Good Morning God

 

Thank you Jesus for a good nights sleep!  Thank you for the refreshing and renewing of my heart and soul as i listen to you and obey what you have asked me to do.   I give this day to you!  Fill me with your Holy Spirit!  Fill me with compassion and love for those whom i come into contact with today.   Give me wisdom and knowledge in my walk with you!  Be with Emma and Zac today as they go to school.   Thank you for David and his love and support.  Help us get everything done for the church that needs to be done.  All glory goes to you!  I love you Lord!

Good Morning God!

Thank you my Jesus for a good nights sleep with no interruptions!  Thank you for this season of extra rest in my life!  Thank you for all the blessings that you have so freely bestowed upon me as i have followed you and your direction!  I ask for energy and favor as it comes to developing Vets for Veterans!  Guide me in what to do and how to do it.  Thank you for the interest that has already been shown and the help!   Be with Emma and Zac today and place your wall of fire around them!  Thank you for David and his unselfish love!  Help me to love him and show him in the ways that he needs and relates!  This is your day Lord, use as you will!  I love you Lord!

Good Morning God!

Thank you my Jesus for all that you have done for me and given unto me!  Thank you that even though at times i am slow to obey, you never give up on me!  Strengthen me this day to walk for you and obey you in all things!  Be with Emma and Zac.  Place your wall of fire around them and keep them in the shadow of your hands!  Thank you for David and his patience with my weariness and character flaws.  May my life be all about you!  I love you Lord!

Going through a trial?

“But the LORD hardened Pharaohs heart, and he was not willing to let them go.  The Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Beware, do not see my face again, for in the day you see my face you shall die!”" Exodus 10:27-28

One of the things that has always amazed me about the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt is how long the LORD caused Pharaohs heart to be hardened.  From the very beginning God told Moses that He was going to harden Pharaohs heart but who would have ever guessed it would stay hard for so long and through so long!  I would think after a few plagues and such that I would be shoving them out the door and saying get out of here and yet pharaoh stayed hardened and continued in suffering!  And then Pharaoh gets mad about it!  Really mad when he could have prevented all of it by just letting them go.

Now certainly God caused it because He did have a plan!  God always has a plan!  And His plan is perfect regardless of what we think about it!  Remember, it isnt about us any longer!  Im telling you, the sooner you get that figured out, the easier and better your life will be!

God got the Israelites out of Egypt but there was some suffering that they had to go through first.  Why?  Because God wanted to be glorified in their lives!  God wanted them to realize who He was!  God wanted them to have something to remember and to fall back on during the trials they were going to go through in the desert!  He wanted them to know that HE was God!

Pharaoh got mad at Moses because of the plagues and trials that were coming upon him.  Now he could have ended all of them by letting the Israelites go but as most people in the world, Pharaoh was thinking about himself.  He was thinking of the lost labor, he was thinking of the lost numbers, he was thinking about how it was going to affect him!

How often do we do that same thing?  How often do we get mad at God because of trials that we are going through?  Why?  Because they are hard and they cause us pain and they are not what WE want!  It is our own selfishness that leads us to be angry at God!  Why me!  Poor me!  My life sucks!  Why do i have to go through this!?  Why me God?!

Really?!  What if Jesus had said that and chosen to not go to the cross?  What then?  Think of how difficult your life would be if you were still having to sacrifice animals to get blood covering and forgiveness for your sins?  How wonderful do you think a lifetime of that would be?  Killing animals all the time?  Trust me, it isnt anything nice!

We need to get our eyes off of ourselves!!  We need to get our eyes on God and our hearts set to His ways!  His ways are greater than ours!  His thoughts higher than ours!  It is NOT about YOU or ME!  It is about God!  We were bought with the blood of Jesus!  When we accepted that sacrifice and our forgiveness we GAVE our lives over to God!  Remember that!

We serve a loving and gracious God who does way more for us than we deserve and then we get all bent out of shape when there is a bump in the road.  You want your trial to get over with?  Get your eyes off yourself, stop having pity parties, stop being selfish and get your eyes on God!  Instead of God why are you doing this and you have to get me out of this try, what can i do for you God!?  As i struggle through this God how can i further your kingdom?  What do i need to do different God to bring the glory to you?!

The choice is ours!  Serve yourself or serve God!  Glorify God through your circumstance and trials and be lifted up or get mad and have your heart hardened and prolong your trial and suffering!  No ones choice but yours!

