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Like A Thief In The Night

One night a thief broke into a house he thought was abandoned. As he walked then the darkened house with a flashlight he heard a voice from the kitchen that said, “Jesus is watching you.’ He stopped and said, “who’s there?” There was no answer so he thought he must have imagined it. But after he took a few more steps, the voice said again, “Jesus is watching you.” He decided to walk toward the voice, just before he entered the kitchen, he heard it again, “Jesus is watching you.” He swung the flashlight up and saw a parrot talking in a cage. The parrot said, Jesus is watching you.” The their turned flipped on the kitchen light and said, “Why you’re just a dumb bird.” The he looked in the corner of the room and seen a huge Rottweiler couching. And the parrot said “Get him Jesus.”

You might think it’s strange that Jesus would compare Himself to a thief. Of course, Jesus isn’t identifying with the sin of stealing. But just a good thief (that’s a oxymoron).that tries to sneak in quickly and quietly and escape with His people. That’s an accurate description of how Jesus will rapture His church.

We should all be living as if Jesus was crucified yesterday; raised from the dead this morning, and is coming back this afternoon.

1 Thessalonians 5: 1-4 tells us, “But concerning the times and the seasons, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come to then, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.

We should know these 4 things

1. Jesus will return, But we don’t know the exact day.

Can you imagine a thief sending you a text or email saying, “Just wanted to know that I’m coming to rob your house tonight.” Of course not. Thief’s don’t announce when they’re coming. They sneak in and out.

When I was growing up my Dad used to do military funerals when a soldier or veteran would pass away. My father would keep all the guns in his closet. One night when no one was home the house was broken into and all the M16 rifles were stolen. He was very upset because they trusted him with these rifles. For a long time there would be someone home, or a neighbor would be watching the house.

Jesus told us to keep watch, because you don’t know on what day the Lord will come. We need to understand, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and not let the house be broken into. So we must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you don’t expect him (Matthew 24:42-44),

There have been times throughout history when many people expected Jesus to return. We use the Gregorian calendar now, but when the Julian calendar turned from year 999 to the year 1000, people expected Jesus to come for a new millennium, the same was true in the year 2000. People were on their best behavior, In the year 1000 history says that worldly goods were sold and money was given to the poor. Prisoners were set free, and many traveled to Israel to wait for Jesus’s return,

In the second and third chapter of Revelation, Jesus gives messages to the 7 churches, which represent all churches of all time. When He wrote to the church at Philadelphia, He says, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I also will keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth” (Revelation3:10).

In Luke 17 Jesus compares His return to a couple of Old Testament events. “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the dat Noah entered the ark. Then the flood cane and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and suffer rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son Of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30).

Are You Ready?

If Your Pet Could Talk What Would He Say?

If my cat could say anything he would most likely say, “Pay attention to me.” He is definitely an attention seeker. He will do things he knows he shouldn’t just to get my attention.

Hearing The Shepherds Voice

Utah Railway Train

“My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish” John 10:27-28

When Jesus says My sheep hear My voice, and follow Me -He wants that to be true.

After all, we live in a very noisy world these days. The world is filled with all kinds of different voices, all competing for our attention. It seems difficult in the mess of all the noise to hear the voice of our Shepherd.

Every day, we hear several different voices competing for our attention, and some of them are really good at convincing us to pay attention. There are people who create advertisements geared just toward us. They convince us that we need whatever they are selling, to be safe, to be popular, to be successful, or to feel better. Modern technology and social media mean that companies know us better than they ever have, and they use that information to convince us that we need whatever they have.

It’s no doubt there are voices that make promises they can’t keep. There is only one true shepherd, that keeps promises he cannot break. And when we choose to only listen to that voice it becomes the only voice that matters to our souls. That voice is our Savior Jesus Christ.

There are many other competing voices that can drown out the Saviors voice we don’t always take the time to listen for His voice. Because Jesus is not saying what we expect. We expect Jesus to act differently. It’s like putting Him in a box, we are trying to limit Him to human rules, expectations, and understanding.

