The warmth of Son-shine

As the song goes, so should we... "Give thanks, with a grateful heart. Give thanks, to the Holy One, Give thanks, because He's given Jesus Christ His Son." God has given us so much to be thankful for. The blessings are endless if we'll look closely. Sometimes the blessings are overwhelming and quite obvious while at other times they can be hard to see due to all the misery, problems, and difficulties we face. But the blessings from God are always there... even in times of trouble. Every storm blocks out the sunshine, but if you fly up above the storm clouds... the sun is still shining. Sometimes we can't see the blessings from the storms we're going through at the time but that doesn't mean we're not blessed.

Today, my challenge to you is to see past the storm your going through and feel the warmth of the Son-shine on your face. The Son of God, can push through any storm. The Son of God can calm any storm, The Son of God can help you weather every storm. There is nothing like the warmth we get from the Son. Continue to pray and as God answers your prayers don't forget to thank God for answered prayers. Sometimes we wonder why God hasn't answered our prayers. I think, we fail to see the answered prayers sometimes because we didn't get the answer exactly as we had hoped, but that doesn't mean God hasn't intervened in some way to your prayer request. God works out his plans for our lives and he brings us through all storms and difficulties we face. Thanksgiving should be an integral part of our praise to God. Today is Thanksgiving, a time to reflect on the blessings of life and give thanks to the One who provides it all. Count your blessings and Thank God for them.

A Psalm of David, Psalm 138:1-3
(1) I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
(2) I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For you have magnified Your word above all Your name.
(3) In the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul.

May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day.

Steve

Right here, Right now.

What happened yesterday is over... don't dwell on it. Do we learn from it?... yes, but don't dwell on it. Put it behind you and start again. Tomorrow isn't here yet so don't consume all your thoughts for a day that may or may not come. You can focus all your attention on tomorrow and miss today. Today is right here, right now. Today is what matters, this moment in time, right here, right now, yet we worry about the future or focus on the past and miss out on today.

Imagine if we poured ourselves into the here and now. What if we allowed the future to be defined by our actions today? Imagine if we allowed today's application to come from our experiences and learning's from yesterday, how much better would we be?

Whether it's the future or the past that concerns you, today is all you have to do something about it. Whether it's a relationship that you hope will improve, or maybe it's your work, or church, or school, that you hope will become more, today, right here, right now, is the time that God has given you to use wisely. Maybe that time is spent praying or studying? Maybe that time is spent just enjoying God's presence and love, alone time with him? Maybe that time is to say I'm sorry for what I've done to someone I've hurt? Maybe that time is to make a commitment to my career, church, or family.? Maybe that time is to rest and recoup? You get the point... Today is all you have. The truth be known... you might not even have the remainder of today... all you really have is "right here, right now!"

I hope that everyone understands that the differences we make today for our lives and the Lord's Kingdom is in the here and now. If you belong to Christ.... even when your days are done here on earth... you will live on in the presence of God and his love. So there is always a tomorrow for those that belong to Christ, but you only have "right here, right now" to mend relationships, to help someone in need, to love like you know you should, to share what you can to others... the list goes on and on. Simply put... enjoy today! Live as God would have you live, be all that you can be and focus less on the things that have passed and the things yet to come. Live today, right here, right now!

May God's blessing be upon you.

Steve

Great Leaders set the example for others

Do you have the ability to admit when it's over, when it's done, it's finished? Guess what folks? The election is over! Either your candidate lost or won, either way, the election is over and we will have a new President this coming January.

When I was in the service (US Army) we all understood that whoever won the election, that person was now our new Boss. You see, our Commander in Chief, our senior ranking official, is and always has been the President of the United States of America for all military servicemen and women. I was always amazed that upon the day the new President took office, everyone looked upon our new Commander in Chief as just that. He was now in charge. The interesting thing about being in the military is that we all have respect for the system and the different levels of rank and authority. It was just taught and understood that when you were given orders by your commanding officer, you didn't ask why, you didn't complain, you simply said.... "Sir, Yes Sir."

Maybe it's because of my past experience in the military that I can say with all honesty and sincerity... It's time to move on past the election and prepare ourselves to support our new President of these great United States. Although I've never seen anything quite like these elections and the emotional connections to both of these candidates, when it's all said and done, the people have spoken and have elected a new President. I can relate to John McCain as a fellow veteran, even though his service and mine were not at all the same. My sacrifice for this country was nothing compared to his. When I think about what he went through for his country, when I see how hard he fought to try and win this election, when I listened to his concession speech, I was reminded of how thankful and proud that I am to be an American. I was reminded of how important it is we support our new President and unite as a country and as Americans. John McCain, the great leader that he is, knows that we must transition from the race to win, to the race to join together and unite. Great leaders always set the example for others to follow and John McCain did that for everyone who supported his candidacy. He said that he called Senator Barrack Obama and congratulated him on his victory and then he did something that shows the whole world his true love for our country. He pledged to do all he can to help his new President in his quest to help our country move forward. In other words... I'm here for you! You can count on me.

