God is Stronger

God is stronger than…

Your fear.

Your doubt.

Your weakness.

Your sin.

He is stronger than death itself.

He is stronger than all.

Because He is.

Can I Be Fixed?

That is a question that many ask. Sadly to some it is a question that isn’t even worth asking.

If you’re asking if you can fix yourself the truth is…

You can’t.

There is only One who can.

 

The One.

 

Our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

 

He can fix you.

 

I realized a while ago that I couldn’t fix myself so I let Jesus into my heart and surrendered to Him. There is a battle in me every day and sometimes I feel like I’m losing but the truth is with God you will always win in the end.

 

Surrender to Him and let Him do His work.

 

It won’t be easy and it will always be a process and a fight but with the Lord you can overcome.

 

He will help you walk on the narrow path.

 

Just take it one day at a time. Baby steps with your Father.

 

He loves you and He can fix you.

 

Have a Blessed Week,

Chris

 

Philippians 4:13 New King James Version (NKJV)

13 I can do all things through [a]Christ who strengthens me.

The Rebellious Child

I once read a story from an Atheist, she was professing how she became a Christian. It sounds like a nice story but in reality she had since abandoned the faith.

This story was being told by request of her Atheist friends. They wanted to know how a “rational” person could become a Christian like she did.

In her story she was in a tough time in her life. She felt broken and met with a pastor. They talked, she cried and she decided to give her life to Christ.

After a time she began to reject the message of the Bible. She disagreed with a lot of the rules and laws.

She eventually came to believe the pastor had taken advantage of her emotional state and now that she was of “sound mind” she reverted back to her old views.

I read her story and I have to say it truly saddens me. I do pity her but I feel more sad for God.

My perspective on her story is that in her brokenness she found the Lord with the aid of the pastor. The pastor didn’t take advantage of her, he helped her at her own request.

God fixed her brokenness but as soon as she was back to “normal”she abandoned God.

She’s like the rebellious child who doesn’t like the parents rules so they run out on them and refuse to look back until of course they’re in need. Then they rush back but as soon as the problem seems solved and their back to living the life they want they abandon their parents again.

Like a good parent God waits for them and continues to love them. Hoping that they chose the right path.

Let this woman’s story be a lesson to us all. Understand scripture and trust in God and not ourselves. God knows what is best and wants what is best for us.

Praise Him and trust Him in the good times and bad.

Be there for those around you especially the new Christians who need to be led. Be there for each other, you never know what’s going on in someones heart, mind or life.

The Bible says in the End Times there will be a great falling away from the faith. We as Christians should be a net to catch our falling brothers and sisters in Christ.

Have a blessed week,

Chris

Who, What, Where, When and Why

Do you remember in school being taught the 5 W’s? That when you’re studying anything you should understand the Who, What, Where, When and Why of the topic?

These crucial questions should be answered when researching anything, yet how often do we forget to do this in our walk with the Lord? How often do we read a Bible verse than use it in conversation or even to try to win an argument but really have never studied the verse or in some cases even read the entire chapter?

It is crucial to understand who the Bible was referencing or what the story was about, why it was occurring or why God said or did what He did, to know what the context of what you’re reading is, know where this part of the Bible took place and when. Know every detail about what is going on.

Remember the Bible doesn’t contradict itself. When you’re reading the Word if the section you’re in seems to contradict another then you don’t understand the context of the Bible and you should use both study resources and the Holy Spirit to guide you to wisdom.

With technology being so advanced the Bible and information on the Bible is so accessible which is outstanding.

However with the ease of gaining information on the Bible, people can pick and chose Bible verses that fits their own narrative.

This falls on both the skeptic and believer.

A skeptic can find sections of the Bible take what is written out of context then create their own meaning behind the Word of God.

And if a Christian is unprepared to respond both mentally and spiritually you leave yourself vulnerable to this attack.  Be ready, have the Armor of God on you at all times.*

Another dangerous side to the accessibility of the Bible and study tools is a Christian can easily create their own doctrine on the Bible and actually think they’re right because all they did was find verses without asking the basic 5 W’s.

But don’t just ask the questions on your own.

Ask God the Who, What, Where, When and Why’s, because who better to ask then the Author of the Word, the World and the Universe.

