From the time we were babies we were taught and learned to depend on ourselves, even while we depended on parents and others. Coming into a relationship with God we often have to “UNLEARN” our self-dependency and learn to “LEAN INTO” God’s presence for guidance and values. Becoming a child of God happens when we surrender to Christ’s saving grace.However, learning to walk as a child of God is normally a huge learning curve, especially if you were not raised in a Christian home.

I wonder what makes you personally have joy? Is it eating your favorite food or going to some special place on this amazing planet? Maybe it’s seeing your favorite friends at the end of a busy week or, even better, seeing a friend you haven’t seen in years. Joy in the human experience is a unique experience that does more than make you laugh or sing, it energizes us.

A few days ago I wrote on my Facebook page the idea that sometimes we need to forget in order to move forward into the things God has prepared for us. The example I used was how my wife, Susan, had to forget her natural family in order to walk in the new relationship God had prepared for her. This idea of forgetting should cover many other things in our lives, but unfortunately we keep repeating them and get stuck in our past.

I wonder how many believers even realize that this world is not our permanent home if we truly have given our hearts to Jesus? Let me unpack what I mean by this and what I don’t want to convey.

The first Christmas story was sharing scripture or preaching a sermon that revolved around real life and participating in the divine moment God was unfolding. When people think about sharing their faith in God or witnessing for Jesus during the both of December they often get intimidated by all the complexity of the story rather than keeping things simple and to the point. Jesus made it simple for all of us when he said:

John 13:34                                                                                                                                                                                                                       A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 

You would think sharing the love of God with others and telling how God sent his only Son into the world as a baby would be an easy thing to do, yet many believers never share Christ, even during the Christmas Season. I want to look at just a few of the reasons why so many Christians struggle with expressing their love for God even when the Holy Spirit sets the stage for communicating our own salvation experience.

When we find ourselves in a struggle that seems we must have a miracle to overcome, I think we often jump to conclusions about what that miracle is meant to look like. All to often God works miracles in tandem with natural means and thus we often don’t think they are miracles at all.

I started the topic of Jesus coming back like a thief a few weeks ago because I think the topic is both important to believers and is often overlooked because of certain concepts being taught in the greater body of Christ.

Before Jesus died on the cross, he revealed that he would be going back to the Father in heaven.  At a time, decided by our Heavenly Father, Jesus would be coming back to earth a second time, only this time he would not be coming back as a sacrificial lamb for our sins but rather as a king to judge the living and the dead. John, the last living apostle of the original 12 that walked with Jesus for 3 years, wrote in the book of Revelation that Jesus would be coming back on a white horse to wage war with humanity. 

There are a lot of times scripture says God’s voice spoke and more times than not people either didn’t listen or they didn’t hear correctly, or at all. I wonder what God has spoken to us that we either didn’t hear or we just ignored? I like to say that it is always easier till see the will of God in the “REARVIEW MIRROR” than when you are either heading towards it or going through it.