Jesus, thank you that you do have a plan, a perfect plan!  Thank you that when i focus on you and look to you through my trial that there is peace to be found during the storm!  When i am about you there is nothing that can bring me down!  Continue to grow me in this area!  Change me and change my attitude to worship and praise you even in the storm!  I want my eyes on you and not on myself!

Why not now?

“And Moses said to pharoah, ‘the honor is yours to tell me:  when shall i entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your housed, that they may be left only in the nile?’  Then he said, ‘tomorrow.’  So he said, ‘may it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.”  Exodus 8:9-10

If your house and bed and food and everything around you was swarming with frogs wouldnt you want them gone right now?!  I think of how horrible it must have been to have frogs everywhere and the grossness of them and i would dang sure want them gone as soon as possible!  Who wants to live in the filth and slim of frogs?

It always amazes me when i read that passage that pharoah said, tomorrow!  WHY!!!  Why would anyone in their right mind say tomorrow and not right stinking now!?  Get these things out of here and make it go away NOW!  And yet pharoah said, tomorrow!  Why was that?

I can only speculate as to why pharoah wanted to wait for a day but i imagine he wanted to gather up his magicians and such and see if they could make the frogs go away!  He was miserable but he didnt want to have God take care of it until he was sure there was no other way!  I can just see him calling them all in again and saying, ‘alright guys, you have done some pretty cool things and matched these dudes things, so now make these frogs go away.’  To which im sure they thought that they could so out they went and probably tried all night and obviously, whatever they were doing didnt work.

It is understandable why someone who wasnt a christian would delay but why is it that we christians delay?!  Why is it when we know we are in sin that we stay in it?  I have been and am guilty of this frequently!  God convicts me of something that i am doing or i plan to do something that i know i shouldnt and in my mind and heart i give it a timeline.

God, i know i shouldnt be in this relationship but im just going to do it for a little while.  Im lonely and this guy is nice and i know he isnt a christian but he is a nice guy and i really like him so im just going to date him until he makes me mad or does something that i dont like.  Really?  Thats a good plan isnt it?  The problem being that we develop feelings and that alleged time comes and goes and we are still in the relationship!  Or, i know i shouldnt be talking to this woman at work but we are just friends and all and my wife is out of town and well, im just going to go and have lunch with her because it wont hurt anything.  Really?  One that i have frequently struggled with is time on the internet and on the forums.  I know i spend too much time and so i say, ok God when i finish this workout program or at the end of the month i will not spend so much time or when things get busy i will slow down.  The problem is that when that time comes i have already come up with some sort of rationalization for why i cant stop just yet!

We live with sin and disruption in our lives!  We live with the frogs climbing all over us and say God take these from me but i dont want to stop doing what you have asked me to just yet so i guess i will live with the frogs for a little bit longer!  WHY?!  Because we are selfish and we are thinking of the attention or the pleasure or the potential enjoyment that we are going to get out of it!  Maybe i can cook the frogs and eat them.  Maybe i can gather the slime and make face cream of it.  Maybe i can lead this guy to Christ.  Maybe i can change someones life.  Maybe…..

Maybe never happens!  What happens is that that guy leads us further from Christ and deeper into the frogs.  The life we are thinking we can change draws us away and introduces us to more frogs and more slim!

Then when we finally hit bottom and are covered in frog poop and grossness and cant take it anymore we want God to come in and take care of it for us!  God, help me!  God get me out of this filth!  God you have to get me out of here!  Thankfully we serve a loving and merciful God and He will rescue us but we still have to deal with the residue of what is left of our sin!  The frogs didnt just go away, they died and their bodies and slim and grossness still had to be cleaned up!

When you choose sin over God, when you keep going when God has told you to stop, you will have consequences!  choose to sin, choose to suffer!  When you cry out God will help you but YOU will have a mess to clean up and it is often a gross and very painful one!

What sin are you in that are you putting off until tomorrow?  Why is it that you cant do it today?  Why not right now?  What are getting from it?  Is it glorifying you or God?  How many dead frogs and stinking slim will you be cleaning up?

Jesus, thank you that you are merciful and you do give us a choice.  help me to choose now!  help me to be now and not later!  Strengthen me to take that stand for you!  For when i stand for you, you stand for me!

Good Morning God!

