Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
I didn’t have many physical things in my childhood. But I was attached to the cats my father bred. But they were sold by about 8 weeks and were gone.
Besides my music, I would just try and stay away from my mother all long as I could. I became close to a few neighbors who would spend time with me.
I remember being attached to an African American couple the lived about few block away from my house. They would feed me, and talk to me as if they actually cared. But soon they moved away.
I have never had too much of a problem talking to much. Probably because I was made to observe things rather than speak things. But I can still have problems controlling my tongue. I still can say the wrong things, and even speak my mind in unwholesome ways and when my mouth doesn’t say it, my face usually does.
Ephesians 4:29 says,
“Do not let unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up.”
It’s difficult for me to promise God I will control my mouth. But hopefully little by little I hope He can help me. When I focus on what I’m saying my mouths will pretty much under control. But when I just start babbling what’s in my mind that’s where I get in trouble. I tend to not remember the “but only what is helpful for building others up” part sometimes.
I was reminded of this when someone was speaking about someone and I finished their sentence with what I was thinking. And it wasn’t building them up.
My mind immediately went to the scripture in Psalm 19:14,
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
So as in pure fashion I came home and went to my Bible for help.
Proverbs 18:21 tells us that words can tear down or build up. Our speech is important if we don’t realize this, we will continue to hurt people.
Many of us are not even aware that our words are negative. Think before we speak and pay attention to what we are saying and how we are saying it.
Are our words complaining, critical, hurtful, disrespectful, or pessimistic?
What topics do we talk about most? Are they always centered around ourselves or what’s wrong with the world? Do our conversations ever include God?
Do we talk with purpose or are most of our words frivolous? (Matthew 12:36-37)
If we don’t gauge our words, we will never be able to change them.
Proverbs 21:23 says,
“Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.”
I think it all goes back to our hearts. It’s hard to speak good of a person, who has done us wrong or hurt us. That’s where forgiveness comes in. If we don’t forgive we can’t expect to change our hearts or our tongues.
“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of evil treasure brings forth evil things” – Matthew 12:34-35
Without God, we are not good (Romans 3, 10). God gives a new heart when we choose Him, but we must remain active and apply good things to get rid of our old habits.
Our hearts are jammed full of life challenges and our mouths are the overflow valve. Our mouth (the overflow valve) is what’s in the reservoir.
We have to be careful to not be conformed to the world, don’t do as the world does.
“Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is good, well–pleasing, and perfect will of God.” -Romans 12:1
We can change our tongues. One step at a time, one word at a time. Forgiveness is available, but we have to do our part.
I for one need to not go on autopilot and let my mouth run without putting brakes on my tongue. And I trust God will do His part. He has not failed me yet.
My mission in life is to show others there is a peace that surpasses the everything this world can offer. Teach people that is this peace can only be found with God.
I do not believe in preaching God’s Word to others, but to lead by example. Mark 12: 30-31 and Colossians 3:15 pretty well sums up my mission:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor (others) as yourself.”
“For by Him, all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth things disable and th8ngs invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things have been created through Him, and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him, all things are held together” -Colossians 1:16-17
Jesus died a horrible death on the Cross to set us free from sin, and to give us an eternal life. He also died to give us an abundant light here on this earth. as we know him more and more defend our hearts, he can set us free from anything. Addictions, pain, all the stuff that keeps us in chains. He wants to be the glue that keeps us together on the inside and makes us whole.
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
My concept of living a long healthy life contributes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Eating a healthy diet, exercising every day, getting enough sleep, avoiding tobacco, drugs, and excessive alcohol, and managing stress.
Psalm 90:10 describes the human experience of life, including the fact that most people live to be around 70 or 80 years old, but that is filled with trouble and sorrow.
“ The days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast I’d only labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away” -Psalm 90:10
Human might be short, lasting only around 70 or 80 years, and even within that time, it is often filled with hardship and quickly fades away, emphasizing the fleeting nature of earthly existence. It’s a reminder to value our time wisely.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I have asked throughout my life, “How could God have allowed this to happen to me?” It’s a common feeling when things don’t go the way we hoped or envisioned. It is extremely easy for imperfect human beings like us to blame God.
This human tendency clearly reveals how far our hearts have strayed for our Creator. Sin has done quite a number on our hearts and minds. We tend to assume God owes us something.
Paul wrote in Romans 8:32,
“He who didn’t spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how would He not also with Him freely give us all things.”
Until our lives are grounded on the Gospel message of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus we can easily end up imagining that God is not concerned about our struggles. Those who perceive God to be distant and uncaring often blame God when things are not going well. Let’s face it, we all have times when things don’t go well. Whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, everyone experiences various types of turbulence and pressure throughout life.
In the middle of our daily difficulties, we can either assume that God owes us a trouble-free life on this planet, or we can place our faith in the fact that God chose to send His only Som to pay the price for our sins that we ourselves could never afford to pay. What we choose to believe about God truly does make all the difference in the world.