Where do you stand? What's your pledge?

May God bless the United States of America.

I can't do any more

I realize that through my efforts to motivate and encourage others, sometimes a list of do's and don'ts is not what someone needs to hear, yet most of my posts are about doing something different, trying something new to jump start ourselves into action and be about our Father's business. But in my efforts to challenge you to do something, I realize that sometimes we can reach a place where we've already tried that. We've tried being better, we've tried setting time aside for the Lord and devotion or quiet time, we've tried reading our bible more, we've tried praying more often than before, we done the list that everyone throws our way and yet, we still see no results from our efforts and we're exhausted and tired from giving it our best and still getting no where.

If you find yourself in this place or if you've been there before (we've all been there)... this post is for you.

Sometimes we simply come to the place where we say... "I can't do any more." I'm exhausted, I'm weak, I'm so tired. Everything I've tried hasn't worked, I can't do any more... I'm done.

It's in moments like these that we must know that even though we can't go on, we've had enough... we must remember that the Lord never grows faint or weary. He understands everything that is going on within you and if you call upon him he will give you strength, he'll give you power over your weakness. You see, we desperately want to fix things. We think we can fix this and fix that, try harder here and this will improve and that will get better, but it doesn't always work out that way and we get so discouraged and tired of our fruitless efforts. Then you read a post like I've written in the past that says study more, pray more, read more, do more and everything will get better and you know, sometimes it will. Sometimes that's what God expects us to do, is do those things that we haven't been doing and through them we'll grow closer and be more obedient to following His direction for our lives... but sometimes we do those things and nothing happens, nothing works and we wonder... what am I doing wrong? Where is God in all of this?

The good news is that God never tires, he never gets weary, he never loses strength, He is everlasting and when we wait upon Him, call upon him, and put our full faith and trust in him, he will renew our strength in time. We will be able to run again and not grow weary, we will be able to walk and not faint, he will give us power over our weakness, and one day again, through his power, not ours, we will be able to once again do whatever it is that God leads us to do. It's like we need a time of rest, we need to know that God understands what we're going through, we need to know that He can carry us through the trials and set backs we go through, and finally we need to understand that He knows when we can't do any more. He knows when we've had enough, he knows when we have no more strength, he sees when we're about to faint in our weakness. These following verses were written to comfort Gods people then and they still comfort us today.

Isaiah 40:28-31
(28) Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
(29) He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.
(30) Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,
(31) But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

You see, even the strongest people get tired at times, but God's power and strength never diminish. He always hears us, listens to us, and he's never too busy or to tired to help us. His strength is our source of strength and when you feel like life is crushing you and you cannot go one more step, remember that you can call upon God to renew your strength. My prayer for you is that you will know the difference between doing the things that God wants you to do, and knowing when you can't do any more because you have nothing more to give. May you wait upon the Lord for renewed strength and hopefully begin running the race again with the strength and energy that only God can sustain.

God bless you.

Steve

Vote

One person makes a difference. It's the collective of all the votes that determines the outcome. The worst thing people can do is think this way... "Well I'm only one person, it really doesn't matter if I vote or not."

Just a few weeks ago I participated in a fund raising event for CMN (Children's Miracle Network) I was locked inside a makeshift jail cell at work and I had to raise $1,000 to get out. As the customers passed by I would let them know that I was raising money for Children's Miracle Network and I'd ask if they could donate to help the kids at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville TN. Most would dig in their purse or reach into their pockets and look for any change they might have on them. Some gave dollar bills but truthfully most gave pocket change. Every single time a customer gave me their pocket change they apologized and said I know it's not much, I'm sorry. I'd quickly thank them and remind them that it all adds up and I appreciate their donation so much. We raised $1056 in about a 7 hour time frame and when we added up the money, $228 of the total came from pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters! Over 20% of the total came from the people that thought their donation didn't matter. My point... Vote this Tuesday. Your vote does matter, it does count, and you have a responsibility to be an engaged citizen.

Read the following verses:
1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Just as you are a member of the body of Christ and you do matter, you are important and you do have a function and responsibility within the body of Christ. So it is that you matter to others within your family, your community, your city, state, and country. Vote... this Tuesday. You do make a difference!

Note... I in no way mention who to vote for... that decision must be made by you and the Lord as your guide. Pray about it. Seek the Lords council... then VOTE. Either way the election turns out, know this... at least you cast your vote, you played your part in the decision process instead of leaving it up to everyone else to decide your future government. You know, there are many Christians that are Democrats, many that are Republicans, and many that are Independents. My hope and prayer is that Christians will vote. People that are lead by God will vote. Then either way it goes, at the very least, Christians had a voice in the political process, at most... Godly people elected the President of the United states of America.

See you at the polls,

Steve