 

Thank you Lord for good rest last night!  Thank you for this day!  Help me to shine for you today in all that i do and all that i say!   Fill me with your compassion and your love for everyone who walks in the doors of the clinic.  Guide my hands during surgery!  Give me wisdom and knowledge that i may better serve you in all that i do and say.  I ask for your spirit of peace to be up on Zac today.  Keep him and guide him and make yourself known to him at this young age!  Be with Emma and place your wall of fire around her.  Fill her with your Holy Spirit and lead her this day!  Thank you for David and bind us together with your love!  This is your day!  I love you Lord!

Gods will- The “not so easy” way!

“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘when you go back to egypt see that you perform before pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.’”  Exodus 4:21

For most of my life i believed that Gods way was the easy way.  If God wanted me to do something the road would be smooth sailing and everything would just fall into place.  After all, its Gods will!  It is supposed to be easy, right?  NOT!

Is there any doubt as to what God wanted to do for the Israelites?  Is it not clear that He was going to lead them out of Egypt?  Had He not told Israel that He was going to make Him into a great nation and give his descendant the promised land?  Had God not just told Moses that he was to go before Pharaoh and perform these miracles so that pharaoh would let the nation leave?  And yet God says, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.  WHAT??!!  WHY?

God has a plan, a perfect plan and it is way higher than ours!  Why do christians fall into doubt so easily when we come up against trials when we are doing what we thought God wanted us to?  Over and over we have examples in the bible showing Gods plan and then showing the difficulty that it takes to get there and yet we still get discouraged and give up at the first bump in the road!

Think of it this way,  if you are in Gods will, is the enemy going to stand by and watch or is he going to fight against you?  Does the devil want you to live your life as God has called you?  NO!  Now if you are NOT in Gods will what do you think the enemy is going to do?  He is going to be clearing the road ahead of you!  He is going to make sure that everything “falls into place!”  He is going to give you that “feeling” that this is what you are supposed to be doing!  He is going to make it appear that this is the way you should go even though there are things at the end of that way that dont line up with what the bible tells us is right!

Example, a new job offer!  God is this your will?  Should i take this job?  It is lots of hours and requires that i be on the road all the time and away from my family but the pay is great and i will be able to give more to the church!  Should i take this job God?  If it is your will let them call me and offer me the job!  What do you think is going to happen?  You are going to get a call the next day!  Everything is going to just fall into place and you are going to say “this was Gods will for me!”

All goes well for the first few months and but then problems start at home because you are never there.  The more money still isnt enough and you are fighting with your spouse and your kids are getting into trouble and hanging out with the wrong crowd and dont listen to anything you say!  A few more months and you are pouring out your woes to someone of the opposite sex at work about how hard your life is.  You call and you text and you flirt, its alright, nothing more will happen, right?  Things at home are getting worse, you are angry and there isnt enough money to cover the bills.  That person who was your sounding board is now becoming more than that.   You are developing “feelings” and before you know it you are having an affair!  Your family falls apart, life is horrible, yep, thats Gods will right?!  WRONG!

Gods will would have been for you to have stuck with your old job where you could have been home with your family!  Gods will would have been that you downsized your living so you could afford to live on what you made!  Gods will would have been that you and your spouse are each others sounding boards and there is no need for any outside “friends” for you to get comfortable with!  Gods will would be that you go to your pastor or church leader for counseling and help!

Gods will is for us to live according to His word!  Gods will is for you to not look for all the pieces to just fall into place but rather that you earnestly seek Him and place Him first in EVERYTHING!  Gods will is for you to be growing in Him everyday!  Gods will is path that is narrow and difficult!

The next time you are in prayer about what is Gods will for you life i suggest you spend some time in the word and time with your pastor or qualified church leader.  Ask them for their input!  Dont go by how easy it is!  Easy means that the enemy isnt fighting you and if the enemy isnt fighting you it is because you are no threat to him and you are headed down the road for destruction!

Dont throw out the fleece and expect the enemy to ignore it!  The enemy is going to be the one who answers the fleece!  God is going to give you His answer through His word!  He never changes!  He is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Jesus, thank you that you give us everything we need in your word!  Open my eyes and my heart to change and grow according to your word and not the world!  increase my faith that i may trust in you and not signs or feelings!  Strengthen me to stand and persevere through the trials that come with following your will for my life!

Good morning God!

Thank you my Lord for deep sleep even if it was disturbed several times.   Strengthen me today.  I want to shine brightly for you!  Fill me with your Holy Spirit today, overflow from me and change me and those that i come into contact with!  Help me to be a good and godly leader at the clinic!  I ask that you be with Billie April and i as we travel to klondyke today.  Give us good fellowship!  Be with Emma and Zac today at school, place your wall of fire around them.  Keep them safe and grow them in you!  Thank you for David and his heart and all that he is to me and more important all that he is for you!  i love you Lord!

