Remorse or Repentence

Some 2ooo years ago today, the heavens and the earth fell silent as they mourned for the prince who would no longer exist in human form.

I wonder what the evening felt like when Jesus breathed His last and claimed, "It is finished!"

What were the feelings beyond utter grief and sadness for those that knew Him and now were without hope? Did any remember his words that He'd be back in three days or did they forget the power He possessed over death?

The Bible declares that when Jesus was on the cross it was about noon and the whole land became dark until 3pm because the sun did not shine and curtain in the Temple was torn in two.

Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, I give You My life." After Jesus said this, He died.

Joseph from Arimathea came and took Jesus' body down and laid in the tomb before sundown on Passover.

Yet two betrayed Jesus that day. Judas did it with a kiss, Peter with an oath in the courtyard. Both of them had heard Jesus predict their disobedience, and both were crushed at their own sins.

Judas unwilling to face his guilt, commits suicide.

Peter, shattered by his sin, broke down and wept like a child. Peter opened himself to confession, forgiveness, and resolve.

In the years that followed, Judas became an embarrassing memory.

Peter changed the world.

Remorse and repentance.

Two similar words, with incredibly potent differences.

When caught in sin, its very tempting to throw ourselves to the ground, groveling in remorse. But the message of these two unforgettable disciples is that while remorse ends a life, true repentance starts one all over again.

Jesus Christ has already died for your sin.

He paid the full price for it on the cross.

Recognize your failure, receive your pardon, and go forward in victory.

Don't let it be the end of your life - let it be a new beginning.

Last year at preciously 3pm after beautiful blue skies all morning long and warm temperatures, the skies here grew cloudy and the sun failed to shine. Coincidence or not? 2000 years ago today that very same thing happened! Let us not forget the price that He ultimately paid today! Wonder if this year will bring about the same thing and if so, how many will even bother to notice. I know I will and will take the time to remember this day in a profound way. Greater love has never been shown to man than what Jesus accomplished that day.

Come quickly Lord Jesus, we await your return as promised!

Living the Dream

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I remember hearing that all through my childhood and even into my early adult hood. However looking back and trying to recall just what my answers were feels like walking through a thick cloud. Often times I can't really remember and then there are the answers I think I said, like becoming an airline stewardess, a teacher, a doctor and even a lawyer or veterinarian.

People often claim that you can take a look at your "What if's?" and then make a correlation to just what might inspire you. For me growing up, I've always LOVED books. In fact from the time I began to read, I was a voracious reader. I remember one summer when our local book mobile came to our neighborhood (think portable library on wheels) I took as many books as I could check out. My favorites were anything to do with horses, Black Beauty, Misty of Chincoteague, Stormy Misty's Foal, and countless others. I read anything that was considered a classic and we were rewarded by the librarian for every book we finished. I remember I couldn't wait to redeem my weeks worth of reading for some cool plastic animals that looked like they were made of glass.

Yet my love for books never faded. It was far better than television ever was. I guess that was before the days of 24 hour cable programming. In fact the only childhood programming I can recall was 2 hours on Saturday morning when I would devote myself to watching the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show and then after that all the major networks switched to sports. The only other time you could find anything suitable was Sunday evenings for the Wonderful World of Disney and during the week just after school. So books gave me that virtual escape. I could truly be anything I wanted to be.

Even in grade school I wrote short silly stories of my own. Oh how I wish I would have kept them. I think some of my best creativity was when I was a child and truly believed anything was possible. Until the day I grabbed my umbrella, climbed to the top of my roof top, opened my umbrella and jumped. Thankfully I didn't break anything except my spirit and belief that not everything you dream is real. I still LOVE Mary Poppins however.

In high school my favorite classes were English. I loved the opportunity to write. Essays were like winning the lottery to me. It gave me a chance to pour out my heart and soul through words on a notebook page. Again before the invention of computers or even word processors. We didn't own a typewriter so writing by hand was the way to go. Penmanship still counted for something because your teacher needed to be able to read it to grade it. I didn't mind the dreaded "red pen!" It was a chance for me to improve and get better. A chance to keep on learning so I could be great at something. Life really took a turn for the better towards the end of my high school year, with Creative Writing classes. I think if I was on my death bed, I would still have made every effort to attend that class. I finally found a place to fit in. I wasn't a nerd or athletic or even had a lot of friends. In fact I had only 2 through each grade in high school. I didn't really fit in anywhere until I had the chance to write. To express what was happening in my head and what I saw happening in my imagination.