Whether we believe God is for us or against us, Ephesians 2:8-8, Galatians 2:26, and Romans 8:10 explain to us that when a person accepts God’s love and grace through faith and relies on Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross as payment for their sins, Jesus instantly takes up residence in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that when this happens, all things become new.
A relationship with Jesus does not make all our earthly problems go away, (John 16:33) but it does provide us with a new and godly perspective. We begin to view God as our loving Father, our beautiful Savior, and our ever-present Comforter. In other words, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit become much more that just religious doctrine. God becomes our source of Joy and becomes the source of everything we do.
How much does God owe you? If you are a believer in Jesus, you realize He owes us nothing, but He has given you everything.
David wrote in Psalm 8:4,
“What is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that You are for him?
After all, God is our Creator. Why should He care about our needs? Yet He is concerned about us because How loves us. He wants what is best for us, even when He works in surprising ways that require us to have faith and patience.
Wise and loving parents do not want to spoil their children. Likewise, God does not spoil His children. Instead, God teaches His children how to spiritually mature by being humble, thankful, forgiving, faithful, trusting, and patient.
When God allowed Job to go through his extremely painful ordeal. Job eventually began to question God’s plan for his life. He mistakenly attempted to figure out his excruciating circumstances through his human wisdom and natural assumptions, just as we do.
And when God finally spoke to Job He said,
“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer Me! “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it? (Job 38:2-5
What a wake-up call it must have been for Job when God spoke such penetrating words to him. It is foolish for us to doubt God or question His justice.
We must never assume that we know better than God. If we are not careful we might end up blaming God when difficult circumstances come our way.
This is exactly what Satan wants us to do. To turn our hearts against our Creator. Just like he turned against God. Satan was among the highest angels in heaven and his pride caused him to turn against God. Satan wants us to believe that God is against us and does not care about our trials and difficulties. But that is a complete lie and could not be further from the truth.
We owe God obedience because He is our Creator. If you are a follower of Jesus. Your allegiance is a supernatural response to God’s grace in your life.
“For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” -Philippians 2:13
God owes us nothing, but He gives us everything
Whether you find yourself blaming God or Praising God, either way, it comes down to how much you think God owes you.
Jesus exposed the evil in the Bible, but in Matthew 15 He describes what defines a person. He exposed the wickedness of the Pharisees when they used their own man-made traditions to give excuses for them to violate the clear commands of God.
When the Scribes and Pharisees came to Him and said,
“Why do Your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread” -Matthew 15:2
He answered them,
“Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? -Matthew 15:3
The Scribes and the Pharisees said the disciples were ceremonially unclean as a result.
Jesus exposed their hearts but He also gave the answer to us.
Jesus also said in Matthew 15:8-11
“These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.” He summoned the multitude. He summoned the multitude, and said to them, hear and understand.”
“That which enters into the mouth doesn’t defile the man, but that which proceeds out of the mouth, this defines the man.”
The disciples came to Jesus and said, the Scribes and Pharisees were offended when by You, they were upset at You for saying that this does not defile a man. Jesus said to them,
“Every plant which My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.
He is saying thst by this influence, these religious leaders, as not God’s people. The Pharisees that people had been listening to, we’re not from God, and one day God will uproot them, Jesus told them to,
“Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit” -Matthew 15:14
What goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled but what comes out of the mouth, proceeds from the heart.
Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.
While we should wash our hands before we eat, because we may get sick, we do not need to wash our hands to become ceremonially clean. It’s not our diet that makes us acceptable or unacceptable before God, but our deeds that defile us. It’s what’s in our hearts that makes us acceptable or unacceptable before God.
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
Billboards are all about all about location and reaching a large audience. But are quiet spending ranging from $240 per month in rural areas and $14,000 in larger cities.
I’m not sure if I would have anything that interesting to share unless I owned a restaurant or department store to drag people in for business. These are the billboards I pay attention to while I’m driving the freeway.
When the Holy Spirit came upon the 120 disciples in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, He was manifested in two ways.
The Book of Acts in the Bible says there was “the sound of a rushing wind,” and flames of fire that miraculously appeared on each person’s head. It doesn’t say anything about the nature of this fire, but it obviously was not a physical fire or it would have burned everyone’s hair. It was most likely the visual manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence. Most assuredly it represents to us the holiness of God.
One things for sure we must allow God to purify us, even in hidden areas. Suppose you have lived in the same house for 20 years and then decide to move. The process of packing and cleaning that house is not easy. Imagine what you would see when you pull your stove out from the wall to load it in the moving truck.
It’s been in the same place for a long time. No one has ever swept under it. The tile would be very dirty. The floor might be caked with layers of grime, dust, specks of rotten food, even pet hair from the family animal. It would require some special cleaning to get the house ready for a new owner.
It’s a scary thought, but we may have areas such as this in our own lives. Sometimes we hide our server sins in private compartments. As human beings we know how to mask our ugliness attitudes. But when the Holy Spirit comes to us, He comes to scour us of our grit and grime.
