure the place we are going has all of our food available. That is why we vacation in California. We actually pack a few pounds of the free range bison we eat and get everything else we need there. Even if I will be away from the house for a few hours (like if we go shopping), I need to pack food because I can’t eat out anywhere. The disease controls my life now from the time I get up to the time I lay down. If I eat at the wrong time, my blood sugar gets messed up and it can make for a real tough day. If I eat the wrong thing or get cross contaminated, I can end up suffering terrible pain or I can end up dead. Sometimes I feel like a prisoner in my own body.
Gluten can also be found in lotion, toothpaste, shampoo, soda and juice drinks, and a bunch of other products, so we have to be careful with those too. The personal care companies really like to put oats in things too and I really have to watch out for that. If I used an oat based shampoo or lotion, I would go into anaphylactic shock and die (unless God did a miracle to save me again). See how this disease affects every part of a person’s life?
I suffered terrible pain for years leading up to my diagnosis and the first few years after diagnosis were torturous. I used to lay on the floor in cold sweats every night after vomiting and having diarrhea at the same time as my body detoxed itself over and over again. The gut pain was so bad that I could barely walk and I used to have blood sugar drops accompanied by such severe nausea that it would knock me to my knees for hours (I still get bad drops sometimes). I also excreted dead intestinal tissue for years and that was very painful. All of that went on for many years and my days were filled with pain, anguish, and misery. In January of 2012 all I could eat was a few bites of rice and drink water and I was laid out on the couch unable to move all day. My wife had to help me up and help me walk. I was only 33 when I was diagnosed, I was preparing to die, and I cried out many times for the Lord to take me.
So does it make me mad when people mock Celiac and they say it’s not a real disease or it’s “just an allergy”? Yeah, it makes me mad! This disease ruined my life! It took my health, my youth, and my strength from me and if it wasn’t for the miracle Jesus did, it would have killed me on 4-28-12. If you know someone with Celiac, please try to show some compassion and never make fun of them or the disease. If you are a doctor that doesn’t know about Celiac or you think it’s not real, please stop being so arrogant and do your research and actually start helping people! If you had Celiac, you would know without a doubt just how dangerous and deadly this disease really is. Gluten free is not some Hollywood fad. It is a required diet for survival for some of us!
I really like that shirt. For some reason, I have been chosen to fight this disease. I truly pray people will learn more about it and understand it, but I wouldn’t wish Celiac on anyone. I cannot even begin to tell you how much suffering this disease has caused me and my family. From the physical problems to job and income loss, Celiac has tried to destroy us. The worst part of it is that our kids both have Celiac too, but we caught the disease early enough in them, so they don’t have damage to their small intestines. We knew our daughter had it when her gut was bloated and in pain and her hair started falling out. We immediately went gluten free and she was perfectly fine. Our son is the youngest, so he has been gluten free almost his entire life.
One thing I know is that God is bigger than this disease. It is a thorn in my flesh for sure and God could simply remove it with a miraculous healing, but that is not always what He does. Sometimes we have to live with the thorn like the Apostle Paul. After 7 years fighting Celiac and living through the learning and growing process that fight has caused, I understand better than I ever have that God’s grace is sufficient for me.
I wish I had my healthy life back and I don’t ever want to suffer pain like what I went through ever again, but I am thankful for what the Lord has shown me through it all. I will never forget the day I stopped breathing. I went from torturous excruciating pain to perfect peace in a flash and Jesus was right there with me! He was with me every single day of my suffering and He never left me and He never will!
Grace and peace to you all!
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
We made it through our spring storm last night with barely any snow. It’s chilly and the rooftops have snow, but that was no big deal. I have been through much worse winter storms in April and even May. You can see our Serviceberry tree is in full bloom and the grass is really green this year. We had a very long and snowy winter and it keeps trying to hang on. This is spring in Colorado where the reemerging life battles the last winter storms of the Rocky Mountains until the beginning of summer. Thank you all for praying for our son. He is feeling much better and he is back to school today. I am resting and recuperating this week, so this will be another short post. I just wanted to share some photos I took this morning and earlier this month, and post a powerful prayer from Ephesians.
