Tag: Love

That seems strange doesn’t it?  How can suffering lead to hope?  Seems contrary to how most of us want life to be.  We don’t want to suffer.  Human beings like comfort over pain any day.  I have been thinking about suffering lately.  Not only the suffering I have endured over the last seven and a half years fighting Celiac, but the suffering I have to endure on top of that any time I get sick.  It has been almost three weeks now that I have been fighting some kind of cold virus.  It must be a super bug or something because it has really been beating me down.  Celiac disease is a chronic auto immune disorder, so when I get sick it hits me much harder than when I was healthy.  I am already chronically ill on my best days, so it takes me a long time to get over illnesses now.

I like to watch old John Wayne movies.  One of my favorite movies of his is called “True Grit” from 1969.  I also like the new one that came out in 2010, but if you haven’t seen the original, I recommend watching that first.  I was thinking about John Wayne movies today and the time of the wild west here in America.  The way I have to suffer and fight illnesses is much like what the people of the wild west had to do (except I don’t take a shot of whiskey).  A lot of times there wasn’t a doctor around to help back then and if there was, there wasn’t much he could for the sick person.  People lived out on the prairie on farms and they just had to suffer and grit it out and they either lived or died.  It was just that painfully simple.  Such were the wild west days.

I can’t have NSAIDS like Ibuprofen anymore, so when I get a fever and I’m in pain I just have to grit it out.  There is nothing doctors can do for me.  I haven’t even had antibiotics in over seven years.  Praise God I haven’t needed them!  I don’t know what they would do to me now.  Would amoxicillin cause me to go into anaphylaxis?  Would I start vomiting violently like when I tried to take Ibuprofen back in 2012?  I don’t know and I really don’t want to find out.  I don’t go to a doctor unless it is absolutely necessary.  Call me old fashioned, but I just don’t trust them anyway.

We have to be tough to get through this diseased fallen world.  We have to have true grit.  Celiac has made me real gritty.  Every morning I wake up, I have to be ready to fight and manage this disease.  It is just part of my every day reality now.  Suffering toughens us up, but we can’t stop there.  If all we have is suffering, we can very easily lose hope.  Once a person truly loses hope, it becomes almost impossible to keep living.  All of us need hope!

The Apostle Paul suffered greatly.  He even had a “thorn in his flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) that he pleaded with the Lord three times to take away.  Maybe it was some kind of disease that he suffered or maybe it was some kind of physical pain.  We don’t know because Paul never explained it, but it was clear that he suffered.  He also suffered multiple torture sessions at the hands of the Romans and he was ultimately murdered by them at the end of his ministry.  He stood strong in the face of suffering.  Paul had true grit.  That is why it gives me hope when I read what Paul wrote about regarding suffering in Romans.  Paul let us know that suffering can produce good outcomes for the believer in Jesus.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Romans 5:1-5

Amen!  Thank you Jesus for the power of the Holy Spirit!  If you are a believer in Jesus who is suffering, please know that God has not abandoned you!  We can trust that He is producing a perseverance in us where we can stand with grit against our suffering.  That perseverance will develop a character in us where we can be hopeful even in the darkest and most painful circumstances.  That, my friends, is beautiful and that is how God can turn suffering into hope.  A great hope that is secure in God’s love and will never disappoint us!

The Lord has given us His strength, peace, and joy and we have overcome the world through our faith in Jesus!  We can trust that God will turn our suffering into hope!  So, if you are suffering today like me, dig deep into the endless reservoir of hope from the Holy Spirit inside of you!  Set your face like flint against the suffering of this world and grit it out in the power of God who loves us more than we can imagine!  He will never leave us nor forsake us and our suffering does not have the final word!

“Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,

I will not be disgraced.

Therefore have I set my face like flint,

and I know I will not be put to shame.”

Isaiah 50:7

May we have true grit in the power of the Holy Spirit to face and overcome the suffering of this world!  Grace and peace to you all in the powerful Name of Jesus!