I got to color outside the lines in that course. I was never told my ideas were too far fetched or outside the possibilities of that really happening. Nothing was off limits in that class. We invented imaginary worlds, characters and dabbled in every type of genre imaginable. I took that love of writing even further and continued to write into adult life as well. Writing romance novels where the leading lady was always in danger and needed to be rescued. Perhaps that was a way of me explaining a part of myself that needed to be rescued from the mundane. But I never did anything with my stories except to file them away in a keepsake to remember my love of writing.

Now looking back on those times I see a new light dawning. I feel like the sun is shining once more and besides being blessed with the ability to read for free now, through reviewing books through a variety of publishers, I am taking up writing once again. I've discovered authors just like myself that have tried for years to keep their writing skills polished enough to eventually see their books published. I've been encouraged along the way by several authors who have inspired me once again to pick up my proverbial pen and take a go at writing again. In fact, just yesterday I found myself going through a proposed book idea and rereading those chapters once again and marveled at why I stopped going four years ago.

In fact I felt dried up and lacking in my ability to use my words once again. But I was encouraged to just sit down and write. Don't look at what you are writing and attempt to revise it right then, but just get my ideas, words and thoughts on paper.

You know what I found?

My creativity started flowing like water slowly finding a leak in a wall and soon ideas were pouring out faster than I could capture them on paper. In fact I had to walk around yesterday with a notebook and pen just to keep them from becoming a distant memory.

I think dreams are important.

I think we need more cheerleaders in the world and less people who will tell us to take our silly notions and save that for a hobby.

I think more of us need to look at our hobbies and really find a way to make them work for us.

The world would truly be a wonderful place if every single day people went to work, doing something they actually LOVED to do.

Imagine what would happen if dreams stopped being dreams and started to come true?

What would you do if simply making your dreams come true was just to stop dreaming about them and took a step towards make them a reality?

Whatever it is, I think you should do it. Take some time to dance in the rain and really enjoy the life, Jesus worked so hard to make enjoyable. The only thing holding you back is YOU!

Take a different path today and see where your own journey takes you!

Discouraged? Depressed? Try God's Cure!

Oh this week, our family has been hit with a series of what I would call spiritual arrows aimed straight at our heart. While I can't go into specifics, we are trying to keep our proverbial heads above the raising waters. So what do I do in the midst of this? Well first of all, I pray. I pray because after enduring so many of these trials, I've learned that is what I need to do first. Then I ask all my fellow Christians to add me and my family to their prayer lists and to pray for us. We hold fast to the truth that where two or more are gathered in His name, God is with us! How wonderful is that statement alone. God is meeting us in the midst of our struggle.

Do you wonder what some of the signs are of being discouraged? See if any of these apply to the current situation you may find yourself in and then I will provide God's cure to help you see things differently. I don't guarantee that overnight all your problems will vanish, but I hope this may change your outlook on them today, until they do.

1. Lack of energy: We literally feel like we don't have the strength or power to endure this storm we are in. We'd rather find a way to head on back to bed, pull the covers over our eyes and pray that somehow it will be different in the morning.

2. Losing touch with reality: Ever heard these words or thoughts? No one cared that I am going through this? No one cares? Why, God am I going through this by myself while everyone else is so happy in their lives? We can't even comprehend that God cares about us. We have lost touch with what makes sense and yet those around us, can see perfectly clear that this is not the end of the world even though to us it seems like it is.

3. Losing our memory: We forget how many times we have endured trials or struggles in the past and now find ourselves consumed by worry, anxiety, and are literally stressing ourselves out so bad that we are making ourselves sick. We know that in the end, we will make it through, but we can't seem to find a way to get through one day at a time.

4. We lose heart: We fail to seek God to help us through our struggles and instead turn to ourselves which ultimately and almost always leaves us lacking in so many areas, instead of being filled with God's fullness.

All these signs combined lead to one thing: Losing Hope!

If any of you have planted any time of tree when it's young, you know that you need to stake it so that the winds and storms will not blow it over while it's trying to establish it's roots. However, if you never take the stake out, the tree will also fail to grow roots deep enough to prevent it from blowing over in a bad storm.

We know the winds of trials will try to blow us over, and that is why it's important for us to grow our roots strong. We need to dig deep into God's word through prayer and reading the Bible and even encouragement from believers to help us establish our roots. We have to learn to grow our own roots through each storm we have to endure. We will weather through it. We will bend and not break when our faith is strong. Hold fast to God and you will get through it.