Have a blessed week,
Chris

*Ephesians 6:10-18 New International Version (NIV)

The Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+6%3A10-18&version=NIV

Ten Years Ago Today

Ten years ago today I went on a date with a girl. I was in charge of what we were going to do and where we were going to go. I put on some jeans and a brown shirt with a guitar on it, at 19 years old I thought I looked cool. Of course I knew nothing about music and certainly couldn’t play a guitar, I probably wouldn’t be able to hold one properly but I felt good.

My date showed up late and got lost, she couldn’t find the apartment building I lived at with my Dad despite it being a giant brown High Rise. She was wearing sweatpants and a shirt no makeup, no “dolling up” which was fine by me. A girl had actually said yes to a date to with me and not to mention she had caught the eye of several people I knew, I was going a date with a cool and pretty girl!

I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be, we had talked for hours online. First on Myspace and then on AIM when those were both still things.

I chose the perfect place to eat, the Wild Buffalo Grill.

The Wild Buffalo Grill was exactly as you may have pictured, dark, dingy, weird colors and trashy. But it was Wing Wednesday! I got myself a plate of those wings and cheese fries, she got herself a burger and we went to town eating and talking. I thought it went well.

After going to the rest room to clean the chicken grease, cheese and ranch dressing off my face and fingers we headed out. Not knowing anything else to do we ended up back at my house.

We went inside and she met my Father who was sitting on his bed which also served as the couch in the living room.

I took her back to the only bed room in the place, which was mine.

We crammed in together on my mattress which sat on a broken box spring on the floor, there was no real bedding either.

She politely informed me, “That there will be no funny business” then suggested we watch a movie.

I went out and looked at the movies my Dad and I owned none of which seemed like good date movies, I listed them to her and to my surprise she chose, “Fargo”. I pulled out my VCR ignoring any feeling that it might be ridiculous that I still own a VCR and popped in my VHS version of Fargo. We watched the movie and then towards the middle of it she asked if I had anything to drink.

I quickly went to the kitchen and looked in our fridge which was empty, I grabbed some Crystal Light out of the cabinet and poured the contents into a glass with some water. I stirred vigorously to prepare her Fruit Punch Crystal Light, I didn’t want to keep my date waiting. I came back with red stains on my hands and handed her the beverage which she politely drank.

After the movie, she saw my PlayStation 2 and asked if I had any games we could play. All I had was sports games and some awful game called Mojo that my Mother had purchased for me that I had never opened.

She said she would like to play it so we did and surprisingly had ourselves a good time.

However in mid-conversation she randomly announced she had to leave, wondering if I had done something wrong I came up with the perfect solution. After I take her to her car I was going to go for a kiss…on the cheek.

When we reached the car, I gave her an awkwardly long hug, I kept holding on because I knew when I let go I had to go for a kiss. When I finally let go I went for it! I planted a kiss right on her cheek. However right afterwards I noticed she had leaned in too. So I quickly went in again and this time I gave her a kiss on the lips or more like she gave ME a kiss on the lips and boy was it a kiss. I had no idea what one Earth I was doing but I liked it.

We parted ways and later when we talked she told me we should take things slow and not rush it.

Three months later she agreed to marry me.

Later she told me that on the date she loved that I was myself and took her to a place that I loved to eat and that there was no fakeness or judgment. That is also why she showed up in her sweatpants and no makeup, she wanted me to see her as she was, the true Jane.

We fell in love fast as you can tell and throughout the years we love telling the story of our best/worst first date.

The past ten years have been the best years of my life. Before I met her I never had a true girlfriend and didn’t have any real direction in my life. I know it’s a cliché but I truly feel like Jane completes me.

I know God put us together. We have so many connections, we both grew up liking the same things and going to the same places. Even these little obscure things that no one even remembers from our town we remembered loving as a kid.

It was like our hearts grew up together.

God knew we needed each other. We both have gone through similar things and have similar problems that we can help each other with.

Jane has been a huge help in my life and often times when I pray I tell God she is my “Peter” because she is my “Rock” and the person I count on the most.

Which is why I have to Thank God in this post because without Him I wouldn’t have known her and He has helped us so much.

I know this because we have had our share of problems and had a lot of dark times and moments but God was with us even if we weren’t with Him.

Sometimes we may have wanted to abandon the ship but God was in charge of the boat and He lead is through the storm even if we didn’t realize it was Him.

My faith has grown stronger over the years and Jane who was agnostic when we met has become a Christian.

God was there for us even when we were weak and didn’t trust in Him and He is still there for us now.

Thank you God for Jane, my wife and I can’t believe it’s already been ten years.

I pray for many more with her.

I hope everyone has a blessed week,
Chris