😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Reading the second letter of John, his final words in verse 12 caused me both to ponder and smile. “I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.”  

How easy is it nowadays to “communicate” through text, tweets, chats, and posts?  It does make it easy, but the art, skills, and benefits of face to face visits and conversation are being forgotten and lost.  In John’s day it was no easy task to hike from town to city and city to country, but he was willing to put his words on hold and wait until he could have a face to face conversation “so that our joy may be complete.”  Sharing news, the Good News, with someone face to face is by far more exciting and inspiring than through written word. And don’t forget the actual exchange of expression; the sound of laughter; seeing a person so moved by what they are sharing/hearing that they get choked up; a handshake; a hug; watching tears fill your friend’s eyes and being there to hold and comfort them. After all, where two or more are gathered in His name, He too is there with us. 

John uses almost the same closing words in his third letter, as he did in his second letter. How many letters do you read about Jesus writing compared to how many journeys He took to have face to face conversations and relationships?  There is great importance in sharing of our lives and having conversations face to face.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#JamieGrace – With You

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. This past weekend my daughter shared a story with me about her 1 year old daughter and 3 year old son. Her daughter had gotten sick on the way to school one morning, so when they arrived she asked her son to walk to his class while she cleaned her daughter up. When his teacher arrived she found him in his cubby, in the dark, crying. He was afraid of the dark. 1 John 1:5 tells us…”God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”  At your age, I’m sure you won’t be sitting in a cubby, in a classroom, crying because you’re afraid of the dark. But think about it for a minute. How do you act when faced with fear? Just like my grandson, I imagine there’s some crying involved, maybe you lash out at others, get defensive, hide in your room.  Maybe fear paralyzes you and you’re unable to move forward, or maybe you overcompensate, act arrogantly and pretend nothing is wrong.  As childhood innocence fades away, we feel that we have to act strong and pretend that we can handle everything on our own. But that is the farthest from the truth. God created us to be in relationship first with him and second with others. He will never leave us to face fears alone.  1 John 4:16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”  Monday I heard this on a Christian radio station and thought it was worth sharing. “Satan knows your name, but calls you by your sins. The Lord knows your sins, but calls you by name.”  

The Lord’s light that overcomes ALL darkness is His radiant love. Allow His radiant love to penetrate and consume you as only the love of our Lord can. Bless others and be blessed. 

#BrandonHeath – Your Love

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  2 Peter 1:5-7 encourages us to “make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” Peter goes on to tell us in verses 8-9, that if we possess these qualities, they will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if we don’t have them, Peter calls us nearsighted and blind, declaring that we have forgotten that we have been cleansed from our past sins.

What I’m hearing God telling me is that faith in Him must be our starting point. Remember, it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. From there you add goodness. But don’t just rush through that process. You need time to grow in His goodness before you should transition to the next God-centered, character building quality. The journey from faith to love is not a sprint. It truly is a marathon with all the aches, pains, doubts, victories, joys, and relationships along the way. It may only take you a couple steps to get from faith to goodness. But it may be a lot more involved, intense, and many more steps to get from self-control to perseverance. Sometimes we may even have to repeat a few steps. Wherever you are in your journey, don’t give up. God has an incredible plan for you and it’s all about the journey, not the destination. Don’t get me wrong, He definitely wants to share eternity with you in heaven; but we’ve got a lot of growing, in Him, to do before we will even come close to comprehending the incredible blessings that God so desires to give you. You are His beloved child and He delights in you. Bless others and be blessed. 

#Unspoken – If We Only Knew

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  The treadmill has become my friend this winter.  Although I find myself missing my nature walks and yearning for hiking weather. Exploring new places is great, but there is a comfort and depth in return to the same place time and again. When you visit a new hiking trail you typically focus on things at the surface and easy to see. You can call me a creature of habit, but what I like so much about returning to the same place is that each time you go, you look a little deeper. You see and experience the changes that are happening; deer prints in a new location; the flow of the stream; the subtleties in a decomposing log.  You can see and experience this same kind of change, growth and depth in relationships as well.  It’s like reading the Bible. The more you allow yourself time and again to return to God’s Word, the deeper you can focus and the greater the treasures you’ll find.  The greater the growth. The greater the depth of your wisdom and vision.  Allow yourself to be overwhelmed by Him. Bless others and be blessed. 

#BigDaddyWeave – Overwhelmed

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. Reading Hebrews chapter 13 on Monday evening made me think of a grand finale at the end of a fireworks display. That final chapter of Hebrews was an explosion of wisdom nuggets. I wanted to share a few verses that really stuck out for me, but I would also encourage you to read the book of Hebrews for yourself. 

3″Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner…”  We are all prisoners to our thoughts and actions. They hold us captive, can draw us away from where Christ is calling us, and can plunge you into a pit that feels impossible to escape from. But through it all, the Lord, Father, Son, and Spirit will never leave you.  He makes His love and grace available to us unconditionally.  Make Them the source of your thoughts and actions. God tells us 5…”never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  And I believe that with all my heart.  6″So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”  In those moments when life starts slinging mud in your direction, let it fall where it may. Pause for a moment, then breath in the Words and wisdom of the Lord. Allow His Spirit to guide you and move forward in confidence. Bless others and be blessed. 

#TobyMac – The Elements

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  I would bet that Joshua wasn’t looking for a flight the day Moses told him to choose some men and go fight the Amalekites. Exodus 17: 8-16  Reading a little more into this scripture we find that Moses didn’t send Joshua and his chosen few out on their own. Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of a hill where they could see all the action and as long as Moses had his arms stretched towards the heavens and praying, they were winning. When his hands dropped, the enemy got the better of the fight. So Aaron and Hur gave Moses a rock to sit on and held his hands up, one on each side. This is what God has shown me to be true in my life lately. I’ve been placed in a fight that I didn’t choose. But God didn’t ask me to fight this battle alone.  He has placed a community of prayer warriors around me, with their arms stretched high. The power prayer has is overwhelming the enemy and helps to keep peace and focus as the battle rages on. 

