I did my best..... I think....

Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Proverbs 10:4-5 A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame

A lot of times in my life I wonder if I was good enough. I was never naturally talented in sports. I was never good at video games. I was NEVER any good at being smooth with the ladies lol. On a more serious note, I thought I was never good for God. I would make up excuses all the time on why I wasn't and when I would be able to be in his grace. That time never really came until I started to understand why I said those things. I was ashamed. I was ashamed like Adam and Eve. Through my life I disobeyed God constantly. And on top of that, found comfort in the conviction. The thing that I didn't see was God's graciousness. He still blessed me even though a lot of times I was undeserving. Now as you read this I may lose some of you. What I like to write about is how Christianity and life are hand in hand. The same works that you see in the bible can easily be applied to your everyday life. How many times do we tell ourselves (never anybody else) that we are not good enough for (fill in the blank)? Who said you weren't? 

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

If you asked those questions, you need to know a key component in the answers. Everything has a purpose. A purpose will dictate the outcome. When I was not naturally talented in sports, I practiced and worked diligently to make myself better. My purpose was to become a better athlete and not let my restrictions hold me back. I wasn't the tallest. I wasn't the fastest. But I was determined. No one could say I didn't do my best. When I do God's work, no one can say I am not doing my best. If you view the way love is, love is open-ended. It's ongoing. There's always more to do. When God works in us, it's through love and it's ongoing. So when you work in his light, you can never go wrong. If you have even just started in your faith, you're still doing your best.

I want you today to say to yourself, I will do my best. I will not forget that as long as I'm with you God, I can go wrong. In You my Lord, I will do my best.

Stay Blessed.

Love, Peace, and Sooooooouuuuuullll

“Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:

- I shall not fear anyone on Earth.
- I shall fear only God.
- I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
- I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
- I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

"I'm Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!"- Don Cornelius

Love and Peace is more than a phrase said in the 60's and 70's. It's a phrase that's throughout the bible. I was reading this unique chapter of the bible and the subject matter of it caught my attention. The title read "What Christians Should Do. Living the New Life." Amazing I thought. I finally found a "How to" book. LOL Sort of. It was Colossians Chap. 3. The verse that stood out the most was:

¹⁵ And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].

What it was saying is that Christians should live in peace. It doesn't mean that suddenly all differences of opinion are eliminated, but it does require that loving Christians work together despite their differences. Please be inclined to read the whole chapter. Verse 13:

 ¹³ Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive].

States that the key to forgiving others is remembering how much God has forgiven you. Let God worry about the wrongs you suffered. My constant phrase whenever I am team building or teaching is that we need to be effective also. Not just right. When you are going through your trials and tribulations, we need a team. God, Jesus, and you are a great team, but also understand that God has also put other teammates for you out there to get the win. Not all teams work out in the beginning, but all have the ability to be champions. Every component is important. 

Without peace in your own heart, you can never grow to become anything more than what you are then. You cannot truly love without peace. You cannot move on when you are stuck on what angered you. There is no place in the Kingdom of God for hedonistic sexual experimentation or for gossip, rage, and back-biting. All those things cause a stir within you as well as a in your Christianity. Think of it as the story of the mosquito. In this story, the mosquito tells a lie which sets off a series of cause and effect events that affect all of the other animal characters in the story. The animals are each called in turn to tell their side of the story to the Lion until he learns that the problem can be traced back to the mosquito. In the end, the mosquito dies trying to spread gossip to a farmer who smacks him. Gossip cause distractions. God is in reference to the farmer. He was there to bring it to an end.

So we look at the title of my story and see the it is love, peace, and soul. We need to love one another in order to find peace to save our spirit (soul) from not reaching the Kingdom of heaven. I thought it was a big thing to hear Don say that catchphrase. Lets move forward in our lives and not become stagnant in hatred and animosities. If we cannot not love each other, how can we fully understand how God can love us.

Stay blessed.

My Favorite Thing

"Most people don't care what happens, as long as they get to do their favorite thing. People don't even want to back off from their favorite thing. They won't even do their second favorite thing. You ever seen somebody in trouble... He's in the right lane. And there's a lot of cars , like 6th avenue. A lot of cars. And he wants to make that left. So what does he do? He just does it anyway. He goes at it. He shoves his car through everybody's life.Without any... And everybody's honking and outraged. And you always see the guy go, "I have to. I have to.There's no other possible thing I can do.What else could I do? Except go up one more block, and take a left and take four seconds. That's not my favorite way, though! That only meets 99% of my criteria."- Louis CK 

Growing up we always loved to do our favorite thing. We feel like we are committing blasphemy if we do anything other than that. Even if it only takes one more move or one more second. Amazing isn't it? We feel as if we shouldn't have to compromise what we want to do just because........ We never have a believable answer for that. It seem like life has a different answer for us. Life is filled with compromise. When you marry. When you have a roommate. When you have siblings. Like I said, everywhere. Even in eternal life. Now I know I sound crazy to say that their is compromise in order to get to heaven, but let me explain. God has done all he can to give us the ability to live in heaven with Him. He has put rules in place and a way to live on earth in order to get us there. He has given us His son, Jesus Christ. He's done it all. Now what have we've done? We always try to come up with ways to live how we seem fit. We get caught up in our lives, we forget to live in his image. "But that would mean we couldn't do our favorite thing!" What favorite thing? He's not asking much from us. "But he takes forever to give answers!" Let me show you why.

^{2 Peter ch.3:9} The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

^{2 Peter ch. 3:15} Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.

I remember hearing on the radio one day the most insightful story I could ever hear. Once there was a Pastor of a church and up to him came an atheist. The atheist laughed at him and said, "You are a fool to believe that there is a God and Heaven. Let me ask you this. What if you are wrong?" The pastor shook his head and answered, "Well then... What a life to have lived? God has taught us to love and how to be fruitful. My life would be full of enrichment and joy. My life would've been lived to the fullest." And the atheist was paused. "And now I ask you," the pastor said, "What if you're wrong?" Crazy right? Francis Chan quoted it best when he said to not be scared of people who can only kill your flesh, but to be scared of the One who can kill you and send you to Hell. 

Now to bring it all together. God isn't asking us to quit living. He is asking us to live right. There are things we do that we should change and we know it. Don't sacrifice eternal life for your favorite thing on Earth. You'd be surprise how little that favorite thing is. We all have vices, but with knowledge of them, we cannot allow ignorance. Don't take Jesus's power lightly. It's not walking on water or striking you down as his ultimate power. When we are in front of God and Jesus washes his hands of us and says he does not know us. Think about that. That's also true in life moments too. When you are troubled with someone, the worst thing you can do is wash your hands of them. Think about that as you go through you day and live. Happy Living to you all.