These days, it’s challenging to listen to anyone or anything with an open mind. As soon as anyone speaks to us, we are listening for their agenda, or for evidence of how they view the world. So many things people say are taken out of context, and we make up our minds about what they are saying, sometimes even before they finish. That’s the nature of the world we live in. And this is why it is more important than ever to listen to Jesus with an open mind and heart. Not to listen for what we expect Him to say, but to simply listen. To let our minds be changed along with our hearts. To put aside all the voices in the world, and listen for the living voice of our true Shepherd.

Sometimes we don’t hear Jesus because we are too ashamed to listen. When I first chose to follow Jesus, I didn’t do it because I received a miracle, it was because I had tried everything else, and it failed. Jesus was my last hope. When He began talking to me, the words were painful, and more often than not I was ashamed of the words He was saying. I had to relive all the mistakes I made throughout my life, but at the same time He was healing my broken soul. My sins made me feel naked and ashamed, and I was tempted to hide myself from God, so I could miss hearing His voice.

I know people who won’t enter a church because they are ashamed and want to “get their act together.” But, Martin Luther King reminds us, “Church is not a hotel for saints, it is a hospital for sinners. We have to acknowledge that not one of us is worthy, and many don’t have their acts together. God gives us grace, mercy, and love, and through what Jesus did on the cross we are made worthy.

Jesus tells us Revelation 3:20, “I am standing at the door, knocking, if you will hear my voice and open the door I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”

I believe Jesus is outside the fellowship of most people because of their self-reliance and offers us restoration and intimate communion to anyone who is willing to listen. Hearing His voice involves responding to His calling, correction, and truth, rather than an audible sound.

What’s The Best Or Worst Airport I Have Been To?

I am unable to answer this question because I have never flown on an airport and only have one airport to pick someone up and it was what I call a mad house.

I prefer to drive, even if it’s a 3 day trip. I never had a reason to fly anywhere.

Two Paths: One Choice

Psalm 1 is the doorway to the entire book of Psalms. It’s where the grand theme is revealed: the two paths -the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. This Psalm marks the beginning of the greatest journey of life. It sets forth a way of life and the way of death.

This Psalm shows us, in advance, what the final end of the wicked will be. The two paths of righteousness and wickedness remain far apart except for the one point in history where they converge at the Cross of Jesus. It is there that Jesus took upon himself all the shame, Guild, and judgment of wickedness. Yet, He remained the Righteous One. It is there where grace found us where we could choose to stand at the fork in the road way, one leading to life, or the other road the leads to death and destruction.

In Deuteronomy 30:19 we are given a choice,

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live.” (NLT)

Moses spoke words like this to the Israelites. They stood at the edge of the Promised Land, representing a clear turning point or decision between two distinct paths.

Choosing my is not just about existing; it is actively defined in Deuteronomy 30:20 as loving God, obeying His voice, and clinging (holding fast) to Him.

Our path of life brings blessings for the future and turning away, or disobedience, brings destruction and death.

What Is The Most Annoying Trope In A Book Or Movie?

The most annoying trope or overused plot in any fiction book that annoys me is miscommunication. Conflicts that could be solved in five seconds if the characters just talked to each other instead of keeping secrets. Maybe this is why I don’t read fictions, besides they are just for distraction and I don’t learn anything from them.

Live Unoffendable

Aspen Colorado

In a culture that thrives on contention and conflict, is it truly possible to be unoffendable?

Jesus told His disciples in Luke 17:1, “It’s impossible that no occasions of stumbling (offenses) should come, but woe to him through who, they come.”

Scripture clearly shows that throughout our lives, we will have ample opportunity to take the enemy’s bait and become offended.

But there is another option -we can prepare our hearts and exercise forgiveness so that when an opportunity for offense comes our way, we can be prepared to respond in a way that honors God.

We should choose patience, gentleness, and forgiveness instead of revenge. Listen before you speak. Do not get angry quickly. James 1:19 says, “Let every man be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.” Do not fight back or try to get revenge. Matthew 5:39 tells us to let go of the desire to punish the other person. We should overcome evil with good. Romans 1:21-22 tells us, “Knowing God, they didn’t glorify Him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools.” God will always reveal His invisible power and nature through the physical world. We should treat the person who hurts us with kindness. And use gentle words that calm their anger instead of harsh words that start fights. Proverbs 15:1-2 says,” A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of a fool gushes out folly.” Sometimes we need to walk away if the person is dangerous or refuses to listen, it’s better to leave the situation to protect our peace.

