One way in

I wish that if there were one thing we could do better as Christians is get along better with ourselves. How can we focus all our time on seeking and saving the lost, or being in our community planting seeds and reeping the harvest that is so ripe when we are spending too much time complaining about one another or trying to prove how we are the only way to heaven? Christ says, I am the way the truth and the light no one gets to the father except through me." (John14:6)

    We need to realize that salvation has nothing to do with us but by the sacrifice of Christ, the free gift of salvation. Through that gift Christ gives us a simple command. He tells us really to do just two things he says, love The Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as your self. Do we need to be aware of false teachers, yes! Do we condemn people, no! Jesus didn't give us the authority to judge others, in fact he says, "Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. 

    I think we need to evaluate where we are at and strive to love God more and everyday by the love we have for God we learn to love His creation more and more! 

God I pray that you help us be the example of love to the world around us using the example of your son Christ. The perfecter of our faith, and we can walk in the light as he is in the light and have fellowship with one another, and with that the love of Christ will cover our sins. I pray that I don't just use words but actions, and I pray that I start with my family, by being a better husband, better father, and a better man. I pray as a leader I lead better by being a better follower of you! And I pray that you open our eyes more often to your eternal plan for us, and I Pray this in your son holy name, amen.

You Don't Know You're Beautiful

I know what you are thinking why is a grown man quoting the title to a One Direction song in his blog? I catch myself saying the same thing... My 4 year old daughter has fallen in love with this song and she sings it every time it finds its way into our radio, and as I started to listen to it I thought to myself, "Man, I wonder if God looks down at us and says, why cant you see that you are beautiful, I cant believe that you don't see you're beautiful!" God spent some time in crafting us, he loved us so much that he created us in his image both male and female (as it tells us in Genesis). I am pretty sure that in our uniqueness every time God created us and planned us out before we were even conceived he looked at what he made and said it , "You are beautiful,what a beautiful and good creation is this!" The best way to illustrate this point is for us to take a look at Psalm 139, David is talking about how power of The Lord and how he is our creator, he says, "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! (Psalms 139:13-18 NLT)
IF you have been walking around down in the dumps because of the comments of others or even the comments you have for yourself, maybe you need to read this again, David says, "How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!" God thinks so highly of us, he loves us and likes us so much he cannot be away from us, when we are asleep he is still there, and when we wake he is still with us. His thoughts about us are like glowing remarks that a proud father has of his children and he cant help but saying them to everyone he meets. Like when I meet someone and they see the picture of my daughter and sons, I cannot help but share the many ways I am blessed by my children, how Beautiful and handsome they are, and how they complete my life. So to be contrary to the song it is not the fact that you think you arent beautiful that actually makes you beautiful, you are beautiful because God made you that way. Your most quirky feature is precious in his eyes, your faults, your strengths, that one hair that never likes to follow the rest of the group, or for some of us the hairs that no longer like to grow on your head, were made by God and daily he looks down upon you and says, "THATS WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL!"
I hope today you start seeing yourself and others through the eyes of God, we are each made beautifully for a purpose, and our beauty becomes more and more apparent when we are living these created lives to serve our Lord and Savior. We do this by following one easy command by Christ, "Love The Lord your God with all your HEART, Soul, Strength, Mind, and love your NEIGHBOR as yourself."

May God Bless You Today And Make His Face Shine Upon You and Give You Peace