I have been asking this question for my life since my salvation. We all have this question burning inside of us I think. Whether you are a believer in Christ or not, at some point in time or perhaps a lot of the time, the question comes: “What am I here for?” “What am I supposed to do with my life?” “Why was I created?” or if you are a believer the question usually shows up as: “What is God’s will for my life?”

Since He saved me, I have has a deep desire to do His will and accomplish His purpose for my life. I just don’t want to get to Heaven and hear God say “Come on in… but, you really dropped the ball back there.” I think about it a lot. But one thing that I have just recently noticed, through the aide of some wise council, is that always being focused on God’s future will for my life is causing me to miss out on His will for me NOW. I seriously get so concerned with what God has for me, or where He wants me and my family to serve, that I totally miss the person He put in my path right now to minister to. It has also kept me and my family from really putting down roots in a community and building relationships and being part of that community and church because we always felt as if our current place was temporary.

I really believe that part of it is the enemy playing with our minds trying to get our focus off of what we are supposed to do today. Also when I did a search on the phrase “will of God” or “God’s will” in an online concordance, it really helped re adjust my thinking. Almost every time I saw those phrases they were referencing things we should be doing or thinking on a regular, daily basis. 1 Thes. 5:12-24, 1 Pet. 2:13-17, 1 John 2:15-17, etc.

Keep in mind, Moses was minding his own business tending sheep when God told him what he was to do. Paul was content doing what he thought was God’s will when God spoke to him.

I guess my encouragement would be the same thing that took away from all this. Don’t get so focused on what will happen and miss the opportunities to minister and do what’s right today.

I absolutely hate cliches, but the whole “bloom where you’re planted” thing has a good concept.

I never tire of flying. Now the wait and airport security lines, etc. can be a pain, but that thrill of accelerating so quickly down the runway that you’re forced back in your seat, the sinking feeling you get in your stomach when the tail of the plane leaves the ground, and the initial climb when the plane banks a hard turn to one side are just simply unbeatable! It’s here, climbing to 30,000 ft., passing through multiple cloud layers, watching civilization below grow smaller by the second that you realize how tiny we really are, no matter how big our ego may be. I know God hates pride, but I have to wonder if he chuckles a bit some times when we celebrate what we consider a large accomplishment such as flying.

I also love flying because it allows me several hours that I really can do nothing else but be alone with my thoughts and Jesus. It’s awesome and scary all at the same time because I have some great time for prayer and introspection. It’s there that I am continually reminded of how rotten and utterly selfish I am deep down. That’s why the cross of Christ keeps blowing my mind!! I’m terrible, yet Christ chose to take my sins upon Himself and bear my punishment? He loved me before I cared anything about Him and actually worked against Him the Bible says. To me “why” God loves us so much will always be a mystery. I’m just so thankful that He does and that He is continually working in me and sanctifying me to be more like Himself. I’m also thankful that Christ is my reward here on Earth as well as in Heaven. That’s right, Heaven isn’t our reward… It’s just the magnificent place we get to enjoy Christ for eternity.

Jesus is the object of my affection and worship. Even if I try to clean myself up and be a “good”, “moral” person, without Christ, I am an Idolator because I looked inside of me and my will to “clean me up”, making myself or other people’s thoughts about morality my god. I’m so glad I have the Word and Spirit of Jesus Christ as my God and my guide. I can do nothing apart from Him. The Bible says that for the Believer, it is His Spirit in us that gives us the will and the strength to act in righteousness.

I challenge you to introspection. Just you, your gut-level honest thoughts (the real you), and Jesus! If you don’t come out of it with praise in our heart for His never-failing, never-ending Grace… you might want to look again! (Rom 3:23). Praise God for His compassion and mercy for pitiful people that He changes and uses for His Glory! Jesus I belong to You! You do with me what pleases You!

It’s been kind of a tough time the past 4-5 months. Since February; we have moved, I’ve changed jobs twice, my wife changed jobs, my kids have been back and forth to the doctor, my wife has also been in constant pain in her side, she’s been through multiple tests, had 2 surgeries (recovering from one now), we’re looking for a home church, and now we have a contract on a house near by.
I don’t say any of that for sympathy. I say all that to say, if that’s the reason we moved home… It’s been worth it! It finally hit me the other day as I was standing on my parents’ deck grillin’, staring over the grill watching my kids playing with and loving on their grandparents and aunt ad uncle, everyone having the time of their lives. It was a very humbling moment also knowing we couldn’t have gone through what we have without the love, support, and provision we have received from our parents and family. God has truly blessed us with great families who love Him and show it by loving us and others!
If you have godly parents who show the love of Christ… Praise God! If you do not… Make sure you children do!