 

 

 

 

 

Today is Memorial Day here in America.  It is our national holiday where we honor and remember those who gave their lives in service to our country.  All those who have laid down their lives in our nation’s armed forces have my deepest respect and gratitude.  I pray the Lord lifts up and encourages the hearts of all Americans who have lost those they love.  The sacrifice of the brave sons and daughters of America will never be forgotten!  You did your duty to the utmost and you made your country proud!  God bless the American soldier!  May we never forget what those red stripes on our country’s flag represent.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

-Jesus in John 15:13

May God bless and protect our soldiers and see them through to victory!  May God bless and protect the families of every soldier who died fighting for our country!  May God bless our country and may He spread revival through our people and the whole world!

Grace and peace to you all!

 

Hello everyone.  I have been fighting a cold for the last week and that is why I haven’t written a blog post since May 16th.  My wife had the cold first, then my son, and now me.  On top of that, our daughter got strep and needed antibiotics.  I have been taking care of the kids for the last couple weeks.  My wife and kids are much better now and they are back to school.  This is the last week of school before summer break…and it’s snowing again.  This is Colorado in late spring.  The beauty of living next to the Rockies also brings some crazy weather.  We are sick of being sick and we are really ready for summer!

I appreciate your prayers.  This has been the worst winter we have had in a very long time.  Our family was literally sick about every two weeks since Christmas.  It has been a very long winter and I am tired.  The coughing is driving me nuts and I have lost my appetite, which isn’t good when you only weigh around 135 pounds from Celiac.  I cry out to God daily, moment by moment, and cling to Him.  That’s all I can do.  His grace has been, will be, and is sufficient for me.

I took the above photo yesterday when it started snowing.  Here is another one:

You can see that everything is green and the leaves are coming back.  I have already mowed the lawn several times and I was going to do it yesterday, but it didn’t stop snowing.  This is what we woke up to this morning:

So much for mowing the lawn!  Our poor Service berry tree is sagging bad.  It is tough though and it will bounce back.  Just like a Christian with the armor of God on.  We might get beat down, but you better believe we are getting back up!

The little Colorado sparrows are tough too.  They are used to this.  They love to sit at the top of our maple tree.  They also like to play in the pine trees under the snow covered branches.  It looks like they are having fun out there!  They hop around inside the pine trees chasing each other from branch to branch.  Cute little birds.

I will be resting for a bit this week.  Hopefully all of this snow will be gone for the last day of school this Friday.  I am so glad summer break is just a few days away!  We are really looking forward to going to California in July!  The kids are pumped up to check out the new Star Wars land called “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” at Disneyland.  They are also excited about the pool at the house we rented.  I am ready for palm trees, the ocean, and hot weather!  Just not too hot while we are walking around Disneyland for three days.  I also had the chance to share Christ the last couple times we went to Cali, so I am always ready for the Lord to move in power (on the plane and on the ground).  There are no vacations from spreading the Gospel and there are a lot of people in Cali that need to hear God’s soul saving Truth, that’s for sure!

I will be back to writing more regularly as soon as I feel better.  In the meantime, I will still be answering comments and emails.  I will also be praying for God to bless us with summer.  Coloradoans are just done with winter.  We’re done, over it, bye bye, don’t come back for a real long time, like at least until November.  I mean really, it is 32 degrees today and it’s almost June!  Crazy Rocky Mountain weather.  Just like Olaf, we love summer too!

That’s all for today, but before I go, always remember this soul saving Truth:

“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

If you want to be saved, then put your faith in Jesus and He will save you!  That is the powerful love of God who loves you more than you can imagine!

Grace and peace to you all!

 

 

 

 

 

Always remember how precious the Name of Jesus is!  We are saved through Jesus alone.  No other name under Heaven will save us.  Jesus is Lord and He is the only One who died for the forgiveness of our sins.  Jesus defeated sin and death at the cross and it is through Jesus alone that God chose to save us.  Consider that verse in Acts very carefully because there is no other way to Heaven.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Romans 5:6-11

There is no other way to be reconciled with God.  God has one Son and His Name is Jesus.  It is through His blood alone that we are justified.  No one else in the history of mankind has ever died for the forgiveness of our sins.  Jesus alone shed His blood for us!  It is through faith in Jesus that we are saved!