Is anyone watching?

“So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the egyptian and hid him in the sand.  And he went out the next day, and behold, two hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, ‘why are you striking your companion?’  But he said, ‘who made you a prince or a judge over us?  Are you going to kill me, as you killed the egyptian?’  Then Moses was sfraid and said, ‘surely the matter has become known.’”  Exodus 2:12-14

When i was a kid i was always doing stuff that i shouldnt.  My next oldest sister and i were constantly pushing the envelope on what we thought we could get away with.  Jeanette and i would be planning to go across the canal or play by the canal and we knew that we werent supposed to so we would scope everything out first and check to make sure mom was busy or gone before executing our plan.  It is interesting how one instinctively thinks to look this way and that before doing something that they shouldnt!  Or at least the first several times they go to do something wrong!

I used to have an employee who stole from me all the time.  In fact, i had video cameras installed so that i could keep an eye on her.  Watching her behavior was always interesting because she was always doing something she wasnt supposed to be doing, like facebooking or texting on her phone and she was constantly looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was coming.  And yet as much as she tried to hide it, she was very obvious in her actions!

We are the same way when we are doing sinful things!  You sit down at the computer and before opening it up you look around to see where your spouse is.  You dont want your spouse to know that you are surfing around on bb.com or who is sending you emails.  So you hide your computer screen and you have other windows up that you can click on to cover up what you shouldnt be viewing.

It is our nature to cover our sins!  It is our nature to hide our sin!  Adam and Eve hid from God after eating the apple!  We hide from those closest to us!  Maybe it is just neglecting to talk about something in our lives that we know we shouldnt be doing so we just dont talk about it to those closest to us!  I have an employee right now that is in an inappropriate relationship and she never talks about it to me even though we discuss a lot of stuff and a lot of personal stuff.  And yet this sin, she hides!

The thing about it is that we think we are hiding but in all actuality our actions are screaming out our sin!  Moses checked this way and that before killing the egyptian and yet by the following day, everyone knew!  We think that we are hiding our sin and yet our body language, our lack of discussion, our attitude, our conversations, our glances, everything about us gives us away!  God knew that Adam and Eve had eaten the apple and the people closest to you, even though they might not know your exact sin, they know that something isnt right!

We think we can hide it.  You think you can hide your texting of someone you shouldnt from your spouse but they know by your actions that you are hiding something!  You know you shouldnt be viewing certain things on the computer and those closest to you know by your actions that you are doing something that you shoudnt.  You know that you shouldnt be in a certain relationship and so you dont talk about it but by your own omissions you are shouting out your wrong doing!

Nothing we do is in secret!  As a christian we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us and He sees and knows EVERYTHING!  That feeling that you get when you are doing something you shouldnt, dont pretend that you dont know what i am talking about, that feeling that comes right before you start, the feeling of “i shouldnt do this” that comes before you hit the send button on your phone or email with a message that has words or pictures in that it shouldnt.  The feeling, the warning of the Holy Spirit!  God is watching!  God knows!  And your actions are telling everyone else around you!

What are you doing that you are looking over your shoulder and trying to keep a secret?  Is it really a secret?  Let me tell you something, you might think it is a secret but those closest to you know!  They might not know the details but they know that something isnt right!  And even more, God knows!  God sees and by continuing in your sin you are pushing Him farther from you and putting Him on the self.  By doing this you are telling God that you are choosing sin over Him and when you need Him and you cry out to Him, He will ask you about your sin!  He will not be mocked, you cant have your sin and God!  You choose!

Jesus, thank you that nothing we do is in secret!  Thank you that you see everything and know everything down to our deepest and darkest secret!  Help me, strengthen me to change and to turn from my sin and my temptations!  Help me to put you first above everything else!  Work in me to your good pleasure!  I choose you!

Thy Word!

“Thou who knowest, O LORD, remember me, take notice of me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.  Do not, in view of Thy patience, take me away; know that for Thy sake I endure reproach.  Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Thy name, O LORD God of hosts.”  Jeremiah 15:15-16

When was the last time you were in the word of God?  I dont mean yesterday in church, if you went, I mean when you took up your bible and read Gods word to soothe your heart and your soul?  When was the last time you read it because you wanted to and not because you felt like you had to?  When was the last time you went into the word of God for the comfort it provides?