Here are some photos I took this morning. This is looking straight west to the front range of the Rockies:
This is our peach tree, which is starting to bloom nicely:
It is really thick with fog and clouds and we can’t even see Pike’s Peak today. It is so thick right now that I can barely see the front range at all. Good thing I took those photos early this morning.
Here are some photos I took earlier this month of a Colorado Red-tailed hawk in flight:
We see multiple hawks here every day. They love hunting the open space behind our house and sometimes they even land on our back fence. They are beautiful birds of prey.
Here is a photo of our local deer family and a good photo of Pike’s Peak I took a couple weeks ago. The deer are fuzzy from their winter fur and that is what Pike’s looks like on a clear day, which is usually every day here. We get around 330+ days of sunshine per year, so cloudy days like today are rare.
Now for the prayer the Apostle Paul prayed for the believers at Ephesus. I echo this prayer in our time for all of us. May His will be done!
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Good morning everyone! We had to take our son to the doctor last night. We thought maybe he was getting sick because over the weekend he drank water out of the landscaping tap outside (which I told him not to do), but it turned out he has some kind of virus that is going around. We are also getting another cold front coming in from the Rockies and it is supposed to get to near freezing tonight. I have insulated the sprinkler system back flow pipes and I pray they don’t freeze. We are all really looking forward to warmer weather and a healthy summer! Thank you for praying for our son! I need to help my son, so this will be a quick message today regarding God’s grace. God bless you all!
The photo in the Scripture pin above is our favorite local fishing spot. That is what it looks like off the South Platte in the Pike National Forest of the Rocky Mountains in the summer. It is a beautiful display of God’s beauty and grace and I can’t wait to get back out there!
Truly think about 1 Corinthians 16:23 today. The grace of the Lord Jesus! What an abundant and amazing grace it truly is! There is no greater grace than having all of your sins forgiven and remembered by God no more! That is what Jesus did for all of us and that grace is offered freely to the whole world through faith in Him! If you do not know Jesus and have not received His grace, come to Him today! His grace is for you too and He wants to shower you with His grace, mercy, and forgiveness and save your soul!
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:22-24
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23
We are saved and justified by grace through faith in Jesus! If you believe in Jesus, then your sins are forgiven forever and you have eternal life! How awesome and powerful it is that the grace of Jesus is with us! May we rest in His grace always!
The grace and peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all!
“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9
“for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Recently, there was a disagreement here on WordPress regarding the time and meaning of end times events as written in the Bible. I am not going to rehash that disagreement here. I got involved in the conversation to help my sister in Christ and to help bring peace and understanding to the situation. Many devout Christians who love Jesus with all of their hearts disagree with each other on the timing and meaning of end times Scripture. This is an unfortunate reality within the church. All of the conversations I have had over the past few days (here on WordPress and by email) with those involved in the disagreement have been constructive and righteous and I appreciate you all. I would like to share a couple of posts that I wrote about the end times back in August of 2018 when I first started blogging. Only a few people had seen my blog back then, so not many people have seen these posts.
Here is one I wrote on 8-25-18 about the Rapture. I actually wrote this post because of a disagreement a brother in Christ and I had about the Rapture.
I was thinking today about the different views of the end times and how many disagreements there are about it. The conversations over the last few days made me think about my old college buddy who became a Pastor in Boulder. We were catching up by phone a couple years back and the Rapture came up. He told me he doesn’t even believe in the Rapture! He is not Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, or Post-Trib; he just doesn’t believe in it at all! That was shocking to me and I disagreed with him, but he wasn’t changing his mind. Is he still my good brother in Christ?! Of course! We shared the Gospel together all over campus at the University of Northern Colorado back in the 90s and we even baptized people together! He loves Jesus with all of his heart and the main thing is he believes a person can only be saved by faith in Jesus and not by works.