I would guess you probably don’t go looking for fights either. But when you are asked to fight, how will you respond? Will you reach out to your community of prayer warriors?  Will you allow the Holy Spirit a front row seat and look to Him for guidance? Or, will you retreat and try to do it alone?  We’ve all heard “Choose your battles wisely.” It’s not just about choosing your battles, it’s more about whom you choose to have with you when battles come your way.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#Group1Crew – He Said

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. “It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by You.” and Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”  These are a couple lines that could describe my past week. It has felt as if the spiritual forces of evil have been testing my trust in the Lord; just waiting for the slightest bit of doubt to bust open a crack that they could make a home in.  I really don’t recall ever repeating a scripture so much to myself as I have this past week with Jeremiah 17:7. More specially the last part of that “…whose trust IS THE LORD.”  From time to time we all find ourselves in situations that we don’t want to be in and wonder; How in the world did I get here?  As challenging as the moment may seem, take a deep breath and look for God’s undeniable fingerprints. Because of a human error, I find myself in a place “I should have never been”, if it hadn’t been for God’s hand in it.  Just as the Angel Gabriel encouraged Mary in Luke 1:37 when he presented her with God’s will for her to be the mother of Christ, we should also be encouraged, “For nothing is impossible with God.”  Looking back, there is no denying God’s presence all along the way.  So then, why should I start doubting His presence now?  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”  Bless others and be blessed. 

#MichaelWSmith – Surrounded

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. We all know that new year resolutions are filled with good intentions. Are you working on 1 or 2 character building/life changing resolutions that you will commit to, or 5 or 6 wishful thinking resolutions that you will never follow through with?

Something I’ve experienced, so maybe you have also, is that the first time you hear something it plants a seed. A little down the road, you hear a similar idea, which gets you to thinking. Maybe a month or so later, someone else brings that same idea to light again, but now it’s really caught your attention. That happened to me recently. 

Me consistently reading the Bible could be compared with riding the rails of a roller coaster; highs and lows with very few level straightaways.  Along with that is my desire to journal, but again consistency is a challenge. Not having a solid, achievable plan was my downfall. I’ve been meeting and walking with a good friend for about 6 months and quite often she would mention reading a chapter a night in her Bible. (The seed was planted.)  At the end of November, one of my daughters tagged me in a post with the challenge to read a chapter a day from the Gospel of Luke beginning on December 1st in order to finish his Gospel on December 24th. (Hmmm)  I accepted that challenge and found myself wanting to continue after I finished reading Luke.  With the help of my friend to walk this Bible journey with, in manageable daily readings, I’m finding that I’m also able to do my journaling. 

Is God calling you to join me in this life changing, life giving Chapter Challenge?  If He is, send me back an AMEN!  

No matter what your new year resolutions may be, make sure you:

1) Clearly define your goal.

2) Have a passion for it. 

3) Break it down into achievable chunks. 

4) Dive in!

Bless others and be blessed. 

#StevenCurtisChapman – Dive

😎🐫🎤 Typically at some point during the Christmas season, we get the opportunity to spend time with family.  This can be very enjoyable, but it can also bring up scars from our past.  It was interesting how God used some of those scars to bring unexpected healing this Christmas. Healing between individuals as well as healing of self.

For many years I’ve been trying to work through the hurt and frustration of a past relationship.  The thing with forgiveness is that, for me anyway, it takes time and multiple points of forgiveness. But why haven’t I been able to completely let go of this one?  God showed me the answer last Saturday when this subject was unexpectedly brought up. I’ve done some forgiving, but I hadn’t forgiven myself. I realized that the frustration and unforgiveness I was still dealing with was toward myself and how I allowed myself to act and change my moral values to try to please another person and cope with the situation at hand at that time. I have to say, it’s pretty freeing to accept that self forgiveness and allow Christ’s light to shine where darkness once lingered.

I enjoy starting a new year by going to Mass on New Year’s Day.  I would like to share with you a blessing from the Old Testament first reading, Numbers 6: 24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord let His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.

The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.

Happy 2019!  Bless others and be blessed.

#TobyMac – Scars

😎🐫🎤 Not all of God’s gifts for us come wrapped neatly like a Christmas gift with a bow on top.  Sometimes that initial look at a gift is just a glance into uncertainty and growth that must happen before the gift is fully available for the receiving.  The cool, yet challenging thing about gifts from God is that they usually have many aspects to them. They really aren’t just simply a gift, but an opportunity to grow in Him.  I know a gift has been placed before me, but I’ve been struggling with how to approach it.  Meeting with a friend Friday morning, she guided me with three Bible verses, which were all from Proverbs. She then challenged me to read through the entire book of Proverbs over the next few days, before formulating my next steps. As an added measure of support, she said she would read through Proverbs along with me.

Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there too am I.

There is so much truth and wisdom to be found in His Word and it starts with the basics of seeking Him first in all we do. I know He’s walking this road with me.  I also know that even with Him right here at my side, I still try to do things on my own.  Reading through Proverbs opened my eyes a little wider to how God would have me approach this gift He’s giving me.  If you’re currently faced with a challenging gift, don’t be like me and try to work it on your own. Seek God’s truth in His Word and the wise counsel and prayers of true friends.  He is The Way.  Bless others and be blessed.

#PatBarrett – The Way