😎🐫🎤 Blanca sings this song with great conviction.  Our church family and community are important, but we need to remember the one true source.  Bless others and be blessed.

#Blanca – Real Love

😎🐫🎤 Well, it’s been a challenging week. We put our 16 year old cat down last Thursday and I had a couple close friends share some pretty heavy things with me over the weekend.  My prayer this week is for healing for those I spoke with and anything you may have weighting you down.  It’s tough climbing up out of a pit, but with the Lord at your side and those that the Lord places by your side, there is healing. A line in this song says “You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right.”  This line speaks to me of the awesomeness of the Lord. Who else can take those hurts, pains, doubts, fears, etc. and use them for good?  We certainly can’t do it on our own. Only with the Lord’s Spirit are we able. Bless others and be blessed. 

#Lauren Daigle – O’ Lord

😎🐫🎤 Do you ever experience such a great joy in your heart that you just want to shout it out and share this joy with those around you? That’s not some man made joy that comes from good times and happy events that we experience. This undeniable joy is what God places upon and within us. There is no other joy in this world that can compare with the joy we receive from being in an intimate relationship with the Lord as Father, Son, and Spirit. Yearn for a relationship with each of them. They all have something different to share and experience with us. We need to know, love, and be in relationship with each of the Three to be in FULL relationship and communion with the One.  Bless others and be blessed

😎🐫🎤 Lately I’ve been reading about wisdom, understanding, and discernment. What a great combination!  But we cannot achieve these things on our own. So many times we seek perfection in our lives, but where we fail is that we seek it on our own, for ourselves. When we quit trying to make things our own and first seek God’s wisdom, knowledge, and discernment, only then can we be perfect in God’s will.  Asking for help doesn’t make you weak. Actually, it makes you very strong.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#Joshua Micha – Who Says?

😎🐫🎤 I’m sure we can all sing along with this one, but if you want to make it more personal, in the chorus, change the word “you” to “me”. Bless others and be blessed.

#Michael Joncas – On Eagle’s Wings

😎🐫🎤 No matter where we are in our relationship with the Lord, it can be better. We can’t allow Satan to trick us into thinking the we’ve arrived or our faith is better than someone else’s.  What will you do today and over the next week to find humility in your relationship with the Lord?  Ask HIM where He wants you and what He wants you doing for Him. I want to share this prayer/song with you this morning. Bless others and be blessed. 

#Micha Tyler – Different

😎🐫🎤 On Sunday our gospel reading was Matthew 14:22-33. Take a moment to read it and soak it in.  The Lord commanded Peter, per Peter’s request, to come to the Lord walking across the water. Peter jumps out and starts heading to the Lord. All was good until Peter took his focus off the Lord and started thinking about how strong the wind was…aka everything in life that Satan uses to distract us from what our one true focus should be. Peter starts to sink. I know we’ve all experienced those sinking feelings. Peter then cries out, “Lord, save me!”  I’m sure we’ve all done that as well. You know, we could make our lives so much better if we would just take the focus off of ourselves and keep focused on the Lord. We have to believe what He is telling us we can do, with and through Him. He won’t let us sink, but we have to be faithful and keep our focus on Him. When I sink, it’s by my own choosing, whether I want to admit it or not.  Bless others and be blessed.

#We Are Messengers – Point to You

😎🐫🎤 I want to share something with you that I read Monday. “If it’s true that we become like the friends we spend time with, then we must select our friends wisely. The person who will do what it takes to live in the perfect will of God is the kind of friend who imparts something of the goodness of the Lord to you every time you are with them.”  Thank God for those friends and share the light He has given you with all those around you today.  David danced in praise of the Lord. That sounds like a great idea to me this morning.  Bless others and be blessed.

#Mandisa – Joy Unspeakable

😎🐫🎤 Relationships of convenience. You know, like siblings growing up together.  What happens when you no longer live under the same roof?  Mutual acquaintances.  What happens when you lose contact with that mutual friend?  Coworkers. What happens when someone changes jobs?  Today is my last day at my current job, which has brought this subject to light. Sure, that relationship of convenience can create introductions and even years of conversation, but what will I do when that “convenience” is no longer there?  Will I make the effort to continue the relationship that was started? Is it worth the added effort? Why has God brought this person into my life?  I start my new job on Monday and I will be given a whole new group of relationships by convenience. So, what will I do with them?

Is your relationship with God one of convenience?  What efforts do you put into growing your relationship with Him? Are your conversations one sided or is there give and take?  

Consider your relationships of convenience…starting with God. Which ones are good right where they are and which ones do you want to grow?  Make the added effort and see what God has been waiting to share with you. Relationships are a treasure that you can’t put a price tag on. 

#Dionne Warwick – That’s What Friends Are For

😎🐫🎤 On Monday Brian and I visited the Ohio Caverns and saw some amazing formations of stalagmites and stalactites. A young girl on the tour asked the question “How are they formed?”  They are formed by water working its way through the earth and rocks and as the water evaporates in the caverns it leaves a mineral deposit forming these structures. They are a physical and visual reminder of the water that once passed through.  Just like these structures, we too are a physical and visual sign, but of the Living Water that passes through us. We are like the stalagmites building up and reaching for heaven. So how are we formed and receive these types of deposits?  Scripture, share groups, Bible studies, attending church services, being involved in the Church community.  Our words, actions and deeds point to our Heavenly Father, our Savior and the Holy Spirit whom are present with us each moment of our lives. Allow this Living Water to make deposits into your life and build you into a brilliant reflection of our Lord. But don’t just keep it all for yourself. Share this Living Water and allow these deposits to be made in as many lives as possible. Bless others and be bless.  

#Carrie Underwood – Something in The Water