Do you build your faith on sand or rocks? What happens then when the storms of life come? If your faith is on yourself, the world, money or other things (sand), you will be swayed by your feelings and emotions. However if you have your faith in God (rock) you simply need to exercise your faith and put your trust in God instead of your feelings.

We need to rest in this simple assurance as believers.

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably, abundantly, exceedingly more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." ~ Ephesians 3:20.

We need to know that whatever difficulty we are faced with, we need to bring it God, daily if needed, and ask simply what He wants you to do. Remember these 4 steps:

1. Power: Ask for God's strength and power to do what you feel you can't do. When you feel like you don't have the strength to get through it, ask God for help through prayer.

2. Provision: Remember that God cares for you. You are precious and valuable to Him. Just like you wouldn't let your children struggle if you could help, neither does God and He can do ALL things to help you. Just ask.

3. Presence: God will never ask you to endure something beyond what you can bear and He will never let you go it alone. Remember even though there will be valleys and dark times, there will also come mountain tops and light once we get through it all. Then looking back down, we will see it wasn't so bad as when we were knee deep in it.

4. Protection: What can God do? He can do anything, beyond our ability to measure it, more than we could ever expect or imagine and He's waiting for us to simply ask. We need to walk through it all humbly, with gentleness, being patient that God is bring us through it and He knows when it will end, and bearing with one another in love.

Our lives, the way we live, how we endure these times, are a testimony to what God is doing in our lives. These are powerful tools to remember. The enemy loves division in the midst of struggles, to divide family's, husband against wife, parent against child, and division in our communities. So remember to come together in prayer is the strongest weapon we wage against the enemy.

If your joy is missing or lost, you've let the enemy discourage you. We need to remember through these storms to TRUST GOD!

Don't lose heart, and remember God's got a plan! He will bring your through it.

Is The Fear of Your Past Holding You Back?

"The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind." - Isaiah 65:17

I watched a TV program recently called The Dog Whisperer. On the show, a dog trainer named Cesar Millan deals with all sorts of behavioral problems in dogs.

In one episode, Cesar went to help Ernesto, a smart, successful businessman in his forties. Ernesto had four children, all of who loved dogs and wanted one as a pet. Yet Ernesto was utterly paralyzed by a fear of dogs. He, too, had once been like his children and loved dogs. Growing up in Mexico, most dogs Ernesto knew played independently in the streets, and he had no fear of them.

One day Ernesto and a group of friends were being silly and teasing one of the dogs and it snapped! It turned on the group of children and started chasing them. Ernesto ran behind his friends toward his mother's house. The others all tumbled in and shut the door on him. He was left standing on the porch, and the last thing he remembered was the angry, snarling, vicious dog jumping for his throat. He woke up in the emergency room, and though he recovered from his horrific injuries, he was left deeply traumatized by the attack. By the time the Dog Whisperer came along thirty years later, a deep fear of dogs gripped Ernesto every day of his life. If he saw a dog or heard a distant bark, he relived the horror of that moment on the porch. Every day he feared a dog would attack him and lunge for his throat. His past utterly paralyzed his future. The intuitive and gifted dog trainer, Cesar Millan spoke to Ernesto with a gentle authority.

"My friend," Cesar said, "what is holding you is the memory, but the incident is gone. You are allowing that memory to live on with you every single day. We have to break the power of the memory and allow you to live in the freedom. It is over!"

Cesar took Ernesto to a rehabilitation center for wayward dogs. He opened the door to the dog's exercise area, and there before Ernesto were around fifty dogs.

Ernesto was terrified, but again Cesar spoke with gentle authority and brought truth that freed this poor wounded man from his thirty year prison.

"The dog that attacked you is dead," Cesar said. "You are not going to be attacked." In other words, forget the past and live in the present.

In that moment, Ernesto faced his fear and became a free man, completely transformed and released, and he went and petted the dogs and walked alongside them without fear.

Many of us are like Ernesto. Memories of past events, traumas, and mistakes live on in our minds and affect how we react to our circumstances today. It may not be a fear of dogs; it may be something more horrific - but a memory can hold you captive, influencing your thinking and the decisions you make.

I want to encourage you in the midst of whatever painful memories may hold you or rob you: God is calling you to look up and see the rainbow. It may seem insensitive or frustrating to think outside of or above your pain, but that rainbow is an incredible reminder for you that God is good, a new day is coming, eventually the rain will stop, and beauty and promise will reign over your life!