He moves the furniture around in our lives in order to cleanse us of any resentment, anger, additive behavior, and so many other things that can create distance between us and God. It’s an amazing thing to open your heart to the Holy Spirit’s fire.
When Jesus came to John the Baptist when he was baptizing people at the Jordon river, John said “I need to be baptized by You.” But Jesus answered him and said, “Permit it to be so now, for this it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:13-17).
When Jesus was baptized, He came up immediately from the water, and the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a voice same from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
We try and hide things from God, we put up walls when we’ve been hurt by people too many times. it’s natural to push away people and hurts in our lives. But we should never push away God, He is the only one who can save us, forgive us, and give us a new life. One we can be proud to have.
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
Worrying about the past is unproductive because you cannot change what has already happened and dwelling on it can negatively impact our present and future by causing unnecessary stress, guilt or regret. It slowly erodes our well being and can leads to anxiety and depression.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:34 not to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have enough worries of its own.
I always try to stay focused on the present day and what God is doing right now.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose confidence is in the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It’s won’t cease from yielding (bearing) fruit” – Jeremiah 17:7-8
I love the imagery of a thriving tree deeply rooted in God and producing rich, delicious fruit that nourishes other people in these scriptures.
But what does it mean to bear fruit like a flourishing tree? The Bible reveals many ways to do this, but there are four big ones:
The Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 is the best known verses about bearing fruit. Paul tells us,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law.”
These kind of fruit are very real and very valuable, they are not the sort of things we and necessarily see with our eyes. Their existence can be revealed through our thoughts, actions, and demeanors.
Self-control and patience are shown when we resist the urge to spout off a snappy comeback when someone speaks rudely to us. The fruit of joy is this way when we find a happiness in little things even when we’re going through difficult circumstances. And the fruit of peace is exhibited when we are able to lay aside and rest in God‘s promises that he is working all things for our good.
We all have moments when we are definitely not at peace, our joyful and loving is these moments that make us feel painful deficient in the fruit of the Spirit. At times we might wonder if we are growing in the Lord at all. I find that comparing where I am now to where I was several years ago can help me gain an accurate perspective on the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in my life. While I may find myself not as peaceful as I’d like to be, I worry less and I am much more peaceful than I was five or ten years ago. Recognizing this fact, reassures me that I have walked with the Holy Spirit. He has been faithful to produce increasing measures of His fruit in me.
2. The Fruit of Prayer
On the night before Jesus was crucified, He said,
“If you remain in Me and My Words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is my Fathers glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples” – John 15:7-8
Jesus links asking, and receiving with bearing fruit, and then doing so, He reveals the answered prayer is a form of fruit.
Is important to remember that, asking in what we wish in prayer, must be the will of God. We cannot pray ill will for another and it will be done.
In the Bible, there are many examples of this kind of fruit, Isaac prayed for his wife, Rebecca, who was not able to bear children, and she went on to give birth to twins (Genesis 25:21). Moses prayed for water when he was leading the Israelites through the desert, and God provided fresh drinking water (Exodus 15:22-27).
Our persistence is an important ingredient to bury the fruit of answered prayers. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says,
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.”
When we keep asking, we will get what we asked for. When we keep seeking we will find. When we keep knocking the door will be open to us.
When we seek to be fruitful in our prayer life, whether we are praying for guidance, healing, or provision we must not give up. Keep praying, believing, and abiding in Jesus, and trust that He will answer at the proper time.
3. The Fruit of Good Deeds
God has given each of us good work to do (Ephesians 2:10), and when we are faithful to do what God calls us to do it results in fruitfulness. Our “good deeds” will look different than our friends or neighbors’ good deeds. We bear different gifts that lead us to different fruits in a variety of God orchestrate ways.
My neighbor fixes vehicles for people and is an amazing cook which he delivers meals to the needy people he knows. That is not my gift. We each produce different kinds of good deeds.
Our good deeds should have a few things in common. Regardless of our individual gifts, our good deeds should benefit other people in some way, they should point others toward God, and they should be done in love.
4. The Fruit of Praise
Hebrews 13:15 says,
“Through Jesus, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to His name.”
The first thing you probably think of reading this is singing, and that’s a huge way we can praise God. But we can also praise Him for His goodness as we go through our day. We can praise Him when it is a beautiful day. We can praise Him for His provision -for our food, clothing, and other resources. We can praise His attributes -His love, His compassion, His wisdom, His faithfulness. We can praise Him for our salvation He had provided and the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.
We can praise Him as we pray, as we talk to others, even during problems and challenges. There is no end to the things we can praise Him for. We may not feel like praising Him, but remember the passage says, “to offer up a sacrifice of praise. A sacrifice means it costs us something. Praising when we don’t necessarily feel happy is a sacrifice to God, and is one that pleases and honors Him. By praising Him even in tough situations, we declare that He is bigger than our circumstances and that we believe He will take care of us.
From Pity to Praise 