The Best Years

The prompt question: If you could relive one year of you life, which would it be?

I would choose the year 1988. I was 21 years old, but that is not the reason I would want to relive it. It was the total analog freedom we still had. There were no cell phones or home computers, and everyone still relied on trust. A handshake still meant an unbroken promise. And most people still had morals and values.
We had corner stores, and if you wanted to play a video game we had arcades where kids needed quarters to play. Movies were rented a local stores, and movie theaters were popular. Simplicity was still the name of the game.

Let Hope Define Your Circumstances

The Grand Canyon Flood

In these uncertain times, the concept of hope becomes more crucial than ever. It is a powerful force, sustain life, even in the worst circumstances while the outcomes we hoped for are not guaranteed, the act of hoping itself is a testament to our resilience and strength.

Everything can be taken from a person, but one thing, the last of the human freedoms is to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. It is not contingent on external events, but rather on our internal resolve and perspective. Hope requires a desire for a specific outcome, a rejection of any other possibility, and a belief in the eventual realization of that hope.

There are a few days that go by without using the word hope. “I hope we’re on time, I hope it doesn’t rain, I hope they will understand, I hope God hears me.”

From the smallest concerns to the grandest ones, our lives are shaped, directed, motivated, and frustrated by hope. Everyone hangs their hope on something or someone. Everyone hopes their hope will come through. No one ever purposely hopes for what is hopeless. Everyone belongs to hope that’s for sure. Everyone gets up in the morning, motivated by hope in some kind of way or they’re paralyzed by hopelessness of some kind.

For every one of us, hoping it is so natural and frequent that we lose sight of how significant it is in shaping what we do, how we do it, and how we feel in the process. Even though it’s natural, and we do it all the time, hope is painfully elusive for many.

Hope always has three elements: desire, object, and expectation.

The Bible holds a narrative of hope shattered and hope restored.

Hope is always fueled by some form of desire. It may be a desire to be loved, to be cared for, to be protected, to be understood, to be provided for, to be accepted, to experience comfort, or pleasure, to have control, and to be forgiven -the list could go on and on. And hope always has an object. We always look for someone or something to satisfy our desires. Lastly, hope carries an expectation of when, how, and where the person or thing in which we have placed our hope will deliver what we have hoped for.

Almost every day, we trust our smallest and largest hopes into the hands of something or someone with the hope that our belongings will be satisfied.

The Bible holds a narrative of Hope shattered and hope restored, and in telling its hope story, the Bible speaks to each of the three elements of hope.

Scripture has much to say about our longings, the desires that inspire us and shape our lives. It tells us what to love and what to hate, what to desire, and what to forsake, what is good for us and what will harm us. Much of the drama of hope in our lives comes not because we don’t get what we hoped for, but because we spend so much of our time, hoping for the wrong things.

We live with a singleness of hope. Whether, it is life shaped, structured, and directed by the pursuit of being glorious or heart-satisfying. A worldly hope is a picture of a constantly changing narrative of fickle affections hurling us from one hope to the next.

I like to always keep in mind Psalm 27:4, during difficult circumstances. It says, “One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to see the Lord’s beauty, and to inquire in His temple.” And Psalm 27:5 goes on to say, “For in. The day of trouble, He will keep me secretly in His pavilion. In the secret place of His tabernacle, He will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.”

Those are incredible statements, one that I am not sure I can always make. These statements are even more powerful when we realize that it was written by a man who was under attack. His one thing isn’t safety, or vindication or victory. His one thing isn’t control or retribution. Even under personal duress, the one thing that David wishes for is to be in God’s house, taking in the splendor and glory of the beauty of the Lord.

This desire was designed to beat the central motoring desire of every person created by God and made in His image. And yet, on this side of eternity, it seems like a statement that could only ever be made a deeply devout human being.

And in every situation in the relationships of our everyday life, there is a war being fought on the turf of our hearts that controls our actions. Yet many things compete with us for what our heart craves.