I think many of us forget our bibles and dont think of it as a resource!  We get angry and we go to the radio and listen to some kind of music that does anything but glorify God.  We turn on the TV and fill our eyes with sex and action and anything but God!  We go out and buy some book that promises to make us happy or reduce stress or give us the answers to making it in life and leave our bible on the nightstand or buried in places unknown.  Why?

As christians our first thought when we are struggling with anything should be going to the word of God!  I am thankful that over the past few years i have cut out from my life radio and TV.  I made the choice to remove those from my life so that i wouldnt seek refuge in them, so i wouldnt be exposed to the sins of the world through them, so i wouldnt be agitated and irritated further by what came from them.  Now when i am irritated i listen to christian music or i open my bible.

Yesterday morning i was not in the best of moods.  It was mothers day and i was supposed to be sleeping in and catching up on my rest.  The monchers had had friends spend the night and Emma came into my room about 6 am and it was all downhill from there!  Every few minutes “mom, can we do this?  Mom, can i eat this?  mom, can….!”  I just wanted to lay in bed and rest until 7 and it wasnt happening.   I was still tired from the past few weeks of working every day and i was hoping to catch up and it wasnt happening!

I was mad and irritated when i got out of bed and all i could think about is how i wasnt going to have the energy i needed to get everything done this coming week.  After allowing myself to dwell in misery for about an hour i found my bible and i went to psalm and i started to read psalms of praise and worship and thanksgiving.  I ended on psalm 96; sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.  Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

As i read it i was challenged by God to praise Him and not worry about my lack of rest!  To get my mind focused on Him and off of myself!  To think of all that Jesus gave up and suffered for me!  Now i would like to say that my mood instantly lifted and everything got better but it didnt.  But it didnt get worse!  Instead of thinking about how tired i was i got my mind on God!  I started thanking Him and praising Him!

Did my day go great?  NO!  Did i get the rest i wanted?  No!  But i thought about God and His will and His desires for my life all day instead of my own weariness!  I thought about ways that i could make a difference!  I thought about things that i do that i shouldnt and things that i do that i should do more of!

The enemy wants us to think that the bible is going to make everything change instantly and that way when it doesnt we get discouraged and we give up!  We defeat ourselves!  We give him the advantage because we arent in the word of God!  God never promised us an easy path!  The path is narrow and difficult!  The road to destruction is wide and easy!

It is our job to be in the word of God so that we are strengthened and informed and knowledgeable in His ways!  The word of God is our sword!  If we never pick it up and learn how to wield it then when the enemy comes it is not going to do us any good!

Jeremiah was struggling and he was being persecuted.  His life wasnt easy and he was suffering.  He went and found Gods words!  He ate them, he chewed on them, he spent time on them!  He allowed Gods word to feed him!  He let Gods word be his fuel!

When you eat something are you instantly made stronger by it?  NO!  Trust me, the whole diet thing takes a long time to figure out and to get right!  We christians are to be eating the word of God!  Just like you consume protein to fuel your muscles, we should be consuming Gods word to fuel our spirits!  We cant just eat a protein bar and expect to get bigger muscles!  We have to be consistent and we have to train.  The same is in our walk with God!  We are to be consuming the word of God and then using it, training with it, allowing it to impact our lives!

It isnt just about reading it and going on with your day and never thinking about it again!  It is about reading it and meditating upon it and using what you learn each day to change you and grow you!  You can have all the knowledge in the world of how to build muscles but if you never go to the gym to use it, it is worthless to you!  It doesnt matter what you know about God and His word, if you arent using it and allowing it to grow you, it is worthless to you!

Are you in Gods word?  Are you consuming it?  Are you chewing on it?  Are you allowing it to strengthen you and prepare you?  Or are you just opening it on sundays in church or reading it because you know you should be but not allowing it to change you?  What is the enemy beating you at because you are not strengthening yourself in the word?  What is the enemy attacking you with and weakening you with because you are not feasting on Gods word?  What is the enemy taking from you because you dont know any better or you dont know how to fight with the sword of God?

Jesus, thank you that you have shown me that your word is my life line!  thank you that in it i can find everything i need to strengthen myself and be encouraged in my walk!  thank you that your word holds all the answers and all the directions and all the secrets to navigating the narrow and difficult path!  Grow me in your word!  I want to eat it and to consume it and for it to become as much a part of me as my muscles and tissues!