As I reflect on and thank God for 12 years cancer-free now, I think of and pray for those still mourning the loss of a loved one due to this insidious disease. I pray that you move closer to God, because that is where your ultimate healing is found. The emptiness and sorrow you are experiencing will be healed by the One that is true love. I pray as well for those currently fighting this fight. May God bless you as you struggle to live each day knowing there is an enemy within you. And for all of those with questions of why, why me, why my mom, dad, child or sibling, I pray that you place those questions at the feet of Christ. I pray as well that you hear when He tells you, “This is not from me. This is in no way, ‘My Plan’. My plan for you is to have life to the full. My plan is for you to be blessed, to be prosperous, to have hope and a future. My plan is not now and never will be to harm you. You are my child and I love you.”

When you are struggling with cancer or loving someone who is, remember who is on your side. Whether you see healing in this life or the next, remember this evil is not from Him. You may see the blessing of healing or be a witness for those who watch your battle and how you fought the fight and grew your faith as your physical body was taken by this disease. Understand this, this is not from God. It was never His plan for you to get cancer. It is never His plan for you to suffer. Does He work good out of your trials, yes, that is His promise to us in Romans 8:28. He works all things for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. He works all things, even cancer. But He did not send cancer to you.  

I love this quote from D.R. Silva from his book, “It’s All About Jesus,”:

“Can He use cancer to bring somebody back on track? Yes. Does He? I’m certain of it. But it’s important for us to remember that cancer is neither designed nor endorsed by Him. Jesus healed sickness, He never prescribed it. He saw it as a problem that needed a solution, not as the solution to a problem.”

I will continue to thank God for healing my cancer, I will continue to pray for those currently fighting this beast, and I will try to continue to show people how much God loves them, despite the constant fight we wage every day against the forces of evil in this world. God bless each one of you.

Faith in What?

As I tell my 6^th graders that are struggling, life has its ups, and life has its downs. Enjoy and share the up times, and when you are experiencing the down times, understand that they are temporary, and DON’T LIVE THERE! Do what ever you can to get out of the valley. If it’s a lesson to be learned, learn it. If it’s humility that is the lesson, accept the shot to your pride and get back to living. Sometimes when we are struggling, it’s not even our fault at all. We q are faced with the question of why. Why did that person do that to me? Why did this circumstance occur? Where do we look for help? How do we find comfort and reassurance that life will indeed get better? How do we escape the feeling we sometimes get that things will never change? Sometimes we are left with the dreadful thought of, “This is it, why even go on?”

When we get to this level of the valley, what are we to do? Where in fact do we turn? We may think to pray, but to what end? Where is that getting us? Don’t people pray al the time for answers and hear nothing? It’s not like God is going to all of a sudden miraculously heal me, or hand me a winning lottery ticket, and cause the offender to finally wake up and realize what they did to me and work to make it all better. So why am I praying? Does it ever do any good? It might calm me down in the moment, but then what?

Do we have faith that God will answer our prayers, or if we want to admit sometimes, do we really think he hears us? Do we sometimes feel as though He doesn’t even care? I mean really, He could fix this if He wanted to! Do we have faith enough to believe that God does indeed love us and cares about us and our hurt? I’ll quote from my book when I say, “If your faith isn’t there when you need it, was it ever really there?” We can all have faith on the mountaintop; that isn’t very difficult. When we are in the depths of the valley, we get a real good look at how strong our faith is - or isn’t.

The Bible tells us in Matthew 17:20 about faith in relation to the mustard seed. I have always found it incredibly difficult to relate to this verse. When it is preached as in the NIV, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” That always left me feeling faithless and without any basis to pray to God and ask for anything. The size of a mustard seed? Surely, I have more faith than that! I have always thought that was the only translation of that verse. Yet as I questioned more and looked for better answers and explanation of that verse, I find there are many translations that read differently. As we can see from the New King James version, “if you have faith as a mustard seed”; from the International Standard Version, “if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed”; from the American Standard Version, “ if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed”; there are what I believe, better ways to look at this verse. If the mustard seed, can have the faith it needs to grow into a large and productive tree, it has strong faith. Likewise, we have to have strong faith for our own beliefs in good outcomes.