The Bible also has much to say about the object of our hope. It reminds us that, when it comes to hope, there are only two places to look. We can look to created thngs to satisfy the longings of our hearts, or we can look to our Creator.

I think when it comes to a foundational, human hope, each of us looks either horizontally or vertically. The Bible warns us that if our hope disappoints us, it’s because our hope rests on the wrong object. There is only one place to look for hope that is secure, no matter what.

Here are a few scriptures I stand on in difficult circumstances

Psalm 119:114 says, “You are my hiding place, and my shield, I hope in Your Word.” And Psalm 130:7 says, “Hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love

Romans 5:5 “Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Scripture also speak to our expectations. It promises us that, when we hope in the Lord, we will not be disappointed. God won’t submit to our time expectations, and He won’t always deliver what we hoped for and the way we expect, but He will always care for those who trust in Him. He will give us everything He has promised us, and He will generously provide what is best for us. So, we can wait in patient expectation, knowing that our hope is firm when we hope in the Lord.

Many of us struggle with the questions of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and love, not because He has been unfaithful to any promise in any way, but because we simply are not on His agenda page. Our agenda, our definition of what is good, God should give us. James 1:2-4 tells us, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

The Bible is a message that is consistent. God is not working to deliver us from our personal definition of happiness. If we are not on that agenda page, we are going to be disappointed with God, and we’re going to wonder if He loves us. God is after something better, our holiness, the final completion of His redemptive work, which includes deep and abiding happiness with Him. The difficult physical face are not the way of God’s plan, they do not show the failure of God’s plan, and they are not signs He has turned His back on us. But God will use difficult times for His perfect plan.

It’s wonderful that we have hope that doesn’t rise and fall with our changing circumstances, it’s a sweet thing to have hope that doesn’t die when trouble comes. It’s good to be free from placing our hope in objects that have no power to deliver what we long for. And it’s wise to spend time examining what we hope for, reorienting our hope, and meditating on the one who alone is worthy of our hope.

What’s The Bravest Thing You’ve Ever Done When No One Was Watching

Private acts of integrity matter because they directly shape our self-concept and psychological well-being.

The bravest thing I’ve ever done was choose to change my perspective on life. Choosing to be a victor instead of a victim.

Doing the right things when no one is watching acts like a vote of who we really want to be and reinforcing a stable sense of identity and doesn’t depend on external praise.

What Is Something I Did Differently From When I Was Raised?

This prompt question was something I didn’t have to think about for 2 seconds. The answer is a immediate -Everything.

Before my daughter was even born I knew I would not raise her the way my parents raised me. I was always there for her, show up to ballet, choir concerts, bowls tournaments. She knew 100% she was loved, and cared for. There was always food and snacks in the house, her homework from school was expected to be done.

My son was no different. I went to baseball games, bowling tournaments, football games. He knew we loved him and cared for him.
I was not about to repeat any part of the way I was raised. The only part that I kept of my raising was the Hungarian holiday traditions I learned from my father and Nagymama (grandmother).

Salt And Light

The world is comfortable with believers that are sweet, quiet and agreeable.

It gets uncomfortable when following Jesus requires us to say something unpopular.

In Matthew 5:13 Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Don’t lose your saltiness.

Don’t become so concerned with fitting in, keeping everyone comfortable, and earning approval that you lose the distinctiveness Jesus called you to have.

That doesn’t mean believers should be harsh, arrogant, combative unnecessarily offensive.

The Bible tells us to speak with grace.

Colossians 4:6 tells us, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”

Grace and truth.

Love and conviction.

Compassion without compromise.

For us, that means speaking openly about what God has taught us about faith, health, marriage, family, and home, even when those convictions are unpopular.

Not everyone has to live exactly like we do. Not because we have everything figured out. Not because controversy is the goal.

But because there are moments when staying silent to remain agreeable means hiding what God has called us to share.

Sometimes love encourages, comforts, or warns. Sometimes love tells the truth someone doesn’t want to hear.

Jesus did not call us to blend in so well with the world that no one can tell the difference.

He called us salt.

We need to take Hebrews 5:13 as a command to know our assignment.

Speak with grace.

Walk in humility

Love people deeply

But do not lose our saltiness trying to earn everyone’s approval.