God's Gym

As I was driving home today the song " God bless the Broken road "came on the radio. I love this song because it reminds me of how God brought me to my knees. I have told people often of how much I appreciate what God allowed me to go through so that I would finally give my life over to Him. If I had not suffered the loss of respect, family, work, and sense of worth I don't believe I would appreciate them as I do now. I know I too often took too many things for granted so God allowed me to lose them for a season.

It still amazes me that we as a culture, Christian and secular alike don't mind suffering for things that we desire but we rail against God when He uses adversity to strengthen us. How many of you out there go to the gym daily and lift weights and sweat and push yourselves to the limit in search of that perfect body? We deny ourselves certain foods and pleasures to achieve a physical goal.

While God wants us to stay in good physical shape for our well-being, His desire is for our souls to be strong and for us to learn to lean on and go to Him for everything. Many of the trials that we go through in life are His way of working our soul muscles. It's like the old saying " That which does not kill you makes you stronger ". I don't profess to understand every trial that I deal with in life and I don't believe everyone is from God. We live in a sinful world and things happen. When they do God has taught me to leave them at His feet and let Him handle it. I have dealt with depression, addiction, suicidal thoughts, self loathing and many others. When I was in the midst of these I assure you I was crying out to God but not understanding why He was allowing this. After I surrendered my life and He eased some of the suffering it became more clear He loved my enough to make me use my soul muscles.

I don't know how well I have explained or shared this with you. I believe a large part of any audience that comes to read this blog will be those in search of a relationship and some understanding of God. My walk with Him shows me everyday how much He cares and desires for me. You don't have to be the Pope or Billy Graham to know and understand God and especially Jesus. If you are going through a rough season I pray for you and hope you will release it to Jesus. As I always say, I do not have all the answers but I do have the one answer and that is God. That may not soothe you now if you are in a horrible situation. There is much evil in the world and I hope and pray God saves you from whatever evil you are dealing with. I love you all out there and know that many of you suffer more than I ever have. I would not lead you to Jesus if I were not absolutely sure He is your salvation. Yours in Christ

Find your best friend

God's love and blessing to you all. Julie and I had a wonderful time with some of our dear friends tonight. I always cherish our times together because I can share my heart and soul and my brothers and sisters. They listen with open and nonjudgmental hearts and then share what God has put on their hearts as food to feed my soul. It reinforces to me how wonderful it is to have dear friends.

My mother told me that if I could count my true friends on one hand in my lifetime I would be lucky. Mothers are so loving and wise. My time with my friends tonight and that wisdom from Mom sparked me to share with you tonight.

If you have read all or any of my other writings then you know how dear my walk is with Jesus. Christ is my best friend, as well as my Savior. I have shared this before but I will say it again, He wants to be your best friend too. I state this again because I believe too many of you get religion and a relationship with Jesus confused.

Now I personally have no problem with religion as the structure for relationship with God. We need good, solid, loving people to help guide us. It is good for us to have a congregating place where we can, as a family, sing praise to God our father. I know I love having a place of peace and refuge where I can escape and fall to my knees and cry to God.

While these are all wonderful, they are not the solid foundation on which my faith is anchored. You see my rock and faith are with Jesus Christ. I state this because as I said there is a difference and I see too many people that have issues with " the Church" or religion. Once you open the door to a relationship with Jesus you may look at some of your perceptions in a different light.

I would like to put aside a discussion about the church for now because with all the good that has been done in it, unfortunately selfish people have misused their power in the name of God and the church and the debate would be much too lengthy. I feel empathy for any and all that have been wronged and hope that the words God puts on my heart may help you.

I speak of a relationship with Jesus because that is what I read of in the New Testament. Love and friendship is what Christ preaches all through His ministry. My dear friend Matt shared something tonight that I had never pondered in one of my favorite scripture verses. In 1st Corinthians13 it says, " 1If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love , I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Please read the rest for yourself for it is beautiful for its message and poetry.

Now what Matt shared is to insert the name of God every time it says love. Please stop now and read the previous paragraph and say God instead of love. It really doesn't matter because the two are interchangeable. It was so amazing to me because that chapter is so very special to me and yet I had not before seen that connection. I wont speak for others but I as a passionate Christian have too often somewhat separated the two. I know that God loves but Matt reminded me that God is love. That is why He sent His Son to die for us and to be the sacrifice for our sins.

When Christ was sacrificed there was a large earthquake that shook all of Jerusalem. When this happened the curtain in the temple was torn, from top to bottom. This curtain separated the Holy of Holy's where the Spirit of God dwelt in the temple from the rest of the temple. Before this only the consecrated priest could enter. With Christ sacrifice God tore the curtain so that there would no longer be any separation from He and His people that He loved so dearly.