One of the great things in life is being able to sit down with a really good cup of coffee and just chill. It’s so good to just relax with my wife, friends, or a movie and a good cup of coffee, provided that the coffee is in fact good. If you’ve been around coffee for any length of time and some one has exposed you to something other than Maxwell House, Folgers, or the house blend from your local gas station… you know there’s a difference between coffee and “really good” coffee! I’m not even saying that you should go to Starbuck’s and spend $5 - $6 on some fru-fru mixed drink that’s more milk than coffee. That’s how it got the nicknames “Starbroke’s” and “Fivebuck’s”. But a “venti” or 20 oz. cup of house blend coffee from Starbuck’s is well worth $2.25 in my opinion! It’s also worth the extra money that you pay per pound at the grocery store. So if you do drink coffee and you haven’t been exposed to something other than the norm, I’m not sure if you want to or not actually. Because I can promise you that when you do experience the joy of a strong, smooth, yet not bitter cup of excellence… you will not want to go back, and it probably will cost you a few more dollars.

I’m so tired of hearing people push Jesus as some means to their earthly happiness. “Get saved and all your troubles disappear”, “Give and you too can have condos, jets, cars, millions in the bank, etc.”, “Pray a prayer and receive your free ticket out of hell, we don’t care how you live the rest of your life”. It’s like we’re trying to con people into getting saved by promising them something the Bible does not. Salvation does not mean freedom from problems. You don’t “get” Jesus to “get” things. You get God when you follow Jesus! That’s what makes it so great! “No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” 1 Jn. 2:23. There is no greater blessing.

God is not just a great big heavenly Santa Claus or some goofy-named sky ferry that bows to our every whim or agrees to our deals… ‘If I do this, God should do this or that for me’. Who are we to think that God in some way owes us anything? We are nothing without Him! He already gives us everything we have, even life, so how can we expect something in return if we give to Him what’s already His. That’s kind of like robbing a bank and then trying to return that money and expecting to collect the reward money for returning it (a simple analogy, I know). That person would make it to the internet as Idiot of the Day. Yet we do the same thing to God sometimes. Yes, God loves us more than we could ever imagine. Yes, He gives us everything we “need”. Yes, He gives us the ability to provide for our families and so much more, but I think our Americanistic (I might have made that one up.. you get the point) view of love and blessing has distorted the way we view God’s love. “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8. I guess that’s just not enough for us. Maybe we think that whole cross routine was just a warm up act or something.

What if we get saved and things “get worse”? What if our families and/or friends disown us or slander us because of our decision? What happens if God, in His sovereignty, even ordains tough times for us? Gasp!! Would God really do such a thing? It doesn’t take too long of looking through the Bible or history books to see what happens to some of the most dedicated followers of Christ. I mean God even asked Satan if he had considered His servant Job for testing and torment. Not to mention what God told Ananias about Paul after his conversion But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” Acts 9:15-17. Suffering doesn’t preach too well now-a-days.

The peace we have when we follow Christ is unsurpassed and supernatural. We have eternal life with God in heaven as our promise, God will always love us, always provide for us, never leave us, and give us the grace and strength we need to be and do everything He has called us to be and do. Peace. Hope. Joy. Salvation. That’s the abundant life! I’m just so tired of people using Jesus to sell their crap!

There’s never been a harder, more stressful, more burdensome job in the world… Being a daddy! I mean think about it, you have some one or multiple some ones completely dependent on you. You are their primary source of physical, emotional, and spiritual nourishment. Not to mention you play a huge part in forming their views on God, church, society, finances, relationships, morality, etc. You as a parent have the ability to give your child the tools for success or you can really jack them up! It is something that weighs on me daily. Asking myself the question “Am I giving my kids the tools they need to make it as a believer in Christ (in a world that seems in most part to shun those with ‘deep’ convictions), to be successful, independent, productive, etc.”? Parenthood is an awesome responsibility! God has made us stewards over the lives of our children and He expects a lot from us. What are we doing with the disciples He has placed in our own homes?

The best part of being a daddy is of course the fact that I get to spend a ton of time with my princess and my buddy! They make it all worth it! The beauty of unconditional love and acceptance I get from them is overwhelming at times. Praise God for the burden and blessing of children!!!