I posted the front cover of Mark Hitchcock’s book because that is an awesome book to use as a Bible study guide to the end times. Pastor Mark is a humble guy. I chatted with him by email a couple years ago and it really helped me during my time of suffering. I love his books. His book “The End: A Complete Overview of Bible Prophecy and the End of Days” is my favorite so far.
Here is what I wrote about his book on the “Great Books” page on my blog:
“This is an incredible resource for studying the end times and Bible prophecy. If you want help understanding Revelation and Daniel, or you have ever wanted to dive deeper into understanding prophecy, then this is your definitive book on the subject! Mark Hitchcock has written over 20 books on end times Bible Prophecy, he is the senior Pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, and he serves as an adjunct faculty member of Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also a humble servant of God who I have enjoyed speaking with over email on several occasions. Powerful book!”
-Ryan Callahan
If you are looking for a great resource to study the end times, then Pastor Mark’s book is what I recommend. I believe he has a correct and clear understanding of the end times and I agree with his beliefs regarding the Rapture and all other end times events.
It is important to remember that our beliefs in the Rapture are not a salvation issue. My old college friend who is now a Pastor is not a deceiver because of his views on the Rapture. I wouldn’t point people to him for understanding of the end times, but he sure knows how to preach the Gospel. I am not saying the Rapture is not an important issue because it is and it should be taught correctly. However, there are many disagreements regarding the Rapture and the timing and meaning of other end times events and we should be careful in how we judge each other regarding those disagreements. There will be people that disagree with my views of the end times. That’s okay. I might disagree with yours. I am not here to argue with anybody about the end times. My focus is on helping the lost get saved. Not arguing with those who are already saved.
All we can do is speak the truth in love on our blogs and let the chips fall where they may. If you have a disagreement with a brother or sister in Christ, please contact them privately first. Please be very careful about publicly calling somebody out on your blogs. You might not have all the facts and you need to give the person a fair chance at responding to your disagreement. It is always best to seek understanding through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and talk with the brother or sister directly first.
I posted those links about the Rapture and the mark of the beast, so that people know clearly what I believe. I believe the overview of upcoming end times events is:
WW3
The Rapture (Pre-Trib)
7 year Tribulation
Armageddon
The 2nd Coming of Jesus
The Millennial Kingdom
Satan’s final revolt and defeat
Eternity
There are a lot of things that take place within all that, but that is the general overview.
I hope I was able to help those involved in the disagreement. You all love Jesus with all of your hearts and we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We may not agree on everything, but we agree that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and a person can only be saved by God’s grace through faith in Him! Amen to John 3:16, John 14:6, Ephesians 2:8-9, and Romans 10:9!
I pray we all keep focused on Jesus as we fulfill the Great Commission He gave us in Matthew 28:18-20! May we love each other as He loves us!
Grace and peace to you all!
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Hello everyone! If you have been reading my blog for awhile, then you know I really like Christian hip-hop. I love this song called “Fuego” (which is Spanish for “fire”) by Wande! It is a call to keep the fire of the Holy Spirit burning and never put it out! It is God’s truth to a poetic rhyme and a really nice beat! I hope you all enjoy it on this beautiful day the Lord has made!
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you…”
2 Timothy 1:6
“Do not put out the Spirit’s fire…”
1 Thessalonians 5:19
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus speaking in Acts 1:8
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Believers in Jesus, “keep it lit” in the Holy Spirit! This world can’t beat us! We have overcome the world in Him! Keep planting the righteous seed of the Gospel and may the Lord spread revival throughout the whole world! Thank you Jesus, Amen!
“I was sowin’ seeds, now it’s lookin’ like I need a plow.”
-Wande, Fuego
The seed:
“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Ryan Callahan's Blog 
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