If you have had a bad taste of religion I pray for you to find Jesus and get to know Him. Read His words of love and acceptance and you will know that He desires all the lost sheep to come to Him. I go to an evangelical church but if people ask I just tell them I believe in Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that as your walk with Christ deepens He will set your feet at a place of worship. Most churches are good loving places filled with people like us all, just trying to find their way and helping others as they go.

I pray my words have been worthy for you to read and helpful. A dear, dear friend of mine once shared this with me, No God No Peace No Love: Know God Know Peace Know Love. He is no longer with us but his love and words stay in my heart. I pray they will find a way into yours. Yours in Christ

KISS keep it simple sinner

Good morning everyone, at least it's morning for me. I love the way God pokes me when He wants to remind me of how simple following Him is. I should run in here and put the thoughts down right when He gives them to me; but I am the world's best procrastinator.

I have been struggling with whether I am serving God to the best of my ability? I am not righteous by any means but I do consider myself devout in my desire to serve God and share the love of Christ. This got me to thinking of something I shared in my book that I considered extremely important to new believers. We must regularly return to the foundation of God's love and keep it simple, as the title infers. If you are wondering,you can trust that I put myself in that title first.

In Matthew 22:34-40 in response to the Pharisee Jesus states," ' Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ' Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

I hope and pray this becomes the base and cornerstone of your walk with Jesus. I have always felt that if I can fully grasp the basis of something I can better expand my understanding of the more complicated aspects. Knowing and learning of God's love for us is not complicated but it is at times, at least for me, a bit hard to wrap my head around. This passage brings me back to where Christ found me.

When I first came to Christ He enveloped me in knowing that I must love myself as He loved me. As I have stated before this is not a selfish love, but an accepting love of my imperfect humanity. One of my biggest issues before, and at times still is, my lack of self-esteem. In one way or another I too often feel I have not lived up to the worlds or my expectations. I don't know why I was not ingrained with self-confidence but I share it because I believe there are many, many people out there that are doing their best to fake it as I did.

I ask you to wrap your head around this scripture and see the simplicity, and wisdom of it. I have heard many people speak of how hard it is to follow all of God's rules. I can somewhat see their point if you try to do everything at once. I am ADD and one of my issues is trying to grasp multiple information. It all jumps in my head like spaghetti and I go nuts trying to put it in the proper order. In Matthew God makes it simple, love Me first, and love yourself like I love you and then you can love others properly.

I could go on and on, and some may think I have, but just think of how simple it is to follow the other commandments if we first commit ourselves to these. So if you are searching out this God thing or have accepted Jesus and feel as if you are falling short; please focus on this verse. Christ walk on this earth was mostly about making it easier for people to know the love God had for them. I have felt unloved and I just want you to know how much Christ loves you. Yours in Christ Mike

What has happened to our world that marriage has no true commitment value any longer? No finger pointing as I have been married twice, three if you count marrying Julie twice. It seems so simple now, treat your wife as if she were your best friend, which she should be. And of course the reverse for your husband. Julie and I work our marriage as a triple braided cord with Christ as the center strand. We still have issues but we rarely if ever get into the blame game. I have friends who I love dearly but Julie is the only one I know that truly has my back 24/7. Isn't that the way it is supposed to be? I am big on personal responsibility and I imagine I haven't always been the most solid friend, but who should and can you count on when the chips really are down. You can marry for looks, or sex, or money, or whatever, but shouldn't we all be looking and wanting someone to care for us no matter what? Now I have this with Christ and if something were to happen to Julie He would sustian me. If you read the Bible though, God did not just create intimacy just for procreation. We should be bound to our spouse as we are one, as an extension of our own body. If you were not as coordinated with one hand as the other would you cut it off?
When someone comes to me to speak of challeges with a spouse I always ask them if they could be married to themselves. That's why Julie is so awesome because I probably wouldn't put up with me.haha There are definite situations where one spouse is acting worse than another. This is why we should do our best to marry someone we truly like. We accept the faults of people we like, but expect our spouses to be near perfect. Ladies and gentlemen, especially ladies, men to a great deal and people in general don't change just because you say they should. If you are in a shaky or bad marriage please turn to Christ. First it will give you someone for support. Next as you may not be feeling good about yourself He will show you the love you deserve. This will allow you to survive and give you the heart to try and find out why your spouse is loving you properly. Now if you are in a dangerous mental or physically abusive relationship get out!! These other rules don't apply because harm is different than disagreement. For just the bad relationships though we need to try and understand why our spouse is acting out. I do not believe there are a handful of truly evil, mean, or unlovable people out there. If you married them, for the most part, they have some redeeming quality. Their actions are from anger, hurt, fear, and a bigee past emotional pain. There are numbers of good Christian relationship books out there to help and in the beginning you may be the only one working at it. Christ will give you the strength if you lean on Him. Yours in Christ

What's truly important!