“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.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished–he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Romans 3:22-26

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5:1

“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

We cannot earn our way to Heaven by doing good works, being religious, or by any other way.  We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus alone.  This salvation is God’s gift to us all!  It’s not about what we could ever do for God.  It’s all about what God did for us!

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil–and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

Hebrews 2:14-15

God has given us a way out of this fallen world because He loves us!  You do not have to perish and death does not have the final word!  You can have eternal life and you do not need to fear death!  That is the greatest news the world will ever hear!

“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.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16-18

“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

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

Do you want to be saved?  Do you want to be forgiven by God?  Do you want to be set free from sin and death?  Run to Jesus!  Only He can save you!  Jesus is our salvation, righteousness, and eternal life and God did not give us any other name to be saved by.  How sweet the Name of Jesus truly is!

“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

Grace and peace to you all!

“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”  And let him who hears say, “Come!”  Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

Revelation 22:17

 

 

 

Don’t ever forget that powerful truth!  God loves us so much that He died for us on a cross, so that we could be saved from death and be with Him forever!  Get on that glory train to Heaven folks!  You never know when your very life might be right on the edge of a cliff.  Hear God’s call to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near and don’t miss the train!  Jesus is the way to eternal life!  All aboard!!!

A man my Dad worked with just passed away from a heart attack yesterday.  He was only 32 years old and he was in great shape, but heart attacks at a young age are part of his family history.  My cousin just had a heart attack a couple days ago too.  He survived and they were able to put stints in his arteries.  He is 53 years old.  My Great Great Grandpa was killed by lightning at the age of 49 in 1913 while trying to put the horses in the barn during a bad storm.  They found him with a hole in his hat and the hole was still smoking from where the lightning had hit him in the head.

How much time will we get?  Only God knows the answer to that question.  I stopped breathing and died for a short time at age 33, but God saw fit to do a miracle and bring me back.  I am 40 now.  I have no idea how much more time I have, but I pray I use it wisely to please God!

That photo is of the Narrow Gauge Railroad here in Colorado.  They take people on scenic tours through Durango and Silverton.  You can check them out at Durangotrain.com.  That narrow railroad along the cliff reminds me of the narrow road to Heaven.  There is only one way to Heaven and that way is through faith in Jesus Christ.  Any other way and you fall off the cliff.

“Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Jesus in John 10:9-10

“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

Please consider this truth from God’s Word with all of your heart, mind, and soul and be saved!  God does not want you to perish!  He loves you and He wants you to have eternal life through faith in Jesus!

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9

“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.”

Romans 10:13

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

Jesus loves you and He is inviting you to Heaven!  None of us know when our last breath will be!  Walk the narrow road of faith in Jesus and be saved!

Grace and peace to you all!

 

 

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 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

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.”

Ephesians 6:1-3

“My son, keep your father’s commands

and do not forsake your

mother’s teaching.

Bind them upon your heart

forever;

fasten them around your neck.

When you walk, they will

guide you;

when you sleep, they will

watch over you;

when you awake, they will

speak to you.

For these commands are a

lamp,

this teaching is a light,

and the corrections of

discipline

are the way to life.”

Proverbs 6:20-23

 

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.”

Matthew 4:17

 

 

 

 

 

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.

The Denver Post News Article About Kendrick Castillo

“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.”

-Chuck Hickey, Fox 31 News Denver

Fox 31 Denver News Article About Brendan Bialy

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.”

Jesus speaking in John 15:13

 

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.”

James 5:16

God bless you all

 

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.”

Romans 10:9-13

Have a blessed and encouraging weekend!

Grace and peace to you all!

“as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our

transgressions from us.”

Psalm 103:12

“I have swept away your offenses like a

cloud,

your sins like the morning mist.

Return to me,

for I have redeemed you.”

Isaiah 44:22