Then God Said...

Matthew 25:41-46 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” This past weekend Haley and I went to the biggest Bass Pro Shop we have ever seen! When we arrived we expected to go in and enjoy all that Bass Pro Shop had to offer, but as we were getting out o

Genesis 3:8-11 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” I first want to propose that if we really knew who God was then we would not try and hide from Him. We have a God who has not abandon His creation after this horrific event in history; rather, we have a God who has not only been faithful in our lives, but in the lives of those in history past. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God has been Fathering, teaching, admonishing, rebuking, leading, giving, cursing, blessing, raising up, tearing down, and a myriad of other things

Luke 7:1-10 When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum. And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this

Galatians 6: 7-9 Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. During the training days of my military career this was the banner over my life- do not quit! Keep going! At the time I learned the lesson of reaping the benefits of not quitting when employed with a good task. Although in the moment everything inside me was telling me to quit, it is too hard, I cannot do this, still I did not give up. I may not have been as successful as some of my other comrades, but I did not give up. We can take this same lesson and apply it to our spiritual life and relationship with God. The scripture is clear, if we sow of the flesh we will reap corruption from the flesh, but if we sow of the Spirit we will reap

It has been far too long since I have posted a blog. It's time to get back on the horse! This week is an excerpt from the book of Job, not to be confused with the occupation. Job 1:1-8 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord

1 Corinthians 13 1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor , and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. This little portion of scripture, is by far some of the most powerful set of verses I have personally read. It has shapped my life, attitude, and desire of the kind of man I pray and strive to be. Because of the influence of this scripture there are a few responses I have seen taken, and even taken myself, that are a little extreme when reading passages of this magnitude. One response to this might be, "If there is no love in those works then I just want to love and forget the works." It is not hard to see why this response might be cho

Isn't it true? That God is just boring when we are just following a list of principles without relationship, or that we cannot be stronger if we are not running the race set before us? These seem like two separate ideas, but I think they are one in the same... In my experience when I am not in deep, open, raw relationship with God then I do not have the fuel I need to run the race before me. Often times when I am not in the desired relationship with God everything around me is lacking. In other words, it is very noticeable, at least to my soul, when I am not in relationship with God, but yet I still try to run as if I am. 1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Hebrews 12:1b-2a and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from