Hello friends, I hope all of you are well. It is at times difficult to know what to write because I have not to date had any readers. That is ok because God will guide those who may need guidance. If you are the first you may ask who are you to guide? As I state often I was once where you maybe now, lost in the world. I was lost in the middle of the crowds of people wh0 were also lost and would not admit it. To admit you don't have many if any of the answers in todays world or even yesterdays appears weak. To me that is why there are so many suicides, especially teen suicides. We as adults don't or can't figure out how to love and be happy so how are we to guide the children. Children are given way too much credit and leeway these days. There are exceptions to everything but children need and want guidance. We have stretched ourselves so thin economically that we must have 2 incomes and place way too much emphasis on things for our happiness. I am an avid golfer and truly enjoy the game, but no great round could ever replace a big long hug from my wife,son, or daughters. No vacation could fill my heart like being able to cry on the shoulder of my wife,my best friend, when life gets to heavy. And believe me no matter how much you may have life figured out it will always get to heavy sooner or later. I enjoy watching TV and probably too much but could any show or movie ever replace your child coming in a sitting on your lap to just say I love you and I need you. We should never assume that our loved ones know that we love them, that goes for young or old. Most of us have a story of someone we would have loved to have said I love you to just one more time. Only God knows the number of our days. I could fall over right here at this keyboard and everyone would be shocked because I am in good health, but it happens. I feel and cry so much for you out there who feel no really cares or loves you. As bad as it is to say unfortunately for some that is true. This is why I so want you to know Jesus. I know He may not seem real and you so want someone to hold and hug you and tell you how awesome you are. He is real and He does want you to know you are awesome and special and your life means something. When I was a teenager I was looked at like I was someone. I was a good baseball player and people thought I had it together. They didnt know that inside I was scared and weak always try to fit in. I wanted to be cool and popular and say funny things. We all want to be accepted and loved but we usually look in the wrong places. If you are young and dealing with peer pressure, or 30-40sih and dealing with career and family pressure, or senior and dealing with loneliness and weary of life pressure go to Jesus. He calls for you and wants to love you and to show you you are worth loving. I cried out to Him while pulled over the side of the road of I-15 south below Las Vegas. He heard me and loved me and cried out with joy when I finally chose Him. If you want someone to love you unconditionally, if you want someone who will love you at your worst, if you need someone to understand that you can not always be strong then cry to Jesus. I can attest to this because He has done that for me. This is not my opinion or way of looking at what life has been. If you knew my life before Christ and see my life now you would understand. My life now is not always a bed of roses and Gods timing isn't just what I would want it to be, but He is with me always. He gives me what I need whether I want it, like it, or understand it and He has never failed me. I sincerest prayer if for you to find this love. I pray you will believe what I share because I recieve no gain. I will probably never know any of you out there. God will know and will bless my heart by saying to me Well done my good and faithful servant. May God meet you where you are and bless your every breathing day.

Yours in Christ

Me, my wife, daughter and her boyfriend went to the Rockin Worship Roadshow last night with some more of our friends. It is truly amazing and energizing when 5 to 6000 people come together and sing praises to God. The main band was MercyMe but they had several other performers. It is a great venue and they only charge $10 admission so cost is not an issue. I remember when I used to go to concerts and I would end up drunk and stoned. Those concerts were always an attempt to fill some inner need and I guess these are too. The need now is to give thanks and praise to the One who saved me. I don't know who will read this first and in what situation they may be. Maybe God just has me writing this for my own good. I haven't gotten very deep yet because I don't exactly know what to write. I know that the concerts before were to escape and rid myself of the life that wouldn't fill me. The music and words I study are to fill me so that I may make the best of the awesome life He has blessed me with now. I can't give you that life in this blog. Only God can give you new life, as He gave me. I don't know what you maybe looking for, but if you don't love yourself or your life I might be able to lead to a better place. Have a great day Yours in Christ