How can we have that faith? We get that faith right from God and His promises to us. Romans 8:28 tells us plain as day that God works all things for good for those that love Him and are called to His purpose. Jeremiah 29:11 tells of God’s plans for us as being those that will prosper us and not harm us, to give us a hope and a future. The Bible is full of God’s promises. If we can’t believe God’s promises, do we really believe God? If we don’t believe God, why are we even praying in the first place?

It’s easy to despair when we don’t see life working according to our plans. It’s easy to feel alone and abandoned by God. Even Christ felt like that in the garden the night before He died. But when we are in the depths of doubt is when we need to stand on His promises and trust that He’s got our back. We need to know how much He loves us. Sometimes things play out hard. Sometimes we see no solution in sight. We hurt. We struggle with God. God sees that. God sees you. And God hurts for you more than you know. We need to trust that God is busy at work taking care of our needs; but we also need to realize He works on HIS timetable, not ours. And His timing is always perfect.

Many times, I have prayed God to help me choose a way out of a situation, either A or B. I didn’t want to pick the wrong one, so I prayed for guidance. A or B God, these are the only two choices I have. Please help me decide which is best. It’s at times like this, when He answers my prayer with something I would never had considered, Choice C, or D or….

And you know what? Those choices turn out to be infinitely better than anything I had even thought of.

Trust Him!! Trust and believe the promises He makes to you. This way when we are struggling through the valleys to come, and they will, we can turn to God in faith and say, “Yes, I have faith as the mustard seed had faith. I stand on and believe you love me and are working things for my good. I’ll do my best while I am here in the valley, and I will give you the glory for getting me out.”

And as Philip Yancey writes in his book on prayer, “Why pray? Because Jesus did.”

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Happy Sunday!!!
It’s a beautiful day here in the Low Country.
Does the thought of a new week get you down? 
Are you still running the treadmill of unfulfillment?
If you aren’t doing anything to change that, then the following weeks, months and years will be the same!
You owe yourself more than that! You know it!
Read my book and find the path that is lit by your passion!
It’s out there; go get it!!

What if Jesus came back today?

If Jesus came back today what would His priorities be? If He wanted to build His church would He first go out and find a nice piece of property? One that could support a large building, spacious parking, a large church campus…or would He feed people? Would He next contract out construction crews to build a beautiful new worship center, or would He Himself go out into the community and love on people? Would He order up furniture and garments, commission great works of art, purchase chalices and marble altars, or would He go seek those that need to be consoled, encouraged, and healed?