I’m also so thankful for my beautiful bride who does most of the day to day teaching, instilling of values, discipline, etc. She certainly has gifts that I don’t posses and I don’t see how she does it a lot of times! That being said, My hat’s off to all of you single parents out there. Your strength is amazing. My prayer is that Christ gives you everything you need to raise your children in a loving environment as well as giving you the inner strength and grace that can only come from an intimate relationship with Him!

You know how you can read the same verse or passage in the Bible over and over, and then one day you read it and it’s revelation? I was checking out this passage today and God opened my eyes to see how important my faith is and just how much Jesus really has done for me.

Romans 5:1-2 “1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

We know that we are “saved by grace through faith” and that we are justified at salvation. This verse goes deeper than that. Since or Because we have been justified by our faith… we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. My Justification put God at peace with me. See I didn’t have anything against God, I wasn’t angry at God or hate Him so there really wasn’t any reason for me to be at peace with God. But by my actions and because of the sin in my life, the Bible says that I was working against God and I was His enemy and a target for His righteous wrath!

Because I have been justified (as if I had never sinned) through my faith in Christ, the wrath of God toward me was diverted to Jesus on the cross! So Jesus put God at peace with me!! Verse 2 goes on to tell us that because of our faith in Jesus, that through Him we have access to the grace that gives us the power to stand (against the devil and our flesh), so can we rejoice in the hope that one day we will be with Him in the glory of God forever!

This book “Romans” blows my mind every time I read it, so I’m so thankful God reveals cool things like this to us every now and then.

We all have them. Those sometimes small, sometimes insignificant actions of others that for some reason bother us more than they seem to bother others around us. Or maybe they do bother others around us and no one wants to say anything. Well I do. I’m kinda quirky sometimes any way so I may have a more than some people. I’m sure I’ll have others to add to the list later as more peeves present themselves, but here is a brief list of some of my pet peeves. Why do I feel the need to list them? I must vent, it’s like therapy without the expense or loss of memory that comes with meds. You should try it. I’d love to hear your list as well. We’ll vent together. One big annoyed, angry, quirky community. Any way, here we go. Not in any certain order. Except for number 1. I think I’m good with this one being at the top.

‘m sure I’ll have some more later. These just seem to be the ones I encounter on a daily basis.

Traveling over an hour one way to some of my service calls gives me a lot of time to myself.. I’m the kind of guy that could easily go crazy in those situations. I mean, there’s only so much mindless music one can listen to on the radio (Heaven forbid that a song you don’t like ever becomes popular… you hear it every 30 min.). There are only so many times I can hear 5 different talk radio show hosts pound the same “hot topics” of the day. And why does it seem like Aerosmith is on every stinking channel of my dial? I think I even hear them on a bluegrass station the other day! That’s why I am so thankful for the internet and my iPod. Say what you want about the price of them vs the price of other inferior mp3 players, but I’ll pay for quality and EASY syncing!

There’s such a debate about the internet now and how immoral it is and should churches/Christians be using it or letting their kids use it and so on. Yes, there is a TON of junk out there! Yes, you shouldn’t get online without some type of filter on your computer. Yes, parents should monitor what their children are doing online. But the bottom line is that the internet is neither moral nor immoral it is amoral (just like money). It all depends on how it’s used.

I’m thankful that right now I am able to download the music I like (without having to buy the whole sorry album), sermons from pastors around the world, audiobooks/audioBibles (being the audio learner I am), and podcasts that not only keep me from going crazy, but help me grow spiritually and gain knowledge. None of which would be possible (or not nearly as simple) without the internet.

Do your brain a favor. Get an iPod and download the stuff that will increase it’s effectiveness, not put it into a coma.

The reason I love my life so much is the fact that no matter how stressful “life” gets, or how stressful I make it… I still have a gracious, loving God who forgives, guides, & corrects me when I need it. I still have heaven as my hope because of Christ. I still have a beautiful wife (whom God blessed me with) that loves me despite all my short-comings. I still have 2 great kids that always do something to make each day great. I have a GREAT life!

I have to give all the credit to Jesus Christ because without Him turning my life around… I would have NONE of this! In fact, I probably would’ve been dead by now!

The love of God has a great way of putting things into right perspective for us. No matter how far we choose to walk away from Him at times, He’s always there, waiting for us to turn around, repent and throw our arms up in surrender so He can pick us up, clean us up and place us back on the straight, narrow, perfect path that He has graciously planned out for us in His omnipotence. There is NONE like our God! I’m so thankful He doesn’t treat me the way I deserve to be treated.

I don’t see how people make it through this thing called “life” without Christ!

chad