I was thinking today about why anyone would listen or put any stock in what I share in this blog. First because God will bring those He desires and they will chose to trust what I share or not. Next is because I am just like you. The only difference is that I have allowed Jesus to heal my wounds. I must admit that when some of the people I grew up with read this it may be strange or humurous to them. I was not a big man on campus or suave with the ladies. I might have been similar to Charlie Brown but not that cool.haha I don't know when I lost my self confidence, I think sometime in junior high school. I guess I was kind of stuck in the middle. I played baseball with alot of The Crowd but we didn't really hang together. Don't get me wrong, as popular groups go the gang at my school were pretty good. I won't go in too deep right now but high school wasn't exactly a good self esteem place for me. Starting to smoke pot didn't help because instead of face my short comings I just avoided them. Although I was pretty good at baseball I never really put in the work to at least have a chance at being great. Then I just got into a habit of quitting things. I joined the Navy to try and push myself and it helped some but I still just put enough effort in to get by. Years of failing, at least in my mind, caused more pot and other recreational drugs. After one failed marriage I slipped into years of clubbing and partying the old drugs,sex, and rock and roll.

I know this isn't exactly a special story. For twenty years I tried to find happiness and ways to fill the holes in my heart. I lost a great woman, didn't give enough or the proper love and attention to my children, and lost about any respect I had for myself. I share all this so you will know I've been to most of the places you've been. So if you didn't know how to play golf and I did maybe you would listen to me.

God saved me from myself. He gave me back my family, respect, and hope. Mostly He showed me how to love myself and that I am wonderful in His eyes. I had good parents but I had never before felt this unconditional love. I won't play the blame game for my life. I don't say that I have endured all that some of you out there have endured. But something I will state in most all my postings is that God loves you and wants you to love yourself and have a good life. I will not have all the answers to all of your questions. God does but we don't always understand them. So if I don't or can't give you a good answer blame me not God.

There are still struggles most everyday and I don't always feel like a million bucks. What everyday is though is a blessing and a chance to share what Jesus did for me. Life is more awesome than I could ever put into words.

All I know is that before I kept doing the same thing over and over and waited for something different to happen. If your tired of the same old thing maybe your ready to give God a chance, even if you don't believe in Him, He believes in you. Yours in Christ

Hello. Welcome to all my new friends. This, as you veterens may notice, is my first blog. I am a 50 year old dinosaur when it comes to computer stuff. I have this so that I like many of you can share some of my life experience. Take what you like and leave the rest. As this blog matures you will see more clearly where my heart lies.

I have'nt set up much of my cover page so let me share now that I am a born again Christian. I gave my life to Jesus on November 26, 2000 at 3:43 pm. I like some of you never truly understood the born again thing until it happened to me. Needless to say my life was changed. Jesus showed me that He loved me unconditionally and that is what I want to share with any of you who desire to hear.

Let me start by assuring you of a few things. First I will not lie to you about anything. If you ask something I consider too personel or that may be injurious to those close to me I will not share. This may not be in the spirit of this medium but that is me. I desire no gain for this other than to share with you the infinite love of God.

I have written a book of my walk with God since my rebirth. I will in no way attempt to influence you to buy this book. It is another medium to share with all who will listen. It is not presently in publication and as I said I will not pump my book here. If you want iformation I will share it but you must ask.

I will not argue with you on this page. I realize there will be discussion and debate but we will not argue. If you appear to desire insult or antagonism I will do what is necessary to block you. You do not have to agree with what I share with you. What I share are my experiences and how God has carried me through the hard times.

Here is the Reader's Digest version. At the low point of my life I was a drug using, womanizing, gambling addict. While alchol never really grabbed me we were not strangers. I used one or all of these to combat my feelings of failure and low self-esteem. Suicide was never extremely far from my mind and had almost occured several years ago. While listening to a sermon by Rev. Billy Graham directed at a group of youth God opened my eyes to the truth. Rev. Graham told the audience that he was sorry that he could not go a day without sinning. This really shocked me. While I know he is just a man I believe him to be a great man of God. What he explained was that he would always fail because he wasn't strong enough. He told them that only way he could get through the day was with the strength of Christ. He explained that God knows we are weak and He wants us to use His strength to do our best. In hearing this I realized that God loved me anyway,even when I failed. It was like a weight had been lifted off of me. I had always felt that I had especially failed God. I believed in God most of my life and felt I had let Him down many times after He had helped me out of many bad situations. What I mostly realized is that God and Jesus love me no matter what. Even when I was sinning at my worst They loved me and desired better for me. I know as a parent I could never hate any of my children. I may not be able to accept their behavior or choices but I could never hate them. Most of any disappointment with them is about the hurt and pain they may cause themselves. This is what I hope to convey to any of you who thind you are unlovable, as I once did. God wants all of His children, especially the ones that believe the church roof will fall in if they enter.

If this reaches into your hearts I will do my best to help you love yourselves they way you should and the way Jesus wants you to. Yours in Christ