            I look sometimes at what the ‘churches’ say is their grand commission, and where they apply their resources, and I shake my head. Yet the misguided will continue in their ways and defend to the death their support of these institutions. When I get to heaven and see Jesus face to face, I am sure I will recall His words when He said in John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The words ‘build big buildings’, (or barns as in Luke 12), ‘buy more property’, ‘commission great art’, etc. will never be heard in heaven. “Well done good and faithful servant”, will not refer to huge church campuses, but to the admonition to “feed my sheep”. People settle into a comfort zone based on where they are in life, what they have been taught, and what others around them do. It is when they break out of the little box into which life and society have placed them, when  they take that risk, take that first step to living a life of meaning, that true, pure and honest joy and self-fulfillment settle over them. When was the last time we did anything differently than we did yesterday, last week, last month? Do we continue on our path solely to reach the end of the journey? And then what, then we say ‘Oh, I wish I would have done that when I was younger!” I remember reading a book about the life of Keith Green years ago. His life seemed so frenetic to me, and then he died in a plane crash at a young age. I kept thinking that all along God must have been telling him to relax a little, slow down. He had such a passion for God and people but it seemed like he was just going to wear himself out trying to accomplish so much. Years later I can look back and laugh at my naivety. Where is he today? Was he living his commission? Did he get to hear those so desired words when he got to heaven? We look at others sometimes and think that somehow they are different than us; that we could never hope to accomplish as much as they. Maybe we don’t have the same talents as others or the same resources, but we do have talents and resources of our own. We are all beautifully and wonderfully made. We are God’s kids. Everyone has the ability to make a difference; just not everyone has the desire to make a difference. I don’t think I have ever met anyone that stepped out of their comfort zone to serve others that hasn’t benefitted from the experience in some way. Whether that experience has helped the one seeking assistance, or has helped us and our perception of life and love, good things come from loving others. You may not now and you may not ever be able to change the way your particular church functions, but by maintaining your own personal status quo, if that is a life of not getting involved, (which for many, many years was my life), you sell yourself short. We all need to step out. Whether it starts as volunteering to serve meals at a homeless shelter, sponsoring a child, volunteering at a school to help mentor a young child, serving as a Big Brother/Sister; you need not start out in some big role, take the first step, ask God for some direction for your steps, and proceed, continue to pray and let Him lead you, but take the step. Not only will you be loving, but you’ll be growing - growing in care, concern and empathy for others; yet also growing your own sense of self-worth and developing an inner peace and joy you have never felt before. Let’s all keep our eyes open for opportunities to serve, and be strong and bold enough to take that first small baby step!

Also found in "God Did What?" Pick up your copy today at Amazon, use this link!! 

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I think this was last years hurricane post!

Just another storm?
Some have experienced hurricanes before, even bad ones; some have not. Some are very frightened, some are not. Some are living in their “bubble of denial!” (SV, lol).
Some of us have evacuated, some are staying through it all. Whatever your situation, let’s try and keep this storm and every storm in perspective.
The worst part of any terrible storm is not the storm surge, it’s not the loss of property, possessions, or damage to homes. The worst part is the loss of life.
Even worse than that though is the loss of a life not bound in Christ. If I die, I know where I’m going. Death doesn’t scare me. A life eternally devoid of the presence of God would absolutely terrify me.
You know how they say in emergency situations to get yourself good first? “Place the oxygen mask over your face first, and then attend to others.” In counseling, we refer to this as ‘not being able to pour from an empty cup.’
The same thing applies to salvation. We cannot lead someone to Christ if they cannot see Christ in us!
So to all those terrified of this storm, I ask you to look at a much more important question. Do you know Jesus? Do you really know Him or do you know ‘of Him?’
Many know ‘of God’ and think that’s enough!
News flash: Even Satan knows ‘of God!’
If you don’t talk to God every day, if God isn’t central in your life, in all the ways He offers Himself to us, through the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, then you are missing out on the very purpose of your existence.
So as we wait for Florence, as we get concerned about all that we hold precious here on earth, remember what God sees as precious, YOU! His desire is to see you in heaven. Yes, look after others, protect your kids, your family, your neighbor, your stuff. But first and foremost, be confident that your eternity is settled.
If anyone needs anything during this current life storm, call me. You need a place to go, call me. You need reassurance that God’s got this, call me. You need prayer, call me. You need salvation, call on Jesus.
Praying for all. Prayers for comfort and that we all put our priorities in the right order.
Storms happen. Life happens. Your eternity is your choice. Choose wisely.

Check out my book on Amazon!

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 Realize who God made you to be. Why you are the way you are. And you will begin to understand that you were created for a purpose. All the little and not so little intangibles that make you who you are, are there for a reason. If you are where He wants you, if you can "Be still and know that He is God", you will find that indeed, you are "wonderfully and perfectly made". Yes, there is a purpose to all the 'character building' we find ourselves going through. That purpose is to glorify Him as we are of use to others. When we are in that special place, and when we finally 'get it', we find no greater self-fulfillment and deep inner peace and joy.

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Husky Spy Cam

God Did What?